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 | August 2000 |  |
August 2000 Archived News
News August 31 2000
Fan Fiction page updated
Thanks to John Boscia, who submitted a new story, The Book of Halo, to our Fan Fiction page. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:34:45 UTC) (permalink)
The Bench looks at helmet envy
Thanks to Mark Levin, who found another Bench comic relating to Halo. (Xian noticed one way back in early March, on our forum.) This one's pretty old, too... it went up in early February. However, I couldn't find any record of it either in our forum archives, or in the r.net forum archives, or on our news page. Old news can be good news. ;) (Louis Wu 12:12:39 UTC) (permalink)
New Letters to the Webmaster at Bungie
Woohoo! Bungie's updated the Letters to the Webmaster section! Dog intestines, Tauntauns, and Joan Crawford, oh, my. (Halo's even mentioned a couple of times, which makes this post (just barely) on topic.) Go read 'em! Thanks to Tursas for the heads-up on this one. (Louis Wu 09:09:35 UTC) (permalink)
Psyjnir Complex coming soon (again)
Psyrixx writes to tell us that the Psyjnir Complex will be relaunched on September 10th, in all its glory. Mark your calendars! (Louis Wu 08:50:36 UTC) (permalink)
News August 30 2000
Halo Center cranks up the staff
Halo news is at an all-time low right now... but that didn't stop Halo Center from bringing on two new staffers, and welcoming back an old one. With a crowd like that, they should be able to make up news, when there isn't any. ;) Welcome (or welcome back), guys! (Louis Wu 23:59:32 UTC) (permalink)
News August 29 2000
Salon looks at the Xbox
Xbox, Xbox über alles... Wagner James Au has written a long rationalization on why the Xbox will succeed next year over at Salon.com. Lots of tasty morsels here... Kevin Bachus points out the difference between the target Xbox gamer and other console targets:
"We're going after an 18-year-old guy away at college for the first time. That's who the Xbox customer is going to be."
This piece is well-written, and while you may not agree with its conclusions, you need to acknowledge that lots of things are being done right here. Check it out! Thanks to Finn Smith for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:49:16 UTC) (permalink)
xbox365 says 128 MB now
"I can go in... I can go out. In... out. In... out." xbox365 is reporting that "a good source" is claiming that Microsoft Developers have been informed that the Xbox spec has been upgraded to 128 megs of RAM. Who really knows, with a product still 12-18 months from release? Good news, though, if it's true... (Louis Wu 12:34:54 UTC) (permalink)
News August 28 2000
Halo SETI Team 14 day stats posted
Due to an infusion of new blood, the Halo SETI Marines have closed the gap with the TidBITS team to just over 500 units again. At this rate, they'll pass them up by early October. The bad news is, the Austrian SETI Club has stepped up and passed the Marines! Can these new crunchers make a difference? Brain Towne takes La Crunch Honneur with an average of 13 units/day, and sam and Levi both jump over 52 competitors to tie for the Frogblast award... can the team keep up the steam? Only time will tell! Gory details can be found on the 14 day stats page. (Louis Wu 14:22:26 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox outside liason says no keyboard
More contradictions to the Daily Radar UK bit last week: xbox.ign.com interviewed Kevin Bacchus, Director of Third Party Relations, about how he sees outside publishers fitting into the Xbox scene. One unhappy thought:
"For some publishers though, there's a conversation we need to have about how you make use of a system that has no mouse and has no keyboard, and that really is designed as a platform for very intense, action-oriented games. "
Halo with no keyboard will NOT be the same game as Halo with a keyboard. And if the console version is built around a no-keyboard scenario, what sort of time will be added to the PC/Mac port by the need to rework the control mechanism (and indeed the gameplay)? Read the whole interview here. (Louis Wu 03:50:14 UTC) (permalink)
News August 27 2000
MS programmer says 64, max
More Xbox news... in contradiction to speculation by Daily Radar UK last week, MSXbox asked Michael Abrash, Microsoft programmer, about his statement that the Xbox will ship with 64 megs of RAM. Michael said
"... I would have liked to have seen 128 Mb myself. [...] Anyway, the decision is made, and it'll be interesting to watch what developers do with their 64 Mb!"
