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November 2010

November 2010 Archived News

News November 30 2010

New Playlists Up
In case you missed it, the Noble Map Pack is out - and there are two new playlists to fill your need for carnage. DLC has games specifically on the three new maps - a mix of objective and slayer types. And Grab Bag has Firefight VS. (Finally!) Go play! (The new maps will also show up in the regular lists - but if you want to be GUARANTEED time on them, use the DLC list.) (Louis Wu 21:10:18 UTC) (permalink)

360 Junkies Noble Map Pack Review
ikillbambis sent word that there's a preview of the Noble Map Pack over at 360 Junkies - give it a read! (Louis Wu 21:07:14 UTC) (permalink)

Devin-Sent - Noble Version
Devin Olsen found himself in possession of 7 (count 'em, 7) Noble Map Pack codes - if you swing by the Devin-Sent page, you can put your name in the hat to win one! (Please - if you already have the maps, do NOT enter. If you have a friend who needs them, get them to enter for themselves.) Hurry - the window is just 8 hours long; this contest ends at 7pm PST, and codes will be distributed soon after. (Louis Wu 19:05:09 UTC) (permalink)

HaloCharts Player Analyzer
Firestream let us know that HaloCharts has set up a new Player Analyzer; simply put in your gamertag, and the page will analyze a collection of stats in Competitive, Arena, and Invasion, and help you see what areas need improvement! (Warning: if your stats are like mine, prepare to see a lot of orange and red.) (Louis Wu 15:29:43 UTC) (permalink)

Remaking Halo?
Moorpheusl9 noticed a small tidbit at CVG - according to the UK Magazine Games Master, 343 Industries is working on a remake of the first Halo game, to be released next year. Certainly something folks have been asking for! Update: not really news, but a "Microsoft spokesperson" told Eurogamer that they "have nothing to announce at this time" with regard to this rumor. (Thanks, ElzarTheBam.) Posted so that anyone looking for info on this can find all the links in one place. (Louis Wu 13:34:44 UTC) (permalink)

Free Noble, Reach from IGN
IGN is giving away Noble Map Pack codes - and Legendary Editions of Reach. Check this article for details. (Louis Wu 13:33:52 UTC) (permalink)

Noble Flythroughs from Waypoint
Waypoint's Mr Vociferous did his own flythrough of the three new maps - check out Anchor 9, Breakpoint, and Tempest. These maps are BEAUTIFUL! (Louis Wu 13:33:28 UTC) (permalink)

Tempest Tour
GhaleonEB ran through Tempest last night, for folks who haven't had a chance to download the maps yet - check it out! No voiceover, of course (it's Bungie Pro video), but you can get a decent sense of the layout, and some of critical features. (Louis Wu 13:33:07 UTC) (permalink)

News November 29 2010

Waypoint's Wildness
There was no weekly roundup of articles on Halo Waypoint this weekend (probably because it was a holiday week), so we've done our own. Some of the content already hit our front page - here's the stuff we missed:

• bs angel summarized Noble Map Pack coverage around the web - some of these links made our front page, some didn't. Nice to have them all in one place! (There's a second batch here.)
• Anoj's most recent Top 10 film covers no-scopes - and when you're done watching it, Alison reminds you of a classic Halo 3 film... and a parody you may have missed.
• Chimp whipped up a Halo: Reach montage - lots of multikills. If you're jonesin' for a montage high because urk's been on vacation, check this out!
• The Waypoint Top 5 crew will be hosting a community playdate tomorrow, to celebrate the new maps - join 'em!
• GrifballHub picked a Grifball Team of the Month, and the interview (along with a highlights video) is up on Waypoint.
• The first episode of 'Franchise Player' is now live. Check out this Rooster Teeth-created miniseries.
• The second part of 'The Arbiter' is up - get more info on this Covenant bigwig!
• The latest Outreach episode has Vociferous talking to Forward Unto Dawn's Dani while they play through a game of Team Headhunter - go listen!

Lots of good stuff! Go expore. (Louis Wu 23:20:49 UTC) (permalink)

8 codes from Shacknews
Shacknews is giving away 8 Noble Map Pack codes to US residents - all you need to do is have a Shack account and post a single comment in this story to be entered to win. Codes will be distributed tomorrow - get in the game! Thanks, Brian. (Louis Wu 23:02:49 UTC) (permalink)

Coming to an Xbox near you
Bungie posted a teaser for the Noble Map Pack, which hits the interwebs tomorrow - and if you were quick, you might have noticed that the alt tags for the images housed download codes for the pack. (All gone now, of course.) Sneaky! Still worth a read - nice pics! (Louis Wu 22:54:01 UTC) (permalink)

New content at ForgeHub
ForgeHub summarized a couple of week's worth of updates for Bungie's Comm Chatter today - so we'll just point you to it. Go explore! (Louis Wu 19:37:09 UTC) (permalink)

The Noblest Moment - Results
munky-058 held a screenshot contest recently - and because he was offering Noble Map Pack codes as prizes, he got a LOT of submissions. Well, he's picked his faves - and you can see them, along with a number of honorable mentions, in this post. Congrats to the winners! And to everyone involved - fantastic shots, all around. (Louis Wu 18:08:19 UTC) (permalink)

Arby 'n' the Chief: The Mail Room II
The latest Arby 'n' the Chief is the second in the 'Mail Room' series - questions from fans, answered by action figures. Go watch! (Louis Wu 18:05:54 UTC) (permalink)

News November 28 2010

Rated Hyper Lethal
ZZoMBiE13 has got to take a break from Halo artwork for a while; he's got some other stuff eating up his free time. He did provide one last piece for your enjoyment, though - check out 'Rated Hyper Lethal', with Master Chief and Noble Six joining forces! (Louis Wu 23:11:38 UTC) (permalink)

Forgineers Giveaway
Yeshy let us know that the Forgineers are holding a monthly giveaway; December's starts now. You've got a chance at the Special Edition Wireless Xbox 360 controller with Play and Charge kit - go see what you need to do! (Louis Wu 23:03:38 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction - on Sunday
Looks like the Fan Fiction update never happened this week - but then, it's only one piece. Go check it out. (Louis Wu 23:03:04 UTC) (permalink)

Noble Map Pack, Streamed
Destructoid got their hands on the Reach DLC maps a bit early, and put up a couple of gaming sessions showing them off (one session here, the second one here). These were broadcast live yesterday - don't expect a polished presentation. (Louis Wu 22:47:15 UTC) (permalink)

Randomosity
Stephen Loftus whipped up a really cool cutaway pic of a Pelican - and as a bonus, put together a composite shot of some Reach action figures. Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:36:20 UTC) (permalink)

Guard Duty - Pages 1-7
A couple of days ago, Hedgemony posted the first several pages of his 'Guard Duty' comic on our forum (Pages 1-3 are here, 4-6 are here, and 7 is here) - hosting was a tad dicey, which is why Grim left these alone, but I've localized them now, so seeing them shouldn't be a problem. Check it out - and keep your eye out for Week 2, coming soon! (Louis Wu 22:34:31 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Reach Daily - helping with challenges
Last week, Grim mentioned FoxmanFX's 'The Challenge Review Daily' series - both Sam, via email, and RC Master, on our forum, pointed out Halo Reach Daily, a website devoted to the same task. Always nice to have more options! (Louis Wu 22:33:50 UTC) (permalink)

Hints for the future
Hey, it's great to be back in the land of the interwebs! A huge thank-you to GrimBrother One for holding down the fort while I was gone. on our forum today: LoneRanger 2.5 noticed a tweet from Bungie's Jonty Barnes - what's going on in the Fortress of Redmonditude? (Louis Wu 22:24:46 UTC) (permalink)

News November 27 2010

Fails of the Weak: Episode 10
ZZoMBiE13 let us know that Achievement Hunter's Fails of the Weak: Episode 10 is up on the 'Tube. Certain types of stupidity just never get old... Go and check it out! (GrimBrother One 15:25:24 UTC) (permalink)

News November 26 2010

This price is not a natural formation
Multiple forum members have pointed this out over the past few days, but just as a reminder, Halo: CE on Xbox Originals is just 400msp today only, and it looks like it's not just a U.S. deal. If you have been looking to download the original hawtness, go and get it while it's on the cheap! (GrimBrother One 22:37:22 UTC) (permalink)

Project Lumoria
Thanks to Subtank for stopping by to let us know that the hotly anticipated Halo: CE mod was released today. Definitely go and give this a play! (GrimBrother One 22:34:13 UTC) (permalink)

OpinionsAreNotCanon
So, not everyone loves Halo, and that's totally okay. in fact, sometimes it's good for even rabid fans to take an objective look at opinions on both sides of the fence. Helps with perspective. Exhibit 17b: A recent Eurogamer editorial piece on why the opinion-giver hated Halo. Go and give it a read and some thought. Thanks to kapowaz for noticing. (GrimBrother One 22:26:03 UTC) (permalink)

Helix Perfection
GodlyPerfection dropped in to ask our help beta testing a map. What he doesn't realize is that the pleasure is ours when the maps are as awesome as Helix. Make sure you download this and try it out, and don't forget to give feedback! (GrimBrother One 22:22:07 UTC) (permalink)

News November 25 2010

Noble Quicklooks Complete
Just in time for turkey dinner, Bungie has completed the Noble Quick Looks for your viewing pleasure. Go and check out the awesome that is Breakpoint, along with videos from Tempest and Anchor 9. Then go eat something! (GrimBrother One 14:56:55 UTC) (permalink)

Happy Tanksgiving
Going to be a bit slow on the Newsfront today, mainly from the turkey induced coma I'm liable to slip into. From all of ours to all of yours, have an awesome and happy Thanksgiving holiday. Unless of course, you don't celebrate it, in which case, I hope your Thursday is spectaularly lazy and and filled with good food and Halo-humoring family. :-) (GrimBrother One 05:37:37 UTC) (permalink)

Onyx Friday Sale at the old Bungie Store
Bungie sends word that they are not only throwing a big sale on some old favorites at the Bungie Store, but also dropping some sweet new Aerospace gear on it's unsuspecting fanbase. Do want! If you want to know what to get Grim for Christmas, go check it out! (GrimBrother One 04:51:36 UTC) (permalink)

News November 24 2010

Relatively Revenant
Waypoint has a new ordnance piece up, and this time, it's on the Revenant. Nice renders, and good info... go and give it a look! (GrimBrother One 22:16:44 UTC) (permalink)

Daily Challenge Reviews
FoxmanFX has been putting together Halo: Reach Daily Challenge Reviews for a bit now, where he takes a look at each challenge and offers tips and hints for getting them in the most effecient ways, as well as helping estimate difficulty and the skill level required for each one. It might be a tough thing to keep up with every day for the Front Page, but he's doing an awesome thing for the community, and you should always check out his posts on our forum for ways to make your daily challenge gathering a bit easier. Thanks Fox! (GrimBrother One 17:31:03 UTC) (permalink)

More Noble Quick Looks
Bungie wants to make sure that everyone knows about their Noble Map Pack Quick Look videos that have been hitting the web the past two days. An awesome look at the new maps with great commentary. YouTube links are now up for Tempest, joining Anchor 9 from yesterday. JDQuackers also started a thread about it on our forum, where urk let us know that Breakpoint's Quick Look would be out tomorrow. Go and watch! (GrimBrother One 17:11:49 UTC) (permalink)

