Okay, so Black Ops multiplayer information has been released to the press worldwide. What now? Well, to decipher it (everybody already did that) here. There are a couple new additions to Black Ops multiplayer, but it's largely the same.

1) The addition of CP, or Call of Duty Points. Basically, on top of earning EXP, you earn CP. CP can be used in the new Wager modes (more on that later). But, another feature is the ability to purchase attachments, visual upgrades, and weapons long before they become available through the standard EXP system. What does this mean? If you like a certain gun but can't wait to unlock it, then you can simply buy it. However, the prices will most likely be sky high, so you'll need to do a little gambling on your part in order to win all.

2) Wager modes. 'Nuff said. Basically, there's a certain playlist chock full of these new Wager modes. You can put your money on the line as to who's better. If you bet that you're going to be first, why not throw down $5000 (since that's what everybody's going to call it anyways)? There are four Wager modes as of now, but more may be added later. Gun Gamehas everyone start out with a knife. Each kill rewards you with a better weapon, and you need to be the first to 20 kills. Thing is, each new weapon is COMPLETELY randomized, so you don't know what your getting next. Plus, a knife death detracts you one tier. Sharpshooterhas everyone start out with the same random weapon, and every 45 seconds it changes to another random weapon with a random attachment. One in the Chamber has everyone with a single pistol with a single bullet and three lives. That bullet kills instantly, but if you miss, you are forced to resort to melee attacks until your next kill. Sticks and Stoneshas everybody armed with the explosive tip crossbow, ballistic knife, and tomahawks. It's just an excuse for a gorefest. If you place in the top three, you win what you bet as well as a little extra.

3) There were challenges in old Call of Duty multiplayer (ever since 4). But now, Black Ops introduces contracts. Basically, if you find a contract you like (say, 25 SMG headshots), you sign up, but you must pay some CP. After you sign onto a contract, a time limit begins (since they're all timed). So, you might have to get those 25 SMG headshots within 24 hours. If you manage to pull it off, you can get a hefty boost in EXP, CP, or both. This should add a little incentive to actually completing all of them.

4) Finally, Create-a-Class 2.0. Not only do you get to outfit your gun with attachments and camos, you get to change your player model (similar to Vegas 2, but for however many classes you have), create an emblem for your gun (similar to Halo's emblem editor), and change the reticules of your laser/holographic based attachments. If you want your red dot sight/ACOG sight to feature a smiley face, go for it. Basically, it's kind of reminiscent of what Halo: Reach is trying to accomplish, but more attached to the gun than the character itself. Oh, and you can add clan tags etched onto the back of your gun.

Those are just about the gamebreaking changes implemented. Next week, I'll talk about the killstreaks in the game, as well as the different weapons, perks, and attachments.

This has been out for a while, but only the most dedicated Halo fans go to Bungie.net at least daily or every other day. Some people (erm, definitely not me) just spend their entire life on Bungie.net.

But, Bungie has announced campaign co-op matchmaking. Yaay! But no custom games matchmaking. Booo! I know. You just want that one Infection variant to be played by millions and then eventually put into matchmaking. But don't fret. You have this new File Share system that's going to make it easier.

Basically, you can add up to five tags to your File Share item, be it a screenshot, film clip, or game type. Then, it gets uploaded to Bungie.net. However, there's an in-game search engine that lets you search up those tags. So, searching for Awesome, Infection, and Mode, I'll get a ton of answers. But how do I know which one's the best. Well, you get to rate every item, so the best of the best will stay on top. I'm guessing there's filters, like highest rated, most downloaded, and by author. So, you get to track your creations in-game and see how they stack up against the world.

Also, Bungie announced Theater 2.0. I think I mentioned it somewhere here on my blog, as well as the Bungie forums. I feel so proud they've used my name, although considering that they called Firefight 2.0 and Forge 2.0 that, I really don't think I was all THAT influencing. But the new Theater mode allows you to rewind and record film clips IN ALL game modes, including Firefight and Campaign. That wasn't there before, but it is now.

So, this might be short. But that's okay. 16 days 'till launch. Which reminds me, I might start a countdown to the ultimate game of this year. In shooters.

Okay, I thought I had posted my Concepts portion of the blog, but apparently I didn't. I apologize to my fantasy viewers.

