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 | January 2007 |  |
January 2007 Archived News
News January 31 2007
Video Game Concert this Saturday in CA
j41m3z noticed that the Golden States Pops Orchestra is going to be playing a Video Game Soundtracks show on February 3 (that's this coming Saturday) at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, CA. Tickets are $20 for general admission ($10 for students). Halo is on the menu! Update: Nice discount in this post! (Louis Wu 23:28:50 UTC) (permalink)
New Shirts at the Bungie Store
Jonathan Rivas noticed three new shirts at the Bungie store - a long-sleeve I heart Cortana Tee, a short-sleeved I heart Master Chief Ringer Tee, and a Twofer long-sleeved Mongoose Tee. Get to buying! (Louis Wu 23:23:30 UTC) (permalink)
UFO?
Heh - Z, from Halo3Forum.com, pointed out a strange little vid on his forum - what's that flying thing on Sanctuary? Lots of discussion - toss in your own two cents! (Louis Wu 21:39:53 UTC) (permalink)
Gaucheness in Online Gaming
Another article about women playing Halo - and being abused for it. (Not for playing - but for being women and playing.) This is going to get better someday, right? (Louis Wu 19:46:39 UTC) (permalink)
THREEDOM!
Paul Maestri writes to point out Halo Heads 44 - to what lengths will you go to ensure a spot in the Halo 3 beta? (Louis Wu 18:47:41 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Halo 3 Beta Special
ImmortalThree wrote to point out Podtacular Episode 98 - with special guest Luke Smith from 1Up.com. All the Halo 3 beta info Luke can give out! Go listen; 1:15 long, 63 mb. (He also pointed out Episode 97 - but since that one focuses on Viva Piñata and not Halo, we'll pass on it.) (Louis Wu 18:46:13 UTC) (permalink)
Frenetic Alphabet.
Some of the recent articles out of Bungie have used terminology that might be hard for non-military personnel to follow. That's Stuntmutt's take, anyway, in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:34:39 UTC) (permalink)
Rule of 3 Reminder
Bungie posted a new Top Story last night (thanks, S043), reminding everyone that the 'Rule of 3' Program starts tomorrow. This is your next opportunity to get into the Halo 3 beta. But if you don't make it... these words of hope were included:
And remember, after all the dust has settled, Bungie will have a few extra beta spots for a few lucky and loyal community members. So one way or another, you should be able to find a way to participate in the Halo 3 Beta, fingers crossed and good luck!
Don't panic. Do your best, have fun. And don't forget to eat your vegetables. (Louis Wu 13:39:57 UTC) (permalink)
Lost the Lead - Not Dead Yet
Pinkuh stopped by to let us know there's a new episode of 'Lost the Lead' - apparently, the joke makes more sense if you understand the current influx of Naga artwork at DeviantART, but it doesn't take a lot to appreciate the artwork! (Louis Wu 13:36:15 UTC) (permalink)
Longsword X-Plane Model
Mid7night has been working on a Longsword model for X-Plane - he's got some pics, and a flash vid showing the retract sequence for the landing gear. (We've grabbed copies of the images themselves, if he runs out of bandwidth, but the video we don't have - here's hoping tinypic holds up.) (Louis Wu 13:32:51 UTC) (permalink)
MontagePalooza
Halomega has a ton of new vids - Dymdez' 3rd Montage Trailer, plus Fyler's 5th, a Team Midway gamplay, BROHAN's 7th 1v1 preview, and Frozen's 5th 1v1. Should keep you busy for a while... (Louis Wu 12:42:28 UTC) (permalink)
Grunts on Jet-Skis
Rockslider has posted a new Spotlight with Suzie - this time, Suzie interviews a grunt about a possible water level in Halo 3. This all came out of Ducain's recent Halo 3 wishlist... poor guy! (Louis Wu 12:34:54 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Project Oblivion mod released
Brandon stopped by to announce that his Oblivion mod is finished - you can now play through in Mjolnir Mark V armor, with energy sword and shield! screenshots and a link to the download are in his forum post. (Louis Wu 12:31:04 UTC) (permalink)
News January 30 2007
Halo Wars - now working on cutscenes
Interesting. Mike Smith pointed out a new update on the Halo Wars forum - the crew has been working on motion capture for cutscenes. (Personally, I'd rather be seeing where the GAME ITSELF was going right now, rather than the interstitial movies - but some update is better than no update.) Hmm... upon rereading, it's possible that the mocap will be used for more than just cutscenes... I guess we need to wait and see. (Louis Wu 17:50:01 UTC) (permalink)
Ultra-secret super duper interview
TheDonWan pointed out LoadingReality.com - a podcast focused on gaming in general. Episode 4 contains a sizeable interview with Bungie's KP - lots of 'favorite' questions, user-submitted questions, Bungie questions, all mixed in with general abuse of KP... good stuff. Well over an hour, 43 mb. KP shows up about 15 minutes in.
(Louis Wu 15:35:28 UTC) (permalink)
RoP Update
Funkmon sent us an update about the Rockets on Prisoner Awards; he took over from That Weasel, and plans to have a version out for Fall 2007 - if you have suggestions for how this should work, let him know over at Halo: Portable! (The plan now is to expand the awards to other Halo media, like music and podcasts.) (Louis Wu 15:34:27 UTC) (permalink)
Cool shots
Dojorkan put up a bunch of new, large hudless shots on our forum - some gorgeous stuff! Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 15:24:40 UTC) (permalink)
New vids up at Halo: Portable
Funkmon wrote to point out two new portable-formatted vids at Halo: Portable - Jamie98s' We Become Silhouettes, and the newly-posted Legend 3 (whose provenance is still being debated) are now up. Go grab 'em for your PSP/iPod/Zune! (Wait... people actually OWN Zunes?) (Louis Wu 14:42:13 UTC) (permalink)
Fresh Meat
Evilcam is a new moderator at Bungie.net - and he's also the newest victim of KP's IM-style interviews; go read about his interaction with the Halo community over at Bungie.net. (Thanks to Schedonnardus for letting us know.) (Louis Wu 14:36:39 UTC) (permalink)
Severance Package
Mister Froggy wrote to point out that Halo, Articulated #9 is online - the headless Barbie storyline continues. After a fashion. (Louis Wu 13:50:55 UTC) (permalink)
On horseback. In a hurricane.
Wow - it's been a while since our last mention of Tied the Leader... but boy howdy is there a lot of new content there. (No, I don't use that expression very often. No, I didn't get it from the TTL crowd. It just seemed appropriate.) Interviews (2), Clan Profiles (2), link roundups for folks who missed older material (1) and thought-provoking articles of relevance to Halo players (2) - check out XerxdeeJ's forum post for summaries and links. (Louis Wu 13:39:55 UTC) (permalink)
News January 29 2007
On Edge.
That quote from Chris Butcher just won't die, even though Bungie addressed it in the most recent Bungie Weekly Update - but Stuntmutt shows why it might not matter so much in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 20:15:25 UTC) (permalink)
The Olympics of Halo
Games in Action has kicked off 'The Olympics of Halo' - an online tourney. Swing by their forum for rules. Prize announcements coming later. (Louis Wu 19:18:35 UTC) (permalink)
MC in Paint
Wow - sorahn noticed a YouTube vid showing someone recreating the Master Chief in MS Paint. There's something amazing about being able to create artwork that looks this good with a tool like Paint... (I could do without the soundtrack, though.) Update: here's the second part of the drawing. Thanks, newDeviLedeT1. (Louis Wu 18:43:35 UTC) (permalink)
Legend 3 - Sort Of
Years ago, Mike Miller created 'Legend', and a followup, 'Legend 2' - these were basically Halo 1 campaign montages showing some really elegant gameplay at Legendary difficulty - the trick wasn't so much the difficulty, but the style with which the gameplay was performed. He was good enough that we asked him to create a Legendary Walkthrough of Halo 2, when it came out - and he did an awesome job. So today, when I opened up the forum, I was intrigued when I read this post - an anonymous poster (who went so far as to post via a proxy, so we couldn't check IP addresses) has created 'Legend 3' - which, he disclaims, is really only an homage to Mike's work, and will hopefully be REPLACED by a 'true' Legend 3 from Mike himself. I downloaded it - and I found that Halo Legend did a great job of following in Mike's footsteps; it's not about the kills, it's about HOW the kills happen. From fantastic flight control while sword-flying to a great no-scope on a perched elite to a truly novel way of killing a Major Sentinel, this vid is full of great clips. We've mirrored the original QuickTime version (linked in the forum post, 67.2 mb), and added a WMP9 version, as well (59.2 mb). Go watch - and maybe try and figure out who posted this! (Louis Wu 18:35:28 UTC) (permalink)
Random Acts of Beta
Paul Maestri wrote to point out Halo Heads 43 - what happens when someone you think doesn't deserve it (as much as you do) gets access to the Halo 3 beta, and you don't? Well, there's always something you can take heart from... (Louis Wu 16:48:50 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Drumline Show
GetOverITEnor found a cool film showing Center Grove (Indiana) High School's entry in an Indoor Percussion competition in 2005 - it's a drumline show featuring Halo music. Fantastic show! (As a side note, FancyShmancy inspired me to do some hunting on the last high school band vid we posted, last week - turns out it was Escambia High School, in Pensacola, Florida.) Great to see more schools using Halo music! (Louis Wu 16:42:40 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie's Angels
Obienator, who released 'Gameplay May Change During Online Play' last year (and garnered high praise for it), has released a teaser for the sequel, 'The Haxor that Loved Me' - you can watch it at YouTube from that forum post, or you can download higher-res versions. (Louis Wu 16:22:21 UTC) (permalink)
News January 28 2007
Player Match Commentary: Fonzi
Over at MLGPro.com, you'll find a front-page-linked video of Fonzi, doing player match commentary; watch him discuss strategy over video of himself playing in tournament play. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 23:09:10 UTC) (permalink)
What do you Want? And When do you Want it?
