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 | March 2002 |  |
March 2002 Archived News
News March 31 2002
Battle of the Bay synopsis, cut 1
A few descriptions of the carnage that took place at the Hilton Towers in San Francisco (yesterday's Battle of the Bay) have been posted on our forum. Thanks to Psyrixx, Appleicious, and Tarrsk for their input... hopefully there'll be more! (Louis Wu 16:31:34 UTC) (permalink)
Sounds for your computer, Bungie-style
Wh00t! (As of the time of this post, the Mac version is incomplete - you won't be able to unstuff it, because the Binhex file didn't completely upload, it seems. This will likely be fixed soon. The Windows version is fine, though... the Error message is a riot.) (Louis Wu 04:28:52 UTC) (permalink)
A website worth exploring
Daniel writes to say that Team 7hr33's website has had a major overhaul - new layout (I like), TONS of new content (much of which I will eventually steal for inclusion here), and one disappointment - a movie, posted yesterday (and filmed on March 11) shows Team 7hr33's exploration of the 'Black Door' on Two Betrayals, mentioned in the recent Gameplay Trick uploaded by Frogblast. (It STILL doesn't predate Legolas' documentation in our forum... but it is the first video showing the door.) Go visit - check out the Maw vids, the frontwards 360 in a Scorpion, and the very slick plasma pistol/grenade combo trick... and everything else around there. These guys have S7yle, with a capital S. (Louis Wu 03:54:00 UTC) (permalink)
Serious influx of FF
We wish you peace on this day, in a world gone mad... and we offer you a new batch of Fan Fiction:
- Aftermath Part 2, by Alex Cross
- The Hell of War Part 3, by Jaywhit10
- The Renegade Marines Part IX, by Shadow
- Siege of the Rings Chapter 2, by The Wraven
- Finishing what you started, Part Two, by LeAtHeRnEcK
These are all available in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 03:00:03 UTC) (permalink)
News March 30 2002
Locked doors? Pshaw!
There's a pretty big backup in the Gameplay Tricks queue, but time is short this weekend. I'm putting up a recent exploration by Frogblast - it stands alone, unlike some of the other entries. Check it out for some freaky behavior in Two Betrayals! (Louis Wu 21:44:41 UTC) (permalink)
Japanese Halo championship, explained
Yesterday, we mentioned some changes to the Japanese Halo site - protexts has been kind enough to translate the news item associated with the dogtags (he calls it a paraphrase/translation):
They are having a Halo tournament 3/31 in two shops in Nagoya: Nagoya Toys Paradise and Miraiyabuusu. The players will purchase first time limited dog tags (comes with rubber silencer (literal translation) along with a case and a logo on it). The dog tags are the tickets to the tournament.
So, if you're going to be anywhere near Nagoya in the next couple of days, you might want to visit one of these shops! (Louis Wu 10:56:51 UTC) (permalink)
New Wallpaper
Two new desktops for you - one, from Joel Day, was created some time ago, but only submitted recently. The other, from Loren Judah, is new. You can find both in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 10:52:16 UTC) (permalink)
BotB interview at 7th Column
Nice. (It's an accompaniment to this article at the Seventh Column, Bungie's community site, about an upcoming (TOMORROW!) lanfest with an expected 50 participants. Wowzers!) (Louis Wu 03:21:50 UTC) (permalink)
Friday night reading
Four new Fan Fiction entries:
- Finishing What You Started, Part One, by LeAtHeRnEcK
- Resistivity Chapter 3, by Roger Lin
- Aftermath Part 1, by Alex Cross
- Effusion Chapter 2, by Tursas
You'll find 'em all in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 03:15:12 UTC) (permalink)
Driving Drunk can be fun
How many different ways can you screw up in a Warthog? Parias and Mr. Zig put that question to the test, with Driving Drunk, a new Halo vid. Currently, there are three sites you can grab this at:
- Shaw.ca (Parias' site)
- The Repertory (shooting for 50 gigs over the limit!)
- Mythica.org (thanks, as always, to Brian)
The slight music glitch at the very end is my fault - don't blame Parias. Overall, a pretty funny flick! (You can read his description of it on our forum.) The movie is 2:38 long, and about 9 megs big, in QT5 format. Give it a shot! (Louis Wu 02:24:52 UTC) (permalink)
PS and Xbox Hardcore rates Halo
PS2 and Xbox Hardcore have posted their Halo review - and while it glows, there are a few odd things about it. They list a 60hz mode for PAL for it, though for the past week or so, that's been just about the biggest gripe on our forum (the LACK of a useful 60hz PAL mode)... they list 4 players in the info box (though the review itself correctly states that up to 16 can play), and they give it an overall rating of 91%, though their individual scores are all much higher (graphics: 94%; sound: 96%; playability: 94%). It's a good read, though - check it out. (We've added it to our Reviews Database - currently at 108 reviews, average 94.8%.) (Louis Wu 00:54:46 UTC) (permalink)
Tip 4: Think Different, or Die
Drunkgamers.com has put up part 4 of their multiplayer tips series - this one contains a 2.4 mb, 15 second film showing how knowing the patterns can help teammates work nicely together. (It'll put a smile on your face... unless you've been in Blade's position.) Take a look! (Louis Wu 00:42:34 UTC) (permalink)
News March 29 2002
Japanese Halo site updated
The Official Japanese Halo site has put up a bunch of wallpapers - they look a lot like the images poena.dare #CP#g sent in a while back... except with Xbox and Halo logos plastered on 'em. (There is also a nice new section on characters, and an interesting picture in the news that shows dogtags and some sort of metal box - the only (english-readable) text is 'Halo Championship'... intriguing.) (Louis Wu 14:30:39 UTC) (permalink)
Fanfic page now explicit about length rule
A few weeks ago, I instituted a new 'official' policy about Fan Fiction submissions - they need to be of a minimum length for inclusion in the collection - but I neglected to make this clear on the Fan Fiction page itself. This has been rectified. Apologies to all Fan Fiction writers who missed the original post, and were therefore unaware of the policy. (Louis Wu 13:47:11 UTC) (permalink)
It's all fuzzy, ma!
What the...? The Bungie webcam has gone dark! (Here's a recent pic, in case it changes before you read this.) I hadn't noticed this before, but it's an hour off Redmond time - I wonder if it's a daylight savings thing? In any case, hopefully it just got knocked over during a wild night of carousing in the Bungie offices - and is not a sign of something more sinister (like an infiltration of... oh, never mind). (Louis Wu 13:31:01 UTC) (permalink)
Movies are fun
ShdwPnthr points out a pair of movies he's made - one shows the carnage you can wreak with the chaingun on the Warthog (I'd have done a bit more driving damage before getting in the back; you suffer less personal damage that way, but the wreckage is undeniably vast in any case), and the second shows a pretty slick start to the Maw Run. They're in QT5 format, and weigh in at 1.5 mb and 900k, respectively. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:23:40 UTC) (permalink)
News March 28 2002
Man, that guy needs help
Barnolde caught a Covenant Dropship pilot drinking on the job... check it out in our Gameplay Tricks section. (Louis Wu 22:34:42 UTC) (permalink)
Shadow Droid pics
Gh™lsbane found a couple of shots of a Star Wars 'Shadow Droid' that looks somewhat like a Banshee - check out these views:
- concept view (42k)
- schematic (92k)
Even the names of the weapons are familiar... (Louis Wu 21:42:56 UTC) (permalink)
Down in a swamp
Ryan sends in the Part II: Arrival of Well Enough Alone, a pre-Halo saga involving the characters you know and love from the game. Check it out in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 18:43:18 UTC) (permalink)
Cool new Misc Art
Two new (and very cool) bits of artwork came in recently - bikeman704 sent in a screenshot of a Halo Pelican, built in Worldcraft... and StormSinger sent along a slick rendering of the sniper rifle ammo. Check 'em both out in our Miscellaneous Art section! (More news coming soon - been afk for the last 18 hours or so...) (Louis Wu 14:51:01 UTC) (permalink)
News March 27 2002
Blowin' stuff up
Movie Mania: two new warthog jumpin' movies for you. First up is another offering from Dan Chosich, creator of the Halo Montage vid. This one is also in .wmv format, and weighs in at 11.6 mb. It's called 'Blood Gulch Scenes'... and it's 4 and a half minutes of, well, carnage from Blood Gulch. :) You can grab it at The Repertory or Mythica.org. The second movie was uploaded by Destr0yer, and quality is a little lacking. (It was compressed originally with the Indeo5 codec - I switched over to Sorenson3, which reduced the filesize by a factor of 4, but couldn't do anything about the ORIGINAL quality.) This one can be grabbed at The Repertory. (It's 2:23 long, and weighs in at 8.7 mb, in QT5 format.) (Louis Wu 18:30:52 UTC) (permalink)
More Mellifluous Monographs
Three new Fan Fiction entries - Halo 2: The Forerunner Chronicle Part VI, from Velker, Halo: Protect the Homestead Chapters 2/3, from Steven Crowley, and The Renegade Marines Part VIII - The Return to Memories, by Shadow. Woohoo! (Louis Wu 05:41:13 UTC) (permalink)
Starcraft maps now have pics
Thanks to craZy, who (in answer to my plea for pictures), sent in a few screenshots of the Halo maps for Starcraft that have been coming in recently. Now you can see images and grab the maps in one convenient location! (Louis Wu 05:19:09 UTC) (permalink)
Mmm... words
Heh - gotta love this:
Those who still think we're lying about PC/Mac Halo should get out your condiments/seasonings of choice, buy some nice china and silverware, and do whatever else you do when you're getting ready to eat your words.
