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 | May 2001 |  |
May 2001 Archived News
News May 31 2001
Halo Orbit gets redesign
It's fansite day. Xerxes writes to say that Halo Orbit, a German fansite, has been thoroughly redesigned, with many new features added. Go check 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:06:23 UTC) (permalink)
Ozhalo - Halo-Australia in disguise
Terror writes to let us know that Ozhalo is not a new Australian site (As we said yesterday)... it's Halo-Australia, joining the CFGN. Same good coverage, same staff, new look! Thanks for the heads-up, Terror. (Word of warning to visitors - as good as this site looks in IE and Opera, it's painful in NS, and a little funky in iCab - so choose your browser with care.) (Louis Wu 18:46:06 UTC) (permalink)
News May 30 2001
Confirmation of location-specific damage
Thanks to Ferrex, who posted to his old stomping grounds at Rampancy.net, confirming that location-specific damage WILL be included in Halo. It's long been speculated that this would be included... but this is the first confirmation of it by a Bungie employee. (Louis Wu 19:43:14 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo site coming down under
Lee Timms writes to say that a new Halo site is coming soon rom CFGN (Cyber Forces Gaming Nation) - OzHalo. As he says, the new design is very nicely done. Looking forward to the site! (Louis Wu 13:55:29 UTC) (permalink)
Gamecritics.com says Blech!
Thanks to Dan Rudolph, who pointed out three separate E3 wrapups (one from each editor) at Gamecritics.com. Bottom line - they hated Halo. Ben thought Halo was the "biggest joke of the show"... but then, he got a bunch of stuff wrong. (If you're gonna name someone by name, get the name right... and if you're gonna ridicule a special effect, like the umbra effect the Halo guys were so rightfully proud of, don't confuse it with something mundane, like a lens flare - it throws doubt on the credibility of the rest of your criticism.) Chi declared that "if Microsoft is hedging most of its bets on HALO, it better seriously think about folding its hand and cutting its loses." And Brad ignored it altogether (though he included a shot of the Halo display in his rant against ALL Xbox titles, and Chi mentioned how underwhelmed all three were by Halo). Ouch! (Louis Wu 01:46:24 UTC) (permalink)
News May 29 2001
Best Action Game?
Thanks to Jan Louw, who noticed that the Game Critics Awards site has posted its nominations for its Best of E3 Awards. Halo is up for Best Action Game. Awards are announced on June 18. Good luck, Halo! (Louis Wu 21:32:05 UTC) (permalink)
Poll smash at MSXBox
Thanks to Gothmog, who noticed a new poll over at MSXbox.com:
Now that E3 is over, which of the following blockbuster games are you looking forward to the most?
Only 125 votes so far, but Halo's edging out Project Ego... make sure it stays that way! (Louis Wu 17:17:38 UTC) (permalink)
A simple clarification
Clarification: We've gotten a few emails about some pictures we posted last week... and people want to know how they relate to the bungie.org glyph puzzle (discussed here, here, and here). The waters were muddied by this post, written by Chelsea Bridge. Here's the skinny: There is NO relation between the glyph puzzle and those wacky pics. The timing was completely coincidental - not our fault at all. As for the pics themselves... all you need to know is already visible. Hope this helps. (Louis Wu 15:24:01 UTC) (permalink)
Cross-dressing gorillas?
The Corporation has its own take on the changes Halo has seen recently... thanks to Lophan for the link. (Louis Wu 11:56:34 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
You gotta love it when you totally forget you've done something. Halo SETI Team stats were collected yesterday, as they usually are on Mondays... but due to the holiday, we forgot completely to mention them. Team output was up a bit this week - nice job, folks! The Marines are holding steady at 49th place in the Battle of the Teams, but maybe with the two new additions (nurble and Calvin1331) the climb could start again. And what's with the HUGE increase in unit production from CowMutilator? See how YOU are doing on the 7 day stats page. (Louis Wu 09:33:05 UTC) (permalink)
Best of E3 at MSXbox
Thanks to Ph.D., who pointed out that MSXbox has put up their 'Best of E3 Awards'. Halo picked up only one mention - runner-up in the 'Most Fun' category. On the other hand, Halo managed to stay out of the 'Most Disappointing' category... so it's not all bad. Go check out the details on the rest of their picks. (Louis Wu 09:24:24 UTC) (permalink)
News May 28 2001
Halo a runner-up, says Gamespot
Gamespot has put up their 'Top Games of E3 2001'... and Halo takes runner-up in the Xbox category to Gun Valkyrie, an action-shooter from Smilebit. Gamespot was clear:
Halo's one-player mission was engaging and challenging, but the slowdown in the four-player split-screen mode was unavoidably visible.
They have not, however, lost hope:
While the framerate in multiplayer was a little rough, we expect that Halo will clean up nicely by the time it's released this November.
Go read the whole thing! (Poking around on Gamespot's site also pointed out this E3 2001 Preshow Hands-on that we seem to have missed from last week... they're pretty psyched about the AI. Check it out.) (Louis Wu 02:13:20 UTC) (permalink)
Chris and tell
Last week's Halo Update (originally at Rampancy.net) has been added to the Update Database - the word of the week is 'Chris'. The 'Chris clan' has just increased to 5 (Barrett, Butcher, Carney, Hughes, and Lee) - the largest group on the Halo dev team (leading the Mat(t)s - Noguchi, Segur, and Soell) and the Pauls (Bertone, Clift, and Russel). Makes you wonder, doesn't it, with all those names out there to choose from... how come 11 members of the Halo dev team share three names? (Louis Wu 01:13:25 UTC) (permalink)
New Miscellaneous Art
What do you get when you take a marine, you blow up all his planets, and you dump him on an alien artifact with no sleep? Griffon, of Halo Command Central, thinks he knows... and sent us a submission for the Miscellaneous Art section to show us. Check out Halo Dude! (Louis Wu 01:00:45 UTC) (permalink)
News May 27 2001
Joe Staten on cutscenes
Thanks to Joe Staten, of the Halo Cinematics team, who posted to R.net's forum today, clarifying a bit about cutscenes in Halo. Nice info:
- All of Halo's cinematics will be rendred in the engine.
- Some cinematics you'll be able to move while they're playing (non-interruptive) and some you'll just have to sit back and watch (interruptive).
- The "minor" more level-specific cutscenes are the former, the "major" cutscenes are the latter.
