A Neogaf forum post (containing the image above) implies that Infinity Ward will be disabling the party chat function of the Xbox 360 in some if not all of their online multiplayer modes.

Assuming the post is not a hoax, the general consensus is that party chat allows for cheating in multiplayer contests. For those that own a Microsoft Xbox 360 and don’t have a clue as to what “party chat cheating” is, good for you. As for the rest of you … you should be ashamed of yourself (snicker).

An example of party chat cheating in an online multiplayer, such as Modern Warfare 2, usually involves communication from a recently killed teammate (normally muted in game channel chat due to being dead) with those on his team who are still living i.e. “The bastard that just killed me is heading your way through the warehouse!”

If the forum posts proves to be legitimate, I’ll be behind it 100% and hope that more developers follow in Infinity Ward’s footsteps. How about you? Do regulations like this increase, decrease, or have no effect on your interest in a game?

In a short four weeks after its release, Battlefield Heroes has managed to get one million players, which isn’t surprising, considering the positive impressions of the game during the beta. EA & DICE’s stylistic Battlefield sequel is also free, which I can only assume helped to entice said one million players.

If you still haven’t signed up for the game, you should probably go do so now- maybe you can be a part of the second million. We got a chance to play the game during the beta, and even with its numerous delays, it was a lot of fun. The game’s multi-player only, so don’t count on a gripping story line or emotionally connected characters- but if you’re all about blowing stuff up and shooting foreigners, this is so the game for you.

Bioshock was one of 2007’s best games and best in my opinion, but the only thing it lacked was an online multiplayer of any kind, unlike Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip. But 2K Boston’s next game won’t have this pitfall, as it seems that the project 2K Boston is currently working on is a multiplayer first-person shooter.

In a resume posting for Lead Designers and Lead Engineers for 2K Boston, they detailed a few key points of their next project, which you can find after the jump. While it’s not completely out of the question that this listing is for Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams, I’m thinking it’s not likely. However, we do know that the FPS in question runs on the Unreal 3.0 Engine, and will most likely be released on the PS3, PC, and Xbox 360… whenever it appears.

Leading multiple engineers within a proven team to design and build a network frontend and backend support for an action-packed AAA multiplayer title

• Advising engineers on how to properly architect their systems for optimal multiplayer support

• Extending and enhancing Unreal Engine 3 with proprietary networking tech to address gameplay, performance, platform, production, tools, and QA needs

• Interfacing with Microsoft, Sony, and other providers for matching-making and other services

• Working with the Technical Director, Lead Programmer, and IT Director to plan and execute major changes to core technology or backend services

• Responsible for delivering a robust, scalable, and responsive multiplayer gameplay code and backend services for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 platforms

The BioShock team is betting big on multiplayer and plans to stay at the top of the charts– we’re careful about the problems we tackle, innovative in our approach, solid in our implementation, and we polish the heck out of everything we do. Right now we’re looking for an exceptional individual to direct the development of this multiplayer experience through a combination of leadership, design, coding, and daily problem solving on the gameplay networking and backend server components.

Source: V4VG.com

Savage 2: A Tortured Soul, S2 Games’ multiplayer battlefield game, is now free (as in beer). Just download the game, create an account, and you’re off. Why bother, though? Well, it’s a pretty well-received game, especially by users. The main reason, though, is the main gameplay mechanic- one player on each team acts as a “general” of sorts on the battlefield, and plays the game like an RTS. The other 62 players act as the units, and play the game as an action RPG/ FPS (i.e. they do the fighting). Not bad for a free game, especially as Windows, Mac, and Linux users can all enjoy it.

Look, I’ve been reading a heap of articles lately citing both the Eurogamer and GI.biz sit down with Frontier Developments’ founder, David Braben, and I simply couldn’t take it anymore.

For those of you that missed the hoopla, Braben’s gripe is that the used game market will eventually kill the single player aspect of games and force all developers to focus instead on multiplayer due to its high replay factor. While I agree that multiplayer does offer a much higher replay value, I certainly don’t agree with his proposed fix.

My argument is that for every game there are two versions. One is personal, not for resale and it’s made abundantly clear you can’t sell it. And it’s made available for something like GBP 25 [$40]. And a resale and rental copy, which in film is actually about GBP 80 [$130].

Huh? That has got to be the most ass backwards solution I’ve ever heard of. I understand the need for a developer to generate higher revenue, but handcuffing a consumer to their product is not the answer.

The better solution, which is admittedly more difficult, is to come up with incentives that motivate gamers to buy games new. Companies and retailers alike are already putting this plan into action. Look no further than the upcoming release of Gears of War 2 to see this in action. Those who buy the game new will get access to fan favorite levels from the original Gears. Other titles like LittleBigPlanet have been offering up tons of exclusive costumes, levels, and even real world branded merchandise for pre-order customers.

While both of these games have multiplayer aspects, there’s nothing preventing the creators of single player only titles from utilizing these tactics as well. They may not have the luxury of relying on an internet connected consumer, but that wouldn’t prevent them from embedding content into their games that requires a one time use code to unlock via telephone, smoke signal, bong juice, or bat signal.

The point I am trying to make here is that there are other options. And when you’re a company comprised of the type of talent and creativity capable of putting together an interactive game, I have a hard time feeling sorry for you. If you can’t think up ways to help strengthen your consumer bond without the use of restraints, you need to stop pointing fingers at consumers and retail chains and instead point them at yourself.

Chains like GameStop have every right to sell used games without developers pointing their fingers at them in disgust. Looking at the situation realistically, chains like GameStop will cease to exist as soon as more consumers begin to realize that they don’t need fancy middle man pawn shops, offering ridiculously low trade in value, in order to connect with gamers looking for used content.

Personally, you will never catch me selling a used game to a chain like GameStop, but that’s not because I don’t believe they should have the right to sell used products. It’s because I believe the price they offer consumers in exchange for their game is highway robbery. If I have games (or anything for that matter) that I want to sell, I use this lovely tool called the internet created by Al Gore in the 70s. And when I don’t feel like doing that, I whip up a yard sale sign and sit my ass in a lawn chair on my front lawn.

In closing, the solution is not to offer us less by doing away with single player content and it’s not forcing us to retain our copy by placing legal copy on the back of each box. Gamers will respond unanimously to one thing and one thing only — a superior product. If that means the addition of multiplayer, do it. If that means going above and beyond with extra promotional content, do it. Knapsacks, notebooks, pencil sharpers, condoms, lunchboxes, viewfinders — whatever it is — do it, do it, do it, do it.

Deliver a high enough quality product and gamers will not only never sell your title, they’ll worship your box art by framing it on their wall for the whole world to see.

Afterthought: Ok, my rant time is over. What say you loyal readers? Have I lost my mind? Is Braben on to something or should games come with boat loads of swag and other cool perks if we are willing to dish out the cash to buy them new?

Two off-screen videos featuring Gears of War 2 multiplayer gameplay footage have made their way onto the web. Imagine that.

From memory, it appears that the scope design when zooming in for a sniper shot has been redone, but that may just be the lack of any recent Gears 1 gameplay speaking.

The sequel packs a decent amount of new features, and for that reason, I am really excited about the upcoming release of the game — but to be completely honest, these two videos did very little for me. The meat shield is utilized early on in the first clip and the second features some snazzy arcade machines, but other than that the gameplay looks a lot like the original.

Hit the jump to see for yourself.

Source: scrawlfx.com

I have been busy adding some new features to the site based on your feedback as readers, so please continue sending me your feedback about annoying ads, broken links, and pretty much anything you think can help us to improve the site.

That said, I am just NOW getting a chance to sit down and watch the leaked UT3 Xbox 360 Gears of War 2 exclusive multiplayer video. The footage was originally intended to be a bonus, available only to those who bought the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 game for the Xbox 360, however as things often do, it found its way on to the web.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, here’s your chance to process it along with my impressions after the jump.

Bigger. Better. More Bad-ass. As cheesy as that sounds (and it sounds very cheesy) C-Blaz has every reason in the world to continue pounding us with the catch phrase. The second installment of Gears proves that Epic processed tons of feedback from gamers and put it into effect instead of just doing the minimal effort needed to crank out another sequel (cough EA cough).

New weapons like the flame-thrower and poison grenades will no doubt be sweet additions, but the ability to plant grenades on structural objects in the game and use them as proximity bombs will add a whole new level of complexity to the game. While I am excited about giving them a shot (and I will), I have a disturbing feeling that this feature will somehow be abused in tight quarters and areas of high traffic. Hopefully Epic has planned for this, and will allow for some sort of counter — i.e. tossing a grenade into a suspected area to set off the proximity bomb.

If defense is your thing, then you will likely enjoy being able to create cover on the fly with the introduction of shields. Not sure how I feel about this one personally, but I can understand the benefit and assume that more than a few gamers thought this would be a good idea. On the plus side, it seems you will be limited to a pistol fire arm while in what I will call “your not touching me, your not touching me” mode.

