Note: We have a PAX recap still in the works but we thought this post was important enough to go up first.

Our folks over at StickSkills are aiding in the campaign for Extra Life (A Sarcastic Gamer Community Charity Effort). For those who do not know, Extra Life is a non-profit organization that raises money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. Read Extra Life’s story here.

With the awesome idea of helping children in their time of need, StickSkills is also throwing in a game to win in a raffle to those that donate. With every $3 donated, you earn an entry to win 1 of 2 Limited Edition copies of Gears of War 3. Yes… that’s what I said…. Help children, get Gears…. How awesome would that be to win Gears 3 to play during the Marathon?

Check out the StickSkills Donation/Giveaway page for more details.

Ryo here for a long overdue little piece on a favorite addiction of mine, Minecraft. I have been a player of this game for quite some time along with the two million or so purchasers. What makes this game so good? Simple. It is Lego’s on steroids.As a child, I loved playing with those plastic blocks to build various buildings. At one point in time I had an entire bin dedicated to my massive collection of blocks. I loved my little cities I would craft and roll my toy cars through.

Now, I have graduated to playing Minecraft. I’ve yet to build anything terribly impressive on the game, but I am fairly proud of the work on my rail cart system going on my personal server I host for friends.

Minecraft represents what I believe to be a good turning point for certain types of video games. In Minecraft you are dumped into a randomly generated world, or if you provide the seed phrase yourself you can recreate the same world, and told nothing of what to do next. My first time with Minecraft, I watched no videos other than a few on Youtube about people’s creations. I decided to go in fresh with no clues as to how the first day was going to turn out.

I spent that day exploring and punching things. I had no clue you needed to quickly gather resources to start a base, because I had no idea what happened when night fell on the land. Oblivious to my impending doom I chased sheep and pigs, dug a tunnel into a mountain, and just simply tried to find my way around this strange game. Then the sun started to set.

When darkness had settled, I was introduced to the skeleton archers fairly quickly. In a panic I ran for my life and stumbled across zombies. This game was out to kill me on my first time playing. After thoroughly getting lost and nearly dying from being pelted by arrows I met my nemesis. The Creeper. The only warning I had was a faint hissing noise then an explosion finished off what the other mobs started.

Despite being thrashed about by the mobs at night, I hit respawn and tried again. This trial and error served me well over the next few days of me playing Minecraft and I learned what worked to keep me safe and I learned more about various techniques veteran players employed in their games.

Now Minecraft has evolved more and has many new crafting items such as pistons, powered rails for mine carts, and even maps. Notch stated that when the 1.8 update rolls out, we will have the emergence of a creative mode that will give us unlimited resources for building that castle or super structure we have dreamed up.

That is the secret of Minecraft. If you can dream it up, you can build it.

Dark Warriors

“Crimson Hero” by SniperReturns on 2.18.2011

“Silence” by GlazZz ODST on 11.20.2010

“Evil Instincts” by M a x w e l l on 3.05.2011

Want to be included in our next Screenshot Sunday?
Send an email to Screenshots@AMatchMadeInHalo.com with a link to your image or fileshare on Bungie.net. OR Better yet, Tag them using the in-game tagging system with “SSS”.

Wednesday, June 8th: Scott Robinson (Mr_Sark), the Managing Producer at Machinima Respawn was leaving for E3 when he found…. THIS…

Yes, what you just saw… happened. This video is unaltered, No joke.

Now we have 4 cats and they also love to molest random objects with their faces. Thank the Universe! that they have not found out that they could open our 360 with just a touch. I don’t know what I’d do if I found cat hair in my Xbox, or the mind numbing depression resulting from leaving a disc in the tray for the cat to face-rape…

We’re finally starting to settle in but still have lots of unpacking to do. However, we thought you guys might appreciate a quick video tour… so here it is. Enjoy!

We’ll be sure to make another video as soon as we’re finished unpacking and stuff. Stay tuned!

Above- Josh Hamrick, David Jorgenson, and David Brown

Early on last week we found out that Josh Hamrick, the Sandbox Designer from Bungie Studios, was going to be doing a presentation on Full Sail Campus on Thursday, October 14th. We started planning for it then. But, at 6:15 on Oct. 11th, using Twitter, Josh decided to ask if his Full Sail peeps were throwing a Halo: Reach LAN Party while he was here. He comes in on Wednesday, his Presentation is on Thursday, and he mentions this on Monday…Short notice, huh? Oh HELLLL NO! The race was on.

In response to Josh’s Twitter, Sick, myself, and a few other students hit him up with questions. We started talking amongst ourselves. The first person we talked to was David Jorgenson. He and Tyler Berry were in class when Josh had Tweeted this request. They used that opportunity to ask a few instructors if they could help throw this thing together. David Brown stepped up and procured us some space.