Don't believe Matt, though - he just works for Bungie. Everybody knows that Bungie has no real say over whether PC/Mac Halo ever gets published - that's a Microsoft-only decision. (For the sarcasm-impaired, that last line was rather full of it - in more senses than one.) (Louis Wu 03:21:46 UTC) (permalink)
News March 26 2002
Gameplay Tricks updated
Apologies for the delay - some of these have been in the queue for a week - but the Gameplay Tricks page now has 5 new entries - some pretty incredible stuff in there! Check it out. Update: Total new tricks for the day has been bumped to 6 - I'd forgotten one! Ouch. (Louis Wu 18:03:10 UTC) (permalink)
New One-Shots (and search/sort features)
Took a LONG time (one of these pictures is a week and a half old), but the One-Shots page finally gets an update (and an upgrade). 6 new pics... and some new searching and sorting features to go along with them. Check it out! (Louis Wu 12:05:40 UTC) (permalink)
Arrival converted for Starcraft
The Halo-to-Starcraft conversions continue - Alan Wu sends along Arrival, based on the first part of the Halo mission. (All we need now are in-game screenshots, for those of us without Starcraft...) (Louis Wu 10:06:23 UTC) (permalink)
X VGA Box reviewed at TXB
Cesar Berardini, of Team Xbox, has put up a review of the X VGA Box (an Xbox-to-VGA solution). If you've been dying to play Halo on your computer screen... check this out. (Louis Wu 10:02:34 UTC) (permalink)
Keep your butt alive
Having trouble dealing with huge quantities of Flood on the higher difficulty settings? protexts suggests trying 'Bait, Retreat, Attack' in this forum post. (Yes, once there's a Gameplay Tips section, this'll go there.) (Louis Wu 09:42:05 UTC) (permalink)
League Play Guidelines, defined
PCDestroyer has come up with some League Play rules/guidelines that might be useful if you're organizing large groups for Halo. It's available as a 56k Word document, and covers everything from game types to schedules. Check it out! (Louis Wu 00:37:54 UTC) (permalink)
Mirrors for Hogball begin to surface
Mirror, mirror, on the net... halo-game.com (in France) and That Weasel Television (in the US) have both stepped up to provide Hogball mirrors - and That Weasel also created a much smaller version, for those on slower connections - screensize is 160x120, but filesize is only 6 megs. Grab 'em while they're hot! Update: Two more mirrors: Mr. Zarquon and The Repertory both house this puppy now. (Louis Wu 00:16:21 UTC) (permalink)
News March 25 2002
Dodgeball was never this fun
Play Ball!... Hogball, that is. javacool and benjammin' have created a new multiplayer gametype... and the 20 mb, 3 and a half minute movie they created to show it off is simply hilarious. Check it out! (Sympathy goes out to banjammin'... who seemed to die a LOT.) The website link contains both the movie and a FAQ about how to play. (Movie mirrors, of course, are always welcome.) (Louis Wu 17:35:02 UTC) (permalink)
Influx of reviews
Dug up another 17 Halo reviews around the net, and have added them to the Reviews database. Total is now 107 - the average score still hovers around 95%. (Louis Wu 15:21:27 UTC) (permalink)
Heavy-duty battle scene
Draikin sends in a nice desktop image based on the OXM mural in the January issue (with a few additions...). Check it out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 13:52:13 UTC) (permalink)
Just give him a dev kit, wouldja?
Whoa. (Louis Wu 13:35:18 UTC) (permalink)
Halo selling like hotcakes in EU
Thanks to Nick Rolfe, who sent along this link from the European Leisure Software Publishers Association - for the week ending 16th March 2002, Halo was second in total software sales of ALL games, in ALL formats; this is astounding, given that it was released 2 days before the week ended. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 06:45:57 UTC) (permalink)
More mirror space
Mr. Zarquon points out that his Halo Movie Mirror page has been updated with much of the new Halo material out there - if you're having trouble with some of these movies, spread the download weath! (Louis Wu 06:14:28 UTC) (permalink)
World Domination site online
[WD]Machine drops us a line about his Halo clan site - World Domination. Check it out! (Louis Wu 06:10:46 UTC) (permalink)
Battle Creek for Starcraft
First Blood Gulch, then Sidewinder, now Battle Creek - Alan Wu sends along another Halo-inspired Starcraft map. 95k - check it out! (Louis Wu 05:30:50 UTC) (permalink)
Truth and Recon screenies added
We've added the 33 screenshots that go along with the Legendary Walkthrough posted a couple of days ago at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site to our Screenshots Database. Needless to say, some of these contain spoilers. (However, some are simply astounding.) (Louis Wu 03:50:50 UTC) (permalink)
Multiplayer highlight movies at Drunkgamers
Doh! I hate busy weekends, in terms of what they do to this site's timeliness. On Friday, we got word that Drunkgamers.com had put up the second part of their Multiplayer Pointers series, which contained a nice, short, insanely busy (for 2v2) 1-minute clip... and before we had time to post about it, Part 3 went up! This one shows a pretty incredible sniper shot - and also shows why playing 2v2 is good for snipers. :) (With 10 players and up, the sniper would have been dead 30 seconds before he ever got around to taking that shot...) Check 'em both out. (Louis Wu 02:05:03 UTC) (permalink)
News March 24 2002
I'm back... says Halo HQ
Yesterday, we told you that Halo HQ was offline for a bit - today, Pacey Dre tells us it's back up. (Louis Wu 22:31:23 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction Full House
More weekend reading - 3 more pieces of Fan Fiction have come in. Sarge turns in the second chapter of Banserki's Journal, The Wraven drops off Chapter 1 of Halo: Siege of the Rings, and Steven Crowley gives us Chapter 1 of Halo: Protect the Homestead. Whew! More updates (not ff, but other stuff) coming later. (Louis Wu 16:21:31 UTC) (permalink)
News March 23 2002
New Misc Art
PmanC sketches a Grunt... and sends it to us. It's in the Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 18:40:14 UTC) (permalink)
New Wallpaper
The guys at Socket Error have turned in another desktop image - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 18:35:44 UTC) (permalink)
I'll be back... says HQ Halo
Pacey Dre writes to let us know that HQ Halo isn't down for good... just offline until the bandwidth excession has passed. (He's guessing 2 or 3 days.) (Louis Wu 18:31:55 UTC) (permalink)
On Top of SC... in 3D
Bonk has put up a very nice little QuickTime VR movie (200k) of the top of Silent Cartographer... makes me want to build a house up there. (I wonder how much that island land is going for...?) (Louis Wu 18:06:07 UTC) (permalink)
Light Weekend Reading
Updates can be hard on family days... but here are three new Fan Fiction items for you - the first part of Banserki's Journal (A View From the Grunt), Chapter 5 of The Tides of War, and Chapter 1 of Effusion. Go to it! (Louis Wu 17:56:20 UTC) (permalink)
Freewill and Halo - what a pair!
Major updates at Bungie's websites: Truth and Reconciliation's Legendary Walkthrough has gotten a second chapter (with some GORGEOUS screenshots, thanks to Mordia), and the Seventh Column has a monster interview with bungie.org's own Miguel Chavez, Bungie's Number One Fan. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 04:03:15 UTC) (permalink)
Maw 700 Contest 2 - Complete!
It hasn't been without roadblocks, but the Maw 700 has finally come to a successful conclusion. Contest 2, in which participants needed to get from one end of the Maw Run to the other with Maximum Style, closed 27 hours ago - but instead of a few screenshots (and a well-defined goal, as Contest 1 had with its time target), the judges had to get hold of 4 separate 15-megabyte files (a feat in itself), rate them on content and composition, and come to a consensus on the conclusions - something that took a bit longer than we'd anticipated. Then, we had to make sure the files were hosted, so that visitors could download and view them for themselves - major thanks go out to Brian Towne, of mythica.org, and Vector40, of The Repertory, for handling this part. All our ducks are finally lined up now, though, so stop by the Maw 700 Contest 2 page for all the details! (Louis Wu 02:43:08 UTC) (permalink)
News March 22 2002
HBO Weekly Review posted
Weekly Review has posted his HBO Weekly Review - and with the exception of the quotes of mine that he took (embarrassingly) out of context, it's a fantastic summary of the week. (It's getting rather long, though - I thought summaries were supposed to be EASY to read? Maybe there's just so much goodness that happens on our forum that there wasn't anything he could have left out... well, he could have left out those Wu quotes, that's for sure.) Go read it - it'll save you time. (There were 1334 posts added in the past week - think of what he's saving you!) (Louis Wu 17:43:36 UTC) (permalink)
GDC Awards - Halo wins Audio Excellence
The 2002 Game Developers Conference ends tomorrow (when Bungie's Jaime Griesemer and Chris Butcher will be giving a presentation on Halo's AI, and Marty O'Donnell will be talking about Halo's audio production), but last night, the Game Developers Choice Awards were given out, and Halo won one of the three categories for which it was nominated. Congratulations to Marty O'Donnell and the sound team for winning the Excellence in Audio award, beating out Undying, MGS2, Frequency, and Rogue Squadron II. (Grand Theft Auto III took Game of the Year, and Black and White took the Excellence in Programming award, rounding out the other two categories for which Halo was nominated.) Thanks to Pallor for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:34:47 UTC) (permalink)
NYT says Halo not a good military sim (duh)
Lophan passed along an interesting URL from the New York Times website (free registration required) - 'Grinding Terror or Grand Adventure - Choose Your War'. It compares Operation: Flashpoint to Halo, using these two games as representatives of opposing genres of war simulators:
But if Flashpoint gives players the kind of ground-level view of war offered in films like "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "The Steel Helmet," Halo is more reminiscent of movies made during World War II, which depicted war as a noble adventure fought by fearless, tough-as-nails soldiers.
