When I received my copy of Halo: The Thursday War, I admit that I had very strong reservations about it. For those unaware, it's the second novel in Karen Traviss' Kilo-Five trilogy, and the first novel, Halo: Glasslands, was one I did not enjoy at all (reviewed here). Halo: Glasslands just got so much wrong, taking established canon and established characters and changing them for no reason at all, that I personally found the whole novel rather frustrating.
Not only was I disappointed with Halo: Glasslands, but many fans were as well, and a huge discussion thread appeared on the official Halo Forums debating it. I don't know if Traviss and 343 Industries took all the fan criticism to heart or if the plot development of Halo: The Thursday War was already planned out, but I'm relieved to say it's a significant improvement.
Picking up where Halo: Glasslands left off, Osman and the rest of Kilo-Five race back to Sangheilios to rescue Philips who's caught up in the beginning of the Sangheili Civil War. I'm very happy to say the Brute Gardeners rebel right in the first chapter and are dealt with, forcing Avu Med 'Telcam to move against the Arbiter prematurely. This grants ONI an opportunity to further manipulate events in their favour and provides Philips with the means to explore some Forerunner ruins with implications that lead into the story of Halo 4.
Meanwhile on Trevelyan, the renamed Forerunner Shield World once known as Onyx, an ONI scientist continues to study Jul 'Mdama, who himself searches for a way to escape the artificial world so he can warn his people about the human's manipulation.
The two primary locations in the book, Sangheilios and Trevelyan, feature very different tones as one deals with gritty war and combat while the other is all veiled calm and quasi religious reverence, but both focus heavily on Forerunner details and foreshadow much of the Didact and his role in Halo 4. On Trevelyan we also get to learn some very interesting new facts about the Huragok, which I personally found quite interesting.
We also get to read about the Infinity's maiden voyage, and see what it can really do as a ship built to dominate against the best the Covenant has to offer. We get to learn about the weapons it has, the Forerunner enhancements the ship has over other vessels in the UNSC fleet (both by design and bu addition courtesy of the Huragok), and the impact the vessel makes immediately on intergalactic politics.
Since Halo: Glasslands is published and canon, not everything can be changed or corrected in Halo: The Thursday War, but the novel is laid out in such a way to minimize the errors of the previous novel. For example, the Spartan-II's and Spartan-III's are completely absent, as is Chief Mendez, which is a very good thing as their lack of presence means the characters can't be changed any further. Established characters like Admiral Hood and the Arbiter are featured, however the former was never hugely developed in previous works (novels or games) and Traviss gets to really flesh him out and make him that much more real. The Arbiter is mentioned significantly but only appears sparingly, which I feel was a very smart move.
Traviss' core strength, in my opinion, has always been character development (not to make light of her military expertise), and she works best with new characters or ones she's created or guided from the beginning. Halo: The Thursday War plays up on that, whether it's the strong dynamic between the members of Kilo-Five to the back and forth between Parangosky and Hood, there's a lot of action in both the literal and figurative sense.
Having said that though, in recent years I've found she tends to get a bit too repetitive with character's empathy towards one another. One strong example from the novel would be Naomi-010's feelings dealing with the fact that her father is an insurrectionist, and while it's important and quite essential to explore this character dynamic, the nail gets hit on the head far too often. We know it's hard and that she finds it difficult to deal with but keeps her real feelings bottled up, and we know the other members of Kilo-Five find it hard in general and for her, but really, we don't need to be told or reminded as often as we do.
Despite that though, I must say that I did enjoy Halo: The Thursday War. It's not the strongest novel for the franchise and not Traviss' best work, but it's leaps and bounds beyond its predecessor and that gives me a great sense of optimism for the next novel in the series. If it improves over Halo: The Thursday War as much as Halo: The Thursday War did over Halo: Glasslands, then we'll be in for one heck of a treat. The novel leaves lots of very interesting questions to be answered, and I am looking forward to see just how things wrap up.
3) Dead Space: Catalyst. Dead Space is a great sci-fi horror game franchise, one that surprised and terrified me and of which I'm anxiously awaiting the third installment. The second novel for the franchise released this past year, entitled Dead Space: Catalyst, and follows two brothers, the troubled Istvan and his younger brother Jensi.
2) Halo: The Thursday War. There's no denying the power and entertainment value of the Halo franchise. Grand in scope and longevity, Halo has been a video game staple for well over ten years now and a driving force behind the Xbox brand. The novels for the franchise are generally top notch and excellent military sci-fi in their own right, however the first novel in the Kilo-Five trilogy, Halo: Glasslands, was such a disappointment that I was very concerned for the quality of the sequel.
1) Halo: Primordium. Halo fans have long since heard about the war between the Forerunners and the Flood, a war the Forerunners won but which resulted in the sacrifice of their species. With Halo: Cryptum, we finally got to witness the beginning of that conflict and to experience Forerunner culture at its apex, and its dissolution as the Forerunners are engulfed in civil war.
