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 | August 2006 |  |
August 2006 Archived News
News August 31 2006
Finnish Spartan's Cardboard Armor
Finnish Spartan sent along a bunch of pictures of some cardboard armor he's putting together - check it out! (Louis Wu 14:28:58 UTC) (permalink)
Pen is Mightier
The second episode of Halo Heads went online today - two in two days! Chuck Norris... isn't as tough as he looks? Thanks, Paul. (Louis Wu 12:40:46 UTC) (permalink)
She's married, so...
MsValentine has posted another Cortana cosplay photo in her RvB Image section - if you aren't an RvB member, you can see it here. Dang! (Louis Wu 12:34:37 UTC) (permalink)
NYC Tourneys
Johnathan Lugo wrote to point out NYC Gaming, a site offering a number of Halo tourneys - there's one in Brooklyn on September 2 ($30 pp to get in, MLG sponsorship on the line), and another in Manhattan on September 9 ($20 to get in, $300 plus prizes for first place). More details, rules, prizes, contact info - all are at the links. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 10:42:24 UTC) (permalink)
News August 30 2006
New Mongo Tourney Site
Xtournaments and Gescrow.com have merged into one site - they now claim to be the largest organized Halo 2 Tournament site. First event is September 9 - 2v2, free to enter, $150 in cash and prizes. (You don't have to pay to play, but you DO have to have at least $10 in a Gescrow account.) Prizes supplied by Gescrow.com and GamerGraffix.com. Thanks, Vic. (Louis Wu 17:48:52 UTC) (permalink)
If You Fade Out...
Last week, Neill Blomkamp answered a couple of questions at RvB - today, Stuntmutt spins his answers in One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:39:36 UTC) (permalink)
Gotta watch that peanut butter...
Speaking of comics, a neighborhood kid found one I'd never seen before - it's hosted at VGPub, and it's dated November 11, 2004. I'm rather surprised nobody ever noticed! Check out 'Camping with Halo 2'. (Louis Wu 12:32:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Heads Ep 1
Paul Maestri has started up a comic strip that focuses on 'scifi elements' - his first strip is here. I always wondered about that... (Louis Wu 12:29:58 UTC) (permalink)
Hush Yo Casket!
This is what the Halo community is all about. rapture wrote up a summary of the last year for The Hushed Casket - a Halo-centric (though not exclusive) group in Huntsville, AL. Good friends, good times, good games. And some bad. (Sorry about the 360, rap.) Give it a read. Makes me want to start a local group! (Well, maybe not.) Thanks, Mintz and Slayer. (Louis Wu 12:27:22 UTC) (permalink)
4 Marines and a Hog (starring Charlie Sheen?)
Heh - Ducain pointed out a new Halo vid, again by BigGruntyThirst, over at High Impact Halo... it builds on the technique shown in his recent variety vid, but as Ducain says, the kicker here is how easy he makes it all look! (This trick, from start to finish, is anything BUT easy.) Worth a look! (Louis Wu 12:08:37 UTC) (permalink)
News August 29 2006
Gearheads interview Eric Nylund
Major Silva noticed another Eric Nylund interview, over at Gearheads of War - only very brief mentions of Halo material, but a good read nonetheless! (Louis Wu 23:39:27 UTC) (permalink)
Ghosts of Onyx
Swing by Bungie.net for official info (well, sort of info) about the latest Halo novel, "Ghosts of Onyx". (Yes, Amazon UK got it right a couple of weeks ago.) There's really nothing else in the news post except for the title... and a teaser about cover art. Go read! Update: KP pointed out that I'm an idiot - a pretty major bit of news in that story that I managed to gloss right over is that there are 2 more Halo novels planned AFTER Ghosts of Onyx. I'm turning in my Secret Decoder Ring after this. (Louis Wu 21:55:05 UTC) (permalink)
Yoyorast Island Race Contest
TheGhost wrote to let us know about a contest he's set up over at his Halo 2 Vista forum. Challenge: Complete the entire course of Yoyorast Island's race mode in the shortest amount of time possible. The winner gets $25, either via PayPal, or in the form of a gift certificate. You've got until September 17 - so get racing! (Be sure to read the full rules, as well as more info and a demo video, on the Halo 2 Vista forum. (Louis Wu 21:52:27 UTC) (permalink)
Team Carnage - more popular than you might think
Wow. Ninja 0n Fire posted stats for the various playlists on XBL as of today... and Team Carnage is nearly tied with Team Snipers in number of games played. Read the whole list in his forum post on Bungie.net, or in KP's on our forum. (Louis Wu 20:02:54 UTC) (permalink)
Spartans and Hunters and Brutes, Oh My!
The drive to clear out the Miscellaneous Art queue continues - another 30 images went up today. (Well, more than that if you count variants. But who's counting?) A pretty wild range of stuff is in there - action figure art, sketches, 3D renders, paintings... you name it. Some of it is KILLER. I went to find a couple to point out - and there are too many that are must-sees. So go see. Goodgoodgood... and the beauty part is, the queue is down to a couple of dozen pieces - here's hoping I can get to them soon! (Louis Wu 15:19:02 UTC) (permalink)
Game Writers Conference
On September 6 and 7 (that's next Wednesday and Thursday), in Austin, Texas, the Game Writers Conference will be held. It's not for the casual gamer - registration is $400 (and goes up to $500 after next Tuesday), with only a $50 discount for students... but if you're interested in game writing, this is the place to be! Bungie's Joe Staten will be part of a panel discussing dialogue writing for voice actors, and Wideload's Matt Soell (a late addition, and not visible on the website at this point) will be part of a discussion about Writing Comedy for Games. Should be a blast! (Interesting side note - Joe's bio mentions that the Halo film adaptation will be directed by Neill Blomkamp. Still waiting on that official announcement...) (Louis Wu 13:58:48 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Orlando Writeups
Some great writeups about MGL Orlando over at MLGPro.com - a look at the Karma/Strongside battle for the 1v1 Championship, and a thrilling play-by-play of the Carbon/Final Boss matchup for the 4v4 Championship. Next best thing to being there! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:57:51 UTC) (permalink)
New Warthog Variant from Mike Hill
Mike Hill stopped by our forum to ask for feedback on a new Warthog variant he's working on - awesome wheels! We've added the image to his gallery here, as well, but be sure to give him feedback on the render in the forum thread. (Louis Wu 12:50:35 UTC) (permalink)
City of Evil Trailer
Clearview Pro sent along a trailer for an upcoming movie called 'City of Evil'. It didn't pass the MPRRS - mostly because more than one reviewer apparently felt that trailers aren't worth releasing, that machinima makers should focus on making movies, not trailers. It missed a passing grade by the slimmest of margins, and that particular rationale seems like a weak reason to fail a film... so I'm hosting it anyway. It does a nice job with modded content - if the final film is as nicely put together as the trailer, this should be a winner! 1:41 long, you can grab it in WMP9 format (19.1 mb) or QuickTime format (20.3 mb). (For anyone keeping track, the footage could be construed as having Halo spoilers in it.) (Louis Wu 12:27:52 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader and Podtacular - together at last!
XerxdeeJ stopped by to point out that Tied the Leader sat down with the Podtacular crew for a blog/podcast crossover; Podtacular Episode 78 has 'deeJ as a guest-host. (There's also a pretty funny open apology that has nothing to do with that crossover.) (Louis Wu 12:03:31 UTC) (permalink)
INV PLZ
KP spent his weekend like a lot of gamers did - he enjoyed the Penny Arcade Expo to the fullest. The difference between you and him? He was paid to enjoy himself. You can read his take on the whole shebang over at Bungie.net. (Mostly, he discusses the Halo-related portions of the expo.) What are you waiting for? Go read it! (Louis Wu 00:11:18 UTC) (permalink)
News August 28 2006
An Ass That Just Won't Quit.
I can't remember - has Stuntmutt taken a shot at the new XBL playlist yet? No matter - either way, he does it in today's One One Se7en. Jerk. (Louis Wu 20:21:40 UTC) (permalink)
You're reading WHAT?
Sometimes I wonder about Bungie... I really do. (Louis Wu 19:59:54 UTC) (permalink)
Cool goodies for PAXgoer
Laird went to PAX this weekend, and came back with some pretty cool Halo artwork - check out this pic by RvB's Hale, and you've probably already seen a scan of this one by Pinkuh. Nice haul! (Louis Wu 19:58:14 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2's Peril, for Orchestra
Over at Rampancy.net, there's a new transcription of Peril, arranced for an orchestra. The download archive (which requires that you're logged in to see) contains a PrintMusic file and a PDF. Just in time for the school year to start! (Louis Wu 13:56:55 UTC) (permalink)
S.U.G. interviews Dan Miller
Dan Miller, who works for Bungie as a mission designer, sat down to talk with Ian White of Straight Up Gaming recently - go check out his thoughts about online co-op! (Louis Wu 13:49:41 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Zanzibar Progress
Kooberz has made great progress in his Zanzibar Lego model - all but the fan is finished. Check out his post for a link to pictures! (Louis Wu 13:47:31 UTC) (permalink)
Marathon Logos in Metal - Redux
Spartan Jag continues his metal-working - and it sounds like if he can get permission, he'll start selling this stuff. Take a look! (Louis Wu 13:46:16 UTC) (permalink)
More Pro Talk
3Suns provided a bunch of new Halo Pro links for your enjoyment - Featured players Lightking and Xit Samurai, and an interview last month with Zyos we never noticed. Go see how they think! (Louis Wu 13:44:42 UTC) (permalink)
Carry Your Laptop, Halo Style
The Bungie Store has a listing for an Ogio messenger bag, complete with Spartan logo. Bungie employees have been carrying these around for a while, but we haven't mentioned them for sale in the Bungie Store yet - thanks to Jinno for pointing them out. (Louis Wu 13:37:08 UTC) (permalink)
Carbon Takes Final Boss at MLG Orlando
Congratulations to MLG Orlando champions Carbon - the first team to beat Final Boss on the 2006 Pro Circuit! More details available in the MLG story. Thanks to Hexudus for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 00:43:39 UTC) (permalink)
News August 27 2006
Boredom Begets... well, Stuff.
Heh - Psychophan7 created a nearly 3 mb animated gif by tweaking a small subset of the Halo 3 trailer footage - pointless, but fun. Warning - open this in a relatively robust browser; some can't handle 3 mb gifs. (Firefox works nicely.) (Louis Wu 23:13:40 UTC) (permalink)
Oy.
Heh - Bryce Sigourney found a pretty unusual instance of Halo-branded clothing... a Halo Suede Kippah (maybe more commonly known as a yarmulke, a thin skullcap worn by observant Jews). It's unclear how much this costs - but the non-logo versions run about $4.00, so if you're interested, you can email them for details. Love the store name, too! (Louis Wu 23:01:35 UTC) (permalink)
Ms Brute, Indeed.
