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First Range told you about Call of Duty: World at War. Then he told you about Gears of War 2. Now I’m here to tell you that Bungie is also giving Halo 3 players a double XP weekend. However, this “weekend” begins today and goes until 2am Monday. It also requires the Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic map packs. Enjoy.

Bungie

Yesterday at Microsoft’s pre-E3 press conference Bungie’s Joe Staten took the stage to show off some actual gameplay footage of Halo 3: ODST, which is scheduled to drop later this year. The single-player expansion campaign will put you in the role as “The Rookie”, a rookie Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, a few weeks before the events of Halo 3. Some features in the game include new silenced weapons, a new visor (which enables a “low-light vision mode”) and a handgun similar the pistol from the first Halo game.

Along with an expanded single-player campaign, ODST will also feature a four-player co-op mode called Firefight mode that will have players take on waves of attacking Covenant (think Horde mode from Gears 2). Check out the video and give us your thoughts.

They’re not calling themselves a “Halo Killer” but it seems that many of the main features in Section 8 were created in response to what annoyed them, and probably annoy you, about established FPS franchises like Halo and Battlefield.

Let’s go through 3 problems even the best first person shooters have and the ways Section 8 provides a solution. Read more…

That’s right folks, this weekend you can play on Halo 3’s multiplayer totally free. To celebrate the release of the Mythic Map Pack, Microsoft have allowed all of their loyal customers, even the ones who don’t pay extra money to them, to play Halo 3’s multiplayer. So, if you’re one of the few people who has Halo 3 but no Gold account, dig out that disc!

If you didn’t buy the collector’s edition of Halo Wars, you’ll be happy to know that the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3 is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points ($10USD). The map pack includes three new maps: Sandbox, Assembly and Orbital. I personally haven’t played the new maps yet, but you can bet your ass I’ll be on Halo 3 playing them today.

Contrary to reports made yesterday about a Bungie Producer saying that the developer would be working on Halo 3 content for another two years, Bungie is now stating that there are no current plans to bring any further content to Halo 3 once ODST is released this fall. Read more…

Worried that the upcoming ODST expansion for Halo 3 would be the last piece of content for the highly popular FPS? Don’t worry any longer, because it seems like Bungie has plenty more to offer for Halo 3 in the future.

“Halo 3 took two and a half years to make, and we’re still working on it,” producer Allen Murray said. “We’ll probably be working on it for two more years.”

This is great news for Halo 3 fans and even better news for Microsoft, because even with the break up between the two, Bungie still has their sights set on bringing more to the Halo 3 universe.

Source: Joystiq

Video game-themed parody song writers Palette Swapped Ninja take aim at Halo 3. Halo (All I Play-Oh) is based on the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Snow (Hey Oh) and the lead singer sounds alarmingly like RHCP frontman Anthony Kiedis. The accompanying video is by YouTuber and Halo 3 player Aven Phoenix. Good stuff.

The 1490 entrants of our Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack contest that didn’t win can soon take solace in the fact that the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack (as well as the Gears of War 2 Snowblind DLC) will soon be hitting XBL. Major Nelson announced today that the Gears of War 2 DLC will be available on March 31st for 800 Microsoft points, while the Mythic map pack for Halo 3 will be available on April 9th for 800 Microsoft points.

The GOW2 content comes with 4 brand new maps, Grindyard, Courtyard, Fuel Depot, and Under Hill, as well as new Achievements and a brand new progression of ranks. Meanwhile, the Halo 3 content comes with 3 new maps, Assembly, Orbital and Sandbox, as well as a brand new Forge that allows you to start construction completely from scratch. Fancy!

Anyone out there in Ripten Land planning to slap down 10 bucks on this DLC, or are you gonna wait until it starts hitting the digital bargain bin? It doesn’t really matter for me, since I no longer own these games, but if I were you, I’d probably wait on the GOW2 pack and pick up the Halo 3 pack, if not for the new Forge alone. It’s very, very classy.

In a stunning move, Nintendo’s Wii Fit sales have surpassed that of Halo 3 in the United Sates.

Selling in total 6 million units in the US, Wii Fit now holds bragging rights over Halo 3 which has 5.9 million units sold in the US. What also should be noted is that Halo 3 has been available since September 2007 while Wii Fit has only been on the market since May 2008, 8 months after Bungie’s mega hit! Read more…

[Congratulations DarksideClassic! Shoot me an email at demi@ripten.com and I'll send you your code pronto! For everyone else, stay tuned to Ripten, as we'll be sure to have another contest soon, but this time, with a different method of entry. :) - Demi A.]