- The Xbox, and, more importantly, the Halo engine has no trouble rendering complex scenes such as, oh, the Pillar of Autumn engaged in a battle above Threshold with the recon picket of a Covenant battle-group. Not that we're doing that, mind you...
Go check out the whole post for details - but I'm lovin' the idea of that Pillar of Autumn battle, nice to hear it's not totally destroyed upon entry into the system (as the original story had it). (Louis Wu 22:12:23 UTC) (permalink)
It's an ugly business
fAt1, of MPZ Halo, let us know that we can probably expect PC Gamer UK to hammer Halo in their upcoming E3 article - he spoke briefly with editor Matt Pierce, and it seems they were very disappointed that Halo is currently showing only on the Xbox. (Not horribly surprising, for a magazine that focuses on PC games, but still...) (Louis Wu 13:54:31 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper section updated
Johannes Gunnar sends along a desktop pointing out a connection that's important to him. You'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 13:48:44 UTC) (permalink)
The fiction keeps pouring in
Koontzy sends us part 5 of his 'Land of the Unknown' saga. It's getting a little odd. You'll find it, along with lots of other fan fiction, in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 13:44:16 UTC) (permalink)
News May 26 2001
Screenshots updated (finally)
Took a while to find some slow time... but the Screenshots section has been updated - you'll find the 15 official pics released by Microsoft last week on the Gaming Sites page, and a number of camera shots taken off the monitors at E3 on the Unofficial page. (Most, though not all, of these have already been seen on the bungie.org E3 2001 coverage page.) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 16:51:14 UTC) (permalink)
The skull's getting teeth
Wow. You'd think that they'd take a break after E3... just to calm down. (I suppose since the actual programmers didn't even GO to E3, it's understandable that they didn't... but it's still surprising.) This week's Halo Update is over at Rampancy.net... and it's chock-full of goodies. New multiplayer options, a new team member, more effects than you can shake a stick at, and some PID-like wounded, information-toting Marines. Go read till you drool! (Louis Wu 02:28:17 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction coming out our ears
And they just keep coming - Koontzy sends us part 4 of his Land of the Unknown. Read it in the Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 02:23:20 UTC) (permalink)
News May 25 2001
E3 awards, the good, the bad, and the ugly
Gamespy has put up their Best of E3 awards... Halo snagged a runner-up award in the 'Best Xbox Games' category. Xbox.ign has posted two top 5 games lists (one for each editor) - and Halo made Jeremy's list. Unfortunately, Halo was ignored by Well-Rounded Entertainment and VoodooExtreme - and actively panned by the Stratos Group (4 of the 5 editors called it the Most Disappointing Game of the show). You can't win 'em all... (Louis Wu 21:49:54 UTC) (permalink)
GR drools over Halo
Sharp-eyed Aginor once again spotted a nice review - this time from Game Revolution. It's a first-person account of one man's E3 playing experience, and it's a fun read. Go check it out. (Louis Wu 21:22:40 UTC) (permalink)
Yet MORE Fan Fiction
Battle of the fiction writers: Anrkey has sent in the next part of his 'Close Combat' story - 'Survival'. Check it out in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 19:17:39 UTC) (permalink)
More new fan fiction
Vector40 sent in the final part of his 4-part generically titled 'Halo Story'. Marathon fans, take note. (Don't forget, you can read the story in its entirety with the 'More by this author' link.) The Fan Fiction section is up to 150 submissions... (Louis Wu 13:46:05 UTC) (permalink)
Cliffy B on E3
Thanks to Aginor, who noticed another Cliffy B (audio) interview on XGR.com - this time he's giving his thoughts on E3. The second part has a tiny quote on Halo:
Well, Halo looked very solid, I wonder if a first-person shooter can sell a console from a launch. The markets are tricky out there.
(He immediately moved on to Project Gotham, and online console gaming, and other things.) If you're interested in hearing what an Epic developer thinks of the gaming scene, check this out. (Louis Wu 01:44:12 UTC) (permalink)
BRC opens
A new section has opened up at HBO - the Bungie Research Center Photo Archives. You know as much as we do. (Louis Wu 00:31:17 UTC) (permalink)
More Fan Fiction
Anrkey sends in the story of Private Ryles - 'Close Combat: Infiltration'. Check it out in our Fan Fiction section. Nice to see the area is hopping! (Louis Wu 00:29:48 UTC) (permalink)
News May 24 2001
Internet Xbox play unlikely at first
We hesitate to point this out, given how some folks tend to overreact to the words of Bungie employees... but it seems pretty clear from here. Matt Soell weighs in on the possibility of internet play for Halo - looks like it won't happen, at least for the initial release, on the Xbox. NOTE: He specifically limits his comments to the Xbox version:
I should make clear that I'm talking specifically about the Xbox version of Halo here.
Please - don't jump on this and start crying about how Bungie has cancelled internet play for the Mac/PC versions. Read the whole post for Matt's full explanation. (Louis Wu 19:15:41 UTC) (permalink)
Underwhelming the masses
E3 articles: hoslap.com was mostly unimpressed by Halo, but thought it nicely showed off the power of the Xbox:
At the booth where they were demoing it, they had set up a multiplayer game between two consoles with 4 players on each console for a total of 8 players. The fact that the graphics were decent and smooth flowing with 4 players per console is a testiment to the crunching power of the XBox.
SourceMagazine.com misses the PC version:
Thanks to nVIDIA graphics technology the game looked good, but not quite as good as it did on a PC the first time we saw it.
Looks like folks were expecting more... (Thanks to Blue's News for the links) (Louis Wu 19:02:37 UTC) (permalink)
Poll smash, and odd Halo preview
Gothmog points out a new poll over at Dream Machine, an Xbox site we'd never heard of. "What Xbox game are you most looking forward to?" We took a look around the site, and found a Halo preview, written about 3 weeks ago in an... um... interesting style. Either the author consumed a massive amount of some mind-altering substance prior to writing this, or Halo has SO flabbergasted him that he's incapable of being coherent... I guess it doesn't matter, much - bottom line is, he liked it. I think. Check it out! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 18:08:43 UTC) (permalink)
GamePC rates Halo a massive disappointment
Aginor pipes up on our forum, pointing out a GamePC E3 report, which gave Halo their 'Most Disappointing' award for the show (tied with the Xbox, in general). They didn't even like the single-player:
Their flagship game, Halo, was displayed in a four-way split screen (a la Golden Eye). The graphics were choppy and the resolution and detail obviously suffered from the split screen. Single player modes were being shown as well, but it was hard to see the visual differences between it and a game like Tribes 2.
