Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo CEA.

It's the holidays and I know nobody's working.  What's your excuse for not playing?

Patriot Xporter USB Flash On Sale NOW

The Kinect generation of Xbox 360s use USB flash for portable memory instead of the proprietary Microsoft memory cards. Good in theory, except that they have a minimum performance requirement that most USB memory sticks don't meet. The Patriot Xporter XT Rage does meet performance requirements and is what I use to move my gamertag and save games between consoles. On sale at Amazon right now, for hella cheap.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo CEA.

Here's some stats from Waypoint.  Think you're better than me?  Show up and put up.

Gamertag	BPR	Rank	K/D	Challenges	Armory	Commendation
gtdroptop	65	Brigadier	1.21	262	22%	54%
darknorpo	63	Colonel	1.13	174	14%	40%
FishBone10	60	Warrant Officer	1.17	21	11%	16%
Octurian Pewn	57	Colonel	1.10	209	33%	44%
OmniscientDeath	57	Brigadier	1.08	343	12%	57%
BeerMonkeee	55	Captain	1.01	46	11%	24%
Spix	50	Lt. Colonel	0.89	92	41%	41%
CoolerSopranos2	49	Colonel	0.92	255	41%	49%
MEAN MR MONKEY	46	Major	0.92	72	17%	28%
FragginURdoodz	39	Lt. Colonel	0.81	76	14%	40%
TimMAY 1023	38	Sergeant	0.78	3	9%	5%
Beer4Porter	18	Warrant Officer	0.35	4	12%	7%
Mean Mrs Monkey	14	Warrant Officer	0.29	12	10%	7%
Masher24	0	Sergeant	0.86	2	11%	5%
BeefierBen	0	Sergeant	0.00	0	9%	6%
thematthenry	0	Private	0.00	1	8%	0%
UnsavorySamurai	0	Corporal	0.00	0	8%	3%

Can't Say I've Never Considered This

Google engineer builds ultimate LAN party house

"Kenton Varda, a software engineer with Google, moved into his dream home in March but has just now revealed some of the inner workings of the gaming-centered house. On the surface the house appears pretty typical, but when guests are over the space transforms into a haven for gamers. Twelve fold-out PC stations are built into the walls for easy storage and are split between two rooms for team vs. team matches."

http://www.gizmag.com/google-engineer-builds-ultimate-lan-party-house/20833/

Turtle Beach headphones on sale

From OD:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005EEMYCO?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Today only.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo CEA.

I'll be on. You should be too.

Halo BPR

I think this stat has been around for a few months, but the new Halo Waypoint makes it more obvious.  Battle Proficiency Rating (BPR) is a number between 1 and 100 representing a player’s overall skill in Halo: Reach’s Multiplayer mode. This rating tracks your Kills, Wins, Assists, Deaths, and Betrayals across all matches played. You must play at least 10 Invasion, Arena or Competitive games to calculate.   i.e., it's an overall rating of "how good you are."  Interesting to peruse the clan numbers.  :)

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo CEA.

OmniscientDeath will be your host tonight. Look for his games and party starting at 9pm PT.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo CEA.

Look for darknorpo to be hosting games.

Halo CEA Bandana Skull

There are skulls hidden around Halo CEA.  They unlock achievements, but they also modify the game in different ways.  They don't affect your achievements, so some of them can be very useful.  Arguably the most useful is the Bandana skull which gives you unlimited ammo, making those Legendary runs a lot easier.  Also negates the Famine skull to make it easier to get your 3 skull achievement.  Being the most useful, it happens to be the hardest skull to get (so far).  This video makes it a hell of a lot easier:

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo CEA.

I have family staying with me, so playing earlier gives me a good excuse to step away.  Lots of things to go do in CEA, I'll let the first ones on decide what we do.  Be sure to join the Xbox Live chat party.  Remember you can join that even without an invite, so please join even if you see us in an unjoinable game.  Then you can at least talk with us and find out what the plans are.