Kicking off, I'd like to talk about the various units in the game. Starting off with infantry, there'll be various variants of infantry. Talking only about the UNSC here, infantry units would include the standard riflemansquad, which is primarily comprised of four rifleman armed with the MA5 series assault rifle. The sniper squadis comprised of two people: one spotter and one sniper, which can engage enemies at a much longer range than other infantry squads, but lack the close up firepower for personal defense. The anti-air squadcan take down aircraft with their missile pods, and the anti-tank squadcan take out tanks with their rocket launchers. A grenadier squad, which is excellent at suppressing enemy infantry, is also available.

Which on a side note is one of the new gameplay mechanics. On top of a certain class killer (this unit excels at destroying vehicles), you also have class suppressions. So, the aforementioned grenadier squad can suppress any infantry advancements. Basically, you hold down the Y button for the tertiary ability, which is the suppression move, but can be swapped out for other tertiary abilities (more on that on a later date), and then the big circle comes up (the one used to select units). You then press A over the designated area and the selected unit(s) then move into position to cover and suppress that area. Any units that they are equipped to suppress will have a 70% chance of automatically falling back, and upgrades can be applied to either reduce your chances of falling back (active counter) or increase your chances of suppressing (passive counter). Moving through the suppression field will heavily damage the intended units, so any infantry moving through the grenadier squad's suppression field will sustain heavy damage unless they retreat immediately. Combining two or more squads into one suppression field increases the suppression capacity, so it's harder to pass through that field now. However, bypassing the suppression by bringing in non-suppressive units (such as vehicles passing through an infantry suppression zone) will cause little to no harm and can usually punch through without much delay. This creates an extra layer of strategy as you fall back, regroup with a friendly armored division, and then proceed through the suppression field once more.

Moving on, ground vehicles. You'll have tons of them. Without ground vehicles, you couldn't effectively provide an efficient task force for advancing through enemy lines. You'll need some form of ground support, basically. The first up is the Mongoose, which is considered a scout vehicle, which is a quick and nimble vehicle used to scout out enemy or unknown terrain as quickly as possible. Mongooses generally have no offensive firepower without upgrades (even then, it's rather inaccurate) and has low armor, so it's a top priority to get your Mongoose in and out. That way, you won't be spending a majority of your fund on scout vehicles, as well as getting the upper hand. The Warthog can be classified as a light attack vehicle, which has the machine gun to mow down infantry as well as inflict moderate aerial vehicle damage. A neat feature to be added into the game is the ability to select the loadout of various vehicles and units. For the Warthog, you can choose to mount the machine gun (for heavy infantry and moderate aircraft damage), Gauss cannon (for heavy vehicle damage), missile launcher (for heavy aircraft damage), troop carrier (to ferry troops to the frontlines), and any other possible variants I might've missed. The Scorpion would be considered the main battle tank, and is what defines land assaults. One of these babies can punch straight through enemy defenses without major harm. Just make sure it doesn't get itself into an ambush otherwise you're in a hairy situation. The Cobra is considered mobile artillery, as it can lock down and fire on targets from nearly across the map. The Wolverine is called the mobile AA platform, as it can shoot down aircraft with ease. It can also use the suppressive ability to suppress a certain region of the sky. The Elephant is a dedicated troop transport, and can ferry up to multiple squads, as well as lay down some heavy suppressive fire.

You might've caught me use the word ferry, and basically for vehicles that apply, you can choose to replace the suppressive tertiary ability with the ferry ability. This allows the said vehicle to meet at said rally point. When you send a squad to the rally point, it immediately hops on and the ferry then moves to the designated drop location (which can be changed accordingly). Different vehicles have different carrying capacities. The Troop Hog, for example, can only ferry one squad at a time, but a Pelican can ferry up to three, and the Elephant up to five.

Aircraft is aplenty in the Halo universe. The Falconis an aerial troop transport and can ferry troops. It has dual machine guns, ideal for taking on entrenched infantry and soft skinned vehicles. The Pelican (which should now be a unit) is also an aerial troop transport, but with the loadout ability, it can turn into a light gunship, similar to modern day Apache helicopters. It can be fitted with dual rocket pods and an undermounted machine gun. The Hornet is a light attack bird, or can be called the light airborne attack vehicle, having enough firepower and decent armor. The Hawk, an upgrade, can be considered amoderate airborne attack vehicle, since it is armed with laser firepower. The Vulture can be considered a heavy gunship, since it can rain down death with its powerful cannons and rocket pods.

