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I checked to see if there was a thread on this, but there isn't so I'm making one. How To Clean and Maintain X-Box 360 Game Discs (and other discs as well) One common mistake that people do to clean their smudged discs is to wipe the disc in a circular motion, or use an abrasive cleaner on the disc. Both of these are actually bad for your disc. Try not to use rubbing alcohol on game discs, because this will damage the thin plastic protective coating on the surface of the disc. Here is how to properly clean your disc. Supplies you'll need: 1 soft cloth A small amount of water or hydrogen peroxide mixed with water in a 1 part HP 5 parts water solution. ​ What you will need to do: Take the disc out of it's case or your X-Box and hold it up to some light to identify the heavily soiled areas on the disc. Drip or spray the hydrogen peroxide/water solution or water onto the heavily soiled areas. Take the soft cloth and GENTLY scrub around the disc from the inner ring to the outer edge. DO NOT scrub around the disc in a circular motion. Use a dry area of the cloth to then dry the disc in the same motion. Here is how to fix scratches in the game disc. Supplies you'll need: 1 soft cloth A small amount of hydrogen peroxide A tube of regular toothpaste. Don't use toothpastes that are designed for whitening. A toothpaste designed for sensitive teeth is best for this. A sink with running water and a plug. What you will need to do: Pour a small amount of hydrogen peroxide into a plugged sink and add enough water to cover the disc. Put the disc in the sink and leave it for about 5 minutes. Take the disc out, put a small amount (about what you would put on a toothbrush) onto the disc. Using your FINGER, spread the toothpaste around the disc until the entire disc is covered and there are no large clumps of toothpaste. Rinse the disc off using water. Use a soft cloth to dry the disc, rubbing from the inner ring to the outer edge. NOT in a circular motion. Your disc is now ready to be played. You can also take your game down to a video game shop (usually) and get it buffed for around $1, but this trick is pretty much what they do anyway. Just cheaper.

The Director's Lesser Known Games Volume 9 Mount & Blade: Warband Console Edition Rating: 9/10 Type of Game: Role Play Game with Multiplayer Platform: Xbox One, Playstation 4 Synopsis: Mount & Blade Warband takes you into the war torn land of Calderia. What you do once you get there is up to you. Will you be a bandit, robbing caravans and villagers while running from the law? Will you be a merchant, hiring mercenaries to defend you from bandits as you sell goods from town to town? How about a lord, loyally serving your chosen king and helping him (or her) become Emperor? Or would you rather become the emperor by taking over the entire realm? You can do all this and more if you feel like it. Pros: There are a ton of great things about this game. The graphics have improved upon the original release, the controls are a bit more fluid than mouse/keyboard, and there are fewer bugs. For those of you who aren't familiar with the original release, here's the great stuff about that! Combat - The combat in this game is set in third person (but you can go to first person if you'd like) and features melee, ranged, and cavalry attacks. That's right, you can fight on a horse. Or you can fight a horse on a horse. Or you can fight a horse while on the ground with just your hands. Weapons/armor - The weapons in this game are varied. There are multiple types of melee weapons with different effects (like bonuses against armor or shields), multiple types of shields, multiple armors, etc. This game has the most varied arsenal I've personally ever seen. The weapons range from swords to lances, from arrows to javelins, the list goes on. You can equip up to 4 different types of weapons (3 if you equip a shield). Oh? You're wondering about the lances? That's right, you can act like a knight and joust people. Awesome, right? Horses - They have several different types of horses in this game that are suited for different play-styles. You plan on being that guy who charges head on into the enemy on your horse? Get yourself an armored one. Are you more interested in speed? Grab yourself a fast one. You want a fast horse that can take some hits? They've got that too! They also have slow, weak horses for those of you who are a bit cheap. Map Movement - The map movement is similar to how you move troops in strategy games. It's eagle view, and you click to travel. When you get to your destination, the game pauses automatically so time doesn't pass while you are deciding where to go next. Worried about not finding anyone to fight with? Don't be. There are raiders and such wandering around the map looking for fools to take their gold. Worried about fighting too much? Get a large enough amount of troops with you and they will flee in terror before your might. Skills - Nearly everything in the game is based on what skills you have (and don't have). From combat to movement speed on the world map, I'm not exaggerating when I say that if you can do it (except cheat) then there is a skill for it. Locations and Characters - They appear one dimensional at first glance but if you pay any sort of attention things get pretty deep pretty fast. The locations are similar yet unique and vary by type. Each separate kingdom has its own design for its villages and towns. Last but not least, the price. This game (as of this review) is only 19.99 USD + tax and has more content than your average AAA 60 buck game. Like, a lot more content. Just one playthrough can take you weeks, months, even years depending on your play style. That doesn't even take into account replayability. Cons: Not many of these, but gotta be fair here. The graphics, while improved, aren't great. The learning curve for this game is pretty steep, and a few stops to the wiki are pretty much guaranteed. The controls are fluid but not very intuitive. For instance, the directional indicator is not an aiming reticle but it makes you feel as if it is one. Aim with the blade, young padawan. There also isn't much voice acting, but that's probably due to it being a budget game. Indie for the windie. Summation: Right now this game is pretty cheap, and it has a ton of content to offer. If you've got a lot of free time and are looking for a way to pass that time try it out.

February 2015 Member of the Month! A day late, perhaps, however it is better late than never. This member is renowned across the forums and has quite a few accomplishments under his cap. He's a bit of a troll (still in training but he's getting better) but is known for being both verbose and eloquent, sometimes even at the same time. He's been very active around the forums for quite a while and is known for his roguish sense of humor. He is considered a friend by many and has been reviewed for this award a few times. Now he finally gets it, and it couldn't be more well deserved. Well maybe it could, but still. I mean, none of us are perfect. Except for me. But I digress. Who could this be, you ask? Why it's none other than... Congratulations, I hope you enjoy your month in pink!

The Director's Lesser Known Games Volume 8 Space Station 13 Alright, so it has been a long time since I've done one of these so I'm just going to make a whole new template for it. LET'S DO THIS! Rating: 7.5/10 Type of Game: Multiplayer Role Play Game Platform: PC Pros: This game is really really good once you learn the intricacies of play. There are dozens of places you can fit to help or hurt your crew members and the rules are different per server. Once you learn to play the game, you can role play to your heart's content. Most servers allow you to role play as much as is believable, and you don't have to worry about griefers on servers that don't allow it. I personally have been playing a server called Apocalypse Station/Gaming or something. The game also has one or more chosen 'aggressive' players which makes things exciting. It's sort of like a second life simulation, but without all the nasty bits. Like 'girls' asking you for your skype and such... Anywho Cons: The game has a very EXTREME learning curve. There are only about two jobs that don't require you to learn to 'play the part', and even those could lead to an awkward situation. Like blowing up the station on accident because you chose to be an engineer. The controls are also fairly difficult to master. Most of the players on the server take roleplay VERY seriously. This can be a detriment to your game experience if you're new to roleplaying, because when things are 'heavy' if you go out of character they will call you on it. Usually pretty harshly. All in all though, this is a really good game that's hosted on a program called 'BYOND'. How to get the game: 1. Go here: http://www.byond.com/games/exadv1/spacestation13 2. Register with BYOND and download the program (you do not need to pay for anything, so don't unless you want to) 3. Open the program and find 'Space Station 13' in the games list on the left. 4. Pick a server (I play on a server that is Apocalypse Station 13) 5. Read the wiki like crazy to learn how to play. Myself, Ledgend1221, AIGamerGirl, and BATMAN play this game together. It's pretty cool.

