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June 2003

June 2003 Archived News

News June 30 2003

PC mod starting up
Dispraiser puts in a call for modders - he's starting work on a PC mod. He's got the beginnings of a Halo battle rifle already built - needs skinning, though. Check it out! (Louis Wu 21:21:50 UTC) (permalink)

The WHAT team?
Wow. Either someone's smoking too much crack... or something got leaked. A representative of ArtSource (a digital media staffing agency with an office in Seattle) posted to the CG Talk Hiring forum, with a request that reads in part:

Are you a SENIOR 3D Max modeler (3+ years of work experience) with multiplayer map experience, texturing and game experience? Are you available for CONTRACT work in Seattle for 3+ months?

If you have an amazing reel of strong environment modeling, we need you to work with the HALO and MARATHON team. These positions start out contract but may convert to direct hire.

Longtime Bungie fans might be going a bit berserk right now, given that 'Marathon team' reference... but remember one thing: right near the top of Bungie's very own Jobs page, there's a disclaimer:

Note to Recruitment Agencies: In accordance with Microsoft's recruitment policies, Bungie does not accept applicants from recruitment agencies and will not pay a recruitment fee for any candidates.

So: Is ArtSource working in a sanctioned way with Bungie (or Microsoft) - or have they flipped? And how real is the 'Marathon team'? Speculation is welcome on our forum, and if we get any harder information than this, we'll be sure to post it right here. (Thanks to Ian Mankowski for finding this gem.) Update: Evil Otto clears up the situation with a flat "there is no Marathon sequel in our plans at this time." Read his post for more details on how this might have come about. Thanks, EO! (Louis Wu 19:09:32 UTC) (permalink)

Madness in Mad-City
Elliott "zorg" Zastrow writes to point out that the Mad-City Halo Tournament (mentioned about a month ago) is coming along strongly - tournament date looks to be July 19, in Madison, WI. If you're a single player, they've got some resources on their forum for team-matching, to help you find a team to play on. Their website has lots more information. They're shooting for 40 teams - go sign up today! (Louis Wu 18:55:53 UTC) (permalink)

On The Bubble
Monday's episode of One One Se7en has been posted... and I wanna know, how do those guys have time for tomfoolery? (Louis Wu 14:56:59 UTC) (permalink)

Safari users - spoiler control is yours, finally!
Months ago, when the first Safari beta was released for OSX users, we discovered we had a problem... our spoiler cookies wouldn't set properly for Safari users. Luckily, a week later, a kind reader sent a fix; you could manually add the cookie to Safari's cookie list. It worked... but if you ever felt like changing your settings, you had to manually delete the cookie - and then re-add it to change it again. Not fun. Well, finally, Safari browsers are treated properly by HBO - thanks to Deimos Fawkes, of Subnova. You'll have to manually delete the platformchoice cookie if you've set it already using our Safari Fix instructions... but once you do, you'll have one-click access to spoiler swapping, just like all other browsers have. And about time! (Louis Wu 02:22:22 UTC) (permalink)

News June 29 2003

Halo: The RPG (the update)
Sir Fragula's Halo: The RPG project is coming along nicely - all existing patches (and some non-patch changes) have been bundled into the latest iteration. Visit Lion's mirror site for the latest pics and downloads. (Louis Wu 22:03:07 UTC) (permalink)

Sunday Reading
13 new Fan Fiction pieces for you today:

• Master Chief Returns, Part 1: Longsword, by Switchback
• Ch 1: Theives in the Night, by TheForsaken
• Chapter One: URTH, by Christopher Kalanderopoulos
• Redemption, and Victory: Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• Attack on Central Command, by The Scribe
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part Two, Hansley's second, by Ronald Maszk
• Defeat at Central Command, by The Scribe
• Halo 2: Chapter 4: Just another day at work..., by Shadowrunner
• Spartans in NYC Chapter2, by Chief-117
• Operation Sunlight Part 2: James, by Gruntkiller
• Critters the Reckoning part 3, by Caleb Generoso
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part Three: Hansley's Guilt, by Ronald Maszk
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part Four: Hansley's Battle, by Ronald Maszk

In the near future, there'll be a change to the Submission form in how you pick your series name. It should remove all confusion (if all goes well). (Louis Wu 21:59:13 UTC) (permalink)

Another vehicle-aided flag-capturing trick
A couple of days ago, NzadaH posted a quick capture of a flag-capturing trick to our forum. I didn't look closely enough, and thought it was another instance of MaverickJ's warthog gunner trick (where the gunner is popped out by spinning the gun to face the back of the hog and pressing X)... but it was recently pointed out to me that the jumper in NazdaH's video is the DRIVER, not the gunner. This one's a one-person trick... definitely worth a look. (You don't have to have someone below tossing you the flag, either; you can land IN the base, and run back out to the 'hog you just left.) it's not quite as easy as it looks... but once you get the timing down, this one's a killer. (Louis Wu 20:58:47 UTC) (permalink)

Medals, defined
Over the last couple of years, we've gotten a few emails about the medals on Keyes' uniform. Folks have recognized the Purple Heart, the Medal of Honor, and the Air Force Cross. Today, Brannon Boren laid out ALL of them on our forum - so now you know. (Louis Wu 18:52:36 UTC) (permalink)

Going it alone - together
Gamespot has posted a list of their choices for the top 10 cooperative games of all time. (They're not ranked among the top 10 - "They're all equal in our eyes, you might say.") Halo makes the list. Nice! Thanks to DT for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:48:00 UTC) (permalink)

News June 28 2003

Pillar of Art LAN party full!
The LAN party taking place in the latter half of the day during the Pillar of Art Gallery showing has filled up!

I'm sorry if you were hedging on whether or not to sign up for the party, as you have missed out on what is looking to be a really good time, but at least you can still make it to the Gallery itself and check out the cool art! (Ding 20:10:33 UTC) (permalink)

German online Halo tournament
Halo Orbit is organizing an online (via XBC) Halo tournament; check this forum thread or this news article. They suggest you come from a country near Germany, due to internet limitations... but other than that, there aren't any restrictions. (Louis Wu 12:33:59 UTC) (permalink)

Tribes screenies with MC
There are a significant number of shots of a Halo-related skin in use in Tribes over at the Tribes Battle Room Screenshots Collection; there's no easy way to point them all out, you'll need to go through his collection for yourself. As far as I can tell, these were taken using existing skins (there are at least two sets chronicled in our news database) - but it's fun to see the MC in other games. Thanks to Renzo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:42:28 UTC) (permalink)

Stick it!
Visitors to the E3 fanfest this year got their hands on a bunch of cool Bungie stickers. For the first time, Bungie is actually SELLING them at the Bungie Store now; there are five, ranging from a standard Bungie logo to the uber-cool Carnage Zone sticker. (You can even get your hands on the Webmaster sticker, which was NOT given out at the fanfest.) To keep it Halo-related, one of the stickers is the 'Flaming Ninja' sticker, inspired by a Jason Jones' quote and the unofficial mascot of Halo 2. Thanks to Jonah for being the first to notice on our forum. (Louis Wu 10:35:42 UTC) (permalink)

Making more of the Demo
As a number of people have pointed out, the Truth and Reconciliation site has been updated with Part 2 of the E3 demo behind-the-scenes series, as well as additional storyboards from the demo itself. (Count Zero 01:46:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC at Gen Con!
Gen Con Indy is taking place about a month from now, and those of you that want a taste of Halo PC have a huge incentive to attend! One of the events listed is a HUGE LAN where many different games will be represented, and Halo PC is going to make an appearance! Not just for standard playing... tournament playing!

More details to come! But in the meantime, if you want to pre-register, you have only a few hours left! (Ding 00:51:22 UTC) (permalink)

News June 27 2003

Vast Volumes of Verbiage
It's been 2 days since I last posted a Fan Fiction update - and after rejecting a couple of entries, there are still 16 pieces for you:

• Operation Sunlight Part 1: Aftermath, by Gruntkiller
• Rebirth - Shadow's Chapter 5 - Impossible Infiltration, by Knightmare Wolf, Archangel's Blade, Spartan 451, Shadow
• Shadow Spartans, Chapter 1: Combat Ready, by Agent Shade and Arinoth Koby
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Four, by LordofDestruction
• Halo 2: New Mombasa Part 1 , by Spartan 153
• The Devil's Brigade Prt V, by Spinks
• Halo 2 Part 2, by System Failure
• Halo 2: Chapter 3: Shadow Ops, by Shadowrunner
• Halo:Attack of the Banshees Part 2 , by Super Beast
• The Devil's Brigade prt VI, by Spinks
• Black Knight Pelican Attack: The Tower Chapter 2, by JK Hazard
• The Battle of Berlin Colony, by The Scribe
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 7: The Mine, by Agent Shade
• Spartans in NYC, by Chief-117
• Halo Haikus, by Socrates
• The Chronicles of Eternity Ch2- Ch3, by Corey Lyon

You folks are STILL making an enormous number of mistakes with the 'Series' choice; if you have any suggestions on how to make it less confusing, please let me know. I can't believe you're ALL this careless; there must be something wrong with the system. (Louis Wu 18:41:18 UTC) (permalink)

What - like a spider?
If you could part with a measly $5, you'd be watching Red vs Blue Episode 11 right now. And jumping out of your chair with fright. Or at least laughter. (Starts slow, but finishes with a bang.) If you can't part with $5, you'll have to wait until Sunday to get this. (Louis Wu 17:09:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 summary
Draconfrost has put up a small page containing all the info he could find about Halo 2. He'd like you all to know about it. (Louis Wu 16:48:26 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Quiz still needs questions
Three weeks ago, we mentioned a Halo quiz being put together by the Sector 7 website. Wolfy writes to say that they're still in need of some VERY hard multiple-choice questions. (See the last news post for details on the format they need.) Help 'em out! (Louis Wu 16:44:09 UTC) (permalink)

A Halo PC League
emildux writes to say that he's decided to host a league for Halo PC, once it's released. He's guaranteeing $25,000 in cash prizes in the first year - it's a pretty extensive setup. If you're interested, check out the CobaltNova website for details - this one looks to be big! (Louis Wu 16:39:42 UTC) (permalink)

MJOLNIR. Now With Headlamps.
And here's a comic from a site that IS work-safe, for the most part - Friday's installment of One One Se7en. Hehe - now that I think about it, even THIS one is sex-related. Dang. (Louis Wu 02:56:22 UTC) (permalink)

I want one of those.
Zypper points out a Halo-related comic at Anime Moments in History - and warns that the rest of the site is definitely not safe for work. (Um... yeah.) (Louis Wu 02:33:13 UTC) (permalink)

News June 26 2003

Ooh, that weasel... he's got movies!
DOH! We're short on bandwidth, and I STILL miss notes alleviating the problem. :( That Weasel (who'd love it if you visited his 5-year-old site ThatWeasel.com) wrote to say that two recent movies have been mirrored:

• The Sidewinder Saga (400x300, QuickTime5, 5.9 MB)
• Too Many Vehicles ( 17 mb, zipped, QuickTime)

If you've missed these, go over and join in the poundage of the HBO Mirror page of ThatWeasel.tv! (Louis Wu 22:37:26 UTC) (permalink)

So THAT'S how he did that...
MaverickJ has posted a followup video (in first-person view) to his recent CTF2 vid (the new one is WMP9-only at the moment), as well as a text-based FAQ explaining all the tricks in that first one. You'll need to be registered at the Project Spartan forums to see it. Nice tricks - I don't think I ever knew flags would go through walls. (Louis Wu 09:43:08 UTC) (permalink)

Hey, someone grab that!
SleekShadow has tossed a flag 300 meters in Blood Gulch - and caught it on tape. (Apparently, there's an explanation coming soon.) Visit his site for details and movies. (Louis Wu 09:30:04 UTC) (permalink)

Help wanted - no, NEEDED
Hehe - there's a Help Wanted notice up over at Bungie.net; they want someone who can help build the next iteration of Bungie.net. Ironically, the link to the Jobs page doesn't work... because the Web Developer description isn't up yet. Guess they need a web developer to post it, so that... hmm. Anyway, if you're interested, visit the Jobs page; I'm sure there'll be something there soon. (Louis Wu 02:27:34 UTC) (permalink)

News June 25 2003

The countdown is on
Anonyme points out that the Halo Action Figures are available for pre-order at at least one online store. (It's doubtful these are sanctioned by Joyride or Microsoft; they're still using the images released when the figures were first announced, and as we've seen from the Bungie Webcam, the figures have changed quite a bit since then... but the fact remains, SOME are gearing up already for this sale!) (Louis Wu 19:12:13 UTC) (permalink)

Ninjas On Fire
The way-cool 2003 Bungie Fanfest T-Shirt is now available for purchase at the Bungie Store; $12 buys you flaming ninja goodness. (Another, closer view of this can be found here - it's the black shirt in the lower left.) Thanks to SketchFactor for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:49:40 UTC) (permalink)

Looking back
Couple of updates; one I missed a few days ago (oops), the other new today. A week ago, we mentioned a tournament in Athens, GA - but the reported website didn't work. Here's the right one. And Halo Source, a website we mentioned about a month and a half ago, is now back online, and ready for visitors. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 18:27:47 UTC) (permalink)

Look at the paintings and then blow crap up!

