BLUE MAG

In Bungie’s weekly blog-update developers discuss the joys of anonymous online multiplayer and the painful aural experience that accompanies it. Potentially as important as the yet-to-be-revealed function of the X-button, Bungie addresses the implementation of the “A-Hole Button” in ways that make it virtually impossible for a game journalist to write a better story than what’s already been presented:

“Anyone who’s played MP on Xbox Live knows the following is true: Teenagers, plus anonymity, plus microphone = idiot. Xbox Live already gives you powerful tools to mute, well, tools on a case by case basis. The “A-Hole Button” in Halo 3 lets you exact instant, silent vengeance. These kind of vocal buttmunches, as it turns out, are exactly as fun to play against as normal people, as long as you can’t hear them. So now, you simply press a button (back button, for the moment anyway) and up comes the score list with everyone’s tag on it. The right stick lets you highlight the miscreant and you can then instantly mute them for the rest of the game. These morons continue smacktalking anyway because they can’t help themselves, but if you don’t have to listen to it, you can simply enjoy killing them over and over again, knowing that as their Ritalin wears off and their frustration builds, it’s less and less fun for them. Aaaah. So satisfying.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Halo 3’s beta multiplayer begins soon- pick up your copy of “Crackdown” to guarantee your spot.