In a matter of mere hours, one of the most anticipated games in recent memory; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be in the hands of gamers everywhere. While some will take on the single player campaign, the vast majority of those players are going to be jumping directly in to taking on their friends in the online game — and you thought this would be easy. Here’s a quick guide for those who are new to the Call of Duty scene, of a few pointers we’ve picked up and vets; share your experience and tips below!

Know your weapons

Think about it like this, a golfer wouldn’t just use a driver for a five foot putt, similarly you shouldn’t be using a gun simply because nearly everyone else is. Take the time, especially in your first few games to try out different weapons and combinations. Check out different factors like aim, recoil, and hell — even how comfortable it feels.  The best Call of Duty players know their weapons and know how to use them. Also, use short bursts of fire with pretty much all of your weapons, it will help you avoid having to reload as much.

Slow down

This could be the most important advice ever — don’t be that guy. Don’t be the guy who runs around in a game and starts unloading clips at everything that moves only to be gunned down frequently and end up at the bottom of every score board.  SLOW DOWN. By taking your time, and peeking around corners, you’re avoiding becoming kill fodder for other players. See a guy streaking across a field? Give it a second, odds are you’re not the only one targeting him. Of course, you can’t just move slowly the entire game (and please, don’t camp), but there’s a big difference between being lethargic and being methodical.

Learn the maps

This one sort of goes along with the previous tip, but know your maps. You know that great spot you’re hiding in? Odds are you’re probably about to get sniped. It’s highly important to know the ins and outs of the maps in any shooter, but especially Call of Duty. Where are the spawn points? Where’s the ammo? Where does everyone run to? By being able to predict your opponent’s moves you give yourself a decided advantage in any game.

Communicate

If you can get past the plethora of nine year olds screaming swears at you and the guy calling you racist slurs every five minutes, communicating with your time is vital. Someone on your team getting trailed? Let them know, strategize.

Choose your rewards wisely

In Call Of Duty you’ll be able to pick your own perks which are basically rewards you can unlock for performing different tasks, and while jumping in to the most powerful sounding one sounds like the best idea ever, take a step back and think about it. Yes, that powerful killstreak sounds awesome, but look what you have to do to get it. You’re just starting out, and you’ve been shot down 14 times in your last three matches, do you really think you’re going to suddenly get 12 straight kills to unlock it? Pick something that while it might not be as powerful, you’ll be able to reach whatever goal you need to obtain it, then change it when you’re getting better.

Expect the Unexpected

Look at that video from Black Ops; you think that guy expected to die like that? Nope, but the internet is filled with funny kills from each Call of Duty game. You’re going to die, and not only that, you’re going to die in a ton of hilarious ways. We’re talking ways that defy both logic and physics at the same time.  Your best bet, just deal with it; laugh about it.

The same advice, to just deal with it, can be taken throughout much of the multiplayer suite — and that’s what makes it so fun.
Perhaps the most important rule is to have fun. Call of Duty vets — what tips do you have for new players?

Thanks to this weekend’s Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles, we finally have our first real look at Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer suite. In other words, have a good look at what’s going to take you away from sunlight come this November.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 releases November 8.

Word on Gears of War 3′s upcoming multiplayer suite has been hard to come by, unless you’re the local North Carolina news apparently. The below video, showcasing the state’s presence in the gaming industry is packed with footage of people play testing the new game. It’s all off camera but there’s a ton of it.

While the title remains shrouded in thick, smog-filled clouds of question marks, Ubsisoft today confirmed a pre-release multiplayer beta for  Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

When in Rome...

If you weren’t aware, Brotherhood will be the first Assassin’s title to incorporate a mulitplayer component and the beta will serve as a very important testing ground for those skeptical of Ubisoft’s ability to infuse multiplayer into the stealth game.

More Brotherhood details are promised for E3 2010 next month in June, where the title will in all likelihood be playable on the show floor. We hope.

via G4TV

When we first heard of it, it seemed Ezio’s latest adventure, in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, would be heavily directed at adding multiplayer to the long-standing and proven stealth genre, but today we learn Brotherhood is a fully-fleshed, proper Assassin’s game.

Work on the game is led by Ubisoft Montreal but other Ubi studios, those in Singapore, Bucharest, Qu©bec City and Annecy are lending their hands to the game as well. The Annecy team, most famous for their work on multiplayer in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, are handling development of the game’s multiplayer.

Rome!

According to the press release, in Brotherhood, Ezio is now a Master Assassin, and the fight will be fought in Italy’s greatest city, Rome. But this time, Ezio can’t do it alone. He’ll “command an entire Brotherhood that will rally to his side.” And the fact sheet goes on to say “only by working together can the Assassins defeat their mortal enemies.”

