1337 To Noob Gamers

Make Your Gaming Knowledge Useful

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:53:00 +0000

You've put hundreds if not thousands of hours into different games. Whether it is the halo trilogy or World of Warcraft, you may have an opportunity waiting for you to make some money. This isn't to say you writing about it has to be profitable, as it could be purely for fun and the notoriety that comes with people reading what you have to say. It makes your presence in the gaming community even bigger.

It can be as easy or complex as you would like it. Here is an example of a 13 year old boy who now makes $x,xxx+ a month from the knowledge he gained by blogging about video games. The income stream comes mainly from the site that links you to, but that isn't to say you couldn't make four digits blogging about your video game love.

If me sending you to that page makes you interested in starting your own blog I'd like to hear about it. Leave a comment with a link to your blog so I can head on over to check it out. If you don't have the time, or don't care to monetize it, you are more than welcome to become a guest poster here. You can blog under any name you like, post on any topic, and get a presence in the gaming field. The blog averages 150-200 uniques a day, what a better way to get known?

Halo 3 Blackout

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:50:00 +0000

Bungie has just announced the map Blackout. Blackout is a remake of everyones favorite Halo 2 map, Lockout. They made everything about this map the same. They even included "jumps" if you actually take the time to read the interviews they include with the pictures.

The creators at Bungie have finally done something right. Halo 3 has been a complete bust for maps so what do they do, the create Blackout. Way to go. Blackout is great for team slayer, free for all, and king of the hill. Although the map doesn't have the same color experience as the one in Halo 2 it has the same layout.

April 15th, you will see Blackout being released with Ghost town and Avalanche. Obviously Blackout was the last to be announced because they needed to end it strong. They couldn't top this map. As I've said before, Avalanche is the most likely to be the new "Isolation" or "Snowbound" where the gameplay is determined by who controls a certain weapon, and that gets vetoed 50% of the time.

Blackout will single-handedly make this pack sell. Honestly, I would have considered passing on this map pack had this map not been remade. The only differences we'll see are a few easier super jumps, a couple jumps removed, and the advantages gained with the items. They put one power drain, one bubble shield, and one gravity lift.

RockBand Set to Release for Wii

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:46:00 +0000

Harmonix has just announced that Rock Band will be released for the Wii on June 22nd. It will contain 63 songs, plus five bonus songs. These will most likely include the 58 songs from the Xbox 360, PS2, and PS3 versions, along with some of the songs you can purchase on Xbox Live.
A Special Edition bundle will be sold with a wireless guitar, drum kit, and microphone for $169.99. Stand alone instruments and software will also be available at release which will allow buyers to purchase them as needed. It appears as though the Wii Guitar Hero guitars will not work with Rock Band, what a rip off. They steal the game idea and won't even make it compatible with their guitars.

The downside to the Wii version is the loss of the online multi-player and downloadable content. While Wii has stepped into the online market with Brawl they aren't going to offer it with Rock Band. This isn't going to sell more Wii's. They need to step it up. Lure some of the big names to Wii's online play and it will explode.

Xbox Live Too Dirty for Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Last night I was browsing the Xbox.com forums when I was looking for threads to post on I came across a rather unique thread. It describes this whole scenario where a teenager made an adult feel uncomfortable and they were warning parents to put parental settings on games like Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Gears of War. I thought this was rather comical. Here is the reasoning.

Ok well first of all when I'm on the Xbox I'm like every other teenage gamer from the ages of 15-21. I talk smack, talk a little dirty, and of course, make fun of the little kids. All that aside I'm not one to make fun of somebodies religion, race, gender, or anything like that. I'm saying this so you don't think I'm defending the people that do this.

The parent was suggesting that they turn on a whole bunch of security settings when they let their kids play these games. Now here is what I'm thinking. Call of Duty 4, rated "M" for mature, Halo 3, rated "M" for mature, and Gears of War, rated "M" for mature. This is your problem. The games not safe for your kids in the first place. I've played all of these games, and I know through many many hours of experience that these games can get pretty bad. I'm not talking so much about the game play, even though it's too much for them, but the talk of the players.

So you think it's our fault that your child may be getting harassed in these games and that Microsoft isn't doing enough to control this? That is total crap. These games were made for us, and Xbox Live will continue to cater towards their audience.

Another thing, you may be overreacting. If your boy is in 5th grade, it's not like he hasn't heard and used almost every single word they will hear on Xbox Live. Whether or not they speak like that around you is irrelevant.

