Halo 3 - Halo 3 Blog

MooseQuest: Ego Ludus

.fhgn

Last night what ForgeHub's debut of CustomGame night. TrueDarkFusion and his gang decided it would be great to host an event where poeple can come and play their games. The Custom Crew thought hosting this would be a great idea. TinoXtreme, GhettoProdigy, Aristel, and MrKrusty1 were some of The Crew who played through each of the maps. We found Albatross Hill being the Top-Dollar map and everyone should download this map and gametype and try it out.

In Albatross Hill, you and your team try to get as much time in the "hill" as possible. The trick is the hill is mid-air. Use the 'man cannon' on Narrows to launch yourself through the hill. The hilarity ensues afterwards. I know for me, I got hit by the most random objects flying through the air.

Check out more of ForgeHub's Maps and Variants at ForgeHub.com!
.event
ForgeHub.com is at it again. And after getting some recognization last week on Bungie.net things are firing up for this young communicty of content creators. This Friday, December 7th at 6:30PM CST, TrueDarkFusion, founder of ForgeHub will be hosting a Custom Game Night as a get together to show of his new maps.

I must say myself, the content these guys create is amazing. The level of detail, the amount of testing and time, and architecture of the custom games they create is phenomenal. Please come join the fun tomorrow!
.maps
Today, Bungie released the details on it's Downloadable content for Halo 3. Three new maps will play host to numerous new battles on Social and Ranked playlists. Of course I can't wait to start forging on some of these maps, as they are specifically designed for forging. It will be interesting to see what Bungie has given us...
.MTV
Its been awhile, yes... Partly because I've been on night-shift; that normally slows me down. After-all I have to fill in what little time I have with actual video games playing. I finished up my interview with MTV. The show is going to air sometime around Thanksgiving... I will be updating Facebook and sending out e-mails to friends when it gets closer to the date. Its pretty exciting, as I'm going to be on national TV speaking about my video game hobby. Basically my friends, family and co-workers are all involved and I say "Thank-you" to those who participated in the interview to show.

Halo 3...still has its fun factor. I've met a couple new socialites on Halo 3 that has coming back each day and enjoying myself. I'm looking forward to the new maps that are coming out, but even though Halo 3 still has me locked... This November is the light for many new video games which I plan on getting.

So far, I've gotten The Simpsons' Game, Call of Duty 4, Ace Combat: Fires of Liberation and today Super Mario Galaxy. New coming titles like Need For Speed: Pro Street, Assassin's Creed, Kane and Lynch Dead Men, Final Fantasy: Wings of Goddess, Mario Kart Wii and other titles are amongst some of games I will definitely purchasing. After saving all my money during my absence from the world (besides working of course) I've stashed enough to feed my addiction for this winter. I should tag some of these games for my Christmas List.
.a whole new moosequest
Coming Soon to a Web Browser near you... As of late, I'm starting to get into this web blogging idea. Of course its going to add to my daily list of "stuff" but I going to take a trial on it coming 2008. During the first week of January I'll be posting videos from the past two months (November 2007-December 2007) of just random stuff, thoughts, ideas, reviews of things I buy, etc. I've always had an opinion about certain this, and always wanted to share my ideas.

Blogger is a great place to do this, and with the amount of tools and applications it provides I think I will make this my primary host for a while. This means that www.moosequest.net will be retired from my network as the primary web server... What is to happen to it? I'm testing out the new Microsoft Home Server and then possibly moving to LDAP and Domain support for my environment. Its getting close to a small business network and I need to centrally manage everything.

You can track the current progress here (appearing as a side bar in the next coming weeks).
.forge
TrueDarkFusion01 has given me the privilege of presenting his game types and maps here on my blog. I had the chance to talk to him about his variants and I'm pretty amazed at what he's constructed. Take a look at his website and check out his games.
.custom

Because of the new abilities to edit maps, and create your own game variants, Halo 3 has dawned a new age of custom games, that no longer have "honor rules". The most interesting one that I have seen so far is, Normandy, a remake of the 1942 battle where the Allies stormed the beach against the Germans. With some creative know-how, and some in game Forge techniques, the board has explosions, turrets, crates and all sorts of goodies to keep one entertained as he mows down his opponents over and over again. I spent most of my weekend doing this, keeping myself entertained. I rarely played matchmaking, as I was one of the people plague with the "Halo 3 Server unavailable" message that lots of people were receiving. I decided to go on Bungie.net and check out all the games players have been posting online. Trust me, there are a lot good games out there, and I'm sure there are more to come.

