The Last Huzzah... Until September

The Halo: Reach beta ends on wednesday, So i will be on most of tomorrow night (Tuesday) so everyone interested in getting in one good session before the beta goes down, Add me on LIVE and join me in game for a bit of fun.

On the topic of Reach, I pre-ordered my Legendary Edition the other day and was talking and in passing mentioned that i know when it's coming out, Which the guy at EB seems to have found odd. It would seem because there is no official release date yet, Some people have no idea when it will hit shelves. Personally, I have no doubt that Reach will be on shelves around September, Roughly the same time Halo 3 hit shelves.

Apart from Reach, I just got a copy of UFC Undisputed 2009... Yeah, I'm a bit behind but i'm not a fan of UFC, Nor am i a fan of sprts games in general. I might post my thoughts on it up here but i'll more likely give it a go then pick up 2010 and give that a review here... Also, Keep an eye out here for my review of Alan Wake on Friday, And finally, I'm going to start a weekly rant which i encourage people to comment on and debate about, So expect that on the weekend... Busy Times

Reaching The Limits

The final part of the Halo: Reach beta was unlocked today. Generator Defense allows 3v3 SvE action  where Elites have to shut down a series of generators while spartans defend them. Yes, It sounds a lot like Invasion but the difference here is that the Elites have to physically destroy the generators, meaning they can take them out from anywhere they can get a shot off, Meanwhile the Spartans can go to each generator and 'lock it down' making the generator invincible for 30 seconds. Along with Generator Defense the final map (Overlook) has been unlocked so now would be a really good time to get stuck into it before they close the beta down permanently in just 3 days time.

Fever Pitch

A look at the latest album, Fever, by Welsh metal band Bullet For My Valentine.

Steam Powered

I'm not much of a PC gamer, But that doesn't stop me from picking up a bargain when i see one. With Steam's new SteamPlay system (which allows players to play a game they've purchased on either Windows or Mac for the one price) Valve have decided to give out Portal to all members at the amazingly low price of... FREE. Get in quick though as this deal is only available till May 24th to promote the new SteamPlay system.

Valentines In September

Welsh metal god's Bullet For My Valentine have just announced a series of Australian tour dates. The band will be stopping by all the major cities in September this year and they're bringing UK hardcore kings Bring Me The Horizon and Canadian hardcore rockers Cancer Bats with them. You can check them out on...

5th September - Challenge Stadium, Perth
7th September - Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
9th September - Festival Hall, Melbourne
10th September - Horden Pavillion, Sydney
11th September - The Riverstage, Brisbane

All shows are licensed All Ages except Melbourne which has licensed and unlicensed area's available, Tickets through the usual outlets from 9am on the 27th of May.

Personally i've already seen Bullet live and they put on a good show so you can expect to see me at the Perth show, and check back here tomorrow for my thoughts on their new album, Fever.

Keeping Up With The Creed

My coverage of Assassins Creed: Brotherhood continues... Ubisoft have now officially, officially announced the game (as opposed to leaked covers and obscure sites) as well as a few details. Brotherhood should be hitting shelves towards the end of the year and will throw you back into the shoes of Ezio (who is now a master assassin, leading his own brotherhood of presumably not quite so master assassins, but master assassins nonetheless) as he travels to Rome where there is a power struggle going on between Assassins and the Templar Order. A statement on the multiplayer aspect says "players can help the Templars by using Abstergo to train in the art of assassination to eliminate the Assassins once and for all"... Fighting fire with fire, huh. Apparently you will be able to select from a range of characters, Each with their own set of weapons and assassination techniques. So there you have it... Look out for Assassins Creed: Brotherhood on shelves before christmas and i swear i'll never use the word 'assassin' so many times in one post ever again.

Blue Sky Noise

A look at the latest album from Circa Survive.

Raising The Stakes

It's no secret that i love a good collector's edition package for a game, So naturally i'm always keeping an eye out for new one's being announced... For example, The collector's edition package for Fallout: New Vegas that was announced today. No idea if this will be available in Australia, but the package includes...

• "Lucky 7" poker chips. 7 poker chips, Each is designed to represent a different casino on the New Vegas strip or the Mojave Wasteland.
• Recreation "Lucky 38" chip. A platinum poker chip that is a highly sought after item in the game.
• A custom Fallout: New Vegas deck of cards. Each card is illustrated to show characters and factions from the game.
• "All Roads", A graphic novel that tells the events leading up to the game. Created with Dark Horse Comics and written by Chris Avellone.
• "The making of Fallout: New Vegas" DVD. Pretty self explanatory.

Bringing About Order

So it looks like Ubisoft have made their Assassins Creed: Brotherhood announcement. Anyone on the Ubisoft mailing list, Or anyone following their Facebook group, Will know that there is a new site... The site plays a short video before taking you to a small weapon select menu where you can take a look at what i presume are new weapons that will be in Brotherhood. There is also a glyph puzzle which, Once solved, Reveals another weapon. From what i can tell these weapons all belong to the Templars and the conclusion that i'm drawing is that the new multiplayer mode will be Assassins vs Templars. I could be wrong, I could be right. Head over to the site to check it out for yourself.

Rise To Power

Just a quick update to let people know that metal band As I Lay Dying have got their new album streaming off their Myspace in full. I have only listened to the first few songs as of present, but already I am absolutely loving the sound of it. I'll let you guys know more after a few listen throughs.

Listen to it here.

Steve-O