People that know me know that I play a lot of video games. My wife would say I play too many. She’s probably more right than I give her credit for on that issue. Of all the video games that I have played and enjoyed over the years, the Gears of War series ranks up in my top 5 all time. Coming out next year is the final game of the Gears of War trilogy. In each of the games so far, you play as an elite soldier on Delta Squad of the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) army. In the first game, one of the Delta Squad members, Anthony Carmine, suffered a tragic end fairly early on in the game.

Epic Games decided to keep it in the family in Gears of War 2 by having Delta Squad reinforcements include Anthony’s brother, Benjamin Carmine. When I saw that in my initial play through of Gears of War 2 I thought Ben Carmine would be just the typical worthless soldier like his brother was and die fairly quickly. Fortunately I was mistaken on that count and Ben Carmine turned out to be one damn fine soldier. He was always rushing into battle, taking out more than his fair share of the Locust horde enemies. It took a building sized worm eating him and digesting him alive to take down Ben Carmine.

Sticking with tradition, Gears of War 3 will feature the 3rd Carmine brother, Clayton. And, following the trend as well, Clayton Carmine will be and even more bad-ass soldier than either Anthony or Benjamin was.

From Epic Games:

Fans to Decide the Fate of Carmine in Gears of War 3

Place your vote for the fate of the newest Carmine brother through the purchase of avatar gear on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, with benefits going to charity

The fate of Carmine lies in your hands! For the first time in franchise history, Epic Games and Microsoft are giving fans the chance to decide the fate of a character in Gears of War 3. By purchasing avatar gear on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, fans and gaming communities around the globe will decide the destiny of the newest Carmine brother set to appear in Gears of War 3, with all the proceeds going to the Child’s Play Charity.

Keeping with the series’ tradition, Clayton Carmine will be introduced in the trilogy’s final chapter, and like Anthony and Ben, the newest rookie brother runs the high risk of meeting an early death. However, unlike in the previous games, the Xbox community will choose whether Carmine lives or dies by purchasing special Gears of War 3 avatar gear on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Starting July 29, two new avatar t-shirts will be available on the Avatar Marketplace on Xbox LIVE—one shirt reads “Save Carmine,” and the other reads “Carmine Must Die.” By purchasing the “Save Carmine” shirt, you’re casting your vote to let Carmine live in Gears of War 3. Conversely, purchasing the “Carmine Must Die” shirt means you want to see Clayton follow the fate of his brothers.

Child’s Play is a community-based games industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world. Through their network of more than 60 hospitals and through the generosity of their community of donors, Child’s Play raises millions of dollars each year to donate games, consoles, and toys to sick children. The proceeds from the sales of the “Save Carmine” and “Carmine Must Die” avatar gear and limited edition NECA t-shirts will go to Child’s Play, so cast your vote, donate to charity, and get cool Gears of War gear! Fans can get up-to-date information about the fate of Clayton Carmine by visiting www.gearsofwar.com.

Published by Microsoft Game Studios and developed by Epic Games, the Gears of War franchise has won over 30 “Game of the Year” awards, sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, and redefined the third-person shooter genre for this console generation. The Gears of War series is exclusive to Xbox 360, and its riveting multiplayer action makes it one of the most popular titles on Xbox LIVE. The trilogy finale, Gears of War 3, will release on April 5, 2011, only on Xbox 360.

Halo: Reach Campaign Trailer

http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/vidaudio.aspx?c=58&i=27524

If you’re like me, you hate Final Fantasy 13 with a searing passion. You hate the emo kid, the giggly chic, and the Squall clone lead character named after weather phenomenon who exibits none of its qualities. You also hate the dialogue.

Take a deep breath, its going to be ok. For the measly price of $1 you can own a throw back RPG in the style of Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior. It’s available on the Xbox Live Indie game marketplace.

The game takes about 4-6 hours to complete, you level quickly, and its completely worth your time to talk to everyone because you’re bound to be laughing til you cry, I know I did. You can choose one of two abilities each time you level which gives you a little customization in your characters. It doesn’t stray too far from those styles of the late 80s so I won’t say too much here because hey, its a dollar and you will get your moneys worth so check it out.

