The Button Presser

This week I will be doing some more online gaming with Splinter Cell Conviction (Finally!), Halo 3: ODST and Modern Warfare 2. I got ODST once again to get ready for the Reach Beta and try my best to make some cool forge levels on Sandbox. Deniable Ops is pretty fun Splinter Cell, and I'm gonna try the Co-op out with a friend and see how it compares to the co-op from past Splinter Cell games. Last but not least is ranking up a little bit more in Modern Warfare 2.

I Hope everyone has a great weekend of fun and relaxing gaming!!

Those in the Preview program can check out a sneek peek at Halo Waypoint that launched today. I was surprised when I downloaded it to see avatar awards waiting for me. Once you obtain the right achievemnts for Halo 3: ODST, a slew of unlockables can be yours including An ODST outfit, Helmet, and the Recon Helmet worn by Dare in the game.

Once launched, Waypoint will scan your Halo Achievements and sign you a ranking which can increase by gaining more Achievements.

Halo Waypoint officially Launches next Thursday. Check out my outfit below to see the ODST armor!

It's time for another increase that gamerscore (ITG for short!) This one is for Bungie's latest title, Halo 3: ODST. Many of the achievements in ODST are pretty straight forward so we know what we need to do, but some have different levels of difficulty when trying to obtain them. Another important factor is the number of players you have.

Tips on the Audio Logs:

I would suggest getting these in solo, since you might not always be able to continue a co-op game with someone. In order to get the last log, make sure you have all 29 obtainable logs in the city as the Rookie. You will then be able to get the last one on the Data Hive mission. Minor Spoiler: The Cop that usually dies from buggers before reaching the 9th level, will live if you have 29 logs. keep going through the level until you reach a locked door that only he can unlock. Disobey his order to stay put and follow him into the door to get the last audiolog on the wall. Beware though, as he will try to kill you afterwards.

Audio Logs locations in the game appear as a yellow outline when you are in Visor Mode. Also look out for car alarms and police car sirens as these are hints that you are close to getting a new log.

Collecting Audio Logs will help you with these achivements:


Listener-Find the first Audio Log.






Tuned In-Find 3 Audio Logs, alone or with another ODST.







All ears-Find 15 Audio Logs, alone or with another ODST.






Audiophile-Find all Audio Logs, alone or with another ODST.





Tips on Firefight Achievements:




Teamwork! When you have 4 players in a match, try to stick together in small groups. When being attacked by brutes, have your friends hit them in the back for a instant kill. This even works on Chieftains, so one of you will have to be brave and coax the hammer wielding bad ass to try and hit you, and then Bam! Your friends will nail them with the assassination. This will save the precious rockets and spartan lazer ammo for when you have to take out hunters and vehicles.

Be Like Marty: Easiest way is to play two players split screen. Have the gamertag you usually play as logged in, and play a round on the second controller.

Keep this up to obtain these achievements below:


Be Like Marty-In Firefight, finish a full round without killing a single enemy.





Firefight: Crater-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Crater.








Firefight: Windward-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Windward.








Firefight: Lost Platoon-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Lost Platoon.








Firefight: Chasm Ten-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Chasm Ten.








Firefight: Last Exit-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Last Exit.








Firefight: Security Zone-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Security Zone.







Firefight: Alpha Site-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Alpha Site.








Firefight: Rally Point-Score over 200,000 points in Firefight on Rally Point.







Vidmaster Challenge: Endure-In Firefight, on any mission, pass the 4th Set on 4-player Heroic LIVE co-op.





Have fun Increasing that Gamerscore!

Look out for more tips soon!

Image Sources-GiantBomb

Xbox 360 Achievements.org

The Time To Drop is now! Are you prepared?







Halo 3: ODST may have started out as simple expansion and something to tie us over until Halo Reach comes out, but it grew into something more and can easily share the spotlight with the Halo trilogy in terms of quality and presentation. You don't need me to tell that you're not Master Chief, the Spartan we all love and know, but from the start Bungie made tweaks to the gameplay to drill in the fact and by the end of the story, I almost forget about the Green Demon.

In ODST, the highly trained Marines known as Hell Jumpers take up the mantle to save humanity and you get to see their perspective on how the events from Halo 2 and Halo 3 went down. The time to drop is now, but are you ready?



You will spend most of your time in ODST's campaign as the Rookie, a new member of an elite ODST squad including Buck, Mickey, Romeo, Dutch, and Dare. These Troopers are getting ready to jump into New Mombasa in hopes of finding a way to defeat the covenant when a enemy ship jumps into space causing a effect that disrupts the teams landing and the rookie gets knocked out for 6 hours after the crash.

