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February 2009

February 2009 Archived News

News February 28 2009

HBO Mythic Map Code Giveaway, Round 2 - Results
Wouldn't you know it... after a week like this one, I'd come down with the flu. This is pretty much the only newspost I'm going to be able to manage for a while... but I figured folks were waiting on pins and needles, so it's going up. The HBO Mythic Map Code Giveaway, Round 2 garnered nearly 2700 entries (and many, many more attempts, by people using the same IP address, or the same email address, or the same gamertag). Last night, a very quick little line of MySQL code chose five eligible names at random - and this morning, emails were sent to each of those five. The winning gamertags were:

• imMonkeyGOD
• minasodaboy
• Free at Last
• ZigZagLemons
• ShrimpBoots

If one of these gamertags is yours, and you DIDN'T receive an email... message Louis Wu on Xbox LIVE from your gamertag, and we'll straighten it out.If you typoed your gamertag on the input form, and you didn't get the email... well, you're out of luck. We'll give your code to someone else. (We already had people trying to scam us for the LAST round of codes - the easiest solution is just to pick another random name.) Congrats to the winners, thanks to everyone for playing! (Louis Wu 14:57:07 UTC) (permalink)

News February 27 2009

It's Rainin' Maps
The Bungie Weekly Update is up - and funny. Lots of (yeah, you probably guessed it) Mythic Map news. Go look. Local version coming soonish. (I wonder who grabbed the title link code? Or... the other one in there?) Update: Now up in our Weekly Update Archive, as well. Just for fun. (Louis Wu 23:48:09 UTC) (permalink)

An act of random kindness
We were contacted this afternoon by OXC Tank Cat, with an unusual offer. He had ordered (and received) the Halo Wars Limited Edition as planned (he's in the UK)... but between ordering and receiving, he was the recipient of ANOTHER Mythic code. His friends already had the map pack (this guy's connected!), so he contacted us - and asked us if we knew anybody who might be able to use an extra code. At first we were like "nah, dude, everybody's got one of those, they're garbage" - but then the crack wore off, and we realized what a fantastic offer it actually was. I contacted pete_the_duck, who was clearly pining for a code just this morning... and pete said sure, he'd help the guy out, take the code off his hands. (Actually, he offered to have Tank Cat's manbabies, but this is a family site.) I gotta say... I'm diggin' the community love. Tank Cat... you rock. Keep a lookout for some karmic payback... (Louis Wu 21:45:19 UTC) (permalink)

T-Squared - Get Backsmacked
Bryan Simon continues his series of odes to Halo Pros - the latest one is about Tom 'TSquared' Taylor, and is called 'Get Backsmacked'. If you'd like to put the song on your mobile device, we've posted it in mp3 format (2.2 mb). Go Bryan! (Louis Wu 21:44:12 UTC) (permalink)

The Mythical Monthly Mythic Challenge
Daniel 'Tyrant' Morris let us know that the Monthly Mythic Challenge has gotten a boost - this time around, there's a special treat. first-time soloists have a shot at a Mythic Map Pack code - and to help provide you incentive to EARN it, you get an extra week to complete the challenge! You've got to start on March 1 (or later), and the first person to finish all 10 levels in Mythic difficulty in less than two weeks will receive a set of Mythic Maps. (Remember, the Mythic Walkthrough here on HBO can help.) If nobody finishes it (or if the contest is won by a team, or an existing Conqueror), then the prize is the standard 1600 MS Points. Browse the 'Quest for SLASO' group for full details... and prepare to conquer! (Louis Wu 21:18:19 UTC) (permalink)

Tilt-Shifted Hornet
Mid7night took a bunch of cool tilt-shifted pics involving Hornets on The Covenant. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:12:08 UTC) (permalink)

Who We Are
A Machinima Short By Tommy92L whipped up a new machinima short - it's called 'Who We Are', and the effects are REALLY nice. Go watch it! (Louis Wu 21:04:50 UTC) (permalink)

Loot Ninja Reviews Halo Wars
Loot Ninja has a review of Halo Wars - after playing a bit, they decided they liked it a lot. Go read! (Louis Wu 21:04:30 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Mythic Map Pack: Sandbox Walkthrough
Rooster Teeth has posted their walkthrough of Sandbox - that's all three, now. Swing by and watch it if you want some tips on how this level can be used! Thanks, pete_the_duck. (Louis Wu 20:26:39 UTC) (permalink)

Arbi's Island
ZZoMBiE13 created this image about a year ago, for a then-upcoming issue of Another Halo Comic Strip. He never ended up using it - but he found it recently, and thought someone might enjoy it as a desktop. For all you gamers who grew up with Mario... this one's for you. (Louis Wu 19:34:39 UTC) (permalink)

Decayed Panoramas - a new blog
Decadence Night stopped by with a link to his new blog, set up for the purpose of displaying his Halo 3 panoramas. The time-lapse shots we've highlighted this past week are there... along with a bunch of regular panoramas we haven't mentioned before. Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:32:43 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Bungie Blog Roundup
There's another hour's worth of content in the Bungie Blog - lessee here...

• imwatchingyou submitted a video called 'Usually Unusual' - gameplay we all experience, but which is fun to watch. Available in HD.
• Mythic Map Impressions at Ready Up Live - try not to crush 'em like yesterday
• Resix and Kingjudge created 'Average Joes A Halo 3 Montage' - more fun-to-watch gameplay from (not-so) Average Joes.
• Affirno posted some campaign footage on everyone's favorite Halo 3 level... whereby he gets splattered by a living being. Ouch! (Skip the first minute.)
• Spartacus280 released a Halo 3 machinima called 'Retrospect' - it's not long, but it's very nicely done. Definitely worth a look!

I think that covers it for now... (Louis Wu 18:45:17 UTC) (permalink)

ODST Interview at Gameplayer
One of the tidbits I missed this week, while away, was caught by Domino Theory, over at NeoGAF. Gameplayer (an Australian website) posted an interview with Joe Staten, a writer at Bungie, and Ryan Crosby, group project manager at Microsoft, about the upcoming Halo 3: ODST. There are some tasty morsels in there! Give it a read. (Louis Wu 18:07:12 UTC) (permalink)

More free codes - this time it's 1UP
1UP is giving away 50 codes - that's a lot! Submit "your coolest Halo 3 memory in the Game Night thread on the Halo 3 boards." They'll pick the winners before Tuesday. Thanks, A Penguin. (Louis Wu 17:54:37 UTC) (permalink)

Ask The Rookie - another shot at a Mythic Code
Aannnd... there's ANOTHER chance at a Mythic Map Code! Domino Theory is back for his SECOND contest, even before his first one has been claimed yet! Swing by the 'Ask The Rookie' page, and read the rules; you've got until tomorrow evening to submit your entries. Domino will announce his winner on Monday. (Louis Wu 15:09:49 UTC) (permalink)

Need Map DL Code God Bless
pete_the_duck has a funny story to tell (with pictures) on our forum. Well... maybe not funny for him... (Louis Wu 14:56:51 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Caption Fun, Round 37
It's Friday... so check out Hawty McBloggy's for another round of Friday Caption Fun. Lots of golf-related funnies from last week, and a truly sweet pic of Johnson and the Arbiter to work with this time around. Go contribute! (Louis Wu 14:40:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Strategy Blog - Busy, Busy, Busy
Last week, we mentioned a blog at Prima Games, focused on the Halo Wars Official Strategy Guide - the author, David Hodgson, has been busy, and if you check back now, you'll find a whole slew of new content - Blog Post 2 has UNSC Faction Facts, there's a UNSC Unit Overview video (Part 1 and Part 2), Blog Post 3 has more UNSC Faction Facts, and Blog Post 4 covers the Campaign missions. Not bad for a week's worth of content! (Louis Wu 14:36:11 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Uprising comic giveaway
Dave Kramer let us know that Busy Gamer News is giving away a comic book - and you can help decide whether it's Halo: Uprising or a Mirror's Edge comic. Visit the page, post a comment, and your voice will be heard! Update: Dave clarified that BOTH comics will be given out - the ranking is just to see what folks like better. You don't want Uprising to get beat by a girl, do you? (Louis Wu 14:23:23 UTC) (permalink)

Mapmaker Interview at OXM UK
OXM UK has an interview with Dan Miller and Lars Bakken about the Mythic Maps, and other Halo tidbits. (Did you know that there are still several thousand downloads of the Legendary Map Pack every day... even now?) Give it a read - good stuff. Thanks, onebitrocket. (Louis Wu 14:14:18 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Review from Times Online
The UK's Times Online has a review of Halo Wars - for the most part, they liked it. (Louis Wu 14:13:26 UTC) (permalink)

More Mythic Impressions and Vids
MasterChief2829 noticed that DailyGamerBlog has impressions (including gameplay vids) of the Mythic Maps. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 14:10:14 UTC) (permalink)

Be careful what you send out...
Shacknews has a funny PR mixup - CrispyGamer received some concept art from the Halo Wars team... but it included some unexpected placeholder text. (The final version is displayed as well, for comparison.) Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 14:05:38 UTC) (permalink)

Genesis - a basic overview
Bry received his copy of the Halo Wars Collectors Edition yesterday, and posted some vague (potentially spoiling) tidbits from the 46-page graphic novel written by Eric Nylund that's included with the package. Go see what's there! (Louis Wu 14:05:20 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Impressions, from Forge Hub
Forge Hub has put up a Mythic Map Pack review - go take another look at these maps from the viewpoint of mapmakers. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 14:04:57 UTC) (permalink)

Symbology
TTL Demag0gue stopped in with Reclaimer 157 - it's Part 6 of Reclaimer: Mythic Edition, and it gives you a final look at Orbital (and a bit about Ferial). (Louis Wu 14:04:40 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Just two new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week... go read! (Louis Wu 14:02:28 UTC) (permalink)

OXM has 100 Codes to Share
Wow... I don't know how much time is left on the contest... but OXM UK is giving away 20 codes today - register and answer a simple question, and you're entered. This contest went live yesterday, and they say the winners will be announced today... but it's still open as of this writing. Get over there! (They're doing ANOTHER 20 later today, it sounds like - and have a total of 100 to give away.) (Louis Wu 12:06:27 UTC) (permalink)

HBO Mythic Map Code Giveaway, Round 2
Okay, because we're gluttons for punishment, we're giving away ANOTHER 5 Mythic Map Pack codes. This time, the process is much, much simpler: visit our giveaway page, give us your name, email, and gamertag (once - read the warning on the page about getting yourself disqualified), and tomorrow night we'll randomly pick 5 valid entries and give 'em codes. Be careful with your inputs; we had someone try to steal one of the winning codes from the LAST contest last night by suggesting that he'd mistyped his email address. If a winner doesn't respond to the notification email within 48 hours, we'll send the code to someone else. (Whoever uses it first wins!) Okay, what are you waiting for? Go add your entry to the list! (Louis Wu 00:00:17 UTC) (permalink)

News February 26 2009

Halo Wars - Universe Expanded: Act 2 - Evolution
IGN has posted part two of its "Halo Wars - Universe Expanded" series; swing by and watch a very nicely put-together documentary on the making of the game and its story. Thanks, Exanubisleader. (If you'd rather watch these in HD, you can download it on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for free - Part 1 is up now, Parts 2 and 3 will be out next week.) (Louis Wu 23:40:20 UTC) (permalink)

HBO: Goosed - Results
Domino Theory has finished judging the HBO: Goosed competition... and picked a winner. Congratulations to gAlAcTiC HeLL, for his awesome Brokeback shot! (Louis Wu 23:18:36 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Gameplay at MLGPro.com
MLGPro.com has some more gameplay on Mythic Maps - 4v4 action on Orbital, and FFA fun on Assembly. Swing by and watch! Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 23:18:12 UTC) (permalink)

Midnight Launch Events for Halo Wars at Gamestop
Looks like Gamestop is hosting Midnight Launch Events nationwide for Halo Wars - swing by and read about what's going to be on tap. ("Warthog races"? Really?) (Louis Wu 23:17:51 UTC) (permalink)

The Man, The Myth, The World Cup Founder
The latest Breaking In article on Bungie.net focuses on Chris Butcher, who's been with Bungie since the dawn of time. (Well, okay, since 2000.) He's got some great advice for people trying to get a foot in the door... give it a read. (Louis Wu 23:03:40 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Mythic Map Pack Walkthrough: Orbital
Rooster Teeth has added their Orbital Walkthrough - go watch. Thanks, T07WRX5. (Louis Wu 20:05:08 UTC) (permalink)

Halo a top console game? Appears to be, yes...
According to Joystiq, the Guinness Book of World Records has created a 'Top 50 Console Games of All Time' for their 2009 Gamer's Edition - and Halo comes in at #6. Nice! (Joystiq thinks there might be shenanigans involved.) Thanks, RevDotNed. (Louis Wu 20:02:21 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Blog Roundup... again
I left for a couple of hours, so there's a lot of catching up to do, thanks to urk's tireless blogging over at Bungie.net. Here's the new stuff:

• ArmTheFlag has created a Halo music video, using Bryan Simon's 'My New Home in Halo' as the soundtrack. I'm wondering how they got that Spartan's armor off him...
• The crazies at HaloTracks have put together the first Mongoose racetrack in Sandbox's sky bubble. Go watch a preview. (If you register on their website, you can also see pictures of the map.) Video makes it look pretty cool!
• This week's Double XP playlist is Team Flag - and it's live now. If you were looking forward to Team Melee, sorry, you missed it, it was last week.
• 'Warthog Montage' is a seven-minute look at hog-based fun. Insanely short clips of people getting splattered... lots and lots and lots and lots of them.

There are a couple of other articles - but they cover stuff we've already posted. (Suck it, urk!) (Louis Wu 19:58:04 UTC) (permalink)

Return of the Chief
BlueNinja put up a few new panoramas - many of which include Forged maps. check 'em out! (Louis Wu 14:49:05 UTC) (permalink)

Adam Podcast 4 - Making a Marine Helmet
Adam Grumbo let us know that his Podcast #4 is now up on YouTube. (The first three, which we didn't know about, are in his YouTube channel if you'd like to watch them.) This focuses on making a Marine helmet (using the ODST helmet we mentioned yesterday)... and also contains a pretty cool contest that has a custom-made AR as a prize. (You'll have to watch the podcast for contest details.) Great to watch, even if you're not a helmet builder! (Louis Wu 14:46:36 UTC) (permalink)

Running the last level of Halo 3 (literally)
Matthew Rivera stopped by last night with some links to videos showing a team of four friends running the final level of Halo 3... on foot. Yes, on foot. (No, they couldn't COMPLETELY finish; you can't make the final jump without a vehicle. But other than that one... wow.) Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:42:24 UTC) (permalink)

Thursday's Comic Roundup
Once again, by early morning there are multiple Halo comics updated around the web:

• Elnea has posted Episode 155 of Halo Action Figure Theater (Baby Doctor (plus some french stuff)) - I can sympathize with the problem in this one, since I have kids too.
• The Catfish told us about 2501 Episode 20 (Counter-Attack), wherein a strange scenario unfolds.
• TTL Demag0gue informed our forum that Part Five of Reclaimer: Mythic Edition (Episode 156, Force Recruitment) is now live, revealing yet another tidbit about Viper.