2100 MSP and a Banshee
Bry noticed an article on x360a.org about a new Reach-themed promotion for the UK/EU market. Looks like you can grab 2100 points and get a Banshee Avatar Prop for a nice price. Here is the Amazon UK listing for it if you are interested. While you're shopping, Crudeoyl also noticed an offer from Game UK that might grab your attention if you haven't picked up the Reach LE yet. Thanks guys! (GrimBrother One 17:00:59 UTC) (permalink)

Sparkast 002
Yesterday David Ellis from 343 sent word that Sparkast 002 was live. It's a great listen, with one segment spent talking with urk and Mantis at Bungie about the Noble Map Pack, and the second segment involving David, Frankie, and Burnie Burns (from Rooster Teeth) talking about... well... lots of odd stuff. Mix in some good conversation between David and 343's Vociferous, and you've got a plesant time for your ears. Direct download is here, and you can also get it from Zune, iTunes, or Waypoint. padraig08 also started a topic on our forum about it. Check it out! (GrimBrother One 16:46:31 UTC) (permalink)

Not a flash clone
Sparkypinball found a spare moment to share a great pic of his new Bungie fan. Big congrats to everyone involved (Sparky got the fun part)! (GrimBrother One 16:21:25 UTC) (permalink)

News November 23 2010

Filled to the Brimstone
Our own humble CaneCutter dropped by to let us know that he has a new map ready for consumption and destruction, and it's called Brimstone. I've played on it personally, and can definitely say it's an absolute blast. Go and check it out! Map not suited for cats and small children (GrimBrother One 16:00:52 UTC) (permalink)

More Noble Behaviour from Waypoint
Over at Waypoint, there are a couple of items you might enjoy. First up is a guided tour of Anchor 9, followed by an interview with Bungie's Eric Osborne and Derek Carroll about the fast-approaching Noble Map Pack. bs angel also provided a handy look at a bunch of press impressions of the maps. Check it out! (GrimBrother One 15:07:32 UTC) (permalink)

360 Turns 5
Thanks to padraig08 for pointing out that the Xbox 360 just celebrated it's 5th birthday! Sheesh, even THAT makes me feel old. Happy Birthday to the current home of Halo! (GrimBrother One 15:01:11 UTC) (permalink)

New Alexandria Tourist Board
RC Master decided to blow the roof off Reach with his outstanding guide to the New Alexandria skies. I can pretty much guarantee that you will learn something new by checking this out. Very cool! (GrimBrother One 14:56:09 UTC) (permalink)

Claylo 3: ODST
Brighton stopped by to show off a couple of shots from a CG clay render he did of his ODST Model. The results are simply stunning. If you didn't know this wasn't actually clay, you'd never believe it. Make sure you stop by his full gallery to check out some more of his awesome art! (GrimBrother One 14:49:17 UTC) (permalink)

Do the votes from Korea count?
Hawaiian Pig brought to everyone's attention a special feature going on at G4tv.com called Videogame Deathmatch. The particular battle he let us know about is Halo: Reach vs Starcraft 2, and it's a tight one! (That's what she- never mind) Go and cast your vote! (GrimBrother One 14:28:42 UTC) (permalink)

Shortacular Episode 2
A while back, hyokin showed off a new machinima project he was working on called Shortacular. It got a bit lost in the shuffle, but Episode 2 also went live recently, and is short, sweet, and definitely worth checking out. So go do it! (GrimBrother One 14:21:05 UTC) (permalink)

News November 22 2010

Halo (the original) for really cheap
Whoa. FyreWulff pointed out that starting tomorrow, and running through November 29, Halo: Combat Evolved will cost 400MSP (a 67% price reduction) - if you don't have a copy, $5 is a hard price to pass up! (There are a bunch of other games with vastly reduced prices - check his post for full details.) Update: KP clarified that the list from Kotaku (which is where FyreWulff found this info) was incomplete; Halo will ONLY be on sale on Friday, November 26. Keep that in mind when you're gearing up to purchase... (Louis Wu 22:56:16 UTC) (permalink)

Bring loads of money - and leave the lawyers
Frank O'Connor talked to Kotaku recently about the idea of a Halo movie - he really sounds pretty positive about the whole idea. Thanks, CaptainTony! Update: looks like Kotaku might have... um, gotten some of the details wrong. Thanks, Frankie. (Louis Wu 20:37:42 UTC) (permalink)

Oblivion in Halo Reach
Odd - soFallenfilms created an Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion machinima... in the Reach engine. Sort of. Man, if you got in trouble every time you picked up a weapon... heh. Thanks, Moorpheusl9. (Louis Wu 20:22:52 UTC) (permalink)

Forge Lesson 38: Dance Floor
GodlyPerfection is back with another Forge Lesson - the 38th installment makes an argument for wide-open spaces. Go read! (Louis Wu 20:12:40 UTC) (permalink)

Euro Grifball League Signups - Open Now
Goosechecka sent along another piece of Grifball news - Signups for the European Grifball Winter League opened today, and will run through November 27th. Play starts on November 29. Full info can be found at GrifballHub. (Louis Wu 19:45:44 UTC) (permalink)

More Waypoint Goodies
Grim already mentioned the Waypoint Noble Map Pack gameplay - while you're over there, they've got a couple of other videos you might enjoy watching. There's an OutREACH feature with the 405th's Adam Grumbo, and a trailer for 'Franchise Player', a new Grifball miniseries coming soon to the channel. Go watch! (Louis Wu 18:35:17 UTC) (permalink)

Full Length Noble
Make sure you stop by Waypoint today for full-match videos from the New Noble Map Pack. Go and check out the new digs! (GrimBrother One 18:14:50 UTC) (permalink)

IGN weighs in on DLC maps
IGN has THEIR Noble Map Pack review up now, as well (thanks, ChrisTheeCrappy) - they've also got video footage, and text-based impressions. Pretty positive overview! (Louis Wu 17:25:46 UTC) (permalink)

GamesRadar looks at The Noble Map Pack
ElzarTheBam noticed a review of the Noble Map Pack on GamesRadar - videos of all three maps (look at the maps, not the gameplay) and some written impressions. There's also a sentence which might raise a few eyebrows:

In fact, they're giving us 30% more Halo: Reach next week for absolutely free.

We haven't goten confirmation from Bungie or Microsoft yet, but I'd assume that's a mistake; Gamestop, for example, expects to sell this product for $10. Right or wrong, though, the review is a decent look at the upcoming maps. Update: looks like GR corrected the post (thanks, Decommissioner) - the maps are not free. (This should come as a surprise to NOBODY.) (Louis Wu 17:24:20 UTC) (permalink)

The Great Escape
BierWiser found a pretty cool video clip from a game on Spire - and filmed it from a number of angles, so you could see what was going on. Luckiest player EVAR! (Louis Wu 17:23:39 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Service Record App
On NeoGAF, user bluestuff pointed out a free app for iPhones/iPods/iPads to give you B.net stats, challenges, and screenshots - not bad! (Louis Wu 17:22:07 UTC) (permalink)

News November 21 2010

Do a Barrel Roll!
Goosechecka sent word of a new Tips and Tricks video available at GrifballHub - a Barrel Roll is a Reach-only move (requires the Evade armor ability) that can have you scoring (or faking out your opponent) in no time! Check it out. (Louis Wu 16:11:43 UTC) (permalink)

Fighting with Fairfax Promo Vid
A few days ago, we mentioned the Fighting With Fairfax outREACH Tournament, an upcoming event that will raise money for Infantile Spasms awareness. We got word from ElusiveEagle that there's now a fun promo vid - you should go watch it! Again, registration is $10/person, with all proceeds going to the fight against Infantile Spasms, and tons of cool prizes available. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:29:42 UTC) (permalink)

Devin-Sent, Round 4 - Winner
Devin Olsen's latest giveaway came to a close yesterday - congratulations to Legend6, this week's winner! He'll be receiving a green MEGA Bloks Spartan in the mail. And thanks to Devin, for his generosity in running these giveaways! (Louis Wu 15:23:27 UTC) (permalink)

Catching Up with Halo Waypoint
If you haven't been to the Halo Waypoint website recently, you've been missing a ton of stuff! First, let's cover the exclusive content you won't find elsewhere:

• Their latest Community Outreach video features Damian Lacedaemion and Fib3roptik, from This Spartan Life. They talk about what they do and what they like about Reach while killing grunts with rockets on Outpost. Fun!
• A Different Way to Campaign continues with 'Boarding Action' - how many Banshees can you board in a row? I remember people trying stuff like this in Halo 2... seems MUCH more dangerous now.
• The Arbiter, Part 1 gives you an overview of one of the central figures of Halo 2 (and an important character in Halo 3, as well) - if you raced through the games, this will help you understand what you missed.

When you're through with those, bs angel has done a marvelous job of summarizing the latest fan-created content Waypoint's highlighted over the past week - here are some juicy tidbits:

• The Waypoint Wringer highlights the woman who wore Kat armor to PAX 2010 - go check out the person under the plating!
• The Halo: Reach Map of the Week is 'Donkey Kong' - I'm not sure I understand how it works, but it looks rather insane!
• Frack19 built an Elite costume which looks pretty scary!

There's other stuff in there - go explore! (Louis Wu 15:22:56 UTC) (permalink)

Conquering Reach Mythic - an update
RC Master stopped in with a summary of the current status of Reach Mythic Conquest - there are currently 7 soldiers who've beaten the entire campaign on this difficulty! If you want to try and join them, the forum post has all the links you'll need. (Louis Wu 15:07:38 UTC) (permalink)

Crashed Episode 2
shiruken let us know that the Treeskunk crew posted Crashed Episode 2 yesterday - our phallically-named heroes have a plan for getting off the ring they find themselves on. Too bad they're pretty awful at planning... (Louis Wu 15:06:39 UTC) (permalink)

That's just MEAN, man. That's just MEAN.
kylej pointed out a pretty funny clip from Spire that should be promoted as a Blame Stosh clip... except that it's going to be almost 2 weeks before we get another Blame Stosh opportunity. So we're showing it to you now. This one's adding injury to insult... (Louis Wu 15:05:51 UTC) (permalink)

News November 20 2010

I... um...
What is this I don't even (Thanks, NOKYARD. Thanks a LOT.) Update: ZZoMBiE13 made this even odder. (I'm astounded, however, at how well this works...) (Louis Wu 17:30:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Guard Duty (prologue)
Hedgemony has kicked off his 'Guard Duty' comic with a prologue - check it out! (Louis Wu 17:16:42 UTC) (permalink)

Grifball FTW - the Reach Version
Bryan Simon wrote a song called 'Grifball FTW' about 2 years ago - he just released an updated version that references Reach, rather than Halo 3. Go listen. Thanks, lostguru. (Louis Wu 16:55:46 UTC) (permalink)

Closin' out the week
The Bungie Weekly Update (the last for a couple of weeks, since next Friday is the day after Thanksgiving) is live now - there's a great interview with artist Rob Adams, discussing the Noble Map Pack offerings, and how their fun was maximized by the team that built them. Give it a read! (And check out Stosh's cat.) It is, of course, also available in our Weekly Update Archive, for folks who need that. (Louis Wu 16:53:21 UTC) (permalink)

