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Friday, October 12, 2007 |  |
Turn down the retardation.
Wow. Sep7imus was faster noticing the Bungie Weekly Update than my RSS feed was. Happy Birthday, Luke and Frankie! (Ya big cheaters!) This one is mostly housecleaning: explaining how the ranking system works (again), working on why the Marathon Man achievement doesn't unlock for everyone, an explanation of Bungie Favorites, some lack of pants, a hint about upcoming downloadable content, a look at the EXP cheating issue, and a clarification about armor permutations. (All those people who said they've unlocked the Recon armor? Bungie says "nope, you haven't.") Don't wanna read it at Bungie.net? Check our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 23:40:56 UTC) (permalink)
Guilt O' Lantern 2007 - It's On, Baby
It took WAY too long - but the 2007 Guilt O' Lantern Official Contest Page is live. Go check out the prizes we've got lined up for you... and get to planning! (Louis Wu 20:23:41 UTC) (permalink)
Guided Missile.
The lesson from today's One One Se7en is "make sure nobody gives Stuntmutt a copy of the Strategy Guide". (Louis Wu 17:30:56 UTC) (permalink)
Bioshock vs Halo 3: a comparison
Australia's PC Magazine compared Bioshock to Halo 3, to see which was the better buy. I can't argue with the analysis, because I haven't played Bioshock... but to call Marty's sound design 'beer' to Bioshock's 'wine'... eh. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Like Steve, I'll let you see what they decided on your own.) (Louis Wu 17:04:42 UTC) (permalink)
My trigger is sticky.
Zelahn has been frustrated with the crowd who plays Halo 3 in the afternoon hours - so much so, that he's written a song about it. Go listen to Real Gamers of Genius - Mr. After School Halo Player. (Louis Wu 16:45:21 UTC) (permalink)
Halopic.com - for the comedian in you
Josh Nichols pointed out Halopic.com, new site that lets you caption uploaded screenshots - easier than firing up Photoshop! (Louis Wu 16:37:31 UTC) (permalink)
I hope someone doesn't start one of these about me.
Injunfett kicked off a blog that is devoted specifically to screenshots of the Bungie team getting killed in Halo 3. Makes you wonder what his childhood was like... (Blog title left out of this newspost because it's not particularly pleasant.) (Louis Wu 16:34:28 UTC) (permalink)
He'll Pwn You
Conan O'Brien had a bit with God playing Halo 3 last night - darkendes pointed it out, and PHANTOMFIRE X linked to the clip itself on YouTube. (Louis Wu 16:30:14 UTC) (permalink)
HBO Humpday Challenge - The REAL Story
Koholint was the first to point out Luke Smith's lying writeup of the Halo 3 Humpday Challenge we played against Bungie on Wednesday night. They were so embarrassed to be beaten by 'the old men of HBO' they had to cheat - and claim that the warmup game (Slayer on Construct, Bungie wins) was actually Game 1, and that the REAL Game 3 (Slayer on Construct, Bungie loses) was a 'warm-down' game. Clearly, cheating at Halo 3 isn't restricted to NBA stars. For the record: we play a warmup game, Luke picks the gametype and map. It's very close. Game One: KP picks the gametype and map; Bungie beats him at his own game, because the rest of us don't know about the hideyhole until it's too late. (Bungie wins. By a lot.) Game Two: Konrad picks the map and gametype - Luke keeps the settings at the defaults. HBO wins. Game Three: Bungie picks Slayer gametype, KP asks for a rematch using the first settings; we play as a team this time around. Bungie loses. Final score: 2-1, HBO wins. I'm easily the worst player in the game, but you can still watch all four games from the films in my File Share. (Louis Wu 15:56:17 UTC) (permalink)
Mission-a-Day 7 - By Land, and so on
Jake Seaton's romp through Halo 3 continues - Day 7 is now up. He's fighting through probably the biggest and most expansive battle level in the game... he wanted to give it a perfect grade, but was unhappy with a single aspect (read it to find out what), so it gets a 4.5/5. This one's twice as long as the others. (Louis Wu 15:52:38 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Fifteen new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 15:34:31 UTC) (permalink)
