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 | January 2008 |  |
January 2008 Archived News
News January 31 2008
I got candy, get in the van
Sirkan, From Halo.Fr, let us know that they've interviewed Frankie and Luke - you can read a translation, in French, or the original English on their forum. Learn how to pick up (leetle) girls in French, how honorable Luke will be with his debts of meat, and what's coming next, among (many) other things. (Louis Wu 22:12:41 UTC) (permalink)
Ranked BTB hits XBL
There's a note on Bungie.net describing a new playlist in Halo 3 Matchmaking - you can now play Big Team Battle Ranked. (The Social list is still there; you just have a choice now.) Check the newspost at B.net for details on gametypes and maps. (Louis Wu 19:16:19 UTC) (permalink)
Turning Halo into Cash
Kotaku has taken an in-depth look at the marketing effort for Halo 3 - how a global marketing firm helped Microsoft create the largest game launch in history. Interesting read. Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 18:51:17 UTC) (permalink)
Installation Disintegration: Part 4
Today's installment of Another Halo Comic Strip might solve a mystery that's been bugging you for a while... (Louis Wu 16:59:05 UTC) (permalink)
A second chance for actors
Anton P. Nym noticed an article in Scientific American about voice acting in video games - and both Keith David (the voice of the Arbiter) and Marty O'Donnell are mentioned prominently. The issue of residuals (an ongoing piece of the pie, paid to actors as the game sells, as opposed to a flat fee for the voice work) has been a bone of contention for years; check out this blog post from Wil Wheaton back in 2005, when the Screen Actors Guild settled with video game producers - and the other side of the story, from game girl advance during the same time. (Louis Wu 16:51:52 UTC) (permalink)
Nine point five on the landing.
Rooster Teeth has posted Week Three highlights of the Grifball Winter League 08 - swing by to see stuff like Team Kaboom (Gus's team) get scored on 4 times in 60 seconds. Available in streaming Flash and downloadable QuickTime. (Louis Wu 13:43:34 UTC) (permalink)
Soundtrack Analysis, Part 2
Narcogen's walk through the Halo 3 Soundtrack continues at Rampancy.net - Part Two covers the second third of the game. Again, it's a really interesting read, and will help you look at the music you're listening to in a different light. (If you missed Part One, we mentioned it on Tuesday. (Louis Wu 13:34:02 UTC) (permalink)
Everything is Under Control
And speaking of comics, I forgot too post Elnea's latest episode of Halo Action Figure Theater - it doesn't seem to have a number, but it SHOULD be 121, I guess. Consequences of activating Zombo-O-trons are now known. You were warned. (Louis Wu 13:23:53 UTC) (permalink)
Hydra
TTL Demag0gue is back with another episode of Reclaimer - Chapter Three, Part Two has the Reclaimer wondering what's going on with Viper squad, and musing on ways to even things up a bit. (His forum post also contains links to a couple of blog posts, explaining the delay and discussing his choice of medium.) Go read! (Louis Wu 13:21:15 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie was the game.
Bungie has posted their Winter Pentathlon Results - there's no video, but there are plenty of fun pics, and lots of funny writeup tidbits. Go read! (Raulboy was the first on our forum to notice.) (Louis Wu 13:14:47 UTC) (permalink)
Mylar Print on eBay
Scanner Darkly is selling a signed, factory-sealed mylar print of Lorraine McLees' classic Halo 2 Chief. You've got a bit over 6 days to decide. Update: There were ANOTHER pair of eBay auctions announced last night on our forum - Nox Invictus is selling action figures. I hadn't realized we were going to get a flood of auction listings when I mentioned the guy who was selling some books; new policy goes into effect now. I won't be front-paging auctions unless I think that what's being sold is unique enough to be of interest to MOST of the community. If you're selling stuff that many people have, you're welcome to post it on our forum. (Louis Wu 12:53:35 UTC) (permalink)
MS says Halo Wars is Xbox-Only
Yesterday, we mentioned a rumor that Halo Wars was under development for PC, as well as the 360. IGN checked with Microsoft, and were told that there is no PC version planned. Thanks, MasterChief2829. (Louis Wu 12:51:05 UTC) (permalink)
News January 30 2008
Polishing the Bling
Bungie's made some pretty big changes to Bungie.net - forums have been upgraded, Groups get new themes. Go read about it - and then explore! (Louis Wu 20:16:24 UTC) (permalink)
How to spend your leftover Christmas money
several orphans pointed out a bunch of objects at the Bungie Store - some ActionClix stuff, a couple of posters, a mylar print. They've never been mentioned in our news, so if you haven't seen 'em, check 'em out! (Louis Wu 19:46:26 UTC) (permalink)
Epitaph Panoramas
AlkalineProdigy sent us a couple of panoramic shots of Epitaph (Side Full | Tower) - really gives you a sense of scale! (That tiny blue thing at the top is where you play.) (Louis Wu 19:41:25 UTC) (permalink)
You, Me, Them, Everybody, Everbody...
Plenty of recycled jokes in today's One One Se7en... but anything that references the Blues Brothers can't be all bad. (Wait, shouldn't that be the Blue SISTER?) (Louis Wu 15:09:45 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Wars - on 360 and PC?
The Angry Pixel claims to have inside information that Halo Wars is being developed for the PC as well as the Xbox360 - and that the two versions will be able to play together. Pretty cool, if it turns out to be true! Thanks, ActionTrip. (Louis Wu 15:02:35 UTC) (permalink)
Installation Disintegration Part 3
ZZoMBiE13's week-long trip around the galaxy continues... this time with some old friends from across the pond. Go read Another Halo Comic Strip. (Louis Wu 14:11:28 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 vs Call of Duty 4: IGN Grudge Match
If you're an IGN Insider, you can watch a Halo 3 vs CoD4 Grudge Match - a pair of IGN editors describe why one game is better than the other. IGN fans chose CoD4 almost 2:1 over Halo 3, but some of the arguments seem... weak. (The CoD4 advocate ends the match with "Enjoy your six year old game, suckas!" - I guess Call of Duty is better because it's only four years old?) (Louis Wu 13:45:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo - it shows up EVERYWHERE
Mister Tortoise picked up a copy of DC's Metamorpho Year One Issue 3, and found a panel with some tributes to Halo. Fun! (Louis Wu 13:38:44 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo 3 Panoramas
Shadowfax1007 let us know that he and Ecthelion have put a collection of Halo 3 panoramas online, with more coming in the next week or two. Take a look! (Louis Wu 13:11:15 UTC) (permalink)
Well, THAT didn't last long.
Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, and Avateur, on our forum, both noticed that Call of Duty 4's reign on the top of the Xbox LIVE charts lasted... one week. As of the week of January 21, Halo 3 is back at the top of the charts, according to Major Nelson. It's a good bet that these two games will trade the lead in coming weeks... but it's amusing to look at the pattern: Halo 2 was on top for 105 weeks, Gears of War held the spot for 45 weeks, Halo 3 was up there for 16 consecutive weeks, and CoD4 stood at the top for... a week.
(Louis Wu 11:49:22 UTC) (permalink)
HBO News Widget, from a Fan
Terminator182 created an HBO News Widget for Mac OSX's Dashboard. Get your news fix without touching a browser! Download url (with a screenshot) is in the forum post. (Louis Wu 11:40:08 UTC) (permalink)
Forge The Foundry Winners Announced
evildoctorwill noticed that the MLG Forge the Foundry contest winners have been posted; we mentioned the contest back in December) - looks like there are some awesome downloads waiting for you! (Louis Wu 11:36:46 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular 146
Podtacular #146 has been released - guest hosts are the guys from Forge Hub. Go listen! Thanks, Samus 117. (Louis Wu 11:32:56 UTC) (permalink)
Build a Spartan
Raulboy stumbled across a 'Build a Spartan' Flash app while perusing the B.net forums - add your own helmet and armor, change the color, and outfit your weapons! Doesn't look totally finished yet, but it's a nice start. Update: Scotty GEE (the creator) let us know that his project, GEE-MC, will actually be hosted at this URL from now on. (Louis Wu 11:28:43 UTC) (permalink)
ActionClix LE figures now up at Target
Nevan let us know that his local Target was selling the limited edition ActionClix figures you could get for preordering Halo 3 at that store. If you're looking to collect these, swing by your local branch and see if they're there too! (Louis Wu 11:24:33 UTC) (permalink)
News January 29 2008
Steel Spartan Kotobukiya, coming soon
Gryphonosiris noticed a Steel Kotobukiya statue for preorder at Urban Collector - shipping in March. Go look! Update: Jeff, from Urban-Collector, stopped by our forum to point out that they're going to be getting these steel spartans in this week - preorder shipments are going out Monday. (Louis Wu 22:06:56 UTC) (permalink)
Get stuff for your screenshots
ThisIsSpartan117.com is running a small contest - submit a cool screenshot, and the winner will have their shot made into the background of the site, as well as gathering up 500 Microsoft Points. Thanks, Alacaboose. (Louis Wu 22:05:25 UTC) (permalink)
Awesome.
kilaMOMjaro sent us a note about her middle son - he's building cool things in Forge. My question is, though... does it walk? (Louis Wu 21:43:23 UTC) (permalink)
A bug by any other name...
The Escapist looks at game glitches, and how they can enhance your experience, rather than degrade it. Halo 2 and Halo 3 both play a role. (Louis Wu 15:56:14 UTC) (permalink)
Rocket Race Montage
Z sent us a link to a Rocket Race montage at Halo3Forum; if you haven't played a lot of this gametype, swing by and watch! (Louis Wu 15:47:15 UTC) (permalink)
Soundtrack Analysis, Part 1
Over at Rampancy.net, Narcogen wrote up an article that examines the Halo 3 soundtrack, and how it reinforces gameplay and your emotional ties to the action that happens onscreen. It's a great read - I can't wait for Part 2! (Louis Wu 15:28:37 UTC) (permalink)
Installation Disintegration: Part 2
ZZoMBiE13's weeklong Halo destruction series continues - today's Another Halo Comic Strip has a cameo from a DIFFERENT Halo comic. (And one of the best UNSC ship names EVAR.) (Louis Wu 13:45:37 UTC) (permalink)
Random Halo 3 Screenshots
Hawty McBloggy spent a lot of time perusing screenshots collections at Bungie.net, and put together fifteen of her favorites. (Three came from Bungie's Favorites list, but the rest were all dug out by her.) Some really cool shots in there!
(Louis Wu 13:37:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Goodies for Auction
James Center is selling off a bunch of his Halo paraphenalia; swing by his eBay auction for the details. Books, cards, posters - it's all in there! (Louis Wu 13:35:59 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Achievement Tips
Avateur noticed a relatively new feature on Xbox.com - it's an article suggesting ways to grab some of the Halo 3 achievements. Give it a read!
(Louis Wu 13:34:50 UTC) (permalink)
Do Not Want!
Elnea's posted Episode 120 of her Halo Action Figure Theater. Protip: do not let drugged people near Zombo-O-Tron 9000s.
(Louis Wu 13:33:12 UTC) (permalink)
Building armor with minimal cash
Keegan came by with some pictures of his low-budget Halo 3 armor - looks great! (Louis Wu 13:27:25 UTC) (permalink)
US Army - Heavy Weapons Training
J23 pointed out that Major Nelson has announced the next entry from the US Army - Heavy Weapons. I couldn't find a consistent way to navigate to this, but the 'Heavy Weapons' banner is in heavy rotation (no pun intended) on the LIVE blades of your 360; it shouldn't be hard to find. Once you navigate to the page, you'll find a new theme, a picture pack, an instructional army video, the ability to register for the next phase of the Army's multipart tournament, and two training vids - shoulder-mounted weapons, and support weapons. These will give you tips and tricks to maximize your effectiveness with these powerful, but in some ways limited, weapons. (Louis Wu 13:24:05 UTC) (permalink)
Starting Early
Sep7imus ran across a fun magazine cover at The Onion... it's a parody, yeah, but it hits a little close to home. (Louis Wu 13:06:16 UTC) (permalink)
News January 28 2008
Halo 3: Knocking on Heaven's Door
Flud stopped by to point out 'Halo 3: Knocking on Heaven's Door', from The DuoGroup. Available in high-quality streaming DivX from their site, or on YouTube. It's actually a pretty nice piece of work! Go watch. (Louis Wu 19:24:09 UTC) (permalink)
Step right up!
Sticky Keys and TheIronChef have put together another Halo 3 data script - this one compares some key statistics in multiplayer to another gamertag. Check out the documentation link; it's interesting to see how they calculated their values! Thanks, BuckHijo. (Louis Wu 19:10:27 UTC) (permalink)
Forging lulz
mrsmiley let us know that the next Larry the Marine is out - looks like he's got access to some advanced tools! (Louis Wu 18:58:19 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 on the Cheap
According to Xbox360Fanboy, you can pick up a copy of Halo 3 at Best Buy this week for just $38. Noice! (Louis Wu 18:56:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 vs Call of Duty 4: someone can't count.
