The fight may have been finished back in 2007 with Halo 3, but thankfully there are still plenty of stories to tell about the Halo universe. One of them is the tale of a group of Orbital Drop Squad Troopers (or Helljumpers as they are nicknamed, and for good reason) and the losing battle they fought in the ill-fated African city of New Mombasa in the period between Halo 2 and Halo 3. You take control of one of these soldiers as you explore the city in an attempt to find out what’s going on. Originally conceived as a downloadable add-on (and originally slated to be called Halo 3: Recon), so much work was put into the story, setting, and characters, that Bungie ended up releasing the game as a standalone 2-disc package available at full retail price. The first disc contains the campaign (which can be played with up to 4 players) and a new mode called firefight where you fight off waves of covenant soldiers similar to Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. The second disc contains every map released for Halo 3, including those released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The game also includes the Forge map editor for creating your own worlds.

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As in “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”.

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

Who would have thought a My Little Pony show could be good? Well probably a bunch of little girls, but I’ll tell you who didn’t expect it was this 32 year old man who was already into more girl shows than he should, but in 2010 Hasbro’s new channel The Hub put a new twist on My Little Pony with the new Friendship is Magic series. After playing only 14 episodes the show has gained quite a following from viewers far outside of it’s target demographic of 5 year old girls.

It’s hard to describe just what makes this show so great, but it is instantly recognised when watched. The visuals are top notch. The show is animated in flash, but unlike what many have come to expect from flash animation, it does not do so to render cheap looking visuals, but has top notch animators putting a great deal of work into making it look great.

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During the 16-bit days, it seemed that alongside the Sega vs Nintendo console awards, there was another video game war brewing as well. Ocean was competed directly with Sony Imagesoft and Acclaim to see who could make the worst movie tie-in video game. Or so it would seem that way, as all three companies dumped crap after crap after crap on our consoles with each popular or semi-popular sci-fi and action flick that hit theaters. Every once in a while, there was a gem, like Sony Imagesoft’s Hook, or at least something resembling a gem, like Acclaim’s Stargate. Sadly, most of the product that the three companies collectively produced was only a few steps above of Atari’s “classic” E.T. game. One of the missteps was Ocean’s Lethal Weapon. In this SNES game, you take the role of super-deformed cartoon hunchbacks vaguely resembling Danny Glover and Mel Gibson (before he became an anti-Semite douchebag) as you ice skate through nondescript locations and battling generic looking enemies, all the while overcoming your inability to fire while crouching. Released around the time of the Lethal Weapon 3 movie, video games based on Lethal Weapon also hit the NES, Game Boy, Amiga, and other systems, but this Maximum Letdown focuses on the SNES game. Although I’m sure the other systems have an equally crappy (or worse) Lethal Weapon video game.
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For years, the Battlefield series was a multiplayer-only affair. While certain games may have contained single player modes, they were there simply to train offline gamers, as they were fought with bots instead of live opponents. That changed with Bad Company. For the first time in the series, the single player component would take center stage. You step in the shoes of Private Preston Marlowe, a soldier reassigned to the Army’s “Bad Company”, a platoon filled with the worst of the worst. Their job is mainly cannon fodder as they are caught in a war between the U.S, Russia, and a Middle Eastern Coalition along with a group of mercenaries gets involved in the chaos. The environments are destructible, creating strategies for players in both the single and multiplayer modes. Speaking of multiplayer, the game includes the Gold Rush mode, in which attackers attempt to destroy crates of gold as defenders try to protect them. Conquest mode was added sometime later. Like other Battlefield games, Bad Company’s multiplayer is class-based and features ranks and awards. There is a selection of vehicles to drive, from tanks to helicopters. Bad Company isn’t perfect, as the controls are a bit sluggish and the AI is lacking, but the game’s destructible environments and hilarious chatter more than make up for it. Bad Company was so successful that a sequel was released this past year, so check them out if you love shooters.

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

You’re a badass, right? You run around and foil evil schemes of your enemy, kick the asses of his henchmen, and save all the innocents that happen to get cross in the crossfire. You do this with speed, style, and cunning.

But what’s this? Your enemy has unleashed his Ultimate Creation upon you and the hapless others around you. It renders your speed and style nearly useless and quadruples the danger-factor in your quest, drastically cutting down your chances of winning the day or even coming out of it alive. You need more than just style and speed, now. You need POWER.

You’re Sonic the Hedgehog and you need to go Super. How do you do this? With the goddamn Chaos Emeralds, that’s how.
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After Starcraft, Total Annihilation is perhaps one of the greatest old-school RTS games ever. Although there isn’t much of a plot (something about two armies fighting over weather or not to transfer human consciousness to machines), the strategy options that the game gave players were unprecedented compared to other RTS games around that time. The game is considered a spiritual predecessor to Gas Powered Game’s Supreme Commander (lead designer Chris Taylor developed both games). There is no resource gathering, as the two resources you need (metal and energy) stream into your reserves at a fixed rate, and battles can consist of over 1000 units on the field, which was unheard of at it’s time. The game also featured a rudimentary physics system for explosions, projectiles, and wreckage. Various patches and utilities have been constructed by both developer Cavedog and the fan community, adding new units, races, maps, and other features.

If you’re a fan of the genre, you owe it to yourself to check out this lost classic. The game, along with its two expansions Core Contingency and Battle Tactics are both available on GOG.com.

Releases look to be ramping up finally this year. Dead Space 2 looks like the big game this week for PS3 and XBox 360, while the Wii continues to pump out peripherals without any games to show for it.

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Ever wanted to become a computer hacker? Don’t know how to program? That’s okay. Uplink, created by indie development group Introversion shows gamers what it’s like to be a hacker (well, at least the way it’s depicted in movies like Hackers and Sneakers) , without having to learn how to program. As a newly hired employee for the Uplink Corporation, you take on several types of missions, such as altering a student’s academic record or hacking into a corporation to steal data. You are given a computer, and you must earn money to upgrade your hardware and software in order to take on more complex missions. Make sure you cover up all evidence of your deeds, least the police trace anything back to you. As you’d expect, the game is light on graphics, but the soundtrack is catchy. The game is available on Steam for cheap, so if you’re willing to look beyond the lack of flashy graphics, you can indulge your 133t fantasies to your heart’s content.