The Halo 3 Co-Op Story

Well, I guess I was wrong yesterday when I said that "There's not many exciting 360 news floating around that I can talk about at the moment. Maybe they're waiting for the new games too! ;)" Clearly I was mistaken as I awoke to find news on Halo 3. And pretty much all Halo 3 news is exciting! =D

First up, the Co-Op situation with Halo 3 was currently at the stage where it was all but confirmed that online co-op wouldn't be available. Well, now Bungie, makers of the Halo series (amongst others of course, but none that interest me!), have officially announced that online (and offline) co-op will be available in Halo 3. As I read this I was very excited. I loved the online co-op in Gears of War, and can only imagine combining that with the greatness of the Halo game series. That said, the announcement gets better when Bungie announce that the co-op mode will be 4 PLAYER!!! =D Now, that's friggin awesome! lol!

So you've Master Chief and the Arbiter (of course!)...so who are the other 2? 2 more Master Chiefs...2 more Arbiters...a Master Chief and an arbiter...or SOMETHING ELSE??????

Well, Bungie also announced 2 new characters to take the positions of "Player 3" and "Player 4" they are:

PLAYER 3 - Name: N’tho ‘Sraom
Affiliation: Fleet of Retribution/Special Warfare Group/Special Operations
History: N’tho ‘Sraom is the youngest member of his Special Operations unit and is one of a growing number of human sympathizers amongst the Sangheili youth. He is a fairly typical young male adult Sangheili—he began compulsory military service at the end of adolescence, and remains unmarried with no close, non-familial relationships outside of his martial order. N’tho Sraom refused to stand idly by while the Prophets replaced Sangheili units with Jiralhanae packs, and now bears deep resentment toward those Sangheili politicians who landed his kind in their current predicament.

Although N’tho ‘Sraom’s romanticized nationalism is emblematic of all Sangheili, he has developed a healthy respect for humanity—not for their physical abilities or martial prowess, but for their audacity and resolve.

PLAYER 4 - Name: Usze ‘Taham
Affiliation: Fleet of Retribution/Special Warfare Group/Fleet Security
History: Although Usze ‘Taham was born into a respected merchant family he was fathered by Toha ‘Sumai—one of the preeminent swordfighters of this age. Usze graduated with honors from the top War College in the Iruiru region of Yermo, Sanghelios (a distinction he shares with Rtas 'Vadum). Shortly after receiving his first post within the Covenant Navy he was offered a place on the Prophets’ Honor Guard but he declined citing “lack of practical experience”. In truth, he had no desire to be part of a largely ceremonial unit, and at the end of his third combat tour, Usze ‘Taham again refused the post—even though his superiors warned him such behavior could be misinterpreted as apostasy.

Since that time Usze has evaded countless punitive actions, at least two assassination attempts, and served with distinction for two additional tours before the Schism. Following the dissolution of the Covenant, he was approached by the Ascetics to become one of their liaisons within the Navy.

So there you go...4 player Halo 3 co-op goodness, both online and offline. So get ready to pull out that MASSIVE Plasma screen you've been dying to show off and get 3 of your....oh, wait a minute...one last thing. If you're doing local co-op, you're limited to 2 on one console! ;)

Well, for me it isn't a problem (and it's not because I don't have enough friends before you start with your petty remarks) =P If you and 3 friends want to go for the co-op but offline, you've got 2 options. Option 1 is to system link 2 consoles together, put 2 people on each console, and you can play 4 player. The other options have to involve xbox LIVE, but it does mean you can have 4 people over 2 consoles over LIVE. Or 2 people over 3 consoles for that matter...or 4 for that matter...but then that's just co-op over LIVE! =D

Anyway, I think you all get the picture and if you don't...here's one for you! =D



And if that's not enough Halo 3 news for one day...I've got more!

The folks over at IGN had a special box delivered today. What was in it? Nothing but Halo 3 Mountain Dew of course! ;) Yes, that's right! A soft drink of a video game...whatever next. Sorry, you don't believe me. Check this out:



Now you believe me? Thought so. Head over to the link above to read more. It's so strange I can't even type much about it, lol!

Ok, so that's it for another day! Soft drinks and co-op, what more can Bungie provide, lol! I'm now off to do 'my rounds' for the Order over at 360voice.com. If you haven't already checked 360voice out, you definitely should (well, if you own an xbox 360 connected to LIVE that is!) ;) and if you haven't checked out the Order, you should do that too! Oh, and click here to support me (and the Order of course)...you could also leave a comment if you're EXTRA nice! ;)

So, till next post,
Soupy

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So much to do...so little time =(

Hey there =)

OK, now I'm going to try to justify why I haven't posted in over a week, and give you a little insight into my life as of late. Please feel free to visit Google now, and search for something more interesting, lol! ;)

Well, as you know from the last post, I had food poisoning two weeks ago. So I spent the majority of last week trying to catch up on work I had missed. So, not only was I doing the work that I was to do when I was sick, but also the work I had to do anyway! In other words, twice the work, half the time. What's new though, eh?

