Holy crapz!

Wow, I leave for a few months and look at what happens! Apparently I get more visits than I thought I would! Anyway, while I don’t have time to write a right proper blog right now, I would like to tell you about something funny I discovered while browsing the Internets late one night. It’s Halol, a lolcats-type of site where instead of cats you have Spartans and Elites in all sorts of funny poses and whatnot. If you’re a Halo fan (like me), you might want to check it out.

In other news, I tried the Virtua Fighter 5 demo on Marketplace a few days ago. Hot damn, people, that is a SWEET game. I have VF4 for my lonely little PS2, and though I played it for a while, I could never seem to get into it like I could with Soul Calibur and DOA. This one, however, feels like a top-notch, high-quality fighter. And it flows like water. Seriously. It’s even better than playing SCIII’s ninja class—every move you make seems to flow into the next, even if you’re button-mashing. (Which I admit to doing in the demo because I had no clue what the heck any of the combos were.) Anyway, I can guarantee you that I’ll be picking this one up when it (apparently) launches on Halloween.

Put the cake in the oven for a while…

Hey folks—I just wanted to let everybody know that I’m deep in the Halo 3 beta, and it looks like it’ll be a while before I resurface. New posts will probably be sparse for the next few weeks, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving for good. I just want to spend some quality time with Master Chief while I can. You should go out and do the same.

I hear he’s nice to curl up next to on a cold Spring night.

Hey baby.

Halo 3 Beta up and running (finally!)

(11:00 P.M. PDT) Finally—Bungie and Microsoft have pulled through, and all you Crackdown-toting gamers can go download the Halo 3 Beta right this moment. Expect long download times, however, even if you’re on a fast connection. Lots and lots of Halo-hungry folks are clogging up the servers, so you might be better served letting the download start and finding something else to do for a while.

As of press time, the Bungie servers recorded over 75,000 unique users playing the Beta at once, and that number is expected to grow as more players join the online fray. So far, the game itself has been running rather smoothly, which is definitely a good sign.

Bungie made an official statement regarding the release of the Beta, thanking everyone for their patience with an extension—the Beta will now last until June 10th, instead of the originally planned June 6th end date. That means we get an extra weekend to exchange shots before Bungie closes up shop. Anyway, here’s what they said on their website:

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UPDATE: Halo 3 / Crackdown FIXED!
Posted by SketchFactor

UPDATE : 5/16/07 7:05 PM

“Halo 3 Beta Downloads via Crackdown are fixed!

It’s been a long day for a lot of people but we’re happy to announce that effective immediately, a title update for Crackdown is available on Xbox Live that will fix the issue that previously prevented you from downloading the beta. The Microsoft team just deployed this fix and when you launch Crackdown you should receive a prompt to download the update.

Please note that it could take up to four hours for your console to receive this update based on various factors. However, the good news is that we’re in the clear and Halo 3 gameplay is just over the horizon.

We realize this has been a pain for many and an inconvenience at the very least. Given the circumstances, we’ve decided to extend the duration of the Halo 3 Beta from June 6th to June 10th at 11:59 PM PDT. So, you lost almost a full day of play today but to make up for it we’re tacking on four more days (and a weekend at that).

We apologize for the delay and hardships this issue has caused and hope that it quickly becomes a distant memory clouded by good times playing Halo 3 with your friends.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding. We’ll see you online!”

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See? All that pissing and moaning paid off—now we get more time to enjoy Halo 3! Pat yourself on the back, forum trolls!

Halo 3 Beta available in 3 to 6 hours, Bungie says

As seen on Bungie.net:

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Halo 3 / Crackdown : UPDATE!
SketchFactor writes:
UPDATE : 5/16/07 3:55 p.m. (PDT)
“We’re happy to finally announce that the issues being faced with the Halo 3 beta and Crackdown will be resolved shortly. The Microsoft team has found a solution and it’s undergoing final testing now.

Assuming the test pass goes according to plan, the fix will come in the form of a Crackdown title update within the next three to six hours.

We understand many of you were eagerly awaiting your chance to jump into the Halo 3 Beta and this technical issue has put a damper on your plans. Thankfully the fix is incoming and we’re sincerely sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. Ultimately we hope this will all soon be a distant memory once you pick up the Spartan Laser, launch yourself from a Mancannon and enjoy online shenanigans with your friends.

As a reminder, people who already have the Halo 3 Beta are unaffected by this issue. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we have more information.”

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Looks like we might be able to step in the boots of Master Chief before the day is out. Let’s cross our fingers and hope they’ve got their crap together this time.

Halo 3 Beta still unavailable

(Updated 3:40 P.M. PDT)

I don’t know how it is for the folks who got invited to the beta through means other than Crackdown, but if you fire up your copy of the game right now and expect to be playing Halo 3 in a few minutes, you’re wrong.

In the downloads section of the main menu of Crackdown, the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta option is still grayed-out. If you select it, there’s still the same default message of “come back at a later date.”

Microsoft’s official Xbox site announced that the beta would be available at 5:00 A.M. PDT on May 16, 2007. That’s 7:00 A.M. and 8:00 A.M. for you central and eastern time-zone people, respectively.

Bungie released a short statement regarding the delay, which can be viewed on their site HERE. Major Nelson’s blog and Xbox customer support have been temporarily flushed down the toilet due to excessive load. Related game forums are ablaze with insanity and rampant flames. You’d do well to keep away from them. Far, far away.

Anyway, you can watch a live feed of the Crackdown download menu HERE. Y’know…to see if the option to download the Beta becomes available.

You’ll have to wait a little longer for next-gen Master Chief.

Hopefully Microsoft and Bungie will clear up this mess soon. More news as it comes.

Halo 3 Release Date! IT’S OFFICIAL!

Halo 3 is coming out September 25th in the United States, and one day later in Europe. Read all about it HERE.

The multiplayer beta is just a few hours away!

Return of the Chief

Master Chief prepares for his climactic battle against social retardation.

 

So the Halo 3 Beta is finally upon us. I’ve been hearing lovely things about it from game journalists lately, but during their enamored preachings, I think they forget several important things regarding the Beta:

1. They got to play it early, meaning…
2. They played it with 100 other people across the country, including Bungie staffers and fellow game journalists.
3. Because only 100 people were sitting on the server instead of, oh, 3 million, it was most certainly lag-free.
4. Because only 100 people were playing, that means 3 million retards weren’t.

As much as I’m looking forward to battling it out online with next-gen Spartans, I’m definitely not looking forward to the inevitable death of the servers on the first day. This is in addition to all the raised-by-obscenities losers whose vocabularly consists solely of racial slurs and four-letter words. I guess it’ll be a ripe time to test out the lauded easy-mute function I’ve been hearing about in previews.

Still—I can’t wait to get my hands on it.