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 | February 2006 |  |
February 2006 Archived News
News February 28 2006
The sweet smell of green - er, white
MLG has put up an article showing the winners from last weekend's National Championships - lots o' cash! Check it out. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 23:26:26 UTC) (permalink)
Drive-Thru
Dang, meant to get to this yesterday, forgot. Omg A Fish submitted 'Drive-Thru', a Tenacious D skit set to Halo, to the MPRRS - and it would have passed, except for one reviewer (who didn't even really seem to dislike it, but gave it a dismal score anyway). It's a tiny film (just over 6 mb), and pretty funny, and Omg A Fish got hosting for the WMP9 version at a few different places... so I'm putting up a QuickTime version for those who need/want it. (If you swing by the Halo2Forum.com thread for this movie, you'll find a ton of people who downgrade it because 'it sounds really close to Jack Black'. It is Jack Black; the soundtrack is right off the album. Only the visuals are Halo-related.) (Louis Wu 20:51:22 UTC) (permalink)
Grunt and Glide
Se7en One let us know about a small animation he created - a Grunt, and one of the Quadwings from Delta Halo. QuickTime format, 22 mb. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:37:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 tourney, online, in England
Pro-G (a british gaming site) is hosting a Halo 2 Slayer tournament on Xbox Live on March 18-19; prizes consist of Xbox and Xbox360 titles. More info can be found on this page. (Louis Wu 19:58:06 UTC) (permalink)
Marine Armor for Auction
Ross Mills found a UNSC Marine armor set for sale on eBay(uk). It's not completely finished - but a bunch of it is. (I'm wondering what happened to the model's arm...) Four days left, nobody's bid yet. (Louis Wu 15:43:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo used in a study on stupid people
sonik son sent us a link that's pretty darned tangential to Halo... but Halo IS involved, so here you go. Over at MarginalRevolution.com, there's a blog entry about a study that compared higher prices with free shipping vs lower prices with expensive shipping to see which attracted buyers faster. (Turns out we're stupid, and will pay $5 + $6 shipping more quickly than we'll pay $10 + $0 shipping.) Halo was one of the items used in the eBay sellathon. (See? I told you it was tangential.) (Louis Wu 15:07:04 UTC) (permalink)
H2O Federation Kicks Off
Swing by the website of the Professional Gamers League of America to read about the new H2O Federation. Instead of a series of (relatively) unrelated tournaments, they're setting up a league, similar to the NFL, where teams will compete all season long. It was only a matter of time... (Louis Wu 14:58:10 UTC) (permalink)
Rating system online at halomovies.org
Over at Halomovies.org, they've set up a rating system; all movies they host can be rated by viewers. If you're interested in only viewing movies others thought were great... this is your chance! Check it out. (Louis Wu 14:54:29 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Graffiti
Silent_Pea found a pretty cool image of a spray-painted MC - take a look! (Louis Wu 14:46:32 UTC) (permalink)
News February 27 2006
Eenk Eenk Eenk!
Over at Bungie.net you'll find a pretty cool story about a Cosplayer who won some awards with his Elite costume - along with cool pictures showing the costume itself, and how he pulled off the whole reverse-knee thing. Check it out! (I don't even need to visit our forum to know that there's a FIRST post from Frankie...) (Louis Wu 23:22:59 UTC) (permalink)
The Mombasa Massacre
Jamie98s is turning out to be one of the top moviemakers in the Halo universe; I can't remember a film he's made that I didn't like. His latest work, The Mombasa Massacre, blew through the MPRRS without a scratch. It's a slightly different take on his last piece, Chaos on the Creek; this one also tells the story of two factions that lived in peace until violence broke out... but this time, it's a third faction causing the trouble. Cinematography rocks, and the huge battlescenes are REALLY well-done. This one's a watcher. It's big - 12:30 long, almost 100 mb to download... but worth it. Grab 'The Mombasa Massacre' in WMP9 format or QuickTime format. If you make machinima, study it. (Louis Wu 23:11:06 UTC) (permalink)
Shh... me hunting hewetics!
Another large batch of Dialogue snippets from Hellhawk have been added to the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank; this time, it's 155 snippets, all Grunts and Elites. Only Brutes are left - probably tomorrow! (Louis Wu 20:07:14 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular 51
Foo Mo Jive lets us know that Podtacular 51 has been released - it's Customs and Call-ins time again. Go listen! (Louis Wu 17:41:55 UTC) (permalink)
Fuelling Around.
Stuntmutt's been seeing certain banner ads around the net recently, and it's gotten him thinking. Everybody duck. (But not until after you check out today's One One Se7en.) (Louis Wu 14:06:05 UTC) (permalink)
A Highly Charitable Writeup
Narcogen continues his Impressions series with a writeup of High Charity - he wasn't thrilled with it, but he stuck it out gamely until the end. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 12:53:55 UTC) (permalink)
Immortal Montage Trailer
rywateska is putting together a new 'Immortal Montage', and he submitted the trailer to the MPRRS recently. Went over quite well. It's quite short, and you can grab it in two different form-factors; 640x428 (about 12 mb, QuickTime or WMP9) or 420x280 (about 8 mb, QuickTime or WMP9). Go watch - and then wait for the actual montage! (Louis Wu 12:07:46 UTC) (permalink)
Midnight In Iraq
You may or may not remember the name Midnight - but he's been around the Halo community for quite some time, and now he's in Fallujah with the US Armed Forces. He's got a blog over at HushedCasket.com to keep you up-to-date on how it's going. (This is a guy who hacked his Xbox, added an LCD screen to it and took several copies of Halo with him over there.) As of yesterday, he's become milblogging.com's Milblogger of the Week. Way to go, Midnight! Thanks, rapture. (Louis Wu 11:44:10 UTC) (permalink)
ITVNW's Video Game Pilot
Over at High Impact Halo, there's a newspost about a video podcast from an independent TV company that covers Pacific Northwest style - and one of their episodes (number 8 in the list) is devoted to Halo. It's really aimed at a more generic audience than this one - but it's worth a watch if you're interested in how the public might be looking at you, and the game(s) you play. If you'd rather watch it in iTunes than in your browser, there's a direct link in the HIH newspost. (This item is only available in QuickTime 7 format; anything else, and you're out of luck.) (Louis Wu 11:24:48 UTC) (permalink)
News February 26 2006
Massive Dialogue Infusion
Hellhawk dumped several hundred dialogue snippets in our inbox yesterday; an amazing feat, given how much has already been documented at this point. We're going to put them up in batches; the first batch is 131 snippets, from Johnson, Jones, the Spec-Ops Commander, Stacker, and Tartarus. Whew! More coming tomorrow (Brutes, Elites, and Grunts are still outstanding). (Louis Wu 23:37:34 UTC) (permalink)
2005 MLG Championship Results
The full results for the 2005 MLG Championship are posted over at MLGPro.com - Congrats to Team3D (winners of the 4v4) and True_Karma (winner of the FFA), as well as everyone else involved! Thanks to Derek, on our forum, and 3Suns, via email. (Louis Wu 23:32:16 UTC) (permalink)
Lots and lots and lots of pics
Barbaric_rage sent along a link to a photogallery run by a Battlestar Galactica fan, containing every image he could find of fan-made Halo suits. (Many are from here.) Unfortunately, none of them contain info about the creators, so if you see something you like, there's no way to contact the person who made it... but it's got to be the largest single collection on the web of this sort of stuff. Take a look. (Louis Wu 18:24:21 UTC) (permalink)
Killing from a distance
Rockslider has put together a new page detailing some long-distance fun you can have on the level Halo of the first game. Check out his description on our forum. (Louis Wu 18:17:11 UTC) (permalink)
When you're bored, in a freezer
Okay, this is... weird. kinggun sent along a photo of a couple of ox tails (he's a butcher), and wondered if you can see the resemblance to anything Halo related. (Like Flood tentacles, for example.) I told you it was weird. (Louis Wu 18:13:16 UTC) (permalink)
Origami - and the Halo link
Interesting. Microsoft launched a new website recently, called 'The Origami Project' - tech blogs across the net have speculated on what's behind it. A new cell phone, a new handheld device... well, maybe it's both. Eastbeast314 pointed out a blog entry at Kevin 2.0 (which in turn got its info from an Engadget comment) which will lead you to an ad for the device, from Digital Kitchen. The entire DK site is Flash-based, and the ad shows you a lot of the different things you can do with the Origami device... but the one that's relevant here is a short clip in the middle. A guy, sitting in a subway... playing his way through Silent Cartographer. Nice! (If you don't want to go through the trouble of hunting down the full movie, or you're not interested in the device per se... you can grab just the Halo clip from us - QuickTime or WMP9. They're both under a meg.) A handheld Xbox? Coolness. (Louis Wu 17:58:50 UTC) (permalink)
Operation: Flaring Nostril
Heretics & Heroes Episode 2 has been released - I don't know how many of you are following this one, but if you're not, you're missing what is potentially one of the best series out there. Cinematography is top-notch, voice-acting is some of the best I've heard, there's an actual plot, and it's funny. What more do you want? In this episode, Lt. Feldman does his best to prepare the rest for actual fighting - and not with each other. Available (as always) in your choice of codecs, and your choice of resolutions. Go watch! (Louis Wu 01:07:10 UTC) (permalink)
News February 25 2006
Miscellaneous Renders
Andrew "LaR-NE0" Hamm sent along a bunch of renders he'd been working on; some pretty nice stuff. You can see the whole lot of them on this page. Warning: they're rather large! (Louis Wu 19:43:04 UTC) (permalink)
7 on the 7th - next phase
Heh - it's been so long, many of you have probably forgotten... but the 7 on the 7th Halo Joke contest closed its doors to submissions last night, and judging has begun. Even after tossing the stuff that's not Halo-related, there is still a HUGE list of jokes to go through... but never fear, we'll pick 7 winners soon, and announce them when we do! (Louis Wu 14:15:33 UTC) (permalink)
Zima for Dummies
Weekly Update this week is pretty light - Frankie's confounded by the internet, and is taking it out on you. There are some nice tidbits (congrats to the preggers ones, and check out the Halo 2 Soundtrack news)... mostly it's a 'we're still here' kind of post. That said - go read it anyway (either on B.net, or in our Weekly Update Archive). And then give Frankie a hard time for hogging the First. (Louis Wu 00:56:01 UTC) (permalink)
News February 24 2006
Goliath
Another very cool piece from Bryn 'ofthehi77' Casey - this one is a space battle tidbit known as 'Goliath. Sizeable (325k, and just about big enough for a monster screen wallpaper)... but definitely worth the look. Check it out! (Louis Wu 21:46:51 UTC) (permalink)
They Pound The Quit Right Out.
