About This Site
Daily Musings
News
News Archive
Site Resources
Concept Art
Halo Bulletins
Interviews
Movies
Music
Miscellaneous
Mailbag
HBO PAL
Game Fun
The Halo Story
Tips and Tricks
Fan Creations
Wallpaper
Misc. Art
Fan Fiction
Comics
Logos
Banners
Press Coverage
Halo Reviews
Halo 2 Previews
Press Scans
Community
HBO Forum

Clan HBO Forum
ARG Forum
Links
Admin
Submissions
Uploads
Contact

December 2003

December 2003 Archived News

News December 31 2003

Happy New Year - Be with your loved ones!

The year is winding down, and for some of you it's already 2004. For me it's not, so I'd like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a most joyous new year. For some reason I've been especially nostalgic of late (I blame Wu's work on library.bungie.org which makes it easier to go in the time travel machine here at HBO) and I marvel at how long we've been at this, together, all of us. Playing such a cool game and making new friends and forging strong relationships regardless of physical distance. A few years ago I would never have been traveling to Connecticut on a semi-regular basis, yet now it's a done deal and I count Louis Wu as one of my dearest friends. I will follow him to the ends of this earth, on our mission to play fun games and share a laugh together. Isn't that such a fine and noble quest? I think so.

I've made many other friends among the Wu LAN party regulars: KP, nof, Konrad9, Blackstar, Spenser, Juggler, etc. Then there are all my new NY Halo playing buddies, like Jynx, Fuhrman, M Scope, the guys at King Games, etc.

And we here at HBO are of course grateful to Bungie for making themselves available to us throughout the year. Sketchfactor himself is to be showered with kudos for keeping us all informed of the goings on within the walls of Bungie Studios, truly one of the most successful arms within Microsoft Game Studios. And now with the advent of the PC and Mac versions of Halo, we also would like to thank the dear folks at Gearbox and Destineer/MacSoft for making a dream actually come true!

Of course, the forum itself has been fertile ground for new relationships, and there are many, too many folks for me to list here that I consider good people and that I hope to someday meet up with. Even though I lay down the Ban Hammer from time to time, I really am not as grumpy as you may think. I love any and all communication we can share together as a group. We are all in this together. And I absolutely am thrilled that soon, hopefully very soon we will all have another venue, Halo 2, to meet up and share some ammo clips as we fight the virtual enemy.

Now having said all that, I am also very mindful of how we have other aspects of our lives besides this one little corner of the bitstream. We have our families, our 'real life' friends, and the neighborhood that we live in. So in the spirit of staying in touch with the real, physical world, I would like you all to indulge me:

In a few minutes, I'm going to shut down the forum for a few hours!

Now don't get all in a huff. Take the opportunity to shut off your computer, breath some fresh air, and relax. It'll be back soon enough.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

note: I haven't actually tried shutting down the forum and I know I have the notes here somewhere on how to do it, but just in case something doesn't work, not to worry, I'll leave the forum as is.

Vote early and often
Rabid Bungie.Net updater SketchFactor has put out the call for Halo fans to make their preferences known at the MTV Ultimate Video Game Countdown, so check out Sketch's article, then go vote! And vote again! And again! And again! (mnemesis 04:45:31 UTC) (permalink)

Maximize your Online Game
Not living up to your full carnage potential? Never fear, Bungie is here! SketchFactor checks in over on Bungie.Net with Sketch's Halo Mac/PC Players Companion Volume 1. There's a lot of good info in there, people, so give it a good read! (mnemesis 04:33:11 UTC) (permalink)

We wants it!
Ack! Bungie Comics has been updated with a new strip! Also, check out the small article with a few tidbits of info about Frankie (who wrote the strip), and elusive artist Zo. Next week? Hmmm... (mnemesis 04:31:46 UTC) (permalink)

Auld AIquaintance
As we wrap up 2003, the MC is desperately trying to find a New Year's date in today's One One Se7en. What an opportunist... (mnemesis 03:21:18 UTC) (permalink)

So THAT'S How You Get In
Uh oh, looks like the Elites are recruiting in today's Halo: Resolution. (mnemesis 03:09:49 UTC) (permalink)

News December 30 2003

Mutants
Todays guest One One Se7en looks at a granmas... er, marangas... ah, you know what I mean. (mnemesis 16:50:16 UTC) (permalink)

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon!
Benjamin Franklin had it wrong. Certain in this life are death, taxes, and fan fiction.

• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Nine, by Agent Shade
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Seven, by LordofDestruction
• Marooned Chapter Ten, by Steve Ollett
• Battle for the Norah: Part Thirteen, by Sterfrye36
• Galaxy 07 - Part 7 - Regimes, by Jillybean the Impatient
• Specters (Part 2), by MadJackal
• The Fall of Fate: Special Edition (Destiny-Freedom), by 'Nosolee

(mnemesis 08:04:28 UTC) (permalink)

News December 29 2003

Oh, what the hell.
Small update at the HSP, courtesy of yours truly. (mnemesis 22:01:29 UTC) (permalink)

The Twenty Sixth Century Equivalent Of A Tomato
And, of course, the day wouldn't be complete without a new One One Se7en. So! Day's over, apparently! (mnemesis 16:54:12 UTC) (permalink)

Down On Your Luck
Apparently, "comics," inspired by Halo, are all the rage right now. Here's a new Halo: Resolution to start your day off with a smile. A tiny, pixelated smile. I think. (mnemesis 06:53:15 UTC) (permalink)

Stuff to read.
Ah. Well, okay. Here's one of those update-thingies that Wu usually does. These would be Fan Fiction er, things, so go ahead and read 'em! Okay. So there you go.

• A Conclusive History of the United Nations Space Command: Chapter Four: The Human-Covenant War, by witelancer
• Jake A Model IV: Episode Three: The Trinity, by Slipping Knot
• Tides of Destruction (Part 7, Rolling Thunder), by teemus
• Battle for Tectron: Chapter 5, by Helljumper
• Halo 2 Fight For Earth: Out of the Frying Pan. . . , by HunterKiller
• Jake A Model IV: Episode Four: , by Slipping Knot
• Forced Betrayal (Chapter 2: Escape and Sabatoge), by CoLd BlooDed
• Returning the Favor, by Mainevent

Heck, that was easy! I might even update again. Someday. (mnemesis 06:21:43 UTC) (permalink)

News December 28 2003

Bling Bling.
Got a chance to log in to the net for the first time in a couple of days... and I discovered that some of the update tools I left for the other maintainers are... well, busted. Here's Sunday's One One Se7en, created by kubix; hopefully, it won't be the last one you see this week. Gotta head out again... (Louis Wu 23:48:25 UTC) (permalink)

News December 27 2003

n00b in Charge
Final post from me, before leaving for the airport: today's Guest One One Se7en comes from puma (now known as someone else on our forum). To get the context, you need to go back a couple of months... (Louis Wu 11:45:57 UTC) (permalink)

More Desktops For You
Continuing the clearout trend (well, ending it for now), here are 7 desktops submitted to the Wallpaper section in the last few days. This is the last image update for a week or so. If you submit content in the next few days, it'll get dealt with... but not until early January. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 11:43:40 UTC) (permalink)

Get 'em before they get you.
We cleared the Miscellaneous Art queue yesterday... but there was a new submission that is worth getting out there. Germain Couët submitted the second of his 'Hiding Spartans' images; it's a shot with 5 hidden Spartans in it, and it's up to you to find them. There aren't any prizes, it's just fun! (Louis Wu 11:23:05 UTC) (permalink)

Clearing the Story Queue
A small Fan Fiction update - but it's my last for a while, so I figured that clearing the queue made sense. (There will continue to be updates in my absence... but maybe not as frequently.) Six pieces for you today:

• Spartan-X Chapters 2 &3, by SilentStrider
• Halo Zero 2 / p9 / Lost Cause?, by nicholas
• ES06 - Eternal Sunder (part 06): 900,000 Years Ago , by Wado
• Tides of Destruction (Part 6, Camp), by teemus
• Forced Betrayal (Chapter 1: Early Retreat), by CoLd BlooDed
• Specters (Part 1), by MadJackal

Enjoy! (Louis Wu 11:14:09 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Review at xlr8yourmac
Accelerate Your Mac has reviewed Mac Halo - the single-player part of it, anyway. Again, one of the biggest complaints is system requirements... but this reviewer was also unhappy about the speed with which he mastered the game. (I'd guess he ran through on Normal, and hasn't figured out yet that Legendary is an entirely different ball of wax...) There'll be an update for this when the 1.03 patch for multiplayer is released, but in the meantime, check out a linked page of screenshots; they do a fantastic job of showing the advantage of Full Screen Anti-Aliasing (something that actually isn't available on the PC version; this is Mac-only). My recommendation is to load all three shots in a given series, to get your browser to cache them... and THEN cycle through them, looking at differences. (Louis Wu 10:51:26 UTC) (permalink)

You gotta love that plasma grenade.
Cowled_Wolfe created a small, soundless stop-action movie with Halo action figures... he submitted it in WMV format (243K), but you can also grab a QuickTime version (256K) if you'd rather. He says a longer one (3 minutes, maybe), with sound and a better framerate, is in the works. Comments can go in this forum thread. (Louis Wu 10:38:52 UTC) (permalink)

CobaltNova - reopening for business?
Hehe - yesterday, we posted a news article about a new poll being run by CobaltNova (the 7th Column chapter), looking for predictions about 2004. I wondered, at the time, if this was an interesting way to re-enter the Halo community after the sudden shutdown of operations last month - and an entry by CobaltNova himself suggests it might be. "CobaltNova.com will become a repository for Halo based art with the announcement of monthly prizes for the best work." Hmm... and if you VISIT CobaltNova.com, you'll find a new design, plenty of brand-new news, and (non-functioning, but visible) a section of the navbar devoted to 'Halo Artisans'. Way to slip it in under the radar, Emil. :) (Louis Wu 09:57:23 UTC) (permalink)

Chiastic Style of Halo
Dispatcher has written up an interesting analysis of the Halo storyline, with an eye to explaining some of the repetition in level design as intentional, rather than practical necessity. An intriguing viewpoint... (Louis Wu 09:33:25 UTC) (permalink)

More Movie Spoofs
It's only been up a day.. but there are already two new entries (the last two) on the Halo Movie Spoofs page. These are the last two that will be added for a little bit... but never fear, if you submit a new one in the next week or so, we'll get to it eventually! Update: I lied - there's a third one today, from Ducain. THAT'S the last for a while. Sorry. (Louis Wu 09:11:31 UTC) (permalink)

I Get His Helmet!
Halo Babies put up their second strip of the week last night... I dunno, I found it hilarious! (There's also a pretty slick new Wallpaper known as 'Defcon Zero' in the Member Content section... worth signing up for, if you haven't already!) (Louis Wu 08:44:59 UTC) (permalink)

News December 26 2003

Halo websites, upcoming
We're way behind on mentioning Halo websites. One such site doesn't even exist yet; Kyrceck posted a note to our forum a week ago, describing a website he's trying to create, called The 7th Revolution. It sounds very ambitious... but ambition is good. The post lists the sections they'd like to have, eventually, and the positions they need to fill in order to realize this goal. Give it a read, and contact Kryceck if you're interested in helping! (Louis Wu 19:25:22 UTC) (permalink)

2004 Halo Predictions Wanted
Emildux has begun a forum thread (which links to a Seventh Column Chapter forum) to get feedback from the community on what we think 2004 will bring, with respect to Halo. Visit the thread(s), make a prediction, and a year from now, you can see how close you came! (Louis Wu 19:20:39 UTC) (permalink)

Halo-Spoofed Movie Posters
Earlier this week, we reported that MacGamer had announced the winners of their 'Put the Master Chief in a Hollywood Movie' Photoshop contest. Some people were surprised by the winners... and after we received some submissions from folks who didn't win, we were, too. We've set up a section to display these spoofs; if more come in, they'll be added to this section. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 17:44:49 UTC) (permalink)

Miscellaneous Art - lots of it
In an effort to stave off overload when vacation ends, I'm attempting to clear out some of the queues right now. First up is the Miscellaneous Art queue; there were 16 items built up. They range from simple sketches to modified screenshots to very funny jokes. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 17:01:11 UTC) (permalink)

The Ghost Of Halo Yet To Come.
Rounding out the comic strip updates (for HBO, at least), One One Se7en finishes up the Tale begun on Monday... it's a good thing lawyers in Dickens' day aren't like today's sharks. (Louis Wu 02:10:56 UTC) (permalink)

Yep. Suzie would make a good Cortana.
Calvin and Halo, as well, has a new strip out today. It's number 13, but since the first one is numbered '0', this is actually the fourteenth strip since the series began. Appropriate, no? (Louis Wu 02:08:35 UTC) (permalink)

