Just finished the 8-hour drive home, and I must say, the Halo party was a BLAST. Many people already seem to have sent in full reviews, but I'll plague you with my own.

First off, props to all the cool Bungie fans. Theocracity and I spent many an hour running each other over with Warthogs. (I was the aforementioned team casualty in his jeep story, and I'd just picked up the rocket launcher too. Damn.) I also got to meet chief poster Vector40, The Mark Levin Conspiracy?, Mnemesis, Face-7? (If I messed up your name, sorry. Feel free to take a needler to me.), and a bunch of other great guys. The Bungie community rocks, 'nuff said.

Alright, where to begin? Me and my group got there about 40 minutes early, which turned out to be very fortunate for us. While we waited for it to open, somebody walked down the line with a movie camera a few times, so you guys will be able to see the sheer number of people that were there. We were in the second group to get in, myself being number 7. :)
The RSVP idea apparently flopped, because the line was quite a few blocks long. At about 9:00 the line was STILL there, barely depleted. They had to tell quite a few to go home, only 250 people could legally fit in the room.

When you walked in, you took a short elevator ride down to the sign-in table. There, you filled out a little admission name tag and spent $15 on a neato Halo shirt. It's lightish blue with a blue duochrome marine on it. Sweet stuff.

One then proceeded to the room, to be greeted by 12 Xboxes, of varying types. There were a bunch of developer and debug kits, all of which were hooked up either to a big 'ol TV, or a projector casting on one of four screens in the corners. There were two little islands in the center, each rigged with 4 boxes, 4 TVs, and 16 controllers, all linked up and ready to roll. As soon as enough people were in, we started the LAN carnage. Put quite simply, Halo multiplay RULES. But more on that subject later. And if that wasn't enough, there was a room down the hall with another 6 boxes in it, all running Halo single player. That is also to be mentioned later.

After a little while, Matt Soell got up gave us a little presentation. It consisted first of a little movie they put together featuring sarge, which introduced us to Halo. I hope that somebody can find that movie and put it up; it was pee-your-pants funny. BLAM, that's all I have to say. Matt then continued to introduce us to whoever Bungie was present. Mostly Total Audio and web guys, although all of them denied that they were the elusive Bungie webmaster. The search continues.

As for food, the promised meal was rather absent. Well, after about 15 minutes it was. Those who didn't hop to the moment the food came out went without dinner that night, myself included. :(

Anyway, on to the good stuff. Most of what happened that night was Halo multiplay, and it is good. Personally, the most fun I've ever had playing multiplayer.
First off, the control. The Xbox controller is a little bigger than one might be used to, but is suprisingly comfortable and fits the hand very well. All the buttons are within easy reach, except the back and start buttons, which you rarely need anyway. The dual analog stick setup is PERFECT for a game like Halo. You just use one stick to strafe, the other to look. It was a little hard getting used to the look stick (pushing it up made you look up, etc.), but that is changeable in the options. You use the right trigger to fire, and the left to throw grenades, allowing you to use quite a few different combinations without having to switch weapons. Very handy. The buttons perform various functions such as jumping, switching weapons, pulling out your pistol, and swinging your current weapon like a bludgeon. :)
On to the gameplay.
The physics in Halo are absolutely unrivaled. They have to be experienced to be believed. Players fly sky-high when hit between the feet with a grenade, and land with their mangled frames conforming to the terrain. No Unreal-esque flat player animations here, it's all dynamically handled by real physics calculations. It's quite impressive to see a player fall on steps, to say the least. Also in the physics area is the Warthog. There were few things as satisfying as watching the jeep being launched into the air by a well-placed grenade, throwing all its passengers out like G.I. Joe figurines.
The weapons are very good. The assault rifle is a great all-range weapon, able to pump out serious damage in a pretty short amount of time. The plasma pistol is a nice little rapid-fire weapon, while the plasma rifle can charge up and release a highly damaging blast. The needler is fun to play with; its projectiles home in on an enemy, latch onto him, drain life for a while, then go pop. It's offset by their relatively low speed, making them easy to dodge. The rocket launcher fires majorly explosive cigars, 'nuff said. Also, the sniper rifle is great. Zoom in on a target, then POW.
In a category all its own are the vehicles. The Warthog is probably the most fun addition ever to hit the land of multiplay. Driving it is fairly easy, although it's hard to master. If you're not careful, you'll smash into walls or worse flip it, sending all the passengers flying. However, the jeep can be deadly in the hands of a skilled driver. Running over anybody, friend or foe, will kill them. Needless to say, mowing down entire enemy strike teams is quite gratifying. You can also load up a gunner in the turret, who can fire with reckless abandon at anything that moves. Infinite ammo and a big gun helps. Somebody can also take passenger side with whatever weapon they choose. With a sniper or rocket guy in the passenger seat, the jeep becomes a veritable rolling gunboat. Probably the most talked-about thing that night was the jeep. Almost every story worth telling involves somebody getting crushed, blow up, or flipped at, on, under, in, or by a Warthog. Sheer brilliance on Bungie's part, and an addition that adds such depth and fun it's uncanny.

