One game that best exemplifies and personifies the perfection that all their games have boasted of this generation is a game that, originally, wasn’t even released separately. It was just a part of a compilation, but it was this very game that made that specific compilation, The Orange Box, what it is considered to be. That game is Portal, Valve’s best title this generation.

Portal was a First Person Adventure game, much like the last generation’s beautiful title, Metroid Prime, and not a First Person Shooter. The game had practically no enemies at all, and all it concentrated on puzzles and platforming. It provided for a very unique and refreshing formula, driving the gaming industry forward with a boost of innovation and perfection. What was best about Portal was that it was almost equally good on all the three systems it was released on (Xbox 360, PS3, PC).

It was received by rave reviews all over the board. Critics and gamers alike cited it as one of the best games to have been released in recent memory, and Portal immediately became a fan favourite, and soon, the clamouring for a sequel of Portal began. I know we have been waiting for the third episode of Half Life 2 for quite some time now, but Valve listens to its fans, and once again, Valve has obliged. We are getting a sequel to the much acclaimed Portal, and Portal 2 will be with us not any later than February next year.

But Portal’s legacy is not an easy one to live up to. Being the legendary game that Portal was, its sequel will definitely have a hard time living up to the name it bears. And thus, question, doubts, and often, apprehensions are seeded in fans of the first Valve puzzle game. Will it be as good as it is hyped to be? Will it stand up to it’s legacy, to its predecessor’s acclaim? Will it surprise us and innovate in the same way the original Portal did?

Those are questions that can answered, but the asnwers are something that cannot be re-affirmed right now. So for now, let us satiate or thirst for more Portal by targeting these questions one by one.

Portal 2- Wondrous Gameplay

The Aperture Science Enrichment Center, Portal 2′s version of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, will make the player face similar challenges as Portal. We, the players, will face the same challenging puzzles and platforming sections that we came to love in Portal. For those who are not acquainted with Portal’s gameplay, the aforementioned gun, referred to as the Portal gun, is used to create two distinct portal ends, orange and blue. The portals create a visual and physical connection between two different locations in three-dimensional space. Neither end is specifically an entrance or exit; all objects that travel through one portal will exit through the other (quoted from Wikipedia).

Thanks, IGN!

This gameplay mechanic provides for an immense element of strategy, adding innumerable layers of depth and complexity to the gameplay. Seeing how good this mechanic worked out in Portal, and the fact that it will be returning in Portal 2, is simply a re-assurance than Portal 2 will be one heck of a game.

Not only that- several new additions such as the Pneumatic Diversity Vents (ability to use air currents to push a turret over or to draw objects into the suction), Excursion Funnel (bring players or other objects to otherwise inaccessible areas) and Propulsion/Repulsion Gel (boosts player’s speed as she crosses a surface/ allows players to jump from a surface) will be featured in the game. Many new means of transporting in the game’s environment will also be incorporated.

One pretty neat addition in the game, something that the original Portal was unable to boast of, is co-op. Let’s have a look at it:

Co-op Gameplay

FREA-KING. AWE-SOME.

Portal 2 will allow two players toplay through the campaign co-operatively. In this mode of the game, both the players will be given separate Portal guns (though one can use the other player’s portals if need be), and to avoid any confusion, the colour of both the players’ portals will be different, for the sake of convenience. In this co-op mode, players will face several sections that will be more challenging than they would be in the single player capmiagn, encouraging both the players to work together. Split screen will be available for those who will be playing locally, and those who play online will be able to have temporary split-screen, so that they can play what to do next together more easily. Not only will the players have the ability to voice chat during this mode, they will also be able to use in the game to signal their partners what they plan to do next.

As is pretty apparent from the information above, the new co-op will definitely add even more depth and replayablity to the already complex and fun formula of the game. We will have to wait and watch about that, though, as it is something we have never seen in a Portal game. Although, it looks like an interesting idea.

Best On The PlayStation 3

Valve are known to be rabid PS3 haters, especially Doug Lombardi. His announcement at E3, then, that their upcoming game, Portal 2, would be best on Sony’s home console, PlayStation 3, came as a huge surprise to us.

But what will be so good about the PS3 version that will make it the best version of Portal 2, better even than the PC version. Valve have already announced they will not be supporting 3D or Move, so they cannot be it. So what is it then? I’ll tell you: it’s the PC-PS3 interconnectivity. Valve have said that the general idea is that “you will be able to play between PS3 and PC.”

Of course it hasn’t been confirmed yet. All Valve have said is that it is “something the team is gunning for.” But then again, what other explanation can you think of? How, other then this, can the PS3 version turn out to be the best of all? This, according to us, is the only plausible explanation.

