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 | March 2004 |  |
March 2004 Archived News
News March 31 2004
Pac WHO?
Hehe - here's a fun little Halo-related flash thingy... Nice work from the HaloNATION team. Heads-up from HuMaN_fLy in our forum. (Louis Wu 18:40:46 UTC) (permalink)
Mmmmm, Smores.
One One Se7en looks at those funny Subnova folks today. Poor MC. (Louis Wu 18:23:09 UTC) (permalink)
A Sense Of Closure
Today's Halo: Resolution pulls our poor MC out of the frying pan... (Louis Wu 18:17:54 UTC) (permalink)
FRG in TB
Wow. Wraith has managed to add a working Fuel Rod Gun to Two Betrayals; the graphics are a tad blocky, but the functionality rocks. (I'm not sure WHY the graphics are blocky; you're using the gun that the Spec-Ops Grunts use on that level.) It was originally available as a PC mod, but he also found a way to make it work for Xbox (NTSC). Update: Wraith explains the blockiness here. (Louis Wu 18:10:51 UTC) (permalink)
Where Stories End and Games Begin
There's an interesting essay on Games, and the stories they try to tell, written by Greg Costikyan, Co-Founder of Unplugged Games. It looks at games in general, and is not Halo-related, in any direct sense... but Halo (and Bungie games in general) tend to try and tell stories, and they do it more successfully than a large chunk of the games released in their genres, so it's worth a read to anyone who thinks about this sort of thing from time to time. Heads-up comes from Brian Graham, in our forum. (Louis Wu 18:03:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo tournament at MSU
Jonathan Eaton points out the third ACM @ MSU -hosted Xbox Halo Tournament, in East Lansing, Michigan, on April 10. $700 in cash prizes, plus goodies. The web page is here. (Louis Wu 01:20:47 UTC) (permalink)
The Blood Gulch Experience
Blade posted a 22 mb, 8:37 long movie of Blood Gulch gameplay on his TeamHalo site. Fraps makes the gameplay pretty choppy, and the low-end video card makes the image quality... well, pretty low-end. It's mostly just a few guys running around shooting each other. You need to register on the site (with a valid email address) to download the video. (Louis Wu 00:50:55 UTC) (permalink)
GameSpy Arcade Tutorial
Akba and Allroy have written up a tutorial on how to play Xbox Halo using Gamespy Arcade. If you have the client already, or don't like Xbox Connect for some reason, but you want to play online, go take a look! (You can comment in this thread.) (Louis Wu 00:30:02 UTC) (permalink)
HUDless Movie
JM made a HUDless 'trailer' for Halo, and posted it (in two sizes) over at Halomods. It's not very big, so take a look! (Louis Wu 00:13:09 UTC) (permalink)
News March 30 2004
The Specter - A plane with a sting
Wraith has put together a new model for a Covenant heavy attack aircraft; ground landings might be a tad awkward, but it looks pretty deadly. (The tail, which folds underneath like a scorpion's, is flexible - making it a rather deadly weapon.) (Louis Wu 22:24:48 UTC) (permalink)
Free helmet for a lucky guy
Wonga. The Nightmare Armor guys updated their site - with the name of the winner of the Helmet raffle. Scott Mills, of New Jersey, congratulations! (He probably already knows, since the helmet was sent out last weekend.) Heads-up came from Madda Cheeb. (Louis Wu 22:00:47 UTC) (permalink)
Not Just Another Pretty Flash Face
BOLL wrote an interesting paper for school recently; it's called 'Analysis of Halo: Combat Evolved using Game Design Patterns'. He uses a methodology developed last year by three Scandinavian researchers to break down gameplay in Halo, and determine how well the game would work without the patterns found. It's an interesting read, so we've posted it in our Miscellaneous section. If he fails the class, we'll probably yank it. (Louis Wu 20:24:10 UTC) (permalink)
...little gray cells...
Keeping up with current discussions, that's Finn. Not noticing until today, that's me. (mnemesis 19:00:50 UTC) (permalink)
Run!
Bachus found a reference to Halo in today's Real Life Comics... another step in the plan towards World Domination. (Louis Wu 13:22:50 UTC) (permalink)
Toy Confusion
Hmm. Over at Rampancy.net, there's a pointer to a new page at the Joyride Studios site, showing a 'sneak peek' at the Waves 4 and 5 action figures, as well as early views of the Halo 2 prototypes. However - this is just a rehash of the page posted at Bungie's Truth and Reconciliation site, which went live back on February 14. ALL of these pictures came from the show itself, and if what you're interested in is Halo 2 shots, then what you REALLY want is this page at figures.com (a site first mentioned by Dan Chosich on February 18). There are much better shots of the Master Chief and Brute prototypes there, including closeups. (Louis Wu 12:31:40 UTC) (permalink)
Tree Warfare
Calvin and Halo asks the question... are tigers part of the Covenant? (Louis Wu 11:40:24 UTC) (permalink)
Readin', Readin', and more Readin'
22 pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today:
- Operation: Halo Part 1, by Chaos Elite
- Unknown, by Allisia
- Behind Enemy Lines, by ScorpionTankRider
- Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Nine, by LordofDestruction
- The Eye of the Storm: Prologue, by LordofDestruction
- You cannot help but wonder, by MasterCD
- Scope (Chapter 3, The Day Hell Froze Over), by The Silver Spartan
- The Blood Gulch Gig (Part 1), by Jillybean
- Halo-strike, by someone that you dont know
- The Breaking Point, by CoLd BlooDed
- The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 6): Turning Back, by MadJackal
- Identfying Covenant (Humorous style), by MasterCD
- Insanity, by Frightener
- When Will It End?, by Sentinel
- Prodigal Son: Part 4
, by Scott D - Prodigal Son: Part 5, by Scott De
- In Chaos and Despair: The UNSC Council, by Maraxus6
- Unintended Consequences - or - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Ham, by Flu
- Neverland: Home to Sparta, by SOS.Odin
- Gary Young: A Lucky One?, by SOS.Odin
- Halo Heaven: Chapter 2: The Story of the Surviving Spartan IIs, by Justin Harrison, Halo Heaven
- The Other Reclaimer; Part 1; Chapter 1: Mobuto and 'Aemasee, by Rebel Shuttle
Several good ones, but Jillybean's comedy was a standout for me. (Louis Wu 11:37:04 UTC) (permalink)
Updates at BGH
Battleground: Halo has some new content today - Viper's posted a new mailbag (someone's planning to write to Bungie and tell 'em about their dumb halo battleground dumb site), and Rams has posted a rant about how unreasonable it is that 4 of the first 11 Weekly Updates were posted here at HBO. (I guess I should stop sending Frankie chocolate now...) (Louis Wu 11:24:01 UTC) (permalink)
Of Warthogs, and Launches
To all the people pointing out that BOLL's Warthog Launch game is now on Ebaumsworld, or AlbinoBlackSheep, or any of several dozen other sites - we know, thanks. HBO served over a million copies of the game to viewers in the first two and a half weeks it was online - and we're still serving more than 100,000 copies a week. It was monstrous before those sites picked it up, and at least when it was here, BOLL was getting credit for its creation. It's unfortunate that these sites feel that it's acceptable to simply hijack a Flash game without asking the creator for permission - but I guess that's the internet today. (Louis Wu 11:14:05 UTC) (permalink)
Random Movie News
Updates on a couple of films; Eclarap writes to point out that Lord of the Ring is now mirrored at Halo-Game, in France, and Verdafolio dropped a note in our forum that Elevation has changed hosting (we've updated the movie database for this one). If there's time today, I'll add the new movies from last week to the database, as well. (Louis Wu 11:05:41 UTC) (permalink)
Digging up old interviews: Chris Butcher at IGDA
tLove found a profile of Chris Butcher, AI programmer for Bungie, over at The International Game Developers Association. It contains information about how Chris got into the industry, and some advice he has for those coming after him. it's not clear when this was posted, but The Wayback Machine has a copy that dates back to March 12, 2002, so it's at least 2 years old. (Halo 2 isn't even mentioned.) Not a bad read! (Louis Wu 10:25:03 UTC) (permalink)
News March 29 2004
Link Roundup
We've received a bunch of links in the past couple of weeks - bad on us for not announcing them. Apologies to the sites involved.
General Halo SitesClan Sites
Personal sites
- Jatt Productions - Mods, Videos, Comics
- Running Riot Productions (coming soon)
- Akba.info (Art, videos, forum)
(No, none of these are on our Links page yet - neither are any of the many dozen OTHER links we've posted in our news in the past several months. For that, too, I apologize. One of these days, we'll database that section, and add all the ones we're missing (that are still active, of course).) (Louis Wu 14:12:54 UTC) (permalink)
He's Gone Up By 61.
One One Se7en, once again, plays the prescient game; in the face of new server problems, it's particularly poignant. (Louis Wu 13:41:57 UTC) (permalink)
Space Parking Is So Hard To Find These Days
Halo: Resolution shifts away from the Nightmare Armor substory... (Louis Wu 13:35:24 UTC) (permalink)
Who's got the better armor?
Battleground: Halo points out a Grudgematch on the front page of PlanetAVP; 'Halo vs The Exosuit'. (I guess they probably mean 'MJOLNIR armor vs The Exosuit' - it's sort of silly to pit an entire game against a single item from a different game.) Whatever they meant, I find it amusing that as of right now, Halo is beating AVP on its own site (53% of 726 votes). (Louis Wu 13:30:41 UTC) (permalink)
Aquaduct 2 - coming along
Looks like Aquaduct 2 (the mac Xbox Online client) is coming along; the first phase of beta testing took place this weekend. You could read about it right now on Postpose's front page... if it were up. Because it's not, you can see the relevant news item at Rampancy.net, which is where I learned of it. (Louis Wu 13:07:53 UTC) (permalink)
News March 28 2004
Halo: Blood Covenant
Wow. A new 2d sidescroller looks to be in the works; Halo: Blood Covenant, from an Italian team. The site is in Italian, but you can get a decent sense for what it's looking like so far by following the screens link. _ib noticed this over at Battleground: Halo. Coolness! (Louis Wu 21:05:00 UTC) (permalink)
The Lord of the Ring
We're tight on bandwidth, but that doesn't mean we're OUT of bandwidth. Thanks to Mythica.org (which is having minor connection problems at the moment) and HaloNational (nof, you rock!), we have a pair of mirrors for you for The Lord of the Ring, a movie made by Mark Gursoy, and turned in by Ben Roth. It's just under 3 minutes long, 372x279, 11.2 mb in QuickTime format. It's a very nice trailer - nice timing, nice choices for characters, and classy composition. Ben says Mark did this to learn Premiere - I'd say I'd love to see his more polished work, because this shows real promise! (Louis Wu 19:24:23 UTC) (permalink)
Setting Up Characters in gmax
DocOctavius has posted a rigging tutorial for gmax over at Yayap.com; if you're interested in learning how to rig a character, this is worth a read! (Louis Wu 18:31:53 UTC) (permalink)
FBO offline for a bit
Before the emails start pouring in... files.bungie.org has been turned off for the next 4 days. We hit our bandwidth limit, and rather than incur a several-hundred-dollar overage fee, I've decided to simply take it down until April 1. Almost all the files available there are also available at mythica.org, and even the ones that aren't will be back on Thursday... so please be patient. Thanks! (Louis Wu 16:59:40 UTC) (permalink)
A cool poster
Blackstar put up images yesterday of a new poster he received... I don't know that I'd have the wallspace for this puppy, but it IS gorgeous. (Louis Wu 16:57:20 UTC) (permalink)
HHHT updated
BOLL points out that HHHT 1.40 has been released; The Helpful Halo Hacking Tool has a few bug fixes, and some nice new features. There are also some (untested) spawn patches for download. See what you can find! (Louis Wu 16:56:34 UTC) (permalink)
News March 27 2004
Nightmare Armor - killed by its own popularity
If you try and visit the Nightmare Armor website, and fail... don't worry, they're not dead, just over their bandwidth limit. They'll be back soon, with the name of the winner of the Helmet Raffle. Thanks to Webshift for the clarification. (Louis Wu 11:29:51 UTC) (permalink)
HUDless - still new stuff to see
There's another collection of HUDless Halo shots posted to our forum that's worth a look; MarkHawk, of the Ice Fields team, has posted 26 pictures capturing some pretty intense scenes. (Spoiler warning, if you're keeping track of that stuff.) (Louis Wu 11:24:19 UTC) (permalink)
In Stereo Where Available
As is normally the case, Red vs Blue released a new episode on Friday for Sponsors; Episode 28 focuses on Lopez and his HORRIBLE Spanish. Someone should give that dude the Dummies Guide, or something... For non-paying visitors, the episode should be available tomorrow. (Louis Wu 11:16:18 UTC) (permalink)
Wrapup
The Gamespy Titlefight between Halo and Goldeneye ended yesterday, in a predictable fashion; Halo trounced Goldeneye - again. On April 2, Halo will square off against Half-Life... and THAT will be a fight. Can Halo win out? Tune in next week and find out! (Louis Wu 11:06:15 UTC) (permalink)
Weekly WHAT?
