I've played this game for about two or three hours (not sure how far I am) and and thus far, I like the game. It feels like Halo 3, it plays like Halo 3 but as much as that the expansion is pretty much Halo 3, it's highly disappointing to know that it is pretty much just like Halo 3.

Obviously you're not playing as a Spartan anymore but it's not obvious during the game. There are two minor tweaks to show that you're an ODST: you don't jump as high and you're slightly weaker in melee combat. Other than that, ODST's walk as fast and are pretty much as strong as Spartans. It was cool when you could pick up a turret and carry it around as the Master Chief but it's interesting that an ODST can do the same thing in the same way. They walk just as slow and they jump just as high as a Spartan.

Another issue is their health system is pretty much Halo 1's system. Instead of a recovering shield, you have stamina. Bungie's way of saying "we're not going to change the formula that much." It pretty much hasn't changed at all.

The game is still fun because the formula works but I was really looking forward to having to be a lot more careful around Brutes and Grunts. Fighting as a Spartan and fighting as an ODST are supposed to feel different and they really don't. As an ODST, it is easier to die but it's not a noticeable difference.

If you're a Halo fan, then expect to play an expansion of Halo 3, as you should expect. But if you're looking for stark difference in gameplay, you will not find it. I'm warning you right now.

Artists: Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori
Discs: 2
Total Length: 1:54:50

Halo 3: ODST is an expansion of Halo 3 based around an event that occurred in Halo 2 in New Mombasa. Gameplay wise, not much has changed--same graphics, same type of gameplay with minor tweaks and the same sound effects. What actually makes this game feel different without making it feel like a whole new game is the music. Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori drop a fresh bomb for this games music.

Being that this is still considered "Halo 3," I really thought there was going to be many musical instances that referred to Halo 3. There are none except in "Finale" which takes an excerpt from "Halo Reborn" in the Halo 3 OST and reminds us that this is still a tie-in between Halo 2 and 3. Other than that, you are getting fresh new Halo music.

This freshness is immediately established by the artists adding in a saxophone. "Overture" presents a new theme for ODST and quickly sets the theme for the whole soundtrack--lost and lonely. "The Rookie" has carefully placed piano lines among the strings that provide that "lost in the city" feel and its ambiance later in the track with strange otherworldly guitar expressions.

Unfortunately, the sound engineering is the same as Halo 3's. While it fit the game and gameplay nicely and are very much appropriate, as on OST, I long to hear the original instrumentation. The strings sound muffled and synthesized and the drums are sometimes a bit too powerful. The former is still beautiful and the engineering did very little to the saxophone but for two games that used real instruments, it's still unfortunate that they chose to use various filters on them for both OST's.

That does not take away from the large dynamic that the artists use in this game, however. The strings authoritative and sweet as need be, the drums are still powerful and the saxophone still brings the sense of loneliness. "The Office of Naval Defense" has some of the most pounding drums despite the purposely distorted bass lines and the piano notations in "Bits and Pieces" are still something to be enjoyed.

When listening to the OST, I forgot the game was set in New Mombasa. As I continued to listen though, subtle instances of it were revealed--mostly through the percussion instruments. Neon Night has a graceful jungle feel midway into it; One Way Ride has very subtle instances of it with the colorful instrumentation amidst the booming timpanis.

Depending on what tickles your ears will determine which disc you will listen to most. I found myself listening to and enjoying disc one more. There are more rhythmic songs with distinct beginning and end while disc 2 is a little bit more ambient, orchestral and not as war driven. Both discs generally are the same but you will find more of something on a certain disc.

Is this soundtrack worth your time and money? ODST's soundtrack is definitely worth listening to especially if you are familiar with the last three OST's. There is fresh instrumentation, the same attractive phrasing and the distinctive dynamic that made the last three OST's so good. However, on iTunes, it is $20 and depending on how you view, you are basically $10 bucks per disc which amounts to near 2 hours of music. If you think that's a bargain, go for it but if you can find it cheaper, I would take that rout. No matter the case, ODST has some of Martin O'Donnell's and Michael Salvatori's best work on this album.

Final Score: 8.8

I work at San Diego State making promotional videos and if anyone knows about the budget of California, it's downright bad. As such, the CSU (California State University) system is deep in the water also. As such, they've implemented furloughs (mandatory days off without pay) to help put funds back into the system and obviously, layoffs have been imminent for some.

When SDSU hired me, they said I was on three month contract and I would have to see if they could renew me after that. Good news is that I can stay with them for another three months (my first three months ends next week). The bad news is that after my next three months, they have to let me go. That means I have to start looking for a job now.

