Just a quick note to the Halo 3 junkies in the audience. The Legendary DLC you’ve been waiting for comes out this Tuesday. More details to come in a couple days. The gallery reveals new paint jobs for vehicles and the Hornet’s gameplay has been altered. Wha?!
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Just because Bungie is out on its own doesn’t mean they’re abandoning their baby, Halo 3, just yet. A new map pack is due in the Spring, but they’re getting their ass beat by COD 4 on the Xbox Live charts.
“We have a lot of awesome new content coming up. We’re not walking away from Halo 3,” Bungie’s community lead Brian Jarrard told Eurogamer last week at GDC.
“We have a group of people at the studio that are just focused on keeping the game going strong for the foreseeable future, so I think we’ll continue to evolve and I expect there to be a back-and-forth [between us and COD4] for a while.”
The Bungie folks are COD fans, too. Let’s see what happens. I don’t think I’ve played H3 in a couple months.
Bungie hopes to knock COD4 off top spot [Euro gamer]
Hardcore gamers could see the favorite pastime dramatically changed given last year’s sales numbers. All of the top selling games in 2007 were multiplayer ones: Rock Band, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, etc. Given than, the New York Times hints at a possible trend: why should publishers, and the developers that work for them, go to the trouble of creating 40+ hour single player adventures with top-of-the-line graphics and sounds and so forth if something like Mario Party 93 sells just as well?
Something to think about while you screw around in Azeroth today.
In the List of Top-Selling Games, Clear Evidence of a Sea Change [New York Times via Kotaku]
Looking to see what all the hubbub’s about? You can pick up Halo 3 from Newegg.com for $39.99, which includes free 3-day shipping. Not bad. Not bad at all.
It’s the "Collector Edition", too, so you’ll get a bonus video disc, a metal disc case, and a little book with some more nerdly information about the game.
It’s normally going for around $60 elsewhere, so this’ll be a pretty good deal while it lasts.
Halo 3 Collector Edition Xbox 360 [Newegg.com]
I guess I need to put away Assassin’s Creed and BioShock to try out the new heroic map pack that was released today for Halo 3. It’s 800 M$ points and includes three new maps: Standoff, Rat’s Nest and Foundry. The latter being the ‘ultimate Forge map’- players can edit the entire map if they want. If you don’t feel like dropping the dough, which I am, then you can wait till the spring and get it for free when the next set of maps is released.
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Back when Halo 3 was first released, some people got all up in arms because they thought they were gipped several pixels—the game was advertised as 720p even though it was actually rendered in 640p. I know, it was a national disgrace, right up there with that whole Lewinsky nonsense and when NBC cancelled “Freaks and Geeks.” Thus, a “team of class attorneys” is looking into slapping together a class action lawsuit against… someone. It’s unclear if the proposed suit would target Bungie, Microsoft or both; it’s unclear whether the proposed lawsuit will ever see the light of day.
I haven’t played the game at all so my opinion is essentially irrelevant (as it often is), but maybe Bungie/Microsoft wronged enough of you for this proposed lawsuit to gain traction.
Halo 3 does not natively render at 720p resolution [ClassActionConnect.com via Xbox-Scene]
The only way to improve these “Will it Blend?” videos would be if John were the host and he blended his stupid iPhone.
Today, though, our regular host blends a copy of Halo 3 because grandchildren beat him every time they played. The only way to solve that problem, obviously, is to blend it.
via Kotaku
Unless your girlfriend is Samus Aran, in which case she would simply disintegrate you. Kotaku’s found a pretty funny McSweeney’s piece that describes, in a fairly funny way, how your better, cleaner half might explain those Halo 3 codes you asked her to dictate to you. McSweeney’s is hit-and-miss for me, but this one’s pretty on target. If only your extensive arsenal included a little charm instead of a Spartan Laser and maybe some sticky chocolates instead of nades. But no cheat code can make you a real man.
Halo 3 Cheat Codes, As Explained By Neglected Girlfriend Janet Iverson [McSweeney's, via Kotaku]
I’m not much of a figurine collector for the simple fact that I’m transported back in time to when I was six years old. This is where all the trouble begins because I ruined my brother’s pristine collection of original Star Wars action figures. He had everything and my dumbass went and scattered them across the house or buried them in the backyard. I should be tarred and feathered for such indiscretions, but I was a kid and didn’t know any better. Hopefully my brother doesn’t read this because he’ll want to kick my ass, again.
Anyhoo, Todd McFarlane is releasing an active camouflage Spartan that features grenades, an assault rifle and 18 points of articulation. Totally kickass, right? The Pre-prder is going on now and lasts until December 12 where it will cease and desist at Noon, PST. The figurines won’t be shipping until May of 2008, though. Do it now. Quick. Believe. Finish the Fight.