Still Makin'em How They Used To, Eh?
Halo: Resolution finishes out the week with its Christmas theme... and it takes a shot at Razors. Oh, yeah. (Louis Wu 02:06:16 UTC) (permalink)

Post-Christmas Reading
A passel of Fan Fiction pieces have been submitted in the past 48 hours - 21, to be precise:

• And now all hell will break loose Part 9, by metallicafan
• The Second War: Part 1, First Encounters, by FOrunnER
• Old Style: Memories, by Horror
• The Final War: Enemy Battleground[5:1], by Awacar
• The Final War: Enemy Battleground[5:2], by Awacar
• The Final War: Enemy Battleground[5:3], by Awacar
• Christmas on the Front Lines, by Mainevent
• A short story: Mathew's tale, by Helljumper
• Life Workin for HBO, Part Four, by Hunter_Killer
• The Adventure of Monitior 090 (comedy), by Awacar
• Life Workin for HBO, Part Five, by Hunter_Killer
• Whiskey 239 c1, by Cohenour
• Christmas on the Frontlines 2, by Dispraiser
• The Fall of Fate: Special Edition (Parts 7-8), by 'Nosolee
• The Harvest Campaign Chapter 4, by Fleet Admiral
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Eight, by Agent Shade
• A Spartan's Path - Chapter 10, by Myth
• A Spartan's Path - 11, by Myth
• Tides of Desturction (Part 5, The Hook and the Fish), by teemus
• Counterstrike Chapter 1, by Chief-117
• On A Pale Horse: The Escape, by Silent Hunter

What are you waiting for? Grab some leftover eggnog and get reading! (Louis Wu 02:04:11 UTC) (permalink)

Administrivia, BGH poll
Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I'd like to point out that I'm headed out for vacation, beginning tomorrow... so although there will be others minding the store, a good chunk of what's been submitted recently (as well as what GETS submitted in the next few days) will be held until early January to be dealt with. Please don't send it again if you think we've ignored something - please, just be patient during this holiday season. And now, without further ado, a few items that showed up over this past day. First on the agenda: Battleground: Halo is running a new poll. They want to know "Will Halo: PC survive/thrive once Halo: 2 reaches the shelves?" Chime in on their front page! (Louis Wu 02:00:36 UTC) (permalink)

News December 25 2003

And to all...

M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S !

From the HBO crew and our families, to you and yours, we wish you the merriest of holiday seasons. Pax.

Our tradition for Christmas is to take the entire day completely off... but this year, we're going to break the rules a little; we have a very special Christmas wish from Stuntmutt we'd like to pass along. And we'd like to point out that there were a number of last-minute updates on Wednesday; if you missed them, go check 'em now.

We'll be back updating on Friday, the 26th.

News December 24 2003

Home(front) for the Holidays
If you're looking for things to do this Christmas Eve, go visit Homefront; the Battlefield 1942 mod has now been released! Boatloads of mirrors, so grabbing it shouldn't be a problem. (Someone should send us a report of how it is. We won't post it until Friday, but you should send it anyway. :) ) (Louis Wu 23:07:29 UTC) (permalink)

Merry Merry!
Very, very cool - Rafi Chavez, otherwise known as Superman, created a rockin' Christmas wish for the HBO community - jump in and say hi! (For those who don't keep up on these things, Rafi is the son of Miguel Chavez, Bungie's Number One Fan - and Master of BS.) (Louis Wu 23:04:50 UTC) (permalink)

Shoestring Halo
Merry Christmas, from Jonah - he found a copy of Halo at EBGames.com for $20. Can't beat that! (Louis Wu 22:54:11 UTC) (permalink)

THAT took a long time.
Finally. rapture completed the absurdly long-threaded contest started by Gutupio a week ago... I'm guessing the answer's gonna tick off some of the contestants. Reasoning coming later today (keep an eye on the thread, if you're curious). Company arrives in an hour; I'm offline for a while. (Louis Wu 15:40:47 UTC) (permalink)

Mac Halo Review at MacGamer
Holy missed opportunities, Batman! Somehow, I managed to overlook a massive review of Mac Halo over at MacGamer about a week ago. Corey Tamas gave it a 99% when all was said and done. PC reviewers have almost universally complained about performance, and have downgraded the PC version accordingly. MacGamer claims that the Mac version runs up to 25% faster than its Windows counterpart (I'm not sure how this was measured, given that it's hard to find reference platforms to compare) - so a much higher rating for the Mac version seems reasonable. There are also 60 (count 'em, 60) new screenshots to look at; some of the multiplayer ones show the difference between how chat is shown on the two platforms. Worth a read... sorry I missed it! (And where were the REST of you macheads, anyway?) (Louis Wu 12:26:25 UTC) (permalink)

Nightmare Armor - now complete
We got an update from Webshift, of Nightmare Armor; the full suit of armor (unpainted) is now available to be ordered. Check their front page for a picture of the entire suit (in pieces), and the Store page for order info. They have 8 suits in the works right now, and all 8 will be finished within the next month. (They'll all be different colors.) Man, I wish I had more disposable income... (Louis Wu 09:18:55 UTC) (permalink)

Of Banshees, and Winning
vector40, once a prominent member of the Halo community, has returned with a vengeance because of the release of the Mac version, and re-entrance is marked with an article on Banshee flight tactics. It's been posted to the Junkyard, Subnova, and Rampancy.net - but only the Subnova version isn't actually visible yet. Worth a read; at the moment, he's competing only against folks playing on 1.02 servers, but even on 1.03 servers, there aren't THAT many people implementing some of these concepts. (Louis Wu 09:13:21 UTC) (permalink)

The Ghost of Halo Present.
The second of Stuntmutt's Christmas-themed One One Se7en episodes is up... and he's STILL taking shots at poor Halo PC. Ouch. (Louis Wu 03:29:02 UTC) (permalink)

He ain't askin' for much...
Narcogen has posted the second of his Narc's Retorts over on Rampancy.net; this one is titled 'A Christmas Wish To Bungie'. It's long... very long... but boils down to a hope that access to raw XBL statistics will be possible in the future. (I'm pretty sure it's a hope with a chance of being answered.) Go read it! (Louis Wu 03:26:47 UTC) (permalink)

Must Be Some Serious Party!
Today's Halo: Resolution continues the holiday theme... sort of. Gettin' funky... (Louis Wu 03:16:39 UTC) (permalink)

CPL - a Wrapup
A massive CPL report was posted over at Bungie.net earlier... somehow I missed it. :( A good read; congrats to the winners! Go check it out. (Thanks to Hamid Djangi for poking me.) (Louis Wu 01:06:14 UTC) (permalink)

The Bungie Factor - now on the web
Back in June, The Discovery Channel aired a special called 'The X Factor' (we posted a press release for it on June 16). Since then, it's aired a number of times (and, indeed, will air again, on Discovery Times, this morning, at 2 am, and again tomorrow, Christmas Day, at 10 am and 6 pm) - but a web version has been elusive... until now. (Dan Chosich created a beautiful one when it first aired, but yanked it because of legal concerns, and since then, we've had some difficulty contacting the legal department of the Discovery Channel.) Thanks to the great help of Jim McQuillan, the filmmaker behind the special itself, we can finally bring you a hi-res, gorgeous version of the Bungie portion of this special. It's a 6 minute clip, in QuickTime format, with a DV-quality screensize of 720x480, and a filesize of about 92 mb. We currently have mirrors up on Mythica.org and files.bungie.org, and Two Degrees has once again seeded their P2P network, for those looking for the fastest downloads. For people who might be slightly more bandwidth-challenged, we've also created a 360x240 version that weighs in at just over 27 mb, which is also mirrored at Mythica and files, and has a Two Degrees peer-to-peer seed. We're happily adding any mirrors we can find, so if you've got the bandwidth, grab a copy, post it, and send us a link; we'll add it to the Bungie Factor Mirror List. Again - this gives behind-the-scenes info on the making of Halo, and the ideas behind Halo 2... definitely worth a viewing by any Halo fan. Update: Rockin'; our first mirror is up already. Thanks to That Weasel! (Link is on the Mirror page.) (Louis Wu 00:11:50 UTC) (permalink)

News December 23 2003

=RpT= clan has movies
MoCt wrote to point out that his Halo clan site has a bunch of movie downloads available. It's HPC footage in WMV format... quite a bit of it. Take a look! (Louis Wu 21:55:02 UTC) (permalink)

Ooh... that's messy.
It's not going to be as regular as our other comics, but Warbow shows no sign of slowing down... yet. Calvin and Halo, episode 12, has been posted - and it definitely got a laugh out of me! (Louis Wu 17:19:27 UTC) (permalink)

Tuesday Reading
Seventeen entries for you today in the Fan Fiction database:

• The War Within, by Dustin
• Jake A Model IV Chapter Two: Broken Men, by Slipping Knot
• The Second War: Prolouge (My triumphant comeback!!), by FOrunnER
• Foregoing the Experience, by Mainevent
• Fight for New Tatley Finale (Chapter 9: Saving New Tatley), by CoLd BlooDed
• Old Style: Fear, by Horror
• Dust Off, by Booney
• Dust Off Chapter 2, by Booney
• The ONI Chronicles Part 2, by Jaywhit10 and JediKnight114
• Marooned - Chapter Nine, by Steve Ollett
• Athenians-II Chapter 3: Assault Part 1, by ZackDark
• The Fall of Fate: Special Edition (Parts 3-6), by 'Nosolee
• Time and Again, by Mainevent
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Seven, by Agent Shade
• Tides of Destruction(Part 1, The Cavelry), by teemus
• Battle for Tectron: Chapter 4, by Helljumper
• Spartan-X Chapter 1, by SilentStrider

Totals are getting big... (Louis Wu 14:47:56 UTC) (permalink)

Halo vs Halo 2 comparison - part 2
IGN put up part two of their Halo vs Halo 2 comparison (part 1 went up on Saturday). It's still Insider-only, but you have the option of downloading just the second part, or the whole thing (133 mb in 640x480 format). Thanks to caudronix for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:27:20 UTC) (permalink)

Devious Cortana
MC gets lost in today's Guest One One Se7en. Hmm... (Louis Wu 12:14:33 UTC) (permalink)

Halo GT Video #5
(GT)Juggler has put up another glitch film, his fifth. Brings back memories of the golden age of Halo tricksterism (early 2002) - I don't think there are any NEW glitches here, but they're put together nicely, and for folks who haven't been around for years, it's a great overview. 16.6 mb, in QuickTime format. Grab it on Halo GT (should be the top news item). (Louis Wu 11:35:15 UTC) (permalink)

SparkEdit 2.5 - now with flames!
Wonga. SparkEdit 2.5 has been released; it now supports model viewing, object property viewing, BSP mesh property viewing, object rotation, and more. Grenadiac posted a screenshot on our forum - looks great! (Supports Xbox and Halo PC.) (Louis Wu 02:13:15 UTC) (permalink)

10K in February
MaverickJ came back to our forum to point out the Halo Nationals, a $10,000 contest taking place in late February in Philadelphia. The money sounds great; that $10k is GUARANTEED, no matter how many teams show up. Entrance fees get ADDED to it, so the more teams that enter, the more money there is to win. Check it out! (Louis Wu 01:47:31 UTC) (permalink)

News December 22 2003

I hate it when that happens.
Halo Babies is back up! Bandwidth restrictions have lifted a bit, so there's a strip today, and there'll be another on Friday. There's also a PayPal link, if you want to help out with their moving costs... The strip itself is Christmas-themed... and a harbinger of things to come. Ouch! (Louis Wu 22:13:53 UTC) (permalink)

Drowning in Pictures
Man, I wish there were a faster way to handle this stuff... but there isn't. I've cleared out the Wallpaper queue; there are 20 new desktops (more, if you count variants) in the database today. Some of these are simply gorgeous. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:30:59 UTC) (permalink)

MC on the Big Screen... sort of
Lotus222 reminded us that MacGamer's Giveaway from last week (3 copies of Halo to the best three 'Master Chief goes to Hollywood' photoshop jobs) has been completed. After seeing the winners, I'm wishing I'd finished my 'Enter the Master Chief' pic... (Louis Wu 20:07:55 UTC) (permalink)

Master and Chief - the movie
Gre'Thor117 submitted a new film; it splices concept art and Halo 2 footage together with EdgeN's recent Halo music in a pleasing manner. It's entitled 'Halo: Master and Chief' (just like the soundtrack it uses), weighs in at 8.7 mb in WMP9 format, and is being graciously hosted by Coerce.net (look for big things coming from them soon). (Louis Wu 19:28:35 UTC) (permalink)

