More on Reach

Bungie's latest update answered many of the questions raised by their MP trailer I blogged about a while back as well as clarifying many other things. Highlights:

• Elites and Spartans will have very different models and characteristics. At first blush, Elites appear to pwn face.
• Loadouts (0:14) explained: Ability to choose armor and weapon configs at round start and with every respawn.
• Active Camo (0:29): Degrades with movement and jams radar, so others will be aware it's in operation.
• Armor Lock (0:22): Makes you temporarily invincible, even to splatters, which explains how the one guy blew up the Ghost in the trailer instead of getting splattered.
• Evade (0:11): These are the dive rolls that may only be available to Elites.
• Jet Packs (0:14): New details released including the implication of fall damage and needing to reserve jet pack fuel to soften the landing. Also susceptible to EMP damage. Note that the green gun can generate the normal EMP, but that the new grenade launcher can also generate EMP! (maybe this is seen at 0:28 - in-air rocket kill)
  
• Sprint: Run faster but can't shoot

New weapons:

• Plasma Repeater: Looks like dual wielding has been removed, so this is similar to two Plasma Rifles. It will not conk out when it overheats, will just slow down. Analogous to UNSC Assault Rifle.
  
• Plasma Launcher (0:47): Sends up to four plasma bombs, and appears more similar to the UNSC Rocket Launcher than the Brute Shot. Rounds have slight target tracking ability.
• Focus Rifle (1:16): This is that crazy rail gun looking thing. Basically merges a beam rifle with the sentinel beam.
• Grenade Launcher (0:45, 1:04): Bungie puts quotes around this as the "Pro Pipe" but that may be an ironic reference to this as a "n00b cannon." Interestingly, you can hold the trigger after you fire a round and it won't detonate until you release the trigger. As mentioned above, these grenades also have an EMP blast, so you can use this pop jet packs out of the air.

Vehicles:

• Warthog: Probably the biggest (and saddest) news for our clan. The Warthog chaingun can now overheat. Suck.
• Scorpion (0:07): Gunner is now secondary and exposed.
  

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

With luck, maybe we'll have more than the same six people that have showed up for the last three weeks. In other news, looks like Cock of Dooty's MW2 patch that dropped today is hella broken. xbox.com/support is #2 in the world on the Google most searched list as of this writing.

ODST for $20

Gamefly is offering used copies of ODST for just $20. This would be an inexpensive way to get into the Halo Reach beta.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

nom nom nom

Halo Reach matchmaking details

Bungie and Shacknews have just released a bunch of new details about the matchmaking system that is coming with Halo Reach later this year. While much of it won't be relevant for the large majority of you that never host parties or run the matchmaking setup, I would like everyone to check out the Bungie update and scroll down to "Invite Me, Plz" where they describe the new Active Roster feature. Basically what this will allow is for you to join clan night at whatever time you like, queue up for the party (even if we're in a game) and automatically join the next time we hit a lobby. I don't need to send you an invite, you don't have to send me a private note, no separate Xbox Live party required. This solves a huge annoyance for clan nights, so hopefully the beta test in May irons it out so it goes smoothly. I will be debugging our party connection issues over the next couple of months as well to figure out what's wrong with that.

Speaking of Reach, questions from some latecomers remind me that it's not entirely obvious. Invitation to the Halo Reach beta test launching on May 3 is EXCLUSIVELY via the Halo 3: ODST game disc. No ODST, no Reach beta for you. The game is $49.99 new at Amazon with free shipping. Can probably be found used locally for $44.99 at Gamestop or as cheap as $35.78 used including shipping on Amazon. Prices on eBay are hovering around $30 including shipping. As I've mentioned before, you should expect the clan to be playing both the Halo Reach beta as well as Halo Reach when it drops in the fall. The group consensus is also leaning towards Halo games during the interim between the two.

Firefight Night

Got a free evening? Been having trouble sleeping? Firefight rounds tonight starting at 9:30pm. I will break out of games to pick up stragglers up until 10pm.

L4D2 Updates

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Valve has announced some updates coming out for Left 4 Dead 2:

• "The Passing" DLC - Includes new campaign and versus maps as well as some other bells and whistles.
• Versus infected bots - To help balance shorthanded versus teams
• Disabled Finale auto-spawning - Because it sucks

I will not be recommending the DLC for clan purchase unless there is strong demand for it. That said, there will likely be a lull in games between the Halo Reach beta in May and when Halo Reach officially launches later this year. I am taking nominations now for what the clan should play in the interim. Here are some thoughts:

• Left 4 Dead 1 and/or 2 - We can always keep playing zombies. If we play for a few months, it may then be worth it to get the DLC.
• Halo 3 and/or ODST - I will assume that the Halo Reach beta will expire like the H3 beta did, but we can stay in the swing of all things Halo until the fall if people would like.
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - Even though R6V1 was fun and popular, we missed this game because it had a conflicting release date. It's an old game at this point and would be really cheap for everyone to pick up at their local Gamestop.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - This is a very popular game on-line and we could consider joining it late, but I suspect it might not be very fun for n00bz.
• NHL 10 - This would be a break from our standard FPS fare, but I recently picked it up. It's not all that revolutionary in gameplay (compared to NHL 94) or graphics (compared to Madden 10) but it does support 6v6 on-line multiplayer which is quite the novelty. If there is demand for a sports game, I would consider it.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Back to our regularly scheduled brain programming.

ODST Firefight Nights

Sorry for being dark last week and missing the clan night post. Had a guest in from out of town and was afk all day. In other news, the Halo 2 downloads have been consistently problematic for folks, so I'm just going to skip it. Starting this week for 3 weeks or so, I will coordinate ODST Firefight nights for those who are interested. If you want to log some 4 player action, leave a comment here or reply on e-mail with what days/times you'd like to game. I'll send out a first lobby of 9:30pm or later on any day but our regular Tuesday clan night.