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Portal 2 will release for the Mac OS, PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 February next year. What are your expectations from the game? Tell us via your comments.

We got a chance to play through the first four levels of Dog Days. As many of you will have gathered from trailers and teasers, the game takes place in Shanghai, China. The levels are suitably filled with seedy looking bars, dodgy apartments and grim looking fishmongers, the citizens eyeing you at every step.

The preview placed us in Lynch’s shoes as he attempts to give a low-life a shakedown, which quickly escalates into all-out warfare on the streets. The mechanics have changed little since the previous game- you’ll still be hiding behind cover, popping out for a few shots then moving up. However the entire cover system has been reworked- for the better. Whereas Dead Men had you shifting your body around until you made your character parallel with the wall at which point he would magically stick to it, Dog Days now uses a simple one-button approach. Hit one button and your character will automatically snap onto any nearby cover, whether it be a wall, a car, a table, whatever.

The two protagonists are a couple of gangsters with a complicated relationship.

The shooting however, is not so satisfying. It seems that every gun in the game has pretty shocking accuracy, as the crosshairs remain fairly spaced throughout, and there are no iron sights. The guns generally have pretty pathetic kick, with only one or two weapons truly satisfying our inner psychopath.

Fortunately, the game has again far surpassed the original with its AI. It’s still not the smartest you might encounter, and it doesn’t hold a candle to the kind of AI found in Crysis, but it’s light years ahead of Dead Men. While your allies and enemies alike had a habit of standing in the open and taking shots full to the face, they now stick to cover, and they are pretty reluctant to stick more than a hand out of cover if you’re popping shots over their heads.

The various squalid locales make up the backdrpo for many of the shootouts.

Cover is now temporary in many cases. One scene has you battling police SWAT teams in a restaurant while partitions explode all around you and your cover disintegrates. Some levels allow you to throw cans of fuel around, which are good for knocking out any particularly stubborn bits of cover. The preview didn’t give us access to any other indirect fire weapons such as grenades though, so flushing enemies out of cover could be rather tricky. We expect this is a feature we will see in the full game though.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has one major problem however- it looks downright fugly. Not content with just a few jaggies, the games explosions look like something out of Wolfenstein 3D and the characters in cutscenes lack perspective and detail. The entire game also plays out with some sort of a permanent grain filter which makes it look like you’re playing the game on your dad’s old TV that still uses a clothes hanger for an aerial. When we saw the initial screenshots from the game we thought that they were just badly developed- but I’m afraid to say, the game does in fact look just like this.

After all that’s said and done though, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is still a vast improvement on the lacklustre original, and holds together all the basic third person shooter mechanics fairly well. But when it releases next month, it’s going to be up against strong competition, particularly from Mafia 2, releasing just over one week later on August 24.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days releases on August 17 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

Up close and real personal.

My first impressions of the game are heightened by my absolute infatuation with the song “New Noise” by Refused. It’s the perfect blend of epic build up and power driving chorus. The demo also features the song that insists that the “boom” is coming, and let me tell you that the intigration of music in the actual game play is absolutely one hundred and ten percent perfect. My knees got weak, and my butt started to sweat as somehow the timing for hits and kick-offs are perfect. Nothing gets a hardcore gamer with good taste in music in the zone like a synced out soundtrack.

Graphics are lacking in some areas, and really good in others. Ill look more into that when I can actually fully examine Backbreakers in its entirety. As far as I can tell it almost looks futuristic. The pads are not traditional and the stadiums are pretty crazy as well. You can choose night, day, and rain, but no snow. That’s possibly just a demo thing but who knows, developers have been known to pull a head scratcher or two from time to time.

Feel a little concussed? $#@!

The main goal of Backbreakers in my opinion was not to make a successful football game although they may have, but to really cut out all the horse malarkey and make a damn good physics engine. Its real good, and from what I can tell there aren’t many glitches in it. The contact is great and clipping is kept at a minimal, once again when I can actually get my hands on the full version here shortly Ill look into gratuitous amounts of detail on all the skimmed topics above.

It’s a whole new way to play football, all I can say is that if you’re a Madden fan don’t get ready to jump off the bandwagon. Just be ready to play football in a way that you could have never imagined before. It’s a weird set-up but the more you play the more fun it becomes. It’s absolutely worth a download so go get the demo and start crushing some backs.

Backbreaker physics video.