Ramming Speed
Rams, over at Battleground: Halo, has put up another edition of the Rams Report; this one looks at the handling of Halo PC since its release. I actually disagree with most of his conclusions, though he does raise some very valid points. (He also looks at the Halo comic scene, but I hesitate to comment at all, because I'm afraid that ANYTHING I say will be misinterpreted by someone; go read it, and if you're angry at the end, read it again. If you're still angry... you might just have a stick that needs removing.) (Louis Wu 17:59:13 UTC) (permalink)

Vote to play Halo PC at next year's WCG
The World Cyber Games website is soliciting input from gamers for the Official Game Events for the WCG 2004, and Halo is among the list of games up for consideration. To vote, visit the website, and follow the large blue 'Official Game Events Selection for the WCG 2004' banner in the top middle of the page. Thanks to TRB-FooKz for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 15:22:05 UTC) (permalink)

RvB interview at machinima.com
Geoff Fink (gfunk) and Gus Sorola (guS) , of Red vs Blue, have been interviewed over at machinima.com today; if you're interested about how they got their start, and where they're going, go read this! Thanks to Hugh Hancock for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:56:06 UTC) (permalink)

New Game at Halo Universe
Halo Universe has a fun puzzle posted right now; It's Flash-based, and takes 10 screenshots and breaks them up into smaller squares. You have to put them back together in the right order. The game is timed, and I think this may be part of the problem; I tried to finish it, but got stuck on level 8. There were several levels where I didn't even have access to the pieces until more than half the time was off the timer... and this happened with that level, twice. Nonetheless, it's quite enjoyable, and if you're closer to Germany than I am, you may not have any trouble like this at all. The text is all in German, but you really don't need to understand German to figure out what to do. (Louis Wu 14:50:35 UTC) (permalink)

MC Suit - update
Chris Bryan sent along a picture of the gloves for his MC Suit we mentioned yesterday; they're looking pretty slick! We've added it to the page we put together for this project. (Louis Wu 13:53:46 UTC) (permalink)

Clipping Fun on Two Betrayals
Edge_343 popped onto our forum yesterday to ask if anyone had ever gotten a Warthog into the final cutscene of Two Betrayals. I told him that, to the best of my knowledge, nobody had ever filmed this before, so he sent us some footage. 7.7 mb, QuickTime format; it shows how the hog was pushed through the broken door (nothing really new here) and blown up to the platform outside the final pulse generator (a non-trivial task in the dark and the snow). The cutscene definitely never expects the Warthog to be in that final room... because it puts the master chief RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT, ignoring all the niceties of stuff like the solidity of metal, and such. A fun glitch! (Edge_343 points out that none of this would have been possible without his brother, Guardian-X; it was a joint effort.) (Louis Wu 12:37:12 UTC) (permalink)

The Ghost of Halo Past
One One Se7en, as well, begins a Christmas week... though we can't say it's with a 'bang'. More like a 'rimshot'. (Louis Wu 12:28:42 UTC) (permalink)

Merry Christmas To All And To All A Good Fight
Today's Halo: Resolution is the first in a week's worth of Christmas-themed strips... enjoy! (Louis Wu 12:26:02 UTC) (permalink)

Wow, that map has a high ceiling...
More tower building... nukedude posted a boatload of pictures (and links to more) showing some fun cooperative play on the HBO servers last night. Good to see folks are still working together! (Louis Wu 11:25:02 UTC) (permalink)

Wrapped up in a bow
In what is becoming a holiday tradition, the Halo Story page has put up a Bungie/b.org collaboration to celebrate the season. Follow the thumbnail link to find a unique piece of artwork combining the artistic skills of Lorraine 'mehve' McLees and the poetic prowess of our own Finn. It's our gift to you - thanks to mnemesis for making it happen! (Louis Wu 10:38:31 UTC) (permalink)

And now you can buy it.
For those interested in that astounding Nightmare Armor we've mentioned a couple of times recently... Webshift posted a note saying that they've put prices up for the individual pieces. Take a look! (Louis Wu 02:18:57 UTC) (permalink)

I'm 'onna lose cookies!
Took a little while... but the Dialogue Databank has been updated with almost 50 new snippets. Some are simply cleaner replacements for older entries... but 44 of them are brand-spanking-new. 43 of those come from Captain Spark, and the last one comes from Patrick Naedele, who submitted a slowed-down, reversed jackal recording with a clear message. There's some classic stuff in there... check it out! (Louis Wu 00:38:09 UTC) (permalink)

News December 21 2003

Intermittent HPC problem... solved?
Since Halo PC was released, some people have had problems with the game spontaneously dumping them off a server. TURBO posted a solution that worked for him; he had a Linksys router, and once the router's firmware was updated, the problem went away. There is at least one datapoint that suggests this is more than an isolated solution... (Louis Wu 20:30:51 UTC) (permalink)

HBO Xmas Puzzle Carnage Quiz - Answered
c0ld vengeance has posted solutions for the HBO Xmas Puzzle Carnage quiz. It was actually won several days ago, but the puzzles were left online for anyone who wanted to try and solve them for fun. And now the results have been posted for any frustrated souls that couldn't get through one part or another. (Louis Wu 20:30:03 UTC) (permalink)

Sunday Reading
Only 13 entries in the Fan Fiction database today:

• Battle for the Norah: Part Twelve, by Sterfrye36
• An Even War:Part 3:Victory , by D4rgant
• Just One More Chance, by Sentinel
• Old Style: Revelations, by Horror
• Lightning Strike: The White Sar Reinforcements ride in, by Booney
• ES05 - Eternal Sunder (part 05): The Eye of Time , by Wado
• Tides of Destruction(part 3, valley of death), by teemus
• Together we Stand, by teemus
• Have Hope, by CoLd BlooDed
• Halo: Hunted-Part Two, by Overwhelming Force
• The Sword and the Shield chap 2, by Marshall Purewal
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Six, by Agent Shade
• Rebirth - The Freefalling Jaeden'Seul, by KnightmareWolf, Shadow, Archangels_Blade, Spartan415

Again, lots of poems. (Louis Wu 15:37:26 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 - One One Se7en Makes It Clear.
Now, I'm not saying Stuntmutt is prescient or anything... but he submitted this One One Se7en Sunday strip without knowing that it would air mere hours after I went to see this play, which actually USED that quote. (My guess is, poor Mr. Rumsfeld will be living that quote down for a LOONNGG time.) Of course, it has the patented Stuntmutt corn spin... wouldn't be One One Se7en without it. For what it's worth, the play was terrible. (Louis Wu 14:44:29 UTC) (permalink)

Rockin'.
Warbow, while disavowing any similarity with the production excesses of One One Se7en, has submitted a Sunday Calvin and Halo for today. I can't even give him a hard time about it, because the sentiment of the strip is so spot-on. (Louis Wu 13:12:01 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief Suits - now from multiple sources!
For some time, we've been getting astounding material from Chris Bryan - you can see some of it in our Miscellaneous Art section, and you can check out his working Halo 2 Battle Rifle. For the last couple of months, he's been working on a wearable Master Chief suit, and we've finally gotten around to putting up the pictures he's sent. You can find them in our Miscellaneous section. (As he sends more, we'll add to this page.) I wanted to get this stuff posted, because the interest in this sort of thing is rising rapidly, spurred by a recent post about a group called Nightmare Armor, making full body armor that you'll eventually be able to order. They have a helmet coming in the next few days - but the site is constantly being tweaked (nothing like a bit of interest to inspire the web guys :) ), and Webshift has posted an armor strength tidbit to our forum. I think it's fantastic that there are multiple projects like this going on... a testament to the inspiring force of Halo! (Louis Wu 12:51:59 UTC) (permalink)

News December 20 2003

The Ninjas Revealed
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from Lt Devon, and blames US for the ninja conflagration that is Halo 2. Hrm. (Louis Wu 11:56:14 UTC) (permalink)

Car Bombing
(GT)Juggler has posted a new movie on his site - this one's called 'Car Bombing (Random Insanity)', and weighs in at 14.2 mb. It's a 2:09 long story of a guy who goes to work, then gets blown up when he leaves for home. Feel free to add comments to this forum thread. (Louis Wu 11:52:01 UTC) (permalink)

A Halo Christmas Tree
I've seen this done on Xbox, when you get a dozen people together in one room, on a closed system... but never over the internet, on an open server. Kudos to the obsessives who made this happen. (Louis Wu 11:45:12 UTC) (permalink)

Generational Comparison at IGN
IGN has put up the first part of a video comparison between Halo and Halo 2, for Insiders (part 2 will be posted next week). It's 55 mb at 640x480, or 33 mb at 400x300. It shows side-by-side analogues from each engine, pointing out how Halo 2 improves on the original. (The one mistake I caught was the assertion that the MC model has more polygons in Halo 2 - from what I remember, a Bungie employee said that the poly count actually DROPPED, but that the bumpmapping and lighting improvements made this irrelevant.) If you're not an Insider, this isn't worth buying a subscription for; it's all footage you can find yourself on the net,and anyone with a little extra time could put together the comparisons... but if you already have a subscription, it's a fun download. Thanks to rendar for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:38:15 UTC) (permalink)

Want another Halo league?
T3muJin wrote to us to ask us to get the word out; apparently, The Stronger Than All League stated if enough interest was shown in Halo PC, they would start a league for the game. If you're interested in a league where you can play on set nights and times (as opposed to the random environment of the ladder sites), you should post a note in this forum thread. (Louis Wu 11:18:59 UTC) (permalink)

Homefront update
News on the Battlefield 1942 mod Homefront, for those keeping track of this stuff; there are new screenshots posted (some are rather bizarre, if you ask me), and a release set - Christmas Eve at 6 pm EST. Thanks to MADDA CHEEB for making me look. (Louis Wu 11:06:14 UTC) (permalink)

Got network programming experience?
Hmm... interesting find by Nick. There's a job offering on Microsoft's site for a Software Development Engineer to work on Networking for Bungie. This job is NOT listed on Bungie's Jobs page. Hmm... (Louis Wu 10:45:02 UTC) (permalink)

E419, Ep 7
343GS.com has put up episode 7 of EchoFourNineteen; it's a Christmas episode. Take a look! (Visit the site, hit the 'Downloads' link. While you're there, look around; there's quite a bit of new content since last we mentioned them.) Thanks to IXIGhandiIXI for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:33:18 UTC) (permalink)

Viper in the Spotlight
The Junkyard continues with their Spotlight series, this time covering Matt 'Viper' Anderson, of Battleground: Halo. Take a look! (Louis Wu 10:10:51 UTC) (permalink)

News December 19 2003

Halo Armor - almost ready!
Wow. We got mail from Webshift, one of a team of what looks to be pretty talented folks. They've got a site called 'NightMare Armor', and if you click on the Gallery link, you'll see some astounding pics of Halo armor. There's a Store link (currently empty), which suggests they might be selling this stuff before too long... Whoa. (Louis Wu 22:07:51 UTC) (permalink)

External Updates Help Halo - on both platforms
Inky writes to say that the 10.3.2 update to MacOSX (released yesterday) cleared up some framerate jerkiness he was experiencing with Halo on a tricked-out G5. Good deal! On the PC side, ATI just released their Catalyst 3.10 drivers for Radeon cards on WinXP machines... and they fix the black-box-when-zooming-with-IR problem that I (and many others) experienced. Goodness for everyone! (Louis Wu 17:01:41 UTC) (permalink)

Higher Education Aid
Hehe - Putamee says Halo got him in to college. Not bad... (Louis Wu 16:56:52 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespy says HaloPC is Top 10 material
Gamespy has posted the results of its 2003 Game of the Year Awards... and Halo took 6th in the top 10 PC Games. Not too shabby! (Thanks to Pico for pointing it out.) (Louis Wu 14:04:10 UTC) (permalink)

That's A Lot Of Groaning
Stuntmutt looks back on 100 strips of One One Se7en in strip 101 today... (Louis Wu 11:57:20 UTC) (permalink)

Trust the Tiger
Warbow's back in the saddle, with the third Calvin and Halo in as many days. (Okay, okay, yesterday was a Guest strip...) (Louis Wu 11:55:08 UTC) (permalink)

Mistakes Always Come Back
Guess who's back in Halo: Resolution? Hehe - I'm not tellin'... (Louis Wu 11:52:38 UTC) (permalink)

End of Week, time to read
21 Fan Fiction pieces for you today:

• Jake A Model IV: Chapter One SSDD, by Slipping Knot (Who the Hell Tied This Thing?)
• One Last Bullet, by Walker
• An Even War: Part 1: Betrayal, by D4rgant
• The Doctor's In, by Mainevent
• Tides of Destruction (part 2, Invasion), by teemus
• Battle for Tectron: Chapter 3, by Helljumper
• Small Price to Pay, by CoLd BlooDed
• Halo Cataclysm: Prelude , by Snake Solid 117
• IONCLAD: Second Prelude, by Capo Rip
• IONCLAD: Second Prelude (section 2), by Capo Rip
• IONCLAD: Second Prelude (section 3), by Capo Rip
• IONCLAD: Second Prelude (last section), by Capo Rip
• Marooned Chapter 8, by Steve Ollett
• Halo: Hunted-Part One, by Overwhelming Force
• An Even War: Part 2: Last Hope, by D4rgant
• Precious Soldiers, by Sergeant B
• Ship to Ship, by Steve
• They Have Come, by Sentinel
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Five, by Agent Shade
• No Way Out: Part 3, by Arthur Wellesly
• In the Shadows of Darkness, by Mainevent