The Pillar of Art Gallery showing will take place in next Saturday, July 5th, in lovely New York City. It'll be open from 12PM onwards. At some point, we'll then switch over to Halo LAN mode... put away the entries and then start to blow ourselves up. I'm trying to get 4 projectors and all the rest of the equipment lined up so we'll have a really good time.

The Chelsea Studio Gallery is located at 515 W. 19th st, right off 10th Avenue. Come see all the entries, including the top 3 prizewinners, of the Pillar of Art contest. Bring a camera and get a pic of yourself holding the cool Battle Rifle or the MC's Pistol.

As it stands, this will be the only public showing of all these pieces in one room! Stand in awe of all the mighty talent displayed!

The Gallery is open to one and all, but the LAN party is going to be handled differently, I'm sorry to say. Since we can't accomodate 75 players, I have to limit it to a much smaller crowd. So if you're interested in attending, send me an email with all your info and I'll let you know if there's space available.

We'll do our best to take pics and videos of the event. :)

The Sidewinder Saga Begins
Halogamers.com has put up a new version of their introduction episode of 'The Sidewinder Saga', a Red vs Blue-inspired project that has enormous potential. If you missed the mention in our forum yesterday... now's your chance! It's a 400x300 QuickTime5 film, weighing in at 5.9 mb. (Hosting help is always appreciated - just let us know, and we'll let the HBO community know.) Update: Atomi, from Bungie.de, writes to say that they've mirrored this - if you're in Europe, this is your best bet! Thanks, Atomi! (Louis Wu 13:34:54 UTC) (permalink)

Gaming as Art
Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, has written an opinion piece on the future of interactive gaming. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 13:28:33 UTC) (permalink)

MC-X
One One Se7en takes potshots at Metroid Prime's shortcomings... check it out. (Louis Wu 12:28:49 UTC) (permalink)

They just won't quit.
These guys STILL don't have the hang of the Series field in the database (6 of these 11 Fan Fiction entries had the series set incorrectly)... but we love 'em anyway.

• The Fallen : Chapter 2, Section 2, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen : Chapter 2, Section 3, by Hikaru-119
• On A Pale Horse: Two Cruisers, by Silent Hunter
• Unknown Apprentice, by Apache119
• Covenant Invasion! Part Six, by Hunter_Killer
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 5: Rescue, by Agent Shade
• Its Just One of Those Days: 03, by Elfster
• Price of Glory Pt. 2, by loserman
• Black Knight Pelican Attack: Hot LZ Chapter 1, by JK Hazard
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 6: The Outpost, by Agent Shade
• Forsaken Forefathers part VII: Arctic Warfare, by AlphaBravo343 and Havok

Go read. (Louis Wu 11:51:36 UTC) (permalink)

Missing Artwork... back!
Yesterday, I said that the art queues had been cleared out, and if your work hadn't been posted, it was because we either rejected it, or couldn't tell who it was from. Well, there was a third possibliity - I could have just missed the piece. :( There were three - two Wallpapers and one Miscellaneous Art - that escaped me. They're up now. Sorry about that! (Louis Wu 11:35:11 UTC) (permalink)

Halo for cash in VA
Live in Virginia? Like Halo? There's gonna be a tournament on August 9 in Virginia Beach. There's a site with almost no info... but you'll find some more details on our forum. (Louis Wu 10:43:49 UTC) (permalink)

Arnie to buy 50 Warthog-humvees
Hehe - a LAN party site wrote up a list of predictions about what would happen after Halo 2 is released. It's pretty funny. Thanks to The Friendly Greek for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:10:12 UTC) (permalink)

Flag Distance 190 Meters
More awesome movie content. MaverickJ has put together Part II of CTF Flag Getting 101... and man, your jaw's gonna drop when you see some of these. (Try 'em on XBC - your opponents will tell you you're cheating.) It's available in two formats; a 11 mb WMP9 file and a 29 mb MPEG. For now, it's just available at the Project Spartan forums (registration required) - but as soon as we get bandwidth back, this is in the queue. Maverick says a FAQ is coming, so hold your questions for a bit. (Louis Wu 01:57:44 UTC) (permalink)

It's in that sub-cockle area...
Sometimes, you just gotta grin. (Louis Wu 01:39:03 UTC) (permalink)

Too Many Vehicles
Darksage (aka Benjamin Jacobs on our forum) put together a little video for a contest over at the Red vs Blue forums. It was nicely done - enough so that we thought it would be worth the effort to reduce the filesize by about half. (It's now 17 mb, zipped, in QuickTime format.) If you didn't download it yesterday, when he mentioned it on our forum, grab it now. Bandwidth is very tight these days, due to Mythica's downtime... so any mirrors for this would be appreciated. And if you enjoy it, let him know in our forum - and wish him a Happy Birthday, while you're at it! (Louis Wu 00:35:09 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC, Halo 2 info at UGO
Thanks to Dan Chosich, who pointed out that UGO has put up a Halo PC preview with a set of 'exclusive PC screenshots' (there are three of them, but the third one has been out for a while), and a Halo 2 preview. He found this info over at the Junkyard. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 00:25:44 UTC) (permalink)

What? Surfing? Lake of Fire? What?
Finn says he's put up a little Halo Story Page update. Yeah... and the Hulk is a little bit green. Good stuff in this one... (Louis Wu 00:02:03 UTC) (permalink)

News June 24 2003

Wallpaper goes up, too
And finally, last but not least... two new desktops for the day in the Wallpaper section. This clears out the art queue entirely. If you submitted something, and it hasn't been posted yet, one of two things happened: we rejected it for not meeting our Image Posting Guidelines... or you submitted it with no attribution; we don't know who you are, we don't post your stuff. (Louis Wu 21:48:19 UTC) (permalink)

Logos, too.
And, while we're clearing that art box, there were two Halo logos to be posted, as well... check the Logos section. (Louis Wu 21:19:32 UTC) (permalink)

Banners Section Updated
Four new banners posted, as well - one small, and three large (with a VERY large variant of one of them). Take a look! Update: whoa, just as that update went up, another one came in. This one should be at the bottom of our forum, or something... (Louis Wu 20:58:54 UTC) (permalink)

Lots and lots of pictures...
The art backlog has been building; there's finally been a free minute to clear it out. 10 pictures (plus a variation)... check 'em all out in the Miscellaneous Art section! Update: DRslamAlot's Commander Jackal has been updated with a larger picture. (I really gotta check the uploads sites more often...) (Louis Wu 20:34:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Movie Starter Guide
c0ld vengeance has written up a basic guide for Halo moviemaking. It covers setting up your equipment (probably the most-asked-about subject we see in reference to moviemaking), and gives some general tips for making movies. Definitely worth a read if you're interested in putting together a project for the Halo community! For the sake of convenience, you'll find a direct link to it in the upper right corner of our forum. (Louis Wu 17:13:10 UTC) (permalink)

News June 23 2003

Customizing Multiplayer
dolbex has been hanging out over at the Gearbox forums, and today picked up some interesting Halo PC info from Dave Mertz, Lead Level Designer. Read about it in this forum post! (Louis Wu 21:19:10 UTC) (permalink)

All the colors of the rainbow - and then some
This morning, Visual posted a request on our forum, asking for some hi-res shots of the color-select screen at the beginning of Halo. (You know, where you pick your multiplayer color.) Evil Otto, ever the fan pleaser, dropped off a hi-res TIFF file with all 18 colors inside (along with a pretty dang useful alpha channel). Snag it from our Miscellaneous section - it weighs in at just under 700K, zipped. (Louis Wu 20:50:09 UTC) (permalink)

Jen autographed your WHAT?
Mr. Smiley has been working on a full-blown Bungie documentary (it was mentioned in the recent Fanfest Flashback story at Bungie.net). Now, you can download Episode 0 from Bungie.net. 10.9 mb QuickTime, or 12.3 mb WMP9 - it's not the documentary, but it's a Red vs Blue-style intro to the documentary! Take a look. (Louis Wu 20:43:17 UTC) (permalink)

What do YOU want to see in a Strategy Guide?
Doug Radcliffe, a freelance writer, is working on Sybex's Official Halo PC Strategy Guide (due out in September), and has posted a request on our forum for feedback on what you, the Halo player, would like to see in a Halo PC Guide. He said he'll be checking the forum for responses... but email is preferred. Now's your chance to get in a vote for coverage of editing tools, or multiplayer strategies... or whatever else you can think of that would make this guide rock. And oh, yeah - he's real. :) (Louis Wu 19:25:13 UTC) (permalink)

Simpsons/Halo wallpaper
Simpsons Rule created a pair of Simpsons-related Halo desktops. They're being hosted by a couple of forumites; you can see a preview of one of them on Lion's Truth and Reconciliation site (bottom of the page), and both are also hosted by guy who doesn't post....too often. (Louis Wu 16:30:49 UTC) (permalink)

Nasty Way To Go.
The silver lining in the cloud that is my forgetfulness is that occasionally, you get three consecutive days of One One Se7en. (Okay, that's really only gonna happen when I forget to post Fridays and there's Sunday content... so it'll probably never happen again. Enjoy it while you can.) Today's strip finishes up the Unreal Championship series. Still funny, even if not 100% accurate any more. (Louis Wu 16:26:26 UTC) (permalink)

It's just words, man.
10 stories for you today over in Fan Fiction:

• Shadow Ops, Chapter 4: The Alliance, by Agent Shade
• Halo: Attack of the Banshees Part 1, by Super Beast
• Halo 2, by System Failure
• Covenant Invasion! Part Five, by Hunter_Killer
• Mercenary - Prolog, by HockeyPuck
• Death's Angels: Chapter 2, by Space_Moose
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part One, by Ronald Maszk
• coccon by flood, by Cpl.C.Hicks
• A Marine Named Peters: Run For Your Life, Fight For Others, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Halo Zero /p3/ Sniper Position 07, by nicholas

Can you get through all of them before the next batch? (Louis Wu 16:18:19 UTC) (permalink)

Girl, don't even tell me you've been on this thing all day!
Salon.com has a pretty funny article about Julia Roberts' Halo obsession. Worth a read. (If you're not a Salon.com subscriber, you can watch a 15-second commercial for a daypass, which will let you read the remainder of the article.) Thanks to Robert Reichle for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:23:01 UTC) (permalink)

