To say that Halo 3 has proven to be an enormously popular video game would be a dramatic understatement. Many games are popular but few reach the level of a pop culture phenomenon. Such is the case with Halo 3 as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of dollars in sales revenues amassed by the game. But, no matter how popular the game may be, players need to be able to succeed at the game or the number of players interested in it will dwindle.

One way to increase the chances of success at the game is to make sure the characters are fully armored. This will protect them against many of the threats they face and allow them to achieve their gaming objectives. There are many different types of armor that can be acquired in the game.

These armor types include Mark V, Hayabusa, Scout, and many other variants. Among the most powerful is Recon Armor and, in addition to being highly formidable, it is also the most difficult armor to acquire during game play. Thankfully, difficult does not mean impossible and those hoping to acquire this elusive armor can certainly do so if they have the right guidance. Originally, the acquisition of Recon Armor was limited to Bungie Employees.

In time, Bungie made the armor available to those that were members of its community provided they met certain criteria. (This criteria was often based around players performing very silly stunts as opposed to anything heroic) Needless to say, this made the armor scarce. Scarcity and rarity will immediately make something more valuable. It will also lead to discontentment if players feel excluded due to favoritism. As such, the armor has been made available in a limited manner to those that can follow the pathway to achieve it.

One way to acquire this armor will be based upon forge skills. If your skill level on forge attributes reaches certain exceptional heights, the doors to acquiring this armor will be opened. If you have an aptitude for this type of skill, you can approach your Recon Armor acquisition in an expedient manner. If you lack such skill, there is no reason to fret. You can simply take the steps necessary to build up your forge talents. As your forge skills increase, the ability to acquire Halo 3 Recon Armor becomes more probable. If, however, the ability to develop forge skills is outside your area of expertise there is another option available.This option centers on the Vidmaster Challenges. These challenges entail completing the game of Halo 3 within a specified amount of time and achieving certain specific objectives. These challenges will be set aside to be completed on a specific date.Those that have completed 3 of these challenges will be awarded with Recon Armor. Now, is it easy to complete these challenges? No, it requires a lot of skill and talent. Hence, that is the reason there is a reward and this reward is the acquisition of the elusive Halo 3 Recon Armor. That alone makes the challenges worth it.Halo M6C Sidearm model prop.

by: Gregory House

An avatar is a image that reflects somebody’s character and is used in different web forums, blogs and huge social networking sorces as, for instance, MySpace. With the help of avatars you may make an attempt to guess what kind of a character is concealed behind them.

Avatars can “tell” other persons even more facts than an ordinary photo can do. In the time of choosing an avatar you go by your individual ideas, interests and there is no astonishment that in such a way you reveal your likes and dislikes.

The concepts used to avatars are equivalent to those used for ordinary photos.

Avatars can not only be applied for entertaining as, for instance, http://www.avatarswizard.com/games-avatars/sonic-the-hedgehog/2393-game-avatar.html furthermore you may make your individual avatars by yourself. What advantages does the use of avatars have?

On the one hand, you need accept that it is much more entertaining to “talk” with a citizen you may see at least than with an anonymous stranger.

Secondly, after seeing an avatar you by the time mentioned have a general conception of a person’s interests.

These are special advantages of aplliance of avatars, essentially it deals with blogs.

You will be greatly astonished, although you may make your own avatar for free and it will not demand much of your time. Then, what tipps should you attempt to make your own avatars?

First, you need visit one of the resources offering free of charge avatars. You may without any difficulties find a great amount of them in net.

The following stage will be to sign up. Here you should pass your e-mail address. It is necessary in order you will be able to post comments.

Then in a while you will receive an e-mail by means of which you may activate your link. After getting the e-mail you ought to click the link to keep on.

Then you go back to the source.

The question will come out whether you desire to receive their information with the just completed news or not. After giving an answer to the above mentioned question you may visit the account page. There an image can be assigned by you.

