About This Site
Daily Musings
News
News Archive
Site Resources
Concept Art
Halo Bulletins
Interviews
Movies
Music
Miscellaneous
Mailbag
HBO PAL
Game Fun
The Halo Story
Tips and Tricks
Fan Creations
Wallpaper
Misc. Art
Fan Fiction
Comics
Logos
Banners
Press Coverage
Halo Reviews
Halo 2 Previews
Press Scans
Community
HBO Forum

Clan HBO Forum
ARG Forum
Links
Admin
Submissions
Uploads
Contact

July 2007

July 2007 Archived News

News July 31 2007

Four Player Online Coop Confirmed for Halo 3
Luke Smith confirmed (over on the NeoGAF boards) that online coop for Halo 3 is in, and supports four players. I'd give that a double W00t! and a couple of Wongas! to boot! Thanks, Phatcorns.Update: Luke's also penned a new B.Net article detailing the new hotness that coop is to become. Go read, and learn about a couple of new characters in our Halo universe! (Dang, I better blow the dust off of the ol' Story Page and start updating...) (mnemesis 18:53:47 UTC) (permalink)

Marathon Mix 2
Nick Singer posted a Marathon/Halo remix a few days ago - it was pretty well-received (I even heard positive rumblings from Marty about it). He's back, with a new one (descriptively titled 'Marathon Mix 2' - heh); it mashes up Chomber and Under a Night Sky, and it's really evocative. Go listen. (Use our mirror link to save Nick's bandwidth.) (Louis Wu 16:01:27 UTC) (permalink)

Halo for $10
Sears is selling the original Halo for Xbox for under $10 - if you need a spare copy or two, this isn't a bad chance. Thanks, Jason. (Louis Wu 15:58:01 UTC) (permalink)

Licensed Armor from Rubies
Amazing - a tiny internet-enabled window; I'll see if I can post a few things and take the load off the crew. Adam Grumbo sent us a link to the Mjolnir Armor forums, where there are photos of officially-licenced Mjolnir armor done by Rubies. Opinion over there isn't horribly positive... (Louis Wu 15:44:04 UTC) (permalink)

Innocent Minds
Got another message from trigger119, this time pointing out the trailer for the next project from CROSSFIRE, Innocent Minds. Nice work! (mnemesis 03:48:49 UTC) (permalink)

M6Gee
Stuntmutt comments on the infamous Pistol in today's yesterday's One One Se7en. (mnemesis 03:37:38 UTC) (permalink)

More Funny Plastic People!
Speaking of articulated Halo humor, Elnea dropped by the forum yesterday with four more episodes of Halo Action Figure Theater. Great stuff! (mnemesis 03:22:05 UTC) (permalink)

The Odd Couple
Mister Froggy writes to let us know that Halo, Articulated #61 is available if you're into that kind of thing (heh, Sarge speaks the tru7h). (mnemesis 03:20:03 UTC) (permalink)

News July 30 2007

A Wall of Tex-t
Tex has posted a thorough wrap-up of the activities she experienced over the past week at Comic-Con. She took some very cool pictures and overall has a great summary of everything Halo-related that you could have seen in San Diego last week. And let that be a lesson to you, that no one wants to talk to KP. Ever. (KP 23:10:05 UTC) (permalink)

Marathon: Durandal release date
DHalo noted on the forum that Marathon: Durandal will become available on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace this Wednesday, August 1st. Wonga! (mnemesis 21:58:25 UTC) (permalink)

Incredible Armor
We received word from Adam Grumbo, of mjolnirarmor.com, of a new set of Mjolnir armor he made. There's a post in his forum with all of the pictures to date, including a dog-kicking incident. Pretty slick. (KP 18:54:40 UTC) (permalink)

More Vids
trigger119 writes to tell us of Brothers in Arms, a campaign film by Jamie98 that you can check out over at GamingTV. He also reminded me that I forgot another film, Doomtage, that he'd mentioned earlier. Check 'em out! (mnemesis 18:53:18 UTC) (permalink)

Free the Beast
Rockslider wrote to tell us of a new feature to his site, a guide to unleashing your inner Grunt. Much of it is quite funny, some is quite strange and a few have a splendid combination of the two. (KP 18:37:06 UTC) (permalink)

How to avoid *Spoilers*
Not sure if you want to find out stuff about Halo 3 before the time is right? Bungie elder statesman and audio impresario Marty checks in on the forum with some helpful advice. (mnemesis 16:53:56 UTC) (permalink)

Vids
A couple of videos that have come through the inbox this afternoon, listed here for you:

• Tomminator and Hellhawk made a commentary reel for the Weekend Boredom video from the Zune contest.
• ClearviewPro mentions that eternalscrappy has made what he claims is a hilarious video entitled "Suck My Spartan." I think 'hilarious' must mean vulgar and mumbly.

(mnemesis 03:18:59 UTC) (permalink)

Marketing Madness!
The folks at Xbox Family have 'intercepted' an email from Microsoft detailing all of the marketing efforts going into the Halo 3 launch this fall. Go see what's coming up, and learn a little about how companies attempt to build brand awareness. We're an ecosystem!

Oh, and watch out, in the very first paragraph, under "What is it?" there's a description of the game that I hadn't seen yet, that I would potentially classify as a spoiler. Thanks to Velez for noting this on the forum. (mnemesis 02:58:10 UTC) (permalink)

News July 29 2007

Got News?
I'd like to remind anyone who has Halo news for us that if you don't send it to halo@bungie.org, it ain't getting posted on the front page. We're not mind readers, you know (or lwu's personal email readers, as the case may be). (mnemesis 18:43:35 UTC) (permalink)

New RvB series coming soon
Over at Xbox.com, there's a promo page explaining the next project coming from the Rooster Teeth crew. It's a commercial series; looks to be available for (probably paid) download from a variety of retail websites, starting on Tuesday. It's a five-episode special series of Red vs Blue, helping the transfer from Halo 2 to Halo 3. Go read the details! (I think that's it from me - the connection is gone.) (Louis Wu 18:35:25 UTC) (permalink)

The Riot 58
I might have been wrong about Halo coverage being kept up while I'm gone; there don't seem to have been any updates since I left. Unfortunately, I was correct about my lack of internet access here - I have almost no connection at all, so I won't be able to post most things. There are still a couple of things I can point out - for example, Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 58 is now up at Second Foundation. This podcast ep is 37 minutes long, 15 mb large, and covers community news, tournaments, and more. Go listen! (Louis Wu 18:31:04 UTC) (permalink)

News July 28 2007

Gone.
Okay, I'm out of here for a while. The site is in the capable hands of the HBO grunt crew; If you have news you think they should be posting, send it to halo (at) bungie.org. Do NOT send anything to lwu (at) bungie.org that you want to have read in the next week or so. That's about as clear as I can be; if you insist on mailing stuff to me personally, it's gonna sit in limbo until I can read it. Be good. (Louis Wu 12:22:36 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Kitty Convention Badge
Pinkuh created a pretty cool convention badge for a friend - check it out in her gallery here! (Louis Wu 08:13:02 UTC) (permalink)

New Brute Halo 3 T at Hot Topic
Wow, this is sort of odd - there's a pretty nice new t-shirt design at Hot Topic; it celebrates the Brutes in Halo 3, and has some cool artwork. The odd part? It features Tartarus - the guy you killed in Halo 2. Thanks, Megan Stewart. (Louis Wu 07:31:13 UTC) (permalink)

Marathon Mix 1
If you've got a long memory, you might remember Nick Singer as the guy who was looking for Halo mods that needed original music a couple of years ago. He's back - and this time, he's mixing the music of Marathon and Halo, and doing a wonderful job of it. Go check out his Marathon Mix 1. (Louis Wu 03:06:42 UTC) (permalink)

Smoker's Plight
Mister Froggy sent word that Halo, Articulated #60 is up. Looks like the anti-smoking lobby is even more agressive in 2552 than they are today... (Louis Wu 02:58:30 UTC) (permalink)

No more Mac Halo in the UK
Wow, bizarre. According to MacGold Direct Online (a Macintosh game seller in the UK), MacSoft has discontinued the sale of Halo for Mac in the UK. There's no announcement at all on their site, and it seems to still be available in the US - we've got no decent guesses as to why the UK has been shut out. Thanks, The More Deluded. (Louis Wu 02:55:53 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Toy Box
Sane Intolerant has finished his Halo/Transformers story arc for Halo Toy Box; There are four new strips (There's Nothing You Can Do, Autobots Wage Their Battle, More Than Meets The Eye, and The War Has Just Begun). If you've been following this storyline, go visit and see how it ends! (Louis Wu 02:25:49 UTC) (permalink)

Halo History Pack
Wired has an article about the Halo History Pack, a special Japanese-only release that contains Halo, Halo 2, and a disc that contains the system update that allows both games to run on the Xbox 360. (Since both games ran on the 360 on the day it was released, I can only assume that the disc includes all the updates to the backwards compatibility emulator that are relevant to the Halo titles.) nash--housewares wonders how many hardcore western Halo fans will seek this out, simply to have a complete collection? Update: Anton P. Nym proves that his steel trap is better than mine; you CAN get this disc in the US. Well... sort of. You can download the content, and burn it to a DVD locally... but the 'mail you a disc" service is still "available soon" (the same as it was in 2005). (Louis Wu 02:22:18 UTC) (permalink)

Harvest Suite
Sean Mortensen sent along another score, this one inspired by the cover of Contact Harvest, the novel coming out this fall. It's called Harvest Suite; mp3 format, 1:38, 1.4 mb. (Louis Wu 02:01:28 UTC) (permalink)

Mashing Real-Life-F5
The Bungie Weekly Update is posted over at Bungie.net; Frankie and Sketch are off on a whirlwind tour of Europe (starting in Amsterdam), so it's Luke holding down the fort tonight. He chatted with the Jasman Toys folks about their upcoming Laser Pursuit game - what's revealed might make you think that $80 and $120 is actually worth spending... he also teases a little with hints of upcoming Halo 3 goodness. September 25th can't come fast enough! If you need it, this update is also available in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 00:47:56 UTC) (permalink)

News July 27 2007

Halo Sells Itself
Marc Rein, top dog at Epic, talked to CVG about Halo 3's showing at E3. (Yeah, I sort of wondered about that, too.) He was discussing the lack of awards Halo 3 won this year (due to the lack of a playable demo, most likely) - and how it's a good thing, overall, for Microsoft.

"What they wanted to do was highlight all the other great games... that are on Xbox 360 too so people don't just think it's a Halo box. They don't care, they're going to sell eight million of them anyway."

Sounds about right. (Louis Wu 19:27:11 UTC) (permalink)

Mid-afternoon daydream battle royale!
LostRock11 noticed that Master Chief makes an appearance in today's PvPonline - nice. (Louis Wu 17:33:53 UTC) (permalink)

Lego Bionicle Elite
reticence dropped into our forum to point out a Lego Bionicle Elite he built. (Use the 'Download' link on the left for a full-sized version - thanks, Kanbo.) Wort! (Louis Wu 17:08:06 UTC) (permalink)

Elder Of The Dia Tribe.
Server 3 just opened up at Halo3.com, moving the Iris ARG forward a bit - a perfect time for Stuntmutt to tie it in to One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:07:49 UTC) (permalink)

There's one that sounds like Carlos Mencia.
Hellhawk sent us a bunch of Brute sounds for the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank; I can't GUARANTEE none of them are repeats, but I'm pretty sure most aren't, at least. Find an audio editor that lets you layer multiple sounds, and play 'em all at once - sounds like the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo! (Louis Wu 14:43:52 UTC) (permalink)

Fathom (A Taste)
On July 16, we put up an odd picture. Two days later, we did it again. (Different picture.) Well, they were both teasers for Fathom, a new Machinima project from some heavy hitters in the machinima community - SodaGod, BlackouTT, Jamie98s, FantasyCubed. You can find a variety of download links in the HaloGrid announce thread. I've also encoded a local QT version, 30 mb, that's not on that page (yet). BlackouTT says this isn't a trailer - but I'm not sure what else you'd call it; it sets up the series. Maybe a prologue? Mysterious, with great filming, great audio, great effects - very well done piece of work. Go watch it. (Louis Wu 14:22:46 UTC) (permalink)

Curse you, Wal-Mart!
Heh - Devin Olsen almost got away with a Halo 3 Legendary Helmet for cheap yesterday. I HATE it when store managers foil my plots! (Louis Wu 14:11:39 UTC) (permalink)

New Stuff coming from McFarlane
Velez noticed a summary of the McFarlane pieces scheduled for the next year, over at Spawn.com; the Halo Series 2 data (near the bottom of the page, due June 2008) is new. (Louis Wu 14:09:02 UTC) (permalink)

