I’ll start with this, for 59.99 you get every penny worth, ALL Halo 3 maps that have been released as well as new maps corresponding to ODST. The first line of them sold will include the beta for Halo Reach, which will release next year. And those that pre-ordered with Gamestop in time will get the playable Sergeant Johnson. So far a value pack, that no gamer should shun.

Now as for the game itself.

ODST jumps into the story line before the beginning of HALO 3. The Covenant began their invasion of Earth by invading New Mombasa. Your unit of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers are deployed to ascertain damage, and clear out the Covenant invaders. The new HUD is nicely done, bearing a strong resemblance to Modern Warfare, (which has one of my favorite HUDs in the shooting Genre.) The AI is nicely turned up, and not being the Master Chief turns down your invincibility factor. I found myself actually thinking through confrontations instead of blasting my way through them. And for you Halo 1 folks, the pistol is back, and when I say back I simply mean I didin’t need a sniper rifle, I had my pistol. Allowing the characters to be outlined in red using the night vision helmet.

The new fire fight mode, brings a different element to the game that will spurn a new fan base. 2 player on console co-op, or 4 player co-op via XBOX Live pits you against waves of the Covenant working, for the first time in strong formations, and deadly accuracy. Fans of the Gears of War 2 Horde mode, or of terrorist hunt in Rainbow Six will attach to this easily, and I found myself playing round after round of the Fire Fight mode.

Over-all this game is a good transition for the Halo series, from my understanding you can blast single player on legendary (For the seasoned Halo kids) in 6-10 hours, and then will find yourself grinding back into the usual multi-player swing. Visually the game looked similar to Halo 3, no graphical improvements were really implimented, and for the art style Halo 3 utilized none were needed.

HALO FANS Go BUY THIS GAME, normal shooter fans, I believe the extra game play modes, and the amount of content they pack into this purchase makes it a worthy buy for any gamer.

• Graphics – 8
• Story – 9
• Replay – 10
• Sound – 7
• Overall – 8.25

To pre order it on Amazon, click here.

In a recent press release Tell Tale Games announced the following.

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day this Saturday, Sept. 19, we’re making the complete first episode of Tales of Monkey Island FREE from 12:01 am GMT, Sept. 19 (that’s 4:01 pm Sept 18 PST) until midnight PST, Sept. 19 at PLAYLIKEAPIRATE.COM

A free quality game, aaaand you get to talk like a pirate!

For all you Monkey Island kids out there for either Wii or PC. Tell Tale Games filled us in on some new pictures of Episode III.

As quoted from Evil Avatar

Eidos Interactive Ltd. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced the Insane Night Map Pack, a free downloadable map pack for the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum™ action adventure title. Beginning September 17th, the Insane Night Map Pack will be available from PlayStation® Store, Xbox® LIVE Marketplace, and Games for Windows® LIVE Marketplace, and offer gamers two new Challenge Maps to hone their FreeFlow™ Combat skills and test their Invisible Predator™ prowess.

In the ‘Totally Insane’ FreeFlow Combat map, players’ will be tested to their fullest as scores of escaped lunatics bear down upon BATMAN as they make their escape through the asylum’s secure records facility. These fast-moving foes will challenge all but the most practiced players, with quick reactions and expert timing needed to fend off wave upon wave of insane inmates, bent on taking down the DARK KNIGHT. In the ‘Nocturnal Hunter’ Invisible Predator map, players take on a wholly different approach, practicing their predatory skills to remain in the shadows, utilizing the Arkham watchtowers and Batman’s arsenal of gadgets to gain the upper hand on The Joker’s army of goons patrolling below.

The Insane Night Map Pack will be available from September 17th for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, and the soon to be released Games for Windows® LIVE edition.

Free DLC less than a month after launch, Life is beautiful.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time Re-shelled  just got a release for PS3, which is great news for me, who isn’t personally Xbox compatible. It’s a remake of the original 1991 release of the arcade version of the game, not the SNES port. I find it somewhat disappointing that they just didn’t do both. Although they would probably get sued by Nintendo if they did.

