|
Spoilers are currently disabled. (All newsposts are visible.) |
||
View the Archives: |
||
 | February 2007 |  |
February 2007 Archived News
News February 28 2007
February Halo Wars Update
Mike Smith pointed out a new update over at the Halo Wars forum - very little real information, but they DO seem to have a playable version, because a bunch of Microsoft bigwigs came by to play. There's also an enigmatic image at the bottom of the post; I thought it was a 'magic picture' (with a 3d shape that appears if you look at it right), but I couldn't find anything inside. Give it a read, and play with the pic! (Louis Wu 23:49:40 UTC) (permalink)
Warner buys Halo music publishing rights
Over at Music4Games, you can read about a new licensing agreement between Microsoft and Warner/Chappell Music (the publishing arm of Warner Music Group) - Warner will now "claim, administer, and license music compositions owned and controlled by Microsoft, including [...] Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2." The agreement covers the upcoming Halo 3, as well. Go read the full article for more details! Thanks, Greg. (Louis Wu 20:42:55 UTC) (permalink)
An automated vasectomy clinic?
Weebl's Stuff was lucky enough to rate a tour of Bungie Studios recently - it's not clear how many NDAs they violated documenting what they saw, so read it while you can! Thanks, Hypersoldier. (Louis Wu 18:16:35 UTC) (permalink)
Listening to the Lightbulb and the Chief
Game Informer Online has released a podcast with Tim Dadabo (343 Guilty Spark) and Steve Downes (Master Chief) - an interesting interview about how the whole voice-acting thing works. It's a fascinating half-hour discussion with two guys who are pretty close to the development process (though both of them deny knowing any inside info). Go listen! Thanks, Spec_Ops_Assault. (Louis Wu 15:28:33 UTC) (permalink)
You Can't Beat It.
Today's One One Se7en looks at a potentially under-considered hazard of the upcoming Halo 3 Laser Command toy set... though anyone with small boys (or, for that matter, anyone who WAS a small boy or KNEW a small boy) could have predicted this. (Louis Wu 15:26:35 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Swagse
A few days ago, we mentioned that Kornman won one of the three Hollywood Arts Halo auctions. In an odd turn of events, the top bidder in one of the other two, the Swag Pack, dropped out, and Kornman was the second highest bidder there - so he picked THAT one up, too. He was able to get Hollywood Arts to take pictures before shipping the package out - you can read about it, and see all the goodies, on this page. Congrats, Kornman... and here's hoping you've still got enough left over for rent this month! (Louis Wu 15:20:34 UTC) (permalink)
Bad News Beta
Sane Intolerant pointed out Bad News Beta, an episode of his Halo Toy Box strip. Oddness... (Louis Wu 15:12:34 UTC) (permalink)
Master Replicas Gets in the Game
Okay, so we already knew about Gentle Giant, WizKids Games, and Kotobukiya getting into the Halo Action Figure market (just as Joyride gets out) - looks like a fourth company is in, too. Corgi International, makers of Master Replicas, will be releasing Halo-related "gifts and collectibles" in the coming year. (They'll also be distributing the Kotobukiya figures.) Thanks, ODSTAdrianFii. (Louis Wu 15:00:53 UTC) (permalink)
Knowing your spouse
Dry Ice has a pretty nice wife - check out the goodies he got for his last birthday, totally unprompted. If you find someone like that... don't let her go. (Louis Wu 14:54:44 UTC) (permalink)
News February 27 2007
Tied the Leader makes us work
It's Tuesday, which usually means a Tied the Leader update - but we've heard nothing from our gunslinging friends, so I visited all by my lonesome, and found some tasty stuff. There's a 22 Questions interview with Michael 'Fluffaluffer' Karlsson, the leader of Planet Halo, there's an interesting piece called 'Century Milestone', which looks at the Gunslingers as a unit (One from Many), and there's a Community Profile of the Gamerchix ("two X chromosomes and an internet connection"). What are you waiting for? Go read! (Louis Wu 19:39:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Heads - Live Again
In the last 6 months, we've chronicled the release of 50 episodes of the Halo Heads comic on these pages... but a couple of weeks ago, fans started noticing that the site was unreachable. An unfortunate disaster had occurred, and the original blogspot website was gone - but never fear, a replacement has been created! We're now hosting the strip, at haloheads.bungie.org - go see if you missed any! (The blog posts are gone, unfortunately, along with any comments - but look on the bright side; the strips are housed in a spiffy new standards-compliant design!) (Louis Wu 18:55:55 UTC) (permalink)
What... it couldn't have gone $400 higher?
That Halo 3 Voice Cameo auction ended yesterday... the winning bidder paid a whopping $7,300 to be immortalized, vocally, in Halo 3. Now THAT'S fanaticism! Thanks, Kornman. (Louis Wu 17:42:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halopen Opens The Process
xbryboyremix pointed out a collection of useful pages for machinima makers, part of a new section of the Halopen Films website. The Process has opened with 'How to Film', a page showing three common ways to get Xbox content into your computer, and 'Guidelines', a tutorial that can help you make better machinima. Go give 'em a read! (Louis Wu 17:31:45 UTC) (permalink)
Ms Da Man
One of the more impressive Halo 1 tricksters, over the years, has been Ms Man - and now all of his work has been collected in one section of High Impact Halo, thanks to Dantheman87. A friendly wave to Ducain, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:20:40 UTC) (permalink)
Mr. Smite, Indeed.
The official World of Warcraft website has a monthly comic contest - the Honorable mentions for February were posted yesterday, and one of them is Halo-related. Thanks, JeSteR 343. (Louis Wu 17:13:31 UTC) (permalink)
Verbal Foulacy: Profiling a Professional
Over at MLGPro.com, there's a profile of Foulacy; give it a read to see how he got to where he is. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 17:07:48 UTC) (permalink)
Bless This Mess
Mister Froggy pointed out that Halo, Articulated 17 is now available. That Arbiter's a mean guy... (Louis Wu 16:26:25 UTC) (permalink)
Spotlight on Halo: Unyielding
trigger119 pointed out a spotlight on Halo: Unyielding, an ongoing machinima project that integrates CGI into Halo footage - go read it over at GamingTV.org! (Louis Wu 15:33:26 UTC) (permalink)
Mjolnir Mix downloadable for Guitar Hero II?
Wow. The hot rumor of the morning seems to be that the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II will have Halo's 'Mjolnir Mix' as a downloadable song later this spring. Coffin Joe saw it last night at Xbox360Fanboy, but today you can find it at CVG, Xboxic, XBOX 360 Wire, MyGen, GamingNexus, OXM UK (thanks, Onebitrocket), TeamXbox - and almost certainly your favorite gaming news outlet. No word on whether it's TRUE, though... (Louis Wu 15:21:33 UTC) (permalink)
News February 26 2007
Choker.