The author concludes that Halo probably won't do a good job preparing soldiers to fight:
In spite of the tedious stretches, Halo is an exciting game and makes war look like so much fun that you might want to run out and enlist. But war is not like that. When Marine recruits whose only experience of war is playing games like Halo sit down to play the military version of Operation Flashpoint, they may be in for a surprise.
I suppose, if the goal of Halo was to make players ready to fight in the real world, I'd understand the point of this article... (Louis Wu 15:17:14 UTC) (permalink)
Not Phoenix... Mech Assault
Charles Clifford points out an article on Gamespy that explains the Gamer's Logik confusion yesterday - the product they were talking about was Mech Assault, a new third-person combat game from Microsoft due out in November. It's not based on the Halo engine, and it doesn't seem to have a story-based concept behind it:
Gitelman [project leader for the game] excitedly adds, "This game is about shooting shit and blowing it up."
While we here at HBO have absolutely nothing against those goals... we're hoping Phoenix goes a bit deeper. (Louis Wu 14:46:07 UTC) (permalink)
Starcraft now gets Sidewinder
Whoa - a new fad has started. Bezerk Fury follows the lead of Jonathon Cairns, and creates another Starcraft map - this time of Sidewinder. (It's 40k.) The question is... can anyone do the SOLO levels? :) (Louis Wu 14:38:25 UTC) (permalink)
Window for Maw 700 Contest 2 closed
And the doors are officially... Closed. The Second Contest of the Maw 700 is now over, but for the judging... we'll be poring over the entries this evening, and will announce the winner either later tonight or tomorrow. We have a total of three entries (we probably would have had four, had it not been for Frogblast's injury), and I can tell you already, I like 'em all. :) (Louis Wu 00:03:50 UTC) (permalink)
News March 21 2002
MPZ Halo reviews Halo
fAt1, of MPZ Halo, has put up his review of Halo - he was... rather enthusiastic. The review itself says that you shouldn't expect a numerical score... but I pushed him; he gave it a 10.5/10. We've added it to the Reviews database. (Expect a rather large set of additions to the database sometime soon.) (Louis Wu 21:04:35 UTC) (permalink)
I want a windup warthog!
Halo action figures in the future? Matt Soell dropped by to point out that while the most recent attempt in this field failed, Doug Zartman (formerly known as the Voice of Bob, currently a MS employee) is working on finding another partner for this endeavor. Woohoo - plush Grunt dolls you can feed to your dog! (Louis Wu 19:16:22 UTC) (permalink)
Xen Gamers Halo review
Ran across another Halo review - Xen Gamers gave it an A, a few weeks ago. We've added it to the Reviews database. (Louis Wu 14:31:08 UTC) (permalink)
More Warthog Jumping - in Germany
Nico D., of Game-presse.de, sends word that Warthog jumping was so much fun, he had to make his own Warthog Jump tribute movie. It's in .wmv format, 4:30 long, and weighs in at 7.4 mb. Take a look! (Louis Wu 14:01:32 UTC) (permalink)
Blood Gulch... for Starcraft!
Goodness. Alan Wu sent in a map, created by friend Jonathon Cairns, of Blood Gulch in Starcraft format. If you play Starcraft, snag this! (There are a few easter eggs, so hunt around.) It's 80k, zipped. (Louis Wu 13:47:31 UTC) (permalink)
Punch it
Black_Jackal sends in Chapter 1 of his 'After Halo' story - you'll find it in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 13:39:28 UTC) (permalink)
Phoenix surfaces... but not really
Before this gets out of hand... Korps sent in this link to a page at Gamer's Logik, purporting to contain information about the upcoming Bungie game code-named Phoenix. Now, I don't claim to be completely 'in the know', but I did get the chance to walk through the Phoenix development room back in January of this year... and if the information on that page is accurate, Bungie threw out EVERYTHING they were working on just 2 months ago. (For those of you who have trouble with indirect statements: what I saw 2 months ago bore ZERO resemblance to the product described in the page above.) Take this at face value - I'm not a Bungie employee, and I don't have the inside scoop. Update: Seems Gamer's Logik has confused Phoenix, a Bungie game in development, with a mech title that FASA Studios (another Microsoft-owned gaming house) is working on. More info on that title will be coming soon... but rest assured, it ain't Phoenix. (It doesn't even use the Halo engine.) Thanks to Jon Kimmich, Halo's Product Planner, for the info. (Louis Wu 13:01:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Story Page gets an information infusion
Speaking of plots... the Halo Story Page got a MASSIVE update recently - the inbox has been cleared, for the first time in a long time. Mnemesis has retreated to his isolation tank to regenerate the brain cells lost in this endeavor - please read his work, so as to make the effort not in vain. (You might even learn something about the Halo story...) (Louis Wu 10:42:40 UTC) (permalink)
Maybe it should have been 'donut'
The Halo plot hole defined by this quote from Truth and Reconciliation:
While the Covenant had us locked up in here, I overheard the guards talking about this ring world. They call it... "Halo."
has been discussed extensively on our forum. (Why could Keyes understand what the guards were saying when the super-duper translator in our own suit can't even do that?) However, Master Chief IV used this line to ask an even better question - why, if Keyes is just now learning what the Covenant call this ring, does the screen behind him on the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn ALSO call it 'Halo'? (Yes, it's just a game. Bungie makes few enough mistakes like this, though, that it's worth pointing them out when they DO happen.) (Louis Wu 10:39:02 UTC) (permalink)
News March 20 2002
Loki would be proud
Three new tricks in our Gameplay Tricks section - a pair of Out of Map experiences from pete_the_duck, and some vehicle manipulation from Scott Kelly. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:50:16 UTC) (permalink)
Long, sappy bandwidth thanks
And now, a word from our sponsors... in a manner of speaking. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Halo community is the ability to see what insane - erm, intrepid people are doing to push the Halo engine. However, because Halo's got no built-in film feature, stunts have to be recorded as video... and video eats bandwidth like Homer Simpson eats donuts. We'd like to take this opportunity, then, to thank some of the bandwidth providers from this community (and point out the newest files they have for you to download):
- Mythica.org - Brian Towne has been here since Day 1, pretty much, and has provided homes for most of the high-ticket items out there. He hosts all the iBonk movies, as well as almost everything that's been mentioned here at HBO. Latest morsels: Eleet Ops Faction's Various - EOF film, and the Xbox Goodies that disappeared recently from Team Xbox.
- The Repertory - Vector40 started this site up with the express purpose of giving a home to homeless movies. Latest tidbits: Various - EOF and Dan Chosich's Montage Video.
- That Weasel Television - That Weasel started off with the Warthog Jump movie, but has recently put up the Xbox Goodies (both the full package and the music tracks by themselves), and created an HBO Video Mirror page in case there is more to add.
There are others, of course... but these three had new content RIGHT NOW. :) To all in the community that make it possible for us to keep people informed about the latest funkiness... thanks! (Louis Wu 18:21:59 UTC) (permalink)
Come down here, you!
Drunken Elite? TitaniumPez found a pretty bizarre looping Banshee on Halo... nice perfect circles, but he doesn't seem to notice the player. Hmm... (Louis Wu 17:51:01 UTC) (permalink)
XBox Japan goodies for grabs
Alan Wu did the community a nice favor, and extracted all the interesting stuff off the Xbox Japan site we mentioned yesterday. Three music clips (in MP3 format), and a bunch of mini-screenshots... plus one bizarre grunt sound. All in a package only 260k! Grab it today. (Louis Wu 17:40:49 UTC) (permalink)
Brain cells are for sissies
Justin Gochanour, of gyeah.com, sent us pics of another LAN party - more heavy drinking, some RIDICULOUS stats (you have to check this pic out), and some fun with guns on walls. Hope these guys didn't drive home... (Louis Wu 17:32:56 UTC) (permalink)
Kroeger needs a leg
Shadow dropped off Chapter 7 of his Renegade Marines saga - 'The Return Home'. I want one of those 6-tube rocket launchers... man, I bet that's heavy. Fan Fiction is fun. (Louis Wu 17:28:36 UTC) (permalink)
Musical goodies available again
A week ago, Team Xbox posted a package full of goodies, including a WMP Halo skin, a copy of the Halo trailer, and 3 never-before-released (on the net) Halo tracks... in WMP format. Total package size: 4.6 mb. It's already gone off their servers. :( Because the music tracks were so cool, I made room for them in some overflow space we have at mac.com... but I couldn't fit the whole package. Vector40, abusing the stupidity of a provider he's doing his best to get rid of, has agreed to host the entire package, if you're interested in the skin and the trailer, as well. The music tracks alone, at mac.com, are 2 megs. The full package of goodies, no longer available from TXB, is 4.6 megs. Download away! (Louis Wu 03:26:33 UTC) (permalink)
Loads of Reviews added
Review Roundup... we added reviews from Vision Gaming Online Network (19/20), Fragland.net (95%), Eurogamer (8/10), LoadedInc. (9.5/10), and Tilt TV (10/10) to our Reviews Database. Thanks to all who dropped off links! Total reviews to date: 88. Average score: 94.4%. Wonga. (Louis Wu 02:49:34 UTC) (permalink)
News March 19 2002
Danish Halo fans helps out
Thanks to Paladin, who kindly sent in a translation for our most recent Danish Halo review - seems the original (random) quote I chose was pretty inappropriate. Oh, to speak more than 5 languages! (Louis Wu 18:46:32 UTC) (permalink)
I will not eat them in a tree...