The loadout ability is a little something something that should be added into the game for versatility. Basically, when you're in the circle menu and you hover the cursor over the unit (so you've highlighted it), you can then press Y to bring up the loadouts panel (if applicable) where you can change the armament or total tactical usage. The Pelican, for example, can ditch the troop bay for ammunition storage, which then turns the Pelican into a dedicated gunship.

Finally, space vehicles, should space combat work flawlessly. The corvettesare light scout ships for both factions. The corvettes are quick and nimble, but cannot sustain much damage. Frigatesare mainline space ships, not ideally armed for massive combat on their own. They are the equivalent of a frontline soldier. Carrierscan carry multiple units (as mentioned in the space combat portion of the Concepts blog, units are deployable units from your space ship, allowing you to conduct operations with smaller vessels, such as Longswords and sending Shortswords and Pelicans into the atmosphere of a planet for operations there. Destroyersare massive ships and can sustain quite a bit of damage. They favor heavy firepower over protection. Cruisersare massive ships as well and favor heavy protection over firepower, but by no means are they weak on the offensive side. Of course these are the general classes, as there are more in-depth ones, such as assault carriers, light frigates, different classes of cruisers, etc.

That should give you a rough idea of the amount of units to be available in Halo Wars 2, counting space vessels. For the UNSC, there are approximately 30 units that I can think off the top of my head from the Halo lore that fit these unit classifications. Count the Covenant in, as well as the space bound support vessels, such as the Sabre, Longsword, and Shortsword, that should easily round out the total unit variety to 70. There's still room for more too. Plus, any infantry variants haven't been thought of.

Next update, you should expect my explaining in-depth the new features I listed here (suppression, tertiary abilities, ferrying, and loadouts), as well as some look into the control scheme, and maybe even the Covenant perspective on things. Stay tuned!

I've rewritten the title so it looks more professional. Yeah, I went there. And it's been a week since I last posted (I think), so sorry. But, I just totally forgot about it. I might reconsider doing that game concepts thing I did a while back with Halo Wars 2, this time finishing it with a bunch of new units and gameplay endeavors.

But, the main focus of this is Halo: Reach. I just want to update a couple stuff. First things first, Bungie released a new ViDoc called "A Spartan Will Rise". Basically, it's a renewed copy of the Desperate Measures ViDoc from ODST. It introduces you to the characters and a little bit on the story and some campaign action. So, Noble One is Carter, the leader of the group. He kinda reminds me of Sergeant Forge from Halo Wars (at least in the world premiere he did). Noble Two is Kat, the technical specialist of the group. Along with Carter, she is the only remaining member of the original Noble Team. Noble Three is Jun, this Asian sniper. He's like Romeo, sports a ghillie suit, and accompanies you on the mission Nightfall. Noble Four is Emile, otherwise known as the bad*ss of the group. Even more than a Spartan-II. He has a skull carved onto his visor, reminiscent of Ghost in Modern Warfare 2. He sounds like Cole from Gears of War though, and has a shotgun and a grenade launcher, signifying explosives expert. Noble Five is Jorge, the Spartan-II and heavy weapons specialist. Noble Six is you, and is like the Master Chief of Spartan-IIIs.

Okay, so you got characters covered. There's a couple other characters you might want to note. The one narrating is Dr. Catherine Halsey, otherwise known as the creator of the Spartan program. She also created Cortana (so Cortana looks like here when she was young). She was speaking to Auntie Dot, an AI construct that presumably helps Noble Six or the entire Noble Team through their final missions. In the end, she makes a reference to the beginning of Halo 3, where Cortana mentions that she chose her Spartan, so Dr. Halsey is talking to Cortana, meaning you will see Master Chief somewhere in the campaign.

Now the little campaign snippets seen in the ViDoc. You saw a city being destroyed (even a couple buildings collapsing). You can see what a portion of a planet would look like glassed in the new Reach graphics. You saw the newly redesigned Scarab, which still looks oddly familiar to the Halo 3 one. Wonder why they didn't just use the Halo 3 Scarab in Halo 2. You can also see a breach-and-clear maneuver with Kat and Noble Six. You can see some of the civilian vehicles (especially that flatbed with Jorge on the back, turning it into a makeshift Warthog. You can see some green gas (maybe it's a vat of radioactive waste). You also see some on-rails sections. Nothing out of the ordinary. But it should be interesting for devoted Halo fans. And if you haven't learned from this ViDoc, this game will be EPIC.

