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November 2003

November 2003 Archived News

News November 30 2003

Halo: First Base
Not long ago, it became clear that the submissions for One One Se7en were quickly outstripping our chance of hosting them in a reasonable timeframe, and the Archive was born. (Next week's Archive update already has nearly 30 strips in it.) It took much of the pressure off the Guest queue... but Stuntmutt hasn't been allowing that queue to shrink; he's added a Holiday category (Thursday's Guest strip was postponed for a Thanksgiving strip) and he's been pretty consistent with the Sunday strips (there's one today, in fact), bumping the Guest strips patiently waiting for that Sunday slot. Yes, his commentary is right on the money. Yes, he's more consistent at making you laugh than the guest strips are. Yes, yes, yes, it's true that many Guest strip creators simply cut and paste from Stuntmutt's artwork. But what is One One Se7en all about, anyway? Isn't it about empowering average joes to create a piece of a highly successful comic? Shouldn't Stuntmutt realize that it's not about him? Should there be a vote to remove the regular strip altogether, replacing it with Guest strips, to give joe sixpack a fighting chance? Well, while you're thinking about the answers to these questions, go read today's Sunday strip. And please, please, PLEASE... don't try these lines yourselves in a bar. (Louis Wu 14:56:56 UTC) (permalink)

News November 29 2003

Two weeks...
Wonga. Now that the DVDs are done, Red vs Blue is back at work; filming on season 2 has begun, and they're shooting for a mid-December release of episode 20. (They're also hoping to have another Public Service Announcement between now and then.) Thanks to Ross Mills for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:02:42 UTC) (permalink)

Saturday Stories
18 stories for you since the last Fan Fiction update (36 hours ago):

• The Battle for Phi Delta: Part 1, by witelancer
• 500 Men. 1000 Covenant. 1 Spartan. 1 Building. , by Steve
• Fight or flight: Chapter Three, by teemus
• The Battle for Phi Delta: Part Two, by witelancer
• The Last Forerunner Part 1:The Battle of Halo , by Sentinel
• Warriors of Valour: Part 5: Revenge is sooo sweeet, by Ghost Sniper
• The Plot Thickens..., by D
• Saving Fifth Street, by Ajax
• A Marine Named Peters: Rodriguez's Gifts, by GLADIATRRR3000
• The Battle for Halo:The Takers, by Sentinel
• The End of the Covenant: Part I, by Tlaloc
• Appocalypse-Sector5, by FFEcho
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 6, by CovieKilla
• The Battle for Phi Delta: Chapter 3, by witelancer
• The Battle for Phi Delta: Chapter 4, by witelancer
• The Pelican Bond, by Mauricio Flores
• The Last Battle of Earth, by Tlaloc
• The Second Ring (Part 2), by Jason

Seems like it's speeding up, if anything... (Louis Wu 14:27:31 UTC) (permalink)

Carol of the Marines
Ross Mills has whipped up a short Christmas-themed film for you; only 26 shopping days left! Timing's nice, though it would have been more impressive had there been no need to manipulate pitch... it's 1:21 long, and available in both WMP9 and QT formats (4.8 mb each, you choose). Don't hate him for the suffering he's caused... think of the artistic value. Update: DOH! I thought this was a remake of 'Carol of the BOBs', an older Marathon-based piece... it wasn't. It actually USED Carol of the BOBs as the soundtrack. My bad. (Sorry, Jester!) (Louis Wu 12:05:50 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Elites Recruiting
A couple of members of the Halo Elites wrote to say that their clan website is now online, and they're looking for new members. Check it out! (Louis Wu 11:31:36 UTC) (permalink)

Weapons Upgrade
In today's Guest One One Se7en strip, Stumanji looks at possible Covenant counterattacks to the new Mark VI armor and weapons. Ouch! (Louis Wu 11:06:18 UTC) (permalink)

News November 28 2003

Micro Assault WHAT?
NINJ4 posted a funny little animated gif earlier today... I can't say I haven't wished I'd had one of these... (The image is now local, to keep from crushing his connection.) (Louis Wu 22:00:29 UTC) (permalink)

A tribute, eh?
Hehe - the Story page boys get a nod from 343GS.com today, with the latest installment of echofournineteen, their ongoing comic. (Check the Downloads section.) Thanks, Madda Cheeb. (Louis Wu 21:50:27 UTC) (permalink)

Mod info at halocity.org
progamerz points out that over at halocity.org/forums, there is quite a bit of info about making Halo PC maps and mods. (He also pointed out molkien.halocity.org, a mod site with a pretty cool-looking map in progress called Cliffhanger.) Look around! (Louis Wu 19:57:36 UTC) (permalink)

Red Army Clan recruiting
This came in a few days ago, too - we're slipping. Efighter wrote to point out that The Red Army Clan for Halo is currently recruiting. Drop by their forum if you're interested. (Louis Wu 12:45:20 UTC) (permalink)

Roasted Turkey
DOH! mrsmiley stepped in and created a Thanksgiving-themed Halo Babies when Gruntsbane had family obligations... we missed it because we took yesterday off. Take a look! (Louis Wu 12:41:26 UTC) (permalink)

Project Halo - A Strategy Game
Dang - posted a few days ago, I forgot to get back to it. SanchezTheLlama put out a request on our forum for developers who want to help out in an open source project - a strategy game based on Halo. There's an out-of-date website up at SourceForge.net, and more information within the linked forum thread (read all the way through). (Louis Wu 11:40:43 UTC) (permalink)

Discount Halo
Thanks to Jamirus99 and Geeoff, who both pointed out that Best Buys across America today will be selling Xbox Halo for $17.99 between 6 am and noon. This after-Thanksgiving sale is the perfect time for those of you in the US to buy that spare copy! (Louis Wu 11:27:52 UTC) (permalink)

The Food Of Love
In today's One One Se7en, Stuntmutt points out some of the advantages that the Mac MC has over the PC MC. (Note that Macsoft will honor no promises made by a comic strip on a fansite.) (Louis Wu 11:20:54 UTC) (permalink)

Rush Hour
The PoA is a tad bigger than it might look - certainly bigger than Halo: Resolution noobs can grasp. (Louis Wu 11:16:24 UTC) (permalink)

HBO HPC list now on a page
Yesterday, DaChameleon sent a note to our forum announcing a HBO/HPC nickname list. You can use this to learn the HPC handles (and in some cases, the real names) of your favorite HBO forum regulars. (This was originally put together by Ben Roth, and posted on our forum. This version now has a permanent home.) (Louis Wu 11:12:49 UTC) (permalink)

That's just too many words.
The guests have gone, the cleanup is mostly finished, and I came down to look at the Fan Fiction queue, knowing that the last time I did so was 3 days ago. Gah... 35 new pieces! (And that's after rejecting the ones that shouldn't have been submitted...)

• A Spartan's Path- Chapter 2, by Myth
• A Spartan's Path - chapter 3, by Myth
• The Second Ring (Part 1), by Jason
• Emperor's Children:Battle for the Icarus:Hangar Warfare, by Forever Forerunner
• Halo 2: The Forgotten-Part One, by draGUN_man03
• Of Harvest and Horrors, by D
• Merick's Journal's Episode 4: John Finds Out That For Every Reaction, There Is An Equal and Opposite, by John Kitchen
• A Series of Wierd Events-[Mainevent]-, by Mainevent
• Neverland: The First Patrol, by SOS.Odin
• Charge of the Grunt Brigade - Part Four: Grunts, by Walker
• The Fall of New York: part 4, by hunter_elite
• Fall back! (Halo 2: Chapter 13), by Shadowrunner
• Galaxy 07 - Part Five - Escape, by Jillybean
• Halo: The Recovery: Part 4, by witelancer
• Halo: The Recovery: Part 5, by witelancer
• Halo: The Recovery: Part 6, by witelancer
• Halo: The Recovery: Part 7, by witelancer
• Fight fo New Tatley (Chapter 4: The Survivors), by CoLd BlooDed
• Fight of Flight: Chapter Two, by teemus
• [revielle], by Marshall Purewal
• the reach for victory, by Dean Albury
• the serch for spartans , by Dean albury
• Marooned Chapter 6, by Steve Ollett
• Death (part 3), by Duckfoot
• Closing with the Enemy Chapter 4 Covenant Advance, by monitor101
• On A Pale Horse: Assault, by Silent Hunter
• The Nobody Saga - Ch. 1, by The Listener
• Last of a Dying Breed [part 2]-A Brief Respite, by hornet34
• Rebirth - A Simple Plan, and the Confusion of the Forerunner, by KnightmareWolf, Shadow, Archangels_Blade, Spartan415
• Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, by CoLd BlooDed
• A Marine Named Peters: Night of the Living Dead, by GLADIATRRR3000
• First To Die, by BlackValkyire
• Shell Shock-chapter 5, by Myth
• Shell Shock-chapter 6, by Myth
• The End, by CovieKilla

I guess you've got some reading to go with your digesting, this evening. (Louis Wu 00:20:23 UTC) (permalink)

News November 27 2003

The Other Other White Meat
We're gonna take most of the Thanksgiving holiday off; lots of family, Halo can wait. Before we go, though - here's a Thanksgiving strip from Stuntmutt, to fill in today's One One Se7en quota. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 03:46:34 UTC) (permalink)

News November 26 2003

Okay, okay, I give.
It was discussed so many times on our forum, I didn't really notice that it didn't make our front page... but I want the flood of email to stop, so hear ye, hear ye, be it known that the Red vs Blue Season 1 DVD is now on sale over at redvsblue.com. Now can I go back to sleep? (Louis Wu 22:19:15 UTC) (permalink)

They came...
The mini action figures ordered from The Bungie Store a while back arrived today. Maybe, one of these days, I'll actually have time to set up something fun with them. You never know... (Louis Wu 20:35:55 UTC) (permalink)

Child's Play
Not really Halo news, but it's certainly in the holiday spirit, so... Penny Arcade is working with the Seattle Children's Hospital and Amazon.com to bring games to sick kids. They call it Child's Play, and the details can be found at the bottom of their front page. (It'll be there for the next month or so.) In Gabe's words, let's give newspapers a different kind of story to write about gamers. (Thanks to Rayme for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:45:54 UTC) (permalink)

Pronounced 'Eye-Muck'
Stuntmutt, tired of the constant sniping he puts up with in the forum, has taken his OWN shot - at the Mac version of Halo. Dang, if it didn't make me smile, I'd have to smack him. Go read One One Se7en today. (Louis Wu 14:23:32 UTC) (permalink)

Man Can She Run!
Halo: Resolution looks at how hard it can be to ditch an AI... (Louis Wu 13:58:29 UTC) (permalink)

News November 25 2003

Linear MC
ASPMaster showed off a cool little Flash Animation in which the MC is built, top-down. We've added it to our Miscellaneous section (1.4 mb). (Louis Wu 19:34:25 UTC) (permalink)

Grunt Gulch
Grenadiac stopped by our forum to point out a new movie for download at Halomods.com; the MC has been replaced by a Grunt. Great music choice. 8 mb (.rar-compressed), WMP7 format. Dance, boy! (Louis Wu 18:39:14 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Soundtrack - Rereleased, with goodies
Nice find by Ross Mills; there's a Special Edition Halo Soundtrack now for sale, from Sumthing Else Music Works. It comes with a bonus DVD that contains trailers and videos of Halo 2, plus Surround Sound versions of new music. (This is the soundtrack Marty mentioned about a month ago, during a Music 4 Games interview.) Grab it now - Amazon's selling it for $14 (though they say they're not shipping for a month...)! Update: Thanks muchly to Adam Leyland, who points out that the 'Buy' link at Sumthing Else points to the original soundtrack at Amazon.com; it doesn't appear that the new one is available yet. You might want to wait to place that order... (Louis Wu 17:47:15 UTC) (permalink)