Some days, you open up your inbox and see some weird stuff. (Louis Wu 16:49:32 UTC) (permalink)
Advertising Hi-Lynx
Two years ago, Lynx deodorant made a huge splash in the Halo community due to their outright theft of the Halo font - but the furor has died down. However, today, we received a picture of a DIFFERENT Lynx deodorant - Gravity - which uses an interesting graphical logo... these guys don't quit. :) (Thanks to Rage Reset for the pic.) (Louis Wu 15:20:12 UTC) (permalink)
I want one o' them swords...
Them titles is gettin' outta hand... Ian Barnes turns in Chapter 6 of his Operation False Prophets series - check it out in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 15:07:50 UTC) (permalink)
Japanese Halo site up - nice!
Nice find by protexts... The Official Japanese Halo site is up, and it's not simply a copy of the US site (as so many others are). Nice Flash layout, nice music, good screenies (if a bit too small). Now if only I could read Japanese... (Louis Wu 10:23:03 UTC) (permalink)
What some people won't do...
Heh - TitaniumPez caught the Master Chief... um... well, watch the show (144k). (Louis Wu 10:14:26 UTC) (permalink)
Expect it when you least expect it
Stosh created a Halo comic which pays tribute to Matt Soell's... um, unhealthy interests. Check it out! (Louis Wu 09:57:31 UTC) (permalink)
More Tricks, but no answers
pete_the_duck has gone a to a couple of places not yet documented - one on Halo, the other on Truth and Reconciliation. You can check his website for pictures from the locations... but as of right now, he's not willing to share his techniques for reaching them, so don't ask us. :) Update: he's explained... and reproducing this one ain't gonna be easy... (Louis Wu 02:08:20 UTC) (permalink)
NTSC and PAL - no looky, no touchy
A quick reply by Matt Soell to a request for clarification of the PAL/NTSC situation ('Can they play nicely together?') turned into a veritable firestorm on several forums, here and in Europe. (Most of the unhappiness can be explained by my lack of understanding of the answer I was acting as messenger for...) Matt stepped back in tonight with a more complete answer - NTSC and PAL boxes cannot play nicely together, not because Bungie doesn't like Europeans, but because of basic speed differences between the two versions, and because of the way Halo was written. Hopefully, in the future, games (both from Bungie and from other developers) will take into account the different refresh rates of the two television standards, and allow competitors with either system to play the other... but for now, with Halo, that's just not an option. Read Matt's whole post for a more complete explanation. (Louis Wu 01:47:14 UTC) (permalink)
News March 18 2002
EW article finally posted
Last week, we mentioned a small article in Entertainment Weekly about Halo lan parties. That issue is now off the shelves... so we've posted it in our Press Scans section. Take a look! (We've also added a more useful date-sorting option to the Scans database - you can now sort the scans from newest to oldest, instead of just oldest to newest.) (Louis Wu 18:08:10 UTC) (permalink)
The Things You Must Try For Yourself, part 873
The Incoming queue for the Gameplay Tricks page has finally been cleared - another 4 entries are up for your viewing pleasure. Pretty eclectic collection, this time around... check 'em out, if you don't mind the spoilers! (Louis Wu 16:38:30 UTC) (permalink)
EOF vid finds a home
Back in late February, customsex sent word that Eleet Ops Faction had a new video for the masses - it showed how to get down from the beginning of the Maw (a subject which was pretty hot at that moment), and a bug in Two Betrayals in which the death of one co-op player meant the death of the other. It was rather large, however - 31 megs - so I told him that we couldn't host it, and that since it showed one subject he'd already covered in another vid (albeit without the music) and another subject that could be done in many, many fewer bytes, that finding a host might be a problem. Well, thanks to Vector40, that host has been found - The Repertory has put the movie up, and you can grab it from there. The Two Betrayals bug is pretty hilarious... and there's plenty of playing with dead bodies. Again, it's a 31 mb MPG, almost 2 minutes long. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:24:01 UTC) (permalink)
Extreme Tactics covered at TXB
Cybrfrk has written an article entitled 'Halo: Extreme Tactics', looking at the phenomenon of game engine exploitation. It's an interesting read - visit Team Xbox and read it! (Louis Wu 13:06:09 UTC) (permalink)
News March 17 2002
Mmm... donuts
New wallpaper from Kyle Hovenkotter. 'The Daily Grind'... sounds about right. Check it out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 20:53:34 UTC) (permalink)
To Read or Not To Read, That...
Fanfic Fest - A new poem from Ryan, a new Renegade Marines chapter, and a new Operation False Prophets chapter. The Fan Fiction page bulges... (Louis Wu 20:33:46 UTC) (permalink)
Links, Links, who's got the links?
Link action - halo24.de is now listed correctly on our Links page, and Silent Halo has been added. German Halo action and... some rather strange pictures, respectively. Additionally, we got word from Cal that he's started a new Xbox portal site, to help people find Xbox-related sites. We decided a long time ago that we weren't going to include Xbox sites in our Links section (there are too many of them, and this isn't an Xbox site, it's a Halo site) - but if you want to check it out, look at Xboxx.org. (Louis Wu 16:50:48 UTC) (permalink)
News March 16 2002
Reading is Fundamental
Continued Fan Fiction submissions - Jehkoh sends in another poem ('Death of a Soldier'), and Tursas ramps up again with a new series - 'Effusion'. (This one's a bit... odd. Has me wondering where it's going. :) Spoilers, though, for anyone who hasn't finished Halo.) Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 11:36:47 UTC) (permalink)
Polish Halo site lives again
f·p·p · h·a·l·o, a Polish Halo page which had existed at some time in the past but had made it onto our Dead Links page for being, well, dead, has been resurrected, and once again has current Halo news. We've moved it to our regular Links page. (Vector40 noted this about a week ago, but I was ignoring him.) (Louis Wu 10:52:59 UTC) (permalink)
Eloi, Eloi lama sabach-thani?
The poetry continues - Jehkoh sends in 'Legion', to be found in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 03:24:48 UTC) (permalink)
Something's Halo in Denmark
Danish Madness: Yesterday, we posted a note about a Danish Halo review. Otizz offered to translate it... I told him it wasn't really necessary. Sippan decided to send in a translation anyway - so we thought, we might as well post it. (It comes with commentary.) Then, Paladin sent word of ANOTHER Danish review - this time at Game Reactor. They gave it a 92%. Seems okay. Again, it's in the Reviews Database, if you can read Danish. (Louis Wu 03:17:51 UTC) (permalink)
Weekly HBO Review - yeah, baby!
This week's Weekly HBO Review is longer than usual - thanks in large part to a lot of Bungie employee contributions. If you missed any posts this week, or just want the short version, check it out! (Louis Wu 02:41:27 UTC) (permalink)
Infinite ammo exploit
Short on ammo? Got a big gun, but don't know what to use your limited shots on? brad has discovered a pretty cool exploit - in a coop game, if one player is reloading at the time that the other player passes a checkpoint, the gun that is being reloaded will have infinite ammo. Don't manually reload, or switch guns, or the glitch is lost... but as long as you keep that one gun up, and don't hit 'x' (which means no vehicles, either), you've got as much ammo as you can fire! Very nice. (Louis Wu 02:36:57 UTC) (permalink)
News March 15 2002
Maw 700 Contest 1 - Complete!
At 12 noon UTC today (six and a half hours ago), Contest 1 of the Maw 700 closed - and our crack team of Halo experts huddled together over the final entries. After some rigorous debate (and not a few fisticuffs) a winner emerged. Our congratulations go out to ALL contestants... but especially to Frogblast, whose winning time of 2:43.90 was sufficient to carry the day. Full details (including Honorable Mentions) can be found at the Contest 1 page. Time to gear up for Contest 2! (Louis Wu 18:58:42 UTC) (permalink)
Multiplayer pointers at drunkgamers.com
Drunkgamers.com has started a new feature - It's a section with multiplayer pointers, accompanied by movies. The first one shows a nice flag recovery in a game of CTF Pro - and some damn good pistol shooting. guS, of drunkgamers, says to expect regular updates with more movies and pointers in the coming days. Worth a look! (Louis Wu 18:35:51 UTC) (permalink)
Danish Halo review at MSN/dk
Otizz sends word of a Danish Halo review at the Danish MSN site. It's in Danish, so I have ZERO idea of what it says - but they rated it 6/6 butterflies. We've added it to our Reviews database, even though we don't know how to translate the quote we used. (Hopefully, it's clean.) (Louis Wu 18:35:13 UTC) (permalink)
Yet more fanfic
Jaywhit10 drops off part 2 of his absurdly-long-titled fanfic - you'll find it in our Fan Fiction section. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 18:08:52 UTC) (permalink)
Bugs are fun
More fun with frozen stuff - Bonk has an interesting movie showing what happens when a Banshee crosses a loading zone without you... and Frogblast discovers a CLOSED (but flyable) Banshee. Wonga! (Louis Wu 14:26:31 UTC) (permalink)
Halo and Skoal
Heh - a Halo lan fest with some heavy drinkin' goin' on... (Louis Wu 04:29:33 UTC) (permalink)
New One-Shots
A pair of One-Shots from NeGat1vEzEr0 - dead guys and high spots. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 04:24:52 UTC) (permalink)
Truth and Recon updates
Woohoo! Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site is updated again - this time with human concept art (bittersweet to see a female engineer) and more wallpapers (though the Longswords are mislabeled as Longbows - which, in retrospect, might be a more appropriate name for them anyway). Last, but certainly not least, Marty has kindly made the sheet music for Siege of Madrigal available for download (local copy) - this one's for you, Psyrixx. Credit for the heads-up this time goes to kayas (who's supposed to be taking a break from Halo...). (Louis Wu 03:53:22 UTC) (permalink)
Lots to read
A pair of new releases for the Fan Fiction section - Jehkoh turns in a very meaty second chapter to his Order of the Seraphim series, and Ryan drops off the first chapter to a new series, 'Well Enough Alone'. Get to readin'! (Louis Wu 03:30:55 UTC) (permalink)
News March 14 2002
Rumor Control Database goes live at b.net
Ooh, very nice. Not that anyone will actually read it... Matt Soell has set up the Rumor Control Database over at Bungie.net. It does its part to debunk the worst of the internet rumors about Halo - the infamous Halo 1.5 rumor, misconceptions about cheats, and (of course) the "Halo isn't coming to the PC" rumor.
