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 | December 2001 |  |
December 2001 Archived News
News December 31 2001
More FF Bloating
Gasmask turns in another couple of incredibly short Fan Fictions - one ends the Journey of the Doomed series, the other starts the Training Day series. (They're SO short, in fact, and they come so frequently, one wonders why he doesn't just send them in when the series is complete - each of his completed series make a nice little 2-page or less fanfic... but every author is different, I guess.) You'll find them in our Fan Fiction section, and if you'd like to read them all in one go, use this link. (Louis Wu 22:00:02 UTC) (permalink)
Fun with the Flood
How many places can you shoot a flood and knock parts off? Some thought it was just the arms and head... but Skeletor points out that the abdomen is another piece. (In fact, he took a picture.) We've made it local, to avoid loading problems with Geocities images... (Louis Wu 18:20:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 14 day stats posted
Even with the additions of new members Donguido (3772 units) and beamanm (120 units), among others, the Halo SETI Marines can't catch a break from the Berkeley boys. Total units crunched these past two weeks: 3333. Total units brought in by new team members: 3918. Total new units registered by the SETI server: 3510. OUCH! The team's position at 62 remains constant (though less than 150 units separates the Marines from the next team up). Check all the ugly details on the 14 day stats page. (Louis Wu 16:06:15 UTC) (permalink)
Ooh, my blood pressure...
Whoa - a misstatement, or is something big coming? Jay Weinland (known on our forum as Jay the Younger) dropped off a clarification of what was recorded (and what was released - two different things, apparently) but what caught my eye was this sentence:
ow if you want to hear some classic s**t just wait until we can get some of the outakes onto the halo.net site. Have some nice ones already edited just 'a waitin for ya...
Halo.net? Last we checked, that was held by a mobile communications company - and it still is. Likely Jay means 'the Bungie.net Halo site'. :) (Louis Wu 14:50:15 UTC) (permalink)
Low news means high carnage
Apologies for the low number of updates yesterday - the HBO Junkies had a LAN party yesterday, at HBO headquarters (here), and at its height, we had 11 marines on 4 Xboxes battling it out to the death (and what a lot of death it was). There were, in fact, 6 Xboxes (and 5 TVs) present... but multiplayer was just too much fun to break up into smaller groups, or play other games. Anyway, things will be getting back to normal soon, and of course, a report (or three) will be forthcoming. (Louis Wu 14:38:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo wins the TXB Viewer's Choice Award
Halo won the Team Xbox Viewer's Choice Award for Best Game of the Year. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 01:07:10 UTC) (permalink)
News December 30 2001
Halo-World link adjustments
SpAder writes to say that Halo-World, which we'd listed as an English Halo page, is actually available in both English and German. (In fact, the English version isn't even there yet - but the German version is.) We've adjusted our Links page to reflect reality. (Louis Wu 15:21:47 UTC) (permalink)
HQ Halo comes back
Andreas den Hertog AKA Pacey Dré writes to say that his FTP problems are over, and HQ Halo is back up and running, with an entirely new design. Check it out - soothing and easy to look at! (Louis Wu 15:14:55 UTC) (permalink)
Lots more reading material
More fan fiction for the masses - another couple of stories from Gasmask, and another installment of Uriel's 'Beyond the Paradise' series. Check the lot out in our Fan Fiction section! (Louis Wu 05:54:34 UTC) (permalink)
News December 29 2001
GS Readers scream HALO!
A few days ago, GameSpy put up its Game of the Year Awards... and Halo was voted Xbox Best Action/Adventure Game. (We reported this last week.) It lost out to Madden NFL 2002 for Xbox Game of the Year, though... and was overlooked for a number of special achievement categories (Best In-Game Cutscenes, Best Sound, Best Artificial Intelligence... though it did receive a runner-up award for Best Force Feedback). Today, the people speak... in GameSpy's Gamer's Choice section, an astounding 59.2% of fans voted Halo the Xbox Game of the Year. Who's right, the GameSpy critics or the fans? You decide. (Thanks to RedFoxTX for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 15:51:03 UTC) (permalink)
Curse words, and Halo
Though it will keep coming up, Marty O'Donnell, Halo's Audio Lead, makes a very clear statement about the existence of a certain curse word in Halo:
the "f" word is never used by anyone or anything in Halo. It is however used by players stuck in the grav lift room of the T&R on legendary...
I can vouch for that second part, for sure. (Louis Wu 11:25:09 UTC) (permalink)
Sir Jason? Um...
Inside Mac Games has put up their 2002 predictions, as part of a 2001 Year in Review article... and Bungie gets a pair of mentions. The first one is serious (and seems quite possible):
Destineer will ship Halo for the Mac. Period. (OMG, the BEST GAME EVER WILL SHIP! Wooohoo!)
The second... well, not so serious:
Bungie's Jason Jones will be knighted by the Queen. He'll now answer only to Sir Jason.
Thanks to Red Hot Ryan for pointing the article out. (Louis Wu 11:21:20 UTC) (permalink)
The Spirit Awakens
Heh - Mr Bill Jr V asks on our forum, 'Is there too much Fan Fiction?' Half an hour earlier, though, he submitted 'The Awakening', a sequel (of sorts) to his earlier 'The Spirit'. You can find these (and many many more - too many?) in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 02:35:58 UTC) (permalink)
News December 28 2001
The Journals continue
Gasmask has turned in not one, not two, but THREE more installments of his 'Journals of the Doomed' series. You'll probably find it easiest to simply read them in one shot - but you'll find the individual stories in our Fan Fiction section. Comments work again (I managed to break them for part 2). Warning: There are major Halo story spoilers in the last entry. (Louis Wu 20:44:26 UTC) (permalink)
Older screenies added
Two of the new reviews mentioned recently contained new screenshots - we've added them to the Screenshots database (now up to 538 shots!). The Xbox Hotgames pics are right at the beginning, where new shots usually are... but the GamerSquare shots are farther in (since we missed the review when it first came out). Enjoy! (Louis Wu 01:59:10 UTC) (permalink)
MiscArt Wallpaper, even
Thomas Barbee dropped off a very nice Bryce image, Halo-fied... we've added it to our Miscellaneous Art section, but it's a decent size for a desktop image, as well. (Louis Wu 01:31:03 UTC) (permalink)
News December 27 2001
Massive Review Boost
Wow. Dan Rudolph pointed out this page at Game Rankings, containing a list of 40 Halo reviews, a whopping 11 of which weren't on our Reviews page. We've added them now... and placed a running aggregate score at the top of the page. (Halo currently holds a 95.2% rating over those 55 reviews.) Later tonight we'll add some extra screenshots, and a pair of movies, found on the new pages. (Louis Wu 21:57:01 UTC) (permalink)
December selling stats
Reuters reports that Sony is dominating the video game market at the moment - after the rush of buying spurred by the release of the Xbox and the GameCube, people have gone back to buying for their existing products, it seems. 12 of the top 20 best-selling games for the first half of December were for Sony's Playstation and Playstation 2, 7 were for Nintendo products (4 Game Boy Advance, 2 GameCube, and 1 Game Boy Color), and one - Halo - represented the Xbox. Three of the four November Xbox best-selling titles, and both of the November GameCube best-sellers, disappeared off the charts. (The two GC titles for December were not on the list in November.) Halo, then, becomes the only game for the new consoles to hold on to its best-seller status through the middle of December - not bad! Thanks to Jeremy Roush for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:11:05 UTC) (permalink)
GameSpot's Best Of Awards
Gamespot has put up their Best and Worst of 2001 awards... and Halo did pretty well. Best Shooter, Best Xbox Game, Number 3 in the Top 10 Video Games of 2001 (beaten by Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and Grand Theft Auto III), and nominated for Best Sound. (Strangely, it wasn't even in the running for Best Story or Best Graphics.) You can vote for yourself in their Reader's Choice Ballot. Thanks to Razorback for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:00:44 UTC) (permalink)
Frenetic Fan Fiction
Doesn't usually happen quite this quickly... but Gasmask has submitted Part 2 of his Journals of the Doomed series (Part 1 was posted 12 hours ago). You'll find it in our Fan Fiction section... (Louis Wu 16:51:28 UTC) (permalink)
CVG on Halo and online play
Thanks to David Allan, who pointed out that the UK magazine 'Computer and Video Games' reviewed Halo in their January 2002 issue. They gave it a 9/10, and had nice things to say about gameplay:
Awesome in both single and multiplayer, this pushes console shooters to an all-new high and even gives the finest the PC can offer a run for it's money.
