Halo 3 Earns $170 Million on Day 1 in US sales

(From MajorNelson.com)

"Xbox 360 Exclusive “Halo 3” Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History with $170 Million in Sales

Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive game “Halo 3” has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like “Spider-man 3” and novels such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”"

Halo 3 Reviews are in!

Halo 3 is set to launch tomorrow night, and the reviews have started to pour in.

(From Gamerankings.com)

GameSpy		9/23/2007	5 out of 5	100.0%
IGN		9/23/2007	9.5 out of 10	95.0%
GameSpot		9/23/2007	9.5 out of 10	95.0%
Game Informer		10/1/2007	9.75 out of 10	97.5%
TeamXbox		9/23/2007	9.7 out of 10	97.0%
Eurogamer		9/23/2007	10 out of 10	100.0%
Worth Playing		9/23/2007	9.6 out of 10	96.0%
Pro-G		9/23/2007	10 out of 10	100.0%
1UP		9/23/2007	10 out of 10	100.0%
Gamer 2.0		9/23/2007	88 out of 100	88.0%

Bungie.net Halo 3 features activated!

I was browsing around Bungie.net to find that the Halo 3 features have been turned on. You can now browse screenshots, see fun random facts (like in the pic to the left (look above the world map)) as well as download videos to your xbox 360 (to be viewed in Halo 3).

*Be careful though, when browsing through random profiles someone could have taken a screenshot of the last frame of the game, so browse with caution!

Bungie.net
Halo 3 main page

New Halo 3 short arrives on the interwebz, Commercial coming Friday

UPDATE: The second commercial has leaked, check it out!


The new Halo 3 short entitled "Museum" has hit the internet. The latest in a huge line of marketing for the upcoming Halo 3, this short depicts a retired soldier talking about a battle he was in along side the Master Chief. Not too bad. The newest (and 2nd) Halo 3 TV commercial (Other than Gamestop's commercial) is set to debut Friday around 9am PST. Look here for the video when it arrives!

Sonic 2 this week on the XBLA

Only one game this week for the arcade but it is a good one. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will go live this Wednesday coming with 2 player local and online coop, gamers rejoice.

New iPod marketed towards gamers?

At the Apple conference this afternoon Steve Jobs announced the new lineup of iPods. One of the many redesigns is the addition of more screen space. The reason for this move? Gaming. Jobs says he wants to bring more gaming to iPods, the first series of which begins with Vortex, an EA Sudoku game, and a third unannounced title.
See Gizmodo for more info.

Call of Duty 4 Beta

Finally, after waiting for 5 days, I received my Call of Duty 4 Beta code in an e-mail. Not much to say now, but I'll post my impressions in the near future for all of you who are wondering if this game is worth the $60.

New and Improved Site!

After 6 months of a somewhat boring look (and not many visitors) I have decided to give the blog a name change and face lift. Formally Gaming Unlimited, the blog is now called 360 Unlimited. As of late the news stories have been slow coming but you should see an increase in stories posted soon! I have also added a poll to the right to see how you all like the new look, so go vote!

Halo 3 Goes Gold

Much like Willy Wonka's golden ticket, Halo 3 has gone gold. Bungie Studios has confirmed that the next game in the stellar franchise is indeed headed off to be manufactured. With a bit over three weeks until launch, one has to ask "why so early?" Certainly Bungie does not need three weeks to get discs shipped around the world right? Wrong. With over a million pre-orders it may just take three weeks to print and ship copies of the game to world consumers. With the launch of Halo 3 aiming to be one of the biggest media launches of all time Microsoft needs all the extra time it can get to finalize preparations for September 25th.

"This is a huge milestone for us and a big cause for celebration at Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios," said Harold Ryan, Studio Head at Bungie Studios. "This is the game we've always wanted to make and certainly the best game our studio has developed. We can't wait for gamers to get their hands on it on Sept. 25."

Congratulations Bungie Studios on finishing your fight.

Manhunt 2 cleared for release...

And on what day is this once AO, now M rated game scheduled to terrorize homes? Why October 31st, Halloween of course! Is their a more suiting day for the horror/action genre to release a game?

The official word is that the guys at Take 2 edited Manhunt enough to earn it a "M" (for Mature) rating from the ESRB.

"Manhunt 2 is important to us, and we're glad it can finally be appreciated as a gaming experience," founder of Rockstar Games Sam Houser states. "We love the horror genre. Manhunt 2 is a powerful piece of interactive story telling that is a unique video game experience. We think horror fans will love it."

So get your pre-orders in and prepare for a good old fashioned Manhunt! (2)

Flame on! Halo 3 bring flamethrower and incendiary grenades

From the guys/gals at IGN


"August 10, 2007 - It's one of the most infamous screenshots in Xbox history. An early screen grab showed Master Chief wielding a flamethrower. That awesome weapon never made it into the original Halo or Halo 2, much to the chagrin of fans. Good news Halo faithful, Master Chief will finish the fight packing the ultimate Covenant toasting device. The flamethrower has made its way into Halo 3. You may now call in sick the week of September 25.

Along with first details on the flamethrower, Bungie also revealed a new incendiary grenade, the firebomb. With these two weapons -- featured in both the campaign and multiplayer -- gamers can set the Halo universe on fire."

Source

Microsoft Launches New Service Site

My 360 just got sent in for repairs a few days ago, so imagine my excitement when I found out I could see just what was happening with it at Microsoft's newest service site! Located Here Microsoft allows you to register your name and serial number and continue on to see where exactly your dead 360 is at in the repair process.

Grand Theft Auto IV Delayed Until '08

"Take-Two is reducing its fiscal 2007 guidance primarily to reflect the movement of the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2008, due to additional development time required to complete the title. The title is now planned for release in the Company’s second quarter of fiscal 2008"

*This does not surprise me in the least bit. For a game that was a mere 2 months away we had only seen 2 videos and no walkthroughs. One press event got to see a short demo, but other than that zilch. This will give Rockstar time to finish the game. Not to mention it will allow me to spend that $60 on another one of the great games coming out this year.

4 Player Coop Announced for Halo 3

In a not so surprising move, Bungie finally unveiled that their will in fact be 4 player coop for Halo 3 over Xbox Live. Not only that, but the 3 other players are not replicas of Master Chief! Player 1 will still play as the man himself, player 2 as Arby, player 3 and 4 both as two new elites complete with backstories! Head over to Bnet to see all of the bios. This just adds more to the long list of features continuing to add replay value to the final game in this great franchise. See you on Live September 25th!

Ubisoft Announces FarCry 2

Paris- FRANCE – July 19, 2007 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that it will launch Far Cry® 2 in Spring 2008 for PC. Far Cry 2 is being developed in Ubisoft’s Montreal studio.

The original Far Cry® won PC Gamer’s Action Game of the Year Award in 2004. Since then the combined installments of the Far Cry® brand has gathered critical acclaim and numerous awards, and sold over 3 million units.

“Far Cry marked the beginning of a new era for shooters. An era of gorgeous graphics and of advanced artificial intelligence,” declared John Parkes, EMEA marketing director at Ubisoft. “We are confident that Far Cry 2 will have the same impact again on the FPS genre landscape.”

Check www.farcrygame.com regularly for more news.

Source