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 | October 2007 |  |
October 2007 Archived News
News October 31 2007
Halo 3 Cutscene Library: The Covenant
For those of you not too busy playing the new Infection playlist on Xbox Live, the cutscenes for The Covenant (all six of them) are now live in the HBO Halo 3 Cutscene Library. For what it's worth - this is going to continue to grow after the final level is posted; some of the cutscenes change in Co-op play, according to CJ Cowan, Bungie's Cinematics director... so we're going to need to add the altered ones. Have patience! (Louis Wu 23:40:14 UTC) (permalink)
Gametap's Interview with Joe Staten, Part 2
The second half of GameTap's interview with Joe Staten (the first half was here) is now online - this one ranges from Ghosts of Onyx to Halo 2 to Halo 3 (it contains major ending spoilers for Halo 3, so if you haven't played it, beware), and has a really sizeable amount of information. Joe is (for Bungie) uncharacteristically forthcoming with interesting tidbits. Thanks again, Jared Rea. (Louis Wu 18:46:49 UTC) (permalink)
A Kiss On The Hand...
Stuntmutt has a holiday-themed One One Se7en for you today - for those keeping track, it has a Halo spoiler in it. (If you're reading One One Se7en, and you've never played ANY of the Halo games, but you PLAN to... well, I'm not sure we should be protecting you from spoilers, but...) (Louis Wu 18:17:53 UTC) (permalink)
I hope that's modded.
This is just... wrong. (Louis Wu 16:58:59 UTC) (permalink)
The Wicked Ending
Z let us know about The Wicked Ending, a huge (270 mb, 14 minutes long) Halo 2 montage from Hysteria and Eli; it's full of multikills (Killtrocities and up), lots of FFA against MLG pros, and pretty nice editing to boot. If you've been missing some Halo 2 montage action, check this out. (Louis Wu 16:57:31 UTC) (permalink)
Last Year's Transport
Elnea, shameless in her misuse of a numbering system that wasn't designed for her ramblings, gives us Halo Action Figure Theater 98.74: Last Year's Transport. Fantastic use of props... (Louis Wu 14:33:22 UTC) (permalink)
Inside Halo - Episode 1
Wow, nice. SodaGod has started a Halo news show over at Machinima.com; yes, these have been done before, but not with audio this good, or with SG's whacky brand of humor. The video information listed is pretty much entirely wrong; the downloaded video is 48 mb, not 37, and the running time is 5 minutes, not 8:28 - but it's a great watch. You can also snag it on YouTube if you don't want to download it. Thanks, Adam Kovic. (Louis Wu 10:50:44 UTC) (permalink)
Cover Art Recreations
Wow, nice work - KidWitPotential, over at Bungie.net, recreated the original Halo Combat Evolved box art using Halo 3, with a friend - and then they did the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack art. If the screenshots disappear, we have local copies (Halo CE | Multiplayer Map Pack). Thanks, gijake. (Louis Wu 10:02:02 UTC) (permalink)
Date-specific coolness
Awesome - Walshicus noticed some tombstones on Valhalla, apparently tied to the date today (it is Halloween, after all) - in case the FileShare links he posted disappear, we've downloaded local copies (one | two). RVideo also took a pic. (Louis Wu 09:48:08 UTC) (permalink)
News October 30 2007
Halo 3 Cutscenes: The Ark (and a fix)
Today's update for the Halo 3 Cutscene Library contains the cutscenes from the level 'The Ark' - but it also contains a cleaned-up version of the closing cutscene for 'The Storm'. A number of people noticed that there was overlapping music in the first version we uploaded, so Cody kindly went back and re-recorded the cutscene. He had to do it a LOT of times; it seems that overlap is common. The version up now has a tiny bit of overlap, but it's way better than it was. Enjoy - and enjoy the Ark scenes! (Louis Wu 22:40:36 UTC) (permalink)
Leaderboards for the meta-game
ninjakilpirate let us know about HaloUnofficial.com, which has leaderboards for the Campaign meta-game scores. Submit your scores, and see where you stand!
(Louis Wu 22:38:55 UTC) (permalink)
Arby - all wrapped up
This is actually quite cool - The More Deluded created a sculpture of the Arbiter... in wire. Artistic! (Louis Wu 22:26:26 UTC) (permalink)
FS2H is Back
Devrous stopped by for the first time in a while - looks like he had a pretty rough summer! He's back on track with his Freespace 2: Halo total conversion, and has a new website online. Take a look! (Louis Wu 22:17:44 UTC) (permalink)
A great novel, full stop.
Zeouterlimits pointed out yet ANOTHER Staten interview - this time at 1UP. Short - but solid! (Louis Wu 20:49:15 UTC) (permalink)
I'm SO Sorry
ZZoMBiE13 has a new funni for you today, over at Another Halo Comic Strip - a mystery of the ages... solved. (Louis Wu 18:26:38 UTC) (permalink)
Playlist of the Living Dead
Last Friday's Bungie Weekly Update hinted at fun changes to the playlist roster around Halloween. Swing by Bungie.net right now for full details - they're putting up an Infection-based playlist for 27 hours, starting tonight at midnight (PST). Full details (including ways you can use this information to get some of the harder-to-grab achievements out there, and neat tricks for downloading the gametypes for future use) are in the interview with Ferrex. Thanks, ViralSyris. (Louis Wu 17:52:01 UTC) (permalink)
Going behind the scenes of the Covenant
It's clearly Joe Staten day (not surprising, since it's the day Contact Harvest is officially released) - we got word that GameTap has an interview with him, as well. Well, Part 1 of an interview, anyway. It's pretty meaty already - and there is more coming! Thanks, Jared Rea. (Louis Wu 17:46:07 UTC) (permalink)
Contact Harvest Prologue on B.net
Bungie has posted the prologue from Contact Harvest - if you didn't get a chance to read this in the current issue of Official Xbox Magazine, you can read it here, for nothin'. Thanks, Dry Ice. (Louis Wu 16:33:20 UTC) (permalink)
Go right, mess him up.
Heh - there's an interesting piece at the Weekly Dig; it originally appeared in Willamette Week, an alternative weekly newspaper in Portland, Oregon (my old stomping grounds). It's a writeup of a grudge match between Michael Evans (who worked on Halo and Halo 2, but not Halo 3) and a friend of his (who plays Halo, apparently, about as well as I do). Some great quotes I can't use here without breaking language filters for some readers... thanks, Pete. (Louis Wu 16:28:21 UTC) (permalink)
TTL Tuesday
Hoovaloov stopped by to point out the newest content at Tied the Leader - there's an article from your favorite Halo General, XerxdeeJ, about the importance of rank, and a vid from Hoovaloov himself, LagtaculaR, a hilarious look at the vagaries of internet connections. (Louis Wu 16:16:22 UTC) (permalink)
Joe Staten talks about Contact Harvest
IGN has a podcast called 'Three Red Lights' - Episode 12 contains an interview with Joe Staten, about Contact Harvest (which is officially released today, don't forget!). The interview kicks off about 53 minutes into the podcast, and has a lot of info about the book and how it was written. There are some silly questions ("While you were writing it, were you working close with the guys at Bungie?"), but mostly it's a pretty interesting interview. Go listen! I found out about this at Planet Halo.
(Louis Wu 15:57:39 UTC) (permalink)
I guess it could point at the ground...
Heh - Kotaku points out a Halo billboard that's... not really pulling its weight, advertising-wise. Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 15:42:59 UTC) (permalink)
Elite Armor - A Must-See
We've posted a lot of fan-made armor over the years - everything from paper to injection-molded plastic. Spartans, mostly, but also Elites, Grunts, Hunters, Flood. Yesterday we got mail from Frank Carradine, who created an Elite costume for Halloween this year... it's amazing. You've got to see it. I wish we had more pics. (Louis Wu 14:23:58 UTC) (permalink)
This ring is yours.
We got word from Tim '343 Guilty Spark' Dadabo - he's willing to create, as he has in years past, a recording (using the voice of Spark) for the answering machine/voicemail of the winner of our Guilt O' Lantern pumpkin-carving contest; if you thought the first-place prize package was just a little too small to tempt you to submit an entry... think again! You've still got well over a day - submissions close at midnight (ET) tomorrow. (Here's an example from a couple of years ago - this one was for Michael Coffing, and was recorded by both Dadabo and Steve Downes.) (Louis Wu 13:57:44 UTC) (permalink)
Shut Up and Listen
TTL Demag0gue has posted the next episode of his Reclaimer comic - Chapter One, Part 2 is called 'Shut Up and Listen'. I'm already jonesin' for the next ep!
(Louis Wu 13:46:14 UTC) (permalink)
Puzzleball 01
c0ld vengeance has created a new game called 'Puzzleball'. He's built a map (download link in that forum post) which has an oddball... that's hard to reach. Figure it out, film it, post the film. No prizes - do it for the glory. What are you waiting for? Update: we got a note from Shock Theta that he's been creating maps like this, as well; there are currently two (Puzzle Time and Puzzle Time II), along with corresponding gametypes, in his File Share. Objectives are in the descriptions. Try 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:42:25 UTC) (permalink)
Battle Flow Chart
This made me smile. Except for the mauler part. Maulers rock. (Louis Wu 13:32:01 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular 132
Big Goalie Dan let us know that Podtacular 132 is up - it's full of tips for Guardian, the map of the month. Just under an hour, 29.2 mb. And a... somewhat unexplainable (but hilarious) video. Go listen! (Louis Wu 13:21:07 UTC) (permalink)
Custom action figure - with a twist
Hawty "I'll get back on top of the eBay pile, you know I will" McBloggy found a guy selling a custom Spartan action figure on eBay. What makes this one unique? Well, it's a model of "'MASTER CHIEF' from the hit PlayStation 3 game 'HALO'" (the seller's words, not Hawty's). Beyond that silliness, though, it's actually a pretty cool piece - the base has a dead marine and a brute (both custom), and it comes with a bunch of swappable guns. You've got until November 2 - go look!
(Louis Wu 12:21:24 UTC) (permalink)
Injured Knee Productions Interview
TheShadyGnome, of Flem Productions, did a podcast with a bunch of the folks from Injured Knee Productions - details about the group, as well as tidbits from upcoming episodes of Lost Cause, can be heard. 47 minutes, 21.3 mb. Go listen!
(Louis Wu 12:16:45 UTC) (permalink)
HaloTube Opens its Doors
a32ozSlurpee let us know that HaloTube is now online - it's a YouTube-like site with a Halo feel. (Higher quality, too, in the live stream and fullscreen versions.) There's a bunch of stuff there now, with more all the time - go see!
(Louis Wu 12:13:50 UTC) (permalink)
More armor pics from James Falcon
James Falcon let us know that he's finished up his glove plates and started on the fusion pack for his armor - you can find the new pics on his progress page. He also told us that future pics will be going to his personal blog at the 405th Mjolnir Armor forum - you'll need to register to see them. (Louis Wu 12:11:08 UTC) (permalink)
Gaming4Others raises money for sick kids
Awesomesauce. kilaMOMjaro let us know about the Gaming4Others charity tournament - money raised will go to Child's Play, a charity set up by Penny Arcade a few years ago to bring video games, toys, and movies to sick kids. They're running two ladders - one for GRAW2, the other for Halo 3. It's a 4v4 tourney, but teams can have 5 people on them. Registration is $50/team, and the top team in each game will go home with 5 1-year Xbox Live subscriptions. Go read more on the G4O website... you've got until November 10 to register! Even if you don't want to play, you can still sponsor a team, or simply make a donation directly to Child's Play. (Visit the Donations link on the G4O website.) (Louis Wu 11:17:27 UTC) (permalink)
CPL breaks down the prizes
The Cyberathlete Professional League has released details about their million-dollar Halo 3 tournament coming up in December - check out the payout schedule. (Most Halo 3 tourneys only have cash prizes for the top few teams - I've rarely seen money for anyone below 8th place. Even the 64th-place team goes home with $2500 at this one!) (Louis Wu 10:55:32 UTC) (permalink)
Blame Halo 3
Heh. Dark Helmet found a great song at Break.com - these folks went to great lengths to make a funny video, go watch it. (Louis Wu 10:52:50 UTC) (permalink)
Woody as Master Chief
Saber-Scorpion, best known for his amazing Lego creations, put together a Halo comic that ties together Halo 3 with Toy Story. (This contains Halo 3 spoilers; don't follow the link to the comic unless you've finished the game.) Pretty funny! Thanks, GoldenElite0. (Louis Wu 10:52:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Hellraiser
grantix is working on a 2-D computer game called Hellraiser - Halo sprites, blended plot. A screenshot is included in the forum post. (Louis Wu 10:48:59 UTC) (permalink)
Halo-related Facebook App
Schedonnardus pointed out a new service at Facebook - you can add your Halo 3 Service Record to your profile. Funky! (Louis Wu 10:48:27 UTC) (permalink)
Egg Hunt at GR
mjolnir15 noticed an article on Halo 3 eggs at GamesRadar; they've been culled from around the net, and some aren't really eggs at all... but it's a nice collection. (Louis Wu 10:41:58 UTC) (permalink)
Teaming Up with Halo's AI
There's a great article at AiGameDev.com that summarizes the artificial intelligence lessons Bungie learned (and taught) from the Halo series, in the context of making a better video game. It's really interesting to see how things have evolved; a great example is number 13:
"Early versions of Halo's AI had a short pause between seeing you and recognizing that you were an enemy. This was to allow people to get the jump on the AI or retreat if they were getting in over their heads. Playtest feedback showed that players assumed this Feature was a Bug and they all said it made the AI look dumb."
Ironically, adding this pause back in for Jackal snipers turned one of the most frustrating points of Halo 2 into a far more enjoyable experience in Halo 3. There are 42 points in all; they provide advice for game developers looking to make smarter AI, and fascinating reading for fans looking to understand how the magic works. Give this a read! Thanks, alexjc. (Louis Wu 10:33:28 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Movie News - Back on the Table?
s_tygard55 was the first to point out an article suggesting that Microsoft and Peter Jackson might be back at trying to find funding to continue work on the Halo movie. (The one he found is at GamesRadar.) There's a discussion about this on our forum - MasterChief2829 noticed an article at Computer and Video Games, and Charley117 followed up with an article at Kotaku (who found it at Play). They're all based on the same basic info - a Jackson representative is telling their side of the story, claiming that the Universal/Fox deal fell apart because the studios asked Microsoft to take a smaller cut at the last minute. If we get more on this, we'll let you know! (Louis Wu 10:15:52 UTC) (permalink)
Innocent Minds Soundtrack
Zukan has released the original music he did for the Innocent Minds film (we mentioned it back in August). You can grab the music from a post on the GamingTV forum - but you'll have to be registered to see it. Five tracks (two are bonus). Thanks, trigger119. Update: trigger119 has fixed it so that you no longer need to be logged in to view this. (Louis Wu 10:11:29 UTC) (permalink)
Film Clip contest - one day left
Mukelo wanted to remind everyone that the contest at Invalid Mob Gaming for best File Share clip (we mentioned it a couple of weeks ago) is over tomorrow - you've still got time, and there are only 18 entries so far! Get your clip in, and you've got a shot at a 1-month XBL Gold code (good for a new account, or to extend an existing one). (Louis Wu 10:10:52 UTC) (permalink)
News October 29 2007
Halo 3 Cutscene Library: Floodgate
Almost didn't make the day's cutoff... but the two cutscenes from Floodgate are now posted in our Halo 3 Cutscene Library. The final scene is pretty long... (Louis Wu 22:29:54 UTC) (permalink)
How Rumours Get Started.
Last week, we mentioned a rumor that seemingly built itself out of nothing - Stuntmutt takes it all one step further, in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:38:59 UTC) (permalink)
Mmmmmm... Pudding
Elnea has gone a bit overboard; Episode 98.2 of her Halo Action Figure Theater (yes, she's trying to save the good stuff for ep 100, which means we might see a 98.74 one day) involves not just Halo action figures, not just cans of cat food, not just hardware like a lightbox... but PUDDING. Vanilla pudding, to be specific. Ick. (Louis Wu 17:25:41 UTC) (permalink)
RvB's Recovery One kicks off on the web
Recovery One: Part One is now available for Sponsors on the Rooster Teeth website. If you're not a sponsor, you can grab it for 80 points on Xbox Live (that's a buck). It picks up (sort of) where Out of Mind left off - I'm not really sure where Wyoming came (back) from... but I'm sure that'll become clear in later episodes. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:17:57 UTC) (permalink)
One Small Step for a Spartan...
akemos is selling a Halo door mat he acquired after the Xbox Launch period back in 2001 - if you're interested, the eBay auction ends in 4 days. (Louis Wu 13:24:08 UTC) (permalink)
Forerunner text?
Interesting... Rox pointed out some writing/symbols/shapes that can be found on a variety of levels, from Sandtrap to Construct - does it mean anything to anyone? (I know as soon as I saw the Sandtrap version, I immediately went looking for the 'Ancient Halo' wallpaper Dave Candland created several years ago - but unfortunately, as soon as I found it, I realized my memory had fooled me; there's no relation whatsoever.) Just pleasing shapes... or something more? (Louis Wu 13:21:05 UTC) (permalink)
News October 28 2007
From the Road to the Sky
We missed a level yesterday, in our release of Halo 3 cutscenes, so today you get both Tsavo Highway's closing cutscene, and The Storm's closing cutscene. Powerful stuff! (Louis Wu 22:28:49 UTC) (permalink)
Guilt O' Lantern Reminder
Folks - it's just three days to Halloween - that's how much time you've got left to submit your entry to our Guilt O' Lantern contest. CARVE THOSE PUMPKINS! (Louis Wu 22:25:26 UTC) (permalink)
Crazy on You
bs "Hawty McBloggy" angel has been interviewed by TriXie, for the Gamer Spotlight section of Xbox.com. Go see what makes her so cool. Great read. Thanks, Mintz.
(Louis Wu 22:07:04 UTC) (permalink)
Awesome Angles
Wow, very cool. Cody Miller took a speedrun of Tsavo Highway (done by Simpsons Rule and Psychophan7), and refilmed it in the style of Gran Turismo. It's four and a half minutes long, and a lot of fun to watch. Go see! (Louis Wu 22:00:05 UTC) (permalink)
Saving the Secret, Parts One and Two
Leader of Blind let us know that Abyss Studios has the first two episodes of their Halo 2 miniseries, 'Saving the Secret', online and viewable. Part 1 went up before Halo 3 came out, but Part 2 went live on Friday. It's Halo 2-based, but pretty well-done.
(Louis Wu 21:52:39 UTC) (permalink)
Screens and Comics
TTL Demag0gue let us know about a couple of new projects - the first is a collection of artistic screenshots he's taken, the second is a Halo-based comic strip he's building from Halo 3 screenshots. (There are a couple of pages already - the series starts here.) Both projects are pretty high-quality - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:13:31 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 71
Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 71 is now up - 34 minutes, 14 mb, ramblings about the website, the community, and totally non-Halo-related stuff. Brathnok works very hard at making Sigafoos look dumb. You'll have to decide if he succeeds.
(Louis Wu 20:53:38 UTC) (permalink)
Just one more round...
Dean Takahashi is addicted to Halo. Go read why. (Louis Wu 17:39:50 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Community League
Maximum Fear is setting up a league for Bungie.net groups - 4v4 team slayer, consisting of about 30 teams. If you're interested, swing by the group he's set up for the purpose! (Louis Wu 17:38:06 UTC) (permalink)
That thing's big.
I love this stuff. Omega did a pretty nice job of estimating the size of a large (possibly spoilerish) item on 'The Storm', using a fan-generated method for getting to a measuring spot, and known info about the Halo universe itself. (Louis Wu 17:35:24 UTC) (permalink)
For all you Marty Stalkers
A couple of Marty O'Donnell tidbits: Simen went to see the Play! concert in Norway on Friday, and the Halo music was introduced by Marty (a recorded message - youtubed about two thirds of the way down the page)... and Anton P. Nym noticed that Marty will be participating in a panel at the LA Music Conference next week, presumably discussing Halo. (Louis Wu 17:29:49 UTC) (permalink)
Flawless Cowboy, Leavin' on an X-Plane
Mid7night continues his X-Plane shenanigans - this time, he's built a replica of Halo (the second level of the first game) in X-Plane. Go look!
(Louis Wu 17:16:55 UTC) (permalink)
My Imaginary Friend
AnTi PRO let us know that Arm The Flag has just released 'My Imaginary Friend', a Halo music video. I enjoyed it! Go download it from Mythica, or watch it on YouTube.
(Louis Wu 17:15:12 UTC) (permalink)
Deadly.
kornman00 got his hands on a 360 stress test kit... and he can do stuff like this... and this. Don't try this at home! (You'll get banned if you do.) (Louis Wu 17:12:42 UTC) (permalink)
Tactical Jumps in Halo 3
PEZ let us know about a section of halowiki.net devoted to tactical jumps - visit for more info (or to ADD more info!). (Louis Wu 17:09:48 UTC) (permalink)
Halo on a movie screen
Yoshiary pointed out a study/event in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, happening November 3. They're going to be studying participants playing video games (including Halo 3) on a giant movie screen, with time for the public to participate in the morning. If you're interested in more information, visit FFgaming.tv. (Louis Wu 17:06:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Panoramas
Slava Nossar sent along three new panoramas - one, entitled "Nothing Sacred", from the Campaign level 'Covenant' (mild spoilers, 3857x1252, 512 kb), one from Snowbound ("Endless", 7350x1252, 1 mb), and one from Last Resort ("Beach Front", 7850x1252, 1.3 mb). These are rather amazing. go look. (Louis Wu 16:56:33 UTC) (permalink)
Prophecy 'Hope' Teaser Up
Lordstemplar1 stopped by to let everyone know that a teaser for Prophecy, called "Hope", is now available at the 508th Brigade website. Pretty nice piece of work, modeled after the Halo 3 'Believe' ad. Go watch! (Louis Wu 16:51:36 UTC) (permalink)
Section 3, Issue 8 the Invasion part 2
V10L3N7 JAY posted the next episode of Section 3 - a secret mission goes wrong. The artwork and layout continues to rock... go check it out! (Louis Wu 16:48:46 UTC) (permalink)
Saved Films - An Endless Supply of Fun
There are more and more fun pics and film clips from Live games showing up around the net - here are a few of the most ridonkulous from our forum:
- LX925 pointed out a film of a rocket that got deflected by a grenade explosion, and ended up killing a couple of people who had no idea there was even a battle going on.
