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 | September 2005 |  |
September 2005 Archived News
News September 30 2005
Trip the Light Pumptastic
The time has come - we're officially announcing this year's 343 Guilt O' Lantern pumpkin carving contest. The prize list is rather substantial, though I haven't found the time to sort out what's going in which goodie bag, so as of now, I can't tell you who gets what... but rest assured that there's some cool schwag in there, and that the top three pumpkins (plus a non-North-American pumpkin, if we get any) will be splitting it all up nicely. You've got just over a month to get us your entries - don't rush it, take your time, look over previous years' entries, plan out your masterpiece... the winners last year were pretty slick, and my guess is, we'll be getting some amazing entries. Now... where did those carving knives go? (Louis Wu 19:38:34 UTC) (permalink)
Somebody get a mop and a bucket.
Captain Spark released another 22 dialogue snippets today - you can grab them from his website, or you can browse them in the Dialogue Databank. Some pretty funny ones in this batch! (Louis Wu 16:23:21 UTC) (permalink)
HighSpeedHalo(Words)
There's still time to get entries in for the 117 Words contest being run by Stuntmutt and Jillybean - the contest ends today! (No whining about needing more time, either - 117 words isn't very much at all, you can write them over lunch.) (Louis Wu 15:52:35 UTC) (permalink)
Sir Miss-A-Lot.
Now, I'm not sayin' that Stuntmutt was taking a direct shot at me with today's One One Se7en... well, I know he wasn't, cause I try not to even PICK UP the sniper rifle, but just in case... phpthbbbb. (Louis Wu 15:05:34 UTC) (permalink)
Geeks Paradox - now with Gameplay Vids
Teamcoltra wrote to point out Geeks Paradox, with a collection of Halo 2 Game vids for download. They're poppin' up everywhere... (Louis Wu 15:03:21 UTC) (permalink)
MODex, modding vids
That Weasel posted a note about a new TWTv sub-site - MODex, a group dedicated to eploring mods (for HaloCE, it looks like). Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 15:00:24 UTC) (permalink)
anti noob's first montage
anti noob posted a note about his new website, and the featured item, a new montage. 68 mb, WMP9 format, hosted on FileFront. (Lots of killtaculars.) Look around! (Louis Wu 12:46:00 UTC) (permalink)
Zombie Flood
Gamespot has put up a new preview, new screenshots, and new videos for Stubbs the Zombie (the 'Do the Zombie' vid featured at the top of the preview is hilarious) - go check this stuff out. I can't wait to drive around in the sod-o-mobile! Thanks, Wort Wort. (Louis Wu 12:39:01 UTC) (permalink)
This Gaming Life
3Suns ran across This Gaming Life, a collection of gaming screenshots with added captions. There are lots and lots of Halo ones - and some are quite funny. (Louis Wu 12:30:12 UTC) (permalink)
Losing Control
Today's Halo Babies takes a shot at the new Nintendo Revolution's controller... go read! Thanks, mrsmiley. (Louis Wu 12:27:57 UTC) (permalink)
News September 29 2005
xtina - home to rare Halo vids
Normally, we don't make site notices on our front page - but this one's a bit... unusual (special, I suppose). -Hp-FIL4, from the MLG forums, pointed out that his movie site, xtina, had never been mentioned here at HBO. And he's right. Which is surprising, because the collection of movies available is rather large, and in some cases quite rare. There's lots of gameplay footage, for folks who like to watch that... there are tips vids, and tricks vids, and the first season of Red vs Blue... there are hack videos. Lots of stuff. And the connection's decent, too (though a post like this might actually be a bad thing for that). It's been around for quite a long time - if you've never been there, you should check it out! (Louis Wu 20:03:55 UTC) (permalink)
Stubbs and Grubbs, and everyone in between
There's a great interview over at Gamasutra with Alex Seropian, of Wideload Games. He discusses how the business model works (outsourcing assets rather than creating everything in-house), and how they expanded the Halo engine to fit the needs of a zombie-based comedy action-thriller. It won't be long now - the game will be out next month! Give it a read. Thanks, Roger Wilco. Update: there's also a preview of the game over at GameSpy - they call Stubbs (the character) 'rotting, putrid [but] lovable'. Hmm... thanks, Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 17:41:48 UTC) (permalink)
Thursday Themes
8 new Fan Fiction pieces in this mid-week update. Go read! (Louis Wu 16:22:50 UTC) (permalink)
SCLegendary, Less than Four
A month ago, we posted a sub-4-minute Silent Cartographer speedrun from insidi0us - the only thing that SLIGHTLY drew away from its awesomeness was the fact that it was run on Normal, instead of Legendary. He's fixed that. He uses roughly the same tricks to shave time off on this run as he did on the last one, with one exception - there's a grenade jump just after picking up the invisibility that's simply beautiful in its time-savingness. He panics a bit near the end, I think... but the last overshield holds until the checkpoint, and he comes in at 3:54 - amazing. We're hosting copies of both his original WMP9 version (33.2 mb) and a re-encoded QuickTime version (34.8 mb) - if you like speedruns, grab this one! (Louis Wu 15:45:36 UTC) (permalink)
Floodgulch for Farcry Instincts
Darksage has completed the first version of his Floodgulch for Farcry Instincts map; it's a reproduction of Blood Gulch for Farcry Instincts, but with quite a bit of standing water. He's planning on setting up a dedicated server for folks to download the map this evening, from 5pm-midnight, EST. (If you grab this, please set up your own match, rather than playing off Darksage's server - he wants to reserve the bandwidth for downloads. To download the map, join the game hosted by Darksage OSI or Darksage OSI V2.) He's planning on creating a flythrough of the map soon, so people can see what's involved... but here's your chance to play it first!! (Louis Wu 14:08:57 UTC) (permalink)
I Love Bees, Reordered - Parts 9 and 10
The reordered I Love Bees release continues - today we have a couple of large chapters, 9 (34 minutes) and 10 (30 minutes). The meat of the story is beginning to come out at this point... go listen! (Louis Wu 13:52:54 UTC) (permalink)
The Arc of Death
Wow - rockslider has written up a highly-detailed guide on a new bit of fun to be had on Halo (the second level of the original game). He calls it the Arc of Death, and from reading his description, it sounds like a blast! (Um, literally, I guess.) Give it a read, then try it out for yourself! (Louis Wu 13:48:40 UTC) (permalink)
The Stalker
StealthSniper22 created a 'new kind of montage' - it's called 'The Stalker', and it's composed entirely from real XBL Matchmaking Head-to-Head games. It's AMAZING how often his opponents don't notice him following them. (Or, in some cases, standing on their head...) It's hilarious. A lower-res (320x240, 22.3 mb) version can be found in this post, and a higher-res (640x480, 52 mb) version is linked in this post. Both are WMP9 format. (I'm willing to work on a QuickTime version if there's interest.) Go watch - and giggle. Update: Now available as a QuickTime, as well (480x360, 53.1 mb, smoothed a little bit). (Louis Wu 12:54:53 UTC) (permalink)
News September 28 2005
The Toolbars Continue
Another HBO toolbar, this one from Keyes. No pic, but in his words, " a news searcher, popup blocker, chatroom for toolbar users, handy dandy links, quick link to HBO, and a scrolling front page news ticker." Works in IE and Firefox (on XP). Sounds handy! (Louis Wu 18:40:11 UTC) (permalink)
The Halo Table
David "wlkng nghtmre" Antunes sent in a bunch of pics showing off a table he made last year - the ultimate TV stand, as he puts it. Pretty fun battle scene! Check it out. (Louis Wu 17:21:54 UTC) (permalink)
The Squadron Ep 5: Location Location Location
Broken Console Productions has posted Episode 5 of their ongoing machinima, The Squadron - grab it from their Videos page. Things are about to heat up... writing is a fun mixture of serious and silly, filming is topnotch. Go watch! (19.3 mb in WMP9 format, 18.1 in QT.) (Louis Wu 16:32:52 UTC) (permalink)
Pick Up Artist.
Hehe - I have SO acted out today's One One Se7en in real games... man. Sometimes, a comic just hits home. (Though Stuntmutt assures me that he had someone completely different in mind when he wrote this particular strip...) (Louis Wu 15:49:31 UTC) (permalink)
Ode to the Zed Word
TychoVII sent word of a video he and some friends finished up over the summer. In his words, it's "a blend of the infamous Halo 2 gametype 'Zombies' and the movie 'Shaun of the Dead' using songs from the SOTD soundtrack." It's funny, well-filmed, and showed me a number of cool jumping tricks to use in my next game of Zombies. Quality is quite good. It's available from their server (QuickTime format, 63.7 mb, over 10 minutes long), though I'd host it in a heartbeat - it's definitely worth watching. Grab a copy, and enjoy! (Louis Wu 15:35:04 UTC) (permalink)
I Love Bees, Reordered - Parts 7 and 8
Two more episodes have gone up in Webshift's reordered I Love Bees audio files. Things are starting to get crazy - go listen! (Louis Wu 15:19:03 UTC) (permalink)
More montages at H2F
Z sends word of another pair of montages at Halo2Forum.com - one is a trailer - Crypty teases for his upcoming montage vid with very nice editing reminiscent of Dan Chosich's Framework vid from a couple of years ago (15.8 mb), and OscarMayerNinja's Montage 4 is five minutes of effect-laden sticks and snipes (63.3 mb). Both are WMP9 format. Go watch. (Louis Wu 10:49:01 UTC) (permalink)
More on Origen360
Well, I was wrong - there IS some Halo-related content in the OrigenXbox360.com website... the TeamXbox people snagged the XML file that contains all (well, maybe not all) the actual content, hidden or not, on the site - you'd think they'd have learned to protect that by now - and apparently, two of the available spots to visit Origen will be taken up by the top of the Double-Team leaderboard at Bungie.net. Go read the rest of the article for more details, including info on the OTHER spots. (We're not going to be announcing more news about this unless it's Halo-related - but it seems that SOME news, at least, WILL be.) (Louis Wu 10:37:28 UTC) (permalink)
News September 27 2005
Halo Theme - Live, on Video
Wow, very cool. This is the first clip I've seen of the Video Games Live production of the Halo music - visit this page, as of right now it's the first 'Live Performance' (a few down from the top). Short film, but makes me want to see that show! Thanks to Schedonnardus for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:01:07 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Movie Discussion Has a Home
I hesitate to post this, because the LAST new website Bungie touted went offline for bandwidth overages within a few hours... but hey, they're still up now. Halo Movie Online was set up to discuss 'the latest rumors and facts as they come forward' about the Halo movie. (Here's hoping all the 'who do YOU want to see in X role?' threads go there, too...) Check it out! Thanks, Frankie. (Louis Wu 20:35:55 UTC) (permalink)
Sponsors vs Freeloaders Ep 8 Teaser
Sponsors vs Freeloaders Episode 8 will be coming out a bit over a week - but they've posted a teaser to whet your appetite. (If you haven't seen this series, you really should watch the later episodes - the actual storyline kicks off around episode 5, and since then they've been getting better and better.) The trailer is a brief 35 seconds long, and available in WMP9 format (7.2 mb) from one of their servers. If you'd rather watch it in QuickTime, I've re-encoded a copy (6.1 mb). (Louis Wu 18:15:56 UTC) (permalink)
I Love Bees, Reordered - Parts 5 and 6
The re-ordered I Love Bees files continue in their release schedule - episodes 5 and 6 are now available. All of the files so far have been mp3-encoded WAV files... but apparently, some folks have had trouble with them, so we're also making straight MP3 versions available as well. (If you aren't having trouble with the WAVs, you should stick with them - the re-encoding process might have degraded the quality of some a bit.) Webshift has also written up an intricate forum post detailing the interconnectedness of this story to the main Halo storylines; Joe Staten has been quoted as saying that the ILB content is not strictly canon... but it's not really a 'is-it-or-isn't-it' question, there are DEGREES of linkage. Go read. (And don't forget to grab the latest files!) (Louis Wu 17:48:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Jump Tournament
Coot dropped us a line about an upcoming Halo 2 Jump Tournament - rules and prizes can be found in this thread on the High Impact Halo forum. Signups close on October 15, so get jumping! (Louis Wu 16:37:55 UTC) (permalink)
Fan-compiled weapons info
UNSCDF wanted folks to take a look at his website - he and M6D have been working on characterizing the weapons in Halo and Halo 2. It's a freewebs site, so be gentle. (Louis Wu 16:24:02 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader Weekly Update
XerxdeeJ wrote with a weekly update for his Tied the Leader blog. There's a rant against a modder (who was banned about an hour after the game in question was played), an opportunity to buy a rubber bracelet for a worthy cause, a great recounting of a very personal battle, and a hilarious poster stolen from the 2old2play website. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:50:57 UTC) (permalink)
Of Rabbits, and Trees...
