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 | December 2006 |  |
December 2006 Archived News
News December 31 2006
Briar's Armor - new shots
New Halo 3 helmet shots from Briar's Armor - here, here, and here. Movin' along! (Louis Wu 23:14:49 UTC) (permalink)
I don't think they were supposed to be filming.
darthbob noticed some interesting pictures and videos showing up on the GameSpot forum and some Myspace profiles. We're not going to comment much, except to say that Bungie is way cooler about Christmas presents than any other developer I know of. (Louis Wu 23:08:19 UTC) (permalink)
Ms. Dewey - she makes me laugh
Elnea discovered a search site called msdewey.com - there's a ton of funny stuff you can find if you know the right search terms, but try Halo to start with. Do it more than once. (Louis Wu 23:03:42 UTC) (permalink)
Video commentary from Defy at MLG
Over at MLGPro.com, you can find player match commentary from Defy, in video form. (Heh - was probably filmed a while back; he starts by saying it's a match between top-rated Final Boss and his own second-rated team... been a while since Carbon hasn't been in one of those two spots.) Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 22:53:53 UTC) (permalink)
Project Crimson Episode 1
GamerX5000 mentioned the first episode of Project Crimson, Prelude of New Life, on our forum - nice filming, intriguing storyline. Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:49:58 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Outkastz Epsiode 1
Deekor sent along info about Halo Outkastz Epsiode 1 - a 2 minute piece that basically sets up their characters. Check it out! (If you don't want to register on their forum, he posted a direct link in this post.) (Louis Wu 22:31:29 UTC) (permalink)
Holiday 2006 Video from RvB
If you don't have a 360, you can still see the Red vs Blue Holiday 2006 video over at their website; it's currently sponsors-only, but should be live for everyone in a couple of days. Thanks, Black Six. (Louis Wu 22:19:28 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on a PSP. Really.
Demonic noticed a story over at Destructoid; that some folks have modded a homebrew PSP game with Halo graphics, and have Halo running on a Playstation Portable. Nice! Update: Mintz pointed out that this is actually pretty old, and that he reported on it at Halo: Portable back in March of '06. Not only that... so did we. Oops! (Louis Wu 22:14:16 UTC) (permalink)
Joyride Halo 1 Complete Set on eBay.
Darksage found a pretty cool auction on eBay, if you're an action figure collector - the entire Halo 1 figure set (33 items), still in their original boxes. Current bid is $800, which is a decent deal, given current ebay prices. Take a look! (Louis Wu 22:06:29 UTC) (permalink)
Deadly Night - First Looks
As is probably known by now (since Frankie mentioned it in the Weekly Update on Friday), there was a lanfest here at HBO Central this past week; it was fun. Folks with more energy than I've got have already begun posting writeups on our forum - Ma1agate was first, with retsamolah not far behind. Eventually, there'll be lots of pics online as well. (I'll probably hold news about updates until I can write one big one, so that you don't have to see lots of little news posts.) These are fun reads; there or not there, it's often fun to get a real-life view of folks you spend time with on the forum or in IRC. (Louis Wu 21:57:04 UTC) (permalink)
News December 30 2006
Briar's Armor starts on Halo 3 goodies
DOH! Almost forgot. Briar's Armor, who has made some pretty darned cool Halo 2 armor over the past couple of years, is trying his hand at Halo 3 armor; a prelminary shot of the helmet shows some nice details. Can't wait for the rest! (Louis Wu 18:19:03 UTC) (permalink)
New Portable Stuff
Funkmon (who wants everyone to know he's cooler than his co-admin Mintz) wrote to us about new vids available at Halo: Portable; you can find mobile-formatted versions of lots of cool stuff there right now. The Brute Vidoc is there, as is the classic 'Heart is a Lonely Hunter', and Hickadam's 'Holiday'. Get to downloading! (Louis Wu 18:14:10 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan III SPI Helmet
John Cannon posted more public pictures of his Spartan III helmet that he's working on - pretty cool looking! (Louis Wu 18:08:34 UTC) (permalink)
Floaty Silence 2
Hellhawk posted about a trailer for a new vid he's working on - Floaty Silence 2. I liked the first one, the trailer looks cute, and if you grab the WMP9 I encoded, it's under 10 mb. (The QuickTime, hosted by Mythica and linked in the forum post, is over 30 mb.) Give it a look! (Louis Wu 17:38:41 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Mii
I can't say I understand this, but... if you've got a Wii, this might be relevant to you, in a Halo sort of way. Thanks to SquirrelOnFire, who was first, and pile0nades, who has a bigger thread. (Louis Wu 17:15:47 UTC) (permalink)
Last Grenade Found?
Oshovah found a picture in the Art of Halo book that has convinced him that the fourth grenade we'll see in Halo 3 is an incendiary grenade; you can find his reasoning in his forum post (and I've added a scan of the image in question, for reference). We won't know anything until Bungie confirms it... but this is some pretty solid speculation! (Louis Wu 16:27:50 UTC) (permalink)
News December 29 2006
Mashed Jaffa Cakes
At Bungie.net, you'll find a really short Bungie Weekly Update - Frankie is totally insane, and is lucky not to be dead right now, and he also broke all sorts of speeding limits in the last 24 hours, but we love him anyway. Go read about some general, but heartening, plans for the Halo online community in the coming months. (As always, you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive, as well.) (Louis Wu 23:31:40 UTC) (permalink)
Know Thy Audience.
There's an interesting interview with Tyson 'Ferrex' Green over at Gamepro.com - read it for some insight into Bungie's multiplayer philosophies. Thanks, Coffin Joe. (Louis Wu 23:30:16 UTC) (permalink)
A Right Guid Willie Waught.
Today's One One Se7en is Stuntmutt's New Year's wish to you... it's sweet, in a groany sort of way. (Louis Wu 23:29:48 UTC) (permalink)
Single Segment Speedrun, Halo CE
Ducain, then NOKYARD, sent word of a new speedrun through Halo - 90 minutes, start to finish, all in one shot. (The actual downloads are broken up by level, but that's just to be reasonable, bandwidth-wise.) Swing by High Speed Halo for all the details. Congrats to slYnki for the impressive achievement! (Louis Wu 23:29:27 UTC) (permalink)
Who cares about Halo's story?
Computer and Video Games put up an article ripping into Halo's story, and questioning the value of stories in video games in general. The article seems a bit shallow, but everyone's got their own perspective, I guess. (Louis Wu 23:29:04 UTC) (permalink)
Agent 117 - John's Bond
Lt Tuma sent word of a trailer he'd made, and posted on YouTube - audio comes (mostly) from the Casino Royale trailer, video comes from lots and lots and lots of different Halo sources. Really well put together, great choices - go watch it! (Louis Wu 23:28:44 UTC) (permalink)
First Person Perspective Warthog
Yesterday morning, RVideo posted a cool movie showing a first-person view from a Warthog; it's not true first-person, but a modified chasecam perspective that simulates a first-person view. His forum post explains what you're looking at (and the problems involved in collecting the footage). He released this in DivX 6.4 format (link is in the forum post), but if that's a problem for you, I've reencoded QuickTime (53.7 mb) and WMP9 (49.2 mb) versions that we're hosting; grab whichever one works best for you. (Louis Wu 23:28:06 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Seven new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section this week - give 'em a once-over! (Louis Wu 23:27:42 UTC) (permalink)
The end of the Action Figures
A couple of days ago, Dielectric mentioned on our forum that Joyride had sent out a press release stating that the Heretic Grunt action figure had been cancelled... and that the Halo 2 figure collection was now finished. No more! (Louis Wu 23:27:15 UTC) (permalink)
411mania waiting for Halo 3
Friday afternoon posting spree! First up - 411mania.com posts their Top 5 Most Anticipated Games of 2007... Halo 3 comes in at number 4 on two editors' lists, number 2 on two others, and number 3 on a third pair. Not bad! (Louis Wu 23:26:43 UTC) (permalink)
More Brute Doc Stuff
There are a couple of new dissections of the Brute documentary you might find interesting - the Halo 3 Data Archive has one (thanks, Old Mattacus), and so does Rampancy.net (thanks, Narcogen). Get to reading! (Louis Wu 16:39:49 UTC) (permalink)
New Hoodie at the Bungie Store
A quick note about a new hoodie at the Bungie Store - this has been pictured before (in a Bungie Weekly Update), but has not been for sale until recently. Thanks to a few people who noticed - but Jonathan Rivas was first (a couple of days ago... I've been a bit overwhelmed for newsposting). (Louis Wu 16:32:23 UTC) (permalink)
News December 28 2006
Brute Doc Analysis
Mark MacDonald, of GameVideos.com, gave us a heads-up about a new analysis video they've posted, picking apart the Brute Vidoc in minute detail. Downloadable versions are in the hundreds of megabytes, or you can stream it on their site. Looks like a thread has started on our forum - some folks are amused (or unhappy) about certain assumptions made by the GV guys... see what you think! (Louis Wu 22:54:34 UTC) (permalink)
More Veegie Art
In a Rampancy.net article about the Normal Mapping article at HaloDev, Narcogen noted another cool image by Veegie, over at DeviantART - go take a look, it's great! (Louis Wu 19:04:30 UTC) (permalink)
Rank Honesty
Over at Tied the Leader, there's not a lot of new content this week (it IS a holiday week, after all), but there's a thought-provoking article on rank, and what it means to most of us. Check it out! Thanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 17:30:27 UTC) (permalink)
Another Way into the Beta
Interesting. Over at Joystiq, there's a note about an ad in the latest issue of Gamepro magazine - if you buy the upcoming game Crackdown (specially marked boxes only) for $60, you also get a Halo 3 Beta invite. (Joystiq's cynical take is that you're paying $60 for the invite, and getting a free copy of Crackdown... but you can think of it any way you like.) Lots of folks noticed this - looks like Jonathan Rivas was first, via email last night. (Louis Wu 16:26:00 UTC) (permalink)
News December 27 2006
HaloDev Feature Focus - Normal Mapping
HaloDev has posted a 'Feature Focus' article - the first in a series of articles that will highlight various features of the upcoming Prometheus tool they've been working on for a while. This one looks at Normal Mapping (a variant of bumpmapping), and how Bungie uses it - and it has a fantastic example put together by Veegie. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:40:42 UTC) (permalink)
Warmness on the Soul, and movie administrivia
bryboy remix sent us a link to a movie he's made that's being hosted by mythica.org; it's a music video, set to Avenged Sevenfold's 'Warmness on the Soul' (WMP9, 66 mb). I'm not sure I know what's going on in it - but it's pretty; nice camera angles, interesting effects. I'd like to take this opportunity to explain what's going on with our own movie hosting; the recoding of the MPRRS got backed up in December because Cybrfrk found himself on an extended trial during jury duty. He'll be back on the job to finish the new features up in the next few weeks; we'll be back online in January sometime, if all goes well. In the meantime, we may offer hosting to movies we see that really impress us, but if you have a movie with its own hosting (mythica or elsewhere), your best bet is to post a link on our forum. It's from there that I'll pull movies that I think we can host. Please don't email us with your links - post them on our forum. (That way, even if I don't get to it, the forum crowd will see it - and might give you feedback about it.) Thanks! (Louis Wu 15:39:24 UTC) (permalink)
And Do They Drink Capuchino?
Wow, that's gotta be one of the most groanworthy titles for a One One Se7en comic ever. (Louis Wu 13:55:31 UTC) (permalink)
A Travesty Against Nature - but oh so cool
Elnea wrote to point out a creation so cool it's hot - hot pink, that is. She's done a boatload of work to add Spartan Armor to... Barbie. Yes, Barbie. (Image is just under 200k.) She's got removable helmet bits (she needs them, because her head is so big that when the helmet is on, she can't move her head), and modifications that include the following mixed media: acrylic, mache, synthetic fiber, ceramic. Next up - a GI Joe jeep modded to function as a warthog... if you've got an RvB account, swing by and tell her how awesome this is. (Louis Wu 13:52:58 UTC) (permalink)
UNSCDF Blog
Major Silva stopped by to announce the opening of the UNSCDF Blog, where staffers from that Halo news site can better express their personal opinions. Swing by to read opinions about Ghosts of Onyx. (Louis Wu 13:47:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo news important in 2006, says IGN
Yesterday, Sniping Ajax pointed out that IGN posted their 2006 wrapup video - top 10 gaming news items from the past year. Halo made number 10, mostly on the strength of the X06 info (Halo Wars, Peter Jackson's new stuff) plus news of the upcoming Halo 3. (Louis Wu 13:45:40 UTC) (permalink)
News December 26 2006
GuN Sh0t Montage 2
Z pointed out a pretty impressive montage at Halo3Forum.com - topnotch gameplay, integrated nicely with the MLG TV Show graphics. Check out GuN Sh0t Montage 2. WMP9 format, 166 mb. (Louis Wu 14:12:07 UTC) (permalink)
ODST - Team Up
Ryan117 stopped by to point out the second episode of his ODST comic (links for the first one are in his forum post, as well, if you missed it). (Louis Wu 10:57:34 UTC) (permalink)
Hey... I've seen that before!