Stop by MSXbox for the full quote. (Louis Wu 17:00:25 UTC) (permalink)
XboxFaction compares console and pc advantages
For those still confused as to why Bungie programmers (and many others) are so excited about the Xbox, when it seems it's just a box with a bunch of PC parts that will be nowhere near cutting-edge by the time the Xbox is released, XboxFaction has put up a small feature on fixed-spec (console) vs. open-spec (pc) systems. Check it out. Thanks to Blue's News for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:58:40 UTC) (permalink)
News August 26 2000
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Trask, who submitted a new background for our Wallpaper page. Take a look! (Louis Wu 13:56:25 UTC) (permalink)
News August 25 2000
Halo Center looking for News staffers
Halo Center is currently looking for newsies... if you're interested, send Yrro some mail. Not that there's a ton to do right now... but who knows, things change. (Louis Wu 21:11:21 UTC) (permalink)
News August 24 2000
Gamasutra's old look at Trespasser... relevant?
Yesterday, we posted a news item about an interview with Seamus Blackley, the Director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Team, and we got both email and a forum post lamenting the inclusion of Blackley on the Xbox team. He's best known for his involvement in the development of Trespasser, a game released in October 1998 with real problems. Last May, Gamasutra printed a postmortem of Trespasser written by one of the game's designers, that explains clearly where the game development went wrong. A sentence near the start caught my eye:
The pie-in-the-sky concept for Trespasser was an outdoor engine with no levels, a complete rigid-body physics simulation, and behaviorally-simulated and physics-modeled dinosaurs.
The article as a whole points to more similarities between Trespasser and Halo (remember that this was written before Halo was announced), and Wyckhoff's conclusion was that
"...just as there are no successful anarchic world governments there can not be any successful development teams without management."
To the best of our knowledge, the Halo team hasn't yet filled the Producer position vacated last fall by Nathan Bitner. Definitely worth a read... and feel free to add your comments to Forensic's thread on our forum! (Louis Wu 14:52:38 UTC) (permalink)
News August 23 2000
Bungie Jumping does Hamish
Mojo reminded us that we'd forgotten his comic site, Bungie Jumping, in our links round-up yesterday. Heh... his latest comic pokes fun at a pillar of the fan community... stop by and take a look! (Bungie Jumping has been added to the Funnies section of our Links page, as well. Sorry, Mojo.) (Louis Wu 02:28:31 UTC) (permalink)
Gamecenter talks to Xbox Tech Director
Gamecenter.com interviewed Seamus Blackley, director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Team, about where Microsoft sees themselves fitting into the console market.
GC: How confident are you about Microsoft's foray into console gaming?
S. B.: We try to put 300 percent into everything we do. We're here until 10 p.m. every night. I'm never home. We have this feeling that we're coming from behind and we have to get everything right. We're always second-guessing ourselves because we need to get everything right for the worldwide launch next year. We have a great team, a great console and a great game lineup for Xbox. We think about the gamer who walks into the store and buys an Xbox and thinks, "Why am I happy I bought an Xbox?" Then we think of it as a business model.