Gamplayer looks at Halo 3 MP
Australia's Gameplayer has put up a review of Halo 3 Multiplayer - they say it goes 'Beyond the Beta', but there's not a lot in there that wasn't already known, and it's missing some of the newest info out there. Thanks, MasterChief2829. (Louis Wu 14:06:34 UTC) (permalink)

Herbie Does Halo
Ducain pointed this out yesterday - but it wasn't until today that I had a chance to actually look at it. Juggertrout and Big Grunty Thirst have released a new Halo 1 trick vid - one that is pretty darned clever. They noticed that a particular Shade spawns a grunt when a door opens (no matter where that Shade is)... so that Shade went EVERYWHERE. And I mean EVERYWHERE. Fun. (Louis Wu 13:59:59 UTC) (permalink)

Outback
Outback Heh - deadguy71 stopped by with word of a heretofore unseen level in Halo 2 - 'Outback'. The grass is AMAZING. (Louis Wu 13:51:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Themed iGoogle Skin
NovusVir let us know that he's created a Halo-themed iGoogle skin; if you want your customized iGoogle page to reflect your favorite video game, check it out! (He says the gadget is safe; I have no way of confirming that, so use at your own risk. Google says that malicious gadgets can steal cookies and such.) (Louis Wu 12:15:58 UTC) (permalink)

McFarlane Figures - New Pictures
Littlebigman noticed a gallery of new shots of the McFarlane action figures coming soon. (They're mixed in with other McFarlane stuff; you'll have to hunt.) Pretty! (Louis Wu 12:13:23 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Seven new stories in the Fan Fiction section this week - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:12:35 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Goodies at SDCC - Listed
Bungie has a full list of Halo-related stuff at ComicCon in the next couple of days - if you're there, or going there, make sure you check out the list. (Louis Wu 12:06:26 UTC) (permalink)

EGM Covers - Bigger
Remember last week, when we mentioned that EGM had 3 covers coming out for their September issue? Well, Kotaku has posted much larger pics of them - very, very nice. (Louis Wu 12:04:20 UTC) (permalink)

Decorum, Dignity and Sophistication
Games Digest has a list of academic subjects that could benefit from the study of video games; Halo pops up for Etiquette. Um... yeah. (Louis Wu 11:58:28 UTC) (permalink)

Battle-Damaged Scarab
Bungie posted an article showing off the huge Scarab that WizKids is selling, in very limited quantites, at ComicCon this week. (There are 500 of 'em, and they're going for $250 each.) There are stories about this piece at Gizmodo and TeamXbox, as well, with a photo that shows how truly huge this scarab is, and with extra info about the upcoming games. Update: DarkSim found a couple of great links on the WizKids site, too. (Louis Wu 11:54:04 UTC) (permalink)

Info about Halo 3 continues to emerge
I'm leaving tomorrow; the last week has been a blur. Downside for you - Halo news lags, sometimes. I took off midday yesterday; let's see what's popped up since then. There's an in-depth story about upcoming features in Halo 3 (including some that could definitely be considered campaign spoilers - be warned) at Yahoo! Canada (thanks to GhaleonEB for the heads-up, and ACEfanatic02 for the link). Audio stats: as of the time of the reporter's visit, Halo 3 "included almost 54,000 pieces of audio: 1,000 pieces of music, 13,000 sound effects and 39,368 pieces of dialogue." (Louis Wu 11:52:51 UTC) (permalink)

News July 26 2007

No longer drunk and swollen
Eurogamer has good things to say about Halo 3, in their summary of E3; interesting change of heart over recent articles. Thanks, Walshicus. (Louis Wu 17:30:46 UTC) (permalink)

Usage Stats from Nielson - Halo is Big on PC
There are some interesting stats in this report from Nielson, about video game play; I'm not sure I understand them. It breaks out time spent playing video games on consoles (by console), and on PCs. On the Console side, Xbox + Xbox360 take up 25% of the minutes spent playing... crushed by the Playstation 2, which runs above 40%. (The Wii only has 4% of total minutes spent, which makes very little sense; average session time is about the same as that for the Xbox(es), and there certainly aren't 60 million Xboxes out there.) On the PC side, Halo is the second most-played game, following WoW (following it by a LOT) - with Halo 2 not far behind, in 4th place. (Louis Wu 17:05:12 UTC) (permalink)

Sneak Peek at Gentle Giant Busts
Heh - Ain't It Cool News wrote up the Preview Night walkabout at San Diego ComicCon - and there are some Halo shots, with a pretty prominent 'No Pictures' icon right in front of them. I'd bet these make up the Gentle Giant Master Chief Mini Bust Case Pack coming in November. Thanks, J C. (Louis Wu 16:39:30 UTC) (permalink)

Ours goes to 12.
The BBFC (the British equivalent of the US ESRB, a rating entity, though their version has more legal clout than ours does) has rated Halo 3 (specifically the Limited Edition) as '12' - the same rating they gave the Halo 2 Expansion Pack. (They didn't rate Halo or Halo 2, apparently - or at least don't list those ratings on their website.) (Louis Wu 16:24:23 UTC) (permalink)

A Big Letdown
Advanced Media Network gave out its Best and Worst Awards for E3 2007 - and Halo 3 picked up just a single award: Most Disappointing Game. Ah, well. (Louis Wu 16:20:07 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 for 3 Sweepstakes
Xbox.com is holding a series of sweepstakes - you've got a shot at winning copies of Halo 3, books, schwag - and a Halo 3 Xbox 360 console. Grand Prize winner for the last round gets some amazing stuff, including an "Xbox 360 Halo 3 X-shaped Ibanez Xiphos Guitar with Case" - I'm pretty sure that hasn't been announced yet. Biggest limitations: this is open only to US residents... and you must be 18 or older. If you meet those, though... what are you waiting for? Go register! Thanks, Kiaffex. Update: Apparently, I didn't read the rules carefully enough; registration begins at 9:00 am PDT today - that's three hours from now. Thanks, Luci (though really, without Nomi and goatrope, he'd get no mention). (Louis Wu 12:46:03 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Dallas Rebroadcast
MLG is rebroadcasting the Dallas Video on Demand footage; if you missed the gameplay last weekend, here's your chance to catch it! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 10:11:48 UTC) (permalink)

Meet you at the bottom, okay?
Hellhawk sent along a couple of dozen new Cortana snippets for the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank; lots of great stuff! Go listen. (Louis Wu 10:09:01 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Podcast now on iTunes
If you didn't listen to the Bungie Podcast on Monday because it wasn't on iTunes, now's your chance to hear all the Grunty goodness. Thanks, Luke. (Louis Wu 10:07:04 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Portable Podcast 10
Halo: Portable has posted another podcast - hosts this time around are Tex and Mintz. E3 musings, Comic-Con discussions, and more. (They know the sync is broken; they're working on it.) Thanks, Tex. (Louis Wu 10:04:36 UTC) (permalink)

News July 25 2007

He laughed so hard, snot came out of his nose.
Frankie has posted an interesting discussion with Curtis Creamer, Bungie's Design Producer, over at Bungie.net - how Curtis got involved with Bungie, what he does every day, how Halo 3 is coming along. (No, Frankie didn't let him say anything REALLY juicy in that regard.) It's a great way to meet the team - go read! Thanks, MasterChief2829. (Louis Wu 23:10:27 UTC) (permalink)

HTB
Sane Intolerant continues his Transformers/Halo storyline in Halo Toy Box - The Light Will Save Us All and Watching Over You. (I thought these were supposed to be funny?) (Louis Wu 22:19:19 UTC) (permalink)

As Hollow As His Head.
Today's One One Se7en takes a shot at the folks who are getting reactionary about online coop before they even know whether it's included in the game or not. I don't know what Stuntmutt was thinking - don't we all overreact like those guys? (Louis Wu 14:19:18 UTC) (permalink)

Podtacular 121
Podtacular 121 contains a discussion of the Halo 3 closed-door campaign demo - thanks, Unr3alChi3f. (Louis Wu 11:43:05 UTC) (permalink)

Sometimes Mom isn't the best choice.
Whoa. The last Calvin and Halo strip we posted was back in March, 2005... I thought that puppy was dead. Warbow surprised me, though - there was a new one in my inbox today. Pretty funny, even. (Louis Wu 11:39:20 UTC) (permalink)

Play N Trade Halo 3 Beta Review
Play N Trade put together a video review of the Halo 3 Beta - you can watch it at blip.tv. Basically, it's a runthrough of the weapons/vehicles/equipment available in the beta. (Louis Wu 11:32:18 UTC) (permalink)

News July 24 2007

Dialogue Databank Updated
So over the past year or so, I've gotten WAY behind on submitted content of specific kinds; there's just been so much, and things have been going so fast. I'm happy to say, however, that one section is now up-to-date - the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. There are 106 new snippets available - some sitting on my hard drive for more than 12 months, others submitted today. Go listen! (Louis Wu 19:22:31 UTC) (permalink)

Spielkit
Dolbex stopped by to mention a side project he's been working on for a little while - an online bracketing system that will let anyone run their own tournament on the web. Read his post, then check out the site - good stuff! (Louis Wu 16:15:54 UTC) (permalink)

Weta shows off
Chilton Webb pointed out a new article on the Weta Holics website (run by Weta NZ) - it contains a few interesting tidbits about the functional Warthog Bungie revealed in Friday's Bungie Weekly Update. Did you know that this hog was just built (as in, the past 6 weeks)? Did you know it had airbags? Or that it can do four-wheel steering? (Louis Wu 15:56:13 UTC) (permalink)

Yeah, well, they'll still be outsold by Rhode Island.
570News (a Toronto radio station) has a bit this morning on video game sales in Canada; sales have hit half a billion dollars in the first half of 2007, with Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4 still coming... how much over a billion will they go? (Year end figures for 2006 were $933 million, with two thirds of that coming in the second half of the year; if the pattern persists, Canada's looking at a billion and a half in sales by the end of the year. Go Bungie!) Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 14:44:45 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespot passes over Halo
Gamespot posted their E3 2007 Editors' Choice Awards - and Halo 3 didn't do so well. It didn't even make the finalists for 'Best Shooter' (though it did make the finalist list for 'Best Xbox 360 Game'). Halo Wars was in the finalist list for 'Best Strategy Game'. Thanks, The 7th Knight. (Louis Wu 13:22:08 UTC) (permalink)

Defamation
Mister Froggy let us know that Halo, Articulated #59 is up - that poor Arbiter... (Louis Wu 12:51:45 UTC) (permalink)

Top 100 Best Games Ever - Maybe
Retro Remakes has queried "various members of the Indie community, Gibbage forums, a few commercial game developers, YakYak forums and [...] the wonderful readers of Retro Remakes" and come up with a list of the Top 100 Games Ever. Halo came in at 32, between Castlevania and Nethack. Thanks to MasterChief2829, who found this story at Videogamebloggers.com. (Louis Wu 11:40:36 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo 3 T at the Bungie Store
Did you like the simplicity of the original Halo 3 T-Shirt from the Bungie Store, but weren't so fond of the color scheme? It's now available in Ice Grey (in fact, once the current brown stock is sold, it'll ONLY be available in ice grey). Thanks, x1zero. (Louis Wu 11:25:12 UTC) (permalink)

Jasman's Halo Toys at SDCC
Action Figure Insider has an article about some upcoming Halo goodness to be seen at San Diego ComicCon this week - the Halo laser tag set from Jasman Toys, last mentioned a month ago, will be on display at the Tor Books booth. (These products, a plasma rifle and a plasma pistol, will be available in October, with an energy sword coming next year. The Jasman website has no information yet about the Halo stuff. (Louis Wu 11:20:14 UTC) (permalink)

Halo in Libraries?
An article in the Daily Herald (covering Cook County, IL, outside Chicago) lays out a situation in which a library in Mount Prospect, IL is planning a Halo tournament this weekend, but being fought by the National Institute on Media and the Family. The watchdog group believes that it's inappropriate for a library to host an event that uses a game with a Mature rating - even though the library has required permission slips, signed by parents, for all attendees. (The slips do not mention the rating of the game.) This library held its first Halo tournament several months ago - with no complaints, and in fact with parental praise. (Louis Wu 11:03:36 UTC) (permalink)

News July 23 2007

GCA Nominees Posted
Nominations for the 2007 Game Critics Awards have been posted (thanks, Kotaku) - Halo 3 is up for 'Best Action Game' and 'Best Online Multiplayer Game', and Halo Wars is up for 'Best Strategy Game'. Winners will be announced July 31. Good luck to both games! (Louis Wu 22:45:59 UTC) (permalink)

bug-infused BS
broony noticed that the next episode of the Bungie Podcast is now up - 67 minutes and 60 mb of (presumably) awesome discussion. (I haven't listened to it yet, figuring it was probably good enough that you'd rather hear about it 67 minutes earlier, sans review, than wait.) Go listen! (Louis Wu 22:20:22 UTC) (permalink)

oDinzu Betatage
trigger119 points out oDinzu's Betatage, over at GamingTV - video quality isn't really high, but gameplay's quite good. About 25 mb, in WMP9, QT, or Flash. (Louis Wu 22:08:14 UTC) (permalink)

A Well Oiled Unit.
Stuntmutt was taken with the cover for 'Contact Harvest' - check out today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:10:29 UTC) (permalink)

This Spartan Life challenges Dems
Chris Burke, of This Spartan Life, is asking the Democratic candidates in the '08 presidential race where they stand on Net Neutrality; you can see a Youtube version of the video in This Spartan Life's 1UP club. It'll be interesting to see if he gets any responses! Thanks, Sgt. Hartsock. (Louis Wu 15:03:04 UTC) (permalink)

The Halo Project Party
Adreniline is putting together a Flash collaboration, set to the Halo 3 E3 trailer. It's not finished yet - but there's some pretty nice work so far! (Louis Wu 14:57:57 UTC) (permalink)

And Cortana in a Tree.
It's nowhere near Christmas - but Nox Invictus has written 'The Twelve Days of Halo' anyway. (Louis Wu 14:56:29 UTC) (permalink)

How do these people get jobs?
Wow. There's a pretty astoundingly rude editorial over at Daily Game today - I can't call it news, because it reads more like a forum rant than anything else. I'm actually sort of surprised to see something like this on a big-name gaming site.