News November 19 2010

Thelma and Louise move is awesome
Wayward Spleen™ noticed that Fails of the Weak Volume 9 is live - the commentary makes this worth watching. Go enjoy it. (Louis Wu 20:27:54 UTC) (permalink)

Crowdsourcing the Map Problem
More Forge goodies at Bungie today: HaloTracker has a whole bunch of maps in their Community Files section - check the B.net post for a summary of the juiciest... and The WorkPLace has a second Map Pack for your customs pleasure - the B.net post contains descriptions of each of its components. It's the weekend - get some new maps! (Louis Wu 20:10:28 UTC) (permalink)

Montages, Top 10s, and can't we all just get along?
Videos to watch on Bungie's Comm Chatter today: FBWalshyFTW has two for you - a Halo 3 montage from MLG Pro Best Man, and a leadoff for a new series that attempts to bring together casuals and the MLG crowd... and Anoj has the 100th Top 10 video in his series (across all games), highlighting accidental betrayals in Reach. Check 'em! (Louis Wu 19:07:54 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Mythic Guide: Nightfall
Tyrant's latest chapter in the 'beat Reach senseless' campaign focuses on Nightfall - probably the easiest Reach campaign level to complete with all skulls on. Why? Because... well, because you don't really have to play it! Go read the short and sweet guide. (And if you're working your way through on Legendary difficulty, he's up to Tip of the Spear - a two-parter - on YouTube...) (Louis Wu 16:23:48 UTC) (permalink)

TPP: How to Score (Attack) Week 1
Geekscape's Brian Gilmore let us know that the Teabag Prevention Team is moving on to Score Attack (since they finished the last Armor Ability last week). First up: Sniper Attack. Wanna maximize your score? Give this a read. (Louis Wu 15:37:38 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's Top 10 Reach Kills - 11.17.10
IGN has posted their latest Top 10 Kills video - I thought #6 and #2 were great. (Thanks to ChrisTheeCrappy - who liked #10 - for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 15:36:38 UTC) (permalink)

Fire Team Zulu: A Walk in the Park
FyreWulff has a new Fire Team Zulu challenge for you - it's a Reach Campaign challenge, Winter Contingency with Tough Luck (and a couple of silver skulls) on. Pick your difficulty! (Louis Wu 15:35:16 UTC) (permalink)

Check for sniper EVERY TIME YOU SPAWN
Last year, we mentioned a few videos from "The World's Greatest Halo 3 Player" - they were pretty funny. He's back - with his first Reach video. I'm pretty sure he stole one of my saved films, though... (Thanks, El Presidente81) (Louis Wu 15:34:36 UTC) (permalink)

H3 Double EXP Weekend: Mythic Brawl
FyreWulff pointed out that the Halo 3 Double XP Weekend Playlist this week (live as of yesterday) is Mythic Brawl - this might be your best chance to get that 2-for-1 Laser Kill Achievement. (Oh, wait, that's me.) (Louis Wu 15:33:51 UTC) (permalink)

NMPD Falcon, Envisioned
Bry, inspired by the NMPD police Pelican in ODST, decided to visualize what a police Falcon might look like. Pretty amazing job, you ask me! (Louis Wu 15:33:30 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Four new pieces are up for your reading pleasure in the Fan Fiction section - what are you waiting for? (Louis Wu 15:32:38 UTC) (permalink)

To the stars, through boldness!
Have you ever wanted to play a Bungie game before your friends? Looks like you might get a chance - over at Bungie.net, urk posted an article calling for folks interested in becoming beta testers. Give it a read, and if you're interested, follow the instructions to join in! (If you're from outside the US, just leave the State field blank.) (Louis Wu 15:31:15 UTC) (permalink)

News November 18 2010

Forging Forth
Forge-related goodies for you today, courtesy of Bungie's Comm Chatter: XForgery is hosting a testing session you can join to get some feedback on your Forgetacular map entry (and maybe win some goodies), and a rascal cat has another Map Spotlight - this time, it's A Ghuta's map, Nostalgia. Go read about it! (Louis Wu 19:04:34 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Legendary - Half Off
If you wanted to get your hands on a Reach Legendary Edition, but thought $150 was too much - it's going for $75 right now as a Video Game Lightning Deal at Amazon.com. You've got three and a half hours left at this price (assuming they don't run out of stock sooner than that). Thanks, NameGenerated. (Louis Wu 18:25:15 UTC) (permalink)

Tracking Usage
Bungie.net member ev1l tr1t0n has kicked off a small project to map Halo's online population - there's a thread on Bungie.net, and a website containing the relevant charts. Interesting info for the stats-minded among us! (Thanks to chess, at NeoGAF, for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 18:18:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Through the Ages
The Bees Knees' Willeth and some friends set up a nice comparison - check out Combat Evolved! (1080p version of the Reach shot is in his Fileshare.) (Louis Wu 17:51:30 UTC) (permalink)

Manly Tears
Mendicant Bias noticed that a recent episode of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things (a strip created for an Escapist contest not to long ago, that now lives comfortably on its own) features your favorite 26th-century supersoldier, among other video game luminaries. (The text below the comic can help with context, if you don't recognize the song.) (Louis Wu 17:24:14 UTC) (permalink)

Battle: Los Angeles Reinvisioned
Treeskunk decided to recreate the Battle: Los Angeles trailer in Reach (you can see the original here) - it seems to be more of a 'feeling' recreation, rather than a literal transcribing of the scenes. Either way - go look! (Louis Wu 17:23:44 UTC) (permalink)

Another look at video game movies
Morpheus noticed an IGN article entitled 'How To Make Video Game Movies Not Suck' - Halo is a big part of it. Interesting read! (Louis Wu 17:23:17 UTC) (permalink)

BMF Noble Fundraiser Results and stats
Didn't remember to post this on Tuesday, when FyreWulff announced it - but his Noble Fundraiser (with funds going to the Brian Morden Foundation) ended up bringing in $301 from generous Halo fans - nicely done! Read FW's post for a full breakdown. (Louis Wu 17:22:38 UTC) (permalink)

Halowars.com - the end is nigh
Hydranockz, at NeoGAF (and FyreWulff, on our forum) pointed out that the Halo Wars website is going offline on December 19 - the Halo Waypoint team are making a forum to give folks a place to discuss the game, but the other functions of the website (most notably online stat tracking, as Bungie.net does for Halo 2, 3, ODST, and Reach) will be disappearing forever. Bummer! (Halo Wars Title Update 5 will unhook the game from the website, and fix a few small bugs.) The discussion on our forum, at least, has ventured towards what this might imply about stats tracking once Bungie is gone from the Halo series... no statement has been made by anyone about this. (Bungie's still in business, while Ensemble ceased to exist right after Halo Wars was finished.) (Louis Wu 17:21:39 UTC) (permalink)

News November 17 2010

Honor The Goose
We mentioned the Honor The Code contest (Mountain Dew and Doritos) a couple of times, and the grand prizes (a pair of Reach life-size Mongooses, built by Weta) have made the news on September 6 and September 22... but the first drawing is tomorrow, and CrunchGear has a great shot of the product. Go see! (Thanks, bakemono) (Louis Wu 23:41:59 UTC) (permalink)

Psst! Wanna fly a Seraph?
Whoa. One of the glitches shown in the E.O.A. 3 video posted this morning involved flying a Seraph on Long Night of Solace - the group has now released a tutorial vid showing how you can do this yourself. (No modding required, though it DOES look like it takes a bit of dexterity.) Thanks again, MelkorTheGreat. (Louis Wu 21:32:23 UTC) (permalink)

That's November's allotment of luck, right there
JDQuackers pointed out a video highlighted on Halo Waypoint - 4 rockets, in two bursts, are fired directly at a Falcon on Spire... and all 4 miss. (This, in itself, isn't amazing; folks miss with rockets all the time. But three of those four rockets passed right through the open passenger bay of the Falcon... THAT's unusual.) (Louis Wu 21:04:14 UTC) (permalink)

Directed Damage
Bungie's Comm Chatter highlighted a pretty cool assisted stick - guy throws a sticky, then uses rounds from a concussion rifle to place it where it does the most damage. Pretty cool! (The YouTube version adds absolutely nothing to the film - so here's the Bungie.net version; at least you can download it to your Xbox and explore it yourself.) (Louis Wu 20:58:05 UTC) (permalink)

Jon Cable honored by Gamasutra
Gamasutra has posted the Game Developer 50 - their choices for the people behind the most significant contributions to the game industry over the past year. In the Programming section, Bungie's Jon Cable gets a tip o' the hat for Forge World. Congrats, Jon! And thanks to ElzarTheBam, who noticed this at NeoGAF. (Louis Wu 18:11:29 UTC) (permalink)

Spike Video Game Awards 2010
INSANEdrive noticed that the VGA 2010 nominations are live - and Halo: Reach is up for 7 awards (Game of the Year, Studio of the Year, Best Xbox 360 Game, Best Shooter, Best Multiplayer, Best Original Score, and Best Performance by a Human Male (Nathan Fillion)). Not bad! (Louis Wu 18:07:09 UTC) (permalink)

How About the Chupa-thingie?
Halo Waypoint has a new ordnance piece up, and this time, it's on everyone's favorite LRV, the Pum- er... Warthog. Go and check out some nice renders, specs and info about the Jeep that helped save humanity! (GrimBrother One 15:38:52 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach E.O.A. Episode 3
TWT Productions is back with another episode of E.O.A., their trick/glitch highlight series. Ep 3 has some very cool out-of-map moments and some fun tricks - go watch! Thanks, MelkorTheGreat. (Louis Wu 15:23:30 UTC) (permalink)

I Wanna Get A Killionaire
Bryan Simon is back with a new song - this one is called 'I Wanna Get A Killionaire' - Travie McCoy might rap better, but he ain't got nothin' on Bryan's Halo love. Go listen! (Louis Wu 14:50:52 UTC) (permalink)

AntC S04E11 - The Mail Room
The latest from Jon CJG is an episode of Arby 'n' the Chief entitled 'The Mail Room' - Arby and Chief answer reader mail. Turns out pretty much as you'd expect... (Louis Wu 14:47:00 UTC) (permalink)

ODST Makeover for Adium
Interactive Civilian expanded an existing set of dock icons for Adium (a Mac IM app) - you can now represent your chatting with ODST's Superintendent. Nice! Forum post contains a full description of what's involved, and links to the downloads. Update: apparently the downloads were only available for members; Interactive Civilian has put the downloads up on a Google site. (Louis Wu 14:43:05 UTC) (permalink)

GI's Top 30
Morpheus pointed out that the latest GameInformer (print) has a list of the Top 30 Characters that Defined the Tip of the 21st Century - and Master Chief is at #4. He also provided a link where you can vote for your OWN Top 30. Go see what they had to say about Spartan 117. (Louis Wu 14:40:53 UTC) (permalink)

Comic Teaser
Sl'askia has been inspired to build her own comic - she's starting with a rendered model that she'll work from. Go see how it begins! (Louis Wu 14:39:13 UTC) (permalink)

