GenieKnows Games Blog

First of all, I don’t think I can thank Genieknows.com enough for putting together this contest and getting all these prizes. It was an interesting contest with such an amazing prize and I learned a couple of bits of trivia while searching for the answers to those questions.

Well, the guys at GenieKnows gave me this handy login to post on their blog, so why not put it to use? It’s also been awhile since anyone has posted anything so even if I’m a bad writer, there will still be something to read which is better than nothing right? … Right?

I must admit, that the first time I saw the contest advertised on the web, I was a little skeptical. It was like nothing I had seen before: “Enter to win a $25,000 Ultimate games room” but my love for games made it impossible for me to resist. Reading through the rules and regulations, I saw it was open to Canadians (I play World of Warcraft, and none of those contests are ever open to Canadians), saw that it required me to answer trivia, saw the prizes and after wiping the drool off my chin from reading the complete list of prizes, I couldn’t sign up any faster. The following weeks, I would check my e-mail with an unhealthy obsession ever Saturday until the next clue would show up, mostly because of the obvious better chance of winning, but partly because of the leader board (What can I say, we play games to see numbers go up). I think I was chasing third in the first few weeks, and eventually jumped to first but someone overtook me by one in the last two weeks or so and I ended up placing second. After the last clue was answered, I felt like it was over too soon and I wanted more though quickly realized that the winner would be announced soon and came to my senses.

Everyone who was as involved in the contest as I was knows that the winner wasn’t announced on the stated day so I settled back into the comfort of my skepticism, telling myself that of course it couldn’t be true…

On Monday, October 22nd, I was joyfully proven to be wrong when I checked my e-mail and found that Mark Harper from Genieknows.com was asking me to call him. Now the first thought that shot through my head was “omgiwon” but being afraid to jinx everything, my brain came to the rescue and came up with any other possible reason for him to call me. I was talking to a coworker and had gone silent not really noticing that he was still saying words to me when I picked up the phone to call. Mark cut straight to it after he found out who was calling and my response was a loud “Holy …crap!” (choosing my words carefully while in the company break room). We then agreed for me to come down to their office on Saturday which felt like years away.

The Genieknows.com office looked cozy, chic and casual, but what did I know, it was a Saturday and there were only a few people there. I got a quick tour and of course the last room was where they had piled all boxes full of the awesome fun stuff that you can see in the previous post. After some photos, handshaking, me blubbering my thanks to every person I saw, we all picked up a couple boxes, the oversized cheque and headed out the door to my car. The people on the street must’ve thought we were robbing someone, I sure felt like I was.

That’s basically it, I only have a few things to mention and then a few pictures to show. For now it’s not really an Ultimate Games room, the house’s den is cluttered with junk so I’ve spread out the systems to various rooms: the Wii in the upstairs living room for my parents, the Xbox360 in the den and the PS3 in my room. The rest of the bigger prizes arrived week after week during November and December (and should still be arriving) which was pretty fun though my parents decided I didn’t need anything for Christmas, and I can live with that. My dad enjoys golfing and bowling on the Wii, brother monopolizes the Xbox360 all day, everyday, my mom enjoys the pizza for a year from Pizza Hut and I’ve made lots of new friends…

P.S. The Arcade machine is really cool but for now it just sits in the hallway downstairs since as I mentioned there’s no room but I wanted an excuse to show a picture.

Thanks again Genieknows.com!

The GenieKnowsGames.com team was thrilled to meet with the winner of the Ultimate Games Room contest Michael Chung today.

Michael was delighted to pick up most of the prizes from the GenieKnows offices today, with other larger prizes being shipped directly to his home. (He said that he’ll be sharing some of $25,000 value Games Room prize package with his little brother!) Michael was the lucky winner from a field of 1,376 gaming fans who battled through September and October collecting ballots using the GenieKnowsGames.com search engine, or who entered the game via mail.

