i.nconspicuo.us

As of today, 8/13/2007 the release date for the Call of Duty 4 Beta has not yet been specified, though the release date of the full game is specified as October 30, 2007. They’d better hurry, because there isn’t too much time left between now and the actual release date. The much anticipated Call of Duty 4 will be available in beta form just like Halo 3 was, however trying to bite a Halo 3 gimmick will not guarantee the Call of Duty empire any more success.

Sounds like you have to register at Charlie Oscar Delta, and then an email will be sent out to those who registered. Then the beta will be issued on a first come first serve basis. Kinda lame for those of us who have a life.

The following has been taken from Charlie Oscar Delta (www.charlieoscardelta.com):

Charlie Oscar Delta is your Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Multiplayer (MP) BETA headquarters. Check it out! We’ve included all of the pertinent details for the sampling of MP action that you will experience in the COD4:MW Xbox 360 Public MP BETA. This is also where you will get an opportunity to join the COD4:MW MP BETA…and that opportunity will come sooner than you think.

Don’t worry, we’ll give you plenty of warning. Look for an update here in BETA headquarters. We’ll also throw an announcement into SITREP and add a countdown clock on our homepage.

To be eligible for a token-you must be 18 years of age or older, punctual and capable of answering three trivia questions correctly. Yes, punctual. To be fair, we’re doling out the tokens on a first come first serve basis. We’re still finalizing plans for where the Beta will be available. Initially, in order to get underway we’ll be rolling-out in the United States. As soon as we’re able to confirm which other countries are good to go we’ll be back to update everybody.

For now, dig into the details below. We organized all the information into two sections-Intel and FAQ. They outline everything you need to know, from how to download the BETA to what awaits you once you do. Stay tuned for more information.

I don’t know how many people this has happened to (Broken Xbox 360 – Flashing Red Ring of Light), but the problem must have been widespread enough for Microsoft to have finally given in and publicly address the fact that faulty Xbox console repairs will be costing them $1 billion dollars this quarter. Microsoft has now announced that it will extend the warranty on the Xbox 360 to three years after too many of the consoles have had a “general hardware failure” problem that is apparently due to faulty manufacturing.

I’ve heard of a couple people having this problem with their Xbox 360 – and unfortunately, I’ve heard that some of them actually paid to have the repairs done. I guess I was one of the lucky people who either got my Xbox sent in during the original warranty, or one of the few who sent it in before Microsoft realized that it was going to be a big enough problem that it actually would be best for them to extend the warranty on the machines. It was also said that Microsoft will reimburse the small number of Xbox 360 owners who have paid for repairs and for shipping on their Xbox 360 consoles… as they should. Which reminds me… I think I had to pay for shipping, which cost me a fortune because the damn Xbox 360 weighs about 58 pounds, plus I added insurance of $400, plus I put it in an oversized box to ensure its safety. All things considered, I think I’m going to send Microsoft an invoice for about $150 for my shipping time and expense. Think they’ll go for it?

The gameplay on this game is just plain sick! I don’t know how, but they always find a way to make the best even better. I’m continually impressed by the creativity at Bungie and now I can’t wait to see the final version of the game.

Some of my newly added favorites include:

• The ability to operate turrets and “dismount” them
• The new Mongoose ATV – great vehicle addition
• The “Laser” – great weapon addition
• The audio and sound effects in the game are unparalleled – by far the best yet from a video game

I’ll be playing the game more, so there will be more to come…

Just read this in the forums and I thought I’d try it out – it definitely worked, but just like everyone else who has done it, I’m way too excited to get a look at Halo 3, so I haven’t check out any of my other game saves.  Here’s what you do:

1. Go to your system blade in the Xbox main menu
2. Select Memory
3. Highlight Hard Drive and press Y
4. When the Hard Drive display screen is showing, press: X, X, Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X X
5. The System will prompt you, “Do you want to perform maintenance?”
6. Select Yes.
7. Load Crackdown – you will have lost updates so it will prompt you to apply new updates.
8. Apply the newly available Crackdown updates
9. Go to the Halo 3 Beta download screen and download it.

Again, I’m not sure what the “Perform Maintenance” does, so use it at your own risk.

See you on the Battlefield!

Wow, so the Halo 3 Beta was released today (to most people… sorry to you Crackdown folks) and I check my email and I have a message from Xbox Flash stating that Halo 3 will be Landing on Earth September 25th. So I guess that’s it folks… it looks like it’s not just a generic “Fall 2007″ date anymore. So you all know what that means…

it’s time to talk to your bosses, and request Tuesday, September 25th off of work, because that is the day Halo 3 will be in stores. Or if you’re a real Halo fanatic, go ahead and put in your 2 weeks notice on September 11th so that you can just start playing Halo 3 full time when it comes out.

Here’s a screenshot of the email that I received:

Which is a lot more pleasing on the eyes than this picture – you can barely make it out, but this older version of the Halo 3 teaser image says Fall 2007:

So Bungie thought that they’d be nice and extend the beta of Halo 3 to more than the 13,333 people who were lucky enough to get in by the rule of 3.

They decided to put a nice little inactive “Download Halo 3 Beta” button within the menus of Crackdown… the problem is that when the beta was officially released, that inactive button didn’t activate. This seems to be causing a major uproar int he Xbox forums and the Bungie forums… lots of pissed off geeks.

Crackdown Delay Discussion Thread

Halo 3 Beta forums on Bungie.net

UPDATE  :: Halo 3 Beta Fix for Crackdown Users

It seems like Bungie and/or Microsoft has done it again. Either the Halo 3 beta has been delayed (which wouldn’t surprise me, because it seems like all good game releases get delayed) or Microsoft and/or Bungie has just decided to screw over all of the people who paid for a copy of Crackdown… myself included. Apparently the beta comes out later for those users who bought Crackdown, which seems really lame and as of checking seems to have caused an uproar in many of the forums.

I read on bungie.net that the Halo 3 beta for Crackdown players will come out at 8:15am PDT, and right now as I’m writing this at 8:23am PDT, I have been unable to get my little grayed out box on the Crackdown menu to let me download a copy of the beta. Now don’t get me wrong, Crackdown is a fun game, but I think many people (myself included) bought it primarily to be part of the Halo 3 Beta – whether you missed out on getting in through the Rule of 3, didn’t get an invite or whatever other reason. As of right now, it seems very much like I am stuck with a copy of a game that I could actually do without… cause the on option on the menu that I want to click is currently unavailable…

And checkout this retard below… he claims that he’s able to download the Halo 3 beta through Crackdown… but this looks much like the menu I have that is not allowing the download.

AdultSwim815

Here’s a little note from bungie… not that it helps:
With any luck this will be a short delay. People enetering the Beta through other methods – Friends and Family, Rule of Three and so on, are unaffected. (5:22am PDT)

Update: According to the Bungie forums,the Xbox Live helpdesk is now quoting 24 hours before we can play Halo 3