News June 22 2003

Now THAT'S some nice shootin'.
Z points out a pretty cool little movie on xboxottawa.ca (it's the last thing on the page). 6.9 mb, DivX format (make sure you have an up-to-date version), 720x256. They're working on more, but they're all in school or working fulltime... so there's no timeframe on the next product. You wanna see a slick multiplayer move... grab this film. (Louis Wu 22:58:39 UTC) (permalink)

Red Vs Blue Vs One One Se7en.
Took a little bit of finagling, but there's a Sunday strip for One One Se7en today. This is a totally random feature; it will not happen every Sunday, or even every other Sunday; it'll happen whenever Stuntmutt gets the inspiration for a Sunday strip. This one is just in time for the Red vs Blue forum members to get their hands on episode 10. (It should be available to the general public later today.) (Louis Wu 15:41:17 UTC) (permalink)

Pelicans Away!
Thanks again to BOLL - the Flash Pelican game is once again online, though now without a high-score option. Play it for fun. :) (Louis Wu 14:06:38 UTC) (permalink)

Pictures, pictures, and a LOT more pictures
Wow. We haven't updated the Wallpaper section in almost a week... and now there are 21 new desktops for you. 10 come from kapowaz, and are just interesting renditions of opening screens on each campaign level. (Each one is available in 5 sizes, as well.) The other 11 (two of which come in multiple sizes) are individual submissions. Total number of new screens (including variations): 63. Wonga! Check the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 03:32:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo RPG needs testing
Sir Fragula points out that his Halo Role Playing Game Combat Test system (a single in-game room that allows player to fight against all currently implemented enemy encounters, in an attempt to generate feedback) is now online, thanks to NeXuS and goatrope. (The download links are here and here.) More details about what this is, and what's working and not working, can be found in this forum thread. The download is about 3 mb. (Louis Wu 01:57:07 UTC) (permalink)

Pelican Flash Game - down for now
Apologies to all who were enjoying the Pelican Flash game (or, more accurately, attempting to get on the high-score list for the game). There were so many of you playing at once (and submitting scores at once) that the server's been bouncing up and down like a yo-yo. For the sake of the REST of HBO, I've pulled it offline for a while. I'll try and figure something out with BOLL so that you can play this without killing the site. I'm sorry... (Louis Wu 01:45:55 UTC) (permalink)

News June 21 2003

The Unreal Thing
Dang - once again, a busy day gets in the way of remembering to post the new One One Se7en. (To make up for this, we'll post the first Sunday strip tomorrow.) In the meantime, Friday's strip is now available; the Unreal Championship series continues. Mercenary? Of course. (Louis Wu 09:15:41 UTC) (permalink)

Pelican Fun - now against your friends!
Okay, it's not COMPLETELY done yet... but it's good enough for government work. A few days ago, BOLL released his Pelican Flash game... and folks loved it. It was only one level... but check out the thread of folks nailing that high score. Made us happy enough to crank it up a notch. BOLL went back to the drawing board and added 4 more levels... and I added a high-score backend for the website. Now, when you play the game, you pick your level... at the end, you add your name, hit 'submit', and you can check out how you compare to other site visitors. It's a work-in-progress; BOLL might add more levels, and I'll probably be adding more features to the high-score list (stuff like 'number of times played', that sort of thing)... but it should work, as is. Give it a try! Warning: your score will be ignored if you hit submit without adding a name. Keep that in mind. (Nothing says you have to submit at all; there's a restart button right under submit, you can try again without putting the score up.) Update: There seem to be a LOT of you playing this game, mostly at the same time. (There are a few thousand new scores in the database already...) If you get an error upon submission, it's likely because the database is being updated by someone ELSE at the same time. Sorry about that. (Louis Wu 02:56:12 UTC) (permalink)

Gawd. That's a lotta words.
Fifteen Fan Fiction pieces since the last time we posted (what, 36 hours ago?). You guys are getting REALLY sloppy with your Series links - tons of you are ignoring them altogether, others are picking the wrong series... BE CAREFUL. Thanks.

• Covenant Invasion! Part Four, by Hunter_Killer
• Halo Zero 2 /p2/ The War Begins, by nicholas
• Halo: First Strike, by Phoenix/LordofDestruction
• Masterchief at Lonely Trench., by Ronald Maszk
• The Chronicles of Eternity: Humanity and The Halos Chapter 1, by Corey Lyon
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 3: Close Encounters, by Agent Shade
• A Chiefs Requim, by TheRambler
• Wrong or Right part 5, by harley
• Price of Glory Pt. 1, by loserman
• Worry, by Angelus
• Preparation, by Angelus
• Suspense shattered, by Angelus
• A Marine Named Peters: Bravo Base, by GLADIATRRR3000
• A Marine Named Peters: Bravo Base 2: The Battle, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Halo 2: Chapter 2: The 909th, by Shadowrunner

Now go read. (Louis Wu 02:55:23 UTC) (permalink)

Demo Details, from The Design Team
Curious about the development process involved in putting together a gameplay demo like the one Bungie showed at E3 this year? SketchFactor has interviewed the design team, picking their brains for details about how the level was decided, what needed to be thought about, and what got missed. And if reading it leaves you thirsting for more, don't worry... this is only part 1. Take a look! (Louis Wu 01:37:10 UTC) (permalink)

Last warning for The X Factor
For those who missed the 8 pm showing of 'The X Factor: Inside Microsoft's Xbox' on the Discovery Channel this evening, it's on again at 11 pm (ET/PT) tonight. Set your VCR! (Louis Wu 01:30:31 UTC) (permalink)

News June 20 2003

The Pillar of Art is Standing
The day has come - and man, have we been waiting for it! The Pillar of Art contest results have finally been posted. Details, and images of all the entries, can be found on the Pillar of Art site... but we'll recap the basic stuff here.

• First Prize: Adam Vehige ($250, and a signed piece from Bungie)
• Second Prize: Richard Menchaca ($150)
• Third Prize: Russ Leach ($100)
• Special Award: Geoff Chang (Red MC action figure, as seen on the webcam)

There are also (as-yet unannounced) prizes for some of the younger submitters; we haven't pinned down exactly what's available yet, so we haven't decided how to divvy up the loot - but that's coming. Also coming are artist bios, and their explanations of their work. (We simply didn't have time to get all of this into web-friendly format in time for this post.) The gallery showing for all of this work will take place on July 5, and details will be posted as the day gets closer. Congratulations to everyone who entered - we had a tough time! And to Richard Menchaca - we hope this prize makes a decent birthday present for you today. :) (Louis Wu 16:22:50 UTC) (permalink)

Halo links
A few links for you: Tekkomix was one of the sites kind enough to contribute bandwidth to the mad trailer rush last week - they also host a Halo clan, The Shadows. Brandon points out Installation 07, a Halo forum that needs some new members. And Alberto wants us to know about LANWARRIORS, an Italian Halo clan. Check 'em all out! (Louis Wu 16:14:38 UTC) (permalink)

X-Factor Hype Heats Up
HemoGloben noticed that IGN has a hi-res trailer for tonight's X-Factor special on the Discovery Channel; if you're not an insider, you're stuck with a WMP9 version, but Insiders have access to a 32 mb QuickTime version. It'll definitely whet your whistle for this program! (Along those lines, SketchFactor forwarded a fun little promo graphic (67k) from FilmOasis yesterday - check it out!) (Louis Wu 15:50:13 UTC) (permalink)

Bloody Murder
Red vs Blue episode 10 is out now for sponsors... this has got to be the funniest episode yet. It's also HUGE; it's almost like they slapped together two episodes to make up for last week's missed episode. (They weren't slacking, they were serving you folks more than a terabyte a day of Halo 2 demo trailer goodness, so don't be givin' 'em any lip.) If you're not a sponsor, registered forum members will have access late Saturday/early Sunday, and the rabble can grab it Sunday afternoon. This one's really big... but really worth it. (c0ld vengeance was the first to notice on our forum, I think.) Update: whoa, didn't catch this first time around... but the voice of Blue Command (and his mouth) were supplied by a special guest - Randall Glass. Way to go, Randy! (Louis Wu 15:24:32 UTC) (permalink)

News June 19 2003

Pillar of Art status update
Quick heads-up: We're very, very close to announcing the results of the Pillar of Art contest. There are a few finishing touches needed to be put on the presentation of the work... but it won't be long now! Once again, I'd like to apologize to all the contestants for the delays we've encountered... and tell the rest of you that it'll be worth the wait! (Louis Wu 20:48:58 UTC) (permalink)

What's Your Gamertag?
Apologies to the rather large list of folks who were waiting for their Gamertag/screenname entries to be approved - I guess Tarrsk is on vacation. I just noticed them; dunno how long they've been there for. :( Anyway, now's as good a time as any to make sure your games list is up-to-date... forum regular (and moviemaker extraordinaire) Dan Chosich had some good times with SketchFactor last night, except that nobody knew who anybody was. (Louis Wu 17:42:15 UTC) (permalink)

Mythica's down
In an attempt to curb the email, we'd like to state that Mythica.org, our primary bandwidth donator for Halo movies, is down right now. We don't have word yet on what's wrong, or when it will be back up... but rest assured, as soon as we know, you'll know. If you click on a download link that points to Mythica, and it doesn't work... it doesn't mean we took the movie offline. It just means the server's down. Update: looks like Mythica's going to be down for a week, at least. The box has hardware problems that need to be fixed, and shipping time to and from the datacenter means that there's no way it'll be back online before next week at the earliest. Sorry, folks! (Louis Wu 13:31:02 UTC) (permalink)

Words, the musical fruit
13 Fan Fiction stories for you today:

• True Purpose(11), by Frensa Geran
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Three, by LordofDestruction
• Covenant Invasion! Part Three, by Hunter_Killer
• Rescue, by MJOLNIR
• A Marine Named Peters: Forward to Bravo Base!, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Battle for the Norah: Part Two, by Sterfrye36
• Halo 2: Capter 1: Defenders of Earth, by Shadowrunner
• Halo Zero 2 /p1/ Attack on Nuuth, by nicholas
• The Mars Annihilations Part 2, by Janglurevil7
• The Ganymede Seige Part II, by Spartan81388
• Death's Angels: Chapter 1, by Space_Moose
• Foresaken Forefathers Part VI: Island Infiltration, by Havok and AlphaBravo343
• Critters the reckoning part 2, by Caleb Generoso

Lots to read... (Louis Wu 10:36:28 UTC) (permalink)

This is a combat zone.
Nice find by CSJ - Bungie has posted ANOTHER sign from the E3 trailer for those who like to read such things. Nice tip o' the hat to Hill Street Blues... (The discovery method for this one is pretty funny.) (Louis Wu 09:23:19 UTC) (permalink)

You've got Questions? We've got Answers.
For the folks that have trouble with our forum, we've added a small FAQ - you can find the link at the very top of the forum. It covers things that turn up on the forum itself. (Very little of it is Halo-related, specifically.) Thanks to Cybrfrk for its inception, and mnemesis for editing help. (Louis Wu 01:02:16 UTC) (permalink)

News June 18 2003

The Unreal Thing
Wednesday's One One Se7en is now up. Harsh truth... but tru7h nonetheless. (Louis Wu 21:50:12 UTC) (permalink)

So THAT'S where I was...
Yesterday, Gholsbane posted a rough sketch of the E3 demo map. Today, he's got a polished, colored version, with pretty icons and everything. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:43:15 UTC) (permalink)

Beauty and the Beast, indeed.
SketchFactor graced our forum with a pretty clear shot of the Hog billboard from the E3 demo trailer. He was afraid nobody would notice it, though... go appease his fear, would you? Thanks. (Louis Wu 20:22:56 UTC) (permalink)