Some side notes, you finally see the inclusion of the UNSC Army. You always fought alongside the UNSC Marines and UNSC Navy. Navy controls the big space ships you fly in, and Marines are on the ground troopers. You've fought alongside them from Halo CE to Halo Wars to Halo 3: ODST. You still fight alongside them here, but you also see UNSC Army soldiers. While the Marines conduct offensive operations (hence why they're deployed to attack Installation 05, Installation 00, and the Covenant held New Mombasa, the Army conduct defensive operations. Since Reach will be about the defense of a planet, it seems wise to place them here. While you will be defending certain strongholds alongside Army soldiers, you'll be thrown in the mix of attacks, so you got Marines as well. That explains why you're not using the MA5 series assault rifles (like the ones in the Halo trilogy), but instead using the MA37 Assault Rifle. Halo geeks, rejoice!

But there are a couple questions that remain unanswered from me. I'll ask them on the Bungie forums on a later date, but I might as well ask here and get my nonexistent viewers to do something.

Since you'll be able to create Forge spaces just about anywhere now, thanks to Forge World, are health packs Forge-able objects?

The player's integrity must be preserved, so your player model will appear in campaign, Firefight, Forge, custom games, and online matchmaking. Now that with 4-player co-op, I'm going to have four distinctly different Spartans running around, on top of the standard Noble Team. How has this been explained? In ODST, it wasn't and ruined the experience of being a lone detective.

Will you, Bungie, continue supporting this game with map packs and DLC content since you have a partnership deal with Activision? Or will that be left up to 343 Studios?

Will PFC Chips Dubbo also be a Firefight character. He's been with SSgt Pete Stacker throughout his journey and throughout Master Chief's journey as well? I'd like to have an Australian guy voice in Firefight.

Will Firefight voices be dependant on what gender you are? Like you can only pick female voices if you're a female Spartan.

Any new multiplayer modes besides the ones already seen in the beta?

Has Infection been revamped to give zombies a more, I dunno, zombie look?

What other new species have been introduced? The Skirmisher seems like a neat little break from the standard enemies, will there be multiple variants of the same species? Or will it be a big spoiler if you tell me? (P.S., don't tell me if it's going to spoil the surprise)

Any new vehicles and weapons that we can commandeer? Like the Pelican, Phantom, or Spirit?

Are any new vehicles going to be Forge-able objects? I've seen the Shade turret, so that possibly means the Deployable Lookout Towers are back as well. Will the above vehicles (Phantoms, Pelicans, and Spirits) be Forge-able? That'd make some interesting machinima moments.

What new changes have been made to Theater. Since there's Campaign 2.0, Firefight 2.0, Forge 2.0, and Multiplayer 2.0, there might as well be Theater 2.0.

That's about it for questions. I'll come back tomorrow (or possibly later today) with some more, possibly a continuation of Halo Wars 2 Concepts.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/29/florida.burn.quran.day/index.html

That link pisses me off. Why? Because this church in Gainesville, Florida, decides to endorse burning another religion's holy book. There's a lot of people, both Muslims and Christians alike, that aren't impressed by this move. This will cause global conflicts and worsen the situation between Muslims and Christians. This is to honor those that died on the terrible day of September 11. That wasn't even about religion. That was just an attack on society as a whole. Not Christians, but America.

And this dumb*ss church is deciding to host this event. They call Islam the "religion of the devil" without even providing any hard backed proof. They insist that "manyactions that we consider to be crimes are encouraged, condoned or sheltered under Islamic teaching and practice". Killing, kidnapping, genocide, assault, and vandalism are a few examples are crimes. None are encouraged by Islam. The priest probably hasn't even met a single Muslim in his life and is probably making these accusations.

The best part about it is what the mayor is doing to stop this. NOTHING. "I've got other things to do," he says. What's more important than stopping a possible global conflagration between the two largest religions in the world?! Mini golf? This hate has got to stop. This is a futile attempt to make the Muslims look bad as someone decides to retaliate back for what they've done to degrade their religion.

Please, stop. Violence isn't the answer, and neither is sparking some. I see enough people hating on Muslims, we don't need any more.

