Old news but still good news!

Is that what I think it is?
Whoa... truth or fiction? We got this pic of a master chief model - it comes from a friend who works with ERTL toys. You make the call. (I hope it's real!) Update: picture has been yanked; too much potential trouble for all involved. Sorry... (Louis Wu 20:55:50 UTC) (permalink)

Jonesin' for Edge info?
A couple of weeks ago, GamesRadar put up some teaser info from the most recent Edge magazine. Today, they put up a more meaty slice - go check it out! (Thanks to Griffon for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 20:51:02 UTC) (permalink)

Wallpaper stuff
At the request of a fan, Warbow has reversed his recently submitted wallpaper so that Mac users don't have to cover the cool artwork with icons. You can find the new version in our Wallpaper section, too. Update: forgot to check the uploads directory - there's one more wallpaper for you, from RAT 9.3, in two sizes. You'll find that, too, in the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 19:22:28 UTC) (permalink)

Art stuff
Couple of art bits for you today: a sketch of a jackal (embossed after the fact, it would seem) and a pretty cool pic of Jeff Lofland's vision of Mrs. Chief. You'll find both in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 19:17:01 UTC) (permalink)

Christian Spotlight reviews Halo
Da Loaph found a rather unusual Halo review yesterday - it's part of a site called Christian Spotlight, and focuses on how games fit into the Christian viewpoint. Halo got high marks for gameplay, but was heavily downgraded for the potentially anti-Christian messages implicit in the use of Christian 'jargon', and for the violence. We've added this review to the Reviews database, but have used only the gameplay rating in the numerical score; the other parameters seemed to rate Halo on its suitability to the audience of the site, rather than on its own merit. (It's a tricky distinction, and one we haven't made before... but there doesn't seem to be any better way to choose an overall rating for the game, based on the information on the site.) We would ask that anyone going to visit to respect the spirit of the site; I'd hate to be responsible for the influx of a bunch of rude visitors. (If you have comments, feel free to add them to the forum thread here.) (Louis Wu 12:32:33 UTC) (permalink)

Dead trees become bits
Five new magazine bits for you - no, we can't bring you the newest Edge or EGM mags yet, but there are a couple of articles from the August 2002 XBM, a couple more from the same issue of XGamer, and the article that got forumgoer BOLL into Halo fandom, a 2-pager from the June 2000 issue of PC Gamer Sweden. You'll find these (and several dozen others) in our Press Scans section. (Louis Wu 21:56:56 UTC) (permalink)

Don't I know you?
Dave sends in a pic of a situation he thinks might happen in Halo 2 - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 21:56:08 UTC) (permalink)

From classic music comes classic fan art
Whoa. It really is time to get a 'Halo Fan Music' section set up; we've just gotten another entry. This one comes from Justin R. Durban, of Edgen Animations. It's a 2:36 long .mp3, weighing in at a bit under 2 and a half megs... and it's beautiful. (Very martial.) Justin says:

I played the game for the first time last weekend for about 3 days straight and pretty much got inspired to write my own version of the halo theme. I'd love for your fans to use this track in one of their "fan made trailers" / movie montages. You have my permission to use it however you like.

Full credit is given to Marty O'Donnell for the basis of this piece. Go grab your copy now! (If you have trouble getting it here (you shouldn't, but things happen), you can find a copy on Justin's server, too.) (Louis Wu 19:48:30 UTC) (permalink)

A weekend of editing
Lots of art bits submitted recently. We'll start with the miscellaneous art - there's an airbrushed MC, a Halo box, and an MC with a sword, from XAL, Jack Smith, and Chris, respectively. You'll find these in our Miscellaneous Art section. And then there's a new banner in our Banners section, and two new logos in our Logos section, all courtesy of Michael Frank. Heh - that should clear out the inbox for a few minutes... (Louis Wu 15:11:46 UTC) (permalink)

Play with this.
Okay, so it's simple. It's just so cool, though. If you can spare about 200k of downloading, and have Flash installed, go take a look at BOLL's MC model. It makes me giggle. Update: Chime in. (Louis Wu 00:00:06 UTC) (permalink)

Toys in the Attic, indeed
Jack points out that a VH1 'Behind the Music' episode about Aerosmith shows one of the band members playing Halo at the back of the tour bus during a Japan tour earlier this year. Jack was tickled by the idea of meeting up with Aerosmith on the Halo 2 Xbox Live battlefield... (Louis Wu 10:14:43 UTC) (permalink)

Rotation time for sure
Three new desktops for you today; a spectacular image, cleaned up by Warbow, and a pair of clean black pics by michael hopkins. Check 'em all out in our Wallpapers section. (Louis Wu 09:49:51 UTC) (permalink)

I hate it when that happens...
Ritalin adds another Halo moment to his artwork collection - you can find this one in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 09:49:03 UTC) (permalink)

It's gonna take HOW long?
Chris Hamilton has set up a countdown page to the release of Halo 2. Currently, it counts down to the first of December, 2003 - but as dates become clearer, he'll adjust the end result. (Interestingly, the timer on the front page of Rampancy.net shows a countdown that's over 2 weeks shorter...) (Louis Wu 09:40:56 UTC) (permalink)

It lives... verily.
mnemesis points out that the Halo Story Page has been updated... again. Nice to have a tag team working on it now! (Louis Wu 09:38:24 UTC) (permalink)

Sapien, huh?
Ever wonder about the tools used to build Halo? Wonder no more. Bungie.net has put up an interview with Mat Noguchi... you'll learn a lot. Not all of it is useful information... but you'll have fun anyway. (Louis Wu 17:51:47 UTC) (permalink)

GamingWorld X looks at Halo 2
Another Halo 2 preview has popped up - this time over at GamingWorld X. Take a look. (Louis Wu 12:59:55 UTC) (permalink)

How much?
There's a new poll up at Bungie.net - they're wondering how much you'd be willing to pay for a Halo competition. Be sure to read the comments of both Jester, over at Psyjnir.com, and Miguel Chavez, on our forum - things to keep in mind before you vote. (And oh, yeah... read Yeroen's comments, too.) (Louis Wu 20:03:44 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Online puts up Halo 2 article
Word comes from PTM of Halo Online that an article has been put online which combines much of the Halo 2 information that's been disseminated via magazine articles and the like into one source. For now, you can find it on their forum; eventually, it'll be in their Halo 2 section. Update: According to a news article on the front page of Halo Online, this piece was taken down for a variety of reasons, including complaints by 'EGM execs' of plagiarism. Hopefully, it will come back in a different form at some point. (Louis Wu 19:30:21 UTC) (permalink)

Future Bungie games... on a PC, too?
Homelan has put up an interview with Stuart Moulder, general manager of the PC Games division at Microsoft. One question directly concerned Bungie:

HomeLAN - Some people have wondered if Bungie will go back to PC game development under Microsoft. Are there plans for Bungie to make PC only games in addition to Halo and Halo 2?

Stuart Moulder - As for Bungie, they will remain focused primarily on the Xbox. That said, we fully intend to bring their work to the PC as we are doing with Halo.