Gamer is a good action movie with a video game twist.  If you are in to action movies or video games then this movie is for you. If you are into First or Third Person Shooter video games in particular then Gamer is chock full jokes just for you.   If you are a rare person who stumbled on this web site and does not like shooter games then Gamer is not as easy to recommend, but there is still something there for the non-gamer crowd. For the non-gamer Gamer still delivers the action movie staples of solid action scenes and boobs but not much else.  In short, Gamer’s story is a good enough for an action movie, the humor is funny but it has a limited audience, and the actors are very well cast.

Gamer is an action movie and has the kind of story every action movie should have, a simple one.  In an action movie the story should never get in the way of all the action.  The story goes that in the near future Ken Castle, played by Micheal C. Hall, creates a way to control people remotely and uses that technology to create games that use people as game avatars.  The movie revolves around two games, Slayers and Society.  Slayers is a third person shooter that uses death row inmates as its game avatars.  Society is a real world simulator like Second Life or the Sims that uses the downtrodden and dispossessed as game avatars.  In Gamer, Kable, played by Gerrard Butler, is a wrongfully imprisoned death row inmate that is forced to fight in Slayers.  Kable’s wife Angie, played by Amber Valletta, is a game avatar in Society that is forced to do all kinds of hedonistic and depraved things.  Both Kable and Angie are used and abused by their respective games and have to escape from their games.  That is Gamer in a nutshell and the games Society and Slayers provide the perfect set up for the two things that every great action movie must have, explosions and boobs.  Gamer understands that good action movies are built around boobs and violence and delivers two tons of both.

Gamer has these

And a lot of these

Boobs and explosions are important to making a good action movie but to be a great action movie there needs to be some humor.  The humor is where Gamer becomes great for gamers but I doubt it can be more than good for non-gamers.  Other than a few clever one liners and inspired musical numbers most of the humor in Gamer is video game specific.  For example, non-gamers would not get a tea bagging reference or the utterly ridiculous screen  names that are not to far from what gamers regularly use.  There is more video game humor than those two things but I am not going to spoil it.  There is one funny bit that I am going to spoil a little.  I hope I just give away to make it a teaser.  Micheal C. Hall has one truly off-beat and hilarious scene where he does a song and dance number.  All humor aside one of the good parts of Gamer is the is cast.

Gamer has a great cast for an action movie.  Gerrard Butler plays a stoic hero out to rescue his family and he does it very well.  Gerrard Butler might not be able to play anything other than a stoic hero but if he keeps making movies like Law Abiding Citizen and 300 then I hope he keeps doing what he is doing.  The other very well cast actor in Gamer is Michael C. Hall.  Michael C. Hall is not as well known as Gerrard Butler but most of you would recognize him as Dexter.

Michael C. Hall aka Dexter

Michael C. Hall is cast as the big bad guy Ken Castle.  In Dexter like in Gamer Michael C. Hall plays a completely charming bad guy.  Michael C. Hall might not be able to play anything other than a charming bad guy but if he keeps giving us stuff like Dexter and Gamer then he should keep on doing it.  The rest of the cast plays their parts well but the big focus of Gamer is on Gerrard Butler and Michael C. Hall and they deliver.

Gamer delivers a good action movie with a solid cast and a well done video game twist.  This is not to say that Gamer is a great movie.  At the end of the day Gamer is a cheesy, campy action movie that somehow managed to get  big budget.  The only question that remains is whether you should go see Gamer or not.  If you want a fun action romp with some boobs and big ka-booms then you should check Gamer out.  If you turn you nose up at a movie that is held together with nudity and violence then forget Gamer and go watch Barney again.

For a slightly more professional opinion of Gamer try here.  Movie Bob has a solid, entertaining review of Gamer.

Movie Bob reviews Gamer for the Escapist

I’ve gotta say, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. has been one of my favorite fighter jet games of all time, both from my perspective as a gamer who enjoys fast paced action as well as from my perspective as a software developer. The realism the game gives you with the real life satellite imagery used in creating the landscape textures is something unique. The wide variety of fighter jets available to you gives everyone a chance to fly the style they want to, whether that be as a flying fortress with an A-10 Thunderbolt, or as a supersonic precision fighter with the F-22 Raptor.

With that said, I’ve already pre-ordered my copy of H.A.W.X. 2.  Here’s the newest trailer for the game that just came out today.  Enjoy.