I may have found something really interesting this time around–a Halo game that isn’t just more motion sickness-inducing run-and-gun action.  Brand new out of the pack is the Xbox 360′s newest colossal cash grab, Halo Wars.

On the off chance that you’ve been in a coma for the last ten years and need a quick crash course, here’s the skinny.  There was this MONSTER franchise that came out of Microsoft.  It was like their Doom.  Or maybe their Final Fantasy, if Final Fantasy were a first person shooter.  It was called Halo, and there were three of them, all with that same first person shooter engine.  Now, apparently, Microsoft is beginning to take its cues from Ben Franklin, convinced that shooter games are like fish AND houseguests–after three installments, they start to stink.  Thus, they had to go in a different direction, and they looked to the real-time strategy game for their inspiration.

Thus was Halo Wars born.  And the result was actually better than much of its predecessors, even though I’m probably just a bit biased against first person shooters.

Basically, playing in story mode, you’ll be sent along with a contingent of UNSC troops on board the UNSC Spirit of Fire, to investigate Covenant activity on planet Harvest.  This is all, parenthetically, set about twenty years before Halo.  Anyway, after the UNSC, as led by Sergeant Forge, hits dirtside on Harvest, they find the Covenant is actively engaged in excavating a “holy relic” which is actually a Forerunner facility that’s really a map to another star system.  The star system the Forerunners were trying to point out is Arcadia, home to a small human colony.  The Spirit of Fire immediately heads for Arcadia, only to find the Covenant is ahead of them and ravaging the planet, which is itself the key to the single most destructive force unearthed in the galaxy.  I won’t spoiler on just what it is because it is actually pretty mindblowing.

Indeed, Halo Wars is mindblowing on a whole lot of levels.  Graphically it’s an absolute triumph–this thing looks so sharp and clear that calling it “realistic” is almost an insult. The musical score, meanwhile, sounds as symphonic as it ever did.  And normally about this point I’d start complaining about the gameplay, or how I had to sit through a raftload of cut scenes before I even got to the game–well no sir, not this time.  This time I got action within a few minutes and I got it pretty well at that.  Even the tutorial wasn’t tough to sit through, and that’s something of an achievement in and of itself.  I can’t even complain about the gameplay, because there was just something so invigorating about having a quarter-dozen Warthogs and a collection of various Marine troops under your command to just send in a thoroughly crushing fashion onto any Covenant position you can find.

It’s fun to keep an eye on your resources, and engineer fresh bases as you need them, complete with automated turret defenses.  Every step feels like a victory in a game like this, as you go marching into battle in Covenant-occupied territory, both taking and holding territory.  It’s only your wits that keep you alive in a game like this, not your trigger finger, and that’s an interesting departure from the ordinary, one that I’m all too happy to embrace.

Halo Wars should prove to be plenty of fun for anyone else who takes a run at it.

So while checking out the array of games over at Coolbuddy, I discovered Star Defender, an interesting adaptation of the old eighties shooter games.

Basically, it’s just like any other shooter, where you press the left mouse button to fire, the control button to fire your secondary gun, and your movement is controlled by the mouse. If there’s a plot, I really can’t tell what it is, so feel free to insert your own.  I favor the contrarian view on this one–you’re a genocidal space pilot heading for the Planet of the Peace-Loving Insectoids, and they’ve massed their fleet in one last effort to keep you off the planet, where you’ll promptly loot it, squash their women, and eat their children.

They taste like raspberry flavored jellybeans.

Anyway, if you were seriously into Galaga at any point then Star Defender is the game you’ve been waiting for.  Otherwise, it’s yet another Galaga knockoff that you can safely sail on past.  Unless, of course, you really like the thought of raspberry jellybeans.

It seems that I Heart Cool Stuff has recently gotten a glimsp of a previously unannounced GTA: Chinatown Wars Nintendo DS.

This thing was on display at the NYC Nintendo Store for the game’s launch party and, apparently, the first 25 people in line at the launch part got the chance to get their hands on one of these consoles.

Sure, the Nintendo DS is cool but what really makes the bundle neat are the chop-stick styluses. Too cool.

However annoying all of the invites are, I think one of the coolest features added to Facebook was the plethora of games that you can play right in the browser for free.

Well, it looks Namco is strolling down a different path recently announcing thtat they are now offering Facebook versions of PAC-MAN and DIG-DUG. Sounds peachy, right? Wrong!

Not only is a download required for these games, you have to pay for them if you want to play past the first 2 levels. Bogus? Yes. $10 for ancient games you can play for free elsewhere? No thanks.

via (Joystiq)

Sony announced the availablity of full games for download from their Playstation Store some time ago but still there is a drought of Playstation 1 games. Well, a quick posting done by Capcom’s Christian Svensson over at the Capcom-Unity boards gives us all a ray of hope.

Apparently, Capcom has submitted a number of their Playstation 1 titles for later sale in the Playstation Store. However, he is quoted as saying the following, “Word I got back this morning is that this may take a bit more time than anticipated.” 

More time than anticipated huh? They better at least be good ones if we’re going to have to wait. Which of Capcom’s Playstation 1 titles would you guys like to see for sale in the Playstation Store?

Read (Capcom-Unity) via (Kotaku)

It was recently announced that SCEA and Global Gaming are offering a tournament for PSP title Resistance: Retribution. The prize? $25,000 worth of Sony gear.

The tournament will run both 2v2 and 4v4 ladders and goes today through May 10th.

Prizes, courtesy of Kotaku, are as follows:

2v2 Competition Prizes
• First Place (2 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards, and PSP® TV Prize Pack (32″ XBR TV, PSP®-3000, 16GB PRO Duo and Component AV Cables. ARV $1420) for each player
• Second Place (2 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards, and PSP® Pack (PSP®-3000, 16GB PRO Duo. ARV $370) for each player
• Third Place (2 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards for each player
• Fourth Place (2 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards for each player

4v4 Competition Prizes
• First Place (4 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards, and PSP® TV Prize Pack (32″ XBR TV, PSP-3000, 16GB PRO Duo and Component AV Cables. ARV $1420) for each player
• Second Place (4 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards, and PSP® Pack (PSP-3000, 16GB PRO Duo. ARV $370) for each player
• Third Place (4 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards for each player
• Fourth Place (4 players): Leather Bomber Jacket (ARV $180), $500 in Sonystyle® Gift Cards for each player

More official information here.

VG247 reports that Mountain Dew’s Game Fuel is back, and this time they are targeting World of Warcraft nerds instead of Halo 3.

They are also appealing to both sides in the game, with “Citrus Cherry” now being called “Horde Red” and a berry-flavored drink is dubbed “Alliance Blue”.

Really, is that the best Mountain Dew can do? Do MMO players really need all that caffeine?

Look for these drinks at Walmart and other stores soon.

Debate over Diablo 3′s color palette continues, and guess who just joined the game? Former Blizzard North VP and original Diablo producer Bill Roper!

Roper, speaking to VideoGamer, stated that he prefers a “grittier” look to the series rather than Blizzard’s current colorful approach.

"You know, I liked the darker, grittier [style]," he said. "It makes complete sense to me where they went because they basically took the Diablo universe and then approached it from the Blizzard Irvine stance for the visuals.”

"That’s the way they approach things. It wasn’t that I looked at it and went, ‘Oh my god that looks terrible.’ I was like, that looks like Blizzard. The guys in Irvine. That’s what it looks like to me. Their interpretation of it."

Many fans of the series have been pissed off at the artistic changes, going so far as to provide Photoshop-altered screenshots showing a darker, grittier Diablo 3. Lead designer Jay Wilson recently joined the debate, going so far as to pointedly respond to the complaints while refusing to make changes.

No one can keep a good demon hunter down it seems, as Capcom today announced that the Devil May Cry franchise has shipped ten million copies worldwide.

The series debuted on the PS2 in 2001 and the latest version was released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 last year. Interestingly, the last game set a new record for the series by shipping over 2 million copies.

Capcom appears to be rolling in monies – the company recently announced that Street Fighter 4 had shipped more than 2 million copies and Resident Evil 5 over four million.

Now that the game is out to raving reviews, analysts are expecting gamers to grab up several million copies of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars by the end of the year.

"If the title’s subsequent reviews are consistent with the initial critical response, ‘Chinatown Wars’ would be the highest rated title on the DS to date," said Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz.

Creutz expects the game to sell about 2 million units this year.

"The highly-rated release supports our belief that Take-Two has, pound-for-pound, the highest-quality development talent in the industry," added Creutz.

This is Rockstar’s first outing on the DS. Their previous handheld games include GTA: Liberty City and Vice City Stories on the PSP.