As for multiplayer in the game, a first for the franchise, you’ll be able to choose from a set of characters, each with their own signature weapons and assassination moves and compete against players from throughout the world in a variety of game-types. Sadly, no additional, more specific information was given.

More information on the title is promised to be in the June issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine on shelves June 1.

After logging numerous hours in the highly anticipated and ultimately important Halo: Reach multiplayer Beta, Bungie has left the sweet taste of promise and potential in my mouth.

I’ve hunted heads in the game’s HeadHunter mode, popped headshots left and right in SWAT, and I’ve journeyed to the ambitious battlefield of Reach‘s newest and most daring game-type yet, Invasion.

While the Beta is, by definition, an unfinished product, the level of detail, definition and structure, is remarkable and in fact exceeds the multiplayer component of many games available at retail today.

Arguably, the most exciting and ambitious component of Reach is its Armor Abilities. These come in five flavors at the moment and include Sprint, Armor Lock, Active Camouflage, Jetpack and Evade. Whereas in Halo 3, these power ups were scattered throughout the map and had to be picked up, in Reach you start with one.

As you can likely deduce, Sprint affords its beholder the ability to run super fast, for a short amount of time. It’s great for escaping the heat of battle and can be a determining factor in your eventual life or death.

Armor Lock, already the most annoying part of the Beta, allows its user to slam his fist into the ground and become invincible for a period of time. While employed, this Armor Ability prohibits you from moving and when it expires (or you choose to end it) you’re an easy target, prone to the scope of a headshot. It’s useful when an incoming vehicle is barreling towards you, but in hand to hand combat, it’s kind of lame.

Armor Lock

Active Camo is just as it sounds and allows you to become invisible whenever you desire. Man is it annoying when someone uses this, sneaks up behind you and knifes you in the back for a one-hit kill. This Ability is  most useful in Capture The Flag game-types, as it allows you to stealthily enter the opponents base, snag the flag and at least make it a decent distance before your foes see a flag magically walking away.

Jetpack is already the best part of Reach. The ability to reach any lookout, ascend any building and escape the bullets of battle, is a great tool to have at your disposal. However, with this newfound ability to flyyyy, comes the fact that when you do choose to use it, you’re literally a flying target, easily falling into the reticules of enemies. That said, its pros outweighs its cons and if you’re like me, you’ll use this Ability more often than not. There is one caveat for Jetpackers though. If you fly to high and use up all your pack’s juice on the way up, the fall damage on the way down will kill you. Remember to pad your landing!

Jetpack!

Evade is an Elite specific ability and allows these aliens to move extremely nimbly throughout combat. Hold down LB to use the ability and flick the directional stick in any direction and you’ll very quickly duck and roll in the direction you chose. If a Spartan is raining fire down on you from high above and you’re in the  middle of an open combat zone, a few somersaults with the Ability will get you out there quickly.

Weapons

Halo: Reach introduces a handful of new weapons to complement the Abilities, but before we talk about them, we need to speak of Loadouts. When a match starts, you have a choice of weaponry. Each has a primary, secondary, grenades and an Armor Ability. Everyone plays Halo a little differently, so you’ll have to play around with options and find the one that suits your play style best.

Loadouts

First, players will need to get accustomed to the new Magnum Pistol. This handgun can be fully scoped and is a beast of a headshot weapon.

The DMR, or Designated Marksman’s Rifle, is the Battle Rifle (though Bungie says it’s not) of Reach. It’s great a medium to long range and is a great headshot weapon.

The DMR

I’m a little concerned with Bungie’s choice to make the Magnum pistol exactly as deadly as the DMR. I constantly found myself running into battle with the DMR, absolutely expecting to win the shootout, only to find my foe, with a Pistol, killing me faster. Seems kind of wrong.

Next, the Focus Rifle is quite a treat. This bad boy is a combination of Halo 3′s Sniper Rifle and Sentinel Beam. You can scope it in, but instead of “shooting” enemies, you “cook” them, which is obviously a lot more fun. Cook an enemy for long enough and they fry to a crisp, leaving their corpse lifeless on the ground. It’s not terribly easy to amass kills with this weapon, but when you pull it off, the smile stricken across your face will make it all worth it.

Focus Rifle

The Plasma Launcher is the weapon I’ve waited for I think my entire life. This gun follows the same king of “charge-and-kill” mechanic of Halo 3′s Spartan Laser, but this one will fire before it’s fully charged. It fires up to four rounds  of deadly plasma. These plasma projectiles can lock on to both human and Elite targets or, where it’s more effective, vehicles. Basically, you scope it in, select a target, hold down the fire button and if you can get all four round to lock on, you’ll most certainly get the kill, but feel free to let go after one or two. What’s more, if you die, the guided munitions will still hit their target, and hopefully get you a kill or two.