The story of the game is that there is a giant Teddy Bear birthday party…but Naughty Bear wasn’t invited. Naughty Bear decides the right thing to do is to bring Daddles a present anyways, but on his way to deliver it he gets laughed at by the other bears. Naughty then realizes what he should do in light of this.

Go on a Homicidal Rampage, terrorize the other bears, and brutally murder them.

Teach Those Bears a Lesson

The game itself plays like a cross between an adventure and stealth game. The main objective is to complete level objectives, get revenge on the other bears, and collect Naughty Points. Your Naughty Points are what is used to score your efforts, and can be achieved in many different ways.

You get Naughty Points by scaring, and killing the other bears, but outright murder isn’t the best option if you are going for lots of points. The key to the game is the ability to scare the stuffing out of one of the bears, and let him live to tell the others his tale. The more scared you can get the bears, the higher your multiplayer will get, and the more creative you are with how you deal with them, the more points you can get. But you have to be careful, if you let a scared bear go, he could call the cops-or the army. You have to find the balance of where you can still keep Naughty safe while scaring.

You have many different weapons, traps, and environmental hazards you can use to your advantage against the other bears to help you score points. There are conventional weapons like machetes, cricket bats, guns and hammers, but you can also use things like fridges, cake mixers, electrical boxes and BBQ’s. There are also unlockable costumes and hats that will make the bears in the world act differently towards you. Naughty Bear claims to have incredible replay value because of how many different ways you can go through each level.

Naughty Bear has Weapons Galore

The lasting appeal here isn’t just the core game mechanic, its the presentation. Sure there are plenty of games out like Gears of War that are full of gore, but Naughty Bear takes the comical approach. Instead of buckets of blood being sprayed around, the bears explode into clouds of stuffing. Instead of manly grunts and screams, its high pitched wails and shrieks. It’s the overall feel of taking something innocent and twisting it into a horror movie, and it’s hilarious.

But wait there is more! Naughty Bear actually has a multiplayer mode. So after you are done murdering helpless AI Teddy’s, you can hop online and compete against other real people. The modes announced so far are an Oddball like Cake Walk mode, where one bear has to hold onto a cake for as long as possible while avoiding enemy bears. A Scavenge like Jelly mode, where 3 bears have to run into the woods and collect plates of Jelly while a player controlling Naughty Bear lurks in the shadows. There is also Assault, a 2v2 game type where one team is defending a gold statue while the other is trying to destroy it, and Golden Uzi, a game type like Juggernaut where one bear has a golden uzi and the others try to kill him and take that Uzi.

Naughty Bear is the type of game you don’t want to miss. It is going to go under a lot of gamers radars, but the ones who do find it are going to have a rare gem. Naughty Bear comes to the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 June 29^th.

And for horror fans, don’t miss Amazon and Gamestop’s pre-order bonuses, a Freddy Krueger Costume from Amazon and a Jason Vorhees Costume from Gamestop.

Keep in mind this is only a beta, and I hope Dice fixes all of the problems or at least the major ones found in the “Ugly” section.

The Good:

Controls:

Fans of Bad Company 2 will find this game to be very familiar, which is why I did, the controls and movement makes it feel like it’s a battlefield game, makes sense since its made by Dice.

Maps:

The maps that are in the beta are pretty good, and I’m sure that if a lot of you are already bored with the middle east style maps due to playing too much Modern Warfare 2, Medal of Honor will not change that.

Customization:

One of the key things to success these days is customization, and though you don’t have that choice in the beginning (like every other shooter), once you level up you will unlock some better magazines, scopes, weapons and camouflages.

Rewards for kill streaks:

Similar to Call of Duty, the game rewards you with things like UAV’s and Mortar Strikes once you get a number of kiils in a row, which is really awesome.

The Bad:

Graphics:

They are just dated, not horrible, but dated, nothing amazing. I can easily compare a 2007 shooter that looks better, known as Call of Duty 4.

Sniper Rifles are horrible:

Sniper Rifles just don’t work they way they are supposed to:

Firstly, the sniper rifle for the Marines is not even a sniper rifle, but I can understand why they gave that weapon to that class, and both the Taliban and US sniper rifles just don’t work good, I had to shoot someone over 4 times just to kill him, with a sniper rifle!

M16 is stronger than the Ak47:

Seriously, that makes no sense.

Team play:

Coming from Dice, team play is a big aspect of their games, such as in Bad Company 2, I could easily communicate with my buddies without using a microphone, Medal of Honor just doesn’t give you that and even in the mission type games I felt like a lonewolf all the time.

It’s Dice, yet no destruction:

Even though its Dice, who are known for delivering a high quality destruction engine known as FrostBite that can be found in a game like Bad Company, I was surprised to see that it just wasn’t there, and felt like Modern Warfare.

