Xbox Gamer

According to news from Bungie.net, Elites will not be enemies in Halo 3: ODST. So all you Elite killers will be disappointed (no pun intended). I’m actually a bit shocked to be honest as I thought Elites were here to stay, although the fact that one of them was helping you in Halo 3 was starting to make me a bit suspicious.

If you were annoyed by the Elites, then perhaps this is good news for you. Otherwise, you might want to replay Halo 2 for some fond memories. And if you’re wondering who the major foe will be, it’s the Brutes! Apparently they fall into better context according to the new storyline as they are the ones who want to prove their loyalty to the ” Prophet of Truth”. If you want to know more about this new storyline I suggest you head over to the official Bungie.net site and check it out. If not, like I said, it might be a good idea to dust off Halo 2 if you need to quency your Elite fragging frenzy.

I didn’t really like the first Skate nor any of the other recent skateboarding games, however Skate 2 was a lot more appealing to me. It brought back the good memories of Tony Hawk Underground mixed with some Skate elements. The demo is currently out right now so it’s worth getting although it’s quite short. But it does let you get a decent idea of how the gameplay has changed. Getting off the skateboard is necessary in some segments as you have to get through some obstacles at times which expands the gameplay a bit as you’re not just skating. Also, if you have a buddy over while playing the demo you can play that party mode which looked fun.

Overall, if you liked the first Skate you’ll probably like this one as well and if you weren’t fond of the first one then you might actually like this one as it’s a significant improvement although I don’t think I’ll be getting the retail game as I still wasn’t convinced. I’m more of an action/adventure person, not much of a skateboard/sports game fan.

On January 26th, the Resident Evil 5 demo will be out in North America! It’s been out in Japan for a while so it was about time it made it’s way here. I’m looking forward to playing it online via co-op. I actually played the Japanese version before and thought the game was good however I felt that the AI that’s on your side was rather mediocre. It felt like a human player was really necessary, just like in Left 4 Dead. In the easier difficulty you can probably get away with playing the game with the standard AI but once it gets tougher you definitely need a competent human by your side to help you complete the level.

As for the full game, it comes out on March 13, 2009 I believe. So if you’re a huge RE fan, it might be worth preordering early.

Since the game is supposed to be released in North America tomorrow, EA might shutdown the servers for the demo soon, so play it while you can!

I found this game to be fun, especially if you were a fan of the Star Wars: Battlefront series. You can play as either the good or evil side. As for the classes, the demo showcased 4 of them: warrior, mage, archer, and scout. There are also heroes, and from what I saw the ones on the “evil” side looked a lot more tough. The conquest mode that the demo lets you play is quite fun as both sides try to capture as much land as possible while claiming each other’s territory whenever possible. For this reason there is a decent amount of strategy and teamwork required. It’s hard for a single player to capture a base with several enemy troops guarding it. It’s best to rush in as a team or break up into small squads and pick off the enemy while they’re off guard. The scout is great for sneaking up on an unsuspecting enemy due to the cloak ability. The mage is another important class as it can attack multiple enemies and is great for long range combat. You can even take down stronger enemies if you know what you’re doing therefore it’s my favorite class at this point.

Overall I’m usually not a big LOTR fan however this game entertained me and brought back good memories from Battlefront. I highly recommend it if you liked the SW: Battlefront series.