Xbox Live wasn't made for eight year olds, that's why they have games like Mario, the Wii, and PSP's. Xbox Live will forever be made for an audience made up of primarily teenagers. If you choose to let your child play on Xbox Live you will continue to expose them to adult language and actions.

Halo 3: Heroic Maps Free

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:58:00 +0000

The Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack will be free to download on March 25th. Bungie is allowing the free download due to the upcoming legendary map pack. The free heroic maps will be required to play Ranked Big Team, Social Big Team, Team slayer, and Rocket Race.

To those of you the haven't gotten a chance to play these maps you may wish to download some videos of them on bungie so you can get a feel of what they are like before they go live for you. This will help you learn where the weapons are I imagine. I'm not so sure what else it will do, as I've already purchased the maps and have no need to download the videos.

If you fail to download the maps then you will not have access to any of the above playlists. They will remain in the DLC Games until the Legendary Map Pack is released. So congrats, you have successfully waited it out saving yourself 800 microsoft points or $10.

How to Tell If You're a Noob At Halo

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:00:00 +0000

How would one know if they are considered a noob at halo? There are hundreds of different definitions of what a noob is, and how one should consider whether or not one is a noob. This is generally what I go by, and is as accurate as you can get.

As you are probably aware there are some ranks you don't have to become. Major grade 3, Colonel grade 2, and any of the other ranks where you are being held back because your highest game rank isn't up to par with what you need to move up. Most common example is brigadier. To become a brigadier you must have 500 exp and a level 45 in any game mode. If you pass the 500 exp it will not let you move up without the level 45. If you hit 600 exp before you hit level 45 you become a colonel grade 2.

Hitting an unnecessary rank is what I consider to be a noob. Granted that of course you don't only play one game mode. You get experience for social, which could cause a large inflation because you are getting experience and not able to move up. Your goal should be to move up as fast as possible. If you aren't playing ranked, then there is a little exception; however you are still meriting the noob title.

Then of course there is basically the standard everybody under lets say 20. If you cannot hit a level 20 in any ranked game mode, you are a noob. Once you get some skill you can easily move your ranks in every game above this mark in practically 20 games. If you can't reach this, you're a noob.

What is your opinion on what makes a noob?

Lag: Notice It or Not, It's There

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Lag, commonly given as an excuse in a game. What is lag? Lag is when somebodies connection to the host of the game is not good. It causes a short lag (delay) in the gameplay which is often complained about. While Halo 2 was infamous for the laggy games, it's there in every game.

Most people only experience it once in a while. This would be in the games where everybody is lagging terribly due to a terrible host connection. This is inevitable. I'm writing this post to tell you guys, there is lag in every game.

Now you can't go around saying, you only killed me because I lagged. This is complete bullshit. You most likely were not lagging. I've been playing with people all the time when they say the lag is bad, yet I never used to notice it. It was something I always let go as thinking, this person is just making up excuses.

The other day I was alerted my NAT was changed to moderate. There are three different NAT settings, open, which is ideal, moderate, and closed. If you are moderate or closed then you will have many problems connecting with certain people, hearing people, or lag. It is nearly impossible to change this because it takes a very computer literate person to do this. I consider myself way over knowledgeable with computers yet a step by step guide was very confusing. Routers are one of the problems.

Ok, what does this have to do with the lag? Well until you experience playing games with people whose NAT is open when yours is set at moderate or closed you will have no idea. You will shoot people longer, and hit them numerous times and your beat down is still out powered by theres. It will seem as though every beat down is very slow. Your shots will lag, your stickies will lags majorly and at times go through people.

This won't happen in every game, because each new host brings on a new set of difficulties. Most games you will be fine for the most part. You may notice a few instances of minimal lag, but when shots and grenades go through people you'll see the seriousness of it.

I just wanted to write this post to let you all know, it's in every game, in some form. Just keep your eyes open to the idea that your opponent may actually be lagging as they claim. If you are the one lagging you will realize the frustration that occurs through this. To fix your lag problems, you need to fix your connection. This is no easy task, personally I'm just going to buy an Xbox Live compatible router.

Halo 3: Avalanche

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Bungie has just recently presented pictures of what the second of the three maps in the Legendary Map Pack will look like. The map looks decent for objective games. Mostly big team battle. Honestly, this maps looks like one of those maps nobody wants to play. I mean seriously this is like rats nest. Rats nest of the Heroic Map Pack is terrible. The map is so big it only suits big team battle.

