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 | November 2005 |  |
November 2005 Archived News
News November 30 2005
Feet First Into Mouth.
Stuntmutt makes it clear in today's One One Se7en that if you're going to be punny, be sure you know your audience. (Louis Wu 20:50:35 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday Reading
Seven new pieces in the Fan Fiction section today. Too late for lunchtime reading... unless you're on the US west coast. (Louis Wu 19:15:14 UTC) (permalink)
It's still pretty cold, though.
Hehe - Jim Shorts pointed out some photos showing a bunch of guys (presumably waiting to buy 360s last week) playing Halo 2 on the side of a Best Buy. Now THAT might make the time go faster! (Louis Wu 18:16:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo for cheap - in the UK
Over in the UK, it looks like Halo 2 has been released as an 'Xbox Classic' (similar to the US 'Platinum' category?), and is selling for £16.99 (just under $30 US). That's better than the US Amazon price of $33.95... though it wouldn't pay to order from the UK, for a few reasons; it's PAL, for one, so it won't play in the standard NTSC Xbox, and the shipping would easily swamp your savings anyway. For UK Halo players, though, it's a great deal! Thanks, Ross Mills. Update: Thanks to 3of9, who pointed out that here in the US, you can buy Halo 2 from Wal-Mart for just $17.82. Beat that, ya brits! (Louis Wu 18:13:24 UTC) (permalink)
More Pie.... mmmm
GameDaily has a My Turn column (written by Chance Thomas, a composer who's worked on games like King Kong, X-Men, and Lord of the Rings), discussing how the videogame soundtrack is an underexploited market. Halo is held up as a shining example - go Marty! (Louis Wu 18:06:14 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary Walkthrough: The Arbiter
UNSCDF has put up a legendary walkthrough of The Arbiter - it's the fourth level they've posted. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:26:16 UTC) (permalink)
News November 29 2005
The MPRRS Needs You!
Word from Cybrfrk is that we're getting short of movie reviewers for the MPRRS. He just added everyone in the queue, and pulled all those who weren't actually submitting reviews... and the end result was a shortage of bodies. If you're interested in participating, please fill out an application! (Remember, before you do, that the job tends to wear down even the most enthusiastic of watchers; a LOT of movies come through the system, and most of them require work. If you sign up, you're agreeing to help the moviemakers improve their products by supplying them with constructive feedback... and to help the HBO staff by filtering the incoming movies to a more manageable volume.) Thanks in advance! (Louis Wu 18:54:51 UTC) (permalink)
Wasabi 360 Doubles Tourney
Nexus Beat sends word of a new tournament site - they're starting with Halo and Halo 2, but they'll be adding others down the road. Wasabi 360 has already gotten going with a 2v2 MLG-style tourney that's pretty close to capacity - go check it out! (Louis Wu 16:13:43 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 33
Over at Podtacular.com, you'll find Episode 33 - where the talk ranges from 360 madness to halo 2 on the 360 to the latest news from the Halo community. 19.3 mb, 21 minutes. Go listen! Thanks, Foo Mo Jive. (Louis Wu 13:33:03 UTC) (permalink)
Angst Management.
Last week, Red vs Blue appeared on 'Total Request Live', an MTV program. The team was interviewed about how the series is put together, and for fun they created a video involving TRL's host. That video is now available for download for sponsors - it should be up for everyone in the next day or two. Thanks, Cramesta. (Louis Wu 12:28:00 UTC) (permalink)
News November 28 2005
A Whatplate?
Stuntmutt explains why you should always know who you're talking to, in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 18:39:38 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Text
Eight new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today. Burn off some turkey calories by reading! (Louis Wu 18:32:00 UTC) (permalink)
The Rumors Are Flying
Man, I HATE rumors. I hate 'em because they travel around the net, and they take on a life of their own, and by the time they get back to you a second time, they're fact, in the eyes of many who read them. I'm posting this because I want to make it clear that it's a rumor - likely a rumor concocted by the website itself to generate traffic. If there's any news on Halo 3, it will come out of Bungie - and we'll be all over it like lions on wounded antelope. That said: PALGN is suggesting that the reason we haven't heard anything from Bungie about Halo 3 is because Bungie isn't MAKING Halo 3 - someone else is. Here's the part I love:
Some Microsoft executives were not happy with Halo 2, in particular some of the repetitive level design. They want the game to be a PS3 killer, and believe another developer has more chance of making it that great a game.
Whatever you want to say about Bungie... you're not gonna find a lot of prospects for a Microsoft-controlled studio that can do a better job with Halo 3. Until official information comes out about the game, however, I suppose it's fair game for articles like this... (Louis Wu 16:17:01 UTC) (permalink)
HMG-38
The guys over at UNSCDF have put up a new article... about a weapon that gets a half-sentence mention in Fall of Reach. It covers the HMG-38, an outmoded machine gun now in use by pirates. (I guess this should be classified as Fan Fiction?) Comments can go here. (Louis Wu 15:45:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo50k4 is history.
MLG Atlanta has wrapped up, and you can find info at both MLGPro.com (full bracket info is here) and Team3D.net (roundup, focusing on Team3D of course, is here - thanks, FI3ND). Congrats to Ogre2, who took the FFA tourney, and Team3D, who dominated the 4v4 race. (Louis Wu 14:12:22 UTC) (permalink)
News November 27 2005
The Library's Back!
We don't normally keep track of the ups and downs of Halo-related websites around the net... but The Library was a pretty formidable resource that has been offline for quite some time. It's back - thanks Psyrixx! (Louis Wu 22:12:49 UTC) (permalink)
Hell Quarters: Blood Spilled Redemption
The third and last segment of Crossfire's Hell Quarters, 'Blood Spilled Redemption', passed the MPRRS this afternoon - you can grab it in WMP9 format (61.6 mb) or QuickTime format (64.3 mb). Dark and moody, this segment uses music powerfully to keep the atmosphere mysterious, and to keep you guessing until the end. Very, very nice work - and evidence that voice acting is not an absolute necessity for a great film. (Louis Wu 22:03:25 UTC) (permalink)
More comparison shots
A couple of days ago, Atsumi posted a link to a LiveJournal entry with some comparison shots of Halo playing on an Xbox and a 360. Even though the Xbox shots were taken through an S-Video connection and the 360 shots were taken through standard composite video cables, you can see the improvements in color, saturation, and sharpness. The 360 DEFINITELY makes Halo look better - and the better your hardware, the more you'll see the effect. (I forgot to mention this until I saw a response to the thread this morning.) Update: Bandwidth ran out on the pics the first time around. Atsumi has replaced those links with a new batch - but they could go, as well. I've mirrored the images themselves in this forum post; you should still visit the original page for her commentary, but if you can't see the pics there, follow my mirror. (Louis Wu 16:39:14 UTC) (permalink)
Rico's House of Gaming - A Social Force
Rico's House of Halo has been a part of the Halo scene for a long time - we first mentioned them almost 4 years ago, when the Battle of the Bay went off. (The original Rocket Dance video, much copied, came from that fest.) In today's Napa Valley Register, they're in the news again - helping to put a positive face on gaming. Way to go, guys! (Louis Wu 16:06:47 UTC) (permalink)
Family Settings can improve your mental health
Ed Chipman points out an article at Xbox365 that might just save your sanity, if you've got an Xbox360 and you're having trouble playing Halo 2 online. Apparently, the ability to play Xbox games on live on a 360 is NOT the default setup, and the toggle isn't the easiest thing to find. (Louis Wu 15:46:03 UTC) (permalink)
News November 26 2005
Titan VIII's Montage 4
Z writes to point out Titan VIII's Montage 4 (there was a preview back in September, but this is the finished product). Production value is quite high; great syncing between music and action, and some really nice editing work. The cuts are a bit too fast for my taste (it's really hard to actually APPRECIATE some of the killtaculars because they're gone so fast), but reaction at Halo2Forum has been pretty positive. 104 mb, WMP9 format. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:16:34 UTC) (permalink)
MLGPro Goodies
3Suns has been scouring the MLGPro.com website for content - and has found a bunch of articles that haven't been mentioned here, and, in fact, are very difficult to navigate to through MLG's site... so you may have missed them. The current Player of the Week is Karma - but past spotlights have focused on Ogre 2 (which we mentioned, actually), Gh057ayame, and Captain Anarchy. There's also a blog of the week - the current one, Captain Sparrow, contains some fun stuff, including a 3-part look at the MLG Office. Go catch up! (And while you're there, check out the VoD coverage of MLG Atlanta, going on now.) (Louis Wu 14:12:48 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Portable Update
Mintz writes to point out a bunch of new content at Halo: Portable - articles from MLGPro.com, Bungie.net, Gamertag Radio, and even Mintz's own story of getting an Xbox360 (originally posted on our forum). You'll also find a nice pack of Edgen's Halo MP3s, for when you'd rather use your ears than your eyes. Go grab some Halo stuff for your PSP today! (Louis Wu 14:05:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Trading Cards
UNSCDF points out some Halo Trading Cards being created by Zertuche and friends - you can find them on the original site (it's Freewebs, so it's likely going to be down after this announcement) or on UNSCDF's site. (Louis Wu 13:50:41 UTC) (permalink)
Where does the competition come from?
GotFrag has put up a story about MLG Atlanta, otherwise known as Halo50k4, which kicked off last night - an interesting question; if Team3D, which steamrolled over the competition in Singapore at the World Cyber Games, doesn't win here this weekend, what will it say about international competitors... and about competitions in general? Go read. (Louis Wu 13:47:02 UTC) (permalink)
News November 25 2005
Holiday Refit, plus goodies
There's a new Halo Babies strip up at Halobabies.net - a look at one of the real hazards of Thanksgiving. While you're there, check out the Halo Babies store - HB gear and goodies. (That framed print ROCKS.) (Louis Wu 17:04:59 UTC) (permalink)
Don't Hold Your Breath...