But even more interesting than that was a small interview with Halo Product Manager Steve Fowler.
CVG: But what of online play?
SF: We have all sorts of aspirations of getting Halo, of some sort, online - whether that means this current Halo, a Halo 2, or some sort of additional disk we send out.
This review (and its accompanying interview) is not yet on CVG's web site. Still, the info is tantalizing... (Louis Wu 14:06:05 UTC) (permalink)
Hmm...
Deimos™ points out what happens when you take a Banshee where it shouldn't go... and flip it. Yes, that guy's on the wrong side of the glass. (Louis Wu 09:40:19 UTC) (permalink)
New Fanfic to read
In what might be the last fan fiction of the year, Gasmask sends in the Journals of the Doomed, an account of the landing on the Halo. Check it out in our Fan Fiction section... and be sure to leave feedback! (Louis Wu 01:28:40 UTC) (permalink)
News December 26 2001
Geez, that wasn't nice.
Ouch - Penny Arcade has put up their Surly Aftermath to their Awards Ceremony for 2001... and Halo wins... well, go look. Thanks to Uriel for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:24:13 UTC) (permalink)
VE calls Halo Best Console Game
VoodooExtreme picked their 'official' Game of the Year (as opposed to Apache's top 10 of 2001), and while Halo got the nod for Best Console Game, the overall GotY went to PC title 'Dark Age of Camelot', mostly due to Halo's weak Internet multiplayer showing. Thanks to Brizzle for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 01:54:33 UTC) (permalink)
Confusing, those games...
Heh - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer put up a shot of Ed Fries, as he
its in front of a photo of Munch, a character from Halo, one of the games made for the recently released Xbox.
Um... no. Thanks to Devin O'Reilly for the entertaining heads-up. (Louis Wu 01:21:18 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo mural art
A couple of days ago, we added a desktop image ot our Wallpaper page from Alain Couët - but it seems it was really created by Germain Couët - we've fixed the error, and added his latest image, another mural. Check 'em BOTH out in our Wallpaper section! (Louis Wu 01:18:41 UTC) (permalink)
News December 25 2001
Merry Christmas!
(Okay, okay, so we stole it from Bungie - but hey, they've recycled it themselves!)
From the HBO crew and our families, to you and yours, we wish you the merriest of holiday seasons. Pax.
We'll be back updating on Wednesday, the 26th.
News December 24 2001
Burning logo submitted
Carl "B.O.E" Cline dropped off an animated, burning Halo logo for our Logos section - take a look. (Louis Wu 16:33:45 UTC) (permalink)
Library comments transcribed
Skeletor has transcribed all (?) of 343 Guilty Spark's dialog on the Library level, and posted it (nicely organized) on our forum. Worth a read, for those who may have missed some of the tidbits while trying to simply stay alive... (Now where's that Story site?) (Louis Wu 15:53:47 UTC) (permalink)
GameSpy picks their GotY
Thanks to RedFoxTX, who points out that Gamespy has put up their Game of the Year Awards - Halo snagged Xbox Action/Adventure game... but was beaten out for overall Game of the Year by Madden NFL 2002. Ouch!
If it hadn't been for some inconsistent level design, Halo probably would have been a strong contender for our overall "Game of the Year."
Madden, of course, doesn't ever have to FACE a charge of inconsistent level design - that gridiron just doesn't change at all. :) (Louis Wu 14:16:29 UTC) (permalink)
A Halo mural
A beautiful Halo mural, from Germain Couët... check it out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 03:29:29 UTC) (permalink)
News December 23 2001
Team Xbox Halo wallpaper
Team Xbox put up some wallpaper that features our favorite lone marine, The Master Chief. You can get it here in three different resolutions. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:40:31 UTC) (permalink)
Swiss Hijinks
Fresh from the rumor mill: Harry Al-Shakarchi, on a mission to translate a German article perportedly about Phoenix (an upcoming Bungie project), ran across this photo, with a caption that reads:
One of the "open" rooms. Small but still-present bugs in the PC version of Halo are currently being gotten rid of.
The original article is here, on the Swiss site GBase.ch. Props to Mark Levin, who noticed the writeup at Blue's News, and to Harry, who took it one step further. (From what I can tell, though, that picture was taken in July, during a tour of the Bungie facilities... it seems really unlikely to me that anyone at Bungie was working on the PC verison of Halo in July.) Update: maggi points out that the date in question (7.11.2001) is more likely November 7 than July 11 - my American bias is showing. Still... Bungie was saying as late as mid-December that work on the PC version hadn't started yet... sorry for the confusion. (Louis Wu 16:02:59 UTC) (permalink)
HQ Halo is not dead
Andreas den Hertog writes to say that his site, HQ Halo, isn't really dead - he's having trouble uploading pages to his ftp server. He's been updating the site faithfully... on his local drive. Every time he goes to upload, though, he gets disconnected. He's hoping this problem will be fixed soon - but he wants to assure the Halo community that the site is NOT dead - in fact, it's been completely overhauled. (Louis Wu 15:51:15 UTC) (permalink)
New artwork of Halo in space
genohunter dropped off a picture of Halo, between Threshold and Basis. Created with Photoshop 5.0, it's called 'Halo: Space Ring'. You'll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 15:46:10 UTC) (permalink)
Flood puppies are fun
A couple of days ago, Skeletor discovered that if you shoot the arms off a flood-infected fighter (covenant or human), they'll simply follow you around like puppies. (Ugly puppies... but harmless.) Well... he's taken it one step further now - read about it here, then look at the pictures here. Merry Christmas. (Louis Wu 15:36:59 UTC) (permalink)
Poll smash at VE
Well, the GotY poll at VoodooExtreme is over, and Halo came in second - 432 votes behind Max Payne (out of a total of 12,769 votes). There's a new one up, though - 'What is your most wanted PC game of 2002?' Halo is currently trailing Warcraft III and Duke Nukem Forever - can you fix that? Thanks to Gunship for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:33:46 UTC) (permalink)
Aquaflux looks at Halo
Bullseye writes in about a 'review' of Halo over at Aquaflux.org. I had trouble taking it seriously after reading this line:
I didn't really get a chance to play any single player, so I won't evaluate that. I did play some heavy multiplayer, though, and really that's all anyone really wanted out of this game.
Because of the limited gameplay involved, I'm not adding this to the Reviews page... but they gave it an 8 (presumably out of 10). Maybe when the PC version comes out, they'll do a real review. (Louis Wu 15:16:22 UTC) (permalink)
News December 22 2001
Yet more Xmas art
Tis the season... DangerMouse sends in another Christmas image. It, too, can be found on our Miscellaneous Art page. (Louis Wu 22:19:51 UTC) (permalink)
Candy cane rifles?