Famine Skull Guide, at R.net
Rampancy.net has put up a guide to grabbing the Famine Skull, from NThro_Sraom. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:57:07 UTC) (permalink)
Games for the troops
Marines in Okinawa want to play Halo 3 - but the exchanges can't get enough copies. Ouch! (Louis Wu 14:52:32 UTC) (permalink)
Cup O' Joe
Elnea fails to come up with a French translation of 'pistol-whipped' for today's installment of Halo Action Figure Theater - but she makes up for this oversight with some plain old-fashioned brain-eating. Go read. (Louis Wu 13:52:13 UTC) (permalink)
eBay - your one-stop Halo shop
Over at Xbox360Fanboy, they found ANOTHER set of Master Chief armor for sale on eBay - this one is being sold by Devastator, and the armor itself (including upgrades) has shown up a few times in our news. Current bid is a bit over $2000, with 9 days to go in the auction. (He mentions a bunch of other stuff he's auctioning off that you might be interested in - but for the moment, the only auction online is for a Brute figure that came from the Believe Diorama - super cool and super rare!) (Louis Wu 13:29:25 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Reviews
Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune's Game Over Blog reviews Halo 3 - 8.5/10, "the title by wich all other console multiplayer FPS will be judged". And the Albany Times Union felt that the multiplayer matchmaking was too slow, but that otherwise the game was great. (The first paragraph of this review threw me for a loop, though.) (Louis Wu 13:25:45 UTC) (permalink)
Custom Game Finder Opens
Sam told us about H3 Customs, billed as the First Halo 3 Custom Game Search. Bungie talked about public custom games at one point, but it didn't make the final cut of Halo 3 - now some fans are stepping up to help. If you add a game to the list, you still have to have enough room on your Friends List to accomodate the people who find you this way... but it's better than not having anything! (Louis Wu 13:25:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3's Saved Films/AI Behavior - an Interview
Saved Films functionality is a HUGE part of the wonder that is Halo 3; it lets you relive spectacular moments, it let's you figure out exactly HOW you died (and which walls that bullet ricocheted off before it went through your skull), it lets you create gorgeous machinima with a minimum of setup. In order for it to work, though, Bungie's gameplay has to be incredibly predictable... and if it's incredibly predictable, how can it be fun? The answer to this question, and questions like it, require an understanding of how the Saved Film system works - and how Bungie's AI works. So we went to Max Dyckhoff, one of Bungie's AI engineers, to get the skinny. This ain't an interview for people who just want to play the game - this is for people who want to understand how it WORKS. Go read what he told us. (Louis Wu 00:26:00 UTC) (permalink)
Screenshot Screensaver
Brad, from Soundspoof.com, let us know that he's created a screensaver that "scrapes the user submitted screen shots from bungie.net and shows them as a slide show." It's a Windows-only app, and there are two versions - one that just shows you the pics, the other that "takes your gamertag and uses that
to gather all kinds of stats", plus newsfeeds from a variety of Halo sites. This one costs $2. (Louis Wu 00:15:31 UTC) (permalink)
How to be a better Halo 3 player
Larry Larson (of Microsoft's Channel Ten) recently blogged about a bunch of tips that went out over an internal Xbox distribution list, which might help you become a better Halo 3 player. It also answers some basic questions that might have you puzzled. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 00:09:52 UTC) (permalink)
Hi-res Halo Brushes
Weird - this site has created a bunch of "Halo 3 high resolution Photoshop brushes" - I guess for more quickly whipping up that cool wallpaper you're working on. Check it out!
(Louis Wu 00:09:34 UTC) (permalink)
Thursday's news in brief:
Wednesday's news in brief:
