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.