So, I didn't get that much time to play my xbox...well, I did get quite a bit of time (as shown on my 360's blog) but not as much as I would've liked to.

Let me explain something first. I work for a company in a town around 15 or 20 miles from my house. This company has a customer in England, I live in Northern Ireland. I have been assigned to this company to complete 90 days in 6 months on-site. Now, fortunately I quite like the idea of this and so jumped at the chance to do so. So, this is where I currently stand. I travel to England, usually on the Monday morning, and return on the Thursday night. I spend 4 days and 3 nights there, and then another day working at the offices of the company I work for. All this seems good, except I'm without xbox! =( I have got an apartment over there and a car, so I'm pretty settled in. The only thing I needed (before last week) was a 360 to keep me company. I didn't want to leave my current one over there, and didn't want to travel back and forth with it either. So, I bought a new one and now I have 2! OK, so I hardly need 2 xbox 360's when some people don't even have one...but I do need it! I now travel with a few games and my hard disk drive from my original 360, and when I get to England, plug it in and it's just like having my xbox 360 with me! =D

I can't tell you how much I enjoy that I'm able to do that. The only downside turns out to be that I don't have broadband where I'm staying while over here....yet! ;) I'm hoping to get it in relatively soon. Then I'll be able to be on LIVE too. It'll be very very sweet!

Well, now I've explained how much I love my 360...but that doesn't justify a week of non-posting. I've already mentioned that I have an apartment over here. I can say this now, but couldn't have last week. The week has been spent sorting it all out so that the next 6 months will be more comfortable, when I'm away so much of them. I've been super busy with work as it is, what with being off, and people being on holiday so, to be honest, I've just been too busy to post! =( I've barely even stopped by here to make sure all is normal, lol! I'm sorry...but hopefully it will all be sorted out soon, and I can get back to regular, quality posts! =)

On a side note, I visited my local GAME store (chain of stores that sell video games in the UK) and when browsing the Xbox 360 chart I noticed a lack of new games, compared to the last time I'd looked. There doesn't seem to be many big new releases recently...but I can understand why! With the upcoming 'huge holiday line-up' (what holiday is it anyway? I never understood when that was mentioned at E3! Is it an American thing?) my pockets are going to be very empty from August right through to November! Bioshock, Halo 3, GTA IV, COD4: Modern Warfare but to name a few! These are all going to be games that I will buy and, as I said, I'll be left with not a lot of money after! =/

OK, I guess that's enough talk for now. Hopefully I'll get to post again in a couple of days. There's not many exciting 360 news floating around that I can talk about at the moment. Maybe they're waiting for the new games too! ;)

Oh, one last thing. On the aeroplane today I started to read the autobiography of Peter Kay. It's a really REALLY good book (US link) (UK Link) and I think it's the first book I've ever read that I actually lol'd (laughed out loud) at! ;) The embarrassing thing was that I was on the plane at the time...but it was worth it for the humour it gave me! I'm looking forward to reading it some more later on! =D

So, till next time,
Soupy

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I'm not dead...honest, lol! =)

Well, sorry for being away for so long guys and gals. I had food poisoning =( and before you ask...no, I don't know how I got it. I ate very similarly to a colleague on the day before and he was fine! I don't understand...but now I'm better and back at work! =D This is going to be a short post however...as being off has the added ability to make you work extra hard to catch-up...so I'm doing that now! In good news however, I bought a SECOND xbox 360 today! =D If you're thinking why I need a second one then it's because I'm away from home for 4 days a week for the next 6 months or so...and instead of travelling with my 360, I figured I could leave a second one where I'll be based and then I can play whether I'm home...or away! =D If you think it's a silly idea however.........tough, 'cause I like it! =D

Hopefully, I'll get caught up on this work over the next 2 days and be able to post again here relatively soon!

Again, sorry...but these things happen!

Oh, and over at 360Voice (THE site that allows your 360 to tell you how it REALLY feels)...andyg (also of andyg) has started "The Order of the Nelson" You may not understand it but I like the idea and am a proud member, lol! Check out here for my blog and to help support "The Order of the Nelson" =D

Hasta la vista,
Soupy ;)

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First there was twitter, then a poll...now digg!

Hey.

Ok, so I've been playing around with the whole 'Net 2.0' thing for a while and have decided to just widget-ize my blog, lol! I tried to sign up for digg today and when I tried 'SoupyC' as a username it was taken! Grrr!! So I ended up going for my old usual username, 'SoupyC87' as it was available. So over the next while you might see some random posts, or other wee 'digg' features appearing over my blog as I work out how to do it.

