UGO Tries to find some Halo Killers, probably not guys!

The offerings from UGO.com are right here.
I can/t say that this was a surprising article given the furor over Halo 3's recent good reviews and sales. However, to be a "Halo Killer." The game is going to need to have the kind of impact that Halo 3 does. Which is virtually impossible to do. Any games that come out from now on, won't be able to do better than Halo. Why? Because beating Halo is like beating Madden. The competition might be critically better, but you aren't going to find the kind of sales that Halo pulled.
Two games on the list certainly have the best chance of being "Halo Killers." These would be Unreal Tournament 3 which doesn't come out until next year except on PC. The other game is the Orange Box. Unreal Tournament 3 has some of the best graphics on any system since Gears of War and the addition of a map editor that allows the players to make maps and upload them to either the PC to play them or to your PS3. This is revolutionary and exciting. Problem is, that in order make the maps you have to buy a copy of the PC version of the game. To play them on your PS3 you need to have a PS3 version. Theoretically, this could give the game double normal sales. But I think only around 10% of the population of Unreal community will do this. Too bad, built in double sales could definitely kill Halo 3. The Orange Box, probably the best deal in all of gaming will include: Half Life 2, Half Life episode 1&2. Portal, and Team Fortress 2. It also comes out next week. It will be available on three platforms XBOX 360, PS3, and PC. All of which will probably help it's sales immensely. Even with all this packed on to one disc, I think that this critical darling will probably suffer from lagging sales. The commercials this last week were good but Microsoft has been touting Halo 3 for the past 2 years and Valve won't be able to compete with that. Personally, I'm more excited about both games than I was for Halo 3.
Their sales won't reflect this and considering how many 9s and 10s Halo 3 received where can these games go critically to beat Halo 3? This is why when people start saying that it is too early in the year to say that Halo 3 or Bioshock will be Game of the Year; I wonder then, why they gave the Halo 3 and Bioshock 9.5s or 10s. These are normally not scores people throw around. I have never given a game a 10/10. Mostly because there is no room for improvement there and every game has room for improvement.
The other games on the list have too low of a budget and are a little too pat to be able to compete with the most popular FPS in history next to Counter Strike.
The games that aren't on the list that might topple Halo 3; that aren't FPSs. For instance: Rock Band, Guitar Hero 3, Mass Effect, or even Super Smash Bros on the Wii. These games have broader appeal and even with small marketing budgets with the holiday season it is possible they could compete with Halo 3. It's going to be really hard to beat Halo 3 and even critically speaking it will be a real battle royale this holiday season.
But I get the feeling that in the end when all the scores are tallied and sales figured, Halo 3 will be the winner.

Hey, Mass Media, Halo has been around since 2001. Where were you?

Since the launch of Halo 3 the mass media is acting as though this thing came out of no where. The reason it did $150 million is that it is a well established franchise liked Madden, you know guys, the football game. And a lot of people know about it. So having actors, random gaming press, and rock stars give interviews about it, like it is some kind of new story opening on Rodeo Drive is really ridiculous.
The worst part is when they start calling it the Next Generation of games where the movies and games blur the line. I'm sorry, in a media where the main character never takes off his helmet and you can't see their face; cannot be evenly compared with a dramatic medium. Besides the fact that Halo as a whole is a relatively simplistic story built around gameplay elements. This isn't a novel or movie people and if you think it is, perhaps you should review what makes up each.
Finally, if you want a ground breaking, mind blowing, first person shooter that blurs the line between movies and games: play Bioshock. It came out about a month ago. It has a story so deep it references novels and dead philosophers. Just don't start saying that this stuff like:

"Timeless all most... For the generation that's out there right now.."Sundance Digiovanni...

Because first off, if something is timeless it can't be just for the current generation . Sundance, stick to gaming leagues. Not doing interviews about video games that your only expertise in is that you play them. This came from the Sci-Fi Channel show. "Sci Fi versus Halo 3." I found it to be the pinnacle of all things redundant about Halo and that they just needed to fill a half hour.
I guess nothing is important to the mainstream media until it sells well. But when they start making sweeping statements they should do some research first; because it just makes them look really stupid.