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 | April 2001 |  |
April 2001 Archived News
News April 30 2001
Halo SETI Team 14 day stats posted
Dink!... despite the infusion of 16 new members, the Halo SETI Marines lost a position in the Battle of the Teams, dropping out of the top 50 for the first time in almost a year. Ouch! Part of the blame can be placed on the four deserters, who, between them, pulled almost 2000 units out of the Halo coffers... but a big part of the problem is the low crunching action of the majority of the team. (Don't blame DarthFlounder - he's pulled within 121 units of the top spot...) The rest of you... turn that SETI screensaver back on! To see how YOU are doing, check the 14 day stats page. (Louis Wu 14:49:28 UTC) (permalink)
33 days out of the gate
Woohoo - the mail guy's back! For all those who wrote in the past week and a half, and expected a reply, I'll be getting to them in the next day or two. Meanwhile, I've added Friday's Weekly Halo Update to the Halo Update Database; the word of the week is Cortana. How long did it take the Halo team to bring her to life? (Louis Wu 05:04:34 UTC) (permalink)
News April 29 2001
Fan made Halo MP3
Fan art, fan fiction, and now fan music. Bjorn sent us a link to an MP3 he created for Halo. The name of the song is "After the Storm" and you can find it at: http://www.mp3.com/Sleepwalker. Go take a listen. Pax.
New Blam (Halo) site
blam.psyjnir.com goes live according to Sapwood. Take a look. Pax.
Halo in Gamespot's High-Tech Games article
Halo "Sci-Fi epic with all the right moves". Menalaus Khan lets us know that Gamespot have a High-Tech Games article in which Halo is mentioned. Go check it out. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 14:35:25 UTC) (permalink)
News April 28 2001
Hi-res Halo scans
Bungie Sightings puts up the hi-res Halo scans from Next Generation magazine. Go get them before they are pulled again. BS also has info on next month's Bungie Fanfest V. (Wirehead 12:28:21 UTC) (permalink)
Halo interview
Halo interview. IGN Xbox interviews Bungie's John Howard and Joseph Staten. Thanks to Massa for the heads up. Here's a piece:
IGN Xbox: Because the guys at IGN PC threatened us with death if we didn't ask, what's up with the PC version? Will they see it before the Covenant invades earth?
JS: Given that it will be hundreds of years before the first Covenant recon picket stumbles across our most distant colony world--yes, absolutely! Oh man, we're all pushing so hard to get the XBOX version out on time, we really have zero time to think actively about the PC and Mac versions. But they're always in the back of our minds. You know: "hmm...how should I do 'x' so itÕll be relatively easy to implement on the PC/Mac?" Tell the IGN PC guys to keep the faith, and we'll get back to you, OK?
(Wirehead 12:24:12 UTC) (permalink)
Changes afoot at R.net
Whoa... looks like (if I'm reading it right) Tyson Green, AKA Ferrex, of Rampancy.net, has been hired away by Bungie for who knows what... I think he just took the job to get out of Canada, but you never can tell. Congrats, Ferrex! (Don't let this stop you from reading this week's Halo Update from Matt, mind you.) (Louis Wu 03:58:11 UTC) (permalink)
Matt's Weekly Update posted
Thanks to Matt Soell, who didn't hold our feet to the fire TOO long for Marty's update last week - he sent us this week's update as scheduled. And it's a tasty one. So tasty, in fact, that I logged in from a place where I have to PAY by the minute for my internet access to bring it to you. (Yeah, yeah, you Brits, stop your whining.) Crux would have posted it, but he was eating fish, or something. In any case, go read about a model for Cortana, a whole bunch of stuff that brings on Marathon flashbacks, better AI, and more multiplayer art. What are you waiting for? This is costing me! (It'll make it into the Halo Update Database in the next day or two.) (Louis Wu 03:53:51 UTC) (permalink)
News April 27 2001
Bernie plays with his jeep?
