Blog Posts by Ben Silverman

It spawned a multi-billion-dollar franchise, turned the Xbox into a household name and managed to make the awkwardly-named Master Chief a legit pop-culture icon.

But how much do you really know about Halo?

With Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary --  a remastered HD take on the 2001 original -- hitting stores next week,  it's as good a time as any to dig a little deeper into Microsoft's first-person flagship.

Most games have the good sense to treat the release of a new Call of Duty game like a nuclear blast: get as far as way as possible, stockpile canned food, and only come up when you know for a fact that the air is clear.

But most games aren't The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The UFC is growing up -- and so is its game.

UFC Undisputed 3 (THQ)The world's biggest MMA organization is about to make the leap from cable to network courtesy of a seven-year deal with Fox TV. That's a serious boost from its previous deal with Spike TV, an upgrade that means millions more eyeballs on the fast-evolving sport.

And that suddenly positions THQ, the creators of two wildly successful UFC video games, as the Madden of MMA. While a few competitors have stormed the mixed-martial arts video game ring, none have managed to pry the belt from THQ's UFC Undisputed franchise. They named it correctly.

Another year, another Call of Duty. In what's become an annual whirlwind of marketing blitzes, midnight launches and millions of sudden sick days, a new entry in Activision's best-selling shooter franchise has arrived.

This time it's Modern Warfare 3, the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Modern Warfare 2, which set all sorts of sales records when it was released in 2009. Most of those were broken last year by Call of Duty: Black Ops, and it's a pretty safe bet that Modern Warfare 3 will in turn shatter those.

Really only a handful of events could stop that from happening. A rival game could steal away sales (Battlefield 3 is great, but not that great), technical glitches could mar its launch (so far, so good), or, you know, the game could just outright stink.

According to critics, that's not the case, either.

Celebs love Call of Duty.

Or at least they love the bags of cash Activision lobs at them for starring in live-action TV spots promoting the franchise.

For last year's Black Ops, it was Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel. For this year's Modern Warfare 3? How about Sam Worthington and Jonah Hill? Meet 'The Vet and The n00b':

Wish your racing game had rapid fire camera cuts, ridiculous crashes, massive explosions, and Christina Hendricks? EA feels the same way, which is why they hired Michael Bay to direct an epic trailer for their upcoming racer, Need for Speed: The Run.

Buckle up:

GTA loves L.A.

The first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto V is here, and the rumor mill got it right: we're headed back to Los Angeles -- or GTA's twisted version of it, at least.

Diablo III (Blizzard)Haven't visited Azeroth in a while? It might be time for an online vacation.

At the company's annual Blizzcon event in Anaheim, CA, ace game developer Blizzard announced that anyone who signs up for an annual subscription to World of WarCraft will score one heckuva treasure: the full digital version of their next game, eagerly anticipated action-role-playing sequel Diablo III.

Like, for free.