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 | September 2004 |  |
September 2004 Archived News
News September 30 2004
Sometimes, you just want to cry.
Man, I don't know how I missed this one... except maybe because I wanted to. Xbox.com posted an article in their Lifestyle section a few weeks ago that looked at who should be cast in what role if anyone ever made a Halo movie (which, I hasten to say before the next sentence break, they're not doing). Their first recommendation - Vin Diesel as Master Chief. And it went downhill from there. I like the Xbox.com community folks, because they bring interest stories about Halo to a wider audience... but this was a mistake from the first paragraph. (Louis Wu 19:04:09 UTC) (permalink)
Power Ranger UNDERWEAR?
Xbox.com has posted answers to last week's Xbox Question of the Week, which was "What would you do for a sneak peek at Halo 2?" After reading the replies they got, I'm thinking that most of the people who answered have also made it into our mailbag... (Louis Wu 18:39:20 UTC) (permalink)
Everybody's gotta try...
Want a cookie? Calvin and Halo shows you the bar; raise it for results. (Louis Wu 18:03:13 UTC) (permalink)
343 Guilt O' Lantern
An astoundingly generous fan - who wishes to remain anonymous - has donated some pretty cool schwag for use in a new Bungie.org contest; we're proud to announce 343 Guilt O' Lantern, a pumpkin-carving contest. Last year, Bungie hosted their own, and it was pretty successful - our fan wanted to see it happen again, and made sure it would by tossing an Xbox and all the trimmings into the pot. Unfortunately, we can't ship it to the winner in time to be able to play Halo 2 the day it comes out... but soon after that, the coolest pumpkin carver will have another toy. Go read all the details on our Contest page - and if you ever need to refresh your memory about the rules, or whatnot, the small pumpkin banner in our navbar will be available for clickthroughs until after the contest closes. Start your exacto knives! Update: Gah. Apologies... but it was just pointed out to me that we never specified what format this Xbox was in. It's an NTSC box... and although I HATE having to say this, I really don't want to have to ship it out of North America. So the contest is limited to the US and Canada... sorry. (Louis Wu 15:55:52 UTC) (permalink)
Fan services, and a new movie
A quick update on the free file hosting service being offered by Brian Towne... the list of sites that can use the service has grown considerably - and a check of the bandwidth usage for the box tells me that there's an added bonus that I hadn't expected. Over the years, I've gotten pretty stingy about bandwidth we offer for fan-made movies; partly this is because there are hundreds of them now, and just the maintenance bandwidth required to keep them online (and being downloaded) is noticeable... but partly because I've become somewhat jaded. And that's where Brian's service comes in. Until now, if you had a movie that you wanted the world to see, but no bandwidth to serve it with, you uploaded it to us, and we decided if it was new or different or interesting enough to warrant hosting. Now (assuming your movie is under 8 mb, which many are), you no longer have to ask; you can just upload. Yesterday, Hikaru-119 posted a movie called 'Warriors of the Prophets' - a 6.8 mb, 2:14 long WMP9 video using existing footage to show the Covenant side of the war. I watched it, and thought, 'okay, it's fine... nothing special.' When I read the comments in the forum thread this morning, though, I started to wonder if maybe I wasn't looking with a fresh-enough eye... because most people liked it quite a lot. Had Hikaru submitted it the normal way, nobody would have seen it, because it wouldn't have made it out of my 'not now' folder... but thanks to Brian, anyone can watch this. <3, Brian. Update: Dennis Powers, of UXB Internet, points out that the Halo Maps website has a pretty lenient upload policy as well, for many kinds of Halo-related files. You can read the submission guidelines to see what's allowed, and then register (or log in) to be allowed to upload your files. (Louis Wu 14:57:28 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 - it's dangerous
Getting started late today - apologies. Looks like Halo 2 fever has gotten people thinking about what has brought them here (or, I guess, to ANY Halo site) - there are a couple of threads today on our forum that look at various aspects of this game's effect on us. Neo-genesis asks "Why are you here?" hoping to get stories about what led you to HBO in the first place. smeginfrell looks at Halo 2, and how it's infected his brain. What makes YOU keep waiting? Share your thoughts! (Louis Wu 14:40:16 UTC) (permalink)
News September 29 2004
Someone get MacLain!
Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, noticed a new update to the blog of Mat Noguchi, ToolMaster for the Halo 2 team. (I think I heard someone shortening that a bit, at one point...) Sounds like they're really winding down - we're close to the Gold announcement! An interesting 'bit of trivia', as well: "Legendary is hard. Really really really hard. Adamantium hard." Hehe - I wonder if we'll all feel the same way in 2 years? (Louis Wu 20:57:34 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Models for UT2k4
Looks like Levels4you.com posted a Halo Character Model pack for Unreal Tournament 2k4 last week. Thanks, Hawk7886, for . (Louis Wu 15:14:23 UTC) (permalink)
9.78 Newtons.
A couple of weeks ago, Frankie confirmed to Gamespy that there would be no low-gravity levels in Halo 2 multiplayer. Looks like someone forgot to tell One One Se7en... (Louis Wu 15:11:26 UTC) (permalink)
Wait - there are OTHER games?
Hehe - this is sort of funny. IGN Xbox is running a poll... "Most Anticipated Xbox game besides Halo 2?" If you can't beat 'em, rule 'em out. :) Thanks, Pete. (Louis Wu 15:04:35 UTC) (permalink)
And Still MORE Zanzibar Footage
E1337 points out a page at Xboxyde with a couple of vids on it; the first is simply a re-encode of a video we mentioned from them last week (if you didn't get it then, it might be worth grabbing now), the second is a 16 mb, 4:19 long WMP9 showing more Zanzibar gameplay from the TGS game floor. Video quality is good, audio is mostly the Japanese announcer and show sounds. For the collector who must have EVERY video... (Louis Wu 15:02:17 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's Words
12 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today - poems, songs, stories. Go read. (Louis Wu 14:53:56 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Revolutions released
Back in July, we mentioned a teaser for a movie called 'Halo Revolutions' - it was footage of Legend, one of the best German Halo players out there, sniping... well, everyone. The full movie has now been released; it's a 124 mb download (the .rar compression knocked 35 mb off the full size of the movie), in DivX format, and available from ocrana.com, the site of the clan Legend belongs to. It's almost 10 minutes of kills, set to heroic music. Thanks to Demden and Geiernase for pointing this out! (Louis Wu 13:47:08 UTC) (permalink)
Super Play Translation
Victor Andersson has translated the Super Play article (a Swedish magazine) we added to our Press Scans area a couple of months ago - for those of you who don't read Swedish, you can now see the text that goes with the pretty pictures! Thanks, Victor. (Louis Wu 12:10:10 UTC) (permalink)
Thank God it's Wednesday
Boxer points out that Adventures in Disaster finally has its own website, with text and everything! Go check out the comic listing; there's a new episode for today (Episode #13), though it looks like the MC isn't too happy about it... (Louis Wu 11:08:12 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Championship Invitational
The final event of Major League Gaming's 2004 season is going to be the Championship Invitational - head over to MLGPro.com to read the overview of the event. It's being moved from Las Vegas (where it was originally planned to be) to New York City, on the weekend of October 23 and 24. The entire event will be broadcast live over VoD, MLG's subscription video service. More details will be coming soon! (Louis Wu 11:04:18 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Slurpee cups
Sanjuro Tsubaki, who works at 7-Eleven, was kind enough to grab all three Halo2-themed Slurpee cups (we mentioned them Monday) and snap a couple of pictures. Side one (144k)... and side two (143k). To those offended by the cheapening of the Master Chief - live with it, this is popularity in the US. (Louis Wu 10:53:21 UTC) (permalink)
News September 28 2004
The banner changes - and Marty speaks.
Hehe - the power of fan outrage. The banner on the top of Sumthing's main page has changed; all the band names have been removed. (Again, I've linked a local copy, in case of more changes.) Note - I don't think this means that the involvement of those bands has been terminated - I think it just means the info was a bit premature. Thanks, op_ivy. And whoa - just as I was about to post this, Marty himself jumped onto the forum and posted a pretty interesting piece - absolutely worth a read if you're worried about the musical tone of Halo 2. Thanks, Marty! (Louis Wu 20:41:11 UTC) (permalink)
Speculations R Us
A sizeable update to the Halo Story Page today, from Finn - everything from potential story spoilers for Halo 2 (don't worry, you have plenty of warning, you can read this update safely) to speculation about meteors. Go see what you can find! (Louis Wu 20:20:15 UTC) (permalink)
Art - it's what's for dinner.
Once again clearing out the queue (except for some DeviantArt pieces I can't add without the authors' permission), we've got 8 more pieces for you in the Miscellaneous Art Section. Some pretty nice stuff today! (Louis Wu 20:03:10 UTC) (permalink)
Kimchee - now local
Bah. Last week's Bungie Update, originally posted at Subnova, has now been added to our Weekly Update Archive - at the cost of a bit of downtime. Watch for those infinite loops when you're coding, folks! (Louis Wu 19:13:21 UTC) (permalink)
Screenies DB up to date
Took a few days, but we've finally added the 1600x1200 versions of last week's TGS screenshots that Bungie posted on Friday to our Screenshots database. Dang, that game is looking fine. (Louis Wu 18:38:19 UTC) (permalink)
Don't try this at home.
Okay, here's a hint for you younger fans; if you're gonna do something really stupid, don't advertise. Today's safety message illustrated by Calvin and Halo. (Louis Wu 14:05:14 UTC) (permalink)
But are they built like us?
Monty Oum points out some Halo-related artwork he's done over at DeviantArt - nice style! (Louis Wu 13:59:42 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Soundtrack - More than Marty?
Now THIS is bizarre. Sumthing Distribution, the folks who distributed the Special Edition Halo Soundtrack, have a new banner at the top of their main page. (I've linked to a local copy in case it goes away.) According to the banner, the Official Halo 2 Soundtrack will feature original music by Nile Rodgers, Incubus, Hoobastank, Breaking Benjamin, and more... The discussion in the forum currently revolves around whether this is legitimate or not - but we got mail a couple of weeks ago from wmaltby pointing to a web page with this comment in the news: "Rumor has it that Breaking Benjamin will be very involved with Halo 2... more details to come!" We held off posting that because it had no corroboration at the time... but it's starting to look more plausible. Details if and when we get them. (Louis Wu 13:47:06 UTC) (permalink)
You're waiting, I'm waiting, we're all waiting.
