I can't help myself. Halo + Photoshop = :D

Here's a new one:

Again, opinions on the image would be cool.

Halo 3 is now, what, 10 days away? Wow.
Well, to get into the swing of things, I took the best pics from the Halo 3 website and made a background pack. Some of these are really, really good so if anyone gets a chance, check them out.

Gimme a comment about opinions on the pack ;)

http://rapidshare.com/files/56133205/Halo3BGPack.zip.html

I was really looking forward to it. A chance to play the game before I could really play the game. I signed up at http://charlieoscardelta.com back when the IW guys announced they were doing a public beta at E3.

At the start of the week I tried to get a download token. I still haven't gotten an email back. It's kinda annoying but what can ya do?
Unless someone out there feels in a sharing mood and wants to let me retrieve their XBL tag?

No?

... anyone?

:(

Damn.

That's all I have the ability to say right now. Damn.

About a week ago my xbox randomly started being wierd... I got the 3 lights and so I turned it off. The room was really warm; I'd been playing for a while and I had a heater on in the corner with no windows or doors open. I thought maybe it had just fried out and overheated.
Anyway, I turned it off, came back in an hour or so and hit the button to try again. It worked, no problems.
Then last night I was trying the VGA cable to my monitor from the xbox.
After about 2 hours it turned off and I got the lights again. I didn't think much of it since I was surprised it worked on the monitor at all. I just figured it got the point where it realised it doesn't support it and shouldn't be working... :P
Back into the TV it went and all seemed fine again. I played for a while and went to bed without a worry.
I play a bit today, head off to work and come back looking forward to beating the mustache right off Triple H's face in SvR'07. I press the big button. The xbox powers up but it's more quiet than it should be. I don't hear the fan. After a few seconds the lights come on... only problem is they're red and only 3 are lit.

I kept trying for the good part of an hour. Nothing.

Damn.

I'm gonna try returning it tomorrow. Hopefully something will come of it and I won't have to buy a new one.
I'm not bitter about it though.
Anytime I heard about someone who's Xbox broke and they complain and cry about "STUPID M$!!!1!" I just thought, "Hah, mine works. I love it."
Only difference now is "Damn. It broke. I still love it. FIX IT, PLEASE!" (note: that was the point I broke down and cried... let's not talk about that though...).

I just hope I don't have to wait long before I can play again. Now all I got is a gamecube and my ps2 and that is like having a ferrari and switching back to an old school toyota.

EDIT:
Hah... 24 hours later and I am sitting with a new xbox. I guess I got lucky since the warrenty was up today.
Ah... I love my xbox. :)

Y'know, I just wanted to make a new post. I was in a kinda creative mood and couldn't think of anything to write... go figure.
Anyway, I got to thinking on Saints Row... not that surprising that I have been playing it on and off for about 4 days straight now. In saying that, four days would normally complete a game for me but this 'uns different. I can't believe how immersed I get when I am playing it (and this coming from someone who hates the whole "gangsta" culture - think the word "bling" and you'll see where I am coming from.)

I have got a few gripes with the game like some of the voice acting being kinda hammy but when it comes down to it, the rest of the cast more than make up for it. I really don't think that I am alone in saying that I could play an entire game under the guidence of Benjamin King (http://imdb.com/name/nm0003817/) just to hear Michael Clark Duncan do what he does best.

As for the storyline itself... it kinda compels me in ways GTA never did. I never thought to myself that I had to do another mission in GTA "to see what would happen next". In SR, however, every time I finish a mission I get to some activity as fast as I can so that I can earn enough respect to do the next mission.
That's another thing I love about the game. You never had  to do the side missions in GTA and you don't have to do them in SR either... it's just that to progress the story you have to earn respect and are given many options on how to do so.

As a final point I just want to say that the whole garage and mechanic system is brilliant. Never before would I see a car pass me in a game and think, "Oh, that would look nice with some hotrod flames!" I never liked the idea of "dressing up cars" but I have to admit that it is one of the most fun things to do in Saints Row. I have a garage of about 20 cars now with about 18 of them souped up. The other two I plan on messing with when I get money... at the minute I can't figure out why I can only collect $2,000 at a time from my crib. I keep buying clothes too but I am still wearing what I changed to at the start -  some black jeans, a purple shirt and a baseball jersey... ME WANTEE TRENCHCOAT!

Well, as you can see from the header image, I have been making custom gamercards. Mostly for personal use but I have put a few up on the forums of LiveCard.net so be sure to check them out (there are a lot of much cooler ones than mine there too and I really commend some of the work that went into them.)

Also, on the main page of LiveCard, one of my cards has been added to the stock public cards. It can be accessed in the drop down menu as per the news update on the site.
The site also has a very unique and cool card designer. You input the image, configure the card and there you have your own personalised gamercard.
Check it out!

For anyone interested, a new [read: the first] Huxley Clan has been formed. The Clan, The Iron Fist, is growing fast and I reccomend any and all interested in Huxley to join up to the Union and be registered for the onslaught to come!

This one is just in case anyone stumbles across this by accident (or on purpose, which is nice :P).
I just realised I rate a lot of games very highly, but I do have a reason. I tend not to buy a game until I have read enough about it or watched enough videos to know it is good anyway (and with the dawning of the demos on my 360, knowing whether or not to buy a game is getting easier).

So, when I buy a game I can only have high hopes for it. This has very rarely failed me, however, Perfect Dark Zero was the biggest let down I have ever experienced, but that is for a different post.

This is just to say that if you are looking for a good game and can't choose, it might just be a good idea to check out my (or anyone else's for that matter) scores for them, because the personal touch is usually pretty reliable. Now, to make myself a banner for here...