For the 8 million people mailing us about the OrigenXbox360.com website... thanks. You can stop now. This has nothing to do with Halo (yeah, I know, it's another ARG, but it's a bit wider this time than the Halo franchise), and it seems to be a Europe-only promotion (that is, there is no American flag hanging from the tree - for that matter, there's no Canada, Australia, NZ, Japan, etc...). I'm sure the details will become clear over the course of the next day or so - but it's not really relevant to this website. (Louis Wu 15:37:36 UTC) (permalink)
French firm makes deal for mobile Halo rights
Bizarre - IN-FUSIO, a French mobile-games maker, has made a deal with Microsoft giving them rights to make mobile games (and other products, like ringtones) based on the game. Ringtones, I can understand... but mobile games based on Halo? What, like Blood Covenant? (Blood Covenant is fan-made, and has nothing to do with In-Fusio... it's just an example of what MIGHT work as a mobile Halo game.) More info as it becomes available - for now, you can read articles at Yahoo.com (thanks, Douglas Griffith) and Eurogamer.net (thanks, 3Suns). (Louis Wu 15:27:13 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Regular Season Photo Essay
MLGPro.com has posted a photo essay as a retrospective of their first full Halo 2 season of play. Go put faces to names! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:20:48 UTC) (permalink)
Podcasts, podcasts, everywhere
Wow, busy morning - lots of Halo news has come in, without being posted. Sorry. First up - it's podcast day, i guess. Podtacular! has posted episode 10 - 1:24 (that's hours:minutes, not minutes:seconds), 31 mb large (map focus is Terminal), and H=MC2 has posted episode 3 - 38 minutes long, 17.4 mb, highlight is an interview with Stuntmutt. Go grab 'em both! (Louis Wu 15:15:32 UTC) (permalink)
News September 26 2005
SvF Fan Art
After watching the most recent episodes of Sponsors vs Freeloaders, Elnea was inspired to create a piece of fan art illustrating a scene in Episode 7. We've added it to her art collection here. As she says, this is "fan art of a fan series about a fan series about a video game" - shades of Oliver Stone. Take a look! (Louis Wu 15:20:27 UTC) (permalink)
I Love Bees, Reordered - Parts 3 and 4
We continue with the release of the remixed I Love Bees audio files Webshift has put together; Episodes 3 and 4 are now available for download. Relive last summer's magic! (Louis Wu 13:51:11 UTC) (permalink)
ArcXnuS - Upcoming
A group called Silhouette-Robin Productions recently came to our attention when the trailer for ArcXnuS, the "first full length halo 2 machinima trilogy" (their description), passed our Movie Peer Review Rating System. They weren't looking for hosting, just feedback - it's a short trailer, but the reviewers liked the way it told its story. Go grab a copy from their site! (Louis Wu 13:34:32 UTC) (permalink)
Corn Star.
If you thought One One Se7en was ALREADY too full of puns, stay far, far away from today's comic. It's like someone blew up a fusion core that was standing next to a whole TEAM of puns. (Louis Wu 13:26:12 UTC) (permalink)
You're Outta Your Gourd 2005
I'm announcing this now, because I want to make sure I don't let it slip entirely - but the full details haven't been worked out yet (mostly prizes). Last year, we held a pumpkin-carving contest - it went really well, and folks wanted us to do it again. So we're doing it again. The rules will be pretty similar to last year's contest: we have to have your results by October 31, it can't be digitally altered, etc. The one change we're considering is accepting submissions from outside the US. (While there is no NTSC Xbox to be given away this year, we HAVE been offered gift cards at EB Games - this might make European, Asian, or Australian winners annoyed. We'll have to see how this works out.) Anyway, there's time - we won't begin accepting submissions before October 1, and the deadline is almost 5 weeks away, so you don't have to worry that you've missed the boat. More details - and an honest-to-goodness launch page - coming later this week! (Louis Wu 12:34:04 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Text
Ten new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section this morning. Read. (Louis Wu 12:16:33 UTC) (permalink)
Splode
Dustin wrote to tell us about Splode, a new apparel site that caters to gamers; one of their offerings is directly Halo-related. They're also offering an HBO-only discount; enter 'hbo1' (no quotes, and it's case-sensitive) in the promotion code box, and you'll receive 15% off that item. Go check 'em out! (Louis Wu 10:42:29 UTC) (permalink)
New vids at Halo2Forum
Three new movies for download over at Halo2Forum.com - two montage trailers, one full montage. ArKiVe's Montage 2 Trailer (19.1 mb) is almost all snipes, with an occasional sticky or beatdown. Titan VIII's Montage 4 Preview (43.7 mb) is heavy on the BR action. And Fyler's First Montage (91.7 mb) is full of all sorts of stuff. All are in WMP9 format. Go watch. Thanks, Z. (Louis Wu 10:38:29 UTC) (permalink)
Pirates!
Red vs Blue Episode 62, 'Lost in Triangulation', was a little late in coming this week (congratulations, Geoff!), but it's here now for sponsors, and should be up in the not-too-distant future for the masses. Almost 6 minutes of RvB goodness, this one follows the three evolving storylines of season 4 - Sarge's megalomaniacism, the Blues' interaction with Fluffy (well, I like that better than his REAL name), and Simmons' attempt to live peacefully with 66 tons of deadly steel. Go grab it! (Louis Wu 10:09:47 UTC) (permalink)
MLG PwnCast - a new Halo 2 podcast
A new Halo 2 podcast popped up yesterday; the Unofficial MLG PwnCast aims to help folks play Halo 2 better than they did before, and caters specifically to the MLG Customs community. The first episode is three and a half minutes long, weighs in at 4 mb, and introduces the ideas behind the show. Go listen! (Louis Wu 09:57:18 UTC) (permalink)
News September 25 2005
I Love Bees, Reordered - Part 2
Webshift's re-ordering of the I Love Bees audio continues - Chapter 2 is now available for download. Go listen! (Louis Wu 20:29:06 UTC) (permalink)
The Cult of Red Vs. Blue
Tom's Hardware Guide posted a nice article about Red vs Blue yesterday - it talks about how they got started, and where they might be going. Thanks to Spideroptics for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:55:32 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper Queue Cleared
A week ago, I mentioned that the Miscellaneous Art and Wallpaper sections would be updated soon. The Misc Art queue was cleared out a couple of days after that - I'm finally making good on the Wallpaper promise. Go check the Wallpaper section - there are 28 new entries (many with variants - a total of 38 new files). (Louis Wu 17:23:13 UTC) (permalink)
Stubbs coop gameplay - watch it now
Coolness. IGN has posted a split-screen coop gameplay vid for Stubbs the Zombie; I see a rocket launcher, I see a jeep. The interface is wonderfully campy - this puppy looks to be FUN! Thanks, Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 15:14:18 UTC) (permalink)
News September 24 2005
The LAN Locator
DoctorEvol has been working on the LAN Locator system - you can find it linked off the Coconut Lounge, his website. Add in the details of your next lanfest, and folks will be able to search the database for it! (This is only as good as the data it collects - so if you like the idea, use it.) (Louis Wu 17:48:47 UTC) (permalink)
I Love Bees - Reordered
Webshift loved the I Love Bees game from last summer - but he was unhappy that the story was released in such a way that you occasionally learned things before they made sense, because the releases were character-based, instead of chronologically-based. He took it upon himself to remix the pieces, and we'll be releasing them over the next few weeks. Chapter 1 is up now - go listen! (Louis Wu 11:51:04 UTC) (permalink)
Stubbs - in the Spotlight
Our favorite CBS News gamer, William Vitka, has posted an article about Stubbs the Zombie (good read!) - thanks, 3Suns... and Inside Mac Games gets some info about the Mac port of that game from Glenda Jackson, of Aspyr (thanks, Narcogen). (Louis Wu 11:44:52 UTC) (permalink)
Name That Tune
Video Games Live, the concert tour that was planned for this summer and will now kick off at the end of October, has a 'Name That Tune' game online to show you some of the music they play. (Halo's main theme, of course, is among the pieces.) Give it a whirl - and check out the tour dates while you're there! (Louis Wu 10:52:43 UTC) (permalink)
That projector costs ten grand.
Today's Bungie Weekly Update takes a close look at the new office space, with some very nice panoramic shots of the space and a list of nearby eateries (though I'm sure Bentllama is gonna kill Frankie for neglecting the Original Pancake House RIGHT NEXT DOOR). There's also a pretty awesome Mister Chief Etch-a-Sketch. Go read! (Louis Wu 01:13:04 UTC) (permalink)
117, Part 2
Yesterday, Fireb0rn (creator of the critically-acclaimed Halo vids 117 and Talking Smack over Xbox Live) wrote to say he had a followup to 117 (which was the story of a single Spartan facing nearly insurmountable odds) ready to go, but that it was too big for the MPRRS. I re-encoded it for him, and submitted it this morning... and 7 hours later, it passed with flying colors. (I knew it would; it's really, really well done.) The man has an eye for camera angles, and tells a mean story. This one's big; 7 minutes long, 70+ mb (depending on flavor). Grab the one that works best for you. The QuickTime version is 73.2 mb, the WMP9 version is 69.2 mb. Enjoy! Update: there've been some reports that the WMP9 version was corrupt in some way; it worked for me here, but enough people had trouble that I re-encoded it. The new version is 76.4 mb, and was added a little after 10 am EST. Hopefully, this solves the original problems! (Louis Wu 00:56:45 UTC) (permalink)
News September 23 2005
Stubbs the Zombie - double the fun!
mejp44 noticed an article at TeamXbox about Wideload's upcoming Halo-engined game, Stubbs the Zombie - they've added split-screen 2-player Coop. Now you can zombify Punchbowl... with a buddy! (Louis Wu 16:47:56 UTC) (permalink)
Fight the Flood Update
Wow, I nearly missed this one - the headline doesn't change much, so you have to pay close attention to dates. Over at Bungie.net, SketchFactor has posted an update on the Fight the Flood campaign - they've sold nearly 11,000 shirts, collecting more than $160,000 for the American Red Cross Katrina relief effort. Wow! Sketch says that while there are still plenty of shirts left, when these are gone, they aren't printing more - go grab a piece of history, and in the process help out victims of Hurricane Katrina! (Louis Wu 15:35:41 UTC) (permalink)
Lamertag.
