However, there were duds. Oh boy were there duds, and it wouldn’t be right to leave the year without acknowledging them. Shoryuken will have a list of the best bits of 2009 in the next few days, but first lets ease into the joy with some shameful moments of 2009.

To quote Metalocalypse, “Hey we need a favourite thing!… Disappointment.”

First up is the amazingly disappointing cash-in that was ODST. Halo, without Master Chief, without a decent story, with a bunch of mish-mash features thrown in for no reason and the multiplayer disk added to make us pay full whack to compensate for the fact that Sony were going to win this Christmas.

Next up is a game that promised us everything from other musical games, but offered nothing but a waste of time, extra peripheral and shitty remixes. That’s right folks, we’re on about DJ Hero. Truly a bore from start to finish, even turntablists didn’t bother with this one.

Bar a few Daft Punk mash-ups this game really is horrific, and the plastic control manages to feel even more plastic then the first iteration of the Guitar Hero controller.

Next up is another plastic peripheral-clad piece of trash. Yep, it’s Tony “I’m too old for this hoodie” Hawk, who likes to ride, apparently. His skateboard peripheral was shown to an audience of bored 360 fans at E3 where he completely pimped the thing without using it – first sign of disaster. The only time I saw a journalist really enjoy the control was when a journalists from a financial journal play it.

As useless and needlessly expensive as it is, at least it has potential as a method of torturing prisoners in the middle east. “Tell us everything or we’ll make you play Tony Hawk Ride…”

Duke Nukem Forever couldn’t not be on this list. Not only is it definitely not coming out, again, this time it’s after taking down 3D Realms with it. 2009 finally saw the saga behind the game end when the company disbanded due to money problems. Who would have predicted that, eh?

For me, Bionic Commando Rearmed was stunning. One of the tip top PSN/Arcade titles ever to get a release, and a deserving remake for a remarkable classic title. This promised great things for the new, full sequel in Bionic Commando. But no, the game stank. Stank on ice. An absolute bore, horrible mechanics and almost nothing good to take from the experience.

Next up, it’s sad to say it but Tim Schafer’s Brutal Legend was an utter disappointment. It had funny moments but the gameplay lacked anything interesting, and really only shon in two sections. The rest was boring, typical bargain basement gameplay stuff. If it didn’t have the marketing campaign and big name actor fronting it there would have been less sales then Psychonauts.

Finally, the bombshell that the fan-made remake of Half Life 1 in Source was to be delayed. We’ve waited a long time for this thing, and a week ago they announced a further delay. An huge disappointment… but one that will hopefully make the free release ultra brilliant when it comes out.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on

Apart from the annoying but predictably bad dialogue its looks like it may be worth a watch.

I especially like the way the cute little grunt gets stabbed in the neck, purple blood win.

”The sniper is a spartan”

Take a look.

So, this is the thing. I WANT THAT ODST ARMOUR!! A hundred guineas to anyone brave enough to go over there and get it for me! The below Vid gives us a 5 minute walkthrough of the Bungie studios lobby where visitors get numerous awards and props from Bungies bread winner rubbed in their faces. The smug bastards.

The most impressive is the inclusion of props from Neil Blomkamps Halo: Land Fall shorts. If you haven’t seen them (Noobs) then I have also added them below, also go see his new movie District 9 its brill. Sourced from Kotaku.

Enjoy

Landfall

If this is true I have to say I am a little disappointed, Games like Left4Dead and Gears of War 2 have both had there co op game types available in matchmaking and have both had success in doing so.

If Firefight isn’t going to be in matchmaking that means your relying on friends to play the mode with you. To make matters worse the matchmaking experience for the game is on another disc entirely! So if you want to play with people who are in your previously played list then you have to switch disc’s!

A minor gripe or a deal breaker? Well to be honest i’m not sure. A big part of why I was excited about ODST was to play firefight and as we all know its hard to get 5 friends together playing the same game at anyone time.

If Horde was in the same position im pretty sure it would’nt have taken off the way it has, playing with strangers is the best way to make sure you can get a game of firefight going when you dont have friends around to play it with!

The below is an extract from Kokugamers.com’s ”7 things you dont know about ODST” feature they ran this morning.

No matchmaking for Firefight

 

- Unfortunately it seems you will have to rely on your friends, or recent players, list to play ODST with anyone…for Firefight is based upon the co-op model of Halo 3, according to Bungie Producer Curtis Creamer. A couple of users on the Bungie forums have claimed that they have spoken to some Bungie employees recently who said that the game would have taken, at least, an extra SIX months to finish had they include Firefight in matchmaking.

 

So there you have it. Dissapointed? Couldnt give a crap? Let us know!

Anyway the world didn’t stop gaming while I was offline so its time to get back to work and bring y’all some goodness.

First off, among all the other Sony stuff released today this little nugget was included.

Firmware update 3.0 is coming Sep 1st

Included in the update is compatibility with new Premium dashboard theme’s and Avatars.

Biggest change is the new status indicator that’s going to appear on the top right of the screen – this indicator seems to be a new more Gamercard’y feel to it an will show your mail, new avatar, your icon and what your up to!

Anyway I’m a little rusty after the break so il let this walking suite explain in more detail.

Also Kev just posted the shit out of the Ps3 updates – here

Enjoy

Longshore – 1 Flag CTF

Longshore – FFA Slayer

Heretic – FFA Crazy King

Citadel – FFA Rockets

This guy totally had host. I can tell.

Its shows multiple scenes from the campaign and even gives us our first look at the unmasked dropshock troops.

As usual with Bungie the cut scenes look stunning and the story suitably epic.

ODST drops 22/09/09.

 

Loads of ODST footage in here and also a very straightforward run down on how the Campaign will be structured.

Surprisingly frank and informative for Bungie you even get to see the ”health kiosks”.

In other ODST news, Bungie aren’t ruling out the possibility of new enemy types appearing in the campaign, interesting news for fans. 

If your a follower of the weekly updates on bungie.net you will know that they are adamant that ODST has a lot more surprises up its Mjolnir armoured sleeves then has already been released.

Also have a pic of everyones favorite games designer Cliffy B at Comic Con chilling out playing some firefight.

Look at those guns

Bungie were out in force at Comic Con the weekend an brought with them

Some booth filled up with ODST goodness.

So gorge and the below video and fill your rotten bellies until you collapse all bloated and stinky, leaking Firefight out your orifices

 

Also for good measure heres the new trailer aswel