Rather than bring Halo 4 to life, Bungie announced last year that it would be serving fans a Halo 3 single-player expansion pack rather than a true sequel. Over time, Halo 3: ODST has evolved into a full-fledged, full-priced title that demands to be played on its own merits. Halo players might notice a little something missing, however: there's no Master Chief in this one, folks.



Instead of donning the hallowed helmet of everyone's favorite space marine, you'll be playing as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (yes, that is where the ODST comes from) known as "the Rookie." The Rookie is a lone UNSC soldier protecting New Mombasa in the East African Protectorate (what was formerly Kenya). He's weaker, slower, and more vulnerable than MC, so expect to spend a significant amount of time in cover, strategizing, rather than running in guns blazing and straight up kicking a Jackal in the face.



The game boasts a nerd's delight of a voice cast, the likes of which we haven't seen since C&C3. Three of your space marine teammates will be voiced by Firefly/Serenity alums, including Nathan Fillon (Buck), Adam Baldwin (Dutch) and Alan Tudyk (Mickey). Not to be outdone by the men, Battlestar Galactica is well-represented by Tricia Helfer, who plays Dare, an ONI agent in charge of the squad. Something tells us Cortana won't hold a candle to her. And that something is hotness. Brace yourself for this trivia fact: in a rare move for this industry, Nathan Fillon and Tricia Helfer were actually in the same room, doing their voice acting at the same time. It is unknown what kind of force field Bungie constructed around their studios to prevent the world from exploding upon this awesome meeting.



ODST takes place before the events of Halo 3, at about the same time as the end of Halo 2. Players finishing Halo 2's campaign were left with images of Earth under attack, and ODST tells the story of how humanity defended it. The game features weapons, vehicles, etc. from Halo 3, an anachronistic move (to fit in with the time table it should feature assets from Halo 2) that has some die-hard fans upset. We have a feeling that once they get into this game, they'll be having too much fun to care about continuity.

Alien Arena 2009 is a freeware online deathmatch game with fast and furious action for Windows and Linux! The game runs on the CRX engine, and features modern effects such as real-time per-pixel lighting and shadows, GLSL shaders, light bloom, reflective surfaces and much more, while still being able to run on even modest systems. The game includes a built in, as well as external server browser and chat client. Players can look up their stats online, chat with other players, and become part of a growing community.

Some of the new features in this release:
• Improved shadow volumes with self shadowing.
• Vertex buffer object management.
• Sound improvements/bugfixes.

• Security fixes.
• Anisitropic image filtering.
• New weather effects.
• Callvoting.
• Duplicate player renaming.
• Two new levels.
• Auto detection of settings on first run.
• Run time optimizations.

For maximum compatibility purposes, the graphical settings in Alien Arena have been set automatically on first run. Please use the video options in the game menu to adjust the settings to best suit your gaming system. Alien Arena employs an OpenAL sound system.

The Army National Guard and Rival Interactive are creating a first person 3D shooter called PRISM: Guard Shield that contains a unique blend of stealth operations and fast action game play. The game focuses on the unconventional application of new and emerging weapons and surveillance technologies in the war against terrorism. PRISM takes place in the near future with the player becoming the newest member of a highly secretive homeland defense unit known as PRISM.
PRISM: Guard Shield focuses on familiar locations in the US such as Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, CA. When terrorist activities are suspected or potential targets are identified, players are called into action.

PRISM: Guard Shield is being developed simultaneously with a game for the commercial market called PRISM: Threat Level Red. Players will be immersed in a unique gaming experience that draws players into a world that blurs the lines between commercial entertainment and America’s secret struggle against terrorism using tomorrow’s technology and weapons.

JoWooD Productions Action Shooter, Painkiller: Resurrection, has gone gold. The Austrian development studio Homegrown Games has just finished work on the latest sequel to the successful Painkiller series - and sent the Gold Master disk to the press plant.

The game will hit stores on October 27th: Get ready to take on Purgatory (and the various creatures inhabiting it) as you take on the role of "Wild Bill" Sherman who gets drawn into the endless War between Heaven and Hell... a devilishly hot hell-ride of a game!

Just as it's award-winning and critically acclaimed predecessor, Painkiller: Resurrection is a straight action shooter - so be prepared for some fast-paced and adrenaline-fueled action! There's no complex reloading or puzzles that force the player to keep pushing buttons - just pure, straightforward shooter action. So grab your stake gun and follow us straight to Hell!

A Demo of Painkiller: Resurrection will be available for download shortly!

In support of national breast cancer awareness month, an exclusive breast cancer awareness apparel package is now available at the
EA SPORTS Complex within Sony's PlayStation Home.

This limited offer apparel package consists of male and female football jerseys which will be sold for $2.00 each. The jerseys will be available for purchase from October 15th through November 11th. The primary color of the jersey will be black with a pink number 9 on the front and the name "Brees" on the back panel.

All proceeds from the purchase of these specially designed jerseys will go to New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees' charity, Brees Dream Foundation in support of breast cancer awareness.

SKUs

Forget about Call of Duty: World at War, that hot zombie-filled mess. We loved it, but another year, another COD. This is the real sequel to Modern Warfare that you've been waiting for.

Modern Warfare 2 comes in several different SKUs. You have the option to buy a standard version (just the disc and a manual), which is your only option if you play on PC. The step up from that is the Hardened Edition ($79.99), which packages the game and the manual in a steel case with an art book and a token to download the original Call of Duty from Xbox Live or PSN. The Prestige Edition ($149.99) has everything the Hardened Edition has, bundled in with night-vision goggles that really work. You'll also get a head mold based on in-game character "Soap" MacTavish to rest the goggles on when shenanigans are not taking place, or to display as the centerpiece of your mannequin collection.

If you really want to go all-out, you can order a limited edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 ($399.99). The bundle includes an Xbox 360 with a Modern Warfare 2 design and a 250 gig hard drive, the biggest hard drive Microsoft has released for the 360 (no, it won't be available separately, at least for now). Two wireless controllers and a copy of the standard edition game round out the package, which is a great deal for anyone looking to pick up a new 360. We don't care how you do it, as long as you get your hands on the game somehow. It's just going to be that good.