Bungie recently agreed not to remove the Big Team Battle playlist, even though it's the least-played playlist up. Stuntmutt puts his own twist on the situation in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:22:56 UTC) (permalink)
After-Turkey Reading
Eight new stories in the Fan Fiction section today - go read! (Louis Wu 16:08:50 UTC) (permalink)
JumpTactics Mix 1
The JumpTactics guys have affiliated with Halo2forum.com for hosting - you can grab their latest piece from there now (WMP9 format, 91 mb). JumpTactics Mix 1 contains the work of a large number of jumpers, familiar names, and not so familiar. Some of the jumps are simply astounding - all the way across Lockout, or all the way across Colossus, or from the lower sniper spawn to the top of the sniper tower on Ascension... you've got to see these. (Louis Wu 15:55:46 UTC) (permalink)
Rise of the Elites Episode 2
This seems to be a movie day - I guess you should settle in for some real watching. Next up is a movie that was announced at High Impact Halo a week
ago; some folks loved it, some didn't. 'Rise of the Elites Episode 2' was submitted to the MPRRS, and failed - by the slimmest of margins. Those reviewers have been failing EVERYTHING lately, though, so I'm inclined to cut the film a little slack... I grabbed a copy and watched. It's quite long (nearly 20 minutes), and an awful lot of work has been put into it. Cinematography is quite good. The plot is a little weak, and a few parts are slow... but overall, it's well done, and worth watching. (Although some reviewers didn't like the fact that all voices were done by the same person, I have to say that the voices are understandable and clear, which forgives a LOT of sins.) WMP9 version is 45.2 mb, QuickTime version is 44.1 mb. Get out the popcorn! (Louis Wu 15:43:09 UTC) (permalink)
They Won Again
AnubisUK sends word that The Squadron, Episode 11 has been posted on their website. Because of bandwidth issues, they're looking for a new home - and for that reason aren't interested in hosting QuickTime versions until after the move, it seems, so you can grab the QT from us (27.8 mb). (WMP9 is available from their site.) Humans are still on the run, though Durge is called on the carpet for how long it's taking to exterminate them. Go watch; this series continues to evolve, and filmmaking qualities are quite good. (Louis Wu 15:33:37 UTC) (permalink)
Old-Skool Jumping
Yesterday, while I was stuffing myself past all rationality, Ducain sent me a link to this newspost at High Impact Halo - SneakyPete has recreated a classic Halo trick... with s7yle. 3 Warthogs, a Banshee, and the Master Chief on top of the lightbridge tower... in single player. To keep you from having to deal with Putfile or Picapic (and to offer QuickTime users an alternative), we're hosting both the original hi-res WMP9 (20.2 mb) and a re-encoded QuickTime (19.9 mb). This one's pretty nice! (Louis Wu 15:25:07 UTC) (permalink)
They'll call you anything if you save them.
Yesterday's User Friendly webcomic was vaguely Halo-related - if you don't read the strip, go back a few for this to make more sense. Thanks, SteelGaribaldi. (Louis Wu 15:06:48 UTC) (permalink)
News November 24 2005
What an awesome Christmas present this would be!
This submission (47K) blew me away - this plasma sword letter opener was made by Paul S., by hand. His words:
Made by hand from 2mm anodised aluminium, about 150mm long and partly polished for a two-tone look. The handle design was modified for two-finger use (held between finger & thumb) and the inner edges of the blades are sharpened to cut through envelopes, although not too sharp, as it apparently got used as a hairclip on occasion. I still have the template if anyone wants to make one for themselves.
(This was uploaded to us about a month ago - I sincerely apologize for the delay.) Paul - if you're reading this, we'd LOVE to host the template. (Louis Wu 14:25:25 UTC) (permalink)
Administrivia, and a Halloween Costume
Remember when I said that yesterday, I cleaned out the uploads folder after a two-month neglect period? I wanted to remind people what NOT to use that folder for. There were 267 items in there when I started downloading. There were the few dozen misc art pieces I posted yesterday, plus another dozen or so wallpapers (coming soon). There were half a dozen cool items (we'll get to those)... and the rest was stuff that shouldn't be uploaded here. There were DOZENS of movies, even though the uploads page says not to use it for movies (in big red letters). There were wallpapers totally unrelated to Halo. There was porn. There were files from our own servers, reuploaded (I'm guessing by people who were curious about how the upload process works). There was fan fiction. Amazing. Anyway, before I go get buried in the minutae of preparing for 18 bird-eating guests, I thought I'd toss a couple of things out there. We got this picture (80K), from William Bush - took him a week to make this for his son for Halloween (yes, it's been sitting for a while). Pretty cool! More soon. (Louis Wu 14:21:18 UTC) (permalink)
Movie-theater-based tourney in Ohio
Another Halo tourney to be played out on a movie screen is happening in Ohio this Saturday - XKade will host a Halo 2 tourney at the Tiffin Mall in Tiffin, OH. $50 per person, prizes to be announced. More info is in the link. (Louis Wu 13:43:24 UTC) (permalink)
Turkeys and Pro Halo
Happy Thanksgiving! We may have some trouble here - we normally cook our turkey outside, on the grill, and it's... um, rather white right now - but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, there's a bit of Halo news. MLGPro.com has posted a primer for Halo50k4, their huge Atlanta tourney coming up this weekend, and there's some good stuff in there. There's an intro to the new bracket system... and a new feature - the MLG Betting Table. (It's not real money, don't worry.) Fun stuff! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:57:45 UTC) (permalink)
News November 23 2005
The Art Floodgates Open
Once again, I've let an absurdly long period of time go by without cleaning out our uploads queue. There will likely be more content later today or later this week - but for now, we've got several dozen images for you in the Miscellaneous Art section. Paul Davies continues to astound me, but there are plenty of other amazing artists in this batch - go see what you can find! (Louis Wu 19:45:40 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox 180.
A large percentage of the gaming news in the last couple of days has been about the Xbox360 (we're staying relatively quiet on the general bits, because they're not really Halo-related)... the part that IS Halo-related is the backwards-compatibility thing. Stuntmutt takes a look in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:35:48 UTC) (permalink)
BoB Zero: Genesis
The MPRRS reviewers have been pretty harsh of late - so when they let a movie through, it's probably worth watching. First one through in a while is 'BoB Zero: Genesis', the prequel to a popular French machinima series (you can find more of their work on the TGO Team website). Filmed in Halo (as opposed to Halo 2), it combines nice camera work, good humor, and decent audio. This version is in French, with English subtitles. Grab it in WMP9 format (49.3 mb) or QuickTime format (45.2 mb). Bon Appetit! (Louis Wu 17:06:00 UTC) (permalink)
Your Favorite Zombie - Now on a Mac
Very cool - Stubbs the Zombie has been released for Mac OSX! Thanks, spartan erik. (Louis Wu 14:46:04 UTC) (permalink)
Mid-week reading
Just six new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this morning... you can easily catch up. (Louis Wu 14:05:27 UTC) (permalink)
Find that HaloCE Tutorial - Fast!
TheGhost has put together a collection of tutorial resource links for HaloCE - amazing organization. This can help you find exactly the tools you were looking for. Check it out! Update (16 April 2006): Ghost has moved this to a permanent home at Halomaps. (Louis Wu 06:38:28 UTC) (permalink)
IGN looks at Halo 2 on a 360
There's a story over at IGN about cross-compatibility between the Xbox360 and the original Xbox when playing Halo 2. Their verdict: the 360 plays Halo 2 beautifully, but there might be some joining glitches when playing games involving both boxes. Read the whole article for details. (And remember, this is a single data point; others might have a completely different experience.) (Louis Wu 06:35:34 UTC) (permalink)
Don't follow Frankie's Japan links.
Frankie wrote up his experiences at the Xbox360 Launch Event in the Mojave desert. Nice pics, funny stuff (I wish I could meet the guy who's got his Cliffy B autograph), a little bit of Halo content to keep it all on-topic. Go read! (Yeah, he gets credit for the heads-up, too... good thing he got his butt kicked at Halo 2 at the event.) (Louis Wu 06:31:55 UTC) (permalink)
News November 22 2005
Zero O'Clock
Rooster Teeth have posted a new Red vs Blue video, 'Zero O'Clock', for sponsors. At the moment, only the WMP9 version is up - but I assume the QuickTime and DivX versions are coming soon. (I'm also assuming it'll show up for everyone else in the not-too-distant future.) Grif does his best to get to the Zero Hour Xbox360 event... looks like when begging doesn't work, you should try deceit. Thanks to Karl Almjeld for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:29:33 UTC) (permalink)
Lost The Lead.
Whoa - it's less than 8 hours from tomorrow, UTC, on a weekday, and there's no news on HBO? Call the fire department - HBO HQ must have burned down. (Actually, not really - but I have been kicked out of my place of work by a horde of carpet-laying gnomes, forcing me to alternative tasks. The plus side is, I'll be able to work barefoot again as of tonight.) We got a note from XerxdeeJ, who has updated his Tied the Leader blog with a piece on holiday gadgets for geeks (nothing Halo-related in there, but some nice goodies nonetheless), and some Halo filler to guarantee the on-topicness. (No, that picture does not depict anything that you, as a geek, can buy for the holidays.) (Louis Wu 17:34:47 UTC) (permalink)
News November 21 2005
T2 Takes You to School
Timed nicely to go with last night's coverage on MTV, you'll find an article at MLGPro.com about T-squared, and his gaming skills school. Check it out! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 21:56:41 UTC) (permalink)
One For The HSP.
