The Nerd Next Door

One trilogy finishes as does another, it's time to look at Halo 3 , the franchise's jump to the Xbox 360. With a brand new console, does Halo still have what made it work? Well of course it does, but does it still hold up today? Well of course it does as well. But why is this held up so high amongst fans, including myself? Well let's dig into what I consider the apex of the series. Also I played this on Heroic because I can play through Halo 3 with my hands behind my back, Normal would be done in like 5 hours for me. Set hours (and a shitty graphic novel) after Halo 2 , Halo 3 sees the Master Chief wind up back in Africa, but this time on the slopes of Killamanjaro, where he is found by a squad led by returning Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter. Things aren't looking good however, the UNSC is reduced to a resistance movement hiding in an old NATO base and a few frigates, the Flood are rampant with a super intelligent eldritch leader, Cortana is trapped on High Cha...

With Halo 2 out of the way it's back to Jak (heh), specifically Jak 3 . With the tone for the entire franchise shifted in Jak II , how does Jak 3 continue from there? Now, I like Jak II , thought it a big step up from Jak and Daxter . But I also felt Jak II had an obnoxious difficulty spike that almost made me quit entirely. Can Jak 3 fix the problem that Jak II had? Well it better have otherwise I don't know why we're here. Jak 3 is set not long after II and sees Jak, Daxter, and Onin's traslator Pecker being tossed out of Haven City by new villain Count Veger thanks to being framed for unleashing Metal Heads in Jak II. Stranded in the desert, Jak, Daxter, and Pecker find themselves in the Wasteland town of Spargus, ruled by Damas, the King. Now Jak and Daxter must work to survive the wastes, get themselves back in Haven City, and stop the Metal Heads while dealing with a new faction of Deathbots commanded by returning villain Errol (who I didn't menti...

With Jak II complete, it's time to head back to Halo 2 . Now I have a long history with this game, one of the people who worked for my Mom got the Limited Collectors Edition for me as a Secret Santa gift when I was 8 in 2004 and my Mom "acquiesced" to me playing it (turns out she bought the game and had them give it to me).  Halo 2 quickly became my go to game and I fell in love with shooter's as a result, putting me one a path that leads to, well writing in general. All this to say that, with 15 years experience, I could have easily reviewed this off memory alone, but I decided to give it a normal mode play-through and give it a fair judgement. How did that fare? Let's find out. Set 1 month after blowing up Halo during, well, Halo , and arriving back in human space (and having a totally bitchin adventure in the process). The Master Chief is attending an award ceremony on a orbital defense platform when the Covenant decide to invade Earth. This begins a ...

After playing through the first Halo, I threw myself back into Jak II in the PS3 Jak and Daxter HD collection, I had previously thought the first game, while unremarkable in 2019 (literally just the PlayStation version of Banjo-Kazooie now that I think of it), was pretty good. Seeing as I owned the PS3 collection, I thought Jak II was worth looking at and goddamn I am glad I did because Jak II is just... well let's get on with it because I have thoughts on this one. Jak II is set about some time after Jak 1 where, while testing a device with Keira, Jak's mechanic (and love interest?) from the first game,  Jak, Daxter, Keira, and Keira's father Samos are hurled into a mysterious land where Jak is immediately arrested with Daxter promising to free him before he knows it. Two years (and a PSP game) later, Daxter finally does it and we finally get a first, Jak talking; and his first words are a declaration to commit murder. Yep, Jak II is the definition of whiplash and Jak...

 When I was 12 in 2008, I played Portal for the first time, specifically the Still Alive XBLA Port. I loved the game but at the end of it I thought, how cool would it be for someone to mod a game to allow portal guns. It's something i never looked into, a mere idle curiosity if anything, I was more obsessed with going "The cake was a lie." until everyone got sick of it. It would be 11 years before anything came of it with Splitgate: Arena Warfare, a new First Person shooter from indie studio 1047 Games that borrows from Portal and combines it with Halo. So if you play on PC and want a Halo fix, this is it unless you wanna try that awful PC port of 1 and 2 or try the unoffical Halo Online, well at least until Microsoft drops Halo the Master Chief Collection on PC. But is Splitgate good enough to stand with the big boys, or is it doomed to obscurity? On a graphical level, this game looks about on par with most games of this generation, nothing fantastic, but it's n...