At present your task is to make a choice of an image, that will be your future avatar,

that implies to http://www.avatarswizard.com/animated-avatars/72-download-avatars.html.

You may choose it whether from your laptop, webcam or the net. The dimension of your avatar will be 80×80. You may also change the dimension of your picture.

Nevertheless be certain that your picture is square. In case you have already made up your mind what picture to apply you ought to decide concerning its rating.

It can be G, PG, R or X. If you have fulfiled everything correctly then your picture will be uploaded to the server.

In this case all you ouht to do is only to visit the home page of the resource and associate your picture with your e-mail.

After having carried out all the following steps your avatar will turn up while you are posting a comment.

Remember that here the following principle functions. Your avatar will also turn up near all your foregoing comments supposing they all have the e-mail address

you have written while downloading your avatar.

At present you may be entertained by the possibility of choosing from a great number of various

http://www.avatarswizard.com/animals/cats/62-funny-avatars.html.

Do not forget about the opportunity of downloading new free of charge avatars dealing with such prominent singer as Michael Jackson.

These avatars will for sure remind you the songs of the above mentioned prominent pop-singer and make them vital one more time.

How Can You Increase Your World Of Warcraft Gold Count

by: Simon Gray

There are literally millions of people all over the world in all age groups playing World of Warcraft. This thrilling game has captured the hearts and attention of gamers looking for an exciting adventure.

Whether you know it or not, the trick is having as much World of Warcraft gold as possible. By having truck loads of World of Warcraft gold you will be able to do a number of different things.

You can buy seven epic flying mounts, you can use it to purchase more weapons and armour, or you can use it to fund any raids you desire for as long as you want.

There is no question that collecting gold can increase your chances of conquering all.There are several techniques you can apply to get more gold, but one of the best methods is the Auction House.

The object behind Auction House is fairly simple; you want to buy low and sell high. In order to do so there are three basic steps you need to follow. The first thing you need to do is your research. You want to be well aware of what you are going to find prior to even entering the Auction House.

Look for items that are selling in a hurry so that you know what to buy and how many. Although these high selling items may be sold at a hefty price, chances are they are rare and you can get far more for them than what you pay.After carrying out your research, the next step is to purchase a hot item that is in high demand.

The key is to try and purchase for a low price, but it takes time to learn how to price various items.

In addition, you will find that the same item will be sold for a different price somewhere else. This is why it pays to do your research.

Once you have purchased the item for the price you feel is fair, your last step is to go out and resell the item for a higher price.

The goal behind this entire technique is to make a substantial profit off of nothing.

Look at it like eBay; you want to buy an item and then resell it for more than you paid for it. This is a great way to increase your World of Warcraft gold count.

There are many more techniques and methods you can use to build up your World of Warcraft gold, but the Auction House method is one of the best.

In a matter of minutes you can drastically increase the amount of gold you have.

Some Models in the style of WOW….

Nalach

Witch

Ainariel

Arkvenger

Twinblade

Travel to Romania - the Bran Castle (Dracula’s home)
by: Alex Hill

Starting to read this you might think, “Yeah, yet another poor country that thinks it’s a rough gem waiting to be discovered”. Well, you might not believe it but it’s true. I’ve recently had the chance to travel to Romania, to a city known as Brasov, in an area you might know under the name of Transilvania. Yeah, that’s right, Romania is the country of the legendary vampire Dracula.

Anyway, my first stop was in Bucharest, the romanian capital, stuck in the airport while waiting for my connection to Brasov to depart. Couple of hours later i was finally in Brasov, checking in to a pretty nice hotel, that most importantly had an internet connection. Didn’t expect this one in Romania, since I pretty much came with the usual misconception when you travel to Romania, that it’s a poor country.

First thing i did after that? You guessed it! Took my romanian friend and went straight to Bran castle, known as home of Vlad The Impaler, or Dracula as you might know him. It’s an old castle, built in the 14th century to defend against the Turk invaders apparently, with turrets and white stone walls, overall not at all the grim, dark, menacing castle of Dracula that I was expecting.The coolest thing i saw there was the fountain from the front yard that hides an underground passage.

