14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is announcing that July 7 is to be declared "Bungie Day" in honor of the brave souls at the game developing company that have sacrificed themselves in order to bring you, faithful gamers, three full Halo games before the pain grew too strong and they had to separate themselves from Microsoft. It's not clear why July 7 has been marketed as Bungie related in Microsoft's calendar, but the quirks it brings for gamers are quite clear.
A new multiplayer map for Halo 3 will be released on July 7. It is called Cold Storage and the company says that it is similar in feel with the Chill Out map that the original halo game shipped with. Microsoft is saying that the map serves as a reminder of "how something as powerful as science is ultimately beholden to nature" as it is a former science base which is now deserted of human life but "watched only by a local caretaker".
Microsoft is also saying that the Legendary Map Pack, which Bungie created for Halo 3, is getting a new prince. When it was originally released in April, the pack was 800 Microsoft Points, which is roughly ten dollars. The prince will now be set at 600 Microsoft Points and you can do the math to translate them into dollars. The release offers three new maps for the game; they are called Avalanche, Ghost Town and Blackout. I seem to remember Blackout being the best of the lot.
In an attempt to convince us that "Bungie Day" is something more than a simple marketing ploy (and, hey, it has worked, as we are writing about it) Microsoft offered the explanation that "the tradition of Bungie Day was born in part due to the significance the number 7 has played in all of Bungie's games over the years, including the 'Halo' series". Well, we know very well that there are seven Halo rings and that Master Chief is 117, but doesn't it mean that July 17 might have been a better pick?