QÊ Is Halo an Xbox-exclusive, or will it ever ship for PCs/Macs as originally planned?
A There WILL be Mac and PC versions of Halo. Go back and read that sentence again. Notice the clarity and straightforward nature of the answer. Note that this answer comes directly from Bungie, the makers of Halo, and is posted on our official site.
That last bit (a note, written by Bungie, posted on the official site) should go a long way to shutting down some of the silliness. Anyway, check out the rest of the database - there's some good information there! (Louis Wu 21:27:27 UTC) (permalink)
Maw 700 deadline extended 12 hours
Because of the outage we experienced last night, at least one submission that MIGHT have been repeated wasn't - to compensate, we're extending the submissions deadline for Maw 700 contest entries (the first half) until 12 noon UTC on March 15, 2002. (This is 7 am EST, or 4 am PST.) (Louis Wu 19:48:04 UTC) (permalink)
Ferrago.co.uk reviews Halo
Ferrago.co.uk, a UK gaming site, kicked off its full Xbox coverage today... and Halo got a nice review. They weren't thrilled with the plot... but they liked the rest. They gave it a solid 92%. We've added it to our Reviews database. (Louis Wu 19:02:31 UTC) (permalink)
MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE!
The Renegade Marines gets a fifth chapter today - 'The Assault' looks at some hard action. Check it out in our Fan Fiction section! (Louis Wu 18:50:11 UTC) (permalink)
Bridge of Bodies now in video form
Yesterday, we posted a cool Gameplay Trick that uses the 'force field' around the tops of trees to create a bridge of bodies. Frogblast had made a movie, as well as the still shots we showed you... but his server was having some trouble. The server's fixed, and the movie has been posted. Check it out! (Louis Wu 17:30:01 UTC) (permalink)
What WAS that, anyway?
Psyrixx, of the Psyjnir Complex, dropped off an interesting bit of speculation, packaged deceptively as Fan Fiction. (Or was it an interesting fan fiction, deceptively packaged as story speculation?) In either case, you can read it (and comment on it) in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 14:24:32 UTC) (permalink)
Tricky halo players show off
Sorry for the downtime, folks - the telco people are doing their best to fix a long-standing problem with our internet connection. I took advantage of the lull to put up another pair of tricks in our Gameplay Tricks section. No real spoilers here - one is multiplayer, the other is just fun. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:32:14 UTC) (permalink)
XGamer Halo article available
Well, the first issue of the UK's XGamer magazine is officially off the shelves - so (thanks to Ghôlsbane), we bring you the 12-page Halo spread that graced its pages. It's part of our Press Scans database. It's an interesting read! (Louis Wu 02:01:02 UTC) (permalink)
News March 13 2002
Pushing the limits - again
Four new inclusions for our Gameplay Tricks page - some pretty cool stuff. Frogblast/Metafire does some serious Library exploration, brad discovers a bizarre little bug related to spawning, and Gabe Harris shows us how to build body bridges. (Oh, man, what people are gonna do with that...) Check 'em all out! (Louis Wu 22:26:50 UTC) (permalink)
Another montage video mirror
Dave Riley, of Fan-service.com, has added another mirror for the Montage Video. You can grab the movie here. (20 megs, remember...) (Louis Wu 17:49:10 UTC) (permalink)
The Egg Page grows
Three months ago, it was discovered that a piece of music written for the Bungie game Myth could be heard from a difficult-to-get-to spot at the end of Assault on the Control Room. Recently, it was learned that the same piece of music could be found in another, also-difficult-to-get-to spot at the start of the same level. We've added this information (including video documentation) to the Easter Eggs page. Interestingly enough, that particular piece of music, in sheet form, showed up on the Bungie webcam almost a year ago - does this mean we can date the inclusion of this particular pair of eggs? (Louis Wu 17:21:54 UTC) (permalink)
Nokia madness for ALL to hear
Akira has actually translated the Nokia ringtones discussed yesterday into a .WAV file, so even folks WITHOUT Nokia phones can hear it. (He also provided step-by-step instructions on creating this tone for your Nokia phone that's easier than the manual way.) And to think, my phone just rings... (Louis Wu 17:08:02 UTC) (permalink)
Nice info about Lagrange points
Frogblast was exploring (the net, not Halo) and stumbled across this forum post - the image leads back to this nicely done page at a NASA site. If you're still confused about Lagrange points (Halo occupies one around Basis), take a look! (Louis Wu 16:22:31 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Ringtone Translation
Firfin, of Halo-Game.com, has translated the Nokia ringtone information submitted by Rage Reset into standard tones - I tried it, and didn't hear the Halo theme... but my meter was probably off. Take a look! (Louis Wu 16:00:06 UTC) (permalink)
What programmers write when nobody looks
Heh - the digging has started. Someone hacked around with their Halo disc, and found some interesting strings buried deep in the code - check 'em out. Evidence that cheats ONCE existed, at least... and some pretty funny (if colorful) error language. Definitely PG-rated for strong language. Thanks to Ray Rose for the heads-up on our forum! (Louis Wu 15:46:10 UTC) (permalink)
More messing around with Frozen Marines
Not long ago, we added an interesting One-Shot from Bonk, showing a rather unusual pose for a marine. Recently, he's added an article to his site, iBonk.com, showing the full experiment - this is another example of the Frozen Stuff bug, but there's a movie, and a step-by-step reproduction guide. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:27:18 UTC) (permalink)
Say goodbye to the Aussies
It's Launch Day in Australia... thanks to that International Dateline, they're a few hours ahead of Europe. Stores should open in 7 or 8 hours... and then I'd guess we won't see our Australian friends for a few days. Wish 'em luck! (Louis Wu 15:15:26 UTC) (permalink)
Mirrors for the Montage Video up
Ask and ye shall receive. Three kind bandwidth mavens have proffered up connections for the newest Halo vid - we can call it the Montage Video. You can grab it at:
- Mythica.org (Thanks, Brian!) - HTTP
- The Repertory (thanks, Vector40!) - HTTP
- Psyjnir.com (Thanks, Psyrixx and *Ar!) - Hotline
More when we hear about 'em! (Remember, this puppy's 20 megs large, 320x240 in .wmv format, and just under 4 minutes long.) Be sure to option-click or right-click the http links - otherwise, you might get a load of junk on the screen. (Louis Wu 05:29:47 UTC) (permalink)
French Halo review at Halo-game.com
Halo-Game.com, a French Halo site, has put up a Halo review. I can't really add it to the Reviews database, since it has no score I can assign... but they seemed to mostly like it. :) (My french isn't good enough to figure out more than that, and without an overall rating, I'm just guessing.) If you read French, though, check it out! (Don't bother with Babelfish or Google's translators, though... they'll just make you laugh.) Update: Due to popular demand (hehe), they've added a summary section - and Halo pulled out a 19/20. Not too shabby! We've now added this review to the Halo Reviews database. (It's review 77...) (Louis Wu 03:59:42 UTC) (permalink)
Lizard sacrifices, oh my!
Chapter 4 of Corbantis' 'The Tides of War' showed up tonight - go read it in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 03:47:51 UTC) (permalink)
Big new movie, looking for mirrors
A few days ago, Dan Chosich posted to our forum about a new movie he'd made. The problem was, he put it up at Angelfire, which severely restricts the number of downloads this will ever see. It's basically a collection of clips of fun/entertaining gameplay, an interesting (if somewhat disjointed) montage with some pretty cool sights. It's also rather huge. (Just under 20 megs, in .wmv format) So: we're calling for mirrors, again. If you can handle this, drop us a line - if the Angelfire site is down, we'll give you another location (or upload it for you). Thanks! (Louis Wu 03:27:34 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo Music (and more)!
Whoa. Ruzhyo noticed that TeamXbox has some extra goodies to go along with the new Xbox skin for WMP for Windows XP - and while the Halo skin in their goody pack is windows-only, the music tracks aren't... and there are three new (never-released-on-the-web) Halo tracks in there! (Windows Media Player format, of course.) The package is a bit over 4 megs - and worth the download! (Louis Wu 03:14:29 UTC) (permalink)
News March 12 2002
Watch those panty liners...
The Fan Fiction deluge continues... Roger Lin sends in Chapter 2 of his Resistivity saga, entitled The Perils of Reentry. Check it out in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 23:15:00 UTC) (permalink)
A-one, and a-two, and a-three...