Dgenohunter of the french clan HELL website (yes we remember it well) enlarged one of the Bungie webcam pics of Bernie and says he thinks he can see the famous Halo jeep. Of course we went to source of all image enhancements "Crux" who said he could see two jeeps. Altar wine folks... altar wine. ;) (Wirehead 21:04:28 UTC) (permalink)
Bernie plays Halo?
fate187 sent us a bunch of webcam pics from yesterday. Is this Bernie playing Halo on a PC? See here, here and here. (Ding 16:21:34 UTC) (permalink)
New fan fiction
"He fired in short bursts, seeking out the heads of the taller elite..." Vector40 sends us Part II of his Halo Story. Part I is on our Fan Fiction page. (Ding 16:11:14 UTC) (permalink)
News April 26 2001
Bungie webcam mystery
Dorram sent us in this Bungie webcam pic from yesterday. If you've been following some of the discussion on our forum you'll know what it's all about. Just what is on that screen? Bungie's webcam page can be found here. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:34:33 UTC) (permalink)
No Halo in Wired magazine
Noah Brimhall informs us that the the XBox feature in the May 2001 issue of Wired Magazine is mostly just a review of the hardware with one really cool picture of the guts of the machine. Other than that there are only a few mentions of Microsoft's console strategy, but no mention of Halo. Thanks Noah. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:13:17 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox in Wired Magazine
Kamikaze informs us that the May 2001 issue of Wired Magazine has an Xbox feature. Not sure if there is any Halo info but it might be worth checking out. (Ding 06:29:35 UTC) (permalink)
More wallpaper from Diogo
Two more pieces of Wallpaper from Diogo "Razorback" Barbosa. A black & white sketch called War is Hell and a splash of Tecnicolor. Use our Wallpaper search engine to find all Diogo's work. (Ding 06:20:26 UTC) (permalink)
News April 25 2001
Acid!
"Acid!" was Crux's only comment to Dinosurfer's latest piece of Halo inspired Wallpaper. Is this the way the Covenant see us or did the marine just drop a tab? Check it out! (Wirehead 06:38:04 UTC) (permalink)
News April 24 2001
Thanks for the scans but...
Thanks to Dorkonaspork for sending in a whole bunch of scans of the Halo preview in the latest Next Generation magazine. Unfortunately we can't upload these until the mag comes off the store shelves. You can see small sized pics of the full article over at Bungie Sightings. Please buy the magazine if you want to see the full article or wait a few weeks and we'll have it up. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 18:20:45 UTC) (permalink)
More Wallpaper
OliverHeilwagen sends us in a very nice piece of Wallpaper. It's 1024x768 in size. There are now 153 items in our Wallpaper section and it's growing daily. (Ding 10:31:09 UTC) (permalink)
Blue's News gets a touch of Halo
Thanks to Ilium Rise who points out on our forum that Blue's News gets a touch of Halo. Their main logo has been featuring a different game each day and presently it has the jeep from Halo. Pax.
Update: Frans P. de Vries of Blue's News informs us that their logo changes once a week, not once a day. Thanks Frans. (Crux Fidelis 06:25:01 UTC) (permalink)
News April 23 2001
New Wallpaper
Added Dinosurfer's new Halowarriors pic to our Wallpaper section. Got Wallpaper? (Ding 16:08:32 UTC) (permalink)
New fan fiction
"They had nine clips of the 12mm RunHard penetrators, only seven of them full." New fan fiction from Vector40 on our Fan Fiction page. (Wirehead 11:07:06 UTC) (permalink)
More Wallpapers
Ok we've got a few more Wallpapers in our Uploads area. We'll get them up later today but if you want to see them now why not take a look. (Wirehead 08:41:05 UTC) (permalink)
News April 22 2001
New Wallpaper in our Uploads area
Dinosurfer informs us that he has uploaded a 1024x768 Wallpaper named halowarriors.jpg to our Uploads area. We'll be adding this to our Wallpapers section just as soon as we get Crux off the dial-up. (Ding 16:20:18 UTC) (permalink)
First Polish HALO Site
First Polish HALO Site. Oliwier Ptak sends word about Fpp.pl, one of the biggest online gaming networks in Poland dedicated to First Person Perspective games. They now have a Halo site at http://halof.fpp.pl. Check it out. (Ding 16:15:59 UTC) (permalink)
News April 21 2001
Louis is outta here
Family obligations take me out of town this week - I'll be heading to one of those parts of the US where the nearest dialup internet access is a long-distance call. (Betcha didn't know those places still existed, eh?) Looks like Wirehead's already on the ball, posting wallpaper this morning, and hopefully, Ding and Crux will stop in every once in a while, too... but be aware that mail won't get answered very much (if at all) this week - it'll be read, but if you're looking for a response, it's gonna wait until the 30th or so. Have a great week! (Crux - put down the beads, pick up the keyboard. Now.) (Louis Wu 14:22:48 UTC) (permalink)
New Wallpaper from Razorback
Thanks to Diogo "Razorback" Barbosa for sending us in another of his outstanding Wallpapers. This is the eleventh piece from Diogo. Use our Wallpaper search engine to find them all. (Wirehead 11:38:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Update after all (sort of)
Okay, so it's not Matt... but Marty O'Donnell is part of the Halo team, as well, and he's kindly offered his own Halo Update in lieu of Matt's, who had to go to Chicago for a wedding or something. (Now we REALLY know who's devoted to Halo, and who just SAYS they are...) Oh, and you might want to check the Halo Update Database as well. (Louis Wu 00:29:00 UTC) (permalink)
News April 20 2001
Love is in the air...