TeamXbox puts up their Top Ten Games of Fall 2004... and the number one spot is taken by - oh, you know. (Pico's Fight Club response is pretty close to what I thought when reading the notice from daedalus.) (Louis Wu 13:30:59 UTC) (permalink)
News September 27 2004
MC gets Brainfreeze
Nice pickup by op_ivy, who found the first notice on the Gaming-Age forums; on the back page of the October 2004 Xbox Live calendar in the November issue of the Official Xbox Magazine (between pages 24 and 25) is a note in the 'What's Happenin' With Xbox' section:
Halo 2 Collector Cups: Now available at 7-Eleven stores nationwide. Grab an improved, intense Mountain Dew® Slurpee® and collect all 3! Head to www.slurpee.com to find out more.
There's nothing there yet... but the marketing campaign continues to ramp up! (Louis Wu 23:52:46 UTC) (permalink)
So where you gonna put that?
Dave Candland, long-absent (presumably due to his work overload) from our forum, popped in today to explain his rationale for the location of the shield meter in the Halo 2 HUD. (You can see what it looks like in some of the pictures recently posted by the Japanese site Impress, like the one referenced in this news post.) It's an interesting view into the problems faced by interface designers... (Louis Wu 22:16:47 UTC) (permalink)
Windsor Medium - gone, but not forgotten
Mothergoat wrote to point out that Windsor Medium, the band he's been a part of for some time, has broken up - and the website (which has housed all his Halo-related creations for the past 8 months or so) is gone. We're unwilling to let this content simply disappear, so it's all been mirrored on b.org servers. If you search for any of his content (mp3's or maps) that we've mentioned in our news, you'll find local links for the actual files. Hope this helps some of you! (Our condolences go out to Mothergoat.) (Louis Wu 18:39:29 UTC) (permalink)
A Plasma Pistol in the Grass
7he One has finally taken pictures of his handmade plasma pistol. Looks like it would work nicely for real-life melee attacks... (Louis Wu 18:06:30 UTC) (permalink)
Then Three Come Along At Once.
Not too long ago, Frankie mentioned in a Bungie Weekly Update that it was pretty cool to watch the evolution of the city bus as the Halo 2 artwork progressed. Stuntmutt, in today's One One Se7en, takes this evolution to its logical conclusion. (Louis Wu 14:08:07 UTC) (permalink)
Countdown: 34 Days
Mad Cow points out that he's started work on his own Master Chief suit for Halloween this year. Geez... that reminds me that I've got a BOATLOAD of new pics to post on Chris Bryan's ongoing project page... soon, I hope. (Louis Wu 14:04:18 UTC) (permalink)
See? He was reading the articles.
Ain Soph Aur noticed a tiny mention of Halo 2 ('a must-have game') in the October issue of Playboy Magazine. We probably won't be bringing you scans of this. (Louis Wu 14:02:20 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Babies Monday Update
mrsmiley writes to point out a couple of fan strips and a whole lot of fan artwork over at Halo Babies; go see what you can find. (Louis Wu 14:00:49 UTC) (permalink)
Movie Bonanza
Looks like a LOT of movies were released yesterday; I'm gonna combine 'em all in one post for efficiency's sake.
- Boneho Chane and Lockpicker made a movie with action figures (not stop-action) called 'Chicken on Fire Episode 1' - 15 mb, QuickTime format.
- toyoungtodie posted a vid called 'Halo 2 Remix' on the High Impact Halo forums; it uses stock footage, but it's nicely put together. Large version (12.2 mb) requires registration at h2hq.cc, smaller version (7 mb) is hosted by Mythica. WMP9 formats. (Thanks, Ducain)
- vshields ash points out another refinement of the hunterapult-across-the-shaft technique; this one uses only a single grenade. 2.2 mb, WMP90 format. Nice work, Wild3.
- scabbronumber1 put up a note about his clan's newest vid; 8.5 mb, WMP9 format, some really great sniper action.
- And last but CERTAINLY not least, FTC 14 has been released over at Xboxottawa.ca; public version is 39.6 mb, members-only hi-res is 165 mb. 6:03 of pulse-pounding excitement, and a heck of a cliffhanger at the end. Both are DivX-encoded AVIs - I'll get them some QT versions as soon as I can.
Wow... that's a lot of video footage! (Louis Wu 13:52:35 UTC) (permalink)
News September 26 2004
Old movie resurfaces - longer
Wow. I'm not sure how... but it looks like Xboxyde has gotten hold of (a mediocre version of) the very first E3/Zanzibar vid released. This is the vid that the 20 seconds of hi-res gameplay was cut from during E3 itself. This one's only 320x240, and a bit dark and blurry... but it's 20 minutes long, and 72 mb large, in DivX-encoded AVI format. The Download page at Xboxyde has a direct link (this one's hard to get) and a BitTorrent link (a much better bet). Thanks, Carlos Castillo. (Louis Wu 11:00:14 UTC) (permalink)
Sunday Stories
11 new stories for you in the Fan Fiction section today... go read! (Louis Wu 10:56:36 UTC) (permalink)
Man, is he cute or WHAT?
Recoil found a really nice closeup of the Kubrick Master Chief (from the Tokyo Game Show) on this Italian site. I want one! (Louis Wu 02:21:02 UTC) (permalink)
You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
Hehe - Devin Olsen decided to try to cross the Shaft gap... without a warthog, and with only two grenades. Oh, yeah... and a Hunter. He made it. Watch the vid and smile. (3.9 mb, WMP9 format, hosting courtesy of Brian's new Mythica Uploads server. Which, btw, rocks, and now works with b.net forums and HaloPlanet forums. Ka-bam.) Update: QuickTime added - see original forum post. (Louis Wu 00:09:52 UTC) (permalink)
News September 25 2004
New TGS footage from IGN
IGN has put up 4 new vids containing shakeycam (but very high-quality shakeycam) footage of Zanzibar gameplay at the Tokyo Game Show. These show better gameplay than the rather lame Warthog driving footage they posted yesterday. In actuality, there are really only 3 new clips; those marked '3' and '4' are the same clip. (It does end, however, with an awesome energy-sword death; worth watching twice, I guess.) The heads-up for these came from HaloPlanet. (Louis Wu 22:00:00 UTC) (permalink)
Widen that Split!
Nice pickup by nash--housewares... in the final TGS picture displayed by Impress, Frankie is playing split-screen... but the screen is split side-to-side, rather than up-and-down! I missed this entirely, but it's going to come as a welcome change to widescreen tv owners. (Louis Wu 21:28:10 UTC) (permalink)
What IS that thing?
Interesting. There's a forum thread over at Bungie.net in which a fan visited the website of the company that does the sculpture for the Halo 2 action figures for Joyride. In the Halo 2 section, he found a new, never-before-seen creature... is this a mistake? Did the sculpting company put up something they shouldn't have yet? Is this picture in the wrong section of the website? It's a mystery... all I can really tell you is that if you really, really don't want ANY chance of being spoiled for ANY part of the Halo 2 storyline, don't follow the link. Past that... you got me. (Please don't post this image in our forum - and if you discuss it, do so with obvious *SP* tags in your subject line. Thanks.) Kudos to Brian Finney for pointing this out to us, and to opsixdelta for finding it. (Louis Wu 18:54:53 UTC) (permalink)
A Beta Narrative
Arkangel06 got a chance to play the E3 build of Zanzibar, as well as Waterworks and Lockout from the beta; he's written up his impressions in a long post on our forum. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 18:11:23 UTC) (permalink)
More TGS shots
GhaleonbEB found some nice pics taken at the Tokyo Game Show yesterday; they were linked to on the Gaming Age forums, but they were actually posted on the Japanese site Impress. Great, high-quality shots of Frankie playing Ascension (the new map depicted in yesterday's screenshots), which show clearly the HUD as it stands in this build, as well as closeups of the Chibi Master Chief (labeled 'Kubrick' below the display case; it's clearly NOT made of Lego bricks, as many are postulating). Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 18:07:55 UTC) (permalink)
The Zero Shot Revolution Continues
Goatrope continues his quest to blow people away in Vidmaster style... he's completed 343 Guilty Spark, Legendary Difficulty, taking zero shots, and dying zero times. The movie is 11:44 long, in DivX-encoded AVI format, and 32.6 mb large. Nice humility, even. All I can say is... wow. (I'm really, really impressed that he didn't instinctively pull his AR's trigger a few times in the helmetcam room...) (Louis Wu 18:02:45 UTC) (permalink)
Junkies MegaBattles
Konrad, a regular at HBO Junkies' lanfests, has recreated some memorable scenes from events held here over the years, in Megabattle style. (If you've forgotten - or never learned - what a Megabattle pic is all about, just search our news.) Now, you might not have any real context for the moments themselves (most people reading this have never been to a lanfest here), but the pics are pretty cool in their own right. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 17:53:57 UTC) (permalink)
Bandwidth for YOU
Brian Towne, of Mythica.org, has made an astoudingly generous offer tonight; if you have a file that you need hosted - an image, a small movie (under 8 mb), whatever - that you want to post on either our forums or the High Impact Halo forums... just upload them onto his new server. There are no limits on quantity; you can upload as many files as you want, and you'll never be cut off for overuse of bandwidth. However, you can't cross-post these files on other forums, or on your own personal site; they won't actually load. You can read the full details in Brian's forum post; never again will you run into a situation where you have a picture you want to show to the forum but no place to put it! (Louis Wu 01:31:30 UTC) (permalink)
When waiting isn't good enough...
When the two new screens were released today, there was a bit of talk on our forum about how cool it was that the scope on the sniper showed what you were looking at. BOLL, never one to leave you feeling like you were missing something, decided to give you a chance to try it out - today. Check out this forum post... (Louis Wu 01:09:09 UTC) (permalink)
The Halo 2 Booth at TGS, from eToychest
David Bikki points out a couple of pages of pictures at eToychest; the first page has as its last image a nice pic of the Halo 2 booth, and the second page has as its FIRST shot an adorable closeup of a chibi Master Chief. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 01:00:33 UTC) (permalink)
Frankie Talks to TXB
Everyone's favorite cue ball has been interviewed over at TeamXbox; Frankie holds forth on online multiplay, decals, and what Bungie ISN'T talking about. (They're still not talking about it - he's just reiterating that. That is... oh, never mind. Just go read it.) Thanks, GhaleonEB. (Louis Wu 00:56:40 UTC) (permalink)
Bigger, Badder, but not nekkid.
SketchFactor has put up the two new screens released recently, over on Bungie.net... maybe a bit later than, say, us... but their versions are bigger. Go grab the 1600x1200 lovin' over at B.net. (They DO have watermarks, though. Ha.) (Louis Wu 00:42:28 UTC) (permalink)
J'Pwned.