Robo has dropped off a fun little One-Shot for your enjoyment... it's not often you see this particular alignment. (Don't look if you're unspoiled...) (Louis Wu 22:50:39 UTC) (permalink)
Hunter Gatherer
Divender, of AreaHalo, has uploaded one of his desktop images. It's a little small... but it's pretty cool. Check it out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 22:40:51 UTC) (permalink)
Funky Halo pic in London Sunday Times
On page 49 of this week's London Sunday Times is an article on gaming consoles - and the picture they chose to use was the Master Chief... wielding a flamethrower! Rather odd, given that it's been known that the flamethrower was pulled in development over 4 months ago... If there are any UK Halo fans who have access to the Sunday Times, a scan of this article would be much appreciated. (Thanks to Hamish Sinclair, stuck in low-tech no-scanner-land, for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 22:09:11 UTC) (permalink)
XGamer Halo review up at Games Radar UK
A new magazine called Xgamer went onsale in the UK last month, and the first issue contained a 12-page Halo spread. (We'll be posting scans, courtesy of Ghôlsbane, later this week, when issue 2 hits the stands.) In the meantime, though, Games Radar UK has put up a chunk of the text of the spread - most of the actual review part is there. You can read the review now (they gave it a 9/10), and check out the added details later, when the scans go up. (We've added this one to our Reviews database, and put the 11 screens into our Screenshots database.) Thanks to Ghôlsbane for the heads-up on the online review, as well! (Louis Wu 18:54:07 UTC) (permalink)
AreaHalo opens its doors
Divender writes to let us know that AreaHalo, a new German Halo site, has come online. Nice design (not NS4-friendly, but then, what is?), some GREAT wallpaper, high-quality content. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 18:15:52 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox Au reviews Halo
Ran across another Halo review - this one from Xbox Au. They thought it was somewhat derivative... but that didn't stop them from rating it a 9.4/10. We've added it to our Reviews database. (Louis Wu 16:52:43 UTC) (permalink)
Maw 700 Update - Contest 2 defined!
A reminder - The deadline for the first half of the Maw 700 Contest is this Friday night, at midnight UTC. Three more days to get those entries in! And by now you should be thinking seriously about submissions for the SECOND half of the contest - the movie submission. Rules, suggestions, and prizes can be found on the Maw 700 info page. (Thanks once again to poena.dare #CP#g, who has done most of the work on this baby.) (Louis Wu 16:40:21 UTC) (permalink)
The Truth comes out
Fast and Furious, that's what we call the Fan Fiction section around here. Shadow has dropped off another chapter of the Renegade Marines saga - you can read Chapter 4 by itself, or you can read the entire series. Don't forget to leave some feedback! (Louis Wu 15:17:44 UTC) (permalink)
FTP uploads work again
Took longer than I expected, but our FTP Uploads folder is back up and running again. We're happy to take submissions there. (The only real change - the directory is no longer world-readable. It's a dropbox only... so be sure you let us know there's something in there!) (Louis Wu 15:05:40 UTC) (permalink)
VoS JeUx reviews Halo
Another new Halo review - this time, it's the French site VoS JeUx. They loved it. They didn't get a chance to play multiplayer... but the single player blew 'em away. You'll find it in our Reviews database, as well. Thanks to Cyberpro54@aol.com for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:50:00 UTC) (permalink)
Stuttgart's in trouble
The Master Chief and Cortana... back on Earth. Jehkoh drops off a new fanfic entitled 'Order of the Seraphim', which looks at battle on Earth, post-halo. You'll find it in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 12:22:07 UTC) (permalink)
Manatee Bound reviews Halo
Manatee Bound has reviewed Halo - they saw the limited weapons-carrying ability and the limited enemy assortment as the biggest flaws. Final rating was 8.75/10 - we've added the review to our Reviews database. (Louis Wu 11:33:26 UTC) (permalink)
Psyjnir Complex isn't dead yet
Psyrixx dropped us a note to let us know that they're working hard on bringing the Psyjnir Complex back online. In the meantime, he's redrawing the comic series he started before the server melted - with more detail than the first time. Check back every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a new comic - until the site's online, they're not going to be archived, so if you miss 'em, you miss 'em. (Louis Wu 06:34:25 UTC) (permalink)
Punctuation is for sissies
A couple of Fan Fiction submissions for you - both nearly free of punctuation. Luckily, one's a poem. You'll find Jaywhit10's The Hell of War and Jehkoh's Untitled Poem in the Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 06:22:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Theme, on your Nokia phone
Got a Nokia cell phone? Want to make it ring with the Halo theme? Rage Reset has posted the codes necessary in Nokia Ring Tone Composer format on our forum... and it's got Marty's OK (though nobody checked with Microsoft, so be sure you don't go to Redmond and get calls with this thing...). The lengths some people go to... (Louis Wu 03:02:05 UTC) (permalink)
News March 11 2002
Bizarre pics from bizarre players
A few new One-Shots have been added to our collection - check out the goodies! (No serious spoilers, even for those who haven't played, I'd guess... minor stuff only.) (Louis Wu 17:49:14 UTC) (permalink)
Thumb Bandits fingers Halo
Naligun points out that the UK TV show Thumb Bandits finished its season on Friday, and announced that Halo was the best game of the entire series! It was, in their words, "Outrageously good. This game has everything. Utter, unmitigated genius." High praise, indeed! (Louis Wu 14:15:00 UTC) (permalink)
Fanfest action, webcam-style
Freewill has put up a video comprised of over 1500 webcam snapshots taken over a 14 hour period... it's 6 megs, and shows (mostly) the projection screen we used for the first 12 hours or so. However, there are people shots, as well... if you've got a fast connection, give it a look! (Louis Wu 13:49:30 UTC) (permalink)
More FF than you can shake a shotgun at
A literal flood of Fan Fiction - here's what went up tonight:
- The Flood (a poem) by Gasmask
- Earth: Combat Evolved Chapter 2 by drexx
- Renegade Marines Part III - The Evac by Shadow
- What Legends May Fall by Vector40
- (Untitled Poem) by Gi'Tbad'Eovad'Dvan
There are at least 3 more which didn't make the cutoff laid down by yesterday's new rules - we'd be happy to look at these again when they're bigger. You folks are on a writing binge! (Louis Wu 02:59:14 UTC) (permalink)
She's goin' down!
A rather strange size, but a pretty nice pic... Germain Couët drops off another fun desktop - you'll find it on our Wallpaper page. Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:20:05 UTC) (permalink)
News March 10 2002
Halo Lan Parties mentioned in ET
Kudos to Freewill, who posted the text to a fun little blurb in Entertainment Weekly this week on our forum. Nice to see Halo lanfests getting recognized as 'the Next New Thing' by a mainstream magazine! (The scan will be posted next week, when this issue is off the shelves.) (Louis Wu 21:32:58 UTC) (permalink)
New Fan Fiction rules
Later today (or possibly tonight) there'll be a large Fan Fiction update - there have been a number of submissions over the past day or two. However, I'd like to make a new policy - or at least codify a current, unofficial policy, so that submitters know what to expect.
A Fan Fiction submission, unless it is poetry or a novelty item, must be a minimum length for acceptance. Since some submitters can't seem to deal with a vague description like 'long enough', we're putting a word-count minimum on submissions - items of less than 500 words will not be posted. In the Halo inbox right now are two submissions of fewer than 100 words, both ending with 'to be continued' - here's my advice: continue them before you submit.
We don't like to reject submissions - of ANY type, from fan fiction to artwork to videos... but "The master chief is cool. The end." does nothing but dilute the value of the entire Fan Fiction section. If you're writing in chapter format... write two chapters, combine them into one submission, and THEN submit. I hope this helps both submitters, and readers. (Louis Wu 15:27:02 UTC) (permalink)
Warthog Balancing at iBonk
iBonk.com begins to branch out - they now have a reader-submitted collection of pics of a warthog balancing on its front bumper on Blood Gulch. (Hey! Gameplay Tricks is OUR bag! :) ) Check it out - that's some nifty balancing! (Thanks to MaTT for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 15:15:41 UTC) (permalink)
Halo contest at the Cole Protocol
Aerothorn writes to point out that The Cole Protocol is running a contest - the winner needs to submit a picture with the most copies of Halo visible in it. Check out their news page for March 4th and 5th for details on rules and prizes. (Louis Wu 15:11:33 UTC) (permalink)
BarrysWorld reviews Halo
BarrysWorld has put up their Halo review - and it glows. Check it out - we've added it to our Reviews Database. (75 sites have reviewed Halo - the average rating is 94.7%. Are there any other games that can say this?) Thanks to The Junkyard for the heads-up on this one. (Louis Wu 15:07:27 UTC) (permalink)
HBO Weekly Review grows nicely
Whoa - gone for two days, and the news backs up to the roof! There isn't time to post it all right now - I've got a birthday party to organize - but I'll put a few things up. First up: a relatively new feature on our forum has been the HBO Weekly Review. I've held off mentioning it, but it's time now - a nice synopsis of the week's posts, organized nicely for your reading pleasure. If you enjoy it, search for other posts written by 'Weekly Review' - there have been 5 of them so far. (Louis Wu 14:58:02 UTC) (permalink)
News March 9 2002
Halo Fest in PA a success!