Bluestone created 'Mr Chief Goes To Washington'... Flash 8, 7 mb, great music. (Louis Wu 22:25:36 UTC) (permalink)
Halo stuff for sale
Havoc737903 is selling off a bunch of Halo goodies on eBay - you can peruse them here. He called it 'Havoc's Crazy Bargain Basement' - but with a 'Buy it Now' price of $30 on an opened action figure... I'm not sure I'd agree with the 'bargain' part. Whatever, though - check it out, you might find stuff you like. (Louis Wu 22:19:54 UTC) (permalink)
XGR 3
Sunday must be podcast update day - Xbox Gaming Radio has released Episode 3, including a summary of updates on Halo sites across the web, and some Halo multiplayer tricks. (They'd also like you to check out their newly-overhauled website.) (Louis Wu 22:15:49 UTC) (permalink)
GTR at MLG Orlando
Gamertag Radio created Episode 68 at MLG Orlando - lots of big Halo names came by to say hi (a list is in the news post there). Go listen! (Louis Wu 22:11:29 UTC) (permalink)
New Art from Mike Hill
Mike Hill wrote with word of a new project - he's working on a Halo comic. He sent along one of 35 or 40 frames he plans on using - this will be 'a little adventure the Chief and a squad of Pelican-bound ODSTs will embark on'. Amazing detail - check it out on his gallery! He also mentioned that he's revamped his website (check out this work-in-progress bike... I want!), and that there's a pretty cool article that was recently published in Imagine Magazine that included some great text and (Halo) pics from him. And while I was poking around the site, I found two other Halo-related images (which have been added to his gallery here) - a spectacular Forerunner-dominated landscape, and a 3D Warthog render - or the beginnings of one. Keep an eye on this guy! (Louis Wu 03:26:19 UTC) (permalink)
QsK:THE COLLAB
QsKGlobal put together a collaboration montage - footage from four different players. It's 10 minutes long, and weighs in at 116 mb (WMP9 version) or 128 mb (QuickTime version) - the MPRRS said they liked it, so go watch! (Louis Wu 03:22:48 UTC) (permalink)
Digital Double - A Match Made in Space
Mintz found a Halo-related episode of the webcomic Digital Double from earlier this week - not the first time this particular joke has been done, but hey... (The episode after this one is part of the same arc.) (Louis Wu 01:22:27 UTC) (permalink)
Trinity
ZuP posted a note on our forum about Trinity, a massive (46 minutes, 380 mb in hi-res) tricking video, mostly showing vehicle launches in Halo 2 Campaign mode. There are a significant number of hosts, at this point, apparently... if you swing by this post by forevercha0s, you'll find a pair of load-balancing links - medium and hi-res - that will direct you to the next host in the queue (thanks, TheGarbageMan). Low-res links can be found in that first post by ZuP. A labor of love, for sure! (Louis Wu 01:17:55 UTC) (permalink)
News August 26 2006
More Maralogo artwork
Brian Haworth sent in pics of a keychain fobs he made recently - it measures about an inch across, and is made from blue and yellow translucent acrylic, with a piece of 1/16" polycarbonate sandwiched between to hold them together. (yellow side | blue side) He made a similar, but much larger, version for his girlfriend last fall - that one is 5 inches across, and she keeps it in a display stand on her dresser. (No pics, sorry.) (Louis Wu 17:53:30 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Content Summary
3Suns came back from vacation to the realization that we hadn't mentioned news on the MLGPro website since he left. (A lot of the time, we rely on you, the fans, to point out where the interesting stuff is - we just provide a one-stop shop for finding it.) There's quite a lot - there's an article about pros switching around to different teams, a retrospective of Storm Ventures' recovery, an interview with ShooK On3 Gaming, a pro gamer's predictions about MLG Orlando, a preview of MLG Orlando, a spotlight on Scion Player of the Year nominee Ramby, and an overview of the standings going into MLG Orlando. That should keep you busy! (Louis Wu 17:42:59 UTC) (permalink)
Details, Details...
Just a small thing... Psychophan7 noticed a tiny detail about the recently released Halo 2 Vista screenshots; there's been a change in the motion sensor. Other players still show up in red, or yellow, depending on whether they're friend or foe... but now there's also a directional aspect to the symbol. Again - a small thing, but a good example of the level of detail and care taken by the Halo 2 Vista team. Pretty cool! Update: Chris Butcher clarified that the Xbox version was SUPPOSED to work this way, as well - but the pixel shader responsible for the motion sensor blip motion broke before release, and never got fixed. Apparently, LOTS of little bugs like this have been fixed. (Louis Wu 14:16:26 UTC) (permalink)
WikiRiot Ep 13
Sigafoos points out that WikiRiot Episode 13 is up - 35 mins, 14 mb. Minimal Halo content, because of technical difficulties... such is life sometimes. (Louis Wu 13:21:51 UTC) (permalink)
Less Bewildered than they Seem
The Bungie Weekly Update is posted - info about PAX (a cool gaming expo happening right now in Seattle which would have been cooler had I been able to go), info from SketchFactor about Leipzig, and the demo of Halo 2 Vista there, and more teasers about Halo 3 (Frankie is a master at describing things without telling you ANYTHING). Oh, yeah... and a truly disgusting picture. I feel cheated that last week's Mister Chief, created by Pinkuh, didn't make a showing. Read it at Bungie.net, or read it in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 01:32:46 UTC) (permalink)
News August 25 2006
Charged Up.
Last week, Frankie mentioned (in the BWU) that Halo 3 has "lots of feel of the original Halo" - in the sense that you spend a chunk of your time exploring, for the sake of exploration. Many websites jumped on this comment as some sort of evidence that Bungie was admitting that they liked Halo better than Halo 2. Stuntmutt has his own take in the situation, in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 18:18:58 UTC) (permalink)
Marathon Love
Okay, it's the Marathon symbol... but it's in Halo too, so it's relevant. Check out Spartan Jag's latest creation. (Louis Wu 17:45:39 UTC) (permalink)
Delivered by Superman.
_Wheels03 posted a couple of pics of his new Halo prototype faceplate, courtesy of Bungie - congrats again for winning the faceplate contest! (For what it's worth, this has got to be one of the fastest prize shipments I've ever heard of. Frankie saw the faceplate in the outgoing mail queue last NIGHT - and _Wheels03 lives halfway across the country.) (Louis Wu 16:48:52 UTC) (permalink)
H2V Gameplay vids from IGN
IGN has some more Halo 2 Vista footage from Leipzig - they call it 'off-screen', which either means 'filmed with a video camera pointing at the monitor', or 'filmed directly off the screen'. (The audio is clearly live, but the video's quite good; doesn't look very 'shakey'. Audio sync on the Midship clip is AWFUL.) You can't see the huge improvements in detail that you'd see if these were, say, 1280x960 vids... but you CAN see the cool smoke effects, and in a few places on Lockout you can see the great level of detail improvements at a distance. (Gameplay is... well, sort of lame. But again, remember, none of these people have played Halo 2 on a keyboard and mouse before.) Thanks to HaloPlanet for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:45:52 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Fanfic
Largest Fan Fiction update in a while - 22 pieces. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:03:24 UTC) (permalink)
The Hand of a Dead Man
New content over at Dead Man's Hand - highlights include the Playlist Psyche feature on Team Carnage and the 22 Questions on rapture. Thanks, Dweezle! (Louis Wu 14:17:57 UTC) (permalink)
Theme Variation Transcriptions
TheGarbageMan transcribed some of the work he released a couple of days ago - grab the jpegs if you want to play these! (Louis Wu 13:34:21 UTC) (permalink)
A closer look at the Blomkamp situation
Narcogen is curious about Neill Blomkamp - is he the chosen director of the Halo film? If so, why hasn't the announcement been finalized? If not, why haven't his interviews been disclaimed? He also takes a look at the appropriateness of the choice, with a summary of arguments for, and against, Blomkamp as director. Check it out at Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 13:14:41 UTC) (permalink)
7 Reasons Why H2V > H2X
KP has written an article entitled 'Top 7 Reasons Why H2V Rocks' in the ongoing Vistravaganza that is Halo 2 Vista week at Bungie.net - from enhanced visuals to custom content, this list will let you know why you want to be plunking down your hard-earned samoleons when Vista is released (and H2V is available). Check it out! (Also, the front-page icon for it is pretty cool.) (Louis Wu 02:02:04 UTC) (permalink)
News August 24 2006
H2Vista section opens at B.net
Bungie has just opened a new section of their website - Halo 2 Vista. There's not much there yet, except a FAQ and some screenshots - but the screenshots are GORGEOUS. I wanna play. (And oh, yeah... up in the top right corner of the site is a new search box. Hint - it works for everything - including the forum!) Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:44:56 UTC) (permalink)
Tricky
It's amazing - not only are Halo 1 tricking videos still being released... but folks are still coming up with new tricks! Over at High Impact Halo, BigGruntyThirst posted a variety vid recently that contained a trick I've never seen before - and actually, according to Ducain, it's brand-new! Go check it out. (Louis Wu 13:53:38 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Vista Not Ready for Prime Time Yet
At IGN, there's a short Hands-on piece about Halo 2 Vista from Leipzig - they suggested that the gameplay we saw yesterday WAS using a keyboard and mouse (suggesting that the code in use at Leipzig is NOT from the latest sprint, as described by Matt Priestley on Monday - I suppose this isn't surprising, if you think about it; they probably had to set up the Leipzig content well before now - and that code was reviewed just 5 days ago). On-screen indicators aside, the news from the IGN reviewers is that Halo 2 Vista feels... undone. In fact, they question why it's being shown at all at this point. Interesting... (Louis Wu 12:17:27 UTC) (permalink)
Blomkamp answers a couple of questions
Flash2000, a member of the RvB fan community, had the opportunity to ask Neill Blomkamp a couple of questions, generated from that same community, about the upcoming Halo movie. Those questions - and Mr. Blomkamp's answers - can be found in this RvB forum thread. (Joe Cool posted a link to an entry in Flash2000's RvB journal - but that requires a login to read; this can be read by everyone.) Worth a look! (Louis Wu 12:00:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Vista FAQ
Rapture's getting a jump on things - he's compiled a whole bunch of Halo 2 Vista information in a FAQ and Game Details document. If you were wondering whether you needed DX10, or how Halo 2 differs from Halo 2 Vista... this is the go-to document! Check it out. (Louis Wu 04:04:55 UTC) (permalink)
Midship FFA in Germany
Wow - swing by GameVideos.com for some fresh-off-the-show-floor footage of Halo 2 Vista in action at the Leipzig Game Convention in Germany. It looks like folks are having a bit of trouble with the transition to the keyboard, if you ask me... too many players shooting and not moving. To be expected with the very first day of play, though - check it out! Thanks to Mark MacDonald for the heads-up. Update: darthbob points out that the ingame text shows that they're playing with controllers, not a keyboard... which makes the stand-and-shoot behavior pretty hard to understand. (Unless the people playing have never tried Halo 2 on the Xbox, of course.) (Louis Wu 02:30:26 UTC) (permalink)
Violence and Debauchery
This week's Halo Humpday Challenge was against the Halo 2 Vista development team - and it looks like they're busy actually CODING, because they let the Community team (which doesn't do much except listen to people gripe about stupid new playlists) schooled 'em, 3 games to none. KP tried to play it off as a 'Keyboard vs Joystick' dealie... but basically, what happened was that they went looking for some group that didn't play as well as they did... then challenged them. Go read all the details at Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 02:20:56 UTC) (permalink)
News August 23 2006
White Lie.
I've been wondering how long it would take for someone to make a wordplay joke about the Halo Graphic Novel's first story... figures it would be Stuntmutt doing it in a One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 20:11:57 UTC) (permalink)
Beautiful Music
Wow, very cool. TheGarbageMan posted a whole series of Halo theme variation sketches - there are 10 snippets, all for piano, plus some commentary. Great stuff! (If we kill his bandwidth, we'll certainly put up local copies.) (Louis Wu 19:52:34 UTC) (permalink)
Faceplate Contest - Results!
Took us much longer than we'd hoped it would... but the thousand entries we received for the Faceplate contest have been narrowed down to a pair of winners. Congratulations to Hawaiian Pig and Wheels, whose faceplate designs win them a prototype Halo faceplate direct from Bungie! Check out the Finalists page to see the final 14 entries. Update: Thanks to nam, for the great idea - we're making ALL of the submissions available, in a sense; you can download all the faceplates in this pair of QuickTime vids (horizontal, 463 plates, 27.6 mb | vertical, 485 plates, 24.4 mb), with each plate shown for one second. (The vertical plates needed to be reduced in size a bit, to fit on a reasonable monitor. If you're on a 1024x768 monitor, you'll need to reduce it even more.) (Louis Wu 14:56:03 UTC) (permalink)
Dirty feet are kind of a turn-on
Lost: Halostyle has released Episode 7, 'The Average Journey: Part 2' - it's hard to tell which side is more incompetent, but it makes for some pretty funny moments. 7:42 long, weighing in at 48.3 mb (in WMP9 format) or 47.4 mb (in QuickTime format), this one passed the MPRRS this afternoon, and deserves a watching! (Louis Wu 03:05:16 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Zanzibar - Help Needed!