Plasma Launcher

Next, the Grenade Launcher, a single shot beast, is one of the most intriguing and (possibly) awesome weapons in Reach. It fires one shot at a time and when fired, the grenade skips once, then explodes. However, if you hold down the trigger after launch, you can make it explode whenever you like. Used this way, you can shoot a projectile at an oncoming enemy and when he stands near it, let go of the trigger and BOOM, he’s dead. I haven’t been able to effectively use it yet, but I’m sure when I do master it, it’ll be a deadly weapon.

The Needle Rifle is also a weapon I’ve longed for since Halo 3. Similar to the DMR in power and effectiveness, this Covenant weapon shoots Needles one shot at a time. It’s a headshot machine and those with skilled hands will rack up more than many kills with it. Additionally, sink enough shots into the body of an enemy, and, similar to the Needler (which is also in Reach!), it will force them to feel the power of pink  mist.

Melee Attacks

Beating down enemies in Halo: 3 was pretty much my favorite thing to do. I can’t think  of something more exciting and rewarding than charging a foe, tapping B and ending their killing spree. Unfortunately, Bungie has ramped down the effectiveness of Beatdowns in Reach. In fact, the term Beatdown is gone, in favor of Pummel. In Bungie’s defense, Pummel is a pretty awesome term. And, again thankfully, the horrible double melees or melee sandwiches, whatever you called them, are largely gone in Reach. You can’t wildly run into frag-fests hoping  to beat down enemies as easily as you did in Halo: 3, because it just won’t work!

Ultimate Assassin

Game-Types

In the Beta, Bungie has a handful of game-modes and playlists available, allowing you, if you become bored with one or another, to keep it fresh and play a multitude of game-types.

If you’re a Lone Wolf fan, there’s HeadHunter. In this game-type you’re all by yourself and every time you or someone else dies, they drop a skull. You pick them up and must bring them to a “drop zone.” You can be risky and collect a bunch of skulls before running back to the drop zone, but know that if you get capped, you drop them all. The game is played to 25, that is unless someone amasses 10 skulls at once, at which point that person will earn the “Skullamanjaro” award, ending the match. Yeah, I did that once.

HeadHunter on Swordbase

Then there’s the Arena. This is the place that Bungie says will be for the best of the best seeking the highest level competition. Play enough matches in a day and you’ll get a daily ranking and beyond that a season ranking, good for bragging rights. This  mode isn’t entirely fleshed out at the  moment, but its aim is, according to Bungie, to give the hardcore, skilled players a reason to not reboot their character and trounce low levels as they climb the ladder again.

And the elephant in the room. It’s Invasion. This game-type is Bungie’s most ambitious yet. Similar to Battlefield: Bad Company 2‘s Rush Mode, this game-type progresses through three different phases. It pits Spartans versus Elites. Elites play offense and Spartans defense. It’s played exclusively on the Boneyard environment, a map larger than anything Bungie has ever done and truly speaks to the studio’s very strong ability at crafting largely scaled environments, something fans (or maybe just me) have clamored for, for years. As Elites capture points from the Spartans, new and more powerful loadouts and eventually vehicles become available for both sides. The game ends (if Elites are able) with the Elites stealing the “Core” and transporting it to a Phantom, docked on the corner of the map.

Invasion

The offshoot of standard Invasion is Invasion Slayer. In this game-type, it remains Spartans versus Elites, but it’s a game to 100 kills, but there’s a twist. Instead of standard kill, kill, kill, there’s a strategic take gamers  must use to succeed. As Spartans or Elites capture points, more powerful loadouts become available. It breaks down like this.

Phase 1 (0-25 kills, or until the 4 minute marker)

Spartan Weapon Drops: Power Weapons (Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifle)
Elite Weapon Drops: Power Weapons (Plasma Launcher, Focus Rifle), or a Ghost

Phase 2: (26-50 kills, or until the 8 minute marker)

Spartan Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Warthog
Elite Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Ghost, or a Banshee

Phase 3: (51-75 kills, or until the 12 minute marker)

Spartan Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Warthog, or a Scorpion
Elite Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Ghost, or a Banshee, or a Wraith

Invasion Slayer, so far, has been the most rewarding Halo multiplayer I’ve ever encountered and this game-mode is certainly a long time coming, and I’m certainly excited that Bungie has it very well nailed down at this early Beta stage.

Then there’s Stockpile. This game-type is a spinoff of Capture The Flag. Flags spawn at specific points on the map and it’s your team’s duty to carry these to collection zones that hop from location to location throughout the game. There’s two ways to win here; either capture 10 flags in the allotted time, or capture  more than the other team when time expires.