But you, in turn, must fully understand that online co-op was quite the only feature missing from Halo 2 that we wanted in Halo 3. Well, and an ending. Recorded videos? Optional. Shiny, HDR-lit barrels? Optional. New vehicles and weapons? Optional. Give us online co-op, Bungie. Prove to us that you're not so wrapped-up in your own perceived greatness that you actually listen to your consumers.

As one of those consumers, I've got to say that some of those 'optional' features are NOT optional for me - but the difference is, I understand that I speak for me, whereas the author of this piece believes he speaks for the Halo community. (There's nothing wrong with making your wishes known. DEMANDING features in an upcoming game - with an empty threat of brand abandonment behind the demand, and with snide comments about how Bungie's not actually doing anything except eating pizza in their studio - is just plain foolish.) (Louis Wu 14:07:25 UTC) (permalink)

News July 22 2007

Carbon Does Dallas
Congratulations to Carbon, who beat Final Boss 6-2 in the MLG Championship at Dallas! (Louis Wu 23:28:31 UTC) (permalink)

Cortana 3.0
Ms. Valentine will be at the San Diego ComicCon this week - and on one day she'll be going as Cortana. If you have a Red vs Blue account, you can read her journal entry about the changes she's made to the costume - but if you don't, here's the bottom line: This is what it used to look like (64k), and here's what it looks like after a 7+ hour paint job (full body, 56k | closeup, 100k). AWESOME! (Louis Wu 18:52:33 UTC) (permalink)

The Riot 57
Sigafoos sent along his weekly notice about The Riot Podcast - Episode 57 is now out, 35 minutes (14 mb) of community news, plus word of an exclusive Treeskunk video and a new composition from Sean Mortensen, composed for Second Foundation. Go listen! (Louis Wu 18:43:45 UTC) (permalink)

Skav's Puzzle, Solved
Back in Late June, Skavenger kicked off a puzzle on our forum - it was a word search, but the writeup made it clear that there was more to it than that. The deadline for the solution was a bit over a week ago - he's now sent in a full solution, for those who are interested. (And there's a bonus - goatrope got the right answer, but not the way Skav intended him to get it. Details are at the bottom of the solution page.) (Louis Wu 16:18:13 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Renders Website
ratboy stopped by to point out a new website from his stepbrother, Ross Gemuend - it's full of new renders and movies that should be of interest to the Halo community. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 15:45:23 UTC) (permalink)

I think you have to be like Steel for full enjoyment
Sane Intolerant let us know about two new Halo Toy Box episodes (The Day That All Are One and Destroy The Evil Forces), continuing the Halo/Transformers story. (Louis Wu 15:09:07 UTC) (permalink)

Perceiving the Dimensions of IRIS
If you're one of the people who's heard of the Iris ARG, but aren't sure what's been going on, DHalo and Ibeechu put together a video summarizing the scope to date. You can find a link on our ARGs forum. (Louis Wu 14:46:40 UTC) (permalink)

NartFOpc Am Win
NartFOpc came up with the solution to ManKitten's Halo Treasure Hunt last night - for his troubles, he got a gorgeous certificate, and (for everyone else) a listing of what all the clues meant. Whee! (Louis Wu 14:43:13 UTC) (permalink)

Podtacular Episode 120 Part 2 of 2
Big Goalie Dan mentioned that Podtacular Episode 120 Part 2 of 2 is now out - another 40 mb, more discussion about the E3 goodness. (Louis Wu 14:39:57 UTC) (permalink)

Singapore Magazine Scans
It's been an awfully long time since we added scanned material to our Press Scans section - but this weekend, SPU7N1K sent along two articles he'd scanned from Singapore magazines. The first is old - it's an October 2004 issue of PlayWorks magazine, and it covers Halo 2. The second is more recent - it's the July 2006 issue of GameAxis magazine, and it's about Halo 3. Go read! (Louis Wu 14:10:20 UTC) (permalink)

News July 21 2007

Halo Wars Details from Ensemble
CVG has a nice interview with Chris Rippy and Graham Devine, of the Ensemble team putting together Halo Wars - go give it a read! (Louis Wu 21:01:13 UTC) (permalink)

TTL L askan's Halo 3 Montage
Hoovaloov, a TTL Gunslinger, spent 40 days or so refining the Halo 3 Beta gameplay footage of his clanmate TTL L askan, coming out with a montage that's actually really nicely put together. (Some of the music choices I might question... but the editing is great.) Check it out - there are a number of links for downloads or streaming flash viewing in his forum post. (Louis Wu 20:15:22 UTC) (permalink)

Scythopolis update
Rob Oplawar posted an update for Scythopolis, his single player level mod for Halo 2 Vista. There's even a new screenshot to look at (though it's linked from the main page, rather than the Photos page, of the Scythopolis website. Take a look! (Louis Wu 19:00:12 UTC) (permalink)

Awards from IGN/TXB
3Suns summarized the awards Halo 3 picked up from IGN and TeamXbox in their respective E3 Awards. Didn't do too badly! (Louis Wu 14:17:16 UTC) (permalink)

Free Spartan For All
Very cool - Thos created a foldable Master Chief. Check out his post - then grab the file and get to work! (Louis Wu 14:15:23 UTC) (permalink)

Glad it didn't go that way.
Gladiatrrr3000 took another look at a cutscene from Halo 2. Heh. Update: He's added a strip called 'Asster Chief, #1'. (Louis Wu 14:10:36 UTC) (permalink)

Treasure Hunt Clues 6/7
ManKitten has posted the penultimate set of clues for his 7-day Halo Treasure Hunt - check back tomorrow for the final group! (Louis Wu 13:46:35 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Uprising #1 Preview
IGN has a new preview of Halo: Uprising #1 - minor spoilers, I guess, though it's more of a teaser than anything. Thanks, crouchosarus. (Louis Wu 13:44:33 UTC) (permalink)

Delusions of Grandeur
It's Comic Morning, I guess - Mister Froggy pointed out Halo, Articulated #58, in which Master Chief gives hope to the little guy. (Louis Wu 13:13:09 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Toy Box - Nerds Needed
Sane Intolerant let us know that Halo Toy Box has two new strips for you - Can't Stay Worlds Apart and Until Our Darkest Hour - Halo meets Transformers. (Louis Wu 13:11:07 UTC) (permalink)

Halo has a few cinematic moments, says GS
Gamespy has posted a Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments article - theHalo Wars trailer came in 25th, the Halo E3 2000 demo nabbed 22nd, the Halo 2 'Riding the Pickle' cutscene fell in at 19th, and the Halo 3 CG commercial was at 17th. Nothing above that, unfortunately. Thanks, Stephen Edgar. Update: Morpheus points out that we already covered this, 3 months ago. Oops! (Louis Wu 13:06:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars E3 Review
Shacknews posted a First Look of Halo Wars, from E3 - they liked it quite a lot. Go read! (Louis Wu 13:01:46 UTC) (permalink)

News July 20 2007

I think I'll call you... Pumbaa.
The Bungie Weekly Update is up over on Bungie.net - and it does a bunch of stuff. It tries to talk reason into people screaming about how much Bungie sucks for cutting online co-op (heh - yeah, right), it teases you with a 'regular schedule' for the Bungie podcast, it tantalizes with information about new behaviors of the Energy Sword, it transmogrifies reality with images of a real-life Warthog, it triggers excitement in people living in (or near) specific cities, and it tortures you with Mister Chief 'artwork'. (And even more, but I ran out of T words.) Go read - either at Bungie.net or in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 23:58:03 UTC) (permalink)

Getting Ready for MLG Dallas
3Suns let us know that even though he's been lax about sending in links to new content at MLGPro.com, the MLG guys have his back - there's a directory of Pre-Dallas info up for your perusing pleasure. So go peruse! (Louis Wu 19:53:55 UTC) (permalink)

Treasure Hunt Clues 5/7
Almost forgot to mention - ManKitten posted Day 5's clues for his Halo Treasure Hunt on our forum. Should be getting close to the last few choices by now... (Louis Wu 19:31:59 UTC) (permalink)

Grunt And Groan.
I swear, if I hear today's One One Se7en dialogue in Halo 3, I'm going to hunt down Joe Staten and kill him. (Louis Wu 18:49:59 UTC) (permalink)

Shield World Battle
Sean Mortensen has been composing music in tribute to Ghosts of Onyx for almost three weeks now - his final piece, 'Shield World Battle', goes online today. You'll find it, with all of his other GoO pieces, on this page. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 18:36:40 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fanfic
Fourteen new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 17:49:58 UTC) (permalink)

Name Halo 3 Launch Day/Week!
Sketchfactor stopped by last night to mention that Bungie and Microsoft are planning a week-long launch celebration for this game - but that they don't have a name that's catchy enough yet. Do you have a suggestion? Check the thread (to make sure your idea isn't already posted), then throw something into the hat! I've read all the ones that are posted at this point - 80 messages, many with multiple suggestions - and while there are some clever ones, I haven't seen any that absolutely grabbed me (not that it's MY choice, anyway). So there's time - read Sketch's post, and get those creative juices flowing! (Louis Wu 12:46:22 UTC) (permalink)

AusGamers look at Halo 3
One more E3 demo writeup, this one from AusGamers. Update: and yet another - from MTV (thanks, Anton P. Nym). (Louis Wu 12:30:42 UTC) (permalink)

EGM Covers (yes, plural) revealed
DHalo noticed a story at 1UP about the upcoming EGM - more info coming soon, but right now, a look at the three covers for this issue. GORGEOUS! (Louis Wu 12:22:18 UTC) (permalink)

Bendis on Uprising
Newsarama interviewed Michael Bendis about his work on the upcoming Halo comic miniseries from Marvel. Great interview, with nice story tidbits (no real spoilers, but an overview of how they attacked the problem), and some very cool artwork. Check it out! Thanks, Wolverine Monkey. (Louis Wu 12:20:14 UTC) (permalink)

It's a Halo BETA
Bzerker was the first to point out 'It's a Halo BETA', a new Flash video at Newgrounds. It's just a teaser to a longer vid (not finished yet) - but it looks pretty promising! (Louis Wu 11:14:34 UTC) (permalink)

News July 19 2007

The Unchosen - Mjolnir, Complete
Whoa. I hate it when things get away from me. In mid-June, we received a really cool CD (outside, 166k | inside, 150k) from The Unchosen, a UK band who's been in our news before. They wrote a song called 'Mjolnir' (news | news), and then commissioned Paul Davies to create cool cover artwork. The CD contains all of that artwork, plus 5 separate versions of the song (including a 'Mojo Megamix' - you gotta hear it to understand) - all five can be downloaded on their website. (If you like their style, check out their debut album, 'In My Head'.) I feel bad that it took me so long to get this online - but I love seeing what Halo can inspire in creative people. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:51:17 UTC) (permalink)

Ghosts of Onyx Suite, Pegasi Delta Assault
We have still MORE scores inspired by Ghosts of Onyx, from Sean Mortensen - there's Pegasi Delta Assault (3:07 long, 2.8 mb), and the Ghosts of Onyx Suite (10:43 long, 9.8 mb). Looks like we're going to need to set up a page for organization soon! (Louis Wu 16:14:20 UTC) (permalink)

Milking the Golden Cow
Great quote from Shane Kim, in an interview with Wired:

"...this is our belief. We love our Halo fans. And the Halo fans are generally willing to spend a lot of money on Halo. But you have to be careful in how you take advantage of that."