Kooberz is back to work on his Lego Zanzibar model... and he's looking for help. Check out his forum post, check out the model sa it stands, and see what you can contribute! (Louis Wu 02:51:59 UTC) (permalink)
Faceplate winners - soon!
Lots of people are asking, so I'm going to post this tonight - we've managed to pick our winners, and runners-up, for the faceplate contest... but I haven't had time to put together a presentation page, so we'll announce the details tomorrow (well, Wednesday, which technically is today, news-wise) - look for an announcement in the next 18 hours or so. Thanks for your patience! (Louis Wu 02:29:08 UTC) (permalink)
A Slice of Pi
Vista Week continues at Bungie.net, with an interview of the guys from Pi Studios, the folks creating the tools that will let you create new content for Halo 2 on Vista. Great to see familiar names - Dave Mertz did some wonderful work on Halo PC (and the tools released with HaloCE) when he worked for Gearbox. They say several times during the interview that the end user will be provided with everything needed to create new maps for Halo 2 - it's not stated explicitly, but I'm guessing this means that you no longer need a copy of 3ds Max or gMax to actually build the level geometry. Nice! darthbob was kind enough to post a heads-up on our forum. (Louis Wu 02:17:15 UTC) (permalink)
Desolate
CROSSFIRE's 'Desolate' placed in the top 7 positions of movies that passed the MPRRS - making CROSSFIRE the second machinima creator to have two films in the top 7. It's a sequel to 'Havoc' (which came in third on that list), and it finishes up the story started there with a bleak look at the loss of hope. Gorgeous cinematography, great editing, great sound... this one's fantastic. It's quite long - almost 18 minutes - and weighs in at about 130 mb... but it's worth it. Grab it in WMP9 format (137 mb) or QuickTime format (126 mb). (Louis Wu 02:08:53 UTC) (permalink)
News August 22 2006
Out of Mind Part Four
Out of Mind Part 4 is now available for sponsors at the Red vs Blue website. If you're not a sponsor, Episode 3 is available for you. All in all, it's an Out of Mind evening! (Louis Wu 23:14:08 UTC) (permalink)
Two SciFi Giants Talk to Bungie
Looks like Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven were talking to Bungie recently, about making games from some of the best science fiction out there. How did we miss this? Thanks, Matt. (Interesting perspective on the whole 'gameplay vs reality' thing in there, too...) (Louis Wu 22:22:30 UTC) (permalink)
Endeavour Teaser
Broken Console created a teaser for Endeavour, a spinoff of their 'Conquest' series - the MPRRS liked it. You can download it from their website, in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats (and in high or low-res). The full movie should be out later this month or next month. (Louis Wu 22:07:49 UTC) (permalink)
ODST
Pinkuh created a new Halo art piece for Laird - this one started out as a simple sketch of an ODST... then it got inked... then it got colored. The final product is pretty slick! We've added it to her gallery here, too. (Louis Wu 21:26:02 UTC) (permalink)
Top Ten Physics Games - Halo places 3rd
Aeropause wrote up an article listing (in their opinion) the Top Ten Best Physics Games. Halo came in at number 3. (The article incorrectly claims that Halo used the Havok physics engine - Havok was incorporated into Halo 2.) Thanks, Mr Sprout, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:25:59 UTC) (permalink)
Team Carnage - Love it or Hate it
Team Carnage, the newest XBL playlist, is now online. You can read a description of all games in the list on Bungie.net - but a short synopsis might be 'anti-hardcore'. These games are for fun; if you try and play them as though you were playing Team Hardcore, you're going to get frustrated. (The funniest part is that this playlist subbed in for Rumble Hardcore - so a lot of the first players were looking for Rumble Hardcore games, but hadn't turned their Xboxes off or signed out of XBL. The words they used to describe what they were playing are NOT front-page-acceptable.) HBO feedback is coming into this forum thread - lots of people seem to think it's just like Team ActionSack. It's not, really - it's what ActionSack SHOULD have been. Go blow someone up. (Louis Wu 18:15:55 UTC) (permalink)
LiL Poison Takes on All Comers
We got email from Victor De Leon, farther of LiL Poison, the world's youngest pro Halo player. They get thousands of requests from people wanting to play LiL Poison on Xbox Live, or just to add him to their friends list; obviously, this isn't feasible. They've figured out a way to get more people the opportunity to play, though - and help a good cause at the same time. You can swing by this page, and sign up to play LiL Poison; game cost is $20, and a portion of that will go to the Make a Wish Foundation. Can you beat an 8-year-old? (Louis Wu 17:43:34 UTC) (permalink)
The Bad News Bears
There's a Halo 2 tournament taking place on Saturday, during the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle this weekend - and according to Frankie, Bungie will be participating. They might even be cheating to win. Be there to watch! (Louis Wu 17:40:40 UTC) (permalink)
Out of Mind 4 on Marketplace
Part 4 of Red vs Blue's Out of Mind series is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. (It should be available soon for download from the website, as well - but isn't yet.) Thanks, Apollo Arrow. (Louis Wu 17:33:57 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular 77
Podtacular 77 is out - it's a monster (apparently to make up for 73 being short), at over an hour and a half. It contains the usual stuff, plus an interview with the guys from Halo2.junk.ws. It's cohosted by Tinkerbell23, from the Cayote Cavegirls. Thanks, Foo Mo Jive. (Louis Wu 17:29:59 UTC) (permalink)
Heh - Shinie.
Mr Fiddle found a great Homestar Runner Halo parody - check it out on the Homestar Runner Wiki forum. (Louis Wu 16:50:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Vista - Looking Good!
There's a really nice progress review of Halo 2 Vista over at Bungie.net - new producer Matt Priestley did the writeup, and really makes me want a machine that can play this game, when it comes out! If you live in Germany, you might get to see it for yourself later this week; it'll be premiering at the Leipzig Games Convention. Read the whole article for the goods; there's some nice info there. Frankie, if course, was first with the heads-up. (Louis Wu 04:11:55 UTC) (permalink)
Matchmaking changes coming
Ninja 0n Fire posted a Matchmaking update on the Bungie.net forum today; details about what's changing with existing playlists, plus a teaser of the new playlist, now called Team Carnage. Give it a read! And look for the actual update to the XBL playlists sometime later this week. Arachneya was first with a heads-up, via email. (Louis Wu 04:04:34 UTC) (permalink)
VOTING NEEDED NOW
Wonga - here's your chance to see Red vs Blue featured on the BBC website! I just noticed a poll on this page (it's about halfway down) pointing out that there are 4 sessions at the Edinburgh Games Festival that can be covered, but only one reviewer - so it's up to the readers to decide which session he attends! Vote for 'Machinima', and you'll get to read a feature of the RT crew. Hurry! (Louis Wu 03:51:18 UTC) (permalink)
Crimson Halo Gift
Gone all day, starting to catch up... first up, a new movie. MaritalBlaze54 created 'Crimson Halo Gift', a tribute to Clan 0kinawa's Crimson Halo series. It portrays a modder being ganged up on by a bunch of non-modders. The MPRRS reviewers liked the camera angles, the video quality, the editing... they weren't thrilled with the soundtrack. Such is life, sometimes. You can grab this in WMP9 format (31.5 mb) or QuickTime format (34.1 mb). (Louis Wu 03:44:20 UTC) (permalink)
News August 21 2006
Transmission Episode 0 - The Prologue
FireDragon04 wrote to point out a new movie series he's starting up - it's called 'Transmission', and the Prologue is now up on his site. A prison transport ship diverts from its path to help an ally, and runs into more than it bargained for. Take a look! (Louis Wu 12:24:34 UTC) (permalink)
A Speedrunning Competition in Canada
Whoa, cool. If you're anywhere near Toronto on September 3, you should stop by the Fan Expo - dorkARMY will be hosting a Halo 2 speedrunning competition (individual and coop). Thanks to Ducain, over at High Impact Halo, for the heads-up (you'll find a bit more info, including contact info, in his news post). (Louis Wu 12:11:09 UTC) (permalink)
Sun Tzwho?
Ever feel like you're playing with folks who might be new to this game? Stuntmutt feels your pain. Check out today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 11:31:04 UTC) (permalink)
I'm gonna be a star, ma
Chron.com (the website of the Houston Chronicle) has an article (from the San Jose Mercury News, actually) about teenagers turning pro, and the worry (of their parents) that they're forsaking their education for videogames. This has been a worry of parents of aspiring pro sports athletes and moviestars for years - it's one more indication that pro gaming is entering mainstream culture. (Louis Wu 11:20:42 UTC) (permalink)
Nylund talks to FiringSquad
FiringSquad interviewed Eric Nylund, asking him questions about his Halo novels, past and future, among other things - not a lot of new info, but a nice summary of his involvement along the way. Thanks, reprobate. (Louis Wu 11:00:49 UTC) (permalink)
The Human Entry Vehicle, Analyzed
Stephen Loftus continues to examine the details of the Haloverse for us - his latest object of study is the Human Entry Vehicle, used by ODSTs (and occasionally Spartans) to quickly reach a surface from orbit. Give it a read - lots of stats, lots of pictures! (Louis Wu 03:20:15 UTC) (permalink)
Elongation - in Lego.
Vinny Sibel sent along a picture of Elongation, made with lego bricks, created by xbroyboyremix of Halopen Films. Pretty cool! (Louis Wu 03:14:21 UTC) (permalink)
News August 20 2006
jdogmoney's Nigh Impossible Contest Extravaganza!