Halo Reach MP Trailer Details

I've watched the trailer in more detail and here some things I've noticed:

• 0:07 - Scorpion gunner fully exposed like Wraith gunner
• 0:09 - Uppercut finishing move, suspect this is just built into the melee function (mentioned on bnet) like the assassination animation shown later
• 0:10 - Glow shields (mentioned on bnet)...shields glow with an outline and then "explode" when gone showing when to get a headshot easily
• 0:11 - Dive roll...this looks brand new, some kind of Gears of War mechanism maybe
• 0:14 - "Loadouts" This is the first appearance of the ZOMG jetpack. Calling it "loadouts" implies you can choose this at spawn, interesting. More subtly, the Spartan running through the foreground also has active camo.
• 0:17 - "First Strike" is a new medal. Appears has an orange upside-down pentagon with a skull in it. Announcer also displays kills "with grenades" now.
• 0:20 - A new HUD element above the radar shows what must be the jetpack "fuel" remaining.
• 0:22 - What appears to be a ghost splatter is actually not. The ghost explodes afterwards. The HUD special equipment shows a lock, maybe that has something to do with it?
• 0:25 - "Pull" and "Headshot" medals. Pull medal implies kill for somebody in the air based on this kill and how the medal looks like a jetpack.
• 0:25 - Green and yellow multi-colored armor.
• 0:27 - First look at what is presumably the DMR (BR replacement). Looks seksi.
• 0:28 - Rocket kill in the air. This is almost impossible with today's non-tracking dumb rockets. If we presume there's a reason that they've chosen to show this, maybe rockets track flying people now?
• 0:29 - Active camo armor being shown with HUD element.
• 0:30 - Sniper targeting reticle turns red and then suddenly gets huge when bullet strikes. Unclear if this is to indicate headshot available, or because reticle expands to cover shield explosion.
• 0:32 - Assassination animation. This one appears to be with a knife, though it's pretty homoerotic in the showers there.
• 0:34 - Two more assassinations here, these climbing up on top like a jockey.
• 0:41 - "Invasion" Assuming this is a new game type where one team storms a base or something.
• 0:45 - Some kind of new gun that has a targeting reticle similar to the gauss cannon.
• 0:46 - Sniping in more detail, again with the expanding reticle. This time much more strongly suggests headshot indicator.
• 0:47 - New weapon, looks like a Fuel Rod cannon, but has "energy" instead of rounds. Appears to be 6-7 points per shot, so in total maybe 15 shots. Appears to have a track locking feature. 3 shot warthog pwn.
  
• 0:51 - Dive roll shown in more detail this time
• 0:51 - "Headhunter" Maybe some kind of skull that can be enabled? A bunch of flaming skulls explode out of the dead guy. Could be a human equivalent of Grunt Birthday Party.
• 0:53 - Again showing the changing reticle size, this time on a DMR. Headshot results in flaming skulls.
• 0:57 - "Active roster" - Have no idea what this means
• 1:04 - Gauss cannon thing appears again, with the reload animation showing a shell being put into the chamber. Also notice the lightning bolt HUD element for special equipment. Maybe sprint upgrade?
• 1:06 - "Spartans vs Elites" - Have to assume this is a new self-explanatory game mode. So far have only seen Elites being able to dive roll.
• 1:09 - Equipment HUD element looks like a targeting reticle, dunno what it is. Rocket destroys "generator" implying some new gametype.
• 1:14 - "The Arena" - Dunno what this is, maybe a map?
• 1:16 - What I previously described as the "rail gun" appears to be new Covenant beam rifle maybe? The beam trail is significantly more pronounced everywhere it appears, and actually tracks the target being hit here for 3 or 4 steps.
• 1:17 - New "Revenge!" medal. Red skull on upside down triangle.

All in all, the game looks generally gorgeous. Very excited. Two months left.

ZOMG

Bungie just dropped a trailer for the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta coming out in exactly two months. Jaw drop here please:



This kind of looks like Halo, but NOT. Punching in the gut, what looks like a rail gun, jockey-like humping assassinations, JETPACKS, I'm going to need to watch it over and over and over again. Consider me aroused.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Our usual programming for tonight. We had a full house last week with 8 players, so as a reminder remember that first come first served applies for clan night. If there are more than 8 playing, the latest players will have to wait. Generally speaking, this doesn't last very long, so you should stay on. When possible, I will try to spin off players so that there are multiple groups playing, but it's not always possible.

Road to Halo Reach Beta

There are nine weeks left until the Halo Reach multi-player beta goes live. You can expect clan games to shift over to the Halo Reach beta on Tuesday, May 4. In the mean time, I can host a secondary clan night on late nights to get ready. 10pm is usually a good time for me on other nights, but am happy to compromise on popular time slots. Here's proposed games:

• 2/28-3/20: Halo 2 multi-player
• 3/21-4/10: Halo 3: ODST firefight
• 4/11-5/2: Halo 3 multi-player

Leave a comment or reply on e-mail if you have opinions.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Remind me if I forget that the "Strength in Numbers" achievement is still available if we get down to 4 players at some point in the night.

Halo 2 Update

The Halo 2 multi-player maps are now available for download again and the links are working. In total, there are 6 downloads in total you will need to play Halo 2 on-line with Xbox Live. There is an Xbox Live title update that you will be prompted for as soon as you launch the game, and a second Halo 2 title update that you will need to download from within the game (it will prompt you). Then there are FOUR map packs you have to download from within Halo 2. Go to Xbox Live -> Content Download inside of the game menus. These are the map packs and download times (measured over 12 Mbps):

• Blastacular (Tombstone and Desolation): 4 minutes
• Maptacular (Terminal, Backwash, Relic, Elongation, Gemini): 6 minutes
• Bonus (Containment, Warlock): 3 minutes
• Killtacular (Turf, Sanctuary): 3 minutes

If you'd like to try and play Halo 2 again in the future (before April 15), please go download all the map packs and then comment here on which week you would like to play. If there is critical mass, I will set it up again. Remember that Halo 2 does not support the Xbox Live NXE party-chat system, so if you run into problems the week we're trying to do this, it will be hard to help you. Voice messages recorded in Halo 2 are also not interoperable from within the Xbox Live NXE.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Halo Reach Gameplay Details

Gamespot has a pretty good article and video about what they've discovered so far. Most notably is that Spartans in Halo Reach have the ability to upgrade their equipment. Unlike Bubble Shields or Flares from Halo 3, these upgrades are persistent and can be used more than once. They tease the "Sprint" upgrade which you can use and then allow to recharge. Thanks to OD for the tip.

Halo Reach ViDoc

The Microsoft X10 event is happening right now and a number of things have been announced. Below is a ViDoc of Halo Reach showing some impressive new detail in the graphics.

Halo Reach Beta: 5/3/10

The Halo Reach multiplayer beta will go live on May 3, 2010. It will require the Halo 3: ODST disc for access. Get ready now.

http://www.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=HaloReach_X10

Halo 2 Multiplayer Inaccessible

Apologies to those who tried logging into Halo 2 for Tuesday's clan night. They have apparently updated the matchmaking playlists to require several map packs. However, those map packs are not accessible for download from within Halo 2 anymore. I will look into solutions to this problem, but for now H2 multiplayer is not available. I also forgot that Xbox Live Party chat is not available for original Xbox games due to their limited Xbox Live support.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo 2.