Visiting a 600 year castle that disappoints you? Couple of dollars as price of admission. Beeing able to tell your friends that you visited Dracula’s Castle? Priceless!Never forget, that if you travel to Romania you come and see this castle. Bragging rights are included after that and if the castle isn’t enough, your friends faces when you tell them are well worth the trip. I have to say, the Brasov area that I visited was especially nice.

It’s a pretty big town by romanian standards, stuck between beautiful mountains, with lots of nice places to visit in the area. The Bran Castle, the Black Church, the mountain resort Poiana Brasov, the ski slopes and the superb style of the old german houses that you can see in some areas of the city, all are worthwhile things to see if you’re in the Brasov area. Honestly, I can’t cover all the things i saw in Romania during my two week stay in one single article.Consider this the beginning of a small serial of articles covering a few of the magnificent views you can see when you travel to Romania.

By Jeff Wendland

I have found that the best way to enjoy War of the Worlds is not to watch the movie but to listen to it as an audiobook.  

After watching the movie War of the Worlds staring Tom Cruise last weekend I was inspired to do some research on the original H.G. Wells novel. I almost bought a copy of the book, I did read it once as a child, but I hesitated.

Instead I downloaded The War of The Worlds BBC broadcast based on the novel by H.G. Wells as an audiobook off of the internet.It was very easy to do. I simply paid with my visa card and was able to do an instant download. I did not have to wait for CD’s to come in the mail.

After downloading the audiobook I burnt it to discs so that I could listen to it in my car as I drive.I was also happy to see that doing an instant download of the audiobook was much cheaper then the same versions of the audiobook on CD.

It really is a much better deal to download the file and burn it to disc your self then to have to pay someone else to do the same thing.Another great feature is that I will always be able to download the audiobook again for free at any time. This is perfect if you are like me and are prone to scratching your cd’s.I have to say I was thrilled with the quality of the recording of the audiobook.

The audiobooks is from the BBC Classic Sci-Fi Radio and has a run time of two hours and fifty minutes. One of the things that I enjoyed the most of listening to War of the Worlds on audiobook compared to the movie is how much eerier it was. Watching the movie was good, don’t get me wrong, but I must say that I enjoyed it as an audiobook more.

The movie was real eye candy. But the audiobook invokes your imagination.

The sound effects being much simpler in the audiobook, but it felt more real. It really made me feel like I was there.

Martian War Machines Kit. Victorian War Machine.