News November 16 2010

This is the Saddest Day in the World
Morpheus believes that there will never be another Fiesta playlist... ever. (Seems pretty unlikely to me, but maybe he knows something I don't.) Regardless of whether he's right or not, the tribute he made for Fiesta is touching. (The use of Metalocalypse music is interesting...) (Louis Wu 21:01:17 UTC) (permalink)

Forging Ahead: Ship It
GhaleonEB has finished up his Crossroads map - and finished the blog writeup of its creation. Nice wrapup! Check it. (Louis Wu 18:33:53 UTC) (permalink)

Speculation about the Future
Game Rant has put together a list of five places from the Halo universe they wouldn't mind seeing brought to life in the next Halo game. See if you agree! (Louis Wu 13:12:04 UTC) (permalink)

Cryptum, signed by the author
Jason Davies let us know that The Signed Page (a site devoted to helping fans get books signed by their authors) is selling preorders of Halo Cryptum, signed by Greg Bear (personalized, if you want it). They're charging cover price on the book - yes, you can buy it for less, but it's not like they're making a fortune on this. If you'd rather your copy of Cryptum had a personalized message from Greg Bear... here's your chance. (Louis Wu 13:07:29 UTC) (permalink)

Project Lumoria - Map Coming Soon!
Higuy wrote to let us know that Project Lumoria (check our news if the name isn't familiar) will be releasing their first map on November 26 (next Friday) - get psyched! (If you have a Mod DB account, you can vote for Project Lumoria as Mod of the Year.) (Louis Wu 13:04:23 UTC) (permalink)

The History of Halo
In honor of Halo's 9th birthday, apparently, IGN released a History of Halo article yesterday (thanks, Tashi0106). Lots of these have been done over the years - but this one's still worth reading. Lots of little-known tidbits in there. (Some of it might be speculation.) Good read, overall! (Louis Wu 13:01:02 UTC) (permalink)

Game For A Cure - Deadline Coming
Last month, we mentioned Game for a Cure's Reach tournament to raise money for cancer research - spankysully dropped in last night to remind folks that the deadline is close, and they're still looking for a few more teams! Check out their site for full details. (Louis Wu 12:55:54 UTC) (permalink)

Fighting with Fairfax
Gaming4Others' kilaM0Mjaro dropped us a line to announce a Halo Reach tournament being hosted with the Spirits of Fire community: "Fighting with Fairfax: Marissa's Bunny outREACH Tournament". The tourney will take place on December 4th and 5th, will have 2v2 and 4v4 Slayer events, and will raise money to support Infantile Spasms (check Marissa's Bunny for more info). (Louis Wu 12:54:02 UTC) (permalink)

News November 15 2010

Devin-Sent, Round 4
Interested in getting your hands on a Green MEGA Bloks Halo Wars Spartan II - but don't want to drop any cash? Swing by the Devin-Sent page - Devin Olsen wants to give you one. For nuthin'. Sign up, he'll pick a name on Friday, if you win (like Fiznithy did last week) you get a package in the mail. What a deal! (Louis Wu 23:34:37 UTC) (permalink)

That last one looks like 'Skullionaire'
Today's Tag and Release feature at Bungie.net ferrets out shots marked with the 'Headhunter' tag... there are some fantastic pics in there. Go look! (Louis Wu 19:50:43 UTC) (permalink)

Blame it on Forge?
Two new vids are up on Bungie's Comm Chatter - Blame it on Halo Reach is James@War's latest attempt to avoid responsibility for his video game addiction, and Forgetastic: Featured Maps (Ep 1) is CMNeir's latest foray into community content highlighting. The first will make you laugh at the time spent in Reach, the second will help you rationalize the time you spend in Reach. (Louis Wu 18:02:20 UTC) (permalink)

You can be my wingman anytime
Bry put together an absolutely AWESOME video with members of the HBO community putting Pelicans and Falcons through their paces. Great camera work, and awesome squadron synchronization. Fly by and take a look! (GrimBrother One 17:41:40 UTC) (permalink)

Mjolnir, Part 2
Definitely stop over at Waypoint today and check out Part 2 of their look into the Mjolnir Armor system. A very cool video with good info, go and check it out! (GrimBrother One 17:38:30 UTC) (permalink)

Help BMF, Get a Map Code - Donation Drawing Ending
FyreWulff stopped in just now to remind you that there's only an hour left to enter the Donations drawing of his Noble Map Pack giveaway - go drop something in the pot! (Louis Wu 17:29:40 UTC) (permalink)

That's like 170 in console years...
aloyisus pointed out that today is the 9th anniversary of Halo's release (and, not coincidentally, the release of the original Xbox) - Happy Birthday, you old coot! (Louis Wu 15:31:53 UTC) (permalink)

Gives 'Looking Sharp' a Whole New Meaning
imperial181 was first in getting us the word of a fan-made Halo helmet... built of LEGOs. And yes, it's wearable. (Louis Wu 14:31:20 UTC) (permalink)

Trophy, Reborn
TheGelo is back - you might remember him from last spring, when he and his cousin were creating cool trophies for a Halo tournament - and he brings pictures of a repurposed trophy (it's now a gift for his cousin), which looks pretty amazing. (Gory, too.) (Louis Wu 00:16:23 UTC) (permalink)

News November 14 2010

A Fistful of Arrows, Pages 13-16
One of my favorite recent Halo projects has been Leviathan's A Fistful of Arrows graphic novel - the artwork, the story, the pure LOVE for Halo shines from every panel. And today, he's back with 4 more pages for your viewing pleasure! Pages 13 through 15 are in this post, while page 16 is in this followup. I'm running out of superlatives for this series - it's just too good. (Louis Wu 16:41:12 UTC) (permalink)

Top 10 game icons of the 21st Century
Yahoo Games put up a list of their Top 10 game icons of the 21st century... and your favorite Spartan hero made the cut. Thanks, iL Rifle Uk iL. (Louis Wu 16:40:24 UTC) (permalink)

Waypoint Wowzers
Okay, I'll admit it - even though Halo Waypoint has some of the coolest Halo content out there, I don't visit as often as I should, because Silverlight makes things just a little bit harder for me. So I'm really, really grateful that bs angel whips up weekly updates, which makes finding the good bits we missed during the week much, much easier. Here's some stuff we didn't get to this week:

• ElevatorAsassin built a bucket wheel excavator in Forge - the contstruction process is pretty fun to watch!
• angel found a few clips of driving gone bad - with hilarious results!
• The same guy who built a giant (firing) Jun has also built a giant Noble Six. Too bad he's on grass, or we could call him the Colossus of Roads. (Yes... yes, that was awful.)
• Noble Team showed up at Anime Weekend Atlanta. Well, most of 'em, anyway.
• Forge Hub has a pretty cool new gametype for you to try - Revball.
• A cool fan-made Skirmisher costume is on display - red feathers and all!
• Dani's Ghostbusters gametype gets some love (we first mentioned it last month)
• David and Angela got married - and Halo was there.

There are also a pair of new top stories you may have missed - Vociferous' fantastic 'A Different Way to Campaign' series gets a new episode, called 'The Passenger'. (Can you use the Halo AI for as much awesomeness as he does?) And The Mjolnir Project 2 is up - showing another chapter in the history of the successful body protector. Go explore! (Louis Wu 16:38:59 UTC) (permalink)

Weekly Halo Tumblr Roundup #3
Hedgemony dug through Tumblr to bring you, once again, an eclectic collection of tidbits from the minds of Halo fanatics everywhere. Fun read! (Louis Wu 16:37:55 UTC) (permalink)

Deliver Hope - Remade with Reach
JIMBOTHY stopped by last night with word of a remake of the Deliver Hope short... done in the Reach engine. Great piece of work! (His buddy created a comparison vid to show you the two films side by side - I'd suggest watching it by itself first, then looking at the comparison.) (Louis Wu 16:36:59 UTC) (permalink)

Forge Lesson 37: Orientation
GodlyPerfection continues his Forge Lesson series - Lesson 37 focuses on Orientation. Want to make sure your players don't get lost in the heat of battle? Give this a read! (Louis Wu 16:36:20 UTC) (permalink)

News November 13 2010

So THAT'S Where the Chief Landed...
TDSpiral brought to our forum's attention an AWESOME art piece he did combining Halo and Limbo. A must-see in my opinion! (GrimBrother One 23:28:28 UTC) (permalink)

One Life Remaining S2: Episode 13
jon cjg has posted the season finale of One Life Remaining - pretty dark! (Well, not the ending.) (Louis Wu 12:10:10 UTC) (permalink)

Rendevous With Rama? WOULD SEE
Listverse has posted a list of "10 Movies Stuck in Development Hell" - while I'd love to see almost any one of them, the #1 choice is most relevant for this website. Thanks, ElzarTheBam. (Louis Wu 12:05:52 UTC) (permalink)

I'm SO saving for the Daft helmet.
In response to a Bungie.net forum post requesting new visor colors, H1GH OCTANE whipped up a collection of 30 new Halo Reach armory items - some are silly, some are super-cool, some should be available NOW. These are hosted at Google, so bandwidth is unlikely to run out... but just in case, we're providing a local link (1.5 mb), because these are great. Update: local link fixed - thanks, kanbo.) (Louis Wu 12:02:45 UTC) (permalink)

Fails of the Weak Volume 8
ZZomBiE13 let us know that Fails of The Week Volume 8 is now online - lots of examples of people getting stuck in situations they really shouldn't be in. (Louis Wu 12:02:05 UTC) (permalink)

GGM Fall Charity Auction - Final Halo Roundup
Laird reminded us that though we haven't provided you with an update in a few days, the Good Game Media Fall Charity Auction is still going strong, and that there are a whole bunch of new auctions involving Halo schwag online right now. Here's the complete rundown:

• Halo: Reach Halsey Journal signed by Eric Nylund (ends November 16)
• Art of Halo 3 book and Target Exclusive Figure (ends November 17)
• Emile Custom Helmet - fan-made, Bungie-signed (ends November 17)
• Halo Uprising, McFarlane, Kubrick Figures (ends November 18)
• Reach Launch Night Promotional Shirt - XL (ends November 18)
• Halo: Reach signed framed poster with LED lights (ends November 18)

Go bid on something - get cool stuff, support great causes! (Louis Wu 11:59:09 UTC) (permalink)

The future's so bright...
The Bungie Weekly Update is full of info about the upcoming playlist changes (set to go live on November 30, a bit later than expected for a 'November" update, but hey, it's timed to coincide with the Noble Map Pack DLC), as well as some interesting info about Challenges. And a Blame Stosh that made me laugh out loud. Go read! (It's in our Weekly Update Archive, too, of course.) (Louis Wu 01:47:10 UTC) (permalink)

News November 12 2010

Wanna hang your Spartan?
Here's a new one - Jefftoolbox is offering his artistic services - for your Halo pleasure. He'll sketch your Reach character (you pick the armor, you pick the pose, you pick the lighting, etc), with colored pencils, on heavy paper... for $30. Check out the eBay listing to see some representative samples of his work. And sign up for a one-of-a-kind Reach keepsake! (Louis Wu 23:22:14 UTC) (permalink)

