Halo:CE LAN LIVE STREAM

Today around 5pm PST we will be streaming some Halo 1 action. Check it out here!
Watch the Halo CE LAN @ 5pm PST with chat! Hit us up!!!!

Halo Reach, Gear like a Pro

Less then 2 weeks from now Halo Reach will hit store shelves nation wide. If you haven’t set up a completely sick rig yet, or as I like to call it “work station” please take this precious remaining time to get equipped with the latest and greatest gear to get you gaming like a pro! Having the proper gear is a large part of a competitive gamers success. Collecting the proper tools to elevate your gameplay and skill can make a big difference in any gamers life. Here is some gear specifically designed to amplify your competitive gameplay.

Headphones

Having an amazing pair of headphones will give you a great advantage over your opponents. You want to be fully aware of whats going on around you, even if you cant see everything around you. This is where quality headphones come into play. With professional grade headphones you can even hear the faintest sounds near you, such as an enemies foot steps or reloading.  Get some sweet headgear and listen in.

Astro – A40 – $200-$250

Trittion – Ax Pro – $160

TV/Monitors

A high quality television or monitor is the most crucial piece of equipment in your arsenal, so don’t skimp on buying the good stuff. The most important things to look for is the size, response time, and audio/video inputs. The size is important because you want to have a consistent tight shot pattern, playing on large televisions is an auto fail. Response time is very important because it literally affects your ability to hit a target, do to its “screen lag” so the lower the response time the better. (Low MS>High MS) Audio and video inputs are always a solid bonus. You always want to be able to hook up your rig the way you want it, seeing and hearing it the way you desire.  A HUGE note would be to look for a TV/Monitor that has a VGA HD input. This will provide quality picture, and reduce “screen lag” and never use HDMI for competitive gameplay.

Viewsonic – VX2260WM – $270

Vizio – M220VA – $230

Controllers

When it comes to a controller, the choice is really up to you. You have to find what feels good in your hands, and what you are most comfortable playing with. But keep in mind for competitive play you are definitely limited by regulations. MLG only allows controllers that are wired, that have no turbo capability, and can not be macrod. So you might wanna get used to a Standard Xbox Wired Controller. An amazing controller that I hope MLG will allow in competative play is the Razer Onza. This controller does feature 2 additional bumpers that can be macrod to the button of your desire. Which would be an incredible upgrade to improve everyones gameplay, but due to MLG’s standing rules it has been banned before it has even been released. Even though this control would be fair game for every user, and not cheating in any way, MLG seems to be sticking to their decision. MLG recently decided to partner up with Mad Cats to design custom MLG controllers. But who the hell wants to play with a terrible Mad Cats controller? What a convenient time to ban the Razer Onza. Razer ownz Mad Cats any day, but leave it up to MLG to decide whats good for us.

Razer – Onza – $50

Gunnar Eyewear

Gunnars are a great optional tool to use when your putting in those long hours of Halo Reach. Anyone whos played relentlessly throughout the day and night has probably experience eye fatigue or headaches. Your TV screen is sending your eyes rapid flashing light and imagery thats putting a beat down on your eyeballs, let Gunnars give em a rest.

Gunnar Glasses – $80-$100

Top Halo 3 Pros to excel Halo Reach!

As the debut date for Halo Reach approaches players are getting ready to get their hands on it and showcase their skills. There are quite a few good Halo 3 players out there but Halo Reach is a whole new game. Halo Reach is going to be more about setting up and using strat oriented game play. So let’s take a look at my top 5 Halo 3 Pros that will excel in Halo Reach.

Roy & Lunchbox

These twins are one of the top players in Halo 3 so I couldn’t just go with one and not the other. Their teamwork and amazing awareness put them on my list. Halo Reach is going to be a game that is going to take a lot patience and great awareness and these two definitely have that. Roy has one of the best BR’s in the Halo 3 circuit so I assume he will do just as good with the DMR. Lunchbox has great communication and has great leadership skills that will be a definite must in Halo Reach.

Ever since this kid has entered the MLG scene he has dominated. Halo 2 he was a FFA champ, and in Halo 3 he evolved into a team slayer monster. If you ever get a chance to watch him play, please do so, as this kid has incredible escape routes. He is also one of the most unpredictable players I have ever witnessed play a game. He will do things that will just blow your mind as you watch him play. With those type of awareness and sneakyness skills that he has, he will be a force to be reckon with.

iGotUrPistola

Cloud

Cloud has always been under the radar until recent tournaments where he has placed first place three tournaments in a row (2009 National Champ, 2010 Orlando, and 2010 Columbus). I have always liked the way Cloud has played, he plays very passive and is aggressive when the time is right. Halo Reach seems like it is going to be a lot slower paced game so having great patience is going to be key. Can’t wait to see what Cloud can do in Halo Reach.