Nabistay noticed a familiar-looking sword in the collection of weapons that came with his brother's new Magnaman toy... heh. (Louis Wu 10:52:59 UTC) (permalink)
Lifepod Episode 5
MereCatfish wrote to point out Lifepod Episode 5, which includes an interview with Santa Claus about HaloCE and much more. 30 minutes, 28 mb. (Louis Wu 10:47:56 UTC) (permalink)
Montages out the Yin-Yang
We got a weekly update post from Halomega - there were half a dozen new montages and gameplay vids; swing by their News and Announcements for the most recent. Visit every couple of days if you don't want to miss any of these - they're posting a LOT. (Louis Wu 10:45:13 UTC) (permalink)
I really wanna see the dog.
Hope you all had a great Christmas! I'm not so sure about Mat Noguchi... thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 04:14:44 UTC) (permalink)
News December 25 2006
Peace and Goodwill To All Men.
It's Christmas, so we're doing what we do every year - we're stealing cool artwork from Bungie, and we're bringing you a Christmas comic from Stuntmutt... and we're taking the holiday off. Pax.
We'll be back updating on Tuesday, the 26th.
News December 24 2006
Merry Christmas from QsK
QsKglobal.com sends their own Christmas wishes, in the form of a video... 113 mb, WMP9 format. (It's considerably more violent than some other wishes you might see this time of year...) (Louis Wu 21:41:46 UTC) (permalink)
Christmas Screens from Edgeworks
The Edgeworks Crew has two new CG screennshots, courtesy of Major.Dump - they're a Christmas present to you. Thanks, MasterChief2829. (Louis Wu 19:59:45 UTC) (permalink)
And a noob with dual SMG's
This scared me. (Louis Wu 19:50:54 UTC) (permalink)
Another shot at that Cortana Figure
The Cortana action figure artist proof that went on sale last week didn't reach its reserve price - so it's back up today. Give it another shot! (There really are not very many of these at all; only a few were made. This auction ends the day after Christmas - so you don't have long to wait to see if you've won!) (Louis Wu 16:52:01 UTC) (permalink)
Christmas Wishes from Renegade Pics
EternalScrappy has made a Christmas Video from Renegade Pictures - take a look! QuickTime format, 26 mb, hosted by Mythica. (Louis Wu 16:48:15 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Pro Circuit Final Ep
If you missed Episode 7 of the MLG Pro Circuit on USA yesterday, you can find it available for web viewing from the MLGPro.com front page. This is the Las Vegas National Championships - this one's for all the marbles. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:00:45 UTC) (permalink)
Christmas Vid
Black Guard created a Halo video as a Christmas gift to the HBO community - you can find links in this post. (Louis Wu 14:56:51 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper Around the Net
Lordstemplar1 stopped by to point out a cool wallpaper created by MaCeGaC for the Prophecy website - very nice work! (MaCeGaC has been busy - he created a Christmas wallpaper for High Impact Halo recently, too.) (Louis Wu 14:55:08 UTC) (permalink)
Rookie Rabbit Comics
Rookie Rabbit Productions wrote to point out their Comic series - it's mostly not Halo related, but there was a Halo strip back in October. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:52:01 UTC) (permalink)
What are you waiting for?
Mintz noticed a 'Ten for 2007' article at GameInformer that focuses on Xbox 360 offerings - and Halo 3 is at the top of the list. Works for me! (Louis Wu 14:49:59 UTC) (permalink)
News December 23 2006
This Spartan Life, Ep 4 (most modules)
This Spartan Life, a machinima talk show, has released previous episodes as 'modules' - a half-hour show might be broken up into 5 or 6 pieces, and released over the course of a few weeks. Episode 4 is a little different - 3 of the 5 modules are online right now, with a fourth due to show up later today. This episode will contain interviews with McKenzie Wark (author of A Hacker Manifesto, among other works) and Burnie Burns (of Rooster Teeth Productions), as well as humor and music snippets. The opening monologue, the travelogue we mentioned in early November, and the interview with Burnie are all up now, with the McKenzie Wark interview coming soon. Go watch - good stuff! (Louis Wu 17:48:22 UTC) (permalink)
Wait, What?
Red vs Blue Episode 86 is now up for Sponsors - 'Brass Tacks' is all about introducing Sister to the Blue Team - and some other people. Don't ask about the Ping Pong Ball trick. Thanks to Bodie for noticing. (This should be available for free before Christmas, I'd guess.) (Louis Wu 15:22:39 UTC) (permalink)
Brute Analysis (in German)
Legend, from Halo Base, wrote to point out an analysis article about the Brute Vidoc - it's in German, but it's pretty big, so if you read German, there's lots of info. There's also a shopping guide, if you're still missing Christmas presents (and read German). (Louis Wu 15:18:53 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Pro Circuit Final - Sneak Peek
Over at MLGPro.com, you'll find a sneak peek at the final episode of the MLG Pro Circuit - first from Walshy's perspective, then from Karma's. What struck me most about watching Karma's screen was the way he simply never slipped off his target's head. (I know most pros do that to some degree - but it's never seemed so obvious before, at least to me.) Great bit - thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:13:29 UTC) (permalink)
Baby Bird Xrays
The last Bungie Weekly Update of the year is up - looks like Frankie's all alone in the Bungie offices. Go read, then have some eggnog, even if Frankie says it's terrible. Because it's not. Eggnog rocks. As always, you can read it at Bungie.net, or you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive. (Not bad, btw - 104 weekly updates in 110 weeks. That's not a lot of slacking!) (Louis Wu 02:02:07 UTC) (permalink)
News December 22 2006
Don't Forget The Sherry...
Christmas is Monday, but Stuntmutt has started the season a little early, with today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:31:25 UTC) (permalink)
Connecting the Dots
Maxe3 and DeOneAndOnly took the Authority Route Map from Terminal, and tied locations from Metropolis to it. Nice work! (Louis Wu 16:14:58 UTC) (permalink)
Local Michigan Boy Makes Good (playing games)
The Grand Rapids Press has an article on Dave 'Walshy' Walsh - and while the Halo stuff is pretty cool, I was more impressed by the sales from his start-up shirt company; they've had almost 15,000 orders in the past month. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 16:10:23 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Tourney in upstate NY
Dan Morrell wrote to point out a Halo 2 tourney/LAN party this weekend in Glenmont, NY. The news post for it is on Facebook - many people won't be able to read that, but he sent along a screenshot for the rest of us. If you're in the area, check it out! (Louis Wu 16:00:08 UTC) (permalink)
Xena Gives Lessons
Fun article over at Wired - Bonnie "Xena" Burton schools a Wired reporter (and in the process rakes in $25/hour for the lesson). Thanks, JeBr0nie. (Louis Wu 15:55:51 UTC) (permalink)
Vidoc now up at Bungie.net
One more update for the Brute Vidoc story at Bungie.net - you can now find official Microsoft downloads listed in the piece, both QuickTime and WMP9 versions. 'Small' means 320x180, 'Large' means 640x360 (no matter what the article itself says). These are not the biggest versions out there - but they're watermark-free, and nice quality. Thanks to Darth Ragnarok for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:48:17 UTC) (permalink)
Better Naming through Turmoil
3Suns noticed an interview with Max Hoberman, of Certain Affinity, over at FiringSquad - Max talks about his work on Halo 3, the upcoming Halo 2 maps, and where CA will fit in the future. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 15:40:01 UTC) (permalink)
More bad Julius Caesar riffs
Also at Rampancy.net, you'll find an interesting analysis of what the current focus on Brutes might mean for your gaming pleasure once Halo 3 comes out, in a new Narc's Retorts. (Louis Wu 15:31:14 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Main Theme For Piano
There's another piece of Halo sheet music for piano up at Rampancy.net - spartan182 transcribed the Halo 2 main theme. Currently available only in Finale Notepad format (though PDF is coming soon, apparently), and remember, you won't see a download link unless you're logged in. (Louis Wu 15:28:56 UTC) (permalink)
Top 10 Worst Ways to Die in Video Games
Mintz noticed a video called 'Top 10 Worst Ways to Die in Video Games' over at TechEBlog - and Halo makes an appearance. (In fact, the Halo entry is unique, in a way. Go watch.) This isn't new; it was created by ScrewAttack, and originally went live a couple of months ago... I remember seeing it then, but for some reason, never posted it to the front page. Well, here it is. (Louis Wu 15:25:42 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
There are 8 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today (though a little while ago, that number was considerably higher, and prompted me to write this note on the Fan Fiction forum - please read it if you're an author). Go see what you can find! (Louis Wu 15:16:50 UTC) (permalink)
News December 21 2006
Halo 2 Weekly Update
Ross Mills found a VERY old ActionTrip comic (September 2004 - two months before Halo 2 was even released)... looking back at the situation at the time (this was published right around the time that Halo 2 went gold - following an insanely busy 6 months in the Bungie offices), it doesn't make a lot of sense, but hey - it's a comic, and it's sort of Halo-related. (Louis Wu 23:53:22 UTC) (permalink)
Cortana action figure proof number 2
If you missed getting your hands on the last Cortana action figure proof (and I'm pretty darned sure you did), you've got another shot at it - another one has gone up on eBay. Current bid is just over $100 - auction ends in 2 days. Good luck! (Thanks to Dolbex for the heads-up... I hope I don't screw up his chances too much with this.) (Louis Wu 23:38:33 UTC) (permalink)
Prophecy Episode 1 Graphic Novel
Interesting. Lordstemplar1 stopped by to point out a PDF-ed Prophecy Episode 1 Graphic Novel - it's Halo machinima, filtered and comic-booked. Pretty fun! (Louis Wu 22:36:51 UTC) (permalink)
LifePod 4
MereCatfish writes to point out LifePod 4, now available for download. Discussion revolves around news before the release of the brute vidoc, including a community panel and a 'map of the month'. 30 minutes, 28 mb. (Louis Wu 22:34:51 UTC) (permalink)
Frankie talks to Xboxyde
Xboxyde has interviewed Frankie, with questions that range from Halo's origins to what's in store. No hard answers (of course), but an interesting read nonetheless! Looks like Urk was first with the heads-up. Update: It wasn't Xboxyde that interviewed Frankie, it was the XCN - the Xbox Community Network. This interview will be showing up on any number of European Xbox sites - for example, it's live at Totally360.com, as well. (Louis Wu 22:13:34 UTC) (permalink)
Stop bein' such a wuss.
As a Christmas present to you all, Captain Spark recorded one last batch of Halo 2 dialogue (he'd said a while ago that he was done) - you can find 13 new snippets, including the Cortana 'Leave me!' quote from the end of High Charity, in the Dialogue Databank. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 18:54:24 UTC) (permalink)
QuickTime Brute Goodies
I do this with some trepidation... but what's bandwidth for, if not to spend it profligately? Yesterday, we pointed out a couple of sites that had 720p versions of the Brute video documentary for download - but only one of those (GameVideos.com) offered a QuickTime version. And that QuickTime version had a few drawbacks: it was encoded using the h.264 codec (which is really cool, but beyond the power of many processors to handle properly), and it weighed in at 577 mb, leading a number of folks with full hard drives to despair. It also came in at a rather odd size: 1248x702 pixels. We're putting up a copy of that vid (with GameVideo's blessing) that has had all of these shortcomings rectified; our version is encoded with the Sorenson 3 Pro codec (viewable by anybody with a relatively current version of QuickTime), it displays at a full 1280x720 pixels, and it weighs in at 269 mb - big, but still 300 mb shy of the original. (Visually, it's identical.) For good measure, we're tossing in a half-size version (640x360, 88 mb) which has the added bonus of being watermark-free. (Our large version, having originated from the GameVideos file, contains the GV watermark.) Be gentle... (Louis Wu 18:19:22 UTC) (permalink)
Next Gen looks at 2006's screwups
Next Generation posted an article last week entitled 'Gaffes and Blunders in 2006' - amidst snickers about the Phantom console, and flying Wii controllers, you'll find, at Number 6, "When Hollywood Schemers Attack", a shot at the Halo movie situation. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 16:42:36 UTC) (permalink)
Vidoc Transcriptions
Two separate transcriptions of the Brute Vidoc appeared on our forum yesterday - RC Master posted a transcript of all the spoken content, and Darkninja90 posted a transcript of all the action (with comments). If you want to see if you missed anything, or if you want to see if the vidoc is worth downloading, these might help! Update: Darkninja90 posted an update, with pictures. (Louis Wu 16:17:18 UTC) (permalink)
News December 20 2006
GTV Intro Contest
We got word from trigger119 that GamingTV is holding a video intro contest - make them a cool intro, win stuff. More details are in this post at GTV! (Louis Wu 22:33:42 UTC) (permalink)
720p downloadable Vidocs
There's a news post further down the page with links to web versions of the Brute Vidoc - but I thought a separate note was warranted for 720p versions (1280x720). You can find them at both TeamXbox (WMP9, 232 mb - thanks, MasterChief2829) and GameVideos.com (WMP9, 478 mb, QuickTime, 577 mb - thanks, giga). High-res goodness... mmm! (Louis Wu 21:56:35 UTC) (permalink)
In-Fusio and MS - mad at each other
Mercury noticed an article at the Inquirer - looks like In-Fusio is suing Microsoft over Halo; the claim is that Microsoft is thwarting In-Fusio from developing the product, but demanding payment anyway. End result for us? No Halo on your cell phone, at least for now. Bummer! (Louis Wu 21:32:11 UTC) (permalink)
This... is... MARTA!