Hehe - isn't it always that way? This week, the Bungie Weekly Update is right here at HBO... and I'm too busy playing Death Island CTF on Homelan_HBO_East to get it posted. OUCH! Go read it - it's full of tasty morsels about dual needlers, glass shaders on the Pelican, and flank-forcing. Rockin'! (Louis Wu 01:26:54 UTC) (permalink)
News March 26 2004
I Never Said I Was Billy Shakespeare.
So the Fan Fiction section contains a seven-part story from Stuntmutt... and today's One One Se7en takes a shot at Stuntmutt's fanfic-writing ability. What are the odds? (Louis Wu 15:36:36 UTC) (permalink)
Lanfest in MA Boonies
Trickster and longtime forum resident vshields ash has posted information about an upcoming Halo LAN at his local EB; if you live within driving distance of Lanesboro, MA (near the confluence of the Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York borders), you should consider stopping by the Berkshire Mall on April 17 to join in - you'd get to meet one of the most persistent Halo stuntmen out there. First prize is an Xbox and a Halo 2 coupon. (Fest starts around noon.) Comments can go in this thread. (Louis Wu 15:33:15 UTC) (permalink)
Captain AND Trend Setter!
Halo: Resolution looks at what might happen if Nightmare Armor expands their manufacturing base. (Louis Wu 15:23:37 UTC) (permalink)
A plate of writing, with a side of corn
Twenty Three pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section... but remember, 7 of them are Stuntmutt's Oh Thirteen series. It's not as overwhelming as it looks.
- OlahJust your average halo spoof, by Mr.Elite of Antioc
- Summaries of a Sanctified Crusade, by xitWOUND117
- Halo 2: Judgement Day Chapter 2, by Mibu Wolf
- Forever Credo certe ne cras., by Dispraiser
- Oh Thirteen Part 1, by Stuntmutt
- Oh Thirteen Part 2, by Stuntmutt
- Oh Thirteen Part 3, by Stuntmutt
- Oh Thirteen Part 4, by Stuntmutt
- Oh Thirteen Part 5, by Stuntmutt
- Oh Thirteen Part 6, by Stuntmutt
- Oh Thirteen Part 7, by Stuntmutt
- A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Thirteen, by Hunter_Killer
- Battle for Azura City, by Hell Starter
- A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Four [STERFRYE], by Hunter_Killer
- The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 5): Sword of Light, by MadJackal
- The Siege of Zion Base; Part Three: Revelation -Chapter 12, by Scimitarex
- The Siege of Zion Base; Part Three: Revelation - Chapter 13, by Scimitarex
- Nemesis, by Reiyou
- The Fall of Rye: Chapter 4: Death From Above, by teemus
- Operation: Stingray, by Nick Kang
- Civilian Assault, pt. Two- Beginning of a Suicide Mission, by ONI_operative_343
- Salvation Unlooked For Ch. 01: Journey to Hope, by Spartan99
- When It's Too Late For Prophets, by Flu
You WILL have to get started, though, if you want to be finished before the next batch... (Louis Wu 13:22:16 UTC) (permalink)
Two to Tango
There's a new strip up over at Halo Babies - I liked it! Great hunters. (Louis Wu 13:11:49 UTC) (permalink)
First Strike - major progress
Last night, Crispy Spartan posted Update 6 for the First Strike mod. It contains information about the modeling they've been doing (what vehicles and weapons are coming along), but the big news is the need for voice talent; there's a list of all parts needed, and an address to mail an application to if you're interested in playing one of them. There's also a trailer (2 min, 5-27 mb depending on format, spoilers if you're worried) to show you where they stand. They're hoping that Update 7 will be displayed on their new website (so new it's not resolving for me yet)... (Louis Wu 12:33:17 UTC) (permalink)
News March 25 2004
Stomach Invasion
I hate days like this. The whole day is gone before all the news is up... I almost didn't get to today's Calvin and Halo, which would have been bad, since it provides fantastic advice on how to get your children to eat vegetables. Game spoilers, for anyone still keeping track. (Louis Wu 19:51:58 UTC) (permalink)
Titlefight Today
Just a reminder - The Gamespy.com Titlefight for the winner of the Abandoned Base bracket commences today at 12 noon, PST. Halo squares off against Goldeneye 007... again. (Halo beat Goldeneye in the first round, but Goldeneye garnered enough votes to win an 'extra life' slot... and used it to make it to the finals.) If you want to see Halo win, voting is important; all the frustrated Quake fans who were beaten in last week's very close match will likely be casting a vote for Goldeneye. (Rembember, there is an IP-address-based check on the votes; hitting 'vote' a dozen times from the same computer will do nothing useful.) (Louis Wu 15:49:06 UTC) (permalink)
Invisible to the Clothed Eye
There's a new Subzero Rivalries posted; I'd guess it was forged in frustration. Thanks to NickLee808 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:39:53 UTC) (permalink)
...redarguo scintilla...
Sharp-witted Canadian wonder-boy Finn has braved the behemoth that is the Halo Story Page mailbag, and returns victorious with another update. Go! Ponder! (mnemesis 05:17:56 UTC) (permalink)
I want backup from Foehammer
Wow, icanttype is converting the Truth and Reconciliation hangar to netmap; screenshots can be found here, on Halo mods. Looks fantastic! Thanks to Devin Olsen for pointing it out on our forum. (Louis Wu 01:56:04 UTC) (permalink)
The Beauty of Halo - at 1600x1200
HUDless screens - there are lots, but some stand out. And CuBaNo is one of those who make the stand-out kind. His latest batch (17 shots) can be found here. There are a few doozys. (Louis Wu 01:40:05 UTC) (permalink)
News March 24 2004
Operative Word Is 'The'
The MC proves once again that comprehension IS important in today's One One Se7en. (FWIW, I loved this strip.) (Louis Wu 13:33:51 UTC) (permalink)
Now THAT'S A Nightmare
Halo: Resolution gets thrown by the little guy. (Happens to me all the time.) (Louis Wu 13:23:40 UTC) (permalink)
A brand new multiplayer level
Interesting. There's a 9 mb video of a new 'multi-inject mod' from Madrox, over at Halomods; it's an entirely new level. (Architecture is pretty plain so far, but man, it's all brand new.) In the absence of the HEK, I find it amazing how far folks are pushing things - but then, I saw an identical pattern in 1995, after the release of Marathon. Bungie games are good enough that it's worth building the tools to mod them, even if the developers don't provide any. Thanks to Neo-genesis for the heads-up on our forum. Update: Reppyboyo clarified that it's not an entirely new level - it's the top of Boarding Action. That doesn't make the new additions any less cool, though... (Louis Wu 12:13:00 UTC) (permalink)
Desktop Gold
New Wallpaper over at Yayap.com, DocOctavius' site. Your favorite Gold Elite, rendered by the Doc himself. Comments can go here. (Louis Wu 11:46:44 UTC) (permalink)
News March 23 2004
Lethal Rage 3
Pico has submitted Lethal Rage 3, a massive (10:11 long, 35.7 mb) tale of heroism and courage, of finding the strength within to carry on when all hope is lost... and, well, to act like an idiot when you win. Cinematography is awesome, storyline is great, and there are some very nice stunts. VERY nice. Watch this one. (And mirror it for us, if you've got the bandwidth - it's gonna be popular.) It's currently available in QuickTime format from Mythica.org and files.bungie.org, but if you want to put up a copy, send us a link, and we'll announce it. A DivX version will be coming at some point. Update: DOH! Pico had asked me to link to a thread he started last week about this, for discussion. I forgot. Luckily, he started a new one today; comments can go here. Update 2: Another couple of mirrors - enough to warrant a mirror page. We'll add more as they come in. Thanks, folks! (Louis Wu 17:54:20 UTC) (permalink)
Hands-Free
Caskey has posted a new no-weapons mod over at HaloMods; the heads-up for us was the teaser screenshot he posted on our forum. Very cool! (Louis Wu 17:20:05 UTC) (permalink)
Hang 'em Gulch
We got a submission of a clan vid - Elite Army Drycape put together 4:18 worth of nice clips. Unfortunately, as I said earlier today, after a long dry spell, there are suddenly many good movies vying for our limited bandwidth. nof, of Ninjas On Fire (and the upcoming Halo National), has come to our rescue and hosted this 10.4 mb, WMP9 vid. When its turn comes up, we'll host it here, as well (in more formats)... but for now, go check out some great gameplay. (High points for me were the first base jump, the hog-in-bg-base flag capture, and the rocket-launcher-at-blue-base grab in hang 'em high.) Update: Thanks to Yayap, who added a mirror of this movie, as well. (FaulkSoft is based in the UK.) (Louis Wu 17:07:27 UTC) (permalink)
Sleep? Not a chance.
Remember when the things under the bed talked to you? Calvin does. Check out today's Calvin and Halo. (Louis Wu 10:32:08 UTC) (permalink)
Chronicles
Gutupio has taken the honor of producing the very first HUDless Halo movie; it's called 'Chronicles', and a 20.5 mb version is being hosted by Coerce.net right now. There's no dialogue, but it's not needed; the action tells the story. (Greens kill one innocent Red and kidnap another, a third Red vows revenge and wipes out most of the greens before rescuing his buddy... with some added twists, of course.) Overall, pretty well done. The current version is a 640x480 DivX-encoded AVI - when there's time (and bandwidth), I'll add a QuickTime version to the mix. Update: Gutupio clarified that 'Chronicles' simply describes the work, and the closest thing it has to a title is 'Entry 1'... and Narcogen has mirrored a copy over at Rampancy.net. Update2: a number of people have pointed out that the FTC vids are, for all intents and purposes, HUDless, and have been for months. While it's true that there is no HUD onscreen (and they've done an amazing job overall), the fact remains that the FTC vids are cropped, ever so slightly (64 pixels off the large versions); Gutupio's vid is the first to be released at full 4:3 resolution with no HUD. (Louis Wu 10:21:28 UTC) (permalink)
X-Shots, Edition IX
Yesterday was a day for screenshots, I guess. There were dozens (over a hundred, I think) posted to our forum. I hate to say it... but the whole HUDless thing is starting to feel commonplace - and that makes me sad. In the midst of the mess, though, XLNC posted his own batch (Number 9) - and he showed me that there's still room for beautiful composition. That's a good thing. (Louis Wu 10:12:32 UTC) (permalink)
Goldie Does AotCR
Ash and his son spent two hours taunting a poor Gold Elite through the entire AotCR level - Ducain took the videotape and created a 2:42, 8.6 mb WMP9 of the entire affair. Very fun to watch. Currently hosted by Ducain himself (right/option click to save), and Tiger Direct - hopefully, we'll have more mirrors for you soon. (After a rather long dry spell, there are quite a number of decent movies in the queue; feast or famine, I tell ya!) You can discuss it in this forum thread. Update: Raider has added another mirror here (remember to right/option click and save as). (Louis Wu 09:50:55 UTC) (permalink)
The Art of Halo - on its way
Ross Mills posted an interesting tidbit to our forum recently; 'The Art of Halo', a book we mentioned a few months ago, is 'basically done and is undergoing review'. Looking forward to it! (Louis Wu 09:39:30 UTC) (permalink)
New Avatars at HaloBabies
Halo Babies has posted some new avatars (100x100) - they're almost entire HB strips on their own. Take a look.. (Louis Wu 09:36:21 UTC) (permalink)
Fish in a Barrel
Viper, over at Battleground: Halo, has put up a new mailbag article - lots and lots of dumb people. (Louis Wu 09:22:57 UTC) (permalink)
Random Halo Thoughts
da_masta_chief writes to point out his Halo blog. Take a look! (Louis Wu 09:19:00 UTC) (permalink)
Stories - again
Even after pruning the duplicates and removing the inappropriate, there are still 21 new stories for you in the Fan Fiction section:
- The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 4): Dark Horizons, by MadJackal
- No Hope, by someone that you dont know
- The Forerunner: Chapter One, by Steele
- From the Other Side: Homeworlds Tie-In, by Mainevent
- Halo 2: Chapter 1 , by Mark Lieberg
- Abandoned:Part 1, by TaySK337
- Heroes Among The Dead, by MT
- O creator, by Jetboogieman
- The End Is Near:Part 2/2, by SpartanFortyFour
- Underestimated: Chapter 1 (revised) and Chapter 2, by Ikabuianman
- Halo: Infinity Part II: Control, by Frightener
- All Roads Lead To Sol...But Unfortunately Not Away: Chapter , by S7N
- The Ghosts of Tau Seti Prime {Part One}, by Black Void
- The Harvest Campaign Chapter 5, by Fleet Admiral
- Desolation, by John Morris
- Assault Part 2: Into the fire, by Joe Ehret
- Subit Sepulcrum Titan Ipsi- Ch.2, by Sage Scorpion
- alone, by new1nab113
- 343 guilty spark, by new1nab113
- The Last Days of Master Chief Part 1/10, by Kung Fu Stick Figure
- A John Before Halo: Part 16 Chapter 2, by J-117
Go get 'em! (Louis Wu 09:16:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Stunts
We got mail from Blake about a movie he'd made, and posted. It didn't meet our posting guidelines, but our general policy is that if someone's willing to host the movie themselves, we're willing to put up a news post about it - so here you go. It's called 'Halo Stunts', it's 3:29 long, in WMP9 format, and weighs in at 5.4 mb. It's a bunch of multiplayer footage (splitscreen and coop) filmed via digital camera off a TV screen (that is, the TV is visible in the picture). Some of it is totally incomprehensible. If you pride yourself on having that completely comprehensive Halo movie collection, grab this film. (Louis Wu 09:04:01 UTC) (permalink)
[HOH] adds articles
Alpaca writes to point out that [HOH] has added a new Articles section, and the first article ("Noobery vs Stupidity") is up. It looks at the difference between people who haven't learned and those who CAN'T learn, and shows you how to keep yourself out of the latter group. Check it out! (Louis Wu 08:53:41 UTC) (permalink)
News March 22 2004
Screenshot dissection continues
Yet another analysis of the multiplayer screens - this time over at Echo-413. Click on the 'Media Mintz Article 2' link in the Community News section of the navbar to read it. (Louis Wu 16:46:35 UTC) (permalink)
H2 Multiplayer... lifesize
Gamers Gallery has posted a VERY high resolution version of the new multiplayer shot - 2468x1851 (weighs in at 452k). Go visit if you want this! (Louis Wu 16:43:01 UTC) (permalink)
It Was A Dark And Stormy Installation...
