Re-freshing

Being in your second year at university is like being a year 8. You've behaved and been a goody two shoes throughout year 7 (for the best part anyway) but now you can look down on the new young ones with a self inflated pride and air of experience.

You've completed a first year whether you did well and have come back as a second year, or you flunked and had to retake, you've already done it once.

So a second year at uni is like being a year 8...

Laughing at them in their pristine uniform with perfectly buttoned shirt and correctly knotted tie...

Becomes...

Laughing at them as they decide to climb the 200 odd steps up Jacob's Ladder in Falmouth just to be greeted by a very disappointing pub at the top; or watching them constantly falling over in a drunken state at the first pub or bar of their night out.

You can drink your pure ethanol and gloat as you stare down at the babies sipping their warm milk and nervously giggling as they are surrounded with people they don't know...Okay that's a little too much exaggeration.

Being a fresher is a nerve shaking experience. Yes, nerve shaking. And with Falmouth being overloaded with new students this year town was absolutely rammed to say the least.

However, as you can see I've stuck to one of the points I mentioned in my first post and rambled like no one business. So let's get down to the metaphorical business.

Me and a beautiful collection of people consisting of 3 of my 4 housemates and my wunderba (German for wonderful for those less educated) girlfriend Alice headed out into Falmouth to see how the Fresher's were finding it. Well they'd found it and were literally everywhere. Every bar was packed. Remedies (an average club) was just full to the brim with white shirted Freshmen and women. Our plan was to enjoy our evening with some casual binge drinking, maybe a chunder or two but instead found ourselves crotch to crotch with newbies in a noisy, sweaty, UV lit club.

Re-freshing isn't all it's made out to be.

As an aside to everything I've just chucked on to the computer screen, check out a epicly nerdy, but course helping, review I've written for my student magazine, Flex*.

*Not a gay magazine...

"Personally I never really took Halo seriously. I would use it as a simple alternative to the anger and frustration caused by anyone and everyone that played Call of Duty 4 online. I’d often find myself resorting to pile-driving a warthog into one enemy and a significantly large proportion of my own team just to calm myself after being 0 and 11 within two minutes of a Team Deathmatch, just for a brief moment of multiplayer sanity.

However, Halo Reach is in a league of its own. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy the thrill of betraying a team mate but I’d happily quit using Halo as a multiplayer whore and play it for the superb game that it really is.

Bungie hasn’t really made any huge alterations to the gameplay. The controls are pretty much identical to the other Halo titles and the general feel of the game echoes its predecessors. Nevertheless, there are the odd tweaks here and there that really make Reach stand out against any other Halo title. The sound and graphics are just beautiful. However, if I’m going to pick out one tiny detail it would be the horribly stereotypical English accent one of the characters has. Just goes to show the American’s are not our biggest fans.

Nevertheless, the numerous pros certainly outweigh the minuscule cons. The addition of class choices, such as being able to deceive your opponents with a hologram, really improves the overall multiplayer online experience. The multiplayer lobby has been given an entire revamp and looks absolutely incredible especially when compared to the standard and basic lobby of Halo 3. The inclusion of daily and weekly challenges gives the avid online gamer the opportunity to not only have fun “pwning noobs” but also gives them a sense of achievement at the same time.

Finally, the playlists include an almost endless variety of game modes from the good old fashioned Team Slayer, SWAT and Snipers to new modes such as Stockpile and Elite Slayer. This keeps the experience fresh even if you’ve logged one hundred days of playing time.

The campaign is definitely the highlight of Halo Reach. The ability to go it alone or team up with a friend is something I believe all first person shooters should adopt.

Of course it starts off slowly with a tutorial style first mission just to get the first timers used to the controls and style of play. Yet, from then on the pace of the story picks up with your character being rushed from mission to mission through all kinds of environments including one where you can kill the indigenous ostrich looking species. Not that I’m endorsing any kind of animal cruelty.

The campaign is the longest for the Halo series and although it could be perceived as a drag, the overall variety of the missions increases the longevity and keeps your eyes well and truly fixed on the screen.

Overall, if I was asked to describe this game in three words I’d have to say epic, epic and epic. It is most definitely a must buy and I could even go as far as saying one of the games of the year."

If you've made it this far then give yourself a hearty pat on the back. I'm not going to do it for you and no one else is either.

Finally, check out Oli's blog-post today. It's all scientific.

http://www.olihaydon.com/page2.htm