Halo.  The game that launched the Xbox in to the console world AND made the First Person Shooter acceptable on consoles.  It was the Master Chief versus a never ending supply of aliens, and then mutants, all bent on destroying the human race.  Wow, what a game.  Eventually that game became a series of games (none of which lived up to the original by the way).  And now, this franchise has spawned another child.  It’s called Halo Wars and it’s like no Halo you’ve ever played before.

Halo Wars marks the first time that you could play within the Halo universe and never fire a gun.  That’s because this game is NOT an FPS.  It’s a Real Time Strategy game.  Hear this and hear this well… this game is not like any other Halo game you’ve ever played.  You are not Master Chief, you do not carry a weapon, there is no odd ring shaped planet to destroy.  Instead, you command an army.  You build bases, create armies, then send them around to do your will… or at least to meet the objective given to you by the game.

There’s no doubt that there is room in the world for this type of game.  The opportunity to oversee vast armies and determine their fate will definitely appeal to some.  However, my experience with the game was somewhat less than satisfying.  Of course i knew there wouldn’t be any running or gunning in this game, but the way the game is laid out left a little to be desired.  We were told that this game would be the war before the war.  A prequel to the original games that would entail huge armies and epic battles.  That was not my experience at all.

The game is divided up in to many battles which are anything but epic.  Plant a base, make some troops, complete the objective.  Lather, rinse, repeat.   The maps were surprisingly small and objectives were not hard to reach.  I often found myself being patient and building up resources to create what i thought would be a necessary invasion force, just to find that i could have completed the objective with half the armies that i had taken the time to create.  So on to the next mission, and all those troops and technologies that took all that time to create are going to continue through the struggle.  Right?  Wrong!  Each battle starts you over from square one.  In other words if took the time and resources to upgrade your units to carry RPG’s in mission one you’d have to do it again in mission two.  This got tiresome extremely quickly.

All things accounted for I found this game to be very repetitive and disappointing.  Undersized maps and the constant need to rebuild items that you already built shortened my attention span exponentially.  Though the controls were acceptable, troop movement became labored and inconsistent as your armies grew.  Camera control was a bit less than intuitive, particularly if you tried to split your army up to attack two fronts at the same time.  Cut scenes and other graphics were leap years ahead of any previous Halo games, but that’s to be expected after so much time and a genre change.  If you are a console RTS fan then this game might be worth a try, but it’s probably not worth the effort otherwise.  You could always just trade for it on Goozex or rent it and then put it back on when you are done.

- David Hayes

I’m sure we have all had moments where there is nothing you can do, but sit where you are, waiting.  It might be waiting for the movie to start, or your car to get an oil change, or in my recent case: on the airplane for 6-8 hour stints.  After a while, your options become limited.  You might be able to read a book or watch a movie, but these are usually only good for a couple hours, then you are left hunting for something else to keep your brain occupied.  For me, and I’m sure the same is likely true for you if you are bothering to read this, I often turn to my trusty candy apple red Nintendo DS Lite.  Granted, some games are better suited for long game play than others, and in this writing, I would like to focus on some games for the DS hand held that I found especially helpful on my recent trip to Europe and Africa (thus the long flights).

What makes a captivating game?  In my opinion; variety, ease of play, and lots of levels.  In a nutshell, this is what makes Peggle so popular.  It has seen light on many platforms, including PC, Flash, Xbox 360 Arcade and more recently DS.  I sunk grotesquely long hours into this game, which included both the popular Peggle as well as the Peggle Nights sequel.  For those that don’t know, Peggle is very much like the Price is Right mini-game of Plink-o.  You have a ball which you can aim and shoot, in order to get rid of all the red pegs.  Sounds simple enough, except for the fact you are limited to the amount of balls you have, as well as the shots and angles you can take.  With metric tons of different maps to play, as well as unique power ups and challenges, this game is great for long trips.  Also, you can pick it up and set it down at any time with the turn based nature of it, which is very handy when the stewardess wants to hand you another drink.

Looking to take over the world instead?  I would highly suggest trying out Civilization Revolution for the DS.  Civilization has been wildy popular in the RTS space over the years, and the recent port to the DS keeps the game pure enough to make for many many hours of game play in any sceniaro you setup.  The rules are simple.  Pick out a famous ruler, such as Cleopatria or Napolean, then race to the finish in one of four ways:  conquer everyone else, get into space first, have the most culture, or be the richest.  Throughout the game you will need to make choices that will ultimately mould your fate in the game.  Weither you go to war, or setup all your towns to only research technology, everything you do will change the game, thus making it a different game every time.  This makes for excellent replayibility.  I easily could spend an hour or two after I picked a fameous ruler to sceniaro completion.  Highly recommend as a great time sink.