You wake up to find nothing but scattered groups of covenant aliens searching for survivors when finally wake up. You must search the city for your squad and along the way you receive a little help from the superintendent, an AI program that operated the cameras and security around city that points out a few locations to get you started. Instead of finding your ODST mates, you find items that show what happened when you were out cold. Upon interacting with these, you find yourself flashing back and viewing the events from their perspective.



The open world exploration of looking for items is cool and interesting, and the flashback missions resemble some of the high action mission that Bungie do best. These missions will have you do everything from driving around in Warthogs taking out tanks, to sniping enemies from high above the city and blowin stuff up. The cool thing about these missions is that they can be played in random orders, so your friends may start out doing things a little differently that yourself.



The story can take anywhere from 5-10 hours depending on difficulty and the amount of players, and has a little replayabilty with the option to find 30 audio logs that explain the events before the covenant invaded New Mombasa. This is a ton of fun to play with friends, but try playing the campaign alone a few times, and you will see that the moody music and felling of loneliness as the Rookie can be a nice immersive experience.



Gameplay and controls haven't changed much from Halo 3, but there a few differences that change the way you go into combat situations. ODSTs' have health and reduced speed and jump power, and it will take multiple melee hits to bring down the bigger foes that usual. There are even times when the grunts can be a little dangerous whereas before you would almost run past them as the Chief.



Aside from the great campaign is Firefight mode. Similar to the modes in Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead, Firefight mode expands upon those previous versions greatly. Using the skulls from Halo 3, Bungie has made a mode that gradually becomes more varied in the gameplay. The mode is never ending at players start out with 7 lives shared together and make their stand against the covenant.

The mode goes like this: There are Three Rounds with 5 waves each in a Set, and there are an infinite amount of sets with bonus rounds usually after 1 set has been complete. Skulls turn on after sets and depending on the difficulty, players will receive a different multiplier to help rack up more points. Currently there are 10 levels to play on, but the maps included are fun and varied.



The Second Disc included with ODST is Halo 3 multiplayer with all the maps, plus 3 new ones and a few more achievements to gain. This disc can be played with those that have the original Halo 3, so If you like the multiplayer and want to save some space on your hard drive, you'll be glad everything is on one disc.

Overall this is a great package and something great to hold us over until Reach comes out. So hold onto your Disc so you can play the Reach beta and see you online for some Firefight Action!








+ Great new story and characters
+ Music is top notch and some scores I enjoyed more than playing as the Chief
+ Firefight Mode, Halo 3 Multiplayer Disc, and Reach beta round out a nice package

- Wish there was more to do while playing as the Rookie
- Couldn't seem to make clips of saved films to share
-Could have been a bit longer

Play- Campaign by yourself a few times to feel the loneliness of the Rookie. Trust me, it's cool!

To celebrate today's release of Halo 3: ODST, Microsoft has released a free premium theme for gold members. It's apparently a limited time offer, so go ahead and queue it up!























"ODSTs aren’t the only ones getting their hands on upgraded gear to prepare for the upcoming Firefight. Available only for a limited time and free of charge for Xbox LIVE Gold Subscribers, this expertly crafted Halo 3: ODST Premium Theme will get your Xbox 360 ready for a combat drop into the city of New Mombasa."

Link To Content-Prepare to Drop Premium Theme

The Midnight Launch of Halo 3: ODST will begin in about 11 hours and 20 minutes. The Game is almost here!! I hope to have a review sometime this week or the next. Make sure to check out your Bungie.Net profile when you get ODST to see you progress on the Road to Recon. Good Luck scoring the armor and see you online!

From August 22nd to September 19th, Microsoft and Bungie will have a this transport vehicle (The Above Picture) Driving around the U.S in order to give gamers a chance to play Fire-fight Mode in Halo 3: ODST. For the full details, check out the link below.


Check here for Cities and Locations (Major Nelson Blog)

In celebration of Bungie Day on 7/7/09, players on halo 3 will have a chance to not only play against Bungie, but if they will win, they will be given the elusive Recon Armor. Plus Bungie.net will have many features tomorrow going on, so check out the site too.

Halo 3 ODST will be released on September 22, 2009 and those who preorder the game will receive a token to play as Sergeant Johnson in the game's firefight mode. Stores that are giving the tokens as a preorder bonus include GameStop, Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy. Check out the Sarge in action below!