Passing the Halo: A Defiant Look at the Franchise’s Future
Halo changed forever last month with the release of the Defiant Map Pack, a collection of new battlefields for the latest entry in the sci-fi videogame series. In most respects, the virtual killing fields — which give millions of Halo: Reach players new terrain upon which to splatter each other’s corpses — seem identical to the downloadable expansion packs Microsoft released for previous editions of the landmark Xbox game.
This was far more significant than your average expansion, though: It’s the first set of Halo levels produced without the input of Bungie Studios, the series’ creator.
Defiant was developed by 343 Industries, a new Microsoft unit tasked with continuing the franchise, and the expansion was seen as a litmus test: Can the Xbox maker craft something that feels like Halo without the incredibly talented studio that birthed the series?...
Game Review: Mortal Kombat
The Mortal Kombat franchise has withstood the test of time. One of the few fighting franchises that decided to stick through the lull in the genre during the early 21st century, the Mortal Kombat series has gone through a reboot for the next generations of systems with moderate results.
The thing about this installment is that it seems to be a game for the fans. All the characters for Mortal Kombat I, II and III are in the game, with a few extra surprises to be thrown in. Fan favorites such as Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Jax and Kung Lao return.
The character selection is massive, with more downloadable characters soon on the horizon. With all but two of the characters unlocked from the start, there is not one overbalanced character that will be spammed by everyone online....
