The second category is Best FPS/3rd Person shooter (Multiplayer - CoOp/versus). In this category I will be judging on graphics, fun factor, achievements, longevity, modes, online community and available maps. Please keep in mind that these are games that I have played and had some contact with.

Coming in at fourth place is the Orange Box (Team Fortress 2). This game has no co-op of any kind but as far as I'm concerned, any game with as many different types of classes as this game can't be a bad one. I believe that there are 12-13 classes in the game like sniper, pyro, engineer, heavy gunner, medic and spy just to name a few. Each class has its own distinct feel and requires different strategies to be successful in the game. There are two game modes that I have played so far. One mode is a capture the flag type game which has you retrieve a briefcase from the other team's base and then the other mode that I have played is a territories/domination type game where one team defends while the other team tries to take over an area by occupying a certain spot for a set amount of time. I believe there are three areas to be taken over with only one accessible at a time. When the attacking team takes over the first area then the second area opens up and so on, so forth. The graphics on this game are pretty awesome since they sort of look like Pixar animation but with guns. The game is extremely fun and would be higher up on the list if it had more maps and maybe a few different modes for those of us who don't like to play domination/territories and capture the flag every game. There are a lot of little touches here and there that make the game stand out a little more. Things like when you are carrying the briefcase to your base there is an animation of papers flying out of the briefcase, there is a an awesome stats keeper for the game that keeps stats like kills with each and every class, if someone kills you more than a few times they become your nemesis and if/when you kill them you have your revenge. It's little things like that that make it worth it. The achievements are normal achievements but some have a few twists. The game does an excellent job of keeping track of how far along the player is on an achievement (i.e. 5 kills with spy: 1 out of 5 kills). The community that I have played with so far has been good. There haven't been any immature kids in the rooms or know-it-alls that think you should know the whole layout of the game before playing with them. Also, upon asking questions on what I am supposed to do the answers were generally nice and to the point. I'm not sure how many people play this game on Live but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be around for a long time to come.

Next we have Halo 3. I actually gave the original Xbox a try ONLY after playing Halo on the kiosk at EB so I consider myself a pretty good fan. I like the multiplayer of Halo 3. The matchmaking, although it doesn't always pick the type of game I want to play, is great. There is co-op of up to 4 players over Xbox Live which is reason enough to buy the game in my opinion. The versus modes are where the real meat and potatoes of the game are. There are several multiplayer modes in both ranked and player (unranked) games. The multiplayer games on Halo 3 are generally fun but there are a few things that tend to bring it down especially if you are not a Halo-holic (meaning you don't play the game every single day of your life for a minimum of 8 hours a day or more). First thing is the community. Halo 3 has the worst community I have ever seen on an online game. I would say that for every 5 games you play at least 2 to 3 of those games have someone who isn't old enough to play, feels the need to tell you how bad you suck, decides it is all right to rap/sing to everyone else playing the game or has someone whose every other word is b*t%h, f&c% or a##h@#e which is generally directed to the other team or those players on their team who they decided didn't pull their own weight. Second thing is the need for players of this game to cheat. Whether it is hacking the game or finding glitches to help them cheat during online matches the great Halo players need some sort of advantage that isn't available to everyone to win the game. Third is the mystery factor. Maybe it can contributed to lag or someone cheating but there are too many times where someone is killed and they have no clue how it happened. I'm not talking about when you don't see the grenade stuck to your back or walk up on a grenade you didn't see sitting there either. I'm talking about two players come into the room with the same gun and player A starts firing first hitting player B and half a second later player B starts firing hitting player A. Somehow player B wins but immediately after the battle player C comes into the room firing first and hitting player B but player B, low shields and all, takes down player C as well. HUH? The graphics for this game are great! The little touches include making holes in the snow when your character's body falls down in it, stat keeping and map viewing on bungie.net, screen captures of any aspect of the battle you were in, the ability to save films of your matches and share them with the Halo community and character customization. As far as maps go, there was a bunch when the game launched and they have already added 3 more to the mix. Add to that the fact that you can change around things in maps and the map customization is endless. This game is going to be around for a while. Halo 2 came out a while ago and there are still people playing it.