Domino's Grab Bag Giveaways and Devin-Sent: Winners!
Our Schwag Angels, Domino Theory and Devin Olsen, have both picked winners for their respective giveaways. Congrats to Moosetastic007, who's picked up Halo books 1-3 from Domino's Grab Bag Giveaways! And congrats to Fiznithy, who won Devin-Sent! We'll let you know when the next rounds begin. (Louis Wu 23:10:55 UTC) (permalink)

The most inconvenient convenience EVAR
Wow. ElzarTheBam pointed out an article at Joystiq about a Noble Map Pack pre-order deal from Gamestop that has me reaching for the duct tape... (We all need to keep our brains in our skulls SOMEHOW.) (Louis Wu 19:19:46 UTC) (permalink)

Fire Team Zulu: Rise and Shuffle
FyreWulff has another iteration of Fire Team Zulu for you today - one ODST Campaign challenge, and one Halo 3 Campaign challenge. Both are on Heroic difficulty. Go check 'em out - and Rise to the Challenges! (Louis Wu 17:06:32 UTC) (permalink)

Mythic Reach: ONI Sword Base
It's Friday, so it's time for another installment of Tyrant's Halo: Reach Mythic Difficulty Guide. This time, he tackles ONI Sword Base. The guide is quite hefty - 2 pages of text, 17 videos, all aimed at getting you successfully through a harrowing level in the most difficult circumstances. Check it out! (And remember, he's keeping up on his YouTube-based Legendary Guide, as well - the next level, Nightfall, is live now. (Louis Wu 13:27:21 UTC) (permalink)

Guilt O' Lantern Contest: Results
This year's Guilt O' Lantern competition was the largest one ever - 150 entries. Took a long time to process them all so you could vote on them, and the voting itself took a while. But it slowed down to a trickle yesterday, so we turned off the spigot... and today, you'll find that the winners have been announced. My biggest regret is that we have only three prize categories - there were a couple of dozen pumpkins I'd love to reward with goodies! Such is life, though... go see who DID win! (Louis Wu 12:57:42 UTC) (permalink)

Pro Gram.
Looks like Stuntmutt pulled today's One One Se7en from personal experience, again... (Louis Wu 12:48:53 UTC) (permalink)

TPP: This is How We Roll
Geekscape's Brian Gilmore sent word of the last Armor Ability still to be covered by the Teabag Prevention Team - Evade. Read up to see when to use it - and when NOT to use it. Roll your way to victory! (Louis Wu 12:48:05 UTC) (permalink)

Queso Man 8
Queso Man let us know about Queso Man 8, the "conclusive epilogue to the Queso Man saga". (The Queso Man vids are full of funny/silly moments in Halo 3 multiplay.) It was released just before Reach came out... but I guess he got distracted after that. Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:43:56 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Just a couple of new entries in the Fan Fiction section this week - go read 'em! (Louis Wu 12:42:32 UTC) (permalink)

None of the Above
Forward Unto Dawn honcho Dani sent word of a new article that focuses on the Veto process of Halo: Reach's matchmaking. Give it a read, and throw in your own thoughts about how games are picked in Reach! (Louis Wu 12:39:10 UTC) (permalink)

The Bungie Community Snapshot Project
RollinRollin13 sent word that a new project - The TBCS Project - is in its initial phases; he hopes to build a Bungie Community Snapshot from a huge collection of tiny pictures. If you'd like to contribute, keep an eye on the website; they're not open for submissions yet, but will be soon. In the meantime, there's information about what he's trying to do, and what your submission will have to look like. Be a part of a true Septagon! (Louis Wu 12:37:04 UTC) (permalink)

Discussing Rocket Strategy in Klowntown
The Halo Humpday Challenge this week had Bungie facing off against Team Fire Fodder - members of Seattle's Fire Department. By the numbers, it was a rout - but the writeup makes it clear that it was a pretty fun evening, even for the team with fewer points. Go read! (Louis Wu 12:25:11 UTC) (permalink)

News November 11 2010

Quadrofailia
If you looked at the Prize List this time around for our Guilt O' Lantern contest, you'd have seen that the First Place winner will receive (among other things) a "Halloween-themed Mister Chief painting or drawing". A Waypoint Tweet today pointed to what that might look like... (thanks, bs angel) (Louis Wu 21:55:49 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Double EXP Weekend: Fiesta FFA
Is it Thursday again? Hey - if you're not playing Reach (or Black Ops), maybe you wanna jump into a Halo 3 Double EXP Weekend playlist? This week, it's Fiesta FFA (unranked, unfortunately). Get your random on! Thanks, FyreWulff. (Louis Wu 21:09:10 UTC) (permalink)

Playin' The Mornin' Away
pete_the_duck tells fun stories. With pictures, and videos, and everything. Get yourself a glass of warm milk, and go read! (Louis Wu 21:06:57 UTC) (permalink)

Things You Wouldn't Expect, unless you're Louis Wu
Chris101b is back with his latest installment of Things You Wouldn't Expect. It's Episode 11 of his smirk-inducing series, and you should definitely go and give it a look! Chris also noticed that things seem to be affected by the Doppler effect in Reach. Go and see what he means! (GrimBrother One 20:30:10 UTC) (permalink)

Map Spotlight, Week 4: Terra Firma
It's Thursday, so it's time for Bungie (well, A rascal cat) to highlight another fan-built map - this one is called 'Terra Firma', and was created by El Roboto. Go read why you should try it out. (Louis Wu 20:09:11 UTC) (permalink)

Thursday CC Vids
Two new vids for you in Bungie's Comm Chatter today - SingleHaloClips released their Halo: Reach Community Montage for October, and Halo Reach Fails Episode 4 dropped, showing off a bunch of funny plays. Go watch! (Louis Wu 20:06:40 UTC) (permalink)

Nightfall - Ninja-fied
A few days ago (Sunday, to be precise), Halo Waypoint added a new 'Different Way to Campaign' feature - "Way of the Ninja". It described an interesting way to run Nightfall - be stealthy, like a ninja. No bullets, no grenades. Melee kills ONLY. HaloChallenges took them up on this, and has added it as a new challenge to their roster - there are specific kill limits you need to hit to get HC credit. Check it out... and start stabbing! (Louis Wu 18:32:03 UTC) (permalink)

Pumpkin Voting - closing soon
Voting for the Guilt O' Lantern contest has slowed down considerably - we're going to give it another day, just in case, and announce winners tomorrow morning. If you haven't had a chance to peruse the fine offerings this year - consider this your warning to get it done! (Louis Wu 13:41:58 UTC) (permalink)

Hmm... not Benny Hill, exactly...
It's no secret that lots of folks look for shortcuts to make some of the Challenges a bit easier. A couple of days ago, c0ld vengeance outlined a technique for grinding out this week's Weekly Challenge in just a couple of minutes. A day later, Beckx described the game film resulting from using this technique as "a goofy montage of elite stutter-death"... and today, Riceatron brings us a visual demonstration. (Azo 'Galvat rendered it for him, so you can watch it online.) That one's just crying out for the right soundtrack... (Louis Wu 13:22:57 UTC) (permalink)

Reach's Epilogue - Relaxed
BlueNinja felt that Reach's epilogue was delivered too quickly - so he recorded it without music, added pauses, then re-added music. The final product (obviously spoiler-laden) is now available for viewing. The difference (for me, at least) was really subtle; I actually had to play the two versions simultaneously to pin down the changes. If you felt, though, as BlueNinja did, that the lines were rushed... this might make you happier. (Louis Wu 13:21:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach - Top Ten Kill (11.10.10)
ChrisTheeCrappy pointed out the latest Halo Reach Top 10 Kills vid from IGN - #2 made my jaw drop. (Louis Wu 13:20:07 UTC) (permalink)

Boot Camp #4 Cover Art Surfaces
It's not up on Marvel's site yet, but Littlebigman stopped in with what might be the artwork for the cover of Boot Camp #4 (issue 3 should be out in a couple of weeks). (Louis Wu 13:19:23 UTC) (permalink)

News November 10 2010

Mega Chief? Or Chief Man?
The folks over at PikiGeek posted a cool piece of artwork done by Chris Bringhurst, who took a couple hundred of his favorite videogame characters and redid them, old school Mega Man-style. Guess who shares the centerpiece spotlight? (GrimBrother One 22:14:19 UTC) (permalink)

Forging Ahead: Back to Basics
GhaleonEB has put up another chapter in his Forge Blog - what happens when you're not happy with how a map plays? Well, if you're not lazy, you tear down what's busted, and fix it. Yes, it's work - but it's worth it. (Louis Wu 20:20:07 UTC) (permalink)

Cones and Golf Balls
Couple of vids in the last couple of days' worth of Comm Chatter, over at Bungie.net - Carnage A51 put together a pretty intricate Rube Goldberg suicide device to pay tribute to Bungie - and Arbiter 617 is back with 'Cone Combat II: Clash of the Cones', a epic 15-minute tale of shame and redemption. (And of course, forklifts.) (Louis Wu 19:49:16 UTC) (permalink)

ExtermAnojions
Anoj is back yet again on the Top 10 warpath... this time, it's all about the Exterminations. Go and give it a look! (GrimBrother One 19:07:25 UTC) (permalink)

Sabremetrics
Halo Waypoint has a new ordnance piece up, and this time it's on the Sabre. Some nice renders in there as well as some cool info. Go and check it out! (GrimBrother One 15:40:07 UTC) (permalink)

No Flies On Him.
Today's One One Se7en takes a look at the (rather expensive) Armor Effects you can buy from Reach's Armory - and warns you about potential pitfalls with those purchases. (Louis Wu 13:56:53 UTC) (permalink)

Waypoint App for Windows 7 Mobile Live
The Halo Waypoint app is now out for Windows 7 phones - Know Your Mobile likes it. If you've got a Windows 7 phone, give it a whirl! (Louis Wu 13:54:12 UTC) (permalink)

Spawn and/or Die
In response to Chris101b's desperate plea for help with Reach spawn points, Jon 'JonnyOThan' Cable pointed out a small guide he wrote for a Bungie.net Forging group. Should be required reading for mapmakers! (Louis Wu 13:53:32 UTC) (permalink)

Reach-o-ramas
2good4u2 posted a whole bunch of Reach panoramas yesterday - go check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:49:19 UTC) (permalink)

The Big Picture: Combat Evolved?
The Escapist kicked off a new feature recently - MovieBob's 'The Big Picture' allows him to rant about anything he wants. This week, he's ranting about the parallels between Reach and Nazi Germany. (Yeah, it was a stretch for our forum, as well.) (Louis Wu 13:43:49 UTC) (permalink)

Lehto and Sankey - Together Again
Mid7night noticed a slighty older interview with Marcus Lehto and Niles Sankey (it was posted on the eve of Reach's release) - stuff you might have heard before, or maybe not. Definitely a solid overview of where the collective Bungie head was at during development. Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:42:32 UTC) (permalink)

News November 9 2010

More Charity Schwag from GGM
Laird let us know that the Good Game Fall Charity Auction has two new Halo-related items today - a signed foamboard poster, and a pretty unique award given to Bungie employees by Microsoft for 500,000 units sold - it's made of steel, and weighs 6 pounds, and this is the first one I've ever seen on eBay. Go bid! (Louis Wu 21:18:07 UTC) (permalink)

Game Changer
Elite Spartan II brought to our attention a piece from BroBible.com listing the Top 12 FPS' That Changed the Game. Wanna guess what came in at #7? (GrimBrother One 20:17:10 UTC) (permalink)