Now, remember, this is a Microsoft manager, not a Bungie employee... but it's very interesting to hear someone who is in position to know suggest that future Bungie titles will eventually come out for the PC. There has been speculation (some of it by me) that Halo will be the last PC title Bungie does... Moulder implies that this might not be the case. Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi for pointing out the link. (Louis Wu 16:48:08 UTC) (permalink)

Other places...
Couple of links for you today: el_halo_diablo points out The Gamer's Corner, a forum devoted mostly to Halo, and Dinky points out that Halo Juggalo Productions has a new video, called I Wish They Were Porsches, up. (We can't watch it - a Windows Media Player file with a data rate of over 3 mb/sec just will not play on a mac, at all... but it's there, if you want it. 36 mb zipped.) (Louis Wu 12:59:37 UTC) (permalink)

Um... is that what Jason meant?
Ritalin turns in a "screenshot from an older build of the Halo 2 engine". We've tossed it in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 12:51:20 UTC) (permalink)

Hi-Res Halo 2 madness from X02
Whoa. GameKult seems to have put up a collection of very high resolution shots from Halo 2 - all have been seen before, but none at this quality level. (Some have only been seen in leaked magazine scans, as a matter of fact.) There are 18 images, including several renders of the new Warthog, a bunch of bumpmapping demos of the Master Chief, and some hi-res stills from the trailer. These have been posted to several Xbox forums around the web - usually without attribution. Go to the source! (Louis Wu 09:04:15 UTC) (permalink)

Three is Darker, Too
Three new desktops from three new people - check 'em out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 19:11:55 UTC) (permalink)

Culture. Discuss.
Forgot to post this yesterday; the official Iain Banks website has added a forum. If you're interested in discussing the Culture novels (or anything else Banks-related), this is the place for you. Not completely on-topic with respect to Halo, but it might be of interest to Halo Storyphiles. (Louis Wu 18:27:17 UTC) (permalink)

Little-Known Covenant Weaponry
oldmano'theC found this puppy somewhere. Gotta watch that viscous toxic slime... (Louis Wu 13:09:36 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 mp3 updated
You couldn't tell by me... but apparently the Halo 2 mp3 released on Bungie.net yesterday wasn't up to snuff, quality-wise. Marty re-encoded it by hand today, and the new version is available from the Halo 2 info page at Bungie.net. (It's different, that's for sure.) (Louis Wu 01:43:57 UTC) (permalink)

7he Halo Comic
DarkPrimus points out the first of a series of Halo comics - take a look! (Louis Wu 01:33:10 UTC) (permalink)

Big Artwork Thing What Kicks Our Asses.
Griffon has spent some time creating a pretty spectacular piece of wallpaper from the cover of this month's Edge magazine. (As far as I know, the back cover hasn't been shown on the web yet.) It's available in a variety of sizes, and it's watermarked with the Edge logo to remind people where it came from originally. If you can afford it... subscribe to this mag; it's easily one of the best gaming magazines out there. Meanwhile, check out this amazing artwork (and the superb job Griffon did stitching it all together) in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 20:16:21 UTC) (permalink)

We're Closed.
Warbow found a fun piece of audio to go with a cute little film of Frogblast's... he said it's dedicated to some recent events on the forum. Timing is quite good. Movie is 38 seconds long, and about 3 mb. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 19:57:30 UTC) (permalink)

Weezer Plays Halo
Mojo points out that the bassist for Weezer has been playing Halo quite a bit recently. Even musicians need some carnage now and then! (Louis Wu 19:46:47 UTC) (permalink)

Few in number, many in words
Two fanfic stories for you today - but one is a monster. You'll find Hoju's Halo: The Advocate and el_halo_diablo's Wings of Death, part 6 in the Fan Fiction section, but you might find The Advocate a bit large in one chunk. (It's 160K of text.) The databased pages are broken up into sub-32k chunks by necessity, so you can read these if loading the large page is a problem. (Louis Wu 19:43:23 UTC) (permalink)

We make-a you laugh
Psyjnir.com has overhauled their Comics section; there are now two categories. Funnies is for any Bungie-related comic strips (there's a size requirement), submissions are accepted. Storyline will house comics telling the (twisted and sick) story of the Psyjnir Complex, every Monday Wednesday, and Friday. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 03:03:27 UTC) (permalink)

Don't pull that trigger!
Jeff Lofland turns in a modified version of a desktop image he sent in earlier - pretty cool! Check it out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 02:55:54 UTC) (permalink)

Run through the Jungle...
Looking for a large banner for your Halo 2 site? Sullivan just dropped one off - you can find it in our Banners section. (Louis Wu 01:47:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Trailer Music - Yeah, Baby!
Woohoo! As promised last week, the music from the Halo 2 trailer is available in downloadable .mp3 format from Bungie.net. Go get it! (Marty, you rock.) (Louis Wu 22:47:47 UTC) (permalink)

German Halo 2 Preview at PC Games Portal
Mick points out a new Halo 2 preview (in German) at PC Games Portal. I don't read German, but a Systran translation suggests there isn't anything here that wasn't discussed in Edge or EGM magazines, or on the web. Still, I find it interesting that the preview cycle has already started up. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:53:16 UTC) (permalink)

3D Madness
If you're a regular HBO forum visitor, you've probably seen some of the new models being created by Zeinin and Jonas. Zeinin is planning on making a 'Fall of Reach' movie; we're holding off on compiling his work to date because at the moment, he's cranking it out too fast. (This was posted tonight - recognize that shape?) Jonas, too, is pouring out new models and tweaks; this evening, we got to see how his fighter flies. Once things slow down, we'll set up a section for all this stuff here. (We'll add the models of Storm Singer, Roger Wilco, and Warbow... and anyone else who's created Halo 2 (or mod-Halo) vehicles!) (Louis Wu 02:31:59 UTC) (permalink)

Shrink or Die
Blackstar has updated the Work or Die video he posted 2 weeks ago to be a bit more bandwidth-friendly; it's now 24.4 mb (the screensize was reduced to 480x360 to keep image quality up). If you haven't downloaded this yet because it was too big, go grab it now... and watch me get killed over and over and over and over and... (The Movies database has been updated with the new info.) (Louis Wu 02:24:33 UTC) (permalink)

A reminder for all Fan Fiction writers - if you choose a title that's already in use, I'll add something to it to make it unique; the 'read this series' link requires unique names for series. If you're not happy about the idea of something being added to your title, spend the 20 seconds to actually do a search for it, and make sure it's not in use. Thanks. (Louis Wu 02:01:27 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Wallpaper
Ted Timmons dropped off a new desktop for us, because he "thought that your wallpapers on HBO should be updated a bit." (Guess he missed the nearly 3 dozen Halo 2 desktops submitted in the past month...) You'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 00:57:45 UTC) (permalink)

Sketchy Details
Hybrid Tech turns in a sketch of a Halo scene (spoilers enclosed). You can find it in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 18:00:00 UTC) (permalink)

Its happened again!! The "Covenant Dance" accompanied my New England Patriots on the NFL on CBS pre-game.

Sounds like the NFL has made some sort of licensing deal with Microsoft... nice to see! (Louis Wu 16:39:16 UTC) (permalink)

GamesRadar puts up tasty Edge info
For those who would like to get a glimpse of the new story material revealed in the current issue of Edge Magazine, but don't want to wait until the Edge scans are available (legitimately) on the web, swing on by gamesradar.com - the website of Edge's parent publisher, Future Publishing. The content is quite intriguing:

"The Covenant is named for the pact binding its two primary races, the Elites and the Prophets," reveals Griesemer. "The Elites form the backbone of the Covenant military and the Prophets are the Covenantﾒs political and spiritual leadership. Much of the game will focus on the relationship between these two races and on the hidden motives for their attacks against humanity."