While it's relatively common for me to crack a smile when looking over One One Se7en submissions, it's rare for me to laugh out loud. Today's entry didn't ruin the ratio. (I kid. It's up there with some of the classics.) (Louis Wu 19:19:01 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Reading
Seventeen stories in the Fan Fiction section for you today... go read! (Louis Wu 18:24:42 UTC) (permalink)
New Featured Artist at HBN
Halo Babies has instituted a new feature - Featured Artist. This month is Andrew-sama... go check out his work. (Louis Wu 13:56:07 UTC) (permalink)
M6C Magnum rundown at UNSCDF
UNSCDF points out that his eponymous website has an article about the M6C pistol - go read. (Louis Wu 13:53:51 UTC) (permalink)
Dropshock Ep 6
Dropshock has released episode 6 - they discuss their writeup in Tips and Tricks magazine, they rant about free Xbox360s for celebrities, and they talk about the normal Bungie stuff. As usual, not safe for work. Just under an hour, 24 mb. (Louis Wu 13:50:35 UTC) (permalink)
You're not 40, you're eighteen with 22 years experience.
Birthdays
Let us have birthdays every day,
(I had the thought while I was shaving)
Because a birthday should be gay,
And full of grace and good behaving.
We can't have cakes and candles bright,
And presents are beyond our giving,
But let lt us cherish with delight
The birthday way of lovely living.
For I have passed three-score and ten
And I can count upon my fingers
The years I hope to bide with men,
(Though by God's grace one often lingers.)
So in the summers left to me,
Because I'm blest beyond my merit,
I hope with gratitude and glee
To sparkle with the birthday spirit.
Let me inform myself each day
Who's proudmost on the natal roster;
If Washington or Henry Clay,
Or Eugene Field or Stephen Foster.
oh lots of famous folks I'll find
Who more than measure to my rating,
And so thanksgivingly inclined
Their birthdays I'll be celebrating.
For Oh I know the cheery glow
Of Anniversary rejoicing;
Let me reflect its radiance so
My daily gladness I'll be voicing.
And though I'm stooped and silver-haired,
Let me with laughter make the hearth gay,
So by the gods I may be spared
Each year to hear: "Pop, Happy Birthday."
Robert William Service
For our favorite webmaster! (Ding 06:46:28 UTC) (permalink)
News November 20 2005
Elnea's Art - finally updated
Man, oh, man... sometimes things just get lost in the shuffle. Over the past week, Elnea's created a bunch of new artwork, from a new avatar for a friend, to an image she never really wanted to make public (she says she can't finish it), to an image that started life looking funny, but was nicely fixed when she flipped MC's head around, to an image you can caption yourself. She's doing quite a bit of work with her tablet these days... and it shows! Enjoy. (Louis Wu 23:44:22 UTC) (permalink)
T-squared on MTV
T-squared will be on MTV's True Life: I'm a Professional Gamer this evening (11 pm) - read about it at MLGPro.com. Thanks, synide. (Louis Wu 18:33:54 UTC) (permalink)
Blow Me Away Wrapup
You may notice that the Katrina links on the right side of our main page have disappeared; these are gone because we've officially closed the books on the Blow Me Away charity auction. (It's not that helping hurricane victims is any less important than it was yesterday - it's that there are many, many good causes that need your help, and now that we're not actively participating in one of them as an organization, it makes less sense for us to promote one over any others.) This auction was a fantastic success - we raised just under $11,000 for hurricane relief. Congratulations to EVERYONE involved! You can see the financial breakdown on this page. Two personal notes - I'd like to apologize to Phil Shiel, who is, at this point, the only buyer who hasn't yet recieved his winnings; it's nobody's fault (turns out that shipping a nearly-life-sized statue of a gun-toting, armor-wearing figure across international borders is not as easy as it once was), but it's still no fun to be waiting this long... and I'd like to point out to the rather large number of people who sent us mail that we were going to be ripped off, that most of the buyers had no eBay feedback and were using brand-new accounts... EVERY SINGLE AUCTION was won by someone who paid the price they'd agreed to pay. There were a number of hold-ups in payment - but in every case, it was PayPal being a bit... overzealous, not someone trying to rip us off. Overall, this was a really positive experience, and it gives me a warm feeling to think that we helped donate a five-figure check to folks who need help pretty badly... and all of it prize generation, selling, buying - it was all done by gamers. (Louis Wu 16:39:11 UTC) (permalink)
A Threesome With Cheerleaders.
Last night, Red vs Blue Episode 67, "Setting a High Bar", was released for sponsors (yeah, it's been a little while). The general public can find free copies on Monday, most likely. The two separate story arcs continue to wend their way through the twisted landscapes of... oh, never mind. It's funny, go watch. Psychophant was the first to tell us. (Louis Wu 15:20:57 UTC) (permalink)
GTR's Xbox Community Awards 2005
Gamertag Radio has released their first annual Xbox Community Awards, a nearly hour-long ceremony which includes an interview with J Allard, a sneak preview of the Project Gotham Racing 3 soundtrack, and music by Tonedeff, Chemical Brothers and 88mph. We even won something - we took 'Best Fansite Based on a Game' (though it sounds like we were nearly beaten out by a ham sandwich). Go listen! The awards episode is in .mp3 format, and weighs in at 36.5 mb. (Louis Wu 15:02:56 UTC) (permalink)
News November 19 2005
Ogre 1 and 2 Win WCG Halo 2 Championship
Congrats to Team3D - the Ogre brothers have won the Halo 2 Grand Final at the World Cyber Games in Singapore, beating Team EG from Canada! They're going home with $20,000 because of this win. Full details can be found at the Team3D website - and thanks to Jeff Horn for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:27:14 UTC) (permalink)
Waiting for Good-o
An article in today's Boston Globe suggests that games won't really take advantage of the Xbox360's hardware for a while - and they use Halo 2 as an example of this phenomenon. (This isn't really news, I don't think - it's common sense - but maybe folks just aren't thinking about it enough.) Thanks, Hanchen Lu. (Louis Wu 21:19:01 UTC) (permalink)
Advantage: 360
TeamXbox compared Halo 2 running on an Xbox360 through an S-Video cable to Halo 2 running on an Xbox through an S-Video cable - and they were pretty surprised to find that there's a sizeable difference. Their results suggest that Halo 2 will look better running on an Xbox360, no matter WHAT you're playing it on (well, I guess they didn't test standard composite video). Nice! Thanks, Tempus Fugit. (Louis Wu 21:15:56 UTC) (permalink)
The Lekgolo eel
Se7en One has put together an article, written in the style of a soldier's journal, on the worms that make up the hunter. Any comments can be tossed into this forum thread. Odd stuff! (Louis Wu 21:00:53 UTC) (permalink)
Nokturnal's Montage
Z points out another vid over at Halo2Forum.com - Nokturnal has created a heavily effect-laden montage, more than 10 minutes long, weighing in at a massive 178 mb. What can I say? (Louis Wu 20:56:27 UTC) (permalink)
Take your Halo news with you.
Mintz pointed out that there's a TON of new content over at Halo: Portable - if you've got a PSP, swing by and see what you can read on it. (The latest Weekly Update is even there.) (Louis Wu 14:35:52 UTC) (permalink)
First on the front page. Ha.
Weekly Update is up at Bungie.net, posted by some jet-setter or something. Xbox360 launch, DOA4 stuff, playlists. And an oldschool Mister Chief. Go read. (Louis Wu 01:50:41 UTC) (permalink)
News November 18 2005
A Whisper In The Storm.
Stuntmutt unmasks another Halo 2 character in today's One One Se7en... that guy should be pretty recognizable to anyone who visits our forums. If not... well, count yourself lucky. (Louis Wu 18:14:21 UTC) (permalink)
Goodies from CarnageStats
Speaking of online stats... I received a very nice box from the good folks at CarnageStats yesterday - it was full of shirts! It doesn't seem like they're for sale yet over at their site - but you can be sure we'll be giving some of these bad boys away in our next contest. w00t! (Louis Wu 18:12:04 UTC) (permalink)
PHP Stats
Ed Chipman, aka DevilsKnight666, has put together PHP Stats - a php-based stats displayer that takes output from QuerySpree and converts it into a web-based form. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 18:06:45 UTC) (permalink)
Sub Genre
This week's Halo Babies strip looks at the ever-tightening field of Halo montages - what's a guy gotta do to get noticed? (Things might be a bit slow; they're having some server issues. Be patient... they'll work it out.) (Louis Wu 15:44:27 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Fiction
Nine new pieces in the Fan Fiction section today. They're keeping busy... (Louis Wu 15:29:43 UTC) (permalink)
Seasoned with BeatDown Juice
Last night, Bungie posted a writeup of this week's Halo Humpday Challenge, in which they took on the Seasoned Gamers... and lost. It was a good loss, though - they enjoyed themselves. (agdTinMan pointed out a couple of typos in Frankie's writeup... but it sounds like he's jealous or something, so you might wanna take it all with a grain of salt.) Thanks to Zattack89 for letting us know, when Frankie was breezin' out of the parking lot instead of keeping us informed. (Yeah, he can't win. We make fun of him for being first, and we make fun of him for not posting at all. I think it's the hair.) (Louis Wu 14:12:59 UTC) (permalink)
News November 17 2005
Pumpkin Wrapup
This was supposed to be up days ago - but what with one thing and another, I'm behind. All of the prizes for the 343 Guilt O' Lantern contest have been sent to the winners - including the voicemail messages recorded by Tim 'GuiltySpark' Dadabo and Steve 'MasterChief' Downes. Michael Coffing sent us mp3s of the two recordings he got from Steve (one, in fact, has BOTH of them on it) - you can listen to them here (255k) and here (396k). Thanks to Chris 'Max Power' Dewberry for supplying the lion's share of the goodies, and thanks to Dustin at splode for his generous contribution of gaming gear. And, of course, thanks to everyone who carved, and everyone who voted! If all goes well, there'll be another one in 2006! (Louis Wu 22:22:48 UTC) (permalink)
Network Troubles
You may or may not be able to read this. For some, there's no problem at all. For others, the site is utterly and completely down. For most of us in the middle, it's more sporadic than that (though for some reason, the front page seems to be most affected). If you can read this, know that it's a network problem, and we're doing everything we can to alleviate it. (If the site was down for you for most of Thursday, then by the time you're reading this it's back up, and you can safely ignore this.) Either way, apologies. Update: we're better now. (Louis Wu 17:45:40 UTC) (permalink)
DoA4 and the Halo Spartan
1Up has a huge article on Dead or Alive 4, and the inclusion of a Halo Spartan. (Her name is Nicole, for the record. They think of her as a person, not a suit of armor.) It's a great read - and there are three new Halo-specific screenshots. Check it out! (Thanks to 3Suns for pointing it out.) (Louis Wu 14:38:56 UTC) (permalink)
3.5 years later...
