Well, a few guys from a chat room I frequent got busy on Bungie.net and the icons they have found hidden in files seem to suggest weapons that, as far as we can tell, are going to be in Halo 3.

A few of these babies look like they'll be pretty fearsome when you see them for real in the game...

http://www.bungie.net/forums/posts.aspx?postID=10549718

(Had to type out the URL, hopefully it works)

For those who don't feel like going to the link...

... ZOMG FLAMETHROWER, CHAINGUN, COVENANT CHAIN GUN.

- Newnab (I may be the first one to break this here at Gamespot... Hm.) 

I intended yesterday to engage in some Marvel: Ultimate Alliance action with an online mate who recently rented Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The more the merrier for that game. I was looking forward to getting my game on with it... But oh my... Activision/Raven Software... What HAVE you done?

 The update that prepares your game for the possibility of the new characters was released a couple days ago, and I have it. However... Apparently, the update messed up some peoples games, so they took the update down and delayed the new characters. Now. My friend, gets the game on rental for a three day gaming session of it hopefully with me and this other guy who has it. But... Now the update is gone, he can't get it. And people who don't have the update can't play with people who do. And if you try it gets really stupid and doesn't even TELL you that it isn't working, just leaves you sitting at the loading screen like a lemon until you reset your console.

So much for that. :( Hopefully he'll get the game again sometime in the future when the update is out. And hopefully by then we'll have those new characters which look awesome. It's a shame, though.

In other "UPDATES RUIN EVERYTHING" news, the Shivering Isles bug for PC is causing even MORE trouble. Apparently the patch that fixes the current bug introduces a NEW one. Which resets everything about your character. What's even WORSE is, there are now reports of the initial bug happening on Xbox 360's, but Bethesda, thus far, at time of writing, is refusing to acknowledge that the issue is present on Xbox 360 aswell. Could mean trouble, and I advise not getting that Expansion pack if you were considering it, at least until all this is sorted.

In the absence of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance I played Halo 2 again for the first time in a while. It was intensely fun, actually and it's incredible how that game still holds up so well. If Halo 3 is going to be even better then... Well. We're going to have quite a game on our hands, ladies and gentlemen.

Project: Top Secret rolls along at a steady pace, with people dropping like flies. We seem to have gone from over 26000 people to.... About 200 max. And that's only going to drop further as more and more people have their ideas not picked for the game at certain stages, I fear. After some initial friction and turbulence over the first stage of the process, it was re-done, addressing many of the issues I previously had with it. We have decided that the visual style of the game will be Anime, and are now onto deciding what exactly this game is going to be about, what it's main "hook(s)" is/are going to be. Exciting, and truly interesting stuff both in terms of game design and group dynamics.

Back to College soon... Less gaming time, but oh well. This past 2 weeks has been pretty awesome as Holidays go. Besides my birthday, driving lessons, generally relaxing, a lot has happened in terms of videogames...

Annex came out in Gears. Halo 3 beta dated, new Halo 3 video, Xbox 360 spring update announced (MSN ON XBOX! Still pumped about that), got back into Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, did more Crackdown, advanced significantly in my Uno challenge, I kicked some major ass in Gears (And met some major ass in ranked games), played Halo 2, enjoyed Tournament TV Gears of War, two decent "On the Spot"s, two excellent "HotSpot"s and more. S'all good, and here's hoping the good times continue.

Nab's thought: Still need something to spend my Microsoft points on...  

So. Annex is out there, being played, and... Well. Looks like it's a bit of a Marmite gametype (You either love it or you hate it).

Following my Halo 3 beta blog post, I rushed up to my gaming den AKA bedroom to give Annex a try. I ended up playing it for about 6 hours straight. So. You can probably guess which category I fall into... Yes, I like the gametype. It's a refreshing change of pace and a lot more Halo-ish in design which as far as I'm concerned is a good thing... I do feel, however, that the host advantage is even more present in this gametype... Well. You notice it far more, at any rate.