There are also four scans from the magazine (relatively low quality showing new artwork for Halo 2. Thanks to Jack Smith for the heads-up! (Louis Wu 13:53:56 UTC) (permalink)

Movies db updated
The six movies released in the past 10 days have all been added to the Movies database. If you're looking for something specific, that's the place to go. (Louis Wu 01:16:18 UTC) (permalink)

Zounds! (or Sounds...?)
Woohoo! Marty O'Donnell says the mp3 for the Halo 2 music should be available by Monday (the 23rd). Yeehaw! (Louis Wu 20:07:00 UTC) (permalink)

Gimme the Keyes - I'm driving
The final chapter of the HBO Legendary Walkthrough, written by Asmodeus, has been posted - if you're having trouble getting through Keyes, swing on by and check out Asmodeus' tips for beating this level! (Louis Wu 11:20:47 UTC) (permalink)

Hope you respawn soon!
Want to show someone you care? Send them a Halo Greeting Card! (Thanks to Immortal Pain for setting this up - hopefully, it'll become more browser-friendly in the future.) (Louis Wu 10:55:22 UTC) (permalink)

I want my grunt plushie, dangit!
Heh - Roger Wilco did a little digging at the US Patent Office; it seems Microsoft was thinking ahead about Halo merchandising. Check out his post for the things covered by their trademarks on the word Halo! (Louis Wu 00:58:26 UTC) (permalink)

Picture, Picture
Couple of bits of artwork for you... [OX] turns in a more NBA-ish image than the last NBA-ish image we got, and StarWarsFanMan give the MC what he really needs. You'll find both in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 19:46:56 UTC) (permalink)

Man... what's that on your shoes?
Warbow went dumpster diving outside the Bungie offices again. We won't show you the mutilated Elmo dolls he found... but there was also this snippet of what appears to be a rejected Halo 2 trailer option. 2.5 mb, QT format. Crap, now we have to clean the carpets again... (Louis Wu 19:34:25 UTC) (permalink)

Play it... or read it. Your choice.
A couple of days ago, we posted the beginnings of a novelization of the Halo story. We've got a new one today - strategyfreak, who had been working on the Halo Fan Fiction project, has turned in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of his effort to this end. The Fan Fiction section continues to grow... (Louis Wu 19:30:40 UTC) (permalink)

Marty Makes Top 3
A recent episode of G4 TV's Filter program rated the Halo Soundtrack at #3 in the top 10 videogame soundtracks of all time. (Final Fantasy VII and GTA3 beat it out.) Personally, I think they misjudged... but hey, I'm biased. Check out the details at Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 17:54:54 UTC) (permalink)

Info, bay-bee...
Thanks to the eagle eyes of Jerry, who noticed the cool new link at the top of the bungie.net main page (right corner). It contains quick links to all the useful info so far published on Halo 2 - press releases, links to the trailer, goodies like screens and desktops... keep it handy! (Louis Wu 01:29:54 UTC) (permalink)

You gotta keep 'em separated...
A couple of weeks ago, Frogblast posted a pretty interesting movie showing some truly bizarre behavior on 343 Guilty Spark. (Spoilers, for anyone who is still keeping track of this stuff.) Today, Warbow put this clip to music - and it's a nice enough piece of work that we've upped it to mythica. (6.1 mb, QT5 format.) Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:09:11 UTC) (permalink)

Clan pics
New desktop from The Elite Halo Gang - check our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 19:59:07 UTC) (permalink)

Hats Off to 819!
Hamish Sinclair is on vacation, but a Bungie Community staple turns 7 today... the Marathon's Story Page reaches mythical age-status. (Yeah, yeah, not really Halo news... but 7th birthdays for Bungie fansites don't come around very often.) Visit the Story page forum and help blow out the candles! (Louis Wu 13:53:44 UTC) (permalink)

Spain's the place to be...
Total Games is speculating that there will be a playable build of Halo 2 at X02 in Spain next week. The details are sketchy, but the idea is intriguing. (That a playable build exists, I have no doubt. That Total Games—or anyone else outside Microsoft—will see it any time soon is far less certain.) Thanks to Hedgemony for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:14:18 UTC) (permalink)

Isn't he gonna get the floor dirty?
You want to watch a cool movie? Watch this. (I read about it here.) (Louis Wu 20:24:14 UTC) (permalink)

Red and Blue
Jeff Lofland created an NBA-inspired Halo desktop - you'll find it in our Wallpapers section. (Louis Wu 20:17:13 UTC) (permalink)

Eades' work is an attempt to novelize the Halo story. He decided to send this in after hearing that the FFP had closed down. (Louis Wu 14:41:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Preview at CVG
Computer and Video Games has written up a Halo 2 preview. The information contained within it is a subset of what was seen in the Edge preview leaked last week - it's unclear whether the author got the material for the story from the Edge scans, or from Bungie directly. However, since the Edge scans are no longer available (we'll post them next month, but for now, they're offline), this might be a good way to find out some information about the Halo 2 gameplay and storyline. Razorback pointed this out, after finding it at VoodooExtreme. (Louis Wu 13:23:19 UTC) (permalink)

It Lives!
The Halo Story Page gets its first update from the newest member of the updating team... Finn, of Team 7hr33! Now, if you've submitted 437 items for consideration in the past 12 days, don't expect that they'll suddenly all be posted; they're still human, and a lot of what you guys send in is actually already discussed in detail on the pages. However, it might just be that a few more of the interesting tidbits find their way into the public space... (mnemesis hasn't gone anywhere, so mail for the site should still be addressed to halostory@bungie.org; that goes to everyone involved.) (Louis Wu 12:40:22 UTC) (permalink)

We like frogs
Gah. Sometimes life just kicks you in the - oh, never mind. HBO was down for a couple of hours this evening, but not because it changed IP addresses. It died because of user error (with me as the user). We got it up and running again - but the IP change has to wait for morning. So there will still be an outage tomorrow, on top of this recent outage. Hopefully, it won't be a long one. (The Time To Live on the dns records for this site were set to something ridiculously short this morning; in theory, that means that the downtime will be minimized. Some of you, of course, will be on networks that pay no attention to niceties like dns records, and HBO will be down for however long your service provider takes to update its files. Can't be helped.) Once again, I'd remind all that the HBO forum is on another network entirely, and will NOT be going offline. (Louis Wu 00:32:53 UTC) (permalink)

Tamte says all's well
Thanks to Ghôlsbane, who pointed out an article at MacGamer, summarizing the day's events at Apple expo 2002 in Paris. They spoke to Peter Tamte, head of Bold Games and Destineer Studios (the publishers behind the Mac version of Halo).

Peter told us that Halo is meeting every internal schedule and should be released simultaneously for the Mac and the PC in Summer 2003.

This is what he said a month ago, to Inside Mac Games... and 2 months ago, to our own Miguel Chavez. It's nice when things go as planned! (Louis Wu 21:39:36 UTC) (permalink)

Yep... locked, all right.
Strykerwolf, once and for all, proves the veracity of the infamous 'locked weapons' story floating around the internet. See his proof here. (Originally posted to our forum.) (Louis Wu 21:21:47 UTC) (permalink)

Now THAT'S off-roading.
We're a little ambiguous about posting info from the Edge scans leaked this weekend... but this picture was so cool, we decided we couldn't hold it back. Warbow has taken the new Halo 2 ATV and stuck it out in the American west... wow. You can find it in our Miscellaneous Art section. Update: seems Warbow forgot the shadow on the first version. Grab it again if you downloaded it already - it's better now. :) (Louis Wu 19:50:49 UTC) (permalink)

HNC on Arena - soon!
Thanks to Oso, who pointed out a trailer from G4 for the upcoming broadcast of the Halo National Championship on G4TV - you can download it in MPEG format (3.8 mb, 36 seconds), or stream it to Windows Media Player. It'll show you a few of the contestants, and a bit of the set it was all filmed on. The show airs Friday night, September 20, at 11 pm eastern time (8 pm pacific). There's no word yet on whether the actual show will be available on the web at some point. (Louis Wu 19:10:31 UTC) (permalink)