It's true. Xbox 360 has topped sales in July with the new Xbox 360 Slim. Plus, later this year, in September and November, you've got the Halo: Reach themed 360 and the Call of Duty: Black Ops 360 Slim coming, which will do nothing but boost sales of the Xbox 360 and even more broaden the sales gap between the 360 and the PS3. Then the big ticket titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Gears of War 3, Fable III, and Fallout: New Vegas will push that gap to the limits. Then Kinect, which should surely draw in more consumers, will even further the gap between Microsoft and Sony.

It just seems logical that the 360 will be the best selling console up until at least January next year. The PS3 doesn't have custom consoles, but quite frankly, it doesn't need them. It had LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3 and SOCOM 4 all coming out. Then again, even LittleBigPlanet sales couldn't compete with Fable II. I'm not a PS3 hater (I like the Blu-ray and better construction), but 360 will be the winner. 3DS might be able to top that, if it has an impressive line-up at launch. But right now, the 360 has everything the PS3 has, and a little more. Sony needs to consider the PS4 if they want to top charts again.

Hell, they could use Microsoft's own strategy against them. If they release the PS4 before everybody else, then Microsoft and Nintendo will be clambering to release their next-gen console. That is, unless Microsoft and Nintendo are already contempt with their sales figures and don't need to release another console or even handheld. 3DS and 360 S are shaping up nicely, and Sony needs to find a way to catch up.

So, if you've been listening to the gaming side of news, you know the most of the talent at Infinity Ward resigned or hopped on to the new Respawn Entertainment studio. Respawn Entertainment, this time not bound by the oppressive rulers called Activision, will finally be able to make a quality game without having talks about profits shoved down their throats.

But, Activision hasn't given up the fight yet. The rest of the people at Infinity (those who haven't been there from day one in 2002) are now being combined with a bunch of newcomers to save Infinity Ward. This is pretty much a totally new developer with the same name. They're making Modern Warfare 3 as well as other franchises.

Look at it this way. This developer Infinity Ward is now riddled with people who have only been involved with making games for a short while, like 3-4 years. They've never been in a leadership position, and now have no one to mentor them. This is a newbie company. Respawn has all the major talent from Infinity Ward and will be making good games, no doubt. Infinity Ward will ultimately fail with Activision's attempt to "get them to rise from the ashes". That in turn will make every Call of Duty game unbearable and the franchise will fail.

There's still that one percent chance that Infinity Ward will succeed, but that chance will still end up with a decent game. Only the most purest of luck will make Modern Warfare 3 an instant hit. That, or a lot of bribes (ahem, ahem, Activision).

So, let's see exactly how this unravels. Your money on Infinity Ward or Respawn Entertainment?

I had never heard of the Call of Duty franchise, and if I did, I immediately related it to the Medal of Honor franchise since they were both World War II shooters. Then my friend told me to get Call of Duty 4, which I did, and I immediately fell in love (not literally, 'cause I'm not weird like that or anything). Then I saw World at War coming out, and I thought they had done nothing new, which I was right about. And then Modern Warfare 2, which still had nothing new.

So, I technically haven't been excited about a Call of Duty game pre-release, but it seems Black Ops is changing that. I mean, there's a lot of stuff interesting me, but it's mostly, if not all, self-contained in the campaign.

I mean, for one, no one's really attempted a Cold War campaign. Battlefield did Vietnam, but that was still primarily multiplayer. And now, for the first time in history, a major title is focusing on the Cold War. There's Rockstar's new PS3 exclusive Agent, but I mean, this is Call of Duty, one of the biggest series ever.

So, the Cold War story got me hooked, but Call of Duty's previous failures was ensuring me that this was NOT going to be a day one buy. Then, I heard some other stuff that might make a Call of Duty fan pee. I heard that you can now hear your own voice while playing as him, as well as see your own character's body (a first for the Call of Duty franchise), but I've already seen it in Halo. They also introduced a saved film option, where you can record say 20-30 seconds of multiplayer gameplay. Halo did it better since you could record entire games (even if it was nearly two hours long), as well as take film clips, and you could record from nearly every game mode (campaign, multiplayer, Forge, custom games, and now Firefight).

But, then I was reading up on some stuff, and then I saw that the timeline for the game was set to be between 1960 and 2010. And then I was like, "Oh my f***ing gosh!" It's like Assassin's Creed all over again! But then I realized exactly how EPIC of a story that would be. Medal of Honor is already focusing on the real-life supersoldiers we call Tier One Operators, but that only focuses on the current war in Afghanistan. If I'm correct, which I'm sure I am, Black Ops will focus on not only the Tier One Operators (or whatever other supersoldiers we have), as well as all the black ops they performed, but also the SOG from THE PAST. So, for a full half century, we get to witness just about every black ops mission the US government has performed. It's like a trust exercise (Obama must be getting sooo p*ssed).