Crawling while you are down — another big addition that could mean the difference between life and death on the Gears battlefield. I can not tell you how many times I laid helpless, calling out to my buddy (you know who you are) for help, only to hear “I can’t make it over to you, they will kill me too!”. Simply having the opportunity to crawl a few feet to gain cover may not seem like much to some, but it will void certain “bait” situations used by the enemy, and for that reason alone, I welcome its addition.

Most shooters are all about the headshots, but I can honestly say that with the addition of several new brutal execution moves, I will be more interested in downing a player so that I can get up close and personal to finish them off. And on days where I feel a little more forgiving, I may choose to spare their life (initially) by taking advantage of the new “meat shield” feature, which will allow gamers to pick up a downed enemy and use them as a walking shield. Of course if you get bored of walking around with your new pal, you can always snap his neck and find a new toy to play with.

Cliffy acknowledges that the popular chainsaw feature had its short comings the first time around by stating that the team didn’t put much thought into head-to-head chainsaw encounters in the first Gears, and that the victor “was essentially random”. While the addition of a dueling chainsaw mechanic that puts control back into the hands of the gamer will likely ensure that the right man walks away, the gamer on the short end of the stick will probably still complain that they were robbed and smash their controller.

Last but not least, the game also boasts larger multiplayer maps and 5 player slots per team to help fill them. How can you not be excited about playing this game? Share your thoughts about the trailer below.

Video Source: xbox360fanboy.com

The Wii Fit Girl video has been around for a while now and has brought in millions of viewers, thanks in no small part to MTV’s Total Request Live. Lauren Bernat, the Wii Fit Girl herself, and her marketing boyfriend, Giovanny Gutierrez, showed up on the show this week to discuss their now infamous video. Hit the jump to watch the clip and read Ripten’s thoughts.

Ripten’s thoughts can be summed up in one word: bullshit. Kotaku points out the fact that in an earlier interview, Gutierrez referred to the video as a “spec Viral video.” Even without that comment, the whole thing is way too suspicious to be taken seriously. The man is a marketing executive (online creative director no less) and his girlfriend works for the same company. Not to mention that all of Bernat’s comments in the TRL video seem incredibly scripted and poorly acted.

Some people seem to think that Nintendo is by all of this, but I disagree. It’s never been Nintendo’s style and I see no reason why they would start now. It’s not like they need to stir up hype to sell Wii Fit, anyway. It’s flying off shelves on its own.

If you’re one of the millions that are feeling the urge to get the game thanks to Lauren Bernat’s video, just check out the one we have for you below. Let it serve as a reminder that not “every guy” should buy his girlfriend a Wii Fit.

Source: Kotaku

If you don’t get this picture, please leave now.

If you are anything like me, you spend a great deal of time visiting virtual worlds, i.e. playing videogames. If only there were some way to more fully immerse yourself in that world and have real life just disappear. Enter… the Vuzix! (please pretend you just heard some dramatic kung-fu music and perhaps a gong).

Essentially, the Vuzix is a Federation visor thingy with LCD screens in it instead of whatever it is that was supposed to be in Geordi’s visor thingy. Well, actually, Vuzix is the name of the company that makes the headset, not the headset itself, and there are several different models available. The headset I spent some lonely nights with was the Vuzix iWear VR920. To make things simple, I just called it the Vuzix. Confusing? Maybe — just deal with it.

Anyways, the Vuzix claims that wearing it is the equivalent of viewing a 62″ screen from the optimal viewing distance of 9 feet away. I don’t know how that is mathematically different than a 36″ screen from 5 feet away, or a PSP screen from 6 inches away. While I can’t really say whether or not that’s what the Vuzix view really looks like, it does seem like you are looking at a big screen, so whatever.

Not really me in this picture.

Okay, so how does wearing a headset that just views like a big screen somehow equal virtual reality? Well, that’s where the Vuzix’s stereoscopic 3D integrated head-tracking comes into play. The game I was given to try this out was Microsoft Flight Simulator. Basically, you fly around like normal with your flight stick — no change there. In cockpit view, however, looking around in real life (by that I mean moving your head around) actually moves your view in the game. I could actually peer out the side window, look down, and then get sick. Yes, the experience was so immersive that looking at the tree tops as I skimmed over them actually made me a bit nauseous.

Some games also have a feature that makes them look like ass… at least to everyone except the person with the headset on. It resembles the traditional 3D red and blue blurriness that really hurts your eyes when looked at normally. When viewed through the Vuzix, however, it actually does have a bit of Third Dimensionatude. The grass in the fields of Call of Duty 4 actually had depth and popped out at me.