Halogamers.com goes live
Wow. Every week, we get email from folks who want their site to be added to our Links list. We announce 'em all... but it's rare that I'm as impressed with one as I am with Halogamers.com. Clean design, good (unique) content, lots to explore... It's not finished yet, but it's well on its way. Check 'em out... and if you're near Eau Claire, WI, go play with 'em! (Louis Wu 18:50:46 UTC) (permalink)

GamePlasma previews Halo 2
Another Halo 2 Preview posted - this time over at GamePlasma. Some um... interesting suggestions (the machete's back? And release has been pushed up to December 2003?), but mostly a pretty upbeat piece. Thanks to TankRamp, at Battleground: Halo, for the heads-up. (We've added this to our Previews section.) (Louis Wu 15:11:37 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Tourneys up north
A pair of Canadian tournaments for you: Got Game has a FFA tourney running June 27-29 in Victoria, British Columbia - $20 to get in, $500 first prize, more details at the website... and Fragapalooza, in Edmonton, Alberta, will happen on July 17-20 - it includes a 4v4 CTF tourney. There's $30,000 in prizes on the line for the entire event (Halo is a small part of the package). Thanks to Dark-Bane and Sabre for the heads-ups. (Louis Wu 14:18:23 UTC) (permalink)

WMP7 version of demo trailer available
Last alternative version, at least from us: this one is in WMP7 format, 360x243 big, weighing in at 46.2mb. If anyone has a problem with it, PLEASE let us know. We've also put up a secondary mirror list, for those times (like this afternoon) when HBO goes offline for a bit. They should be identical; go to the one that's easiest to reach. (For those interested in these sorts of numbers, o1.com (the Red vs Blue guys) transferred over 4.5 terabytes of Demo trailer movies in the past 4 days, not including the BitTorrent versions, and Mythica's closing in on 3 terabytes. Don't even ASK what that would have cost from a standard service provider...) (Louis Wu 00:12:54 UTC) (permalink)

News June 17 2003

Halo has a Starbucks?
The Halo 2 Caption contest has drawn to a close... and Evil Otto has had some fun writing up the results. He included some REALLY bad entries, some almost-good-enough entries, and, of course, the winners. (Several HBO regulars made the 'almost-good-enough' list, and a number of others used lines we've got in our Title rotation here.) Congrats, however, to shiner1x, epitaph01, and Shishka (yes, our very own Shishka) for gettin' in! (Dave: for next time, Quote 1 belongs to Steven Wright, and Quote 2 belongs to Dilbert.) (Louis Wu 21:02:08 UTC) (permalink)

Battlefield Halo
CuBaNo found two Battlefield 1942 mods that have previously gone unnoticed by us here: Aeolus: Spheres of Influence, and Home Front. Both have sizeable amounts of content so far... take a look! (Louis Wu 20:49:18 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie fans - second to none
Gholsbane has posted a sketch of the E3 Demo map... and you might be surprised by how tightly connected the whole level is. (He's planning to update this map in the near future, so we've archived this early version for posterity.) (Louis Wu 17:32:49 UTC) (permalink)

Halo for Cash
More tournaments: ;*@PTUR3 writes about his clan site, Hushed Casket, which has quite a bit of confusing information; there's a Halo tournament in Athens, GA at the end of June, but the website listed (http://www.tournamentwars.com/) doesn't seem to be reachable. There's another tournament in Game City, FL (we mentioned it in early May), but it seems to have been postponed for lack of interest. There's also an Independence Day tournament sponsored by UCGA on July 26, in Madison, AL with a payout of $3200 if 32 teams sign up. And finally, we got word from Dynamo, of xbox-qu/bec, telling us about the second edition of their Xbox Challenge. It will be held in Rimouski, Quebec, on June 27/28, and will feature a number of games (including 4-player-team Halo). Details can be found on the Xbox-Quebec website. (Louis Wu 14:38:09 UTC) (permalink)

Awards, awards...
Last January, Xbox.com put together their Hall of Fame, in which all major awards for Xbox products are listed in one place. (I never noticed it before; thanks to CuBaNo for the heads-up.) Halo DOMINATES the page. Heh. (Louis Wu 12:34:37 UTC) (permalink)

XboxConnect 3.0: Now with jetskis!
Do you play Xbox online? XboxConnect 3.0 has just been released - in the words of one of its developers, "it has more features than you can shake a stick at." Start shakin! (Louis Wu 02:24:22 UTC) (permalink)

darkhelmet.org: down, but not out
Gah. Dark Helmet writes to say that his site, darkhelmet.org, is currently offline due to an administrative snafu. He wants everyone to know that it will be back, better than ever, as soon as he can make it happen. Dark Helmet was a pioneer in putting hogs on top of things; he went lots of places first. We can't wait until his site is back, with new content! (Louis Wu 02:19:58 UTC) (permalink)

GamerFeed speculates on Halo's improvements
Thanks to Monkey, who pointed out a new GamerFeed over at Xbox.com; it's a discussion of quantum leaps in quality without changing the technology. Halo is used as an example. :) Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:16:24 UTC) (permalink)

The words keep pouring in
These guys just don't stop. Fan Fiction for the evening:

• Covenant Invasion! Part Two, by Hunter_Killer
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 1: The Mission, by Agent Shade
• Halo: The Aftermath, by Matthew Buzas
• Its Just One of Those Days: 02, by Elfster
• Halo: Combat Re-evolved; Chapter One: Into the Void, by Steele
• Asylum, by Dispraiser
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Unless Stated Otherwise: Chapter 5, by S7N
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 2: The Marines, by Agent Shade
• The Fallen: Chapter 2, Section 1, by Hikaru-119
• The Fall of a Covenant Armada, by Ronald Maszk
• On A Red Horse: Chapter 1 (fixed), by Diamond Dog
• On A Red Horse: Chapter 2, by Diamond Dog
• A Marine Named Peters: The Fight For Alpha Base, by GLADIATRRR3000

Read, Marine, Read! (Louis Wu 02:06:33 UTC) (permalink)

What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?
Okay, now I'm intrigued. mehve jumped onto our forum this evening to ask anyone who hasn't yet voted to visit Bungie.net and toss their two cents into the Quick Poll. (It's been up for quite a while; I never bothered to mention it because it seemed sort of frivolous; "What is your favorite color when playing Halo multiplayer?") If mehve wants votes, though, it sure ain't frivolous. Go vote! (Louis Wu 01:31:17 UTC) (permalink)

News June 16 2003

Smaller QT5 version of demo trailer available
Took forever to get it uploaded - but there is now a smaller (52.1mb, 356x240) QuickTime5-compatible version of the trailer online. Again, this one isn't as processor-dependent as the .mp4 version Bungie released, though it should be nearly as good, quality-wise. (Louis Wu 20:56:43 UTC) (permalink)

Are those UNSC Regulation Issue?
Monday's One One Se7en is now online; it's the third piece of the recent subseries. I gotta ask... did the Jjaro make those? (Louis Wu 20:53:43 UTC) (permalink)

The X Factor details
We received a press release for this Friday's 'The X Factor' feature on the Discovery Channel. To remind you, it's debuting at 8 pm ET/PT, and will contain (among other things) an interview with Jason Jones. Read the full press release for more details. (Louis Wu 20:47:51 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Paradise forums move
Rob Csigi of the Halo 2 Paradise Forums wrote to let us know of their new URL. They're on a big push for new members, so swing on by and check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:22:54 UTC) (permalink)

OMG - give it back!
So when you win the "America's Biggest Halo Fan" contest, and you finally receive your prize in the mail... what do you do to commemorate the occasion? I suppose this is one option... (Shamelessly stolen from Red vs Blue's news page.) (Louis Wu 18:36:27 UTC) (permalink)

Flash is Fun
BOLL has been a busy little beaver recently; there are two new Flash toys for you to play with. The first is a game he created over a year ago (but forgot to polish until recently) - Fly the Pelican through the cave system, trying your best to miss the walls. The Flash file itself is only about 150K. The second item is a pretty cool clock; time is kept by items (vehicles, and the MC himself) on Blood Gulch. Check it out; it'll become clearer when you see it. The Flash file is 650K, so give it a second to load. If you'd rather run it locally, BOLL has provided standalone executables for both Macs and Windows boxes; they run about a meg each to download. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 18:30:31 UTC) (permalink)

New Storyboards at T and R
Nice eyes - Iceman1330 noticed three new storyboards over at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site. (They're not currently mentioned on any of b.net's news pages.) You get a good look at the ODST's weapons, and the Pelican cannon. Check 'em out! Update: These got posted on Friday, and I managed to miss 'em in the chaos surrounding the trailer. My bad... (Louis Wu 16:50:38 UTC) (permalink)

Yes, frequently asked.
GameFAQs has posted a new poll: Which FPS sequel are you looking forward to? I think we all know the answer to that. (Count Zero 16:19:08 UTC) (permalink)

A monster, indeed.
Forgot to mention this yesterday... but Target4Hire nailed the audio challenge we mentioned in Saturday's news. Thanks to Marty and Jay for the followup explanations. (Louis Wu 13:33:42 UTC) (permalink)

Clan Battles
Clan [WSD] has posted a 30 mb movie showing a clan match between themselves and {SDA} last week. It's all CTF footage (almost 7 minutes worth), filmed from the perspective of one of the {SDA} members. (The final clip shows why, if you're playing [WSD], you might want to think twice about giving them raw footage to edit for you... :) ) Stop by their website, navigate to 'Movies', and grab the clan match from June 12. Thanks to [WSD]-Deus for the heads-up in our forum. (Louis Wu 02:47:26 UTC) (permalink)

Demo Trailer update
The full Demo Trailer Mirrors list has been updated with a number of new mirrors; even the newer QuickTime5 hi-res movie has a mirror (thanks, Halo Orbit!). Check out the list for the full details. (There are now links at the top of the page for each flavor.) (Louis Wu 02:06:25 UTC) (permalink)

Target price drop is ON.
Benjamin Coles points out that the price drop Ding mentioned a few days ago (and then speculated might not actually happen) has actually happened - Target is selling Halo for $27.88 this week, according to XboxAddict. If you need another copy, you can't beat this price! (Louis Wu 01:38:03 UTC) (permalink)

How thick IS the ring?
Its accuracy depends on Evil Otto having created his artwork to scale... but Shnfara has estimated the thickness of the Halo at almost 120 km by using a side-on picture of the ring and some pixel math. You'll find the result in our Miscellaneous Art section. Update: My bad - that value (the thickness of the ring) is actually mentioned in 'Halo: The Fall of Reach'. (It's 22.3 km thick.) I'm not sure how I confused this number with the WIDTH of the ring - but that's what I must have done. (I've pointed out the thickness many times on our forum.) What we've learned: Evil Otto didn't draw this ring to scale. :) (Thanks to Bobby Lucas for pointing this out.) (Louis Wu 01:12:00 UTC) (permalink)

Desktops out of hiding
Six new desktops (8, if you count variations) have built up since we dropped everything for the demo trailer... you can now find them in our Wallpaper section. Update: one of the pieces has been yanked because it used artwork without getting permission from the creator of that artwork. This seems to be happening more and more; I'm going to add a rule that says that if you submit artwork to our site, and you use external artwork without permission, and we get a cease-and-desist request from the original artist (as we did in this case), we're not only going to yank the piece, we're going to ask that you no longer submit any artwork to us. This rule goes into effect right now; I'll have a note about it on our Image Posting Guidelines page before the day's out. It's not cool to steal. (Using Bungie artwork in your wallpapers/misc art submissions is fine; that's one of the reasons they post it. Snagging a nice shot of a planet off someone else's site is NOT fine. Modifying someone else's wallpaper or misc art without their permission is NOT fine. And so on.) (Louis Wu 01:03:55 UTC) (permalink)