Graphics might look a little dated from the trailers, but the new gameplay footage from E3 made sure the game looked half-decent. Still not as good as other games coming out, say Halo: Reach, Crysis 2, and Medal of Honor (singleplayer), but it's good enough, but hopefully Treyarch fixes everything. The textures look waay too low-res to be in a 2010 game.

So campaign is interesting. What about multiplayer? No. That's it. No. There's still not enough changes to make me want to play. The game winning killstreaks are gone (yay), and you have these new killstreaks (napalm bomb, anyone?), as well as gore, Create-a-Class 2.0 (you get to customize multiplayer skin), but it's not enough innovation. And that's what I'm looking for in a game. Innovation.

Killstreaks are still customizable, as they were in Modern Warfare 2, released nearly a year ago. Create-a-Class 2.0 attempts to overthrow the Halo-style custom characters, but Halo: Reach is proving that it still reigns champion in that department. And graphics aren't enough to fool anybody.

The killstreaks are nice, but not good enough. Maybe some user-controllable killstreaks? Like for example, instead of a Harrier strike, you could've called in a transport helicopter of your respective side (so the US side would call in Blackhawks/Seahawks) and you would man a minigun on the side. The helicopter would fly around, and your minigun could not penetrate walls. A single RPG could take you down, and it would take gameplay to A WHOLE NEW LEVEL. Maybe replace the Pavelow with an improved transport helicopter (replace the Blackhawk/Seahawk with a Chinook/Seaknight) that can persist up to 2 RPGs.

Something like that would bring something new to the table. Which is why I'm not particularly interested in this game or Medal of Honor, and possibly Crysis 2. Neither bring anything new to the table of multiplayer. And multiplayer has become a big part of our community. If multiplayer feels stale or is not new, I'm not buying. Medal of Honor felt EXACTLY like Call of Duty 4 with a little Bad Company thrown in there for good measure. And it still has a lot of problems.

So, in short, Black Ops does interest me, but it won't guarantee a day one buy. Once I see more innovation, I might consider a rent since the mark Call of Duty's staleness has left upon me is quite huge.

From a gaming perspective, it is. For all platforms. Like everyone is getting a huge bit of success, no matter what happens. I mean, look at it.

Microsoft has the new Xbox 360 Slim, which may appeal to more people because it's $50 less than the PS3 250 GB, smaller, quieter, and has 250 GB of memory. Plus, they're getting Hulu service (which I think is something like internet TV), ESPN is already on your 360 (for those of you that don't know), and then look at all the major titles that are coming out: Gears of War 3, Fable III, and let's not forget Halo Reach. Plus they have their new motion control camera, Kinect, which should draw in more people to get a 360.

Sony might not have a new console on the market, but they did announce Move, which, in my opinion, is a lame knock off of the Wii Nunchuck. But, unlike the target audience for the Kinect, it also will work with "hardcore" games, such as SOCOM 4, future Call of Duty's (possibly), and others. Plus, they have a pretty good line up of games. They got SOCOM 4, Gran Turismo 5, inFamous 2, and I don't know what else. On the down side, they did succumb to Microsoft and have implemented a Playstation Live service or something and if you pay like $50, you get early access to demos and trials, as well as exclusive items for your PSN account and Home avatar. It doesn't sound like much, but three great things coming out of that is that you get a one hour trial of any full game (YES!!!!), you get four downloadable games per month (YES!!!!), and you still retain your old PSN benefits, such as free online gaming (YESSSH!!!!!). The downside (besides all those retarded features they give you anyways) is that you lose your downloadable games as soon as you stop subscribing.

Even Nintendo got it going. They might've not elaborated on their motion control (since Nintendo knows it's lame, seems like Microsoft and Sony are a little late), but they do have an impressive line up. I didn't particularly care about Nintendo much, but they do have Final Fantasy XIV (14) coming out for DS. They're mainly talking about their new 3DS and all their games. Like I said, didn't pay much attention.