Come back soon for the final two games in this category.

The first category is Best Single Player. The factors I use to rate the games are as follows: story, re-playability, graphics, amount of hours to beat game, fun factor and the layout of the levels. Keep in mind these are only games that I have had some sort of contact with and the winners are strictly based on my opinion and my opinion only.

Coming in at last is GRAW 2. This game is awesome! The single player story was a let down but the multiplayer co-op was the best. Nothing says killing like a player and bunch of his friends being able to go through a multiplayer campaign together. If it wasn't for the tired single player it would be further up on the list. Playing this one through again would be a difficult thing.

Next is Assassin's Creed...another great game. While the story is lacking it is far above that of GRAW 2. The gameplay on this game is very fun and if not for the fact that the player is forced to keep on doing the same thing over and over again this game might be further up on the list. The character movements in the game are very realistic and the climbing animations are second to none. The city layouts are spectacular! Running around the city is sometimes as fun as the game. I will probably play it over again to get some achievements and find some flags but I probably won't get too far into it before I get bored with it.

The Orange Box comes in next and if not for the fact that this is simply a port of an older PC/XBOX game this game would have been at number one. I love Half-Life 2 and I love the game enough to play it for the third time, that's how good it is. I have beaten the game once on the PC and have practically beaten it again on the PC as well as beaten Episode 1 before starting over on the 360. The levels of this game take you to places that are just as fun to look at as they are to play through. This game gets big praise for cramming 5 games into one offering and for the price of one game. You can't beat that. Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite FPS games of all time. They don't get much better than this game.

What can I say about Halo 3 that hasn't been said before? Halo 3 is a great game in a great series. If not for the fact that they cut the story real short and didn't make up for the crappy ending of Halo2 then this game would have been further up on the list. Gameplay is basically the same as the older Halo games which is definitely a good thing. Small changes to the gameplay and the graphics have only enhanced the game and added some spice to the mix. The levels are basically the same thing that we are used to seeing from the previous games. The levels are somewhat uninspired and look only to be rehashes of older levels of previous games. The bottom line though is the fact that the game is fun. It is very fun and as long as you came to finish the fight you came to the right place.

Mass Effect is a game that I have played a little of but have read a lot about. The story line of this game seems to be very well written while letting the player dictate events by the choices of text they choose to say to the game characters. There have been some complaints about the action areas of the game but overall the game has been getting some great reviews. There are a great amount of areas to explore in the game. While the main storyline clocks in at around 20 or so hours once you add in all the side missions it is said that the game time ramps up considerably. I'm not sure how much replayability this game will have but I believe I read there are multiple endings.

Runner up is Call of Duty 4 which is my favorite game of the Call of Duty series. This game has an awesome single player story as well as a killer multiplayer game. The only thing hindering the single player is the length. The story is exciting and the levels are some of the best in FPS history but the length is way too short. The game makes up for it a little by how fun it is though and so far replaying through the second time is just as fun as it was the first time. The levels are pretty much linear but the action makes up for it. The graphics are top notch which makes a player want to look around at their surrounding every once in a while and take in the whole view.

The winner for best single player is Bioshock. Hands down this game had the best graphics, story, action, levels and exploration of any game before it. All that and it had it all in just the right amount of time that it takes to beat the game. The only negative thing I can say about the game is that the replayability factor wasn't that high at least for me. Everything else in the game was top notch. From the opening scene of the game to the exploration of the underwater world to the weapon customization to the big reveal near the end and then the spectacular final boss fight, everything came hard and fast and made it very hard to put it down. I found myself just staring at areas because of all the detail they put into the game. Any fan of first person shooters and a great story that involves weapon build up and customization with great boss battles is missing out by not playing this game.

In the coming weeks I am going to present a category and between 3 - 10 video game titles for that category. I will cover the following categories: Best Single Player, Best FPS (Single Player-Story), Best FPS/3rd Person Shooter (Multiplayer - CoOp/versus), Most Innovative, Best Downloads for Games, Best Graphics, Best XBLA game, Best Game Last Year That People Are Still Playing This Year, Best Game Requiring Specific Controller and XBOX 360 Game of The Year. All winners will also be accompanied with runners up and there may or may not be some ties. I am only covering the 360 because that is the only console other than the PSP that I own and I don't play that many games on the PSP to be an expert. While I probably won't update with a different category every day I will do it often so check back and please offer any comments you see fit. Whether it is to tell me that my choices of games sucks or that my opinion sucks I don't care. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion whether it is correct like mine or not. HAHAHA! (Note: joke of course! J) The XBOX 360 Game of the Year will be posted on January 1st, 2008 because it can't be game of the year if all of the games aren't given a chance. See you hopefully soon and hopefully often.

I'm finally back from vacation. I say that I'm back from vacation but in reality I didn't really go to too many places. My wife and I took a week off and just spent a lazy week around the house and did mini trips to places like the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne and to my cousin's apartment in Melbourne to visit with him and his wife. The zoo was awesome and had a cool giraffe exhibit which made it possible for the giraffe to stand straight up and be at eye level with visitors. The giraffe isn't blocked from the visitors either so you are free to feed them their snacks and pet them if they let you. You never quite know how big a giraffe is until you are 2-3 feet from their head. The same goes for their tongue. That is one long tongue.

I received an early Christmas present in the form of Guitar Hero II. I wanted Guitar Hero III but when I heard that (1) they all don't come with the wireless guitar, (2) the wireless guitar is hard to find and (3) here in Daytona, finding Guitar Hero III before Christmas will be about as easy as finding a Wii, I decided to go ahead and get GHII and get GHIII (just the game) when I'm finished. This was my first time playing any Guitar Hero and I have to say that I love it! I really do. It is extremely fun while at the same time extremely challenging. I read in an article that Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III are not made by the same company. Who makes which one? Is it a good thing that they aren't made by the same company? Who made the first one? While talking to a co-worker yesterday I was told that Guitar Hero II is way better than Guitar Hero III? Does one thing have to do with another? Too many questions. J

While on vacation I played a lot of Call of Duty 4 multiplayer. The original plan was that when I achieved level 55 I was going to get all of the golden guns and then decide whether or not I was going to start over with Prestige or just stay at 55. I then found out from one of my online friends that once you start prestige you lose everything, even your golden guns. On the Sunday before I returned to work I decided to hit Prestige and start the process all over again. In my first match after restarting with Prestige I gained a couple of levels which is basically equal to the people I was playing with weren't that good at all. The team I was on ended up stomping the other team and better than that I was second in scoring on my team even using the three basic first level weapons.

So, like a lot of other people, I picked up Call of Duty 4 for the 360. I have been a fan of the series since I bought the Call of Duty (first one) battle chest or whatever it is they call it that contained the first one and the add on Allied Assault as well. Instantly I was hooked and while the computer I had started the game with was destroyed along with all of my game saves, the game had enough of an impact that I had to play Call of Duty 2 for the 360. Call of Duty 2 is an awesome game! The multiplayer was a little bugged at first but once the patch was issued everything ran relatively smooth. The single player campaign was spectacular and just as good, if not better, than the original. While the multiplayer was fun it didn't really have much to it. Then they released Call of Duty 3. Well, while I do appreciate the stuff like rowing the boats and arming the bombs there was something missing from the game in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, the game wasn't bad by any means, it was just missing that extra touch that made you want to play the game to see what they had in store for you next. Now we have Call of Duty 4 and this game is amazing! Never before have I been so immersed into a game! From blasting people and vehicles from an airplane to sneaking around Chernobyl this game makes you feel like you are in the game and your actions mean something. Then there is the multiplayer. All I can say is........WOW! There aren't too many things that can equal knifing three snipers in a row while they are looking down the scope at my team. With multiple game-types and the ability to rank up this game is the multiplayer game of the year in my opinion.

For a week or so I have been trying to get to skill level 20 and Captain on Halo 3. Closer and closer I would get and most of you know how slow that can be. I had been stuck on Lieutenant Grade 2 for a week and a half now. I have no problem getting experience points mind you but getting my skill level up has been a problem. It always seemed like the people that I was playing with from my friends list had a skill level of 28 or more in Team Slayer which brought in people we had no business playing so that wasn't working well. Another part of the problem was the fact that I can't stand Oddball and Crazy King on Lone-wolves. Luckily for me it always seems that I get stuck with those game types too so that helps....a lot. Either way, frustration was beginning to set in and my skill level wasn't moving up. Most of my friends have had no problems moving up so far. I guess because of my lack of play time and everyone always wanting to play custom or social matches instead of ranked matches had made earning the skill points a little harder.

Wednesday I was determined to get this level so I informed my friends that I was at level 15 and that we are playing ranked team slayer and I'm getting up to level 20 so I can jump up to Captain. Well, through thick and thin and some ups and many downs I finally made it to level 20 and Captain Grade 2! Woohoo! I'm pretty sure I'll never make it to level 30 but crazier things have happened.

I watch so much TV! I really do. I tallied up the shows that I watch currently this season and I was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 shows a week. Between all of those shows, my XBOX 360, two jobs, a wife and some animals no wonder my wife is always upset with me. My current schedules of watched shows are as follows:

MONDAY

Chuck

Little People, Big World

C.S.I.: Miami

Traveler

TUESDAY

Reaper

The Unit

L.A. Ink

Bones

WEDNESDAY

Bionic Woman

THURSDAY

Smallville

FRIDAY

Ghost Whisperer

SATURDAY

Torchwood

SUNDAY

Shark

Extreme Home Makeover

Desperate Housewives

L.A. Ink is a show that I technically don't watch every week but if the wife and I are watching TV together then she'll put it on and we watch it together. The bad thing about this line-up is that these are the shows for this moment. I have more shows not on this list that aren't on right now but some time during the year they will be. Those shows consist of Burn Notice, The Shield, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka and Rescue Me just to name a few. Some time in November Jericho will start up again too but hopefully some or most of these current shows will either be over or on winter hiatus. Torchwood does not have the typical "full" season and I believe only has around 12 episodes. L.A. Ink I believe is pretty much the same as far as not having the typical 22 or so episodes and so is Big People, Little World.

Is there such thing as TV Watchers Anonymous? If so I may need to check in. I don't think I have a problem it is just that there are so many great stories going on that I don't want to miss even one episode for fear that I might miss something. I love stories. I always have and I probably always will. One day when I have a kid I hope he/she is the same way and that will be one of the things that we do together. Maybe when I have a kid and my time become more valuable then I will take the plunge and drop some shows. Maybe.

I have been playing Halo3 online multiplayer since the first couple of hours they officially opened it. In my first few days of games I didn't do too bad and ended up being in the top half practically every game. At the start if I shot someone they went down and the same went for me. Fast forward to now and even if I get the drop on someone and they are using the same gun there is a chance that I'm going down first. How is that? I now can come into a room blasting away at someone, see his shields react to my shots, get beat down as I throw my last ditch grenade, watch as the grenade blows up underneath that player after which he walks away from it and kills someone else coming into the room on his way out. I've shot and shot someone with the battle rifle, I see their shields react to being hit and after 3 - 5 burst they go down. On the other hand I've also had people shoot one burst at me and watch as my guy went down like a ton of bricks. This has happened quite a few times in the last week and in most of the instances I didn't have any damage or very minimal damage and either way I go down the same way. Lastly, I've been playing doubles with a guy who is a ranked higher than I and is somewhere near level 30 or so. A few games we had were very weird to say the least. One guy on the other team was kicking our butts and neither of us could kill him. He would walk all over us and was having an easy time doing it. Now, I know there are some players who play this game night and day and they are very, very good. His rank and level was a little higher than mine (at the time I believe I was a Lieutenant Grade 1) This guy ended up with around 85% of the kills while his partner ended up with the rest. He also had only 2 or 3 deaths and this was in no way a fast game.