Ducain has put together his 'pie in the sky wishlist' for Halo 3 single player; things he wishes would show up in the upcoming campaign. Give it a read - and let him know what you think (either as a comment to that HIH newspost, or in the thread he started on our forum). (Louis Wu 22:07:46 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 33
Sigafoos writes to say that The Riot 33 has been posted - community news, Mandy Patinkin, and Equilibrium (the 2002 Sci-Fi movie). And stuff. 23 minutes, 10 mb. (Louis Wu 19:25:09 UTC) (permalink)
Panoramic Sunday
RVideo has been panoraming again (yeah, I know it's not a word) - this time, he jumped into a modded skin for Zanzibar, and got some spectacular sunset shots. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 17:07:25 UTC) (permalink)
That 'Thing'...
Frankie stopped by the NeoGAF forum yesterday to state pretty definitively that the 'new thing' (mentioned in this week's Bungie Weekly Update) is NOT video-related... which pretty much rules out flycams, spectator cams, and all the other variants that have been the frontrunners in the speculation threads on OUR forum, at least. Thanks, Drakkari. (Louis Wu 17:04:34 UTC) (permalink)
Montages for Money
QsKGlobal has overhauled their website, and they're kicking off a new Montage contest - you've got about 6 months, and there's currently $250 in the prize pool (though they're hoping that will go up). Check it out! (Louis Wu 17:01:16 UTC) (permalink)
Everything goes better with Rockets.
Rockslider continues to document new and fun ways of fighting battles you've been through a thousand times. Check out his rejoined landing battle on Silent Cartographer. (Louis Wu 16:59:29 UTC) (permalink)
Spare him his life.
Dojorkan grabbed a really nice image, and turned it into an icon. (You can see it textless, as well.) Perfect! (Louis Wu 16:56:50 UTC) (permalink)
The Songnam Treatment
highwaters, who let us know last week about a suit of Mjolnir armor he's been building, posted a movie yesterday showing that armor in use around town. If you have trouble with the MySpace vid in that first post, you can find a YouTube link in this post. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 16:46:55 UTC) (permalink)
News January 27 2007
The Heretic Action Trailer
Sbear sent word that the Heretic Action Trailer has been released - this is the second of two trailers released for an upcoming series from Edgeworks Entertainment. This one should pump you up... and you don't have to wait long for start of the actual series - release date looks to be [censored]. Update: Wow. I was told that I was ruining the surprise release date by posting it here - because the page we linked to (see above) I guess was more subtle. I've removed the date. You'll have to go elsewhere for it. (Louis Wu 23:25:17 UTC) (permalink)
FBI GamerGraffix chats with MLG
MLGPro.com has put up an interview with FBI GamerGraffix - thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 22:20:55 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: War Journal 'Last Dance'
zech ray found a decent piece of machinima linked from the Codex Series forums - it's a trailer for Halo: War Journal 'Last Dance', and it's hosted at YouTube. It tells the story of a heroic last stand by 300 Spartans against an overwhelming Covenant force. If you've got an extra 5 minutes this Saturday, take a look! (Louis Wu 22:17:38 UTC) (permalink)
How Babies are Made
Over at the Red vs Blue Sponsors forum, there's a new sponsors extra - How Babies are Made. It's in Flash format, and it basically gives away the secret to how Tucker's baby is filmed. (Hint - it's WAY more low-tech than most people thought it was.) Pretty cool! Thanks to MffnMn for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:53:04 UTC) (permalink)
Headless Love
Mister Froggy let us know that Halo, Articulated #8 has been posted. Poor Barbie! (Louis Wu 13:49:29 UTC) (permalink)
Planet Xbox 360 takes shots at MLG
Planet Xbox 360 has an opinion piece about MLG, and whether or not they have what it takes to be 'taken seriously'. Read it for yourself - but I have to say, and I'm saying this as an MLG outsider, some of the arguments used in the piece are silly. The author argues that watching games is nowhere near as fun as playing them - but he ignores the huge number of people who enjoy montages (and, in fact, he ignores the millions of worldwide fans of OTHER gaming leagues, and THEIR spectator sports). For many of us, it's more fun to play football than to watch it - but that doesn't negate the success of the NFL. He gripes that focusing on a single game (Halo 2) will hurt MLG in the long run, because people want 'new and fresh' material - but NASCAR hasn't started showing tractor racing, and I doubt they will. He scoffs at the idea that gaming can be a 'sport' - in his words, "since when did sitting in a giant hotel ballroom playing games against others for hours, constitute you as an athlete or player of sports?" One might ask the same about the drivers who sit for hours in the front seat of stock cars, circling the same track over and over... but in general, one doesn't. I'm not sure why this piece rubbed me so strongly the wrong way... but it did. (I enjoy reading about MLG, but I'm not a real part of their community - it just felt like this attack was relatively unwarranted.) (Louis Wu 13:00:58 UTC) (permalink)
Probably too expensive to shoot
We got a note from Tim Dadabo, the voice of 343 Guilty Spark; he recently bought a new utility for his wife, and it gave him an idea for a product Microsoft could market. Imagine getting your house cleaned by 343 Guilty Suck... with Tim's voice saying things like "MMMMMmmm Hmmmmmm Oh Hello! Please... let me clean up that "flood" of spilled Pepsi and chips." Would you buy one? (Louis Wu 12:00:22 UTC) (permalink)
Mysterious Drawer Filling
As is usual on Fridays, the Bungie Weekly Update got posted last night - it's a short one, with a little bit of info about XBL playlists (Team SWAT is making a comeback next month, unranked), a cool little bit of Halo 3 Alpha trivia, and a teaser for a new... SOMETHING. Hard to tell what the something is - just that everyone from tricksters to pro players will love it. (There are plenty of threads on plenty of forums, speculating about this. Of course, nobody's really got any clue.) Also as is usual, we've put up a local copy in the Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 11:54:03 UTC) (permalink)
News January 26 2007
Enjoying the Benefits of Bungie's Reflective Nature
A couple of weeks ago, Edge put their January 2007 article on Bungie online for all to read - and an enormous number of gaming news outlets jumped on a single quote from the piece - the one where Chris Butcher, expressing his disappointment with the gap between what he felt Halo 2 COULD have been and what it WAS, said 'we screwed up'. Today, 1Up's Luke Smith has posted an article in which Bungie themselves respond to the original article, and to the press reaction - it's worth a read, from anyone who saw just the feeding frenzy, and didn't really pay attention to the original piece. (Heck, it's a good read, period - for all of us.) Thanks to GhaleonEB for noticing. (Louis Wu 21:11:09 UTC) (permalink)
Being the Best - THEtom's thoughts
Over at MLGPro.com, Ogre 2 has written up his thoughts about being voted Best Overall Player by his peers. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 18:28:40 UTC) (permalink)
Ding!
Stuntmutt looks at the problem with ringers in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:21:59 UTC) (permalink)
Craft, not Art
Eric Trautmann was asked recently to review Lost Planet - and in doing so, he took a look at storytelling in general in videogames. In specific, he looked at Halo, and pointed out that there's a clear difference between 'story' and 'plot' - and Halo has more of the latter than the former.
There's no story there. The character learns nothing, changes not one whit, but instead merely moves through plot, and a derivative one at that.
(Before you get bent out of shape, realize that he's not saying Halo sucks - he's saying that stripped down to its essence, what makes Halo's singleplayer stand out is not the originality of the storyline, but the way in which it was implemented.) Great read, overall - many thanks to Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, for noticing it. (Louis Wu 13:13:45 UTC) (permalink)
Editing Contest Results Announced
On Wednesday, the Halopeño So Hot Editing Contest (announced in November, submission window closing in December) had its winners announced; Kanbo, who won second place, let us know a few days earlier, but the actual results page went up this week. Congrats to Jamie98s, Kanbo, and Devlin, for pulling in First, Second, and Third Place, respectively! Swing by the Halopen page to view the winning entries. (Louis Wu 13:01:33 UTC) (permalink)
ModTacular
Z wrote to point out the H3F ModTage - a video from Nastadon and Callous, showcasing a number of modded maps (and the weapons and vehicles that go with them). 154 mb, WMP9 format - swing by Halo3Forum.com to pick it up! (Louis Wu 12:51:23 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Ten new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 11:47:20 UTC) (permalink)
Mid-Air No-Scopes On Turret Jerks
There was a new Halo 3 Humpday this week, and it got posted last night. Once again, a coordinated team of Bungie employees went into Halo 3 matchmaking against 3 separate ragtag groups of whoever showed - and surprise, surprise, they won. (Good thing it's still early in the Alpha cycle, and they can keep that confidence level up...) The writeup contains screenshots of the tweaked Bungie.net stats pages; kills are now broken out by type, and separate track is kept of suicide/betrayal totals. Schedonnardus was the first to notice this publicly. (Louis Wu 11:38:27 UTC) (permalink)
EHS Plays Halo
PositronTF noticed another marching band playing Halo while browsing YouTube - it's unclear where this is (what high school, or even what state), but it's fun. (Some of the colorguards seem to be holding energy swords.) (Louis Wu 11:31:45 UTC) (permalink)
News January 25 2007
GIA interviews KP
KP talked to the crew from Games in Action - what he does, how he got to where he is, why he loves his job. (And why he doesn't.) Good read. (Louis Wu 13:44:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Beta in Every Box of Crackdown?
According to IGN, the chance to play the Halo 3 beta will be included with ALL copies of Crackdown, not just 'specially marked boxes' or preorders. There's been no confirmation of this directly from Microsoft or Bungie - but it seems like a decent bet. (There's still no word on how the beta will WORK, for those getting it with Crackdown; some have speculated that the Crackdown disc will need to be in your DVD drive to play it, which puts limits on the idea of renting the game to play Halo 3, but in actuality, we still know nothing; if you're not interested in Crackdown, this probably isn't your best choice, because (in the long run) it'll mean you paid $120-160 (depending on final version) for Halo 3, a pretty steep price.) Thanks to darthbob for the heads-up. Update: A clarification, from 1Up - apparently, it's every copy in the initial launch shipment that will give people access to the beta. You can likely buy a copy after launch day that contains the code, if a store near you doesn't sell out... but you CANNOT BE SURE OF IT. (IGN suggested you'd be able to buy a copy whenever - but that's only true if the copy you buy came from that initial shipment.) Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 13:36:15 UTC) (permalink)
A table leg with bolted-on machetes
Over at Bungie.net, a new analysis article has been posted - this one takes a close look at the Spike Grenade. No pictures, but lots of detail on useful strategy. KP was first, but Melkor wasn't far behind. (Louis Wu 13:30:54 UTC) (permalink)
News January 24 2007
North Carolina tourney this weekend
JeBr0nie noticed a writeup for a Halo 2 tournament in North Carolina, coming up on January 27 - top prize is $1,024. Check his forum post for links to more details! (Louis Wu 22:02:05 UTC) (permalink)
K.A.T.
