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May 2010

May 2010 Archived News

News May 31 2010

Cool Signed Artwork - Soon to be Purchasable!
Justinian stopped in to mention that a picture he'd started a little while ago had been finished, sent off to Bungie to be signed, and is soon going to be available for purchase in an auction being organized by Laird to benefit Child's Play. Nice! We'll let you know when the auction's up. (Louis Wu 14:37:09 UTC) (permalink)

The Speculation Restarts
Ciarán noticed that UNSC Trooper updated the Halo Story Page again, last Friday - go see what he's finding in the mailbag! (Louis Wu 14:36:42 UTC) (permalink)

Forecast Season 2 Trailer
Tyler, from Young Street Productions, let us know that Forecast the Series is debuting Season 2 sometime this summer (probably June), and that a new trailer for this upcoming work is now up. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:35:54 UTC) (permalink)

Paid in Blood teaser trailer
Laird sent word that a new trailer for 'Paid in Blood', an upcoming fan-made ODST 3D animated, is now online - go check it out! (Louis Wu 14:28:09 UTC) (permalink)

News May 30 2010

Console Wars Episode 2
Chairleg Productions started a series called 'Console Wars' back in mid-2008. The first episode was very good. (Higher-res download links are available in this post.) Then there was silence, for 2 years. Today, they're back, with Episode 2... and the result is fantastic. Funny story, great video effects, nice cultural references... definitely worth a watch. (Louis Wu 15:19:38 UTC) (permalink)

The Fallen
TDSpiral whipped up a piece of art he calls 'The Fallen' - powerful tribute! Take a look. (Louis Wu 15:16:20 UTC) (permalink)

New Marvel Comic - Fall 2010
Looks like Marvel's coming out with a Reach comic this fall... thanks, GrimBrother One. (Louis Wu 15:15:56 UTC) (permalink)

White Room Demo
Over at Halo3Forum.com, MrTwiggy101 posted a greenscreening demo from Halo 3 that looks better than any attempt I've seen before. He says he's going to be posting a tutorial at some point. (Louis Wu 15:15:03 UTC) (permalink)

The artwork's the best part.
Ready Up Live posted an official List of Fake Halo: Reach achievements, and Hawty McBloggy's highlighting them. (This is probably a good thing - the last two or three times RUL was featured anywhere big, their site went down.) Lot of teabagging-related items there... (Louis Wu 15:14:38 UTC) (permalink)

Comment It and They Shall Come
Today's Grin + Bear It is live at Hawty McBloggy's - sort of. This week, Luke was too busy to draw up a full strip, so he's asking for suggestions from the audience; he'll finish it next week with the best of your submissions. Go submit! (Louis Wu 15:12:43 UTC) (permalink)

News May 29 2010

Halo Waypoint: New Content, New Challenges
GrimBrother One reminded our forum of the latest offering on Halo Waypoint: a behind-the-scenes video detailing the making of ONE's Evolutions animations, "Midnight in the Heart of Mildlothian" and "The Return". Grim also points out the tough road 343 Industries has ahead of it, even with a talented crew and a fascinating universe. What do YOU think? Chime in. (Louis Wu 19:55:03 UTC) (permalink)

Protective Headgear
Halo3Screenshots.com has posted their latest Top Ten Halo Screenshots collection - 'Things On Your Head' is full of pictures of players with... well, things on their head. Some creepy ones in there... (Louis Wu 19:54:11 UTC) (permalink)

EW puts MC in Top 100
Gantry let us know that Entertainment Weekly is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and the latest issue has an article entitled "The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years" (cover and a bit of content here). Who comes in at #59? That's right... Master Chief. Nice! (Louis Wu 19:53:42 UTC) (permalink)

News May 28 2010

Yoink?
Bungie's Weekly Update is live at Bungie.net (and in our Weekly Update Archive) - it's a pretty light one, overall. Hot dogs, high-res medals (these are, admittedly, gorgeous), new commendation badges. Good for speculatin' - not so good for knowin'. Go read! (Louis Wu 23:57:57 UTC) (permalink)

Spartans Never Die - I Will Not Bow
Back in December, AssaultGodzilla released an ODST tribute to Breaking Benjamin's 'I Will Not Bow'. He's back with another one - same song, except this one is aimed at Spartans. Great choice of clips! (Louis Wu 19:35:43 UTC) (permalink)

H3W's First Memorial Hogoff
H3Wheelmen are running a new charity event - the 1st Memorial Hogoff, in memory of Ice Devil 13. Great play and great luck will both win you goodies. Read all the details at Bungie.net, or the H3Wheelmen's website. They're already over $1000 towards their $1500 goal for this event - help push 'em over the edge! (Louis Wu 18:24:14 UTC) (permalink)

Montaging Reach
A new pair of montages for you, courtesy of Bungie's Comm Chatter: Dutchy whipped up a Halo Reach Beta montage... and so did Just Mad. Both have lots of sick kills, both are heavy on the effects. Enjoy. (Louis Wu 18:23:51 UTC) (permalink)

Team Control LIVE
We forgot to point this out yesterday - but this week's Double XP Weekend Playlist, Team Control, is live, and waiting for your controlling influence! Check all the details in urk's post. (Louis Wu 18:23:26 UTC) (permalink)

Location is important
Kotaku found a few pictures of a Malaysian Master Chief - great outfit, cool weapon! Thanks to GrimBrother One for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:55:38 UTC) (permalink)

Fire Team Zulu Rolls On
FyreWulff announced a new Fire Team Zulu challenge this morning - Tanks for the Memories is a Campaign challenge on Kizingo Blvd (two difficulties available), while The Dark Night is a Firefight challenge on Rally (Night) - also with a pair of difficulties open to you. Pick the one that appeals to you the most (or both!), and submit your entries! (Louis Wu 12:55:16 UTC) (permalink)

20 Questions: XerxdeeJ
CE United's Willy is back with a new 20 Questions interview - this one was held with TTL's XerxdeeJ. Go read about how Tied the Leader got its start, what was good and bad about the Reach Beta, and how a good society is maintained. Great read! (Louis Wu 12:54:43 UTC) (permalink)

That's not the right kind of press.
This... is just wrong. (Louis Wu 12:54:21 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Caption Fun, Round 94
Over at Hawty McBloggy's, it's time for another week of Friday Caption Fun - highest-rated captions from last week's entry, plus a new entry showing off a... new side of the Master Chief. Go play! (Louis Wu 12:53:30 UTC) (permalink)

Expressing Love
Couple of unusual(ish) tributes to the Reach Beta on our forum recently: hyokin put together a collection of his favorite screens for a screenshot montage, and Train Dodger used an active camera to highlight an Invasion match. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:53:01 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Three new pieces are up for your reading pleasure in the Fan Fiction section - go see. (Louis Wu 12:52:37 UTC) (permalink)

Call him 'Headhunter'
Elnea received some new toys in the mail - so Halo Action Figure Theater #206 involves a flaming skull. Ouch! (Louis Wu 12:52:15 UTC) (permalink)

News May 27 2010

Where All the Deals Went Down
Bungie has posted another map post-mortem - go read how the Halo 3 multiplayer map 'The Pit' got its start, and how it changed into the map we play on today. Fascinating read - very cool pics, very cool concepts! (I'm sad for the loss of the Control Room.) Here's to the next map that's broken down this way! (Louis Wu 20:34:42 UTC) (permalink)

Video Fun at B.net
Latest batch of video goodness, courtesy of Bungie's Comm Chatter:

• CruelLegacy released a Halo Reach Beta Montage - good times, bad times, he's got 'em all. Well... mostly bad times. Fun stuff!
• Funny Halo 3 Productions is back with the 12th iteration of their 'Fails and Laughs' series. Some definitely funny stuff in there.
• BLACKxOUTx put together a Halo Reach Beta Assassination montage - plenty of backstabbing.

Go watch! (Louis Wu 20:34:22 UTC) (permalink)

Domino's HBO Giveaways, Round 9 - Winner
Congrats to Free Weights, who won Domino's latest giveaway - enjoy your month of live, FW! (Louis Wu 20:33:44 UTC) (permalink)

Clay Magic
Antithesis, the guy who makes amazing stuff out of Sculpy, is back with some new pieces - there's an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, an EOD Spartan, a Recon Spartan, a funky Human Flood, and a crazy-looking Elite. Swing by Hawty McBloggy's for all the pics. I wanna take these home and hug 'em! (Louis Wu 12:12:12 UTC) (permalink)

More Favs from TBK
Nearly forgot - yesterday, Bungie updated the Bungie Favorites page with a second batch of files from The Bees Knees - their first batch was up for a while, because of the Reach Beta. Go see what else they've got! (Louis Wu 12:08:37 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's Top Halo 3 Kills of the Week
IGN's got a new Top Halo 3 Kills of the Week video up this morning - nothing really spectacular, but fun across the board. Thanks, BuzzJuice. (Louis Wu 12:06:54 UTC) (permalink)

Have 360, Will Play
DragonSlayerMJC added a small LCD screen to his Halo 3 Xbox 360's case - he no longer needs a TV to play Halo! (Or any other 360 game...) Thanks, Hawty. (Louis Wu 12:05:58 UTC) (permalink)

News May 26 2010

Selling the Movement
Bungie's Bill O'Brien answered a bunch of questions asked by an animation student... and the read is fascinating, even for those of us who know very little about the subject. Go read! (Louis Wu 22:23:22 UTC) (permalink)

How many kills is that?
It's Montage Wednesday at Bungie.net:

• New Top Ten Halo Reach Beta Kills from Anoj - this one is devoted to Armor Ability Kills. Gotta love the assassination from the invis guy that someone LANDED ON.
• Halo Reach Beta Montage from Mjolnir Battle Tactics - it's called 'Dominate', and it's certainly full of pwnage. (Very funky interlacing, though...)
• Abstract360.com put together their own Community Montage - lots of fun to be had.
• DevilDawg posted 'Lost' - a personal Reach Beta montage. Fast clips.
• Reach for Muggsy is Muggsy's entry in the HaloMontage Reach Beta Montage Contest - understated editing.

Nice lunch break footage! (Louis Wu 17:00:49 UTC) (permalink)

Don't be a jerk.
kapowaz pointed out a piece at PC Gamer; it's an object lesson as to why you shouldn't teamkill. I couldn't help thinking that if he'd just shaken his head at the first betrayal and moved on, he'd probably have had a much better night... (Louis Wu 12:55:06 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Stats apps get new tools
DHalo joined the Potato group at Bungie.net, set up to test the new Reach Stats API that Bungie is developing; his first attempt at a program is now available for download. Check out the screens, and grab a copy before the Bungie.net Reach stats pages are offline! (Louis Wu 12:54:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach Beta - the Pro View
Major League Gaming pros have offered their thoughts about the Halo: Reach Beta - if you wonder how the folks who make money playing Halo games feel about the newest tweaks, go give this a read! Thanks, Tashi0106. (Louis Wu 12:51:55 UTC) (permalink)

Nerf MA5B
Moz sent word of a Nerf Assault Rifle he finished up a while back - there are in-progress build shots, final shots, and a video of the gun in use. He writes about it like it's old and boring to him... but MAN, it looks good. Check it. (Louis Wu 12:51:04 UTC) (permalink)

Out of Range
The latest Chronicles of ODS Steve (#72) is now live at Hawty McBloggy's - you should never bring a camera to a laser fight. (Louis Wu 12:50:25 UTC) (permalink)

Looking back at the Beta
GrimBrother One was the first to notice an interesting article at IGN - it's a post-Beta Interview with Brian Jarrard, containing a ton of information about the preliminary findings from the Beta. Startling stats, interesting intuitions, bad-ass bugs. An overall fascinating read... go check it out! (Louis Wu 12:49:31 UTC) (permalink)

News May 25 2010

ZBrush ODST Model - Finished
Brighton's back with more shots of his ODST - swing by for links to his DeviantART pages! (That dude's looking pretty bulky...) This is the finished model. (Louis Wu 18:22:34 UTC) (permalink)

Tuesday Afternoon at the Movies
What would a Tuesday be without a bundle of videos in Bungie's Comm Chatter?

