Josh Anderson’s Blog

Bungie Day – 2009

6 07 2009

So, evidently a year has passed since I was last doing this… Bungie Logo

This Bungie day is much more dull for us gamers though; last year we got a free map – Cold Storage, a ViDOC, podcast and, in what we thought was going to be tradition… a Bungie Day theme and Gamer Picture pack. We’ve been given a theme and gamer picture pack every year since 2007.

Way to break that streak.

So, I hear you ask — What are we getting this year? 7th Column - Valhalla - Bungie Day

The “Bungie vs. The World” playlist. It’s a playlist consisting entirely of community made forge-maps on Foundry and [mainly] Sandbox which makes the Mythic Map pack a must.
The reason for the name of the playlist is that Bungie employees will be playing for the majority of the day tomorrow and if you beat one of their teams-of-four in a game you earn Recon armor.
Screenshots of the 3 other Mythic maps including Heretic — confirmed as a near perfect port of Midship from Halo 2.
A Bungie Day podcast.

The last two items on that list I didn’t think we’d be getting when I first wrote this, so it’s looking a bit better now.

I wasn’t expecting another free map, I knew that was one-off, but I was looking forward to a Bungie Day NXE theme — the previous one’s look rubbish with the new dash. Sadface.

Oh well, only 77 days till Halo 3: ODST is released.

* They haven’t said there won’t be a theme or gamer picture pack, its just that this time last year we knew there would be one.

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Tags: Bungie, Bungie Day, Bungie Day 2009, Bungie Day 2009 theme, Cold Storage, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, NXE, Seventh Column, ViDOC
Categories : Microsoft, Video Games

Xbox 360 Digital Game Distribution & a couple of thoughts about E3

1 06 2009

This was far from a big thing at today’s Microsoft E3 event, but it’s certainly a good thing to have.

I foresee a future where there won’t be any optical media needed to watch movies, listen to music and play games; well, the first two are already becoming true at a rapid rate, and with things like the 360’s forthcoming new ability to stream 1080p movies, the second can’t be that far off (provided we all get better internet connections!).

As for games, well, sure there are services like Steam on the PC and you can download classic titles on the 360 already, but the ability to download full 360 titles (which you’ll be able to do in August) will be appreciated.

Something I definitely want to see is the ability to pre-order games from the marketplace and have them download before the launch of the game and become playable at 00:00 on the day of release.

Just imagine pre-ordering Halo 3: ODST on the Xbox Live marketplace, having it downloaded progressively before its release, and on the first second of the 22nd of September, having it unlock and be instantly playable.
It’s a lovely thought.

Sure, I like my physical mediums mostly because there’s some nice feeling about actually having something you can see – especially when they have cool boxes like the Halo Wars limited edition or the Halo 3 Limited edition SPARTAN Head!
But, there’s no denying that the convenience of the digital download method is a great one. I really hope that something like what I described will be implemented.

I look forward to the day.

So far it’s just the ability to download 360 games on the marketplace that’s been mentioned. No more details than that really but unfortunately it sounded as though they were planning it to be the same as the classic Xbox game marketplace where a title-a week or so is released after they’re already out physically.

As for the other Microsoft stuff at E3, it was impressive. I very much look forward to playing Halo 3: ODST in September, the beta for Halo: Reach in 2010 and the game itself later next year.

The motion camera looked amazing; I was impressed by what they’ve got it doing — it looks amazingly responsive and well, it surprised me – I expected something gimmicky; not that I’m saying some of the stuff won’t be, it’s almost certain that there will be silly stuff, but some of it looks cool.
Twitter & last.fm being integrated with the dashboard is cool, especially considering the amount I use them both.