My dilemma is that I don't know what to look for since I graduated with minimal skills in the media area and it was God that opened up this job for me here at SDSU. But I'm just going to apply to everything and anything, career related or not and see what happens. All I can do is trust God since the economy is so bad. I know some don't believe in God but this is the direction I'm taking and the direction I take everyday.

I was actually thinking about applying to GS but they're not hiring and I don't want to leave San Diego. I'm just going to look here and see what I can get. All I know is that I have a job somewhere here--I just gotta find it.

What the...

That was the very first reaction I had when I began racing.. It was a little disconcerting at first but this was a good attempt by Slightly Mad and I wasn't going to be mad simply by the first 1 minute test lap that gauges difficulty and assist settings.

What initially gave me that reaction was how sensitive the steering was. I would barely tilt my control stick in a certain direction in a turn and the car would go off-road pretty easily. To add to it, the cars do drift easily but it's also deceptive. I was afraid to take turns hard at first because I could feel the car fishtailing but when I really pushed it actually did not go into a full drift which is where the "arcadey" portion of the driving comes in.

However, after I adjusted the steering sensitivity in the gameplay options, the driving felt a whole lot better and my final reaction after one hour of play was, "I like this game so far."

There is no way I can make a detailed analysis after one hour of play but here are some things I've already noticed about the game:

• Like I said, the car naturally drifts in turns. I am using a Chevy Cobalt with no mods and no tuning adjustments so this could play a part in how much my car is sliding during a turn but again, it's deceitful as you can push your car harder in turns than it seems to allow.

• The cockpit is a good one but I'm still not 100 % happy with it. Cockpit views in games are hard to capture because the eye can see so much at once. When I'm driving, I do not need to move my head much to look at my side-view or rear-view and still in most games, you have to move the head quite a bit to see what's in the mirrors. However, it's one of the most improved cockpits views I've played and for once, I do prefer to drive in that view than the hood view I usually use.

• In the first hour of play, something is noticeably different about this NFS game versus the last 6 but it may be hard to pinpoint. I didn't realize what it was until this morning--I only heard one song from the EA Trax in the whole hour I was playing. They are turned off by default for racing and for some reason, they are not permeating the menu interface like they usually do.

• I haven't been in any major crashes yet but from the thumps and thuds I've had against other cars, I can definitely say the driving is an interactive experience. If you hit a car hard enough, the camera resonates that thud like your head would in real life...IGN talked about how you lean as you brake simulating the inertia but I didn't notice it--I wasn't really looking for it either so that's actually a good thing.

• Points and cash seem really easy to earn. I wondered if you could earn points if you ran tracks by yourself and the answer is--yes. I ran a twenty lap race on a track and I was earning points the whole time and I earned money at the end. However, the level cap is 50 and it seems that once you get into the double-digit levels, leveling up will take a while.

That's all I can say about my very first hour in the game. The biggest thing is getting the steering sensitivity for what works for how you drive as that's what this game is trying to push anyway--drive how you drive.

So far, I say pick it up but if you're still waiting on some opinions, check around.

Over the past several days I've been trying to bum rush through this game compilation before NFS: Shift came out. Unfortunately, due to my lack of time to play video games and my friend and I having a blast playing classic Sonic games, I couldn't beat it all the games even though I've done it several times on the GCN.

Nevertheless, I have gotten through more than two-thirds of Metroid Prime and my final analysis concludes to that it is much more satisfying to play Metroid Prime with Wii controls. If you have played Corruption, then it will be easy to understand why it is so much fun to play the game with these controls. If you have not played Corruption however, I would play that game first because that game was built with Wii controls in mind.

If you're very familiar with the series, then you quickly notice that the first two Prime games are pretty much direct ports. This means that you will have to deal with playing the game that had the GCN controls in mind. I found that the enemies in the first two games were far more accurate, aggressive and stronger and as such, playing with Wii controls on old GCN games adds a freshness to the experience.

If you play with the lock-on, the game will not feel much different. It's while playing with the free motion controls where you begin to have a lot of fun.

In the end, everything is pretty much the same. I haven't delved into Echoes but since nothing has changed in Metroid Prime as far as difficulty and enemies, it's safe to say Echoes will also stay true to the GCN model. If you liked the controls in Corruption, then get this trilogy but be warned that it will not be as forgiving as Corruption.

I was born in 1986 but I played games that were made in the late mid 70's and early 80's. When I make statements such as "as children" or "back in the day" or anything of that nature, I am referring to games that were made from the late 50's (or early 60's depending what you consider the first game) game to about '96.

When Nintendo first started making it in the game industry, they had the Japanese market in the bag. They made great games that the Japanese public enjoyed and consequently they sought out to bring it to America and the UK. Their philosophy was: Bring Games to the World. After some heavy trials, they did just that. They brought gaming to the world and revived it in the process. Now, that very same philosophy may be the very philosophy that could cost them everything they fought for.