We really should get back to the dedicated comic site we'd planned to open years ago... (Louis Wu 14:40:18 UTC) (permalink)

HBO gaming... it's what's for dinner
pete_the_duck put together a montage of 'random little moments' - there's nothing spectacular, per se, but watching it brought a smile to my face multiple times. No music, just gameplay. Enjoy! In the same vein, Avateur put up a summary of some HBO-regular-attended gaming nights during the month of February, complete with pics and a montage. The community that plays together, stays together! (Louis Wu 14:39:46 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Movie Poster - Updated
FireDragon04 has updated his 'Halo Wars Movie Poster' (the first draft was mentioned last week), and has produced a collection of variants - you can see them all in his forum post. (We've put up local mirrors down at the bottom of the post, in case the originals stop working someday.) I think this one looks great! (Louis Wu 14:39:23 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Mythic Map Pack: Assembly Walkthrough
Red vs Blue has put up a walkthrough, of sorts, of Assembly - go watch it. Thanks to AvatarAang for the timely heads-up last night. (Louis Wu 14:38:47 UTC) (permalink)

News February 25 2009

Applied to Life - King of the Hill - Halo 3
The 'Applied to Life' guy is back with another vid - this one adds some actual Halo footage 'so it would be easier to relate to Halo'. Personally, I think it would have been better with just the live footage... but hey, he's the guy making the cool vids! Thanks once again to urk for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 21:37:54 UTC) (permalink)

It's you and me, Megatron...
Bootstrap Boon created a Ghost Transformer - wouldn't it be cool if your Elite could morph like this? (Louis Wu 21:34:23 UTC) (permalink)

I got a NOOO Scope
Another episode of Anoj's Top 10 Halo 3 Series - Episode 25 looks at no-scopes. The randoms at the start are great, but they're all pretty fun. Thanks again, urk. (Louis Wu 21:33:11 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Favorite Tribute
AmX15 created a tribute to Bungie Favorites - screenshots, some short film clips. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:32:41 UTC) (permalink)

Community Spotlight: Black Water Ops
It's Wednesday, so it's time for another Community Spotlight at Bungie.net, and a new batch of files in the Bungie Favorites section - this week it's Black Water Ops, a Bungie.net group dedicated to fair play and fun. Go read about how they formed, and get a look at the files they're proud of in Bungie Favorites! (Louis Wu 21:32:06 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic ODST Pictage
koolaid51x made a screenshot montage out of some of the submissions for the Bungie.net ODST screenshot contest last week... swing through for some epic shots. (Louis Wu 21:31:48 UTC) (permalink)

Mongoose Splatter Montage
i like pie727 made a Mongoose Splatter Montage, and the Bungie Blog highlighted it. Ride it, baby! (Louis Wu 21:31:14 UTC) (permalink)

Flag Captured
The goatnet boys went up against some other Mythic holders last night on Orbital... and Devin Olsen posted a bunch of screenshots and a gameplay vid for your viewing pleasure. Go watch! (Louis Wu 21:28:27 UTC) (permalink)

Team Mythic Playlist is Live
For the lucky few that have the Mythic Map Pack a bit early, Bungie has put up the Team Mythic playlist - Team Slayer, Team BRs, Team SWAT, Multi-Flag BRs, Neutral Assault, and Grifball. Enjoy! Looks like CaLL Me ZeNy was first on our forum with the news. (Louis Wu 21:28:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Sweepstakes at Kongregate
Kongregate is hosting a Halo Wars sweepstakes - all you need to do is play (and beat) Battalion: Nemesis by March 2, and you're entered. One winner will receive a 360 plus a copy of Halo Wars, four others will win a copy of the game. Thanks, elpolloguapo. (Louis Wu 21:27:17 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Map Code Giveaway: Results
Wow. So we wanted to give away a few Mythic Map codes yesterday... little did I know how much interest that idea would generate. The next giveaway is gonna be a bit simpler (on the back end), I think. In the six hours that the contest was open, the official thread received 943 responses, with a total of almost 4500 title line suggestions. (Many, many more were posted in OTHER threads, or emailed to us - but those weren't eligible for a code, according to the very simple rules listed in the first post.) I'd like to say that an awful lot of these submissions are great - and I'll be folding many of them into the title line rotation here at HBO, so your words will live on, whether or not you win a code. That said, though... when you've got 5 codes, and almost 5000 entries... 99.9% of all entries are going to lose. I'm sorry about that. If you want to see what we got (without reading nearly 1000 individual posts), I put up the full list here. Without further ado, then... the winners!

• HBO - Saucy, with a hint of win (Llamalizard)
• HBO: Please pwn responsibly. (Testify)
• HBO: How many times have you been here today? (JeSteR 343)
• HBO: now adopted by Angelina Jolie (Ryan Clark)
• HBO: This is the last tagline. Start over. (Stephen L. (SoundEffect))

All five of these people have been contacted via the email addresses they supplied in their posts; if your name is up there and you haven't gotten an email from us, check your junk folder. I can't tell you what made these stand out over the enormous amount of competition; I DO know I have a first-cut file with my top 75 or so, but on a different day, the winning five would probably have been different. Don't feel bad if you didn't win - and don't give up hope! We'll be giving out another five later this week. (Louis Wu 18:28:33 UTC) (permalink)

Mongoose
Tony 'ubald' Marcotte sent along another Halo render - this one's a gorgeous little shot of a mongoose and its pair of riders. Check it out in his gallery here! (Louis Wu 17:55:42 UTC) (permalink)

Tiger Woods might have a bit of trouble with this...
Halo.fr's Johnny be good sent word of a video showing golf action on Sandbox. Fore! (Louis Wu 17:54:54 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Map Impressions at PlanetXbox360
Planet Xbox 360 has their own set of Mythic Map Impressions - go read! (Louis Wu 17:52:51 UTC) (permalink)

Nobody Loves Me But Urk
More Bryan Simon goodness on YouTube (and here): Nobody Loves Me But Urk passes sweet words of devotion to our favorite Bungie Blogger. Wanna listen instead of watch? Grab the mp3 version (3 mb). I'm gonna be humming this all day... (Louis Wu 17:50:03 UTC) (permalink)

ODST - to the max
Adam Grumbo sent word (two days ago!) that a 405th regular, Ruben, had created a truly beautiful ODST helmet - you can see the finished pictures on this page, and you can jump back to the start of the thread for the beginnings of the project, back in mid-September. Astounding work! (Hawty McBloggy has her own writeup of the helmet, with some of the best pics pulled out for your viewing pleasure.) (Louis Wu 17:40:46 UTC) (permalink)

Time-Lapse Panoramas, Round 2
Decadence Night sent along three new time-lapse panoramas - he's definitely getting better at this intriguing style of art! I love the Ghost Town one! Check out all three: Ghost Town (2709x1031,611kb) | Last Resort (2905x566,523kb) | Sandtrap (5419x1022,1.3mb) Update: Thanks to Scotty for pointing out that I mislabeled the Ghost Town shot as a Rat's Nest shot... my bad! (Too much going on this morning.) (Louis Wu 17:40:08 UTC) (permalink)

Comic Wednesday
Comics popping up today:

• TTL Demag0gue stopped in with word of Reclaimer 155 - 'Confessions' is Part 4 ouf Reclaimer Mythic Edition, and it shows off Orbital. We're back to Viper...
• Hawty McBloggy let us know that the next ODS Steve is live over at her place - Episode 15 ("If Only Carmine Had Listened") discusses the wisdom of head protection.
• anthraxgoon told us about X36 Chapter 2 Issue 5 - new art technique, bigger goodies.

I'm betting there'll be more before the day is out... (Louis Wu 17:30:51 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief Theater 3000: Episode 301
mrsmiley let us know that the first episode of Master Chief Theater 3000 Season 3 is now online - they're going back to the original Halo. Pillar of Autumn is covered in this one. (Louis Wu 17:24:03 UTC) (permalink)

Hornet spotted in California
Mid7night updated his X-Plane Hornet - and flew it around Edwards AFB. Go watch the movie! (Louis Wu 17:23:40 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars TV ad surfaces
serpx noticed a Halo Wars TV spot on YouTube - it doesn't even mention that the game's a strategy game! Weird. (Louis Wu 17:23:10 UTC) (permalink)

Advent Unlimited - Mythic Maps, Investigated
Last night, urk brought our attention to a new article at Ascendant Justice - Advent Unlimited takes a look at the three new Mythic Maps in words that will turn to pictures in your head. I believe that Ascendant Justice has taken on the mantle of the Halo community's premiere analysis site... and they've done it with s7yle. Go see what they've learned! (Louis Wu 16:39:58 UTC) (permalink)

HBO: Goosed Update
The HBO: Goosed contest is now closed - the entries have been sent to Domino Theory for judging, and we'll have results for you in a couple of days! (Louis Wu 16:25:04 UTC) (permalink)

News February 24 2009

One more for the road...
urk let us know (and nearly killed the goose in the process) that Ready Up Live is giving away a Mythic Map code - come up with a good reason why you deserve it, and you've got a shot! (Louis Wu 23:33:26 UTC) (permalink)

Average Joe - Obi Wan Stevobi
Ack, nearly forgot! There's a new Average Joe article up at Bungie.net - go read about Obi Wan Stevobi, and see why you should get to know him! (Louis Wu 22:30:40 UTC) (permalink)

The Art of Warthog, and other stuff
It's Tuesday, so it's time for new content from the Tied the Leader crew. XerxdeeJ stopped by with word of a couple of new pieces - one is already mentioned below (awesome panoramas), the other is a great video showing off the graceful side of the Warthog. Check it out... it'll make you smile. (Louis Wu 22:27:34 UTC) (permalink)

Hey, dude, where's my turret?
Urban Reflex made a little film of a game where vehicles were spawning without mounted weapons. Oops! (Louis Wu 22:25:12 UTC) (permalink)

Comicpalooza
Lots of comics today, too: Dennis Powers told us about Shipwrecked Episode 56 (Steamed Meat), The Catfish weighed in with 2501 Episode 19 (Corridors), TTL Demag0gue let us know about The Reclaimer 154 (Triumvirate, Unity), and Adam Susskind stopped by with word of Chaos Theory Episode 13 (So It Goes). Get Funny! (Louis Wu 22:23:01 UTC) (permalink)

PanoMythical
A number of people have been creating amazing-looking panoramas with the Mythic Maps - CaLL Me ZeNy followed up his first batch with three new ones, Mr. Vociferous built some insanely gorgeous ones (thanks, Cocopjojo), and El Burritoh has extended his Haloramics technique to these new maps. (More TTL news coming in a sec) (Louis Wu 22:16:11 UTC) (permalink)

A fun way to get a code
SketchFactor started up a Mythic Maps code scavenger hunt on Bungie.net - one fifth of a code has been posted in this thread. Can you find the other four-fifths, and assemble them in the right order, before anyone else? (Louis Wu 21:46:53 UTC) (permalink)

More Mythic Giveaways
As some of you have noticed, posting that mini-contest on our forum might not have been the brightest idea I've had this week. (Even if it DID get SketchFactor to post a bonus code - snapped up quickly, of course, by an observant fan.) Never fear, though, there are still other chances! PlanetXbox360 is giving away a code to a randomly-drawn fan who posts in a specific thread on their forum. (Be aware that you must already have 10 posts on their forum before you're eligible.) And mrsmiley is giving away codes in two separate contests. On HaloBabies.net, write a Halo-related haiku, and you've got a shot at one or two codes... or visit Pyrosmile Productions, and post in the official thread (you'll need to register), and you can win one of another pair of codes. I'm sure there'll be more coming, too! Update: HaloBabies.net and Pyrosmile.org got hit a little hard with demand for these codes... they're currently offline, but will be back soon! (Louis Wu 20:37:06 UTC) (permalink)

HBO Mythic Map Code Giveaway
Wanna win a Mythic Map Pack code from us? This won't be your ONLY chance, but it's certainly the first. Check this forum post for details. Do it quick - you've only got 6 hours! (Louis Wu 17:42:06 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Blog Roundup
You miss one day of news on the Bungie Blog, you miss a lot. I think I need to make a little Stephen Colbert fist-in-the-air graphic with 'urrrrrk!' coming out of his mouth. Here's a rundown:

• DigitalPh33r posted Hard Justice Episode 12 ('Resignation, Act Two') - Bernard tries to get assault charges dropped in an odd way, and Eddie and Max find themselves in a pickle.
• Queso Man has posted his fifth montage - some fun clips in there!
• urk used the Bungie.net tag search to find some very cool Security armor shots. Can you find more?
• The Mythic Map Pack Screenshot Contest is over - winners have been notified. Hope you were lucky!
• MLGPro.com posted some exclusive Assembly gameplay footage - MLG-style. Unfortunately... at the time this post is being written, gameroom.mlgpro.com is offline... so the videos aren't watchable. Keep track of the link, though; it won't be down for long.
• While you're waiting for that Assembly goodness, you can see some MLG Playlist Top 10 action, courtesy of B Mc Gann and Static Hazard. This is Episode 4.

urrrrrkkkk! (Louis Wu 17:20:46 UTC) (permalink)

A few Mythic Tidbits
Mythic Map Pack news:

• Joystiq is giving away 25 codes - swing by to see how you could get one. (Do it soon - entry ends Tuesday at 4.)
• Halo.Fr's Sirkan also let us know that they've got gameplay vids on all three Mythic Maps - Orbital | Sandbox | Assembly.