Frankie has updated the news post from last night, which mentions the Brute Vidoc, to include a short question and answer session answering your most-asked questions. And he added in some great pics to try and distract you from the fact that he's got no more screenshots for you. Go read! (Louis Wu 21:17:34 UTC) (permalink)
Basket Case.
Stuntmutt looks at a new form of Covenant attack in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:20:06 UTC) (permalink)
Love/Hate Relationship
Paul Maestri hasn't had a chance to see the Brutes ViDoc yet - I think it might be getting to him. Check today's Halo Heads. (Louis Wu 17:03:49 UTC) (permalink)
Brute Vid online, lots of places
For folks who don't have a 360, or Xbox Live... the Halo 3 ViDoc 'Et Tu, Brute?' is available at millions of places across the web. (Well, okay, not millions. But a lot.) There are 640x360 versions at GameVideos.com (thanks, z77) and Xboxyde (thanks, Urk), and Wraith-ops.com (thanks, Wraith7n). There's a 428x240 version at JeuxFrance (thanks, Xavier De Coster). There are lots and lots of YouTube links (here's one, here's another, there are plenty more). I'm sure there are others - but this is a reasonable collection of links. YouNewb has 89 screenshots. (There are a bunch at that Xboxyde link above, too.) If/when higher-res versions become available on the web, we'll be sure to let you know. (Louis Wu 16:25:22 UTC) (permalink)
Art inspired by the Halo 3 Ad for sale
Pavel Dolgov (we've mentioned him before) has created an 8x10 painting inspired by the Halo 3 ad - you can view it on eBay. The auction ends on December 29. If you like his work, remember that he takes commissions. (Louis Wu 15:34:19 UTC) (permalink)
Libertyville Halo - studio video
We've mentioned the Libertyville Halo performance a few times now (it first came up in September, and we posted a higher-quality recording a couple of weeks ago) - now there's a video to go with the studio audio. Eastbeast314 found a version on YouTube, and DarkHelmet found it on Break.com. Go watch! (Louis Wu 15:30:50 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Pro Circuit, Online Tourney
Over at MLGPro.com, you can watch Week 6 of the MLG Pro Circuit if you missed it on USA last weekend, and there's an update for the MLG Online tourney. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:27:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Outkastz Trailer
Deekor sent word of a teaser for the upcoming Halo Outkatz series (stop by their website for more info). Mythica's got a QuickTime link, and there's a YouTube version. It's very short - but it made me laugh. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 15:21:30 UTC) (permalink)
Jungle Trigonometry: Food
The big news today is going to be the Brutes documentary released on Xbox Live Marketplace earlier this morning, and we'll certainly get to that - but there's a bunch of other Halo goodness that yearns to be free, as well. First up - trigger119 is hosting, over at GamingTV.org, a new vid from SodaGod, called 'Jungle Trigonometry: Food'. It's bright, it's funny, it's well filmed. Have I said SodaGod is one of my favorite machinimators? He is. Grab this - it's worth the download. (We've got mirrors, but as of now they don't seem to be needed.) (Louis Wu 14:59:53 UTC) (permalink)
News December 19 2006
Something Vidoc This Way Comes
Bungie has posted information (TASTY information) about the new video documentary to be released soon - where 'soon' means 'tonight at 2 am PST'. If you don't have an Xbox 360 and access to Xbox Live Marketplace, don't fret - there will be options, in the not-too-distant future, we promise. What will you see here? Well, it'll be your first glimpse of Halo 3 campaign play (though Bungie warns that none of it is set in stone - things can easily change before the final product ships). And lts and lots of other stuff. Get ready. (Louis Wu 23:34:18 UTC) (permalink)
The Gift
Dennis Powers sent word of 'The Gift', a Christmas story from your friends at the Halo CE Chronicles. Available in a number of formats - very pretty stuff. (Louis Wu 17:47:01 UTC) (permalink)
Online coop - revisited
Drakkari pointed out an interview with Certain Affinity's Max Hoberman, who made a comment that might or might not have repercussions for yearning Halo gamers:
I would hope that more games are headed in the direction that we've tried to blaze with Halo 2. I've seen the start of a trend in this direction, and I've seen some huge leaps in online cooperative play, and I hope that this all is a sign of things to come. I think that Halo 3 will set the next standard, but I don't think the Bungie guys want me talking about everything they have up their sleeve just yet.
The Halo 3 Data Archive jumped on this quote, and wrote up a speculation article about what he might have meant. Be aware, though, that until this gets clarified by Bungie, you can't count on Max's quote meaning what you think it means. Whatever it means, though... it's intriguing. (Louis Wu 16:54:34 UTC) (permalink)
EDGE looks inside Bungie
XBWFeenix lets us know that the current EDGE magazine has got a new 'Inside Bungie' article, with (of course) a partial focus on Halo. (Louis Wu 15:59:02 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Shoe! Erm, Tongue! No... LEADER!
Tons of new content over at Tied the Leader this week - there's a Halo 3 Top Ten list, a 22 Questions Interview with Gaming Horizon's Shiva Stella (funny lady), a call for patience, a clan profile of Golden Alliance, and a reader's poll, asking about the admirability of pro gamers. XerxdeeJ stopped by, as is his custom on Tuesdays, to let us know about all this goodness. (Louis Wu 15:55:38 UTC) (permalink)
Helping out our own
Very cool story over at 2old2play; it's not Halo-related, but stories of hope from the gaming community should always be celebrated. Merry Christmas, JollyRoger (and Megan)! Thanks to Rick Casey for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:40:58 UTC) (permalink)
Player Reactions to MLG Cash
MLG has posted a story (thanks, 3Suns) with some feedback from the gamers who recently scored quarter-million-dollar contracts... as you might expect, they're a pleased bunch. This article, however, in the Californian (local paper for Karma's hometown) suggests that Karma might be looking for more of a challenge. Of course, with this new contract, and his tournament winnings, he's going to clear more than $150,000 this year - not too shabby for an 18-year-old playing videogames. We'll have to see how long the money keeps him going... or whether the hungry up-and-coming teams can satisfy his urge for competition. (Louis Wu 15:36:49 UTC) (permalink)
Machines of War teaser
trigger119 wrote to point out a teaser vid, from SodaGod - it's a project called Machines of War, and the teaser is fantastic. (SodaGod is turning into one of my favorite machinimists - if that's a word.) Check this out at GamingTV.org - the WMP9 version is 18.5 mb, the QT-compatible .mp4 is 7.3 mb. Grab it, and get psyched up for the final product, coming this winter! (Louis Wu 15:20:22 UTC) (permalink)
Bob eats rocks?
Over at Bungie.net is a writeup of Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity auction and dinner - and Bungie's part in it. (The Halo 3-related prizes were to die for... and the money they raised... well, go read.) RvB - you guys rock. Thanks to jman571 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:43:53 UTC) (permalink)
News December 18 2006
'Shees, no crackers
PEZ writes to point out that the Issue of the Week this week at halowiki.net is the Banshee. If you know stuff about it - go see if it's already there. If it's not... add it! (Louis Wu 22:08:45 UTC) (permalink)
Worst Case Scenario
Paul Maestri has a bone to pick with EA - check it out in the latest Halo Heads. (Me, personally - I know where my first 300 points would go...) (Louis Wu 20:12:15 UTC) (permalink)
Carbon and Str8 Rippin get contracts
Looks like MLG is expanding the number of pro gaming contracts it's offering; 6 months ago, they laid out $1.25 million for 5 players, and today there's another $1.75 million up for 7 more players - the full teams of Final Boss, Carbon, and Str8 Rippin are now fully covered by MLG contracts. Thanks (again) to JeBr0nie for noticing. (Louis Wu 19:43:32 UTC) (permalink)
Bay Area Tourney this week
JeBr0nie found a tournament in Fremont, California, coming up this Thursday at the Irvington High School. If you're in the area, you might want to check this out! (Louis Wu 19:38:02 UTC) (permalink)
A Bunch Of Grrr Apes.
Stuntmutt finishes up (for now) his analysis of the Halo 3 ad in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:12:00 UTC) (permalink)
Why, Gunns, what big teeth you have!
RVideo swapped out some other biped models, again demonstrating that the lip-synching is stored with the dialogue, and not strictly with the character model. (There's a more complete description in this post.) As RVideo says - it's not really hard to do this, but the results are pretty cool! (Louis Wu 14:34:57 UTC) (permalink)
A Legendary Back
GothicSlayer stopped by to show off the beginnings of his Halo tattoo - I gotta say, that's dedication! It's just an outline right now (even so, it's pretty impressive), but as he gets the time/money for more details, he'll post updates. (I would suggest that he NOT try Stuntmutt's 4th pickup line suggestion. (Louis Wu 14:15:18 UTC) (permalink)
Video Madness at Halomega
CiphA sent in his regular weekly update from Halomega - lots of videos for you this time around. Montages: nAhtA/Epilogue, NNastYY/ConoR. Dualtage: BigMike/BloodyPingu. Gameplay: SmallParrot vs Brohan 1v1 Lockout, Qwikstrik3 vs Sly Fox 1v1. They've also got a Signature contest running. (Louis Wu 13:18:00 UTC) (permalink)
Heretic Wallpaper Available
Over at the Edgeworks Entertainment website, you'll find a new wallpaper for download, created by Major.Dump for the upcoming Heretic video series. It's called 'The Spartans', and it's a pretty nice render! (Louis Wu 13:10:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 trailer piano solo transcribed
Over at Rampancy.net, spartan182 and young kaos have transcribed the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer piano solo, and it's available for download in Finale Notepad format. Nothing else, right now, and don't forget you'll need to be logged in to see the download link - but if you've got Finale Notepad, and a Rampancy.net account, go grab this! (Louis Wu 13:07:40 UTC) (permalink)
News December 17 2006
A rare Halo auction
Okay, I had to fight with myself about whether or not to post this - it's an eBay auction I'd love to win myself, but it might be out of my price range. (Not front-paging it would significantly increase my chances of winning - but if I can't afford it, why keep it from those who can?) MasterShamen noticed that someone is selling a Halo Cortana action figure original artist proof - this is a casting made from Curt Chiarelli's original molds, in pressurized designer resin; it's pretty darned rare. The auction has 2 days left, so there's plenty of time - but the reserve might be higher than you're interested in exceeding. (Current bid is $104, and the reserve has not yet been met.) If you're independently wealthy, and a Halo fanatic - get to bidding! (Louis Wu 23:23:53 UTC) (permalink)
Ventriloquism at its best
RVideo swapped Cortana's biped model into a cutscene for a couple of other characters... and the really odd thing is that Cortana lip-synchs nicely along with the dialogue. This is dialogue she was never intended to speak, mind you - it belongs to other characters (they identify themselves, fergoshsakes). Pretty cool to watch! Available in WMP9 or QT formats, links are in the forum post. (For what it's worth, the cutscene itself should be considered to contain Halo 2 spoilers, though nothing in this news post does.) (Louis Wu 23:15:52 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 29
Sigafoos writes to point out The Riot #29 - he and Brathnok are back. lost of community updates, plus Halo news from around the web. 19 minutes, 7.5 mb. Go listen. (Louis Wu 22:17:47 UTC) (permalink)
Reid 18's fifth montage
Z wrote about Reid 18's fifth montage - worth watching. Great gameplay, great quality... and really nice synching (especially the second song). Check it out - WMP9 format, 138 mb, over at Halo3Forum.com. (Louis Wu 16:20:21 UTC) (permalink)
The last word on the WSVG Finals story
You thought it was over - but WSVG wanted a chance to tell their side of the WSVG Finals confusion. Amped eSports has all the details. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 16:18:02 UTC) (permalink)
News December 16 2006
Heh - Caboose in Halo 3?