I'm a little confused; news all over the web has Activision claiming that Call of Duty 4 was the biggest-selling title in 2007, with "more than seven million units since its launch in November" (the official press release is here, at GamesIndustry.biz, for example). But didn't Major Nelson tell us 3 days into January that Halo 3 had sold 8.1 million copies? NPD's reports are not accessible to non-subscribers, so I can't access the lists these people are using to build their numbers... but something seems fishy. Update: Smurfa points out that Gamespot, too, noticed this discrepancy, and speculated that the CoD numbers are copies actually sold to consumers, vs Halo numbers which are simply numbers shipped to retailers. (This is just speculation - but it seems feasible. Hopefully, clarification will be forthcoming.) (Louis Wu 18:51:33 UTC) (permalink)
How Long Have They Known?
Remember - One One Se7en contains Halo 3 spoilers these days. Nuggets of wisdom, too. (Annnnd... that's it for a bit. I've got jury duty today, which is why all queued news is being posted before 7 am my time. Be good.) (Louis Wu 11:50:56 UTC) (permalink)
Installation: Disintegration: Part 1
Another Halo Comic Strip kicks off the actual multpart storyline today - come and meet the monitor of Installation 06. And some friends. (Louis Wu 11:49:16 UTC) (permalink)
MC Sculpture - Finished
A few weeks ago, we mentioned a ceramic sculpture being crafted by SnprTw - she's finished it, and posted a final picture in our forum. Great work! (Louis Wu 11:45:36 UTC) (permalink)
Shell Shocked Contest
TrueDarkFusion let us know that Forge Hub is running a 'Shell Shocked Contest' - Forge a map based on a historical battle, win prizes. (No D-Day maps allowed.) Check the contest page for full details, including prizes. (Louis Wu 11:43:45 UTC) (permalink)
Call it Halo, they'll come play
A bizarre little Flash game popped up in my Google Alerts this morning - it's described as "Halo 3: 1st Boss Encounter!!!!!" - but there's really nothing Halo-related about it. (And it takes a minute or two to beat it.) (Louis Wu 11:41:07 UTC) (permalink)
Sniper
TTL Demagogue is back in the saddle, after some health issues - Chapter Three, Part One of his Reclaimer series is now online. I'm not sure I understand the gamertag info left on the shots... but I'm sure it'll all become clear in time. (Louis Wu 11:35:32 UTC) (permalink)
News January 27 2008
The Riot 84
Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 84 is posted - no Awards yet, but there's plenty of clan stuff. (You can see a full breakdown in the news post.) Go listen - 20 minutes, 8 mb. (Louis Wu 21:21:42 UTC) (permalink)
Jonathan Quail OST
The Jonathan Quail soundtrack has been released by CROSSFIRE - swing by GTV to pick it up. Ten songs, 35 mb. Thanks, trigger119. (Louis Wu 18:17:49 UTC) (permalink)
Installation Disintegration: Preview
ZZoMBiE13 has kicked off a week-long tribute to the Halo rings (the ones we DIDN'T blow up). Swing by Another Halo Comic Strip to see the preview of the storyline. This week, there'll be new strips every day, rather than every other day. (Louis Wu 16:23:49 UTC) (permalink)
HBOL
Schooly D and Retsamolah have kicked off the HBOL - the HBO League. It's a 1v1 ladder (to grow to a 2v2 ladder, and it's there for fun. (Competitive fun, but fun.) If you want to participate, swing by and join up! (Louis Wu 16:19:06 UTC) (permalink)
Machinimators interviewing machinimators
Halo Union has kicked off a series of interviews with people in the Halo machinima community - the first one is with imSuck, of HaloGrid. Give it a read! Thanks, Teh Filmer. (Louis Wu 16:16:22 UTC) (permalink)
Tracking Stats by Location
Terry let us know that there's a site called 'HALOcal' - it tracks Halo stats by location (city, state, zip). Seems to be US-only. Swing by to find out who's the best in YOUR neighborhood! (Louis Wu 16:14:37 UTC) (permalink)
News January 26 2008
But can you solve it with your FEET?
Hawty McBloggy found a video of a homemade Halo 3 Rubik's Cube - seems to me that most of the pictures are too close to one another, color-wise, to make this really easy to solve... but it's cool anyway. (Louis Wu 23:13:10 UTC) (permalink)
Microsoft Pays Off - Better Late than Never
Looks like the 'free copy of Halo 3 for upgrading 360 buyers' deal might actually be paying off soon; folks have begun receiving email notifications that the free game will be coming 'in the next three weeks'. (Some people are even getting the notes when they didn't do anything to earn them.) Seems like an awfully long time to wait for a free game, but hey - it's free, right? (Louis Wu 23:12:02 UTC) (permalink)
A second chance at a great poster
Wow. A couple of years ago, we helped Bungie auction off a bunch of cool schwag, with proceeds going to help Katrina victims. One of the items was a Halo 2 poster, signed by the majority of the Bungie team. Final price was $1736.70. It's back up on eBay again, this time with a starting bid of $2500. (The original buyer is selling off a lot of his Halo collectible stuff; hit the 'View seller's other items' link on that page for many joyride figures.) (Louis Wu 19:53:24 UTC) (permalink)
Inside Halo: Episode 6
Sodagod's Inside Halo series continues with Episode 6 - it's on YouTube right now (thanks, Major Silva), and will eventually be downloadable from machinima.com, though it doesn't seem to be posted there yet. Ten minutes long, it highlights some of the better machinima releases in the past couple of months, discusses general Halo news and shows off 5 top plays from around the net. (I liked #4 quite a lot, myself.) Go watch! Update: Smurfa found the Machinima.com link here. (Louis Wu 18:53:43 UTC) (permalink)
Careful what you wish for...
ZZoMBiE13 brings back a pair of popular characters in today's installment of Another Halo Comic Strip - it's immature humor, sure, but it'll make you laugh. (Louis Wu 14:45:19 UTC) (permalink)
Buy an unreleased action figure
PFG pointed out an auction he's running on eBay - it's for a rare, unreleased Joyride action figure. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:38:00 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox sales info - how did we miss this?
Wow - this is the first I've heard of this. InformationWeek points out that while Microsoft did a nice job of bumping up weekly sales to finish the last three months of 2007 with 4.3 million units sold... that's actually LESS than they sold in the same timeframe the year before. So even WITH the Halo 3 bump, they DROPPED in sales. Ouch! (Louis Wu 14:36:04 UTC) (permalink)
At what point is there 'too much hype'?
Xbox360Fanboy has posted a bunch of pictures of the McFarlane action figures... packaged. We already told you about some of these a few weeks ago - but X3F's collection contains more shots. (Louis Wu 14:28:20 UTC) (permalink)
Storytelling, the Bungie Way
On our forum, there's a pretty interesting discussion about the Halo story (the overall story, rather than the story from any one game), and how good a job Bungie did in getting it across to you in-game. It touches on the interaction between storytelling and gameplay, on the relationship between realistic and reasonable, on subtlety, or the lack thereof. How do YOU think Bungie did? (Louis Wu 14:21:44 UTC) (permalink)
Attitude
Xorian noticed yesterday that Arby 'n' the Chief Episode 3 has been posted at machinima.com; see what Recon armor can do? Funny stuff. (Louis Wu 14:02:32 UTC) (permalink)
News January 25 2008
(Re)spawning your life away
Heh - a couple of guys worked out a script that calculates the amount of time you spend waiting to respawn in multiplayer, assuming an average 5 second respawn. Gives you pause... Thanks, BuckHijo. (Louis Wu 20:07:05 UTC) (permalink)
Spoils of Waaaah.
A bunch of recent One One Se7en episodes have contained Halo 3 story spoilers. Today's does, too. Pretty nice zinger, though. (Louis Wu 17:30:15 UTC) (permalink)
Dealing with the loss of Harvest
The Halo Wars website has been updated again, with a new piece of concept art, and some rationale behind its creation. Go read 'What's behind a concept...' on the front page now. Thanks, Marcus-626. (Louis Wu 17:27:49 UTC) (permalink)
The Philosophy of Control
Zaam pointed out a school philosophy project he created using the Halo 3 engine - it's called 'The Philosophy of Control', and it looks at various forms of government, and some problems each might face. It's in two parts, on YouTube (One | Two). I don't know what grade it earned. (Louis Wu 17:15:41 UTC) (permalink)
Is there a Plan C?
Halo Action Figure Theater #119 has been posted - there's hope! Well, sort of. Things rely on Spartan 212 and his team... and that might not be a really good thing. (Louis Wu 16:51:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Afterthoughts: Extended Edition
1UP.com sat down with Brian Jarrard and Tyson Green and talked for a LONG time about what worked, and didn't work, in Halo 3. There's a huge amount of information, covering what happened at the end of Halo 2, how they made decisions about Halo 3 content, why they've chosen some of the things they've chosen... it's a must-read for any hardcore Halo fan. Thanks to Planet Halo for noticing. (Louis Wu 16:34:35 UTC) (permalink)
Cheeb's World Tour
It's been a while since you've heard from Madda Cheeb, the trash-talking action figure that lives at Xbox Ottawa. Looks like that might be because he's been globetrotting. Swing by the site for a huge collection of photos of Madda Cheeb, all over the world! (Andrew says he got some pretty odd looks taking some of these pictures...) (Louis Wu 15:39:46 UTC) (permalink)
Infected Teaser
Deekor let us know that he's released a trailer for his upcoming film 'Infected'. It's short, nicely filmed. (No real content.) Take a look. (Louis Wu 15:12:42 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Recut
If you live in Europe (well, some parts of Europe), Microsoft wants to see what you can do with the Master Chief. They're looking for "short movies that show the unseen adventures of Master Chief and the Halo crew." Send in a movie - you might find yourself in Hollywood for a 4-week Film School. Check the official contest page for full details, including age restrictions, eligibility, and full prize details. Sweetness! Thanks to Filefront for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:56:37 UTC) (permalink)
Create-a-Hero contest - deadline extended
bryboy remix wrote to let us know that the Create-a-Hero contest being run by Halopen Films (we last mentioned it in November) has had its deadline extended until February 25, 2008. Check the contest page for full details. (Louis Wu 14:51:14 UTC) (permalink)
Fighting mom jokes, one movie at a time
Halo Babies' mrsmiley sat down with DigitalPh33r, the machinimaker behind Arby 'n' Chief, Deux Ex Machina, and a number of other projects. Go read about what makes him tick! (Louis Wu 13:40:42 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
Quiet week in the Fan Fiction section - only five new pieces. Go read! (Louis Wu 13:37:58 UTC) (permalink)
The Power of the Mind
Hawty McBloggy continues her Rorschach Inkblot Tests - today, she's got a summary of the Last Resort results, and an image from Valhalla. What do YOU see? (Louis Wu 13:37:20 UTC) (permalink)
How long does a 'best of' take?
gloob.tv put together what they call the 'Best Fan-Made Halo 3 Videos' (seems sort of silly, given that the game's only been out for 4 months, but...). Go see what they've picked. (Nice collection, actually.) (Louis Wu 13:35:03 UTC) (permalink)
News January 24 2008
Next game - Invisible Pistols on Sandtrap
This week's Halo Humpday Challenge was against the SBG clan - and it shows how flexible Halo 3 really is. The first game was a straight slayer game... and Bungie got DEMOLISHED. Pummeled. Beaten into the ground. Crushed like grapes in a winemaking machine. How did they come back? Heh - they used a technique we here at HBO approve of fully - whacky gametypes! Game two was called 'Nades and Spades' - you only got points for grenade sticks or beatdowns. SBG almost won this one, too... but not quite. Game 3 was a special Bungie variation on Sandtrap with lots of big vehicles... and again, knowing the terrain was more than half the battle. Bungie bottled 'em up and kept them from using their far-superior shooting skills. Final tally - Bungie wins, 2-1. Go read. (Louis Wu 22:35:41 UTC) (permalink)
LEGO Master Chief
Whoa, very cool. LEGO Artist Nathan Sawaya built a Master Chief bust out of LEGO... and documented it via time-lapse photography. Go look at pictures on his website, and follow the link to MTV's site for the video. Thanks, Decommissioner. (Louis Wu 21:02:13 UTC) (permalink)
Don't cut yourself.
Bah. Hawty McBloggy sent this to me last night - somehow I forgot about it. Which is silly, because it's pretty darned cool. She found a stainless steel Energy Sword on eBay - starting bid is $125, and there are 6 days left in the auction. It looks pretty deadly! (Louis Wu 18:54:10 UTC) (permalink)
Sniper School Training Vids now on XBLM
Over at the 405th, Sean Bradley noticed that the US Army Sniper Training Videos are now online on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. (Thanks to Xavier for the heads-up on this.) To download them for yourself (they're free), go to the Marketplace blade on your 360, then select 'Spotlight'. Scroll over to 'Free Stuff' - you should see 'Sniper School Free Gamerpic' or something close to that, a little way down the list. Select it, and you'll have the option to download each of the four videos (Know Your Weapon, and then Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Sniper Tactics), as well as a Sniper School Theme. As far as I know, these are not available on the web (and I don't know if we're allowed to MAKE them available), so you'll need to grab them from Marketplace if you want to watch them. They show you nice places to perch if you're a sniper. (Louis Wu 17:09:37 UTC) (permalink)
I'm a coffee man, myself.