Back in April, 2002, NFL246 sent along some pictures taken in the Control Room on Two Betrayals; there are some decent (but not perfect) images of the huge Marathon logo created by the layout of the room. Yesterday, insidi0us sent along a new shot (104k); we don't really do Trick stuff any more, but this was a pretty beautiful screen cap. (He got it by flying up in a banshee, then jumping out and swapping weapons really quickly.) Nice work! (Louis Wu 14:28:20 UTC) (permalink)
Is Anti-Aliasing Bad?
Benjamin Brewster has taken a hard look at the anti-aliasing upscaling feature of the Xbox360, in theoretical terms (he's going on published reports, because he doesn't have a 360 yet) - but he's worried that the way in which Bungie has chosen to implement 720p support will lead to more image degradation than simply allowing the TELEVISION to do the upscaling. (Anecdotal evidence from admittedly unscientific reporters would suggest he's wrong - but until someone with both an Xbox360 and the will to confirm this does some real comparison tests, we won't know.) In the meantime, go read his article! (Louis Wu 14:22:43 UTC) (permalink)
All's well that ends well
A billion years ago (well, summer of 2004) High Impact Halo ran a contest to see who could get to the top of the beam towers on the level Halo with the most s7yle. The prizes for that contest took a little while (in the sense that dinosaurs ruled the earth for a little while) to get to their owners... but get there they did. Kudos to Ducain for persevering in the face of ridiculous odds! (Louis Wu 14:13:25 UTC) (permalink)
Looking Back
XerxdeeJ pointed out a new update on his Tied the Leader blog - a look back at the development of Halo 2 (and Halo before it) as community builders. Nice stuff! (Louis Wu 14:08:35 UTC) (permalink)
Another View - Halo vs Dating
The South Dakota State University Collegian has posted an Op-Ed piece written by HBO forumgoer Lady Rziha, addressing the complaints in the piece we mentioned a couple of weeks ago - another female perspective on the Halo-as-a-timesink phenomenon. Sometimes joining 'em (and beating 'em) is more fun than beating 'em. (Louis Wu 14:04:08 UTC) (permalink)
News November 16 2005
Hell Quarters: Jonathan Quail
Crossfire submitted Hell Quarters: Jonathan Quail to the MPRRS a couple of days ago - the reviewers loved it. (This version uses subtitles, because of a technical glitch during the creation - he's hoping to submit a new version with voice acting once the problem is solved, and if he does, we'll simply swap it in for these versions.) It's an interesting, dark look at traumatic stress, nicely filmed. (This movie was announced at High Impact Halo last weekend, as well - I'm actually using the hi-res link from that thread instead of the medium-res release submitted to the MPRRS.) 7 minutes long, 72.4 mb in WMP9 format, 75 mb in QuickTime format. Go watch! (Louis Wu 16:55:30 UTC) (permalink)
400 Not Out.
One One Se7en episode 400 comes out today - and Stuntmutt burns through more than 2 months of material for this punchline. You better like it! (Congrats, Stunt, on 400 episodes!) (Louis Wu 16:46:45 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular news
Foo Mo Jive writes to let us know that Podtacular 28 is out - tips and tactics for Headlong are the focus, but there's plenty more. (They were recently written up in Tips and Tricks magazine, and scans can be found on their website.) Go look! (Louis Wu 16:41:41 UTC) (permalink)
Mid-week Reading
Seven new pieces in the Fan Fiction section today - go read! (Louis Wu 16:01:17 UTC) (permalink)
DropShock - banned in Japan
Bill writes to let us know that DropShock episode 5 has been released. We've warned you before - we'll do it again; this podcast definitely needs an MPAA warning. An hour and 12 minutes, 33 mb. Go listen. (Louis Wu 15:50:46 UTC) (permalink)
News November 15 2005
The end of a good thing.
Captain Spark says he's done collecting Halo 2 dialogue - he's released another 14 snippets that you can grab from his website, or from our Dialogue Databank, but at this point, he's decided that the returns no longer justify the work. We're gonna miss the submissions - go see what he brought you this time! (Louis Wu 19:10:35 UTC) (permalink)
CSports Halo Coverage
CSports.net sent us a collection of links to Halo articles they've published recently - there's Present and Future Marine Weaponry, which compares the weaponry in Halo to the weaponry used by today's US Marines, a Halo: Combat Evolved review, which reviews the original version of the game, and a study of the Halo: Race Clans and Community - apparently, there are groups that play together JUST to race. (I can't actually investigate this, since it's a premium feature on the CSports website, but I'll take their word for it.) Go read - they're pretty excited about it all! (Louis Wu 18:35:38 UTC) (permalink)
Four on One
After Stat wrote to point out a video over at Final Supremacy - it's called 'Four on One', and is exactly that - a nicely filmed game of slayer on Lockout, where all of the Blue team except for one quit at the start. I'm not sure where it goes - the resolution isn't nearly as clearcut as I'd expected it to be... but the angles are nice. 67 mb, in MPEG1 format. (Louis Wu 17:00:20 UTC) (permalink)
Church on your 360
Tempus Fugit pointed out an article at TeamXbox about some of the content that will be available on the Live Marketplace when the 360 launches next week - and Red vs Blue videos are among the items you will be able to download. Nice! (Louis Wu 16:55:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Turns 4 Today
Well, not really... Halo, the GAME, was available on the 9th or 10th of November, 2001... but you didn't have anything to play it on until the 15th. So for all intents and purposes, today is Halo's fourth birthday - and what a run it's been! (Louis Wu 13:35:58 UTC) (permalink)
BTB is sticking around
SketchFactor posted an update in last week's Weekly Update (scroll down to the bottom, look for 'EDIT') explaining that because of community outcry, they're NOT going to pull the Big Team Battle playlist from XBL; it will remain, as it is today. (The unranked 16-player playlist they were talking about will not go up right now.) Looks like Anton P. Nym was first. (Louis Wu 13:28:53 UTC) (permalink)
News November 14 2005
Not Just The Cartographer.
Stuntmutt takes a look at the Halo script reviewed recently by Latino Review in today's One One Se7en. This one was supposed to be worked out by c0ld vengeance... but he was otherwise occupied. (Louis Wu 17:14:34 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Morning Reading
Thirteen new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today. None of them were written by c0ld vengeance... but they COULD have been. Go read. (Louis Wu 16:22:06 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 27
Foo Mo Jive points out that Episode 27 of Podtacular is up - it discusses upcoming playlist changes, the next tournament, and more. (We also missed Episode 26, Customs and Call-ins, which was released on Saturday.You'd think c0ld vengeance would have mentioned it...) (Louis Wu 15:32:25 UTC) (permalink)
Examining Stubbs
Thanks to Narcogen, who did a nice job over at Rampancy.net of rounding up some reviews of the Mac and PC versions of Stubbs the Zombie, Wideload's Halo-engined game. Gamespy grabbed the PC version, Inside Mac Games and MacWorld tackled the Mac version, and Gaming Horizon did a more general (probably Xbox-based) review. c0ld vengeance left us high and dry, review-wise. (Louis Wu 11:59:36 UTC) (permalink)
Audio Issues with Xbox360 (Fixable)
Marty O'Donnell posted a pretty important note in the Marty Army 7th Column group - some folks have had trouble following this link, so I'm going to post the content here (with Marty's permission):
If you buy an Xbox 360 - DO NOT play your old Halo or Halo 2 games without getting the update from Xbox Live. Without the update the audio will suck. Without the update you will think that your new Xbox 360 is broken. The funny thing is that you won't even be able to play any other games without getting the update so the audio suckage won't be apparent with any other "backwards compatible" games -except for Halo and Halo 2.
As audio director of Bungie Studios I want the fans to have the best audio experience possible. The emulator that is resident on the shipping hard drive and allows Halo and Halo 2 to be played was shipped before the audio emulation was finished. I'd hate for anyone to play Halo or Halo 2 and think that anyone at Bungie intended the audio to sound that way. Feel free to ask the folks at Xbox about this: Xbox 360 BC .