IP Change... AGAIN
I'm getting sort of tired of this... but HBO's colo host is changing our location, which means our IP address changes. Again. Which means that as of 4 pm EST today, this site will be inaccessible until your local DNS information catches up. Apologies. (The forum will continue to be accessible; it's not moving.) Update: Obviously, we're not offline yet. In fact, we don't know when the move is going to happen. (This is unsettling, to say the least.) I suppose the best we can do is to say that when you can't reach us, we've changed addresses. :) (Louis Wu 16:23:17 UTC) (permalink)

A new Covenant armada
Yesterday, Zeinin posted a note on our forum about a movie he was planning to make - about the fall of Reach. He put up a couple of stills, and I figured I'd hold off on a news post until there was a website, or something. However, over the course of the day, he revealed many more shots; read through the entire thread, you'll find some amazing bits of work. Can't wait to see the final product! (Louis Wu 08:27:32 UTC) (permalink)

stickydoom plus rocket = boom!
iBonk has posted a video showing a new, rather intriguing form of Warthog Launching - how high can you make that puppy go? There's a forum thread here. (Louis Wu 08:22:37 UTC) (permalink)

I dub thee Sir Loin of Steak!
Mad Cow dropped off a tweaked b.net screenshot for our Miscellaneous Art collection. (It's a pretty minor change, but it's rather well done.) (Louis Wu 02:14:20 UTC) (permalink)

Where's my toothbrush?
Dolbex, of Been Mawed (possibly soon to change to a different name), has sent in a pretty scary desktop for our Wallpaper section. (If you like it, drop him some email - there are others.) (Louis Wu 02:06:31 UTC) (permalink)

FFP shuts down
The Halo Fan Fiction Project, an attempt to write the Halo story in novel form, has closed down. You can read an explanation by its leader, until it's taken down... and you can chime in on their forum if you care to. Hopefully, the people involved will find other outlets for their creativity in the Halo community. Thanks to Wonga for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 01:36:34 UTC) (permalink)

Roll 'em!
One of the more enjoyable 'mini-games' in Halo multiplayer is Jousting; Warthogs square off, usually on Blood Gulch, and ram each other, head-on. The intention is to knock the opponent out of his hog (and then run him down, of course). Several films have incorporated footage from games like this... but they've always left me feeling like something was missing. I thought that perhaps this style of gameplay was better suited to actually PLAYING than watching. Now, however, there's a film on the scene that shows me that all it takes is timing, a great score, and an eye for theatrical flips - this style can work VERY well on film. Check out Fun With Vehicles (not to be confused with Vehicle Fun, released some time ago), an almost-3-minute, 15 mb QuickTime movie with perfect musical choices and some great camera shots. (If you can mirror this film, please let us know.) Update: Eric Jourdan has added another mirror for this file. (See the mirrors list for a link.) Thanks, Eric! (Louis Wu 14:10:40 UTC) (permalink)

Downtime coming up
Just a heads-up - an upstream router is undergoing maintenance this evening; most of bungie.org (excluding HBO, but not its forum) will be offline from roughly midnight to 6 am. There's nothing wrong, it's just a hardware upgrade. We apologize for the downtime. (Louis Wu 01:30:57 UTC) (permalink)

Tinker to Evers to Chance...
BOLL has created a nice Flash animation showing the cool bumpmapping of the Halo 2 Master Chief. We'll add it to the Miscellaneous section soon. (Louis Wu 01:24:23 UTC) (permalink)

I was watching CBS's football coverage today and they were doing a special on Brian Griese for Denver. To my amazement I heard some interesting background music. "Under Cover of Night" from the Halo Soundtrack!!! Guess Halo is now mainstream. Soon everybody will know how special this game is.

I gotta say... this just tickles me. Marty and crew - you rock! (Louis Wu 17:14:04 UTC) (permalink)

The double-edged sword of the internet...
To the vast numbers of people sending us a direct link to a download directory containing the Edge scans: thanks, but we posted it yesterday. (Check this post.) The directory everyone's sending us links to is listed at least twice in the thread mentioned in that post - and as we said there, we're not sure how we feel about Edge's intellectual property being disseminated so widely when the issue isn't even on the shelves yet. If you want to see the scans, finding the URL should be pretty easy - but please don't ask us to help take income out of Edge's pocket even more blatantly by displaying that URL on our front page. Thanks. (I'm betting that a significant chunk of change has been lost to Edge because of this - there are thousands of issues that WOULD have been bought if the information hadn't been spread like this. Most of these 'lost' copies would ONLY have been bought for the Halo 2 info - so putting that info up now directly impacts Edge's bottom line.) (Louis Wu 15:28:59 UTC) (permalink)

Fire and Lightning...
Chaoz sent in a new desktop for our Wallpaper section. Take a look... (Louis Wu 12:57:12 UTC) (permalink)

Check out that Hunter Shuffle...
StarwarsFanMan has put together a new movie. It's rather large - 35 megs, 7 and a half minutes long (QT format). Content is mostly glitches and tricks - some pretty funny stuff. (Personally, I'd say it goes on too long... but things have been quiet, so I'm willing to cut him some slack. :) ) It's called Operation: Beheaded, and you can find it at mythica.org (of course) and the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server (of course). Any other mirrors are (as always) gratefully appreciated. Biggest thing to watch out for - sound level is rather low on everything but the music tracks. Crank it up for dialog and effects... but make sure you've got your finger on the volume control for when the music kicks back in. (Louis Wu 03:25:53 UTC) (permalink)

Weekend stuff
Here's the Fan Fiction that's built up over the last 24 hours:

Halomania!
Team Overkill, a Staten Island Halo clan, is planning a Halo LAN fest on September 22nd. These guys are good; if you're within driving distance, it'll be worth the trip. You can read more about it on their Seventh Column chapter site. (We don't normally post small lanfest notices like this... but this is one I'd love to make myself (I can't, unfortunately; that weekend is fully booked) - these guys put on a good show. :) ) (Louis Wu 21:54:08 UTC) (permalink)

Oops...
Microsoft is learning the hard way that coordinating data releases across multiple sources is nearly impossible these days. A few days ago, the cover of the French MOX (Official Xbox Magazine) was leaked on the internet... then pulled less than 24 hours later under MS pressure. The damage was done, though, and early versions of this tantalizing new Halo 2 content were out there. Today, two new leaks have occurred - BOLL received (over a week early) a copy of the Swedish magazine Super Play containing new pictures... and davex5647 found some online scans of this month's Edge magazine, also out almost a week ahead of schedule. There are new enemies, new vehicles... possibly new weapons to come. (The full Edge article isn't online anywhere yet - and it's unclear if it WILL be.) We don't condone the posting of copyrighted print material before it's actually off the shelves... but the fact remains, it's out there; Microsoft's careful plan to have all magazines with this info be released on the same day (September 17) lies in tatters on the floor, stomped on by the near-instantaneous information transfer capabilities of the internet. (Louis Wu 21:48:47 UTC) (permalink)

Lies, Lies, and more Lies
Matt Soell points out that the Halo Rumor Control database (linked prominently from our FAQ) has been updated. He was spefically talking about information about Halo on Xbox Live (it is not, and will not be, supported - though Halo 2 will contain Xbox Live support) - but there's also information about the Halo 2 release date (there isn't one) and the issue of the Halo 2 footage being too good to be in-engine (it is in-engine, not prerendered). When in doubt, go to the source! (Louis Wu 16:09:30 UTC) (permalink)