Apple using Halo to sell G5s
We mentioned the new MacSoft Halo page a couple of days ago, and others have pointed out the Games page over at Apple... but travis brought to our attention that Halo is not confined to gaming pages any more. On a page devoted to extolling the virtues of the G5's video capabilities, the screenshot at the top of the page is (once again - remember 1999?) a shot from Halo. We've archived it here, in case it gets switched at some point. Yep - when you wanna show how powerful the new G5 really is... Halo is the testbed of choice. (Louis Wu 12:15:40 UTC) (permalink)

SeeMePlayMe hosting a party this week
Missed it when it arrived, but SeeMePlayMe is hosting a kickoff party for its new Platinum Plus Gamer account. They'll be giving away 5 lifetime gold accounts, 2 lifetime Platinum accounts, and one 1-year Platinum Plus Gamer account. This newest account not only allows you to set up a custom server on the fly... but that server will be open to the public (not just those that know its IP address). (More details on the account are here.) The party happens this Friday, November 28th, at 7 pm Central time. There's also a bunch of other giveaways planned. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 11:42:55 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Reviews
Couple of Blue's News-reported reviews for you: AllOutGames gave it 89% (though the front-page mention was quite a bit harsher, and even the reviewer made it clear that the 89% was because 90% is their cutoff for a 'stamp of approval'), and Ferrago gave it 84%, complaining about the clunky console-born interface and the 'stuttering framerate'. Ah, well... (Louis Wu 11:38:34 UTC) (permalink)

Killakatari, baby.
Last week, a bunch of HBO regulars (and some new friends) got together at nof's place to celebrate the second anniversary of the Xbox (and Halo) with 14 hours of lan play. nukedude filmed the whole shebang. This isn't your standard lan footage; the actual gameplay takes a back seat to the event itself. (It might not be for everyone.) 34 mb, 9:15 long, WMP9 format. Again, nukedude is hosting it. And speaking of nukedude, a few people asked if a QuickTime version of the Pillar of Art fest film he put up a few days ago could be made available; the quality's not quite as good as the WMP, but for those who can't SEE the WMP, it's certainly watchable. 32 mb, at Mythica.org. (Louis Wu 10:41:02 UTC) (permalink)

Hello Chief.
GreenMJOLNIR's Guest One One Se7en strip was written a couple of months ago... but the joke's still there. (Louis Wu 10:00:10 UTC) (permalink)

Coverup? Really?
AGAIN with the updates. Finn, this time, picks out some of the juicier morsels from the Halo Story mailbag (and a forum post or two) to peel another layer of mystery from the onion that is Halo. Go read. (Louis Wu 08:58:24 UTC) (permalink)

News November 24 2003

B.net back up - and Passport-enabled
Bungie.net's transfer over to .NET (and the use of .NET Passports) is complete. If you have a Passport already, simply log in, then link your existing Bungie.net account to your Passport. If you don't have a Passport, create one, and link it. Finally, you can link your Passport to a new Bungie.net account. Existing functionality doesn't change very much... but future stuff will be pretty impressive, I've been led to believe. (Louis Wu 21:27:21 UTC) (permalink)

Now Open: The One One Se7en Archive
Several days ago, we mentioned that the backlog of strips for the One One Se7en Guest queue was getting out of hand, and described what we thought would be a reasonable solution for the problem. Well, maybe folks didn't understand what was being offered... because we had exactly two voluntary submissions. Added to that are a pair of Stuntmutt submissions and some auto-submissions, for a grand total of 7 strips (!!) - but unfortunately, it didn't reduce the Guest queue by even one day. So: go visit the new Archive. Check out the 7 strips. Laugh a bit. If you've got a strip in the queue, reconsider whether you're interested in Archiving it instead of waiting out the queue. (Next Archive date is December 7 - less than 2 weeks away. You can mail us at 117@bungie.org.) If we don't get a bunch of submissions, we'll go through the Guest queue ourselves, and pull out the strips that meet the 'Automatic' criteria as described in the original post. (Truth be told, Stuntmutt has already identified a number of strips that are ready for Archiving; I asked him to hold off, hoping the authors themselves would choose this option.) One way or another, we'll reduce that queue! (Louis Wu 19:16:31 UTC) (permalink)

Fire Team Charlie - Ready To Roll!
After a really long hiatus, Fire Team Charlie is back, with episode 9. It's available in DivX-encode AVI format (and QuickTime, as soon as they link it), and weighs in at about 40 mb. It's high-res (640x480), for EVERYONE - though members of XboxOttawa.ca can download it directly, while everyone else needs to use BitTorrent. This episode ties together quite a bit of the previous pieces - even pieces that didn't seem to be linked. Sound quality is a tad rough, but the humor is great. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:39:46 UTC) (permalink)

A Rocket Launcher You Can Hold
Wow. Master Chief Cutter has put together a full size rocket launcher. It doesn't actually shoot... but that's probably a GOOD thing. It's over 4 feet long, and there are a bunch of blurry pictures on his website here. (I grabbed local copies, so someone should drop me a line if this dies; we'll put up a mirror here.) The lengths fans will go to... Update: Local copies are here. (Louis Wu 14:50:35 UTC) (permalink)

The Chondrite?
mnemesis has once again dipped into the Halo Story page mailbag, and pulled out some tantalizing tidbits. (There's even one from forum regular Jillybean... hmm, I thought I told him to throw all of those away.) Good stuff. (Louis Wu 14:18:17 UTC) (permalink)

HBO Server Lag.
Heh. Stuntmutt takes one final shot at the absurd length of the Guest queue in today's One One Se7en. (Later today, the Archive will open, and SHOULD take care of that problem once and for all.) (Louis Wu 13:57:14 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Morning Writing
There were 22 pieces of Fan Fiction submitted this weekend... get to it.

• Merick's Journal's: Episode 3 1/2: The Poem, by John Kitchen
• Halo The Respawned - Book One, by md
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 3: Bank Withdrawal), by CoLd BlooDed
• Brutus, The Spartans, Two AIs and the Pirate Fleet (Part 5), by Traumatised Marine
• A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One [STERFRYE], by Hunter_Killer
• A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One [WALKER], by Hunter_Killer
• Halo: The Recovery: Part 1, by witelancer
• Halo: The Recovery: Part 2, by witelancer
• Halo: The Recovery: Part 3, by witelancer
• Fight For Her, by CovieKilla
• The Offensive Retreat, by teemus
• Homeworlds XXIV, by Mainevent
• Everyone Dies, by CoLd BlooDed
• The Final War: Chapter Four: Battle for Installation 02 Part One: Operation: Firestorm, by Awacar
• On A Pale Horse: The Gates of Hell, by Silent Hunter
• Last of a Dying Breed-One Night, by hornet34
• The Harvest Campaign Chapter 2, by Fleet Admiral
• Fight or Flight: Chapter One, by teemus
• A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Four [HUNTER_KILLER], by Hunter_Killer
• Pirates: UNSC Nemesis; Chapter Two, by Steele
• The 7th Column: Betrayal, by Mainevent
• Attack on ERISTOCK Part 16: Nothing, by xitWOUND117

Words, words, and more words... (Louis Wu 13:55:24 UTC) (permalink)

I'm Sure They Have Feelings Too
Noobs and guns... they don't always mix. Halo: Resolution looks at one reason why not. (Louis Wu 13:40:07 UTC) (permalink)

News November 23 2003

April Cruel
343GS.com has put up the third episode of Echofournineteen - this one called 'April Cruel'. (Check the Downloads section.) I'm not sure I get it... Thanks to Madda Cheeb for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 19:44:57 UTC) (permalink)

BotB is history...
The Best of The Best competition took place last night (it ended up being a 'Best of HBO' contest, in the end), and according to stan, the winner is synide. Details are in the forum post - full stats, comments, you name it. Congrats, synide! (Louis Wu 19:18:25 UTC) (permalink)

Forum Search - now with sprinkles!
I keep forgetting to write it up... but here you go. Ciarán Walsh has spent a chunk of time overhauling the search mechanism of our Forum archives; the new version of the search now relies on MySQL, rather than perl, and so can handle MUCH bigger searches. All posts not on the current forum are searchable from one form at this point, with some added search options thrown in for good measure. Visit http://library.bungie.org/ for details. (We'd like to stress that 1) this is a beta version of the new search mechanism; we're looking for feedback on features, and reports if you find problems, and 2) we have several major new features planned for future iterations of this mechanism, if all goes well.) Please - drop us a line if you have trouble, or have comments. Thanks! (Louis Wu 18:57:25 UTC) (permalink)

Pillar of Art - lanfest movie
nukedude finally compiled a bunch of footage from the Pillar of Art showing/lanfest last summer in New York City; it's about 10 minutes worth of commentary, gameplay, and artwork from the Selkirk Gallery in lower Manhattan. The movie is in WMP9 format, and weighs in at 32.8 mb. nukedude is hosting it, but if things get out of hand, we'll probably toss up a local copy, as well. I found it pretty interesting - but then, I was there. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:06:07 UTC) (permalink)

Everyone Loves A Sunday Strip.
Stuntmutt is sucking up yet ANOTHER Sunday slot with one of his Sunday One One Se7en strips. Apologies to the Guest strip submitters who have to wait LONGER now. (Luckily, anyone who CAN'T wait can still tell us to add their strip to the new One One Se7en Archive, opening tomorrow...) (Louis Wu 17:47:11 UTC) (permalink)

News November 22 2003

The Mystery Woman on BA
Rockin'. FormerCide discovered a bitmap of a mystery woman on the level Boarding Action (PC version), when he was messing around in the game's resources. (BOLL posted the pic, because FormerCide wasn't sure if it was kosher to do so, and BOLL figured he was 5000 miles from Bungie headquarters and was immune to death rays.) This afternoon, Chris Butcher stepped in to identify the picture as that of the girlfriend of the original artist working on Boarding Action (someone who no longer works at Bungie). The weird part is... they'd FOUND the pic, once, and removed it. It came back. (Or was present twice.) Just goes to show... there are still things left to find! (Louis Wu 19:10:41 UTC) (permalink)

When MCs Go Bad
GLADIATRRR3000 has put together a funny little Flash animation, called 343 Guilty Stick. It weighs in at 2.4 mb. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 12:04:30 UTC) (permalink)

Ownt looks at HPC
Ownt put up a review of Halo PC yesterday. They liked it quite a lot (gave it an Uber Ownage award). Repetitive levels in single player and some clipping bugs in MP brought its score down to 90. (There are also 44 highly compressed images, mostly of the levels Halo and TImberland.) Thanks, Blue's News (via Ash). (Louis Wu 10:54:53 UTC) (permalink)

Red vs. ... Who Part 5
Today's Guest One One Se7en is the last in a series of spoofs of RvB. (For what it's worth, this is the sort of strip that will be added to the One One Se7en Archive automatically, once it opens on Monday.) This one shows the danger of spinoffs - to the ORIGINAL. And remember - if you've got a guest strip in the queue (a queue which is currently almost 40 strips long), you can STILL get it added to the Archives very first posting, in 2 days. Just let us know.) (Louis Wu 10:38:20 UTC) (permalink)

Macsoft puts up Mac Halo page
Cool. Macsoft has put up a full webpage for Mac Halo - a sign that release really isn't very far away. Release date: December 11, 2003. A week later than originally suggested... but coming from the producer, it's a pretty reliable date. (I'm tickled that we got one of the circle links at the top...) Thanks to Iceman1330 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 09:50:41 UTC) (permalink)

News November 21 2003

Lag? Or Noob?
Halo Babies has been updated - there's a new strip that looks at situations explainable by network problems... or extreme inexperience. (You have to decide for yourself which is which as you play.) There are also some new AIM icons. Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:53:46 UTC) (permalink)