Merry Christmas, from Razorback - check our Miscellaneous Art page. (Louis Wu 18:32:37 UTC) (permalink)
Halo trailing Max Payne at VE
Apache reminds us that today is the last day to vote for the 2001 Game of the Year at VoodooExtreme. Halo is currently trailing Max Payne by nearly 500 votes (out of 12,000) - if you haven't voted, get on over! (Louis Wu 03:07:41 UTC) (permalink)
News December 21 2001
Halo desktop at IMG
Brad Custer created a new Halo desktop for Inside Mac Games last week... we missed it. Check it out, in all its green glory, here. Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:41:26 UTC) (permalink)
GotY poll at TXB
Team Xbox has put up a Viewer's Choice poll for Xbox Game of the Year - Halo currently has 60% of almost 900 votes... but don't get complacent! Go vote today. (Louis Wu 14:32:00 UTC) (permalink)
Gamer's Voice reviews Halo
Gamer's Voice has reviewed Halo - they considered it the 'Cadillac of platform shooters'. I especially liked this comment:
There won't be many of the standard PAUSE-POUND A PEPSI-PEE breaks when playing this one.
They gave it a 5/5. We've added it to our Reviews page. (Louis Wu 14:23:09 UTC) (permalink)
It's cold down there...
Live, from the Shaft floor... it's Thursday night! Shovelface and Finn, of Team 7HR33, made it to the bottom of the Shaft... and made a movie. The lengths (or depths) some folks'll go to... (Louis Wu 01:47:21 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie.de comes online
Angel writes to tell us that Bungie.de is now online. Currently, Halo is covered, but a Myth site will be coming online in a few weeks. Except for taking our misc art and concept art sections whole hog (with no attributions to the original authors), it's a pretty nice site! (Louis Wu 01:38:56 UTC) (permalink)
News December 20 2001
Halo Center is no more
Halo Center, once a major Halo fansite, has finally gone offline after a long static period. A moment of silence... (Louis Wu 10:53:10 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie's hiring again...
Nice - Hamish Sinclair notices a new job at Bungie - 3D Environment Artist/Designer. Check the job description for a peek at the ideas Bungie is playing with for upcoming games... and drop 'em a resume if you think this could be you! (Louis Wu 02:14:24 UTC) (permalink)
Still more Starhammer confusion
The plot thickens in the case of the Starhammer trilogy. (Get it? 'The plot thickens'? Plot? Story, background...? Never mind.) Jon Chang points out that the three books he called the trilogy are listed that way here - so something is screwy. I guess we have to wait for more definitive info from someone who's read the series... or for all 7 books to arrive here. :) (Louis Wu 01:58:34 UTC) (permalink)
News December 19 2001
They're never wrong...
Heh - bonus screenshot! Max tells us we're confused - a short update on the T&R site:
You imagined that duplicate screenshot. Go check for yourself. Us, slipping? Never!
(He's referring to a comment we made last night...) Upshot - everyone gets a surplus screenshot. It's a pretty nice one, to boot! (We've added it to our Screenshots database... but the original is still there, to remind those guys to keep on their toes...) Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:26:25 UTC) (permalink)
Starhammer series corrections
Argh! Bravehamster =PN= writes to correct this morning's info from Jon Chang - Starhammer IS part of a trilogy by Chris Rowley... but not the one we thought.
It actually looks like Starhammer is part of a trilogy, but it's not book 3, it's book 1. It's called the Vang series. Check it out here: http://www.scifan.com/series/series.asp?SR_seriesid=947 The other two books you named are actually part of a different series by the same author, the Fenrile series. http://www.scifan.com/series/series.asp?SR_seriesid=946Ê. Hope nobody ordered all 3 books expecting to have a complete series ;0
Methinks Chris Rowley is gonna be selling a lot more books than he expected today... (Louis Wu 18:32:30 UTC) (permalink)
ESCMag reviews Halo
ESCMag has reviewed Halo - and it's a pretty solid review. They liked what they liked, they didn't like what they didn't like, they backed up their opinions with examples.
So what's missing? Some of the more tired clichŽs of the FPS world are erased. There's no big Boss at the end of the game to outwit. You won't be required to leap across pits, swim, climb walls, hunt for keys to locked doors or flip switches in the middle of nowhere. Your character gets two weapons at a time, period. Scavenging the battlefield is important, as is perseverance. The emphasis is on action, period. You against the AI. Crank up the difficulty and you'll be muttering to yourself.
Open-eyed praise (for the most part)... worth a read. They gave it a 9/10. We've added it to our Reviews section. (Louis Wu 13:59:59 UTC) (permalink)
More Starhammer info
Thanks to Jon Chang, who pointed out that Starhammer, the space opera mentioned by Jason Jones last night, is in fact a trilogy (and 'Starhammer' itself is book 3). abebooks.com seems to have ample copies of all three books ('The War for Eternity', 'The Black Ship', and 'Starhammer') - just do a search for Christopher Rowley, or the individual titles. Powell's Books has the first two books, but is missing 'Starhammer' itself. Bookavenue.com also has all three books. Remember... the Halo Reading List just got longer! (Louis Wu 13:40:35 UTC) (permalink)
T&R gets major new content
In addition to the Jones interview (have you read it yet?), the Truth and Reconciliation website got a MAJOR update tonight. New screenshots (spoilers!), new storyboards (way-cool spoilers!), a new (and final?) section to the Multiplayer Guide. We've added the screens to our Screenshots database... but that shouldn't stop you from visiting T&R. (For the sticklers among you, it should be noted that scrn_046 happens to be the nearly the same picture as scrn_022 - is Bungie getting sloppy?) (Louis Wu 06:02:26 UTC) (permalink)
Jason Jones Interview posted
The Big News of the night (hell, of the month!) is the Jason Jones Fan-Conducted Interview - finally posted at Bungie's Truth and Reconciliation site in all of its glory. This is one of the best developer interviews I've read in a long, long time - it's a glimpse into Jones' thinking, it's a bunch of Story hints (not that we'd use them for any upcoming projects, nope, not us), it's thoughtful and funny and a damn good read. And hey - they used my question. :) If you care at all about Bungie, the company, or the making of Halo... go read this now. (And then go looking for your own copy of Starhammer - I found one (and bought it) this evening.) Thanks to the multitude of fans who wrote to let us know about this (I was out all evening, and you know about the rest of the slackers here) - first dibs go to Mr. chimp. (Louis Wu 04:58:15 UTC) (permalink)
News December 18 2001
Halo FAQ/Walkthrough updated
Eep - a couple of weeks ago, we noted that a Halo FAQ/Walkthrough had been created - it was at version 0.3 at the time. We neglected to notice that a week later, it was up to version 0.5, with quite a bit more information, and walkthroughs of the first four levels. It's available at several different sites - GameFAQs is where I found it. Presumably, this will be updated again in the not-too-distant future. (Louis Wu 15:11:37 UTC) (permalink)
Halo GotY at IGN, MB
IGN Insider has posted a Roundtable discussion amongst the 12 IGN editors, in which the Game of the Year is discussed. Final results won't be posted until January... but the consensus (if there is one) right now is for Halo. If you don't have Insider access, this article (like most others) will probably migrate eventually to the free section of IGN. (Louis Wu 10:11:43 UTC) (permalink)
GotY poll at Shacknews
ShackNews is running a Game of the Year poll - currently, it's separated out into PC GotY and Console GotY, and if you don't vote for a PC game, you get a 'No Vote!' message... but Halo is up in the Console section. Results should be posted next week some time. (No real-time results here.) Thanks to Battleground: Halo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:11:13 UTC) (permalink)
Another day, another pinky
Matt Soell stopped by our forum to apologize for one more day's delay in the Jason Jones interview (or read the more elaborate explanation at the Truth and Reconciliation site) - should be ready tomorrow. (Psyrixx wanted us to be sure and let you know that you could read this news at the Psyjnir Complex, as well. You should, too... he's getting fanatical about this sort of thing. You don't want him showing up at your door, do you?) (Louis Wu 09:31:25 UTC) (permalink)
What's in a name?