This week's update DID happen after all... Sketch has posted it for Frankie (who's in Tokyo, enjoying... something) over at Subnova. It's the last few tidbits, it seems... plus some fun coverage of the Tokyo Game Show. And some of the worst Mister Chief art to date. Go read. Update: Apparently, in the 2 hours since it went live, Subnova proved unable to handle the load. It seems fine now... but in the meantime, I've received word that it's been mirrored by The Junkyard (thanks, Jake) and akba.info (thanks, akba). Sorry. (Louis Wu 00:35:20 UTC) (permalink)
News September 24 2004
Updating right on time
Just in time for THIS week's Update (if there is, in fact, an update this week), we've finally managed to put LAST week's update into the Weekly Update archive. Wow - it makes the 'all updates' list pretty large! (If all you want is to read a specific update, you should use the date links at the bottom of the main archive page.) (Louis Wu 21:01:35 UTC) (permalink)
IGN on Halo 2 at TGS
IGN Editor Chris Carle got to play some Zanzibar CTF at the Tokyo Game Show, and wrote up his experiences on IGN Xbox. Nothing horribly new - it's the same build folks have been writing about all summer - but it's nicely written, and it's always fun to see what others have to say. Thanks, dkn2. (Louis Wu 17:42:12 UTC) (permalink)
TGS Screens - hi-res, naked
Thanks to Microsoft, we can bring you high-res, unwatermarked versions of the two new screens that showed up first on Xboxworld this morning. 1280x960, baby! Go get 'em in our Screenshots section. (Louis Wu 17:33:43 UTC) (permalink)
Zing, and a pinch of hoopla.
Gamespot has put up 5 new movies - they're all a minute long, except for one, which is 22 seconds. They all show gameplay on Zanzibar, collected at the Tokyo Game Show today, they were all filmed with a camcorder pointed at the screen, and none of them have sound. For Gamespot complete members, they're available as zipped MPEG files (11.6 mb and 4.3 mb), for everyone else, they're streaming media. Thanks, Patrick Dalire (whose description was fun enough for me to steal as the title for this piece). Update: Adam Daniel noticed a movie at IGN, as well. Downloadable for insiders, streaming for the masses. This one's hardly worth it, though... 25 seconds of camcorder-recorded, no-sound footage of someone who has clearly never driven a warthog before going from the beach to the... well, the seawall. And then the movie ends. (Louis Wu 17:18:42 UTC) (permalink)
Bundle Up in Germany
Not available in the US yet, it seems... but in Germany, you can order Halo 2 bundled with the Xbox Live Starter Kit, for just €70.99. (The Starter Kit on its own is €48.99, which means if you need both, you're getting Halo 2 for €22, a significant discount off its €48.99 standalone price.) Thanks, Uriel. (Louis Wu 13:41:35 UTC) (permalink)
Machinima in the Ottawa Citizen
The multipage article on machinima (with a focus on FTC) that appeared in yesterday's Ottawa Citizen is now online, for folks with a subscription to the paper. If you DON'T have a subscription, SquattingBear4ever sent in a huge (2685x1684, 815K) scan of the article. It's a great read. (Louis Wu 13:27:20 UTC) (permalink)
Aussie Halo 2 site a wealth of info
serpx points out the official Halo 2 site in Australia, which has quite a bit more content than the US site. Unfortunately, for most of it, you need to register... and to register, you have to have a geographic address somewhere in Australia. I suppose I understand the theory behind this... but since this content isn't available anywhere else in the world, it seems a bit unfair. Google, however, helps quite a lot when you let it, so Louis Wu now lives next door to the Australian Museum in Sydney. If you're an Aussie, you can enter the Halo 2 competition, which started last week; each week, through October 15, they'll pick the best 25-words-or-less description of what a fan would do if aliens landed on earth; there's pretty nice schwag to win. There's also customized wallpapers for several large cities in AU, news items about MC sightings, and more. Go check it all out! (If you're Australian, that is...) (Louis Wu 12:59:21 UTC) (permalink)
Pistol Bitching.
This was probably a bit more relevant last week, when our forum was full of complaints about the changes to the pistol in Halo 2... but hey, there are STILL threads today about it, so go read One One Se7en and realize that it's only a game. (Louis Wu 11:43:20 UTC) (permalink)
New MP screenies at Xboxworld.nl
Brodingo found a pair of brand-new screenshots on the Dutch site Xboxworld.nl. There's now a big long forum thread debating whether they're real or not... for what it's worth, they look real to me. It's a map I've never seen before... but there's some interesting stuff, if you look around. Maybe we'll get word from Bungie about the story behind these - who knows? (Louis Wu 11:32:30 UTC) (permalink)
Suspicious Apparel
New content over at Halo Babies; a new strip (things are getting... weirder) and some new Halo 2 Baby Chief concept art (very cool). Go look! (Louis Wu 10:45:10 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Fanfic
14 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today - songs, stories, you name it. Folks keep writing. (Louis Wu 10:41:50 UTC) (permalink)
MC Sighting in Melbourne
ILTB dropped us a note about an event he attended in Melbourne, Australia, involving the band Regurgitator. (We mentioned them, and their Band in a Bubble project, about a month ago; they were released on Tuesday, which is probably the event ILTB was attending.) He snapped some pics of a roving Master Chief interacting with the band... take a look! (Louis Wu 10:08:56 UTC) (permalink)
I wonder if virtual dogs bite him
There's a new mailbag up, courtesy of Count Zero; I think he must have been sober when he wrote it, because he's less offensive than usual. He DID point out a hole in my near-complete collection of Halo-related souvenirs, though... if you'll excuse me, I've got some eBaying to do. (Louis Wu 09:56:53 UTC) (permalink)
World Domination - One Step Closer
The 7th Column is back up and running - and man, there are a lot of changes. mrsmiley has done a decent job of summarizing them in a Bungie.net forum post; if you want a rundown of what he thinks is good and bad about the new system, go read. Otherwise, just explore the options available to you - there are many. (Louis Wu 09:44:26 UTC) (permalink)
News September 23 2004
Wired on Halo 2 Devs
SketchFactor points out that the latest Wired Magazine (October) has a feature on some of the people behind Halo 2. They had to airbrush Marty to make him presentable, apparently. (My copy hasn't arrived yet. I think it's time to get on Wired's case.) We will, of course, have a press scanned version of this when the November issue hits the shelves - but if you want to read it now, get thee to a newsstand! (Louis Wu 21:17:49 UTC) (permalink)
More Library stuff
Saint posts to say that the Library, his encyclopedia of all things Halo, has been updated again. (There's still no search function, so you have to know what you're looking for... but there's a lot of stuff there. (Louis Wu 14:23:22 UTC) (permalink)
Don't Move
Paul and KINGHALO! from halosecrets.com have put together a live-action promotional vid for Halo 2 - though I doubt it's the sort of thing that Microsoft would ever actually sanction. It IS pretty funny, though. The 360x240 DivX-encoded .mp4 is up on our server; there's a larger version on their own server, but there's no guarantee the bandwidth will hold out. The small version is 4.5 mb, the large one is 11 mb. Go watch! (Louis Wu 11:07:28 UTC) (permalink)
Red vs Blue in Redmond
guS and Burnie, of Red vs Blue, have written up their visit to Bungie last month, wherein they came, got drunk, and played Halo 2 until 3 in the morning. Dang, that sounds like fun. (Oh, wait... I was there. Forgive me - I look like I haven't slept in WEEKS in the one pic of theirs I'm in. Maybe I'm just dead, or something.) Anyway, go read. It's a great writeup. Looks like PsycoJoe was the first on our forum to notice it. (Louis Wu 10:50:14 UTC) (permalink)
Tricking in the Solos
A couple of trickster vids showed up on our forum last night... Madrox and Foxygrandpa posted A Tribute to Tricking Part 1 (stunts on Silent Cartographer and AotCR, mostly). And in another thread, Devin Olsen posted a bunch of stunts from 343GS. Both vids are about 18.5 mb, in WMP9 format. No QuickTimes this time around - sorry. (Louis Wu 10:38:27 UTC) (permalink)
DeviantDesktops
serpx posted a couple of links to nice Wallpapers he's put up at DeviantArt. Silvery... (Louis Wu 10:25:19 UTC) (permalink)
Enjoying what you've got... or not.
Today's Calvin and Halo, from Blackstar, shows a disturbing side of 6-year-olds that unfortunately doesn't go away with age. (Louis Wu 10:02:51 UTC) (permalink)
What a PAL!
BOLL has (once again) updated the HBO PAL; now you can export your settings, and reimport them on another machine (or even just another browser on the same machine). I'm pretty sure that tomorrow we'll receive the update that gets HBO PAL to do your laundry for you. (Louis Wu 10:00:44 UTC) (permalink)
7th Column coming back
A note on Bungie.net points out that the website will be offline at 1 pm pdt today (8 pm UTC) in order to add some code for the return of the 7th Column. By this afternoon, pacific time, you should be able to set up new Groups (previously Chapters) on that site! (Louis Wu 09:57:41 UTC) (permalink)
Free poster with preorder in UK
Ross Mills notes that 'Game' stores in the UK have a deal running right now; if you pre-order Halo 2, and pay a minimum of £3 towards the purchase, you'll receive a Halo 2 poster when you actually purchase the game. It's not clear WHAT poster you get; it's possible it's one that was showing at E3, but then again, it's possible that it's not. If and when we find out more, we'll pass along the info. (Louis Wu 09:45:19 UTC) (permalink)
Ottawa Citizen continues its Halo coverage
A couple of days ago, Andrew, from XboxOttawa, pointed out in our forum that today's Ottawa Citizen newspaper would be running an article in its Tech section that covers machinima and several groups that use Halo to make it (including XboxOttawa). If you're somewhere that that newspaper is available, grab a copy! (If you're not, we'll bring you a press scan after it's off the shelves.) (Louis Wu 09:37:24 UTC) (permalink)
News September 22 2004
Edge Halo 2 Preview online
GamesRadar has put up the full text of the October 2004 Halo 2 article in Edge Magazine. We'll have a press scan for you in a couple of weeks, with all the pretty pictures as well, but the real meat is in the text - and that's online now. Go read. (Thanks again, Rams.) (Louis Wu 21:44:19 UTC) (permalink)
You ARE waiting for it, right?
Gamespy has posted a Xbox Fall Preview Guide - and Halo 2 rates an 'awesome' (as usual). I can't figure out how they ordered them - Halo 2 is referred to in the opening paragraph ("not all of the titles are as anticipated as a certain first-person juggernaut") but shows up on page 4. Guess it doesn't matter. Go read. Thanks to Rams, of HaloPlanet, for the heads-up. Update: TruneX points out that the order is dictated by release date. DOH! (Louis Wu 21:43:13 UTC) (permalink)
Need a gun?