That's all there's time for now; my flight is boarding. More tomorrow... (Louis Wu 00:52:08 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars News Roundup
Stuff that showed up today:

• WorthPlaying has posted Part 2 of their Halo Wars Developer Interview with Ensemble's Graeme Devine and Dave Pottinger - swing by to read some tidbits you might not have heard yet!
• Halo3infinity.net has a video interview with Jeremy Goldstein, the French Product Manager of Microsoft/Halo Wars; it's in French, but subtitled in English. (Thanks, CaLL Me ZeNy)
• Kotaku has reviewed Halo Wars (thanks, Vash10).
• TechNightly posted the results of a press Q&A last week - we didn't hear about it until Hunt3r mentioned it.
• IGN has posted Part 1 of their Universe Expanded video series - thanks, GrimBrother One.
• MTV's Stephen Totilo posted a review (of sorts)
• Yahoo posted a summary of reviews that might not have appeared in other newsposts here
• Halo.fr has published their own review of Halo Wars (in French) - thanks, Sirkan
• Gamestop is hosting Halo Wars tournaments at approximately 1000 stores on February 28 - info site is here.

Insanity... Update: Arithmomaniac found a review on Ars Technica. Update 2: So is one from Gametrailers (thanks, AfroRyan). (Louis Wu 00:48:27 UTC) (permalink)

News February 23 2009

I'll call you... Mini Recon
Hawty McBloggy found a custom Recon-armored Spartan figure on eBay - swing by for some good pics! (Louis Wu 13:55:21 UTC) (permalink)

Replicate
TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 153 is up, with a little of Ferial's history. (Louis Wu 13:55:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Action Figure Theater is back!
Elnea started updating Halo Action Figure Theater again last week - but it slipped through the cracks as I traveled. Thanks to CougRon for noticing a SECOND update today - it's amazing how easy it was to get back into it after 5 months! (After all... how complicated can action figure porn BE?) (Louis Wu 13:54:22 UTC) (permalink)

HBOer wins Halo Wars Tourney
SPU7N1K participated in a Halo Wars tournament in Singapore recently - thanks in part to some advice he received on our forum (but more likely just because he's good like that), he took first place! Check out the writeup and some pics. (Louis Wu 13:53:43 UTC) (permalink)

Tough Games
cheapLEY noticed that Hellforge (a gaming blog) has a 'Ten Games That Will Kick Your Ass' - Halo 1 on Legendary made the list. (Louis Wu 13:53:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Review at PlanetXbox360
PlanetXbox360 has a Halo Wars review up - they give it an 8.7/10. (Louis Wu 13:52:36 UTC) (permalink)

Podtacular 181
Podtacular 181 has been released - this episode covers multiplayer tips for Ghost Town, with special guest Zoom from the Cave Girls clan. 22 mb, 48 minutes. (Louis Wu 13:52:10 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Panos
CaLL Me ZeNy built a few panoramas of the Mythic Maps - you might find something nice for your desktop in there! (Louis Wu 13:51:46 UTC) (permalink)

His Name is Snipedown
urk got a note that the newest Bryan Simon ode to MLG Pros is up - this one sings sweet nothings in the ear of Str8 Rippin's Snipedown. If you'd rather listen to an MP3 version, we've got one here (2.5 mb). (Louis Wu 13:51:03 UTC) (permalink)

Expanded Universe
Exanubisleader posted word of a promo for a series IGN will host this week. It's called Halo Wars - Universe Expanded. Some famous faces in the promo... bodes well for the series! (Louis Wu 13:50:35 UTC) (permalink)

X-Play's Halo Wars Review
G4TV's X-Play has a Halo Wars review up - they give it a 4/5. Thanks, mrbilly93. (Louis Wu 13:50:00 UTC) (permalink)

News February 22 2009

Helveck's Hilarious Funtage
John_117 stopped in with word of a 'funtage' he's put together, in the vein of some of his older work. Enjoy it! (Louis Wu 22:20:54 UTC) (permalink)

Assembly Yard
TTL Demag0gue tells us that it's Reclaimer Sunday - Reclaimer 152 is the kickoff of an entire week of Reclaimer comics, partially in thanks to Bungie for giving Demag0gue a Mythic Map Pack code. Go immerse yourself! (Louis Wu 22:20:29 UTC) (permalink)

I N D E S T R U C T I B L E
Lando Griffin let us know that Hazmat v2 has released a new montage over at Halo3Montage.com, using gameplay by IVI SMITE IV - it's been edited in 1080p. If you've got the horsepower to PLAY it, swing by and grab a copy! (It's a little over 400 mb.) (Louis Wu 22:19:56 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Developer Interview Part 1
WorthPlaying has the first part of a Developer Interview with Ensemble's Graeme Devine and Dave Pottinger, discussing Halo Wars - give it a read! (Louis Wu 22:19:10 UTC) (permalink)

UT2k4 Conversions for HaloCE
Dennis Powers pointed out an Unreal Tournament total weapon conversion for the Halo Custom Edition game, along with 20 multiplayer maps (19 Halo multiplayer conversions and one Unreal conversion) all with UT 2004 weapon sets. You can find the whole lot at Halomaps.org. (Louis Wu 22:18:34 UTC) (permalink)

More Chances at Mythic Map Pack Codes
Randomsauce wrote to let us know that Halo3Mythbusters has a Mythic Map Pack code to give away - create a Covenant-themed screenshot by midnight Tuesday, win a set of the maps early! Read the forum post for full details. (We're going to be giving away a few codes as well... but not until I get home, because it's going to be a very short-term contest, and I want to be there to monitor results. Look for that on Tuesday.) (Louis Wu 12:57:44 UTC) (permalink)

Get Halo Wars Early?
WolfSavior wrote to say that Halo Wars is available for purchase in various 7-11s in the Pacific Northwest - apparently, the street date isn't being observed. (Louis Wu 12:53:10 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Map review at Canada.com
Canada.com has a short review of the Halo 3 Mythic Maps - give it a read! (Louis Wu 12:42:38 UTC) (permalink)

Excursion: A Halo 3 Campaign Montage
SLEEKYx16 shows some fantastic grenade control in this entertaining campaign montage... thanks, eckosama. (Louis Wu 05:10:18 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Bungie Employees' Killtage 2
americanista123 is back with another montage comprised entirely of clips from Bungie employees. Go watch! (Louis Wu 05:09:53 UTC) (permalink)

Forging Sandbox
I found this post to be highly entertaining reading. Impressive, too. (Louis Wu 05:09:26 UTC) (permalink)

First
The Mythic Map tricking has already started... (Louis Wu 05:09:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Movie Poster
FireDragon04 posted the first draft of a Halo Wars movie poster he's been working on. It's pretty impressive, especially for a first draft. Check it out. (Louis Wu 05:08:37 UTC) (permalink)

Massive Halo Auction
Wow... must be a day for selling Halo stuff; Caleb 117 stopped in to say he was selling his entire Halo collection. 9 days out... but the list of included stuff is astounding. Go read it. (Louis Wu 05:08:11 UTC) (permalink)

Astounding Attractions
Tommy92l created Astounding Attractions, a montage of clips showing off some attractive HaloCE maps... would have been really nice to see a credits list for the maps used, but even free-standing, it's cool. (Louis Wu 05:07:49 UTC) (permalink)

Sandtrap - for HaloCE
mrbilly93 let us know that the Matrix Mapping Team has uploaded a Halo: Custom Edition version of Sandtrap - pretty nice-looking! (Louis Wu 05:07:24 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Map Preview at Halo.fr
Johnny Be GooD of Halo.fr let us know that they've put up a preview of the Mythic maps, complete with lots of screenshots. It's in French (duh)... but Google can help if you don't speak the language! (And pictures don't need any translation.) (Louis Wu 05:06:53 UTC) (permalink)

Halo collectibles on eBay
IceEagle85 let us know that he's selling some Halo collectibles because of financial issues - his loss could be your gain! He's got a Halo 2 banner measuring 8 feet by 3.5 feet, and a painting he created for work, before Halo 2 was released. Both auctions have four days left on them... take a look! (Louis Wu 05:06:09 UTC) (permalink)

OffTheChain
Z sent word of a short (2:40) minitage edited by PassTheWord - it's in HD, and the editing is pretty unique. (The word 'schizophrenic' comes to mind in places... but overall, it's intriguing.) 119 MB - go grab a copy from Halo3Forum.com! (Louis Wu 05:05:40 UTC) (permalink)

News February 21 2009

Mindless Intentions Episode 2: Grif
RogueDarkJedi let us know that the second episode of the Mindless Intentions comedy series is now online - check his post for multiple viewing options. There's a ton more Halo news... but I'm headed out for about 12 hours. More tonight. (Louis Wu 12:40:52 UTC) (permalink)

3D Halo shots
Kroden (the guy behind some cool 3D Halo shots) stopped by with links to 3D Mythic shots. Check 'em out! (Apparently, there might be video coming at some point.) (Louis Wu 12:39:41 UTC) (permalink)

10 Ways to tell if you're a Noob
imSuck has released a Halo 3 version of '10 Ways to tell if you're a Noob', which had been a big Halo 2 hit - but he doesn't feel like it's actually finished, so he's running a contest for clips. Download (or stream) the 10 minute episode, or read the contest rules. Thanks, finalcutmin. (Louis Wu 12:39:14 UTC) (permalink)

BWU - Mythic Tastiness
The Bungie Weekly Update is full of Mythic Map goodness - a recap of press articles out there (the recent Joystiq flythrough piece is missing, but otherwise it looks pretty complete), along with details of the maps, information about how you might get them early (read this part carefully), and lists of what you will be able to play with in Orbital and Assembly. Awesome stuff! As always, there's a copy in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 05:01:30 UTC) (permalink)

Prima's got Halo Wars Covered
We got word from Prima Games about some new content they're developing with respect to Halo Wars. (They're doing the Official Game Guide.) They've got a blog running - the current blog post contains a first look at the game, along with some screens, and there's an RSS feed so you can keep track of new stuff easily. They're also running a contest whereby you can submit your email address to win a shot at a signed Halo 3 art book. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 05:00:20 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars: Fun, but Simplistic and Short
Gamespot has a full review up for Halo Wars - they weren't very impressed (6.5/10). Thanks, ZZoMBiE13. Also, looks like The Escapist reviewed it as well (thanks, Anton P. Nym)... same general feeling. (Louis Wu 04:59:35 UTC) (permalink)

Free Mythic Codes at MLGPro.com
MLGPro's subtheorist let us know that they've got five early-access Mythic Map Pack codes to give away - just make a post in this thread on their forum before Monday evening, and you're eligible to win one! (Louis Wu 04:58:48 UTC) (permalink)

2501 Episode 18
The Catfish stopped in to announce 2501 Episode 18. (Louis Wu 04:58:12 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Blog Browsing
Lots of good stuff on the Bungie Blog today... how about a roundup?

• CrippleFox remembered that the 'Brute Pimp' behavior mentioned in a weekly update last month had been visible in Halo 2... and he uploaded a movie.
• The BTB Insomniacs put together a 'Halo 3 Bloopertage' - 8 and a half minutes of screwups for your enjoyment.
• Bryan Simon continues to record fun voice messages he's getting on Xbox LIVE - The Voicemail Chronicles Volume Four is out.

Movie mania! (Louis Wu 04:56:54 UTC) (permalink)

News February 20 2009

Mythic Map Flythroughs at Joystiq
Lance001 noticed that Joystiq has posted flythroughs (in HD) of all three Mythic Maps - and some fun stuff on Sandbox. Go read/watch! (Louis Wu 18:49:37 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Halo Wars Stuff
IGN has a Halo Wars Review, and CNET has a bunch of new Halo Wars screenshots. Check 'em out... Update: Looks like Joystiq has a pair of reviews up, too (one | two) - thanks, mendicantbias00. (Louis Wu 18:44:11 UTC) (permalink)

Chain of Events
One last, quick update before I jump on a plane - TTL Demag0gue stopped in with word of Reclaimer 151 - and a monologue that implies... something. (Louis Wu 11:59:16 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Caption Fun, Round 36
It's Friday, right? So that means... another round of Friday Caption Fun, over at Hawty McBloggy's. Fun responses to last week's giant bird pic... and a new GiantObject entry for you to mess with. Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:28:02 UTC) (permalink)

GG
Good stories of good gaming nights are always entertaining. Check out Avateur's post of four recent games. (Louis Wu 10:19:27 UTC) (permalink)

Fake mockumentaries can be fun
Ibeechu let us know about a Halo 3 machinima he'd contributed to last year, but forgotten about - I went into this one with trepidation, but it was pretty fun to watch! Check it out. (Louis Wu 10:13:30 UTC) (permalink)

What's The Matter With Love?
I'm not usually a fan of screenshot montages; I've always felt that they don't really give the screenshots the love they deserve. radiant penguin stopped by last night with an exception, however - it's a Valentines Montage (a little late) that really made me smile. Go watch it - it tells a great story! (Louis Wu 10:08:09 UTC) (permalink)

Containment Protocol
AoD deadite let us know about Containment Protocol, a Halo 3 machinima which looks at a supply pickup gone bad. Never trust those Monitors... (Louis Wu 10:02:51 UTC) (permalink)

Wombats Funtage
urk highlighted Wombats Funtage, a combination Halo 2/Halo 3 montage made by a bunch of friends. Good times, good times... (Louis Wu 09:53:23 UTC) (permalink)

Operation Chastity Props
A new tidbit from the Operation Chastity set - Pete Cooper stopped by with pics of a modified Toughbook to be used as a prop. Nice! (Louis Wu 09:53:03 UTC) (permalink)

Philology? Really?
The latest Breaking In article at Bungie.net focuses on David Aldridge, Network Engineer. What got him where he is today? Elephant MUDs and sausage stew, apparently... go read. (Louis Wu 09:52:33 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Due to an upcoming plane flight, the standard Friday Fan Fiction update is a little bit early; even so, there are six new pieces this week. Go read! (Louis Wu 09:51:11 UTC) (permalink)

News February 19 2009

They went boom, mommy...
Chris101b pointed out a YouTube vid he posted last spring, showing off a glitch you can trigger in Forge that might have potential for Machinima makers who want to have a bunch of people die spontaneously. (You could probably do this by having them quit out of the game... but this glitch also gives you a funky explosion to go with the deaths.) Weird! (Louis Wu 20:03:27 UTC) (permalink)

Double XP Weekend - Team Fl-er, Melee
According to the February Matchmaking information Bungie posted a couple of weeks ago, This week's Double XP Weekend was supposed to be Team Flag. According to profhalo (and others), what we ACTUALLY got was Team Melee. I'm guessing that means Team Flag is next week... but for now, go beat down some people. (Louis Wu 19:59:46 UTC) (permalink)