Stuntmutt goes back to an old favorite for the punchline of today's One One Se7en. Wait... how is that different from any other day? (Louis Wu 17:22:49 UTC) (permalink)
It's Friday, it must be Fan Fiction
22 stories built up in the Fan Fiction section since I left - go read. (I must say, I was FLABBERGASTED to receive an email this morning, at 6:50 am Eastern time, telling me that we OWE the community an update, since there hasn't been one for 9 days. As a group, Fan Fiction writers are the neediest, least patient, most annoying submitters of fan content I've ever worked with, in 11 years of running fan-based websites. Just wanted that on the record.) (Louis Wu 17:10:41 UTC) (permalink)
Quivering Wrench-Monkeys, Unite!
Frontline With Suzie is updated with Broadcast 14 - Suzie interviews Engineer Jones, soon after he escapes the Pillar of Autumn. Interesting theory as to the color scheme of the Engineering uniforms... thanks, rockslider. (Louis Wu 15:19:19 UTC) (permalink)
Tower to Tower - now with more fiber!
A couple of days ago, Ducain kicked off a mini-contest at High Impact Halo; it involves tower-to-tower jumping on the original Halo. (Yep, that's right. You're STARTING from the top of one of the blue beam towers.) The prize list is growing, thanks to community members; there's a wad of cash, some XBL trial memberships, an Art of Halo book, a copy of Halo 2... check out the original post, and the followup with more goodies! (Louis Wu 15:08:33 UTC) (permalink)
XiT vs Str8 - again
Last week, we pointed out a Team Slayer match, on video, at Halo2Forum.com; it was Xit WouNDz vs Str8 Rippin, on Midship, from the point of view of XiT xItwasluckx. There's another match between these two teams, this time filmed by | Killer N | - same map, KOTH game. Great to watch (and interesting to contrast the communication styles) - it's a HUGE download (190 mb), because it's a 17 minute match. If you've got a big pipe, swing by and grab this! (Louis Wu 14:39:09 UTC) (permalink)
Looking forward to NYC
F13ND points out an interview with OGRE 1, of Team3D, on the Team3D.net website; he's looking ahead to this weekend's MLG Nationals in New York. Take a look! (Louis Wu 14:28:42 UTC) (permalink)
More articles at MLG PwnCast
Yesterday, we mentioned the interview with xItwasluckx at MLG PwnCast - we got a message from QuaDxDaMag3, one of the site administrators, about a second interview, with Fonzi of TmG, and an article about team strategy. Go read! (Louis Wu 14:25:49 UTC) (permalink)
New Lego Goodies
Saber-Scorpion, who's been mentioned a few times in the news for his Lego creations, has another couple of models up - the Pillar of Autumn, and a Pelican. Pretty impressive! Thanks to all who wrote in - looks like David was first. (Louis Wu 14:14:55 UTC) (permalink)
MSDN Channel9 interviews matchmaking researchers
Want more details on the matchmaking algorithms, in laymans terms? Meet the Microosft researchers who helped develop the Halo2 as well as the XBox 360 matchmaking systems. Djof informed us of this video interview which was performed last year and just now presented by MSDN Channel9. Update: There was a small clarification by Chris Butcher - while Bungie worked extensively with the team that developed the TrueSkill system... Halo 2 doesn't use it. (Cybrfrk 02:44:37 UTC) (permalink)
News February 23 2006
Team Conquest's Outbreak Trailer
Okay... this is pretty odd. About a month ago, mike0619 of Team Conquest submitted a vid to the MPRRS called 'Outbreak'. It received high marks from every reviewer... except one. That one accused the team of plagiarism, and rated the film so low that it failed, even though everyone else passed it. It would have died there... except about a week ago, mike contacted me to ask about what had happened... and I reviewed the film. There was no plagiarism whatsoever, and in fact it's a pretty nice trailer (typos in the text aside). Be aware that this vid has no relation at all to the Outbreak trailer released last week by 3x8 Productionz. It's a separate machinima, produced by a different group, though it, too, involves mods. Definitely worth a look! We've got an WMP9 version (17.2 mb) or a QuickTime version (20.8 mb) - grab the one that suits you. And to the entire team... we're sorry for the confusion! (Louis Wu 03:06:37 UTC) (permalink)
HaloGrid talks to Burnie Burns
imSuck, of HaloGrid, hooked up with Burnie Burns of Red vs Blue in an XBL lobby, and asked him a bunch of interesting questions. (Kudos, Burnie, for sticking around even when some of the responses got... awkward.) Overall, lots of good info. Swing by HaloGrid to download this 30 mb podcast! (Louis Wu 02:48:14 UTC) (permalink)
He's So Lucky
There's an interview with xItwasluckx of XiT WouNDz over at the website for MLG PwnCast - thanks again, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 02:26:10 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Hits the Big Time
Big news over at MLGPro.com; looks like they secured $10 Million in funding for the 2006 season, and picked up a new President/CEO - Matthew Bromberg, formerly general manager of Time Warner's Moviefone and AOL Games properties. Not too shabby! This was in today's Wall Street Journal (article will be visible for about a week, or can be viewed as a scan) - thanks, Black Six. In other MLG news, they've put up a summary of the upcoming NYC championships - thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 02:17:38 UTC) (permalink)
News February 22 2006
The Pistol, Again
AnXplayFan noticed yet another full-sized M6D pistol for sale on eBay; if you want to see someone happy with their purchase, go check out Elnea's RvB journal entry about hers last month. (Rooster Teeth just changed the site to allow unregistered people to see journal entries; I couldn't get it to work in Safari, but I had no trouble with Firefox... so you SHOULD be able to view this, even if you're not a member at RvB.) You've got a bit over 2 days to make up your mind... (Louis Wu 22:14:00 UTC) (permalink)
What was that spike?
Hrm... Slacker Entertainment posted a new tidbit, called 'Heroes & Heretics Flashback #1: Flatulon the Uncorked', on their website, recently. It's... wow. It's something else. I guess this is what happens when you put a bunch of psychologically unstable soldiers together in a remote location, without ammo. Available in lots of formats. Thanks, TheWereSloth. (Louis Wu 21:01:22 UTC) (permalink)
Halogen Vid
Halogen, the C&C Generals Halo mod, has put up a new teaser vid; pretty nice footage. High-res is 22.5 mb, low-res is 5 mb (both are WMP9 format). Go grab! Thanks, Logical2u. (Louis Wu 20:49:41 UTC) (permalink)
MC's Head - Up For Grabs
Eep - we almost missed this. Remember the Kings Cross Halo sign, that's being auctioned off in pieces? Piece 1 - MC's leg and arm - sold last week for AU$560; piece two - MC's head - is up for grabs right now, for just two more days. Currently almost AU$1000, it's quite possible it'll go higher. (It's 10 feet on a side, fergoshsakes!) Thanks to Frankie for pointing this out on B.net a couple of days ago. (Louis Wu 20:46:22 UTC) (permalink)
Custom MC
Funky - a custom-cast Master Chief, for sale on eBay. Customized with GI Joe parts and Microman parts, this mini-MC is larger than the stock mini-MC, and far more detailed. Thanks, Joseph Ryan. (Louis Wu 19:46:27 UTC) (permalink)
Jackson on Games and Movies
Yahoo Games has an interview with Peter Jackson, discussing the translation between video games and films and looking both at the King Kong game, taken from the movie, and the Halo movie taken from the game. Nothing too new, but probably worth a read anyway. (mnemesis 18:28:50 UTC) (permalink)
Joke's on you, my brain was already mush
Walshicus was the first to first notice an interview with Shane Kim (MGS general manager) over on Next Generation. Amongst other things, he speaks about the release date of Halo 3, basically reiterating the "It'll be ready when it's ready" mantra we're all so familiar with. Narcogen also picked this up on Rampancy.net and commented on the situation Microsoft and Bungie seem to be in. As always, you know where we stand on such issues. (KP 05:02:14 UTC) (permalink)
Revenge on the Brutes
Narcogen has gone ahead and posted another in his series of impressions of Halo 2, this time dishing out Uprising. This time he goes into the story more than anything else, making some solid points. (KP 04:46:36 UTC) (permalink)
His Brightness Is Turned Way Down
One One Se7en has a little trouble with cause and effect in today's comic. If Stuntmutt was referring to himself, then he either forgot all the bottles lying around, or that's the strangest pub I've seen. (mnemesis 01:00:02 UTC) (permalink)
The Balancing Act
Dedicated newshound 3Suns noticed an article on game balancing over on MLGPro. Halo and Halo 2 are both mentioned, so you might want to go give it a look-see, then come back and argue strenuously about the old pistol or matchmaking or whatever you get the most fired up about. Or not! Maybe just read it and think, "Hmmm, interesting," because it is a good read. (mnemesis 00:49:10 UTC) (permalink)
Swag or Schwag, Either Way Someone Wins
There's an article up at Bungie.Net showing off a few of the more popular items available over at the Bungie Store. It's all stuff that been there for at least a little while, but Alta's showing off some upcoming hoodies, so it's worth checking out. The prized forum "FIRST" award goes to none other than Frankie himself! Way to go, Frankie! (mnemesis 00:40:52 UTC) (permalink)
News February 21 2006
Halo 2 Tourney in NYC
Vic De Leon writes about an upcoming tourney at Versus in New York City, on March 11. 2v2, Halo 2, max 16 teams, $400 for the number one finisher. More rules can be found at Halo2Tournaments.com. (Louis Wu 19:07:00 UTC) (permalink)
Needler Crystals
Wow. Someone built a needler - and is selling the crystals for it on eBay. Pretty cool-looking! Thanks to BARBARIC RAGE, who pointed out the listing on eBay.co.uk - but it's on the US version, as well. Currently at about $60, with a day and a half left in the auction. (Louis Wu 18:14:44 UTC) (permalink)
Stupid Halo Tricks, indeed.