I hope they continue to remember this concept. (He's discussing the pricing of the Limited Edition Halo 3 Xbox 360, which will clearly cost less than an Elite.) Thanks, LostRock11. (Louis Wu 16:00:16 UTC) (permalink)

Grunt Plushie Templates
A couple of days ago, we mentioned Horus' Grunt Plushie - he stopped by this morning to let people know he'd put up some rough templates, if you want to create your own. Nice! (Louis Wu 14:01:36 UTC) (permalink)

Treasure Hunt Clues: Day 4/7
ManKitten posted Day 4's clues for his Halo Treasure Hunt on our forum - you've now got 16 clues, are you getting warmer? (Louis Wu 13:56:46 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Blooper Reel Deuce
Sane Intolerant let us know that a new episode of Halo Toy Box has been released - he promises that he didn't see a similar strip from Mister Froggy's Halo, Articulated until AFTER this was posted. (Louis Wu 13:55:26 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 in Gamespy's E3 Awards
Gamespy announced their E3 Awards - Halo 3 pulled down #5 in the Top 5 360 Games category, and #6 in the Overall Top 10. According to the judges, a strong field of contenders, rather than any shortcoming in Halo 3, kept it from climbing higher on those lists. Thanks, Milhouse. (Louis Wu 13:50:37 UTC) (permalink)

What's next? The Halo Party game?
1UP talked to Shane Kim about the 'overstretching' of the Halo brand - Kim says with a franchise worth four or five billion dollars to Microsoft, diluting it with low-quality properties would be foolish. Good to hear, I guess... (Louis Wu 13:45:36 UTC) (permalink)

UGO's Favorite Outer Space Adventures
UGO has decided to take a look at their favorite outer space adventures - their list contains 4 movies, one TV show... and Halo. Nice! (Louis Wu 13:40:56 UTC) (permalink)

This Online Coop thing is making me crazy.
Wow. Before I get to actually posting news today, I would like to beg for a little more rationality in the gaming press. I simply CANNOT BELIEVE how many articles are out there this morning that say "Bungie has cancelled online Coop!" (To be fair, there are a number of sites that present the news as a possibility - which it is, of course - and some sites, like Kotaku, who are even reasonable about it all - but for the most part, it's all gloom and doom this morning.) The facts: this information is coming from the September issue of EGM - an issue that isn't even printed yet. Someone at the printer grabbed unbound pages and snapped blurry photos of them - EGM is taking a HUGE hit for this, and I hope that when this issue hits the stands in early August, folks buy it, because they've been robbed. But that's really a side issue, I guess. The comments on online coop, made by Frankie to the EGM crew, were made a month ago - they were collecting info for this article during the week of June 19. It's POSSIBLE that that particular info is still accurate - but it's equally possible that it's not. (Magazine print deadlines make it hard to keep up on fast-changing info. This is the primary reason there are embargoes on press information; if they didn't exist, magazines could never compete with online sources, because the info would have been published weeks earlier. Bungie does a great job of making sure that what you read in magazines is, for the most part, news to you - but if the subject is a work in progress (like online coop), there's only so much prediction that can go on.) Bottom line: in mid-June, online coop was not working very well. Whether that's changed in the intervening month, we don't know - we won't know until either Bungie makes a public statement (possible, but I wouldn't hold my breath), or Halo 3 is released. What you can't say with any confidence is that "AS OF RIGHT NOW, ONLINE COOP IS OUT" - because that comment is a month out of date. (Louis Wu 13:22:24 UTC) (permalink)

News July 18 2007

Maybe if he'd brought a Grunt canister...
Whoa, very cool. El Burritoh climbed near the top of Mt. Fuji, in Japan... and took Master Chief with him. Nice pics! (Louis Wu 21:31:24 UTC) (permalink)

Clarification on the Saved Films Issue
Frankie has clarified the '100 item limit' on uploaded films and screenshots for Halo 3; the limit is per profile, and it should be possible to juggle between profiles. Since anyone with a 360 can make Silver profiles for free, you should be able to, with a bit of extra work, save additional films in profiles created just for that purpose. (If this 'issue' is news to you, check last Friday's Bungie Weekly Update. Search for 'Reports surfaced' on the update page.) (Louis Wu 21:25:20 UTC) (permalink)

Treasure Hunt Clues: Day 3/7
ManKitten has posted clues for Day 3 of his 7 day Halo Treasure Hunt - this batch includes an awesome video. Who knew hornets died at 117 degrees? Go join in the hunt! (Louis Wu 21:21:12 UTC) (permalink)

4.2.6.8.6.
Remember this? Now we've got this. (Louis Wu 20:23:36 UTC) (permalink)

More Marathon Survivor Pics
If you read Bungie's interview with Freeverse's Bruce Morrison, you got to see a few screens of new levels they'd created specifically for their new 'Survivor Mode'. Well... we've got a few more. Plus wireframes of the levels, as overviews. Check 'em out! (Thanks, Luke and Bruce.) (Louis Wu 19:59:57 UTC) (permalink)

Calling For Back Up.
One of the scenes we caught of glimpse of in the recent Halo 3 E3 Trailer was of Cortana, collapsing in front of the Chief. Luckily, the Chief isn't quite as clueless as the hero of One One Se7en... (Louis Wu 19:55:39 UTC) (permalink)

Legendary Tattoo
Devastator sent along a pair of pictures (shot 1 | shot 2) of a new tattoo he got in Las Vegas last week - this was done at the 'Hart & Huntington' tattoo parlor in The Palms Casino. (If you want to follow up, Joey did the work in about two hours.) Great shading! (Louis Wu 16:10:07 UTC) (permalink)

I've never seen that bottom 100 pointer before...
Whoa - this IS a little bizarre. 1Up has a web page for the August 2007 Issue of EGM, containing the extras they didn't put in the mag - and you can download a pair of Halo 3 Shooting-Range Targets (one a single page, one a 9-page PDF you print out and piece together). As Simpsons Rule points out, this isn't the first thing you think of when you think 'Halo 3 Branding'... (Louis Wu 14:51:19 UTC) (permalink)

Um, the dog ate the first copy
Fyrewulff wrote up a review of the Halo 3 Beta (yes, it ended almost 2 months ago; as he says, better late than never) - you can read it at Platformers.net. (Louis Wu 14:44:30 UTC) (permalink)

Podtacular 119 Part 1 of 2
Podtacular is releasing Episode 19 in two sections, because there's so much to talk about (it's basically a discussion of the E3 stuff - trailer, Arms Race, new console, etc). Halo Unyielding's Laird is guest host. Part 1 is up now, a 40 mb download. Part 2 should be coming soon. Thanks, Big Goalie Dan. (Louis Wu 14:09:14 UTC) (permalink)

Uprising Release Updates
The last time we mentioned the Halo: Uprising, a couple of weeks ago, there wasn't any information about issue 4. Since then, Marvel's posted an info page for the issue (it's coming out on October 31, barring delays - thanks, DHalo) - but they've also adjusted release dates of the first three issues. The first issue is now pushed back to August 8, issue 2 is expected August 29, and issue 3 should be out by September 29. (2 and 3 haven't actually changed recently - but they might, as their release dates get closer.) (Louis Wu 13:50:54 UTC) (permalink)

Arbiter Rookie Card - Totally Rare
Littlebigman pointed out new Halo schwag, coming in September - Halo Topps Trading Cards. Collect your favorites! Update: Cybrfrk pointed out that these were mentioned back in June (though there's new info now). (Louis Wu 13:41:28 UTC) (permalink)

Upcoming Halo 3 Downloadable Goodies
DHalo noticed a story at wonderwallweb.com - starting tomorrow, you'll be able to download some 'exclusive content' from a site on msn.com, including a Halo 3 ringtone for your phone. The website is up now, though the downloads page isn't - you can read an interview with Frankie, a preview of the first level from E3, and a discussion with celebrities about what Halo does for them. Don't forget to stop back tomorrow for the downloads! Update: Looks like the downloadable stuff is up, a bit early. Thanks, DC Tactical. (Warning - more than one forumgoer was disappointed by the offerings.) (Louis Wu 13:19:05 UTC) (permalink)

News July 17 2007

The Best Marathon Experience To Date
Not STRICTLY Halo-related... but it's still worth knowing about (Marathon is, after all, the precursor to your favorite first-person shooter): Luke Smith sat down with Bruce Morrison, of Freeverse, to talk about Marathon: Durandal for XBLA. Great read - get psyched for release! (Louis Wu 22:41:14 UTC) (permalink)

An Edible Masterpiece.
This is simply astounding. Will sent us a link to a video he created to show off a Halo cake he made for a friend. It's... amazing. You have to watch it. It's available at break.com, in Flash format, or you can download it from us in WMP9 format (20.2 mb) or QuickTime format (21.8 mb). This is absolutely the most impressive Halo cake I've ever seen. (Louis Wu 15:41:12 UTC) (permalink)

Digging in for the details
There are a couple of pretty in-depth looks at the E3 trailer - one is from Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, and comes complete with pictures, the other is from Red Leader, over on the Bungie.net forums. Different viewpoints, a LOT of details. Go see what you can find. (Louis Wu 14:57:15 UTC) (permalink)

Twisted Shadows Trailer
eternalscrappy made a trailer for a machinima project he doesn't plan on actually making. It's called Twisted Shadows, and I liked it - I'd love to see the final product. (Yes, I understand that there isn't one.) Local mirrors (WMP9 and QT) are in this post. (Louis Wu 13:53:08 UTC) (permalink)

For the sake of screaming
IceWeasel's back, with a 1.3 mb beauty of stop-motion action. It's... not what you'd expect. (Louis Wu 13:33:59 UTC) (permalink)

Plush Covenant
Wow. Horus stopped by to let us know he'd made a grunt plushie out of scrap materials (check out that needler!)... and his sister made a hunter plushie. I can't believe I STILL can't buy something like this! These are awesome. (Louis Wu 13:15:04 UTC) (permalink)

HAFTed.
You know - I'm pretty good about keeping up with comic strips that folks tell me about. I'm even pretty good at reading Elnea's Halo Action Figure Theater as it's released... but for some reason, I never remember to POST about that one. Elnea's come to my rescue, by pointing out the last few strips herself. She mentions that the most recent strips are somewhat surreal - I'd have to agree. Definitely funny, though. (You need to read the whole story, though; don't start at the end.) (Louis Wu 12:48:14 UTC) (permalink)

Trouble Brewing
Mister Froggy let us know about Halo, Articulated #57 - there's been some discussion about Grunts fighting on both sides of the upcoming battles in Halo 3, and this strip suggests one reason why. (Louis Wu 12:44:30 UTC) (permalink)

Tiiiiiiieeeed.... the Leader!
It's Tuesday, so it's time for a Tied the Leader update - XerxdeeJ stopped by to provide one. There's a shout-out to the clans that met them honorably on the field of battle, and there's a plea, of sorts, that Halo 3 will contain some sort of Clan system built into it. Go read! (Louis Wu 12:42:14 UTC) (permalink)

Treasure Hunt Clues: Day 2/7
ManKitten has posted Day 2's clues for his Treasure Hunt on our forum - this batch seems to rule out a LOT of levels. Go see if it helps you! (Louis Wu 12:34:38 UTC) (permalink)

Pixel Wars
BBC has posted a piece on game trailers, and how important they've become in the marketing process. It compares Killzone 2 and Halo 3, and the offerings both had at E3. Kroll GB is tickled by the fact that some of the quotes used in the piece were taken from our front page, and from our forum. (As for my words being used out of context - I think they were trying to make the point that Bungie has impossible expectations to live up to; I think that's an accurate point. I have an enormous amount of faith that Halo 3 will blow me away - but I think there are fans out there who've made themselves believe that Halo 3 will be all that, AND cook them breakfast.) (Louis Wu 12:33:08 UTC) (permalink)

6 months. You can write a book in 6 months.
Imagine my horror and dismay when I discovered that the Wallpaper section hadn't been updated since JANUARY! January. That's beyond careless. That's just silly. Well, I've gathered up everything in the queue, up till now, and posted them all up on the page - many of those images have multiple versions, so check for the size you're looking for. And please - accept my humble apologies for the ridiculous queue time. I blame KP. (Louis Wu 01:48:17 UTC) (permalink)

Don't talk back to pretty lady inside head!
elitewarrior117 found something you shouldn't watch. Unless you like karate/spartan exploitation films. Set up for E3, it's just... wrong. Update: doober187 pointed out this vid, as well, and on a far less silly note, the playing of Corporeal in the first few minutes of the first video on this page. (Louis Wu 01:39:37 UTC) (permalink)