Stuntmutt takes issue with text embellishment of gamertags - read today's One One Se7en for more details. (Louis Wu 15:14:31 UTC) (permalink)
XBL Roadmap - and Halo's Place
Over at the San Jose Mercury News, there's an article looking at Halo 2 on Xbox Live (and Live in general), written by Dean Takahashi (last mentioned here 3 years ago, when his book on the plan behind the Xbox was released). Interesting read. (Louis Wu 15:09:46 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Fiction
It's been a few days since the Fan Fiction section was updated - 11 new pieces for you today. Go read. (Louis Wu 15:08:16 UTC) (permalink)
H=MC2 Podcast Ep 002 - The Codex
The second H=MC2 podcast has been posted - Halo news roundup and commentary, plus an interview with Alex Winn, part of the Codex team. (It's not a 'live' interview; Alex answered a series of pre-planned questions, so there's no interaction with the hosts of the podcast - but it's still a good listen; nice questions, nice answers.) The overall podcast is 1:08 long, and weighs in at 31 mb. Thanks to [HC]D-Man for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:40:37 UTC) (permalink)
Briar's Armor second 2000+ sale
Just a followup on the second Briar's Armor eBay auction (it ended yesterday) - the green suit sold for $2,076.99. Not bad! (Louis Wu 13:24:50 UTC) (permalink)
Giving Puma a Bad Name
Today's Halo Babies comic was the runner-up in their Red vs Blue contest a while back; it was written by PBDemon (and drawn, as usual, by Gruntsbane). Go read! (Louis Wu 13:08:11 UTC) (permalink)
Humping Expired Hitchhikers
Once again nearly Halo-free in its content (there is a small mention of some Halo 2 fans near the end), but Frankie's put up part 2 of his Tokyo Game Show impressions article over at Bungie.net. Go see what's coming! Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 13:03:08 UTC) (permalink)
News September 22 2005
New Elnea Art
Elnea's created a couple of new art pieces recently - the first was in memory of Subiha and Leigh, Red vs Blue community members killed and injured (respectively) recently, the second a colored (and humorously captioned) version of a sketch posted earlier. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 14:25:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 - from a fan
Chris Bryan finished a short (12 second) hallway scene of wholly original work; the render took 37 hours to complete. ('Wholly original' means he built the Master Chief model himself; he has no tools for extracting the in-game model.) There's no sound, but the video is simply gorgeous - amazing lighting... watch it for yourself. QuickTime format (2.3 mb) | WMP9 format (2.8 mb). (Comments can go in this thread he started last night.) (Louis Wu 13:08:02 UTC) (permalink)
V.A.L.I.S. Preview
ofthehi77 stopped by to point out a video preview (6.5 mb, QuickTime format) of V.A.L.I.S., an upcoming HaloCE map that he and his brother DocOctavius have been working on - looks pretty fancy! Go watch. (Louis Wu 12:49:04 UTC) (permalink)
2old2type Ep 9
Episode 9 of 2old2type, the podcast of the 2old2play crew, is now available for download (you can find it on iTunes, as well). 51 minutes long, 23.5 mb, it focuses on the Tokyo Game Show, and where Nintendo is going. (In fact, there seems to be very little Halo content at all... but we'll let that go, this time.) Go listen. (Louis Wu 12:46:07 UTC) (permalink)
This Spartan Life - The ILL Clan Interview
The latest segment of 'This Spartan Life' has been released - Episode 2, Module 2 is now available for download in QuickTime format. (WMP9 is coming later today sometime.) It's 10 minutes long, and Damian talks to Frank Dellario and Matt Dominianni of the Ill Clan about the origins of machinima, the direction it might be headed, and the annoyance of Mr PoopyDoodoo. Thought-provoking dialogue and some great laughs. Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:15:05 UTC) (permalink)
News September 21 2005
Gameplay and Montage vids at H2F
Z, over at Halo2Forum.com, pointed out a pair of threads with a total of four downloads; the first thread contains two full games captured by ExiT WouNDz member Itwasluck - Game 1 is a CTF Midship game against a variety of players, game 2 is a KOTH Beaver Creek match against some top pro players. (ExiT WouNDz won the second game by a large margin - even though they were outkilled pretty thoroughly. They kept their focus on the game's goal, though - hill time - and they won because of it.) The second thread contains a pair of montage vids - both are short, I liked the first one better (though the music nearly gave me epileptic seizures). Everything is, of course, in WMP9 format. Go grab something. (Louis Wu 15:20:37 UTC) (permalink)
$@%*@$!!!
I may need to change the title of this newspost, to comply with RSS feed rules... but you should go read the One One Se7en it covers anyway. And make sure your sound is on... Update: I did have to change the title. Bugger. (Louis Wu 14:48:12 UTC) (permalink)
Sometimes, I hate MySQL.
As many of you have noticed - the server that hosts our forum (as well as the Fan Fiction comments section, and the ClanHBO forums) has been having problems for a couple of days. Hopefully, these will be ironed out today - please be patient! (Louis Wu 14:39:13 UTC) (permalink)
HCEC - Final Episodes
Dennis Powers wrote to point out that the final two episodes of season 2 of The Halo CE Chronicles have been posted to their video archive. The battle for the energy cannon wraps up in Episode 20... and the relationship between the commander and the station AI is elaborated in Episode 21. There are also some outtakes from the season in that final episode. (More detailed info can be found on the website.) As always, they're available in WMP9, QuickTime, and streaming Flash formats - go grab what works for you! (Louis Wu 14:35:53 UTC) (permalink)
Loose lips, and all that
Peter Moore gave a few interviews at the Tokyo Game Show - one went to Game Informer. This particular question and answer has already generated quite a bit of email traffic for us:
GI: Anything on Halo 3 yet?
Moore: Bungie is busy (laughs) The boys are busy.
This tidbit has been gleefully picked up by Xbox360News, which apparently is read by a lot of people who visit HBO, and is being touted as 'the first official confirmation that Halo 3 is in production'. To be clear: it's completely possible that this is exactly what Moore meant... but it is not official confirmation that Halo 3 is in production. It's a high-level Microsoft employee making a comment about their most important gaming franchise. Until you see something on Bungie.net, saying "We're working on Halo 3" - it's not official. Period. That said - the comment IS out there, we HAVE reported on it, you can stop emailing now. Thanks! (Louis Wu 13:58:32 UTC) (permalink)
News September 20 2005
NSCS Updated
Overswarm has poured a bunch of new content into his Not So Common Sense strategy guide - you'll find 4 new interviews with top Halo 2 players, an updated FAQ, and a writeup of his MLG Nashville experience earlier this month. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 19:01:11 UTC) (permalink)
Art Flood
Whew! I feel like a load's been lifted from my shoulders. 58 new pieces are now available in the Miscellaneous Art section (though only 42 actual entries have been added - the rest are variants of one kind or another). It's a pretty wide range of material, but three pieces stood out for me; Veegie's 'Ambuscade', Paul Davies' 'Destination: Halo', and Theo Prins' Wacom'd Master Chief. (That doesn't mean the rest of the lot isn't worth looking at - it just means these were MY three favorites.) Go browse! (Louis Wu 15:35:25 UTC) (permalink)
HBO-COERCE - back online!
The HBO-COERCE server mentioned yesterday is now online - TeamSpeak server is coming soon. Our HaloPC query tool is still online, so you can check its status at any time. (I'm kicking myself for this messy office; I can't find my Halo CD. I'll have to tear this place apart later.) Thanks, synide. (Louis Wu 13:10:22 UTC) (permalink)
Play LiL Poison for Charity
On October 8, LiL Poison is playing all comers to help charity - $2.00 to participate (you're welcome to give more), with lots of surprises, giveaways, and media coverage. It's being sponsored by GameCrazy and Major League Gaming. Proceeds to go to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief. This is taking place at a GameCrazy in central Long Island, NY, and more details can be found in this forum post on LiL Poison's website. (Louis Wu 13:02:20 UTC) (permalink)
Upcoming Podcast with Stuntmutt looking for Qs
[HC]D-Man pointed out that the next episode of H=MC2, a periodic podcast, will feature an interview with Stuntmutt - and he's accepting questions now. (See the forum post for an email address to send yours to - but do it soon.) He's also looking for an audio editor... (Louis Wu 12:56:18 UTC) (permalink)
Live Wars - Weekend Warrior
Robert Cavallucci dropped us a note about Spectre Live Wars, who hosted an Xbox Live Halo 2 tournament recently; 96 competitors played 62 games in a night, making it the largest XBL tourney in Australia. Go check out the details! (Louis Wu 12:37:23 UTC) (permalink)
Oblivion Episode 1
trigger119 wrote to point out Oblivion Episode 1, the first in a series hosted by Treeskunk Productions about a group of soldiers who need to stop the Covenant from building a doomsday weapon before Reach falls. WMP9 format, 20.4 mb. It can be downloaded from their Movies page. (Louis Wu 12:27:54 UTC) (permalink)
Helljumper Challenge Cup Results
Urban Reflex organized a head-to-head tournament amongst the HBO Helljumpers - H3ADSHOT118 came out the winner, and you can see the results on this page Urban put together. (Louis Wu 12:24:15 UTC) (permalink)
News September 19 2005
Podtacular Ep 9
Podtacular Episode 9 has been released - 1:22 long, 57 mb large. This one is all about snipers - sniping guide, sniping tips, snipe hunting. Available either from their website, or via iTunes. (Louis Wu 20:25:03 UTC) (permalink)
Strategy Guide Blog
lAbsolutel has started up a Halo 2 Strategy blog - you can find his suggestions on a variety of weapons in the first few posts. Comments can go here. (Louis Wu 20:22:00 UTC) (permalink)
Gary Larson's Lawyers Are On The Phone.