• Gunshot's Halo: Reach Beta Montage is a montage from a pro. Is he better than you? Probably.
• The Halo Reach - Kuwait Community Tage is what it sounds like - a community montage made up of clips from Kuwaiti players. There might be a bit more lag in here than you're used to, if you're in the US. Colorization's pretty cool - love the look of red stickies!
• Halo Reach Beta Montage // All Day is TriNitroT6's montage that he made for his friends - then decided to share with you.
• Clantacular is celebrating four years of clan matches - with a re-release of a recruiting vid they released in 2006. Go watch the Halo 2 goodness. (Cover your ears, though.)

Where's my popcorn? (Louis Wu 17:57:57 UTC) (permalink)

VisionsOfHalo - a Screenshot Gallery Option
The 'Gallery Backup' field just got another player - VisionsOfHalo lets you back up your Bungie.net Halo 3, ODST, and Reach screenshots to a single gallery (and once you're in their system, your gamertag will be updated automatically from then on). Nice layout! Check this out. Thanks, Sevenface. (Louis Wu 17:02:34 UTC) (permalink)

You Can't Win.
Hawty McBloggy has posted up an article to help you see what your Armor Ability says about you - give it a read, and decide which annoying group YOU fall into. (Louis Wu 16:53:47 UTC) (permalink)

This Reach thing - it's a money machine, ain't it?
CaptainTony noticed that in addition to the standard Halo Reach Official Strategy Guide ($25), there's also a Halo Reach Official Strategy Guide Limited Edition ($35). This one's being published by BradyGames, but there's no information on their website yet. The GameStop links have exactly the same information for both versions - no word at all at what that extra $10 gets you. (No word on whether Brady plans on offering a 'Legendary Edition', in a leather binding...) (Louis Wu 16:11:45 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Screenshot Backup - Last Call
HaLo2FrEeEk reminds you that if you want to back up your Reach Beta screenshots, this is your last chance to get files into the system. (The collections that are there aren't going anywhere - but after tomorrow, no new files will be added.) Read his post for full details. (Louis Wu 14:18:08 UTC) (permalink)

A minor campaign spoiler, from an unlikely source
Hypertrooper found an interesting tidbit buried deep in a video about German voice-over work for Halo: Reach - we won't post it here, because it could definitely be considered spoiler material, but Hypertrooper included it in his NeoGAF post (marked with spoiler tags, so you won't see it accidentally). It's not much - but Bungie's been keeping all Campaign stuff really close to the vest, so it's all new for us! (Louis Wu 14:17:37 UTC) (permalink)

Whoa - Cracked gets serious
Cracked has a relatively serious article that makes the point that games are still in their infancy; it contains NSFW content, but overall, it's surprisingly thoughtful and fun to read. One shot is taken at Halo, making it relevant here. Thanks, Monochron. (Louis Wu 14:15:32 UTC) (permalink)

NOVA Trailer
TheSuperBleeder came by yesterday with word of a trailer for his machinima project, 'NOVA'. Short, sweet! Go watch. (If you like what you see, there's more (other series) on their website.) (Louis Wu 14:14:22 UTC) (permalink)

Love and Rockets
Bungie's posted a new in-house video for you, in honor of the release date announcement yesterday; it's called 'The Good, The Bad-ass, and The Ugly', and it puts together fan-submitted clips and awesome Reach music in a rousing, entertaining manner. Go watch - celebrate the end of the beta, and prepare for the full game's release, just sixteen weeks from today! Update: On YouTube now, too. (Louis Wu 13:07:47 UTC) (permalink)

We don't walk... anywhere.
Red vs Blue Revelation Chapter 7 - "And Don't Call Me Shirley" - is now available to the general public. Church and Caboose meet an old-sounding friend (wait... that's not right), while Tucker learns that you should always make sure you've got gas before you play the Prototype trick. (Louis Wu 02:01:56 UTC) (permalink)

News May 24 2010

Pre-order bonus for Reach (in the UK, at least)
Robbert014 noticed that UK-based game resellers are listing a pre-order bonus for the Standard Edition of Halo: Reach - a downloadable Recon Helmet variation. Folks on our forum are wondering if this is available in the US, as well, and if it's just the Standard edition, or all three editions. If we find out more, we'll let you know! Update: DOH! Didn't notice the tidbit in the official press release that

"As a special bonus, fans can receive a token to unlock an exclusive in-game Spartan Recon Helmet, by picking up a copy of the game on launch day at North American retail stores, and outside of North America by making a pre-order reservation at participating retailers."

Solves that problem... (thanks, Halo2uman) (Louis Wu 18:21:57 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Falls... Before Fall
Bungie has posted the official Halo: Reach Launch Press Release on their website - if you live for PR-speak, go read it! (Louis Wu 18:19:44 UTC) (permalink)

Tag and Release: Reach
The term this week for Bungie's Tag and Release feature is 'Reach' - some great shots from the Beta. Go look! (Louis Wu 17:38:03 UTC) (permalink)

TRR Tonight - with Adam Grumbo
A quick reminder (thanks, urk) - tonight is the live recording of The Running Riot's 28th podcast, with guest Adam Grumbo from the 405th. Be there at 9:00pm ET if you want a chance to watch from backstage! (Louis Wu 17:36:15 UTC) (permalink)

Lots of carnage
Monday Comm Chatter Vids:

• Sneakier is a hilarious vignette - it's not what you think. (Plus, it's only 30 seconds.)
• Halo: Reach Beta Fails Episode 3 is another collection of Fail moments from the Beta. (I think The1ToFear didn't really like the whole Weapon Drop kill thing.)
• G2G is a Halo 3 montage from Orangeclock. Have you jumped back into Halo 3 multiplay yet?
• Halo 3 Fails: Episode 29 is an older collection of Halo 3 fails (it was uploaded two and a half weeks ago), but it's got some great facepalms.
• Watercolour is yet another Reach Beta Community montage (clips snagged from Bungie's Fileshare collection) - very heavy on the color effects.

Go watch! (Louis Wu 17:33:20 UTC) (permalink)

Domino's HBO Giveaways, Round 9
Domino Theory still has stuff to give away - this time, it's a 1-month card for Xbox LIVE. If you're interested, fill out the form; he'll pick a winner on Wednesday! (Louis Wu 15:45:29 UTC) (permalink)

Beyond
SnowJP 360 stoped in with word of 'Beyond', a new video from DWT Productions. It's all glitches and tricks in the Reach Beta, and there's some funky stuff. (I think Bungie should be watching this one, too - there are some bugs that seem like they should be fixed...) (Louis Wu 13:55:50 UTC) (permalink)

Cast and Crew announced for OP Teaser
Pete Cooper let us know that the cast for the teaser for Operation Chastity (the fan-driven live-action Halo film) has been announced - swing by their website for full details! (Louis Wu 13:55:13 UTC) (permalink)

So Long, Take Care
Hawty McBloggy posted up a fitting farewell video to the Reach Beta - it's just a clip of a corpse in the Swordbase mancannon... but it's waving goodbye. For a while. Pretty funny! (Louis Wu 13:53:38 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Release Date - and Beta Stats
It looks like a release date has been announced for Halo: Reach - an Associated Press article (hosted by Google, or Yahoo Finance) mentions that the game is out on September 14 worldwide (September 15 in Japan). A slightly different view ('worldwide' is swapped for 'US and UK') is shown by Computer and Video Games' website (thanks, ElzarTheBam). Both articles also discuss the amazing reach (heh) of the Halo: Reach Beta - 2.7 million people experienced it, logging more than 16 million hours over 18 days. For the number fanatics among you, this release date means that there are exactly 117 days between the end of the beta and the launch of the full game... (Louis Wu 13:31:31 UTC) (permalink)

News May 23 2010

BierWiser's Lawltage, Try 2
BierWiser released a 'Lawltage' - funny clips from Halo 3 Matchmaking. Not the first time he's done this - but the first time without a bunch of betrayal clips in it (they were funny to him, not so much to the rest of us). This one's actually funny. Go see. (Louis Wu 18:23:13 UTC) (permalink)

Natural Spawn Killers
Over at Hawty McBloggy's, the latest Grin + Bear It looks at spawning... in every sense of the word, I guess. (Louis Wu 15:28:34 UTC) (permalink)

A maybe-egg from the Beta?
So if you checked the scenery closely on Powerhouse, you might have noticed a 'Luminateboard' in the Office. Yesterday, RVideo let us know that he'd been poking through the game files, and found ANOTHER one of these, in the Boneyard map files - but this one wasn't empty. In fact, it looks more like someone took a snapshot of a real whiteboard (maybe a Bungie whiteboard) and stuck it in the game. As far as I can tell, this doesn't showup anywhere in the actual map (when you're playing), though I could be wrong about that. In any case, it's a pretty interesting board; there MIGHT be stuff you can dig out of it. (Louis Wu 15:28:07 UTC) (permalink)

Take It To Sunrise wants YOUR video
harabek stopped in with word of a machinima music video contest - the band Take It To Sunrise wants you to create a music video for them - any game, any style (of course, Halo is a fine choice), and you could win some MS points, the band's latest album, and more. Basic details on this page, or in this YouTube video. (You have to register on a forum before you can actually read the rules and regulations - but if you're interested, the links are all there!) (Louis Wu 15:27:33 UTC) (permalink)

eBay helmet auction - closing very soon!
It's a busy Sunday morning here, but this newspost is time-sensitive; if you read it in the next two hours, you've got a chance to bid on a fan-made Halo Reach helmet on eBay. Current bid is $217.50, closing time is 8:33 PDT this morning. Thanks, rolandk73 (who also found an already-purchased Spartan CQB Helmet (closed last night). More news later. (Louis Wu 13:37:07 UTC) (permalink)

News May 22 2010

I guess you all want a slice, huh?
General Vagueness noticed (before I did, dangit!) the cake on our front page, signifying our 11th birthday today - in Internet years, that means HBO is ready for Depends and a steady supply of Ensure. Thanks to all of you for being here... we couldn't do this without you! (Louis Wu 11:10:01 UTC) (permalink)

Project: Legendary Teaser
Nabsuh stopped in with a teaser from Legendary, an upcoming project from AVCOM Productions - looks great! (Louis Wu 11:09:07 UTC) (permalink)

MC in SSBB
NartFOpc noticed a video showing off a mod for Super Smash Bros Brawl - nice work to get Master Chief into the game! (Louis Wu 11:06:17 UTC) (permalink)

Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots: Spawn Points
Halo 3 Screenshots is looking at 'Spawn Points' in the latest Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots collection. I wasn't sure what this meant, until I looked at the pictures... but they're shots of what you can make with the bright blue spawnpoint symbols in Forge. Very creative stuff! (Louis Wu 11:04:29 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Waypoint - full of goodness
If you were avoiding Halo Waypoint because you didn't want your recent Reach Beta films to be cleared from the cache... avoid no more. Lots of good stuff coming this week. Today marks the kickoff of the full-length cut of 'The Return', the motion-comic version of the Evolutions story. If you missed it in its serialized version (or if you just want to see it uncut), swing by! Later this week is more Reach coverage, and on Friday is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of both 'Midnight in The Heart of Midlothian' and 'The Return' - how ONE turned these Evolutions stories into fantastically animated tales. If you've got a LIVE Gold subscription, this content is always available to you - so take advantage! (Louis Wu 11:04:02 UTC) (permalink)

