And by the way–thus far, I have to say that the Halo 3 beta has been almost completely free of pointless or annoying banter. The reason is you have to actually press the D-pad to talk. This means people are usually too busy with the analog sticks to be singing or making racist comments. I’m serious–the majority of talking I’ve experienced in games is people figuring out strategy (like one guy taking the sniper rifle on Valhalla, climbing a hill and reporting the location of the enemy to the other players). It’s been light years ahead of my experiences in Halo 2.

I just posted a huge entry on my blog in which I point out that I’ve always hated deathmatch, but Halo 3 has won me over. It’s really, really fun.

Simple truth is this – we both bought Crackdown and got sucked in by its addictive qualities. No hidden agendas. It’s really that simple.

I friggin’ love this game right now. I don’t have nearly the amount of time to devote to gaming as I once had so when I log on I want to dive into something that I know I am going to enjoy and right now this game is the flavor of the month. I can live without Halo 3 for another few months.

Yes, I can live without hearing a never-ending stream of racist banter and amateur free-styling while being tea-bagged from the great majority of trailer trash denizens that flock to these games like so many gnats to a bug light. I’ve played my fair share of XBL FPS deathmatches to know – they never change. Sure, there are diamonds in the rough and I am sure you are one of them but that doesn’t negate the bad experiences I have had numerously when joining the fray. I usually come away feeling like I wasted a ton of time and didn’t have any fun. And isn’t that why we game. One person’s cake is another person’s s#it sandwich (I think Thoreau said that).

Anyway, this doesn’t mean I won’t play when the retail version hits, it just means right now I’d prefer to get Crackin’.

And I can’t stress it enough – you will never get Mook to play Halo 3. This is the same guy who has whiled away his hours the last few nights playing Feeding Frenzy and Boom Boom Rocket. That’s as hardcore as he gets. He’s just not an FPS kind of guy. Believe me, we’ve tried to pull him in. Unless Bungie replaces the Needler with a Needlepoint Gun or a Cross-Stitch Cannon, you ain’t ever going to see him out there.

Again, there’s no clique at play here. In fact – we were just working through Marvel UA and hoping to get a foursome there but unfortunately you don’t have that game. Go procure a copy and we’ll talk (there are Achievements for completing the game as a quartet).

The bottom line is you can’t take it personally – if anything you should be proud that you were helpful in steering us to a great game we might otherwise had overlooked. Good on you – that was a good review.

Sincerely,
Army of Two

Yeah, I don’t envy you having to do all the road races, especially Alleys of the Den. My suggestion? Get that one over with first. Though you may have to wait until you get the Supercar to level 4 (which is where you get the guns, btw–only the Supercar has guns–the SUV has something very different, but very cool).

Also, I think the Halo 3 Beta has plenty to offer the slavering Pavlovian player, such as medals for eight sniper kills. But then, you say you got sick of multiplayer deathmatch, whereas I just haven’t played enough of it over the years to get sick of it.

There’s a rumor that Halo 3 will offer a four-player cooperative mode for the campaign…maybe I’ll finally be able to pry you and Ed out of your exclusive clique of two.

I still think we should try to get at least a few team games of you, Ed, me, and maybe Mook (even if he sucks) before the Beta ends.