Shiny
Penguin Ninjoid found a funky little place in Avalanche where the lighting... behaves oddly. Check out his post for pics. (Links lead to larger versions housed at haloscreenshots.net.) (Louis Wu 19:52:44 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars: Hardcore History
GrimBrother One noticed a new piece at IGN on the Halo Wars storyline - videos seem to be mostly cutscenes (both from Halo Wars and Halo), text gives you a bit more info. Take a look! (Louis Wu 19:52:16 UTC) (permalink)

Podtacular 180: Halo Wars Demo-lition
Podtacular Episode 180 is up - this one is called 'Halo Wars Demo-lition', and focuses on (can you guess?) the Halo Wars Demo. 39 mb, xx mins. Thanks, Samus 117. (Louis Wu 19:51:40 UTC) (permalink)

The Bungie Blog: more videos than you have time for
More goodies at Bungie.net - a link to a trick-jumping video from Resix the one ("Intrepid"), and another montage from Halo 3 In the Work Place ("Screams and Splats Montage"). Lots of stuff to watch! (Louis Wu 19:51:15 UTC) (permalink)

MLD Top 10 #2: Mishaps
Another vid, courtesy of the Bungie Blog - this one is week two of Major League Driving's Top 10 series. THis one focuses on vehicle-based mishaps. Things with engines weigh a lot... stay out of the way! (Louis Wu 18:17:40 UTC) (permalink)

Fading Into Nothing :: A Halo 3 Dualtage
Bungie's got word of a Dualtage put together by sTaTic HAZARD, using gameplay from FrosTyy ShoTz and Eyce Pickk. (Thank goodness for cut-and-paste; I'd get carpal tunnel syndrome trying to keep up with the capitalization there.) Great gameplay! (Louis Wu 18:11:21 UTC) (permalink)

MLG/ESPN Top Ten #15
The newest MLG/ESPN Top Ten (#15) is live now (thanks, backflip10019) - some amazing gameplay shown here. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:08:23 UTC) (permalink)

2501 Episode 17
The Catfish let us know that 2501 Episode 17 is live - check it out for some backstory! (Louis Wu 14:07:05 UTC) (permalink)

Two Free Halo Wars Songs
DHalo noticed that the Sumthing Digital website has a promo for two free bonus songs off the Halo Wars Original Soundtrack - unfortunately, the code they've used seems to only work in Internet Explorer. Never fear - DHalo has provided you with a link that will work in most (all?) browsers. You'll have to download a small Java application to get the songs, but it seems to be safe. (Louis Wu 13:50:04 UTC) (permalink)

Vids and Requests from Halo3Montage.com
Lando Griff1n sent us a few links you might be interested in. First was a music comedy video recreating Andy Samberg's SNL short 'I'm on a Boat' - it has the same naughty words as the original. Then there's a trailer for an upcoming montage by Hazmat v2, featuring NeoFlux jp. Matrix style pulled off very nicely. Finally, a post at Halo3Montage.com has a request for assassination clips for an upcoming montage that Hazmat v2 is editing; if you've got something good, go read for details on what to do with it. (Louis Wu 13:48:01 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Favorites Updated - more Facility B5D goodies
Yesterday, Bungie updated the Favorites collection with the second batch of files from Facility B5D - and talked to Mini Waz about one of those files. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:47:30 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Map Pack Press Continues
Two more tidbits of press about the Mythic Map Pack surfaced yesterday - MSNBC did an in-game interview with Lars Bakken and Dan Miller (thanks, urk), and Gamespot posted a video preview of the three maps, using footage they'd recorded themselves (thanks, Kibbles). Check out both films - they've got some great footage and info! (Louis Wu 13:37:05 UTC) (permalink)

News February 18 2009

Halo 3 Tournament this weekend
Richard Windsor, of Aeropause.com, wrote to say they're running a Halo 3 tourney this weekend - 60 spots total, simple elimination tourney with the bottom player after each round eliminated. The top 12 competitors will duke it out on a custom map, multiple rounds, with a sniper round, a rockets round, and then a mystery round. Prizes include a custom faceplate, a copy of Halo Wars, and an EBGames gift card. Go sign up! (Louis Wu 21:37:07 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: It can change opinions about violence
Interesting - a journalist who had a dim view of videogames (and the effect they had on her sons) had her opinion changed a bit after playing Halo with the boys; she concluded that "maybe [she] should be a little less hysterical about them." Go Halo! Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 20:16:17 UTC) (permalink)

TRR Podcast Recording Live Feb 24
According to Bungie.net, the Running Riot Podcast Episode 15 will be recorded live on February 24, at 9:30 pm EST, and the Special Guest will be bs 'Hawty McBloggy' angel. Check out the post for more details! (Louis Wu 19:17:02 UTC) (permalink)

New Mythic Writeups, and a summary
WorthPlaying has another writeup of the Mythic Map Pack press event last week, as does TeamXbox - I think that's everyone who was there, so to summarize:

• Tied the Leader
• HBO
• IGN
• 1UP
• G4TV
• WorthPlaying
• TeamXbox

Whew! (Louis Wu 16:52:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Fails: All Stars
Yet another Halo 3 Fails episode - this one is an 'All-Stars' episode showing off clips from people already featured in the last 10 episodes. (The clips are new, the submitters are not.) I love these vids! Four minutes of play that reminds me that there are others who do dumb things like I do. Thanks, Chris10023. (Louis Wu 16:52:42 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Ringtone, free from Wal-Mart
Penguin Ninjoid found a promo at Wal-Mart for Halo Wars that advertises a free Halo Wars ringtone - if you're interested, check out his pics! (Louis Wu 16:52:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars ViDoc 4
2900d4 noticed that the fourth Halo Wars ViDoc is now up for watching on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. For the first time, this one is exclusive for Gold account holders for a few days - Silver accounts will have to wait. Unless, of course, you swing by Halo3Infinity.net - where CaLL Me ZeNy has posted a streaming version for all. (As usual, we'll post HD versions for download in the near future. Maybe longer than usual, because of the Gold-only restriction on this one.) (Louis Wu 16:51:41 UTC) (permalink)

4v4 Objective tourney at CVG
Nathan Moeller let us know that Competitive Video Games is hosting a 4v4 Objective Tournament on February 21. Swing by the site for more details! (Louis Wu 16:51:20 UTC) (permalink)

Custom Fonts Info at H3W
Halo 3 Webcomics has another informational article - this one was written by Adam Susskind, and it covers custom fonts you can have created for you at YourFonts.com. (Louis Wu 16:50:56 UTC) (permalink)

Robot Entertainment to create Halo Wars DLC
Robot Entertainment, a studio created by many of Ensemble's original founders, has announced its existence to the world in this press release. The studio has 45 employees, all of which used to work for Ensemble, and one of their first projects is downloadable content for Halo Wars. Thanks, onebitrocket. (Louis Wu 16:50:38 UTC) (permalink)

Lost Cause 19 - Knight to C3
haloplayer stopped in with word of Lost Cause 19 - 'Knight to C3'. It's been a little while since we've seen an Injured Knee production... swing by haloplayer's post for catch-up links! (Louis Wu 16:49:37 UTC) (permalink)

The Communiminitage
Morpheus let us know that he's released 'The Communiminitage' - a five-minute montage made up of the remaining standard def clips he been given by folks responding to his community montage call. A fun watch! (Louis Wu 16:49:11 UTC) (permalink)

From Halo to Halos
Longtime community member Mothergoat has left his dream job in Seattle to move back to his hometown... for a higher calling. The writeup touches on Halo, as it should. Thanks, AngelicLionheart. (You were right, nice title.) (Louis Wu 16:48:45 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Coverage on G4's X-Play
G4TV had some Mythic content on last night's episode of X-Play - you can watch some of it (all of it?) online at G4TV.com right now - or you can watch the episode itself again tonight at 8:30. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 16:48:19 UTC) (permalink)

I don't think I'll forgive her for the Debbie Boone reference
Hawty McBloggy found a cool lamp for sale on eBay - I should have posted this sooner, there are only 8 hours left on the auction. Starting bid is $73... go see if it's worth it to you! (Louis Wu 16:47:25 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Multiplayer Maneuver Hints at IGN
GrimBrother One noticed a new Halo Wars video at IGN - this one covers Multiplayer Maneuvers. (Louis Wu 16:47:06 UTC) (permalink)

Comic Wednesday
Hawty McBloggy told us about ODS Steve #14 (Meet the Sarge), Adam Susskind let us know about ("Nobody's Hero"), and TTL Demag0gue announced that Reclaimer 150 ("Scheming the Schemers") is online, with Ferial discussing options. Go read the funnies! Update: anthraxgoon stopped in a bit later to mention that X36 Chapter 2 Issue 4 is now up, too. Update 2: vlad3163 noticed a Halo Wars-based screed against stereotyped feminism in the latest The Slackerz. (Louis Wu 16:46:39 UTC) (permalink)

Teammates of Genius: Mr. Shotgun Camper
Bungie.net highlighted 'Teammates of Genius: Mr. Shotgun Camper', a machinima parodying Budweiser's Men of Genius series. I think we've all met this guy... (Louis Wu 16:46:01 UTC) (permalink)

News February 17 2009

Marvel's Halo Offerings - Now with More Efficiency
Got word on the Halo comics coming out later this year from Marvel... a little bird tells me the all-new (hint, hint) team working on the next two series is taking things at a much more efficient pace. This will not be another Uprising debacle! (Louis Wu 21:34:15 UTC) (permalink)

HBO: Goosed - A Contest
Domino Theory is a Halo fan who loves to see people smile. So much so, in fact, that he's kicking off a series of contests here at HBO - do what he asks, he'll give you free maps. How cool is that? Contest One is live now - it's called 'HBO: Goosed', and all you've got to do is send along some cool mongoose pictures. (Read the contest page for full details, actually. We'd hate to disqualify you for something dumb.) You've got a week... so get to 'goosin'! (Louis Wu 20:32:38 UTC) (permalink)

Searchers
Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked Episode 55 is now up - the search continues, but something else gets found. (Louis Wu 20:13:00 UTC) (permalink)

A potato in the melting pot of awesome
DeepCee, the artist behind the ODS Steve webcomic that lives over at Hawty McBloggy's, is the subject of today's Average Joe interview at Bungie.net. Go read about what makes him tick! (To think, we provided him with a window into the Halo community... I remember when he was just a wee baby! Okay, maybe I don't. But I'm tickled that we helped him grow into the community entertainer he is today!) Update: Looks like mendicantbias00 beat me to it. (Louis Wu 19:55:12 UTC) (permalink)

Time Lapse Panoramas
Decadence Night sent word that he's been working on a new panoramic technique; he calls the product a 'Time Lapse Panorama'. He sent along two, as examples: The first is a thwarted Hog assault on an Avalanche base (4184x807, 731k), and the second is an unfortunately timed Mongoose jump (4416x848, 835k). Pretty impressive! (Louis Wu 18:18:06 UTC) (permalink)

ToyMania
Bongo8789 sent word of even more pics of upcoming Halo figures - and a list from McFarlane about the rest of 2009's lineup. And I must thank RichterScales for bringing this image to our attention... is this a comment on the MC's capabilities as a weapon, or something more sinister? (Louis Wu 18:11:04 UTC) (permalink)

Red vs. Blue: Relocated Part Two
Gah... I'm forgetting all sorts of things today. AvatarAang noticed yesterday evening that Red vs Blue: Relocated Part 2 was live... and I forgot to mention it to the rest of you. Caboose and Grif steal the show. (Louis Wu 17:56:18 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's Mythic Vids
Domino Theory was the first to notice a set of five new videos in IGN's Halo 3 video collection - check 'em out for Mythic Gameplay! Update: Entire writeup (with vids inline) is here. Eep! Update 2: NeoGAF's EazyB noticed a whole series of vids at GameVideos, too - they're part of the 1UP writeup of the event. (Louis Wu 17:15:10 UTC) (permalink)

HBO's Own Look at the Mythic Maps
KP was another of those invited to Bungie's studio last week to play around on the Mythic maps. He grabbed some video clips, and supplemented them with impressions... go read, and watch! (Louis Wu 17:00:08 UTC) (permalink)

Like myths through an hourglass...
The first of the writeups of a press event Bungie held last week is now online - swing by Tied the Leader for a whole passel of screenshots of the Mythic Map Pack, along with some very intriguing discussion to go with them. Our own writeup (with pics, and some vid clips) will be coming soon! (Louis Wu 16:10:13 UTC) (permalink)

A Splitreason shirt you can help bring to life
Anton P. Nym brought to our attention a design for a new Halo-related t-shirt at Splitreason.com. This will not become a shirt unless enough people vote for it... if you think it should be for sale, make your voice heard! (Louis Wu 16:02:20 UTC) (permalink)

2501 Episode 16
Catfish let us know that 2501 Episode 16 is live. Go read! (Louis Wu 16:02:03 UTC) (permalink)

News February 16 2009

Halo Wars Preview - UNSC and Covenant Compared
Exanubisleader noticed that IGN is kicking off a weeklong video series highlighting Halo Wars - the first piece is up now. Go watch! (Louis Wu 22:50:32 UTC) (permalink)

Wort Wort Wort
The Bungie Blog posted a new 'tag and release' feature today, with some very cool Elite pictures. I'm sure you can find more of your own! (Louis Wu 22:48:20 UTC) (permalink)

Desert Oasis Ep 1
Fushiko came by to talk about a new machinima he's released that illustrates Bible proverbs with Halo 3 action. That's definitely different... (Louis Wu 22:46:44 UTC) (permalink)

Mario Vs Spartan 2
GeneticSpartan stopped in with word of Mario Vs Spartan 2, a pretty amazing piece of machinima. Go watch as Mario and his friends take on a Spartan army... effects are fantastic! 9:15 long... and worth it. (Hawty McBloggy had nice things to say about it, too.) (Louis Wu 18:02:39 UTC) (permalink)

Cardboard Halo 3 Rifle
PsH Bling ran across a cosplayer who's created a pretty cool Battle Rifle out of cardboard. There are four pics at Cosplay.com: cutout | midway | waiting for paint | finished. Really well-done! (Louis Wu 18:01:18 UTC) (permalink)

MicroMachinima Episode 1: The Entertainer
AnTi PRO sent word of a new machinima series entitled 'MicroMachinima' - short skits for your enjoyment, while they're working on larger projects. Episode 1: The Entertainer is online now. It's... odd. (Well-done... but odd.) Go watch it! (Louis Wu 18:00:11 UTC) (permalink)