jdogmoney kicked off another contest on our forum - again, no prizes (this seems to be a theme these days), but it's an interesting premise - come up with something nobody else can do (within Halo), and post it in the thread (preferably with proof). More specific rules are listed in the post. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:32:20 UTC) (permalink)
StandBy Me
QsK King, from QsKGlobal.Com, submitted 'StandBy Me' to the MPRRS recently; it's an ode to the most common form of cheating on Xbox Live. Nice effects. I'd never heard the All Saints version of this song before... but man, it fits the action pretty nicely. Grab it in WMP9 format (53.9 mb) or QuickTime format (48.4 mb). (Louis Wu 14:10:12 UTC) (permalink)
Splinter Cell: Crisis - Trailer
AnubisUK wrote to let us know of a new trailer being hosted by Broken Console Productions - it was created by Silent Fisher, one of their clan members, and it's for a movie entitled 'Splinter Cell: Crisis'. Sam Fisher is now wearing MC armor, and creeping around Zanzibar... 28 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 13:40:15 UTC) (permalink)
News August 19 2006
Next up - WoW in Social Studies
Heh - gijake found a fun Halo reference in the latest issue of Wired. I'm not sure it'll be funny if it actually comes true... (Louis Wu 19:37:43 UTC) (permalink)
Ghost Ship
Paul Davies has submitted another gorgeous piece of Halo artwork - this one is called 'Ghost Ship', and shows what might have happened to the Pillar of Autumn in a parallel universe, maybe. If you like Paul's work, he's just finished an overhaul of his website; there's a whole collection of sci-fi artwork there, not just Halo stuff. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:22:30 UTC) (permalink)
Walshy's Montage - in QuickTime
For lots of people, WMP9 is a difficult-to-use movie type; for those people, we do our best to provide most movies we host (or that we think are worth hosting) in QuickTime format. This is now true with Walshy's montage, released last night (check this MLGPro.com forum thread for lots of download links to the WMP9 version) - we're now offering a QuickTime version of the archive. It's identical to the WMP9 version (it contains the main montage, the Xtra video, and the screenshots of the 3D process), but everything's in QuickTime format. It's also a lot smaller - 126 mb instead of 216 mb. (Movie quality is nearly identical.) Grab this one if you're on a Mac, or would rather use QuickTime for any other reason! (Louis Wu 18:05:55 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 tourney in MA - short notice
An article in the Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel and Enterprise discusses a local Halo 2 tourney happening today, with a $1000 first prize; not sure if it's too late, but if you live near Fitchburg, swing on by the local iGameSpot! (Louis Wu 17:47:11 UTC) (permalink)
WikiRiot Ep 12
Sigafoos points out that WikiRiot Episode 12 is up - a pair of interviews, plus plenty of Halo news. 47 minutes, 19 mb. Go listen. (Louis Wu 13:42:43 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo Art for Auction
A couple of days ago, we mentioned a hand-painted faceplate on eBay - that's gone (it went for just over $100), but the artist reminds us that he's got other Halo goodies available for sale there. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:40:27 UTC) (permalink)
Walshy's Montage
So the big news last night was the release of a montage by Final Boss member Walshy - the editing is a bit heavy in places, but it's really nicely produced, and you can get a real sense for how fast and accurately this guy can kill his opponents. At the moment, the best place to grab this is FileFront; we've been asked to help with hosting, but I'm thinking that a 200 mb file that's this popular is suicide for a site like us. I'm currently encoding a QuickTime version (it'll be substantially smaller; the bitrate on the WMP9 is really, really high), but it won't be ready before I have to leave this morning; check back later for a link. There are threads in lots of forums (including ours - thanks, Veegie) - the biggest is probably MLG's (which also has a series of maybe temporary alternative links for download). It's a 200 mb download, with just under 10 total minutes of video - go grab a copy! Thanks to dirtyJ for being the first with the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:36:22 UTC) (permalink)
News August 18 2006
Pink to Black
Whoa, bizarre. Back in March, we listed links to ISBNdb.com and Amazon.com for the upcoming Nylund novel, Ghosts of Coral. Following those links today, you find that the info hasn't changed... but if you change the 'com' in the amazon link to 'co.uk', you get to a book listed as 'Ghosts of Onyx' (quick screenshot, in case it changes). A mistake on Amazon.uk's part? Or a slip of an unannounced title? Nice find by Tartarus! Update: looks like he posted it on our forum, as well (forum name of AT-GNaT). Chime in with your thoughts! (Louis Wu 23:39:51 UTC) (permalink)
At least one more grunt.
The Bungie Weekly Update is super-early this week - and it's pretty short, though there are a sizeable number of Halo 3 teasers in it. No Mister Chief, either, because apparently Pinkuh made him too sexy. (Knowing Pinkuh, that almost certainly means there's nudity involved... and I'm not sure I can stomach a nude Mister Chief, so thanks to Frankie for not posting it.) As usual, you can read it at Bungie.net, or you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 21:24:04 UTC) (permalink)
To the fortress!
Tex created a pretty cool picture, illustrating a game she and Schooly D play on Xbox Live; she has to jump to her death before Schooly kills her. (I dunno, maybe it's some sort of mating ritual or something.) Anyway, the picture was great, and she was kind enough to save a bunch of her intermediate steps... so we put together a fun little progress page. If you're on a slow connection, you're probably better off just reading her forum post, and seeing the pics there... but if you've got some bandwidth to spare, check this out. (Louis Wu 18:05:12 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Treasure Hunt
ManKitten has started up the Second Annual Mankitten's Halo 2 Treasure Hunt. (Last year's hunt can be followed at this link.) Clue one just got posted - there aren't any prizes, you're playing for fun! (Louis Wu 17:38:53 UTC) (permalink)
Tsquared talks about gaming passion
There's an interview with Tom 'Tsquared' Taylor, of Gaming-lessons.com (and holder of one of the 5 quarter-million-dollar 3-year contracts with MLG) over at GameSetWatch. The last time this subject came up, our forum was filled with scorn for anyone who'd pay for lessons in Halo. I say if you're willing to pay for golf or tennis lessons... why not Halo? Tsquared made a quarter million dollars last year, playing Halo. Seems to me he's qualified to pass on some of his expertise. Thanks to Kotaku for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:24:26 UTC) (permalink)
River Styx Two: RAGNAROK
You might remember River Styx, a bit of machinima created by Elnea and OboeCrazy which has the distinction of being the first project to integrate Halo, The Sims 2, and World of Warcraft into one (relatively) seamless whole. Well, they're back - and this time, River Styx Two is even MORE integrated. Check out the movie poster (214k). If you have a Red vs Blue account, you can read Elnea's description of the process here, and OboeCrazy's comments here - but the general gist is that they captured footage in all three games, using a few tricks to make their lives easier down the road - and then that footage was composited in Motion 2 to produce the downloads available below. It's funny, it's well-produced, and it's innovative - you need to download this! (Before I forget - it's a trailer, but not of a movie that will ever be produced. It's a trailer, because Elnea and OboeCrazy felt that trailers contain all the good parts, anyway.) It's 640x480, in WMP9 (37.2 mb), QuickTime (37.5 mb), or DivX 39.5 mb) formats, hosted here... you can also grab the DivX and WMP9 versions on OboeCrazy's site, and Elnea's hosting an iPod version (26 mb). What are you waiting for? (Louis Wu 14:22:31 UTC) (permalink)
Popcorn.
Just when you think the puns can't get any worse... they get worse. If you live in California, please try and refrain from calling your lawyer after reading today's One One Se7en. (I suppose there are probably other places with higher per-capita quantities of lawyers than California... but it's still early, and I haven't had my coffee.) (Louis Wu 14:20:08 UTC) (permalink)
New York Tourneys - early September
A pair of tournament announcements from Johnathan Lugo on our forum - a Brooklyn FFA/2v2/4v4 tourney on September 2, and a NYC 2v2/FFA tourney on September 9. More details, including locations, entry fees, and prizes, in the posts. (Louis Wu 13:13:35 UTC) (permalink)
Dead Man's Hand - Not So Dead
A lot of new content is available over at Dead Man's Hand this week; 22 Questions with both Podtacular's Foo Mo Jive and author Eric Nylund, new feature called 'Playlist Psyche', where a particular playlist is analyzed by going over a representative game (this week's installment looks at Multi-Team), and a number of other assorted pieces. Give it a read! Stuicide was the first with a heads-up, via email, but Dweezle posted the news on our forum, giving you a place to comment. (Louis Wu 13:09:53 UTC) (permalink)
Massive HaloCE Resource Update
TheGhost wrote to point out that he's released the third installment of Project BlueStreak's JMS Model Exporter. New features and info can be found on the Exporter's web page. (While you're there, check out the GBXModel Importer and the Animation Importer - both have received updates, as well. Download links and version histories are on the respective page of each.) And finally, the HaloCE Tutorial Resource is up to 135 tutorials, almost double what was there the last time we mentioned it (4 months ago). TheGhost has been busy - go enjoy the fruits of his labors! (Louis Wu 12:42:49 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Thirteen new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 12:34:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 2 2 Trailer
Speedhuntr noticed a new Flash animation at Newgrounds - it's a trailer for an upcoming series episode. Artwork, as Speedhuntr notes, is quite good. (Action is a bit gorey... but that's par for the course with Newgrounds Flash, no?) (Louis Wu 12:24:12 UTC) (permalink)
Sunset at Beaver Creek
Forgot to post this yesterday - lol Pwn3d created a standalone (PC-only) app that lets you run through his recreation of Beaver Creek - no guns, but nice textures! 5.6 mb, hosted at FileFront. (Louis Wu 12:04:39 UTC) (permalink)
Ball Handling
KP wrote up Bungie's side of the Humpday Challenge story last night (we mentioned Junk's writeup yesterday) - sounds like it was a pretty fun set of matches for everyone! (Louis Wu 11:52:44 UTC) (permalink)
Energy Swords in Second Life
hunter_that_dances posted a couple of preliminary shots of some work he's doing to bring the Halo energy sword into Second Life... nice! (Louis Wu 11:39:47 UTC) (permalink)
News August 17 2006
Girls are more fun.
Wow. There's an article at AOL Games called 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Halo' - it's about a male staffer taking on three members of the PMS clan (yes, all female), in various games. Despite the piece's title, Halo was NOT one of the three games. (Yes, I know that this makes the Halo link pretty tenuous... I'm posting this because the whole article amazes me.) He plays three different girls, in three different games... and he's paying more attention to their shampoo types than to their gaming skillz. The article is ostensibly about how men don't need to be chauvinistic about women gamers any more... and it's being written by an astounding chauvinist. Irony abounds. Thanks, Redstevo. (Louis Wu 19:55:26 UTC) (permalink)
Shishka is gonna love that last theory.
Jillybean rounded up a goodly amount of recent speculation based on the Halo Graphic Novel, for presentation to you in digestible form, on the Halo Story Page. And what would a Jillybean update be without a gratuitous shot at Cortana? Go read. (Louis Wu 19:23:30 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie's on a roll... 1 week winning streak
Last night's Halo Humpday Challenge was played against the crew of Halo2.Junk.ws, a Halo 2 stats site. The writeup's not posted yet at Bungie.net - but Junk's went live a little bit ago. Looks like it was REALLY close; Bungie won two out of three, but all three scores were nailbiters. (10:00-9:23, 80-78, and 1:00-0:59.) Thanks, Indutiomarus. (Louis Wu 19:03:42 UTC) (permalink)
Grove released
Arteen has released Grove, a new HaloCE map 'set in the lush canyons of Halo, among long-abandoned Forerunner structures.' Very pretty - you can grab a copy at Halo Maps. Thanks to Dennis Powers for the heads-up (he was tickled by the fact that two of the characters from his Valley of the Forerunners series made it into an easter egg in this map). (Louis Wu 15:42:07 UTC) (permalink)
Hand-Painted Halo Faceplate on eBay
Kotaku has a bit about a hand-painted Halo Faceplate for sale on eBay - if you hurry, you can still get your bid in. (It's currently sitting at $84, with a bit over a day still remaining.) I've provided a link to the US eBay site - but if you're in Canada, you can use the Kotaku link, which goes to the Canadian site. Thanks to JeSteR 343 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:38:04 UTC) (permalink)
WSVG VS. MLG - A Comparison
GotFrag takes a look at the two biggest organizations handling Halo tournaments today - WSVG and MLG. Go read. Update: bizarre, it looks like this article has been pulled (not sure why, it didn't seem offensive to me...). Thanks for the heads-up, Cybrfrk. (Louis Wu 13:34:04 UTC) (permalink)
GetScrims
Jamie Anderson wrote to us about a new website he's started up - it's called GetScrims, and it's designed to match up people looking for games on XBL with others of similar skill level, attitude, etc. Think of it as more in-depth MatchMaking. Interesting concept! (Louis Wu 12:42:57 UTC) (permalink)
HGN Reviewed at Gametrailers
Capt 0bvious noticed that Gametrailers has a video review of the Halo Graphic Novel (Thanks, Mr.Cynical); it's chock-full of spoilers, so don't watch this unless you've read the HGN already. Nicely put together! (Louis Wu 12:36:39 UTC) (permalink)
I wish I still lived in Portland
Hehe - it's a stretch, but demus points out an article at Videogamesblogger.com, which writes about Halo: the beer! (It's Widmer, and it's an IPA - how bad could it be?) (Louis Wu 11:05:48 UTC) (permalink)
Filling in the Gaps
demus found an editorial from the folks over at Game Overdrive which suggests that the Halo Graphic Novel is the key to understanding the current story arc in the Halo series. (Some of our forum denizens disagree - read the rest of the thread for details.) (Louis Wu 11:01:15 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Mac now Universal Binary!