And finally, PC. PC, although literally light-years ahead of what consoles can do today, is still going on strong. The new DirectX 11 cards will get cheaper by the end of the year, allowing for even better games and immersion than what consoles can achieve in the next 10 years. Plus, they've got some of the biggest releases in entertainment history. The new World of Warcraft expansion pack, Catalyst (which I thought came out a while back) is finally released, Starcraft 2, which fans have been patiently waiting for the last 10 years, and tons of other games, such as Civilization V.

Everyone got a big bite of success, and it's going to be hard to choose console of the year. The better console will still lie with personal preference, but it looks like we've just revamped the industry.

...Because it is. And since if you're reading my blog, then that means you appreciate my opinion or want to litter me with a bunch of hate comments. Either way, thanks for the views.

But onto more pressing issues. Why would I call Halo Reach the ultimate first person shooter? Sure, I'm a Halo fan, but I'm also a Call of Duty fan, a Battlefield fan, a Medal of Honor fan, and a Brothers in Arms fan. But I feel this will blow away all other games for a while.

For one, Bungie improved every little aspect of the game. Starting with campaign, they've improved the AI so they behave realistically. In fact, you have three different AI models. What other game has that? That's right, none. Enemy AI in Halo 3 was fantastic. Once you turned on the Mythic skull on Legendary, it didn't just make the aliens more resistant to damage. It made them smarter. On the first level, around the area where the Grunts were sleeping, a Jackal caught onto me, and after screaming, all the Grunts woke up and retreated. After regrouping, a group of Grunts fire Plasma Pistol shots at my cover, effectively suppressing me since going more than two seconds of continual damage would end my life. Another group of Grunts, led by a Brute, then tossed grenades into my position, forcing me to fall back and rethink my strategy. Sure, their grenade throwing abilities are a little far fetched, but the tactics they used were epic. And the fact Bungie has still upgraded it, along with friendly AI, which was desperately in need of a tune up anyways, makes it all the better.

And Bungie didn't stop there. They've opened up the levels, offering a non linear path throughout most of the missions. Halo 3 allowed you the main path straight down the center, or an optional side path that allowed you to get the drop on an enemy. Now, you get huge battlefields (at least in the Halo world) littered with cover, letting you plan out your own attack. So, combining difficulty with AI and sandboxes makes a very challenging game. Hell, even Bungie's own had a competition to see if they could pass the first level (and the rest of the campaign) on Legendary with all skulls activated. They did, AFTER FIVE HOURS. That's a single level. There's around 10-11 in the final game.

And on a side note, they've upped the narrative in the game. What?! Story gets its own paragraph? Yup, it does. A lot of people don't realize what the story's about. Reach is being invaded by Covenant forces, numbering in the millions. 300 Covenant ships enter slipspace and UNSC radar detects it. The 100 or so ships gather round to form a defense, but it's no chance. They manage to severely damage their fleet (taking out 2/3 of it), but it ends in a loss. Reach is eventually glassed after the invasion and anyone left on the planet dies. Normally, the Covenant just glass the planet without the invasion, but Reach had something that they wanted. Something crucial to their religion. And because it's the biggest battle in the war, they have to make sure it looks like it. The trailer just showed you that the game doesn't rely on action now. It requires environmental effects. You'll be able to witness massive Covenant forces invading, Covenant ships everywhere, and a lot more scripted events. And they look pretty awesome too. The TV commercial showed that a Covenant Corvette gets hit by what appears to be a MAC blast. Halfway through you witnessed a giant Warthog rush into a Covenant base. That wasn't possible before. And because we already know where we are (Reach), Bungie has made this a more character driven story, and as seen in the trailer, the number of Spartans in the squad dwindle down until the main character, Noble Six, is the last one standing. You'll see characters die right before your eyes, and you'll be going through missions still in shock from that death. Even though he's a great character, a bad ass sometimes, he'll die. And you'll be like WTF when that happens. You'll curse at Bungie for that ever happening. Yeah, even Ghost (the Spartan with the skull on his visor) appears to die.

Then they've got cooperative campaign, with up to four players. It will be interesting, since you can go through the campaign so many different ways. Plus, with all the skulls, it'll be a while before the campaign gets boring. And co-op doesn't stop there. They've included Firefight from ODST, but it's been improved in almost every way possible. You still get the standard mode where you test your endurance skills and see how long you can hold out. That'll be fun, for the first twenty times. If you're feeling a little somethin' somethin', then you also got matchmaking, so you can see how well you play, not only with strangers, but with the different variants Bungie had set up. You have the new default, where you have unlimited lives and a 10:00 time limit to see who's the biggest kill wh0re. Gruntopacalypse is all Grunts, all the time. Score Attack is reminiscent of other Horde modes where you have the same enemies at every wave. So, Wave 2 will always have x amount of Grunts and x amount of Jackals, opposed to the randomness implemented by Bungie. And it still doesn't end there. You can now custom tune your own Firefight variant however you like. You can change the AI to the point where they'll only attack if you're 50 meters or further. You can change their aggressiveness, tactics used, as well as what enemy types appear in which waves. What skulls get activated at what points is determined by you. Everything, and I mean everything, can be changed.