Halo CEA Reviewed

So we've had a couple of days to play with Halo Combat Evolved: Anniversary edition.  It does appear that you need to download the classic Halo 1 multi-player maps by using the code included in your game.  Some thoughts:

Campaign: It's sad that this is 2 player only, but it's still a pretty fun campaign with great music.  It's gorgeous compared to Halo 1, but I wouldn't say that it's quite "current gen."  Hitting the Back button is neat to see the original graphics.  The Grunt Funeral skull is a game changer, it basically makes killing Elites trivially easy.  Headshot one grunt in the squad, and everyone goes boom.  Also makes it dangerous to melee grunts now.

Firefight: This is satisfyingly fun to play on the Halo 1 campaign maps, and a nice alternative to campaign.  It basically gives you a way to play snippets of the campaign as 4 player co-op, on XBL, with Challenges available.

Multiplayer: This is launched from the Halo CEA disc, but takes you into the Reach matchmaking engine.  The game types and maps prefaced by "Anniversary" are the classic game types and maps.  Beaver Creek was the most familiar, but Damnation and Prisoner showed up several times as well.  Here are averaged clan stats from clan night, some things never change:

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo CEA.

Early clan night for the new game.  Cooler has the delusion that because he was good at Halo 1 10 years ago, that he'll be good in this game.  Over/under for when he quits in frustration is set at 45 minutes.  Achievements on the table:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/halo-ce-anniversary/achievements/

Clan Meeting

As seen on failblog:

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Players choice.

Last week before Halo CEA. I'll let those on first choose what we play. It's Halo Reach by default, but I'm kind of hankering for some Rainbow Six Vegas lately.

Two weeks left

Thanks to OD for the tip.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Halo Anniversary - Exclusive Campaign Trailer, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

iPhone Games

No clan night this week because I'm traveling again.  Sorry I didn't send out a notice last week, was also traveling.  Note that Halo CE: Anniversary will launch in two weeks on clan night, and that we'll be switching to that as the official clan game.  Halo Reach has a beta playlist open in anticipation of Halo CEA if you'd like to try out some of the game mechanics.  My impression is that the pistol does not feel the same.

As an aside, the clan now has critical mobile mass on iPhone.  I think there's an opportunity to expand our gaming platforms.  Here's some games that might be fun to play as a clan on iPhone.  They're all turn-based multi-player, so we can play at our own pace and not be tied to anybody's schedule.  If you're interested, leave a comment on this post and we'll see if we can hit critical mass.  If you have other suggestions, I'm open to those as well.

Uniwar - Cost: $0.99.  UniWar™ is the online multiplayer turn-based strategy game for the iPhone. Up to 8 players take turns building their army and fighting against each other using the strengths of their units while taking advantage of the terrain. It is like chess or checkers but with a lot more possibilities and different boards.  Join several games and move up the ranks to become the top player!  Play anyone, anywhere at anytime!

This game is a classic! It is a blend between Advance Wars and StarCraft. Also in the same genre as Lux DLX on the iPhone but with a real online multiplayer mode added. Whether you are looking for an RTS or RPG, UniWar will satisfy your needs.

Carcassonne - Cost: $9.99.  Play the original award winning board game Carcassonne with friends, family, or other board game enthusiasts - online or offline.

Build a medieval landscape, tile by tile, claim landmarks with your followers and score points. As a winner of the prestigious "Spiel des Jahres" award in 2001, the game allows for a plethora of play styles and strategies. If you like social gaming or board games you will love Carcassonne! Supports up to 5 people.

Settlers of Catan - Cost $4.99.  "Catan", the legendary strategy game on iPhone and iPod touch provides gaming fun any time, anywhere. True to the original game, you can compete with up to four players for the most settlements, the longest roads and the largest army. You can trade with each other and claim the precious land with all its resources.

If there are no other players available, various Catanians, each with their own individual characteristics, will prove themselves worthy competitors: the pirate Jean, who knows no compromise, Vincent the merchant, who never allows himself to be cheated, Sean the knight, who takes what is rightfully his...