Another victim of hype... (Louis Wu 16:35:46 UTC) (permalink)
Another look at the Xbox controller
In what's quickly turning into Ph.D. day here at HBO, he points us to an MSXbox.com article that showcases some of the screenshots we took for the Fanfest V page and our E3 2001 coverage page. One that's worth a second look - the Xbox controller diagram. Never mind the errors... the diagram makes it clear how simple control really is. (Louis Wu 12:54:53 UTC) (permalink)
8 megs of direct Halo goodness
Whoa - not sure how we (and every other Halo site out there, it seems) missed it, but Ph.D. posted an interesting link to our forum last week - xbox.ign posted a direct feed video (not filmed off a screen with a camcorder) of some Halo gameplay last Friday. It's in QuickTime format, and it's a bit dark... but definitely worth the 8 meg download. (Louis Wu 12:49:15 UTC) (permalink)
What REALLY came out of E3?
Ph.D. pointed out a nice little article over at xbox.ign.com, which wonders what really got shown last week. After reading it, Ph.D. pondered the sagacity of forcing Halo to be a launch title. Do you agree with him? Talk it over on our forum! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 12:40:04 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction Fandango
Koontzy has submitted part 3 of his 'Land of the Unknown' story to our Fan Fiction section - remember, you can read the story in order by using the 'More by this author' link on the Fiction page. (Louis Wu 12:08:48 UTC) (permalink)
New fanfest movie mirrors
Harry "Organizer Man" Al-Shakarchi sends word that several new mirrors have turned up for the Fanfest movies, including two that have put up the new MPEG versions. (These scale up better than the QT versions - they look better doubled. The tradeoff is their very large size.)
Battleground: Halo has mirrored the .mov versions: 1 | 2 | 3
Monte VI and Tim have mirrored the .mpg versions:
Thanks to all involved! (A comprehensive list will go up soon - today, probably.) (Louis Wu 08:52:36 UTC) (permalink)
News May 23 2001
Fan Fiction updated
Koontzy has submitted the second of his multi-part story, Land of the Unknown. You can find it in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 19:30:43 UTC) (permalink)
E3 Hands On report of Halo at MSXbox
Sol from the MSXbox Team has posted his E3 Hands On report of Halo over at MSXbox. Head on over for his Halo impressions. (Ding 16:15:10 UTC) (permalink)
New Wallpaper available
Thanks to Gecko_2k2, of Xbox Campus, who sent in a new desktop for our Wallpaper collection. It's available in an awful lot of sizes - you should find one that fits your desktop. (Louis Wu 12:29:55 UTC) (permalink)
News May 22 2001
3 gameplay movies at Coremagazine.com
Kudos to Aginor, who noticed that CoreMagazine.com posted a Halo impressions article, complete with movies. They had a bit of trouble with the jeep, but overall loved the game. There are three movies, all filmed with a camcorder off the plasma screens above the gaming rigs. The first two are solo play, the third is multiplay. (The multiplay shows four people obviously getting used to controls... hardly worth watching, except to see how splitscreen works.) The second movie shows the jeep driving in the ocean - you can see that the physics of vehicle/water interactions aren't finished yet. ;) All three films are 6-7 megs, in MPEG format, and showing roughly 30 seconds of gameplay each. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 22:50:26 UTC) (permalink)
Free on E3
Freewill has crunched down four days worth of conventioneering into a single first-person perspective, and posted it to the Bungie Sightings Fanfest V page. Goodly chunks of it deal with Halo - though there's a lot of other stuff in there, too. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:05:55 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox Campus and Matt
Char drops us a line to let us know that Xbox Campus has confirmed with Matt Soell that some of the problems folks at E3 saw with Halo are due to a weird mistake:
"For some reason the build we brought along was the one from last Thursday (I think). Definitely not the most recent build at any rate. There were some bugs that we fixed specifically for the show that we ended up showcasing."
Char also wanted to point out that Xbox Campus is planning a post-E3 interview with Matt next week, and is now soliciting community feedback about the questions to be asked. Drop by their forum and speak up! (Louis Wu 15:00:35 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Amazingly, the Halo SETI Marines didn't lose any ground this week - but it's coming. Three important team members - SHARkY (1927 units), baldrik (1621 units), and blitcz (552 units) have gone AWOL - we haven't been penalized for their absence yet, but experience says it's coming. The addition of Noah (1712 units), NEO (272 units), and a number of other new recruits offset the damage a bit... but make no mistake, the team has taken a blow. Overall, the team added 1287 units for the week... and another 205 since yesterday morning, when these stats were collected, but it's going to take real work to hold our place. Are you doing YOUR part? Check the 7 day stats for all the details. (Louis Wu 13:14:02 UTC) (permalink)
Lords of Divinity make a showing
And another clan site pops up - The Lords of Divinity make their debut. The site looks great in IE, but for some reason, Netscape is showing me source code only. Lixtrim says they're working on it. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 11:57:02 UTC) (permalink)
New French clan hits the streets
Oops, we'd like to apologize - this got lost in the E3 crush. Last week, Bosskiller51 sent us a note about a new French Halo Clan - Halo French Clan (HFC), in fact. There's not a lot there right now... but we're sorry we missed the link anyway. (Blame Crux.) (Louis Wu 09:43:22 UTC) (permalink)
Oldie but goodie redone in Real
Thanks to XNOR, of HaloPlayers, who mentioned (on our forum) that the Tritin Films remake of the original Halo trailer (dated now, but still very fun to watch) has been redone in Real format. The filesize on the .rm version is 7 megs - less than a quarter of the original .mpg. If you've never seen this (we added the original Tritin version in January, 2000), you might want to grab it. (Our Movies page still contains a link to the original mpeg version.) (Louis Wu 08:59:31 UTC) (permalink)
A cornucopia of culture
Sometimes, they just don't stop. I was about to call it a night, when a short but sweet fanfic dropped into our inbox - Chess, by Jasper. Check it out. (Louis Wu 02:23:55 UTC) (permalink)
Miscellaneous Art Extravaganza
In addition to our overflowing Fiction coffers, we have a plethora of Miscellaneous Art submissions, as well. Steen Nielson sends in a pair of composite pics for your enjoyment. Check 'em out in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 02:11:44 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction Fest
Whoa... the content just flows in. We've got 2 new fanfics for you this evening - one is a second offering from Anonymous Coward, called 'Rescue Mission'... the other is the debut of Koontzy, called 'Land of the Unknown'. Read 'em, then go through the REST of the Fan Fiction section and see what you've been missing! (Louis Wu 02:07:49 UTC) (permalink)
News May 21 2001
Yes, Virginia, for the 10001st time...
