Black Ops analyses, MW2 vids, Halo Reach beta gameplay

One of today's links asks, "What is a hardcore gamer?" The article accurately describes the modern misconception of the "hardcore gamer" as someone who plays FPS games like Halo or Call of Duty. Tho it's highly subjective, IMO, the real hardcore gamer is the multi-platform player: Someone playing different genres of games, often across multiple platform types. Am I a hardcore gamer? No, I'm an FPS gamer. I don't play platformers, 3rd person games, etc. I play strictly from the first person point of view and only shooters with a military theme. My bud Matt64 is more hardcore than I am since he plays lots of 3rd person games and sports games in addition to the CoD and Halo series.
Almost everyone plays games of one type or another. But who is really hardcore? Hands down, it's these guys. But to keep things in perspective: Of the set gamers, FPS gamers are a subset; military-themed FPS gamers are a subset of that subset. That's not hardcore. That's an endangered species.

Today's gaming mission is to set up my controls on the XIM360 for the Halo: Reach beta. I have the default controller layout printed out, and I'm gonna kludge together an interim controller config. A lot of Halo: Reach beta vids below. I'll probably not switch over to play Halo from my current love, Call of Duty. But, if they had a Team Rockets playlist, I'd definitely play that. A couple of weeks ago, Reibo tracked down the Halo: Reach beta tokens for us. We'll see how it goes.

Within seconds of the release of the Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer, webheads everywhere were breaking it down frame by frame. The best ones found so far are linked below.
Today's featured MW2 vid is JahovasWitniss taking some kids to school with the silenced Vector and killstreaks. Next up, DubbleJord gives us some TDM action on MW2 Crash. Finally, from the PC side of the MW2 house comes some nice F2000 gameplay on Sub Base with Tiffmiester, who proves that it's the player not the weapon.
After the CoD jump, there's a lot of Halo: Reach video goodness. First impressions from SeaNanners, Muzzafuzza, Anoj, and more. Halo: Reach beta gets a bad rap from DubbleJord, tho. [Note: DubbleJord has privated the video, unfortunately. He made some really good comments about Bungie trying to imitate CoD.] Halo and CoD are apples and oranges. One isn't better or worse than the other; they're different games that demand a different play style. But there's no doubt in my mind that Halo peaked with Halo: Combat Evolved. Each iteration of the franchise has watered down the original goodness while adding eye candy. Just sayin'. Finally, we can enjoy IGN's first Top 10 kills for the Halo: Reach beta. On to the CoD links:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer analyses: CoD BlackOps News; IGN; GamePro; GamesRadar; 1Up; GameTrailers.
• CVG: Black Ops has space mission SR-71 pilot in pressure suit.
• BASHandSlash: Two part 'cast discussing all things CoD and the Black Ops teaser: Part 1 and Part 2 (with special guest JD_2020 of Treyarch, develops of Call of Duty: Black Ops).

• Joystick Division: Splinter Cell: Conviction review.
• Edge Online: Viacom reports lower Rock Band game sales
• Tom's Hardware: The Mac as a gaming platform, the New Era.
• GameTrailers: Pach-attack Episode 114. Pachter speculates on the impact of the 3DS and whether Microsoft will release a slim 360.
• Platform Nation: What is a hardcore gamer?

Non-Gaming Links:

• Slashdot: Win7 Can Delete All System Restore Points On Reboot.
• Slashdot: Nyet! Russian company buys ICQ.
• MaximumPC: New Jersey principal says parents should ban social networking.
• UGO: The most shameless product placement in video games.
• GameTrailers: Resident Evil: Afterlife Wondercon interviews with Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich.

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