The HBO spin: Microsoft is aware of the tenuousness of their position... there's a lot riding on the success of this platform. For us, here, if the Xbox fails, we could care less about Microsoft's loss... but what happens to Bungie?Thanks to BGH for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:19:22 UTC) (permalink)
HBO News Archive finally made functional
Thanks to all the folks who've told us how broken our news archive is... it's been fixed. Not only that, but searching has gotten easier. You can still use the search box on this front page... or you can jump over to the archive and grab a particular day, or a particular month. Finding old news was never so easy! (Louis Wu 02:12:11 UTC) (permalink)
News August 22 2000
Battleground: Halo wakes up
Woohoo! Shame on us for not noticing sooner. Battleground: Halo, dormant for a bit, is back in the saddle, with new updates, a comic, and a new bit of fan fic. We were getting nervous there... ;) (Louis Wu 21:00:47 UTC) (permalink)
Daily Radar UK speculates about the Xbox
Thanks to Haloplayers, who noticed an article at Daily Radar UK detailing the (current) specs of the Xbox. On the plus side: a scaled-down, stable version of Windows 2000, (maybe) 128 MB RAM, and a keyboard and mouse standard... This is all speculation on DR's part, but it's backed up by some educated guessing, and the current XDK. (For example... the beefed-up RAM prediction comes in part from the fact that support for virtual memory is not built in... so enough real RAM will be a priority.) One juicy rumor: nVidia, in addition to making the graphics chipset, is on board for the sound card as well. An interesting read! (Louis Wu 09:18:59 UTC) (permalink)
SETI Halo Marines fall behind
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we missed our SETI update yesterday. We'll do a 2-week update next week. In the meantime, however, the SETI Halo Marines need to realize that they're falling behind the TidBITS team... after weeks of being 4-500 units behind, the gap has now grown to over 600 units, and continues to widen. How will you find the Covenant at this pace? (Louis Wu 09:11:00 UTC) (permalink)
News August 21 2000
HBO FAQ updated
Thanks mightily to Mark Levin, who has updated the HBO FAQ to reflect recent information. Tons of good stuff... stop by and take a look! (If you want to nitpick, do so in this thread on our forum.) (Louis Wu 23:23:38 UTC) (permalink)
ShugaShack wonders about a dumbed-down Halo
Kudos to Harry Al-Shakarchi, who snagged this from ShugaShack (who, in turn, got it from Telefragged)... The latest issue of the British gaming mag Edge has an article on the Xbox, and a sidebar contains comments from developers about the platform. Joseph Staten was quoted as saying the following:
"Throughout Halo's design process, we've had to face tough choices about limiting the game's scope to accommodate lower-end PC systems. Now that we're making the game for the X-Box first and foremost, we haven't thrown away our old performance guidelines, but we certainly feel a lot more comfortable committing to high-poly models, more detailed textures, a litany of shader effects, inane physics - all the really sexy things that X-Box is capable of. Tackling a game as ambitious as Halo, it feels really good to have a clear hardware target. Even better, one that allows the whole team to create stuff that's a lot more complex than we originally planned."
Which makes one wonder... will the PC and Mac versions be up to the same level of quality as the Xbox version? And if so, will the system requirements be much higher (relatively speaking) than Bungie's been known for in the past? Thanks, Harry. (Louis Wu 22:06:20 UTC) (permalink)
German meta-clansite Germany Clan comes online
Rockhound sends word of a new Clansite, Germany Clan. This one's a bit different from other clansites... it seems to be a meta-site, a gathering place for German clans in preparation for clanwars against other nationalities. Divisions are to be 6 to 8 soldiers... if you speak German, feel free to correct any misimpressions I've gotten from Babelfish. :) (Louis Wu 20:35:15 UTC) (permalink)
News August 20 2000
Links page brought up to speed
Thanks to Pr@iler, of Halo.ch, who gently reminded us that we've mentioned quite a few new Halo pages in our news in the past couple of months, but have been lax about adding them to the Links page. Hopefully, we're updated now. (The General Sites section has been alphabetized, as well.) (Louis Wu 16:40:47 UTC) (permalink)
Banners page updated
Thanks to fire phoenix, who whipped up a new banner for our Banners page. Nicely done... go check it out! (Louis Wu 14:51:55 UTC) (permalink)
News August 19 2000
CoD Halo-News (in German) comes online
Thanks to MrEiffel65, who posted on our forum about a new German Halo site, CoD Halo-News. (No relation to the German site HaloNews.) Looks an awful lot like Battleground: Halo to me... Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:04:16 UTC) (permalink)
News August 18 2000
Wallpapers page updated
Thanks to Brad Custer, of Custer's Corner, who sent in a new desktop for our Wallpapers page. This one comes in more resolutions than any I've seen yet, you should find a version that fits your desktop. (Louis Wu 13:34:12 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction page updated
$erial-ki!!A is back in the writing game, and has released chapter 6 of his Halo work-in-progress, this one titled "Mutiny and Dissension." You'll find it on our Fan Fiction page. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 13:18:45 UTC) (permalink)
News August 17 2000
Stomped gets the lowdown on gMAX