Comic Tutorial: Halo 3 Filters
TTL Demag0gue also announced a new how-to article on Halo 3 Webcomics - this one covers Halo 3 Filters, and was written by HolyJunkie. (Louis Wu 17:59:47 UTC) (permalink)

Top 10 Halo 3 Epic Fails: Episode 24
urk got word that The Top 10 Halo 3 series has released Episode 24 - Top 10 Epic Fails. I looked for clips of me... but I got lucky this time. (Louis Wu 17:58:31 UTC) (permalink)

The Seventh
It's Monday, so it's time for another episode of Reclaimer - Episode 149 shows off a new site design, and unveils some alterations made by Ferial. (Louis Wu 17:52:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo music up for 2009 G.A.N.G. Award
The Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Has announced their finalists for the 7th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards - winners will be announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 26. The Halo Trilogy - Complete Original Soundtracks product is up for Best Soundtrack Album. Good luck! (Louis Wu 17:51:40 UTC) (permalink)

CEUGWAOCC - you can't pronounce it, but you want to play it
Willy announced a contest on his clan website whereby you can win 16 months of LIVE, or a bunch of MS Points, by being a top scorer in an obstacle course he's designed. Swing by the post to read the details. (Louis Wu 17:51:10 UTC) (permalink)

New McFarlane Halo stuff from ToyFair 09
New McFarlane toys were shown at Toyfair this weekend - InnerRayg found pictures at Toyark and more (with a writeup) at figures.com. If you just want to see the newest stuff, Bongo8789 pointed out the TOYSREVIL blog - nice pics snagged from Toyark, and no hunting. (Louis Wu 17:50:32 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Reviews
The (London) Sunday Times reviewed five games this week - Halo Wars (and 3 others) received 4 stars each, while Killzone 2 received 5. Either it was a really good week for games... or the Times is generous. Also, over in Australia, five Kotaku readers were able to play Halo Wars at a press event - and they wrote up their impressions. (Louis Wu 17:49:46 UTC) (permalink)

You can't hide...
Hawty McBloggy found a pretty neat little event captured (not so neatly) on video - a grenade is knocked off course by a rocket... and makes a stick around a corner. Ouch! (Louis Wu 17:49:20 UTC) (permalink)

News February 15 2009

Hard Justice Ep 11: Resignation Act 1
DigitalPh33r's Hard Justice Episode 11 is up (thanks, urk) - it's the first part of a three-part finale for the season. Things are getting a little hairy... (Louis Wu 20:42:29 UTC) (permalink)

If you click the heels together, where do you go?
Wow... Kelli 'Pinkuh' Davis wrote in with word of a pair of shoes she'd customized... amazing! (Louis Wu 20:19:54 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Fails: Episode 10
Halo 3 Fails has released Episode 10 - almost eight minutes of funny screwups and bad luck. Go watch! (Thanks, sort of, to chris10023 for the heads-up... as a general friendly request, if you're going to send in news, adding a link to the item in question would be helpful.) (Louis Wu 16:03:39 UTC) (permalink)

Hunter Bionicle
reticence has been in our news before for LEGO Bionicles (July and December 2007) - he's back again with a new Hunter. I think it's pretty cool. (Louis Wu 15:02:23 UTC) (permalink)

News February 14 2009

She Hearts You
Hawty McBloggy wanted to you check out I <3 Halo 3 Screenshots on this special day... because she's featuring heart screenshots. Her favorite is this one... but look at all the February 14 shots for some other cool ones! (Louis Wu 21:53:41 UTC) (permalink)

Sins of the Prophets
Over at NeoGAF, fin provided a link to Sins of the Prophets, a mod for the 'Sins of a Solar Empire' game. Screenshots look amazing. (Louis Wu 18:47:45 UTC) (permalink)

A Basement.
Last night's unveiling of a third buildable area in Sandbox inspired Stuntmutt to send along a new One One Se7en. If, after you've read it, you find yourself filled with a murderous rage, maps showing his home will be available for a minimal fee. (Louis Wu 17:27:09 UTC) (permalink)

Look Before You Leap 2
Z pointed out a jumptage at Halo3Forum.com that's really amazing. The first couple of Last Resort jumps are incredible... but the whole thing is full of jaw-dropping jumps. Swing by and grab a copy. (It's 11 minutes long, in gorgeous 720p.) (Louis Wu 17:03:32 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Capture the Flag Challenge
Hawty McBloggy pointed out a pretty cool challenge hosted by Machinima.com - play a game of CTF via a series of interactive videos, win a shot at a free copy of Halo Wars! Check out Hawty's post for all the details. (Louis Wu 16:51:55 UTC) (permalink)

More on Halo Comics from Marvel
CaptainTony stopped by with a couple of links that shed more light on the 'two new Halo comic series from Marvel' story we mentioned last week. Marvel News has a publicity piece on the series, and IGN did an interview with the writers behind the comics. Salient points: The first series will be called 'Halo: Helljumpers', and it will focus on ODSTs. Both series expand the existing Halo storyverse. And (maybe most intriguingly... or maybe not), as of the date of the IGN article (Feb 8), Issue 4 of the long-delayed Uprising series "is in the process of being colored, and [...] a firm release date will be announced in the near future." Heh. We'll see. (Louis Wu 16:28:05 UTC) (permalink)

Comic Saturday
A couple of comics were announced on our forum this morning - The Catfish let us know that 2501 Episode 15 ('Resupplying') is up, and anthraxgoon told us that X36 Chapter 2 Issue 3 is live. Screenshotmania! (Louis Wu 16:21:43 UTC) (permalink)

Tales from the Crypt
Last night brought another in a run of surprisingly meaty Bungie Weekly Updates - Bungie has unveiled yet ANOTHER cool feature of Sandbox - the Crypt. It's an area underneath the ground floor... and it looks PERFECT to build Halo's 'Prisoner' in it, if you ask me. Check out the gorgeous pictures (the lighting, in particular, really adds to the environment of the place)... and remember, you can always read it in our Weekly Update Archive if you've got a problem with Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 15:53:58 UTC) (permalink)

News February 13 2009

Red vs. Blue: Valentine's Day 2009
Rooster Teeth has a new video up for sponsors (it'll be available to the public pretty soon) - it's in honor of Valentines Day, and Caboose is sad. Go watch why. I'd use a line from the video as the title for this newspost, but the best ones are all full of curse words. (Louis Wu 21:13:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Reviews, Feb 13
The reviews for Halo Wars are starting to come out - I think we'll summarize them once a day or so, so that you're not flooded with newsposts. Today's entries: First Look Reviews has a video review (thanks, sniper2477), and PC Magazine has a Hands-on article. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 21:09:21 UTC) (permalink)

Give me that old bomb
CMNeir and MidgetDance took a Bryan Simon song, and built a music video around it. Fun stuff! (Thanks, again, urk, dangit...) (Louis Wu 21:01:31 UTC) (permalink)

Phurion - Waltz (also in 3D)
Phurion created a video using a single Kilimanjaro during a Multi Team game on Foundry - it's quite nicely done. And as an added bonus, he created a 3D version that works with the standard red/blue glasses you watch 3D movies in. urk told me about these - are you listening to urk these days? (Louis Wu 19:58:51 UTC) (permalink)

Love, life's sweetest reward
Earlier this week, Hawty McBloggy asked you for eValentines she could share with the world - today, she's posted the best ones. Go see... and maybe you'll find some inspiration. (Louis Wu 18:29:58 UTC) (permalink)

I Won't Teabag On The First Date
Bryan Simon's got a new song for you, just in time for Valentine's Day... it's called 'I Won't Teabag On The First Date', and it's romantic as all get-out. (There is no money-back guarantee on that promise.) I think Hawty McBloggy could snag a few Halo 3 Pickup Lines from this! If you're interested in just the MP3, we've got that for you, too (3.6 mb). (Louis Wu 13:54:17 UTC) (permalink)

Flag-Stoppage... of the Epic Variety
Yesterday, Jagged stopped by with a question about how to get a Halo 3 film clip onto the web. (Still no word from Bungie when the BuTube feature is going live.) Urban Reflex watched the clip and decided it was pretty cool... and did a great job of recording it. Check this post for both streaming and download links - Jagged managed, in the course of attempting to avoid some missiles in his Banshee, to cause one of those missiles to kill the guy who just stole his flag. It's moments like this that make me love Halo 3. (Louis Wu 13:05:18 UTC) (permalink)

Have no friends? Buy one!
How much is friendship worth? As of right now, it looks like... $0.99 (Australian). That's the current bid (with one day left on the auction) for someone offering themself as a Halo 3 Xbox 360 LIVE Friend who wants to help you play through Halo 3 on Legendary mode... and as a bonus, they're "relatively skilled". Thanks, ODST05. (Louis Wu 13:04:52 UTC) (permalink)

Put me down... PUT ME DOWN!
It's Friday - which means it's time for another episode of Friday Caption Fun at Hawty McBloggy's!. Check out the highlights from last week's submissions... along with a fantastic new pic to work with. The possibilities are Brobdingnagian! (Louis Wu 13:04:26 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Demo Sets Records
According to a Microsoft press release, the Halo Wars demo set a one-day Xbox LIVE demo download record, and hit 2 million downloads in the first 5 days. I found summaries everywhere, and a full copy at Australia's iTWire. (Louis Wu 13:03:35 UTC) (permalink)

I got your super weapon, right here.
Urban Reflex noticed that IGN posted a 'Top 10 First-Person Shooter Cliches' - Halo contains most (if not all) of them. (Louis Wu 13:03:01 UTC) (permalink)

Power to the makers!
americanista123 created a Halo 3 killtage showing off the prowess of Bungie employees - it's a touching tribute, and nicely edited. Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:01:31 UTC) (permalink)

HaloCharts Mythic Challenge
HaloCharts.com is offering special awards on your HaloCharts Player Page if you finish the game on Mythic difficulty (Solo, Legendary, All Skulls On). Remember that we've got a fantastic guide to help you do just that hosted right here. Give it a shot - and show off your prowess! (Louis Wu 13:00:55 UTC) (permalink)

Strategy on Xbox - now for download
Yesterday, we mentioned a new Halo Wars ViDoc on Xbox Live Marketplace - for those who want a downloadable version, we've put it up in both WMP9 format (139 mb) and QuickTime format (144 mb). It's an interesting discussion about how the Ensemble team customized the controls for a console RTS. (Louis Wu 13:00:29 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fanfic
There are seven new stories up for you this week in the Fan Fiction section - go read 'em! (Louis Wu 12:59:39 UTC) (permalink)

News February 12 2009

Applied to Life - Territories - Halo 3
urk higlighted a truly rockin' video called 'Applied to Life: Territories'. Go watch it - you'll be glad you did. (Louis Wu 23:28:39 UTC) (permalink)

Expert in Tom Foolery
The latest entry in the 'Breaking In' series at Bungie.net focuses on Shi Kai Wang, Bungie Artist and Grizzled Ancient. If you want to see how a top-notch artist makes it into a top-notch company... go read. (Louis Wu 23:27:18 UTC) (permalink)

V-Day Massacre, online now
It's Thursday, so it's time for another Double XP Weekend to kick off - this week it's V-Day Massacre, a ranked team doubles list. With chances for Recon. Go read about it on B.net. (Louis Wu 20:09:43 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars for Everyone... plus a new ViDoc
Red_Breast noticed that the Halo Wars demo is now available for everyone on LIVE - Gold accounts had access last week, but Silver accounts were locked out until today. If you haven't tried it, now's your chance! There's also a new ViDoc available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace - 'Strategy on Xbox' discusses designing a strategy game for the Xbox 360 from the ground up. (Louis Wu 20:07:13 UTC) (permalink)

Montage editing tips, from a master
Phurion is known for impressively edited Halo 3 montages - and now he's going to help you create your own. Swing by Halo3Forum.com for a thread full of practice clips and advice. (There's also a video on YouTube showing what you can do with this stuff.) Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 20:06:46 UTC) (permalink)

Gamers 4 Giving 2009
An interview in a recent issue of The Blue Skittle, with Zach Wigal, a gamer who turned a bad experience into the inspiration for some really good work (search our news for details, or read the interview), reveals a tournament coming up at the end of February at Eastern Michigan University. $1000 cash and Recon armor are on the line for winners. Check out the details! (Louis Wu 18:06:19 UTC) (permalink)

Grifball Matchmaking Highlights
Bungie.net has word of a new Grifball Highlights film. No commentary (yet), but the gameplay's pretty cool. (Louis Wu 17:54:09 UTC) (permalink)

Respite
Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked 54 is now online. Everyone needs a break sometimes. (Louis Wu 17:52:41 UTC) (permalink)

Watch the beads - they'll toast your DVD drive
Hawty McBloggy has gathered up 28 different Halo-themed Xbox 360 faceplates, from the subtle to the over-the-top. Check out what people are fronting their gaming consoles with! (Louis Wu 14:48:30 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Zero 2 tech demo
quququ1 let us know that Dobermann, the guy behind Halo Zero 2, has released a new tech demo - you can download it (3.2 mb, Windows .exe) at his website. If you're unfamiliar with Halo Zero/HZ2, they're fan-created 2D sidescrollers with cool Halo sprite art. (Louis Wu 14:44:22 UTC) (permalink)

Surveillance
The Catfish stopped in to let us know that 2501 Episode 14 is now online - with a new character. (Louis Wu 14:44:04 UTC) (permalink)

RvB Fan Art
gunluva noticed a cool piece of RvB fanart at DeviantART - and HawaiianPig was happy to see his original poster work used as inspiration. Fans loving fans loving Bungie... that's what we're all about! (Louis Wu 14:43:38 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Map Pack Heatmaps Now Up
CaLL Me ZeNy was the first on our forum to notice that the Mythic Maps are now included in Bungie's Heatmaps. Now's a good time to check out their layouts... while the maps are still clean! (You can, of course, always look at a version filtered for some obscure death - try Elephant Turret on any map except Sandtrap, for example - to see the clean map for already-in-use levels... but for the three new maps, no extra work is involved.) (Louis Wu 14:43:11 UTC) (permalink)

The Bungie Blog - A Bounteous Bouquet of Broadcast Bulletins
Last night was pretty productive for urk, over at the Bungie Blog - lots of local content, and even one new fan bit:

• The Sandbox screenshots that were unveiled in the recent IGN/T3 interviews (sometimes in really small sizes) are now all available, in beautiful hi-res, in the Halo 3 Screenshot Gallery. Swing by and feast your eyes.
• The next Community Spotlight feature has been posted - Facility B5D is a Bungie.net group founded originally to give people info about Recon armor, but has grown into a tightly-knit community of friends. Go see what goodies they've added to Bungie Favorites this week!
• The Bungie Online Team took on the Community Team on the Mythic Maps for the most recent installment of the Bungie Humpday Challenge - I think the Online Team can blame Stosh for their drumming. (I mean, hell, they blame him for everything else...)
• Bryan Simon has released the latest episode of his 'Voicemail Chronicles' series - and Bungie gets the news heads-up. It's always fun to listen to silly people ranting...