- _Wheels03 and Ekkoz spent a while building a pic of a Master Chief helmet.
- Rox went through the trash on High Ground, and found some fun stuff.
- Raulboy was first to point out a film of some guys who figured out how to get a new vehicle in Halo 3. Blackstar even created a new medal for it. (A tutorial can be found here - thanks, Z.)
- Dustbunny27 got a double-kill off a single sniper shot that ricocheted in a way you simply couldn't have predicted.
There are plenty more - just scan through our forum for links! (Louis Wu 16:33:16 UTC) (permalink)
I meant to do that.
Elnea realized she'd introduced a major continuity error in Halo Action Figure Theater - or did she? Problem solved, in episode 98.1. (Why not 98.6, that's what I want to know?) (Louis Wu 15:22:18 UTC) (permalink)
When you can't sell the whole thing...
Looks like this was bought with Buy it Now between when Arancio Atlas pointed it out on our forum and now... but someone hacked up a life-sized Halo statue and sold just the head, as a bust. Not a bad finishing job! (Louis Wu 15:20:01 UTC) (permalink)
Them's The Breaks
Haloplayer came by yesterday to point out a new comic from Injured Knee Productions - the strip is now called 'The Newbs', and this strip is called 'Them's The Breaks'. It looks at the current melee system in Halo 3...
(Louis Wu 15:17:00 UTC) (permalink)
News October 27 2007
J'Acuse!
ZZoMBiE13 took umbrage at Nolan Bushnell's comments about Halo 3 being "Doom 1 in different clothing" - go see his take in the latest Another Halo Comic Strip. (Louis Wu 13:54:58 UTC) (permalink)
We're not very good at this promotion thing.
We totally spaced on letting you know about this ahead of time... but Mig and I were on Spike TV's Game Head last night. It SHOULD be on GameTrailers later today, and you can watch it again on Spike TV next Friday night (well, Saturday morning) at 1 am if you'd like. (It's the Simpsons Game episode.) It was a cool little (about a minute long) snippet plugging HBO and the Halo community - go find it! Update: available on GameTrailers here. (Louis Wu 13:49:23 UTC) (permalink)
New RvB on XBLM
Red vs Blue: Recovery One Part One (in HD) is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace, for 80 points. Burnie has said that it will be available for at least sponsors on their website at some point - but it's not there yet. Thanks, darthbob. (Louis Wu 13:41:00 UTC) (permalink)
More on no-weapons glitches - and credit
Trindacut let us know that the Missile Pod glitch that lets you go weaponless was discovered (and documented) by Unreal Studioz about three weeks ago. and Bryan Burns suggests that there's a way to go weaponless without Forge; it involves dropping a flag and deploying equipment, but I couldn't make it work. In general: we're happy to give credit where credit is due, but I'm sure there are LOTS of people who've discovered specific glitches that haven't come to our attention; (after this) we're not going to keep rehashing old ones as people say "well, I found that the day Halo was released!" or "I found that on the copy I bought from eBay a week before release!" or whatever. Enjoy the information, enjoy the credit if you manage to get it to us before anyone else does... but please, do this for the Halo community, rather than for a credit mention. Thanks! (Louis Wu 13:37:51 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Shotty
Omar Raja sent us pics of the M90 shotgun he built from Mega Bloks - colorful! (Louis Wu 13:37:07 UTC) (permalink)
Chocolate frosting + pound cake = win.
I spent yesterday evening at the birthday party of Miguel "Ding" Chavez's oldest - and yes, it was a Halo party. We discovered that old and wily often beats young and fast... remember that. (Louis Wu 13:35:40 UTC) (permalink)
MLG VoD of Vegas now up
3Suns let us know that the championship films from MLG Las Vegas, showing the Final Boss shutout of Carbon (among other matches) are now up in the Video on Demand section of MLGPro.com. Nice!
(Louis Wu 13:31:07 UTC) (permalink)
Covenant Elite Costume on eBay
Hawty "if it's on eBay, I'll tell you about it" McBloggy found a Covenant Elite costume for sale on eBay - it's made of hard plastics and latex, and fits folks between about 5'11" and 6'2", and can be shipped by Halloween. Starting bid is $900, and you've got a day and a half to get your bid in. I don't think I've seen one of these for sale before!
(Louis Wu 13:27:49 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Weekly Update: Tasty
The Bungie Weekly Update is live - and it's full of useful info. There's stuff about the banhammer, the rank system, meleeing, a resolution issue that affects a small group of people, info about upcoming downloadable content, direct downloads of Halo: Landfall, and info about the Recon armor. You want goodies? You can't HANDLE goodies! (Okay, maybe you can.) As always, if you need it, it's up in the Weekly Update Archive, too. (Louis Wu 00:54:52 UTC) (permalink)
News October 26 2007
A Million Bucks for Halo 3
Whoa. The Cyberathlete Professional League is hosting a Halo 3 tournament during the Extreme Winter Championships - with a purse of $1,000,000. First place gets a quarter of that, as an instant cash payout... the rest is split between at least 64 places. More details are at the announcement page on the CPL's website, with registration opening on Monday at Halo3Competition.com. That's some serious cash! (Louis Wu 18:26:13 UTC) (permalink)
Going Weaponless in Multiplayer
blackouTT let us know that ClazM49 found a pretty cool way to get rid of your weapon for filmmaking; it's much easier than the built-in button combo. You can only do this in Forge - but that means all multiplayer maps are accessible. You need two people: first, spawn a missile pod. Then, time it so that one person picks up the pod at the same moment that the other person deletes it; the person picking up the pod will be left open-handed. Do not press 'Y', or you'll lose the effect... and you can only do this as a Spartan, not an Elite. Coolness! (Louis Wu 18:19:04 UTC) (permalink)
Deus Ex Machina
DigitalPh33r, the guy behind the 'Master Chief Sucks at Halo' series, started a new Halo 3 series called 'Deus Ex Machina', about a superhero involved in helping out the little guy. Major Silva found the first two episodes on YouTube (one | two), or you can download them from machinima.com. Pretty nice work! (Louis Wu 18:11:06 UTC) (permalink)
Red No Longer Vs Blue.
Stuntmutt looks at an inadvertent (I hope) side effect of making all the online achievements available only in ranked FFA play in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:43:26 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Landfall
Spectacular. The Neill Blomkamp pieces have been available only partially - and for only some of the world's denizens - on Xbox Live Marketplace; as of today, that's changed. You can download 'Halo: Landfall', a single 315 mb piece that's been edited together from the three separate movies, from the Game Videos section of Xbox Live Marketplace - or directly from Halo 3 (hit the start button, then scroll down to 'Marketplace'). It's free. Thanks to Xboxtoday.com.br's Marcelo Vega for the heads-up! Update: A little more news on this. Major Nelson put up a blog post about this, and lists a number of countries in which this film is NOT available - but that might be a temporary thing; I have word that it's possible that it's just a matter of text localization in those countries. Also, a bit more info about the piece itself - it is in HD (I wasn't sure until I could see it), and the putting-together was done by Bungie/Film Oasis. (Bungie's been pretty unhappy that it's been so difficult to see these in HD splendor up until now - so props for making it happen!) There'll be more info soon - stay tuned. (Louis Wu 14:53:29 UTC) (permalink)
Kotobukiya Statues for Cheap(er)
gryphonosiris pointed out a site that's selling ARTFX Kotobukiya statues for $85 (green variant only, apparently) - even when you tack on the $11 or so in shipping (it varies by destination), it's still cheaper than buying it locally. (Then again - if you're a Barnes and Noble member, it's $90, with free shipping... so make sure you look around. ) (Louis Wu 14:40:21 UTC) (permalink)
He's Gettin' Out.
pete_the_duck continues his experimentation for getting outside those pesky invisible barriers Bungie added to many levels (to keep you in the playing field). He's come up with pretty innovative ways of getting outside of ANY campaign level - he gives specific instructions (and provides cool pictures) for The Storm and Floodgate. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:27:18 UTC) (permalink)
Grab your own screens
finalcuthalo has put together a script that will let you grab screenshots from Bungie.net's RSS feeds. (He's using the same open-source software, and doing the same thing sorahn did to create his haloscreenshots.net website - the difference is, he's releasing instructions so that you can use it yourself without having to work out the details.) (Louis Wu 13:57:38 UTC) (permalink)
That didn't take long...
So, yesterday, we let you know that High Speed Halo had kicked off a 'Million Point Challenge' - they were looking for campaign runs that added up to at least a million points. One of the first runs mentioned in the thread had over a quarter-million points in it, for The Ark; when it was suggested that a million points might be low, Cody Miller replied that only a few levels had the potential for REALLY high scores. Heh. At 8 am this morning (just over 17 hours from the point at which the challenge was announced), goatrope let us know that the challenge had been met - with only 6 levels. Anyone want to try for 2 million? (Louis Wu 13:41:41 UTC) (permalink)
How you get rich in Seattle
ZZoMBiE13 isn't letting up on his comic submissions - Another Halo Comic Strip has yet another new funni for you today. This one contains Halo 3 story spoilers; don't read it unless you've finished the game. If you HAVE finished the game, though... it's pretty funny. (Louis Wu 13:25:10 UTC) (permalink)
Stereoscopic Screenshots - Make your Own
Earlier this week, we mentioned a guy who was creating stereoscopic screenshot from Halo 3. He recently added a tutorial so that you can make your own. And Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, did a little research so Mac users could play, too. (Louis Wu 13:22:52 UTC) (permalink)
Do Grunt Work, Win Big
Advanced Media Network is giving away a copy of the Halo 3 Legendary Edition to the person who submits the longest list of entertainment-related websites. (Read the contest page for more complete details.) You've got until November 1 to enter. Heh - $130 seems cheap for this sort of datamining... (Louis Wu 13:20:16 UTC) (permalink)
Stats Reloaded: Custom Leaderboards
Z pointed out that Stats Reloaded has introduced a new feature - custom leaderboards. You can create your own leaderboard (sign up your clan, for example, or your website community) - and your own scoring method. To show you an example, he pointed out a custom leaderboard someone's created, which contains (scroll down a little) the algorithm used to calculate positions. It's interesting to see how the position within this leaderboard compares to the overall SR leaderboard position (shown in the last column). Go try it out!
(Louis Wu 13:16:09 UTC) (permalink)
The newest rumor flies
I find this more interesting more for how rumors get started than for the actual news... but let's break it down: Gaming Target noticed a two-sentence comment in December's EGM that contains, on its surface, some basic info about a new game coming out of Microsoft in the near-to-middlin' future, along with some speculation about which studio might be involved. They expanded the speculation considerably by suggesting that Peter Jackson might be involved, and that the whole thing might be Halo-based. Xbox 360 Fanboy picked up on this - they counsel caution, but still, the rumor chain grows. By the time the story makes it over to 2old2play, the focus has shifted from the fact that it's a Microsoft-driven MMO to "The latest rumor surrounding the unrevealed Peter Jackson game is that it will be an MMOFPS." How did this become about the Peter Jackson game? That was pure speculation on the part of the first reporting site! Thanks to Wires, who found it at 2o2p. (If we learn anything that definitively ties the EGM rumor to Halo, we'll certainly let you know.) (Louis Wu 13:05:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Humpday - a solid Bungie win, for a change
Last night was also the night that this week's Halo Humpday Challenge got posted (thanks again, LackOfKnowledge) - the EA Tiburon team met, and were demolished on the field of battle by, the Bungie crew. Harshness! I think the page's thumbnail says it best... (Louis Wu 12:53:17 UTC) (permalink)
Storytime ROCKS.
Bungie has posted their newest podcast - the first hour is Dave Dunn telling stories of the old days at Bungie Studios, and the last 20 minutes has Paul Bertone talking football and ripping on Luke. It's a pretty great listen - go grab a copy and hear tales of Chris Butcher sleeping in fields and doing something with mushrooms. Thanks to LackOfKnowledge (and serpx) for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:46:51 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
Monster week for the Fan Fiction section - 19 new pieces. Go read! (Louis Wu 12:45:18 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Guide from Community Radar
Nathan Gibson let us know that he and the website Community Radar have put together a Halo 3 Guide - it's 52 pages long, and available in both PDF and Microsoft Word formats. You can grab it from the Community Radar website. They're also looking for folks to help update and expand upon what they've got - if you're interested, follow the Submissions link at the top of the page. (Louis Wu 12:30:04 UTC) (permalink)
A couple of short vids from Obienator
Don Whitford let us know that Obienator released a couple of short vids recently - there's "an extended edit of a plasma sword fight", and a Halo-flavored tribute to Penny Arcade's riff on Valve's Portal. Both are on YouTube - go watch! (Louis Wu 12:29:26 UTC) (permalink)
News October 25 2007
Crow's Nest now up
Sometimes things get away from you - I'd meant to post the next mission's worth of Halo 3 cutscenes, but forgot. The opening of Crow's Nest is now online in the Halo 3 Cutscene Library. (Louis Wu 23:58:36 UTC) (permalink)
Where's my masking tape?
Ross Mills noticed a Kotaku story on a 'Mummy Chief', over at Gearbox's offices... but I gotta wonder, wouldn't they take the armor off first? (Louis Wu 22:03:01 UTC) (permalink)
His thumbs have gotten slow.
Ouch! Nolan Bushnell, the guy who founded Atari, talked to Gametap recently - he had some unflattering words to say about Halo 3. In a discussion about lack of innovation, he said
"I just find that as much as I applaud the beautiful, fantastic production guys of Halo 3, it's really Doom 1 in different clothing. Clothing or not, the clothing is nicer, but the game is the same."
Well, I suppose they're both first-person shooters... (Louis Wu 21:59:01 UTC) (permalink)
The Cradle
somepunk created what he calls 'The Cradle Zero' - it's an airbase on Zanzibar. No download (yet), but a couple of movies! (The second one is here.) Looks pretty intriguing... Update: somepunk has posted the map in his Fileshare. (Louis Wu 21:32:49 UTC) (permalink)
X3F vs GTR - FanFight
Heh - the crew of Xbox360Fanboy met the crew of Gamertag Radio on the field of Battle - that is, Halo 3 on Xbox Live - and had at each other. Go read about it. (Louis Wu 20:25:10 UTC) (permalink)
The Million Point Challenge
Cody Miller announced a new feature at High Speed Halo - the "Million point challenge". Can you help the crew score a total of a million points on the campaign metagame? His first run is up - 73 thousand points on Halo. Go help! (Louis Wu 19:51:12 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 proves content is (almost) king
An article written by a Silicon Valley insider uses Halo 3 as evidence that content drives sales more than technology does... I think there are lots of examples of that these days, but Halo 3 definitely fits the mold. (Louis Wu 19:22:40 UTC) (permalink)
Standee for sale
BARBARIC RAGE pointed out a pretty cool Halo 1 Standee (from the original Xbox Launch in 2001), now for sale on eBay. It's in pretty nice condition - check it out! (Louis Wu 18:38:22 UTC) (permalink)
MLG's Halo 3 Film Festival Submissions Ending
trigger119 sends word to remind everyone that the Halo 3 Film Festival at MLGPro.com will only take submissions through tonight - if you're planning on participating, now's the time to get your entry in! (Louis Wu 18:35:10 UTC) (permalink)
Love is a many-splendored thing.
Dan Rhine and his fiancee were married on October 6. They had a pretty cake. Why do you care? Because they're both avid Halo players, and Halo was there. He and his friends spent the morning trying to collect the IWHBYD skull. "Rock Anthem to Save the World" was played during the reception. And the groom's cake had a Halo cake topper. Fate had them meet as foes on Xbox Live, but these rings have made them brothers. (Well... spouses, anyway.) (Louis Wu 14:09:45 UTC) (permalink)
Life-sized Rocket Launcher on eBay
RVideo noticed that one of the original Nightmare Armor Rocket Launchers (they made three, back in the day) is available right now on eBay (take THAT, Hawty McBloggy!). Current bid is $155, reserve is not met yet. There are still 5 and a half days left on the auction. This puppy is 4 feet long, and weighs 24 lbs; it's a monster! (Louis Wu 13:54:26 UTC) (permalink)
She Screams in Pink
Elnea posted Halo Action Theater #98 - if you don't normally read her RvB Journal, you might wonder what that giant cat is doing in frame 3. If you aren't wondering that... well, I guess the surreality of the strip has become commonplace for you. (Louis Wu 13:50:21 UTC) (permalink)
Sandtrap is not a natural formation.
Wow... Hawty McBloggy speculated about how interesting it might have been to have had Cortana as the final unlockable in Halo 3. Personally, I'm guessing I'd go crazy after a day or so... but it's an intriguing idea. Go let her know what you think! (Louis Wu 09:54:04 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary Helmet Mod Tutorial
Jay sent us a link to a thread he started at the High Impact Halo forums - it gives step-by-step instructions for making your Legendary helmet wearable... with lots and lots of pics. He even added lights! (Remember: if you do this, you've done it; you can't put it back the way it was.) (Louis Wu 09:50:10 UTC) (permalink)
Phantom in X-Plane
Mid7night has added a Phantom Dropship to X-Plane - you can find a download link (with pictures) in his forum post. Nice! (Louis Wu 09:48:16 UTC) (permalink)
The caption might be right.
Mintz came across a page of geeky wedding photos - check the fifth one down. You'll find a couple of familiar characters... (Louis Wu 09:46:25 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Madness
Wow - we've mentioned Saber-Scorpion before - he's been building Halo-styled Lego creations for years. A few days ago, though, he posted a couple of pages full of Spartan armor permutations and weapons... and man, they're amazing. Go look (page one | page two). Thanks to HHRB for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 09:43:38 UTC) (permalink)
News October 24 2007
Do it again. I dare you.
mikey-san let us know of a truly astounding grenade stick he found recently; check this forum post for a link to a downloadable clip (and a YouTube version). Props to CptSchrute, the original tosser. (Louis Wu 22:16:16 UTC) (permalink)
Sacks of Potatoes
We mentioned the Barrett/Tung interview from Las Vegas a few days ago - Bungie's now posted their own writeup of the trip, written by Joe Tung. Nice read! Thanks, PrideofWV. (Louis Wu 22:01:46 UTC) (permalink)
This file name won't help you.
trigger119 let us know that CROSSFIRE has released a teaser for an upcoming Halo 3 machinima project; there's very little in it to tell you what's coming, but based on past work, I'd say it's one worth waiting for! Swing by Gaming TV to download it. (Louis Wu 21:06:02 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Armor - outfit the whole squad
Hawty "eBaying better than you since 1995" McBloggy has written up a guide that lists all the Spartan armor currently available on eBay, just in time for Halloween. (I was interested to see pictures of Chris Bryan's armor and a couple of Nightmare Armor suits, all with identical text from the same seller - a little strange...) If you've left your Halloween planning until now... go look! Update: Be very careful about bidding on any of the items from bells11580 - either the pictures don't actually match the armor, or the auctions themselves are scams. We got mail from Adam Grumbo, whose own armor pics were used in this auction listing - he's pretty clear that whatever's being sold is NOT that armor. Two other auctions (one | two) show Nightmare Armor suits, both of them using pictures displayed here at HBO in the past, and two contain armor from Chris Bryan (one | two), with no evidence that he's actually sold it. Most damning of all (for me) is an auction not mentioned in Hawty McBloggy's roundup, because it's not a full suit, it's just a helmet; the pictures used were taken by me, of a helmet that's currently sitting in front of me. (Here's the newspost that discusses it.) I'd have to agree with the warning posted near the bottom of this auction - you're risking your money if you bid on these puppies. (Hawty's yanked 'em for now - if she receives evidence that they were legitimate, she'll repost them.)
(Louis Wu 20:53:11 UTC) (permalink)
Sierra 117 Cutscenes Up
We've added the two cutscenes from Sierra 117 to our Halo 3 Cutscene Library - go ahead and grab 'em. As a heads-up, it looks like high-res versions of these (at least 720p) should be available in the not-too-distant future! (Louis Wu 17:41:55 UTC) (permalink)
Stop Light.
What might be the most irritating part of Halo 3 has been skewered by Stuntmutt in today's One One Se7en. If you like this part (after the 25th run-through)... well, the joke's on you. (Louis Wu 17:05:38 UTC) (permalink)
Live Halo in Holland
DHalo found footage of a Halo piece being played at 'Games in Concert' in Holland last November. He describes it as 'unpleasant' at first - I'd strongly disagree with that. Listen and decide for yourself, though. (Louis Wu 16:54:32 UTC) (permalink)
Not with a bang, but... well, yes, a bang.
Narcogen has taken a long hard look at how Halo 3 ends - and at how good a job Bungie's done in tying up loose ends. It's a pretty interesting read! (It is, of course, full of spoilers.) (Louis Wu 16:26:52 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader Good Game Network
Tied the Leader has set up a pretty cool web tool that should help take the place of clans... for their friends and allies. Read the details on their website. Thanks, as usual, to XerxdeeJ for stopping by with the news - this one has the potential to be HUGE. (Louis Wu 15:07:37 UTC) (permalink)
Recovery One: Coming Soon
Red vs Blue has an announcement on their front page that 'Red vs Blue: Recovery One', their last Halo 2 project, will be kicking off in the next few days; it'll be available on Xbox Live Marketplace and their website. (The public version of 'Going Global', the video we mentioned a couple of days ago, is up as well - same place.) Thanks, InsaneViking. (Louis Wu 14:09:56 UTC) (permalink)
A Requiem for the Old Way
Sain7 wrote some poetry to say goodbye to an old style of playing - Hello, Halo 3!
(Louis Wu 13:34:35 UTC) (permalink)
VGL London - a Recap
Looks like the Video Games LIve show in London a couple of nights ago was a smashing success. VVM pointed out a pretty decent YouTubed copy of the Halo piece at the end, and DHalo found a clip of Marty chanting the monk part of the original theme. Awesomeness!