All audio more better
As a followup to last week's 'Making of the Halo Trailer, Part 1', Bungie has posted 'Part 2' at their Tru7h and Reconciliation site. It's a pretty amazing read, if you've ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes, soundwise. Beyond the electronic magic, there were 35 live musicians involved in what you hear, including Jay Weinland playing oboe and english horn, and Marty O'Donnell and his wife joining 12 others for the choir singing. Go read it - and then see if you can find a Dolby 5.1 version of the trailer that works for you. (Louis Wu 09:36:53 UTC) (permalink)

OXM UK Movie needed
Phil Howlett writes to point out that the OXM UK cover DVD number 8 (July? August?) contains some pretty interesting warthog jump footage - apparently, there's a jump onto a pair of covenant dropships (sequentially, of course). Unfortunately, we have no access to this disc - if anyone reading this subscribes to OXM UK and would like to send in the footage, we'd be happy to host it. Thanks! (Louis Wu 19:21:43 UTC) (permalink)

Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles
Drunkgamers.com is getting ramped up for a series of gameplay videos known as 'Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles'. To whet your appetite, they've created a 2-minute-long trailer for the upcoming films - it's available as a 30 mb DivX-encoded .avi, or (with some compromises) as a 10 mb QuickTime 5 video. It's pretty funny... but be warned - language is PG, at least. If bandwidth gets tight, we'll jump in with a mirror or two. (This was released last week, hours before the Halo 2 video. We held off then to keep it from getting buried... and then spaced completely on getting back to it.) (Louis Wu 17:15:02 UTC) (permalink)

Guess it was too early...
Seems Microsoft has requested that Halo Game remove the MOX October cover from their site. (Sort of silly, if you ask me - it'll be on newsstands in 5 days.) If you missed it yesterday, there's always next week... (Thanks to Roger Wilco for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 19:28:50 UTC) (permalink)

Only 24 more hours till the next update! (Louis Wu 19:22:01 UTC) (permalink)

They did WHAT?
Okay, this is just plain disturbed. I'm thinkin'... the next time I go to Altoona, PA, I'm bringing a dog with me. A BIG dog. With sharp teeth. (Louis Wu 16:46:15 UTC) (permalink)

Please - no more composites
In the hopes of fending off a (continuation of the) flood of composite pictures, I'd like to ask that people not send us images of famous (or even not-famous) heads pasted onto the MC's (or any OTHER Halo character's) body; we just don't have the bandwidth to host stuff like this. You're welcome to put pics like this up in free webspace somewhere, and link to it on our forum... we're not trying to stifle your creativity, just conserve our own resources. Thanks for understanding. (Louis Wu 12:39:23 UTC) (permalink)

But what would you do with it?
Guh. There are some guys who want to build a Mjolnir Mark VI suit. Not a model of the suit - not a wearable mockup... but the real deal. (Well, aside from the stuff like muscle augmentors and neural hookups, I guess.) Somehow, they've come up with a parts list for this, with a pricelist on this parts list of $500-1000. (No specifics, though.) They're asking anyone who wants to contribute to visit their site and send them money. Mmm.... money. (Louis Wu 09:24:53 UTC) (permalink)

We're young, and we want to kill!
Petitions, petitions... B-go points out another one; this time, it's aimed at letting Bungie know that there's a mass (currently 5, but they're hoping for more signature) of under-18's who really want to be able to participate in a national Halo tournament. (I'd be astounded if Bungie didn't already know that - but they're aiming to show just how much interest there is.) If you're under 18, and you want to add your name to the list, visit the petition site. (One thing to keep in mind: Halo is rated Mature - so if you're under 17, you're not even really supposed to be playing it. Bungie - and Microsoft - would have a pretty hard time justifying the efforts of setting up a tournament that only 17-year-olds could legitimately compete in...)

Now THAT's a cover.
Halo Game has posted the cover of the October 2002 issue of the French MOX (the Official Xbox Magazine) - the issue should be on the stands in less than a week. Nice artwork! (Thanks to cubanB, who noticed it first on a few message boards.) (Louis Wu 16:28:34 UTC) (permalink)

The Echoes...
New desktop image from Jerry H. Find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 15:00:56 UTC) (permalink)

UK tournament petition
Thomas Bottrill points out an online petition , UK4HALO, calling for a UK Halo tournament. If you're a UK resident, and want to make a statement about the need for a tournament along the lines of the Halo National Championship here in the US, drop by and sign the petition. (Louis Wu 14:41:02 UTC) (permalink)

Screenshots for sale
Its lack of useability was getting on my nerves... so the Screenshots Database has been overhauled. It's also been brought up to date. Feel free to browse through it, and if you run across any glitches or anomalies... please, let us know. I can't fix it if I don't know it's broken. There are shots here you won't find linked ANYWHERE else - and that's a promise. :) (Louis Wu 13:52:39 UTC) (permalink)

Wait for it...
A new comic has been put up at Bungie.net - and it's pretty funny. According to Dave Candland, this is an 'actual embellished conversation' that took place during the creation of the Halo 2 trailer. Makes you wonder how all those guys are still alive... (Louis Wu 23:16:26 UTC) (permalink)

Adams on Mac Halo
Inside Mac Games has posted their eleventh installment of "One on One with Glenda Adams" where one of the topics discussed is Halo:

Betray this!
Having trouble on Two Betrayals? Never fear, our own Asmodeus is here to help you out. The latest section of HBO's Legendary Walkthrough has gone up, and it should get you through those generators without a hitch. Get to readin'! (Louis Wu 19:20:23 UTC) (permalink)

Two for the price of one
New screenshots at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site - Coop! But not Coop like you see on YOUR TV... full-screen Coop. Whoa. Check 'em out. (Louis Wu 18:29:06 UTC) (permalink)

Killer Artwork
The Master Chief without a helmet? Wow. The Miscellaneous Art section gets an impressive submission, thanks to Covenant. (It was all done in Photoshop.) Take a look! (Louis Wu 14:31:25 UTC) (permalink)

Work or Die posted
Heh - the family edge wins out. A new video has been posted at Blackstar Productions - it's called Work or Die, and is a highlight film of a lanfest held right here at HBO HQ a bit over a week ago. 40 megs, 640x480, 3:43 long... with a pretty funny soundtrack. (A few too many clips of me dying, but such is life. Or something.) If bandwidth gets tight over at BSP, we'll find a mirror or two... but for now, check it out there (and enjoy the site's new layout!). I learned about this from Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 12:04:40 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo sites open
Eep - we missed the opening of the Halo hub at Forerunners.org. There's not much content on the main site yet (mostly stuff snagged off Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site), but there are two hosted Halo pages already; EvergreenHalo and Halo Elites. If you want to build a Halo site, check 'em out! (Louis Wu 09:07:09 UTC) (permalink)

OSX, too.
Yesterday, we mentioned a Windows screensaver created by a Halo fan that played QuickTime movies. PCDestroyer points out that something similar exists for MacOSX - the reviews are mixed, but it's there if you want it. (24k, so it's not even a painful download.) (Louis Wu 01:07:12 UTC) (permalink)

Movies DB up to snuff
Once again, the Movies database has been brought up-to-date... 17 movies released in the last month or so have been added. It's a never-ending stream... (Louis Wu 00:52:22 UTC) (permalink)