On a sadder note, this was the first weekend without Pooh-Bear. Both my Mom and I agreed the house felt kind of empty without him being there. Sometimes you ask yourself why we choose a pet, knowing that death is inevitable, but my Mom and I also agreed that we had fun with him, and that we gave him a home, and great family and a great life. I decorated my computer background, screen saver and Facebook profile with pictures as a "memorial" to him (Photo Album).

This week is going to suck for gameplay though. I have work each day until Thursday, but then I have a 4-day weekend (woot!). Plans? Fright-night is each weekend at Six Flags. Diana says she wants to go; my challenge to her is to go and ride every single ride (coasters mainly). Reason, she's scared of coasters, lol.

Last week I had a lot of visitors who came over to check out Halo. A lot of y friends who I haven't talked to in a little bit have contacted me about Halo; wanted to come over and play. My mom has been pretty easy going about the visitors, especially since we're staying up late playing and making noise. This weekend, I fell into the Pizza at home state once or twice, which just proves how immersed in the game I was (thanks papajohns.com). So what I had said before, about not being your typical pizza and video games dude... I guess I failed that portion. "Eh, who cares..."

Up and Coming:

Look for my Halo 3 interactive video. You'll get to see me play, rate and test out some of the latest custom games that players are releasing.
.bad news

So the visit to the vet didn't turn out so great. We ended up having to put Pubi down... It was pretty hard, holding him and watch him slip into a deep sleep. He was a great friend, and I had him since I was 8. 15 years of fun actually. He wasn't your typical cat either. He had a unique way of communicating with you, asking for something, or just telling you he was nearby. I use to say, "Pooh-Bear, get in the bed!" and he'd go running into my bedroom hop on the bed and lay down. I'd grab midnight snacks and share it with him.

When we first got Pooh-Bear he was a scary cat and didn't like to be touched without seeing you eye-to-eye. That stayed but he grew confortable around the house and enjoyed hanging out in the most random places. He liked Kraft Slices of American cheese, and as soon as you opened the slice up, he'd be right next to you begging for one... He was quite the bad kitty at first, so cheese was a pacifier at the time.

I spent a lot of my time when I was home, playing with him, especially when I was younger, and as I grew older, it became more casual, especially when I went to college. I remember mom telling me when he got sick and would have to go to the Vet... I wouldn't worry though cause he was a strong one.

As he got older, he stayed the same, so of course when the slightest thing began to go wrong... we knew Pooh-Bear needed extra attention. Mom fed him until his last day, during which he lost weight and his appetite because he developed an absess in his stomach. Pubi tried remain himself, but just wanted to hang out in the corner, and relax.

Last night I took a nap with him like I always used to do...

Everyone gets close to their pets, especially since the stay with you for so long. It was especially hard for me, because even though my mom had pets before, Pubi was like there through 80% of my life.

---note the next part is kind of sensitive---

I'm not sure why I want to write about this...given that this isn't really on-topic... and really sensitive....but its something really important to me. I decided to stay with Pooh-Bear to his last breathe. Diana had brought my Mom out to a animal hospital near where I worked. We got placed in a Comfort Room until it was "time". The doctor came him and explained that it would be sleeping dose of medicine. I held Pubi, gave him one last head-butt (his way of showing affection) and felt his head get heavy as he went to sleep... he stopped breathing and the doctor checked his heart until it stopped. It was hard but I was strong... I loved my little black panther, and had some great times; he will be missed.
.long time

Wow!