I like see-saws.
Blade writes that halo.leetgamers.org is up once more. Newest content is a review of Xbox Halo. (Louis Wu 17:54:56 UTC) (permalink)

Mini Action Figures - now shipping!
Just got notification from the Bungie Store that my recent order (the two 5-piece mini action figure sets) has shipped. Jackals, Marines, and MCs... on the way! (Louis Wu 17:51:08 UTC) (permalink)

Official price reduction - a bit late
Thanks to everyone who wrote to remind us of the official price drop on the Xbox version of Halo. The subject first came up a couple of weeks ago on our forum, in connection with all the November 15 rumors; because it didn't seem new to me, I neglected to mention the press release. However, it IS new to lots of people, and a $20 price cut is nothing to sneeze at... so go look! (And remember - Halo makes a great stocking stuffer! Well, if your stocking is big and square, it does. I bet you could fit a copy of Halo into one of KP's stockings these days... what with all the extra space needed by the hardware, you know.) (Louis Wu 15:29:11 UTC) (permalink)

First Strike - already on some shelves!
Konrad9 popped into our forum to mention that Halo: First Strike has appeared on some store shelves already (he bought, and read, a copy yesterday from the Strand bookstore in New York). A couple of weeks early... but hey, you don't see ME complaining! (Louis Wu 15:04:36 UTC) (permalink)

The Void
gwdpto, known online as HBO-Kingpin, has put together a group of talented Halo PC players and one kickass moviemaker (Dan Chosich, of 2070Wired Films), and released a movie called 'The Void'. On the surface, it's just a bunch of guys screwing around on Gephyrophobia. gwdpto is proud of the fact that it shows the 'Longest Piloted-Vehicle Jump in Halo EVER'. But beyond that, the filmmaking is beautiful; this movie should show you how you can take pretty pedestrian material and turn it into a movie that easily exceeds our posting guidelines. It weighs in at 28 mb, in QuickTime format, and hosting is being handled by C.O.E.R.C.E. (There are currently in the neighborhood of 8 or 9 hosts handling this movie, so bandwidth shouldn't be a problem.) The movie was announced on our forum, so feel free to add comments to the thread. Update: Looks like Doughmainename.com has gone down; we've posted the mirror rotation here. (Same mirror sites, same random distribution of URLs, except that the doughmainename.com link has been removed.) (Louis Wu 11:38:56 UTC) (permalink)

Danger Canyon: Used and Abused
goatrope and Devin Olsen have put together a little film showing some slick tricks that can be performed on Danger Canyon. It was originally released in WMP9 format, and hosted by nukedude (later mirrored by KP). We've also converted it to a QuickTime file, and hosted it locally. The WMP is 10.3 mb, the QuickTime 10.9 mb, and both are 640x480 and 1:46 long. Enjoy! Update: nukedude and Devin Olsen have posted a followup, showing the final trick done by one person, with no damage, using the Sidewinder Sneak technique developed to get through the grating on Sidewinder. 16 mb, DivX format. A QT version is coming soon. As rapture succinctly summarizes it, it's going to take some work to keep this glitch from ruining DC completely as a CTF map. Update 2: QuickTime version (8 mb) now available. (Louis Wu 11:29:28 UTC) (permalink)

You Can Say That Again.
One One Se7en addresses one of the major complaints critics have had about Halo gameplay. Not that the subject hasn't been covered before... (Remember: if you've got a strip in the Guest queue for One One Se7en, now's the chance to tell us if you'd rather it be displayed in the upcoming One One Se7en Archive, opening this Monday.) (Louis Wu 11:23:19 UTC) (permalink)

Nice Turn Radius!
Halo: Resolution points out a danger with the turn-on-a-dime abilities of a Halo PC mouse... (Louis Wu 11:19:48 UTC) (permalink)

Halo - on GBA
Nick and leftfb show what might be the best use of the Gameboy Advance SP screen... ever. (Two small vids, linked in this post and this one; wmp9 format.) (Louis Wu 11:17:00 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's writing
16 stories for the Fan Fiction section in the 48 hours since the last update...

• Merick's Journal's: Episode 3: Return to Blood Gulch, and The Broken Bagboy, by John Kitchen
• Lan Battle Chapter 3 Chris' Manuevers According to Jesse and his Men, by Blue Angel
• Galaxy 07 - Part Four - Boot, by Jillybean
• Fear not! (a little poem i made)., by FFEcho
• Life of a Marine Chapter 1: Suprised, by WannabeMarine
• The Discovery Chapter 1 & 2, by Christian Sisson
• MSOG: Chapter 1 & 2, by Sprtn117John
• Last Battle: Outpost 33, by JOTD Fanfiction Team
• Harvest, by Kinotrica 'Mocka'
• A Spartan's Path- Prologue , by Myth
• Eldar Counsels Log Part 3- O' Fortuna, Depthera the Coming, by Blue Angel
• Rebirth - The Child Within, by KnightmareWolf/Shadow/Archangels_Blade/Spartan415
• Battle for the Norah: Part Ten, by Sterfrye36
• A Marine's Tale: A Covenant Ship and a Nearby World, by pj-NYkr90
• A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Three, by Hunter_Killer
• Long Time Gone Part 5, by grylsy

Not so bad, I guess. (Louis Wu 11:15:34 UTC) (permalink)

News November 20 2003

Red vs. ...Who Part 4
Geez - almost forgot. Today's One One Se7en guest strip is yet another Red vs... Who parody from Devilmingy - and no, it's not the last one. A sweating MC... interesting. (Louis Wu 18:05:52 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Hacking Vid
001 has put together a new film showing some of the recent advances in Xbox modding. (Many of these have already been shown in individual movies, but this one gives you a nice overview.) It's being hosted by BPHalo, and weighs in at 10 mb. It's called 'Random Hacking in 2 Random Levels', and is in WMP8 format. Comments can be added to this forum thread. (Louis Wu 13:58:06 UTC) (permalink)

HBO-COERCE gets refreshed
gwdpto pointed out that the HBO-COERCE Halo PC server has gotten 9 new games in its map rotation, and lost one, as well as having existing games tweaked a bit. Check out the new carnage! (Louis Wu 13:17:09 UTC) (permalink)

Phoenix - it's not dead! It's getting better!
Whoa. Mark discovered a note about the rebuilding of Project Phoenix, over at GameDreamZ - if this is accurate, Phoenix will appear for the Xbox Next console (the second-generation Xbox), being reworked by FASA and the old Oni team. (They used the obligatory 'rising from the ashes' line in the writeup...) (Louis Wu 10:52:09 UTC) (permalink)

Huge New Year's lanfest in Cali
Bravehamster writes about a major lanfest being set up for New Year's Eve in Santa Maria, CA (about 3 hours north of LA on the California coast). They're shooting for 90 players, and want the thing to run from noon on December 31 through noon on January 1. Admission is $25, and all the pizza and soda you can eat and drink are included. Check out the Central Coast Frag Fest website for more details! (Louis Wu 10:46:53 UTC) (permalink)

leetgamers move causes temporary downtime
halo.leetgamers.org is offline for a bit; read this forum post for details why. Thanks, Blade. (Louis Wu 10:43:44 UTC) (permalink)

Tankramp - in the Spotlight
Battleground: Halo newsman Tankramp has been Spotlighted over at the Junkyard; go read about what makes him tick. Thanks to Mhaddy for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:41:11 UTC) (permalink)

News November 19 2003

One One Se7en - A Solution?
So here's the thing. A few months back, we started receiving Guest strips for One One Se7en, created by fans of the Stuntmutt creation. We filled in the days of the week not covered by the main strip - but they were coming in faster than we could post them. Today, the wait time for new submissions is well over two months - and this has begun to cause problems. (Many of the submitted strips are topical, and the jokes are somewhat muted if shown past their expiration dates.) We've decided to open a One One Se7en Archive.

What is this? Well, think of it as overflow space. The Archive will be updated once a month or so - guaranteeing that no strip languishes longer than a month before being presented to the public. Strips will be identified by author, submission date, and a thumbnail... but archived strips will NOT make it into the normal One One Se7en (daily) queue. Whether your submission goes into the Guest rotation or the Archive is up to you; the trade-offs are a front-page mention and 'official' standing, versus (potentially) faster post times. Some strips will be placed in the Archive automatically; any strip posted on our forum from this point forward will be archived, instead of Guest-queued. If the Guest queue is longer than the next archive date, a topical strip will be placed in the archive. If a strip is submitted on a topic that's already been over-mined (in Stuntmutt's words), we'll archive it, instead of queueing it. And the submitter can CHOOSE to be placed in the archive, by specifying it when they submit.

We'd like to offer all currently-queued Guest strip submitters the chance to be posted in the first Archive posting, which will happen this Monday, November 24. (After that, Archive updates will happen on the 7th of the month, or thereabouts.) If you've submitted a strip that hasn't been posted, and would like the opportunity to enter this new section instead of waiting for the Guest queue to reach you, drop us a line (yes, we've created a new email address for this). (Louis Wu 21:14:55 UTC) (permalink)

Halo-ize Panther.
Unsanity, a company devoted to tweaking the user interface of Mac OSX, has announced ShapeShifter, a product that will allow you to add 'themes' to your interface. One of the first themes released (in fact, installed with the program) is called Eylo (rhymes with Halo) - and a quick look at the theme shows why. Check it out! (Thanks, Mig.) (Louis Wu 20:42:05 UTC) (permalink)

When you just gotta vent
Bizarre... there's a site out there devoted to stories about stupid things people do online. Halo PC is one of the covered games, which is what makes this Halo news... There's no really easy way to search for Halo PC stories (or at least I didn't find one), but I gotta say, the few I did read were all whinefests. Still, some people like reading that sort of thing (or writing it)... thanks to Uberblue for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:52:10 UTC) (permalink)

KFJ
Stuntmutt uses today's One One Se7en to point out one reason Gearbox might have left the new weapons out of Campaign in Halo PC... Marathon fans are probably thinking "Smells like Napalm" right about now. (Louis Wu 10:36:47 UTC) (permalink)

Tweaking Halo PC
Tweakfactor.com has posted a Halo Tweak Guide, designed to help you get the most out of your video hardware. Check it out for that extra framerate boost! Thanks to Blue's News (via Ash) for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:30:17 UTC) (permalink)

Speculation to drink hot cocoa by
For the second day in a row, Finn has taken a healthy bite out of the Halo Story page mailbag; there's a sizeable update today. (He also addresses concerns that Story page submissions might be used for purposes other than the edification of Story page readers...) (Louis Wu 10:26:59 UTC) (permalink)

Weapon Of Choice
Halo: Resolution takes a shot (hehe) at the needler as a weapon; check out today's strip. (Louis Wu 10:20:22 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Fan Fiction
15 pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction update:

• Athenienses-II: Chapter 2: Plasma Tanks, by ZackDark
• Appocalypse-Sector4, by FFEcho
• Closing with the Enemy Chapter 2 Covenant Attack, by monitor101
• Closing with the Enemy Chapter 3 Death on the Front, by monitor101
• Neverland: A New Home, by SOS.Odin
• Merick's Journal's, Episode II: Streaker's Annonomous, by John Kitchen
• Another (Part 1), by Mr Bill Jr V
• Another (Part 2), by Mr Bill Jr V
• Lan Battle Chapter 2 Jesse's Plan , by Blue Angel
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 2: Alien Ambush), by CoLd BlooDed
• Balo: The Pillar of Yearning (Chapter 1), by Sergeant B
• A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Two, by Hunter_Killer
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Despite What The Map Says: Chapter 12, by S7N
• Halo the Aftershocks, by Nestor Nazario
• The Forerunner: Prologue, by Steele

A steady flow, no? (Louis Wu 10:12:46 UTC) (permalink)

New design for l337 Guide
Mafioso writes to point out that l337 Guide has gotten an entirely new look. Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 10:06:26 UTC) (permalink)

CobaltNova - down for the count
We'd like to say goodbye to a strong member of the Halo community; CobaltNova has closed its doors, permanently. In the words of Emil, its founder, "we had a pleasant community, decent website, with nice plans for the future that had to be closed down for the foreseeable future because life interfered." We're gonna miss you... (Thanks to gwdpto, who was the first to point this out to us.) (Louis Wu 10:04:07 UTC) (permalink)

News November 18 2003

Halo 2 Hip Hop
We've received another piece of Halo-inspired music. This one is the Halo 2 Trailer Music, with a hip hop beat. It's 2:13 long, just under 2 mb in size, and the author, chaostheory, had this to say:

I am an avid hip hop producer and I noticed the music in the background of the H2 preview was about the right sample speed to loop and mess around with. I absolutely adore Halo, beaten on legendary a few times and play MP regularly so I thought I'd make a halo beat. With the music form the movie, combined with a few vocal grunt samples and the like, I put this together. The drums aren't outstanding and I could have chopped the sample better but it was kind of a rush job....you be the judge.

