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Microsoft Launches Xbox Halo Bundle

Posted by simoniker on from the green-and-mean dept.

Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing Microsoft's announcement of a limited-edition Halo bundle for the Xbox. The article explains that "the company unveiled a 'limited-edition retail special' which bundles the the award-winning, Bungie-developed shooter Halo with a translucent green Xbox and S-controller for $169." Following the recent standalone Xbox price drop to $149, the green console is "the same color as the debug kit Xboxes used by Microsoft game testers and a limited-edition console issued in Europe last year", and the article also notes: "Microsoft is only releasing 200,000 of the boxed sets."

11 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Limited Edition by edwdig · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Microsoft is only releasing 200,000 of the boxed sets."

    Looks like they decided to release one green Xbox for every Xbox they've managed to sell in Japan.

    1. Re:Limited Edition by hambonewilkins · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Slahsdot: Make fun of the X-box, get modded up. Make fun of the Gamecube, get modded down.

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
  2. Not going to buy it ... by dougmc · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I almost bought an Xbox back when it first came out, because I really wanted to play Halo. (I don't usually do consoles -- I play PC games.)

    Now that Halo is out on the PC, and I've gotten and played it, I'm glad I waited. It was indeed a good game, but it wasn't worth paying $350 to play it right away. And I imagine it was even better on the PC, with the mouse for aiming instead of their controller.

    1. Re:Not going to buy it ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The PC version has the advantage of more weapons, better looking if you had a pretty tricked out box.

      But really, they did a fantastic job with the control of the xbox version. In fact, it makes me think that with the right controller design, and good context awareness, controllers will eventually trump the mouse keyboard combo. Practically blasphamy to almost everyone I'm sure. But I came up with DooM, was one of the old guard on NTShadow.net. So I do not speak of such things lightly.

      Seeing as Halo has the distinction of being the ONLY game I've played 20 hrs straight, let alone two player, let alone coopratively. I can't say the money was particularly poorly spent I my case.

    2. Re:Not going to buy it ... by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 2

      Personally, I can't stand the Halo controls. In fact, I think the controls for Goldeneye 64 were the best console FPS controls ever.

      Analogue stick for moving forwards/backwards and turning, yellow C-buttons for looking up/down and strafing, A-button for activating stuff, B-button for switching weapons, R-button for precise aiming and Z-button for firing. It made sense, even though you were squeezing the trigger with your left hand.

      Man... I gotta play that game again... My hands are twitching just thinking about it :)

      --
      Eat the rich.
  3. One of those was mine! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was in the the beta with one of those, and it was a great beta . . . while it lasted. It was actually kind of disappointing that while we tested Xbox Live, there was really only one or two developers that seemed to care at all. Most of the problems that plagued early Xbox Live titles - namely Unreal Championship, we bugged and were largely ignored. The Microsoft staff was fantastic. The developers, not so much. The guys behind Mech Assault were pretty cool, and I think the beta team had more fun with that one than any other. The team behind Ghost Recon was always willing to play, and they'd always kick our asses.

    Actually, the title I probably played the most was one of Acclaim's remote control car games. It was the first Xbox Live title that worked. They originally meant to include that in the Xbox Live signup package, and they replaced it with a first party title so lame I can't remember the name of it. We all agreed that Moto GP was the finest Xbox Live title we played, so I'm glad they took our advice on that one and included it in the live package.

    The other cool thing about the pre-public beta was that the only other people were other beta testers and MS internal staff, so you'd be playing with one of the coders on XP or something like that. I was impressed how friendly they were.

    It's actually interesting to think how far Xbox Live has come since then. Technologically, better. Socially, much - much - much worse. In any rate, I forgot to send back the cords with my green xbox. Sorry about that, whoever buys it.

    1. Re:One of those was mine! by MBraynard · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I don't think these are the same xboxs - I think these are new.

      And to follow up on your point, I find you are right about Microsoft people. On the few occasions I've used MS tech support, they have been nothing short of absolutly astounding in no uncertain terms. Absolutly the best support ever. One was a sort of paid deal - we tried to use an incident with our MSDN universal subscription. And they guy totally helped and then his boss called to make sure he helped - and this took days to resolve because of my limited time to try things he recommended. And because the solution wasn't supported by ms, they didn't charge us an incident.

      The second occasion was when I installed Office 2003. I couldn't get it to do a certain display thing, and fired off an email to support@microsoft.com not expected to get a response. But I got one, and it was excellent.

    2. Re:One of those was mine! by Phil+Wilkins · · Score: 2, Interesting

      AFIAK the green x-box you had was a debug unit. These are normal x-boxes with the same shell as the debug units (inside joke is that they made too many debugs, and these are the overrun).

      Both PS2 and GC are already available in a wide range of colours.

  4. Finally! by MMaestro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Its about time more and more systems are beginning to package -real- games with their systems now. Remember the old days of the SNES when you could buy the system, get TWO controller, a REAL game, and no need for a memory card? Looks like Nintendo and Microsoft are going back to those days. The PS2 offers a similar package, but lets face it, their choice of free games are no Halos or Zeldas.

  5. Re:Halo ? by PaintyThePirate · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Although the game is over two years old, Halo is still considered by many to be the best game on Xbox. It makes sense that it would be included in a limited edition bundle.

    --
    eclecti.cc
  6. Red vs Blue? by ashground · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now imagine if they also included the season 1 DVD of Red vs Blue... -that- would be a bundle. Seriously, 'special edition' releases should be a little more special than they really are. Okay, so the X-Box is green. But imagine if the bundle included: - A green X-Box - Halo - Halo soundtrack - A bonus DVD with Making of Halo / Making of Halo 2... as well as every Marathon game, compiled for the X-Box (which wouldn't be too hard, since you could just write an emulator for them)? - A Halo t-shirt Then people's ears might really perk up.