Heh - you need an account at Red vs Blue to read this... but it's worth it. Burnie wrote up a journal entry showing off one of the tricks they've figured out recently; it turns off dynamic shadows in Halo 2 multiplayer - or adds them, selectively, to characters not affected. He's offered a reward (unspecified) for anyone who figures out how they did it. (I warn you now; there are over 300 comments in the thread, and most of them will numb your brain; figuring out what's already been suggested is non-trivial.) The pictures are really cool (there are more spread throughout the comments section, as Burnie has added new examples), and there's a short video showing the effect in the green room on Lockout. (Be aware that you are not seeing an unbroken stream of action there; the video was edited to show before and after, but the 'during' is gone.) Cool stuff! Update: Burnie created a new journal entry to explain the solution; basically, the 'camera' looks at the target in the desired lighting, and then the target moves to the new location (with different lighting) without the 'camera' watching. Once there, he stops moving - and when the camera gets there, he sees the target in the original lighting. There's a movie showing this at work if this is too confusing. Pretty cool glitch, and really useful in some machinima situations! (Louis Wu 14:22:19 UTC) (permalink)
Will there be cake?
Foo Mo Jive wrote to tell us that Podtacular has released their monumental 50th episode. This episode is completely devoted to various tips, including a few good ones regarding Terminal. They've also asked us to mention their new Podtacular Clan structure, which they've briefly outlined. Congratulations on your 50th episode, guys! (KP 06:14:35 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Babies Art, Baby
mrsmiley drops by the forum to mention a huge update to the art section over at Halobabies.net. Some awesome stuff over there, go check it out! (mnemesis 04:49:25 UTC) (permalink)
News February 20 2006
Most Regrettable
A lot of things come to mind reading the latest One One Se7en. Regret is most definitely one of them. (mnemesis 19:38:54 UTC) (permalink)
In Amber Clad - Growing
Stephen Loftus has done some more work on his In Amber Clad model - check out his progress page to see where it stands! (Louis Wu 19:19:49 UTC) (permalink)
We know F-16s can't fly in space, shutup
gijake, a fan of Microsoft's Flight Sim series, has pointed out a couple pieces of Halo-inspired content for the game: The first is an environment, Installation 04, and the other is a repaint of an F-16, with Halo 2 written across the wings and a Brute on the tail. Nice find. (KP 17:30:54 UTC) (permalink)
Glitchakitari
Ducain posted to the forum last night to let us know about a pretty cool movie which Yasha released on HIH. Glitchtacular takes you through many of the more common glitches in Halo 2's multiplayer maps. What sets this movie apart from most others though is the editing and particularly the transitions, which are pretty spectacular. (KP 16:14:10 UTC) (permalink)
War Series, Ep 1
0kinawa, over at Halovids.com, is redoing their War Series; they submitted Episode 1 to the MPRRS recently. It passed - so while they didn't want hosting (you're supposed to be able to find the WMP9 version of this vid on their Videos page), I couldn't find a link, so we're making local versions available - you can download the WMP9 here (18.9 mb), or the QuickTime here (19.4 mb). (Louis Wu 14:05:47 UTC) (permalink)
Sketchin' Up A Storm
Elnea seems to be back on an avatar kick again - she passed along three new ones for her gallery page. Check out NinjaSpartan.com, BigNiceJohn, and Alsace. Nice stuff! (And for the record - no, I'm not back. I'm simply online from paradise.) (Louis Wu 02:04:38 UTC) (permalink)
Apocalypse Rising Trailer
Matt6908 submitted a trailer for his upcoming 'Apocalypse Rising' trailer to the MPRRS - and it passed this evening. The series tells the story of the coming of the Apocalypse, and the efforts of four teens to stop the carnage. Nice use of mods. You can grab it in WMP9 format (22 mb) or QuickTIme format (17.7 mb). Enjoy! (Louis Wu 01:54:53 UTC) (permalink)
News February 19 2006
Creamed Corn
Stuntmutt lets us know that he's updated his blog with some guest strips from around the net. Some good ones in there, the others were made by Stuntmutt. (KP 14:00:03 UTC) (permalink)
I like to say schematics.
Upon studying Steven Loftus's Halo, Analyzed, Ωmega became inspired and decided to further detail a couple of models. First he took a look at the Pillar of Autumn model and came up with these two overlays. Then he took a look at the Covenant CCS-class Battle Cruiser and came up with this schematic. So far as the source is concerned, "The color pictures of the schematics were illustrated on Paint based upon several hours of game play standing next to Keyes near the front of the Pillar of Autumn's bridge, and I estimate that they are about ninety percent accurate (all the lines and symbols are there, but the dimensions might be a bit off). As for the text information, all of the specifics (anything without a question-mark afterward) are taken from direct quotes in the game, logical reasoning, and the occasional book text." Cool beans. (KP 06:41:02 UTC) (permalink)
News February 18 2006
First Contact site complete
First Contact, a Half Life 2 modification based on the Fall of Reach, has officially launched its main site at www.firstcontactmod.com. They have forums running, and an IRC channel at #Firstcontact at Gamesurge.net. (Cybrfrk 20:47:46 UTC) (permalink)
Outbreak trailer passes MPRRS
This is one of those rare occasions when someone wants the feedback and no hosting. The trailer for the new four part series Outbreak passed with flying colors. A flood infection is spreading fast and the elites have come to earth to stop it. The humans need to learn to trust the elites before the earth becomes entirely infected.(WMV only, though if anyone needs a QT version, we're hosting one. -lwu) (Cybrfrk 20:40:22 UTC) (permalink)
Repetition and Luck
Narcogen has switched gears and returned to writing up his Halo 2 impressions over at Rampancy.net. Today he takes a close look at Gravemind. (KP 16:30:48 UTC) (permalink)
XiT WouNDz vs Str8 Rippin
Z pointed out a new video on Halo2Forum.com - it's a Team Slayer match between XiT WouNDz and Str8 Rippin, on Midship. Amazing to watch pros working together, especially when full voice output is captured. Just under 100 mb, WMP9 format, definitely worth the download. (Louis Wu 03:35:49 UTC) (permalink)
The Mysterious Beastie
rockslider's been busy; if you visit his Bad Cyborg site, you'll find a new Frontline With Suzie (in which she interviews the mysterious beastie you can hear from a particular cave), and a more complete description of the beastie's location. (This guy was first documented by oldmano'theC almost 4 years ago... how time flies!) Captain Spark did a pretty amazing job of capturing the sound with no ambient noise blocking your hearing; you can grab it from his site, or from our Dialogue Databank (actually, the sound is there, but it's not yet registered in the databank). (Louis Wu 03:25:42 UTC) (permalink)
Droolables at the Bungies Store
Back from dinner, back from a nice moonlit walk on the beach... everyone else wanted to go to bed, so I figured I'd check in. Looks like a few things came in recently that haven't been posted... so I'm posting. You could start by swinging by the Bungie store - there are some new goodies to check out. The Zanzibar retro shirt from last year is back, in long sleeves and a light blue... a Halo-styled Ogio backpack is waiting to be scarfed up... and a bunch of trinkets I don't remember (a couple of pens and a caribiner keychain) have shown up. Thanks to Smith8907 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:14:19 UTC) (permalink)
F-I-R-Z... dangit
The Weekly Update is up, this week Frankie's got a special treat: a video tour of the new Bungie Studios. Naturally, Frankie was first to make note of it. (It's in the BWU Archive, too. But don't tell anyone.) (KP 00:07:44 UTC) (permalink)
News February 17 2006
No Competition
Even in these times of uncertainty, with our leader off who knows where (even though he hasn't got the sense to stay off the 'net), some things stay the same. A pun about puns? Who else to deliver but Stuntmutt and One One Se7en. (mnemesis 22:05:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo2 OS petition
Microsoft and Bungie does what they must in order to push their product and continue to develop as they do. This means we (consumers) have little to no control over certain choices. However, you can still speak up about it. Fransico A. informed us of a petition he started based on his reaction to this BBC article. Go take a look at the petition, and do what you feel you must. Don't be disappointed when nothing changes. Update: As noted dozens of times in the past, we abhor petitions, and this news post does not mean we support the content, only that it is somewhat news worthy. (Cybrfrk 19:05:22 UTC) (permalink)
Why Is It Always the Cute Ones?