So, the Fan Fiction section is open again... and Stuntmutt has wasted no time taking a shot or two, via One One Se7en. Of course, he's missed the target - the innocent victim in this case is poor, maligned Halo PC. Trust Stuntmutt to gang up on the downtrodden. (Louis Wu 14:45:01 UTC) (permalink)
Hmph! It Was A Simple Question...
Today's Halo: Resolution tries what we've ALL wanted to do, at one point or another... (Louis Wu 14:38:43 UTC) (permalink)
Buried under screenshots
Okay, the flood of screenshots on our forum is simply too much for me to keep up with. I guess I was planning to post a daily 'roundup' - but there are well over 20 posts with screenshots in them since the last time I posted; some people post a few, then follow up their own post with more, or start a new thread and post the same ones again, or even follow up a post with a second post that contains a subset of the first post. If I had an extra couple of hours a day to sort it all out, I suppose I could keep track... but I don't, so if you're interested, just scan our forum for 'screenshots' in the subject line. (I'll continue to point out the posts containing what I consider to be outstanding pics; even in this flood, there are some that are head and shoulders above the rest, and I'll make a point of bringing them to your attention.) (Louis Wu 12:58:55 UTC) (permalink)
The Reactor Room - now with 800% more Spartans
WOW. Gil27 and Devin Olsen have created a multiplayer version of the Maw's Reactor Room - there is a short (25 second, 2 mb) film as well as a few screenshots in this forum post; no map yet for downloading, but we can hope! (Louis Wu 12:29:48 UTC) (permalink)
Two new movies for RvB sponsors
Back in early February, Burnie Burns and Geoff Fink of Red vs Blue were interviewed for TechTV's Unscrewed. We actually had the footage uploaded to us by Sniperman27, and we contacted Unscrewed to find out if we could display it; the answer came back that they would do it for us... but they never did. Not to worry, though, because that same clip is now up as a Sponsors Extra over at the Red vs Blue site! There's also a very cool 3:29 long video from the Alamo Drafthouse last week, giving some flavor of that event (we mentioned it on the 14th), and showing off (in really bad lighting) the Blue Nightmare Armor. Thanks to c0ld vengeance for the heads-up on our forum. Dang, sorry - that would be Ross Mills. My bad. (Louis Wu 12:18:55 UTC) (permalink)
Madda Cheeb - Amateur Golfer!
Benny, from Xbox Ottawa (part of the team behind the FTC videos) has submitted a new Flash game - Madda Cheeb: Golfer. We're hosting a copy here, but there's also a copy up at Newgrounds, which probably has way more bandwidth than we could hope to have. (It's big - over 4 and a half megs.) Wherever you play it - you'll find it's pretty tough stuff, but quite rewarding when you actually do well. Andrew started a thread in our forum, if you want to comment. (Louis Wu 04:46:46 UTC) (permalink)
Inspiring the Troops
So over the past few weeks, we've had a number of submissions that we simply haven't had time to post. I'm going to try and get some of them out there. First up is a pair of speeches modeled on ones given by Winston Churchill in 1940; you can find them, along with transcriptions, in our Miscellaneous section. Thanks to Walshicus for his patience. (Louis Wu 04:42:58 UTC) (permalink)
News March 21 2004
Hooooooo hoo hoo hoo hoo...
It's still coming in... New Mailbag! (Count Zero 21:46:30 UTC) (permalink)
New pics from the Homefront team
Homefront, the Battlefield 1942 mod, has put up new pics of an elite, their new AR (the MC looks BIZARRE without gloves on), and the scorpion tank. This picture is a joke - they'll have him holding plasma weapons soon. (Good thing, too - Covenant would rather die than use human weapons...) Thanks to Spartan-39 for the heads-up on our forum. (Louis Wu 15:17:28 UTC) (permalink)
Tricks DVD - coming soon
Interesting. XBCTourneys is promoting 'The Ultimate Halo Tricks DVD', coming soon. 'Every trick for every map', in DVD quality. The page says 'Price coming soon' - but if you click on the Preorder button, you're paying $14.99, so one might assume that the price will be $14.99. (I'd be impressed if they really do manage to film 'every trick for every map' - I'm still seeing new ones on a semi-weekly basis. They must be sitting on a lot of stuff nobody's seen before. Or something.) Thanks to 'Nosolee for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:56:08 UTC) (permalink)
Another screenshot analysis
Promodo answered the screenshot analysis over at Sector 7 with his own comments; you can find them (and respond to them) on our forum. I must say it surprises me that this much evaluation is going into this single screenshot... it's FAR more than went into the first multiplayer shot, and that, in my opinion, was a more interesting picture. In fact, I haven't seen this sort of interest since the dry spell (which had lasted a full year) ended in 2001. You never can tell, with fans! (Louis Wu 02:43:02 UTC) (permalink)
Misadventures in Trickery
There's a new .comic up at Subnova; Boxer wrote an autobiographical bit about his experience trying to get out of the Maw. I'd speculate about who the other player is... but geez, it could be ANYBODY... (Louis Wu 02:35:36 UTC) (permalink)
The Coach would be proud
room217 took a shot of his garage - looks like that crew gets pretty serious about Blood Gulch! (Louis Wu 02:25:48 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction Reopens
Wonga. It lives again. Thanks to Subnova, The Fan Fiction section is open again - and there are a few stories that were in the queue before it went down (plus two more that got posted today, from folks who knew the original URL).
- Jera III, by Elizar
- untitled halo poem, by new1nab113
- Underestimated: Part 1, by Ikabuianman
- Halo2: The Covenant Wars [part 2], by Thomas Harper
- Purgatory: Part 1 , by Lord Spark
- war and blood, by new1nab113
- the maw, by new1nab113
- Don't Look Here! Get out before it is too late! No!!!, by Frightener
- Assault Part 1: Ambushed, by Joe Ehret
- Halo Heaven: Chapter 1: The Story of the Surviving Spartan IIs, by Justin Harrison, Halo Heaven
Go to it! (Louis Wu 01:06:33 UTC) (permalink)
News March 20 2004
Art for Art's Sake
She does it again - Tina Leyk let us know about two new pics she's done; her fan character, Dre'al, an a Hunter closeup. You'll find them at the bottom of the Halo Fan Art section of her local page. I'm lovin' em. (Louis Wu 21:19:58 UTC) (permalink)
Screenshot Analyzed
Wolfy, over at Sector 7, has gone to the trouble of writing up a full article on the new screenshot. (Louis Wu 21:12:49 UTC) (permalink)
A View From The Top
Gustav Larimore (TéB34NZ) writes about a movie he's made called 'A View from the Top' he's hosting it at Effervescing Blue Productions. It's 2:30 long, 640x480, 25.4 mb, WMP9 format, showing some high jumping in various netmaps. (Louis Wu 21:08:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Trivia Needed
KingPhreak is setting up a Halo Trivia bot for IRC; it will sit in a channel, asking trivia questions, and keeping track of who answers fastest. The problem is... he needs more questions. Instructions on how to submit them can be found in this forum post. If you have some Halo trivia that you think might stump the masses... jump in! (Louis Wu 04:04:07 UTC) (permalink)
Now THAT'S what I'M talkin' about.
There have been so many HUDless screenshots recently, I was going to implement a policy of a single update each day, with all the links in it. However, there are two posts tonight by CuBaNo which simply demand personal attention. The second batch, especially, contains some of the best shots posted on our forum to date, in my opinion. The first post was here - and it's pretty good. The second post... wow. (Warning - these pics are pretty big.) (Louis Wu 03:13:29 UTC) (permalink)
The Infection Spreads
Just when you thought it was safe to read *NM* posts on our forum again... BOLL strikes. Call the office of Homeland Security! (Louis Wu 02:41:22 UTC) (permalink)
Comic Updates: good news and bad news
On the plus side, Halo Babies has posted a new strip; I think the MC needs balance lessons. On the minus side, 343GS.com has posted that they will no longer be creating EchoFourNineteen strips (and, in fact, are no longer hosting their existing strips). And so it goes. (Louis Wu 02:30:23 UTC) (permalink)
Content, Content, Content
The Bungie Weekly Update this week went to... well, Bungie. (NEPOTISM!) You can find Frankie's musings on the Underground, Bungie's very own public forum. It's short - but it's tasty. The tidbit on realism on 'an Earth level' left me drooling for actual gameplay... the bit about Jaime fine-tuning Enemy AI got me intrigued, and the bit about Marty had me laughing. And oh, yeah, the Mister Chief artwork hits new edges of quality. And if the update weren't enough, there's also (finally) a new, hi-res screenshot, the one that's been floating around the net for a couple of weeks in illicit magazine scans. All the arguments about 'is that really a needler?' and 'wait, who's falling?' and the like seem rather silly now, with a 1600x1200 reference piece to look at... what? You're still here? Why aren't you at Bungie.net, reading? (Louis Wu 00:56:30 UTC) (permalink)
News March 19 2004
MonoxideC talks Halo
FlyingV, over at Battleground: Halo, sat down with MonoxideC and talked to him about modding Halo, and about Halomods.com. Go check out the full interview! (Louis Wu 19:23:47 UTC) (permalink)
Let's go rope us some Blue steer!
Red vs Blue episode 27 is now out for Sponsors. It's called 'Nine-tenths of the Law', and it points out that each team has a pretty weak link - and they're both getting more disturbed. Some great one-liners. Thanks to Cybrfrk for the heads-up! (Louis Wu 17:28:05 UTC) (permalink)
E3 2003 pics at Halo Universe
Marc, from Halo Universe, writes to say that they've uploaded some screens from the E3 2003 Halo 2 Demo trailer. In his words "for all who doesn't know the movie a duty and for all others a nice reminder..." Go remember! (Louis Wu 17:23:27 UTC) (permalink)
Information Overload
Yesterday, we posted a link to some pretty classy X-shots from Mills; in his original note, he stated that he had hi-res versions of the shots (1280x1024) that were available if anyone was interested. Folks WERE interested, and he uploaded them... but I completely forgot to do anything with them. Situation rectified; in his original post, there is now a 'hi-res' link under each picture, which you can right-click/option-click to download. (Filesizes are included, so you know what you're in for.) That menacing grunt is truly awesome at the larger size! (Louis Wu 16:10:04 UTC) (permalink)
Who needs a HUD, anyway?
