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Microsoft Apologizes for Issues, Extends Halo 3 Beta
Yesterday, despite assurances that Crackdown owners would be able to participate in the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta, Xbox 360 users were tied up in knots by unknown technical issues. Though a fix was eventually released, Microsoft is now apologizing for their mistake. They have extended the Beta period to June 10th to compensate the folks who may have taken off of work to play, and for general annoyance. "It's been a long day for a lot of people but we're happy to announce that effective immediately, a title update for Crackdown is available on Xbox Live that will fix the issue that previously prevented you from downloading the beta. The Microsoft team just deployed this fix and when you launch Crackdown you should receive a prompt to download the update. Please note that it could take up to four hours for your console to receive this update based on various factors. However, the good news is that we're in the clear and Halo 3 gameplay is just over the horizon."
I recently purchased a used copy of Crackdown along with other used titles for my first purchases for my Xbox360. The guy at the store warned I wouldn't be able to play Halo with it, but I honestly didn't care.
But, after setting up my home network, I found I could download the beta, so, pleasantly surprised, I tried it out.
I was able to listen to folks shout at eachother over their headsets, then join a game, and run around and shoot other Spartan soldiers. I'd say it was OK, but mostly revolved around people popping out enough to expose themselves to a little firepower, then either dying or falling back to recharge shields. I was disappointed by the firepower of the weapons, compared to the cheapness of either walking through a hailstorm of bullets to melee someone, or just hitting people while they were already engaged. The weapons and even grenades just didn't seem a good trade of deaths per kill compared to the reliability of the pure melee approach.
It was nice to try, but I think I'll stick to single player. My philosophy is that when I play games, I want to fully play games and experience a created world. When I want to interact with other people, I'd rather just have a fully engaged conversation - playing a glorified version of rock-paper-scissors rather than really talking to someone has always been disappointing for me. Though playing coop with another person may be cool - I just feel stagnation whenever playing these "kill eachother and start over, and start over, and start over" games, no matter how subtle the interactions.
Ryan Fenton
Sorry, do people actually do this? I have a hard enough time justifying taking time off work for anything less than medical issues, and people are taking time off work to play a *video game*? That's even more sad and pathetic than people who take off work to go see the latest Star Wars, LOTR, or Harry Potter. No wonder the US is going to hell. :/