A Narrow Squeak.
latekid wanted to know what happened to the daily comic. After you read the most recent One One Se7en, maybe you'll understand why I blocked its posting out of my mind. (Louis Wu 01:31:59 UTC) (permalink)

News July 16 2007

Halo 3 Beta musings in The Blue Skittle 02
The Blue Skittle has published their July issue - swing by their website to download it in PDF format. It contains a series of articles and interviews about the Halo 3 Beta, along with other gaming stuff. (It's more about gaming communities than games.) Thanks, kilaMOMjaro. (Gonna try out that fudge recipe, too...) (Louis Wu 21:25:11 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Dallas Preview
Over at Amped eSports, Andz wrote a preview of the key matches to watch in the upcoming MLG Dallas tourney this weekend. Go read! (Louis Wu 21:13:08 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Inspires Body Art
Master NOODLE stopped by with a picture of a new tattoo he got this weekend. While we're showing off tattoos, our woefully underattended Uploads folder contained two more pics - one from zach "xhostilex" kelsey, who's been working on a Halo 2 sleeve tattoo on his right leg (he's trying to prove that he is Halo's ultimate fan - and dang, this is a great start), and another from Elite BoB, who's sad that his girlfriend thinks he's a loser now. (Cheer up, BoB - that's an awesome job.) (Louis Wu 18:19:17 UTC) (permalink)

Testing Your Halo Reasoning
Last year, ManKitten set up a treasure hunt on our forum - he provided clues, forumgoers guessed what they referred to. There was no prize other than feeling good about your Halo knowledge. (It happened the year before, as well - a link can be found in the news post for last year.) It's that time again - so he's kicked off the 3rd Annual Treasure Hunt - go see what you can figure out! (Louis Wu 15:15:47 UTC) (permalink)

Some of the best games you'll ever see
411Mania.com has a summary of the best of E3, and although they felt that Microsoft had blown their chance at locking up the console wars, and although they were VERY unhappy with the Halo 3 trailer, they STILL rated Halo 3 as Best of Show. Heh - not bad. (Louis Wu 12:19:12 UTC) (permalink)

Halo, Master Chief
You might remember a link we posted last week - a very nice Master Chief drawing at DeviantART. The artist is back, with an awesome piece, created for the San Diego Comic Con - check it out! Thanks, Tactic. (Louis Wu 12:09:02 UTC) (permalink)

Gamepro Campaign Preview
Gamepro has posted a Halo 3 Campaign Preview, primarily based on the demo given to the press at E3, but including, apparently, information about the REST of the game, as well. (The conclusion of our forum denizens is that they've extrapolated this information from some of the leaks that took place around the Halo 3 beta - information gleaned from extracted maps, the Achievements list that showed up on Xbox.com, and so on - but if you want to be certain that you're not spoiled with ACTUAL Halo 3 story details, you should skip this read.) Thanks, MasterChief2829. (Louis Wu 12:06:01 UTC) (permalink)

...and to the ash we shall return.
Speaking of odd images... we got this one tonight. Ton of clues in there... I gotta say, it looks exciting. (Louis Wu 03:55:15 UTC) (permalink)

Uh oh...
sui, on irc, pointed out this link at the Bungie.net forums - this is a little creepy. Pan out... and you'll find you're in Baghdad. Whoa. (Louis Wu 03:45:45 UTC) (permalink)

When it starts to suck, they'll stop
Frank O'Connor talked to Joystiq about the future, including some interesting answers about the upcoming Peter Jackson project. Go read! Thanks, Mike Smith. (Louis Wu 03:15:29 UTC) (permalink)

News July 15 2007

The Riot 56
Sigafoos sent the heads-up on The Riot 56 - 45 minutes, 18 mb, filled with clan challenges, E3 news, and stuff that like that. (Louis Wu 18:45:49 UTC) (permalink)

A look at campaign trailers over the years
Ever since the E3 trailer was released last week, I've seen occasional 'it doesn't feel right' posts describing the emotions generated by the trailer (usually comparing it to older Halo trailers). Some fans have assumed that this 'offness' is due to a lack of time, or effort, by the crew putting together the trailer - but that crew is Film Oasis, the guys behind quite a few bits of Halo goodness over the years. They're not known for their shoddiness. Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, has looked at ALL major Halo trailers, starting at the 1999 MacWorld trailer, and has come up with a different explanation - the Halo 3 trailers, both the announcement trailer at E3 06 and the current E3 07 trailer, are built in such a way that while fans can get a sense for what Halo 3 might have in store for them, it's hard to build false expectations and hopes based on what we've been given. That is: you won't be hearing a lot of 'but I really wanted to play that level! Bungie cheated me!' complaints, as you did after Halo 2 was released (without the E3 03 level in it). Go read it - it's pretty interesting. (Louis Wu 17:42:56 UTC) (permalink)

E3 Halo 3 Demo... audio
The guys at Gamersyde honored the 'no filming of the screen' rule during their private Halo 3 gameplay demo at E3 last week - but they DID film Frankie's face as he played. You can hear all the content, which is what has many people excited. (The rest - the ones who are excited by 9 minutes of Frankie's face - those people disturb me.) Thanks to many - Mortalis Deus was first. (Louis Wu 16:37:18 UTC) (permalink)

News July 14 2007

...For the Sake of Yelling
Okay, that IceWeasel guy... he's just crazy. Makes me laugh... but he's crazy. He's followed up '...For the Sake of Talking' (released last week) with ...For the Sake of Yelling. It's only 80 seconds long, but there are a number of WTF moments in there. And flying weapons. And stuff. (Louis Wu 23:13:03 UTC) (permalink)

More Ghosts of Onyx Music
Sean Mortensen continues his musical tributes to Ghosts of Onyx - today there's a theme for Lucy (mp3, 1 mb), and one for the Spartan III program (mp3, 2.5 mb). Give a listen! (Louis Wu 20:42:11 UTC) (permalink)

ESRB ratings - and what they mean to you
You know... normally I would have let this slide, because we've already posted about the news that this article is ostensibly about, but there's a comment that I simply don't feel comfortable letting by. Xboxer put up a news post about the Jeff Bell comment to Major Nelson which many sites have been interpreting as possible confirmation of 4-player coop (we put up a note last night), and in it they commented on the ESRB rating it looks like Halo 3 will get:

Halo 3 is likely to receive an ESRB rating of "M" for Mature, just like its two predecessors. According to this official guidelines, titles with this rating "have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language."

Bell's three sons are aged 10, 14, and 18, so he's basically making a public statement of his intention to ignore the parental guidelines laid down by a regulatory body. That's fine for Joe Public, but not so good when you're in the business of making videogames and should be setting a public example.

I'd like to point out that ESRB's guidelines are exactly that - guidelines. Choosing to play an M-rated game with your sub-17-year-old children (or, for that matter, a T-rated game with your sub-13-year-old kids) does not mean you're 'ignoring the guidelines' - it means you've considered them, and chosen to override them. Mr. Bell did not say "yeah, I think my kids are gonna be playing that Halo game" - he talked about playing the game WITH them. He knows what's in it, he knows his children, and he's made a decision that the game is appropriate for them. And that is absolutely the perogative (indeed, the JOB) of a parent. Okay, enough editorializing on the news page. Sorry. I just thought that needed to be clarified. (Louis Wu 20:18:53 UTC) (permalink)

Single Player Writeups
1Up has a writeup of the level one demo that many press folks saw at E3. So does Too Opinionated Gaming. So does Ars Technica (which uses the article to mention the Saved Film editor and the playable gravity hammer, as well). And Wired. ActionTrip was there (they have a separate writeup of the Halo Wars demo, as well). And our very own mnemesis spent Friday afternoon in a Santa Monica hotel room. Everybody brings their own take to these sorts of demos; some of these are short reads, nothing more than an overview, while others are in-depth looks at what's changed and what hasn't. (I might be biased, but I found mnem's writeup to be the best overview of this batch; he didn't try to provide a summary of the actual gameplay, but instead tried to focus on how the new features of Halo 3, as shown in this demo, affected the actual gameplay.) Go read up. Update: One more, this one from Eurogamer (thanks, 3Suns) - nicely written, lots of detail. (Louis Wu 13:03:13 UTC) (permalink)

Moore discusses demand for the Halo 3 360
Gizmodo talked to Peter Moore about the 'tepid reaction' the audience had to his unveiling of the Halo 3 Xbox 360 at the Microsoft Press Conference last Tuesday. Moore wrote it off to his poor showmanship, rather than a true indication of the demand for this product. Either way, it'll be available for preorder soon - we'll know which is the true interpretation. (Louis Wu 12:47:01 UTC) (permalink)

Recording through Socks
Mintz tells us that the next 'regularly scheduled podcast' is now available at Halo: Portable. They discuss a bunch of stuff (itemized on that link page above.) Hmm... given that the last one was in late February, I suppose you can expect Episode 10 to show up some time near Christmas. (Louis Wu 12:40:33 UTC) (permalink)

Leaks Will not be Tolerated
Mister Froggy let us know about Halo, Articulated #56 - Bungie didn't give you the dialogue that goes with some of the scenes in the recent Halo 3 trailer, but one of them is unveiled here for you. (Louis Wu 12:34:59 UTC) (permalink)

4 person co-op... confirmed?
Hmm... Either Jeff Bell (Microsoft VP) slipped up and admitted something he shouldn't be talking about... or we're just misunderstanding the context. UNSCleric.com picked up a throwaway comment at the end of an interview Jeff gave to Major Nelson - and in it he seems to be saying that Halo 3 will have 4-person co-op. (Bungie has confirmed that Co-op will be in Halo 3 - but past that basic fact, NOTHING has been confirmed; we don't know how many people will be able to play cooperatively, and we don't know whether they'll be confined to a single 360, or will be able to play via system link, or online. So this tidbit, if true and being interpreted correctly, adds a tiny bit to our overall knowledge base.) Found this at Digg. (Louis Wu 01:11:54 UTC) (permalink)

Friday the Thirteenth, Bungie Style
The Bungie Weekly Update is up now (both at Bungie, and in our Weekly Update Archive) - a nice summary of how the week went for Brian and Frankie, down in LA at E3, plus an awesome shot of the cover for this fall's Halo novel. Go read! Avateur was first with the notice. (Louis Wu 01:01:19 UTC) (permalink)

News July 13 2007

H2V Artist talks about the game
Spong has an interview with Colin Riley, Technical Artist for Halo 2 Vista, covering the game and how some decisions about it were made. For a technical artist, he certainly seems to have the marketingspeak down... (Louis Wu 19:37:34 UTC) (permalink)

Threshold Part 1
I seem to have misunderstood - Halopen's Threshold Part 1 is already out, and available on their website, in multiple formats. Very heavy on the effects, intriguing use of mods, nice cinematography. Story seems a bit slow, and somewhat capricious - but it's worth watching. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:48:26 UTC) (permalink)

Over His Head.
The puns in today's One One Se7en will make you wish Stuntmutt's paternity leave had been longer. Maybe if we all chip in... (Louis Wu 17:59:10 UTC) (permalink)

Awesome Chief
DarkSim noticed a piece of artwork at DeviantART created by the comic book artist Daniel Luvisi - It's a rendition of the Master Chief, and is listed as 'Sneak Peek'. More to come? (Louis Wu 17:56:11 UTC) (permalink)

Situational Awareness.
Boxer has returned to AiD (If you're too new to the HBO community to remember Adventures in Disaster, check our news archive - some of the links still work). COMIX! (Louis Wu 17:42:26 UTC) (permalink)

Arms Race, Re-edited
Geoff Chang re-edited the Arms Race video to be more 'propaganda-like', in his words. The end result is pretty interesting! There are two trailers in his first post, and another one in this post - all to the same movie, just different hosts/formats. Watch the one that works best for you. (Louis Wu 17:37:06 UTC) (permalink)

Threshold - It's Coming
bryboy remix sent word of a new film from Halopen - it's called Threshold, and it'll be out soon. (Today, probably.) Read this description for more details - and then keep your eyes peeled for the final product! (Louis Wu 14:56:57 UTC) (permalink)

New Bungie Renders
Yesterday, Bungie also updated its Renders section - there are three new images available, two Master Chief poses and a really cool Golden Brute. As with all new Bungie renders, these are placed on a black background - they look cool, but it makes them a bit harder to use for fan artwork purposes. Never fear, though - we've got your back. You can grab much higher resolution versions, in uncompressed layered TIFF format, here - but be warned, the three images, compressed, are STILL 25 mb. (These came out of the Xbox.com press kit - but we're saving you having to download the entire 250+ mb shebang; most of that size is for a bunch of uncompressed tiffs of the screenshots Bungie released a few days ago.) (Louis Wu 13:38:46 UTC) (permalink)