Winning a Ride in a Warthog
Mid7night stumbled across a video created by a guy who went to the ODST launch last year and won a ride in Weta's real-life Warthog - it's been online for a year, and has 66,000 views, but it's new for me, so maybe it's new for you too! Love that four-wheel independent steering! (Louis Wu 18:17:26 UTC) (permalink)

Happy 6th!
There's a thread celebrating the birthday of Halo 2 in our forum - jump in if you're feeling nostalgic! (Louis Wu 17:41:54 UTC) (permalink)

Those missing pages...
Vincent pointed out that the 'missing' pages from Halsey's journal (there are two pages ripped out) might be filled with... content discussed in-game. Nice find! (Louis Wu 17:41:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Goes With... Everything
oddworld found a fanmade trailer for an upcoming Enders Game movie - that uses quite a bit of Halo footage. (Some other pretty cool stuff, too.) (Louis Wu 17:40:39 UTC) (permalink)

Virtual Flicks opens
Paul Shelly sent word of Virtual Flicks - a new site for machinima (not just Halo, though Halo is definitely accepted). Go check it out! (Louis Wu 17:40:01 UTC) (permalink)

Build Armor, Get Tasteless
xXMcVayXx sent us this video. I... I don't know what to say. (I hesitated about posting this; it's not really safe for work, and there are bits that are just... wrong. But some parts are pretty funny.) (Louis Wu 17:39:27 UTC) (permalink)

Tag and Release: ODST
Yesterday, the latest Tag and Release feature went live at Bungie.net - cool Reach-derived ODST shots! Go see. (Louis Wu 17:38:44 UTC) (permalink)

News November 8 2010

Dust Off!
Tied the Leader has a great new vid posted - Flag steals, with a healthy side of awesome cinematography. Go watch - and get pumped up! (Louis Wu 19:34:18 UTC) (permalink)

Devin-Sent: MEGA Bloks Spartan Giveaway
Devin Olsen has got some MEGA Bloks figures he wants you to have - swing by the latest round of Devin-Sent for your options, and a chance to sign up! (Louis Wu 19:27:28 UTC) (permalink)

GGM Auction - Now with more Rahll
Latest addition to the Good Game Media Fall Charity Auction - a super-cool Halo Poster by Reid Southen, signed by lots of Bungie members. (Reid might be better known around these parts as Rahll.) Gorgeous pic - current bid has this at $56 (with 6 days left). Add it to your Watch list! (Louis Wu 18:07:52 UTC) (permalink)

Community Outreach: Stephen Loftus
A new Community Outreach feature is live on Halo Waypoint right now - Stephen Loftus plays Firefight, talks about Reach's story, waxes poetic about Halo scenery, and mistakes Vociferous for a grunt. A fun watch! (Louis Wu 15:28:33 UTC) (permalink)

Domino's Grab Bag Giveaways, Round 14
Had a rough weekend? Need someone to make you feel special? Domino Theory's got your back. Go toss your name into his hat, and he might just let you pull out a present. (Louis Wu 14:25:09 UTC) (permalink)

Analysing...
When the alphabet soup gets too thick, you provide chinks that One One Se7en can squeeze jokes through. Be careful. (Louis Wu 14:21:04 UTC) (permalink)

Vanity: a Reach Player Image Generator
Veegie's back - and he comes bearing gifts. He and a friend have created a Windows-based app that will let you put together your favorite Reach armor combination... offline. I haven't seen it in use (won't run under Wine on MacOSX, because it needs a Windows-specific version of a .NET framework), but the screenshots look great, and the description of the work that went into this is really promising. Go check it out! Update: Veegie's host didn't take kindly to the download fervor - so a mirror is now hosted here. (Louis Wu 14:14:09 UTC) (permalink)

Noble Map Pack Codes - from FyreWulff
FyreWulff is getting into the "Give Stuff Away" game - he's got at least two separate Noble Map Pack codes for your playing pleasure, in two separate drawings. The first is actually a fundraiser - every $5 gets you a raffle entry. (You can donate less, and still get a raffle entry - but you get EXTRA entries if you donate more.) The second is a straight-up giveaway - guess the 10,000th Halo 3 map FyreWulff plays on in Matchmaking, and you could win. Read his post for full details, including how to play - and get your hands on some free stuff! (Louis Wu 13:56:47 UTC) (permalink)

Japanese Halo Fan Art, Round 4
AssaultGodzilla has collected yet another batch of cool Halo art by hunting through Japanese websites - you can view them from our forum, or you can view our local mirror. Some really great stuff in there! (Louis Wu 13:50:04 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Championships - FB Takes It All
Congrats to Final Boss, who beat Status Quo in the MLG Halo 3 National Championships, becoming the only team to three-peat Halo 3 - and congrats to Ogre 2, who becomes the only player to win the final Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3 events! Full coverage (and replays of the matches) can be found at MLGPro.com. (Louis Wu 13:32:19 UTC) (permalink)

Last Man Standing 7
itsmyyard let our forum know that his Halo-based game show has another episode live (now based in Reach) - go watch folks answer trivia and try not to get assassinated! (Louis Wu 13:32:03 UTC) (permalink)

More eBay'd Halo History
Suircata put up a few more old and rare Halo goodies on eBay - I'm pretty sure the first edition of Halo is overpriced, but the starting bid is what he's ALREADY BEEN OFFERED, so who am I to judge? swing by for stickers, a standee, and a factory-sealed copy of Halo. (Louis Wu 13:31:44 UTC) (permalink)

The MJOLNIR Project 1
GrimBrother One noticed a new 'Behind the Scenes' piece on Halo Waypoint - a history of the MJOLNIR project. Catch up! (Louis Wu 13:28:20 UTC) (permalink)

News November 7 2010

Lazy Halo Sunday
It's a quiet day, from the standpoint of Halo - MLG Dallas continues (they're working through the Losers Bracket Semifinals as I write this - Status Quo and Triggers Down are 2-2 with a deciding 5th game coming up - and Instinct and Final Boss are set to meet in the Winners Bracket Finals). And if you haven't voted for your favorite pumpkin in our Guilt O' Lantern contest yet... you should go do that. Because they're really cool. (Louis Wu 20:25:17 UTC) (permalink)

News November 6 2010

Guard Duty
Hedge is starting up soon... (Louis Wu 22:37:48 UTC) (permalink)

Crashed Episode 1: The Old Man of the Halo
Paul Shelley sent word that Treeskunk has released Crashed Episode 1 - if you thought Forge World was big, you clearly aren't as persnickity as the Old Man. Go watch! (Louis Wu 22:37:19 UTC) (permalink)

HSH - Now Accepting Reach Speedruns
LotsofLuck let us know that High Speed Halo is now accepting Reach speedruns. To start the ball rolling, RC Master has a TotS dash on Legendary that comes in at 9:03. Go explore - there are a couple of other Reach runs, as well as plenty of Halo/Halo 2/Halo 3/ODST runs! If you would like to submit your own run, activate an account and fill out the submission form. (Louis Wu 22:36:27 UTC) (permalink)

That thing needs a potato...
The 405th's LeeKegan built a Reach grenade launcher out of PVC and wood - really nice work! Thanks, padraig08. (Louis Wu 22:21:17 UTC) (permalink)

GGN Auction Update
You might remember we mentioned the Good Game Media Fall Gaming Auction, with proceeds to benefit Child's Play and The Brian Wood Memorial - there are now a couple of Halo items available. Yesterday, the Halo Bundle 1 (containing a Halo 2 Limited Edition case, a McFarlane Halo Xbox 360 controler, and A McFarlane Dare action figure) went live - current bid is $20.50. And today, a poster created by Justin Yu, and signed by Bungie, was made available - current bid is $41. More coming every day! Take a look. (Louis Wu 18:32:40 UTC) (permalink)

Catching up on Waypoint
bs angel kindly summarizes the Halo goodies posted on Waypoint each week; we catch most of 'em as we go (thanks, Grim!), but there are some cool ones that get missed, so the summary is welcome. Stuff you should see, if you haven't already:

• xSoGx Grim created Jun-A266... in Forge. The dude even shoots.
• NeeKo217 created the most adorable Elite plushy I've ever seen. I wanna hold him, and squeeze him, and... plant a fur-covered stickydoom on his noggin.
• Have you ever thought to yourself, "man, Carter's helmet looks so good I wish I could eat it!"? No, me either. But if you did, you should hunt down Gemma and grab her Halo Reach Helmet Cake, because it almost certainly tastes better than a normal helmet.
• aVeryEasyTarget has been building some Reach panoramas - stunning! (There are also some tips for making your own, if you'd like to play along.)
• The latest 'Different Way to Campaign" entry is called 'Superior Firepower' - vociferous shows you how crazy it can get if you bring, say, a Gauss Hog to a foot battle.

There's more - screenshots, some stuff that was time-sensitive and now past, etc - so be sure to explore. (Louis Wu 17:24:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach Accolades Trailer
XBOX UK has put together (or at least released) a new promotional trailer for Halo: Reach - shows off some of the accolades the game has received, along with some great campaign footage. Should bump the holiday sales numbers a bit... thanks, bobs99. (Louis Wu 16:00:28 UTC) (permalink)

CE Customs
chess and some friends were jonesin' for the feel of the original Halo - so they've set up a group to attempt to get as close to that playing environment as possible in Reach. If you visit the site, you'll find settings that will help you approximate original Halo weapons and damage, and there are lists of downloadable maps and gametypes that should generate some serious nostalgia. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:56:19 UTC) (permalink)

Domino's Grab Bag Giveaways, Round 13 - Winner
Nearly forgot - but Domino's Grab Bag Giveaways, Round 13, finished up yesterday - 1150 folks tossed their names in the hat, and ShadowPuppiesJL was the lucky name drawn out! He should be seeing Halo Books 1-3 on Tuesday. Congrats - and thanks to Domino Theory, once again! Next round kicks off Monday, so feel free to try again! (Louis Wu 14:56:08 UTC) (permalink)

(Un)Capping The Week
It was Friday night last night, so there was a new Bungie Weekly Update posted - this one summarized the busting of the Rank Cap, and showed you some of the ranks you have in store for you as you climb. It also provided information about a new File Browser feature, and the new Bungie newsletter (launching soon). There's another panoramic view of one of the new Noble Maps (Anchor 9, this time), as well as overhead views (with weapon spawn locations) for all three maps. To round it out, there's a Blame Stosh that should make you grin. As always, if you have trouble, for whatever reason, reading this on Bungie.net, it's available in our Weekly Update Archive, as well. (Louis Wu 14:50:00 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Mini-Game: Wraith Jenga
NeoGAF's Presco and some friends were playing Sniperfight - and they got the Phantoms to build a Wraith tower on Beachhead. It'll make you smile! (Watch both vids.) (Louis Wu 14:45:24 UTC) (permalink)

More Not Quite Noble
And while we're talking about ZZoMBiE13, you should check out the most recent additions to his 'Not Quite Noble' series - SpleenStabber (looks like it hurts!), Men Without Helmets (ah, the 80s), and Super Flipyap (love the curl). Thanks to ElzarTheBam and Bry for keeping up on these! (Louis Wu 14:44:35 UTC) (permalink)