In other dialogue news, Captain Spark lets us know that he's recorded another 18 snippets, plus a bizarre sound from back in the T & R. Check 'em out! (Side note: Wu, you're supposed to be on vacation, so vacate!) Update: Yeah, yeah... I AM vacating. Here are CS's submissions in our Dialogue Databank. I like the grunt ones. -lwu (mnemesis 17:11:02 UTC) (permalink)
They're The Bomb!
Just testing out my net connection from here in paradise - seems okay. Looks like Eisen Feuer posted a new batch of multiplayer dialogue snippets on our forum; I've added them to the Dialogue Databank. (I discovered that SOME parts of my net connection aren't that great; I can't connect to the HBO servers at all from here, by anything other than the web. Security is good - except when it gets in your way.) Enjoy - and I'm out again! (Louis Wu 15:28:57 UTC) (permalink)
Dropshock Ep 11 podcast
Episode 11 weighs in at 71 minutes long is now available for listening off of their podcast site. Listen to their discussion on Vista and Halo2 as well as Uwe Boll. (Cybrfrk 14:38:00 UTC) (permalink)
News February 16 2006
MLG 2006 Season Official Announcement
MLG kicks off the 2006 season with a huge, detailed announcement full of tour and event details, rules, and a mess of other stuff. Check it out, and thanks to Derek for the heads-up on the forum. (mnemesis 22:28:08 UTC) (permalink)
Major Nelson Live
DJ Voltage Spike of MMORadio.com drops by the forum to announce that Major Nelson will be their live guest tonight on the Gametime Radio Show. The show starts at 6 pm PST, so listen in to hear what the Major has to say about... Xbox Live stuff. They'll also have a toll-free number and a Skype account, so you can call in your questions. (mnemesis 22:08:21 UTC) (permalink)
HBO humpday barbeque pinktacular Gunslinger style
For the last several weeks, the HBO Admin team has been playing online building our skills and having a considerable amount of fun. Last Wednesday, we were challenged by the Gunslingers of Tied the Leader. Xerxdeej did a far better job explaining than we could have; with video to boot. Update: This is a bit of narration to why we got together, and how you can challenge them. Be warned, these are not your typical gamers with teen angst, they are mature gamers with respect for their counterparts. (Cybrfrk 14:58:57 UTC) (permalink)
Thus begins the coup
The World Cyber Games released the list of titles they will use in official events for the upcoming season. Notably absent from the list is Halo 2, which the WCG had featured up until this year. Thanks to 3Suns for the note. (KP 06:24:07 UTC) (permalink)
G'night... finally.
And THAT ends my posting spree. Why the rush? Well, because in less than 4 hours, I get in a car and drive to the airport, and fly to a place that's far, far away. (Where we're going... there are no roads. Wait, that's wrong.) For the next 8 days, you're in the capable hands of the REST of the HBO staff - I MAY pop in now and then, IF I can find a net connection, and IF I get bored of drinking mai-tais on the beach... but likely, not too much. What does this mean for news submitters? Send your news to halo@bungie.org - or be prepared to wait a week for it to be posted. (Heh. I bet I get a news item sent to lwu@bungie.org in the next 15 minutes.) Enjoy yourselves, behave, and don't rattle the Count's cage. I'll send a postcard! (Louis Wu 05:35:21 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Fanfic - on Thursday
Fan Fiction update comes early this week (see above for why) - 10 pieces for you tonight. Go read. Next update will be on Friday, the 24th. (Louis Wu 05:34:17 UTC) (permalink)
Live at the Hollywood Boll
I lied. There are some tasty morsels at Rampancy.net - you should read them before I'm through tonight. Uwe Boll (filmmaker extraordinaire, you betcha) has predicted that the Halo movie will be a failure (and you should read this, too, for a laugh)... and Narcogen has taken it upon himself to try and explain why Boll continues to make movies. (If you really want to be cynical, there's always Stuart Woods' theory...) What does all of this add up to? For me - it's that SOMEONE was smart enough to keep that man FAR away from the Halo script. UPDATE: Son Goharotto points out an article at 1UP where Boll calls it quits for videogame movies. (Louis Wu 05:27:11 UTC) (permalink)
Expanding the List
Last quickie: Frankie posted a short news item on Bungie.net pointing out a few Halo websites that didn't get mentioned in yesterday's Valentine update. (I'm sure he's getting all sorts of hatemail from sites that didn't make EITHER list... but hey, sometimes you just gotta roll with it.) (Louis Wu 05:15:08 UTC) (permalink)
50L1D G0LD 1337 D4NC4RS!
There's a new module posted at This Spartan Life - it's the end of Episode 2, and it focuses on the Solid Gold Elite Dancers. And maybe suggests why you shouldn't get on their bad side. QuickTime is up now, WMP9 coming soon. (Louis Wu 05:12:26 UTC) (permalink)
The Halouvre: v2.0
Continuing: prometheus writes that the Halouvre has been totally overhauled, and augmented with lots of new artwork; go check it out! (The HUDless image galleries of Xbox7887 and Major.Dump contain some pretty astounding new pics, for example.) (Louis Wu 05:08:46 UTC) (permalink)
Elites - Culture and Religion
Next, DarkJohn117 points out that the second segment of the German-language Elite Analysis has been posted - swing by and read (or translate) it. (Louis Wu 05:02:50 UTC) (permalink)
Uncharted Territory
A few rapid posts: we'll start with a piece on MLGPro.com that takes a look back at the 2005 season - nice memories! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 05:00:20 UTC) (permalink)
News February 15 2006
HEH - for CS
DKN2 found a new version of Hang 'em High, built for Counter-Strike (the original, not Source). Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:27:16 UTC) (permalink)
The 2006 Winter Halolympics
Wonga. Over at Tied The Leader, XerxdeeJ has a story up about the Halolympics, a multi-game Halo tournament being conducted online right now. (CobaltNova has even set up a website for it all - 19 days of gaming, and you can join in!) Thanks to 3Suns for letting us know this morning - too bad it's been such a busy day! Update: Eep - turns out the invitation to participate is for clanmembers only; you're welcome to join their clan, I suppose, but you can't sign up for the games unless you're a Gunslinger. Thanks to CobaltNova for the clarification. (Louis Wu 22:24:11 UTC) (permalink)
Music To My Ears.
It's Wednesday, so it must be bad pun day... yep, check One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 22:05:40 UTC) (permalink)
ARE Videogames really death trainers?
Wow. For a few years, I've been openly scornful of the attitudes of Jack Thompson, the lawyer who's made his career suing videogame companies for wrongful death; I've felt that his arguments are specious at best, and maliciously deceptive most of the time. Well, the guy just got a helping hand from a surprising source - the Washington Post. (Don't forget that bugmenot.com will help you read that, if you don't have an account.) It's an article in which both soldiers, and those who train them, state plainly that the videogames they play help them both in battlefield tactics, and in breaking down the barriers to shooting another person. Yeah, there are a couple of paragraphs in the story devoted to soldiers who were NOT made insensitive to death by video games - but it feels like a tacked-on afterthought in an attempt at 'balanced coverage' to me. Any way you cut it - you can be sure this article will turn up in court, in Jack's briefcase. Lots of people pointed this out to us - looks like Paul Marsh was first. And while Snowy_Duck was 10 hours behind Paul, he did start the first forum thread on the topic. Go discuss. Update: Same article is available without a login at msnbc.com - thanks, Dry Ice. (Louis Wu 12:40:07 UTC) (permalink)
Who needs paintball? I want the shirt!