The Ugly:

Constant Freezes:

The game just froze on me at least 3 times and i had to restart my console, nothing else can be said about that.

Delay:

Getting killed is one thing, but having a delay of about 2-3 seconds is horrible, meaning that once you do get killed, the game just freezes for 3 seconds and then you get to respawn, I’m sure everyone experiences this.

Explosions:

Now I’m not talking about the looks of them (though they are not good), I’m talking about them being too small, they seriously look horrible and have a horrible effect on your enemies and the environment.

Lags:

I had to knife some one two times in order to kill him, and even though he died on my first hit, I still had to shoot him to guarantee his death.

Can’t get off hills:

I happened to respawn on a hill twice, and even though it looked like I could get off, both times I was unable to get off and had to kill myself.

Overall Thoughts:

Even though the game is fun and I would recommend that you will try it out, it suffers from a lot of problems that just have to be fixed, and even though its still a beta, I have never played a beta that suffers the way Medal of Honor does.

If I have missed anything or maybe you found some things to be good/bad/ugly, let us know in the comments below.

The Medal of Honor beta goes live on June 21 on the PS3 and PC, the 360 version has been delayed till next week.

Let me start by talking about the single player campaign. The game starts a bit in the past, The Optimus Prime is just beginning his rise to power and putting together the Autobots, while Megatron is himself doing the same. The game uses two separate campaigns that guide you through the story. You can choose to play either the Decepticon or Autobot campaign first, but the Decepticon campaign takes place first in time.

There will be a cast of familiar robots, like Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime), Bumblebee (the original, not the version from the recent films), Grimlock, Ironhide, Jazz, and Kup. On the Decepticon side there is Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Thundercracker and Skywarp. All these names should be familiar to anyone who has seen the original animated series or movie.

The Real Bumblebee is Back

Developer interviews have revealed that the story of the game is going to heavily focus on the start of the conflict between the Decepticons and Autobots, as well as dig a little deeper into the motives and personalities of the Transformers themselves.

So what about the Multiplayer? Honestly, what makes this game perk players ears is not a single player campaign, its the well done multiplayer.

First off we have Escalation mode, a take on the ever so popular horde wave after wave of enemies survival mode. You can choose to play as Autobots or Decepticons, and the goal is to last as long as you can against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. What brings a refreshing twist is the class system in War for Cybertron, which is in effect during Escalation mode.

You will have the choice of playing 4 different classes in the multiplayer modes:

Scout- A small, quick, stealthy wielder of shotguns, pistols and sniper rifles.

Soldier- The Heavy Weapons Robot, wielding Rocket launchers, machine guns and gatling guns, as well as devastating melee attacks.

Leader- The Leader is exactly what he sounds like, a big robot who INSPIRES Buffs his teammates.

Scientist- Every game needs a medic, and the scientist is just that.

Expect Numerous Gritty Battles

The Escalation mode has also taken a few ideas from other popular Wave based survival games. By killing enemies, you earn credits, and at the end of each round, these credits are used to buy health, weapons, and ammo. Weapons and ammo are self explanatory, but the reason for buying health packs is because of the way health is handled. You have regenerating health, but your total health is divided into sections, and you can only regenerate enough to fill the section you are currently at. So for example, if you are shot down to 46% of your health, you will only regenerate to the 50% mark.

When you run out of health, you are knocked into the down-but-not-out stage, where you are crippled on the ground, but can still shoot, and still be revived, and as an added bonus, if you don’t get revived, you can activate a personal self destruct.

The actual head to head multiplayer has a few different game types such as Team Deathmatch, Free for all, and a Domination node like game type.

War for Cybertron is also using the character progression model that has worked so well for the Modern Warfare series, allowing players to level up each class, customize weapons, armor abilities and Perk like bonuses…as well as Kill Streaks. All of these upgrades are unlocked by leveling through playing each class. The upgrades and abilities give you the option to play each class in numerous different ways.

And by far the coolest multiplayer aspect: When you click in the left stick to sprint, you transform into a car, or plane…awesome.

Transformers: War for Cybertron has all the ingredients of a great game, add in the nostalga factor for Transformers fans, and it turns into a must have. Transformers: War for Cybertron hits stores June 22^nd for the Xbox360 and Playstion 3, and don’t miss the Gamestop pre-order bonus to get Shockwave as a playable character.

