The Simpsons teach Teabagging 101

Last night's episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer moves into an apartment/bachelor pad in Waverly Hills in order to send Bart and Lisa to a better school there, offered a funny parody of the art of teabagging in Halo. While the show never references Halo by name, it's a pretty obvious spoof of Master Chief doing his thing. Here's the clip, courtesy of Hulu.

[via 1up]

New Xbox 360 Elite Bundle

Today, Microsoft revealed a new Xbox 360 Elite bundle headed to store shelves this May. The Xbox 360 Game of the Year bundle includes the little-known online shooter called Halo 3 and Joystiq's 2008 game of the year pick, Fable II. The M-rated bundle is priced at $399, making the two million-plus unit selling pack-in titles free of charge.
Those of you keeping score at home will remember rumors of an elite bundle, which was set to include the two Microsoft Game Studios powerhouse titles, had been floating around the web earlier this month. Microsoft, continuing a long history of totally being able to keep a secret, confirmed the bundle today via Major Nelson's blog.
Update: Major Nelson has clarified this bundle will be available in all regions where Xbox 360 is sold, except those in Europe.

Now I’m wondering, is this the first console to come bundled with M rated games?  I don’t remember any other system that did.

Big Day GTA

Activision's Call of Duty 4 and Microsoft's Halo 3 have been trading the first and second slots on Microsoft's Xbox Live activity chart for the past few months.

But Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, said that GTA IV, which just released on Tuesday, is the new king of the hill on Xbox Live.

"We had roughly 1 million users in the first 24 hours [of GTA IV's release] go online with the game on Xbox Live," said Greenberg.

The online attraction of GTA IV is staggering, considering that until now, GTA has always been focused on the single player, offline experience.

"It's been the number one game on Xbox Live since its launch, so it's knocked off Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4," said Greenberg. "At launch, our data shows that out of all of our members on Live, the majority of them were playing GTA IV.

"With a community of over 10 million members, that's pretty rare."

Microsoft measures the number of unique users per game on Xbox Live. Aside from multiplayer online sessions, single-player sessions are also taken into account in the Live activity rankings if the console is connected to the service.

Greenberg also said that 2 million GTA IV achievements were unlocked in the first 24 hours of the game's release. In addition, over 15 million Gamerscore points were added to users' accounts in the first day.

1.5 million cross-game invites also occurred during that period.

Microsoft has been keen to leverage GTA IV's strong online multiplayer component by including a one-month Xbox Live gold subscription with all GTA IV launch copies. The firm hopes the game will drive Xbox Live adoption. Gold subscriptions cost $50 for a full year.

"Our teams have been doing a lot of work in advance of this game, in fact, months. The operations team has been working on scaling our infrastructure around building and increasing our server capacities," he added.

 

See more about Xbox 360 and initial GTA IV sales for the console here. 

Nelson, I saw you playing COD4 the other night.  Hurry up and get GTA dammit.

Halo 3 Will Ruin Your Life

http://view.break.com/390565 - Watch more free videos

Trust me, I know that Halo 3 will ruin your life if you let it!!!

[Crunchgear]

Xbox 360 Out Sells Wii During September: World Wonders Why?

In the most shocking news this week, Xbox 360 out sold the Nintendo Wii for the month of September. The 360 moved 527,800 units compared to the Wii bringing in 501,000 for the month. Of course everyones favorite game console the PS3 took a slight dip during the month, only bringing in 119,800 for the month.

No word from Microsoft on why they think their console performed so well this past month, as I'm sure they're stumped too.

Halo 3 Propels Monthly Xbox Sales Above Wii For First [Seeking Alpha via Crunchgear]

Impresive Frag From Halo 3

If you've been playing Halo 3, I think you'll really appreciate this quick video. After seeing it, I thought it was pretty amazing how this guy pulled it off. Check the quote:

"I BlackShadowMist pull off one of the luckiest sticks in Halo 3 history, which boils down to total insanity. A Cross-Map, off wall, air lift, sticky. With 99.999% of luck involved. Cannot reattempt and succeed."

[Crunchgear]

Halo 3: Crack In A Xbox

In my best Sammy Sosa, "I must apologi" to the readers of this blog.

I've been sucked in by this damn "Halo 3" game, and it hasn't let me go enough to properly give the blog the attention that it needs. I will do my best to post more than what I have in the last several days.

Please forgive me, for I have fragged!!!

Xbox 360 Falcon Is Here!

Well if you were waiting for those new CPU's for the Xbox 360 which was code named 'Falcon', your wait may be over. Microsoft isn't going to tell anyone about the new CPU's that run cooler than the previous versions, but word has it that the new chips are in the Halo 3 Xbox 360 edition. The 65nm CPU's are reported to run cooler, which is a main cause of the dreaded 'red ring of death' that has plagued the 360.

So if you want a cooler running 360, go get the Halo 3 Edition Unit.

65nm (Falcon), BenQ, Heatsink Discussion [Xbox Forums via Crunchgear]

Halo 3: Review

So after all the hype and major media blitz that Halo 3 has beat us over the head with for the last 3 months, the game was finally in my hands. I fired up the Xbox 360 and sat down to see what all the craziness was all about. Since I've only had the game 1 day, this is my short review of Halo 3. Now mind you that I've only played the first Halo, and I'm certainly not the fanboy that some of the Halo heads I've run into are. So I'm approaching this as a regular guy who just loves video games.