This is also not me.

Another selling point is the ability to play split-screen multiplayer games without having a split-screen. I remember the fond killings in GoldenEye on the N64 that resulted in a “You fucking cheater! You only knew where I was because you looked at my screen!” Those days are gone. It is possible with the Vuzix to set up a 4-player deathmatch and have each person’s individual screen on their own Vuzix. No more real estate wasted on your big screen by other people. I didn’t personally have 4 Vuzixeseses (Vuzixi? Vuzixen?) to test this myself, but I did see it in action at GDC.

All of this, of course, has to be configured to your head and your computer. The Vuzix ships with a software disk that makes this process relatively painless (I didn’t have a problem with it, but I’m a super genius — your experience may vary). The only thing I did have a problem with was the DVI adapter it came with. It didn’t fit properly into my graphics card and was a little loose, making me occasionally see some distortion in my picture.

The Vuzix also comes with an adjustable nosepiece so that you can wear it over glasses. Wrong! It totally does not work. In none of the various positions available was it situated in a way that didn’t make Dan Landis angry. All you scientists out there would agree that just having a manual focus on the headset itself would be easier than trying to wear this thing over a pair of glasses.

I also didn’t like the size of the Vuzix, particularly the width. Unlike your mom, I can’t spread this thing wide enough to fit my head in there without hurting myself. The plus side is that it remains tight and doesn’t go flying off when I start headbanging, but it does grow somewhat uncomfortable after a while.

So the benefit of having a Vuzix here is that you get your own personal 62″ self-contained multimedia experience for a fraction of the price. With a microphone, earphones, and the LCD screens, the Vuzix is all you really need for a multiplayer online experience on the PC or console. You can also watch porn in front of your family and they’ll never know.

Though not implemented right now, I’m pretty sure this is the interactive virtual reality that Vuzix will lead us to. Also, not me in this picture.

On the downside, the Vuzix can’t fully replace a TV or monitor because there will always be some time in your life when you want others to see what you see, or you don’t want this thing on your face all goddamn day. It also is not friendly to glasses-wearing fat-heads like myself, try as it may to accommodate me.

The bottom line here is that the Vuzix is pretty neat. At $399, you can buy four of them and it will still be cheaper than a regular 62″ television. The Vuzix by itself is really friendly to people who value their privacy or who never play with other people in the same room (unless you buy multiple headsets), and the Virtual Reality features, while not great, are still pretty cool. Also, as you can tell by the pictures, chicks dig the Vuzix. Perhaps you can spend your Bush Bucks on these and help stimulate the economy (tur-hur!).

A fourth (and fantastic looking!) GTA IV trailer is now available if you aren’t already begging for its release April 29th, and Rockstar has announced a new online social club for Xbox Live and PSN that will track all kinds of usage data surrounding the game– plus more in the future.

GTA IV’s release is imminent. The new trailer is as exciting and dramatic as ever, and launching just ahead of the game’s release is the Rockstar Social Club.

Registration for the website is set to begin April 15 and will be open to both Xbox and PlayStation users. The future looks to bring more competitions and awards, but at first the site will track a lot of single-player related statistics as well as multiplayer leaderboards.

The press release details some features of the site:

LCPD Police Blotter – A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players – showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.

The Story Gang – This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic’s main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV – The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it’s taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.

The 100% Club – Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative ‘key to the city’ to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.

The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.

The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game – from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam – to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.

Sources: Rockstar, 1up News

Want to be one of the first to test out the multiplayer aspect of MGS4? No problem, the official Sony Playstation Blog confirms that those who pre-order the game will be guaranteed access to the MP beta.

… If you can’t wait to try out MGS4, the good news is you don’t have to much longer. Those who pre-order the game will be guaranteed access to a multiplayer beta test for Metal Gear Online scheduled for late April.

There you have it. The waiting period is drawing to a close, and the faint sound of “snake? snake? snaaaaaaaake?!!” is growing louder by the minute. Unfortunately, this deal only applies to the US at this time. Sorry Patrick.

Source: blog.us.playstation.com

Prototype is what Crackdown would be if you were a bad-ass instead of a superhero. Crunching cars beneath your feet, running up buildings, literally smashing peoples’ heads into the ground, and absorbing dead bodies into your own — just some of the things you will be doing as Prototype’s main anti-hero, Alex Mercer.