Whew. That's a lot of news - I could call it a day, I think! (Don't worry, I'm not.) (Louis Wu 14:29:36 UTC) (permalink)

News February 11 2009

Operation Chastity Concept Art - A Gallery
Pete Cooper stopped in this morning to unveil the latest - and last - piece of concept art for the 'Operation Chastity' project. These pieces are so spectacular, we've collected them to make a small gallery; they deserve close attention. Check 'em out. Update: Pete Cooper has asked us to remove the gallery until he's had a chance to watermark the images; hopefully it'll be back online soon. Update 2: Gallery's back up, MUCH sooner than expected. (Louis Wu 19:22:46 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Movies
Goodies via the Bungie Blog:

• 'First Contact' is a Halo machinima with some great graphics and a taut story. The date work could use a little help, but mostly, this is top-notch. View/download at Machinima.com.
• Halo Final Fantasy: It's not the first time someone's made an RPG in the Halo engine (check these posts - 1 | 2 | 3 - for an older series using Halo 2), but this one's pretty well-done, and fun to watch. Check it out in High Quality at YouTube.

Again, thanks to urk for the links! (Louis Wu 19:12:40 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Comics
New comics released today: we heard from TTL Demag0gue that Reclaimer 148 ("Veil") is live - and Ferial runs up against more than he expected. We also heard from Rob Tracy, who pointed out that the last of the Halo/Grifball comics ("GOAAAAAAAAAAAAL") went live at Remedial comics today. (He also mentioned that his thoughts on the Halo Wars demo can be read in the blog post for today.) (Louis Wu 18:54:38 UTC) (permalink)

Rolling Tanks?
bluerunner experienced a bizarre glitch while playing the Halo Wars Demo last night... here's hoping it's an isolated incident! Anyone seen this before? (Louis Wu 13:36:31 UTC) (permalink)

Tank - launch the jump program.
The Halo 1 Tricking continues apace. Latest cool trick: slYnki has managed to get a Scorpion Tank onto one of AotCR's suspension bridges. A trick long thought to be impossible... now on film! I heard about this one from lots of people - Dark Helmet even posted it in our forum. (Louis Wu 13:34:37 UTC) (permalink)

Get Your Gear in Order
Hawty McBloggy was the first to let us know about ODS Steve #13 - I gotta say, I have no idea what's going on. (Louis Wu 13:33:49 UTC) (permalink)

Mapmaking podcast guest sought
FyreWulff and BerserkerBarage will be hosting a podcast soon... and they're looking for a guest that has submitted a map to ATLAS (Bungie's community mapmaking group) who wants to discuss their work. Read his forum post for details on how to get involved! (Louis Wu 13:33:02 UTC) (permalink)

Make a Halo-Themed eValentine
Hawty McBloggy has kicked off a community eValentine project - create a cool Halo-themed eCard you can give to a loved one, send it along to Hawty, and she'll publish it on Friday. (Well, she'll publish 'worthy submissions' - so try to avoid sending in naked pictures of yourself.) (Louis Wu 13:31:06 UTC) (permalink)

Sandbox Toolkit
Last night, Bungie put up a question and answer session with Tyson 'Ferrex' Green and Jon 'JonnyOThan' Cable, about the limits in Sandbox... or more accurately, the limits in Forge. Worth a read, if you're considering building maps! It also contains every Forge object that will be available in Sandbox - and the list includes the makings of a golf course. Thanks, 2900d4u. (Louis Wu 13:27:15 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Reviewed by CTV
Anton P. Nym noticed that Halo Wars got a review at CTV.ca - it's pretty positive. Take a look. (Louis Wu 13:22:15 UTC) (permalink)

Spawn.com Halo Wars minisite
Spawn.com likes to make mini-sites for their collections of action figures; they've already done one for the Halo 3 Series 1 and Halo 3 Series 2 (never frontpaged here) figures. There's a new one up - for their Halo Wars figures. Slick way to see what's available! Check it out. (Louis Wu 13:19:38 UTC) (permalink)

News February 10 2009

HBOFFPotW: Feb 6
kabu let us know that the HBO Fan Fic Pick of the Week for the submissions on February 6 went up a couple of days ago - read the details from baneofdeath. (Louis Wu 21:08:53 UTC) (permalink)

Yesterday's Villains
Adam Susskind told us that Chaos Theory Episode 11 is now up - go read! (Louis Wu 21:06:46 UTC) (permalink)

Inside Halo Episode 30
Machinima's Adam Kovic let us know that the last episode of Inside Halo (the 30th) is now online... and as a final 'we love you' to the fans, they're giving you the option of watching the episode hosted by either sodaGoD or The Dead Pixel. Inside Halo is morphing to Inside Gaming... and sodaGoD is taking his leave. So go watch, while it's still Inside Halo! (Louis Wu 20:54:20 UTC) (permalink)

An afternoon of tasty Halo treats
Goodies courtesy of the Bungie Blog: a 'Goosetage from Nysco and iScotteh entitled 'Twisted Metal', a very cool Average Joe segment (It spotlights TTL Demag0gue, and the interview is built as a comic), and a new song from Bryan Simon - this one focuses on Neighbor, the pro Halo 3 player. Thanks for making my job easier, urk! (Louis Wu 20:52:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars First Impressions from Electricpig
Electricpig has posted some impressions of the Halo Wars game (full, not the demo). Go see what they thought! (Louis Wu 20:51:53 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Webcomics: Aesthetic Sets
TTL Demag0gue stopped in with word of a new article at Halo 3 Webcomics - this one helps you come up with pretty sets to take your screenshots on. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:49:42 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Mythbusters: Episode 9
The Halo 3 Mythbusters team is back in action - Episode 9 is now online. I think these guys have passed out of the 'busting myths' territory and into the land of "really cool stuff you never knew about Halo 3". Some of these tidbits are just intriguing, others are actually useful in gameplay. Great work, as usual! (Awesome ending, too.) Thanks, CaLL Me ZeNy. (Louis Wu 14:43:42 UTC) (permalink)

Insider Moves: Halo Wars Tips
If you have Xbox LIVE, you have access to a resource called 'Inside Xbox', which is content generated by the Xbox.com team to help you get more out of your console. One of the features put up recently was an Insider Moves episode that focused on Halo Wars, and provided a few controls and features that you might not find on your own during Demo play. We've put up 720p versions of this video so that you can watch it when you don't have access to the Xbox LIVE dashboard - it's 109 mb in WMP9 format, and 90 mb in QuickTime format. Grab a copy! (Louis Wu 14:36:43 UTC) (permalink)

Celebrating a Birthday with a Bang
cd andrews sent word of a 30th birthday cake created for a friend who probably has a number of betrayals under his belt. Check out the pics! one | two | three | four | five (Louis Wu 13:55:47 UTC) (permalink)

Countdown
The Catfish let us know that 2501 Episode 13 is now up - time may be running short. (Louis Wu 13:54:49 UTC) (permalink)

First Person Plural
There's a new piece over at Tied the Leader - it's a discussion about how games can keep the interest of players who have achieved all there is to achieve. Halo doesn't have a 'Prestige' system like Call of Duty... so some players resort to a second gamertag to extend their interest in the game. Fun discussion! THanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 13:42:15 UTC) (permalink)

Sandbox picture makes details easier to understand
For those having trouble understanding how Sandbox's Sky Bubble and its ground floor will interact, Fyrewulff made a simple but elegant diagram. The only bit of info that isn't really conveyed by the picture is that players CAN pass downward through the kill volume... just not alive. (Louis Wu 13:39:09 UTC) (permalink)

RvB: Relocated Episode One
Sarge Tomzilla was the first to notice that the first episode of Rooster Teeth's newest miniseries, 'RvB: Relocated', is now online (for sponsors and the general public alike). In the words of Burnie Burns... "less plot, more stupid". I gotta say... the formula works nicely here. (Louis Wu 13:37:58 UTC) (permalink)

News February 9 2009

Dear Mr. Sandbox, Send Me a Dream
IGN promised to put up the second part of their spotlight on Sandbox, the new Forgeable map coming in the Mythic Map Pack - and they kept their word. In an interview with Dan Miller and Chad 'Shishka' Armstrong, some of the coolest aspects of Sandbox are revealed... go read for info that will make mapmakers do unspeakable things in their pants. (Louis Wu 23:51:04 UTC) (permalink)

Community Montages... coming soon
HaloSocial's Scotty stopped in to announce a new series of montages, using your footage. Each one will focus on a specific weapon - the first one is for Grenades. Check out the post for details on what they need! (Louis Wu 20:06:27 UTC) (permalink)

Tag - ODST's It
urk's playing with the Bungie image tagging system again - check out the ODST shots he found. Then play yourself and find your own! (That second one is pretty great!) (Louis Wu 20:04:31 UTC) (permalink)

WWKBD?
pete_the_duck came up with seven fun things you can do with a Kill Ball (coming soon to a Sandbox near you!) - check it out. If you invite me to any of these games... I will make sure you're never, ever on my friends list. Ever. (Louis Wu 19:17:25 UTC) (permalink)

Dangerous Liaisons
Rob Tracy let us know that the second Halo/Grifball-related 'Remedial Comics' ep is now up - those hammers are dangerous! (And while it's not Halo-related, the blog entry for today is a writeup of the New York Comic Con, which took place this weekend; give it a look!) (Louis Wu 19:11:14 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Trailer... Rehosted
Xbox Life has pulled the Halo Wars trailer we mentioned recently - probably because the bandwidth demands got too great. De Laal pointed out a re-encoded version (they cropped out the black bars that contained no info except the Xbox Life watermark)... but we think it's a little fairer to the original host to put up the branded version; after all, this seems to have been exclusive to them. You can watch it here. Update: This movie has been pulled at the request of Microsoft Game Studios. (Louis Wu 18:28:00 UTC) (permalink)

Operation Chastity Art Collection Grows
Pete Cooper is back with MORE concept art for the upcoming Halo Fan-created film, Operation Chastity. If the quality of the film comes anywhere NEAR the quality of the concept art, Hollywood's gonna be jealous. (Louis Wu 18:26:37 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Soundtrack streaming at AOL
We're a touch late to the party, but GameDaily's John Lichman let us know that they're premiering the Halo Wars soundtrack at AOL Radio today. It's streaming only, and you get one song played at the top of every hour - so swing by and listen! (Apologies for posting this late enough that you've already missed a couple.) (Louis Wu 18:25:33 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars 3D Images
Hawty McBloggy noticed that Kroden35 is creating new Halo-related 3D pictures... this time, the subject is Halo Wars. Swing by her site for details! (Louis Wu 18:24:37 UTC) (permalink)

Two Minds Are Better Than One
TTL Demag0gue informed us that Reclaimer 147 is up - and a new player gives Ferial pause. (Louis Wu 18:21:31 UTC) (permalink)

Playing Halo Wars Early
Davis Beutler stopped in to announce that he'd won one of five spots given out by Kotaku AU to a Halo Wars preview this week; the winners will get to play the whole game through, and write a review. He's offering to ask questions, if anyone there is answering - swing by with your suggestions! (If you're in the Sydney area, there are still chances to get in on this event; atomic, for example, is giving away 5 slots, as well, starting today. Read the rules page for full details.) (Louis Wu 18:17:53 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars impressions from a non-RTS player
Over at Blast Magazine, there's another Halo Wars Hands-on, this time from a non-RTS player; give it a read if you'd like to see how a beginner in the genre views it all. (Louis Wu 18:17:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Cinematic Montage
2900d4u was the first of many to let us know about a new Halo Wars cinematic montage that can be seen at a Taiwanese Xbox site. (If you're having trouble there, there's a lower-res version at Gametrailers.com.) This is FULL of spoilers for the Halo Wars story (mostly inferred, but pretty clear)... but if you check that thread on our forum, you'll see a whole lot of people who WERE on the fence about buying Halo Wars now firmly in the 'preordering now' category. Some are saying they're buying it for the cutscenes alone. Make of this what you will. (Louis Wu 02:20:10 UTC) (permalink)

Brute Spiker Replica on eBay
smick6 auctioned off a Brute Spiker replica last September - if you were interested then, but missed it, you've got another chance. He's put up another one - starting bid is $275, close is just under 7 days. If you're curious about what you'd be getting, we put together a gallery last August, showing his progress. (Louis Wu 02:18:18 UTC) (permalink)

Forerunner Synaesthesia By Swimmer
gender bombs (or Swimmer, or Solomon) sent us word that he'd posted an album of music for Halo 3 and the graphic novels over at B.net; It's electronic, and he's titled the pieces rather vaguely, so that you can decide for yourselves what tidbit of Halo inspired each one. It's free, and the full download (including album art) is 23 mb... what have you got to lose? (If the first download link doesn't work any more, there's another one a few posts down.) (Louis Wu 02:15:01 UTC) (permalink)

One of the Old Guard Retires
Michael "Fluffaluffer" Karlsson, the long-time manager of Planet Halo, is stepping down - we'd like to take a moment to say goodbye. It's been a good run, Fluffy! (Louis Wu 02:14:07 UTC) (permalink)

Dropping in Behind at the Third Tower
Rockslider is back to playing fun games in the Halo 3 Campaign - this time, he's behind enemy lines on The Covenant. Go see what he's come up with! (Louis Wu 02:13:32 UTC) (permalink)

News February 8 2009

Podtacular 178
Hype let us know that Podtacular 178 is up - Callins and Tales from the Foxhole. Go listen! (Louis Wu 18:18:26 UTC) (permalink)

Haven't The Foggiest Of War.
Stuntmutt manages to poke fun at Halo Wars and Marvel, all in one totally unexpected bonus strip - go check out today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 11:58:28 UTC) (permalink)