Titanic Anecdotes
by: Stephen Schochet

Studio executives in High Concept Hollywood have very short attention spans. When pitching a film idea, many believe if you can’t do it in one sentence it is an unmarketable product. For example Planet Of the Apes (1968) starring Charlton Heston was pitched by producer Arthur Jacobs as “Moses Talks To Monkeys”. Passenger 57( 1992) with Wesley Snipes was known as “Diehard On a Plane.” Director James Cameron, despite a strong track record with films like Aliens (1986) and True Lies (1994) knew he would have a tough selling job after he went deep sea diving with Dr. Robert Ballard to glimpse the remains of the RMS Titanic. He became so emotionally involved by the experience that the sinking of the famous luxury liner in 1912 had to be the subject of his next picture. His pitch to the nervous executives at Twentieth Century Fox was,” Romeo and Juliet on a doomed ship.” There was a tense pause and Cameron said,” Also fellas it’s a period piece, it’s going to cost $150,000,000 and there’s not going to be a sequel.” Fox, a studio which had known great success with both The Love Boat (1977-1986) TV show and The Poseidon Adventure (1972) was dubious about the idea’s commercial prospects. But wanting a long term relationship with Cameron they gave him a green light. Previous movie versions of the Titanic had focused on the historical aspects of the ship hitting the iceberg, so Cameron decided to play up the fictional love story. After Gywneth Paltrow turned down the female lead, Kate Winslet campaigned for it heavily by sending Cameron daily notes from England stating, “I’m your Rose.” Her persistence led Cameron to invite her to Hollywood for auditions. One of her screen test partners Leonardo DiCaprio, impressed her so much she whispered to Cameron,” He’s great. Even if you don’t pick me, pick him.” Cameron picked them both, but Leonardo was harder to convince. Playing a romantic lead in a blockbuster just didn’t seem cool. Cameron told him,” I know what you want. You want to play him with a deformity or a limp. Well, it’s lot harder playing a nice guy like Jimmy Stewart then one of those freaky, weirdo characters.” Freaks and weird character portrayals often take home Oscars, but DiCaprio agreed to play the part.For a major Hollywood production the star salaries were relatively low, DiCaprio made the most at $2,500,000. The biggest expense of the film was building the ship, it required the construction of a entirely new studio in Rosarito Beach. Cameron’s attention to historical detail was evident down to the carpets, the grand staircase, the Picasso paintings and the 1911 touring car that Jack and Rose made love in. But other aspects of the film were less accurate. There was no evidence that on the real life Titanic people in third class were blocked from reaching the upper decks and the lifeboats, the emphasis was on rescuing the women and children, the richest man on board the ship actually died. In the film, First Officer William Murdoch was portrayed as a coward who shot passengers, in real life he was a hero which caused James Cameron to apologize to his surviving relatives. And Leonardo’s character Jack was based on an unattractive coal miner, who never left the bottom decks, let alone met someone like Rose.

Cameron, temperamental in the best of times, was surviving on three hours sleep and saved most of his screaming for the film crew. His philosphy was you couldn’t get great perfomances out of the actors by yelling. In one scene, Winslet and DiCaprio were running away from a huge wave on one of the decks and the actress was submerged and nearly drowned. Moments after she was rescued Cameron calmly said,” OK. Let’s do it again.”

As the costs began to mount along with the stories of the director’s slow pace and temper tantrums, the Fox executives began to freak out. They suggested an hour of specific cuts from the three hour film. They argued the extended length would mean less showings thus less money. But long epics are more likely to help directors bring home Oscars, and Cameron was more defiant than DiCaprio. “You want to cut my movie? You’re going to have to fire me!” You want to fire me? You’re going to have to kill me!” The executives, knowing that starting from scratch meant their entire investment would be gone, did neither. They also rejected Cameron’s offer of forfeiting his share of the profits as an empty gesture; they were sure there wouldn’t be any.

With more special effects being added Titanics’s release date was moved back from summer to Christmas 1997. At one point Cameron visited the Twentieth Century Fox studio headquarters to request permission to shoot additional footage and ran smack dab into company chairman Rupert Murdoch (no relation to William) in the hallway. After months of fiercely ordering people about, the self proclaimed “King of the World” could not look his real boss in the eye. “Uh hi. Uh I know I’m not your favorite person spending all your money. But I guarantee you the movie will be good.” Murdoch, with a glint of steel in voice, replied. “Young man, it had be better be better than good!”

Thanks largely to repeated viewings from young girls, the film made more money than any other picture in history. It tied Ben Hur (1959) for the most Oscars (11) although it was not even nominated for Best Original Screenplay. The Fox Executives were more relieved than euphoric and promised no more $200,000,000 movies, they felt like they had dodged a bullet. DiCaprio who infuriated the studio by refusing to promote the film and show up at the Academy Awards, became a $10,000,000 per picture star, was chased down streets by adoring young females, and later called the whole Titanic craze,” kind of an empty experience”. Winslet, who at one point during the shoot woke up and said, “God I wish I was dead”, moved back happily into smaller independent films. Cameron got his original profit share and continued to lose his temper, suggesting a film critic who panned Titanic be impeached. He reflected later that movie prices had to be raised to fifteen dollars to pay for overblown budgets. “People would be mad for six months and then they would come back. Of course I wouldn’t want one of my movies coming out during those six months.”