Sending Off the Beta
The Bungie Weekly Update is a quiet one this time around - a wind-down summarizing the end of the Beta, and what you should take away from it. Some great screens - and if you want more than they're showing, get 'em now, they've already said they're killing the Reach Beta content by the end of next week, probably. (Might be a good time to remind you of HaLo2FrEeEk's Reach Screenshot Archive - an easy way to archive what you've already got, for when Bungie.net wipes that set out. If for any reason you aren't happy reading the Weekly Update at Bungie.net, we've got it in our Weekly Update Archive (it's certainly friendlier to lighter-weight browsers). (Louis Wu 00:04:37 UTC) (permalink)

News May 21 2010

A Beta Tribute: Multiplayer Madness
Urban Reflex put together his own tribute to the Reach Beta with a new 'Multiplayer Madness' video - some fun gameplay moments! Not your typical montage at all... more a collection of funny bits. Some are VERY funny. (Louis Wu 19:37:01 UTC) (permalink)

Celebrating the Milestones
Bungie's 'Polish Complete' milestone for Reach comes with a bunch of photos - swing by the Reach Developer Blog for a slideshow! (Louis Wu 19:29:45 UTC) (permalink)

Project Aftershock - Progress Continues
We got another update on Project Aftershock, a Halo mod for Crysis, from its developer, Warlord. (You can see older mentions here and here in our news archive.) Swing by Crymod's forum for screenshots and a video! (Louis Wu 19:27:23 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Caption Fun, Round 93
93? Man... that woman's been doing this for a WHILE. The latest round of Friday Caption Fun has some great captions for last week's Elite Meets Ghost image... and then tosses one of the most captionable screenshots I've ever seen your way. Go read, then go play. (While you're there, check out yesterday's Twitter T&A Thursday - the challenge was to finish the sentence "You know you played the Halo: Reach beta too long when --"... definitely some great ones in there.) (Louis Wu 17:32:57 UTC) (permalink)

Friday CC vids
Friday video fun at Bungie.net:

• H3AsiiM's BetaLicious is a montage featuring gameplay from Kreger and AsiiM himself. Nice angles.
• Distraction is a montage from a trio of players - makes me sad I can't jump on right now.
• betamaniaque created a Halo Reach community montage, using clips he found on Bungie.net. Lots of odd moments.
• Ain't nothin' wrong with it is another community montage - this time it's the Legend Zero community. Quality could use a little work, but the gameplay's fun.
• Forge Union Reach Betatage is yet ANOTHER community montage - Forge Union, this time.

I'm sure there'll be plenty more of this in the next week or two... (Louis Wu 17:25:06 UTC) (permalink)

Overlook, Overall
HaLo2FrEeEk has spherized the final Halo: Reach Beta map, Overlook - the scrollable version is spectacular, though the sphere itself might not do the beauty of Overlook justice. There are plenty of options, though - so go see! (Louis Wu 15:57:55 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Beta Impressions, from CinemaBlend
CinemaBlend has posted some Reach Beta Impressions - they're noteworthy simply because they're positive, from a site that rarely, if ever, has anything nice to say about the Halo franchise. (The article was written by a new games writer, so that might have something to do with it...) Give it a read! (Louis Wu 13:32:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach Beta Fails
Chris10023 sent word of a special episode of Halo 3 Fails - this one's entitled 'Halo Reach Fails' and contains (surprise!) head-slapping moments from the Beta. I think every clip includes me... (Louis Wu 13:20:13 UTC) (permalink)

Hedgemony Loves Halo
A few days ago, we mentioned that Hedgemony was offering to photo-manipulate your Reach screenshot to make a cool Beta keepsake; a LOT of people took him up on it. His Tumblr collection now has 79 images in it - and some of them are EPIC. Go look! (Louis Wu 13:19:43 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's Top 100 Videogame Villains
IGN posted a list of their Top 100 Videogame Villains - Halo characters make the list 3 separate times. (If you don't feel like paging through the entire collection, Morpheus has posted the direct links to each Halo-related page.) (Louis Wu 13:19:08 UTC) (permalink)

Evolution of a Spartan
TDSpiral was working on a Master Chief/Spartan sketch - kept going back to it. Finally posted a series of sketches - interesting development! (Louis Wu 13:18:04 UTC) (permalink)

Fire Team Zulu Commences
FyreWulff is back with a new pair of challenges - Firefight Friday is no more, go check out Fire Team Zulu. There are two options today - Postdelta Syndrome is a Firefight Challenge on Crater (two difficulties available), while 1800CALLBUCK is a Campaign Challenge on Tayari Plaza (also two difficulties). Go play! (Louis Wu 13:16:47 UTC) (permalink)

Phasing Over
Marcus put up a post on the Bungie Developer Blog yesterday - this is the last week of 'content polishing', now they're entering a hardcore bug-squashing phase. They're working hard to make sure Reach is everything we want it to be, come fall! (Louis Wu 13:14:29 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Only one new piece for you this week in the Fan Fiction section - there HAD been three, but two didn't make the (pretty low) minimum quality bar. If you're submitting content, please - be sure to read the submission guidelines first. Thanks! (Louis Wu 13:15:16 UTC) (permalink)

News May 20 2010

The III Project
We got word of a Halo: Reach Beta Trick Jumping vid from K R ii Z ii C, FACC x Ryahoe x, and Resix. (Yes, that's far too many z's and x's in just three names.) Some cool stuff - not a lot of time to test it out for yourself, though! (Louis Wu 19:51:55 UTC) (permalink)

Panoramania
Mjolnir Tactics has a whole passel of panoramas for your viewing pleasure - so get to viewing! Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 19:27:20 UTC) (permalink)

Double XP: Living Dead
Ready to go back to Halo 3? This week's Double XP Weekend Playlist is Living Dead. Go kill some zombies! (Louis Wu 19:20:42 UTC) (permalink)

Play at your own risk
The Halo: Reach Beta is still going (I just finished a Headhunter game in 2nd place, with 22 skulls), but things are getting weird; if you play, you might experience some unpredictable stuff. Officially... it's done. You play now, you're playing at your own risk. (Louis Wu 19:18:38 UTC) (permalink)

Ten FTW gets into the Reach Game
Just a single full-length vid available today in Bungie's Comm Chatter: Killpie has a new Ten FTW episode - Halo: Reach Beta Kills. Lots of multikills. (Louis Wu 19:16:55 UTC) (permalink)

Game with Fame: Scott Weiland
Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland is the next celebrity up for a Halo 'Game with Fame' date - he'll be online on Tuesday, June 1 to play Halo 3 with LIVE Gold members. Full details at Xbox.com. (Louis Wu 12:05:47 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's Top Reach Kills of the Week - May 19
IGN posted their Top Reach Kills of the Week for May 19 - little bit of a lot of things, but the focus seems to be on cool assassinations. Check it! (Louis Wu 12:03:22 UTC) (permalink)

Kappa Beta Cozmo
Cozmo23 played 500 games in the Halo: Reach Beta - and put together a montage when he was finished. Three and a half minutes of fun... (Louis Wu 12:02:27 UTC) (permalink)

Tor to reissue early Halo novels
VAVA Mk2 was the first on our forum to notice a Joystiq article about an intent to reissue the first three Halo novels (The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, and First Strike) as trade paperbacks, with "updates and all-new original content." Our forum isn't thrilled with the idea of retconned novels (I suppose, though, that "updates" could simply mean "typos fixed"), or with the cover art shown so far... but there's some interesting conversation nonetheless. Go join it! (The new, full cover for Fall of Reach is here.) Update: Halo Waypoint has clarified (on their Facebook page) that 'updates' are just stuff like typos, punctuation errors, and the like - no rewrites.

The original story has NOT been altered. If that were the case "new content" would have been listed as "rewritten," which is not the case.

This is the first time TOR's publishing these particular books. No retconning happening! Thanks, mendicantbias, for pointing this out. (Louis Wu 11:52:57 UTC) (permalink)

Hoggin' the Kills
H3Wheelmen.com is hosting the First Annual Charity Hog-off - they're challenging the Halo community to get as many Wheelmen medals and Warthog gunner kills as possible in Halo 3 slayer-based Matchmaking playlists during the month of June. They've got some cool prizes for the winners - swing by the Bungie.net news post for full details! (Louis Wu 11:52:35 UTC) (permalink)

Beta-Banging... wait, no, that's wrong...
No time for news right now - but this one's pretty time-sensitive, so... Bungie's looking for saved films (not clips, but entire films) showing off l33t skillz. If you've got some... upload 'em. Tag 'em with 'Sendoff', so they can find 'em; they might use yours for something cool! You've got just 15 more hours of gameplay... so get going! (Louis Wu 01:59:48 UTC) (permalink)

News May 19 2010

Wednesday Movie Mania
urk got an early start on the video mania in Bungie's Comm Chatter today:

• Mike and Cheese is back with 'I Got A Jetpack', a live-action (sort of) tribute to Lonely Island... and Reach.
• Give It Up is a Reach Beta Montage from Vandelay16 - lots of sniper action, lots of hammer action.
• Nick Johnston put together a Halo Reach Screenshot Montage - it's only 480p for some reason, but the shots are nice.

Always good to start the day with a movie or two... (Louis Wu 16:38:28 UTC) (permalink)

Boarding Battle - Revisited
Rockslider continues exploring the original Halo - he takes on the Truth & Reconciliation Belly of the Beast battle with just grenades and an AR. Legendary, of course. Go read about it, look at the pics, watch the film! (Louis Wu 15:40:09 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach BetaBusters Episode 3
DefendTheHouse is back with Halo: Reach BetaBusters Episode 3 - some pretty cool game tidbits in there! (I'd seen the plasma turret on Boneyard - but I had no clue how you triggered it.) Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:10:10 UTC) (permalink)

OXM Podcast features Bungie this week
Brian Jarrard and Chris Carney spent an hour with Ryan McCaffrey of OXM for their podcast this week - go listen to it. (Thanks to Kaboris, who pointed this out, and mentioned that the Bungie interview starts about half an hour in.) (Louis Wu 13:09:36 UTC) (permalink)

Stockpile
Over at Hawty McBloggy's, Chronicles of ODS Steve #71 is live now - not sure it's a good idea for someone like Steve to find new weapons... (Louis Wu 13:08:19 UTC) (permalink)

Parking Lot Invasion
cardo 8 atl ran across a funny little live-action film on YouTube - it's only 15 seconds long, so how can you go wrong? (Louis Wu 13:06:22 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Reach Stats Tracker
Tom Mathews whipped up a Halo Statistics Tracker (for Windows) that can host your Halo: Reach Beta stats long after Bungie wipes the data off Bungie.net. (There are certainly alternatives - I love HaloCharts.com, for example - but having the stats offline is definitely comforting.) (Louis Wu 13:05:51 UTC) (permalink)

Spherical Panorama
HaLo2FrEeEk stopped in last night with a spherical panorama of Powerhouse - what a great view of the map! It's available, as all of his super-panoramas are, in multiple formats; scrolling panorama, 'little world' format, and as a screensaver for your PC. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:05:15 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Beta Extended by 10 Hours
CougRon was the first to let us know about an article at Joystiq - looks like the Reach Beta has been extended a little bit. (It now ends at 10 am PDT on Thursday, May 20 - 10 hours past the original ending time of midnight on the 19th.) Make use of that time - go play! (And don't forget to save anything you want to save (screenshots or rendered films); once the Beta is offline, all access to in-game films will be gone, forever. (Louis Wu 03:01:16 UTC) (permalink)

News May 18 2010

Machinima Revolution
UT's McComb's School of Business has a video interview with Rooster Teeth's Burnie Burns on their site today - it's a great discussion of the evolution of filmmaking in the context of machinima. Lots of RvB footage tossed in for good measure. (Louis Wu 20:01:57 UTC) (permalink)

Tuesday CC Vids
Vids today over at Bungie's Comm Chatter:

• Empty's Halo: Reach Beta Experience is a relatively mellow montage - some nice kills, some funny oops moments.
• Halo: Reach Beta Fails, Episode 2 is... well, a collection of fails. (Surprise, surprise.) In HD. (The only real downside is, most of these clips have been in other vids.)