It's clear that getting the current emulator won't be very hard - even for folks without Xbox Live accounts - so there's no good reason not to upgrade before playing. Thanks, Marty! (This message was NOT brought to you by c0ld vengeance - though it IS his birthday today.) (Louis Wu 11:47:23 UTC) (permalink)
News November 13 2005
Halo 2 Soundtrack - from a High School Marching Band
Cybrfrk spent the day at the Arizona State High School marching band competition yesterday (congrats to his son's band, rated as Excellent at the event!). He was taking pictures with his digital camera when Sandra Day O'Connor High School, from Deer Valley, Arizona, took the field - they performed a program called 'Halo 2'. He recorded it using the camera's video mode - so the video is small, but the audio is fine; check out the songs they did! Eight and a half minutes, QuickTime (14.3 mb) or WMP9 (13.7 mb). (Louis Wu 18:49:24 UTC) (permalink)
That girl can't count.
Jillybean points out that the Halo Story Page has been updated. Busy beavers over there... (Louis Wu 18:33:33 UTC) (permalink)
ItWasLuck - montage
There's a pretty impressive montage over at Halo2Forum.com - ItWasLuck has released a bunch of full game vids (not montages, but start-to-finish games) with halo pros in them, now you can see some of the highlights of these and other matches. The guy is pretty impressive with a sniper rifle. 83 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 17:06:58 UTC) (permalink)
Halo for your PSP - formalized.
Mintz sends word that Halo: Portable is now online. It's all about providing Halo content for the Playstation Portable - if you have a PSP, this is a site you should visit! Check it out. (Louis Wu 16:14:32 UTC) (permalink)
Free game for Canadian DSL users
Juxtapose points out that if you're a Bell Sympatico High Speed DSL subscriber (yeah, you have to live in Canada), you can get a free Xbox or Xbox360 game when you sign up for certain Xbox Live subscriptions. Details can be found on his Arbiter's Judgement blog. (Louis Wu 16:13:43 UTC) (permalink)
Back from the Mackies.
Wow. Spent yesterday at the Machinima Festival, where Rooster Teeth went home with 3 Mackies (Excellence in Machinima Writing for P.A.N.I.C.S., Best Editing (for Strangerhood), and Best Independent Machinima (for Red vs Blue Season 3), and Chris Burke went home with Best Machinima Series for This Spartan Life. (Since we provide Chris with his movie bandwidth, I suppose you can say that HBO has award-winning bandwidth!) There were lots of other awards; these were the only Halo-related ones. Saw lots of friends, old and new, saw lots of good machinima, got inspired by panel discussions that suggested where machinima might be going in the future. All in all, a fantastic day. Put me a little behind, though, in terms of HBO... I'll do my best to catch up. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend! (Louis Wu 16:07:05 UTC) (permalink)
News November 12 2005
Machinima is growing up
Wired has an article about the Machinima Film Festival (where I'll be headed in a few hours, actually) and machinima in general - there's a brief mention of Red vs Blue, which gives us our Halo hook. (Other Halo projects will be up for awards today - they just weren't mentioned in the article.) Thanks, bluedude345. (Louis Wu 12:35:07 UTC) (permalink)
Waiting in Line - now in QT
Last night, Chairleg Productions' Waiting In Line passed the MPRRS - we'd already posted a note about it, and Chairleg said they weren't looking for hosting... but passing the MPRRS means we're happy hosting versions the original host isn't offering - so for folks who'd rather watch QuickTime (and who don't want to settle for the PSP-formatted version), you can now grab a full-size QuickTime (23 mb) of this video from us. British queue humor, applied to the Xbox360 situation - grab a copy! (And if you're seeing this for the first time, our news post from Thursday contains a WMP9 link hosted by Chairleg.) (Louis Wu 12:01:12 UTC) (permalink)
Blood Covenant Update
Halo: Blood Covenant is a 2D sidescroller we haven't heard from since May - but last night Tucker let us know that they've released a short (38 second) vid showing some of the progress they've made. The last time they released a movie, it killed their servers - so we're putting up copies of this for them - please download here. WMP is 4.1 mb, QuickTime is 4 mb. Looking pretty fun! (Louis Wu 11:51:20 UTC) (permalink)
Team3D Practice
Over at Team3D.net, F13ND sat down with Hotshy to discuss this week's practice sessions - plenty of interesting stuff for folks who want a glimpse into the pro circuit. Go read! (Louis Wu 11:42:50 UTC) (permalink)
Impetigo? Ew.
Bungie's Weekly Update was posted last night - there's quite a bit of info about some playlist changes coming in the not-too-distant future, there are answers to basic questions about interoperability between the Xbox and the Xbo360 for games like Halo, and info about how Halo and the new higher-res modes available on the 360 will work, and some weird stuff about Marty in Korea. (Pete's not as old as Frankie makes him out to be, either.) Go read! Update: Hehe - looks like I missed an entertaining thread about this last night. To TheDaringDuke - don't worry, Frankie and Shishka are jerks. Especially Frankie. (Louis Wu 11:33:12 UTC) (permalink)
News November 11 2005
Hong Kong Design meets 26th Century War Machine
Stuntmutt found some news about a series of CI-boys figures based on Xbox game characters. He hunted around until he found this - are those cute, or what? (Louis Wu 19:08:08 UTC) (permalink)
Another Warhammer40k maestro
JoeIce dropped by our forum yesterday with a pelican model he'd adapted from a Warhammer 40K piece. Today, he came back - with another dozen images, showing off the Pelican, a Master Chief, and an MC on a Ghost. That Ghost ROCKS! (Louis Wu 18:56:33 UTC) (permalink)
Who Needs The TrueSkill System?
Today's One One Se7en takes a subtle shot at a certain type of Xbox Live player. The thing is... if this is you, you probably won't get it. (Louis Wu 16:08:04 UTC) (permalink)
Busy Friday
Guess I went too long this time between Fan Fiction updates - there are 24 stories and poems to read today. Get cracking! (Louis Wu 15:55:01 UTC) (permalink)
Two Betrayals. Less than 12 minutes.
Gah. I totally spaced on putting this up earlier this week. insidi0us continues his work on speedruns (yeah, I know, we should be leaving this stuff to High Speed Halo... but insidi0us sends it here, and it's just so amazing!) - his latest target is Two Betrayals. The current run is only on Normal difficulty... but he shaved SO much time off the Going Nowhere Fast record of 25:03 that I couldn't pass it up. He finished the level in... yep, 11:52. (!!!!) Probably the sweetest move in the run comes at around 9:20... but man, the whole run just kicks. This is big - because it's long - and the quality isn't fantastic... but if you're a fan of speedruns, you gotta see this. (He released a 17:23 Legendary run last
month, so while he might not be able to get a sub-12-minute run on that difficulty, we know for sure he can beat the previous record by at least a third.) Two Betrayals, less than 12 minutes: WMP9 is 87 mb, QuickTIme is 90 mb. (Louis Wu 15:28:59 UTC) (permalink)
Smells Like A Sequel
Halo Babies has put up a new strip today... it, too, sends birthday wishes to Halo 2. It also points out one of the hazards of the Spartan uniform... (Louis Wu 15:18:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Custom Edition - Alive Again!
We got word from Dennis Powers that there's been a resurgence in HaloCE interest in the past month - more than 47 different maps have been released since October 1 (bringing the total available for download at Halo Maps to 568). Maps are getting more sophisticated since the release of the complete Halo tag set in October. Swing by and see what you can find! While you're there, you can check out the Halo CE Chronicles DVD - he's giving out the entire story (two seasons, 20 eps) to folks who've donated $10 or more to the website. (Louis Wu 15:16:11 UTC) (permalink)
They just don't understand.
Day by Day followed up yesterday's Halo-related cartoon with another Halo-related cartoon (here's the direct link, again) - this one's even funnier if you've ever run across that marine in Delta Halo... thanks again, SteelGaribaldi. (Louis Wu 15:09:51 UTC) (permalink)
Podariffic
Podcast updates we've been lax on... Podtacular released episode 24 on Monday, and episode 25 yesterday. Gamertag Radio released episode 29 Wednesday (happy birthday, Halo 2!). 2old2type released episode 12 yesterday. MLG PwnCast released episode 3 last night. Go listen! Update: The MLG PwnCast Ep III was accidentally switched for Ep II - it's now been fixed. (Louis Wu 15:03:30 UTC) (permalink)
News November 10 2005
Fight Club
Broken Console Productions have released Episode 10 of The Squadron - once again, the humans escape from the jaws of certain death. Poor Durge... this one is WMP9-only, for the time being. Go grab a copy. (Louis Wu 21:46:40 UTC) (permalink)
Reading is Fundamental.
XerxdeeJ has sent along another weekly update for Tied the Leader - and there's some great reading in there. There's a piece looking at some of the characters in movie history where the voice actor, the person who arguably made the role memorable, was not the person who physically acted the part. (Yes, this is an argument - and a solid one - in favor of keeping Halo's voice actors for the movie roles.) There's a collection of real-life items that are mirrored in Halo... and there's yet another rant against cheaters on Xbox Live. (Louis Wu 21:44:12 UTC) (permalink)
Rockin'.