The Burninator decided to get in on the X-Shots action. (X-Shot, again, is a term coined by Pico to describe the HUDless wonders pioneered by XLNC.) Some nice pics in there! (Louis Wu 15:35:57 UTC) (permalink)
Artistic License
One One Se7en points out that the MC is a lot like... well most of our art submitters, I guess. (Louis Wu 13:43:01 UTC) (permalink)
Serving 5 Billion Locations Throughout The Galaxy
You never thought it was gonna tie back in to the MC, did you? Halo: Resolution brings it home. (Louis Wu 13:34:31 UTC) (permalink)
First Strike Weekly Update
The First Strike mod team has posted their weekly update on our forum - progress mentions in many fields. They really seem like they're coming along, though they're hampered a bit by the lack of the HEK. (Louis Wu 11:00:19 UTC) (permalink)
Project Halo changes focus
Wow, some big (and somewhat sad) news from the Project Halo team - easiest to simply let them speak:
"It is with deep regret that I inform you that Project Halo is being discontinued, and that the project will be moving to a new name.
Due to lack of response from Bungie, the project has been halted and we will be redoing some things. We will be dropping the Halo theme for the game and inserting a new story. The project will continue in a way, but with a new name and story line. We can't continue without licensing from Bungie, and it doesn't look like that will be coming. So, we've decided to just make an all new game.
Thanks to all the Halo fans that supported us, and especially to HBO and the Junkyard for all their support. I hope you guys all follow our game, and thanks again for supporting us!"
I have no doubt it'll continute to be a great project... but I'm saddened by the fact that it will no longer be Halo-related. (Louis Wu 10:03:33 UTC) (permalink)
A closer look at the Towers of Death
Finn has taken another stab at the Halo Story Page mailbag. (It refuses to die, no matter HOW many times he stabs it.) Lots of speculation about the Blue Beam buildings this time around... (Louis Wu 09:58:17 UTC) (permalink)
News March 18 2004
Halo Squeaks By Quake
Wow. That was a nailbiter, for anyone watching the voting on the Gamespy Title Fight match... but in the end, Halo fans pulled out the win, 9232 to 9211 (yes, it was a 21 vote margin on almost 18,500 votes cast). Nice going, folks! Next up - Goldeneye - again. (Halo beat Goldeneye handily in the first round, but they picked up an Extra Life slot, beat TIE Fighter and Super Metroid, and are up again for the championship.) Tune in next week for another exciting episode! (Louis Wu 20:13:13 UTC) (permalink)
Last Call for Votes
We don't usually do this... but this one's gonna be pretty darn tight. The Gamespy Title Fight (Halo vs Quake is neck and neck; Quake is currently hanging on to a 50-vote lead (out of 15,000 cast). There are less than 2 hours of voting time left; votes are IP-checked, so if you've already voted from your IP address, don't bother trying to vote a second time, but if you haven't voted, please do! It takes less than 20 seconds, and it would be great to see Halo win this one. (Louis Wu 18:18:51 UTC) (permalink)
Let's try Assault next!
Sort of a Sunday Calvin and Halo today - I gotta say, it looks like fun. Too bad it's still snowing here... (Louis Wu 17:36:00 UTC) (permalink)
SparkEdit 3.02 released
Grenadiac has squashed a few new bugs (and added a new feature) in SparkEdit - v3.02 is available for download now at Halomods. Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:26:03 UTC) (permalink)
Pretty, Pretty Pictures
Forum newcomer Mills has tossed up his own collection of HUDless screenshots - and there are some doozies in there. Go look. They're cool. (Louis Wu 10:21:38 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Solitaire
Dr. Nick has created a replacement deck for the standard Solitaire game that comes with Windows; you can see a screenshot of the installer, and have access to download links, in this forum post. (Louis Wu 09:54:32 UTC) (permalink)
Kiss Me, I'm Irish
Red vs Blue has put up another Sponsors-only vid, in honor of St. Patrick's Day; it's short (1:14), and small (7.3 mb), and only available in the RvB forum at the moment... unfortunately for c0ld vengeance, credit for this one goes to Ross Mills, who noticed it and posted on our forum. (Louis Wu 09:31:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo... Quake... it's gonna be down to the wire
Whoa, it's a close one. With about 11 hours left in the voting in today's Gamespy Title Fight, Halo leads Quake by a pretty thin margin; 300 votes (out of a total of almost 9000 cast so far). If you haven't voted yet, go do so now, and make sure that Halo advances to the finals! (Louis Wu 08:53:25 UTC) (permalink)
Two Thumbs Up
For the first time in almost a year, HBO's Movie Database is up-to-date; thanks to the help of Deanero, KP, and Mythica (especially Mythica), the number of movies recorded is almost double what it was yesterday. I'm sure there are mistakes, and oversights... but an awesome amount of work went into this, in an attempt to catalog films released to the Halo community; if there's something you wanted to see, but didn't know where to find it... this is the place. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 08:42:51 UTC) (permalink)
Running Through Doors
There have been several examples of people getting out of the Maw near the beginning, but goatrope found a new one. Check out the small vid (3 mb) linked in his forum post - thanks to KP for the hosting. (1:11 long, DivX format.) Update: this has been mirrored at Rampancy.net, which is good, because it swamped KP's net connection last night. (Louis Wu 00:05:00 UTC) (permalink)
News March 17 2004
Favorite Anticipated Game poll at XBN
There's a poll over at XBN's website, asking 'What is your most wanted Xbox game right now?' Halo is leading strongly, with 47% of the almost 1900 votes at the moment... but you never know. Thanks to Battleground: Halo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:48:14 UTC) (permalink)
Move Over Mehve.
One One Se7en takes a shot at Frankie today. Methinks the MC needs to clean that gun... it would misfire less. (Louis Wu 11:31:29 UTC) (permalink)
One Relationship, On The Rocks Please
Keyes drops a bombshell in today's Halo: Resolution. I, for one, didn't see it coming. (Louis Wu 11:29:28 UTC) (permalink)
A new trick, at this late date
Wow. Ducain has come up with what I think is a brand-new trick; he's put himself, and a Warthog, on top of the Light Bridge support structure underground in the level Halo. In single-player mode. He says it took him about 40 hours - but then, in reality, it's taken more like 2.5 YEARS. Very nicely done. 6 mb WMP9 file, with a QT version coming as soon as I get the hi-res content. Update: the WMP9 version has been mirrored at Rampancy.net - thanks, Narc! Update 2: We're now hosting copies locally (the original 6.5 mb WMP9 version and a 6.8 mb QuickTime version). (Louis Wu 10:58:21 UTC) (permalink)
HBO-COERCE - open for business again
The HBO-COERCE Halo PC server is BACK! The new IP address has been added to the top of this page, for status checks. It's hard to tell, yet, but I'm guessing there's a new mapcycle, as well. Go play! (Louis Wu 10:49:41 UTC) (permalink)
A thousand words... times a lot.
The HUDless screenfest goes on. zarrel40 put up a few (one with a pretty cool transposition of the Threshold hologram), and MereCatfish continues his own posting spree. Nice stuff! (Louis Wu 10:43:53 UTC) (permalink)
Can Halo Take Quake
The next Halo-related round of the Gamespy Title Fight starts today at noon, PST; Halo goes up against Quake in The Abandoned Base bracket. (The winner faces TIE Fighter, Super Metroid, or GoldenEye 007 - that last a game beaten soundly by Halo in round 1, but back with an extra life.) Don't forget to vote! (Louis Wu 10:34:58 UTC) (permalink)
Space Invader Halo
MC117- has posted a note in our forum about a 2D game he's working on. There's a screenshot up at Halomods, if you're interested in providing feedback. (Louis Wu 10:19:10 UTC) (permalink)
New content at Sector 7
Sector 7 has posted a couple of items they wanted us to mention: there's an article on the expansion of the Halo universe (via books and fan creations), and there's a 'comic parody' section, in which popular Halo comics are spoofed. Take a look! (Louis Wu 10:16:07 UTC) (permalink)
Crystal Xbox - up for grabs!
Halo Universe is giving away a new Xbox crystal edition (PAL format), 2 controllers, and a copy of Halo. You need to answer three questions, and mail them to the address listed in this contest webpage. Because the content is an image, and so is not translatable by web translation resources without a lot of transcription work, we'll post the English translation of the questions here (sent to us by Halo Universe):
- Who is responsible for the soundtrack of Halo and Halo 2?
- Who writes the german version of "Halo - The Fall of Reach"?
- What age is No. 117 when he was conscripted into the SPARTAN II project?
Go visit the link, answer the question, and who knows - you might win! Closing date is April 4. (Louis Wu 10:03:32 UTC) (permalink)
News March 16 2004
Yet another reason to want that HEK
Mrs. Doublefire has posted new screens of his Halo 2 Battle Rifle, reproduced for Halo PC. Very, very nice. Thanks to Devin for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:52:35 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Init Builder v1.0
Sedgr has posted a small app that can more easily build init.txt files for Halo PC dedicated servers. It requires .Net to run. A link is here, in our forum; some screenshots were put up on Gearbox's forum. I had some problems actually SAVING the file (apparently, my .Net configuration disabled that particular function in this app)... but it SEEMS useful. Take a look! Update: turns out my problem was due to the fact that I wasn't running it on a local drive. If you have a .NET-related problem, try ensuring that the application is running locally. Works very nicely! (Louis Wu 16:45:31 UTC) (permalink)
Um... what about the new guy?
That Weasel Television is running a new poll - who's your favorite Red vs Blue character? Stop by and vote! (Louis Wu 14:53:59 UTC) (permalink)
It's Darker.
Calvin and Halo looks at Christmas disappointments, and why Bungie will rule the world one day. (Louis Wu 14:23:08 UTC) (permalink)
X is for Austin
Red vs Blue has put up a promo for the SXSW Film Festival, which they attended on Sunday night. It's pretty funny... and it's Sponsors-only. If you gave 'em some cash, go check it out! (Thanks goes to Ross Mills, who pointed it out on our forum.) (Louis Wu 13:02:08 UTC) (permalink)
Soothing the Savage Breast
It's music day as far as Halo is concerned! Rampancy Net posted a 12-page transcription of Enough Dead Heroes (from the Halo Soundtrack), put together by Spencer "Poop Scoop" Anunsen, and we received a guitar tab of the Opening theme of Halo, created by XvShadow. Grab 'em both, and get to playing! (Louis Wu 12:55:41 UTC) (permalink)
Inside the Covenant Warship
SESpider has sent along Page 18 of his Miniature Halo comic... and things are looking dire for the Chief. Will he make it out alive? (Louis Wu 10:44:35 UTC) (permalink)
News March 15 2004
WE CANNOT POST SCANS OF CURRENT MAGS
Please - to the dozens of people sending us links to the hi-res scan of the latest OXM issue (with the new 'Snowblind' screenshot): our policy is exactly the same as it always was. We do NOT post images from, or links to, scans from magazine issues that are still on the newsstands. In this case, they're not even on the newsstands yet; the issue doesn't officially come out for a few days. Folks putting up scans are subscribers, who get the magazine early. Please don't take money out of the pockets of magazine creators; do it enough, and there won't BE any more magazines to scan. Bungie will be releasing a hi-res version of that picture on their website as soon as the latest issue of OXM is on the shelves... please, please be patient. (Louis Wu 20:35:58 UTC) (permalink)
The Pics Don't Stop!
The HUDless Screen Parade goes on. MereCatfish has submitted his own collection (along with a short movie of a teamkilling Gold Elite, who eventually commits suicide in remorse) to our forum, here. (Louis Wu 19:06:10 UTC) (permalink)
Multiplayer Death, Up Close
XLNC continues his mad HUDless screenshot posting rampage, this time focusing on multiplayer action. There are some GORGEOUS shots in here. Browse away. (Louis Wu 18:23:16 UTC) (permalink)
Streaming Halo Goodness
synide is starting up a new venture: haloTV. He intends to stream Halo videos 24/7 via winamp, eventually including big Halo matches shown live. For now, he's looking for suggestions for movies to include in the rotation. Add your thoughts to this thread. (Louis Wu 17:38:59 UTC) (permalink)
Like The Bit At The Start of Six Feet Under.
One One Se7en looks at the potential hazards of wielding more than one gun at a time. (Louis Wu 16:11:07 UTC) (permalink)
Who Knew He Was Waterproof?
Halo: Resolution gets stranger and stranger... who knew what 343GS got up to in his spare time? (Louis Wu 16:07:16 UTC) (permalink)
That Ballmer - he's a card
Bizarre find by Richard Watkins - in a speech Steve Ballmer made last fall at the Gartner Fall Symposium 2003 (it was the Microsoft Office System 2003 Launch), he said
We're working on the next version -- I hate to tell you this confidentially but I'll have to swear you to secrecy now -- we're working on the next version of Xbox right now and we're working on Halo 2 and Halo 3, the two newest versions of the game.