I bought this a few days ago now, and I have been playing it non stop since. Just like the original it’s a side-scrolling beat ’em up. Except it implements a much better 3-d attack system. “They” also changed the life draining special attack. Replaced with moves that kick ass, but leave you vulnerable for a second. I think its a good trade up, but I was pissed that they changed the random jump attack where you could attack forty times before you hit the ground.

The graphics are obviously much different. Personally I love the way it looks now. The way the turtles run around is awesome, and the way their arm bands have a slight glow looks cool to me. One thing I didn’t think they did well in this version, was the voice acting. I was especially disappointed with Krang.

The best reason I could find to buy this, better even than the original is that they made it a bit more challenging. Sure there are some easy ways to exploit the ‘no continue’ system, but the way I remember turtles in time, was as the funnest, easiest game out there. In this some of the stuff you can do is damn near impossible.

My understanding is that it is 0% different from the Xbox version, and they are both selling for 10 dollars. Therefore I would just buy it for whatever game system you have more available memory for. But I would definitely buy it. Some of you might not enjoy the repetitive playthroughs to beat this game on all the hardest settings, but I certainly did.

For optimal fun, I recommend playing this with 2-3 people. Single player is fun, but I wouldn’t want to play it through more than once by myself. It’s a lot better to compete to get the highest score, and stealing each others pizza etc.

I don’t know how to end this post. Uh what was that you said Slugtron?

I have always liked… Cowabunga!-Slugtron

Maxwell Smart is a pixelated man wearing a rooster hat. And this pixelated man is taking part in what I consider to be a stroke of genius. They drop you into a world with a basic objective to solve or accomplish, you write any noun that isn’t profane or copyrighted, then you see if it will solve your problem. The game will recognize over 3500 nouns.. and so far I haven’t been disappointed. Chupacabra, Zombie (saw that one coming didn’t ya), Zombie…Shotgun….super-hero, colon, grandma, toaster (which if you didn’t know can be dropped into the ocean to electrocute pesky sharks). The unstifled creativity this game allows is exactly what brought me into gaming in the first place. Aside from Max going insane whenever you try to make him run for too long, this game is close to perfect. I won’t even break it down I’ll just tell you to buy it and experience it for yourself.
Score 9.5

At first glance this game looked like another push to make gamers look like lonely perverts, (I’m looking at you Soul Calibur). But really its an attempt to make a 70’s grindhouse movie into a video game.
Bethesda’s WET, set’s you as Rubi, an angry, drunk, sword-swinging, gun toting, tattoo covered mercenery. And throws you right into action fighting an Asian gang to reclaim a mysterious metal case. Her health items are bottles of whisky, which she drinks and then blasts to pieces, and all combos are linked through an acrobatics system, whether wall running. Sliding on your knees, or doing impressive dive-flips, the game simulates the over the top action that you’d expect from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
The controls are sluggish, and fight you through the tutorials, and continue to do so until you unlock a few more pieces of the combo system. And that drove me nuts, sadly I couldn’t care less why Rubi was chasing the metal case, I just wanted to keep dicing up and blasting the Asian gang members to loud rock-a-billy tunes.

ABOVE: Rubi takes it to some gangfolk

After about 3 hours of play I found myself on chapter 6/12, which all things considered, is pretty good for a hack and slash game such as WET. During this portion I was falling from an airplane shooting the guards of a rare artifact as they fell after me, once they were dead I battled my way to a parachute tied to a door, that fell past a few seconds later. Once again over-the-top, heart-pounding action.
With its hip new approach to blending real-life, and cell shaded animation. Its edgy story, solid action, and great soundtrack, WET is definitely a new direction for Bethesda, and unlike the mistake Square Enix made trying to produce a 3rd person Devil May Cry Clone( Dirge of Cerberus), this is a solid adventure, worth the 49.99.