Though Matt has already posted that there will be no Halo Update this week... you might want to check back in a bit anyway. You never know, sometimes odd things happen. (Louis Wu 22:30:48 UTC) (permalink)
News April 19 2001
New Miscellaneous Art available
Speaking of new uploads, we received ANOTHER anonymous upload, this time of a modified screenshot - you'll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section. Someone should claim this, as well. (Louis Wu 09:29:08 UTC) (permalink)
New Logos available
A large collection of logos were upped to our ftp uploads directory a couple of weeks ago - I've been holding off on posting them, because there were so many (7, in fact), and were all so similar... but Zypper prodded us via email, and Crux told me it was time... I've put the two color variations on the Logos page, and made the remainder available as a single zipped download. Enjoy! (And if you made these, let us know.) (Louis Wu 09:22:34 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper section hits 150!
Thanks to Sun Pak, who dropped us a new desktop for our Wallpaper section. Bright... (Louis Wu 00:31:18 UTC) (permalink)
News April 18 2001
No Halo Update, wedding instead
Matt Soell dropped into our forum to announce that most of the Bungie crew would be heading back to Chicago in the next day or so to attend the wedding of Lorraine Reyes and Rob McLees... and therefore, he'd be unable to post a Halo update this week. We'll take this opportunity to wish Lorraine and Rob all the best! (Louis Wu 20:47:23 UTC) (permalink)
Daily Radar rates Xbox games
Griffon, of Halo Command Center, writes to express his anger at Daily Radar, who put up a piece on the 'Top 15 Xbox games we've seen so far'. Halo's on the list... but at number 4. DR puts Munch's Oddysee, DOA3, and Kakuto-X ('Microsoft's secret fighting game') ahead of it. Why?
Halo didn't exactly overwhelm us at Gamestock
Ouch. Beaten out by a couple of fighting games (one of which has gameplay they've never even seen)? (Louis Wu 13:27:40 UTC) (permalink)
News April 17 2001
Fan Fiction section updated
The shiny floors of the shaft demonstrated how new the halo must have been, the small room was a flurry of activity with many builders encircling the symbol on the floor. One of them spoke, or at least its mouth moved and the machine translated its words into English for us.
Time paradoxes... someone uploaded an anonymous story for our Fan Fiction section - if this is yours, let us know. If not, read what the Halo might be... (Louis Wu 18:53:58 UTC) (permalink)
A FAQ for every season
Mark Levin, our friendly neighborhood FAQ maintainer, has given the Frequently Asked Questions section a much-needed facelift - lots of little stuff, here and there. Feel free to browse through - you might learn something! (Louis Wu 08:47:45 UTC) (permalink)
News April 16 2001
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Dink!... The Halo SETI Marines fall another notch, to 50, in the Battle of the Teams - overall crunching was down this week (due to the holiday?). DarthFlounder takes over 3rd place, pushing his way to the top... how long until there's a new top dog? See how YOUR stats measure up on the 7 day stats page. (What? You're not crunching units for the Halo SETI Marines? Ooh... you should be.) Pax. (Crux Fidelis 15:00:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Preview at Gamecritics.com
Gamecritics.com has put put up a Halo preview that's worth reading. There's one new screenshot (pretty nice, though unfortunately small), and a reasonbly good analysis of the current position of Halo. There a couple of notable problems with the review, however, which make you wonder... for example, on Page 4, there's this passage:
It's also worth mentioning that many of the weapons won't actually look like guns. As a Microsoft rep has said, "In order to be sensitive to the needs of the mainstream consumer market and curb recent trends towards violence."