All in all, a good addition and it's totally worth a try for anything into Gears or online competition shooters.

My Uno Challenge stumbles ever forward. I am currently on 27 single player wins. I aim to get to 31 before getting ten more in multiplayer online games.

I've also been playing a lot of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance in co-op online recently. That game is cooler than I imagined, and I can't wait for the new downloadable characters....Venom may even replace my current favourite: Iron "One shot death uppercut" Man.

I finally got the shotputting achievement in Crackdown... And... Well. I'm sort of ashamed to admit this. The reason I wasn't getting it before was because I wasn't actually throwing the things... I was just dropping them while running forwards... I thought B button was throw! Urgh. Yes, all of us have noob moments.

That's basically it. Just a small update. See you online. :) 

I was expecting it to be a couple more blog posts before I got to make this announcement, but, you've surprised me, readers. :P

Over 1000 profile views. That's a cool milestone. Thanks guys. 

Woah, Woah, WOAH! My next update was going to be about Annex (I havn't even played it yet. This got my attention) but this is cooler.

New. Halo 3. Details.

Let me break it down for you. The Halo 3 beta is beginning [EDIT] May 16th [/ED]and will run for four weeks. Three maps: Valhalla, High ground, Snowbound. Matchmaking will be the option. Numerous gametypes and modes. A lot of new stuff, including the X button (Which is now revealed to be "Drop Equipment" such as TRIP MINES and the Bubble shield shown in the CG trailer).

There's a new Video documentary on Bungie.net, and it's also on Xbox Live Marketplace. The video contains ALPHA footage (So the beta will look even better). It's an exciting video and worth a look. Lots of things to be seen in there.

Anyway. That's it. I'll update about Annex later, when I've got around to playing it!!!

As Annex is due to dawn... Well. Any minute? (I fear it may have been delayed) it seems never more appropriate for me to bring this topic up.

Warzone VS Execution? Which is the superior gametype?

Well, lets break it down now, shall we? :)

 Warzone is the standard, get someone down, then finish them off however you like gametype. Execution is the same, only, you can get yourself back up before you're killed, and they have to kill you by performing one of various execution moves.

Among my friends list, Execution seems the more popular. But I disagree. I like Warzone better. I mean. Lets look at the pro's and cons, here.

Pro's of Execution:

Sometimes takes more skill to get a kill (If you're not talking about the more noobish ways to get kills).

Battles can be longer.

Con's of Execution:

You lose the teamwork and team bonding of reviving your teammates because they just do it themselves.

You lose kills and, if down to 1 vs 4, you are much more likely to lose rather than get an awesome spree.

You lose most of the ability to celebrate your final kill with a smoke tag and a dance.

It's much harder to kill someone only with infinite smoke tags.

Sniper battles become long, drawn out, boring.

Nooby chainsaw and frag tag kills are further encouraged because they're even easier than the norm. 

You lose almost all rightful awesome long range kills if you manage an awesome shot while they're in cover.  

Everyone loves it and won't stop going on about how much more awesome it is, even against good reasons.

Sure, people may love it better because it feels better to them to be able to get up when they're on the recieving end of an awesome shot so they can go and do an easy noob kill, but that doesn't make it a better gametype. In my opinion, it's strictly poorer, and while I'm host, my friends will have to deal with it. ;)

Nab's thought: Who cares anyway? Annex will rule them all. 

The Announcement of the Xbox 360 Spring Update is... Well. Fantastic and massive news, to me. The announcement of more streamlined features is standard stuff, and it's nice to know Microsoft is continuing to support and update and improve the platform, acknowledging where it has fallen short. But... Lets face it. The main talking point here... Is MSN/Windows Live Messenger Integration and that crazy keyboard controller add-on.

 One look at the comments section will instantly reveal who the Sony fanboys are. Comments such as "You can voice chat and do video chat already on PS3 with a USB camera, can't do that on Xbox360 can you?" go someway to highlighting those who're horrified by how awesome this announcement is for Microsoft (Aswell as making you lose a little bit of faith in humanity).