Hey there everyone. As a couple of you know, I am a pretty massive fan of the Assassin's Creed series of games. So I try my best to keep up with all news relating to AC games. This is something I accidentally bumped into while playing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. With it being released on November 11th of this year I figure we can have a bit of a recap on what we know so far before getting to the meat of this story. Here are the other news stories done by Edward Kenway and Mereel. Assassin's Creed: Rogue Uplay Rewards/Actions I originally decided to unlock some more stuff using my uplay rewards in AC:IV, and decided to see if I had anything to unlock on ACIII as well. While I was in the games menu, I came upon Assassin's Creed: Rogue. I decided to select it to see what's up, and it brought me to see what actions you can take to get Uplay rewards points, and what rewards you can redeem for Assassin's Creed: Rogue. So, without further ado, here they are. Actions: 1. Complete Memory Sequence 1: 10u This is pretty self-explanatory. Finish the first mission. 2. Capture All Gang HQ's: 20u It is unclear whether these are the forts or something different entirely. Capture all of them to get this one. 3. Instant Vikings: 30u Hit 5 enemies with the berserk grenade (at the same time). This tells us that instead of berserk darts, we get grenades. There is also a picture of Shay Cormac holding his grenade rifle. 4. Complete the final glitched memory: 40u Completing the final "glitched" memory will get you this one, and makes me wonder what the glitch will be. Rewards: 1. AC Rogue Theme pack: 10u This allows you to customize your dashboard with an AC Rogue theme. 2. Assassin Killer Outfit: 20u This outfit includes a bandanna that has a Templar cross over the lower half of Shay's face. This is an equip-able item, and you must own the game to use it. 3. Katana and Wakizashi set: 30u This reward give you the in-game item 'Katana and Wakizashi set'. This is a sword/small sword combo, which leads me to believe that we'll be seeing a sword/dirk thing. 4. Ship Customization and Pistol Set: This gives you the ability to customize your ship with the Jackdaw sails, figurehead, and wheel as well as gaining access to Edward Kenway's pistols. View full article

Alright, so as I have said a couple of times, there may be a staff vs members playdate coming semi-soon. Before it can get off the ground though, I need some statistics that this poll will hopefully provide. EACH QUESTION IS MULTIPLE CHOICE. IF YOU CAN PLAY AT MULTIPLE TIMES OR ON MULTIPLE DAYS, PLEASE SELECT ALL THAT ARE APPLICABLE TO YOU. Please vote on the poll before you post, because I'm totally not going to pay attention to what you post.

Alright, since Minecraft is a pretty popular game on the 360, and since I seem to be the expert on explaining how to get achievements, I thought I would go ahead and teach you how to get all the achievements for Minecraft. A good chunk of the achievements you can get from playing the tutorial, so I won't spend much time on those. There are a few, however, that are a bit difficult. There are 20 in total equaling 400 Gscore. Here are the super easy ones, they can be done on any difficulty: 1. Taking Inventory - Open your inventory by pressing Y. 2. Getting Wood - Punch a tree until a block of wood pops out by holding right trigger. 3. Benchmarking - Craft a Workbench with four blocks of wooden planks. 4. Time to Mine! - Craft a wooden pickaxe. 5. Hot Topic - Craft a furnace using 8 cobblestone blocks. 6. Acquire Hardware - Smelt an iron ingot. You do this by putting Iron Ore into a furnace with some coal (or some other fuel). You can find Iron Ore in almost any mine you make. 7. Time to Farm - Craft a wooden hoe. 8. Getting an Upgrade - Craft a stone pickaxe. It has to be a stone pickaxe, can't be iron, gold, or diamond. 9. Time to Strike - Craft a wooden sword. 10. Cow Tipper - Hunt and kill a cow and harvest leather from it. 11. MOAR tools - Craft one of each tool (Pickaxe, Spade, Axe, and a Hoe). You can make them from whatever you want to make them from, but wood is cheapest. To do a two birds with one stone (pun) here, craft a stone pickaxe and wooden everything else. See? Over half of them are super easy. Now for the ones that take a little bit of doing: 12. Bake Bread - Turn Wheat into Bread. Break several tall grass blocks (which grow on dirt blocks, above ground) until you collect three seeds. Use the hoe on three dirt blocks to create farmland using left trigger (grows faster near water) and plant one seed on each block of farmland. Wait for the wheat to grow. Gather the wheat once it finishes growing and go to the crafting table and create some bread. Furnace is not required. At all. Another way to do this is to find a village and harvest their wheat. You only need 3 to make bread. 13. The Lie - Bake a Cake. Collect 3 Milk Buckets. You will need three buckets, and will need to use each bucket on a Cow to obtain Milk. You can milk the same cow three times. Grow 3 Wheat from Seeds (or find a village and harvest from there). Find or grow 2 Sugar Cane and go to the crafting table to make sugar. Follow a Chicken around for 4–5 minutes or, if you are lucky, you may stumble upon an Egg laid by a Chicken already. You should now have 3 milk buckets, 3 wheat, 2 sugar, and one chicken egg. Go to a crafting table and craft a cake using these ingredients. 14. Delicious Fish - Catch and Cook a fish. To get this achievement, all you really have to do is take a cooked fish out of a furnace's smelted slot. So, if you've got nice friends, you don't have to learn how to fish. If you do not know how to fish, then I suggest you use the tutorial to learn. Then you can just cook the fish you find in the tutorial for this achievement. 15. Monster Hunter - Attack and Destroy a Monster. This achievement has to be done on at least easy difficulty. And YOU have to be the one to kill the monster. If you attack a creeper with a sword and it explodes, you will not get the achievement. If you've got dogs and they do the dirty work, there's a chance you won't get the achievement. If one of your friends does most of the damage on the mob, there's a chance you won't get the achievment. 16. Leader of the Pack - Tame 5 Wolves. You will need quite a few bones for this one, which can be got by killing skeletons. You will need to find five wolves, and feed each of them bones until a collar appears around their neck. There will be hearts as well. Another way to do this is to find one wolf, save, tame the wolf, then reload the save five times. Breeding wolves does not count towards this achievement. You can tame four wolves and breed them one thousand times and you will not get this achievement until you tame another wolf. 17. Dispense with This - Craft a Dispenser.The reason this is here is because it takes a bit of doing. First, you will need a bow (made by three string and three sticks, you get the string from spiders or by using shears on web found in abandoned mines). Then, you will need some cobblestone and redstone dust. Redstone dust is actually more common than one may think, you just need to look for it. If you are having major difficulty finding some, try either switching worlds, playing on a friends world who has the ingredients, or mining in a different area. Okay, here are the three more difficult ones. These ones will probably end in tears for you at least once or twice. Well, here they are, as best as I can explain them: 18. Into The Nether - Construct a Nether Portal. For this one you will need a flint and steel (which can be made with flint and iron one for each) and Obsidian, which can only be mined with a diamond Pickaxe. However, there's a little trick you can do with a few buckets of lava and water. Here's an AH video explanation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCJ0RmiYixM Note, in the video he uses more than two buckets. You only really need two buckets to do this, but that's up to your imagination. 19. When Pigs Fly - Ride a Pig using a Saddle and make the Pig take Fall Damage. Okay, for this one you will need to find a dungeon then find a saddle in one of the "dungeon chests" near the Mob Spawner. This is mainly a matter of luck. However, World Seed 9000000000800000000700000006000000500000­40000300020010 has a dungeon located at X: -309 Y: 51 Z: 199. Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6Lz-gfiZs Once you find the saddle, you can find a village, get some carrots, get some string, and some sticks and make a carrot on a stick. This makes the achievement much easier. You put the saddle on a pig, get on the pig, press R with the carrot on a stick equipped to hit (or "tame") the pig, and you can lead it using the stick. Bear in mind that if you kill the pig with the stick, you do not get the achievement and sometimes they will not drop the saddle. If you lead the pig into water, you will lose control of the pig. Best thing to do is get off the pig and let it get to land. Then, just lead the pig off a cliff that won't kill you. 20. On A Rail - Travel by minecart to a point at least 500m in a single direction from where you started. This one requires A LOT of materials, and some know how with how to make an effective railway. All you have to do is make the railway straight. No turns at all. You can make it go up or down, but it needs to be straight. 500m = 500 blocks. So you are going to need quite a bit of iron and gold. Best practice is to have one powered rail per 10 iron rails. So Powered - Ironx10 - Powered. Remember, Powered rails need to be powered by redstone torches. If you need it, here's an Achievement Hunter guide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tihfx6DunZs Well, there it is. The complete list of achievements for Minecraft. I hope this helped most of you who are reading it. I have changed X-Box's so I no longer have my old achievement help maps, so I can no longer offer personal assistance over XBL. Everything above has been confirmed for the X-Box 360, but may also work on the X-Box One, PS3, and PS4 versions of the game. This achievement guide was last updated 7/28/2014. Number of people helped with achievements over XBL so far: 158