According to Kotaku, the winner of the Child's Play auction for the chance to have a line in Halo 3 was someone from the Red vs Blue crew - nice! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 14:55:52 UTC) (permalink)
Beginnings of a Spartan III Costume
John Cannon posted a link to some pictures showing off the beginnings of his Spartan III costume helmet. Just a few pics so far - but if he continues updating, we'll let you know. (Louis Wu 14:52:20 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo Panoramas
RVideo whipped up some new Panoramas - you can find the two we mentioned yesterday, as well as 3 new ones, here in this post. The first Cortana one is wonderful! (Louis Wu 14:46:12 UTC) (permalink)
Interview with Bungie at CVG
ComputerAndVideoGames was one of the press groups that showed up at Bungie's offices a couple of months ago to play some Alpha Halo. Their interview with Bungie employees that day went live this morning. A lot of the info has already found its way to the public via one of the other press groups there that day, but it's still got some nice nuggets - for example, I don't remember reading about the Veto system before this. Go read! (I heard this via Google News Alerts, but Justinian managed to post it to our forum before I got a chance to write the news note.) Update: According to XBWFeenix, this interview first appeared in the Official Xbox 360 Magazine (UK). (Louis Wu 14:31:34 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 300 - a different take
When the first trailer for Frank Miller's upcoming '300' movie was released, there were a couple of different Halo tributes - both tried to stay true to the action in the official trailer. A second trailer has been released - and AgentMonkey117 posted a YouTube link last night to his Halo version - this one uses Halo footage, but rather than matching the visual action of the cinematic trailer, he finds footage that allows him to stay true to the audio - but which is uniquely Halo. I liked it - great choices! (Louis Wu 14:17:34 UTC) (permalink)
RvB Info Flood
Swinging by the Red vs Blue site last night, I noticed a link to Forbes Magazine, where they were recently written up - and where they created a new vid about making money. Sarge scares me. Then, a bit later, back on their own site, they posted a new PSA for sponsors - it's called 'Let's All Go to the Movies', and it gives you lots of suggestions on how not to suck so much in movie theaters. The news article about it also contains screenshots of the new RvB theme available on Xbox Live Marketplace (I gotta say, it doesn't look like any theme I've seen so far - and that's generally a good thing). Whew! That's a lot of news for a site that sometimes goes weeks between releases! (Louis Wu 13:57:19 UTC) (permalink)
3 new This Spartan Life eps at SpikeTV
First off - I noticed a frew folks saw the headline of last night's Weekly Update post ('Pistol De-Nerfed') and wondered if I were being sarcastic, or if there really was going to be something done with the pistol to return it to Halo 1 status - for the record, it was a joke. Sorry. Okay, on to Halo news. The rest of the episodes that This Spartan Life did for Spike TV are now online - we mentioned the Frag Dolls piece back in November, and the Augustana piece earlier this week - if you swing by now, you'll find three new episodes. Damian talked to Tristan Pope and Terran Gregory, of Blizzard, about World of Warcraft (and Machinima), as well as Geoff Keighley, of Spike TV's Game Head, and Julian Gerighty, producer of Splinter Cell. Again, there's no way to get to the videos directly via Spike's Flash interface, so follow the URL to the VGA 2006 page, and then click on the 'This Spartan Life' link in the left navbar to get an interface to all 5 'webisodes'. Thanks to Nicholas Brown for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:45:13 UTC) (permalink)
News December 15 2006
Confirmed: Pistol De-Nerfed
Whoa. The Bungie Weekly Update is up WAY early this week - and it's WAY short. (The Bungie building lost power, so Frankie wrote it from a nearby coffee house.) There's some clarification of yesterday's Brute fiasco (nice to hear that you won't need a 360 to watch the documentary), and some fun stuff about Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity dinner last week. Go read, either at Bungie.net or in our Weekly Update Archive! (Thanks to zugy for noticing this before I headed out this evening.) (Louis Wu 21:13:09 UTC) (permalink)
Pointless
Paul Maestri sends word that Halo Heads 34 has been posted - made me smile. (Louis Wu 20:57:28 UTC) (permalink)
Rampancy.net - Rounding out your Halo Experience
Last couple of updates for a bit - both from Rampancy.net. First up is a speculation piece in Narcogen's blog - he knows that Frankie has discredited the rumor that Brutes are playable in Halo 3... but he's written an article explaining why they COULD be, anyway. Second is a note about a new subsite of wideloadgames.org - Voices of the Damned, a site devoted to collecting dialogue from Stubbs the Zombie. Hurrah! (Louis Wu 17:29:28 UTC) (permalink)
Poke A Little Fun.
Stuntmutt continues his series of riffs on the Halo 3 ad in today's One One Se7en. This one's brilliant. (I know, I know, I just killed One One Se7en... sorry.) (Louis Wu 16:56:44 UTC) (permalink)
Skipping Stones
RVideo did a couple of really nice panoramas - you can see one, and grab both (plus some extra files) in this forum post. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 16:54:28 UTC) (permalink)
...and Gruntleberry dressing!
XBWFeenix found a really nice Christmas card from the Ensemble Halo Wars team... check it out! (Louis Wu 16:46:26 UTC) (permalink)
Battle of the Big Sellers
So today Microsoft announced that Gears of War has sold 2 million copies - according to this article (thanks, JeBr0nie), that makes it "the fastest- selling next-generation game of 2006 and the fastest-selling exclusive Xbox(R) game ever", and according to this one, it's beaten Halo 2 in the race to 2 million. (That second article is obviously confused - a search of articles around November 10 and 11, 2004 - here's a representative one - will show that Microsoft announced sales of 2.4 million copies of Halo 2 in the first 24 hours it was on sale.) The first article... hmm. Halo 2 isn't a 'next-generation game of 2006', so that claim is safe... but until the Vista version of Halo 2 is released, Halo 2 is, indeed, an exclusive Xbox title. Bah - it's all just bragging rights, anyway. Lots of people have bought Gears of War - that should make Epic and Microsoft pretty happy. (Louis Wu 16:38:20 UTC) (permalink)
THIS is why I stick around.
Does Mig rock, or what? (Yes, the thread is locked. All 5 songs are gone. I didn't want to put this on the front page until they were... but the act needed recognition.) (Louis Wu 15:37:37 UTC) (permalink)
Ve are NOT losink that ship, darlink!
Bizarre - Sep7imus ran across an interview with Julie Benz (the voice actress who plays Miranda Keyes in Halo 2) - the end of the interview contained questions about Halo 2, and some perplexing information:
TVGuide.com: Are you all done with your voice work for the Halo 3 video game?
Benz: You know what? I am actually not a part of Halo 3. I was informed a couple of weeks ago that they are actually changing the voice of Captain Miranda Keyes, and giving her an accent.
TVGuide.com: Are you serious?! What kind of an accent?
Benz: I have no idea. [Laughs] They didn't even entertain the idea of having me do it, so... I was very sad. I was very sad. I had such a great time doing Halo 2.
An accent? I wonder why? There are more Halo-related questions in the interview - go read! (Louis Wu 13:46:22 UTC) (permalink)
Go Blue! Woo-hoo!
Gah. I forgot to post this a couple of days ago - but Luke McKay sketched up the newest character in the RvB series, Lil' Sis. Kind of Pippi Longstocking-ish, you ask me... (Louis Wu 13:41:21 UTC) (permalink)
New DA find
rayzer730 was browsing DeviantART, and ran across this image by luxun. Great work! Seems like he does a lot of coloring, as well - check out this pic. (Louis Wu 13:17:20 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Twelve new pieces for you this week in the Fan Fiction section - new authors, old favorites - go look! (Louis Wu 13:11:35 UTC) (permalink)
Sound Arguments
MLG's released another podcast, this one discussing the National Championships and what helped (or hindered) the top teams in their quest for top honors. 10 minutes, 4.6 mb - go listen. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:38:15 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Birthday... and Godspeed.
Happy Birthday today (and a sad farewell) to vshields ash, who has turned 55 - and has announced his retirement from the Halo community. (It's real, and it's time, and though we're going to miss him, mostly because I won't be able to say there's a community member who's almost 15 years older than I am (well, except Marty, but he's so old he's passed go and started over - I think he's younger than KP now), it's the right thing to do.) Do a search for him here, or more usefully, at High Impact Halo, if you want to relive some of his contributions. vern... it's been a good run. Take care of yourself. (Louis Wu 12:30:11 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Track Available on iTunes
Marty O'Donnell has released the track from the Halo 3 Announcement trailer as a single, available for exclusive download from the iTunes Music Store. A thread sprang up on our forum last night, with a number of posters expressing everything from disappointment to disgust that this piece is for sale (at a whopping 99 cents), rather than being released for free... but remember, nobody's forcing you to buy this. The music is available, albeit mixed with ambient sounds, in the trailer itself, if you don't want to pay for it. (Jordan117 had a great suggestion - play this piece simultaneously with the Announcement trailer... you get an entirely different feel (though it matches up nicely). (Louis Wu 12:12:20 UTC) (permalink)
Sprucing up the old 360
Hawaiian Pig won our Design a Faceplate Contest back in August, and he was contacted by a fan named Randy Goth who wanted to use the design to make his own faceplate. HP had to modify the design a bit to fit the template Randy was using - and last night posted the pics Randy sent him of the finished products. Man... that's a nice-looking 360! (Louis Wu 11:57:13 UTC) (permalink)
News December 14 2006
Animated Flip Books
Interesting - over at the Halo 3 Forum at Bungie.net, I noticed a thread about animated flip books made by DFlyDen - they look really cool! (You can see the Halo-related ones, along with several other kinds, in videos at GameTrailers.com. They're not for sale anywhere.) (Louis Wu 23:56:22 UTC) (permalink)
XBL-related upgrades at halowiki.net
PEZ wrote to say that the Halo 2 Recent Games Listing and the Halo 2 Live Game Saver have been integrated at halowiki.net - you can now easily see (and save) any games you're really proud of with just a couple of clicks. Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:39:50 UTC) (permalink)
Creative Contests Winding Down
We got word from bryboy remix, reminding us about the Halopeño So Hot Editing Contest, ending in just a few days. (Deadline for submissions is midnight, December 18, and winners will be announced on Christmas day.) As a refresher, all you need are moviemaking tools; the content is provided by HBO's cutscene library (video) and Halopen (audio). Winners will receive EB Games/Gamestop goodies from a $70 budget. Check the page for more details! (And while we're reminding you about contests at Halo sites, don't forget about Halo Everywhere, the 'put Halo into the world' contest being run by PraetoriaGuard. You've got until February for submissions, at that one. ) (Louis Wu 21:40:17 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Base interviews Cody Miller
Legend, from Halo Base, sent word about an interview with Cody Miller, the Halo world speedrunning champion (heh). It's primarily a discussion of his 3 and a half hour Legendary No-Deaths run that won this year's Twin Galaxies challenge - it's a fascinating read! (The Halo Base staff confused Cody with Mike Miller at one point, and Cody didn't correct them directly, but otherwise, they got it right on.) It's available in both English and German - read the one that's easier for you! (Louis Wu 21:00:15 UTC) (permalink)
GTR's 2nd Annual Xbox Community Awards '06
Last year, we mentioned the Gamertag Radio Xbox Community Awards almost in passing - and we even WON one! The site was young, and maybe a little rough... but they've really polished things up this past year, and the awards ceremony this year is chock-full of Xbox luminaries, humor bits, and music. There's even a Halo tie-in again; Bungie won the Xbox Live Marketplace Download of the Year Award, for their E3 Halo 3 Trailer. Frankie was on-hand to accept the award. The show is 45 minutes long, 35 mb to download - there are other Halo community members that were nominated for awards this year, so go listen! (Louis Wu 15:21:36 UTC) (permalink)
New footage next week?
Xboxic uncovered a blog post from YLA G, a Microsoft employee who's part of the Xbox Elite Team Belgium, that reports about a 7 minute Halo 3 trailer to be available on Xbox Live Marketplace next week.
The clip will show the emergence of the Brutes as "playable characters" in the game and it will contain 2.5 minutes of gameplay footage.