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

A multiplayer beta playlist showed up a couple weeks ago featuring "zero bloom" weapons.  It has now become clear that this is in support of Halo CE: Anniversary releasing next week.  Those who played 10 years ago will remember that you could fire away as fast as you wanted with no decrease in accuracy.  Halo CE: Anniversary will use the Halo Reach multiplayer system and engine, but retain the old maps and game engine.  As such, weapons will be zero bloom, so the new playlist is ostensibly to exercise that system.  If it's still active, we'll try jumping in there tonight.

Achievement Unlocked Sounder

With the newly released iOS5, you can now specific custom sounders for incoming text messages on iPhones.  This coincides nicely with Microsoft (via Major Nelson) making the "Achievement  Unlocked" blip sounder publicly available.  It's very satisfying.  :)  Download here.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

Clan night is back on this week, so the Mean Monkeys should probably reschedule their anniversary dinner.  In other news, Halo CE (aka, Halo 1) Remastered has been voted as our next clan game.  Should be available in November.

No clan night tonight

I'm traveling in Michigan without an Xbox. Next week.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

As long as the daily challenges exist, I think there will be people to play.

Clan discussion

Since comments on the blog aren't as socially enabled as Facebook:

OD wrt Next Clan Game: "Anyone seen what the coop campaign options will be like? Original Gangsta Halo only allowed splitscreen coop w 2 players. Hopefully this one supports up to 4. At least there seems to be a firefight option."

No clan night this week

Scheduling conflict, so no official clan night this week.  In other news, Turtle Beach is having a 20% sale on all of their headphones.  OD, Poon and myself all use Turtle Beach headphones and have had good results.  Clan recommends.

Yoink!

You know it's a good clan night when your team gets three Yoinks in one Slayer game.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

Halo is apparently very popular, with a packed clan night last week.  A few of us were also pulled into H1/H2 LAN parties over the weekend.  Let's keep the momentum up.  :)

The Next Clan Game

OK, so Duke Nukem was a huge bust, I will admit when I've led us astray.  Let's fix it and get back to our clan roots.  Here are some of the games coming out this Fall, which one excites you the most?

Gears of War 3: [September 20] Gears of War 3 is the conclusion to the Gears of War saga.

Gears of War 3 is a third-person action shooter that plunges you into a harrowing tale of hope, survival, and brotherhood. The third and final installment in the Gears of War series features a four-player cooperative campaign; new playable characters; and hideous, mutating enemies.

Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 3: [November 8] Picking up immediately after its 2009 predecessor, Modern Warfare 3 will tell the story of US Delta Force operatives and British SAS forces teaming up against the Russian ultranationalists who have made the critical mistake of invading their home turf. Indeed, battles will be waged in both New York and London--among other locales--as you seek to deal with the Russian threat using a little tactic called "any gun you can get your hands on."  Will have campaign, survival mode and multiplayer. 

Halo - Combat Evolved Anniversary: [November 15] Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a spectacularly remastered version of the original "Halo" campaign, created in celebration of the 10th anniversary of one of the most beloved franchises in gaming history. With a bounty of new features including cooperative play over Xbox LIVE, a bundle of some of the most beloved multiplayer maps in "Halo" history reimagined for Xbox LIVE, new challenges and a new story to uncover, Halo: Anniversary is a must-have experience.

 

I've posted a new poll to go out and vote.  I'll leave it open for a while, unless there's an overwhelming vote for Gears in the next two weeks. If I've missed a game that you'd to see listed for consideration, please let me know.

 

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

Has been pretty fun messing around in Halo lately. Again tonight.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

Sorry for the late notice, crazy day.  I'm feeling like some campaign if we have 4 or less.  I'll figure out what to play if we have more.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

Dust off that game jacket.  Halo's making an appearance!

Clan poll reset

Sorry no post about clan night this week. I'm on vacation, and blogging wasn't exactly top of mind.  Poll has been reset for next week, I expect to be back on-line.

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

Brainy fun.  Looks like we'll have just enough to maybe sprint through some campaign.  I promise to only molotov saferooms when I'm the first one in.

Remember to vote.

If you want to play, please voice your opinion.  Only one vote so far this week, which isn't enough for a clan night.  I'll be out next week on vacation, so it could be a two week break.