New item in the Joyride arsenal - the Armory Series 1 Weapon Battle Pack. Rocket launcher, shotgun, sniper rifle, MD6 pistol, plasma pistol, and needler are all included - the pack retails for $9.95. If you're ordering, you might want to drop in your requests for the first round of Halo 2 figures; they start shipping in about 3 weeks. (Louis Wu 19:50:06 UTC) (permalink)
Reincarnation
Boxer gets us word of today's Adventures In Disaster in time to make the normal news; makes you feel bad for the poor grunty. (Louis Wu 16:54:38 UTC) (permalink)
Why MS Office 2005 will have bugs
Hehe... Microsoft Watch, a site devoted to - well, watching Microsoft - recently pointed out a blog entry by a Microsoft employee who commented on the huge percentage of Microsoft employees who participated in the Beta program that ended recently... and speculated about what that might mean for Microsoft's overall productivity in the days immediately following November 9. Way to go, Bungie - you're dragging the entire planet down! (Louis Wu 15:23:00 UTC) (permalink)
More Images for your Desktop
Wow. We cleared the Wallpaper queue. I can't REMEMBER the last time I could say that. Check the Wallpaper Section for 10 new pieces (14, actually, if you count size variants), including a few really nice creations. Wow. I'd hate to say I was catching up... because you folks would just up the rate of submissions. Hmm... Update: Eep, we yanked one of the images, because it used (without permission) some artwork created by ANOTHER fan. (The original artist asked us to pull it.) If you decide to use artwork you find on the web for your submissions here, you really need to make sure you have permission of the original creator; we take a pretty dim view of IP appropriation. (In most cases, if you find it on HBO, there's an email address associated with the original; if there isn't, you can drop US a note, and we can pass the note along.) Thanks! (Louis Wu 15:08:27 UTC) (permalink)
haloTV headsets - first 6 out
Wow. WhoKnew, a regular on the #hbo IRC channel and a member of Alpha Base, wanted a Plantronics headset so badly that he wrote a song about it, and submitted it to haloTV. They liked it (it's the Video of the Week), and he got his headset. (So did 5 other people, but more randomly.) Nice! (WMP9 format, streaming.) (Louis Wu 14:09:45 UTC) (permalink)
Now THAT'S some funky motion.
Captain Spark gave the Engineer model buried in Silent Cartographer some Elite AI and a plasma rifle (using Halo PC modding tools), and made a short movie. It's hard to make a longer one, because the game tends to crash when you do this... but this one's pretty cool. The links in his forum post are nearly certainly dead now (or will be soon) - so use the links in THIS post. Movie is available in both WMP9 and QuickTime format, under a meg each case. (Louis Wu 13:30:10 UTC) (permalink)
Deadliest Gun In The Game
Tankramp, over at HaloPlanet, suggested recently that Stuntmutt might be running out of new jokes for One One Se7en strips. The joke's on Tankramp - Stuntmutt never HAD new jokes for One One Se7en. Today's strip, however, does use humor to make a decent point about weapon ergonomics. (Louis Wu 13:22:45 UTC) (permalink)
Link Administrivia
We continue to get a significant number of new links being submitted to our Links page (there are 7 added to the database in the past week) - but sometimes submissions make me wonder. Today, I rejected one from a site that stated, on the nearly-blank front page, that access is restricted to members of its clan. Why would you submit a link to a public links database if nobody except your clan members are allowed to even go there? (Presumably, your clanmembers already KNOW where the page is.) I'm not trying to get on anyone's case... but we're going to continue to reject links to sites that have no Halo content, or whose Halo content is impossible to find, or sites whose access to Halo content is restricted to a tiny subset of the public. Sorry about that. On the bright side, I'm hoping we'll be breaking out Clan links into xbox, pc, mac, halo2-only, and general at some point in the not-too-distant future. (Louis Wu 13:19:40 UTC) (permalink)
Pipedream released
Icetiger writes to point out his newest mod creation, Pipedream. Lots of new vehicles, weapons, bizarre architecture... check this one out! (It's about a 13 mb download, or a bit smaller in .rar format.) (Louis Wu 13:10:54 UTC) (permalink)
Hail to the Chief
There's a 2D Halo game that was mentioned by HaloPlanet during our downtime - but when I checked the link on the HP page, I got error messages. A quick note to Fluffy, though, got me a ForumPlanet thread, which had a better link. There are actually two games, 'Hail to the Chief' and an expansion pack, 'Hail to the Chief: Arius'. Reviews and downloads for both are available from the author's webpage. A quick dip into the game shows it to be pretty fun. Check it out! (PC-only.) (Louis Wu 13:05:02 UTC) (permalink)
One More from TheManRoom
TheManRoom wraps up their Halo 2 Preview coverage with a new piece that includes the Halo 2 Fact Sheet, and a collection of all the recent screens and concept art released. Good reading! (Looks like we got an XBL glove tossed at our feet, as well... we're there, when the time comes.) (Louis Wu 12:53:32 UTC) (permalink)
Unyielding
Mothergoat has released Unyielding, his newest musical Halo-inspired creation. It starts quietly, majestically... but quickly explodes into heavy guitar-driven rock. 5:32 long, 5 mb big, hosted by Mothergoat himself (though if bandwidth gets tight, we'll certainly provide an alternative - it's quite good). Go listen. In Mothergoat's words, "Turn it up loud, close your eyes and let your mind wander in the Halo universe. I tried to provide a sountrack. :)" Update: Oops, there's a forum thread about this already, if you want to toss in your two cents. (Louis Wu 12:48:36 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 - from the PS2 side
IGN Playstation 2 has written up a perspective piece on Halo 2 from the standpoint of a gamer whose chosen console is NOT an Xbox. The bulk of the article is spent discussing how it's going to be the single-player aspect that makes or breaks Halo 2, and how worrying it is that we haven't seen any of it. The author makes some statements about the press coverage of Halo prior to launch that don't jibe with my recollections - or with the news archives here at HBO. Past that, though, the article is a nice summary of how Halo 2 is seen by folks who are NOT rabid Halo or Bungie fans - multiplayer gameplay is solid (quite possibly more solid than anything out there), visuals are very good but still beatable (Far Cry is mentioned), online style is based on a genre that's now showing its teeth. And so on. But the overall conclusion is 'I can't tell you how good it's really gonna be until I see singleplayer' - which is a nice reality check for folks who KNOW it's gonna rock. Because who knows - you haven't played it yet. Go read. (Credit goes to Google, who beat out the raft of actual fans sending in this link.) (Louis Wu 12:43:44 UTC) (permalink)
Homefront Updates
Dark Strider points out that Homefront, the Battlefield: Vietnam mod, has updated again; this time, you can see shots of 'Plains of Reach', a new map. Take a look! (Louis Wu 11:53:43 UTC) (permalink)
News September 21 2004
Your PAL just got pal-ier.
Pretty substantial usability updates to BOLL's HBO PAL, the sidebar that puts all of HBO at your fingertips; he's cleaned things up, added some search features (you have no idea how useful they are until you actually use them), and added a pair of guides for adding this page to your Windows Active Desktop (the original idea was sent in by Nafe Rubeus, for Windows 98, and BOLL's added his own graphical version for Windows 2000/XP). Visit the page, see what's new! (Louis Wu 22:12:02 UTC) (permalink)
Long-lost Art
Tried to get back to the Art queues - I was actually going through my drive to make sure I hadn't lost track of any mail during the downtime, and I came across a number of pieces submitted to HBO in the past few months that simply got overlooked. They've been mixed up with newer pieces and added to the Miscellaneous Art Section (well, 10 of 'em, anyway). We're getting near the end of the queues, thank goodness. There are some great pieces in this collection - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:52:42 UTC) (permalink)
Hottest Video Babe Contest
You new it had to come one day... Cortana is in the running to be voted 'Cyber Vixen of the Year', along with 19 other virtual chicks. Sponsored by Maxim and Spike TV (surprise, surprise). Go vote, then wait until December 14 to see who wins. Thanks, Argent. (Louis Wu 20:09:45 UTC) (permalink)
V Games Halo - Denton, TX
Another tourney - this time in Denton, Texas. Entry is $20, event takes place on October 1, first prize looks to be $100 (I might be reading it wrong). Details in this forum post by texasvgames. Update: Man, it must be the day for tournaments... MikeSak wrote to say that there's one at Gameheads, in Marlboro, NY (North of NYC) on October 9. You'll find the details on their webpage. Update 2: Whoa, and yet another one. Jason Teng writes about a tourney in Orem, Utah, on September 24/25 (that's this Friday/Saturday; $30 for a team of 4 to register, $200 cash prize for first place, and if you win you're rentered for free in a Halo 2 tourney later this year. If you're interested, call Jason at 801-318-3670. (Louis Wu 16:25:56 UTC) (permalink)
Marketing Gone Wild
Bizarre - someone in the UK is selling (on Ebay.co.uk) a 'Halo 2 Drink' (energy drink, something like RedBull or Bawls) and a Halo 2 rubberized sticker that they picked up at a Gaming conference recently. First sighting (by me, anyway) of either of these items. Current bid is still under £2, but it doesn't close for 5 days. (I've put up a local no-links copy for when this auction is gone forever.) Thanks, pOgO. (Louis Wu 16:21:50 UTC) (permalink)
New Jersey Halo Tourney
nexus points out an upcoming Halo 2v2 tournament in New Jersey - $35 entry, $800 grand prize, event to take place this weekend. Check out the links! (Louis Wu 15:22:18 UTC) (permalink)
I thought we were finished with those...
We don't really do warthog jump videos any more. They've... been done. (I even just got through telling that to a couple of movie submitters in the last few days.) However, Ducain pointed out a new one that's... well, new. Not done. There's a bunch of stuff you've seen before (though I must say some of the jumps are quite good, even for repeats)... but there's a simple twist on the normal technique that opens new doors for tricksters - even at this late date. The vid is by Dom Dunc, and was originally posted on the High Impact Halo forums. Ducain posted a note on our forum, with links to the vid and the original thread. I added a QuickTime link, as well. Fan feedback seems pretty positive at this point. (Louis Wu 13:36:10 UTC) (permalink)
Never trust the tiger.
Summer's over... and Warbow is back! Calvin and Halo returns to its normal Tuesday/Thursday rotation - Warbow (as always) handles Tuesdays, and Blackstar (as always) handles Thursday. Today's episode - an object lesson in why armor is a good thing. (Louis Wu 13:12:07 UTC) (permalink)
Tuesday Torrent
Because of the messed-up weekend, the Fan Fiction section has built up a bit of backlog; there are 18 new pieces there today. Sorry about the flood. (Louis Wu 13:06:21 UTC) (permalink)
Halo leads the charge for Macs in Japan
Interesting... there's an article in Wired about Japan, and the scene for gamers with a Macintosh (it's nearly nonexistent). Looks like Microsoft is planning to change that - they're rolling out a whole series of popular Mac games, and calling it the Microsoft Mac Games Collection. First game on the block? Halo. It was released a couple of days ago.
