Dual Wielding confirmed for MW2

Bungie ushered in a whole new game play element for the Halo franchise with Dual Wielding in Halo 2; now, Infinity Ward is looking to do the same with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  Robert Bowling, of Infinity Ward, confirmed this today via a Twitter post:

Just walked off stage. Crowd was amazing, went insane chanting “pick it up!” when I stumbled over Dual-wield Deagles. lol – Akimbo confirmed

Will this be a huge change to the game?  Or will it simply be added candy to what promises to be a stellar experience?

Robert’s Twitter (fourzerotwo)

Source

Hey blog readers! Head over to the Reviews area of the site to check out our take on Dead Space, Spiderman: Web of Shadows, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, and the Astro Gaming A40 Audio System. Any games or accessories you’d like to see us review? Send an email to contact@gamerhusbands.com if you’d like to suggest something!

I’ve been using the Astro A40 Audio system for about 6 months now, and let me tell you, it is flat out amazing. For those of you unfamiliar with what this system is all about, let me give you the low down. Astro Gaming wanted to develop a headphone system that catered to gamers that were tired of buying retrofitted office products. To that end, they worked with teams from Major League Gaming (MLG) in order to develop what they feel is the best surround sound headphone system on the market today. Buying the full system will net you the A40 Headset, MixAmp (which utilizes Dolby Headphone technology to produce 5.1 digital surround sound through two speakers), detachable microphone, swappable “speaker tags,” and enough cabling to hook up your system to virtually any system on the market today. At $250 for the complete setup, the price tag is kind of steep, but you DO get your moneys worth. For an idea of the massive amounts of stuff that this package includes, check out the photos from my unboxing. More detailed information about this product and the company can be found at Astro Gaming’s website. I tested the A40 Audio system extensively on Xbox 360 in Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Gears of War, and on PC during Skype conversations.

Overall: 9.7

Presentation: 9.8

From point A to point B, I was impressed with Astro’s attention to detail in every possible way that you could imagine. When doing research on a possible headphone purchase, one of their employees went above and beyond to give me comparisons between their product, and their competitors. They detailed why they chose to do certain things, and why they felt their execution was superior to their competitors. Upon receiving the system in the mail, I was almost taken aback by the high quality of the packaging; I felt as if I was opening another console for the first time! Everything was organized neatly into two boxes, one containing the headset and it’s case, and the other containing the MixAmp and all the cabling. Following the easy to ready instructions, I was up and running in no time. I was suprised to find that I’m able to wear the headphones night after night withought feeling discomfort or getting “listener fatigue;” from the research that I’ve done, this is most definately an exception in the headphone industry.

Graphics: 9.5

All of the packaging, including boxes, manuals, and online marketing materials were top notch. As a person with some background in graphical design, I enjoyed all the research I did on this product, eventually leading up to actually having it in my hands.

Sound: 9.8

Utilizing Dolby Headphone technology to produce simulated 5.1 surround sound out of two speakers, the A40 MixAmp is essentially a home theater reciever that can fit in the palm of your hand. That’s right, no generic 5.1 here; it genuine Dolby product, containing Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital, and the afore mentioned Dolby Headphone. Some people may argue that simulated surround is not as realistic as having 5 speakers crammed into your headphones, or even utilizing a standard home theater setup, but the first time you hear someone sneak up behind you in Call of Duty 4, you’ll wonder what they’re talking about. The crispness and clarity will have you hearing things you’ve never heard before, in games you play every day! Another big feature of the A40 system is that it offloads voice communication while in a LAN environment, essentially eliminating system lag in order to provide crystal clear converstaion with your teammates. I was not able to try this feature, but most, if not all, of the MLG pro teams are currently using the system, which utilizes a daisy chainable connection in the back of the Mixamp to connect all the people on your team. The adjustable volume control on the unit also allows you to further enhance communication by determining the game audio to voice communication ratio.

Gameplay: 9.5

Your situational awareness will increase greatly when wearing the A40 system. This is the exact same equipment the pros are currently using, and if they aren’t, it is been proven that they’re clearly at a disadvantage. You will be able to tell where enemies are coming from, allowing you to position yourself to dispatch of them quicker. You won’t automatically become a better player on the digital battlefield by using this setup, but it will certainly help you get there faster.

Replay Value: 10

This setup is such a high quality piece of sound equipment (audiophile grade, even) that I’ll be using it for many years to come. It is constructed well, and the company backs their product to the hilt. If you purchase this product, you will not regret it.

If you are a staunch Halo 3 player (I know I still occasionally am), then you better think twice about installing your game to the Hard Drive. Eurogamer provided us with some performance data last week regarding playing H3′s campaign off of a Hard Drive install, so I know I was already leaning towards not installing Halo 3 once the NXE came out. Now Bungie has officially came out and confirmed all of our suspicions.