While 343 Industries might be new to developing games, they've actually been working on the Halo franchise and its expanded universe since the release of Halo 3. They've been slowly shaping the franchise in the direction they want it to go, building to Halo 4 with such novel series as the Forerunner Saga and the Kilo-Five trilogy (amongst other fiction), and everything to date culminates in this, their first game.
The Promethean's come in three variety's, the dog like Crawlers, the more traditional Knights, and the flying Watchers. Each fight in interesting ways and add a new dynamic to the overall gameplay; something quite welcome to the eleven year old franchise, though I honestly found they lack the variety offered by the Flood. The Crawlers are more of a nuisance than anything and provide a distraction for players. The Watchers fly over the battlefield in a support role, placing Hard Light Shields down in front of troops, catching player thrown Grenades and tossing them back, and resurrecting destroyed Forerunner troops. All in all this isn't a great challenge, but the Knights are where the real meat of the Prometheans lie.
Armour Abilities function very much as they did in Halo: Reach, with Sprint becoming a standard control function available at all times (finally!). Many of the usual staples, like Active Camo, Jetpacks, Hologram, etc. are there, as well as some new Abilities courtesy of the Forerunners. You can create an Autosentry, for example, which is the single most useful Armour Ability in the Campaign, and another new one would be the Hardlight Shield (sort of like a Jackal's shield but tougher). Some Armour Abilities are only available in Multiplayer, so let's talk about that.
One of my favourite game modes from the last two titles, Firefight, is completely absent from Halo 4. While I'm sad about this, it does feature a new Cooperative Multiplayer mode entitled Spartan Ops, in which new Episodes are available for download pretty much on a weekly basis. Spartan Ops is a sort-of story driven Cooperative experience with a cool cinematic that prefaces each new Episode, but the actual gameplay all boils down to your Spartan-IV blowing stuff up for good measure. Set six months after the conclusion of the Campaign, the Infinity is sent back to Requiem to investigate the planet and secure the technology there-in. They find Storm Covenant and Prometheans still present, allowing you and your buddies to clear them out while achieving or securing various objectives. There aren't Sets, Rounds, and Waves like in Firefight, and you basically find yourself clearing out different zones on a map as you progress forward. Ammo also seems scarce in Spartan Ops, and enemy dropped weapons disappear far too quickly for my liking, making dying and respawning the most effective way to replenish your ammo, which I find rather silly and removing from the modes tactical element.
The game's audio, however, is simply exceptional all around with solid voice acting and effects throughout. The Chief speaks far more in this title than in the original trilogy and it really helps to flesh out his character and provide him with some much needed personality, and some of the audio work as Cortana continues to decline into Rampancy is well done. I found the implementation of her Rampancy overall a bit cheesy and half-baked in the first half of the game, but it develops beautifully towards the end in a climax that I found very sad emotionally. 343 Industries re-did all the weapon and vehicle sounds from scratch, and most of them are great. It does irk me that some weapons I've been listening to for over a decade sound a bit different now, but again, it's not the end of the world. The game's musical score is also spot on and a nice departure from traditional Halo-themes. I find it grand yet sad at the same time, there's always a hint of sorrow to most of the tunes, and it fits the overall theme and mood of the Campaign very well.
Now, for those of you who purchased the Limited Edition of Halo 4 as I did, you get a bunch of physical and digital bonuses with the package. Each Limited Edition comes in a numbered case (each number is unique as far as I know) and the package design is beautiful and well crafted and closes magnetically. Needless to say I was very impressed with this case, and once you open it up, you're greeted to a nicely detailed Steelbook case containing both game discs, the first being a play disc and the second being a Multiplayer install disc which you only need to use once.
Although the official content has not yet been announced, one could assume that the content will most likely be the "Flashback map pack" announced by Naughty Dog not too long after the game's release.
"The Fort" map has been rendered to a dark, gloomy, and rainy experience.
1/08/2012 
Tim Swoboda 
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Posted in: Achievement Guide,Arkham City,Batman,Gaming,Trophy Guide,Tutorials 
This itself is nothing new when it comes to phones and the Chinese market, for as long as either of the two existed they have played their little game of "Monkey See- monkey Do", what makes GooPhone special is that they went that extra step and actually patented the deign of the GooPhone I5 in Chinese courts, and were approved! (keep in mind that the leaks were never patented, so GooPhone were the first to the office with their product)
Earlier today after months of teasing and waiting Microsoft have finally unveiled the pricing on their first ever Windows Hardware- the Surface Tab RT (not to be confused with the Surface Tab Pro- which will run the full version of Win8). The Surface RT wills tart st $499 for the 32Gb version, while the 64Gb goes for $599- Keep in mind that the 32Gb Surface is a $100 cheaper than the 32Gb iPad. The amazing covers will sadly NOT come with the product itself, selling for $120 and $130 for the touchcover and the keyboard respectively.
