First it was Halo 2′s online stats, game viewer and RSS feeds. Now, MechAssault 2 introduces the concept of Conquest. While Halo 2′s online gaming experience is awesome, it doesn’t lead anywhere – each game is completely unrelated to the others. But with Conquest, each battle impacts the ownership of planets in the galaxy. Each player joins one of the five houses and then can participate in the galactic war. Planet ownership is based on the results of battles fought there. You can see the current map of the galaxy as well as war updates at any time. (But no RSS feed for the war updates – what’s up with that?)

The only bad thing is that MechAssault 2 doesn’t appear to have any per game stats like Halo 2 has. Wouldn’t that be a great experience – Halo 2′s game viewer and per game stats combined with MechAssault 2′s conquest metagame.

I was on vacation without access to the ‘net most of last week, so I didn’t get to immediately blog the USC’s utter dominance in the Orange Bowl last Tuesday. I got to watch the game with several college buddies (the benefit of vacationing in LA) and we just had a ball. After the bittersweet shared championship last year, this feels great. Who would have thought it would be over at halftime? I called it “in the refrigerator” 4 minutes into the third when SC went up 45-10. I would have called it at half time, but I figured OU would come out with some life in the second half, but they didn’t.

While I am glad about many things about this season, I am most glad that the Orange Bowl rout leaves the title undisputed. Even the most die-hard Auburn fan, having watched their team nearly blow the Sugar Bowl the night before, has got to be hard pressed to honestly argue that they deserve to be #1. Especially when they think to the last time they played USC – they got shutout at home 23-0. Sure, Auburn isn’t the same team but then again, neither is USC.

There’s already talk of USC being a dynasty and of a threepeat (or should that be three-Pete?) Frankly, that talk is a little premature in my opinion. But given the massive drought USC football went through when I was in school there (during the decade long plus losing streak to Notre Dame) it sure is nice to be on top.