That's it for this Tuesday - I guess urk is busy with self-introspection today. (Louis Wu 19:42:51 UTC) (permalink)

WillBeta4Fun
WillClan4Food wants to close out the Beta with you - swing by Bungie.net for details on their community playdate tomorrow night. (Louis Wu 19:42:27 UTC) (permalink)

Peeloten Vee Fear
Popeck found one of the more bizarre music videos I've seen this year. I have no clue at all what that guy's saying... but I don't think the earring is regulation Spartan gear. (And I could be mistaken, but I thought I saw Jimmy Buffet in the last lineup...) As Ssparks noticed, the '© 2010 Sony Entertainment' is a nice touch. (Louis Wu 13:32:54 UTC) (permalink)

I'm really good at ergonomics.
Red vs Blue Revelation Chapter 6 ("Towing Package") is up for your viewing pleasure - storyline's gettin' heavy again. (There are certainly funny moments - but there's more plot stuff than they've had recently.) Gotta love Doc, though... poor Doc. Go watch! (Louis Wu 11:51:50 UTC) (permalink)

Overlook Rainbow
RVideo whipped up a quick panorama showing off the rainbow waterfall on Overlook... MAN that's pretty. Check it out! (Louis Wu 11:51:32 UTC) (permalink)

Brute Take-down
Tony 'ubald' Marcotte continues to work with Brutes - his latest render is called 'Brute Take-down', and has a pretty nicely posed scene! (I don't hold out a lot of hope for the Spartan's future, though...) Check it out. (Louis Wu 11:51:14 UTC) (permalink)

News May 17 2010

Minutemen Monday: Chapter 16
Azrael is back with a new chapter of his Halo fan fiction, Minutemen - check his forum post for a preview and a link to the full chapter. (Louis Wu 22:40:12 UTC) (permalink)

BierWiser's Montage
BierWiser put together a four and a half minute Halo 3 montage - fun clips. Go watch! (Louis Wu 22:39:34 UTC) (permalink)

Tag and Release: Overlook
Today's Tag and Release feature at Bungie.net looks at Overlook, the gorgeous map that is home (for now) to Network Test 1. Epicacity abounds. (Louis Wu 18:39:06 UTC) (permalink)

Lee Kegan - WoodMaster
Wow. Just got pointed to this carved version of a Reach Sniper... MAN, that guy is good. Check it out. (Louis Wu 18:04:01 UTC) (permalink)

Monday's Chatter Montages
What would a weekday be without a bunch of montages on Bungie's Comm Chatter?

• Electrobiotic is a Reach montage from Civ Spider, InfinityShark, and Deadsy Doll. Betrayaltacular.
• Top 10 Halo Reach Beta Epic Fails: Ep 2 comes from Anoj, and has lots of epic fails. (Video quality should count.)
• 'Bottom of the Score Board Montage' is a bunch of clips of guys getting killed. ...okay.

That should do it for this fine Monday! (Louis Wu 17:32:13 UTC) (permalink)

TRR - May ep coming next week
urk has news of the next Running Riot Podcast - Adam Grumbo from the 405th will be joining Kete on May 24, at 9:30pm ET, and you can listen live on TRR's website. (Louis Wu 17:15:32 UTC) (permalink)

What Comes Next
Brian Jarrard talked to CVG about the Activision deal; it's not really Halo-related, except in the sense that it's what comes next for the 'Halo' studio, but it's pretty worthwhile reading in any case, if you're a Bungie fan. They're done with intellectual property they don't own - and they're looking WAY down the line, in terms of building a roadmap for the next universe they bring us. The future's definitely bright! Thanks, ElzarTheBam. (Louis Wu 17:02:24 UTC) (permalink)

Boneyard, all round-like
HaLo2FrEeEk is back with another Reach spherical panorama (and interactive viewer) - swing by and check out Boneyard! (Louis Wu 15:48:18 UTC) (permalink)

TP Presents: How to Use Armor Abilities
Geekscape's Brian Gilmore sent word of a new article from the Teabag Prevention Team - this one gives you tips on when to use (or NOT use) specific Armor Abilities. Read it - and suck less. (Louis Wu 15:29:16 UTC) (permalink)

CVG's 50 Best Xbox 360 Games
CVG has posted their latest list of the '50 Best Xbox 360 Games' - and Halo 3/ODST makes #2 on the list. Not bad... thanks, ElzarTheBam. (Louis Wu 13:55:18 UTC) (permalink)

A truly incredible Kig-Yar costume
Remember back in November, when we mentioned a really cool Jackal mask that randomflyingpigeons had built? Well, she's finished the entire costume - and it ROCKS. (She displayed it at Anime Central, but didn't win any contests, showing that Anime Central is run by blind people.) Some extra side-by-side shots are here, as well. This thing is AMAZING. Thanks to mendicantbias00 for noticing. (Louis Wu 12:51:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Screenshot Extractor
HaLo2FrEeEk has written an app to extract Halo Reach screenshots from your Xbox hard drive. Why would you need this? Well... because Reach has changed how screenshots are uploaded to Bungie.net; in the past, they're uploaded as you take them, but in Reach, they're uploaded when you exit the film. If you take less than 30 (the number of slots in your 'Recent Screenshots' block on B.net), this is a huge convenience - they all get uploaded at once. If, however, you take MORE than 30, you're stuck uploading them manually - a much more time-consuming prospect. So - if you're a little bit technically inclined, and have a PC to run the app on, you can use this program to facilitate the building of that massive panorama you're creating. (Louis Wu 12:50:20 UTC) (permalink)

Grin + Bear It - and a crashed scarab
Yesterday's Grin + Bear It is a cute little tribute to Hawty McBloggy, who celebrates 3 years of Halo-based sexual innuendos tomorrow. Happy Birthday, HMB! (While you're there reading the funnies, check out this photo of a scarab beetle - Halo imagery is EVERYWHERE!) (Louis Wu 12:49:34 UTC) (permalink)

Bloomin' Pistols
One of the bigger complaints that proponents of 'skill-based' Halo play have with the Reach Beta centers around reticle bloom. For the first time (in a Halo game), Reach gives you visible feedback about how much spread you might expect from the precision weapon you're using, based on the rate of fire. Some believe that this makes gameplay more luck-based; you can clearly see when a shot that ISN'T aimed at your target kills your target anyway... and players that pay attention to the bloom and space their shots in order to maximize effectiveness can be killed by lucky shots from 'trigger-spammers'. FyreWulff pointed out, however, that shot spread has ALWAYS existed in Halo (Halo and Halo 2 evidence in this post, Halo 3 evidence in this one) - the difference is that without a visible indication of bloom, those with the goal of higher accuracy might have participated in the same trigger-spamming that they're lamenting in Reach (with success, even). So before you cry that Bungie is leveling the playing field for less-good players, and favoring luck over skill... remember that the biggest thing that's changed is how much feedback you're getting about your inaccuracy. Update: a number of people have commented that the Halo 1 spread shown by FyreWulff only happens on full auto; if you pulse the trigger, you get a much tighter spread (and it doesn't increase over time). (Louis Wu 12:13:18 UTC) (permalink)

News May 16 2010

Operation Chastity Trailer - coming soon(ish)!
johnny be good, from Halo.fr, sent word that the Operation Chastity crew will be filming scenes for a trailer during the next two weeks, according to Peter Cooper, and they should have something for us to see by the end of the summer! Swing by Halo.fr for a shot of Pete with a brand-new Magnum. (Louis Wu 14:43:28 UTC) (permalink)

HaloReachShots Kicks Off
HaLo2FrEeEk has offered up a service to archive your Halo Reach screenshots - it's similar to the (now-defunct) Haloscreenshots.net service we used to host, except that it's online and functional. If you want to be able to embed screens on other forums, this is a great option! (Louis Wu 14:41:31 UTC) (permalink)

Halo's Story - Alive Again
The Halo Story site has woken from a many-month slumber - UNSC Trooper has dug through the mailbag and pulled out a few gems! Go read 'em. Thanks, Avateur. (Louis Wu 14:41:14 UTC) (permalink)

Success - judged by an odd measure
xIIEnderIIx pointed out this year's 'Develop 100' - it's a list of "the world's most successful games development studios' rated by their UK sales. Bungie comes in at #16, based (presumably) on their Halo sales in the UK. (The performance is surprisingly low, given that ODST was released last year, and sold over a million copies in PAL countries...) (Louis Wu 14:40:38 UTC) (permalink)

Views from Reach
BlueNinja has been taking more Reach panoramas - visit his Views from the Edge for the latest batch! (Louis Wu 14:40:18 UTC) (permalink)

Art Contest at The Guardians
newguy2445 has kicked off a forum devoted to Halo art - and he's running a contest now. Design a game cover for Halo Reach's Multiplayer, you could win a 3-month LIVE card. Full details are on the forum. (Louis Wu 14:39:54 UTC) (permalink)

A Noble (Actual) Sacrifice
The price Bungie employees are willing to pay for great sound in Reach... ouch. TravisSch was the first to notice. (Louis Wu 14:39:16 UTC) (permalink)

News May 15 2010

Halo Multiplayer Unlock Weekend
Just a reminder - this weekend is the 'Halo Multiplayer Unlock Weekend' - it means all Halo multiplayer - Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and the Halo Reach Beta - are free to ALL Xbox LIVE members, not just Gold members. (I wondered if this meant that non-Gold members - or non-ODST owners - could actually DOWNLOAD the Reach Beta and participate... but I logged into LIVE with a Silver account, and there doesn't seem to be any way to download without ODST. Still - you can PLAY this weekend without a Gold account - so take advantage!) The festivities began last night at 9pm PST, and run until Monday at 9am PST. (Thanks, Jon Goff.) (Louis Wu 12:59:09 UTC) (permalink)

Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots: Sports
The Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots collection this week is called 'Sports' - they're seriously amazing pictures. (We won't complain that one of them is actually a Reach pic...) (Louis Wu 12:58:42 UTC) (permalink)

Spherical Panorama: Swordbase
HaLo2FrEeEk is back with another massive panorama - this one is on Swordbase, and it's available as a scrollable image (spin that camera!), a screensaver, and a really cool spherical image. Go look! (Louis Wu 12:58:22 UTC) (permalink)

Lock Beats Rockets
Hawty McBloggy has highlighted a new montage from Americanista123 - it's called 'Halo Reach Bungie Employee Bloopers Minitage', but there aren't a lot of bloopers. Mostly, it's a demo of Armor Lock, and how you can use it to kill the poor guy who didn't choose it at the Loadout screen. Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:58:04 UTC) (permalink)

GS: The History of Halo
thatSeniorGuy noticed a Halo video on Gamespot - it's part of 'Video Game History Month'. In it, Joe Staten describes how Halo developed from an offshoot of Myth to the complicated multigame universe it is today. Interesting piece! (Louis Wu 12:57:45 UTC) (permalink)

The Recording Light is ON
Looks like Marty's hard at work! Thanks, Kapura. (Louis Wu 12:55:35 UTC) (permalink)

Hedge Loves Halo
So yesterday we mentioned that Hedgemony was offering to take standard screenshots and make 'em prettier; a few people took him up on it, and he's collected the results in a Tumblr site. Go check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:55:10 UTC) (permalink)

Bacteria in a Petri Dish
The Bungie Weekly Update is live - and if you're playing the Reach Beta, it's worth reading. Info on Network Test 1, the real reason behind Spartans vs Elites, a call for specific bug reports. (Well, they've been calling for bug reports during the entire beta - but in this case, they're looking for some very specific information, and need it in a very specific format. Read the update for full details.) Oh, yeah, and some details about what you'll face for quitting too much. And a gun that simply scares me. All in all, a good read! So go read. (It is, of course, available in our Weekly Update Archive.) (Louis Wu 00:05:26 UTC) (permalink)

News May 14 2010

Generator Defense
Just a reminder - Network Test 1 (the Firefight-based game mode in the Halo Reach Beta) is live now. (Very) basic info available at Bungie.net - or just jump in and play! (Louis Wu 18:49:24 UTC) (permalink)

He's a monster!
Some guy built a nearly two-foot-tall Spartan out of LEGOs... and Hawty McBloggy is always one to give size its due. Go look at the pics. (Louis Wu 18:18:09 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Comm Chatter Montage Mania
Some fun video stuff today at Bungie.net:

• Magic is a group montage put together by Axilo - some nice multikills.
• Halo: Reach Beta Fails Episode 1 contains a bunch of funny clips - many of which have already been publicized this week.
• The Beginning is a Reach Beta montage from CJnEw001 - very heavy on the slow-mo.