As for single player, it is just as unbelievable. They of course had to tone down the poly counts for multiplay, but the single player pulls out all the stops. It suffices to say that every detail is polygons, not textures. Draw your own conclusions.
The gameplay is fantastic. The AI for each enemy is varied, and fits perfectly. The Covenant duck and run for cover, but are also formidable hand-to-hand opponents. The grunts are weak, slow, and funny. Watching them run away with their hands flailing in the air is rather entertaining. Shooting them in the back even more so. ;)
The combat is varied even moreso. Sometimes you're gunning your way through claustrophobic corridors, other times in large, rolling fields. One must learn to adapt to the terrain in order to survive. Sheer perfection, again. Taking out a ghost is jaw-dropping.

I'm afraid I've run out of words to describe the party. Perhaps that's a good thing.
In summary: Halo rocks, it's reason to buy an Xbox all by itself. Heck, it's reason to buy 4 Xboxes, 4 TVs, 16 controllers....

----------
Wow! Just got back from the Halo Launch Party, deep in the heart of Chicago.
Much to my surprise, there were a lot more people there than I expected. I
had guessed about a hundred or two, but it turned out to be a total of around
four hundred, with people coming and going during most of the night (the
hotel room could only fit 250 people max). Good thing I arrived early around
6:45, cause even with that there was still quite a line, and I actually got
into the hotel a little while after it started. No matter, the evening was
great, and I'll tell you my tale as I remember it starting:

Enter time 7:15 - The outside was pretty cold, but it was still entertaining.
A lot of passing Chicagoans were asking us what we were waiting in line for,
most of us enthusiastically shouted "Halo!" and they just nodded and walked
away. Shows how cool Chicago people are! Waiting in line with us was a guy
from clan Asylum; a truly hardcore Halo fan who had already picked up a copy
of Bungie latest game prior to going to the party. Man, if I was that guy,
I probably go home and play Halo instead of waiting half an hour for
several minutes of play. Moving on, I met Mordia (Peter Marks, aka
admin guy) who was handing out nice Halo nametags and such,
and he told me to call him sometime if he ever in town. Mord still owes me
lunch since summer of (and still even after this). Just a side note: If
you ever see Mord in real life, this guy is huge. I'm talking WWF the Rock
huge! (well, maybe not /that/ big). But he really doesn look like a
biker as many other people have said, since he cut his hair short.

7:40 - Excellent! Finally, I get my first play of halo. Not bad, I'll say. My
TV screen had no sound for some reason, and the controls were... a bit hard
for me to get used to. Basically, there are two joypads (like the N64 one)
and the left one controls up/down/left/right (w-s-a-d for UT players) and the
right one controls the look (mouse movement). Triggers are conveniently
located behind the controller, and other action buttons are located on the
right controller side. It took me about 10 minutes to actually get going with
the game and learn the controls, but after I did, I was rolling. Definitely
good for an FPS played on a console!

7:55 - Finished my game, and I only really got to play 5 minutes (10 minutes
of learning controls). I watched Jeremy (Thanatos) play and it was pretty
interesting. He bravely decided to skip tutorials and whatnot to run straight
into the game blowing aliens to bits. Needless to say, he wasn't... doing too
well, but still a good try! Kudos for his effort!

8:05 Right about now, everyone goes packed into the main room, and they're
showing some sort of Halo. I had walked in there way too late, and all I hear
is people clapping. I have not the slightest idea of what is going on. I just
clap and take pictures like a total newbie.