Soundtracks claimed
Last week, we mentioned a contest over at Psyjnir.com - guess the winner of the Halo National Tournament, win one of three Halo soundtracks. The contest ended a couple of days ago - but the announcement was made on the Psyjnir Complex 7th Column chapter, and was visible only to members of that chapter. This has been rectified - you can find the details on the main Psyjnir Complex website. Congrats to Forerunner01, masterchief1138, and Jerry H! (Louis Wu 00:47:45 UTC) (permalink)

Wouldja look at all those green triangles...
How many of us wouldn't want to see this in Halo 2? (Thanks again to Warbow for the tweaking.) (Louis Wu 19:29:07 UTC) (permalink)

Windows QT screensaver
Ciarán has created a Windows screensaver that uses the Halo 2 trailer (in QuickTime format) - or any other QuickTime movie - as its source. It's been tested on Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows XP Home. It weighs in at 1.5 mb - you can find it here. (Louis Wu 15:36:42 UTC) (permalink)

Stuff to read
Monday morning Fan Fiction (it all came in yesterday, but yesterday was mostly an offline day):

These constitute the final chapters for Rogue Enemies and The Lost Spartans... and possibly for Banserki's Journal, as well. (Louis Wu 15:10:18 UTC) (permalink)

Death and Rebirth
Khen Rigzin announced a new Halo vid he's created - you can find a complete walkthrough of the video, as well as a download link, on this page. It's 58 mb zipped, 5:22 long, in .mpg format. (Louis Wu 13:13:41 UTC) (permalink)

Mmm... models
T-Money dropped off a new desktop for your viewing pleasure - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 13:00:26 UTC) (permalink)

Halo book details surface
Rixor did some digging, and turned up a bit more information about the next Halo novel - according to this page, the author will be William Dietz, and the title is listed as 'Halo: The Flood'. Amazon lists 24 books by Mr. Dietz, including several Star Wars novels. Some of the listings offer excerpts, so you can get a sense for yourself of his writing style. (Louis Wu 12:10:22 UTC) (permalink)

Monsters at Play on the H2 trailer
Heh - a trailer so yummy, it generates REVIEWS OF ITS OWN. Monsters At Play has written up a very nice account of this clip - worth a read. Check it out! (Louis Wu 11:57:09 UTC) (permalink)

I hate it when that happens...
Adam Russin and Brian Rosenberg have created a film called 'Oh Shit!' I'm too tired to figure out if it meets our Movie Posting Guidelines - but I enjoyed it, so I'm posting it. So there. It's only available in .wmv format, unfortunately - it's 3:18 long, and 12.5 mb big. You can get it at Project Mjolnir, where it was posted first, or you can grab a copy from Mythica.org. Tomorrow, I promise, I'll get cracking on the movies that need to be added to our Movie Database. (We have news of several other movies that have been made recently; it's all been backburnered due to the obscenely high demand for the Halo 2 trailer, but we're going to start letting you know about some of it in the near future.) In the meantime, go watch this film... it's fun. :) (Louis Wu 02:21:45 UTC) (permalink)

Of Books, and Gnomes
Recently, Uriel posted a note on our forum pointing out a listing for the next Halo novel at Amazon. I wrote up a news post about it - I remember writing that the March 2003 release date was just in time to whet appetites for the release of PC Halo. Somehow, that post vanished into the ether - never made the front page, isn't on my computer any more. (It's the gnomes, I tell you!) I might never have noticed its absence, though, if Deimos™ hadn't pointed it out again this evening. Hopefully, this isn't the only post gone AWOL... anyway, we now have a (tentative) release date for this book - it's considerably later than the 'Fall 2002' timeframe that had been suggested in February, but that's how it goes, sometimes. (Louis Wu 02:07:30 UTC) (permalink)

Project-Halo comes online
SpikeDaDragon points out Project-Halo, a new fansite. Not a lot of content yet... but he's working on it. (Spike - and everyone else who sends mail to us thinking we're Bungie Studios - we're not Bungie Studios. We're a fansite, run by fans. Bungie Studios can be found at bungie.net or bungie.com. It even says that at the bottom of all our pages.) (Louis Wu 14:46:06 UTC) (permalink)

More homes for AFTF
Dave Calotta has provided another home for Uriel's 'A Fall Too Far' - check his Hotline server, AirDCServer. We've also uploaded a copy to Mythica.org, for those who have trouble with Hotline. (It seems there are many who don't realize it's a protocol not covered by any browser - you need a separate Hotline client to access the servers. Visit your favorite file archive and search for 'Hotline client'.) 4.3 mb, 50 seconds, QT 5 format. (Louis Wu 14:39:42 UTC) (permalink)

What you say?
Joseph Staten popped into our forum to provide a couple of alternatives Bungie considered for the last pair of lines in the trailer. All in all, I think they chose the correct pair. (Louis Wu 14:12:35 UTC) (permalink)

GI MC
For years now, folks have been begging for Halo action figures. Apparently, progress is being made in the field... when we know more, we'll pass it along. (Louis Wu 14:04:46 UTC) (permalink)

OXM Halo 2 article posted
In direct response to a fan request, I've scanned in last month's article on what the Official Xbox Magazine staff wants to see in Halo 2. You'll find it (including the now-infamous Tiger Tank) in our Press Scans section. (The October issue hit the stands yesterday, so we're clean.) (Louis Wu 00:14:48 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo 2 vid posted
Uriel has created a new Halo 2 vid - it's a bit over 4 megs, and currently it's only hosted on the Psynjir Complex Hotline server. (You'll find it in Files -> Halo2 -> Movies; it's called 'A Fall Too Far'.) Worth a look, though - and when demand for the Halo 2 trailer drops a bit, we'll add it to some web mirrors. (Louis Wu 18:13:00 UTC) (permalink)

Second time's the charm...
Wondering where the MC gets his confidence from? Marcellus King figured it out... (Louis Wu 16:25:10 UTC) (permalink)

PC Halo in PC Gamer
The September issue of PC Gamer UK contained an article on the upcoming PC version of Halo - Griffon was kind enough to scan it for us last month. We needed to wait until it was no longer on the newsstands... but we've now added it to our Press Scans section. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 15:07:28 UTC) (permalink)

When you want it, you want it...
Wow. Folks have noticed Halo 2 for sale elsewhere before... but Djoey154 found it at Amazon.co.uk. What blew me away was not that it was listed... but that its sales rank was 812. That's considerably higher than several RELEASED games! (Genma Onimusha, for example, is at 878.) Behold The Power Of Cheese. (Release date, for those keeping track of companies to snicker at, is listed as November 28, 2003. I looked carefully, but there was no mention of the hour.) (Louis Wu 10:59:23 UTC) (permalink)

Hey! Where'd he come from?
All I can say is... hehehe... (Louis Wu 10:27:38 UTC) (permalink)

Now THAT'S firepower.
LAAG gun not cutting it for you? How about a nuke? (Louis Wu 00:48:13 UTC) (permalink)

It says Kilroy Was Here, okay?
Okay, I'm doing this for my own sanity. Ever since the release of the Halo 2 screenshots a few weeks ago, there's been quite a bit of discussion about the writing on the side of the assault rifle carried by the MC in this picture. (Here's a very nice closeup, handily enhanced by Storm Singer.) I'm sick to death of seeing it misinterpreted as 'RAT' or 'KAT' in our forum, and in email - the english text reads 'Kal 9.6 mm x 40' - 'Kal' being short for the german 'Kaliber'. This has been confirmed by Bungie, so please - no more rats. (We've even added it to our FAQ, to make life easier for those looking for the tru7h.) The chinese characters translate roughly to 'Monkey King', according to several different people on our forum... but nobody's actually pinned down the significance of this yet. Hopefully, this information will allow me to get back to the very important work of cleaning my toenails without having to hear about RATs. Thanks. (Louis Wu 00:37:01 UTC) (permalink)

Next one who dies...
You gotta love the hardcore fans... a couple of days ago, ElectricSheep said he thought the Admiral in the trailer sounded a lot like Pete Stacker (who provided the voice of Captain Keyes in Halo). dolbex, too, noticed this - and was bothered by it. Didn't we kill Keyes? (I sorta remember putting a fist through his brain...) Today, Marty O'Donnell cleared up the mystery - yes, it's Pete Stacker, but no, it's not Keyes.