I've seen tons of "who will win" threads, so I decided to make my own. I will share my opinion of this later on. In the meantime though, who do you think will win between a Sith and a Spartan. Now, there are various Sith types as well as various Spartan types, so feel free to pick a favorite and compare them. I want to know why you think the way you do, so please try to avoid posting things like, "Sith would win!!!!11" Let the posts begin.

So, Halo 5 is slated to be released holiday 2014 (around Thanksgiving/Christmas of next year) and I thought a great way to get excited about the release of Halo 5 was to look at the history of Halo, from the beginning to now (chronologically). So let's begin. Halo: Combat Evolved This is the game that started it all. Inspired by Marathon, ONI, and a few other games, when it was first thought of by Bungie Studios and Take Two Interactive, it was originally intended to be a game for the Mac. It was even announced as such in 1999 by Steve Jobs. Little did Bungie, Apple, or Take Two know at the time Microsoft was actually scheming how to turn the "two horse" (Sony and Nintendo) console race into a three way free-for-all. Halo, at the time code-named "Monkey Nuts" (which was later changed to "Blam!" because Jason Jones couldn't say Monkey Nuts in front of his mother) was one of the games that Microsoft wanted for "The X-Box Project", which was a console designed to compete with the Nintendo Gamecube and the Playstation 2. To make sure the console was a success Microsoft wanted to get as many top-notch games as possible for the launch of their console. In June of 2000, Bungie accepted Microsoft's offer to buy both them and the game. Take Two Interactive didn't want to work for Microsoft and thus left project "Blam!" and took the rights to Myth and Oni with them. The stage was set for Halo to finally come to life. There was some discussion as to whether Halo should be third person or first person, but with better technology in play Bungie decided that the game played more "fluid" in first person. Not to mention the added bonus of being inside Master Chief's head made players more sympathetic to the character. The two weapon system was integrated, and the Cortana letters had been received with joy from fans. Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nyland released October 30, 2001, paving the way for Halo Canon and going more in depth on the story of the "Halo Universe". Both the X-Box and Halo: Combat Evolved hit the shelves November 15, 2001. Halo CE was an instant hit. Raving reviews and gold stars all around, it sold a million copies in five months and is credited for 50% of all X-Box sales. Five months after the game was released (right on the millionth game mark), Microsoft authorized a second Halo. The success of Halo: Combat Evolved also led Bungie to further pursue "viral marketing" as well as more books similar to the Fall of Reach. Halo 2 Halo 2 was, once again, authorized by Microsoft just as Halo CE hit 1 million copies sold. Halo 2 was going to be the game to play on X-Box Live, which was the "online multiplayer" element that we today take for granted. With this in mind, Bungie realized that a good deal of the weapons in the game were unbalanced for online multiplayer. So, Bungie started off trying to balance the weapons while adding on to the story that they had started with Halo CE. With Halo 2, they decided to go with distancing the player from the characters by switching the player from Master Chief to a newly introduced character that we all know as "The Arbiter". They also introduced a bunch of new features (new to Halo, that is) like boarding and duel-wielding. Bungie created a 9 minute demo that debuted at E3 2003 (or E3'03, if you'll recall). This demo showed off a good chunk of the new features and enemies (drones and brutes) and got fans excited for the new game to come. However, Bungie was about to hit a very big snag. The engine that Bungie had built the E3 demo on (and so far the game) was not compatible with the X-Box hardware. Bungie had to basically start over with only a year until the deadline that Microsoft had set for them. Bungie pushed for as many extensions as possible, and cranked up the viral marketing with ilovebees.com, but Microsoft was pretty stern. So, Bungie had to release Halo 2 not quite as they had imagined it November 2004 with a cliffhanger ending due to the crunch. That being said, however, the game sold. A lot. And was praised, despite it's flaws (which some say made it even more fun) as one of the most competitive and best online experiences that you could get out of a console game. It also left canon lovers wanting more, which brings us to the next part of Halo history. Halo 3 In 2006, Microsoft and Bungie announced Halo 3. Bungie had started on Halo 3 following the process that they had set with Halo 2, and they did not take much of a break between games. Bungie had a bad taste in their mouth with the way that they had to end Halo 2, so they took everything that they weren't able to put into Halo 2 and put it into Halo 3. They also took Halo 2's multiplayer and did everything they could to improve it, including adding in a much desired Forge Mode as well as more weapons and the addition of equipment. Halo 3 went over more smoothly than Halo 2 and broke all of the records that Halo 2 had previously set. It was released September 25, 2007, two years after the release of the X-Box 360. Shortly after the release of Halo 3, a few Bungie employees set out to see about getting a Halo movie made, and then not long after that (which apparently didn't go over so well since we don't have a Halo movie [except for FUD which doesn't really count imo]) Bungie announced their decision to leave Microsoft. The decision by Bungie to leave Microsoft caused a bit of a spat between Bungie and Microsoft officials, but after everything Bungie agreed to do two more Halo titles before going off on their own. Halo Wars Halo Wars was released February 26, 2009 (March 3 for North America) and was the first Halo game made entirely out of Bungie's control. Microsoft owned Ensemble Studios, who specialized in RTS games, and picked them to create the Halo title for 2009. After Ensemble created Halo Wars, it came up with an idea for a Halo MMO, code-named project Titan. However, Microsoft said no, and Ensemble was shut down. One month before the release of their game. On a brighter note, Halo Wars received good reviews and to date is one of the top selling RTS games for consoles. Halo 3: ODST Halo 3: ODST was the first of the two Halo titles that Bungie Studios promised to make before leaving Microsoft. Originally title Halo 3: Recon, it was released September 22, 2009. It took a grand total of 14 months to make, from start to finish. Bungie spared no expense in the casting for the game, however critics maintain that the game felt more like an expansion than a full Halo game. Halo 3: ODST introduced firefight mode, which was a fan-favorite all around. It also came with all of the DLC multiplayer maps for Halo 3 AND Halo Reach beta access (for newer copies). This put a lot of cries to rest about Halo 3: ODST costing $60. Halo Reach Halo Reach. The last Halo game created by Bungie, and the end of an era. This time around, it was all about the game for Bungie. They seemed to ignore the canon that they had created throughout the years (and I know this is a controversial thing but it is documented that they did override previously set canon, therefor breaching it) to create a very fun and gripping experience. Halo Reach released September 14, 2010 and broke tons of sales records. It came with a ton of critical acclaim and had some fans in an uproar (over the little things mainly, everyone must complain about something). It also set the stage for 343 Industries to take over the reigns, which happened on March 31, 2012. But I get ahead of myself. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary November 15, 2011 343 Industries released the tenth anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved. This was their first big trail in taking on the Halo series, and by all accounts they passed it. 343 Industries took Halo CE and gave it a HD face-lift and added as much as they could into it (such as skulls, new control schemes, and achievements) without changing the game entirely. It gave the fans who started from the very beginning (and those who joined in a little later on) some much appreciated nostalgia. The game included a disc that gave players access to the Halo Reach "Anniversary" Map Pack, which included some good ol' fashioned maps and gametypes to complete the nostalgia. Less than a year later, 343 Industries took the reigns of Halo and brought us to where we are now. Halo 4 Halo 4 was a game that a lot of fans doubted would ever come after the release of Halo 3. There was a lot of speculation about it when Bungie announced that they would be letting go of Halo, including that Master Chief would never come back from being stranded in space. Then, June 6, 2011 Halo 4 was announced. As it turns out, development began in 2009 and was kept pretty hush hush. Which in this day and age is hard to do. Halo 4 took around three years to complete. When it was announced there was WILD speculation on what the game would be about. There were rumors running rampant about what the enemies would be, hoaxes on leaked documents, actual leaked documents, and even a stolen copy of the game after it was completed resulting in a bunch of bans from X-Box Live. This was definitely one of the most anticipated Halo titles ever released. When it was released, it was met with critical acclaim and grossed $220 million dollars on it's first day and had over 1 million active players in the first 24 hours of it's release. Halo 4 introduced more weapons, more multiplayer modes, and the new storyline for Master Chief. So there we are. The Halo history. The thing about history, though, is that there's always more of it. There is going to be a Halo 5 and 6, and possibly more after that. We will have to see what is to come. Anyways, this has taken me literally all day to research and write and it is now almost 3 in the morning, so I am going to sleep now. Hope you enjoy it.