Wow. Looks like teabagging - the act, virtual or otherwise, of lowering one's crotch on the face of another - is being blamed on Halo, at least according to one New Jersey school board. Never mind that the practice has existed for far, far longer than Halo's been around... thanks, Charley117, who found it at Kotaku. (Louis Wu 16:39:31 UTC) (permalink)
The end of an era (soon)
Many people noticed a new notice linked from the main page of mythica.org - Brian Towne is closing things down next month. Mythica.org has been a (maybe the) primary hosting site for Halo media content since there's BEEN Halo media content. He hasn't required logins, or made you jump through hoops, or made you watch a film the way HE wants you to watch it - he just hosts content, free of charge to both uploaders and downloaders. For 6 years, he's made it easy for folks to express themselves though Halo games, and for that, we're profoundly grateful. It's gotten to the point where he can't keep it up, however, and he's closing the doors at the end of February. (That gives you plenty of time to find the content you've been meaning to grab.) It should be noted that some of the content that he hosts - specifically content on files.mythica.org - will continue to remain available; we've taken over responsibility for that server, and will keep it up and running for the forseeable future. The bulk of Mythica's hosting, though, has been useruploads.mythica.org - and that collection of work (about a terabyte and a half of content, streaming out to the internet at 12-15 terabytes/month) is too big for us to handle, and will disappear forever after February.
I'd like to say that were it not for Brian and Mythica, I think the Halo machinima community might never have gotten off the ground; the interest in MAKING machinima was fueled by the early creators, and those creators were hosted by Brian. It can't be overstated how important he's been to this community. Thank you, Brian, for all you've done. (Louis Wu 15:31:34 UTC) (permalink)
Nom De Plume
ZZoMBiE13 takes another shot at the poor Arbiter in today's installment of Another Halo Comic Strip. What a meanie! (Louis Wu 15:16:47 UTC) (permalink)
ZombieTastic
Next Generation has posted a story from Edge Magazine which looks back on Stubbs the Zombie, the first creation of Wideload Games and the only game, so far, to utilize a licensed Halo engine. Was it successful at what it set out to do? Well... what DID it set out to do? Read the article and find out. Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for finding this. (Louis Wu 15:08:44 UTC) (permalink)
I Really Hate That Guy
Elnea's posted Halo Action Figure Theater #118 - the storyline is dark, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. She promises to brighten things up soon. (Louis Wu 14:53:44 UTC) (permalink)
FB vs BkS, Pit KOTH (LBJ took the IRT)
Z sent us word of a fun game he's spotlighting over at Halo3Forum.com - Final Boss vs Best Kept Secret, King of the Hill, on The Pit, from the point of view of a PuRe GaNgSt3r (a member of BkS). You can stream it, you can download it (a 280 mb WMP9, just a straight rip of the film from APG's viewpoint), or you can grab a copy of the film from APG's fileshare, and view it the way you want to. Great game, and really nice to see some pro techniques in a 15 minute battle. Check it out.
(Louis Wu 14:51:28 UTC) (permalink)
NFNCVP
Last night, Bungie posted a Q&A session with Brian Jarrard about the Bungie Pentathlon, an internal battle of skill that involves all (okay, a lot of) Bungie employees in a day of debauchery and gameplaying. Halo features strongly, which is what makes this relevant for HBO. Go read about it - and pick your favorite team! SPARTAN 294 brought this to the attention of our forum population. (Louis Wu 12:35:26 UTC) (permalink)
News January 23 2008
Grifball Week Two Highlights
Week Two highlights are posted over at Grifball.com - go watch some great play in Flash or QuickTime formats. Rooster Teeth has added commentary this time around. (Louis Wu 14:02:31 UTC) (permalink)
Phosphorescence.
Doesn't happen often - but today's One One Se7en was a genuine laugh-out-loud moment. (Louis Wu 13:56:59 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo 3 Machinima
I guess it's the morning to announce movies - we heard from a couple of other people, as well. Lordstemplar1 stopped in to put up a teaser for Blackstone, an upcoming project, and AnTi PRO pointed out a thread on Arm the Flag which provides download links for Oregon Trail: Pioneering Evolved Ep 1. Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:46:28 UTC) (permalink)
Geezers Like Halo
Geezer Gamers have posted their first annual Geezergamer of the Year Awards - and Halo 3 took both Multiplayer Game of the Year and Geezer Game of the Year. w00t! (Louis Wu 13:42:34 UTC) (permalink)
Hail... Mendicant?
Hawty McBloggy found a video of some pretty amazingly lucky sticks in Halo 3 - a couple actually look like the thrower wanted to hit something, but most were just 'toss this and pray' examples. Even so, it's pretty funny to see folks turn glowy blue (or orange) with zero warning. (Louis Wu 13:40:27 UTC) (permalink)
A day in the life of a concept artist
Ensemble Concept Artist Bart Tiongson was nice enough to put together a summary of his usual day - this can give you an idea of what a concept artist on a title like Halo Wars does for a job. (He's also got a small update on Halo Wars itself.) Thanks, Planet Halo. (Louis Wu 13:37:20 UTC) (permalink)
Forging 101 #3 - Floating Platforms
TheShadyGnome stopped by with word of the newest Forging 101 video tutorial - this one will show you how to build floating platforms. Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:34:19 UTC) (permalink)
News January 22 2008
iHaloStats - iPhone Stats, to the Max
A month ago, we mentioned a small app you could use from your iPhone to get your Halo 3 stats - now there's another option, and it's pretty amazing. iHaloStats.com shows you everything from a summary page to your medal chest to your weapons stats. All nicely formatted for the iPhone. Check it out! (This was created by the same guy who showed you how to make stereoscopic screenshots from Halo 3.) (Louis Wu 20:02:00 UTC) (permalink)
Gone fishin?
There's an interesting piece over at Tied the Leader today - apparently, the Gunslingers are playing quite a bit of Call of Duty 4 these days, like many other people on Xbox Live, and XerxdeeJ looks at some of the reasons why. He also speculates on how long it'll stay on top, given its strengths and weaknesses (vis a vis Halo 3) - but my big question is, when people are ready to move on from CoD, will they move BACK to Halo 3... or on to a different game altogether? Give it a read - and then toss in your two cents! (Louis Wu 17:02:11 UTC) (permalink)
Phosphrescence
ZZoMBiE13's getting into the bad pun biz - check out today's installment of Another Halo Comic Strip. Ouch! (Louis Wu 15:18:20 UTC) (permalink)
Caption THIS
Hawty McBloggy wants to give you stuff. Good stuff. She's got a Halo 3 soundtrack, a $20 gift certificate, a 1-month Gold subscription card for LIVE, and maybe more. And it's all gonna go to whoever comes up with the best caption for a pic Bungie posted last week. Go read her site for full details.
(Louis Wu 14:44:16 UTC) (permalink)
Ew. Just Burn the Hat.
Elnea's posted Episode 117 (!!!) of her Halo Action Figure Theater - things are looking grim for Admiral Norris! However, the fact that she actually modeled a UNSCDF badge for his hat makes everything better. That... or the cake. (Louis Wu 14:41:27 UTC) (permalink)
More details about Seattle PLAY! Dates
A few weeks ago, we mentioned some performances of the PLAY! concert series in Seattle this month - there are more details now in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Marty O'Donnell will be at both shows! (Louis Wu 14:29:08 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Tourney in Tennessee
The Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, TN will be host to a Halo 3 tourney this weekend - check this article in TriCitiesSports.com, or visit the tourney website. Entrance fee is $25/event, and top prize is $1000. (Louis Wu 14:25:03 UTC) (permalink)
Beating Halo 3's Biggest Level - Fast
If you're interested in speedrunning Halo levels, you could just watch the videos at HighSpeedHalo.net - they'll show you how others are doing it. However, if you're looking for philosophy of route-taking, you need a blog entry. Ken Henderson has written up a piece on how to beat The Covenant in 20 minutes - I learned stuff from it! (Louis Wu 14:18:57 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 drops to number 2 on Xbox LIVE
Halo 2 was released on November 9, 2004 - and from that point, until the week of November 13, 2006, it was the number one most played game on Xbox LIVE. (Part of that long, long run has to do with a dearth of killer titles for the time frame in question... but certainly Halo 2 was a truly playable online game.) Gears of War took over in the week of November 13... and remained on top until the week of September 24, 2007, when Halo 3 exploded on the scene. Halo 3's run at the top was much shorter than either Halo 2 or Gears of War - a scant 16 weeks. As of the week of January 14, Call of Duty 4 has taken over the top spot. Will it, too, be dethroned in a matter of weeks... or will it hold on longer? Time will tell. Thanks to MasterChief2829 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:01:50 UTC) (permalink)
News January 21 2008
Thought I'd clean my way out.
As Ross Mills says, this is probably stretching it, but... OhGizmo compares the new Samsung Silencio Cylinder Vacuum to MC's helmet. When you're done sniggering, you'll have to admit... there IS a slight resemblance. (Louis Wu 23:10:55 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 OST Reviewed at SciFi.com
Jase let us know that Sci Fi Weekly (the weekly newsletter of SciFi.com) has reviewed the Halo 3 Original Soundtrack - they say it has "replay value that hoists it above the usual game soundtrack." (They say a lot more than that - go read the whole review.) (Louis Wu 22:12:34 UTC) (permalink)
Stupidity, incoming...
2phast let us know that another Larry the Marine comic is online - Larry needs to learn a few things. (Louis Wu 19:10:33 UTC) (permalink)
Downfalling.
A number of fans have gotten annoyed at the huge delays in the Halo comic from Marvel; it was supposed to bridge the gap between Halo 2 and Halo 3. Today, Stuntmutt shows you why it might not matter in the latest One One Se7en. Go read. (Louis Wu 15:59:27 UTC) (permalink)
Print the Pink Mist
Cat Richards really wanted the 'Fear the Pink Mist' Achievement - on her shirt. So she made a full-sized version (rebuilt in Adobe Illustrator) for printing. And then passed it along so that you could make your OWN shirt. Grab it in .PNG format, or .PDF. Your call. (Louis Wu 13:10:22 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Stats Tracking Utility is Back
Darkphibre has updated his Statistics Tracking Utility to work with Halo 3 - it's a client-side tool, meaning you don't have to access a website (other than Bungie.net) to view the stats. It requires the .NET 2.0 framework - not sure which Microsoft operating systems that includes, but it's probably most of them. Take a look! (Louis Wu 12:42:35 UTC) (permalink)
blackouTT TV
trigger119 let us know that blackouTT has his own GTV channel now - if you want to watch all blackouTT, all the time... now you can. (Louis Wu 12:37:42 UTC) (permalink)
I'm just goan wing 'im.
Wow. Just... wow. G4's X-Play has a video called 'Tyler Perry's Halo Family Reunion'. Thanks (I think) Grey Wolf. (Louis Wu 12:33:13 UTC) (permalink)
News January 20 2008
The Riot 83
Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 83 is now up - not long (20 minutes, 8 mb), but full of stuff. Go listen! (Louis Wu 20:47:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Serenity
Jammerfer [MunKy] created a video reproduction of the Serenity trailer, using cutscene footage. Pretty well-done! (Louis Wu 19:07:56 UTC) (permalink)
Worth a Thousand Words
Halo Action Figure Theater Episode #116 is now up - that Elnea is getting more and more feisty, if you ask me. Keep an eye on her... (Louis Wu 19:05:11 UTC) (permalink)
Someone's gotta name him now.
BootStrap Boon put together a Mongoose Transformer video in Halo 3 - nice! (Louis Wu 19:01:47 UTC) (permalink)
N is for Ninjaburger
Sparticus noticed a 'Geek ABCs' alphabet... and the 'F' entry has Halo overtones. Borderline relevant, sure... but it's a funny list. (Louis Wu 18:57:29 UTC) (permalink)
News January 19 2008
SG was 0.15 percent low.