Also, yes Pete Stacker was hired as the voice of the Admiral (no name) but he has nothing to do with Captain Keyes. Although I was concerned about the potential for fan confusion, Joe had the basic attitude of "let them eat cake", an attitude that shocks and appalls me. I guess he figured that only the most intense Halo fans would notice and Pete is a slam dunk when it comes to actors.

I must say, I'm shocked and appalled, as well - I say we storm the Bungie ramparts and chop off Joe's head! Who's with me? ... Wait, that would mean no more Sin-O-MatiXXX goodness... never mind. Anyway, mystery solved, and kudos to those who pinned that voice down. (Louis Wu 21:01:44 UTC) (permalink)

xboxlanaz wants YOU!
Do you live near Phoenix, AZ? Up for a Halo tournament with a top prize of $1000? Go read the details at CobaltNova. The short version: October 19, 13 and up, $30/person. (Louis Wu 20:55:19 UTC) (permalink)

New Desktop
Yummy yummy trailer desktop art. In our Wallpaper section, thanks to Justin. (Louis Wu 20:43:47 UTC) (permalink)

Havok originally posted as Andreas. I'd like to respectfully request that fan fiction authors pick a posting name and stick to it - editing information after the fact is messy. Thanks! (Louis Wu 20:36:21 UTC) (permalink)

Who missed?
The Halo 2 Trailer Transcript we posted recently has been updated with some input from Jay Weinland, Bungie Sound Gnome. Should be 100% accurate at this point... thanks, Jay! (Louis Wu 18:40:28 UTC) (permalink)

Neo says 'whoa.'
Thought it was all scripted, eh? No in-game play, eh? Check out this multiplayer screen - a covenant warrior stalks the MC. Thanks to our spy in the field, Warbow.(j/k) Okay, okay... Apparently, not enough of you noticed the little (j/k) after that post - sure, it was in white text, and too small to be readable, but why let that stop you? This is just a doctored shot by Warbow - there isn't really a multiplayer build out there (yet). There, happy, Dave? :) (Louis Wu 17:27:06 UTC) (permalink)

No, you a scrub
Heh - head on over to Penny Arcade - looks like Tycho is apologizing for all the nasty things he said about Halo. (Well, actually, just that he's not willing to judge Halo 2 by those nasty things.) Funny strip. Thanks to Zypper for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:25:31 UTC) (permalink)

What? MORE mirror news?
Boatloads of new mirrors for the Halo 2 Trailer - lots in Europe, more Hotline servers, and even though the main site for customsex's new mpeg2 version died (from overdemand), a kind hotline server picked up the slack (and we're adding a second hotline server as I write this). More mirrors for that large, popular version would be eagerly accepted - just drop us a line. For everything else, visit the Halo 2 Mirror List, or the Mirror List Mirror! From now on, when new mirrors come in, we'll simply add them to the mirror list, without using valuable front page space to announce them. If you need a copy of this trailer, in ANY format, visit the mirror list. (Louis Wu 01:15:36 UTC) (permalink)

MPEG2, anybody?
customsex has converted the WMP9 video to MPEG2 format... and it's gorgeous under QT6. It's huge, though... and he had a bit of trouble with the aspect ratio, so if you grab it, be sure to reset the width to 600 pixels (keeping the height at 360). You'll find the link on our Mirrors page. This is considerably larger than the large QT version... but almost the same image quality. Be warned, though - if you don't have an MPEG2 decoder on your computer, you won't be able to watch it, so don't bother downloading it. Update: the aspect problem has been fixed. This one seems to be popular, though - mirrors are badly needed! (Louis Wu 19:29:44 UTC) (permalink)

No watch - read
Take a break from the trailer madness to read a little Fan Fiction:

We should stop posting now, so the page doesn't take too long to load... (Louis Wu 18:39:31 UTC) (permalink)

Movies outside the US
Two new international mirrors - Juegos Alkon, an Argentinian games site with a very fast connection (mirroring the large QT version) and DeadSwitch, a fast UK connection (mirroring the WMP9 version). Go get 'em! (They've been added to the Mirrors page.) (Louis Wu 18:00:42 UTC) (permalink)

MPEG version, more QT mirrors
Assassin, from Computer Games in Romania, has sent word that they've re-encoded the high-quality QT version as an MPEG. Screensize is the same, filesize is 25.5 mb... quality is quite good. If you're having trouble with QuickTime, but can't get WMP9 to run on your system, this might be the way to go! (Server speed was quite impressive for me, too.) Also, Fileplanet added the two QuickTime versions this morning. All of these links are listed on the Mirrors page. (Louis Wu 16:37:52 UTC) (permalink)

Old vs. New
Jeff Lofland has turned in another very nice desktop image - take a look in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 13:08:28 UTC) (permalink)

Wha... US only?
This is bizarre - Gamesurf.de, a German gaming site, has put up a note on their Halo trailer announcement page stating that someone from Microsoft phoned them and told them they couldn't mirror the trailer, because the content is not for foreign markets. What's up with that? (Louis Wu 12:14:58 UTC) (permalink)

Dialogue Transcript, final form
The fans do it again. We've added a full transcript of the trailer dialogue to our Miscellaneous section (well, it's not actually listed there yet, but it will be soon), thanks to the contributors of this thread on our forum (and a tiny bit of tweaking from me). There are two alternatives I've seen - one can be found on the Battleground: Halo forums, done by Rixor, and the other (done by Narcogen and the Rampancy.net Hotline server crowd, with some help from ferrex, of Bungie) can be found on Rampancy.net. Enjoy. (Louis Wu 09:06:22 UTC) (permalink)

It goes to 11
Blackstar decided that 480x288 just wasn't big enough... so he re-encoded to get to 600x340. We've added his 32.7 mb QuickTime version to the mirror list. (You'll find it near the bottom, in the 'unofficial sizes' area.) Since the last update, there have also been two European mirrors added - one in France, one in Germany. Have I said thank you to all the mirror sites yet? You guys are great. (Louis Wu 08:29:04 UTC) (permalink)

It's Raining Halo!
Halo 2 Trailer everywhere... but on G4 tonight, it was Randy Glass' Warthog Jump and the E3 trailer! Thanks to Lorraine Reyes-McLees for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:18:18 UTC) (permalink)

WMP7 version, more mirrors
XboxManiak has recompressed the movie in WMP7 format, at 320x240 resolution - for those on a slower connection, it's not bad. (If you can handle the larger/newer versions, definitely get them, it's hard to express how impressive they are...) Also, several new mirrors have come online - if one doesn't work for you (or works slowly), try another. Main mirror list is here - mirror list mirror is here. (Louis Wu 03:03:51 UTC) (permalink)

Trailer Transcribed
ElectricSheep has tossed up a transcription of the trailer dialogue. If you're having trouble picking it all up... read this post (and the resultant thread)! (Louis Wu 02:36:51 UTC) (permalink)

