24 Hours of Halo 3

Then, before we started dressing up action figures in doll's clothes or putting Lara Croft and Solid Snake in uncomprimising positions, the beta worked again. Thanks for the yo-yo of an emotional ride today, Bungie. For the rest of the evening (actually, morning), we trudged on, finding fun and faults.

GamesRadarCharlie (12:33 PM): It's working! Everyone back in the pool! We're starting matches now... catch up with us later.

Anis (1:09 AM): In the time it took for you douchebags to get your janky beta working, I studied quantam theory, built a time machine, and am currently playing Halo 5 on my Xbox 1080. It's got one new vehicle! Jealous, suckas?

GamesRadarCharlie (1:11 AM): Nah, because everyone knows that Halo 5 sucks.

GamesRadarBrett (1:16 AM): It's 1:16am now, less than four hours away from this whole project being complete, and the frequency of the games has really started to pick up. When we began there were 2000 people on here and now there's about 50-60,000. Also, it seems like most people just want to play Slayer over and over. Rampant vetoing of VIP, Crazy King etc.

GamesRadarTyler (1:56 AM): My eyes feel like flypaper.

GamesRadarBrett (1:58 AM): About 100 or so posts back I mentioned hearing the sound of the energy shield everywhere I went. Now I see red and blue Master Chiefs every time I close my eyes. Not incredibly tired yet, but definitely starting to feel it. 2:00am, almost done. I also think ex-Halo 2 clan members have started to show up, with their near-identical Gamertags and perfect performance. They kind of break the game for the casuals and "kinda good" players. Also, yeah, the posts are probably close to done at this point, as the rest of the country is either asleep or actually playing the game. Still, we've had some GREAT games so far with forum members.

GamesRadarCharlie (2:02 AM): The fatigue is finally kicking in after 21 hours. During the last few matches, I was just miserable. My teams couldn't win due to lack of strategy, but I was too tired to be the one to provide it. I really don't like having to hit the d-pad to talk to my team... it's a team match, shouldn't we just assume everyone wants and needs to talk to each other? If they don't, they can mute their headset... it's pretty simple. Also, as the night / morning is wearing on, the clans continue to crawl out of the darkness to obliterate everything in their path. Telltale signs you're playing a clan member? They have the same gamertag, but one's got a "(1)" after his. Also, they're so coordinated and trained that playing four of them can honestly feel (and LOOK) like you're playing eight. I just want to play some normal, average-skill folks! Isn't this thing supposed to arrange you according to your rank #? Sorry for the long and bitter post. You know... 21 hours. I think after a snack, I'll be right as rain.

Spydermanfbk (2:09 AM): Guy's I'm still here...Brain melting...eye's burning. But where I'm at it's only an hour from 5... but I think I'll stay up with Charlie and Brett....need to eat!

GamesRadarBrett (2:31 AM): When we started this whole thing some 23 hours ago, we had a stopwatch that was supposed to count how much time we spent waiting in lobbies instead of playing (not counting the beta issues, of course). Even though that method... did not end up working, our last concrete numbers, along with some of my own speculation, suggest that of the 23 hours we played, two or so of those were spent sitting. Games would fill up only to drop, or they'd start buffering in the middle of the match. Very strange. It doesn't seem that bad now, but then again, I've been up for 24 hours now, so everything's a little hazy. Bungie also says I've played 82 games so far. That was at about 15 this morning, I believe.