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Tuesday, November 16, 2004 |  |
Video Games Grow Up
Peter Marks pointed out that today's Talk of the Nation program on National Public Radio contains a segment on video games, and how they're evolving into an entertainment medium that's not just for kids any more. The talk (not surprisingly) involves Halo 2 to a great degree. If you can't find a station playing this near you right now, the audio will be available online after 6 pm Eastern (3 pm Pacific) today. (Louis Wu 20:50:19 UTC) (permalink)
Ten new desktops
Chipping away at the artwork backlog - another 10 desktops up today in the Wallpaper section (dating from early October). We'll get there! (Louis Wu 20:38:13 UTC) (permalink)
It's just money, right?
User Friendly's comic today is Halo-related... and MAN, does that strike a chord. Thanks, E1337 (Louis Wu 17:51:08 UTC) (permalink)
A year in the making... done!
Last week, Chris Bryan finished his labor of love - a self-made Master Chief suit, wearable and gorgeous! I didn't get the pictures up when they came in; I'm sorry about that. They're up now, though - go check out the last 3 steps! He did an amazing job. (Louis Wu 17:45:55 UTC) (permalink)
Sentinel Released
We don't normally post submitted press stuff as-is, but after looking over Grenadiac's summary of Sentinel, there wasn't anything I wanted to pull, so here's the announcement in his words:
After several months in development, Kaptain Kommie and Grenadiac have released Sentinel, an advanced server browser/manager for HaloPC and HaloCE. Some of its advanced features include: mapfile and bitmap verfication to prevent cheating, mod registration, automated downloading/installation of new maps, server hammering for full servers, buddy list, player search, easier dedicated server setup, support for mIRC commands when joining/quitting or while playing on a server.(Louis Wu 16:55:42 UTC) (permalink)
The origin of a REALLY famous bit
Nico, of Red vs Blue and Trocadero fame, was listening to his Myth II soundtrack... and suddenly recognized a riff. "I KNOW WHERE THE HALO THEME CAME FROM!" he yelled. Listen for yourself. This is a 24-second snippet (378K) from the Myth II Epilogue, a 4 and a half minute dirge that beautifully finishes the game. (Louis Wu 15:21:31 UTC) (permalink)
Forum sampling
Our forum is flying past these days at the speed of light - it's hard to keep up. (We're still averaging over 1000 posts/day since we reopened.) A few random posts that were worth a quick mention:
- Hawaiian Pig points out another one of those 'Which Character are You?' games
- serpx points out an easy way to collect NPC dialogue, for recorders
- XLR8 brings word of a Bungie.net thread with a funny analogy
- Captain Spark bundles up the first 70 dialogue snippets he's recorded from Halo 2 and makes them available. (This is temporary - but don't fret; if you miss them, they'll be in our soon-to-open Halo 2 Dialogue Databank before long!)
- SIDEARM finds a nice BBC article on Craig Mullins
There are thousands more - we're working on a longer-term solution to the information overload, but for now, you'll just have to muddle through. All the big names from the Silver Age of Tricksterism - Frogblast, Dark Helmet, xbill, dozens more - are back and messing with the innards of Halo 2, finding new stuff every day. (I'm really hoping we have a solution for THIS, as well, pretty soon - the sheer quantity of new content is daunting.) (Louis Wu 15:05:05 UTC) (permalink)
Life on the Edge
Shadow, of Sector 7 Halo, wrote up his Midnight Halo 2 experience - go read. Thanks, Wolfy. (Louis Wu 14:42:14 UTC) (permalink)
Games that Should Have Been
Team Overkill sent in a forum thread from a Nintendo forum - you really gotta wonder about the people who take this stuff at face value. (This is being posted for its humor value, not to incite people to start a platform war - go look, laugh, leave. Try not to be annoying.) (Louis Wu 14:39:14 UTC) (permalink)
GI stirs the pot
There's been a lot of talk about a 'Halo 3' around the net; Bungie denied that anything will be coming out on February 9th, but the stories continue. This month's Game Informer has an article in their 'Loose Talk' (rumors) section claiming that Bungie is "already hard at work on the series' third iteration on Xbox 2." Seems feasible... but again, this is speculation only. There is NO official word from anyone at Bungie. (Thanks, Hardrive-116.) (Louis Wu 14:35:20 UTC) (permalink)