It is astounding to me how much mail we receive from people who are ready to believe the worst, despite all evidence to the contrary. To wit: in the past few days, we've gotten an enormous number of notes from people who are sure the PC version has been scrapped. Matt Soell popped up last night (LAST NIGHT - not last week, or last month, or last year) on the Rampancy.net forum, to say among other things) this:
I will take this opportunity to remind the more easily shaken members of the community that THERE WILL BE MAC AND PC VERSIONS OF HALO, no matter how many posts you might see from malicious dolts who "confirmed with a Bungie developer that Mac Halo is dead" or whatever. Don't let anonymous jerks ruin your day with lies.
Again - if you didn't hear it from BUNGIE, don't count on it. (Even if it comes from 'The Official Xbox Magazine'...) (Louis Wu 19:02:16 UTC) (permalink)
somethingawful.com goes to E3
Thanks to carbon, who noticed an E3 report over at somethingawful.com. Lowtax didn't like Halo very much:
The climax-inducing title Halo, which has been causing gamers across three universes to collectively wet their Spider-Man underoos, looked like crud. Take a generic FPS, add the maps from Giants, subtract 80 frames a second, and you've got Halo. But hey, you get to drive in a JEEP! Around a LAKE! Wow! It's as revolutionary as everybody claimed it would be! JEEP + LAKE + ALIENS + GUNS = GOOD.
It's a funny read, even if it's silly. (Louis Wu 18:35:18 UTC) (permalink)
Maximum Halo
By Saturday, I was E3'd out - I'd seen all I wanted to see, and decided I'd spend most of the day getting in as much Halo playtime as possible. I wrote up some of my thoughts about the day, and posted them to our forum - there's a lot more that can be said, but this should at least be a start. Comments are, of course, always welcome. (Louis Wu 17:37:43 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction section updated
"The private viewing chamber of the Celestial Palace can be found on the 292nd floor of the main building. It is almost the tallest point on the building: there are energy generators above it. Nevertheless, this building is the tallest on the planet."
New fiction by $erial-ki!!A - actually, an overhaul of last year's work (pulled some time ago at the author's request). Check out HALO 1, in our Fan Fiction section. The inbox is clearing... (Louis Wu 15:54:50 UTC) (permalink)
Net recap, bonus screenshot
Man, I'm so far behind, it's not even funny. Here's a recap of Halo stuff from around the web that we've missed (thanks to Rampancy.net and Battleground: Halo for some of these):
News/comic reports
- Firing Squad caught Joe Staten's Halo presentation last Wednesday
- Penny Arcade comments on the size of the Xbox controller
- MSJolt loved solo play, hated multiplay
Fan impressions:
- SonicStorm enthuses
- Bravehamster raves
- Timothy Wilson discusses
- The_Spoon muses
- My own (coming soon)
Movie Stuff
- HaloCenter has added mirrors for the fanfest movies - 1 | 2 | 3
- FilePlanet now has downloadable versions of the Xbox wmv movies: hi | lo
- pc.ign.com has more gameplay footage (filmed off the screen at the show) - thanks, Sokar and Sikora
I'll be organizing screenshots, updating the movies page, adding new concept art and fan fiction, and putting up my own impressions and comments over the course of the next few days - it's amazing how much information there was, and how hard it is to slam it all up quickly. :) To apologize for the lag, here's a bonus shot of the bottom of the Covenant Dropship. (Louis Wu 14:54:55 UTC) (permalink)
We're back!
Well we're all back from E3. Louis is sleeping off his jet lag, that happens when you get old. We'll be posting a big Halo update later today. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 11:39:26 UTC) (permalink)
Interview with John Howard (Bungie)
Thanks to Massa and Harry for sending us word that Xbox.com have a short Halo interview with John Howard from Bungie. It's in Windows Media Player format. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 11:38:09 UTC) (permalink)
News May 19 2001
E3 play report from xbox.ign.com
Aardvark points out that xbox.ign.com has updated their Halo section with an E3 report (they've put all their notes, starting with the original 1999 Macworld look, on a single page)... but this one has an... um, interesting claim.
Admittedly choppy when battling it out with four or more buddies, the frantic squad-level action still has a ways to go in terms of visuals. Not quite on par with the PC demo floating around out there, the character models and resolution arenÕt as pretty as its computer brethren.
We'll put this as simply as we can - the last PC build was in the spring of 2000 - EVERYTHING since then has been Xbox. Jimmy Hoffa is floating around out there somewhere, too... but your chances of running across him are probably better than those of finding a Halo PC build less than a year old. (Louis Wu 14:01:15 UTC) (permalink)
Streamed gloriousness at xbox.com
More streaming media - longer, this time, and more scripted - at xbox.com. Gorgeous - if only it could be saved to disk! Thanks to Cartack for pointing it out. (There's also a lo-res version available.) (Louis Wu 07:39:13 UTC) (permalink)
Gameplay streams at Gamespot
There are a whole series of gameplay videos (streaming format only, unfortunately) at Gamespot - thanks to Harry "kick-ass store minder" Al-Shakarchi for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 07:36:54 UTC) (permalink)
Two new mirrors for fanfest footage
Apologies for the downtime - I can't explain it, since I'm 3000 miles away from the folks responsible for this connection, but I'll get to the bottom of it as soon as I get back - in the meantime, we have two new mirrors for you on the fanfest videos posted recently:
Enjoy! (Louis Wu 07:23:51 UTC) (permalink)
News May 18 2001
Halo on CNN
Halo on CNN says jon Keegan and TCB on our forums. What next? (Ding 20:06:27 UTC) (permalink)
MacGamer inteviews The Man and the Candyman!
Kudos to Harry of Oni Central who sends word of MacGamer interview with Bungie's Studio Manager, Alexander Seropian, and Interface Architect, David Candland. Here's a great piece:
Although no time frame was given for the release of the Mac Halo, Bungie assured MacGamer that a simultaneous Mac/PC port is planned. David says,
"We're planning on a Mac/PC version. If you ask Mark Sellers or Alex Seropian (about the Mac Port), they'll tell you the same thing."
