Carnage!

As I was browsing the slashdot games subpage this morning, I found a link to CarnageStats, a web based service for tracking all of your Halo 2 stats from Xbox Live. I haven't linked my gamertag to a MS Passport yet so I can't try it out, but it looks interesting enough for me to actually get a MS Passport just so I can track my terrible Halo 2 stats. Since we have a satellite internet connection and my Xbox is hooked into our home network wirelessly, many of the games I play suffer from some monster lag, but even so I still find Halo 2 fun to play online.

I've been playing the single player game and I figure I'm about a third or half way through the game and so far it feels a lot like the original Halo. What I don't like is the Covenant subplot where you play levels as the Arbiter. Maybe it comes into play down the line in the game (I certainly hope it does), but right now I don't like playing as a member of the enemy. It takes away from the cohesiveness by flip flopping you between the Arbiter and Master Chief. I suppose the developers wanted to do something somewhat different with this iteration of the game since a lot of the rest of it feels pretty similar to the first one.

Oh, since I'm talking about video games, I'd like to take a moment to plug Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. I finished this game a few weeks ago and it was easily one of the best Xbox games I've played in a long time. The graphics were sweet. The plot was great for a video game. It felt very polished. It was just really fun! The best way to describe the gameplay would be to say that it's a mix of Halo and Splinter Cell with some Breakdown thrown in. I liked how the hand to hand combat was used throughout to complement the usual weapon based combat in a first person shooter. The stealth portions of the game weren't too hard and didn't feel forced like in some games I've played. All in all, this game is better than all the hype put out about it, and it's a game based on a movie to boot! How often do you have that happen?