Whew! Back from Pennsylvania, after some rather excessive driving speeds and 17 hours (!!) of straight Halo playing - 16-player carnage with almost 25 players rotating through. More updates later, as well as text and pictures from the fest itself - but suffice it to say, we're happy. (Louis Wu 23:56:05 UTC) (permalink)
News March 8 2002
Updates must wait
I'm headed to Pennsylvania for *Ar-Isildur's End of Chemo Party, so updates will be rather sparse for the next couple of days. Be patient - I'm playing Halo! (Louis Wu 15:05:38 UTC) (permalink)
Shadow among the Shadows
Ian Barnes sends in Chapter 4 of his Operation: False Prophets saga. If you haven't read the rest, you can read the series in one shot. Our Fan Fiction collection grows. (Louis Wu 15:03:19 UTC) (permalink)
How'd those get there?
Slayer31 sends in some new pics of Sidewinder, with everything - jeeps, ghosts, and tanks - off the map. That's a first, as far as I can tell... we've added it to our Gameplay Tricks section. (Louis Wu 14:54:25 UTC) (permalink)
ftp closed for now
Due to yet ANOTHER obnoxious hacking attempt, anonymous logins on our ftp site have been suspended until I can get in and clean things. Sorry. If you have submissions, please mail them. Sorry. (Louis Wu 14:36:58 UTC) (permalink)
Marathon-logoed object... found?
ElectricSheep thought he had it - the mystery image with the Marathon logo was, in his opinion, Captain Keyes' pipe. Preliminary investigation suggested this might be the case... but the context was all wrong. (The blue stuff around the object is nowhere to be seen in the first level.) Dave Candland confirmed that we had NOT, in fact, found the image... but folks weren't ready to give up. AmechWarrior suggested that maybe it was near the Keyes flood creature... and Strykerwolf confirmed that it was there. We have no pictures, however - hopefully, they're coming soon. Congrats to all involved! (Louis Wu 14:13:28 UTC) (permalink)
More misc art, wallpaper
Two new submissions by Germain Couët - a Miscellaneous Art piece with some fun reflection work, and a desktop image for our Wallpaper section. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 03:10:54 UTC) (permalink)
Halo stuff at eBay
poena.dare #CP#g brings attention to some interesting Halo schwag at eBay - there's the Making of Halo DVD, a cool poster, and a collector's card (made of metal). Matt points out, though, that the Making Of video will be available Soon™ at the Bungie Store... likely for far less than you'll pay on eBay. Worth a look! (Louis Wu 02:22:53 UTC) (permalink)
iBonk gets updated
Bonk dropped in to our forum, explaining that iBonk.com has gotten an update - all tricks now have descriptions in words and pictures, in addition to the movies that were there before. They're very nicely done, too - check it out! (Louis Wu 01:38:48 UTC) (permalink)
News March 7 2002
The Hippo Egg finally has a home
Some may wonder why the largest hunt since the Glyph puzzle went uncommented-on by the maintainer of this site... chalk it up to vacation. :( Two weeks ago, our forum was inundated with wild speculation about hippos, and their potential representations in various parts of Halo. Finally, on February 21, Frogblast found a REAL hippo - drawn in loving detail on the outside of the shotgun shell. Matt Soell, the instigator of the Hippo search, was kind enough to send along (first to Battleground: Halo, and then to us) a hi-res version of the shell artwork - we've added it to the Easter Eggs page, for posterity. Congratulations to Frogblast... and a happy hippo hello to Matt, whose obsession was so enthusiastically picked up by the HBO Forum denizens. (Louis Wu 21:39:08 UTC) (permalink)
Haloplayers moves
Whoa - bizarreness. Haloplayers has lost the haloplayers.com domain, and can now be reached at www.haloplayers.net. They're working on a complete site redesign, in anticipation of the release of the PC version of the game, and plan to support all the extras (squad hosting, email, etc) they supported in the past. In the meantime, their messageboard is still up and running. Drop by and commiserate on the loss! (Louis Wu 20:35:19 UTC) (permalink)
A new challenge
Regarding the new images posted at Tru7h and Reconciliation yesterday - Dave Candland has thrown down the gauntlet, with respect to this picture:
Regarding scrn_084.jpg, you're going to have to scrutinize very closely to find this one. The hippo was all over the place. This image can only be found in one location. I'll be surprised if this is discovered by Easter.
Will it be you that finds it? Where will you look? The race is on! (Louis Wu 18:38:23 UTC) (permalink)
Maw Antics
Three new entries for the Frogblast Tricks page... erm, the Gameplay Tricks page - all three are on the Maw. See how far you can push Halo - where can you go? This is some amazing stuff... (Louis Wu 17:01:18 UTC) (permalink)
Stuck behind the Warthog
Bonk sent in another One-Shot - this time, it wasn't even him. Some hunters came along and stacked up a pair of marines, one on top of another, on Silent Cartographer... there they were, just minding their own business, and the big bully Hunter decided one would look better standing on the other's head. The question is... can you make THREE of 'em stacked? (Louis Wu 01:55:30 UTC) (permalink)
We have failed the Gods
More poetry, as Skyryan1 sends in The Motherworld for our Fan Fiction collection. Sadness from a Covenant viewpoint... (Louis Wu 01:39:34 UTC) (permalink)
News March 6 2002
Truth and Recon updated - cool stuff
Games Magazine afficionados will recognize the latest batch of Screenshots at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site as a fun game of Eyeballs - can you figure them all out? (Don't play this game if you haven't played Halo...) Additionally, a new section (inspired in part by an HBO fan request) has opened - Desktops. Getchyer official Bungie wallpaper here! Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:50:25 UTC) (permalink)
All your base... belong to Shade
A very funky pic has been added to our Miscellaneous Art section - in our ftp space, covenant dropped off a line art image showing a pair of Covenant elites... um, BUILDING a Shade. Hehe... this one's cool. (Louis Wu 20:42:35 UTC) (permalink)
Interviews Database goes live
Ever wish you could get your hands on that old interview of <insert Halo personality here>? Well, now you can. We've done our best to compile a list of most of the Halo-related interviews posted to the net in the past couple of years - you can find them in our Interviews database. Hopefully, it'll be easy to navigate, and find that special quote you wanted. Know of one we missed? Tell us about it! (Louis Wu 16:26:45 UTC) (permalink)
More Misc Art for your Perusal
Three new bits of art from Germain Couët - a mural, and two annotated Gallery pieces. You'll find all three in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 02:27:01 UTC) (permalink)
News March 5 2002
The Pencils Have It
More sketching - Talon sends in a pencil drawing of a Covenant Elite. Check it out in our Miscellaneous Art section! (Louis Wu 18:17:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Movie speculation surfaces again
Bungie's already said there's nothing in the works... but the speculation continues. TeamXbox has an article from Video Store Magazine, discussing potential movie deals for Xbox games:
There has been interest in such Microsoft properties as Bungie Software's Xbox sci-fi action epic "Halo," which has sold more than 800,000 units...
Thanks to Razorback for the heads-up on this one. (Louis Wu 16:11:33 UTC) (permalink)
The Master Chief, outlined
covenant dropped off a pair of sketches of the Master Chief - MCHangin and MCLoungin have been combined into MCPosin, and posted to our Miscellaneous Art section. Nice linework! (Louis Wu 10:03:17 UTC) (permalink)
Ender's Game? Nah...
Okay, okay... we done get bamboozled. Not even on purpose. The literary goose chase Marty O'Donnell sort of sent us on was just that - a goose chase... he didn't even mean for so many people to see it. It was a joke, and I (among others) got took. Gotta be more careful... (Louis Wu 02:27:03 UTC) (permalink)
News March 4 2002
Literary sources revealed
Hmm... Marty knows how to spill those beans... From the Question and Answer database of the Marty's Army fanclub at the Seventh Column:
Q What are the meanings/histories behind all the names in Halo? 343 Guilty Spark? Pillar of Autumn? Truth & Reconciliation?
A Marty the Elder says: 343 Guilty Spark is from Ender's Game, Pillar of Autumn is from Titus Andronicus and Truth & Reconciliation is from the Bible. We here at Bungie borrow from as many sources as possible. (Master Chief was borrowed from Julia Child but we misspelled it).
Looks like I'm gonna have to go back and read Ender's Game again... and where's my Shakespeare collection? Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up on this one. (Louis Wu 21:03:11 UTC) (permalink)
The Maw Transcript posted
Eep, almost forgot - Ape Man turned in the Level Transcript for the Maw this morning - that completes the spoken text in the game! If you have any questions about dialog... the Halo Story page is the place to turn! (Louis Wu 20:55:18 UTC) (permalink)
Reading Is Fundamental
Once again, the Fan Fiction pours in. One each from SkyRyan1, Gasmask, and bikeman704. Check 'em all out in the Fan Fiction section! (Louis Wu 20:29:08 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Soundtrack?
Woohoo! Kudos to Frogblast, who noticed what is likely the Halo Soundtrack on the Bungie Webcam:
Now all we need is the Bungie Store to reopen... Update: Tumbleweed points out that this is NOT the Halo Soundtrack, after all... but the Xbox Soundtrack 1, available since November 13. (We reported on this back on November 7 - shame on me for not recognizing the picture! (Louis Wu 19:58:52 UTC) (permalink)
Things you just shouldn't be able to do
Three new tricks from Frogblast - all from Assault on the Control Room. He's placed Warthogs just about everywhere on the level a human can go... and he and Mr. Pinchy showed how to swap Banshees in midair. Whoa. Check 'em out in our Gameplay Tricks section. (Louis Wu 18:10:04 UTC) (permalink)
The Final SETI stats page
The end of an era... after almost 2 and a half years (856 days!) of keeping track of the Halo SETI Marines, we here at HBO are giving up the ghost. The team will go on, as long as people want to contribute to it... but we will no longer process or post statistics. Interest has been waning steadily - output has been dropping for months, and once again, we were passed this week by a team with 20% of our members. SETI (for the 3rd week in a row) has again changed the format of the outputted page stats, necessitating (again) the overhaul of the scripts that process the statistics. The final straw was the loss of Noah - 3300 units, and he left the Marines for... nobody. (He is no longer a member of ANY team.) That's a pretty eloquent statement for boredom. To all the Marines who put their extra cpu cycles to work these past few years... thank you. You can see how you stand on the final 7 day stats page. (Louis Wu 16:22:18 UTC) (permalink)
The Antics continue...