Good ole Walshy. He has been around Halo for YEARS! And he has been on top in every single one. Walshy has some of the greatest strats anyone has seen. Most people try to copy the strats Walshy comes up with because they work so well. His knowledge for the game puts him at number two on my list. He is always aware of whats going on with his team and the opponent. He always puts himself at the right place at the right time. I’m really excited to see what kind of strats this master mind can come up with for Reach.

Walshy

Orge 2

Ogre 2 is one of the best players I have watched during the whole Halo era. He just has it all. Teamwork, communication, skill, awareness, you name it and he has it. With single shot weapons coming back into play I can see Orge 2 being one of the best players in this final Halo. Hopefully we will maybe see his twin brother Orge 1 come back to play alongside his brother and dominate another Halo!

Reach seems a lot more consistent and not as much randomness in the game so we might see a lot of the Pros that are on top in Halo 3 fall off and we will say new and old faces arise to become the new Pros of Halo Reach!

Pro Gaming Podcast Episode #18

In this week’s episode bonk, Rage, canex, and xxs1n702xx are back bringing you the latest in gaming news. We go over the topics of last week in case you missed it! This episode is jammed packed with Twitches, fart fly domination, and the holy ghost.

NEW! Ask us a question on the Pro Gaming Hotline and we will play it back on the next episode!

CALL (440) n0noobs = (440) 606-6627

Make sure you stay up to date on our social networks!

Facebook:

bonk

Rage

xXs1n702Xx

Canex

Articles:

• *UPDATED* MLG Pro Halo 3 Gamertags
• Most Anticipated Games of This Fall
• Starcraft II Gear from Razer!
• Evo Japan, Spring 2011

Other articles from last week:

• Halo Reach Leaked Videos
• Contact Us!

Best Weapons for Halo: Reach

Halo: Reach is just around the corner and many of us are almost too excited to sleep. Until then there is still a ton of pre-release preparation you should be looking into so when you finally get your hands on it September, 14 you will have the upper hand.

Halo: Reach is a TOTALLY different game then Halo 3, if you didn’t get a chance to play the beta you need to know what your getting yourself into. The biggest difference are the weapons and weapon physics so here are the best weapons you should be on the look out for when you pick Halo: Reach for the first time.

1.) Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR)

Minimum Shots to Kill: 5 (4 body + 1 head-shot)
Maximum Shot to Body: 7 (4 shots will take down shield, 3 more for the kill)

This is pretty much your replacement Battle Rifle but with one huge difference, no more burst fire. I am really excited to use a single fire weapon as my default weapon again as it adds a bit more consistency than the BR did.

2.) Needle Rifle

Minimum Shots to Kill: 6 (5 body + 1 head-shot)
Maximum Shots to Body: 7 (5 shots will take down shield, 3 more for the explosive kill)

The Needle Rifle is very similar to the Carbine in Halo 3 except for the needler explosion after the enemy’s shields have been taken down. I actually prefer the Needle Rifle over the DMR as you can shoot it faster without the extreme bloom seen on the DMR.

3.) Rockets

Minimum Shots to Kill: 1 (1 rocket inside of small blast radius)
Maximum Shots to Kill: …..depends how terrible you are……

Rockets finally work properly in Halo: Reach and boy does it feel good. This was a huge relief when I first used them in the beta, because in Halo 2 and 3 they were pretty much a flashy potato gun. I am proud to say that rockets are a TRUE power weapon again. Yay!

4.) Sniper Rifle

Minimum Shots to Kill: 1 (BOOM. Head-shot.)
Maximum Shots to Body: 2

The infamous sniper rifle returns in Halo: Reach and it feels nearly perfect. I like the way it shoots and sounds but it does seem easier to get kills than in Halo 2 and 3, but I might just be talented….

5.) Shotgun

Minimum Shots to Kill: 1 (GET OUT OF MY FACE)
Maximum Shots to Body: 2 (Mid-range)

A lot of players said this gun was too powerful, but look at Halo 2 and 3, the shotgun was terrible. In Halo: Reach it is balanced and it has a more consistent spread. This is a great power weapon that you can count on to do good damage at close range.