Phil Spencer talked to Game Informer a little while ago, and said some weird stuff about the Halo 3 Beta. This, of course, gave Stuntmutt an opening for weird comments of his own - check today's One One Se7en. (And with that, I'm off - airport in an hour, home, if all goes well, in 12.) (Louis Wu 13:08:59 UTC) (permalink)
Desperation
Hawaiian Pig and Veegie have come up with another collaboration - a really cool scene rendered with in-game models by Veegie, then majorly customized by Pig. There's a forum thread with multiple links, and it's been added to Veegie's gallery here at HBO, as well. (Louis Wu 12:53:34 UTC) (permalink)
News February 25 2007
The Arbiter Model Project, Part 2
The More Deluded posted another batch of pictures of his Arbiter Model project - it suffered a few setbacks (see the forum post for details), but overall, it's looking pretty good! Check it out. (Louis Wu 20:53:58 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 37
Sigafoos writes to let us know that The Riot 37 is now up - community updates, the upcoming Halo comic, laser tag toys, and more. Enjoy the newly-designed Second Foundation website when you go! 31 minutes, 12.5 mb. (Louis Wu 20:34:44 UTC) (permalink)
Wow Moments
A couple of days ago, Major Silva mentioned a blog post he'd written, in which he lamented the scarcity of 'Wow moments' in Halo 2. (I'm not sure I understand what a 'Wow moment' is, actually - he says they're the moments that are more movielike than what's around them, but also more immersive than what's around them; for me, those two are totally opposite - when things get dramatic and 'movielike', I get pulled OUT of the gameplay, not pushed farther in. However, that's really neither here nor there.) He uses the E3 2003 demo as an example, and wonders why the actual game wasn't more like this. Discussion on our forum would suggest that his view is controversial - many people felt the game was BETTER than the demo, while some felt the opposite, and still others didn't really see the need to place one over the other. Give it a read, see where you fall. (Louis Wu 18:10:56 UTC) (permalink)
All the fun of the fair
Rockslider has posted a new Frontline with Suzie - sounds like she should be having fun, but I'm not sure she is... (Louis Wu 17:52:23 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Comic Team Announced
New York Comic Con is going on right now - and one of the announcements that was made during the Cup O' Joe panel last night was that the creative team that will bring the ongoing Halo comic to life had been decided on - Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. (Google 'em for more info.) Stories can be found at Newsarama.com (thanks, James Altman) and Comic Book Resources. (Louis Wu 13:16:52 UTC) (permalink)
Hollywood Arts Auction Update
Two of the three cool Bungie-related auctions benefitting Hollywood Arts ended yesterday - and longtime community member Kornman is taking home the life-sized Master Chief statue and the tour of Bungie Studios. Ding to his wallet: $2700. Nice haul for underprivileged children! The Halo Signed Swag Pack went for $610 - sounds like an awesome price for such a goodie-filled collection! The audio cameo in Halo 3 still has a day left to run, with a bid of $5000 (but don't expect it to stay there) - overall, this series of auctions is bringing in some serious cash for a great cause! (Louis Wu 12:59:25 UTC) (permalink)
News February 24 2007
Meet the Hired Guns
Over at IGN.com, there's a blog written by one of the team members that's putting together Halo 2 Vista, introducing the Hired Gun team and explaining some of the nuances of the development - give it a read! (Louis Wu 16:09:15 UTC) (permalink)
House of Ideas
Mister Froggy writes to let us know that Halo Articulated #16 is available for your amusification. Spartan senses... tingling! (mnemesis 05:42:27 UTC) (permalink)
Frankie gets killed by glass
The Bungie Weekly Update is now available, and basically, it's a summary of the new and cool features that Halo 3 has gained this week. Tasty stuff! Go read (either at Bungie.net, or in our own Weekly Update Archive). (Louis Wu 02:16:08 UTC) (permalink)
News February 23 2007
Ghostayame talks tactics
MLGPro.com has a Player Match Commentary vid from Ghostayame linked on the front page - thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 19:11:38 UTC) (permalink)
The Heretic, Episode 2: Mission Briefing
As pointed out by both Funkmon, via email, and agenteks, on our forum, Edgeworks Entertainment has released The Heretic Episode 2. Love the effects! Great action sequences, too. Almost 10 minutes long - should hold you over until the next ep is released, in two weeks! (Louis Wu 17:02:55 UTC) (permalink)
This Would Really Bug You.
Heh - today's One One Se7en digs back into some classic older work... yeah, like that's any different than most strips. (Louis Wu 17:00:31 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Six new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section this week. (There were more in the queue, but it seems that authors are forgetting to read the basic guidelines for formatting and submitting their stories; I had to reject a few large blocks o' text. Enjoy what's left! (To authors who don't see their work here - just make sure you follow the guidelines, and you're welcome to resubmit.) (Louis Wu 16:52:37 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chiefs of the Night
Pezcore stopped by yesterday to point out a new blog post, in which he worries that the commercialization of the Halo franchise is a bad thing. Do you agree? (Opinion, at least on our forum, is divided so far.) (Louis Wu 16:16:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Traitors
Dennis Powers, of HaloMaps, pointed out a thread on their forum about a fan-made Halo game using the Byond game engine. I can't find any screenshots (and the Mac version of the engine is text-only, no graphics, but apparently, a lot of work has been put into it. Take a look! (Louis Wu 16:00:23 UTC) (permalink)
Because Sometimes the Warthog Flips
Jonathan Rivas points out a new item at the Bungie Store today, a slick 12 oz. UNSC water bottle is now available for about ten bucks. Very cool. (KP 09:03:33 UTC) (permalink)
New Content at Halo: Portable
Funkmon wrote to let us know about a bunch of new updates over at Halo: Portable. They've put up some new machinima mirrors, some classic Mike Miller content and a new Podcast. Go grab the podcast for your commute to work and/or school. Try not to watch the movies while driving, though. (KP 08:53:50 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2: The Series - Episode 2
Jamie98s dropped us a note to let us know that Halo 2: The Series - Episode 2 is done and available at GamingTV. Some really excellent work here, showing the Halo 2 story from the Pelican crash through the tunnels of New Mombasa. Great execution, on all fronts. The Jackal sniper shot, the Cortana sequence, the Hunters... Awesome! Update: We have a local mirror, for anyone who still needs it (168 mb - it's a 23 minute long segment), as well as a QuickTime version (162 mb). (mnemesis 05:25:19 UTC) (permalink)
Bzerker01 interviewed by GTV
We got word from trigger119 - GamingTV has put up a new machinima interview, this one with Bzerker01, of Treeskunk Productions. Go read! (Louis Wu 01:28:05 UTC) (permalink)
2v2 Halo Tourney, VA
bifflog pointed out an upcoming Halo 2v2 tourney in Virginia, on March 3. More details on this web page! (Louis Wu 01:15:27 UTC) (permalink)
He's so cute...
Mini Lego Chief... thanks, wheeler. (Louis Wu 01:13:42 UTC) (permalink)
Action Figure Sale - Pics
Yesterday, we mentioned a huge collection of Halo action figures for sale - cctobias41886 put up pictures to see what you'd be buying this afternoon. Still scraping my jaw off the floor... (Louis Wu 01:09:45 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 is already driving console buying
Interesting. Complete.com did some analysis of what people looked at when they bought their Xbox360 recently... and they found that Halo 3 is selling 3 times as many 360s as Gears of War right now. Go check out their math and see if you buy the logic! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 01:06:32 UTC) (permalink)
News February 22 2007
Pew Pew Pew!
Neo-Genesis posted a link to a Kotaku story announcing a Halo 3 laser tag set. "Halo 3 Laser Command" is slated to feature the Plasma Rifle, Plasma Pistol and the Energy Sword. Not quite sure how the sword's going to figure into that, should be interesting to see. (KP 20:45:36 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Armor on eBay
GryphonOsiris pointed out a set of Halo armor available on eBay right now; current bid is $750 with a day and a half left to go. If you like the armor, but miss the auction, the company that made it will be happy to sell you a full suit. (Louis Wu 16:40:13 UTC) (permalink)
Charity Halo Tourney in Wisconsin
In Fond du Lac, WI, Game Crazy and Hollywood Video are sponsoring Halo for Hunger V, a tournament whose proceeds will benefit he Starlight Children's Foundation. More details can be found at the Halo for Hunger website. (Louis Wu 13:39:44 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Tourney in NW Ohio
Quintin Kuntz pointed out Bashcon, a 3-day gaming event at the University of Toledo from February 23-25 - lots of gaming events, including a Halo 2 tourney. Full details at the Bashcon website. (Louis Wu 13:28:47 UTC) (permalink)
Halomega Weekly Update
F1rsTxLas7 sent us another huge update for Halomega; if we tried to list everything, we'd choke your browser. Go visit the site and look for Gaming Lessons, Videos, and local contests! (Louis Wu 13:11:25 UTC) (permalink)
MLG 2007 Halo 2 Rule Changes
3Suns writes to let us know that MLG have released their 2007 Halo 2 Gametypes, Rules, and Changes. Lots of new stuff, including shared squop-up turns, squidger contacts, and the difference between potted and free winks. Oh, wait, those are the international Tiddly Winks rules. Eh, same thing. Anyway, head over to MLG and check 'em out! (mnemesis 05:31:09 UTC) (permalink)
Everybody Out of the Car
Tango wrote to point out this article at Figures.com which explains that Joyride's Halo 1 & 2 license has expired, as was previously mentioned, and that Joyride knows of no current plans to renew it. Another point of interest in the article is the fact that three other companies are now producing Halo figures, but on different scales. Leads one to wonder whether another company is in the works to take care of Halo 3 action figures in the 7" range or if Bungie thinks the three sizes they have right now are sufficient instead. (KP 05:09:14 UTC) (permalink)
Jungle Trigonometry 4
sodaGoD's Jungle Trigonometry 4 was released today, and I must say... it's some bizarre filmmaking. That's not to say it's bad - because it's far, far, FAR from bad. It's great, in fact. Just bizarre. Tiny Feet, for example... wow. Just... wow. The Frenchman... I loved it. Kraken... that rocked. In fact, the whole thing rocks. As always, fantastic effects. Great use of mods. Great voices. I was sure... yes I was. You can visit the official thread on the Machine Enema forum, or you can just grab a copy from us, in WMP9 format (112 mb) or QuickTime format (117 mb). Update: trigger119 points out that GamingTV has local mirrors (including a self-encoded H.264 QuickTime). (Louis Wu 02:50:37 UTC) (permalink)
Every Figure Ever Made - Now For Sale
Wow. cctobias41886 stopped by our forum to let people know that 1) he has a collection of every single Halo and Halo 2 action figure ever made by Joyride... and 2) he's selling it. If you're interested, send him email (his email is in the forum post) before he posts it up on eBay. Wow. That's gotta be a big collection! (Louis Wu 02:13:26 UTC) (permalink)
News February 21 2007
Machinima Tutorials from Jamie98s
Jamie98s wrote up a bunch of tutorials full of info that can help budding machinimators make better vids. Go check 'em out at Kochinima.com! (Louis Wu 20:59:30 UTC) (permalink)
6ix Hundred.