During GDC, we were presented with a brief explanation of the background and inspiration for Radical’s new game. Essentially, when players are given an open world to do whatever they want, they always behave badly. Radical have embraced that fundamental human desire to be naughty and designed a game that is gritty, disgusting, and fucking awesome.

As you can tell from this slide, the basic structure of the game is to “Kill guys and take their stuff”. It’s much more than that, though. There’s a war going on between the Infected and the Military, and you’re in the middle. You can play the two against each other, or help one side fight the other — whatever it takes to accomplish your goals.

Alex has no idea who he is (except that his name is Alex Mercer, apparently) and absorbs peoples’ brains to help himself figure it all out. He accomplishes that in many ways, all of which involve killing people in super-awesome expressions of love. We witnessed a man’s head getting forcibly squished into his own chest cavity, but we also saw such classics as the basic head-exploding curb stomp. Awwww, how cute…

Once people are absorbed, Alex’s biomass increases. This effectively let’s him smash things easier and grow huge claws and so forth. You can also assume the identity of the absorbed people to blend in easier or open special abilities. For example, assuming the identity of a high-ranking military official let’s the player call in air strikes!

Alex can also steal vehicles, including tanks and helicopters. Both hijacking maneuvers include spectacular gore-splosions, but Alex somehow manages to keep his white hoodie nice and clean. Of course, you can just avoid direct contact by tossing the tank at the helicopter, destroying them both.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Eric Holmes and Tim Bennison may have a little Prototype in themselves.

After the presentation, one of the Radical guys just sat there and played the game for 15 minutes while we all watched. It looked amazing, and they claim the graphics are far from complete. I asked about a release date, and they say they are really hoping for this year, but there is no official release scheduled.

Oh, they also let slip that there will be a full-blown cooperative mode, as well as the possibility of “other multiplayer modes” that they aren’t ready to discuss. Stay tuned and we will give you all the information as we get it.

With GDC just around the corner, the rumour mill is running at full speed. Normally most of these rumours turn out to be nothing more than falsities or let downs, but this one seems to be carrying some weight.

Fable 2 Multiplayer has been long rumoured, but will we finally be seeing some solid information and end to the speculation? Tips from key industry insiders are all indicating that Peter Molyneux will be announcing at next week’s GDC that Fable 2 multiplayer will be coming, and giving us all some juicy information on the matter.

To add further confusion to the rumour soup surrounding the game, a few days ago the Wikipedia article for Fable 2 was updated with some intriguing information, stating that XBOX Live will allow “a host to invite up to 3 other Fable 2 players into their Albion to train, finish quests and so forth.”

Ripten will be reporting from GDC all next week, so keep your eyes here for all the latest news as it breaks.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was just awarded Overall Game of the Year at last night’s 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards Show. See, we were right!

In addition to Game of the Year, Infinity Ward’s hot little number also called in an airstrike on Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play. Activision rejoiced at the kill streak and called in a helicopter.

Robin Kaminsky, Activision’s executive vice president of publishing, had this to say:

“It’s an honor for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to be recognized by the Academy as the best game of 2007. The team at Infinity Ward is committed to delivering groundbreaking entertainment to gamers worldwide and all of the awards are an acknowledgment of their talent, dedication and hard work.”

Jason West, studio head and project lead at Infinity Ward, added:

“We’re thrilled and truly appreciate that our efforts have been recognized by the Academy, especially with the incredible competition this year.”

Apparently, the competition wasn’t as great as we all thought it was. In fact, Call of Duty 4 topped the 2007 sales charts as the number-one, best-selling game worldwide, according to The NPD Group, Chart Track, and GFK Group. The game sold in excess of 7 million copies, even though it was just released in November.

ActiBlizzion has effectively entered Prestige Mode, as I’m sure they are planning on doing this all over again in 2008 with titles like Guitar Hero 4, Tony Hawk 481 (or whatever number they are on now), StarCraft 2, and of course, Call of Duty 5.

For all of those waiting to play Lost Planet on their Playstation 3s, your wait is over.

Starting today, U.S. PSN accounts will be able to download a multiplayer demo for Lost Planet. The demo features only one map (Pirate Fortress) and support for 8 players, and it also only offers two of the four multiplayer modes found in the full game.

Elimination and Team Elimination are essentially just deathmatch and team deathmatch. Post Grab (a sort of capture the flag) and Fugitive are sitting this one out, but will be on the retail disc. The full version also supports up to 16 players, as opposed to the 8 supported by the demo.

Check it out now, and prepare for Lost Planet’s February 26 release.