Most Anticipated Games of This Fall

This years holiday season is filled with exciting new games to hit the shelves. There is a lot to choose from, fighting, MMO/RPG, and FPS games, so you have a wide variety of games to fulfill your gaming needs. I personally can not wait to get my hands on all of them so here is a list of my top eight games that are coming out this holiday season:

8. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Watch in HD

Blizzard is at again folks. In this new expansion Blizzard will be raising the level cap to 85, adding new areas to explore, and adding two news races. I’m really excited to see how this new expansion will change the tournament scene and how players will adapt to these new changes.

Release Date: TBA Platform(s): PC

7. I Am Alive

Watch in HD

This is one of those games that’s kind of flying under the radar right now, much like Alan Wake did. I Am Alive takes place in Chicago after a major-scale earthquake hit with rescue teams failing to save most of the survivors. You control the main character Adam who is trying to search for his girlfriend while trying to fight off starvation, dehydration, and other survivors who are trying to kill you to steal your supplies. I Am Alone seems to be shaping up to be a good original survivor-horror game.

Release Date: Early 2011 Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC

6. Metroid: Other M

Watch in HD

Let me just start off by saying I am a huge Metroid fan. I  have purchased every Metroid game that has came out. One of my all time favorite games is Super Metroid on the SNES. OM picks up right after SM and gives us more detail on what happened to Samus between SM and Metroid Fusion. I can’t think of any other FPS franchise on a Nintendo system that is as beautiful, innovative, and challenging as the Metroid series.

Release Date: August 31 2010 Platform(s): Wii

5. Fable 3

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I don’t know what to say about the Fable series. The first Fable was pretty good. The second Fable was AMAZING! Now we get a third?! I for one can not wait for Fable 3 to come out. In my opinion, Lionhead studios took a great game, Fable 1, reinvented it and made an amazing sequel! I can only imagine what new innovative things Lionhead has in store for us with Fable 3.

Release Date: October 26 2010 PC: TBA Platform(s): Xbox 360, PC

4. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Watch in HD

Castlevania is one of the most beloved franchises ever. For me the Castlevania series holds a lot of memories. Frustration, anger, amusement, wonderment, and a feeling of self gratification just to name a few. Once I heard about Lords of Shadow I went nuts. After watching all the videos on LoS all of those old feelings came rushing back to me. For the first time in a while I got really excited about a new game. If you like the Castlevania series this one is sure to get you excited too.

Release Date: October 5 2010 Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3

3. Call of Duty: Black Ops

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UGH! I don’t know if I like this game or if I’m just going to buy it because everyone else is. Either way I’m kind of excited for it. CoD 4 was amazing to me. I know it had it’s problems but what game doesn’t? CoD MW2 was a huge fail, in my opinion. All the cheating, the stupid perks, the dumb glitches, and worst of all…the death streaks. Nothing drives me crazier than sniping someone or hitting them with a RPG and getting a damn pain pill! I could go on and on about MW2 but that’s another story. As for Black Ops this came can be good with some minor adjustments. Hopefully this game will be good. (Fingers crossed)

Release Date: November 9 2010 Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS

2. Medal of Honor

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MoH is looking solid. I have to admit I’m very stoked about this game. Graphically it looks amazing. The game play looks amazing as well. I’m really excited to get my hands on this game because CoD has been dominating the war games for a while now and I would like to get a new perspective on Modern Warfare. Looks solid. Can’t wait!

Release Date: October 12 2010 Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3, PC

1. Halo Reach

Watch in HD

Halo Reach is the most anticipated game of the year. For good reason too. I think I fell in love when I played the beta. Call me old fashion or whatever but HR reminded me so much of Halo 1. H1 and CS 1.6 are probably my all time favorite FPS games. While playing the beta it was so nice to engage in a 1 on 1 battle then walking away from it knowing you out shot the other guy and it wasn’t stupid BR spread that got you killed. Reach seems to me, from playing the beta, the most balanced and consistent Halo game since H1. Some people could argue that H1 was unbalanced but if everyone started with the pistol and had good team work, it was easy to take control back that was once lost. Halo Reach is the perfect end to a great series. Halo is one of those games that people will be playing for years to come.