Flags go here!

The final new game-type in Reach is Generator Defense. This mode doesn’t go live in the Beta until May 14 and it certainly sounds interesting. Like Invasion, it pits Spartans vs. Elites. Three Spartans must defend three generators and three Elites are tasked with destroying them. Simple. Straightforward. Should be fun.

Don’t worry, if you seek familiar affairs, Oddball, Capture The Flag, Team Slayer, SWAT and others are mixed in to the rotation.

Environments

There’s only three maps available in the Beta right now (one more when Generator Defense goes live). They include Boneyard (for Invasion only) PowerHouse and Sword Base.

PowerHouse is an outdoor location, looking similar to High Ground from Halo 3. It’s full of water, indoor and outdoor locations, dark hallways and alluring lookouts, great for raining fire down from. Jetpackers will love PowerHouse, as there are a few places only these Ability will be able to get to.

PowerHouse

Sword Base is a very straightforward map. Visually, it resembles Cold Storage from Halos of yesterday and has two distinct sides with bridges, on various elevations, for travel from side to side. There’s a Sniper Rifle on this map and it’s extremely useful if you’re perched in the right spots. Also, due to the verticality of this environment, you’ll find yourself using the Jetpack Ability. Use it to ascend to higher levels and you’ll rack up kills on unsuspecting enemies.

Swordbase

Boneyard, as said before, is a Invasion only map. It’s huge, the largest Bungie has ever built. There are big open spaces, but also dark and enclosed areas where frag-fests and melee attacks will run supreme. There are also several vertical layers, accessible through scaffolding and staircases, perfectly suited for snipers and Focus Riflers looking to rack up headshots.

Boneyard

Bungie.net Stat Integration

Just like in Halo 3, Bungie will let you track your in-game statistics online at Bungie.net. They’ve redesigned the look and feel of it and overall, it’s just much better. It’s truly incredible Bungie went to such extensive lengths to incorporate stat-tracking with a beta.

The new Bungie.net

Reflection

While I’m certainly not the  most skilled Halo: 3 player (a highest skill 36 in Halo: 3) my skills from that game transferred to Reach and I’ve enjoyed nearly every minute spent in the Beta. It’s certainly not Halo: 3.5 and this is very exciting. Bungie provides an incredible tease with this Beta and it’s going to be an extremely long haul from when the Beta ends (May 19) to early Fall when the title releases.

Play some Beta with me if you’d like. My GamerTag is “eddie not eddy”

Microsoft today issued a press release making it known the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta will last 2.5 weeks.

You and your friends can get a sneak peak at the shooter beginning May 3 and lasting until May 19, when Microsoft says it will pull the plug.

Bungie representatives have said the beta’s length is to be determined, but Microsoft owns Xbox Live, not Bungie, and can cut gamers off whenever they feel fit to do so.

Microsoft also announced a “Halo Multiplayer Unlock Weekend” where Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach beta gamers can play for free. It runs from May 14 at 9 a.m. PDT through May 17 at 9 a.m. PDT.

To play the beta you simply need a copy of Halo 3: ODST, but you already knew that, because you read the extensive Halo: Reach beta guide.

Rockstar Games today revealed what multiplayer in the wildly ambitious Red Dead: Redemption will look like.

Debuting today is the game’s Free Roam multiplayer mode, in which the entire single player game world is open for gamers to literally do whatever they hell they wish in. Hunt animals, fight criminals, become a criminal, jump into a deathmatch or just ride your house aimlessly into the sunset.

Best of all, Free Roam is just one of the game’s multiplayer options.

While many had quibbles with with Rockstar’s implementation of free roaming multiplayer in Grand Theft Auto: IV, I loved every second of it, and am glad to see it return to the Wild West, where I’m sure it’ll be that much more fun.

Red Dead: Redemption comes to PS3 and Xbox 360 May 18.

When the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta begins in just a few months on May 3, it’ll look and feel staggeringly different than Halo 3, the most recent Bungie Update informs us.

“Rank as you knew it in Halo 3, is dead” says Bungie.

According to Bungie, the concept of Rank has been completely revamped and divorced from Trueskill and EXP has been entirely thrown away.

So what’s going to take its place?

Rank in Halo: Reach will advance with the collection of “Credits” and “Commendations.” These items can be amassed by completing tasks in both campaign and matchmaking. Specifically, finishing and winning matches in the upcoming beta (and full retail game), will be a “significant” source of Credits. And Commendations, “persistent, aggregating awards” will serve as “virtual scouting reports with information on what type of a player someone is.” Basically, you’ll collect these for performing any number of tasks. And when you reach a milestone amount of Commendations, you’ll be rewarded with a wealth of Credits, nice.