Don't Miss Your Chance to Play as Shockwave

Planet Minigolf takes mini golfing to a whole new level and gives the players a new fun and exciting way to play. The levels are just over the top and super fun. In the demo you get to play a few holes on the first location which is tropical and pirate ships. Each course is based on a different location around the world, which makes for a lot of fun.

Yaarrr! Land Lover's be playin' Minigolf!

Players can collect power-ups on the holes, but you have to use them strategically as sometimes they lead you away from the hole. Some of these power-ups include the magnetic upgrade which basically sinks your ball instantly, and there is always the speed boost power up. Probably my favorite though is the control your ball power up, it felt like in Space Jam, I was able to turn the ball any direction and aim it right for the hole. There is something fun about this game and I can’t stop playing the demo.

Players, from my under standing can customize many different thing about there characters from looks, to names, and everything else in between. Customization has almost become a must in most casual games like this. The character they give you in the demo is an interesting average Joe character, goatee equipped.

There is fun and humorous commentary set up so that it almost feels like mini golfing is a professional sport. I love the way the game feels, I almost feel like I’m on television, in a mini golf tournament. They always encourage you when you’re doing well, and unfortunately I found out several times, they also like to let you know when you’re not doing so hot.

All jokes aside...DOUBLE BOGEY!

You have to use the left analog stick to swing and even though it does work decently, I still feel like there could have been a better way. It accomplishes the job most of the time but there where a few situations where I just couldn’t get a hold of the power concept and either over shot on accident or under shot severely.

The sounds are good and everything about this game was done a thousand times better than I have ever imagined it to be. I can’t wait to buy the full version and get the full review up. So if you’re interested in a new style put-put game than Planet Minigolf in my opinion, may be the game for you.

The game itself follows the storyline of the first 4 Harry Potter books, bridging together the story with cutscenes where lego characters pantomime key scenes from the story, usually in a more comical way than originally written. After these cutscenes you are tossed into a level that corresponds with that part of the story, and that’s where the fun begins. While playing through these levels, there are multitudes of set pieces you can interact with. By casting the spell Wingardium Leviosa (levitation charm), you can shake, rattle and explode studs, the lego currency, out of candlesticks, tables, plants, and sometimes even people. The studs act as a strong game mechanic, because they unlock things from clothing options to secret characters, and there are thousands of them to collect each level.

Scenes from the game, performed by LEGOs

Aside from the basic game mechanic, each of the over 100 playable characters have slightly different abilities they can use. Throughout the game our wizardly characters like Harry, Ron, and Hermione, will learn spells taken straight from the novels which they can use to manipulate the world. There are also characters who have different abilities, like Hagrids brute strength, Fangs ability to dig, and Ron’s pet rat Scabbers ability to fit into small places. The first time you play through a level, you will be provided with characters who have apt abilities to allow you to finish, but once you unlock the free play mode, you can bring in whatever characters you want, allowing you to access parts of the map that were impossible to reach before.

Play as a wide cast of characters

The game may sound like a stroll through the park because of unlimited continues and generally docile enemies, but its not really a game that focuses too hard on combat, it’s about exploration, and puzzles. There are now moments in this lego world where you will have to find and then re-arrange lego blocks to form staircases, as well as using specific magical spells on the environment to summon up ladders, bridges, or completely reform the terrain. There was even a moment in the demo when I got stuck because I didn’t know I had to destroy the vines that were wrapped around a large block that ended up being a switch to operate a bridge. There are also hidden items strewn about the levels, as well as the reward of collecting a threshold number of studs per level.

Last but not least, there will be a builder mode. Once unlocked by collecting enough golden bricks (from completing levels), you will have the opportunity to create and play inside your own Harry Potter themed lego worlds. A nice added bonus that I have not seen in the other Lego games.

So if you are a Lego fan, Harry Potter fan, or just looking to try something new, look for Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 coming July 29^th, for the 360, ps3, Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

The tournament mode is cool and I literally spent as much time as I could to play every match up trying to get every inch of the demo in my head. Each character is based on their personal fighting style; this makes it hard to get comfortable. Just when you think you can defeat every opponent with power punching, you have to fight “Sugar” Rashad Evans who has a dominating ground game. In fact Sugar was the only fighter I was unable to beat on the hardest difficulty.

UFC 2009 was not easy to play if you turn the difficulty to hard and 2010 is no exception. Maintaining a very hard and quite steep learning curve, the ground game is what I always seem to lose to. It’s hard to best your opponent when there are specific ways to get out of certain positions. Especially on a harder difficulty when the computer can react to your moves at a very fast rate.

Great visuals, screenshot not from demo.