Clan night poll reset

Go and vote!  Zombies campaign has mucho fun this week.  Because what's funnier than a molotov in the safe room?  lolz

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

Thanks for voting kids.  It's another zombie night.  Brainy.

Clan vote

Only 4 people have voted in the clan game poll on the blog so far, with no game receiving more than 2 votes.  I probably won't host a clan night unless there's a game with at least 4 votes, so that we have critical mass.  If you'd like to game this week, please go and vote.

Clan game poll reset

I'm traveling this week so there won't be a formal game night unless somebody volunteers to host.  OD has requested Gears of War 2, if anybody else has that game.  I've reset the poll for next week's game.  Vote to see what we play on August 2.

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

Yummy and delicious brains!  Thanks for voting, everyone!

Vote for Next Week's Game

I've gone through the xbox.com profiles of the 10 most active clan players and collated the games that people have played.  I've posted a poll on the blog with games that at least 4 people have, numbers in parentheses show just how many people appear to have that game today.  Please vote, you can pick more than one choice.

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

OK, we're back in business.  Will try to establish a more regular cadence for clan nights again.  Watch for a poll on the blog later this week to pick the weekly game that we play.  Please only vote if you actually plan to show up to play that game.  I'll pull the game list from the games that are showing up in people's Xbox Live accounts, feel free to nominate others.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Duke Nukem Forever.

We'll give it another go with some on-line versus action to see if we can get some fun value out of it.  Please log on and give the game one more shot!

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Duke Nukem Forever.

It's launch day, freaks.  Plan ahead, get your copy early, install it to hard drive, and plan to be ready to rock at 8pm sharp.  I'll have an Xbox Live chat party running so that we can handle technical problems more easily.  If you join and can't hear anybody, look for the chat party.  Porter, I'm talking to you.

Clan night tonight. 8:30pm PT. Halo Reach.

It's a Halo week.  I've got a crazy early flight tomorrow morning, so will log on early to get off early.  OD should be on early with me too.  Get your Halo time while you can, it will probably get dropped once Duke launches.

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

I miss the Spitter.  Zombies tonight.  Duke Nukem coming soon, so get your zombie fix while you can.

Next Game: Duke Nukem Forever - Pre-Order Today!

In a somewhat surprisingly result, the clan has voted unanimously to play Duke Nukem Forever as our next clan game.  DNF launches on Tuesday, June 14, conveniently on clan night in 2 weeks.  If you pre-order it from select retailers, you will get early access to the game THIS Friday via the Early Access Club.  GameStop, as usual, will be offering pre-orders with the early access bonus.

Plan for it.  Duke is coming.

Holy Feces

Have you voted in the poll yet?

Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever has been released to manufacturing and is credibly on its way to market.  It launches on June 14 and could be a very fun next game for the clan to play.  There was little to no interest in my suggestions for non-FPS games, so this seems like a perfect fit.  FPS, but clearly a fun and not too serious game, with lots of nostalgia value.  There's even Holsom twins for CoolerSopranos2.  I've put a new poll on the blog.  It will be open for a week, vote if you want to play this next, expect that we'll switch over on day 1 (June 14) if there is critical mass.

Check out the website for more information.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

OK, I'm back in town and I miss my Xbox.  I'll be on tonight.

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

It's been fun playing L4D1 for a couple weeks in a row, but people mentioned they missed the spitter.  So L4D2 it is this week.  I'm still traveling, so will be out.  Coordinate amongst yourselves.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

I'm actually out of the country for the next two weeks, but we had good attendance for the last Halo night.  And Porter wants to play.  I trust you kids can self-organize.  And I think Pewn has the Jenga gametype and maps.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Left 4 Dead 1.

It'd be really nice to actually get some versus in this week.  If we don't get at least six people to show up tonight, I'll consider dropping L4D from the rotation because it's just not drawing the crowds required.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

It's a Halo week.  Maybe we can log some wins in Action Sack or Grifball...