As Xboxic says, this hasn't been confirmed anywhere else, but there have been hints that stuff is coming this month, so who knows? If we get something out of Bungie about this, we'll be sure to let you know. Update: The More Deluded reminded us that Bungie actually mentioned that SOMETHING was coming, back in mid-November:
Shortly after the commercial airs, we'll be treating our fans to the next installment in our "making of" documentary series on Xbox Live Marketplace. This next "VIDOC" is going to give some new insights into elements of the campaign and will peel back the curtain on a certain prominent character in Halo 3. We'll talk more about this in the coming weeks.
Doesn't mention Brutes specifically, but it certainly fits nicely with the rumor. Update 2: Frankie has confirmed (on the Gaming Age forums) that the 'playable brutes' part of this story, at least, is NOT true. Thanks to Ding On, on the Bungie.net forums, for the heads-up. Update 3: And he's now smacked it down on our own forum, as well, for folks who might not believe 'Stinkles' might actually be Frankie. (Louis Wu 14:54:42 UTC) (permalink)
They like... something.
Over at Bungie.net, there's a new article about Certain Affinity, a soon-to-be Bungie Spinoff; Max Hoberman, who's been the multiplayer design lead for Halo 2 and Halo 3, has been hard at work with a hand-picked crew building the Halo 2 maps that will be released for 360 owners this spring. At some point soon, they'll cease to be Bungie employees, and begin to be Certain Affinity devs - for more on what this means, read the article! Thanks to Shishka (who will be part of the CA team) for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:25:17 UTC) (permalink)
Bubble Wrap
Paul Maestri sends word that Halo Heads 33 is online - and I must say, it's rather surreal. Not unpleasant... just odd. (Louis Wu 03:22:06 UTC) (permalink)
News December 13 2006
RvB vid, theme on XBLM
According to Major Nelson, there's a new Red vs Blue Holiday Video, and a Theme for your 360, available on Xbox Marketplace. (No pictures I can find online, yet.) Thanks, darthbob100. (Louis Wu 18:13:19 UTC) (permalink)
Off The Top Of His Head...
Today's One One Se7en is much more understandable if you're British. (Louis Wu 15:17:54 UTC) (permalink)
Makin' a Buck
This popped up yesterday, but I forgot to mention it. Apparently, one of the UK sites that has been given a set of beta slots to give away to fans has decided to SELL those slots. Microsoft was not amused, and warned any site caught doing this would be cut off from all future Microsoft goodies. (Presumably, the slots that were sold will be voided, as well.) If the site you love is SELLING slots instead of giving them away, run; as Evil Otto puts it - "the only thing you will purchase is disappointment." Thanks to Red_Breast for the first heads-up. Update: looks like that Britbox article has been yanked - Deadguy71 found a different one that's still live, at HEXUS Gaming. (Louis Wu 13:33:40 UTC) (permalink)
LifePod Episode 3
Merecatfish points out that LifePod 3 is up - highlight is an interview with mapmaker NeuroKoNeza. 30 minutes long, 28 mb. Check it out! (Louis Wu 03:59:16 UTC) (permalink)
Alternating Blockbusters
Red_Breast found a story at totally360.com (and 3Suns found a similar one at 2old2play) talking about a snippet in an upcoming issue of EGM - apparently, they're claiming that Microsoft's gameplan is to alternate Gears of War and Halo releases, to help stomp on Sony and Nintendo's marketing buzz. The biggest problem with this gameplan is that Bungie has already said that Halo 3 is the end of this story arc, and (while they haven't said they're throwing up yet) they've been working nearly exclusively on Halo for the past 7 years. At some point... you'd think they'd be tired of it, even if Microsoft isn't. Maybe the 'Halo' after Gears 2 will be Halo Wars? (Louis Wu 03:51:14 UTC) (permalink)
MLG News Ticker
3Suns pointed out a bunch of new stuff at MLGPro.com - there's an interview with Carbon, a story about Legit (who recently left Storm Ventures) joining Legendz, filling StrongSide's slot, and the MLG side of the WSVG/MLG tiff this weekend at the WSVG finals. Good fun. (Louis Wu 03:46:53 UTC) (permalink)
The Heretic Drama Trailer
Nerrolken, of the Edgeworks Entertainment team (the guys who created the Codex Series last year), sent word that they've released The Heretic Trailer, the first of two. This is the Drama Trailer - the next will be the Action Trailer. It gives you a taste of the storyline of the upcoming Heretic series. It's available in QuickTime format (12.6 mb), and WMP9 format (7.2 mb). Looks to be a fantastic series! Check it out. (Louis Wu 03:41:22 UTC) (permalink)
News December 12 2006
Is that a metric buttload, or a standard one?
According to IGN, over 140,000 people signed up at Halo3.com for a chance to participate in the North American Halo 3 beta test kicking off next spring. No wonder the page was having trouble at times! (Louis Wu 19:18:11 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader Tuesday
If it's Tuesday, there must be a TTL update! And lo and behold, there is. XerxdeeJ summarizes the new goodies - a 22 Questions Interview with Fitbabits, of Evil Avatar, a fun bit of parody artwork, a reader's poll asking for help updating the 22 Questions, and a profile of the PMS Clan. What are you waiting for? Go read! (Louis Wu 17:27:23 UTC) (permalink)
Static - now in one piece
Dennis Powers has re-released his movie Static, as a single 320x240 file, 36 minutes long. It's 121mb, and only available in WMP9 format. (The individual episodes were released in higher-res, 640x480 format in WMP9, QT, and streaming flash; this is really only for the people who want to watch it as a single file, and don't like the idea of starting 6 different episodes.) (Louis Wu 16:50:48 UTC) (permalink)
Do Halos Melt?
Heh - Tex started a Halo snowflake craze. (Well, it's not a craze YET - that's sort of up to you.) (Louis Wu 15:54:34 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Slayer Edition
Compass stopped by with word of an alpha release of Halo: Slayer Edition, a mod for Madness Interactive. Fun stuff! (Louis Wu 15:51:18 UTC) (permalink)
Str8 Rippin Wins WSVG
Despite the melodrama, the WSVG finals went off as planned this weekend - and Str8 Rippin took the first-place title (and $20,000). MoBDeep.net took second, and XiT WoundZ grabbed third. You can read a writeup at TeamXbox. (Louis Wu 15:46:30 UTC) (permalink)
This Spartan Life talks to Augustana
The second interview done by This Spartan Life for the 2006 SpikeTV Video Game Awards (the first went live last month) is now up - Damian talks to Jared Palomar, of the band Augustana. Band talk, a discussion of the whole Game with Fame program, and trap shooting... with fusion cores. Fun stuff! (To find it, follow the link above, then click on 'Watch This Spartan Life' in the left navbar, and choose the second vid.) (Louis Wu 15:43:46 UTC) (permalink)
Story Doctor and Baby Deliverer
Evil Avatar has interviewed Eric Nylund - some Halo stuff, some general writing stuff, some questions about his other writings. Good stuff! Thanks to all who mentioned it - 3Suns was first. (Louis Wu 15:39:22 UTC) (permalink)
News December 11 2006
4v4 tourneys at Violated Gaming
Chad Souter wrote to point out 2 tournaments at violatedgaming.com - a 4v4 MLG-rules tourney on December 14, and a 4v4 SWAT tourney on the 21st. Swing by for more details! (Louis Wu 18:13:29 UTC) (permalink)
Abusedgoat's Megamix
Z wrote to point out Abusedgoat's Megamix - a montage that includes 10 different maps (it's not just Lockout and Midship!) and some nice editing. Abusedgoat's pretty darned good with the stickies... and he's a master spawnkiller on Turf. (Heh - he's a pretty good sniper all around, but there's a Kilimanjaro or two that wouldn't have happened with more random spawnpoints...) WMP9 format, 146 mb. (Louis Wu 18:11:00 UTC) (permalink)
Issue of the week - Waterworks
PEZ wrote to point out that halowiki.net has a new Issue of the Week - it's Waterworks. (You can find it on their front page - look for the yellow Highlights box.) Check out basics, tactics, tips and tricks... and add your own! (Louis Wu 17:53:42 UTC) (permalink)
Campers.
In today's One One Se7en, Stuntmutt dares to ask the tough questions that come up in the dark. (Louis Wu 16:59:28 UTC) (permalink)
Falling on my virtual face
The staff at High Impact Halo wrote down a bunch of questions about running a fansite, and I did my best to muddle through 'em. It's not strictly Halo-related, though most of the questions are about HBO... but if you're thinking about getting into the fansite arena, it might have a few useful tidbits for you. (Louis Wu 16:44:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halomega Weekly Update
Monday's here, so Halomega's CiphA sent another weekly update. You can find two new gameplay vids - not montages, but full games (TalenT, WMP9, 265 mb, and Bradddddddd, WMP9, 164 mb). You can find the results from last week's Snipe of the Week contest, and a page for the next contest. (you should really check this one out - only 20 entries will be accepted, and the winner will receive an xbox (soft-modded). It's a Christmas present from Frozen.) Finally, there's a montage teaser from GuNNa (WMP9 format, 19 mb). Enough to keep you busy? (Louis Wu 15:48:51 UTC) (permalink)
Cortana Bodypainting
Yesterday, gunluva stopped by our forum to say that he'd stumbled across some pictures of a woman done up in Cortana bodypaint - but that he was reluctant to post the URL, because there was artistic nudity involved. (I'd like to go on record that I appreciate his hesitance; while Halo is a Mature-rated game, there are still plenty of kids who visit this site, and the last thing I need are angry emails from offended parents.) He sent me the link via email, and I contacted the site's maintainer, who explained that the same pictures could be found at DeviantART - with the added bonus that DA does an age check automatically. (Yes, you'll need to sign in if you want to see them. Sorry. Upside - registration's free.) If you like the work, you should check out the rest of his DeviantART gallery; there's lots of other bodypainting shots. The woman playing Cortana is KayleeT - you can check out her modeling portfolio here. (Louis Wu 15:05:40 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 28
Wow, is the weekend over already? I guess it's time to get back to work... we got mail from Bitter Irony, the host of this week's episode of The Riot (Sigafoos and Brathnok are MIA). It's a short one - 12:30 long, 4.5 mb - but it covers lots of stuff. Go listen! (Louis Wu 14:52:30 UTC) (permalink)
News December 10 2006
Lost: Halostyle Ep 11 - The Deep Breath
Injured Knee Productions has released Episode 11 of their Lost: Halostyle series. I know I said last month that I like this series - I'm upgrading that. I LOVE this series. Great cinematography, great storyline, great voices. And it makes me laugh. Go watch it. We're hosting copies for them - WMP9 (48.3 mb) or QuickTime (48.5 mb). Then go hang out on their server and pester them to finish Episode 12. (Or start it, maybe. I don't know how they work on these.) (Louis Wu 18:41:20 UTC) (permalink)
British Halo PC LAN in Feb
xiLeF[i] writes to point out a Halo PC LAN coming up in February - the 23rd to the 25th, specifically. It's taking place in West Yorkshire, UK, and entry fee is £15 for competitors, or £5/day for spectators (or £10 for the whole weekend). They're working on sponsors right now for prizes, but if there's money left over at the end, it'll be rolled into funding another LAN this summer. Put together your best 3-player teams, and sign up! (British top teams e0! and uTi are going to be there.) More details can be found in this forum post. (Louis Wu 18:15:29 UTC) (permalink)
Bad Cyborg - Thingz
Rockslider updated his Two Betrayals page with a bunch of new challenges - if you're bored, try to complete them all! (Louis Wu 18:08:06 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Orlando - now up in the MLG Pro Circuit
Week five of MLG Pro Circuit went live on USA Networks yesterday - but if you missed it, you can see it online at MLGPro.com. MLG Orlando was a watershed; Carbon settled on the roster that would eventually win the National Championship, and Str8 Rippin dropped Defy for Captain Anarchy. Check out the action! Thanks, THE bean. (Louis Wu 16:57:58 UTC) (permalink)
News December 9 2006
Forerunner Renders
Yesterday, we got mail from TheForerunner, who submitted a bunch of pictures he'd rendered using 3dsmax. I thought they were great. I put them up on this page. Give 'em a look! (Louis Wu 22:33:04 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 ad - remade
Cool. Jamie98s whipped up a version of the Halo 3 ad using the Halo 2 engine (well, with a little help). Good stuff! 6.6 mb in WMP9 format, 7.2 mb in QuickTime format. Grab a copy! (Louis Wu 22:31:17 UTC) (permalink)
A noble prechour named Mayster Cheeve
Heh - did you know Geoffrey Chaucer had a blog? And that he played Halo? Me either. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 21:59:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Wars Heaven launches
watchwood sent word that Halo Wars Heaven has opened - it's a Halo Wars fansite. (The first?) Check it out - they're already running a fan-fiction contest. Update: Ducain reminded me of Halo Wars Central, which we mentioned back in early October. Where's that WD-40 for my steel trap? (It seems that Halo Wars Central isn't online at the moment - a fansite started and abandoned well over a year before the game's released? Ouch.) (Louis Wu 21:57:39 UTC) (permalink)
MLG vs WSVG - Pros in the middle
Wow. Remember last week, when the World Series of Video Games announced that they'd made a deal with CBS Sports to broadcast Halo 2 gaming on the network? Yeah, well... the WSVG finals are this weekend, and four top MLG teams were supposed to be competing. All sorts of conditions had already been agreed to (they will be wearing MLG shirts during the tourney, and their gamertags will all be prefaced with 'MLG')... but things got ugly when the WSVG asked the players to sign a release allowing footage of them playing to be broadcast at a later date. (Read GotFrag's take, or Amped's take.) MLG told them not to do it, and for a little while, it looked like the MLG players might be locked out of the tournament. The GotFrag article has an update that suggests the two sides have come to an agreement... but it's interesting to read the player reactions in the Amped article; many of the mid-level players feel betrayed by MLG for daring to make money in a different venue, while the top players seem to think it's WSVG that's pulling something shifty. We'll see how it actually plays out, later today... (Louis Wu 12:06:14 UTC) (permalink)
Got any money?