Lots of poems in this batch. (Louis Wu 11:49:58 UTC) (permalink)

In The End, they got in.
Apparently, Linkin Park visited Bungie last week... and someone was around to take pictures, because it got posted on Xbox.com. According to Evil Otto, a couple of them were at the Fanfest in Santa Monica last year, too. Thanks to cubanB for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:33:35 UTC) (permalink)

Performance on a Mac (or two)
Geek Patrol has put up a Halo Performance Review, with actual numbers, from a pair of macs (that pretty well bracket the quality range). Good info. Thanks to Plastic Chicken for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:38:29 UTC) (permalink)

News December 18 2003

German Translations
A couple of people have translated the German review - Wraith posted his translation on our forum, and I added a second sent in via email from The Dark One to the thread. Check 'em both out! (Louis Wu 20:29:13 UTC) (permalink)

More Bungie Wearables
A new Halo 2 shirt is available from the Bungie store - pretty simple, pretty nice! Thanks to Sledgefare for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:14:53 UTC) (permalink)

Ach!
Halo Universe has posted a preview of Halo 2 - in German. If you read German... go visit! (Louis Wu 14:54:33 UTC) (permalink)

When you open the door...
Yesterday, Warbow resurrected the Calvin and Halo strip to take a shot at Stuntmutt. (Stuntmutt returned fire, by the way.) Today, we have the first and last Calvin and Halo guest strip for you - Warbow's decided to let this one through, but it ain't gonna happen again. Enjoy it! (Louis Wu 14:25:06 UTC) (permalink)

Puzzlemania runs rampant
Gutupio has posted a NEW puzzle on our forum; it's self-enclosed. (That is, the puzzle is the post itself.) Prize is a Grunt Plushy (if enough people have signed the petition to convince Microsoft to market them - currently, there are 1752 signatures, can we break 2000?), or street cred if they don't get made. Warning - it's non-trivial. (Louis Wu 14:14:31 UTC) (permalink)

Day One in Marine Boot Camp
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from Mr. Chubigans, and looks at a side of the Master Chief we haven't seen much of. (Thank Goodness.) (Louis Wu 14:07:08 UTC) (permalink)

An Electrifying Experience
A Halo review on Game Chronicles today... 8.8/10, with downgrades for the 'staggering system requirements'. Not a bad read. Thanks, Blue's News (via Ash). (Louis Wu 13:55:55 UTC) (permalink)

No waterguns for a week.
We got word from mrsmiley that Halo Babies is offline until the 22nd; they went through too much bandwidth, too fast. He did want to assure everyone that they'll be moving soon, and the bandwidth problems will go away! (Louis Wu 01:04:13 UTC) (permalink)

Wow. Just... wow.
Okay, so this one's WEIRD. Late last week, we got mail from Billy Oliva, talking about a bizarre glitch in Truth and Reconciliation (the third campaign level). Right after entering the ship, he came across a stack (literally) of covenant, piled up against a door, waiting to attack. he sent screenshots... but they were small, and not great, quality-wise. I held off, because I wanted to see if I could reproduce this. 24 hours later, we received ANOTHER mail, this time from AfroRyan, claiming to have found the same thing, in the same place. I was really suspicious, because not only did he send similar pictures, but they were the same (non-standard) size, and with the same filenames as those sent by Billy. (Afro, I apologize for not believing you. :) ) Then, 24 hours later, Ben Roth posted pictures he found on the Gearbox forums, showing THE SAME THING. Both Billy and AfroRyan sent in saved games... but it took me until today to find time to reinstall 1.03 (1.031 hosed saved games, so I couldn't use them). I made films from both saves - but the one you'll see came from AfroRyan's save, because he had TWO piles of baddies, not just one. I took much more footage than can be seen in this film... but most of it is useless; if you get too close to the piles, framerates drop into the low single digits, you can't tell you've thrown grenades until they explode (usually ON you), and there's no way to manouver. The save I was given was on Easy - you'll see why that's a GOOD thing after you watch the movie. Here's the movie; 45 seconds worth, enough to show you some out-there piles o' baddies. It's QuickTime format, 640x480 (so you have a good view), and weighs in at just over 10 mb. You can also grab AfroRyan's profile (with the savepoint inside) - 2.1 mb - if you want to play with it yourself. (You MUST work with HPC 1.03, not 1.031, to use this. Drop the unzipped folder into your savegames folder, and you're set to go.) Thanks to both these guys - Billy was first with the notice, but again, his bucket-o-covies was smaller, so I didn't use it. I'm guessing something was accidentally changed during the 1.03 patch development process... because I saw no reports of ANYTHING like this before now. (Louis Wu 00:57:05 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie, eat your heart out.
XLNC once again rocks the Casbah with some spectacular screenshots; he got somewhat creative with the hacking, and the end results are simply stunning. Check 'em out. (Who needs dev tools, anyway?) (Louis Wu 00:39:10 UTC) (permalink)

News December 17 2003

Is There A Halo Community?
I missed this last week... but Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, has written the first of a multipart series about the Halo community. Coming as it does from a longtime Bungie fan and community leader, it's an interesting read; newer fans might find it interesting to see where the 'old guard' is coming from. I'm looking foward to the next part! (Louis Wu 21:46:50 UTC) (permalink)

Mac Halo review at MacNytt.se
Sippan (who posts as Vid Boi on our forum) wrote to tell us of a review of Mac Halo (in Swedish) at the Swedish news site MacNytt.se. 9/10, for those who don't read Swedish. (Louis Wu 21:37:06 UTC) (permalink)

One One Se7en Ornaments
rapture created a series of Christmas ornaments using One One Se7en characters a couple of weeks ago. It took a little while to get around to 'em... but then, my Christmas lights and tree aren't up at my home, either. You'll find them prominently linked in the the One One Se7en section until Christmas; pick the ones you want and print 'em out, hang 'em on your own tree! (Louis Wu 19:57:36 UTC) (permalink)

Calvin's learning...
Whoa. After exactly 8 months of inactivity, Calvin and Halo comes alive again with a new strip. Thanks, Warbow! (Louis Wu 19:16:39 UTC) (permalink)

One Hundred
Astounding as it may seem, Stuntmutt's One One Se7en comic has made it to 100. That is - not including Sunday strips, Holiday strips, Archive strips, or Guest strips, there have now been 100 strips presented to you, the public, since April of this year. Wonga. To celebrate, MC gets a cake. (Be sure your computer's not muted.) (Louis Wu 16:30:44 UTC) (permalink)

You guys write too much.
Last Fan Fiction update was 48 hours ago - here are another 21 pieces. (Yes, that's an absurd submission rate. And yes, that's after deleting more than one entry.)

• Spartans, by Sergeant B
• A Path to Nowhere, by Mainevent
• First Strike, by CovieKilla
• The Last Battle: The Yaxans, by JOTD FanFiction Team
• The Trials of a Displaced Master, Chief Chapter II: Time Travel Can Be Such A Pain, by stan
• Battle for Tectron: Chapter 2-A Helljumper's story part 2, by Helljumper
• Once In A Lifetime Offer -MC Rap-, by AmokTheClown
• Life Workin for HBO,Part Three, by Hunter_Killer
• Inside the Blood Faction (TFW prologue), by Awacar
• His Last Mission(Continued...), by FFEcho
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Four, by Agent Shade
• Out of Phase 3, by BlackValkyire
• Legion of Honor - part 2: Essence of Camaraderie /Chapter 1, by Brocktree
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 8: Requiring Assistance), by CoLd BlooDed
• Only One Soldier, by CoLd BlooDed
• ONI Black Operations Part 4, by Jaywhit10
• Task Force 168: The Silent Justice-Chapter Two, by Blue Jaguar
• Long Time Gone Part 8 plz read, by grylsy
• Life Workin' for HBO, Part Two, by Hunter_Killer
• Halo2: The Covenant Wars, by Thomas Harper
• Galaxy 07 - Part six - Discovery, by Jillybean

(Louis Wu 16:13:11 UTC) (permalink)

Power In Numbers
Gettin' on in the day... but it's still Wednesday, so there's still time for Halo: Resolution. Looks like those grunts might be going a bit too far... (Louis Wu 16:00:15 UTC) (permalink)

It's great! It's terrible!
Feedback on Mac Halo's gameplay: from the Maccommunity forum, there's a report (thanks, Gary Smith) of good gameplay on a 900 MHz G3 iBook with a 32 mb Radeon 7500 (below the recommended minimum standards set by MacPlay), and from our own forum, a report of lousy play on a dual 2GHz G5 with a 128 mb Radeon 9800. Hmm... (Louis Wu 13:28:31 UTC) (permalink)

HoverHog 1.0
Dmack pointed out a Hoverhog - a remodeled human hovercraft - he built over at HaloSkins. (HaloSkins, btw, is back online, with a new design; we've been meaning to post one of those web roundups, but haven't gotten to it yet.) I haven't tried it... but it sure looks funky! Update: gwdpto posted a bunch of pics of this puppy in action. Definitely looks pretty cool! (Louis Wu 11:53:56 UTC) (permalink)

Game giveaway at Shacknews
Shacknews is giving away a boatload of games, including 5 copies of Halo PC. For a chance to win, you just need to sign up; winners will be announced on Christmas day. Thanks to Jamirus99 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:46:20 UTC) (permalink)

AYBE II - gettin' ready
Blackstar continues the PR campaign on his Summer 2004 lanfest, Are You Big Enough II, with a spiffy movie poster. Whatever else you can say about the man, he definitely has a flair for movie stuff! (Louis Wu 11:30:39 UTC) (permalink)

Ancient Halo
Whoa... mysterious. I got word from mnemesis that Bungie had added a new wallpaper to their Halo Wallpaper collection yesterday, with no fanfare - there's no news post on b.net about it. (Though I saw mnem's email first, it looks like Pico posted it on our forum a bit earlier...) 'Ancient Halo' (last paper on the page) is a whimsical view of ancient Egyptians with Halo weapons, surrounded by heiroglyphic symbols. I did a little searching, and even after you remove the impostor glyphs (the Marathon symbol, the smiley face) I had trouble making any sense out of the rest. Maybe someone with a better handle on what they mean...? Bungie playing around... or a message to the fans? You decide. (Louis Wu 11:04:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Metal - stripped
Quick update on the large movie we mentioned yesterday; looks like the ISP pulled it. The link we gave yields a 404 (file not found) error at the moment. Sorry... (Louis Wu 01:23:21 UTC) (permalink)

News December 16 2003

Massive Wallpaper update, part 1
Okay, I want to apologize. The Wallpaper backlog was getting ridiculous. In fact, it's so big (in terms of number of images) that I can't post them all at once. Every time I started to put together an update, I'd check the uploads folders and my email, and find another handful... and suddenly, I'd find something else to do. Well, it's not going to get smaller unless I actually POST some of them, so I'm going to put up the first batch of 20. Submission dates range from November 20 through December 1. Some are awesome. There'll be more tomorrow. Again, apologies. (Louis Wu 20:39:40 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Metal
Tobias Ivarsson has created a 25 minute long ode to Halo; the majority consists of Warthog Jumps and the like, but there are some interesting nuggets hidden away amongst the commonplace. It's huge - a 156 mb MPEG, downloadable directly from Tobias' server in Sweden... grab it if it sounds fun! (Louis Wu 19:13:09 UTC) (permalink)

More Photoshop madness at MacGamer
Last week, MacGamer gave away 5 copies of Halo in a Photoshop contest (Master Chief on vacation). Apparently, it was successful enough that they're doing it again - this time, though, you need to put the Master Chief in a major Hollywood movie. Details (and last week's winners) can be found on the Giveaway page. Congrats to all of them, espcially Patroclus (the second winner), because he pointed this new one out to us. (Louis Wu 17:46:41 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Tourney in Philly soon
Major League Gaming has announced its next tournament; it'll be held in Philadelphia, PA, on February 21-22, 2004. Halo is one of several titles that will be played, and there'll be a minimum of $10,000 on the table for winners. Entry fee is $40 until December 27, $50 after that. Make it if you can! (Louis Wu 11:48:33 UTC) (permalink)

And the winner is...
The HBO Xmas Puzzle Carnage quiz has come to a close! c0ld vengeance posted the winners, and links to each quiz (for those who didn't get far enough to see them all) in this forum post, though he's not releasing solutions yet (because people are still playing). (Louis Wu 11:19:59 UTC) (permalink)

