The Halo: Reach score challenge continues, with first blood in our exciting Game On!

We’ve talked the talk, so it’s time, at least in part, for us to show we can walk the walk. With some time still to run before we make a final tally of scores for the challenge, we thought we’d tease you a bit – and give you something to aim for. So here’s our opening gambit:

Sam has a current high score of 4,508 as part of a Co-op Matchmaking Firefight game on Corvette, which as you know is our chosen venue for the Challenge. Can you beat that? Sure you can – this is just a start! But remember, you have to score as an individual as part of a Matchmaking game!

Once again if you want to take part, you can prove your mettle as a Spartan by beating the highest score in Firefight that any member of the 360 team ( which at the moment stands at 4,508) on the map called ‘Corvette’. You’ll have to do it in Matchmaking so we can verify your score and remember, we can see your whole team’s score in the records, so no having your mates sit idle while you rack up points! The worthy soldier who beats us by the most wins gets a brand new copy of R.U.S.E. with which to flex their mental military muscles.

Here’s what you do to get in the Score Attack running:

1) Send us a friend request to ThreeSixtyMag

2) We’ll accept and we’ll be friends for life – or at least till the next Challenge

3) Play Firefight in Matchmaking on Corvette – Custom games with your funky endless Ammo and Armor Abilities settings don’t count!

4) Get as high an individual score as you can in the single set that the game allows in this mode – remember it’s your individual score that counts

5) The player that beats us by the most points gets a copy of R.U.S.E.

6) Prepare yourself for the next Game On! challenge that will see you fight us mano-a-mano in Reach!

The Halo: Reach score challenge continues as part of our exciting Game On! challenge! We’ve all (well three of us) been playing it like crazy since launch trying to get our best Firefight scores for you to beat, and there’s plenty of time for you to join in and see if you can do better.

Simply put, you’ll have to prove your mettle as a Spartan by beating the highest score in Firefight that any member of the 360 team can achieve on the map called ‘Corvette’. You’ll have to do it in Matchmaking so we can verify your score. The worthy soldier who beats us by the most wins gets a brand new copy of R.U.S.E. with which to flex their mental military muscles.

Here’s what you do to get in the Score Attack running:

1) Send us a friend request to ThreeSixtyMag.

2) We’ll accept and we’ll be friends for life – or at least till you beat us and we sulk

3) Play Firefight in Matchmaking on Corvette – Custom games with your funky endless Ammo and Armor Abilities settings don’t count!

4) Get as high a score as you can in the single set that the game allows in this mode – remember it’s your individual score that counts

5) The player that beats us by the most points gets a copy of R.U.S.E.

6) Prepare yourself for the next Game On! challenge that will see you fight us mano-a-mano in Reach!

We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!

That’s right. The Halo 3 multiplayer tournament was attended by record numbers – though not everyone knew why they were playing exactly – and things quickly descended into the usual Halo massacres. With David and Sam holding down the fort for 360 it quickly became apparent that the readers, or ‘readers’, had the upper hand. So, here’s a rundown of who was playing (feel free to send them friend requests) and what they won…

Playerz:

K1ng Dean, Septic360, Chansky, Deckard1990, Ghost|v2|, Bear|v2|, SuperSecondHand, beearmy99, PaleriderGB, JimmyKruger, GorgoKnight, Mclaren Fan, Silent McBob, Tom909, Sam Jr and JaggerZ.

Game 1 – Last Resort – Multi-Team Deathmatch

Proceedings kicked off with a familiar game of deathmatch, just so that everyone could size up the competition. Skilled players quickly revealed themselves and though Sam and Dave were able to hold their own – just about – it was K1ng Dean that came away with the big win. A whopping 33 kills – congrats to him.

Game 2 – Guardian – Slayer

Moving on, and everyone fancied having a blast at things solo and so we turned to Slayer. Boy, did things get messy quickly, but it was SuperSecondHand that managed to claw his way to the top – good work.

Game 3 – Valhalla – Team Slayer

We wanted to crank it up a notch for game 3, so we turned to Valhalla and whacked up all the vehicles to 11. It quickly proved that Halo 3 can still deliver on awesome big battles online with all sorts of vehicles flying around everywhere. It was a hard-fought fight and it could have gone either way right up until the last second but once again it was K1ng Dean’s team that came away victorious and he also managed to net the most kills – nicely done.