Paul Maestri sent word that Halo Heads 42 is now live. The Kitty Assassin Team kicks off a continuing storyline! (Louis Wu 19:05:18 UTC) (permalink)
You Heard It Here First. And Second. And Third And...
In the last couple of weeks, the Hamilton Spectator story about the bear suit guy who made a Halo-like bullet-stopper has shown up on our forum a LOT of times - Stuntmutt gives you an idea how many in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:33:07 UTC) (permalink)
And Holding Up the Xbox Banner...
GamesRadar has posted a list of the Top 10 fastest selling titles during their UK Launch Week - 9 of the 10 titles are PS2, the tenth (in 4th place overall) is Halo 2. (Louis Wu 15:29:37 UTC) (permalink)
H2Vista Achievements and your XBL Gamerscore
rapture noticed an article at Next Generation that states that not only will there be Achievements to earn in Halo 2 (a fact we already knew), but that those achievements would count towards your Xbox Live Gamerscore, the same as they would if earned from a 360 instead of from Vista. I suppose in retrospect, it should have been obvious - that's the part of Xbox Live-Aware that H2Vista DOES, after all - but this is the first time it's been explicitly stated. (Louis Wu 15:05:43 UTC) (permalink)
GoW - the next Halo 2, competitively?
Over at the Advanced Media Network, there's an article about the potential that Gears of War has as a competitive shooter - with some interesting comparisons between GoW and Halo 2. Thanks to 3Suns for pointing this out. (Louis Wu 15:00:24 UTC) (permalink)
Inspiration...
The current issue of the Escapist Magazine has an article on movies that have heavily influenced videogame development - Halo gets a number of mentions, with Aliens leading the pack of movies that, if removed from existence, might kill the game altogether. Thanks to Narcogen, who noticed this over at Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 14:48:41 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Miniatures Update
GFC Danny has updated his Halo Miniatures website with a bunch of new info - if you're interested in tabletop games, and like Halo (of course you like Halo - why else would you be reading this?), stop by and check it out! (Louis Wu 14:39:04 UTC) (permalink)
Gears of Ha... Oh, Forget It
Sane Intolerant pointed out (obliquely) a comic he'd made in answer to a recent Halo, Articulated comic. Pretty funny, actually. And self-fulfilling, even. (Louis Wu 14:37:22 UTC) (permalink)
QsK Montage Contest Winner
GH stopped by to let us know that he won the QsK Montage Contest we mentioned back in October - go visit and grab a copy (which weighs in at an appropriate 117 mb). Nice work, overall! (Louis Wu 14:33:54 UTC) (permalink)
News January 23 2007
Beta Acceptances Begin to Arrive
Lots and lots and lots of people are hearing from Microsoft about the Halo 3 beta - here's one big thread on our forum about it. (We've also gotten lots of email from people who got in.) If you haven't received anything - don't fret yet, they've said word would be coming all this week. (And for folks who are angry to hear that others have gotten in... I think you might need to work on some envy issues.) For what it's worth - this is NOT the last chance you'll have for getting into the Beta... it's simply a big one. (Louis Wu 16:36:51 UTC) (permalink)
B.net Fan Art Update
Over at Bungie.net, the new Top Story is a Fan Art update - and man, is there some amazing stuff in this one. Some of it has already been seen (here, in our own Miscellaneous Art collection), but much is new - and ALL of it is worth looking at. You can chime in to the thread KP started on our forum about it. (Louis Wu 16:13:01 UTC) (permalink)
Tribute to Tricking, Part II
Over at High Impact Halo, Ducain pointed out a new Halo 1 tricking tribute vid, done by some of the pioneers... there's stuff in there I've seen before, and stuff I've NEVER seen. This game is more than 5 years old now - it's beautiful to see people still pulling new tricks. Available in a variety of sizes. (Louis Wu 16:09:35 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot #32
icu wrote to point out that The Riot #32 is up - Sigafoos and Brathnok are away, so Bitter Irony and i enjoy cheese do the hosting honors. Lots of community info - go listen. 26 minutes, 24 mb. (Louis Wu 15:53:49 UTC) (permalink)
The Assault
trigger119 sent word of a new machinima he's hosting over at GamingTV.org. It's called The Assault, and he found it because Laird (of SvF and Halo: Unyielding) did some 3D work for it. The voice acting could use some work... and so could the choreography. But the added touches (a communication screen, a Pelican, etc) are really nicely done. The downloadable versions at GTV are about 30 mb, depending on flavor, or you can watch it at YouTube. (Louis Wu 15:35:45 UTC) (permalink)
Making Fun Games
GamesIndustry.biz sat down with Max Hoberman, of Certain Affinity (and recently of Bungie), to discuss his new venture, and how he got to where he is. Bunch of Bungie trivia in there, and some good Halo stuff. Max has positive things to say about Halo 3's multiplayer - "It's years ahead of everything that's out there." Go read the rest of the article. I found this via Eurogamer, but it looks like GhaleonEB posted a link while I was still snug in my bed. (Louis Wu 15:17:08 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Content
3Suns noticed a couple of new features at MLGPro.com - there's a Pro Player feature on Walshy linked on the front page, and a wrap-up of the Division II Halo 2 Final for their Online tournament. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:00:33 UTC) (permalink)
Hammer of Aggravation
Mister Froggy sent word that Halo, Articulated #7 is now live - it's a Gears of War crossover joke (one I didn't get, but one that's supposedly funny if you play GoW). Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:49:12 UTC) (permalink)
GI talks to Bungie - mostly for subscribers
Game Informer talked to SketchFactor and Frankie about Halo 3 - they didn't get a lot of info, but they had fun trying. The full interview is available to those with GI Unlimited access (subscribers, in other words) - but there are a few questions in the teaser. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 14:47:45 UTC) (permalink)
Halomega Weekly Update
We got a weekly Update from Halomega - There's a trailer for a montage, a whole lot of gameplay vids, and they're taking entries for the next Snipe of the Week. Thanks, CiphA. (Louis Wu 14:44:08 UTC) (permalink)
News January 22 2007
Dodo Tales
Occasionally, we get word of a movie that turns out to be a lot of fun - Limit 3 Productions just let us know about Dodo Tales. Dodo is a soldier who... well, he's a lot like me, I guess. DANG IT! That is - he's not particularly good at the whole soldiering thing. The vid sets the stage for future antics - but you don't need to worry about future episodes to enjoy this one. As the creators say... you'll come to realize that there's a little Dodo in all of us. Filming is top-notch, humor and voice acting are both well-done. This vid is 10 minutes long, and is available from their website via a YouTube link - but they've also given us permission to post downloadable versions (considerably higher-res than the YouTube vid) - you can grab it in WMP9 format (97.8 mb) or QuickTime format (101 mb).
(Louis Wu 17:14:00 UTC) (permalink)
Curvy Swords and Stolen Indexes
RVideo posted another group of Panoramas yesterday (and followed up with an explanation of parallax, and how it relates to pictures like this); I'd meant to post this yesterday, but forgot. Check these out - they're great. (Louis Wu 16:35:25 UTC) (permalink)
...op
Heh - you thought maybe that crossover was a one-way deal? No way. Today's Halo Heads comic is the conclusion of the One One Se7en we just posted. (Louis Wu 16:29:03 UTC) (permalink)
Co...
Today's One One Se7en is a crossover strip with Paul Maestri's Halo Heads - but Stuntmutt still don't get no respect. (I'd like to take this opportunity to send a major shout-out to sorahn, who took the time to port over - well, actually, rebuild - our calendar system for One One Se7en; it's much faster now. You might not SEE a difference - but it's there. I also redid the page a little; I moved the Christmas Ornaments link, and added some other related pages... and I finally set it so that the default comic is the most recent one. Hope these changes help!) (Louis Wu 16:25:37 UTC) (permalink)
Forging the Hammer
highwaters visited our forum yesterday with news of a suit of Mjolnir armor he's been working on since last summer - the forum post has a teaser image, but his MySpace blog has a far more complete description of the process. He's also allowed us to put up a local mirror, if MySpace is a problem for you. (One picture that didn't make it into the writeup is this closeup of the helmet.) Check this out - it's a pretty impressive suit! (Louis Wu 12:56:59 UTC) (permalink)
Hi-Res Halo 2 Rank Icons
Matt6908 wrote to point out a thread at the HollywoodNHouse forum - he's created high-res versions of the Halo 2 Matchmaking Rank icons (currently just the first 43 levels, but the special levels are coming soon). Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:34:49 UTC) (permalink)
Gaming Nation Halo 2 Tourney in Tennessee
An article in the Kingsport (TN) Times-News describes an upcoming tournament to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. If you're going to be near northeast Tennessee on February 24, stop by! (Louis Wu 12:15:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Beta Signup Info - Updated
darthbob posted the newly-updated contents from halo3.com on our forum last night - the info is useful to anyone in the US trying to clarify when they'll know whether they've gotten into the Halo 3 Beta program. (There's also a more concise note about this over at Bungie.net - thanks to 3Suns for pointing that out.) Bottom line - if you signed up at the website after the Halo 3 commercial aired, you'll hear from them this week. (Louis Wu 12:03:56 UTC) (permalink)
News January 21 2007
Mad World
Hellhawk stopped by this morning with an announcement of a new vid - a music video set to Gary Jules' version of Tears for Fears' 'Mad World'. Very nice synching of Halo action to the song's powerful lyrics - nice job! I was unhappy with the interlacing on the video, though, so I fixed it. You can download the original in Hellhawk's forum post (QuickTime, 34.6 mb), or you can grab versions from us (QuickTime, 34.3 mb or WMP9, 32.4 mb). Either way, give this a look-see; it's a high-quality vid. (Louis Wu 22:03:54 UTC) (permalink)
New Map Pack Release from CMT
Over at Bungie.net, there's news of a new map pack release from the Halo:CE mod group CMT. Four new maps, with custom HUD, new weapons, and more. You can find screenshots and download links on the H2Vista.net forum. Thanks to newDeviLedeT1 for the heads-up. Update: In case the CMT website goes down (180 mb download + bungie.net mention = lots and lots and lots of bandwidth), Dennis Powers, of Halo Maps, has mirrored the maps themselves, and has the bandwidth to withstand the blast. (Louis Wu 19:32:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Dos
IXI CHAM IXI stopped by our forum to let us know about a Halo song created by his cousins Aphrolyph: Sonsketched and Entellekt; it's called 'Halo Dos', and though I'm not particularly a fan of rap, this is pretty well done. We've put up a local copy if you're not excited about waiting for FileFront - it's 2.9 mb, in MP3 format. Give it a listen! (Louis Wu 17:48:35 UTC) (permalink)
More Allies = More Baddie Carnage
Rockslider has written up a nice method for doubling the number of allies you have during the Grav Lift fight on Truth and Reconciliation - thanks to Two Finger for the suggestion! Take a look. (Louis Wu 17:17:21 UTC) (permalink)
Blasts from the Past
Happy New Year, from the Halo Story Page crew! Jillybean has rooted through the mailbag, and come up with a bunch of Halo-Marathon connection theories (and some other stuff). Go read! (Louis Wu 17:15:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3's Shield Bubble
Over at the Halo 3 Data Archive, there's an article about the shield bubble from Halo 3 (visible in the Halo 3 Commercial), and how it might be implemented, and controlled, in-game. There are a lot of assumptions (and frankly, some circular reasoning), but the fact is, Bungie hasn't given us much to go on yet, and this article does its best to make the most of what we DO have. Go read it, and toss in your own two cents! Thanks, Lyca.
