Top Ten Halo Cutscenes August 12, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Site Videos, Top Cutscenes.3 comments
After seeing the recent Halo Reach trailer I was reminded that Bungie made some of the best cutscenes to date in video games. While short, they got a lot of story across and featured some great dialog and music.
So then I started jotting down some ideas as to what were my favorite cutscenes in the Halo games. Then I decided the best thing to do would be to pick out my favorite ten. Because there were going to be ten, I had to set some ground rules with how to rate them. I decided that they should stick to in-engine rendered videos, which meant Halo Wars was excluded, and I also thought that they should stick to the Master Chief’s story, so Halo 3 ODST was removed. With those restrictions in place, then the list started to take shape.
I seriously have a whole legal pad marked up with names, names crossed off, plus and minuses given to certain videos. They have been organized based upon story presentation, music, setting, quotable dialog, and finally nostalgic factor. I say nostalgic factor was the most important thing because my feelings towards these cutscenes are the reason why I’m even doing the top ten in the first place.
They were all initially watched in sequence (Halos 1-3) with no spoilers when I first watched them. Seriously though, these videos are full to the brim with spoilers, don’t watch them if you don’t want to know what happens.
Like the t-shirt?
The Long Road to Recon August 6, 2010
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After picking up Halo 3 ODST I was obsessed with using it to get the highly desired Recon Armor, and doing it the fair way, by completing all seven of the VidMaster challenges.
Recon Armor is the highest honor that can be given to a Halo 3 player. It is special armor originally only for Bungie employees and only given to people under the radar for going above and beyond merely playing Halo. Previous recipients include people who beat Bungie employees at their own game (literally) and a couple who had a Halo themed wedding.
It took 10 months, as long as a year of college (sans summer) to do it, but on August 4th, 2010 my multiplayer character was awarded Recon Armor. This is the story of how I got it, the ups the downs, the good parts and the parts where I lost all hope. Enjoy the video about the greatest accomplishment I ever received in my life (and I am a college graduate).
Enjoy the very first gameXcess.net video in 1080p HD! Thanks to all those who helped me out!
For those of you unaware of Recon or what the VidMaster achievements are, here’s an informational video. Hopefully it’ll help you as it helped me.
Small Town Geek Bar May 28, 2010
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Where I come from there are no venues for people like me to go where I can just be myself. I have no hang out.
After watching Malcolm Ingram’s documentary “Small Town Gay Bar”, and seeing the people of that movie people finding a place where they could just be themselves, I asked myself, where could people like me, the geeks, go to be ourselves? We don’t have such a place.
But back in 2003, I did, for a few months. And this is that story.
I had tried filming this well over a year ago on a much older camera, I’m sure you’ll notice on my YouTube channel some of the original test shots for the documentary are still up. I know I had promised that all the new video content for the site would be shot on my new 1080p camera. However, this video was made before I had the new camera, forgive me.
Alan Wake Limited Collector’s Edition Unboxing May 18, 2010
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I’ve waited FIVE years for this moment. Alan Wake has been released in the US since Midnight, and here is my first day and date unboxing, and oh boy is it glorious!
For those of you who haven’t yet picked this up (because you’re asleep) get off your comfy beds and go buy this right now!
Dear Playstation May 16, 2010
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With all the people asking questions to Sony, I thought I’d show you one I submitted. Wonder if VP Kevin Butler would like to respond to it.
Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 Firmware Update Idea April 17, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Site Videos.2 comments
Playing older games from the PS1, PS2 or Xbox on a new widescreen HDTV sucks pretty bad, as the style at the time was to display all cutscenes in non-anamorphic widescreen. It worked for 4:3 tvs, but serves to do nothing but make even less image visible on a modern HDTV. Here’s the problem, and my possible solution. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, please hear my pleas.
A firmware update where the unit will automatically zoom into a frame to the edge of the image when it detects black bars on the top and bottom of the screen would be more than adaquate for HDTV owners.
Splinter Cell Conviction Unboxing April 13, 2010
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Well I just had to pick one up given the pre-release controversy. I got it for $60! A special edition! That was not ten lower than what the price was supposed to be, it was twenty dollars lower than what the price was supposed to be. So that was pretty good at buttering me up for how bad this was going to be. Take a look with me while I do an unboxing of the game.
What did we learn from all this? DISCS ARE GOOD! USE DISCS!
Splinter Cell Conviction Coming Tuesday, CE Reduced Price April 11, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Game News, Site Videos.add a comment
I’ve posted before about my passing interest in Splinter Cell Conviction. I have played this game since it’s inital release on the PC, after I got back from my year spent in California it was one of the first games I picked up. I also picked up Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory on their respective launch days, but when Double Agent came out, I started losing my interest in the series as a whole given the major changes to it. It looks like those changes are going even further with this next game, as they’re extending to major gameplay alterations (IE, the killing is now open season, opposed to being bad).
I picked up a preorder of the Collector’s Edition on a whim, hoping to just get it to get a decent CE. Splinter Cell has done Collector’s Editions since Chaos Theory, that being cross platform (every platform had it’s own CE) and Double Agent being 360 exclusive (they were trying to get people to buy 360s at the time). I really liked the Chaos Theory CE if just for the tin box, the extra Splinter Cell 1 levels for PC, and the Mega 64 Videos (“H2 No! H2 No!”), but the Double Agent CE, at it’s 70 dollar price seemed like a lot of fluff pieces, it’s only rewarding feature being the interview with the actual american splinter cell.
Well it turns out that the Conviction CE has gotten a pre-release price drop to 70 dollars US due to the usb’s sticks having a high level of failure. Since I already have my five dollars down paying 65 doesn’t sound as bad. I’m suprised that they bothered to lower the price, it’s not like defective CE’s have stopped publishers before. I remember the DVDs in Chaos Theory being defective without their SC1 levels (although they later made the levels downloadable to anyone who filed a tech support issue), and I can remember the Big Daddies in Bioshock’s CE being cracked and damaged, but those were replaced free of charge (and anyone with a broken Big Daddy got a free artbook, lucky bastards).
Until Tuesday, you Splinter Cell fans can just salivate over this, a training video for perspective splinter cells. Enjoy.
What Makes for a Good Collector’s Edition? April 2, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Site Videos.3 comments
After the terrible review I gave of the God of War III Ultimate Edition, I picked up the Bioshock 2 Special Edition at a discounted price and ended up liking it a lot. Then I asked myself, what is it that makes a good CE and what makes for a bad one? I have no shortage of CE’s to review, so come take a look at the very wide collection of CEs I have, and with it, see the history of Collector’s Editions.
Also, due to YouTube constraints I had to sadly cut some scenes from the video, where I took a look at two other premium Collector’s Editions that I owned, the Batman Arkham Asylum CE and the Halo 3 Legendary Edition.
God of War III Ultimate Edition Unboxing and Walkthrough March 24, 2010
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This is the God of War III Ultimate Edition. In the United States it costs $100 and as far as I know has sold out everywhere. Check it out with me will you?
As far as I can tell there is no reason why the majority of the content could not have been included on physical media such as CDs or Blu-Rays. The box could’ve easily fit them. It’s not like when they were released online it made it any better. The music CD retrieval site was completely down for most of the time I tried getting them, and you already know about all the trouble I went through trying to get the Uncovering the Legend documentary.
In short, if you didn’t get this, you saved $40, don’t kick yourself.
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