Fails of the Weak, Volume 7
ZZoMBiE13 let us know that Achievement Hunter's Fails of the Weak Volume 7 is online (he sent a link with the easier-on-the-eyes RvB skin, and for that I thank him) - there's something seriously infectious about Geoff's laugh when someone does something really dumb. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:44:12 UTC) (permalink)

Forge Lesson 36: Simplicity
GodlyPerfection continues his series of Forge Lessons - Lesson 36 is entitled 'Simplicity', and will show you how to do more with less. (Louis Wu 14:43:48 UTC) (permalink)

Funny Halo Reach Fails and Laughs 4
Didn't post this yesterday, because I was smack-dab in the middle of formatting pumpkin pictures for the Guilt O' Lantern voting (have you voted yet?), but urk highlighted Funny Halo Reach Fails and Laughs 4 - which is actually quite full of funny fails and laughs! Go watch. (Louis Wu 14:43:15 UTC) (permalink)

News November 5 2010

Guilt O' Lantern Voting: OPEN!
Took MUCH longer than expected - but voting is finally open for this year's Guilt O' Lantern contest. There are so many good choices! (Well... how could it be any other way, with 150 (!!) entries?) Please, please, please - don't give up halfway through - there are SPECTACULAR entries on every single page. Voting will be live for a while, so take your time - and enjoy the pumpkin love! (Louis Wu 20:03:45 UTC) (permalink)

Building a Team
MoltenSlowa pointed out a blog post from Protagonist4Hire, showing off the huge set of Spartan armor outfits he created for Halloween this year. More pictures at Flickr. Nice! (Louis Wu 19:57:50 UTC) (permalink)

TPP: How to Use Imaginary Friends
jake108 (or is it JSL?) let us know that the latest Teabag Prevention article is now live at Geekscape - they're letting you know how best to use the Hologram AA (and when NOT to use it). Go read it - and fool someone today! (Louis Wu 17:43:12 UTC) (permalink)

Grifball in the News
Goosechecka let us know that GrifballHub's Week 4 Reach Grifball Highlight Reel is up for your viewing pleasure - and that if you're interested in signing up for the Grifball.com American Grifball League of America's winter season (redundant league name is redundant), today's the last day, so get your butt over there! (Louis Wu 17:39:14 UTC) (permalink)

You knew it was coming...
You knew it was coming... Tyrant has created guides to help players beat the most difficult variations of the Halo campaigns - 'Mythic Diffulty' has meant Legendary, with All Skulls On, since Halo 3. (For Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, Mythic also meant 'Solo' - but with the advent of scaling difficulty as players are added in Reach, this is no longer true.) He's posted two separate versions of a Mythic Guide for Halo 3 (Version 2 is quite a bit more streamlined than Version 1, but that's just because he had more time to polish things), plus a Mythic Guide for ODST - and today we open the doors on his Mythic Guide for Halo: Reach. Up right now: an introduction, describing what's changed in Mythic (turns out, quite a bit), plus his walkthrough for Winter Contingency. As always, there are videos to show you his favorite techniques for the tricky parts, coupled with text descriptions that should help you beat this most challenging mode. A welcome return - he's included voiceovers for all the videos, which really helps make clear what you should be focusing on. We'll be adding a new level each week - so keep an eye on this space! But wait - you say you don't have the patience for Mythic? Or maybe you think you don't have the SKILL? You can't even get through Legendary - never mind the skulls? Never fear, Tyrant's got YOUR back, too! Over on his YouTube channel, he's releasing a Legendary guide for Reach - it's less involved, because Legendary is considerably easier than Mythic, but if you're looking for something a bit closer to your own reality, maybe this is your cup of tea. He has two levels up already (Winter Contingency and ONI Sword Base), so that the Legendary Guide remains a level ahead of the Mythic guide. You can use it to get yourself in shape for Mythic! Go explore - this stuff is amazing. (Louis Wu 13:44:56 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Pro Circuit - Dallas (Finals)
MLG Dallas opens tonight - the Finals of the 2010 MLG season has $100,000 on the line for the top team! Visit the MLGPro.com website for streaming coverage, commentary, and more. (Louis Wu 13:11:49 UTC) (permalink)

Ignoble Seven.
Today's One One Se7en shows you gotta watch those words... (Louis Wu 11:08:40 UTC) (permalink)

This Is The Way The Book Ends
Our own GrimBrother One mentioned a new Halo Book Club being set up at the Halo Waypoint forums - bs angel has provided a recommended reading list (it's enormous!) and provided a link to participate in the discussion. Check it out! (Louis Wu 11:07:31 UTC) (permalink)

Envisioning the Universe
Our forum is full of artwork today:

• padraig08 ran across a Zero Suit Master Chief on DeviantART - what's good for the goose...
• Bry countered with Gruntsu.
• Hedgemony whipped up another old-school Marvel homage cover - awesome.
• TDSpiral was inspired by the cover of Cryptum - but his foray into Forerunner architecture is a little more... spartan. Gorgeous!

Enjoy 'em all - it's wonderful to see so much graphic Halo love. (Louis Wu 11:06:42 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Only one piece in the Fan Fiction section this week... huh? (Louis Wu 11:06:13 UTC) (permalink)

Opening a can of worms
Bry stopped in with a harrowing tale of peril and courage... and worms. Lots and lots of worms. Very pretty pictures. (Louis Wu 11:05:44 UTC) (permalink)

Map Design 101 vs Forge Lessons
GodlyPerfection wrote up a comparison of his Forge Lessons and Chris Carney's Map Design 101 article - interesting read! (Louis Wu 11:05:23 UTC) (permalink)

Leveraging IP the MS Way
Kotaku has a video of the Kinect launch game Kinectimals - and surprisingly, Halo plays a sizeable role. (Pretty darned cute to see a cat riding a ghost...) Thomas Prince was first, via email, but ChenK started a thread on our forum, if you want to chime in. (Louis Wu 11:04:49 UTC) (permalink)

News November 4 2010

Halo 3 Double EXP: 3-Ball
If you're still playing Halo 3, FyreWulff still has your back for Double EXP Weekend Playlist info! This week, it's 3-Ball. Go get your hands on some balls! (Louis Wu 19:53:49 UTC) (permalink)

Gaming Goodies for a Cause
Laird stopped by our forum with information about the Child's Play fall auction now going on at Good Game Media - items will be rolled out automatically over the next week and a half, with the first Halo item scheduled to go live tomorrow. The cause is great, the goodies are pretty slick - bookmark it and revisit every day until mid-November! (Louis Wu 19:45:01 UTC) (permalink)

Community Map Spotlight, Week 3: Halftime
There's a new user-created map spotlighted on Bungie.net today - JoeSki73's Halftime is designed to look like an American football stadium, and play out nicely in Slayer or Objective gametypes. Go read the interview, and check out the flythrough! (Louis Wu 19:32:47 UTC) (permalink)

The Fails of Reach - Episode 3
CruelLEGACEY is back with another episode of The Fails of Reach - plenty of 'aw, MAN!' moments. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 19:01:44 UTC) (permalink)

Ridin' with the Covies
imperial181 noticed a Halo propaganda poster at IGN. Made me smile... (Louis Wu 18:54:53 UTC) (permalink)

Unboxing Emile
Halo Waypoint's Vociferous and bs angel teamed up to show off the new Square Enix Emile figure - swing by YouTube for the video. No amputated pieces of Sherilyn Fenn included. Thanks, Chris101b. (Louis Wu 13:40:56 UTC) (permalink)

One Shot On My X - Reach Edition
Bryan Simon has updated his 'One Shot On My X' song for Reach - new lyrics, new video, new autotuning, new lulz. Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:47:43 UTC) (permalink)

SpartanBob
Remember a couple of days ago, when I pointed out some fun artistic modifications ZZoMBiE13 made to his Reach armor? Yeah... well, I think this time maybe he went TOO far. Oh, barnacles! (Louis Wu 12:45:37 UTC) (permalink)

The Headshot Heard 'Round The World - Results
The day did NOT go as planned - I thought I'd get the Headshot Heard Round The World results posted, and the voting started on the Guilt O' Lantern pumpkins. Neither one happened. I do, in fact, have results for the Headshot contest - but the pumpkin voting will have to wait a bit longer. (There are a lot of them! I'm really sorry!) Congratulations to Amish Butter, AWW CRAIG, and cagman40 for taking First, Second, and Third Place, respectively. More than 6500 individuals cast almost 19,000 votes - an amazing turnout! We've also listed 29 of the 30 Early Bird winners - the first 30 folks who sent in a clip (and answered the email notifying them of a prize) won FPS Freek Legendarys. (We're still waiting for one answer; the original winner has already lost out, the email is now out to the first backup.) If you didn't win, but you still want these puppies, remember... they're offering a discount to HBO readers through Sunday! (Check the Q&A page for full details.) Thanks to everyone for playing, thanks especially to KontrolFreek for providing the awesome prizes, and congratulations once again to our top winners! (Louis Wu 02:34:53 UTC) (permalink)

Carney's Crash Course: Map Design 101
There's a new Top Story at Bungie.net - Chris Carney goes over the design process, from nascent idea to finished product, for building a Reach map. Solid info here - great read! (Louis Wu 01:38:31 UTC) (permalink)

Xenomorph Extravaganza
AfroRyan dropped in with more DeviantART goodness - this batch is all from opticneuralinterface, who's done some amazing Halo work in the past. (I've actually seen the colored version of his ALIENS VS Halo piece before; I'm surprised it hasn't been front-paged.) And the new work-in-progress... is fantastic. Go look! (Louis Wu 01:36:16 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Related Deviance
nomis78 stopped by with a collection of links he found at DeviantART - good stuff! (ZZoMBiE13 sent me the physical shot not too long ago; it resonates all OVER the Halo community.) nomis also put up a few new panoramas in his own DA space. Links for everything in his post! (Louis Wu 01:32:33 UTC) (permalink)

Guaranteeing the Future
General Battuta wrote up a really solid treatise on the options available to a higher-level intelligence in our galaxy... read it and be chilled. (Louis Wu 01:24:43 UTC) (permalink)

Forging Ahead: Cut and Polish
GhaleonEB continues to work on his Forge map - and his Forge blog. The latest Forging Ahead article focuses on playtesting. Great read! (Louis Wu 01:18:32 UTC) (permalink)

Precious... the Video Game
Last week, Dustbunny27 pointed out that Halo got mentioned on Comedy Central's Pretend Time - I let it go, because there was no clip for it. Today, though, 95ss dropped us a note that this sketch can be found on YouTube - and includes the cheesy Halo ripoff they're making throughout the sketch, at the end. Check it out! (Louis Wu 01:16:37 UTC) (permalink)

Four-shottin' Grunts
I was hoping to pass on this one altogether... but ChrisTheeCrappy noticed it and called me out. I played a bit of Firefight with the Waypoint team last month - the gameplay won't amaze you, but it might amuse you. The company couldn't be beat (I was playing with Vociferous and bs angel), and they did an admirable job of carrying the conversation. Go check out the latest Community Outreach feature at Halo Waypoint! (Louis Wu 01:16:03 UTC) (permalink)

EOD Storm
Raide was walking through town, and saw a label that made him smile. (Those seem to be fireworks of some kind... but I'm pretty sure we have some cross-domain stuff going on there.) (Louis Wu 01:13:41 UTC) (permalink)

Leaving the Past
This came in a couple of days ago, but got lost in the insanity that has controlled this week. Slushy has edited a bunch of videos, but he's finally created a Halo 3 montage with his own footage. Three and a half minutes, muted colors, mellow action. (We posted info about the trailer last month.) Go watch! (Louis Wu 01:12:45 UTC) (permalink)

Catchin' Up
Videos we missed on Bungie.net this afternoon:

• TheYugiohForums put together Episode 3 of their Halo Reach Top 10 series - ths one looks at First Strikes. #6 is some great use of Evade.
• ReadyUpLive has Green's Machines, Ep 1 - Killed by the Guardians - it's Rube Goldberg, on meth.
• whitesoxrule put up a screenshot montage of Halloween themed pics... good stuff.