As children, we had some pretty good games. But when Nintendo hit our shores, we had some really good games--including ones from their competition. Nintendo, along with third-party help, brought us some of the best games and memorable games to date. Their philosophy was working. We could not wait for the next release game. We began buying magazines, strategy guides, etc. Nintendo reached the empire of gamers. The world. They had us.

Nintendo, being the outward thinkers that they were, were not satisfied with us. After many years of satisfying their faithful, their world, despite heavy competition from Sony and Microsoft, they decided to look to a slew of untappped gamers--the people who did not play games. Nintendo would continue their philosophy--bring games to the world. That meant everyone.

From a financial standpoint, the idea was genius. In keeping the already dedicated fans from the Gamecube, they would have their sales. But now, pitching to the untapped fanbase would generate more money. It's not theory. The idea has been proven.

From a gamers standpoint, the idea was a flop. To create games that had no appeal to the people they had originally reached was disappointing. Nintendo brought gaming to us back in the 80's and they left their fanbase for another piece of their untapped world. Unlike our world that gobbled up what they offered us, the new world they are reaching does not and they will not.

Who is this new world? If you really think about it, it is the people who saw the rise of Nintendo, who witnessed the boom of gaming and did not want to take part in it. The major flaw with Nintendo's business model is that the world of people they are trying to reach grew up with us also when Nintendo made their original boom. They weren't that interested in games then, what makes Nintendo think they will be interested now?

Nintendo is now at a crossroads. If they abandon the current business model they have been following--bring out games that do not appeal to their core fanbase--then Nintendo will lose their core, original fanbase. To continue, who is to say that their current fanbase, the "casual gamers," will buy their next console? Yes, thanks to advanced marketing strategies that Nintendo did not have back in the day, many people have picked up Wii's. That does not mean that those people will pick up their next console.

If Nintendo begins making games like they used to, they will lose their current world and maybe bring back some of their old world of gamers. But who is to say that people won't have gone to Microsoft and Sony, where they did make games that gamers liked?

Nintendo has to make a decision for this next generation console--whenever that will come out. The philosophy that brought them success is killing them. They have to choose what world they want to make games for. Some can argue that they have chosen the casual market, others believe that they will return to the core. They fought hard to bring gaming to the world and they did. But everything they fought for could be put into the hands of other companies in the near future if they do not make careful decisions.

Here's hoping Nintendo knows what they're doing.

Based strictly off my first play through.

Since I had some free time I thought I would try out the Shadow Complex demo. I've been hearing good things about it and frankly, I just like playing demos.

The game hasn't been spoiled for me but I did read some differing opinions on the game, one from Polybren of Gamespot. Now that I think about it, everything I've heard about this game has only been from the story standpoint and the "message" of the game. I had no idea what to expect out of gameplay which put me at ease to make a decent opinon.

Bottom line: The story, so far, is way too fast paced and somewhat shallow--so far. The voice acting is flaky at times and the character models actually seem somewhat distorted in body. You might say that I shouldn't be too hard on it since it is an arcade game. This might be true but if any effort is going to be put into the game, then make every effort right.

You actually start the game as someone completely different from who you are most of the game. A man in stolen armor who is working for the government trying to save the Vice-President of the United States. This is also where you get your first foray into the combat system which is a bit shaky. I have never been a fan of side-scrolling shooters that give full 360 freedom in the aiming. Games like Metal Slug and Contra worked back then because there were plethora of enemies to shoot and lots of things to destroy. Not in this game. This is a modern day TPS done in side-scrolling fashion.

Aiming is done with the right stick. Sometimes the game will auto-aim for you making kills a lot easier but it won't always nail you a headshot which gives you more experience. I'm assuming if you're reading this, you already know how the experience system works so I'm not going to delve into it.

After the first level, you get to hear some of the lackluster voice-acting and you move on to the meat of the story. A young man in the woods rock climbing in the woods with his girlfriend. Thankfully, she's not a ditsy type of girl which is usually the reason why the man must be so protective. In fact, she's daring herself but is quickly captured during their fun and he must find her.

From here, you get to taste a lot of the fundamentals as you should. Getting used to the controls make take a moment as the odd placement of the reloading to Y (as most shooters have it as X if it's not the RB). I spent most of the time remembering which button was reload which caused me to be caught off guard when entering another room with armed enemies inside.

I'm not going to comment on the AI since I put the game on casual. I will say that they are stupid on Casual.

The graphics for the game are great for an XBLA game. It uses the Unreal engine to a good capacity. I believe that they held back some of the graphics so that it could remain "XBLA-ish" because some things, like distorted bodies, could have been fixed.

