Kevin R. Grazier, a Ph.D in geophysics and a huge fan of Halo, has contributed to a book called Halo Effect that looks at the Halo phenomenon; his piece, Halo Science 101, is about the science of the Halo universe. Halo Science 101 is up now at Gamasutra. Thanks for the heads-up to Roger Wilco, via Louis Wu at HBO.

Very interesting read, despite some of the absolutely ancient screenshots used for illustrations.

Ducain wrote to alert me of an update at Certain Affinity’s site, and it’s good news all around.

First off, they’re passing around the news that Frankie at Bungie.net says the map downloading problems have been fixed.

Secondly, the first Certain Affinity fansite, CertainAffinity.net, is now open for business, although you may still smell sawdust from fresh construction.

EnragedGnome posted over on SR.thx.com that the Shadowrun achievements have been revealed. You can look at Fall360’s gamercard to see them. Note that there are at least 6 secret achievements.

Which ones are going to be hard for me to achieve?

Block ten sniper shots with Wired Reflexes. (I haven’t used WR in more than a few games. I don’t think I’ve ever blocked shots with WR.)
Kill one hundred enemies with your Minions. (I’ve only casted a few Minions. I’ve only been killed by one Minion. I’ve probably killed 40 or 50. I hear Minions are more useful/deadly in the retail.)
Gust 5 enemies to their deaths. (I rarely use Gust, although I need to learn to do it.)
Kill one hundred enemies with SmartLink active. (I’ve used SL in about 2 or 3 games. Another tech/magic that I will use more in retail.)
Kill one hundred enemies with the Katana. (It costs $2500 so I never buy it. I’d rather fight with other weapons. I will pick one up on occasion, though.)
Get a 5:1 damage-to-kill ratio. (I usually get near a 1:1 damage-to-kill ratio. I’ll probably have to rig this one.)

In all, I think they are pretty clever achievements. They will definitely encourage gamers to explore the magic, tech, and races.

__________________________
rapzilla blog | Shadowrun | HALO 2 Vista | cooked Gamers

Download | Shownotes

This show turned out really good. We talk all about the leaked Halo 3 video and learn a bit about what to expect from Halo 3. We also have this past week’s Xbox Live Arcade Reviews from Rist Peblo and the winner of the Crackdown contest! Guest this week is George from the frickin’ sweet gaming blog aeropause.com. It’s an hour and a half of Podtacular goodness.

Download | Shownotes

This show turned out really good. We talk all about the leaked Halo 3 video and learn a bit about what to expect from Halo 3. We also have this past week’s Xbox Live Arcade Reviews from Rist Peblo and the winner of the Crackdown contest! Guest this week is George from the frickin’ sweet gaming blog aeropause.com. It’s an hour and a half of Podtacular goodness.

Xblradio.com is putting together a very worthy charity event, that will last till the end of May. The idea is to help our soldiers understand how much they mean to us, by providing them with copies of games, gamer points, etc.

Here is the full description of the event.

Games for GI’s

What is the one of the biggest holidays of the year? The answer is Memorial Day, and why is that? Its not because most of you get a 4 day weekend for work, nor because its signals that summer is about it start, its because it is the day that we are suppose to remember all those that gave there life fighting for this country and what they believe in. Memorial Day is also about thinking about those that are risking there lives overseas every day. So hear at XBL Radio we decided to hold a game drive for these awesome and sometimes forgot about troops.

Games for GI’s

Since XBL Radio is all about the gaming community, we are asking those out there in the community to join together and donate what you can. It doesn’t matter if its a new or used game, it doesn’t matter if its for the Xbox 360 or the Nintendo DS nor does it matter if you can only share one game, all that matters is that we put forth an effort to show support for the troops (our friends, family or strangers) any way you can. It can even be something like MS points or months or years free on Xbox live. This will go on for the whole month of May, then at the end of the month XBL Radio will be contacting local recruiters and send all that we have received overseas.

So if your willing to donate, please feel free to send your donations to:

XBL Radio
Games for GI’s
PO Box 4382
Federal Way, WA 98063

If you want to include a thank you card or something with your donation I will be more then happy to pass this along. And everything received here will also go straight to the troops overseas.

I also ask that you help by passing the word about this within the gaming community and help us make a difference. Tell your friends and other websites and ask them to help spread the word about this because if word does get spread, this will be absolutely huge and awesome for our troops.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to you can ask away here or you can email myself at Steve@xblradio.com, where I would be more then happy enough to answer any of your questions. By the way, I will be taking the first few comment sections to list those that donated and the donations received so everyone can see how this is going so far. Our goal is at least a total of 50 games but if all goes well and the word gets spread it can be so much more then that.

Thanks for all your help and support now lets send out some games!!

If you run a website and would like to support our cause please email me at Steve@xblradio.com I have pictures and banners being set up right

Xblradio.com is putting together a very worthy charity event, that will last till the end of May. The idea is to help our soldiers understand how much they mean to us, by providing them with copies of games, gamer points, etc.

Here is the full description of the event.

Games for GI’s

What is the one of the biggest holidays of the year? The answer is Memorial Day, and why is that? Its not because most of you get a 4 day weekend for work, nor because its signals that summer is about it start, its because it is the day that we are suppose to remember all those that gave there life fighting for this country and what they believe in. Memorial Day is also about thinking about those that are risking there lives overseas every day. So hear at XBL Radio we decided to hold a game drive for these awesome and sometimes forgot about troops.

Games for GI’s

Since XBL Radio is all about the gaming community, we are asking those out there in the community to join together and donate what you can. It doesn’t matter if its a new or used game, it doesn’t matter if its for the Xbox 360 or the Nintendo DS nor does it matter if you can only share one game, all that matters is that we put forth an effort to show support for the troops (our friends, family or strangers) any way you can. It can even be something like MS points or months or years free on Xbox live. This will go on for the whole month of May, then at the end of the month XBL Radio will be contacting local recruiters and send all that we have received overseas.

So if your willing to donate, please feel free to send your donations to:

XBL Radio
Games for GI’s
PO Box 4382
Federal Way, WA 98063

If you want to include a thank you card or something with your donation I will be more then happy to pass this along. And everything received here will also go straight to the troops overseas.

I also ask that you help by passing the word about this within the gaming community and help us make a difference. Tell your friends and other websites and ask them to help spread the word about this because if word does get spread, this will be absolutely huge and awesome for our troops.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to you can ask away here or you can email myself at Steve@xblradio.com, where I would be more then happy enough to answer any of your questions. By the way, I will be taking the first few comment sections to list those that donated and the donations received so everyone can see how this is going so far. Our goal is at least a total of 50 games but if all goes well and the word gets spread it can be so much more then that.

Thanks for all your help and support now lets send out some games!!

If you run a website and would like to support our cause please email me at Steve@xblradio.com I have pictures and banners being set up right