MPEG alternate for the demo
A new version of the trailer, encoded in MPEG1 format, is now available. It's 87 mb, and has a screen resolution of 436x320. It's a bit darker than it should be, maybe (I can't tell for sure; it looks good on 3 of the four machines I checked it on), but if you can't watch the existing versions, this puppy might be for you. Mirror offers gladly accepted. (Louis Wu 00:38:27 UTC) (permalink)

News June 15 2003

Alternate... number 2.
Okay, here's the deal. If you own a relatively new, fast PC, there's absolutely no question which trailer you should download: get the WMP9 hi-res version. It's simply gorgeous, running on decent hardware. And if your sound system supports it, it has Dolby 5.1 surround sound. It's as close as you're gonna get to having the E3 demo running in your living room. However, if you're on a Mac, or a slower PC, or a PC with an older operating system... you might have trouble with this movie. For you, Bungie released a QuickTime version. It's not up to the quality of the WMP version... but for a lot of people, less than perfect is better than nothing. The problem is, the QuickTime version was encoded using Apple's mpeg-4 codec... and this is, unfortunately, rather processor-dependent for good playback. (It's beautiful on a fast machine... but degrades significantly on older machines, and isn't even playable on some operating systems.) So for you, we're making alternate versions. First up - a hi-res QuickTime5-compatible version, weighing in at 106 mb. This one is close to the quality of Bungie's hi-res QuickTime version - but it will play nicely on many, many more machines. Later today, there'll be a slightly smaller (screensize of 436x320) MPEG1 version - there were very few compromises made on quality, so it weighs in at almost 87 mb. (Again, if you have a larger version that works for you, do not download this - leave the bandwidth for those who need it.) Currently being processed: A 400x270 WMP7-encoded .wmv that should weigh in at under 50 mb. Last up will be another Sorenson3-encoded quicktime, in a smaller screen resolution and smaller disk footprint. Hopefully, between these, and the REALLY small versions released by a couple of sites last night, those without the resources to see the 'official' versions will still be able to appreciate this trailer. (Again: one of the reasons it's taken so long to get these alternate versions to you is because we're doing our best to maximize quality. These ain't cheap knockoffs; we understand that one of the reasons Bungie asked you not to download the shakeycam versions is because presentation matters.) Mirrors for these files are more than welcome - grab a copy, post it somewhere, send us the link. We'll add it. Thanks! (Louis Wu 14:53:04 UTC) (permalink)

Dialogue Transcript Revisited
Thursday night, I took the opportunity to fix minor problems with the dialogue transcript for the demo trailer we posted a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to Ross Mills for reminding me to actually POST these fixes. (Louis Wu 14:37:55 UTC) (permalink)

Read, Read, and Read Some More
While some of us were frantic about the demo trailer, the Fan Fiction crowd was pretty busy - check out the latest 14 entries:

• Its Just One of Those Days: Intro, by Elfster
• Covenant Invasion! Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• A Broken Covenant, by TheRambler
• Sacrifice, by Gruntkiller
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Unless Stated Otherwise: Chapter 1, by S7N
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Unless Stated Otherwise: Chapter 2, by S7N
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Unless Stated Otherwise: Chapter 3, by S7N
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Unless Stated Otherwise: Chapter 4, by S7N
• The Ganymede Seige part 1, by Spartan 81388
• Flood Survival Part II, by Forever Forerunner
• The Fall of Fate: Grunter, by 'Nosolee
• Ishkabibbl'sSotry/Humanity'sLastHope/Bloodywar (Part 2), by Ishkabibbl
• True Purpose(10), by Frensa Geran
• The Clergy, by Angelus

That's a lotta reading... (Louis Wu 02:00:39 UTC) (permalink)

More low-bandwidth alternatives
That Weasel has been busy; there are several new flavors of the trailer (and one official flavor) at That Weasel Television; these are (for the most part) very low-bandwidth items. (These have been added to the full mirrors list.) Apologies for the delay in the HIGH-bandwidth re-encodes from me; first versions had screwed-up gamma. If you want sub-20mb versions, go visit the Weasel! (Ask him about the Weasel dance while you're there...) (Louis Wu 01:46:18 UTC) (permalink)

News June 14 2003

A Musical Challenge
Jay Weinland, otherwise known as Jay the Younger (in deference to the hard-of-hearing Marty O'Donnell), has put forth a challenge to the fans: can you tell what meter(s) the "outro" music for the trailer is written in? (Check the thread for more details, and as of now, one guess.) (Louis Wu 17:18:02 UTC) (permalink)

Non-US competition play
Couple of notes about European Halo play; the big one is in France. Swing by Halo-Game's site for full details, but here's the quick rundown: competition is the last weekend in August in Clermont Ferrant (central France). Entrance fee is €20, top prize is €4000 in merchandise. Sign up if you're gonna be in France during that time. We also got word (on our forum) of a tournament (multi-game, including Halo) in London, on July 5th and 12th. Entrance fee is £3, winner will appear on British television. (Louis Wu 16:54:50 UTC) (permalink)

Lores avi version of demo available
Nukedude has converted the WMP9 version of the demo trailer to a 320x216, 20.3 mb DivX-encoded .avi. If you're tight on bandwidth, you might want to grab this. It's not nearly as majestic as the original... but it's light-years ahead of the shakeycam versions floating around. I have no way to get this to mirror sites right now, so be gentle to nukedude's server! Update: nukedude has added another small pipe for this one, via ftp. Anybody else wants to mirror it, we're HAPPY to spread the word. :) (Louis Wu 14:09:48 UTC) (permalink)

Revisited: Halo on sale at Target
Target's current sale of Halo for $37.88 might be the only actual sale of the game... next week's purported drop to $27.88 might not happen, according to some insider tips I received. If you wish, you can hedge your bets: buy the game now, and if it does drop down another $10, you can take it back to Target and get the difference refunded. (Ding 13:20:55 UTC) (permalink)

Anyone Got A Match?
In the insanity that was yesterday, the Friday edition of One One Se7en was overlooked. After WATCHING the flaming ninja material, however, you're more equipped to appreciate this episode... (Louis Wu 10:34:13 UTC) (permalink)

Timberland Warthogs
Don't they ever stop? Bungie has put up yet another desktop for you - this time, it's a pretty straightforward screenshot adaptation, using material from Halo PC. Check it out on the Halo PC Wallpapers page at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation. Thanks to nukedude for the heads-up. (This was actually announced, along with the Ghost Chase II image we mentioned yesterday... but somehow I missed the reference. Busy, or something. Not sure.) (Louis Wu 10:30:36 UTC) (permalink)

More mirrors, and more formats
The mirror list for the E3 Demo Trailer continues to grow... more links were added overnight. We'll also be beginning to add alternate formats. Any alternate formats added will be created from existing files, so there is absolutely no need to download them if you've already got a copy that you can watch; these are for people who couldn't, for one reason or another, view the originals. None of these alternate formats will be available until 1) we can get them to mirror sites, and 2) current bandwidth demands drop far enough that the mirror sites can handle the load. (Mythica served almost 400 GB yesterday, with BitTorrent clients adding another 200 GB or so to that - and the Red vs Blue guys did double that. Add to those numbers the big boys like IGN, Gamespot, and FilePlanet, and all the smaller mirrors that served thousands more copies... there was a LOT of demand, and it's not gone yet.) There's a Sorenson3-encoded version of the QT movie for machines that aren't good with mpeg-4 encoding... and an MPEG1 version in the works for those with even more limits. Dropping to older technologies means losing the bells and whistles (like the WMP9 version's Dolby 5.1 sound)... but for those who can't PLAY the newest stuff, losing bells is better than not having ANYTHING. We'll probably put together a WMP7 version, as well, at some point. (Louis Wu 10:21:39 UTC) (permalink)

He obviously needs more to do.
mnemesis, bored because he saw the demo footage 3 or 4 dozen times during E3, took the opportunity to update the Halo Story Page today. Twice. I mean, come on. Twice? (Louis Wu 00:34:27 UTC) (permalink)

Another Screenshot for ya
Geez, almost missed it... SketchFactor, thinking that maybe you didn't have ENOUGH media to look at today, tossed up another screenshot for the Tru7h and Reconciliation website. You'll find it on the bottom of the page. (Louis Wu 00:09:36 UTC) (permalink)

News June 13 2003

Demo progress
The mirror list for the demo trailer continues to grow. Latest addition is Xbox Community HK - it's a Hong Kong-based server with excellent connections to Taiwan and mainland China (and the rest of Asia). Hopefully, we'll have more European links for you soon, as well. (Brian Towne updated the forum on the efficacy of the BitTorrent links; they're really starting to pick up. Remember, if you use them, leave the window open after your download finishes, and share the wealth! The more people who help out with uploading, the faster it goes for EVERYBODY.) (Louis Wu 20:42:37 UTC) (permalink)

Discovery Channel Documentary next week
Catching up... SketchFactor reminded everyone on Bungie.net that next week marks the debut of the Discovery Channel special on the Xbox, which highlights Bungie. Check it out (and see Sketch's writeup for a link to a teaser trailer)! (Louis Wu 20:31:22 UTC) (permalink)

Status Update
You ever have one of those days? Well, I'm having one now. Anyway, after... what, two and a half hours? we're finally up-to-date with the demo trailer mirror list. (The Bungie.net list is still accurate, but ours breaks out what's available at each site a little better. Downside is, it's harder to get to.) More as we know it. (Louis Wu 19:41:52 UTC) (permalink)

Movie is up.
Go here for now. (I can't even get in to edit this site, so you need to rely on bungie.net.) (Louis Wu 17:20:16 UTC) (permalink)

iGames Summer Season registration open
CobaltNova points out that registration is in progess for the iGames Summer Season, which starts next week (06/21/03). Visit the iGames news page for more details. (Louis Wu 13:35:09 UTC) (permalink)

Halo on sale at Target
If you were to walk into your local Target store, you'd notice that they're selling Halo this week for $37.88. If you wait until next week, the price drops down to $27.88! Since I'm sure we all have our own copies of Halo already, this would be a good opportunity to pick up a backup copy... and to increase Bungie's track record with the number #1 selling Xbox game. :) (Ding 12:55:57 UTC) (permalink)

New desktop at b.net
Another (unannounced) desktop image has been released on bungie.net: E3 2003: Ghost Chase II (bottom of the Halo 2 Wallpapers page). It's not mentioned on the front page of Tru7h and Reconciliation or the main bungie.net site; we only know about it because gd pointed it out in our forum. Go grab a copy! (Louis Wu 11:00:07 UTC) (permalink)

IMPORTANT NOTICE
The E3 2003 demo trailer will not be available before 10 am PST (5 pm UTC). Nothing will be posted about it until then... and constantly refreshing this page, or any other page at HBO, will do nothing except bog down this server, and remove any chance you have of actually seeing useful information when 10 am finally rolls around. Thanks. (Louis Wu 10:41:37 UTC) (permalink)

It's coming... (cue Jaws theme)
Apologies for the short downtime this evening. No, the box isn't having troubles - it was actually up and running, just not serving this website. Why? because it was preparing for tomorrow's massive Halo goodness (that oh-so-luscious direct-feed footage we've all been waiting so long for). We've been helping Bungie do a little bit of mirror site setup. I figure half an hour of downtime tonight is easily compensated by what you're gonna have access to tomorrow... (Louis Wu 03:41:01 UTC) (permalink)

News June 12 2003

A panoply of panoramas
BOLL has added 16 new panoramas to his Halorama collection - you can see them here. These are all multiplayer maps, and they (mostly) include players. There are some pretty cool ones in there! (The Flash interface is still not useable; the last two collection exceeded the maximum number of files it could deal with. BOLL's working on it.) (Louis Wu 20:53:55 UTC) (permalink)