Mirror for mirror list
Guh. HBO's connections are pegged at 120 simultaneous ones - so we've added a mirror for our Halo 2 Trailer Mirror list. (I'm guessing that's pretty much the only thing people want tonight...) You can find it here:

http://www.bungie.org/halo2trailermirrors/

These will be updated simultaneously, so if you can't reach one, grab the other. (Louis Wu 02:21:39 UTC) (permalink)

More mirrors
Mr. Zarquon and GamingHorizon have both added mirrors - .wmv and QT for the former, .wmv for the latter. (Gaming Horizon also has a news article about it.) Find the new links on our Mirrors page. (A french mirror is coming soon.) (Louis Wu 01:42:30 UTC) (permalink)

Too.. much... to... do...
Extremely cool writeup on the making of the trailer, at Bungie.net. Go read. (Louis Wu 01:19:24 UTC) (permalink)

It's HERE!
And the chase is on! The Halo 2 trailer has been released - you can find it at Xbox.com... and thanks to a kind soul, you can also get it in QT6 format from a variety of fan mirrors. All links (and any new ones we hear about) are listed on the Halo 2 Trailer Mirrors page. And anyone who WANTS to mirror... please, let us know. Go get it! It'll blow you away. (Louis Wu 01:10:12 UTC) (permalink)

Words before pictures
A bit of Fan Fiction to hold you over until the trailer is released this evening:

This marks the end of the Rise to Honor series. Shadow has asked for specific feedback on whether he should write another series - let him know what you think! (Louis Wu 18:27:48 UTC) (permalink)

G4 highlights on the web, someday
Whoa, very cool - Jester, over at psyjnir.com, contacted G4 Media, the folks who filmed the Halo National Championship finals... and G4 is intending to release a highlights film on the web, at some point. Nice! (Louis Wu 17:51:06 UTC) (permalink)

Gameplay movie released
penne dropped us a note about a new movie created by the German Halo clansite HaloPlayers. It's just under 2 minutes long, in WMP format, 9.2 mb zipped. 2 player gameplay on Blood Gulch, with some video effects. You can find it at HaloPlayers' website. (Louis Wu 13:38:46 UTC) (permalink)

The Trickster's Awake
Here we are, coming up on the 10-month anniversary of the release of the Xbox... and major new glitches are STILL being discovered. Frogblast shows how to get to Keyes from the very beginning of the level Keyes... and how to get to the lifepods on the Pillar of Autumn long before you're supposed to. Wow. (Louis Wu 13:31:30 UTC) (permalink)

Trailer release time set
The countdown at Xbox.com has changed to show that the release time of the Halo 2 trailer will be 6 pm Pacific time today. 12 more hours... (Realize that several tens of thousands of people will be trying at the exact same moment to be grabbing that file - so in reality, release (for you) might not be until tomorrow.) (Louis Wu 12:44:57 UTC) (permalink)

Things we needed
Some folks have noticed a bunch of outages at Bungie.net over the course of the day. Well, a new article by Matt Soell points out what was done behind the scenes during these outages. Bungie.net (and all of its subsites) have just become more useful, more flexible, funner to use. Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:03:18 UTC) (permalink)

One Step Back, Two Steps Forward
Dan Chosich's Seven has lost a mirror (the main site is down for excessive use of bandwidth), but Rampancy.net and Appleicious have stepped up to provide more bandwidth. You'll find these links on the Seven mirrors page. One more: Xerxes, from Halo Orbit (in Germany) sent word that they, too, are mirroring the file. (Link is on the mirror list.) (Louis Wu 01:55:46 UTC) (permalink)

Pinning down those dates...
Yeroen, over at Bungie.net, points out that at the G4 website there's an episode of 'Arena' called 'Halo Tournament' - this is likely when the HNC finals will be broadcast. Friday, November 20, at 11 pm EDT. This make it more likely that the earlier link we provided is just for the Halo 2 trailer. (Louis Wu 16:47:56 UTC) (permalink)

G4 film date
Randy Glass points out that G4 (the guys who filmed the Halo National Championship finals) is airing a special Halo episode of their 'Cinematech' show on September 4, at 8 pm PDT. There's no synopsis posted yet... but if any HBO readers get this cable channel and would like to tape it and send it in, we'd be happy to find hosts for it. Even a written report of what is shown would be appreciated. Possible topics include the HNC finals and the Halo 2 trailer. (Louis Wu 09:27:25 UTC) (permalink)

Love that bulletin board...
A new desktop image from Dante - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 16:51:50 UTC) (permalink)

HJP comes online
This came in Saturday, but due to the holiday weekend, it was overlooked. HaloJuggaloProductions has gone live - it's a Halo site with Halo news, some downloads (ENORMOUS gameplay movies - 80 mb for under 4 minutes of rockets on Blood Gulch, for example), an upcoming forum. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 16:43:00 UTC) (permalink)

Seven sources, concatenated
Took a little while to get it up to the mirror sites... but we've put together a mirror page for Dan Chosich's Seven video, with multiple sources for all three versions. Thanks to all the bandwidth donators - and if you'd like to add yourself to the list, drop us a line. Go see this film - Chris Butcher (the Halo AI guy) says this movie reminds him "exactly why it is that we do this." (Louis Wu 15:40:23 UTC) (permalink)

Seven is Darker
Thanks to the kind folks at Been Mawed, we have another mirror for Dan Chosich's Seven video. Slick gameplay editing at its best! Grab the movie here. A full mirror list will definitely be up tomorrow. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 02:59:05 UTC) (permalink)

Another cool movie
Dan Chosich has created yet another vid - they just get better and better. The most troubling thing about Halo Seven is the need to stop the film to see if what you think you saw was really there. (That's not a bad thing.) There's some fantastic stuff in this one - but don't watch it with a hangover. We've tossed up copies on mythica.org and the psyjnir.com hotline server - sometime tonight or tomorrow we'll put together a mirror page. There are three versions: a 46.5 mb QuickTime 5 film (this is the one that's mirrored), a 38 mb .WMV version (not as good, according to Dan), and a 17.5 mb .wmv for those on a slower connection. Any other mirrors (for any of these three versions) would be greatly appreciated - drop us a line, or tell Dan. (Or simply comment in his forum thread.) (Louis Wu 19:44:27 UTC) (permalink)

Eep - overlooked art
DOH! More box art came in yesterday - and we almost missed it! Inspired by a comment by Jason Jones, created by Razorback. Nice piece of work. It's in our Miscellaneous Art section, too. (Louis Wu 19:29:06 UTC) (permalink)

Whoa - our very own flyer
*Ar-Isildur of WP* has created a flyer to advertise this very site. It's available in a hi-res PDF file in both black and olive... we've added it to our Miscellaneous Art section. We're touched. (Louis Wu 19:18:14 UTC) (permalink)

Who are those guys?
For those who want a slightly better picture of the Bungie Dream Team, you can find it here - the only member missing is Max Hoberman. Having seen some of these guys play together a couple of times, I have to say I'm really impressed that the Finalists (a group of guys who never played together before Thursday, and, according to mnemesis, hardly communicated verbally during the matches) beat them so soundly. Says a lot for the skill level... (Louis Wu 14:51:37 UTC) (permalink)

HNC Finals in print
A quiet day at HBO yesterday, becauuse we had a 14-hour Halo lanfest going on here. (Well, okay, the first two hours were pretty slow, because we had some configuration problems that turned out to be user error... but there was a lot of gaming, anyway. :) ) In the meantime, mnemesis finished his writeup of the Halo National Tournament finals, and they've been posted (along with pictures) over at Bungie.net. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:37:05 UTC) (permalink)

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September 2002 Archived News