(Louis Wu 13:23:37 UTC) (permalink)
Confetti
ZZoMBiE13's latest comic looks at a problem that all too many Halo fans are stumbling into... has Bungie put a monkey on your back? (Maybe it's a Grunt...) (Louis Wu 11:41:42 UTC) (permalink)
Art from art
sorahn let us know that the second and third mosaics made from user-submitted screenshots are now posted at haloscreenshots.net. The third one, at 5120x2880, is pretty amazing... (Louis Wu 11:33:43 UTC) (permalink)
Invading the Radio Waves
Daggart pointed out that this week's BBC 1 Radio Essential Mix (a dance music collection) kicks off with Finish the Fight - Halo's EVERYWHERE!
(Louis Wu 11:26:29 UTC) (permalink)
Telerunning - Because it's There
trigger119 pointed out this telerun (if the term is unfamiliar, check out this newspost) by the underdogg - looks like a lot of careful teleporter placement! (Louis Wu 11:23:00 UTC) (permalink)
News October 23 2007
Free stuff from 2o2p
2old2play is looking to give away some cool schwag (a copy of the Legendary Edition and a copy of the Standard Edition of Halo 3) - all you have to do to have a shot at it is create a funny caption for a screenshot they've posted on the contest page. You've got until November 2 to submit your entry... so get to thinkin'! Thanks, doodirock. (Louis Wu 20:44:26 UTC) (permalink)
Run AWAY!
Slothboy started a site that will make me cry, if I'm not careful. Tell him he's a bad person. (Louis Wu 19:45:38 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Cutscene Library: Arrival
Been a while in preparation, and it won't be fully fleshed out for a couple of weeks, at least... but the Halo 3 Cutscene Library is now online. Arrival, plus all of the ending variants, are now available for download. At the moment, you have two choices for download size: 856x480 (widescreen 480p), or 428x240 (half the width of the bigger one). We have plans to add 720p versions down the road - but only if we think we can manage the bandwidth hit. For now, consider these 'web-sized'. Huge thanks go out to Cody Miller, who grabbed the video for us. Depending on when the bandwidth spike subsides, we'll be putting up the Sierra 117 cutscenes in the next few days. (Louis Wu 18:26:41 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Interaction - A Powerful Secret
Gamasutra has an article about how the movie industry could learn from the gaming industry in leveraging fan communities - and Bungie is held up as a shining example. (There is a slightly odd focus on Luke Smith as the driving force behind Bungie's success in this field - I'm pretty sure even Luke will tell you that he's continuing a tradition started long before he arrived - but the basic gist, that Bungie has successfully tapped into the enthusiasm fans have for the game, and for their company, in their attempts to increase awareness and excitement, is solid.) Interesting read - thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 17:33:39 UTC) (permalink)
Griefers
Davidgojr has a little trouble with some of the people he runs into on Xbox Live. Let him tell you about them at 1P Start. (Language warning.) Update: Eep - my mistake, David just found this, he didn't write it. Apologies. (Louis Wu 16:41:41 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Map Walkthroughs - The Pit
LaurenOboe, who's been a part of the RvB community for quite some time and appears here periodically for her machinima and musical offerings, has started a series of multiplayer map walkthroughs - first up is The Pit. She covers what's available, weapons/equipment-wise, in the stock version, and discusses layout and basic strategy. If you find this sort of thing useful, let us know on the forum - she'll make more. (I, for one, love to have this sort of resource available.) Grab it in WMP9 format (69.5 mb) or QuickTime format (66.7 mb) - both are 720x480, and run just over 5 minutes. (Louis Wu 15:10:08 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Views, from an old-timer
rockslider has been a long-time Halo 1 advocate, and a staunch Halo 2 hater; he let us know about his feelings for Halo 3 this morning. Overall verdict - still doesn't live up to the original, but he's not returning it. (Louis Wu 14:57:25 UTC) (permalink)
Mister Chief Cake!
ElephantDropBomb put up a pic of his brother's birthday cake - Frankie would be proud. Update: Vincabo was inspired to post pics of his own Mister Chief cake, made by his wife last year. Also a Halo 3 cake. What a wife! (Louis Wu 14:32:35 UTC) (permalink)
Easter Eggs. Literally.
Fadefury pointed out an article at Xbox360Fanboy which details a series of egg-shaped objects hidden high in Sandtrap, covered with a multicolored texture. The texture has been seen elsewhere; it's a standard test texture that shows off a huge range of colors, and so is useful for debugging purposes. I'd be very, very surprised if the 'code' visible on the outside of these 'eggs' actually translated to anything - I think they're 'Easter Eggs' in the purest sense of the word. Funny, cool, but they don't mean anything past what you see. (They've been found before - there've been a number of discussions over at High Impact Halo, for example (here's one), and one or two have been mailed to us - but it's an egg morning, so...) (Louis Wu 14:12:02 UTC) (permalink)
Unharmonious monks and tiring death screams
For the most part, we've stopped reporting new Halo 3 reviews; there are so many of them that if you really want a summary of what's out there, you're better off looking at a place like Metacritic or Gamerankings. I read one this morning, though, that had me scratching my head... it seemed to be complaining about very odd things. (Don't get me wrong - there are lots of things that people complain about in Halo 3; I'm not saying that it's a game you can't criticize. It's just the CHOICE of things they chose to whinge about that threw me...) Read and decide for yourself. (Louis Wu 13:24:03 UTC) (permalink)
CBR interviews RvB
Alacaboose let us know about a pair of episodes of Cockbite Radio (a podcast with a focus on Red vs Blue) you might be interested in - Episode 18 has an interview with Kathleen Zuelch, who plays Tex (there's some insider info at the end), and Episode 16 has an interview with Gavino, who interned for the group this past summer. You can find download links for both on the Talkshoe Profile page for the podcast. (Louis Wu 13:06:24 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Signage
Hawty "I shop better than you do" McBloggy let us know about a couple of Halo-related street signs you can buy right now on eBay - they'll certainly set a mood in your gameroom! (Louis Wu 12:46:59 UTC) (permalink)
An egglet, I guess.
Heh - darthbob found a small egg on The Storm; one of the buildings is labeled 'Section K-434'. This is almost certainly a nod to Bungie's Kirkland offices, at 434 Kirkland Way. Oh, the little things... Update: Schedonnardus let us know that he'd actually mentioned this egg back on September 27 - my bad, I was still behind on the forum at that stage. Sorry, Sched! (Louis Wu 12:44:00 UTC) (permalink)
Heavy Metal Forging
Heh - yesterday we mentioned a blog post that suggested that you could make pictures in Forge - we received this image from AfRo SaUcE. He and his buddy Shadow300 made a copy of the Deathbat logo of the band Avenged Sevenfold - took 'em a couple of hours. Nice work! (Louis Wu 12:25:53 UTC) (permalink)
Shraptain
This weekend, I noticed a new film announced at High Impact Halo - 'Shraptain', a jumping vid from jagg3d Shrapn3l and CaptainCrunch41. (That link contains a high-res WMP9 download and a YouTube link.) Last night, nomis78 pointed out an MLG Gameroom link for the vid, as well. These jumps are often useable in tactical situations - they can get you to places that will give you an advantage in net play in a reasonable timeframe - and so might be worth learning for average players. (The ability to climb back up the chutes in Guardian is pretty nice...) (Louis Wu 11:49:08 UTC) (permalink)
Internet/Halo bundle in Canada
Juxtapose let us know that over at Arbiter's Judgement, there's word of a deal from Sympatico, an internet provider in Canada; if you sign up for a 3-year deal at $60/month, they'll give you their 'Total Internet' package (normally priced at $45/month in a bundle), an Xbox 360 Elite, a copy of Halo 3, and a 12-month Xbox Live subscription. If you bought all these separately (3 years of bundled internet plus the 360, Halo, and the 1-year Live subscription), your cost would be $2240. The bundle will work out to $2160, an $80 discount (over 3 years). If you're looking for an easy way to finance the purchase of a 360, this might be the deal for you. (Louis Wu 11:41:13 UTC) (permalink)
News October 22 2007
RvB: 2007 Machinima Fest Europe Vid
I missed this a couple of days ago, but Rooster Teeth posted the video they created for the European Machinima Festival for their sponsors; I would assume (though I have no evidence for this) that it will be available for everyone soon. It looks at what Red vs Blue would have looked like had it been filmed in other countries. It made me laugh out loud. (It's in the Halo 2 engine.) (Louis Wu 21:33:07 UTC) (permalink)
Game Invasion to broadcast Essentials Disc One
Looks like a significant chunk of the Essentials Disc One (the extra disc that comes with both the Limited and Legendary editions of Halo 3) will be available online, via Comcast's Game Invasion, starting Thursday (the one-month anniversary of the relase of the game). The entire 'Anatomy of a Game' documentary, plus the 24-hours-in-the-life-of-Bungie piece 'Git Ta Werk', will be available to watch. Thanks, MasterChief2829. (Louis Wu 20:45:30 UTC) (permalink)
Everyday is exactly the same
Lucko let us know that his 'Everyday is exactly the same' has been announced on Halo Front - it's a Halo 3 music vid set to NIN music. 82 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 20:44:17 UTC) (permalink)
From Ars, Answers
Anton P. Nym noticed a post by ferrex over at ars technica, explaining that the mysteriously vague warning in last Friday's Bungie Weekly Update was simply a notification that the Banhammer is about to be implemented. (Louis Wu 19:13:49 UTC) (permalink)
McFarlane Figure Update
On Saturday, Littlebigman pointed out the newly posted 2008 release schedule update for McFarlane Halo 3 toys; I hadn't gotten around to posting this, but we've received a few emails about it, as well, so clearly there's considerable interest out there. So check it out. (It's also available on Spawn.com - search for 'Halo 3'.) (Louis Wu 19:01:15 UTC) (permalink)
3D Screens
kapowaz found a guy who's making stereoscopic pseudo-3D images out of Halo 3 screenshots. Nice! (Louis Wu 18:39:50 UTC) (permalink)
Killing the Scarab - REALLY EARLY
This post makes my brain hurt (but in a good way). pete_the_duck found a way to blow up the Scarab on the Storm (the first one in the game) about 30 seconds after the game engine LOADS it (and just a little after you SEE it, if you're playing normally). Film clip included. An explanation of how he managed this is here - no hacks, no mods, no cheats. I'm getting goosebumps. (Louis Wu 17:21:40 UTC) (permalink)
And it doesn't make me breakfast, either.
I just love articles like this one: MyGEN (an Australian gaming site) put up the "Top 10 Things Bungie Screwed UP with Halo 3". After stating that "in no way are we anti-halo or anti-Bungie", they go on to complain about stuff like glitches in Bungie.net site integration and weapons nerfing with comments like "they honestly plain old suck", "collision detection is shocking", "shoddy net code", and "bungie totally screwed it up". Yeah, that's definitely the sort of language I use when I'm trying to provide constructive criticism to a company I love. While some of their points have merit, many of the complaints are downright silly; it's hard to take any of it seriously when they complain that in the two weeks since Bungie announced it's separating from Microsoft, "we have not seen a single improvement to the reliability of matchmaking or their website." I hesitated posting this since it seems to be designed more to generate web traffic than to actually discuss problems with the game... I found this at N4G. (Louis Wu 17:04:32 UTC) (permalink)
Talking Point.
Yesterday, there was some speculation on our forum about how useful voice recognition would be in videogames. Stuntmutt's got his own take on the subject in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:06:30 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 70
Sigafoos sent word of The Riot 70 - this one is half an hour, 12 mb, with a focus on the halo3.junk.ws beta (and a possibility of getting into it. Go listen! (Louis Wu 14:44:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halloween's coming...
pcgamer15 stopped by last night to show off pics of his Halloween costume, currently under construction. We've created a more permanent record, just in case, because it's pretty cool. (Louis Wu 13:47:17 UTC) (permalink)
Nostalgia: Evolved
ZZoMBiE13 continues to update Another Halo Comic Strip - #6 is now up, I feel bad for the Arbiter. (Louis Wu 11:43:27 UTC) (permalink)
The Artful Forger
Hawty McBloggy discusses ways to use Forge which might not have occurred to you at first blush. The screenshot she links to is truly amazing... (Louis Wu 11:33:28 UTC) (permalink)
Guides and a new podcast at R.net
Rampancy.net content madness: There's a new guide for the Cowbell Skull, an entry into the Weapons Guide (today it's the Spiker), and the kickoff of Anger, Sadness, & Envy, the Rampancy podcast. Co-hosts trindacut and Narcogen will walk you through the first level of Halo 3 (along with the opening cutscene) in about half an hour - it weighs in at 13 mb. (Louis Wu 11:27:23 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular 131
Big Goalie Dan let us know that Podtacular 131 is up - an hour long, discussing custom creations. 22 mb - go listen! (Louis Wu 11:02:47 UTC) (permalink)
If you think of it, someone will build it.
Someone created a guide to show you how to make a Halo 3 Xbox 360... out of paper. (No, it's not a COVER for your regular 360. It's a paper 360.) I don't know what to say. (Louis Wu 10:55:17 UTC) (permalink)
Photo Mosaic - Made with Your Help
Yesterday, we front-paged a request from sorahn for your gamertag, so that he could grab your Bungie.net screenshots and turn them into a photo mosaic. Several hundred of you agreed to help - and the first mosiac is now up to see. It was created with the first 2000 submitted screens, and it's available for download in a 5600x5792 version. (Louis Wu 10:48:38 UTC) (permalink)
Walking Wounded
Elnea posted Halo Action Figure Theater 97. Just when you thought things couldn't get stranger... (Louis Wu 10:35:46 UTC) (permalink)
Breaking Down the Walls
Out-of-Map stuff continues - pete_the_duck got some interesting pics in The Storm, and the7ftman put up clips of High Ground and Guardian in his FileShare. At this point, except for Isolation (and maybe a Campaign map or two), you should have access to the outside of pretty much ANY map... (Louis Wu 10:33:43 UTC) (permalink)
News October 21 2007
Game Makers - Halo
QuickTactical noticed an interview with Chris Barrett and Joe Tung from MLG Vegas last week - it's a little hard to find. The link he gives is the same one MSN gives me - but it doesn't get you there. Do a search for 'Game Makers' on that page, though, and you should find a vid called 'Game Makers: Halo'. That's the one you want. (Louis Wu 22:11:57 UTC) (permalink)
Kitt talks Halo 3
Kitt, a Fragdoll who lives in the UK, discussed Halo 3 for about 7 minutes on this videoblog. She invented a word I like quite a lot - 'intrepidation'. I'm gonna be looking for places to use that one. Beyond that, she has some interesting things to say about the game. Stay away from her when she's got a sword... thanks, Ross Mills. (Louis Wu 21:09:33 UTC) (permalink)
Another Halo Comic Strip
ZZoMBiE13 has been around the Halo community for quite a while; we first heard from him in 2003, when he started submitting Halo artwork. More recently, he's been filling in for Stuntmutt on some sanctioned One One Se7en guest spots. He's done enough of these, actually, that we've taken him on as a new comic creator - Go check out Another Halo Comic Strip. (There are already five strips up on the page; the first is a welcome piece, and the others are all migrated over here from his DeviantART page. He'll be adding new ones here as the inspiration hits him.) If the layout seems familiar... it should. We simply repurposed the design we built for Halo Heads, using ZZoMBiE13's own graphics. Hey, if it works, why mess with it? (Louis Wu 12:26:31 UTC) (permalink)
Telerunning
Maluu has been around the Halo jumping scene since the early days of Halo 2 - he and friends are back now with 'Telerunning', using teleporters to increase jumping speeds. Go check out some of their Forged maps and videos in Cow's forum post. Looks like fun! (Louis Wu 12:08:02 UTC) (permalink)
3 more multiplayer overviews
Continuing the 'out of multiplayer map' series, Cow found a guy who got out of Narrows, The Pit, and Snowbound. That brings the total of the documented maps to 8 - only High Ground, Guardian, and Isolation remain. (Louis Wu 12:04:33 UTC) (permalink)
GoNaise - it's not just for breakfast any more
Wolverine Monkey pointed out an article on Moetaku (a parody blog - see if you can guess who they're modeled after) about 'Mayo 3: Finish the Sandwich'. Oddness at its finest. (There's no way to link to the story directly; scroll down when you get to the page.) (Louis Wu 11:58:52 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Mk V at Cosplay.com
PlasmaFire found a cosplayer with a Master Chief outfit built of fiberglass-reinforced cardboard. There are four pages of pictures at the Photobucket link, showing lots of stages of development. Great work! (Louis Wu 11:50:46 UTC) (permalink)
It's funny... AND educational.
Glasser created a machinima project for school. He looked at economic problems for farmers in the 1800s... using the Halo 3 engine. Some of it works wonderfully. Some of it is a stretch. All of it got him credit. (Louis Wu 11:46:09 UTC) (permalink)
Section 3, Issue #7: Invasion part 1
V10L3N7 JAY let us know that Section 3 has been updated with Issue #7 - the invasion has begun. Nice work! (Louis Wu 11:42:05 UTC) (permalink)
Watching battles from afar
Omega found a way to get out of most campaign maps from saved films (no glitching, just finding holes in the outer walls). He's posted a bunch of pics. Coolness! (Louis Wu 11:37:51 UTC) (permalink)
Outpost: Isil... wait, what?
Treeskunk Productions is back, with an announcement about Outpost: Isil, a new series that updates the
long-running Outpost machinima to the Halo 3 engine. There's an announcement trailer up now, along with wallpapers and avatars. (Louis Wu 11:35:38 UTC) (permalink)
When work becomes play
Inside Bay Area has an article about Brett 'Nade' Leonard, a pro Halo gamer that plays for The Agency. Most articles about gamers making money focus on the dozen or so that have quarter-million-dollar contracts - but this article points out that there are other players that are making decent money without being in that tippy-top tier. (It also talks about the rise of pro leagues, a sign that the sport is coming of age.) Interesting read! (Louis Wu 11:33:29 UTC) (permalink)
Calling All Screenshots
sorahn is trying to make a huge screenshot collage - and he needs screenshots. To that end, he's written a small script that will scrape screenshots from Bungie.net RSS feeds - but he needs gamertags to seed the system with. If you got some cool pics, add your gamertag to the list. (Once he's got enough images, he'll turn this off, so depending on when you read this, you may find that the system is closed.) Side bonus - you can use the page to easily view all the screens from a submitted gamertag, without having to jump through the Javascript hoops at Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 11:30:26 UTC) (permalink)
News October 20 2007
Next up: Counterpoint from Balaho
Very cool - a current resident of Mombasa looks at Bungie's imaginings of what his city will become in 500 years; it's a fun read. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. Update: Oops! Jordan117 points out that this article was completely plagiarized from his own Halopedia article on Mombasa. Still cool to see a Mombasan commenting on the use of his city in the game... not cool at all that he did it using someone else's (uncredited) material. (Louis Wu 22:12:55 UTC) (permalink)
Contact Harvest - out for some but not all
Joe Staten clarified the release date issue about Contact Harvest; it was originally supposed to be out on October 14, but the date slipped two weeks because of Halo 3. (If you visit the TOR site, you'll see that both dates are listed on the CH press release page.) As Joe says, you might be able to find the book at some retailers a bit early - but October 30 is still the official release date. (Louis Wu 21:55:03 UTC) (permalink)
Stuff What's Broke
Agamemnon let us know about an open letter to "anyone who had anything to do with Halo 2 Vista" - Hired Gun, MIcrosoft, and Bungie. It's really long, and not particularly proof-read, but it's clear that a bunch of people in the Halo 2 Vista community are very unhappy with the state of the game, the editing tools, and the support they're getting from its developers. I'm getting a strong sense of déjà vu... we saw a lot of these same complaints when Halo PC was first released. Bummer. (Louis Wu 21:48:08 UTC) (permalink)
Mullet Chief
Whee! Kotaku has a story about making the Legendary Helmet fit a normal human head. You're blind, and your chin is still exposed... but it's mostly on. Thanks, UNSC Trafalgar. (Louis Wu 19:00:51 UTC) (permalink)
Outside more maps
IceEagle85 used the technique we mentioned a couple of days ago to get out of Last Resort, Construct, and Epitaph; you can find saved films in his FileShare. Pretty! Update: Omega added Sandtrap to the list. (Louis Wu 12:40:15 UTC) (permalink)
Contact Harvest - out now?
Andrew Nagy stopped by to say he saw copies of Contact Harvest in a local bookstore - looks like it might be out early! (Louis Wu 12:24:57 UTC) (permalink)
I've got a million of those.
Blackstar continues his spate of medal creation - 'Cored!' now covers death by Fusion Core. Awesome! (Louis Wu 12:24:33 UTC) (permalink)
Beauty and the Beast
Elnea posted Halo Action Figure Theater #96 last night - she reintroduces a fantastic euphimism, but refuses to elaborate. You'll have to go hunting through old journal entries, I think, if you need an explanation. Or... just enjoy it.
(Louis Wu 12:16:59 UTC) (permalink)
Naughty and Nice. (Mostly Nice.)
Last night's Bungie Weekly Update was a pretty cool shout-out from a bunch of Bungie employees to the people (family and friends and fans) who made it worthwhile for them. (There's also a mysterious warning to folks doing something they shouldn't be doing.) Go read! Roflsalad was first. (As always, it's archived in the Weekly Update Archive as well.) (Louis Wu 12:15:21 UTC) (permalink)
Processing the Mix
Bungie posted a nice tidbit about the Waves Audio Plug-ins used in Halo 3 - Jay Weinland makes sense of the technobabble, and a movie with examples is included. Check it out! Thanks to Ibeechu for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:13:44 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3: Controlling the Game
Over at halowiki.net, XVxV3ndettA posted an article about controlling the game of Halo 3. Interesting read! Thanks, PEZ. Update: he's also added a no-scoping guide. (Louis Wu 12:09:41 UTC) (permalink)
News October 19 2007
Master Chief and his Johnson
ST let us know about 'Master Chief and his Johnson', a movie by SirTopEmHat. You can watch it at MLG's Gameroom, as ST suggested, or you can download a full-sized version from Halo3Forum.com (in WMP9 format). And, because we're like that, we're offering a QuickTime version, as well. (Louis Wu 20:10:57 UTC) (permalink)
If their website's down now, how about in 500 years?
Jordan117 found another real-world link between Bungie's in-game assets and Africa. This sort of attention to detail (on Bungie's part) is awesome. And on Jordan117's part... wow.
(Louis Wu 20:03:44 UTC) (permalink)
If my 360 weren't hidden, I'd buy one.