The pics keep pouring out...
Yet more new content at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation: another pair of storyboards, and new concept art (the phantom, and the Covenant 'bus'). Grab 'em while they're hot! (Louis Wu 19:16:26 UTC) (permalink)

Pallor: Spotlighted
Ever wondered what makes community fixture Pallor tick? The Junkyard continues its 'Spotlight' series by shining the beam on Meg. Go read about her past as a figure skater, and her future as... well, wherever her present actions lead. Or something. (Louis Wu 18:04:21 UTC) (permalink)

Rebuilding lost data
Once upon a time, there was a hunt for an easter egg dubbed the Megg. It generated a HUGE amount of traffic, and forum regular Shishka created a FAQ, of sorts, for it, housed over at Subnova. Unfortunately, in the great database crash of last month at SN, it was lost... but Shishka is trying to rebuild it. If anyone has a cached copy they'd saved, anywhere along the line, he'd love it if you mailed him a copy. Thanks! (Louis Wu 17:22:29 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Screensaver updated
Ciarán posted a note on our forum to say that his Halo 2 Screen Saver has been updated in anticipation of tomorrow's trailer release. (He also has some info about the website it's served from - some nice use of RSS there...) (Louis Wu 17:01:02 UTC) (permalink)

Picture queue, part 2
A couple of very nice entries in todays desktop offerings - check the Wallpaper section. (There seem to be a new rash of people not bothering to read the image posting guidelines - if you submitted something, and it didn't show up, this is probably why.) (Louis Wu 13:47:57 UTC) (permalink)

Picture queue, part 1
Quite a mix for you today, in the Miscellaneous Art section... (Louis Wu 13:33:47 UTC) (permalink)

A call for decency
Yesterday, we posted a note about a story published in the Seattle Times which contained a couple of entertaining mistakes. (Entertaining, that is, for those who know Bungie well. To the rest of the world, it's doubtful they were even noticed.) I saw several disturbing posts on our forum today, expressing outrage that anyone would make these mistakes... but what really got to me was a note someone sent, containing the rant they had mailed directly to the author. In it, they insulted her personally, maligned her physical appearance, cast aspersions on her sexual orientation, and (almost incidentally) attempted to correct her mistakes... unsuccessfully. I'd like to take this opportunity to suggest that the absolute worst face you can put on a Bungie fan is one contorted with this sort of puerile rage - when you act this stupidly in public, you reflect badly on ALL Bungie fans. As Gawyn put succinctly in our forum, "please act like adults when you contact the press because you, in some fashion, represent the community at large, and we want to have a good reputation." (Louis Wu 02:26:29 UTC) (permalink)

And Other Stories
In case speculation on Halo's storyline isn't your thing, we've got 7 pieces from Fan Fiction authors that branch out a bit from the canon:

• .halo 8: Forgotten Realms (Series Finale), by Neo//hack
• The Mars Annihilations , by Janglurevil7
• Wrong or Right part 4, by harley
• The Fall of Fate: Exploration , by 'Nosolee
• Ishkabibbl'sStory/Humanity'sLastHope/BloodyWar(Part One), by Ishkabibbl
• Flood Survival, by Forever Forerunner
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Two, by LordofDestruction

Get to reading... (Louis Wu 02:08:48 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Story Page updated
Grumpy because the last Story page update happened before E3? Feeling deprived of the wild speculation of your fellow HSP junkies? Cry no longer - mnemesis has posted a hefty collection of cogitation and cerebration for you to mull over. Get to reading! (Louis Wu 02:04:20 UTC) (permalink)

Now THESE are big.
Thanks to Strato, who pointed out some astonishingly high-resolution versions of the first 6 Halo 2 screenshots over at the Xbox.com press section. The zip file is almost 40 megabytes, and for that you get some Bungie logos (EPS format, so you pick the size), and 6 TIFF files that weigh in at 2560x1920 pixels each. (Check the alpha channel of any of 'em for a funky bonus.) If you're looking for hi-res shots to create artwork from... these are your friends. (Remember that yellow text in the brute shot that looked like S'pht writing? You can read it now.) (Louis Wu 01:53:14 UTC) (permalink)

Chief's New Toy
In case you thought there weren't enough updates on Bungie.net today, mehve turned out a really wicked-cool (and I don't use that term lightly) desktop for the Halo PC Wallpaper page over at the Tru7h and Reconciliation website. To put it simply... it rocks. Check it out. (Louis Wu 01:45:45 UTC) (permalink)

News June 11 2003

Find that movie faster.
In response to a user request, some long-needed search features have been added to the Movies database. You can now search multiple fields, in multiple ways. Should make life a bit easier finding what you were looking for... (Louis Wu 21:06:39 UTC) (permalink)

The Halo 2 Content Onslaught Continues.
Jonesin' for still MORE Halo 2 goodness? SketchFactor notes that two new storyboards from the E3 demo have been added to the Tru7h & Reconciliation site; they're not the same ones that showed up in last month's OXM, either. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:47:09 UTC) (permalink)

Holy crap.
The latest story to grace the front page of Bungie.net (bumping a picture of yours truly off after only 16 hours - thanks, mehve) is a bizarre tale of background research, in which several members of the Halo 2 dev team spent a day playing with real guns, courtesy of the US Special Forces. In the words of Robert McLees, "It was an amazing experience and it has fueled my brains with tons of cool ideas." Go read it. And realize that your Halo 2 experience will be that much more realistic because of it. (Louis Wu 19:48:29 UTC) (permalink)

blam.bungie.org archives back online!
Yesterday, Ross Mills pointed out that the archive of our very early days was offline. A quick email to Aaron Davies, though, fixed the problem - thanks to him, some of our earliest history is now permanently stored right here on this site. Take a walk down memory lane (or see it for the first time, if you haven't been coming to this site for 4 years)! Gah. This reminds me... we missed our 4-year anniversary. :( (Louis Wu 18:24:28 UTC) (permalink)

bungie.de back up
Atomi writes to point out that bungie.de, a German Halo (PC/Mac) site, is back online. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:59:09 UTC) (permalink)

Super Death what?
It's bizarre... but it's small, so what the heck. synide created a sub-4mb movie (QuickTime format, now), showing (in his words, mind you) 'super death drop bomb melee charlie in the trees type stuff'. Timing's pretty nice. Check it out. (You may have to watch it a couple of times; there are fun views from both screens.) (Louis Wu 15:16:22 UTC) (permalink)

Hot Head.
The new One One Se7en is part of a 3-strip series; I'm sure it was supposed to happen in a single week, and I'm sure the fact that it's starting on a Wednesday instead of a Monday is entirely my fault... but you'll just have to maintain your sense of continuity over the weekend, sorry. (Louis Wu 15:10:26 UTC) (permalink)

Glenda Adams leaves Westlake - but Halo goes on
IMG's 'One on One' feature between Glenda Adams (Westlake programmer) and Tuncer Deniz (Inside Mac Games editor) is coming to a close, since Adams is moving to Aspyr Media... but there's one last episode, with a wrapup of the work going on at Westlake. Halo gets a very brief mention:

Halo is actually up and playing on the Mac, and we're merging in some of the latest PC code changes right now to keep it current.

Good to know! Read the rest of the interview at Inside Mac Games. (Thanks to travis for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 12:30:30 UTC) (permalink)

Whew - I'm not sure he took a breath during that...
SketchFactor, a whirling dervish of updating action, has put up FanFest Flashback - Part 2, covering the day of the fest itself (with the chaos of the day nicely captured by the writing style). Check it out. (There are also links to a trailer (in both WMV and QT formats) of an upcoming Fanfest documentary put together by Mr. Smiley... Sketch's links are a bit funky, but they'll probably get fixed at some point, and figuring out the real links shouldn't be too hard.) Update: Links for the documentary trailer movies are fixed. It waren't Sketch's fault; looks like the site scripting has gone a bit wonky... (Louis Wu 02:31:40 UTC) (permalink)

More trailer details
I hadn't realized the details were going to be released this early... but apparently, MS lips are a bit looser than Bungie lips; a bad thing when lots of people have access to information. Gamepro has put up some details about the demo to be released on Friday - the WMP9 version will be roughly 150 mb, and filmed in gorgeous 640x480 video (with Dolby 5.1 surround sound). Gamepro doesn't mention it, but there'll be other formats available, as well. (Not ALL of us can see WMP9 video, after all.) Thanks to Appleicious for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:21:41 UTC) (permalink)

Unsettling, on so many levels...
Thanks to Twilight, who was first (of many) to point out the Seattle Times article on Justin Timberlake's visit to Bungie. I thought about leaving this in the forum, but how could I pass up journalism like this?

He thrilled the Bungie team by signing autographs and multiplaying with them. They, in turn, tried to wow him with their latest game, Brute Force.

I haven't received the flood of outraged emails from Bungie employees who were shocked at this representation yet... but I'm guessing that's because they haven't stopped laughing long enough to type. (For those keeping score, no, Bungie did NOT create Brute Force.) (Louis Wu 02:06:54 UTC) (permalink)

Hold on to your hats - the internet's coming down
For those not tuned in to the minute-by-minute goings-on at bungie.net, about an hour ago, SketchFactor announced that the E3 2003 vid (the real deal, not the shakeycam versions floating around the net) will be released this Friday. Start your browsers! (Louis Wu 01:27:10 UTC) (permalink)

News June 10 2003

Contest Updates
Evil Otto posted a note on bungie.net explaining that the Halo 2 content contest would probably be written up, with winners announced, by early next week. Good luck to all who entered! (I'd like to take this contest-mentioning opportunity to apologize to all Pillar of Art entrants, and those waiting to see the final work product; the pieces we showed at E3 are finally on their way back to the East coast, and we should have judging and announcements ready in the next little bit, as well. We never, ever, EVER thought it would take this long, and we're sorry. More details can be found at the Pillar of Art site.) (Louis Wu 19:05:38 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Best Console Game, says GCA
Thanks to iZoD, who reminded us that the Game Critics Awards were announced today. Halo was nominated for several awards, but was beaten out by Half-Life 2 in every category except Best Console Game. (Still, for a studio now devoted to console titles, that's not a bad honor...) (Louis Wu 18:25:12 UTC) (permalink)

There's that number again...
How many Fan Fiction pieces today? Why, Seven, of course.