Moreover, Alex Saropian explains briefly how the Xbox version of Halo will differ from the Mac/PC version as he says, "It'll be a different version -- more misssions, and more online aspects."
woooo... Halo for Mac/PC will have more misssions, and more online aspects!!! (Wirehead 15:30:48 UTC) (permalink)
New shots, and a rather large friend
Loud, big, and... big. Really big. We did a LOT of walking today, and really only saw about 30% of the show. We did, however, manage to spend a bit of time in the Bungie area of the Microsoft enclave, and watch some pretty slick Halo gameplay. We noticed some fun driving hijinks in a forested area - you'll find the shots on the bungie.org E3 coverage page. You'll also find a few views of a very large model of the Halo marine - nice work. (Louis Wu 08:16:05 UTC) (permalink)
News May 17 2001
Movie goodness coming soon
Wow. Sometimes you just wanna see the game. Freewill filmed all the Xbox goodness last night at Bungie Fanfest V - we've been rendering the movies all night. There are three of 'em, and two should be up soon on both the Bungie Sightings page and the bungie.org E3 200l coverage page - but the biggest one will need mirrors before we can touch it. It's 60 megs, and shows 13 minutes of solo gameplay, with some focus on various weapons. If you've got a big pipe, drop us a line - when the list is big enough, we'll let the mirror sites grab the film, then put it up here, as well. (It's still a bit away from even being finished rendering - but we'll do our best to check mail from the show floor in a couple of hours.) If we can't get any mirrors, we're gonna have to pass on posting this - it's just too big for our puny T1. (The two that are going up will probably crush us.) In fact - any sites willing to mirror the OTHER two movies are welcome to do so, provided they give b.org credit for the film. (These, too, we'll leave up until the pipe collapses under its own weight - if no mirrors step forward, we'll have to take 'em down when access gets too slow.) (Louis Wu 17:38:19 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Dissected by TeamXbox
Check out the Halo Dissected article over at TeamXbox as well. Thanks Harry. (Wirehead 11:31:49 UTC) (permalink)
TeamXbox hands-on report of Halo
Thanks to Harry for pointing us to a TeamXbox hands-on report of Halo at the Bungie Fanfest V. (Wirehead 11:23:40 UTC) (permalink)
Fanfest V reports in our forum
Don't forget to check our forum for the latest fan reports from Fanfest V. Bungie Sightings also has a report up. (Ding 07:03:57 UTC) (permalink)
MSXbox's Fanfest V report
Sol sends word of MSXbox's Fanfest V report including some Halo pics. Go get it. Bungie are also 10 years old. :) (Ding 06:59:59 UTC) (permalink)
News May 16 2001
15 new Halo screenshots
15 new Halo screenshots over that MSXbox. Thanks Siva (W'rk). The same shots without Xbox logos can be seen over at Blue's News. Thanks Anaphiel. (Wirehead 18:45:08 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox on Nov 8th for $299
Thanks to Dan Rudolph on our forum for noting that the Xbox will be released on Nov 8th at a cost of $299. For more details read this news item over at over at Yahoo. (Wirehead 18:35:36 UTC) (permalink)
Louis is outta da house!
Has Louis gone yet? (Wirehead 15:41:13 UTC) (permalink)
Off to E3...
I'm leavin', on a jet plane... heh. I'm heading out to the airport in 20 minutes, to fly out to LA in time for tonight's Bungie Fanfest... today's news will be rather light, but we should make up for it over the next few days. Keep an eye on Wirehead - he's been acting funny recently. (Louis Wu 09:56:22 UTC) (permalink)
News May 15 2001
YA Poll Smash
That Gothmog - he keeps on top of the polls, he does. He just pointed out a poll over at the Official Xbox Magazine site:
With so many amazing Xbox games already announced, we can't decide what to put on our first cover. Which of the following would make you buy our premiere issue?
One of the options is 'Halo exclusive - Best-looking console game ever.' It's currently trailing the '50 reasons to buy an Xbox' option... you know what to do. (Louis Wu 18:50:54 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Birthday, Jaime!
In the rush for E3, little things get forgotten... we'd like to wish Jaime Griesemer a very Happy Birthday today! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 12:33:11 UTC) (permalink)
Poll to smash at msxbox.com
Thanks to Gothmog, who points out a new poll over at msxbox.com - WWhich Xbox game are you looking forward to the most from E3? Currently, Halo holds a nice lead - 37% of 300+ votes - but you never know. Go make your voice heard! (Louis Wu 00:14:16 UTC) (permalink)
News May 14 2001
Halo SETI Marines 7 day stats posted
The Halo SETI Marines keep their position in the top 50 Club Teams, due in large part to the addition of several new members - welcome, jcampen, ducky sauce, and signum! DarthFlounder seems to have been unsuccessful at finding all the machines running clients for him, since he passed the mythical 7777 mark this week... but the precedent was set the week before by Tharkhaad, so we'll forgive him. Overall, crunching was up, a bit, by the team... nice going! Are YOU holding up your end? Check the 7 day stats to see. (Louis Wu 16:10:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo gets mention in Time Magazine
Thanks to Cartack, who noticed a feature in Time Magazine (by way of Xbox Campus) in which Halo gets a brief mention. The feature is called 'The Battle of Seattle', and compares the Xbox to the Nintendo GameCube. Halo gets touched upon when they discuss the realistic abilities of the Xbox:
Just take a walk through the space station in Halo, an action game based on Larry Niven's classic sci-fi novel Ringworld, and you'll notice fingerprint marks on triple-glazed windows.
Well, Ringworld misinformation aside, it's always nice to see a Halo mention in the mainstream press... (Louis Wu 13:38:07 UTC) (permalink)
I'm calling mine 'Pumbaa'
Friday's Weekly Halo Update has been moved to the Halo Update Database... word of the week is 'warthog'. Does it look like Bungie's been focusing on this bad boy recently? (Louis Wu 13:19:32 UTC) (permalink)
Jaime's Halo Developer Diary
Halo Developer Diary. Thanks to dcd for pointing us to the 1st installment of a Halo Developer Diary over at PlanetXbox. Jaime Griesemer reflects on "some of the sweeping (and to some of our fans, disturbing) changes that Halo has gone through." (Ding 11:24:16 UTC) (permalink)
News May 13 2001
It's not easy saying goodbye
Zandog is getting ready for the online gaming switch... but his uncertainty is clear in this latest submission to our Wallpaper section. He probably has a bit more time to adjust... what do you think? (Louis Wu 11:02:57 UTC) (permalink)
Better Hyper scan
Thanks again to Darkman, who uploaded a new, much nicer scan of the Hyper magazine interview we mentioned yesterday. It's fully readable now. (Quite a bit larger, too - almost 500K.) (Louis Wu 10:35:12 UTC) (permalink)
Jeeps in the desert
Thanks to Razorback, who sent in another desktop for our Wallpaper page. Pretty spiffy! (Louis Wu 00:00:52 UTC) (permalink)
News May 12 2001
Joe Staten talks to Hyper
Kalis uploaded a funky scan (271K) of an article out of an Australian gaming mag called Hyper. Some of the text is cut off, and some is unreadable... but what's left is pretty interesting stuff. It's an interview with Joe Staten, and it contains some great quotes.
