It's no doubt that September will be a HUGE month for games. You've got Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Brink, Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions, H.A.W.X. 2, and Medal of Honor amongst others. But concerning the two mega-monsters known as Call of Duty and Halo, who will win?

It seems to me that the damage Infinity Ward has done to the Call of Duty brand name is irreparable. At least somewhat. Treyarch has done plenty to bring Call of Duty back to it's roots and why it was great in the first place. It has an engaging campaign (with a little conspiracy thrown in), with an excellent co-op mode, and redefined multiplayer. But something tells me even Treyarch knows that Call of Duty won't stand up to the massive release of Halo: Reach, Bungie's last known direct involvement in the Halo franchise. Posters of Halo: Reach are being plastered up above the Black Ops posters at Gamestop, with even Call of Duty players buzzing around for Reach's release.

But not even that would convince me that Treyarch is afraid. What is most striking is the similarities it shares with Reach. While Bungie announced it's challenge system (which rotates every day and week) as well as it's customization options (THOUSANDS of different combos) and the theater mode, which was a given.

Except this time, Treyarch has stolenall of those and used them in their own game. Their edition of the challenge system is called contracts. Basically, it rotates every day or week. See something similar? To add their own twist, you must purchase them, and they are time limited. But, if you finish a contract, you get an exponential EXP or CP boost. Fail, and you cannot enter a contract for another 24 hours, thus reducing the amount of time you have to complete it. While it is a tad better than Halo: Reach's challenge system, it's not all THAT better. I prefer simplicity over flashy products.

Now, the weapon customization and Create-a-Class 2.0. You can customize your character avatar, but I find it more similar to Vegas 2, except it doesn't affect gameplay as much. However, the emblem editor was STRAIGHTout of Halo: Reach. You can customize a primary emblem, secondary emblem (background), as well as individual colors. The custom reticules are something Treyarch made up.

And finally, the theater mode. It's obvious Treyarch ripped this from Bungie's game to compete with it. It is a bit better, with a timeline showing when this player got kills and when that player died, allowing you to insert transitions and set the speed for each of the clips, as well as showing 100 of the latest matches from the last 7 days opposed to Halo: Reach's 25 recent matches. However, it hasn't been confirmed how the user will store their videos, and since Halo: Reach has a confirmed of 100-1000 (not sure, Brian Jarrard said at Comic-con that it's around 1000, but a Bungie blog said 100). That's a heck lot.

Point is, if Treyarch's gotta steal stuff from a rival company, then it means one thing: Black Ops simply won't be as big as Reach. No doubt it WILL be big, but not AS big. Heck, I think Gamespot released pre-order numbers, with Black Ops in the 300,000 mark (the highest for any Call of Duty, apparently) and Reach at 500,000 and both are still growing. That's a shame, since Halo 3 alone had 1.3 million pre-orders.