In recognition of Halo 2's upcoming death on Xbox Live, we'll jump into some H2 multi-player tonight. Be sure to join the XBL party for coordination in case we run into logistical issues. Also remember that Bungie recommends NOT installing H2 to the hard drive because of the way the game uses the hard drive to cache data pre-NXE. I expect to return to our usual programming of brains next week, unless H2 proves to be overwhelmingly popular.

Xbox Live being dropped for original Xbox

On April 15, Microsoft is dropping Xbox Live support for original Xboxes and original Xbox games. That includes games like Halo 2 that were original Xbox games but run on the Xbox 360. This marks the end of an era. Does anyone want to fire up some Halo 2 before it goes away forever?

http://majornelson.com/archive/2010/02/05/xbox-live-being-discontinued-for-original-xbox-consoles-and-games.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MajorNelson+%28Major+Nelson+%28Xbox%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Clan night tonight. Left 4 Dead 2. 8pm PT.

Brrraaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnssss.

Lost Season Premiere

The premiere of the final season of Lost airs this week exactly during clan night. Seeing as President Obama scheduled his State of the Union address to avoid a scheduling conflict, I will pose the question to the clan. Would you rather watch Lost or eat braaiiiinnnss this Tuesday? A third option is to defer clan night until after Lost, but that may be late for some people. Vote here in the comments.

Xbox Live: $34.99

I believe that anybody who reads this blog has an Xbox Live Gold subscription. Amazon.com currently has 1 year subscription cards available for just $34.99, free shipping, no tax. I just got mine and applied it, so I can verify that there's no "catch." You don't have to wait for your current membership to expire, it will just add 12 months to the end of whatever your current plan is. This is a 30% savings over the normal rate of $49.99/year!

zomgftw Flying Warthog!

Bungie has announced that in Halo:Reach there will be a new vehicle available for Mulitplayer called the Falcon. They've called it the "Warthog of the Skies." Needless to say, I'm excited. I have to assume BeerMonkeee and OmniscientDeath are too.

No official clan night this week

Local poker conflict, but some of us may be on later sporadically.

You Can Still Be a Hero

Many props go out to OD and BeerMonkeee for joining me in ODST Firefight on Wednesday. We did our small part in Bungie's campaign to raise money and awareness for Haiti earthquake relief. Apparently though, the Halo community at large is as apathetic as this clan is, and they didn't reach their maximum goal of players. If you couldn't motivate to log a few minutes of on-line game time this week to help the devastation in Haiti, you still have time to buy a t-shirt in the Bungie store to contribute to the relief effort

Haiti Relief Tonight. 9pm PT. H3/ODST

We'll be on-line tonight to support Haiti relief efforts. Join in at 9pm.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT.

By default, we will be playing Left 4 Dead 2 unless there is a request to get some H3 or ODST practice in before the Haiti relief sessions on Wed/Thu. For L4D2, I think I'd like to setup some Scavenge games this week to break up the monotony. We'll need to balance teams though, because OD and GT are clearly huge handicaps.

Send Relief to Haiti for Free

Bungie has announced that it will donate $100 to the Red Cross Haiti relief effort for every thousand people that play Halo 3 or ODST this Wednesdady or Thursday. All you have to do is play on-line with the special heart emblem. This is how you set it:

o Press START
o Select “SETTINGS” / “APPEARANCE”
o Select “EMBLEM”
o Select “Hearts” ICON, “Circle” BACKGROUND
o Back out to the APPEARANCES menu and select “COLORS”
o Set “EMBLEM PRIMARY” to RED (or MAROON / BRICK / ROSE depending on which game you’re playing!)
o Set “EMBLEM SECONDARY” to WHITE

OmniscientDeath and I will be on-line to help people with achievements if folks would like to play. If you are interested, leave a comment here and I'll schedule ODST foursomes or H3 teams. There's still tons of achievements to get. As a clan, we've only completed 56% of the ODST achievements. Here are the rarest achievements for our clan that you could get this week:

• Be Like Marty (Only 1 player has this besides OD and GT)
• Firefight: Last Exit (1 player)
• Firefight: Security Zone (1 player)
• Both Tubes (2 players)
• Firefight: Chasm Ten (2 players)
• Firefight: Lost Platoon (2 players)
• Firefight: Windward (2 players)
• Laser Blaster (2 players)
• Stunning! (2 players)
• Vidmaster Challenge: Deja Vu (2 players)
• Vidmaster Challenge: Endure (2 players)

If you'd like to help the Haiti effort through a different way, you can purchase a special ODST t-shirt through Bungie and 100% of proceeds will go to the Red Cross. That t-shirt is available here.

Cohesion BandBox Product Review

Most everyone has Rock Band or Guitar Hero now. Though fun, these games come with a lot of plastic crap that takes up a ton of space. What to do? The Cohesion BandBox is now available on Amazon.com for just over $100, with free shipping that arrives in less than a week! Mine arrived today and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's pretty inconspicuous with a black (assuming fake) leather exterior and a red felt interior. It has room for two regular guitars, drums, mic stand, three mics, and room for other accessories. My new bass guitar even fits with the head piece detached. The BandBox can mount either the Rock Band or the Guitar Hero drums, and stows it all very nicely.

There are really only two things to note. First, though the BandBox does allow you to mount the drums directly as shown in the picture, you have to detach the drums to fold them back into the box. That's not as convenient because you basically have to assemble the drums every time you want to use them, but it's a workable solution. The other item is that the box is pretty heavy, especially with all the gear inside. I'll be mounting casters to the bottom of mine to make it roll, but otherwise it'll be a drag to move around.

There is another product called the AK Rock Box that actually has a drum lift so that drums come up and out of the box. That'd be cooler, but it hasn't been available for retail anywhere I've been able to see in quite some time. It's also a good deal more expensive.

Free XBL Gold for L4D2

This weekend from 5pm GMT Friday, January 15th to 5pm on Sunday the 18th, Microsoft is upgrading Silver accounts to Gold for Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer. Doesn't really apply to anybody in the clan, but folks would be able to play split screen with guests and enable voice chat for everyone. Leave a comment here if interested in gaming this weekend.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Dark Carnival so that folks can work on clown achievements.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Happy new year, kiddies. Brains as usual this week. Taking nominations for versus campaigns.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Looks like there's still a few people around, so clan night at the usual time tonight. Braaaaiiiiiinnnsss.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Starting a little later tonight since my family is in town.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Sorry for the late post. Crazy couple of days. We'll start with Hard Rain on Versus tonight.