Stuntmutt reveals his secrets in today's One One Se7en. (Well, not that you thought he actually came up with these jokes on his own, or anything...) (Louis Wu 12:38:27 UTC) (permalink)
MPRRS - 500 in, 90 out
CYBRFRK pointed out that last night, the MPRRS passed the 500 movie reviews mark - 90 of the first 500 vids passed, an 18% approval rating. (This means that there were more than 400 movies I didn't have to watch or evaluate, saving me more than a full day's worth of watching time. If I could watch Halo vids for 24 hours straight, that is...) I'm pretty sure that the overall quality of released vids has increased because of the system - a number of films have passed through more than once, improving due to feedback and therefore reaching the public in a more polished form than originally envisioned by their authors. For this, and for the saved time, I say a hearty 'Thank you!' to the reviewers - this system wouldn't exist without you! (Louis Wu 12:28:53 UTC) (permalink)
The cleanup continues
You may notice the large red cross on the right side of this page - thanks to Boxer for giving us the idea to provide handy links for folks looking to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. As a community, we're as strong as our actions! (Louis Wu 11:02:53 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's Reading
Clearing out the Fan Fiction queue this morning, there are now eight new pieces for you to read. So go read. (Louis Wu 10:42:13 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader is back
XerxdeeJ stopped by to tell us that his Halo-related blog 'Tied the Leader' isn't dead, it was just on vacation while he kicked off his marriage. In fact, the top article right now is a recounting of the weekend leading up to that momentous event. It's a monster. Go read. (Louis Wu 10:22:42 UTC) (permalink)
Mommy Dearest (without the coathangers)
It's certainly not the first time I've seen it speculated that Dr. Halsey (who has never appeared in-game, only in the Halo novels) might be the mother of Miranda Keyes... but it's the most thorough examination of the evidence I've come across. Kudos, Dark One. (Louis Wu 10:15:34 UTC) (permalink)
Lost the Lead
Pinkuh announced a new webcomic this morning - it's called 'Lost the Lead', and it will chronicle her adventures in online gaming. (Halo will play a pretty big role, but it won't be ALL Halo.) Looking forward to it! (Louis Wu 10:04:38 UTC) (permalink)
Project 117: Trailer
Treeskunk Productions, the folks behind 'Outpost: Coagulation' and 'Lethal Tactics', have released a trailer for 'Project 117', an upcoming machinima film that follows the Spartan IIIs, a group hunted by the very people they were created to protect, as they try once again to save humanity. 22.7 mb, WMP9 format. Great camera angles. (Louis Wu 03:32:06 UTC) (permalink)
Spangdahlem vs Mildenhall - and then some
Fun article in Stars & Stripes - coverage of inter-base Halo tournaments within the British Royal Air Force. Those military Halo fanatics - they're everywhere! (Louis Wu 03:19:00 UTC) (permalink)
Now THEM'S some pretty pictures.
We showcase Bryn Casey's original artwork here on HBO, but he's far busier than just traditional painting and drawing. He also does some gorgeous rendering - you can see this work on Yayap.com. (Hit the fourth link in the navbar, and you'll get to the Renders page... the first two are amazing. Well, they're all pretty nice, but the first two are special.) If this news post does any damage, we'll host those files locally... because folks should see them. Thanks to Exiled Zealot for pointing them out. (Louis Wu 03:02:28 UTC) (permalink)
An old friend returns
Wow. rapture posted a note on our forum, alerting folks to the fact that he's resurrecting the HBO-COERCE HaloPC server for a couple of months - Battle Creek CTF Shotties, No Shields, Bay-bee! See you there. (Louis Wu 02:49:40 UTC) (permalink)
Do-gooders make the local paper
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned a pretty cool charitable act - BoneKin was going to let his XBL performance decide how much money he was going to contribute to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Last week, apparently, this story was picked up by the San Antonio Express-News - nice! Thanks to N1NJ4, who scanned the paper article, and GreyThor, who found the online version. (Louis Wu 02:42:17 UTC) (permalink)
News September 18 2005
Digging through the rubble
It's been a little while since I went through our Uploads folder - partly, this has been out of fear. There were over 300 items in it this time around (it's been roughly 45 days since it was last cleared), and that meant a lot of downloading, and a lot of processing. Amazingly, very few people seem to read the page they upload from - even though it says 'don't upload movies here!' we still got 54 of them. We got fan fiction, we got tricks writeups, we got story speculation (all items the page says 'don't put here!'). We also got some moron uploading a dozen or so wallpapers of some supermodel - smooth move, buddy. Yeah, we're gonna post 'em for you. Sure. There were dozens of people who apparently just wanted to see if the upload page works - we got existing wallpapers, Bungie wallpapers, and other random crap like this. (It works. Thanks for checking.) We got folks uploading hack scripts, attempting to break into our server. (The directory that holds the uploaded files is not web-accessible - don't waste your time.) But mixed in with all this garbage, we DID get a bunch of cool stuff; I'll be updating the Wallpaper and Misc Art sections in the next couple of days. And there were a few other pieces that are worth sharing with the community - though they don't really fit into existing sections. One of these came from Traize - it's a picture of his girlfriend's back, with her new tattoo nicely displayed. (It was sent in 2 weeks ago - apologies for the delay, Ali!) And a second 'random item' is a digital photo of a newspaper article submitted almost 3 weeks ago by Unrelenting (who apologizes for the lousy quality); it's unclear what newspaper this came from, but the caption reads "Soldiers from the 210th Forward Support Battalion of the 10th Mountain Division play the 'Halo 2' video game during free time at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. With four game consoles linked, as many as 16 play at once." I dunno... I've seen games turn ugly in real life... I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with real guns sitting so close to the players! Okay, that was my computer version of Spring -er, Fall Cleaning for the weekend; time to go outside and do some REAL cleaning. Update: Thanks to Subpoena, Unrelenting's older brother, who pointed out that the paper is The Watertown Daily Times, out of Watertown, NY. (I couldn't find the picture online, but I didn't look very hard.) (Louis Wu 20:30:45 UTC) (permalink)
Ogre 1 Looks back at WCG Win
Over at Team3D.net, F13ND has conducted an interview with Ogre 1 - it's a look back at the WCG win last week, and a look forward to Singapore in November. Always fun to keep up on the top pros! (Louis Wu 14:53:01 UTC) (permalink)
Briar's Armor For Sale - Green This Time
Eep - I missed this a couple of days ago! After the success of the sale of a blue version, Briar's Armor is selling a green Master Chief outfit. There are only 4 and a half days left in the auction - starting bid, again, is $1500. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 14:27:56 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Pistol Models, Prototyped
Over on the Bungie.net forum, pro_duece2 posted a series of pictures of some rapid-prototyped models of Halo pistols (both the original, and the Halo 2 magnum). (Rapid-prototyping is a technique for creating 3D models from computer drawings - these are made from plaster/epoxy composite.) On the off chance that his links die, we've mirrored the pics here:
- Side View, Halo 2
- Back View, Halo 2
- Side View, Halo
- Front View, Halo
- Halo 1 and 2 Pistols
- Halo 1 and 2 Pistols, plus an Airsoft gun
Pretty cool stuff! Thanks to Hunt3r for the heads-up on this one. (Louis Wu 14:23:04 UTC) (permalink)
News September 17 2005
Deadline closes in for Mackies
We don't normally post news verbatim from press releases, but this one was good, as-is. It came from the good folks at machinima.org:
The annual Machinima Awards ("the Mackies"), presented during the 2005 Machinima Film Festival is nearing its submission deadline. The awards, honoring the best in Machinima, include the following categories:Please note that all entries must be in high-quality video format at broadcast NTSC resolution of 720x480 (AVI/MOV with DV codec, or Mpeg2 on data DVD). DIVX films will be rejected.
- Best Picture
- Best Direction
- Best Virtual Performance
- Best Virtual Design
- Best Sound
- Best Writing
- Best Editing
- Best Technical Achievement
- Best Commercial/Game Machinima
- Best Independent Film
- Best Off-The-Shelf Machinima
- Best Machinima Series
We encourage Machinima filmmakers from all over to submit to the festival - the deadline is Oct. 6th, so get movin'! For more information about the festival and the Machinima Awards, visit festival.machinima.org.
There are a bunch of people in this community with a pretty good shot at this stuff - get cracking! (Louis Wu 21:49:35 UTC) (permalink)
No Halo Movie Director Chosen Yet
Yesterday, the IMDB entry for the Halo movie was changed - with the inclusion of Uwe Boll as Director. This caused no small amount of uproar on Halo forums around the net - even sites like Joystiq speculated on whether this was true. It's not true. Joseph Staten, Halo 2's writer and the Bungie employee who is currently most involved in the movie negotiations, had this to say:
"Nope. Absolutely not true. Trust me, when we've got something big to announce about the film (such as the director), we won't just be sneaking it onto IMDB."
Hopefully, this will put the rumors to bed... thanks, Joe! (Louis Wu 21:17:12 UTC) (permalink)
Apples
Red vs Blue Episode 61, 'Fair Competition', is up for sponsors right now. (This means it'll be up for the general public sometime tomorrow night.) A new character is now fully part of the cast... and I'm thinking, cross between Scooby Doo and Strongbad. With added odors. Fun stuff! Thanks to Keyes for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:15:31 UTC) (permalink)
Rockets on Prisoner - delayed, but not dead
The Rockets on Prisoner Awards Ceremony has been delayed for a while now - but That Weasel dropped into our forum to point out a Preview video - nothing's been cancelled yet! Check it out. (Louis Wu 15:38:47 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Seattle - Wrapped Up
Dyslexia has written a review of MLG Seattle - fun writeup of a tourney near the end of a tumultuous season. Give it a read! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 01:19:29 UTC) (permalink)
Inside The Actor's Studio
Friday's Halo Babies went live sometime recently - SBZ told us about it just a little bit ago. I always wondered about that stuff... (Louis Wu 00:39:16 UTC) (permalink)
Crazy old bats and pimpin' rides
The Bungie Weekly Update has been posted - it's a report from the floor of the Tokyo Game Show, filed by none other than Frankie. It's completely devoid of Bungie-related material - but then, the folks back in Kirkland didn't do much except move in and hold their annual Pentathlon (which will be covered NEXT week), so I suppose it's okay. If you're a gamer, there's some pretty cool stuff in the report - go read! (Louis Wu 00:06:02 UTC) (permalink)
News September 16 2005
Sponsor the Codex
The Codex Series, a popular machinima series, has finished its first season, but is still seeing serious amounts of web traffic. (One of the news posts on their front page right now talks about numbers - they're pretty high.) To recoup some of their investment, they're offering sponsorships - there aren't any episodes to see, but if you donate enough, they'll send you a DVD, containing the full first season, plus plenty of extras. (Give 'em $50 or more, they'll even autograph it for you.) (Louis Wu 19:11:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Tourney - 24 Sept, Cincinnati
I nearly missed this yesterday, but Scott Vieth stopped by our forum to point out the next round of Hao tournaments to be held at Game Junkie, a video game store near Cincinnati, OH. FFA and Doubles, a week from this coming Saturday, entrance is $15 before the 21st, or $20 after that. Check the forum post for more details. (Louis Wu 15:34:41 UTC) (permalink)
Side Splitting.
