Entry 41: "Halo Kitty"

Yo!

Three things. One: Sorry, I couldn't think of a better parody-title for this week that halfway fit the topic. Two (forgot to say this last week): Two weeks ago, I probably should've waited until that episode of 24 finished airing before I posted that entry. How silly of me to doubt the dramatic power of that writing staff. Also, how silly of me to think Curtis would appear in at least the final season of the show, if not the movie, before getting killed off. Was really rooting for him. Come to think of it, I don't really know much about gunshot wounds, but that looked like the kind of neck shot that, depending on the angle I guess, he could have survived somehow. Maybe the bullet was like a single micron to the left of an artery or something, making the shot non-lethal. I really don't know. All I know is, as far as 24 goes, unless the person dies from a gunshot to the brain on camera, there's no telling if the person's really dead. As evidenced by the end of season four. Rent the DVD. Keep it up, writers.... Oh, and thing three: I've added a new area to the right-side navigation to let you take this blog with you using not one, not five, not ten, but sixteen different RSS feeds, custom-setup for whatever RSS reader you use, even one that sends a preview of the new entries to your cell phone the instant I publish them (Cingular/AT&T, T-Mobile & Sprint only)! Also, the symbol gives you the raw RSS feed, so whatever reader your browser's configured to default to, if it's not on the list, it'll pick it up. More improvements to come............

Moving on... Last week, video game developer Bungie ended phase one of the entrance requirements to let members of the public into a beta version of the single most anticipated game of 2007, Halo 3. Phase one was to wait until the newest (aired once) game trailer aired during Monday Night Football early last month, and then go online to Halo3.com to register with your Xbox 360 "Gamertag" (as in cyberlord1019, etc.) and MSN Passport account. Then, last week, they screened through the entries to first see how many of them met the minimum requirements for entry this way:

-Xbox 360 Premium console (or Core unit with Hard Drive)
-Gold Xbox Live account
-MSN Passport,linked to the aforementioned Gold account
-Been born before January 1990 (17 and older only)

What they neglected to mention was the fact that you needed to have a gold account in place before the email invites were sent out, it turned out, last Monday. Not before you download the beta from Xbox Live Marketplace on the still as-yet unannounced date. I did get a confirmation email Monday saying I was in their system, but some people I was playing online with late last week were saying I did need the account Gold-ified before that first email was sent out. Also, one friend of mine who did get selected for this beta confirmed last Wednesday that I needed Gold before Monday to be considered. But then how did I get the confirmation email if the registration wasn't successful? There were just too many conflicting statements between the Halo 3 website, Bungie's official message boards, other gaming websites, and various Live players on why I was/wasn't inevitably screwed over by Bungie because of the wording on their entry page. But what's (not) done is (not) done, and rather than scream out a long rant on how extremely anal Bungie is being on admittance into what's supposed to be a PUBLIC beta... PUBLIC BETA, Bungie.... I'll just have to--- Sonofa-- I just now found this message board poster who showed off the text from his invite email (name censored here; dunno why he didn't do it himself on the original board, but whatever):

Congratulations ##########, you have been chosen to participate in the Halo® 3 beta.

In order to participate, you must have access to:
-An Xbox 360TM Pro console or Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive
-A valid Xbox Live® Gold subscription

Keep an eye on your inbox, we will be sending more information about this opportunity soon.

That wording on the second requirement says that even Silver membership users got them, because if the only accepted members are already Gold, why add in that sentence suggesting they upgrade?

Darn you, Bungie.

Well, I'll just have to wait with the rest of the XBL community for...

Phase Two: Playing three hours of multiplayer games of Halo 2 between 12:01am EST Thursday, and 11:59pm EST Saturday. Also, after that three hours, you must be one of the first 13,333 (yes, exactly that many) to register on Halo3.com with the X360 Gamertag you were logged in as to do it, which is why Original Xbox-ers are definitely sitting this one out.

.................Um........

As popular as this event is/will be, do they really think it'll take all of three days for less than 14,000 people (out of a total community of over four million players globally) to play three hours of ten-minute-a-pop multiplayer games
and race over to their computers hoping to get in this way? Better question: Does anyone reading this think there will be a single spot up for grabs past 3:45am Thursday? ...Which brings me to 3:46am, and.....

Phase Three. The only non-rigged entry method. Buy some game called Crackdown. A demo was released last week on Marketplace. I've done it. It plays well, for a loose cross of sorts between Grand Theft Auto 3-and-two-thirds, TRON 2.0 and Mercenaries. Well enough to sell plenty even after this beta is closed, and enough to warrant a sequel, remains to be seen. But....

The Bottom Line is.... I, and most of you sensible gamers and Halo fans out there, am probably better off forgetting about this crazy beta, simply pre-ordering one of the three (?!?!) full retail versions of this game and marking my calendars. It's just an early build anyway that may/may not hit Marketplace on schedule. It doesn't even have a single-player demo level. It's straight multiplayer, from what I understand.

Sometimes, just being a gamer these days is more trouble than it's worth.... In more way$ than one....

....But that's just me.

See ya next week.

-D.