Untitled, by IamDank
naveeda stopped in to talk about IamDank's latest creation - it's a wonderfully-edited montage... with a 3 and a half minute intro. The intro isn't just credits, though - it's a cool collection of machinima shorts that work nicely to introduce the montage itself. A great way to spend a Sunday morning! (If you've got a Vimeo account, you can download the 720p version of this - definitely worth it.) (Louis Wu 11:55:56 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Fails Episode 9
MasterCheifn was the first to let us know about Halo 3 Fails Episode 9 - mostly because he's in it (as the first FAIL). Of course, he blames someone else. (In this case, he blames CYBRFRK - and since we blame him a lot too, maybe MasterCheifn isn't exaggerating.) (Louis Wu 11:54:18 UTC) (permalink)

Game with Fame: Disciple
The most-recently-announced Halo-related Game With Fame will be coming up on March 1, when you'll get a chance to play with Southern/Christian Rock band Disciple. Swing by Xbox.com for full details. (Louis Wu 11:53:50 UTC) (permalink)

News February 7 2009

Can't finish what you started? Start something else.
Wow, this is just... silly. Back in mid-2006, Marvel announced that they'd be publishing a monthly Halo comic, starting a few months before the release of Halo 3. The delivery of these issues has become a joke - the fourth (and last) comic is STILL not out, having had its release date pushed back AGAIN, to March 4, 2009 (given that it's been pushed back more than a dozen times, the chances that we see it in March are slim to none). With that horrible record, you'd think Marvel would stay pretty far away from the Halo franchise... but you'd be wrong. According to io9.com, they used New York Comic Con to announce that they're launching not one, but TWO new Halo-based comic series, the first this summer (a five-issue run), the second, 'Halo: Spartan Black', next winter. Thanks to Bongo for the heads-up (and subsequent rise in blood pressure). (Louis Wu 21:17:57 UTC) (permalink)

Studying a game WAY past the 'fun' threshold
Psychophan7 put together a ridiculously detailed analysis of the management of resources in the Halo Wars demo. Read it if you've got a while. (Louis Wu 20:58:06 UTC) (permalink)

Grab the popcorn
A couple of movies for you this afternoon, brought to your attention by Master Ph0bia: Darkspire's Matchmaking Episode 19 has been released, either streaming or downloadable in 720p, and stars a guy I met in Matchmaking last night. And Arby n the Chief Season 3 Episode 07 ("Panic") is up - folks try and come to grips with the loss of achievements and unlocked armor (stick around to the very end for a funny moment). (Louis Wu 20:52:08 UTC) (permalink)

Operation Chastity: More Concept Art
Last night, ElusiveEagle519 did some searching and turned up some interesting information about Pete Cooper's Operation Chastity. Pete had been hoping to dole out content a little more slowly, but since it's been found, he was kind enough to summarize the useful stuff that was put up in several different posts across a couple of threads - swing by to see truly amazing concept art for the upcoming movie project. If they can live up to what their plans are suggesting, this is going to be one HELL of a fan project. (Louis Wu 15:55:52 UTC) (permalink)

A pair of vids
2900d4u used Halo Wars cinematic footage and audio from the GI Joe trailer to make a new video about Spartan Group Omega. He also figured out how to use the Elephant as a cannon. Check out both vids in his forum post. (Louis Wu 15:55:27 UTC) (permalink)

Holograms
The Catfish dropped in to announce 2501 Episode 12 - things are getting weird. (Louis Wu 15:54:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars MEGA Bloks - First View
InnerRayg found a link on Action-Figure.com with a mini-review and some photos of the upcoming Halo Wars MEGA Bloks. Our forum denizens aren't terribly impressed, it seems (except for maybe the Hornet and the Sparrowhawk)... but see for yourself! (Louis Wu 15:53:28 UTC) (permalink)

David: Prologue
Juesoni continues his live broadcasts of David segments - the fourth and final part of the machinima will be premiering at 12 noon PST (3 pm EST, 8 pm GMT/UTC). Check his forum post for links. (Louis Wu 15:52:39 UTC) (permalink)

5 Most Notorious Multiplayer Gaming Glitches
MTV's Multiplayer blog has a summary of their 5 Most Notorious Multiplayer Gaming Glitches. Halo 2's BXR glitch came in at Number 1. Thanks, Decommissioner. (Louis Wu 15:51:12 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Demo Music Available
DHalo recorded the three songs found inside the Halo Wars demo - if you'd like them, he's packaged them up and put them on FileFront. (Louis Wu 15:50:47 UTC) (permalink)

Avenger
Kral sent word that he'd edited a new montage for his friend TheAvenger645 - swing by YouTube to watch it in HD. (Louis Wu 15:50:13 UTC) (permalink)

BWU: Mythic Info
Bungie posted its weekly update, as usual, last night (and we made it available in our Weekly Update Archive, as usual, last night) - but it didn't manage to make the front page until now. Just because we're tardy about letting you know, don't think you shouldn't read it - it's full of useful tidbits. It does a lot of clarifying of information made available over the past week - busting rumors before they've really gotten a chance to get rolling, as it were. Most of it involves Sandbox, the big reveal of last week - so go check it out! (For what it's worth, urk's coy hint about the release date of the Mythic Maps as DLC can be deciphered using our Halo Story Timeline.) (Louis Wu 15:44:56 UTC) (permalink)

More Halo Wars Demo Reviews
There are new Halo Wars Demo impressions today - from Expansion Pack (very short) and Tumeroks (a little longer). Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 15:44:27 UTC) (permalink)

News February 6 2009

Concept Art for Operation: Chastity
Pete Cooper stopped by with a piece of concept art for Operation: Chastity, the Warthog-building fan movie project he's been working on. Wow, is that gorgeous! (Louis Wu 20:52:45 UTC) (permalink)

H3ITWP Remembers the 80's
The latest group montage from Halo 3 in the Workplace has been highlighted on the Bungie Blog - swing by for fun gameplay plus music from Magnum P.I., CHiPs, Knight Rider, and Hawaii Five-O. (Yes, I'm that old. And for what it's worth... Hawaii Five-O ran until 1979; it had a final year, in 1980, but was called McGarrett. I'm not sure that qualifies as "80s".) (Louis Wu 20:03:56 UTC) (permalink)

A Day in the Life
Ascendant Justice has posted another intriguing article; it ties together disparate info from a variety of sources to provide a one-stop shop for the big picture behind Halo 3: ODST. What a great read! Check it out. (Thanks, voc.) (Louis Wu 14:52:51 UTC) (permalink)

Girl Gamer on My Friends List
Bryan Simon has put together another Halo 3 song - 'Girl Gamer on My Friends List' explains that the concept of 'celebrity' is flexible. We've posted the MP3 version (4 mb), if you'd rather have that. (Louis Wu 14:51:27 UTC) (permalink)

The Covenant (WIP)
Tony 'ubald' Marcotte sent word that he's posted a new Halo render at Renderosity - we've put up a copy (with his permission, of course) in our local gallery. The Covenant can be imposing! (Louis Wu 14:50:45 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Demo Cutscenes in HD
HaLo2FrEeEk stopped by to say that he's in the process of uploading HD versions of all the Halo Wars demo cutscenes - they're up on YouTube, and downloadable in WMP9 format right now, with SD versions and QuickTime HDs coming soon. (The links are all there now, but not all of them actually go somewhere.) Grab 'em while they're hot! (Louis Wu 14:48:33 UTC) (permalink)

Crypticism
TTL Demag0gue celebrates Friday with Reclaimer 146 - Ferial is getting his way, it looks like. (Louis Wu 14:48:06 UTC) (permalink)

Top 10 Halo 3 Mongoose Kills: Episode 23
NartFOpc pointed out the most recent Top 10 Halo 3 installment - Episode 33 shows off 10 Mongoose kills (sometimes by splattering, sometimes because of the passenger's skill). The number 1? Pretty amazing. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:45:00 UTC) (permalink)

If I see bubbles, I'm outta here.
It's Friday, so it's time for another episode of Friday Caption Fun at Hawty McBloggy's - a selection of choice captions for last week's image, plus a great new pic that's ripe for satire. Do your worst! (Louis Wu 14:44:00 UTC) (permalink)

She's gonna file a restraining order, dude.
Back in the day, the name 'Dark Helmet' was widely known in the Halo tricking community - and beyond. He faded from view at some point, though, and we haven't heard much from him recently... until last week. He stopped by High Impact Halo to show off some harassment of Foe Hammer on the second level of the first game. Now THIS is why tricking is fun. Go watch! (Thanks, Ducain.) (Louis Wu 14:42:54 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Four new stories this week in the Fan Fiction section - go give 'em a read! (Louis Wu 14:41:57 UTC) (permalink)

Party System
Rob Tracy let us know that the first of three Halo/Grifball-related comics is live now at the Remedy website; this one seems like a set-up strip. (Louis Wu 14:39:49 UTC) (permalink)

From Bulldozers to Scorpions
Yesterday evening, Bungie posted the latest in its 'Breaking In' series - this one looks at Christian Allen's road to Bungie. He's a Design Lead, and came in during the Halo 3 crunch from a different gaming company. Make sure your hacky sack skills are up to par! (Louis Wu 14:38:50 UTC) (permalink)

No, not THAT one!
Hawty McBloggy highlighted a tiny little clip that should resonate with most of us - how many times have you lost an Oddball game because you ran away with an SMG instead of the ball? This guy had a slightly different problem... but the overall concept's the same. (Louis Wu 14:38:04 UTC) (permalink)

News February 5 2009

Halo 3 February Matchmaking Update Active
Bungie's updated Halo 3's Matchmaking on Xbox LIVE - the February update is now online. Information on playlist changes, Double XP weekends, and your next chances at Recon armor are all up. (Double XP this week is Grifball.) (Louis Wu 21:34:42 UTC) (permalink)

Oh No You Didn't
The guys at SmoothMoveFilms took the song that went along with the commercial for Mercenaries 2 last summer, and set it to some Halo action. End result is fun. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:28:55 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Manual Available
The Ensemble team has made the Halo Wars Manual available on the Halo Wars website, in PDF format. (It's in the top newspost at the moment - and since there's no permanent page to link to, here's a direct link to the file.) 3.7 mb, 48 pages. Grab a copy! Thanks, L3giticus. (Louis Wu 21:03:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Legend 3 Tribute 2
eckosama stopped by with word of a tribute to Mike Miller's 'Legend' vids (search our news if you've never seen them) - it's a Halo PC vid, with some nice moves! Take a look. (Louis Wu 17:22:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars on XBLM
The Halo Wars demo is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace (for Gold account holders); release seems to be rolling by region, so if you can't get it right away, be patient. It's 1.4 GB in size. You can also download the Call to Battle trailer (though this is available on YouTube (thanks, onebitrocket), or in HD from us in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats, 47 mb). It's a morning for Halo Wars! Update: Oops, forgot a bit. If you swing by 'Inside Xbox' from your 360 dashboard, you'll find a piece named 'Insider Moves: Let the Halo Wars Begin'. It was posted last week, so it's possible that it'll roll off the main Inside Xbox page, but I'm assuming you'll be able to find it in the Archive after that point. (If not, we'll make it available for download from here.) It contains some useful control tips for Halo Wars that might or might not be obvious from the demo tutorials. Worth a watch, if you're playing! (Louis Wu 13:13:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Hands-On at G4TV
G4 TV has a hands-on review of Halo Wars that's mostly a video playthrough of Campaign Mission 3. Go watch if you want to see Grizzly tanks in action. (Louis Wu 12:34:45 UTC) (permalink)

Smoke And Mirrors
The Catfish let us know that 2501 Episode 11, following Squadron E, is now up. (Louis Wu 12:34:23 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Open Casting Call
Bryan Newman asked us to let you know about his casting call - his team needs Halo 3 actors, and they know what they DON'T want. Watch the video for details. (Louis Wu 12:34:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3: ODST and Multiplayer Maps
I thought this was common knowledge at this point, but apparently it's not - and it bears repeating in any case: sketchfactor confirmed yesterday that when Halo 3: ODST touches down this fall, every Halo 3 multiplayer map - original shipping maps, Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic packs, Cold Storage, and the three new exclusive maps that will debut with ODST - will be available in the box. They've finalized how the logistics of play will work - but are still waiting for word from Microsoft on when they can clarify this for the fans. (His wording - 'available in the box' - suggests that they might come as download codes, rather than on the disc itself - which would be a disappoinment for folks looking to outfit LAN parties inexpensively.) Regardless of those details, however, the bottom line is, if you buy ODST, you'll have every Halo 3 multiplayer map ever released. (Louis Wu 12:33:21 UTC) (permalink)

The lengths cheaters will go to...
nash--housewares noticed an article at Wired about an increase in the use of hacker techniques in Halo 3 matchmaking. It's definitely not common... but apparently, some people are turning to approaches like Distributed Denial of Service attacks in order to win Halo 3 matches. (The article suggests that you can lease a 'zombie' (a PC controlled by virus-installed software) for $2 per unit - and with 40-60 of these units, you can destroy your opponent's chance to play. Are there really that many people willing to spend $100 to win a game of Halo 3? Really?) (Louis Wu 12:31:24 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Highlights... and a Debate
Bungie's Blog noted a video entitled 'MLG Top Ten Series: Episode 3', showing off 10 clips collected by B Mc Gann and Static Hazard in MLG matchmaking and custom games. I don't think I'd agree with the order (#4 is WAY more impressive than 3, 2, OR 1), but they're good gameplay moments. Go watch! (When you're done, swing by Hawty McBloggy's - she's opened a debate on whether Major League Gaming (I assume she means specifically Halo 3) is a professional sport or not... weigh in!) (Louis Wu 12:28:15 UTC) (permalink)

The Future of the Halo Franchise
Jason Pace, Microsoft's Halo Studio's Lead Producer, talked to VideoGamer.com about the future of the Halo franchise. What he says will reassure some fans, and scare others. (Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, reacted to an early excerpt with a little bit of fear. I think the discussion of a dancing Grunt game in the full interview might add to that.) (Louis Wu 12:27:28 UTC) (permalink)

News February 4 2009

Bungie Favorites Updated
urk pointed out that the Weekly update to Bungie Favorites, showcasing the second batch of material from ODST 4th Battalion, is now live. Cheeto666 also discusses a particular map. (Louis Wu 20:45:29 UTC) (permalink)