Last week, the new playlists (Multi-Team and Team Snipers) went up on Xbox Live, and some folks complained immediately that the matchmaking system was breaking their teams up all the time - even when they went in as a group of three. As Stuntmutt points out in today's One One Se7en... that's not ALWAYS a bad thing... (Louis Wu 13:55:24 UTC) (permalink)
Armor Auction Followup
I meant to follow up on this when the auction ended - but the last couple of days have been really, really busy. Last week, we mentioned that Briar's Armor, one of the fan-created Halo 2 costumes we've been following, went up for sale on eBay. THe auction closed Wednesday - a few people were bidding on it, but the winner had put in an initial bid that trumped everyone... he (or she) picked up the suit for $2,324.99. Not a bad chunk of change! (Louis Wu 13:51:29 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Fanfic
Seven new pieces for you in today's Fan Fiction update. Ooh... (Louis Wu 13:45:55 UTC) (permalink)
Boxed In
Wow. Remember that cool box the Limited Edition of Halo 2 came in? The Inquirer has a story this morning about a company in Denmark that's suing Microsoft for stealing proprietary information about a metal DVD container, then passing it along to the rival company that ended up manufacturing the boxes. (Microsoft says it did no such thing.) It's still in court - but who'da thunk there'd be controversy about the BOX? (Louis Wu 13:25:40 UTC) (permalink)
Outpost Coagulation Ep 9
After a pretty long down period, Outpost: Coagulation has another episode up for download. Episode 9, 'Two Betrayals', is a long (10:09, 83.9 mb, in WMP9 format) piece, following ostracism of the Juggernaut Elite, and his subsequent capture by the Humans. There's one more episode left in season 1, and then they'll start filming Season 2; they've got the scripts done already, they just need voice actors. (If you're interested, drop them some email.) Thanks, trigger119. (Louis Wu 13:18:13 UTC) (permalink)
Paint By Numbers
Coolness. ManKitten posted his Halo coloring book a couple of days ago - today, psychophan7 posted a step-by-step 'how I colored it' article at LiveJournal. As someone who can't draw his way out of a paper bag, but loves to watch others do their stuff... I find this kind of thing fascinating. (Louis Wu 12:51:33 UTC) (permalink)
It's a legitimate strategy!
Halo features in a pretty funny Exterminatus Now comic today - thanks, Lothar Hex. (Louis Wu 12:12:33 UTC) (permalink)
News September 15 2005
You shake a mean lip, Marine.
Captain Spark uploaded a couple of batches of dialogue snippets today. (One is huge.) You can find them both on his website, in zip files... or you can browse through them in our Dialogue Databank; there was a batch dated September 10 and another one dated September 15. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:09:10 UTC) (permalink)
Pookaki's 4th montage
Another vid has cleared the MPRRS queue - this one is a montage, and was posted (in slightly larger form, filesize-wise) on our forum yesterday. The thing Pookaki focused on was no-reticle no-scopes, but there are plenty of other kinds of kills. It's available in WMP9 format (49.1 mb) or QuickTime format (50.4 mb). Enjoy! (Louis Wu 12:32:22 UTC) (permalink)
Save Me!
I've been hesitant to post games.net links here (it seems that many of their pieces are written not because anybody believes what they say, but because they're trying to be controversial and get traffic), but this one's sort of fun. They've put up an article entitled 'Five Ways to Save Video Games', and it's basically a 'don't do this' list. Halo makes 4 of the 5 no-nos (it misses being cited in the "Stop Treating Women Like Whores" category). Agree or disagree, give it a read and then sound off in our forum! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:24:13 UTC) (permalink)
News September 14 2005
Sticky Style 2
A movie passed the MPRRS a few days ago - but because it was encoded in H.264, I thought it might be better to re-encode it into formats more universal across the hardware spectrum. This has taken a bit longer than expected - apologies to Spuzzum, the creator, and thanks for his patience! The video is called 'Sticky Style 2', and shows off some pretty amazing plasma grenade sticks in Halo 2 campaign play. (I shudder to think how long it took to set a couple of these up...) The brute tallies were especially entertaining. Watch it - and enjoy some really well-timed gameplay! You can grab a QuickTime version (37.6 mb) or a WMP9 version (40.8 mb)... then go grab your own stickydooms and see how you keep up! (Louis Wu 22:35:15 UTC) (permalink)
Pictures, Pictures, everywhere
I guess it's Art Week - four new pics from Bryn 'ofthehi77' Casey, first posted over at his brother's site, yayap.com. My favorite is this pic of a pair of Hunters - but I also really like this loose MC. A full-body shot of Cortana and Scarlett Johansson as Linda round out the batch. Go look! (Louis Wu 19:50:03 UTC) (permalink)
Hey, c0ld, your boss is reading this!
Halo Arena has interviewed c0ld vengeance, longtime HBO denizen and occasional credit whore - go read what he likes (and doesn't like) about Halo, in all its forms! (Louis Wu 17:49:20 UTC) (permalink)
Ash Wednesday.
Vern Shields continues his overloading hijinx - he's been so dedicated, he's inspired Stuntmutt for today's One One Se7en. (Hehe - is that a good thing, or a bad thing?) (Louis Wu 15:25:21 UTC) (permalink)
It must be Wednesday
Twelve new pieces for you in today's Fan Fiction batch - go read! (Louis Wu 14:35:18 UTC) (permalink)
Making Avatars for Friends
Another avatar from Elnea - a female spartan with a light saber? Wonga. (She says she'll never catch up with the number of pending requests for these, so you might want to re-think sending her your specs.) (Louis Wu 13:40:51 UTC) (permalink)
Futuristic Sex Robotz - Ramping Up
Some of you may remember the Futuristic Sex Robotz, the Gangster Nerd Rap group that created 'Don't Make Us Kick Your Ass' a while back. (It's not clean - but it's pretty hilarious, and I don't even LIKE gangsta rap.) They've got a spiffy new website up, in preparation for a full-length album coming out early next year (entitled 'Hotel Coral Essex'). There's no new content - but it's possible you haven't heard their 'Welcome to the Internet' single, or seen their Halo-related content in the context of their own interface. If you missed them the first time around, go visit! It's pretty polished stuff, all around. (Louis Wu 03:25:05 UTC) (permalink)
The Voiceless Prisoner
Mothergoat has created a new version of 'The Prisoner', the song he released yesterday with his new HaloCE maps. This version is missing the narration at the beginning, making it more suitable for Halo vids. (If you use it as such, read his post carefully for credit requirements.) He's linked a copy from his website... but we're gonna mirror it just in case (he got swamped yesterday due to overeager fans, I don't want that to happen again). MP3 format, 5 mb. Awesome. (Louis Wu 03:17:33 UTC) (permalink)
DeviantART Goodies
Guardian found a number of very nice pieces of Halo-related artwork at DeviantART, pieces that have never been mentioned here. Great stuff. Go look. Update: Exiled Zealot proves the Search function at DA works nicely, by turning up a LOT of Elite art links. (Louis Wu 03:00:32 UTC) (permalink)
I should print that... for my nephew
Wow. ManKitten posted a bunch of scans from a coloring book he made in one of his illustration classes last year. They're just from screenshots - but they're beautifully clean. I'm lovin' em. (I'd love to see the hi-res versions he mentions...) Update: ManKitten sent along those higher-res scans, and I've posted the whole lot in a single post; swing by to see what's worth grabbing! (Louis Wu 02:56:20 UTC) (permalink)
News September 13 2005
Shirts - one way to help
SketchFactor has posted another 'Fight the Flood' shirt update - total number of shirts sold is closing in on 10,000, and total dollar amount donated to the Red Cross disaster relief fund is almost $150,000. Nice! (If you haven't bought a shirt yet, consider it.) Thanks, Schedonnardus. (Louis Wu 16:55:37 UTC) (permalink)
If you must lose, blame your teammate
Heh - there's a followup to the recent Houston Chronicle story on Zyos in today's paper; this one is a short piece detailing Zyos' loss in last weekend's WCG 2005 US Finals. (He says that if next year's competition is team-based, he won't even enter; he's decided he's better by himself.) Thanks, Tom Pittman. (Louis Wu 14:59:00 UTC) (permalink)
A Story To Tell
Nirvana dropped a note on our forum to let folks know about the second 'Interview with a Star', this time with Alexander Winn, otherwise known as Nerrolken, one of the driving forces behind the Codex Series. Interesting read - go find out what drives him! (Louis Wu 12:35:36 UTC) (permalink)
Cutting-edge entertainment on an old platform
Over at Wired.com, there's an article about video game novels; Halo's titles get some nice coverage. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:08:04 UTC) (permalink)
RocketMoose - anti-cheat, almost married
VII Toast interviewed one of the newest Bungie hires, RocketMoose, and has posted the interview on his 7th Column Group site. Go learn more about the people behind the scenes! (Louis Wu 10:59:54 UTC) (permalink)
H2F vids
Couple of vids for you over at Halo2Forum.com - the first is a montage full of sticks from Fershetta (plenty of pros in it - WMP9 format, 68.4 mb). The second is from Team Confusion, and aims to demonstrate how to throw grenades with precision on Lockout. (There were movies like this in the original game - some great ones on Hang 'em High, Damnation... but I haven't seen many in Halo 2 yet.) How to blow weapons to you, how to place grenades in critical spots from areas that are well out of the line of sight of the target. Pretty cool stuff! WMP9 format, 39 mb. (Louis Wu 10:55:45 UTC) (permalink)
News September 12 2005
Squadron Ep 4 Posted
Broken Console Productions has posted Episode 4 of The Squadron - 'Your Mom's An Episode'. It was fun - go watch it. Because of bandwidth issues, they've begun accepting sponsors - toss 'em £10 and you're a sponsor for a year. (That link contains details about what you get, as well as how to go about it.) The vid is currently available in WMP9 format, but a QuickTime link should be up soon. (Louis Wu 21:21:20 UTC) (permalink)
HCEC Ep 19: Gaia
The Halo CE Chronicles nears the end of season 2 - the penultimate episode, Episode 19, 'Gaia', has been posted on the Movies page. The struggle for control of the ring heats up... at the same time that the station commander comes face to face with something much bigger than himself... and teaches a friend a critical skill. Available, as always, in WMP9, QuickTime, and streaming Flash formats. (Louis Wu 19:45:36 UTC) (permalink)
That looks like it hurts.
Well... she hasn't been keeping me appraised of new work, but that's not gonna stop me from adding it to her art page anyway. Go check Elnea's Art Page for two new comics (both combining Farscape and Red vs Blue, two of her biggest passions), and two new avatars made for friends. (Look for the September dates.) Update: 2 more have been added to the 'Cartoons and Art Works' - another Farscape crossover, and a colored sketch. Thanks, Elnea! (Louis Wu 19:02:33 UTC) (permalink)
Another Major Nelson Podcast Interview
2old2play.com has posted Episode 8.5 - a short (20 minute) interview with Major Nelson. The guy's really doing the podcast circuit! Go listen. (Louis Wu 18:33:21 UTC) (permalink)
Redeye Reduction Already Applied.
And speaking of our favorite pun-ter, Stuntmutt has been spotlighted over at The Junkyard; go read what makes him tick. There's even a custom strip, made just for the occasion. Thanks, Mhaddy. (Louis Wu 16:51:43 UTC) (permalink)
Phil McAvity.
