NEW RESURGENCE MAP PACK FOR MODERN WARFARE 2! CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS SET FOR NOVEMBER 9TH!

The new map pack will being coming out June 3rd exclusively to XBox Live.  There are five maps in total.
Carnival, Trailer Park, Fuel, Strike, and Vacant.  I can't wait to get my hands on them to try them out first hand.  There will be a review as soon as they are out.
In other news, the newest addition to the Call of Duty franchise, "Call of Duty: Black Ops" has a release date of November 9th, 2010.  It is a Treyarch production instead of Infinity Ward, so I'm guessing it will be more glitchy as well as more bloody.  There are two trailers on XBox Live and Playstation Network respectively.

So....many...character...additions....

So.  Turns out a lot has happened in the fighting game world in the past few days.  Turns out there were some awesome new characters announced in two great games.  The first being Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.  The second being King of Fighters XIII.  Now.  There were 4 new characters announced from MVC3.  They are:
1) Captain America: This patriotic hero is no stranger to the "Vs." series.  He has been in 4 of the first 5 games.  Those games are: Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Capcom, and finally Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.
2) Felicia:  This buxom cat girl is also a veteran to the series.  She originally appeared in the Darkstalkers series, then later jumped into the Vs. series appearing in the game Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.
3) Deadpool:  All I have to say is......FINALLY!  This character is ridiculously awesome.  A true fan favorite of most of the Marvel characters, he is a smart mouth, trash talking, gun wielding, sword toting SOB.  This guy has never been in the "Vs." series yet and no one can figure out why.  Nevertheless, he is here now!  AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HOW HE PLAYS! (HOPEFULLY HEAVY ON THE TRASH TALK!)
4) Dante:  Another character fans have cried out for!  The main protagonist from the "Devil May Cry" series, Dante is quite a cool character.  His arsenal includes many things.  Spiritual attacks, check.  Two smokin' pistols, check.  One BADASS sword, check.  Enough guts to fight Jesus himself?  Check.  This guy is going to make a super amazing addition to the series.

The other game in question was King of Fighters XIII.  The FINAL character addition to KOFXIII is....issssss...Kula!  This crazy green haired woman finishes out the "K' Team" as well as the character roster to KOFXIII!

I will be trying to add pictures as well as videos shortly, hold on tight if I do.  ;)

-Xion33

Coolest Street Fighter video I've ever seen!

Go check this out if you're a fan of Street Fighter!  Best live action anything I've seen in regards to Street Fighter!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ZXSzaUIBQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Maxima confirmed in King of Fighters XIII, he is on Team K'!

Maxima the giant massive blue destroyer has been confirmed to be in KOFXIII!  He will be joining K' on his team.  The third team member has not yet been announced.  Here is a link: http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/official/kof-xiii/character/

REVIEW: Halo: Reach Beta Part 2 of 2

       The final part of my review is going to be about the final things I got to play in the beta as well as improvements that I feel should happen.
       There was three new weapons I left out last time by the way.  The Focus Rifle, Grenade Launcher and the Plasma Launcher.
1) Focus Rifle: The Focus Rifle is a mix between the Sentinel Beam and the Beam Rifle from the older games.  It shoots a very powerful beam that deals massive damage as well as it can zoom in like a Sniper Rifle.  This thing is not very cool in my opinion.  It was tough to get kills with.  Then again I was on a map with lots of small things to use as cover.
2) Grenade Launcher:  This bad boy packs some wallop but is very hard to hit people with.  Just like your frag grenades, the grenades that are shot need to bounce once then explode.
3) Plasma Launcher: This brand new covenant answer to the grenade launcher is quite interesting and awesome!  It fires by holding down the trigger.  The longer said trigger is held down it will launch up to I believe 4 plasma grenades in a short burst.  If you want to shoot a single plasma grenade you can by tapping the R Trigger.  The best part about this is that you can stick people with it!  So if people are in  a group, simply hold down the trigger and blast them all to kingdom come!
       I finally got to play Covenant Slayer AKA Covy Slayer!  It was rather fun I must say.  The Elites have two loadouts so far.  The Warrior and the Zealot.
1) Warrior:  The Warrior Loadout gives you a Plasma Repeater, Plasma Pistol, 2 Plasma Grenades, and the ability to dash forward at your enemy.
2) Zealot: The Zealot Loadout gives you a Needle Rifle, Plasma Pistol, 2 Plasma Grenades, and the ability to roll in a given direction to evade your enemies.
Both of these loadouts were honestly very boring.  I wanted more.  I know the Elites can do more than just run and roll,
       The new gametypes I tried were, Stockpile and Headhunter.
1) Stockpile: Stockpile is capture the flag on steroids.  This gametype is 4 on 4 and has 5 flags scattered throughout the map that you must retrieve and bring back to your base.  The catch is that you have to keep them there and about every 30 seconds they get counted into your score and then respawned wherever you originally got them.  First to 10 wins.  This can get very hairy when you get 4 flags in your base and one of your enemies decides to pay a visit and steal one of the flags you put there.  Makes for a good match, I just think it needs more people in it, 5 on 5, or 6 on 6 would  suit this better in my opinion.
2) Headhunter: Headhunter is  a really neat idea.  This game type is an 8 player Free-For-All based gametype. But when you kill someone, skulls fly out of them and you need to collect them to go toward your skull count.  You will see white circular "Drop Zones" if you will, scattered throughout the map.  If you get to one with some skulls in your pocket, then it gets put into your overall score.  If you are killed then all your skulls fall out and can be stolen by your enemies.  Pretty damn fun I must say.  A Big Team Battle Headhunter would be epic.  I really think it should happen.  Bungie, let's do this.
       Well guys, this concludes my Halo:Reach Beta review.  If I see anymore new or cool things to mention, I will do a few more quick info posts!