Figuring the odds
Gamepro has reviewed the second wave of Halo action figures (to go with their review of the first wave); if you want to read about these puppies before you buy 'em, this is a good place. Thanks again to KP. Update: GAH! I feel terrible; we got word from Gamepro yesterday about this article, and I completely missed it. One bit of info that I overlooked was that they're giving away an entire case of these figures - look for the contest link at the bottom of the article. I've really got to learn to read my email better. (Louis Wu 11:00:19 UTC) (permalink)

Plush with success
The Grunt Plushy petition we mentioned a few days ago is now up to 1500 signatures. I think it's clear that there's some serious demand for this item... but just in case, if you haven't signed it yet, GO DO SO! A grunt plushy, to have and to cuddle, to kick and and to pummel... (Louis Wu 10:45:41 UTC) (permalink)

The Waiting Game
Today's Guest One One Se7en is one I was pretty sure we'd added to the Archive during the last major update... but apparently not. c0ld vengeance looks at how long the Guest Queue really is... (Louis Wu 10:10:32 UTC) (permalink)

Mac 1.03 details
One of the relevant snippets learned last night was that Westlake recently got hold of the 1.03 patch code for Halo, from Gearbox, and are busily at work creating the Mac patch. As soon as it's finished, it'll be available for download, allowing Mac users to connect to 1.03 servers. (Mac players can play online on any 1.02 servers right now, but can't see 1.03 servers yet.) Tamte said that they haven't decided whether they're releasing a Mac server version yet... but that he didn't see a huge use for one, given that there were so many PC servers out there. (Louis Wu 10:05:23 UTC) (permalink)

Gamesome Mac interviews - good to hear!
As we mentioned a couple of days ago, Peter Tamte and Marty O'Donnell were interviewed by The Gamesome Mac last night. If you missed it, though, don't fret - the streaming webcast will be up all week (and even after that, it'll be available in their archives). They were good talks, with lots of information; Tamte, as head of a Mac software publisher, was obviously pretty focused on Mac-specific stuff... but Marty was more general. There were a pair of giveaways during the broadcast; I managed to win the first one (a copy of Mac Halo) by being fastest to reply with the number of days since Halo was originally announced (1609, now). I've already got a copy coming from Destineer for betatesting, so this one, we'll give away in one of the contests coming up in January. When we have more details, we'll let you know. In the meantime, go listen to these interviews! (Louis Wu 09:59:07 UTC) (permalink)

Halo - Master and Chief
You might recognize the name Justin Durban. In the past year or so, he's put together some pretty impressive Halo music... and now there's more. Just posted this morning on his website is a piece called 'Halo - Master and Chief', and here's what Justin has to say about it:

Ahhh.. the sweet radar of the familar opening choral chant to HALO sparked my inspiration to do this track. Full of energy, no room to breath and hopefully glorifies the magnificance of this wonderful game. Thanks to my brother who helped me come up with the name. He was staring at this plaster cruise ship hanging above our fireplace at the time and reminded him of a Naval Sea battle based around Master and Commander. So.. ya. what a better name.. The main character to HALO is a soldier simply titled, "Master Chief". I can't wait for HALO 2! Original score by Marty O'Donnell.

You can now download this piece here (with Justin's blessing), as well as from Edgen Animations - it's a 3 mb mp3, and it's beautiful. Thanks to Gre'Thor117 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:45:53 UTC) (permalink)

Articles over at BGH
Gah - missed stuff. We got word this morning from Rams, over at Battleground: Halo, that there were two more articles posted today; the first was a review of First Strike (FULL of spoilers), and the other is a rambling look at Xbox vs PS2 gamers. I blame the lateness on KP. (Louis Wu 02:19:57 UTC) (permalink)

News December 15 2003

Start the week with words
Little bit o' Fanfic this Monday - 19 in all, actually:

• Out of Phase 2, by BlackValkyire
• A Spartan's Path-chapter 6, by Myth
• MAROONED Chapter 7, by Steve Ollett
• A Marine's Life part 1, by Shadowfox
• Eldar Counsels Log Part 4 Ode to Joy: the Heavens are singing, by Blue Angel
• Halo 2: The Forgotten-Part Two, by draGUN_man03
• Tides of Destruction(Part 1, Incoming), by teemus
• Neverland: Answers for the Unasked Questions, by SOS.Odin
• The fall Of Cote d'Azur: Part 1, by thisdopeknows
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Three, by Agent Shade
• Long Time Gone Part 7, by grylsy
• It's My Time -MC Rap-, by AmokTheClown
• A Fighting Chance, by Howard the Duck
• A Conclusive History of the United Nations Space Command: Chapter Three, by witelancer
• Inferior and Proud, by CoLd BlooDed
• A Spartan's Path - chapter 7, by Myth
• A Spartan's Path - chapter 8, by Myth
• A Spartan's Path - chapter 9, by Myth
• Battle for Tectron: Chapter 1- A Helljumpers story part 1, by Helljumper

Read, Read, Read! Stop makin' love! (Wait...) (Louis Wu 19:13:20 UTC) (permalink)

Puzzling Information
c0ld vengeance posted an update on the HBO Xmas Puzzle Carnage quiz today; there've been 2 winners, but there are still three prizes to be won. Will one of them be yours? (It's been fun watching heads explode all weekend...) (Louis Wu 16:37:30 UTC) (permalink)

Mac Halo breaking sales records
There were no numbers, but we just received a press release from MacSoft that read, in part,

December 15, 2003

FIRST-DAY HALO SALES ARE MACSOFT'S HIGHEST IN FOUR YEARS

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- Destineer's Macintosh unit MacSoft announces today that pre-orders and first-day sales of Bungie Studios' Halo: Combat Evolved for Macintosh are higher than any other game MacSoft has published in over four years.

"Even though many resellers have stocked their shelves with far more units of Halo than any other recent Mac game, we're still frequently hearing from stores who've said they've sold out of Halo in just a couple of hours," according to MacSoft president Peter Tamte.

Looks like there might have been some pent-up demand there... (Louis Wu 16:21:49 UTC) (permalink)

Now THAT'S a big hog.
Break Point has put up a new movie called '0ddb@lls 0wn!1!!' at BP Halo. It's 2 minutes long, in WMP9 format, and available in two resolutions (which weigh in at 7 and 2.1 mb, respectively). It involves some bizarre model swapping. Read his forum post for details (and to leave feedback). (Louis Wu 15:53:20 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Basics movie at CPL
In preparation for Tuesday's opening of the CPL Winter Event, MFA Video Productions has released a new 47 mb video showing the basics of Halo (weapons, vehicles, basic strategy). It's aimed at folks who've never played before. It's 47 mb, in WMP9 format, with a screensize of 512x384. You can find it on CPL's home page at the moment. (Louis Wu 14:45:51 UTC) (permalink)

Off Colour
Spelling quirks aside, today's One One Se7en, in Dickens fashion, shows the MC a shadow of things that may be, only. There is still time to change. (Louis Wu 14:29:06 UTC) (permalink)

Viva La (Grunt) Revolution!
I always knew those guys couldn't be trusted... check out Halo: Resolution today. (Louis Wu 14:24:49 UTC) (permalink)

News December 14 2003

Peter Tamte, Marty O'Donnell interview tomorrow
The Gamesome Mac, a Mac-centric internet radio site, will be interviewing Peter Tamte, head of Destineer, and Marty O'Donnell, audio director for Bungie, about Mac Halo (among other things) this Monday, at 6pm Pacific time (9pm Eastern, 2 am Tuesday UTC). It'll be a two hour show... stop by for streaming quicktime! (Louis Wu 18:11:01 UTC) (permalink)

HPC Demo mod
MDH has posted a mod for the Halo PC demo, over at Halo Center. It replaces the Banshee with a Scorpion tank, and makes a lot of the guns stronger. It's a 5.4 mb download. (Louis Wu 17:18:01 UTC) (permalink)

IGN posting Bungie wallpapers
It seems that IGN is reposting all the wallpapers you can find on Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site. Not sure why you wouldn't just go to the source... but enough people are pointing it out to us that I thought I'd point it out to others. (Louis Wu 16:58:10 UTC) (permalink)

'Tortured Artist.' As In 'He Should Be...'
Stuntmutt's Sunday One One Se7en strip today shows why it's a good thing he's not competing in the Plinth of Art contest... he'd sweep it. Or we'd hang him. I can't figure out which. (Louis Wu 16:33:09 UTC) (permalink)

That must be 043.
MR-T pointed out an interesting thread over at HaloMods - some fun MC renders, suitable for Wallpaper. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 16:26:54 UTC) (permalink)

Santa Claws - moist.
Wow. Yesterday was spent at a Halo lanfest in New York, hosted by the gracious Miguel Chavez at the Selkirk Gallery in Manhattan. I'm sure there'll be some writeups soon, and nukedude got some pretty good video... but there's a game I want to point out: it was team oddball, rockets, on Hang em High, with one ball and 15 minutes needed to win. The kill numbers were ASTOUNDING. Here was the screen I was playing on (40k) - and I'm adding this one because Jynx, the high kills guy, didn't have enough balltime to make the first one. I'll be slowly working my way through piled-up mail and forum stuff over the course of the day, in between Christmas preparations and dealing with the new snow... but I wanted to say that even though I didn't get home until after 3:30... it was a blast. An absolute blast. (Louis Wu 15:24:51 UTC) (permalink)

News December 13 2003

Not Approved by Jen Taylor
Captain Spark sent along what might be considered a sequel to a rather... interesting piece we posted last year. 975K, mp3 format. We take no responsibility for any side effects, including blindness. (Louis Wu 11:33:56 UTC) (permalink)

One Hundreth and Seventeenth Strike
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from 343GS, and might be considered to contain spoilers for the book Halo: First Strike. Of course, those considering that are... well, a bit overzealous. No novels were spoiled in the creation of this strip. (Louis Wu 11:06:03 UTC) (permalink)

Grunt Plushy Wants You
Just a quick update - about 500 people signed the Grunt Plushy petition since we posted a note yesterday... that's good, but not good enough. If you haven't signed, please do. Takes a few seconds, that's all. If you're worried about adding your email address because of fear of spam, their privacy policy clearly states that email addresses will not be used for solicitation purposes or sold to third parties. Let's get this dream to be a reality! (Louis Wu 11:01:10 UTC) (permalink)

Saturday Fanfic
13 pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section:

• The Fallen: Halo 2- Chapter 6 Section 3: Claiming Territory, by Hikaru-119
• Task Force 168: The Silent Justice-Chapter One, by Blue Jaguar
• Closing with the Enemy Chapter 7 The Convoy, by monitor101
• A Conclusive History of the United Nations Space Command: Chapter One: Beginnings, by witelancer
• A Conclusive History of the United Nations Space Command: Chapter Two: The Colonial Period, by witelancer
• The Final War: Battle for Installation 02 [4:3], by Awacar
• Afternoon's Twilight, by Mainevent
• Earth's Destruction Chapter 6: Flying Solo Part One: Midair Melee, by Sentinel
• legion of Honor - part 1: Holding Si Bhet, by Brocktree
• I Feel Tired -MC Rap-, by AmokTheClown
• His Last Mission(Add on to Appocalypse), by FFEcho
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Two, by Agent Shade
• The Fallen: Finding MJOLNIR, by The_Feared

Remember, folks - this is Halo Fan Fiction. Please don't post other stuff - no matter HOW good your intentions. Thanks. (Louis Wu 11:00:37 UTC) (permalink)

HPC 1.031
In violation of all normal release policies (yes, they think this is important), Gearbox has released a patch at 9 pm (their time) on a Friday night - which means they're gonna be working through the weekend to be sure this is okay. This patch is an attempt to fix the crashes many users have experienced since upgrading from 1.02. It's roughly 4 mb, and is available via auto-update right now. Warning: This update will kill all your saved checkpoints. Players can still jump to the levels they've opened but any in-level saves are going to be lost. (Louis Wu 02:42:01 UTC) (permalink)

And a beer... in a tree.
The Cananimators are at it again. Just goes to show you... there's no class requirement for employment at Bungie. They'll let ANYONE in, provided they have useful skills. (Louis Wu 02:09:09 UTC) (permalink)

Holiday Cards... for everyone!
Very cool. SketchFactor has posted scans of a couple of Holiday cards Bungie's sent out in their Gallery. (The one labeled 2001 actually went out in BOTH 2000 and 2001, but who's counting?) These are great fun... take a look. (Louis Wu 02:06:22 UTC) (permalink)

News December 12 2003

IMG reviews Mac Halo
Gossip sent in another IMG link - this time, they've reviewed Mac Halo. They gave it a 9.25/10 - higher than most sites have been reviewing Halo PC. The reviewer was playing on a Dual 2GHz G5, so it's not gonna be of a lot of use to folks with computers closer to the minimum specs, in terms of judging how it'll run for them... but overall, it looks like Westlake did a fantastic job with the port. 12 screenshots, with framerates listed in the corners. (Louis Wu 22:28:13 UTC) (permalink)