Today's One One Se7en will make your teeth hurt. (Louis Wu 16:49:26 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Text
11 new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this morning - go read! (Louis Wu 16:34:17 UTC) (permalink)
Team3D dominates at WCG2005 US Finals
The US Finals of the World Cyber Games were held this weekend, as well (MLG Seattle on the West coast, WCG2005 finals on the East coast - it was Halo across the land); Team3D came out on top. The final match was actually OGRE1 and OGRE2 against Hotshy and Saiyan - T3D against T3D! The Ogres walked away with this one, and will be representing the US in Singapore in November. You can read more at Team3D - and you can read a mainstream article about the tournament (with a focus on Matt Leto) at FoxNews.com. (Louis Wu 15:24:39 UTC) (permalink)
Goatacular Map Pack
mothergoat's been around for quite some time, and has garnered community respect both for his mapmaking skills in HaloCE, and for his musical abilities (do a search in our news database for some of his Halo-related works) - he's back, with more of both. The Goatacular Map Pack includes 3 new maps, created with the help of some of the bigger names in the HaloCE community - he's posted descriptions, screenshots, walkthrough movies, and the new musical piece that accompanies them. Go grab the lot! (Louis Wu 15:00:16 UTC) (permalink)
Like Gladiator - but smaller
Gladiator Evolved, a movie we released yesterday, seems to be a hit - we've served over 8000 copies of it in the last 24 hours or so (accounting for over half a terabyte of data). For folks afraid of the 80 mb download, GearboxGameZone has posted smaller versions (320x240, under 40 mb each for the WMP9 and QuickTime versions). (A thread on our forum seems to suggest that folks have enjoyed this film.) Thanks for the help, Dennis! Update - the original (80 mb) .mov is now being mirrored by Wraith7n - thanks! (Louis Wu 14:41:58 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Stuff - summarized
Fury Three has once again summarized the Halo-related Lego offerings at Brickshelf - or, at least, the stuff he thinks is worth seeing. (There are 76 entries in his collection.) You can grab a zipped Excel file, or view an Excel-generated html file - both contain the same info. (Louis Wu 14:32:08 UTC) (permalink)
A Halo CE Road Trip
Dennis Powers pointed out a video called 'A Halo CE Road Trip' - it's a tribute to Halo CE Mappers, and it does a nice job of showing you what's out there by flying through a number of maps. It was created by Siliconmaster482. It's available in both WMP9 and QuickTime formats from the GearboxGameZone website - 22.2 and 25.9 mb, respectively. Grab a copy! (Louis Wu 14:08:48 UTC) (permalink)
News September 11 2005
Punk'd - Halo Edition
CJC pointed out a video he found on the MLG forums - it's a takeoff of the MTV show 'Punk'd', where Ashton Kutcher plays practical jokes on celebrity friends. The Halo version has tricks played on unsuspecting XBL players. I watched the first couple - it's probably funnier if you're there. The vid is huge - 148 mb, WMP9 format (it's 13 minutes long)... hosted at FileFront, so bandwidth shouldn't be a huge problem. (Louis Wu 21:25:54 UTC) (permalink)
Smaller version of Oddball at GGZ
Dennis Powers has posted a 320x240 WMP9 version of Bootstrap Boon's 'Oddball' - this one weighs in at 57.5 mb. If you haven't downloaded this yet, you can save 20 mb or so grabbing this one! (Louis Wu 21:11:50 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Episode 8
Foo Mo Jive points out that Podtacular! Ep 8 has been posted - they've interviewed Major Nelson in this one, and the Map of the Week is Gemini. 34.5 mb, MP3 format - go get it! (Louis Wu 21:08:21 UTC) (permalink)
H2Press.net updates toolbar for Firefox
Mike, from H2Press.net, writes to say that they've finished work on the Firefox version of their toolbar - more info can be found here. (Louis Wu 20:59:46 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Content Flood
Boatloads of content over at MLGPro.com right now - in addition to tons of results from MLG Seattle (including mountains of VoD footage), there's an interview with Team US Eh (recorded after MLG Nashville) and another with IGS Monglers (a team of top stars from three teams that came together to win MLG Nashville.). Thanks, Dolbex and 3Suns. (Louis Wu 20:57:25 UTC) (permalink)
Zyos spotlighted in the Houston Chronicle
Last Thursday, the Houston Chronicle put up a front-page spread (front page of the Entertainment section, that is) on Matt Leto, better known to Halo fans as Zyos. Nice read - and nice to see mainstream articles like this one about competitive Halo players! Thanks, CHRISVIOXXX. (Louis Wu 20:39:45 UTC) (permalink)
Gladiator Evolved
The second video offering we'd like to draw your attention to is something that passed the MPRRS yesterday. It was created by Andras Ostrom, It's called 'Gladiator Evolved', and it might be the best recreation of a movie scene in the Halo engine I've ever seen. The melding of audio from Gladiator and content from Halo 2 is astoundingly good; this movie covers the entire opening battle of the movie (all 12+ minutes of it), and it makes me want to go back and watch the real movie. Camera angles are awesome, timing is impeccable, appropriate choices for substitution are as perfect as I can imagine. This one's big (because it's 12:20 long)... but it's absolutely, positively worth the download. Grab it in its original QuickTime format (80.9 mb), or in WMP9 format (81.5 mb) - you won't regret it. (Louis Wu 14:14:46 UTC) (permalink)
Securing the Perimeter
It seems that my news catch-up is going to need to wait until this afternoon; there's too much family stuff to handle this morning. Before starting the carpentry and gardening, though, there are a couple of video bits you should watch. If you're a Red vs Blue Sponsor (signups are available again - $10/6 months will get you all the goodness), you can grab Episode 60, 'Fight or Fright', is available for download. (That link will work for the public soon - probably tonight or tomorrow - but we won't be posting another link for it, just keep an eye on it.) The writing just continues to get better - I'm loving this season. Go watch - you know you want to. (Louis Wu 14:03:43 UTC) (permalink)
News September 10 2005
Too many planes in too few hours
I'm back - thanks to Ding for minding the store while I was gone. I did a pretty silly thing (though not one i regret for a second) - I went on a spur-of-the-moment trip across the US to attend the moving-in party Bungie was holding at their new digs in Kirkland, WA. (We've mentioned the move a couple of times - you can check our news for more info.) As I mentioned in a forum post last night, I was pretty darned impressed with the new space; it's gorgeous, well-thought-out, spacious, and productivity-enhancing. And such. Anyway, I'm home, and though I'm taking the evening off to attend a function with my wife, I WILL be doing my best to catch up on all news since Friday - probably tomorrow. For those who missed it, there was a Weekly Update posted at B.net last night, as usual - as of 3 pm yesterday afternoon, there were over 8500 Hurricane Katrina shirts sold, for a Red Cross donation total of over $120,000. WOW. (I got a look at some of the auction items that will be made available soon - man, I hope these go for what they're worth, because that will be a LOT of money.) There's also info on the Halo movie, music, stuff they won't talk about, and Matchmaking playlists. And of course, a Mister Chief piece - in fact, one you'll be able to bid on soon. Go read! (Louis Wu 22:47:36 UTC) (permalink)
PMS at EW
The all-girl gaming clan PMS is given 3 pages in the latest Entertainment Weekly magazine (Sept. 16 issue, on sale the 9th) No online edition as far as I can tell. Since they're heavily into Halo, there's much talk about the game, and their participation in the CPL 2005 Summer Championships. Interesting to see how Halo is again used as an example of a game that draws you in, no matter what your background. (Ding 20:03:05 UTC) (permalink)
Phoenix hinted
With the Wu gone this weekend, updates are a little sporadic, but we'll do the best we can. First up, thanks to a heads up from Anton P. Nym, The Escapist's latest issue has an article written by John Tynes, a tabletop game aficianado that had some adventures in computer game development, it's an interesting read, esp. when you get to the part where he mentions his role in Bungie's aborted Phoenix project. Oh, what a tease! (Ding 19:52:55 UTC) (permalink)
News September 9 2005
Fine, we'll post it. Happy?
A few days ago, a secret message was discovered on the mysterious site Origen Xbox 360. The details can be found in this IGN article- basically, there's a Latin message on the page that, if you kinda squint at it, may or may not have something to do with what may or may not be Halo 3. We don't know what it means, we don't have any secret information to help you with, and we're not willing to guess on record as to what this page means. So stop emailing us about it, OK? (Count Zero 18:18:08 UTC) (permalink)
Oddball
Bootstrap Boon is an HBO Helljumper who put together a long (21:39 long) story called 'Oddball' - it uses footage from a couple of multiplayer maps coupled with dialogue from the Dialogue Databank, all wrapped up with nice background music, to tell the story of a Spartan/Covenant conflict. It passed the MPRRS recently, so you can grab copies from our server. Warning: the original WMP9s are a bit off, aspect-wise. I asked BootStrap's brother about fixing this, and got no response - so you'll have to live with the problem. Also, the low-res WMP9 has screwed-up audio at the start - again, this is unfixable by me. The QuickTime versions (both low and medium res) do not have either of these problems. Grab the one that makes the most sense to you (please be gentle, these are huge, and we don't want to be poor next month):
- WMP9 Medium (856x480, 166.9 mb)
- WMP9 Small (428x240, 79.1 mb)
- QuickTime Medium (856x384, 138 mb)
- QuickTime Small (428x192, 66.6 mb)
Pretty ambitious work! (Louis Wu 07:56:33 UTC) (permalink)
Pumped.
Stuntmutt takes a walk down Memory Lane in today's One One Se7en - I'm with ya, brother. (Louis Wu 07:40:17 UTC) (permalink)
Even if you're broke...