Hawty "I scour eBay so you don't have to" McBloggy found a couple of cool-looking Halo faceplates for your Xbox 360. Go spend money! (Louis Wu 19:33:04 UTC) (permalink)
News Log talks, MC listens
Log.TV has a new program called News Log, and a couple of weeks ago, they interviewed Master Chief. Well, sort of. I'm not sure if his mic was broken, or what... but the guy redefined the word 'stonefaced'. Go watch! (Louis Wu 19:06:11 UTC) (permalink)
A Bug In The Game?
Stuntmutt looks at one of our larger Halo 3 foes in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:06:26 UTC) (permalink)
Thumbs Up for the MC
rapture went to Las Vegas. To gamble? Nope. To check out the 47 Cirque du Soleil shows? Nope. He went to check out Master Chief. And take pictures. Go rap. (Louis Wu 17:05:29 UTC) (permalink)
Do you want the Kortana?
Hawty McBloggy tackles the mystery of the unlockable Katana you can add to your avatar with the right Achievements - why do people want it? DO people want it? Can it help you get to the middle of a Tootsie Pop? Some good questions in there - go read! (Louis Wu 10:35:45 UTC) (permalink)
Another Topps Auction
A couple of days ago, we mentioned an auction for a Topps original sketch card. That auction is still going on (5 more days, current bid is $150) - but there's a new one: Kevin's posted a sketch of a Spartan in EVA armor. You've got five and a half days on this one, no bids yet (starting bid is $150, as well). Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:29:39 UTC) (permalink)
Kotaku meets Gizmodo, on the field of battle
Another big Halo 3 fight took place last night - Gizmodo took on Kotaku, in a grudge match. (Here's Gizmodo's piece, and here's Kotaku's.) Ex-Kotaku writer Luke Smith (yes, the same Luke Smith who beat up on poor defenseless Bungie.net admins the night before) was there, playing for his old blog. Apparently, he played pretty well - but not well enough to carry his team to victory; Gizmodo took the best-of-seven series 4 games to 2. Fun reads!
(Louis Wu 10:23:38 UTC) (permalink)
The Finale
Z let us know about 'The Finale', a Farewell-to-Halo 2 montage from Phurion, Drako, Kblocker & Kfost. Weighs in at nearly 300 mb - but there's some pretty nice gameplay in the 13 minute monster. The last section has some less-than-successful trick attempts, which are fun to watch, as well. (Louis Wu 10:13:26 UTC) (permalink)
I Am Legendereh
Cinema Blend is giving away a copy of the Halo 3 Legendary Edition - swing by to read the rigorous rules! (Bottom line: if you live in the US, can read, and have an IQ above about 50, you've got a shot.)
(Louis Wu 10:00:51 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Thirteen new pieces are up in the Fan Fiction section this week - go see what you can find! And while we're on the subject of fan fiction, garbageman44 stopped by yesterday to point out a book written by his brother that they're scanning and posting at DeviantART. (Louis Wu 09:47:07 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3: the stats are huge.
The September hardware and software numbers are out, as expected... and Halo 3 (and the Xbox 360) had a pretty amazing month. Visit this page at Video Game Chartz for a comparison between two of the bigger names in industry stats. Bottom line - as of a couple of weeks ago, Halo 3 had sold somewhere between 3 and 3.5 million copies in the US and Canada alone. That's a LOT of Master Chiefs. (The same region picked up more than half a million Xbox 360s, beating analyst predictions by a healthy margin.) (Louis Wu 09:40:21 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Arbiter
Ca'gerrin built a Lego Arbiter, and then stopped by to tell us about it. Pretty nice! (Louis Wu 09:28:03 UTC) (permalink)
Humpday Challenge? Hardly.
Bungie, apparently unwilling to face any of the hundreds of community teams clamoring for a shot at burying them in a Humpday challenge, went up against the Bungie.net moderators this week. No warmup game at all (I guess they were afraid they wouldn't be able to pull off the same bait-and-switch tactic twice in a row), but they didn't need it - they won the first two, tied on the third. Looks like Fires7orm was first with the news. (Louis Wu 09:26:13 UTC) (permalink)
Keith David on Voice Acting
Not fully Halo-related... but interesting nonetheless. TeamXbox has put up some interviews with the voice actors that worked on Mass Effect - and one of those actors is Keith David, who also voiced the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3. He's talking about voice acting in general; it's not a long interview, but it's interesting to hear what he thinks about the job. Thanks, Caligula Caesar. (Louis Wu 09:16:03 UTC) (permalink)
News October 18 2007
Flying Death
Simpsons Rule pointed out a pretty cool kill over at the MLG Gameroom - Blackstar even made a new medal for it. Update: Check this suicide out, too. (Thanks, Mariachi.) I LOVE THIS STUFF! Update 2: Blackstar made a medal for this one, too! I'm gonna see if I can earn that. It's so pretty! (Louis Wu 20:42:22 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Favorites
halowiki.net wants to know what your favorites are in Halo 3. Current options are Weapons and Maps. I can see this page getting pretty massive... thanks, PEZ. (Louis Wu 15:13:09 UTC) (permalink)
It was definitely me.
GU Comics takes a look at the "Master Chief killed movie sales" argument in today's comic - nice artwork. Thanks, Ross Mills. (Louis Wu 14:24:06 UTC) (permalink)
Three Course Digital Diet
Yahoo has put up an article for gamers who want to get their significant other into playing videogames. Halo is considered the graduate school program of the Xbox 360 curriculum. Thanks, Deten.
(Louis Wu 13:32:12 UTC) (permalink)
Wow... that's REALLY high.
See... now THIS is why I love the Halo community. Cocopjojo let us know about a way he and a friend had stumbled on getting out of multiplayer levels in Halo... it's ingenious. And the results are pretty darned interesting to look at. (Louis Wu 13:23:29 UTC) (permalink)
Prophet of Crock
Elnea's son replaced Terence Stamp with Chris Crocker in a cutscene from Crow's Nest. (If you haven't PLAYED Crow's Nest (mission 2), you'll be faced with some minor spoilers here.) I'm disturbed by how well it works... (Louis Wu 13:04:48 UTC) (permalink)
R.net Weapons Guide - SMG
Rampancy.net has posted another entry for its Halo 3 Weapons Guide - this time they're looking at the SMG. (Louis Wu 12:24:44 UTC) (permalink)
Purple Light Sold Separately, Apparently
Hawty McBloggy points out a somewhat risqué custom-made Cortana statue for sale on eBay; this can probably be considered NSFW. That said, it's a pretty amazing piece of work. Starting bid is $200, with just under 5 days to go. (Louis Wu 12:18:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 helps MS sell 360s in September
September numbers are expected to be announced today - but there are plenty of people already predicting what they'll say. Next-Gen has an article which quotes Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter as predicting that the Xbox 360 numbers for the month of September will be around 450,000, beating out the Wii, and due in large part to Halo 3. Gamespot has predictions from several different analysts - not all agree that the Wii will be beaten, but they DO say that the boost for the 360 is primarily due to Halo 3. In Canada, 360 sales doubled over the previous month - again, mostly because of Halo 3. Seems like the game is moving units... (Louis Wu 12:14:15 UTC) (permalink)
Play N Trade National Halo 3 Tourney
Play N Trade stores will be hosting a Halo 3 tournament in most of their stores through the US, with national winners competing for thousands in in-store credit and Halo merch. You can read all the details in the press release, over at BusinessWire. Tournament rules are on Play N Trade's website. (Louis Wu 12:03:15 UTC) (permalink)
News Summary - Catch-Up Mode
I woke up to a mailbox full of older Google News Alerts - a few dozen messages from Saturday through Tuesday, that all came in together. Much of the news they contained has already been mentioned, but here's a roundup of the interesting tidbits we hadn't gotten to:
- MSNBC.com has an article about how Halo 3's launch affects average people.
- Siliconera posts the first part of a retrospective looking back over the launch event in New York (fun pics).
- Practice Management Blog looks at Halo 3... the Lawyer?
- The Harvard Crimson has a writeup of a Microsoft-sponsored Halo 3 tournament - those guys were playing for some nice prizes!
- Unconfirmed Sources has news of a guy who ported Halo 3 to his iPhone. I'm thinking shooting's gonna be a problem...
- VideoJug has a video containing some basic Halo 3 tips and tricks; if you find yourself more dead than alive, this might be worth watching.
Wow... that's a pretty random collection of bits! (Louis Wu 11:58:35 UTC) (permalink)
News October 17 2007
HMV Hell 2
imSuck has finished up HMV Hell 2, a sequel to his well-received tribute to the genre of music video mashups. Lots of clips, lots of funny moments, lots of nice camerawork. almost 12 minutes long, weighing in at about 130 mb, depending on flavor. You can download it from HaloGrid, or read about it first. This was filmed in Halo 2.
(Louis Wu 21:23:08 UTC) (permalink)
Halo devs talk to Gamasutra
Gamasutra interviewed Jonty Barnes and Jay Weinland back at the Tokyo Game Show - tidbits about the possibility of marketing the Halo 3 engine (pretty slim, except maybe for the Peter Jackson project), dialogue stuff, and Halo 3's rating. Overall, a very nice read! Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 18:41:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Official Soundtrack Info
It's been known for a while that the Halo 3 Official Soundtrack will be out in the second half of November, and will be a 2-disc set (Amazon has November 20 listed) - but Xbox.com now has an official page of info. Release date is listed as 'before Thanksgiving' (which falls on November 22 this year), and the post contains info about the Ibanez guitar giveaway (we mentioned it a couple of weeks ago), as well. There are no samples yet on the Sumthing Distribution website - but it's likely there will be, at some point. (Louis Wu 17:32:27 UTC) (permalink)
Topps Halo Sketch Card on eBay
Remember those Topps sketch cards we mentioned yesterday? You can buy one on eBay - Kevin's listed his Legendary Badge. Winner gets the pictured card, plus a bunch of others (read the description for details). Opening bid's $150, you've got about a week. (Louis Wu 16:41:22 UTC) (permalink)
Keep rationalizing, Greg.
Heh - I'm pretty sure he's got the steps wrong (see the last paragraph), but Daniel Tovrov has certainly faced his Halo addiction head-on. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 15:06:07 UTC) (permalink)
A Bug In The Game?
Stuntmutt looks at one of our larger Halo 3 foes in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 14:45:09 UTC) (permalink)
Just Say: Yes, Sir!
Elnea posted Halo Action Figure Theater 95 last night... You gotta love how that purple guy just knows how to take control. Booyah. (Louis Wu 14:14:11 UTC) (permalink)
Gravemind's doing that backwards thing again.
A few days ago, bigmantis pointed out some music that seemed to contain reversed audio in it - today, Owm posted that audio, reversed, so you can listen for yourself. We're clearly not hearing it entirely yet; the words we've come up with make almost no sense so far. Listen for yourself (I filtered a version which works if you've got headphones), see what you can come up with! (Louis Wu 13:37:30 UTC) (permalink)
The very model, he is.
Gundulf started off this forum post by explaining that "no one's done the mandatory Gilbert & Sullivan parody for Halo yet." No, indeed, nobody has. Until now. Oh, how I wish someone would record this!
(Louis Wu 12:57:37 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Mission-a-Day: Done
Jake Seaton wraps up his 9-day journey through Halo 3's Campaign with a writeup of the final mission. Overall, he was pretty impressed. (Louis Wu 12:07:01 UTC) (permalink)
We're taking out an ad in the NYT next week.
Wow, bizarreness. I'm posting this for the novelty of it - I saw a press release for Halopedia come across eMediaWire this morning. Yes, there's a lot of content there... but a PRESS RELEASE? They're a fansite. With little to no advertising. I'm confused.
(Louis Wu 12:05:23 UTC) (permalink)
Last One Standing - Limited Access
Ouch - Marcelo Vega let us know that because the third Blomkamp short was put up on Xbox Live Marketplace, instead of in Game Videos, it's not available to gamers in many parts of the world. (He's from Brazil, and Brazil is one of those parts.) It's unclear WHY the short was filed as it was, this time around... but as long as it stays there, not all Halo 3 fans are being treated equally. Do you think Microsoft should rectify this? (Louis Wu 12:00:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo in Church - Again
At The Christian Chronicle, there is another article looking at the 'Halo in church' issue - some interesting points. This one is starting to be beaten into the ground, but there are still some voices to be heard. (Louis Wu 11:54:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Clip Contest
Over at Invalid Mob Gaming, they're offering a 1-month Xbox Live Gold subscription code for the best Halo 3 File Share clip. Submit your gamertag, your file share item slot, and your email, and you might just be able to extend your Gold membership by a month! Thanks, Mukelo. (Louis Wu 11:51:23 UTC) (permalink)
I'll give you 3 Mowdowns for a...
Hawty McBloggy takes a look at the issue of achievement trading in the Lone Wolves playlist. We've had a number of discussions on this topic on our forum - she covers most of the common reactions. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 11:49:23 UTC) (permalink)
News October 16 2007
Trot out the 'experts', it's time to bash games again
Wow. I'm as disturbed by the fallacies presented by last week's The Morning Show as GamePolitics is. Someone needs to open a dialogue like this when there HASN'T been a school shooting in the past few days; we need people to be thinking rationally when they're making decisions on concepts like this. Thanks, GryphonOsiris. (Louis Wu 21:32:46 UTC) (permalink)
Submit to Halo
Sh0rtBusKid found an interesting picture at DeviantArt - it's generated a lot of discussion on our forum, but I'm not sure everyone's seeing the same message. What do you see? (Louis Wu 21:24:24 UTC) (permalink)
Sketch Cards, from Topps Artist
Kevin Graham is one of the artists tapped by Topps to create sketch cards that have been inserted into their Halo card packs. Kevin wanted to share his work with the Halo community - so we've put up a page containing almost 3 dozen sketch card images. Check 'em out - they're beautiful! (Louis Wu 20:43:41 UTC) (permalink)
Oregon Trail, 2552 Style.
AnTi PRO let us know that ArmTheFlag.com is in the process of creating the first episode of a Halo 3 machinima project titled ' Oregon Trail: Pioneering Evolved'. They released a trailer a month ago, using the Halo 2 engine... but didn't want to spread the news too widely until the Halo 3-based first episode was almost finished. They're mostly done with filming, and about to start on voices... so it's time to go watch the trailer. You can stream it at YouTube, or download it from Mythica. And keep your eyes peeled for Episode 1! (Louis Wu 20:40:56 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Carbine - good for lucky headshots
Rampancy.net has posted another installment of their Halo 3 Weapons Guide - this one looks at the Carbine. (Louis Wu 13:46:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halotivational Posters
deadox is kicking off a new blog, showing off motivational posters made from Halo 3 shots. He's looking for your input. (Louis Wu 13:21:42 UTC) (permalink)
Encounters - the key to fun
Interesting - 1Up's review of Super Mario Galaxy (coming out for the Wii next month) draws parallels between this platformer and Halo 3 - in a good way. Interesting read! Thanks to Gravemind for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:18:31 UTC) (permalink)
ChicagoLANd Slayings
Tied the Leader has a writeup of their farewell to Halo 2, a LAN they held this summer in Chicago. Great pics, great words. Go read! (The summary by XerxdeeJ is just the tip of the iceberg; there's a whole raft of content linked from the blog story.) We're indebted, as always, to deeJ for making sure we don't have to dig for our content. (Louis Wu 13:14:45 UTC) (permalink)
Final Boss - Kings of Halo 2
reprobate gives praise to Final Boss, who went undefeated through their final Halo 2 tournament - MLG's final Halo 2 tournament, to be more general - and swept their biggest rivals, Carbon, 6-0 in the final match. What a way to end an era! (Louis Wu 05:02:21 UTC) (permalink)
From Kakanui to Seattle
There's a great article in the New Zealand Herald, looking at Chris Butcher, an Engineering Lead on Halo 3, and how he got to where he is today. Seems he was pretty sharp from the get-go... he got his Bungie start with Marathon, and never looked back. (He contributed to the fan communities of Marathon and Myth, and worked for Bungie on Oni, Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3.) Nice! Thanks to Sam Tobin for the first heads-up. (Flustered points out that the same article is up at Stuff.) (Louis Wu 05:01:39 UTC) (permalink)
An endorsement from a parent-friendly site
EnergyPigeon let us know that KidConfidence rated Halo 3 an 8.5/10 - they suggest that although it's an M-rated game, it's actually "at the lower end of the 'M' scale" and should be fine for many children. (They recommend limiting online play to friends and family if your kids are under 12.) Interesting writeup for a site aimed at parents! (Louis Wu 05:01:07 UTC) (permalink)
The Splatter Tage
Z let us know about The Splatter Tage, a Halo 2 montage of (yeah, you guessed it) splatter kills. It was put together by the Fighting Wombats, and it's actually a lot of fun to watch. (I could have done without the blurry stuff from Ascension - that gave me a headache - but for the most part, effects were kept to a minimum, and it was all about the crushing.) Ten minutes, 150 mb, WMP9 format. Go watch. (Louis Wu 05:00:32 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary, Cheap
Both Red_Breast and Black Six noticed that Amazon was offering the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 for $110 yesterday - apologies for not getting the news to you sooner. However, its not such a bad thing; Black Six pointed out a news post at gamerawr! that also had a listing for a site selling it for $101. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 05:00:02 UTC) (permalink)
Forge Hub Opens
TrueDarkFusion wrote to us about Forge Hub, a new site designed to give you a central location to learn about and download high-quality Forged maps. There are a few already on the page, with many more to come - and they're looking for people interested in helping out. Go download, and build some fun! (Louis Wu 04:59:42 UTC) (permalink)
Have you seen this medal?
PEZ is looking for help from the HBO community. The Medals Talk page at halowiki.net has a question from bark0de - "Has anyone seen anybody that has earned the second Bungie.net-only medal? The first one is Perfection, the second one I've never seen, the third is the Steaktacular, and the fourth only appears if you have it (which we all know about already) and it's Linktacular. So what's the missing medal? Anyone?" I haven't seen anyone who has this one, either... anybody? Check the Medals page for the full list they DO have. Update: Thanks to Eelz07, Shigami Ichigo (via Avateur), and Igneus Animus, who all pointed out that the medal is 'Extermination', awarded when you 'wipe out an enemy team with at least an Overkill'. (You can see it at any one of their medals pages.) (Louis Wu 04:58:49 UTC) (permalink)
Face It
DunnyPanMan pointed out 'Face It', a song commissioned by Xbox Australia (it'll be used in future marketing) and performed by Phrase, a notable name in the Australian hip-hop scene. News about the piece is at Xbox Australia's website, the song itself can be heard (and watched) at a special Halo 3-themed site set up for it. (Louis Wu 04:58:13 UTC) (permalink)
Crowdsourcing can build Halo 3 assets
kapowaz has started collecting Halo 3 screenshots on Flickr - he feels that the sorting and tagging system there (not to mention the unlimited storage space) makes it a better choice for sharing these. He's looking for help in both tagging his shots, and growing the corpus of Halo 3 shots overall; join him! (Louis Wu 04:57:36 UTC) (permalink)
Push to Talk, Ep 1
Sep7imus let us know about a new podcast started up by a couple of Seasoned Gamers - the 'cast is called 'Push to Talk', and while it's a general gaming blog, the first episode is all about Halo 3. And hour and a half, 21 mb. (Louis Wu 04:57:12 UTC) (permalink)
ESRB - not fine-grained enough?
GryphonOsiris noticed that Game Politics brought up a flaw in the ESRB rating system - they believe that the recent 'Halo in Church' controversy shows that the ESRB is too broad in its categories. Good read! (Louis Wu 04:56:37 UTC) (permalink)
World's Funniest Home Videos
Elnea stopped by with Halo Action Figure Theater 94 - what do you do with a zombie? That's right - you use a Barbie videocamera and film it. (Louis Wu 04:56:16 UTC) (permalink)
News October 15 2007
A Contest Needs a Way to Enter...
DOH! Somehow, I managed to announce the Guilt O' Lantern contest without activating the upload folder - not sure if this affected anyone, since we didn't get any emails saying "the upload doesn't work!", but it's working now. Sorry! (Louis Wu 23:57:18 UTC) (permalink)
Straight up.
Ducain pointed out a thread on the High Impact Halo forum in which ||| Tyrant ||| shows off an amazingly simple technique for climbing vertical walls in Halo 3 - as long as you've got a corner around. Awesome for exploring! Man, that's easier than Jackie Chan's method... (Louis Wu 18:41:45 UTC) (permalink)
A Bug In The Game?
Stuntmutt looks at one of our larger Halo 3 foes in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:39:39 UTC) (permalink)
What advertising is supposed to do
Anton P. Nym points out an article at Adweek that looks at a bunch of mediocre ad campaigns in September... and then gives props to the Believe campaign. Nice! (Louis Wu 15:39:18 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary discs - available on their own
I'm not sure I understand where these are coming from - but ResilientMonkey pointed out a store on eBay that is selling the bonus discs from Halo 3 Legendary Editions (they currently have five sets for sale). Buy it now price is $14, WELL below the $70 price differential between Legendary and Standard editions. (Of course, you're not getting the helmet or the storyboards, either...) The part I don't get, though, is why folks are selling these; how many people bought the Legendary Edition JUST for the helmet? If you're one of the people that wanted copies of these discs, that mystery doesn't matter much - it should be good enough to know the discs are available. (Louis Wu 14:44:47 UTC) (permalink)
That must have been fun.
Spenser noticed a vid at GameTrailers, showing an in-game, non-orchestrated Killtastrophe. (I found the game link, so if you want to you can download the film clip and get views from other angles.) (Louis Wu 14:33:30 UTC) (permalink)
Blame the Master Chief.
Advertising Age wonders if low ticket sales at the movies recently can be attributed to many moviegoers playing Halo 3 instead... interesting question. (Louis Wu 14:32:57 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Podcasts
Big Goalie Dan let us know that Podtacular 130 is up - interview with Luke Smith, call-ins, and Tales from the Foxhole. 1:22 long, 28 mb. And Sigafoos pointed out The Riot 69 - 32 minutes, 13 mb, filled with news of a new beta from halo3.junk.ws (a stats aggregator) and the new streaming video service from GamingTV. Go listen! (Louis Wu 14:24:34 UTC) (permalink)
News October 14 2007
When you just can't wait to earn 'em fairly...
