die coward's MSN space

I finally got 40k gamerscore!  I beat FIFA World Cup 2006 and I also got 1,000 in Top Spin 2, and Fusion Frenzy.

 

My next games are going to be MLB 2k7, NBA Street Homecourt, and DDR Universe!

I am so close to 40k Gamerscore.  I should get it soon. 

 

I just got over being sick with the flu for 10 days!  My temp was 104 degrees. 

 

I went snowboarding Thurs. and Fri. and it was so fun.  My board was doing really good in the powder. 

 

I had a bunch of people over and we played beer pong with Guiness draft.  I had like 10 beers. 

 

I am also blogging on the xbox ambassador's blog.

 

Message me on Window's Live messenger and add me to your MSN Space!

 

My MLB fantasy team is doing really good and I love it.  i am a huge baseball fan and my favorite team is the Mets.  I want to get MLB 2k7 soon.

 

Looks like that's it for now, leave a comment and I'll do the same for you!

I now have over 35,000 points.  I am glad that they added xbox rewards, because was about to quit gamerscore.  It is amazing how people can get 120k points.  I am currently working on Superman Returns, NCAA Football: 07, Crackdown, RB6: V, Top Spin 2, plus more.  It is so hard because you have to be able to sit down and actually play a game that you absolutely hate.  I couldn't play Sonic.  That game was so bad that I didn't even care about gamerscore anymore.  I couldn't take the pain anymore.  I am not a nerd with no life either.  I have a life and only play games when I'm not out with friends.

 

I also found out that stripclubdj, the guy with 120k points, lives right by me.  I saw him at my local gamestop and we were chatting for a bit.  He is a nice guy.  He said he has only gamesaved once and got his other achievements legit.  He is pretty cool. 

 

Well those are my thoughts about gamerscore.  I'm still going to keep getting gamerscore as much as I can.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas Review

By die coward

 

            Vegas has some big expectations to live up to if it wants to beat Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and other shooters for the Xbox 360.  Luckily, this game does live up to that expectation.  The last Rainbow Six title for the Xbox, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, was more of a run-n-gun and did not offer much, if any, taking cover ability.  Lockdown was released in spring of 2005 and just wasn’t what was expected after Rainbow Six 3 and Black Arrow.  Vegas however, has improved so much.  One of the greatest additions is the enhanced ability to take cover and the added tactics.

 

The team at Ubisoft Montreal wanted to make this game more tactical.  “We are focusing on giving the player lots of tactical options,” says the game’s producer, Alexander Parizeau.  The player can now fast rope out of a helicopter or into a room.  They could rappel down the side of a building and smash through the window.  By clicking the left thumbstick while rappelling, Keller will go into an upside down position, where you can take out your pistol, silence it, and take out a few baddies with them even knowing it.  The player can also take cover behind virtually any object.  From cover, the player can blind fire or turn the corner and pump a few bullets into the terrorists.

 

 

 

            The player takes control of Logan Keller, the new leader of Team Rainbow.  The aspect that sets Rainbow Six: Vegas and the other Rainbow Six’s aside is the new single player campaign.  There are no more boring pre-mission briefs and confusing missions.  Now the player gets all of his pre-mission briefs and mission information while being flown into Sin City and during gameplay.  This game actually has a storyline, where the player’s main objective is to take down Irena Morales, a terrorist who has dedicated her time to give the City of Sin absolute Hell. 

 

            The Single Player gameplay has greatly improved.  Like mentioned before, the new cover system really comes in handy.  In Vegas, you can now regain health if you have been hit.  When you have been hit, the screen darkens and gets more blurry.  Taking cover helps out a whole lot when the player has been injured.  The player movement looks and feels like a real spec-ops soldier.  The player models are greatly detailed and the environment is ultra-realistic.  There are 2 difficulty levels: Normal and Realistic.  While they are both hard, realistic seems to be almost impossible without tactics.

 

 The commands that you can give to your team are improved also in this game.  It is similar to the older Rainbow Six games, but better.  You have all of the regular commands like open and clear, breach and clear, etc., but they are easier to use.  The only control that the player needs to know to navigate the command system is the d-pad.  When your teammates are in position, just use the d-pad for a selected command.  When the player wants to move his teammates somewhere, it is quite simple.  All they have to do is look and press the A button.  The player can command his team to go down a rappel, slide down a fast rope, get set up behind a door, etc.  With just a tap of the left bumper, your teammates will switch from assault to infiltrate, where they will not shoot unless they get shot at.