The beginning of the game gives you a short little back ground of the story up to now, which is a nice touch. But the first thing that just jumps out at me is the graphics. It's on par with most games that I've played on the computer, and that's no small feat. The controls are simple to use and very similar to Ghost Reacon 2 or Gears of War, so the learning curve isn't very big. The flow of the game is absolutely fantastic, and seamless. The game play draws you in and doesn't let go, so much that I had a hard time putting this game down. The AI is brilliant, with many of the enemies no only reacting to things that I did, but was changing their strategy. I haven't had a chance to play the on-line mode yet, but if it's as good as what I've seen so far of this game, I will be playing this for a long while.

Bravo Microsoft, so far, you've done something right for a change.

Halo 3 Discs Shipping Defective

You might not have heard, but a little game called Halo 3 was released today with some fan fair. But it turns out that some of the discs for the game arrived defective, specifically the game that was shipped in the limited edition’s tins.

Apparently the packaging wasn't very good, and the discs would slip and slide around, causing scratches. Microsoft hasn't said how many disc are arriving defective, but they're giving everyone until December to replace them.

Well that was nice of Microsoft (tongue in cheek)

Replacement Information [Microsoft via Crunchgear)

Halo 3 Reviewed

As the insane hype machine of Halo 3 reaches its peak, Gametrailers has put together their first review. And If you're as nuts as I am about this game, you might want to wait to view this video for fear of spoilers. So view at your own risk.

Halo 3 Xbox 360 Case Mod

As we're getting amped up about the release of Halo 3 at midnight tonight, fellow Halo head Craget from the UK has taken it to another level. The Xbox 360 sits on a mound of rocks, with two master chiefs on both sides waiting to do battle. This Halo 3 case mod that he created will soon be on Ebay, so if you're dyeing for it, you'll have a chance to pick it up.

[Maxconsole via Gizmodo]

Looks like everyone is preparing for the 25th

Sony Planning Price Cuts On Halo 3 Release Day

The rumor mill is churning in the Sony camp!!!

In what is clearly a huge threat to Sony, rumor has it that a price drop is coming for the new 40GB PS3 and the PS2, scheduled on the release date of Halo3. Analyst Michael Pachter is expecting Sony to make an announcement at the TGS next week, dropping the PS2 to $99 and lowering the price of the 40GB PS3. Check the quote:

"Both of these ideas have merit...[and] we cannot think of a better forum for making such an announcement, given that the event is less than a week before the launch of archrival Microsoft's Halo 3."

Desperate times call for...........
No word on if the 40GB PS3 will replace the 60GB version or if it will just be a 3rd option.

[G4TV]

Guy With Halo 3 Gets Banned From Xbox Live

This has to be ranked right up there with the dumbest idea that a gamer has done.

On the Se7enSins.com forums board, some guy posted how his Xbox Live account got banned for violating the Terms of Service agreement. The moron was playing an early copy of 'Halo 3' while connected to the service. Check out the quote:

" You have been suspended from Xbox Live. You will not be able to sign in to Xbox Live until 12/31/9999."

You think Microsoft is a little bitter about this?

It's not said on how the guy got a copy of the game so early, but I don't think he'll be playing it on Xbox Live with the console he has for a long time.

[Official Forum Thread via Crunchgear]

Best Buy Adding Their Own Taxes Due To Halo 3

File this one under the fleecing of gamers!!!

Best Buy has decided to come up with a new tax to apply to Xbox 360 owners interested in buying peripherals. They're calling it the Halo 3 tax, and because of the hype behind the game, Best Buy will charge $3 over MSRP for any Xbox-related items. A headset normally cost $19.99 at any store, but as you can see Best Buy is charging $22.99 for the head unit.

I knew that Best Buy was low, but I didn't think they would be this low. Folks, buy your Xbox stuff at Wal-Mart or Target, but don't get hosed by Not So Best Buy!!!

Is Best Buy Really The Best Buy [Gaming Today via Crunchgear]

Co-Op For Halo 3: Confirmed

If you're looking for some Halo 3 news, you've come to the right place.

G4TV has some new screen shots of the upcoming game, and on top of that, Bungie was nice enough to announce Co-Op mode for Halo 3. So now you can kick a little butt with your friends, no matter where they are in this world.

Check out the other pictures after the jump. [G4TV]

From E3: New Trailer For Halo 3

In case you missed it last night, here is the new trailer for Halo 3 that hit E3.

And it's glorious!!!

Courtesy of G4TV.

New Screen Shot of Halo 3

New screen shot from Halo 3 have been released from Bungie, and it looks great.

Look at the detail of this picture!!! And Bungie states that this is in-engine and completely unaltered.

I can't wait for this game!!!

See more after the jump. [Bungie.net via G4TV]

Halo 3: New Ride For The Master Chief

If you're jones'n for some Halo 3 news, you've come to the right place. IGN has posted some new pics of the eagerly awaited game, and the new vehicle call 'The brute chopper' has me ready to head to the store to reserve my copy.

There are also some new gadgets such as the new grenade called the 'Jammer' and unlockable helmets and armor. No word if the armor change is just cosmetic or if it's any stronger than the normal armor.

I can't wait to play this game.

Hit the jump for more pics. [IGN]