Halo 5 Multiplayer Beta

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope for Christmas you got your Xbox One and Halo the Master Chief Collection because on December 29th 2014 the Halo 5 Guardians Multiplayer Beta will begin.

On December 19th a select lucky few who are in the Xbox Preview Program, like myself, were given special codes to enter the Beta during that weekend. Rest assured, I unfortunately missed it but I'm overly excited for it. Be careful out there, others have already had their hands on it for a weekend so the bar has been set.

The Halo 5 Multiplayer Beta, during the course of it's three week run, will have various unlockables in the form of new maps, new armor, and variations such as visor colors. Your spartan customization resembles what we've seen in Halo Reach and Halo 4.

The Beta will also add new abilities to the Halo universe.
Thruster Pack: The thruster pack will enable you to jet forward to close in the gaps between you and an opponent or side to side for evasion. 

Ground Pound: The ground pound is exactly as it sounds, your spartan will come slamming down with a devastating aerial attack.

Clamber: For the first time ever you will be able to clamber up those ledges that you just missed.

Sprint: Sprinting is nothing new to the Halo franchise however this time around you have unlimited sprinting ability to move around the arena or to give you two more spartan abilities. The catch however, once your shields are down, you can still sprint and move to cover, but your shields will not recover while sprinting. 

Slide: Once you reach terminal velocity you will be able to hit your crouch button and slide, enabling you to slide in under danger. 

Charge: Hitting the melee button while running will cause you to charge into an opponent knocking out their shields.

Smart Scope: Smart scope will allow you to scope and fire with every weapon as they will now be tied to your hud. 

To see these abilities in play, and if you haven't seen the ViDoc yet, I've embedded it below from IGN. 
Remember, the Halo Multipler begins December 29th and will run for 3 weeks. Red and Blue, time ot suit up!

-Nurd!

Ultron Watch

The Internet was abuzz yesterday and subsequently let down.

Rewind a couple of months to the San Diego International Comic Con, July 26th 2014. Marvel held it's panel for yep, you guessed it, Avengers Age of Ultron. All the stars walked on stage minus Scarlett Johansson and we were introduced to Elizabeth Olen (Scarlet Witch), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver) and the voice of Ultron himself James Spader.  Scarlett Johansson who could not be there prerecorded a video and basically said "play it for them" (I'm probably paraphrasing). The lights went down and the audience was given a taste of Avengers Age of Ultron.

No, no one was supposed to record the video and online someone did post the audio; however in a room full of about 300 people cheering and being awestruck by what they were watching, one can guess it's not the best of quality.

That's it. Nothing else. For weeks everyone painstakingly (yours truly included) scoured the Internet for some remnant, some morsel of Ultron that we can bestow upon ourselves. Fake video after video reared it ugly head as if to mock us!

Guardians of the Galaxy would premier on August 1st and maybe it would be shown then.... only to be denied. Marvel cited "We wanted to make sure Guardians of the Galaxy had it's time in the light before the trailer would be released."

Someone who was at SDCC decided to make a fan video, cleaning up and re posting the audio and story boarding the entire trailer, much like was done for Ant Man from SDCC 2008. This was going to have to do until Marvel would finally unveil Age of Ultron to the world.
Then one day an image of Ultron from SDCC appeared online. One single solitude picture of Ultron that would slip. When I planned this blog post last night I searched for hours only to come up empty handed with that picture; as if someone went and cleaned up the Internet. It was gone. I happened to be searching though my phone pictures and then there it was, Ultron!

Alleged photo from Age of Ultron trailer.

Two days ago Disney officially released the synopsis of Avengers 2.

"“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure."

Then yesterday, on Robert Downey Jr's FB page was this post.

"Seeing as how Tuesday is the most productive day of the week, I'll not decrease the efficiency. TOMORROW AM, however, I'll throw a surprise your way... "

That same day Mark Ruffalo released a small video on his instagram and tumblr where he simply stated "It's coming." (I've seen it although now it cannot be found.)

FINALLY! This was like a bad Hollywood Baby watch situation but now, with the synopsis released by Disney and two stars hinting at the coming of Ultron we were finally going to see what has been so hidden for months.

Yesterday Robert Downy Jr released the second trailer for his movie the Judge. The Internet wept in disappointment. Let down. After all this time, what seemed to be clues, we would still come up empty handed.

I went back to the drawing board. All of this had to be for naught. All these clues and missed opportunities with Guardians of the Galaxy, the DVD/Bluray release of Captain America Winter Soldier,  the DVD/Bluray release of Agents of SHIELD...... and then there it was. HOW could I have missed it!

ALL ABOARD THE AGENTS OF SHIELD TRAIN!!!

Agents of SHIELD! Agent's of SHIELD season 2 is set to premier on September 23rd 9pm EST. Season 1 had a great premier week but ratings fell fast. One thing season 1 did was every time a new movie trailer would come, it would premier during Agents of Shield. We got Thor 2 (as well as a few episode tie ins), Captain America 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Why would Age of Ultron be any different? Agent's of SHIELD needs to bring the fans back into the fold and with  the new direction they are taking it may not be enough. SOMETHING will have to make everyone watch. That something I believe is the Avengers Age of Ultron trailer. It's the perfect timing as Guardians of the Galaxy has had it's time and is out of most theaters and Agents of SHIELD will need the higher ratings to kick off. So I'm calling it, if not the first week, it will be the second week to bring watchers back as it may be teased during the credits after the show.