And who doesn’t love dealing drugs and cops chasing you?  Anyone familiar with the Grand Theft Auto series may recall the original top down GTA for the PC.  It was fun, but sometimes it languished and you would just end up trying to piss off the cops and see how long you could stay alive.  I have throughly enjoyed this iteration of GTA for the DS, named GTA Chinatown Wars.  It brings back some of the old first generation GTA, but with better graphics, an interesting storyline, comical dialogue, and great gameplay.  You start off as a punk kid, just like all the other GTAs, and start to make your fortune by working for your uncle in Chinatown, doing runs and dealing drugs.  Over time you end up working for multiple bosses and owing safehouses all over the city.  The gameplay is solid for such a small platform, with even the driving being pretty decent.  In my experience, all driving games for the DS have fallen short.  The PDA functionality works great to make the game flow.  Obviously, a sandbox game such as this leads to tons of time sunk into playing through the story, or just running around the town dealing drugs for profit.  I’d recommend it for long trips, but usually works good for small stints as well, but you may have a hard time remembering what your current objective was.

So there you have it.  Three excellent games that make long hours on a trip pass oh so much better.  Another recommendation I’d have is invest in a USB to DS charger cable.  With this cable I was able to leave my laptop in standby mode, but still charge the DS off the USB port, thus making for almost endless gameplay on the flights.  Awesome!

Happy travels!

- Ben Mazhary-Clark

He’s baaaack.  That’s right, that brash little brain sucking alien from the planet Furon has made his return.  Crypto’s his name and stealing DNA is his game.  The fun part comes from how he does it.

SO, back story.  Way back in the day when every xbox was black and the hard drive was internal there was this funny little game that got released.  Destroy All Humans was the title, and the cover art looked like something out of a 50′s era B movie.  I picked it up on a lark and POOF, i was introduced to the amazing world of sandbox games.  A big map with LOTS of things to see and nothing but loose ideas of objectives that will help you move along and have some fun.  Talk about an eye opener.  Played enough of that game to sufficiently piss my wife off.  Fast forward 5 years and now we have the latest installment of the series on the 360 (i believe there was another title released solely to PlayStation… but who cares?).

I know what you’re thinking.  Who’s Crypto and why do i care?  Crypto is a 3 foot alien sent from the Furon empire to collect human DNA by extracting their brain stems.  No, i’m not kidding.  But wait, it gets better.  Crypto also happens to be a smart ass, cynical bastard that is voiced by a fairly good Jack Nicholson imitator.  He says some flat out funny stuff fairly regularly.  And as if that wasn’t enough, then there’s the weapons.  The Black Hole gun, the Venus Human Trap gun, and last but far from least… the anal probe gun.  You heard me right.  This bad boy fires self guided… let’s call them missiles… that hone in on the rectum of it’s victim.  The victim then runs around spewing… uuuuhhh “stuff”… from their butts.  Shoot them enough and they die.  Seriously people, i can’t make this stuff up.

Once a person dies their brains pop out the top of their heads and are magically drawn to Crypto.  You collect the samples and you’re on your way.  Of course, three foot tall aliens probing people to death is BOUND to garner some attention.  Kill enough people the police show up.  Offer a little resistance and S.W.AT. joins the party.  You make them work too hard  then soldiers and tanks show up.  What now?  You’ve got the full force of the Army bearing down upon you.  Luckily Crypto can do more than just shoot a gun.  He’s got some psychic abilities.  Psychokinesis is one of the more useful abilities.  Picking up cars with your MIND… yeah that’s just fun.  Then there’s cortex scan, basically you can read minds.  Not much use in a fight, but useful for gathering information and the occasional laugh.  Then there’s my favorite, the body snatch.  Run up to someone, hit the right button and suddenly you’re a leggy blonde or a hot red-head on skates (oh, or a tubby balding guy but i get to be that EVERY day… yay).  Perfect for hiding from the fuzz.  Heck, you can even hide AS the fuzz.  But beware, the game is smart.  If you snatch a body in front of the police they are smart enough to know it’s still you.  In fact, snatch a body anywhere and all the people around you will freak out just a little.  Apparently a little green guy with a gun isn’t very scary, but if he absorbs someone else’s body that’s an issue.  Boundaries people!!

All right, so what’s the point of the game.  Here in lies the true beauty of the game.  I’m not sure there is one.  There are no political undertones, no subtle comments about the state of society.  Just a racaus romp through various interesting locales causing mayhem and destruction whenever possible.  Throw in some hysterical dialogue and a story line you can follow and you’ve got a great play through of a fun game.  Is this game going to revolutionize a genre?  No.  Is it going to entertain you for 12 or so hours?  Only if you have a sense of humor and know what you’re getting in to.

Want to suck brains for a living?  Buy this bad boy, or trade for it on Goozex!

- David Hayes