(Louis Wu 17:01:44 UTC) (permalink)
News January 20 2007
Space Dementia - Redone
Back in early December, Jamie98s released Space Dementia, a movie about a guy on a space station who wasn't in full control of his faculties. It was actually a very well-done vid, but Jamie wasn't happy with it; he didn't like the 'Chapters' that broke up the action. So he remade and re-released it. You can find WMP9 and QuickTime (H.264 encoded) versions at GamingTV.org. (They should be fine, but we'll put up mirrors if it looks like they're needed.) (Louis Wu 21:23:48 UTC) (permalink)
Paper Spartans - Now DIY!
A bit over a week ago, we posted some pictures of some paper Spartans created by Nomi for her friends in the Halo community. Nomi can't make spartans for everyone - but she CAN show you how to make your own... and, in fact, has done that, with a tutorial and a template you can print out. Check it out! (We've also added a link to her page in our 'Hot Pages' section in the upper right, just in case you need help finding it.) (Louis Wu 20:52:18 UTC) (permalink)
Encounter (Collaboration)
Veegie (who's got a gallery here) dropped in to point out a collaborative work he put together with HawaiianPig (whose wallpapers brighten our Wallpaper collection, who's done quite a bit of Red vs Blue scenework, and who's won at least one HBO art contest) - the final product is a pretty amazing night scene. (Read the description at DeviantART if you want details about the construction.) If this is received well, there might be more... Update: This image has now been added to Veegie's Gallery. (Louis Wu 14:02:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halouvre Update
Prometheus dropped by our forum to point out a sizeable update at The Halouvre - 65 new images, from 3 artists. He also pulled out a few highlights - to his list, I'd add this one; nice pose. (Louis Wu 13:54:40 UTC) (permalink)
The tail sort of kills it.
Ross Mills has been playing the recently-released World of Warcraft expansion, 'The Burning Crusade'. He noticed some similarities between one of the new character types there... and some old friends of ours. (Louis Wu 13:48:47 UTC) (permalink)
Say Again?
Mister Froggy pointed out that Halo, Articulated #6 is now online - Julie Benz talked to reporters about the Miranda Keyes character last summer, and the Master Chief has now gotten a chance to toss in his two cents. (Louis Wu 13:46:13 UTC) (permalink)
Ling Ling... she's watching.
The Bungie Weekly Update went live tonight, as it usually does on Friday evenings - and if you're looking for things to drool over, give this one a read. Sounds like Campaign is coming along nicely, and that the stuff they have planned for dialogue... well, I should be wearing a bib. If, for any reason, you DON'T want to read it at Bungie.net, it's available (as always) in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 04:27:28 UTC) (permalink)
News January 19 2007
Halo: Halos In Space
Spec ops Grunt found what might be the funniest Halo fanfic ever. Not because of its content - but because of its presentation. (The original is here, actually - thanks, Infinite_7.) (Louis Wu 20:52:07 UTC) (permalink)
You'd Give An Arm And A Leg.
Sometimes, Stuntmutt can go too far with his One One Se7en puns. (Wait... sometimes?) (Louis Wu 14:56:53 UTC) (permalink)
Floaty Silence 2 - Heaven Leapers
Hellhawk has released Floaty Silence 2 - no relation to Floaty Silence, or even the Floaty Silence 2 Trailer, but funny nonetheless. His forum post contains a QuickTime encoded with h.264; if you'd rather have a WMP9 version (18.1 mb), or a QuickTime that's more compatible with less powerful machines (18.9 mb), we're making these available locally. Update: Hellhawk took umbrage with my comment that this movie isn't related to Floaty Silence - he's not committing to a full series, but they ARE related. Read the forum post for more details. (Louis Wu 13:46:33 UTC) (permalink)
360Zine Halo 3 Preview
360Zine is a free downloadable magazine that covers (surprise, surprise) Xbox 360 news. Issue 2 has a Halo 3 preview. You can grab it (23 mb) from their downloads page. (Some of the features of this secured PDF were a little... buggy for me.) (Louis Wu 13:37:26 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
Twelve new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today... go read! (Louis Wu 13:08:52 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Division I Halo Final Wrap-Up
MLG has posted a wrapup of their Division I Halo Online Tournament - congrats to FBI GamerGraffix! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:44:17 UTC) (permalink)
They're like squirrels, preparing for winter.
Over at Bungie.net, you'll find the latest Halo 3 Humpday writeup; a mean group of Bungie employees went into Halo 3 matchmaking against 3 groups of brand-new players... and destroyed them. As KP accurately points out in the writeup, the tables will turn as soon as enough players learn the ins and outs of the new maps, so Bungie's taking full advantage of their inside knowledge to build up a few wins - lord knows there won't be many of them later. Thanks to Jordan117 for noticing. (Louis Wu 12:21:56 UTC) (permalink)
News January 18 2007
Bungie - Edge's Take
Edge has posted their January 2007 article on Bungie and Halo 3 online - go give it a read. As is true with most Edge articles, it's well-written, thought-provoking, and fascinating. Everyone can learn something from this - I learned stuff from this. Where Bungie's come from, where it might be going - how it's gonna get there without losing its Bungieness. And yes, Halo plays a pivotal role throughout. Thanks, Drakkari. (Louis Wu 23:23:11 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Schwag at HotTopic
Foxcross noticed three new Halo 3-related items at HotTopic; there's a beanie, a messenger bag, and a pretty slick Master Chief T. Nice! (Louis Wu 12:26:51 UTC) (permalink)
D is for Dead
Ibeechu sat down to create a Halo machinima piece that parodied 'sub-par machinima'. He was shooting for 'so bad it's good'; I'm not sure he got there, but it's definitely pretty bad. Cheesy story + cheesy dialogue + cheesy cliches... mmm, the power of cheese. He's put up a 41 mb WMP9 version, and Funkmon added a 37 mb QuickTime to mythica.org. Scary stuff! (Louis Wu 12:22:47 UTC) (permalink)
A Brick Outhouse With Venetian Blinds
Frankie, who's not very nice, told us about a writeup of the Assault Rifle on Bungie.net. Lots of down-and-dirty details, and scenarios for use. Go read! (Louis Wu 01:18:11 UTC) (permalink)
News January 17 2007
Halo Miniatures
GFC Danny has created a set of rules for Halo Miniatures, a tabletop game he's developed. Swing by his website and grab the files! (Louis Wu 21:56:07 UTC) (permalink)
Kitty 117 and Friends
Paul Maestri let us know that Halo Heads 40 is now live... and the overall plan is beginning to come clear. Be afraid. Be very afraid. (Louis Wu 20:41:50 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on a GBA?
Kotaku has a story (with video footage from GameTrailers) showing (well, purporting to show) a Halo proof of concept sidescroller running on a GameBoy Advance emulator. Looks a lot like Halo Zero, I guess... hard to say what this is. A leaked version of the code that was discussed at IGN for the DS a couple of weeks ago? Thanks, runnersdialzero. (Louis Wu 14:35:11 UTC) (permalink)
Check Your Policii.
If you read today's One One Se7en, you might get the feeling that Stuntmutt's been playing on Live again... (Louis Wu 13:57:16 UTC) (permalink)
Making Live Better
Ozymandias, of the Xbox Platform Strategy group, was asking fans what they thought should be incorporated into the future of Xbox Live. A significant number said they want to see more games with Halo 2's Lobby/multiplayer experience. More than 2 years after its release, it's STILL the gold standard - and yet, not very many games put in the effort to even match it, much less surpass it. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 13:06:18 UTC) (permalink)
Halomega Weekly Update
Halomega sent along this week's update - lots of vids (1v1, 1v1 montage, team ball), and a new contest - HoC Idol. (Yes, it's Halo players singing over XBL. Yes, I usually mute those guys in matchmaking.) Go see. (Louis Wu 13:00:18 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Vidcast Episode 8
MLG has posted their Vidcast Episode 8 - it's available on the front page. This one's a look back on the 2006 season. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:54:18 UTC) (permalink)
News January 16 2007
That's one rude URL, KP
Over at Bungie.net, you'll find a Community Spotlight shining on Nosferatu_Soldie, a Bungie.net moderator. Wanna see what the moderators do? Go read. Looks like KP tried to tell us about it a bunch of hours ago... oops. (Louis Wu 23:58:22 UTC) (permalink)
Et Tu, Brute - 720p, only 107 mb
A couple of days ago, nitz stopped by our forum to say he'd re-encoded a 720p version of the Brute Vidoc; there are several already out there, but they're huge, for the most part (multi-hundreds of megabytes). His version has been encoded with x264 (an open-source version of the h.264 codec), and it's tiny, in comparison to its peers - 107 mb. It's playable on all platforms using VLC (though on a Mac, at least, you'll need something reasonably fast to actually SEE it) - nitz tells me it's nicely playable on a 900 MHz Pentium 3, using the Windows version of VLC. If you haven't seen this in hi-res because you didn't want to download a 300 (or 600) mb file... grab this puppy; it has no watermarks (it was ripped from the marketplace version), and though nitz denigrates its quality in his forum post, I'd have to say it's quite good. (Louis Wu 17:06:00 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader - kicking off 2007
XerxdeeJ stopped by to point out that TTL is back up and posting, after a holiday break - and the first article up is a discussion of 'Allies' - and what that means. When you play them, you're not meeting mortal enemies - you're meeting a group of folks that want to be your friends after they blow you away (or vice versa). And isn't that the best kind of gaming? (Louis Wu 16:59:51 UTC) (permalink)
The Brains Behind The Music
The cover article in the latest issue of The Escapist is about the composers behind today's game music, and Marty O'Donnell (and the rest of the Bungie sound team) get a nice nod:
"I think one of the best examples is Marty O'Donnell and the team at Bungie," says Ian Dorsch, who's currently working on a game called Badge of Blood, by independent developer Warpig Studios. "The system they've developed for adaptive soundtracks is just jaw-dropping in its elegance and flexibility, and their work has really set the standard for the entire industry."