8:10 - Hey! First person I meet! Bullseye (eric) is walking around with his
nametag signed and he has a staff one too. Lucky bastard, they
should give me one! Well, I talk to him quite a bit, and he later goes to
show me his copy of the Marathon 1 manual he plans to get signed by the
original developers. He then heads back to the front room where people are
still coming in. By his time, the whole place is completely packed, and food
and drinks are coming (finally). I go grab some pizza (a very tiny corner
piece) and make a huge sandwich of two cheeses, 3 types of meats, and a nice
amount of mayo. Hey, I still have to eat!

8:50 - I haven't done much by this time. Jeremy and I decided to go "Mord
hunting" (who has by this time not been seen after our arrival), and we then
realize that people have these blue ticket stubs or something, and so I go on
a quest to get myself a blue ticket. We find out these are the raffle tickets
for the Xbox, 5 copies of Halo, or 5 Halo t-shirts. I finally get mine,
Jeremy gets his, and Mord was nice enough to show up for five minutes to give
my girlfriend one while I was running around looking for him. What bad timing!

9:00 This late into the party, Jeremy and I are getting a bit bored, or at
least I am. There are 250 people in this tiny section of the hotel, and of
those, only about 50 hardcore Mythers (several of which I recognize), while
the rest are complete Xbox/Halo fans. A lot of the Halo developers are being
probed and questioned relentlessly, while (as I heard) some teens were trying
to impress him with their knowledge of programming or something. They can
seriously think that they be hired on the spot can they?

9:15 - Jeremy and I switch to hunting (St. Joan of Coven) now, as I
remembered she said she'd be here. I really desperate to meet some real
Mythers I know damn it, and I expected tons of CP guys, but turns out that
only Conner and Marius showed up. As I keep looking around for more Mythers,
I accomplish nothing. Like I said, they were mostly new to the whole Bungie
phenom, and a majority of them were attending for the chance of winning that
free Xbox (among other prizes) and chowing down on free food. Not to mention,
some people from outside actually got in who have never heard of Halo,
Bungie, or the Xbox. They were there for the food or something. These
wonderful folks were several mid-30's women, and a guy bringing them there.
They have no idea what going on. They get their food, make some small talk
(realizing gaming is over their shallow heads) and leave. I still just
walking around because I don want to wait 30 minutes to play halo, but I'm
staying a long time, so I have nothing to worry about. There was also some
problems rotating the gamers around. People in the single player room had no
problems (nice Bungie staff had made sure they changed every 15 minutes), but
in the main room where all the multiplayer was going on, people were waiting
for 30 minutes, collecting 50 frags and still playing. Luckily, this was
going to end very soon.

9:30 - They finally announce the Xbox winners! Guess who won? That right,
not me. Not even close. Conner of CP won a t-shirt, and two people missed out
on getting the Xbox. That right, two whole people. They left the party
before the announcement. I sure wish I had their tickets! The Xbox and Halo
copies that the lucky winners got were not with Bungie at the time, so they
will be shipped to them as soon as physically possible. They were also
selling the t-shirts that Conner won for 15 bucks, and I would have bought
one, but it didn look too good (in fact, it looked like a factory error or
something -- the t-shirt was lavender colored with black halo print...?)

9:31 - Alright! Time to play some Halo. After the announcement was made,
almost everyone left. Seriously, it was great! I finally get my fair share of
Halo after waiting hours, and that is exactly what I do. I get to experience
Halo side by side with the developers and all sorts. Let me tell you
something about the game:

The weapons I got to use were the sniper rifle (with different levels of
zoom), the powerful (but slow moving) rocket launcher, the standard assault
rifle, the other standard (with zoom) pistol, and the shotgun. You also have
grenades, which perfect against the Warthog (Halo famous jeep). The map we
played (I can remember the name) was a sort of wild-west type, with forts
and all. There were two Warthogs that people could ride. Words can't describe
how cool this is! You can drive the jeep, be the gunner, or be a passenger to
assist the gunner. When you have 3 guys on an Xbox (did I mention 4 Xboxes
were connected to make a 16 man LAN game?), all in a jeep going into the
enemy base (this was CTF after all) running over guys (yes, you can do that)
and shooting them down, you sort of get a sense of unfounded amazement. A lot
of times you could also blow the Warthog up. I often found myself performing
a suicide by throwing a grenade under the jeep as it ran me
over, and killed the two enemies in the jeep as it flipped over and over, all
while the explosion of dust and debris covered my screen. Its an amazing
sight, to say the very least. What seemed to work against me though, was the
fact that your own team could kill you. I had Bullseye and a Bungie developer
(I still can remember their names) run over me not once, not twice, but
three times in a row with the Warthog. I expect them to drive better than
that! Either way, the game itself is amazing. As a major UT player, I be
the very first in line to get my grubby hands on the Mac (I much rather play
mouse/keyboard than dual joypad), and I feel the online community would be
ten times better than what can be achieved on Xbox. I didn exactly get that
much of play time with the single player version, but from what I been
hearing, seeing, and the little amount I got to play, I have to say it
will be amazing. Is halo Xbox's killer app? It damn well might be folks. You
really have to play this game to get the full feeling. I'm not going to say
its the best game ever, mainly because I feel the game needs to be more
engrossing and have some sort of huge innovation (like Myth and 3D battle, or
Deus Ex and the fusion of rpg/fps, or Metal Gear Solid and the whole sneak
and total realism), but the graphics, for one, is by far the best I've ever
seen for a first person shooter. Though outdoor landscape can get a bit
polygonal, the texturing and particle effects are second-to-none, and the
sheer fun factor is off the charts. You can have more fun shooting the crap
out of aliens who try to hide when you damage them enough or run away for
cover when they realize they'll die soon, then head towards them and whack
them with your gun. The AI is wonderful, especially for a game this rushed
(and it was rushed like hell, so says Mordia), it turned out way better than,
well, another certain Bungie franchise game, to put to example, and the game
is solid and bug-free (as far as I knew). Any real problem I had with it was
nothing more that they could have done with the software. The levels are huge
(read: gargantuan) and there is almost no loading slowdown (takes less than a
second and the loading is seamless, barely noticeable). I sure wish I got to
pilot the alien craft and played more with the alien species and what not,
but for what little time there was (2 hours is nothing when playing games),
it was quite satisfying.

11:07 Time up! They must pack up and leave and stuff. I actually don
leave till much later, so I decided to stay around and talk to Conner and
Marius of the legendary Clan Plaid (proudly wearing their CP shirts) and
engage in some very friendly conversation (those guys are great, and really
smart too) and at such an unannounced time, I finally meet the elusive
St.Joan. At first she doesn recognize me, but when all is said I walk away
with two pictures. I say my final goodbyes to Bullseye, Mordia, Joan, and the
cp guys (these were the only people I knew left), and then I leave. To much
surprise, I spent half an hour /after/ the party ends, and managed to snag
some pretty random pictures of the after-party.

12:30 - After about 45 minutes waiting in the lobby of the hotel, my parents
pick me up (just a couple more months till I can drive!), we arrive home.
Jeremy and I play some UT, and then myth, in which he schooled me (I have no
idea how that happened. After all, I /am/ the best myth player. Ever.)

1:30 - I'm sleepy, and Jeremy left. I go online. At the time I write this, it
is 2:42 am, and I'm tired (but not tired enough to sleep!). I marvel at the
day that was, and how I had looked forward to this day a month ago with such
anticipation. If you ask me was it worth it... I definitely say yes.
Getting to meet great people you know from Myth at a party is in itself worth
every minute you spend there. Then, playing Halo for a great long time, not
to mention with the people who made the game, was just awe inspiring. And
coming home and Myth and UT in early morning against your local Myth order
mate? Nothing could be better in a day, well, except if one of the two guys
who left gave me their tickets and I won an Xbox and Halo. Of course, that
wouldn't have happened...the whole day was just one huge blur, and I just
realized I spent 5 hours at a hotel room that was small, packed to the
capacity, loud, and not to mention full of people who shouldn't have been
there for a "fan fest", and let me tell you, there will be nothing better
than this for the next several years (when Halo 2 comes out!).

Thanks for reading my wonderful story of an adventure.

Forever Bungie,

-Art Sangurai (Death on Impact)

PS: I try to get the pictures of the whole event up as soon as I can.
Until then, use your imagination to guess what it all looked like!

