Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. ODST

We'll be playing ODST tonight. Leave a comment here if you have an opinion about what to play within that general category. Your options are:

1. Clan-only matchmaking (like last week): This is the Halo 3 engine but with the new maps. Party chat enabled for parties of 8 or less. Makes boosting for achievements much easier.
2. Open matchmaking: Uses the Halo 3 engine, means we can go into 8v8 Big Team Battle.
3. Small co-op teams: Break out into groups of 3 or 4 for Firefight or Campaign. Lots of achievements available here as well.

Votes here will greatly influence what we play tonight.

ODST Update

For those that haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, buy.com just dropped their price on Halo 3: ODST to $53.99 with free shipping.

A tip for all your working your way through the Campaign: The campaign missions do not have linear memory. What I mean by that is that if you go back and replay a mission somewhere in the beginning or middle of the game, you will LOSE ALL OF YOUR PROGRESS when you return to the mission you left off on. There are six sub-story lines to check off in your objectives. If you go back to replay a mission earlier than your current progress, it will clear your progress on all of those sub-story lines and you will have to do them over again. The final mission will not be available until all six are checked off at the same time.

Solo and co-op campaign progress is tracked separately, so you can replay solo missions without clearing your co-op progress.

ODST Firefight Tips

36 hours after launch, I now have a better feel for Firefight and can provide some tips and tricks. First and foremost is how the mode is structured. The game sends enemies in groups: 5 waves per round, 3 rounds per set, and as many sets as you can survive. The picture on the left shows how the HUD displays your progress. Note that the game will go on forever until you spend all your lives...which is a LONG time on Easy. For some reason, we had a game on Crater end after 3 sets, but that may been a network glitch.

• There are achievements on each level for reaching 200,000 points, so that may be motivation to keep playing that far
• The bonus round after each set lasts 60 seconds, consists only of grunts with all skulls on, deaths do not count against your score, and lives are awarded every 2000 points. One death by anybody ends the round early.
• Some enemies do not have to be killed to finish a round. So far, snipers and Wraiths fall into this category. It's a good idea to take care of them anyway because they're really annoying, but not required to make progress.
  
• Brute Chieftains (gold with hammer): Bait them into charging you in close quarters, sidestep the charge, and hit them on the back of the head.
• All other Brutes: Hit them with an overcharged plasma blast, followed by a headshot. If you don't have a plasma pistol, you need to get their armor off to expose their head to kill them efficiently.
• Hunters: Hit them with bullets in the orange fleshy area on their back. Punching is ineffective.
• Grunts: All can be killed with single headshots. Most can be killed with a single melee unless the harder skulls are on.
• Jackals: Shoot through the notch in their shield to stun them, and then finish with a single headshot.
• Drones: A mounted chaingun that is protected in the back by teammates is the most cost effective way to deal with drones. Otherwise they suck up all your ammo for poor return in points and health.
• Wraith: Beware the Brute in the turret. One way to kill a Wraith is with an overcharged plasma shot and then boarding to kill with a grenade. An alternative is to hit the weak spot on the very back of the tank.

I will be on most, if not all, nights this week after 10pm PT to play campaign and Firefight. Be on by 10pm if you'd like to join in, otherwise you'll probably have to wait for us to reach a stopping point to join in.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. H3: ODST

FishBone10 and Beer4Porter helped me to break in H3: ODST's new Firefight mode right after the midnight launch. And it is FUN! Even though I scored over half of our team's points, I do have to recommend their generous assistance in my "Invincible" medal (kill 100 enemies without dying). Some housekeeping items:

• Insert your Campaign disc for Campaign, Firefight, and to customize your character for ODST
  
• Under Settings/Appearance, change your EMBLEM to your H3 number.
• In the same area, change your SERVICE TAG to something related to your gamertag.

If 4 or less folks show up, I'll kick off the first games in Firefight on the Campaign disc. Once we have more than 4, I'll move us into custom games on the Multiplayer disc. In >4 player multiplayer, we'll run custom games on the brand new Mythic maps (Heretic, Citadel and Longshore).