Tied the Leader has posted the winners of its 117 Day Contest - congratulations to the 21 soundtrack winners! And thanks to EVERYONE who participated; apparently, more than $500 was collected for the TTL Foundation, all of which will be donated to "assist in the rehabilitation of wounded combat veterans of the Unites States Armed Forces." Go check out the list! (And check out how close some of the guesses came to the actual number; I'm impressed.) (Louis Wu 18:55:24 UTC) (permalink)
Deus Ex Machina: Episode 4 - The End
I'd hoped that I would have a high-resolution version to host for you before posting this news, but I need to leave, so it's better you know about what's out there than that you know what COULD be out there. DigitalPh33r has released part 4 of his Deus Ex Machina series (check our news for earlier episode links) - you can download or stream a low-res version from Machinima.com. (Thanks, Major Silva.) Very nice work, though it might not end as you expect... It's a massive 30 minutes long, though the download is only 43 mb. (Louis Wu 18:12:37 UTC) (permalink)
Got your nose
Today's Another Halo Comic Strip contains Halo story spoilers, though by now they're mild ones. It also points out a similarity you might not have noticed before now... but which you'll probably never be able to forget. (Louis Wu 16:10:18 UTC) (permalink)
Grifball is sweeping the nation
Rooster Teeth has put up a couple of videos you might be interested in watching; both pertain to Grifball. One is an entertaining explanation of the rules, complete with lots and lots and LOTS of GrifDeath. The other is a highlights reel from the first week of play, complete with cool graphics and everything. It's like a real sport or something! (Louis Wu 15:58:13 UTC) (permalink)
One on One
OddGodHMK also noticed that Halo got a brief mention in today's Ctrl+Alt+Del comic... it might not make sense unless you start at the beginning of the current arc. (Louis Wu 15:45:24 UTC) (permalink)
GAME honors Halo 3
GAME.co.uk gave out their 2007 Awards - and Bungie came home with 'Best Developer', for Halo 3 (which also won Best Multiplayer Game). Nice! Thanks, OddGodHMK. (Louis Wu 15:38:01 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary Edition, for Cheap
Master NOODLE noticed that Gamestop is selling the Halo Legendary Edition for $79.99 - not a bad price at all! (Louis Wu 15:03:49 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Episode 144
Podtacular Episode 144 is up - an hour and 20 minutes, 38 mb, focuses on the crazy things that happen to you when playing Halo. Go listen! (Louis Wu 15:01:41 UTC) (permalink)
Tiberium trailer - homage, or just laziness?
Heh - Kotaku thinks that EA's Tiberium trailer takes more than a little inspiration from the Halo 2 Announcement Trailer (yeah, the August 2002 one). Decide for yourself! (Louis Wu 14:59:30 UTC) (permalink)
Jerome is King.
Last night's Bungie Weekly Update was added to our Weekly Update Archive very quickly - but there was no chance to come back and put up a news post. It's absolutely worth a read - not just because it talks about upcoming tweaks to online gameplay, or describes the new maps in reasonable detail, or even because it tells you to go watch DigitalPh33r's latest vid... but because it has a collection of great pictures showing Bungie employees destroying cars, hunting Kirkland natives, and playing real-life Grifball. Awesomeness in a bottle. (Louis Wu 14:42:10 UTC) (permalink)
News January 18 2008
Recon
Slothboy pointed out that DigitalPh33r's Arby and the Chief are back with another episode - you can download the vid from Machinima.com, or stream it from YouTube. Master Chief wants Recon... can the Arbiter help? (Louis Wu 22:44:27 UTC) (permalink)
Bi-weekly Bungie Podcast up - 2 weeks late
MasterChief2829 noticed that the long-awaited Bungie Podcast with Harold Ryan has finally been posted. 57 minutes, 66 mb, follow the rise of Harold to the pinnacle of game development, and learn how bagels and chocolate milk convinced him to stick with Bungie.
(Louis Wu 22:31:38 UTC) (permalink)
Warthog Transformer
BootStrap Boon has taken his own shot at a Halo-related Transformer. I warn you - it's not like the last few... (Louis Wu 22:22:35 UTC) (permalink)
Whose is Bigger?
Halo Action Figure Theater 115 is up - Chuck Norris has a snazzy Admiral's uniform, and RvB's Lukey gets some facetime. And oh, yeah, there's doll porn. I blame Elnea for the corruption of our youth. (Louis Wu 19:08:33 UTC) (permalink)
The Last Spartans - Portraits of Warriors
This is interesting... a photographer in Nashua, NH is starting a photo project in which he'll present Halo 3 gamers side by side with their in-game avatars. He's looking for subjects in close geographical proximity to Nashua - check his project website for full details. Sounds like something to keep an eye on! I found this in the Nashua Telegraph. (Louis Wu 16:49:32 UTC) (permalink)
Only Choking.
Today's One One Se7en contains a pretty major Halo 3 story spoiler. Don't read it if you haven't played the game. (Or if you don't like groaning.) (Louis Wu 16:12:10 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Unyielding 3 teaser trailer
Laird has posted a teaser trailer for Unyielding 3 - it's coming, at some point. (Laird says 'eventually'.) (Louis Wu 16:08:50 UTC) (permalink)
In Defense of the Blockbuster
411mania.com's The Game Plan column has a piece today defending blockbusters - it's a good read. Halo 3 has raised awareness among the general public about videogames - and that's a good thing for gamers. (Louis Wu 15:43:24 UTC) (permalink)
Stop-Motion Spartan Action
Almost a year ago, we mentioned a short stop-motion video from Benjamin Bailey-Webb; he recently let us know that he'd made two followup films, as well. You can find Episode Two and Episode Three of his Fall of the Flood series on YouTube - they're short, they're sweet, brighten your morning. (Louis Wu 15:40:23 UTC) (permalink)
Halo3.Junk.ws Reopens Registration
Indutiomarus pointed out that Halo3.junk.ws has reopened new member registrations, now that they're caught up on stats for their existing members - but only at a rate of 100 slots per day (to make sure they don't get behind again). This is a great service; if you're not already a member, swing by in the mornings and grab one of the day's slots! If they're gone, try again tomorrow. They're creeping up on ten million games tracked - that's a lot of data! (Louis Wu 15:35:22 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Schools EA
Bungie's Humpday Challenge this week was a rematch against the EA Tiburon All-Stars... and it was a rout. (Sort of like last time.) If you download the provided clip of Abe Froman flag-smacking the mongoose driver in the first game, and pause it right near the end, you'll see a great example of why Bungie won. All 5 Bungie players are within a hundred (virtual) feet of each other, and all of them (except for the flag carrier) are between their escaping flag and the opposing base (that is - in place for a stop). The three remaining EA players are spread out - two are on foot, on the wrong side of the central hill (next to the empty wraith), and one is in a mongoose all the way back at his own base. Teamwork... vs no teamwork. Nice job, Bungie! (Louis Wu 15:19:41 UTC) (permalink)
Insomniac Games talks to Bungie
MasterChief2829 points out that Episode 19 of Insomniac Games' Full Moon Show podcast has a couple of mystery guests - and that those guests are Frankie and Luke, who talk about all sorts of things, including Halo 3. A fun listen - go check it out! (The Bungie boys start about nineteen and a half minutes in.) (Louis Wu 14:52:28 UTC) (permalink)
Top 10 Video Game Villains
Cyril's Scribe stopped in to point out a Top Ten Video Game Villains list at Insert25.com - there's an entry from the Halo series. (Minor spoilers for the series in both the forum post and the story, for those keeping count. Well, really only a spoiler if you haven't played ANY of the games. And if you haven't... what are you doing reading this news post?)
(Louis Wu 14:50:22 UTC) (permalink)
Hawty Kisses It Goodbye
Hawty McBloggy has posted a new Rorshach Inkblot Test - this one is the heatmap on Last Resort. (I'd never realized how circular the killing field was before.) She's also got some results from the last test (Epitaph). Check it out - and let her know what YOU see! (Louis Wu 14:40:07 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Thirteen new stories for you this week in the Fan Fiction section - and it's the first week in a long time that there wasn't anything I needed to delete from the queue! Go read. (Louis Wu 14:34:57 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Beats Tank
Seems like the big news this morning involves the numbers released yesterday by the NPD Group - apparently, Halo 3 outsold every other game in America in 2007. My Google Alerts mailbox has links to literally dozens of articles about this - the one at Ars Technica has some nice pictures to go along with the numbers. Halo 3 beat everything - including Wii Play, which comes with an extra Wii controller (apparently, that's the reason most people buy it). Congrats, guys! (Louis Wu 14:26:44 UTC) (permalink)
News January 17 2008
A.I. - Artificial Ignorance
Many people have complained about some of the silly behavior that your marines engage in when battling alongside you in the Halo 3 campaign. But has anyone actually thought about what this means for the Master Chief? I mean not YOU... but MC? Well, ZZoMBiE13 has. Check out today's ep of Another Halo Comic Strip. (Louis Wu 21:11:19 UTC) (permalink)
Skeet Shooting on The Ark
Rockslider has come up with yet ANOTHER minigame you can play within Halo; follow his directions to do some skeet shooting on Covenant Phantoms and Banshees over the opening desert on The Ark. Coolness! (Louis Wu 19:33:33 UTC) (permalink)
Nah, dude.
Ever wonder where the term 'Bulltrue' comes from? (It's the medal you get when you kill a sword (or hammer) wielder in the act of lunging.) Dave 'Evil Otto' Candland stopped by our forum today with a little Bungie history lesson. (Louis Wu 18:48:47 UTC) (permalink)
Potato Warrior Part 1
Sodagod has created a pilot for a new series called 'Big Food' - Potato Warrior Part 1 is the story of a time-honored battle between warriors... plus it's got baby robots. And stupid girlfriends. And scary monsters. And invisible spaceships. And... geez. It's awesome, go watch it. Now-standard Sodagod surrealism included. Six minutes long. We've got it in WMP9 format (95.5 mb) or H.264-encoded QuickTime (91 mb). We WOULD have it in standard Sorensen3Pro-encoded QT format... but Apple went and broke QuickTime with this week's update. Bah. We'll turn it into streaming Flash if there are enough people who can't see it - because it's very, very funny.
(Louis Wu 18:22:16 UTC) (permalink)
Go Forge Yourself Contest Results
Cozmo23 let us know that Clan O7AH has posted the results from their Go Forge Yourself contest. (We mentioned it back in November.) Go check out (and download) the winners! (Louis Wu 17:29:47 UTC) (permalink)
Cardboard Hayabusa Helmet
SpArtan-270 let us know that he's put together a Hayabusa helmet - he wanted to show it off. Check it out! Pic 1 | Pic 2 | Pic 3 | Pic 4 (Louis Wu 17:13:17 UTC) (permalink)
Broken Iris Songwriter interviewed at HG
We've mentioned the HaloGrid Broken Iris contest a couple of times - imSuck just let us know that he's posted an interview with Tony Verdi, the songwriter for the band. He's a huge Halo fan. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:49:44 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Wars Monthly Update
Thunder has posted January's Halo Wars' Monthly Update over at the HW website - they've posted a timeline (mostly information from the official Halo timeline, but also some tidbits from Fall of Reach, Contact Harvest, and their own game), and they've put up a new piece of concept art that works nicely as a wallpaper. (They've also fixed a date that got broken somewhere along the line.) Check it out! Thanks to Planet Halo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:20:20 UTC) (permalink)
VGL announces 40 shows for 2008
If you haven't had a chance to see Video Games Live, 2008 might be the year that changes this. They've just announced 40 shows in more than 10 countries - you can read the details, and order some tickets, on their website. (Louis Wu 16:08:46 UTC) (permalink)
Jonathan Quail
Trigger119 sent word that CROSSFIRE's 'Jonathan Quail' has been released at GamingTV. This is a 'reinvention' (CROSSFIRE's term) of Hell Quarters: Jonathan Quail, a video released a couple of years ago. That film was Halo 2-based, and 7 minutes long; this one is Halo 3-based, and 30 minutes long. On the plus side, the filming is really, really good, the scoring is fantastic, the whole atmosphere is nailed down. On the minus side... the first half drags quite a bit. (It picks up dramatically at about 15 minutes.) And it's seriously confusing. (I mean... you THINK it's not, when you're watching it, but then you say, huh?) If you've got the time - this one is definitely worth the 200mb download. Check it out! Available in several formats, including streaming. (Louis Wu 16:03:44 UTC) (permalink)
News January 16 2008
Nailed.
Today's One One Se7en might be considered a little tasteless - but the clever choice of words at the end makes up for it all. Those brutes make EVERYTHING messier. (Louis Wu 21:16:20 UTC) (permalink)
All you need to do is save the universe?
Wow. Master Chief made Maxim's '2007's Dudeliest Dudes of the Year' list. Sometimes you have to wonder. (Ads are probably NSFW.) (Louis Wu 21:08:37 UTC) (permalink)
The Studio - Experience by Microsoft
Interesting - a luxury hotel in Chicago has just opened up an entertainment lounge that's loaded with Microsoft goodies, and they're touting the ability to play (among other games) Halo 3 in HD on LIVE as one of the perks of staying at the hotel. (It's free for guests.) Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 18:57:26 UTC) (permalink)
TTL Tednesday - wait, what?
It's not a T day, but there's still a Tied the Leader update, thanks to XerxdeeJ. There's a fun photoblog of a TTL Overlord get-together, and a reminder that you've got about a day left for your guesses in their 117 Day contest (they're closing the voting at noon, Central Time - that's 1pm EST, 10am PST and 5pm UTC). Go read - and make sure you guess! Every $2 is another $2 for injured vets. (Louis Wu 16:13:16 UTC) (permalink)
Journey, Frank? REALLY?