Team 7HR33 has posted a couple of new movies on their website - Crazy Ernie definitely seems a little crazy, and the Spooky movie is... bizarre. Check out the Antics section! Thanks to MaTT for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:29:14 UTC) (permalink)
HCC is back
Halo Command Central, a site that disappeared from the Halo scene a while ago, is back - at a new address. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 03:25:20 UTC) (permalink)
News March 3 2002
More Halo press scans
Two new press scans for your perusal - XBM, an Xbox magazine in the UK, put up an 8-page Halo review in its February issue, and Gimp was kind enough to scan it for us... and the March issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (off the shelves yesterday) contained another edition of the Halo Inner Circle, a monthly Halo tips section. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 21:38:50 UTC) (permalink)
Halo IAA win noticed by CNN
I hadn't realized this was such a big deal... but we've now received over a dozen emails about it, so maybe I'm wrong. CNN mentioned the win by Halo at the Fifth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards last week. (We mentioned the awards... but apparently, the CNN article is bigger news for a lot of you than the awards themselves.) First credit for the notice goes to Mr Yun, who sent in word over 15 hours ago. (Louis Wu 17:34:35 UTC) (permalink)
Lots o' Icons
Icons, icons, everywhere! Malagigi sends in a passel of Mac OSX 128x128 icons - you can grab 'em here, in .sit format, or preview 'em here. At the same time, El Bastard™ creates a quick MC head, and some other Bungie-related stuff, and tells us about it in this forum post. (Louis Wu 16:42:17 UTC) (permalink)
GOTY Box
So Halo's the game of the year. What better way to advertise it than say it on the game box! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 05:55:27 UTC) (permalink)
Smaller Xbox controller on the way
Wishing that you could get hold of an Xbox controller that was a little smaller than the standard Microsoft controller, but of the same high quality? Now you can - Gamespy reports that Microsoft is planning on marketing the Xbox Controller S, similar (but not identical) to the Japanese Xbox controller, in the US.
GameSpy: What does the S stand for?
David Hufford: Well, there's not a lot of science behind it, it's more of an art thing. I think we were all in a room and thought it would be a cool name, so we just came up with it.
As good a reason as any... check the article for the lowdown on the actual unit. Thanks to SonicStorm, of Battleground: Halo, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 01:34:29 UTC) (permalink)
News March 2 2002
J. Allard - buy an Xbox for Halo
fAt1, from MPZ Halo, drops us a note about the latest issue of Edge Magazine (issue 108). There's an interview with J. Allard, Xbox General Manager, and one of the questions had an amusing answer:
Edge: What would you say to the PS2 being better value for money, considering that once you've bought a couple of Xbox games, some extras and a DVD controller the Xbox almost doubles in price?
Allard: Halo.
Sounds about right to us... (fAt1 points out that the high cost of the Xbox in the UK (£350-450, depending on what you buy with it, or $500-650 US) might lead to some embarrassment in the MS camp come the 14th... we'll have to wait and see.) (Louis Wu 16:55:19 UTC) (permalink)
That'sa lotta writin'!
Whew - the Fan Fiction is coming in fast and furious. Another chapter each from Velker, Shadow, and Gasmask... check 'em all out on the Fan Fiction page! (Louis Wu 16:48:43 UTC) (permalink)
Hey, that gives me an idea...
Bonk submits a fun pic showing what happens when you TRY and exploit Halo bugs (as opposed to stumbling across them accidentally). You'll find it in our One-Shots collection. (The spoiler warning is incidental - the pic itself isn't a spoiler, but investigating the stuff behind it might be.) (Louis Wu 11:04:40 UTC) (permalink)
That's not blood, it's dirt
Gameplay weirdness: NthDegree256 was playing through the Maw, and when he blasted the engine vents, he saw what looked like a huge gout of red blood bursting from the opening. Ferrex stepped in to explain what was happening:
This is a "feature" that was discovered a little too late to be documented. What you're actually seeing isn't blood... it's dirt. Red dirt. That particular effect does some sort of sampling of the texture color at the point where it originates from... that way, you get yellow sand spray when it hits sand, or brown dirt when it hits dirt.
In this case, the vent cores are cherry red from the heat. Those cherry red surfaces are probably (I haven't checked this) of material type "dirt", the default material type. The net result is that, when a grenade or rocket detonates against one of those surfaces, you get a horrifying geyser of blood colored dirt.
I haven't seen this personally yet, but apparently, it's dependent on where you hit the vent. However, it's very nice to have an explanation... I'm sure it'll come up again! (Louis Wu 10:49:27 UTC) (permalink)
Another Halo site gets an update
Mad Dog lets us know that his Halo site has been updated. It's pretty bare-bones, but if you want some Halo gameplay tips with a healthy dose of attitude on the side, you should check it out. (Louis Wu 10:42:03 UTC) (permalink)
E3 Fanfest Registration open
Registration for Bungie's E3 Seventh Column Tournament is now closed - but registration for the Fanfest itself is open. If you're interested in going, read this news post, then fill out this form. Spots are limited, so sign up now! (And if you're looking for practice partners, check out the Seventh Column's week in review - there are some new up-and-coming chapters listed there, you might find someone local!) (Louis Wu 10:35:30 UTC) (permalink)
Halo icons galore
More icons for everyone! Liquidex has redone his as a WIndows icon file - you can grab it here. For those among you for which .ico files are very hard to use (you can count me in that group), the .gif version at the start of this post is the same image. Also, Djoey.154 created a whole series of .ico files (which I've also converted to something a bit more web-friendly) - you can see all of them here. (Louis Wu 00:29:52 UTC) (permalink)
News March 1 2002
FanFic pours in
Velker's Halo 2 Chronicle continues, with Part IV. Thank goodness for snipers! The Fan Fiction collection grows. (Louis Wu 20:56:11 UTC) (permalink)
iBonk is back
Bonk points out that iBonk is back up! A new movie and some details of the folks behind the site are the latest additions. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:45:29 UTC) (permalink)
Halo wins AIAS GotY IAA
Thanks to Elvish Archer, who picked up (from a Japanese site, no less) that Halo won the AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Game of the Year! (We told you they'd been nominated... and that the ceremony was supposed to be yesterday, but AIAS hasn't updated their website yet.) Congratulations, Bungie! Nice feather, that one. Update: Matt Soell points out on Bungie.net that in addition to Game of the Year, Halo also won Console Game of the Year, Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering. (That's 4 of the 8 categories they were nominated for... and 3 of the 3 major ones.) W00t! (Louis Wu 20:22:48 UTC) (permalink)
Free Halo Tournaments
Billy Ford stops by our forum to announce that TeamSlayer.com is hosting Halo tournaments that don't cost anything to enter. They're even working on prizes. Stop by their site for more details! (Louis Wu 19:02:45 UTC) (permalink)
Wanna play Halo at E3?
Freewill is looking for people interested in playing in the Halo tournament at the Bungie Fanfest Convocation on Friday, May 24, 2002 in LA. If you are planning on being there... drop him a note! (Louis Wu 18:59:53 UTC) (permalink)
XBM reviews Halo
A new review has surfaced - XBM, a UK magazine, has put an online review up. Except for the repetitiveness near the end (a somewhat universal complaint), they loved it - 98% was the final rating. We've added it to our Reviews database. (The print version will be going up this weekend, thanks to Gimp.) (Louis Wu 18:32:22 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Icons for you
Liquidex, in answer to a forum request for Halo icons, has created a nice Master Chief version (and blown it up for detail):
Except for the spelling error, it's perfect (and if you're using it on your desktop, you won't want the words anyway). Thanks, Liquidex! (Louis Wu 15:22:51 UTC) (permalink)
Large influx of fan fiction
Three short fan fics submitted recently - two post-Halo speculations and one poem. Check out The Renegade Marines (minor spoilers), Halo 2: Hope for Mankind (bigger spoilers), and A Ringworld Far Away in our Fan Fiction section! (Louis Wu 14:04:55 UTC) (permalink)
26 light years and no time to sleep
Another look at a post-Halo possibility, from drexx - Earth: Combat Evolved picks up where Halo leaves off, and the action starts right up. You'll find it in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 02:09:29 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Comic at Truth and Recon
Heh - over at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site, there's word of a Seventh Column club-created Halo comic - the Slacker Pimps have a Halo illustrator in Slacker Tang. (You can see more of his Halo work here.) Thanks to craZy for the heads-up! (Louis Wu 02:01:16 UTC) (permalink)
Start your engines...
Think you're a l33t Warthog driver? Can you do donuts on the back of a Pelican, while your gunner takes out the swarming Banshees? Do you love nothing more than the smell of engine grease on your armor? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, your Sarge wants you! (Your psychiatrist probably wants you, too, but that's no concern of ours.) Grab your grease gun and head on over to the Maw 700, an honest-to-goodness bungie.org contest! Submissions are accepted beginning now, soldier. (Louis Wu 00:00:00 UTC) (permalink)
| March 2002 | |
