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So while at MLG Dallas, I got the chance to play the new multiplayer mode introduced in ODST: Firefight.  Each level in Firefight is supposed to represent some playable area in the ODST Campaign, and there are a few with daytime and nighttime variations: perfectly excuse to use the Visor mode.  Also, who can resist killing onslaughts of Covenant, especially grunts.

As far as gameplay, many have compared Firefight to Horde mode from Gears.  Since I have not played any Gears multiplayer, I don’t know what that’s like, but I do know that everyone will have fun with it.  Covenant come in waves: 5 waves in a round, 3 rounds in a set.  After each round, different skulls come on or off, and as you get through the sets, the difficulty increases.  That covers most of the basics for Firefight.

A couple of things that are not clearly evident: Engineers are in a few of the multiplayer maps.  Engineers are covenant characters that go around and heal other covenant units giving them things like overshields.  As Shishka said, “If two Engineers are around you, you’re screwed.”  Another thing that came to somewhat as a surprise when I played is the different areas Covenant waves can come from.  Just when you think you know where they can come from, they come from somewhere else.  It takes a while to get used to it, but once you have the hand of it, good teamwork will keep you alive.  I found turrets to be a big help with another friend nearby helping fend off closing Covenant while you mow down waves that are off in the distance.  Be careful when the drop ships come though.  They will tear you up.  Hunters take a while to take down as well since you aren’t super soldiers with power weapons, so have one of your teammates go around and shoot it in the back while the others distract it.

I definitely hope everyone pre-ordered it or plan to get it, because this game is definitely worth the $60.

It’s that time of year again, which has lead to me not being able to keep up too much here and in the production forums, but homework is starting to settle down and I’ve gotten a good grasp of what my schedule is looking like.  Machinimas should be put into production soon and more frequent blog posts.  Couple of things I wanted to note: I have uploaded some of my favorite clips in HD to youtube, which means, for all my Podtacular people out there, an HD capture service may be in the works for you to get HD videos.  This will probably work in conjunction with Amplified’s HD capture service, but more details to come.  In the mean time, I’m really excited about Halo 3: ODST, which I will post about soon, before it comes out.