On health:
"We are never going to have little health pods that you run across... you get your weapons and stuff from killing others, but there won't be magical shit that flies out of their bodies."
On vehicles:
"Vehicles in Halo are really, really survivable... it's going to take a lot to take out a vehicle."
On Xbox hardware:
"We never thought we could have something this big on the PC and we never really could, even if we were really tricky."
(This is in reference to the graphical power of the Xbox, not its selling power.)
On PC/Mac versions:
"At this point there is no PC version of Halo, there is just the Xbox version. We're not even gonna think about the PC version until we all sleep for about a month afterwards! PC and Mac gamers should have hope, though, we have some ideas."
There are some other fun bits - the AI gunner will tell you you're driving too fast in the warthog, for example - all in all, we wish we had a more complete scan, but we're happy we have at least this! Thanks, Kalis. Update: Apologies to Darkman, who originally told us about this scan on our forum, then mailed us the scan - I mistakenly thought that 'Darkman', 'D V', and 'Kalis' were all nicknames for the same person. (Louis Wu 10:43:06 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on CNBC Australia
Eldar-colonel sends word that CNBC Australia ran a piece recently about cheap computer prices, on the technology news program E-Generation. During the piece, the E3 2000 trailer was showing on a whole series of screens for about 30 seconds. Nice product placement! (Louis Wu 10:08:19 UTC) (permalink)
Multiplayer testing - not just for breakfast any more
Short but sweet - Matt's Weekly Halo Update is at Haloplayers this week, and boy, I'm happy I'm gonna be at E3. Warthogs can hurt people - as in hit-and-run; that should make lots of our forum regulars happy. Luckily, though, the dropships no longer drop them on Marines... check out the last Halo Update for a couple of weeks, though there might be some info at E3. (Louis Wu 03:47:23 UTC) (permalink)
News May 11 2001
Tigers in the grass
Bongo sends in another desktop for our Wallpaper section - if only. (Grass will NOT look like this in the real game... but it's nice to imagine.) (Louis Wu 18:14:42 UTC) (permalink)
Do you worry about Halo hype?
Often, our forum is full of flaming, and first-time visitors asking standard questions, and whimsical musings... but every once in a while a thread comes along that asks some serious questions, and brings up some serious issues. carbon started such a thread last night - he was worried about the Halo hype. (Yeah, not a new issue, but he spelled out his concerns pretty clearly.) There's a nice response from Matt Soell in there, as well. Check it out! (Louis Wu 12:57:06 UTC) (permalink)
News May 10 2001
MSNBC looks at RS2 (and Halo)
Thanks to Lurker, who noticed (over on R.net's forum) a Halo mention in the mainstream press: MSNBC has an article that looks at Rogue Squadron 2 for the GameCube - and it looks at Halo, in comparison:
In fact, many of Microsoft's games are shaping up nicely as the company prepares for its fall launch. Halo, a game that I once wrote off as a mistake in Microsoft's marketing, may just be good enough to break the curse that has vexed first-person shooters on video game consoles. (With the notable exception of Goldeneye 007 on Nintendo 64, no first-person shooter has ever made it into the top 10 games for annual sales.)
With horizons that look more like Roger Dean posters than video game art, Halo looks spectacular. It has oceans with rolling ripples, amazing lighting effects that include real light physics when you use flashlights, and all kinds of intelligent monsters to battle.
Halo may not look quite as realistic as RS2, but organic environments with plants, rocks, and humans are harder to recreate than synthetic scenes like Death Stars. And people are much harder to make than fighter craft. In other words, Halo is an ambitious project that was more suited for computers than video game consoles - and Microsoft may yet pull it off.
Hmm... a game showing people, and outdoor scenes, doesn't look as realistic as one showing fighter spacecraft? I'm not sure that's exactly what he meant to say... (Louis Wu 22:29:08 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper Section grows
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that Darwin Campa had put up 4 new desktop images - we've finally gotten around to adding them to the Wallpaper section here. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 09:10:39 UTC) (permalink)
News May 9 2001
Fan Fiction section updated
I ignored making tracks now as it didn't matter, the appearance of body parts should be clue enough that I had been here.
Neil Grattan drops us the first part of his new Fan Fiction, 'The Great Escape'. Check it out, along with the rest of our Fan Fiction section! (Louis Wu 21:30:45 UTC) (permalink)
CS Scandal
Stephan writes to let us in on an ugly little secret - Halo is just a mod for Counter-Strike! Dang, those Bungie guys had us fooled... (Louis Wu 21:05:05 UTC) (permalink)
More Bungie Webcam pics
Picky mentioned on our forum that he's put up another 27 webcam pics, showing lots of Halo gameplay. The webcam's quality is turning most monitor colors to shades of blue, leading PIcky to believe they're all water shots... but even if his commentary isn't always right, the pics are intriguing. Next week, of course, we'll see REAL footage, but until then... (Louis Wu 21:02:55 UTC) (permalink)
For the HBO lover in you
Funky. Bongo, our OniShots guy, has sent in a bit of wallpaper for your desktop - clean lines, uncluttered... and it promotes HBO. What more could you want? (Louis Wu 11:39:00 UTC) (permalink)
News May 8 2001
Halo on Bungie's webcam
Thanks to Picky, who noticed (and archived) a series of Bungie Webcam shots showing Halo in play. Intriguing shots, some of 'em... (Louis Wu 22:42:18 UTC) (permalink)
New wallpaper at Halo HQ
Eldar-colonel writes to say that Halo HQ now has official wallpaper - swing by and check it out! The artist is Scythe, who has submitted a couple of his works to our Wallpaper section, as well... (Louis Wu 11:42:01 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction section updated
Warrant Officer Jim Trebour Poirot rigged the last cord, drove the light tank a last dozen feet, whispered a final goodbye, and exploded in holy flame.