As I'm checking out some of my favorite Mac haunts, I see that the decent folks at Destineer/MacSoft have *rewritten* the entire Halo Mac code and made it a Universal Binary, meaning it'll work natively on Apple's Intel-powered Macs. Niiice! It's a paid upgrade ($5 or $10, download or shipped CD) but for a 3 year old game? I don't have a problem with that. Blackstar mentioned it on the forum first. (Ding 08:04:35 UTC) (permalink)
News August 16 2006
Thank You Come Again.
Stuntmutt looks at the evolution of gaming language in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 11:47:08 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Bear
Heh - Laird lives in Vancouver, where there are tourist statue bears all over the city - and a new one he just noticed is a Master Chief bear (in RvB Tucker's colors, no less!). Adorable! (Louis Wu 11:38:03 UTC) (permalink)
Video site in trouble
Halo-Videos.com is asking for your help - they've been kicked off their host. Swing by their temp page for more details. (Louis Wu 11:37:28 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular takes Gaming PodcastAward
Podtacular was up for Gaming Podcast of the Year... and it looks like they won! Congrats, guys. Thanks to KP at bungie.net for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:20:18 UTC) (permalink)
Open Letter to Will Smith Wannabe
Tied the Leader has a couple of bits for you this week - there's a private message to a hacker, detailing ways to get to Bungie, and there's a virtual walkthrough of the loft that will be used for their upcoming lanfest early next month. Thanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 10:50:15 UTC) (permalink)
I was like you once
Another writeup of LANbex (including video of the opening of the Tijuana Mama eating contest) was put online last night by Mintz, who's altogether too full of himself and his Halo-playing abilities. Don't be too hard on him, though, he's only got a few hours to live. (Louis Wu 10:46:53 UTC) (permalink)
Stream of Haloness
dgcrawford decided to run through Halo and Halo 2 in one marathon play session... and write up his thoughts. The Halo section took him almost 5000 words! (He's looking for feedback about whether it's worth writing up the Halo 2 section.) (Louis Wu 10:44:41 UTC) (permalink)
Caption Contest #2
Dojorkan has posted another two pics in his ongoing Caption Contest - swing by the thread and toss your ideas into the pot! (No prizes, just fun.) (Louis Wu 02:49:31 UTC) (permalink)
OoM Ep 3
Rooster Teeth's Out of Mind Episode 3, 'It's the one that comes after Part 2', is now available for direct download by sponsors. (Yes, it's been available on XBL Marketplace for almost 2 weeks... but this does nothing for those of us without a 360.) Thanks, Psychophan7. (Louis Wu 02:45:28 UTC) (permalink)
Cliffedge and Escalade-Mount
FireDragon04 writes to point out his final 2 maps for HaloCE - nearly finished. You can find a preview video in this Gearbox forum thread - and more info at FireDragon04's website. (Louis Wu 02:42:16 UTC) (permalink)
Patrick Kenney - a fan with a mission
Cybiotik found a blog with a lot of Halo content and some really cool fan creations... check multiple posts! (Louis Wu 02:39:27 UTC) (permalink)
Boisterous spirits
KP has written up his version of the events in Atlanta this weekend - swing by Bungie.net for text and pictures (including a shot of Schooly D's butt) of LANbex, which sounds like a truly old-school lanfest. (Louis Wu 02:36:18 UTC) (permalink)
News August 15 2006
Local Boy Makes Good
Looks like Cody Miller's Legendary No-Deaths Halo 2 run (which won the Twin Galaxies Halo 2 Bounty earlier this year) has made the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records! Very cool. Thanks, Grande Carne. (Louis Wu 22:44:27 UTC) (permalink)
The Last Judgement Trailer
Incogneto45 submitted to the MPRRS a trailer for 'The Last Judgement', a machinima project coming soon. The subject matter isn't very new - a small band of survivors, attempting to stave off destruction by the legions of Hell - but the cinematics are quite good; this one looks to be worth waiting for! The trailer is 2:20 long, and is available in either WMP9 format (24.4 mb) or QuickTime format (26.7 mb). Go watch! (Louis Wu 22:32:48 UTC) (permalink)
Miniature Halo Updated
SESpider decided to repost the earlier strips of his Miniature Halo series with the style developed in the most recent episodes; we'll replace the old ones with the new ones as they come in. (Pages 1-4 are already up.) (Louis Wu 20:19:30 UTC) (permalink)
Wahttehhog Revisited
Gah. Yesterday, I posted a note about Wahttehhog's 'Ancien Regime', a large vid that passed the MPRRS with flying colors. I'd forgotten, as I promised, to point out their blog, where you can comment on this piece - and where, if you're in the mood, you can download a much, much less compressed version (nearly 600 mb). (For the vast majority of the viewing public, downloading this will do nothing but burn Wahttehhog's bandwidth; the overall quality bump is not HUGELY noticeable. Think twice, and be nice, before grabbing this.) Thanks to Matt Macomber for reminding me politely. (Louis Wu 19:30:50 UTC) (permalink)
Zanzibar Sunset
Very nice new commissioned piece from Pinkuh - a clanmate and her beau, enjoying a Zanzibar sunset. We've added this to her gallery, as well. (Louis Wu 19:24:46 UTC) (permalink)
Time... the avenger
Heh - Bluestone found a new storage location for an action figure rocket launcher - what a great desk toy! (Louis Wu 16:06:56 UTC) (permalink)
News August 14 2006
Daytime TV
Wow, it's gonna be one of those days. In rapid succession, the MPRRS reviewers passed the latest submission by Chairleg Productions - entitled 'Daytime or: How I learnt to stop legislating and love the Ninjaman', this one is a break from their recent MPs series - it's a look at violence in videogames, and possible alternatives. It's hilarious - go watch! 43.3 mb in WMP9 format, 41.3 mb in QuickTime format. (The WMP9 version is also available at Chairleg's website.) (Louis Wu 15:43:38 UTC) (permalink)
Wahttehhog Episode 2 - Ancien Regime
Reyals Bemus submitted 'Wahttehhog Ep. 2 - Ancien Regime' to the MPRRS last week; it was a rather large file, so it took the reviewers some time to get through it. They passed it this morning, with rave reviews. It says 'Episode 2', but in fact it's not really related to Episode 1 except in the sense that it was made by the same group of people. This one tells the story of a corrupt government, and a Resistance movement set up to fight it. A top rebel is attacked in his hidden sanctuary by government forces bent on breaking him. Fantastic filming, great storytelling, great effects. Watch this one! 81.9 mb in WMP9 format, 82.4 mb in QuickTime format. (Louis Wu 15:29:45 UTC) (permalink)
Machine And Nerve And Has Its Mind Concluded.
Today's One One Se7en nails one of Bungie's biggest problems with respect to the Halo movie. Everything would be better if fans didn't suck so much. (No, of COURSE that doesn't mean YOU.) (Louis Wu 14:56:59 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 76
Podtacular Episode 76 has been released - tips for playing Beaver Creek, and an interview with Matt Hullum, of Red vs Blue. Almost an hour and a half, 75 mb. Give it a listen! Thanks, Foo Mo Jive. (Louis Wu 14:40:08 UTC) (permalink)
PromethianGuard Ep 2 Released
Tactic pointed out a that PromethianGuard Episode 2: 'Bout Daaamn Time!' has been released - it's a 15-minute variety vid with skits, bloopers, and a montage. Just under 100 mb in WMP9 format - swing by the PromethianGuard website and grab a copy! (Louis Wu 12:48:13 UTC) (permalink)
Ooh, eggs!
The first substantial writeup of LANbex, a huge old-school-style lan held in Atlanta this weekend, was posted by Max Power last night - go read about Tijuana Mama-eating contests, Master Chief's sex drive, and the awful cell coverage in Dolbex's woods! (Lots of pics.) Sounds like this was one for the ages. Update: Pictures, from rapture. w00t! (Louis Wu 12:01:20 UTC) (permalink)
News August 13 2006
Obscure Gamer Reference Stage - OGReS
redstormrisen found a Halo-related comic at Doctor Dameon - I think it's taking a shot at Mac users, too. (Louis Wu 22:22:20 UTC) (permalink)
Youth of The Nation
BLackout77x, of Clan Third and Long, submitted 'Youth of The Nation', a tribute to the Columbine shootings, to the MPRRS; the reviewers felt it was touching, and well-filmed. You can grab a copy in WMP9 format (49.6 mb) or QuickTime format (53.2 mb). (Louis Wu 19:16:42 UTC) (permalink)
llor ot ton dna kcor a eb oT
Stuntmutt updated his blog today - a bunch of submitted strips, a recap of the One One Se7en-related winners from the mow your lawn contest (and a great little bonus), plus some submitted animation stuff - go look! (There's also a 'lost strip' - a strip he submitted, but never aired, along with the story behind it.) (Louis Wu 14:52:22 UTC) (permalink)
Mike Salvatori shows up at VGL in Indiana
Jinno went to the Video Games Live concert in Indianapolis this weekend - and came away with an iPod signed by Mike Salvatori, along with concert founders Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. (Jinno supplied the hardware - the other guys just signed. Don't want you thinking you could have gotten a free iPod out of this deal...) Nice surprise that Mike was there! (Louis Wu 14:47:48 UTC) (permalink)
More on Tyler Kirkham and Halo
Nice - kevinp15 dropped into the thread discussing the Tyler Kirkham Halo artwork from yesterday, and clarified that 1) the original image was created for him as a Christmas present a few years ago, and 2) that there's a more dramatically-colored version (and a pencil sketch) of the color image in his Red vs Blue Images collection (registration required). Always cool to get history! (Louis Wu 14:39:41 UTC) (permalink)
News August 12 2006
The Red
RidgyMrPeepers submitted a highly-compressed version of his movie, 'The Red' - a music video set to the song of the same name by Chevelle; it examines a schizophrenic faced with a series of murders. Nice editing, though I wish we had a higher-quality version to serve you... The MPRRS reviewers gave it a thumbs-up, so grab it in WMP9 (15.3 mb) or QuickTime (14.1 mb) format. (Louis Wu 19:30:16 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on Jeopardy
Quantifier heard about a Halo-related question on Jeopardy - and Miguel Chavez confirmed it (while at the same time pointing out a pretty cool Jeopardy archive website I'd never seen before) - I can't believe that was worth $800. Plus, all three blew the Leeroy Jenkins question! (Louis Wu 19:16:11 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Weapons for Oblivion
Psychophan7 found some folks working on porting Mjolnir Armor into the Oblivion engine - love the sword! (Louis Wu 19:12:17 UTC) (permalink)
Tyler Kirkham draws MC
GruntKilla ran across some really nice Halo artwork in the portfolio of Tyler Kirkham, a comic artist (Master Chief B&W | Master Chief Color) - awesome stuff! (Louis Wu 19:10:21 UTC) (permalink)
H3MC
Jean-Luc returned with a new Master Chief animation - it's huge (1600x1200, requires the XVID codec), but it's pretty slick! Grab a copy from FileFront. (Louis Wu 19:08:11 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Movie (animation)
Some interesting goings-on in our forum over the last day or so... let's start at the top and move down. Feenix noticed a cel-shaded pelican (and Pillar of Autumn) in a fan-made Halo animation on YouTube... fun! (Louis Wu 19:06:35 UTC) (permalink)
Stubbs Post-Mortem *OT*
Not directly Bungie-related, but there's a lengthy post-mortem on Stubbs the Zombie, written by our old pal Alex Seropian, over at Gamasutra. For folks interested in some of the aspects of game development done by a small team, there's some solid info in there. Not to mention a whole mess of cool art, too. Go read. (mnemesis 18:14:48 UTC) (permalink)
WikiRiot Ep 11
WikiRiot Episode 11 has been released - I've seen Star Wars/Halo comparisons, but this is the first X-Men/Halo matchup that I know of. 36 minutes, under 15 mb. Thanks, Sigafoos. (Louis Wu 17:43:05 UTC) (permalink)
BlueStreak Does Animation
TheGhost writes in to let us know that Project BlueStreak, previously mentioned for its easy importing and exporting of models between Halo and 3Ds Max and Gmax, has been updated with an animation importer! He's firmly on the way to a sweet suite of third-party Halo development tools. Go check this stuff out, and chime in on this thread and let him know what you think. (mnemesis 06:56:07 UTC) (permalink)
Give me all your grenades or I shall pull off your head.
