According to February’s edition of Game Informer, the prequal to Halo: Combat Evolved, brings us back into a world of Spartan III’s and all the joys that are had in saving the world while still being completely and utterly expendable.  There are a few notable differences though.

Instead of being just a singular bad ass that is charged with the duties of being the only hero awesome enough to finish the job, Halo: Reach brings us an entire team of Spartans and their squad called Noble Team. You play as Noble 6, the newest member of Noble Team. The leader is Carter-259, gender equality is portrayed by the female Spartan Kat-320, Jorge-052 is heavy weapons specialist and the only Spartan II on the team, Emile-239, and Jun-266 star as canon fodder or “red shirts”, I am sure.

You and your bad ass squad will be going to Reach, a planet that is falling to the hands of the invading Covenant.  The rest of the mission seems pretty clear from here.  Don’t die, save the world, get little to no recognition for it.  A few things that will bring this game out of the typical Halo world will be the darker art styles, battles that support up to 40 AI and 20 vehicles [the original only supports 20 AI, for comparison sake], new weapons [the Marksman Rifle and Needle Rifle, which read like ownage via bullets], Melee Assassinations, and new Armor Up abilities that will allow a player to choose between powered up abilities like Sprint or Camoflauge.  There are new enemies to look out for, as well.  [Lizard faced bipedals that travel in packs.]

From a technical stand point, you can look forward to motion capture having been used in all the cinematic scenes, and 20-40 dynamic light sources at any given time.  Translation: The game is going to be pretty. 

There are a few hommages to Halo: Combat Evolved, so don’t think that you won’t see anything you haven’t already seen before.  The health bar damage will be the same as the first game and a few of the more memoriable weapons will be turning up from time to time.  Regardless, though.. Halo: Reach is proving to be able to stand on it’s own in a series that seems like it’s already done everything it could.  With Multiplayer remaining untouched in the perfection that it is, and the single player starting to sound like it’s going to blow all the other Halo games out of the water; it really leaves me hoping for one thing.

Please be less lame when it comes to your commercials, Bungie.  If this game is going to be as good as it sounds, the overdramatic stylings of advertising are going to be unnecessary.

Over at our Forums, Animate The CAKE has shared with us an… interesting Youtube find.  This is, from what I have been able to decern, a trailer for the live-action Tekken movie.  I don’t think there are enough adjectives in the english language to sum up my feelings on this video, so I will just let you watch it and decide for yourself.

Today Bioware announced Awakening, the first expansion pack for Dragon Age: Origins. It will feature “new party members, spells, abilities and more in March 2010.”

Designed and written by the same team that brought you Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack offers a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine, featuring an epic story that will allow players to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn – and their true motivations! Players will face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening provides exciting new ways for players to customize their heroes and party, including the ability to re-spec their character attributes, allowing even greater customization and replayability. Featuring an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items, plus five all-new party members, players can continue their adventures from Dragon Age, or begin with a brand new party.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare’s next thread in the Dragon Age: Origins tapestry, occurs following the events of Dragon Age: Origins and puts players into the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens. In addition to rebuilding the ranks of the Grey Wardens, you will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon dragon. How players choose to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious “Architect,” and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the many intriguing moral choices that will shape each player’s heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais.

The expansion will be priced at $39.99 and drops March 16th on 360, PS3, and PC.

Note as you watch this that Shine, the kid playing Gouken, is 15 years old, and up against one of the best Akuma players on Earth. We believe Shine’s mom drove him to the tournament.

I’m going to go cry in a corner over my copy of SFIII Third Strike now.

 In case you haven’t signed into Steam today, and Fall Damage was your first stop in the journey around the internets; I’d thought you’d like to know about the massive sales going on on right now.  Games %60 – %80 off, bundle packs for less than $3?  You bet your sweet candy-ass it has all of that!  In addition to the sales that are going on until January 11th, Steam is also having special price sales every 40 hours or so.  You can pick up Mirror’s Edge for just $4.99, or S.T.A.L.K.E.R for just $1.99!  

There is bound to be something for everyone, so even if you don’t find something for yourself.. maybe you can get that last minute hard to shop for gamer gift out of the way in time for the Holidays! Go! Shop!

A game that has been mentioned on several occasions as being down right awesome, is now just 9.99!  For a scope of how amazing that deal is, The Last Remnant usually goes for a cool 39.99 on Steam.  That is a 75% discount!  Crazy!  I will personally recommend this game to everyone who visits this website and listens to our podcast, not only because of the ridiculously low price, but also because of the amazing game you’ll get for it. 

The powers of the Remnants slowly began to change the world’s balance.
A rift slowly formed between those who ruled and those who obeyed.
This was the dawning of a new era — an era of countless frays that would be brought upon the world by those enslaved by their own lust for power.

A thousand years later, the journey of one young man begins.

Featuring an enthralling story, countless characters and an intricate battle system, Square Enix brings the RPG experience known as The Last Remnant to the PC.
Discover new strategies in the improved battle system.

I will also recommend finding yourself a way to get your 360 controller to work with your PC before you tackle this beast, as it will improve your gameplay experience 10-fold.  You have no excuses now, people!  I have 9.99 in change between the floor mats of my car and the dark untold crevices beneath my couch cusions!  Go buy it, play it and allow yourselves to be Wow’d by The Last Remnant!

Today Valve announced the first piece of downloadable content for Left 4 Dead 2, and it really feels like they know exactly what their user base wants.

The new campaign, ‘The Passing’, will be set after the events of Dead Center from Left 4 Dead 2, and will feature our old favourite characters Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey metting up with the four new survivors from L4D2.

Valve also mentioned that there will be a new melee weapon added to the game, along with a new firearm, and a new ‘campaign challenge’ game mode. Could this be the 8 player campaign mode us fans have been pining for? We’ll keep you up to date on news as it appears. Words cannot express how excited I am to use the original characters in Left 4 Dead 2.

It looks like the new Team Fortress 2 update has just gone live, and it seems that the Soldier and Demoman will indeed be competing with each other.

Along with the new weapon being revealed each day for each class, a la the Spy vs Sniper update, the class with the most kills against the opposing class  (Soldier > Demoman and vice versa) will be getting a super special top secret weapon at the end of the competition.

So get to the killing people, make my Demoman proud and kill some Soldiers for me!

The War Update (TeamFortress.com)

So those of you who regularly keep track of TeamFortress.com, Valve’s development blog for the wonderful class-based multiplayer title will have seen the webcomic teaser posted yesterday linked form the following phrase;

Friendship ends in one day.

So what could this mean? The most likely answer is a Soldier vs. Demoman update, just like the Spy vs. Sniper update from earlier this year. Some other theories are floating around out there at the possibility of only one of the two classes getting the update, dependent on class popularity from how much they are played since the announcement, or through a poll. There has always been one outlandish theory of the engineer getting an update… yeah.

It’s also awesome to finally see The Administrator in person, although I almost feel like I’ve seen her before…