I heard a rumor that on the first Sunday after Halo 3 was released, the Sunday that everyone was having problems connecting, Bungie and Microsoft were checking the system for cheaters because people were getting caught cheating like in Halo 2. Again, I only heard this as a rumor and only saw an article about that Sunday and the article said nothing about cheaters.

So what gives? Am I a bad player? Are the people that I play just that good? Am I doing something wrong? Is anyone else seeing the same things that I see? I have played this week a little more than most weeks and I have been getting aggravated. Any comments would be great.

First things first I want to say that I am a big fan of Halo 3's multiplayer. It is spectacular! The set up, the balance, the matchmaking, the 99% of the time lag free experience, the weapons, the ability to chat, the ability to make your own movies from past games and the ability to take a screen shot of any aspect of your past games make Halo 3 the multiplayer game of year by far. I can see how some gamers would lose themselves every day playing this game. Whenever I get a chance between the wife, the dog, two jobs, sleeping and eating I play some Halo 3. Some times it isn't for three or four days but right now if there is free time to be had I spend it playing Halo 3. Now to the players I encounter on Halo 3 multiplayer. Holy crap! There are so many different types of gamers out there playing this game. As most of you have probably noticed, most of them could use quite a few slices of humble pie. I'm really happy for everyone who gets to play this game every single day for multiple hours a day. In fact, I wish that I could so I'm sort of jealous. What I don't understand are those gamers that feel the need to offer the obnoxious comments after the match. None of these people know me, my gaming habits, where I live or my lifestyle but still choose to let me know how bad I suck against them after any given match. I understand that these gamers practice every waking hour and when they aren't playing Halo 3 they are thinking, eating, crapping Halo 3. My question is, why would someone criticize someone else on their playing? Just because I know what the outside looks like, have two jobs and can't play every second of my free time doesn't mean that I am a bad player. In fact, for someone who doesn't play every day I am actually pretty good. I have beaten gamers numerous levels above me and have been beaten by gamers numerous levels below me so what does that mean? My theory is that most of the time winning or losing at Halo is like winning and losing at football in the fact that on any given Sunday any football team can beat any football team no matter who has the odds to win. Some may agree and some may disagree but that is the way I feel.

Halo 3 is here! Woo hoo! I picked up my copy from Gamestop at the midnight launch. Luckily for me they had it set up so everyone who showed up paid for it in full (if they hadn't already) and got their final receipt before midnight that way when midnight hit they could direct the line into the store and one by one have us show the receipt, stamp it, hand us our game or games and have everyone walk right back out. I showed up at 11:20 PM (just got off from my second job) and talked with my friend who had been waiting since 10:30 PM and was about at the midway point in line. Everyone started talking and next thing you know it is 12 midnight and the line started moving. I was thinking about moving to the back of the line but my buddy just told me to go ahead and stay. I had my game by 12:04 AM and was home by 12:16 AM and that is driving home at regular speed. I hung out with the wife until about 12:45 PM and she went to sleep after making fun of me for waiting to get a game at a midnight launch. By 12:50 PM I was playing Halo 3 for the first time.

I started playing the campaign to see where the story was going and to get a little familiar with the somewhat new controls. By 3 AM I was ready to go to sleep so I decided that I would just try out a quick game of multiplayer. One game led to two games and so on, so forth. At 5:30 AM in the morning I finally went to sleep. What happened between 3 and 5 AM is a blur but I know I had fun. I woke up around 10:30 that morning and played some more. I didn't get as far on the campaign as I would have liked but I did get to play some multiplayer with most of the guys on my friends list. We all had a great time with it.

Next time I get to play I want to try out Forge and see what that is all about. I've only heard that there is some sort of money/point system and that dictates what things you can place on the board. Other than that I don't know anything. But I'll find out...soon.