He'd love feedback; if you have any comments, drop 'em off in our forum! (Louis Wu 16:02:43 UTC) (permalink)

Desktops, too
In a suprise move, we're clearing out the Wallpaper queue, as well, posting 8 new desktop images (11, if you count variants). Some pretty cool ones... check 'em out! (Louis Wu 15:50:38 UTC) (permalink)

Artwork - and lots of it
It's been a couple of weeks since we updated the Miscellaneous Art section - we've got 16 pieces for you today, many of which are comics of one kind or another. Thanks to all the submitters for their patience! (Louis Wu 15:08:54 UTC) (permalink)

You Killed...
Just in time to reinforce my assertion that someone messed up in the Best of the Best voting, c0ld vengeance's take on the HBO Halo PC servers is there to make you smile. One One Se7en - social commentary with a grin. (Louis Wu 09:31:13 UTC) (permalink)

Ask, and ye shall receive... THIS time.
Another Halo Story page update - this time, in response to a forum thread. (Okay, probably not. But the timing was pretty damn good.) Go read. (Louis Wu 00:05:27 UTC) (permalink)

News November 17 2003

The Maw 700... revisited
Back at the end of October, @ndrew submitted a new entry for a contest that we closed 18 months ago. Yes, his run for the Maw 700 is too late for prize contention... but it's a pretty darn good run (he finished with 2:45.26, faster than any of the actual entries we got). Despite the fact that the music chosen for the run made my ears bleed, this movie shows how cleanly this run can be done. 15.2 mb, in QuickTime format, for a 4 minute movie hosted at files.bungie.org. Check it out! (To save everyone a lot of stress, let me state here and now that we're not going to accept any more of these; some people see a post like this and say "I can do better!" - and they can. But our bandwidth isn't infinite, and though I liked this run, we don't need to see it again and again and again and again, just to shave another few seconds off that record... thanks.) (Louis Wu 16:06:32 UTC) (permalink)

A Few Clips Short Of A Reload.
The MC... losing it? You would, too, after 87 regular One One Se7en strips, and almost 50 guest ones... (Louis Wu 14:24:52 UTC) (permalink)

As Usual
The previously chinless Keyes assigns a new... helper to MC in today's Halo: Resolution. Uh oh... (Louis Wu 14:19:44 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Reading
17 stories released in the past 48 hours for our Fan Fiction section...

• Eldar Counsels Log Part 2- Stories and more Questions, by Blue Angel
• Tactics: A New Way of Thinking (comedy), by Awacar
• Apocalypse-Sector 4, by FFEcho
• Shell Shock- chapter 3, by Myth
• Shell Shock -chapter 4, by Myth
• Operation:Thunder, by Raise A Little Hell
• Death By Design Pt.1, by Silent Death Sorrow
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 1: Taken by Surprise), by CoLd BlooDed
• Merick's Journal's: Episode 1: Why Sidewinder is better than Blood Gulch, by John Kitchen
• Countdown Earth: Hour Five and Thirty Minutes, by Mainevent
• The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real... Part Three: Awaiting a ride, by Awacar
• Episode 1: Old Landmarks, by Unorthidox Everythng Man
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 4, by CovieKilla
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 5, by CovieKilla
• Trace 117, by GLADIATRRR3000 and Silent Death Sorrow
• Lan Battle Introduction-Chapter1: Turak's Defense, by Blue Angel
• Marooned Chapter 5, by Steve Ollett

The never-ending cycle continues. (Louis Wu 14:11:19 UTC) (permalink)

Hey, I've seen that!
343GS.com has posted their second EchoFourNineteen comic - you'll find it in the Downloads section. (It's called 'MMM Grunt Grape'.) Thanks to Madda Cheeb for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:01:51 UTC) (permalink)

The Realization of a Dream
Anyone who's spent any time on our forum knows the story of KORHAL, The Boy Who Cried Movie. Well, this weekend, he finally released some footage; there are four films, showing stuff like glitches, vehicle launches, and vehicle collections. They've been hosted by nukedude (vid one and vid two) c0ld vengeance (vids 3 and 4), and Break Point (all four vids). There's really nothing in them that hasn't been done before, and quality's a bit low (filmed off a webcam)... but for people who've been listening to KORHAL claim for a year and a half that he has filmz... it's closure. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:58:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC... piece.
Sector 7 has posted a Halo PC review. Well, really, it's more of a 'Halo PC Demo Impressions' article - it was written by someone who played the demo a few times. Hmm... (Louis Wu 13:42:51 UTC) (permalink)

News November 16 2003

Lanfest pics/vids
(GT)Juggler has put up a bunch of photos and some low-res vids from the or Inerumnis Lannactionica fest yesterday on his website, HaloGT. Warning - first two vids are of a modded copy of DOA Beach volleyball; the girls are missing some items of clothing. Everything else is pretty clean. (Louis Wu 21:57:55 UTC) (permalink)

Gearbox comments about upcoming content
Dave Mertz has posted an update on both the next Halo PC patch (1.03) and the Editing Tools package, over at the Gearbox forum. No definitive dates... but it looks like the tools package might still be a ways off, due to the volume of material that needs to go into it (and the changes necessitated by the latest game patches). Thanks to The Guardians for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 19:34:24 UTC) (permalink)

halo.leetgamers.org reborn
Blade writes that halo.leetgamers.org has gotten a design overhaul, and tossed the Team Ice affiliation. Content coming at some point. (Louis Wu 19:33:19 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Musings
Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the release of the Xbox (and the first chance most people had to play Halo). In a recent article on Bungie.net, SketchFactor asked for fan reminiscences on what Halo's been like for them; several folks posted their thoughts on our forum. The five I found were from Alexis, Gre'Thor117, Mr. Mechanical, Toby Dillman, and omegabullit. (There are other comments in the threads spawned by those posts.) In addition, there are writeups from the Lanwerx party Bungie threw in Seattle (Exogenesis, Pynion, Neo Alucard X (now Alucard), Major Tom, and goatrope), the HBO Junkies fest in Torrington (from KP, who unfairly maligns me throughout), and the iGames regional games (Scimitarex). Lots of thoughts! (Louis Wu 18:30:02 UTC) (permalink)

Had The Rumour Been True...
British spelling aside, Stuntmutt's commentary on the recent Halo-related rumors in today's One One Se7en strip is... spot on. (Louis Wu 15:11:02 UTC) (permalink)

Where's my coffee?
Whoa. Just getting back in gear; got home around 2 am from yesterday's lan festivities. 14 hours of Xbox Halo lan play... I've forgotten how much fun that is. Time to see what's new in the online world, though... (Apologies to anyone annoyed by the usually idling (but sometimes playing) Inerumnis character on the GameDaemons server yesterday; several of us jumped in and out of games using it between lan carnage. Normally, idle players get bumped, so there's room for players who WANT to play - but we figured a couple of hours of the guy wouldn't do TOO much damage.) (Louis Wu 14:14:51 UTC) (permalink)

News November 15 2003

No more news today...
Headed up to NoF's place for Inerumnis Lannactionica (don't even ask)... should be a goodly collection of Halo fans there for the day. Updates will resume tomorrow. (It's possible, but not all that likely, that we'll be able to get on to one of the Bungie servers hosting the Lanwerx celebration, so that we can make it a cross-country party... NoF has doubts about his PC equipment, so there aren't any promises.) (Louis Wu 14:38:46 UTC) (permalink)

PRA
Andrew writes to point out the Penguin Republican Army HQ. (They're a Halo PC clan.) They're recruiting... (Louis Wu 12:22:22 UTC) (permalink)

Warez.
Today's Guest One One Se7en was written by BOLL, about the time Halo PC was being released (a time when there were far more cracked servers online than legitimate ones). The topical nature of some One One Se7en strips have gotten us talking about options... more news when we have it. (Louis Wu 12:11:30 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC Tourneys all over India
The Worldwide Halo PC Championship is truly worldwide. It's not just countries like Australia or European nations, either - Microsoft is teaming up with Reliance Webworld (an Indian telecommunications retail giant) to bring the competition to 7,000 gamers in India. Winners will be flown to the US for the Final in January. Thanks to 'DFA'HK for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:06:44 UTC) (permalink)

Saturday Studies
Fourteen pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today...

• The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real... Part Two: Hunting, by Awacar
• Halo 2: Base Alpha 5 USNC part 1, by BBCBulldogs24
• Halo 2: Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 2), by BBCBulldogs24
• Halo 2:Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 3), by BBCBulldogs24
• A Pilot's Life: Chapter 9-Grave Battles (FINALE), by Captain Rasc
• The Harvest Campaign Chapter 1, by Fleet Admiral
• Wings of the Dead: Introduction, by Captain Rasc
• Battle for Croton 7, by Trevor, Boxer (subnova)& Earl, Funkster(has no life)
• Long Time Gone Part 4, by grylsy
• Eldar Councels Log Part 1-Aluvatar's Awakening, by Blue Angel
• Halo 2:Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 4), by BBCBulldogs24
• Galaxy 07 - Part 3 - Extracts, by Jillybean
• The Flood: A Force to be reckoned with (Part 5), by crashedwarthog
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Seven, by Nemesis

Enjoy the weekend! (Louis Wu 11:58:34 UTC) (permalink)

CVG sticks its tongue out
Hehe - Computer and Video Games takes a shot at all the websites who fell over themselves to report the rumors of a 2003 Halo 2 release or an XBL-enabled Halo release in their description of the whole 'Halo Deluxe' rumor fiasco. Pretty funny article. Thanks to Ash, who found it on Shacknews. (Louis Wu 11:50:16 UTC) (permalink)

Half empty or half full?
Sector 7 has posted an article about how gaming communities can affect the development of games. Take a look. (Louis Wu 11:38:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 - still coming next year
Hamid Djangi points out that the Halo 2 info page at Xbox.com has a 'Street Date' listed; March 2004. Now, before you get all excited that there's now a hard release date... this is not a Bungie page, this is a Microsoft page. Yes, MS owns Bungie, but no, they don't dictate release dates. It might TURN OUT to be true - but until it comes DIRECTLY from Bungie, we will NOT treat it as an 'official' release date. (Louis Wu 09:54:56 UTC) (permalink)

Paaaah-tay!
The Lanwerx party that Bungie is tossing tomorrow (today, for some of you) in Seattle is not restricted to Seattle denizens only... there are 15 dedicated servers being put aside for online Halo PC play - for folks to jump in and play along with those that are there in person. Details on servers (and passwords to enter) can be found in this Bungie.net post. It's a party, and you're invited! (Comments can be tossed into this HBO forum thread.) (Louis Wu 02:41:47 UTC) (permalink)