Robomonkey found a pretty cool-looking paintball jersey - not available for purchase yet, but maybe soon - which will put the Mjolnir armor on your body, at least in cloth form, while you try to paint your opponents. Check it out! (Louis Wu 12:33:23 UTC) (permalink)
That Crazy Frog
The whole 'Crazy Frog' fad was way bigger in Europe last year than it was in the US - but most people have seen (or at least heard) it before; lithuanian x pointed out a video on Google that sets it up in Halo. Decent cinematography, nice use of mods. I wish the download link worked better, because watching it in a Flash window is less than ideal... but sometimes, you take what you can get. (Louis Wu 12:32:02 UTC) (permalink)
Stubbs: A Substantive Guy
Narcogen continues his defense of Stubbs the Zombie by dissecting a short review, and by contrasting Stubbs to analogous parts of Halo 2. This entry is a bit more strident than the last two... almost petulant in places. Still a good read. (Louis Wu 12:31:15 UTC) (permalink)
German Elites Analysis
A couple of days ago, NavSpecWarrior pointed out an article at Halo Orbit (a German site) devoted to Elites - their culture, their homeworld, anatomy... the works. I didn't post anything because I was busy... but also because the article is written in German, and the majority of our audience doesn't READ German. Oliver, from Halo Orbit, reminded me yesterday that a hundred and fifty million people out there DO read it - so what the heck; if you're one of 'em, swing by and check out this article. (If you're not, use Google to translate it for you; not perfect, but you should get the gist.) (Louis Wu 12:29:27 UTC) (permalink)
Three years ago
It was three years ago that a good friend and worthy Bungie/Halo fan, Brian Morden aka ∗Ar-Isildur, passed away after battling Ewing's Sarcoma. The recent passing of That Weasel makes it all the more important to remember just how fragile life can be. Who was Brian Morden? (Ding 07:03:08 UTC) (permalink)
Kittenz. Not just for dinner any more.
We didn't do anything for you for Valentine's Day - but Bungie did. Frankie put together a huge list of Halo lovin'... go read, and find a site or three you've never seen (but should have!). He even gives props to Stuntmutt (though I'm surprised the list of qualifiers on the compliment didn't come with "pages with a double 't' in them"...). (Louis Wu 03:54:49 UTC) (permalink)
News February 14 2006
It's Rated Mature.
BitMaP noticed a new flash vid by Wasamonster over at Newgrounds - It's Rated Mature: Halo. Spelling is atrocious, but there are some funny bits. Check it out! (Louis Wu 17:53:08 UTC) (permalink)
Computer Dating.
Stuntmutt sends you his best wishes in a special holiday One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:03:56 UTC) (permalink)
In Amber Clad... half a meter long
Stephen Loftus posted a note on our forum about a new styrene model he's working on - this one is In Amber Clad, and it'll be to the same scale as his Pillar of Autumn model. We've put up a local copy in his Collected Works section - check it out! (Louis Wu 15:51:07 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Goodness
Over at MLGPro.com, the Player of the Week is StrongSide (nice read), and foulgasm is doing some interesting stats stuff on his blog (which got him marked as blog of the week). Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:40:49 UTC) (permalink)
Digital Pencils
Awesome new artwork from Bryn Casey - Support and Hunter. When was the last time you saw a Hunter in such gentle color tones? (He STILL looks mean.) Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 15:24:32 UTC) (permalink)
Heretics and Heroes Ep 1
You may remember Heretics & Heroes, a series that posted a trailer and a character intro recently; well, they've got Episode 1, "Operation: Frozen Spleen", online now. Filmed in the original Halo engine (this episode takes place before the issuance of Mark VI armor), Ep 1 will introduce you to Lt. Feldman, and the rather unpleasant job he's been tasked with. Production values are a cut above, across the board. Go grab it, in QuickTime, DivX, or WMP formats, high or low res! (Louis Wu 14:31:10 UTC) (permalink)
News February 13 2006
It Doesn't Remind Me
Yesterday, SNOWBLIND1717 submitted 'It Doesn't Remind Me', a Halo music video set to Audioslave's song of the same name, to the MPRRS; they liked it. Syncing's not perfect - but it's quite good, and his choices for action are inspired. (The onscreen activity matches the song really well.) Go watch! WMP9 version is 22.3 mb, QuickTime version is 23.7 mb. And go visit his website, as well. (Louis Wu 20:23:31 UTC) (permalink)
...And 'Frankie' A Biography by...
Today's One One Se7en looks at the news of more Halo novels... through a prism. Shattered when the drunk carrying it dropped it. And all the pieces scattered when he fell on them. (Louis Wu 18:54:05 UTC) (permalink)
The Marty Army Music
Wow. A note came in last week, I spaced on posting it, the submitter was kind enough to send it again (politely), I spaced AGAIN. Someone needs to hire a real news guy for this place... the one we've got ain't cutting it. ANYWAY, the note was from Andrew Matlock, who is a member of the Marty Army, as well as someone interested in facilitating interaction among musicians inspired by Halo. He's set up a website which offers to help you share your Halo-related music, in addition to keeping track of composer profiles and music product reviews. All genres and styles are welcomed - the only common thread must be inspiration by Marty. Check out the upload page... submit your work... and when there's some content to show you, we'll be sure to mention it! (Hopefully in a more timely manner than this newspost.) (Louis Wu 18:12:47 UTC) (permalink)
Del Toro - in? Or out?
Saturday morning, Tempus Fugit pointed out a news item at Ain't It Cool News, in which Mike Mignola (the artist behind the Hellboy comics) suggested that Guillermo Del Toro was never really considering the Halo movie project, and that Hellboy 2 was next on his plate after all. This is not confirmation that Del Toro has taken himself out of the running for the position of Director - in fact, if you wanna get technical, he's never actually been confirmed (by Microsoft, Bungie, Universal, or Peter Jackson - the only entities/groups officially involved at this point) as being IN the running... but Mike M. seems like someone who might know some stuff. Thanks also to 3Suns, who reminded me that I hadn't posted this during the weekend. (Louis Wu 17:51:44 UTC) (permalink)
Get a Leg Up.
The series of auctions we mentioned for the huge Halo 2 sign that hung in Kings Cross in Sydney, Australia for several months last year kicked off last night - there's an article about it on Bungie.net's front page (and, unsurprisingly, a 'First' note by Frankie on our forum). The first piece is a chunk of the MC's arm and leg. I can't tell how big it is from the pic - but the entire sign was broken up into only 8 pieces... so it's probably pretty darned huge. (Louis Wu 17:31:00 UTC) (permalink)
Chaos on the Creek
Wow. We fixed the MPRRS upload problem, and in short order 6 movies entered the system. The first one in was the first one out - successfully. jamie98s (previously known primarily for his 'Oh So Beautiful' series) created 'Chaos on the Creek', a story of two factions that decide they can't live together. Cinematography is awesome - watch this one for the camerawork alone, even if you don't like the story. (Which is pretty good in its own right.) Grab it in WMP9 format (29.1 mb) or QuickTime format (28.3 mb). Awesomeness. (Louis Wu 01:52:39 UTC) (permalink)
News February 12 2006
MPRRS Problems
A few days ago, the MPRRS began to have some trouble; folks were having difficulty uploading files. Turns out... our temporary upload directory was full of failed uploads; we'd run out of space. (My bad, for not clearing it on a regular basis. STANDARD files were cleared - but corrupted ones weren't.) The easiest solution was to move the temp directory to a partition with more space (100 times more space, actually) - but I was careless, and missed several places in the upload scripts where this directory was referenced. Because of this, all uploads SINCE the fix (which happened Friday) have vanished into the ether; uploaded nicely, but ignored when the scripts attempted to move the file from a now-empty directory to their final resting place, and cleared by automatic purgers later in the day. Apologies. If you've submitted a file since the end of last week, you should do so again. (I know it works now; I just submitted a movie for an uploader who thought the problem was on his end.) We've got tons of bandwidth left this month; here's hoping a lot of people have decent movies to submit! Update: Sorry, still busted; for some reason, it's truncating files at 10 MB after the upload. Until I figure out why, please hold off on uploading. (I'll
post something as soon as I've solved the problem.) Update 2: Okay - it's working again. I blame the gnomes. (Louis Wu 18:20:29 UTC) (permalink)
Weekday Strip
Geary noticed a new MasterChief-related episode of PHW Weekday strip (we mentioned an older ep, at a different URL, back in December) - semi-odd stuff. (It's predominately a Half-Life 2 comic, but the Master Chief is a regular character.) (Louis Wu 17:50:21 UTC) (permalink)
PromethianGuard Episode 1
What a weekend. There's Halo news in them thar hills... but I haven't found time to tell you about it. Let's start with a new video from The PromethianGuard, sister clan to the PraetoriaGuard - they've released their first episode, downloadable from their forum. (There's also a PSP-friendly version, here.) It's a variety pack, a grab-bag of stuff; music, jokes, gameplay. 62 mb, WMP9 format, it's pretty hefty; almost 13 minutes long. Go grab a copy! Thanks to a number of PromethianGuard members - Tactic was first. (And as a side note - happy birthday to LordGideon, head of the PraetoriaGuard and sort of a godfather to the PromethianGuard! (Louis Wu 17:44:24 UTC) (permalink)
News February 11 2006
Sad News
We got word from ThatWeasel's girlfriend that ThatWeasel, a staple in the Halo community for several years, passed away on February 7. We don't really have any information on what happened (and his girlfriend is a little too broken up to go into it)... but it was clearly sudden, and unexpected. It's always hard when a community member goes... we'll miss you, TW. (His site will continue, at least for the near future; his girlfriend will take over running it.) (Louis Wu 23:00:41 UTC) (permalink)
It holds the universe together.