-Xion33

Review: Halo:Reach Beta Part 1 of 2

       I just played the Halo:Reach multiplayer beta on XBox Live, which started on Monday, May 3rd.  Only available to those who own a copy of Halo 3: ODST, and it appears in the man menu of that game.  Bungie made quite a few tweaks and in my opinion, improvements.  They now allow you to have "armor abilities" and different loadouts.  The names of those Loadouts are as follows:
1) Scout: Scout gives you the ability to sprint, just like in Call of Duty!   Finally something that Halo needed to be added.
2) Guard: This Armor Ability and loadout are quite interesting.  Guard is an Armor Ability that when you press and hold the LB button, you slam your hand into the ground and become invincible temporarily until you let go or until you run out of juice.  When and if that happens, a small static explosion happens near you an can kill an oncoming enemy, So far, my personal favorite.
3) Stalker: The Stalker loadout/armor ability is pretty sweet by all means.  It gives you the ability to go into active camo as well as have a pretty damn good radar scrambler.  While I think it needs to be slightly harder to see you when in camo, it is still a decent loadout.
4) Airborne:  Having a jetpack in Halo would be nice right?  Well it is!  With this Armor Ability you can jetpack all around these levels to your hearts content.  Getting a sniper rifle with this bad boy is nice for some sweet vantage points.
       Some other cool new additions are the new weapons as well as tweaks to the old one.  Check out some of the new guys and good ole' boys.
1) Plasma Repeater: This is essentially the Plasma Rifle but slightly more accurate and looks much cooler.
2) The DMR: The DMR is a single shot Battle Rifle.  It is MUCH more accurate from long distances if you take your time and make the right shot.  I like this new improvement to the "BR".
3) Pistol: The Pistol has finally made it's triumphant return from the original Halo.  It can zoom in to X2 zoom, as well as take someone down in 4 headshots.
4) Needle Rifle: The Needle Rifle is the Covenant answer to the DMR.  A single shot rifle that quite literally shoots needles.  Looks and reloads pretty sweet too.
5) Sniper Rifle:  While not technically "new", the Sniper Rifle looks slightly different as well as has a more realistic feel.   This is shown when you fire, it has recoil as well as cannot fire accurately if you fire in rapid succession. 
6) Needler: I haven't seen this weapon change in the slightest.  I still get that wonderful feeling when people explode and pink mist is everywhere though.
7) Shotgun: The Shotgun has been improved in my opinion.  It is a single barrel pump action now.  So it balances it out, while still letting it do massive close range damage.
       The final thing I will talk about in the first part of my review is the new scoring system.  Bungie set it up so when you play, you earn Credits.  These Credits are earned by how you played and medals you earned.  These Credits are used to trick out your Spartan to give him cool shoulder guards, helmet, or other add-on's to your physical appearance.  So the more badass your Spartan looks, it shows you've earned it and you'rea talented player.  A rather nice touch I must say.  Also you get "judged".  You play enough during a day and you get a daily judgment.  Play enough that same week, and you get a weekly judgment.  Play enough that month, and you'll earn monthly judgment.  They have said your "judgment" will be a certain color skull for that time.  Whether it be a silver, gold, or platinum skull for that time played.  It is posted and shown that you earned that skull for that time played in your stats.
       All in all, so far so good Bungie!  I am super stoked for the full game now.  I will have a second part to this review when I have played all the game types as well as played as the Elites(who have completely different loadouts and Armor Abilities).  Go out there and try it!