What’re these Credits good for? You guessed it, for virtual goodies to deck your Spartan out with.

Check out the images below and please, please, please head over to the Bungie Weekly Update, as it is packed to the top and is in fact overflowing with Halo: Reach info.

Challenges

Left Shoulder.

Helmet

Chest

The Halo: Reach Multiplayer beta trailer surfaced on YouTube this morning and after seeing it in all its glory, I know full well when May 3 rolls around I will surrender my life to it.

In the trailer we see why Reach’s multiplayer will be superior to Halo 3′s in every way. Larger scaled environments, new, exciting and powerful weapons, a variety of gameplay modes, including Invasion and Headhunter, something called “Active Roster,” an Elites vs. Spartans mode (thank you!!) as well as, wait for it…jetpacks!

Call out what you see in the comments below and play the multiplayer beta for Halo: Reach May 3.

Bungie is prepared to reveal a “bombshell” announcement about Halo: Reach’s multiplayer component today, a statement on the Reach development blog indicates.

A statement from Bungie’s creative director Marcus Lehto read:

“On another note, I hope you all like the MP bomb we’re about to drop on the world in about a day.”‘

He said that yesterday evening, leading us to believe “about a day” means sometime before this evening.

We’re expecting the “bomb” to be something significant and hopefully in video form. Bungie has told us persistent perks like sprinting will be in the game, but we’ve yet to see it in action. Maybe a video depicting new multiplayer features?

When Bungie releases it, we’ll post it. Stay tuned.

Ubisoft unleashed a triple-shot of new trailers today detailing the multiplayer component of the upcoming Splinter Cell: Conviction.

The game, set to release April 17, will come with a fully fleshed-out cooperative experience, which Ubisoft promises will employ the same mighty stealth action found in the single-player.

Deniable Ops is comprised of a series of game modes which task the gamer with performing everything from defending an EMP to taking out enemies with stealth. Persistent Elite Creation is how players will be rewarded for their hard work as the game progresses.

Ubisoft demonstrated its magnificence today and unleashed “Assassin’s Creed II Multiplayer” for the iPhone and iPod Touch today. Best of all, it’s free.

The game, as its name implies, is a multiplayer-based handheld game set in Renaissance Italy. You’ll play against other like-minded assassins and attempt to kill each other while blending in with civilians, who, as the game teaches us, get all up in a frenzy when you cut someones throat or stab a lady in the chest.

Assassin's Creed II Multiplayer

As if the surprise arrival weren’t enough, Ubisoft made the game available for free instead of the speculated $2.99. The deal runs for the next 48 hours, so waiting on this one is not a good idea.

Source: Kotaku

When the multiplayer beta for Halo: Reach releases May 3, 2010, Bungie believes it’ll be played by about 3 million people.

You will play the beta.

According to Brian Jarrard of Bungie, Halo 3‘s multiplayer beta amassed a participation of only about 800,000.

The difference this time around is that the Halo: Reach beta is available to those with a copy of Halo 3: ODST, which Jarrard estimates to be close to 2 million, with many more buying in when the May date gets closer.

In an interview with Kotaku, Jarrard  said the multiplayer beta will feature a “handful of maps, a variety of gametypes – both new and old – and a nice subset of armor abilities.”

We already know one of the multiplayer maps and some of the new abilities, but man oh man am I excited for May.

Source: Kotaku

The sequel to the innovative original, Army of Two: The 40th Day, launched yesterday for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But what would any AAA title release be without a slew of trailers telling you why you need it?

Below is a launch trailer for the co-op bro-fest as well as a video detailing the game’s multiplayer modes.

A review for the game will be posted in the next 24 hours. Look for it!

Ubisoft, developer and publisher of the recently-released Assassin’s Creed II, today announced at a financial conference that a new Assassin’s game, featuring Ezio and online multiplayer, will come sometime in 2011.

“The 2010-11 fiscal year will see a greater number of franchise releases than fiscal year 2009-10, including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, a new game in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, Driver, Raving Rabbids 4 and a new episode of Assassin’s Creed, which will be the first in the series to have an online multiplayer mode,” the statement reads.

We have no idea what this new “episode” is, but gaming mega-site IGN reached out to Ubisoft and received word that the title is not and expansion to Assassin’s Creed II and is in fact a brand new Assassin’s game, set directly after A2 that will feature, when it releases in 2011, online multiplayer, in one form or another.

Source: IGN

Proceed with caution. The following is a rumored list of the multiplayer perks of next week’s Modern Warfare 2. You definitely want to see them, but just understand they’re not official by any stretch of the imagination.