Go watch! (Louis Wu 18:16:28 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Caption Fun, Round 92
Hawty McBloggy is back with another round of Friday Caption Fun - last week's pic got some great captions, and this week's pic is pure awesomeness in a can. (Well, a Boneyard.) (Louis Wu 17:49:37 UTC) (permalink)

Spartans on the Ground
Rudefire is a US serviceman currently in Iraq. He can't participate in the Reach Beta - but that doesn't stop him from showing his Noble Team colors! Check out his custom insignia! (Louis Wu 17:28:26 UTC) (permalink)

The Reach Bump
I noticed that Halo 3: ODST was NOT in the Top 5 Xbox 360 games sold for the week of May 13 (according to Gamasutra), so I went back a bit. Last week, ODST was #5, and the week before that it was #3. (There is no 'Saling The World' article for the week of April 23, and ODST is not on the April 16 list.) Not bad - at least two extra weeks in the Top 5 games sold in North America because of a free Beta test! (Louis Wu 15:19:25 UTC) (permalink)

AR Wallpaper
Hedgemony is getting into the Wallpaper game - check out his ode to the Assault Rifle. Love or hate the weapon, it's hard to deny that the wallpaper rocks. (Louis Wu 15:04:55 UTC) (permalink)

Epsilon Afterglow
RVideo whipped up a really cool panorama from Boneyard - take a look! (He's also posted a single-shot overhead view of the entire Boneyard gamespace - awesome for planning routes!) (Louis Wu 15:04:38 UTC) (permalink)

Gentlemen (and Ladies), Start Your Engines!
Eep - we almost forgot! Yesterday was Thursday, so the Halo 3 Double XP Weekend Playlist went live... this week, it's Rocket Race. Missing that glorious drive-and-shoot gametype? Take a break from the Reach Beta and go play! (Don't forget to save any films you might want clips of before you do, though; each time you switch games, you clear that temp cache, and wipe out your 'Recent History'.) (Louis Wu 15:02:05 UTC) (permalink)

Firefight Friday: Beta Zone
FyreWulff is back with another Firefight Friday challenge - this one's called 'Beta Zone', and it takes place on Alpha Site. You've got two difficulty variants: Heroic... or Heroic with the Blind Skull. This is the last 'Firefight Friday' - he's back next week, but it'll be a Campaign challenge. Go play! (Louis Wu 14:59:08 UTC) (permalink)

Wanna Beta Keepsake?
Hedgemony is offering to colorize your favorite Reach Beta screenshot, turning it into an interesting keepsake. Go check out his example (and the first request), and then drop your own screen in the queue! (Louis Wu 14:58:29 UTC) (permalink)

COMMAND, Episode 1
AsiansOnFire started up a machinima series last year, for a senior project - didn't get enough support from the community, so he only made the first episode. Go watch it - then decide if you want to help with a reboot effort! (Louis Wu 14:57:18 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Eight new pieces are up this week in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 14:56:10 UTC) (permalink)

Overkill
Urban Reflex posted a short (2:39) tribute to Halo 2... light-hearted, yet poignant. Go watch action from his last night! (Louis Wu 14:54:48 UTC) (permalink)

G4 Halo Coverage
Morpheus stopped by with a bunch of vids from G4TV - a 50-minute Feedback episode focused on Reach, an 'All Access' preview of the Beta (this was clearly posted last month), and an ODST cameo in a small X-Play feature. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:48:29 UTC) (permalink)

News May 13 2010

Crazy Kills and Spills
Some fun vid action on Bungie's Comm Chatter today

• How to Avoid Being Assasinated [sic] is really just a bunch of assassination clips. (I suppose if you don't do what the dead guys in the vid did, you'll have a better chance of not being assassinated.)
• Skylarking is a Halo CE Trick Jumping vid (just 3 minutes) - old school fun!
• Anoj has posted his Top 10 Halo Reach Beta Amazing Kills, Episode 1 - quality's a bit low, but the clips are pretty nice.
• Ghosts of the Beta, Carnage and Beauty is a montage from Stalid Autumn - the first half is a video showing off the gorgeous scenery of the Reach maps we have now, while the second half is gameplay.

Go take a few minutes this afternoon! (Louis Wu 17:45:51 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Reach: BetaBusters Episode 2
The DefendTheHouse crew has posted their second 'Halo Reach: Betabusters' video - more 'myths' (little-known oddities), confirmed or busted. Some interesting stuff in there! (Louis Wu 16:03:12 UTC) (permalink)

Step into my Parlor...
Marcus posted a small note on the Reach Developer Blog that might just make you jealous - he got to hear some of the latest music coming from Marty O'Donnell yesterday. (Yes, it might sound strange to hear that even the developers are kept in the dark, musically, by Marty... but it sounds like he's opening up a bit.) (Louis Wu 14:16:59 UTC) (permalink)

Mid-Beta Playlist Update
Bungie's updated the Reach playlists with some pretty interesting changes - swing by the Bungie.net post for full details. Then go collect some heads! (Louis Wu 14:14:58 UTC) (permalink)

Tastelessness Evolved
Have you ever found yourself playing Halo, and said to yourself, "What this game needs are FOUNTAINS of blood. This piddly splashing just doesn't do it for me."? If so, check out MrIfafudafi's 'Ultra super high quality blood effects for Halo CE' - we're talking Blood Fog. Multicolored Blood Fog. Whoosh! (Louis Wu 14:04:57 UTC) (permalink)

A followup on LEGO weapons
A number of people were unhappy with our newsbit about ThinkGeek's new package of LEGO weapons - not because they have a problem with the weapons, but because they have a problem with the marketing. Those weapons are, after all, made by BrickArms, and available directly from the source (though not in that particular combination, exactly). If you'd rather support the creator directly (as opposed to giving SOME of your hard-earned dough to a middleman like ThinkGeek), you can browse through the BrickArms site and pick what you want. Be sure to check out the Premium page (ironically in the context of this post, you can't actually BUY the Premium content at BA, you have to go to ToyWiz) - you can buy MUCH more expensive (but very, very cool) multicolored weapons. (Thanks to o LiGHTNiNG o for the heads-up on the Premium stuff.) (Louis Wu 14:00:45 UTC) (permalink)

IGN Top Kills of the Week - May 12
BuzzJuice noticed that the latest IGN Top Beta Kills for the Week is live. I was a little disappointed to see that 20% of these were already posted in a roundup on Bungie.net (with so many thousand clips being rendered, couldn't they find 10 that hadn't been posted on the highest-traffic Halo site on the net?), but they're still fun to watch. (Louis Wu 14:00:26 UTC) (permalink)

Minimum Shaft Expectation
DEEP NNN pointed out a grumpy writeup of the Reach Beta over at 2old2play - Drost wants gameplay, no frills, and feels like he's not finding it in Reach. Whether or not you agree with his points, his writeup is pretty entertaining. (Louis Wu 13:59:58 UTC) (permalink)

Flying Barneys
Bungie's posted a few fun Banshee clips they've dug out of the plethora of rendered vids that is the Bungie.net Fileshare - go see what awesome things people do with Banshees in Reach! (Louis Wu 13:59:26 UTC) (permalink)

News May 12 2010

An armory for the little guys
7he grunt w/a plasma pistol noticed that ThinkGeek is selling weapons for your LEGO minifigures - and several of them are Halo-related. The collection includes a Halo pistol, a plasma pistol, a needler, and an energy sword. It also includes the pulse rifle from Aliens, Megatron's Walther P38, an Auto-9 pistol from Robocop, a blaster from Blade Runner, and a phaser from Star Trek. Nice! (Louis Wu 19:14:57 UTC) (permalink)

Humpday CC Vids
Videos for you this fine Wednesday at Bungie's Comm Chatter:

• Majority put together a Halo Reach Beta montage - lots of power weapons, lots of multikills.
• KnightxofxLight wanted to show off the beauty of the Reach pistol - it's just a minitage, but it does a great job of showing how timing and distance are related.

Good stuff. (Louis Wu 16:56:29 UTC) (permalink)

Helmet Shenanigans
Master Ph0bia stopped by with a link to a thread he found at Bungie.net - it shows off a bunch of different helmets that are viewable with a Boneyard glitch that happens occasionally. (He also included some helmets found by modding, it seems.) If you're interested in seeing some of the variants that might be available in the fall, check it out! Update: Master Ph0bia clarified that he is not 'Plain Ben', the poster at B.net - he simply found the thread there. (Louis Wu 16:41:48 UTC) (permalink)

CoD: 1 and 5, Halo: 2, 3, 4
The Halo: Reach Beta wasn't popular enough to bump Modern Warfare 2 from the top of the LIVE Activity list last week - but it DID put ODST at #2, itself at #3, and Halo 3 at #4. (Shows that there more folks played Halo 3: ODST without touching the Reach Beta than there were folks that participated in the Friends and Family program...) (Louis Wu 16:11:17 UTC) (permalink)

PGCR Episode 36/Beta Special
SK1LL4XED sent word that PGCR's 'Beta Special' podcast is now up - and they've announced the code winners. They actually gave away 3 codes, not two. Go listen - they also discuss the beta in detail (game flow, community concerns, opinions about the upcoming game). (Louis Wu 16:06:08 UTC) (permalink)

Mistress Chief
Hawty McBloggy found a female spartan who might be in need of a tummy plate... (Louis Wu 16:03:40 UTC) (permalink)

Wearable Legendary Helmet - what's it worth?
overlordjebus turned his Legendary Helmet into a wearable item - and now he wants to know how much it's worth. Would you buy it? Let him know! (Especially if you live in the UK.) (Louis Wu 16:03:21 UTC) (permalink)

Calm Before the Storm
The Chronicles of ODS Steve #70 is up at Hawty McBloggy's - I think Steve's a little scared. (Louis Wu 16:03:03 UTC) (permalink)

All-Purpose Cleaner
Halo Action Figure Theater is back - Episode 205... confused me. Looks like Elnea's enjoying spring, though... (Louis Wu 16:02:45 UTC) (permalink)

News May 11 2010

What's the 411, Daddios?
Not sure how we missed this - but Red vs Blue Revelation Chapter 5: Fourth and Twenty went live last night - Caboose is not dealing well with a missing alien diety... (Louis Wu 22:26:20 UTC) (permalink)

