He wasnt using the term in a derogatory manner, only in a descriptive sense. Saying something is a bit gay is not always expressing a dislike for something - unless you are casting dispersions to the authors own preferences! It could just as easily be a compliment - running around with a big pink weapon, which fires bright pink needles that could be described as " pricking" the intended victim - is only a reference to homosexuality if you are predisposed to such bias. I' m from the UK to and do not in any way think that this was a reference to the item in question in such a way. He was simply using the word in a crossover to its more classic sense meaning bright / fun / kitsch etc..

Towards the end of the first page he actually says he will stop " bitching" which can also be taken the wrong way to certain people. Perhaps this is all just par for the course with this demographic of reader?

Garden gnomes are pretty gay too, but that doesn' t mean they are are homosexual or that I am a homophobe - it also isnt " weak" , it probably takes guts to put your neck on the line these days in this way. I guess if anything I am anti-over-the-top-PC and in my day to day job I deal with all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds with all sorts of preferences.

If anything I found the recent articles in Edge / MCV regarding the " Gay" games market as a " holy grail" to be far more offensive.

The world has actually gone crazy.

OK, I accept it is puerile and unprofessional to use this word in an article on the site. For what it' s worth Alex (the Editor) cleaned up the article before it went out to the people we supply content to. I guess sometimes the excitement of writing about a game that' s hot makes me write like I would talk to someone down at the pub or get carried away with colloquialisms. My theory was people would appreciate the intimacy of the opinion and/or the diction used but I will happily admit it' s not what I should have done. In the past we' ve employed very strict writing guidelines but done away with most in favour of a more direct and blatant voice to talk to the audience which clearly works better usually, but I suppose we should still follow some rules no matter how tedious. By the way I never claimed to be a " journalist" .

Now, does anyone have any opinions about HALO 3 itself or disagree with what I said about the game? Please let me know what you think about the Beta.

One more day and Im quite sure this forum will be full of things to say about the BETA. As it gone up yet for anyone? I should pop in Crackdown right now to see whats happeng as its 1am wednesday here now.

I didn' t want to start a new thread for this but Halo 3 is set for Sept. 25th (26th for Europe) for release. I don' t know if this is old news or not but that' s sooner than I expected.

http://onthexbox.com/news1047.aspx

Thank you for your honesty Adam, I appreciate it is sometimes difficult to write an article that is aimed primarily to people of like interests but of differing backgrounds and opinions. I think most people took the wording in the manner it was intended.

So going back to the original thread, I liked the opinion of someone who freely admits they are not some sort of ubergamer at Halo. Personally I am not interested in Halo 3 multiplayer; Halo 2 was full of campers, griefers and generally lots of other unpleasant people - Halo 3 in this respect will be more of the same. I am far more interested in waiting for information in how the single player/co-op campaign looks, so am waiting patiently for when (if) you can show us some of that.

Adam i' m getting the beta today in 2.5 hours I tell you then,and please Adam try to follow my way of behaving on the site,have you ever seen me insulted anyone? or writing with harsh language towards some member?

Sure I told someone here to suck a dick,and called them a faggot etc. but never EVER WOULD I USE THE WORD " GAY" .

Teamxbox have just run through all 19 of the weapons in the game. The mounted minigun looks cool, odd how it goes into a over-the-shoulder view with it.

Ok, favourite weapon?

Personally i' m glad that the assault rifle is back, ...it' ll be interesting to see how it holds up against Halo 2' s battle rifle. If i had to choose just one, i' d probably actually go for the plasma rifle.

yes, and how the assault rifle is differentiated from the SMG too, which supposedly replaced it in Halo2.

Am I missing something but wasn' t the ' real' human pistol meant to return as neither that nor the magnum is mentioned?

The plasma rifle was one of my favourites as it offered about the best balance between rate of fire, damage and accuracy. I did like the carbine as well, although more so in SP than MP.

I know it comes out at 1:00pm GMT, but I' m too lazy to convert, so if it' s out yet, who' s played it?

I' ll be getting my copy of Crackdown back tomorrow, so I' ll see y' all online then.