Last week, we mentioned an upcoming product called 3d studio gMAX, a 3D modelling program that Discreet (makers of 3d studio max) plan to distribute free to modmaking communities. Thanks again to Picky, who noticed that Stomped interviewed a Discreet exec about gMAX at QuakeCon earlier this month, and quite a bit more info about the program and its distribution was made known. It'll likely be available next spring (which means the Halo team will have plenty of time to create a Game Pack for it, if they so choose), and Discreet hopes it will both invigorate the already thriving mod community and create sales for gMAX's big brother, 3d studio max. Check out the interview! (Louis Wu 18:23:52 UTC) (permalink)
Matt says Enough
People are still whining about Bungie selling out to Microsoft, and for the most part, Bungie is still being good-natured about it. Every once in a while, though, they feel the need to respond to a particularly egregious attack. This attack was made on the Rampancy.net forum a couple of days ago... and after a rather large number of fan responses, Matt weighed in with a very nicely written (but slightly bitter) response, here. Max followed up with another, um... serious post. Or not. The whole thread is worth a read... in between the (NT) posts, there's some good reasoning. (Louis Wu 12:49:24 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Chris Hanel, who sent in a new desktop for our Wallpaper page. Nice compositing job! (Louis Wu 12:07:46 UTC) (permalink)
News August 16 2000
CGW September issue a bit behind
Mhaddy =PN= writes to let us know that he's put up scans of a Halo article from the September 2000 issue of Computer Gaming World at the Junkyard. (There are also scans of a Tribes 2 article, and a funny column that should be appreciated by gamers who are parents everywhere.) The information isn't new (in fact, it's no longer even accurate), but there is some good background on the purchase, and it's a great example of how far behind the print media really are. THIS is why we've suddenly gotten a deluge of forum posters and emailers begging Bungie to reconsider and create a Mac/PC version. Thanks, Mhaddy! (Louis Wu 12:54:57 UTC) (permalink)
Marty O'Donnell Interview at MacCentral
Thanks to TomeOne (via email) and edge (via our forum) for pointing out an interview with Marty O'Donnell at MacCentral. A snippet:
MG: What's involved in creating the alien language we hear in the trailer? It certainly manages to sound otherworldly, but also feels like there's dialogue and meaning, as opposed to just cool sounding noise.
MOD: Well, for this trailer we were in kind of a rush so the alien language is not necessarily the final content that you'll hear in the actual game. I'm not going to give away all my production secrets, but what you hear was based on the English language and I believe that we will actually try and develop a true alien language for the game. One of the cool things that the trailer shows is that not only will the Covenant have their own language, but they can also speak and understand English, if they need to.
Read the whole thing... as usual, Marty's got a lot to say! (Louis Wu 00:48:44 UTC) (permalink)
News August 15 2000
Gameplay info, hot from the press corps
Oops, nearly missed this one. Matt answered a few questions about gameplay on our forum... solid info about the mounted gun on the jeep, on the jeep's winch, and on the player's interaction with the dropship. Read it for yourself! Thanks, Matt. (Louis Wu 01:27:38 UTC) (permalink)
It's a small Halo after all
Bad news for ultramarathoners... the old pledge of being able to circumnavigate the entire Halo gets shot down by Matt in our forum. Too good to be true, anyway. Nice to hear that Nathan's promise of no computer-generated terrain is still good, though... (Louis Wu 00:33:45 UTC) (permalink)
News August 14 2000
Halo SETI Marines 7 day stats posted
The Halo SETI Marines continue to dog the heels of the TidBITS team... 500 units still separates them from position 46 in the Club Rankings. Welcome to new team members Marvin, Master X, and MKULTRA... hopefully, with these (and several others that didn't make the top 400 this time around) we can pass them soon! DarthFlounder takes la Crunch Honneur again, and butch takedown climbs past 46 team members to garner the Frogblast Award. Details can be found on the 7 day stats page. (Louis Wu 15:16:07 UTC) (permalink)
News August 13 2000
luxor leaving Halo Vault
We'd like to take a moment to wish luxor, of Halo Vault, all the best in whatever he chooses to do... it seems he's leaving IGN. Good luck, luxor! (Louis Wu 23:13:09 UTC) (permalink)
News August 12 2000
More starpics for the geographically minded
Dispatcher has pointed us to another pair of images (that he made, this time) pertaining to the celestial positioning of the Halo. You'll find them here (a view of the close galaxy, showing the relative positions of Iota Horologii and the Galactic Core) and here (an enhanced terminal pic from Marathon 2, showing (sort of) the relative positioning of Tau Ceti, Earth, the Pfhor homeworld, and Lh'owon. These were snagged off the Rampancy Hotline server, and referenced in this post. (Louis Wu 10:17:01 UTC) (permalink)
SiliconDream's Starmap mirrored here
Okay, we haven't asked permission for this, and you should really read the original post for explanations of all the details... but we've received a number of notes that the starmap SiliconDream posted yesterday is unreachable in its original location, so we've taken the liberty of mirroring it here. (If this is a problem, Sili, let us know... we'll take it down.) Read the R.net post, look at the pic... then bother Bungie when the world of Halo doesn't match Sili's painstaking research. (Louis Wu 01:32:38 UTC) (permalink)
Wazzup, Halo Vault!