Gavin Free, better known as Gavino over at Red vs Blue, was the proud winner of Lorraine McLees' Fight the Flood sketch in the recent Blow Me Away charity auction. The first round of shipments went out a couple of days ago (Bungie, specifically Jeff Todd, Alta's assistant, was ASTOUNDINGLY fast in the packing/shipping of these; the unshipped items are due to lack of info we've asked for from the buyers, or (in a couple of cases) lack of payment so far) - and Gavin sent along photos of his prize:
Once again - to everyone who participated in this event... our heartfelt thanks for your help in the hurricane relief effort! And Gav... enjoy. ;) (Louis Wu 19:47:29 UTC) (permalink)
Online Double Team Competition
Matchbox 360 is running a double-team competition next Friday, November 18, at 7 pm GMT. The winners will get copies of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos theory and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Summit Strike (one copy each, total). Swing by if you'd like to participate! Update: though it doesn't actually mention it in the rules, this tourney is UK-only. (Louis Wu 19:19:13 UTC) (permalink)
Revisiting the Chief
1UP.com has posted a Halo 2 retrospective, looking back at the history of the game, in honor of its one-year anniversary. Thanks, Tomas. (Louis Wu 16:05:40 UTC) (permalink)
Mercy Rests
Dustin Kaufman pointed out that last month, Hamilton Camp, the voice of the Prophet of Mercy in Halo 2, passed away from a heart attack. It's unclear at this point whether the voice talent from the games will be reused where appropriate in the Halo movie (though I'd suggest that it would be a good thing if it were) - but this is one voice that has been silenced. (Louis Wu 15:58:28 UTC) (permalink)
The Codex on MTV
The Codex Series has gotten a lot of attention this year - and rightly so; it's a pretty impressive machinima series from a lot of different perspectives. Recently, the entire crew headed out to LA to film a piece for mtvU's Gamer's Ball - they've written up the entire experience (with pictures) on their website. The show will air sometime next week - keep an eye out for it! (Louis Wu 15:16:57 UTC) (permalink)
Gotta watch women like that...
SteelGaribaldi points out that Halo is mentioned in the political comic Day By Day. I(If you're reading this later than November 10, you can see the cartoon itself here; the site doesn't allow for full-page linking based on URL.) (Louis Wu 15:09:54 UTC) (permalink)
Prometheus Update Number 5
Over at HaloDev, there's another massive update about Prometheus, the all-in-one Halo editor being developed. There's far too much to describe in this news post - go read, and see where they are! Thanks, Nick. (Louis Wu 14:42:34 UTC) (permalink)
Waiting in Line
Chairleg Productions has posted a new movie - it's called 'Waiting in Line', and it's available in WMP9 and MP4 formats (the latter for PSP). If you grab the PSP version, be sure to save it under "/MP_ROOT/100ANV01". This vid highlights the quintessentially British queueing system, as Spartans wait for their Xbox360s - funny! Go watch. (Louis Wu 14:37:50 UTC) (permalink)
News November 9 2005
18 score and 5 days ago...
In honor of the one-year anniversary of the release of Halo 2, there's a huge retrospective posted at Bungie.net. Bungie insiders, press representatives, and some loser fansite maintainer reminisce about the past year, and how Halo 2 has changed it. Great pics (Alta is hot in a formal evening dress), great memories. Go read. And then get on XBL and play! (Thanks, Frankie. For everything except the Kenny Rogers shot.) Update: Frankie is very unhappy that I passed over the whole 'Halo looks totally awesome in 720p running on an Xbox360 which you better have already ordered if you want to see this before the turn of the century' thing. It IS pretty cool; I passed over it because I'll be old and grey before I have a 360. Oh, wait... (Louis Wu 23:41:29 UTC) (permalink)
Gourdian Knots
The votes (almost 25,000 of them) have been tallied for the 2005 version of the Guilt O' Lantern contest... and the winners are repeat offenders! Michael Coffing, who took first place last year, did it again this year, with his Arbiter and Master Chief pumpkin. Eric Rodrigues, who took second place last year, pulled in both the second and third place prizes this year, with his renditions of Tartarus and Cortana. Both winners will be contacted via email about their prizes - but in the meantime, you can browse the pumpkins and view the final scores. Congrats to everyone who entered, and made this contest a success again! (Louis Wu 18:42:45 UTC) (permalink)
TXB Interviews Nile Rogers
Over at TeamXbox, there's an interview with Nile Rogers about the future of audio in gaming - Halo, and Marty O'Donnell, are credited with putting Sumthin Else Music (Rogers' company) on the track it's currently on. Thanks, Tempus Fugit. (Louis Wu 17:34:41 UTC) (permalink)
If Rubens did AIs...
Gruntsbane stopped by our forum to point out an interpretation of Cortana he drew (he's labeled her Not Safe For Work, because... well, because she's not wearing any clothes). She's a little more curvaceous than some other versions we've seen... but it's a pretty impressive piece! (There are also in-progress sketch links.) (Louis Wu 17:28:27 UTC) (permalink)
The Pumpkins Are Picked.
Thanks for all your voting - the 2005 Guilt O' Lantern Pumpkin Carving Contest, voting phase, is now over. We'll tally the votes of almost 6000 people later today, and announce the three top winners! (Louis Wu 13:32:20 UTC) (permalink)
Not Unlike The Whisky Diet.
Stuntmutt looks at a very real hazard brought about by Halo 2 in today's One One Se7en. Definitely appropriate for the Halo 2 anniversary... (Louis Wu 13:31:50 UTC) (permalink)
Offending Every Grunt
That Weasel points out that the latest episode of Grunts are People Too!!, episode 22, 'Offending Every Grunt', has been posted in multiple formats - this one has been put together by TW and fans, rather than Mother's Tooth, but the series lives. Singing Hunters and trampolining Grunts... oddness. (Louis Wu 13:28:00 UTC) (permalink)
A DeviantARTist hooked on Halo
Exiled Zealot found a really nice Arbiter drawing over at DeviantART - be sure to check out Kamino185's whole gallery - there are a whole bunch of Halo and Halo-related pieces in there. (Louis Wu 13:23:07 UTC) (permalink)
Best Prophet Yet.
Trickwaffle points out that today's episode of the 7th Facet webcomic celebrates the one year anniversary of the release of Halo 2. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:18:32 UTC) (permalink)
Why the Xbox succeeded
3Suns found an article at Amped IGO that counts down the five top successes for the Xbox platform - and number one, in their opinion, is The Acquisition of Bungie. (I think I'd agree.) Go read. (Louis Wu 13:15:22 UTC) (permalink)
Buy your own copy! We just don't know when.
Chappy found a pretty funny poster at his local FYE - they're advertising the presale of a game that hasn't even been announced yet. (Check out a blowup of the critical piece - they didn't even bother to make the effort to blend the central area.) This is news not because someone's trying to make a buck off this game (Gamestop and EB Games have had placeholder webpages up for it for months), but because someone actually went to the effort of creating a poster. Silliness. (Louis Wu 13:12:47 UTC) (permalink)
News November 8 2005
Halo Fr3ak's Montage
Z points out Halo Fr3ak's Montage over at Halo2Forum.com - nice timing. 96 mb. Go look. (Louis Wu 23:32:24 UTC) (permalink)
Waiting...
TeamXbox posted a piece called 'Passing Time' - ways to make the time go faster while you wait for the Xbox360. If you're in this boat, you'll find that the top two things to do on their list are Halo and Halo 2. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 23:29:50 UTC) (permalink)
Sanity? Um...
Ever wondered how to stay calm when playing Halo 2 on Xbox Live? Fett_117 has posted 20 exercises that should help. Swing by Geezer Gamers to read about it. Thanks, Zed. (Louis Wu 23:21:31 UTC) (permalink)
Tour Bungie Studios - For Charity
This year's Child's Play charity auction dinner (to be held next month) contains, among other cool things, a Tour of Bungie Studios. Tickets are $100 each (all of THAT is going to charity, too), so you can bet it won't be cheap... but hey - aren't they worth it? Thanks, Dr. Nick, who found it at Slashdot. (Louis Wu 20:04:42 UTC) (permalink)
New CE Maps from the Yayap Boyz
ofthehi77 stopped by our forum to point out 6 new downloadable maps for HaloCE. Swing by yayap.com to grab 'em! (They're BEAUTIFUL.) Update: DocOc mentioned that there's a problem with Dead End - you might want to hold off grabbing that one for a bit. (Louis Wu 19:42:31 UTC) (permalink)
Totally KimPossible.
Kevin Paul, intrepid overlord of irc.bungie.org, has been interviewed over at High Impact Halo. Go read to see what makes this guy tick. (Ducain posted this on our forum last night, but KP wouldn't let me put up a note about it until I'd hacked into the HIH servers and deleted the material about his rather questionable activities with cats and jello.) (Louis Wu 17:08:53 UTC) (permalink)
Live? Or Memorex?
Controversy still swirls about the Latino Review Halo script summary - Gamespot says they're buying it, based on Latino Review's record. Someone on the TeamXbox forums suggests that Microsoft is denying it's true. You'll have to make up your own mind - or simply accept that you'll need to wait - but remember that NOBODY who's actually involved in the making of this film has weighed in officially, yet. There's nothing that says this isn't real - and there's nothing that says it is. I will reiterate that I don't think LR has any good reason to fake this - and I will also reiterate that our policy is, and almost always has been, it ain't so until Bungie SAYS it's so. As soon as we know anything more definitive, we'll be sure to mention it. Update: El Mayimbe has added an update to his story (scroll to the bottom) - apparently a lot of Halo fans are giving him grief about the piece. Yes, it's true that a fake script was released last month - this might have made people wary. But LR has been doing these reviews for quite some time; they're not in the same class as the site that tried to build traffic with that fake release. They've EARNED credibility. (Louis Wu 15:12:01 UTC) (permalink)
TmG does their own post-mortem
Over at MLGPro.com, Dyslexia has taken time out with Trademark Gamers, who lost out to Team3D at MLG LA recently. Great read. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:04:15 UTC) (permalink)
Pumpkin Soup
Just a reminder - today is the last day to vote for the Guilt O' Lantern pumpkins. If you haven't picked your five favorites... do it now! (Louis Wu 14:06:30 UTC) (permalink)
News November 7 2005
Hardly 'Moving Pictures.'