Now - remember, this is Microsoft's CEO; he probably doesn't spend a lot of time keeping track of projects that are several years out. And Bungie themselves have said that it's not certain that there will even BE a Halo 3 yet. And even if they WERE planning on a Halo 3, the chances that they were already into development on it last October (when the vast majority of the office was working on Halo 2, and the few remaining people were dealing with the very recent release of Halo PC and the problems it had at launch) are pretty slim. Given all this, the usual 'if it doesn't come from Bungie, don't believe it' caveats apply here... but it is interesting that Ballmer would make a statement like that at all. (Louis Wu 16:01:56 UTC) (permalink)
For Archival Justice
Like every OTHER Halo site on the planet, we've added last Friday's Weekly Bungie Update to our Update Archive. It comes in handy when you're looking for that corpse-humping reference... (Louis Wu 12:15:02 UTC) (permalink)
Practice all night, tourney all day
X Tournaments points out an interesting addition to an upcoming tourney; on saturday, March 27, they're holding a 2v2 tournament at The Game in Smithtown, Long Island. The night before, there's a Lock-In lanfest; show up at 11 pm, LAN all night (the doors are unlocked again at 9 am). The tourney is $40/team, the Lock-In is $15/person. More details can be found at the X Tournaments site. (Louis Wu 11:32:29 UTC) (permalink)
The Light of Octanus
Tony 'Octanus' Poitra, of Cortana.org, is the latest 'Spotlight' suspect, over at the Junkyard; head on over and see what makes him tick! (Louis Wu 10:40:06 UTC) (permalink)
Halo - via Warhammer 40k
A little bit ago, we got email from Shadow Forsythe, pointing out a pretty incredible site on Geocities - Frankie 'Deadpool' G. had been creating Halo miniatures out of Warhammer 40k models. I was seriously intrigued - but knew that a front-page link on HBO tends to kill Geocities sites in about 10 minutes. I contacted Frankie, and he gave us permission to host the content locally. (I hesitate to say 'mirror', since I poured his content into HBO's site template, and rewrote the html from the ground up. The text, though, is all his, and the pictures (the high point of the material) are unchanged.) Check out Pillar of Autumn, and be amazed, yet again, at what a Halo fan's dedication can bring about. (Louis Wu 02:12:42 UTC) (permalink)
Project Halo moves along
There's another Project Halo Weekly Update, posted on our forum. The high point is an early concept of what might become their theme song. Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:03:21 UTC) (permalink)
News March 14 2004
No .Comic without Subnova
Never one to pass up an opportunity to kick a friend when he's down, Shishka created a new .comic for Subnova (which is still down), looking at what happens when you script hotline bots to be just plain mean. If you don't get it... don't worry. The people getting kicked do. (Louis Wu 21:50:55 UTC) (permalink)
The Master Chief Invades Texas
Want another look at that Nightmare Armor in action? Webshift jumped on to our forum to remind folks that they'll be in Austin, at the Alamo Drafthouse (with the RvB crew), starting at 6 this evening... stop by and see them in the BLUE armor! (Louis Wu 16:56:30 UTC) (permalink)
Guest Stars.
We have a special Guest One One Se7en strip for you today; it was created by Stuntmutt himself, and it ushers in a new age of Guest Strips. By order of the Grand High Poobah (that would be Stuntmutt), there will no longer be any guest strips posted during the week. One One Se7en will come out 3 days a week, as it did when it started - all strips will be his. Once per month, all submitted strips will be added, via the Archive mechanism. There are other (relatively large) changes in the works... but no more on that until we're ready to announce them. In the meantime, enjoy this tribute to Guest Strippers everywhere from the man who inspired them. (Louis Wu 16:08:17 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Birthday, Tina!
A bunch of new artwork from Tina Leyk today; both her Artwork page and her Fur-Lo comic page have been updated. One of these days, soon, I'll add search functions to those pages, so finding new material is easier. For now, though, you're looking for the last two items in the 'Doodles' section on her art page (they're marked as added 14 March), and the Public Service Announcement at the top of the Fur-Lo page (read it! You people sending her hatemail suck!) and the last panel in the 'Still More Single Panels' section are both new. And yes... the birthday panel is accurate; today's her birthday. :) (Louis Wu 15:22:04 UTC) (permalink)
Gamespot says Halo in the top 10
Gamespot has put up a new TenSpot - the Top Ten First-Person Shooters of all time. Halo's on the list (the games are unranked among those 10 slots.) When you're done reading about what Gamespot thinks, there's a chance for you to vote, as well. Thanks to Jonah for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:29:35 UTC) (permalink)
343GS - new, again
Bluestone, from 343GS.com, wrote to say that the new design that went live yesterday had some problems... so they've upped a DIFFERENT one. Seems solid from here. (Louis Wu 13:17:37 UTC) (permalink)
News March 13 2004
Multiplayer Guide from an active group
Kris Hull has written up a pretty snazzy multiplayer Halo guide; it was originally for his local Halo group, but he's decided to make it public. (Their strategies have apparently evolved a little since it was written... but it's still pretty solid.) Nice layout, great modifications of Bungie's overhead maps, generally good design all around. Check it out! (Louis Wu 21:39:34 UTC) (permalink)
The HBO Forum.
Busy weekend... almost didn't get today's Guest One One Se7en posted. It comes from Michael Frank... and it looks at one of the bigger problems on our forum. Ouch. (Louis Wu 21:12:15 UTC) (permalink)
I'm what you used to be.
Sports fan Lophan sent in this Halo sighting, on ESPN's website. Frank Wiley wrote a column about trash-talking... and apparently, among sports fans, Halo lines are a common form. Hehe. (Louis Wu 12:43:00 UTC) (permalink)
The Green Man Cometh
As a bonus for the fans, Frankie's posted a video of Sid Garrand, Nightmare Armor virtuoso, wandering around Microsoft's campus in full get-up, scaring small children and generally looking like one bad mutha. Makes me wish I had a few thousand dollars just lying around... (Louis Wu 02:50:46 UTC) (permalink)
I wanna see the paisley MC
This week's Bungie Weekly Update showed up on the Halo Babies forum - there's a great bit on the Nightmare Armor team's visit to Bungie this week, along with magazine visits, cinematics polishing, stress testing, and a dogfight. ('A bigger Covenant ship'? Banshees on Phantoms? Hmm...) Light on the progress stuff this time around, but a great read nonetheless. Go get it! (Louis Wu 00:18:16 UTC) (permalink)
News March 12 2004
Rendering on the Cheap
DocOctavius has posted the first iteration of his rendering tutorial - for folks looking to learn the basics of rendering using free software. Check out Yayap.com for all the details! (Louis Wu 20:56:59 UTC) (permalink)
Cheating - it's a reality now
All the activity in the modding arena has one big downside... it enables cheating in online games. Halo Phenom (a site I hadn't actually heard of before today) has put up a nice little article suggesting ways to avoid this, at least for tournament play. Worth a read, if you're looking for suggestions... Thanks to Battleground: Halo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:52:19 UTC) (permalink)
COERCE needs YOU!
gwdpto, the brains behind coerce.net and the HBO-COERCE Halo PC server, put up a post about the state of the HPC server. They're moving to a new location, and there's a $100 setup fee... so he's looking for small donations from the community. For a $5 or $10 donation, you get a coerce.net email address (with pop3 access) and 10 mb of web space. If you enjoy playing on the COERCE server... drop him a few bucks! (They're also looking for new admins, for anyone interested in kicking in a regular amount to cover the rental costs.) (Louis Wu 20:32:28 UTC) (permalink)
Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
One One Se7en tells you what NOT to do this afternoon. Take notice. (Louis Wu 13:25:07 UTC) (permalink)
You'd Think Class 12 Would Be A Little More
Halo: Resolution continues the saga of Keyes and GS; did you know what Keyes' suit is made of? (Louis Wu 13:22:47 UTC) (permalink)
Evolution of Halo - direct download
The Evolution of Halo release, via p2p networks, a couple of days ago was a pretty big success; I don't have Two Degrees stats, but BitTorrent dowload numbers are in the 5000 range in the past 30 hours... that's half a terabyte of files transferred, and the hit on HBO-related servers was LESS than our normal traffic. That ROCKS. A couple of standard http-type links have popped up; if you're behind a firewall, or on some other connection that makes p2p sharing not an option for you, you can grab the file in the standard way from one of these sites. (If more come online, we'll continue to add links to the Mirror list.) For those interested: one of the links (Gamespot DLX) is a new service, offered by Gamespot; file downloads are free, though you do have to register. Speeds are quite fast, and there's no queue (or at least, I never saw one). They DID re-encode the movie; it's listed on the page as 150 mb, but it's really 161.12 mb. (Don't make the mistake I made, and cancel your download at 155 mb, thinking it's corrupt...) They're offering it in MPG format, for those who have trouble with DivX and QuickTime. (And yes, they asked first.) (Louis Wu 11:59:51 UTC) (permalink)
Beware of Fat Ones
Halo Babies has made their current strip visible for the general public. (Normally, we won't be posting this information; just like with Red vs Blue, when there is an early release for sponsors, and a regular release for the general public, we'll post once, when it's first available (as we did yesterday), and it'll be up to you to remember to revisit if you haven't sponsored. However, in this case, there's some new Fan Art posted, as well, so a second post is warranted.) (Louis Wu 11:50:51 UTC) (permalink)
First Strike Mod - moving along
Farsight has posted another First Strike Mod Weekly Update on our forum; they're making progress on several fronts, but the included artwork is just disturbing. (Louis Wu 11:34:46 UTC) (permalink)
Team Sexy - Your One-Stop Tourney Shop
TS.Films has decided to open a new section of their website; it will be devoted to Tournaments. They're hoping to provide a centralized location where folks can post information about upcoming tourneys in their area, or results and recaps from tournaments they participated in. They've started the ball rolling with recaps of a couple of their own tourneys. Swing on by and send 'em YOUR info! (Louis Wu 10:43:58 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Elite Packs - last go-round
A number of people have written to us about those Special Edition Halo-branded Xboxes; they're available in Australia now, and they WILL be available in the US, very soon. I'm sure the list of countries where you can buy one is much, much longer than this... but I think we've gotten the point across; if you're interested in this, contact your local Xbox dealer to find out if they're available where you are, but you don't need to send us more mail about this. (Louis Wu 10:34:22 UTC) (permalink)
News March 11 2004
It's Harrison Bergeron all over again
BOLL is still playing the Flash game... though I warn you, don't open this with your volume set high. And don't open it at ALL if you're epileptic. (Louis Wu 21:45:15 UTC) (permalink)
The Arkenstone?
Finn writes to mention a 'small' update on the Halo Story Page... sort of like King Kong is a 'little ape'. Go check out the latest dredging from the HSP mailbag. (Louis Wu 21:25:20 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Elite Pack
Recently, we mentioned a special edition Halo-branded Xbox for sale in Korea - ZigZag Master pointed out one that's being marketed in New Zealand. You get a green Halo-branded console, a green S-controller (with the 'X' in the center replaced with a Halo logo), plus the game, in a box labeled 'Elite Force Pack' for $399 NZ (about $260 US). For reference, street price is about $379 NZ, $50 NZ ($32 US) more than the standard black box WITHOUT Halo. Roughly speaking, there's no real markup for the Halo branding. (Louis Wu 21:19:20 UTC) (permalink)
Orbital Bombardment, the Old-Fashioned Way
Calvin and Halo looks at alternatives to plasma-based weapons that might be more available to a 6-year-old. (Louis Wu 17:34:18 UTC) (permalink)
He IS Green, After All.
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from Shalashashka Snake - and it looks at one aspect of the Chief's day-to-day functioning that I would probably be fine not thinking about at all, thank you. (Louis Wu 17:29:30 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Babies Comic up for sponsors
Once again, Halo Babies has released their comic early for sponsors. I liked it a lot. (It was actually released on Monday, but I just noticed now, thanks to Rampancy.net.) It will be out for the general public on Friday. (Louis Wu 10:45:08 UTC) (permalink)
Advertisement for Birth Control
The Battleground: Halo Mailbag has been updated. (Well, it was updated a couple of days ago, but site troubles kept it from being visible at first.) Dunno... Viper seems a little... angry. (Louis Wu 10:40:14 UTC) (permalink)
Lights Up
CENOBITE, an artist mentioned a few times in our news, has been spotlighted over at the Junkyard; go read about what makes him tick. (Louis Wu 10:33:59 UTC) (permalink)
Oh, That Weasel!