As sort of a teaser for the upcoming Halo Story site, we've pestered Marty O'Donnell until he answered our questions, just to make us go away; we've compiled a list of voice actors (from the Halo manual, mostly, with a few additions), and Marty's matched them up with names. This is a nice resource for folks who like this sort of thing... but the best part can be found at the end. A preview of the 'prequel' Marty alludes to will be forthcoming (as soon as we can stop sniggering). Go take a look at The Names Behind The Voices! (Warning - the names of some of the characters might be considered spoilers for those who are trying to remain completely free of prior information.) (Louis Wu 02:37:29 UTC) (permalink)
News December 17 2001
Loading times and you
Wondering about seamless virtual worlds? Chris Butcher holds forth on some of the issues standing in the way of you and zero loading times. When you think about it... the minimal times we currently see are pretty amazing! (Louis Wu 19:32:22 UTC) (permalink)
Psyjnir Complex is back
Psyrixx writes to say that The Psyjnir Complex is back up and running. And who has joined the team but ...HBO forum regular *Ar-Isildur of *WP*! Goodness. Go visit. (5+ versions of browsers only, please.) (Louis Wu 17:37:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Dink!... Dink!... Even though unit production is climbing, the Halo SETI Marines continue to tumble in the Battle of the Teams - this week, it's two more notches to 62nd. Only 150 team members (of an impressive 710) turned in a unit this week - were YOU on that list? Check the 7 day stats to find out. (Louis Wu 15:27:25 UTC) (permalink)
Warthog tricks, on video
Kudos to Harry Al-Shakarchi, who pointed out this pretty cool movie made by 'Bonk', showing (VERY clearly) an easy way to put the Warthog on the roof of the Blood Gulch base. It's 41 seconds, and about 5 megs - quality is quite good. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 14:05:01 UTC) (permalink)
VE - the Poll People
It's pretty clear that some vote padding occurred in the last VoodooExtreme poll - Blizzard (with no real releases except the Diablo II expansion pack) flew away with the 'Best Developer of 2001' poll - 7197 votes, which is what an average VE poll gets, TOTAL. Bungie came in third, behind Bioware (with 1561 and 1933 votes, respectively.) A new poll is up - 'What is the 2001 Game of the Year?' Halo is currently behind Max Payne for that coveted first slot. Keep it honest! (Louis Wu 13:59:53 UTC) (permalink)
Lethal Killers come online
LK.Rage writes to let us know about a new Halo clan - Lethal Killers are currently playing UT together, but they'll add Halo to the rotation as soon as the PC version is out. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 01:52:07 UTC) (permalink)
News December 16 2001
Console Poll at MadOnion
Genohunter points out that GamersHQ at MadOnion.com has a weekend quick poll, asking for your favorite console. Currently, the Xbox is in the lead, followed by the Playstation 2. (Louis Wu 14:08:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Number 1, says Apache
VoodooExtreme Robert 'Apache' Howarth has put up Apache's Top10 of 2001, an article detailing what he thought were the 10 best games of the year. And Halo turns up at ... Number 1.
1) Halo (Bungie)Ê- After playing through Halo a couple times I can safely say with no repentance that it's one of the most engrossing action games I've ever played. Prior to Halo, I'd have to give the nod to Half-Life as the best first person shooter ever. But now, that award goes to Halo, as the game is masterfully presented and offers a rich gameplay experience until the very end. Visually, the game is splendid, aurally; the Xbox has better sound support than the PC can match, and other than a few rare occurrences where the frame rates become somewhat choppy in wild firefights, it's perfect.
Go check out the rest of the list, as well! Thanks to Max Payne for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:57:07 UTC) (permalink)
Halo reviewed in... TV Guide?
Eric Trautmann mentions that there's a Halo review in the latest issue of TV Guide. (He hadn't actually seen it, so he couldn't summarize.) We were hoping to get our hands on a copy today... didn't happen. We'll try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, if anyone has this lying around, next to their scanner... Update: Thanks to DT_Spike, who pointed out that it's not much of a review - more of an overview of gaming. Halo's mention is pretty short:
Halo (MICROSOFT) Harnessing all the graphic power of the Xbox, this stunning Sci-Fi epic takes you as close as you'll get to saving the universe (this season, anyway)
It IS a pretty widespread periodical, though... (Louis Wu 03:22:45 UTC) (permalink)
Now THAT makes sense.
Hot damn - finally, a theory you can sink your teeth into! Thaumaturge suggests that the Halo was built by... humans. I'm not gonna steal his thunder, so go and read the whole shebang - it smacks of Bungie goodness, right out of the gate. Now, where's that dang Story site? (Louis Wu 03:03:23 UTC) (permalink)
News December 15 2001
Looks like an angel, plays like a dream
Space Cowboy points out that Next Generation magazine reviewed Halo, and gave it 5/5 stars. Their opinion:
"Let's keep this simple: ÊHalo is one of the best games you'll ever play. ÊPeriod."
Maybe it's time to start adding magazine reviews to the Reviews page... but to do that, we'd have to go back and figure out who reviewed Halo so far. Too much work. :) (Louis Wu 20:59:03 UTC) (permalink)
Bogus, says Matt
Matt Soell stopped by our forum to debunk the Adrenaline Vault 'cheat' posted earlier - it ain't true. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to finish the game on Legendary in 3 hours... just be aware that doing so will get you nothing except maybe a headache. (Louis Wu 20:26:10 UTC) (permalink)
Two new guns?
Huh? Adrenaline Vault is listing the following hint in their Halo Cheats section:
Beat the easiest setting then on the hardest in 3 hours to unlock 2 new guns
I'm nowhere near good enough to confirm or deny this... anyone want to give it a shot? Thanks to Afoxi for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:02:12 UTC) (permalink)
JJ interview postponed until Monday
A couple of weeks ago, Bungie solicited questions for a fan-conducted interview with Jason Jones. They said the answers would be available the following week. (That should have been last week.) Last week, Matt Soell apologized, explaining that Jason wanted to do it right - and was taking extra time. He said it would be up this week. Well, this week's over... and Matt has posted an explanation, of sorts, on the Truth and Reconciliation site - looks like Jason's taking the weekend, but there have been some serious threats made if he doesn't come through. (I'm a little disturbed by the actual nature of the threat - in the early days of bungie.org, we routinely asked for thumbs from those who failed us. In fact, I may have to dig out the form letter The Battle Cat wrote for us to send out to those who warranted a 'talking-to'...) Thanks to Pfhor for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:07:27 UTC) (permalink)
News December 14 2001
zipped screens at HaloOrbit
Halo Orbit has packaged up some 200+ screenshots, ranging from July 1999 through this month, and made them available in a single zip download. You can find the link on their Downloads page (It's called 'Screenshotarchiv #1'). Only 16 megabytes! Get yours today. (Louis Wu 20:37:22 UTC) (permalink)
Halo site looking for testers
The Haloport team writes with the info that they're looking for a few beta testers for their site. The official request:
www.haloport.com is looking for select members of the Halo community to beta test a system which has been underdevelopment for several months. We're looking for mainly squad leaders, members of squads and anyone of great intrest in Halo. Please contact alan@stott.net.
If you're interested in trying out what's behind the curtain, drop 'em a line! (Louis Wu 15:22:45 UTC) (permalink)
ActionTrip reviews Halo
ActionTrip has reviewed Halo - 'A HALO review from a PC gamer's perspective' - and though they spend well over half the review whining about how Halo isn't really a console title (and the Xbox is really a mini-PC in disguise), and how they HAVE to take points off because "MS ruined some of the fun by making it an Xbox title"... they STILL gave it a 91%. If you're willing to put up with the constant whining (I thought he had it out if his system after he spent the first 25% of the review on it, but it came back well before the end), go check it out. We've added it to our Reviews section. (Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 14:30:37 UTC) (permalink)
LAN Party Venues...