Game 4 – Guardian – King Of The Hill

We decided to end our Halo 3 event with a doubles based King Of The Hill – with one team gaining an extra player. This lasted a massive 30 mins and turned into the biggest grenade spamming session you could ever imagine – still fun though. It may come as no surprise but the team with an extra man managed to dominate – only just – and it was McLaren Fan that netted the most points. An impressive feat considering the total mess things descended into.

Congratulations to all our winners – to claim your goodies head to the 360 forum HERE and sign up and send us a message letting us know your address.

Special mention must go to beearmy99 for a shocking display of bad sport by team killing. Shame on you sir! But a big thank you to everyone involved – keep your eyes peeled for future competitions and we’ll see you all online.

It’s almost time to get it on! For our next Game On! tomorrow night we’re bringing out our old favourite Halo 3. We reckon we’re going to take out the readers this time, so get ready for it.

Here are a few of the excited comments of readers looking forward to the mayhem so far:

OMG YES!

I have some serious Halo skillz. Count me in for this one!
Can I play with a guest?
gugly_duk

Yes, gugly_duk, you can – we’ll be happy to have and kill him too.

I’m off work that night, the better half is out for dinner with a work colleague, and the little ones will be in bed by then, I am so on for this.
There will be a cannon fodder or lowest kill/death ratio prize, won’t there?
McLaren Fan

Never fear, there will be prizes, and that sounds like a good criterion for at least one of them.

I’m all in! Though I suck balls at this tripe.
Optikal

It’s not whether you win or lose, but that you play and have fun – though given how much we’ve lost lately, we do intend to gloat a bit if we win.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday 10 August at 8PM, we’re going to form a 360 team of up to four (comprised of Dave, Sam, Dan and Pete) and you’re going to do the same. We’re quite happy to have multiple teams all battling it out for glory – you’re all going to die anyway, right?

Then we’re going to face off in an action-packed best-of-five series of custom games with a mixture of Slayer and Objective-based games depending on what people prefer – and it’s going to be amazing fun.

If you want to end up getting politely Halo tea-bagged by your favorite magazine team (we hope we’re your favorite magazine team. Why wouldn’t we be? Is it the tea-bagging?) here’s what you do:

1) Send us a friend request to ThreeSixtyMag.

2) We’ll accept and we’ll be friends for life – short as that may be for you.

3) Join us via our profile page where it says ‘Join game in session’ and we’ll be waiting in a lobby just for you guys at 8pm on Tuesday 10 August.

4) Face off against us in the best-of-five series of Halo 3 matches and hope to God your reflexes are up to it.

5) Prizes will be given to the team that beat us the most times.

6) Enjoy the sweet taste of our salty tears if we lose, and whatever happens we reserve the right to call ourselves ‘Team Spartan’.

See you all tomorrow!

We’ll admit it – we’ve been getting trounced in the Game On! challenge lately. And we’re very much of the mind that if you’re losing it’s time to change the rules, so we’re going to make this one about what a couple of us here reckon is the best game ever (and what we can kick your ass at): the amazing Halo 3. With Reach on the way, what better way for us all to get in the mood for the next chapter of the Halo saga?

So here’s the deal: on Tuesday 10 August at 8PM, we’re going to form a 360 team of up to four (comprised of Dave, Sam, Dan and Pete) and you’re going to do the same. We’re quite happy to have multiple teams all battling it out for glory – you’re all going to die anyway right?

Then we’re going to face off in an action-packed best-of-five series of custom games with a mixture of Slayer and Objective-based games depending on what people prefer – and it’s going to be amazing fun.

Your incentive to come along, as well as fun with us, is a bevy of fantastic prizes that we’ll be giving to the winning team. And if you do beat us, there’s a good chance you hear a couple of us crying online as our pride evaporates in a haze of plasma fire.

So come and join us! These have all been great fun, and it’s a chance for you to play with us – come and show the love. We promise to kill you quickly.

If you want to end up getting politely Halo tea-bagged by your favorite magazine team (we hope we’re your favorite magazine team. Why wouldn’t we be? Is it the tea-bagging?) here’s what you do:

1) Send us a friend request to ThreeSixtyMag.

2) We’ll accept and we’ll be friends for life – short as that may be for you.

3) Join us via our profile page where it says ‘Join game in session’ and we’ll be waiting in a lobby just for you guys at 8pm on Tuesday 10 August.

4) Face off against us in the best-of-five series of Halo 3 matches and hope to God your reflexes are up to it.

5) Prizes will be given to the team that beat us the most times.

6) Enjoy the sweet taste of our salty tears if we lose, and whatever happens we reserve the right to call ourselves ‘Team Spartan’.