Heh - cool. gunluva created a bunch of Halo weapons out of duct tape, cardboard, and some popsicle sticks - you can see pictures in his Red vs Blue profile's images section if you have an account there, or direct-linked in this forum post if you don't. (Louis Wu 15:17:01 UTC) (permalink)
Weekly Fanfic Update
Seventeen new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week - go read. (Side note: I try to post fanfic on Fridays - but sometimes Fridays are crazy days, and it doesn't happen. There is almost nothing related to the administration of this website more annoying than being publicly berated for not posting someone's content; if you think I've slighted you, you're welcome to send me email, but posting in a public forum is NOT the way to get on my good side. There's a new rule related to the Fan Fiction section: if you post publicly, asking why I haven't put up your story yet, your story will be deleted from the queue. Petty? Yep. Will it get the message across to folks who are just a little too impatient for my tastes? ::shrug:: I don't know - but either way, the problem is solved, as far as I can see.) (Louis Wu 10:45:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Portable Update
Mintz sends word that Halo Portable has a music pack of stuff from Patriarch917, new wallpapers for everyone, and the Weekly Update, formatted for your PSP (Louis Wu 10:34:17 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 49
HaloPlanet mentioned the release of PodTacular Episode 49 back on Thursday - I kept forgetting to post it. (Been a rough few days here...) Speculation about Halo 3 is the big subject. Go listen! (Louis Wu 10:31:12 UTC) (permalink)
Flag Tactics
Wow - swing by Halo2Forum and grab a copy of this Flag Tactics vid (58MB, WMP9 format) - some pretty amazing techniques. Most of 'em would be pretty hard to pull off in an actual game - but a few look pretty straightforward, and might just change the CTF games you play. (The Lockout flag tosses are totally feasible, and mimic some of the superfast captures I remember from Hang 'em High.) Thanks, Z. (Louis Wu 10:27:58 UTC) (permalink)
Fangtasm
Today's Weekly Update is, unsurprisingly, mostly about the Halo 2 for Vista announcement yesterday. It's worth a read, especially if you feel betrayed. There's also some pretty droolworthy stuff about upcoming Halo novels , and a rather disturbing picture. And, of course, you can read it locally if you so choose. I haven't been to the forum yet, but I've no doubt Frankie was first with the announcement. Hang on... yep. (Louis Wu 00:22:43 UTC) (permalink)
News February 10 2006
Green Thumb
There's a Lost the Lead update - Pinkuh meets some weird people online! Awesome artwork. Check it out! (Pinkuh pointed it out on the forum.) (Louis Wu 20:38:05 UTC) (permalink)
Cakehole - shut it!
Captain Spark turned in another 19 dialogue snippets - you can snag them from his website, or peruse them in our Dialogue Databank. He's baaaack... (Louis Wu 20:32:34 UTC) (permalink)
Hasta La Vista
You didn't think Stuntmutt was gonna miss a chance to comment on yesterday's Halo 2 PC news, did you? Go read One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:23:59 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Movie News
You might remember LatinoReview.com - last November, they posted a review of the Halo script, which stirred up a little bit of controversy. Today, they posted a review of the Casino Royale script... and buried at the bottom is a small note of interest to Halo movie news watchers:
Also we just got word that D.B. Weiss, the writer of the excellent spec script KASHMIR, which was one of my top 5 scripts of 2004 is rewriting HALO. Expect an official announcement soon.
Go read the rest of it for El Mayimbe's comments... and this time around, think twice before screaming "fake!" (It'll be interesting to see if/when this news makes it public in more standard channels...) (Louis Wu 14:50:57 UTC) (permalink)
When Stats Run Wild
Okay, this is a little over the top, if you ask me. Josh Smith decided to write a blog post on the frequency of profanity during Halo 2 online play. Granted, it's one person's experience, and it's gathered from a pretty small total sample (34 hours of gameplay - back in October, Frankie stated that more than 180 million hours had been logged, so we're talking about a 0.00002% sample size - and that doesn't even COUNT the hours played in the last 4 months)... but geez. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 14:44:31 UTC) (permalink)
Team3D prepares for Nationals
Team3D, consistently one of the top pro Halo teams, is gearing up for MLG's National Championships in New York at the end of this month, and Saiyan has taken a few minutes out to chat with F13ND about their hopes and expectations. Go read! (Louis Wu 14:35:20 UTC) (permalink)
Coming Soon... The Heretic
On the anniversary of their first episode, the Codex Series team has released information about The Heretic, a new series in production. Cause for excitement from folks who like good machinima! Thanks to many for noticing - but squattingb was first ( even beating Nerrolken's own email by a couple of hours). Go read about it! (Louis Wu 14:31:18 UTC) (permalink)
News February 9 2006
How long has THAT been there?
Heh - Larry Peterson found this picture, and wondered... have the Forerunner been building in Mexico City? (Louis Wu 20:02:38 UTC) (permalink)
Purgatory, Probiotics, and those damned Scots
Jillybean updated the Halo Story Page this morning - but the note got lost in the flurry of Vista-related mail. You should go read it, if you like having your brain wrapped around like pretzel dough. (Louis Wu 19:36:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 on Vista - Explained. Well, sort of.
Over at Bungie.net, Frankie's posted a pretty large article about the whole Halo 2 on Vista thing; there's an awful lot of "we'll provide you with more details in the future"... but there's also some decent info. Bungie's not doing the conversion, but they're helping. (It's not being farmed out to a 3rd party developer, like Halo was; the conversion is being done by an internal MGS team.) No (real) word on a Mac version yet. There's also some cut-and-paste PR on Windows Vista... which might make you wonder a bit about the "we're not doing this to sell a new operating system" answer. (But only a bit.) As you get closer to the bottom, you can pretty much stop reading; the answers to every single question are 'we haven't said anything yet'. Whee! (I'm sure that's as frustrating for Frankie as it is for us.) (Louis Wu 18:59:44 UTC) (permalink)
The Sticky Bomb
TastedBigworm found an odd little Halo comic at Lifemeter... that seems like bad sportsmanship. (But fun, probably.) (Louis Wu 18:18:32 UTC) (permalink)
Duck Season
A little birdie pointed out a trailer over at apple.com for a movie coming
out next month: Duck Season was made by Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, and covers a day in the life of two fourteen-year-old boys. The Halo angle? Heh. Watch the trailer. (Louis Wu 18:13:00 UTC) (permalink)
Peril, Playable
Devin Eastman has yet another piece of sheet music for you, courtesy of Rampancy.net - swing by and grab (remember, you must be logged in to see the download link) a copy of Peril for Piano. Awesome! (Louis Wu 17:08:25 UTC) (permalink)
An attractive tickling device
Frontline With Suzie is back! She's found what might be the dumbest grunt in the Covenant... go read her interview. Thanks, rockslider. (Louis Wu 17:04:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Desktop Customization - now ready
A number of people pointed out that the WindowBlinds skin we mentioned last week is out now - along with a bunch of other stuff for your desktop. Swing by WinCustomize to download. Looks like The Vector Kid was first. (Louis Wu 16:50:18 UTC) (permalink)
The Case of the Missing Story
Wow. I'm not one for rumors, generally (have you noticed?), but when the BBC gets involved... Apparently, there was a link on the BBC front page that claimed that Halo 2 PC would debut on Windows Vista (the successor to XP). The article was pulled almost immediately - but Joystiq got a screenshot of the link (though not the article itself; it had already been pulled by that point), and addict3d.org saw it in time to actually summarize it. If this is true... wow. We've been telling people that we doubted a Halo 2 PC would ever come out. This is one time I wouldn't mind being wrong. (At this point, it's JUST A RUMOR. The only information has been pulled from the web almost faster than it was put up. We know nothing, and it could easily be a mistake (or a prank) on BBC's part; in fact, if it were anyone less reputable than the BBC, we probably wouldn't even be mentioning it. Goes to show you, though... it's really, really, REALLY hard to keep stories quiet - even mistakes.) Thanks, Muskie, for the heads-up. Update: Holy moley - it's REAL! We just got the press release from AEG. Update 2: Turns out the article is still on the BBC website - it was just at a different link. Thanks, Dark Knight and Brandon Smith. (Louis Wu 15:02:47 UTC) (permalink)
News February 8 2006
Clans you don't want to be part of.
Whee. ClanFSR (no relation to the Futuristic Sex Robots, though they DO have a link to FSR's video on their Vidz page - without attribution, though it's a Mythica/HBO link) looks to be doing some pretty sleazy stuff. The Simpsons Montage, for example, has ClanFSR.com credits at the beginning and the end... but in actuality, it's DarqKnyght's 'Homertage' video, released (here) last August. Similarly, Defending the Base is a local movie with FSR credits pasted on it. Thanks to imSuck, who brought this nastiness to my attention (Halogrid's own Chubark was ripped off, as well, though it looks like ClanFSR took down the offending movie already). Stealing sucks. You shouldn't do it. (Louis Wu 22:52:29 UTC) (permalink)
I Want A Second Opinion.