It's been a long time since my last post. I guess because I've been doing my video blog. I should start posting those online so that I can have both the video web blogs and text web blogs in a central location. The Video Blogs are mainly for use for MTV, but I want them on my site also...

As for Halo 3, I've been totally indulging myself in the game each and everytime I get a chance too. However there are somethings happening in the real world to be concerned of. One of them being my long time, at home buddy, Pooh-Bear.

Pooh-Bear is my kitty that I've had since 1992, and he's the greatest thing on four legs. For a cat, he's got a pretty unique personality, and likes to give you "head-butts" as his sign of affection. Recently he's been a little sluggish and the doc says that he's got a 'mass' behind his rear legs, and its giving a hard time. Hopefully, with medication he can perk up a bit and live his life out, but he's been really weak lately... So, my time has been divided, as I been giving extra attention to him.

Nonetheless, I've been ranking up in Halo 3, noticing that a lot of the competition is garbage, lol. The other day I was playing some Europeans and they were giving their usual "American's Suck" taunts until I ran up in the base and killed their entire team (2x's). Greatest moment of all time, in which I failed to capture. That night I believe I played about 40 games and I totally forgot to go back and save the game.

Bungie has posted a Q&A and one of the things that I mentioned was they need to work enrich their menu's. One of my pet peeves is having to go to the Theater to Save Film saves out of the Recent Film list. There are some other things that I addressed of importance. The great part is that they actually CAN do these fixes, so after the final release of the video game you get the benefit of having updates too.
.finally
It has begun! After almost a year of anticipation and 4 hours of waiting in line, I have purchased a copy of Halo 3 and begun my career in Bungie's next installment in its epic Trilogy. Let me be the first to say, that I have yet to even look at some of the new features available that I've been looking for, and I'm still overwhelemed. But before I get into talking about the game itself, let me explain the events of Midnight Madness.

I woke up around 9:00 AM, showered, got dressed, ate some food... Then I settled in and played Campaign mode in Halo 2 to finish it up for the day. Yesterday was the day MTV News, was coming down to Philadelphia and catch me inside my house, doing what I do best in Halo 3 and to also participate in a dialogue about Halo 3, social life, and how the game will affect me. While here they interviewed Diana, and Martelle who came along for Midnight Madness.

The interview was great, I had a great time talking to Matt, the producer making the piece for a special MTV News is doing for gaming coming in later months. Afterwards we took a trip out to my workplace interview my co-worker, Andrew who gets to hear my Halo 3 rants all the time. We then proceeded to the King of Prussia mall where we doing a Halo 2 Tournament and waiting for the game.

The tournament was setup for 1v1 with a last round of 5 players in a FFA. the prize? $50. Not bad for a basic tournament. The point is I had fun and was able to kill some time. At about 11:30, they allowed everyone to pre-Pay for the game, and then at 12:01AM we received Halo 3! We were #1!
.review
After about 15 hours of campaign on Legendary, I've completed Halo 3! Let me say that the ending is well done. The gameplay, well integrated with the cut scenes and the storyline, brought an exciting, yet interesting end to the Halo 3 trilogy. Of course I was anticipating some type of alludding to another installment, but I think where they left it, is good enough for me. Especially after reading the novels, which broadened my exposure to the Halo Universe, everything ins the game falls in line sits well. However I feel some fans will be discussing whether it really is "the end." But I shall stall no more; here is my review of Halo 3.

Halo 3 is broken up into 5 different segments that simply accessed from the main menu. Since its arrival on the Xbox 360, a slew of new features and applications are available to the user. First off, your asked to sign in with your gamertag which will allow you to see your friends in game (press 'Y') and access other features such as saved films. I'll get into saved films a little bit later. One thing that is noticed is three new options for friends who play Halo 3. They are, Halo 3 File Share, Halo 3 Party Deatils, Halo 3 Service Record. I'll go over those a little bit later too. I'd like to first talk about Campaign mode.