 For some Xbox 360 owners this announcement wont mean much to personally. But for many (Myself included) this is fantastic, and despite perhaps seeming small, could turn out to be a fantastic kick in PS3's "The Cell"-powered testicles.

 Personally, my gaming breaks down in the following way:

In my household we have a sorta schedule. Me and my siblings take turns on the Computer, basically. When I'm not on the computer, then I'm on the Xbox 360. When I'm not on the Xbox 360, my little brother goes on it. It all works pretty well, and it's not like this is our lifes, we do other stuff and it goes around education stuffs and outings and things, we're not a whole family of nerds (I'm the nerdiest one of the bunch, mind).

Part of the reason I love going on the Computer is chatting to a few people on MSN. Now I'll get to do that more often, and that is fantastic news, as far as I'm concerned. I'm overjoyed.

On a wider scale, with regards to sales on both platforms... MSN is a worldwide phenomenon and very popular thing. When it comes to people (gamers AND casuals) deciding what console to buy, MSN compatibility is just one more thing (Along with the pricepoint and bigger library of games) that will swing the vote in favour of 360. When you're going against a brand as powerful and well known as "Playstation", such things are vital for sucess.

Good news all round then, unless you're a member of the Ken Kutaragi Fan club.

As for that Keyboard... It looks sorta unwieldy. But it's detatchable, and may turn out to be better than we imagine. There's no way to tell until we get our hands on it! Plus you can just use any other USB keyboard, which I expect many may do.

Bring on May 7th. What's HOME again? 

Hello, readers.

Finding myself at a loss for what to update my Gamespot blog with, I have decided to share with you a story from the world of Gears of War multiplayer, on Xbox Live, this morning.

So. I booted up XBL and tried out Luxor 2. It was cool. Not worth 800 points though, in my opinion. Maybe if it had some multiplayer...

Anyway, to my dismay, after completing the Luxor 2 trial, none of my friends online were doing anything interesting. With my achievement points still dwindling in numbers, I figured I'd try a ranked Gears of War match. Booted it up, got into an 11 round game on Gridlock, which is a really poor map, but in hindsight the host probably chose it because he was too much of a noob to realise there are other maps in the game.

 The host was none other than a guy called "Sichta" I believe it was spelt. He refused to start the game until we had 8 players. Fair enough, I love a good 4 vs 4 fight. So. We get our game on. Right away Sichtar's team kick our ass with shotguns in the sniper tower. I'm starting to think maybe this was a bad idea, but I decide to stick with it.

Next round things started looking up. We won, comfortably. And we went on to win and win until we had a comfortable lead. One of my teammates was a German kid, nice chap, bit of a sniper hog but it was really between me and him on kills. 

When it's about 9 rounds to 4 in our favour (A round I just won for our team), Sichtar decides to speak to me in English (Until now he had been talking mostly in a language I couldn't understand). Here's what he said:

"Nicknab... you... you are stupid player" in a foreign accent. Yes. Annoying. He was beating me by one kill at this point due almost entirely to host advantage and the fact that the rest of his team were setting up kills for him. He couldn't even get my name right, but whatever. I decide, I'll get him back later.

The game gets to be 10 rounds to 6. Me and German kid are level on kills, Sichtar is one kill and a few points ahead of both me and German kid. If we win this, we win the game, and if I get enough kills, I'll get an achievement. Up to the sniper tower we sprint, german kid shouts "nooooooo" as he is slain by a lancer as he runs for a sniper. One of them has gone around the back of us, another is coming up the front. Biller, a teammate of mine dives forward and gets chainsawed by the one coming up the front while I turn around the face the guy behind us.

"Crap."