Beat Hazard Platform: Xbox 360, The Director's Rating: 9/10 This game let's you play asteroids. On your X-Box. To your own music that's on your X-Box harddrive. That in and of itself is pretty awesome, but get this. The music powers your weapon! That's right! Your weapon is powered by how loud and wild your music is! But wait, that's not all! This game also has an amazing visualization effect on the background. If you've ever imagined playing a retro game with a new spin on it while you were simultaneously watching a music visualization effect (trippy stuff), then this is definitely the game for you. Combat: The only combat in this game is firing at asteroids and spaceships. It's exactly like the arcade game Asteroids. You spin and shoot. You also have power ups that you can collect by defeating enemies that do various things such as power up your weapon. Not only that, but it's two player co-op splitscreen, which is epic. Your weapons and damage are based on the pickups you've collected and the music that's playing. If you decide to listen to a slow-dance song and play this game, you're gonna have a hard time. Rounds: Each round is exactly one song long. How long is that? Depends on the song YOU pick. If it will fit on your harddrive, then you can play it. Each round gets increasingly difficult, and the enemies are for the most parts random. There are asteroids, enemy ships of varying degree of difficulty to kill, and even bosses here and there. Splitscreen puts more enemies per round. Synopsis: This game is a brilliant indie game that's available on XBL Arcade. It plays any music that you have on your harddrive and will have a different visualization every time you play a song. Sometimes the visualizations are distracting while you are trying to get a higher score, but this game is mainly for fun rather than competition. There is a "brag to a friend" option, if you ARE competitive. The Director's Recommendation: I recommend playing it when you get tired of other games. It allows you to take a much needed break from normal games while still keeping you entertained. It's available on XBL Arcade under indie games. My final recommendation is to get some dubstep/techno/electronica onto your HDD and prepare to have your mind blown. If you are photosensitive, then that's literal. If you have a recommendation for a game that I should review, then let me know in the comments (I follow all of my threads ;D). Remember though, if it's a hyped up game then I won't do it. "Lesser Known" is in the title after all. Hope you enjoy your time in the world of games. Wanna see the others? Check out the menu! http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/8342-the-directors-lesser-known-games-menu/

A question many people ask who don't play Halo is, "What's so good about it? What makes it better than any other FPS?" There are things about Halo that other games beat it at, and there are things that not everyone enjoys about it. Which makes that question hard to answer. I think that the answer, quite simply, would be "everything". Here's my reasons. The campaign of the game starts off with a lone warrior. That's a bit cliche, until we learn that he wasn't always alone. That he used to be part of a team. And that most of that team is dead, and that they died defending the human race. Which is exactly what the lone warrior intends to do. You fight enemies with technology that seems to be mystical, until you actually pick it up and use it on them. You pick up the game and play it, and you find the story to be kind of... empty. Then you find out about the Haloverse, and all the books that go with the games that fill in the gaps. That's what grabbed me about Halo. I was mainly into it for the multiplayer with my friends, but then when I actually picked up one of the books I was forever hooked. Turns out the story of the games is only 1/1000th of the full story. The story about the technologically superior alien race that is determined to wipe out humanity, and humanity doing everything it can to simply survive. The story about what originally started the SPARTAN and MJOLNIR programs. The story of how Master Chief Petty Officer John Spartan 117 came to be in a cryotube aboard the Pillar of Autumn. That in and of itself sets it apart from most FPS games. Then we have the multiplayer. The constantly evolving, adapting, and fun multiplayer. Everyone has their own favorite Halo multiplayer, and that to me is amazing. That the games can be so different from each other that people will argue for hours over whether Halo 3 or Halo Reach had the better multiplayer. The simplicity of the multiplayer at the beginning was what hooked most of us older gamers. Pressing one button to switch between two weapons at the time was revolutionary. And there were some pretty cool ways to play as well. Then things started getting a bit more complex, but even then that added more fun to the game. Customizable gametypes, the ability to play with people who you've never met before and might not again while still playing with friends, more vehicles and weapons. And then they let you customize armor, gametypes, and even maps to play on. Even people who didn't want to play multiplayer that often always had something to do. Then came Forge World and more armor customization. It was to the point where you could tell a player just by the type of armor they were wearing. You could spend hours customizing your character and building a map and gametype. And all of this on a console. And then we have the community. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's still more tight knit than most. There are so many different people that contribute to Halo that it's unbelievable. There is enough fan fiction to fill entire novels. There's enough Machinima to last you for days (maybe weeks), even if you were watching it all back to back. And all of that is from the Halo community. That makes the game SO much more fun to me. When I can discover a new detail in the campaign and have an active discussion with a dozen people about it, that's when you know there's something good about the game. The fanbase is no more or less loyal than other games, but it's definitely more "in depth". There are people in the community who create and write backstories for their spartans, which is something you usually only see in RPG's. There are plenty of games that can say that they have a feature that Halo does. Whether it be a good story, a good multiplayer, a good fanbase, or a good game mechanic. The thing about Halo, though, is that it has them all. Whether you play it for just the story, for just the multiplayer, or just the ability to create, you play it because you enjoy what you can do in the game. That's the reason I think Halo is awesome, and am definitely looking forward to Halo 5.