Last month, Matt Soell wrote an article for the opening of Bungie's Seventh Column community site called 'Hosting a LAN Party'. Now Part 2, written by David 'Candyman' Candland, has been posted: 'Finding the Right Venue'. It has some great ideas about places to get together, if your living room just doesn't cut it. It also has a hilarious screenshot to go with it. Thanks to No7orious for being the first of many to point this out. (Louis Wu 14:10:00 UTC) (permalink)
News December 13 2001
Student pastimes...
A glimpse into the mind of a Portuguese student... Razorback submits a sketch he did during school last year, doodles and all. I love the duck. :) Check it out on our Miscellaneous Art page. (Louis Wu 18:59:36 UTC) (permalink)
More Blood Gulch antics
BiBoFieTo sent in information about using jeeps as flag defense on Blood Gulch. Using some of the techniques described recently, or a combination of rocket launchers and grenades (if other vehicles aren't available as ramps), you put a Warthog on the roof of your base... then drive it down onto the flag. (Alternatively, you can block the lower entrances to the base by pulling it around the corner once it's inside - you still have to watch for folks climbing over (or dropping down from above), but the chain guns might help...) He sent in digital camera pics, but they weren't much different from what's been seen. He also passed along a pair of images showing a little-known sniper location:
From the blue base it looks like a steep trangular face of the cliff (bloodgulchsniperbottom.jpg). Simply walk up and snipe (bloodgulchsniper.jpg).
This is a different location than the sniper spot mentioned in the recent Multiplayer Guide update at Bungie's Truth and Reconciliation site - that one is behind the red base, in the shadows, and has cover to hide behind. BiBo's is at about 2 o'clock (if you're IN the blue base, looking towards the red base), and is wide open - but you've got a nice field of fire.
Dutch ShrimpTV looks at Halo
Thanks to LK.Rage, who pointed out a Dutch review of Halo, in video format. Okay, it's not really a review - ShrimpTV simply played the game on camera for about 5 minutes. It's not bad footage... and it's relatively understandable for non-Dutch speakers (there isn't much voice-over stuff, and a chunk of what there is is actually in English), but it's a rather large file. It's episode 11 of ShrimpTV, available as a 95 MB download (in zipped WMV format) from this page. The Halo segment starts about 9 minutes in. (There's some footage of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, as well, for those intrigued with the graphics of that game.) They liked it... the 'Positief' listed at the end is simply 'moehahahahaaa', which sums up Halo pretty well. (Their negative has to do with the wait Europeans are faced with.) (Louis Wu 13:06:31 UTC) (permalink)
Dev of the year poll at VE
VoodooExtreme's recent poll on console systems has ended, with the Xbox crushing the competition (47% of 6800 votes)... there's a new one up; 'Who is the 2001 Developer of the year?' Bungie is currently leading, with 172 (17%) of 1011 votes... but Blizzard isn't far behind with 104. If you haven't voted, get on over! (Thanks to Aginor for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 10:46:27 UTC) (permalink)
Online Gaming Help at Bungie
Thanks to Vector40, who wrote to point out a new article at Bungie's Support site about playing system link games over the internet. Bungie's Stefan Sinclair has written up a nice overview of the available options and their pluses and minuses... worth a read if you're interested in finding online carnage. (Thanks also to No7orious, who pointed out the same article on our forum, several hours later.) (Louis Wu 10:38:03 UTC) (permalink)
News December 12 2001
shiny happy wallpaper
Wow, that was fast... bsotizz submits a desktop image based on Razorback's recent Miscellaneous Art. You'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 21:55:35 UTC) (permalink)
Marine sketch submitted
Razorback submits a sketch of a Halo marine - there's the before pencil sketch, and the after colored version. (They've been combined into a single image for our Miscellaneous Art collection.) Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:20:12 UTC) (permalink)
Betcha didn't know they'd fit...
More vehicle shenanigans - DraegonMage and IllusionGuy spent some time putting a bunch of vehicles INSIDE the base on the Blood Gulch map - DraegonMage sent a bunch of pictures, but image quality was very, very low. Here's one of the best shots. It's pretty clear that we're talking Warthogs and Ghosts here... which means that Team 7HR33, made up of Finn, Shovelface, Chavez, Dodge, and Lift, takes the award for First Team to Put a Scorpion INSIDE the Base - you can read Finn's account here. (As Count Zero said, the best line is this one:
Then add two Warthogs and lightly season with Ghosts.
Beautiful imagery, there...) Can't wait to see the Team 7HR33 website! (Louis Wu 20:09:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo's cleaning up at VE
Oops, we missed it... but it's all good. VoodooExtreme's last poll, 'What game released in 2001 had the best graphics?', was won (narrowly) by Halo - 23 votes ahead of Return to Wolfenstein (with more than 8700 votes cast). The new poll asks your opinion on the best console system of the year... and yes, the Xbox is currently winning. Go add your vote! (Louis Wu 14:01:33 UTC) (permalink)
Fun with vehicles
DT_Spike, a mod on the IGN forums, did some nice driving during a CTF game on Blood Gulch. He took some photos with a digital camera - check out the results here. Let's see who's the first to get a SCORPION up there... (Louis Wu 02:55:01 UTC) (permalink)
News December 11 2001
XboxGate reviews Halo
XboxGate has reviewed Halo (don't pay attention to the 'Preview' banner at the top - this is a full review), and they loved it.
As you play the game it gets you saying to yourself, "Man, this is just like a movie."
With the exception of the 2-weapon-at-a-time limit (and the fact that "you seem to run out of ammo quickly"), they thought it was nearly perfect. We've added the review to our Reviews listing. (Louis Wu 14:49:42 UTC) (permalink)
I shoot covies 4 u
You gotta wonder, sometimes, where our forum denizens get their free time... Matt Baker has submitted his interpretation of the Halo team for our Miscellaneous Art section. What I wanna know is, how did Marty get that scar? (Louis Wu 14:41:53 UTC) (permalink)
PlanetHalo.de added (finally) to links
Hmm. Momo writes to ask us to add the German site 'PlanetHALO' to our links list... seems we noted when they came online (a year and a half ago), but neglected to ever add them to the links page! Sorry... rectified, now. (Louis Wu 14:26:10 UTC) (permalink)
Yes, Virginia, there WILL be a Story page
Jack has put up the beginnings of a Halo Story page. In his words,
It's my own little attempt to give back to the halo community, and it'll be there til' someone puts up a REAL one :). I'm no hamish, so i don't plan on updating this thing constantly, or really making it really that good, butt it should provide some sort of resource for the future Halo Story Page maker! :)
To all who have pointed out to us both the need and our 'responsibility' to provide a resource like this... we're working on it. :) As soon as we have something presentable, we'll post it, we promise! In the meantime, feel free to send in suggestions - we'll hold them in abeyance until we have a real home for them. And thanks, most of all, to folks like Jack, who make it clear that if we fall down on the job, SOMEONE will be there to kick us till we get up. (Louis Wu 10:05:06 UTC) (permalink)
Maps for maps
Oh and not to forget: a very nice addition to the multiplayer strategy guide has been made on Truth & Reconciliation: overhead maps of all the multiplayer levels! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 02:46:37 UTC) (permalink)
New concept art at T&R
New concept art hits Bungie's Halo site, Truth & Reconciliation; this time featuring human vehicles. Check out those tank concepts! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 02:15:31 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Research Center shenanigans
Last year, the first images from the Bungie Research Center Photo Archives surfaced, and generated a bit of confusion. This died away when no further pictures were forthcoming. Today, the latest discovery has found its way into the light... when we know what's going on, we'll be sure to pass that information along. (Louis Wu 00:53:40 UTC) (permalink)
News December 10 2001
IMG interviews The Man
Inside Mac Games has posted an interview with Alex Seropian aka The Man. Check it out for a good read:
IMG: And the big question...will Halo ever come to the Mac? Any details you can share with your loyal Mac fans?