Little late for lunch-break entertainment... sorry. (Louis Wu 01:10:48 UTC) (permalink)

News November 3 2010

The lost sounds of a mothergoat
Good old mothergoat decided to show up on our forums and brought everyone an awesome treat! Go and check out his post for some outstanding music, or just to say hi to a beloved member of our community. Great to see you, mg! (GrimBrother One 18:03:59 UTC) (permalink)

Because He's Worth It
Today's One One Se7en is just for men. Although everyone should take a look... (GrimBrother One 14:43:42 UTC) (permalink)

SA's Top 10 Online Multiplayer Console Games
Last month, GameTrailers' ScrewAttack listed their Top 10 Local Multiplayer Games - this month, they're looking at the Top 10 Online Multiplayer Games. The Halo series did even better this time around (#1, baby!). Thanks, Exanubisleader. (Louis Wu 14:24:16 UTC) (permalink)

Tales of Suspense (Reach Edition)
Hedgemony decided to create a tribute to Marvel Comic covers from days past. What better content to use than Halo screens? Awesome result. (Louis Wu 14:20:34 UTC) (permalink)

Headshot Contest: Last Chance to Vote!
We're going to close voting for the Headshot Heard 'Round The World contest later today - voting seems to be winding down. If you've been putting off watching the clips, put it off no longer! Go Vote! (We'll be ready to start pumpkin voting in the next day or so, and I'm trying to avoid overlap.) (Louis Wu 13:34:23 UTC) (permalink)

The Carnage Report
After the rank cap was removed yesterday, Bungie put up an article discussing the new goodies you could reach - and mentioning a new newsletter they've kicked off. Want to get on the mailing list? Read the article, and follow the directions! (Louis Wu 12:48:28 UTC) (permalink)

Evolutions redux Part 1
Leviathan stopped in to remind everyone that the mass-market paperback version of Halo: Evolutions Volume One is out in the wild. If you have't picked it up already, or if you just want to support the inclusion of some great art by some of our very own community members, definitely go and give it a look! (GrimBrother One 05:47:28 UTC) (permalink)

He's just had an apostrophe
At an almost-Halo time of the night/early morning, Morpheus had a spark. Or something like that. No matter, the end result is a really cool screenshot contest that could net you 200 render minutes for an awesome "Death from Beyond the Grave" moment. Go and get some more details and give it your best posthumous shot! (GrimBrother One 05:39:37 UTC) (permalink)

This news post is brought to you by bs angel
LOTS of cool stuff on the Waypoint Blog lately. Thanks to the everlovely bs angel for a whole list of things to spend your day on!

• Things are getting Sticky with this latest Top 10 List
• Waypoint and Co-Optimus are getting together for some fun at the Halo Waypoint Co-Op Campaign Night
• Some pretty cool cosplay by someone who likes worms
• Achievement Hunter is back with Number Six in their Fails of the Weak series
• Last but not least, the most groan-worthy collection of jokes since... well, since the last One-One-Seven

Go and have a look! (GrimBrother One 05:25:36 UTC) (permalink)

News November 2 2010

Rank Lifted, Rank Captured
In case you haven't seen it among the numerous sources reporting it, the Level Cap for Reach has been lifted. No word yet on how high the new cap is, but for now... Go get some new goodies! Update: According to urk, there is no cap! (GrimBrother One 18:42:03 UTC) (permalink)

Tideo Tuesday
A few videos in Bungie's Comm Chatter today:

• Allstar and Axilo released Cameras, a Reach montage. Nice shooting in there... you almost feel sorry for their opponents.
• Dead Pixel and SeaNanners provide commentary for a game of Invasion - strategy, tips, and just plain silliness.
• DeathPenalty16 posted a short but very cool Forge vid - watch a map literally fall together!

Watch 'em with popcorn! (Louis Wu 17:21:11 UTC) (permalink)

The Little AA That Could
Beckx has a great bedtime story for you. Go read. (Louis Wu 15:35:30 UTC) (permalink)

CaneCuts
CaneCutter stopped by the forum to show off a few awesome vids of plain 'ol good times in Reach. And on that note, don't forget to check out another cool video from Nomis78 featuring a REALLY close call. Nice stuff! (GrimBrother One 14:14:59 UTC) (permalink)

Weta Working Wonders
Looks like Weta has added a few new items to its already impressive range of awesome Halo collectibles. 3 new quarter-scale Spartan helmets - Mark VI, CQB, and EVA - are the new additions. DO WANT. Thanks to Schedonnardus for the heads up. (GrimBrother One 14:10:03 UTC) (permalink)

Social Arsenal
Anton P. Nym pointed out a VERY cool article on Mashable.com with Frankie on the social integration of Halo, as well as Xbox Live itself. Very interesting read, go and have a look! (GrimBrother One 13:45:50 UTC) (permalink)

Reach for REALLY cheap in Asia
Whoa. If you live in Asia, there's no better time to buy Reach than RIGHT NOW - play-asia.com has the game on Weekly Special for about $20 US. Nice! Thanks, Tech2. (Louis Wu 13:39:09 UTC) (permalink)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Matt Clauer created a New Mombasa newspaper... on canvas. It's posted over at the Forgineers forum - but you have to have a membership to see it there, and read about it. That's the best place to discuss it - but Matt's given us permission to post the image here (450k), for folks who can't sign up. (Louis Wu 12:08:48 UTC) (permalink)

The Noblest Moment
MunKy-058 gave his contest a name (we mentioned it last week, but it was more generic then) - and wrote up a FAQ. Swing by, read the details, and make sure you enter - your favorite screenshot could win you a Noble Map Pack! (Louis Wu 11:32:32 UTC) (permalink)

Paradox: a Halo 3 Montage
Minime stopped in to let our forum know that his buddy Oaklez had released his final (and first!) Halo 3 montage - lots and lots and lots of multikills. Check it out! (Louis Wu 11:31:45 UTC) (permalink)

Full Cryptum Jacket
The finalized artwork for Greg Bear's Cryptum novel hit Twitter yesterday, thanks to Halo Waypoint - if you're not one of those people that avoids reading book jackets for the spoilers, go take a look! Thanks, Archilen. (Louis Wu 11:30:44 UTC) (permalink)

Sifting through the Chatter
Couple of bits on Bungie.net yesterday that we never got to: MattsMachinima released The FailTage (could use some better camera angles, but the Ghost/Wraith confrontation near the end was great), and Bungie's latest Tag and Release feature used the 'Scary' tag, in honor of Halloween. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 11:29:32 UTC) (permalink)

News November 1 2010

Into the Great Wide Open
Sean, Phil, and Zeus grabbed four secret campaign Banshees, and went exploring. Watch their exploits on YouTube, then follow their lead and look around yourself! (Clearly, there are spoilers here. If you don't want to know what level this is on, or how to find the Banshees, don't watch the video.) (Louis Wu 18:08:46 UTC) (permalink)

Cowabunga, Dude!
You might find a sniff of nostaligia in this Halo Reach Screenshot of the Day from the Waypoint Blog. Mmmm... smells like pizza. And sewers. (GrimBrother One 17:56:52 UTC) (permalink)

Waypoint Weekly Wrap-Up
bs angel reminds us that if you missed any of Waypoint's net-based content last week, you can find it all on the Waypoint Weekly Wrap-up. Some really great stuff in there, go and see if you caught it all! (GrimBrother One 17:40:10 UTC) (permalink)

Headshot Heard 'Round the World - plus Q and A
Voting on our Headshot Heard 'Round the World contest is amazing - nearly six thousand people have cast almost 18,000 votes, and winners are beginning to emerge. (We're going to let the voting continue for another day or two, so there's still time for some shifting to happen.) While you're waiting for results, you might want to swing by a short Q&A about the FPS Freek Legendarys - we asked our forum for questions, and KontrolFreek answered 'em. As a really nice bonus, they've provided a discount code you can use this week - anything you buy in their store is 10% off! (See the Q&A for the code.) We'll be contacting the winners of the 30 Legendary sets who sent in the earliest valid headshot entries today - please keep an eye on your junk folder, just in case! If we don't get responses in 48 hours, we'll move on to the next person on the list. (Louis Wu 17:29:36 UTC) (permalink)

Domino's Grab Bag Giveaways, Round 13
Domino Theory didn't want you going a whole week without being able to win something - so his Grab Bag Giveaway page is up again. Fill in your info, pick a prize, and if your name is picked on Friday, you win a goodie! (Louis Wu 16:16:38 UTC) (permalink)

Easy Money
Don't forget, one of today's Daily Challenges for Halo: Reach is to play a Matchmaking game. A game. Just play. And make sure your Gamertag is linked to Bnet, because you'll net maybe the easiest 3000 cR ever. Thanks Bungie! (GrimBrother One 15:49:00 UTC) (permalink)

Not Quite Noble
I noticed that ZZoMBiE13 had a few fun mods of his Reach soldier up...

Surprised | Angry | Scared | REALLY Angry | Cool | Worried
Poopin' and Lockin' | Who Touched My Gun? | I Keel You!
Right Here! | Snipin' and Smokin' | I'm Burnin' Up!

Be sure to check 'em all! (Louis Wu 15:40:54 UTC) (permalink)

I think the Lance skull has to be on.
FyreWulff found a pretty funny death yell that you might hear if you use the Cortana Firefight voice - I wish I'd been there for the recording session of this one! (Louis Wu 15:28:03 UTC) (permalink)

Black Ink - Extended
halosavior sent word that his Black Ink Fan Fiction contest has had a deadline extension - you now have until Sunday, November 7 at 11:59pm CST to submit. Get writing! (Louis Wu 15:18:40 UTC) (permalink)

Of Eggs, and Such
A new Reach easter egg surfaced this weekend - we're not going to front-page the egg itself at this point, because it was found in a way that some disapprove of (the triggers for the egg were discovered in the Reach code, rather than in-game), but Bry created a fun video using the result that stands really well on its own. Go watch. (If you're interested in finding the actual egg, it's not even remotely difficult to find information on our forum about it.) And while we're speaking of eggs... INSANEdrive ran across a switch on Nightfall that may or may not lead to something cool. What can YOU find? (Louis Wu 15:17:01 UTC) (permalink)

A Tight Package
In case you haven't groaned enough in your life, today's One One Se7en has got you covered. (GrimBrother One 14:11:39 UTC) (permalink)

November 2010

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