In the 'what fans are doing' category, Laird, of Sponsors vs Freeloaders, pointed me to an eBay auction in which he's selling a sketch of an SvF character, with all proceeds going to Hurricane Katrina relief. Check it out! (Louis Wu 07:29:09 UTC) (permalink)
Red vs Blue vs Green
Over at Halo Babies, the winning strip in their recent 'Red vs Blue' contest has been released as this week's normal comic. Nrek did the writing, Gruntsbane did the artwork. Knowledge of a popular custom gametype in Halo 2 multiplayer is necessary to get the joke. (Cute stuff!) (Louis Wu 07:22:44 UTC) (permalink)
Video Games Live - Redux
The Video Games Live tour, originally set up for this summer but delayed because interest was too great for some of the venues, is getting ready to kick off again; it starts in Seattle on October 29, with 27 additional tour dates to be announced soon around the US. There's an official trailer, in both WMP9 and QuickTime formats - go watch! (Louis Wu 07:17:33 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Reading
Seventeen new pieces for you in today's Fan Fiction update - go read. (I let a haiku through, because there's no real policy about them at this point - but I'm also MAKING a policy, because haiku crazes on the forum have shown me their potential for overwhelming the fanfic section. From now on, I have to say 'no' to haikus - you're welcome to post them on our forum, but please don't add them to the Fan Fiction section. Thanks!) (Louis Wu 07:14:12 UTC) (permalink)
News September 8 2005
Legendary, no deaths - watch it
I hesitate to mention this, because the files are enormous... but hey, what the heck. A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that Cody Miller had completed the Twin Galaxies Halo 2 Bounty - complete Halo 2 on Legendary difficulty, with no deaths... today, he posted a note that the finished run had been uploaded to archive.org. There are two versions - a low-res, 800 mb copy... and a higher-res, 2 gb copy. (Yes, you read that right, 2 gigabytes. It is, after all, three and a half hours long.) QuickTime format. Amazing. Simply amazing. He makes it look almost easy... Update: For those having trouble with a direct download of the larger file, we've made it available via BitTorrent as well (with a chunk of seed bandwidth to boot). Remember - this puppy's 2GB large. (Louis Wu 18:22:26 UTC) (permalink)
Tourneys - always on
Couple of tournament newsbits for you: Chappelle writes to point out an ongoing series of tournaments at Survivor Halo (join up, win cash), and Chryton mentions a tourney coming up in Bowling Green, Kentucky on September 24th - registration is $30, top prize is a Pontiac Sunfire. What are you waiting for? Update: We also heard from LTL Legolas, of Larger Then Live [sic], who wrote to point out the LTL League, an online league that's free to enter. There are no prizes (at least not yet), but you can join for the joy of competition. Rules are here, signup info is here, and gametypes are here. (Louis Wu 17:35:35 UTC) (permalink)
Brownies
Eep - I didn't notice a Halo 1 montage by Llamaking over at Halo Planet - go watch for a lot of 3-shot pistol kills. (Louis Wu 17:27:19 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Info Overload
As MLG gears up for Seattle this weekend, you can go read Dyslexia's review of MLG Nashville, held a couple of weeks ago. It's nearly a blow-by-blow of IGS Monglers fight to the top of the heap - check it out! And while we're on the subject of MLG, synide sent us a small (5.3 mb, WMP9 format), heavily-compressed clip of Sundance DiGiovanni on G4's Attack of the Show a couple of days ago - he talks about why MLG is different than its competition, and a bit about how Halo 2 is 'a step back' in competitive gaming. You can grab it from our server. (Louis Wu 13:04:15 UTC) (permalink)
Sniper, Waiting
A couple of weeks ago, we showed you a pretty amazing picture created by Mike Hill. Bungie liked it enough that it was added to the Bungie Weekly Update that week. Well, Mike's back - and eventually it'll get added to the various art sections of this site, but again, I couldn't hold this shot. It's a sniper pose - he said it was a study, 'placid'... I disagree. You make up your own mind. There's a small version (142K, 585x422), a huge version (885K, 1928x1377), and a version formatted as a background image (318K, 1024x768). Enjoy! Update: apologies for those who tried early - the links were bad. They're better now. (Louis Wu 00:11:05 UTC) (permalink)
Briar's Armor - now for sale
Looks like Briar's Armor is finished - you can find it for sale on eBay. Starting bid is $1500 (reserve is not yet met), auction has a week to run. Remember - you can get closeup views of this armor at briarsarmor.com! (Louis Wu 00:10:18 UTC) (permalink)
Cnet's top 10 in 10
Cnet has posted an article detailing their choices for the top 10 games of the last 10 years - Halo (the original) came in at a fitting number 7. Thanks, prometheus. (Louis Wu 00:09:44 UTC) (permalink)
News September 7 2005
In The Ruins
Whoa, very cool. Bryn "ofthehi77" Casey has put together another gorgeous piece - MC, another MC, and Cortana, in some Forerunner ruins. Check out 'In The Ruins'! (This was originally posted at yayap.com - we've added it to Bryn's page here with permission.) (Louis Wu 20:56:54 UTC) (permalink)
Filling in the cracks
Over at the Halo CE Chronicles website, you'll find a document entitled 'The Halo CE Chronicles Universe' - it's a backstory for the Halo CE Chronicles, and attempts to put that machinima series in sync with the Halo universe as we know it. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:45:57 UTC) (permalink)
Not Just In The PC Version.
Today's One One Se7en brought a smile to my face - because he ain't joking, it really is like that. (Louis Wu 13:10:52 UTC) (permalink)
Score Doesn't Even Matter
InnerRayg posted a parody of Linkin Park's In the End a couple of days ago - but the link wasn't working. Last night, kobaj came to the rescue, with a different link - and now that I've gotten a copy, I've localized the file. Voices aren't exactly like Linkin Park... but the singing's decent regardless! 3.3 mb, MP3 format. (Louis Wu 11:06:31 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Halo Movie Trailer available
Dillo pointed out that the teaser for Lego Halo film we mentioned a few days ago is now available for download - 2.3 mb, Real format. It doesn't show much - but it made me want to see the whole thing! The teaser mentioned that the film itself will be out in mid-October; here's hoping they stick to schedule! (Louis Wu 10:49:34 UTC) (permalink)
New Playlists Are Up
Thanks to the 93,000 people who wrote in to let us know that two new playlists are up on Xbox Live - Multiteam (unranked 3v3v3v3 play) and Team Snipers (also unranked). Rumble Preview and Team Preview have both been removed, because the new maps are now integrated into all playlists. Go and enjoy! (Louis Wu 10:40:12 UTC) (permalink)
1000 shirts a day
Wow - not bad! SketchFactor posted a note on Bungie.net yesterday, letting people know that the 'Fight the Flood' t-shirt has raised $93,000 in its first week of sales. This money goes to the Red Cross for disaster relief in the southern US... way to go! (Louis Wu 10:35:20 UTC) (permalink)
News September 6 2005
NSCS interviews Halo Pros
Overswarm has added three new interviews to his Not So Common Sense collection - he talks to IGS Ghandi, Lil Poison, and BlackJak to get the lowdown on the Halo 2 Pro scene. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:20:45 UTC) (permalink)
F.E.A.R. - learning from Halo 2
Not really Halo-related, but it seems to be inspired by more than one Halo success story, so... According to geek.com, it's been confirmed that there will be a Director's Edition DVD available to US buyers of the game F.E.A.R - and that along with items like a 'Making Of' documentary, there will be a F.E.A.R. machinima episode from Rooster Teeth Productions - interesting to see how this goes! Thanks, tLove. (Louis Wu 15:17:10 UTC) (permalink)
Goose's Story
Bunker 27 Episode III, 'Goose's Story', passed the MPRRS last night - you can grab a copy in either WMP9 format (15.5 mb) or QuickTime format (15.3 mb). How many machinima pieces contain a hand-drawn storybook? Go watch. (Louis Wu 14:20:34 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Episode 7
Podtacular Episode 7 is now available for download (I don't see it yet on iTunes, but you can grab it directly from their webpage). 27 mb, 78 minutes long, covering a variety of subjects - free maps, things that annoy them in XBL, gameplay tips, and more. Thanks to Henry Brown for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:07:59 UTC) (permalink)
MLGPro bigwig on AOTS
Major League Gaming's own Sundance DiGiovanni will be on G4's Attack of the Show! today at 7pm ET / 4pm PT - there are a bunch of repeats tomorrow, if you miss it. You can comment on the MLG site. Thanks to synide for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:45:12 UTC) (permalink)
Astounding Cool Flash Maps
Duke87 writes to point out some really slick maps over at MatchBox360 - they're Flash-based, and can be used to plot strategies, learn placement for weapons or important features, and more. The more you play with 'em, the more goodies you'll find. (There are a few maps missing - because they don't have any way to get overhead images of them; if you can help, drop 'em a line.) While you're there, stop by the main page - these guys run a UK-only Halo league, and they've just started recruiting for their second season. (Louis Wu 13:33:25 UTC) (permalink)
Sharing
Dennis Powers writes to point out that Episode 18 of the Halo CE Chronicles, 'Sharing', is now available for download. It's available in WMP9 (30.7 mb), QuickTime (27.7 mb), or streaming Flash (11.2 mb) from the Season 2 Downloads page. A plot summary can be found here - and Dennis wanted to make sure that everyone watching realized this episode contains more individual violence than previous episodes; something to keep in mind if you've been watching the series with small children. A bit more of the relationship between the Spartan and the station AI becomes clear... while the search and rescue team continues its fight against the Covenant. Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:20:12 UTC) (permalink)
The RvB PSP collection grows
Random 15-Year-Old is back with more Red vs Blue PSP-formatted episodes - if you visit this link on FileFront, you'll find download links for all episodes he's converted to date (right now, that's 45-59, but more are coming). Watch RvB from the comfort of your PSP! (Louis Wu 13:12:36 UTC) (permalink)
Halo2Forum Montage Madness
Two new montages on Halo2Forum.com - both contain some pretty impressive gameplay. Both are WMP9 format. You can grab DaY's Montage from this thread (a hefty 148 mb), and OlManMakowski's Montage 2 from this one (48 mb). Lots and lots of double/triple kills, some Killtaculars, and a couple of longer strings. Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:10:20 UTC) (permalink)
H equals MC squared episide one
A long weekend is now over - here's hoping you enjoyed it (if you're in the US, or celebrate US holidays), or that you waited patiently for Halo news (if yesterday was a normal work/schoolday for you)... back to the grindstone. On Sunday, [HC]D-Man posted a note about a new Halo 2 podcast - this episode is just over half an hour; highlights include Phantom, from High Impact Halo, talking about their new Trick Review System. Go listen! (Louis Wu 13:01:17 UTC) (permalink)
News September 5 2005
Getting The Horn.
Ever meet one of those guys who won't stop talking about themselves? Stuntmutt has - check today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 11:20:58 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's Reading
Sixteen new pieces of Fan Fiction for you on this beautiful Labor Day - if you live in the US, enjoy the holiday! If you don't... Wish us the best! (Louis Wu 11:19:28 UTC) (permalink)
Poetry, Motives, and AIs
Jillybean manages to get in multiple shots at Cortana (and one at me) in her latest Halo Story Page update. Cheeky... (Louis Wu 11:00:20 UTC) (permalink)
Buzzer Beater!
Red vs Blue Episode 59, 'Hunting Time', is now up for sponsors - 33-39 mb, depending on format. I gotta say... I'm LOVIN' Andy. Reds and Blues are separated again - and stuff is going on for both groups. Isn't this better than just fighting each other in a dead-end canyon? While you're over there, check the front page - Nico has posted three new downloadable songs, and asks that if you like them, you donate a little bit to the Katrina Relief effort. (They're great - do it.) (Louis Wu 01:40:32 UTC) (permalink)
News September 4 2005
YouKnowItUh's Montage 2
Over at Halo2Forum.com, there's a new montage posted by YouKonwItUh - WMP9 format, 103 mb. Very heavy on the video effects. (Louis Wu 13:51:12 UTC) (permalink)
Chanel No 117.