After I interviewed THFE's Psychoduck I thought it was about damn time to interview one of the site's most important, most memorable members: The Director. Great Moderator and member overall. Please read and enjoy: DD: "What is your name's origin sir?" D: "Well, originally my username was AAN2, which is both my gamertag and initials. However, AAN2, while memorable, is a bit lackluster. So I decided to go with a character from everyone's favorite webseries Red vs Blue. Everyone went for Church, Sarge, Grif, Caboose, etc. but no one went for two of the more important characters in the series. The Councillor and The Director. The reason I say they are more important than most characters is simply because if it wasn't for them, nothing that happened in RvB would have happened. So I changed from AAN2 to The Councillor, but then had two realizations. One, I didn't really like his personality, it wasn't really a match for mine. Two, there weren't any pictures of him... So I went with The Director, and it has served me well for over a year. lol" DD: "And a very respectable name at that! People see The Director and they automatically respect you. I'm gonna go out on a limb at the risk of embarrassment that that's what I kinda did . So Director how long have you been a Moderator for our site?" D: "About five months now. Give or take a week or two. lol" DD: "5 months and 2 weeks but who's counting right? . So you've been a member for well over a year now and you've been active for a very good percentage of that time. In fact for as long as I've been here I've only seen you go inactive once and I've been here a year now. You've been here since before the blue background, before the shoutbox, and before all the Staff positions that are available today. What do you think of the site's exponential growth and changes?" D: "The site has gone through 3 background changes (x-box background, white background, blue background) and now has so many members that it's mind-boggling. We are nearly at 50k members now, you know. We've come so far and done so much. It gives me a sense of pride to know that in some small way I've contributed to such an amazing community, and I believe that we'll get even more amazing. It's been a long, strange journey, and it's not done yet. lol" DD: "I believe you on that last line haha and you have contributed a great deal to this site. Just by being a Moderator. Now what took you so long to accept the Moderating position??" D: "Lmao that implies that I was offered the position every other week. xD But yeah, I have always known that being a moderator isn't easy, no matter what you are a moderator of. And the more people, the more difficult it is. You've got to make calls that aren't popular, and have to be prepared to take the flak for it. You've got to be prepared to ban people that you get along with if they refuse to follow the rules, you've got to be prepared to turn the other cheek to opinions that you don't agree with, and you've got to be prepared to spend a ton of time on the site. lol I have already been a moderator of a pretty popular IRC server, so I already had some experience with how difficult being a moderator was and therefor avoided ever taking the position. But when AD asked me if I wanted to become a moderator, I had already done pretty much all that I could for the site. Things were getting pretty mundane for me, and I hated that. I love this site, and feeling bored of it to me would be comparable of being bored in a marriage (feels wise, not that I'm married to the site wise lmao). I thought about it for a while, and realized that not only would I be able to help people (which is something that I like to do), but I would also be helping to keep the forum clean, tidy, and friendly. So I sucked it up and said yes, and I'd have to say that while it is difficult at times, it's something that I enjoy doing." DD: "Great answer Director . I always say this but it's true: I love to see that kind of spirit in the 343 Community Forum Staff. It's what keeps this place going. So what's one interesting site related fact you can provide for the readers?" D: "Oh? Why just one? lmao http://www.343indust...-did-you-knows/" DD: "Ah I was actually hoping you'd bring up one of your great threads! I was expecting you to bring up 'Ask The Director' to be honest haha. The 343i Did You Knows thread is a great one and I hope all of you take time to read it after reading this. Director is true that you were the first non Staff member to obtain the Notoriety Award?" D: "Actually, if I recall correctly that was a tie between a couple of members, including Azaxx. lol However, I was the first non-staff member to receive an award. I just happened to be in the shoutbox while Twam was testing them out. lmao And for about a month I was the only member on the forum to have two "trusted" awards. lol I was also the first person to get the Good Samaritan award. And the "Ask The Director" thread is currently on the sidelines until such a time that I have a bunch of free time on my hands again. Lately I've been pretty swamped with work, moderating, and a semi-serious back injury. However, in another couple of weeks I will have a lull in my work-load, so I might unlock the thread so members can once again attempt to stump me. Until then, if anyone wants to view the thread it's located in my 'About Me' on my user profile." DD: "You have a lot of history on this site Director, truly. Are there any awards that you miss that have been removed?" D: "I don't really miss any awards, but the "Quantity not Quality" award was pretty funny. If I remember right, it was removed because it was seen as awarding people who spammed their post count to get higher forum ranks." DD: "I remember that award, and there was also its counterpart 'Quality Not Quantity'. Can you recall the most memorable time you've had on this forum? If not at least one very memorable moment?" D: "I've had a bunch of memorable times on this forum. One of them was definitely the time that a lot of us were roleplaying in the shoutbox. I decided to jump in at random, and in most people's opinion I completely stole the show. Another time was when Ashlynn and I went on a spree of innuendo that lasted nearly the entire night, without actually saying anything that was bad. xD And one more was the few months that Azaxx and I were competing over absolutely everything. Post count, awards, likes, you name it we competed on it. It was taken more seriously by other members than it was by us, though, and there were some people who called us out on our "oneupsmanship". The thing is though, from that competition between Azaxx and I came some threads that were pretty helpful, both by him and I. That's the nature of competition for you. Even though on the surface it appears cutthroat and brutal, out of the smoke comes the finely forged products of people pitting their wills against each other. lol There are many, many more, but those are the ones that pop into my head at the moment. Basically my entire year and seven months here has been memorable." DD: "That all sounds hilarious and I remember vividly when you and Azaxx were competing for who would get to post count first and I'm still not sure who reached it first? I think you both did it literally in the same minute . So what award are you most proud of that you've gained?" D: "Difficult decision, considering the amount that I have. xD I think it is a tie between the Choot 'em award, The Dog, Pizza?, and the well-spoken/quality posts awards. When I got the well-spoken award, I had quite a few posts, so most people assumed that I did what other members did at the time (i.e. frequent the offbeat forum, if you know what I mean). So getting the well-spoken award (along with the quality posts award) did a lot to deter those rumors. The other ones are just testaments to things I've accomplished, I guess, but I'm still very proud to have received them." DD: "Well Director believe it or not, I can't really believe it myself, but we are about done with this interview and it's time for your final questions. Do you have any advice for the great members of the forums? Do you have anything else you want to say in general? By the way you hold the record for second fastest interview, runner up to ZB." D: "Hmm... How about something like, "Remember remember, everyone is a member." That basically means that no matter how high up the totem pole you are, the rules still apply to you. Except Twam, because he can make a rule saying the rules don't apply to him, but that's neither here nor there. lol As a matter of fact, we are usually a bit harsher with dedicated/staff members than with normal/trusted members because dedicated/staff members are supposed to be role models for the newer members. As for the speed of the interview, what can I say. I have experience answering questions. lol" Great parting words from the great Director! Heed those words members! And it's true, he holds the record for second fastest interview not that they're races but he just shot back as soon as I shot. We started this 2 days ago . Thank you Director for your time. Please look out for the next one!

DotD (Dawn of the Dragons) Platform: PC The Director's Rating: 8.5/10 This is a browser played flash game that is surprisingly fun. It is also f2p (free to play), but not in the way most browser games are. Usually in a f2p game, paying ridiculous amounts of money will give you an almost unbeatable advantage against those who do not pay, regardless of how hard they work. However, the advantages gained by paying into this game aren't so buffed that those who pay to play are unbeatable. Not to mention that you can earn the payed currency (i.e. the stuff you buy to purchase items in game) by leveling up or playing frequently. This game takes some of the best features of a f2p browser game and combines them into an amazingly addictive game. This game is playable on quite a few websites, including facebook and Armorgames.com. There are a few million people who play it. The game is still in it's beta, so changes may occur. Combat: Combat in this game is your basic f2p style (i.e. click the buttons). The gear you get buffs the amount of damage you do, and nerfs the amount of damage you receive. There are three basic forms of combat. Quest bosses (which include mini-bosses), raids, and PvP. There are a few different types of PvP, but it's mainly based on the equipment you have. Gear: One of the unique things about this game is the sheer amount of gear you can get. You can get gear by purchasing it, picking it up during quests or raids, or by making it. You can also enchant and improve your gear. Guilds: There are guilds in this game, and if you are stuck in a raid and have a guild, they will probably help you out. Plus, to level up at max efficiency, taking part in guild raids is a must. Raids: There are two types of raids, group raids and guild raids. Group raids can be joined by anyone in the game, provided you supply them with the "raid link". Group raids also take stamina to attack. Guild raids can only be participated in by your guild-mates, and require honor to attack. Stamina can be upgraded via stat points, but honor goes up by 1 every level you gain. Synopsis: This is one of the very few browser games that I would recommend checking out (without being paid to). It's got an intricate system for loot dropping, some pretty cool ways to play, and more gear than you can shake a stick at. Which some of the gear happens to be ridable dragons, and shaking sticks at them may anger them, so stick shaking is not recommended. The Director's Recommendation: I recommend giving this game a shot if you've got some free time on your hands. You can find it easily enough with a google search for "Dawn of the Dragons". Bear in mind that each different site that it's on has it's own server, so if you are trying to play with a friend be sure to play it on the same site they are on. If you have a recommendation for a game that I should review, then let me know in the comments (I follow all of my threads ;D). Remember though, if it's a hyped up game then I won't do it. "Lesser Known" is in the title after all. Hope you enjoy your time in the world of games. Wanna see the others? Check out the menu! http://www.343indust...own-games-menu/