 

            A newly added feature to this game is the snake cam.  Just have Keller walk up to a door, look at the bottom of it, and press the A button.  The player can scope in once when in the snake cam view, or use thermal/night vision.  This prevents the player from blindly running into a room filled with terrorists.  Most rooms that are packed with enemies have more than one entrance.  So you can order your teammates to frag one door while you come up on the other door and flank the terrorists.  The player can not order one teammate to do one task and the other teammate to do a different task.

 

            The AI (computer-controlled players) have improved, but still aren't the best.  The men on your team are excellent.  They can spot men a mile away and won't stop shooting until he's dead.  The enemies however are a different story.  When someone opens a door that they are standing behind, sometimes they won't notice you.  Also, when some one is out in the open, sometimes the AI will only shoots 2-3 bullets, when they could have easily killed that person.

 

            The multiplayer in this game is excellent.  They made a new feature called Persistent Elite Creation (P.E.C.).  With this, you create an online identity with customizable features.  Whether you win or lose in a game, you still gain points to raise your rank.  There are customizable face options, like facial hair and camouflage.  Also, you can use the live vision cam to put your own face in the game.  It doesn't turn out the best, but it still works.  Next, you can put your own clothing on your character and add different types of camo to him.  You unlock more clothing and camo by raising ranks.  Next, you can add armor to your character.  The armor has two stats, protection and mobility.  Your character can have chest, shoulder, arm, and leg pads.  Like clothing, you can add different types of camo to them and you get more armor as go up in the ranks.

 

 

 

            Many things factor into earning points.  The most points anyone can get from a game is 1,200, but to get that the person has to win against someone their rank or higher, and it has to be a 20 minute match.  Say you win a match set to 10 minutes, but you are several ranks higher than the other guy.  You will get 300 points for winning.  The game will then multiply that by 80% since the teams weren't balanced.  Then the game will multiply that by 200% since it was a 10 minute match.  In the end, you get 499 points.  There are seventeen ranks and to get the last rank you need 675,000 points!  There also new weapons you can unlock by raising in the ranks too.  The guns have customizable features too.  You can add a rifle scope for long range, a reflex scope for different lighting, laser sighting, extended clip, plus more.

 

            The multiplayer is way better than Black Arrow’s.  There are 10 total maps and 8 different multiplayer gametypes.  There are old maps like Kill House and Streets, but there are also new ones.  The new gametype, Attack and Defend, relies more on tactics and teamwork.  One team attacks an objective, which could be a briefcase, bomb, or hostages, while the other team defends it.  The attacking team might need to bring the briefcase back to their base, defuse the bomb, or rescue the hostages.  Running and gunning doesn’t work in Xbox Live.  The other gametypes are Retrieval, Sharpshooter, Team Sharpshooter, Survival, Team Survival, Coop Terrorist Hunt, and Coop Story.  You can do the coop gametypes with up to four of your friends.  Ubisoft tried to insert different aspects into the game to prevent spawn camping and boosting.  People have found a way around it though.  Whenever someone spawns, they have 5 seconds before they can get hurt, but people the other team just guard all of the exits and kill them as they leave their spawn.  Also, if someone isn’t moving because he is trying to gain points, he will automatically be kicked from the game, but people now just put rubber bands on their analog sticks so they will be moving.

 

            The Multiplayer compared to the single player is very different.  You can run n’ gun more in single player, whereas in multiplayer you need to stay back and work as a team.  I actually find the multiplayer to be a bit easier than single player on realistic because some of the people on Xbox live make stupid mistakes.  The most used gun on Xbox Live is the MP7A1 because one headshot kills with it and it holds 41 rounds in a clip!  It can also hold up to 12 clips.  When you first play this game, just play some single player and Terrorist Hunt to get used to it, then move on to some player matches.  I would recommend this game to anyone who loves tactical shooting games.  It is much like EA’s Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and some of the other games in the Tom Clancy Series.

 

Gameplay:  9.8

Graphics: 9.3

Sound: 9.2

Replayability: 8.5

Overall: 9.4

I finally finished the rewards challenge on level 3.  It was hard for me since I already beat the easy games, so I had to go back and play old games and get achievements.  All fo the prizes were gone, so I got the gamerpic and Contra.  Oh well, next time I have to beat it faster.

 

I also have a stickied FAQ about the rewards program on the xbox forums.  Here is a link to it.

 

Have you beaten the rewards program?  Comment this and let me know what's up!

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My live space was hacked and the hacker posted a bad video on it.  Sorry if I offended you and sorry I didn't catch it earlier.

 

Sincerely

~die coward~

I have had this game for awhile now and I have got to say: this game is impressive.