CVG has an article about 'Achievement whores' - folks who are entering the Lone Wolves playlist specifically trying to get others to help them gather up the Halo 3 online achievements. Thanks, Avateur. (Louis Wu 19:12:28 UTC) (permalink)
Is This Ring World 24 Karat?
ZZoMBiE13 is back for another Guest Sunday One One Se7en - I think he has something to say about the power of commercialization. (Louis Wu 15:34:32 UTC) (permalink)
File Share - A Source of Joy
We've got word of a couple of interesting clips that have been FileShared. One came from this thread at High Impact Halo; as far as I can see, the Halo 3 engine somehow thought that a doorway was a solid wall, because of precise placement of the
sniper rifle barrel and probably the speed of the slug as it crossed the plane (a bug, but a mighty funny one, as long as it's not you getting hit by a bullet that takes a 90 degree turn in midair...) - grab the clip "headshot???" to see an amazing ricochet. The second is hilarious, even if it was totally misinterpreted by the guy who grabbed it; there's a Brute Chieftan on Covenant who's actually taking a leak as you come in, and Sierra John 117 grabbed a film. (He thought the guy was doing something else, though...) Spin the camera around to the front on this one; even though he's just miming the actions (Bungie kept his pants on), the modeling is pretty darned close to reality - SOMEONE took their time on this one. It's touches like these... (Louis Wu 14:43:02 UTC) (permalink)
The road to Voi
Heh - DigitalPh33r (the guy behind the 'Master Chief sucks at Halo' series) posted a vid called 'Road to Voi', looking at the Master Chief and the Arbiter's journey to save Earth. Language definitely needs a rating, but it's pretty funny! You can watch it at Machimima.com, where it was originally posted, or YouTube, where it has a bigger audience. Thanks, Angelo Ferrara. (Louis Wu 14:38:33 UTC) (permalink)
Section 3 Issue #6
V10L3N7 JAY stopped by with word of another Issue of Section 3 - looks like things are about to heat up! (Louis Wu 14:36:43 UTC) (permalink)
Prophecy News
Lordstemplar1 is back, with another Prophecy update. (Search our news if you don't remember this project - it's been in the works for a while.) There's also a wallpaper linked in the post. (Louis Wu 14:33:57 UTC) (permalink)
More for your Pumpkin
A couple of cool changes to the Guilt O' Lantern prize packages... the three copies of Contact Harvest are now to be signed by the author, Joe Staten, and the Legacy package has just received an additional game, Crackdown, courtesy of a generous fan! w00t! (Louis Wu 13:46:06 UTC) (permalink)
News October 13 2007
You Finding Tropical Storm?
Heh - talk about taking over the world... thanks, wesley burket. (Louis Wu 19:45:45 UTC) (permalink)
Play Digital TV Review
LC pointed out a video review of Halo at Play Digital TV - it's a tad spoilerish with the included footage, but a fun review.
(Louis Wu 19:43:30 UTC) (permalink)
Ross Goes Hunting for News
Ross Mills found a couple of interesting articles - he mentioned one in which a Eurogamer reviewer commented in his blog about how unpleasant the actual review process for Halo 3 was, and another, over at GamesIndustry.biz, which looks at the way Halo 3 bridges the hardcore gamer community with 'the mainstream'. Give 'em a read!
(Louis Wu 19:40:47 UTC) (permalink)
Brains...
Vinx let us know about a Halo 3 comic he found on DeviantART - heh. (Louis Wu 19:33:12 UTC) (permalink)
I think the Penny Arcade guys found him too...
This is just... silly. Hawty McBloggy found someone who will bump your achievements, rank, or experience... for a fee. Say WHAT? (Louis Wu 19:24:39 UTC) (permalink)
Mission-a-Day 8 - Cortana's a hassle
Jake Seaton's coming to the end of his 9 day romp through Halo 3 - he's not particularly happy with Mission 8. Do you agree? (Louis Wu 13:07:42 UTC) (permalink)
McFarlane Armor Variants Coming
Fragclone was first with word of some new McFarlane Spartan figure variants - they'll be including CQB and EVA armor variants in the Series 1 release next spring. Nice! (Louis Wu 12:07:10 UTC) (permalink)
Critics on criticism
Over at Variety.com, there's an article by a videogame critic which worries about how to write videogame reviews for a mainstream audience. He makes some interesting points, though a lot of it comes off as rationalization, to me. Give it a read. (Louis Wu 12:04:31 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Thinking In Single Encounters
PEZ pointed out a strategy article by Refanius over at halowiki.net - it's called "Halo 3 Thinking in Single Encounters", and it might help you get better at your Halo 3 tactics.
(Louis Wu 12:02:13 UTC) (permalink)
Double Team on Construct, a vid
Z pointed out a Gameplay vid by ThaggleS - Double Team on Construct. I'm having trouble understanding the allure of films like this now - unless it's for people without Halo 3 (or without Live), because an uploaded Saved Film would show you exactly the same gameplay - and more - for a much smaller download. However, if you don't have Live, or Halo 3, swing by. (Louis Wu 12:00:12 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Toy Box hits 100
Sane Intolerant pointed out that Halo Toy Box #99 and #100 are up - the end of the Origins storyline, and a remake of his first comic. Go see. (Louis Wu 11:45:09 UTC) (permalink)
Top 5 most memorable video game songs
Black Six was the first to mention a short piece at MSNBC that looks at the top 5 most memorable video game songs. Halo's on the list. (Everything else is pretty old - the newest of the remaining four is FF7, released 10 years ago.) (Louis Wu 11:37:37 UTC) (permalink)
Return of the black hole of free time.
Bleet Tameheart let us know that Roomies had a Halo reference this week - but you might have to start at the beginning of the story arc to actually understand it. (Don't worry, it's only a couple of extra strips.) (Louis Wu 11:35:01 UTC) (permalink)
Hi Res Assets
Matt6908 wrote to tell us that High Resolution Halo has posted all but two of the Halo 3 Rank images (they're missing General Grade 3 and 4) in high resolution (1000x1000). There are also some other items, like medals and HUD pieces - poke around! (Louis Wu 11:28:19 UTC) (permalink)
Official Halo Sheet Music on Musicnotes
Calliope got word that musicnotes.com is marketing the official sheet music for Halo (they've got the Halo theme and the Halo theme (Mjolnir Mix). Cost is about $5 each (a little more or less, depending on which one, and whether you're a 'Digital Club member' or not). (Louis Wu 11:25:13 UTC) (permalink)
He's back...
Spartan Jag pointed out that Master Chief Sucks at Halo 3 (Part III) is now up - it made me laugh. (Louis Wu 11:13:37 UTC) (permalink)
Abstrakt Featured Artist
TTL Demag0gue stopped by to say that Abstrakt, the relatively new blog devoted to artistic screenshots taken in-game, now features a guest 'artist' on Fridays... and he's the first one. Go visit to see the new work! (Louis Wu 11:12:49 UTC) (permalink)
red rant podcasts Halo 3
Captain Milk let us know that red rant has a new podcast up which discusses Halo 3 in depth - he's featured as a cohost. An hour and three quarters long, 60 mb. Go listen! (Louis Wu 11:11:01 UTC) (permalink)
News October 12 2007
Turn down the retardation.
Wow. Sep7imus was faster noticing the Bungie Weekly Update than my RSS feed was. Happy Birthday, Luke and Frankie! (Ya big cheaters!) This one is mostly housecleaning: explaining how the ranking system works (again), working on why the Marathon Man achievement doesn't unlock for everyone, an explanation of Bungie Favorites, some lack of pants, a hint about upcoming downloadable content, a look at the EXP cheating issue, and a clarification about armor permutations. (All those people who said they've unlocked the Recon armor? Bungie says "nope, you haven't.") Don't wanna read it at Bungie.net? Check our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 23:40:56 UTC) (permalink)
Guilt O' Lantern 2007 - It's On, Baby
It took WAY too long - but the 2007 Guilt O' Lantern Official Contest Page is live. Go check out the prizes we've got lined up for you... and get to planning! (Louis Wu 20:23:41 UTC) (permalink)
Guided Missile.
The lesson from today's One One Se7en is "make sure nobody gives Stuntmutt a copy of the Strategy Guide". (Louis Wu 17:30:56 UTC) (permalink)
Bioshock vs Halo 3: a comparison
Australia's PC Magazine compared Bioshock to Halo 3, to see which was the better buy. I can't argue with the analysis, because I haven't played Bioshock... but to call Marty's sound design 'beer' to Bioshock's 'wine'... eh. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Like Steve, I'll let you see what they decided on your own.) (Louis Wu 17:04:42 UTC) (permalink)
My trigger is sticky.
Zelahn has been frustrated with the crowd who plays Halo 3 in the afternoon hours - so much so, that he's written a song about it. Go listen to Real Gamers of Genius - Mr. After School Halo Player. (Louis Wu 16:45:21 UTC) (permalink)
Halopic.com - for the comedian in you
Josh Nichols pointed out Halopic.com, new site that lets you caption uploaded screenshots - easier than firing up Photoshop! (Louis Wu 16:37:31 UTC) (permalink)
I hope someone doesn't start one of these about me.
Injunfett kicked off a blog that is devoted specifically to screenshots of the Bungie team getting killed in Halo 3. Makes you wonder what his childhood was like... (Blog title left out of this newspost because it's not particularly pleasant.) (Louis Wu 16:34:28 UTC) (permalink)
He'll Pwn You
Conan O'Brien had a bit with God playing Halo 3 last night - darkendes pointed it out, and PHANTOMFIRE X linked to the clip itself on YouTube. (Louis Wu 16:30:14 UTC) (permalink)
HBO Humpday Challenge - The REAL Story
Koholint was the first to point out Luke Smith's lying writeup of the Halo 3 Humpday Challenge we played against Bungie on Wednesday night. They were so embarrassed to be beaten by 'the old men of HBO' they had to cheat - and claim that the warmup game (Slayer on Construct, Bungie wins) was actually Game 1, and that the REAL Game 3 (Slayer on Construct, Bungie loses) was a 'warm-down' game. Clearly, cheating at Halo 3 isn't restricted to NBA stars. For the record: we play a warmup game, Luke picks the gametype and map. It's very close. Game One: KP picks the gametype and map; Bungie beats him at his own game, because the rest of us don't know about the hideyhole until it's too late. (Bungie wins. By a lot.) Game Two: Konrad picks the map and gametype - Luke keeps the settings at the defaults. HBO wins. Game Three: Bungie picks Slayer gametype, KP asks for a rematch using the first settings; we play as a team this time around. Bungie loses. Final score: 2-1, HBO wins. I'm easily the worst player in the game, but you can still watch all four games from the films in my File Share. (Louis Wu 15:56:17 UTC) (permalink)
Mission-a-Day 7 - By Land, and so on
Jake Seaton's romp through Halo 3 continues - Day 7 is now up. He's fighting through probably the biggest and most expansive battle level in the game... he wanted to give it a perfect grade, but was unhappy with a single aspect (read it to find out what), so it gets a 4.5/5. This one's twice as long as the others. (Louis Wu 15:52:38 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Fifteen new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 15:34:31 UTC) (permalink)
Famine Skull Guide, at R.net
Rampancy.net has put up a guide to grabbing the Famine Skull, from NThro_Sraom. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:57:07 UTC) (permalink)
Games for the troops
Marines in Okinawa want to play Halo 3 - but the exchanges can't get enough copies. Ouch! (Louis Wu 14:52:32 UTC) (permalink)
Cup O' Joe
Elnea fails to come up with a French translation of 'pistol-whipped' for today's installment of Halo Action Figure Theater - but she makes up for this oversight with some plain old-fashioned brain-eating. Go read. (Louis Wu 13:52:13 UTC) (permalink)
eBay - your one-stop Halo shop
Over at Xbox360Fanboy, they found ANOTHER set of Master Chief armor for sale on eBay - this one is being sold by Devastator, and the armor itself (including upgrades) has shown up a few times in our news. Current bid is a bit over $2000, with 9 days to go in the auction. (He mentions a bunch of other stuff he's auctioning off that you might be interested in - but for the moment, the only auction online is for a Brute figure that came from the Believe Diorama - super cool and super rare!) (Louis Wu 13:29:25 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Reviews
Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune's Game Over Blog reviews Halo 3 - 8.5/10, "the title by wich all other console multiplayer FPS will be judged". And the Albany Times Union felt that the multiplayer matchmaking was too slow, but that otherwise the game was great. (The first paragraph of this review threw me for a loop, though.) (Louis Wu 13:25:45 UTC) (permalink)
Custom Game Finder Opens
Sam told us about H3 Customs, billed as the First Halo 3 Custom Game Search. Bungie talked about public custom games at one point, but it didn't make the final cut of Halo 3 - now some fans are stepping up to help. If you add a game to the list, you still have to have enough room on your Friends List to accomodate the people who find you this way... but it's better than not having anything! (Louis Wu 13:25:13 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3's Saved Films/AI Behavior - an Interview
Saved Films functionality is a HUGE part of the wonder that is Halo 3; it lets you relive spectacular moments, it let's you figure out exactly HOW you died (and which walls that bullet ricocheted off before it went through your skull), it lets you create gorgeous machinima with a minimum of setup. In order for it to work, though, Bungie's gameplay has to be incredibly predictable... and if it's incredibly predictable, how can it be fun? The answer to this question, and questions like it, require an understanding of how the Saved Film system works - and how Bungie's AI works. So we went to Max Dyckhoff, one of Bungie's AI engineers, to get the skinny. This ain't an interview for people who just want to play the game - this is for people who want to understand how it WORKS. Go read what he told us. (Louis Wu 00:26:00 UTC) (permalink)
Screenshot Screensaver
Brad, from Soundspoof.com, let us know that he's created a screensaver that "scrapes the user submitted screen shots from bungie.net and shows them as a slide show." It's a Windows-only app, and there are two versions - one that just shows you the pics, the other that "takes your gamertag and uses that
to gather all kinds of stats", plus newsfeeds from a variety of Halo sites. This one costs $2. (Louis Wu 00:15:31 UTC) (permalink)
How to be a better Halo 3 player
Larry Larson (of Microsoft's Channel Ten) recently blogged about a bunch of tips that went out over an internal Xbox distribution list, which might help you become a better Halo 3 player. It also answers some basic questions that might have you puzzled. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 00:09:52 UTC) (permalink)
Hi-res Halo Brushes
Weird - this site has created a bunch of "Halo 3 high resolution Photoshop brushes" - I guess for more quickly whipping up that cool wallpaper you're working on. Check it out!
(Louis Wu 00:09:34 UTC) (permalink)
News October 11 2007
Jack's Back
Jack Thompson got himself on a TV morning show, decrying the church-using-Halo-to-recruit issue; Kotaku decided to break his claims down and look at how accurate they are. Not surprisingly, Jack's made a few untenable declarations. You could have knocked me over with a feather - I never would have guessed it. Thanks, GryphonOsiris. (Louis Wu 22:39:55 UTC) (permalink)
Combat Part 2 - now downloadable in HD
Laird points out that Combat Part 2 (Neill Blomkamp's 3rd short) is finally downloadable in HD - head over to GameTrailers. (Louis Wu 22:02:51 UTC) (permalink)
Dear Halo Haters
Heh - G4's Adam Sessler has some choice words for Halo haters out there... they're not polite, but they're choice. Thanks, PHANTOMFIRE X. (Louis Wu 21:58:07 UTC) (permalink)
NBA star cheating for experience. Phooey.
Wow, amazing. Over on Bungie.net, MC187 noticed that one of Gilbert Arenas' gamertags was climbing funny in experience points. (Read the post for the details on the scam; they're pretty unimportant to the story.) Arenas is a pro NBA player, and the sponsor of pro MLG team Final Boss; he's high-profile, and big in the pro Halo community, as well, so if he's cheating, it's sort of a big deal. Dan Steinberg, who writes a blog for the Washington Post, decided to ask Arenas if this was true - apparently, it is. He doesn't see it as cheating, because he doesn't see 'Experience Points' as anything really relevant. Seems a little disappointing to me... thanks, evildoctorwill, for bringing this to our forum. (Louis Wu 21:38:51 UTC) (permalink)
Podcastin' the day away
The latest Bungie podcast has been posted - in it, Jonty Barnes talks about what it's like being a producer at Bungie. This was recorded well before the split announcement, so don't be looking for juicy details about that here. About an hour long, 73 mb. (Louis Wu 21:18:31 UTC) (permalink)
EA wants a Halo
Interesting - over at 24/7 Wall St., there's an article about Electronic Arts buying BioWare and Pandemic - the article interprets this move as "EA wants its own Halo". In contrast to what happened to Microsoft's stock recently (it rose when Halo 3 was released, and rose again when Bungie split away), EA's stock has actually dropped, significantly (nearly 5% if you include after-hours trading). I guess the market's not as friendly towards buying the next big hit? Thanks, Jon Ogg. (Louis Wu 21:12:23 UTC) (permalink)
Ready-to-Wear Suit on eBay
Hawty McBloggy found a pretty nice Master Chief costume on eBay - ready to wear! Opening bid is $900, Buy it Now price is $2000 - if you're in the market, you've got a week! (Louis Wu 17:57:32 UTC) (permalink)
What else is out there?
ScrewAttack posted a video showing the 10 best games available this holiday - that aren't Halo 3. (Halo 3: so overmarketed, you can even use it to sell OTHER stuff.) Thanks, Linkmaxwell. (Louis Wu 17:29:56 UTC) (permalink)
What's next for Master Chief?
GameDaily has a photo montage of a bunch of ways Master Chief can enjoy his retirement, now that the current Halo arc is finished. Thanks, John McGovern. (Louis Wu 17:26:05 UTC) (permalink)
Hold still, I'm doing the inverse apple thing...
RefinedSolid pointed out a clip at MLG's Gameroom showing a pretty funny betrayal. You couldn't make that shot if you TRIED. (Louis Wu 16:53:04 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Sitcom Sighting
op_ivy noticed a couple of characters playing through part of the first campaign level of Halo 3 on last night's Sarah Silverman Program. (Louis Wu 16:51:30 UTC) (permalink)
Last Man Standing - Machinima Music Video
B!OHAZARD announced a new vid by Biohazard Producitons - it's called Last Man Standing, and it shows a fun mongoose race on Sandtrap. He's got some comments about the film itself in the post - and I made some in a followup post. Go read - and watch.
(Louis Wu 16:50:06 UTC) (permalink)
Haloes
Ross Mills again points out a Two Sides Wide episode that uses Halo - this time to comment on the church recruiting issue we mentioned recently.
(Louis Wu 16:48:04 UTC) (permalink)
Play Halo with Fall Out Boy
Been a while since there was a Game with Fame event - but there's one coming up tomorrow. Check this page on Xbox.com for details. (Louis Wu 16:47:02 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Bundles - some good, some not so much
J C told us about some Halo 3 bundles available in the US; Costco has a $500 package that includes the Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360, a Limited Edition of Halo 3, and a McFarlane Halo 3 controller (they'd cost you about $530 individually), and Sam's Club has a set of bundles that I don't understand at all. All three contain the Halo 3 Xbox 360 and a Vision bundle (which gives you the Vision camera, a subscription to Live, a few Microsoft points, and a couple of games). Each contains a version of the game, as well. The problem is, all of these pieces can be bought separately, even from Sam's Club - at almost the same prices. The Standard bundle, which costs $504.68, can be bought as separate pieces for $506.24 (w00t! $1.56 saved!) and the Legendary bundle, which costs $567.68, can be bought as separate pieces for $571.00 (omg! $3.32 saved!). Even crazier, the Limited bundle, which costs $551.28, can be bought separately for $517.84 - you're paying $33.44 for the privilege of getting the bundle! Odd. (Louis Wu 16:36:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Rap, Updated
cchapman updated his 'Open Letter to Halo 3 Players' (released yesterday) - the new version is significantly more polished. It's also available streaming, from his MySpace page.
(Louis Wu 16:02:42 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Birthday surprise
GamesBond007 pointed out a YouTube vid of a boy getting the present of his dreams. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. (Louis Wu 16:02:14 UTC) (permalink)
News October 10 2007
I think I see Chris Carney up there.
Heh - Free Radical announced they're making TimeSplitters 4. Check out the trailer. (Yes, this is on-topic.) Thanks, Pixellated. (Louis Wu 21:50:49 UTC) (permalink)
Deborking - In Progress
Have you noticed that your Halo 3 online stats are a little screwy right now? Bungie has, too. They're working on it. Thanks, Dan Szarmach. (Louis Wu 21:42:33 UTC) (permalink)
25 new VGL shows
Video Games Live just announced another 25 shows, with a newly designed show that includes music from Halo 3. Read the press release on their site. (Louis Wu 18:35:43 UTC) (permalink)
Cavegirls Fight Like A Girl 2
The Cavegirls would like to remind everyone that they've doubled the size of both Fight Like a Girl tournaments, the FFA and the 2v2, so there's plenty of room. The tournament goes down on Saturday October 20 at 2 pm Eastern - if you haven't signed up yet, you can get more info in this thread, and if you HAVE signed up, you can find your name on one of these lists: FFA | 2v2. (If you've signed up and you're not on the list, reply to those threads with first name, last initial, and gamertag, and they'll look you up.) (Louis Wu 18:16:55 UTC) (permalink)
Great Balls Of Fire.
