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Thursday, October 21, 2004 |  |
Rockin' Cellos and Fake Monks
Marty O'Donnell is probably the most interviewed employee of Bungie Studios - whether it's because he loves to talk, or because his expertise outstrips the rest of the team, I couldn't say. Most of the time, though, the questions fall into a relatively narrow range... everyone asks the same sorts of things. Nico Audy-Rowland, the man behind the music at Rooster Teeth (Red vs Blue and The Strangerhood), decided to strike off into untrodden terrritory... and Marty followed, gracefully. We've got a 30-question interview that ranges from nitty-gritty technical stuff to the philosophy of composing, and lots of subjects in between! Go read it, and gain a bit more insight into this almost-enigmatic musician! (Louis Wu 21:11:01 UTC) (permalink)
Parents - They Make Life Hard
Today's Calvin and Halo shows what happens when you let a single event take over your life. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you... (Louis Wu 19:15:05 UTC) (permalink)
October Edge now online - finally
This should have gone up over a week ago - but things have really been a little crazy around here. Last month's Edge Magazine had a gorgeous 8-page spread on Halo 2 (Plus the front and back covers, the inside cover, and the Enter editorial column) - we've finally put it online in our Press Scans section. The text was up on Edge's site weeks ago - but the pretty pictures are worth the look. (Louis Wu 19:14:31 UTC) (permalink)
I Always Win
Tony Albert sent along a kind note with a description of some new music of his:
I've been a lurker of the forums and news pages for a couple of years now, and although my involvement in the community is non-existent, my admiration for the creativity surrounding Halo is immense. That said, I wanted throw my own creativity into the fray by submitting a song to you that I have written in homage to Halo. I believe it has universal appeal, but hopefully readers of Eric Nylund's 'Halo: The Fall of Reach' will be hard pressed to identify it's speaker as anyone but the master chief, John 117 himself.
The song, a 6.4 mb mp3, can be grabbed from our server. Solid southern rock, with a nice Halo-based theme after the second chorus. Give it a listen! (Louis Wu 17:40:59 UTC) (permalink)
Now that's a lot of bots.
Mhaddy from the Junkyard writes to point out yet ANOTHER Homefront update on the Junkyard forums. (These guys are stepping up the pace.) There are 12 new screenshots of single player mode (which is just multiplayer mode - with up to 63 bots). There will be another update on Friday, with a release date announcement. (Louis Wu 13:28:28 UTC) (permalink)
Sound Player
Speaking of repurposing assets... I wasn't going to mention this right away, because I was hoping for a reply from the website owners first... but the number of emails we're getting from viewers makes it hard to wait. Over on the Mountain Dew/Slurpee Halo 2 page, there's a new download - they're calling it the 339 SFX Player. It's a downloadable Flash application, for both Mac and PC, and it's simply an interface for playing 'over 50 exclusive Halo sound clips'. The problem is - every single one of these clips was taken from our Dialogue Databank, with no credit whatsoever to the original collectors. If you really want sound clips - visit the Databank; there are over 1200 snippets, instead of just 50 (though you don't get the funky Flash interface for listening to them that way). With this flood of Halo-related advertising hitting the net (and other avenues) recently, it seems that a few places have forgotten about general ethics. (Louis Wu 13:23:30 UTC) (permalink)
About those Gamespy art 'assets'
A number of people have written us about 'new screenshots' at Gamespy.com - these are neither new, nor screenshots. They simply extracted a bunch of the artwork from the newly remodeled halo2.com. Oh, yeah - and then they put their own watermark on it. (Louis Wu 13:10:55 UTC) (permalink)
Follow directly - but with hesitation
Okay, I wasn't going to post this, because it's clear that the folks at nilerogers.com WANT you to watch the flash animations that go with the music... but for a lot of you, that's a less than perfect solution; the animation doesn't preload, it streams... which means if your internet connection isn't suitably fast, you hear a second or two of music, followed by 5 or 10 seconds of silence, followed by a few seconds of music... and so on. This is clearly not what ANY musician would want for their audience. You can download the full 2:55-long snippet (this is NOT the entire song this time, thank goodness) here, and play it when you've got the WHOLE thing. Please visit the main website in any case, and check out the info they've got there; I'm not trying to circumvent their ability to let you know what they offer, I'm simply trying to give people a chance to hear this music as both Marty O'Donnell and Incubus would WANT to hear it, rather than in pieces. The list of people sending in links (as well as the list complaining about the choppiness) is far too large to enumerate, but thanks to all. (Louis Wu 12:15:07 UTC) (permalink)