The whole article is a pretty interesting read - check it out! Thanks to Ma1agate for letting us know. (Louis Wu 16:08:26 UTC) (permalink)
I wonder if it shoots?
Omega was walking through the forest, and came upon a piece of driftwood in a stream. Looks like Mother Nature's got Halo on her mind, too... (Louis Wu 15:31:44 UTC) (permalink)
Production Issues
Mister Froggy pointed out that Halo, Articulated #5 is now available - if you wondered what happened to the Heretic Grunt action figure, wonder no more. (Louis Wu 15:14:05 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 31
Sigafoos wrote to point out The Riot 31 - a bit late, due to hosting issues, but up now. Community updates are the focuse of this one - swing by the site for a download. (The RSS feed is still down.) 20 minutes, 8 mb. (Louis Wu 15:12:27 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Pro Reactions - Shockwave
A few days ago, MLG posted its Pro's Choice Awards - the top players voted to identify the best among the best. ShocKWav3 put together a blog entry discussing his feelings about the voting. Interesting read. Thanks to 3Suns for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 15:10:27 UTC) (permalink)
Separating the Meat from the Fluff
Games in Action interviewed Shishka, recently of Bungie and now of Certain Affinity, the gaming company started in Austin by Halo 2 and 3 Multiplayer Lead Max Hoberman. Go read to get a feel for where he started, how he got to where he is now, and what's he's doing in his new job. Thanks to 3Suns, who noticed this at Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 15:01:06 UTC) (permalink)
Halo tourney - on BIG screens
According to this article in the Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail, there'll be a Game Crazy-sponsored Halo 2 tournament held on Saturday, January 27, at the Hagerstown 10 Cineplex - $10 to play (or $5 to watch),no word on prizes. Check the article for more info. (Louis Wu 14:49:30 UTC) (permalink)
News January 15 2007
For reference - info on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition
It's been more than 2 months since the various flavors of Halo 3 were made public - it's been known since early November that $60 would buy you the bare game, $70 would buy you the 'special' edition (game plus bonus disc(s)), and $100 would snag you the Legendary edition - helmet and 4 discs, including the game. Paul Russell stopped by today to point out that Wal-Mart's listing has all the info you need for that Legendary edition - nice photos of the helmet and case, plus details about the included discs. (They list it as 'In Stock', which is pretty silly - but then, it's labeled as Wal-Mart No. 000000000, so as soon as it's assigned a SKU, it'll likely have a more realistic ship date. Maybe not a REAL ship date - we won't know that until Bungie announces it - but more realistic than 'now'.) This is worth posting so that there's a place to point to when folks ask about what is included in the Legendary edition. Update: Frankie warns that these pictures are just the prototype; the real thing is 'waaaaay better, more detailed and has much fancier textures.' Okay, now I'm worried that I didn't preorder... (Louis Wu 22:35:46 UTC) (permalink)
Kitty 117 Wallpaper
Paul Maestri sends word of a new Wallpaper at Halo Heads - tasty! (Louis Wu 21:43:02 UTC) (permalink)
Itsa me, BruteKiller
Heh - BOLL's been playing again... (Louis Wu 21:41:15 UTC) (permalink)
M2Zen4.
Stuntmutt takes a closer look at the Mongoose, and Bungie's claims about it, in today's One One Se7en. Paging Robert Pirsig... (Louis Wu 16:15:26 UTC) (permalink)
Fan-generated SPI Armor
WortroW found some cool work towards the Spartan III armor from Ghosts of Onyx over at the Scifi Meshes forum; most of the images so far are visible without a registration. Nice stuff! (Louis Wu 12:30:38 UTC) (permalink)
Caption Contest #3
Dojorkan posted 3 fun screens, and asked for user-submitted captions - no prizes in this contest, but see how creative you can be! (Louis Wu 12:09:35 UTC) (permalink)
Pictaps
Retsof-Noraa stopped by last night to point out a website that takes user-created art (in this case, his renditions of One One Se7en, in the initial post, and a Grunt, in a followup) and animates it in a huge rave scene. Bizarre... but fun. Check it out! (Add your own creations to the thread; it's unlikely we'll put up more front page posts about this, because art phenomenons like this one tend to generate way more interest than we have room for - but if you stick to that thread, you can be sure that anyone who reads this news post will have a chance to see it.) (Louis Wu 12:02:48 UTC) (permalink)
Lifepod #6
MereCatfish writes to point out that Lifepod #6 is now up for your listening pleasure - HaloCE news, the standard community roundtable, and an interview with Zeph round this one out. 29 minutes, 26 mb. Go listen! (Louis Wu 11:49:37 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Everywhere Prizes Posted
Remember the Halo Everywhere contest sponsored by the Halo 3 Webring? LordGideon posted the prize packs yesterday - and man, there's some nice stuff in there! Go see what's on the line, and then make sure you've submitted your entries - contest deadline is February 1, 2007. Still plenty of time! (Louis Wu 11:46:18 UTC) (permalink)
TriStarGames fires up another UK Halo 2 Tourney
Riccardo Lee Davies wrote to point out ENDURANCE IV, a Halo 2 tournament in Birmingham, UK coming up on February 3rd and 4th. Entrance is £15/person to play in either the FFA or the 4v4, with thousand of pounds in prizes and cash on the line. Check out all the details at the TriStarGames website. (Hit the 'Events' link.)
(Louis Wu 11:42:32 UTC) (permalink)
Nile Rodgers in Cannes
Greg O'Connor-Read writes to point out that Nile Rodgers, the Halo 2 Soundtrack Album producer and founder of Sumthing Else, will be in Cannes for the MIDEM Music for Images Conference next week; he'll be participating in a session set up by Music4Games entitled 'Video Games - The Latest Challenge for Labels and Composers', and Greg will be conducting a Q&A with him as well. Should be some decent Halo-related tidbits!
(Louis Wu 11:31:27 UTC) (permalink)
GamingTV Intro Contest - Still Open
trigger119 wrote to remind us that the Video Intro contest they announced about a month ago has had its entry deadline extended until Tuesday (the site was down for a short time, so the January 3 deadline was pushed back). If you've got the interest, check the details at the GTV website, and submit your entry soon! (Louis Wu 11:25:12 UTC) (permalink)
News January 14 2007
Juicy Opportunities
Over at Bad Cyborg, Rockslider has put up a new page called 'Weapon hot spots' that details the best places to use each weapon for each gameplay type he's described over the years. It's a nice cross-reference if you're looking for original Halo fun!
(Louis Wu 13:43:13 UTC) (permalink)
H2V gameplay from CES
Over at H2Vista, rapture noticed 3 new clips of Halo 2 Vista gameplay over at Gametrailers; There's a clip from Sanctuary, and two from Beaver Creek. The play uses an Xbox controller instead of a keyboard and mouse... but it still looks pretty nice! (Louis Wu 13:39:58 UTC) (permalink)
News January 13 2007
I call heads.
Luke McKay was doodling, as he does often... the result this morning was pretty cool. (Louis Wu 22:03:50 UTC) (permalink)
2006 Halo Pro's Choice Awards
MLG has posted its Pro's Choice Awards - the top 64 players have picked the best amongst themselves. Go see who they admire most! Thanks, reprobate. (Louis Wu 21:53:19 UTC) (permalink)
From Bears to Bullets
Troy Hurtubise has been working for a while at making a suit that can save a soldier's life. PlasmaFire thinks it might be the precursor to Mjolnir armor (doesn't hurt that Troy says he looked at Halo for inspiration); you can find an article and a video in PlasmaFire's forum thread. (Louis Wu 21:28:05 UTC) (permalink)
300, Take 4
Frank Miller's 300 isn't even out yet, and it's already generated more Halo tributes than any other movie. Amazing! Latest in the field (bunch of links to other ones in this post) is a video from eternalscrappy; quality is startlingly sharp. It's leet. (Louis Wu 21:25:20 UTC) (permalink)
Benefits of Fame
We got word from Mister Froggy that Halo, Articulated Episode 4 has been posted; Master Chief and the Arbiter face off on cool skills. (Louis Wu 14:44:54 UTC) (permalink)
Spelunked
Red vs Blue Episode 88, 'Spelunked', is now up for sponsors in Flash format. (Downloadable versions will be up for sponsors on Monday, along with a flash version for free; they're working on ways to keep sponsor versions from ending up on YouTube before sponsors have seen 'em.) This one focuses on the Red Team - and Heaven. Or Hell. Or somewhere. Wherever it is, it's got weird outcroppings. (Louis Wu 01:14:22 UTC) (permalink)
The grass is always greener
The Bungie Weekly Update is now live over at Bungie.net - and it focuses on grass. Well, grass and other non-rigid stuff that makes the levels look more realistic. Water, weather, fog... all sorts of stuff. No Mister Chief this time around, but there IS a pretty funny grunt dialogue outtake from Joe Staten... As always, you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive if you have trouble at Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 00:43:16 UTC) (permalink)
News January 12 2007
A Hopeless Case?
