You can also visit the independent gamer web sites and read their reviews. If they are not sponsored by any game publishers and are committed to gamers you can get a fairly honest review of most games. One of the sites that I like to visit for all types of information on gaming is gamasutra.com. It’s not about game reviews but more on what is going on in the industry. It’s also a great resource for those wanting to get into the gaming business. If you know of other game review sites let us know and we will post them. This brings us back to the reason I started this post. How do you know what the best games are to purchase?

According to a recent study by Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and its partners, all you need to do is ask a friend. That’s right word-of-mouth was the most influential form of getting a game to be purchased. The study gathered information using Moments of Influence™ proprietary research tools and was conducted during the month of July consisting of 507 video gamers. The research data showed that friends where twice as likely to influence the purchasing decision on a video game over traditional retail, online demos, reviews and other forms of advertising and promotions. The initial opinion I expressed over the other forms of media bias was born out in the survey as friends where also among the most trusted form of influence. From the research it seems that the 12 billion dollar a year industry wastes a lot of money trying to influence gamers to buy their games. You can read more on this startling research at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.

The bottom line is that we the gamers still have a major voice in the games that are made and played more so than we think. In fact this research strongly reaffirms my belief in that the gamers who actually play a game from top to bottom and really get into the game play should be the ones reviewing the games. A site like gamerrated.com is a great website that gives the power back to gamers. Here you can rate the video game from being the “bomb” to “it sucks” and also leave comments about the game. Check out Gamer Rated.com and empower yourself!

Is this enough to be worth the $59.99 cost of the game. With the first HALO  debuting almost eight years ago and each sequel building on the success of the last one has ODST run out of gas or is it enough to keep loyal fans satisfied and new fans feeling justified in paying the price. With  the success of the xBox coming from the HALO series and Bungie severing ties with Microsoft, there where high expectations in the gaming community for ODST. For the record I really enjoyed playing the original Halo and Halo 2in campaign mode. The storyline was great the missions where challenging and fun. The sound tracks are amazing and are a perfect accompaniment to each scene and mission.

I never really played alot of the online games and I still am not a huge fan of them. I simply don’t have the skills to play against the player encountered online but in campaign mode I can keep at it till I succeed. I enjoy the campaign mode on ODST and still find it challenging. I have not played online in the firefight but have watched my sons play and it seems like a lot of team work and fun but not much different in what I have seen them play in other online HALO adventures. So is HALO 3 ODST worth the $59.00? For me the answer is yes. The new campaign mode is better than alot of other games that I spent $59 bucks on and my HALO 3 disk has so many scratches on it that’s it nice to have a new disk. So what do you think let me know and go to Gamer Rated.com and rate HALO 3 ODST.