Campaign in Halo 3 has gotten an overhaul not only is there new content (duh...) but Bungie has introduced, (what I think is the greatest thing to come to video games of this caliber) 4-Player Online Co-Op. Now Bungie, didn't want to replicate 4 Master Chief's so the Co-Op element is built into the gameplay. There are four different characters, (one of them being the Arbiter) and two other Elite (Sanghelli). You can read more about them here. The levels are put together very nicely, however I did notice some aspects from Halo: CE in which you go in a structure and have to come back out. In my opinion its kind of repetitive but I laughed amongst my friends as it reminded me of the original. One of the things you also notice, is the shear amount of additional enemies, and the AI difficulty that they bring. I notice that when you have more people playing Co-Op the enemies tend to be more difficulty, and can adapt to multiple players. In my normal progression I like to find shortcuts... Unfortunately, they were smart enough to find me and pin me down.

The next and probably the most important is Matchmaking, and of course we see some new features that I think are really beneficial to Matchmaking. The one I like the most is the ability to select the type of unranked and ranked playlist you wish to play. Before, specific playlists like Team Slayer, Team Skirmish, which are objective based games (Capture the Flag, Assault) were only ranked, and the Team Training (unranked) was the only playlist where you could access that unranked. So you would get a mixture of both. I personally do not like slayer games. Bungie has uniquely called the non-ranked games, social.

Another big modification to matchmaking is the ranking system. In Halo 3, each individual player receives a Service Record. A sort of experience ranking on how long they have played the game. You rank increases as you play more and more games, as you start out as a recruit, work your way through Private, Sergeant, Lieutenant, etc. You will also reeived a skill rating in ranked games. The idea behind the experience rank is to give credit to those players who don't cheat, and dedicate a lot of their time to the game. So to that affect, I've already seen people who are skill level 45 out of 50 in some playlists... However they are equal rank as I am, and I notice they play about the same as I do.

Custom games are pretty much the same, except there a host more options and game types to choose from. The most anticipated one is Infection, a gametype similar to "Dawn of the dead" or "Zombies". In Halo 2 many people played this gametype on the honor system and used some of the options in Halo 2 to make it a fun game. Now Bungie has brought those elements into an appropriate game type. Your able to select what the Zombies can and cannot do, what weapons they can carry, how fast they run and other options. Of course the usual gametypes are there too.

Halo 3 welcomes Forge, a map editor. No you cannot change the terrain but you can add and delete items. The interesting part, is that while you are doing all the editing you are able to have a game going on a the same time. I was to participate in one of the games with 10 other people and didn't find it too amusing; however I would use it to customize maps and make custom gametypes. Bungie has written up a nice "How-To" guide which explains Forge in great detail.

Lastly, and the one portion that I believe is the greatest element to any video game of this type is Theater. Theater is where you can retrieve, edit and share any game you've played in Halo 3. Whether its Campaign, Forge, Matchmaking or Custom, each game is recorded and your able to replay it back, make clips and take screenshots. Once your done your masterpiece you can then share it with everyone in the Halo: Universe. I think this portion is amazing and the fluidity of it all is amazing too.

So as you can see not only is the a gem for the Halo fans, there are some great things that even modest gamers will enjoy and look forward too.
.half & links
Half-way through Halo 2. Its kind of interesting to see how many differences there are between Halo 2 in and Halo CE. Of course the most significant one is AI. I had posted up behind a Covenant Armory Cube and tried to hide from this Elite in a Ghost... Reloaded my weapon and heard a noise come from my back (thank you Dolby Digital). The Elite had drove around the building, and came up behind me trying to take me down...

Halo 2 Matchmaking during the day and now heading out for the night... Tomorrow will be the completion of Halo 2...

I will update more later...

I meant to include some links:

www.moosequest.net
www.halo3.com
www.bungie.net
www.xbox.com
.intermission
So far Halo 3 has lived up to the hype... From Matchmaking to Campaign, the content graphics and the sheer overall excitement the game has been completely satisfying. Today is Thursday 48+ hours after the launch and from playing the game these past 2 days I can tell I will be playing this game for years. I have not finished the Campaign mode yet, because my Campaign partner has some semantics to work out with his situation before he can finish it... He asked me to hold off to finish it with him, which I might honor, but beating it twice shouldn't be an issue for me.