Dante's Theme
Sean Mortensen sent in another Ghosts of Onyx-inspired piece of music - this one is a theme for Dante, and weighs in at 3 mb. Go listen! (Louis Wu 13:29:51 UTC) (permalink)

Spoiler Alert - Covenant Newspapers in Halo 3
Oh, my goodness. The Bungie Podcast has returned! Luke Smith has taken the reins - and apparently plied SketchFactor and Frankie with a LOT of booze to get them to come back. (Lars Bakken is there as a chaperone, I think.) There's quite a bit of information buried among the trash talk. It's a fun listen - check it out! (Louis Wu 13:18:00 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fanfic
Nine new pieces available today in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 13:09:43 UTC) (permalink)

Lookin' at the new Halo 360
Bungie put up a ton of content yesterday - too bad I was away from the netterwebz. A promised article about the Halo 3 Xbox 360 went live - it's an interview with Aaron LeMay, Graphic Design Art Director for Bungie, a 'key point person' on the project. Because we haven't specifically pointed out full stats on this upcoming 360, we'll add a link to the official Xbox.com webpage for this item. (Louis Wu 12:57:31 UTC) (permalink)

Wearing a Hammer, Weilding a Hammer... Whoa
Joystiq has an article this morning about the Gravity Hammer, and its potential playability in Halo 3. Certainly don't bet your life savings or anything... but it's looking pretty likely that you'll be swinging that puppy later this year. (Louis Wu 12:50:16 UTC) (permalink)

Online Tourneys at Violated Gaming
Chad Souter let us know that Violated Gaming is allowing members to host Halo 2 tournaments free; even if you don't want to host, there's plenty to play. (Louis Wu 12:42:11 UTC) (permalink)

Gameplay, Saved Film Impressions
More websites have weighed in on both the after-show demo of the first level of Halo 3 in a hotel room (Gamespot, thanks Smurfa) and the saved film editing toys (Next Generation, Joystiq, TeamXbox). That must have been a busy hotel room! (Louis Wu 12:40:12 UTC) (permalink)

News July 12 2007

Eeyore coming off of a sugar high
Dolbex takes another look at the Halo movie, in light of the recent Arms Race. Go read his musings at NewsPail. (Louis Wu 14:04:21 UTC) (permalink)

Other views of Halo 3 Campaign
There are a couple of new writeups of the first level run-through that TeamXbox mentioned yesterday, along with some information about the detachable camera system - one article at Kotaku (thanks, Littlebigman), and another at GameDaily. Again, potential spoilers for folks not wanting to know ANYTHING. (IGN has an article devoted specifically to the video editor - no spoilers there.) (Louis Wu 11:59:18 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo Wars wallpapers
Marcus-626 pointed out yesterday that HaloWars had updated their site with two new 'World Concept' wallpapers. One shows a lava-filled desert scene, while the other looks like a toxic wasteland. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 11:49:20 UTC) (permalink)

Halo3E32007.mp3
Marty O'Donnell loves you. (Long time.) Check this. (Thanks to the master himself.) (Louis Wu 00:53:23 UTC) (permalink)

News July 11 2007

Arms Race - now in QT
Bungie has posted QuickTime versions of the Arms Race short - this is good, because I was trying to figure out if we had the bandwidth to supply these ourselves. Thanks, Mid7night. (Louis Wu 23:39:54 UTC) (permalink)

Marathon. Coming Soon to XBLA.
We didn't mention it last night, because we were afraid it was going to be buried in the Halo flood coming from the press conference... but another game announced during the evening was a title many thought they'd never see - Marathon 2 for Xbox Live Arcade. A spectacular homage to Halo's predecessor, this is being built by Freeverse - and more specifically, the developers working on it have been members of the Marathon community for pretty much as long as the Marathon community has existed. These guys are the hardest of the hardcore, and if ANYONE was gonna touch this property for XBLA... these are the guys you want doing it. You can check out the official page at Xbox.com, but you can get some special info (and a LOT of screenshots) in our gallery right here. (Louis Wu 20:55:21 UTC) (permalink)

It's Got a Powerful Thrust.
What... you thought we'd forget One One Se7en on this day of stupendous news? Nah - everyone needs a puerile sex joke occasionally. If you don't get it - you probably don't live in the UK. (Louis Wu 20:47:45 UTC) (permalink)

More music for GoO
Sean Mortensen continues to compose music for Ghosts of Onyx - he's released Spartans Never Die (4 mb) (written for Kurt), and Reclaimers (4.2 mb), written for Ash. Anyone with questions, comments, or suggestions can mail Sean. (Louis Wu 20:45:04 UTC) (permalink)

Awesome news - shorts coming all summer
That awfully cool short from Neill Blomkamp that was released yesterday? Looks like it's the first of a series. w00t! Thanks, Dry Ice. (Louis Wu 20:24:21 UTC) (permalink)

MLGPro stuff
3Suns let us know about a few things at MLGPro.com - a profile of synide, an audio interview with Legend, and some predictions about upcoming tourneys and the like. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:49:47 UTC) (permalink)

Montage Stuff from GTV
trigger119 pointed out a pair of montage vids hosted at GamingTV - the Eurotage, a Halo 3 Beta montage (that was first pointed out to me by synide, of MLGPro.com, actually), and a trailer for SiR Tyner's Montage 2. (Louis Wu 19:42:48 UTC) (permalink)

SBG Invitational FFA
Some non-E3 news in the queue - should clear this out too. Deadly Warrior let us know of an online Halo 2 tournament being put together by SBG Omega - swing by their forums for more details. (Louis Wu 19:39:52 UTC) (permalink)

Valhalla Shirt
x1zero noticed a new Valhalla shirt at the Bungie Store. (Louis Wu 19:27:48 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Details
If you're interested in Halo Wars, especially past the short (and abruptly-ended) trailer, you might want to read the articles at 1Up.com and the San Jose Mercury News - there are nice written descriptions of gameplay and the like. There's also new info at the newly-redesigned HaloWars.com - check out the 'Features' page, specifically. Good stuff all around! (Louis Wu 19:06:33 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Themed Xbox 360
One story we didn't get to yet involves the release of a Halo 3-themed Xbox 360. You can see pictures of it at Bungie.net right now, and there'll be a full article about it later today, but the basics are a small (20GB) drive, gorgeous Halo 3 styling, an HDMI port, and an undisclosed price. Reception has been mixed; many commenters are surprised it isn't coming bundled with Halo 3, and others are unhappy it doesn't have an HDMI cable included. It remains to be seen how things go once the price comes out. (Louis Wu 17:15:27 UTC) (permalink)

Video Analysis from Joystiq
Joystiq has put up a frame-by-frame analysis of the new trailer - I disagree with a ton of the commentary, but everyone's allowed their opinion. (Louis Wu 14:05:12 UTC) (permalink)

TXB watches some Campaign
TeamXbox got to watch a chunk of the first level of the game being played last night, after the Press Conference - and they've written up the experience. It IS only the first level - but story spoilers abound; skip this one if you want to experience it all first yourself. Thanks, Eddy 071. (Louis Wu 13:55:47 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars snippet
Over at GameVideos.com, there's short (31 second) trailer for Halo Wars; it seems to end rather abruptly, so it might be that there's some of it missing, but it's intriguing nonetheless. If you want to see how this RTS is coming along, grab this! (Louis Wu 06:59:19 UTC) (permalink)

Arms Race
Wow - spending so much time with the Halo 3 trailer, I've neglected to post a note about the Arms Race short. It's linked at the bottom of the Bungie.net Media Blowout page , and it's available (for now) only in WMP9 formats. It's the first Halo-related piece shown at the press conference earlier this evening, and it shows off what Neill Blomkamp might have done with the Halo movie, had it not been put on hiatus. It's rather astounding... go watch it. (Louis Wu 06:53:13 UTC) (permalink)

Torrents for QTs up
Apparently, a lot of you out there have never read Amaroq's rant about download accelerators - because a small handful of people are KILLING 300Mbit/sec's worth of bandwidth by using them. No, we're nowhere near maxed out on the servers - but when 3 IP addresses account for over 100 separate connections... well, servers die. These astoundingly discourteous people will likely not be persuaded to stop this evening, and there's no way I can put limiting software into play on short notice - so in order to give the rest of the world access to the QT versions, we've put torrents for the two larger files, and seeded them with decent amounts of bandwidth. You can find links on our Trailer Link page. (And if you're direct downloading with a download accelerator... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop. Thank you.) (Louis Wu 06:05:58 UTC) (permalink)

Screenshotty Goodness
If the movies weren't enough for you... check out the Screenshots gallery at Bungie.net. There are 8 gorgeous new shots for downloading... I'm drooling. (Louis Wu 05:20:33 UTC) (permalink)

E3 2007 Halo 3 Trailer
As expected, Bungie is making a splash at E3 2007 - one of the videos they're releasing will give you a fantastic two-minute taste of Halo 3 campaign... without really giving anything away about the story. (If you're adamant about NO spoilers, do NOT download this vid; it contains all sorts of weapons and... other things that have NOT been made public before now. However, when all is said and done, you will know nothing more about how Halo 3 will play out after you watch this than you do right now.) Bungie is serving WMP9 versions of this video from Bungie.net - but we know that there are plenty of Halo fans that love QuickTime, and we're here to help. You can download one of three flavors from us - a 320x180 version that weighs only 16.7 mb, for those on slower connections... a mid-sized 640x360, 41.6 mb version... and a huge, gorgeous, spectacular 720p version (1280x720, 107 mb). All three can be grabbed from this page. (Louis Wu 04:49:41 UTC) (permalink)

News July 10 2007

Good Things Coming
As you may or may not have known, E3 kicks off this evening, with a gigantic press conference from Microsoft happening at 8:30 Pacific time (that's 4:30 am for you folks in the UK). It'll be streamed live on Xbox.com, as well as via G4TV (both on TV and on their website). Sometime after that, there might be some new content for you to see on the web. Probably. Thanks Luke (via MasterChief2829). (Louis Wu 19:19:42 UTC) (permalink)

GT's Top Ten E3 Offerings
Gametrailers.com has put up a GT Countdown - a video detailing their picks for the Top Ten Most Anticipated Games of E3 2007, which kicks off this evening. Halo 3 comes in at number 7 - because, according to GT, there's "a feeling of sameness surrounding the game thus far." Ouch! Thanks, CHAOS1212. (Louis Wu 15:31:46 UTC) (permalink)

Wait - what's wrong with a used handgun?
Tied the Leader, absent these past three weeks, is back with a new update - a couple of new articles for your reading pleasure. 'Geekery Unyielding' discusses XerxdeeJ's MASSIVE role in the recent 'Halo Unyielding' machinima (what the heck does 'bearing 342' MEAN, anyway, in outer space?), and 'Do you know where your Xbox has been?' looks at Microsoft's new practice of banning consoles for life for certain infractions (and in so doing, compares 360s to cotton swabs and plungers). Fun reads, both. Thanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 15:16:06 UTC) (permalink)

Leather Stuff - now viewable
eddie m noticed that Enmon Accessories, a company that makes leather products (we mentioned them in May) has put up an info page with pictures of the Halo 3 products they'll be making - shots of wallets, bags, patches, and the like. Some of it looks great. (Some... well, maybe I'll just need to see it in a store.) Enmon is wholesale-only; you cannot buy products directly from them. You can, however, look for what you WANT to buy, next month. Update: Looks like the attention might have taken the website offline. Oops... (Louis Wu 11:14:04 UTC) (permalink)

Hello, Needler (Redux)
BitMaP stopped by to point out that a DeviantARTist colored an older black-and-white comic he did this spring - the end result is quite nice. (Louis Wu 11:05:05 UTC) (permalink)

Stuff to see at SDCC
If you're going to be in San Diego for the Comic Convention later this month, you're certainly going to want to swing by the WizKids' booth - they'll be giving away an exclusive Halo 3 figure that holds the distinction of being the largest miniature WizKids has ever produced. (24" x 24" x 20") Read more at Action Figure Insider. (Louis Wu 10:52:18 UTC) (permalink)

HoC 2v2 Tournament
HeisTeR let us know about a Halo 2 2v2 Tournament, sponsored by Halownage. (You have to be logged in to see the thread.) Entry is free, cash prizes (to be determined) will be available. (Louis Wu 10:37:34 UTC) (permalink)

The Glass is Half Full
The Master Chief looks on the bright side in the most recent episode of Halo, Articulated (#55). (Louis Wu 10:34:38 UTC) (permalink)

Top o' the Charts
Wow. Gamermetrics is predicting that Halo 3 is going to be the top-selling game in 2007 - even though it comes out when 75% of the year is gone. That's some serious selling power... (Louis Wu 10:27:39 UTC) (permalink)

