Fatherhood.

Fi Club (West Country Chapter) Halolll report

Well, we certainly enjoyed last nights games...

I particularly enjoyed the 'I just happen to be American', 'Never mind the rankings, look at their names', 'Veto the map or I'm gonna go hard' and that one game on Isolation where we absolutely mullered the opposition.

Some of those Last Resort games where we lost 50v48 and 50v46 were also good, tight matches, where our teamwork skillz really came together - I just think that like a lot of the teams we fought, whether through respawn points or wandering-off-sickness, we 'sometimes' got split up and made easier targets.

Loved getting to grips with that Banshee on Valhalla - racked up a tidy 15 kills in it I think, although if sud0's batteries had not run out I think our aerial domination would have brought the game to a close earlier and we would have won it in the end.

Great fun though - looking forward to more organised chaos, and I think we nearly convinced Henry he has to get a 360 for sure, he had a great laugh.

'Twas the night two nights after Halo Day...

Hi all.

First, I'd like to say what a great time I had last time out at ruut's.
What a Laugh!
I'm really glad Sud0 had a good day as well.
I'm sure I speak for all who attended.

Well, I can't promise to live up to that but I'll be hosting next.

Fi'Day 28th September, you know where and when.

Bring drinks and (a few) snacks, etc.

See you there, perhaps.

Busy Times

A 'Master Chief' signed up to my forum on Tuesday. He never posted anything, so I created a new ID 'Arbiter' and sent him the following PM

Subject: Tally Ho!

Once more unto the breach, dear friend!

See you on the battlefields!

Yours,

Arbiter

Today The Abiter received the following correspondence

Arbiter,

The Chief is away fighting the alien scum right now but he did take time out of his busy schedule to ask me to send you a quick note of gratitude for your recent correspondance. The Chief personally chose you to join his Flood Fighters Fan Club and as luck would have it the price of annual membership is currently down 15%....Finish the Fight only £79.99

Halo 3 Emblem Compo

If there's one thing we can all agree on it's the need for a unifying emblem for all Fi-ers, so I propose a quick'n'dirty compo to settle the matter.

Everyone who wants to can create an emblem in-game, copy it from their Bungie.net profile page and submit it in the comments. Anyone who's not a blog member but who'll be playing with us (Fictionkite, BigUpStu, etc.) let me know and I'll post it for you.

Then at some point in the near future, we'll all vote for our favourites and the majority vote wins. We can then all use that as our emblem when playing in a team.

There is an emblem generator online HERE. It's clear from the generator that your secondary armour colour (the flashes on the arms etc.) does affect the emblem - it's the colour that the Emblem Background takes on.
Entries so far:

RuutAckses:	MisterBleepy:	Ruut's 2nd:

GPS for the PSP?

I am thinking about buying one.
Fixed link text for those of us without mile wide monitors

Anyone got anything to say about them? (Good or bad)

Game awards 2007

In an effort to not constantly read about halo news at work, I see the BAFTA game nominations are up. Linky!

In reality these mean very little for the average gamer, but are there any glaring omissions? Anything anyone would like to see recognised? Any thoughts on Wii sports sweeping the board?

For your information....

Have you seen the track listing for Guitar hero III?

I'm quite excited by it.

Munchk, you should be pleased by it as well!


K.

Halo 3? Not So Fast!

Anyone hoping to indulge in a massive Halo 3 session over the next few days better make sure they're picking up their game locally. Reports are sliding in to Fi HQ that many of the special edition disks are being ruined by badly designed packaging, and rumours abound that even pauper edition disks are afflicted with disk read errors. This has pretty much made my mind up to get the game from Tesco to facilitate rapid replacement. All that can stop me now is RROD!

Call Of Duty 4 Beta - Played!

Have had a bit of a blast on the CoD4 beta, and just wanted to detail a few of the features

Got my key quite late in the day, so only have the rest of this week to have a run through the beta... thank goodness there aren't any other games coming out to spoil my fun... oh... wait!

The beta basically allows you to play Team Deathmatch, Free-for-all and a couple of other modes I haven't played. Free-for-all does what it says on the tin, and Team Deathmatch can be arranged either by choosing teams or letting the server random you up with other players.

The playstyle is mostly quick run-and-gun, with satisfying weapons, minimal grenade supplies in either frag or flashbang flavours. Soldier classes affect which two weapons you start with, though weapons from downed enemies can be collected.

The real joy is the Experience points system, which allows you to 'level up' your soldier - in the beta this can take you from the starting rank 1 to a maximum rank 16. Levels allow you to do all sorts of stuff, like upgrade the weapons available to you and to access additional soldier classes. The more people you kill and matches you win, the more Exp you earn. Your basic soldier class is pretty much 'Assault' - this sees you starting with a burst-fire-only M16 and a pistol, but as you earn Exp, you can unlock weapons like the AK47 fully automatic, as well as seemingly loads of other sub- and heavy- machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns and so on. With these weapons, you can also unlock add-ons like underslung grenade launchers, red dot laser sights and other hardware.