The best features of this game are the visuals. I have never seen modeling so good in all my life. These blow Fight Nights fighter models out of the ring. I honestly have played this demo more than 90 percent of the demos I have ever installed. It seems like they used the same knockout animation every time but this could be a demo feature. I would have rather them used a physics rag doll system for knock outs, but the pre-set animations do look realistic and believable.

I was a little creeped out looking at Rampage Jackson and actually believing it was him. The facial expressions on all of the characters are actually done to match how the fighters express victories and losses. There was a large amount of work done to make UFC 2010 much like watching actual UFC.

The cuts still look good and now you can actually get blood on your skin. I was actually quite shocked to see a bunch of blood on my characters chest and arms after a horribly gruesome battle. One issue that is still bugging me to the bitter end is that when a round ends, more often than not, a player’s face is reset to perfect with no cuts or swelling. I know that modern technology and high rates of income can insure the best in medical attention, but honestly this feels more like magic.

Another great screenshot. (not from demo)

There are new fighters that have been added since the last version of UFC, most of which coming from the Ultimate Fighter. You can now fight with people like Kimbo Slice and Big Country. This is probably one of the best updates seeing as that it’s just about the same game as 2009.

For the most part it felt like I was playing the older version with just a few new updates. UFC 2010 does boast new online features like being able to create teams and host online tournaments. These tournaments are hosted with standings on the UFC website.  It never gets old punching and kicking people in the head, and between UFC and Fight Night you can’t go wrong, if you are into realistic fighters than pick up a copy of UFC 2010. Download the demo first if you have never played though.

Halo Reach takes place shortly before the events of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, on the planet Reach, a military hub that also houses over 70,000 civilians. You play as Noble 6, a spartan 3. Spartan 3′s are a line of mass produced soldiers who lack the expert training and combat prowess that Master Chief and the other spartan 2′s had. Because of your weaker armor variant, the Spartan 3′s are scavengers who take what armor and upgrades they can from fallen soldiers on the field, and this explains why the armor sets have so many Permutations this time around.

You fight as part of fire team Noble, which consists of 5 other Spartans, Carter, Kat, Jun, Emile, and the Spartan 2 George. Bungie is again following the trend of the main Hero being a nameless, faceless entity, because supposedly that helps the player feel more immersed in the game, like they are actually there. Your objective is to protect the planet of Reach, which being the main military hub, if lost would prove devastating for the UNSC forces. That is it would be devastating if Master Chief wasn’t a One Man Army who could take on the entire universe, but in line with the story, we don’t even know he exists yet.

The Noble Team

The blessing comes most obviously in the form of the games multiplayer. Its obvious through Reach’s Open multiplayer beta that they are trying to create a near perfect specimen that can not only be enjoyable through Reach, but also used as the footwork for possible future titles to experiment with.

After spending hours inside the Beta, it has become obvious that Bungie is doing it right. They have taken a step back and analyzed other popular FPS titles, and incorporated parts of their success into their own game, but at the same time kept the multiplayer pure to what Halo fans would expect. The new weapons are fun and addicting to use, and provide a more streamlined feeling while playing the game. Gone are the dual wieldable weapons, and in there place are more situation specific replacements. So lets jump right in and talk about these weapons in depth.

Headshot Weapons

The Pistol, DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle), and Needle Rifle are the bread and butter of Halo reach. Each of these guns can Kill an opponent with 4 shots to the body and one to the head, or a single headshot if your enemies shield is down. And don’t forget, the sniper rifle is back.

Pistol- The Pistol comes standard in almost every load out. I have found through playing the beta that the Pistol is a must have weapon. With a bit of practice and skill, you can quickly learn how to bring the pistol into a fight against an assault rifle, and win nearly every time. It’s fast rate of fire allows for quick close range head shots, and even though it looks small, it packs a big punch.

DMR/Needle Rifle-Both these weapons act nearly the same, it’s all about aiming for the head and managing your recoil. Use this weapon from long range and pick people off as they try to cross the middle ground. The only thing to note is the cool effect of the Needle Rifles needles exploding as an enemy dies.

Sniper Rifle-The Sniper Rifle behaves a little differently than in previous Halo’s. Because of the new recoil system, you can’t pump out 4 shoots in a row like you could in the past. Instead, you have to time up a nice head shot, or else its going to be a few seconds before you can take another accurate shot.

Medium/Close Range Weapons

This time around our medium weapons are the Assault Rifle, Plasma Repeater, and the Needler. The Shotgun returns as the up close and personal weapon of choice.