Power of the Pummel Showcase
Clantacular is hosting a Montage contest - it's a showcase for beatdowns, and you could win... well, we don't know what you could win. But you could win! Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:20:09 UTC) (permalink)

From Halo to... um...
Marty Mulrooney let us know that there's a Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta preview up on his website Alternative Magazine Online - go see what they thought! (Louis Wu 21:15:59 UTC) (permalink)

Brute Major
Tony Marcotte is just crankin' 'em out these days; today's offering is a Brute Captain. That dude looks MEAN. Don't forget to check the 'Large version' link for full glory! (Louis Wu 20:11:11 UTC) (permalink)

Once More, With Feeling
Remember way back (well, yesterday), when we mentioned a teaser for 'Once More, With Feeling', a new machinima project from Adam Susskind and CMNeir? Well, Adam stopped by to say that at long last (23 hours and 55 minutes, to be exact), the actual product is out. It's 8 minutes long, and pretty nicely done. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:07:11 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach Beta Survival Guide
Having trouble adjusting to the gameplay changes in the Reach Beta? Bungie wants to help - they've hosted a Reach Beta Survival Guide from NeoGAF veteran Shake Appeal (the man's got a way with words) that should help. Go give it a read! (Bring a BIG cup of coffee, though... it's a monster - more than five thousand words. It's like they were paying him by the word, or something...) (Louis Wu 19:55:10 UTC) (permalink)

Tuesday Vids from BCC
New videos from Bungie's Comm Chatter today:

• Halo Reach Beta Shenanigans is Chris of the Dead's latest offering - some great clips.
• Bagel - Halo Reach Beta Minitage is a collection of multikills. First half is watchable - second half gets a little clip-happy.
• Cursed Lemon whipped up a Halo 2 tribute called 'In Remembrance' - pour one out.

Go Watch! (Louis Wu 19:49:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach Beta FFA Tournament
Bungie Central (a fan-run Bungie.net Group) is hosting a Reach Beta FFA Tourney - swing by to read all the details. Thanks to urk for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 19:48:57 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Beta Menu Music MP3
Urban Reflex also dropped off a very cool piece of music - he recorded the Reach Beta Menu music, and saved it in a high-quality MP3. 7:39 long, 17.5 mb - you can enjoy this music without having to boot up your Xbox! (Louis Wu 19:13:10 UTC) (permalink)

RIP, LIVE H2.
Getting late in the day to start updating... let's see what we've got. Urban Reflex was the first to let us know that Halo 2 is officially over on Xbox LIVE; the last man standing was APACHE N4SIR, as of about 7:30 (eastern) last night. Then, at 2 am this morning... he was booted, and the Halo 2 service became completely unpopulated. Kotaku had a post to say goodbye, as well. Congrats to the die-hard crew who kept the dream alive for almost a month after the service was turned off! (Louis Wu 19:09:20 UTC) (permalink)

News May 10 2010

Once More, With Feeling (Teaser)
Adam Susskind sent word of a new machinima, written by Adam, edited by CMNeir, called "Once More, With Feeling". A teaser can be seen here. Looks exciting! (Louis Wu 19:52:59 UTC) (permalink)

A Plethora of Pleasing Projects
Bungie's Comm Chatter is a cornucopia of Halo goodness this afternoon:

• Hope Unto Dawn has a free Beta code to give away.
• GamerdadsLive is raising money for Life After Loss - go play Halo with 'em for a good cause!
• Halomontage.com is hosting a Reach Beta Movie Competition - go see how you can win.
• AsiiM's got a Reach Beta montage set to Train's Soul Sister.
• An Australian Halo fan dressed up as Master Chief to raise money for charity - go read about it on Ready Up Live.
• Today's Tag and Release iteration looks at Invasion - some pretty badass pics!

Pretty varied Monday! (Louis Wu 17:56:25 UTC) (permalink)

The Multiplayer Experience
SpartanT77 sent us a link to 'The Multiplayer Experience', a video set to Princeton's 'LvUrFR3NZ' - it's a look at how the experience actually works for many of us. In-game footage is filmed off the screen, but the look works pretty well, overall, in the context of this project. Take a look! (I'd forgotten just how bad that song actually is...) (Louis Wu 14:26:30 UTC) (permalink)

Grab Bag of Goodies from HMB
Hawty McBloggy had a busy Halo Weekend:

• You can suicide by tripping over a trash can, apparently.
• The latest Grin + Bear It takes a look at Reach's Credit system - I want to be a unique and deadly snowflake!
• Awesome truck art is awesome.

BGN Podcast: Halo Special Edition
Dave 'Gamewatcher' Kramer let us know that the latest Busy Gamer Podcast is Reach-focused - Beta impressions, tips, and a review of Halo's music from day 1 through ODST. They're thinking about following up with a review of Halo fan music - let 'em know what your personal favorites are! (Louis Wu 14:07:19 UTC) (permalink)

Unwind
Slushy's whipped up a new Halo 3 montage - it's called 'Unwind', and you can stream it on YouTube, or download the 100 mb HD .wmv from FileFront. Not your typical montage - it's more about the grace of the game than it is about any one player. Just two and a half minutes... check it out! (Louis Wu 14:04:10 UTC) (permalink)

Ars looks at Reach
Ars Technica has posted an article entitled 'Deconstructing Reach: our time with the beta' - and you can pretty much guess the topic from the title. Things they liked, things they didn't like - go see if you agree! (Louis Wu 14:00:06 UTC) (permalink)

Brute Minor
Not slowing down - Tony 'ubald' Marcotte has a new render up for you; this one was inspired by the ODST live trailer, and shows off a pretty frightening Brute. Check it! (Louis Wu 13:53:11 UTC) (permalink)

Beta codes from PGCR
SK1LL4XED sent word that Postgame Carnage Report has a pair of Beta codes up for grabs - just jump over to their forum and post a short story about Halo - your favorite moment in campaign or multiplayer, your first Halo experience... swing by and see what's up. (You'll have to register to get in.) (Louis Wu 13:47:06 UTC) (permalink)

Edge - Reach Preview and More
kapowaz let us know about some Halo content in the next issue of Edge - looks sweet! (Louis Wu 13:40:14 UTC) (permalink)

Leave Out All the Rest
AssaultGodzilla is back with another music video - this one contains clips from an amazing variety of sources, and paints an emo picture of Spartan culture. Timing, as always, is quite nice. (Louis Wu 13:39:56 UTC) (permalink)

Largest Halo Comic Book Project Ever
Frankie stopped by our forum last night with heartening words for folks looking forward to the next Halo comic project - check it out! (Louis Wu 13:39:23 UTC) (permalink)

Cr1TiKal Plays Reach
A few folks have pointed out videos from Cr1TiKal - he makes a lot of MW2 vids, but he's got some Reach vids that are worth watching, too. They're funny (though not particularly safe for work, if your boss doesn't like hearing swearing coming out of your speakers) - check out Halo Reach Fun Tactics - Launch, to learn some cool techniques with the 'Pro Pipe' (otherwise known as the Grenade Launcher), and laugh at the hilarious descriptions of the action in his Halo Reach Invasion Gameplay and Commentary. There are others, too - check his playlist. Good times. (Louis Wu 13:38:36 UTC) (permalink)

Panoramifying Reach
BlueNinja whipped up some panoramas he calls 'Before the Fall' - go see 'em on his 'Views from the Edge' blog. (Trendt jumped in with a cool cleaned-up image of Boneyard's background - then made it available in a 1920x1080 size for folks who want to use it as a background image.) Update: BlueNinja has added a set of Panoramas from outside Boneyard, entitled 'Bones and Glass' - gorgeous! (Louis Wu 13:38:13 UTC) (permalink)

None Of The Above
RVideo pointed out a Reach Beta Jumptage called 'None of the Above' - it shows off some pretty cool jumps that you can do in Matchmaking, with some practice. Some seem just for show, others have serious tactical value. (Louis Wu 13:36:45 UTC) (permalink)

Polishing is Important
Reach's Developer Log was updated on Saturday - the crew was working hard, even though the weather outside was gorgeous. The sacrifices they make for us... we love you, guys! (Louis Wu 13:35:43 UTC) (permalink)

The other side of Invasion
Busy weekend - both in the Halo universe and outside it. Following is a scattershot of what might have been missed. (It is by no means everything that's out there - just a taste if you want to go hunting.) Lots of people noticed odd glitches with the Invasion mode of Reach - Bungie's already said that come Fall, Invasion games will be two-sided; you'll play first as either Spartans or Elites, but then switch and play the other side. Apparently, the beta can glitch into this mode relatively easily. Example is here (thanks, rolandk73). Folks have also seen Armor-Locked Elites - thanks, Dani. There are plenty of other glitches that have been seen (and documented) - browse our forum (among other places) for details! Should be a fun Fall! (Louis Wu 13:34:43 UTC) (permalink)

News May 9 2010

We Love You, Mom
Be sure to take a break today from the Reach Beta (or from discussing the Reach Beta on your favorite message board) to wish your mom a Happy Mother's Day!

News May 8 2010

ASE Episode 16: Reach Beta Video
Rampancy.net has posted a new Anger, Sadness, and Envy Podcast - they take a look at the Halo: Reach multiplayer Beta. (Sounds like it was recorded over last weekend.) Blackstar, Miguel Chavez, and Cody Miller discuss the weapons and gameplay based on a couple of days of play - and all of it includes video this time around. If you'd rather watch it in HD, try this link (but be aware that the player doesn't show the full video onscreen; you'll need to use the download link to see the HD). Update: Blackstar has updated the main link with download links for both versions - no login required. (Louis Wu 17:35:22 UTC) (permalink)

Woah-oh-woah-oh-woahhhhh
cardo 8 atl was cruisin' YouTube (always wear protection, folks!), and ran across this odd death. Loved the vocal at the end! (Louis Wu 17:29:53 UTC) (permalink)

Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots: Men of the Wheel
This week's Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots collection at halo3screenshots.com is called 'Men of the Wheel' - some are (as you might expect) cool vehicle images, but others are... more specific. Great collection! (Louis Wu 17:25:35 UTC) (permalink)

The Loss of Self
RVideo keeps experimenting with panoramas - his latest is called 'The Loss of Self', and takes a nice view of Swordbase's flag capture... (Louis Wu 17:22:48 UTC) (permalink)

IGN jumps on the Reach train
Minime637 found a couple of videos at IGN devoted to Reach, recently: the first one is a look at how Reach differs from Halo 3, while the second one is more of a comedy, and takes a look at how MC reacts to the Activision news. Go watch 'em! (Louis Wu 17:22:24 UTC) (permalink)

Grind Rider - Released
It's a little later than it was supposed to be, but harabek tells us that Grind Rider, a full-length machinima western, is now available to watch on YouTube. It's nine segments long - you can see them all in the Uploads section of ironspam's channel. All told, it's about an hour (75 minutes are what the segments add up to, but I'd guess this counts duplicated credits). If you've got the time, give it a look! (Louis Wu 17:21:57 UTC) (permalink)

Fixed For Fall
It's been in the Weekly Update Archive since last night, but we neglected to mention the Bungie Weekly Update at that point - so we're letting you know now that it's up and available. It's definitely worth a read - it's full of things in the Halo Reach Beta that are already fixed for the full release later this year. Anyone who feels the need to jump onto a Halo forum somewhere and vent about how stupid this bug or that glitch is... check this update, it's likely you'll see the object of your fury is already gone in the final product. There's also word of a pretty cool contest at Haloscreenshots.com (the guys who will print and frame your favorite shot) - submit cool screens, and you could end up SEEING that screen, printed on canvas, on your wall. When you're done reading, make sure you're playing Invasion... it's a HECK of a lot of fun. (Louis Wu 12:27:23 UTC) (permalink)

News May 7 2010

Shoulda been a Sage Beard
I don't understand this Kotaku post... but hey, it's Friday. Thanks, AfroRyan. (Louis Wu 18:41:26 UTC) (permalink)

New Multiplayer Stuff
If you're playing Halo 3, Mythic Brawl is live in the Double EXP Playlist. If you're playing Reach, Invasion JUST went live. w00t!If you're playing Halo 3, Mythic Brawl is live in the Double EXP Playlist. If you're playing Reach, Invasion JUST went live. w00t! (Louis Wu 18:01:15 UTC) (permalink)

CC Movies
Comm Chatter vids this fine Friday afternoon:

• Anoj is back with another 'Bungie Explains' - this time, he summarizes last week's Arena Rating description.
• Mike n Cheese posted a beta review, and a contest.
• Greenskull's Reach Beta Randomtage is a bunch of clips from the beta... with team chatter.

