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Tuesday, November 20, 2007 |  |
MLG Halo 3 Film Festival Nominees
The MLG Halo 3 Film Festival is now in its public voting phase - 200 videos have been narrowed down to 20, 5 in each of 4 categories. Go watch, and vote for your favorites! There's some decent money on the line for the winners... so pick carefully! Thanks, trigger119. (Louis Wu 21:56:36 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3: A Call to Arms Machinima Contest
Xbox.com and Ziddio (a division of Comcast) have teamed up to sponsor a Halo machinima contest: "Halo 3: A Call to Arms." Create a short (20 second - 2 minute) machinima project, win, and you've got a shot at a home theater system, a VIP trip for 2 to the first MLG event of 2008, or a copy of Halo 3. You've got until December 19 - go read all the details! Thanks, trigger119. (Louis Wu 21:14:44 UTC) (permalink)
Uprising #2 Preview
Halo Uprising #2, the second of Marvel's four-episode Halo storyline, is (after many delays) due to be released tomorrow. You can see a six-page preview of it (plus the cover and table of contents) over at the MySpace Comic Books MySpace Blog, though - thanks, So Hood.
(Louis Wu 19:53:16 UTC) (permalink)
I don't understand the market.
So Gamestop increased sales by almost 60% over last year at this time, increased third-quarter earnings by more than 200% over last year, exceeded predictions for the quarter by 30%... and STILL lost 7.2% of its stock price today. (The market is worried about the fourth quarter.) This stuff is voodoo. Top-selling games for the quarter included (duh) Halo 3. (Louis Wu 19:29:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 OST Fan Review
John_117 got his hands on the Halo 3 Official Soundtrack (released today), and posted a mini-review in our forum. Go read what he thinks! (Louis Wu 19:26:04 UTC) (permalink)
New screens of McFarlane Figures
Spawn.com has a whole bunch of new screenshots of the final McFarlane Series 1 action figures - thanks, P1 Groupe Italia. (Some of the shots are older - some are not. None are dated.) (Louis Wu 17:39:16 UTC) (permalink)
Lost Spartan
SilverBrin has made a bunch of Halo-related music in the past; he's back, with a piece he created for the MySpace Halo 3 Soundtrack contest a month or two back. It's called 'Lost Spartan', and this is what he had to say about it:
"My objective was to write something that I wanted to hear while I play halo 3, and despite the halo spirit coursing through each beat, does not quote or reference, mutate, or sample any Bungie Microsoft O'Donnell Salvatori materials. It still, in my opinion, whole-heartedly qualifies as a halo fan piece and is very much in the style of my older goodies. It is pretty fun to listen to while playing."
We're hosting it - it's a 4 mb MP3, and it's pretty powerful! (I'd agree with him, it's fun to listen to.) Go hear. (Louis Wu 17:32:52 UTC) (permalink)
Incognito
Mass Effect is released today in the US - and Another Halo Comic Strip is there to comment. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 16:38:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 - driving the security industry, too
Bart Gordon pointed out an article in DC Velocity's current issue on upcoming changes in the protection of retail sales. DC Velocity is a logistics trade magazine (Halo 3 made the cover!), and the article is talking about enhanced RFID chips that can actually enable an electronic-based item (like a video game) at checkout. (That is: on the store shelf, the DVD is just a hunk of useless plastic - it doesn't become a game until the cashier activates it by sending a special signal to the RFID chip.) Halo 3 is simply an example of a game that's pushing the development of this technology, by dint of its market presence... but it's interesting to see its use, nonetheless! (Louis Wu 16:26:58 UTC) (permalink)
More Screenshot Art
AusQB posted a screenshot compilation on YouTube - this wouldn't really be news, except that he's actually got a Bungie.net group, Ar7is7s of Halo, devoted to cool shots. (The screenshot compilation is pretty well-done, but the shots themselves suffer tremendously from being forced into YouTube's tiny, overcompressed format.) Swing by the B.net group if you're interested in joining other folks excited about making artistic Halo 3 screens! (Louis Wu 16:08:43 UTC) (permalink)
Weekly Forge Contest
Xupaosso has kicked off a website called 'Weekly Forge Contest', which houses a... well, you can probably guess. Week One - build a Slayer map on Guardian using at least two crates. Read the page for full rules and a description of the goals. (No prizes; this is all about making cool stuff.)
(Louis Wu 16:05:03 UTC) (permalink)
That's gonna leave a dent.
Nitro288 pointed out a fun glitch found by AxS Kamikaze - not at all sure what caused it, but man, that Phantom pilot needs driving lessons.
(Louis Wu 16:00:55 UTC) (permalink)
A pretty elaborate suicide
Heh - Ice V spent considerable effort setting up a Rube Goldberg-style suicide on The Pit; the saved film doesn't seem to be available, but the YouTube version's still pretty cool. There's a forum thread started by a friend of his at Bungie.net, for comments - thanks, InAmb3rClad. (Louis Wu 15:33:23 UTC) (permalink)
MLG talks to Commish about Game Tweaks
MLGPro.com has an interview with their league commissioner, John Nelson, about the changes to gametypes that are made possible by the flexibility in Halo 3. There's also plenty of info about what will, and won't, be included in competition setups; for example, maps with shield doors will NOT be included, nor will equipment. It's a pretty interesting read. If you'd rather read the whole thing on one page, try mlgcanada.com.
(Louis Wu 15:22:02 UTC) (permalink)
Contact Harvest - a Bestseller
Contact Harvest went on sale 3 weeks ago - and the press release sent around yesterday (visible, among other places, at Game Daily) suggests it's a hit. It debuted at #3 on the November 18 New York Times Bestseller list, and is still at #4 this week. (You probably have to be logged in to see those pages; bugmenot.com can help.) Additionally, it debuted on the USA Today Bestseller List at #23 on the November 8th list, and is at #44 on this week's list. (USA Today doesn't break out books by fiction/non-fiction, paperback/hardcover, trade/mass-market - this is why CH's position is lower overall than on the NYT list.) Congrats, Joe and company! (Louis Wu 14:51:38 UTC) (permalink)
Top Montages, Summarized
Z pointed out an article written by Steam, over at 360WTF; it covers some of the top montages made in Halo 2, the Halo 3 beta, and Gears of War. (Examples are included.) Go watch!
(Louis Wu 14:37:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 - a hit with casual gamers?
I saw this article via Google News yesterday morning - but passed on front-paging it for a number of reasons. Anton P. Nym noted it on our forum yesterday afternoon - but I was busy, so I didn't take a second look. When I got up this morning, the report, from a company called 'BrandIntel', which discusses the increased awareness of Halo 3 among casual gamers, was all over the internet - Gamasutra, Joystiq, Kotaku, the list goes on. It's an interesting study; Halo has always appealed to the 'hardcore' gamer, but this is the first time that it's been of serious interest to more casual communities. It's a solid endorsement of the success of Microsoft's marketing campaign, I think, and will probably affect how companies market A-list titles from this point on. I'm not sure I like that idea, actually... (Louis Wu 14:32:00 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's news in brief:
Sunday's news in brief:
