Chrome Hounds, that is… It’s no mystery that TTL finds its roots in a hopeless Halo Addiction. However, the buzz surrounding this title in our MidWorld Forum is gaining noise. While you are reading this post, Gunslingers are already pimping their rides.

This gamer has suplemented a steady diet of Warthog driving and Grunt stomping with brief tours through some other notable titles. I braved the hell of Doom3. I saved City 17 in Half-Life 2. I crippled the Strogg homeworld in Quake 4. I even broke away from the shooter format to climb behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Murcielago in Project Gotham Racing 3.

With the exception of PGR3, I never encountered a single TTL Gunslinger in any of those other games. For all the strides in gaming technology, no one has come anywhere close to duplicating the effortlessness of uniting a team through the User Interface of Halo2. It’s almost as if online multiplayer has been an afterthought for the developers of the games that I want to play.

The advance press for Chrome Hounds look good. This game was built with Multiplayer on the brain and the best of intentions. Single player campaigns have already been described as a mere prelude to the focus of this game… Select a specialty. Build a Mech – or a “Hound” if you must. Form up a team and wage your war. Like the tagline says: Hunt as a pack or die like a dog.

As a gamer, I play right into the hands of this title. Any vehicle whore from the battlefields of Halo2 can enjoy the prospects for laying to waste entire neighborhoods at the controls of some heavy machinery built for war. Every gamer has a sweet spot. That is mine. My new Chrome Hound will join the other favorites in the hangar of my imagination. The Pyro from Descent. The Perseus Interceptor from FreeSpace2. The BattleTech Pods that used to be at Dave-N-Busters. And, of course, the Warthog. We all know about Old Faithful.

This title will not pack the gear to seperate me from the operations of ‘Tied the Leader’s Official Halo Clan. We still have a number of Gunslingers who are left behind on the platform of the first-generation of Xbox – and one never leaves a Gunslinger behind. What’s more, I owe the teammates that I will have by my side in playing Chrome Hounds to the countless hours I played Halo2 on Xbox Live.

But wouldn’t it be nice if someone else got it right? Just once?

The most exciting component to unwrapping a good game now is knowing that reliable teammates are standing by. Remember your first week in the wilderness of Halo2 Matchmaking? I do. I remember struggling to put together a solid team for a 4-Man Skirmish. I remember Rumble Pits against sugar-frenzied youngsters.

I remember wondering if I would be able to catch on, or if I would grow frustrated and save my multiplayer urges for LAN Parties.

The TTL Gunlingers will be playing Chrome Hounds. We are putting the market for this game on notice.

I know who is with us. Who is against us?

Posted by XerxdeeJ