Go watch. (Louis Wu 17:19:22 UTC) (permalink)

Teabag Prevention Presents: Reach Tips, Week 2
Brian Gilmore sent word that the Teabag Prevention Team continues to be on the Reach Beta case, pinning down new weapons and their strengths and weaknesses. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:06:16 UTC) (permalink)

Beta Codes from HollywoodHalo
Wishing you could join in the Beta, but don't have ODST (or one of the Halo 2 thank-you codes Microsoft sent out)? HollywoodHalo's got your back. imSuck let us know that they've got 3 Beta codes to give away (yeah, yeah, he knows they're late), and you can get one by commenting (with your gamertag) on their Contest Promo video on YouTube. Submissions close around midnight tonight - so go watch the vid (for rules), then drop in your gamertag for a chance to win! (Louis Wu 16:04:06 UTC) (permalink)

Dear Employee? ONI is cold.
Anton P. Nym discovered a memo on a clipboard in Swordbase - can you read the text? (Louis Wu 14:49:18 UTC) (permalink)

Stone Epitaph, Part Four
TTL Demag0gue let us know about Reclaimer 253 - Reclaimer finds what he's looking for, can he get out with it? (Louis Wu 13:12:29 UTC) (permalink)

Noble 6
New Noble 6 artwork from Darknesshasfallen - simple but clean! (Louis Wu 13:10:16 UTC) (permalink)

Powerhouse tactical composite
RVideo did a nice job compositing Powerhouse from a series of overhead screens (it shows more than Bungie's version, and is quite a bit larger) - and then, with the help of some forumgoers, he added common callouts. Give these a look - they could help your game! (Louis Wu 11:57:21 UTC) (permalink)

The beginnings of a new comic
Tony 'ubald' Marcotte is beginning to put together some of his recent renders in preparation for a cool comic; check out Page Take 01, in his gallery here. (Louis Wu 11:44:02 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Caption Fun, Round 91
It's Friday - so Hawty McBloggy has another round of Friday Caption Fun for you! Some great ones for last week's pics, plus a new pic that has great potential - go play! (Louis Wu 11:36:29 UTC) (permalink)

Double EXP Playlists for May
FyreWulff also updated his Double EXP Playlist database - upcoming playlists are included through the end of the month. Go see what you can be playing in Halo 3! And don't forget - it's the 7th of May; if you still need the 7th on the 7th Achievement, today's another chance. (Louis Wu 11:31:57 UTC) (permalink)

Overdose Trailer 1
Dwood pointed out a trailer for 'Overdose', a Halo CE mod about a militant group trafficking in drugs. Doesn't look ANYTHING like any Halo I've seen before... some cool stuff! (Louis Wu 11:31:39 UTC) (permalink)

Win Stuff on LIVE
Anton P. Nym pointed out a Halo: Reach Beta "Play and Win" Contest available to Canadian LIVE users - if you visit the Spotlight portion of the Dashboard, there's a contest with a top prize of Reach Legendary Edition plus a year of LIVE plus a Reach hoodie. This does NOT seem to be available to US LIVE users... but I DID notice a contest I hadn't seen before - Reach for the Warthog gives yo ua chance to win a trip to New Zealand, and a ride in the Weta Warthog. (Dunno what's available for folks outside North America... sorry.) (Louis Wu 11:31:10 UTC) (permalink)

Firefight Friday:Chopper Rodeo
FyreWulff posted info about a new Firefight Friday - this one's set on Lost Platoon, and is available in all difficulties. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 11:30:56 UTC) (permalink)

Like Kill Bill, but with ALIENS!
cbwilliams17 posted a new Halo Legends parody (his first one is here) - this one's based on The Duel, and it's pretty funny. Go watch! (Louis Wu 11:30:24 UTC) (permalink)

Meet the Scout
Toxic Mayhem noticed that Wednesday's episode of Virtual Shackles was Halo-related. Made me smile... (Louis Wu 11:30:01 UTC) (permalink)

Another view of the Beta
Sean P., over at NeoGAF, pointed out a review of the Halo: Reach Beta from Spartan M619 a little bit ago. It's... pretty entertaining. (Louis Wu 11:29:25 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
3 new pieces available today in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 11:28:26 UTC) (permalink)

Sketcherrific
Yesterday, SketchFactor posted a bunch of screenshots he'd taken in the Halo: Reach Beta. Fun stuff! If you don't like 'em, though, he tells us there are plenty more to choose from... as of yesterday, more than 375,000 screenshots had been snapped in the Beta. If a picture is worth a thousand words... that's a lotta words. (Louis Wu 11:27:48 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Beta Stats Images
I'm so far behind on news right now... ugh. Sorry. Mid7night compiled a bunch of the images shown on the Reach Beta stats page on Bungie.net - it'll give you a sense for what's availalble (so far). Give it a read! (Louis Wu 11:26:39 UTC) (permalink)

News May 6 2010

The Number One Video Game Series?
The Guiness Book of World Records held a poll to see which videogame franchise was the most popular amongst gamers (that voted in their poll). Halo ranks #1. Wonga! Thanks to Soup Nasty, who found this at Kotaku. (Louis Wu 19:24:31 UTC) (permalink)

Pictures and Sculpture
Hawty McBloggy let us know about a couple of new bits on her site: Halcylon whipped up a pretty slick 'All Halos Included' wallpaper, and Omega created a pretty slick Halo case mod for an Xbox 360 Elite. Check 'em! (Louis Wu 19:21:53 UTC) (permalink)

Thursday Video Roundup
A couple of new vids on Bungie's Comm Chatter today:

• IGN's got another Top 10 Halo Reach Kills vid up for the week of May 4 - good assassinations, some fun moments. (They seem to have snagged a number of the clips Bungie's already highlighted on Comm Chatter...)
• Mr Sark and the Dead Pixel team up again for a new episode of Headshot, focusing on the Halo Reach Beta. These guys are always worth a look...

Go watch! (Louis Wu 19:19:21 UTC) (permalink)

Sadie's Story - On the Web
Capt Spanish, previously known (at least here at HBO) for the fantastic work on his Halo 3 Terminal project, is back with a new masterpiece: he's recreated the Sadie's Story Audio Logs from Halo 3: ODST. The interface he built himself - the hi-res images and pristine sound files, we snagged from Bungie. The project's been a long time in the making (some of the involved parties have been... well, a little busy working on stuff), but it's done now, and on full display at Bungie.net. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 00:15:00 UTC) (permalink)

News May 5 2010

Dragging back the lapsed faithful
GrimBrother One noticed an article on IGN that's worth a read - it's commentary on WHY you should be pumped for Reach. Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:32:00 UTC) (permalink)

SwordCake... mmmmm
AfroRyan and friends made cake to celebrate the Halo: Reach Beta. After looking at the pics, I think you'll agree that though the cake is pretty amazing, it's AfroRyan's 'fro that really makes the celebration. Enjoy. (Louis Wu 22:19:53 UTC) (permalink)

Blogging the Beta
pete_the_duck wrote up a fun-sounding game of SWAT on SwordBase - and annotated it with movies. Check it out! Tell him what you think, either on the blog itself or in our forum. (Louis Wu 22:07:18 UTC) (permalink)

Videosity (and more)
Boatloads of Beatificality at Bungie.net today:

• Shocktology 2 is a Halo 3 montage from Aftershock (gameplay) and TM22 (editing). Pretty stuff! (Even for an OLD game...)
• Spectacle is a Halo 3 montage from Sandman (gameplay) and SillyGoose (editing). Still old graphics, and no armor abilities, but hey - the gameplay's pretty good.
• Eamonn's Halo Reach Betatage has nice graphics and all - but the gameplay could use a bit more depth. What do you want for a game that's been out for 3 days?
• urk's summarized some key stats about beta play so far - really, really close to our first trillion seconds of playtime. (Actually, probably past it now.)
• File Under Awesome shows off a few more really cool rendered clips... did you know they're automatically uploaded to YouTube now? They are. Having trouble with Silverlight? Never fear, Bungie Pro now renders right to YouTube (effectively)! Good stuff! (And fun clips.)

Go watch! (Louis Wu 21:48:25 UTC) (permalink)

Stone Epitaph, Part Three
TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer #252 continues the Reach-based thread of the story; Reclaimer and Tran are still after Archimedes, but they're running into some trouble. (Louis Wu 16:23:08 UTC) (permalink)

Why are we here?
The latest episode of The Chronicles of ODS Steve (#69) is now live at Hawty McBloggy's - the fourth wall takes a blow. (Louis Wu 09:52:41 UTC) (permalink)

Feedback goes in the Feedback Forum
Wired's John Mix Meyer has put up a list of 5 things to fix in the Reach Beta - see if you agree with him! (Louis Wu 09:52:04 UTC) (permalink)

Halo CE in Unreal
Inferno has ported Midship (among other maps, including Derelict) into Unreal - swing by Modacity for cool pics! Thanks, Dwood. (Louis Wu 09:51:22 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach BetaBusters Episode 1
Minime637 stopped into our forum yesterday with word of a new release from the DefendTheHouse crew - Halo: Reach BetaBusters Episode 1 continues in the vein of their previous MythBusters series to look at some of the cool things you can do (or not do) in the Halo: Reach Beta. Worth a watch! (Louis Wu 09:49:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Action Figure Theater - Double Update
I managed to forget to post about a new Halo Action Figure Theater yesterday; #203 (Left Bumper, Dude) has our fearless cast messing around with the Reach Beta goodies. Apparently, Elnea punishes carelessness with NEW episodes - #204 (Valium for Everyone) is live now. It's a nice segue back into the insanity that is the HAFT plot... (Louis Wu 09:49:08 UTC) (permalink)

News May 4 2010

Video Game Mashups
Gizmodo put together a photoshop contest asking you for videogame crossovers you'd like to play. Mario-Kart/Halo made #50! Heh. Thanks, Schedonnardus. Update: other readers (check the thread) have noticed that Halo makes an appearance in 11, 17, 19, 25, and 56, as well. Pretty popular choice! (Louis Wu 20:12:20 UTC) (permalink)

Off The Charts
I'm not sure why we forgot to post this this morning (or last night) - but There's a new PSA up at Red vs Blue. Are you a manly man? You might be their demographic! (Louis Wu 19:56:28 UTC) (permalink)

B.net Comm Chatter Roundup
Tons of fun stuff in Bungie's Comm Chatter today - let's do a roundup:

• Arm The Flag has a podcast devoted to Halo 2 wind-down, and the Carnàge Carnivàle Vidoc. Go relive the recent past!
• Fan Tom Houston did an interview with Jeff Steitzer, the 'Voice of God' in Halo's multiplayer - interesting stuff!
• There's a new 'Out of Work Spartan' episode - in Ep5, Z06 learns he's gonna be a daddy.
• Although there are a lot of people playing Reach right now (1.2 million have sampled its wares), there are still Halo 3 players out there - and B Mc Gann has Top 10 MLG Plays Episode 12.
• Ready Up Live wants to play with you - check the details in the post.
• Anoj is looking for submissions for a Top 10 Halo Reach Plays vid.
• B.net user Aldridge picked out some cool Beta rendered vids - a few have already been highlighted here, but the collection's good!
• urk has posted some guidelines to submitting good feedback on the Beta. (You do remember that Bungie is looking for feedback, right?) Give it a read!