Readers with good memories will recognize this information as coming from R.net's April Fools Day post... if the author was taken in by THIS info, what ELSE is wrong? Go read it and decide for yourself. Update: d-trexx writes to say that our 'new screenshot' isn't new at all - PlanetXbox has had it in their archives since Gamestock. Guess we just missed it... Update 2: DOH! It's been in OUR screenshots section since March 20 - I put it there myself! It came from Bungie's new Halo site. I gotta stop using those aluminum pots to cook my tomato sauce in... (Louis Wu 14:05:07 UTC) (permalink)
Bumblebee is aloft
Last Friday's Update has been added to the Halo Update Database - the word of the week is 'pathfinding'; see the progress made in the past few months! (Louis Wu 01:02:41 UTC) (permalink)
Clarification on Jack of all Games
Blackfly dropped us a line to tell us that Jack of All Games is the bargain bin distributor (games under $25) for Take 2/GoD. They're on their way out of business, though... I think PlayNOW was just confused. Me too, now... (Louis Wu 00:13:56 UTC) (permalink)
News April 15 2001
New Halo preview at PlayNOW
Thanks to Aginor, who noticed another preview of Halo at PlayNOW. It's generally on-target... though the screenshots are 18 months old (again), the system is listed as 'PC' (though the article itself focuses on the Xbox), and the Publisher is listed as 'Jack Of All Games'. I thought that maybe they were an Australian distributor (PlayNOW is an Australian site), but they seem to be based in Ohio. My guess is PlayNOW's review posting script is a bit... messed up. (Louis Wu 00:17:17 UTC) (permalink)
PC Gamer UK article a bust
Our UK Connection finally got to a newsstand today, to pick up the PC Gamer UK issue fAt1 mentioned a few days ago... and decided there was nothing new. The concept art mentioned is actually already in our Concept Art section (and has been since July 15 of last year). In fact, he put the rather large sum of money the newsstand wanted for the mag towards a bottle of wine... looks like we need to get ourselves a new UK Connection. (Louis Wu 00:05:33 UTC) (permalink)
That Pesky Symbol
It's the symbol that just won't go away. Joseph Haake has sent in yet another enhancement of that Halo symbol on the back of the Red Covenant in the E3 trailer (though he says he doesn't "see the point in determining the actual shape of this specific covenant symbol"...). Nice enhancement, in any case, Joseph - thanks! (Louis Wu 00:00:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halobase comes online
Christian Bender writes to say that a new Halo fansite is online - Halobase. (It's German.) Go take a look! (Louis Wu 00:00:04 UTC) (permalink)
News April 14 2001
Al SackMaster rides again
Woohoo! A kilometer-long Pillar of Autumn, grenade-hopping, functional teleporters, And the Bumblebee... and MORE! This week's Halo Update is at Rampancy.net, and it sounds like an extremely productive week. Go read it! (Louis Wu 03:35:17 UTC) (permalink)
News April 13 2001
More symbology
Josh Laird took a closer look at the symbol on the back of the red Covenant (the one that Mike Sholl abstracted a few days ago), and decided that Mike's drawing might be a bit off. He sent us this one, instead (42K). What's your call? (Louis Wu 03:22:00 UTC) (permalink)
News April 12 2001
Preview (sort of) at eUniverseGames
Thanks to Aginor, who noted (on our forum) that there's a new Halo preview over at eUniverseGames.com. Pretty clearly written by someone who didn't do their homework - screenshots are 18 months old, team list more than a year out of date (and not attributed to its source), and comments like this:
For instance, say some annoying fool is snipering your teammates you from a nearby hill, you jump in the nearest truck and drive up to the sniper, get out of the car and cut him up with your knife or shoot him with your AK-47. Then you get back in your ride and a teammate sees you, he jumps in the car and becomes the gunner and takes down other peeps who are in range or enemy aircrafts.
