Enjoy:

Halo: Reach can come at any time, now.  I’ve spent the last month prepping myself by playing through all the Halo games in the franchise, from Combat Evolved through Halo 3 along with ODST and Halo Wars.  I’ve killed Sangheili and Kig-Yar, Jiralhanae and Unggoy (Elites, Jackals, Brutes, and Grunts, respectively), all without remorse.  I’ve reduced the Shield World–a Dyson Sphere created by the Forerunners with the intent to keep the Flood out (FAIL)–into a sprawling nebula thanks to Forge’s detonation of the Spirit of Fire’s FTL drive in the sphere’s sun.  I also managed to die more times than I can count playing Halo 3 on Legendary, pulling out a great deal of my hair out in the process.  I can’t believe how much harder Legendary was on Halo 3 compared to ODST (which seemed like a walk in the park).  I skipped out on playing Halo Wars at the apex difficulty due to my vast inexperience with RTS games (Halo Wars being my only real foray into the genre) and the fact that Metroid: Other M shipped out today and should be on my doorstep tomorrow afternoon.

All in all, I think I’m finally ready for Reach.  What started off a month ago as a second play-through of ODST has exploded into a full-bore obsession for me as I’ve completed all the campaigns, watched Halo Legends a couple of times, checked out the various media on Waypoint, and even read some of the books (novels, not just the comics–a true sign of addiction on my account).  I’m engrossed in a frenzy of Human-Covenant warfare, of a battle that spans 100,000 years between the Forerunners and the Flood.  I can’t get enough, and now I’m forced to wait another two weeks for Reach.  Other M should help me pass the time, but can I fight off the withdrawal?

For anyone thinking Halo is just a series of great FPS games and multiplayer action, allow me to educate you on some of the excellence that lays beneath the surface.

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Ah, the Wii.  Barely utilizes enough bandwidth to properly run as it does is now seeking a TV Channel to stream television content on to–get this–your TV through the Wii!

That’s right, the company that Mario built is focusing on TV for their online community, despite the fact that there is still next to no online gaming of any sort for the Wii.  I realize Nintendo abandoned my kind (those who buy video game consoles to play video games) years ago, but it’s just gone to ridiculous levels.  Why wouldn’t the Big N just throw a bone at their core gamers that stuck by them through thick and thin (Virtual Boy, lack of Third Party support on the N64 and GC) and hook them up with something to keep them coming back.  As a (once) Nintendo fanboy, I am absolutely not buying the next Wii iteration unless I see Nintendo finally does something to appease me.  I guess therein lies my problem: why appease someone who has already given up.

This may or may not be the full and final setlist, but RockBandAide has decoded the small, blurry text from a now removed YouTube video in which a Harmonix employee was scrolling through the setlist on a Rock Band 3 demo station. I am digging the variety and hoping this setlist turns out to be more than just rumors and speculation.

Check it out:

* indicates tracks that have already been officially announced.

• Amy Winehouse – Rehab
• Anthrax – Caught In A Mosh
• At the Drive-In – One Armed Scissor
• Avenged Sevenfold – Beast and the Harlot
• B-52′s – Rock Lobster
• Big Country – In a Big Country
• Bigger, Something Brighter
• Blondie – Heart of Glass
• Blood, Sweat, & Tears – Spinning Wheel
• Bob Marley & The Wailers – Get Up, Stand Up
• Chicago – 25 or 6 to 4

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I picked up ODST when it first came out and played through it. It was very different not running around as Master Chief, a move I was skeptical of at first. After playing through the solo quest, my concerns were quickly turned on their head. This game was special, a testament to how strong the Halo universe can be.

Months have passed with nary a Halo to have been played other than Halo Wars, which I bought used through GameFly a year after its release. So comes a quiet Sunday with boredom creeping over my shoulder. On a whim, I decide to play through one of the Halos again, leaning towards Combat Evolved. ODST looked at me from my shelf and whispered something to my psyche, something seductive. It murmured solid storytelling, excellent music, engrossing atmosphere, relatable characters, enhanced difficulty, and satisfaction to me, and so I popped it in. What seemed to be only a brief moment of time later, Sunday was over, completely absorbed by the tales of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.

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It is not uncommon to stumble across an island defying gravity and sitting amongst the clouds in video games.  It’s clear that RPGs cleared the way for this trend of hovering denizen shelter, especially RPGs from Square Enix. Another truth: floating islands always have EXCELLENT music associated with them.

