After the very anti-climatic (translation: weak sauce) trailer on Spike, the BioShock demo went live. Hop aboard the slow train if you want to play any time soon. I thought the trailer did a terrible job showing off the game, but actual gameplay should more than make up for it. I’ll have my impressions up if this download ever finishes.
I couldn’t have been less excited about Stranglehold. That all turned around when I played the demo today. Good lord. What it lacks in graphics (which, despite what I’ve read from some people, aren’t too shabby) it more than makes up in production values. It totally captures that ass-kicking, action movie feel. Except you are at the controls. The ass kickin controls, that is.
I don’t know what else to say, just play the demo yourself and get hooked. After that moment of glee, the sorrow will kick in when you realize that’s another $60 hole in your pocket this holiday season.
Despite the great scare earlier this month, Bungie has confirmed that not only will Halo 3 have 2 player co-op over Xbox Live, they will do you two better and make that four player! The long standing rumor is finally confirmed, and we can all rejoice.
You will only be able to do 2 players on the same console, be it offline, online, or system link. You can still jump in with up to two other players via Xbox Live, or LAN.
To prevent confusion, and the fabric of reality from tearing, not everyone will play as Master Chief. You’ve got MC, the Arbiter, and two new Elites. Full details are over at Bungie.
The “gray” 360 everyone has been speculating about ended up being a Limited Edition Halo 3 themed console, to be launched alongside Halo 3. No details on specs yet. My guess is that it will have the same features and price as the Premium SKU, plus the (ugly) green and gold color scheme.
UPDATE: Bungie reveals that it is HDMI equiped, so there blows my theory. No details on HDD size, or anything else. All that info should be revealed tomorrow.
It must be the new cool thing to do. Infinity Ward announced moments ago that Call of Duty 4 will have a multiplayer beta exclusively on Xbox 360. Check out CharlieOscarDelta.com for more info.
Minutes ago it was announced Bungie’s classic Marathon is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade later this year.
More details as they come in.
A title update is being release tomorrow, June 14th, at 2am GMT which will not only add new achievements, but will squash some more glitches, and improve gameplay. The changes include:
* New Achievements added! Eight new achievements worth a total of 250 points created for playing Annex and the Hidden Fronts Multiplayer Map Pack
* Improved Roadie Run to reduce getting snagged on cover
* Tweaked up the amount of damage done by the Lancer Assault Rifle in multiplayer
* Fixed split-screen players interrupting the other player’s actions when they die
* Stopped Annex scoring whenever a “Connection Error†dialog box is displayed
* Reduced the duration that corpses remain visible when hosting an Annex match
* Reduced the range of possible Annex bleed-out times selectable by host
* Addressed a number of multiplayer exploits
* Addressed other general housekeeping
More details, including the achievement names, info, and point values are at Epic.
It was 3:00 AM, and my party had just gotten done losing 50 to 35 on Big Team Battle.
Suddenly we’re disconnected, and the beta is no longer working! 12:00 AM Pacific was the inevitable cut off.
My efforts to restart Crackdown were futile; the end had arrived.
While sobbing waiting on my dashboard, I noticed some of the gamers in my party were still online. As it turned out, if you hadn’t quit the Beta, you’d still be rocking custom games! Currently I have two friends who are leaving their consoles on all night, and perhaps all week, to continue the Haloing. Lucky…
It has been long rumored that Microsoft would start banning 360s, and people were certain it would start after the spring update. Modders best efforts have proven insufficient in stopping detection. Days before the spring update, the hacking community released new firmwares to preemptively protect them and keep their modded status hidden. Microsoft apparently has a few tricks up their sleeves, because even people with the latest firmwares have gotten the lifetime ban. There have been reports that even those that haven’t played backups on live have gotten banned, which indicates they are detecting the modified firmware, and not the backup disc. Hackers have been fairly confident that the firmware itself was undetectable, and it would be the discs themselves that would be targeted.
The morale of the story is, if you like Xbox Live, don’t mod your console. The banhammer shows no pity, and no matter how justified you think you are, no one will hear your pleas. There have been numerous reports of people with new and unmodded consoles getting banned. There is no word on what the recourse of action will be for this customers. I read one early report that someone was asked to send their console in for MS to verifiy it wasn’t modified. There is no word how many thousands of consoles have been banned from live, but I can’t imagine it would be feasible for them to do this for everyone.
The message is very clear, and made louder by waiting for the Halo 3 Beta to start. I can’t imagine the regret many must be feeling. As for me, I knew there was good reason I have two 360s 
From Bungie.net:
Halo 3 Beta Downloads via Crackdown are fixed!
It’s been a long day for a lot of people but we’re happy to announce that effective immediately, a title update for Crackdown is available on Xbox Live that will fix the issue that previously prevented you from downloading the beta. The Microsoft team just deployed this fix and when you launch Crackdown you should receive a prompt to download the update.
Please note that it could take up to four hours for your console to receive this update based on various factors. However, the good news is that we’re in the clear and Halo 3 gameplay is just over the horizon.
We realize this has been a pain for many and an inconvenience at the very least. Given the circumstances, we’ve decided to extend the duration of the Halo 3 Beta from June 6th to June 10th at 11:59 PM PDT. So, you lost almost a full day of play today but to make up for it we’re tacking on four more days (and a weekend at that).
We apologize for the delay and hardships this issue has caused and hope that it quickly becomes a distant memory clouded by good times playing Halo 3 with your friends.
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. We’ll see you online!
That should make everyone happy. (Hah, who am I kidding). Thanks Bungie. I’m glad this fiasco is finally behind us.