News July 9 2007

Halo Unyielding Part 2
Late in the evening on Saturday night (still before midnight on North America's west coast, and therefore still Bungie Day), Laird and crew released Halo: Unyielding Part 2. An impressive piece of work blending Halo machinima, beautiful CGI, and lots of amazing original music, this video is absolutely worth watching. I haven't announced it before now because there were some issues with the presentation; it seemed worth it to me to make sure that this video was delivered in the best possible format. It seems to be there now - and we're hosting a WMP9 version (640x480, 84.2 mb) along with a QuickTime version (640x480, 81.2 mb) - these versions should be up on the H:U website soon, but for now, grab our mirrors. Congrats to everyone involved; this is a gorgeous piece of work. (Louis Wu 18:40:44 UTC) (permalink)

Girls Suk.
bs angel has played a lot of Halo matches on Xbox Live. And she's heard a lot of comments in that time. Unfortunately... many of them are the same. Loved the sandwich comeback. (And extra points for the Mom joke.) (Louis Wu 17:18:42 UTC) (permalink)

No Change There, Then.
Stuntmutt's back from his break as new daddy, but today's One One Se7en shows that he might just have a little left to learn... (Louis Wu 16:02:31 UTC) (permalink)

tastybread's outfit - finished
A couple of days ago, tastybread updated the Half-Life Fallout thread about his cardboard armor with some finalized pictures (including his MA5, held on his back Halo 3-style, by magnets); we've added the last two shots (and his commentary) to the mirror here. (The last page contains a full accounting of the money he spent to build this.) Amazing! (Louis Wu 15:18:34 UTC) (permalink)

Lego Elite
Fragclone found a very cool Lego Elite on Brickshelf, created by Lego-Wigello. I wish this shot were less blurry! (Louis Wu 15:04:10 UTC) (permalink)

Lost Cause Teaser
Haloplayer stopped by to point out a teaser for Lost: Halostyle Season 2; it's called Lost Cause, and it looks to continue the fine work the crew did in Season 1. There are multiple versions (and sources) listed in his forum post - go grab one! (Louis Wu 15:00:36 UTC) (permalink)

Kurt's Theme - in MP3
Last week, Sean Mortensen released a MIDI file of a new piece he'd created to honor Ghosts of Onyx. Today, we received an MP3 version of the work - it sounds a bit different, according to Sean. 5.3 mb - give it a listen! (Louis Wu 14:58:50 UTC) (permalink)

News July 8 2007

The Riot 55
Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 55 is up - 38 minutes and 15 mb of community news, audio from an international gathering, and an announcement of their 2007 Community Awards forum (still plenty of time to nominate people). Go listen! (Louis Wu 21:00:18 UTC) (permalink)

Containment.
One last Guest One One Se7en strip before Stuntmutt comes back tomorrow - this one's from c0ld vengeance (again), and brought a smile to my face. (Louis Wu 11:49:34 UTC) (permalink)

Platformers.net Contest
FyreWulff pointed out a series of tournaments at Platformers.net - Halo 2 is one of the games that will be played, and there's schwag on the line. Go read his post for more details! (Louis Wu 11:47:29 UTC) (permalink)

The History of Metroid Online
Seraphim wrote to us to point out The History of Metroid Online, a nearly half hour long movie showing exactly how this HaloCE mod came to be. I'm not sure who this is aimed at - it's awfully long, and about a relatively obscure subject, to be of interest to the general Halo public... but if you're interested in how they got to where they are, go watch! (Louis Wu 11:44:22 UTC) (permalink)

Yelo Battery Released
Kornman00 let us know that Yelo Battery - a plugin for HaloPC and HaloCE - has been released; it lets you change your field of view to better accomodate widescreen monitors, and move your weapon position so that it's not so cut off. It also lets you decide which HUD features to show (or not show). More features coming! (Louis Wu 11:41:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Toolbar from H3Press
Mike Riess let us know that H3Press.net has just released v3.0 of their Halo Toolbar, which adds Subnova's Seeker and fixes a lot of Bungie.net links, as well as streamlining the overall interface. Check it out - screenshots are available for Firefox and IE. (Louis Wu 11:37:03 UTC) (permalink)

News July 7 2007

...For The Sake of Talking
IceWeasel is back, celebrating Bungie Day with yet another stop-motion film starring his ODST and his Heretic Elite (with a few extra characters this time around). Rather surreal in parts. (His first production was here, and his second here.) Nicely done! (Louis Wu 21:27:16 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Day Goodies
In celebration of Bungie Day, Bungie has released a whole bunch of fun stuff for you to play with; some of it is available through this article on Bungie.net, and some of it is available only through Xbox Live Marketplace. The article contains links to a new desktop picture (which contains a teaser at yet ANOTHER new armor variation), along with articles about the Brute Chopper, the Close Quarters Battle Spartan armor, and the Extra Vehicular Activity Spartan armor. (The latter three articles all contain QuickTime VR movies of the items in question, so you can get nice 360-degree views.) On XBL Marketplace, you'll find a special Bungie Day Theme, and a set of new Gamer Pics, both as free downloads. (For the benefit of those without access to Marketplace during the 22 hours that this particular content is up, I've posted screenshots on our forum.) Finally, the Blastacular Map Pack (Desolation and Tombstone) will be available for free starting today. (It's unclear at what TIME that will happen - but never fear, if you haven't downloaded the maps yet, you'll be able to do so at no cost sometime today.) Go revel in the goodness! (Louis Wu 13:10:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Uprising details (and cover art)
We had a release date for Halo: Uprising #3 (the third of four installments from Marvel comics this summer) - but no cover art, until now. IGN Comics has put up a sneak peek of the first three comics, including nicely-sized cover art of all three episodes. (There's still nothing about episode 4 - anywhere.) Thanks, XAL. (Louis Wu 12:45:40 UTC) (permalink)

Se7en Se7en Oh Se7en
Stuntmutt has updated his blog with a whole bunch of content - a special 7/7/07 strip from him, plus several guest strips mailed in by fans. Check it out! He comes back for real on Monday. (Louis Wu 12:33:42 UTC) (permalink)

Bad Blood
Mister Froggy has posted Halo, Articulated #54, in which an entirely new type of fighting begins. (Louis Wu 12:32:25 UTC) (permalink)

The Lone Spartan
Sean Mortensen has submitted 'The Lone Spartan', a 2:13 long, 2.4 mb MP3 of a piece of music he wrote to commemorate a specific moment in the novel 'Ghosts of Onyx'. It takes place in Chapter 8, and involves three young Spartan-IIIs. If you haven't read the book, it's a last stand by very young but very dedicated humans against an overwhelming Covenant force. (Louis Wu 12:30:10 UTC) (permalink)

X-Play Explores Halo 3 Beta
G4TV has a video wrapup of the Halo 3 Beta - it seems like it would have been more appropriate a week or so INTO the beta, but hey - you post what you got when you got it. (Louis Wu 12:00:25 UTC) (permalink)

Fallout Preview
Turtle Mann stopped by our forum to point out a trailer for Fallout, an upcoming action series. Cinematography is intriguing - this one looks to be good! Check it out. (Louis Wu 11:22:49 UTC) (permalink)

Things You Might Not Know
This past week, we've mentioned a series of video interviews that Gamepro held with Bungie employees during their recent trip to Kirkland - there's now a short text article that pulls out ten interesting nuggets from those interviews (most of which never actually made it into the videos) - give it a read! Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 11:18:22 UTC) (permalink)

CamoTourneys
Shayne pointed out that CamoTourneys hosts online Halo 2 tournaments with cash prizes. They've got a free-to-enter 1v1 today, with a $10 prize. (Louis Wu 11:12:42 UTC) (permalink)

I want that checkbook.
Monster Bungie Weekly Update this week - though very little of it is about Halo 3. Tidbits about tomorrow (Bungie Day), mockery for the folks who thought yesterday's screenshot was fake, VERY cool info about the upcoming toys from McFarlane, an awesome farewell interview with Alta, and some teasery (yeah, I know that's not a word) about the vocal side of Bungie. Go read - either at B.net or here, in our Weekly Update Archive. (The HTML is better here, I'll tell you that.) (Louis Wu 00:38:52 UTC) (permalink)

News July 6 2007

Bungie Day Extravaganza
Bungie is celebrating Bungie Day (7/7/07) in style - there's going to be new content on their website, but more importantly (and more time-sensitive), there'll be content on Xbox Live Marketplace that will only be available tomorrow. Get it between 2:01 am PDT July 7 and 11:59 pm PDT July 7 - or don't get it at all. (No, it's not Halo 3, so don't worry too much about that.) More details in the B.net news post! (Louis Wu 19:20:07 UTC) (permalink)

Setting dorks back 20 years
Wow, disturbing. Today's Dork Tower makes me wonder if I want to buy Halo ActionClix after all... thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 16:43:18 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars to be shown at E3
Thunder, over at the Halo Wars forum, has posted a note that lets people know that Halo Wars will be demoed at E3 next week - and there might be some stuff that makes it out to the public from there. Good news! Thanks, CHAOS1212. (Louis Wu 16:13:36 UTC) (permalink)

Product Placement.
Today's Guest One One Se7en is c0ld vengeance taking a shot at the mass marketing of the Halo brand. (Louis Wu 15:16:15 UTC) (permalink)

Iris Update
We haven't commented very much recently on the Iris ARG - because there hasn't been much to comment on. On June 20, Server 5 was unlocked at Halo3.com - and there hasn't been a lot of action since then. However, yesterday, a number of people who were among the first 100 to help with the unlocking on the 20th received mailed packages from Microsoft; one was reported here, and you can see the pictures that remain online here. Thanks to Valchael for the pictures, and Jason Axelrod for the email. (It also showed up last night on args.bungie.org.) (Louis Wu 14:56:41 UTC) (permalink)

How to come back from a deficit
Overswarm's put up a new article - this one's about turning the tide when you're down. Interesting read - go check out Not So Common Sense! (Louis Wu 12:31:05 UTC) (permalink)

Interviews in Machinima 8
trigger119 let us know there's a new 'interviews in Machinima' episode for your perusal; this one is a discussion with Laird, who has created the 'Halo: Unyielding' series, among other things. Go see what makes him tick! (Louis Wu 12:30:06 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fanfic
Only 5 new pieces this week in the Fan Fiction queue - go read 'em! (Louis Wu 12:10:29 UTC) (permalink)

Caught Within The Grip
Sane Intolerant combined Transformers and Halo for his latest episode of Halo Toy Box. (Louis Wu 12:06:15 UTC) (permalink)

News July 5 2007

Jaime talks Weapons
The Gamepro Video Interviews continue - today's entry is Jaime Griesemer, discussing Halo 3 equipment. Why they added it, how it's not going to overbalance the game, why it's so cool. Nice discussion! (Also, a discussion of the Needler, and how it's changed.) (Louis Wu 20:20:11 UTC) (permalink)

A new campaign shot?
Noice. MasterChief2829 noticed a new image accompanying a story in the Wall Street Journal on upcoming video games - the Master Chief in front of a wall of vegetation. It's just a tiny shot... but oh so beautiful! Update: for those who didn't believe this was real (or who didn't like the fact that it was so small)... check out Bungie.net. Or, even better... here. Thanks, The Cancers. (Louis Wu 16:47:04 UTC) (permalink)

tastybread's armor - now viewable
Last week, we mentioned an inexpensive but impressively-done cardboard rendition of Spartan armor; it hit Digg the same day, and the site died. We've since contacted the creator, and gotten permission to put up a local gallery; if you missed it the last time around, take a look! (Louis Wu 14:17:25 UTC) (permalink)

Performance Review
Over at Rampancy.net, Narcogen speculates about potential scoring systems for the single-player game in Halo 3. For the most part, it's simply a discussion of possibilities - but if you've been scrupulously avoiding leaked info, you might want to pass on this one; it uses as its jumping-off place some of the achievements listed in the recently leaked Halo 3 Achievement list. (It's a relatively minor spoiler, if it's a spoiler at all, and the article is interesting - you decide.) (Louis Wu 12:17:16 UTC) (permalink)

Leading the Pack
Entertainment Weekly rated all three 'Next-Gen' consoles (360, Wii, PS3) last November; at the time, they'd given the 360 an A-, the Wii a B+, and the PS3 a B. They're back with a 'Midterm Report Card', and everybody but the 360 has lost ground. (They acknowledge that the Wii is currently outselling the 360, but they lament its lack of compelling games.) Why is this Halo news? Well, mostly because of their belief that it "looks like it's up to one man — a battle-armored warrior from Earth's distant future — to stop Nintendo's seemingly inexorable march to console dominance." Upcoming titles, led by the "Halo 3 onslaught", will keep the 360 on top. (Louis Wu 12:07:22 UTC) (permalink)