You would think that Stuntmutt would find some spectacular way to celebrate 700 regular strips of One One Se7en, some truly clever pun or intricate puzzle. You'd be... wrong. (Congratulations, Stuntmutt! Getting to 700 without being tarred and feathered... I'm impressed!) (Louis Wu 15:59:26 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 in Rolling Stone
fullbore let us know that Rolling Stone issue 1036 (October 4) has an article entitled 'Inside Halo's Secret Lab' - there's a copy of it online, as well. fullbore is unhappy with the unflattering epithets they've come up with for Bungie employees. (The fact that Marty's music is classified as 'New Age' bugged me more... not to mention the implication that some of the original Halo's success could be attributed to 9/11 fervor.) Aside from a few 'huh?' moments, it's a decent read. (Louis Wu 15:53:59 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Gundam
Wavehawk bought a Gundam model and painted it - and when he was done, was pretty surprised by how much it looked like a Spartan robot. See if you agree! (Louis Wu 15:37:51 UTC) (permalink)
Looking ahead to the next Halo
Missed this last week - but Stephen Totilo, over at MTV, wrote up a speculation post about which studios might make reasonable choices for Halo 4, if/when it's developed. This was written before news of the split was public, so the 1:1 odds on Bungie themselves are probably a bit off... (Louis Wu 15:32:19 UTC) (permalink)
Financial Ups and Downs
According to a story at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft's stock is doing pretty well right now, thanks to Halo 3 - it hit a 2-month high yesterday after Goldman, Sachs said Halo 3 would boost profits. According to a different story at PS3 Center, though, an industry analyst thinks Halo 3's record sales will be eclipsed by GTA IV when it comes out next spring. (Louis Wu 14:48:45 UTC) (permalink)
R.net Goodies
New material and news over at Rampancy.net - they've got a review of Halo 3's campaign from VVV (he seemed to be pretty unhappy, though he said he wasn't - and there's quite a bit of meat in Narc's first comment, as well); there's a short text-based guide to Halo 3's terminals, created by N'Thro, and there's a link to a post at High Impact Halo that will guide you towards maximizing your campaign score. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 12:21:30 UTC) (permalink)
Beowulf - in Halo 3
Interesting - thesoffish let us know that he and some friends had reenacted the dragon fight from Beowulf in Halo 3 - I thought it worked surprisingly well. Take a look! (Louis Wu 11:54:30 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Pro - new interviews
Couple of interviews over at MLG - there's a video interview with Carbon's Karma, and a video interview with the Gilbert Arenas, sponsor of Final Boss. Thanks to 3Suns, who points out that MLG Vegas, this weekend, will probably be the last time Halo 2 is played professionally with MLG. (Louis Wu 11:52:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo... as art
yankeyhotel stopped by to point out abstrakt, a new blog which showcases screenshots taken within the Halo 3 engine in an artistic way. The shots up now (if you have trouble getting to the site, you're not alone; I have two internet connections, and one can't get there at all) are pretty interesting. They've been resized to fit on the page, but links to the originals on his Bungie.net fileshare are included, both to ensure that the pictures are not modified after the fact and to provide you with hi-res downloadable versions should you want them. He's not the first to play around with this aspect of Saved Films (Injunfett toyed with the idea a week ago, and dogsounds posted a bunch of wallpapers he'd made using the concept yesterday), but as far as I know, this IS the first site devoted to Halo screenshots as art. Check it out!
(Louis Wu 11:29:21 UTC) (permalink)
Contact Harvest prologue in OXM
According to LX925, the prologue to Contact Harvest, the next Halo novel (set to come out next month) can be found in the current issue of OXM. Initial impressions are positive. (Louis Wu 11:15:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Machinima Hosting
Deekor announced halo-machinima.com, a site for hosting your Halo vids. No word on bandwidth stuff.
(Louis Wu 11:13:01 UTC) (permalink)
Female Spartan figures on eBay
Hawty McBloggy has an update on a custom Halo 3 action figure auction, plus ANOTHER custom figure up for grabs; swing by her blog for all the details.
(Louis Wu 11:11:43 UTC) (permalink)
Open Letter to Halo 3 Players
cchapman stopped by to point out a new Halo 3 multiplayer song he'd written (and performed) - you can find the .mp3 and the lyrics in his forum post. This is a creative way to work out your matchmaking frustrations!
(Louis Wu 11:08:32 UTC) (permalink)
European Halo 3 Bundle
According to Kotaku, you can apparently buy a 'Halo 3 Bundle' in a variety of European countries - it comes with an Xbox 360 (the 'Pro' - 20GB hard drive and HDMI), and a copy of Halo 3. Seems to run about €400 or so. Not a bad deal! (Louis Wu 10:56:20 UTC) (permalink)
Mission-a-Day 6 - Heavy Armor
Jake Seaton's level-at-a-time overview of the game is now up to Mission 6 - I can't tell you much about what he writes without delving into spoiler territory, so if you're following this, go read. This level got a 5/5 from him.
(Louis Wu 10:50:21 UTC) (permalink)
HG Video Stream
finalcuthalo let us know that HaloGrid, too, is getting into the continuous videostream business (we mentioned some channels at GamingTV yesterday). The news post is here, and the stream, composed of HaloGrid's biggest hits, is here. (Louis Wu 10:44:38 UTC) (permalink)
Fourteen Hours of Awesome
The Hushed Casket had a LAN party last weekend, to celebrate their 5th birthday - pictures, video, and ridicule of Mintz can be found on their website. Sounds like a fun time! (Louis Wu 10:35:12 UTC) (permalink)
News October 9 2007
Halo 3 on Canadian TV
Rock Opera Jr points out that a clip from Space's Hypaspace Weekly show in Canada, involving a quick Halo 3 match on Last Resort, is now online at the Spacecast website. The clip shows a single round (with one offense and one defense for each team) of Assault - with great angles and nice use of Saved Films. If you're on a Mac, you might find a direct link to the mms stream to be easier to see. (Louis Wu 20:25:49 UTC) (permalink)
Matchmaking Playlist Update 1
Bungie's posted a note about the first update to the Halo 3 playlist - it's live now. Go read about it... then get on Live and play! Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 18:16:08 UTC) (permalink)
New goodies from Luke McKay
Around the time of Halo 3's launch, Luke McKay whipped up a couple of doodles for his Red vs Blue Journal; I'm just getting around to adding them to his gallery here. Check out 'Halo 3' and 'Unfinished Halo'! (Spoiler warning on that last one...) (Louis Wu 17:58:22 UTC) (permalink)
GTV's Live Channels
trigger119 has set up live channels (basically, internet TV) over at GamingTV - go read his news post for a full explanation of how things work, and check out what's on tap! (Louis Wu 17:45:43 UTC) (permalink)
A cool cake, a week late
Sometimes I just hate how busy things get. A bit over a week ago, Tex turned 19... and had a cool Halo party. A day or two later, she showed me the cake, which totally rocked... and which I promptly forgot to post. So I'm posting it now. Sorry, Tex. (Louis Wu 17:31:16 UTC) (permalink)
Game Content Usage Rules - Updated
Microsoft has finally updated the Game Content Usage Rules that came out a couple of months ago; the current version contains clarified wording for where files can be posted, whether you can enter film festivals, how you can work with the game's backstory, sound usage, and more. It's a pretty reasonable set of rules at this point. There's also an email address you can contact if your particular question isn't answered by the rules. Thanks to Quikthnkr, who found this at DonkeyXote's blog. (Louis Wu 15:19:47 UTC) (permalink)
Gravesite - local
Some folks are having trouble viewing the 'Gravesite' Believe vid at Halo3.com; for them, we've posted local downloadable versions (WMP9, 8 mb | QuickTime, 7.5 mb). Hope this is helpful. (Read this post if you missed the original discussion.)
(Louis Wu 13:52:27 UTC) (permalink)
No mystery why he's marrying her...
We got an email from Greg Haupt, who gave up Halo when he started dating his fiancée. He says, "i think i didn't want her to think i was a video game freak." That was three years ago. This weekend, she surprised him for his birthday by... well, watch the vid. (Louis Wu 13:41:39 UTC) (permalink)
Rooster Teeth to perform at Machinima Europe
Hugh Hancock points out that Rooster Teeth will be performing live at the Machinima Europe festival, on Saturday, October 13 (this coming Saturday); according to Burnie, the plan is "to make a hilarious special video for the programme using our world-famous, award-winning Red vs Blue characters and our trademark humility." If you haven't registered, and would like to, visit the bookings page!
(Louis Wu 13:34:14 UTC) (permalink)
Jake Courage - Elaborated
Last week, we mentioned a photo exhibition based on the Believe ads; onebitrocket noticed that you could check out all the photos (and get info about the fictional photographer) at Xbox.com. (Louis Wu 13:20:54 UTC) (permalink)
Joe's Bad Day
Just when you thought the plot to Halo Action Figure Theater couldn't get any more convoluted... Elnea releases Episode 92. (Louis Wu 13:17:26 UTC) (permalink)
TTL Tuesday - Reborn
It's Tuesday, and XerxdeeJ is back! He wanted to point out new content at Tied the Leader. They've posted their official review of Halo 3 (the depth into which it goes is breathtaking), a Race variant, complete with downloadable material, and a close look at the changes to in-game chat in Halo 3. Get your fill of TTL goodness! (Louis Wu 13:10:21 UTC) (permalink)
I think she got yelled at.
Silly bs angel - she thought the 'Social' playlists were going to be friendly. Never one to shrink from a challenge, though, she's written up the Noob's Guide to Being Social - if just ONE person reads this and learns from it, Xbox Live will be a better place. (Louis Wu 12:50:14 UTC) (permalink)
Fame is so fleeting
Wow, that was fast - according to SPOnG, Halo 3's already been bumped from the top sales spot by FIFA 08 in the UK. Looks like most people who CAN buy Halo 3 have already done so. (Louis Wu 12:40:42 UTC) (permalink)
Frank O'Connor and Brian Jarrard: interview kings
MORE interviews with Frankie and Sketch about the split - TeamXbox with Frankie (thanks, Planet Halo), Wired with Frankie (thanks, Mc_Leprechaun), Business Week with Sketch. They've gotta be getting tired of this. (That said, there's still little tidbits to be gleaned from these, and they don't take long to read - go read 'em.) (Louis Wu 12:38:28 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular 129
Foo Mo Jive let us know that Podtacular 129 is now available for download. 26 mb, an hour and 15 minutes long, guest-hosted by drive_c, it contains interviews with Bungie from the launch event (and me, apparently - must have been something Foo Mo slipped in my drink), and a focus on the first Campaign level. All this - and new music! Go listen. (Louis Wu 12:29:12 UTC) (permalink)
Looking back
CVG has posted 'The Bungie Story', a summary of Bungie's history to this point. Don't take it as gospel - there's a bit of editorializing mixed in with the facts - but in general, it's a decent overview of how they got to where they are. Thanks again to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:53:48 UTC) (permalink)
The Battle Rifle, Analyzed
Over at Rampancy.net, Meyeselph has posted the second page of his Halo 3 Weapon Guide - this one covers the Battle Rifle. Thanks, Narcogen. (Louis Wu 11:48:42 UTC) (permalink)
Gravesite - now posted
A lot of people (starting with diabeatu) also told us that the last Believe video is finally up at halo3.com; to get to it, you need to do a virtual flythrough of the diorama. It shows up right after the Master Chief. It's called 'Gravesite', and it discusses the death of the Master Chief. Remember: the folks who made the Believe series did NOT have access to the Halo 3 storyline; the reality they created is NOT the same as the game's reality. The MC's 'death' in this series has no bearing on whether he lives or dies in the game. (Louis Wu 11:46:28 UTC) (permalink)
RvB on CNN
Biggest number of emails in the last twelve hours is about a story on CNN.com (it was on the front page last night, according to Shadowsniper689, but it's not, any more) - it's a two-minute video clip about the guys behind Red vs Blue, and how they got into using Halo to make machinima. Go watch! (Louis Wu 11:42:07 UTC) (permalink)
Dust to Dust Trailer
Yesterday, siliconmaster482 stopped by our forum to point out a machinima project being built in 3ds max - it's called Dust to Dust, and they've released a trailer. I liked it; it's quite simple, but the work is quite good. We're helping with hosting - there are three WMP9 versions listed in his forum post, and we're mirroring those... plus we've got three corresponding QuickTime versions.
High Res (1024x720): WMP9 (32.3 mb) | QuickTime (27.8 mb)Go watch, and see if you agree that this project has serious potential! They're looking for folks who'd like to help build sets in 3ds max, as well as anyone able to render the final films; these are their two biggest bottlenecks at the moment. siliconmaster482's email is in the forum post, if you'd like to join the team. (Louis Wu 11:37:18 UTC) (permalink)
Medium Res (640x480): WMP9 (11.6 mb) | QuickTime (10.8 mb)
Low Res (320x240): WMP9 (4.3 mb) | QuickTime (4.4 mb)
Market cap: $37k... and rising
DHalo has begun trading shares of HBO on a fantasy stock market, ThotMarket. If you'd like to get in on the action, visit the HBO page there, and make an account. (Apparently, you get 1000 starter 'Thot dollars' when you create an account, and if your investments go up, you earn more.) This all seems sort of surreal... but go ahead and see if you can increase the 'net worth' of halo.bungie.org! (Louis Wu 11:28:32 UTC) (permalink)
Thermopylae Now - Again
Tyler Kirk has returned to his fan fiction, Thermopylae Now - you'll find a revised and expanded version (first three chapters) at his website. (Check the Table of Contents on the right for sequential ordering.)
(Louis Wu 11:21:56 UTC) (permalink)
Tuesday's Reviews
Just two reviews this morning: GamesFirst says awesome multiplayer, pedestrian campaign, and gives it a 4/5, and Malaysia's The Star Online says the single player's short but fun, saved films are clunky to navigate but fun to watch, overall it's a great experience.
(Louis Wu 11:19:51 UTC) (permalink)
Combat Part 2 - now on Marketplace
The third Neill Blomkamp short, Combat Part 2, is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace in both SD and HD formats. The HD version (154 mb) is amazing. Thanks to A B for the heads-up (who also noticed that the second short is NOT available on Marketplace, yet). Update: apparently lots of people are having trouble FINDING this short; from the Marketplace blade, start with 'Media and Entertainment', and then choose 'Clips'. It's called 'Halo Short - Full Version'. (Louis Wu 03:57:15 UTC) (permalink)
News October 8 2007
Guilt O' Lantern: Yes, It's Happening
GAH! Curses! I forgot AGAIN! Last week, I was reminded that we hadn't announced anything about this year's pumpkin-carving contest, which has become a tradition here at HBO. I realized I hadn't even thought about it - probably had something to do with some stupid videogame launch or something at the end of last month, it sort of sucked up all my time. I said I'd look into the possibility of prizes (which I did)... but I forgot to actually DO anything about it. So this is a news post that says no, we don't have a page up yet, no we can't tell you what the prizes are going to be, but yes, there's going to be a 2007 Guilt O' Lantern carving contest, and yes, we'll have a host of sweet prizes, with a deadline of October 31, 2007 for entries. Do NOT send us anything yet; we aren't set up at this point. But if you want to start planning your carving... go for it. Full announcement coming soon. (Louis Wu 21:47:19 UTC) (permalink)
Stupidcide.
Last week's big news was the fact that Microsoft no longer owns Bungie. Stuntmutt realized he could relate - check out today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 21:39:34 UTC) (permalink)
Jump in, the water's fine
You might remember E.E. Knight - he made Halo news last summer when some artwork for the cover of a book he'd written turned out to be stolen from Halo. Since then, he's made friends with some folks in the Halo community - and today, posted a blog entry about how fun online coop is. (This from a guy who doesn't play a lot of Halo.) Thanks to Quikthnkr (his coop buddy) for the heads-up.
(Louis Wu 21:35:49 UTC) (permalink)
The 40 Most Memorable Aliens
geophf let us know about a piece at the London Times - the 40 most memorable aliens. The Covenant came in at Number Nineteen. He found this link on the IMDb Hit List. (Louis Wu 21:15:56 UTC) (permalink)
Red Bull and Sour Patch Kids
Bad Clown pointed out a story at ESPN's Page 2, on pro Halo players - it's a great read. (Pretty long... but a lot of fun.)
(Louis Wu 21:11:09 UTC) (permalink)
Havok is proud of Halo 3
Havok, the middleware physics engine that was incorporated into Halo 2, was carried over to Halo 3; it hasn't been mentioned very often (a couple of Weekly What's Updates have incidental references), and it didn't make the credits this time around... but it was definitely used; Havok put up a press release last week. Worth getting credit, when a product sells $300 million dollars worth in a week...
(Louis Wu 18:30:31 UTC) (permalink)
More Strategy Guide pages
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned some sample pages of the official Halo 3 strategy guide, available at Xbox.com. Piggyback (the copublisher) has put up their own collection of sample pages; they've fleshed out the 8 pages of actual content at Xbox.com with an additional 6 pages. Nice! (Louis Wu 16:16:02 UTC) (permalink)
Sell your friends, win an Xbox
Huh. If you're a member of Facebook, you have a shot at winning one of 4 Halo 3 Xbox 360s (well, 3 now - the first week's over) from Goozex. Invite your friends to play their game, and if you've invited the most people for the week, you get the Xbox. Check their contest page for full details. I have no clue what their game is about - I'm simply letting you know about the contest.
(Louis Wu 15:55:39 UTC) (permalink)
I bet Frankie's getting tired of interviews...
A couple more Bungie interviews about the split (and about Halo) - GameInformer interviewed Frankie (it's a little disturbing in parts, but mostly it's Frankie saying "nothing's changed"), and FiringSquad also talked to Frankie - their writeup is a summary of the conversation, but it includes the news that Harold Ryan is now Bungie's President. I found both of these at Rampancy.net - thanks, Narcogen. (Louis Wu 14:36:18 UTC) (permalink)
Brazilian voice actors - now counted
Marcelo Vega, of Xboxtoday.com.br, sent us word that they've posted a list of the voice actors and technical staff that worked on the Brazilian version of Halo 3. This is why fansites rock - this info isn't anywhere official. Microsoft Brazil doesn't have it, the Halo 3 manual doesn't have it - the ONLY place these folks get credit is on a fansite. (Louis Wu 14:12:21 UTC) (permalink)
I'd ride that.
DXL540 pointed out a cool new bike from Yamaha - he thinks it seems an awful lot like a real-life Mongoose. (Louis Wu 13:50:42 UTC) (permalink)
StatsReloaded updated for Halo 3
Z let us know that StatsReloaded has been updated for Halo 3; faster updating, new signatures, leaderboards, and more. Go check it out - and sign up! (Louis Wu 13:48:18 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 - a possibility for WCG 08
Last year, Halo wasn't part of the World Cyber Games lineup - this year, they're asking for fan input on the games that will be used. Halo 3's one of the candidates; go vote. Thanks, LegendaryMark. Update: It was pointed out to me that Gears of War (last year's Console shooter in the WCG) is probably not on the table this year, since the finals are in Germany, and GoW wasn't approved for sale in Germany. Looks like Halo 3 has a pretty good chance...
(Louis Wu 13:45:35 UTC) (permalink)
The titles keep getting better.
Elnea has posted Halo Action Figure Theater 91... along with a video parody of the Believe ads. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 13:42:51 UTC) (permalink)
Memories, of the way we were
DiscipleN2k noticed a new Pixelated Pupils - as he points out, they've done the same joke RvB did yesterday, but not quite as funny. (Louis Wu 13:40:11 UTC) (permalink)
So incredible, you almost don't mind dying
I am really, really loving saved films. Check out this vid at MLG's Gameroom; when I first watched it, I thought the guy must have twitched over and shot the wall right in front of him - but the saved film showed it was no such thing. Amazing. Thanks, corjello. (Louis Wu 13:38:02 UTC) (permalink)
Teabags
The most recent episode of Two Sides Wide is Halo-related, and shows how misunderstandings can start - thanks, Ross Mills.
(Louis Wu 13:35:11 UTC) (permalink)
Halo comic coming out in hardcover, too
Onebitrocket found a listing for a hardcover version of Halo: Uprising - it's listed in the US version of Amazon, too. Release date is January 9, 2008, which seems unlikely, since Uprising #4 has been pushed back to February already. Still - if you can't get your hands on the comic book forms, this might be an alternative next spring.
(Louis Wu 13:31:59 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Morning's Review Lineup
A few reviews for you from around the web:
- Lancaster Online says Halo 3 is a good reason to buy an Xbox 360.
- Something Awful gave it a 26/50, campaign was a moldy potato to go with the multiplayer steak (thanks, Ross Mills)
- Talk Xbox did a video review, and gave it an 'enjoyable' - the highest category the reviewer had.
- The Village Voice gave it a 9/10 - they weren't thrilled with the graphics, but they loved the gameplay.
Wide-ranging... (Louis Wu 13:26:27 UTC) (permalink)
News October 7 2007
Don't make the lightbulb angry.
RVideo was screwing around on The Ark, and discovered something pretty odd; if you kill off all your Marines (on purpose), 343 Guilty Spark will make you pay. (He also took a shot from your perspective.) I made a small video showing the nastiness (3 mb, WMP9 | QT); please forgive my lousy capture equipment. It'll be getting better soon. Using Sparky as the deus ex machina to keep you from wiping out all your allies seems like an odd choice for Bungie; now they have to come up with some sort of explanation for why he doesn't use that beam at any other point (well, except one). Brings back memories of killing Keyes on the Pillar of Autumn, though... good stuff. (Louis Wu 19:21:10 UTC) (permalink)
Ultimate Forge-tacular Giveaway
David Leggett let us know that Halo 3 Planet is giving away a bunch of goodies for folks who come up with the best maps/custom gametypes in Forge. Go read the giveaway page for full details; you've got until mid-November to work. Get going!
(Louis Wu 18:55:48 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 68
Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 68 is up - they've got an interview with trigger119 (of GamingTV and MLG), they've got information about Gaming4Others, a group that runs tournaments for charity, and they've got their standard community news/tourney info. 37 minutes, 15 mb. Go listen!
(Louis Wu 18:51:43 UTC) (permalink)
Rooster Teeth guys talk about Halo 3
GameDaily interviewed three of the Rooster Teeth guys about the dialogue they've added to Halo 3 - great stuff. Thanks, Joystiq (that article also points out a podcast at Xbox 360 Fanboy with RT's Geoff Ramsey, who talks about a lot of stuff, including Halo 3). (Louis Wu 18:11:30 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Killers
UGO posted an article looking at a series of upcoming games, and rating them as "Halo 3 Killers". Top contenders seem to be Call of Duty 4 (threat rating: 75%) and The Orange Box (Valve's massive 5-game release - threat rating: 90%). (Louis Wu 18:07:19 UTC) (permalink)
Brutish!
Getty Ritter put together a cute little cutscene in Flash - I wonder if Marty had problems like this? (Warning: language.) Thanks, Empress Cortana. (Louis Wu 18:05:07 UTC) (permalink)
Halo = free alcohol and porn
The New York Times looks at churches around the country that are using Halo as a 'recruiting' technique for teenagers (setting up lans, for example) - and how some in the community feel this is inappropriate. An interesting read.