Santa Claus Around the World

by: Randy Stocklin

Christmas is a worldwide phenomenon, and so is the holiday’s number one fan and symbol, Santa Claus. So it makes sense that because people all over the world celebrate Christmas differently, they also see Santa in different ways and have different traditions.For instance, in France Christmas goes by the term Noel, and Santa goes by the name Pere Noel. Like the United States, the French who celebrate the holiday do so with a Christmas tree. Sometimes, the French decorate their trees in the traditional, which is with bright red ribbons and real candles, instead of the garland, electric lights, and fancy decorations used in the US. They also believe in decorating outside, especially the evergreen trees on their properties, which they cover with lights that they leave on all night long.

In Hungary, the Christmas tradition is a bit different than the French or American versions. In this Eastern European country, Santa Claus is called the “Winter Grandfather,” or Mikulas in their language. He comes not on Christmas Eve, but on December 6. It’s the job of children before this day to make sure that they are clean and that they have cleaned their rooms. For these good children, Winter Grandfather leaves candies and toys for them in freshly cleaned shoes or boots. For those children who don’t clean? They get a golden birch, which means they deserve a spanking! In Hungary it’s not Santa Claus (or Winter Grandfather), but Baby Jesus and the angels who brings presents and the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. To give him time to set them up, families usually go visit a relative’s house or go to the movies.  

In Germany, the holidays are all about the decorations. They love putting electric candles in their lights, and covering their homes with all sorts of lights and colors. The German specialty decoration is the Adventskranz, which is actually a leaf wreath with four candles in it. And like many American homes, Germans like to decorate inside with a manger scene, the famous depiction of the stable, with Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, animals, and the Three Wise Men. Father Christmas brings children from Germany presents on Christmas Eve, while St. Nicholas brings small gifts on December 6. Kids should consider moving to Latvia along the Baltic Sea for Christmas time. There, Father Christmas brings presents for all of the 12 days of Christmas, with the first day of gift giving coming on Christmas Eve. Latvia also claims to be the home of the first ever Christmas tree, documented in the year 1510. Then again, you might want to check the menu before visiting this country. The traditional meal on Christmas is brown peas with bacon sauce, sausage, cabbage, and small pies.

Here’s a meal that sounds delectable and Christmas will still be a blast—it’s in New Zealand. Since Christmas arrives in the middle of summer for New Zealand children, their Christmas dinners usually include foods on the BBQ, like ham, shrimp and fish. Many towns enjoy Christmas parades throughout the holiday season. Similar to children in America, families open Christmas presents from Santa Claus on Christmas Day. However, some people love Christmas so much, they also celebrate this Santa-driven holiday in the middle of July, when it is cold enough for a proper English Christmas dinner. Wherever you are on the map, you can obviously enjoy Christmas in one way or another.And don’t worry. With his reindeer-powered sleigh, Santa will find you no matter where in the world you are living.

Yuletide Naughty

Christmas Gift Ideas

Merry Christmas.

How much do you know about the spooky holiday of Halloween? As you probably know, Halloween is celebrated on the 31st October and the name Halloween descends from the old name All Hallows Eve, the night of the dead. This is why children and adults alike dress up as spooky characters such as ghosts, goblins, vampires, monsters, witches and anything that goes bump in the night. It is also said that on this night dedicated to the dead, that there are more spiritual energies, making it a more receptive night to contact the dead, and for the dead to contact the living.  

Halloween is often considered an American festivity, so it might surprise you to know that it originated in Ireland as the Pagan Celtic harvest festival Samhain. Halloween wasn’t exported to America until the 19th century, when many Irish folk emigrated.

The Celts celebrated as their harvest festival because by the end of October all the hard work of harvesting the crops was over. They also saw Halloween as marking the time when the days would shorten and there would be darkness and coldness of the winter season.

Many Christians prefer to celebrate the following day, All saints day on 1st November (also know as ‘All hallows’ and ‘All souls day’) This is to avoid conflict with their religious beliefs. The word hallow means sanctify in old English, ‘to free from sin’. All saints day is therefore considered to be a day of goodness.