His Ultimate Games Room prize list included:

• Dell XPS 720 Red Package
• Retro X-Arcade
• Wii Package
• Xbox 360 Package
• Hotrod Faceplate
• Wireless Controller
• PS3 Package (80G)
• PS3 Console
• PlayStation 3 Limited
• PSP PlayStation Portable
• $2,000 worth of video game titles
• 58″ Panasonic Viera 1080p HDTV
• TV Stand
• Apple iPod Video 80 GB with $100 iTunes Gift Card
• Sonos Bundle with loud speakers
• SonosR ZonePlayer 100
• SonosR ZonePlayer 80
• SonosR Controller
• Games rental for a year
• Pizza for a year
• One year subscription to Maxim magazine
• One year subscription to Wired magazine

There were many other weekly Ultimate Games Room prize winners during the contest and they were:


- Luis Felipe Favela Lopez - Chula Vista, California - (Bioshock - Xbox 360)
- Leonard Roberts - Halifax, Nova Scotia - (Metal Slug Anthology - Wii)
- Anthony Nizzardo - Stamford, Connecticut - (Gears of War - Xbox 360)
- Gizele Farris - Moncton, New Brunswick - (Marvel Ultimate Alliance – Xbox 360)
- Dale Murray - Moncton, New Brunswick - (Alien Syndrome - Wii)
- Ken Cornelius - Midwest City, Oklahoma - (MotorStorm - PS3)
- Jay French - Lisle, Illinois - (Mortal Kombat Armageddon - Wii)
- Kristin Hodor - Poughkeepsie, New York - (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Xbox)
- Daniel Wilson - Lantz, Nova Scotia - (Sennheiser headset)

Watch out for more exciting news and contests from GenieKnows.com in the near future.

In addition to Games search, the GenieKnows.com team also develops and operates search technology that powers Local (GenieKnowsLocal.com) and Health (GenieKnowsHealth.com) engines.
Thanks to all contestants who took the time to enter the Ultimate Games Room competition. Once again, congratulations to Michael Chung of Clayton Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Mark Harper
VP GenieKnows.com

If you wanted the short answer, YES… Halo 3 delivers on nearly every promise the hype machine has created. Not only does the tried and tested gameplay return but Bungie still manages to impress with some new innovative features that are sure to become standard years from now (kinda like the party system which is only now being adopted by other developers).

The Campaign

First off let me start with the campaign. This time around, Bungie wanted to make sure there were no cliffhanger endings and I’m pleased to say that those of you that play through the entire game, won’t be left wondering who didn’t finish their level design. Master Chief aimed to finish the fight and does so in style. I won’t give anything away but I’d definitely recommend completing the game on Legendary to see the entire uncut ending (just make sure you don’t skip the credits!). Also this time around, coop is both online and offline for up to 4 players. This is incredibly fun especially with Bungie’s new Meta Game addition which keeps tracks of team or individual scores during campaign mode. If the difficulty levels aren’t enough to challenge you, try turning on some Skulls (14 of which can be found throughout each level). These skulls turn various effects on which not only increase difficulty but also scoring multipliers, making the game more challenging for even the most seasoned Spartans. The Campaign, new modes and a slew of other easter eggs unmentioned here will keep you occupied for month to come and are easily the best the 360 has yet to offer.

Multiplayer - weapons

And now for the real meat of Halo3, the multiplayer! If numbers are any indication (over 1 million playing online last night alone), Halo3 multiplayer is a huge hit. For good reason too! Bungie managed to capture the frantic gunfights of Halo2, but balanced the weapons so that they felt more skill based like in Halo1. Many complained that in halo2, the weapons especially dual wielding weren’t balanced. but more importantly, that some combinations like the popular “noob” combo in which a player ran around with a plasma pistol and battle rifle, were far too powerful and decidedly enough, didn’t require skill to use. To fix this, Bungie made dual wielding a more personal in your face affair which doesn’t give players any advantage at a distance. they also added some new weapons into the mix and tweaked several others like the needler which is now a deadly single wielded weapon! the plasma pistol returns but now requires pinpoint precision to shoot and no longer tracks its target as accurately once released making a more balanced (if far less used) weapon.

The addition of brute technology like the Mauler, and Brute hammer seem fittingly enough, brutal type weaponry and lend themselves well to some of the tighter spaces you’ll find this time around. While weapons like the “not-so-new” assault rifle seem to help balance the use of battle rifles and almost make the dual wielded variety obsolete. Old favorites like the sniper rifle and shotty still kick ass but seem to require more skill to use as aiming magnetism is reduced. Sword has been balanced quite a bit and now requires the player to be much closer before a lock is initiated. Sword duals can also take place as I found out when I locked swords no less then 5 times with another player.