In an attempt to give you some of the flavor of the LANfest held at Miguel Chavez's house last weekend, Stuntmutt has created a special Sunday One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 13:41:44 UTC) (permalink)
How to make cutscenes in HaloCE
DHalo made a tutorial to help with basic cutscene making with scripts, using Halo Custom Edition - you can find a download link in this Gearbox forum thread. (The video is encoded using a Mac-incompatible codec; you'll need a PC to watch this. On the other hand, you'll need a PC to use HaloCE, so it's not such a big deal.) (Louis Wu 13:21:53 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Halo
Apparently, someone's making a Halo movie... using Lego bricks. You can find details (including pictures and a teaser poster) in this thread on Brickfilms.com - a trailer is coming soon. Thanks, Steve Davies. (Louis Wu 13:14:55 UTC) (permalink)
PSP version of latest RvB
Random 15-Year-Old has posted a PSP-compatible version of Episode 58 of Red vs Blue over on FileFront - if you'd like to watch this on your handheld, grab a copy! (16.5 mb) (Louis Wu 13:12:04 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Tourney in Phoenix
A radio station in the Phoenix AZ area is hosting a Halo 2 tournament on September 17 - first place is $1000 in cash and prizes. Unfortunately, A note is up on the page stating that all contestants have been selected already - but who knows, maybe there'll be cancellations. Thanks, Cybrfrk. (Louis Wu 13:09:14 UTC) (permalink)
News September 3 2005
Charcoal
ÜberChief points out that the newest issue of Resolute is up - if only the MC was that damage-resistant in the game we play! (Louis Wu 19:14:56 UTC) (permalink)
Big Boys and Wicker Baskets
ChairLeg Productions continues with their Nephrons series; 'Nephrons - Minus Four' passed the MPRRS last night. Hugh is still insane, Mike is still in prison, the Blues are still better at insulting than the Reds. The reviewers liked the quality, the jokes (except for one reviewer, who found it 'quite boring' but passed it anyway), and the plot (except for those who didn't get it). British humor, you know. Or humour. Or something. Available in WMP9 (38.3 mb) or QuickTime (36.7 mb). (Louis Wu 12:37:37 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Tourney in Philadelphia area
pkrut sent us email about a Halo 2 tourney at CyberZone, in the Neshamiy mall near Philadelphia. It's 2v2 slayer, MLG Rules. Entrance fee is $30/team. I couldn't find any info on prizes. There's no age requirement - the only caveat is... it's today. Get on down! Update: Oops - the tourney is tomorrow, Sunday, the fourth. Sorry about that. (Louis Wu 12:14:33 UTC) (permalink)
The Robots Need Oil
Over on GotFrag, there's a story on Team 3D, and how they're dealing with their surprising loss to TmG in Philadelphia. Sounds like they're looking forward to MLG Atlanta, coming at the end of this month, where they'll get a chance to face these rivals again! Thanks, James Schneider. (Louis Wu 12:05:58 UTC) (permalink)
Dying for a Cause
A few days ago, we mentioned one fan's plan to raise some cash for Katrina victims - BoneKin was going to give one dollar for each kill he got in a series of 7 games (with a minimum of $117) to the Red Cross. Those games were played, on schedule, last night, and Mintz was kind enough to summarize the results - BoneKin will be sending $139 down! (There's a movie coming at some point, too.) Nice work! Update: There's another post on our forum about disaster relief opportunities, this one from Max Power - it looks like EB Games has agreed to match donations made through their stores (to a maximum of $50,000 companywide) - drop off $10, $20 heads to the Red Cross! Cool. Update 2: We've heard from a fan auctioning a Dell LCD monitor on eBay - 100% of the final sales price will go to the Red Cross. We may have to start a Katrina-only news page if this keeps up... (Louis Wu 11:16:39 UTC) (permalink)
News September 2 2005
Mobilizing the Bungie Army
There's a major story up on Bungie.net - ways you can help with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. First up - the T-shirt we mentioned earlier today. Go read WHY you should buy one (or several - they'll make great presents!). After that, there's a little bit of information for an upcoming charity auction - we'll be working closely with Bungie to sell off some truly amazing fan items, and in the process build up some cash to send south. (Every penny made in the auction will be going to disaster relief - this one isn't even '100% of the profits', this one is '100% - period'.) Finally, there are some comments pulled from a recent thread on Bungie.net about people either directly affected by the disaster, or people doing what they can to help - check it out, get inspired! (Louis Wu 19:51:47 UTC) (permalink)
This Spartan Life Ep 2 kicks off
This Spartan Life has kicked off Episode 2 - module 1 (Opening and extended monologue) is up now. 28 mb in QuickTime format, 22 mb in WMP9 format. (The WMP9 link is actually not active on their site yet - but you can grab it from the GearboxGameZone website for now.) Hey - who couldn't love a talking shotgun? Guests in Episode 2 will be The Ill Clan (a machinima crew that has been making cool vids for years with the Quake engine(s)) and Marty O'Donnell from Bungie. Lance returns! (These folks aren't in this module - as with Episode 1, this episode will be broken up in to several modules, for ease of downloading.) Go watch. (Louis Wu 17:28:16 UTC) (permalink)
Whipple Scrumptious Fudgemelee Delight.
Speaking of Stuntmutt - it seems the man has figured out a way to keep his betrayals down to a reasonable number. Check today's One One Se7en for details. (Louis Wu 17:25:26 UTC) (permalink)
It's ALL gone!
Okay, this one takes some explanation. A couple of weeks ago, vshields ash started exploring what happens when you overload the Halo engine during the fight with the Prophet of Regret. The first thing he discovered was he'd spawn new prophet chairs after the overload kicked in - he got up over 100 chairs before things broke down. (This thread documents his progress.) Then he went outside - and things were a little... empty. He described it - and then Duelies made a vid of the final cutscene. However, Duelies hadn't gone quite as far in the object overload field as Vern did - the Covenant cruiser, for example, was still around. Vern wanted everyone to see a TOTALLY empty scene - so he sent me a tape to digitize. You can grab it in QuickTime or WMP9 formats - roughly 10 mb each. Stuntmutt must get the credit (or the blame) for the music. (Louis Wu 16:57:36 UTC) (permalink)
Green Metal Underoos
Captain Spark posted another 25 dialogue snippets on our forum today - all are from Marines, and some are PG-rated. Some hilarious stuff in there! You can grab the batch in one chunk on his website (if it's up), or you can browse the entries in our Dialogue Databank. (Louis Wu 16:44:12 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo articles for PSP
Mintz posted another few articles for your PSP over on his website - swing by and see what's new! (Louis Wu 16:43:56 UTC) (permalink)
Pen Island.
SiegWarheit pointed out a rather odd-shaped HaloCE map created by NiTrOuSoXiDe of the H2CE team. Um... yeah. (Louis Wu 16:43:32 UTC) (permalink)
Fight the Flood
Bungie has posted a new T-Shirt on the Bungie Store; it costs $20, and $15 of that will go directly to the Red Cross for distaster relief. (There'll be more on this subject from them later this afternoon, but tag-goody71 noticed the shirt in the store this morning, so we figured we'd let you get a head start on it.) (Louis Wu 16:22:45 UTC) (permalink)
Taking one for the team
Another vid passed the MPRRS yesterday - it's called 'Taking one for the team', and it's Obie Brown's take on a sad, underappreciated job in Halo 2 multiplayer. It's pretty funny, with great musical integration. Obie is part of 'Lost Youth', a clan of 22 and up "geezers" that have seen one too many montages and wanted to do something different. You can grab a copy in WMP9 format (31 mb) or QuickTime format (31.9 mb). (Louis Wu 15:27:08 UTC) (permalink)
Warthog's Last Jump
Over at Halo Babies, the humor gets sort of dark... I want my teddy bear! (They've also finished up their RvB cartoon contest, but the winning strips aren't online yet. I was going to hold off announcing this until they were - but it's unclear when that will happen.) (Louis Wu 15:01:59 UTC) (permalink)
News September 1 2005
The Halo Theatre Digs Deep
You gotta love the horn-self-tooting... a new Halo blog focused on machinima, The Halo Theatre, asked me a few questions about the subject... it may or may not be worth a read. (There is not a single shot taken at KP, so some of you might decide to skip it.) Lucky for me, comments don't seem to be enabled - you'll have to find other ways to take snide potshots at me. (Louis Wu 18:25:47 UTC) (permalink)
Speedrunning SC, revisited
Last year, we hosted the Going Nowhere Fast competition - taking speedrunning to a new level. It inspired the creation of highspeedhalo.org, a website devoted to Halo speedruns. A couple of days ago, over on the MLG forums (you'll have to be registered to see that thread), insidi0us posted a new run for Silent Cartographer - and though he does it on Normal (rather than the GNF-required Legendary), he beat goatrope's GNF-winning time by 25 seconds - an astounding feat when the total time was just over 4 minutes to begin with. I was impressed enough with the run that I wrote up a short analysis of the places where he gains time over goatrope's run - and now that it's not the end of the month any more, we've got the bandwidth to host this puppy, so you can watch it, too. WMP9 version is 44.2 mb, QuickTime version is 46.6 mb. Thanks to l3Dl SHREK 2 for bringing this to my attention in the first place. (Louis Wu 17:10:32 UTC) (permalink)
Katrina relief fund charities list
A followup on yesterday's 'Help Katrina Victims' post - Dennis Powers, of the GearboxGameZone, has compiled a list of charities accepting donations for Hurricane relief from the FEMA website (I'm impressed; I went there and looked around, and the only obvious link was to the Red Cross). Check it out, do what you can. (Yeah, I know. This is a Halo website, not a Katrina one. Sometimes, though, we need to remember that part of being a community is helping out those in distress.) (Louis Wu 16:22:43 UTC) (permalink)
When The Truth Hurts, Violence Ensues.
Another vid for you that passed the MPRRS recently - it's called 'Boot Camp Short: Episode I.V - Attack of the Critics', and it's a nice shot at the MPRRS itself. (Well, sort of.) These guys submitted their first vid to the system - and it failed. Rather than rework it, however, or give up altogether, they decided to make a film showing what happens when a vid fails... it's a nice satire. The reviewers thought so, too - they passed it with flying colors. WMP9 version is 43.3 mb, QuickTime version is 39.8 mb. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 14:57:19 UTC) (permalink)
Thursday Fiction
Thirteen new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section - Day 8 in the life of a noob made me laugh. Go read! (Louis Wu 14:02:25 UTC) (permalink)
Making Hurricane Relief Fun
Bonekin started a thread on our forum last night - you have to read the whole thing to get all the details right, but here they are, as far as I understand them: he's planning on playing online tomorrow night (Friday), 9 pm Central time, on Xbox Live - he will play a series of 7 games, and will donate $1 for each kill he gets in those games (with a minimum of $117 in case he falters) to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief. Anyone who wants to participate can send him a friend request. (Louis Wu 13:17:53 UTC) (permalink)
Noobs Gone Wild 3
A couple of days ago, BoneKin's 'Noobs Gone Wild 3', a testament to the dumb stuff you can do in Halo 2 multiplay, passed our Movie Peer Review Rating System - but we were out of bandwidth, and couldn't really afford to put up mirrors yet. It's September, now, though, and we've gotten a fresh shipment of nice ripe bandwidth - so go grab a copy. It's available in both WMP9 format (47.8 mb) or QuickTime format (40.2 mb). The funniest parts are all the things that can go wrong with a plasma grenade... (Louis Wu 12:38:23 UTC) (permalink)
Dizzzequilbrium.
Goodness. That poor Stuntmutt - he slaves over Google, hunting for hours to dig up only the best puns, only to have the jokes forgotten about by the lazy web guy... yesterday's One One Se7en is FINALLY posted. Sorry about that. (Although, after reading it again, I'm wondering... nah, never mind.) (Louis Wu 11:21:03 UTC) (permalink)
| September 2005 | |