Halo: Reach World Premier

A teaser cutscene was released at the Spike Video Game Awards last night and shows some footage of Halo: Reach which is due out next year. Everyone who bought ODST will be invited to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta, so you should have some interest at least. Sadly, the trailer looks to be just a cutscene with no in-game footage. But based on Bungie past precedence, this is all ostensibly rendered using the game engine itself, which looks pretty solid. Check it out here.

Finally, #1

It's taken several years, but I have finally surpassed FishBone10 in achievement points to claim the #1 spot in the clan. FishBone10 has 21,786 points from 86 games (253 pts/game). I now have 21,835 points from 43 games (508 pts/game). w00t!

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

We'll be starting on Dark Carnival and will continue on Hard Rain if there is time.

Xbox 360 Hardware Failures

Despite it supposedly being based on the newer and much more reliable "Falcon" platform, my latest Xbox 360 Elite (purchased 9/08) has failed with the Red Ring of Death (RRoD). This just a few weeks after OmniscientDeath's Xbox 360 Elite failed with the E74 error (previously blogged about here and here). If this happens to you, there a couple of options.

Option 1: Microsoft. Microsoft has extended the warranty for these two specific issues to 3 years from the date of purchase. You can go to the website and process a return painlessly and relatively quickly. It's free of charge, costs nothing upfront, and a new Xbox is generally delivered to your doorstep in 2-4 weeks.

Option 2: Best Buy Product Replacement Plan. Some of you may still have the "old" PRP in effect. Typically costs 15-20% of the purchase price up front and lasts for 2 years. You can choose at any time to exchange your Xbox 360 for a new one for any reason (broken or not), or receive original purchase price back. This has proven to be lucrative as Xboxes have dropped in price, meaning that you have been able to get new hardware every two years with the price drop typically covering the cost of a new PRP and then some. Service can be requested over the phone or in store.

Option 3: Best Buy Geek Squad Black Tie Protection (Gadgets and Gizmos). This has replaced the old PRP and has significant differences from the PRP for E74 and RRoD failures. Specifically for these two failures, Best Buy will not do anything over the phone, instead referring you directly to Microsoft...i.e., the plan is worthless. If you bring your Xbox into the store, they will verify the error and then handle it via "Rapid Exchange." In short, this means they send your Xbox off-site for service, and then a refurbished one is sent back to the store in a few weeks. This is the exact same service as from Microsoft, except that it costs money, and your console is shipped to a Best Buy store instead of to your house. If you manage to get four Rapid Exchanges in the two year service period, then they will replace your Xbox with a new one or give you "fair market value" in a gift card. i.e., you will not get purchase price back like with the old PRP, you will get whatever the Xbox is worth at the time.

For those of you that got conned into buying the new Gadgets and Gizmos service plan, I recommend not telling the customer service agent what the problem is if you have an E74 or RRoD problem. If you are more vague and say "it freezes" or "won't boot" instead, they more often than not will not try to reproduce it and will just give you a new Xbox to take home instead of the stupid Rapid Exchange process. You can keep your old hard drive, but they will keep the new hard drive themselves in that case.

Dark Carnival Next Week

We'll be starting with Dark Carnival in Versus mode for clan night next week if you want to know which maps you should be learning. If there is time (as there has been the last two weeks), we'll play a second round on Hard Rain.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

We'll be starting on the Swamp Fever level for Versus fun.

Top Black Friday Deal for this Clan

For those of you haven't hit the retail centers yet, here's some incentive:

1. Left 4 Dead 2 at Best Buy for $34.99, in-store only remaining
   
2. Left 4 Dead 2 at Amazon.com for $39.99 with free shipping
   
3. Halo 3 ODST at Best Buy for $39.99 with free shipping

Gobble gobble.

Swamp Fever Next Week

For next week's clan night, we'll be playing Swamp Fever first. This gives you some time over the holiday to play and learn the maps.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. L4D2.

As posted yesterday, clan night tonight will start with Versus on the Dead Center campaign.

Dead Center This Week

For those of you wondering how to invest your time practicing, we'll be starting Versus on Dead Center in L4D2 for clan night this week. This is your 36 hour notification. Go learn the map.

ODST Road to Recon

If you've looked in your Xbox Live inbox lately, you may have noticed that I have finished the Road to Recon and unlocked the coveted Halo 3 Recon Armor. Far and away the hardest achievement in this quest is Vidmaster: Endure which requires completion of the Firefight 4th set on Heroic difficulty with four players. The recommended map for this achievement is Alpha Site due to its strategic geometry, but it's still really hard and takes over 2 hours to complete. The 4th set activates the Mythic and Famine skulls, in addition to almost every other skull available. That means enemies are extra hard to kill, they all have shields, and ammo is extremely scarce. Completing this requires precision team work and smart kills using ALL the tips outlined in previously in this blog. You must use the correct weaponry on each specific enemy, or you will waste ammo, run out, and be left defenseless. In my opinion, one of the leading indicators of how effective a player is in Firefight is their points per kill stat. This stat is higher for players who are streakier (Killing Spree), get harder kills (Brute Chieftain), get better kills (headshots), get kills on higher difficulties (Heroic) and with more skulls activated (Mythic). Here's some key stats for the active players in the clan. Useful for picking Firefight team mates and looking for ways to improve your own game. Leave a comment here if you're looking for folks to play with. OmniscientDeath and myself are up for gaming most nights of the week after 10pm.

Left 4 Dead 2 Weapon and Items Primer

Since most people will be jumping in cold for clan night tonight, here's a few tips from my midnight play testing to help you get started.

Pistols: L4D2 has the familiar single and dual pistols from the first game, but also introduces the single-wield only Magnum (pictured). Though the Magnum deals 120% more damage per round than the regular pistol and has longer range, my recommendation for pistol users is to still go with dual-wielded regular pistols. The overall damage per second of dual pistols is 54% higher than a single Magnum.

SMGs: There are tier-1 SMGs available in the game, the regular Uzi and the silenced MAC-10. They are very similar, but the silenced SMG is slightly superior. It can be spotted by the large silencer barrel on the front.

Assault Rifles: There are three ARs available in the game, the standard rifle (based on the M16), the "desert rifle" (based on the SCAR) and the AK-47. The M16 has the highest continuous rate of fire, the desert rifle fires in continuous 3-shot bursts, and the AK-47 deals out the most damage and damage per second. All three weapons are very effective, but the AK-47 is probably the best of the three in this game. It can be identified on the ground by its distinctive banana clip. Players should be careful when grabbing ARs, especially the M16, because the the HK41 sniper rifle looks very similar.