Is anyone else out there tired of the Halo 3 map rotation? Or the fact that you have to play shoddy sniper almost every other match? Well, it seems Bungie is working on fixing the problem and releasing some new maps within the next couple of weeks. The first new map is called OK Corral, which will provide catwalks, alley ways and hiding spots for players to have long-range sniper battles on. Other maps include Jodrell Bank, Vandelay and Purple Reign. Vandelay is supposedly the simplest map ever created by Bungie, giving players great creative control when playing in Forge mode. There’s no pricing information available yet, so stay tuned.
New information about Halo 3 downloadable content [Bit Tech]
Clive “The Garanimal” Thompson doesn’t have a lot of time to play Halo 3 and, as a result, gets killed a lot in Live play. However, instead of giving up and going to play Parcheesi, he’s decided to fight back by becoming a suicide bomber.
The typical Halo player’s goal is to stay alive. Clive knows he can’t stay alive very long, so he wants to take down as many people as he can before he goes. He does this by running straight at his opponents and dropping a sticky grenade on them as he passes into the netherworld, secure in the knowledge that he took someone down with him. He writes:
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Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Halo 3 shorts that stormed both my computer and television, but I can bet that millions of gamers around the globe are. If you’re itching to see all of the live-action shorts direct by Neill Blomkamp in one movie rather than scattered around, then press play above and sit back whilst you enjoy a cold Mountain Dew.
I gotta say though, that plasma ‘nades being thrown at soldiers is always good fun.
Halo 3: Landfall – all three Blomkamp shorts cut together [Joystiq]
Now that I’ve been reunited with my Xbox 360 and Halo 3, I’ll probably be singing the same tune.
Anyone fancying themselves as a professional cyberathlete should pack a bag filled with clothes, caffeine and an Xbox 360 controller and head out to Dallas. There, the Cyberathlete Professional League will host a Halo 3 competition from December 19th to 22nd. The top prize? A cool million bucks, which has already been deposited into a bank account for safekeeping.
The best part is that upon winning, you instantly get $250,000 in cash handed to you right then and there. There will be plenty of other prizes and such to go around for all, so it’s definitely worth hitting up if you’re a hell of a Halo 3 player. Anyone is welcome to join the tournament.
Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) To Host $1,000,000 Halo 3 Competition [GamingBits]
It’s not everyday the average gamer gets to play against someone famous, so Microsoft has come up with Game With Fame and this Saturday from 1-3 EST get ready to teabag the guys from Jimmy Eat World in Halo 3. As if the servers weren’t craptacular enough. Look for the following gamer tags and frag away.
JimmyEatWorld_J (Jim Adkins)
JimmyEatWorld_T (Tom Linton)
JimmyEatWorld_R (Rick Burch)
zlind76 (Zach Lind)
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but somehow, the Xbox 360 outsold the infamous Nintendo Wii for the month of September. Seeking Alpha reports that 527,800 Xbox 360 consoles were sold during September, compared to the Wii’s 501,000. Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite console, the Playstation 3, took a slight slump in sales, turning out only 119,800 units for the month.
Still, despite the numbers, I’m having trouble figuring out why everyone went out and bought an Xbox 360. Maybe it was Fifa Soccer 08. That’s a tight game. No way it could be Halo 3 though, no way. That game is the same as the first two! You shoot stuff and call everyone on Xbox Live a douche, big whoop.
Halo 3 Propels Monthly Xbox Sales Above Wii For First [Seeking Alpha]
Shockingly, this post is not about Halo 3. Instead, I’d like to bring to your attention a Killzone action figure that pays attention to details. Modeled after the Helghast from the game, this one-of-a-kind model comes from custom crafter Jim Saotome. And in case you were wondering, yes, those eyes light up.
Personally I think the Helghast could kick Master Chief’s ass any day of the week.
Confirming what everyone in the world already knew, or assumed to know, a Wedbush Morgan analyst has said that Halo 3 was at least partially responsible for moving 450,000 Xbox 360s during the month of September. In dollars-and-cents, the game generated some $200 million for Microsoft. (All of these numbers are the analyst’s predictions; verifiable NPD numbers should be released within the week.)
So I guess the headline here would be, in true Matt Drudge style, “Shock: Microsoft mega-game sells millions; Gates said to be ‘pleased’.”
Also of note, maybe, is that we could see a PS2 price drop before the end of holiday shopping season. The new price? 99 wing-wangs. Who needs a backwards compatible PS3 when (if) the PS2 is so inexpensive?
Pachter: Sep. Games Sales Up 47% on Halo 3 [Next Gen]
The video about is gameplay footage up Bungie’s yet-to-be-titled Halo game for the Xbox 360. Hit play and let the fun begin. After the jump, more details on what the game will be like.
Yesterday Microsoft announced a new holiday bundle and that was all fine and dandy, but someone over in Spain had to go and ruin all the fun. What you see above is a purported Halo 3 bundle purchased in Spain. The console is a lowly 20GB version with an HDMI port (no cable) and the Spaniard who purchased it claims to have paid $540. That’s pretty steep considering the Elite system is $450 and the Halo 3 model is $400. It looks legit, but will it make its way here? Hasn’t Microsoft sold all the copies of the Halo 3?