I realise my other team mate has died somewhere else, but I didn't see it, and turn to face the chainsawing locust man. Bang! top stop him chainsawing me. BAM! and he's in chunks. I mash the buttons and make Lieutenant Kim spin on his heels to face the guy now at the top of the stairs behind me. Unleash two shotgun rounds and he retreats a little. Kim shouts "Grenade!" and a grenade bounces at me feet, rolling from behind me (the front). I dive and roll towards the sniper and my temporary foe retreats, just for the guy who threw the grenade to run JUST past me before pressing B and lashing out with his grenade tag. He missed, only just, and I finish him quickly with a shotgun to the back of the head. The original guy has now come up and a shot to the face takes him down, a second shot finishes him just as the final guy runs up those same steps. I reload. Press back. It's Sichtar. Press reload at the right time for a perfect reload. 

He has host advantage... I have the "I want to kick your ass more than you want to kick mine" factor.... A dive to the left and one shot directly in the face later, he goes down.

"YES!" I stick a smoke grenade to his body and start dancing around him. Victory is mine. I chainsaw his body which is kneeling before me and I feel fantastic.

... Then he quickly closes the game before the post game lobby, final scores, achievements, etc.

What a ****ing *******!  

I bad repped him, and decided I had to share my intense victory somehow, even if I couldn't have the achievement to show for it. So here's the story. And remember, if you see Sichtar. Give him a negative review for me. ;)

I completed Crackdown. Yay. Well. Sorta yay. I thought the ending was weak.

ANYONE WHO DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING... SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH:

So. The Police orchestrated all the crimes so that the people would experience anarchy before peace. The announcer dude laughs at you. What a pile of ****. I mean seriously. Lets start with: Why would the police do that? Waste all their money on creating lots of crime and then destroying it by spending even more money on a genetically enchanced human being? When they could've just kept things crime free in the first place? Secondly... Then what? Nothing? IF they had to go with such a ridiculous ending, they could've at LEAST done it properly. For example: Howabout, right after that final cutscene, you climb to the top of the agency tower and the announcer dude is standing there. He says "Finest view in the city" but gets cut off by you kicking him the balls. Then you have an epic showdown, only it isn't too epic, because he's as light as a feather, and one of your kicks knocks him flying off the building and he falls to his death, releases tonnes of stat points which boosts all your skills to the max. You take over as head of the police force. End game. Would've been way better.

In other... Well. I guess it's gaming news, I've been addicted to this little flash game, Nanaca Crash. I'm going to tell you all about it. :D

Here's a link:  http://storage.act-9.com/2005/0222/nanaca.htm (That took me ages to type out by hand, so I hope someone appreciates it)

The idea of the game is to knock that guy as far as possible with your bike. The different people you can hit on the way have different effects on you. Some will angle you, some will boost you, and one ***** completely stops you if you touch her. I hate her. Ok, so there are also these aerial boosts. Clicking on the screen when you see yourself going upwards will give you a downwards aerial boost, if you have one, and if you're going down will give you an up boost. This is to guide yourself away from the people you don't want to hit, and into the ones that you do. So you need to learn who does what.

There are also "Specials". The specials meter on the right hand side will often show a picture of one of more of the people you could possibly hit. If you hit them while they're lit, the words "SPECIAL! CLICK HERE!" appear on screen. So yeah. You click, and you get a kick ass boost. The best special, in my opinion, is the special on the girl who usually stops you completely (She's the most left one on the special bar, in a green box). One last thing, if you hit the "Through and run" girl, and then get a special while it says "Block" on the special meter, you get a special special which has a special ability, such as doubling every boost you get, or something.

My high score is 11819.44m. Try and beat it. Though if you do, I wont believe you unless you provide a screenshot!!!

Just when I was thinking I'll quit Gears in favour of the Halo 3 beta and Shadowrun... Along comes the announcement of "Annex". Annex is a new Gears of War gametype which will be included with the patch coming soon (Scheduled for April 9th, this monday, but subject to change).

Annex is a break away from the traditional Gears gametypes we're currently playing, for several reasons. I'll address the most drastic right now:

 RESPAWNS WTF!?

