Even though I am on University Holidays I still have assignments to do so I haven't been able to play, watch and read as much as I would have liked to lately. So I've got a few games, movies and comics building up around the place that I haven't had a chance to read or play enough to do a proper review. Since I won't be reviewing them just yet I thought I'd at least let you know what I've got and what my first impressions are.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2- I got this two weeks ago and so far have probably only been able to spend and hour or two playing it. Basically you control a team of four Marvel Superheroes as you play through one of the biggest storylines in Marvel history, the Marvel Civil War. Firstly they have taken huge liberties with the original comic book story. They have only kept the basic plot points, the government demands super heroes unmask and register and there are those who support it (Iron Man) and those who are opposed (Captain America) but that's about it. I think the idea is if the story interests you enough in the game then you'll go out and buy the comic. The game looks ok, nothing too special while combat is quite simple but fun as you have a huge variety in powers and abilities due to the varied cast of Marvel characters and the combo powers where you team two characters powers together look pretty damn cool. The game has some nice touches like Gambit, who famously charges playing cards with energy to make them explode, charging everything he picks up in the game whilst Thor is able to pick up heavier things than Gambit can because he is stronger. I'm really looking forward to playing as some of the villians in the game to see if they are any different to the heroes.

Halo 3: ODST- Yes I got this on the day of release but no I wasn't one of those hardcore fans who got it at midnight on Monday. So far I haven't had much time with the campaign, where you play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper instead of Master Chief. Instead I've been focusing my time around Firefight mode. It was probably the thing I was most excited about with this game but I'll have to say this, I'm a little disappointed. It is an extremely fun mode to play but I keep finding myself comparing it to World at War's Nazi Zombies as I never really played Gears of War 2's Horde mode, which I admit is probably the better comparison. In Zombies things seem a lot more unique; new enemies, new weapons, power ups and new maps. Firefight on the other hand is still the same weapons, on the same maps from the campaign with the same enemies. I was just expecting something a little more unique. I still thoroughly enjoyed it and the inclusion of vehicles in the maps is great as they provide a huge challenge and playing with four friends is key as the mode requires a lot of strategy for you to be successful as it can be damn hard. Graphically the game isn't much different from Halo 3 but then again that is still a hell of a lot nicer looking than some of the other games on the 360.

Halo Helljumpers- While the big video game releases start to build up there have also been some big comic book releases, at least in my opinion. One of these releases is the five part Marvel series Halo Helljumpers. Based on the special Orbital Drop Shock Troopers who are also the focus of Halo 3 ODST, coincidence I think not, it takes place early in the war between the humans and the Covenant. At this stage not much is known about the Covenant, they just glass a human world and move on and the Spartan project is still being developed. So far I have two of the eventual five issues and hopefully I'll pick up the third one soon. I'm probably going to review the whole series in one go even though I've read the first two issues. The first impressions are very good though. The art work by new artist Eric Nguyen is just brilliant, it's focused around greys, browns, greens and blacks mostly but then uses a really dark red and bright blue for blood which really stands out. The story is also shaping up nicely combining a good dose of action with a very interesting mystery surrounding the Covenant as a whole and the mission the ODST's have been sent on. I am definetley looking forward to how this series ends.