Wired Magazine has a 'One and One' mini-interview with Frank O'Connor; one question about gaming, one question about something totally different. It reminded me of the Roaming Gnome commercials for Travelocity, though. If you have a Red vs Blue account, you can read this old journal I wrote about this phenomenon; if you don't, lemme just say that Frankie's not gonna be doing the party planning for my next big bash. Thanks to Anton P. Nym for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:10:35 UTC) (permalink)
Now, Flip the Elephant
Elnea's posted Episode 114 of her Halo Action Figure Theater - poor O'Hara! (I'm reminded of the rescue scene in Princess Bride, actually.) Great action shots. Check it out!
(Louis Wu 15:24:01 UTC) (permalink)
Black is the new Grey
Heh - Bungie hasn't had a 'Black' option in your armor customization choices since Halo - but there IS a 'black' option in the 'Force Colors' team options for multiplayer games. So Gravemind took advantage of it to create a Halo 3 Spec Ops Elite. Nice! (Louis Wu 15:18:21 UTC) (permalink)
Custom Halo Drink Coaster
Wow, nova's got a pretty cool stepsister. She made him a handmade Halo-themed drink coaster - what a perfect place for that Grunty mug!
(Louis Wu 15:01:23 UTC) (permalink)
Mario Fusion Demo
Last week, we mentioned a Mario/Halo crossover game in development - a demo's been released. You can grab a copy at Megaupload - thanks, DHalo. (I don't have any way of testing this right now, so if bandwidth runs out, you're out of luck; I'm not willing to host something I 1) don't have permission to host, and 2) don't have any way of actually SEEING.) (Louis Wu 14:51:03 UTC) (permalink)
Jonathan Quail Release Trailer
Trigger119 pointed us to a teaser trailer for Jonathan Quail, a machinima project from CROSSFIRE. This puppy's been in the works for a while (we saw our first trailer for it back in October), but we now have a release date for the final product - January 17 (that's tomorrow, for those of you in a fog). This teaser is more an advertisement for color filters in movie effects programs... but CROSSFIRE's got a long history of fantastic machinima projects, so I'm willing to wait and see what comes tomorrow! (Louis Wu 14:45:02 UTC) (permalink)
Forged in the Pit of... Bungie
Over at Bungie.net, SketchFactor wrote up an article about Forging on Foundry - he used his own work for examples, and pointed out some of the things he's learned by doing. It's a nice overview of how you might go about building a fun map - things to keep in mind, pitfalls you face, tricks to make your life easier. Good stuff! I somehow missed it all day yesterday, but pete_the_duck was on the job. (Louis Wu 14:30:21 UTC) (permalink)
Newsweek Interviews Joe Staten - Part One, Try Two
Yesterday, I mentioned a tidbit from an interview that Newsweek did with Joe Staten last summer (but is publishing now). I forgot to actually point out part 1 of the interview - which is a very interesting read. (Part 2 should be out soon.) (Louis Wu 14:27:38 UTC) (permalink)
News January 15 2008
MC - support staff
Interesting - N'Gai Croal posted a tidbit today that came from an interview with Joe Staten last summer, in which Joe made it clear that the script of the Halo movie, currently on hiatus but not dead, had pushed the Master Chief into an important (but still secondary) supporting role. Go read why! Thanks to Anton P. Nym, who also pointed out an interesting, though not heavily Halo-related, article about WETA studios over at The Escapist. (Louis Wu 21:00:41 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Tourney - Confusion Reigns
Okay, this one's messy. Last week, we posted a note that said that a tournament that was originally scheduled to be hosted by Xbox.com and the US Army had been cancelled, and that you should ignore all the press releases that were appearing around the net on other gaming sites, because they were being posted in error. We said this because we had gone to Xbox.com and asked for clarification - and were told that it WAS a mistake, and the tournament HAD been cancelled. Today, we got word from Bungie that it WASN'T a mistake; that a press release HAD gone out, officially (though not to us, and surprisingly, not to them), and that everything was explained in this press release. (Of course, they didn't have a copy to share with us, because nobody sent them one. They just know it's actually on because they've been tasked with the playlist additions the tourney will require.) So: the tournament described in the news posts at TeamXbox, Xbox360Fanboy, Joystiq, and dozens of other sites around the web IS happening, more details will be forthcoming, and we'll stop doing independent research when we're confused, because obviously that makes it worse. (It would be really, really, REALLY nice if someone involved in handling press releases for Halo-related stuff actually included us on the list of sites RECEIVING those releases... but I'm pretty sure that's a pie-in-the-sky dream. I mean, we're just a Halo fansite, nobody listens to us.) (Louis Wu 18:18:48 UTC) (permalink)
A Halo helmet, from DoC ByTeS
A couple of days ago, we mentioned a helmet being put together by DoC ByTeS - he went and sent us the final pics that same day. Pretty gorgeous work... (Louis Wu 13:51:57 UTC) (permalink)
It's not easy being green
ZZoMBiE13 has been making some changes in the way his characters appear in Another Halo Comic Strip. Today's offering gets explicit about that. (Louis Wu 13:02:33 UTC) (permalink)
Of Ancient Greek Monsters, and Modern-Day Nightmares
Over at Rampancy.net, OldNick continues to draw lessons from the pool of wisdom that is Bungie Development. Can you build a game that's polished AND on-time? Now THAT'S a tough question. (Louis Wu 12:39:43 UTC) (permalink)
Instant Respawn - a Video Forge Tutorial
TheShadyGnome let us know that the second Forging 101 Video Tutorial, 'Instant Respawn', is now available on YouTube. Watch it for tips on making your Forge creations the best they can be! This is the second in Flem Productions' series of video remakes of the text tutorials at ForgeHub.com. (Louis Wu 12:37:14 UTC) (permalink)
1v1 Tourney at Halownage
Halownage is putting together a 1v1 Halo 3 tourney - takes place on January 24 and 25, it's free to register, and there's a small cash pot. Check out the details on their forum. Thanks, Laniphoria. (Louis Wu 12:29:05 UTC) (permalink)
IGN Editors Love Halo
IGN's Hilary Goldstein and Nate Ahearn posted their Favorites for 2007 - Halo 3 made both lists. (Goldstein placed it at #8, while Ahearn ranked it second, behind CoD4.) Thanks again, Planet Halo. (Louis Wu 12:27:15 UTC) (permalink)
Gamespy's looking forward to Halo Wars
Gamespy's put up a Most Wanted Games of 2008 page - and like TXB and Game Informer before them, they've placed Halo Wars on the list. Thanks, Planet Halo. (Louis Wu 12:24:09 UTC) (permalink)
Someone to Watch Over Me
Elnea's posted Episode 113 of her Halo Action Figure Theater - sometimes, you have to wonder about the honor of your average Spartan. On the plus side, it looks like O'Hara might actually be rescued. (Louis Wu 12:17:45 UTC) (permalink)
Martin Van Buren Hates This Game
Mariachi turned up a video called 'Martin Van Buren plays Halo' - wins points for creative use of absurdity. Swing by YouTube to watch. (Louis Wu 12:15:33 UTC) (permalink)
News January 14 2008
Montage Man
Raptree stopped by with links to a trailer and Part 1 of a machinima project entitled 'Montage Man'. (It has nothing to do with montages.) Pretty nice work! Go watch.
(Louis Wu 23:30:37 UTC) (permalink)
MLG on ESPN
Whoa - Major League Gaming has signed a deal with ESPN - it's the big leagues, baby! Thanks, BuckHijo. (Louis Wu 22:20:35 UTC) (permalink)
IRIS Overview available from Ad Agency
Wow, very nice. thebruce found a full overview of the IRIS campaign, as set up by AKQA, the agency tasked by Microsoft with its creation. Very slick - a fantastic way to get a handle on how this campaign went, if you missed it last summer! (Louis Wu 21:50:42 UTC) (permalink)
Wizard - now playable in UT3
Over on the Epic Games forum, Zubren posted screenshots (and a download link) for a new mod he's created for Unreal Tournament 3 - Halo's Wizard has been ported to the PS3. Nice! (Louis Wu 21:39:08 UTC) (permalink)
Going Commando.
Last Friday, Bungie mentioned that they'd be unlocking the Commando shoulders for all LIVE users - trust Stuntmutt to find a tasteless way to riff on this in today's One One Se7en. Honestly... (Louis Wu 20:48:01 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Bionicle Spec Ops Elite
retinence has put together one last Elite Bionicle - a Spec Ops version. Check out the links in his forum post! (Louis Wu 20:40:04 UTC) (permalink)
Standard Issue?
mrsmiley points out a new episode of Larry The Marine - he really isn't very bright, is he? (Louis Wu 14:39:45 UTC) (permalink)
Another Halo 3 Helper, from Hawty
Hawty McBloggy has put together the Definitive Guide to Recognizing if Bunige Hates You. I think... I think I'm in trouble. (Louis Wu 14:25:55 UTC) (permalink)
Splazer Suicide
Pretty cool - The Progn0sticator, aka Lethal Casua1ty, pointed out a thread on Bungie.net which contains a link to a vid he created showing off a pretty entertaining suicide. His teammate tossed a frag grenade just as he fired his Spartan Laser - and the laser blast bounced off the flying grenade and killed him. OUCH! Yet another "if we didn't have saved films we'd NEVER know how this happened" moment. (Louis Wu 14:21:07 UTC) (permalink)
Hummer sez No Halo Influence
Miguel Chavez ran across an interview with the Director of Exterior Design of the Hummer HX concept (we mentioned the car a few days ago) - Hummer says they've heard the comparisons, but any resemblance to the Halo Warthog is completely coincidental. Funny to hear it asked, though! (Louis Wu 14:15:46 UTC) (permalink)
IRIS, one last time
Okay, this one's really sort of odd. We got email from Boolean - he'd been flying around in Google Earth, and discovered a location that, with a Road overlay, looks remarkably (jpeg, 70k) like Adjutant Reflex's Chrysopteron avatar on Bungie.net. (Remember the IRIS ARG?) If you want to explore the space yourself, grab the .kmz file from our server, and import it into Google Earth. (To match the picture, you'll need to reverse the compass (so that South is 'up'), and add the Roads overlay.) This image appears in the middle of the Nevada Test Site, a location for atomic bomb testing in the 50s. Coincidence? Or something else? (Louis Wu 13:42:49 UTC) (permalink)
Movie Monday
Bunch of movies announced recently on our forum (or via email) - Lordstemplar1 pointed out a teaser for Prophecy Episode 3, Harabek came by with his entry into the Broken Iris contest at HaloGrid, and MR from Running Gun Productions let us know that Spriggs Episode 5 ("Hammer Time!") is now available for download from their website. A busy Monday morning viewing session should ensue! (Louis Wu 13:34:00 UTC) (permalink)
News January 13 2008
The Room Service Sucks
Elnea continues her astounding postage rate for Halo Action Figure Theater (there was a large gap before Episode 100, my guess is she was building the next 77 episodes during that downtime). Episode 112 brings hope back to Mudville (well, maybe). Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:05:48 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 82
Sigafoos is down with a cold, but the Second Foundation crew still managed to put together Episode 82 of The Riot - 25 minutes, 10 mb, news, community events, and more. Today is the last day of voting for their Community Awards - you've got about 6 hours, as of this writing. There are a lot of close races - so go influence your favorites! (Louis Wu 18:56:47 UTC) (permalink)
Chewing on Life's Gristle
The last time we'd heard from VelocityTino, he was telling us about some elite armor he'd put together. He's back - this time with a piece of machinima. He's put the song 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life', the Spamalot version, to use with Halo footage. He did all the animation himself, which means that for the tapdancing sequence, he had 4 controllers taped down on a desk, and was manipulating them simultaneously (which explains some of the... less than perfect synchronization). It's almost funnier if you DON'T know why guys are walking into walls, though... go watch. It's entertaining. (Louis Wu 18:53:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Armor, from a prolific community
Xavier contacted us with a bunch of armor-related news from the 405th - let's see what we've got.
- BishopX is creating an assault rifle and a helmet on his way to a full set of armor - he's also got a website to document the progress. Professional grade!
- DMASTER has finished up his frag grenade and is starting work on a spike grenade - gorgeous. (While he was waiting for parts, he whipped out a beautiful Halo 3 logo from aluminum.)
- DoC ByTeS has been working on a helmet (more progress pics here) and gauntlets - pretty slick-looking!
The 405th is the place to go if you're looking to make wearable Halo gear. Those guys are SERIOUS. (Louis Wu 18:42:31 UTC) (permalink)
News January 12 2008
Did you expect a bunny?