Yup, Annex is going to have Respawns. Infinite respawns. Cool, eh? Maybe. It'll be interesting, at any rate.

So. The purpose of Annex is somewhat like a King of the Hill or Territories gametype. You and your team will be charged with capturing and controlling one or more areas on the map, depending on map. To take over a territory, you must be within it's boundaries for long enough. The exact time it takes to take control depends on how many of your team are there. If it's just you, sitting there, it will take 8 seconds. If all 4 of your team are in the area, it will only take one second.

Once you have control of an area, you may leave it, but you mustn't let it fall into enemy hands. What territories you control and for how long will determine how many points your team has, (It's a points based gametype) and whoever has the most points at the end of the round, or reaches a certain point limit, will win! Simple! At least... I THINK that's what it is. I guess we'll see, hopefully on Monday.

Happy Gaming, I'll update again sometime soon!

Nab's thought: Why wont Crackdown give me that shotputting achievement!?! 

I am now 17, £50 richer, and I own a car.

Cool, eh?

I had my first driving lesson today, though I've been cruisin' around in it since Sunday. It went well, actually.

And I have a job interview today, in about an hour... If I get it, I'll be able to afford videogames I want... If not, well. I wont. So fingers crossed.

Project: Top Secret is in full swing. The forum is overflowing with crazy ideas and people frantically trying to get picked for game development teams. It's crazy. Luckily I've found solace in a not-often-used-by-many live chat room with a few like minded people. It seems to me that there are some flaws in the design of how Project: Top Secret is going to work. Some of which are going to be fixed. Some of which may be fixed. And others which wont but may not impact the game development as seriously as I fear.

Firstly... There are way too many people. The number of people drops off massively every day because, to put it simply, most people were there to pitch an overall idea for a game, and then leave whenever anyone points out why their idea may not work so well, or that the whole process would be over if we just picked one game like that.

 That will probably fix itself as we move into stage 2 of the development. Here's hoping, we'll be left with a small team of dedicated people and posters.

I think my main issue is in how the whole thing is layed out. It's confusing, irksome, and I fear will not lead to success. If this is how David Perry has been making his games recently, then the reason his games have been not doing so well is obvious. No aspect of the development takes the other aspects into account. They're all done as seperate things and then stuck together. Storyline is an afterthought at best. 

For example, a gameworld is the first stage we must create. But, in our description and submission and judging of those ideas, no gameplay or vehicles or concepts will be taken into account. So the gameworld, for example, could be that global warming has gone mad and everywhere is flooded so you have these aerial and boat races... But, that isn't taken into account. Vehicles are added later, and peoples current concepts for vehicles... They may win and have to be shoehorned into the gameworld.  Then weapons. Items. All these different things being stuck together without idea of how they WORK together. It's difficult to explain. Despite this it may turn out alright, by luck or flexibility of those involved. I hope so, at any rate. I sort of feel "invested" in this project now, and it's a nice feeling.

I'll keep you posted.

In regular gaming news, I've been getting on slowly with more Gears Multiplayer, my UNO CHALLENGE! and Crackdown.

For those who don't know, my UNO CHALLENGE! is to get all the achievements. I am going to win thirty games in single player, and then brave the world of public lobby Uno multiplayer for ten wins in order to accomplish this feat. Do I expect to see genitalia on the XBL Vision cam? You betcha.

I have one boss left to kill in Crackdown, and it's starting to piss me off. Because she isn't there. Her guards, and her, whenever I go there... They just DONT APPEAR. I can stand right where she should be, according to radar, and not see a thing. It's really, really annoying. Any suggestions on how to fix this bug? Or am I destined to never complete one of the easiest games of the year?

Ugh. I feel sick as a parrot, with this bunged up nose and cold I have, and the sore throat I'm recovering from. What luck, that today, of all days, should be the day I fall ill on.

That's all for now.

Nab's thought: 2900 or so MS Points are burning a hole in my digital online pocket. Maybe if Luxor 2, this wednesdays XBLA release is any good, that tally will fall...