Thanks to luxor of Halo Vault, who has mirrored the Wazzup movie... if you're having trouble getting it from our servers, try their (much) bigger pipes. Absolutely worth a look... (Louis Wu 01:27:12 UTC) (permalink)
News August 11 2000
Halo - True FINALLY available for everyone
Well, quality has dropped a bit, but FINALLY it's viewable on PCs. Sorry for the delay, and sorry for the quality drop. One of these days, we'll figure out why moving video files from PCs to Macs and back is so difficult... in the meantime, enjoy this spoof of the famous Budweiser ad. (15.4 MB, requires QuickTime 4.0 or better) (Louis Wu 18:17:57 UTC) (permalink)
Daily Radar looks at the Xbox XDK
Harry Al-Shakarchi sends in this link to a Daily Radar article about the Xbox XDK (Xbox Development Kit), which includes the current version of what the Xbox looks like. GM J. Allard warns that this won't be the final version of the product, though. Still, interesting to see where it stands now! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:33:07 UTC) (permalink)
It's full of stars! says SiliconDream
It's full of stars! SiliconDream has put together a starmap showing Earth, Tau Ceti, iota Horologii and HD 177830, plus the directions and distances from Earth of the Galactic Core and the Pfhor homeworld. Head on over to his site to see the systems.jpg. More details can be found here. You can blame Miguel and Hamish for starting all this. Corruption of the youth we call it.
The HBO Spin: SiliconDream has way to much time on his hands... but he may be the next Carl Sagan so don't knock him. (Wirehead 06:53:25 UTC) (permalink)
I, Cringley on X Blocks
You heretics will burn! Daniel points us to an I, Cringley report from The Pulpet about X Blocks... that's Xbox for you faithless lot. Olde Bob knows a thing or two though and rightly confesses that Xbox will only deliver if it has "kick-ass games that appear first on the X-Box". Here's the quote:
Of course, only time will tell. And the major uncertainty left is in the games, themselves. If Microsoft can convince developers to deliver some kick-ass games that appear first on the X-Box, well then it might have achance after all.
The HBO Spin: In 12 months time we'll all be playing Halo: The Sims. (Crux Fidelis 06:31:40 UTC) (permalink)
Apple employs them young and hot
Matt Soell wades in on our forums about an overzealous Apple employee with vague memories of timelines... sounds a bit Marathonish to me. Matt obviously hasn't got his G4 Cube yet... just like the rest of us. Power to the Cube baby. (Wirehead 06:18:29 UTC) (permalink)
Matt weighs in on the Xbox/Mac timing thing
Kudos to fire phoenix, who wrote to Matt Soell for clarification of yesterday's eNews tidbit (suggesting that the Mac version would be released simultaneously with the Xbox version). You can find Matt's answer here at Halo Center. (Louis Wu 00:57:09 UTC) (permalink)
News August 10 2000
Halo to be released for the Mac at the same time as Xbox?
Daniel Chace sends us this word:
Here is a little quote from an apple eNews email I received today. It seems (according to this) that at least the Macintosh Version will be released the same time as the X-Box version. Here is an excerpt.