Shotguns: There are actually two tier 1 shotguns and two tier 2 shotguns in the game. The tier 1 shotguns come in standard pump action and "chrome" variants, both are nearly identical and just like the ones from L4D1. Tier 2 offers the familiar "auto shotgun" and a new "combat shotgun" based on the SPAS12. These can be identified by their pistol grip configurations, the combat shotgun found with no shoulder stock. Both tier 2 shotguns function nearly identically and both are good choices for shotgun users. They deal massive and fast damage but trade-off longish reload times. Easily the weapon of choice for Tanks.

Sniper guns: There are two sniper rifles available in L4D2, both function very similarly with the new "sniper rifle" holding more ammo. That's almost irrelevant though, because ammo is rarely a concern for snipers. Players should be careful when grabbing ARs, especially the M16, because the the HK41 sniper rifle looks very similar.

Melee weapons: There are several new melee weapons in L4D2, including the baseball bat, cricket bat, nightstick, crowbar, electric guitar, fireaxe, frying pan, katana, machete and tonfa. They function fairly similarly, with the guitar, fireaxe, frying pan and katana dealing the most damage per blow. Surprisingly, the frying pan deals the most damage over time since it has the fastest animation and re-fire speed. It can most often be found in kitchens. Note that a melee weapon replaces your pistol, so is not a great choice for pistol users, but is good for those who often run out of ammo because they prefer not to use the infinite ammo pistol.

Special weapons: There are at least two special weapons available in the chainsaw and the grenade launcher. Neither are reloadable, but both are *extremely* satisfying to use. I recommend enjoying the carnage that they can deal out. Achievements are available for both special weapons.

Items: L4D2 brings back pipe bombs, molotovs, health packs, and pain pills. It also adds Boomer Bile (which attracts the horde to the space or object hit), adrenaline (which makes you do run and perform actions faster) and defib units (which allow you to revive dead players). Team coordination and item choice becomes even more important now. Boomer Bile is a "thrown item" and goes in the same space as pipe bombs or molotovs. Adrenaline shares a space with pain pills, and defib units share a space with health packs. You can only care only item in each space.

Weapon upgrades: Finally, there are three weapon upgrades available to the survivors - Incendiary ammunition, explosive ammunition, and laser sight. They pretty much do what they say they do. I've only seen the laser sight in practice, which attaches to the gun you put it on - does not transfer between weapons if you pick up a new gun. They appear on the level in weapon crates like the image pictured on the left.

Clan night tonight. Left 4 Dead 2. 8pm PT.

Standard clan time. New clan game. Expect 4v4 Versus on The Parish. That's the campaign that has been available in the demo for a few weeks now, so those that did their homework will have an advantage on day 1. Braaaaaains.

As usual with L4D clan games, first 8 folks in get to play. If you join late, I will try to message or chat with you to give you some idea of when availability might open up. But if I ignore you, it is because we are totally full and unlikely to be adding anybody soon.

Left 4 Dead 2 Releases Tonight

The highly anticipated sequel the brain munching fun of last year's game drops at midnight tonight. My local Gamestop will be doing a midnight release, but according to Valve, some stores may be releasing it as early as 9pm PT. Check with your local dealer for details. I'll most likely be on for a bit playing around in the game to check it out if you'd like to join in.

Captured at BeerMonkeee's house

Explains why his headsets never seem to work. Click for huge. Reposted from Hawty McBloggy.

No clan night tonight

A bunch of people are out, and I have the flu. L4D2 drops in 7 days, leave a comment here if you have an opinion on what we should play next week.

Grifball Double EXP Weekend is Live

Grifball is back. Good time to get some achievements.

Left 4 Dead 2 Demo

If you had any doubts about whether or not to get L4D2, a demo was just released so you can try it out ahead of time. I've already pre-ordered my copy.

Click her to download to your Xbox directly.

Clan night tonight. 8:30pm PT. Halo 3/ODST

Sorry for the delayed start time the past couple of weeks. I have a new (slow) customer in China and we have calls from 7-8pm PT. As they get smarter, I should be able to bring clan night back to 8pm. If you're going to participate in clan night, please try to be on-time. These are the kind of game types we can play with the number of people on-line:

1. Pocket pool
2. ODST campaign
3. Firefight 200k Slow
   
4. Firefight 200k Fast, Endure, Deja Vu
5. Social Slayer, Social Skirmish, Team Mythic
6. Ranked Big Squad
7. Social Big Team
8. Social Big Team, Team Mythic for Achievements, 2x Firefight

They are all fun game types, but game types for 4 and 8 players are the most popular. That means when we have 5-7 players, we're always trying to get to 4 or 8. We don't want to kick people out of the party if we have 5 players, so it's better if the 3 players who sign on late get on-line on-time so we can have 8 at the same time.

Halo Waypoint

There will be an update coming out to the Xbox Live dashboard later this week. It includes support for Facebook, Twitter, Zune, as well as Halo Waypoint. I've been playing with these features for about a week now in the Beta test program and they're pretty cool. The Facebook app has a really slick photos interface that is actually cleaner than the native photo interface on the Facebook website. Halo Waypoint is a cool new destination for all things Halo and includes a bunch of "Waypoint Achievements." While these aren't new achievements for your gamerscore, they are based on the in-game achievements from Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST. Unlocking Waypoint Achievements leads to Avatar awards. You can check out my avatar on Xbox Live to see what's available. As you can see from the in-set graphic, I've already maxed out my Waypoint career, but presumably, most of you will have things you can still unlock when Waypoint goes live for the world.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo 3: ODST

Note the slightly later start time. 9pm kids.

No official clan night tonight

Local event conflict, so no official clan night tonight. Would be a good night to sync up ad-hoc for some ODST Firefight. Here are gamertags to look for tonight:

• Beer4Porter
• darknorpo
• FishBone10
• MEAN MR MONKEY
• Mean Mrs Monkey
• Octurian Poon
• UnsavorySamurai

If any of these are not on your friends list, I recommend you add them. Feel free to use the comments section on this post to try and pre-coordinate a meet up time.

Fiesta Double EXP Weekend

For those of you who missed out on your achievements last weekend with Grifball, there's another opportunity to mop up some achievements this weekend with Fiesta Double EXP weekend. It's a FFA playlist that requires the Mythic disk with Slayer, King, Oddball and Juggernaut gametypes. Some of the achievements that should be relatively attainable this weekend:

• Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch - Got the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
• Killtacular - On a Mythic map, got a Killtacular during a ranked or social match.
• ... Get the Horns - On a Mythic map, got a Bulltrue medal during a ranked or social match.
• Blades of Fury - On Heretic, got a Sword Spree during a ranked or social match.
• Ghost Patrol - On Longshore, got 3 kills with a Ghost during a ranked or social match.
• Awww, Too Bad - On a Mythic map, got a Killjoy medal during a ranked or social match.
• Pull - On Citadel, get a Shotgun Spree during any ranked or social match.
• Alas, Poor Yorick - On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
• Hammer Time - On Assembly, get 5 Hammer kills during any ranked or social match.
• Save This Film - On a Mythic map, get a Perfection medal during any ranked or social match.