Seropian: Yes, Halo will be out for the Mac. Be patient. Or, I suppose if you have no patience, get yourself an Xbox [insert evil music here] :)
Be sure to read the rest of the interview, but beware of a tiny spoiler in one of the responses Alex gives. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 20:04:01 UTC) (permalink)
Gaming Age Hails Halo
Gaming Age has put up a Special article about Halo - 'Hail Halo' paints Halo as Microsoft's 'Trojan horse to move systems' that will sell the Xbox to more than the Bungie faithful. A pretty good read - thanks to op_ivy for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 19:46:41 UTC) (permalink)
FoR (sort of) reviewed at Xbox365
Heh - Xbox365 has written a rather confused review of Halo: The Fall of Reach. While it's nice to see the book get some press of its own, it would be nicer if the reviewer got the facts straight...
Ever wondered where the cool storyline in Halo comes from? Did you really think that the dudes at Bungie & Microsoft came up with the Covenent, MasterChief and the curvy Cortana? Think again. Halo, The Fall of Reach is the original book from Eric Nylund that introduces Halo, and it's amazing powers.
(As a matter of fact, the dudes at Bungie and Microsoft DID come up with those things... and Eric Nylund worked closely with members of the team to flesh out parts of the storyline and create a complementary novel. A pretty good one, even.) The rest of the review suffers from more of the same confusion... but again, it's nice to see it being hyped at all. Thanks to Miguel "I was only joking" Chavez for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 19:17:10 UTC) (permalink)
10 new WinAmp skins to grab
Wonga - looking for new WinAmp skins? Christian Bender, of halo24.de, just submitted 10 of 'em. Browse 'em (and download 'em) here. (Louis Wu 18:12:36 UTC) (permalink)
More fan fiction comes in
A pretty gruesome new entry has been added to our Fan Fiction collection - Kyo has sent in Part One of 'Prince of Angels' for your reading pleasure (or horror, as the case may be). Don't forget to let him know what you think! (Louis Wu 17:16:17 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Dink!... Dink!... Dink!... The Halo SETI Marines lose three MORE positions (down to 60) in the Battle of the Teams... and we've just been challenged by an upcoming team! Doesn't help when high-unit crunchers like SpudNYC jump ship... but that doesn't explain how the SETI servers lost another 600 of our units. Hang on, Jim, she's goin' down! Check out the carnage on the 7 day stats page. (Louis Wu 15:57:13 UTC) (permalink)
Find that review better
The Reviews page just got a little easier to navigate - an alphabetical popup at the top of the page will bring you to the review you're looking for. Seemed reasonable, since the review count hit 40 yesterday... (Louis Wu 01:42:27 UTC) (permalink)
Ghost ramping for fun and profit
Ghost ramping... a new sport? From daedulus1187:
To play you need a ghost and some stuff to ramp over. The scorpion tank works the best. All you do is just go over the ramp and hold a direction and you can do all kinds of tricks, like barrel rolls and back flips. And to get extra air you can press A.
I can say from experience (during the first meeting of the HBO Junkies, yesterday), that this is, indeed, a blast. Other fun tricks? Let us know! (Louis Wu 01:38:19 UTC) (permalink)
News December 9 2001
Lost Hours reviews Halo
Lost Hours, a column on the Coming Attractions website, has reviewed Halo - loved the gameplay, hated the lack of a 'boss' (and didn't like the fact that the main character had an 'uncanny resemblance' to the main character in Doom), and wished there was a level editor - the game got a 9/10. (It was also rated as 20 lost hours.) For comparison, the last 4 reviews on the site ranged from 4.5 to 8.5. We've added it to our Reviews page. Thanks to jeremedia for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:17:08 UTC) (permalink)
Plot wars at Bungie
Feeling a little depressed at the end of Halo? Looks like Bungie did its job right - you cared about your Marine buddies. A thread on our forum about the weight of fighting completely without human help in the second half of the game elicited this response from Marty O'Donnell:
I just want you to know that I was pushing for one of the marines to make it out with you at the end (maybe the Aussie) but was called a "Pollyanna" by Joe. There are so many dark and disturbed people at Bungie...
Marty - if wanting to save just a single human makes you a Pollyanna, I'm with you. Leave the depressing stuff to Darth Staten. (Louis Wu 13:44:19 UTC) (permalink)
New Wallpaper
IDMT13@aol.com sends along a new desktop (in three sizes) made from the Joypad cover last month - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 13:33:35 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Game opens its doors
Hot on the heels of our link-culling, firfin sends word of Halo Game, a French Halo site. take a look! (Louis Wu 13:27:18 UTC) (permalink)
News December 8 2001
Links page cleaned up
It was about time. Our Links page was getting rather long in the tooth... so today, I went through and pulled all pages that either 1) don't exist any more, or 2) haven't been touched in a while. ('A while' was defined, rather arbitrarily, by me, to be one month.) Makes for a much shorter page... All the pruned links were simply shunted to a different page, so nobody can yell that they've been deleted. Side benefit - the official (Bungie and Microsoft) pages finally get representation. (Louis Wu 18:21:11 UTC) (permalink)
PC Zone rumors a'flyin'...
Oh, man... Catachan, of Battleground: Halo, got his copy of PC Zone magazine today... and it contained some eyebrow-raising news:
Our guess is that Halo for the PC will be out next autumn, probably to coincide with the announcement of Halo 2, which is already being worked on and a cert to arrive on Xbox first yet again.
This is the part where I remind you that until this is confirmed by someone at BUNGIE, it's just a rumor... and an unlikely one, at that. (I'm not gonna flat-out ridicule it, because other, stranger, things have come to pass... but recent comments from the Bungie team would suggest that the 'already being worked on' bit was created from whole cloth.) More as we learn it... thanks to Halifax for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:18:29 UTC) (permalink)
New Wallpaper available
GiXeLz sends in a nice muted-tone desktop image, in three sizes, for our Wallpaper collection. Think of this as a nostalgic look at what Halo might have been (though there's an awful lot of what Halo is, in there, too...). (Louis Wu 10:44:10 UTC) (permalink)
News December 7 2001
How consistent IS Bungie?
Knight Premier writes to suggest that there's a clear relationship between the 7th Column logo and 343 Guilty Spark, a character from Halo. (As well, of course, as the obvious relationship between Sparky and the Marathon logo...) You make up your own mind. (He's modified the 7th Column logo a bit, to help you out.)