Below are the assigned emblems (carried from H3) and some recommended service tags. Your service tag is what people see above your head as you run around the map. Since we have 4 characters to work with now, you should pick something that will quickly remind people of your gamertag and who you are.

• gtdroptop: " GT ", 0
• BeerMonkeee: "BMNK", 1
• TimMAY 1023: "TIMA", 2
• CoolerSopranos2: "CULR", 3
• OmniscientDeath: "OMNI", 4
• FragginURdoodz: "DOOD", 5
• FishBone10: "FISH", 5
• Beer4Porter: "PORT", 6
• Masher24: "MASH", 7
• Spix: "SPIX", 7
• BeefierBen: "BEEF", 8
• MEAN MR MONKEY: "MR M", 8
• Mean Mrs Monkey: "MRSM", 7
• darknorpo: "NORP", 9
• Dawill0: "WILO", 5
• Octurian Poon: "POON", 7

If you're not listed and need help, let me know.

H3: ODST Midnight Tonight

ODST drops at midnight tonight at selected retailers. I will be on tonight for some Firefight and to try out the new multiplayer maps. Clan night tomorrow night will be H3: ODST.

H3: ODST ViDoc Terra Incognita

A new ViDoc has been posted showing off more details of the environment, visor mode, and the health system. An interesting watch.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo 3.

Starting a little later this week. H3 doesn't take as much time to play and be done with.

Halo 3: ODST More Details

As most folks are aware, Halo 3: ODST releases in less than two weeks on September 22, 2009. This will be our next clan game and will replace Left 4 Dead in mainstream play. I will be starting the game right after the game is released at midnight, leave a comment here if you'd like to join in on the late night gaming session. Here's some more reasons why you should go out and get ODST:

• Multiplayer maps: The ODST versus experience is just an extension to the current Halo 3 matchmaking. There isn't a new system, just three new maps that ship with the game. However, ODST does include all the H3 maps previously released for a total of 24 maps. Therefore, if you didn't purchase the Mythic or Legendary map packs and have been unable to play some of the playlists in matchmaking that require them, you will be able to try them all with the launch of ODST.
• Halo Reach Beta: All copies of ODST will provide access to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta when the beta goes live. As with the H3 multiplayer beta, I would expect this to be a highly coveted invitation.
• Firefight: Players (including myself) have been asking for a way to play a non-campaign co-op mode with their friends against the A.I. ODST delivers on this feature with Firefight, a cooperative multiplayer mode included on the campaign disc that lets up to four people jump into combat. As an ODST squad, you will face increasingly challenging waves of enemies together, striving to earn the highest scores possible, while various Skulls are progressively activated. The reviews suggest this is a more structured approach of increasing difficulty than L4D's Survival mode which just keeps increasing the number of zombies and lowering their spawn time until you die. It does seem possible to reach the end of a round in ODST where a "Bonus" round is unlocked.
  

Clan nigh tonight. 8:30pm PT. Halo 3.

Getting everybody ready for H3: ODST.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo 3.

The Mean Monkeys lost their 360 to the RRoD this week. Because they are the most consistent regulars on clan night, we're going to play H3 tonight instead. I want to play campaign in anticipation of H3: ODST, BeerMonkeee wants to wallow in the matchmaking pool. We're looking for a tiebreaker.

Top Ten Ways To Tell You’re an Older Gamer

Reposted from Hawty McBloggy. I didn't find this all that funny, but maybe that's just because the truth hurts.

• Not only do you insist on watching every single cutscene instead of fervently mashing all the buttons in a hurried attempt to skip them, you instantly yell at and silence anybody who has the audacity to speak during one.

• Fully completing a game requires several playing sessions since you can only log an hour or two at a time due to having to wake up early the next morning for work. Or kids. Or meetings. Or other stuff you don’t want to do.

• Your video game time is almost always scheduled days in advance with reminders penciled in on your calendar. But that’s only if you are lucky enough to acquire your significant other’s permission. And they don’t give you a guilt trip the day of.