I hate to say it... but sometimes One One Se7en is actually quite clever. (Not today, of course. I'd never admit that. But sometimes.) (Louis Wu 17:16:37 UTC) (permalink)
Unlocking Your Death
Episode 73 of Red vs Blue, 'Under the Weather', has been posted for sponsors - it had me laughing out loud more than once. Poor Tucker is sick... but don't let that get you down. It should be up for the general public by tomorrow sometime. (I've been watching the Videos page since Saturday, when Burnie mentioned that it would be out this weekend... I think the entire crew has gotten addicted to World of Warcraft.) Looks like SniperExtraordinaire was watching for it, too. (Louis Wu 15:15:48 UTC) (permalink)
Piranhas vs Master Chief
Phil Rock has been putting together some animated GIFs of the Master Chief and his adventures with piranhas. (Killer piranhas. Piranhas big enough to EAT him.) The GIF animation was cool, but pretty wasteful, bandwidth-wise (and Phil wants to host these himself), so we helped out with QuickTime and WMP9 conversions. The first three episodes are up now, along with Episode 4 in GIF format (but I've already sent him the converted versions, so if you want to save him some bandwidth, hold off a bit on that one until he's got the movie versions up). I'm starting to think of the MC as a little like Mr. Bill now... Update: Ep 4 is available in QT and WMP9 now. (Louis Wu 14:29:11 UTC) (permalink)
News February 7 2006
Halo Husband
Gwen Horsley wrote a poem about her husband's addiction - he suggested she send it to Bungie, who sent it to us. And we're giving it to you. (With Gwen's permission, of course.) Which side of this equation are you on? (Louis Wu 23:59:48 UTC) (permalink)
He looks bigger on TV.
Dang - Peter Jackson visited Bungie, and nobody even gave me a t-shirt. (Frankie was first, of course. Front-page h00r.) (Louis Wu 23:55:53 UTC) (permalink)
What a perfect invisible elite!
Dang - two GORGEOUS new pics from Bryn Casey - check out Spartan, and Swamp! Wow. (Louis Wu 22:10:01 UTC) (permalink)
7 on the 7th
People have been surprisingly patient in their wait for our next bungie.org/bungie.net contest - but it's finally here. This one is called '7 on the 7th', and may become a more stable paradigm than 'every week'; we'll see. This time around, we're looking for jokes - Halo-related jokes. (Don't worry - what Stuntmutt does doesn't count.) The rules are posted - you should read them. And work on your material - you've got a couple of weeks. Good luck! The 7 best entries will receive a Halo action figure. (Louis Wu 20:31:26 UTC) (permalink)
Stubbs - His Own Zombie
Speaking of Rampancy.net, the next part of Narcogen's in-depth discussion of Stubbs the Zombie has been posted; this one delineates many differences between Stubbs and the Master Chief - but also some similarities. Nice work! Go read. (Louis Wu 20:27:22 UTC) (permalink)
Cool Sheet Music
I HATE it when I forget stuff. Rampancy.net posted a piano arrangement for On A Pale Horse a couple of days ago - I spaced on posting it. You must be logged in to download - but it seems like a solid piece from Devin Eastman - go grab it! (Louis Wu 20:23:48 UTC) (permalink)
BiGmAc2121's Montage
Z points out a new montage at Halo2Forum.com - gameplay by BiGmAc2121, editing by MikeMan27. Nice work all around. The vast majority of the gameplay is on Lockout and Midship - but there are plenty of good sticks and snipes. 119 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 17:07:53 UTC) (permalink)
Take a bite of THAT.
3Suns, our man in the (MLG) field, sends word that details about the upcoming Championships in NY have been posted at MLGPro.com. Lots and lots and lots of
money on the line (total Halo purse is more than $60,000). Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:30:33 UTC) (permalink)
The Rumors Never Stop...
Whee! MORE rumors! (Although this one is said to be coming out soon in EGM, which makes it a little more confirmable...) NintendoRevolution.ca is reporting that Jason Jones (yeah, the one from Bungie) has been interviewed in the latest EGM - saying he's interested in the idea of creating a first-person shooter on the Nintendo Revolution. (Huhwha?) I'd love 3rd-party confirmation that the interview even exists... much less that Jones wasn't taken out of context in this news snippet. (Never mind the fact that Jones doesn't give interviews to ANYBODY, EVER. Almost.) Thanks to Hanchen Lu, who found this on Kotaku. Update: Frankie says the Nintendo boyz are full of it. There ain't no such interview. (Louis Wu 16:26:15 UTC) (permalink)
News February 6 2006
Free Red Bull
MLGPro's Player of the Week this week is TuLegit - 15 years old, and with a pretty dang impressive performance at MLG Chicago. Go read about it! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 22:36:34 UTC) (permalink)
Still on top
Major Nelson has posted a top 10 XBL games list on his blog (which seems to be down at the moment) - the number one game? Yep, still Halo 2. Thanks, Gamasutra. (Louis Wu 22:34:16 UTC) (permalink)
First Contact Coming Along
Kashoki writes to point out that work proceeds apace on First Contact, a Half-Life 2 mod - you can see a pelican model and a Covenant Capital Ship on their Mod DB page. They're still looking for animators, skinners, coders, and modelers... if you like what you see, join up! Showcase cinematic coming soon. (Louis Wu 22:30:19 UTC) (permalink)
54 - the Intro
Central writes to say that he's got a new series in production, called '54'. He's already got an introductory movie for you (23.3 mb, WMP9 format, zipped), but he's looking for voice actors. If you'd like to help, contact info is in the readme - drop him a line! This one uses HaloCE nicely; the initial work looks quite promising. Take a look! (Louis Wu 22:16:21 UTC) (permalink)
PHP Stats 2.0
Ed Chipman pointed out that PHP Stats 2.0 has been released - lots and lots and lots of new features. Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:10:40 UTC) (permalink)
I'm not sure I could fit that on my wall.
Wow. Xbox Australia is selling that huge, huge Halo 2 Coke sign that hung in King's Cross - the auction goes live next week, and the proceeds benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation. More details can be found in Frankie's writeup on B.net. Thanks to Vironex for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 20:19:24 UTC) (permalink)
It's Not Like They Knead The Dough.
Yes, it's true - you can get a taste for how low the current One One Se7en sinks simply by perusing the title. Methinks Stuntmutt has been drinking heavily recently... (Louis Wu 19:50:01 UTC) (permalink)
A new webring
imSuck put together a very pretty webring you can use for your homepage - or just for navigating to most of the large Halo sites out there. There are a couple of community forum threads you can join in if you feel the need to comment (HIH and HaloGrid)... but check it out in any case, just because it's purdy. (Louis Wu 18:25:55 UTC) (permalink)
Heroes and Heretics - Opening Credits
A couple of days ago, Slacker Entertainment posted a new clip for their Heroes & Heretics series; the Opening Credits are now up. It's just credits... but the production value is highhighhigh. I can't WAIT for ep 1! (Music is original, and quite good; these guys know what they're doing, across the board.) Check it out. Available in QuickTime, DivX, and WMP9 formats, both high and low res. They're hosting all of them - because they want to give their server a workout... but I'd have no problem stepping in if they ran into trouble; this one's worth seeing. Thanks to sbear for the first heads-up on this stuff. (Louis Wu 15:05:07 UTC) (permalink)
Football and Halo
In honor of yesterday's Superbowl, Veegie put this little beauty together - and retsamolah reminded us of an older pic he did. (I didn't have a favorite going into the game - I haven't had time to watch any football this year - but I have to say, whoever's job it was in the Steelers organization to pay off the referees... he really earned his keep last night.) Update: Frankie did a little work on Veegie's image - seems more appropriate, now. (Louis Wu 13:46:42 UTC) (permalink)
News February 5 2006
Kickin' it... oldschool.
Heh - this is pretty funny. Flash, just over 6 minutes long. Thanks, Caz. (Louis Wu 23:50:26 UTC) (permalink)
Alone... Major Tom Diaries... Something.
Laird points out that a Halo machinima which sort of disappeared for a while is back; swing by Echo Zulu Films for the first part of the Three Long Minutes trilogy. Filmed with HaloCE, this is a nice teaser for the series. 16.1 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 20:43:57 UTC) (permalink)
Dropshock Ep 10, on a quiet Sunday
Pretty darned quiet weekend; we've heard about very little Halo news (which, I suppose, is a good thing when the weekend workload is as big as it is this weekend). Dropshock wrote yesterday to point out that Episode 10 of their podcast has been released; swing by their site to grab a copy. And then enjoy the rest of your afternoon; in the US, an awful lot of us will be watching the Superbowl in a few hours, so things will likely STAY quiet. (Louis Wu 17:02:16 UTC) (permalink)
News February 4 2006
Portability.
Mintz writes to point out that Halo: Portable (with a new URL) has a few new items for you; there's the Weekly Updates for the last couple of weeks, and a shot at the new Wallpaper pack early (just donate something). Go grab your mobile Halo content! (Louis Wu 22:15:56 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic - a day late
SPARTAN-034 reminded me that I'd forgotten to post the weekly Fan Fiction update yesterday (probably because he had a story in the batch) - they're up now. 22 pieces - go read! (Louis Wu 21:19:52 UTC) (permalink)
Ceramic Elite Helmet
Almost a month ago, Teek Vander Bee sent us a bunch of pictures of a ceramic Elite helmet he'd been building - apologies for taking so long to post them. You can find them on this page. (Louis Wu 15:18:20 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Championship - coming soon
3Suns points out that MLG has announced the location (and dates) of their National Championships this year - they'll be in New York City on February 25 and 26. Book your plane fare now! (Louis Wu 14:21:54 UTC) (permalink)
The Loltruck - rocking your world.