Why is this map being dissed by me? I hate maps where I cannot control the game. Any map that is very large is hard for a single person to dominate. Some may argue that this is a good thing. It's not, it makes it so that you have to walk from your spawn to who knows where all the way across the map. All the way you are walking you will encounter people with BR's, vehicles, snipers, and lasers. You can get picked off so easily. Also just the fact that every spawn you must come from all the way across the map. It is very comparable to griffball. While this is nowhere near a similar comparison because it was a tiny area, think about it. Your team is attacking and you get killed. You get spawned all the way across the map, they are most likely dead before you can get to them.

Anyways this is not for me to decide. Check out the pictures yourself and comment about your thoughts of this new map. Here is the Bungie review and pictures of it.

Free Microsoft Points: Points Awarded

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:50:00 +0000

For anybody who has signed up on Rewards1 to earn free microsoft points post here. I am just curious if any of the readers who come here to read about my guide on how to get free microsoft points actually favorite my site, or revisit it at a different date. There may be a contest giving away a code for 1,600 points soon.

To those of you who may be a little bit skeptical about the service, there is no reason to be. They will send you your free microsoft points, free xbox live gold cards, or whatever product you decide to take as your reward.

Here is my email from them. They sent it to me the day after I gave them the points for my 1,600 free microsoft points. They were quick, and the code was valid. I successfully changed my gamertag and downloaded the new halo maps.

Again leave a comment. If you are a member of rewards1 and signed up through my post, please leave your member id which can be found in your profile on rewards1. This ID will show me if you signed up with me as your referral. If you did, you will be eligible for the contest, so stay tuned.

Halo 3 Weapons: Assault Rifle

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:01:00 +0000

This is part of the series of Halo 3 Weapons. In the series I will post some strategies on how to use the different halo 3 weapons effectively. Reading my guides should help you use the weapons better, and with practice you can out shoot your opponents.

The Assault Rifle is the most common gun in the game. It is the default starting gun in virtually every game mode. This is an important one to master because of the amount of time you will spend with this as your only weapon.

The basic information of the assault rifle. It's clips hold 32 bullets that fire at approximately 11 shots per second. Each bullet does seven and a hit points worth of damage. With everybody starting with 110 hit points when they are fully shielded it will take 14 hit bullets. The bullets must hit, and with it's lack of range this should take pretty much your entire clip.

The assault rifle is not very powerful so there are many tricks to helping you win. As this is a guide purely about the assault rifle I will not go into avoiding your opponents bullets because that's a generic strategy that is used by pretty much any gun. The best way to get kills with the assault rifle is to make your opponent miss. Basically things such as jumping, moving sideways, ducking behind pillars, ect are the best ways to do this. You should realize it will take both of you about 32 shots to actually get enough for the kill. If they miss half of those, which is bound to happen, you will get the kill. So tip number one, avoid bullets. No shit right? Well most people aren't exactly geniuses. Half the time I'm playing with beginners I'm seeing players charging right at me not even trying to avoid my bullets, rather focusing all their attention on killing me.

The next tip is another rather obvious one. The assault rifles lack of power makes melee attacks very powerful. It is the best way to win a one on one in halo. With practically any gun you can win with a well timed melee attack. When you melee is also very important. With the assault rifle there are two different ways you can do it successfully. The first would be when you run into somebody whether it's coming up from a lift, spawning, somebody was crouching and you walk up to them, hit them right away. This is when you are within range for a melee attack. Why will this help you? Their shield is gone, completely gone. You barely need to shoot them before they die. Once you melee them jump up and away from them to finish them off without allowing them the chance to melee you. The other time to use the melee is after you've shot about half your clip into them and you are standing close to them. You will finish them off quicker when you get the timing right. The one or two extra bullets can decide it. Either they are too strong yet and you melee them and lose, or you have weakened them more than needed but they melee you dead first. It's all timing. You'll be better off dying having meleed them once and it not being enough than not hitting them soon enough.

If you can sneak up on somebody it's very easy. You will get a head start on shooting which leads to a pretty easy victory. Just make sure you don't get stuck by a last ditch effort. An experienced player knows when they are beat and will either flee to cover or throw a last random grenade. Keep a reasonable distance if possible.

Assault Rifles are important guns to learn, but if you can avoid using them you'll be much better off. They are a rather weak gun, yet they are very popular in Halo 3. They weren't in Halo 2, and they brought it back from Halo 1. If you are interested in guides for other guns check for my other posts as they come.