Who'd have thought, 4 years ago, that Stuntmutt would ever hit 600? Check out today's One One Se7en. (For the rest of the story, check here.) (Louis Wu 14:48:06 UTC) (permalink)
Another Fanmade Poster
PsH Bling sent along some pics of the Halo 3 poster he made from the artwork released last week - looks really good! (Large/Small | Poster with Owner) I'm thinking Bungie should be selling a copy of this... (Louis Wu 14:43:11 UTC) (permalink)
More Cortana/MC from Luke McKay
The picture Luke McKay posted in his RvB journal yesterday is now up in his gallery here (no membership needed for viewing), along with a second new one (thanks, Big Goalie Dan). Looks like Luke's seeing some sexual tension... (Louis Wu 03:08:34 UTC) (permalink)
News February 20 2007
Crackdown on Copyright
Sane Intolerant, who has gone mad, has also cranked out another comic on DeviantART for your edification. Check it out! And check out his previous one (that he sneakily snuck in earlier). (mnemesis 19:58:27 UTC) (permalink)
TSquared Looks Down the Road
Over at MLGPro.com, the front-page vid is a focus on Tom 'TSquared' Taylor - it's not a typical MLG vid, there's no gameplay with commentary, or the like... it's an interview with TSquared discussing what got him into this in the first place, and where it's bringing him. Interesting watch! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 17:35:27 UTC) (permalink)
Third Coming.
Ure Paul let us know about the current ActionTrip comic - inspired by the Halo 3 mention in last week's BWU. Heh. (Louis Wu 17:03:50 UTC) (permalink)
An Excuse for Alliteration
Xerxdeej stopped by tonight to remind us of Tied the Leader Tuesdays. This week they're featuring an interview with the folks over at the new(ish) podcast Loading Reality, an ode to tail-gunners and 22 Questions with Machinima creator Mike Rouse. Check it all out on the blog's homepage. (KP 07:31:52 UTC) (permalink)
Breathing a New Life
3Suns writes to note a blog entry by AYBFonzi over at MLG, commenting on how his life has changed due to MLG and Halo. Fonzi seems genuinely grateful for his successes, and it shows in his writing. Nice, and congrats to Fonzi (and Allie)! :-) (mnemesis 05:20:44 UTC) (permalink)
VGL hits GDC! GM in SF!
Got a press release regarding the upcoming Video Games Live concert at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco on March 9th. This particular concert sounds like it's going to be big primarily for Nintendo fans, but the one, choice, Halo-related piece of news is that Dee Baker (the voice of Gravemind) will be doing an on-stage performance. Here's our chance! Somebody needs to get tickets to this, meet up with Mr. Baker, and see if he knows anything about the infamous poem. Yeah, there'll also be tons of great music and prizes and special performances and stuff but come on! Gravemind!! (mnemesis 04:54:47 UTC) (permalink)
Arbiter: Ace Attorney
Sane Intolerant pointed out a DeviantART comic he's made as a crossover between Halo and Phoenix Wright. OBJECTION! ... Er, nm. (mnemesis 04:43:06 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Machinima Association
Deekor posted to let folks know that the Halo Machinima Association is live and ready to start getting on with keeping "viewers entertained with awesome movies and a great community!" Check it out! (mnemesis 04:35:54 UTC) (permalink)
Jungle Trigonometry 4 Trailer
ClearviewPro points out on the forum that SodaGod has released a trailer for Jungle Trigonometry 4. Gah! He asked if I was sure, and I thought I was sure, but then there was the twitching and stuff and now I'm not so sure that I'm sure... (mnemesis 04:27:24 UTC) (permalink)
Luke McKay MC and Cortana
Big Goalie Dan noticed on our forum that Luke McKay has a new image of the MC and Cortana on his Red vs. Blue page. You'll need to be signed in at RvB to see it. Nice! (mnemesis 04:20:55 UTC) (permalink)
Artificial Unintelligence
Mister Froggy writes to let us know that Halo, Articulated #15 is now available online. Here's hoping Cortana has a bit more new dialogue than that. (mnemesis 04:17:30 UTC) (permalink)
News February 19 2007
Hollywood Arts Auctions
We previously mentioned the Hollywood Arts First Annual Dream Awards, where they're honoring Tommy Tallarico (one of the guys behind the Video Games Live concerts) and, more topically, where they're auctioning off some cool Halo-related stuff. Curtis Edmond sends word that the auctions are live now: the Signed Halo Swag Pack, the Tour of Bungie Studios and Full Size Master Chief Statue, and the Audio Cameo in Halo 3. Interestingly, Curtis noted that the wording for the audio cameo claims that,
"Voiceover will be recorded at Blindlight Studios in Hollywood, CA before May 15, 2007 or this package will have to redeemed for Halo 4."Halo 4?!? Intriguing! Update: Frankie notes that the Halo 4 comment was probably a bad joke. Ah, well. Double Update!: It seems that the audio cameo item has been pulled for now. I'm assuming it'll be back again at some point with different ad copy. Triple Update!: Yep, all fixed now. (mnemesis 16:21:34 UTC) (permalink)
This End Toward Enemy.
Last week, Eurogamer published an interview with Frankie in which it was revealed that in the current Halo 3 build, you leave footprints in the snow. Stuntmutt adds his own two pence on the subject in today's One One Se7en. Last news post for a bit (unless other admins step in) - I'm getting on an airplane to a warm, sunny place in just a couple of hours. (Louis Wu 06:22:36 UTC) (permalink)
VShields Gets his Due
Got word from Ducain about a new video archive at High Impact Halo; it was compiled by Madrox, and it shows off the trickstering of Vern Shields (long known on our forum as vshields_ash, now semi-retired from Halo). Looking back over some of these films, I got hit with such a wave of nostalgia... go watch. Good stuff. (Louis Wu 06:05:54 UTC) (permalink)
News February 18 2007
The Riot 36
Sigafoos pointed out that The Riot 36 is now up for download. 26 minutes, 11 mb - more Risk stuff, video theft, GamingTV. And other stuff. Get to listening! (Louis Wu 21:24:26 UTC) (permalink)
Frontline 19: Sentinel blues
Rockslider let us know that there's another Frontline With Suzie up at his site, Bad Cyborg; this time, she's interviewing a sentinel. Go read! (Louis Wu 21:15:10 UTC) (permalink)
Ordained Insight Starts Up
Urban Reflex has kicked off a new blog, 'Ordained Insight', that he's created to chronicle his experiences with the Halo 3 beta. Gonna be a little shy of content for a bit... but keep an eye on it. (Louis Wu 18:43:08 UTC) (permalink)
News February 17 2007
Hardcore Fan Printing
Heh - over at Halo Base (a German site), forum user Johnson has already printed out the Halo 3 Teaser poster from last night's Weekly Update - looks great on his wall! Thanks, Legend. (Louis Wu 20:57:09 UTC) (permalink)
Hi-res Heretic, plus a Soundtrack
Whoa, cool. Nerrolken posted a note over at The Codex Series website; they've decided to release The Heretic in high-res! Go by and grab large versions of Episode 1 - Ep 2 will be out next week! (There's also news of the Heretic Soundtrack, which will begin shipping shortly after the series is finished.) (Louis Wu 03:33:30 UTC) (permalink)
Terms and Provisions
Red vs Blue Episode 90 has been posted for sponsors; Sis gets naked, Sarge tries to abandon Grif, Caboose tries to pick up Sheila, Tucker gets none. Fun all around! Thanks to Psychophan7 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:26:03 UTC) (permalink)
The Library
Mister Froggy points out Halo, Articulated #14 - a summary of the Library, in 3 panels. Except with fewer grenades. (Louis Wu 03:25:03 UTC) (permalink)
Teasers! (Well, sort of)
The Bungie Weekly Update is live over at Bungie.net (and, of course, in our Weekly Update Archive) - info about the upcoming advertising blitz, info (sort of) about the Beta launch date, info about the Halo 3 control scheme, info about Frankie's AWESOME art abilities. Go read! (Louis Wu 01:07:51 UTC) (permalink)
News February 16 2007
Three's Company, Too
Halo Heads hits 50 - nice! And a new character... I like 'im! Thanks, stickygerbils. (Louis Wu 21:25:14 UTC) (permalink)
An Endless Abyss-esque Imagination
GamingTV has put up an interview with Machine Enema's SodaGoD - go read how he got into Halo machinima in the first place, and what drives him to make great vids. Thanks, trigger119. (Louis Wu 21:00:51 UTC) (permalink)
Xboxyde talk to Crackdown Producer
Xboxyde has interviewed Phil Wilson, Producer of Crackdown - go read what he has to say about the inclusion of the Halo 3 Beta. (And a ton of other stuff about Crackdown, of course.) Thanks, Coffin Joe. (Louis Wu 20:49:03 UTC) (permalink)
Tearjerker.