Release Date: September 14 2010 Platform(s): Xbox 360

Evo Japan, Spring 2011

Halo Reach Leaked Videos

This doesn’t come as a big surprise, but the FULL copy of Halo Reach has been leaked. Apparently Microsoft thought it would be a brilliant idea to put a copy of Reach on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 99,999 Microsoft points. Which was supposed to be made available for authorized reviewers from the official Xbl Marketplace website. But a group of hackers found a way to bypass this 99,999 price tag, and I bet they’re giggling their assess off. Halo Reach isn’t scheduled for release till September the 14th, almost 3 weeks from now. For those of you who own a modded “J-Tag” xbox, I’m sure you’ll be enjoying your free/early copy of Halo Reach, and many people will be envying you. Here are a few videos with massive information on the final build of Halo Reach.

Zealot and Forge World

Split Screen Zealot

Forge World, and a Display of ALL Weapons and Vehicles

Full Weapons and Settings Videos. ALL customization displayed!

Starcraft II Gear from Razer!

Razer has put out some spectacular gear in the past years and the Starcraft II gear is just another example of that. The Razer company has developed a SC2 headset, mouse, and keyboard. Let’s not waste any time and jump right into the details.

Banshee Headset
The first thing I noticed about these headsets was the SC2 logo on the side with a blue glow to them. Let me tell you a little something about this glow, Razer has implemented an Actions Per Minute (APM) lighting system. This means that these headphones will calculate your APM while you are playing SC2 and change the color of glow based on your APM! They also added an in-game sound and color alert which you can customize to what color the glow will be whether you are getting attacked or your units have completed! Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Now the look of the actual headphones look a lot like the Tritton AXPro. This actually worries me because if you take a look at the material used it looks like plastic, and with plastic it has a good chance of breaking fairly easy. Another thing that I saw that I did not like was it appears that they added sound and mic button controls to the back of the actual headphones. (shown in the picture below)

Having buttons on the back of the headphones will be quite annoying if you have to reach up to your headset to either turn up the mic volume or turn the game sound down. Hopefully Razer adds a control for the volume and mic on the actual seven foot long USB cable. The headsets come with a detachable boom mic which is really nice if you do not want a mic in front of your face all the time. The thing I do not like about the mic is that it is straight and it does not look like you can bend it to your liking. If your teammates cannot hear you, you have no option to bring the mic closer to your mouth. Overall though the headsets look great and at a reasonable $119.99 these are a great buy.

Spectre Mouse
Again, as mentioned up above, the Spectre mouse also has the APM color system added to it. This mouse has five button controls along side with a 1000hz Ultrapooling to increase the response time in your clicks to help manage your micro and commands, which is eight times faster than the average gaming mice. Razer has added a ‘force click’ option to the left-click button to allow you to manage your control and speed. You basically can set it to the slightest click will select a single unit or swipe over many units quickly and efficiently. This mouse goes for $79.99 and is another amazing tool to improve your SC2 game.

Marauder Keyboard
Last but not least is the Marauder keyboard. This keyboard has some great attributes to it. First thing I liked was they added a travel-distance, spacing to the keys to allow you to do faster commands. Another thing that impressed me was the fact that they added a macro recording system. This will allow you to have your keys already set up so you do not have to set them up every single game. It also can save up to ten different profiles for when you play different races, have friends over, etc. The keyboard also comes with the amazing APM color system. The Marauder keyboard sells for $119.99 and is a must have.

Razer has not yet announced any release date for these items to come out but you can sign up to have them email you as soon as they announce it. Having these three items will greatly improve your SC2 skills and the experience you have while playing will blow you away!

Pro Gaming Podcast Episode #17

In this week’s episode bonk, Rage, canex, and xxs1n702xx are back bringing you the latest in gaming news. We go over the topics of last week in case you missed it! This episode is jammed packed with Rage’s mega rage, fart flys and all!

Watch in HD

NEW! Ask us a question on the Pro Gaming Hotline and we will play it back on the next episode!

CALL (440) n0noobs = (440) 606-6627

Make sure you stay up to date on our social networks!

Facebook:

bonk

Rage

xXs1n702Xx

Canex

Articles:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops or Medal of Honor
• MLG, the transition from Halo 3 to REACH
• Street Fighter Vs Tekken Announced!
• Simple games are better!

Other articles from last week:

• Halo Reach, New Firefight Map Footage
• Street Fighter 3rd Strike Online For XBL and PSN
• Gamescon and ESL 2010!
• Crysis 2, New Multiplayer Footage
• *UPDATED* MLG Pro Halo 3 Gamertags

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