We Want Team Swat

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:20:00 +0000

It's back, halo 3 finally will have the additional gametype Team Swat back in its lineup. Team Swat was possibly the most played unranked game in halo 2. It was one of the easier games to bring guests into because anybody can be decent at it.

Team Swat is a game mode where one shot to the head kills. The thing is, if you're not hitting the head it is pretty much impossible to shoot them down. Beat downs apply as usual though. Team Swat was played on maps that were generally mirrored maps that were thin, not long. Maps that will be more popular for the Swat playlist are likely to be Guardian, The Pitt, and Epitaph.

What could be better. For the weekend of its release you get double experience per win. That's right, every game you win you and your team will get 2 experience points instead of the usual one. This can fix those novice W/L appearances on your service record. Experience is gained in wins, so generally your Social and Ranked games played are added together, and your experience gives an idea of how often you win. Well by getting twice the usual it will appear as though you're better.

Get on Team Swat and start getting headshots. All I know is, headshot Dave (guy shouting BOOM HEADSHOT in a video I put on here) will be more than excited for this game.

Guide to Free Xbox Live Memberships

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:33:00 +0000

If you've read my previous post the offer is currently down. Whether it is simply done being offered or just a temporary failure I feel the urge to let you know of another way you can get free xbox live gold memberships. This way requires a small amount of work, but instead of a two day trail, you get a free one month xbox live gold membership, or even longer depending on how long you need it.

First you need an account. Head on over to the Rewards website and sign up for your free account. I suggest creating a new free yahoo email just to use in the offers. This will divert the spam mail, and you’ll never have to deal with it again.

After you’ve got your account set up head over to the site and log in. Click on “available offers” then I suggest selecting “free” offers. Most of these offers a pretty easy to complete. All you have to do is enter your email and a fake address and you will be ready to go. Once you receive 8 credits you will be able to recieve a free one month xbox live gold membership which can be sent to your email, or if you keep going and get 20 credits you will be eligible for a free three month xbox live gold membership. If you don't want another Xbox live account you can get 1,600 free microsoft points for only 20 credits.. Also with only 50 credits you earn 4,000 free microsoft points. and the different prizes you can choose from goes on and on.

I have received many of these offers over the course of a month. I enjoy being able to simply fill out a few boxes and then receive my free xbox live gold membership. You can get many other things here. You can even get games if you decide to save up enough. They are only 59 credits. So simply sign up and start getting free xbox live gold membership.

If you sign up for this don’t forget to check out the follow-up post including a list of a bunch of offers that only require an email address for you to be credited. It will get you closer to your free xbox live gold membership. These are the easiest offers to get you mere points away from your reward.

BioShock 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:10:00 +0000

Take-Two has just announced the sequel for BioShock. Not many details regarding BioShock 2 were released but Take-Two executives did acknowledge the rumors about Irrational Games team (recently changed their name to 2k Boston) will not be the creators of the sequel. They have asked 2k Marin to create the sequel however 2k Boston's Ken Levine will be there to help in the creation of BioShock 2.

BioShock 2 isn't set to be released until October 2009 at the earliest. Gears of War announced maybe 7 months early, so why in the world is BioShock 2 telling us nearly 20 months in advance? Recently EA has shown a lot of interest in acquiring Take-Two, and with the announcement of BioShock 2 they are only increasing the value of their company.

If this game is even minorly as successful as it's original the game will have no problems selling a few million copies. This game so far, is the biggest excitement for the 2009 gaming calender. Look forward to many trailers to be released over the upcoming months.

H3v Studios

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:53:00 +0000

You see H3V studios in my blogroll every time you visit this site. If you've never had the chance to check it out, I highly suggest you do. If you are interested in Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, or any other xbox game you will enjoy the discussions and tournaments for these games. If you are an editor you will enjoy the studio part of it. Some of the greatest montage and sig editors are active members here giving us the first looks at their newest works.

H3V is not only an online forum. By joining this site you can become friends with countless MLG players that are more than willing to go into customs with you. Maybe they will even find you good enough to start a team with you. It seems like there is always some type of MLG custom or BR Sniper custom game going on.

I'm an active member of the forum, and also a moderator. The forum was started by MLG player Metalic Dust and is thriving with contributions from MLG player. Your every post also gets you a step closer to obtaining some free microsoft points or free xbox live memberships. I will not get into that, but it is a plus to the site. Your posts will in the end benefit you in the form of xbox live time, or microsoft points.