The list comes from an unofficial Modern Warfare 2 blog, MW2blog, and Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward community manager Tweeted “Can’t confirm nor deny any leaks for #MW2. Official stance is to just wait and discover the awesome yourself on November 10th.”

So, to me, that sounds like this a genuine list, but of course, we won’t know for sure until next Tuesday!

Marathon (Tier 1)
Standard: Unlimited Sprint
Pro: Get over obstacles faster

Sleight of Hand (Tier 1)
Standard: Faster reload
Pro: Aim down sights faster

Scavenger (Tier 1)
Standard: Retrieve ammo from dead bodies

Bling (Tier 1)
Standard: Dual attachments on primary weapon
Pro: Dual attachments on secondary weapon

One Man Army (Tier 1)
Standard: Use primary weapon in secondary slot

Stopping Power (Tier 2)
Standard: Increased bullet damage
Pro: Increased bullet damage to vehicles

Lightweight (Tier 2)
Standard: Move faster

Hardline (Tier 2)
Standard: Killstreaks rewards require 1 less kill
Pro: Deathstreaks require 1 less death

Cold Blooded (Tier 2)
Standard: Undetectable by UAV, air support, sentries, and thermal

Danger Close (Tier 2)
Standard: Increases explosive weapons damage

Commando (Tier 3)
Standard: Increased melee distance

Increased melee speed Steady Aim (Tier 3)
Standard: Increased hip-fire accuracy

Scrambler (Tier 3)
Standard: Jams enemy radar

Ninja (Tier 3)
Standard: Invisible to heartbeat sensors
Pro: Move silently

SitRep (Tier 3)
Standard: Insertions. Reveals enemy explosives and Tactical Insertions

Last Stand (Tier 3)
Standard: Survive after being killed for 10 second, pistol equipt. You can crawl too

Source: MW2Blog via Kotaku

Sony released the Uncharted 2 multiplayer demo on the PlayStation Network just over a week ago and today reported all kinds of statistics on its use. In short, gamers are playing the bejeezes out of it.

All the statistics are quite staggering, but one that stands out is certainly the fact that gamers have already played it collectively for the equivalent of 9,905 days or over 27 years!

Another mind-blowing accomplishment? Of the game’s 34 Metacritic scores, 17 of them have been perfect, with the others clocking in at over 90%.

Total Number of games played “" 1,217,424
Total Number of Kills “" 92,110,787
Total Number of Treasures Captured “" 1,860,645
Total Amount of Money Earned “" $38,841,367,350
Total Time Played “" 9,905 days (or 27+ years)

We’ll have a review for you soon, but for now, keep on keepin’ on with that demo!

Naughty Dog, makers of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, released a multiplayer demo for the game today on the PSN, begging the question: why are you reading this and not downloading it?

The demo, which clocks in at just under 1.3GB, houses 4 multiplayer environments, four competitive modes, and two co-op missions. What does this mean for you? If you got into the previous multiplayer demo, the one given to you for your “Infamous” purchase, you’ll definitely want to download this one. And if you’re a total Uncharted 2 virgin, this demo is so hot sticky sweet that you’d be crazy to miss it.

Also included in the demo is Cinema Mode. Much like Halo’s “Theater,” Cinema allows you to watch and share match highlights, perfect for creating montages and such.

So fire up your PS3 and jump into the PlayStation Store to start the fun!

2k Games released BioShock 2′s first multiplayer trailer in the wee hours of this Friday September 4, and in case you missed it, because you were sleeping like a normal person, never fear, for we at Blast Gaming do not sleep, and have the video for you below.

The first BioShock had no multiplayer component, only a glorious single-player campaign, and no one knocked title for that decision. However, Bioshock 2 does multiplayer, and from the looks of this video…..you finish that sentence.

Bioshock 2 is due out on Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime in 2010.

LOS ANGELES — Bethesda Softworks’ Brink is an immersive action shooter that blends single-player, co-op, and multiplayer into a video game experience that finally blurs the line between the single player offline experience and the often rabid online shooter world.

The game is under development by Splash Damage, the studio behind the Enemy Territory games.

Brink has RPG elements that require you to build up your player from the clothing and gear he wears to the missions he decides to go on, to which side of a civil war he chooses to fight for.

You’re on a man made city called Ark — a complex of hundreds of islands seen as the last visage of hope for humanity. It was originally one of those “Bio-Dome” green habitats until Earth’s oceans started to rise, making the Ark a refuge instead of a paradise. After 25 uneasy years, the residents of the Ark reached their breaking point. War breaks out.

The game has beautifully stylized visual elements and scenery. It also has an interesting control scheme with a “smart button” that lets you target a ledge or point on the map that your character will vault, leap, climb or fall to automatically. The game understands where you’re trying to go and interacts with the environment around you.