Technic/Tekkit Platform: PC The Director's Rating: 10/10 This is a Minecraft Mod Pack that is ridiculously fun. It's just like normal Minecraft, except with machines and magic! Well, kind of magic. More like "Alchemy" as defined by "Full-Metal Alchemist". It includes the Equivalent Exchange mod, the Balkin's Weapon mod, the Buildcraft mod, and the Blutricity mod. There are more ores as well, such as copper, tin, and silver. There's also a couple more trees, like the Rubber Tree. You can build wires to connect different machines (even including electric furnaces that don't require coal!) and pipes to pump things into and out of chests! There are dozens and dozens of new things to craft in Technic/Tekkit. The difference between the two is that Tekkit is a newer modpack that is multiplayer, while Technic is single player. Tekkit also includes a single player mode, so Tekkit is probably the one you want. Combat: With the Balkin's Weapon mod, PVP becomes ridiculously intense. Not only are there new weapons (muskets, cannons, battle-hammers, etc) but there are also new armors. The weapons and armor can be made to the point where they are very OP, but these are commonly banned on PVP and anti-grief servers. Building: With Tekkit, building is easier than ever, while at the same time challenging. You can make it to where you can instantly get an entire inventory full of whatever you want to build with, but to build what you need to do that takes a very long time. There are many different things and ways you can build in normal Minecraft, and Tekkit adds to that exponentially. EMC: EMC is basically the in-game currency for creating items with Equivalent Exchange. Some things are worth very little EMC, like Cobblestone, while others are worth a lot of EMC, like diamonds. EMC can be transferred into creating items. For instance, if you "condense" a certain amount of cobblestone (around 8k) then you can get a diamond, and a diamond can be exchanged for 8000 cobblestone. Synopsis: This game is a mod-pack that is so different from the original game that it counts as it's own game. It has been described as "how Minecraft SHOULD be played" and I agree in earnest. It is 10x more fun and engaging as normal Minecraft, and is relatively easy to download and play. The only downpart is that you need 64-bit Java installed, and you need a "premium" Minecraft account to play it. The game comes with it's own launcher, and you can select to play Technic, Tekkit, Vanilla Minecraft, Yogsbox, and one other that I forget. While this game is widely popular in the UK and in certain circles elsewhere, it is largely unknown by the gaming community (i.e. most people here have no idea what it is). The Director's Recommendation: This game is MASSIVELY worth it to get. You do need to have a Minecraft account (i.e. the full minecraft game) but other than that it's completely free. I recommend getting it. I don't often give out 10's, but I couldn't find anything to rationalize a deduction for this game. You can find the download link with a google search for "Tekkit" and you can find instructional videos on how to download it on youtube. Seriously, if you have a Minecraft account and are a bit tired of Minecraft, you need to try this mod. Lonely girlfriends guaranteed. If you have a recommendation for a game that I should review, then let me know in the comments (I follow all of my threads ;D). Remember though, if it's a hyped up game then I won't do it. "Lesser Known" is in the title after all. Hope you enjoy your time in the world of games. Wanna see the others? Check out the menu! http://www.343indust...own-games-menu/

Hello everyone. I thought I'd go ahead and put this thread out there since a lot of people have been asking me about what I like and dislike about Halo 4. This is going to be a very long thread, but it still saves me from having to explain it over and over again. This is all in my own opinion, and is based off of my personal experiences with the game. Likes Campaign: I loved the storyline and the campaign gameplay. I've played it through six times so far, and of my own free will rather than for challenges. That's something that Halo Reach was not able to do for me. The campaign engaged me, and left me feeling satisfied but wanting more. Vehicles: 1. I like that they balanced the banshee a little bit. In Reach, the thing was far too OP. The only people who couldn't get at least a frenzy in it were those that didn't know what left bumper did. Now, there is a small delay between flips, and the weaknesses are easier to exploit. This doesn't mean that it's a cardboard vehicle, just means that it can be taken down fairly quickly and needs an experienced pilot in it. 2. The Gauss Hog in matchmaking is one thing I missed about Reach. Yeah, I'm one of "those" guys, who can use the gauss hog as a sniper rifle. It doesn't feel as OP as the Halo 3 gauss did either for some reason. Also there is no "shot drag", which I think is pretty fair. 3. The Mantis is one of the best defensive vehicles in the game. I'm not exactly pro with it, but I can get a killing spree with it. I can also take it down pretty quick. The sniper rifle is excellent against this vehicle mainly because of it's slow movement speed and it's size. Weapons: 1. I like the way that you need to adapt to each different map with your loadouts. I've never been a weapon fanboy, so it doesn't bother me that the DMR beats the BR in long range and vice versa in short range. I do like that I do better in close quarters maps with the BR and better in long maps with the DMR. Puts a little bit of strategy into the game. 2. I like the sounds of most of the weapons. I'm glad that they now sound more realistic, albeit slightly quieter. 3. I love the way that the weapons are balanced out now. That there is no "king weapon", because all of them are made for different scenarios. 4. The power weapons for the most part feel like power weapons now. 5. The needler is boss again. 6. Bullet spread is a whole lot less than it was in Reach, and I'm thankful for that. Gameplay: 1. I like the new unlock system. It takes the feeling of Halo 3, where you actually had to accomplish things to unlock different armor, and adds the simplicity of Halo Reach. I like that some items are difficult, but that they tell you how to unlock them. 2. The spawns seem to be a step up from Halo Reach, where it was so easy to spawn lock people that it was ridiculous. There are still some hiccups, but it's definitely an improvement. 3. It feels like I'm actually playing as a Spartan again, rather than an overhyped GI-Joe knock-off. The jump height is back to what I like to call "weeee" level, the fall damage is greatly reduced (still there, but a trip off a curb won't take your shield all the way off), and the ability to punch through a sliver of shield is back. 4. The armor abilities feel useful without feeling OP to me. With each and every one, there is a different tactical approach you have to take to use it effectively, and I love that. 5. The ability to ninja people without having to be on an incline or jump crouch is back. Nuff said. 6. Overall the gameplay feels familiar, but new and refreshing. Dislikes Campaign: The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I simply wish they had gone in a different direction with it. Vehicles: 1.The "power" vehicles still feel like overburdened cardboard boxes with cannons attached to them. In the grand ol' days, the tanks used to be the map control vehicles. In Reach, they were laughable. Someone would shout "Tank!" and everyone else on the team would laugh as they nade spammed it into oblivion. Now, the scorpion is slower than it's ever been, and feels as if it does less splash damage. One of my biggest pet peeves is when things get nerfed to the point that they are nearly useless, and that fits the bill perfectly with the tanks. These are supposed to be the vehicles that everyone rushes for at the beginning of a match, and now they sit there gathering dust, or getting the crap blown out of them with SMALL ARMS FIRE, which they are supposed to be immune to. Seriously, it's a few hundred years into the future in this game. Even in real life a magnum isn't going to do jack against a tank. C'mon. -.- 2. The spontaneous ordinance drops make the maps less vehicle friendly than they have been in past Halo games. One thing that separates Halo from games like CoD is vehicular warfare. 3. The ghost's weak point is less exploitable than it has ever been, making the ghost into a force to be reckoned with unlike in Halo 2 and Halo 3, where it was mainly a hit and run vehicle. 4. All of the vehicles weapons (with the exception of the ghost and banshee) seem to have been nerfed a little bit. As I've said before, I hate nerfs. Weapons: 1. The DMR/BR five-shot seems to slow things down a little bit in slayer. I honestly would have preferred that they make the DMR 4-shot instead of the BR 5-shot. 2. The grenades don't do as much as they used to, and seem a bit glitchy at times. I've seen people at medium-low shields walk right over a frag grenade and just lose their shields. This seems to encourage grenade spam, rather than slowing down how many grenades are thrown, which is annoying. 3. "Flinching" is very, very annoying. Especially in games like Team Snipers, where accuracy is king. For instance, if I am aiming at my opponents head and he hits me in the foot just as I fire, I feel as if I should get the kill rather than having my shot go wild. Flinching makes it more difficult to "make a comeback" during a firefight. Normally I prefer a challenge, but when someone who is blatantly spamming manages to get a kill on me simply because my character is flinching and thereby I cannot hit him, it awakens a primal fury inside of me. 4. While bullet spread is down, I have noticed bullet spread in sniper rifles. The most "precise" weapons in the game. The fact is, in the human sniper the shot speed has already been turned down. There really is no need to add bullet spread into a weapon that can't be spammed. 5. The Light Rifle is supposed to be a mix between the BR (when unscoped) and the DMR (when scoped), however that's ruined due to the scoped 4-shot it's capable of. 6. The BoltShot seems to have supposed to be a mix between the Magnum and the Plasma Pistol, with the magnums headshot capability and the PP's overcharge capability. However, it turned into a spammable Magnum/shotgun. This is not supposed to be a power weapon, and yet it can easily be considered as such. 7. The overcharge on the Plasma Pistol takes up far more ammo than it ever has before. In previous Halo games, you could go for an extended period of time with it oc'd. Now, however, you cannot take your time and aim it at an oncoming (or outgoing) vehicle. It has turned into a knee-jerk reaction weapon, which I do not like. Gameplay: 1. I do not like that it's based off of score rather than kills. This allows someone who goes 20/25 to top someone who goes 20/10 on the scoreboard simply because they got more revenges. In objective games, I get it, but non-kill based scoring doesn't feel right to me in slayer gametypes. 2. The glitchiness of certain aspects of the game. For instance, the Legendary Armor Unlock glitch. It didn't happen to me, but it has happened to quite a few of my friends, and I don't like that. The challenges glitching out are also annoying. 3. Black screens now aren't always a black screen for everyone. In previous Halo games, when someone went into a black-screen, EVERYONE went into a black-screen. This prevented certain modifications (e.g. lag-switching) from being super-effective. Now, players will be in black screen while other players are still playing, and will appear to be afk in the actual game itself. I've only noticed this twice, but it definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. Overall I love this game, even though certain bits of it annoy me. It's not everything I always wanted out of Halo, but I'm still happy with what I got. I waited five years for this game, and it was well worth the wait. I cannot wait until Halo 5 comes out.