Kubrick Figure
Several people have pointed out a page on the Japanese Xbox.com site that seems to be about the Halo 2 Kubrick figure; if anyone wants to summarize what the page is about, we'll add it here. (Thanks, enigM@.) Update: Kaboris translated this nicely on our forum. (Thanks, Kaboris!) Apparently, it's a contest open to anyone who bought one of the original 30,000 Limited Edition copies in Japan. (If you bought your copy outside Japan, you're not eligible.) 4000 of these people will get a mini-Kubrick figure; register your serial number to enter. Winners will be notified by mail around January 18, with prizes to be distributed in February. Nice! (Louis Wu 14:30:41 UTC) (permalink)
Playin' with the stars
cptn mexico found an article that adds another player to the Game With Fame promotion (we posted the Willis McGahee press release last week) - guitarist Ben Burnley from Breaking Benjamin will be participating tomorrow night, 9 pm Eastern. Go play! (Louis Wu 14:28:50 UTC) (permalink)
Reviews and news
Last Thursday, BOLL sent us a note about a Halo review at Tom's Hardware; they didn't actually have the review up, they had a page that said 'we're not sleeping until this review is finished! Keep refreshing this page!' Every day, I went back. Nothing. Finally, today, Zaknafein pointed out that they'd put a review up - at a different URL! Doh. (If the URL is anything to go by, they posted it on the 13th.) There's no overall rating - but they loved the audio and gameplay, liked the graphics, weapons, A.I., and story, were okay with the vehicles, and thought the level design needed work. Other reviews around the net today:
- MLGPro.com has a bunch of fan reviews posted. Pro players will weigh in later this week.
- The Edinburgh Student Newspaper believes Halo is just shooting Teletubbies, and isn't very good.
And geez, while we're here, let's get the Halo 2 press from around the net out of the way:
- BYU NewsNet - release coverage
- Paly Voice - release coverage
- Daily Times (Philadelphia) - Halo 2's popularity
- IGN - A Second Look (Editors revisit their thoughts)
- GamesIndustry.biz - Halo 2 has sold more than a quarter million units in the UK in its first week (3rd fastest selling title on record)
- The Daily Northwestern (Illinois) - silly article about people having Halo stolen (among lots of other stuff)
I'm sure there'll be more as time goes on. (Louis Wu 14:25:40 UTC) (permalink)
Competition Halo 2
h4l0m4st3r noticed a Halo 2 Challenge happening at 64 EB Games around the US on December 4th - you're playing to win a new Dodge Dakota. njhalo pointed out a $1,000 New Jersey Halo/Halo 2 (and some other games) tourney in Dover, NJ. And Dry Ice sent word that the Worst Halo 2 tourney (we mentioned it last month) has results from rounds one and two now posted (round 3 is next weekend). (Louis Wu 14:04:46 UTC) (permalink)
OMG IT WON'T DIE
Gamespy pulled the Half-Life 2/Halo 2 grudge match off the front page yesterday, and at the time, Halo 2 was down by about 800 votes. I thought, okay, that's the end of this one. BUT NO! They've LEFT IT RUNNING, and people still want us to tell you to vote again. Man. Will you guys just go win this stupid thing, so it can go away? (Halo 2 is still down, but only by about 600 votes right now.) (Louis Wu 13:16:14 UTC) (permalink)
Give him your wallet. Now.
BOLL has found (with the help of some new modding tools from TF6) a pretty cool unused character in Halo 2. Personally... I'm pretty darned happy this one never made it in... they seem NASTY. (Louis Wu 02:26:18 UTC) (permalink)
It Ain't So, Joe.
For the record: word from Bungie is that the 'Coming February 9th' rumor is exactly that - a rumor. A baseless, false, totally untrue rumor. I won't pass along the exact wording... but it was pretty clear in its meaning. Someone's pulling your leg. And by 'your', I mean the internet - even Slashdot was promoting this puppy. (Louis Wu 02:03:30 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's news in brief:
Sunday's news in brief:
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A little about recent problems More Reading is More Gud. Halo around the net TruthMedia, indeed. Bungie Fanfest pics Fan reviews at HP Tricks, and what's gonna happen with 'em. |