But it doesn't end. You now have the new matchmaking system. You can change your personal preferences so you get the perfect bunch of people. If you want quiet people who work together and strive for success, you can have that. If you want bad mouthing party people here to have a good time, you can have that too. The new experience system, dubbed Credits, is a bit disappointing since ranks don't require skill, but instead time spent in the game. But the new Arena makes up for that. You can participate in Arena playlists for your own Halo Olympics (that's what I call 'em). Pretty much if you play three games per day for five days, you get a rating. And every day you play for that month improves and removes your rating. After earning your rating, you get assigned a division (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Onyx). Each division signifies your skill level. So Bronze means you suck, while Onyx means you're a champ. Think of each of it like this. Replace the names with difficulties. Then you got Normal, Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic. Correspond and enjoy. At the end of each month, you get to see how you stacked up to others in your division. You might be an Onyx player, but unless you're #1, then you're not the best. This creates a new form of competitiveness not seen in other titles.

Plus, you got Custom Games, which allow you to make your own variant of the game modes. And I've seen some pretty interesting versions of Infection in Halo 3. It's largely the same, but you get a little more in-depth options. But, on the same note, you've got the new and improved Forge. It's so different, in fact, that it's all that closer to qualifying as a map editor rather than an object editor. The new options, such as different physics models, coordinate editing, and rotation snaps, make it easier to make those complex maps that you'll see in matchmaking. In fact, five of the maps right out the box were created using Forge. And a new upload feature allows your map to be thrown into the wilderness and lets others rate your map and eventually get it onto official matchmaking if it's good enough.

And Forge doesn't stop there (dejavu anyone?). You've got this massive play space called Forge World. It's one HUGEmap. And I mean huge. It combined six different maps into one. Hop into one of the new vehicles, such as the Falcon, and it'll take around five to ten minutes easy to get from one side to another. Get a land vehicle like a Mongoose, and it will take a good fifteen minutes. And just so you can make whatever you want, you get 150 total objects, both new and old. This ranges from grenades to weapons to vehicles to walls to entire buildings. It's a lot to choose from. Even more so with the lighting effects (Special FX) and "toys" such as kill balls and golf clubs. You also get to set the boundaries of a map so it can finally be official.

Then you've got Theater mode. So far, no new additions have been announced, but a rumor circulating the Bungie forums indicate Theater mode may finally get a true rewind feature. It's a rumor 'cause it's not confirmed.

Plus, you get all the extra additions in the game. The Credit (cR) system I mentioned earlier can now not only be earned in multiplayer, but in just about every aspect of the game. Played a mission on Heroic? Got cR. Made a map using Forge? Got cR. Watched a video in Theater mode? Got cR. Played a custom games match? Got cR. Everything earns you cR now. And cR is spent on the armory. Now what's the armory? It's the collection of all the armor permutations you can buy in the game. Day one gets not one, not two, but sixty seven different items to buy. More will be unlocked as you progress through the ranks and as the community as a whole hits certain milestones. Halo 3 only had like sixteen head pieces, thirteen chest pieces, and thirteen shoulder pieces. That adds up to a grand total of forty two different pieces, for both the Elites and Spartans. All sixty seven of those pieces in Halo Reach belong to Spartans. Elites don't get as much love in terms of actual customization, but you can purchase sick character models for the Elites once you hit a certain rank.

And the new weapons and vehicles will ensure that players will be having the most random moments ever in history. With the new Forge tools, you can not only launch Mongooses across entire maps, but you probably now can launch Scorpions, Revenants (the new Covenant Spectre, I presume), Wraiths, and even Banshees.

All in all, it's going to be great. The sheer amount of options available will ensure that any gamer will be having fun for years on to come. Halo 3 had a great community standing for three years. Halo Reach will have a community standing double that. If Bungie's going out with a bang, they better make sure it counts.