Assault Rifle/Plasma Repeater- Both these weapons function like the Halo 3 Assault Rifle. The only difference is that now the AR has recoil, so slight burst fire is needed, but you should have been bursting in Halo 3 anyway. The Plasma Repeater is the big brother version of the Plasma Rifle, because of the removal of dual wielding, it was a needed buff. The Plasma Repeater functions like the Assault Rifle, only it overheats instead of running out of ammo.

Needler- The Needler comes back with all its Glory. Same basic strategy as always, unload a clip, watch people explode in Pink mist.

Shotgun-Also virtually unchanged. Get up close, shoot, and if they don’t die, punch.

Melee Weapons

Coming back is the Sword, Gravity Hammer, and the good old elbow. The big difference in this game is how the Melee mechanic has changed. If you Melee a player who still has shield left, the damage of the melee attack will only break their shield. A single Melee attack will kill someone without a shield, but not if they have any amount of shield left at all.

Sword- Same as Halo 3, right trigger for a big lunge, right bumper for a quick swipe. And of course, its still a 1 hit kill. The big difference this time around, a well timed melee attack can cause a clash, similar to when 2 swords hit each other in Halo 3.

Hammer- The big hammer is also virtually unchanged. Right trigger for the big slam, right bumper for a quick pommel strike. Try striking out of a Sprint, its devastating.

Basic Melee- Other than the new mechanic regarding shields, everything here should be familiar. You can still hit someone from behind for an instant kill, or you can hold down the button and perform a flourished assassination, with special animation.

Grenades

The Frag and Plasma grenade are back. Nothing special here.

Power Weapons

The power weapons we get in Reach are impressive. My personal new favorite is the Plasma Launcher. We also have the Rocket Launcher, Beam Rifle, and Grenade Launcher.

Plasma Launcher- This weapon is a Plasma Grenade launcher, and it has homing projectiles, and it is awesome. Charge it up, lock on and release a barrage of 1-4 grenades at the target (and yes it can lock onto players, not just vehicles). This weapon is nearly guaranteed to get a kill streak going.

Focus Rifle- This weapon could more easily be understood if it was called the Laser Gun. While holding down the trigger, the gun shoots a Laser, and that beam of Laser keeps going until you release the trigger or overheat. A great weapon to burn those ants…I mean enemies running across no mans land.

Rocket Launcher- The classic Rocket Launcher. Pull the trigger, make a big explosion, get points, and become the most feared and hated player on the battlefield.

Grenade Launcher- Another new weapon with two firing modes. Pull the right trigger to fire a frag grenade that explodes on a set timer, hold the right trigger and fire a grenade that explodes when the right trigger is released. An impressive weapon for trying to shoot around corners, and other hard to reach places where the enemy might be hiding.

The Jet Pack will take you to new height

Load outs

Load outs are the newest feature of Halo Reach that dramatically change the pace of battle. The load outs consist of a primary weapon, sometimes secondary weapon, grenade type, and Armor Ability. How they work is every time you spawn, you choose a load out. These load outs are all pre determined, and cannot be customized like in the Modern Warfare series that they are so commonly compared to. These preset load outs are geared toward a specific play style, and are not all available in all game types.

The armor abilities also require you to have some “Juice”, or energy to use them, and they consume this energy while you use them. Now lets talk about the Armor Abilities.

Sprint- Sprint allows your character to…well…Sprint, for a limited amount of time. This can be extremely useful when you are trying to run away from a fight, or run towards a fight without getting picked off, or running for a power weapon, health pack, to jump, in circles….it lets you run fast, which is always useful.

Jetpack- With the Jet Pack you can fly, for a limited amount of time. This allows you to attack a base and traverse a level in new ways. Use this vertical advantage to surprise your enemies, just be careful on the way down. If you fall from too high, your going to hurt your knees when you hit the ground, unless you crouch right as you land.

Armor Lock- With Armor Lock, your Spartan will punch the ground, and a bubble of energy will surround him, granting temporary invulnerability, as well as dropping the shields of any enemies standing too close as the bubble forms. There are many ways to use the armor lock, if you are stuck by a grenade, Armor Lock removes it, stops rockets or hammers or swords, and if you slam the ground next to an enemy, you have a perfect opportunity to get a quick headshot while his shield is down. Don’t underestimate this one.

Active Camo- Active Camo grants you that weird predator cloaking ability from previous games, as well as scrambling the enemies radar. The slower you move, the most invisible you are, and with the ability to cloak weapons like a hammer or sword, the Active Camo allows you to set up some mean ambushes and sneak attacks.

