GameInformer has been adding content to their site to match their cover story on Halo: Reach, and while screen shots and history lessons are cool, this video opens up a lot of info for fans.

Noble Team are indeed made up mostly of Spartan IIIs, who are a step down from the super solider Spartan IIs that Master Chief John 117 from the Halo Trilogy grew up from. The Spartan IIIs were cheaper to train and arm, and rely on team work without an onboard A.I. partner.

We also find see two new guns and learn that this sixth Halo game, the fourth on Xbox 360, will finally include the ability to RUN.

Youtube user pyram1dhead has compiled the various events leading up to and during LOST’s famous plane crash, in the style of the show “24” from multiple viewpoints at the same time.

LOST Season 6 starts… wow, seriously, next week? Oh boy, I’m excited! February 2nd!

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Duke Nukem. Halo. Call Of Duty. Resistance. Killzone. Goldeneye. Bioshock. Deus Ex. Quake. Timesplitters.

The list of great first person shooters goes on and on, and each game has left its own unique stamp on the genre, weather it’s the RPG-like stat progression of Bioshock and Deus Ex, the cinematic realism of Modern Warfare and Rainbow Six Vegas, the zaniness of Timesplitters and Duke Nukem, or the multiplayer action of Halo and Goldeneye. However, all of these games owe their existence and popularity to one name: Doom. While ID Software’s classic didn’t create the FPS genre (that honor many would say belongs to ID’s previous effort Wolfenstein 3D), it helped shape the face of the genre for years to come. This article will take a look at the classic and its impact on gaming.
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As you can see above, the rare variant cover of Siege #3 has been revealed. Art by J. Scott Campbell. As mentioned in the PowetCast, the controversy surrounding this book is interesting. Marvel is giving one of these variant books for every 50 DC Blackest Night tie-in covers they receive. Not the book, mind you, just the ripped off covers. The specific books listed were part of a Blackest Night promotion where retailers had to order a certain number of each issue in order to get a bag of Lantern rings that are the focus of DC’s crossover. That would make this variant cover worth over a $100 out of the gate, if each of those DC books were $2 a piece.

This move seems to have upset many from all sides. It will be interesting to watch what these books go for on ebay once they are out.

Thanks to DeadpoolBugle for the news.

Is Avatar all it’s cracked up to be? With mere days to go until Mass Effect 2, should you pick up Dragon Age: Origins? With plenty of Tonight Show jokes in tow, it’s the pre-first episode of Cool Beans!

Direct Link: Cool Beans 00: Avatar’d

Audio Netcast Details
Subscribe to the Powetcast on iTunes

Show notes after the jump!

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Back when Midway was a part of the Nintendo 64 Dream Team, they promised an exclusive Nintendo 64 version of Doom that would take advantage of the console’s capabilities. In 1997 they delivered Doom 64, a continuation of the franchise (yes, even after Final Doom) that gave the game a brand new look while retaining the shoot-em-up action the franchise was known for.
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I’m one of the many who believe that video games not only can be a form of art, they can also be a literary medium. Want proof? Look no further than Silent Hill 2’s gripping narrative and try to tell me that that’s not on par with a Steven King or Clive Barker. Check out Ico’s emotionally moving story. Even Bungie’s Halo and Bioware’s Mass Effect have introduced players to science fiction universes on scale with a Star Wars or Battlestar Galatica. However, if gaming is to progress as an entertainment medium, it’s not enough to present an quirky art style or a deep plot. Gaming has to be able to explore taboo and even controversial subjects just like books, movies, and television shows do, even if they may get somewhat offensive or politically incorrect (which is why I was disappointed when 6 Days in Fallujah ended up being indefinitely postponed, but that’s another story). Of course I’m not saying that a developer should go out and create ‘KKK Lynchin’ Heroes’, but if and when done correctly, video games can provide a light with which to look at social issues that continue to affect us today. Beyond Good and Evil could be considered a commentary on the role of the press and the distribution of information during times when civil freedoms are being challenged, and Metal Gear Solid 4’s storyline about private military corporations can be considered a look at military policy, particularly in the wake of the Blackwater scandal. However, few issues have been more hotly debated than that of violence in our schools, and no one moment in our history better exemplifies the issue than the Columbine Massacre.

For those of you who don’t know the story, on April 20th of 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two troubled teens who had apparently been bullied during their years in high school went on a violent shooting spree, killing over a dozen students and teachers. The media, parents/teacher groups, clergymen, and opportunistic politicians, unable to fathom that two white boys from a wealthy suburban community bought about something that apparently is only supposed to happen in the ghetto or a backwoods rural area (and with rumors of a so-called ‘trenchcoat mafia’ shut down), immediately set about finding things to blame the tragedy on. “It was because of easy access to guns!” “It was because gun control laws are too strict!” “It was Marylin Manson!” “It was violent video games!” “It was Doom!” “It was because of the evil liberals taking prayer out of schools!” “Where were the parents at?” “Why didn’t anyone see the warning signs?” With all the fuss in a search for a scapegoat, few even considered to take a look at the events in their lives that might have led up to the shooting. Enter independent developer Danny Ledonne. Using the program RPG Maker 2000, he created a game which places characters in the role of the shooters. By researching thousands of pages of news articles about the massacre, home videos the two killers made, and video news reports, Ledonne’s product gives an insight and paints a picture suggesting why such a tragedy occurred.

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