 

      This game has an epic storyline.  You play as Sam Fisher who is a double agent.  You have to complete objectives in each mission for both the NSA (good guys) and the JBA (bad guys) in each mission to gain their trust.  Sam Fisher is packed full of his gadgets and upgrades.  You travel all over the world to do a bunch of different missions.  When you complete certain objectives, you obtain another gadget or upgrade.  Those range from an automatic lock picker to a Gas grenade.  At the end of each mission, the game calculaes your stealth rating and how much you went undetected.  There are also missions at the JBA Headquarters, where you are supposed to find dirt on the members of the JBA with being detected.  There are two in-depth training courses in solo mode too where you learn most of the different actions in the game.

 

      You can play on either xbox live or system link in the multiplayer.  I'll start off with a standard deathmatch.  In a standard deathmatch, you can play as either a spy or a mercenary.  The spies are chalked full of four different gadgets, but you can only take one at a time with you.  You can restock or switch gadgets back at you base.  The gadgets are: syringes (to heal yourself or others), Flash grandes (blinds the emrcenaries for a few seconds), Smoke grenades (disguises you in a cloud of smoke), and Jammers (fools the mercenaries into thinking you are somewhere else).  The spies also have two vision modes, nightvision for drak areas and thermal vision to detect heat signatures.  The spies can take out the mercenaries in many different ways.  They can snap their neck, jump on top of them, or they can just confuse them by hacking into their UPSILON suit or by using gadgets.  The spies can go inside vents and underneath structures and on top of buldings and boxes. 

 

      The spy's main device is his hacking device.  He can uses that device to turn off lights, break glass, hack into locks, Hack into UPSILON force members (mercenaries), or hack into one of the four terminals and obtain the file.  Your main objective is to hack into one of the trerminals to obtain the file.  Depending on how close you are to the terminal, you can hack faster or slower.  When you have complete file, you need to take it back to your base without being killed.  Your team needs to get two of them back with out losing you four lives or running out of time to win. At the end of each game, you have a spy percent rating that raises as you do different skills while playing.  When a spy, you can raise your Athletics, Stealth, and Gadgets rating.  And there is an overall rating too.  For the athletics, just move around, hold B while moving to roll.  For stealth, Get files undetected and snap necks.  For gadgets, use you hacking device, on Mercs, lights, glass and use grenades and jammers.

 

      The mercinaries are supposed to let the time run out or kill the spies before they can extract two files to win.  The mercenaries have Grenades and drones to help them along with their Assult Rifles.  The drones are used to catch spies in vents when they are heacking or just moving around.  They have a 3 second detonation, but they move slowly.  The Mercs have two vision modes: their flashlight, which you can adjust the range of and EMP, which makes spies visible if hacking a terminal.  The mercs also can sprint and have a very powerful melee attack which knocks spies to the ground.  They can then bash their head with yours for a one hit kill.  They also have a snipe mode, where the hits are single shot with a scope and do more damage than regular shots.  I headshot while sniping is a one hit kill also.  The mercenaries also have a percent rating.  The three skills are Direct action, Recon/track, and gadgets.  To raise direct action, press L3 (left thimbstick) to knock spies down, or just shoot them to death.  For Recon/track, use your flashlight and EMP vision to detect them and also hold RB to run.  For gedgets, use grenades and drones to kill spies.

 

      There are also Coop challenges where you and two other friends can go against the computer in a number of challenges.  They have all different types, where you have to hack until the time is up, extract as many files as you can, extract two files, where each terminal gives you only 25% of the file, and a lot of others.  There is also a double agent one where you want to extract the most files or get the highest percent before the other spies.  The rewards are unlockable videos and medals.  You can raise you percent ratings from the challenges too.

 

     In the xbox live screen, there is a Home section.  here you can view your grades and abilities, change you skins, view your bonuses, change game options, view and edit your squad, and check te squad, versus, and challege high scores.  In the xbox live screen, you can also start a custom match, view news about the game in the live zone, watch the beginners help video tutorials about online play,  go to the HOME screen, start a coop challenge, or join a quick match.

 

Great storyline

Xbox live play

In depth online play
Clan support

Leaderboards

Good tutorials for beginners

Multiple online game modes

Online stat ratings

Online news

Excellent graphics

 

No offline mutliplayer

No offline coop

Online achievements are availible in private match, which makes them too easy to get

A lot of disconnects

A little too much Lag

 

Where's the old Splinter Cell with sabotage and extraction?

Where's the offline coop and multiplayer?

 

 

 

 

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