Halo 3: ODST is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft. It was released on the Xbox 360 video game console exclusively on September 22, 2009, being nearly two years after the initial release of Halo 3. Players assume the roles of elite human United Nations Space Command soldiers known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) during the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. After the alliance of alien races known as the Covenant attack Earth, the player explores the ruined city of New Mombasa to discover what happened to their missing teammates, separated from each other as they entered the city.

Bungie initially conceived ODST as a small side project to produce in the lull between Halo 3‘s completion and Halo: Reach. Instead of featuring recognizable characters such as the Master Chief from previous games, the developers focused on the ODSTs. Story director Joseph Staten penned a detective story utilizing film noir settings, design, and characters. Composer Martin O’Donnell abandoned his previous Halo themes to create a quieter, jazz-influenced sound. During development, the game grew in scope to that of a full-sized game.^[1]

At Big Robot Game Cafe, we’re excited about the release of  Aion, the latest Fantasy MMORPG from NCSoft.  We are offering the following EXCLUSIVES during our TWO WEEK SHOWCASE OF THE GAME, which runs September 26 to October 9:

• Free Game Time (one hour per day) to play the game (free hour based on store occupancy – if we are busy you may not get a free hour)
  
• Free DEMO ACCOUNTS to try out the game for free.  Trial accounts are in a 3/5/7 format (last up to 3 days, 5 hours, or level 7, whichever you reach first)
• Free Exclusive IN GAME ITEMS that you can only get at Big Robot!

For more information, please visit the game’s official website at www.aiononline.com!

The game itself, when viewed from The Matrix, would take up about 5.5 million lines of code, made even safer by the fact that the QA crew has flattened over 180,000 bugs If you were actually wandering around in Azeroth, you could find over 1.5 million art assets, from wall torches to wheels of cheese, and would have the opportunity to chat up 40,000 NPCs non-player characters. They could then dole out 7,650 quests, which you could complete using a handful of the game’s 70,000 spells.The craziest stat of all? In the five years since World of Warcraft launched, players have earned a McDonald’s-threatening 4,449,680,399 in-game rewards. Man, that’s a lot of loot.

We’re stocking up on Magic the Gathering, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh card games and card gaming accessories, along with a large selection of new Lego sets.  We’re also looking at brining in Star Wars merchandise, including action figures, Star Wars Transformers, and die-cast metal Star Wars vehicles.  Check back to find out more or, better yet, comment on this post and make some suggestions – what would YOU like to see us stock?

The game itself is action-oriented. Successful attacks and blocks increase a power meter which can then be spent to unleash more powerful actions. Death is handled in a similar manner to City of Heroes, in which a player may choose to be revived by a teammate or respawn at a neutral site, except respawning does not accrue experience debt. Instead, upon death you lose a one of your five possible accrued Hero Stars. These stars are earned for staying alive while defeating NPCs. Your character gains bonuses to their the effectiveness for every star earned (percentage increases to damage, healing, etc.)

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