Skytown – Metroid Prime 3

We begin with Metroid Prime 3′s flying, robotic paradise of Skytown.  Though the name was hardly a chin-scratcher for the developers, Skytown did have its charm.  For instance, what better way to navigate this in-flight archipelago than via a morphball canon or grapple beam monorail? The city also draws heavily from steampunk design, so if you’re into that…

Floating above: Elysia

Populated by:

• A most-corrupted Ghor
• Elysians
• Space Pirates
• Aurora Unit 217

Erected by: the Chozo

Verdict?: A totally suitable place to set up shop, especially if you don’t mind being the only organically-sentient being around. On the plus side, the robotic Elysians take care of all the nuts and bolts of the place, so consider it fairly maintenance-free. Watch for falling Phazon-laced Leviathan meteors.

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3D without glasses that can be turned on/off is 3D that I can get behind. Add in the fact that Nintendo will be revitalizing some great retro games such as Mega Man 2 and Yoshi’s Island and I am a happy camper. But, there’s more! Tecmo is also going to be releasing a Dead or Alive 3D game and a Ninja Gaiden game on the 3D-capable handheld, so you can pretty much guarantee that we are going to get eyefuls of bouncing (possibly motion-controlled) boobies. I’m sold.

Around the Game Drunk offices (my basement) we don’t often get a chance to play the newest games to completion and post timely reviews and hence game reviews tend to be left on the back-burner. Reviewing and discussing games, however, is one of the main reasons we decided to create this site and so we are left with our only viable option for the moment: reviewing games that have been out for months because we all have full time jobs and it takes us a long time to beat games because we’re old and tend to lose interest in completing games once we’ve begun drinking.

The Saboteur is one of my more recent gaming addictions. Developed by Pandemic Studios who brought us such games as Mercenaries, Mercenaries 2 and a bunch of other games that I have never played; you are Sean Devlin, a drunken, Irish (yes I realize that’s redundant), race car driver / mechanic. Your best friend gets killed by some douche-bag, Nazi, race car driving Colonel and all of the sudden you’re swept up into an underground resistance group who seemingly can’t accomplish anything without your assistance.

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Studio Ghibli is responsible for some of my favorite all-time animated features and they are collaborating with Level-5 to make a Nintendo DS and PS3 game called Ni no Kuni. The games are completely separate games built from scratch – no porting of content from one to the other. The PS3 screens and trailers released so far are beautiful and capture the spirit of the Ghibli’s motion pictures.

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XBLA’s deal of the week delivers a bounty of Mega-awesomeness this week. Mega Man 10 for 50% off (meaning it will cost you a fiver). There are some other deals too, but they can’t possibly compare to the awesomeness of retro, Mega gaming glory.

Links:
XBLA Deal of the Week
Major Nelson’s deal of the week post

Count me in for thinking that Hulu Plus is completely pointless.  I already pay for DirecTV and I have a DVR.  If I wanted to watch a tv show season, I would record it, then watch it.  Why, then, would I pay $10 a month to Hulu to watch the most current season of TV?  Oh, I would also have to pay for PSN Plus or Xbox Live.  For those who sail the seas of Internet piracy can also tell you that The Pirate Bay and a streaming server program like Tversity would make Hulu completely obsolete.

Hulu Plus, you just made THE LIST.

Go to Amazon.com and pre-order Metroid: Other M. Do it now. For your efforts, besides getting an awesome game, you’ll also received a $20 credit for upcoming video game purchasing madness!

DC Universe Online…the game that might bring me into MMOs?  Could a console gamer make that jump, is it possible?  If only the subscription cost were to disappear, perhaps because said console gamer was a subscriber to the platform’s internet service?  PSN+, that would absorb the cost of a monthly subscription to such an anticipated game, right?

WRONG.

Thanks Sony, you just horse-fucked me.  This game went from a definite buy to an afterthought for this humble, cash-strapped gamer.  Diapers, baby formula, gas, house payment, food, blah blah blah–unfortunately these get priority over my video game playing.  Forking over $60 is one thing, but $15 a month to play the game that I already spent $60 on?  This is one console gamer who will not make that leap.  If Sony has the server capacity to run Home for free, how could DC Universe Online be too much of a stretch, especially with their newly-designed pay structure for PSN?

At least Sony has shown me how to hate once more…