It's Double Plus Good
MASSIVE story over on Bungie.net - a celebration of Halo's second anniversary, and a look back (through the eyes of fans and developers alike) on what those two years have meant. Absolutely worth a read (except for the third fan bit). Make sure you've got your milk and cookies - it's gonna take you a while to get through it. (Louis Wu 01:38:14 UTC) (permalink)

News November 14 2003

Happy Birthday, John
Hehe - Halobabies.net has put up a new comic, in honor of tomorrow's 2-year anniversary of Halo - I certainly cracked a smile. Take a look! (Louis Wu 21:31:30 UTC) (permalink)

There's that Spotlight again
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews of the Junkyard writes to point out a couple of recent Halo community member spotlights; check out what makes Barak (of Haloplayers.com) tick, and get a glimpse into the life of Dinky, of HaloJuggaloProductions. In case you missed them, there are several older spotlights that might cover folks you've heard of: Gruntsbane and mrsmiley (from Halobabies.net), Pallor, 3of9 and mad.max (of Subnova), Dolbex (of Carnagereport.com), Fluffy (from Battleground: Halo), Emil (from CobaltNova), Bluestone (from 343GS.com) and a couple of guys from HBO. (Louis Wu 20:49:19 UTC) (permalink)

All you need is a dog and a cane.
Took a little while - but some recent submissions by Captain Spark have been added to the Dialogue Databank. 25 snippets, from Grunts and Sergeant Stacker. Go listen! (There are still a whole passel of elite sounds awaiting addition... they're more work than I've had time for.) (Louis Wu 18:31:19 UTC) (permalink)

Nice curves...
A teaser post... for a new contest? Check this forum post. (And look farther down in the thread for the "Images local" post if the images don't show up for you.) The email address should tell you all you need to know about who's running this puppy... (Louis Wu 13:19:17 UTC) (permalink)

Japan gets Halo PC
Steve Christofferson dropped into our forum to let folks know that Halo PC is FINALLY available in Japan - details are in his post. (Louis Wu 11:50:47 UTC) (permalink)

QED
Part 3 of Stuntmutt's Halo PC MC lampoon is up on the One One Se7en page. Wait for it... (Louis Wu 11:46:33 UTC) (permalink)

Necessary Appendages
Oh, the problems with being a pixellated character... check Halo: Resolution for Captain Keyes' latest problem. (Louis Wu 11:31:09 UTC) (permalink)

Writing for writing's sake
Finn, taking a break from the Halo Story page, has written up a couple of interesting rambles; there's his (slightly overdue, but still welcome) impressions of the 4-day bacchanal that was E3 2003 (complete with pictures), and an entertaining essay on Bungie and the Heroic Epic, an exposition on the depths of Bungie's storytelling... quite fitting for a Story page editor. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 01:39:42 UTC) (permalink)

News November 13 2003

Building ties
Soviet Spartan has a proposal for a Halo PC clan community - read it on our forum. (Louis Wu 22:44:56 UTC) (permalink)

Grumpy Review
Curmudgeon Gamer has written up a review of Halo PC; interesting overview. Pointed out by Mr. Mechanical on our forum. (Louis Wu 21:54:07 UTC) (permalink)

Tourney details, new clansite
A few websites for you: first up, we mentioned the Blue Pheonix tourney recently, but couldn't find the website; turns out, the server is case-sensitive. Go look it over for tourney details. In addition, we've got word of another Clan site for you: Clan uD is currently recruiting. They can also be found on IRC at #clanud on irc.gamesnet.com. (Louis Wu 21:30:21 UTC) (permalink)

HBO-GameDaemons glitches fixed!
The mystery of why the HBO-GameDaemons was difficult to connect to has been solved! Turns out there was some confusion as to what IP address it resided at; it's now at its original home (which is different from the IP it's been at for the past few weeks): 69.12.12.101. It can be connected to directly via that IP, and the status link at the top of our news page points there as well. We're back! (Louis Wu 20:40:08 UTC) (permalink)

Zee Storees, Boss, Zee Storees!
25 pieces for you in today's Fan Fiction update:

• Spartans Of Darkness Part 3, by SpartanOmega
• Threat Assasin # 1- Chapter 4- The Plan, by Lone Jackal
• And now all hell will break loose Part 8, by metallicafan
• The Spear of Tyr, by Gre'Thor117
• Confed Wars, Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• A Series of Wierd Events- Sequel, Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• The Green Tin Man, by Choasbringer
• Spartan III's, Chapter 6, Battles of the Sea, by FOrunnER
• Emperor's Children: Flood Survival: Part III, by Forever Forerunner
• Rebirth - The Long Expected Meeting, by KnightmareWolf, Shadow, Archangels_Blade, Spartan415
• A Pilot's Life: Chapter 8-Dead Wrong, by Captain Rasc
• Dreams of the Past. Chapter 1. Going In, by Meyer
• Death and Flame, by Robert Alexander Deen Corregan
• Attack on ERISTOCK Part 15: One More Time, by xitWOUND117
• Shell Shock- Chapter 2, by Myth
• Athenians-II: Chapter 1 The Behemoth, by ZackDark
• Galaxy 07 - Part 2 - Sanctuary, by Jillybean
• Halo 2:CH2 PT1 City take over, by Chris-124 & David-125
• Caught on Film,Chapter 2, by Dropship Pilot
• The Fall of New York: Part III , by hunter_elite
• VENGEANCE [2], by GLADIATRRR3000
• Countdown Earth: Hour Five, by Mainevent
• Neverland: A New Beginning, by SOS.Odin
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Six, by Nemesis
• A Pilot's Life:Chapter 7-The Resistance, by Captain Rasc

Go to it... (Louis Wu 14:46:11 UTC) (permalink)

MS Pain-T
One One Se7en - where the message often outweighs the medium. Today's Guest strip is a perfect example. Thanks, {SS}Zag1. (Louis Wu 11:49:10 UTC) (permalink)

Get your passport ready...
Bungie.net will be offline next week in order to update the site in a major way - read the details in this article. What this will eventually mean to you is a lot more Halo goodness, customized the way you like it... so get ready. (Louis Wu 01:57:08 UTC) (permalink)

News November 12 2003

The wackiest HPC server just got wackier.
In what was a long-overdue overhaul, the HBO-GameDaemons dedicated server mapcycle has been radically rewritten. Several games that didn't work were tweaked, others were removed altogether, and a few new ones were added. Chief among the additions are several gametypes developed by long-time Bungie fan (but only recently a Halo convert) Dispatcher - as far as I know, these are mostly untested. They LOOK fun on paper, though. If they work out, we'll be putting them up for download. (If they don't, we'll be passing along feedback to Dispatcher.) Jump on the server, and try 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:20:43 UTC) (permalink)

Rumor number 2 - you're outta there!
Undaunted by the dousing of the 'Halo 2 is coming this week' rumor, the gnomes have developed a NEW rumor - this time that 'Halo 1.5', a Live-enabled version of Xbox Halo, will be released by the end of the month. (Stories are on sites like GamesRadar UK and Eurogamer.) Evidence cited includes a new strategy guide, listed only as 'Halo Deluxe Edition' due out from Prima early next month. SketchFactor has once again stepped in with his hose; this time, it's just a short note:

Halo "deluxe" = Halo PC (and soon for Mac). Sorry. Give it up.

Can we stop with the conspiracy theories now? (Louis Wu 21:13:35 UTC) (permalink)

The Grunt League is underway.
CobaltNova writes to point out the Week One Summary of the CobaltNova Halo League, with player stats and rankings. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:51:23 UTC) (permalink)

$70K... for playing Halo?
CPL has announced its Summer 2004 Extreme Championship, with a $70,000 Halo PC CPL-Assault tournament. Wow. 4000 players (it's bring-your-own-computer), July 28th-August 1st in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Thanks to SketchFactor, over at Bungie.net, for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 20:48:56 UTC) (permalink)

Clan Electrik - they'll light you up.
plumpy writes to point out the website for Clan Electrik, a Halo PC clan in Utah. Nice looking website (should have entered it in the CarnageReport contest) - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:17:21 UTC) (permalink)

Bits and Bytes from Gearbox
rapture saved you the trouble of reading the Gearbox forums by pulling out a raft of interesting tidbits posted by Gearbox employees; info about the next HPC patch, teasers about easter eggs, info about the editing tools... go look. Then thank rapture. (Louis Wu 17:52:28 UTC) (permalink)

So Far Behind He's Ahead
Today's One One Se7en continue's the thread started on Monday - how many shots do we need to take at Halo PC's framerate, anyway? (I mean... it's not like it's a fast-moving target...) We've also added a Guest Queue approximate wait time, to let strip creators know what they're in for when they submit a strip. It's not an exact science, because it depends on special strip submissions by Stuntmutt (Sundays, holidays) - but it should give you a rough idea. (Hmm... looks like they're coming about as fast as Halo PC MC... I'm here all week.) (Louis Wu 11:21:39 UTC) (permalink)

I Thought We Were On The No Call List!
OMGWTF - 500 years in the future, and we're STILL getting cold calls? Halo: Resolution looks at one possible solution. (Louis Wu 10:51:26 UTC) (permalink)

News November 11 2003

The Mysterious Utah Halo Tourney
Chase writes about a Halo Tournament in West Jordan, Utah, on February 6. It's called the Blue Pheonix (no, I didn't spell that wrong). It had a website... but it seems to be gone already. Now you know what I know. (Louis Wu 21:15:37 UTC) (permalink)

Pretty Pics for your screen
Seven desktop images for you today on the Wallpaper page, clearing out the queue. Better than last time! A word of warning - a couple of these come dangerously close to failing to meet our image posting guidelines... please, if you're submitting artwork, read the guidelines. Thanks! (Louis Wu 20:38:40 UTC) (permalink)

To Screen or Not To Screen
241 new screenshots have been added to the Screenshots Database, covering all reviews listed to date and bringing us to the present. This brings the total number of Halo PC shots (1279) to within striking distance of all the Xbox Halo shots to date (1312) - wow. (Louis Wu 17:29:42 UTC) (permalink)

The Art of Halo
Almost missed this - I'm WAY behind on mail. Jarvis Badgley subscribes to a monthly mailing list from Del Rey Books which keeps him informed of upcoming SF releases. In this month's note:

HALO FANS REJOICE!

Del Rey has an agreement to produce THE ART OF HALO by Eric Trautmann, under the very successful Microsoft Xbox publishing program, for next October. This intensely illustrated journey through the world of Halo will show how the Bungee [sic] game team created the characters, the environment, the action, and the brilliant graphics for the award-winning game.

Whoa. Now THAT'S gonna be one pretty book. (There is not yet any information about this on Del Rey's website. The newsletter itself can be seen here - the bit in question is down near the bottom.) (Louis Wu 17:09:55 UTC) (permalink)

Review Roundup
Couple of reviews in the past week - both courtesy of Blue's News. Review Gamer mostly liked it (8.96/10); they felt a few parts were too linear. Gbase.ch (a Swiss site, in German) wrote a 3 page review, and eventually gave it an 85/100. (They gave it a perfect 10 on Controls.) Update: A few more, courtesy of GameRankings:

• Game2Extreme (October 22, 8.6/10)
• Game Power Australia (November 3, 8.5/10)
• TechTV (November 5, 4/5)
• In the Mix (November 6, 3/5)
• Games First (November 9, 4/5)

That should do it for a bit... (Louis Wu 14:54:43 UTC) (permalink)

Really Retro Reactor Report
Well, doodoo. Somehow, I managed to miss the third and final installment of the Anime Reactor writeup that mehve put up at Bungie.net - it's over a week old now. There's a little bit of Halo information, and I'm gonna post this so that I can find it in six months... but if you've been keeping up on the news at Bungie.net, you've already seen this. (Louis Wu 14:32:39 UTC) (permalink)

Clan Website contest update
Whoa. Totally missed this in time to warn you... but the deadline has passed for the Clan Website contest being run by Carnagereport.com (we mentioned it a couple of weeks ago). Judging is happening this week, and the results will be announced on Saturday, November 15. (Hey! Maybe THAT'S what all the rumors were about!) (Louis Wu 14:04:48 UTC) (permalink)

Super Mario MC
Nick Danger pointed out a pretty funny movie over at Halomods - a 2D Halo scroller? Dunno if it's real or not - but the vid's definitely worth the download. (3.3 mb, AVI format.) (Louis Wu 10:40:53 UTC) (permalink)

Websites, websites, and more websites
Halo web stuff again - apologies for letting this build up.