The Exp system also allows you to earn 'perks' in various categories, such as making your soldier take more bullets before he dies, faster reloading or invisibility to enemy radar. Or special weapons like a 2-shot RPG, C4 charges or extra grenades. Or improvements like allowing you to shoot through walls, sprint faster, fire pistol after having been killed for cheeky revenge antics and so on.

Whilst these improvements seemingly make the battlefield a bit uneven to a level 1 beta-startup Grunt, none of them really stop you from getting on and shooting people and earning some for yourself. There is an in-depth create-a-class system for customizing your spawn trooper - this becomes available when you reach Level 4.

In-game kill streaks - murder without being murdered, award in-game advantages. 3 kills allows you to trigger a radar sweep to reveal enemy positions, 5 kills awards you an airstrike, triggered and targeted in a mini-map, and 7 kills allows you to call in a Helicopter Gunship, which hunts down and shoots at any enemies out in the open. More than that I didn't find out, but it is a slick and easy to use feature, and you are credited with kills made by the airstrikes or helo gunners.

Technical stuff aside, it is just fun. In only my third game I found myself in possession of a sniper rifle that a victim had just dropped - I squinted down the scope at the back of my next prospective victim's head, only to realise that the area effect of an airstrike was bursting just feet from me - the screen was rocking, smoke was billowing in, and it was impossible to steady the aim, so I squeezed the trigger and was pleased to see the bullet strike home in the ass of my target. Pure joyous fluke.

Oh... and the killcam! For a few seconds between respawn, you get to see from your killers-eye view to see exactly how you were nailed - which helps to dispel the idea that you were killed and it wasn't fair, although the very rare cases of lag I experienced occasionally showed me as not having fired a shot, whereas on my screen I had put 30 rounds into their face.

Games were quick and easy to find in the lobby, and I really feel that Halolll has a decent plate to step up to now. Looking forward to getting some H3 games with you lot on Fiday. Remote for me.

Twas the night before Halo...

possibly the biggest release of the year. For those who didn't play the first 2 and need a story catch up, 1up has this primer link.

I know we have posted stuff like this before, but its worth noting again :)

Finish the fight people!

Call of Duty 4 Beta code

I have come into possession of a CoD4 Beta test code (for Xbox 360). However the beta finishes on Sunday and I simply won't have time to play it between now and then, with Metroid to finish and H3 to play from Wednesday onwards.

First to post here can have my code.

Thanks to Simplicitly for pointing out the application process. It's a shame I didn't realise it was going to finish this week. Good timing Activision!

Thanks fellas!

Thanks for a great night on Friday, guys. The pressies were very much appreciated. I've had to recharge the helicopter about a dozen times so far as everyone is captivated by it. I've not had a chance to try the keypad yet. I meant to send out some messages last night but accidentally fell asleep instead. I'll hassle you all with my speedy typing on MSN tonight, hopefully. Pretty sure that I'll be putting the money towards a new pair of shades as mine were lifted off my desk at work last week, which is pretty sickening.

'Twas a good night, gameswise. Flatout party mode is ideal for that situation, and picking and choosing the XBLA demos is good too. Might have to have a look at Mario Party next time for mini-games.

Jumbotron DS - Nintendo DS with two huge screens

A huge DS made from two tablet pc screens. There ain't 'alf been some clever bastards.

The XBLA Jizzphest Continues...

More XBLA awesomeness announced -- Hudson is currently promoting Omega 5, a 'true next gen 3D shooter'. Me likey.

Hudson is boasting that Omega Five is the first truly next-gen shooter, due in large part to some gorgeous art design sprucing up fully 3D levels. The old-school gameplay will also be spiced up by giving players the choice of several characters that each have unique attacks and weapons. Different character combinations can be mixed and matched to find the perfect partner for the games online co-op mode.

I can not wait.

Hi Res Rez!

Much coolness bathed our little planet today when Tetsuya Mizuguchi, former president of UGA and current chief creative officer of Q Entertainment announced that Rez will be coming to XBLA during 2K8Q1! Awesome!

We are excited to announce that Rez will be given a new life, this time in digital form. The game will be presented in hi-definition and will be accessible to thosewho did not have a chance to experience Rez the first time around. Personally, Rez has been and will always be a lifelong concept. I hope to take what I learned from the experience of creating the original game and look forward to taking it to a whole new level in the future.

Awesome!

Yahtzee reviews Bioshock

Great video review spoken faster than the guy who used to do the Micro Machines ads on the telly.

++ U P D A T E: Cool I just got a DOMINATING award for this post. Rokin! ++

++ F U R T H E R U P D A T E: Just watched it again and it doesn't spoil the game. H'enjoi.++

Im in ur club LOLCATTING ur blog