Vidmaster Challenge: Deja Vu

Some of us are working on this achievement. Here's a pretty good video walking through how to get it.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo 3: ODST.

Happy anniversary to Mean Mr. and Mrs. Monkey. If they choose to spend their anniversary gaming, it's their choice of game types.

Piff! Paff! Puff!

Re-posted from Hawty McBloggy:

Halo fanatic John, better known in the gaming world as gtdroptop, loves his video games, so much in fact that he often coordinates his schedule around many of the bigger releases. Needless to say neither John nor his wife were surprised when their doctor informed them their baby girl was conceived on September 24, 2007 (which, not so coincidentally, was the day before Halo 3 launched). His friends are more than aware of, and equally share, his dedication to gaming so close buddy OmniscientDeath got the brilliant idea of making him special birthday treats that reflect that passion. Crafted primarily from butter, marsh-mallows, and annoyingly vocal breakfast cereal, these delectable Xbox 360 controller-shaped Rice Krispies treats feature M&Ms for buttons and upside down Hershey’s Kisses for thumbsticks. Hopefully they didn’t eat these suckers while they were actually gaming though. Otherwise their controllers may be even stickier than normal.

Covenant Vehicles

You will encounter several different varieties of Covenant in each Firefight match. Each one has its strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness. Some levels have vehicles that appear, here's a detailed breakdown of the different ships:

The Phantom dropship is the Covenant equivalent of a Pelican and transports big groups of infantry. It can also deploy Hunters, Ghosts and Wraiths. The Phantom has a main plasma turret in front, and two smaller turrets manned by Grunts or Brutes on either side. The recommendation is to take cover when Phantoms are in bound. Their turrets are devastating, and can destroy vehicles as well as destructible cover. Though they can be killed in Campaign, they are indestructible in Firefight, so there's no point in wasting ammo on them. The Grunts or Brutes in the turrets can be killed, and the main turret can be taken out with a Spartan laser. The ship itself can not be destroyed, and no other troops inside the body of the Phantom can be hurt until they leave the ship. The only time it makes sense to try and take out the turret is during the Bonus Round on Lost Platoon where the Grunts are deployed underneath it and it doesn't leave. In this case, you have to take out the turret to be able to get at the Grunts. The only other time it makes sense to not immediately take cover is on Alpha Site if the Phantom is deploying troops on the landing pad. In that instance, you can attack the landing infantry from the cover of a fairly small doorway without taking fire from the turret. Phantoms are not worth any points even if you do manage to find a way to kill it.

The Wraith is the main Covenant battle tank. It has an anti-air variant, but that does not appear in Firefight. The regular Wraith lobs huge balls of plasma across long distances and can cover the entire battlefield. On a level like Security Zone, the Wraiths will zero in on anybody camping a stationary turret and kill them almost instantly. Though they do not have to be killed to pass a wave, it is recommended that you try and take them out because of the massive damage they inflict and the general chaos caused by plasma bombs. One Spartan laser shot will usually kill them, as well as a two human rockets. The Fuel Rod cannon is not incredibly effective. Without large weapons, Wraiths can also be boarded and killed with a single grenade. They do come with a Brute in the turret however, so it can be tricky for a single player to get close enough to a Wraith to board it. Two players can play diversion and attack more effectively. Using an overcharged plasma pistol is a very effective way of immobilizing the Wraith so that an ODST on foot can catch it. It can be boarded from either the front or the back. The Wraiths in Halo 3 ODST can not be commandeered for your own use.

The Covenant Ghost is a light attack vehicle with two plasma cannons in front and a turbo boost mode that is very effective at splattering enemies and escaping from trouble. In Halo 3 ODST, it is piloted by Grunts or Brutes. When Ghosts appear, you are not generally required to kill them to pass the wave. They can be commandeered for use and are good for splattering otherwise difficult to kill enemies. They can be killed with any heavy weapon quickly, can be flipped using a Brute Shot, can be stuck with grenades, but are pretty resilient against light arms like the pistol, SMG, plasma guns, etc. The driver is fairly exposed however, and can be taken out with light arms. Like all vehicles, an overcharged plasma pistol shot will immobilize it. In vehicle to vehicle combat, the Ghost will lose out in head-on collisions with any other vehicle that appears in Halo 3 ODST.

The Brute Chopper is a heavier armored attack vehicle that appears on Lost Platoon. It is virtually indestructible from the front due to its massive armor, but is pretty well exposed in the back. It has very poor maneuverability, but it's two front cannons can take out anything on thet map. Its massive front wheel will also mow down anything it splatters. It can not ram a Wraith successfully on its own, but it will drive right through a Warthog, Ghost, turret or any infantry. The best way to take out Brute Choppers is in a Warthog by getting behind it. The Warthog is much more maneuverable so you can zoom past a Chopper and do a handbrake turn to spin around well before the Chopper can react. Brute Choppers can be commandeered and can be very effective.

The last enemy vehicle that appears in Firefight is the Covenant Banshee. It appears on Alpha Site and is little more than a nuisance. It can not be commandeered, can not be boarded, and is not a required kill to finish each wave. It is piloted by a Brute, has two plasma cannons as well as a fuel rod cannon that it can use to launch plasma bombs. It is very difficult, though not impossible, to kill with light arms fire. It is too maneuverable to kill with most heavy weapons. It can be killed with the Spartan laser, but the laser does not appear on Alpha Site. The best way to take out Banshees is with a **mounted** missile pod. Though it only takes two missiles to kill a Banshee, they are very evasive in Firefight, so it may take 10-15 missiles to actually hit it. A detached missile pod only holds 8 and then doesn't respawn until the next round. When the Banshee is flying over the chasm, it can be killed by disabling it with an overcharged plasma pistol shot and letting it fall into the abyss.