• Graphics – 10 (for the cool art style)
• Sound – 9
• Controls – 6
• Story – 8
• Overall – 8

I’m gonna start the review by saying this, and only this. Will I ever get Punisher in a Marvel game besides his own? And now that I’ve bitched, we can begin.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a great game written for fans of the Marvel franchises. Following the Civil War story line, the super heroes are divided into teams lead by Captain America or Iron Man. Fans of the first will be instantly pulled into the quick combat, and hopefully will notice the solid physics improvements, mainly in Stronger Heroes throw bigger items better than heroes with smaller physiques. After fighting your way through an attack on Washington and through some cheesy voice overs. I fought an epic, and mildy frustrating fight with deadpool, and with some political talk recruited him to join Caps side. The graphics are strong in this rendition of Ultimate Alliance as they were in the previous, and they definitely spent a lot of time putting detail work into models, textures, and giving each of the characters a unique reason to be irritated with the story. And knowing that the Activision and Marvel writers prepared an entirely new experience for us story-wise that I dont wish to spoil, I’ll say this game was pleasantly surprising. The myriad of heroes they crammed into this game is excellent, the multiplayer aspect is fantastic, and hell its Marvel. This game is a great buy for any super-hero fan.

• Graphics – 8
• Sound – 7
• Story – 10
• Controls/Combat – 8
• Overall – 8

Where do I begin? I don’t race, as Mitch Hedberg so eloquently puts it, if my car won’t start and the gas guage doesn’t say E, I’m screwed.  You can imagine I dont play many racers, and NFS Shift was one that I sat down to with a lot of doubts.

This game has idiot proofing which I need, and I liked. The first thing you do in your career, is  a “practice lap” aka can this idiot drive lap. And after physically destroying the loaner BMW they gave me, all of my settings were put to retard.. I mean easy. I’m not sure if I crashed more because the cars looked so good that I got distracted, or because the different engines passing me kept surprising me. Every car that passed me that was a different make and model sounded completely different. After an hour of racing I received an invite to the Lotus Elise test event… Sadly the girlfriend stole the controller and did the race for me, giving me time to admire the car, and the fact that it sounded just like the damned Elise that passes me every day when I’m headed to work. EA and Slightly Mad Studios have the aesthetics down to a T.

Lotus Elise In Game

The story was simple enough, get to the giant race at the end and win. I can do that, I can try for that, and the experience system tied into the trophy/achievement system made the game very interesting. I was following a minimalist story with no character to care about, yet I still felt compelled to win each race and increase my agression and precision scores to gain that driver level.
Now aesthetics and drive aside, NFS Shift still felt like every other racing game, and Need For Speed game for that matter, that I’d every played. Nothing really set it apart in my head from any other game. Visually it was stunning, Audibly it was fantastic, ( minus a lack of soundtrack) and it dumbed itself down so that an idiot like me could play. Unfortunately after that had passed, I was still just driving in circles at an incredibly fast rate. And trying to gain points for doing cool stuff, so their motto was definitely if it’s not broke don’t fix it, just add to it, and give it a high replay value. And I gotta say they succeeded.

• Audio – 8
• Graphics – 9
• Controls – 8
• Story – 6
• Overall – 7.5

These are all games I downloaded for the Wii and didn’t end up regretting. I don’t know how many of you with Wii’s out there actually buy the online games, but this is where I get most of my games now a days. I buy at least three virtual console and Wii ware games for every disc I purchase. I get many hours of entertainment from these games, whether old or new, and at a fraction of the cost.

So if you are interested in saving a little bit of money, and getting hundreds of hours of gameplay, this list might be of some aid to you.

#10: ActRaiser

While this game is far from perfect, it is revolutionary. Mixing  action side-scroller and city simulation genres with a simple, but cool story. I didn’t think I would like it as much as I do, but it’s pretty awesome. I would say you have to enjoy the simulation part more than the side-scroller to make this a solid buy, but in my opinion its worth trying for 800 Wii points.

#9: My Life As A Darklord

If you like tower defense this is one of the most expansive ones I’ve played. It’s actually pretty difficult at times and enemies are very unforgiving. The thing I like about all tower defense games is the ability to play at short bursts and still enjoy yourself. This game does that wonderfully and with how much there is to do in it, you shouldn’t get bored any time soon. (Although replaying the beginning might drag quite a bit.) The best part about this game is just how unique the battle system is, be sure to give it a try.  It’s 1000 Wii points.