Frankie's posted the Weekly Update (and once again frustrated forum denizens longing to out-First him). There's a bunch of useful answers to questions asked on our forum (and elsewhere), and NEW WALLPAPERS at b.net (breathtaking - you gotta go look, and thank agdTinMan). And titillating information about how the Bungie Princess plans to spend her Superbowl time. (I'm pretty sure I saw that movie...) And oh, yeah... the cover of a certain upcoming CD. That some people are sort of looking forward to. Or something. GO READ! (Don't forget - you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive, too.) (Louis Wu 01:48:04 UTC) (permalink)
News February 3 2006
The Same As Closed-End-Leasing.
Eep! I almost forgot to post today's One One Se7en. (Maybe it would have been better if I did, though...) Brits will definitely get this one faster than Americans. (Louis Wu 20:12:15 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary II - redux
Yesterday, we posted the second episode of blackouTT's Legendary machinima series - but he was pretty unhappy with a few things. (Audio sync was off, for one... and at least one transition was missed.) He sent us a new copy of the film, which we've uploaded - the links in yesterday's news post will bring you to that copy from this point on. If you watched it and didn't notice the stuff that bugged him... don't worry about it. If you haven't watched it yet, or were unhappy with the sync issues - grab a new copy. (Louis Wu 19:25:48 UTC) (permalink)
Mistaken Identity
Z, over at Halo2Forum, points out a rather bizarre little glitch; I suppose it COULD be faked, but it doesn't look like it. It's not very big (under 6 mb, wmp9 format), so go grab it, and see if you've ever seen this before. (Louis Wu 19:09:26 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 48 (and new web digs)
Podtacular is back on a once-a-week rotation - and they've got a new website, to boot. Go grab Episode 48! Thanks, Foo Mo Jive. (Louis Wu 19:06:07 UTC) (permalink)
Oh So Beautiful 4
Jamie98s has made a series of videos detailing the beauty of Halo's scenery. (Check our news archives if you missed the first three.) Yesterday, he submitted a new one - Oh So Beautiful 4 sticks with multiplayer maps... gives you a new perspective on the killing fields we spend so much time in. The MPRRS reviewers loved this one. Grab it in WMP9 format (62 mb) or QuickTime format (56 mb). (Louis Wu 16:33:24 UTC) (permalink)
They just don't understand him.
Over at Rampancy.net, there's a pretty interesting writeup of Stubbs the Zombie; Narcogen is eloquent in his defense of Stubbs as a fun game, and one that is underappreciated in several key areas. It's the first part of a longer piece, and it uses Halo as a benchmark, in some cases, to judge against - he makes a strong case. I'm looking forward to the next installment. (Louis Wu 15:43:03 UTC) (permalink)
Man... if I had that on XBL...
Wow. A couple of weeks ago, we pointed out the DeviantART gallery of lhs - today, MattKnight01 noticed a new image in that gallery. That's one heckuva gun! (Louis Wu 15:09:08 UTC) (permalink)
I bet they'd do a half-decent job with it.
Chaos Recon, on our forum, and Dolbex, over at MLGPro.com, both pointed out a goof on the Gamestop website (first seen, apparently, at Kotaku) - Bungie's next project... is an EA-franchised game... for the PS3? As Neo would say... whoa. (And before you jump on your email client to tell us how stupid we are - yes, we know it's a mistake.) Update: Looks like they fixed it; you can still see the original on Dolbex's blog. Thanks, Dante. (Louis Wu 15:00:29 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader gets cerebral
There are a pair of pretty interesting new blog entries over at Tied the Leader - XerxdeeJ wonders if who you are in real life ever bleeds over into your Halo gameplay... and Wheels (a clanmate of deeJ) discusses your brain, and how to get it into the zone where you can be the most effective. Go read! (Louis Wu 13:51:55 UTC) (permalink)
News February 2 2006
Alphabet Soup
Frankie wants your Qs. And your Ps. And your carrots. Hmm... maybe just your Qs. If there's something you want to know from Bungie, and it's NOT about stuff they haven't announced yet, visit the thread, toss your question into the hat. You might just get it answered in tomorrow's Weekly Update. Update: You're certainly welcome to keep posting questions, but realize that Frankie's only gonna answer about 5 of 'em, and he almost certainly stopped reading several hours ago. That's not to say that other READERS might not have some answers for you... but you're not gonna make it into the Weekly Update any more. (Louis Wu 20:52:59 UTC) (permalink)
In the Valley of the Forerunners
Dennis Powers writes to say that the Halo CE Chronicles WILL have a Season 3... but it won't be episodes, per se. It will be a single, 80+ minute long feature, broken into chunks for more reasonable downloading. You can view the trailer online at the HCEC website. Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:56:37 UTC) (permalink)
So Cold
SNOWBLIND1717 submitted a music video called 'So Cold' (set to the song of the same name by Breaking Benjamin) to the MPRRS yesterday; it passed handily. Imagine... a music video with a message! This one's nicely filmed, nicely edited - grab a copy. WMP9 version is 33.1 mb, QuickTime version is 32.7 mb. (QT version has been cleaned up a little - hope SNOWBLIND doesn't mind!) (Louis Wu 18:00:48 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary Episode II: Prelude to Eternity
A couple of weeks back, blackouTT made some noise with Legendary, the first episode in a machinima series he's working on. Episode 2 was submitted to the MPRRS this afternoon - and it passed with flying colors in three hours. Wow! As usual, great camera angles. The story is fleshing out. This one's big - over 8 minutes long, 83 mb large. Grab it in WMP9 format, or QuickTime format - your call. (Louis Wu 06:08:35 UTC) (permalink)
For High Charity's Windows
Wellsley created a pretty amazing-looking stained-glass Elite for an art contest... he's a little late, but he certainly deserves some recognition. Check it out! (Louis Wu 05:59:31 UTC) (permalink)
Frenchy
Broken Console has made The Squadron Episode 16 ('Frenchy') available to the public; go grab a copy in WMP9 format from their downloads page, or the QuickTime from our server. Lots of preparation... lots of setbacks. Sometimes I weep for humans. (Louis Wu 05:35:40 UTC) (permalink)
He hates losing.
Bunch of news came in late yesterday - let's get it posted, so I can go to bed. First up - ShocKWav3 is the Player of the Week over at MLGPro.com; go read what makes this guy tick! (Louis Wu 05:33:12 UTC) (permalink)
News February 1 2006
Triple Threat - a little late
Bah. I hate it when I forget things. A few days ago, Halo2Forum.com released a trailer for an upcoming montage vid from Titan VIII, Verse, and MADDOG - it was called the Triple Threat, and folks were pretty excited about it. Swing by to grab a copy in WMP9 format. They also submitted this file to the MPRRS - and the reviewers liked it a lot, too. (It's pretty slick, and it's really not very big.) Because of that, we're offering a QuickTime version of the vid - there's no real need to mirror the WMP9 (you can still grab that at H2F), but if you prefer QT, here you go. And I apologize that real life's been getting in the way of this stuff recently. (Louis Wu 19:39:06 UTC) (permalink)
Putting Your Manhood In Jeopardy
The Daily Nebraskan has a profile of Rachel Delovechio, known in Halo 2 circles at PMS Rambo - go read about this girl gamer! (Louis Wu 19:17:39 UTC) (permalink)
Puncake!
Periodically, Bentllama spams our forum with random comments about his favorite breakfast food. If he weren't a Cananimator, we'd probably just ban the guy... but as it is, he tends to draw the forum locals into silliness (as he did last week). Today's One One Se7en gives you Stuntmutt's take on the situation. (Louis Wu 15:07:55 UTC) (permalink)
Toys for your (PC) Desktop
Funkmon found some fun Halo-related stuff at WinCustomize.com - there's a pretty cool-looking clock and an in-progress Windowblinds skin (not downloadable yet). Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 14:28:28 UTC) (permalink)
H2O v1.5.0 released
LunarShadow has updated the H2O Stats Reader to version 1.5 - big changes are in the searching and sorting areas. Check out his forum post for more details! (Louis Wu 14:22:09 UTC) (permalink)
...BOOM
B.J. let us know about Blue and Blond, a webcomic that features Halo today (a departure from the norm, if I'm reading the blog entry right). The permalink doesn't work yet - but I'm guessing that once the next comic is posted, this one will be able to be found here. (Louis Wu 14:20:24 UTC) (permalink)
New Content at MLGPro.com
Back on solid ground, 3Suns pointed out another pair of articles at MLGPro.com. The first is a general-gaming article, not really specifically Halo - but it was written by Overswarm, the author of our Not So Common Sense Strategy Guide, and marks a new era for him - congrats! The second article discusses the second wave of MLG Pro Player Cards is up - 6 new pros have been added. Go check out their stats! (Louis Wu 14:16:02 UTC) (permalink)
I cannae hold her, Captain!
Okay, I'm thinking of changing the website name:
What do you think? A couple of days ago, Kotaku posted this note, suggesting that Gamestop stores around the US got an email stating firmly that Halo 3 would not be out in 2006. (A million of you sent this in, linked from many sites - I was going to ignore it altogether, until...) Yesterday, a DIFFERENT site (HEXUS.gaming? Never heard of 'em) posted a note stating that Halo 3 was actually finished, and held at the replicators, awaiting the go-ahead from Microsoft before being manufactured and delivered. We've got a 'too early' and 'too late'... I'm waiting for Baby Bear's prediction. Do I need to remind you that until Bungie says something, everything you read is subject to correction? I hope not. (Louis Wu 14:09:41 UTC) (permalink)
| February 2006 | |