In a cross-country launch at the Apple stores in Tokyo and Osaka, dozens of gamers battled each other using Halo's networking option and Apple's iChat AV.
Nice! There's more - go read it. Thanks, daedalus. (Louis Wu 12:51:10 UTC) (permalink)
They look like they're riding glowing unicycles...
Eep - I forgot to post this yesterday. Captain Spark made another 'revenge on Marines' movie; I'm not sure if his original link is still live, but funkmon has mirrored the small (1.4 mb) file (and upped its framerate a bit). I also made a QT version of it - same size. Those poor marines... (Louis Wu 12:46:52 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Weapons at TheManRoom
TheManRoom continues with their coverage of the assets in Halo 2, this time with a summary of the (known) weapons. Take a look. (Louis Wu 11:29:35 UTC) (permalink)
What you can't see won't hurt them...
A new Adventures in Disaster went live yesterday at akba.info, but word came too late to make yesterday's news. So here it is. Poor Master Chief - sometimes he can't catch a break. (Louis Wu 11:26:43 UTC) (permalink)
Modded Halo Xbox gets a boost
~-Darkhalo1326-~ wrote to point out that the two main interfaces for modded Xbox Halo, NMP and CXE, have worked together to create HMPi, a program which allows you to install both NMP v2 and CXE simultaneously. It looks like there's more info (and download links) at Halomods. (If you don't know how to mod your Xbox, but you're interested in this, you really need to poke around Halomods; this isn't something we deal with.) (Louis Wu 11:24:32 UTC) (permalink)
When bentllama sweats
Looks like bentllama updated his blog this weekend... and what was he doing all last week? Playing Halo 2 campaign mode. From the sounds of it, he's been having fun... (and he's also been enjoying Fable.) Thanks, clarksbrother. (Louis Wu 11:18:26 UTC) (permalink)
More free headsets
Dolbex sent this yesterday, but yesterday was a mess. This weekend, at the MLG Los Angeles tournament, MLG will be giving away 10 Plantronics headsets to winners of various Halo events. Go read about it! (Louis Wu 11:05:13 UTC) (permalink)
News September 20 2004
Massed Enemy Fun
rockslider has updated his Rockslide Megabattle page with information on using a stolen banshee in AotCR to fight huge battles. Check out the details! (Louis Wu 18:33:10 UTC) (permalink)
Yeah, you go back, Jack, do it again...
Omniscient points out a New York Times article (free registration required) that looks at video game sequels as the cash cow of the video game industry - and holds Halo up as one of a very limited number of popular, original games. The article is a good read, explaining clearly WHY the industry is broken in this manner - and showing some of the ways folks are trying to shake up the standard order. There are even quotes from Alex Seropian, a Bungie co-founder and now head of Wideload. Go read. (Louis Wu 18:13:12 UTC) (permalink)
Plantronics Headsets - fer nuthin.
w00t! You like the look of those Plantronics Halo 2 headsets coming out soon, but think $50 is too much for a headset? Get on over to haloTV - they're giving away over 100 of 'em; 6 per week until November 13. What are you waiting for? GO! (Louis Wu 18:04:22 UTC) (permalink)
Marty Talks Turkey - and Concrete, and Pipes...
Alex Cross mentions that the Marty O'Donnell interview that appeared for a short time last week on 1Up.com is now back. Go read it - it's a fascinating look at how much work has been put into making your audio experience with Halo 2 be better than you could have imagined. (Louis Wu 17:39:13 UTC) (permalink)
Pass the Kool-Aid, dude
In the 'it's totally a rumor, but MAN wouldn't it be cool' category, CubanB points out a thread on the TeamXbox forums in which a Gamestop store manager reports info from an annual meeting he recently attended. At this meeting, the Microsoft rep apparently claimed that 2-player online co-op would be in Halo 2. Again - this is totally unconfirmed by anyone at Bungie. That doesn't make it false - but it's sure not something I'd stake any real money on at this point. If we hear something from someone official, we'll be sure to pass it along. (Louis Wu 16:58:36 UTC) (permalink)
Shaft Jumping - UP
On Saturday, Ducain released a video showing how he blasted himself from the bottom of the maproom shaft in Silent Cartographer all the way back up to the platform you come in on. (The vid is WMP9, 4:11 long, 8.2 mb large.) Amazing. Before I got a chance to mention it in the news, our connection died - but I'm mentioning it now, and also pointing out a QuickTime version I managed to whip out amongst the chaos - 10.9 mb - for those who need it. (Louis Wu 15:08:00 UTC) (permalink)
Architectural Levity
What would Monday be without a shot from Stuntmutt? Today's target: um... MC, I guess. For your daily dose of puns, read One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:05:29 UTC) (permalink)
Vidmastering SC
Goatrope has posted a new vid - Silent Cartographer, Legendary, Single Player, 0 shots, 0 deaths. All kills are using grenades, melees, and vehicles. Video is a DivX-encoded .avi, 6:22 long, 16.1 mb large. Download links (and a codec link, if you need it) are in the forum post. This was originally posted on the High Impact Halo forum. (Louis Wu 15:03:29 UTC) (permalink)
Making the hardware look right
UNEXPECTED62 sent along a few pictures of his Halo2-customized hub - I've picked a decent representative one (26k). Nice work! (Louis Wu 15:02:46 UTC) (permalink)
New beta footage in Norway
pimpmeister, from HaloNorge, points out new Halo 2 footage being offered by a Norwegian site. He hasn't seen it yet (nor have I), because it's a pay-to-register site, and only registered members can view it. I'm sure that Cameron Payne, Bungie's marketing guru, is tickled to be referred to in the article as 'the boss over all bosses' and 'the supreme projectleader for Halo2'. It's unclear from the writeup whether this footage is sanctioned by Bungie. If we find out more, we'll be sure to pass it along. (Louis Wu 13:37:01 UTC) (permalink)
Weekly Update Lightning Round, Summarized
Bungie has summarized the Q&A session from last Friday in a new top story at Bungie.net (including a couple of questions not answered the first time around). When there's a free moment this week, I'll add this to the Weekly Updates archive, but for now, go read for new tidbits. (Far too many people sent in mail about this to thank individually - so if you sent this, thanks.) (Louis Wu 13:29:31 UTC) (permalink)
Surviving AotCR
The Junkyard continues their analysis of Halo from a real military perspective with Part V, Assault on the Control Room. What's missing, what's weird, what tactics would work in the real world. Interesting read, as always! (Louis Wu 13:25:45 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Vehicles, from TheManRoom
TheManRoom, continuing the preview they posted last week, has put up Part 2: Vehicles. Again, this info comes from a Media Kit sent out by Microsoft PR to some websites. (Louis Wu 13:20:06 UTC) (permalink)
Halo CE - now with energy swords for all
DocOctavius has released a set of tags for adding the Energy Sword to your Halo CE map project - looks pretty nice! Thanks, MasterGrief. Update: Looks like there's info on our own forum now, too, including a short movie and a small test map. (Louis Wu 13:17:36 UTC) (permalink)
Two-part Halo 2 Preview at Worthplaying
Worthplaying has put up a two-part preview of Halo 2 - it's a nice summary of how things feel now (well, how they felt in August, I guess). Part 1 is gameplay and weapons, Part 2 is maps and vehicles. Heads-up goes to Voodoo Extreme. (Louis Wu 13:14:46 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Summary vid
Bear with me today; I'm coming off a pretty ugly weekend, and there's quite a bit of cleanup work still ahead of me. I'll do my best to get through the rather large mail backlog over the course of the day - but I think I'm gonna spam the page with the first batch, just to give myself some breathing room. If, by tomorrow or the next day, your news hasn't been posted, THEN you can remind me about it - but please hold off on any 'where is the news I sent you?' notes for a bit. Thanks. First up: halochat released a Halo 2 Summary video; 20.6 mb, 6:01 long, WMP9 format. It covers most of the new features we know about for Halo 2, by taking clips from released vids that show those features. halochat is working on Fileplanet and GamersHell mirrors, but for now, you should use the BitTorrent link on his download page. Comments (and download links) are in this forum thread. Update: Looks like it's made it over to GamersHell at this point - thanks, Soulblighta. (Louis Wu 13:05:00 UTC) (permalink)
We're live again!
'Nuff said. More later. (Louis Wu 02:28:39 UTC) (permalink)
News September 19 2004
bungie.org outage
Not sure how many people can even read this right now... but there's no point in NOT writing it. HBO HQ was hit by lightning yesterday, and a rather large collection of hardware got fried. The most critical piece of this was the router - because of it, no traffic is going into, or out of, the building. This means that the nameservers responsible for telling YOUR computer how to find halo.bungie.org are now unreachable - so you can only read this if 1) your nameservers are lazy and don't check very often, or 2) you're using a different URL to access these pages. (HBO itself is fine; it's housed 1500 miles away from the dead router. In any case, we're doing our best to find replacement parts; we'll be up as soon as is humanly possible. Apologies. (Louis Wu 13:47:03 UTC) (permalink)
News September 18 2004
The Pigs Are In the Air
MrFluffyPants points out that the 'When Pigs Fly' contest mentioned a bit ago has actually gone live; they're accepting submissions as of now. Check the contest page for details. (Louis Wu 13:31:18 UTC) (permalink)
Backstage Pass - Augmented by IGN
Whoa. By now, most online Halo fans know about the Backstage Pass Sweepstakes being sponsored by Xbox Live - and the official rules state that 5 of the 20 winning slots will be awarded to North American residents. Looks like some of those people just had their chances of winning boosted 20%... because IGN Insider is offering a 21st slot for this contest, but it's only open to US residents, and only to those that are IGN Insiders or Founders Club members. Read all the details on their contest page - a rules link is near the bottom. Heads-up for this one goes to HaloPlanet. (Louis Wu 11:26:17 UTC) (permalink)
The Halo Babies fad spreads
Tina Leyk has whipped up another pair of doodles and a Halo Babies-inspired piece of Fan Art to her spectacular collection. Look for the 18 September dates. That's one sad Elite! (Louis Wu 10:49:15 UTC) (permalink)
Hands-on from GMR
There's a short Hands-on article from GMR, one of the 1UP family of sites, with a nice description of a successful base defense. Heads-up goes to GruntKilla, who also noticed an interview with Marty O'Donnell at EGM - but that seems to have been pulled (the page states 'Coming Soon' now). I guess we'll have to wait and see about that one... (Louis Wu 10:36:25 UTC) (permalink)
Golden Joysticks
Walshicus mentions the Golden Joystick Awards 2004, a fan-driven British awards ceremony. Halo 2 is up for only one award; 'Most Wanted Game for Xmas 2004'. (Louis Wu 10:29:47 UTC) (permalink)
That's gonna leave a mark.