• Echo-413 (General Halo Guide site)
• Seraphim Clan (Halo PC clan)
• Art of Death clan (Halo PC clan)
• Nemex Clan (Halo PC clan)

The Soviet Spartan, of Art of Death, wanted folks to know that he's working on setting up allied and rival clans - he'd love to see clans register at teamwarfare.com to maximize this. Check 'em all out! (Louis Wu 10:37:00 UTC) (permalink)

Se7en Tons.
So how much DOES the MC weigh? {SS}Zag1 looks at the issue in today's guest One One Se7en. For future reference - this is a bad thing to do to a superior officer... ESPECIALLY on Veterans Day. (Thanks, to all the real-world soldiers out there.) (Louis Wu 01:46:04 UTC) (permalink)

Drowning in words
Absurd number of Fan Fiction bits, because I was off this weekend...

• Blue Squadron Chronicles, Part Five, by Hunter_Killer
• Blue Squadron Theme Song, by Hunter_Killer
• The 7th Column: First Strike, by Mainevent
• Derailed Final Part, by Dispraiser
• A John Before Halo: Part 15, by J-117
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Four, by Nemesis
• Shell Shock- chapter 1: , by Myth
• Threat Assasin # 1- Chapter 3- Brother's fate, by Lone Jackal
• 1m x 1m, by Steve
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Six, by LordofDestruction
• Galaxy 07 - Part 1, by Jillybean
• Battle of the East N. American Protectorate P1, by Steve
• Misunderstood (Halo Rap), by CovieKilla
• Appocalypse-Sector 3, by FFEcho
• Final Fate: Mankind's Demise, by Jinkaiden-XI
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Five, by Nemesis
• Fall from grace (Halo 2: Chapter 12), by Shadowrunner
• Ghostrider 5: Lt. Tyler Kent, by Tyler
• Caught on Film, Chapter 1, by Dropship Pilot
• Halo: The MCconto Chronicles part 15/16, by JCDenton
• Silent Skin Slit Pt. 2, by Silent Death Sorrow
• UNSC Special Forces: Proluge, by Nightblade
• March of the N00bs - Part 2a, by Wado
• March of the N00bs - Part 2b, by Wado
• Closing with the Enemy Chapter 1 Unexpected Arrival, by monitor101
• Hidden Love, by Mainevent
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 3, by CovieKilla

Think you're man (or woman) enough to read 'em all? Ha! (Louis Wu 01:32:23 UTC) (permalink)

News November 10 2003

Bridge Jump
Synide has whipped up a new vid, just in time for the opening of halo.synide.net. It's called bridgeJump.mov, and it weighs in at 8.6 mb (QuickTime format, 320x240). It shows a trick not yet filmed (crossing the light bridge gap before the bridge has been activated)... but the rest of the movie shows what happens when a Halo trickster is questioned as to WHY he performs tricks. You can grab this from halo.synide.net, as mentioned (linked right off the news section), or from a mirror at files.bungie.org. (Louis Wu 21:41:25 UTC) (permalink)

Best of the Best
The Rabid Lilliputians, a clan of... well, small players with their tongues wedged firmly in their cheeks, have set up a tournament: Best of the Best. You go to their site, you vote for who you think are the top 10 HPC players. After the voting period has ended, the top 15 nominated players will e chosen, and will meet in a single game. (The extra slot is for an observer.) Go read the details at tRL, or see stan's post in our forum. (Louis Wu 21:30:08 UTC) (permalink)

Bouncy BOLL
There's an article over at the Junkyard, written by MrFluffyPants26, about BOLL's mods. The first half is pretty interesting - some thoughts from BOLL on which mods he likes best, and what he used - and then there's a description of a few of the best-known mods. The second half is completely indecipherable - it's a list, but it's not clear what it's a list OF. What mods exist? What's changed in particular mods? (Which ones, then?) Dunno. Anyway, go read the first half. (Louis Wu 21:13:36 UTC) (permalink)

Goodies for German-speaking Europeans
If you live in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, Halo Orbit is running a Halo quiz with Halo schwag as prizes. Take a look! (Louis Wu 17:37:29 UTC) (permalink)

One more time: IT'S NOT TRUE
Reading our forum for these past couple of days has been painful. Dozens and dozens of new people (or even old hands who should know better), jumping in with links to rumors around the net, stating that Halo 2 will be out next week (or by November 28, or in time for Christmas)... SketchFactor jumped in this morning with a Rumor Buster:

Despite all the juicy rumors floating around the net lately, I can confirm with absolute certainty that Halo 2 is NOT coming out in 2003. As we have said for quite some time now, the game will be released when it is done and that will be in 2004. It is not coming out next week. It will not be on store shelves this holiday. Why would anyone want to do a "secret release" with a property as big as Halo 2 anyways? What possible benefit is there in sneaking it onto shelves without making the consumer aware?

Please remember that unless you hear it direct from Bungie, you shouldn't pay attention to any release dates or speculation you see or hear. I'm sorry to crush hopes of playing the game early but it's better than getting your hopes up prematurely. I'm as eager as you are to get my hands on the finished game but we're not there yet.

When the time is right, I imagine we will have more to say about a firm release date. For now, we stand by what we've always said - Halo 2 will be released when it's finished.

It don't get any clearer than that, folks. It's a rumor. And it's been busted. I think I hear a fat lady singing... (Louis Wu 17:17:53 UTC) (permalink)

One One Sezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzen.
Stuntmutt takes a shot at Halo PC shortcomings in today's One One Se7en. (This was FAR more relevant a month ago... blame the limitations of time, rather than Stuntmutt, for this.) (Louis Wu 16:24:46 UTC) (permalink)

It's All In Your Head
So what do you do when the AI in your head starts making you hear voices? (Well, her voice, anyway...) Check today's Halo: Resolution. (Louis Wu 11:15:58 UTC) (permalink)

UI - it's what's for breakfast.
Jake 'Evergreen98' Billo over at the Junkyard has written an interesting article on Halo's User Interface, a part of the game you don't pay a lot of attention to. (In general, the better a UI design is, the less you notice it. It's there to facilitate your gameplay, not make itself known. Halo's is quite good.) Take a look! (Louis Wu 10:55:56 UTC) (permalink)

News November 9 2003

Rumor control 101
Okay, I'm posting this to decrease the mail flood, not because I want to lend any validity to the absurdity. There are rumors around the net right now that Halo 2 will be released, in a suprise move, in less than a week. (Here's one story now.) I don't have any inside information on when the game will be out... but I can say, with certainty, that if it DOES pop onto store shelves next Saturday, I'll probably stop running this site, because I will have clear evidence of how far out of the loop I really am. I believe there WILL be some Halo-related announcements - quite possibly the Halo 2 DVD/Controller bundle we mentioned yesterday, or maybe something bigger - but it won't be Halo 2, finished and boxed. I'm as sure of that as I am that I watched a pretty cool lunar eclipse last night. (Side note: if you have news for posting on HBO, please - send it to halo@bungie.org; my personal address is to be used for personal communication, not general news. When I'm out of town, anything you send to me, personally, languishes until I'm back, whereas info sent to the main HBO address gets read by a number of people with posting privileges. Thanks!) (Louis Wu 14:40:06 UTC) (permalink)

Forum Decorum
Jillybean points out one possible use for newbies in today's guest One One Se7en. Please don't try this at home. Professional MC on a closed track. (Louis Wu 00:31:12 UTC) (permalink)

Digging into the orange, looking for that juice
Another massive Halo Story page update, Finn this time. Lots and lots and lots to read. Go read. (Louis Wu 00:24:00 UTC) (permalink)

News November 8 2003

Mac geeks take heed!
Lots of good tech info from the Westlake programmers on the IMG forum - if that goes offline, Madscientist transcribed a bunch of it in this forum post. Not long now! (Louis Wu 20:15:40 UTC) (permalink)

Hazardous Conditions
mrsmiley stopped by last night to point out a new Halo Babies cartoon - I'm just reaching that section of the forum now. Looks like we're getting away from water balloons to me... Explore the Halo Babies site, there's also a bunch of other new stuff; new banner ads, AIM Buddy icons, and some new site streamlining. Check it all out! (Louis Wu 15:53:25 UTC) (permalink)

Flash game... trailer?
343GS has put up yet another teaser for their upcoming Flash Halo game; it's a downloadable standalone Flash executable (runnable only on Windows platforms) with a bit of text about the game. It weighs in at 1.5 mb. Personally, I wish they'd put their efforts into actually CODING THE GAME, and hold back on the PR until it's done... but that's just me. Go grab it from the Junkyard if you're interested. (Louis Wu 15:42:13 UTC) (permalink)

New Team Sexy footage
Team Sexy has posted deleted scenes from their 'Hall of the Sidewinder King' movie; dunno, but to me it looks like one guy running out of a base and through the tunnels. (I guess I thought it was gonna be bloopers, or something.) If you're interested, stop by their forums and look for the 'NEW VIDEOS' thread on the TS.Films forum. (Louis Wu 13:56:50 UTC) (permalink)

Just Big Gorillas
IXIGhandiIXI pointed out a new comic over at 343gs.com. It's called EchoFourNineteen, and it's in their Downloads section. (The site is framed, so you'll have to navigate there yourself.) Episode 1 looks at Brutes... (Louis Wu 12:32:39 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo 2 material - on store shelves?
Whoa. So back on August 31, Rampant Cowboy pointed out a thread over at TeamXbox which was discussing a product someone found in their store's database called 'XBX-Halo 2 BUNDLE' - price was $19.99, release date was November 15. RC's thread went nowhere - there were a couple of posts, but I think MY feeling at the time was that this was a packaged version of the E3 demo, or something. On November 2, RC brought it up again, because there was new info over at TeamXbox. Again, the thread went nowhere - this time, because Mat Noguchi (a Bungie programmer) shot it down. Yesterday, however, Opie301 mentioned SEEING something like this on the shelf at his local Best Buy... and SketchFactor actually confirmed that there IS something to it. He was under the impression that it wasn't supposed to be released before Thanksgiving... but it really is new Halo 2 material, and it's not just the E3 demo vid. A cookie to the first reader who tells us what's actually THERE. (And thanks, belatedly, to Rampant Cowboy, for not getting discouraged. :) ) Update: Gah, I should read the whole thread before posting. Opie went back to Best Buy, and picked up the package (a DVD/Controller bundle) - and it's all material he's seen before. (The 'Behind the Scenes Halo 2 Documentary' sounds like it might be the Discovery Channel piece that we weren't able to put online for legal reasons... so maybe there IS a valid reason for buying this if you don't need the controller.) A full list of what's on the DVD is in that last post. (Louis Wu 12:04:15 UTC) (permalink)

Paint Job.
Today's guest One One Se7en is by Michael M, and if you don't get it, I'd suggest you revisit our Miscellaneous section. (The dangers of long lead times on strips...) (Louis Wu 11:50:32 UTC) (permalink)

B.net interviews AGP
Yesterday, Bungie.net posted an interview with Jay Ubroh, the president of the Associates of Gaming Professionals, an organization devoted to professional Halo Xbox gaming. How AGP started, why Halo, and what's next were all on the table. Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:29:21 UTC) (permalink)