• .halo 5: Insertion, by Neo//hack
• .halo 6: Fall of Irvine, by Neo//hack
• .halo 7: Fallen Tears, by Neo//hack
• Taking Halo: (Chapter Four) The Cartographer, by Steele
• Longsword: Desperation- Part Three, by Sterfrye36
• The Fall of Fate: Trapdoor, by 'Nosolee
• On A Pale Horse: The Reverence, by Silent Hunter

Have you read them all? (Louis Wu 08:57:13 UTC) (permalink)

Elite Guide moves
Chris Preziotti points out that the Elite Guide now has its own domain name, 1337guide.com. We've updated our Links list. (Louis Wu 08:30:01 UTC) (permalink)

News June 9 2003

It's evil...
Dr Evil has turned in a rather large banner, which we've added to our Banners section. (The preview version is still pretty big, but smaller than the original.) (Louis Wu 20:19:09 UTC) (permalink)

More pretty pictures
Four desktop images for you, as well, clearing out the Wallpaper queue that's built for a week now. Sorry about that... (Louis Wu 19:51:45 UTC) (permalink)

Artwork, clearing the queue
Seven art bits for you in the Miscellaneous Art section today. Now, before anyone jumps into their email program to write a nasty missive about how this image or that one doesn't meet our posting guidelines, and how the hell could I post it, blah, blah blah (as seems to happen pretty much any time I post ANYTHING these days)... they wouldn't be posted unless I thought they should be posted. If you're not happy with the arbitrary whims of the archive maintainer, find a different place to submit your files (or browse them, for that matter). Grumpy? Me? Never. (Louis Wu 19:32:18 UTC) (permalink)

Dolour Signs
Today's One One Se7en looks at Bungie's underlying motives... I think Cortana's pretty sharp, when it comes right down to it. (Louis Wu 16:59:15 UTC) (permalink)

News June 8 2003

Let the words wash over you
Whoa - the Fan Fiction submitters have been busy this weekend. 17 new stories:

• Longsword: Desperation-Part Two, by Sterfrye36
• Robotic Deception, by Gasmask
• .halo 2, by Neo//hack
• One Shot, One Kill Part 1, by HunterKiller
• .halo 3, by Neo//hack
• The Fallen: Halo 2 Chapter 1 Section 1, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen: Chapter 1Part 2, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen: Chapter 1 Part 3, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen: Chapter 1 Part 4, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen: Chapter 1 Part 5, by Hikaru-119
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part One, by LordofDestruction
• .halo 4, by Neo//hack
• The Fall of Fate: Flee, by 'Nosolee
• Zudo - Part1: The Creation, by Hunter
• True Purpose(9), by Frensa Geran
• CR.04: Chaotic Reign .04: Light of the Ender (Series Finale), by Neo//hack
• Bloody War: Pluto Disastor, by Ishkabibbl

Get to it... (Louis Wu 19:34:21 UTC) (permalink)

Gamers.com readers... think different.
Andrew Katz pointed out that Gamers.com (the parent website to EGM, whose poll on the most exciting game at E3 we reported yesterday) has their own poll, with the same question... and as of right now, Halo 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 are tied with 28% of the vote each... while Half-Life 2 is tied with Mario Kart: Double Dash for third place (and 13% of the vote each). Seems a bit off to me... go add your vote! (Louis Wu 13:07:31 UTC) (permalink)

June 2003 OXM now available
Well, many couldn't wait... but many did. The July 2003 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine hit store shelves yesterday... so we can now bring you the June issue, with the 14-page Halo 2 Exclusive that got folks so riled up last month. You'll find it in our Press Scans section. (Louis Wu 00:02:48 UTC) (permalink)

News June 7 2003

EGM readers want Halo 2
gspawn points out a poll (that seems to have ended) over at Electronic Gaming Monthly's website; they'd asked 'which game from E3 has you most excited?' - and Halo 2 ran away with 39% of the vote. Not bad! (Again, though, Half-Life 2 wasn't one of the options...) (Louis Wu 12:36:38 UTC) (permalink)

Elite Force version of HeH up
Calvin Hansen alerts us to a version of Hang 'em High for Star Trek: Elite Force, over at EliteForceFiles.com. The screenshot looks pretty good! (Louis Wu 01:56:17 UTC) (permalink)

Got a good Halo question?
Wolf writes to say that Sector 7 will be putting up a 'Halo Quiz' soon. There are already 15 questions... but they need more. They're looking for fan input... if you have a question, send it along (along with either 4 answer choices, if it's multiple choice - true/false questions are acceptable as well) - they'll pick the best ones! (Louis Wu 01:50:58 UTC) (permalink)

More readable funnays
Stuntmutt pointed out that some of the newest One One Se7ens (no, you can't see 'em yet) had better looking type than the older ones - and I realized that this was the fault of a setting on my computer. (It's a long story.) Bottom line: I've gone back and regenerated ALL the One One Se7ens; type is better (more readable) across the board. Sorry for the inconvenience! (Louis Wu 00:49:29 UTC) (permalink)

News June 6 2003

Cold Metal available again
A few weeks ago, we posted a note about a movie that was being hosted by BOLL, temporarily. It was only up for a day or so... nukedude has come to the rescue, and if you're interested in the film, you can grab it there. (Louis Wu 17:58:29 UTC) (permalink)

Typecasting
Episode 17 of Stuntmutt's One One Se7en is up and ready for reading. For the 3 of you still holding out for the PC version of Halo, there are spoilers in this one. For the rest of you... giggle. (Louis Wu 17:33:03 UTC) (permalink)

E3 game poll at Gamer's Logik
Breandan Conaghan points out that Gamer's Logik has a front-page poll asking what E3's hottest title was. As of now, Halo has almost 30% of the 382 votes. Feel free to add your 2 cents. (It's definitely a console site; Half-Life 2 isn't even on the list.) (Louis Wu 17:19:49 UTC) (permalink)

MacAddict readers want Halo
kiro69 points out that the July 2003 issue of MacAddict shows the results of a poll they held; "What would you most like to see ported to the Mac?" Halo placed first with 29%. (I gotta ask... what were those other 71% of respondents thinking?) (Louis Wu 15:26:20 UTC) (permalink)

Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap
Episode 9 of Red vs Blue has been posted for Sponsors. Once again, there's some AMAZING footage... and Sarge is back, with an item we ALL want. Go get it! (If you can't pony up the $5 to become a sponsor, you'll have to wait until Sunday for this one.) Thanks to CYBRFRK for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:15:39 UTC) (permalink)

Keep those dogies reading...
Seven entries today in the Fan Fiction section?

• ONI Black Ops Part Eleven(Finale), by Havok
• Desperation- Part One, by Sterfrye36
• True Purpose(8), by Frensa Geran
• Halo 2: Revenge of a Spartan, by LostRock
• The Fall of Fate: Trapped , by 'Nosolee
• .halo, by Neo//hack
• Halo from the Flood's Point of View: The Sergeant, by Simpsons Rule

How did that happen? (Louis Wu 02:28:06 UTC) (permalink)

News June 5 2003

Keeping you informed about Halo PC
The Nightrider points out that Bungie's Halo PC FAQ gained 3 new questions yesterday - check 'em out for info about playable demos, beta tests, and the Mac version of Halo. (Louis Wu 18:41:14 UTC) (permalink)

the Junkyard focuses on Halo-ites
In our third Halo50K post of the day, Ryan 'Mhaddy' Mathhews of the Junkyard writes to let us know that a spotlight of dolbex is now up in their Spotlights section. (I like his favorite sites list.) While you're there, you should read the spotlight posted a couple of days ago of Michael 'Fluffy' Karlsson, the site director of Battleground: Halo. Mhaddy also mentioned that in the next few days, there'd be spotlights on some Bungie and Gearbox guys... so check back! (Louis Wu 18:35:51 UTC) (permalink)

Team HBO Halo50K writeup now online
Ninja on Fire has put up a LOT of pictures (over 100, I think) from his Halo50K experience, right here on HBO. (He was a member of Team HBO, after all.) There are lots of pictures of unnamed teams... so if you're here, and not labeled, let nof know! This layout should give you a sense of the chaos of the event... and its scope. (Louis Wu 18:21:09 UTC) (permalink)

Stick with me, baby.
Another mini-movie from HUNTR-KILLR. This one shows another setting you can toggle with a modded box - it's called 'magnetism', and it determines whether marines (and the MC) will automatically exit a warthog when it flips. (It also keeps you from being ejected from a Banshee if you hit something, or fly vertically.) I'm POSITIVE that some of the moviemakers out there could find a use for this feature... the movie's only 3 mb (QT, no sound), so grab it and see what this looks like! (Driving upside down is pretty funny.) (Louis Wu 13:17:34 UTC) (permalink)

Gamefaqs asks... is MC popular enough?
Bigsauce writes to let us know of a competition over at Gamefaqs.com. The Summer 2003 competition is a popularity contest; who is the most popular video game character of all time? Master Chief is ranked 3rd in the East division. Go register and vote! If you pick the winning characters, you have a shot at cold, hard cash. (Louis Wu 13:07:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo50K - get ready!
dolbex, of Halo50K, writes to let us know that the website has been updated with lots and lots and lots of info. All the details from the first competition (in Atlanta, in April) are now online; you can see how everyone did in tournament play. They've also instituted a new Team Spotlight feature, for you to get to know the teams involved. Halo50K2 is coming up in August, in New Jersey - will you be ready? (Louis Wu 13:03:36 UTC) (permalink)

Downtime... over.
Welcome back to the madhouse. Apologies for the up-and-downtime of recent weeks... there's another short outage coming this weekend, when the server this site runs on is ripped unceremoniously out of the rack and stom- um, replaced with a better-functioning alternate. Shouldn't take more than an hour or two to synch the data between the two machines... details will be posted on our forum. In the meantime, we have to hope this puppy can limp along until UPS does its delivery thing. (Louis Wu 12:57:49 UTC) (permalink)

News June 4 2003

Frogblast Schmogblast.
It's not quite Thursday, UTC... so I'm still not late posting today's One One Se7en. This one's sort of special... (Louis Wu 22:03:06 UTC) (permalink)

FanFest, Revisited
SketchFactor has posted part 1 of his FanFest Flashback; a look at the history of the Bungie FanFests, as well as the events leading up to this particular iteration. Good times, good times... go read! (Louis Wu 19:39:15 UTC) (permalink)

Get Joyride to build him!
Hehe - BOLL has put out yet another enjoyable Halo-inspired creation. It was for an intro course in animation... the main character may not LOOK familiar, but he sure SOUNDS familiar. (2 mb, QuickTime format) I love this guy! (Louis Wu 18:34:13 UTC) (permalink)

E3 vid nearing release
SketchFactor has stepped into a thread about the imminent release of the E3 Demo video with a bit of information.

...it is definitely not coming out today or tomorrow. However, I can say with certainty that it's very close to being released. We know everyone is eager to see it and trust me, we're eager to get it out there. While it's not a huge ordeal to prepare it for release, it does take time and being the perfectionists that we are, there are a few little things that the team wanted to address.

Stay tuned... we'll be sure to let you know exactly how to get your grubby mitts on this, as soon as we know ourselves. (Louis Wu 16:32:54 UTC) (permalink)

LOOONG gameplay movie available
[WSD] has put up their second monster movie (18 minutes long, 88 mb) for you to grab. It's predominately 4-player gameplay - 2v2 or 4-player FFA - except for the last 5 minutes, which is an unedited 6 player game of Rockets on Prisoner. Editing overall is pretty well done. If you enjoy watching Halo gameplay, grab this file (it's in the Media section of their website). WMV format (v7, so it's watchable by Macs, too). Thanks to [WSD]-Deus for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:06:40 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespot on Halo PC
It was posted during E3, but somehow we missed it; Gamespot put up a Hands-on impression article of Halo PC a couple of weeks ago. It's got a bit of dodgy information, but mostly, it says the reviewer was happy with what he saw. Thanks to Clefton Twain on our forum for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:15:40 UTC) (permalink)

Nice and relaxing... yeah, right
Brannon Boren points out that Halo is featured in yesterday's Dork Tower cartoon. Got a chuckle out of me... (Louis Wu 12:56:28 UTC) (permalink)

CGW covers Halo PC in current issue
Scott Velasquez of Gearbox points out that if you want to see a pic of the Gearbox team, you can find them on top of the building they work in in the latest issue of Computer Gaming World (which has a 4-page Halo PC spread). We can't add the article to our Press Scans section until it's off the shelf... but you can find it in your local newsstand right now. (Louis Wu 12:51:42 UTC) (permalink)

Randy Pitchford talks to Shack
Shacknews has interviewed Randy Pitchford, of Gearbox - there's a boatload of tasty information there. Of great interest to many HBO regulars is the support Gearbox plans to provide to the mod community...

The degree to which Halo is huge on the PC is the degree to which we‰ll support the modification community. We believe it‰s going to be huge. We‰ll be talking about our initial steps to help a modification community grow around the title soon and will be talking about what kind of tools and other SDK material we‰ll release and how it can be used sometime around the launch. Dave (Mertz) and Matt (Armstrong) have been really looking forward to doing it...

