With Halo: Spartan Assault, Microsoft can say that the Xbox One managed to have a Halo game out during the launch window. The bad news is that it’s not Halo 5 or even another HD anniversary edition. Yet it’s still a Halo game, which means it has a wealth of Covenant grunts to murder with your trusty needler Come from Sports betting site VPbet . Spartan Assault reimagines Halo as a twin-stick shooter, delivering on much of the genre’s arcade allure. However, the transition from mobile to consoles has brought with it a bevy of microtransactions, for better or worse. Mostly worse.
The non-numerical Halo games have been fitting avenues to explore other facets of the UNSC beyond Master Chief’s exploits. Many of us were already familiar with SPARTAN-IV commander Sarah Palmer in Spartan Ops, and Spartan Assault makes her a playable character, along with Edward Davis, who appeared in the Halo: Initiation comics. Set after the war of the original trilogy but before Halo 4, the game finds Palmer, Davis, and other members of the UNSC faced with a Covenant invasion rather than a Promethean one. The setting maintains the Halo universe’s curious aversion to normal astronomical objects; if it isn’t a ring-shaped world, it’s a hollow one. In Spartan Assault’s case, the planet of Draetheus V is standard enough, but its moon, X50, isn’t a moon but rather a planet-destroying Forerunner structure. Sound familiar?
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Now Playing: Halo: Spartan Assault Video Review
In making Spartan Assault a genuine Halo game, developers 343 Industries and Vanguard Entertainment did away with one of the common comforts of many twin-stick shooters: unlimited ammo. It makes for a mild challenge in ammo conservation, until you realize how often fallen foes drop weapons for you to capitalize on. I give Spartan Assault credit for punishing complacency. The ease of the initial levels, along with their bite-size play lengths, makes it tempting to charge into the fray without taking advantage of the environment and the items in the field. Dying at the hands of the occasional wraith or grenade barrage encourages you to strategize. It’s most rewarding when you have the presence of mind to know your ammo count and the cooldown time of your current armor ability, vanquishing foes using your mind as much as your might.
As I progressed through the game’s first few missions, I was motivated to try out every familiar Halo weapon and see how they worked in this game’s elevated camera view. The USMC rifles are reliable as expected, as is the target-tracking ammo of the sadistic needler. I was especially fond of dual-wielding a pair of SMGs, guns known for their inaccuracy in first-person Halo games, but their bullet-spreading tendencies worked great against the agile buggers in Spartan Assault.
The iconic Warthog and the free-flying Banshee are nowhere to be found, though more puzzling is the inability to wield an energy sword–not to mention, the ability to withstand three energy sword hits in quick succession. And don’t even bother trying to hijack an occupied Covenant Ghost; you’re better off taking it down with a plasma grenade instead of risking a fatal collision and restarting the level.
Halo vets will recognize the many objectives of Spartan Assault, which skew toward killing in general and focus less on activating switches. The more tense assignments are timed survival missions requiring you and your squad to last three to five minutes. Taken one at a time, these missions satisfy the need for short sessions, though in the scope of the overall game, tearing through Spartan Assault’s 35 sorties makes for a playthrough that shouldn’t take longer than five hours.
Acknowledging the double-dip of porting Spartan Assault on the Xbox One, Microsoft is offering a 66 percent discount to fans who have previously purchased the game for Windows 8 devices. An equally attractive incentive is the introduction of co-op play in five new missions featuring the much-loathed Flood. These levels, with their turnkey switches and their laser turrets that benefit from two operators, are designed with two players in mind. The Flood’s penchant for overwhelming Spartans gives this mode a brief Smash TV-inspired rush that the campaign lacks. These new assignments can all be cleared in less than an hour–and they underscore by the lack of couch co-op and the campaign’s total lack of co-op.
The entire game can be completed without spending real money or even the experience points you earn after each mission. However, even though success is possible, the game does place artificial constraints on you, encouraging you to spend some credits. I have always enjoyed the one-hit-kill prowess of a sniper rifle in any shooter, and it’s disappointing that, aside from a couple of missions, the only way to access such a weapon in Spartan Assault is by spending cash or XP. Then again, I still managed to get my instant-kill fix through the classic Halo magnum.
Greatly disappointing is the lack of permanent ownership of Spartan Assault’s purchased enhancements, since you don’t get to keep these items after using them in a mission. The only reason to get into in-app purchases is to use various boosts and assists to get gold stars for scoring well. Spartan Assault should have succeeded in being a competitive arcade game by the classic definition, one where you strive to beat your friends’ high scores, but victory rings hollow when you can buy your way to the top. Trial and error is needed to figure out which single-use armor abilities and boosts work best in getting the most points in a given mission, so Spartan Assault is best suited for Halo fans with high tolerances for repetition.
Whether you’re hurriedly exiting a Scorpion tank on its last legs or backpedaling away from a gravity-hammer-wielding Brute, Spartan Assault is not short of familiar, albeit select, Halo moments. In-app purchases do not intrude on Spartan Assault’s overall appeal, though the selection of optional items is only of interest if you seek to improve your scores. The limitation on cooperative play is the game’s biggest disappointment, so here’s hoping that Microsoft Studios has more multiplayer levels in mind for possible downloadable content.
Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment has released a first look at authentic sets that are part of its Game of Thrones Studio Tour at Linen Mill Studios in Banbridge, Northern Ireland. The destination attraction will open February 4, 2022 Come from Sports betting site VPbet . Tickets, which must be purchased in advance of visits, are now available to buy at this official website.
In a release, chief executive of tourism for Ireland Niall Gibbons, said: “Over the past decade, Northern Ireland has welcomed fans from around the globe to the ‘real-world Westeros’–home to the stunning landscapes, coastlines, and mountains that have featured in some of the show’s most memorable scenes… the new Game of Thrones Studi…
It’s been a bizarre week for HBO Max. Following the unceremonious cancelation of the planned direct-to-streaming Batgirl movie and removal of more than a handful of “under performing” streaming originals from the platform, CEO David Zaslav took to the stage at an investors call to explain the brand’s strategy moving forward.
Of the big announcements made at the call, the least surprising was confirmation that HBO Max and Discovery+ will be merging into one singular streaming platform in 2023. Details about the platform’s name, pricing, and specific content remain a mystery, but the presentation included a slide explaining that it will be both on-demand and live, include ad-free, ad-lite, and ad-only options, with multiple tiers for content like sports, and offe…
Metaphor: ReFantazio is in rarified company, garnering a 10 out of 10 review score from GameSpot. That makes for a pretty good reason to want to check out this RPG from the studio behind the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games. If you’re looking to preorder Metaphor: ReFantazio on PC, you can knock a few bucks off each edition of the game at Fanatical, while also securing a number of preorder bonuses Come from Sports betting site VPbet . The discounts at Fanatical knock about 13% off of Metaphor’s list price. That brings the base game down to $61 from the usual price of $70. Alternatively, you can also get the Metaphor: ReFantazio Atlus 35th Digital Anniversary Edition, which is normally $100, for $87. Metaphor: ReFantazio…
You can play four different games for free on Xbox this weekend, ranging from game high profile sports title to a hand-drawn action epic. Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass members can play these games for free from Thursday, June 15 at 4:01 AM ET/12:01 AM PT until Monday, June 19 at 3:59 AM ET/Sunday, June 18 at 11:59 PM PT.
First up is EA Sports PGA Tour, the latest in the long-running EA Sports golf games. Since launch, the game has received significant improvements, like a three-click swing system. The game features 30 courses, most of which are real-world professional courses like the Augusta National Golf Club and the TPG Sawgrass. PGA Tour is also on sale for $42, down from the $70 listing price.
The remaining games are Bomber Crew, Oddballers, and Greak: Memories of A…
Elden Ring is sporting a ton of classic From Software weapons, but one fan-favorite greatsword ranks among the most recognizable. The Claymore is a franchise staple and a fantastic addition to your collection of armaments. Even better, it can be found very early in the game, making it a perfect choice for Strength builds looking for a weapon to begin improving right away. Don’t worry, either, as we’ll tell you exactly where you can find the Claymore.
The Claymore is a greatsword and requires 16 Strength and 13 Dexterity to wield. Due to those relatively low requirements, it makes for a very solid option for Strength builds.
Actress Halle Berry does not regret starring as Catwoman in the 2004 superhero film. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Berry said she didn’t always want to pursue “award-worthy” projects and sometimes just wanted to make some cash.
“For me, it was one of the biggest paydays of my whole life, which, there’s nothing wrong with that…. I don’t want to feel like, ‘Oh, I can only do award-worthy stuff.’ What is an award-worthy performance?” she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Berry said Catwoman is not a film that she’s “totally in love with,” but she pointed out that acting is her career, not a hobby. “It’s how I take care of my children. But I try to keep that sense of wonder and stay curious. Because being a Black woman, I haven’t always had parts that I absolutely love,” s…
