Modern Warfare 3 is My Favorite Video Game for 2011

My favorite video game of 2011 is the first person shooter video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, or MW3, and was just released this November. I personally prefer to play this game on the Xbox 360 because to me, the graphics are better than on the Playstation 3, or PS3, but many of my friends prefer the PS3 version. Regardless of which of these two platforms is used, the game is still compelling. Some of my friends who played the Wii version of this game were unhappy with the graphics quality, but I have not personally experienced this. The storyline of MW3 picks up where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, or MW2, left off. While the third installment in the series continues the same story line, and has a familiar, thrilling feel in game play, there are several improvements that make this installment in the series more challenging and exciting.

Several of MW3's improvements include the newly available multiplayer split screen while playing online option. Also new to MW3 is Survival Mode in Special Ops, where you and/or another player face wave after wave of increasingly difficult "bad guys" that re-spawn based on your location. Survival mode is probably my second most favorite mode of play for MW3. Also new is a reworked rewards system where completing objectives, in addition to kills, leads to "pointstreaks" that can be redeemed for rewards in the Assault, Support and Specialist Packages. Kill Confirmed and Team Defender are also new game modes for Multiplayer. In Kill Confirmed, which is my favorite mode of play for this game, you must collect the dog tags of the killed opponent to score, and you can collect others dog tags to keep them from scoring. In team defender, your team gets double points for kills while your team is holding the recovered flag.

I won't give away any spoilers, but the plot of the game campaign brings the story line that was begun in MW1 and MW2 to a satisfying conclusion. If only terrorists could be dispatched with such efficiency and satisfaction in reality!

Even though MW3 has only been available for less than two months, with all of the improvements and additions to the game since MW2, including the "poetic justice" that concludes the end of the story, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has quickly become my favorite video game for 2011.

Player Review of Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is the latest installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise by Ubisoft Montreal, and the last installment planned to feature the characters of Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad, an Assassin during the Crusades, and Ezio Auditore da Firenze an assassin during the Renaissance. Both Altaïr and Ezio are ancestors of the storyline's main protagonist, Desmond Miles, their modern day descendent. Revelations picks up the story where the installment, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, left off. In this installment, Desmond must enter the Animus again to relive the memories of Altaïr and Ezio to gather the information that is needed to separate his personality and memories from theirs so that he can return to this world and help the modern day assassins defeat their eternal and ever present nemesis, the Templars, and find a way to stop the prophesied end of the world in December 2012.

Revelations is available for the PC, Xbox360 and Playstation 3 platforms; I personally played the game on an Xbox360. As with previous installments, Revelations contains a rich storyline and plot, with sumptuous, panoramic views of its environment. In this installment of the game, most of the game play takes place in Renaissance era Constantinople and Animus island. The controls predominately remain the same as in previous versions of the game, with a new addition to the weapons category, "the hookblade". Also new to this title are the "mini-games" that Ezio must play to defend Assassin Dens from Templar attacks. The storyline of this addition brings a logical conclusion to the motivations of the characters of Altaïr and Ezio, and sets up the next installment for Desmond to bring a resolution to the planned sequel of the game.In addition to the improvements to the storyline mode of game play, multiplayer options have added some story-line quests, improved character customization, as well as Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag modes of play. As your character moves up in multiplayer ranks, you gain more information about the Templar Company, Abstergo.

While this remains a visually stunning game, and brings a necessary conclusion to Altair and Ezio's part in the storyline, I found that what had been this games strength in the earlier titles has come to feel a bit overused and tiring while playing the game this time around. At times, the mini-games are tedious, as are completing contracts in deathmatch in multiplayer mode. While it was fun, at first, to use the hookblade to zip across lines at the top of the city, it really did not do much to improve the gaming experience. At times, playing Revelations felt like watching a movie in the middle of a trilogy, it tied up loose ends and gave a satisfying conclusion to beloved characters in the storyline, but it really did not break any new ground in terms of gaming innovation. This, coupled with the tedious at times and counterintuitive game controls, left me feeling frustrated as a gamer. Revelations remains a solid game, and covers necessary ground for the storyline, but it no longer exceeded my expectations as earlier titles in the franchise had. Hopefully, with an "in-synch" Desmond, evil Templars to thwart, and the destruction of the world to prevent, the next installment will.

Crushing on the Master Chief: Why Halo is My Favorite Video Game Series

I love video games, and always have, in all of their incarnations, whether the games are played on consoles, PCs or online and from the cloud, I love them. I also love them regardless of whether a game is a first-person shooter, RPG, action-adventure, or even a MMORP game, so it's hard for me to narrow down my choice of favorite video game series of all time. When I look at the one series that has consistently improved its story line, world creation, character development and game engine through each subsequent edition in its game series, I have to confess that I am a passionate member of The Halo Nation, and I believe that the Halo series is my favorite video game series of all time.

Halo was developed by Bungie, and is now owned by Microsoft Corporation and managed by a Microsoft subsidiary, 343 Industries. Since its inception in 2001, each subsequent title has astronomically outsold previous editions. The story line in campaign mode originally centered on the experiences of playable character Master Chief John 117 and his AI companion, Cortana. Master Chief's laconic sense of humor in the face of desperate odds throughout the events in the series and his verbal banter with Cortana and the aliens that he fights makes the story line enjoyable; it makes you want to complete the game to see what will happen next. This element meshes nicely and gives depth to the visual world portrayed in the Halo series. The addition of the multi-player option in the subsequent Halo editions, which coincided with the development and release of Xbox Live, are what makes each title in the original Halo trilogy, as well as the spin-offs of Halo Wars, Halo ODST and Halo: Reach, remain so playable, despite the fact that they have been released for years. In addition to the story line in campaign mode and the ease of finding players in multi-player mode, the concept of forcing your character to be limited to only carrying two weapons at a time, and a certain number and type of grenades at a time, adds both an element of reality and ease of play to the series. For each edition of the series, the game controls are intuitive; there is not a long, complicated list of choices of weapons or moves to make to play the games.

Halo 4 is rumored to be in development. It is reported that it will be the beginning of a separate and new Halo trilogy. Personally, I do not feel that a satisfying conclusion has been made to the storyline of the original Halo series. At the end of Halo 3, Master Chief and Cortana survive the explosion and are left floating in space in the back half of their destroyed ship. Master Chief suspends himself cryogenically while the ship is drifting towards an unknown planet, will they be rescued, or will their fate remain unknown in the next edition of the series? As Master Chief enters the cryotube he tells Cortana, "Wake me... When you need me." If only all men were as loyal and dependable in reality as Master Chief is in the Halo Series! After all of these years, and uncountable hours of multi-player and campaign play, I need a more satisfying conclusion for Master Chief, because, to be honest about it, I think I have come to love playing this character. I hope that after all of the adventures that I and other members of the Halo nation have experienced with this character, that these are not the last words that we hear from him; I need to hear from him again, and need to play him again, at least one more time.