Rampancy

GameGuru interviews Mohit Anand of Xbox India, who makes some pretty ludicrous sounding sales claims for Xbox 360:

GG: How is the Xbox 360 currently doing in India?

MA: Good question! As per your survey, all of us would be out of our jobs. Your survey says 1500-1600 units. If that were the units that we sold, I guess we’d all be out of our jobs. We don’t disclose figures on a nationwide or a region wide basis. All we can say is that worldwide were are now close to 16 million units sold, which is more than all of the other next-gen consoles that have been launched today.

That's funny, since the last claim from Microsoft I saw was around 12 million consoles worldwide, 4 million short of the 16 Anand claims. Plus, you have only check the night map on the Halo 3 page at Bungie.net to notice that however many Xbox 360 consoles there are in India, there are precious few of them online in Halo 3. Not even 1500-1600; at the moment of this writing, there are none showing.

7th Columnist is livid over a change in Halo 3's controls. Not one that affect the game; one that affects machinima.

Instead of just pressing down on the D-pad to create the weapon-lowering, head-bobbing effect used to create the illusion of talking Spartans in movies like Red vs Blue, in Halo 3 you apparently have to:

Hold down left bumper, right bumper, left analogue stick, down on the d-pad and the A button… AT THE SAME TIME… for three seconds!

It’s a ridiculous feat in itself that feels as clumsy as pulling off a ‘fatality’ in Mortal Kombat. Worse yet, the feature can only be used in system link and local play, NOT over Xbox Live where many machinima pieces (This Spartan Life, for example) are filmed due to the ease of using ‘actors’ from anywhere in the world.

That sounds pretty terrible. Might this be part of the reason Red vs Blue isn't transitioning to Halo 3? Why would Bungie make such a change-- is down on the D-Pad performing some other function this time around?

Kotaku says that Halo 3 sold out in at least one store in Japan. Who'd have thunk it?

It's one thing to always see the glass half full, or to always look for the flaw in an otherwise brilliant diamond.

There's also such a thing as being a spoiler; having no other purpose than to be contrary, "alternative", or to actively dislike that which others like for the sake of disagreement itself.

You can be the judge of which category Charles Herold at the New York Times falls into with his review of Halo 3:

It is difficult to say that one likes, but does not love, a Halo game. Halo fans are so worshipful of the series that anything short of drooling admiration is seen as something akin to blasphemy. One is expected to love Halo games the way one is expected to love Harry Potter, "American Idol," Tom Hanks, the Beatles and chocolate (some of which I love, some of which I don't).

Yet, while Halo 3 is a slickly produced, exciting, well-made shooter, I wouldn't class it as one of those creations that rival the importance of bendable straws or casual Fridays. And saying that could well result in a few angry letters.

It doesn't really matter what reviewers say, though. Halo 3 is not just a game: it is a phenomenon fueled by obsessed fans, slick advertising and excessive press coverage (of which I find myself a part).

Perhaps there is the real core of Herold's criticism of Halo 3: it renders the opinion of reviewers irrelevant. For shame!