(Louis Wu 18:03:10 UTC) (permalink)
Blomkamp's piece, all together
EvanVolm wrote to point out that he'd combined all three Neill Blomkamp Halo shorts into a single piece, which is available on YouTube. I suppose if you haven't seen them all, this isn't a bad way to take them in. (Another option is FrAnK SiXeR's Halo Tribute, which is higher-resolution than the YouTube flick; it contains the two Combat shorts (not the E3 one), and also contains a bunch of Halo 3 footage (including most of the final cutscene, so clearly this one's as spoiler-rich as they come).)
(Louis Wu 17:58:40 UTC) (permalink)
Splitsville
Alekat pointed out that yesterday's Red vs Blue comic (no registration needed to view) is a great take on the Bungie/MS situation - go laugh. (Louis Wu 17:52:26 UTC) (permalink)
Even when you're killed, it feels fair.
Ryan Pearson wrote a piece about how well the Halo 3 matchmaking system works; how it's still fun for beginners, right from the start. If you've been tentative about jumping into Live... read this. (Louis Wu 17:49:47 UTC) (permalink)
On the internet, nobody knows you're a cinematics director.
Heh - there's a blog post from someone who recently joined Animation Mentor, an online animation school - he was amazed to find out that one of his fellow students was none other than CJ Cowan, Halo 3's Cinematic Director. It's a fun read - check it out. Thanks, elite89. (Louis Wu 17:41:46 UTC) (permalink)
Marty talks to Major Nelson
Major Nelson's latest podcast is up right now, currently only in .wma format, but eventually on iTunes; it's a monster of a show (2 hours long), with an interview with Marty O'Donnell. I haven't had time to listen to it yet (been a busy morning), but I'd guess it's absolutely worth hearing. Go grab it. More news coming later... but the busy morning isn't over yet. Update: it's now available in MP3 format, as well as available from iTunes. And I was right - if you're even a little bit interested in the audio side of Halo, this is a must-hear.
(Louis Wu 14:58:08 UTC) (permalink)
Section 3: Desert Troopers, Part 3
V10L3N7 JAY stopped by to point out Issue 5 of Section 3, his comic-from-screenshots story that's been unfolding for the last week or so, is now available. Action galore! (Louis Wu 14:56:35 UTC) (permalink)
News October 6 2007
Bungie and Microsoft - tighter than ever
And ANOTHER Bungie/MS interview - this time it's Harold Ryan and Shane Kim, talking to 4players.de, a German site. The interview is in German, but longtime Bungie fan Harry Al-Shakarchi was there to provide us with a beautiful translation. (Louis Wu 21:46:52 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie LLC retains ownership of Pimps at Sea
There's another interview with SketchFactor over at 1Up about the split; pretty much the same info as you'll find in the other Bungie interviews. Sketch DOES suggest that Halo 3 might be better because of Bungie's disappointments with Halo 2 - something I've believed since I first saw the game. Thanks, Zeouterlimits. (Louis Wu 21:26:03 UTC) (permalink)
His puns are worse than Stunt's.
Narcogen has taken a detailed look at how Bungie integrated the Flood into Halo 3; if you're not a huge Flood fan (I'm not), this does a great job of explaining how Bungie kept them in the storyline (it would be hard not to) without making the Flood encounters feel like a slog. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:32:10 UTC) (permalink)
Take cool screens, win cool cash
The360Forum.com is hosting a Halo 3 Screenshot contest - there are 5 categories, with a $50 prize on the line for each one. Go read the rules! Thanks, Z. (Louis Wu 19:16:11 UTC) (permalink)
The Split, Reexamined
The New York Times looked at the Microsoft/Bungie split; it doesn't have a ton of new info over other articles about the subject, but is notable for being in the Times, I suppose. It's also interesting because of the image at the top of the article; it shows Bungie environment artist Eric Elton working on "a Halo video game in Kirkland, WA" - but it's not any architecture I recognize. So it's showing either something that got cut from Halo 3, or something that's going into a future Bungie release (DLC, maybe?). Thanks, Usul. Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, did a great job of summarizing the press reaction to the announcement; articles I found worth reading included an interview GameDaily did with Frankie, a short interview with Brian Jarrard at MacWorld, in which he agrees that future Macintosh development could definitely happen, and an interview at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with Microsoft's Shane Kim and Bungie's Harold Ryan. We're entering exciting times for Bungie fans... (Louis Wu 19:11:20 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 meets V8 Supercars
PROPH37 sent us some interesting info about Australian racecar driver Rick Kelly, who will be wearing (or wore, I guess; the race happened this weekend) a Master Chief helmet in the Bathurst 1000, a V8 Supercar race. You can actually WIN this helmet, by answering some trivia questions (if you're an Australian/NZ resident). Go check it out! (Louis Wu 18:51:47 UTC) (permalink)
I think they missed Stuntmutt's category.
Blogcritics has posted a guide to Halo 3 multiplayer - see if you can figure out which category of player you fit into! I think I'm either the Team Player or the Noob. Or maybe the Noob Team Player. (Louis Wu 18:26:11 UTC) (permalink)
Super Halo Brothers
Heh - this is fun. Xbox 360 Fanboy found a video of Sandtrap, modified for platforming, with sound effects from Super Mario Brothers. If you want to see a larger version of it, they grabbed it from GameVideos - and you can actually download the modified level from the FileShare of finjitzu, the guy who built it.
(Louis Wu 15:22:09 UTC) (permalink)
Awesome Guitar - For You?
Back in July, we mentioned the first 3 for 3 sweepstakes on Xbox.com - and we noted that you could win a cool Ibanez guitar. Seems Ibanez is giving away 3 more, over the next three months - along with the game and a couple of shirts, each month. Go enter! Thanks, Electric Guitar Review. (Louis Wu 15:14:35 UTC) (permalink)
What folks won't do for schwag
Weird. Some guy is trying to play Halo 3 for three days without sleep. He's already a little over 2 days in - you can follow that link to see his progress. If he does it, he wins a 360 and a copy of Halo 3. Thanks, Mintz.
(Louis Wu 15:13:47 UTC) (permalink)
Workin' through the levels, step 5
Jake Seaton's Mission-A-Day, Episode 5, is now up - this is the last one until Monday. He gave this one a 4/5 - the action was too easy.
(Louis Wu 15:09:57 UTC) (permalink)
Saturday Handful of Reviews
Just three reviews for you today:
- Bentley College's The Vanguard gave Halo 3 8/10, and said that the multiplayer rocked, but that the Campaign didn't have enough to keep people interested.
- The University of Hartford Informer says "don't say, 'it's just a game'."
- Inland Valley's Daily Bulletin says it's no religious epiphany, but it's solid. Score is 1/2 (huh? A 2-point rating system?).
Looks like the hype is dying down - or is this that backlash Tom's Games was talking about? Update: Blogcritics has written a second review (the first was mentioned here) - this reviewer LOVED the Campaign, gave it 5/5. (Louis Wu 15:08:55 UTC) (permalink)
Marty to talk to Major Nelson?
Shinesevens caught a glitch in Major Nelson's RSS feed - it's cleared up now, but from what he could see, Sunday's podcast is going to be an interview with Marty O'Donnell. Look forward to it!
(Louis Wu 15:07:07 UTC) (permalink)
Jealousy is an ugly emotion
zugy pointed out a video at Tom's Games that looks at the backlash against Halo 3 in the PC gamer community. Heh - I guess if you're not IN that community, you might not even have KNOWN about the backlash. (Louis Wu 15:05:11 UTC) (permalink)
Sword GIMPing
thePheonix9 played with a bunch of sword shots in multiplayer, adding comic-like filters to them. The end result was pretty nice! (Louis Wu 15:03:08 UTC) (permalink)
Sketch looks forward
Great interview with SketchFactor, over at Kotaku - it clarifies a few things about the new Bungie/Microsoft relationship, talks about what might be coming, and confirms that the Halo DS stuff that resurfaced last week was, indeed, real; it was a proof-of-concept project that never got off the ground. (Lots of folks noticed that it was clearly built on the Goldeneye: Rogue Agent engine... but that doesn't make it fake.) Thanks, Red_Breast. (Louis Wu 14:55:45 UTC) (permalink)
Drink Up.
ViralSyris noticed some new party cups in the Bungie Store - perfect for lanfests. (Louis Wu 14:50:08 UTC) (permalink)
News October 5 2007
Stick Different.
trigger119 pointed out a vid in the MLG Gameroom called 'Halo PlasmaTrotters', made by TTO AceHawk89 as an entry into MLG's Halo 3 Film Festival, Most Creative category. I LOVE this kind of thing. Man... I could watch these all day. (Louis Wu 23:27:28 UTC) (permalink)
Request for content
Over the years, we've become known as a repository for certain static types of Halo information. Today, there are more sites out there that are collecting data... but we feel that having local copies of the more important stuff simply... makes sense. Fansites come and go, after all.
With the release of Halo 3, we're looking to build these sections up. Some of them we've already gotten started on; we have a volunteer working on filming the cutscenes, to add to our Cutscene Library, I've contacted Mike Miller about a Halo 3 Legendary Guide (though that might be a while in coming; he's got some commitments that are more important than Halo at the moment), and there are some people working on a full multimedia library of the Halo 3 Terminals. There is still need for more volunteer help, however; we'd love to have transcripts of all the campaign levels, for example. If you're interested in this, here's what you should know: we're interested in the dialogue for all difficulties, we're interested in accuracy, and we're interested in mainly scripted material. (It's not very important - or practical - to try and catalogue the combat dialogue you hear - after all, there are 20,000 lines of it. But Cutscene dialogue, and in-game scripted material, including difficulty variants, are definitely wanted.) Send us some email (at halostory@bungie.org) telling us which level(s) and at which difficulties you'd like to work on, so that there's not too much overlap. And thanks!
(Louis Wu 20:12:09 UTC) (permalink)
Gallinago Gallinago.
Stuntmutt notices some new monster design might be more than just eye candy in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 19:14:40 UTC) (permalink)
Another Friday, Another Top 10
InsideVandy has posted a list of the Top 10 First-person Shooters - Halo 3 comes in second, after Half-Life 2. (Louis Wu 19:07:57 UTC) (permalink)
Weekly What's Update - Bungie belongs to Bungie
Whoa. Bungie's managed to get the Weekly What's Update up a LOT of hours early; never fear, though, it's not done. As we mentioned on Wednesday, they solicited Halo 3 questions from the community for this one; they'll be posting answers all day long. HOWEVER: that is not the big news in this update. The Big News is that (as the rumors earlier this week suggested) Bungie has become a private entity, no longer owned by Microsoft. Microsoft will still be publishing their games (for now), and they're still working on the 360 platform (for now)... but they're no longer owned by MS. And to that, I say... wonga. (Read the rest of the update, too; those questions that weren't the big news? They're still questions that are puzzling large numbers of fans on the internet, and Bungie's answering lots of them.) A local version of the WWU will be up in our Weekly Update Archive later today, when most of the questions have been fleshed out. Looks like a thread has already kicked off on our forum, if you want to discuss this. Update: For posterity, the official press release is here. Update 2: Marty O'Donnell pointed out that the official Bungie press release is actually more official than the Microsoft press release, given the situation: we've posted a copy of that, as well. Update 3: This has now been added to our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 15:27:57 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Music Contest at MySpace
Empress Cortana pointed out a contest being run by MySpace - Xbox and Bungie are looking for music to be included "on an upcoming Halo 3 record" (wording further down the page suggests it'll be an album entitled 'Inspired by Halo 3') - if your entry is selected, you're on the disc, and you (along with 2nd and 3rd place finishers) will receive a Halo 3 prize package worth over $2500. You've got until October 22 to submit your entry; songs will be judged by a panel that includes Marty O'Donnell and Nile Rogers. (Be sure to read the rules - there are a few that might trip you up if you're a music maker. Songs must be between 1 and 3 minutes, lyrics must be in English, no obscene material, no trademarks, and so on.)
(Louis Wu 14:06:09 UTC) (permalink)
Gamestop to rake in more than $80M in Halo 3 sales
In this little piece in the Hollywood Reporter about how Gamestop (a retailer) is doing well and Midway (a publisher) is doing poorly, there's an amazing tidbit - Gamestop will capture 25-30% of all sales of Halo 3, worldwide. That's a rather huge number; I had no idea they were THAT big. (Louis Wu 13:47:49 UTC) (permalink)
Another look at Big Science
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned Big Science, the guys behind the music used in the 'Making of Diorama' video - you can read more about how this gig came to be in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (Louis Wu 13:43:33 UTC) (permalink)
It's cheaper to visit the HBO forum.
Wow, this is sort of weird. Someone is auctioning off their friendship (as an Xbox Live Halo 3 playing buddy) on eBay - the Buy-it-Now price was set to $4000, but since bidding has actually kicked off, that's no longer an option. Current bid is $20.50, with a day and a half left to go. Both Kotaku (where I read it) and Destructoid (where they found it) are pretty harsh in the writeups. (Louis Wu 13:29:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Grudge Match - for Insiders
IGN Insider looks at Halo 1, 2, and 3 to see what works and what doesn't through the series. Unfortunately, it's not readable without a subscription. (Louis Wu 13:21:42 UTC) (permalink)
Halo earns big bucks for kids
Remember that Special Halo 3 Xbox Super Bundle we mentioned last week? The auction finished last night - final price was $8,400. Not too bad for the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County! (They're the ones this was for.)
(Louis Wu 13:18:14 UTC) (permalink)
There's a reason some call it a 'HaloBox'.
Heh - there's a story in the Rider News about the popularity of Halo 3; a Gamestop employee describes a customer trading in a Wii to buy Halo and a 360.
"He spent $430 just to play one game," Taylor said. "I guarantee that didn't happen in any other store except ours."
I guarantee Taylor is wrong. <g> (Louis Wu 13:13:06 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3, Day 4: Killing Bugs Dead
Jake Seaton's Mission-a-Day (sort of) walkthrough of Halo 3 was updated last night; Day 4 is now online (in lots of newspapers). He liked the Missile Pod quite a lot. If you missed them, we mentioned Day 3 here, while links to 1 and 2 are here.
(Louis Wu 13:11:15 UTC) (permalink)
Screenshot Collection
Someone had to do it - a site has been created where someone has been collecting funny screenshots from fileshares, and putting them in one place. (As far as I can tell, there's zero attribution to the original screenshot taker, which sort of stinks.) What's amazing to me is the nearly 2000 diggs this has gotten in the last day... (Louis Wu 13:03:47 UTC) (permalink)
Better than dynamite
It... I don't... guh. Frogblast has invented a NEW Halo 3 sport - Fish-stunning. Read his post, watch the movie. Then go play.
(Louis Wu 12:43:39 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie - still stacking the deck
The first real Halo 3 Humpday Challenge (that is, between Bungie and people outside Bungie, with filmz you can download and everything) was played this week; five Bungie guys went into the Social Slayer matchmaking list, and barely squeaked out a win over a bunch of randomly selected casual players. Hmm... I wonder what's going to happen when they play a real TEAM? Thanks, CheckMate. (Louis Wu 12:32:05 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Review Roundup
Another four, today:
- Blogcritics gave it 5 stars, LOVED the multiplayer, were disappointed by parts of the campaign. (Thanks, Rampancy.net)
- The Eastern Progress had three separate writers look at it; they all agreed, it was a winner - apparently it has "pushed people to the limit of class attendance policies."
- The Tracy Press gives Halo 3 a 10/10
- A second Game Industry News review ALSO rates it 5/5 (the first one did, too)
Metacritic's critic review average is still at 94 (though fans have rated it only 7.8/10) - that's a wider range than other top 360 titles (Bioshock is at 96/8.9, and Gears of War is at 94/8.4, for comparison). Are the critics blinded by the hype... or are there anti-Halo fans skewing the user numbers? Only time will tell! (Louis Wu 12:27:17 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
Eleven new pieces up for you this week in the Fan Fiction section... get to reading! (Louis Wu 12:08:46 UTC) (permalink)
300 Mill? Pfft.
Jon Ogg, at 24/7 Wall St., says $300 million is nothing - Halo 3 will hit $500 million soon. (I suppose if 'soon' means 'sometime in the next two or three years', I'd agree with him. If he means 'before the end of 2007'... I'm not sure I'd take that bet. He probably means something in between, though.)
(Louis Wu 12:00:00 UTC) (permalink)
Cheating the Gods
Wow, this is pretty cool. Some folks at the VGCats forum managed to find a glitch that left Sargeant Johnson alive after the battle with Guilty Spark. They told a fun story through pictures. Thanks, Trunks.
(Louis Wu 11:56:51 UTC) (permalink)
ActionClix, on the ground
Sean "Shidarin/ig98" Wallitsch (longtime bungie.org readers might recognize the name; ig98 was one of the first maintainers of myth.bungie.org, back in 1999) picked up some Halo ActionClix goodies, and was kind enough to blog about his experience. Check it out! (Louis Wu 11:53:42 UTC) (permalink)
News October 4 2007
Blomkamp discusses Halo
Creativity Online interviewed Niel Blomkamp about the Halo shorts he made recently (and about the Halo movie he didn't make). It's a pretty interesting read; he's pretty clear that the Halo movie, in its most recent form, is quite dead... but he's certainly willing to reconsider it if things change. The discussion about the shorts is great - he really enjoyed doing them, and working with Bungie... who knows? Maybe there's something else in the future there. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 21:34:25 UTC) (permalink)
A different view
The Slate review of Halo 3 basically says Campaign is a total waste of time, that Multiplayer is where it's at. "Think of it as Madden for the science-fiction crowd. It ain't art, but it sure is fun." Um... I'm not sure we're playing the same game. Thanks, Salen Stormwing. (Louis Wu 21:19:43 UTC) (permalink)
A homemade MC outfit in Sweden
Speaking of Master Chief costumes - Gustav Ljungdahl, a Swedish Halo fan, sent us some pictures of his homemade Master Chief outfit - total cost was $40. MC photographed by a semi-naked man | MC fighting Samus Aran | MC in bed with a cute girl Not a bad job! (Louis Wu 18:27:02 UTC) (permalink)
Art meets commerce
Hawty McBloggy has been busy; she's got an interview with Pavel Dolgov, who does a lot of Halo-related art (check our news for links), plus a couple of fun eBay items - a foam sheeting Master Chief costume, and a Master Chief sculpture made from real engine parts. Whee! (Louis Wu 18:20:49 UTC) (permalink)
Red v Blue Charity Challenge
No, this has nothing to do with Rooster Teeth; this is an Australian fundraising effort for Mission Australia and Make a Wish Australia, with lots of cool goodies from Microsoft to make it fun. Filefront has done a nice job of describing what's going on - or you can simply explore the official Red v Blue website. (Louis Wu 16:26:42 UTC) (permalink)
New Schwag
Some new stuff at the Bungie Store - there's a dual deco MC hoody (embroidered AND screened), a pair of mixer glasses (they look perfect for beer), and free with every purchase, a Halo 3 Video Calibration Filter (useful only to those with Halo 3 Essentials Disc One, which comes with the Limited and Legendary editions). Go shopping! (Louis Wu 16:15:44 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Giveaway at Gamehelper
Joe Markert let us know that Gamehelper is giving away a Halo Zune... and some copies of Halo. Swing by their contest page for full details (registration required to enter). (Louis Wu 16:03:10 UTC) (permalink)
R.net - keeping me on my toes
Wow... if I don't visit Rampancy.net for a couple of days, I miss a lot. (This is true for you, too - remember that.) Lessee what we got...
- Narc has posted his first impressions of Halo 3. Minor spoilers in the writeup, of the first few levels... but generally, he's pretty happy so far.
- Meyeselph is creating a guide to Halo 3's weapons; his first entry, the Assault Rifle, is up.
- Narc looks more closely at the 'Bungie is leaving Microsoft' rumor that slammed into the web on Tuesday. He comes to no conclusions, but it's an interesting discussion. (For what it's worth, 8Bit Joystick, the blog that broke the story is back with more analysis of the data.)
- A small post points out a writeup of OXM's visit to Bungie in August; you can get a feel for what the press went through to write up their Halo 3 reviews.
- Finally, Narc takes umbrage at some of the material in Zero Punctuation's Halo 3 review (he understood it was supposed to be funny, but he still looked at the claims it made seriously).
I guess that'll teach me to stop by every day! (Louis Wu 15:39:06 UTC) (permalink)
Thursday's Review Roundup
Small collection of Halo 3 reviews today:
- CordWeekly says it's more of the same, but better.
- Animation World Magazine says there's nothing new, but it's fun anyway.
- The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says its a fight worth finishing (they gave it an A-).
- GotFrag DPAD gave it a 4.5/5; they were a little disappointed with the current crop of multiplayer maps.
Is the flood slowing? (Louis Wu 15:16:13 UTC) (permalink)
Frankie on Game Theory
Frank O'Connor was a guest on this week's Game Theory Podcast - the topic (surprise, surprise) was Halo 3. Thanks, Zeouterlimits. (Louis Wu 15:14:48 UTC) (permalink)
It's all about the numbers.
Maybe I'm just a statistics junkie, but I found this fascinating. Sandvine Network Demographics saw a 100% to 200% increase (that's a doubling or tripling, for those of you who failed 5th grade math) in peak bandwidth of Xbox Live traffic in the week following Halo 3's release. However (and here's the fun part), the number of gamers PRODUCING this traffic remained unchanged from before Halo 3's release. This is in marked contrast to the situation after Gears of War was released; then, an 80% increase in new users was seen. So... most people buying Halo 3 already HAVE a 360? (Remember, there are 12 million of these puppies in the wild. Even if monthly sales double, as they're expected to, that will only add another half a million to the total this month, and a fraction of that in the space of a week... so it's possible that the additional boxes simply aren't showing up in the noise.) And while we're on the subject of statistics, a Microsoft press release announces that Halo 3 has earned $300 million dollars worldwide in its first week's sales. Wonga. (Louis Wu 14:53:07 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3: It's Big in Japan
It's pretty big news when a first person shooter tops the Japanese sales charts. According to Jonnyram at NeoGAF, though, that's exactly what Halo 3 did last week. (Avateur picked it up at Kotaku, if you want to discuss flying pigs or something on our forum.) (Louis Wu 14:19:25 UTC) (permalink)
Another one.
Remember this post? There wasn't any speculation on our forum, but over at Rampancy.net, there were two guesses: 'Loser' and 'Believe'. We got the next letter last night... and clearly, both of those guesses are wrong. And it seems like the MC and his opponent are pretty beaten-up...
