Ok, so I've now ran through the Campaign three times by myself ( Easy, Normal, and Heroic), and played one or twin games of Firefight.

Overall... I like it better than Halo 3. The overall plot is neat, but ultimately not too satisfying in the long run, as it really doesn't help with the eventual plot lines ( and yes I know about the Legendary ending).

The new SMG was ok... For certain things. They really made you switch out weapons a lot, by making the Human weapons, like the SMG or Pistol great... against unshielded enemies. But they were horrible against Brutes who still had their shields, or things being boosted by an Engineer.

That being said, the Pistol being able to headshot enemies was fantastic. But it is even worse at lowering shields than the SMG. You're just wasting your ammo.

The Assault Rifle, still nerfed like it was in Halo 3, was pretty much useless. The only thing good about it was the max amount of ammo you could have... Making you choose between it, or the SMG with the scope. And considering they shove the SMG down your throat in the weapon Cache's, chances are that is what you will use.

The lack of the Battle Rifle kind of irked me... But considering how cheap the game is with human ammo ( unless you frequent the cache's), I can see it probably not being needed.

The Sniper Rifle was nerfed quite a bit here... only able to carry 24 rounds ( including clip), and to take out a shielded brute, you are required to fire 2 shots... Even if the first was a head shot. Bullets still go through bodies and shields though.

The Rocket Launcher, like always, is powerful and totally satisfying when you blow up an entire patrol with one shot.

The Spartan Laser... Is the most powerful weapon in the game, hands down. But considering you can only get it on a few select missions, pretty much means you don't need it unless there are Wraiths. And that is what it is pretty much made for... Because it's a one hit kill

The Flame Thrower is pretty much the same deal... Only ever found it once though... And even then my friend got it, so I haven't got the kill achievement yet... I always forget about it. It's a fun little weapon anyway

On the flip side of the Human SMG and Pistol, the Covenant plasma weapons were the opposite. They drained shields so easily, but take a bit to take a unshielded target down. The Plasma Pistol we expected, thanks to the charge ability, but even firing it normally, it still worked well. The Plasma Rifle however takes the cake for best way to drain shields. A second or two burst of plasma is all you need.

The Spiker seemed pretty useless overall, and seemed to act more like a SMG. Kind of crappy against shields, but prety good against unshielded.

The Needler was pretty awesome, keeping with how they brought it back to glory in Halo 3. One full round of needles will set off the chain reaction and blow your target up from the inside. Even when still shielded.

The Beam Rifle... Is pretty much the same as it was in Halo 3... Except like the UNSC Sniper Rifle, you can't headshot a shielded brute.

The Carbine remained to be without a doubt, the BEST weapon in the game. It can headshot unshielded enemies, has the 2x scope, and it drains shields like crazy too. From an 18 round clip, you can easily clean up an entire patrol of 3-4 grunts and 1-2 brutes. Just be damned good at head shots.

I found I also used Grenades a lot more in ODST than I did ever previously. Sometimes when your stuck with a SMG and you've got Brutes to deal with, sometime a Plasma, Spike or Incendiary grenade is all you need. The Human grenades are good too, but they are for tossing into groups from a distance. The other 3 either stick, or explode on impact. But all are quite fun ( Good thing you can't smell what's going on in the game... Burnt monkey fur probably wouldn't smell well.)

There are 5 kinds of turrets in the game... 3 that you can pull off and carry, and 2 that are much too big. Back again are the Human Chaingun and Covenant Plasma Turrets. Added to the mix is a missile launching turret, that is only available on one stage... It can't attack soldiers... But works damn fine on Banshee's and Phantoms. The other two, are the Gauss Turret and the "Pod" Plasma Turret. Both of them are stuck to the ground and cannot be removed. Like Halo 3, if you find a Turret, either use it, or grab it. They still don't require you to drop a weapon, and are more powerful than their smaller brethren, so always worth a pick up.

The only thing that kind of bugs me about the game, is that Bungie has always said " You aren't the Master Chief. You aren't wearing some high tech armor with shields"... And yet, they gave us "Stamina". A regenerating damage buffer before our health bar starts to drop. But really, I am kind of glad they didn't go with the Armor and Health route that some games do ( Doom, FEAR), so I may bitch, but I need it

Thankfully though, it doesn't absorb nearly as much damage as the energy sheilds in previous games did, so I guess you can kind of gauge it that way... Since you are slower, and weaker than a Spartan/Elite as well.

To put it simply, the "Stamina" shield strength, in comparison to Halo: CE seems to work like this:

ODST Easy = Halo CE Normal
ODST Normal = Halo CE Heroic
ODST Heroic = Halo CE Legendary
ODST Legendary = Not much of a buffer at all

Overall though... I'm having a great time with ODST. Despite my few gripes, it really feels like a big hug from Bungie to Halo fans. I just need to get my team together to play some legendary campaign, and then spend hours upon hours playing firefight!

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Commissions are still up, if anyone is interested. I certainly had an interesting time with the ones I did get.

The Rules:

- Right now, I am only going to be accepting Chibi designs.

- I will do custom characters, but I do require references if they are available. The more references available, the better.

- I PREFER Mecha... But willing to do other subjects... Except Furries. I can't stand furries.

- At the moment I will only be accepting payment through paypal.

- I reserve the right to deny/cancel/refund any project that at my discretion.

- Only one commission per person, at a time.

- Commission requests are to be sent via NOTE, and must contain as much information as possible. If not, and I accept, you get whatever I put out... which is fine for some, but some may want specific pose's etc...

- These will be for DIGITAL work only... I work on my PC and do not plan on sending print outs via snail mail.

Prices:

Single Character Line Art - $5 US

Single Character Colored - $10 US

Additional Character (Like a mount or familiar) - $2 Line Art, $5 Colored

Prices ARE negotiable however, but once they are set, they are set. ( Things like FA Double Zeta would naturally cost more, where something like Mazinger Z can be pretty simple)

Commissions are OPEN

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Ongoing commissions

1. Available
2. Available
3. Available
4. Available
5. Available

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