Evade- This is an Elite only Armor Ability. The Elites in the Beta only had Evade to utilize, but that does not mean its a bad ability. If you have ever seen an Elite in single player dive out of the way of a grenade, you have seen Evade. This ability is similar to sprint in the way it allows you to travel more quickly, but is slightly more effective in how you move at such a fast speed from a dead stop.

The Armor Permutations really show off some Style

Player Investment

So I’ve told you about the weapons and Loadouts, now lets talk about player investment. In Halo reach Bungie is allowing you to build a character that, through player investment, you can truly make your own. The player investment system exists in the form of credits, the more credits you have, the higher rank you will achieve. With higher ranks, there are more armor permutations you can unlock through the new Armory.

The Armory is similar to the armor customization in Halo 3, only now you can buy parts for your suit. When you first delve into the armory, you notice that its not going to be an easy trip to unlock some of the high rank permutations, basically, things get expensive.

Now you can earn credits a few ways, the first being the most basic, multiplayer matches. Since this is assumed, I will skip over that. The second way is through challenges. There will be Daily, Weekly, and Monthly challenges. These challenges will also take place in both single player and multiplayer, and could range from killing a certain amount of players to a part of the campaign in a strange fashion.

Now for the more hardcore style of distinguishing yourself. The Arena

The Arena

The Arena is pretty basic at heart, play matches, get a rating. The matches consist of certain team sizes and game types per season, seasons being a set amount of time such as a month or 2 weeks. Every day if you play at least 3 matches, you will get a rating. From there, you can play as many more matches in that same day to get a better rating. Since the Arena only factors in your 3 BEST scores from a single day, there is no reason not to play as many as possible. Your rating is determined by factors such as Kill to Death ratio, assists, average life team, and betrayals. In the Arena, you are being encouraged to play as a good teammate, not as a crazy lone wolf. Now after you get a few daily ratings, you will be put in a division, these divisions spawn from Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and finally Onyx.

Key point of information here, the HIGHER your Arena score, the better. So if you get your first rating and it says 300, don’t get too excited. You aren’t ranked 300^th in the world, you are actually quite low.

Game Types

So now you know about the Arena, there is one more thing left to talk about, New game types. Slayer, capture the flag, oddball…most of the classics are back, so I will talk about the ones we haven’t seen before.

Head Hunter- This game type quickly became a personal favorite. The objective of the game is to kill an enemy, run over and pick up the skulls that flew out of his dead body, then bring those skulls to a collection circle and get points. Sounds easy, but it gets hectic. After a few minutes of playing the game, the amount of skulls on the field gets insane, and everyone is trying to hoard them all. To make matters worse, the collection circle keeps moving.

Stockpile- An interesting twist on capture the flag. Each team has a capture circle, and there are numerous flags scattered around the map. The objective is to bring as many flags as possible back to your collection circle, and hold them until the circle pings and collects all the flags. Because the collection of the flags is on a timer, it allows for you to sneakily snag flags out of the enemy circle and drop them right a the circle pings, allowing for those flags not to count towards their score.

Invasion- Invasion is a game type that needs some work. On its first day in the Beta, it was obvious that the Spartans had an advantage over the Elites. Invasion works similar to Conquest mode in Battlefield Bad Company 2, where one team, the Elites, are attack and the other, the Spartans, are defending. The objective here is to capture control points and advance down the map towards a Phantom. With each control point that is captured, a new area of the map is unlocked, new load outs are made available, and power weapons and vehicles are dropped into the mix. The game type has potential, but needs some serious fine tuning before it goes live.

The biggest problem so far is the spawning system. You have the ability to spawn on teammates, but only if they are out of combat. For some reason, the game is extremely sensitive in regards to the terms of what out of combat means. Because of this you can get stuck in painfully long respawn times, or you can be forced to spawn extremely far away from the objective, and given the time limit, spawning far away can be fatal for your teams success. Hopefully these issues will be worked out by this Fall.

Generator Defense- In this game type 3 Spartans have to protect 3 generators against 3 Elites. The Spartans have the ability to activate a shield on the generators that lasts for 30 seconds, and the Elites can use any means necessary to destroy the generators when they are vulnerable.

Generator Defense is another game type that just doesn’t seem to have the balance right. Since the Spartans can spawn with DMR’s, they have the ability to pick off the Elites as they try to cross the middle ground, a problem also apparent in Invasion. But all in all Generator Defense doesn’t feel like a Halo game type, and seeing as it’s name in house at Bungie is “Network Test 1”, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see this game type in the live launch of the game.

So thats all I have to say about Halo Reach, the Beta was fun, but sadly is now officially closed. So keep playing Halo 3 and ODST until Halo Reach comes out September 14th, 2010.