Vector40 sends us the third (and probably final) chapter of his piece, 'HaloStory' - you'll find it in our Fan Fiction section. (It reads best all together.) (Louis Wu 09:19:06 UTC) (permalink)
News May 7 2001
Music in Video Games
acrappa, at R.net, noticed a feature called 'Music in Computer Games' over at IMG. It's mostly an interview with Mike Beckett (the man behind Nuclear Kangaroo Music, making music for Pangea Software) and Marty O'Donnell (a long-time Bungie contributor, currently a full-time employee working on Halo). It's an interesting look at an aspect of gaming that gets less attention than it might deserve. Marty has some bold predictions:
Five years is a long time in this industry. I expect that music will respond to the players' actions where appropriate and will encompass all the musical styles that have ever existed. The fidelity will surround the player and the mix between sound effects, dialog, and music will be comparable to the cinematic experience.
Definitely worth the read. (Louis Wu 22:11:56 UTC) (permalink)
Thanks for the questions - no more, please!
Thanks to all who submitted questions for the upcoming Fan-conducted interview - the submission window is now closed. (We've got to get through them all so that we can send what we promised.) Any questions received after 20:40:00 UTC will not be considered - sorry. As soon as we know anything about the status of the interview, we'll pass it along. (Louis Wu 20:43:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Blam!... Blam!... The Halo SETI Marines climb two notches to put themselves back into the top 50 in the Battle of the Teams (thanks in large part to Tharkhaad, who has added more than 8800 units to the team - welcome, Tharkhaad!). Total team output continues to be disappointing - only a quarter of the team's members contributed any units this week, and DarthFlounder, who normally contributes 100+ units, has cut down production considerably, seemingly in answer to Banzif's plea to keep the total per client to 7777 units. (Hopefully, this will rise again, under a new client name, once another 50-someodd units are added.) Iden takes this week's La Crunch Honneur, and Smasher picks up the Frogblast award, leaping 40 of his teammates to position 392. Are YOU doing your part? Check the 7 day stats to see who's crunching, and who's slacking! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 14:44:52 UTC) (permalink)
Painted ponies
Last Friday's Weekly Halo Update has been added to the Halo Updates Database. word of the week is 'shader' - how many different types have the Halo team developed, and when did they start? Shaders can be thought of as textures that provide special effects - animation effects, lighting effects, and so on. (Louis Wu 03:41:48 UTC) (permalink)
UGO is lukewarm
Thanks to Aginor, who noticed a Halo article at UGO.com - they're pretty ho-hum about the current build. Basically, though, they're just not interested in split-screen multiplayer:
In the end, we're still interested to see what Bungie will do with the finished version of the game; whether its vast outdoor environments can be put to good use and whether the variety and pace of gameplay can live up to the standards set by the graphics engine. But we'll probably wait for the Internet-capable PC version to get REALLY excited.
Fair enough - let's see if any opinions change after E3. (Louis Wu 00:50:31 UTC) (permalink)
News May 6 2001
Roleplay.halowar.com back up and running
Sterling "DwK" Kaliba writes to say that Roleplay.halowar.com is back up after a long hiatus. New games, new site design. Go visit. (Louis Wu 19:19:54 UTC) (permalink)
A worthwhile read on PC/Xbox differences
Over the past year or so, since Halo for the Xbox was announced, a large number of people have publicly worried that 'the Xbox is just a PC'. Response to this has been either agreement, or some vague 'it's completely different, due to the way the Xbox puts the pieces together'... but for the first time, a poster to our forum, katokop1, has laid out some of the real differences between PCs and the Xbox, and explained why some of the reasoning of the first group is faulty. Check it out - we may have to add this info to the FAQ. (Louis Wu 17:40:56 UTC) (permalink)
Halo preview, of sorts, at TotalGames.net
Eldar-colonel, of Halo HQ, writes to point out a new Halo preview over at TotalGames.net. It's a tad short on information - in fact, what little they have is questionable:
For the indoor areas, other more suitable weapons come into play, such as alien blades and plasma-swords.
(And don't forget the foreign cutlasses and the xenolithic falchions.) Pretty amazing what sites'll put up... (Louis Wu 03:30:11 UTC) (permalink)
Goodies for you
arcarsenal sends in a couple of files you might be interested in - the first is the small icon you see here, for use as a system icon (you can either grab it right off this page, or download a stuffed (mac-format) folder (2k) that uses it as a custom icon). Additionally, he's modified the Mac version of the SETI 3.0.3 client - you can see an example of the end result here (46K .gif), and download the client itself here (205K .sit). (Louis Wu 03:14:36 UTC) (permalink)
News May 5 2001
Blam Site of the Month... hehe
Woohoo! Sapwood just wrote to tell us that HBO made 'Site of the Month' at Blam Gaming. Thanks, guys. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 16:02:32 UTC) (permalink)
Concept Art page updated with NextGen cover
To round out the goodies extracted from the May 2001 NextGen magazine, we've added their cover concept art of the trooper to our Concept Art page. Man, that's a nice looking model... Pax. (Crux Fidelis 15:49:58 UTC) (permalink)
Nextgen screens added to Screenshots section
Took a couple of days, but we've put up the new screens from the NextGen May 2001 article (in higher-res beauty than you'll find in the press scans) in our Screenshots section. Check 'em out. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 15:17:24 UTC) (permalink)
Interview with Matt Soell at CoreMagazine
Thanks to fate, who noticed an interview with Matt Soell over at CoreMagazine.com. It's a pretty nice read - there are some comments that should put to rest fears of some PC gamers, and some discussion of the Xbox capabilities:
CoreMagazine.com: This is always a hard one to estimate, but can you roughly guess what percentage of the Xbox hardware you're tapping into for Halo?
Matt: We're trying to max it out. Since the day we got the game running on the Xbox the goal has been to push the hardware and see what we can do. We've hit a couple limits, but we're still using devkits operating at 50% of planned capacity.
Definitely worth a look-see. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 13:56:35 UTC) (permalink)
CNN checks out Halo beta-testers
Thanks to Maestro, who sends in this link from CNN.com, discussing game testing. The last third of it is about Halo.
[...] Creamer's team created a written overview of its various elements, assigning a tester to each of them. One tester, for example, is responsible for the game's multiplayer aspect, making sure that different types of controllers, or joysticks, perform the same way in the console's plug-in slots.
An interesting peek at the inside - nice to see that all bases are being covered. Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:07:09 UTC) (permalink)
Fan-conducted interview - questions needed!