Halo 4 Release Party Ideas/Suggestions So, Halo four is coming up soon, and many of us will be gathered at gamestores and wal-marts around the globe waiting for the midnight release. So, why not make it interesting with a little party while you guys wait? Or celebrate with your friends while you all play! Here are some suggestions as to what you can bring to a Halo 4 Release Party. 1. Mountain Dew Game Fuel Popsicles: All you need for this are some ice-cube trays and some toothpicks, or you can go all out and get the full fledged popsicle kit from somewhere. All you need to do to make these is get some Mtn Dew GF and put it in an ice-cube tray. Then, using twisty ties, finnagle the toothpicks into an arrangement that matches the ice-cube tray and won't fall over. Then, pop the flavorful contraption into the freezer for a few hours, and bip bop bam you got some popsicles. 2. Halo 4 Cake: This will take a bit of planning. All you need is an image that you like from Halo 4 and a Wal-Mart or bakery. Go to the bakery and pick out a cake you like, and then ask them if they can put the image onto the cake for you. It might take a day or two, so do it early on in the week that H4 comes out! Now you've got a cake that celebrates Halo 4! 3. Chocolate and Monster: You will want plenty of caffeine to stay up late playing Halo 4. So, buy a couple of boxes of Monster and some Snickers or Hersheys. You can mix and match (i.e. get Red Bull and Wonka Bars instead), but the point is you are going to want some mad energy. Careful not to get it on your controllers though! 4. Invitations: It isn't a party without people, and you've gotta invite people before they'll show up (unless you are immensely popular), so why not go the extra mile and get some H4 party invitations made up? You can get these online, make your own, or go to an office supply store (i.e. staples and the like) and get these done. What are some of your ideas for a Halo 4 Release Party?

On the nature of newb and noob. A rant by The Director Little bored, so thought I'd have a little bit of a rant. Today I played a game of snipers on Halo Reach, and a player with a lower rank called a player who was a forerunner (I think, don't particularly recall) a noob. The reason he did this was because said player was running around getting "pwnd" and teabagging when he got kills, as a noob does. What caught my immediate attention was that he actually specified the spelling of the word "noob". This led to a discussion on the difference in the usage of the slang, "newb" and "noob". A good chunk of players think that both words are the same, and one is intentionally misspelled to make it more "l337". However, the l337 for newb is either n3vv8 or n0ob (or n0ob or n00b). Not "noob". Since these words are slang, their definitions are "open market" which means that they have rather vague definitions to begin with, and there is not strict criteria for defining them. What a lot of players (a decent amount, at any rate) think is that both words have separate meanings. Newb: A slang term used to describe one that is new to something. Noob: A person that is not skilled or is bad at something. By these definitions, the words noob and newb become different, and can be used for a more accurate description. For instance, "Dude, this guy has been playing for 300 hours but has a .02 k/d. He's such a noob." and "You have to forgive my friend, he's never played Halo before so he's a newb". What would be incorrect by this standard, is calling an experienced person/player a "newb". However, it would still be correct to call a new person/player a "noob". Now you can have fun with them, by linking them up for even "sicker burns", such as "you are the noobest noob newb to ever play this game!" Thoughts, opinions?

The Good Samaritan Award So, you may have noticed that there is a new award in town. The Good Samaritan Award is awarded to the members who are kind enough to give some of their time to help against world hunger. You must first create a profile on freerice.com and join the 343i Community Forum group. An explanation: http://www.343indust...h-world-hunger/ How to join the group: http://www.343indust...ls-and-targets/ To get the award, you must join the 343i Community Forum group and answer enough questions to donate 20,000 grains of rice. Once you do this, message a moderator who will then confirm that you have done this and will then give you the award. After you receive the award, feel free to keep going. Anyone who has involuntarily gone without eating for a day or two can imagine what it's like for those who have to go weeks at a time without anything to eat. I personally have had the extreme displeasure of going without food for a week myself, which is why I'm so sympathetic. I can tell you, it sucks.

