Unreal Tournament 2004 reveiw

While thinking about the upcoming Unreal 3, I remembered this old gem. Its's out for the pc, and you should be able to run it.

Ut2004 is basicly like the arena in Oblivion, but you ue guns instead of swords. And while the guns are not extremely new, they each pack a satisfying punch. While you will quickly develop a favorite ( flak cannon ftw!), you will quickly realize that Unreal is ultimatly about tactics, like picking which weapon to go for or whether not to engage in another firefight. Then you will come to your senses and realize that it's all about the reflexes.

But whether or not you think its about strategy or reflexes, there's still alot more to this game. There's a currency system which you ue to make bets, join matches, and pay for doctors. You will also get to pick your team, and asighn positions atthe start of the match. If none of this stuff sounds appealing to you, then there's always instant action. But by adding this sytem, Ut get's a whole new layer of ownage.

Now about the actual gameplay. Basicly, you spawn in with a weaksauce gun that barely has enough power to kill someone. Then you head of to find a better weapon and pray that you encounter no one along the way. One you have some real firepower, start looking for your favorite gun. Once you have that, it's time to start shooting stuff.

Even though it sounds pretty basic, the aforementioned strategic depth help flesh out the experiance. You can also customize the matches, albeit only in instant action.

With all this stuff, Ut becomes on of the better shooters on the market, but slowdown questinoble spawnig make this game fall just sort of classic.

Overall 9 out of 10

Annex

If you have a 360, odds are you have heard of Gears of War. This third person shooter is one of the first must-have title n the 360, and it just got another reason for you to put it in your drive.

This reason is a new game mode called Annex, a domination like mode. You get it via a free update that your 360 downloads when you play Gears. You can only get this update if you have Live, and Im going to make a small guide on how to play the game, as it's very confusing at first.

So anyways here are the rules for Annex:
As soon as the game starts, you will notice ome weird symbols on the upper-left side of your screen. It should have a picture of a weapon on it. Now go the weapon it has pictured. If you do not know where the eapon is, there will be a small arrow on it. Follow it, and it will lead youto the weapon spawn you need to go to. Stay at the weapon spawn for a few seconds and wait for the little ion to fill up with your teams colors. Now find a good spot and hold the weapon spawn. Points will begin to fill up on your teams symbol. You can only get 60 point from each spawn, and after that 60 points, a new spawn will be chosen. Gameplay go's on like this until one team has the required amount of points. Another thing about Annex is that you respawn if you die. It will take up to 15 seconds, but you will get back in the game.

That pretty much concludes how to play Annex, so go pop Gears in you disk drive and Play!

Full Auto reveiw

Your car shakes as bullets ping and bounce off it. A beeping sound alerts you to the fact that your back armor just blew off. You pull a trigger on you dashboard and a mine drops out of your car, immediately getting rolled over by another racer. Perfect, you think. The mine detonates and destroys the car. You look back to see the ensuing destruction, but an explosion hits close by your car, sending it off course. You hit a large rock at 70 miles. Your car is sent flying 100 feet in the air, and other racers zip past you, and you open up with two 50.caliber machine guns mounted on your hood. The bullets find their target and rip another racers car to shreds. Then you car starts flipping in mid-air. You land on your side and keep sliding, the grating of the metal producing an awful sound. Your car comes to a stop on its side. Another car smashes into yours, wrecking it and killing you.

All this and more can happen in Full Auto, an over the top car combat game where you must race to be the first to cross the finish line with your car in one peice. The actuaal gameplay is like what I described earlier, but with one big twist: the ability to unwreck stuff. Lets say you crash and burn. A quick tap of the right bumper (this game is for the 360) brings you a couple of seconds back to before the crash. Add this to the aforementioned car combat, and you have a winner. Well unless you manage to screw it up like Sega did.

To many times you will be cruising along and an explosion sends you flying killing you. You unwreck it, but some guy shreds you with bullets. Again you unwreck it, but someone rams you and kills you. It seems that once you get killed, but unwreck it, the game concentrates all its efforts on you and kills you. It's ridiculous.

And I really wanted to tweak my ride. As it is, you can choose your car and weapons, killing almot all customization. But besides all this, Full Auto is still extremely fun. You can destroy anything you want Including buildings, it has great graphics, and some extreme gameplay. So this game is definetly fun, just rent it before you buy it.

Overall 7.5 out of 10
note: This game is extremely fun and you should give it a test drive, but some features are broken and frusttraing, which is why it only gets an average score.

360 blogs

If have a 360 and am x-box live gamertag, then you will like this site
www.360voice.com
It will give your 360 a blog! It's an extrmely safe site, so don't worry about virus's.
Anyways, I have got to go, just check out the link!

P.S
When your on that site, search for funkyskunk5. That's my gamertag, and my 360's blog.

Artemis Fowl book reveiw

Artemis Fowl is not a game. It is a book. Just wanted to tell you that. So anyway, here's the reveiw:

Artemis Fowl starts simply. Artemis Fowl is a criminal. He has completed more schemes then most Kingpins even think of. So the book starts with him looking for a contact. Artemis Fowl has another scheme up his sleeve, and this one will piss off an entire civilization. At this point in the reveiw, it is wise to mention Artemis's bodyguard, Butler. His last name is actually Butler. Allow me to qoute the book: ( this whole conversation takes plave when the contact asks if Butler is armed)
Contact: Are you armed?

Artemis: I am unarmed. Butler however, has a Big Sauer pistol in his ankle holder, three throwing knives up his sleeve,and a aoutamatic tranquilizer rifle on his back. Am I missing anything Butler?

Butler: The stun grenades.

Artemis: But none of those would be nessacary to kill you. Butler could kill you a hundred ways comepletly unarmed.

This sums up Butlers character quite well. Well, that, along with the fact that he broke an unfortunate pickpockets fingers when he tried to pick his pocket.

I don't believe I will be spoiling anything when I tell you that Artemis is 12.
He is also a genius.

Overall 9.5 out of 10

Skateboarding

You have not lived until you have skated. It's just such a rush. Going down a 7 plus foot ramp onto a half pipe, popping a 180, and finishing it all off with a backside manual to stop yourself really gets the blood pumping. Theres not even that many bails. I went to a skate park for 3 hours, did lots of stuff ( Mostly ramps and vert half pipes ) and only fell 6 or 7 times. Not to say their's not many screw ups. You jump off your board a lot, right before .you bail so you only have to chase after the board.

It's hard to get started, but skateboarding is 50 percent mental. If you think you can do it, you probaly can. So if you go off a ramp and think oh-no and pull the board up, your screwed- your gonna end up on the floor with your elbow bleeding. And if you just started, then you should probaly wear pads. While I don't fall on the ground much ( I jump off my board alot though) a n00b will. Like alot. And while you ussually don't get hurt to much, a bad bail will frustate you alot. And hurt. Like hell.