Almost late - but not quite. ZZoMBiE13's got a Another Halo Comic Strip for you. I hope it doesn't give you nightmares. (Louis Wu 23:08:41 UTC) (permalink)
New Concept Art at Halo Wars
The Halo Wars website has been updated a little - and some new concept art has been added. I like it! Thanks to Mike Smith for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:26:02 UTC) (permalink)
You Wouldn't Like Him When He's Angry
Halo Action Figure 111 has been posted - and it contains quite a twist. (Well, it surprised me.) Go read! (Louis Wu 18:17:32 UTC) (permalink)
New content from Halownage
Lani let us know that you can find a Halo 2/Halo 3 montage by Outlawz at Halownage - it's called Outlawz Says Goodbye. While you're there, read up on a service whereby one of their members is willing to record your content for you. Nice! (Louis Wu 18:12:47 UTC) (permalink)
Forge Hub's Top Maps
According to SketchFactor over at Bungie.net, Forge Hub has compiled their list of the Best Maps of 2007. Go download a few! (Louis Wu 18:01:15 UTC) (permalink)
Junk Male.
I hate hate HATE forgetting to post a regular One One Se7en - especially when they're clever. Luckily, yesterday's was not clever. (Okay, maybe a little.) Sorry for the delay. (Louis Wu 15:50:22 UTC) (permalink)
What's a Grundle?
The Bungie Weekly Update is now available at Bungie.net (and in our Weekly Update Archive) - tidbits about an upcoming podcast, the next batch of DLC, a large number of questions asked by fans (and answered straightly, for the most part), details on the next wave of McFarlane figures (including a few store-specific variants we haven't seen yet), and some football trash talk. If it's too much to read, there's a tidbit that is easily missed, but matters to a lot of you:
When AU1 is issued for Halo 3 the Commando Shoulders will be unlocked for all players, not just players who have "unlocked" them via achievements. It's a compromise, but it's a lot better than nothing.
You still can't has Recon, though. (Louis Wu 01:26:26 UTC) (permalink)
News January 11 2008
Hey! Nielsen wants your feedback
HeySarah dropped in to point out a new site from Nielsen, the ratings company. Hey! Nielsen allows anyone who wants to to to give opinions about games, television, movies, whatever - Halo is nicely represented (as evidenced by her links). Check it out - and add your two cents! (Louis Wu 23:50:23 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox and the Army - and you (a clarification)
Okay, so a few days ago, we mentioned a new contest at Xbox.com, sponsored by the Army - play Halo 3, register for the sweepstakes, maybe win some stuff. At about the same time, a bunch of big gaming sites posted news of a Halo 3 tournament sponsored by the Army - and pointed to the same page on Xbox.com. Prizes weren't listed, but it sounded like a pretty big deal; a three-part qualifier, finals, a "branded destination experience" site on Xbox LIVE complete with downloadable videos... After a bunch of checking, we're sorry to tell you that these guys (TeamXbox, Xbox360Fanboy, Joystiq, and dozens of others) have made a mistake; the tournament was, indeed, originally planned - but it was cancelled. What's left is the Play & Win contest we mentioned on Tuesday. We'd love to see the tourney (and feature-rich LIVE site)... but it ain't gonna happen. (Louis Wu 16:57:46 UTC) (permalink)
Dream it, then live it.
ZZoMBiE13 has created a new wallpaper based on his Fantasia take from yesterday's Another Halo Comic Strip. Take a look! (Louis Wu 16:55:55 UTC) (permalink)
He's got the look
Elnea has posted the first "totally in its new home" episode of Halo Action Figure Theater - Episode 110 shows you why Chuck Norris pwns you. Let her know what you think of the new digs! (There's a comment feature and everything.) (Louis Wu 16:40:42 UTC) (permalink)
Official pics of new McFarlane figures
Spawn.com has updated their website with official information about the Series 2 Halo 3 figures we mentioned yesterday - and lots of screenshots. Swing by if you want to get better acquainted. Brian Curry was first with this news, but Smurfa got a thread started before I got this post up, if you'd like to discuss it.
(Louis Wu 16:29:21 UTC) (permalink)
Another Inkblot (and a cool Transformer Auction)
Hawty McBloggy has posted another one of her Rorschach Inblot tests - this one is the heatmap from Epitaph. What does it look like to you? (She also pointed out, as a sidenote, that there's a custom Transformers Halo crossover model up for sale on eBay. The last time we posted one of these, some forum members complained that the workmanship was shoddy, and that the only reason these were selling was because they were front-paged at big Halo sites. This one hasn't been mentioned yet - and the bid's up to $177.50 (with two and a half days to go)... I guess there are other things besides Halo websites driving the demand for these.)
(Louis Wu 16:17:15 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
Eight new stories for you in the Fan Fiction section this week. Go read. (Note to submitters; if there's a rule about submitting that you feel you can violate because you're a special case, please don't expect to actually see your story posted. There are very, very, VERY few special cases.) (Louis Wu 16:00:58 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Takes a Beating
This week's Halo Humpday Challenge was a unique one - Bungie went up against some of the earliest Grifball players in a 3-game Grifball match. They got pummeled. (Hammered, even.) Go read about it. (Louis Wu 15:56:45 UTC) (permalink)
Organization is good.
Rampancy.net has reworked their Sheet Music section to allow for easier searching and finding; take a look! (Louis Wu 15:53:52 UTC) (permalink)
Joyride Halo Figure Collection for Sale
MikeSierra is selling his collection of Joyride figures; they're not in their
original packaging, but he HAS kept them pristine, and he'd love for them to go to a Halo fan. You can see pictures on his eBay auction page. (He's in the UK, and starting bid is £350, if that affects your desire to bid.) (Louis Wu 15:50:03 UTC) (permalink)
News January 10 2008
43 with one blow.
TTL Dren and some friends set up a situation last night in which a single shot with a Spartan Laser garnered him 43 separate medals. Now THAT'S impressive. (It could probably be improved by a few - but please, we're not going to post a dozen "I got 44!" or "I got 47!" notes. The fun part was figuring out to do it in the first place; perfecting it is just engineering.) (Louis Wu 18:09:27 UTC) (permalink)
HAFT finds a new home
On the subject of comics, we're proud to announce that bungie.org has become home to yet ANOTHER Halo comic strip - Elnea's Halo Action Figure Theater can now be found locally. Elnea's done an amazing job of porting over ALL her old HAFT content to a new, easy-to-navigate system based on the ComicPress theme for WordPress - explore, and get lost in this truly bizarre (but surprisingly self-consistent) world! (Louis Wu 17:58:45 UTC) (permalink)
It IS a small world after all
Happy Birthday to ZZoMBiE13! He turns... um, I dunno how old today, but wish him well anyway. His latest installment of Another Halo Comic Strip melds Halo with Disney's Fantasia... and it rocks. (He's also posted an email address, if you need to reach him; it's been available, subtly, at the bottom of his comic for quite a while, but now it's obvious.) (Louis Wu 17:09:34 UTC) (permalink)
Cutscene Desktops
cheapLEY took a bunch of nice shots in cutscenes, for use as desktop images; you can find some in this post, and more in this one. Nice work! (Louis Wu 17:06:03 UTC) (permalink)
Looking back on the lessons of Halo 3
GameCareerGuide.com has an article entitled 'How Halo 3 Changed Game Development' - I'm not sure it did what it set out to do (which was to show that Bungie's handling of Halo 3 has changed how games will be developed in the future), but it IS a nice summary of how well Bungie delivered on the promises it made (and others made in Bungie's name) with respect to Halo 3. I found this at Gamasutra. (Louis Wu 16:56:17 UTC) (permalink)
Working for the Man
Almost certainly not Halo news (heh), but Psychophan7 noticed a bunch of new job openings on Bungie's website. Are you good enough? (Louis Wu 16:45:33 UTC) (permalink)
McFarlane Series 2 Figures Unveiled
Entertainment Earth has pictures of the next wave of McFarlane collectibles - Check out the Tan EOD Spartan, Tan Scout Spartan, Brute Stalker, Drone, ODST, Red CQB Spartan, and White EVA Spartan. These'll be here in July, so get your wallet ready! Google was fastest with this news, but Brian Curry wasn't far behind. (Louis Wu 16:30:13 UTC) (permalink)
A Halo 3 Gaming Chair
Hawty McBloggy was the first to point out Kotaku's coverage of a new variant of Ace Bayou's X Rocker chair, being shown at CES this week - if you must game in Halo colors, this chair is for you. There's no real info on price yet. (Louis Wu 15:58:36 UTC) (permalink)
News January 9 2008
As Opposed To An Egg.
Stuntmutt takes a look at one of the best bits of scripted dialogue in Halo 3 in today's One One Se7en - and points out what got said when you weren't listening. (Louis Wu 17:27:38 UTC) (permalink)
HAFT Life
Elnea decided to make a retrospective of her Halo Action Figure Theater-related activities; she put together about 3500 photos, set them to Halo-inspired music, and posted the result up on her Mac.com space. Her love for the work is obvious. As is her obsession. (If she'd applied this energy towards, say, world peace, we'd all be living in harmony now.) Go watch.
(Louis Wu 16:48:24 UTC) (permalink)
Mario Meets Master Chief
Hawty McBloggy ran across a video on YouTube showing off a crossover fan game that mixes Mario with Halo. Graphics come from the Halo Zero project (with permission, at this point), and the final game will probably be released this weekend. For fans who can't choose - now you don't have to! (Louis Wu 15:38:35 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 can help you navigate
There've been a number of articles over the years pointing out that videogames can help hone skills that are useful in real-world situations - from The Maritime Accident Casebook, there's a new one. Research shows that spatial awareness, a trait that's useful in ship handling, is more developed in men than in women - but playing video games like Halo can eliminate this gender difference. (Spatial Attention is improved in both men and women, but the effect is actually more pronounced in women.) Halo 3: leveling the playing field since 2007.
(Louis Wu 15:37:52 UTC) (permalink)
Next up: Flush.
MTV's Stephen Totilo thinks that the video game industry in general could learn from the example set by Halo 3 (among other recent games) - sharing is good. Hey - if they learn that lesson, they'll be right up there with kindergarten classes across the land! (Louis Wu 15:36:00 UTC) (permalink)
XBL woes, and your stats, explained
Over at Bungie.net, Achronos explained what's up with gamertag linking on Xbox Live; apparently, the recent problems have led to some gamertags getting unlinked to their B.net counterparts, but don't worry, it's only temporary, and no data is actually lost. Here's hoping the problems clear up soon!
(Louis Wu 15:35:23 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Canadian Open on TV this week
According to the Comic Book Bin, the 2007 Ford MLG Canadian Open will be shown on The Score, a Canadian sports network, this coming Thursday, January 10, at 6:30pm EST. It will be rebroadcast a week after that, and G4TechTV Canada will be airing it at 7pm on Saturday. Nice to hear about Halo pro play on TV! (Louis Wu 15:34:01 UTC) (permalink)
Sandwar
QuickTactical stopped by with links to his new movie, Sandwar - it's got some nice Halo 3 action scenes in it. It's pretty long - two YouTube links, or a 150 mb Mythica download. (Louis Wu 15:32:45 UTC) (permalink)
The Hummer HX - Warthog-like?
A new concept Hummer was unveiled ahead of its appearance at the Detroit Auto Show this weekend - it seems to have a lot in common with Bungie's Warthog. Hawty McBloggy was the first to us with this news, but there's a discussion thread on our forum, started by Koholint, if you want to toss in your two cents. (Louis Wu 15:31:32 UTC) (permalink)
News January 8 2008
Joe Staten interview on NPR
NPR did a segment today on the intersction of video games and story, focusing on Halo and story maven (and voice of Grunts everywhere) Joe Staten. You can read the blurb and check the audio here. I heard it myself in the car, but thanks to both prometheus (via email) and pillar of awesome (via the forum). Too bad the interviewer went for the tired, obvious, "dumb gamers" angle. (mnemesis 22:50:56 UTC) (permalink)
Spartans in Disguise
Hawty McBloggy found a Master Chief Transformer on eBay - there aren't any pictures of it in vehicle form, but it's pretty awesome anyway. Go look. Update: DOH! I was too busy to actually follow the eBay link, so I missed all the shots of the transformed MC. Just for me, there's an updated pic in the story, showing the tank version. Thanks, Hawty! (Louis Wu 18:34:00 UTC) (permalink)
Arby 'n' the Chief
Ross Mills let us know about "Arby 'n' the Chief", a new video from DigitalPh33r and a sequel to the 'Master Chief Sucks at Halo' series. (Note to Ross: links r gud.) It's pretty funny, even if a large chunk of it is just a discussion of the value of the Heroic Map Pack. (At least it's an entertaining discussion.) Go watch! (Louis Wu 18:11:02 UTC) (permalink)
OMRA Overhaul
Trigger119 sent word that GamingTV has opened a special forum, devoted to the Online Machinima Rating Association (OMRA). Hopefully, this will increase the usage of this tool, and provide users with a decent filter for released machinima! (Louis Wu 17:52:20 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 players - SERIOUS couch potatoes
Integrated Media Measurement Inc. has published a study which shows that Halo 3 has NOT eaten into television or movie viewing as was feared a couple of months ago. The number of hours of television watched by Halo 3 players did not change significantly when comparing patterns before and after Halo's launch (though the fact that these folks are watching an average of almost 4 hours of television a night, EVERY night, and STILL playing video games, makes me wonder when they have time to do other stuff... like eat, sleep, use the bathroom, go to school/job, etc). Additionally, a graph of Halo 3 usage plotted over the course of the day shows significant drops after 7 pm, prime movie/TV watching hours. There's more data at IMMI's website. All of these findings conflict strongly with my personal experience - does this mean I'm out of touch... or that the survey group is? (Check the info on how they determine what you're doing, too - it's scary stuff.) (Louis Wu 17:32:15 UTC) (permalink)
Infinitely Spawning Warthogs
Rockslider has written up a guide to serious hog destruction; there's a spot on Tsavo Highway where if you're patient you can have at least 64 Warthogs to play with at one time. Of course, you're gonna have to kill a lot of marines... but you know what they say about eggs and omlettes. (Louis Wu 16:59:32 UTC) (permalink)
Jason Voorhees, Eat Your Heart Out!