(Louis Wu 13:54:37 UTC) (permalink)
You never forget your first.
Heh - almost missed this. N'Gai Croal, over at Newsweek, has posted a bunch of Halo 3 'first kill' pics from notables in the gaming industry, along with their comments. He calls it 'Postcards from the Edge'. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 13:37:58 UTC) (permalink)
More access to an egg
Frogblast has supplied a video walkthrough to get you (by yourself) to an easter egg on The Storm; yes, you could get there easily from any saved film of the level, but Frogblast has ALWAYS been about the 'elegant', rather than the easy. (This egg was revealed in [T]rickety Trick 6, released a week ago - if you have two players, you can try their method as well; it starts at around 3 minutes in.) If you'd rather find eggs on your own, don't follow EITHER of these links. (Louis Wu 13:09:22 UTC) (permalink)
Dang. They're playing in Bermuda.
Ezandora posted a full week's timelapse of the world activity map you can see on Bungie's Online page. (We already noted a couple of versions that included the first day or so - this is even better.) If you'd rather watch it in QuickTime, you can. (I tried to make a WMP9 version, but I couldn't get it down to a reasonable size and still have the text readable - sorry.)
(Louis Wu 12:57:04 UTC) (permalink)
Surreality Rules.
Elnea's posted another pair of Halo Action Figure Theater episodes - you can read about them (and get a one-paragraph plot synopsis of the series) in this forum post. She says she doesn't feel comfortable posting this stuff here any more - let her know if you enjoy it!
(Louis Wu 12:52:07 UTC) (permalink)
Map impressions - from pros
Over at MLGPro.com, a couple of regulars have picked their favorite Halo 3 launch maps (and provided rationale); one likes Epitaph, the other likes The Pit. Go see why! Thanks, 3Suns.
(Louis Wu 12:50:48 UTC) (permalink)
If at first you don't succeed...
3Suns posted a link to an AWESOME stick by BlackShadowMist over at MLGPro.com - nobody's saying it was planned, but because of Saved Films, you get the chance to WATCH it, which is pretty cool. For folks who don't like streaming Flash, I dropped off a couple of downloadable versions - WMP9 (1.6 mb) and QuickTime (1.3 mb). (Louis Wu 12:48:22 UTC) (permalink)
Falling Star.
Gah. I HATE forgetting stuff. I didn't post yesterday's One One Se7en on time - so it's up now. If it makes no sense, you haven't played the first couple of minutes of the campaign... or you can just blame Stuntmutt. (I do.) (Louis Wu 12:24:03 UTC) (permalink)
News October 3 2007
Skull Guide
So you've finished Halo 3's Campaign on Legendary, and you STILL haven't been challenged? You should try the skulls. (You don't have to play on Legendary to use them - they'll make any difficulty harder - except maybe Easy; I don't know if they work on Easy.) SketchFactor's written up a guide to what each scoring skull does for you (and to you) - and makes suggestions on which ones to use in what situations. Nice read! Thanks, rkwlnvrdy13. (Louis Wu 22:54:18 UTC) (permalink)
Introducing Jake Courage
The folks who put together the Believe ads have an exhibition of fake photos that will make its way around the UK in the near future. Go read about it at the Guardian. (Louis Wu 18:59:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 made him lower his standards.
Best. Halo 3. Review. EVER. (Thanks, Henkka.) (For what it's worth - others in that thread didn't think it was funny enough. Pfft.) (Louis Wu 18:51:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3: Sci vs Fi
Last week, The SciFi channel showed a special they called 'Halo 3: Sci vs Fi'. It doesn't seem to be anywhere on their schedule any more - but someone's uploaded a streaming version to the MLG Gameroom. It's an interesting 20 documentary of Halo 3, with interviews with lots of Bungie employees and celebrities.
(Louis Wu 18:40:09 UTC) (permalink)
You Got Questions, They Got Answers
Bungie is offering to answer your questions about Halo 3 - stop by this thread on the Bungie.net forums and let 'em know what you're confused about, they'll answer as many as they can in Friday's Weekly Update. Thanks, Lloyd Woodall.
(Louis Wu 18:38:11 UTC) (permalink)
When Art Meets Gaming
The Escapist takes a long look at Saved Films, and how they can satisfy your urge to create. Beyond giving you access to fantastic moments of gameplay, they let you examine, in detail, aspects of the Halo universe you didn't have time to appreciate while being shot. Coolness! Thanks, Pixellated.
(Louis Wu 18:35:31 UTC) (permalink)
Launch Stuff - Still
I know, I know - I said no more Launch writeups. Two came in today, though, that are worth pointing out. Knuckles Dawson, who was at the Community Lock-In event last week, put together a video look at the madness that night for Xbox 360 Fanboy, and two Hushed Casket long-timers wrote up their experiences (one at a Gamestop in Alabama, the other at a Microsoft gathering in Georgia). Good stuff! (Louis Wu 18:19:40 UTC) (permalink)
Funny Stuff
Web comics about Halo today - Penny Arcade revisits the little boy playing for Gabe (thanks, Jinno), and UserFriendly reminds you that rabid fanbois don't like it when you say bad things about Halo... out loud. (Louis Wu 17:48:01 UTC) (permalink)
Sometimes, you gotta wonder.
Kotaku found a clip of some 95-year-old Japanese grandmother playing Halo 3. She's not very good - but man, she's 95. (Yes, Tex, she's older than I am.) (Louis Wu 17:46:03 UTC) (permalink)
Mission Log, Day Three
A few days ago, we mentioned a South Carolina paper running a mission recap of Halo 3; we got mail from the writer who pointed out that he's actually in North Carolina, and that the series is syndicated. The third mission is now online (I've picked the News & Observer, a paper local to him, for the link.) Mission four coming soon! (Louis Wu 17:44:18 UTC) (permalink)
When the door's too slow...
Z pointed out a video showing a through-the-wall glitch on High Ground; looks like an easy way into the base! (Louis Wu 16:08:34 UTC) (permalink)
Downloadable MLG Gametypes
MLG Anakin has posted Official MLG Halo 3 Gametypes and Settings, downloadable directly to your 360 - convenient! (Bookmark the page, because it'll be updated if things change.) Thanks, 3Suns.
(Louis Wu 16:06:01 UTC) (permalink)
An old friend returns
Sam Becker pointed out a post at Halo Easter Eggs - it describes a recreation of a Halo 1 easter egg in Halo 3. (mentioned earlier) (Louis Wu 16:04:18 UTC) (permalink)
Fabulous.
I didn't post this yesterday, because I thought it was silly... but hey, we've posted silly before. Hawty McBloggy has put up an exhaustive guide to coordinating your armor colors in Halo 3. If you want to make sure you match, go read. (Louis Wu 16:01:54 UTC) (permalink)
Video Conversion Service
Steve Chamblin, of YourHalo3Vids.com, wants to offer a service to the community - if you've got a saved film you'd love turned into a video, you should visit. He's willing to do this for you - at no cost. He has a few rules (as can probably be guessed), and asks that you be patient - you can read the details on his front page. Nice! (Louis Wu 16:00:02 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's Review Roundup
Lots and lots and lots of reviews in our inbox:
- Ars Technica continues their analysis of Halo - this one isn't so much a review as it is a debate between editors (thanks, Jota Rota)
- Adelaide Now says it's a 10/10 - a little short in Campaign, but more than makes up for it in Multiplayer.
- The Central Connecticut State University Recorder says Halo 3 'doesn't leave much room for disappointment'.
- 8BitJoystick says it's dope.
- Game Industry News gave it a 5/5.
- University of Alabama's Crimson White gave it a 3/4, found a few parts frustrating
- The Notre Dame/St. Mary's College Observer loved the multiplayer
- Charlston City Paper liked the multiplayer more than single, as well
- Canada.com gave it a 5/5 and said it's worth the hype.
- GameCritics feels cheated; they don't think Bungie tried very hard to deliver what Halo 3's advertising promised (thanks, Chi Kong Lui)
So: mostly good, a couple of minor complaints, and one real disappointment. Not bad! (Louis Wu 15:54:33 UTC) (permalink)
News October 2 2007
Halo on the Nintendo DS - again
Wow, weirdness. Back in January, Matt Casamassina, editor of IGNCube, discussed a port of Halo for the Nintendo DS. Nobody ever confirmed it, and the rumors eventually died away. Today, it seems he's posted some videos of the game being played, to PROVE it's real (and, he says, to convince someone to start development up again). The videos have very odd dates on them (two years ago today - I'm guessing that's just a typo)... but they sure LOOK real. Thanks, Laird. (Louis Wu 20:45:07 UTC) (permalink)
Another Custom Made Action Figure
So there's clearly a market for custom-made action figures; we mentioned a sculpted one last week that still has 2 days to go - current bid is nearly at $2000. BARBARIC RAGE found ANOTHER one - this one (which is male) just went up, and still has nearly a week - but it's a pretty impressive piece of work, and I'm guessing it'll end up going for a LOT. Go see! (Louis Wu 17:48:38 UTC) (permalink)
The Spartan Effect Episode 6
Eddie, from Rookie Rabbit Productions, let us know that Episode 6 of the Spartan Effect has been posted on their site. We've put up local mirrors of the WMP9 and QuickTime hi-res versions, because they're worried about Filefront links, and because this is a decent series. This will be the last episode built in Halo 2. (Louis Wu 17:47:11 UTC) (permalink)
Wait, an empty box?
SarcasticGamer wrote a summary of the Halo 3 pieces they put up in the past week - there are some funny ones in there!
(Louis Wu 17:41:42 UTC) (permalink)
Hawty does eBay - she does it well.
Hawty McBloggy had a nice writeup of some cool Halo faceplates for sale on eBay - check 'em out, you still have a couple of days to bid! (Do you remember the toilet seat she found a few days ago? Turns out, that guy also created an Elite engraved toilet seat, and Hawty was the only bidder. She's an eBay queen!) (Louis Wu 17:34:40 UTC) (permalink)
Massive Sales in the UK
Numbers are out for the first four days of sales in the UK - Halo 3 sold nearly half a million copies (in a country with 1.4 million 360s). It's not the biggest seller ever in the UK (GTA San Andreas sold nearly 700,000 copies in 2 days), but it's prety impressive! This information is on a lot of sites; Eurogamer wrote it up nicely. (Louis Wu 17:27:14 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Takes Manhattan
GameDaily has a series of pictures of someone wearing a cardboard Master Chief face (I couldn't see any eyeholes, so I can't call it a mask), wandering around New York. Oddness! Thanks, Empress Cortana. (Louis Wu 17:20:22 UTC) (permalink)
Remembering his Father
A 61-year-old Halo fan created some music inspired by the game literally minutes before he entered the hospital, and died. His son posted the music on a blog. Thanks to GamesBond007 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:15:06 UTC) (permalink)
T-shirt article? who knows.
Bootsman pointed out the picture that's associated with this news post on a Finnish site - I don't know really what the point of the article is (online Finnish translation tools are... weak), but the shirt she's wearing is pretty fun. Update: on #hbo, r2 made it clear that this shirt was designed by Danish fashion house Bruns Bazaar, part of a new, limited-run line inspired by Halo 3, and it's being modeled by local celebrity Viivi Avellan. Since Halo 3 "is a futuristic adventure that expresses space and time", these are the elements Bruns Bazaar wanted to bring to these shirts. Ms. Avellan sez: "Really stylish! The print that you can't make out immediately is really cool!" [can I roll my eyes now? -ed.] (Louis Wu 17:10:32 UTC) (permalink)
More Lock-In/Launch writeups
Dweezle let us know that his writeup of the Halo 3 Community Lock-In, and the Launch Event that followed it, is now up at Tied The Leader. Great pics! There are also a few writeups that haven't been linked here at the bottom - we pointed out a bunch last Friday, but there are new ones: Uncle Gamer Radio | Evil Avatar | Ace Attorney's Pictures. Check 'em all out! Update: One more, from doodirock, at 2old2play! (Louis Wu 17:06:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Wars Update
Halo Wars has had another update, on their forum - it's a discussion, for the most part, of AI, and what you should expect from it - but there's also a very cool wallpaper of the Spirit of Fire. Thanks, Mike Smith. (Louis Wu 16:45:31 UTC) (permalink)
The Play's the Thing
Interesting Op-Ed piece at the New York Times (with an almost disturbing drawing) - Daniel Radosh posits that Halo 3 is not art because it doesn't try to be. The debate of 'videogames as art' is one he considers valid... he just doesn't think Halo 3 is in the running. Thanks, Ragnarok. (Louis Wu 16:43:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 a top rental
Gamasutra posted last week's Gamefly rental charts - Halo 3's on top, which isn't a huge surprise, but this paragraph was notable:
For the third straight week, the top five all-platform requests are identical to the top five Xbox 360 requests, reflecting the same movement and demonstrating a telling dominance for the console in the rental market.
Someone with more time than I have could probably speculate on what that means in the broader context of the console wars... (Louis Wu 16:31:25 UTC) (permalink)
User Friendly Halo 3
Kyle Vibert found a Gamespot feature called 'User Friendly Halo 3', summarizing the newest features and how to use 'em.
(Louis Wu 16:28:39 UTC) (permalink)
Reviews
Review Roundup for Tuesday:
- Australian IT says it starts slow, but is awesome once it picks up - 9/10
- Pariah's Guild put up the second part of their review, this one focusing on the Campaign - it gets a 4/5. (They felt it was "seriously shorter than Halo 2's", and that the ending was disappointing.)
- Ars Technica (who gave Halo 3's campaign a 7/10) rated the Multiplayer at a 10/10, and a final overall score for the game came in at 9/10 (thanks, Rota Jota). They called it "one of the best online experiences on any system in recent memory."
- PopMatters gave Halo 3 4 stars, and said it "speaks eloquently".
- Hexus.gaming says it's a Good Value and an Editor's Choice, but liked Gears of War better. 8/10 for campaign, 9.5/10 for everything else.
- Silicon Gaming says it's so addictive it should come with a public health warning.
- Ace Gamez gave it a 10/10; the writeup was loved by Rockslider.
Yeah, there are still plenty. (No, we still haven't found time to write one here - we're too busy writing THIS stuff.) (Louis Wu 16:17:12 UTC) (permalink)
What, they didn't have ENOUGH news today?
I don't think I understand what this story is about. I think that's a good thing.
(Louis Wu 16:15:18 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Sushi
I've seen a lot of Halo-themed stuff - but never Halo 3 sushi before. Thanks, Kotaku.
(Louis Wu 16:09:22 UTC) (permalink)
Lego Covenant
SNobleJr put together some pretty cool Lego Covenant figures - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 16:07:00 UTC) (permalink)
Whatever ur in, get out.
It's disturbing how many things get mashed into internet memes. Thanks, Red_Breast. (If you LIKE this stuff, go visit Gamepro; they're giving away a Legendary Edition Helmet (no game, just the helmet) to the best lolcats line they see before Friday.)
(Louis Wu 16:05:49 UTC) (permalink)
Love, Bungie Style
Heh - nice egg. <g> (I don't know who M + L are, but I'll see if I can find out.) I ran across this in our own forum - thanks, Devin (even though this has nothing to do with the megg). (Louis Wu 13:36:30 UTC) (permalink)
It's comic mania around the net
Lots of Halo-themed or -related comics out there right now:
- Today's VGCats is Halo-themed - and potentially spoileriffic (thanks, Psychophan7 and others)
- Elnea summarized the last 800 episodes of HAFT
- V10L3N7 JAY pointed out that Section 3 Episode 4 is up
- Slith, among others, pointed out a recent ep of GOD MODE (ads might be nsfw)
There are probably others, but that clears SOME of the incoming queue. Update: icefire2288 pointed out a new episode of Inner Geek, too. Update 2: Quikthnkr pointed out Geek Tragedy Squared #11 (with an explanation here - September 26 entry). (Louis Wu 13:12:17 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 Launch Documentary
Mat Galvin sent us links to a five-part video documenting the Halo 3 launch in Universal City, Hollywood. It includes interviews with Bungie's Vic DeLeon, Allen Murray, and Jonty Barnes, comments from tons of fans, some truly bizarre moments. Each piece is about 4 minutes long - go watch 'em in order.
- Part One - The line, Vic DeLeon
- Part Two - Multiplayer, Teabagging
- Part Three - Zac Efron, Girls of Halo
- Part Four - Fan Predictions, Behind MC's Mask
- Part Five - The End of Halo (release)
No spoilers - it was all recorded before the game was played by these folks. (Louis Wu 12:53:33 UTC) (permalink)
The Rumor Miill Heats Up
The really big news today (well, yesterday) was a red-hot rumor flying through the interwebs; is Bungie leaving Microsoft? It showed up first in a blog post on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer site (thanks, Nijhazer), but has since gone on to the big gaming sites (Gamespot, IGN, Kotaku, etc) - it's even made its way around down under (The Age, in Sydney). Bungie's not confirming, Microsoft's not confirming... but nobody's DENYING, either. I guess we sit tight on this one. Rumor for now - but stay tuned. (Louis Wu 12:11:29 UTC) (permalink)
Believe in Red Bull
Today's Dork Tower comic is about Halo 3. Given the way Bungie's online stats have been trending, there might be some folks out there acting this out. Thanks, RIPFrodo. (GhaleonEB 04:07:27 UTC) (permalink)
Sword Envy
Sane Intolerant continues the Origins story with Origins 3. Getting close to #100! (GhaleonEB 03:59:50 UTC) (permalink)
News October 1 2007
One One S3kret.
Stuntmutt takes a look at the whole brute-force method of finding stuff in today's One One Se7en... and learns the difference between easter eggs and jokes. (Louis Wu 16:47:55 UTC) (permalink)
The MTV Multiplayer Halo 3 Index
MTV's Stephen Totilo has summarized all the Halo 3 content he's posted so far; this is a good place to check if you've missed any of his pieces. (Louis Wu 16:40:45 UTC) (permalink)
Backwards audio unraveled
RVideo recorded Terminal 3 - and reversed the backwards audio. I'm not sure I'd call this an 'egg' - but it's definitely hidden content. (Louis Wu 16:38:40 UTC) (permalink)
They nailed it.
Epic's Marc Rein has some good things to say about Halo, according to Play. (Louis Wu 15:56:02 UTC) (permalink)
Open your mouth, you're risking a lot
During the ramp-up to Halo 3, Bungie was, for the most part, VERY careful about what they said about the game. This bothered a lot of fans; I mean, why all the secrecy? Why so vague with details? Just say what you mean, man! Well, there's a piece over at Advanced Media Network (thanks, Avateur) that describes a segment of the Bungie community that is 'outraged' that a feature discussed a year ago by one of the UI designers didn't make it into the final game. The fact is, LOTS of proposed features don't make it into the final game - it's just that you don't hear about most of them... because Bungie is very careful about what they say in public. (Lots of features that weren't thought about until late are in the final game - it goes both ways.) When they DO slip and mention a feature that hasn't been set in stone yet... the community gets 'outraged' and starts petitions if it gets dropped before the game ships. I'd stay pretty quiet, too, with that sort of reaction. (Louis Wu 14:06:36 UTC) (permalink)
He loved it.
Another small 'Halo 3 is all the rage' piece in USA Today - this one is worth noting because they've quoted our own Miguel Chavez. (Louis Wu 13:55:55 UTC) (permalink)
The Price of Fame
Action Trip has posted another Halo-related comic; sometimes, folks want a piece of you just because you're on top. (Other times, they have better reasons.) (Louis Wu 13:53:30 UTC) (permalink)
Hype Analysis
Sky News wonders if Halo 3 lives up to its hype. (Cut to the chase - yes, apparently.)
(Louis Wu 13:45:13 UTC) (permalink)
In Luck We Trust
Dean Takahashi reviews Halo 3 multiplayer (he enjoys it quite a lot), and solicits your feedback.
(Louis Wu 13:43:39 UTC) (permalink)
One shot is all it takes.
Wired looks at the weapons in Halo 3, and how Bungie kept things fresh. (Louis Wu 13:41:40 UTC) (permalink)
B Cause of U
DHalo noticed 'B Cause of U', an ode to teamkilling fuc - um, friends, over at Newgrounds. We all know this guy. (Louis Wu 13:39:57 UTC) (permalink)
Sharing is Fundamental
Geezer Gamers has put up a useful guide to sharing stuff in Halo 3. Check it out. (Louis Wu 11:45:41 UTC) (permalink)
BK Offers Halo 3 Goodies
Burger King has posted their Halo 3 page - you can get avatars, desktops, and a free 48 hour pass to XBL for registering. Thanks, Avateur. (Louis Wu 11:43:54 UTC) (permalink)
Morning Review Roundup
A bunch more reviews:
- Stuff.co.nz says it's a 5/5
- Pariah's Guild has Part 1 up, with a score of 5/5
- Quarter to Three hated the campaign (thanks, Avateur)
- Dogsounds loved it - 10/10
- Talk Xbox gave it a 97/100
- Avateur says the Campaign is an 8.5/10, not as good as the original
I'm sure there'll be more. Update: Not a True Ending gave it an 8/10, broken down into a hefty ten subcategories (including Addictiveness and Miscellaneous). (Louis Wu 11:41:18 UTC) (permalink)
I bet he has trouble with that controller.
Sane Intolerant revisits old ground with Origins 2 and Heretic, Hero II
. (Louis Wu 11:23:55 UTC) (permalink)
Pit Tips
Injunfett wrote up some tips for playing on the multiplayer level The Pit - check out Halo 3 Front Lines, his blog. (Louis Wu 11:18:33 UTC) (permalink)
Panoply of Panoramas
We got a bunch of new panoramas yesterday: Veegie sent us four (Construct | Campaign First Mission | Last Resort | Campaign Seventh Mission), and Dundundles sent us one (Phantom Explodes). They're all pretty big (they range from half a meg to a meg and a half) - but they're all gorgeous.
(Louis Wu 11:16:45 UTC) (permalink)
The Riot 67
Sigafoos let us know yesterday that The Riot 67 went online; it's their first Halo 3 show, and it contains (along with the usual community/clan news) a tournament announcement and an interview with Clantacular's Demoncorpse. 48 minutes, 19 mb.
(Louis Wu 10:54:20 UTC) (permalink)
| October 2007 | |
