Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter IV revived the series with its fantastic gameplay and art style. Even if you’re not traditionally a fighting-game lover, you may find something to like here with all the bells and whistles that are thrown in. You can tell Capcom spent a lot of time balancing and paying attention to the details. Easy to learn and tough to master, Street Fighter IV is a new classic.

Average critic score: 9.3 out of 10

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Considered by many to be the best game in the series, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a must-play for all fans of first person shooters. Although many have moved onto Modern Warfare 2, its multiplayer mode was great and challenged Halo 3 as the most played online Xbox 360 game. With an insane amount of action packed in, even the single-player won’t be disappointed, albeit the campaign is a little short. The realistic sounds of guns and explosions really help to immerse you, especially if you’re playing with a nice set of surround sound speakers. Give this one a try!

Average critic score: 9.4 out of 10

Resident Evil 5

Taking a more action-oriented perspective than before seen in the series, Resident Evil 5 (along with RE4) caught the attention of those who had previously ignored the series for many years. Solid game mechanics and a fantastic co-op campaign sets this game apart from the norm, especially if you have a friend to blast your way through it with. Mercenaries mode adds a lot of replayability as you can team up with a friend to kill swarms of enemies and rack up new high scores.

Average critic score: 8.6 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Vegas

If you’re a fan of tactical shooters then you will love Rainbow Six: Vegas. It’s a nice change of pace to the frantic type of shooting we find in games like Halo. The new health system makes the game much more stress free, and could very easily fix the problems you had with the other ones. The campaign is top-notch and the multiplayer modes were considered to be some of the best yet seen on Xbox Live.

Average critic score: 8.9 out of 10

Bioshock

BioShock is widely considered to be an outstanding game and is ranked as one of the best games of all time. The game has a fantastic story and atmosphere that you will not find in 99.9% of other games. Besides that, the game has a great soundtrack and a mix of first-person-shooting and RPG elements combined to make a unique gameplay experience. Be sure to give this one a try.

Average critic score: 9.4 out of 10

Conclusion

You have likely played at least one of the above titles, but be sure to give a try to any that you’ve missed. There’s no need to break the bank on buying the latest titles. Pocket the extra cash or spend it on something important, like pizza. Maybe set aside a little for your girlfriend.

What are your favorite games for under $20? Let us know in the comments below!

The free game that so many of us loved, 1 vs. 100, has been canceled. It was just recently confirmed that there will be no third season for the popular Xbox Live title.

This is a shame, since it was arguably the best free game on the Xbox Live network and was a lot of fun to play with friends if you were in the mood for some relaxing and non-serious gaming. It was also a very unique experience, an online trivia game show with a live host and real prizes.

The developers plan to take the lessons they’ve learned from the development of 1 vs. 100 and apply it to future games.

We knew starting on this project, that 1 vs 100 was completely different and would be an idea we would continue to evolve. We’ve learned a lot from this experience and we’re committed to applying these lessons to the cool, new stuff we’re working on, but can’t yet discuss.

We’d like to thank them for the two seasons we had and we’re looking forward to seeing what’s next.

Welcome to the honeymoon trap.

In most single player games while the second playthrough can never recapture the thrill of discovery and the novelty factor of the first playthough, if the game has good moment-to-moment gameplay that can be enough to keep you going beyond the honeymoon period. If it does not have quality moment to moment gameplay, its stock will drop like a rock on the second playthrough.

No game that I can think of illustrates this better than Batman: Arkham Asylum.

With really good single player experiences, the second playthrough reinforces my high opinion of the game in the first playthough– but with Batman AA I felt like the second playthrough exposed the lack of substance behind the shiny veneer of the first playthrough.

Don’t get me wrong, Batman Arkham Asylum is a really good game and is clearly the best Batman game ever (which is not saying a lot) — but it’s still overrated. However it’s not easy to see why until you make it past the honeymoon period of the first playthough.