That Weasel Television is currently hosting a RAFT of new movies; some we've announced here, a couple are exclusive to them. They've got direct downloads of the Evolution of Halo video, both halves of the Trickety Trick vid released recently, and a pair of short vides from Dre and TnP that aren't hosted anywhere else. Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:30:40 UTC) (permalink)
Ooh, shiny
kerrhalla452 has released a new Halo 2 MC skin, over at Halomods; it's pretty slick-looking. Thanks to c4trmnator for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:21:55 UTC) (permalink)
New Project Halo Contests
Project Halo is hosting two new contests on their forum; one to name their group, the other to replace 'Project Halo' as the project name. Rules and prizes can be found in this thread on their forum. (Louis Wu 10:19:34 UTC) (permalink)
Nightmare Armor in Seattle - soon Austin
The Nightmare Armor guys visited Bungie's offices yesterday; you can see their helmet on the Webcam, at the moment. Webshift popped onto our forum to thank Bungie for the opportunity, and to mention that they would be at the the South by Southwest film festival in Austin next week. (Red vs Blue will be there, too - check their website for a full schedule of their events.) Halo is EVERYWHERE. (Louis Wu 10:13:17 UTC) (permalink)
Trick mirrors
Couple more mirrors popped up for goatrope and co.'s Trickety Trick Part Deux movie; Yayap offers this one in the UK, and Alex Edelman put this one up on his [HOH] site. Thanks, guys! Update: oops, and That Weasel Television, too! I need to read ALL my mail before posting... (Louis Wu 10:05:27 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo sites
Couple of websites mentioned recently on our forum; HALO2UMAN pointed out his Information Database, and K-Twizzy let folks know about HaloPimpz. The family grows... (Louis Wu 09:56:02 UTC) (permalink)
Special Halo Edition Xbox
Funky. KingScott found a page on OXM's Korean site showing a 'HALO Special Edition' translucent green Xbox. It's available only in Korea. (Louis Wu 09:35:35 UTC) (permalink)
Shake That Thang
Ragnarok shows off the Dancin' MC. I gotta say - he's pretty funny! 13 seconds, 672K, in DivX format. (Louis Wu 09:03:57 UTC) (permalink)
The Evolution of Halo
Wow. Maybe not the best night to be doing this... but you play the hand you were dealt, right? Back in 2002, Bungie showed a pretty cool movie to the attendees of the E3 Fanfest. It was called 'Evolution of Halo', and it was a look at some very early builds of Halo, with voiceover and commentary by 4 Bungie employees (Marty O'Donnell, Shikai Wang, Rob McLees, and Paul Russell). If you're a fan of behind the scenes-type stuff, this is your kind of move. Unfortunately, at the time, Bungie was pretty clear about the fact that this movie would never, ever make it out onto the internet in hi-res format. However... this month, PC Gamer UK has included a copy on their cover disc, and that means the gloves are off. However, due to our bandwidth issues, we're going to run an experiment that we've been meaning to try for some time now; we're going to release this purely via peer-to-peer sharing applications. This was going to be a test of the Two Degrees network, but there's no Mac client; we didn't feel comfortable excluding Mac users. Therefore, it's also available via the BitTorrent network. Since our server is spotty tonight, the mirror page is being hosted here for the time being; visit, grab the client of your choice, and get to downloading! (Thanks have to go to Griffon, for the heads-up on the movie. I didn't end up using his submitted rip of the film... but I wouldn't have known I could release if not for him.) (Louis Wu 03:13:16 UTC) (permalink)
Subnova down - HBO running slow
As some of you may have noticed, some of our subsections have been offline today; Subnova, who was hosting a chunk of our pages, has had some hardware failures. The problem is temporary... but until the box comes back up, we'll be hosting all sections here, which will slow things down a little. And one section - Fan Fiction - can no longer move; it's not fully mirrored between the sites. For that reason, Fan Fiction is offline until Subnova comes back up. We apologize for the inconvenience! Update: we've turned off some of the OTHER sections Subnova normally hosts, at least temporarily; it seems this server simply cannot handle the traffic. For the time being, Misc Art, Wallpaper, the Tricks section and the newsbyday page are all offline. (Older news can be read using the News Archive link on the left.) (Louis Wu 00:31:28 UTC) (permalink)
News March 10 2004
Yayap.com opens its doors
DocOctavius points out that Yayap.com is now up and running. Paintings, digital art, renders, wallpaper, 3d models... and it's ALL original. w00t! (Louis Wu 14:56:08 UTC) (permalink)
Know Your Place
Tina Leyk has turned in another stunning pic; this time, it's a mood piece of a Prophet. (It's entitled 'Know Your Place'.) You'll find it on her Art page here (and nowhere else - she's made this one an HBO exclusive); look for the 'Added 10 March' tag. Enjoy. (Louis Wu 12:00:00 UTC) (permalink)
Like A Cup Of Sugar. But Funnier.
Today's One One Se7en is a crossover with EchoFourNineteen, the creation of the guys over at 343GS.com. Interesting timing on this one; 343GS is due for the rollout of a new design in two days. (Because they've been working on this, EchoFourNineteen didn't come out last week - so anyone jonesing for their characters' pretty faces, say Thank You to Stuntmutt! Not too loudly, though... the jokes are still pretty groan-inducing.) (Louis Wu 11:47:54 UTC) (permalink)
Something Sinister Or Is He Just Crazy
Your favorite floating bowling ball is back in Halo: Resolution. (Louis Wu 11:44:02 UTC) (permalink)
[T]rickity trick trick. Part Deux.
goatrope posted word that the second half of 'Trickety Trickety Trick' has been posted; goatrope, Devin, Essex, and Stuart played on the PC versions of the classic Xbox multiplayer maps, bouncing out of levels, climbing walls, and generally glitching their way through the system. Very, very cool rocket suicide at the end. You can find a couple of download links in the forum post; it's a 29.5 mb DivX-encoded AVI. We're a little short on extra bandwidth at the moment... but we'll try to help out if these two hosts can't handle it. (If you've got extra bandwidth, and YOU'D like to help out, just drop us a line.) (Louis Wu 11:42:15 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's Reading
Thirteen pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today...
- Ackerson's Betrayal: The Dark Side of Humanity Chapter One: Scratching the surface... With a nuke., by BloodBlade
- Life Was Peachy, by Solidus Snake
- The Halo Passages: Part 1--The Ring of the Heavens, by Zach Macchi
- Halo: Infinity I: Arrival, by Frightener
- The Chronicle of Squad Omega: Chapter I, by Dark-NiTe
- To Him, And More(revised), by Black Void
- Halo: The Battle Within. Chapter 4, by Bryan D. (A.K.A. B-Man)
- First Contact: Part Two , by Lord Spark
- Fleet Wars: Pilote, by Jetboogieman
- Sep'Reo [The Reclamation] Chapter 2, by JJiggssaw
- The End Is Near:Part 1/2, by SpartanFortyFour
- The Chronicle of Squad Omega: Chapter II, by Dark-NiTe
- HALO: The rise of the 88th squadron, chapter 1: Fight for our Lives!!, by Kyle
Go to it. (Louis Wu 11:36:36 UTC) (permalink)
Concept Art, too.
Nice. We mentioned the new prophet pics NeXuS found on a press server he has access to; he also found some pretty cool concept art. 3 of the four pics are new, and the fourth is larger (and more raw) than its equivalent on Bungie.net. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 03:16:56 UTC) (permalink)
News March 9 2004
Of Prophets, and Thrones...
NeXuS found some cool early renders of the Prophet on a press site today; they're clearly older shots, but as far as I know, they've never made it out into the public before (especially not at this resolution). Nice find! (Louis Wu 22:44:42 UTC) (permalink)
HPC - still selling well, 5 months later
John Callaham, over at Homelan Fed, points out that Halo PC is STILL on the top 10 bestselling games list for the week of February 28 (it was number 7). Makes you wonder how much higher it would be if the editing kit were out... (Louis Wu 21:12:39 UTC) (permalink)
Ambient Something Alright
New Halo-based .comic over at Subnova, this time from Boxer... you know, come to think of it, I wouldn't mind a cow or two in my next game of Halo. Hmm... (Louis Wu 18:54:19 UTC) (permalink)
Smoking or Non-Smoking?
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from Wavehawk - and brings home some good advice for kids. (Louis Wu 10:52:33 UTC) (permalink)
Just another step in World Domination
Calvin and Halo goes back to the Ouija board... (Louis Wu 10:46:05 UTC) (permalink)
X-shots...
zarrel40 has put up his own batch of HUDless screenshots - this might be the first batch we've seen from a less-than-top-of-the-line graphics card. They definitely have a unique flavor. Check 'em out! (Thanks, Pico, for the nomenclature...) (Louis Wu 09:38:01 UTC) (permalink)
Sapien Screens at C.org
Cortana.org has put up a pair of screenshots of Sapien, pulled from the upcoming Halo Editing Kit tutorial - does the fact that Gearbox has given permission for release of these two shots mean that the HEK isn't far behind? We can only hope... Thanks to can of corn for the first heads-up. (Louis Wu 09:23:39 UTC) (permalink)
News March 8 2004
One One Se7en shields - I want!
Fun pair of minimovies from C-B; new Jackal shields, and an invincible blue Grunt. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:20:30 UTC) (permalink)
Fritter, Anyone?
We hope everyone enjoyed yesterday's Time Travel fun. Today, on One One Se7en, Stuntmutt is going to try his hand at cooking. (Louis Wu 12:36:47 UTC) (permalink)
And By Old I Mean OLD
Today's Halo: Resolution brings back an old friend. Well... an old something. (Louis Wu 12:34:16 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Morning Fanfic
The queue was bigger, but I had to reject a bunch. Fan Fiction for you today:
- Beautiful Death, by ToFu
- The Raptros Saga: ch.3: truth, by Raptros-v75
- As Far As I Could See, by Thomas Harper
- The Sidewinder Tales, by Jojojen
- Evolution: Chapter 2- Training Secession, by Firestorm
- The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 3): Eden, by MadJackal
- Prodigal Son: Part 3, by Scott D
- For The Better Cause, by CoLd BlooDed
- The Enemy Within-Chapter Six: ...And The Cracked Flood Gates Finally Fell, by Mind_Affecting_Parasite
- Derelict, Shadows of Threshold: Prologue, by Steve Geibe (AKA LoneSniperSG)
- Battle for Cryon:Part 1 the begining of the end., by mastercheifsdog
- The Strive to Survive (Chapter 5: Assisting the Evolution), by CoLd BlooDed
- the jackal brothers: parts 2 and 3, by new1nab113
- The Fall of Rye: Chapter 3: Taking the Bait, by teemus
- Battle for Hawaii , by masterchiefs dog
- The Missing Spartan: Prolouge, by Halofreak1991 Halo PC:daniel
- The fall of the covenant part 3(of 3), by Jetboogieman
- Decepted, by Awacar
Folks -remember. Padding your story with garbage to get around the 750-word limit is stupid. Write more REAL stuff. And if you turn in 1000 words with no punctuation or paragraph breaks at all... I have to toss it. I can't read what burns my eyes... (Louis Wu 12:31:43 UTC) (permalink)
Weekly Update Database Updated
A tad late (we didn't really need to wait this week because it was here, after all), but I've added Friday's Bungie Update from Frankie to the database. In 8 months, when you want to find that quote about an intractable problem, we'll be right here to help. (Louis Wu 11:48:54 UTC) (permalink)
New PH Map Pics
PH-Hipbyoscott added some map renders for an area he's dubbed 'Blood Canyon' to the recent Project Halo Weekly Update thread in our forum. Looks like rough ground for CTF... but cool terrain nonetheless! (Louis Wu 10:31:27 UTC) (permalink)
Mmmmm... cake
BOLL art + Rapture Birthday = FunFunFun. (Louis Wu 02:53:14 UTC) (permalink)
News March 7 2004
Corn on the Co- um, website
Not quite as fast as some would like... but the One One Se7en Archive update for March 7th has been posted. Only 11 items this time around... strips posted in our forum, or other One One Se7en-related materials. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:10:22 UTC) (permalink)
That Halo 2 shot is real
Just a quick heads-up: the multiplayer screenshot that can be seen in the latest issue of XBN (and which is floating around the net, in various mediocre scans), is the real deal; another new multiplayer map. We can't release the scan here yet (our policy is that no scanned print media is posted before the issue leaves the shelves; we do NOT want to contribute to the loss of sales for magazines), but Bungie will be posting a full-sized version on their website in the not-too-distant future. This note is purely to squelch the speculation that the image is faked - it's a real shot, released to several print sources simultaneously; XBN simply seems to be the first out of the gate with it. (Louis Wu 17:20:02 UTC) (permalink)
The Homefront team adds a great artist
Wow. Chris Bryan (search for his name in our news, you'll find some pretty cool stuff) has joined the Homefront team (the group bringing Halo to Battlefield 1942) - and his first job is a piece of work! Check out the renders of his newly skinned Warthog in their latest news post. He's looking to start work on the Phantom next. (While you're there, check out the new Plasma Rifle, Patrol Boat, and Blood Gulch Base models, too.) (Louis Wu 13:42:58 UTC) (permalink)
Doctor, Doctor Who.
