First off, take a look at the unboxing of both the Limited Edition and Legendary Edition of Halo: Reach…followed by the unveiling of a Reach themed Xbox 360! Available September 14th for $399, the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Reach Bundle includes:

• All features of the New Xbox 360 (250 GB HDD, built-in Wi-fi, etc.)
• Limited Edition Reach themed wireless controllers
• Standard Edition of Halo: Reach

If you want to check out some hi-res images of the Reach console, head over to Major Nelsons’s flickr account and check them out. Hawtness, for sure!

Now, me introduce to you Forge World. Remember when Bungie revealed Blood Gulch and “outside the canyon”? Well, you probably weren’t expecting to go this far out of the canyon. Forge 2.0 is without a doubt, the most badass feature that any developer has come up with for the 360.

And lastly, thirty-eight new screenshots of Firefight Versus and Forge World are hot off the press for you drool over. Take a look!

/Halogasm

 Yesterday, the first game of the Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade was released. You can purchase this game for 1200 Microsoft points ($15). I’m about 30% through and here are my thoughts.

  After reading about this game on Xbox.com, I bought this thinking it would be some cute platformer where you ran around trying to find your sister. Man was i wrong! When I started the game, under the logo it said you can turn the gore filter on in the setting menu. When  read that I was confused, I mean gore? In a game where the point is to rescue you sister?

 When the game started all I saw was black and gray, and a dark figure with white eyes rise off the ground. There were no directions, nothing. All I knew was the only way was forward. I continued through the game, swinging on ropes. Then as I was running all of a sudden a trap snapped shut squashing my player. All I could do was watch the life drain from the kid as his eyes slowly shut.

 I continued on, figuring out challenging puzzles while moving along. Then after slowly making it out alive after a spider tryed to stab me to death I saw and older man, just sitting there. I walked over hoping I would finally find another human to talk to or something. as I got closer the floor drop out from under him, and he was hung by his neck. On the corner of the screen I saw some guy running away, so I tried to catch him. Then after he tried killing me multiple times with traps, it became clear he didn’t want me to make it out alive.

Ok, here’s my bribe. The SDCC XP event will be # of my followers divided by 500. So 4000 followers means 8x XP.

Tell your friends, family, neighbors, your boss, anyone, to follow @GearsViking!

• 49 total achievements are broken down into five groups:
  - Campaign (23)
  - Firefight (7)
  - Multiplayer (4)
  - Training (6)
  - Player Experience (9)
• Six achievements and descriptions released:
  - A Monument to All Your Sins – Complete each Campaign Mission on Legendary – alone
  - Banshees, Fast and Low – Hijack a Banshee during the Reach Campaign
  - Yes, Sensei – Earn a First Strike Medal in a Matchmaking game
  - A New Challenger – Complete all of the Daily Challenges in a given day
  - Make It Rain – Purchase an item from the Armory that requires the rank of Lt. Colonel
  - If They Came to Hear Me Beg – Perform an Assassination against an Elite to survive a fall that would’ve been fatal
• And lastly, all 49 achievement medal images:
  

Deja View

Now since you’ve had your dose of awesomeness, hop into Halo 3 today and receive the usually only Bungie-exclusive Flaming Armor. Slap on the chest piece for today only and get fire!

Have fun everyone and show your love for Bungie!

If you read this and wonder what the hell I’m talking about then check this out.

Basically if you’re a fan of the newly appointed Xbox Arcade Hit Cloning Clyde then you’ll want to be sure to give this a look.  It has nothing to do with Cloning Clyde in terms of story but it offers the quirky comedic action and unique gameplay that made Cloning Clyde the popular game it is.

In this game you’ll be helping other Oogani tribes uncover lost powers and tribal leaders in a mystical world in order to lead a revolt a ruler who is less than democratic.  It’s up to you to lead the way and apparently eat a lot of things while you’re at it.  The best news is that this will only cost 800 MSP.  Change the date, keep the price…..that’s cool with me.

You can check out all the hype by following Ninjabee on twitter and Facebook.  You can also dress your Avatar in some pretty cool NinjaBee stuff.  Everything else can be found on the official NinjaBee website.

~Scratch – the old new guy

Well, this fall The Force Unleashed II will be released and the Collectors Edition has some pretty sweet goods coming with it. The steelbook that comes with this edition looks mighty sexy. Click the linked image to the left to read more about what you’ll receive if you pick up the Collectors Edition.

Do you play First Person Shooter games? Have you ever burst through a door expecting to get the drop on an enemy only to find that they have gotten the drop on you? How in the world did they know you were around them? And how the @#$^! did they know you were coming through THAT door? While there are a number of reasons as to why this may have happened, there is one explanation that is the most likely. You have likely just came across a player utilizing a gaming headset.

For quite a while I refused to accept this explanation. The person had to just be camping or have gotten lucky or anything other reason. A gaming headset could not be that much better than my surround sound could it? After some gentle “coercion” (meaning I was tired of being killed all the time) I finally gave in and decided to give it a shot. After some research as to what brand I should buy I finally narrowed it down to two choices. Turtle Beach or Tritton. I searched forum after forum and read review after review trying to figure out which was the better investment. What I found was that it all came down to preference. Both companies have their followings and haters. None of the reviews that I read swayed me towards either brand. I finally decided on the Turtle Beach x31 for about $99 at Best Buy. From the very first game that I played I was forced to eat my words. I now knew what I was missing. Gaming headsets are AMAZING!!!

The first game I experienced with my new headset was Modern Warfare 2. I was playing Team Deathmatch on Underpass. While running towards the B-bomb area I got into a fire fight and briefly went prone in the grass afterwards while I reloaded. This is where I first heard the power of the headset. Just as I was about to stand back up and continue my assault I heard someone come running from behind me. With my surround sound there’s no way I would’ve heard the clarity, direction and proximity of the enemies footsteps like that. I was briefly while the enemy ran by and popped up behind him for an easy kill. A kill that would have likely not happened without hearing the enemy so clearly before popping up. From that moment on I have used my headset religiously. I know have the ability to rely on my ears as well as my sight to help win the game. Since getting my Turtle Beach headset my game as improved astronomically. Recently, I upgraded to the Turtle Beach x41 for true surround sound. I found the difference to be incredible, but not necessarily indispensable. Whatever the brand and model of headset you chose I can promise you one thing. Your gaming will categorically improve using a gaming headset.