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The task at hand was simple in theory - complete legendary from start to finish in one sitting.  Digilearner rounded us up a team of members from 360friendspot which included him, myself, Johndg, and Tommy Da Gip.  Unfortunately Tommy had other obligations and couldn’t be our fourth gunner.  Just when we thought we were going to be a 3 man show ReaperHybrid joined the party making us complete.  Reaper all ready finished the story, and I am close to the end myself - but both on lower difficulty levels.  John and Digi had only played the first chapter in the story thus far.

We figured while we were at it we might as well collect those pesky glowing skulls along the way - and for the most part we did great at it.  Unfortunately as the night went on you could see that fatigue was starting to set it, we all were discussing the next skull that had to be collected after finishing off a scarab - but after finishing him we just kept going completely forgetting the skull. 

Reaper and myself finally got to the point that we needed to get some sleep - before we had to face the attack of our wives in the morning, but we said we would go at the end of the current chapter (6 for those of you keeping track).  Of course, because we had planned to leave at the end of this chapter, for the first time we actually started having difficulty surviving, it seems like we all just kept getting destroyed over and over, and we were never going to finish.  I blame the fatigue, keep in mind this was the 3rd night in a row that I was up till 3-4AM playing and the kids are always up at 8am at the latest.

Finally we finished up the chapter, but unfortunately not the fight - hopefully we can get the team together again later tonight and finish it up - legendary style.

 PS. Sorry you missed it tommy!

Another xbox all nighter, and this time (no suprise) its a Halo 3 all nighter.  Same as always, simply play the game until you can’t play anymore, take pictures, blog about it, and most importantly let Trixie know - she tends to give out prizes like I won on a Gears Of War All Nighter

Also don’t forget as long as you register your tag (before Sept 30th) playing during this all nighter enters you into the Unite To Fight Play and Win.  Which includes prizes for random particpants including the following:

• One (1) Daily First Prize: An Xbox 360™ Halo 3 Special Edition Console
• One (1) Daily Second Prize: A Special Edition Halo Zune™ Player
• Ten (10) Daily Third Prizes: A Halo 3 Accessory Pack consisting of a Halo 3 Wireless Headset, the Brute Wireless Controller, and Spartan Wireless Controller
• Six (6) Daily Fourth Prizes: A Halo Graphic Novel
• Five (5) Daily Fifth Prizes: A Special Edition Halo 3 Faceplate
• Fifteen (15) Daily Sixth Prizes: 1600 Microsoft Points
• Fifteen (15) Daily Seventh Prizes: 1000 Microsoft Points
• Fifty (50) Daily Eighth Prizes: 500 Microsoft Points
• Sixty (60) Daily Ninth Prizes: 100 Microsoft Points

Microsoft is having another All Nighter on Gears of War.  Just like the all-nighters in the past there are prizes to be won, and this time you can have your very own “The art of Gears of War” hardcover book.

 read all about it on the official page

You might remember I was a winner back on New Years 2007, which I believe was the first All Nighter and where I got my hands on a copy of Gears of War complete with signatures from Trixie & Major Nelson

So who is going to be participating in this, or are you going to be to busy playing Halo 3 Beta?

Well they never seem to send out a notice to those of us who do not win the random swag for these things, but I like to read the stories posted by others so I try to keep tabs on them and check back for the stories and what people won. In the Most Recent All Nighter 8 random people got a Crackdown punching bag and hat.

Well I participated in yet another “All Nighter”, boy do I love these things. This one was a bit different then the previous all nighters though because the most that can participate in a single game is 2, (the other two were Gears of War and Lost Planet - so versus mode shooters with more player interaction). In any event me and my buddy Ymiris rolled up our sleeves and hit the streets for some Crackdown fun.

We both have all the gang bosses finished, so all that really is left to do is to create havoc and work on achievements. I had great plans for the night, such as getting the rest of the achievements I am missing - which unfortunately did not actually end up happening - but I did make quite a bit of progress towards my goals. Ymiris on the other hand pulled off 4 new achievements :). I spent most of my time just bouncing from rooftop to rooftop, finishing up some rooftop races, and picking up any orbs that I came across. I probably picked up 75 to 100 agility orbs last night (only about 90 to go!).

Towards the end of our session Ymiris would tell you that I was getting delirious - and honestly I think he is right. I started just saying random sentences, and after I finished, even I couldnt figure out what I was trying to say. I knew it was time to quit when I jumped and before I landed i actually started to fall asleep, I jumped up startled from the rumble of my controller from being shot at, I am not even sure how long I sat there half asleep and probably snoring in my friends ear via my headset.

