I finally beat: Halo 3 ODST

Halo 3 ODST is the latest Halo game from Bungie.  Originally planned as DLC (that’s downloadable content for you greens), there’s enough spit and polish gone into this fine example of a game to push it into prime time status.  A full retail release.

It don’t hurt that it also includes a Halo 3 multiplayer disc. The full Halo 3 multiplayer suite as if you were playing the original and it’s fully backwards compatible. Anyone out there tho didn’t jump in on the original Halo 3’s “map packs” can get them n’ more here.  That makes this disc shiny and your Halo 3 disc all manner of useless.

For the fans who did pony up the dough, you’re fan enough to appreciate the main adventure. For fans who don’t care about playing Halo multiplayer, this title ain’t for you. It may be the best Halo single-player campaign, but make no mistake: this is still Halo.

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Halo Waypoint is meta-achievements, Avatar Awards, and News

If you follow Halo, you probably know about the upcoming Halo Waypoint channel coming to Xbox Live.  It functions very similarly to the Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter channels; it is an extra box on the interface that you download and launch.

Halo Waypoint will be available to all gold memebers (and for a limited time available to silver members).  It is otherwise free and currently in beta testing.  If you are apart of the Dashboard Preview beta (Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM), then you now have Halo Waypoint, too.

Halo Waypoint is a News channel with videos, which is handy but also kind of lame.  But, as a bonus, it is also a meta-game itself.

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pLayday: 4/8 – Halo 3

i playz xbox

pLayday: 4/8 – Halo 3

Let’s go with a staple everyone likes that supports split-screen. Plus, we have a new map we’ve never even played on. The remade blood gultch. And everyone likes Halo.

And kittens. Everyone likes kittens, too.

Halo 3: Update 1 is fixing Melee

Headshot with brute pistol

Halo 3: Update 1 is fixing Melee

You all may not know, but Halo 2 was initially very broken. As in, not even that fun. Imagine, if you will, a Halo without melee damage. Melee damage was nominal, requiring several hits to take down an opponent. A hit to the back didn’t even kill. Grenade splash area was small, and damage was low. Everyone simply used two weapons because melee and grenades were useless, which subsequently removed all two handed weapons as well from many matches as being useful.

Then bungie released Halo 2 version 1.1 (the only update released). The increased melee damage and grenade damage and overall tweaked the game to be more like Halo 1. This was great, and made Halo 2 my choice of lan game.

Now, Bungie preps Halo 3’s first update. Amongst the fixes, they are changing melee. Currently, whoever has the most health wins melee matches. There is also <1 second delay that still lets slightly delayed hits count as simultaneous. This is to help lag. It is a very simple rule that leads to people shooting and running straight at each other, and then whoever fires first / is the better shot wins because he has more shields at the time of impact, and that almost every melee battle comes to this because the delay allows both players to always throw melee attacks into one of these tie-breaker battles.

This will change.

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pLayday: 1/28 – Halo 3 multi-team or ffa

Master Chief

pLayday: 1/28 – Halo 3 multi-team or ffa

So far, 8pm seems to be a fine time, so let’s run with that for now. People are free to start a bit earlier, but hopefully you’ll stick around for the 8pm-9pm timeslot. We can also run later, too, depending on if people want to.

As for the game of the week….

Halo 3

Let’s pick an easy one. No thinking needed: we ALL own it. I suggest we start out easy and play as a private match to start with, eventually taking it online after a couple of rounds.

Any suggestions as to the type? Multi-team oddball was pretty fun near the end. There are also a couple of Race types, where multi-teams race around the map to a series of checkpoints. Also, I know no one likes to comment, but a roll call of the vocal would let me know if SOMEONE is planning on showing up ;)

Organizing pLayday

Red Team

Organizing pLayday

I want to organize a day of the week where we all attempt to get online Xb Live and play a game. Instead of leaving it to chance, we make an effort to log on a particular day and play together in a game we all have.

I can even post ideas for the game here ahead of time (map or gametype preferences can be expressed in comments).

I have been gathering potential days from everyone, and so far the best day looks like Tuesday.

I finally beat: Halo 3

Achievement

I finally beat: Halo 3

This is a bit delayed, as I actually beat Halo 3 within two or three days of its launch.

Halo 3 is just the natural progression of Halo-ness. Halo may have revolutionized FPS with it’s two weapon system (How can I carry these 18 weapons at once? Where does that chainsaw GO when I pull out my Sniper Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun, and Assault Rifle) and Regenerating Health (I’m bleeding deep in enemy territory. Good thing there are all these bullet healing health packs lying around EVERYWHERE), and a fun Co-Op Campaign (Mobile Respawn Point) but the 3rd game should bring something new to the table. After all, that’s what Halo did to make itself so popular. Let’s split this into two parts: Campaign and Matchmaking. Continue reading