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Thursday, September 10, 2009 |  |
Halo 3: ODST's campaign length - one man's view
You might notice little tidbits around the net mentioning that there were media events in New York and San Francisco this week, and that press got the chance to play through Halo 3: ODST's campaign for the first time. (GameDaily has one, Dime Magazine has another, Kotaku has an extensive one (it's based on time spent with the game last week at Bungie's HQ, but Totilo was in New York yesterday, as well).) You can read these knowing you won't be spoiled - attendees had to sign NDAs, and cannot reveal much beyond the fact that they were there for some time still. I was at the New York event yesterday, and will have a full writeup when I'm allowed to. In the meantime, though, I thought I'd pass along a useful tidbit. Much has been speculated about the length of the ODST campaign - Bungie originally called it 3-5 hours, but then vastly expanded the content, and now hems and haws when asked for a specific number (since that number is dependent on a LOT of variables). Folks rushing through leaked games on Easy or Normal have finished the game in 4 hours, leading some to conclude that it really IS a short game. I'm not going to provide actual numbers - just a comparison. I played Halo 3: ODST for the first time exactly the same way I played Halo 3 for the first time: in a comfortable chair in front of a great TV (see the photo in the Dime Magazine article) in a New York Hotel, on Heroic difficulty - and it took me roughly 80% as long to finish ODST as it did to finish Halo 3. So if you whipped through Halo 3 in 5 hours the first time through, this one will be doable in 4. If you took 12 hours to get through Halo, count on 9-10 for ODST. And so on. It's a solid campaign - it did NOT feel like an expansion. And I'm looking forward to many, many replays. (Although I wasn't rushing, I still missed stuff, and I'm happy that the next few runs will still yield things I haven't experienced yet.) (Louis Wu 18:59:41 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan
The latest render from Tony 'Ubald' Marcotte went live in his gallery here today - 'Spartan' is a great shot with an epic feel to it. Take a look! (Louis Wu 18:00:18 UTC) (permalink)
Firefight Extended Hands-On, from PAX
Newsarama's John Stvan played some Halo 3: ODST Firefight at PAX - and wrote up his experience yesterday. Go give it a read. (Louis Wu 17:35:48 UTC) (permalink)
Movie Madness on the Bungie Blog
Another day, another huge batch of videos, courtesy of the BungLog™:
- Aberrant Designs whipped up a screenshot montage
- The Skookumchuk released his second goosetage
- Stewie2552 shared Funny Halo Fails and Laughs 6
- Clantacular.com has announced their first Top 10 Plays vid
- The August ESPN/MLG Top Ten is live (this one, as usual, deserves special mention - amazing plays)
Send urk a note - tell him he's making me watch a LOT of movies, and could he slow down? Thanks. (Louis Wu 17:30:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Waypoint Release Date Announced
xmoosev3 was the first on our forum to point out a tweet from the Halo Waypoint team... looks like Waypoint's going live on November 5. (Louis Wu 17:01:46 UTC) (permalink)
405th Infantry Represents at Dragoncon
The 405th was out in force at last weekend's Dragoncon 2009 in Atlanta, GA - and you can see some great pics in this thread on their forum (thanks, Sean Bradley). Sean's own photos can be found at photobucket - including a brand-new energy sword he debuted at this event. (More on that coming soon!) Check this stuff out - it's amazing. (Louis Wu 16:51:07 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Left Me
RVideo was the first to point out a new song from Mac and Cheese - it's called 'Master Chief Left Me', and it'll make you cry. (Not so much from the story, either.) (Louis Wu 16:44:39 UTC) (permalink)
We Are ODST - Fan Art
Adam De La Rosa let us know about a new image created by Halcylon and posted recently on Hawty McBloggy's forum it's called 'We Are ODST', and while it was inspired by the live-action flick, all the imagery comes from the game. Nice piece of work! (Louis Wu 16:42:26 UTC) (permalink)
Wanna Halo Job?
Thre are tons of new Halo-related positions available at Microsoft - go see if there's anything for you! (Thanks to LazerBlader, who found it on Halo Waypoint's Facebook page.) (Louis Wu 16:12:06 UTC) (permalink)
Making of Live-action ODST - on GTTV
GameTrailers TV Episode 222, broadcasting tonight on Spike TV at 12:30 am, will contain 'behind-the-scenes access' to the making of the live-action 'We Are ODST' short released recently. Watch it, record it, or find it on GameTrailers tomorrow! Thanks, Felix Mui. (Louis Wu 16:07:48 UTC) (permalink)
Master's Challenge Halo 3: ODST Pax 09
Minime637 pointed out a video showing Master's Challenge at PAX, playing Firefight. Funny commentary. (Louis Wu 16:03:18 UTC) (permalink)
G4TV covers ODST - on screen and in print
LoneRanger 2.5 pointed out a couple of G4TV pieces you might be interested in - they interviewed Brian Jarrard at PAX (sort of a wide-ranging discussion about game sales, and ODST, and Reach, and Bungie, and marketing, and more - it's huge), and there's info about an episode of X-Play broadcasting tonight (Thursday) at 6:30 pm focusing on ODST. Worth the reads! (Louis Wu 16:02:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3: ODST LE Packaging
Blaidd Dawg noticed a photo posted by Major Nelson, showing off the packaging for the Halo 3: ODST Limited Edition. Not exactly what I thought it was going to look like!
(Louis Wu 16:02:08 UTC) (permalink)
ODST booths in US universities?
Zerowind117 let our forum know that his college (Arizona State University) has a single-player Firefight booth set up for folks to mess with. Are these at other schools, too? (Firefight in single player... what?) (Louis Wu 16:01:35 UTC) (permalink)
Canada's Biggest Halo Fan
Joystiq has an article about Xbox Canada and their search for Canada's biggest Halo fan - if you live in Canada, go check this out! Thanks, mendicantbias00.
(Louis Wu 16:01:07 UTC) (permalink)
Parking was really rough.
IGN posted a 90-second interview with Joe Staten, recorded at PAX while he was wearing ODST armor - thanks, Minime637. (Louis Wu 16:00:36 UTC) (permalink)
Everything Bungie puts on the table is awesome.
Minime637 pointed out an article at VideoGamer.com, with some quotes from ODST Producer Alex Cutting about how wonderful a partner Bungie is for Microsoft. Nice words! (Louis Wu 16:00:13 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie's ODST PAX Panel - in Video Form
Bungie has posted the entire PAX panel on Halo 3: ODST - it's on YouTube, and you can watch all 8 10-minute segments in their news post about it. If you'd rather watch it on YouTube (why?), here's a link to the playlist itself (just follow the links on the right after you've watched the first one, though I think it autoplays). It's a fascinating panel - lots and lots of cool discussion about the how the game came together. There is no story spoiler info in this presentation. (There are minimal game spoilers here - but more 'teasers' than 'spoilers'.) (Louis Wu 15:26:58 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's Bungie Vids
A couple of new videos posted yesterday at Bungie.net:
- The Lucky 20, Episode 3 contains a bunch of clips of those "did you see that?" moments from Halo 3 matchmaking
- Mini Waz posted a montage, including fun stuff that's happened to him over the past year.
Go watch! (Louis Wu 15:26:12 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Special Ops: Favorites, Week 2
Yesterday, the second week of The Spartan Special Ops Favorites went live - there's an interview about the map 'Templar', and all the new goodies in Bungie Favorites. (Louis Wu 15:25:27 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's news in brief:
Tuesday's news in brief:
