Amazon has been known to be very kind for gamers on a budget like us as from time to time they offer some of the hottest titles for much cheaper than retailers like GameStop. Today, Amazon is holding quite the sale as they have dropped the price tags of some of the hottest games putting them at a more palatable price tag than before.

Included in this deal are games like L.A. Noire (dropped to $39.99), Halo: Reach (dropped to $24.96), Mortal Kombat, Just Cause 2 and many more. For a full list of games included in this promotion head here.

On the Xbox 360 one of the biggest exclusives is the Halo franchise from Bungie. The Halo series has seen 4 different titles starting on the original Xbox with Halo: Combat Evolved and reaching to the Xbox 360 with the most currently release Halo: Reach. While Halo: Reach is Bungie’s last Halo title they have developed a series of DLC packs for the game before shipping off duties to 343 Industries.

One of these DLC packs it the Defiant Map Pack which just so happened to recently hit Xbox Live. If you’re not familiar with the map pack, this features three brand new multiplayer maps along with new achievements worth a collective sum of 150 Gamerscore points priced at 800 Microsoft Points.

For those of you that have already downloaded the map pack, how are you liking it?

One of the Xbox 360′s most popular exclusives is none other than Bungie’s Halo franchise. While the franchise is set tpo live on, Bungie has jumped ship following the release of Halo: Reach. Luckily, for diehard Bungie loyalists, the company has gotten around to releasing a few map packs for the game but it seems that the Defiant map pack (set to drop on March 15th) will be the last Halo: Reach DLC released by the company.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that there will be no DLC left at all as in their announcement, Bungie mentioned the hand off of the Halo franchise to Microsoft and 343 Industries – the studio set to work on future Halo titles. Then again, there is no way to confirm that 343 Industries will still be releasing map packs for Halo: Reach once they’re in full control but it’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

Bungie’s Halo franchise has become one of the Xbox 360′s killer exclusives. However, now that Halo: Reach is on the market, Bungie is onto bigger (and hopefully better) things with their new partner in crime publishing Activision. As of late, the studio has been quite about what their latest project will be but during GDC the company’s David Alrdridge came forth and said that the new game will not be called “WoW in Space”.

Moments after these words came out of Aldridge’s mouth the entire Internet went into a frenzy (including us) assuming that Bungie’s next title will be an MMO. Luckily (or unfortunately, depending on who you ask) Bungie has sent out their weekly update letting us know that the announcement was in fact a joke. Of course, this doesn’t exactly tell us that their next game isn’t an MMO but until anything official is said, we’re just going to assume it’s not.

What do you think of a Bungie developed MMO?

One of the biggest exclusives that Microsoft currently posses for their Xbox 360 console is none other than Halo. Created by Bungie, the Halo franchise has amassed 4 different titles with Halo: Reach being the studio’s last. However, just because Reach is their last game doesn’t mean Bungie is going to neglect it. In fact, we’ve kinown for quite some time that Bungie would be releasing a new map pack for the game dubbed the Defiant Map Pack – however, we haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly when it will drop.

Luckily, Bungie has just come forth to let us know that the Defiant Map Pack for Halo: Reach will be made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace come March 15th for 800 Microsoft Points. Included in the map pack are three brand new maps dubbed Condemned, Highlands and Unearthed – three levels that any diehard Halo fan won’t want to miss.

We’ll remind you again on the 15th when the Defiant Map Pack goes live.

via kotaku

While the entire Halo series has seen massive sales numbers hardcore gamers generally agree that the original, Halo: Combat Evolved, was the best. Unfortunately, seeing how it was a launch title for the original Xbox back in 2001, Halo 1 did not ship with any official support for online multiplayer via Xbox Live – this feature wasn’t introduced until the release of Halo 2 come 2004. There are unofficial ways of tricking your Xbox by way of applications like Xbox Connect but it really doesn’t compare to the traditional Xbox Live experience.

Luckily, rumors have just surfaced today that say Saber Interactive, the folks behind TimeShift, have been hard at work on a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved complete with a 1080p resolution, 3D support and an engine entirely different than the one that ran both Halo 3 and Reach. However, it will not be the original game with a boosted resolution – something that most Halo diehards long for.