- it's still a pretty positive review of a game we're ALL waiting for. (Louis Wu 17:34:20 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo preview in PC Gamer UK
fAt1 informs us that he finally got his subscription copy of PC Gamer UK (general release on the 14th) which has a new Halo preview. While there are no new in-game screenshots there is a piece of concept art of the human dropship (woohoo!). Here are some juicey quotes from the article courtesy of fAt1:
"As with Half-Life and the other great leaps in gaming, it's attention to detail that'll inspire knowing glances among gamers."
"Stealing their technology isn't just going to give you some cool ways to blow them to space-chunks, it's going to be essential to you success in the game."
"While levels are big, they're basically designed for recapturing that pillar-to-post fighting feel that was so inspiring in Half-life"
Finally:
"Well, sex sells and Halo, in an eye-meets-game and make beautiful love kind of way, is digital sex... It's going to be a feverish wait"
(Wirehead 07:49:06 UTC) (permalink)
News April 11 2001
It's all about the notes
Um... someone who can read music better than I can... is this what it purports to be? Update:SiliconDream says it's from the Myth TFL level, 'The Siege of Madrigal'. Shoulda known... (Louis Wu 22:58:14 UTC) (permalink)
open-sourced xbox closed down
Loren Petrich notes on our forum that the Indrema is dead. Loren first brought the Indrema to our attention in June of last year - it was to be a linux-based Xbox clone, available before the Xbox. Funding, however, has dried up, and the team has called it quits. You can read the details at Video Business. (Louis Wu 16:31:48 UTC) (permalink)
Jjaro good... or bad?
Mike Sholl comes up with another one. The Jjaro, as a source of good, or evil? Drawing on a lot of Marathon backstory, he builds up some theories about the purpose of the Jjaro in the Halo universe... and though he makes some questionable assumptions (foremost amongst them being the idea that the Covenant are out to kill the Marine, specifically, rather than to simply exterminate humanity), there are some interesting thoughts here. You'll find his 'Grand Theory Page' in our Theories section... and thoughts can be dropped off in our forum. (Louis Wu 15:24:44 UTC) (permalink)
Theories section updated
Whoa. From symbols strewn around the Halo to speculation on the origins of language, and quantum computing... Mike Sholl weighs in with a concept-heavy theory relating to symbols found in the E3 2000 trailer. Give it a read... then jump in with your thoughts on our forum! (Louis Wu 01:32:34 UTC) (permalink)
News April 10 2001
Halo to use the Tribes 2 engine?
News flash! We called him a troll, but maybe he knows more than we do! The Bungie Webcam is now showing a new Halo screenshot (here if you miss it)... it IS the Tribes 2 engine! (Before you hit that email link, ask yourself... did we really mean it?) Thanks, Aaron... (Louis Wu 22:36:35 UTC) (permalink)
New Storyboard on the Bungie Webcam
Mike Wong was the first to notice that the storyboard on the Bungie webcam has changed - the caption is 'fighters fly by'. (It's here if it's changed by the time you read this.) (Louis Wu 19:07:08 UTC) (permalink)
Fun with Photoshop
Nate writes that an early Halo screenshot has always annoyed him... so he decided to fix it. (Louis Wu 18:53:30 UTC) (permalink)
New look at an old symbol
Mike Sholl wants to know why there isn't more talk about the symbol that appears on the back of the Red Covenant in last year's E3 movie. While it's true that Hamish Sinclair has put together a collection of observations of those symbols, nobody's abstracted them like Mike did (67K). Hmm... that DOES look sort of familiar... (Louis Wu 08:28:54 UTC) (permalink)
News April 9 2001
Pillar of Autumn, sketched
Nice catch by Zypper - the Bungie Webcam currently shows a bit of a concept pic of the Pillar of Autumn - that's one big ship! (If it's gone by the time you read this, you can find it here.) (Louis Wu 20:49:08 UTC) (permalink)
More tasty Fan Fiction
Young glanced round. The alien's shot had struck the ceiling, spraying semi-molten metal fragments across the room. One such fragment had passed straight through one of the panes surrounding the central hologram and then straight through the engineer standing at it.