The World's WHAT?
Halo gets a mention in today's Ctrl+Alt+Del comic - pretty funny. Thanks to rendar for noticing. (Louis Wu 22:06:46 UTC) (permalink)

The HBO Xmas Puzzle Carnage quiz
You say you're itchin' for another contest? You say the last few didn't challenge you? You say you want a REAL puzzle? Well, pardner, we got some forum regulars that would like to talk to you. c0ld vengeance, BOLL, MorningStar, and Skavenger have put their heads together to come up with the HBO Xmas Puzzle Carnage quiz. It involves many mini-puzzles, spread out over 7 pages, with the navigation between pages a puzzle in itself! There are some cool prizes to be won, so check out the forum post; make sure you understand the rules, and get cracking! (Louis Wu 21:04:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wallpaper at IMG
Inside Mac Games has posted a new Halo desktop, created by Brad Custer, in honor of Mac Halo's release. It comes in an ASTOUNDING variety of sizes. Check it out! (Credit goes to Gossip for noticing it.) (Louis Wu 18:26:02 UTC) (permalink)

GotY poll at ActionTrip
ActionTrip is running a PC Game of the Year poll on their front page; Halo currently has 5% of the vote (putting it in 10th place). Methinks it might be hard to get a lot of votes at the moment... but if you think they'll work through the 1.03 glitches, go bump up the numbers! (Louis Wu 17:36:43 UTC) (permalink)

Amnesia Strikes
There's a new EchoFourNineteen comic over at 343GS.com (downloads section) - I'd tell you about it, but I forgot. Thanks to Zergling_minor for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:45:52 UTC) (permalink)

Mac Halo is shipping!
We received word from a few people last night that they'd gotten confirmation that their copies of Mac Halo were en route... and this morning, we received a press release confirming this from MacSoft. Woohoo! (Louis Wu 13:54:33 UTC) (permalink)

One One...Er...
Today's One One Se7en wraps up the three-parter on the Old MC this week. No Grunts in this one... but you should still sign that petition. (Louis Wu 11:38:11 UTC) (permalink)

It's Good!
You know, if you had a Grunt Plushy, you could ACT OUT today's Halo: Resolution. Whoa. (Louis Wu 11:31:09 UTC) (permalink)

Grunt Plushys for All!
Okay, in general, I think online petitions are silly. However, I'm willing to make an exception this time... because of the subject, and because of who's putting it forth. SketchFactor jumped on our forum yesterday to suggest that the reason there's never been a Grunt Plushy is because the marketing folks don't believe there's a demand... and he offered an online petition for interested parties to sign. If you, like me, would love to get your hands on a soft Grunt Plushy collectible... sign this now! (There are 155 signatures as of this writing. Let's crank that up a notch.) (Louis Wu 11:26:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo50K Finals - Downloadable, finally
Back in September, we pointed out a pretty cool film over at Video CD Productions; it was the final round of the Halo50K tournament, TDT vs DM, 3-cap CTF on Battle Creek. It showed the entire match from the Dream Team's screen, complete with audio commentary by the players. The only problem was... it was streaming, and it was in WMV format. Well, thanks to the kind folks over at Video CD Productions, we're happy to be able to bring you this video in downloadable form; there are two flavors. Both are 400x300 (larger than the original), and both weigh in at a bit over 30 mb. There's a 33.5 mb QuickTime, and a 31 mb WMP7 version, with downloads at both files.bungie.org and mythica.org. If you want to watch truly coordinated team play (a seven second flag capture, start to finish, for example), check this movie out.

QuickTime:	mythica | files.bungie.org
WMV:	mythica | files.bungie.org

News December 11 2003

More pretty pictures
SketchFactor spread a little love on the fans, in the form of three HUGE (1920x1440) screenshots, in tif format; you can find 'em in this forum post. The first two are 6 and 8 mb, respectively, and uncompressed; the last one is a bit banded, but only 1.4 mb. All three are worth grabbing, if you want some gorgeous screenshots to turn into Wallpaper, or something. (Louis Wu 19:19:17 UTC) (permalink)

That article thing...
Rams, head muckety-muck over at Battleground: Halo, has written what he calls a 'bi-monthly staple of BGH' - another edition of the 'Rams Report'. In this one, he looks at Dave Mertz's resignation, Mac Halo, Sapien's release status, and One One Se7en, a strip he likens to 'two rabbits left unattended over Christmas break.' Read it all with a grain (or 12) of salt. (Louis Wu 13:30:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Tourney today on GameSpy Arcade
Jamirus99 points out (well, sort of) that Gamespy is hosting the second of three parts of a Halo tournament to win an Alienware Aurora PC. The top scorer in today's matchup goes on to the finals on December 18. You need GameSpy Arcade to connect, and Halo PC (obviously). Stop by and see if there's still space! (Louis Wu 12:54:06 UTC) (permalink)

AYBE II - It's On, Baby.
I can't say I'm thrilled with the subtitle, but the event itself has me all aflutter. Blackstar has put up a news post (and a trailer) for Are You Big Enough II, a lanfest planned for Summer 2004 in Andover, MA. Are You Big Enough (the original) was held LAST summer, and featured an enormous 40 foot projection screen for playing Halo on. The trailer is 22.4 mb, in mpeg-4 format (divx-encoded), and shows off Blackstar's mad moviemaking skillz... Thanks to Alexis for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:07:11 UTC) (permalink)

The Platform Wars...
Mac Halo is shipping today. (It should be in stores by Monday, at the latest.) randompro42's Guest One One Se7en, then, is airing at an appropriate time. (We aren't condoning platform bigotry - and neither is randompro, from what we can see. notice that large bite mark...) (Louis Wu 09:15:02 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction
12 pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section:

• IONCLAD: First Prelude, by Capo Rip
• A Spartan's Path - chapter 5, by Myth
• Earth vs Covenant part 1, by Packer7834
• Battle for the Norah: Part Eleven, by Sterfrye36
• Over The Line; Part 1, by AmokTheClown
• Over The Line; Part 2, by AmokTheClown
• The ONI Chronicals Part 1, by Jaywhit and JediKnight114
• Earth's Destruction Chapter 5: The Covenant Homeworld, by Sentinel
• Shadow Ops II: Chapter One, by Agent Shade
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Finale, by CovieKilla
• No Way Out: Part 2, by Arthur Wellesly
• Long Time Gone Part 6, by grylsy

Database is nearing 3000 entries... (Louis Wu 09:10:30 UTC) (permalink)

IceTeks reviews Halo PC
There's a review for Halo PC at IceTeks, as mentioned by Blue's News. (Thanks, Ash.) Notable for the pretty low-res screenshots... (Louis Wu 09:07:18 UTC) (permalink)

I get his gun!
Whoa. I want one. It's not plushy... but I want one. SketchFactor posted a note to Bungie.net about some preliminary work being done on Grunt action figures. They'll be part of Wave 4, due out next spring. Theres an uncolored closeup... and some early color ideas. Gimme Gimme Gimme! (Louis Wu 02:33:04 UTC) (permalink)

News December 10 2003

Performance Tweaks begin appearing
One of the 'under the hood' changes in the 1.03 Halo PC patch is that Anisotropic filtering is enabled by default. This is a function of higher-end video cards, and it makes the graphics crisper... at a pretty big price, performance-wise. If you've got a good graphics card, and saw a huge framerate drop when you started playing 1.03, you might want to check out this post by Gearbox programmer vatoloco, over on the Gearbox forums. It'll walk you through disabling the feature. (Louis Wu 21:41:04 UTC) (permalink)

Guilty Stick... revisited
Almost 3 weeks ago, we posted a Flash animation created by GLADIATRRR3000, called 343 Guilty Stick. Well, he submitted 3 new chapters for this very soon afterwards... but we lost 'em in the archives. :( They've been resurrected, finally, and added to the original page; they're quite a bit smaller than the first one was. Sorry for the delay! (Louis Wu 19:36:48 UTC) (permalink)

Now THAT'S grandeur.
XLNC posted three spectacular screenshots today - 1600x1200, no HUD, no weapons. (He explained how he did it in this post, if you want to make your own.) Wow. (Louis Wu 15:39:00 UTC) (permalink)

Fetch me my slippers!
I think Stuntmutt must have fallen and hit his head on the Plinth. When I went into the studio this morning, I found this, on the floor, with smudges of peanut butter on the reel. Someone send a doctor... (Louis Wu 13:27:14 UTC) (permalink)

King of Over The Hill
Who says your options get limited when you get older? Well, One One Se7en does... (Louis Wu 12:25:58 UTC) (permalink)

Animations?! We Don't Need No Stinking Animations!
What limits fights in Halo? Halo: Resolution checks out the issue. (Louis Wu 12:10:42 UTC) (permalink)

News December 9 2003

Halo PC 1.03 client patch - now up!
The Halo PC 1.03 patch is now available at Bungie.net (bottom of the Files list). My in-game updater isn't working (yet)... but the patch is only 4.4 mb, so grab it! (Thanks to progamerz for pointing it out.) Looks like a mirror list will be going up soon. (Louis Wu 20:55:32 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC 1.03 - Server now available!
The Halo PC 1.03 patch is now available for the Halo Dedicated Server; grab it from Bungie.net. (That article also contains links to the full 1.02 server, if you don't already have it (this patch is not standalone; it requires 1.02), and the mapfiles, if you don't have those.) The client patch will be available starting at 1 pm PST (9 pm UTC). The readme for the server is available in RTF format from Bungie.net, or in HTML format here at HBO. The wait is over! (Louis Wu 19:06:57 UTC) (permalink)

Five copies of Mac Halo - up for grabs!
MacGamer is giving away 5 copies of Mac Halo in this week's MacGamer Giveaway; submit your best photoshopped image of the Master Chief on vacation, and if your entry is among the 5 funniest, you'll walk away with a free copy of Halo. Details (including submission rules) can be found at MacGamer. Thanks to RavenEA for noticing! (Louis Wu 17:51:55 UTC) (permalink)

Return of the Sidewinder King
Team Sexy has released Sidewinder King 2 - a followup to their popular Hall of the Sidewinder King video. It takes the fight to (where else?) Blood Gulch, and introduces dialogue. Mostly, it works pretty well. (Great camera footage in the second half...) It weighs in at roughly 20 mb (18.5 for the QT version, 20.6 for the DivX version). You can get it from the Team Sexy forums (you need to register, then look for a thread in the TS.Films forum entitled 'SK2 is realeased[sic]!'). For a limited time, we're helping out with Mythica.org bandwidth (for both the QuickTime and Divx versions). Grab this one while you're waiting for that 1.03 patch for Halo PC! (Louis Wu 16:00:54 UTC) (permalink)

The Making of... Halo (uncut)
A couple of months ago, Edge Magazine published an article in their Equip Xbox issue called 'The making of... Halo'; it was a fascinating look inside the development process. It was released online, in truncated form, at Gamesradar.uk, in late October. Not long after that, we received a scanned copy of the full article, from broony, and we set about getting permission from Edge to put it online. We never did receive an answer from them... but the issue is now long off the shelves, so you'll find it in our Press Scans section (which is otherwise woefully backlogged - scanner's on the fritz). broony did a pretty good scanning job, and I did my best to make the result as readable as possible without being too hard to download. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 14:58:40 UTC) (permalink)

Halo for GotY at Shacknews
Shacknews is running their own Game of the Year poll; Halo is up for PC Action. Go vote! (Thanks to Jamirus99 for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 12:55:38 UTC) (permalink)

What Mantel?
Today's Guest One One Se7en was sent in by Chaos Ferret, and looks at the better part of valo(u)r... or maybe it's something else. Hmm... (Louis Wu 10:43:24 UTC) (permalink)

Tuesday Tales
Lightweight Fan Fiction update today...