A game needs some freedom/leeway in the gameplay to really keep bringing you back– and this is the main thing Batman AA is missing.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

JUMPING

In Super Mario Bros. basic jumping was fun because you completely control the height and direction of Mario’s jump and a mistake can kill you.

You can also do stuff like slick jumping turning hit the ground and slide type moves because of that leeway in the gameplay. And stuff like that is what keeps you coming back (and not the harrowing tale of rescue of the damsel in distress).

In Batman, if you want to jump over a ledge just hold ‘X’ and forward and Batman automatically runs toward the ledge and jumps over it perfectly every time — there’s no technique to employ– no timing, no lining up the jump, no skill necessary.

CLIMBING

Take a game like Infamous. When I climb a building there’s a million different ways to climb the same building (including wrong ways that can result in you falling all the way back to the bottom and thus making you pay attention) — I can climb up a ladder, shimmy across a ledge until I find a handhold to climb up, climb a pole, climb up windows, ect– thus climbing is fun.

In Batman, if I want to climb I need to find a designated spot that allows me to look at it and be prompted to press R1. When I press R1 and Batman shoots his grapple hook thing, he’s always going to climb up the same way– seen it once, seen it a million times.

Thus climbing in Batman is not fun– it’s not annoying either– but not fun– just meh. It’d be nice if there was more variety to it somehow (and/or if they found some other area of gameplay to flesh out to make up for this lost ground).

FIGHTING

In Batman AA, there are a lot of offensive attack moves that are “hotspot” oriented– ie. the vertical takedown, the crashing through the glass, the simplified fighting scheme– that reminds me of Def Jam: Fight for New York.

In Def Jam Fight for New York there was a bunch of “hot spots” (ie. if you press a certain button when the enemy is near a car you’ll do a prearranged sequence where you smash their head in the door of the car) — it was awesome the first time you see each hot spot move but it gets more and more boring and you yearn for the variety and complexity that earlier incarnations of the Def Jam engine (ie the AKI wrestling titles) had.

Likewise in Batman the fighting is fun but you eventually yearn for the added complexity of fighting in games like God of War and Ninja Gaiden.

To be fair, there’s plenty of variety in the gameplay itself, but the problem is the lack of any one gameplay mechanic that by itself is fun to do over and over. The fighting comes closest to this, but it’s not quite up to par with some other games.

To make an analogy– take MLB the Show. The default batting mechanic makes you as the batter have to locate the ball as well as time it to get a hit. If you want to make the game really easy to play so your little sister can play it, you can alter the settings so that all you have to do is press X at the right time– thus making it all timing and taking away the skill in recognizing pitch location.

In Batman, it’s like it’s set up for your little sister with the way that the reversals are all pure timing based (tap triangle and Batman does the rest, no matter where the enemy is), and the striking is all button mashing based. There’s a little bit of skill involved in fighting guys with knives or stun batons in that you need to either hit them with a batarang and then press R2 and triangle to ground and pound, or press x to jump over them and attack from behind, but that alone falls short of gameplay that would keep me coming back.

So a lot of things feel like auto-pilot (ie. the Batarang is auto-aim, reversals are all pure timing as I stated above, the jumping and climbing as stated above).

Like I’m playing Gran Turismo with all of the assists on– which is fine for people that like that, but I wish there was an option to turn these assists off.

It feels like the gameplay in this game is halfway between a game like KOTOR (where it looks like I’m really playing and swinging the lightsaber but I’m really just supervising) and games like Super Mario Bros and Infamous and Twisted Metal 2 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (where I really am in full incremental micro level control and not just macro level control).