So last week Jen Taylor was at Bungie, recording dialogue. (And this week, according to Cybrfrk, who heard an interview with Pete Stacker on his local radio station, Stacker was there, doing the same.) Stuntmutt riffed on some of Frankie's commentary in today's One One Se7en... poor Jen. (Louis Wu 16:59:20 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Beta FAQ
It's a little later than we thought it would be, because it turned out to need more approval, at more levels, than anyone had expected - but the Halo 3 Beta FAQ that KP promised a couple of days ago went live early this morning (thanks, goatrope). Go read it to get answers to the most common questions Bungie's been seeing about this program. (Louis Wu 15:15:56 UTC) (permalink)
Narrowing the gap.
Over at Rampancy.net, Narcogen has taken a long, hard look at the arguments at the halo2sucks.com website, and what, exactly, made them hate Halo 2 with such a passion. It's a pretty interesting read. (Personally, I think he missed a critical piece of the puzzle - the fact that Halo multiplayer rewarded individual skill far more than teamplay, and Halo 2 was the reverse - but it all boils down to the same argument in the end, I think.)
(Louis Wu 15:13:01 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Only 6 new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week - shouldn't take you too long... (Louis Wu 14:31:37 UTC) (permalink)
What the heck IS anapestic tetrameter?
There was another Halo 3 Humpday match played on Wednesday - and by 'match' I mean 'KP plays Halo 3 Matchmaking and humiliates anonymous players'. There's definitely some interesting info about the games there - go give it a read! MasterChief2829 was first with the news. (Louis Wu 14:28:50 UTC) (permalink)
Elite vs. Elite Episode 5
EternalScrappy has created Elite vs Elite Episode 5 - this one seems to substitute funny noises for actual humor. (I guess by that I mean if there was humor intended in the action, I couldn't find it.) Similar content and a download link can be found in this forum post. (Louis Wu 14:12:38 UTC) (permalink)
News February 15 2007
New McKay Art
Luke McKay put up another Halo doodle of the day today - awesome shading. Thanks to Tex, who got to Luke's RvB journal before I did. (Louis Wu 18:49:29 UTC) (permalink)
Defeatist Journalism
Play.tm has put up a 2007 Preview article, discussing the upcoming blockbuster games this year - and yes, of course, Halo 3 is on the list. It's pretty darned negative, though - it condemns Microsoft for squeezing every last penny out of the franchise, the fans for blindly following Bungie even after the horrible disaster that was Halo 2, and the general public for letting Halo 3 be the Game of the Year even if it sucks. Not particularly objective, eh? (Louis Wu 18:31:24 UTC) (permalink)
MS GM Says Really Odd Things to GI
Phil Spencer talked to Game Informer recently, and the Halo 3 beta came up. (Surprise, surprise.) He states that the number of beta participants will 'grow over time':
It will scale over time and we need thousands of people from all around the world playing to make sure that all the systems are in place. In the end hundreds of thousands of people playing to make sure we're ready to go live.
He also offers some bizarre suggestions about how they picked Crackdown to deliver the beta invite (basically, he says they wanted a game nobody was going to buy, so that they could "throttle how many people would get on"). Go read for yourself. (Louis Wu 17:56:26 UTC) (permalink)
Jerome will hurt you.
Sam Van Tilburgh, Community Liason Officer at Lionhead Studios (now a part of Microsoft's gaming empire), visited Seattle recently, for meetings with other MGS community officers. During his visit, he tried to stop by and see a colleague, Jonty Barnes, formerly head of Black&White Studios, now heading production at Bungie - and he couldn't get in. (He blames this on the recent alpha leak - but Bungie's security has been ridiculously tight since they moved to Kirkland.) Fun read... thanks, Xavier De Coster. (Louis Wu 16:14:48 UTC) (permalink)
Not Forgotten.
4 years ago today, Brian Morden lost his battle with Ewing's Sarcoma. His memory lives on, however, at the Brian Morden Foundation, where efforts continue to be made to beat the disease. Thanks to Sep7imus, who pointed out a Subnova post this morning, showing off a new memorial built for Brian in the MMORPG Second Life. If you're new enough to the Halo community that the name isn't familiar, you can read about him here. (Louis Wu 15:27:24 UTC) (permalink)
MS Stands Up for Crackdown
Reuters has an article up today in which Microsoft defends the placement of a Halo 3 beta invite in Crackdown boxes.
"People are definitely saying "I'm getting a free beta with 'Crackdown,' not the other way around," Evans said. "The 'Halo 3' beta isn't going to push the game's sales into the millions. 'Crackdown' is going to push its sales into the millions."
He's right, you know. You shouldn't buy Crackdown unless you WANT Crackdown - and there's more to it than many people guessed. Already, a couple of long-time bungie fans have retracted their originally negative comments about Crackdown, after playing the demo. Heh - as the February 20th release date of Crackdown gets closer, I bet we see more of these articles. (Louis Wu 15:06:18 UTC) (permalink)
News February 14 2007
Halo Theme for Marching Band
Chris McGuffin sent along an mp3 of a Halo theme for marching band - it's been exported from Finale, not played by a real band, but you should get a pretty good idea of what it would sound like live. 2.4 mb. Credit goes to Chris and Josh Link. (Louis Wu 19:15:40 UTC) (permalink)
Burning Love.
It's Valentines Day, so Stuntmutt celebrates in his own inimitable style in today's One One Se7en. Update: Sane Intolerant posted a response. (Louis Wu 15:37:00 UTC) (permalink)
Clan Wars Tournament Kicks Off
According to a news post at bungie.net, Clantacular.com has opened registration for their Halo 2 World Domination Clan Wars Tournament. Go see if you can take over the world! (Louis Wu 15:16:25 UTC) (permalink)
Energy: The Series (Trailer, plus info)
A couple of days ago, Simply Greg stopped by our forum to mention that his group's upcoming series, Energy, will be released on March 1. He'd linked to a trailer for the series, but I'd forgotten to mention it here - so I'm doing so now. Earth has been polluted to the point where humans are forced off it - the series starts when humans realize they're not alone on the planets they move to. Give the trailer a look! (Louis Wu 14:50:38 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Outkastz Episode 3
Deekor stopped by to point out Halo Outkastz Episode 3 - uniform color changes, mystery boxes, and Spartan answering machines. Sound's a bit odd - it seems like all the voices are in a single channel (which made it really hard to hear some of the dialogue on my system), but it's nothing you can't deal with. Available as a downloadable 21 mb QuickTime. (Louis Wu 14:45:01 UTC) (permalink)
Gears of War VS Halo
Psychophan7 noticed a flash vid starring Master Chief and Marcus Fenix, from Gears of War, over at Newgrounds. It's a sitcom. Sort of. (Louis Wu 14:28:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo-Pro - Uncovered Gems
Halo-Pro.com has been a resource for multiplayer vids for years now - and they've recently gotten a facelift; tons of content is now easily accessible (you can actually find content far more easily). Take a look around - there are tons of multiplayer matches to watch! (Louis Wu 14:19:03 UTC) (permalink)
Player Commentary from Shockwav3
The front-page-linked Player Match Commentary currently up at MLGPro.com is from Shockwave, discussing some gameplay from Anaheim 2006. Some great tips explaining why he does certain things... nice commentary. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 14:15:21 UTC) (permalink)
National Halo 2 Tourney at Play N Trade
Play N Trade, a national video game retailer chain the US, has announced a National Halo 2 tournament, to kick off on March 3. Local winners snag a copy of Halo 3 when it's released, and a $200 certificate. The overall winner gets an LCD TV and $1500 in credit. Entry fee is $10 ahead of time, $15 at the door. More info in the press release. (Louis Wu 14:10:11 UTC) (permalink)
News February 13 2007
Overdriven Phobias
Over at Bungie.net, there's a Community Spotlight on Maximum FEAR, an adminstrator over at Games in Action. Go see what it takes to run a Bungie-based fansite! (Louis Wu 21:26:19 UTC) (permalink)
Penitent Prophet Kicks Off
IceWeasel started up a new blog - with a heavy focus on Halo (and Halo 3). Add it to your list! (Louis Wu 20:42:32 UTC) (permalink)
XBL Matchmaking Changes Deployed
If you swing by the Bungie.net forums, you can see a full listing of the changes to Halo 2 Matchmaking on Xbox Live - these changes went into effect a little bit ago. Thanks, Hexudus. (Louis Wu 19:32:04 UTC) (permalink)
Fiery Blowback
Paul Maestri points out Halo Heads 49, in which one of the newest described features of Halo 3 is examined more closely. Maybe TOO closely. (Louis Wu 18:12:23 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Beta Phase Two now closed
Microsoft has begun sending out emails to everyone registered back in December for a shot at the Halo 3 beta; these notes basically say that all 13,333 invites have been distributed, and if you haven't gotten one yet, you're not going to. (It also suggests that you can still get into the proram by buying Crackdown.) To those who made it - congratulations. To those who didn't - not ALL non-Crackdown slots have been filled yet, though if you absolutely positively don't want to miss the beta, it's certainly your best bet. Update: Heh. (Louis Wu 17:38:15 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Music - En Masse
We got email from Erik "P3PP3RM4N" Fikkert yesterday - he had a bunch of fan music he'd created, wanted to know how to get it out to our audience. Well, that's easy, right? We just post it, and tell you to go listen! Some of these pieces are really slick - I'd suggest starting up a forum thread if you're interested in working with Erik on a machinima project; Halo vids are always better with original music! (Louis Wu 16:29:47 UTC) (permalink)
All Tied Up.