If these rumors pan out the Halo: Combat Evolved remake is said to be dropping on on November 15th, 2011 – the 10 year anniversary of the game’s original release.

via joystiq

Major League Gaming (MLG) is the biggest professional gaming league in the United States. Holding multiple competitions a year the company has picked up various titles along the way such as StarCraft II and Tekken 6 but their flagship title remains to be Halo. Currently on Halo: Reach, much debate has went into what the next version of MLG’s competition gameplay settings should be. A major gripe with the current settings is the fact that the Sprint Armor Ability is included – something that was absent from every previous Halo.

Well, for those of you hoping Sprint will be removed in the next version of the settings, you may want to look away. MLG has just released an announcement stating that Sprint will in fact be included in version 3 of their competition settings.

Hey, at least they don’t add Armor Lock, right?

Read their full explanation after the break.
READ ON »

We’re now officially in 2011, which will no doubt bring many great games into gamers hands, and hopefully, we’ll see a few surprises as well. For the 2010 year in gaming, we saw lots of great games, here’s out Best of 2010 at DigitalBattle:

Best shooter: Battlefield Bad Company 2

The shooter category has been packed in 2010, with lots of games coming out, including yet another Call of Duty, a reboot of Medal of Honor, and Halo Reach. But for us, the best shooter was Bad Company 2, with an improved campaign over the previous Bad Company and by far the most fun multiplayer shooter of the bunch, even though Halo and CoD fanboys might disagree.

Best Indie game: Limbo

Limbo took many by surprise with its dark nature and creepy atmosphere. While there have been many indie games in 2010, and many good ones, Limbo stood out the most. Check out our Limbo review.

Best Xbox 360 game: Halo Reach

Xbox 360 saw a relatively quiet year compared to 2009, but it still had the last Halo game made by Bungie, and it lived up to all the expectation fans had. Read our Halo Reach review.

Best PS3 game: Heavy Rain

It was a close race between Heavy Rain and God of War 3, and we chose Heavy Rain because of its uniqueness and story. And for being a game that’s hard to find these days, a game with a sense of mystery. Read our Heavy Rain review.

Best Wii game: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Without a doubt, it’s the best Mario game ever made, and took the already awesome Super Mario Galaxy to new heights. It offers everything a platformer should have, and it’s a game all future Mario games will be judged against. Read our Super Mario Galaxy 2 review.

Best sports game: NBA 2K11

It’s widely considered the best NBA Basketball game of all time, including from our review. It helps that there was no competition from NBA Live/NBA Elite this year.

Best DLC: Bad Company 2 Vietnam

The $15 DLC added a whole new dimension to the hectic multiplayer of Bad Company 2, taking its talents to the Vietnam era, with new maps, vehicles and lots of guns. Read our BC2 Vietnam review.

Best racing game: Gran Turismo 5

It was years in development, costing close to $80 million, and yet, we kinda felt disappointed by GT5. Despite that, it’s still a good racing game, and there wasn’t much competition in the racing scene in 2010. However, GT5 was also…

Most overhyped game: Gran Turismo 5

While it’s still the best racing game of 2010, the years leading up to it made us expect the greatest racing game ever, which it unfortunately wasn’t. There were a lot of things that felt dated in GT5, like the AI. For more, read our Gran Turismo 5 review.

Biggest disappointment: APB

What’s there to say about APB? Much anticipated, it came out as a dud, and it seems developer Realtime World’s blew $50 million to create great customization for characters. And not much else. Read our full disappointment in our APB review.

Best game of 2010: Super Mario Galaxy 2

It takes an already great concept and perfects it to the bone. Best Wii game of all time, best Mario game of all time, and best game of 2010.

Runners up: Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, God of War 3, Bad Company 2, Halo Reach.

Bungie has released an infographic of Halo Reach, showing all the cool numbers the game and its many players have achieved over the past three months.

It shows that over 1.3 billion games have been played, with 33 billion kills in 24 thousand years of gameplay. Yeah, we get it, Bungie, Halo Reach is a popular game. You can find a bigger version of the infographic here.

Microsof’t Xbox 360 has long been applauded for its top notch online service appropriately dubbed Xbox Live. While this service requires users to pay a subscription fee, Microsoft prides themselves in offering consumers a grade-A experience. Not only that, but thanks to some deals from retailers, the subscription fee isn’t half bad.

In fact, Walmart has just announced today that they will be offering 1-year of Xbox Live plus a game of your choice for $81. Now you’re probably assuming you only get to choose from a line up of crappy games, but that’s not the case. Included in the line up of games that qualify for this deal include Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, just to name a few.

This is a great deal as a 1-year Xbox Live subscription usually goes for $60 alongside these games which go for $60 as well.

Check out the deal here.