Super-Fast Vidmaster Annual
If you haven't completed the Vidmaster Annual Achievement, the Bungie Blog is highlighting a video that can help you whip through it in no time at all. Four decent Halo players usually need 45 minutes to an hour and a half (or more) to finish the level... these guys offer you hints and a glitch that will get you through in 20-30 minutes. (Louis Wu 18:47:26 UTC) (permalink)

Comics, comics, and more comics
anthraxgoon told us about X36 Chapter 2 Issue 2 (mindhacking? ew.), and Hawty McBloggy sent word that ODS Steve #12 (You Won't Like Him When He's Angry) is up, but she went to sleep and forgot to mention it sooner. Watch those mad grunts! (Louis Wu 18:21:30 UTC) (permalink)

2009 MLG Pro Circuit Announced
MLGPro.com has released info about the 2009 Pro Circuit - including locations and dates of the first two events. They're back in New Jersey in early April, and in Ohio in early June! Get pumped. Thanks, subtheorist. (Louis Wu 17:12:39 UTC) (permalink)

New Sandbox Info at IGN
IGN sat down with Brian Jarrard and Lars Bakken to talk about Sandbox - they've got 10 new screens, and some tasty info about the map itself. Give it a read! Thanks, CaLL Me ZeNy. Update: sketchfactor pointed out that a UK site, T3, also had an interview and a bunch of new screens - different ones. (They're formatted to be much smaller - but they're still new.) The interview, too, contains some... intriguing information. (Louis Wu 13:03:11 UTC) (permalink)

Games
TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 145 is now up - and Ferial's back. (Louis Wu 12:59:44 UTC) (permalink)

In Amber Clad - Flyable
Mid7night has released his X-Plane model of In Amber Clad - if you've got the flight sim, you can download this and fly it yourself! (Louis Wu 12:59:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: it's what we're waiting for
Unigamesity has listed their 10 Hottest Xbox 360 Games for 2009 - and both Halo Wars (#6) and Halo 3: ODST (#4) are on the list. Nice! (Louis Wu 12:59:09 UTC) (permalink)

A diehard fan says thanks
Bryan Simon was one of the winners of the Best of Halo Community Awards that Hawty McBloggy put together - and yesterday he received his Bungie-supplied (and Hawty-mailed) prize box. He filmed the opening, and added a special thanks. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube. (Louis Wu 12:58:44 UTC) (permalink)

2v2 tourney at CVG
Competitive Video Games' Nathan Moeller let us know that they're running a 2v2 pre-season tournament on February 7th - no prizes, just fun. Swing by to sign up. (Louis Wu 12:58:23 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Insanity
On the eve of the release of the Halo Wars demo, there are a number of hands-on articles around the web: MLive.com has one, and so does NextGen Player. Gamerzines has a 17-page issue (downloadable, and free) entirely devoted to Halo Wars (thanks, Ndositwe Chizimbi). Australia's The Age has lined up an interview with Jason Pace, and is soliciting questions to be answered tomorrow. And finally, an update on the second Halo ViDoc: the Marketplace server is back up and running, so you can queue up a download of the HD version to your Xbox 360 - or if you'd rather watch the HD version on your computer, we've put up both a WMP9 version (205 mb) and a QuickTime version (207 mb). It's available in smaller resolutions just about everywhere today, so if those downloads are too big for you, visit YouTube, or Kotaku, or the Joystiq link we posted yesterday, or... Update: Another impressions article at PC World (interesting, since Halo Wars won't ever be available on a PC). (Louis Wu 12:48:26 UTC) (permalink)

News February 3 2009

Sup Chief? Webisode 1
Remember 'Sup Chief?' We mentioned a trailer back in December.) Episode One is now online - swing by Vimeo to watch it. Truly stellar production values. Don't miss this one! Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:49:12 UTC) (permalink)

Halo simply works as an RTS (sez OXM)
Thanks to zofinda, who reported that the March 2009 OXM contains a full-fledged review of Halo Wars (not just the demo, the full game). Read the forum post for an overview of the article. (Louis Wu 21:27:52 UTC) (permalink)

kaboom
nomis78 grabbed a pair of cool panoramic shots from a game he played last night - enjoy! (Louis Wu 21:17:23 UTC) (permalink)

Wet and Mangled, with the Stench of Dog Breath
Another Tuesday, another Average Joe. This week, it's Ascendant Justice's Vociferous, the man who's way fitter (and way balder) than his writing implies. Go see what got him started in the Halo community... and what keeps him fueled. And make sure you yell at him for starting all those rumors. (Louis Wu 20:33:59 UTC) (permalink)

The Butterfly Effect
Adam Susskind let us know that Chaos Theory Episode 10 is now up - with the help of the Darkspire Films guys. It's a big 'un! (Louis Wu 20:28:32 UTC) (permalink)

Why is his girlfriend named Earl?
The Bungie Blog points out the latest from Darkspire Films - it's called 'My Spartan Girl', and it's... well, I'm thinking the singer is deluding himself a little. (Louis Wu 19:54:34 UTC) (permalink)

Videogamer.com looks at Halo Wars Demo
There's another Halo Wars Demo Hands-On over at Videogamer.com; you'll definitely get your own chance to play with this in a couple of days, but in the meantime, see what the game press thinks. (Louis Wu 19:09:50 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Vidoc #2
onebitrocket was the first to let us know that the second Halo Wars ViDoc ("Expanding the Arsenal") is available on Xbox Live Marketplace. You can't queue it up from the web right now, because marketplace.xbox.com seems to be down... but you can navigate to Games, then New Arrivals, then Game Videos to grab it on XBLM. It's five and a half minutes long, and if you don't want to watch it on LIVE, you can stream it from Halo3infinity.net (thanks, CaLL Me ZeNy). We'll put up HD versions later today, as well. Update: It's also streamable from Joystiq. (Louis Wu 19:06:38 UTC) (permalink)

He ran into some friends. With Needlers.
SmeagolStudios created a video called 'LEGO HALO: Master Chief' last year - but we missed it. Luckily, he re-released it this week, in High Definition - and urk brought it to our attention. It's pretty cool! Check it out. (Louis Wu 18:59:27 UTC) (permalink)

Screenshot Spotlight: Phenomenon IV
The second in Alec9224's spotlight series on screenshot artists is now online at Bungie.net - he talks to Phenomenon IV, who talks about how not to oversaturate your shots, along with other tips. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:58:51 UTC) (permalink)

Sunset
Dennis Powers sent word that Shipwrecked 53 is online - I've seen fast sunsets before, but... (Louis Wu 18:56:02 UTC) (permalink)

Stephen Rippy talks to Music4Games
We got word from Greg, at Music 4 Games (where Halo Wars is Soundtrack of the Month), that he's got a new interview with Stephen Rippy, the composer behind the Halo Wars soundtrack. Go read! (Louis Wu 14:32:07 UTC) (permalink)

Transmitters
The Catfish stopped in to tell us that 2501 Episode 10 is up - it's good to be careful. (Louis Wu 14:29:54 UTC) (permalink)

Spectacular Fan Art
PsH Bling brought our attention to Adam 'Phoenix-06' Burn, an artist with a pretty amazing portfolio on DeviantART. The impetus wasn't the artist, actually... it was a piece called 'MANTLE', inspired by Halo 3's Ark, but astounding in its own right. Browse through the rest of his work - there's really some fantastic stuff there (Halo and non-Halo related). (Louis Wu 14:16:39 UTC) (permalink)

Community Forge Contest, from Bungie Community Group
CrypticGuardian let us know that The Bungie Community Group is hosting a community Forge contest - build a Forged version of one of the Mythic Maps, win LIVE subscriptions or MS Points. Read the contest page for full details - and sign up for the group this month! (Louis Wu 14:15:54 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Soundtrack clips
DHalo noticed that Sumthing Digital has sound clips from the Halo Wars soundtrack - you can get a good sense for what's on the album, so go listen! (Louis Wu 14:15:20 UTC) (permalink)

Hawty McBloggy: Halo Trickster Extraordinaire
Hawty McBloggy, in keeping with her reputation as a cutting-edge Halo blogger, has published the first 'Out of Sandbox' picture - before Sandbox is even in the hands of most of us! (Louis Wu 14:14:08 UTC) (permalink)

Machinima group looking for stories
Juesoni let us know that BIohazard Productions is holding a machinima story contest - the prize is that your story will be turned into a machinima, and (if you've got a decent mic) you'll be able to act in it. More details are on their site. (Louis Wu 14:12:10 UTC) (permalink)

News February 2 2009

Watch the Closing Doors
Gamasutra visited Ensemble Studios one last time a couple of weeks ago - and found some cool stuff that's going by the wayside because the studio's closing. Some of the artwork shown has found its way to the web before now... some hasn't. Swing by to give the article a read! Update: RotaJota also noticed this - and went a step further, following a link at the end of the article to another series of articles at Crispy Gamer... the third of which focuses on Halo Wars. Give that a read, too! (Louis Wu 22:53:11 UTC) (permalink)

A couple of Halo Wars demo previews
KP's job over at Xbox.com sometimes includes playing stuff a little early - as outlined in the top Beat Blogs post, he recently got a chance to play through the Halo Wars demo. You can read the official Xbox.com preview now - and play it for yourself later this week. There's also an impressions article available at Loot Ninja - check 'em both out! (Louis Wu 22:50:13 UTC) (permalink)

Context is everything
TTL Demag0gue directed our attention towards a new tutorial on Halo3Webcomics - this one is written by The Catfish, and it's the first in a series of articles that will help you capture good screens for your comic. (Louis Wu 22:47:02 UTC) (permalink)

Release? Since when?
Some great Grunt shots are available over at Bungie.net - collected with a simple search for 'Grunt' using Bungie's tagging tools. Go look! (Louis Wu 22:46:38 UTC) (permalink)

L O B G 2
urk found a longish montage collected by the Legends of Blood Gulch team - fun stuff. Always good to play with friends! (Louis Wu 22:46:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Mythbusters Community Podcast 1
The Halo 3 Mythbusters have released their first community podcast - swing by the Bungie Blog for a download link. 45 minutes, 35 mb. Go listen! (Louis Wu 17:37:57 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic DLC available March 3?
According to VideoGamer.com, the downloadable version of the Mythic Map Pack will be released on Xbox LIVE Marketplace on March 3. If that's true, you'll be able to buy the three maps on the same day (in the US) as you could acquire them by buying the Halo Wars Collector's Edition. We'll wait and see if this date actually holds up - it seems unlikely, given that the original bundling of the maps with the Halo Wars CE appeared to have been done to help sell that particular product. Thanks to Jtyettis, at NeoGAF, for the heads-up. Update: False alarm. urk clarified (on NeoGAF) that VideoGamer simply misinterpreted the Halo Wars CE release announcement. Bah. (Louis Wu 15:17:22 UTC) (permalink)

Halo on... the Wii?
Professor Frink sent word of a video showing off Fission, a homebrew 3D engine for the Wii. (It is being built so that homebrew developers can put together studio-quality games without having to write an engine first.) The two flythroughs on the public demo? Zanzibar (the Halo 2 version) and Blood Gulch. Check out the FISSION page on WiiBrew for a progress timeline; it's pretty impressive! (Louis Wu 14:52:10 UTC) (permalink)

No X Button Big Enough to Flip
About a month ago, we let you know about a video of a reporter from OXM riding around in Weta's Warthog - the story that goes with this is now online on the OXM website. (Louis Wu 14:46:40 UTC) (permalink)

Working with Munny
Hawty McBloggy ran across a very cool custom-made Master Chief mini on DeviantART - swing by for all the details. What an awsome gift! (Louis Wu 14:44:35 UTC) (permalink)

Program: Dreamstate
TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 144 is online - and the virus status has been updated. (Louis Wu 14:44:06 UTC) (permalink)

News February 1 2009

Wow. Just... wow.
So Halo (the original game) was released in November, 2001 - and within a month or so, folks were exploring the boundaries of the maps. 2002 was the 'Golden Age' of Halo tricking; the Xbox hadn't been hacked yet, and Halo PC wasn't out yet, so folks were getting out of the maps the old-fashioned way... they were playing by the rules laid down by Bungie (though not always in ways that had been predicted). Tricking continued, but the earlier magic was lost, for a time; tricks were refinements on earlier techniques, rather than new discoveries. As later games were released, however, the community that was left working on Halo (the original) was a community that simply loved those maps - and some pretty impressive tricks, requiring some serious time devotion, were released. Yesterday, more than 7 years after the release of Halo, another one of these was completed. Ms. Man (with lots of feedback from HIH forumgoers) launched himself to the top of 343 Guilty Spark... at the END of the level. (Normally, this sort of launch requires a Shade - and there aren't any at the end of the level. So he brought his own.) The High Impact Halo thread is here (thanks, Evan Volm), the video is here. Hats off to you, Ms. Man. (Louis Wu 21:33:04 UTC) (permalink)

Hard Justice: Episode 10
DigitalPh33r released Hard Justice: Episode 10 - the cidy of Esoteria is still screwed up. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 20:56:01 UTC) (permalink)

A cool fan render... made to look like more
Master Ph0bia was first on our forum with word of a new render someone's created of Sandbox; DopeteK, from the Kill 4 Fun clan, posted it up on Bungie.net this morning, but it nearly immediately started making the rounds without any attribution... and so has appeared in a number of places as a leak from Bungie. It's not a leak from Bungie. It's not even really real - it's just a cool render built by some guy, and PRESENTED AS SUCH by him. Blame the rumors on other idiots. (Louis Wu 20:42:05 UTC) (permalink)

The WHL: funding dreams since... recently
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a story about one man's goal to fund his MLG dreams... by getting local players to pay to play him. (In theory, they're doing it because they might win themselves, and head to MLG tourneys on someone else's dime.) I thought it was fun Sunday reading. (Louis Wu 18:24:52 UTC) (permalink)

Episode 9 is gonna be all me, baby
MasterChiefn noticed that Halo 3 Fails Episode 8 is now live - there are some awesome funny moments in there. (My two favorites were the failed ghost-jacking on Snowbound, and the invisibility-induced betrayal on The Pit.) Go watch! I'm happy to see there are people who make the same silly mistakes I make. (Louis Wu 17:12:05 UTC) (permalink)

Spartan vs. Spartan
urk stopped in over the weekend (careful, urk, it'll become part of your job description if you keep doing that) to post word of a stop-motion Halo machinima. It's not what you might think - it's not action figures, filmed in stop-motion... it's Halo 3 action, filmed in stop-motion. Watch it to see what the advantage is. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 17:10:53 UTC) (permalink)

February 2009

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