Today must be the day for Final Chapters - Chris Cox sends in part 4 of 'The Prisoner', and the ending twist will keep you hooked. Check our Fan Fiction section for all the details. (Louis Wu 20:45:13 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction section updated
"Prepare for dust off and immediate medevac, we've got a man down." "Roger that Group 3, proceed to rendezvous point. Network trackers on-line, we see the enemy, Zulu out."
Foxhound sends in the final chapter to his 'Group 3' story - you'll find it in our Fan Fiction section. (Remember, you can read the entire story, in order, using the 'More by this author' link in his entry.) Pax. (Crux Fidelis 16:23:34 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Dink!... The Halo SETI Marines fall a notch to 49 in the Battle of the Teams, despite the addition of Ghalidrim, and almost 1000 units... It looks like this will be DarthFlounder's last week at number 4 - even with those 1000 thousand units, he STILL managed to produce a bit over 10% of the total team crunching. Wow! See how YOU'RE doing on the 7 day stats page. (The slight delay today was due to a server glitch here at HBO that you may or may not have noticed this morning - I think we've fixed it.) (Louis Wu 15:18:47 UTC) (permalink)
Electric Playground looks at the Xbox
Thanks to Char (IMG), who noted (on the R.net forum) that Halo was on TV - you can see a video stream (on a PC, at least) of the show here. Bonus material - there was a Halo preview last month that we seem to have missed... read it now. (Louis Wu 04:43:10 UTC) (permalink)
This Grenade's For You
Last Friday's update has been added to the Halo Update Database - this week's search word is 'grenade'. See how long it took for Rob to go from 'hop[ing] to start working on a hand grenade soon' to being able to read the stenciling... (Louis Wu 02:28:51 UTC) (permalink)
News April 8 2001
Trippy new logo uploaded
Someone dropped us a new entry for our Logos page - if you made it, let us know. I gotta lay off that acid... (Louis Wu 13:45:13 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper section updated
More goodies in our Uploads folder... we got a nice desktop from LtPlayer with some good muzzle action - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 13:42:20 UTC) (permalink)
News April 7 2001
New French Halo clan
-[b.A.d]-VirGin sends us word of a French Halo clan, the blood, Anger & destruction's Corporation, the bAd.corp. Their web site is a http://www.halo.be.tf and has a very nice Flash animation. (Ding 11:44:26 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Update posted at Haloplayers
Matt's Halo Update went to Haloplayers this time around - go read it. The AI can now determine the differences between types of fire, and act accordingly. The Multiplayer design doc has grown. There's a Covenant dropship. And Capture the Flag is working well. Mmmm... (Louis Wu 00:18:12 UTC) (permalink)
News April 6 2001
They're closer than we thought
Sam Kite points out a Tribes 2 preview at PC Zone UK with an... interesting screenshot. Go to the second page of the review, and check out the top left screenie. (Louis Wu 20:51:42 UTC) (permalink)
Theories section updated
Gabriel Bregg posted (to our forum) some thoughts about the level of technology shown in Halo - you can find them in our Theories section. (Louis Wu 20:07:44 UTC) (permalink)
News April 5 2001
Fan Fiction updated
The time for battle had come at last. At last I would be able to slaughter the aliens who threatened our race. They would die, all of them.
Althalus sends in a new piece of Fan Fiction, 'Death of a Soldier', written from the Covenant point of view. You'll find it in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 21:12:37 UTC) (permalink)
New desktop actually rather old
Just in case anyone thought the desktop Wirehead mentioned this morning looked familiar, Olaf submitted a very similar version to HBO last September - looks like the text got changed. Gotta keep on your toes to get one past us! (Louis Wu 20:19:20 UTC) (permalink)
More Wallpapers for your desktop
Cleaning out our Uploads folder, we ran across a couple of desktops uploaded recently. They came from Sweden, that's all we know. Claim 'em if they're yours... or just download 'em from our Wallpaper section. Pax.
Update: Claimed. (Crux Fidelis 19:28:45 UTC) (permalink)
Zig attacks!