Important: You guys get another shot at questioning the team. We were contacted by a representative of a company that "helps Microsoft keep in touch with the online communities"... and they want questions for a fan-conducted interview. You guys send us questions that cover what you'd like to learn from the Bungie team, and we'll pass the cream on, and get them answered (hopefully) before E3. Now here's the rub - we need all submissions in by Monday. So get cracking - mail us your questions! (Louis Wu 01:58:17 UTC) (permalink)
Cliffy B. expounds on gaming (and Halo)
Thanks to Aginor, who pointed out an interview with Cliffy B over at XGR.com. In five large MP3s, he expounds at length on game design, platforms, and the future of gaming... Part II (a 9 MB chunk) contains a discussion about the Xbox ("Xbox is either gonna be Titanic or Heaven's Gate") and then a minute or so on Halo:
"That game looks great... it's just, uh, Microsoft, trying to push it out for launch, you know, I read their online updates, and they're like, oh, we got the jeep working again, like, a couple weeks ago, and I'm like, guys... you guys are gonna be, uh, you're not gonna get any sleep between now and launch of that thing... it looks like a great game, but they're really gonna have their balls to the wall to get it done for launch..."
He goes on for a bit longer, picking his words very carefully, then moves on to how sad he is about the fact that multiplayer won't be in place at launch. In general, it's a good listen... apologies to Cliffy for the literal transcription above (I figured it was easier than cleaning it up :) ). Let's hope he's wrong about his '6 months of crunch time' estimate. (Louis Wu 01:50:01 UTC) (permalink)
Of Pelicans, and Things
Pelican? Matt's weekly Halo Update went to Battleground: Halo this week - and there's lots of tasty stuff there. Multicolored cyborgs for netgames, some Halo moments, and speed increases... but the one that got me was this:
The Pelican and the Covenant dropship are working in-game, and now have ground effects (i.e. when taking off they displace lots of dust, etc.)
Either the human dropship got a name... or there's a new human flier on the block. Check it out! (Louis Wu 01:32:09 UTC) (permalink)
News May 4 2001
Lens flares and wind...
A new wallpaper from Bongo, of Onishots - check it out in our Wallpaper section. Blam. (Louis Wu 15:22:54 UTC) (permalink)
Screenshots section updated
Okay, it didn't take so long - the new screenshots from the GamePro May 2001 Halo article are now in our Screenshots section, in higher resolution than you'll find in the scanned article mentioned below. NextGen coming soon. :) (Louis Wu 02:55:52 UTC) (permalink)
May 2001 Gamepro Halo article scanned
Speaking of adding dead tree articles, we've also scanned in last month's GamePro article (it's only one page, but weighs in at a hefty 382K) - short, but again, there are new shots, and the info is mostly on target. If only they hadn't used that nasty 'X' background... Higher-res versions of the new shots here, too, will be added to the Screenshots section soon. (Louis Wu 02:19:03 UTC) (permalink)
May 2001 NextGen article rescanned
Don't take this as a shot at Free... but we rescanned the May NextGen article, in a size that's intermediate to the two he offers on Bungie Sightings, and at a higher image quality level. You'll find it on our Press page. (We'll be adding hi-res versions of the actual new screens to the Screenshots section in the next few days.) There's some great info there, if you haven't read it yet... and some nice pics. (Louis Wu 02:11:47 UTC) (permalink)
The start of a new fan fiction
Well, almost buried in the 100-odd posts of the most amusing flamewar to happen on our forum in a long time, Anonymous Coward has posted the first four paragraphs of what he calls 'Work in progress...'. I'm gonna hold off adding it immediately to the Fan Fiction section, in the hopes that he'll add to it first - but it's a pretty nice start, go read it! (Louis Wu 01:22:58 UTC) (permalink)
Coalition of the Ring goes live
Seems there's a new Halo site out there - The Coalition of the Ring. Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 01:18:30 UTC) (permalink)
News May 3 2001
The new phone books are here!
Woohoo! Our first mention in a fan's wallpaper (I think). Dinosurfer has sent along 'Joyride' for your perusement - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. Nice and clean... (Louis Wu 09:28:48 UTC) (permalink)
News May 2 2001
'Wanna see my smiling jeep...'
arcarsenal dropped us a line to let us know that Halo made Rolling Stone magazine - it's just a tiny blurb, describing Halo as a 'long-awaited 3d shooter' on the Xbox, and displaying the flying jeep screenshot recently released... but hey, mainstream press is mainstream press! (Louis Wu 03:00:43 UTC) (permalink)
Junkyard's back up and running
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews writes to say the Junkyard is finally back up - and will be posting one new exclusive item per day for the next two weeks. Dunno how many of those will be Halo-related... but stop by and take a look! (Louis Wu 02:55:56 UTC) (permalink)
News May 1 2001
Halo to run flat out at E3
Thanks to Iden, who pointed out to us that Xbox.com has an article describing a team meeting a couple of months ago in which the first prototypes of a real, working Xbox were demoed... and the statement that
Progress has been great since then and we're poised to deliver the first kits to game developers before E3.
If so, it looks like lucky E3-goers will get to see Halo running at full speed in a couple of weeks... woohoo! We'll be there... will you? (Louis Wu 18:13:58 UTC) (permalink)
New (sorta) fan fiction available
Early last week, we got a Fan Fiction submission with a subject line of 'stupid fanfic I wrote'. Wirehead figured, if the AUTHOR thinks it's stupid, how good could it be? It got resubmitted a couple of days ago, with an altered subject line, and I found it this morning. Moral of the story - don't tell us your work sucks - we'll believe you. :) That said, go read our latest Fan Fiction, 'Ambush!'. (Louis Wu 13:27:11 UTC) (permalink)
New wallpapers added
We've added a couple of new wallpapers that have been sitting for a bit in our uploads directory - there's one from Scythe, and one from B-Sharp. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:05:54 UTC) (permalink)
Halo WinAmp skins available
Picky informs us that he's put a couple of Halo WinAmp skins up for grabs here - to get them, you'll have to log in to the MSN network, but they should be up at WinAmp.com as soon as they're reviewed. (Louis Wu 09:48:46 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo preview at Gamespot
Thanks to Ph.D., who pointed out a new Halo preview at Gamespot - there's not really any new info there, it seems to be a pre-E3 prep piece, but press is press, right? (Well, don't tell that to Daily Radar, who went under yesterday...) (Louis Wu 09:39:13 UTC) (permalink)
| May 2001 | |