Team Ice back online
Blade writes to say that the Team Ice site has been updated; there are a few movies mirrored there (including the entire Fire Team Charlie series), and their new forums are now online. Take a look! (Louis Wu 10:07:01 UTC) (permalink)

Team X: The Beginning of the End
Longtime bandwidth donator That Weasel wrote to tell us about a new project: That Weasel Television has teamed up with Team X and Ctrl + Alt + Delete Productions to create the Team X: The Beginning of the End collection of Halo videos. It's being hosted by TWTv. Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:03:08 UTC) (permalink)

WMP9 - now for MacOSX!
Whoa. Out tonight, there'll be updates in the morning... but I stopped in to the office to turn the lights off, and noticed a bit of news which should make LOTS of moviemakers happy; Microsoft has released a WMP9 version of Windows Media Player for MacOSX. (As far as I can tell, there is not yet a version for MacOS9 and below... but you gotta have a cutoff somewhere.) What this means for you, the moviemaker, is that we are no longer limiting submissions to block movies that come in only in WMP9. (We haven't changed our standards, and you'll still need to meet our posting guidelines if you want us to host the film... but you won't have to find a way to convert it to a format Macs can read, because most macs can now read WMP9.) Woohoo! (Louis Wu 03:37:51 UTC) (permalink)

News November 7 2003

Do you use Yahoo mail?
Quick heads-up; seems Yahoo has managed to harbor a big enough mail spammer that it's gotten its entire block of mailservers listed on SpamCop. Bungie.org's mailserver uses the SpamCop blacklist... so anybody mailing from Yahoo will not be able to mail us until this is over. (For an ISP like Yahoo, it usually takes a day or so to sort things out.) Sorry for the inconvenience! (Thanks to Socrates for pointing out the problem.) (Louis Wu 22:10:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Story Stuff
A few quick points covered today on the Halo Story page... mnemesis continues to hammer away at the iceberg that is the mailbag. Go make his life harder by reading, then commenting. (Louis Wu 21:38:01 UTC) (permalink)

Zee Storees...
15 entries in the Fan Fiction section today:

• Unforgiven, by AlphaBravo343
• New Lunar HQ: Chapter 5/ Part 2, by Fleet Admiral
• A Soul of Steel: Part 5, by The Scribe
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Three, by Nemesis
• Broken Promise, by Alpha Lance
• The Fallen: Halo 2 Ch6 The First Wave, by Hikaru-119
• Battle To The Death, by Sergeant B
• Hearts Are Stolen, by Sergeant B
• Halo 2:CH1 FreeFall, by Chris-124 & David-125
• Sons of Sparta VII, by SOS.Odin
• Threat Assasin # 1- Chapter 2- Messing with the wrong person, by Lone Jackal
• The Cell(2), by Frensa Geran
• Silent Skin Slit Pt. 1, by Silent Death Sorrow
• Homeworlds XXIII, by Mainevent
• The fall of New York : part II, by hunter_elite

Read, read, read... (Louis Wu 17:13:06 UTC) (permalink)

Swapping Halos.
Most HPC players will be able to relate to today's One One Se7en... (Louis Wu 14:56:40 UTC) (permalink)

Claustrophobia
Once you've had a taste for freedom, it's hard to go back. Check out Halo: Resolution today. (Louis Wu 14:52:21 UTC) (permalink)

Without Further Ado...
As promised, the Great Halo Scavenger Hunt closed its doors this afternoon. Congratulations to all those who finished it, and indeed all those who took part! We've put together a page containing complete directions on how we thought the game would be played - you can see how close you came, if you didn't win, or how close your thinking was, if you did. (Thanks to BOLL for much of the formatting.) (Louis Wu 01:01:43 UTC) (permalink)

News November 6 2003

HBO-GameDaemons: Back Up!
Taken a little time... but the HBO-GameDaemons Halo PC dedicated server is back online, with its original mapcycle. (For the past 2 days, it's been running a few stock maps while we tried to iron out some difficulties.) There'll be more complete changes coming tomorrow, most likely (an addition of several new games, and a tweaking of the cycle itself), but right now, it's online and ready for action! Huge thanks to the GameDaemons staff for getting this going again. (Louis Wu 22:30:22 UTC) (permalink)

Not long now...
A quick reminder: The Great Halo Scavenger Hunt ends in roughly 3 hours (6 pm UTC, which is 1 pm EST or 10 am PST). The solution (and the names of the winners) will be posted later this afternoon - but after closing time, even if you complete the hunt, you won't be able to submit your entry. There are still plenty of prizes to win, so if you're close, don't give up! (Louis Wu 15:00:16 UTC) (permalink)

Apple posts system reqs for Mac Halo
The Apple Store is listing some system requirements for Mac Halo (you'll have to search for the item; there's no way I know of to link directly to it), and they're relatively steep: 700 MHz G4, 256/512 MB RAM, Radeon 8500 or GeForce 2 MX with 32 MB VRAM. These aren't final requirements, as far as I know - Al Schilling just said yesterday (to IMG) that they hadn't been pinned down yet - but it's a starting point. Thanks to Toxicoman, via email, and Howie, on our forum, for noticing. (Louis Wu 14:24:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Ice Fields
Mark Hawk dropped in to our forum to announce a trailer for Halo Ice Fields, an upcoming movie in the style of Red vs Blue. You can find the trailer on the Halo Ice Fields website. It weighs in at 40 mb, in MPEG format. (Louis Wu 12:59:13 UTC) (permalink)

MTV Ultimate Video Game Countdown
Electronic Gaming Monthly and MTV are teaming up to bring you the Ultimate Video Game Countdown - and they're soliciting votes from the public now. They're looking for the best game of the new millenium (past 3 years) - and Halo is in the running. Read this page for details (and a link to the poll). Thanks to SketchFactor for getting the word out. (Louis Wu 12:45:26 UTC) (permalink)

Falling Rockethog Zone
Today's Guest One One Se7en is by Rush1312, and it looks at the hazards of hacking. (Louis Wu 12:03:18 UTC) (permalink)

Meet the Team
(GT)Juggler put up another video over at Halo GT - it's called 'Meet The Team', and it introduces you to Halo GT, while showing some pretty fun multiplay stuff. It's about 31 mb, in QuickTime format. You can find it in their Media section. (Louis Wu 09:31:44 UTC) (permalink)

News November 5 2003

Al Schilling talks games to IMG
Inside Mac Games has interviewed Al Schilling, product manager at Macsoft, and not surprisingly, Halo gets touched upon.

IMG: Do you have any system requirements for Halo yet?

Schilling: Not yet but we're going to have to print boxes very soon.

The boxes... the boxes! All I can say is, they better not hold up delivery... Thanks to MadScientist for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 20:36:00 UTC) (permalink)

Group Singleplayer
There's an article on 'Hot-Seat Gaming' over at Xbox.com - and one of the suggested events is a Maw run. Check it out. Thanks to Rendar for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:18:22 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Paintball
Hmm. There was a Halo Reclaimer paintball scenario game in Colorado last month - and the writeup before the event includes a long-winded summary of (the beginning of) Halo's plot. Weirdness. Thanks to Donovan for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:15:44 UTC) (permalink)

Party Hardy with Marty's Army!
Bungie's very own Marty O'Donnell has posted on his Chapter page that an announcement is coming soon about a large Marty Army get-together in honor of Halo's 2 year anniversary. More to come on Bungie.net's front page!

Those of you that live near the Maestro will have quite an opportunity to pump him for info on Halo 2 (the man never breaks though) as well as touch his golden mane! And then raid his fridge! And then flop a grenade on him as he runs from your base! (OK, I'll stop now)

UPDATE: Oops, I missed the link to the actual event page. November 15, at 4PM is when the craziness starts! Update 2: SketchFactor pointed out that the B.net clock is a little screwy; the festivities actually begin at 1 pm PST. (Ding 19:39:57 UTC) (permalink)

Bits and pieces
Hehe - Finn calls it a drop in the bucket... but it looks pretty big to me. Check out the Halo Story page for the latest speculation. (Louis Wu 19:16:44 UTC) (permalink)

Cortana Goes Down.
Sometimes, because of the long lead times on strips, One One Se7en is a bit off-topic; its relevance decreased from the moment in which it was written. Today's doesn't fit that mold at all. Timing couldn't be MORE perfect, I don't think. (Louis Wu 13:18:54 UTC) (permalink)

I Bet You Have One Too
The sensitive side of MC? Halo: Resolution isn't afraid to bare the truth. (Louis Wu 11:54:30 UTC) (permalink)

HBO-GameDaemons - wounded but not dead
Quick status update on the HBO-GameDaemons server, for those confused by recent events... GD is moving us from the initial (pretty haphazard due to its early implementation) server setup we had with them to a more standard install. There were a few glitches in the process (some of which are still to be resolved). All custom gametypes are offline until someone sorts things out in the morning. Hang tight; they're not gone, just in limbo for a bit. In the meantime, most of those gametypes are available on the HBO-Subnova server. (The GameDaemons server is running, it's just that it only has the few standard gametypes we'd configured in the rotation.) We'll post a small update when things are straightened out. (Louis Wu 03:52:37 UTC) (permalink)

Lethal Rage 2 mirrored
Thanks to Blade, who's mirrored yesterday's release of 'Lethal Rage 2' at Team Ice. (Louis Wu 03:46:27 UTC) (permalink)

News November 4 2003

Massive Halo Tweak Guide at TweakTown
TT Gamer has put up a very nice Guide to Tweaking Halo; lots of good information. Thanks to Djof for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 19:21:45 UTC) (permalink)

In the beginning, there was the word...
Forgot to post Fan Fiction yesterday, so today's update is 22 stories big:

• The Death of Ensign Lovell, by Walker
• Halo Poetry 101: Killing Stuff, by Brian Alexandrowicz
• Plasma Burns and Bullet Shells- chapter 8(finale), by Myth
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 2, by CovieKilla
• Halo Trilogy Side Story: The Grunt Interrogation (comedy), by Alpha Lance
• The fall of new york:the clearing, by hunter_elite
• Threat Assassin #1- The Prolouge, by Lone Jackal
• Aurora Squadron- Part 1, by RogueFox
• Halo 2: Reawakening of Halo (story1), by Christopher Matthew Gonzalez
• Halo: The Beckoning, by Darby Janssen
• My Life as a Grunt, by Alpha Lance
• The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real... Part One: The landing, by Awacar
• The Last Assault [H&R 17], by Jillybean
• The Interlude [H&R Finale], by Jillybean
• The March of the N00bs - Part 1, by Wado
• Chapter Eight: Rise of the Phoenix, by Blue Jaguar
• Old Style, by Horror
• Attack on ERISTOCK Part 14: Only the Strong, by xitWOUND117
• The Ride to Dagon IV, by duckfoot
• Battle for the Norah: Part Nine, by Sterfrye36
• Orange Peanuts - A Halo Comedy, by Dispraiser
• Derailed Part 11, by Dispraiser

Quick note to the world at large: The Fan Fiction submission form is NOT an acceptable way to contact the administration of this site. If you need to talk to us, use email. If you do not want us to know your email address, we probably don't need to hear what you have to say. Thanks! (Louis Wu 18:17:43 UTC) (permalink)