• You purchase your favorite video game’s soundtrack and listen to it during your commute, playing through your favorite levels in your head, in order to make up for your lack of actual playing time.

• You no longer pick up video games at midnight launches because you know you will be too tired to actually play it that night. Instead you opt to get it the following morning so you can keep your eyes open long enough to get it in the disc tray.

• You belong to an adult-only gaming community because you’re sick and tired of getting repeatedly humiliated by teenagers less than half your age who only beat you because they still have their lightning fast reflexes intact.

• Half of your vacations involve going to major gaming conventions. The other half are whatever your significant other selected because that’s what you had to agree to in order to go on the other ones.

• You always read the instructions before starting a game, often times spending several minutes studying the control scheme while simultaneously muttering under your breath about how much easier it was back in the days of joysticks and solitary fire buttons. Then you carefully tuck them back in the case because you know you will need a refresher the next time you play.

• You stick to puzzle and sim games when playing in the evening because you find shooters to be too stimulating in the pm hours.

• After immediately turning off any and all music in the options menu, you create your own custom tracklist for titles like Madden that feature modern tunes. Thankfully you realize the music coming out these days is nothing short of a travesty. You hold onto hope that the video game industry will pick up on that eventually too.

No clan night this week

Outside conflict for many of us. Rest your thumbs this week.

H3: ODST in the Bay Area 8/25-26

Microsoft, Bungie and Gamestop have just announced that they will be doing a promotional tour to show off H3: ODST before the official launch date. They will be here in the Bay Area on August 25 and 26. I'm almost tempted to go, but am annoyed that the "San Jose" location is actually in Antioch, almost 80 miles from San Jose. The San Francisco location is actually close to San Jose than the "San Jose" location. wtf. Of course, the San Francisco location also isn't actually in SF. It's in Union City, which is probably the better of the two. Leave a comment here if you want to go check it out!

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

What a clan night last week with a full 4v4 versus game! Good times.

L4D DLC in September

Valve is releasing a DLC pack next month for L4D that includes new campaign content, as well as a new "Crash" multi-player mode. Though it will be free on the PC, it will be 560 points on Xbox Live (around $7 US). With H3: ODST dropping on September 22 and L4D2 coming out in November, I don't see any reason why somebody would go and buy this, but interesting tidbit nonetheless.

Thx OmniscientDeath for the tip.

Clan nighit tonight. 9pm PT. Left 4 Dead.

Note that I'm scheduling for an hour later than normal this week.

Xbox Live is pushing a system-wide update to all consoles today. Among the dozens of new features, it includes the ability to purchase full Xbox 360 games on-demand through XBL, access the entire Netflix on-line library on demand (not just the movies in your Instant Queue), watch Netflix movies together in a party, and an improved party system that automatically reconnects people that get dropped.

There is a download involved, so depending on your connection speed, it may take some time to update. Give yourself at least 15 minutes for the update, so take the extra hour before clan night this week to update your Xbox.

H3: ODST Gameplay Trailer

I was playing around with the new Xbox Dashboard and watching some of the H3: ODST videos. I highly recommend checking out the gameplay trailer below. ODST is beautiful. The covies aside, it looks almost nothing like previous Halo games. The HUD is obviously different, but everything is shiny! I'm actually excited to see the game now!

Video Games | Halo 3: ODST | E3 09: Gameplay Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Guitar Hero Expert + 2 Rubiks Cubes

Takes too much free time to an impossibly higher level.

Cal State Student Arrested for Modifying Console

Most people know that you can chip your Xbox for various reasons, but mainly for playing copied games. NBC reported today that a student was arrested for his modding operation.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/tech/Cal-State-Student-Faces-10-Year-Prison-Term-for-Playing-with-Video-Games-52386872.html

Best Strategy Game 2009

http://g4tv.com/gphoria2009/index.html?cat=76

Halo Wars wins G4TV's aware for Best Strategy game this year. w00t! I agree, because I got promoted to Major, lolz.