(Louis Wu 17:10:46 UTC) (permalink)
New poll at VE
Halo crushed the competition in the last VoodooExtreme poll, 'Your pick for 2001 console game of the year?' (47% of 4140 votes, more than the next 10 games combined) - but it's currently in third place in a new poll, 'Which game released in 2001 had the best graphics?' (Max Payne and Return to Castle Wolfenstein are both ahead of it). If you haven't voted, get over to VoodooExtreme and do so! (Thanks to Aginor for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 16:12:48 UTC) (permalink)
Halo #9 in IGN Hot 25
Thanks to Razorback, who noticed that Halo snagged the #9 spot in IGN's Hot 25 contest. Take a look, and enter to win the console of your choice! (Louis Wu 16:05:34 UTC) (permalink)
The problem with flash-cloning
Fall of Reach details... Eric Trautmann drops an interesting tidbit into the Marathon's Story page forum - there's been some discussion, on and off, about the outrage felt towards Dr. Halsey, and her involvement in the 'recruitment' of children for the SPARTAN project. The moral offense of replacing a child with a flash-clone (so that the parents wouldn't know he or she was gone) seemed (to me, at least) to be less relevant in the 26th century... but Eric's explanation of the left-out backstory clarifies things a lot:
Though not explicitly stated -- and as such, this is completely "non-canon" -- my intention was to have the clones be defective in some way; mental retardation, previously "undiagnosed" illness (Parkinson's, most likely), or other such defect. That's why they use the original kids, not the second generation dubs. ;D
As I say, though, we didn't come right out and say that either in the game or the novel, so that notion may be revised to something a trifle less, uh, dark.
Had that been included, the moral outrage would have been COMPLETELY justified... one more example of how cutting-room floor material can make hard-to-understand plot points clearer. Thanks, Eric! (Louis Wu 14:19:37 UTC) (permalink)
JJ interview postponed
Matt Soell dropped into our forum with a status update about the fan-conducted Jason Jones interview:
He's trying to give in-depth answers - many of the questions are not the sort of thing he could answer quickly without being glib, which he doesn't want to do. So he's taking the time he needs to answer with the depth they deserve. It looks like we'll have to run the interview next week, but I think it will probably be one of the most illuminating interviews he's done.
That definitely sounds worth waiting for... (Louis Wu 14:02:26 UTC) (permalink)
What - another one?
Aargh! Just when you thought it was safe to go to bed! ActiveXbox posted their Halo review today... but I missed it earlier. Graphics and Sounds took high honors, Manual and Price (??) were the low votes... overall rating was 95%. The Reviews page continues to grow. (Thanks, Blue's News, for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 03:58:00 UTC) (permalink)
Even PCMag looked...
Oops, we missed one - PC Magazine reviewed Halo on November 15. Short but sweet (appropriate, since it's on a platform the magazine doesn't cover)... they gave it a 5/5. Yes, it's on the Reviews page. (Louis Wu 03:49:58 UTC) (permalink)
4 more Halo reviews
We got to pokin' again, and found 4 unnoticed Halo reviews. None of these are dated (they're not even listed in the news sections of the sites in question)... but hey, we know they're from the last few weeks, right? Xbox Gaming rated Halo 98%, Xbox Gamers said 9.9/10, Xbox City thought it was a 4.8/5, and Xbox Xtreme gave it 9.5/10. We've added these to our Reviews page. (Louis Wu 03:34:12 UTC) (permalink)
News December 6 2001
Wall-hugging Hippos redux
What th... Matt Soell finally gives it up and explains his two-year-old comment about wall-hugging hippos... and you're left with a NEW question! (They were proximity mines, that never made it into the game... or did they?) (Louis Wu 21:21:04 UTC) (permalink)
Halo out of print?
Cesar Berardini, of TeamXbox, dropped us a note telling us that Amazon.com had informed him that Halo was not available:
We've recently learned from our supplier that the item you requested to be notified about, HALO, will not be available in the foreseeable future.
Whoa - a huge reseller like Amazon can't get more... does this mean they didn't print enough? (Louis Wu 21:02:14 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox Radio Giveaway
Pallor writes to say that a local radio station in Nashville, 102.5 WQZQ, is running a contest - they're giving away an Xbox a day until December 25. (They're calling it 'Putting the Xbox in Xmas'.) Since WQZQ is part of the Dickie Brother Broadcasting Network, there might be a radio station in YOUR town that is hosting a similar giveaway... (I couldn't find a linke to Dickie Brother Broadcasting anywhere on WQZQ's site, so you'll just have to do your own hunting.) (Louis Wu 20:57:45 UTC) (permalink)
Two new Halo reviews
Two new Halo reviews out there: The Armchair Empire gave Halo a 9/10 (citing framerate drops and a 'B-movie science fiction' plot), while GameOver gave it a 97%, even though they had a problem with a protagonist who could flip a tank over with his bare hands, but not kill instantly with a melee attack. We've added both of these to our Reviews page. Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:08:46 UTC) (permalink)
PDF Halo Guide at IGN
Thanks to Acrappa, who noted on Rampancy.net that IGN Xbox has put up a PDF Halo Guide for its Insiders. This is just the previously posted Halo Walkthrough, packaged up as a PDF document - in fact, the HTML version (available to all, not just insiders) has screenshots the PDF version doesn't have. Still, the search function is pretty nice... As a side note, IGN has reported that Thursday evening, for about 24 hours, they'll unlock the Insider site and let folks look around - they're hoping that the taste of what's available will get you to want to subscribe. Whether this tactic works or not, realize that you'll have 24 hours to grab whatever content you've heard about in the past that you haven't been able to see... (Louis Wu 10:09:10 UTC) (permalink)
New logo modification
We received a wet-looking Halo logo from Rob Cox - we've added it to our Logos collection. (Louis Wu 09:59:13 UTC) (permalink)
Console GotY poll at VE
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews, curator of the JunkYard, points out that VoodooExtreme is hosting a new poll: 'Your pick for 2001 console game of the year?' Currently, Halo has 690 of 1591 votes (or 43%, handily outdistancing the second-place Grand Theft Auto 3, with 15%). If you haven't voted, make sure you do! (Louis Wu 01:35:25 UTC) (permalink)
News December 5 2001
New Bungie job opening
The sharp eyes of mnemesis are STILL working - he caught a new job listing on Bungie's corporate site.
3D Animator
Bungie is seeking a skilled character animator to join our quest for world domination.
Responsibilities:
- Create realistic animations for a variety of characters that meet Bungie?s quality, originality and creative standards, all within tight technical requirements.
- Maintain a consistency of animation with regards to appearance, style, timing and other related aspects from one character to another.
- Assist with other aspects of art production, such as modeling and texturing.
Requirements and application procedure are listed, as well. Hmm... is the Phoenix team looking for new blood, or is this for a NEW project? (Louis Wu 20:49:05 UTC) (permalink)
MC on a wheel
The Unicycle? Matt Soell alludes to an intriguing tidbit in this forum post... (Louis Wu 19:03:10 UTC) (permalink)
Another couple of print reviews
There have been a couple of print articles waiting for their respective issues to be off the shelves - since they now are, we're posting them: Here's a 2-page Halo review from the November 2001 issue of Game Informer (Halo got a 9.5):
And here's last month's Official Xbox Magazine review (Halo also got a 9.5):
More when we remember! (Louis Wu 19:00:19 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper competition at Halo Orbit
German Halo site Halo Orbit is running another Wallpaper competition - the winner will be showcased on their site for a full month. Check out the details (in German) here! (Louis Wu 18:56:27 UTC) (permalink)
Fanfic art - before the fiction
Jason O'Brien has created a new image for use in an upcoming Fan Fiction story - we've added it to our Miscellaneous Art collection. (Louis Wu 18:56:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on Reuters
Microsoft is trumpeting its half-a-million-units-sold news far and wide - Reuters sent out this picture of a Microsoft Employee playing Halo (on a pretty nice TV) to accompany it. Thanks to mnemesis for noticing it... (Louis Wu 17:16:49 UTC) (permalink)
December 2001 Gamestar article scanned
Thanks to Uriel, who sent in the full 12-page Halo article from last month's GameStar magazine (in german). It's finally off the shelves, so we've archived it.