Frankie stopped by the forum earlier to note that the Bungie Weekly Update is up. Tidbits on everything from the newest Halo novel, to Halo 3 combat dialogue, graphics, and AI, to Halo 2 for Vista, and some various goings-on in Bungieville. Everything, that is, except info on the Halo movie. Nope, nothing about it there. Especially not that first paragraph that pretty much says it all. Check it out! Update: For what it's worth, this is now available in our Weekly Update Archive, as well. (mnemesis 06:42:11 UTC) (permalink)
News August 11 2006
Administrivia - Design a Faceplate Contest
Just a quick reminder - the Design a Faceplate contest closes in about 11 hours. An amazing number of people ignored the admonition to not upload them anywhere but our Contest Uploads directory - I hate to have to do it, but there are almost 50 entries I need to toss because they were uploaded to our standard uploads folder instead of the contest uploads folder. That said... there are STILL almost 1000 entries so far, and I'm guessing that today will see many, many more. You have until 5 pm PST (8 PM EST, midnight UTC) to get your entries in - anything with a timestamp past that will be ignored. And please... be patient; it's going to take a bit longer than I expected to get these organized and displayed for the judges, which means you won't see results in the next few days. But as soon as possible - that's for sure! (Louis Wu 12:50:22 UTC) (permalink)
Ernie Sabella Maybe?
If you don't know who Ernie Sabella is, Google's your friend. Today's One One Se7en mines a joke I can't believe hasn't been mined yet... that Stuntmutt, he keeps surprising. (Louis Wu 11:21:28 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fiction
Seventeen new pieces now up for reading in the Fan Fiction section... busy week! (Louis Wu 10:02:39 UTC) (permalink)
Del Toro likes Blomkamp
Empire Magazine has a short article about Neill Blomkamp as the new Halo director, and while most of the info in is has been covered in other places in the last couple of days, they did manage to get a comment from Guillermo del Toro, who was considered for the job before Blomkamp, and who commented after seeing Blomkamp's demo reel:
"I was blown away. The Halo he's attracted to is great news to the fans of the game who are into the Master Chief aspect."
Thanks, Mike. (Louis Wu 09:55:21 UTC) (permalink)
The Haxor That Loved Me
Obienator submitted a trailer for "The Haxor That Loved Me", a sequel to "Gameplay May change During Online Play", to the MPRRS; great cinematics, a well-thought-out storyline and over-the-top histrionics combine to bring you a pretty funny video. I'm looking forward to the full film! It won't be out for a few months - so in the meantime, watch the trailer: 47.9 mb in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats. (This film made the MPRRS Top 20, for now.) (Louis Wu 08:44:45 UTC) (permalink)
The Halo Novels - Illustrated
If you search our Miscellaneous Art collection, you'll find a substantial body of work from Darkneshasfallen - he's adding to that now, with a new project. He's been illustrating scenes from the Halo novels - the first batch is available at this point, along with a series of sketches, showing his progress along the way. This is a really interesting visualization of material that (so far) has only appeared in written form... check it out! (We'll add new images to the collection as he creates them.) (Louis Wu 02:23:21 UTC) (permalink)
SightCEing Part 2
Dennis powers points out that the second episode of SightCEing, the visual tour of HaloCE beauty, is now available on the Halo CE Chronicles website. Some gorgeous landscapes to be found! QuickTime version is 40 mb, WMP9 is 37.5 mb. Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:03:50 UTC) (permalink)
ArKiVe M4 Trailer
Over at Halo3Forum.com, you can find a trailer for a new montage vid from ArKiVe and Titan - pretty nice work! Thanks, Z. (Louis Wu 01:52:17 UTC) (permalink)
Pelts o' nubblet.
Bungie got sliced, diced, and iced in last night's Humpday Challenge against the PMS Clan - and KP gallantly ate the crow pie they made of our favorite developers in his writeup. Lesson learned here: Don't play against the girls... they'll stomp your butt and walk away laughing. (Louis Wu 01:49:36 UTC) (permalink)
News August 10 2006
Love the boots!
corpseguy continues to post progress pics of his homemade (but fantastic-looking) Mjolnir armor over at HaloPlanet - check out the latest pics! (Louis Wu 20:49:54 UTC) (permalink)
Honestly Unique and a Radical Departure
Whoa, very nice. Aint It Cool News had a chance to ask Neill Blomkamp a few questions about Halo, and Neill's goals with respect to the upcoming movie - after reading some of his answers, I'm pumped for the movie. He knows his stuff! (It tickled me to see my graphic work included gratuitously in the middle of the interview, as well...) Thanks to all who wrote in - looks like Flash2000 was first. (Louis Wu 19:05:17 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 and the Uncanny Valley
LegendaryMark has written up an extensive article looking at the 'uncanny valley', that point at which photo-realistic work is close enough to REAL (but not ALL the way real) that it actually looks worse than if it were a bit less realistic - and how this concept might affect Halo 3. Interesting piece! Swing by Halowiki.net to read it. Thanks, Sigafoos. (Louis Wu 14:35:29 UTC) (permalink)
Is he or isn't he?
As you might have noticed yesterday, an article went up on Xbox.com, announcing Neill Blomkamp as the director of the upcoming Halo movie - and then it went down again, leading to speculation that maybe it was a mistake. It MIGHT be a mistake - but it's far more likely that it was just a premature announcement, and was pulled for that reason. Time will tell - but in the meantime, you should swing by Joystiq, for a nice roundup of most of Blomkamp's work to date (thanks, Sorahn), and when you're through, stop by Transbuddha for one they missed (which might be his best), Tempbot (thanks, RobW). Stay tuned - we'll let you know how this turns out. (Louis Wu 11:03:15 UTC) (permalink)
Kicking Teenage Hiney
KP, avoiding his duties dealing with Halo Movie rumors, has posted a new Community Spotlight over on Bungie.Net. Anne Wolanski of Seasoned Gamers tells a bit about their group, hyperventilating teenage potty-mouths, and the bizarre way she got into the entertainment industry. Check it out! Spartan Jag noted it on our forum, btw. (mnemesis 00:38:51 UTC) (permalink)
News August 9 2006
LANtasy Island - De Game, Boss, De Game!
Couple of new bits at Tied the Leader this week - a writeup of a huge LAN put on by 2old2play, and an invitation to a TTL LAN in Chicago coming up over Labor Day weekend. Check it out! Thanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 20:40:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Director Announced
Wow... according to Xbox.com, a director has been chosen for the Halo movie... and it's a newcomer. Neill Blomkamp, who has a history of short films and commercial ads, will direct the Halo film as his first full-length big-screen project. Intriguing choice! Cornballer was first to our forum with the news. (Update: Whoops, looks like the Xbox.com page has been pulled. I guess that means that the unconfirmed nature of this bit is now even more firmly unconfirmed. Or something. - mnem) (Louis Wu 16:58:28 UTC) (permalink)
Ain't so tough now, are you?
Heh... the 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' style parodies have now extended to Halo machinima - thanks, Ename Nep. (Louis Wu 16:05:11 UTC) (permalink)
Promotional Video Contest
A fan-run contest on the Bungie.net forums asks for your best promotional video of a Bungie product - prizes are cold, hard cash. ($50, $30, and $20 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd respectively.) Three of your options (Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3) are Halo-related, warranting this news post. Thanks again, KP. (To be clear: Bungie is not running this contest - it's fan-driven. Questions should go in the forum thread, not to Bungie.) (Louis Wu 13:25:43 UTC) (permalink)
Scribblings on your Chest
Looks like you can now buy that Mister Chief shirt that's been visible in a few places recently... i hear Frankie gets a cut of every sale, to be used for art lessons. Thanks to KP at Bungie.net for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:21:41 UTC) (permalink)
Not To Be Confused With Winnebagogh.
Stuntmutt's getting delusions of grandeur... go read today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 12:07:54 UTC) (permalink)
There's something wrong with those...
NeuroKoNeza stopped by to point out a rather bizarre HaloCE creation... evil Teletubbies in a death arena. Wow. (Louis Wu 11:56:31 UTC) (permalink)
She's gonna need help.
Rooster Teeth has posted Out of Mind Part II for sponsors; if you don't have a 360 and haven't seen this on XBL Marketplace, this episode begins to give you real background on Tex's origins. It'll be available to the general public later this week. Burnie was first, on the RvB forum, but Hawaiian Pig is to be thanked for making it public on our forum. (Louis Wu 11:53:24 UTC) (permalink)
News August 8 2006
Pink: it's the New Black
Briar's Armor has ANOTHER helmet for sale on eBay right now - starting bid is $200, you've got a week, and this one's bright pink. (And when I say bright, I mean it.) To folks offended by the sight of Halo paraphernalia for sale being mentioned here... apologies. No, we don't get a cut; we just believe there are a significant number of readers who appreciate being told about these. (Louis Wu 19:12:55 UTC) (permalink)
Numb/Encore
Purebredbrute set Linkin Park/Jay z's collaboration, 'Numb/Encore', to Halo action - and the MPRRS gave it a thumbs-up. Grab it in WMP9 format (43.3 mb) or QuickTime format (39.2 mb). (Louis Wu 18:28:38 UTC) (permalink)
The Real Halo 3 Trailer - now downloadable
You may or may not remember a video we mentioned at YouTube, about a month ago - it was a live-action version of the Halo 3 trailer, with the Best Cortana Evar. (No offense to Jen, of course.) It took a little while, but we finally got hold of the original video from its creator, Slosha - you can now download a full-sized version from us (720x480, 34.2 mb in WMP9 format, 31.1 mb in QuickTime format) - enjoy! (Louis Wu 12:46:29 UTC) (permalink)
Dream On Dreamer
darthbob100 found a really impressive image at DeviantART yesterday... wow. (DeviantART's version5 design just went live, as well; looks pretty nice!) (Louis Wu 12:43:19 UTC) (permalink)
IAC - Nearly Physically Complete
Stephen Loftus has been working on his 'In Amber Clad' model - he posted another couple of pictures last night. (We've added them to his local progress article.) (Louis Wu 12:34:09 UTC) (permalink)
News August 7 2006
VGL Hits Indianapolis
The next Video Games Live concert is happening in Indianapolis this weekend - press release is here. (Louis Wu 17:57:53 UTC) (permalink)
Misc Art - and lots of it
It's been a month since the last Miscellaneous Art update - today's flood includes spectacular images from established community contributors like Edli, Darkneshasfallen, Marathon GTi, plus many, many other folks - both new and old. 30 entries, 36 images. Sketches, paintings, cartoons... I'm thinking it's time to start putting together more individual galleries again. Unfortunately, this does NOT clear out the Misc Art queue - there are still dozens of unposted pics. I'll do my best to put up another batch in the next little bit. (Louis Wu 15:56:19 UTC) (permalink)
Lots of new stuff at UNSCDF
Major Silva pointed out that UNSCDF is back up with a boatload of new content, including articles about items and locations in the Halo universe, and an interview with AnubisUK of Broken Console. Check out his forum post for links and descriptions! (Louis Wu 15:48:36 UTC) (permalink)
Capture The Lag.