CONCLUSION

Too many single player games are like a disposable razor: use once and throw away. Granted, lots of games offer things like trophies, treasures, branching paths, ect, to give you a reason to come back and play again, but that stuff, while appreciated, only serves to kick the can down the road. The big factor that extends a game’s replay value indefinitely, the renewable resource you’re left with when the fossil fuels of story and presentation are exhausted, the thing that separates the games that come and go from the true classics is the  gameplay. In Batman AA, the basic moment to moment gameplay isn’t enough by itself to keep the game entertaining– the greatness of the game really depends on the story and presentation and atmosphere (which all lose their novelty on the second playthough) combined with the deceptively shallow, automated gameplay (the shallowness of which becomes much more apparent after you’ve beaten the game).

All the most memorable stuff that happened in my experience with Batman AA was scripted– in a game with deep gameplay you should be able to create your own memories via creative stuff that the game allows you to do– and the prospect of creating new experiences like that on the fly is what keeps you coming back.

What I remember about Super Mario World was how much different stuff Mario could do with a turtle shell (ie. carry it around, kick it up in the air, kick it forward, have Yoshi eat it and gain powers, ect). It’s not the story that sticks out in my mind, it’s the gameplay, and how little things like playing with a shell were fun.

A mega hyped, shiny new video game is like a hot woman in a dark nightclub who starts sweet talking you while you’re drunk– you might be head over heels in love that night– but you don’t really know what you have until you see what you wake up next to in the morning.

Image credit: Tony J. Case

Although Tanner has the ability to roam freely around the streets of San Francisco, this latest installment of Driver will focus on the movie style car chases. Reportedly, there will be upwards of 100 vehicles to chose from, and plenty of road to keep the chases flowing. There will also be a large amount of classic vehicles thrown into the action, and this should make for some never before seen chases.

This latest version of Driver will also include the option to play online. This mode will offer fans some pretty exiting chases as well. The screenshots from Driver: San Francisco detail some excellent graphics, and these new added features will offer some unbelievable game play. Driver: San Francisco will be available for Playstation 3, X-box 360, Wii, PC, and Mac.

Microsoft recently announced a new design for the Xbox 360 console. Improvements include built-in WiFi, a bigger standard hard drive (250GB), smaller size and quieter operation. It will be available later this week in North America and will cost $299.

The question on everyone’s mind is if the Red Rings of Death issue has finally been fixed. Some have reported that the ventilation on the new machines seem to be better, so that’s a good sign, but ventilation wasn’t always the cause of problems in other models. We hope Microsoft has resolved the hardware reliability problems that have plagued Xbox 360 owners.

It will release in Australia, New Zealand and the UK during July for $499 NZD, $449 AUD and 199 GBP respectively.

To prepare for the new release, Microsoft is giving $50 discounts on older models. The Xbox 360 Arcade will now retail for $149, with the Elite model at $249. Retailers are likely to run specials to help clear out old inventory as well. For Father’s Day, customers who purchase an older Xbox 360 at Wal-Mart will receive a $50 gift card, a wireless controller and two extra games (Viva Pinata and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts).

To say that Microsoft went all out this year at the E3 Expo is probably an understatement. Rather than just telling us the new name of “Project Natal”, they hired Cirque du Soleil to put on a custom 45-minute show, which took months of planning and included 76 performers. If you’ve never been to a Cirque du Soleli, let me tell you, it is an unforgettable experience. And I imagine this is what Microsoft was trying to do – stick in your head.

Kinect is Natal’s new official name. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the new controller-free device and many of us are curious to see if it flops, but we hope for the best. Microsoft showed off many games for the Kinect at the show, so let’s get to it.

Kinect: Star Wars

It’s hard to imagine a better use for the technology than a Star Wars game. Honestly, I thought the same thing for the Nintendo Wii announcement. Maybe I’m just a Star Wars freak. The game showed the player as a Jedi going through a stage of enemies and reaching the end to face Darth Vader. Players will be able to control the light saber and use their arm to “force push” the enemies.

Joy Ride

Take your Xbox Avatar for a spin in Joy Ride. Steering is controlled by pretending to hold a wheel and you can also do stunts by positioning your body and hands in specific ways.