ZZoMBiE13 shows you where humans might be behind the curve in the Halo universe in today's installment of Another Halo Comic Strip. (Louis Wu 16:11:55 UTC) (permalink)
Whoa.
Elnea stopped by to share Halo Action Figure Theater episodes 108 and 109. If you feel like you might have stumbled into a room with trace hallucinogens in the air after reading them... you're not alone. Love the dinosaur, though. (Louis Wu 15:33:54 UTC) (permalink)
Paying people to play
Bungie.net has a news post about a token-based rewards system set up by Clantacular.com - play custom games, win tokens, use the tokens for stuff on the site. I don't know WHAT stuff, really; there's nothing ON the site except a member login. (There are no links to information, no link for a forum, nothing I can find without actually signing up.) That said - if you're interested, swing by and investigate! (Louis Wu 15:12:20 UTC) (permalink)
My Mama says...
mrsmiley let us know that there's a new strip of Larry the Marine posted; they're shooting for Monday releases, but this one's a bit late. I think I saw a recruit like Larry on the Showtime series 'Weeds'... (Louis Wu 15:02:25 UTC) (permalink)
Playing With Yourself
Over the past few years, I've spoken to a number of reporters about the emergence of video games as a viable entertainment alternative for adults. Today, I read an interesting article at The Escapist which suggests that this is not the case for everyone. It deals with Halo only peripherally (it's one of the games the author plays surreptitiously), but it's a thought-provoking piece about what happens to gamers who move into a phase of their lives where games are no longer socially acceptable (or, in his case, where gaming was NEVER a social activity, so the TYPE of gaming he does is not socially acceptable). Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:58:28 UTC) (permalink)
Brighten up your morning
Heh - TruToast created an Ode to the Sword, and Terrab let the Bungie.net forums know about it. Cute. Thanks, InAmb3rClad. (Louis Wu 14:37:45 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox.com's Community Choice Awards
Back on December 20, we mentioned the Xbox.com Community Choice Awards - Halo 3 was up for eight of them. Voting is complete (80,000 people took part), and Halo 3 went home with Best Co-op Game, Best Weapon, and Best Xbox LIVE Event. (Call of Duty 4 beat it in many of its other nominated categories.) As an added bonus, if you have an Xbox LIVE account, you can go to the LIVE pane of your dashboard, and hit the 'Inside Halo' link on the left side; there's a video presentation of the awards from the staff at Xbox.com. KP presents the Best Weapon award. (He will be using that weapon in defense of HBO's honor in our first Winter Grifball League 2008 match this evening.) (Louis Wu 14:14:33 UTC) (permalink)
Video Versions of Forge Tutorials
TheShadyGnome let us know that Flem Productions has begun creating video versions of the Forging 101 Tutorials available at Forge Hub. Their first video, on Floating Objects, can be seen on YouTube. (Louis Wu 14:03:05 UTC) (permalink)
TTL Promotes Census Guessing
Tied the Leader is holding a special contest in honor of 117 day (January 17th): guess how many unique users will be listed on Bungie.net's homepage at exactly 1:17 PM Central Standard Time on the 17th, (without going over), and win one of 21 Halo 3 soundtracks (one of which is signed by Marty O'Donnell). You can guess as often as you like - but it costs $2/guess, with 100% of the proceeds going to organizations that aid in the rehabilitation of wounded combat veterans, via the Tied the Leader Foundation. Swing by and read all the details! Thanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 13:59:28 UTC) (permalink)
Play and Win at Xbox.com
Over at Xbox.com, there's news of a new Play & Win contest sponsored by the US Army Sniper School - register before January 25th, and play an online multiplayer match between January 19 and 25th (exact timing is in the news post), and you're entered to win artwork, or a bunch of MS Points. Go read - and go register! (Louis Wu 13:54:16 UTC) (permalink)
News January 7 2008
A Cowboy Outfit.
Last Friday's Weekly Update had some comments about upcoming maps. Today's One One Se7en has some comments about those comments. Call them map metacomments. (Louis Wu 22:01:32 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie's Soliciting (Questions)
Luke Smith posted a note on the Bungie.net forums, soliciting questions to be answered in the next Weekly What's Update - stop by the thread and add your own query if you're burning to know something that hasn't been addressed. Thanks, Decommissioner. (Louis Wu 20:54:13 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular 141
Podtacular 141 has been released - an hour long, 29 mb, focusing on the campaign level The Storm. Thanks, Samus 117. (Louis Wu 20:52:44 UTC) (permalink)
McFarlane Packaging Made Public
Littlebigman noticed that the McFarlane Halo toy packaging is now viewable at Toy News International - I'm not sure how exciting this is to most people, but hey, you never know. (Louis Wu 20:45:59 UTC) (permalink)
Gaming Records, in Print
Phan7om pointed out a new publication from the Guiness World Records folks - this one is devoted to games, and the preview contains a pair of pages from the Halo section. As several of the thread contributors point out, the info in the preview is awfully out of date. (Louis Wu 20:42:51 UTC) (permalink)
DualView - cool? Or lame?
This product looks like it could be awesome... or it could totally suck. If it works, it means full-screen Halo goodness for two people - on a single screen. If it doesn't... it means a chunk of money out of your pocket, for something you'll never use. I guess we'll wait and see! (Louis Wu 20:40:52 UTC) (permalink)
MC Sculpture
SnprTw is putting together a ceramic Master Chief sculpture for her art class - it's not fired or glazed yet, but it's already looking pretty amazing! (Louis Wu 20:38:00 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Halo 3 Gametypes for 2008 Season Announced
Major League Gaming has announced the rules/gametypes that will be used during the Halo 3 2008 Pro Circuit - you can grab them from their FileShare on Bungie.net. Thanks to GotFrag eSports for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:28:15 UTC) (permalink)
Wow, they must all be Level 60
Heh - Kotaku.au got hold of a screen from Halo 3 matchmaking that suggests that the algorithm that counts online players might have... some problems. (Remember that Xbox LIVE just passed 8 million total subscribers a few weeks ago.) (Louis Wu 19:47:03 UTC) (permalink)
Bustin' Halo Myths
Hawty McBloggy found a video called 'Halo 3 Mythbusters' - it looks at burning Halo multiplayer questions, and does its best to answer them. (Okay, maybe they're not actually burning. But some of them might make you curious!) (Louis Wu 12:21:43 UTC) (permalink)
broken Iris Halo Machinima Contest
HaloGrid.com has kicked off a new contest - create a music video using one of three songs by the band broken Iris, win some cool schwag (mostly involving the band itself). Full details can be found at HaloGrid. (Louis Wu 12:05:38 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 81
Yesterday was a bit light, newswise - blame Bioshock. I'll do my best to clean up the queue this morning. Sigafoos wrote to us about The Riot 81, almost half an hour (11 mb) of community news, with discussion about their Community Awards, along with other fun stuff. Full details at Second Foundation. (Louis Wu 11:56:30 UTC) (permalink)
News January 6 2008
More discussion of server browsers
Mr. Titan's call for a server browser generated some pretty interesting discussion - but there are two posts, in specific, that you should read. One is from Narcogen - it gives a decent fans-eye view of why a server browser might be a bad thing in the Haloverse... and one is from Achronos, who makes it clear that Bungie has thought about this quite a lot, and the lack of a browser is NOT because they forgot - it's because they decided it didn't make sense. I still think the ability to advertise your partially-full custom game to people outside your friends list (and your friends-of-friends list) would be a cool feature - but I'm starting to see the other side of it, too. (Louis Wu 18:16:58 UTC) (permalink)
Mmm... Green (or Blue)
Hawty McBloggy found a pretty slick Halo-themed case for your Xbox360 - it glows! Check it out. (Louis Wu 18:12:46 UTC) (permalink)
News January 5 2008
Are games getting deeper?
Over at Rampancy.net, OldNick has posted a new blog entry, this one looking at what can be learned from Bungie's bold move of splitting the Halo 2 narrative between two opposing sides, and how the community reacted to it. What, exactly, are we looking for from our video games? Interesting subject, interesting blog post. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:39:13 UTC) (permalink)
Don't look down
ZZoMBiE13 takes a look at the Halo 3 machinima scene in the latest installment of Another Halo Comic Strip. We feel for ya, guys! (Louis Wu 19:33:47 UTC) (permalink)
Gamers Doing Good Things
Last March, we reported a story about Zach Wigal, who tried to set up a Halo tournament at his high school - but got shut down at the last minute by people who misunderstood what he was trying to do. There was a followup in April, in which Zach had turned those negative feelings around and was starting a non-profit group to raise awareness and money, and another one when that group's website went live. He's back - with a huge tournament planned for late February. It's not Halo-only, but there will be a 2v2 Halo 3 tourney with a $1000 grand prize, and all the money raised will go to a local branch of the Autism Society of America. You can read about the event on their site, and register for the event at MPCon, a LAN group that's been putting on big LANs for a while. Congrats to Zach for following through with this! (If you're a company that's looking to sponsor worthy gaming causes, they're looking for corporate sponsorship, so that the money they raise from players can go straight to the charity. Contact info is on the website.) (Louis Wu 19:28:35 UTC) (permalink)
A deeper look at Game AI, in relation to scripted events
A couple of days ago, we mentioned a blog entry over at Rampancy.net that talked about game AI and what happens when low-level rules are overriden with scripting. Alex Champandard, of AIGameDev.com, has written a follow-up piece which looks at WHY this sort of thing happens, and how it might be avoided in the future. Interesting read! (Louis Wu 19:18:54 UTC) (permalink)
Gorgeous Halo Artwork
Wow. Brian Curry found a bunch of Halo 3 paper giclée prints (Wikipedia can help if you don't know what giclée is) over at Entertainment Earth - they're gorgeous. Check out Jolly Green ($89, in stock), Prisoner ($89, in stock), Dismount ($110, preorder only), and Chief and Arbiter ($89, out of stock, but orderable). Just... wow.
(Louis Wu 19:11:11 UTC) (permalink)
I bet my list is bigger.
Hawty McBloggy has posted a list of New Year's Resolutions related to Halo gaffes she's made in the past year - complete with film clips. Awesome. Go read, go download. Funny stuff! (Louis Wu 18:59:57 UTC) (permalink)
Get Seeded for MLG's 2008 Season - For Free
Wow, very cool. Gilbert Arenas, the sponsor of MLG superstars Final Boss, has announced that he's sponsoring the first online tournament that will determine seeding for the MLG 2008 Pro Circuit - he's paying registration fees for all teams who enter. That's right - you can enter for free, and have a shot at gaining a free slot in the MLG 2008 Pro Circuit. Now THAT'S a nice move! There's more info about Arenas and his Halo-related activities at MLGPro.com. Thanks to GotFrag eSports for the story. (Louis Wu 18:56:51 UTC) (permalink)
Looking Forward to Halo Wars
Yahoo Games has posted their list of the 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2008 - and Halo Wars is smack-dab in the middle of the list. Nice going! Thanks, vshields ash. (Louis Wu 17:58:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo dominates top LIVE Titles of 2007
Major Nelson has posted a summary of the top LIVE titles of 2007 - and Halo tops two of the three lists. Halo 3 is the top Xbox 360 title of the year (not bad, given that it only had 3 months to build up the largest number of Unique Users), and Halo 2 is on the top of the Original Xbox list. Thanks, Ross Mills. (Louis Wu 17:56:10 UTC) (permalink)
Arguing for a Server Browser
Over at Planet Halo, Mr. Titan is unhappy with the choices he's got for playing Halo 3 online; he wants a server browser, so that he can pick and choose the game he wants to play, rather than be thrown into a randomly-chosen game in matchmaking, or have to work to put together a full complement of players for a custom game. I'm not sure where his claim that Bungie "promised that a public server browser would be implemented in Halo 3 to fill the gap" comes from - I've never heard this promise before - but he's certainly not alone in his desires; this has come up before from players who come from other FPS communities. Go read it - and see if you agree with him. Update: Leviathan came up with the source of the 'promise' Bungie made to include a server browser in Halo 3 - it was a quote made by Tyson Green to EGM in late 2006, and it describes a feature that was clearly cut before release. Thanks for jogging my memory; I DO remember being disappointed when that feature didn't make the final shipping product! (I'm not sure I'd characterize Green's statement as a 'promise' - but the situation points out exactly why Bungie is reluctant to say ANYTHING about the game in production. When discussed features get cut, fans get unhappy.) (Louis Wu 17:48:41 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Artist Turns Pro
mrsmiley let us know that etoli, a regular at the Halo Babies website and a fantastic artist with a lot of Halo fan work under her belt, has gotten a job as a character designer on an upcoming Wii game. He's interviewed her about the path she took from fan artist to professional artist - this is probably worth reading for anyone looking at getting a job in the industry. (Louis Wu 17:27:55 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Weekly Update is Back
Bungie's back to weekly updates - this first one since the holiday break is loaded with reminders, plus tidbits about the upcoming Pentathlon, some info about new maps, and info about an upcoming Live patch. Go read, either at Bungie.net or in our Weekly Update Archive! (Louis Wu 03:54:26 UTC) (permalink)
News January 4 2008
GameZombie talks Halo
GameZombie.tv had a video roundtable about Halo 3 - you can watch it at Revver. (Louis Wu 18:52:44 UTC) (permalink)
Pure Coincidence.