Red vs Blue Episode 85, 'Yellow Fever', has been released for sponsors (free versions should be up by Sunday) - Grif tries to do the right thing with his sister, but he might have misjudged a little. Thanks to LX925 for the heads-up (and for the oh-so-true observation in that forum post). (Louis Wu 03:52:59 UTC) (permalink)
Bridge CE single player level - teaser
Rob Oplawar stopped by to point out a new teaser trailer for his ambitious project Bridge CE (a working title only). Swing by and grab a copy - looks pretty cool! (Louis Wu 03:22:31 UTC) (permalink)
2007 - Year of the Phoenix
You haven't heard a lot from PraetoriaGuard in recent months (well, until a week or two ago) - but that's not because they've been slacking. They haven't been. They've put together a slick little promo vid to ramp up towards 2007 - you can grab it off their servers in QuickTime format (6.1 mb) or WMP9 format (1.8 mb). There's a lot coming - hold on to your hats! (Louis Wu 03:18:16 UTC) (permalink)
The Beta, the Ad, and More
Up on Bungie.net, you'll find the latest Bungie Weekly Update - it's got an interview with Ed Ulbrich, president of Digital Domain's commercial division, who answers some questions about the Halo 3 ad, and another with Stephen Dewey, the Sound Designer and founder of Machine Head, who did the sound design for the ad. And oh, yeah, a spooky Mister Chief. (Is that George Clooney in the visor reflection?) You can, as usual, find a searchable version of this update in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 02:57:28 UTC) (permalink)
News December 8 2006
CG... or not CG?
There are lots of questions people still have about the Halo 3 commercial... but here's an answer, hard and solid, directly from Frank O'Connor at Bungie. With respect to the children shown at the start of the film:
"Those kids are real actors. Not CG or MoCap. Even the grass is real in that shot."
More of your questions will be answered soon - Bungie's got an interview with Digital Domain that will go live before you're as grey as I am. (Louis Wu 19:51:38 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Grunts - Animation
This morning, we got word from Shaun Escayg, who was involved in an animation project over at CGSociety.org. The short video he pointed us to (5 seconds, about 6 mb) was fantastic - but I didn't want them to suffer from a bandwidth hit if we front-paged this, so we're making the video available here (with Shaun's permission, of course). Feel free to toss your two cents into that thread at CGS... but grab the video from us. (It's available in its original H.264-encoded QuickTime (5.5 mb), as well as a Sorenson3-encoded QuickTime (3.9 mb) and a WMP9 version (5.7 mb).) It's not long, and it has no sound - but the grunts are GORGEOUS. Model was done by Ben Falcone, animation by Shaun Escayg, and rigging by Mikkel Grosland (with Anna Terekhova supplying the Needler model). Amazing work. Grab a copy! (Louis Wu 19:31:37 UTC) (permalink)
Blue Movie.
When studio funding for the Halo movie pulled out a couple of months ago, some people speculated that Microsoft wouldn't have any trouble funding the development themselves. In an interview recently, Robbie Bach said that this would not happen - Microsoft was not getting into the movie-making business. Today's One One Se7en suggests a reason why. (Louis Wu 19:25:02 UTC) (permalink)
Valkyrie
Camboy45, a member of the Red vs Blue community, sent along a shot of his new Halo tattoo. Nice work! (Louis Wu 18:48:58 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Fifteen new pieces for you in today's Fan Fiction update - well, not quite, because someone thought that because they'd mislabeled a series name, they should RESUBMIT the series, in its entirety... but you get the idea. (In the future, please don't do this.) (Louis Wu 18:04:25 UTC) (permalink)
GameVideos deconstructs Halo 3 ad - in video
Mark MacDonald and Luke Smith (of GameVideos.com/1Up.com/Electronic Games Magazine) have their own deconstruction of the Halo 3 commercial; what's different about theirs (aside from the fact that these guys get paid for this sort of thing) is that it's in video format. They walk through the commercial, conversing about all the juicy tidbits as they go. This is available at GameVideos.com - it's 13 minutes long, and you can either watch it in streaming format on their site, or download hi-res versions (more than 200 MB) to your computer to watch at your leisure. (Louis Wu 07:59:31 UTC) (permalink)
PG - the Maginot Line of Guards
Normally, The Halo Humpday Challenge is a series of three games between Bungie and a community team. Normally, Bungie gets their collective rears handed to them in a majority of those games. This week was no exception, really; Bungie had a team of two (because everyone else was either too busy or too stupid), and PraetoriaGuard simply cycled in 3 pairs of the six people they brought to the party. Two of the games were predictable; Bungie's team of Frankie and Lars went down HARD. The third... the third was so unusual that this week's Halo Humpday Challenge focuses ONLY on that game. In this game, Frankie (FRANKIE fergoshsakes) pummeled clan leader LordGideon and faithful sidekick SteelValor so mercilessly, so thoroughly that his score was more than double their best score, and his deaths were half of their least-killed player. His medal count equalled their TEAM'S medal count, and the number of headshots he scored was greater than the sum of all players on the PG team. To put it simply... he kicked ass and took names... and then wrote those names on a chalkboard and fed the chalkboard to a bear. And then he sicced that bear on Steven Colbert. (Wait, I might have gotten that part wrong.) LordGideon, we hear, has not come out of his room yet. (The game was played almost 36 hours ago.) (Louis Wu 07:19:02 UTC) (permalink)
News December 7 2006
Man in the Iron Mask
Mitchell Moore sent word of Outside the Box, whose current storyline is Halo-related. And yeah, I think I'd respond like the second girl... (Louis Wu 22:38:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Hamlet.
Jordan117 did some creative writing. Heh. (Louis Wu 21:13:51 UTC) (permalink)
Into Battle
A couple of weeks ago, Pinkuh finished a new piece of art that had been commissioned for an upcoming contest (a signed, framed print of this piece will be available to be won) - I hadn't posted it in her gallery because I thought it was supposed to be exclusive to the contest. Today, I was corrected - the print will be exclusive - but the digital version is available for all to enjoy. So Enjoy! (Louis Wu 21:00:12 UTC) (permalink)
The Best of the Halouvre - a new gallery
Yesterday, Bungie.net posted a small note about the Halouvre, and how it had just celebrated its 2nd birthday. Since we mentioned that celebration a week ago, I figured I'd pass on this - but JeBr0nie made me look again... and there IS something of note that's new in that post; the Halouvre has opened a new section, called 'The Best of The Halouvre', nailing down some of the most impressive HUDless shots they've collected. If you've found their large collection daunting, check out this best-of gallery - it's a great way in! Update: looks like the site's down (probably for bandwidth over-consumption) at the moment... not a good sign, given that we're only one week into the month. (Louis Wu 17:12:30 UTC) (permalink)
Hold? Wow.
Heh - Ross Mills found a funny shirt. Be sure you read the description UNDER the shirt. (Louis Wu 16:54:03 UTC) (permalink)
DualTage - PhaLanX and Ephrum
Okay, in general, I'm probably a little burnt out on montages; when it comes down to it, it's usually just a bunch of stickies and snipes, maybe with some clever BR work tossed in for excitement. Occasionally, though, one comes through that's got a bunch of stuff going for it - enough to make it stand out. Z just sent word of one of these; it's a DualTage from PhaLanX and Ephrum, released over at halo3forum.com. Great added effects (that first 'Boom!' made me laugh out loud), fantastic quality, great gameplay. Funny outtakes at the end. (I was rooting for the BR kill after the sword lunge off Lockout... so close!) It's 150 mb, in WMP9 format - it's worth the download. Check it out. (Louis Wu 16:39:43 UTC) (permalink)
Mjolnir, Harder
kinggun sent along a YouTube link showing The Unchosen playing a live, metal version of 'Mjolnir' (we hosted an acoustic version yesterday) - different sound! (Louis Wu 15:51:42 UTC) (permalink)
Saiyan's out, StrongSide is in
Over at MLGPro.com, there's news of another big shakeup - Final Boss has dropped Saiyan, and picked up StrongSide, in the wake of three consecutive losses to Carbon this year. (Thanks, 3Suns.) There's another perspective on the change over at Amped. (Louis Wu 14:30:52 UTC) (permalink)
VGRC reviews Halo, HaloPC
Heh - it's never too late to find new reviews. We got word from Dennis Wyman of VGRC.net that they've got reviews of both Halo (Xbox) and Halo (PC) online; the games earned 9.0/10 and 9.5/10, respectively. Go read 'em! (Louis Wu 14:23:45 UTC) (permalink)
Draw a comic - it's Child's Play
Wow, doesn't leave you much time - sorry for missing this yesterday. We'd already mentioned this year's Penny Arcade-run Child's Play Charity Dinner and Auction - there's Halo-related stuff to buy there, and even if there wasn't, it's a fantastic cause. However, if you don't have tickets, and you WANT them - they're giving some away. All you have to do is create a comic strip (with a bunch of restrictions). Read this post at Penny Arcade, then swing by the Child's Play site and scroll down to Recent News for 12-05-06; you can grab the template you need there. But hurry - submissions must be in by noon PST TODAY - that's less than 6 hours from now. Get drawing! Thanks to jdogmoney for the heads-up! (Louis Wu 14:11:39 UTC) (permalink)
Fans really do make killer art
Spartan Jag noticed a new post over at Bungie.net - the December Fan Art update. (I think it's mislabeled, and actually the NOVEMBER update, since the last one (posted at the end of October) was the October update... but we all know KP's been busy playing Pimps at Sea.) A chunk (almost half) have already appeared here at HBO - but the other half have not, and there's some pretty darned impressive stuff in this batch! Go check 'em out. (Louis Wu 14:01:36 UTC) (permalink)
Hogging the Limelight
Ename Nep noticed a 'Top 10 Coolest Vehicles in Film and TV' list over at YesButNoButYes - the Warthog pulls in at number 6. They're a little confused, I think; the picture shows the Halo 2 Hog, but the text describes the indestructible original. Oh, well. (Louis Wu 13:52:26 UTC) (permalink)
Commercial Dissections
A bunch of new Halo 3 commercial dissections this morning - TeamXbox has a sort of non-serious one and then one that's a little more serious (thanks, 3Suns), and QuickTactical has written one up over at HaloGrid. Check 'em out - you might see something you missed! (Louis Wu 13:49:12 UTC) (permalink)
News December 6 2006
Halo 1 Lanfest
Whoa. If you're pining for some good old-fashioned Halo 1 LAN action, check out this post on the High Impact Halo website. Kansas in mid-January... I hear it's cold, but you'll be inside. Thanks, Ducain. (Louis Wu 22:56:41 UTC) (permalink)
GoO review at IGN
IGN has reviewed Ghosts of Onyx - full of story spoilers, so don't read it until you've finished the book. Thanks, HaloPlanet. (Louis Wu 22:46:09 UTC) (permalink)
The Unchosen's Mjolnir Song
Last week, kinggun submitted the lyrics to a song a friend's band had written to our Fan Fiction section. Today, he sent us a recording of the song itself - you can grab an MP3 version of it from our servers (3.3 mb). I like it a lot! (Louis Wu 17:00:46 UTC) (permalink)
Flood Taxonomy
jman571 wrote up an article about Flood taxonomy after taking an AP Bio class. You can read it in our Miscellaneous section (there's a PDF download link if you'd rather read it offline). (Louis Wu 16:52:53 UTC) (permalink)
Playing A Blinder.