The Brute Video Documentary made some new AI behavior public. I think Stuntmutt may have misunderstood... decide for yourself in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 20:05:57 UTC) (permalink)
Jungle Trigonometry 3
sodaGod has added another video to his Jungle Trigonometry series - Jungle Trigonometry 3. Couple his fantastic camera work with funny skits, and you get a vid absolutely worth downloading. This one has a number of 'Master Chief is Kind of a Jerk' segments... and a fantastic longer parody of zombie movies. There's plenty of other stuff, too. All in all, it's almost 13 minutes long, and weighs in at over 100 mb. You can grab it at GamingTV.org, or snag one of our mirrors (WMP9 is 108 mb, QuickTime is 114 mb). Swinging by the Machine Enema website points out another pair of links for the WMP9 version. (I'm pretty sure that right now, ours is the only QuickTime version available, though GTV should have a copy up soon.) For those who say that Halo machinima is dying - sodaGod should be a clear example that you're totally and utterly wrong. The man makes fantastic vids. (Thanks to trigger119 for the heads-up on this one.)
(Louis Wu 19:27:48 UTC) (permalink)
Young Gamer makes it big - now in the UK
Usul found a nice article about Lil Poison in the Sunday Times, a London (UK) newspaper. The word is spreading! (Louis Wu 19:03:48 UTC) (permalink)
New Panoramas from RVideo
RVideo continues his awesome panorama work in Halo 2; there are three new ones in this forum post. The original .png files (hosted on his server) range from 1 to 1.5 mb; I've also added much smaller (filesize, not screensize) jpegs, ranging from 120 to 160 kb. They're all pretty - but Judgement ROCKS. (Louis Wu 18:34:48 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Seven new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today - go read. (Remember, submitters - there's a new 'max 3 submissions per week' rule... don't flood the inbox. Thanks!) (Louis Wu 17:51:14 UTC) (permalink)
Nostalgia
We got an email from DeAdLy SeNiX, about 'Nostalgia', a montage video he'd edited (using footage from ThePanzerGnome). It's got a large backstory, and the video itself is over 17 minutes long. It's currently being hosted by FileFront, with mirrors from impressed watchers. (You can read the backstory, and find the download links, in this forum post at Halo3Forum.com.) The file is enormous - almost 360 mb. I started the download and went to do other things yesterday... and when it got here, and I realized it was almost 20 minutes long, I figured I'd watch a few representative minutes so I could at least say something about it. I ended up watching the whole thing. Great music choices and superb timing mix nicely with some topclass gameplay. (The actual gameplay is less impressive than it used to be; multiple Killimanjaros are no longer a novelty. It's how they're put together that matters at this point.) Anyway, if you've got an enormous pipe, and room for a third of a gig on your hard drive, grab this puppy; it's fun to watch. And be sure to read the forum post, for a view into the mindset of the creator; it'll set you up nicely for the vid itself. (You've got plenty of time - it's a 350 mb download!) (Louis Wu 16:48:31 UTC) (permalink)
Ridonkulous is not a word.
Over at Bungie.net last night, KP posted a Halo 3 Humpday Challenge writeup; it was the Community Team vs the Multiplayer team. The Community team lost - though KP suggests it might have happened on purpose. (Of course, KP also suggests that he gets coffee for Marty every morning not because he has to, but out of the kindness of his heart... so you take what you want to from his rationalization.) (Louis Wu 16:28:34 UTC) (permalink)
News January 11 2007
An Army You Could Set Fire To
Nomi is a regular of the irc.bungie.org #hbo channel - and last fall, she was one of the attendees at a LANfest in Ohio, hosted by Tarny. What started as an insert for a Christmas card/thank you note to Tarny has grown into almost a cottage industry - check out her ultra-cool Paper Spartans! (Louis Wu 19:43:07 UTC) (permalink)
More Awards for the Machinimators
Deomitrus wrote to point out a press release from the Sentinel Machinima Awards - this is a new awards project intended to replace the 'Rockets on Prisoner' Awards. (Well, 'replace' is probably a bad word, since Funkmon has said he intends to continue that particular tradition... but the idea is certainly understandable; the Sentinel Machinima Awards will honor the best and brightest machinima for the year.) The full press release can be read at the SMA website. (Louis Wu 18:59:31 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: The Fall
Ruben Gonzalez sent along a screenplay adaptation of Eric Nylund's 'The Fall of Reach' - he's looking for feedback from Halo fans. Give it a read, then stop by our forum and let him know what you think! (Louis Wu 15:41:18 UTC) (permalink)
More Gender in Halo 2
Heh - this is one of the reasons I like this community so much. Cody Miller resurrected an older post from DanteThePoet, about gender usage in Halo 2... and the resultant thread is actually pretty highbrow, given the potential for crude humor. If you're interested in how women are portrayed in Halo 2, you might want to join in. (If you're looking for bathroom humor or boob jokes, you should probably go elsewhere.) (Louis Wu 15:16:13 UTC) (permalink)
More LAN reportage
rapture wrote up his own version of the Undead JANLAN 2007 event last weekend (the one Mintz went to only to get a front-page mention for) - comments can go either after the story itself, or in response to his forum post. (Louis Wu 15:01:15 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Content
Tons of new stuff at MLGPro.com - you'll find Player Match Commentary from Strongside (it's currently the default video), plus Part II and Part III of the 2006 Halo Retrospective, plus the Division I Quarterfinal Wrap-up. That should keep you busy...
(Louis Wu 14:54:27 UTC) (permalink)
Hydrogen-injected, my patootie
Over at Bungie.net, you'll find a detailed summary of the M274 ULATV "Mongoose" - a vehicle we've all heard about, but very few have seen in action. What it can do, when you should use it, when you should get your butt off one... it's all in there. Great read! (Louis Wu 00:33:18 UTC) (permalink)
News January 10 2007
An absurd amount of Wallpaper.
I have no idea how this happened, but when I checked last weekend, I noticed that the Wallpapers section hadn't been updated in over 3 months. !!! During this time, Bungie released the Halo 3 Ad, providing wallpaper creators with a WEALTH of material, it seems - there are 75 distinct new entries in the Wallpaper section today, plus another 3 dozen variations (sizes, colors, etc) - there are more pictures than you can shake a Brute Hammer at. Go browse - and if you see something that even REMOTELY interests you, follow the thumb link; there might be something even better underneath it! (Louis Wu 22:06:05 UTC) (permalink)
Frankie's Coffee Table
KP was recently interviewed on the Podtacular podcast - it's long and rambling, but there's some fun stuff in there! Go listen. (Louis Wu 22:05:19 UTC) (permalink)
H2V Multiplayer Impressions
Shacknews posted a Halo 2 Vista multiplayer impressions article from someone who got to play during CES - good read! Thanks to rapture, who let us know by writing this up at H2Vista. (Louis Wu 20:08:09 UTC) (permalink)
Cat in the Hat, Part II
Paul Maestri is on a comic kick - Cat in the Hat, Part II is the latest Halo Heads. How could you NOT like a comic about exploding cats? (Note: they don't really explode.) (Louis Wu 18:55:48 UTC) (permalink)
Crack Shot.
Stuntmutt takes a shot (crack?) at one of the possible routes into the Halo 3 beta in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:50:36 UTC) (permalink)
Riot Community Awards - Voting Opened
Sigafoos stopped by to point out that voting has opened for the 2006 Community Awards from The Riot. Stop by and toss in your two cents! (Louis Wu 14:21:33 UTC) (permalink)
So THAT'S where he's been!
Bader found a truly bizarre entry over at IMDb; Jason Jones, the Jason Jones that co-founded Bungie, is credited with work as Cecil the Puppet for the TV series 'Mother Goose and Friends'. Now, IMDb has been known to contain mistakes, and Jason Jones is a pretty common name (there are 15 of them at IMDb alone)... but it's there, so we're pointing it out. If we hear more about this, we'll be sure to update. (Louis Wu 14:17:22 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Outkastz Epsiode 2
Deekor posted a note about Halo Outkastz Episode 2 - for me, it didn't live up to the potential of earlier work, but watch it and decide for yourself! (Louis Wu 14:12:15 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Online Tourney Update
MLG's got a wrapup of the Round one competition in their Division One Online Tournament. Go see who's on top! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 14:10:56 UTC) (permalink)
News January 9 2007
Cat In The Hat
When the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 was first announced, someone in our forum asked if the helmet would be wearable. KP answered "yes, if your head is very small... and rectangular." Paul Maestri came up with another possibility, in today's Halo Heads. (Louis Wu 19:49:06 UTC) (permalink)
I wasn't actually scared
More local art - Luke McKay whipped up another RvB comic, this one looking at the end of the most recent episode. Some minor artistic liberties taken. (Louis Wu 19:04:49 UTC) (permalink)
New Pinkuh-isms
In the last few days, Pinkuh has whipped up a pair of new images; the first is a tattoo design for Frag Qu33n, the second is a self-portrait... as a furry, in Mjolnir armor. (Well, sort of.) Safe for work... mostly. (Louis Wu 17:05:36 UTC) (permalink)
HD Halo
LANwhore Mintz attended his second major LAN in two weeks recently - you can find the writeup of this original Halo experience at the Hushed Casket. (Congrats to Frankie, who ALSO made it to his second community LAN in two weeks - the man's racking up frequent flyer miles like they're Halo 3 medals.) (Louis Wu 15:01:56 UTC) (permalink)
Don't Talk to Strangers
Mister Froggy pointed out that Halo, Articulated Episode 3, 'Don't Talk to Strangers', is now up for viewing. Explains a few things about the Covenant heirarchy... (Louis Wu 14:51:04 UTC) (permalink)
Championship Gaming Series (IGN/DirecTV)
IGN has a story about a DirecTV/IGN partnership to bring you the Championship Gaming Series, an international gaming league. Looks like videogames on TV is an idea whose time has come... thanks, Neloms. (Louis Wu 14:45:51 UTC) (permalink)
H2V and Xbox - Playable?
Over at Bungie.net, the third question in the Halo 2 Vista FAQ pretty much puts the kibosh on the idea that H2Vista players will be able to play cross-platform with Halo 2 Xbox players. So when Robbie Bach came out during the CES Keynote this week and mentioned that Halo 2 would be cross-platform, Halo fans assumed he meant that they'd be able to share Friends lists, and the like. However, GameInformer has a story up this morning that suggests that the two WILL be interplayable:
Speaking to one of the Microsoft product managers currently working on both Shadowrun and Halo 2 for Vista, he stated that this would in fact be the case, and it's currently in testing. However, whether Halo 2 will be playable between PCs and the console at the launch of Halo 2 on Vista is unknown at this point.