Minecraft: How to Spawn Infinite Obsidian I stumbled upon this little "glitch" a few minutes ago with the help of PuRe WoZZy (I was trying to trap him in the Nether). This may already have been discovered, but it's still pretty cool. This glitch requires 1 Diamond Pickaxe, 1 Nether Portal, and 1 Flint and Steel (just in case something goes horribly wrong). First, you have your friend go through your Nether Portal. Then, break a block of the Nether Portal with your diamond pickaxe. Then, have your friend come back through the Nether Portal. This will cause an entirely new Nether Portal to spawn because the original one is broken. Here was my first Nether Portal, that I broke trying to trap WoZZy in lol http://www.facebook....78940181&type=3 Here is the second Nether Portal that spawned after he came back through. I made him go back through and broke it again to see what would happen. http://www.facebook....78940181&type=3 This is the third Nether Portal that spawned when he came back through. http://www.facebook....78940181&type=3 This also works in the Nether. If you go through a Nether Portal then break it, and a friend goes through the original, then a new one will spawn. You can use this for unlimited and safe Obsidian. No lava = no fiery death.

How to find Slime in Minecraft X-Box 360 What you will need: 1. Mining materials. 2. Your world seed. 3. A map. The first thing you will need is your world seed. Go to "Play Game", select the world you want to spawn slime in, and look for the seed just underneath the world name. Then, go here: http://extension.ws/minecraft/slimes.html Enter your world seed. Now, you will see a grid with a bunch of green on it. These green squares are where slime spawns. Slime spawns at bedrock and 40 levels above bedrock, so you are going to have to dig. The way you do this is up to you. The coordinates listed on the website (put your mouse over the square to see the coords) are the corners of a square. The coordinates are also listed on your map, in the X and Z. X is east and west, Z is north and south. Y altitude. Usually, bedrock is located between Y1 and Y5. It is suggested that you make your cave at least 4 squares high. The higher the better, in this particular case. Another suggestion is that you check out the location of your coordinates first. Check your map when you get there. If you are at Y90, you should check out another location, because that will mean you have farther to dig down. Another suggestion is that you play on Peaceful while you do this, as mobs can make life suck during this phase. After you have your cave dug out, save and exit and put it on easy. You will get a load of mobs spawning if you don't put torches in the cave, but occasionally you will get some slime spawning. For tips on how to create a Slime Farm, visit http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/416454-an-effective-slime-farm-blueprints-inside/

Alright, check what applies. That's pretty much it. This info will determine how the upcoming Staff vs Members Playdate will occur. It will most likely occur the Saturday after the Spectral Playdate, so keep your eyes open.

Hey Guys, Mr.Wolfy has recently started helping me in the Shout outs by Interviewing the people i Shout. This is the first Interview from my first Shout Out, and Don't worry, more will come -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello 343i community this is yours truely, Mr. Wolfy, and welcome to shoutout interview #1 with shoutoutee The Director! So let's get this thing started! Kaatisu: Ok, first question is a big one that gives you lots of room to shoot back from: what are your feelings on what you've seen so far of Halo 4 ranging from the new weapons, new vehicles, new abilities, the way the multiplayer and forge modes will work, the introduction of the much talked about spartan ops, down to the new armors seen and ranking system that we were given a brief peak at? The Director: I feel as if it is going to be an amazing game, and that I will probably fight my way to the front of the line to get it when it comes out. Kaatisu: The second question is your favorite passtime when not on the website? The Director: I like to play video games and read. That and doing whatever I can to get money is pretty much all I do when I'm off the site. I hang out with friends occasionally, but not that often. Kaatisu: The big number three is, on a scale of one to ten, one being the least and ten being the best, how would you rate your experience on this site so far? The Director: Considering I've been here for over a year and haven't willingly left yet, it's pretty obvious that it's a ten lol Kaatisu: Number four is what game comes in second to Halo for you? The Director: This one is a bit tricky. In the past, it used to be games like KOTOR, Dues Ex, etc. However, those franchises don't release new games very often anymore (not at all for KOTOR) so these days it's Minecraft. Kaatisu: And number five is what was your reaction when you first noticed you had been given public recognition in a shoutout? The Director: I was touched, but I don't do what I do for public recognition. It's nice to get, but isn't my ultimate goal. I help those I help so that they can help others as well, and thereby make the human race a bit better for it. Kaatisu: Thank you for your time and gratz on being the first of many to be recognized by the community as a key figure! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks Wolfy for your help with this, and of course, thank you to The Director for his help in making our Community a better place. Also i in no way intend for this to be a copy of Drizzies work. As i enjoy his interviews quite alot

Stronghold: Kingdoms Platform: PC The Director's Rating: 6/10 In this game you play as a founder for a village. The goal of the game is to become as powerful as you can, and eventually become ruler of all around you. This game is an MMORTS, and available for download (for free) in Steam. It is similar to Evony, except it's a bit more complex. This game features a chat box, an in game messaging system (inbox), and some decent gameplay. This game is similar to most browser games, except it's not playable in your browser. It is free to play, and allows you to pay into the game to get a one up over your competition (like other browser games). You can control multiple villages (based on your in-game "rank") and can take on vassals, as well as become a vassal. In essence, it's a castle defense/smash the castle type of game. Combat: This game is mainly you vs an AI, however there is also a P2P element to it as well. The more troops, the better your chances. You can also get more advanced troops that specialize in certain damage types (pikemen, swordsmen, archers, etc.). You can scout out enemy castles to give you a heads up to what you are up against, and then put your troops in an advantageous position for an attack. For defense, you can build walls for you castle made out of wood or stone, and can put several defense structures (e.g. ballistas, oil pots, killing pits, etc.) to assist your chances of surviving an assault. You can capture enemy castles, and can have your own castles captured. If all of your castles are captured, you have to start over. Missions:This game is still in it's beta stage, so there is only one mission (scout out a resource), however they have promised more missions to be added in the future. Synopsis: This game is a beta-stage RTS castle defense game. The cooldown timers on actions make it a "wait and see" game as well, which is kind of annoying. It's massive multiplayer (and I do mean massive) makes it an entertaining game to play if you have some downtime. The Director's Recommendation: This game could definitely be better, but then again it's in the beta stage. I recommend picking it up simply because it's a great way to pass a few minutes or so per day, and it's free to play. If you have a recommendation for a game that I should review, then let me know in the comments (I follow all of my threads ;D). Remember though, if it's a hyped up game then I won't do it. "Lesser Known" is in the title after all. Hope you enjoy your time in the world of games. Wanna see the others? Check out the menu! http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/8342-the-directors-lesser-known-games-menu/

This information is provided by padware of minecraftforum.net You can find these updates as well as previous updates here: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1274802-mcxbla-title-update-change-logs-august-bug-fix/ Minecraft got a new update today, August 7, 2012. Instead of the much anticipated upgrade to 1.8 that everyone was hoping for, this update was simply bug fixes. The reason for this has not been revealed, but some think that it is because they haven't yet ported 1.8 over to X-Box and are fixing the bugs for 1.7 because it will be a while before they are finished. Oh well, maybe next month. Now, on to what's been fixed! Fix for a crash with pistons at the edge of the world Fix for a crash due to a thread safety issue usually caused by pistons Fix for issue with operating pistons on chunk boundaries Fix for a rendering flicker with active pistons Fix for rendering slowdown due to lighting issues Fix for rain going through blocks (raining indoors) Fix for Marketplace not launching when unlocking skin pack after selecting a locked skin in the trial version of the skin pack Fix for bug allowing locked skins to be selected if they are beside a free skin Fix for misaligned player scores when viewed under the "My Score" leaderboard filter Fix for the constant button press sounds when rotating a character in the skin select screen Fix for the constant sound effect played on the sign text entry Fix for thunder not being audible Fix for third person front view not displaying fire. While I am a bit disappointed that we don't have 1.8 yet, I am glad that these bugs were finally fixed. The sound effect for the signs playing and the non-audible thunder were especially annoying to me lol I'm also glad that they fixed some of the bugs with the pistons. What are you glad that they fixed? Did you even notice any of these bugs? DISCUSS!