• The Rise of Humanity: Part 1 (Revised!), by [ridiculous combination of non-printable characters deleted]
• Fight or Flight: Chapter 6 (The Big Boom), by teemus
• Fight or Flight: Part Seven (Final Finish), by teemus
• MSOG: Chapter 6: Pilot and Escape, by Sprtn117John
• MSOG: Chapter 7: Violence begets violence, by Sprtn117John
• Shadow Ops II: Prologue, by Agent Shade
• Earth's Destruction Chapter 4: One-Ship Assault, by Sentinel
• No Way Out: Part 1, by Arthur Wellesly
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 7: Covenant Crusade), by CoLd BlooDed

No problem, right? (For the record: The Fan Fiction section is NOT an appropriate place to submit theories about the game's backstory. Please mail those theories to halostory@bungie.org. Thanks! Also: please don't create usernames full of characters that simply don't translate to the web; next time, I'll delete the STORY instead of the name.) (Louis Wu 10:28:59 UTC) (permalink)

HaloGT puts up new vids
Two new movies over at HaloGT today; Rocketopia is mostly just a warthog jump vid, but near the end there's some cool weapons-crossing-glitching going on. The other one... well, you gotta watch it. Maybe you'll get it. Forum thread for comments is here. (Louis Wu 02:14:59 UTC) (permalink)

CXVII
Awful timing indeed, on my carelessness... Monday's One One Se7en introduced yet ANOTHER new character. Keep an eye on this one - they say that old ones can be wiley. (Louis Wu 02:01:38 UTC) (permalink)

Cunning Creatures Indeed
Eep - for the first time in a very long time, I forgot about the comic updates yesterday. First up - Halo: Resolution, which continues to have n00b problems. (Louis Wu 01:57:09 UTC) (permalink)

HPC Patch Tuesday
Wondering where the Halo PC 1.03 patch is? Cysco posted a note on the Gearbox forums stating that it was delayed a day, and will be out Tuesday, December9; the Dedicated Server will be released in the morning, and the client patch will go live in the afternoon. Thanks to -BERZERKER-, on our forum, and hotsoup, via email, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 01:28:40 UTC) (permalink)

News December 8 2003

Corny Art... or Art Carney?
Stuntmutt sent along a sort of visual FAQ about what 'on the subject of art' might be interpreted as, for those confused about the Plinth of Art. If you're stuck, check it out. (Remember, there's over a month before your entries are due; don't panic if you've already sent something you're not happy with. There are no limits on the number of entries you can submit.) (Louis Wu 18:24:46 UTC) (permalink)

Homefront nearing completion
Whoa. The Battlefield 1942 mod 'Homefront' (mentioned a few times in our news) is almost ready for release... and it's looking pretty good! There's a 36 mb movie (encoded with XVid) available for download, and some hi-res screenshots, all over at the Homefront site. (Thanks to Ross Mills for pointing it out on our forum.) (Louis Wu 17:02:30 UTC) (permalink)

Mac Halo is GOLD!
Press release is right here... but the bottom line is, the Macintosh version of Halo went into duplication late Friday night, December 5th. It'll be hitting store shelves soon! Mac owners... it's time to see if you can keep up with your PC brethren. (Louis Wu 16:25:19 UTC) (permalink)

Story Page Update
Massive Halo Story update last night - apologies for overlooking it before now. Some serious information in this one - there's more tying-together of disparate posts happening these days. Thanks, Finn! (Louis Wu 15:55:30 UTC) (permalink)

RvB radio interview today
Thanks to PC, who pointed out that gfunk, of Red vs Blue, has put up a note on the main page that he'll be interviewed on a Santa Cruz radio station this morning at 10 am PST. (That's 1 pm Eastern, or 6 pm UTC - 2.5 hours from now.) There's a link to an online stream for anyone who wants to hear this. (Louis Wu 15:36:50 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC tourney tonight
SeeMePlayMe is hosting another online Halo tournament tonight; 2v2 team play, with a SMPM Gold Account in store for the winners. Be in the Halo lobby by 7 pm Central to join in! (Louis Wu 15:19:07 UTC) (permalink)

Halo in 2D
sir_zyn posted a note on our forum this weekend about a 2d Halo project he and some friends have started. A screenshot is linked at the bottom of the post. Take a look, leave them input! (Louis Wu 14:39:28 UTC) (permalink)

Articular Consideration
Rams, from Battleground: Halo, writes to say that they'll be adding two new feature articles each week, on Mondays and Thursdays. They start off with Two Betrayals, dealing with the team-killing problem in Halo PC. They've also organized the existing collection of articles already on the site. Finally, they're accepting guest articles if anyone would like to share their views on Halo, the Halo community, or any fan creations. (Louis Wu 14:08:40 UTC) (permalink)

News December 7 2003

More Deadly Than The Male.
Yes, we released over 30 new One One Se7en strips to the Archive today... but that doesn't mean the standard collections stand still. Stuntmutt created a new Sunday Strip and even introduced a new character - maybe we need to rename this website? (Louis Wu 15:23:34 UTC) (permalink)

Sunday Reading
Light weekend reading - just 13 stories today in the Fan Fiction section:

• Manors Maketh Man: Part 1, by S7N
• MSOG: Chapter 5: Surprises and Plans, by Sprtn117John
• The Trials of a Displaced Master Chief Chapter 1: Ritchie, by stan
• Appocalypse-Sector6, by FFEcho
• The Eve of Genesis, by Mainevent
• Earth's Destruction Chapter 3: Glassed, by Sentinel
• The Covenant's Double Entende, by BrutalArt
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 6: Airfield Arrival), by CoLd BlooDed
• Closing with the Enemy Chapter 6 Night Fighters, by monitor101
• Good vs. Evil: Prelude to a story, by rogue_spartan
• Ever Since They Came, by CoLd BlooDed
• Fall of Fate: Special Edition(Parts 1-2), by 'Nosolee
• Warriors of Valor: Part 6: Is that a light at the end of the tunnel, or a train, by Ghost Sniper

Get to it - I've got to go shovel. (Louis Wu 14:59:44 UTC) (permalink)

That's a lotta strips.
As promised, the One One Se7en Archive gets updated today... and a pretty massive update it is. 31 strips. Some came from the Guest queue voluntarily, some were moved there by the management, some are strips posted to our forum, and some have simply been submitted to the Archive. Six are from Stuntmutt himself. If you want to see just the 31 new ones, this link should do the trick - otherwise, browse the archive, and see if you can find inspiration for a Plinth of Art submission yourself! (Louis Wu 02:06:11 UTC) (permalink)

News December 6 2003

Yes, even YOU can enter.
Last year, Bungie.org ran the Pillar of Art contest, where we solicited traditional-media artwork from Bungie fanatics. With $500 in cash, plus oodles of schwag (and some pretty cool stuff straight from Bungie), we were assured of fierce competition. We brought out the best in people... but for some, the best wasn't good enough. Never let it be said that bungie.org neglects the little guy. Introducing... The Plinth Of Art - the contest for the rest of us. All you have to do is come up with an art-themed One One Se7en strip, and you could be a winner! Full details, including rules, prizes, and deadlines, can be found on the Plinth page. Remember - it's not how good you are, it's how many people you can claw your way over. (Louis Wu 15:36:35 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespy asks, what do you like?
Gamespy's 2003 Gamers Choice poll is up and running, and Halo PC is a contender for PC Action Game of the Year and Overall PC Game of the Year. Go vote! (Thanks to Dinky for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 15:18:46 UTC) (permalink)

Waiting Times
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from Jillybean, and once again makes fun of long waiting times for guest submissions. This seems to have been significantly reduced by the advent of the Archive, since Jilly didn't expect this strip to show before the new year... still funny, though. (Louis Wu 10:01:22 UTC) (permalink)

More Making Of options
Yesterday, by request, I created a new pair of versions of the Inside Halo 2 video - they're for Windows Media Player, and there's a large version (640x480, 86.7 mb) and a small version (320x240, 26.4 mb). At the moment, they're only available via Two Degrees peer-to-peer sharing. I just tested the small one out... and it was downloading at pretty much 100% capacity of my pipe. (Well, okay, to be accurate, it averaged out at 94% of my pipe's full capacity over the length of the download... but let's not nitpick, okay?) If you haven't downloaded this file yet (maybe because QuickTime movies don't work well for you), this is a great chance to try out this new protocol. Grab the client (it's tiny, and linked above the movies), and get to downloading! (Louis Wu 09:51:21 UTC) (permalink)

ISO: Great Stories
A post was put up on our forum this afternoon - it calls for fan feedback. There's a documentary in production about Bungie and the making of Halo 2. It's going to contain, among other things, profiles of Halo fans with something interesting to share. Folks who win Halo tournaments, folks who create cool artwork inspired by Halo, folks whose lives are changed by some aspect of the game. If this is you (or someone you know), check out the forum post, read the details, follow the instructions. Who knows - a few million people might end up watching your story! (Louis Wu 02:46:41 UTC) (permalink)

RvB interview at Homelan Fed
Homelan Fed interviewed Burnie Burns of Red vs Blue yesterday. JCal mailed us about it, but I totally spaced on putting it up until Toby Dillman mentioned it on our forum. (oops...) It's a great read, and I'm really, really sad I'm going to be in Florida when Season 2 debuts at the Lincoln Center in New York in January. (Louis Wu 02:19:48 UTC) (permalink)

Does that mean...?
Marty O'Donnell offered a few words on our forum to express his feelings towards a recent awards ceremony he attended. I can't tell for sure, but I think he was unhappy with the overall experience. (Louis Wu 01:49:36 UTC) (permalink)

The Monitor? Oh No!
There's a new episode of EchoFourNineteen over at 343gs.com (check the downloads section); I think all of us have felt the way the MC feels in this one, at one time or another... Thanks to IXIGhandiIXI for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 01:29:07 UTC) (permalink)

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...
It's snowing hard here at HBO HQ, with four inches already on the ground and 24 hours of this storm to go... a fine time to curl up with a warm mug of cider and the Halo Story page. Make it a big mug... Finn put up a pretty big update. (Louis Wu 01:09:55 UTC) (permalink)

News December 5 2003

Special Edition soundtrack - at the Bungie Store
rendar noticed that the Bungie Store seems to be selling the new, improved Special Edition Halo Soundtrack with the Halo 2 DVD. The link on Sumthing Else's page STILL points to the original soundtrack at Amazon... so if you want this version, visit the store! (Louis Wu 15:43:53 UTC) (permalink)

Bots... of a sort
Some interesting stuff over at HaloMods yesterday... dmauro and Aztec have managed to put AI into multiplayer. Stefander made a film. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. (There's also a new 'Pillar of Autumn detonation' projectile, for those who want REALLY big explosions...) Lots of people sent word of this last night, but Dan H. was first. Thanks! (Louis Wu 11:26:02 UTC) (permalink)

Hide and Seek
Another Friday, another Halo Babies comic - and what a great use for the Active Camo! (There are also some Halo Babies avatars for use on forums that allow them - check out the Cool Crap section!) (Louis Wu 10:39:46 UTC) (permalink)

Vox Dei
Today's One One Se7en looks at careless Multiplay, and what would be a pretty cool addition to the status reports... (Louis Wu 10:19:32 UTC) (permalink)

RvB for everyone
Finchmeister points out that the Red vs Blue promo for Spike TV is now visible on the Spike TV website. If you haven't seen it... grab it now. (Follow the enormous VGA link on the main page, then the 'Vegas, baby, Vegas" link on the subsequent popup.) (Louis Wu 10:16:11 UTC) (permalink)

The Words Keep Coming
27 stories posted in the Fan Fiction section in the last 2 days. (A goodly number this time around are poems.)

• A Rough Beginning Part 2, by Covie Armada
• The Battle for Phi Delta: Chapter 5, by witelancer
• The Spear of Tyr: Chapter 2, by Gre'Thor117
• Summit of Mout Denumbran Prt. 1, by Delta Force
• The Summit of Mout Denumbran Prt 2, by Delta Force
• The Twelve Days of Halo, by Jason
• My name is Master Chief and I'm here to say..., by stan
• A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One[FORUNNER], by Hunter_Killer
• A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One[STERFRYE], by Hunter_Killer
• Life Workin for HBO, Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• Earth's Destruction Chapter 2: The Battle of , by Sentinel
• On A Pale Horse: Into the Belly of the Beast, by Silent Hunter
• IONCLAD: Prologue, by Capo Rip
• Spartans in NYC Chapter 6, by Chief-117
• Hero of the Day, by Steele
• Fight or Flight: Chapter Five, by teemus
• S.O.R.D.- The Assault on Beckwith Alpha (Part 1&2), by Maxximus
• A Spartan's Path - chapter 4, by Myth
• A Case Of The Blahs, by Sathanas
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 7, by CovieKilla
• Episode 2: Forerunner, by Unorthidox Everything Man
• The Exchange - Part 2 - La Continuacion, by Dispraiser
• PERSONAL DATA DIARY: UNKNOWN (full version!!!), by Myndreach
• The Valiant, Hopeless Fight of the Valiant and the Hopeless, by Chief-117
• Hell, by teemus
• Last of a Dying Breed-Fierce Retaliation, by hornet34
• The Rebel: Just One of Those Days, by Elfster

What are you waiting for? There's gonna be more before you know it... (Louis Wu 10:11:44 UTC) (permalink)

Pc And Xbox Just Don't Mix
Gotta watch those tires... check Halo: Resolution today. (Louis Wu 09:41:32 UTC) (permalink)