There were two rooms in the hotel, one set up with several multiplayer games, one with some single-player stations. I myself didn't get to play that much at first because I was tapped to help out with the setup; this consisted mostly of hauling 500(!) Halo T-shirts through the hotel and telling people not to get crumbs on the Xboxes.

Matt halted the proceedings twice, once to deliver his keynote address, and once to hold the raffle. There were always a few people who just ignored him and kept playing :)

During the keynote, Matt mentioned a few things that would be happening in the near future. The launch of the new Halo site, named Truth and Reconciliation. The launch of the mysterious Seventh Column, about which he said nothing more. The new Halo movie was a short featuring a drill instructor abusing a Grunt. Matt singled out some distinguished guests, including Marty O'Donnell accompanied by Mike Salvatori, Bob O'Donnell (voice of the Surly Dwarf), and an actor he identified as the voice of a Halo character he could not tell us about.

The game... Everything they said it would be an more. Calling Halo the next Half-Life doesn't say the half(heh) of it. Halo is going to set records and standards just as HL did.

Halo multiplayer: I don't see what everyone is complaining about regarding the controller. It's not huge, it fit my hands very well (as does the PS2 controller). The controls made sense as they were placed. After about an hour of multiplayer I was able to keep up with all the other fans (which didn't save me from the ass-kickings being handed out by Bungie guys with some time on their hands). The vehicle control was more difficult in that it is not exactly like other games, and it's very easy to over-steer and go out of control; the Warthog fishtails wildly. That doesn't stop driving it (or getting driven over by it) from being the most fun I have ever had in a computer game, period. The jeep is very... well... "bouncy". The low gravity and impact physics combine to make it very easy to send the jeep into the air, whether it be via grenades, the rocket launcher, or ramming it with the other jeep (on the level which I believe is named Blood Gulch). Flipping the jeep usually involves killing everyone on board and a few people nearby. Halo is one of those games you can tell stories about, with encounters and events in the game beyind "So then I blew that guy up, and that was cool!"

Best multiplayer moment: A 16-player CTF game on Blood Gulch. Someone jumps in the jeep and heads for the enemy base, accidentally running over a rock and sending the jeep flying. At the same moment, I run out of the base brandishing the flag, and shouting at my LAN-mates "I've got the flag! Someone give me a jeep!" Of course the jeep LANDS ON ME.

Evening started out nicely. There was a desk in front, and a couple helpers handing out nametags and selling the Official Halo T-Shirt (yup, got one). I was a few minutes early (I'd been there in the hotel for two days, what do you expect?), so I got in with the first batch.

It was a largish (not "convention-center" sized, but fair) room, dark, with arrays of TVs (decent, but not great) and Xboxes (both release models and dev-kits), mostly arranged in 16-player groups. At opposite ends of the room were four (two on either end) MASSIVE frontal-projection televisions, set up (as I understand it) with co-op play and some three-person teams.

Let's see, who showed? Marty was there, with his "surly dwarf" father, as well as a few other guests (his former audio partner, one of the voice acters from Oni, etc.). Matt, of course, was MCing. Oh, heck, just read the list directly below this :) Although I must have missed Alex's appearance. As I hear, more Bungie-lords would have come, but it was darned short notice.

Food was supplied by the restaurant, very nearby (same building, actually), and was good stuff. Free, all. There was a second room, smaller, a little quieter, set up with single-player for people to ogle at.

I got to meet Dan Rudolph, Mark Levin, Locucious... let's see, I missed mnemesis and Theocracity. Great fun. Near the end of the night, Matt got up and held the raffle (for which we had been given tickets earlier), in which he handed out (got the information to FedEx, actually) five (5) copies of Halo... five (5) Halo T-Shirts... and ONE {1} Free Xbox and copy of Halo. It was dirt funny, actually was all smooth, until the climactic Xbox handout, where for the life of them, NOBODY could find the winner. After enough cajoling, Matt drew another number, who... also could not be found. Sheer madness, especially because, if I remember correctly, the two number who were missing both added up to seven... :) They finally found the bozo on the third drawing, and he happily took his gear and trotted off.

I still think the first two had been bound and gagged.