It’s been a fraught two weeks, we can tell you. We’ve had personnel on almost 24/7 surveillance to keep an eye on what you guys are doing. Sadly, the competition was rather over before it started, after CuriousTurtle’s ahem… ringer entered the fray fairly early on, giving us all something to try to aim for. Nobody did (though we came irrefutably close) and this means Sikamikanico wins our star prize. Get in touch by email or PM, sir, and claim your reward.

gugly_duk (DanglyBrasco) in particular, however, seemed to strive hard for the title too, losing time, sleep and eventually sanity in his ultimately doomed attempts to ride the top of the charts. To him, we offer a condolence prize, if he’d like to contact one of the mag team via the usual channels.

To the rest of you (and that, as you may notice, extends also to some of our own) we can only say: you failed. You did not make the cut. Your efforts have, largely, been in vain. Hang it all.

Not to worry, though. Think ahead, friends. What will we play next? Post your ideas in the comments section below, and let’s talk about it.

Oh, you’d better believe it’s still on…

This month’s Game On! challenge is Pacifism mode on Geometry Wars 2. The competition is still wide open, despite some players already posting some ridiculously high scores.

The rules are simple: get a higher score than ThreeSixtyMag by 2pm on Monday 26 July and you’ll bag yourself some gaming goodies.

We’re consistantly logging scores above 100,000,000 now so you’d better get going (we’re aiming for over 300,000,000 and we’re really not that far off). Don’t forget to send ThreeSixtyMag a Friend Request so we can check your scores and get going! There’s only one week left!

After the recent emotional rollercoasters that were the Red Dead Redemption and Split/Second contests, we thought we’d try something a little more considered and quiet this time. Yeah, right.

PACIFISM, ladies and gentlemen. Think you’re good at it? Think again. Check out 360 mag’s unprecedentedly massive score on Geometry Wars 2‘s most excellent game mode. Friend ThreeSixtyMag on Xbox Live, beat our score by the greatest margin, and win yourself a thing.

You’ve got until 2pm on Monday 26 July to crack this. 360 reserves the right to better its score within this two-week period, in a focused effort to crush your mind and spirit.

The Red Dead Redemption Game On! challenge was a glorious event, full of rootin’ tootin’ shootin’. Readers came from far and wide (Birmingham, Christchurch and Barton Seagrave) to form posses and to try their hands at victory. Eyes were on the prize (s), minds were focused and fingers were on triggers. The clock struck 8pm on 30 June and the game begun.

After wandering the wilderness in the private free roam lobby, readers and writers alike formed posses. It didn’t go entirely to plan, to be honest, and at the start there was a mixture of readers and writers in the same posse. Disastrous, you might think. Actually, it was all a-okay.

Silent McBob and ClownTrousers stormed in, guns ‘a’ blazing, with CherryCokeChaos leading the charge. They were unstoppable – or so they thought – but Sam Jr, Gilzor, Slee (aka ThreeSixtyMag) and Dave (JaggerZ) soon put pay to that*. Pete, meanwhile, was running scared, and instead decided to hide in a barrel until the violence was all over**.

So, who won then? Well, it was a close call, but unfortunately Slee’s revenge killings on CherryCokeChaos, Gilzor’s rooftop vantage points, Sam Jr’s stealth manoeuvres and Dave’s mad shooting skillz weren’t enough to secure the victory. The readers snatched the win with style and gusto.

We’d like to thank everyone who took part on Wednesday – suffice to say, fun was had by all. We’ll be sending out prizes this week to the winners, so look out for those. Stay tuned for the news of the next Game On! Challenge, it’s sure to be a good ‘un.

*for a while, anyways

**not entirely true, but he did get killed loads.

Just a reminder that our Game On! Challenge is tonight! It starts at 8pm and lasts till 9pm. Prizes will be awarded to the winning posse. We have six prize bundles containing TNT candles, tees and playing cards to give away to the lucky winners. Think you can beat us? Bring it on!

If you want to end up and gut-shot and bleeding in the hot Western sun, here’s what you do:

1) Send us a friend request to ThreeSixtyMag.

2) We’ll accept and we’ll be friends for life – short as that may be for ya.

3) Join us via our profile page where it says ‘Join game in session’ and we’ll be waiting in a lobby just for you guys.

4) Face off against us in a deathmatch and hope to God you survive the match.

5) Prizes will be given to the team that beat us the most times.

6) Walk around with a smug satisfied smile, if you do happen to beat us – but that’s unlikely, cowboy!