For Great Justice... eek. The 'All Your Base' phenomenon invades HBO - Zypper sends in a Windows Media movie called 'All your Halo', turning Cats into a Red Covenant leader. It's about 1.2 megs, and 47 seconds long - take a look. (Louis Wu 17:15:32 UTC) (permalink)
Hippos and sharks, oh my
In honor of Matt Soell's conjecture on the relative strengths of sharks and hippos, Banzif (current leader of the Halo SETI Marines) has uploaded a tidbit for our Miscellaneous Art page... that's one big hippo. (Louis Wu 09:28:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo scans from Next Generation mag are here
Someone set up us the scans. Freewill, Master of BS, dropped into our forum to tell us that he has scanned in the whole Next Generation magazine Halo article and upped them to his site Bungie Sightings. Best get them quick in case they are pulled. All your scans are belong to us... for now anyway. ;) (Wirehead 08:11:17 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo desktop at MacDesktops
MacDesktops has posted another top quality Halo desktop from Olaf Kasper. It comes in a large number of sizes from 640x480 to 1600x1200. It uses the old Halo marine model which I must confess to favoring. (Wirehead 07:19:55 UTC) (permalink)
News April 4 2001
Inside out and upside down
Harry Al-Shakarchi asks What if...
...it were the other way around: sitting in the jeep, you are in first person view, and on foot, third person...
Interesting question, Harry. :) (Thanks to Shacknews for the Planetside screenshots.) (Louis Wu 20:50:02 UTC) (permalink)
There IS a PC version, Virginia
We've received a bunch of mail today from folks who got email notification from EB World that the PC version of Halo was cancelled, and they could have their deposit back. Nick also posted a note to our forum about this issue. Matt Soell has once again jumped into the breach, and offered some words of encouragement:
The "PC Halo is cancelled, we have reliable information from inside Bungie/MS, let's all freak out now" story is still bogus. It was bogus a couple weeks ago, and the time before that, and so on. The next time it pops up, it will still be bogus.
Can't make it any plainer than that, folks... go read the rest of Matt's post for a few chuckles. (Louis Wu 20:01:02 UTC) (permalink)
Not the Game Show after all...
Marty O'Donnell popped into the R.net forums to clarify some facts about the ign.com edited movie we mentioned yesterday.
Not only is it an edit but the music was put in by the fine folks at IGN. They used the same tune for a couple other movies also. This was not released by Microsoft, nor shown at TGS.
I could have done a track like that... if I wanted to.
C'mon, Marty, tell us how you REALLY feel. ;) (Louis Wu 17:57:28 UTC) (permalink)
Halo featured in April's NextGen Mag
Thanks to Pallor, and Mat Noguchi, who both sent notice that the April 2001 issue of NextGen magazine has a 5-page spread (with pics) of Halo. We'll be doing our best to grab a copy soon... check it out for yourselves! (Louis Wu 15:14:53 UTC) (permalink)
It's not as bad as you think
Thanks to Aginor, who pointed out that Open Tech Support has a Grey Matter column today called 'Microsoft Didn't Kill Halo'. It's a lucid argument for letting Bungie get on with their jobs, without all the whining about how Halo is ruined... and that "instead of bashing Halo just because it is associated with Microsoft, you should realize that most of what you see is probably just a side effect of a game's evolution during development." Definitely worth a read. (Louis Wu 12:59:58 UTC) (permalink)
They love it in Melbourne
John the Replicant writes to say that his local newspaper, the Melbourne, Australia Herald Sun, reviewed up-and-coming console technologies, and focused on the Xbox:
The interesting part was that even though they didn't use a screenshot from Halo, the author wrote that Halo was by far the most popular game at the recent M$ GameStock. It states that people were climbing over one another to play the game.
It's always nice when the mainstream print press (that is, not the gaming press) notices Halo. Thanks, John! (Louis Wu 12:53:26 UTC) (permalink)
The first Halo game server starts up
Mike Larson writes to say that they've started up what aims to be the first and best dedicated Halo gaming server: HALOServer.com. There's nothing there yet (the site redirects to phiberoptix.com, a web hosting company), but they're configuring now. Guess it pays to get ready early! (Louis Wu 12:50:08 UTC) (permalink)
News April 3 2001
Nearly-smashed poll at Gamespot
Thanks to HiddenTalon (and to Ramses II, who noticed this last night), who pointed out that Gamespot has a poll up:
Which Xbox game do you want to see on the PC?
