Halo: ODST

5.5 or 6    Rent it at best...

I have to caution die-hard Halo fans ignore this review...

While I have to admit up front, I was never a huge fan of the Halo franchise. I didn't even own an original Xbox, but did play Halo 2 and wasn't overly impressed with the story or the gameplay. I did give Halo 3 a try and found it trite, excessively redundant, and unimpressive. The graphics were good, gameplay much the same as previous entries (unimpressive). I know that the Halo games are not known for their single player experience, tho... I myself bore easily playing online, maybe it’s because I am a bit anti-social; not sure.

Halo: ODST is a mess. The story never really gives you a chance to really get to know the playable characters, or even give a damn about them. While there are a few interesting additions, VISR mode feels all too much like Detective mode from Batman: Arkham Asylum, the downloading maps, & audio was interesting but yet again – is simply busy work that is not fun or even entertaining. The graphics were good, slightly better than Halo3. I still walked away disgusted that I wasted $5 renting this game, thankfully it wasn’t $60.

XBox 360 - Viking: Battle for Asgard (rented)

I read many reviews for this game, so I was curious but hesitant. I knew the concerns going in, so I opted to rent the game. I rented the game on Sunday night, and am a little bit more than half way through the game now. I am enjoying it so far. I admit that the gameplay is repetitive in a sense. The gameplay is broken up by the extraordinarily large assaults of cities. I did notice some lag during the later assaults of the bigger compounds. If I had to give a rating I would give it a 7, and a replay score of 6..

XBox 360 - Devil May Cry 4

I preordered the collector's edition of DMC4 from GameCrazy in my area. I have been playing it off and on for the past week, I am on Mission 6 right now. So far I am pretty impressed with the game: graphics are solid, animations are pretty smooth, controls are very responsive. All in all, it feels just like the DMC games of old.