Ever feel like others on Xbox Live have faster response times than you do? Stuntmutt feels your pain... check today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 13:37:40 UTC) (permalink)
At least I have chicken.
Heh - thesoffish noticed a fun little egg in one of the gallery images in the Halo Graphic Novel... brought a smile to my face. (If you don't know who Leeroy Jenkins is, try googling.) (Louis Wu 11:55:14 UTC) (permalink)
Halouvre Happenings
prometheus posted a note on our forum about an update at the Halouvre - a bunch of new HUDless shots available for your viewing pleasure. Some pretty spectacular stuff! (Louis Wu 11:45:08 UTC) (permalink)
DropShock Ep 21
DropShock Episode 21 is now released - 2 hours, 57 mb. That's a lotta talk! (Louis Wu 11:42:49 UTC) (permalink)
Midi Music for the Masses
More midi goodness from BlueDingo5 (there were six pieces yesterday) - four tidbits: Under Cover of Night, the bass from Heretic Hero, the choir from Covenant Dance, and the bass from Covenant Dance. All four are packaged up in a tiny (4k) zipfile. (Louis Wu 11:39:21 UTC) (permalink)
News August 6 2006
Monster
FireDragon04 submitted 'Monster', a music video set to the song by The Automatic - quite small (14 mb), and the MPRRS gave it a thumbs-up. Take a look! Grab it in WMP9 or QuickTime format. (Louis Wu 22:55:36 UTC) (permalink)
Mute Radio 02
Mute Radio 02 (the evolution of MLG PwnCast) has been released - they've got an interview with xXx, the coach of Carbon. 25 mb. Go grab a copy. Thanks (and condolences) to Bluestrike2 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 22:50:37 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Angel - a Tutorial
Pinkuh whipped up a tutorial showing how she created her recent 'Halo Angel' image - you can check it out at her DevianART space (it's one gigantic image, just scroll down to follow the tutorial), or you can run through it page by page in our Miscellaneous section. If you're looking for tips on drawing this stuff - check this out! (Louis Wu 16:06:30 UTC) (permalink)
XGR Vol 2
Xbox Gaming Radio Volume 2 - covering Halo news from around the community, and an interview with LordGideon, of the PraetoriaGuard, has been posted - go grab a copy. 50 minutes, 67 mb. (Louis Wu 15:58:09 UTC) (permalink)
Midi Halo
BlueDingo5 released a few midi files involving songs from the Halo trilogy. You can grab a download (8 kb) from his forum post. (Louis Wu 15:54:38 UTC) (permalink)
SightCEing Part 1
Over at the Halo CE Chronicles website, you can find SightCEing Part 1 - a visual tour of some of the more spectacular scenery available in Halo CE maps. It's about 6 and a half minutes long, and weighs in at a bit under 40 mb (it's available in both WMP9 and QuickTime formats). Go watch; there are some really cool maps out there! (Louis Wu 00:22:09 UTC) (permalink)
Conquest, Part Two
Broken Console has released Part 2 of their Conquest project - it's massive (35 minutes, available in either a normal-bitrate 320x240 160 mb version, and a low-bitrate 320x240 70 mb version - and both WMP9 and QuickTime formats are available). Amazing piece of work - go grab a copy! (Louis Wu 00:17:48 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 74 - Happy Anniversary!
Fr3d-105 points out that Podtacular episode 74 is now online; it's the one year anniversary special. Go grab a copy! (Louis Wu 00:12:16 UTC) (permalink)
News August 5 2006
I'm surprised Zelda's not up there.
Wow, that's just... funny. PC Magazine has an article about the PS2 in their August 8, 2006 issue; on page 127, they include a list of the Top 10 Most Popular PS2 Games. Number 3? Halo 2. (Yeah, I know.) Thanks to DemanusFlint for sending in the scan. (Louis Wu 18:46:27 UTC) (permalink)
Rule 1: Be Civil to your Enemies.
Luke McKay comic-ized a great momemt from Out of Mind Episode 1 (which has been available for the general public for a day or so now) - you can find his new work in his Gallery section. (Louis Wu 12:55:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo:Unyielding Teaser Trailer
Laird let us know that he's posted a mini teaser trailer for his upcoming 'Halo: Unyielding' project - pretty impressive! Go grab a copy. (Louis Wu 12:08:07 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Angel
Wow. Pinkuh took a stab at the Christianity references in Halo 2 with a new piece of art - there's a tutorial coming later today or tomorrow. In the meantime check out this pretty amazing picture (just under 300K). It's also available in her local Gallery. (Louis Wu 11:57:18 UTC) (permalink)
WikiRiot Ep 10
Sigafoos writes to point out that WikiRiot Episode 10 has been released - there's a description of what's inside on the episode page. 14 mb, just over half an hour. Go listen! (Louis Wu 11:46:18 UTC) (permalink)
MPs Postcards from a fan
Psi Matrix put together some 'postcards' highlighting his favorite moments from the 'MPs' series from Chairleg Productions. You can find them on the redvsblue.net server. (Louis Wu 11:14:24 UTC) (permalink)
Lothar says 'meh'.
Endbringer noticed a sizeable review of the Halo Graphic Novel in the blog post that accompanied yesterday's Exterminatus Now. Lothar wasn't completely happy with the book - but he explains, in detail, what his problems were. (It's full of spoilers, so if you haven't read the HGN, you should probably pass on this.) I don't agree with him, but it's an in-depth critique, rather than a glancing cheap shot. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 11:06:48 UTC) (permalink)
Bring your shivs and headbutts.
Weekly Update is short but sweet this time out - Frankie sounds tired. Not too tired to take shots at Lars for his performance in the Humpday Challenge, or to tease you with tidbits about gorgeous lighting... but tired. Nice Mister Chief this time out. Read it at Bungie.net, or read it from our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 00:28:10 UTC) (permalink)
News August 4 2006
Last shot at that orange helmet!
Briar pointed out that the Halo helmet auction on eBay (we mentioned it last week) ends in less than an hour. If you want this, get over there now! (Current bid is $285.) (Louis Wu 19:38:55 UTC) (permalink)
Re... something.
Sometimes, a One One Se7en is released that is funny, but depressing, at the same time, because it is SO true. Today's is one of those strips. (Louis Wu 14:37:58 UTC) (permalink)
Priorities.
Wow. There's not a lot to say about this... except 'wow'. (Specific article mentioned is here.) (Louis Wu 14:24:26 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Twelve new stories for you in the Fan Fiction section. (There were a lot more - but it seems that folks are forgetting that there are rules about submissions...) Go read. (Louis Wu 14:15:44 UTC) (permalink)
Just have an Excel window ready for cover.
More blogging goodness, over at Dead Man's Hand - a great piece on teamwork (or the lack of it), more discussion of quitters, and a 22 Questions interview (well, 21) with Bungie's Shishka. You've got a few more minutes before the boss is back, right? Thanks, Dweezle. (Louis Wu 13:43:01 UTC) (permalink)
From Griefing to N00bs
XerxdeeJ stopped by to point out new content at Tied the Leader - an exhortation to Adopt a N00b (Do it! Suck 'em in!), and another look at dealing with people who, for whatever reason, are killing themselves continuously in your game. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 13:26:56 UTC) (permalink)
Corrupt
Last week, bryboy remix's video 'Corrupt' passed the MPRRS with flying colors - but we wanted to get hold of a higher-quality version before we released it. That came in today - so we're posting it, in both WMP9 format (79.4 mb) and QuickTime format (79 mb). It tells the story of a disillusioned man who loses himself in dreams and flashbacks - but can he bring himself back to reality in time to save his people from a corrupt government? Great ambience, and wonderful voiceovers. As you can probably tell from the size, it's long - 15 minutes. Grab a copy and tell your friends! (Louis Wu 01:18:55 UTC) (permalink)
Weta Workers involved with Halo
Charles Walsh is (like the rest of us) dying for more info about the Halo movie - so he went digging around on the Weta Workshop website. He found four people who are (publicly) working on Halo assets: Greg Broadmore, Brad Goff
, Daniel Falconer, and Stephen Crowe. It's not a LOT of info... but sometimes, the little stuff is enough! Googlemaniacs... get to work! (Louis Wu 00:56:07 UTC) (permalink)
What the...
raheem azam sent us a note about a user on YouTube that has a series of short, low-quality videos of a Brute... breakdancing. Huh? If anyone can get better video of this... I'd love to see it. (And host it, of course.) Update: okay, okay, you can stop sending emails. A LOT of people wrote to point out that this animation is relatively common; it's NOT a real 'breakdance', it's just a brute getting stuck in the floor. Party poopers. (Louis Wu 00:52:16 UTC) (permalink)
News August 3 2006
Backboned.
Bungie matched up against another gaming studio when their planned opponents for this week's Humpday Challenge backed out at the last minute - and clearly, they went hunting for a studio that hadn't actually had time to play Halo yet. (Because, I dunno, maybe they were... making games?) It was a rout - but apparently a fun rout, with no hard feelings on either side. (Except for Joe Tung and Lee Wilson, who couldn't get enough of spawnkilling.) Go read about KP's sniper whoring. (Louis Wu 22:56:45 UTC) (permalink)
Tux Strikes Back.
I love it - Mile5123 stopped by to point out a great piece on his DeviantART site. We heart deadly penguins. (Louis Wu 21:41:25 UTC) (permalink)
Prophecy Ep 1: The Threshold of War
Lordstemplar1 submitted Prophecy Episode 1 - 'The Threshold of War' to the MPRRS recently, and they gave it a thumbs-up. (You might remember the trailer, which came through a couple of weeks ago.) This one sets up the story - action's a bit light, but tension is building. It was originally submitted encoded with the H.264 codec - this causes too many of our viewers problems, so I've reencoded it with standard QuickTime and WMP9 codecs. Grab it in WMP9 format (53.2 mb) or QuickTime format (54.6 mb) - and get ramped up for the next episode! (Louis Wu 21:11:01 UTC) (permalink)
Carved Plasma Rifle for Sale
Very nice. AngelicLionheart found a solid oak carved plasma rifle on eBay - starting bid is $150, buy it now price is $25 higher, there are just about 2 days left. Pretty nicely done! Check it out. (Louis Wu 19:33:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo for Hunger IV
Over at Bungie.net, there's an announcement about a Halo 2 tourney for charity in Wisconsin, coming up next weekend. $5 (or 5 cans of non-perishable food items) gets you in, prizes come from a lot of places. Visit B.net for more info! (Louis Wu 18:33:12 UTC) (permalink)
Corpseguy's Halo armor - 95% complete
Whoa, very cool. You might remember corpseguy - he was working on a Halo helmet. He stopped by the HaloPlanet forums today - looks like he's nearly done with the full suit! Looks fantastic. Thanks, hedfones. (Louis Wu 17:55:49 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on XBLA speculation
IGN interviewed Greg Canessa, the leader of the Xbox Live team, about the future of Xbox Live Arcade; there are a few questions pertaining to the Halo franchise. Nothing definite, nothing in the near future... but some interesting ideas. Thanks, beaurichardson. (Louis Wu 17:44:30 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 - Under 2.
The High Speed Halo crew has completed one of their bigger goals - Halo 2, Legendary, in under 2 hours. (The record right now stands at 1:58:55, actually.) Check this forum post by Cody Miller, then swing by HSH for downloadable runs. Congrats, guys! (Louis Wu 17:17:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Animation Extracting and Import
Wow, very cool. TheGhost stopped by with a few extracted Halo animations, in animated gif format. These look great! (Louis Wu 12:14:04 UTC) (permalink)
Ode to... I got nothin'.