Although the average human attention span is less than that of a retarded meerkat, Halo 3 seems to have held its own extremely well in the year and a half that it’s been out. Even now, with a multitude of different FPSes, TPSes, and Halo Wars, Halo 3 is pretty popular amongst Xbox Live members, despite the fact that its maps are pretty limited.

We here at Ripten aim to fix that problem, by holding a contest in which you can win the brand new Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack! The map pack contains three maps- Assembly, Orbital and Sandbox, and a brand new Forge experience (you can start on a blank slate!) for more thrilling multiplayer action.

As of now, the Map Pack hasn’t been officially released, and the only way to get a code for the maps is through the Halo Wars Limited Edition. But, thanks to Microsoft and Ron “Greybush” Workman, we’ve got a code for one lucky reader out there. Hit the jump to learn how you can win!
Read more…

Bungie has just confirmed that their biggest title, Halo 3, has set an impressive benchmark in console online gaming. Over Xbox Live, over one billion matches has been played in Halo 3 which beats out the previous record of 798 million set by it’s predecessor, Halo 2.

Read more…

The fellas over at JoyStiq put together this video of the new Halo 3 Mythic Map pack, which will come included with the Halo Wars CE and will eventually be released to the XBLM sometime this spring. The video is pretty tight and gives us a great look inside the three new maps: Orbital, Assembly and Sandbox. WATCH THE VIDEO HOMIES!

Ensemble Studio’s RTS twist on the Halo universe, Halo Wars, is now available for Xbox Live Gold Subscribers to download and try out for themselves. In the demo, players will be able to play the first two campaign missions and the Skirmish mode on one of the 14 multiplayer maps. Weighing a heavy 1.4GB, the Halo Wars demo might take a bit to download, but hey it’s free, so go ahead and start that download.

Halo Wars will officially be hitting stores on March 3rd with two versions: the standard version and the limited edition version, which will contain three news maps for Halo 3.

Source: Xbox.com

According to the folks over at TeamXbox.com, Larry Hryb, the Xbox Live Director of Programming, has posted a list of the top 10 most-played games over Xbox Live, revealing that Halo 3 is back in the #1 spot. Hit the jump to see the other nine games that made the list. Read more…

The original announcement trailer for Halo 3: Recon left a lot of unanswered questions and, even worse, projected the release to be a full year away. Thankfully, Game Informer has pulled through and gained exclusivity for the first bit of concrete details about Bungie’s next project. Read more…

I ran into this video today looking for something to post and I was like, “Eh, why not? Looks cool.” Now, I’ve heard of modded controllers, but I’ve never seen one like this. This guy has actually removed all the face buttons, including the D-Pad, from an Xbox 360 Controller and has still managed a way to play some Halo 3.

Instead of using the colored buttons to perform your normal reload, jump and melee actions, the modder has placed a couple of extra switches on the back with the same actions. The video is kinda dark, so you can’t really tell how and what kind of buttons he put onto the back of the controller. Nevertheless, a pretty cool idea, but you won’t catch me playing Halo or any other game with this controller. Just looks too confusing for me. Hit the jump for the video. Read more…

Oh, that idiot Soulja Boy is up to his shenanigans again.  After eloquently describing the brilliance of the Xbox Live Arcade game Braid, Soulja Boy is once again broadcasting his videogame superiority via his YouTube channel.  Highlights include “Fuck PlayStation 3… nobody play no goddamn PlayStation” and “You can get an ass-whoopin’ fo’ free on Xbox Live”. I especially like when he says you can tell his game is imported because of the “Japanese signals”.

Check out the full video for proof that evolution is flawed. Read more…

More news from Tokyo Game Show: Microsoft announced the recently teased new Halo 3 expansion, now titled Halo 3: Recon.  The game’s campaign will be a prequel to the story of Halo 3 and will not feature the Master Chief.  Instead, you play as an ODST grunt (well, slightly better than the cannon-fodder “allies” that got in the way in Halo 3, but not quite a Spartan either) and will apparently “require you to employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before.” Read on for full details. Read more…

The lexicon of American politics includes many derogatory terms: carpetbagger, hatchet man, or flip-flopper. Now we can add “Halo player” to the list.

In the Maricopa County District 1 Supervisor race in Arizona, incumbent Republican Fulton Brock is slamming Democratic challenger Ed Hermes in his campaign literature as a “Halo gamer.” Read more…