Kinect Adventures

In this demo of an adventure game, players were riding on a raft and mind cart. The aim was to grab targets that showed up and you could control the speed by jumping. Kinect Adventures takes photos of you while you’re playing and will show you a compilation of them at the end of the level.

Dance Central

Is this the future of Dance Dance Revolution games? Who knows. The player’s goal is to match the moves shown on the screen. If the player does well, the song plays on like normal. If they screw up, then the music slows down and you receive instructions to redeem yourself.

Kinect Sports

Not surprisingly, Microsoft needs something to compete with Nintendo’s wildly successful WiiSports franchise and Kinect Sports is how they plan to do it. In the demo we saw volleyball, soccer, track, and bowling. Volleyball will support online play, though overall many game journalists are not impressed with this showing. The bowling game looked inaccurate and much of the game is automated, as in your players move on their own and do their own thing.

Kinectimals

This is a virtual pet game where you will take care of your own digital animal(s). In this demo the pet is a tiger, and you could interact with it by petting it, teaching it tricks, throwing a ball and other stuff like that.

This is neat in theory – and Nintendo has already proven the concept is profitable – but this game seems a little sad to me. Wouldn’t it be much better to just go play with a real dog? I know we can say the same thing about many other games – but the point really stands out to me with this game. It’s one thing to play in NBA Live as your favorite team instead of shooting some real hoops, but to pet a virtual dog is very strange to me.

Conclusion

This is just a quick look at some of the games shown. Nothing too impressive yet, but it gives us something to chew on. Personally, I’m not expecting the Kinect to do much more than the Nintendo Wii has already accomplished, but time will tell. Good luck, Microsoft.

Driver 2 was an early precursor to the Grand Theft Auto series, which went on to become more successful then the Driver series. Hopefully Ubisoft, the publisher of Driver 1999 will be able to capitalize on their latest endeavor. Like many other fans of the Driver games, I have always anticipated the next installment. Ubisoft revolutionized the video game industry with Driver 2, but was unable to capitalize on the concept they created.

The trailer for Driver 1999 looks great, but it doesn’t showcase any actual game play footage. As of now, the features that are offered by Driver 1999 are sketchy. Ubisoft will be offering new details this coming week at E3. I hope that the publisher can revive the Driver franchise. Fans of the series have been awaiting the release of a new Driver game for years now. Only time will tell if the wait was worth it. Zippygamer will be following Driver 1999 during E3; we will keep you posted as these details become available.

Teaser Trailer

This has been an exciting week for Mortal Kombat fans. On Tuesday, a video that seemed to be a trailer for a new MK movie was uploaded to YouTube by a user called MortalKombatRebirth. The almost 8-minute long trailer was like nothing we’ve ever seen in the Mortal Kombat universe before. It was a darker, more realistic with a Saw feel to it. The video starts out with officer Jackson “Jax” Briggs as he begins to interview an inmate named Hanzo Hasashi. He begins to tell him about the backgrounds of known serial killers such as Reptile and Baraka. But these aren’t the same fighters we all grew up with.

Reptile was born with a birth defect that gave him scaled skin and inverted eyes, much resembling that of a reptile. Oh and he’s also a cannibal. Baraka was once a surgeon who accidentally killed a patient which gave him a thirst for murder. He then performed various operations on himself, altering his appearance. Officer Briggs brings up how the police hired the washed-up actor, Johnny Cage to go under cover and dig up all of the info he can on these psychopaths. After a 2-minute fight scene between Baraka and Johnny, Baraka ends up decapitating the action star. Jax continues to mention a mastermind behind these killers, Shang Tsung. He doesn’t say much about him other than he holds an underground tournament where the world’s deadliest killers fight to the death. We aren’t really told if he is an immortal or not.

