Halo Reach April Playlist Update Live!

By now the Halo Reach April Playlist Update we mentioned a few weeks ago should be live now. If not, give it another hour.

Xbox Live Sale

There is a sale on the Xbox Dashboard for select Arcade Titles,Game Add-ons and Avatar Items.

"Casual Arcade Games":
Yu Gi Oh! 5D's Decade Duels - 400 pts
A Kingdom for Keflings - 400 pts
Crazy Taxi - 400 pts
3D Ultra MiniGolf 2 - 400 pts
Costume Quest - 600 pts
Monkey Island 2: Special Edition - 400 pts
Faery: Legend of Avalon - 600 pts
Gyromancer - 400 pts

"Core Arcade Games":
DOOM II - 400 pts
Quake Areana Arcade - 800 pts
Zeit 2 - 400 pts
After Burner Climax - 400 pts
Alien Breed Evolution - 400 pts
Alien Breed 2: Assult - 400 pts
Darwini+ - 400 pts
Defese Grid - 400 pts
Unbound Saga - 160 pts

"Awesome Add-Ons":
Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare Bundle: 1000pts
Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare pack: 400pts
Halo Wars Historical Battles: 400pts
Halo Wars Strategic Options: 400pts
3D Ultra Minigolf 2 Fairy Tales: 120pts
Mirror's Edge Pure Time Trials: 400pts

"Avatar Discounts":
Break Dancing - 160pts
Ninjas Black Horned Samurai Outfit - 120pts
Fantasy Pets Minotaur companion - 120pts

Check out the dashboard for more details.

New Halo Reach Gametypes released

Bungie has released the new Gametypes from tomorrows Action Sack Playlist (And brought back Alpha Zombies) to the public.

Alpha Zombies
In Halo 3, the Alpha Zombies gametype was used to make various Infection Custom games. Halo Reach shipped without this valued gametype. Now its back in Halo Reach. I haven't quite had the time to tinker with it yet.
Download it here.


With the next two gametypes brings a new gametype category called "Insane".

Haloball
In this gametype, Golf Balls spawn on specific points and players use Gravity Hammers to hit them towards a board which has multiple goals that each have different point values. The goals are created by team specific hill markers labeled as goals with spawn sequencer set to the point value of the goal. If the Golf Ball reaches the goal, it will be scored and your team will score points equal to the score specified in the object properties. Download.

Speedpile
The idea of this gametype was based on Stockpile and allows players to carry multiple flags on their back while still using weapons, vehicles and equipment. When a player touches a flag it will automatically attach to their back and will only drop when they are killed. Flags can be assigned different point values which are displayed above the flag in your HUD. Flags which are worth more than 1 point will be larger and on fire as well. Delivering the flags to your Speedpile goal zone will instantly score them and cause the flags to respawn at their original location. Download.

Power Slayer
This Slayer gametype is designed to allow players to gain special traits based on the types of kills they perform. Currently there are traits for Basic Kill, Melee Kill, Assassination Kill and Headshot Kill. Each time you perform one of these kills you will gain the traits assigned to that kill for 10 seconds. Killing another player during this period will refresh your timer back to 10 seconds and extend your powers. You can also chain them together to gain multiple types of powers, so if you Melee Kill a player and then Headshot Kill a player before your timer runs out, you’ll gain the traits of both kill types. We haven’t finalized the default traits for each kill type yet, but these will also be configurable in custom games so you can create your own!
Download.

Here is a quick example video that I took with what the default traits will be. Do note that there is a timer for the traits but to keep the video length reasonable I did not wait till the timer ran out.






Playlist Update...Update
We've also got word that the Playlist Update should be out by the Afternoon. Community BTB will arrive April 2nd, Action Sack and Team Classic will go up tomorrow as scheduled.

More GTA V clues Surfaces

A poster on GTA Forums have dug up more domains registered by Rockstar. The domains listed below are on the same domain block as www.grandtheftatuo5.com.

babehardcore.com
baitman.com
bicyclecommuter.com
boobstop.com
californiahomesbyowner.com
carolinabrokers.com
cookinganything.com
couchparty.com
drcarlton.com
edrugs.com
famouszone.com
f*ckyew.com
getamexican.com
indepthappraising.com
justcanoe.com
loadoffmymind.com
pregnantandalone.com
majorflava.com
myrtlebeachattorney.com
outrageouslife.com
sexomy.com
stacysmail.com
thebetter.com  
themaniacs.com     
thetangible.com    
thewhitefox.com
westernescapes.com
whattheysay.com  

[Forum Post]


That's not all, a tweet by Actor and Comedian Gilbert Gottfried stated that he was voice lead in Grand Theft Auto 5:

"just found out I'm voicing the lead in grand theft auto 5!"

The Tweet was  taken down, but not before The Noble Eskimo caught a glimpse. When the site contacted Rockstar North for comment the only response was an image of a poster for Problem Child, a 1990 film that Gottfried starred in.

[Source]


There have been numerous clues this year so far relating to GTA 5. We all know its in the works, but when it will be annouced and released is a mystery.

What if Rockstar released it this fall? Do you think it would sell well along side Saints Row 3?

No idea.

I'll keep updating this blog with more clues of GTA V and any other gaming news I stumble upon.

New Playlists coming to Halo Reach, March 29th

On March 29th, Bungie will be deploying the April Matchmaking to Halo Reach. See below for the changes:

ACTION SACK
This is a new 4v4 playlist inspired by community map and game variants. The initial lineup isn’t as insane as some players may expect, we’re using this playlist to introduce new gametypes that we’ve scripted up. We’ll be looking at feedback and suggestions for future additions to this playlist, so drop by the Optimatch forum and tell us about your favorite wacky 4v4 gametypes!

Power Slayer
This Slayer gametype is designed to allow players to gain special traits based on the types of kills they perform. Currently there are traits for Basic Kill, Melee Kill, Assassination Kill and Headshot Kill. Each time you perform one of these kills you will gain the traits assigned to that kill for 10 seconds. Killing another player during this period will refresh your timer back to 10 seconds and extend your powers. You can also chain them together to gain multiple types of powers, so if you Melee Kill a player and then Headshot Kill a player before your timer runs out, you’ll gain the traits of both kill types. We haven’t finalized the default traits for each kill type yet, but these will also be configurable in custom games so you can create your own!

Speedpile
The idea of this gametype was based on Stockpile and allows players to carry multiple flags on their back while still using weapons, vehicles and equipment. When a player touches a flag it will automatically attach to their back and will only drop when they are killed. Flags can be assigned different point values which are displayed above the flag in your HUD. Flags which are worth more than 1 point will be larger and on fire as well. Delivering the flags to your Speedpile goal zone will instantly score them and cause the flags to respawn at their original location. This is not a Stockpile variant, so if you want to setup your own maps to work with the gametype you’ll need to Forge it using the Speedpile game variant to have access to the appropriate labels.

Speedflag
This one is pretty simple, it’s a CTF variant which allows you to carry the flag on your back at all times. Just like in Speedpile, you can still use weapons, vehicles and equipment without dropping the flag. It’s worth mentioning that the only way to drop the flag is to either score or be killed, so make sure you want to carry the flag as long as possible before picking it up, you can’t pass it off to a teammate without sacrificing yourself. This game variant will work with any map which is already setup for CTF.

HammerBall / Hockey
In this gametype, Golf Balls spawn on specific points and players use Gravity Hammers to hit them towards a board which has multiple goals that each have different point values. The map we setup was one we found in the Community and we mirrored it so each team of 4 is back to back with a barrier preventing them from interfering with each other, unless of course you’re playing HammerBall Xtreme. The goals are created by team specific hill markers labeled as goals with spawn sequencer set to the point value of the goal. If the Golf Ball reaches the goal, it will be scored and your team will score points equal to the score specified in the object properties. This brings me to our next gametype… Hockey! Hockey uses a game variant of HammerBall and is played on a hockey rink map that we found in the Community as well.

TEAM CLASSIC
This is a new 4v4 playlist featuring game variants with no equipment and custom settings, as well as remakes of Classic Halo maps we found in the Community.

Player Traits which differ from default Slayer:

• Shield Recharge Rate 110%
• Health Recharge Rate 110%
• Damage Modifier 110%
• Melee Modifier 75%
• Player Speed 120%
• Jump Height 125%
• Player Gravity 150%

Maps we plan to use:

• Battle Canyon
• Dreadnought
• High Noon
• Hydro
• Magus
• Prolonged
• Prophet
• Rat Trap
• Rockout

COMMUNITY BTB
Our first round of Community BTB will run in April, featuring BTB maps from the Forgetacular submissions. Future rounds of Community BTB will be lovingly crafted by our Community Cartographers group.

Maps we plan to use:

• Bendarius Ridge
• Montana Gambit
• Outcrop
• Renegade
• Ridged
• Rift

 MLG
The MLG playlist will be updated with the MLG V3 maps and gametypes.

Random List of Additional Changes

• KOTH now has game variant support for Multiple Teammate Scoring allowing multiple teammates to gain score for their team while in the hill.
• All KOTH matchmaking variants now have a hill movement time of 1 minute.
• All KOTH matchmaking gametypes now allow equipment use while in the hill (2v2/4v4 gametypes limit equipment to Sprint, Jetpack and Hologram – Armor Lock removed from all KOTH loadouts).
• All KOTH matchmaking gametypes now have 1 frag starting grenades.
• Added a HUD widget for CTF gametypes which show when your flag is away from home or held by an enemy.
• More softkills on Pinnacle, Uncaged, Hemorrhage, Countdown and Asylum.
• Modified all default matchmaking map variants to support a static initial hill while playing Crazy Random King.
• Slayer game variants in 6v6 playlists are now 75 to win.
• 3 Ball is now 300 to win.
• Replaced Banshees with Falcons in all non-Invasion gametypes on Breakpoint.
• Increased Banshee respawn time to 180s on Paradiso.
• Decreased the frequency of Bro Slayer and Invasion Skirmish in the Noble Map Pack playlist.
• Replaced all Slayer game entries on The Cage with Uncaged in all playlists.
• Removed all objective game entries on The Cage in all playlists.
• Removed Pinnacle from Team Snipers.
• Removed Evade from The Arena and Double Team gametypes.

[Bungie Weekly Update - 03/18/11]

Alpha Zombies coming back, More Gametypes on the burner

Halo Reach's Man in Charge of Matchmaking, Jeremiah/Ninja on Fire has confirmed that Alpha Zombies (The Gametype that was used to make many Custom Games in H3, but was cut from Reach for unknown reasons) will (without any delays) be coming to Halo Reach in April.

Other Possible Gametypes that could be coming to Reach are:

-A Stockpile Game Variant where you can pick up flags just by touching them and carry multiple flags at once and still be able to use your Weapons. Bringing the flags to their scoring zone would collect them all immediately.

-CTF is also being played around with. We could possibly also see the ability to Carry Flags and use your Gun/AA's at the same time.




 Exciting to see Bungie's making new and innovative Gametypes for the community.

[Source]