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Wednesday, March 21, 2001 |  |
bungie.com back up
Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi, who gave us the heads-up that bungie.com is once more accessible, with the movies moved to a nameless (IP-address-only) MS server. Go on in and see the pics! (And maybe even get the movies...) (Louis Wu 22:53:00 UTC) (permalink)
Bandwidth relief on its way
Thanks to Pallor for the heads-up - Max Hoberman jumped on to the R.net forum a few minutes ago to suggest that there'd be some relief for the movie congestion problem coming very soon. Great news! (Louis Wu 21:31:41 UTC) (permalink)
Sound Hijinks
More behind-the-scenes stuff... Marty O'Donnell explains a bit about how the sound worked during the demo. To set the scene, Joe Staten said this in his reply to Mark Levin's post:
If my shooting style seemed erratic, it's because I was trying to stay in sync with the music. Notice how the last Grunt in the penetration fight dies "on cue"? To accomplish that I had to miss the Elite with most of a clip.
When I first read this, I said, 'Huh?' Marty cleared up what was happening:
I was in the back of the auditorium playing a CD of the music that was made for Joe's choreographed gameplay. There were four pieces, each with some cool internal hit points (as long as Joe hits his marks) and then I started each new piece to correspond to Joe's location. The sound engine will do this in the game, of course it won't be wall to wall music like this presentation was, but it'll be pretty cool.
Thank God Joe didn't crash... or fall into that first big shaft. It would have kind of screwed up the choreography.
The things you have to do to successfully demo a game! (Louis Wu 20:42:17 UTC) (permalink)
PC build?
Things that make you go 'hmm...' Readers of the Marathon's Story page might remember that in the series of webcam movies Hamish has been posting for a couple of weeks, there was a missing day... and David Candland (part of the Online team) wrote to tell Hamish that that particular day,
"That timeframe is more eventful than one would guess. My oldest son had a soccer game at 4:00 that afternoon. I brought my 2 boys in to the office to kill some time since we were already in town. They played games and got to play the gamestock build of Halo while they were here."
Today, that missing movie showed up... and it's interesting, to say the least. The relevant timeframe (as readable at the top of the image) is Sat Mar 10 14:45 to 15:53 (at which point, a divider is moved in front of the camera, obscuring the view)... and as Hamish points out, it certainly LOOKS as though the kids are playing on a PC, with a keyboard and mouse... Remember, we don't actually KNOW anything about this situation, this is all just speculation, from a series of highly compressed, low-resolution webcam pics, but still... Pax. (Crux Fidelis 20:30:19 UTC) (permalink)
Movie analysis begins
Mark Levin posted a long and detailed analysis of the new movie, and cross-posted it to Rampancy.net... where he got a reply from Joe Staten, who clarifies a few tidbits. Both posts are definitely worth a read! (Louis Wu 20:05:17 UTC) (permalink)
First Hi-res mirror appears
Thanks to Eric Odegard, who found a european mirror for the hi-res Gamestock demo, at FragZone (in Sweden). Let's hope this doesn't crush them... :) (Louis Wu 19:28:33 UTC) (permalink)
Backstory updates
For those who would like to see the current form of the Halo backstory, we've transcribed the voiced-over commentary of Joseph Staten, as recorded during the Bungie demonstration at Gamestock. (This has also been sent to Hamish Sinclair for inclusion on the Official Halo Backstory page.) Quick update: Oops - seems Bachus included this entire transcript in his synopsis, posted last night (and even mentioned by me, on this page). Gotta be more careful... (Louis Wu 19:11:12 UTC) (permalink)
Poll smash at UGO
Thanks to EKSalzman@dstsystems.com, for pointing out a UGO poll - 'which Xbox game has you drooling?' Halo is currently third, behind WWF Raw is War and Pro Skater 2x (does that tell you something about their audience?). You know what to do... (Louis Wu 17:34:21 UTC) (permalink)
Lo-res movie mirror list compiled
We've put up a list of all known mirrors for the low-res version of Bungie's new Gamestock movie - currently, that's 6 download sites in two countries. If/when mirrors for the hi-res version begin to appear, we'll put them up. Thanks to Tomas Matuschek and Halo Network for some of these links. (Louis Wu 17:17:19 UTC) (permalink)
Surrealistic biscuit hunting
The shield blocked out most of the noise around him, but he could still hear reverberations coming through the grating. It sounded like a jackhammer hitting a broken xylophone stuck on one note and amplified through a hundred sub-woofers.
More Fan Fiction today - this one's a little strange. When you get to the Pleenta, you may just wonder where you are... Check out Chris Bisoski's 'No Biscuit for You' in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 15:37:41 UTC) (permalink)
New Fan Fiction for your perusal
While you're waiting for some server to unclog enough to download the hi-res version of the new Gamestock footage, we've got some reading material for you.
He was about to move the camera back when he noticed something that made his blood chill. A pair of Covenant elite were slowly moving through the woods about 150 yards from the two Marines, on a path designed to intersect.
Bastard sends in the next installment of the storyline he started with 'Tides of War'. You can find 'Last Stand', the new story, in our Fan Fiction section. I'm beginning to realize that this section might have value to the Halo storywriting team... some interesting missions could be developed from some of these stories. (Louis Wu 14:56:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo movie mirror sites
Our good friends over at Blue's News have mirrored the low-res Halo movie (34.6MBs). Their download page also lists 3D Gamer as a source for the movie as well. Check back for mirror sites as we get them. (Ding 13:22:29 UTC) (permalink)
Halo movie screen captures
Kudos to Harry for creating a page of screen captures from the latest Halo movie. If you can't grab the movie then get the next best thing. (Ding 13:15:40 UTC) (permalink)
Oceans of Halo goodness... if you can get it
Well, as everyone this side of Katmandu probably already knows, bungie.com and Bungie's Halo site were both updated this evening, and the highlight of the update is a nearly inaccessible new trailer, in two flavors. The big version is 182 MB, the smaller version is 35 MB. Bachus has kindly written up a synopsis for those frustrated by the overwhelmed Microsoft servers... and when mirrors go up, we'll do our best to tell you about them. In the meantime, we've updated our Screenshots section with the two new shots Bungie released... you might find them easier to view here. :) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 04:36:53 UTC) (permalink)
Tuesday's news in brief:
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Gamestock impressions from PlanetXbox Magazine sighting for Halo Halo's Universe open for business |
Monday's news in brief:
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Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted Fan Fiction section updated Breathtaking new Wallpaper available Halo Update database updated |