As for things outside of Halo? My friends been contacting me trying to contact me to come over and play, but both of my Blackberry's had reset over the night on Tuesday and I didn't turn them back on until about 3:00pm. 4 messages, and a bunch of text messages... Oops. I'm sure if I wasn't playing Halo I would have noticed.

When I announced that Halo 3 was coming out to my friends and co-workers I told them about the game and where they could track my day to day activities. Accordingly some e-mailed me back to ask how things were going. I told how excited I was and how much time the game has taken. Andrew, a co-worker of mine was interviewed by MTV when they visited on Monday of this week and said I would probably be calling out this weekend. I think not... Maybe...

Hopefully today I'm able to "Finish the Fight" and complete this epic adventure. So far, its been outstanding. Unfortunately I'm not positing details until I actually finish the game, in which I will write a full-featured review with thoughts and opinions about the game.
.tourney play
.almost time
.film
Put your gamertag here too.jimmie shaker
.1 more day
Wake Up - 9:00AM
Play - 9:01AM - 11:00AM
Prepare for MTV - 11:01AM
Chill for about 6 hours
King Of Prussia 6:00PM
Halo 3 Tourney 8:00PM
Halo 3 12:01AM Tuesday September 25th, 2007
Halo 3 --->

This time tomorrow I will have my hands on the latest and greatest video game ever to be played...

I been preparing... I've been waiting, the excitement is building. Bungie.net has put together quite the set of articles on the upcoming game, explaining Forge, and other unique elements in Halo 3. The feature I look forward to the most is he saved films... I'm sure I'm going to be saving a lot. I also like the way they restructured the ranking... Very nice...

Martelle (GheTToProDiGy) will be joining me in the Halo 3 Tourney... He's reactivated his account too. So we're straight for tomorrow...
Put your gamertag here too.
He's got his skillz back and he's ready for action.
.out
Tonight I took a break from Halo and went out with my friend Martelle, and ended up running into another friend Scott at Reeds in Blue Bell. We were playing Halo to about 9:30PM when we left to meet up with a some people at dorm (which was kind of whack). That's when we decided to head to Reeds.

Interestingly enough, while playing Halo, got a chance to play with the first "friends" on my friends list on Xbox Live when Halo 2 came out, Crazyfool840 and Billiam420.

CrazyFool840Billiam420

Kind of weird reminiscing about the good 'ole days of a video game. Even though I've never known the people in real life, I still associate with them.
.halo 2

Tonight begins my venture through Halo 2. I plan to have it finished by midday tomorrow, which means all-nighter. My weekend is actually booked, Saturday night will be a trip to Atlantic City with a friend and Sunday night I'm hanging out with an old high school friend.

Courtesy of Bungie Studios.

Speaking with a g
.begin

With only four days left, I’ve already begun to prepare for non-stop around the clock fun. With multiple locations hosting Midnight Madness lines, I’ve decided to head to King of Prussia; where not only the game is selling, but activities like a Halo 3 tournament and

prizes and giveaways will be hosted.

I’ve been reading the novels and also finished the first game Halo CE. I decided ‘Heroic’ difficulty was appropriate. Besides I’m playing for the story and not necessarily the glory.

I’ve known the story for quite sometime, and was able to pick up on some really minor details. For instance, some of the things that I remember from before, allude to things in the book, particularly about Planet Reach, and other characters. Not to get into much detail, but it was interesting being able to understand the scope of each characters dialogue and know key facts about the things they talked about in game.

Stay tuned for more.
.weekend planning
Besides the normal clowning around, this weekend will be filled with Halo 2 Multiplayer, finishing up my Tribute to Halo DVD, (Past, Present and the Future) and rounding up friends to prepare for Monday. As some of you know I will be featured on a segment of MTV News about Halo 3. MTV will take the time to hang with me on Pre-Launch (Monday) day and talk to some of the people in my life to see if I’m a true Halo fan.

Here’s a link to to a few of this weeks Halo CE Pictures.

Halo CE