SEspider has updated Miniature Halo, sending along page 24 for your viewing pleasure. MC dose some nasty crashlanding... but Sarge is there for him. In a manner of speaking. (Louis Wu 10:26:05 UTC) (permalink)
Rockets on Prisoner 2004
Wolfy, of Sector 7, has resurrected Rockets On Prisoner, the Halo Movie Awards begun by (the now-defunct) CobaltNova last year. Voting will be done by you, the public, and awards will be hosted by That Weasel Television (with prizes supplied by Red vs Blue, Xbox Ottawa, and That Weasel). Read the rules, pick your favorite movies from the past year (one per category), and then wait and see how your choices did! More details are available on Sector 7's website. (Louis Wu 10:19:08 UTC) (permalink)
Dutch article translation posted
Soulblighta sent along a translation of the Telenet article we mentioned yesterday; if you don't read Dutch, you can now tell what this site was saying about the Halo 2 European Developer Tour event they attended last month. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 10:12:13 UTC) (permalink)
News September 17 2004
The Bungie Update Needs You!
Wonga. Today's Weekly Bungie Update is gonna be different than any other... and it needs YOU. This one's gonna be interactive; the New Mombasa forum is going to be the focus of a Q&A session between Sketch and Frankie... and you, the fans. Jump on the forum (the thread's already picked out for you), ask a question about Halo 2 (multiplayer-only)... and in roughly 2 hours (2 pm PDT, 5 pm EDT, 9 pm GMT) Sketch and Frankie will log on and begin answering questions. There are some basic rules; read the news post for details. (Pay attention to the news post, even.) Now get to thinking! UPDATE: The question period is over, and Frankie and Sketch have begun posting answers in a separate thread here. Tons of juicy info, but, again, read the rules. When they say "do not post in this thread", they aren't kidding. (updated by CZ) (Louis Wu 18:52:51 UTC) (permalink)
Unyielding Teaser
Mothergoat has posted a 'one minute, barebones sample of where I am going' with his new tune, 'Unyielding. It's in zipped .wma format, 5.2 mb. Cool monks and hard guitars. Grab it today! (Louis Wu 18:02:55 UTC) (permalink)
European Dev Tour pics
Soulblighta found a writeup on a Belgian site of the Halo 2 European Developer Tour. This, as well, is in Dutch (though he's offered a translation - yes, please, Soulblighta :) ). It chronicles an event that took place in Paris on August 20, and the size of the screens they played on made me drool. Take a look! (Louis Wu 17:25:52 UTC) (permalink)
It ain't no Klondike Bar
Ernst Sandelowsky points out an article he wrote (in Dutch) for the Xboxarena.nl website, about his experience at Power Unlimited Gameplay last weekend. I can't read Dutch, but his description of the experience wasn't very inspiring; people interested in trying out Halo 2 were forced to perform degrading acts for the crowd in order to get in. What were they thinking? (Louis Wu 17:13:57 UTC) (permalink)
Live Forever
A few days ago, MereCatfish posted a short (1:52, 4.9 mb, WMP9 format) teaser for an upcoming video known as 'Live Forever'; it wasn't until today that I got word that it's got sufficient bandwidth to be front-paged here. It's exactly what it sounds like - a teaser - but from the looks of things, the final product (a team-based battle in heroic style) could be fun to watch. Check it out! (Louis Wu 17:02:07 UTC) (permalink)
That's why they call it weekly, right?
Gah. Once again, I've forgotten to update the Bungie Weekly Update archive until the end of the week. It's updated now, with last week's quickie from Halo Babies. Just in time for today's NEW update. Erk. (Louis Wu 16:08:35 UTC) (permalink)
Pro Halo player profiled in Ontario newspaper
Thanks to Andrew, of Xbox Ottawa (and half of the FTC team) for sending in a (monster) scan of an article in yesterday's Ottawa Citizen newspaper (877x3809, 587K); it focuses on G-Spot, a pro Halo player from Canada who will be representing his country at the World Cyber Games next month. (The reporter writing the story lost 125-7 in 1v1 slayer matches - with some of the gameplay from G-Spot being performed with his controller flipped upside down.) Interesting read, and amazing quantity of coverage in a mainstream newspaper. (Must have been a really slow news day in Ottawa.) Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:31:57 UTC) (permalink)
n.2. An Unskilled Or...
I really, really hope Stuntmutt's offbase in today's One One Se7en... cause that sort of behavior would make me want to shoot someone. A grunt, maybe. (Louis Wu 11:25:31 UTC) (permalink)
Revenge of the Spark
A couple of days ago, Captain Spark released a video in which he finally, after years of abuse, FINALLY got some revenge on the uncooperative Marines who have made his dialogue-collecting sessions so difficult. It was funny enough that we're hosting it for him now; I'd like to apologize in advance for the odd-looking text. Some weird setting on the original video CS sent me had screwed up the aspect ratio of the film; everything was squished. I fixed this, but in doing so, made the text look a bit... odd. Blame me, not CS. The video is available in two flavors, both 480x360: there's a 4.2 mb WMP7 version, and a 4.7 mb QuickTime version. Grab the one that suits you! (Louis Wu 11:06:27 UTC) (permalink)
Mark VI
Halo Babies has revamped their Baby MC, and he's unveiled in the latest strip. They've also tipped a hat to... well, go read it. (Louis Wu 10:43:40 UTC) (permalink)
Desktop Countdown
Tyrian points out a customizable desktop countdown clock called PhanTim3 - it runs under pretty much any flavor of Windows. What makes this Halo-relevant is the existence of a set of 9 Halo skins for the clock; you can use this as a countdown to Halo 2. Freeware. (Louis Wu 10:38:44 UTC) (permalink)
TheManRoom looks at Halo's Characters
TheManRoom has posted its own Character Preview, and described the Halo 2 Media Tool Kit it received containing this information. For folks wondering where TeamXbox got its information and pictures for yesterday's Bios Blowout article... now you know. (No, HBO isn't on whatever list you have to be on to get this toolkit, so we can't show you unwatermarked versions of these files... sorry.) (Louis Wu 10:25:07 UTC) (permalink)
Lots of new tourney footage at MLGPro
Dolbex points out that there are over 4 hours of new video footage of gameplay from MLG Atlanta - 50k3 in the Video On Demand section of the MLGPro.com website. If you want to see top-notch pro gameplay, this is the place to get it. A VoD subscription is $20 for the year. (Louis Wu 10:19:35 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Readiness Guide - finally
Gah. Almost a month ago, ferory pointed out a 'Halo 2 Readiness Guide' that had gone up on Xbox.com, giving information on what you might want to do to get ready for the release of Halo 2. I wrote back at the time that we'd already posted about that when it went up on Bungie.net; a couple of weeks earlier, B.net had posted a 'Prepare Yourself' article, and in that timeframe, a bunch of old B.net stories began to appear on Xbox.com, and I assumed that this was just another example of recycled content. I was wrong - it's a different article altogether, similar subjects notwithstanding. My bad for not checking more closely. Thanks to both forum posters and emailers who pointed out this article again in the last day or two, and made me look a second time. (Louis Wu 10:16:00 UTC) (permalink)
Capitalism is better with new clothes
Took a little while... but the Bungie Store is back online, with T-shirts, fleece pullovers, keychains, pen and pencil sets, and more. There's clearly more on the way - the slideshow on the opening screen shows a bunch of items not yet available. go buy, and help Bungie on their road to world domination! (Thanks, Finn - you WERE the first.) (Louis Wu 00:38:52 UTC) (permalink)
News September 16 2004
More pretties for your desktop
I do believe I can see the bottom of the art queues. (I'm not sure that's a great thing; I know from experience that when you empty a barrel that you've been using continually for a long time, you find all sorts of nasty growths you never really needed to see.) Anyway, today's batch has been placed in the Wallpaper Section - 10 images that range from a spectacular reworking of a Tina Leyk piece to some peaceful views of an earthlike part of the Halo... and lots of stuff in between. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 22:20:01 UTC) (permalink)
CVG Part 4 - Pete Parsons Talks
Computer and Video Games has put up the fourth part of their in-depth look at Halo 2 - this one is an interview with Bungie's Pete Parsons. Aside from one obnoxious paragraph (right after explaining how their guide asked them politely not to look at certain things, they described exactly what they DID see - there are potential spoilers in here for those of you who really, absolutely, don't want ANY spoilers at all), it was a great interview - positive, but once again proving that Pete's a master at making his point without giving anything away that he wants to keep secret. Go read! Thanks to John Houlihan of CVG for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:58:26 UTC) (permalink)
German Scans - up finally
Last month, Marc Friedrichs of Halo Universe sent along a couple of magazine scans of German Halo articles; somehow, they got lost in the flood of content. They're up, now, in our Press Scans section, however; if you read German, check out June's Video Games Aktuell and August's Xbox Zone. Thanks, Marc! (Louis Wu 19:53:23 UTC) (permalink)
Thursday's Themes
Seven new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section - apologies for the outages earlier this morning. (Looks like a router got swapped out without the datacenter being warned... SOMEONE got chewed out pretty good.) Go read some Halo fiction and relax. (Louis Wu 17:21:23 UTC) (permalink)
I was shooting for gumdrops.
