The image above is sadly my XBox 360 that died yesterday. So I called up Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX (469-9269) and they are now sending me a box, which I am guessing is going to be my 360's coffin. But at least this gives me less excuses on procrastinating things such as school work.

I was loading up Turok for the 360 so I could try and finish it on Inhuman difficulty when my XBox froze and I got the Red Lights of Death. So since I have completed the story mode once and played multiplayer for a while, I thought I would compare Turok for the XBox 360 against the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter.

Turok has never really had a good in game story going for it. For the Nintendo 64 version, if you wanted to know why you were chasing this guy and killing these soldiers and Dinosaurs, you basically needed to read the comic books. The new Turok starts out with a pretty lame story of Turok being an outcast in his new squad for what he did in Wolf Pack. The story gets better as you go, but only a little. If you are a major story buff, then Turok probably isn't the best game for you.

Where the new Turok excels is the knife combat. I played through the single player doing most of my kills with the knife, especially when fighting the dinosaurs. The bow and arrow has also been greatly improved. The knife and bow and arrow were almost pointless in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter after the first level, but the new Turok is a little more lacking in the cool futuristic guns.

Another huge improvement over the original Turok was that I could actually beat the game without having to turn on codes, and that is partially to the shock damage similar to Call Of Duty 2, 3, or 4. It was really nice not having to explore for thirty minutes trying to find health before I move onto the next area. But I do miss the platform experience that Turok:Dinosaur Hunter had, the new Turok seems like it is to straight forward, absolutely no exploring.

The multiplayer is alright, it has almost a Gears of War feel, but it's not really the same. The knife kills seem a little off on timing and I have never been able to finish a 6v6 match, the lag is always so bad that everyone quits. But the free-for-alls is where I had the most fun. Again the most enjoyable part were knife kills where you could hear the person cursing as they watched the knife go in their head.

Overall, I enjoyed this game, but I have been a Turok fan since the release of the first one, sure the series kinda took a turn for the worst for a while. This new Turok brings the game back to good standings. I suggest downloading the demo and giving it a try, if you enjoy the demo, that is the basic feel for the entire game.

First, let me start out by saying this simple. I do not appreciate it when people post their names being links to websites that are pornography or have links to pornography. To me, this is unacceptable and I consider it spam. If I must result to it, I can, and will block your IP address and your e-mail. Any posts like this will be removed so don't waste your time. I keep this site clean for a reason. Thank you.

Now onto the post.

The Orange Box is a must have, especially if you don't own any of the Half-Life 2 series. For the single price, you get Half-Life 2, Half-Life: Episode 1, Half-Life: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. I own Half-Life 2 on the PC, but none of the others, but it also gave me a chance to play through the game trying for the achievements. Not to mention, it's one of those games that every time I go back and play it, I am amazed at the physics and the amount of detail that went into the game. The achievements are a nice balance of fairly easy because you get them as you go along as well as some that really make you search and dig into the game.

Episode 1 takes over where you left off in Half-Life 2 and I feel they went a little more into the history of everything and helped me get to know Alex a little more. Alex is one of those well designed characters that helps the game move along. But Episode 1 feels almost like it's “the beginning of the end,” the point where humanity (and ally aliens) begin to reclaim what was once theirs.

Episode 2 I have not completed just quite yet, but all I can say is I am not a big fan of the acid Antlion, they are quite a bit more difficult to deal with than a regular one.

Portals is based off a game created by college students called Narbacular Drop, the students are now part of the Valve team and they created Portals. The concept behind the game is bringing new ways of playing through the idea of portals and physics. It is basically one giant puzzle, starting out simple by placing a box on a button, up to some pretty cool flying maneuvers.

And unfortunately, I have not played Team Fortress yet either, I have been a busy busy man. I am doing a lot at work, and a lot for work out side of work. Not to mention I will be getting my first BS degree in March so I am pretty busy with school too. But when all the busyness is over, I have a few ideas that I have put on the back burner that I would like to do. One of them is a piece of software that may or may not be open source, but one thing is for sure, it will be free; the other is a new web site I have been thinking about, but I don't know if I want to do it yet or not.