Sometimes, I get the feeling that Stuntmutt just wants to play. I dunno - maybe it's stuff like today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:41:23 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's Reading
The weekend was busy for Fan Fiction writers - fourteen new pieces for you are up now. Go read. (Louis Wu 17:16:57 UTC) (permalink)
DropShock Ep 4
DropShock has posted Episode 4 of their podcast - they look over the Bungie weekly update, the Codex series, and loser online gamers, among other subjects. This one is definitely aimed at adults. MP3 format, 34 mb, an hour and a quarter long. (Louis Wu 15:34:34 UTC) (permalink)
The Maw, Legendary - No Shots, No Deaths
This weekend, BoneKin released a run-through of the Maw, on Legendary, without a single shot being fired. (He does use grenades - which seems reasonable, since most of the enemies you face on that level (at that difficulty) are immune to melee attacks.) It's pretty big - because it's over 18 minutes long. It's pretty cool to watch someone do this entire level, on Legendary difficulty, without ever once firing a gun (or dying). It may not be for everyone... but we've put up local mirrors (both of his original WMP9 versions and a pair of QuickTime versions) because we think folks should be able to watch this if they want to, and we don't want to crush his university connection. (All links can be found in the forum post.) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 14:11:23 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Script Reviewed?
A week ago, Tempus Fugit pointed out that a site called Latino Review was claiming to have their hands on a copy of the Halo script, and that there'd be a review this week. It's up now. There's already a rather large thread on our forum, discussing its credibility... for those who don't want to be spoiled, don't worry, there's nothing in this review that isn't in the first game or the first book. It's probably too early to be passing judgement... but if this writeup is real, I'll probably be unhappy with the final product. (I'm not looking for a movie that exactly reproduces the game I've played hundreds of times.) Thanks to El Mayimbe, of Latino Review, for the heads-up. Update: I'm just adding this to clarify - I am not accusing Latino Review of faking this review, or pulling a publicity stunt. I'm reserving SOME judgement, because the general rule around here is it ain't true until Bungie SAYS it's true (and because the date on the script reviewed is 9 months ago, and an awful lot can change in 9 months)... but there's no really good reason for LR to fake this. (Louis Wu 13:47:59 UTC) (permalink)
News November 6 2005
Blow Me Away Nets Ten K
Had to head out for a couple of hours... and now it's all over but the shouting. (Well, the paying, I guess.) You guys rock: the items for the Blow Me Away charity auction went for a total of $11,717.97, which means you guys are contributing over $10,000 to the American Red Cross hurricane relief effort (as well as taking home some pretty cool schwag). A really cool side note is that almost half of the money has ALREADY BEEN PAID. Nice. As soon as I have information from Bungie about shipping, the winners will be notified with details... congrats to all! (Louis Wu 19:03:00 UTC) (permalink)
Auctions Closing
Just a really quick note - the Blow Me Away auctions are closing now; the first three are already finished, with 13 to go. Last chances! (Louis Wu 16:56:19 UTC) (permalink)
New Toys from Joyride
Joyride has put up a number of new toys; check out the Heretic Elite, and the Heretic Banshee (among others)! Thanks, madda cheeb. (Louis Wu 16:15:13 UTC) (permalink)
Don't scratch the paint!
rockslider has updated his Bad Cyborg website with a couple of warthog joyrides you can do on the second level of Halo (the original). I'm pretty sure I've done these - but it's nice to have them delineated! (Louis Wu 15:28:53 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 23
The latest episode of Podtacular is this week's customs and call-ins episode. Go grab it. Thanks, GLewis. (Louis Wu 11:54:39 UTC) (permalink)
RvB 66: Exploring Our Differences
Red vs Blue Episode 66 was posted last night for sponsors; they've moved to the H.264 codec for their QuickTime version, which means if your processor can handle it, you can get a great-looking video that's only 9 mb (vs almost 30 mb for the other two flavors). The episode itself is pretty funny - I'm starting to feel sorry for Simmons. Not REALLY sorry... but a little bit. This ep will be available for non-sponsors by Monday. First heads-up goes to ShdwRngr. (Louis Wu 11:37:18 UTC) (permalink)
News November 5 2005
A Halo Birthday
Hehe - last weekend, I attended the birthday party of Miguel Chavez's oldest son with my kids (Rafi turned 10). The party had a Halo theme... but I didn't put up any pics or a writeup because... well, because Rafi is 10. The cake, however, was designed by Gruntsbane, over at Halo Babies, and Mig sent THEM a bunch of pics... so go check it out! (Louis Wu 22:09:43 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox360: Dreamcast 2.0?
1Up has an article comparing (and contrasting) the Dreamcast and the Xbox360 - amazing similarities, in some cases. The differences are where 1Up thinks Xbox360 will get over the hump the Dreamcast never cleared - and one of the biggest is Halo (both older versions, and 'Halo 3' - yeah, we know it's not announced yet). Thanks, DHalo. (Louis Wu 20:47:33 UTC) (permalink)
Time-Sensitive Stuff
Though for the time being, the links are bold and in-your-face, I know how easy it is to overlook stuff that's been there for a while... even when it's glowing. So here's a news post to remind you. The Blow Me Away Charity Auction ends tomorrow - the first auction to finish (the Joyride figures) ends in one day and two hours from the writing of this note, and the last to finish (the I Love Bees signed commemorative DVD) is over an hour and a half after that. (There are roughly 5 minutes between auction endings, so there's always time to jump to the next one if you get sniped.) Total bids are a bit over $9200 right now... but a few items are fantastic deals, and might go up before closing. (Shishka started an interesting thread on our forum recently, wondering why the totally unique Bungie art is selling for less than the signed posters; the thread holds some suggestions for answers, but I'd agree with him that for Bungiephiles, stuff like the Jam Board is hard to beat.) Also closing soon, but not QUITE as soon, is the voting on the 343 Guilt O' Lantern pumpkin carving contest. 5000 of you have weighed in so far - but that leaves lots and lots and LOTS of Halo fans who haven't spoken up. There's no signin required, no email to fork over... all we're looking for is your opinion on carved pumpkins. Look 'em over, label your top 5... voting closes Tuesday night, late, so there are still a couple of days to think about it. (Louis Wu 14:43:29 UTC) (permalink)
It's shorter than the Oscars, I guess.
Wonga. That Weasel has posted a note explaining that the Rockets on Prisoner Awards ceremony is now downloadable. It's... pretty long. Almost an hour and a half long. Downloadable, in either WMP9 format (228 mb) or QuickTime format (291 mb). I tried to watch it... but my QuickTime player crashed. The forum post contains plenty of other links, including text versions of all the winners, if you missed them. (Louis Wu 14:21:07 UTC) (permalink)
Torn between two goalposts
Bungie's Weekly Update is posted - stuff on upcoming playlists, plus stuff pulled from user-contributed questions. And a really awful furry Mister Chief. Go read. (Thanks, Frankie. No, really. Thanks.) (Louis Wu 01:21:57 UTC) (permalink)
News November 4 2005
Halo 2 Hacks - Excerpts
We've been given permission by Stephen Cawood, author of Halo 2 Hacks, and his publisher, O'Reilly, to bring you a few excerpts from the book itself, in PDF format. (We've also added movies that Stephen and his editor, Brian Jepson, put together to illustrate these tidbits.) Look 'em over... if you like what you see, the book has 100 entries like these! (ObDisclosure: I co-wrote the forward to this book, along with Ducain, from High Impact Halo, and Grenadiac, from HaloMods.) (Louis Wu 21:00:13 UTC) (permalink)
The Squadron Ep 9
Broken Console Productions have posted The Squadron Episode 9 - the team has almost found a way out of Turf. WMP9 is up now (14.5 mb) - the QuickTime is on its way. Go watch! (Louis Wu 20:12:00 UTC) (permalink)
RvB community members, in 16M colors
Elnea's been messing with her new Wacom tablet - the last few avatars she's made have all been created with it. Check this one out - she found out that her dad visits RvB. (Remember that Elnea is a mom herself, in her 40s.) Ouch! (Louis Wu 20:09:36 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Level Transcripts posted
mnemesis, along with a bunch of helpers, has managed to get all but two Halo 2 level transcripts online at the Halo Story Page - only Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone are missing. Go read both posts for more details, especially if you'd like to help out with the missing levels! (Louis Wu 19:59:55 UTC) (permalink)
If You Want Art, Buy A Painting.
Stuntmutt, ever the cynic, points out that when talking about the upcoming Halo movie, what the fans want and what will actually happen might not be the same thing in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:59:17 UTC) (permalink)
Fanfic - going downhill?
When I visited the Fan Fiction queue this morning, I was a little nervous - it was huge. Turned out, though, that much of it was spam, and some of it was porn. (Sorry - even if it's on-topic, I've got to draw the line at porn.) At least two entries were folks attempting to get around the 750-word minimum by adding garbage at the start and finish of their piece. When all the extras were stripped away, we were left with 9 entries. Go read. (Louis Wu 17:40:41 UTC) (permalink)
Talkin' 'bout Halo
The Tied The Leader blog has quite a bit of fun reading at the moment... there's a response to the article we mentioned yesterday, in which a female college student rails against Halo 2 for stealing her boyfriend; there's a short note about a photoshop contest over at Fark, and there's a great writeup of a LAN event put on by the 2old2play WEST Clan, in which much fun was had and money was raised for charity. Go read! (It's interesting; that article about gaming vs relationships has spawned quite a bit of discussion; there was this thread on our forum yesterday, and a new one today.) (Louis Wu 17:08:32 UTC) (permalink)
Shishka is a wee girl.