News December 4 2003

A new protocol for movie distribution
Thanks to David Tinkler, President of Two Degrees, for providing links for a new peer-based protocol for serving large Halo-related files. You'll find information (and mirror links) in this protocol on both the Inside Halo 2 documentary mirror page posted recently, and the large Halo E3 Demo trailer mirror page. Client is currently Windows-only... but you should check it out! (Louis Wu 22:59:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC v1.03 - out in a few days
Cysco (Marc Tardif, Halo PC Producer for Gearbox) posted a pretty extensive overview of the 1.03 patch, and stated it would likely be released next Monday, the 8th. Go visit the Gearbox forums for all the details! (Louis Wu 21:20:34 UTC) (permalink)

One question... two questions...
Our very own Count Zero is the subject of the latest Spotlight over at the Junkyard. Ever wonder about the guy who answers the email you send to halo@bungie.org? Wonder no more - go read. (Louis Wu 20:03:27 UTC) (permalink)

Looks more like a puma...
Red vs Blue has created a new promo for the SpikeTV Video Game Awards. If you're a sponsor, it's available now for download on their forum. (If you're not, it'll be out for the masses sometime later.) It's great. Thanks to P_40E for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:38:05 UTC) (permalink)

KORHAL's vids - online, together
Nukedude pointed out that he has hosted all 5 of KORHAL's movies, in one place. If you're interested in what KORHAL's been up to, here's a decent place to start. (If you don't know who KORHAL is, you can just watch the movies; it doesn't really matter.) (Louis Wu 10:30:47 UTC) (permalink)

AGP3 match online
Ferret pointed out a video (shakeycam) from AGP3 - StK vs TDT. 35 mb, WMP8 format. You'll have to register on Spartanzclan's site (free) to download. Dunno... lotta camping going on, you ask me. (Louis Wu 10:12:46 UTC) (permalink)

It's A Cracker
A Guest One One Se7en, written by... One One Se7en? Hmm.. (Louis Wu 00:21:17 UTC) (permalink)

News December 3 2003

Halo Spikes the Competition
The Spike TV Video Game Awards were given out last night in Las Vegas, and though they won't air on Spike TV before tomorrow night, GamerFeed has announced the winners. Halo 2 was up for 'Most Anticipated Game' - it won. Halo PC was up for 'Best PC Game' - it won. (It was also up for 'Best First-Person Action Game' - but lost to Call of Duty.) Watch the details on Spike TV tomorrow at 9 pm! Thanks to Jesper Nielsen for the heads-up. (Apologies to anyone offended by the early notice.) (Louis Wu 20:40:25 UTC) (permalink)

Another AGP writeup
Lion got around to writing up his experience at AGP3 last week. Check it out here. (Louis Wu 19:32:51 UTC) (permalink)

A tribute to a friend
Not mine, actually - Morningstar's. (The tribute, that is. I wasn't - oh, never mind.) The MorningStar decided there was a missing feature here at HBO - a way to read stories written by forum jester Skavenger, without having to search through the archives. (Skavenger has never opted to submit his works to our Fan Fiction section.) Star figured that while he was compiling this list of jewels-in-the-rough, he might as well polish them up a bit; clean up spelling, punctuation, that sort of thing. In theory, with his help, this section will continue to be updated, if new stories are added to the forum. Without further ado, I direct you to the Skavenger_s7 section of HBO; may you find a laugh or two. (Louis Wu 16:11:39 UTC) (permalink)

HaloCity - a growing hub
progamerz stopped by our forum to point out three new sites at HaloCity, all modding-related; check out SomeRhino's Domain (nice shots of an in-progress map), Skin Deep (shots of racing stripe skins for hogs, among other things), and Digital Adrenaline (no real info yet, just a Flash intro). (Louis Wu 15:58:47 UTC) (permalink)

Wait, I think you missed one...
In the 'too much time on their hands' category, Hikaru-119 takes home the golden penguin for his Munitions count on all campaign levels of Halo. Gah. (Louis Wu 15:51:41 UTC) (permalink)

Artwork, by the bushel.
A monster collection of Miscellaneous Artwork for you today (17 pieces), due to the fact that the last update was about 2 weeks ago. Everything from misplaced comics, to pencil sketches, to animated mini-movies... a real grab-bag. Go check it out. (Louis Wu 15:37:28 UTC) (permalink)

Not A Glitch.
Stuntmutt revisits the mystery at the top of 343 Guilty Spark in today's One One Se7en. Dunno why... I was expecting a 'Can you hear me now?' joke instead... (Louis Wu 11:11:44 UTC) (permalink)

Most Anticipated Game Poll
Poll smash; Gamespot wants to know what 2004 release you're most looking forward to? Halo 2 is currently on top; if you can stomach the enormous ad to get in, help make sure it stays there. (Thanks to Alucard for pointing it out.) (Louis Wu 11:08:27 UTC) (permalink)

Terminology
Noobs - you gotta love 'em. Halo: Resolution shows you why. (Louis Wu 10:30:47 UTC) (permalink)

More bandwidth for Making Of Halo 2
Another mirror has appeared for the Making Of Halo 2 vid - WorthPlaying has put up copies on all its servers. (Three are in the US, one is in Sweden.) Don't miss this one! Update: Halo Orbit, in Germany, has put up a copy, as well. Check the mirror page! Update 2: and 6 MORE mirrors, from Gamers Hell. We'll keep adding mirrors to the page, as they come in; just keep checking back if you haven't gotten it yet! (No more updates here, though - this entry's gonna get too long.) (Louis Wu 10:16:16 UTC) (permalink)

First Strike - in stores now!
In honor of the release of Halo: First Strike in bookstores today, Bungie has put up a brand-new wallpaper (in four sizes), using Lorraine McLees' gorgeous cover artwork. Check it out! (Louis Wu 03:13:23 UTC) (permalink)

News December 2 2003

Gearbox loses one.
Wow. Dave Mertz, lead designer on Halo PC for Gearbox, resigned as of yesterday. Details can be found in this forum thread on Gearbox's forum. Hmm... I wonder what this means for the 1.03 patch, or the Editing Tools package? Thanks to progamerz for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 22:17:19 UTC) (permalink)

AGP details
For those interested in the AGP Fall Halo Championship, rapture has rounded up a bunch of links for you. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 21:22:45 UTC) (permalink)

Caboose Rules.
Woohoo! My Red vs Blue DVD came in the mail today... and man, this thing rocks. I'm not gonna get very much work done in the next bit here... All I can say is, if you haven't already ordered one of these, go do it. It's worth the bucks. (Louis Wu 19:56:10 UTC) (permalink)

Inside Halo 2 - in Hi-res splendor
Back in September, an interesting documentary was shown at the X03 event in France. It was a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Halo 2, created by Film Oasis, the company behind 'Inside the Xbox', a documentary shown on the Discovery Channel last summer. Unfortunately, the only version available has been a shakey-cam piece filmed at the show by a French journalist - better than nothing, but still unsatisfying. If you had access to a Best Buy in the United States, and were willing to spend $19.99 for a new controller, you could get a bundled DVD that contained the hi-res version of this film... but it wasn't available on the net. Until now. Thanks to Jim McQuillan at Film Oasis and the legal eagles at Bungie, we're able to bring you this video, in all its hi-res beauty. There are two versions; for the big bandwidth folks, there's a 100 mb, 640x480 copy, and for folks on smaller pipes, you can grab a 38 mb, 320x240 version. We've put up a pair of copies of each (on files.bungie.org and mythica.org) - but we're always happy to spread the bandwidth pain; if you've got the space, grab a copy, and send us the link, we'll add it to our Mirror page. This one's worth seeing. Update: Two new mirrors for each size - Coerce.net and Subnova have both tossed their hats into the Bandwidth ring. Thanks, guys! Update 2: Brian Towne has put up BitTorrent seeds for both large and small versions - grab these if you have the client; not only will they be faster, but they'll be less strain on our mirrors. Thanks! (Louis Wu 17:27:56 UTC) (permalink)

I Left My Combats On The Autumn.
Today's Guest One One Se7en strip comes from Traumatised Marine - and points out the soldier Bungie managed to overlook when they populated the Pillar of Autumn. (Louis Wu 16:06:41 UTC) (permalink)

Too many words
Once again, a 3-day hiatus in Fan Fiction posting has led to a ridiculously-sized update; 31 stories. (There was one more, valid one... but it was too big, and the database couldn't handle it. Hopefully, the submitter will resubmit in smaller chunks.)

• Final Fate: Mankind's Despise, by Jinkaiden-XI
• The Final War: Battle for Installation 02 [4:2], by Awacar
• The Last Battle of Earth prt 2, by Tlaloc
• A Rough Beginning, by Covie Armada
• Up to E3, by Steve
• The Last Forerunner(before part 1): Toward Another Halo, by Sentinel
• Covenant Grunt Morphology, by FOrunnER
• Out of Phase-Chapter 1, by BlackValkyire
• An HBO Christmas, by Jillybean
• The Exchange - Part 1 - Empensa', by Dispraiser
• The Second Ring (Part 3), by Jason
• Earth's Destruction Chapter 1: The Invasion, by Sentinel
• ES04 - Eternal Sunder (part 04): The Song of Sunder , by Wado
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 5: Arriving, Departing), by CoLd BlooDed
• Never Deny, by CoLd BlooDed
• The Serran part 1, by Tlaloc
• Fight or Flight: Chapter 4, by teemus
• Jonson Chronicles: Chapter 1:Boarding Parties, by Mattt
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Just Make Sure To Bypass Mars: Chapter 13, by S7N
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Just Make Sure To Bypass Mars: Chapter 14, by S7N
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Just Make Sure To Bypass Mars: Chapter 15, by S7N
• The Fallen: Halo 2 Chp 6 Sect 2 Just Passing By, by Hikaru-119
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Just Make Sure To Bypass Mars: Chapter 16, by S7N
• MSOG: Chapters 3 & 4, by Sprtn117John
• Unarmed, by Steve
• You'd Never Know, by CovieKilla
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Just Make Sure To Bypass Mars: Chapter 17, by S7N
• Closing with the Enemy Chapter 5 Night Approaches, by monitor101
• The Harvest Campaign Chapter 3, by Fleet Admiral
• Last Battle: In The Line Of Duty, by JOTD Fanfiction Team
• The March of the N00bs - Special Features, by Wado

Try not to miss Jillybean's HBO Christmas or Wado's March of the N00bs wrapup. (There's tons of other worthwhile stuff in here, too, of course...) (Louis Wu 16:03:30 UTC) (permalink)

The Doors Open...
It's been quite a bit of work, and not all of it's visible... but mnemesis and Finn have overhauled the Halo Story page, with new design tweaks, new organization, and new information. Poke around, see what you can find... there's some good stuff in there! (Louis Wu 12:45:44 UTC) (permalink)

News December 1 2003

Edged It.
Today's One One Se7en has MC a tad fixated on the review score Edge Magazine gave Halo PC. We know how that can be. (On a more sober note, for all the folks who misinterpreted my One One Se7en note yesterday - the truth is, I LOVE this strip. I wouldn't complain if Stuntmutt turned in enough for a strip every single day; we'd figure out a new system for posting Guest strips, if that ever happened. Thanks for the offers to host Guest strips, and the threats in support of Stuntmutt... the strip isn't going anywhere, and I'll try to be less subtle in my tweakage in the future. Maybe.) (Louis Wu 11:03:57 UTC) (permalink)

What Does It Mean, Anyway?
The sad thing about today's Halo: Resolution is that we're STILL getting emails like this, more than 2 years after the release of Xbox Halo. (Louis Wu 10:53:42 UTC) (permalink)

AGP Details
MaverickJ stopped in this afternoon to post the results from the AGP Fall 2003 Halo Championship. HP Darkman was unseated by Walshy of the Psycho Soldiers, with Clockwork and Strange Purple taking 3rd and 4th spots. Forum regular Break Point was there, and wrote up his own take on Day 1 - there's a version with boatloads of pics, and a version with links to the pics (so you can download them at your leisure, if you're on a slower connection). Sounds like a pretty interesting experience all around! Update: Lion, a member of Break Point's team, wrote up a bit (and posted some pics), too. (Louis Wu 03:29:26 UTC) (permalink)

HaloSpy updated
progamerz stopped by our forum to point out that a new version of HaloSpy has been released; this build adds screenshot viewing capabilities and autojoin and game autolaunch functions. Check it out! (Louis Wu 03:22:23 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief... in UT2
Ross Mills found a Master Chief model for Unreal Tournament 2; you can find download links (and a screenshot of the model) in this thread on the Atari forums. His feet look a little funny... but maybe that's just the angle. (Louis Wu 03:19:37 UTC) (permalink)

December 2003

We are NOT Bungie, Inc.! Bungie Inc. are bungie.net!
Halo © Bungie Inc., 1999-2012, Microsoft 2012-2025
Intellectual © halo.bungie.org, 1999-2025