Today, Microsoft Game Studios and Ensemble Studios announced that the much-anticipated strategy game Halo Wars will be landing at retailers worldwide this February in both a standard and Limited Collector’s Edition format. Taking the Halo battle beyond the first person element that is it’s heritage, Halo Wars puts players in command of the battlefield in an RTS style with a new story that precedes the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.

The standard edition of Halo Wars will have an estimated retail price of $59.99 and the Limited Collector’s Edition will retail for an estimated price of $79.99. Halo Wars is rated “T” for Teen.

The Limited Collector’s Edition, available through participating retailers, will feature:

• Three New Halo 3 Multiplayer Maps – Be one of the first to experience the Mythic Map Pack from Bungie which includes three new maps, Assembly, Orbital and Sandbox
• Halo Wars: Genesis – a beautiful graphic novel by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine and Eric Nylund chronicling the first military campaign against the Covenant. The novel centers around the Sprit of Fire on a mission to discover why the Covenant are so interested in the world of Harvest
• Unique In-game Vehicle – “Honor Guard” Wraith
• Six Leader Cards – Leaders possess elite skills which can turn the tides of battle
• Spirit of Fire Patch – Start the journey as an official Spirit of Fire crew member

As an added bonus, fans eager for their chance to battle the Covenant will be able to pre-order Halo Wars and receive a pre-order card to download a special in-game Warthog vehicle with flame decals from select participating retailers.

More information on Halo Wars can be found online at www.Xbox.com/HaloWars or www.HaloWars.com.

The Tokyo Game Show for 2008 is upon us. It has been described as the E3 of the far East, and it gets under way at 10:00 AM local time on October 9th (8:00 PM EST on Oct. 8th) and lasts through October 12th. The first two days are labeled “business days,” so I’m thinking we’ve got a better chance of seeing some big announcements during that time period, as opposed to Saturday and Sunday, which are open to the public. Perhaps we’ll get some more insight on titles slated for Holiday 08, and maybe even a surprise announcement or two. Bungie is rumored to announce more information on their upcoming Halo 3 add-on, so we’ll be watching for that to hit the news wires. What else are you looking forward to learning more about this weekend?

With the 700 +/- point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday, did some thoughts come to your mind about how the gaming industry will be affected? With the 700 +/- point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday, did some thoughts come to your mind about how the gaming industry will be affected?

With reports coming out from Gamespot regarding stocks for various game companies, I began to ponder what this could possibly mean for the gaming industry in general; Activision Blizzard went down 13.8%, EA 9.16%, THQ 7% and Take 2 4.52%. Most disturbing was publisher Ubisoft’s drop in stock price, down $17.92. Will we see less and less independent developers as a result of the ever increasing cost of gaming production coupled with the new threat of a receding economy? Perhaps some of these independent types will be picked up by bigger companies in order to publish their ideas, but then we run the risk of monopolization of the industry. Maybe the country will pull out of this quickly and it won’t really hit the gaming industry at all. Any thoughts out there from the community on the subject?

On November 26th, the original Banjo-Kazooie will hit Xbox LIVE Arcade for a reasonable $15 (1200 MS Points). Banjo Tooie will follow in early 2009. Those who pre-order the upcoming Xbox 360 title Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts will recieve a free download code for the original Banjo, and will also be able to download it approximately two weeks prior to it’s system-wide release on XBLA.

In addition, playing this title will enable gamers to obtain more content from Nuts & Bolts by utilizing the Stop N’ Swop feature that wasn’t used in the original N64 version of the game.

It seems that if you’re considering purchasing Nuts & Bolts, this is an awesome $15 bonus that will also generate more in-game content for you!

Criterion Games announced this week that Burnout Paradise will be available this week via download from the PlayStation Store for $29.99. More details after the jump. Criterion Games announced this week that Burnout Paradise will be available this week via download from the PlayStation Store for $29.99.

Buying the game gets you all the original Burnout Paradise disk content. If you missed it, that’s all 5 neighbourhoods in the Paradise City open world filled with hundreds of Road Rage, Stunt Run, Marked Man and Burning Route events. Every street in the city features a Road Rules record time and Showtime score to beat. Take it online, and you’ll witness the seamless arrival of up to 7 friends. Collaborate with them to beat 350 Freeburn Challenges – simple challenges taking you all over Paradise City.

Starting the game will then immediately trigger the download of all our updates, including the recent Cagney Pack and Burnout Bikes. A pack delivering PS3 Trophy Support will be released imminently and included for free. And there’s plenty more to come. They’re developing a new island location and much, much more.

If Sony starts offering current generation games on their PSN Store, will that give them another bullet point in the console war that Microsoft will have to answer to? I don’t even know that Microsoft would be able to offer this and expect it to be successful, due to the majority of console owners at this juncture having 20 GB hard drives.

In preparation for the New Xbox Experience, Xbox LIVE and the Xbox LIVE page on Xbox.com will be down for 24 hours, beginning on September 29, 2008 from 12:01 AM PST until 11:59 PM PST. During this time you will not be able to access Xbox LIVE or some of the content on Xbox.com. For more information on this outage, keep tabs on MajorNelson.com.

