You know, I downloaded the beta the second I got my code, which was 1 hour after the signups closed. I guess I was one of the lucky ones. I immediately played a match. About half of the people I played with were a bunch of elitest fucks who were taking it way too seriously. I didn’t play another match that night. I didn’t really think about playing another one. Surely the Xbox Live players hadn’t turned into those kind of people, right?

Nope, I was wrong. I played for a few hours tonight, and played with some of the best players I could play with. No, not because I talked to them at all ( because I didn’t have a headset on). If we won, we won. If we lost, we lost. If someone had the most kills, great. If they didn’t, so what. The way a game that isn’t a clan battle should be. There were a lot of really kick ass players to that probably had every right to be pissed at those, like me, who’ve never played CoD online before. This wasn’t with just one party. I purposely found a bunch of different players to see if there was any difference; there wasn’t much of one.

So thank you, CoD4 players. I’ve enjoyed playing tonight. I’m proud to call you all, um, console-online-service-mates. Keep up the good sportsmanship. Wow, that was nerdy as hell.

So as we all know, the Xbox 360 Elite is launching tonight at midnight. How many of you are going to get know. When I was in Gamestop yesterday getting my black controller and reserving Halo 2 for PC, I tried to dig a little information regarding the local consumer interest of the console from the salesperson. Strangely, she wouldn’t tell much, only that “a couple of the regulars” would be getting one tomorrow and that she “wishes she could afford one”. Hrm.

So, what about it? Buying one? Not buying one? I don’t think I am going to right now. I am happy with mine, and this new 22″ Samsung LCD monitor is keeping my attention off my HDTV and on my PC, which is a change. Plus, I’ve got Halo 3 beta and Halo 2 vista to worry about coming up, neither of which are using any of the functionality (really) of the new box. So yeah.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

Have you played with (or held) the new controller. Wow. Don’t look at the images online that try to show them off. The black does look 100 times better than the pictures can even describe. Want to know what it looks like? Go grab your old Xbox controller. Yeah. Like that. But it is the Xbox 360 controller, so it looks great.

No, I didn’t buy an Elite. I bought this controller for my PC. White just doesn’t fit in there. Plus, I need a controller for Halo 2 on Vista.

Word.

So, at some point this morning, Bungie announced the long-awaited map pack for Halo 2. You’ll be able to snag them for 4 bucks on April 17 via the Halo 2 downloadable content interface.  That’s right, they aren’t going to be on Xbox Live Marketplace. There had been a rumor that these new maps would be only available for the Xbox 360 users in an effort to get more hardware pushed before Halo 3 launched. That simply isn’t the case: even old school Xbox owners can join in on the fun.

What does you’re $4 get you? Two maps. They aren’t even completely new maps, they are maps from Halo: Combat Evolved that have been remade for Halo 2. 

Honestly though, I could care less about these two maps. I was expecting between 4 to 6 maps. At that number, remakes or fanmade-turned-offical would be okay. I would even pay more for more maps. But not just two remakes.  I was expected two completely fresh, new maps.

Not to mention that I give no damn about Halo 2 right now. I want my Halo 3 beta. As quickly as possible. The idea behind these maps was to boost Halo 2 back up again to the level it once was and help build the hype behind Halo 3. Then, people that may not have gotten into a Halo 3 beta (or may not get it at launch) will still be talking about and playing Halo. A one-two punch if you will. I don’t see it happening. Not with this little bit of new content.

Oh well. We keep waiting.

Check out the official story as well as some high res screenshots here: Bungie.net