Halo: Art Of War

After much searching, almost to the point where I almost called XBox live support, I finally reached the much desired answer to my question:

How do you play the new maps on Matchmaking?

Well here how:
Bungie says “The Halo 2 playlist update is now undergoing rigorous testing…we want to provide time for people to get the maps, let the dust settle and ensure adequate testing of the playlist updates.”

Cut the crap Bungie, you released the maps without anyway to play them on matchmaking, that’s just plain incompetence, plus the fact that it’s not mentioned anywhere, other than a few lines of text that were hidden on your weekly update. Bottom line, we get to download the new maps now, but, we can’t play them on matchmaking until the first week of May. WTF!!!! Man this is the first time Bungie’s ever managed to piss me off, way to go Bungie.

The Facts (from Bungie):

- The first groups of maps for Live will be released on April 25, 2005
Containment and Warlock are free, Turf and Sanctuary are $5.99 US (local prices will vary by country)

- The autoupdate (available since Monday 18th) will include the make the following changes to the xbox live experience:

1. Melee damage - instant one-hit kills (while melee-jumping), strength of regular melee atack increased
2. Granades - Both frag and plasma are more powerfull, were talking one hit kills here. They have a shorter fuse for those last minute “hara-kiri” moves
3. Brute Shot - Enhanced, both granades and melee attack with scythe.
4. Magnum - Reduced, no more double wielding super fast killing, unless you go for the head.
5. Plasma Rifle and SMG combo - Reduced. Crap, that was my combo!!!
6. Leaderboards will be reset after the new maps are available, new start for everyone.
7. Rank scoring will be changed (to complicated to explain) basically people will be matched with people of the same skill.
8. This autoupdate fixes most known of the cheats and exploits available. Man I didn’t know there were so many!!
9. When you get the autoupdate, there will be some lag and loading times, while the system optimizes itself for the best connection.
10. Split screen players no longer have pop-up messages, you lose the messages but you gain some screen.

All of these updates make Halo 2 multiplayer more like Halo 1, so everybody get to practice!!

A south texan religious group (The Fusion Church), has created a series a la Red vs. Blue but with a twist. They use Halo characters in funny situations to explain such themes like faith, sexuality, etc… for their seasonal get together of christian youth groups called “iGod weekend” (get it iGod, iPod, funny stuff!) They have 3 episodes and a promo online, which are being hosted on HBO because of bandwith problems on their website.
Check em out.