There are a few other articles we'll be putting up soon... Update: Thanks to MakeMineRed, who pointed out there are some serious spoilers on page 7 - even for folks who don't read German. Careful... (Louis Wu 16:20:34 UTC) (permalink)
Why beta-testing is good
Oops... Chris Butcher sheds light on one potentially annoying behavior in this behind-the-scenes look at the development process. (Personally, I would have thought it would be hilarious... once.) (Louis Wu 13:36:00 UTC) (permalink)
News December 4 2001
123 Xbox reviews Halo
Another one we missed - thanks, No7orious! 123 Xbox put up their Halo review last week - they thought that cutscenes weren't very good, and that the falling animation (when you fall off a cliff) was 'dorky', but loved the rest of the game. Overall rating: 9.8. We've added it to our Reviews page (which needs a navigation tool, and soon...). (Louis Wu 20:50:16 UTC) (permalink)
MS is okay with online hacks
There's been forum speculation that Microsoft might try to stomp on the 'competition' for MS's upcoming online services provided by GameSpy Arcade and Xbox Gateway. Seems they're taking the high road on this one - a recent addition to the Xbox FAQ for the Xbox Retail site asks
I've heard that utilities have been developed that allow Xbox Systemlink games to be played over the Internet. Is this true? What should I tell my customers?
The answer (in part) reads
It's amazing and exciting to see the lengths that gamers will go to in order to take their Xbox games online. The GameSpy arcade efforts are a strong indication that people want online console game experiences. Additionally, these efforts showcase the superiority of Xbox because it was built from the ground up to provide people with the next generation of exciting online game play.
It goes on to explain how the MS service will be far more secure and scalable when it comes online. This is a refreshing reaction from a corporation known for their ruthless responses to perceived threats. Thanks to TeamXbox for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:28:26 UTC) (permalink)
Playing with numbers
You've gotta love statistics - even when everyone uses the same numbers, they look different. IGN GameCube (in an ironically-titled article called 'The Numbers Don't Lie') is reporting that in the week following the release of the GameCube, the GC outsold the Xbox 469,000 to 186,000 units. (Halo, with 97,000 units, was nearly tripled by Luigi's Mansion, at 257,000 units.) IGN Xbox, on the other hand, points out that the Xbox had a 3-day headstart on sales... and its total sales up to the 24th (the same ending date as cube.ign.com is using) are 556,000 units. This jibes nicely with Rampancy.net's numbers - they reported last week that CSFB (the same firm IGN got numbers from) published a report showing Microsoft sold 370,000 units in the first 2 days - 370,000 plus 186,000 equals 556,000. (This also suggests that Halo's total sales in the first 10 days are closer to 275,000 units, since 176,000 sold in the first weekend.) Thanks to No7orious for noticing this discrepancy first. (Louis Wu 16:14:55 UTC) (permalink)
Misc Art with spoilers
Jason O'Brien sends in a new image for our Miscellaneous Art collection - minor spoilers exist. Interesting vision, though... (Louis Wu 13:58:47 UTC) (permalink)
PoA creator steps forward
The tru7h comes out... Lorraine Reyes-McLees admits to drawing the Pillar of Autumn. Nice job, Lorraine! (Louis Wu 13:20:19 UTC) (permalink)
Tru7h and Recon updated
Another day, another dollar... and another 12 shots on Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation website. Dang, what I wouldn't give for those screenshot tools... Also, Part 4 of the Multiplayer Guide (Power-Ups) and a new batch of Storyboards have come online. The new screens will be added to our Screenshots database in the next hour or so. WARNING: story spoilers present in this batch of screenshots. (Louis Wu 01:24:29 UTC) (permalink)
News December 3 2001
Halo manual, in German, from SE
From what I can understand, the Socket error team has translated the Halo background story (and weapons) out of the Halo Manual into German Go visit their site for details. Thanks to SE|Yogurt_der_weise for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:51:53 UTC) (permalink)
Another home for a Winamp skin
On October 29, Djoey 154 submitted a Winamp skin to HBO - he's written back to say that it's now available on the Winamp site. (Louis Wu 18:10:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Dink!... Dink!... Dink!... The Halo SETI Marines face a humiliating 3-position fall in the Battle of the Teams - they've dropped to 57th, their lowest showing since May 5, 2000! OUCH! (It doesn't help that two team members, Thomas Magle Brodersen and Silicon_Phoenix, have gone AWOL with more than 500 units each... but in fact, the bottom line is simply that the Marines no longer have their heart in this fight.) See who's still putting in the effort on the 7 day stats page... (Louis Wu 15:42:57 UTC) (permalink)
News December 2 2001
Halo: Combat Evolved comes online
A new Halo site has come on the scene - Halo: Combat Evolved. Some of the info is a bit shaky (the release date for the Xbox is listed as November 8, the dropship in the 'Vehicles' section is actually an escape pod from the Pillar of Autumn, and so on), but in general, it's easy to read. Check it out. (Louis Wu 19:44:49 UTC) (permalink)
Cortana site looking for help
This was originally posted on our forum, but response was less than satisfying, apparently. Dan Byrne is looking for volunteers to help with a new Halo site he's working on, http://www.cortana.co.uk/. If you're interested, drop him a line, or post a response to his forum thread! (Louis Wu 17:45:02 UTC) (permalink)
New wallpaper from PlanetHalo.de
cybio, of PlanetHalo.de, sends in a new desktop image for our Wallpaper collection. It was originally available here. While you're there, check out their new design! (Louis Wu 15:42:26 UTC) (permalink)
More fan fiction comes in
When Scott Edwin woke up again he blinked, remembered, and looked down. Or rather, he tried to look down, but couldn't, because he was lying on his back.
Find out what happened to poor Scott in Chapter 1 of Aragorn918's ongoing 'The Sceptre', found in our Fan Fiction section. Don't forget to leave him feedback! (Louis Wu 15:02:05 UTC) (permalink)
Gamers.com reviews Halo
Gotta stop that pokin'... This time it turned up a Halo review at Gamers.com. It's a nicely written rave:
Featuring as many shocking and exciting plot twists as Metal Gear Solid 2, Halo sheds the ultra-stealth focus of that title and replaces it with white-knuckle intensity Goldeneye wishes it had.
They don't list an editorial number rating... but they combined the 34 user-submitted values (averaging 9.1/10) with 6 magazine/site reviews (averaging 9.6/10) to give it an overall 9.3/10 consensus score. We've added it to our Reviews page, and added the three new screens to our Screenshots database. Update: On this page, they give it a 10 in-house. Reviews page updated. (Louis Wu 03:04:44 UTC) (permalink)
More new screens - from Halomedia
While poking around in German sites I can't read, I discovered a number of screenshots I'd never seen before at Halomedia - they're not attributed to anyone, but they're very high quality - absolutely worth a look. We've added them to our Screenshots database. (Don't miss the obligatory Matrix shot...) Update: Uriel writes to say that the five new screens came from AreaXbox.de - you can see them here. (Louis Wu 02:35:00 UTC) (permalink)
New screens from Gamestar.de
A few days ago, the German site GameStar put up a small article covering 4 launch titles for the Xbox. Halo gets the thumbs up (not really a suprise), but the real reason for this mention was a pair of screens they put up - well, one, in particular. We've added both to our Screenshots database. Might be worth a look. (Louis Wu 02:19:25 UTC) (permalink)
News December 1 2001
GameSpy Tunnel tips, from Bungie
Bungie's Achronos put up a few tips concerning GameSpy Tunnel software and playing Halo - if you're experiencing high lag, read this for suggestions. (FWIW, we played a couple of three-player games (two Xboxes) last night using this software, with only minor glitches. I was WISHING for my opponents to get lagged...) (Louis Wu 15:46:16 UTC) (permalink)
German Fanfic, now in English
Two months ago, Uriel submitted our first German fan fiction. He's now translated it into English - if you don't read German, go check out Beyond Paradise now, in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 15:38:25 UTC) (permalink)
| December 2001 | |