Today's Calvin and Halo looks inside alien races... and what it finds isn't pretty. (Louis Wu 12:55:57 UTC) (permalink)
Contest Pages Outside the US
The country-specific Backstage Pass pages are beginning to appear; a little searching turned up 'Coming Soon' pages for Great Britain and France. I'm happy to set up a list for these, if folks want to point them out when they appear; in a lot of cases, I can't read the page well enough to figure out what I'm looking at, so I'm dependent on locals in each area to find their own. Thanks! Update: With a little help from this GamesIndustry.biz article and some judicious guessing, I've found links to the rest of the European options for this contest - Germany, Finland, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland. Still to come (I'm guessing) - asian sites like Japan, and possibly Australia. (NONE of the non-US ones have real info yet - just a placeholder page. Be patient, though.) (Louis Wu 12:28:32 UTC) (permalink)
Raging for Road Rage
Subzero Rivalries has posted another episode; this comic looks at hwo much more important attention is than, say... winning. Pointed out by MarkHawk. (Louis Wu 12:14:44 UTC) (permalink)
TeamXbox Profiles the Known
Nice article over on TeamXbox - bios of the Halo 2 cast (at least the cast known to date), both human and covenant, as well as rundowns of known weapons and vehicles. Some pics seem to be new. Worth a read! Thanks, Recoil. (Louis Wu 12:11:11 UTC) (permalink)
HBO PAL - Your New Bestest Friend
Ever feel like you just don't have enough easy ways to access the information available here at HBO? There are so many different search areas - news, art, forum, updates - or maybe you just wanna find posts by your friends. Or maybe you want better access to the subsections of HBO, without having to go to the main page first. Well, BOLL is here for you. He's created the HBO PAL, a small popup window that gives you access to an enormous swath of HBO info in one little strip of real estate. Stick it in a corner of your screen, see if it makes your life any easier. (If it doesn't... hey, just close it.) Don't forget to thank him. (Louis Wu 00:40:35 UTC) (permalink)
Backstage Pass Contest - Clarified
We don't normally like to post the same news item twice, but this one deserves a double-post, because of the confusion. A couple of hours ago (but yesterday, by this site's clock), we announced a new contest in which Xbox Live subscribers would get a chance to win a 3 day/2 night trip to Bungie Studios to play Halo 2 before the rest of the world. Several threads immediately popped up on our forum, pointing out that while the sweepstakes page at Xbox.com states that "Twenty lucky winners from around the world (five in North America)" will be going to Redmond, the official rules page states that the contest is open only to "legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (except Quebec)". Residents of non-North American countries - fear not! Each country sending people will have its own sweepstakes page, with its own eligibility requirements and rules. Once they're all live, you'll be able to see whether you meet the requirements in your country - but for now, remember that the contest doesn't close until October 15, so there's plenty of time. Sorry for the confusion! (Louis Wu 00:00:01 UTC) (permalink)
News September 15 2004
Go to Bungie - on their dime!
Recently, we mentioned a surprise promotion coming today - I'm proud to be able to tell you about the Halo 2 Backstage Pass Sweepstakes. Win a chance to visit Bungie's headquarters for 3 days/2 nights and play some Halo 2 before the rest of the world! Details are in the Halo 2 Backstage Pass Press Release. (Louis Wu 22:32:40 UTC) (permalink)
CVG uses Weapons
Computer and Video Games has posted part 3 of their in-depth look at Halo 2's multiplayer - this one focuses on Weapons. Good read, again. (Was the headline a nod to Iain M. Banks, or just a coincidental choice of words?) Thanks, Wiggum. (Louis Wu 21:24:46 UTC) (permalink)
Halo for Habitat
AngelicLionheart wrote about a Halo tourney in Athens, GA to benefit Habitat for Humanity; play Halo, win a chance at one of four copies of Halo 2, and help houses get built! Check out all the details in this Bungie.net forum post. (Louis Wu 21:17:23 UTC) (permalink)
Talks tough, but can he back it up?
wopkins, who showed off a breakdancing MC a couple of months ago, is back with a threatening grunt. Spits, too. WMP and QT formats, at this point. Nice work! (Louis Wu 21:02:30 UTC) (permalink)
Miscellaneous Queue Clearout
What? It's Wednesday, and there hasn't been an art update yet? Wait, what was yesterday's? Oh, yeah... wallpaper. Okay, here's ten more creations for the Miscellaneous Art Section. Some of these just flat-out ROCK. Go look. (Louis Wu 20:46:57 UTC) (permalink)
MLG in LA
The next big MLG tournament will be in Los Angeles, on September 25 - and you can find travel details over on the MLGPro.com website. If you need help on where to stay or how to get around, check it out! (Louis Wu 19:12:55 UTC) (permalink)
The Flood Gates
I vaguely remember Boxer telling me that today's Adventures in Disaster (episode 10) should be up at akba.info. It seems, in fact, to be so. Artwork rocks, but if the MC were really this dumb, we'd never have made it off the Pillar of Autumn. Spoilers, just so I don't get email from folks saying 'hey, man, how come you didn't put a spoiler warning on that post?' (Louis Wu 18:55:15 UTC) (permalink)
Battle of Reach: Help Needed
Dev was working on a flash cartoon called "Halo: The Battle of Reach" - he was almost done, and a virus ate his computer. He saved a few things, but most of it is gone. He put together a teaser for the project, in Flash, as an attempt to entice folks to help him out. Watch the teaser (418K), and if you're interested, contact him (info is in the animation) and join the team! (Louis Wu 16:48:12 UTC) (permalink)
Halogen Update
Chronomaw points out that Halogen, the C&C Generals Total Conversion, has posted a large update for the mod, including unveiling the interface for the game and their concept of the UNSC logo, as well as some new renders. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:07:03 UTC) (permalink)
Prosthetic Luma, eh?
Geeoff noticed a skin at Skinz.org that bears a striking resemblance to our good buddy 343 Guilty Spark. It's unlikely that the author took any inspiration at all from Halo... but it's STILL a neat pic. (Louis Wu 16:04:35 UTC) (permalink)
The Fansites Weigh In
Last week, Eclarap of Halo France posted a huge writeup of his visit to Bungie's offices in early August, a bit ahead of schedule. (The 'ahead of schedule' part wasn't malicious - it was all a misunderstanding.) In the furor that erupted over this release, the Halo.fr writeup was pulled down, but Microsoft bumped up the news embargo date, to last Friday... and because of that bump, you've been reading dozens of hands-on writeups in the past several days. And now, finally, the original writeup is BACK online, along with his screenshots and the shakeycam vid he collected. There's a translation, of sorts, over at HaloPlanet, if you don't read French - but at the very least you can look at all the pretty pictures. And whoa, speaking of HaloPlanet... it looks like Fluffy has put up the first part of his OWN impressions of that weekend - it'll be reformatted at some point, and added to, but it's a great start. (For the record, I had NO drinks on the plane; it was Fluffy's incessant talking that made me miss that turn. At least we didn't end up in Fishkill, NY.) (Louis Wu 15:42:12 UTC) (permalink)
'Blast' All Right.
As Ding mentioned yesterday, we recently saw the return of one of the early stars in the Halo Fan Firmament. In the year after Halo was released, Frogblast was on the front lines of the engine-pushers, seeing how far Halo could be deformed before it broke. (As far as I know, it never did, though it sure twisted a lot.) in the spring of 2003, he dropped out of sight; it seemed he'd moved on. This week, after an 18 month absence, he came back, out of the blue... to a huge outpouring of community love. Stuntmutt points out, however, in today's One One Se7en, there's a darker side to this story... (Louis Wu 15:25:55 UTC) (permalink)
Congrats, Shishka... and you suck.
Longtime community member Shishka posted a note on our forum (and a sizeable news post on Subnova) explaining the latest twist in his life... he's been hired by Bungie as a contract design assistant. It was to be under wraps for a little longer... but a certain aptly-nicknamed Bungie employee spilled the beans a bit early. We'd like to congratulate Shishka on his good fortune, Bungie on their good choice, and the community for supporting a company so cool it yanks employees from its fanbase. (Louis Wu 15:13:56 UTC) (permalink)
No. Way.
Uncle Mato found an auction on eBay in which someone is selling a 10 DVD set of themselves playing through the entire campaign of Halo (one level per disc). Starting bid is $20.00. The idea is to help you through if you're stuck, or something... but remember that there are plenty of text walkthroughs on the net (for free), we posted a 10-movie collection of superfast runs on Legendary (for free), and actually playing the game is fun. To give the guy credit, he DID do a nice job of labeling the DVDs. We've put up a local, no-links copy of the auction, for when this rolls off eBay's site. (Louis Wu 15:06:42 UTC) (permalink)
No gelatin body parts, unfortunately.
Brand-new top story at Bungie.net; Frankie busts some common rumors floating around out there. Most of these have been debunked already - usually by Frankie himself - but this is a good collection of the most outrageous ones, all collected in one place, all handled with panache and a heaping spoonful of scorn. A couple of them have come up very recently - one on our very own forum (and debunked by Frankie there, as well)... I think he just reached his breaking point. If you come across someone frothing about something you KNOW isn't true, check this article to see if it's covered, and if it is, send a link to the poor deluded soul. Maybe you'll even open a blind eye or two. (Louis Wu 14:01:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Theme, Arranged for Piano
Jarrad Whitaker, aka Akdor 1154, has arranged the Halo main theme for piano, with the approval of its composer, Marty O'Donnell. There are two versions, both in PDF format; the original theme, from the main menu (405K), and the extended version that plays during the warthog run in the Maw (Truth And Reconciliation Suite - 563K). Enjoy! (Louis Wu 13:10:54 UTC) (permalink)
Madonna as The Corruptor
Okay... so if you could think of the most degrading position possible to put the Master Chief in... would it match this? (1.2 mb, QuickTime format, don't watch this if you don't want nightmares. Please don't send Roger Wilco hatemail. Yell at him in this forum thread, instead.) Realize, too, that the entire ugly situation arose from this post. (Louis Wu 12:57:06 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie.net Screenshot Gallery Updated
Bungie.net has put up their own copies of the 10 new screenshots - you can find them in the Halo 2 Screenshot Gallery. Well, some of you can. I'm having trouble right now; some machines here can see the thumbnails, but get errors trying to load the full images, while others can't even get to Bungie.net. Hang tight, try a bit later, and things should be solved. (Louis Wu 12:40:02 UTC) (permalink)
Games Domain looks under the hood
Games Domain has put up its own Multiplayer Hands-On article - one piece of info that hasn't shown up a lot is a comment about the matching process, with respect to connection speed:
"As far as the connection quality goes, when you're being matched to join a game," Jarrard explained, "you're not just being checked for ping times against the host, but all the clients to one another and to the host, so it's going to take it one more layer than what normally happens in traditional online games."