XerxdeeJ stopped by with this week's Tied the Leader Tuesday Update - there's a 22 Questions interview with Sean Gailey, of J!NX apparel, and a Community Profile (née Clan Profile) of O7AH. Go read!
(Louis Wu 16:20:38 UTC) (permalink)
More Elite Poses
A few days ago, we mentioned a pretty cool thread at Bungie.net, containing a bunch of elite renders. Mike Jensen, the modeler, stopped by our forum last night with some new stuff - check it out! (Louis Wu 13:28:19 UTC) (permalink)
The Crazy Method
Over at halowiki.net, there's an article from XyonsWrath about 'The Crazy Method' - it's a description of a strategy that has a good chance of working against your average Matchmaking opponents. As someone who 'acts crazy' a lot, I can see where this is useful! Thanks, PEZ. (Louis Wu 13:24:25 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie's Matchmaking Should be Shared
Interesting article at 1Up.com - Luke Smith reports that according to Phil Spenser, Head of Game Development for Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft would like to spread Bungie's matchmaking code around to most (all?) first-party 360 games; the reason it didn't make it into Gears of War was a timing issue, not a code protection one. Heh - so right about the time that other games are catching up to where Bungie was in late 2004, we'll be seeing the NEXT evolution of their user interface in Halo 3. Sounds about right... (Louis Wu 13:10:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halomega Weekly Update
F1rsTxLas7, from Halomega, sent us a massive email - site updates, new movies (montage | 1v1 | montage trailer | 1v1 gameplay), plus sponsored videos, Sig of the Week contest, Snipe of the Month... go check 'em out. (Louis Wu 13:05:42 UTC) (permalink)
Hanging by a Thread
Mister Froggy let us know that Halo, Articulated #13 is now available. In it, the Master Chief is having trouble suspending his disbelief. (Louis Wu 12:23:10 UTC) (permalink)
News February 12 2007
Real Life Assault Rifle
link4044 posted a whole passel of pictures of an assault rifle he's building over at Halo Planet. It looks AMAZING. If the bandwidth dries up, we'll put up local copies - you gotta see this. Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 21:50:19 UTC) (permalink)
What A Bore.
Friday's Weekly Update mentioned some new features Bungie's been adding to Halo 3 multiplayer. Stuntmutt focuses on one of the more useful ones in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:53:16 UTC) (permalink)
Issue of the Week - Quick Scoping
PEZ wrote to point out that halowiki.net has no information about Quick Scoping (a technique which takes advantage of the built-in auto-aim by scoping just as you fire) - but there are plenty of Halo players out there that understand it really well. If you're one of them, swing by halowiki and add your own knowledge to the community well! (Louis Wu 17:39:40 UTC) (permalink)
HALO heads 48 - 100th Podtacular
Paul Maestri let us know that Halo Heads 48, celebrating the 100th episode of Podtacular, is now up. (I had no idea Foo Mo Jive looked so much like Jim Carrey...) (Louis Wu 16:58:05 UTC) (permalink)
No Pants Friday - A Bungie Life Lesson
Over at Gamasutra, you'll find a Q&A with Max Hoberman, of Certain Affinity - the interview is mostly about Certain Affinity, and where it's going, but there's also a chunk of stuff about the making of the Halo 2 maps that are coming out soon, and about Max's experience with Bungie on Halo 2 and Halo 3. Thanks, Ma1agate. (Louis Wu 16:12:51 UTC) (permalink)
Eurogamer talks to Frankie
Eurogamer got in a short interview with Frank O'Connor recently, discussing Halo 3. Not a lot of new content, but a few tidbits - for example, at the moment, you leave footprints in the snow on Snowbound (for a short time), allowing you to be tracked. (Of course, this might change before release.) Thanks, broony. (Louis Wu 12:55:01 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Episode 100
Kiaffex let us know that Podtacular Episode 100 has been posted - a special episode that looks back at the last 25 casts, looks forward to Podtacular's future, and offers up the Podtacular Awards. An hour and 20 minutes long, almost 75 mb big. Go grab it! (Louis Wu 12:52:01 UTC) (permalink)
News February 11 2007
Uncovered Goodies
Interesting... Finn uncovered an old thread at Bungie.net that ties together some pretty intriguing bits of info about Harvest, and what might (or might not) have happened there... give it a read. Then toss in your own two cents! (Louis Wu 19:37:21 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 35
Sigafoos points out that The Riot 35 has been released - 19 minutes (7.5 mb) of community news. Highlights include discussion of Halo Everywhere, and a Halo tourney with Risk overtones from Sword of Laban. Go listen! (Louis Wu 19:16:43 UTC) (permalink)
Gentle Giant Halo Figures
Wow - word of yet ANOTHER company getting into the Halo figure game; looks like Gentle Giant plans to start making Kubrick figures soon. Thanks, Tango.
(Louis Wu 19:12:05 UTC) (permalink)
Machines of War, Episode 1
Wow. We got word from SodaGod that he'd released the first episode of a new machinima series, Machines of War. It is the story of Spartan 104, cursed to survive when his comrades do not. This was filmed in Halo 2 Campaign, and the imagery is spectacular; he does an astounding job of getting the perfect shot for the moment. 9:25 long, 77.6 mb in WMP9 format, 78.7 mb in QuickTime format. Absolutely worth a download. Update: trigger119 lets us know that GamingTV is mirroring the WMP9, and has encoded their own h.264 QuickTime (54.7 mb). Great filesize - but be warned, it's pretty processor-intensive; it stutters badly on my dual 2GHz G5. If your processor is beefy, it's probably great.
(Louis Wu 15:51:30 UTC) (permalink)
Frontline with Suzie: Bubble trouble
Rockslider pointed out a new Fronline with Suzie - she interviews an unusual subject, one we can't actually mention on the front page without adding spoiler tags. It's... a rather odd interview. (Louis Wu 15:50:02 UTC) (permalink)
GIA Halo 3 Tourney Announced
In honor of their first anniversary,Games in Action is announcing Shock and Awe, a 4v4 Halo 3 tournament that kicks off on Halo 3 release day and will have over $5000 in prizes, assuming a full 256-team roster. Go read this thread for more details. (Louis Wu 15:38:48 UTC) (permalink)
Killzone Rumor Killed
Last week, Luke Smith speculated that Killzone 2 would show up at GDC (in early March), and a playable demo would be released before the Halo 3 beta kicked off. According to Playfuls.com, Sony has killed that rumor - Killzone 2 will NOT be present at GDC, and there will NOT be a playable demo any time soon. Spring will belong to Halo 3, as far as buzz goes... (Louis Wu 14:56:55 UTC) (permalink)
News February 10 2007
A bigger paper army
Nomi jumped back into making more paper spartans - you can find a host of new ones at the bottom of her gallery here. Looks like she's getting even better at it! (Louis Wu 19:21:26 UTC) (permalink)
More info about Kotobukiya Halo Figures
Laird found some information about the upcoming Kotobukiya figures (we mentioned them last week) - according to Figures.com, they'll run $100 each (about standard for Kotobukiya figures), the first will be a Halo 3 Master Chief released late this summer, and they will NOT require assembly. More when we know it! (Louis Wu 15:43:29 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Tattoo
Clint sent us a photo of his Master Chief tattoo that he's had on his forearm for a couple of years - nice work! (There's a truly humongous version, as well - 2304x3072, 707 kb - for those who want the closeup.)