Jax goes on to make an offer to Hasashi that he can go back out on the streets, but he must find out where this tournament is being held. Officer Briggs continues to tell him to kill all of the others and win the tournament; but the prisoner has no interest. Soon after, Officer Sonya Blade enters the room with files on Sub-Zero. We soon learn that Hanzo Hasashi was once the greatest assassins in the world. Sonya then tells him that he killed Sub-Zero’s brother and the real Sub-Zero is still very much alive. By this point, we start to realize who this Hanzo Hasashi really is. (If you didn’t already know.) This little bit of information get’s Hasashi interested and he gets up in a rage and walks to the door. As Jax calls his name, Hasashi turns around and states that Hanzo Hasashi is dead and demands to be called Scorpion. The trailer ends with the classic Scorpion catch phrase, “Get over here!”

Now I was very excited upon seeing this trailer. Mainly because I thought it was for an actual movie. But according to Jeri Ryan, the actress who played Sonya Blade and from Star Trek: Voyager fame; the trailer was nothing more than an idea from director Kevin Tancharoen. The trailer was made as a pitch to Warner Brothers, but we are not yet sure if they have accepted it or not. As a long time fan of the series, I really hope they do. I’m sure will make quite a few Mortal Kombat fanboys pretty upset, but I think a reboot is just what this once great franchise needs.

Check out the video for yourself!

A New Game

Speaking of Warner Brothers and Mortal Kombat, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has acquired the rights to the franchise and plan to bring it back to it’s former glory. The new game, simply titled Mortal Kombat is scheduled to be released in 2011 and is being developed by series creator Ed Boon with the newly named NetherRealm Studios. The new Mortla Kombat is said to be “the most brutal installment of the landmark fighting game to date for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,” and it will have a Mature rating said to be pushing the boundaries just enough to keep from receiving an Adults Only rating.

The new Mortal Kombat is going back to the series’ 2D fighting roots with a brand new graphics engine. The game is said to have even gorier Fatalities than its predecessors and even Tag Team play as well as other yet-to-be-announced gameplay modes. This new chapter is also said to feature a deeper Story Mode than any other fighting game to date.

Official Quotes About the Upcoming Game

“We are bringing the Mortal Kombat franchise back to gamers with the talented NetherRealm Studios team creating the game fans long to play,” said Martin Tremblay, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Re-establishing the brand with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Mortal Kombat innovates on past games while staying true to the brand’s legendary characters and fighting style.”

“We can’t wait for players to get their hands on Mortal Kombat,” said Ed Boon, Creative Director, NetherRealm Studios. “This game really is a response to what players have been demanding: mature presentation, reinvented 2D fighting mechanic and the best, most gruesome fatalities ever!”

Confirmed Characters

• Johnny Cage
• Kung Lao
• Mileena
• Nightwolf
• Raiden
• Reptile
• Sektor
• Shao Khan
• Sub-Zero

And I’m sure there’s many more to come.

Announcement Trailer

10. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Mile High Club – 20G

Starting off the list, is Modern Warfare’s famous Mile High Club. Many gamers try for this achievement, as it’s seen as one the ultimate bragging rights for COD fans. All you have to do for this achievement is to “Sky dive to safety on Veteran difficulty”. Doesn’t sound to tough, right? Well we’re forgetting that you’re taking on an entire plane full of terrorists on the hardest difficulty level. Culminating in a hostage rescue as your intended target hides behind his hostage. Oh yeah.. I forgot to add that you have to do the whole thing in less than 60 seconds and all you have flash bangs. While it’s not the hardest achievement on the list, its definitely one that’s going to drive your patience.

9. The Orange Box – Neighborhood Watch – 35G

The Orange Box holds some very tricky achievements. I’m talking without enabling the cheats here; real achievement hunters and gamers earn there achievements without cheats. There was a few I could have chosen for this game, such as “The One Free Bullet”. Where you play though Episode one, having only fired one bullet. Or there’s “Get Some Grub” The annoying achievement that has you trying to squish every antlion grub in Episode 2. Even “Little Rocket Man” where you carry a garden gnome though out all of Episode 2 could have made this list. But the achievement that I found the hardest in The Orange Box was “Neighborhood Watch“.