In yet another attempt to bring together the worlds of Mountain Dew and videogames, PepsiCo created the DEWmocracy. This Massively-Multiplayer Online game casts players as “an anonymous hero that rebels against the the forces of uniformity and seeks a new world, and a new elixir, that will change everything”. That must be pretty interesting because hundreds of thousands of gamers have already begun doing the Dew.

According to Frank Cooper, VP of marketing at Pepsi-Cola North America, the game’s website DEWmocracy.com has had over 700,000 visitors, 200,000 of which have actually registered on the site and participated in the game. Mr. Cooper added:

Those are great numbers, because we hadn’t expected that many people to get involved in phase one of this campaign, which had an elaborate registration process and had a pretty significant game that required a time commitment. With phase two, when the program comes out of the game and people begin to campaign and vote for the new flavor, that’s the mainstream proposition that allows non-gamers and anyone to come in and vote in the Dewmocracy process. We expect a bigger leap in numbers for that.

Essentially, this is all an elaborate plot by PepsiCo to let the consumers decide the next Mountain Dew flavor, as opposed to doing the research themselves. Anyone who happened to try the Halo 3 branded “Gamer Fuel” is probably incredibly interested in preventing such atrocities from assaulting our taste buds ever again. Let’s hope Joe Average Consumer has better taste than PepsiCo’s R&D department.

This information, however, led me to wonder: how can people play an MMO to decide the new flavor of something if they don’t ever actually taste it? Well, PepsiCo apparently realized how silly this all was and now will have three winning flavors. The flavors will be bottled and put to a national taste test, starting this July, to crown the ultimate in soda tastiness.

So what becomes of the game after that? Well, according to Mr. Cooper, if the demand is still there, they will expand DEWmocracy into a full-fledged long-term MMO, like an actual game! Crazy! Unfortunately, he didn’t specify whether or not there would also be a collectible card game or if Shamans will continue to get nerfed.

Thanks go out to Norm over at www.meetinthelobby.com for pointing this news out to us. Show him some love and visit his site.

Source

Halo 3’s multiplayer mode, along with Microsoft’s entire strategy for domination in the console wars, can be summed up in two beautiful words: Endless replayability.

This is a desert island game–assuming you had an HDTV and Internet connection on the island, and didn’t use team chat to send out an SOS. It’s a game that you could easily spend weeks, months, and years perfecting without getting bored. The online matchmaking system ramps up the challenge so smoothly that after you learn the ropes “powning noobs” you’ll be experiencing a much greater difficulty playing against Halo experts.

And there’s no shortage of competition either. By hyping this game as the “biggest entertainment launch in history”, Microsoft brought nearly 3 million Halo 3 players into the fold in the first week. The result is that at any given time you can find between 250,000 to 750,000 people playing Halo multiplayer all over the world, and all of them want to kick your ass.

Halo 3 multiplayer options include slayer (deathmatch), team slayer, oddball, king of the hill, crazy king, capture the flag, and melee weapons only. Variations such as shotty snipers, where every player starts with a super-long range and super-close range weapon, require players to use the maps in different ways. And then there’s vehicles, like the new Mongoose which is useful for little more than making a getaway with the flag, or the Ghost, which is very deadly until it’s stuck with a couple of plasma grenades.

These “standard” multiplayer options are staggering, but it’s the custom games built using the Forge map editor that really gives this mode marathon legs. Bungie will feature some of the best level designs, so don’t be surprised if variations on racing, baseball, and VIP end up becoming popular hits.

Matchmaking uses two different types of scoring–an experience level, which goes up and up at seemingly random times, and a skill level which can go down if you’re not performing well. You are awarded medals and rankings for your experience and skill level, so everyone will be able to tell if you’re an easy target or a seasoned slayer. Plus if you’re really hardcore, you can review videos of every match played online.

It’s easy to buy Halo 3 and completely ignore the single player campaign, just because the multiplayer is so damn good. This makes multiplayer only games like Shadowrun look pathetic in comparison, and Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4 will be hard pressed to match Halo 3’s brand of longevity. Halo 3’s closest comparison might actually be World of Warcraft–a massively multiplayer, mainstream experience that can entertain for years.

It could use more maps (but hey, that’s what downloadable content was made for), and some Xbox Live players need to come pre-muted, but those are literally my only complaints for this landmark achievement of an online console game.

Multiplayer – Reviewed by Andrew Podolsky.

Campaign – Reviewed by Rob Way. (click here to read)

Overall – Rob Way & Andrew Podolsky fight it out…results below.