(Louis Wu 15:40:46 UTC) (permalink)
Ross's 15 minutes
Pinkuh completed a commissioned piece for Ross Mills recently - nice use of the Halo 3 armor! You can find a copy in her gallery here, as well. (Louis Wu 15:09:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2:The Series - Episode 1
Busy news night - last bit for a while. Jamie98s let us know that progress on Halo 2: The Series is moving at a much-faster-than-expected clip: Episode 1, Cairo Station has been finished. He uploaded a version to GamingTV.org - with his permission, we've mirrored the WMP9 version (124 mb), and added a QuickTime version (121 mb). Cinematography is fantastic - he's done an amazing job of turning the Halo 2 storyline into a watchable movie. This chapter is nearly 15 minutes long. (Louis Wu 03:05:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Halos in Space - Flash Version
UrbanLT created a new flash remake of the fan fiction 'Halo: Halos in Space' (we pointed out a version at ytmnd.com, as well as a movie remake - and Postman even added his own music in there somewhere) - this version is pretty well-done, so we've hosted a local copy. Thanks, And1balla2829. (This is likely the last version we'll mention - this meme is all tapped out.) (Louis Wu 02:54:53 UTC) (permalink)
Go Go Gadget Video
Over at the RvB site, Sponsors will find a new PSA available for viewing. If your life is being taken over by useless technology... you'll need to watch this. Soon. (Before it's obsolete.) (Louis Wu 02:25:09 UTC) (permalink)
Oh Bugger
Mister Froggy let us know that Halo, Articulated #12 is now live. That Arbiter... he shoots like me. (Louis Wu 02:24:45 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie - OXM News of the Year Winners
Looks like Bungie won 'News of the Year' from the Official Xbox Magazine (for the Halo 3 beta news), and Frankie and SketchFactor were on hand to accept the award. You can hear their speech on the KOXM Podcast Episode 51. Thanks, Kaboris. (Louis Wu 02:24:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halopen - new design, project preview
bryboy remix let us know that over at the (newly re-skinned) Halopen website, you'll find preview info of Threshold, an upcoming project. There's a video render, as well as a preview of the modded map used during the filming. Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:20:52 UTC) (permalink)
Saiyan talks strategy
Over at MLGPro.com, there's a Player Match Commentary Vid linked, with Saiyan talking about how he does what he does. Good stuff! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 01:53:46 UTC) (permalink)
Elite Render
Great Pretender noticed a thread started at Bungie.net, containing some pretty cool model renders of an Elite. Check it out! (Louis Wu 01:42:34 UTC) (permalink)
Perky As A Dew-Kissed Kitten
The Bungie Weekly Update is available now at Bungie.net - tasty news about Jen Taylor, plus new weapon details, multiplayer tidbits, AudioBooks, and upcoming playlist info. And a really, really, really bad t-shirt idea. Thanks to goatrope, on IRC, for the heads-up. (Even if he DOES play far too much WoW.) As usual, there's a forum thread in which to discuss this, and a local version if you'd rather read it here. (Louis Wu 01:18:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Effect - Coming Soon
Here's some cool news. Our very own Finn, of the Halo Story Page, wrote to say that the final edits for 'Halo Effect', an upcoming collection of essays about Halo, were submitted today - it's on track for its April release. This book was co-edited by Finn (and he's got an appendix to himself)... and it contains an essay by Jillybean, a second third of our HSP triumvirate. Seems likely that it's worth a read! Check out its entry at Amazon.com. (Louis Wu 00:41:27 UTC) (permalink)
I want my money back!
AfroRyan noticed a story at IGN discussing how 20th Century Fox and Universal (the two companies who jointly backed the Halo movie back in the summer of 2005, and jointly pulled out last October) are arguing about who owes what part of the $12 million pre-production costs. Doesn't bode well for a future revival... (Louis Wu 00:36:41 UTC) (permalink)
News February 9 2007
Hairy Situation pt.2
Paul Maestri continues with the Kitty 117 storyline in Halo Heads 48 - you gotta wonder about sending cats in to do a man's job... (Louis Wu 20:54:39 UTC) (permalink)
Sixty Six.
Last week, we got word that WizKids game was going to be creating Halo ActionClix. Stuntmutt acts the pundit about this in today's One One Se7en. (The joke requires a basic knowledge of the WizKid product line; this forum post might help.) (Louis Wu 15:43:15 UTC) (permalink)
The Heretic Episode 1
Edgeworks Entertainment has released The Heretic Episode 1 - as we've come to expect from them, cinematography, story, effects, and voice acting are all top-notch. A fantastic beginning - can't wait for Ep 2! Thanks to Funkmon, who pointed this out. (If you swing by their main page, you'll find lots of other info; they're celebrating their anniversary today, and there's plenty of new content.) (Louis Wu 13:57:23 UTC) (permalink)
Guaranteed!
Today's Ctrl+Alt+Del takes a pretty funny look at some reactions to the idea that Crackdown is nothing more than a Halo 3 Beta facilitator... looks like Psychophan7 was first. (Louis Wu 13:52:28 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fiction
Eight new stories have been added to the Fan Fiction section this week - get to reading! (Louis Wu 13:50:40 UTC) (permalink)
News February 8 2007
Girls rule, boys drool
KP stopped by with word of the latest Halo Humpday Challenge (Halo 2 this time around), whereby a bunch of girls came in and owned the Bungie guys. Lots of swearing (though it seems mostly to be edited out). Psshht... (Louis Wu 23:56:14 UTC) (permalink)
More details on H3 Beta/Crackdown workings
Schedonnardus noticed a story at Xbox360Fanboy which shows the invite card that comes with Crackdown - unfortunately for folks who planned to rent Crackdown in order to play the Halo 3 Beta, you'll need the disc in order to play the beta. (It's unclear, from the invite card, whether each disc will be limited in how many downloads it can perform; it's POSSIBLE, though by no means assured, that you'll be able to participate in the beta with a rented copy of Crackdown for as long as the rental lasts.) (Louis Wu 23:50:47 UTC) (permalink)
Hairy Situation
Paul Maestri let us know about Halo Heads 46 - Kitty 117 goes in. You gotta wonder about the wisdom of sending in a team of cats to investigate a possible rescue situation... (Louis Wu 20:31:38 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Pig
ckamp posted a series of pictures of a Halo 3-themed piggy bank created by his girlfriend to help save for a 360. Adorable! (Louis Wu 20:24:50 UTC) (permalink)
3D New Mombasa in Google Earth
Jordan117 spent some time with Google SketchUp - and the results are now downloadable into Google Earth. Go check out his New Mombasa suspension bridge! (Louis Wu 18:24:48 UTC) (permalink)
Larger Than Life
wheeler posted a photo of his buddy's wall - pretty nice work! (Larger version in this post.) (Louis Wu 13:36:47 UTC) (permalink)
Writing the Halo Screenplay
Gamasutra has a podcast interview with DB Weiss, the most recent Halo screenplay writer. He talks quite a bit about the process, and about working with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. My copy seems to have gotten corrupted at about the 28 minute mark - but by then he was pretty much done with Halo anyway. Thanks, Michael Smith. (Louis Wu 13:29:50 UTC) (permalink)
Machinima for Dummies teaser
Andras Ostrom is working on a new piece of Halo machinima called 'Machinima for Dummies' - you can watch a teaser trailer for it in WMP9 format (22.7 mb) or QuickTime format (17.3 mb). Looks to be a fun project! (Louis Wu 13:17:26 UTC) (permalink)
Kinship
There's an interesting article about the PMS Clan (and Hot Chief, the head PMS' Delta Division) in the Miami New Times - go read about what they deal with, and why they do it. (Louis Wu 13:14:25 UTC) (permalink)
360Forum holding an Intro Contest
Z sent word that 360forum.com is having an Intro Contest - create an intro for them win cash. Halo, obviously, is one of the tools you can use. More details in the forum thread. (Louis Wu 12:37:41 UTC) (permalink)
News February 7 2007
Halo 2: The Series Trailer (redone)
A couple of years ago, comradx started a pretty ambitious project - he was going to create a full-length feature film based on Halo 2. He released the first of seven episodes, covering Cairo Station... but then abandoned the project. Jamie98s has just picked it up; he's starting from scratch, and has plans to actually finish at some point. He's a significant way into the production - but what we have for you today is a trailer, to whet your appetite. 16.4 mb in WMP9 format, 16.3 mb in QuickTime format - and more on the way when we get it. Update: These have now been mirrored by GamingTV. (Louis Wu 17:18:26 UTC) (permalink)
Bounce Back.