#8 The Legend of Zelda

Pretty much this entire series is worth buying, the only one that I didn’t buy was Majora’s Mask. (Not because it wasn’t good, but because I would shoot myself in the head if I had to play it again.) The top of the Zelda list for re-playability in my eyes would be the first one (I have played through it no less than 12 times since it was brought to the virtual console.) Then I would say A Link to the Past which is one of my favorites, but even if I take five years off from playing it, it still takes less than five hours to beat with every heart piece. Next Zelda 2: Link’s Adventure, which is one of the worst Zelda games, and one of the funnest. Finally we have Ocarina of Time which is worth an occasional play through.

They vary in price from 500 -1000 Wii points, but they are worth every cent.

#7 Golden Axe

I just love how crappy these games are. I debated putting Altered Beast in this spot, but I decided this is the better crappy game of the two. What I like especially about this game is the ability to attack your second player,making it almost impossible for any normal siblings to get out of the first screen without wasting a continue or two. (Plus the cover art is wonderful.)  This is a steal at 800 Wii points.

#6 Castlevania

This is another entire series that is worth playing over and over again, I couldn’t recommend them in any order because they are all exactly as good as each other, all for different reasons. Castlevania 1, because it is spoofing b-horror movies, and it takes twenty minutes to get to Dracula, and 6 hours to beat him. Castlevania 2, because it is similar to an RPG and I’ve never seen Dracula get a single attack off. Castlevania 3, because it actually has a story and is a real challenge (almost too much of a challenge.), and Castlevania 4, because it’s a perfect balance of the good elements of all of these games.  They vary in price from 500-800 Wii points.

#5 Super Metroid

Super Metroid is just one of those games that you can think of a hundred different ways to play and never get bored of it. Beating it with every single item, Beating it under 3 hours, beating it with every single item in under 3 hours. I actually don’t really know what it is, but I love this game and never tire of it. For my money I think  its one of the greatest games ever made. (The first one is good too, but I don’t think it deserves to be on the list because it is so aggravating. But if you get used to it, it is amazing.) This game is 800 Wii points.

#4 Crystal Defenders

This is a very standard Tower Defense game with very simple easy to grasp controls, if you’re looking for a game to beat, this isn’t the game for you, but if you like getting high scores, and pitting your score against a leader board this game has an indefinite amount of fun in store. It’s great how you can fill gaps of time you know you would waste with a game like this. For example: if you woke up ten minutes early for work. It is really easy to pick up, or put down and is worth 800 Wii points, easy.

#3 Kid Icarus

Kid Icarus doesn’t deserve to be in the number 3 spot because it’s the best game on the list, but I just assume everyone stopped reading by now anyway. In either case I love this game, I just don’t think its as good as The Legend of Zelda. The reason I put it on the list so high is because it was really cool to replay it on the Wii, and when you take the time to play through it, it feels like you accomplished something.

What really pushed this game over the edge for me was when I saw my seven year old nephew try it and then give up after five minutes. It’s really frustrating for me to watch this new generation with dumbed down video games for children. These NES games are what I was playing since I was five years old. And now because of  games like Lego Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones, and (my personal favorite) Rock Band, kids are taught to press one button over and over again without consequences, leaving me saying, “They don’t make games like they used to.” 500 Wii points

#2 Secret of Mana

The best part of buying this game for the Wii  is more or less, the fact that this is better than the original release by far, because it is so easy to get three players. A fair portion of my childhood was spent begging my parents for a multi-tap for the Super Nintendo for this game alone. They didn’t get me one, and so I was never able to play it three player until its Wii release (unless you count a rom computer download where three  people share a single keyboard), and it was worth the wait. This game is simply brilliant and worth at least twice the 800 Wii points it goes for.

#1 Mega-Man 9

What a good Idea. Mega Man 9 ruled and I think it was even better than the original three Mega Man games. It was so fun and it was so intentionally cheesy. It had a hard first play through, and then once figuring it out, hours of extra play time figuring out what every one was weak against, and what order to fight everyone in. I so highly recommend this game, that if you trusted me at all you would just buy it right this second for 1000 Wii points.