Halo 2 is a first person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. The sequel to the blockbuster and critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 2 features a newly built game engine with new missions, vehicles, and my personal favorite, new multiplayer maps. Halo 2 was released o n November 9^th, 2004. Halo 2 is compatible with the Xbox 360, including Xbox live functionality. From the day of its initial release, Halo and Halo 2 are the Number one games played on Xbox. On June 20^th, 2006 Xbox.com reported that more than a half-billion games of Halo 2 have been played on Xbox Live since its debut. The same article also reported that 7.4 million copies of Halo 2 have been sold worldwide. Halo 2 is a great game. It is defiantly worth buying an Xbox for it alone.

                 New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS is a side scrolling platform game, inspired by the original Super Mario World, with several additional features and game play. It is the 1^st side scrolling Mario plat former since Super Mario Land 2:  6 Golden Coins, excluding Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, which strayed from the original Super Mario formula. It was released on May 15^th, 2006 in North America. If you like the classic Mario Adventures, wait till you play this!

             Fable is an Xbox Platform developed by Big Blue Box a satellite of Lionhead Studios, and published by Microsoft. It was released on September 14^th 2004. fable was well-received by critics for the quality of its game play and execution, even as they lamented its failure to include many featured promised by the creator, Peter Molyneux. An extended version of the game, Fable: The Lost Chapters was released for both Windows and Xbox on October 18, 2005. Fable’s amazing graphics and story-play are very impressive but what makes it unique is the unusual feature for the choice between good and evil in the game.

           San Andreas is an action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North. San Andreas is the 3^rd 3D video game in the GTA series, but the 5^th game overall. Originally released for PS2 in October 2004, the game has since been ported into Xbox and Microsoft Windows and has been receive wide acclaim and high sales on all 3 platforms. Set in the early 1900’s, the game revolves around the main character Carl “CJ” Johnson returning home to Los Santos after learning about his mother’s murder. CJ finds his family and his old gang, the Grove Street families in disarray.  Over the course of the game CJ gradually unravels the plot behind his mother’s murder while trying to reestablish his gang and return it to its glory days. The GTA series has been very popular amongst gamers and will hopefully continue to excite us with the unique game play and sophistication.