Next Game? Clan Poll

There's no new Halo or Left 4 Dead on the horizon.  Clan night attendance is down.  What do people want to play next?  I don't know of anything really ground breaking on the horizon.  Leave a comment here about a game you would like to play next.  Here are some ideas:

• Burnout Paradise (January 2008, 9.0/10.0, $19.99 used): Driving arcade game focused more on crashes and stunts than on pure racing.  Support for up to 8 player co-op/races.  Could be a good diversion.
• Forza Motorsport 3 (October 2009, 9.5/10.0, $22.99 used): The standard in simulation driving games, this one was apparently designed to be more accessible.  All the best cars, support for up to 8 player co-op/races.
• Battlefield 1943 (July 2009, 8.0/10.0, $15 download): A multi-player version of the World War II series, this Xbox Live Arcade download supports up to 24 players.  Not sure if there's really a co-op mode, and not sure how many people are still playing on-line.

I'm open to other ideas.  Main requirements: Support for at least 8 people, easily accessible (i.e., not Call of Duty), high fun factor.

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

Pounce me.  Tongue me.  Barf on me.  Get me some brains in the L4D original game.  9pm PT.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

I'm traveling, but BeerMonkeee has promised that he will log on.

No clan night this week.

Everyone's out.

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

By request of MrsM, we'll be playing L4D classic tonight.  Put in your original game disc, not #2.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

Yay!!!  I get to play Xbox tonight!!!  I make absolutely no promises that I have any memory of how to play Halo though.

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

Zombie zombie zombie.  The last couple of zombie nights, the clan has very effectively self organized, so I trust that you all can do it again.  I am sadly in Houston this week and won't be able to participate.  But that should leave a free spot for somebody else to sneak in.

John Out Sick Today

I've come down with some kind of stomach bug and feel terrible.  I'm going to pass on clan night tonight to try and rest up.  The rest of you fools should still log on though.  You need the practice.  :)

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

Our goal this week is to suck less.

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

Sorry for the late update.  I'm hungry for some gray matter.

Halo Reach: Defiant Map Pack

Bungie has announced some new DLC coming out next month:



It costs 800 MSFT points, or about $10.  There's a new poll on the blog to see how many people plan to purchase this. If we have both more than 4 votes for and more than 75% interest in total, I'll make it a clan mandate and put the DLC playlists into the clan night mix.  If not, then we'll just play the DLC opportunistically.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo Reach.

I'll be on at 9pm tonight.  Please log in for some fraggin.  OD was very lonely last week when he was playing with himself.

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

BRAINS.  9pm PT.  First come, first eaten.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo Reach.

I'm actually in Houston this week and can't get on.  But there's typically plenty of people on for Halo weeks, I expect you kids can party up on your own and figure it out.

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

It's braaaaaaaiiiiinnnnssss this week.  I'm traveling, so moving the time back to 9pm so I can get home.  Remember to join both the XBL party and the game lobby.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo Reach.

I've been all consumed with Fable III since Christmas.  There's apparently a bunch of new Halo playlists out.  Let's reconvene now that everyone's back from the holidays and maybe even knock out a couple challenges along the way.

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

By popular vote, we'll start playing zombies every other week now, intermixed with Halo Reach.  Today is my wife's birthday, so I'll be out, but OmniscientDeath will be hosting games starting at 8pm.  Be sure he's in your friends list.  You should be able to join both the XBL Chat Party as well as the Left 4 Dead 2 game lobby on the fly, even if they're already in game, as long as there's less than 8 players.  Remember that it's first come, first served.

Clan Night Postmortem

Here are some highlights from last night.  Since we had a bunch of objective games, I didn't filter them out this week.  Also worth noting, even though it's not highlighted in the table, is Mean Mrs Monkey's career best game with 8 kills and +4 spread on Anchor 9 DMRs.  Most people seemed to really enjoy zombies last week, and there is talk of playing Left 4 Dead more than just once a month.  I've put a new poll up on the blog, go and vote to voice your opinion if you'd like to play L4D more or less.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo Reach.

As much fun as zombies was last week, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming this week.  I'm not sure if I still remember how to play Halo anymore though.