No one knows for sure when the Mythic Map Pack will drop on us outside of a Halo Wars: LE purchase. I have heard a week after Halo Wars comes out, which is March 3 stateside and I have also heard that it comes out March 31 from a different source. Until that day, whenever it may be, here is a video of Sandbox. A new, huge, and very customizable map that people are saying is one of the best to date. Here is a link to the rest of the videos. Enjoy.
The much anticipated 3rd map pack for Halo 3 is coming soon and the map names and details are finally officially released. There are new achievements that cannot be obtained until the Map Pack is downloaded. Here are the details for all three maps. Click here for some screenshots.
Sandbox combines large-scale vehicular combat with a limitless amount of Forge customization. Boasting a tiered, open-world layout, build your own unique game experiences using the Forge map editor. Sandbox is a map unlike any Bungie has ever created.
Assembly is set in the heart of a Covenant Scarab manufacturing facility. With two identical bases on either side of this medium-sized map, it’s a perfect environment for both Slayer and objective games like Capture the Flag and Assault.
Orbital, a small asymmetrical map, is set in the docking station of the Quito Space Tether. One-sided games like One Flag, and One Bomb are sure to become quick fan-favorites, but the Slayer faithful will also find plenty of action on this battleground.
A new Halo branded Xbox 360 bundle has shown up on a Swedish retailer’s website and is set for release on February 27th.
The bundle includes:
Console with HDMI port
Wireless controller
60GB HDD
Wired headset
Network cable
Component cable
1 month Xbox Live Gold
Halo 3
Halo Wars
All of this for the measly sum of 2795kr or about $346 for those of you not familiar with the Swedish Krona.
As far as it looks, this bundle will only be available in Europe. It’s too bad really because for $346 this bundle would sell like crazy in the U.S. A Xbox 360 60GB model retails for around $299. For an extra $47 plus tax you get both Halo 3 and Halo Wars. How great would it be to live in Sweden?
Let’s kick it old school this week. We’re going all the way back to 2007 and still one of the biggest multiplayer games, Halo 3. Yeah, that’s right, we’ll be firing rockets over your head tonight.
You know the drill… 9pm ET… gamertags can be found on the About Us page. We’ll probably play mostly Big Team Battle so we can get a lot of people together, but I have a feeling some Team Slayer and Team Doubles will get mixed in there.
Bungie must have been feeling giving right before the holidays because they have let us get a glimpse of the second map that’s part of the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack. The map is titled Orbital and they have included only a single screenshot in their weekly update but it looks mighty tasty from my perspective. The Bungie crew is taking a holiday break like so many of us but they stated there will be more information (or screenshots) next week so stay tuned.
The Mythic Map Pack will be released sometime in March but if you plan on getting the Halo Wars Collector’s Edition you will be able to get the maps a bit earlier than the rest of the world.
The Major League Gaming Pro Circuit held their 2008 National Championships this weekend in Las Vegas and as expected, top-seeded Str8 Rippin won the title. What did they win? A giant novelty check for $100,000 and the glory of being the best 4v4 Halo 3 team out there.
As for the losers, they too are winners. Prizes were also awarded for 2-4 place. Second place received $60,000, third $40,000 and fourth place got $28,000 to split amongst their teammates. This just goes to show you that spending all day gaming really does pay off, but only for those who are extremely skilled at it so don’t quit your day job.
The NXE dropped today. If you weren’t aware, welcome to the future. One of the big features is the ability to install full retail games to your hard drive. I’ve been using this for a couple weeks with Rock Band 2 and Gears of War 2 and love it. Not only does it speed up loading times in some cases, but it reduced the wear on your DVD drive and makes the Xbox 360 a whole lot quieter.
However, not all games are created equal. Trying to run Halo 3 from your Xbox 360 hard drive will actually increase loading times. Ouch. Here’s the quick and dirty: Halo 3 caches maps to the hard drive in the “utility partition” of the hard drive. This was used to speed loading times from the DVD. Even if you install to the hard drive, the game still goes through this caching procedure. Now here’s where it gets tricky. When playing from disc, you’re loading from both the hard drive and the DVD. When playing from the hard drive, you’re trying to read from two locations on a single source. You can only do so much from the hard drive at once, which leads to slower load times.
Don’t expect Bungie to patch Halo 3 to make it work better from the hard drive. There would be a whole lot involved and it’s just not worth their time. So, Halo players, stick with running the game from the disc. It’s not all that bad to save on the hard drive space, anyway.
[Editor's Note: Here's another new weekly segment at Loot Ninja. What the Eff will show up every Thursday, so make sure to keep coming back for more.]
As anyone who plays Halo 3 already knows, or those who enjoy staying up to date with video game news, there have recently been some updates to Halo 3 online. First of all we’ve been introduced to a new ranking system, which, honestly, I don’t understand nor do I see a great reason for it. From the way it’s been explained to me, and maybe I’m wrong, by simply gaining experience you will continue to rank up from Recruit to General. If this fact is the case I hate it. I feel that if you are skilled enough to attain a level 50, then you are worthy of becoming a General, if not too bad. It’s just like getting the Hayabasu helmet, if you’re skilled enough to beat the game on Legendary, then people can see that, but don’t allow everyone to become a General for playing a massive amount of multiplayer. After a while there is going to be an overabundance of General’s, and that annoys me. I like being able to look at not only a player’s skill level, but their overall rank, to determine whether or not I’m going to get pwnd.
This is just a friendly reminder for all of you out there who still haven’t gotten that elusive Alas, Poor Yorick achievement. This weekend’s double experience point playlist is 3 ball. If you haven’t played 3 ball before the game consists of 4 teams with only 3 balls which would leave one team being left out of the mix according to my math. So go grab yourself a ball and get 3 oddball melee kills before it’s too late.
This playlist ends Monday the 27th at 2 A.M. PDT so there is still ample time remaining. Don’t forget that 3 ball also requires the Heroic and Legendary map packs, so fork over those Microsoft points if you haven’t already.
Skimming through the Bungie Weekly Update this week there was a neat tidbit of information. This is not just the usual talk about the banhammer or updates to bungie.net. They were willing to confirm the existence of a mysterious book listed on Amazon.com for a little while now. Titled The Art of Halo 3: Prima Official Art Book, it is set to release November 11th, 2008 with 168 pages of hardcover goodness filled with Halo 3 concept art. The book will also contain commentary from Bungie artists and an exclusive interview with toymaker Todd McFarlane.
It is kind of reminiscent of the Halo Graphic Novel that was released way back in 2006. All of this is very good news for the kids out there who just can’t get enough Halo in their lives. Don’t worry, you are not alone.
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