Halo 3 Demo Date Announced

CVG has word that the Halo 3 Beta is coming May 16th. "The beta will run through to June 7 at 7:59am - giving you just under a month to tone your Halo 3 fragging skills. Three maps will be available for you to stomp around in your 360 Spartan armour; Snowbound, High Ground and Valhalla ... New guns and vehicles available for sampling include the nippy Mongoose all-terrain vehicles, Brute Spiker, Spike Grenade, all-new Assault Rifle and Warthog-smashing Spartan Laser." They also point out the functionality behind the much-talked about X button: "The secret function of the little blue button is for deploying equipment and you see three different kinds in action in the latest video documentary. While the developer doesn't specify exactly which pieces of equipment are exposed in the video, we're guessing that the new bubble shield, trip mine and mobile gravity lift are all assigned to the fancy new X button functionality."

Bad Day Back On Earth

[FictionalAccount]

Morari stepped back from the data terminal with a huff. He was pissed, and in his mind, rightfully so. The Swarm was advancing on Earth, and all Master Chief wanted to do was fight the same fight in the same way. Sure, they had success on Ring One, and probably fought the same battle in the same way on Ring Two, but this time was different dammit! This was Earth! They were here and unless the United Earth Defense Forces came up with a different control scheme for their Elite Armor 5000 remote units, they didn't stand a chance.

He picked up his soldering iron and got back to work integrating the piece of shit X 3600 Controller and Imaging module into the Armor's mainframe. In his haste one of the Connectitron wires slipped and smashed into the wireless control unit.

"FUCK" he shouted. Three hours of work down the drain. This was BULLSHIT. He sat down and lit up cigar, looking at the pile of junk the Chief wanted him to get ready. His gaze wondered over to the corner, where his PicoComputer Rig sat gathering dust. The datapad and optical rodentialscanner alone would make the difference in this fight! Plus the units trained to use these controls knew their stuff: THEY had been around far longer, had seen far more combat across a variety of environments. Only THEY understood correct comm procedures - half the Newlies coming on board these days only sounded like twelve year olds over the air. What's more they only understood the Chief's control rig and didn't care about the superior advanced imaging services that the old timer's knew would make the difference.

Making up his mind, Morari snuffed out the cigar on the workbench and strode over to his Pico rig, welder in hand. The Chief would understand, they all would. In the end, he would save Earth, and they would thank him for it.