Halo Reach "The Battle Begins" Trailer

Bungie has just released a brand new trailer for Halo Reach to amp you up even further, as if you need further fuel.  As the prequel to the Halo trilogy, Reach tells the story of humanities efforts to save the planet Reach from a Covenant invasion force.   The trailer, called The Battle Begins,  gives you a glimpse as to just what our group of Spartans are up against.

There's a few campaign clues to be had in the trailer, including one which I might consider a spoiler.  It does seem like Bungie wants to have some pretty epic battles, as pictured above, with huge numbers of vehicles going at it in open space.  So give the trailer a watch, enjoy some new music from Marty O'Donnell, and start counting the days until September 14th with me.  

47 Days...

Call of Duty: Black Ops Announced for Nintendo DS, 2 Player Co-Op Included

That tiny screen above is what you'll be looking at if you decide to pick up Call of Duty: Black Ops for the Nintendo DS.  Of course, if you have the DSi XL it'll be much bigger.  That being said, Activision has announced a DS port of Black Ops which includes missions inspired by its big brother on the console.  You'll even be able to take control of vehicles like jets and helicopters.

Best of all the game will include a two player co-op mode along with a six player versus and an arcade challenge mode.  The game is being developed by n-Space, who created the Wii and DS versions of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and the previous Call of Duty Modern Warfare game on the DS.

Details are still sketchy on exactly what the co-op entails, but there's a short interview at IGN with some more information on the game.  For now enjoy a handful of screenshots from the game.

H.A.W.X. 2 Release Now on Target

If Tom Clancy's games represented an army we would soon be calling him Supreme Overlord Tom Clancy as there are plenty of them.  Tremble in fear as the next two of his branded minions have been given an official European release date from Ubisoft.  The 4 player co-op flight game H.A.W.X. 2 will be winging its way onto shop shelves come September 3rd.  According to Amazon.com the US release date is set for September 7th.  Of note, right now all Amazon listings have the game at an MSRP of $49.99 instead of the usual $59.99.   A release date for R.U.S.E was also announced, this strategy game will be released a week later on September 10th (Sept 7th US). 

If Tom decides to invent any more game IPs can I suggest: WTCGITA?  Which stands for Which Tom Clancy Game Is This Again?  

Capcom Looking to Increase Resident Evil Production

It looks like a big task from where I'm standing...

Let's face it, a lot has happened between the years of great Resident Evil titles. From the change of scenery from the Mansion and Racoon City to the far reaches of Spain and Africa, to the inclusion of co-op in on rails shooter The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil 5. It now looks like Capcom wants to speed up the growth a bit by releasing a new Resident Evil game every 2 years or so, instead of approximately every 4 years.

Why mess with a good thing? The Resident Evil games have always been fairly in-depth and very enjoyable. They even went so far as to include a world of backstory for the co-op in Resident Evil 5, allowing gamers to discover the new corporate entity "Tricell" together. It looks like Capcom, like the rest of us, is facing hard times. Decreased sales means they want to work smarter, and faster, to bring us the latest tale in the Resident Evil saga.

New Gears of War 3 Trailer is Fan Made, But You Wouldn't Know It

14 Hours Ago - 8:55 PM on 7/28/2010 by Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo

The Gears of War series has a long tradition now of amazing trailers set to some emotional music.  It all started with the infamous Mad World trailer for Gears 1 followed by the How it Ends trailer with Gears 2.  Gears 3 so far has had the Ashes to Ashes trailer, again, another emotional and moving look at the game.  All of these trailers had Epic Games at the helm to guide their creation using official assets they had on hand, and while the latest trailer may look and sound the part it's actually a fan made tribute using the Unreal Development Kit.

The trailer is called What Have I Become and is by The Duo Group.  Utilizing the UDK and music by Johnny Cash, the trailer shows a different soldier's perspective on the war - Augustus Cole.

Once again we see the brotherhood and bond of soldiers stuck in what seems like a hopeless war.  

Alien Swarm Co-Op Review

11:33 AM on 7/28/2010 by Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo

What can be better than a free game? How about a free co-op game from Valve, one of the premier PC developers and publishers of today. Wait, it gets better. There's also full mod support built right in. What is this mythical creation? It's Alien Swarm, and it's our review.

After 12 Years, StarCraft II has Arrived

9:26 AM on 7/28/2010 by Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo

Twelve years ago a little game called StarCraft was released on the PC.  A sequel in some regards to another franchise named WarCraft, StarCraft forever changed the face of real time strategy gaming.  Now over a decade later the sequel has finally arrived.  

We've only been covering StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty loosely on this site, but a release such as this on the PC is something we haven't seen in quite some time.  While sporting a brand new single player Terran campaign, complete with those gorgeously rendered Blizzard cinematic, the focus of the game is the multiplayer.  To that end the game offers three player comp stomp co-op and the revamped Battle.net service and interface offers quick matchmaking into these co-op options.

Donkey Kong Beats Mario, As Far As Co-Op Is Concerned?

Thos of you who are longtime readers might remember my review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii last fall.  To summarize, I felt the multiplayer was chaotic and messy, though fun at times, and it didn't feel very cooperative to me at all.  I still stand by that review, though others obviously feel differently.  Apparently, I'm not alone in my assessment of that title: Kotaku's Stephen Totilo mentions many of the same issues.

Why are we discussing a months-old game?  Totilo compares the co-op of NSMBW to that of Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Transformers: War for Cybertron Co-Op Night

It's time for an Xbox Live Co-Op night, and in what's just past our two year anniversary of these events we've been doing with Microsoft, we decided to go big. Big. Hulking. Robots. That's right it's time to roll out and co-op through Transformers: War for Cybertron!

On The Download Issue 14: Reminiscent of Hard Copies?

Remember the days when you had shelf after shelf of new games. Well, for some of us we’re still there, but as the gaming industry moves toward many more full game digital downloads, will we miss the cases and shelf art, or welcome the extra space in our gaming rooms?