This flies in the face of everything Bungie's said publicly about Halo 2 Vista multiplayer; it'll be interesting to see if it turns out to be a misunderstanding, or if some new functionality has been added that nobody was talking about before now. Update: KP has chimed in with an official Bungie denial - Halo 2 Vista and Halo 2 Xbox will not be interplayable; whoever GameInformer spoke to at CES was either misinformed, or misunderstood. Read KP's post for a more complete description of how the two games might interact. (Louis Wu 13:57:36 UTC) (permalink)
Spending Time with your Family
The World Series of Video Gaming is hosting an exhibition All-Star game at CES this week; MoB will face FBI (yes, the teams were picked for the real-life juxtapositions of their names). Read the details at Amped eSports. (Louis Wu 13:50:10 UTC) (permalink)
2006 MLG Retrospective, Part 1
MLGPro.com has a retrospective on 2006 (or at least the first part of one); walk through the season with them. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 13:45:33 UTC) (permalink)
News January 8 2007
Halomega Weekly Update
Thanks to Conor Mahoney, who sent us the latest Halomega update; you'll find montages here, here, and here, along with info about a 4v4 league, a video of the week competition, and more - check their news section for details. (Louis Wu 23:25:51 UTC) (permalink)
Beta Max
Paul Maestri tosses in his two cents about the Halo 3 beta program in the latest Halo Heads comic. The man has a sharp wit. (Louis Wu 23:18:09 UTC) (permalink)
Last year called... it wants its update back.
Wow. Is it 2007 already? If you're just waking up from a dream about gods bowling, and you're wondering what happened in the Halo universe since 2005... check out the new top story at Bungie.net. KP's laid down all the important happenings for 2006. Well, except for all my eBay purchases - where are those, I ask you? Go read. (Louis Wu 19:59:37 UTC) (permalink)
Streaming Live.
Stuntmutt got a 360 for Christmas. And he's happy. But there are still some issues... check today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:02:48 UTC) (permalink)
H2Vista - Achievements Supported
In an official press release from Microsoft at CES, there's a comment about Halo 2 Vista, and its Live capabilities:
"Halo® 2" for Windows Vista (Microsoft Game Studios/Bungie Studios) will also support Live, including enabling Windows gamers to communicate with Xbox Live gamers and earn Achievements in the famed "Halo 2" campaign - a first for any "Halo" title on any platform.
Heh - will this convince Achievement-happy gamers who might otherwise have passed on this release to upgrade to Vista after all? (Louis Wu 14:28:25 UTC) (permalink)
The CovieCast
Zukan pointed out The CovieCast, a podcast (of sorts) - a radio program done by Axel, inspired, it seems, by Tom Leykis (I'd hoped I'd heard the last of him when I left the West Coast). in it, modders and non-modders debate the subject of modding in Halo. I can't tell if this is supposed to be propaganda for the HaloMods community, or if it just turned out that way... 10 minutes, 9.4 mb. Update: as Dream051 on our forum, the creator has put up Episode 2. No more Leykis (yay!) - just some familiar characters from a game we love.
(Louis Wu 14:21:01 UTC) (permalink)
Campaign Panoramas
RVideo is back, with four new panoramas from Halo 2's campaign. Gorgeous work! I'm lovin' Activated, especially. He's made these available in png format - they're huge. I've added local jpeg mirrors - much smaller. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 14:02:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Zero - soon for PSP
Zukan pointed out that Halo Zero, a fanmade PC Halo sidescroller, is being ported to the PSP; there are a few screenshots linked in his post. More platforms = more better! (Louis Wu 13:41:36 UTC) (permalink)
The dangers of overhype
Back in December, when the Halo 3 ad premiered on Monday Night Football in all its CG glory, some fans worried that the general public was going to think that this ad showed Halo 3 as it looked, in-game, and be disappointed when they finally saw the actual product. (I was one that didn't worry too much; I felt that anyone who was really interested would do some looking online, and find the info about its CG roots pretty easily - and those who weren't that interested wouldn't care much either way.) Yesterday, though, this same ad was shown during Bill Gates' keynote speech at the huge Consumer Electronics Show - and here, it was shown amongst standard gameplay footage from, for example, new games coming out for Windows Vista, with no qualifications about how it was created. According to GhaleonEB, the implication seemed to be that it was gameplay footage - and this, to an audience that WILL make noise when they learn that the game doesn't look this way. Unfortunate... thanks to Stonesand for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 13:20:21 UTC) (permalink)
Lost: Halostyle Ep 12
HaloPlayer stopped by yesterday to point out Lost: Halostyle Episode 12 - "The Plunge: Part 1". Treading a fine line between comedy and drama, this series continues to please - solid story, solid humor, solid characters. Solid action in this ep, as well - great ideas! Definitely worth the download. (I'd suggest using our local mirror links (also in the forum post) for downloading; save their bandwidth.) (Louis Wu 12:56:08 UTC) (permalink)
R.net updates Halo 3 FAQ
Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, has organized all the Halo 3 info he can find into a new Halo 3 FAQ (with a new format) - took a few days to become visible to the masses, but go take a look now! (Louis Wu 11:44:53 UTC) (permalink)
Escape Station - Online Tourneys
Bungie.net had word of a new website devoted to online tournaments - Escape Station brings people together to kill each other in lots of games, including Halo 2 (their favorite). Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 11:41:12 UTC) (permalink)
CMT adds Halo 3 Weapons
Stealth_1000 stopped by with news of some new Halo 3 weapons incorporated already into new work from the Custom Map Team - good stuff! (Louis Wu 11:38:47 UTC) (permalink)
Worst Game Endings Ever
Yesterday, Paul found an article on ComputerandVideoGames.com entitled 'The worst game endings ever' - and yes, Halo 2 is on it. (They call it a crime.) (Louis Wu 11:34:40 UTC) (permalink)
News January 7 2007
The Riot 30
Sigafoos writes to point out The Riot 30 - community discussions, and the announcement of Community Awards for 2006. Voting opens Wednesday, but you can discuss stuff on their forum now. 23 minutes, 9 mb. Go listen. (Louis Wu 20:40:43 UTC) (permalink)
Arbiter model project
The More Deluded has been working on a bust of the Arbiter - pretty impressive-looking! Check it out. (Louis Wu 17:29:20 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on a DS - another view
leprecaun90210 noticed a writeup on HaloInformer, speculating about the
Halo on a Nintendo DS
story that popped up a couple of days ago. HaloInformer doesn't know anything more than the rest of us - but the reasoning is solid. If it turns out to be true, Matt Cassamina's going to have to rethink how he posts controversial stories, maybe... (Louis Wu 17:26:45 UTC) (permalink)
ODST Test
Laird whipped up a test video showing an ODST ready for use in machinima. It's tiny (about 800k, in either WMP9 format or QuickTime - it's only 12 seconds long, with no sound) - but the potential is fantastic. Check it out. (Louis Wu 14:53:03 UTC) (permalink)
News January 6 2007
Our Newest Featured Artist - Veegie
It's been a little while since we added an artist to our Gallery pages - but today, we're proud to announce a new home for Veegie's Halo-related artwork. Veegie likes to render stuff - but he does a sizeable amount of 2D work on the result; what you see, often, is a Halo image that looks like we wish the game could look. (Of course, we'll need to wait for the Xbox 1440 before that's going to happen...) Browse what's there, and we'll be sure to let you know when the collection grows! (Louis Wu 23:29:18 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Birthday to Us!
Wow, totally forgot about this... but today marks the 8th birthday of Bungie.org! Man, that's like... 3 centuries in internet time! Thanks to Vid Boi for the reminder. (Louis Wu 21:48:45 UTC) (permalink)
Looking for a Purple Lung
Red vs Blue Episode 87, 'The Nesting Theory', is now available for download by Sponsors - Red's still looking for Sarge, Blue is still trying to keep Tex from being homicidal. Should be up for the public by Monday. Thanks, BigVariable. (Louis Wu 13:56:55 UTC) (permalink)
Looking over the season
MLGPro.com has an interview with Str8 Rippin up - they talk about their successes, and what they can improve on. Nice read. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 13:52:57 UTC) (permalink)
Smokin'Aces
We got a note from Micah Brooke, at machinima.com, about a new contest they're running; submit your best kills from your favorite video games, win cold, hard cash. You've got a couple of weeks - and Halo is only one of a myriad of options... top prize is $1000. Check out all the details on their contest page. (Louis Wu 02:44:14 UTC) (permalink)
Partial Advice
Mister Froggy has posted the second episode of his Halo, Articulated comic - this one takes a shot at one of the more annoying moments in Halo 2. (Louis Wu 02:41:03 UTC) (permalink)
Communist Octopus... was that a shot?
The Bungie Weekly Update is available now at Bungie.net - more info about the Halo 3 beta program (mostly reassurances), plus progress reports, a job opening, and the hairiest looking Mister Chief ever. As always, if you can't read it at Bungie.net, you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 02:36:49 UTC) (permalink)
News January 5 2007
Kissing Up.
Stuntmutt has his own take on the Friends and Family program mentioned last week by Frankie - check today's One One Se7en for details. (Louis Wu 16:43:38 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Twelve new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today - go read! (Louis Wu 16:13:35 UTC) (permalink)
More Ways to Get In
Must be the day for Halo comics - ActionTrip has a new strip up today with a Halo theme, looking at ways to get into the Halo 3 beta. Heh. (Louis Wu 15:38:53 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Red vs Blue Year
TheShadyGnome points out that a recent Dueling Analogs strip pays homage to both Halo and the new year. (Louis Wu 15:37:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on a Nintendo DS?