3. More Games Coming to the Mac
...............................Game enthusiasts didn't have to wait long for the good news.
During his keynote address, Steve Jobs welcomed Ed Fries onto the Macworld stage. Vice President of Games for Microsoft, Fries reassured the audience. Yes, Microsoft certainly will release Halo for the Mac. In fact, it will be released for the Mac at the same time it is released for X-Box, Microsoft's new videogame console.
Let's see if we can get a confirmation to this statement from Bungie Studios....
Ok so who's going to ask Matt? ;) (Ding 19:19:50 UTC) (permalink)
Matt says no answers yet
According to Matt Soell in aforum post there is no answers as yet to the questions about the creation and use of Halo Mods. There is also noanswer to the question about the inter-playability between PC/Mac and X-Box systems (Ding 18:27:10 UTC) (permalink)
Yrro back at Halo Center
More Halo Center news... Yrro decided to return as site maintainer. A short break was all that was needed. (Louis Wu 18:06:35 UTC) (permalink)
Haloplayers not hosting any more, Halo Center still is
Haloplayers announced yesterday that due to server load, they're going to discontinue their site hosting services for new applicants for the time being. This does not affect existing sites (nor does it affect any sites already accepted but not up yet). And Halo Center would like to remind you that they have their own hosting program, so if you're looking for a site, check 'em out! (Louis Wu 18:04:40 UTC) (permalink)
News August 9 2000
Autodesk to release 3d studio gMAX free to gamers
Kudos to Picky, who noticed that Discreet, a division of Autodesk, announced at SIGGRAPH a couple of weeks ago that they'd be releasing a pared-down version of 3d studio max, called 3d studio gMAX, free to gaming communities everywhere, for modmaking. Halo mods just got easier! The full press release is here. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:11:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Center still has staff members
Fire Phoenix wanted to make it clear that he was still working on Halo Center (although not as site maintainer)... the site's not closing down, it's just lost its site maintainer. Apologies to anyone who misinterpreted my comment about there being noone in the position of maintainer as meaning there was noone working on the site. (Louis Wu 12:58:25 UTC) (permalink)
The PC vs. Console Debate.
The PC vs. Console Debate. GameSpy have a report on John Carmack's (co-founder and lead programmer of id Software) annual QuakeCon speech which covered among other things the PC versus console debate, mod making, and the new DOOM game. Here's a quote:
"Is the PC dead?" It was a question Carmack had been asked several times by interviewers throughout the weekend ... and he wanted to give some of his thoughts on the issue. He began by explaining that a lot of the industry has been wowed by what they've seen from the console marketing campaigns, thinking that upcoming consoles would be so powerful that they'd completely overtake PCs in popularity and render them obsolete. Carmack, however, gave several arguments as to why the PC still has along life ahead of itself alongside consoles.
Good read and great to hear The Man's views. (Ding 06:42:46 UTC) (permalink)
News August 8 2000
Halo Center loses its site maintainer
Yrro has resigned as site maintainer of Halo Center. At the moment, that leaves... nobody there. Ouch. All of us at HBO wish Yrro good luck in whatever he chooses to do next. (Louis Wu 16:48:46 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI 14 day stats posted
This page was compiled yesterday, but I ran out of time before I could upload it... the Halo SETI Marines continue to hold steady at about 500 units behind the TidBITS team, although SETI hasn't updated the Club Rankings. Darth Flounder takes la Crunch Honneur, and abotani rockets 51 positions to snag the Frogblast award... details can be found on the 14 day stats page. (Louis Wu 13:29:47 UTC) (permalink)
Paging vepa, paging vepa...