Another minor spoiler in today's One One Se7en - but a nice shot at a particularly unpleasant denizen of Xbox LIVE. Go read. (Louis Wu 15:42:26 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Still Selling Like Hotcakes
VVM noticed a post at MajorNelson.com that updates us all on some sales stats. You might remember that the worldwide numbers at the start of December were a bit below 6 million copies of Halo 3 sold - according to MN, worldwide numbers are now at 8.1 million copies, suggesting that 2.3 million copies were sold in December. (Sounds like a lot of people got Halo 3 for Christmas.) Additionally, a worldwide sales total of 17.7 million Xbox 360s was announced - meaning that across the globe, the attach rate of Halo 3 is an absurd 46%. (That's not quite the 52% figure for the US alone, but still ridiculously high - almost one in two Xbox 360 buyers have also picked up a copy of Halo 3.)
(Louis Wu 13:47:25 UTC) (permalink)
Making Tracks
TTL Demag0gue continues Reclaimer with Chapter Two, Part Thirteen - and a new (old?) character appears. Are you confused yet?
(Louis Wu 13:37:54 UTC) (permalink)
Panoramia!
Mrguy whipped up a couple of gorgeous panoramas - one of Valhalla, one of The Pit (gotta love those clouds!). Check 'em out! (Love his word, too.) (Louis Wu 13:34:08 UTC) (permalink)
Exclusive Halo Arrangement at PLAY! Concerts
According to this story at Music 4 Games, there will be a special exclusive arrangement of Halo music, prepared by Marty O'Donnell and Andy Brick, that will be performed at upcoming PLAY! productions. The debut of this piece will occur in Fort Worth, on January 19 - but you can also hear it at the shows in Seattle the following week. (Check out the PLAY! website for full tour information.) Get your tickets now! Thanks, Greg. (Louis Wu 13:30:43 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
Thirteen new pieces are posted for your perusal in the Fan Fiction section this week - go read! (Louis Wu 13:16:03 UTC) (permalink)
A Piece of Halo's Past
Dark Helmet was a pretty big name in the Halo community, back in the day. He hasn't been around a lot recently... but yesterday, he dropped in to let folks know that he'd run across a copy of the Halo PC marketing beta... with the printed material that was distributed with it. He's selling it on eBay - if you're a collector of all things Halo, this could be a pretty nice addition to your stash! (Louis Wu 13:03:45 UTC) (permalink)
Tell me about your childhood...
Hawty McBloggy wants to know what you see in heatmaps - she's running a Rorschach Inkblot Test... on Construct's killzones. Yes, she went there.
(Louis Wu 12:56:42 UTC) (permalink)
Bionicle Grunt now a DIY
retinence stopped by with plans for his Bionicle Grunt (we mentioned it earlier this week); if you're interested in building one yourself, swing by and see what you'll need!
(Louis Wu 12:49:19 UTC) (permalink)
News January 3 2008
Cake or Death?
Running Gun Studio has released Spriggs Episode 4 - it swings from manic to surreal to just plain daffy. Just over 10 and a half minutes of... weirdness. And high explosives. Go watch! (Louis Wu 20:27:57 UTC) (permalink)
Celebrating 100 Days of Halo 3
Morpheus has decided to celebrate the 100th day of Halo 3 (September 25th was 100 days ago) with 100 things he loves (and hates) about Halo 3. The 50-item Love list is up now - apparently, he's waiting a week for the 50-item Hate list. (Won't it be 57 by then?) (Louis Wu 18:50:44 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Paintball Mask
Hawty McBloggy found a custom Master Chief paintball mask on eBay - the picture has a bunch of other masks which are cool too, but it's pretty clear which one's for sale. Starting bid is $30 - take a look! (Louis Wu 18:46:39 UTC) (permalink)
Do you want rocket launchers with that?
Bungie wants to know if romance (or other real-life excitement) and Halo have mixed in your life. If you've got a story to tell, swing by their forum! (Louis Wu 17:15:53 UTC) (permalink)
The rule of 3
ZZoMBiE13 has taken a shot at the movie industry in the latest installment of Another Halo Comic Strip. (He wanted me to disclaim this one - make sure that everyone knew it was his opinion, and not mine or bungie.org's, expressed in the comic. I can't say, however, that I don't agree with him, so forget the disclaimer.) (Louis Wu 16:39:55 UTC) (permalink)
TTL Reawakens
XerxdeeJ is back after the holidays, and Tied the Leader has been updated again. Swing by for discussions on sexual orientation and its relationship to online play, a humble thank-you to the crew at Gamertag Radio, and a tantalizing teaser of an upcoming contest you should get ready for. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:16:29 UTC) (permalink)
We like our stupidity organic, thank you.
Over at Rampancy.net, OldNick (who works in the game industry) has written a rant that tears into Bungie (and every other game company who scripts unnecessarily) for negating the artificial intelligence of its NPCs with scripting. It turns into a screed against artists, but the basic premise (that dumbing down your characters by forcing them to behave in specific ways when said behavior is detrimental to gameplay) is an interesting argument. Check it out! Thanks, Narcogen. Update: Marty O'Donnell threw in his own two cents to the conversation (and the post by our own Miguel Chavez is worth reading, too). (Louis Wu 15:12:24 UTC) (permalink)
High Tech Halo (not really)
Wow. Cody Miller converted one of the later cutscenes of the game to ASCII video, with 8-bit mono sound. It's amazing you can even tell what's going on... intriguing just for its WTF factor. (Louis Wu 15:08:14 UTC) (permalink)
TXB Readers like Halo 3 Multiplay
TeamXboox has posted their Readers' Choice Awards for 2007. Halo 3 (or Bungie) was up for 4 awards - they went home with just the Multiplayer Game of the Year. Thanks, Halo Planet. (Louis Wu 15:04:55 UTC) (permalink)
I bet the breadcrumbs are really grenades.
preinzi created a gingerbread Blood Gulch base - and provided pictures. Check 'em out - it came out great! (Louis Wu 15:00:07 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: FTW
zugy pointed out a mod for Halo PC that basically reskins every level. Halo: FTW is (mostly) the work of Pepsi and Nessa, and adds shiny new textures to each level of the game. The HaloMods forum post contains a billion screenshots, or you can watch a fly-through movie for more dynamic info. (Louis Wu 14:56:16 UTC) (permalink)
News January 2 2008
Flash Flood.
We're back to straight puns with today's One One Se7en. Minor story spoilers, even. (Louis Wu 21:17:52 UTC) (permalink)
Phantoms
TTL Demag0gue is back with another installment of Reclaimer - Chapter Two, Part Twelve makes you wonder what Viper is up against...
(Louis Wu 14:43:37 UTC) (permalink)
Don't forget to vote!
While we're discussing awards, don't forget that the Second Foundation 2007 Community Awards have nominees posted, and votes will be accepted until just before midnight (GMT) on January 13. Check out who's up, and add your vote! (Louis Wu 14:33:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Represents at GTR Awards
Gamertag Radio has presented their 3rd Annual Xbox Community Awards (the audio was made available yesterday), and three stars in the Halo firmament shone brightly. The Halo 3 Beta took the XBL Marketplace Download of the Year award, Tied the Leader took the Team Community of the Year award, and Hawty McBloggy took the Community Member of the Year award. Congrats to all! (Well, the Beta probably doesn't appreciate the feelings, but congrats to the real people on the far end of the other two awards!)
(Louis Wu 14:30:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo-inspired military patch
Nice - there's a company that makes military patches; one of them (for a detachment of the 15th Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron, based in Udairi, Kuwait) has chosen some Halo imagery to make its point. darthbob found this at Kotaku. (Louis Wu 14:10:59 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Rap
John_117 stopped by to point out a Halo 3 rap he'd put together. You can watch it on YouTube. (Louis Wu 14:05:17 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo Gorgeosity
RVideo continues with his stunning panoramas - today you can find Last Resort and Isolation on our forum. I find the skyboxes of both to be intriguing. (Louis Wu 13:56:03 UTC) (permalink)
Could Halo 3 have been as good as we wanted it to be?
1UP Features Editor Jeremy Parish, has been posting his personal Top 7 games of 2007, and a couple of days ago he listed Halo 3 as Number 6. What makes this news is the insightful way he's chosen to pin down the hurdles Halo 3 faced before it even hit the stands. His discussion of the story presentation, too, might help you to focus your thoughts about how good a job Bungie did (or didn't do) to bring the Halo universe to its fans this time around. There's more good discussion in the comments following his article, and more still in the thread on our forum started by LoneRanger 2.5. (Once again, I'm struck by the absolutist terms a lot of posters use when ranting on the internet... but if you look beyond the hyperbole, there are many decent points made.) (Louis Wu 13:51:45 UTC) (permalink)
News January 1 2008
Data Transfer
ZZoMBiE13 is proud of the latest episode of Another Halo Comic Strip - the first strip of 2008 also marks the longest he's ever stuck with a webcomic. I know I speak for many when I say I hope there are many more! (Louis Wu 20:47:37 UTC) (permalink)
Joystiq's Top 10 of 2007
Joystiq posted their Top 10 Games of 2007 - Halo 3 came in at number 6. (Before you get all upset about that, understand that they felt it was the one game you should have with you on a desert island. It lost points because it was the third go-round, not for anything else.) The whole list is nicely justified - go read! (Louis Wu 20:38:46 UTC) (permalink)
A Pro Gamer's Wishlist
Hawty McBloggy has relinquished control of her blog for a day (or a post) - there's a guest strip from -S-, aka IX Fall0ut XI, on what the pro gaming community wants. I wish there'd been less unsubstantiated rationalizing (I don't know why people can't just say "this is what I want", but instead need to say "this is what we all want, and we are a huge group"), but it's a nice summary of how the pro community differentiates itself from the non-pro community. (I don't want to call non-pros 'casual gamers', because I know PLENTY of hardcore competitive gamers that don't think this way - I'm not sure there's any way to split things comfortably in a binary fashion.) You don't have to agree with it, but it's an interesting read. (Louis Wu 20:20:19 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Spitfire
deftangel found a video which appears on YouTube, GameVideos, and Mythica.org. It's a montage - but it's not like any montage I've ever seen. It was created by UnfilteredNoise (his YouTube handle)/krushedNsorted (his GameVideos/1UP handle), and although the music grates strongly on my nerves, the camerawork is amazing. It's not about awesome snipes, or triple kills, or unreal sticks - it's about Halo gameplay, shown in such a way that you just want to pick up a controller and start playing. Go watch. (The YouTube version is crap; download the higher-res version from Mythica or GameVideos.) (Louis Wu 19:22:47 UTC) (permalink)
Larry The Marine, now at HB
Halo Babies hasn't been in the news much in the past year - but they're back, and launching a new comic strip, Larry the Marine. Swing by to check it out, along with an interview with the strip's author! (Louis Wu 18:47:25 UTC) (permalink)
New Year's Wishes from a Regular
RVideo created a really nice image showing Epitaph... from way outside the gameplay portion of the level. He's included the raw version (before perspective correction), as well. What a nice New Year's present! (Louis Wu 18:45:04 UTC) (permalink)
Sleightacular 2007
pooberry wrote up a travelogue of his experience at a LAN event that occurred here last weekend - sounds like he had a pretty good time. There are pictures, too. (Louis Wu 18:35:53 UTC) (permalink)
| January 2008 | |