Now, the game. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've seen this thing actually play. Plus, I'm given to understand that our equipment wasn't the best. The effects? Gorgeous. The art? Beau-tiful. The physics? You must SEE to BELIEVE, Young Grasshopper. The controls are a little tricky, and I kept forgetting whether I preferred an Inverted stick or regular (it turns out it doesn't matter much get used to either pretty fast), but after a couple games, it's dead-natural. The sound, even with our crappy speakers, is unbelievable. Major judos, kudos Marty and his guys.

Some random thoughts. The sniper rifle is surely the most amazing weapon in this game. It speaks like some sort of demon, running down a field, sniper rifle in hand, I zoom, quick, on the opposing base (CTF, it was), see a sniper, drop my crosshairs on his eyeline, sqe
KER-WHAM, and my view zooms out, to see my body on the ground, a long line of fog lanced into me. I jumped about ten feet high. Cool?

I saw one gun, a rifle, laying on the ground, get hit by a stray shot, and SPIN around. No bullshit. It was amazing.

I harangued the Candyman a bit, and got an interesting tidbit of information actually IS a PC/Mac version. It plays shit, no effects, no HUD, and a score of other things that won't work, but... It LIVES. It WILL tranfer over, to some degree. Although it was probably unwise to say that, as most mindless trolls have no comprehension of compatibility at all...

Matt Soell (pronounced "cell" as opposed to "soul", contrary to previous belief) is one of the funniest men alive. He kibitzed with fans for most of the party, relating hilarious anecdotes of Bungie living, odd snatches of humor, and other such thing (we were talking Metal Gear Solid, and he mentioned his grievances when you meet Revolver Ocelot? "Now you'll see why they call me Revolver!" He wanted him to say [as it would be far more interesting] "Now you'll see why they call me Ocelot!"). Great dude.

Oh, I cornered him and asked about the Letters to the Webmaster page, and got, as you might expect, a "How the heck should I know?" Dirty old man :)

The skull truly is as cool as they made it sound.

Have you ever seen two Warthogs flip, end-over-end, thirty feet into the air, and smash into each other face-first M:I2 style? Try it :) Oh, and one landed ON one of the Sidewinder bases.

Some loser managed to get a Warthog INSIDE the aformentioned base, sitting it right on top of our flag, and was quite unable to move.

Matt mentioned some morsels to look out for, including the Truth and Reconciliation, which will be the main Halo page, and the SeventhColumn.org site, of which they refused to talk :)

And the Bungie Store is reopening, with some new coolness.

They showed us a very funny little cinematic they'd thrown together, with a Marine sergeant giving us the low-dowon on Halo. Very cool. I hope they release it.

They're unsure about who will be doing the port.

I discovered Mark Levin's secret identity :P

There was quite a hoard of people outside to start with, but they eventually either left or got in (we were at the fire-safety maximum, but if somebody left, they let another in).

They broke it up at about 11, but I got in a "Frog blast the Vent Core!" in :)

I think my father snapped off a bunch of film, so I'll see if I can snag some and upload a few shots in a while. Besides, Marty was filming the entire filthy event, so that'll be interesting.

Anyway, that's about all I can think of now. I'll pop up again if there's anything useful.

Adieu, my people.

Frog
BLAM

Just a few thoughts as a prologue to a larger report coming later:

Bungie folks in attendance were Matt, Max (yeroen), Tommy two-Gs, Peter (mordia), Marty, Dave, Roger, Chucky, and Alex (who flew in late)

There was about a 5-10 minute lag from the moment the first games were started until people seemed comfortable with the controls. I could tell because the players began to taunt each other and the rest of the crowd was Oohing and Aahing over the antics on the screens.

It's annoying as hell to try to get into the gunner's position in the warthog and have your driver back up and run you over. ;)

Bungie is cool. Halo Rocks.

I was at the party last night - surprised that only 16 people did not get in initially. I think everyone did at the end.

1. Cool ass party, tons of developer XBOXs. I want one of the clear ones :)
2. I hope the sounds are as good as the GFX
3. I talked to a few Bungie guys about Online play with XBOX halo.
   • The responses ranged from 'can't talk about that'
   • To 'the current version will not support that - we would have to do something different'

So I was a little disappointed that XBOX online (or whatever it will be called) will not support this fantastic title. Watching the split screen fun only made me want to hook it up to my DSL line even more.

Guess we will have to wait for the PC version of HALO to appreciate the coop and multiplayer fun.