We got the final word that the room was approved for 9pm-1am at about 1:45pm on Wednesday. It was ON!!! Josh landed close to 5pm with the info waiting for him, and we had work to do. Jorgenson, a few other students, and myself started spreading the word using Word of Mouth and Twitter. Rob Coble from Career Development helped out in that department as well.

Getting Started

At about 8:45 people started showing up. Sick and myself came in closer to 9 and there was already a decent crowd set up and playing. Josh stood back and watched it all come together piece by piece before setting up shop on Jorgenson’s 50″ Samsung. This dude was no joke. I would swear Hamrick was my “most killed by” with beat-downs for the majority of the night. He’s deadly with the Sniper too…

Now for the stats:

• 6 1/2 hours of game time in (scheduled from 9pm-1am, ended up grinding ’til 3:30am)
• 50+ students and faculty showed up bringing in 16 consoles, 15 TVs, and 1 Projector. (I’m sure Playing Halo: Reach on a Full Sail wall is definitely an experience!)
• An Average of 25 games played per person

Most of the group

Special Thanks:

• David Jorgenson- Organization
• David Brown- Organization/ Procuring Space
• Tyler Berry- Organization
• George Kokoris- Food & Refreshments
• Last but not least, Josh Hamrick- Special Guest

Everything came together really well. Everyone was respectful of each other and we had absolutely zero problems. Everybody had a blast, and we would love to do this again in the future.

To all of those who helped put this together, and those that came out to join in on the fun, Thank You!

More Pictures have been posted on our Flickr. Thumbnails above in the center.

So here we are, about 6 months away from our 2 year wedding anniversary. Can you believe it’s already been that long? The A Match Made In Halo website will be 3 years old on April 11, 2011. With those things considered, PsychoVandal and I sat down today to discuss the direction we’d like to take the blog in. It only made for us to ask you, the reader, what you thought.

Whether you’re a first time visitor or a frequent flyer here at A Match Made In Halo, we’re extremely interested in hearing what you think.

What has been your favorite post?
What has been your least favorite post?
What would you like to read more of (Events, Games in General, Tech, Sick & Psycho’s Personal Lives, Halo, Fan Mail, etc.) ?
We have mutiple authors, is there someone’s writing style you enjoy more than the others (SickNdehed, PsychoVandal, Xx InStyle76 xX, KenRaves, Ryokea, or Cortana V) ?
How did you hear about us?

We’ve been giving a lot of thought to doing short and casual gamer podcasts. What do you guys think of that? Would you listen?

We hope your feedback can help make this a more enjoyable site for everyone, so be sure to leave us a comment below. Thanks!!!

Hear ye! Hear YE! Lionhead Studios has announced their “Villager Maker,” an interesting addition to making you more involved in the game. With this, you can…. Make your own villager!

Now, you can customize your very own villager to be added to your Fable 3 game. As Major Nelson has said earlier, everyone can make their own, but only those who Pre-order the game will receive a token to add them as an interactive character. So, stroll on over to Xbox.com and start fiddlin’ with your villager (giggity). Make sure to view the EPIC trailer (if you haven’t already) before you head to the Villager Maker, and PRE-order this baby NOW!

Know what? I’m going to make that easier for you…

Here ya go!

Regular Edition:  Collector’s Edition:

“Thermal Abyss” by Xi U2 RoKKeR iX on 05.10.2009

“Reloading…” by Blazen Drifter on 12.17.2009

“Purple Rain” by Spade193 on 04.29.2009

Want to be included in our next Screenshot Sunday?
Send an email to Screenshots@AMatchMadeInHalo.com with a link to your image or fileshare on Bungie.net

I don’t know how it happened. It was like a silent plague that came in. Sick got it first. Again, I don’t know how. But it has spread so fast that our little one, roommate, and even co-workers have caught it within two days.

I’m talking about Angry Birds for the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. This game is Probably more addicting than Plants Vs Zombies. Nah, I’d say it’s a tie. But nonetheless, This game is crazy!

Imagine fat, ugly piggies come in and take your eggs. Oh…that would make me angry. Well these little birdies take it into their own hands, and put a slingshot in yours. Yes, a slingshot.

Angry Birds by Rovio and Click Gamer resembles Crush the Castle in most cases, but this one comes with 160 levels, achievements, and 5 different birds each with their own abilities. The nasty little piggies take cover in structures made from wood, ice, and stone that you must crush using the Angry Birds as projectiles. Now, I say nasty piggies because you have NO IDEA how angry you might get at them while playing…so angry.

The Good- This game will keep you entertained for HOURS. you may even have to sit near an outlet or your computer to keep your phone charged while playing…

The Bad- See above…

The Price- 0.99¢ ($4.99 for HD version) Frakking worth it. Period.

Platforms- iPhone, iPod Touch, and now there’s an HD version for iPad

My advice is to grab this up and enjoy yourself…. I know you will. Smash some Piggies!