The game is set for a Spring 2010 release, and it wasn’t playable at E3 this year. Though, the demo we were shown looks wonderful.

Blast did get to sit down with the game’s Creative Director, Splash Damage’s Richard Ham. Ham is a powerful name in video games. He invented Syphon Filter and just finished a stint with Microsoft working on Fable II. Ham told us there’s a message behind Brink and other types of post-apocalyptic games, as video game developers, like movie directors and television producers, engage in social commentary with their mediums.

BLAST: What do you hope to add to this project? What’s your vision for Brink?

Richard Ham: When I actually went in to interview with Splash Damage I was actually a little bit nervous thinking “gosh I don’t really have a lot of multiplayer shooter experience.” I mean Syphon 2 had a little bit of a deathmatch game, and that was kind of nice. Fable has a little bit but not very much, and Paul (Wedgwood), the owner, said “that’s perfect. That’s exactly what we want because I’ve got a whole team full of guys who have been doing nothing for the last decade but make kick ass multiplayer shooters and that’s what they’ll continue to do.”

But now that they’re moving over to console, they really do want to kind of bridge a gap, and what I tend to think we’re actually going to accomplish here bringing all this together is with Brink I tend to think it’s almost a gateway drug in that players like me who traditionally don’t play a lot of online shooters — I mean, I love Call of Duty. I play them all, but I get to the end of the story, and then I shelve it, and I never go online because “that’s a dangerous place” it’s a nasty place and it’s a real shame, because for all these years I’ve been missing out on these great experiences. So a big, big push for Brink is creating a great multiplayer experience, but then making it open and accessible so players who would have thought twice about going online actually have a reason to and will find that “wow we’ve really been missing out.”

BLAST What design elements did you immediately want to bring to Brink?

RH: Probably the number one thing for me, the biggest thing that I wanted to push, was the notion of having dynamic objectives. It’s actually something I did a long time ago going back to Syphon Filter 1. You’re going through a mission and all of a sudden “oh a new objective will happen,” based on the preset storyline of the game and of the level you’re in.

We’re going the complete opposite way in that every mission you’re going to go on has a clear set of objectives you are to go through and pretty much plays by the book. …

But your personal story is radically different depending on what class you’re playing, what body type you have, what type of player you are, what level you’re at. Because in the game there’s this kind of invisible commander running the whole show, running your team, who knows what’s going on, knows who’s doing what and can basically give out orders, optional orders, to everybody.

We will bribe you as a player to do these things. “We need somebody to turn into an engineer to repair the crane. First guy that does it, 300 experience points.” That’s the equivalent of killing 30 guys. Why would you not do it? We’ll do it just to get you to change, just to try. Even if you don’t make it, we’ll reward you.

That’s a really big push. All these dynamic objectives are coming up. It’s one of the reasons I think it’s an accessible game. A first person shooter online is a pretty hardcore place. You go in there; everybody’s been playing for days and months, and they know every square inch of that level and you’re like “I don’t know what to do.”

The worst experience I ever had playing an online shooter was the first time I played a capture the flag match, and I got the flag, and I was like “What do I do? Where do I go? Everyone wants to kill me. My team wants to kill me. This is terrible!” You want to kill yourself just to drop the damn thing. You’re completely helpless. In Brink, at any given time there’s always a lot of missions you can take. You can be on the front line where all the hardcore guys are, whooping it up. If that’s not going to work for you, look at that objective wheel that comes up. There’s always going to be lots of options, whether it takes you behind enemy lines to do some sneaking around, whether it’s all about rescuing civilians, capturing enemy command posts.

BLAST: There are a lot of shooters and a lot of online multiplayer shooters. There have also been a lot of lofty multiplayer games — M.A.G. for instance. What specifically about Brink do you feel will turn on players?

RH: Well there’s a standard answer, but the big one is that mission inside a mission. But there’s other things too. Splash Damage, you go back to the Enemy Territory Games, it was the first online shooter that actually had experience points and leveling up, even before Battlefield. So, they’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s now kind of become en vogue. With Call of Duty’s perks, people go “oh wow this is really exciting.” Killzone has a really deep system. Resistance had one as well. But these guys have been doing it for a long time.

We’re all big fans of MMOs back at the office. I think players when they finally see all the RPG options that are available so they can really customize themselves and create the perfect guy for them that’s going to be really refreshing.

The entire storyline of Brink is the outbreak of the civil war on this remote man made island, kind of the last refuge of humanity — or so they think — it’s a civil war and there are two sides. The important thing is you choose up front whether you fight on the side of “the man” of security, keep the peace or do you go on the other side and play as Resistance. The important thing is on your side, you’re clearly in the right. When you get to that mission on the other side of the fence, it’s a completely different story and there’s a completely different set of things going on. That’s a really key element in the game is this kind of two sides of the same coin and you don’t know the whole thing until you’ve seen it all.

