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Tuesday, October 16, 2001 |  |
Build more walls, Mabel!
Wow - a wallpaper bonanza. Enforcer has uploaded no fewer than seven new images, in two major themes. I've grouped them, since they're so similar - you'll find descriptions of the variations on the main page for each theme. Just go visit our Wallpaper section and it'll be made clear. (Louis Wu 15:02:30 UTC) (permalink)
Slayer - you're it
Thanks to a random, 6-month-old thread on the IGN Xbox forum, a new tidbit has come to light - in an interview that IGN Xbox did with John Howard and Joe Staten in April, Joe mentioned a multiplayer mode we haven't heard of before:
I just got done whupping arse in a game of split-screen "Slayer" with some programmer chumps (it's all about over-charging the Covenant Plasma Rifle btw), and I can assure you Halo multiplayer is alive and well and definitely a part of the final product.
Slayer... hmm. Wonder how we all missed that when the interview was first noticed? (Louis Wu 14:30:51 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox meets anime
Thanks to Uriel, who pointed out on the forum that dom, an artist for Megatokyo, has posted an Xbox/GameCube rant. (Scroll down the page to the area below the comic - look for dom's column.) After reaming the controller, and running down some of the good and bad stuff he saw recently, he hit on Halo:
Finally, the little aliens in Halo may just be the most fun bastards to shoot in a while.Ê They give you such crap when you die ("Not so tough NOW, are ya?") that you can't wait to respawn and pop a few more of them so they start scattering and screaming "Run!ÊIt's him!".Ê When Cortana buys himself an Xbox for DoA3 and Halo, I'll spend some time with Halo.
Someone with issues, certainly... but a fun read nonetheless. (Louis Wu 13:20:47 UTC) (permalink)
You want Fries with that?
Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, noticed an interview with Ed Fries and (Japanese Xbox division manager) Yutaka Haruki at Coremagazine.com. Fries believes that the Japanese will embrace Halo (and other US offerings):
In the United States, 70% of the people who have reserved an Xbox also reserved the game Halo. We expect a similar figure in the Japanese market.
Time will tell... (Louis Wu 10:14:34 UTC) (permalink)
IGN on Halo at TGS
Harry Al-Shakarchi pointed out this article on TGS 2001 over at IGN Xbox - it's an overview of the feel of the show. They were taken by the Japanese reaction to Halo:
On a side note, it's particularly cool to watch Japanese gamers play Halo, trying to figure out the controls as if holding a violin for the first time. The whole concept of playing a first-person shooter seems as odd as playing an in-depth horse racing simulation does to us (sorry, no first-day impressions of Jockey's Dream).
We'll see if Halo has what it takes to break through that barrier! (Louis Wu 09:55:43 UTC) (permalink)
Uncluttered wallpaper
Josh Hampton decided that much of the wallpaper out there was too cluttered for actual desktop images... he's taken the clean approach. You'll find his entry in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 09:51:54 UTC) (permalink)
Nice hand-drawn marine
Aaacourt22 sends in a hand-drawn Marine, suitable for inclusion in wallpaper, if you so choose. Check it out in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 09:48:36 UTC) (permalink)
fan fan fiction
The fan fiction of Gordi has attracted a following, as can be seen by reading his comments. Mr Bill Jr V thought enough of it that he set his most recent story in Gordi's universe - it gives a bit of the backstory of the 6th fleet. Now THIS is cool... fan fiction for fan fiction! Read 'The 6th' in our Fan Fiction section, and be sure to tell Mr Bill what you think! (Louis Wu 09:48:13 UTC) (permalink)
The Junkyard needs help
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews dropped us a note about needing fresh blood at the Junkyard. The boilerplate was a bit too long for our front page... but it's a good cause, so we've put it here. If you're interested in working on a solid gaming site, check it out! (Louis Wu 09:39:42 UTC) (permalink)
Ogre still in... sort of
A couple of weeks ago, a site called Xboxweb put up a Halo preview, and in it, they mentioned a multiplayer mode called 'Ogre'. Ogre first surfaced in a print preview in the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer UK, which hit the newsstands on June 6, 2000. It was described as a unique multiplayer mode:
"For example, Halo features a mode named Ogre, where one player takes the role of a massively powerful bio-mechanical character covered in weapons who has to take out a series of objectives. Meanwhile, everyone else has to try to kill them. If someone manages to zero the creature, they take the role next time. If no-one does, he keeps it and continues to enjoy the megalomaniacal power rush. Muhahahahaha."
Understandably, folks got excited. In an attempt to clarify whether this mode (which was never mentioned again, after this article) actually made it into the game, Matt Soell was pestered... and he replied with this:
No, Ogre didn't make it in. You can set up a similar game (where one person is "it" and has some special feature or handicap which is transferred to the player who kills him) but there is no suit of weapons and no "objectives to take out."
Matt sounded rather disappointed as he relayed this info... but to me, the basic gamestyle seems quite similar. So - in the torrent of hoped-for features whose demise we've recently been learning about, a rock in the river - Ogre, or something a lot like it, IS still in the game. Thanks, Matt! (Louis Wu 02:26:30 UTC) (permalink)
White Meat or Dark?
Just in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving, Tom Van Sinden sends in a pair of holiday-themed desktop images, in a couple of resolutions each... Trick or Treat is gonna be on MY desktop for a bit! Check 'em out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 01:37:16 UTC) (permalink)
Book plot points
Eric Trautmann, MS Content Developer, drops by to pass along a tantalizing tidbit about the Halo backstory - there had been some forum speculation about the credibility of the plot - why, for example, would the Covenant go to the trouble of a ground war against the inhabitants of Reach, rather than simply wiping the human population out from space, and then just going down and taking the information they needed from remaining computers? Someone suggested that maybe the humans had wiped their navigational databases, to prevent this information from falling into Covenant hands... and Eric confirmed that this, indeed, is what happened - the process was named the Cole Protocol, after the admiral who implemented it. Slowly, it comes... The book will be on shelves in two weeks. (Louis Wu 01:27:28 UTC) (permalink)
Game Informer review - 2 thumbs up
Mr. Temper points out on our forum a new print review of Halo, in Game Informer magazine - he supplies links to scanned pages, and includes written text for those who can't read the small print in the pics. The upshot - they liked it... (Louis Wu 01:19:08 UTC) (permalink)
Marty's gonna scalp someone...
A boatload of updates coming... bear with me as I write 'em up, one by one. First up: the TGS movie. Many people have been complaining about a couple of features of this movie - first, that there are three separate cov kills at the start that use the same bit of soundtrack (same covenant grunt, same background chatter), and second, that the Covenant commander who's taken down with a pair of sniper rounds (and a miss between them, to boot) doesn't show a lot of smarts in terms of saving his own hide. Matt Soell was kind enough to jump into our forum with a pair of responses - here's what he had to say about the repetitive soundtrack, and here was his AI reply. Hope this clarifies a bit! (And for those who were wondering about the much-vaunted Covenant commander, taken down with a measly pair of sniper rounds:
Which brings up another point: whoever was playing in this footage was playing at something less than the normal difficulty level. It's not that easy, folks.
Heh - makes me wish even more for a film mode. :) Go read 'em for yourself! (Louis Wu 01:16:07 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's news in brief:
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Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted New Halo Preview at Halonetwork.de TGS .wmv at Fileplanet BGH having technical difficulties |
Sunday's news in brief:
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Screen caps from GS TGS movie New Halo movie at Gamespot Against the Enemy DoA3 over Halo Halo in Wired Lots more wallpaper... |