This week's Halo Humpday Challenge pitted the Bungie guys against the Cayote Cavegirls - they lost 2 out of 3 (both teams agreed to call the third game a draw). Ouch! Good writeup, though. Frankie continues to hog credit (though at least he's getting creative with his FIRST subject lines). (Louis Wu 14:03:20 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 22
Podtacular has posted its weekly Tips show - this episode focuses on Beaver Creek. Go listen. (Louis Wu 13:40:43 UTC) (permalink)
FPS Conventions that Need to Die
char pointed out an article over at Gamepro that looks at things that are wrong with First Person Shooters, in general; Halo is held up as an example of how NOT to get it wrong. Go read! (Louis Wu 13:37:02 UTC) (permalink)
What's the draw?
LegendaryMark wrote an article examining why so many players stick with Halo 2, even though the universe of multiplayer games continues to expand. Swing by halowiki.net to read it! (Louis Wu 13:34:48 UTC) (permalink)
DOA is JEALOUS
Over at Halo Babies, some of the DOA girls take shots at poor Spartan 458... meanies. Thanks, mrsmiley. (Louis Wu 13:27:55 UTC) (permalink)
News November 3 2005
Noobs Guide to Halo 2 Flanking
F13ND has posted the next installment of his 'Noobs Guide' over at Team3D - this one gives some tips on flanking, with the help of Saiyan. If you didn't get this the first time around, this guide is NOT for noobs - it's for anyone looking to improve their gameplay, by focusing on advanced strategy tips. (In fact... it can't even be USED by noobs, since the descriptions and techniques that are suggested tend to be things that beginners would have no clue about.) That said - these are great reads. Go check this one out. (Louis Wu 22:07:05 UTC) (permalink)
Action Figure Update
Looks like you can buy all the Series 4 action figures directly from the Bungie Store. (You can buy them from a lot of places - but the profit from the Bungie store goes towards the World Domination effort.) Thanks, LegendaryMark. (Louis Wu 16:06:28 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 and dating not compatible
The South Dakota State University Collegian has an article on why Halo 2 might be losing you dates. Duh. (Of course, this doesn't apply if your girlfriend plays Halo...) (Louis Wu 16:03:55 UTC) (permalink)
Halo2Forum Video Mania
Four new movies at Halo2Forum today - The Last Man Standing (12.7 mb) is a Halo 1 story summed up by its title, and there's a montage trailer from Domain Productions (21 mb), a demo of a mod that turns Banshees in to X-Wing fighters (28.3 mb), and a montage/gameplay vid from OscarMayerNinja (73 mb), where games are broken into 'missions'; there's less cutting, and more fast-forwarding. All vids except the domain productions vid are in WMP9 format - that one is .AVI. (Louis Wu 15:59:21 UTC) (permalink)
Age != Maturity
Normally, there's enough content over the course of a week that the Tied The Leader Halo blog gets a single wrapup mention. We got mail from 3Suns, though, suggesting that a new article, 'Open Letter to the Timothy', deserved a mention of its own. Upon reading, I'd agree. XerxdeeJ points out that not every young player deserves to be lumped in with the screaming 'Timothys' made famous by 2old2play - sometimes, having young 'uns on your (older) team can be a good thing. Go read. (Louis Wu 15:29:08 UTC) (permalink)
Lothar Halo
The current episode of Exterminatus Now (a webcomic) contains some game-related wallpapers in the text writeup (scroll down to the bottom) - the Lothar Hex paper is Halo-related. (Pretty cool, too.) Thanks to Hanchen Lu for the heads-up (we heard from Lothar Hex, as well, but he was about 6 hours behind). (Louis Wu 15:17:33 UTC) (permalink)
News November 2 2005
Narc Holds Forth
Narcogen, of Rampancy.net, was interviewed by Taso, of the High Impact Halo forums, and the result can be found in that same place. Where DID this guy come from, and what does he do now? Go read to find out. Thanks, Ducain. (Louis Wu 22:08:52 UTC) (permalink)
Cairopractors.
Today's One One Se7en takes a different look at Dead or Alive 4... no pining for a curvaceous Spartan this time. (Louis Wu 15:37:40 UTC) (permalink)
HIH already stole the best headline for this.
Ash pointed out a pretty fun vid that got front-paged over at High Impact Halo; a live marine, launched up to the double-bridge on AotCR. It got the thumbs-up from Ducain, as well. It tickles my funnybone that today, less than two weeks from the fourth anniversary of the release of Halo, people are STILL finding new things to do with the original game. You can grab two different WMP9 vids in the forum thread that the HIH newspost will get you to, a short one showing just the successful jump and a longer one showing some pretty entertaining buildup - we're gonna offer you a QuickTime version of the longer one, as well, because... well, because we're like that. Nice work, SneakyPete! (Louis Wu 14:53:01 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 21
Podtacular episode 21 is up - this one focuses on clans and community updates. 10 mb, half an hour long. Go listen! (Louis Wu 13:54:20 UTC) (permalink)
Who else?
Designation Se7en is a webcomic - that's devoted its 343rd episode to a Halo funni. Thanks, Coolhand2. (Louis Wu 13:46:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo, raising cash
Blow Me Away, the charity auction to benefit hurricane victims, continues to gather eyeballs and bids (to date, the auctions have over 150,000 pageviews and are hovering right around $9000, with four days to go), but if you're in Auckland, New Zealand, there's an auction tonight for a different cause. At the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre, they're having their annual fundraising gala tonight... and part of the festivities include a charity auction, which includes, among other cool items, a Peter Jackson-autographed Xbox with Halo 2. You can read the details at Scoop. (Louis Wu 13:27:19 UTC) (permalink)
News November 1 2005
Carved Styrofoam and Tasty Fishes
Joe Staten has written the third installment of his Great Hollywood Journey (the first piece was mentioned here, and the second here) - he's just returned from touring WETA's studios in New Zealand, and he sounds positively giddy. Go read. Then yell at Frankie for always hogging the credit. (Louis Wu 23:02:32 UTC) (permalink)
PoA Uniforms, Updated
Stephen Loftus used Guerilla (part of the Halo Editing Kit released for use with HaloCE) to overhaul some of the information in his Uniforms on the Pillar of Autumn article. Go check out what's there now! (Louis Wu 23:01:58 UTC) (permalink)
For you REALLY late starters...
Whoa. Now THERE'S a deal. Australian Halo'ers can buy a Halo 2 Xbox Live Kit - for $99.99 (about $75 US) you get the Halo 2 Limited Edition (pretty hard to find these days!), plus 12 months of Xbox Live and a communicator. Sounds like a great deal! Thanks, AussieXbox. (Louis Wu 22:53:48 UTC) (permalink)
Pumpkin Voting is OPEN
Well... I was planning on gussying up the interface a bit (my php skills are just SLIGHTLY better than they were last year at this time...), but time is an omnibus. (Don't even ask.) The deadline for entries to our 343 Guilt O' Lantern pumpkin carving competition came and went last night... and when the dust settled, there were 53 entries. Some are funny, some are simple, some will take your breath away. The rules for judging are the same as they were last year: you have five votes, they all count evenly. You have a week to cast them (though you have to cast them all at once; you can't vote for 3, then come back and vote for 2 more). Voting opens right now, and will close sometime next Tuesday, late. (Or maybe Wednesday morning, if I'm not around Tuesday night.) Please, please, PLEASE read the directions - if you vote for the wrong pumpkins, those pumpkins are getting your votes, because we're not messing with stuff. Look over ALL the pumpkins; if you pick 5 from the first page, you'll be skipping some killer entries. In fact, the 'next page' button at the bottom of the page simply cycles around; once you're done, you start over. So look through everything, maybe ruminate for a day or two, THEN vote. (Or vote right away - but look at everything first.) If you've forgotten what the winners go home with, check back on our contest page for the prize lists. Tell your friends to vote - but don't tell them HOW to vote; make this a fair contest, no ballot stuffing! This is all about fun, and I gotta say, there are some amazing pumpkins again this year. Go see! (Louis Wu 18:30:24 UTC) (permalink)
I bet they could ebay those for a lot.
Marty Wells sent along a couple of pictures (this one and this one) showing 2 months of work for the Halloween costumes they wore last night, a "fun night of costume contests and bar hopping." The original filename of the first one was "My name is Michael J Caboose and I hate BABIES.JPG" - do you think they're RvB fans? Pretty nice work! (Louis Wu 11:56:50 UTC) (permalink)
XBList 2.0 Released
Ben Hollis writes to let us know that XBList has been updated to version 2.0; it's now compatible with the new Xbox.com, has the ability to load XBL Gamer Tiles as well as Halo 2 emblems, and can popup notifications when your friends sign on and off. It's a Windows program. Check it out! (Louis Wu 11:51:43 UTC) (permalink)
A new face for MLG
MLGPro has completely overhauled their site and forums; the focus is much more on user interaction. I could live without some of the Flash... but it's certainly more powerful from a community-building standpoint. Reaction on their forums is split between folks who love it and folks who hate it. Video on Demand, while still not Mac-accessible, is now FAR more searchable and sortable. And there are a few new articles to read over, some about the changes, others of more general interest (there's a player spotlight on Ogre 2, for example). Check it out! Thanks to several people for pointing this out - Ryan Etsell was first. (Louis Wu 11:48:47 UTC) (permalink)
More Cowbell
There's a writeup of Saturday night's Video Games Live concert in Seattle over on Bungie.net; sounds like the Bungie guys had a pretty good time! Marty says I shouldn't give up on the concert series... Marty's a pretty nice guy. I can definitely get behind Frankie's call for more cowbell! (His 'First' post on our forum actually made me laugh.) (Louis Wu 11:23:56 UTC) (permalink)
| November 2005 | |