There were also rumors running around the internet that a new download content (and the final 100 points) would be released during this all nighter, so we were anxiously looking for that - it either didnt happen, or we ended up quitting before it was finally released.

We ended the night with an interesting little glitch which allowed us to drive an invisible car all over Pacific City - nothing is funnier then an invisible exploding car while 2 characters are in it.

Play and Win Shooter / Gears of War

Well I finally got an achievement last night during my Gears of War session last night. It was one of the pretty simple achievements - Mix it Up - where you just need to be on the winning team of the 3 different game types. It was also brought to my attention that even though I thought I was going to get a 100 kills with a [insert weapon here] achievement, that there is not one for shotgun kills - which was what most all my achievements were based on, and the one I assumed was going to rack me another achievement, so that wasn’t very wise of me I would say. Thanks to Antediluvia for bringing this to light. This concludes the dates that you can recieve an entry in the Play & Win Shooter Contest, and I believe I should get an entry for each of the 3 days . . . winning is a long shot - but it doesn’t hurt to try (and those prizes are pretty smooth).

Shadowrun Beta

I recently recieved my beta invitation to Shadowrun, but haven’t dedicated a ton of time to it as of yet. Of course in the invitation the NDA was restated that not much else can be said except “Yes, I am playing the beta”. So until the NDA is lifted dont expect to hear a ton more about that. You can keep track of my play time on the game in my Live Eye Profile as you can see at the moment I have only played about an hour or so. Over at 360friendspot we have about 62 current live eye members in the beta and being tracked by our tool, you can see an overview of those users at the Shadow Run Beta Profile Page

360Friendspot / LiveEye

Speaking of 360friendspot and The Live Eye, last night I spent a good amount of time updating some queries after seeing a bunch of sleeping records in the SQL Activity Monitor. This was a hope that what might be causing the slowness or hanging of the site was related to SQL table locks - since I was definately getting time out errors and transactions were hanging out here sleeping. If that resolves, or at least partially resolves the performance issues - I am going to be extremely pleased, but also upset that I didnt find it sooner. I am sure there are more things to optimize - but maybe I am at least going in the right direction at this point.

Crackdown All Nighter, and Rumors

Finally - Happy St Patricks day, and look for an update from my all nighter activities at a later date. Achievements and random video goodness will most likely come of it. There is A rumor posted in my comments about this all nighter being a time that they release some new content or the final 100 points - no clue what that user based it on - but I am all for it!

Xbox is having yet another all nighter. This time its going to be Crackdown. Rumor has it random people will be selected for Crackdown prizes.

Looks like I didn’t win anything on the Lost Planet all nighter, which they recently added comments from random participants, check it out.

If I am around for this all nighter - I would guess that some new video fun will come out of an all nighter.

Well after having such a blast on New Years for the Gears of War all nighter, I decided to attend the Lost Planet all nighter as well. I havent completed the story yet so I began the night by playing Chapter 7, after completing the boss at the end of the stage I then hopped over for some multiplayer play. This would be the first time I have even loaded versus mode for Lost Planet (besides a little bit of time played on the demos before release).

Ymiris and I played all the different types of online modes that were available, trying to be quick about picking a host that we both had access too, and could play together on. After quite a few rounds of online play (I ended up getting to online level 14 or so) we decided to turn in for the night. I had to go on a road trip to Philadelphia the next day, and Ymiris had to get up early as well. We tried to get some other fellow 3fs members to join in on the fun but it was difficult arranging everyone to join the same host or to find one of us hosting. I do know for a fact that Kanone killed me a number of times though =-)

After being offline for a few minutes, I just couldnt help myself, I loaded up Lost planet one last time and made some progress on Chapter 8. Even after an “all nighter”, I still have plenty to complete in that game =-)

Well tonight is the Lost Planet All Nighter, guaranteed to be a fun time and the rumor is there will even be prizes. I still am not sure if I will be able to participate, or if I do for how long, but if possible I plan to be there. I will post a follow up blog if I do attend. Who else is going?

I was told about the gamerspeak article this morning about the gears of war all nighter - and to finish off my day I got my prize - complete with Major AND Trixie signatures! Woot, sorry for the picture quality - its not easy to get a good picture of a xbox cover without glare.