Trick or Treat...
Gah. Chris Macias uploaded a picture of his Halloween costume a couple of days ago... we didn't get to it. Better late than never! He went as an Xbox (240K), and the costume was good enough that he received a copy of Halo from the Microsoft employee that lived at one of the houses he visited. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 13:36:10 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie gets props from Macworld
Yesterday's big news in the Xbox world was that Microsoft has decided to go with IBM's PowerPC chip for the next iteration of its console. (This isn't Halo news, so we didn't bother reporting it.) As Miguel mentioned on our forum, one of the big hurdles to be overcome is the thorny issue of how to keep backward compatibility with Xbox games after this architecture change. PowerPC chips have been used in Macs for almost 10 years now, and Microsoft recently purchased Connectix, a company that produced Virtual PC, a Windows emulator written for PowerPC architecture, so some (like this Macworld UK article) are drawing parallels to other former Mac developers that have helped transform the Xbox into a successful product. (Yeah, we mean Bungie, with Halo. See? It's Halo-related, now.) Thanks to Lophan for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:13:57 UTC) (permalink)

Australian Halo Tourney starts this week
Cyber Slam is an Australian Halo tournament starting this Friday, November 7th. 16 national finalists will be flown to Sydney to compete in the finals on December 6 - and the winner will pocket $1000 in cash and be flown to the US to play in the International Halo Championship tourney in January 2004. You must be 18 or over to participate. Unfortunately, registration closed at midnight on the 3rd of November; we received this note a day or two before that, but it was sent to a hidden address (we were bcc'd), and my junk filter didn't let it through. Note to folks with time-critical info - in these days of heavy spam filtering, you're better off taking the extra time to actually mail the announcement to individual addresses. (There are even apps for this.) Good luck to all who entered! (Louis Wu 12:21:24 UTC) (permalink)

Death From Above now recruiting
HUNTR-KILLR writes that his clan, ..::DFA::.., has issued an invitation for tryouts; if you're interested, check out their webpage! (Louis Wu 12:12:53 UTC) (permalink)

A Bird, A Plane, A Talking Lady Tank
endrom has drawn today's guest One One Se7en strip... I'm at a loss. It's a RvB nod, I can say that much. (Louis Wu 11:48:57 UTC) (permalink)

Scavenger Hunt update
Okay, I'm ready to call it a day. Or a month. Or whatever. On October 6th, we kicked off The Great Halo Scavenger Hunt, and with the help of a whole bunch of Halo-related websites and Bungie, we set up what we thought was a fun, thought-provoking contest. Seems like we went too far, though - even in the face of more and more blatant hints (to the point of giving away key parts of the puzzle), we STILL have had just 5 successful entries (not counting the instant win tokens). Bungie supplied enough schwag for 28 winners - but we're gonna leave some of that unclaimed, I'm guessing, because I'm putting a one-month deadline on the game. As of 6 pm UTC on November 6th (that's 1 pm Eastern Time on Thursday), we're declaring this contest over, and posting a full solution on the net. Any unclaimed prizes will remain with Bungie, probably for use with future contests. (Part of the reason to call it quits is that there are at least 2 other contests I know of, waiting in the wings for this one to end; there will be plenty of other opportunities to snag cool stuff, and maybe some of them will capture more imaginations than this one did.) You've got a bit over 48 hours to finish up, if you're still interested in taking home some of THESE prizes; as far as I know, at least half the trinkets have been posted in full view on our forum, so finishing up shouldn't be that hard, if you really want to finish up. (Louis Wu 11:09:09 UTC) (permalink)

Lethal Rage 2
Pico submitted a new movie, called Lethal Rage 2, recently. The first time I watched it, I felt that he spent too much time trying to get that 'cool cinematic shot', and not enough time advancing the plot. Watching it again, I see that part of my problem was the confusing flag colors. (Seems to me the capture is going backwards. Maybe it's me being slow.) Anyway, a second runthrough shows me that it's actually a pretty slick film. It's the story of a Blue assault on the Red flag, and it's got all sorts of James Bond-ish features tossed in. (The drop-off-the-cliff-into-the-ghost scene is quite nicely done.) It's been re-encoded into QuickTime format, and weighs in at 16.6 mb (it's 5:40 long). I've posted copies at both files.bungie.org and Mythica - and if anyone feels the urge to mirror, we're always happy for extra links. Pico's asked for feedback in this forum thread. (Louis Wu 10:57:59 UTC) (permalink)

HBO HPC list posted
Ben Roth has compiled a list of HBO forum regulars, and the HPC handles they play under. If you're looking for folks from our forum when you're online playing Halo PC, this is a list you should read! (Louis Wu 10:52:48 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC Vehicles Guide up at Halo Ops
Halo Ops has put up a Halo PC Vehicles Guide - and though the screenshots are quite nice, some of the info is a bit questionable. (I thought 'Phade' was a typo, at first, as the name of the Shade - but it's used more than half a dozen times.) As a discussion-starter, this article is worth a read. (Louis Wu 10:08:55 UTC) (permalink)

Blood Gulch for UT2K3
Titanium Designs, a modding group for Unreal Tournament 2003, has released CTF - Bloodgulch 2, a map design based on Halo's Blood Gulch. You can see screenshots on this page, or grab a 17 mb WMP9 vid of the level from their Videos section. (Personally, I'm having trouble seeing the resemblance...) The 3 mb map download can be snagged off FilePlanet. Thanks to Alex Bilas for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 09:53:52 UTC) (permalink)

Xbox modding scene goes injected
Okay, this one's weird. tjc2k4, a forum member over at xbox-scene, has managed to get injected models to work on his modded Xbox. (Not yet for Halo PC, unfortunately.) It's not ready for release yet, but there's a proof of concept movie showing a warthog with wings flying around. He didn't have the bandwidth to host it, and Haloskins hasn't posted the upload yet, so Break Point came to the rescue and put the movie up on his site. (We've also tossed a copy of this 2.2 mb WMP7 vid up on Mythica.) Bizarre-looking stubby-winged Warthog... maybe we should call it the A10. Take a look! (Louis Wu 09:42:41 UTC) (permalink)

News November 3 2003

Westlake running a sweatshop?
Rockin'. Destineer has updated SketchFactor, who in turn has updated the world about the latest with the Mac Halo beta. Looks like the programmers are being worked pretty hard... but the payout's pretty big! Check it out. (Louis Wu 23:03:50 UTC) (permalink)

Toys, toys, and more toys!
Hankerin' for a new Halo action figure? The second wave of figures have shipped; two Master Chiefs, the Elite, and the Ghost went out on trucks today. Details at Bungie.net! (Louis Wu 22:42:46 UTC) (permalink)

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere!
The Halo-Ween pumpkin-carving contest has been judged, and the winners can be found over at Bungie.net - congrats to winners Michael Coffing, Cheyenne Space, Jason Whited, and Warbow! (There many other entries visible in the Pumpkin Contest Gallery, as well.) Very cool stuff! (Louis Wu 22:40:44 UTC) (permalink)

SeeMePlayMe - tonight
There's another SeeMePlayMe online tourney this evening at 7pm CST. 2v2 - but rapture points out that it's easy to find partners in the SMPM Halo lobby. Other relevant links are in the forum post. (Louis Wu 21:38:55 UTC) (permalink)

Also Available - Marine Deserter
If you bought one of the first wave of action figures, Joyride would give you an Active Camouflage Master Chief, for a $5 shipping fee. Not a bad deal... unless you're One One Se7en's MC. Ouch! (Louis Wu 07:20:45 UTC) (permalink)

Out Of Context
Do cyborgs dream of holographic sex? Halo: Resolution looks at this bizarre question today. (Louis Wu 07:14:52 UTC) (permalink)

A new home for the Silent Cartographers
The Silent Cartographers, a Halo PC modding group, has moved into new digs at www.islandfour.com. Well, they gotta get SOME use out of that domain, don't they? (If you don't know the story... count yourself lucky.) Go visit the site; it's WAAAY easier on the eyes than the original. (And check out the newly described - but not announced - project, Aquaphobia!) Postman pointed it out on our forum (though it's my bad for forgetting it was going live today). (Louis Wu 06:02:36 UTC) (permalink)

HaloSpy: now available
Programerz points out that HaloSpy has been released; it's a server browser/server monitor, and it shows you FULL STATS on the gametype. Very cool. Check out Halocity for details. (Louis Wu 05:49:30 UTC) (permalink)

News November 2 2003

Reviews out the wazoo
Thanks to Hamid Djangi, who pointed out a couple of review sites with lots of links we haven't reported yet - all of the following came from GameRankings and Metacritic.

• New Zealand Herald (September 25)
• Maxim Online (September 25)
• ActiveGaming (October 1)
• Lawrence.com (October 2)
• IcronticGames (October 6)
• USA Today (October 8)
• Gaming Target (October 10)
• Gaming Nation (October 11)
• The Next Level (October 13)
• Cincinatti Inquirer (October 14)
• The Globe and Mail (October 14)
• Thunderbolt Games Online (October 14)
• GameOver (October 17)
• Gaming Age (October 21)
• The Discworld (October 22)
• PGNx Media (October 25)
• Computer Gaming World (October 27)
• Gaming Media (October 28)

Whew! That's a lot. (Louis Wu 19:40:51 UTC) (permalink)

PDX tourney in January
Gonna be near Portland, Oregon in mid-January? Check out PDXLAN 2004 - both Xbox and PC Halo tourneys. Lots of prizes. Cost to get in is free-$2.00 depending on when you register. Thanks to Demented for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:07:04 UTC) (permalink)

Boxing MC
Hehe - goatrope figured out how to make the MC melee with no weapons. Okay, it's just for show, but it's still pretty cool looking. Check out this forum thread (more pics farther down, as well). (Louis Wu 14:31:02 UTC) (permalink)

Elitettes?
Stuntmutt is playing with fire in this week's Sunday One One Se7en; the MC learned this the hard way. (Louis Wu 13:00:03 UTC) (permalink)

I have GOT to get on the stick.
Wonga. Took WAY too long (the last update was over a month ago), but the desktop backlog is FINALLY cleared. 19 new images (many with multiple sizes, many in BIZARRE sizes) can be found in the Wallpaper section. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 01:11:03 UTC) (permalink)

News November 1 2003

Saturday Stories
Only 13 stories for you today in the Fan Fiction section...

• Are You Afraid? (rap), by Alpha Lance
• Spartans Of Darkness Part 2, by SpartanOmega
• A Marine Named Peters: Did you Hear Something?, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Plasma Burns and Bullet Shells-chapter 7, by Myth
• Retreat is..., by Mainevent
• Sons of Sparta VI, by SOS.Odin
• And now all hell will break loose Part 7, by metallicafan
• New Lunar HQ: Chapter 5/ Part 1, by Fleet Admiral
• A Spartan Named James- Part 4, by ZePHyR wRaiTH
• Red Fraction - A Halo Comedy, by Dispraiser
• Temporal Rift PART III: LOST IN SPACE, by Alexander_Valient
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero, by CovieKilla
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Two, by Nemesis

Enjoy. News will be sparse for the rest of the day; I'm out. (Louis Wu 11:47:39 UTC) (permalink)

Ed Fries talks Xbox
Electronic Gaming Monthly has posted an interview with Ed Fries, about the past, present, and future of the Xbox. As could be expected, Halo (and Halo 2) figure prominently. Found this on Shacknews (thanks, Ash). (Louis Wu 10:51:41 UTC) (permalink)

The Reviews Continue
Halo reviews on Active Reviews (loved the soundtrack, disliked no music in gameplay, 4/5) and Futurelooks (8.5/10, unhappy with the AI and voice acting, thinks Halo might become an interesting alternative to Unreal "if the community gets big"). Hoo-kay. Thanks, Blue's News. (Louis Wu 10:45:08 UTC) (permalink)

Err, what is it?
One of my favorite Miscellaneous Art submitters is ZZoMBiE13 - he makes some incredible stuff. Well, he's now submitted a Guest One One Se7en strip... and brought is inimitable style to that arena. (He gets away a bit from the normal visual style of the comic... but he's spot on with content.) If you're confused, it's to do with the X03 screenshot released a few weeks ago - you can see it here. (Louis Wu 10:09:04 UTC) (permalink)

November 2003

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