Sometimes, Stuntmutt takes a shot at Bungie. Sometimes, he takes a shot at himself. Today's One One Se7en takes a shot at the community... (Louis Wu 14:02:25 UTC) (permalink)
IGN grabs the crack pipe
A couple of days ago, IGN put up their own speculation story about the commercial; thanks to HaloPlanet for pointing this out. (Louis Wu 13:21:15 UTC) (permalink)
Oblivion mod opens public beta test
Brandon stopped by our forum to point out that he's released a public beta test for his mod for Oblivion (PC), called 'The Spartan Project'. (We last mentioned this mod in November.) If you've got a copy of Oblivion, check the forum post for requirements, and a download link! (Louis Wu 12:01:49 UTC) (permalink)
H2Vista supports DX9, but not DX10
This has been news for some time, but I'm not sure we've ever reported it - there's a news piece over at Gamepro that confirms that Halo 2 Vista will NOT support DirectX 10 visual effects. (This might come as a surprise to some, since it's a Vista-only game, and the justification for that, originally, was that Vista supported the effects that would make Halo 2 stand out, while older systems didn't. To these people, I'm not sure what to say that wouldn't sound overly cynical.) (Louis Wu 11:58:25 UTC) (permalink)
And then, 3 seconds later...
Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, has written up a frame by frame analysis of the TV ad; lots of detail. Much of this material has been hashed out on our forum (and others), but Narcogen does a good job of sticking to what we KNOW, rather than what we WANT, and he brings a pretty hefty body of knowledge of Bungie and the Halo series with him; this is worth reading by anyone who feels like speculating about what the various tidbits mean. In true Narcogen fashion, it's wordy. (Louis Wu 11:54:00 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie needs a new 3D Artist
This went live last night, but real life got in the way of posting it. Bungie has a new job posting online - they're looking for a 'Contract 3D Artist'. Wanna work on Halo 3? This is your chance! (Louis Wu 11:07:14 UTC) (permalink)
News December 5 2006
Trade them? What?
Jonathan Rivas noticed a new Brute Icon Tee at the Bungie Store - sharp! (Louis Wu 21:59:45 UTC) (permalink)
Sneak Chief
Paul Maestri continues to pump 'em out - Halo Heads 32 looks at Sneak King... you gotta wonder about video games based on fast food. (Louis Wu 21:04:53 UTC) (permalink)
Rooster Teeth Interview at 2old2play
Submitted yesterday, almost lost in the flood of commercial-related news... 2old2play has released Issue 7 of their bimonthly magazine (in downloadable PDF format) - this one's got a nice two-page interview with Matt Hullum of Red vs Blue. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 20:53:57 UTC) (permalink)
The OTHER Halo 3 Commercial
I have vague memories of seeing this movie before, but I couldn't find it in our news database... so for here, it's new. Daniel Tartar was searching for the new ad, and ran across this movie - nice claims in there. (Louis Wu 20:51:31 UTC) (permalink)
Issue of the Week: Strafing
PEZ, from halowiki.net, wrote to say that the Turrets article last week has grown tremendously, because of your visits and input - so they're trying again with a new issue of the week - Strafing. Swing by and see what's up now, and add your two cents! (Louis Wu 20:49:36 UTC) (permalink)
It's gonna save the day.
I wasn't going to post this, because the language isn't really safe for work... but it WAS funny, and I DID get chewed out for ignoring it, so... here's a funny mix of the commercial and some music from Team America. It actually fits really well, but make sure your boss isn't walking by as you watch. (Louis Wu 18:16:14 UTC) (permalink)
Commercial Theme on XBLM
There's a new 360 Theme available on XBL Marketplace, based on images from the commercial - it's 150 points, and LordGideon kindly provided screenshots of all four blades. They're all 1280x1024, and weigh in at around 200kb each.
Blade 1 | Blade 2 | Blade 3 | Blade 4 (Louis Wu 16:57:36 UTC) (permalink)
You Can't HANDLE The Speculation!
In case you're not TOTALLY overloaded with Halo stuff today, Jillybean has submitted a massive update to the Halo Story Page - lots of goodies in there. She's doing her best to flood your senses... (heh? get it? Flo- oh, never mind.) (Louis Wu 16:20:22 UTC) (permalink)
Speed Art - and More
Lots of people have been working on content from the Commercial - the news today contains edited video, icons, there are lots of Wallpapers posted in our forum (and sent in via email)... but one piece of Fanart that blew me away was a speed painting done by Rahll, over at DeviantART (it'll be in our next Misc Art update). Thanks to SESpider for the heads-up. While you're there, be sure to check out Rahll's Ghosts of Onyx piece, posted about a month ago, and an older tribute to Mehve. Great work! (Louis Wu 16:06:17 UTC) (permalink)
Lots o' Stills
Curtis, over at YouNEWB.com, has put up 39 stills from the trailer; no watermarks. Nice shots! (Louis Wu 15:54:34 UTC) (permalink)
Summary of Community Discussion
A lot of little things from the commercial have been discussed more than once. I've tried to summarize these in this forum post; please read it before jumping in and starting your own thread. Thanks! (Louis Wu 15:43:40 UTC) (permalink)
Land-grabbing.
Tied the Leader gets into the commercial-analysis game... though with a slightly different tack; they look at the marketing side of it. Interesting article. (While you're there, there's other new stuff; 22 Questions with Midnight, of Hushed Casket, a clan profile of Legion of the Apocalypse, and a recap of the past 10 clan profiles.) Thanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 15:11:00 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo 3 Icons
JPOGDNA created a new batch of Halo 3 Icons (for AIM, MSN, etc), based on last night's commercial - you can find them at GetXbox.net. (Louis Wu 14:55:38 UTC) (permalink)
Hats Off.
Stuntmutt tossed in a followup to yesterday's One One Se7en strip - if it makes no sense to you, check the ad in this post. (Louis Wu 14:54:12 UTC) (permalink)
Commercial Transcript
Narcogen wrote up a transcript of the commercial - it's not very different in actual dialogue from a half-dozen others on our forum, but he does a nice job of summarizing the action, as well - and he added some preliminary commentary about it, as well (worth reading, if you're planning on joining the discussion). If you want to hear the dialogue for yourself, I think your best bet is a cleaned-up version created by TraxusIV - he did some nice filtering that makes the various dialogue snippets much easier to make out. (Louis Wu 14:37:52 UTC) (permalink)
That thing is already edited. That was fast.
Okay, now that I've gone through all 800+ new posts from the past 12 hours, I can start pulling out the new stuff. The majority of what's there is speculation about the trailer; I'll probably put up a summary of noticed things soon, just to keep people from repeating the same points over and over and over again. There were a few things worth noting by themselves, though - first up, Geoff Chang synched the commercial to Harry Gregson-William's Kingdom of Heaven Sountrack. I have to say, it works rather well. Give it a watch! (Louis Wu 14:34:18 UTC) (permalink)
EU beta opportunities - lots of 'em
Thanks to broony, who noticed, over at IGN UK, a full list of EU sites offering beta seats - there are 34 on the list, corresponding to 3400 beta testers in the EU - a far more reasonable number than the paltry 15 for NZ/AU mentioned yesterday. (I'm SURE there'll be more listed for those countries soon.) (Louis Wu 13:04:33 UTC) (permalink)
HD QT, finally
Simply because it's not out there, I whipped up a 720p QuickTime version of the commercial, one that doesn't require a machine that can process the H.264 codec. It weighs in at 35 mb (I probably could have shaved a few megs without any loss, but that's not huge anyway), and it started life as the second HD version of the commercial, released by TeamXbox. (It still has their watermark on the bottom.) I know there are a few people out there that have trouble with WMP9 files - there's no reason you should be shut out of the HD goodness. (Louis Wu 12:47:28 UTC) (permalink)
Beta slots for UK residents
Ross Mills pointed out 6 separate places in the UK where folks on that side of the pond can try for a beta slot - each site has 100 seats to give away. Go get 'em! (I like BritXbox's contest. :) ) (Louis Wu 12:21:40 UTC) (permalink)
OMG A TRAILER
Okay, so I knew that if I stuck around last night, and tried to keep up with the news about the Halo 3 commercial that aired on Monday Night Football, I'd NEVER get to bed... so I skipped it all. This means two things: it means HBO's currently about 8 hours behind the curve, news-wise... and it means that this news post is going to be mega-complete with current information about that commercial, because I can collate everything at once into a single post. I think we'll go with bullet points:
- TeamXbox is hosting both HD and SD versions of the trailer, direct from MarketPlace - the HD version is GORGEOUS, and 31 mb.
- Totally360.com has digital versions of some of the concept art that came out in EGM and LEVEL last month (not trailer-related, but new), along with stills from the trailer - the most recent 14 pictures on this page cover both subjects - along with a contest to give away 100 Halo 3 beta tester slots they've secured. (They will not be the last website to have a deal like this - but they're certainly the first I've heard of.)
- Halo Base, in Germany, is streaming a copy of the trailer (thanks, Legend). (Actually, they have a link to the Xbox.com German site that actually hosts the file.)
- The American Xbox.com site is hosting a streaming version, as well - 320x180, so it's good for low-bandwidth folk. (Thanks to many - looks like n3mo was fastest.)
- Mitsur found an HD version (1280x720, WMP9 format) at GameTrailers. There's a link on that page that will allow you to download a 25 mb HD QuickTime version, as well (852x480).
- trigger119 is mirroring the TXB version of the HD trailer (720p, 33 mb, WMP9 format), as well as a self-encoded QuickTime .mp4 (720p, 31 mb).
- THE bean noticed that Bungie has edited their Halo 3 Ad story so that the screenshot now links to the Xbox.com streaming version of the trailer. (They didn't delete the high-res version of the screenshot it USED to link to - just swapped the link.)
- Spec_Ops_Assault saw that the Canadian Xbox.com site is hosting 5 stills from the trailer, for folks who can't download the whole thing.
- Halo: Portable created mobile versions for your handheld viewing pleasure - do them a favor and use the Rampancy.net links for download, instead of the local ones; they're worried about bandwidth.
- IGN is hosting low-res downloadable versions for everone, and high-res downloadables for Insiders - thanks, Edwin Durning.
- Cumbo Benjamin Franklin found a really low-res (and really low-bandwidth) version at Google Video.
Our forum has been OVERRUN with content - I'll be sorting through the info as I go, but if you're interested in discussion of the trailer content, this is a place to do it. Upon quick scan of the new topics, I saw this thread - apparently, Frankie showed up in irc last night, and answered some questions - there's some solid stuff in there that should stop the worst of the BAD speculation (like 'OMG THERE ARE NEW ALIENS AT THE END OF THE TRAILER' - they're brutes) - thanks to Konrad for transcribing. That should keep you busy for a while... I'll be back with more later this morning. (Louis Wu 11:16:46 UTC) (permalink)
Halo3.com - for everyone.
There's a short note up at Bungie.net about the beta signups; it says that from here on in, you should use ONLY the halo3.com URL to register. Don't fret if you used a direct link earlier today; those should be fine. However, now that the front page is working for everyone (except, apparently, Safari users - if you're on a Mac, use Firefox), you need to go that route. (Louis Wu 00:59:33 UTC) (permalink)
News December 4 2006
MLG Pro Circuit Week 4 - Online Now
If you missed episode 4 of the MLG Pro Circuit last Saturday at 10 am, you can watch it in its entirety over at MLGPro.com right now. Week 4 covers the Chicago tourney. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 22:31:31 UTC) (permalink)
WSVG on CBS
Usul found an interesting New York Times article about an upcoming network TV show covering video games; we already have USA Networks' MLG Pro Circuit, but this is on CBS Sports Spectacular on December 30 - that's a pretty big audience! If you have trouble getting in to read it, bugmenot.com can help. (Louis Wu 22:01:56 UTC) (permalink)
ESPN Halo Ad
Bah - this was posted yesterday, and I forgot to front-page it. S043 noticed that at ESPN.com, they were running a banner ad for the upcoming commercial this evening; it was in heavy rotation yesterday, but doesn't seem to be quite as prevalent today. In any case, there's a local version in his forum post, if you'd like to see it. The thread that goes with it has some speculation about what you're looking at. (Louis Wu 21:45:12 UTC) (permalink)
A word of clarification
From the wording of some of the posts on our forum, I'm getting the impression that people think that filling out the registration at halo3.com gives them a spot in the beta test. Filling out the registration at Halo3.com puts you into the pool of participants from which Microsoft will choose beta testers. You are guaranteed NOTHING. I'm pretty sure, though, that if you're not in the US or Canada, your application will be tossed... and for all the folks looking for ways around the age restriction, my guess is, there'll be some testing for that, as well, down the road. Nobody has ever said this was first-come, first-serve, so if you don't get in today, don't panic. You can try again tomorrow. But you STILL won't get anything except a SHOT at the beta. As soon as we know something about signups in Europe, we'll post it. (Louis Wu 21:26:48 UTC) (permalink)
Don't Hold Your Breath
Heh - Paul Maestri has some advice for the most strident among those of us waiting for the beta... check out today's Halo Heads. (Louis Wu 20:13:56 UTC) (permalink)
Off The Grid.
