In 2004, there were 3 big first person shooter games; Doom 3, Halo 2, and Valve’s Half Life 2. Of the three, many gamers consider this to be the best, and for good reason. The game is second to few in terms of graphical quality, story telling, gameplay, and capability for modding. Built on a modified version of the Havok physics system, a large part of the game’s appeal is simply picking up objects laying on the ground and throwing them at people. A weapon known as the gravity gun allows players to use the physics system to make anything into a weapon. Players take control of series protagonist Gordon Freeman, as he is awoken from stasis nearly two decades after the end of the original Half Life. He emerges into a world overrun by the combine. Joining up with a resistance group, Freeman has to fight back against all odds, battling head crabs, police officers, and alien creatures with a large variety of weapons.

As mentioned before, another part of this game’s popularity has to do with the modding community. There are several mods ranging from new deathmatch maps to full game conversions. One of the more popular mods, “Gary’s Mod” allows players to simply spawn objects in a sandbox environment just to play around with the physics system. Another mod is an attempt at recreating the popular N64 game GoldenEye. Of course when you’re through with the main game, there is plenty of more material coming to keep fans occupied. Episode 1 was released this year, continuing Gordon Freeman’s quest. This fall will see the release of Episode 2, along with the source engine based Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can grab a special “orange box” containing the main game, as well as all the extras mentioned above. Whichever way you decide to get it, don’t miss out on the chance to play one of the best FPS games ever.

System Requirements
Processor: 1.2 GHZ or better
OS: Windows 98 and higher (including Vista)
Internal Memory: 256 MB RAM
Storage: 4.5 GB
Graphics: DirectX 7 or greater
Internet connection required for verification
DVD-ROM drive (unless obtained from Steam)

Master Chief is, as ever, mankind’s last hope. But with the Sangheili race no longer part of the Covenant, the Elites have a stake in the battle too. So with this back story in mind, Bungie Studios announced today that 4 players will be ale to finish the fight on September 25th.
Player One will control the Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117, the protagonist from the first 2 Halo games. Player 2 will play as The Arbiter, the Covenant Elite disgraced after his unit’s defeat on Halo and then joined he battle with the Sgt Johnson in Halo 2. Players 3 and 4 will be new characters N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, two new Sangheili fighters. Bungie promises they will control the same and none of the 4 will offer an ability over the others, though start weapons will vary in story missions.

Read more at Bungie: The Tru7h About Co-Op in Halo 3

Thanks to Sparkstalker for the heads up.

After the success of LEGO Star Wars, the next game announced was to be LEGO Batman, but now out of nowhere we get a trailer for LEGO Indiana Jones!

I won’t complain about more LEGO games, but I was kind of hoping I’d get Batman first… Oh well, I can’t wait to see how the infamouse Nazi face-melting works on LEGO characters. Or ripping a LEGO heart out of a LEGO Chest.

From the LA Times

I never thought I’d see the day. Tony Hawk, Transformers, Spider-Man, and especially Guitar Hero have propelled Activision into the top slot among the highly competitive world of third party game publishers.

It won’t last of course: EA will launch Skate to takes sales from Tony Hawk, a new Medal Of Honor to go against Call of Duty, and Rock Band may be the upstart to finally slow sales on Guitar Hero. Oh yeah, and EA Sports will have Madden on shelves and Peter Moore at the helm this fall.

Well, its good to know that there is another contender for the top slot.

Here is 26 minutes of Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, and Suda 51 talking. Why is that important? Because they’re the creators of Metal Gear, Resident Evil, and Killer 7; respectively. Arguably the most influential minds of the playstation generation. Next year’s biggest games will no doubt be Metal Gear Solid 4, Resident Evil 5, and No More Heroes, so these guys will only get more influential.

In Bungie’s Weekly Update reveals WETA’s work on the in-limbo Halo movie was not in vain, and that future short films promoting Halo 3 will be more awesome.

You see, they built a full size, fully operational Warthog. Favored vehicle of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and Spartan Mark Vs alike, this sage green beauty is actually tearing ass all overthe beautiful rolling hills of New Zealand.

I don’t suppose than chain gun works, but if this is even close to the 4 wheel drive/4 wheel steering of the Halo original, its gotta be a blast.

Anyone with an Xbox Live account can find the Blue Dragon demo in Live Marketplace right now. There are 2 available levels, a dungeon and a forest. Both appear to be well into the game: you begin with 5 party members, lots of magic at your disposal, and in the middle of a quest.

Its nearly impossible to judge how good an RPG will be based on a demo because the things that make games like this enjoyable are the story, characters, and the scope of the adventure, none of which you can get a feel for in 2 hours of play. That said, the 2 hours is fun. Battles all take place with not yourself attacking monsters, but your shadow. If your party takes a beating, it raises a tension meter that when filled you can unleash a powerful summon attack. You can also charge your magic and physical attacks for more power (DBZ style!). I’m sure a lot of the nuances of battle were lost on me not having played the 50 levels before the one I was given, but I can see myself having a good time with this.

The battles are not random either, you see an enemy on screen and you can run from it or attack it to initial an encounter. you can also choose to take on large groups at once, which can give you a power up advantage as the battles progress, as well as more experience for inevitable level grinding.

This is a title thats been out in Japan for some time, but will come to the states August 28th. As many have mentioned its the first project since Chrono Trigger on the SNES that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama have worked together on. I count Chrono Trigger as one of my favorite games, and if Blue Dragon can give me something half as good, I’ll have a worthy addition to the Xbox 360 Library

Xbox360Fanboy cornered Harmonix at E3 and found out some of the best news I’ve ever heard for any music game in the history of forever.

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos announced that Rock Band has some serious plans for delivering content to players. First off, Harmonix plans to release new music tracks every week. They can be released in singles, multi track bundles, or more deliciously, full albums. As an example Alex announced that The Who’s Who’s Next would be available for download following the game’s release.

I was already thinking I’d want to get Rock Band for the drums. Knowing I can play as Keith Moon on my favorite album by own of my favorite bands is personally very exciting. I cannot expect you, dear reader, to understand. Maybe you can get excited at the idea of your favorite album to get added to the list. But right now the only one they’ve announced is my favorite album.

I call that a bargain… the best I ever had.

thanks to RJK for the news!