BLAST: The post-apocalyptic genre has exploded recently. Do you see parallels to modern society with these games?

RH: We’re actually trying to use this platform to actually say something. I’ll be honest; I turned 40 this year. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I’m getting to the point where I actually want to say something. I don’t just want this to be about cheap thrills, and I know it has to be. It has to be fun, but when you look at the setting and what’s going on with the two sides, I’ll be honest we’re definitely trying to put parallels into whats going on in our world today, particularly Palestine and Israel.

You look at that situation, and it seems completely intractable. If you look at it from one side or the other, well everything’s entirely justified or justifiable. It’s been in a stalemate forever. We can use a setting like this, because obviously nobody wants to play a shooter set in modern day Palestine. Nobody would want that.

It’s like Star Trek back in the 60s. “Well we can’ really do anything about race relations on network television, so let’s paint a guy with half his face white and half his face black and have him have an internal struggle.” It was a way for them to actually do stuff, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to do as well.

The setting really just kind of comes out of that naturally.

Next-gen first person shooter fans are in for a treat this holiday season. Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 are quickly on the way, ‚ and your urge to kill locust or chimera will be swiftly re-birthed. However, for those of us with two next gen consoles on a tight budget, your choice might not be as clear yet.

GoW2 really hits multiplayer hard, which it should, given Xbox Live’s expansive online community, and the success of the original Gears online play. It would be crazy not to build upon that. Three new multiplayer modes: wingman, guardian and submission have been added to the original four.‚ 

Wingman pairs up two people to face off against four other groups of two people in a death match. Submission is like a darker capture the flag which pits two teams of five with the task of killing an AI regulated character, and then carry their dead carcass back to their home base. Guardian is exactly like Assassination, but with a twist: ‚ it allows the players to keep fighting after their leader has been killed, but takes away the ability to respawn

When it comes to story, GoW2 does not offer too much. It’s definitely bigger, with huge enemies and environments that will certainly take full advantage of your HDTV.‚ 

The story begins six months after the ending credits of the last Gears of War. Not much is known about the story, all that is known for sure is that Fenix has a love interest, people will die, and Carmine will be back. The rest ‚ is pretty much the same, locusts are taking over the cities, and Fenix and his diehard crew are the only ones to stop them, (hmm … Halo anyone?) If you are looking for an intricate story , you may be best served to look elsewhere.

It’s basically the same plot that has been rehashed since WWII, evil forces are taking over the world, and only a select few can stop them — except with this one, you got chainsaws. ‚ 

Many PlayStation 3 owners experienced arguably the best of the systems launch lineup with Resistance: Fall of Man. The game was a huge success critically and consumer wise. There was no doubt that a sequel would be made and two years later it happened.‚ 

With Resistance 2, it is all about scale. Insomniac’s latest shooter delivers on just that, with 100-foot enemies, 60 player online, and 8-person cooperative play, complete with its own storyline.

The story takes place two years after the first, starting off where the last cinematic from the original Resistance left off. ‚ Our hero, Nathan Hale, joins a powerful group of super soldiers called The Sentinels that seem to have the same immunity to the Chimeran virus as him.

This time around the narrative will be from Hale’s perspective, unlike the first games where the story had been told through Rachel Parker’s eyes.‚ 

Multiplayer has been improved considerably with up to 60 players playing at once. Insomniac knows that with 60 people in one area would just be unmitigated chaos. The solution was to split the 60 players into groups of five giving each group specific objectives to complete.‚ 

The weapons from the first game will be making a return, but with a few added tweaks. Like the Bulls-eye, which now has a sniper scope One new and interesting new weapon ‚ is the Splicer which shoots electromagnetically charged saw blades at your opponent, slicing them into ribbons.

If the 60 person multiplayer doesn’t catch your interest there is an 8-player cooperative campaign for you and seven other buddies to play. Instead of just letting you play through the single player storyline, Insomniac has created a separate storyline that scales to the amount of players that are playing. Players have up to three different classes to choose from. The Tank has high health and has a shield to help take heavy damage, special ops, who deals heavy damage, but has low health and medic who is the primary support class who focuses on the group.

It is to see that with the amount of things being crammed into this one title that you would have a hard choice of purchasing a game. If the promise of a huge, deep story with 100 foot boss fight, 60 player online play, and an 8 person cooperative campaign doesn’t sell you on this game — nothing will.

Blast Magazine Correspondent‚ Juneil Cabreza also contributed to this article.