The pilot episode of the fan made Halo: Helljumper series hit YouTube last week. If you didn’t know, Helljumper is a short series of films that follows the life of one human ODST from his enlistment in the UNSC before the Human-Covenant War to around the Fall of Reach. The series, which is a spin-off of the Tobias Brickell Halo: Evolutions – Essential Tales of the Halo Universe short story “Dirt” was teased late in 2011 to a very captivated Halo audience.

In the first episode, main character Gage Yevgenny has just been saved from a losing firefight by a rookie soldier on the colony of New Jerusalem. Instead of letting the Rookie complete his rescue, Yevgenny forces him to listen to his story of the war, so that hopefully he doesn’t repeat the same mistakes. This prompts  a series of flashes into Yevgenny’s past that’s littered with cool special effects, an  evoking musical score and some rather awkward acting and dialogue—“You coming on to me, Soldier?” and “Excuse me, miss, do you happen to have a map… ‘cause I’m lost in your eyes” are a couple of my personal favorites.

Bad acting aside, it’s a cool concept that represents the highest form of video game love.

The next episode is due out on February 15^th.

It’s highly unlikely that you haven’t heard at least something about the upcoming Source mod, School Shooter: North American Tour 2012.  But, if you somehow haven’t, here’s a quick synopsis taken from developer Checkerboarded Studios (It’s okay if you don’t recognize the name. They realize that you have no idea who they are and that’s why they’re making a game like this):

You play a disgruntled student, fed up with something (we're not exactly sure), and after researching multiple school shooting martyrs, he decides to become the best school shooter ever. You decide to arm yourself with the exact same weapons as a previous school shooter such as; Eric Harris' TEC-9, Dylan's sawed-off shotgun, Seung-Hui Cho's akimbo pistols, Nevada-Tan's...box cutter? The possibilities are endless, you are free to do whatever you want. As long as it involves shooting people.

School Shooter: North American Tour 2012 is dedicated to being the best school shooting experience an angsty little shit could ever experience, with contributions from [NAME REDACTED] of [COMPANY REDACTED], as well as [NAME REDACTED], we would also like to mention how much [NAME REDACTED] has had a key part in certain areas such as [INFORMATION FORTHCOMING].

Simply put, this shit will blow your mother******* mind. Literally, you will shoot yourself in the head at the end of the game. Sorry for spoiling it, but what did you expect? You're a spree killer, not a man.

Features include:

• 6 amazingly realistic maps with cool features like high dynamic range, and multiple students for you to shoot at.
• A points system that tracks every murder you commit. Bonuses are recieved for various things such as headshots, difficulty level you are on, what your health is, how cool you are in real life, and some other stuff that we'll probably crowbar in as time goes on by.
• A weapon loadout system based on 4 real-life spree killers.
• 13 brand-new fu**in' weapons based on the weapons used by the aforementioned 4 spree killers, these will all be pain-stakingly modeled by one of our best (and probably only modeler), [NAME REDACTED].
• A round timer that will give you about 5 or so minutes to do what you do best, kill people. Gamemodes will be programmed that interface with this round timer, the ones we're working on right now are a "survival" type gamemode were you try to survive the longest amount of time, and another were you are given 60 seconds to kill as many people as you can. The more kills you get, the more time you get.
• Music that sounds a lot like the things certain school shooters (their names rhyme with Shmylan and Shmeric) were thought to be influenced by.
• Developer commentary by fellow developers of this fine project. Note: Developers actual voices will be masked in order to protect them from potential backlash.
• And what is more better than the ability to commit suicide at the end of your spree with a self-inflicted gun shot wound? What's even more special is that this works, even if you're completely out of ammo! (Real spree killers keep a single bullet hidden in their boot incase some shit goes down).

Sounds pretty _________, don’t you think?  Just fill in the blank with whatever word first popped in your head and we’ll go with that.  It seems like everyone has an opinion about this mod lately and nobody can seem to agree on what’s “right” or “wrong.”

If you filled in the blank with “awesome,” click here.

If you said “sick,” click here.

Notice how neither opinion gets you anywhere?

Do you like Halo: Reach?  Do you have an iPhone?  Do you like getting great Apps for free?  Our friends, the creators of the fantastic Virtual Coach series for iPhone, have created an App that every Halo: Reach player should check out.  And the makers have been cool enough to give us 10 free download codes to gift to you guys.  The first 10 people to tell us why they must have this App get a code!

From iTunes:

1.99 GETS YOU THE MOST ADVANCED HALO APP ON THE MARKET!

-Want to get better at Halo Reach? HRVC can do that!
-Want to track your aggregate stats and medals? HRVC can do that!
-Want to chat with gamers around the globe? HRVC can do that?
-Want to have birds eye view of each map with weapon spawns? HRVC can do that!
-Want to draw set ups on the maps? HRVC can do that
-Want to time power weapons? HRVC can do that!
-Want to track your ten game K/D and Win/Loss? HRVC can do that!
-Want to read strats and tips from pro players? HRVC can do that!
Plain and simple HRVC has every feature a gamer could need.

Why buy a separate app for a weapon timer, one for tracking stats, and one for maps? HRVC has it all for the price of 1.

Featuring the GAMER LOUNGE. The first Halo Reach iPhone GPS Based chat room. The Gamer Lounge is the Social Network for gamers! Need to find players for your team? Looking for a scrim? Trying to recruit for your clan? Looking for the latest tips and tricks? The Gamer Lounge has it all.

Halo Reach Virtual Coach is the first Halo Reach app on the market for competitive gamers. Ready to have the edge over your opponents in Halo Reach? HRVC is for you. Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned vet we have the information and tools that you need to become a better player.
Halo Reach Virtual Coach features:
- Strategies for every aspect of the game from professional players and the developers
- High Definition bird’s eye view of each map including weapon locations
- Route Tracer that allows you to draw rush routes and game plans on your phone screen with your finger tip
- Ability to track all of your Halo Reach stats with HaloCharts.com in-app
- The Gamer Lounge. A GPS based chat room that allows gamers to meet and chat by location.
- MLG Weapon Spawn Timer
- 10% off of KontrolFreek Grips

We are always adding new updates, all for free!
The Virtual Coach Series is designed by competitive gamers, for competitive gamers.

Preview on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/halo-reach-virtual-coach/id372822095?mt=8

Photos courtesy of Dorkly.com

Since there is so much interest in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, we figured we'd inform you of a little tournament being put together by GameStop, MLG/Gamebattles and Xbox 360.  Maybe you’ve heard of it already; maybe you haven't.  Either way, the deadline for entry is 3/14 (that’s Sunday, people!) and if you haven't registered yet you should probably get on it.  The tournament is for teams of 4 and you can play from your house.  So you can essentially team-up with anyone from anywhere.  And since we have such a great community of like-minded gamers here, we figured we'd create a space for you all to meet and maybe team up to play together in this tournament.

Head on over to our forums at KontrolFreek.com now!  You can discuss BC2, recruit, form squads or just yell at each other.  Just hurry, the deadline is near.

For more info on the tournament visit: gamestop.com/battlefieldbadcompany2.

See you on the Battlefield!

Carefully designed to give gamers more leverage, the FPS Freek adapter adds movement precision without disturbing the natural game-playing feel. Team FeaR felt the advantage of using the FPS Freek first hand in recent MLG tournaments they’ve won, including the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare National Championship this November.

“We’ve been using FPS Freek’s for months and wouldn’t dare play without them”, said Joey ‘Moho’ Morehouse, Captain of Team FeaR. “We’re competitive gamers and winning matters – using FPS Freek is now just part of our winning routine.”  “We’re extremely proud of Team FeaR and their recent top place finish in Anaheim,” said Ashish Mistry, CEO of KontrolFreek. “We can’t wait to see how our guys do at nationals in Orlando this January.”

The KontrolFreek products are approved for use in MLG tournaments and have been widely adopted across the first person shooter, fighter and sports gaming genres. In fact, gamers have been evolving the products original use across many gaming titles.

In addition to the FPS Freek, KontrolFreek also offers the SpeedFreek. Designed to gives gamers added control and comfort when playing racing and aviation games, the SpeedFreek's supporting slide walls enable sharper movements while adding control and precision.The FPS Freek and the SpeedFreek are $9.99 each and can be purchased at www.kontrolfreek.com or participating retailers.

About KontrolFreek
KontrolFreek designs and build products for serious gamers, giving them a competitive edge and helping them to improve performance and accuracy. KontrolFreek products are developed based on a careful study of ergonomics, ensuring each product also helps to reduce gamer fatigue, improving overall gaming comfort.

Well, it’s that time of year again.  Time to gather together your closest friends and co-workers, lay-out the spread, sip some champagne and witness the glitz and glamour of the entertainment business’ biggest night on television!  Well, maybe not.  But you could drink some beers and watch the VGA’s (Video Game Awards) on Spike TV.  At 8PM on December 12th, tune-in to see if Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 can take home the Game of the Year award over Assassin's Creed 2, Uncharted 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and the near-perfect Batman: Arkham Asylum.

You can head over to Spike’s official VGA page at http://www.spike.com/event/vga2009 to cast your vote for all of your favorite games in their respective categories, but for now, the nominees for this year’s game of the year are:

Do you agree with the nominations? What do you think should be 2009’s game of the year?

You have to admit, even if your favorite game isn’t up for the GOTY award, that 2009 has been really kind to us gamers—as all of these nominees are more-or-less fantastic titles.