Covenant Support Troops

You will encounter several different varieties of Covenant in each Firefight match. Each one has its strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness. Besides basic infantry and Brutes, there are some other characters to be aware of:

Drones (or buggies) are deployed in packs of 10 or more and are difficult to track down because they buzz around in the air erratically. They do not wear armor and can be killed with a single headshot, but it is difficult to do so because they are so mobile. Their bodies can take a decent amount of damage, so a pack of drones can chew up ammo quickly. Precision weapons (human pistol, Covenant carbine, sniper rifles) are generally ineffective because of the headshot difficulty. Heavy weapons (Fuel Rod, rocket launcher, laser) are ineffective because they are fast moving and there's too many. The silenced SMG and plasma rifle are your best handheld weapons, but given the choice, a mounted machine gun turret is easily the best option. Standard Drones carry plasma pistols. Drones can also come in the leader variety, which have a different armor color and carry the Covenant carbine. Drone Leaders are a good deal harder to kill, and effectively invulnerable when protected by an Engineer.

That brings us to Engineers. Engineers only appear in Firefight on Chasm Ten. You can always tell an Engineer is somewhere nearby because all the Covenant will suddenly appear shiny from their Overshields. The Engineers provide this shield to allies nearby, but it has a limited effective radius, so you can usually guess where the Engineer is. It floats in the air and will tend to drift away from fire. It can take massive amounts of damage from all weapons before it dies. The fastest way to kill an Engineer is with a single overcharged plasma pistol shot. One shot is all it takes, except when the harder skulls are on. At most, it should only take two overcharged plasma shots. When an engineer is present, you should make that your #1 priority because it makes all other enemies several orders of magnitude harder to kill. Some are effectively impossible. Engineers do not carry weapons, but they do eject exploding shrapnel when they die, so be aware.

Hunters appear on every Firefight level. They are deployed more as mobile tanks than as heavy infantry. They carry a plasma weapon similar to the Fuel Rod cannon that is permanently attached to their right arm. They also have a double lunge attack that can be devastating and is difficult to sidestep because of the secondary backswing attack after the first lunge. Their heavy armor and shield makes them impervious to most weapons. They do have a weaker area in back represented by the orange coloring on their mid-back. On lower levels, two plasma grenades or 2-4 human sniper rounds to this area will kill a Hunter. 1-1 on however, it is difficult to expose a Hunter's backside, so it's best to take them on teams of 2. On higher levels, it may take several grenades and signficant ammo to take one down. For Hunters, the best weapons are the human rocket launcher or Spartan laser, when available. Because their weapon is permanently attached, they do not drop anything when killed.

Covenant Brutes

You will encounter several different varieties of Covenant in each Firefight match. Each one has its strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness. Brutes are prevalent in the Halo 3: ODST story line, and are the most common "tough" enemies in Firefight. Here's a detailed breakdown of the different Brutes:

Regular Brutes generally travel with a pack of four Grunts. They may carry almost any weapon, but commonly the red Brute Plasma Rifle, and the Brute Shot which launches frag grenades. They wear light armor which must be taken down before they can be killed. The armor is instantly neutralized with an overcharged plasma pistol shot. It will be apparent that the Brute has lost its armor because it will go into rage mode where it yells for a moment, and then starts charging and jumping at anything nearby. It is best to try and get a headshot immediately after the armor has been removed, as that is the easiest time. Headshots are easiest with the human pistol and Covenant carbine. The human silenced SMG can also work, but is less effective. The armor of a regular brute is stickable, so plasma grenades and spiker grenades are also effective. The Brute Plasma Rifle is effective against drones, so is useful to pickup at times. Brutes generally carry (and drop) spiker grenades (especially when the Catch skull is on).

Jump Pack Brutes are obviously distinguished by the fact that they have jump packs and can fly. They are usually armed with the Covenant carbine as well as spiker grenades, like the regular Brutes. Their armor isn't special, so the same combination of an overcharged plasma pistol shot followed by a headshot still works. Both plasma and spiker grenades work as well. Their jump packs are effective until they are killed, so they can still jump around even after their armor has been disabled.


There are three types of special Brutes. They all wear the special Brute headdress pictured on the left, but they have fairly different properties. The first is a Brute Leader. Brute Leaders wear the headdress, have blue armor, and travel with other infantry. They don't carry special weapons, and will be armed with a normal Brute weapon like a Brute plasma rifle, Brute shot, or Covenant carbine. Though they wear the Brute Leader headdress, their armor is not special and they can be killed with the same combo or grenades as a regular Brute.

The second special type is a Brute Hero. Brute Heroes wear the headdress, but have special armor and carry a Fuel Rod cannon. A Brute Hero will not be accompanied by smaller infantry, and will typically hang out in the back of the battlefield and lob Fuel Rod bombs from far away. They have special armor which is NOT disabled with an overcharged plasma pistol shot, and all grenades will bounce off of them. Their armor can take MASSIVE damage, so it is totally pointless to try and shoot them. They are most efficiently killed with a single melee to the back. If there are two players, one player can distract them while the other gets behind for the melee. If you are by yourself, you can get into close quarters. When up close, the Brute Hero will not fire his Fuel Rod cannon due to splash damage and will instead try to lunge at you. The lunge is predictable and can be sidestepped. The Brute Hero will pause at the end of his lunge when he goes past, leaving you a window just long enough to melee him to the back. Sidestepping is better than jumping, because jumping takes too long. The Fuel Rod cannon that the Hero drops is an awesome weapon in Firefight and is great at taking out big groups of infantry.

The final special type is the Brute Chieftain. The Brute Chieftain has the headdress, gold armor, but is most obviously distinguished by the huge gravity hammer that it carries. Like the Brute Hero, it's armor is basically indestructible. Also like the Brute Hero, the best way to kill a Chieftain is a melee to the back. It's a little trickier with the Chieftain because the splash effect of the gravity hammer can knock you too far away to get in a melee. In this case, jumping to avoid his lunge is almost always ineffective because of the gravity hammer splash effect. Sidestepping still works, but it is easier to take out Chieftains in teams of two. The gravity hammer that the Chieftain drops is one of the best weapons in Firefight.

Covenant Characters

You will encounter several different varieties of Covenant in each Firefight match. Each one has its strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness. Here's a detailed breakdown of the common infantry:

The Grunt is the most common enemy in all of Halo. They wield plasma pistols and needlers, and also carry plasma grenades, especially when the Catch skull is on. Because they have no armor, they are most efficiently killed with a single headshot. Use the human pistol, or Covenant carbine. The human pistol is slightly easier to get headshots with, but has less range and less ammo than the carbine. On the earlier levels, Grunts can be killed with a single melee. The Grunt also comes in a "suicide" variety, where it will light a plasma grenade in each hand and charge at you. The grenades will not blow up until it gets close, you kill it, or you throw another grenade at it. Grunts usually travel in groups of four with a Brute or SpecOps Grunt in back. They will turn and run scared if the leader is killed however, which makes killing them harder because their head is no longer exposed. It is most efficient to kill the Grunts first and then work on the leader, Grunts are slow and will often lend themselves to a string of headshots by funneling single-file through a walkway. Grunts are very useful in Firefight because they drop lots of plasma pistols which are of critical importance.