This Achievement has you trying to stop 13 Striders from destroying any buildings near the end of the story in Episode 2. You have to keep up with each Strider and defend yourself from any Hunters while getting out of your car to shoot the bombs. This Achievement is incredibly frustrating that I never managed to get it after hours of trying.

8. Gears Of War II – Seriously 2.0 – 50G

It’s not that this is a really hard achievement, its just very, very time consuming. People who got the “Seriously” achievement in the original Gear Of War were most likely annoyed upon seeing this “Seriously 2.0”. You see “Seriously” had you kill a total of 10,000 people in a versus ranked match for this achievement. Well, “Seriously 2.0” takes it a step further, this time you have to kill 100,000.

The good thing is that this can be done in any mode, even single player. So it’s not just stuck to ranked versus matches; it adds up total kills and campaign kills too.

7. Dead Rising – Seven Day Survivor – 20G

This achievement is quite famous. Mainly due to the fact you have to play for a solid 22 hours straight. As the name suggests, all you have to do is survive the zombie infested mall for 7 in-game days. Which is roughly around 22 hours, real-time. What really makes this achievement so hard is that you can’t save. Meaning if you die, you have to do it all again. You can’t really take many breaks from the game, due to having to be constantly on guard of any zombies that may break your barricade. The psychopaths bosses can respawn upon a map refresh and without warning. If that’s not bad enough, Frank’s life is constantly depleting. And it can only be restored with food, which is scatted throughout the mall, but in limited supply.

6. Left 4 Dead 2 – The Real Deal – 35G

Beating Left 4 Dead on Expert isn’t easy. You need to be a master of the game, knowing which weapon is right for which situation, know the maps, and overall be a master of teamwork. So what happens when you throw in Realism Mode? Yup, this achievement, expects you to beat a campaign on Expert difficulty, in Realism Mode.

Realism mode removes the auras usually shown around players through walls. Also, the auras around items are only visible within a few feet, making the game require more communication and teamwork. Realism mode also makes bodyshots less effective to the Common Infected, meaning headshots are the way to go.

The only weapons that can kill regardless of where they hit is the M60 and the Magnum. Rescue closets are removed, making the Defibrillator the only way to revive dead Survivors. Witches kill instantly. Speech bubbles over the Survivors are disabled when speaking via the microphone, although the speech bubble still appear above the character’s icon. Doesn’t sound to tough on paper, but give it a try and see how tough this can be.

5. BlazBlue – Leonidas – 40G

Another achievement that sounds easy, all you have to do is beat Score Attack Mode. Only this is the hardest mode  in BlazBlue and it’s the hardest achievement in the game. The AI is much more harder than Hell difficulty. You can’t change the difficulty ether. Each battle is fixed at 2 rounds and 99 seconds each. The last four characters are all in their unlimited forms with Ragna as the final boss with a LOT of life. This achievement is really unfair towards the player, and the AI will pull out all the cheap tricks when it needs to, so you don’t win. You need to be a pretty good at BlazBlue and most other 2D fighting games to even attempt this achievement.

4. Star Ocean: The Last Hope – Ultimate Battler – 10G

This Achievement requires you to collect all 100 battle trophies in the game. All are acquired though battles and some are really easy, such as “cure an ally who has curse status”. But then you have the incredibly hard ones such as “Deal exactly 55,555 points of damage “ meaning if you get 55,556 with your attack you don’t get the battle trophy. There are 100 battle trophies in total and they’ll require a massive amount of playtime and patience to get them all. A quick Google search will find you the battle trophy list if your interested to see how hard this Achievement is. And all you get for it is a lousy 10 gamer points!

3. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter – World Champion – 40G

World Champion requires you to climb to the top of the universal leaderboard, to gain the 40G. One Problem, this achievement is near impossible to get. According to my research there’s around 19 people who have achieved this. Only 19 people out of the millions who have played it. GRAW did quite well in sales and even won the BAVGA Award for Best Game. Looks like someone forgot to award it with most hardest multi-player achievement.

To get this achievement legibly, you have to become the highest level on solo and team leaderboards, which then boosts your rank on the universal leaderboard. However a few people have done this by using a boost effort, which, whilst quicker than the legit way, still takes a good few weeks to complete. And it takes a lot of set up and communication with 4 other people who have the game and are willing to boost as much as you are to achieve.

2. Mega Man 10 – Mr. Perfect – 30G

Mega Man games are known for the tough gameplay, however this achievement is just crazy and next to impossible. “Beat The Game Without Taking Any Damage”, that’s right, beat the whole game without getting hit once. The only way you’re going to do this, is by putting the game on “easy” and lots and lots of practice.

1. Final Fantasy XI – Level Up Any Job To Its Maximum Level. – 30G

Obtaining just one of these achievements will take you around four to six months of gaming, provided you can put in around nine hours a day and that you don’t have to spend a lot of time getting a party organized. That’s half a year, for one achievement. On top of that, you have to pay a monthly subscription to keep on playing. Other achievements on this list may take hundreds of hours to complete, but the time commitment involved in this achievement and the fact you have to pay each month, puts it on a whole new level . It is inconceivable that anyone would ever get a full thousand points in this game as the servers will most likely be shut down or the end of the world would have happened.

These are some of the most time consuming and toughest achievements out there that I’ve come across. Disagree or agree with this list? Has you achieved any of these achievements? If so, let us know in the comment box below!

Overall, I feel the beta is good. The beta is nothing amazing, no big surprises. It’s just another version of my favorite gaming series. To me, this feels like a mix of Halo 2 and 3, with the concept of classes thrown in.

I’ve been a big Halo player since the release of Halo 2 years ago. Reach still feels like Halo to me. After getting used to the slightly new controls, I felt like I was playing Halo 3 again and my decent Kill/Death ratio proved it. If you didn’t like Halo before, this game won’t change your mind.

New Abilities

I like the new abilities, though I feel that Airborne and Stealth are the only worthwhile ones about 95% of the time. Guard can be useful in certain situations though, especially if you know your opponent has a rocket launcher. Just throw up your shield when they fire and watch the rocket reflect right back at them. It’s pretty funny!

Airborne is my favorite new ability. I like the feel of the jetpacks and being able to easily get to high points on the maps.

New Weapons & Attacks

The replacement for BR (the DMR) seems okay to me. I didn’t realize until recently that you’re not supposed to shoot it like a BR. Even still, I did shoot it like a BR, and it worked okay for me. I look forward to shooting it correctly. I’ve heard that you need to aim more carefully and shoot it slower than you would a BR from Halo 2 or 3.

The melee system is weird. I basically just try to avoid melee now unless I absolutely know that I’ve shot my opponent to hell and a melee attack will finish them off. The special assassin attack is amusing, though I have to resist the temptation to do it since it leaves me vulnerable.

Invasion Mode

My girlfriend and I played some Invasion last night and I think it’s alright. Part of the reason I’m not a big fan is because we were teamed up with awful teammates. I don’t mind if you suck as long as I can tell you’re trying your best. If you just stand still half the time, why are you even playing? It would be a fun mode with a good group of friends, but unfortunately your party will be split up in the Invasion mode. Bungie should correct this in a future release.

Bungie has some kinks to work out but overall it’s Halo! Sure, the grenades are a little too strong. Sure, you can’t just depend on one weapon (the BR) anymore. But I like some of these changes and the beta is promising. It looks like I’ll pickup Halo Reach for sure.

Looking for more? Check out our Halo Reach wallpaper gallery.