Georgia Halo Tourney
ATL United Gamerz is hosting a Halo/Halo 2 tourney on July 21, in Marietta, GA - they're really pushing the Halo 1 aspect. If you're in the area, check it out! (No word at this point on prizes, or fees. Thanks BigSick. (Louis Wu 11:39:45 UTC) (permalink)

Don't let the jerks get you down.
Mintz read the article at Newspail yesterday, the one that complained about the racist and obnoxious kiddies you meet in Halo 2 Matchmaking - and decided to perform an experiment. It wasn't a very extensive experiment... but the results were interesting nonetheless. So many people complain about the offensiveness you find online that its ubiquitousness is simply accepted at this point - when maybe the reality is slightly less negative than all that. (Louis Wu 11:19:16 UTC) (permalink)

That's alotta pictures...
If you haven't gotten enough of the Kotobukiya action figure coming out this fall, Action-Figure.com has 119 new pictures of it. You could almost build a QTVR 3D image from this... except for the weird lighting. (Louis Wu 11:12:36 UTC) (permalink)

The nails that secure the shoes that...
Yesterday, an interesting report came out of Taipei - demand for components for the DVD-ROM drives that go into 360s began to rise... and they began to rise because the production of 360s is ramping up to handle the demand that will be generated by the release of Halo 3 this fall. It's a little indirect - okay, it's VERY indirect - but intriguing nonetheless. Halo 3 isn't driving sales the way Halo drove sales for the original Xbox... but it's certainly having a visible impact. (Louis Wu 10:58:49 UTC) (permalink)

News July 4 2007

Slapstick Figures.
Today's One One Se7en is special, for a few reasons; it's a Holiday strip, of sorts, celebrating the anniversary of the United States' declaration of independence... it's the first guest strip ever done by KP, and - well, you'll have to read it for the 'and'. (Let's just say it's Stephen Lynch-special.) And with that, we here at HBO will wish you a very happy July 4th, and implore you to be careful when lighting fireworks. We're out. (Louis Wu 12:02:37 UTC) (permalink)

WhatEVER.
You know, I gotta say, when I read Morpheus' forum post about a video his buddy made, I wasn't expecting much... but I found that the actual result was pretty funny. Go watch Master Chief's United States of Whatever at YouTube - it's 3 minutes of nicely timed silliness. (Louis Wu 11:55:06 UTC) (permalink)

I gotta get me one of those.
bs 'Hawty McBloggy' angel writes about another Pavel Dolgov Halo-themed faceplate - a friend of hers commissioned the artist to create a Clan-related faceplate, and the end result is pretty nice! Check it out. (Louis Wu 11:51:51 UTC) (permalink)

Halownage Logo Contest
Halownage really wants their own logo - so they're offering a prize of $100 for anyone who can create one they really like. More details in this post. Thanks, HeisTeR. (Louis Wu 11:30:04 UTC) (permalink)

When Worlds Collide
Mister Froggy sent word that Halo, Articulated #53 is out - it's July-Fourth related, and it makes more sense if you read yesterday's Halo Toy Box. (Link is provided on the comic page, for your convenience.) (Louis Wu 11:02:41 UTC) (permalink)

The title could be pithier.
Newspail has an editorial discussing the shift in player attitudes between Halo and Halo 2 - with speculation as to why. Language is PG-rated, but the thinking is worth following. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 10:59:46 UTC) (permalink)

News July 3 2007

RSS Delivery.
It almost never works this way... but sometimes, ye can ask, and ye shall receive. rapture wondered if we had an RSS feed for One One Se7en - we didn't. rapture said "but you should. It's easy and useful." rapture was right. So here you go. (If you are too lazy to deal with this right now, you can always click on the little RSS button on the One One Se7en page to subscribe later.) (Louis Wu 21:35:16 UTC) (permalink)

Hot Dog! Armor.
Over at Bungie.net, you'll find another batch of high-res images - this time, it's renders of various armor variations. Very nice! Thanks, MasterChief2829. (Louis Wu 20:03:41 UTC) (permalink)

Frankie/Sketch Interview on Games.net
Games.net has posted the second in the series of Gamepro video interviews with Bungie developers; this one is with Frank O'Connor and Brian Jarrard, and covers everything from multiplayer to Bungie's relationship with Peter Jackson. 5 minutes - go watch! (Louis Wu 19:23:18 UTC) (permalink)

Prometheus Update #7
Nick, from HaloDev, wrote to say that there was a new update about Prometheus (the Halo-everything editor) posted on their site; lots of details about what's gotten better. Sounds like they're nearly ready to beta-test it, even. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:17:53 UTC) (permalink)

The Banshees And The Drones
Sane Intolerant let us know that there was a new episode of Halo Toy Box. I have nothing useful to say about it, so I'll just tell you it's there. (Louis Wu 19:00:33 UTC) (permalink)

Last Ordained Insight Update
Urban Reflex lost his net connection about halfway through the Halo 3 Beta - but he's (sort of) back now, and there's a new update at Ordained Insight. It's an interview with some friends about the beta; give it a read! (By 'sort of back', I mean he stopped by long enough to announce this update, but he's gone again to avoid Halo 3 spoilers, until September.) (Louis Wu 12:44:09 UTC) (permalink)

343 Party Pooper
Mister Froggy has posted Halo, Articulated #52 - just in time for tomorrow's US holiday. (Louis Wu 12:41:18 UTC) (permalink)

More ARTFX MC Pics
Kotaku has another article about Kotobukiya's upcoming $99 Master Chief statue - along with a few pictures from Toy News International. Interchangeable weapons... nice. (It'll look great on my shelf next to the Muckle statue...) (Louis Wu 12:20:06 UTC) (permalink)

H2V review from Pro-G
Pro-G looked at Halo 2 Vista, and found it lacking - buggy, visually unimpressive, too slow to be worthy of the title 'PC Shooter'. (You're certainly welcome to disagree.) Overall rating was 6/10 (enjoyable). (Louis Wu 12:12:08 UTC) (permalink)

Kurt's Theme
Sean Mortensen sent along a piece of music (MIDI format, 139 kb) he wrote as a score for a section of Nylund's 'Ghosts of Onyx', because he was inspired by the book. He knows it sounds a little like the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End score, but says that is coincidence more than anything. If you're interested in an MP3, you can email him with a request, and he'll post it. (Louis Wu 12:10:00 UTC) (permalink)

Balancing Views
There's a small interview with Frank O'Connor over at CVG - discussion of what was learned from the beta, and what might be changed by the time we see the final product. Nothing horribly new, but if you're looking for confirmation that Snowbound was indeed a well-liked map or wondering what Bungie thought of the stuff like the Custom Game leaks, give it a read. (Louis Wu 12:04:31 UTC) (permalink)

News July 2 2007

Gawjus.
If you're interested in super-high resolution versions of those cool new screenshots, without any watermarks... swing by Bungie.net. Wowza. (Louis Wu 20:58:40 UTC) (permalink)

H2V Exporter for 3ds max 9
If you're working on new content for Halo 2 Vista, and your app of choice is 3ds max 9, you've probably already discovered that you can't use the exporter script distributed with the game. TheGhost has come to your aid, with an exporter that works with all versions of 3ds max. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:04:12 UTC) (permalink)

Gamepro talks to Lars Bakken
Gamepro has put up a video interview with Bungie's Lars Bakken - discussion of how multiplayer design happens, overlain on standard Halo 3 gameplay. Go watch! (Louis Wu 19:09:46 UTC) (permalink)

Edge Rates 'em All
Edge has posted its World Best Videogames list, according to Next Generation - and the results might surprise you. 3 of the top 4 are games that Edge gave 10/10 reviews to. 5 and 6 - Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - were released before Edge started as a magazine, and so were not reviewed by them. Game 7 is Halo - another 10/10 review. Game 2 is a surprise; Resident Evil 4 came out in 2005, and Edge gave it a 9/10 at the time - so how did it make it to #2 on the list? And what happened to Gran Tourismo, the 5th 10/10 game? I suppose you'll have to grab the 260-page collector's book entitled 'Edge Presents: The 100 Best Videogames', on sale tomorrow, to find out. Thanks, nash--housewares. (Louis Wu 16:46:01 UTC) (permalink)

Reflections on Gambling.
Today's Guest One One Se7en comes from Warbow, who finds himself surprisingly busy this morning. (No, there's no relationship between his guest strip and his forum activities. I just found the timing amusing.) (Louis Wu 16:14:54 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Beta Review
There's a short review of the Halo 3 Beta in The Beacon, the student newspaper of Florida International University. I'm a little surprised that the problem folks with Crackdown had getting in at first is the primary 'bug' noticed by the author... but hey, if that's really all that's wrong with Halo 3, I'm pretty excited for September 25! (Louis Wu 16:11:53 UTC) (permalink)

The Blade: Teaser Trailer 2
Aglor stopped by to point out a teaser trailer for The Blade, an upcoming machinima project. Looks to be a mix of space battles and up-close combat. Take a look! (Louis Wu 15:43:14 UTC) (permalink)

Who do you want to kill today?
Bad news for folks without an internet connection - Bungie's made a pretty major change in how the single-player game will be handled, outsourcing the AI to cheap humans instead of expensive computer algorithms. The upside? Infinite variation in how the storyline plays out. The downside? You'll have to be online to play Campaign. Ah, well. With great population comes great replayability. (Louis Wu 14:11:18 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3: Under 40 bucks
I've never heard of these guys - but $40 for Halo 3 is as cheap as I've seen. This showed up at FatWallet. (Louis Wu 12:30:45 UTC) (permalink)

Multiplayer Content Embargo is Over
mike g pointed out that Gamepro has put a series of pictures of the Brute Chopper (and some shots of the map Shrine) up online, as their magazine article said would happen starting today. Clearly, the embargo on this content is over, because IGN has posted their own set of new shots - and it looks to be pretty much everything Microsoft might have given out this round. (Thanks, DHalo.) There's also a writeup, with a ton of information about Epitaph and Last Resort (two maps included in the Microsoft-only beta that took place before the public beta), and an interview with Jaime Griesemer and Tyson Green - thanks, Pedro the Penguin. Go look! (Louis Wu 11:53:50 UTC) (permalink)

News July 1 2007

The Riot 54
Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 54 has been released - community news, challenges, speculation... and Brathnok on speed. (Okay, not really. He's just not asleep, as usual.) 33 minutes, 13 megs, energetic. Go listen. (Louis Wu 19:04:48 UTC) (permalink)

Clowns are Scary.
Rockslider has updated his Spotlight with Suzie series - the latest installment has Suzie talking about shield clowns. Wait... shield clowns? Go read. (Louis Wu 18:38:34 UTC) (permalink)

Lego Teaser Trailer
Kooberz is building a stop-motion movie based in Zanzibar - check out the trailer at Gametrailers. This should be fun! (Louis Wu 18:27:56 UTC) (permalink)

Zune Contest Finalists - Up for Download
Took us a little longer than we'd hoped, but the finalists for the HBO Zune Giveaway are now online for your downloading pleasure - including original names and creators. If you heard or saw something you wanted to see again - here's your chance! (Louis Wu 17:16:47 UTC) (permalink)

This Place is a Prison
trigger119 has put together 'This Place is a Prison', a music video set to the song by The Postal Service. Downloadable in WMP9 or QuickTime formats (the QT is a bit larger, but the quality is WAY better) - interesting visuals. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 17:15:14 UTC) (permalink)

Lots of Halo figures for sale
Dracothius is selling a large collection of Halo action figures on eBay right now; there are 4 days left on the auction, so if you're looking for a 29-figure lot... check this out! (Louis Wu 15:31:03 UTC) (permalink)

Hot Topic Adds Halo Merch
Hot Topic has new Halo goodies for you - a new propaganda shirt (thanks, ODSTAdrianFii, for the pic, since it's not on their site yet), and new pins - a UNSCDF pin and a Spartan Helmet pin (thanks, DHalo). These last two are also available as stickers, for what it's worth (UNSCDF | Helmet). Get 'em while the gettin's good! (Louis Wu 15:27:14 UTC) (permalink)

Virtual Virtuosos
The Dallas Morning News has a tongue-in-cheek editorial about video game pros; while it pokes fun at the whole idea, there's a grain of truth running through the article. However much the mother in question would like to ridicule the kids who are making a living (heh - in some cases, better than your average living) 'twiddling their thumbs'... they ARE making it work. Give it a read. (Louis Wu 15:12:36 UTC) (permalink)

I'd feel bad if any plasmas went off.
Dan Baker created a really slick display for his Halo action figures - it's an (almost) scale model of the Pillar of Autumn, all set up for battle! Take a look. (Louis Wu 01:39:54 UTC) (permalink)

July 2007

We are NOT Bungie, Inc.! Bungie Inc. are bungie.net!
Halo © Bungie Inc., 1999-2012, Microsoft 2012-2025
Intellectual © halo.bungie.org, 1999-2025