If you'd like to sign up head on over to H3V Studios. I'm am0463 hit me up with a PM there and I'll help get you into these amazing customs.

H3V Studios

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:00:00 +0000

If you'd like to sign up head on over to H3V Studios. I'm XM Satellite hit me up with a PM there and I'll help get you into these amazing customs.

BioShock 2 is Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Guide to Free Microsoft Points

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:00:00 +0000

If you haven't read my previous guide on how to get free Microsoft Points then I highly suggest doing so. With all the traffic I've received to my site thanks to that previous post I plan to put a list here of some of the easier offers. Offers that can get you very close to your first prize in about 10 minutes if completed. These may not all still be offered when you read this, but look for them. Here is the site.

Just enter your email or other quick answer:

Autumn Cookbook 0.5

$100 Red Lobster Gift Card 0.45

Free Hot Chocolate 0.35

XBox 360 Halo 0.6

COB: Target GC 0.25

BigWin: Laptop 0.3

That is a total of 2.45 points. There are many other offers you can complete to earn your free Microsoft Points. That is just a list of a few of the very simple 10 second offers that will get you some points. Please leave comments on this post with other simple offers where you just enter your email address so I can keep expanding this list. As I discover new easy offers I will continue to edit this list. So good luck getting your free Microsoft Points.

Get Free Microsoft Points and Xbox Live Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:09:00 +0000

You want to extend your Xbox Live membership, create a second account or get Microsoft Points to spend in the Xbox Live Arcade. You can do all of the above, for free. It is a rather simple way of earning free Microsoft Points, or an Xbox Live Membership and only takes about thirty minutes to receive your prize.

After you've got your account set up head over to the site and log in. Click on "available offers" then I suggest selecting "free" offers. Most of these offers a pretty easy to complete. All you have to do is enter your email and a fake address and you will be ready to go. Once you receive 50 points you can get 4,000 free microsoft points, or if you only get 20, you can get 1,600 free microsoft points. Also with only 6 credits you earn a free one month gold xbox live card, and it keeps going up.

I have received many of these offers over the course of a month. I enjoy being able to simply fill out a few boxes and then receive my free microsoft points. You can get many other things here. You can even get games if you decide to save up enough. They are only 59 credits. So simply sign up and start getting free microsoft points.

If you sign up for this don't forget to check out the follow-up post including a list of a bunch of offers that only require an email address for you to be credited. It will get you closer to your free microsoft points.

Quick Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:26:00 +0000

Just a quick update, I've altered my plans on the ads. Only a small banner at the bottom, but I doubt this will do any good. I just didn't like the look of the site with Google ads. I am open to anybody wanting to advertise on my site. I can offer 125x125 banners for $5 a month. Limit of 8 banners. Anybody interested can contact me. At the moment I'm getting approx 50-100 visitors a day without submitting these to social bookmarking sites. So it's purely search engine traffic according to Google Analytics.

Halo 3: Beat Down Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:18:00 +0000

The long corrupt beat down in Halo 3 has recently been updated. This update had previously caused much anger at the game, yet the bodies flying hundreds of feet after they were beat down was always a fun thing to watch. Here are some of the noticeable changes, and what they missed.

First of all, if you weren't familiar with the old beat down system it was programmed to have the person with the most health automatically win. So if they got one extra assault rifle shot on you, you were the one who ended up dying. This led many to wonder why, they hit their opponent, yet they died. After getting beat down your body sometimes flew hundreds of feet, very unrealistically.

The update. The update was said to have fixed the beat down system so that it would be more fair to both sides. They made it so that unless there was a noticeable difference in health, any two melees done at the same time will cause both players to die. This is unbelievable. While you do get credit for a kill, there is no point in trading off deaths. As long as it was consistent before we could deal with a few crap calls. They got rid of the flying bodies which was nice.

This update was a waste of time. They didn't fix the problem, but I don't know any possible fix for it. The guns have set damage on their melee attacks so if your opponents hp is below that and you perform the beat down they should die. If both players are below that kill the one who would be put negative the most hp, and leave the other guy standing with one shot left on his life.

How could it be fixed? Do you like the current system, the old one, halo 2's, or halo 1's beat down system? Why do you like it, or what would be the ideal beat down system.