In other news...it's my birthday tomorrow! Yayy! =) I'm 20 on the 22nd and it's a shame I'll no longer be a teenager *sniffle* lol! But who's to stop me acting like one ;) And with that in mind I decided to email my favourite night spot in Belfast, The Box to see if they'd let me get on the guest list. Well, being as nice as they are, they're letting me, and friends, on the guest list, but also, free into the VIP section! Should be fun this Thursday night!

Ok, enough of that...in other other news, I've decided today that I'm gonna try and develop SOMETHING for the 360voice API, just so I can get the badge, lol! I think it'll be a good experience for me at the same time as earning something that I can be (remotely) proud of, lol!

As a last note, before I go play some Halo 3 beta (friggin awesome!!!!!) and maybe some Test Drive Unlimited, thanks to all who voted in my poll in the last post. I was pleased with it and have decided to possibly integrate a weekly, or monthly, poll into the sidebar of the blog, so that I can get a bit more functionality here. (It's the widgetization craze that's got me hooked, lol!) I'll post about the poll, and then update the sidebar to feature it. This means that each poll should be able to be kept in history (forever in theory) but only the latest poll displayed in the sidebar. I think it's a good idea, but as always, if you have your own opinion on anything, comment! =)

Till next post,

Soupy

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Weather (pun intended) to choose 360 or outdoors

Well I thought it's about time I actually made another post. Though, I'm not sure what to write about! I'm sure if I just continue to type, it'll come to me, lol! Today is May Day, a lovely bank holiday in which the Belfast Marathon takes place. I took part in it last year, but not the full marathon, just the fun run. And to make it more fun, I dressed as Big Bird, lol! I even got on the news because of it...though I won't let you know where that video is! ;) This year, I'm not taking part and instead have decided to relax today, as everything else just seems to be so busy, I think I need a day off.

This week's been kinda mad! I've been out in town 3 nights and each one has been a mad one. As well as pulling an all nighter this week, and being out in the sun A LOT. It's very rarely we get the sun in Northern Ireland so I decided to make the most of it. They said that last week was the hottest week for this time of year in 300 years! I didn't even know they recorded the temperature 300 years ago, and when I questioned that they said that they started recording the temperature in Northern Ireland 300 years ago so they can't tell if it's been hotter before that! Anyway, it sure felt hot to me. I even got a little burnt, but luckily when i burn, it goes to tan shortly after! =) All this sun and madness of this week has got me thinking of Magalluf. I can't wait to go now...only 6 weeks and 2 days to go! Should be really good fun, me and 8 other guys in the sun! Even that sounds slightly homosexual, it's not...at all! =)

Also, due to all the nice weather and the enjoyment I was getting out of it, this happened! =( Yes that's right...after 50 consecutive days of playing my 360, I forgot to play one day and my streak has gone. As you can see from the comment on that page, I was rather annoyed =( That's the thing though. I shouldn't be annoyed at losing a 50 day streak of playing, I should be annoyed that I had a 50 day streak in the first place! lol! Now, don't get me wrong...I love my 360! But ever since joining 360Voice I have been over-playing my 360, just so that it can write about me, I can get badges, I can have an awesome streak...it's a little sad, but I like it! =) Plus, there's a great community of people there and if I'd never joined 360Voice, I never would've joined 360gl. I know I maybe don't participate there as much as I'd like to, but that community is truly awesome! There are some great people there and I really look forward to the Halo 3 Beta nights they're preparing. If you wanna check out the people that run 360gl, they are Mr and Mrs Achievement. Their links are in the section to the right (that I added today) but they are truly the kind of people that make the community of 360 owners FAR supperior to that of the Playstation 3. I used to think the people who hated the original Xbox's and then the 360's, and wouldn't leave their precious Playstation, were just Sony fanboys...now I'm proud to call myself an Xbox fanboy...and wouldn't change to the dark side for anything in the world (except maybe MGS4...but my optimism is still hoping for a 360 release, lol! Don't let me down Hideo!)

As I come to the end of my post, I should keep you up-to-date on a few things. My car is STILL in for repairs...apparently this part is harder to find than a leprechaun! Which reminds me of a funny story I heard this week...maybe you'll hear it one day, lol! In other news, I've been doing a lot of java for a uni project due in on Wednesday. Gonna finish it up this afternoon/evening hopefully! Also, me and a friend are looking for a house for next year. Hopefully, a nice two bedroom close to where we are now. Going to view a few on Tuesday so hopefully that will turn out well. And finally, the weather that has been oh so good has let me down as I hear the rain hitting my window! =( Oh well, at least I had no official plans to go outside, lol!

Till next time,
Soupy

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