Gryponosiris penned a poem about XBL cheaters - everyone liked it except Frankie. (I think his sense of humor must have been tied up in his hair.) (Louis Wu 12:03:39 UTC) (permalink)
Caption Contest
Dojorkan kicked off a 'caption contest', in the spirit of the old ones Bungie use to run, on our forum yesterday. Modded screenshot, you write the caption. (No, there's no prize.) Personally, I think this makes more sense on a flat-style forum... but who am I, anyway? (Louis Wu 11:58:39 UTC) (permalink)
A superfast egg hunt
Yesterday, Galen Eymer stopped by our forum with the announcement of a new Halo 1 egg. Normally, I'd have expected such an announcement to be laughed out of the forum - after all, Halo 1 is approaching 5 years old; how is it possible that there are still eggs (especially in-plain-sight ones, as this one was) to be discovered? The thread remained civil, however, and I went looking for myself - and it did, indeed, look as though there were initials shot into a wall on 343 Guilty Spark. (A bad picture is here.) Dave 'Evil Otto' Candland went to the trouble of checking with the level designers about this one - and while it turns out that it's purely coincidence that the bullet-holes appear to be initials, I find it wonderful that Bungie is willing to follow up on fan-instituted hunts within a few hours... they show us why we run a fansite for them! (Louis Wu 11:53:12 UTC) (permalink)
News August 2 2006
Project Crimson Official Trailer
Back in early July, Metroid05, of the Atomik Films crew, submitted a trailer for Project Crimson, a machinima series they're in the process of making. The MPRRS reviewers liked it, but the instructions we got about hosting were unclear - and Metroid05's email wasn't working. Today, the hosting questions were answered, so we're making the trailer available - both in WMP9 format (43.3 mb) and QuickTime format (43.6 mb). Project Crimson tells the story of genetic experimentation gone bad, and is heavy on the visual effects. The full machinima is due this coming winter. Take a look! (Louis Wu 18:27:32 UTC) (permalink)
Bullshot.
Some gametypes just don't allow for fudging. Stuntmutt looks at one in today's One One Se7en. (If you like this strip, thank Ducain... though he didn't inspire its actual content. And that's all I have to say about that.) (Louis Wu 14:55:32 UTC) (permalink)
A Sales Juggernaut
Well, I think it's a dumb title for a list (the 21st century just started, it's silly to start ranking the top 100 ANYTHINGS in it yet), but it's still saying a lot about the games mentioned; Next Generation has published their 'Top 100 Games of the 21st Century', based on unit sales so far this decade... and Halo (the franchise) ranks at number 2, behind only Grand Theft Auto. Thanks, UberHax0r. (Louis Wu 14:23:28 UTC) (permalink)
When Spam Filtering Gets Stupid
Okay, this is getting stupid. Last week, I sent out a request for mailing addresses to all the winners of the last 7 on the 7th contest (the grass-cutting one), so that Bungie could mail them prizes. I know that sometimes it takes a few days for people to answer these things, so I didn't worry about it - and when I got another response this morning, I totalled up the responses we had. There were 5. The last two went to people whose ISPs use VERY agressive spam-filtering... so I'm pretty sure I'll NEVER get a response from either one, from that note. I'm making ANOTHER public appeal for response from individuals - twice in one day, for something I'd rather NEVER do. This prompts me to add a new rule to any future bungie.org contest - you are REQUIRED to whitelist the email address lwu at bungie dot org if you enter a contest; from now on, contest winners will get one week to respond to correspondence, and after that they forfeit their prize. I can't continue like this. (The two winners who need to send me mailing addresses if they ever want to see their Halo Graphic Novel prizes are RAWPOWER95 and Omega.) (Louis Wu 13:44:01 UTC) (permalink)
A Showcased Artifact Gathers No Moss
Dojorkan found a cool little tidbit hidden in plain sight - I say that because I've walked by it dozens of times and never noticed it. (I'm sure I will now receive hundreds of emails from people who DID see it - let's save us both some hassle, and just SAY you sent it... pat yourself on the back for the find.) Is this a sacred rock, with significance in the Halo storyline? Or just some nice looking scenery? You decide. (Louis Wu 05:30:14 UTC) (permalink)
Floaty Silence
Hellhawk turned in a comedy that uses stock (well, almost stock) cutscene footage, and some REALLY well-done voice acting, to create a pretty funny comedy vid he calls 'Floaty Silence'. The MPRRS gave it a thumbs-up, and it had me laughing - grab it in WMP9 (39.4 mb) or QuickTime (42.4 mb) formats, and check it out for yourself! (Louis Wu 05:19:34 UTC) (permalink)
Talent's Final Montage Trailer - now in QT
On Monday, we posted a link for Talent's Final Montage trailer, being hosted at Halo3Forum.com. Although there's plenty of bandwidth for it there, Halzred submitted it to the MPRRS for feedback anyway - and they liked it, quite a lot. if you want the WMP9 version, you're still welcome to grab it from H3F - but because it passed here, we're offering a QuickTime version, for those who'd rather watch that. Weighs in at 23.5 mb, and is nice and short (just about a minute and a half) - give it a go! (Louis Wu 05:15:47 UTC) (permalink)
Administrivia - lost moviemakers
Lot of movie stuff today; I went through the MPRRS database, looking for strays. I found a few, too. Most are either taken care of or in the PROCESS of being taken care of - but two are in limbo; I've sent the creators multiple emails each, with no response. All I can think of is that the messages are being routed to their spam folders - so while I hate to do this, I don't see any other way to reach them. If you ARE these people, or you KNOW them, please get in contact (or have them get in contact) with us. (And check the junk folder!) The first is Metroid05, whose 'Project Crimson Trailer' passed a month ago... and the second is xbryboyremix, whose 'Corrupt' passed last week. I needed clarification about hosting and/or higher-res versions from both individuals, but never got a response. Please - if you're out there, find me! And with that, the next news posts will be about movies we actually have for downloading. (Louis Wu 05:09:07 UTC) (permalink)
HaloMaps Opens Ratings
I missed this on Monday - but halomaps.org has instituted a rating system for maps; you can now vote for your favorite HaloCE creations, to help other people decide which maps are worth downloading. Take a look! (Louis Wu 04:24:09 UTC) (permalink)
Beat me, big daddy - 8 to the bar
c0ld vengeance is back, with a new 3D screenshot (available, as usual, in both standard QuickTime format and QTVR format) - this time it's the Master Chief, laying the smack down on the Prophet of Regret. Awesome pic! Go grab a copy. (Louis Wu 03:36:08 UTC) (permalink)
Out of Mind - Front Burner Again
Out of Mind is a Red vs Blue miniseries that launched on Xbox Live Marketplace in mid-June; it was suposed to be weekly (or nearly weekly), but it's not until tonight that Episode 2 was released (thanks, HaloMarine117). If you don't HAVE Xbox Live Marketplace - never fear. Rooster Teeth finally got permission (you might need a RvB account to see that) from Microsoft to release the series on their website, and Episode 1 will be posted for sponsors later tonight, with the rest of the series following over the next four weeks. (I'm assuming - though it's not stated explicitly - that low-res versions will be available for the masses a few days after the sponsors get them, as usual.) Update: (11:40 pm ET, 3:40 am UTC) It's up now for sponsors. (Louis Wu 03:32:32 UTC) (permalink)
News August 1 2006
SA's Comedy Goldmine
Something Awful has a Comedy Goldmine article up - forum regulars over there created posters for movies that starred videogame characters. The Master Chief turns up in two - Monster House and Reservoir Dogs. Thanks to DemanusFlint, who pointed these out - and I agree with him that the first one doesn't make a lot of sense. (Louis Wu 22:51:23 UTC) (permalink)
Mobile Halo Content
Mintz waited patiently for us to let you know about some updates on Halo: Portable - a new podcast, a bunch of PSP-ready Bungie articles... we forgot, so he reminded us. So we're telling you. Go read/listen. (Louis Wu 22:06:32 UTC) (permalink)
VGL - in Chicago with a vengeance
The Video Games Live performance in Chicago is coming up soon - and a press release went out today; you can read it here. This is a great chance to meet Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori - if you're in Chicago this weekend, you should get yourself to the Rosemont Theatre on Saturday! (Louis Wu 21:56:14 UTC) (permalink)
Are you sure that's not supposed to be Chachi?
Cybrfrk found an older (10 months ago) EXTRALIFE comic that's Halo-related... and pretty funny. Or it would be, if we didn't see it played out on forums around the net... (Louis Wu 21:30:11 UTC) (permalink)
What IS happening inside Durandal, anyway?
One of the newest hires at Bungie is Cam Pinard, better known to the longtime Bungie fan community as Cunbelin. (In fact, you gotta be a REAL old-timer to recognize the name; he's been mostly absent for a while.) KP sat down with him and got a few choice morsels out of his labyrinthine brain - go read about what he's adding to Halo 3! (Man... where's Old Man Murray when you need him? I can tell Halo 3's gonna suck.) (Louis Wu 21:18:33 UTC) (permalink)
Faithless Grunts
SEspider showed up with a new episode of Miniature Halo - you can read it in our forum (along with a movie poster for a movie that probably won't be made), or in the Miniature Halo section. (Louis Wu 18:27:24 UTC) (permalink)
Know your Medals
Heh - Cress77 stopped by to show off a fun shirt he made; I wonder how many people look at him funny when he walks down the street? (Louis Wu 18:16:41 UTC) (permalink)
MediaGamers 2v2 Tourney Redux
High Hat 314 wrote to let us know that MediaGamers.com is back online with the start of the new month; this is relevant because we mentioned a 2v2 tourney they're setting up about a week ago - but they immediately ran out of bandwidth, and folks couldn't sign up. If you were interested, but couldn't get through, go back and sign up now. (Louis Wu 18:14:09 UTC) (permalink)
Searchings - More Halo Paintball
Troy Hudzinski sent along word of an upcoming paintball game in Kingston, Michigan - 'Searchings' will take place on September 9, and has a backstory based on a fanfic. The event is to raise money for Carriage Town Ministries in Flint, MI - so if you're in the area, sign up and get to role-playing! (Louis Wu 17:49:55 UTC) (permalink)
Links Page - Updated
Derik Olsson spent a ridiculous amount of time weeding through our Links page, listing dead or duplicated links - we've pared down almost 200 no-longer-valid entries. Stop by and see what IS fresh! (Thanks, Derik!) (Louis Wu 17:46:58 UTC) (permalink)
Four Flags - by The Dark Power
deftangel dropped by our forum with a story about a very cool Spartan model, made from sculpy, then cast in resin - check out the pic in his post, and then follow the link to the sculptor's website for more angles. (You might want to check out the rest of his portfolio, as well - there's some pretty amazing stuff in there!) Now that's one spectacular birthday present! (Louis Wu 17:29:33 UTC) (permalink)
Hero
This weekend, a music video set to Nickelback's 'Hero', submitted by MaritalBlaze54, passed the MPRRS - but our bandwidth was getting tight, so we held onto it until today. The song's been used in a lot of Halo vids before - but never really as a story by itself. Very nicely filmed. Grab it in WMP9 format (40.3 mb) or QuickTime format (44.2 mb) - good stuff! (Louis Wu 17:21:49 UTC) (permalink)
Why is it always the beautiful ones?
Captain Spark turned in another 16 dialogue snippets, including some new Cortana tidbits. You can browse them in our Dialogue databank, or grab a zipfile from his website. (Louis Wu 17:18:00 UTC) (permalink)
To Etoli, With Love.
New artwork from Pinkuh - a shout out to a Halo artist who shares her name. I'm gonna have trouble looking at Elites the same way again... (We've added this to her gallery here, as well.) (Louis Wu 14:18:46 UTC) (permalink)
Straight Up Gaming
Ian White stopped by to point out a new game blog he's started up; A couple of his recent articles discuss Xbox Live, and Halo. (He also mentions that an interview with a Bungie employee is coming soon...) Give it a look! (Louis Wu 14:10:08 UTC) (permalink)
| August 2006 | |
