This game has so many positive aspects it’s hard to put them all down, but let’s begin with the adaptability. That alone is why everyone should own this game. If we take a look at one of the stages, “Creature” for example, the player has a literally infinite number of combinations for how to make their character look, act, and survive. From the color of their skin to the legs, arms, eyes, mouths, claws, feet, noses, etc. available, the choices are sometimes harder than the editing process! But it doesn’t stop there. Let’s say we want put a pair of arms on our creature. We select the arms, place them on the body, and then change them to look however we want them to, including thickness, length, and size. If we skip ahead a little, vehicles and towers can also be created for civilizations. After you design your character, they walk, sound, and act the way you designed them to, so you always complete control. The game is played from a 3rd person view, and in the Space Stage you can zoom out enough to view you entire galaxy! The game is extremely complicated, but I love how user-friendly it is; a 5-year old could play it just as well as my grandparents. A player can decide if they want to move more towards certain types of gaming, like military, economic, peacekeeping, etc. Basically what you do is lead a character, a tribe, or an entire civilization through the evolutionary process. Deciding if your game technique should be aggressive, peaceful, or in-between, a player can enjoy any kind of game they want. For so much content, the quality is pretty good, and you have to remember that this game has more options in it than anything before it. It’s also very cheap, costing as little as $30. It is definitely one of the best games I’ve ever played.

Unfortunately, this game does have its downsides. I did mention slight quality inferiorities, compared to other more expensive games, but I believe that this is counterweighted by the game’s unbelievable customization abilities. At least on my old, crappy computer, the game definitely tended to lag, and occasionally the game would completely crash on me, erasing my unsaved progress. But I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem with a better computer. Also, it can be kind of frustrating when everything you do impacts your game’s future. For example, if your tribe was hostile and raided other tribes, millions of years into the future some galactic empires might not ally with you, because your civilization has that aggressive trait in it now. Or let’s say you blow up an enemy planet with an enormous bomb, just for fun; I found out later that things like that break the “Galactic Code,” so essentially I couldn’t ally with the biggest/toughest empire in the galaxy and “win.” The long-term aspect of the game ticked me off a little bit, cuz it takes a long time to get places with the program setup. But these aren’t huge problems for the game, especially when you weigh in the pros as well.

In short, Spore is a fully customizable, easily enjoyable game that is the first in its class to be both revolutionary and evolutionary. If you’ve ever wanted to make an avatar/spaceship/creature exactly the way you wanted it, go right ahead. The possibilities are mind-boggling, and when you combine them with a great story about the marvels of the universe, it can’t be beat. Spore really made me think about the endless grandeur of the cosmos, and how lucky we all are to be in it. Spore is the only game that ever really opened my eyes about the world we live in, the vastness of the universe, and how big of an impact we can have on it. Create what you want, when you want, how you want. Perfect.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Officially announced on February 11, 2009, the game was released worldwide on November 10, 2009. It is the sixth installment of the Call of Duty series, and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, continuing along the same storyline.

First Impressions-

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has gotten more hype than virtually any game ever released, and the midnight launch showed for all the hype. At my local Gamestop the lines were probably 3 times as long as the lines for the Halo 3 midnight launch, and they had booths with screens to play some of the game while you were waiting, along with a live DJ! When I started the game up, even the title screen got me excited to play this extremely hyped game. My brother wanted to play too, of course, so we decided to play some Spec Ops. The graphics were great, the gameplay was extremely fun, and the missions were actually very challenging, what more could you ask for. Also, they implemented a ton of new weapons into this game, along with new vehicles too! (Weapons list). My overall first impressions: This is a great game that any hardcore or casual gamer should most definitely play. It has all the components that make a great FPS (First Person Shooter), or any gametype for that matter. And for those of you who loved Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, this sequel will not disappoint. Try to imagine Call of Duty 4, but any problem you had with it fixed to perfection, yeah, its that good.

The Good-

It is really hard to pin point the good aspects of this game, as the whole game is really good. One thing that I found particularly good was the online play. Multiplayer in this game is incredibly fun, and it is challenging too. I cannot stand a game that isn’t hard, and this game definitely does not lack any challenge. Also, the amount of different types of weapons and vehicles keeps a never ending cycle of new adventures going throughout you experience. Another thing that I found really cool about Modern Warfare 2 was the third-person mode. This adds an extra twist to the game. Most games are either first-person or third-person, but they took it another step and just added both, fun! I have seen lots of people complain about how it is really unbalanced because as a low level it is hard to kill higher levels because they have better guns…DUH! Is that not the point of the game? What Infinity Ward really did is made it so there is a driving force that makes you want to play more…the higher level you get, the better guns you will get. Any RPG (Role Playing Game) style game will be like this, otherwise there is no point in leveling and gaining experience.

The Bad-

There is not a lot of bad in this game, but if I were to have to point out one bad thing, it would simply be that you can’t play online with more than one person per Xbox 360. This really sucks for me because I have 3 siblings, so we have to take turns when we want to play online. Also, the campaign is single player, and Spec Ops is only for 2 players per Xbox. It was the same way with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, so I really wasn’t expecting a change, but I would really have loved to see that change specifically, it definitely would make this game the perfect FPS. I have also heard a lot of complaints about the campaign being too short, but from what I have played, it seems really fun so far.

Overall-

Overall, with multiplayer, spec ops, campaign, split screen, and third-person mode, this game is awesome. I see no reason anyone would rate this game less than a 10 out of 10. The game is about as balanced as it can get without making it way too easy for anyone to kill anyone, regardless of rank. I was kind of disappointed about the one player per Xbox again, but that is just the smallest spec of dust on an otherwise perfect game.