Halloween and its festivities have now been spread to most of the western world. However, the old Halloween meaning has been lost and replaced. Nowadays Halloween is seen as a festive holiday of fun and spookiness. A time to dress up and have a fun time, maybe to go ‘trick or treating’ or to go to a spooky Halloween part.

Halloween is a time to spook yourself, or maybe someone else, BOO!

Related Models…

Michael Myers

Miss Halloween (18)

Halloween Fairy

Some of us never really got into Star Wars. For the True Believers out there, yes, yes, it sounds crazy. Who doesn’t like Star Wars? But you know, different strokes for different folks.Of course, most of today’s parents grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s, truly the Star Wars Generation. It’s like our own personal mythology. The story of Luke taking down the Death Star and coming face to face with his own father, it’s a permanent, iconic part of our lives. Not just as a great work of adventure fiction, it goes a little deeper. It touches on something about humanity in general. The way the heroes are always smiling, joking, and laughing, in the face of certain doom, the way Han Solo can still crack wise at Princess Leia seconds before being frozen in carbonite. Even with a soul crushing empire rampaging through the galaxy, blowing up entire planets and enslaving the inhabitants of others, we can still look on the bright side and appreciate the fun and adventure life has to offer. That’s what makes these adventures more than just movies, more than just stories, but something we’ve actually learned from and lived by.

But… as close as those first three films were to our hearts, keeping track of the new ones, the animated series, the latest CGI movie, and the new Clone Wars TV show… it’s practically like trying to memorize the dictionary, word for word. There are about a billion new characters and story developments, and geez, we do have jobs, you know! We can’t sit around memorizing Star Wars trivia all day (as much as we might like to). So with that in mind, here’s what you need to know about Star Wars in the 21st Century. You’ll thank us once you’re ready to fill out that Christmas shopping list…The Clone Wars

Okay this is the big new thing in Star Wars. There was an animated series with the same name awhile ago, but that one was 2D, and this new one is computer animated. This is also the one that throws a lot of parents for a loop, even if they grew up knowing every line of dialog in The Empire Strikes Back by heart. Here’s what you need to know about the characters in this show…

The Heroes

Anakin Skywalker

Old school Star Wars fans know that this is the guy who grew up to become Darth Vader. The Clone Wars takes place before the first Star Wars, so Anakin is still a young man, and he’s still the hero for now. He’s pretty much the main good guy of the series, so this guy will be at the top of the list if you’re buying Star Wars action figures for the kids.

Ahsoka Tano

Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice. She has tan skin, white face paint, and some weird looking hairdo that looks like a racoon’s tail. Basically the secondary hero of the new story, so she’ll be a requisite for any major action figure battle scenes.

The Baddies

Asajj Ventress

One of the “Dark Jedis” of the Star Wars Universe. She sports a bald head, pale skin, and white eyes with no pupils. She’s not really the main antagonist of The Clone Wars, but she serves as Anakin’s primary rival, so she’ll be needed for any one on one lightsaber duels.

General Grievous

You could call Grievous the “Darth Vader” of the new series. He was once a human being, but he came down with some kind of space virus, so they took what they could salvage of his old body and stuffed it into a robot with four arms and a terrible cough (why does a robot cough? Who knows, it’s kind of cool, though).

Beyond that, you’ve got Clone Troopers (they look like Storm Troopers with slightly different outfits), Palpatine (the Emperor, before he got all crazy looking and become the Emperor), Yoda and Jabba the Hutt are still around, but they have a relatively small place in the story, then there’s Mace Windu (the Samuel L. Jackson character from the new movies), you’ve got Jabba’s son Rotta the Huttlet, then there’s Aayla Secura and… Okay, you know what? I’m getting a headache! Just grab a few Star Wars MIGHTY MUGGS at random, you’ll probably get a character your kid loves!

New Clone Wars ships include Anakins Starfighter, Obi Wans Starfighter and the Magna Guard Fighter.