REVIEW: Tecmo Bowl: Throwback

       Now I played the old Super Tecmo Bowl game to death on my NES.  Probably my favorite football game ever.  It was so simple yet SO FUN.  This is more of the same!  This new installment to the "Tecmo Bowl" franchise is fantastic and well done.  They realize that the old school play is heavily favored, so what did Tecmo do?  They allow you to switch between their new 3D graphics, back to the old school SNES graphics ON THE FLY,  all at the press of a button!  Which I thought was great.  Only thing this game is lacking is the NFL license it used to have, obviously because of EA and the Madden franchise.  BUT.  They also realized that, and planned ahead.  You can switch the names of every single team in the game as well as every single player in the game!  Hats off to Tecmo for the well thought out planning and old school gameplay.

-Xion33

REVIEW: SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV

       I finally got my copy of Super Street Fighter IV in the mail, and it is a great game.  Capcom went above and beyond for their fans with thie game.  They added 10 more characters(now bringing the total to 35), costumes, stages, 2 ultra combos and much more to the new SSF4. All the characters have also been re-balanced to make some characters slightly better and some slighty nerfed(toned down).  Ryu, Sagat, and Zangief, who were powerhouses in the first SF4, were nerfed down to make them more balanced with the rest of the cast.  While some characters such as Vega were actually given a slight damage increase to make them more playable.  I am incredibly happy they don't have the cheesy "Indestructible" theme that they had in SF4.  They instead went with a more serious and exciting soundtrack, as well as the announcer is very good and keeps you enjoying the game. The new characters that were added are:
1) Adon: Originally from "Street Fighter 1" as well as the "Street Fighter Alpha" series.
2) Cody: Originally in the Capcom game "Final Fight", also in the "Street Fighter Alpha" series.
3) Guy: First appearance was with Cody in "Final Fight" and the "Street Fighter Alpha" series.
4) Hakan: An original character for "Super Street Fighter IV".  He is a Turkish oil wrestler and a rather comedic fighter to boot.  All of his moves revolve around his oily body and slip sliding you all over the place.
5) Juri: Juri marks the first Tae Kwon Do character to ever be in a "Street Fighter" game.  She is also a "Super Street Fighter IV" original.  Her style of play is rather interesting.  Obviously a kick heavy fighter, she always uses her legs, to grab, do her Ultra Combos, even to throw her projectiles.  She is very balanced and has great character.  She is insanely evil and rather sexual as well with her innuendos.
6) Ibuki: This female ninja was in the "Street Fighter III" series and was a fan favorite.  She finally makes her return after a huge fan uprising. 
7) Dudley: Dudley made his first appearance in the "Street Fighter III" series and was a heavily played character. His old school English boxing is the perfect opposite to Balrog's American style boxing.  We finally get the chance to have the dream match of Balrog Vs. Dudley!
8) Makoto: Makoto came on the scene during the "Street Fighter III" games.  Originally supposed to be Ryu's sister, that idea was scrapped and she is just a stand alone character.
9) T. Hawk: This giant Aztec Indian burst into the Street Fighter games very early.  He was in the "Super Street Fighter II" game, which came out in 1993 to the arcades.
10) Dee Jay: This crazy jamaican long with T. Hawk originated in "Super Street Fighter II".  His upbeat attitude and style of play made him a staple in the older "Street Fighter" games.  He is back with a vengeance in the new installment.

       Overall I am incredibly happy with this game, I just wish Capcom made Street Fighter IV this good instead of having me buy another game.  However, they definitely realized that should have been the case as well, so the game has been priced at $39.99 respectively.  That extra $20 off is nice I suppose.  If you're a Street Fighter fan, or even a fighting game fan, go pick this up!

-Xion33

K' has been officially confirmed for KOF XIII!

K' was recently added to the character list on the KOFXIII official web site.  Looks like SNK/Playmore are finally listening to their fans.  Check it out here: http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/official/kof-xiii/character/