To vepa, who has now sent the same desktop image twice... please send along a valid email address, I have some questions about your art before I can put it up. Thanks. vepa@microsoft.com bounces. (Louis Wu 13:29:16 UTC) (permalink)
News August 7 2000
Halogame.com comes online
Jason Rachford writes to tell us of another new Halo site on the scene... Halogame.com. Still being worked on... but it's fast and lean. Worth a look! (Louis Wu 00:54:37 UTC) (permalink)
News August 6 2000
Dutch clan Clades online
Oops, we missed another Dutch clan (thanks again to HP): Clades. They claim to be the FIRST Dutch Halo clan... seems like a fine claim to me. (Louis Wu 19:04:27 UTC) (permalink)
Death 'n Destruction now online
Seen at haloplayers... Seems there's a Dutch Halo squad called Death 'n Destruction, and they're recruiting. Stop on by! (Louis Wu 18:35:59 UTC) (permalink)
Halo number 3 on most wanted list in German PCG
Christoph Schmidt writes to tell us that Halo has moved up to the number 3 position in the "Most Wanted Games" list in the September 2000 issue of the German edition of PC Games. Guess the buyout didn't affect German gamers as much as American ones... (That issue went to press after the buyout news, but before the MacWorld announcement.) (Louis Wu 18:32:06 UTC) (permalink)
News August 5 2000
A new Halo Command comes online
The old Halo Command (which was declared dead a couple of months ago) got revived yesterday... just in time to compete with a NEW site called Halo Command, in the UK. The UK site has no relation to the US one, and seems to have had a bit of work put into it. Take a look! (Louis Wu 15:49:40 UTC) (permalink)
Marty may need to carry a gun
The Bungie crew seems to be settling in comfortably in their new digs, as evidenced by the banter in this thread. Good to see Matt and Marty back at each others' throats! (Louis Wu 10:40:32 UTC) (permalink)
Stealth Assault Force now recruiting
SAF WarMinion points out on our forum that Stealth Assault Force, a Halo squad, is now recruiting. Looking for a Human squad? Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 09:57:16 UTC) (permalink)
News August 4 2000
Once again, Halo is coming to Mac/PC
For some reason, we've been getting a ton of mail recently asking us to start a petition to bring Halo to the Mac (or PC). For those who are getting their info from print magazines that were put together 2 months ago, I point you to this announcement (for Macs) and this one (for PCs). Halo IS coming to personal computers, not just the Xbox. (Louis Wu 20:40:37 UTC) (permalink)
News August 3 2000
Marty says narrator is Derek Procell
Marty O'Donnell (through Matt Soell) divulges the name of the narrator of the E3 Trailer Teaser - Derek Procell. A quick web search turns up a Country/Folk singer with the right vocal style... nice to put a face to the name! (Louis Wu 08:54:56 UTC) (permalink)
News August 2 2000
CG group in the works
Matt Soell, online from Seattle and posting up a storm, confirms on our forum that Joe Staten and Marty O'Donnell will be heading up a new team devoted to making cool cutscenes and trailers. It was only a matter of time... the Halo engine looks fantastic for making gorgeous cutscenes in a fraction of the time that it would take with standard CG techniques. (Kudos to R.net, who picked up on this yesterday.) (Louis Wu 16:55:27 UTC) (permalink)
Extra Bungie fans at MW
Joseph Haake writes to tell us that several Bungie fans were inadvertently caught on camera in one of the bungie.org MacWorld NY 2000 images. You can see the annotated image here. Too bad we didn't know... we'd have stopped by to say hello! (Louis Wu 16:45:00 UTC) (permalink)
News August 1 2000
GameCenter discusses the Xbox
GameCenter put up an article with some more details about the Xbox yesterday. They're ramping up development right now:
"We shipped our first XDK, which is the software development kit for developers," explained Bach. "By the end of the summer we will have shipped over a thousand of those to well over 200 developers that will be working on the project in various ways. That's a big milestone for us, because that's the tool that people are going to use to start creating these games. The first XDK is basically a PC development system, very much like what most people do when they start. And then over time that XDK will migrate into a full console system, which will be the full Xbox, as we complete all the components."
The HBO Spin: with development actually occurring on a PC (at least at first), it's possible that the gap between the Xbox version and the PC version might be less than people thought. Thanks to TomeOne for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:31:31 UTC) (permalink)
Small flash movie - old marine to new
PunkRocker points out on our forum that he's made a new flash movie transitioning between the new and the old marine. Worth a look... I had trouble seeing it with Netscape Communicator for mac... so if you do, too, try IE, or a PC. (Louis Wu 15:20:52 UTC) (permalink)
| August 2000 | |