Halo is crushing the competition, with (currently) 77% of the nearly 2500 votes... its nearest competitor is Oddworld, with 7 percent of the vote. Go see if you can bring that total up a bit... wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. (Louis Wu 14:34:12 UTC) (permalink)
Jeff K says don't buy a console
Thanks to Jjarlrmai, who noted on our forum that Jeff K has put up a console comparison, and the 'Ex Box' is included - Halo is mentioned:
Drive a jeep around a laek and shots guns at robots BUGS and enjoy yuor commute to work
Never a dull moment at Something Awful... (Louis Wu 09:42:44 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction section updated
The rain drops are as sharp as any covenant sword, and the cold bites deeper than any needle from their weapons ever could.
A poignant story of love and pain from Iden - go read 'Marred', in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 09:18:53 UTC) (permalink)
New version of the Gamestock movie?
Thanks to Char (IMG), who noted on the R.net forum that ign.com has posted an edited version of the Gamestock movie - it's a bit over 4 megs in size, 320x240 in screen size, and 35 seconds in length, with a new (non-Marty-sounding) soundtrack... Char thinks it's what was shown at the Tokyo Game Show. (I poked around on a few ign.com sites, but couldn't find a story that went with this movie.) Worth a look, for those who can't handle a 182 MB download, or those who want to see every last tidbit of Halo media. (Louis Wu 08:51:09 UTC) (permalink)
Junkyard down but not out
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews, of the Junkyard, writes to say that the Junkyard is currently offline, due to a move. They should be back in the not-too-distant future... maybe a week. (Louis Wu 01:23:58 UTC) (permalink)
News April 2 2001
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Blam!... Blam!... The Halo SETI Marines jump back up to 48th place in the Battle of the Teams... with no real change in output, you have to wonder if the SETI servers are a bit wonky. DarthFlounder pulls within 300 units of moving up a notch - shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks until he's in third place. A few more Marines output units this week... but it's still less than a third? Are you doing YOUR part? (Louis Wu 14:11:05 UTC) (permalink)
Set sail for a different kind of booty
Not Halo news, but new games don't come out of Bungie all that often... Pimps at Sea was announced recently. The site contains screenshots, a description of gameplay, and a large (100 MB) movie giving viewers a peek at the making of the game. Worth a look! (bungie.org has opened a fansite for the game, though it's rather sparse at the moment...) (Louis Wu 02:15:30 UTC) (permalink)
Lord of thy presence and no land beside?
We've added last week's Halo Update, originally at Battleground: Halo, to the Halo Update Database... the word of the week is Shiek... see what Shikai has been up to in the last 2 months! (Louis Wu 00:59:41 UTC) (permalink)
Sanity returns
Whew! Back to normal. To all those who missed the joke... we used (without permission) the design of our good friends over at Rampancy.net for a little April Fools prank. It's not clear that anyone actually poked around, so we'll tell you that there were a number of easter eggs secreted away around the site... and hopefully a chuckle or two. We're done with that until next year, though... back to your regularly scheduled Halo coverage. (Louis Wu 00:45:18 UTC) (permalink)
News April 1 2001
HCC gets a redesign
Griffon, of Halo Command Central, sends word that something is afoot... nice redesign! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:02:10 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Tech Demo released
Thanks to Nick Rolfe, who points out (on R.net's forum) that Demonews.com has gotten their hands on a Halo Tech Demo, featuring all the weapons and the first two levels. Warning - it's Direct3D only. If this works for you, go grab it! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 14:08:40 UTC) (permalink)
Cat-like Covies?
Thanks to No7orious, who notes (on the R.net forum) that xbox.ign.com has an interview with Ed Fries, in which some issues are brought up surrounding the cultural differences between the US and Japan, and how they might affect some of the Xbox products:
An example is Halo -- in Halo, the alien creatures look sort of cat-like, and cats here are associated with lots of good things, so to have cats be the enemy is sort of a problem [laughs]. That's the kind of thing, as Americans, that we never get.
An interesting thought... (Louis Wu 04:07:30 UTC) (permalink)
| April 2001 | |
