ArtisticallyChill

Picked up Halo Wars yesterday morning. Didn’t get to completely unboxing it til earlier today. Here’s what’s in the Limited Edition:

• Collector’s Tin containing the game, manual and the marketplace card with three codes: 48 hour Gold Trial, Honor Guard Wraith download, and the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack
• Halo Wars hardcover art book
• 6 Halo Wars Unit Info Cards
• Spirit of Fire (wtf? rubber?) patch
• Mini strategy guide

My only complaint is that the patch really isn’t the patch I, nor anyone else, was thinking about. When I hear the word ‘patch’, I think of something that I can sew on to a piece of clothing. That’s a patch. The rubber coaster that was packaged in this Limited Edition is clearly not a patch.

~ LoneWolf

So last night was Thanksgiving. It was full of fun times, good food, and great memories. We started dinner a bit late but kept ourselves busy by catching up or by playing some Rock Band on the Wii. When our final guests arrived we said our thanks before a table overloaded with coma-inducing food. After my plate had been around the table, I had eaten enough food to my stomach’s content.

After a bit of digesting and mingling with the cousins, I decided to setup my Xbox 360 in my parent’s bedroom so that the boys and I could a system link session going on. Naturally we played Halo 3. After a about 4 matches (Justin didn’t have any of the DLC, so our map selection was limited), we thought we’d give COD: World At War a try. I had never intended on purchasing this game but since both my brothers and my cousin picked it up, I was forced to pick it up on that off chance that all 4 of us were online at the same time to do some 4 player co-op over Xbox Live. So I popped in the disc and started going thru the menu options. Obviously I wanted to setup a System Link game, so upon seeing ‘System Link’ in the menu I figured it was straight forward. Unfortunately, this was not the case. When I clicked on ‘System Link’ it did not give the option for the other controllers to join in. Then I thought I needed to create the game first and setup the lobby. So I set one up but still no option appeared for the other controllers to join in. I checked the back of the game’s box art and it did say System Link was available for up to 18 players. I checked the manual and it didn’t elaborate on System Link games any further in detail. So we finally came to the conclusion that COD: World At War was one of those shooters that allowed system link BUT only allowing one person per console. F#$&-ing weak!

How hard is it to replicate the code of Halo 3′s robust muliplayer? Sure online multiplayer is a big plus in most shooting games. But developers undervalue the System Link option. Not every single child in the family will have an Xbox 360 console. It usually is one per household. But when a big family like mine gets together, we don’t have the luxury of a space to accommodate a 1 person per console system link session. 2 consoles, 4 player split screen system linking is our only option. It’s lots of fun to have two teams in separate rooms playing against each other. There’s cooperation involved, and some fun trash talking. And because it’s just us as a family playing, it’s a lot of fun. But when I see that the System Link option in games like COD World At War is nothing but a mere waste of programming, I feel like I’ve been cheated. I feel like I paid too much for the damn game because it doesn’t have TRUE System Link capabilities like Halo 3 does.

Halo 3 did set the bar for multiplayer gaming. COD4 and COD5 have excellent online multiplayer but since they lack in offline multiplayer, to say that either of these games or any future game that has the same undervaluing of System Link, has a better multiplayer experience than Halo 3 is complete bull$#@&!

Game Devs need to lock it up and give the System Link the attention it deserves!

~ LoneWolf

So there you have it. Absolutely nothing. Does this even count as a teaser trailer? The only thing I can deduce is that maybe this next Halo project is focused on the ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). Could this be the next chapter in the Halo universe? A squad based shooter a la Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six? How will this fit with Master Chief’s storyline? Could this be an aftermath story? “Keep It Clean” could very well imply that the ODSTs are dropping into a hot zone to clean up any remaining Covenant and/or Flood left behind after the events of Halo 3.

One could also speculate that if this is another series, that the continuing advancements in ODST technology could lead into a new Spartan program; which could lead into the next chapter of the Master Chief or a new chapter about the graduate(s) of the new Spartan program with a story of a search and rescue mission to bring Master Chief back from deep space.

Or is this some kind of episodic DLC that runs off of the inner workings of Halo 3?

Speculation aside, Bungie is definitely working on something within the Halo universe. Hopefully the next countdown will show us something more than just shit falling from the sky.

~ LoneWolf

p.s. Thanks to Jason for coming up with an excellent blog post title!