With folks all excited about registering for a shot at the beta, and other folks waiting breathlessly for the Halo 3 commercial tonight, Stuntmutt decided to look at one of the possible gotchas inherent in the style of creation MS decided to go with on this puppy. Check today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 19:39:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo3.com is live - sort of
The Halo3.com website works - if you're on a PC, using Internet Explorer. If you're using anything else, you might have trouble - you can try this URL instead (thanks, TehCubed). There's not much there yet - but that's where info about the beta in the US will show up, we assume. Looks like SolarStance was first on our forum to notice. Update: It's fully live now - if Halo3.com doesn't work for you, use this link. US and Canada only, sorry. Update 2: Wow. It seems a direct link to the .SWF worked for a little while... but it doesn't work any more. (At least, that seems to be the consensus of those posting about it.) If you're willing to bypass the page that describes the requirements for this signup (access to a 360, an XBL Gold account, and a Passport account, as well as a minimum age requirement of 18), you can go to this page - it seems to work for everyone. Again - US and Canada only. (Louis Wu 17:46:50 UTC) (permalink)
Getting into the beta - non-trivial
Wow - if you live in Australia or New Zealand, and you want to participate in the Halo 3 beta, you're competing for a tiny number of spots (5 in NZ, 10 in AUS)... and you have to be creative to win. Come up with a 25-words-or-less description of how you think the Master Chief will 'finish the fight' - if the judges like your entry, you're in! Thanks, XBL_Haloaded. (As far as I can tell, there's no info up for the US or the EU yet.) (Louis Wu 16:54:14 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Birthday, halo2.junk.ws!
We have a policy against posting news from websites that basically say 'here's a website!' - mostly, we ask that you tell us what you're offering if you want a news post. However, we got one this morning that, while it doesn't contain anything really new, is worth a reminder anyway, because it's a pretty cool site; oil wrote to say that halo2.junk.ws is celebrating its second birthday today - in two years, they've collected stats on 16 million games; they're tracking over 70,000/day right now, and they've never purged a single one. It's a great place to save your stats longterm! Check 'em out. (I've been a member for almost 18 months.) (Louis Wu 16:39:44 UTC) (permalink)
Halomega megastuff
CiphA from Halomega wrote with a recap of the goodies you could find on their website over the past week; a mirror of TalenT's Montage is being hosted there, along with a 1v1 Montage from DoX, and the dualtage Gears of War/Halo 2 montage mentioned over at H3F earlier. There's a new Snipe of the Week competition starting today; submit a clip of your sickest snipe, forumgoers will vote on the best entry. (Last week had some fun ones.) They accept random funny vids (Halo-related or not), with a shot at a weekly prize. There's lots more - swing by to see what you can find! (Louis Wu 16:34:34 UTC) (permalink)
No News is Now News?
Kotaku has a story up complaining that the latest Weekly What's Updates at Bungie.net do not contain enough real news about Halo 3 (which is doubly strange because the latest WWUs contain a lot of new information about Halo 3, the beta, and the commercial). The irony of a so-called news story complaining that a WWU doesn't contain any news is enough to make my head spin. (Louis Wu 16:32:55 UTC) (permalink)
Best of Both Worlds
Over at the360forum.com, you can grab a Gears of War/Halo 2 Combined Trailer for a montage - Gears of War play, Halo Play, all at really nice resolutions. This was created by inX, and is pretty neat (especially if you haven't seen any GoW footage yet). 3 minutes, 45 mb, WMP9 format. Thanks, Z. (Louis Wu 16:25:43 UTC) (permalink)
LifePod Ep 2
LifePod, the Halo CE Community podcast, has released Episode 2; you can grab it from their website, or read a description of what's contained on this Gearbox forum post. They're certainly not sticking to Halo CE - there's Halo 3 news, Halo community news, and more. 30 minutes, 28 mb. Grab a copy! (Louis Wu 16:10:19 UTC) (permalink)
News December 3 2006
Puns around the world.
Stuntmutt has rounded up the last couple of months of One One Se7en sightings around the net, and posted them to his blog - see what you missed! (Louis Wu 18:27:35 UTC) (permalink)
Libertyville Halo Theme Professionally Recorded
Mateo sent word that the Libertyville High School Band (Corporeal), some folks who recorded a kickass version of the Halo theme a few months ago, have professionally recorded the Halo portion of their performance. You can hear it at their MySpace link above, or, if you're allergic to MySpace (as I am), you can hear the mp3 on our servers (3.7 mb). (Louis Wu 18:21:26 UTC) (permalink)
Master Idiot Returns
Mintz, in what might be in the running for the most annoying email EVAR, which even included some insults to the perfectly innocent Frag Qu33n, sends word of a Halo-themed strip of Game Boyz, which ran last Wednesday. An honest mistake, no? (Louis Wu 18:14:32 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 27
Sigafoos writes to tell us about The Riot 27 - they discuss Halo Everywhere, the Halo 3 beta, some clan stuff, and more. And there's a 'Sigafoos Everywhere' contest, which is just like Halo Everywhere except there aren't any prizes and you have to use Sigafoos instead of Halo stuff. (I dunno, that sounds like he's asking for trouble...) 27 minutes, 11 mb. (Louis Wu 18:11:03 UTC) (permalink)
Feenix talks to Bungie about stuff
XBWFeenix stopped by with word of a video interview he conducted with SketchFactor and Frankie at X06 this year (he couldn't make it public until the issue of Xbox World that it was filmed for was actually on the shelves) - the link is in his forum post. Not a LOT of new info, but it's a good interview! (Louis Wu 18:06:19 UTC) (permalink)
Some of these need frames.
Bryn Casey let us know about another huge batch of new artwork - and man, I'm LOVING it. You can find it all on his gallery page here (scroll down to the bottom of the Paint Shop Pro section - but for folks who want things handed to them, there are 7 new images: Spartan 117, Tracks, Patrol, Raining Fire, Wounded, Spartan III, and Detonator. I think my two favorites are Raining Fire and Wounded, but it's a tough choice... (Louis Wu 01:27:24 UTC) (permalink)
You want to hold still.
New art from Luke McKay - a re-imagined Brute. I wouldn't mess with it, unless I had that gun... (Louis Wu 01:03:35 UTC) (permalink)
TalenT's montage
Z, from Halo3Forums, wrote to point out TalenT's montage, edited by Halzred. Heavy on the effects. Will almost certainly place in the top 10 in the upcoming montage contest there. 151 mb in WMP9 format. Grab a copy. (Louis Wu 00:59:06 UTC) (permalink)
xXx talks to MLG
Carbon's coach, xXx, has been interviewed over at MLGPro.com - go see why he made such a difference for them. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 00:55:01 UTC) (permalink)
Space Dementia, and Movies in General
Okay, first off - we've got a new movie for you. It's from Jamie98s, and it's called Space Dementia, and it's really quite good. Jack Walters thinks he's ready for active duty again - but all may not be as it seems. Great effects, astoundingly high compression (so that a 15 minute 640x480 movie weighs in at only 70 mb, and STILL looks pretty good), great story. Download it in WMP9 format (70.6 mb) or QuickTime format (71.5 mb) - I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the overall quality of new machinima these days. Which brings me to my second point - the MPRRS is NOT dead, it's still under reconstruction. Cybrfrk got called up for jury duty, so he's got less time for coding than we'd originally thought - but we'll get there, and the final product will be better (and more useful) than the original was. Thanks to all who've offered to help (we don't need coding help, but we WILL need reviewing help, once we reopen), and if you've written to us, worried that it's gone - don't worry, it really is coming back. Meanwhile, go watch Space Dementia. It's really well-done. (Louis Wu 00:51:29 UTC) (permalink)
News December 2 2006
BNL's Bank Job
Over at the Red vs Blue website, OboeCrazy posted a new vid (you won't be able to read that without an RvB account) - It's a realization of the Barenaked Ladies song 'Bank Job', in the Halo engine. She took a great song, and made it live - it's a beautiful job. I have one request, though - download it from us, not from her. (Her QuickTime version, for example, is uncompressed - almost 300 mb for a 4 minute vid... if you grab it from her, you'll eventually kill her host. Our version is a seventh as big, and looks as good.) This one's available in QuickTime (43.1 mb), WMP9 (39.2 mb), and DivX (41.4 mb), as well as on YouTube - so watch it the way you want. (Louis Wu 21:32:16 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Store Offerings
Jonathan Rivas noticed another batch of new stuff at the Bungie Store - you can grab an H3 Laser Etched Microfiber Fleece Jacket for $50, and a 'No Scope to the Dome' long-sleeved T for $18. The Halo Graphic Novel and the Art of Halo books are both back in stock. What are you waiting for? There are only 22 more shopping days until Christmas! Update: Psychophan7 also noticed a new Master Chief hoodie. (Louis Wu 16:49:02 UTC) (permalink)
KillerN Speaks
KillerN was removed from the top-tier team XiT WoundZ right after their loss in Las Vegas last month - over at Amped, you can read an interview with him, getting his side of the story. (Louis Wu 16:44:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo fights Cancer?
This came in yesterday, but I forgot to post it. Over at the website for the Fox affiliate in Houston, there's an article about a doctor who's used input from gamers to design a better sort of radiation treatment system for cancer patients - in his words, they've gone from "a shot gun, where we just blast away with our radiation - to a sniper rifle where we can pinpoint where we deliver our radiation therapy." What's bizarre is the video that goes with the story - clips of the doc, in front of his monitor, pointing out cancerous growths on a brain scan, are clips of some little kid playing Halo 2. As far as I can tell, the choice of Halo was random; the doctor doesn't use Halo in his treatments, just some game theory. I guess Fox figured it would be recognizable to a lot of people... thanks, ChrisVioxxx. (Louis Wu 16:35:20 UTC) (permalink)
Pimples at Bungie
The Weekly Update went up at Bungie a couple of hours ago. In it you'll find taunting comments about Halo 3 online (Bungie/MS only for now), info about the commercial coming Monday, tidbits about what's happening in the studio right now, and apologies for the loss of Team SWAT. Read it at Bungie.net - or read it in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 01:52:24 UTC) (permalink)
News December 1 2006
Filled With Evil?
Paul Maestri writes to point out Halo Heads 30 - looks like there's a dark side to Viva Piñata... (Louis Wu 20:33:20 UTC) (permalink)
A Wee Joke.
You might think, from the title of today's One One Se7en, that it pokes fun at Nintendo's newest console. You'd be vastly overestimating Stuntmutt's maturity level, though... (Louis Wu 16:26:31 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
14 new pieces for you this week in the Fan Fiction section - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 16:11:10 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Interviews Karma
You can find an interview with Karma over at MLGPro.com - go read about the guy who walked away from the Las Vegas championship with almost $40,000 in his pocket (not bad for a weekend's work!). Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:36:17 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Everywhere
LordGideon and friends have kicked off a new site, called 'Halo Everywhere'. The premise is simple: insert Halo content into everything you see. It's a contest - you've got 30 days to come up with cool pics, and there are some nice prizes at the end (details forthcoming) - so swing by the site, check out the rules, look at the examples... and get to photoshopping! (Louis Wu 14:54:24 UTC) (permalink)
One Better.
Boxer noticed a new Halo 3 backpack (along with some previously-discovered items) at the Bungie Store - nice grey look! (Louis Wu 14:03:26 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Beta - Open to the World
Earlier this evening, while some of us were out gallivanting around irresponsibly, KP was keeping down the number of international heart attacks, by clarifying a point about the upcoming Halo 3 beta that was incorrectly stated in today's MS Press Release - this beta will be open to people all around the world, not just in North America. Breathe easy, you Halo fanatics in Zimbabwe - you've still got a shot at this. (Louis Wu 02:44:34 UTC) (permalink)
| December 2006 | |