Multiplayer - equipment

New to the halo franchise is equipment. Equipment comes in many different flavors in halo3 but all of them taste the same…. deadly! since there are three types of equipment in halo, I’ll cover them all. first off, deployables. These are items you pick up by simply walking over them and can be used by tapping the X button to “deploy” them. All of these are extremely useful when used in the right scenario. They consist of the following, Bubbleshield which created a dome like structure around a player that can only be penetrated by other players, not their projectiles. Next is the radar jammer which creates a mess of radar signatures that become almost impossible to decipher. Another is the flare which although useful, tends to blind the user as well unless thrown properly. Then comes my personal favorites, the power generator and power drainer which as you might of guessed either kill shields or regenerate them. These ones become very useful for attacking power weapons. Another type of equipment you’ll find are heavy weapons. These when picked up actually switch the camera to third person and slow the character movement down considerably. Gone is your ability to crouch and crouch jump, gained is your ability to decimate anyone within range. Some of these aren’t as useful as I’d of liked - the flame thrower which seems only capable of throwing a flame a mere 5 feet and loves to engulf you if you attempt to move in too soon.  Another is the rocket launcher which has just enough delay to render it useless in close quarter battles. finally there is the turret gun which although deadly at midrange, cannot compete with a good BR shot at long range. Although these weapons are fun to use, you won’t find many pros making use of them as your limited speed becomes a surefire way of getting yourself killed. And finally, although they aren’t exactly defined as equipment the new grenades do merit some attention. The spiker grenades and fire grenades (please Bungie add these to more gametypes). The spiker grenades have a slightly different trajectory then the plasma nades and although tricky at first, are quite satisfying to land once you master. They shoot out 4 spikes which instantly kill anything without a 15 foot radius assuming they cross paths. Great for clearing corners of campers. The next is my favorite new weapon in halo3, the napalm nade covers anything it hits with a thick wall of flame which doesn’t dissipate easily and as an added bonus tends to blind the enemy in envelopes causing him to run around mindlessly.

Multiplayer - maps

The 10 maps you’ll find in the multiplayer have become somewhat of a love hate relationship with me. On one hand, I love the new placement of weapons, but on the other hand, I sometimes feel that with all that new detail, hiding has become far too easy for those wishing to cower as oppose to finish the fight! One thing is certain, Bungie has spent a lot of time tweaking weapon placement around each map so that there will always be one dominant weapon that both teams tend to spawn equal distances too. The rocket launcher on pit, hammer on guardian, shotty on snowbound… you get the idea. All maps were designed so that talented players would eventually be playing them like a game of chess, evaluating risk and reward at every turn. In this respect, the developers have hit a homerun and although I may dislike dying from a nade toss while attempting to grab rockets on pit, I appreciate the design choice made in placing them there.

Multiplayer - matchmaking

Matchmaking has made a triumphant return and more then ever, shows why console gaming is the place to be when it comes to tracking player achievements. Not only does Bungie match players based on skill level, but they also allow players to record their every action using the new theater mode to create custom film clips which can be saved and shared with friends! Unlockables have now been added such as armor and new emblem types so that those with enough skill, can show it off with hard to acquire armor types and the sought after katana. Bungie website tracks several achievements which won’t show up on your xboxlive profile but are still awesome to complete. One example being the steaktacular which is awarded when beating an opposing team by more then 20 points overall. Apparently some Bungie inside joke where one poor lad had to buy the losing team steak dinners after a humiliated loss hehe. I swear reaching a certain milestone in Halo3 multiplayer is as addictive as any drug on the market today, Bungie is definitely on to something with those ranking schemes! Matchmaking once again proves why Bungie is the definitive leader in its class and will no doubt serve as the new benchmark to which all games should aspire to reach.

Conclusion

Bungie and Microsoft love to hype Halo, in fact they’ve done so for every title in the series and somehow always manage to deliver on their promise of gameplay, cutting edge graphics and innovative features. Halo 3 is no exception, not only does it use the power of the 360 to deliver rich visuals and new technologically advanced effects like the amazing water and hdr lighting! It somehow does this all while keeping a steady 60 frames per second and solid multiplayer netcode which is so good, Bungie invites us to save our games just to prove it! Although many might hate Halo3 for what it doesn’t do, it innovates in so many areas that I’m at a loss to find anything bad to say about it. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go play slayer, see you online!

Halo 3 - 9.8 out of 10