(You'll notice I skipped all the "matchmaking is broken" stuff from last night, both at Bungie.net and at nobleactual.com - it's all fixed now, so no need to dwell.) (Louis Wu 19:22:50 UTC) (permalink)

Jonny's Beta Horse Adventure
Bungie's JonnyOThan stopped in with a few cool vids - just "wow, that rocked" moments in Reach recently. Looks like others are adding their own films - stop in and play along! (Louis Wu 18:58:59 UTC) (permalink)

D'Awwwwww....
Hawty McBloggy dug up a really cool pic of some Halo-themed wedding toppers that are just too cute. Go see. (Louis Wu 18:26:01 UTC) (permalink)

It's like Dark Side of the Moon and Oz...
Whew - too much to do today. News catchup time... Let's start with 'The Silent Cartographer' featuring John Powell. Phi1LzA was playing the opening of The Silent Cartographer, and happened to be playing John Powell scores in the background. He was astounded by how smoothly everything lined up, so he decided to share. Pretty cool! (Louis Wu 18:23:56 UTC) (permalink)

News May 3 2010

Master Chief Theater 3000 Episode 408
Eep - we got word from mr smiley that Master Chief Theater 3000 episode 408 has been put up on the web - go check it out! This one covers the cutscenes from Data Hive - getting close to the end of ODST! (Louis Wu 23:12:36 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Comm Chatter: Reach Edition
Stuff you might have missed as work went on despite the Reach Beta - courtesy of Bungie's Comm Chatter:

• The Aisha Tyler video that you could see in your ODST Extras menu is now available for web download, in a variety of flavors. Absolutely worth the watch. She's smart, she's funny, she's hot. And she knows what she's talking about. (And she has a baby blue Reach shirt you've never seen on anyone else...)
• Why is that file now available online? Well, because that slot on your ODST disc is now filled with The Halo: Reach Beta. That's right - the Beta is live. Might take you a while to download it - after all, lots of people are doing the same thing - but be patient, you'll be playing soon enough.
• Wanna see some cool pics folks have snapped already in the Beta? Today's Tag and Release accesses the Reach Beta file collection. Pretty...
• Looks like there might be some trouble with the server load due to all those Beta players... stats are a little wonky. Don't worry, Bungie'll tell you when things are good again.

Are you seeing a pattern? BETABETABETABETABETA (Louis Wu 20:46:28 UTC) (permalink)

WorthPlaying Reach Beta Impressions
Adam Pavlacka let us know that WorthPlaying has posted their Halo: Reach Beta impressions - go see what they thought! (Louis Wu 20:44:48 UTC) (permalink)

Teabag Prevention: Halo Reach Tips - Week 1
Brian Gilmore let us know that the Teabag Prevention Team at Geekscape has their first episode of Halo Reach Tips online - go read 'em. (Louis Wu 15:56:05 UTC) (permalink)

Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots: It's Electric
The Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots list at Halo3Screenshots.com this week focused on the term 'Electric' - some of those just don't look real. ('Puppy' is amazing.) Check 'em! (Louis Wu 15:47:23 UTC) (permalink)

Hawty was busy, even if we weren't
Stuff we missed at Hawty McBloggy's this weekend (shame on us!):

• Halcylon has already whipped up a Halo Reach montage - he calls it 'Betage'.
• B Mc Gann has his Top 10 Halo Reach Plays live.
• Luke has posted Grin + Bear It: Five Minute Death Punch - showing off the risks of the new Assassination animations.

Go read it all! (Louis Wu 15:47:07 UTC) (permalink)

Welcome to the Party
XerxdeeJ dropped in to welcome the masses to the Reach Beta - tips, notes from gunslingers, and more! Go read. (Louis Wu 15:43:41 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespy's Ultimate Halo Quiz
BuzzJuice noticed an 'Ultimate Halo Quiz' on Gamespy - 100 questions probing your knowledge of the Halo universe. (Two questions per page? Seriously? I understand wanting ad revenue, Gamespy... but c'mon. Don't be dicks about it.) (Louis Wu 15:42:34 UTC) (permalink)

PROJECT LUMORIA Teaser
We heard about a teaser for Project Lumoria - new campaign gameplay for Halo CE! Check it! (Louis Wu 15:35:36 UTC) (permalink)

PGCR, Ep 35 - The Halo Edition
SK1LL4XED let us know about a new podcast from Postgame Carnage Report - primarily Halo content. NSFW. Check out Episode 35! (Louis Wu 15:33:46 UTC) (permalink)

Stone Epitaph, Part 2
TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 251 is now live - more Reach screenies. (Louis Wu 15:33:17 UTC) (permalink)

HollywoodHalo shows you the Reach Beta
finalcuthalo sent word that HollywoodHalo is back, with a new video showing off some of the new stuff in Reach. Lots of silliness, but also some interesting info... (Louis Wu 15:32:07 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 - it's an energizer bunny
Rod pointed out an article at Kotaku, highlighting the last few holdouts still playing Halo 2. if you swing by Bungie.net, you can follow a thread started by one of the last six. (Louis Wu 15:31:31 UTC) (permalink)

News May 2 2010

Getting your hands on history
Dave Kramer sent word that BusyGamerNews.com wants you to have parts of the Halo series' heritage - Halo 2 with the Multiplayer Map Pack, along with the original Halo Game Guide. Several ways to win. These include reviewing their newest podcast. Check it out. (Louis Wu 20:08:10 UTC) (permalink)

Tips for Reach
Cody Miller wrote up some tips for Reach multiplayer; if you LIKE the Assault Rifle, and you're not interested in improving your headshot percentage, these won't be for you, but otherwise, you'll find some handy pointers to keep you from getting destroyed in the Beta! There's a video, too, showing off some examples. (Louis Wu 18:06:05 UTC) (permalink)

First Reach panoramas show up
A couple of Reach panoramas have already shown up - Crab posted one on Friday, and RVideo posted one yesterday. I'm sure we'll be seeing many more. (Louis Wu 18:05:21 UTC) (permalink)

Elite Comparison
Riceatron took a bunch of high-res screenshots of an Elite in both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, and stuck them all together in a monster image, so that you can get a feel for how the Elite model has been upgraded. And wow... it's been upgraded. I mean, that's been clear for a while, but this image shows you EXACTLY how impressive the changes are. (Louis Wu 18:04:56 UTC) (permalink)

Arena Rating - in Java
Oozer3993 whipped up a tiny Java app (4kb) you can use to calculate your 'Arena Rating' based on stats from a slayer game you were in. It's based on (I'd assume) the math included in the most recent Weekly Update. Give it a try - see where you stand! Arena goes live tomorrow. (Louis Wu 18:04:30 UTC) (permalink)

Like a red-headed stepchild.
EazyB found a pretty sneaky way to abuse the Armor Lock ability - check it out. (Enjoy it while you can; I'd really doubt this will work in the shipping game.) (Louis Wu 18:04:06 UTC) (permalink)

I betcha can't post it! (on time)
Dan 'Blood' DaRocha uploaded a really, really old clip he recorded before Halo 3 was released - Jen Taylor, doing a live rendition of her 'Betcha Can't Stick It' line. Awesome, Dan - only 3 years late! (Louis Wu 18:03:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach Beta Weekend FAQ
kanbo pointed out a faq Bungie posted yesterday - SketchFactor addresses some of the concerns and questions forumgoers all over the internet have been expressing. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 18:02:54 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's Top 10 Reach Kills
cjelly noticed the latest IGN vid - Top 10 Reach Kills for April 30, 2010. Definitely some nice ones! (cjelly's right - #2 and #3 are the best of the bunch.) (Louis Wu 18:02:24 UTC) (permalink)

Digital Foundry vs. Halo: Reach Beta
Eurogamer's Digital Foundry did some analysis of the Reach Beta - you might be interested in what they found. Technical, as always. Good stuff. Thanks, Shake Appeal. (Louis Wu 18:02:02 UTC) (permalink)

News May 1 2010

New Beginnings - Again
In the madness of yesterday, I'm afraid the newest film out of Bungie, 'New Beginnings', might have been overlooked, so I'm reminding you. It's accessible in the latest Weekly Update, in downloadable and streaming formats, and it's really, really worth the 6 minutes of your time. If you're sort of new to the Halo franchise, you might not even know who Jason Jones is - he's been out of the limelight for many years now. But his vision, and his ability to inspire greatness in the people around him, are some of the things that makes Bungie the unique studio that it is - and this video shows that his drive, what keeps him going every day, hasn't really changed in YEARS. He (still) wants to make games you want to play. And the studio he founded attracts people who want the same thing. This video is about BUNGIE - it's not about any one game (no games are even mentioned), it's not about their publishers (past or present - again, no names at all) - it's about the team. Who they are, what they do, and how they're gonna keep doing it. In the wake of fears that Activision will "run Bungie into the ground", and that Bungie has sold out (again), this video makes it clear that Bungie is who Bungie has ALWAYS been - a game company good enough to inspire a fan community that simply won't go away. Here's to the next 10 years! Go watch. (Louis Wu 15:43:38 UTC) (permalink)

MSNBC - Reach Beta Preview
ash noticed a nice summary of the Reach Beta on MSNBC. (Louis Wu 15:31:38 UTC) (permalink)

That was one HECK of a kill.
FyreWulff stopped by with word of a thread on Bungie.net, showing off a rather odd bug someone found in the Beta - an assassination went wonky, and the entire Noble Team appeared... and then died. Bizarre! (Louis Wu 15:30:33 UTC) (permalink)

Last breath of Heresy
Riceatron grabbed a few screenshots of a kill that... works nicely in a totally different context. Check it! (Louis Wu 15:30:04 UTC) (permalink)

ZBrush ODST Model Updated
Brighton's back with a new update to his ODST Character model - go by and watch the YouTube presentation! (Louis Wu 15:27:38 UTC) (permalink)

Okay, I'm ready...
Well, yesterday was a rather crazy day; seems like many Halo fans spent it looking for codes to get into the Reach Beta. (Bungie dumped 1000+ codes on their front page last night, leaving people in a mad scramble to find a working one; they dumped another 100+ on OUR forum, and passed out a bunch more piecemeal. Seems like they might be done at this point.) If you didn't get one - don't fret, the Beta will be live for EVERYONE in just 2 days. In the meantime, here's a grab-bag of Halo goodies I've seen over the last day or so. (This is by no means a complete list; things are crazy right now. It's just some fun stuff.) First up: Leviathan whipped up funny little comic depicting life on Monday... for some players. (Louis Wu 15:22:53 UTC) (permalink)

Creating an artifact from the 26th century
The Halo Waypoint team did an interview with Eric Nylund recently, discussing an item you'll be able to get your hands on later this fall - Halsey's Journal, a labor of love included in both the Limited and Legendary Editions of Halo: Reach. The interview will be live on the Waypoint website early next week - but if you don't want to wait that long, they've kindly given us permission to put it up a few days early. C'mon by and give it a read! Awesome stuff. (Louis Wu 04:43:03 UTC) (permalink)

May 2010

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