Halo: Reach

   This review was quite late, due to the fact that this game was so awesome I completely forgot to review it. Here it is. Halo: Reach, in it's amazing glory and epicness.

   Halo: Reach is a fusion of great multiplayer and equally great singleplayer. Starting with singleplayer, the Bungie team has edited some things. The most noticeable of which, is the story is set on Reach. This lets the player take in the dieing human life on the planet, instead of seeing it from the perspective of indestructible John, Spartan-117 from Halo 3. The graphics have been upped immensely and now look easily better than any COD game, explosions and bullet trails look beautiful. At one point, the game lets you take control of a space craft and you proceed to battle baddies in the final frontier. The AI has been upgraded, as usual in every Halo game. Pushing towards the main idea here, all this and a driven storyline filled with moments worthy of "Wows", the singleplayer is awesome. Over the course of ten missions you follow the path of Noble 6, a Spartan whose appearance will actually change with your multiplayer/singleplay character. The voice acting is perfect, with accents being flawless and not too over the top. The story is moving in it's own way and at the end, I really felt sorry for those digital souls who lost their lives fighting a losing battle. The singleplayer is definitely top notch.

Note: This is not an in-game vehicle. This is user created material in the photo.

   There are two modes which are different than the normal multiplayer versus competition.  Forge mode allows you to build anything imaginable, from fortresses in the sky, to space ships. Ever wanted to make your own map that makes it on the online game modes? Now you can. Reach's forge mode was boosted to a higher level than Halo 3's, which lacked some thought. This forge mode is easier to use, more fun and a lot more creative. Even if you're not the best builder, forge is fun. The next game mode is firefight. This mode can be played in ranked lobbies in Xbox Live but focuses on team work to destroy limited waves of enemy forces. It is a mix between multiplayer-campaign than is welcomed by most. It gives Halo a new way to play, if anything starts to get boring.

   The normal multiplayer consists of several playlists with different gametypes for all styles of gaming. The gaming is amazing, with a perfect armor customization feature. This feature lets you customized all aspects of your spartan, from chest, to visor color. Even down to knee pads. The only downside to multiplayer is the slow leveling at higher levels, though this seems to be the way that Bungie compromised for having no prestige option.

Overall Score: 9.5

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

 The third installment of the Assassin's Creed series, not counting the online game, Project Legacy. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood brought something to the table that none of the other Creed's contained, Multiplayer. It had a short storyline as usual and took Ezio to Rome. "This was bound to be a great game", I thought, but was I correct?

   Singleplayer will be touched upon first. There are a few new combat implications, the crossbow, which is probably the coolest long range weapon of stealth ever. The development team also created the use of the hidden gun while using swords and hammers seen in the picture above. The poison blade has gained the ability of long ranged poison, which is pretty awesome, but overshadowed by the more powerful and quicker weapon of destruction, the crossbow. The base combat has been upgraded to be faster and a lot more awesome. This sometimes makes combat too easy, making it feel like your swatting a group of flys instead of elite guards. Assassinations stay in the same basic concept, though you dont start out with your hidden blade from Assassin's Creed II, you have to buy it from Leo. The additons of the Assassin recuits lets you train them and use them to battle foes on the field. After training them long enough, they can become full fledged assassins, which are almost invincible. The game gains a lot from these awesome assassins.

As every Assassin's Creed game has been for me, once you finish the story mode and complete any side quests, it becomes boring. The same is true for Brotherhood. Though the storymode is amazing and gives you a feel of living Ezio's deadly life, it is extremely short, as mentioned before. There are more side quests than in Assassin's Creed II, but in an overall feel, Brotherhood seems like the same game. The only differences between Brotherhood and #2 seem to be a slight graphics upgrade, multiplayer and a different story, combined with a few new weapons and a different combat setup. It is still worth it's cost for the singleplayer if you're a fan of the series.

The multiplayer has a few modes, Wanted, Manhunt and Alliance. If you get the free DLC you also gain Chest Capture mode. There are variations of a few modes, resulting in a hardcore mode. Multiplayer though is a lot more enjoyable than singleplayer. Duking it out with serveral friends, or participating in a ranked match against battle hardened foes who are constantly owning you give Brotherhood a new edge. There is a normal level up system with perks, abilities, death and killstreak rewards and character customization that are unlocked at various levels. This leads players to have a reason to play, if not for just plain old fun. The graphics, if it's not just me, seem to be better on the character models in multiplayer. This is probably because lots of Brotherhood singleplayer models were salvaged from #2.

 Overall Score: 8.0