Today's the day for archived strips to get posted... but that's later, and there's still a Guest One One Se7en to go up. This one is from imac, and shows why space marines might have had some trouble with the Flood... Update: Sometimes I'm really, really dumb. There is a Sunday strip today - Sunday strips from Stuntmutt always override guest strips. I'm going to add imac's entry to today's Archive posting - he still gets the front-page mention, but I get to put up Stuntmutt's Sunday offering, a conclusion of last week's Time Travel fun. Apologies to all involved. (Louis Wu 03:01:46 UTC) (permalink)
Project Halo - 7th Update
SanchezTheLlama has posted the next Weekly Update for Project Halo on our forum (and over at Halo.Fropco, as well - apparently, our forums aren't pretty enough for him :) ). It covers such tidbits as progress on the Airport level (seen in early screens last week), new battle sounds, info on their AIM bot, and a request for beta testers. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 02:50:46 UTC) (permalink)
XBC 4.0 - Gold!
Xbox Connect 4.0 is now officially released. Lots and lots of new features - read about them in the top news post on the XBConnect website - make this one worth grabbing if you love to play Xbox Halo online. Thanks to Mantis819 for pointing this out. (Louis Wu 01:29:14 UTC) (permalink)
News March 6 2004
Dimentia - online now
A couple of days ago, we mentioned Dimentia, an upcoming mod from the Covenant Grounds team. Their website went online yesterday, a chunk ahead of schedule, with the mod available for download... stop by if you want to see what they're up to! (Louis Wu 16:05:18 UTC) (permalink)
Almost Untitled
Today's One One Se7en is another from Jillybean, and contrary to its title, it DIDN'T get rejected. (Louis Wu 11:01:30 UTC) (permalink)
The Spread of RvB
Fuzzy reports that he and his friends have found copies of Red vs Blue's DVD playing at local Target, Babbages, and Toys R Us stores. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 10:25:04 UTC) (permalink)
New action figure pics
Joyride has updated their website with new shots of upcoming action figures - Flood models, Orange and Red grunts, a white MC with a flamethrowser, the red Elite, and the rocket hog. Some nice stuff coming in May and July! Thanks to Littlebigman for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:18:59 UTC) (permalink)
AotCR Antics
COERCE has hosted a new vid from Ducain and Nomak; it's pretty long (6:45), weighs in at 53 mb, and is in WMP format. It's an exploration vid of AotCR; mostly seen stuff, but some cool tidbits. Lots of explotation of the 'use a shade to push me through a wall' technique to get into original locaions. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 10:12:37 UTC) (permalink)
Kitty Treats for Schrödinger's Cat
This week's Bungie Update was posted on our very own forum; Frankie probably needs to get a new naming scheme for his pictures, so they don't leak a couple of hours early, but other than that, it's a rockin' message. Details about Xbox Live, new artwork, weapons, maps, marketing stuff... there's something for everyone. Go read! (Louis Wu 01:09:42 UTC) (permalink)
News March 5 2004
Re-Vengeance
Falcon16 found a Halo-related strip of Neko Machi (a web comic). Take a look. (Louis Wu 20:13:12 UTC) (permalink)
Nobody Likes You
Red vs Blue Episode 26 has been released for sponsors - three versions this time around. (QuickTime, DivX, and WMP). Seems like a setup episode. (Louis Wu 18:51:05 UTC) (permalink)
Hit Previous A Couple Of Times
One One Se7en ran into a snag today - I hope we'll be seeing the MC again... (Louis Wu 11:38:08 UTC) (permalink)
Reading is Fundamental
Go two days without an update, face 25 pieces. Such is my Fan Fiction lot in life.
- Halo Wing: Chapter Three - Information and Betrayal, by Ermac of VGPro
- Halo: The Battle Within. Chapter 3, by Bryan D. (A.K.A. B-Man)
- Halo2: The Covenant Wars [part 1], by Thomas Harper
- The Seige of Zion Base; Part Three: Revelation - Chapter 11, by Scimitarex
- Evolution: Chapter 1- The Recruits, by Firestorm
- The Raptros Saga: ch.2:, by Raptros-v75
- Neverland: On the Way Home, by SOS.Odin
- The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 2): Secrets, by MadJackal
- Spartan III Chapter 3: The Hunt, by Winters
- Prodigal Son: Part 2, by Scott D
- Halo:The fate of earth Chapter 1 The beginning, by MetalGhost
- Chapter One - A New Foe, by Ermac of VGPro
- Defending The Beaches (Part 1), by MT
- Defending The Beaches (Part 2), by MT
- Alpha Platoon: The Best of the Best, by retardedmonkey
- ODST Lead the Way Chapter 3, by Helljumper
- Even In Death, by JJiggssaw
- The Strive to Survive (Chapter 4: An Unexpected Heroine), by CoLd BlooDed
- In Chaos and Despair: Escape to Earth, by Maraxus6
- First Contact - Part One , by Lord Spark
- Part 2: Retaliation, by Jagged
- Subit Sepulcrum Titan Ipsi- Chapter 1, by Sage Scorpion
- Battle for the Norah: Part Fifteen, by Sterfrye36
- Untitled, by CoLd BlooDed
- Halo: The Aftermath Pt. 5/5, by Matthew Buzas
What are you waiting for? There's more coming. (Louis Wu 11:29:37 UTC) (permalink)
McJohnson's
Today's Halo: Resolution looks at what happens when Spartans get fired. It's not a pretty sight. (Louis Wu 11:07:25 UTC) (permalink)
The comics keep coming
Spartan-287 points out a comic he's done. I must say, I don't get it. (Louis Wu 11:06:01 UTC) (permalink)
Taking it Literally
There's a new Subzero Rivalries comic posted - it's pretty funny. Go take a look! Thanks to MarkHawk for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 10:45:13 UTC) (permalink)
Map editing just got easier.
Xhzjang has created a new tool - HMMM, the Halo Map Meta Modifier. It's a patcher program for Halo Map files, but it works by modifying the individual meta files, not just making hex changes. This means you can make patches for multiple maps at one time. Nice! Thanks to Reppyboyo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:09:36 UTC) (permalink)
Connect the Dots, Capture the Baddies
Hehe - this is a nice twist. J Squared has submitted a Halo Dot Game; download this image and print it out, and you and a friend can play this classic pencil-and-paper game with a twist. Connect the dots to close off boxes... but this time, there are Covenant forces inside some, and you get bonus points for capturing them. 372 kb jpeg, suitable for printing at 8.5 x 11 at 300 dpi. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 10:03:05 UTC) (permalink)
Workin' on a Droid Farm
The Xbox Ottawa website has been updated with public versions of FTC 11; there's a 39.9 mb DivX version, and a 30.6 mb QuickTime version. It's nearly 7 minutes long, and a lot of fun to watch - these guys do GREAT things with mods. We'd encourage you to use the BitTorrent link if you can - but there are http-downloadable versions if you must. (Louis Wu 09:57:28 UTC) (permalink)
Open the Floodgates
Halobabies.net has been updated - comic 29 is now available to the public. In addition, there are 5 new concept sketches - Halo Babies vehicles! Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 09:46:59 UTC) (permalink)
A saxophone, eh?
Do a search for BOLL in our news archive, you'll come up with almost 100 hits. The vast majority of those are for cool toys - games, images, animations... the man's a producing machine. If you're interested in how he thinks, TheBeast, over at Levels4you.com, has interviewed him. The focus is on modding... but there's some general info, too. (Louis Wu 09:44:27 UTC) (permalink)
HaloGT - Insane Modding
(GT)Juggler has posted Halo GT Video 7 over at their website; it's a modding vid, showing off lots and lots and lots of different mods. 35.8 mb, 4:49 long, DivX-encoded .mp4. He's started a thread on our forum, if you'd like to comment. (Louis Wu 09:36:15 UTC) (permalink)
Didgeredoo Backgrounds
Crisply Spartan posted the third Weekly Update for the First Strike mod; some fantastic concept art, a new weapon, new sound stuff... go read it! (Louis Wu 09:31:44 UTC) (permalink)
News March 4 2004
It's Been Awhile.
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from MasterTJ of Dark Halo. If you don't get it, move on. If you do, we don't want to know about it. (Louis Wu 14:29:39 UTC) (permalink)
That's ONE way to keep 'em in line...
New Calvin and Halo from Blackstar today... you know, this would be funnier if I hadn't been cleaning peas off the window last night for half an hour. (Louis Wu 14:27:07 UTC) (permalink)
Ansel Adams for the Rest of Us
XLNC has posted a rather extensive guide to Halo PC Hacking for beginners. The main thrust is to help people take cool HUDless screens like the ones he's been releasing for the past few weeks... but it's a good basic guide to applying patches in general, and a summary of the tools available. It was originally posted last night on our forum, but it's useful enough that we've given it a permanent home in our Miscellaneous section. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:23:47 UTC) (permalink)
Round 7 goes to...
The Gamespy Title Fight between Halo and Goldeneye 007 has another 9 or so hours to run - and as of right now, Halo is leading with more than 6000 of the 10,000 votes cast. Doesn't make it a lock, though... Update: Round one is over - and Halo won it handily; 10,021 to 6434. Halo moves on to Round two, where it will meet Quake on March 17. Get ready! (Louis Wu 10:40:24 UTC) (permalink)
Another Render
DocOctavius continues with his rendering - this time, it's an elite with a glowing energy sword. Nice! (Louis Wu 10:36:27 UTC) (permalink)
A Discussion of the Future, in German
Legend, from Halo Orbit, has put up a column about the coming of Halo 2, and Bungie in general; Google's translation services do a pretty awful job with the German, so it's hard to give you a better idea of what it says. If you read German, go check it out! (Louis Wu 10:28:08 UTC) (permalink)
New Music
Two new Halo songs (three songs altogether) have been uploaded to SexyJosh's website; one is called XBC Halo, the other is Josh's take on Nico's Red vs Blue theme. Go get 'em! (Louis Wu 10:22:17 UTC) (permalink)
[T]rickity trick trick.
goatrope and Devin, along with venom, essex, nukedude, and ziggy, have put together a new Tricks-filled movie showing how to get out of various Halo PC multiplayer levels, or use clipping glitches to get into walls, or... well, go watch. The movie is 3:32 long, and weighs in at 39.3 mb in DivX format. There are a pair of mirrors listed in this forum post; I decided we could probably host this, but I felt the encoding was a little wasteful; you can find a 31.8 mb QuickTime version (still pretty huge - it was a rush job) on files.bungie.org. (Louis Wu 10:18:03 UTC) (permalink)
More Furry Halo Art
I was poking around Tina Leyk's website yesterday, and I ran across a link to VCL, a collection of Furry art. Tina's created an enormous number of images that can be found in their archives - including 4 Halo-related pieces that aren't on her own website. With her permsission, they've been added to our Tina Leyk collection; all Halo pieces in one place! There are 3 new Fan Art pieces, and one humorous piece in the Doodles section. (Just look for the 'Added 4 March' tag for the newest stuff.) This woman continues to amaze! (The picture of Jaxx, pinned by a Covenant energy sword, is apparently a creation for an upcoming Fan Fiction. Can't wait!) (Louis Wu 10:10:58 UTC) (permalink)
Dimentia, from Covenant Ground HQ
Little Dragon posted an update on the upcoming HPC mod from the Covenant Grounds team known as Dimentia. New weapons, a new location, and balance - this one looks to be good! Check it out. (Louis Wu 09:39:22 UTC) (permalink)
But only because you're a Messiah now
As pointed out by Bonta-Kun, Fire Team Charlie has released episode 11 of their series, for sponsors. (It'll be out for the masses a bit later.) Currently in DivX format - QuickTime coming soon. This one is pretty darn cool; I LOVE Mt. Hangemhigh and the android factory! (Louis Wu 09:31:43 UTC) (permalink)
News March 3 2004
Battle Damaged Sniper
Gamestop got an exclusive Battle-Damaged Master Chief action figure - he looked like the regular MC, but his armor was scratched up, and he came with a plasma rifle instead of a sniper rifle. (He still got a pistol and his trusty AR.) WizardUniverse hs now unveiled a new Exclusive - the Battle Damaged Sniper, due to ship June 30. He'll run you $25, with shipping, if you're interested - there are only 5000 to be made, and pre-orders are accepted now. Thanks to Dark Bastion for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:59:01 UTC) (permalink)
Windows XP UNSC Edition
A couple of months ago, triBYTE_Digital_Img uploaded a Halo-related BootSkin (a Windows XP Startup screen) to WinCustomize - Deimos Fawkes just pointed it out. Boot your machine to the Master Chief! (Louis Wu 19:30:08 UTC) (permalink)
Biting The Hand That Feeds.