The game was engaging enough to make me want to buy it but it's not going to be an immediate buy. I'd definitely say count the cost before buying this. If there is an XBL On-Demand game you want to get with your 1200 points, get that. If not, get Shadow Complex.

In my quest to satisfy my thirst for a racing game as I wait for Need for Speed: Shift to release, I came upon the free demo of Dirt 2. I heard of the previous game but since it was a off-road game, I had no interest in it. This time, I thought I'd give the game a chance. It is a demo and I can easily delete it off my hard drive when I'm done with it.

I had no idea the game was made by Codemasters; the makers of Grid--a game I absolutely loathe. Grid's driving was way too loose and it did not feel like I was driving in that game so I figured Dirt 2 could suffer from the same feelings. Nevertheless, I was going to keep an open mind about it.

The first thing I noticed is that the menu screen was similar to Grid's--the floating words amidst a room. At this point, I wanted nothing to do with Grid and anything that resembled it was making me curl in my stomach.

I kept fooling around in menu options trying to see how far the demo would let me go, which was not very far. So I jumped into the race mode (I forget what it was called. I've only played it once as of this writing) and the first race I do is Baja.

I get to the car select screen and see an off-road type of car, which is to be expected. Hoping I can choose another car, I found that there was only one available amongst the several locked cars--all of which are visible. Guess it gives a sense of something to look forward to.

I booted up the first race and after struggling on the first lap of the two lap course, I found myself to be having a real good time playing it. It felt like I was driving the car. The physics weren't distracting and the course I was driving was a lot of fun. The banked turns, water puddles and the jumps and bumps were exciting. And every mistake I made felt like it was solely my fault--an aspect in racing games that is ignored sometimes. *glares at Grid*

The cockpit view can be a tad bit disturbing if you're not used to looking in them. I was constantly gently tapping my joystick to keep control of the vehicle as the terrain throws you around in subtle ways. Because of this, I was constantly seeing my drivers arms doing jerky turn motions with the wheel. Sometimes it looked to jerky. I didn't get the sense that I was actually driving the car in this game so I switched to the hood view which is the view I use if a game does not have a cockpit view.

After placing first on the first race, I decided to try out the next course, Morocco. This was a Time Trial race. It reminisces a sprint race in other games where you go from one end of the course to the other. While there are other cars on the course, you're really only competing against time.

The race was very tough. I got to use a Mitsubishi coupe but it was outfitted to handle off-road settings but it did not make the race any easier. If that is how racing is done on those off-road flat-land races, then that is scary. My car was sliding all over the place. Usually, I'm confident enough to floor it at some point in the race but not in this once. Flooring it cost me since I had never done the track and the radar was placed foolishly at the top of the screen where using peripheral vision is hard to do once you're looking up. I crashed my car to the point I had to be reset on the track but I still managed to make the best time.

After that, I went to XBL section to see if you could actually play and you could! I love demos that let you get some online experience. Unsurprisingly, no one ever picked Morocco. So I did two races in Baja in which I placed third out of 8 in both of them. For the second race, I actually led most of the race but because I didn't know how to take the turns faster, my competition slowly caught up. I was fast enough to never go below third, though.

Overall, I'm thinking about getting this game and if you plan on getting it, let me know. Dirt 2 was shockingly a lot more fun than I anticipated and because of it, I'm going to give Grid another chance but Dirt 2 seems to be a purchase down the line. If you like any kind of racing, I'd suggest giving Dirt 2 a shot.

I recently moved into a new apartment and I am thrilled to be out of my old one. My old place had terrible wooden cupboards, bug problems, crappy sinks, crappy everything. The only remotely decent thing in that house was the stove and refrigerator.This new house is a lot better. It comes with its own microwave, the cupboards, although wooden, are actually usable; there are no bug problems (an exterminator comes in once every month--good stuff); the carpet is worth stepping on and the rooms are decently sized for a 3br, 2ba.In my last place, I pretty much lived out of boxes. For this place, I am actually going to make myself at home.On another note, Firefox fails on my work computer. They recently "updated" my computer and whatever they have done has heavilyaffected my browsers.

I tried uploading more pictures but there is a strange internal error going on. Oh well. That's a small taste of what I'm living in. Maybe more pictures to come?

At work I have to create several videos that spotlight different majors at my alma mater, San Diego State. The idea is to have a sort of "reality tv" feel to it condensed into a 3-5 minute video. This is my hardest video to date and rightly so. The research I have to put into this project is immense and this is only a short video. I can't imagine what it would be like if I was doing a 2 hour feature.

Right now, finding this has been fairly slow and uninteresting. I come across the same type of topics all the time such as "so-in-so received this award," or "so-in-so did this," and other things like that--nothing that really sets anything apart. In Jesus' name I start finding stuff cause this is getting hardcore boring.