“Duke Nukem 3D” will be blasting onto Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday, September 24 at 9 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

The no-nonsense, alien punisher is back and ready for action! Gear-up and save the Earth, and its babes, in the updated version of the classic game that helped jump start the first person shooter genre. Battle aliens across 39 levels and locations, including Hollywood, Los Angeles, a moon base and an alien spacecraft. Use innovative items like the Jetpack, HoloDuke, Shrink Ray or the Pipe Bombs to destroy the enemy.

The updated classic features 8 player co-op and a death match mode available over Xbox LIVE, as well as rewinding time when you die, user film clips, an unlockable concept art gallery and more.

Developed and published by 3D Realms, “Duke Nukem 3D” will be available for 800 Microsoft Points worldwide. The game is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

For more details on this game, check out:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/d/dukenukem3dxboxlivearcade

Tomorrow, September 23rd, Bungie is going to release Auto Update 2 for Halo 3. The major changes for players will be some new achievements and a revised ranking system. More details after the jump.

Here’s the information straight from Bungie.net:

Here’s a look at these achievements which can be earned via the Legendary Maps and Halo 3 Campaign: Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system, Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month, Vidmaster Challenge: Annual (0 points) – After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts, Double Double (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match, Poor Yorick (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match, Came…From…Behind (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match, Defend This (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match, Flag Dropped (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match, Road Rage (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match, Look Both Ways (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.

Playlist Changes: Playlist Ratings are the playlist-level decoupling of Trueskill values (the in-game number next to your name) from Experience (the icon next to your name). You will now have a separate military rating (based purely on EXP) in each playlist. When TU2 goes live, everyone will begin at 0 EXP. This means that being a General in a Playlist is based on how many games you

Indiana Jones was a fun game that my wife and I were easily able to play and enjoy together. It has an slick drop-in/drop-out mechanic that lends itself to easily allow for you to play single player while seamlessly adding a second person mid-game. There was no online support for this title, save achievements. I would highly recommend it as a fun family game or as a recreational title to spend a rainy afternoon with. This title was reviewed on Xbox 360, but is also available on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable.

Overall: 7.8

Presentation: 7.5

Indiana Jones The original Saga allows you to play through each of the first three Indiana Jones movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade) individually. You can select any of the movies at any time while playing simply by going back to your home base of Barnett College. While this seemed appropriate for a game that includes three sections, it kind of caught us off guard the first time we had to work with this system. Upon exploration, we found that there is a bulletin board in the center of the school that allows you to select from the various available levels in the game. Each movie has six levels that have automatic save points throughout the individual levels. Once you complete each level in story mode, you can replay it in “Free Play” mode at any time. This is advantageous as some of the achievements in the game are unobtainable in story mode. Comedy undertones are apparent throughout, providing some enjoyment for adults that the kids may not catch.

Graphics: 8

Graphical presentation is smooth throughout, whether you’re looking at a cut scene or the actual game. Transitions are fluid and animations are solid. You’re not getting Unreal 3 Engine (Gears of War/Rainbow Six: Vegas Series) graphical quality here, but for what this game is, I think the graphical style is appropriate and well done.

Sound: 9

As with all Lego games from Traveler’s Tales, there is no voice acting, just the hilarious grunting, humming, and various noises that emanate from the different characters. Sound is immersive and melds the worlds of Lego and Indiana Jones together in grand fashion. One issue I had was the fact that stereo, instead of surround sound, was automatically selected in the game’s menu system, even though I have it set to Dolby 5.1 in my Xbox 360 Dashboard.

Gameplay: 7

The camera really detracted from our enjoyment of this game. At times we were repeating things over and over due to the horrible camera angle that we were provided. When playing single player, however, I didn’t notice this camera issue as much, but as I played most of the time with my wife, we dealt with the camera problem on almost every level. Game mechanics were fairly solid. Weapon aiming was a guess if you were shooting something, and we constantly found ourselves smacking each other with melee objects, oftentimes killing one another. Collection of Lego pieces and artifacts was emphasized slightly, but only necessary if you wanted the achievements for doing so. Team puzzles were a big aspect of this game, making us feel at home playing co-op. If you’re playing by yourself, you’re able to switch between characters at the push of a button, as some special abilities necessary to solving a puzzle are only given to one character per level.

Replay Value: 7.5

If you’re into achievements, you will find replay value here. Some achievements can’t be obtained on your first run through. You can go back and play each level in Free Play where you can select three characters to accompany you and your partner in the level. You can then switch between the various characters while in game to capitalize on their different abilities. If you enjoy the Indiana Jones saga, or your kids enjoy this game, there will also be replay enjoyment, as playing some of the levels a second and third time will allow you to catch some extra things, such as the Star Wars tie ins and extra characters, that you may have missed the first time.