One One Se7en continues the time travel schtick (Hi, Shishka!) and even takes a shot at me today. And that Stuntmutt... he never recycles anything. It's all original, all the time. Yep. (Louis Wu 19:09:19 UTC) (permalink)
Now With Cov-Fu Action!
Me? Forget to post Comics? That's Unpossible! Today's Halo: Resolution moves into uncharted territory... of a sort. (Louis Wu 18:52:02 UTC) (permalink)
And the Flash goes on
Geez. 3 weeks go, Michael Frank wrote to us with a Flash animation he and some others had whipped up; it's a 4 mb story of Bravery and Survival (yeah, their words) in our favorite canyon. I managed to bury it, until now. You can watch it here. (Give it some time to load - the server is still being hammered by requests for the Warthog Launch game.) (Louis Wu 18:16:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Tourney on Long Island
Xtournaments will be hosting a 2v2 Halo tournament with a FFA segment on March 27th, in Smithtown, Long Island, New York. Entry fee is $40/team, with $1000 in prize money on the line. Check out the details! (Louis Wu 17:37:48 UTC) (permalink)
The wait, the wait
This came in a couple of weeks ago - but like many other things, got buried. Apparently, the Ottawa Citizen ran a story (164K) on Halo 2, and how people are frustrated about the wait for it, back in mid-January. (The submission came from Thumper on February 17, and the wording suggested that it came out that day.) Nice to see it in mainstream newspapers! (Louis Wu 17:33:06 UTC) (permalink)
Red, White, and Blue Halo
This came in Monday night, but got buried - sorry about that. xitWOUND117 points out some shots that his group, Crazed Gnome Productions, have put together - mostly skinned vehicles. There's a Red banshee, a decaled tank, a CGP orange LAAG warthog, a CGP black Rocket warthog, and a lightning'd ghost. Check it out! Update: as many people noticed, the bandwidth for CGP ran out pretty quickly; gwdpto has come to the rescue with some COERCE hosting. (Louis Wu 15:36:00 UTC) (permalink)
Ghetto Halo
dolbex has a fun writeup of a 16-team, 8-man-per-team tourney he went to last weekend, over at Been Mawed. Good time, bad money. Great pics. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:26:28 UTC) (permalink)
And in this corner...
Just a reminder - the Gamespy.com Title Fight between Halo and Goldeneye 007 begins today, at noon (PST). Don't forget to swing by and cast your vote! (Louis Wu 14:52:26 UTC) (permalink)
News March 2 2004
Miscellaneous Art - finally.
Wow. It's FAR from empty, but the Miscellaneous Art queue just dropped by 15 items... because I just posted that many. There's some good stuff, some bad stuff, and some weird stuff. Look it ALL over. For folks who have submitted comics in the past month or so - PLEASE be patient; we've gotten so many that a new section will open in the not-too-distant future. Okay, time to get back to work. (Louis Wu 17:46:11 UTC) (permalink)
Active Camo.
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from MasterTJ of Dark Halo... and brings a whole new take on the One One Se7en graphics. One might even say 'different'. I'm reminded of Jules Pfeiffer. (Louis Wu 14:35:48 UTC) (permalink)
The Words, The Words!
Only 19 new entries in the Fan Fiction section today... you guys are slipping.
- Mad Rush, by Nick Kang
- Fall of the covenant, by Jetboogieman
- The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 1), by MadJackal
- Halo:The Fate of Earth, Prologue, by MetalGhost
- Before the Fall: Part One: Requiem, by Jagged
- Theta Omicron part 1: The Siege , by Jesse Harz
- Last Resort Part 2 - Return to the Library, by Nemesis0fTime
- The Strive to Survive (Chapter 3: Supplies, Ammo, and Weapons to Kill Freaks), by CoLd BlooDed
- Prodigal Son: Part 1, by Scott D
- Halo 2: Judgment Day Prolouge and Chapter 1, by Mibu Wolf
- ODST Lead the Way Chapter 2, by Helljumper
- Chapter One Unforgiving Wounds, by ToFu
- Sam, by Mainevent
- All Your Blue Base, Base, Base..., by Ermac of VGPro
- The Dimensional's Last Stand:Part 3, by skseifer
- Chapter 1 of Halo: Fellowship in Blood: War of the Worts, by gamer02
- It Hurts But Still, by Chief-117
- The Mind Chamber--Chapter One, by Halo_2204
- The Fall of Rye: Chapter 2: Ambush, by teemus
(That was a joke. Really. 19 is a LOT.) (Louis Wu 14:21:38 UTC) (permalink)
Oh Great Ouija Board...
Today's Calvin and Halo touches on a long-standing gripe I've got - nobody lets MY karma move the pointer. Bah. (Louis Wu 13:55:15 UTC) (permalink)
They interviewed WHO?
I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there's an interview of me up at Battleground: Halo. This sort of thing really should be posted by some other HBO staffer... but that would require that another staffer actually post. Hmm. (Louis Wu 12:54:13 UTC) (permalink)
Does the elevator work?
Stefander has posted some early screenshots (and a small movie) of a new map he's working - a conversion of 343 GS to multiplayer. Swing by Halomods.com and check it out! (Louis Wu 10:25:20 UTC) (permalink)
Bandwidth is a renewable resource.
Because, I guess, she wasn't content with wowing the crowds with her awesome Halo art yesterday, Tina Leyk has sent along a NEW piece this morning; you'll find it on the bottom of the fan art section of her Art page here. It's called Gold Elite Bridgebattle... and it's BEAUTIFUL. One day in the not-too-distant future, that page will be a bit more flexible (searchable, and the like) - for now, just scroll down a bit. If you missed the release of this stuff recently... look around. It's something to behold. (Louis Wu 09:58:42 UTC) (permalink)
I don't remember that gun from Sonic...
EmptyShadows found a new piece of Halo-related fan art - The Master Chief vs Shadow. hehe... nice. (Louis Wu 00:36:04 UTC) (permalink)
Project Halo: coming along!
Whoa. SanchezTheLlama has posted the weekly Project Halo update... and it's a doozy. Very cool shots of the new map! Check it out. (Louis Wu 00:31:34 UTC) (permalink)
Feeling Stopped Up?
You may or may not have noticed that HBO is struggling a bit right now. Don't worry - it's not that the servers are dying again - well, they are, but it's not because of a failure, it's overload. BOLL's Warthog Jump flash animation got picked up by Ars Technica this morning - and by afternoon it was on several large Flash-oriented game sites, the biggest (at least that we're seeing) being AddictiveGaming.com - they're sending us about 200 people per minute. That's doing a number on the available resources for serving the REST of you. Luckily, these things are transient - the crush will be over by tomorrow. (Louis Wu 00:26:14 UTC) (permalink)
News March 1 2004
It'll All Make Sense By Friday
One One Se7en starts another series - though I doubt the timing is accurate. Hold on tight, boys and girls... this one's gonna get ugly. (Louis Wu 18:44:15 UTC) (permalink)
1 percent Comedy 99 percent Cheese
Keyes and his insecurities continue to be the focus of Halo: Resolution - check it out. Incidentally, Fuzzy asked that a public statement be made about Resolution sprites; they're not for distribution. He doesn't mean any offense by it, but he'd rather people stopped asking him for them, because he's not planning on distributing them. Thanks! (Louis Wu 18:32:27 UTC) (permalink)
Bogus Screenshot Alert
We got mail this morning from Strato99, pointing out a bunch of purported Halo 2 screens. (The originals were housed on some student webspace in Sweden, but Strato said he found them in a forum somewhere.) These have been confirmed to be FAKES - please, if you see them around the web, don't perpetuate the myth! (Credit where credit is due - they're very good jobs.) You can see them here:
Congrats to the creator, whoever you are! Update: we got mail from Joakim Danung, the creator of these screens - seems they SHOULD have been an April Fools gag, but he was afraid they'd conflict with the rollout of the new Bungie.net. (I'd have to say he's being pretty pessimistic; I'm hoping the new and improved b.net will be comfortably worn in by the time April 1 rolls around...) In any case, some of these images will be resbumitted as miscellaneous art, in altered forms - so keep your eyes open! (Louis Wu 17:29:42 UTC) (permalink)
Keeping track of stats
Greg Irvine put together a spreadsheet to keep track of player stats for his local LAN group. He's now made it available to the community as a whole. You can grab it from our Miscellaneous section. (Read the page for instructions about use.) (Louis Wu 13:40:02 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Babies Update
Halo Babies has released this Friday's comic a bit early - for sponsors. You can find it in the Sponsor's forum. There's also a new incentive to donate: drop off some money, get a halobabies.net email address. Go sign up! (Louis Wu 13:07:04 UTC) (permalink)
AotCR - in Multiplayer.
Wow. Eclipse points out that Monoxide has posted to the Gearbox forums that ViperNeo has worked out some of the problems in porting AotCR to multiplayer - and it might even be out, as a mod, in the next week or so. Won't THAT be a blast! (Louis Wu 13:02:03 UTC) (permalink)
Links, links, and more links
Wow. In the last month or so, a lot of links have been forwarded to us about Halo-related websites out there. I THINK I've culled all of them from our mail - but I might have missed one or two; apologies if that's true.
- Forums:
- Covenant Grounds (Halo forum)
- [MSM]Gearbox (HPC Clan forum)
- Clan sites:
- Covenant Genocide (Xbox clan)
- High Clans (home of the Jackals, HPC clan)
- [PU55] (European Xbox clan)
- [HOH] (HPC clan)
- SIN team (HPC site - downloadable trailer at Halomods)
- Halo Hellraisers (Xbox clan)
- identification: Doom (HPC clan)
- Tournaments:
- The V Games (30-city, 5-game tourney. $10k for Halo)
- National Electronic Gaming League (Northern California-based league - Xbox Halo to start)
- General/News sites:
- Halo Universe (not new, but newly redesigned German Halo news)
- FreeLancers (Halo fansite)
- Echo-413 (general Halo site)
- Halo 2 Grunts (grunts fansite)
Content is mirrored at Tripod, with a different design
Whew! We're really sorry for the huge delay here. (Please don't write, asking us when we'll actually get these added to the Links page - I don't have an answer for that question.) (Louis Wu 12:53:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo for cash in north Florida
ORACLE writes to point out a continuous Halo tourney in Pace, Florida (near Pensacola). Every Friday night at 6 pm, Homefield Sports and Games hosts a tourney; entry is $10, first place gets 40% of the take, second place gets 10%. (I suppose that means the house gets the other 50%.) He provided an address for the store... but I could find no listing for it in any phone directory. If you're in the area, check it out! (Louis Wu 12:04:57 UTC) (permalink)
Banshee Handling III
vector40 has posted the third segment of his ongoing series of articles on Banshee stategies - this one's entitled 'Applying Reality'. It focuses on the nitty gritty stuff - less abstract, more 'I don't care if it's pretty, I just want to kill him' stuff. It's available at Subnova and Rampancy.net as well as the link vec asked us to use this time - the one at The Junkyard. (Louis Wu 11:17:55 UTC) (permalink)
Best Buy Bundle - now cheaper
Back in November, we reported about a bundle being marketed by Best Buy - a controller and a DVD with Halo material on it. At the time, it was $19.99. (The DVD contained no 'new' material - but it did contain a hi-res version of the 'Inside the Xbox' documentary that showed at X03 last year, and that we put online in December.) By Christmas, we had reports that this bundle had jumped up to $39.99; it wasn't such a great deal at $20, it seemed like a silly purchase at $40. Well, Bentllama, your friendly neighborhood Halo 2 animator, happened to notice that TechBargains is reporting that Best Buy has dropped the price to $8.99, shipped free. Now it's not such a bad deal! (Louis Wu 10:28:40 UTC) (permalink)
Tina Leyk, Halo Artiste Extraordinaire
A couple of days ago, we got an email from Tim Leyk, who wanted to point out a Halo fan comic created by his sister, Tina Leyk. I visited the site, and was blown away by what I found - she's a fantasy/furry artist, and Fur-lo (her Halo comic) incorporates furry art with Halo themes and not a little bit of humor. The work, quite simply, rocks. Browsing the site, I discovered an entire treasure-trove of Halo-related art, ON TOP of the comic strip - and Tina was kind enough to let us archive her work here so that Halo fans could enjoy it. So here you go: for your viewing pleasure, there's a subsection devoted to Fur-lo, Tina's Halo Furry Fan Comic... and another section devoted to her Halo Fan Art. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 02:52:55 UTC) (permalink)
| March 2004 | |