Last week's Update from Bungie mentioned variable gravity in Halo 3 multiplayer games (a feature, we should add, which may or may not make it into the final build; just because they played with it last week doesn't mean you'll be able to play with it when you get your hands on Halo 3). Stuntmutt tosses in his two cents on the subject in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:49:02 UTC) (permalink)
From Bears to Bullets... to eBay
Wow... remember the bear suit guy who made a Mjolnir-like suit for soldiers? Looks like nobody wanted to buy it from him - so he's selling it on eBay. Bit over a week left, current bid is $5100 US (reserve is not yet met). Ouch! Thanks to Planet Halo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:37:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Everywhere Winners Announced
On December 1, the Halo Everywhere contest went live. In 2 months, there were 700 artists submitting 1200 entries, and half a terabyte of bandwidth was burned through. On February 1, voting ended, and LordGideon and the crew began sifting through the votes. Today, the winners have been announced - go check 'em out! (Louis Wu 15:24:14 UTC) (permalink)
Haiku (Gesundheit)
It's been years since we had a real Haiku thread on our forum (though someone tried last year) - are they coming back? (Louis Wu 14:01:19 UTC) (permalink)
The Community Awards show
Sigafoos dropped us a note about The Riot's First Annual Community Awards podcast, now available at Second Foundation. Awards are presented by community luminaries (heh), with a musical guest and everything. Congrats to all the winners - and in fact to all nominees; this community is only as strong as the people who help build it. 24 minutes, 10 mb. (RVideo has started a thread on our forum, if you have comments.) (Louis Wu 13:36:39 UTC) (permalink)
Anarchy's Top Player Picks
3Suns pointed out an article on MLGPro.com in which Anarchy makes his list of Halo's top 20 players, with reasons. Interesting read... (Louis Wu 13:32:51 UTC) (permalink)
HollywoodNHouse in Trouble
We hate bad news - but it happens. We got a note from Matt6908, of HollywoodNHouse - they got in over their heads, hosting-wise, and are down for a while. Details can be found on their front page (which is the only page they've got for now). Folks - the Halo community is BIG. Catering to it can lead to unexpected expenses; there are many resources available to Halo sites to decrease hosting costs - use 'em. Here's hoping HollywoodNHouse makes it through this one. (Louis Wu 13:30:50 UTC) (permalink)
Awesome Halo Goodies for Auction Next Week
Over at Team Xbox, there's a press release about the First Annual Dream Awards, a production of Hollywood Arts, a non-profit that reaches at-risk teens through the arts. This year, they're honoring Tommy Tallarico, the man behind Video Games Live - and the awards ceremony will be a fundraiser for the organization. They'll be auctioning off all sorts of goodies (this is the auction home link, though nothing's posted yet - the auction goes live on February 17) - including an audio cameo in Halo 3 (!!), a Master Chief statue, and a tour of the Bungie Studios. (Lots of other stuff too - but that's the Halo schwag.) The auction kicks off at 7 pm PST on the 17th, and ends on the 24th - keep your eye on that page! Google News was first with this heads-up, but Spec_Ops_Assault wasn't far behind. (Louis Wu 13:20:48 UTC) (permalink)
MLG 07 Schedule Up
MLG has posted their 2007 Pro Circuit cities and dates - the playoff and national locations are still to be announced, but the regular season will take place in North Carolina, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, and Florida from mid-April through the end of September. Hexudus was the first to point it out. (Louis Wu 13:08:28 UTC) (permalink)
Ghostin
Paul "stickygerbils" Maestri wrote to point out Halo Heads 45 - to remind you of that idiot we've all played online with. (The sad part is, they rarely understand what the problem is... (Louis Wu 13:05:07 UTC) (permalink)
News February 6 2007
The Riot #34
icu noticed that Episode 34 of The Riot was posted a couple of days ago - community news, and more. This is the first ep that's available in streaming Flash format right from the site. If you choose to download, it's 15 minutes, 6.2 mb. (Louis Wu 18:36:56 UTC) (permalink)
HP becomes PH
Looks like one of the oldest Halo websites out there, Halo Planet (née Battleground: Halo), has been reborn as Planet Halo. Details about what that means to you, the visitor, can be found in this news post. (Louis Wu 15:55:47 UTC) (permalink)
Tied The Leader Tuesday
XerxdeeJ stopped by with the Tuesday update of Tied the Leader - you'll find a clan profile of SBG Omega (you'll learn what 'SBG' stands for), a great writeup of a Turkey Shoot, and a 22 Questions (well, 10, actually) interview with Calyber, of the Frag Dolls. First Class! (Louis Wu 15:44:28 UTC) (permalink)
PezCorner Launches
Pezcore kicked off a new gaming blog - the most recent article discusses girl gamers, and what it means to 'fit in' to the gaming community. (Halo is mentioned, because the most famous girl clans play it.) He's looking for feedback - go tell him what you think! (Louis Wu 15:32:52 UTC) (permalink)
When Game Journalists Get Silly
Wow. I'm not sure what to say about this editorial at IGN - it basically says "Bungie better make sure the beta is PERFECT, or it will derail the Halo 3 Hype Machine (™®©) and kill the entire game." Yeah, whatever. Thanks, I guess, to AfroRyan, who noticed it. (Louis Wu 14:53:04 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Pentathlon: Winter '07
Over at Bungie.net, there's a writeup of the 2007 Winter Pentathlon - a venerable Bungie tradition involving lots of hand-eye dexterity and beer. (Normally, those don't go together very well. As far as I can tell, the Pentathlon was normal.) KP's team, the Mancannons, were bumped out the Halo 3 4v4 tourney early on - KP says it's because he got lost and didn't make it to the event in time, but I have it on decent authority that Marty challenged him to a 1v1 match, and the resulting shutout by an ancient musician embarrassed him so badly he couldn't join his team for the 4v4. Regardless, the writeup is entertaining - give it a read. (And don't forget to congratulate Bungie on their 15 year anniversary!) Looks like CougRon was first on our forum with a notice. (Louis Wu 14:07:10 UTC) (permalink)
Lifepod #7 Posted
MereCatfish let us know about LifePod #7 - this episode of the HaloCE Community podcast has a Map of the Month feature. 24 minutes, 22 mb. Go listen. (Louis Wu 13:51:59 UTC) (permalink)
Limited Training
Mister Froggy pointed out Halo, Articulated #11 - I gotta say, I've had this exact feeling when replaying old favorites! Good stuff.
(Louis Wu 13:44:06 UTC) (permalink)
Player Spotlight: Karma
Over at MLGPro.com, you'll find a Player Pro Feature on Karma linked off the front page. Flush, in shape, on top - he's living his dream. Go watch. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 13:41:05 UTC) (permalink)
Crackdown - Lovin' the help from Halo 3
MTV.com has an interesting article about Crackdown, and the things its developers have done to make sure it gets into the hands of gamers. The Halo 3 beta invite that will come with each launch copy is not by far the only thing added to be sure that players 'get it' - I don't have a 360 yet, but after reading the article, I want to go out and try Crackdown. The Halo spin, of course, is the relation between Crackdown and the Halo 3 Beta - but what's interesting is that the developer didn't feel like the inclusion of the invite was a slight. Go read. Thanks to 3Suns for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:32:15 UTC) (permalink)
The 'Halo Killer' - finally?
Interesting - word from Luke Smith is that there will probably be a Killzone 2 playable demo released before the Halo 3 beta kicks off. Why is this Halo news? Because Sony is playing the same game Microsoft played before Christmas - hype people up about the next must-have product (in that case, Halo 3) to pull eyeballs from the competition's high roller (in that case, the Playstation 3). It'll be interesting to see how it plays out... (For those who don't remember, Killzone 2 made a splash at E3 2005, when it was touted as a Halo killer. We haven't heard a peep from the development team since.) (Louis Wu 13:20:11 UTC) (permalink)
News February 5 2007
Taking The Strain.