Gears of War 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:00:00 +0000

You heard right, Epic Games just announced the release of Gears of War 2. This game is sure to be a hit. It was the first game to successfully take over Halo 2's dominance and only lost it to the release of Halo 3. Gears of War 2 is a promising game that should be the next big hit for the Xbox 360. If you don't have one, this game is sure to tempt you to buy one.
Not much was released. The announcement said November 2008 it will go on sale, however they didn't give the exact date in November. There is also a trailer to go with the announcement although no real game footage, except for a possible new option.

GoW2 Trailer

It appears as though we may get the chance to get into chainsaw tangles. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I will keep you updated on the newest trailers and leaks on the game.

Change to Xbox Live?

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 01:00:00 +0000

We recently saw some pretty amazing new updates to the Xbox Live feature. There is rumor that they are looking to change the interface even more. This could potentially make the gap between Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony even greater.
Xbox has time and time again updated and altered it's Xbox Live service. Sony is yet to even get the PS3 an online feature. Sure it has great graphics but that won't sell the system in this age. Microsoft is apparently looking to exploit this and make the interface even better.

"Want to be involved in the next release of Xbox? Join the server-backed games team, part of the Xbox Live team that's responsible for creating a completely new way for mainstream audiences to enjoy the Xbox and Live. We're building the games, the console interface and logic, and the server support for a totally new Live experience. Both the games and the dashboard experience will be deeply paired with dynamic server support to create a compelling, fresh scenario each time."

What could this mean? Nobody is exactly sure what to expect from this. From my knowledge I am expecting some sort of "clan" system as suggested by Bungie a few months ago when answering the question of whether or not Halo 3 will start using the clans again. They said no, however if Microsoft were to decide to start using a clan system they would make it compatible. As many of you know Bungie used to be owned by Microsoft.

Ring of Death

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:51:00 +0000

The Red Ring of Death is not a plague, however many gamers are considering it one. The Ring of Death is when your Xbox 360's power on button turns red, along with the first, second, and third players controller spots light up red as well. The Ring of Death is not a problem that is your fault and Microsoft is willing to fix it, for free!

How do you get the Ring of Death? The Ring of Death is thought to be a problem caused by your Xbox 360 overheating, and the faulty parts inside of it are ruined causing the Ring of Death. You noticed they stopped making the Core and Premium versions of the Xbox 360, this is why. If you have a Core or Premium Xbox 360 chances are you have or in the near future will encounter the Ring of Death.

There are rumors, that I have seen tested and actually work, of being able to fix it by overheating it. I mean completely frying the Xbox will make the Ring of Death go away. This is only a temporary fix that will last two weeks max. You are best sending it off to Microsoft to get it fixed.

That is all I have to say about the Ring of Death. I don't care to explain how to fix it, because it is neither safe nor advised. All of you gamers out there with two year warranties and a Core or Premium Xbox 360, like me, hopefully this happens to you before your two year warranty wears out. You will get a new highly upgraded Xbox 360, and generally you will get to keep your hard drive and all other accessories for your broken Xbox 360.

LTN Gamer Blog Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:46:00 +0000

A few new things have happened recently. First thing you may have noticed is I moved all my posts from my wordpress blog to this one. It makes my blog more customizable.

The update on the domain. I still am hoping to get a purchased domain by February 28th. Once I purchase a domain I believe I can better advertise my site as the link will be cleaner. I can understand those of you not wanting to remember or put a site like ltngamers.blogspot.com on your favorites simply because it's free. Well I hope to change that soon.

Another thing I implemented into my site was Google Adsense ad's. While some of you may think these ads can get annoying it is one way for us bloggers to get some compensation for our writing. I promise to try not to overcrowd the blog with them, as I understand where you are coming from. If they get in the way of the blog, they are coming down.

I am, as always, looking for a few other writers who would like to get a few posts in on this site. I have less time to write because of a lot of other things going on around me, so having a few other writers would be very nice. As mentioned before I can offer you high status on the forum when I purchase a forum license.

That's all for this week. I will try to get a post up every day, but we will see how it goes.

LTN Gamers Best Halo Game

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Stenzel) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:31:00 +0000

Over the next 2 weeks you have your chance to submit the link to your best halo 3 game. Simply head on over to bungie.net and copy and paste the link of the scoreboard of your game.

What will you receive if you win? Well I cannot really offer anything now, simply the promise of 100 points on my future forum if you choose to join, and a spot publishing gamer related articles on this site. That and of course the recognition of being a great player.

Note it must be your gamertag, and pending the forum points you may or may not be required to give evidence that it really is yours.