In Firefight, there are also SpecOps Grunts which perform special tasks. They can be identified by a different armor color, but are more easily identified by the weapon they are carrying. They are most devastating when carrying a Fuel Rod cannon, the Covenant equivalent of the human rocket launcher. SpecOps Grunts can also man turrets or drive Ghosts. They are no different than regular Grunts however, in that they can be killed with a single headshot. When carrying a Fuel Rod cannon, SpecOps Grunts should be a targeting priority because they are easy to kill but can inflict massive damage. SpecOps Grunts will tend to linger in the background, lobbing damage from afar.

Jackals are easily distinguished by their very distinct round energy shield. They most often carry plasma pistols. They travel in packs of four and tend to run relatively quickly. Though they can be killed with a single headshot, they are hard to kill while running because their head moves a lot. They are most easily killed when they have taken a defensive position and hide behind their shield. The shield can take tons of bullets without damage, so don't bother. The shield can be destroyed with a single overcharged plasma pistol round, which will stun the Jackal and enable a clear headshot. The shield also has a notch which the Jackal uses to shoot through. A single shot through the notch will also stun the Jackal, causing it to stand up and also enable a clear headshot. In either case, it should only take two shots to kill a jackal.

Jackals also come in a Jackal Sniper variant. Snipers do not carry shields, and can be found at distance by looking for the blue dot of their night vision goggles. In Firefight, a foursome of regular Jackals will tend to be accompanied by a Jackal Sniper carrying a Covenant carbine or Beam Rifle. Because the Jackal Sniper does not carry a shield, it is easily killed with a single headshot. The Jackal Sniper should be prioritized over the regular Jackals in its group because it's the easiest to kill, but can do the most damage with its ranged weapon. On some Firefight levels, Jackal Snipers will spawn in high perches and continually pepper your team with sniper fire. Though they are not required to pass the wave, it is a good idea to take care of them so you don't have to worry about death from above. The Covenant carbine they carry is useful if you run out of pistol ammo. The Beam Rifle may be useful depending on situations.

Firefight Tips Round 2

Time for some more awesome Firefight tips. Read these and take them to heart, or get berated by me in-game. Remember that Firefight is designed to be resource scarce, so if you're a jackhole with the resources, you are directly affecting your teammates.

Understanding supply drops. When you hear the announcer say "Five enemies remaining," that means your team is about to finish a round. There are three rounds per set, and five waves per round. At the end of every round, every player's health and stamina is automatically restored, weapon lockers are filled up, detached turrets are restored, and health packs are replenished. Additionally, all the alien weapons dropped around the map are cleared out for the new round. THIS IS IMPORTANT. When you hear the announcement that there are only five enemies remaining, DO NOT KILL THEM RIGHT AWAY. Fill up on ammo and grab any weapons lying around that you're going to need. When in doubt, check your HUD for the Wave indicator. All five bars need to be filled up to finish a round.

Use health packs sparingly. Each level should start with four health packs. Those health packs have to last all five waves of a round. Remember that your stamina recharges if you stop taking fire, so when your screen turns red, just go hide for a while. It is absolutely inexcusable to use a health pack to restore stamina. Your health (represented by the long horizontal bar below your compass) does not recharge, and it will start to deteriorate if you use up all your stamina and keep taking damage. However, aside from a somewhat annoying beeping, you are in no danger of dying if your health is low, but you let your stamina recharge. In general, it's also a bad idea to use a health pack just to stop the beeping. When should you use a health pack?

1. To keep a streak alive. You get more points the longer kill streak you have. If you're on a long streak and your health is really low, it's not a bad idea to use a health pack.
2. When black eye is on. With the black eye skull on (usually in wave 3), you can only recharge your stamina by melee'ing opponents. This is often a difficult risk-reward proposition, especially when facing drones. If the black eye skull is on, it may be OK to use a health pack. Also, you're halfway through the round at this point, so more health is coming soon.
3. When you're the last man standing. If you're the last one alive, you have to make it to the next wave to bring your teammates back in. In this situation, you should do whatever it takes to stay alive.

Remember: The health packs only respawn after five full waves in each round.

Use ammo wisely. Refer to the previous post with tips about how to take out enemies efficiently. If you empty a rocket launcher on a Brute Chieftain and don't kill him because you could have just hit him on the back of the head without using any ammo, you are hurting your team when you need those rockets for a Wraith or Hunter later on. The tips in that previous post all still apply. Here are some new ones:

• Engineers: One overcharged plasma pistol shot will kill them. You won't see them die instantly, but they will float up and explode within a few moments. Watch out for exploding debris. When the Mythic skull is on, it may take two shots. Engineers should be your #1 priority when you see them because they make all other enemies much harder to kill. Drone leaders, Hunters, and even Brutes become effectively impossible to kill with bullet-based weapons.
• Brute Chieftains: To add on the previous post...Chieftains may carry hammers OR fuel rod cannons. Both variants of Chieftains are immune to the n00b combo (overcharged plasma + head shot) and can sustain MASSIVE damage before dying. Both variants will charge at you in close quarters, however, which allows you to sidestep and hit them on the back of the head for a one-punch, no-ammo kill. There is quite literally no reason to use any ammo AT ALL on Chieftains. Get in close, be quick with your stick, and bop them.
• Banshees: Banshees make an appearance on Windward. The best way to kill them is with a MOUNTED missile pod. There's really no good reason to detach these missile pods on Windward, leaving them attached gives you unlimited ammo so that you can just unload on the Banshees. The Banshees are not required kills to finish a wave, but are a nuisance that should be dealt with.

Learn the spawns. If you understand where the enemies are coming from, you can often wipe them out extremely efficiently. It's typically pretty obvious because enemies will generally come out of "monster doors" or drop down from Phantoms. In both cases, they're start in a tight cluster and can be quickly dispatched with grenade spamming, fuel rods, rockets, or hammers for huge points and medals. As an example, on Windward the Phantoms will often drop off big groups on the landing pads downstairs. Because there's nowhere for the enemies to go but up a very narrow walkway, it only takes one player at the doorway to take out the entire wave. Hello, Killionaire!

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. H3 ODST.

We got a bunch of votes to go into H3 Big Team matchmaking with the big party, so that's what we'll focus on this week. I'll save the achievement whoring for another time unless I get requests for it.