Today's One One Se7en should have gone live a few hours ago - I hate when real life gets in the way of humor. Still funny, though, if you spend a few minutes browsing our forum... (Louis Wu 21:56:18 UTC) (permalink)
Fireteam Bravo Trailer
QuickTactical pointed out a trailer for an upcoming machinima project, 'Fireteam Bravo'. His forum post contains links to a WMP9 version and a streaming YouTube version - and I liked it enough that we're hosting a mirror of the WMP9, as well as a QuickTime version. Short, sweet, nice action, nice camerawork. About 16 mb. Check it out! (Louis Wu 21:53:09 UTC) (permalink)
How to make Machinima in Halo 2 Part 1
Machinima.com is putting together some tips and tricks for making machinima using Halo 2 - Part 1, now available at YouTube, shows how to get rid of the camerman's weapon, and how to get rid of the HUD. Great start! Thanks, Adam Kovic. (Louis Wu 21:50:37 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Halos in Space the Movie
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned a pretty funny presentation of a Halo fanfic. Today, Turtle Mann stopped by our forum to let us know that SnowGlobe Pro has turned that story into a piece of Halo machinima. Should bring a smile or two to your face... (Louis Wu 21:46:29 UTC) (permalink)
Leonidas, Transcribed
Over at Rampancy.net, you'll find a downloadable transcription of the Third Movement of the Delta Halo Suite, put together by Devin - as usual, log in to see the download links. PDF, MIDI sound file, and a PrintMusic file are all available. (Louis Wu 21:06:14 UTC) (permalink)
Rule of Three Registration - Live
For what it's worth, halo3.com is now saying that Phase Two Registration is open. The servers are being hammered pretty hard - but this is the page you'll eventually need to get to. Good luck. (Louis Wu 18:47:11 UTC) (permalink)
PIE Chapter 3
SodaGod has released PIE: Chapter 3, the third installment of one of the better machinima projects I've seen to date. Watch it carefully - it might confuse you. It's worth the time, though - cinematography, storyline, voice acting - it's all top-notch. 11+ minutes, almost 100 mb. It's available in WMP9 format (either from us or from Machine-Enema mirrors), or in QuickTime format (here only, for now). While you're waiting for the Rule of Three Registration to open (no, it's not open yet, and no, we don't know when the Halo3.com registration page will go live), grab this and give it a viewing. (Louis Wu 15:21:24 UTC) (permalink)
News February 4 2007
Sunday Art Deluge
The art submissions have been building up since late November; as always, I apologize for the tardiness. Swing by the Miscellaneous Art section for 72 new entries - 95 pictures in all. As always, there's a bunch of spectacular stuff in there (along with artwork which shows more love and enthusiasm than, say, raw talent - but remember, everyone starts somewhere). Fun stuff, serious stuff, tradional media or digital... it's all in there. There's at least one artist I'll probably be contacting soon about a new gallery page here... (Louis Wu 18:57:18 UTC) (permalink)
Frontline 17: Jackals on patrol
Rockslider has written up another 'Frontline With Suzie' article - this time, she's interviewing the jackals outside of the brig on Truth and Reconciliation - the one holding Captain Keyes. (Louis Wu 14:26:27 UTC) (permalink)
We hold these truths...
Jordan117 found an interesting photo yesterday; it's groan-worthy, it's One One Se7en related, and Stuntmutt WASN'T involved. Go cry. (Louis Wu 13:32:39 UTC) (permalink)
News February 3 2007
He's a lover, not a sneaker.
Red vs Blue Episode 89, "The Haystack", is now up in Flash format for Sponsors. Sheila's having issues... and there's some funky stuff going on in the afterlife. Erm, the cave. Uh... whatever. Burnie didn't do a very good job of announcing this puppy, so I'm 11 hours late. Psychophan7 even beat the RvB front page with this news... (Louis Wu 19:09:58 UTC) (permalink)
The Spartan Effect, Episode 4
Eddie, from Rookie Rabbit Productions, sent us a note to let us know that The Spartan Effect, Episode 4 is now online. It's funny, it's well-filmed, go download it. (If you've missed the first three eps, we announced them here: One | Two | Three.) Because their downloadable versions are hosted at Filefront (which sort of makes you jump through hoops to download), and because the QuickTime versions are encoded with h.264 (which is fantastic - but only on higher-end processors), we're offering local downloads for all four flavors of the episode, with S3Pro-encoded QuickTimes. Grab it in High Res (640x360): WMP9 (55 mb) or QuickTime (58 mb), or Low Res (320x180): WMP9 (26.3 mb) or QuickTime (24.5 mb). If you'd rather grab the h.264 QTs, or an iPod version, or watch it at YouTube, the links are available on the RR website. (Louis Wu 13:25:00 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Roster Changes, Summarized
Amped eSports has an article up that looks at the major changes gone through by the top 8 pro Halo 2 teams in this offseason - if you've lost track of who's playing for what team, this is a good piece to look at. (Louis Wu 13:09:14 UTC) (permalink)
Kotokawhata?
Mister Froggy wrote to point out Halo, Articulated #10. I'm not sure I fully understand it, because the figures in the strip are ALREADY 12" tall... but hey, mine is not to reason why, mine is just to pass it along to you. Update: Mister Froggy points out that Joyride action figures are actually 7" - so I'm totally off in my confusion. Makes a bit more sense now... sorry. (Louis Wu 13:04:41 UTC) (permalink)
Boozers.
The Bungie Weekly Update is a bit tired this week - hence the title 'Weakly Update', as dubbed by Frankie. They were all playing in their Halo Pentathlon, so there wasn't much work done. Check out this cutting-room-floor pic to see why productivity dropped yesterday... Thanks to SteelGaribaldi for the first heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:48:44 UTC) (permalink)
News February 2 2007
Halo ActionClix
eMouse noticed that WizKids Games has announced a new collectable miniatures game called Halo ActionClix. (They already make HeroClix and HorrorClix.) There will be more than 80 unique miniature figures from the Halo universe - which will include 'preview content from Halo 3'. Release date is set for September 2007 (which might imply, as Stuntmutt pointed out, that the release date for Halo 3 will be LATER than that - otherwise, it wouldn't be 'preview content', would it?). More details can be found on the WizKidz website. (Louis Wu 17:55:27 UTC) (permalink)
Pvt. L.L. Church
Luke McKay has whipped up another Halo-related sketch - it's a helmetless version of Private Church. Check it out in his HBO gallery! (Louis Wu 17:37:43 UTC) (permalink)
Rule Of How Many?
The Rule of 3 route for getting into the Halo 3 beta kicked off yesterday - but there are still a few parts that are unclear, to most fans. Stuntmutt's take on the whole mess can be seen in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:10:05 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo Figures - Coming Soon
We got an interesting press release this morning - Kotobukiya, long known for making high-quality vinyl action figures, is getting into the Halo game. They will be releasing a series of 12" figures from Halo 1, 2, and 3 over the coming year. Folks visiting Toy Fair 2007 at the end of next week in New York City can see more details, firsthand! (If you go, take pictures; we'd love to host 'em for you.) (Louis Wu 13:26:10 UTC) (permalink)
'Encrushinated' is DEFINITELY not a word.
Bungie.net's posted another Halo 3 Humpday writeup - a 2v2 match of old guys vs young, fit (well, okay, young) contractors. It's pretty cool to hear that gravity is as changeable as any other gameplay attribute - makes you wonder what OTHER new options we're going to see. Avateur was first with the news. (Louis Wu 13:16:49 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Stats Sigs, Resurrected
Some time ago, a site called HaloImpulse hosted flash signatures displaying Halo 2 stats. That site has since disappeared. AJay just wrote to us to tell us that he's resurrected the script that generates these .sigs, and is willing to host them for whoever wants to use them as forum signatures around the net. Swing by his page at AJay17.com for more details. (Louis Wu 13:09:28 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Eight new pieces are available for reading in the Fan Fiction section today - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:05:43 UTC) (permalink)
Bye-bye, Team Brutes
elessar787 noticed a comment by Ninja 0n Fire on the Bungie.net forums - looks like Team Brutes is disappearing from the BTB Slayer playlist when Matchmaking playlists are next updated (which, according to last week's BWU, should be in the next couple of weeks). Bummer - I sort of liked that gametype. (Louis Wu 12:59:44 UTC) (permalink)
News February 1 2007
FAE gets some a shot
pooberry wanted to make sure that he and his friends didn't just qualify for the Rule of 3 beta program - he wanted to qualify with style. The writeup is here. (Louis Wu 18:53:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo - coming soon to Yahoo
JeBr0nie noticed a story at BetaNews discussing Yahoo's plans to set up 'Branded' sites - including an upcoming one for Halo. The thread participants so far aren't very impressed. (Louis Wu 18:48:27 UTC) (permalink)
In Ur High Ground
The big news this morning is the Bungie.net article on the Spartan Laser, posted last night. Even censored as it is, it's chock-full of tasty morsels, not just about the Spartan Laser, but about the upcoming world of Halo 3. (Check out our forum for some of the speculation people are pulling from this.) Baratos claimed 'First', but in fact Teo beat him (post numbers don't lie) - and ActiveCamoElite deserves props for guessing it was coming, 2 hours earlier. (Louis Wu 13:43:08 UTC) (permalink)
Anticipate THIS.
GameTrailers has posted a video entitled 'Top Ten Most Anticipated Games of 2007' - 3 guesses as to what took first place, and your first two don't count. (White Rabbit was first with this, but GhaleonEB had a better link.) (Louis Wu 13:36:43 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Toy Box: A Retrospective
Sane Intolerant pointed out a DeviantART journal post that chronicles the evolution of his action figure comic there - give it a read! (Louis Wu 13:33:52 UTC) (permalink)
A familiar grin
Heh - rapture found an image from Shadowrun that makes him wonder how close the FASA and Bungie studios really are... it's an image that's older than both of them, but still... (For the record, I'd have to say that his speculation about what this might mean in terms of the FASA engine is totally out of the blue.) (Louis Wu 13:31:29 UTC) (permalink)
| February 2007 | |