FyreWulff was the first (but not, by far, the only) to notice that Matt Cassamina (Editor in Chief of IGNcube) posted a story in his blog about playing Halo on a Nintendo DS. Is it true? Hard to say, I guess - we'll wait for official word from Bungie, I think, but many of the commenters believe it's a prank. (It was posted on January 4, which, when reversed, looks like April 1.) (Louis Wu 15:31:30 UTC) (permalink)
The Mii Army
More Mii stuff - check Gamingbits for yet another Master Chief Mii (among a lot of others). Thanks, wheeler. (Louis Wu 15:27:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo goodies on eBay
Spartan Jag found a pair of interesting Halo auctions on eBay - first is a replica Pistol, and second is a Spartan helmet (not to be used for paintballing, apparently). The pistol auction ends tonight, but you've got a few days left on the helmet. (Louis Wu 15:03:31 UTC) (permalink)
We Become Silhouettes
Jamie98s posted a note on our forum about a new music video he'd created, 'We Become Silhouettes', about a survivor of a nuclear blast coming to grips with the death around him. Fantastic effects and filming; this is the sort of thing music videos should aspire to. He posted a mythica link to a WMP9 version in his forum post, but we're offering both a mirror for that (30.4 mb) and a QuickTime version (29.6 mb); this rocks. (Louis Wu 14:58:52 UTC) (permalink)
News January 4 2007
Furhman can sleep anywhere.
The LANfest that took place here last week has now been written up on Bungie.net - KP got a little hyperbolic, but there are some great pics. I'd said the last time I'd posted about this LAN that I'd summarize the rest of the writeups at a later date - this seems like a fine later date. Blackstar posted a video slideshow of his photos (you can see the individual pics at Rampancy.net), Jillybean summarized her experiences in the Home of the Free, and rets posted a huge video of a 1v1 match against Schooly D. (If you all download this, you will likely crush his server; only grab it if you really want to watch it.) Finally, Mintz posted a writeup over at Hushed Casket. There will likely be one more post down the road - I've got a whole lot of photos to go into a bunch of galleries - but don't hold your breath for that. Once again, thanks to all who came, and apologies to all who should have, but didn't. (Louis Wu 23:27:45 UTC) (permalink)
VGL - Behind The Scenes (the beginning)
Over at GameTrailers, you'll find a trailer, along with the first of three full episodes, of a Behind the Scenes documentary about Video Games Live. This is only peripherally Halo-related, in that Halo is one of the pieces played during the concert, but it's pretty interesting if you were ever curious about how these guys got started, and why they're doing what they're doing. Thanks, DHalo. (Louis Wu 22:40:18 UTC) (permalink)
PGL Elites Championship
Jay "Ling Ling" Marrero writes to point out a pair of Halo 2 tourneys sponsored by the PGL at Otronicon v2.0 in Orlando, FL, coming up the weekend of January 13/14. Registration is $15 (with a paid Otronicon entrance), and the first place prize for each event is $1000 (with a bunch of other stuff on the line, as well). Check it out - and if you're going to Otronicon, jump in! (Louis Wu 14:39:04 UTC) (permalink)
Dashboard Themes - try before you buy
JeBr0nie noticed a new website called dashboardthemes.com; it's the first place I've seen that contains screenshots of all the Halo-related 360 Dashboard themes out there. (It contains a lot more than that, of course - but this is a Halo site, after all.) You can see all three Halo 3 themes there, as well as the Red vs Blue theme. It shows you what the themes look like with all the normal text that will appear over the images - really helpful. A nice resource! (Louis Wu 14:24:22 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 - eclipsed in 8 short weeks?
Several days ago, Major Nelson posted the Top Live Games of 2006 - broken out into 360 games, Arcade games, and Original Xbox games. There's no combined list, but the way it's written, quite a number of the people commenting on the post are assuming that MN is saying that Gears of War (the top 360 game) is the top overall game for the year - and most of them are wondering if that's a mistake. I've waited several days for a specific clarification, but although at least one Xbox staffer has chimed into the conversation, there is no refutation of the assumption, and in fact, if one reads the entire set of comments, one is left with the impression that Gears of War did, indeed, pass Halo 2 as the top Live game of 2006. I have trouble believing this, but in the absence of hard data, I can do no more than speculate. If true, it would be a stunning statement about the popularity of Epic's title; it hit the market just a few weeks before the end of the year. If false... one wonders why Major Nelson, or an Xbox Live staffer, doesn't simply say so in that thread. (Well, I wonder, anyway.) (Louis Wu 13:31:17 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie's Blue Harvest
IGN has posted a 2-page article discussing why Bungie is so secretive about Halo 3 info. There's not a lot here that isn't common sense - but it seems that common sense is a bit less common than one would hope, so if you're an Insider, go read. (If you're not an Insider, you can't see it anyway; summary is "secrecy keeps the game from being ruined for you".) Thanks to COwOnTheNews for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:59:29 UTC) (permalink)
After the War
Luke McKay added a fun little sketch to his Red vs Blue Image collection - we've added it to his gallery here. Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep... (Louis Wu 11:41:51 UTC) (permalink)
News January 3 2007
Another way into the H3 beta program
The Jedi Lord pointed out a new press release - it'll be all over the web soon, I'd guess, but he found it at Gamerscore Blog - which outlines a pair of ways into the Halo 3 beta program. The first - buying Crackdown - we mentioned last week... but the second - playing 3 hours of Halo 2 online between February 1 and February 3, and then being among the first 13,333 to register at Halo3.com - is new. Check out the full press release, and remember, this one's for US residents 17 or older only. Update: There's a bunch of info from Frankie posted over at Bungie.net right now; lots of goodies in there to supplement the official press release. Check it out! (Thanks to Dry Ice for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 18:39:46 UTC) (permalink)
Mercenary Trailer
Wandering Tiger has posted a trailer for Mercenary, an upcoming machinima project. Crank your volume to hear it. Available on their site, in both high (6.6 mb) and low (2.3 mb) resolutions, WMP9 for the moment. (Louis Wu 17:59:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo, Articulated 1: Dress for Success
Mister Froggy stopped by to mention that he has started up Halo, Articulated, a comic strip that uses action figures. He used feedback from his first attempt to come up with this final product - see what you think! (Louis Wu 16:14:27 UTC) (permalink)
Con Version?
Sometimes, it's hard to be objective. Ask Stuntmutt - or just read today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:09:58 UTC) (permalink)
MLGPro Online Tourney Update
MLGPro.com has put up an article detailing the current state of their Online Halo 2 Tournament; Division 1 group play is now over, they're moving into bracket play. Go check out who to root for! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 16:06:54 UTC) (permalink)
News January 2 2007
Itwasluck's 6th Montage
Speaking of the pro Halo world, there's a new montage out from XiT WouNDz player Itwasluck, available over at Halo3Forum.com - I've said before that I'm getting burned out on montages, but when they're this well edited, and contain this level of gameplay... well, they're worth watching. Fantastic job. You can see why his team is a Top 8 unit. 140 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 12:28:46 UTC) (permalink)
Making it big in the videogame world
The London (Ontario) Free Press has an article about guys trying to break into the pro Halo ranks - always nice to see stuff like this in mainstream press! (Louis Wu 12:22:26 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Elite
Mandalore wrote to point out his Lego Elite (and a set of revised pics, as well) - pretty nice looking! (Louis Wu 12:21:49 UTC) (permalink)
Halomega updates
We got email from a couple of different members of Halomega, pointing out the new stuff they've posted this week; they've got 1v1 montages here, here, and here, and details about their 4v4 league here. (There's certainly more - visit their News forum to dig through for your own goodies.) (Louis Wu 12:11:24 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Nerds 4
spartanerik noticed a new Flash animation at Newgrounds - it never got finished, and it takes a few shots at various nationalities, but there you go. (Louis Wu 12:06:01 UTC) (permalink)
A Cardboard Master Chief Suit
GFC Danny has started on a cardboard Master Chief outfit - he's got a couple of photos of the helmet so far. (Louis Wu 12:05:43 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Live Wire digs into Iraqi footage
Halo Live Wire has put up an analysis of the few tidbits of Halo 3 visible in the cam-collected stuff from Iraq this weekend; there's not much to work with, but trust Bungie fans to pore over every frame! Thanks, Arc Blu. (Louis Wu 12:05:11 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Costume 2005
Delta and a buddy created a Master Chief suit a while back - but never got around to showing it off. You can find a picture in his forum post. (Louis Wu 11:06:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Fever Kicks Off
Mister Froggy has started up a new action-figure-based comic - Halo Fever - but needs feedback if he's going to make more. Check out the first one, and let him know what you think. (Louis Wu 10:51:59 UTC) (permalink)
GameDaily's Halo 3 Summary
Thien noticed a GameDaily vid about Halo 3 while browsing YouTube - but if you want, you can view it at GameDaily, as well. They basically attempt to guess when Halo 3 is going to be released, using information we already have. (Louis Wu 10:38:42 UTC) (permalink)
Fighting the Evil Anime Empire
The Uncyclopedia page about Halo has been around for a while - but it's gotten a bunch of updates recently, and it's more surreal than ever now. Thanks to Ross Mills for reminding us to revisit. (Louis Wu 10:32:21 UTC) (permalink)
...And a banshee stuck in a tree.
Rookie Rabbit sent us a belated Christmas video that we've made even MORE belated by not posting for two days - but you can go watch it now at YouTube. (Louis Wu 10:27:07 UTC) (permalink)
Nyclan gets a writeup
Been a bit lax on newsposting in the last few days - apologies. Will clear some of that up today. Dzejms noticed a Cnet story a couple of days ago devoted to Nyclan, a videogame center in Manhattan - a place you can play a lot of Halo. Check it out - especially if you're close enough to USE it. (Louis Wu 10:24:07 UTC) (permalink)
News January 1 2007
Socket To 'Em.
Looks like we might take the day off here, but Stuntmutt never rests. It's Monday, so there's a new One One Se7en for you. (You might, of course, find that last night's partying, coupled with the joke in this strip, will send you into paroxysms of cramping... it's up to you whether you actually read it.) (Louis Wu 17:57:33 UTC) (permalink)
Welcome to the Year in Which You Finish the Fight
Happy New Year - Step away from the computer!
All of us here at HBO wish all of our friends and family the very best for a bright and fruitful new year.
In what I would like to consider a tradition started back at the end of 2003, we will shut down the forum for a few hours. Those of you forum monkies will have no choice but to interact with your loved ones and think of the coming 12 months and all the goodies that might swing our way. Clink a glass of champagne for me, will ya? :) (Ding 10:15:20 UTC) (permalink)
| January 2007 | |
