Review of Prototype for the Xbox 360

In how many different ways can I say the word BRILLIANT. Gameplay is seamless, creative, and amazingly intuitive. The storyline is engaging enough to keep those who enjoy a good plot, and yet meaningless enough to not bother those who care only for gameplay. Hell, the game even has terrible acting. The videos themselves seem to have small instances of the characters overacting, or having the completely wrong emotion for the given scene. Oddly enough, this B-rated feel only adds to the game's appeal, in the way that any average music listener can enjoy an indie rock concert.

Now, to the gameplay. Genius. Amazing, I could go on for days if I knew enough adjectives (you think I would, being a writer and all, but I'm not sure I do). There are 2 elements, a small RPG element, and the free-floating combat element. The game introduces the player to the maximum tricked out version of the main character, showing the player most of the crazy powers and abilities, but then removes them, forcing the player to earn them through a flashback telling of the game. The player can then decide how to customize the character to rely on just powers, weapons skill, or weapons skill. Every mission in the game can be completed in virtually any fashion, except for the side missions that stipulate otherwise. These missions are amazingly fun, have nothing to do with the storyline, and exist only to increase the characters abilities and powers. In the story missions, the game will nudge the player toward a specific strategy. But this is only a nudge, the player has free reign over his/her domain. I give the game an easy 4.5 out of 5.

Review of ODST

ODST. The newest addition to the Halo saga, plays like every other Halo that has existed before it. It seems as though the only addition is the thing that made Halo interesting in the first place, the non-existence of a health meter of any kind. It seemed interesting enough, the story having an "X" factor of coming from a "normal" human's perspective, but its not enough to make the game any more remotely interesting. The combat doesn't even change. Its still fight, run away, fight some more, run away. Nothing new, no real contribution. It's both depressing and irritating, because even the graphics don't even change. It just looks like Bunjie is riding their protege as far as they can go before failing horrifically at something new that they put out. I give the storyline/single-player mode a 1 1/2 out of 5. I wont give a rating to the multiplayer, as I have no interest in playing a game to get good enough to kick some 10 year old's ass who lives half a world away.