Randy Pitchford: From a content point of view, single player is pure. The new content and features we‰ve added have all been in the area of multiplayer.

We have, however, corrected a few much less than significant issues that have been discovered by some of the millions of Xbox customers and we‰ve been able to pick and choose between feature differences in the PAL and NTSC versions of the Xbox game (as we have both code bases). This manifests itself in a few different ways that are mostly really subtle - I‰m interested to see what kind of changes/differences the most hard-core fans actually discover. I hope you understand that we wouldn‰t be doing our jobs if we actually advertised such subtle adjustments...

Read the rest of the interview; there's info on input devices, film capabilities (or lack thereof), coop possibilities, new multiplayer game play features, new vehicles (note the emphasis on the plural), new weapons (yes, the flamethrower is in), and more. Three pages of juicy Halo PC Goodness! (Louis Wu 12:45:59 UTC) (permalink)

CGN says Two Thumbs Up!
Cyber Gaming Network has posted their E3 2003 Awards... and Halo 2 cleaned up. Best Visuals of Show, Xbox Game of Show, Demo of Show, and Outstanding Game of Show. Dunno... I think they liked it. Go read the details! (Louis Wu 12:33:56 UTC) (permalink)

Phoenix Sanction ready for play
A month ago, we mentioned a card game being created by Phoenix Sanction. Looks like they're done with the first set. Rules, card technicalities, and an Excel sheet deck creator... take a look. (Louis Wu 12:29:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Reloaded at That Weasel
Ross Mills writes to remind us that his 'Halo Reloaded' trailer can be found at That Weasel Television. There are two versions - a large 3.7 mb version and a small (sub-1mb) version, both in WMP9 format. Take a look! (Louis Wu 12:24:14 UTC) (permalink)

They should call 'em Wall-Crawlers...
HUNTR-KILLR turned in a funny little short film; no sound, but the action is what counts. Anybody who's tried to put a jeep up on top of the level Halo knows how hard it is to drive up slopes... and walking is simply out of the question. Did you know, though, that Covenant characters have FAR less trouble? An elite can walk up a slope two or three times faster (maybe even more than that) than even a Warthog can! The clip just under 3 minutes long, and around 8 mb. It shows three separate climbs, with awesome views each time, and some cool falls at the end. (Each one has the player bump an Elite; yes, this is a modded xbox. This works with Jackals and Grunts, as well.) Check out RockClimber, on mythica.org now! (Clip 2 has the pistol-carrying elite stop halfway up the hill and admire the view... but he's doing more than that; even with a modded xbox, the blue beam freeze effect is still an issue. He waits for the beam to fire, and THEN finished the climb; that gives him 16 seconds to get to the top.) (Louis Wu 00:16:48 UTC) (permalink)

News June 3 2003

Halo 2 UI Contest - Closed!
Evil Otto has posted a note over at Bungie.net announcing that the Halo 2 UI caption contest is now closed. Over a thousand entries, three will be selected. Good luck, EO, and good luck to all who entered! Read the news item for what is, and is not, permissible at this stage. (Louis Wu 19:00:13 UTC) (permalink)

Halo50K Framework Redux
One of the more impressive gameplay vids in recent memory is Dan Chosich's Halo50K Framework. It sets all sorts of bars that other Halo filmmakers strive to reach... and now it's even better. Audio's been re-encoded, aspect ratio and bitrate's are both higher, for clarity... this movie captures the chaos, the adrenaline-induced exhilaration, the beauty of Halo multiplay, and now it does so in a 720x405 format, in just under 80 mb. It's being hosted by Khen Rigzin's site, Mindwarp. (The link points to a directory listing, so you can choose how you want to download it.) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 16:48:20 UTC) (permalink)

More PC multiplayer goodness
Not to be outdone by the Gearbox crew, Bungie's SketchFactor metes out a few morsels of info about the PC Rocket Hog. It's a three-shot, boys and girls... (Louis Wu 16:28:09 UTC) (permalink)

The Orange is Coming
Geeoff has put together a multiplayer stunts movie called 'the orange is coming', and That Weasel has agreed to host it for him at That Weasel Television. It's 26.3 mb, just under 2 minutes long, in WMP7 format. Some nice examples of using grenades to collect weapons on the run, as well as some hijinks on the top of Blood Gulch. Check it out! Update: There's also a smaller, WMP9 version of the file (4.1 mb) that's not listed on the main mirror page - you can grab it here. (Louis Wu 15:47:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC details... from the source
Thanks to dolbex for sharing... he asked some interesting questions about vehicle respawning in PC Halo over at the Gearbox Forums, and got some solid answers from a couple of members of the Gearbox crew. Summary: vehicles will NOT be destroyable in multiplayer; it would be too frustrating to kill someone in a banshee and not be able to use it. The respawn that's been mentioned refers to inaccessible vehicles:

The vehicle respawn option is part of the solution to having vehicles "parked" in areas that are problematic or that are just naturally away from the action. This also prevents "vehicle hoarding" by one team or a group of players.

There's a lot more over there... read the rest! Update: I should have read the entire thread. There's a multiplayer map based on Silent Cartographer, called 'Death Island'... and it has Banshees. Finally, the Banshee returns to SC! (Louis Wu 15:30:51 UTC) (permalink)

Numerous Narratives
Another 12 entries in the Fan Fiction section today...

• When Games Collide: The Tournament of the Century Chapter 2, by Brent Carmichael
• True Purpose(7), by Frensa Geran
• A Halo Comedy (Very Original Title...), by Dispraiser
• Forsaken Forefathers part V: Boarding Action, by AlphaBravo343 and Havok
• Crash of the Accolade [Part 02], by Argonox
• Rally Point Alpha, by Sterfrye36
• Stowaway Part 3, by Dispraiser
• Uncertain Danger - Unwanted Visitors [Part 02][Series 01], by Argonox
• Beta Halo: Call in the Scouts, by SPARTAN 053
• Rebirth - Shadow's Chapter 4 - Bar Fight, by Archangel's Blade, Spartan 451, Knightmare, and Shadow
• The Virus Part 4, by monitor101
• The Darkness Worries - Unwanted Visitors [Part 03] , by Argonox

See how many you can read before the NEXT batch comes out. (Louis Wu 13:51:17 UTC) (permalink)

Some art, at least...
Three art pieces built up over the past few days have been added to the Miscellaneous Art section. There were one or two others, but I've got no idea who sent them. (Louis Wu 12:55:39 UTC) (permalink)

Eagan 'GS' McLees... you've got a long road ahead.
Lorraine McLees has written the latest Bungie Soapbox article... I think she needs to take a break. A long break. Maybe even... seven weeks long. (Louis Wu 02:45:30 UTC) (permalink)

Stupid Human Tricks
In what has to have been the most collosal act of stupidity I've perpetrated in months, I managed to delete not only my current copy of my mail directory... but the most recent backup, as well. Last backup before this one: March 16. That means if you mailed something to halo@bungie.org with an attachment, or a personal note to me that hasn't yet received a reply... it's gone forever. I have no way of recovering it. You're welcome to resend attachments, or notes that needed replies; there's not much I can do from this end, without your help. Moral of the story: Don't swap disks. Ever. (Louis Wu 02:32:54 UTC) (permalink)

News June 2 2003

I see the lawsuit now...
You know you've made it when they start copying you. Red vs Blue has gotten quite a bit of positive press recently, and rightly so - they're doing wonderful things with the art of Halo engine moviemaking. And now... they've spawned a tribute group; Salmon vs Teal. We should make it clear that these guys have nothing but the highest respect for the RvB crew... they just want to show it with a parody series. The first installment is up now; it's available in two formats, a large (720x480, 12.3 mb, QT) and a medium (400x300, 5.4 mb, QT). Grab the one your bandwidth allows. You can comment on the project in this forum thread. Update: Both versions of this film have been mirrored by That Weasel Television - always great to have extra bandwidth! (Louis Wu 20:04:19 UTC) (permalink)

Strykerwolf - in the spotlight again!
We've mentioned the Counter-Strike skin made by Strykerwolf a few times since it was released to the net over a year ago... but it looks like it's getting more press now. LeAtHeRnEcK points out that it's been made Skin of the Day over at CS-Nation... check it out! (Louis Wu 19:18:31 UTC) (permalink)

A plethora of pictures
Cybrfrk has posted 106 pics from E3 on his website. Some have been seen before (on the b.org E3 coverage page) but many, many of them are new. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 17:36:51 UTC) (permalink)

The Wegg?
Some of Stuntmutt's One One Se7en episodes are turned in early, but involve topical (at the time of creation) subjects; I worried a bit that the joke would be lost by the time the strip was aired. Today's strip is a perfect example... it involves the Megg easter egg, which was found over a month ago. Luckily, however, it showed up on our forum again this weekend... fortuitous. Take a look - it should make you grin. (Louis Wu 16:15:16 UTC) (permalink)

E3 highlight flick now available smaller
Back on May 13, we mentioned a non-shakeycam movie being distributed by Gamespot; it was 9.7 mb, in .MOV format. (It's basically a highlight reel, but it's direct feed.) It was (is) a free download, but you have to register with Gamespot to get it. Well, that same movie, in a smaller form (320x240, 3.4 mb, MPEG) is now available WITHOUT the Gamespot watermark, over at GamesRadarUK. Thanks to 3Suns for the heads-up! (Louis Wu 13:13:14 UTC) (permalink)

G4's got some Halo 2 coverage
Gantry points out that episode 211 of the show 'Filter' on G4Tv (next airing this Thursday, 3:30 pm) covers the Most Anticipated Games of E3 - and Halo 2 is number 1. Watch it if you've got it! (If you just can't get enough of G4's Halo 2 coverage, they've also got an episode of Pulse covering E3 (in which Halo 2 figures prominently) showing Tuesday morning at 3 am...) (Louis Wu 13:08:40 UTC) (permalink)

The Junkyard goes Halo 2
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews of the Junkyard writes to let us know that their Halo 2 section is now online. Content is sparse (because info about the game is sparse), but it will be filled out as the situation warrants. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:02:28 UTC) (permalink)

Ouch.
We posted a series of desktops on Saturday; 6 of them were variations on an existing wallpaper, done by a completely different person, who wasn't consulted about (and doesn't approve of) having his art modified. We've yanked the 6 offending pieces. Just a heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:54:29 UTC) (permalink)

Communication is important.
I HATE using the front page this way - and I won't, any more. To whoever uploaded a 125 mb archive to our ftp area this evening (upload finished a bit before 7 pm EDT), without an email address, we'll simply toss this. (It doesn't have to be made public - but we need it in order to contact you about your submission.) If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this clearer to uploaders in general, I'm all ears. (Louis Wu 02:05:01 UTC) (permalink)

News June 1 2003

Weekend Reading
Twelve pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today:

• Chapter 4: Rescue, by Vinny
• Stowaway Part 2 (3 of 3), by Dispraiser
• Tides of the Accolade [Part 01], by Argonox
• ONI Black Ops Part Ten, by Havok
• Beta Halo: On Earth's Doorstep, by SPARTAN 053
• Above and Beyond the Call of Duty: Part II; The Gambit, by pj-NYkr90
• Above and Beyond the Call of Duty: Part III; Turncoat, by pj-NYkr90
• When Games Collide: The Tournament of the Century , by Brent Carmichael
• Beginings , by Sterfrye36
• Rebirth - Shadow's Chapter 3 - Entrance, by Knightmare, Archangel's Blade, Spartan 451 and Shadow
• Shadows, by Gude Riter
• Uncertain Danger [Part 01], by Argonox

Go read 'em - and accept apologies for a slow news weekend. (It's not that the news is slow, it's that family obligations are pretty high.) (Louis Wu 21:57:48 UTC) (permalink)

June 2003

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