Ivory Tower - from the inside
Another IGN Countdown article - this one is a short summary of Ivory Tower, one of the multiplayer maps that beta testers got their hands on. Read it for a summary and a couple of basic gameplay mode ideas. (Louis Wu 12:09:10 UTC) (permalink)
Lonely Hunter - in full
Well, it took longer than any of us expected - but you can now grab 'Heart is a Lonely Hunter' in one fell 203 mb swoop. If you don't know what this movie is, here's the first news post I made about it. We'll continue releasing chapters for folks who don't want the whole thing in one shot - but for those with a fast connection, you can grab the entire movie tonight, and watch the whole 30 minutes without waiting. I just watched it again this afternoon... and I must say, I still believe this is one of the best pieces released in the Halo community - ever. Update: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter website is back up with a new forum, if you'd like to discuss this movie. (Louis Wu 00:54:37 UTC) (permalink)
GTA Vs. Halo 2
IGN continues their Countdown to Halo 2 series with a showdown - Halo 2 vs Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Yeah. Thanks, Creaper609. Update: In a twist that's vaguely surreal, it looks like GTA: SA has ALSO been pirated and released to the net, before official publication. The Gamespot article is eerily similar to the Halo 2 piracy articles from last week. Given the number of megaahit titles being stolen this way, I wouldn't be surprised to see some major changes in how copy protection is handled in the future (changes that will, like as not, make life far more inconvenient for law-abiding consumers). Thanks, Dean. (Louis Wu 00:53:28 UTC) (permalink)
Truth and Recon - livin' large
A few days ago, we mentioned that Ms Man had made it to the bottom of Truth and Reconciliation - at the time, there were only photos and a short, hard-to-understand vid. At this point, there's a full 12 minute, 42 mb WMP9, showing the whole level, with step-by-step instructions. It's really impressive. I don't have an alternate download link right now - but if Ms Man's bandwidth runs out, we'll add one tomorrow. There's a forum thread over at High Impact Halo about this stuff. (Louis Wu 00:42:31 UTC) (permalink)
Streaming Halo from WCG
The World Cyber Games website is streaming video from many of the Halo matches in this year's tournament - you can find them on this page. Registration (free) is required to watch. Thanks, Bagre. (Louis Wu 00:36:14 UTC) (permalink)
Follow - up for your ears
Over at nilerogers.com, there's a new snippet available from the Halo 2 soundtrack - this one is Odyssey 1st Movement, from Incubus. Looks like the web team there has learned their lesson - figuring out the direct URL to the mp3 isn't as easy as it's been in the past... and it's doubtful that this one is longer than the snippet itself. Hehe. Anyway - go listen. Thanks to Alex Cross, Eric Biro and Zachary Hahn, who let us know within seconds of each other. (Louis Wu 00:16:22 UTC) (permalink)
Tall order
There's a new episode of Afterwar (episode 6) over at Black Arts Studios - looks like the Master Chief might be in trouble! (Louis Wu 00:15:57 UTC) (permalink)
A beta tester writes a book
Speaking of books... Ross Mills ran across a curious entry at Amazon UK. It's a book entitled "The Halo 2 Battle Guide: Advanced Combat Techniques", and purports to be written by 'an experienced Halo 2 Beta tester', chock-full of multiplayer tips. Publication date is December 17. As far as I can tell, it is not offered by Amazon in the US. (Louis Wu 00:15:22 UTC) (permalink)
More on the Piggyback Guide
eddie m pointed out a 'Trade Kit' for retailers made by Piggyback Interactive for their upcoming Halo 2 Strategy Guide. It contains different covers (including a very nice large version), an insert and a product sheet. The download is 2.1 mb, and requires registration (free). It's still unclear whether there's going to be a difference between the Prima guide available in the US and the Piggyback guide available in Europe - but they seem to have the same cover, so... (Louis Wu 00:14:56 UTC) (permalink)
Please follow closely. This portal is the first of ten.
Alex Cross pointed out this post mentioning that a new Halo 2 Soundtrack snippet has been posted to nilerodgers.com. This track is called "Follow (1st movement of the Odyssey)", and it's done by Incubus. Hardcore! (Count Zero 00:04:42 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's news in brief:
Tuesday's news in brief:
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Leaky Pipes Big Time A heads-up about a quiet time But Mom... A cool grand in Michigan I Love Bees - in the news again 60 Minutes Video, too Circuit City with a new (mini) screen That's what it looks like... |