There's also cool info about the stats system, and a summary of gametype options. Give it a read! Thanks, Voodoo Extreme, for finding this. (Louis Wu 12:28:04 UTC) (permalink)
Dem Grunts, Dem Grunts
That Weasel writes to let us know that Episode 10, Chuckzilla, and Episode 11, Green, are both available at the Grunts are People Too!!! website. Chuckzilla chronicles the rampage (and downfall) of the infamous monster grunt, while Green requires some serious work to translate, but checks out Halo from the other side. Modding to the max. Available in both WMP and QuickTime formats. Go watch! (Louis Wu 00:30:56 UTC) (permalink)
More Hands-on from GameDaily
GameDaily has put up another In-Depth look at Halo 2, this time focusing on Gameplay. Does a nice job of looking at the new features as they're known today. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 00:06:45 UTC) (permalink)
News September 14 2004
Halo 2 MP, Summarized
Dolbex points out an article, written by Liquid and Fuzz, on the MLGPro.com website that summarizes what's known and unknown about Halo 2 multiplayer at this stage. If you've been feeling overwhelmed, this might be a good overview to read. (Louis Wu 18:44:05 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper Windfall
Another day, another 10 pieces of art gone from the queue. (You'd think that one of these days, we'd actually get to the bottom, wouldn't you?) This batch is in the Wallpaper Section, and includes spectacular pieces from notables like Tina Leyk and Adam 'Vegasmike' Vehige, as well as beautiful constructions from lesser-known (for now) submitters. Check out the whole batch! (Louis Wu 15:33:19 UTC) (permalink)
Lethal Rage 4
Pico is celebrating his 20th birthday today... and as a present to the Halo community, he's released Lethal Rage 4, not so much a sequel as another in a series of nicely filmed battle pieces. Cinematics are great (and the bloopers at the end give you some idea of how much work went into them). The bugaboo for this series has always been voice acting, and that continues to hold true here... but that shouldn't deter you from grabbing the vid. It was originally posted on Angelfire, and I'm astounded that that link survived the night - but at this point, there are a few other mirrors (including two we've supplied ourselves), and of course we're always happy to add new links to that page, if you feel like helping out. And oh, yeah... Happy Birthday, Pico! (Louis Wu 14:48:23 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 on NPR
National Public Radio's Morning Edition did a piece this morning on Madden Football, which has sold over 35 million copies over the life of the franchise. About 4 minutes into the 7 minute segment, the interviewer asks Gamespot's Brian Ekberg if there are any games that approach the popularity of games like Madden. Ekberg points out Halo 2 as a strong contender this year. You can listen to the clip by searching for 'Madden' on this NPR page (Real or WMP formats). Interesting to see a Halo 2 mention in a context such as NPR! Thanks, BrotherSwing. (Louis Wu 14:20:49 UTC) (permalink)
The Right Stuff - or at least Attitude
Looks like Finland is actively searching for the Master Chief. This news post on a Finnish gaming site explains how Microsoft Finland is looking for someone to fill the MC's shoes - and the rest of his armor. Details thanks to Scanner Darkly on our forum. Do YOU make the cut? (Louis Wu 14:08:55 UTC) (permalink)
CVG talks Halo 2
Computer and Video Games has put up a pair of articles discussing their trip to Bungie Studios last month and their hands-on experience with Halo 2. Part 1 covers the basics of what they saw, part 2 looks closely at the 5 multiplayer maps they played. (Similar, but not identical, to the dozen other hands-on experiences we've mentioned in the past week or so.) Thanks, vshields ash. (Louis Wu 13:36:56 UTC) (permalink)
No Bots in Halo 2 - Confirmed
Gamespy has added another 3 pages to their Halo 2 Reader Feedback Followup #2 (whew! Get that?). There's some solid (if not always entirely welcome) info in there from Frankie; Halo 2 will not have bot support, and there will be no low-gravity levels in the game. There's more - go read it for yourself. Thanks, Mr. Mongoose. Update: Nitpicker and HSP Factchecker Finn points out that Frankie specifies multiplayer levels in his response; there's nothing, so far, that definitively rules out low-gravity environments in campaign mode. (We're not saying it's there - we're simply pointing out that it hasn't been ruled out yet.) (Louis Wu 13:00:19 UTC) (permalink)
Three Towers highlight reel posted
Ducain has finished the Three Towers highlight video (he says 'finally' - making me feel even WORSE that the Going Nowhere Fast vid isn't done yet, thanks, Ducain), showing the best stunts of the entries for this contest. WMP9 format, 9 minutes long, 23.2 mb. If there's demand, I'll toss up a QuickTime version. Update: Due to popular demand, I've put up a QuickTime version for folks who need it. (Louis Wu 11:27:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo CE Push - Quick Update
Well, I'll say that last night was pretty fun. I logged onto the HBO Coerce server - one of the few 16-players-full CE servers running last night - and saw a HOST of names I never see any more, including one I haven't seen on Halo CE or PC... EVER. It was a blast. But again, even with the added publicity... total numbers never rose above 400. There are still a few more nights in which the 1000 player total can be reached, in this push... but I have to tell you, I'm starting to believe that this is just too little, too late. There are many hundreds of thousands of copies of Halo PC and Mac Halo out there - but Halo CE came along too late to capture the PC crowd, and the Mac folks never even got a chance. If the combined readership of all the largest Halo fansites can't generate 1000 online players when they're BEGGING for them... it just ain't gonna happen. (Goes without saying that I'd LOVE to have that last statement proved wrong.) (Louis Wu 10:36:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Theme - Tabbed Again
CreepHunter pointed out yet ANOTHER guitar tab of the Halo theme he found at Video Game Jam - he liked this one better than the last one we mentioned. Again - I can't read these, so I'm not passing any judgement at all... but they're out there, if you want to use them. (Louis Wu 10:28:03 UTC) (permalink)
Sprinkle the bait, and they will come (back!)
Guess who's back? We missed you man. (Ding 04:01:50 UTC) (permalink)
Wanted: One Jjaro-Boxer Equipped Eternal Hero
Finn, the more productive half of the HSP duo, has gone and updated the Story Page again. Kings and angels, maps and timelines, there's some good stuff there. Check it out! (mnemesis 02:44:58 UTC) (permalink)
Good things are coming...
Wow. Got mail from AEG, a PR firm that handles a lot of Microsoft's promotions; there's a BIG contest launching Wednesday, September 15, at 9 am PDT. We don't have a lot of details yet... but I do know it involves Halo 2, and Xbox Live, and as soon as the full contest announcement has been sent out, you'll be able to read all the details here. Stay tuned! Update: There's been a timing change; the announcement will happen at 1 pm PDT, not 9 am. Keep your eyes peeled! (Louis Wu 01:01:15 UTC) (permalink)
News September 13 2004
It's Aht, Dahling.
Another day, another Miscellaneous Art batch. Again, 10 items, ranging from sketches to animated gifs. See what you can find! (Louis Wu 19:28:32 UTC) (permalink)
The State of Halo CE
Last night was the first attempt of a weeklong push to get over 1000 people playing Halo CE simultaneously. It was a failure; total players never climbed above 400. Captain Spark suggested that the problem might be that there aren't enough non-passworded servers to even SUPPORT 1000 players... but I don't think that's the case. (Even this morning, when some servers that were up last night are offline, there are over 90 freely-joinable servers online... more than enough to support the needed number of players.) The problem, it seems, is much deeper; a year after the game has been released, it's still FULL of bugs that make it unplayable for the casual visitor. (I jumped on last night for 3 hours or so. I sit on a T1 here, and during my playing time there was never less than 1200 kbit/sec bandwidth available. I played the entire night on a single server, a relatively fast server sitting on a 10 Mbit line in a pretty fast datacenter. And I was lagging all night long.) Gearbox says they're willing to put the effort in to fix some of these problems - but only if they can be shown that there's interest in the game. And at this point, a year after release, folks aren't interested in even trying. It's a shame, really, because CE has HUGE potential. Some of the mods I've tried are mind-boggling. The community contains enough core creative people that if the game were playable by newcomers, it WOULD be self-sustaining... but the developer says 'we can't justify fixing it because there aren't enough customers' and the customers say 'we can't justify playing it because there are too many bugs.' If you have any hope for Halo CE at all, jump on and play tonight, at 7 pm EST (4 pm PST, midnight GMT)... this might be the last gasp. Update: for those who don't even HAVE Halo CE yet, you can download it from one of the links on our Halo Custom Edition Mirrors page. (I doubt they all work any more, but many do.) (Louis Wu 17:43:20 UTC) (permalink)
Alexander Did A Similar Thing In Gordium.
What? You thought I was punishing Stuntmutt for all the news posts last week? Nah. There's still a One One Se7en today. Whether you think I'm now punishing you, the reader, is yet to be seen... (Louis Wu 17:29:29 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's Musings
Nine new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section; as soon as I can figure out how to import these into MySQL without errors, I'll be moving the entire section to a new and more robust machine. I hope. In the meantime, go read. (Louis Wu 17:24:34 UTC) (permalink)
Gamespy Dishes out the Answers
Warlock points out another Reader Feedback Followup article at Gamespy; they go to Frankie to answer a few questions they couldn't answer themselves. Some tasty info in there! (Louis Wu 17:11:26 UTC) (permalink)
Zyos - King of SF
Dolbex sent along word that Zyos continues his reign as Grand High Pro Player Poobah by winning the FFA competition at MLG San Francisco, and also being on the 2v2 winning team (with Tsquared) and the 4v4 winning team (Team Yesss!, made up of Zyos, Tsquared, Slim, and Scythe). Details can be found on the MLGPro.com website. (Louis Wu 16:46:11 UTC) (permalink)
Halo models for UT2K4
ShoTro points out a Halo Model Pack for Unreal Tournament 2004. It's 70 mb; give it a look! (Louis Wu 16:28:52 UTC) (permalink)
Cover Art Contest ends
Blade has sent along the winning entries for his Halo 2 Cover Design Contest (last mentioned here). We've put them up for display, along with the scoring. You can follow the link to the original contest thread on Blade's forum to see other entries. Again - we have nothing to do with this contest; contact Blade for prize information. (Louis Wu 14:06:03 UTC) (permalink)
Face the Chief
Halo: Blood Covenant is a pretty slick Halo side-scrolling game that made its first appearance back in March. It was playable by June, in demo form. They're back now, with a new contest; Face the Chief. They're looking for the features of the man beneath the helmet; if you can provide them, you can win a place within the game. Details can be found in the press release linked above. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:27:59 UTC) (permalink)
New Leyk Character Profiles
Tina Leyk continues to make Character Profile sheets for players; there are two new ones on her Fan Art page here. Dre'al looks like someone you DON'T wanna mess with... but Peeps, you could take home and feed Kibbles to. Well, except for the needler. (Louis Wu 13:09:28 UTC) (permalink)
The Resistance - remixed
Ultrash has whipped up another remix of his older 'Halo: The Resistance' track; we mentioned it here. You can find the new piece (9.6 mb, 7:03 long) hosted on files.bungie.org. (Louis Wu 12:47:03 UTC) (permalink)
Ex...terminator
Boxer tells us that Adventures in Disaster Episode 9 is up over at akba.info... I think it has something to do with reflective fecal material. Give it a look. (Louis Wu 12:12:55 UTC) (permalink)
News September 12 2004
Halo Internet RPG
Colin Tulloch is looking for developers to help him with a Halo RPG he's been working on. Details can be found in this post (and some clarifications in this one). If this sounds interesting, drop him a line! (Louis Wu 22:45:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2: Pong Evolved
An anonymous person mentions a pong game he's posted over at halomods - Pong Evolved. Energy swords and oddballs... and an extra dimension. If you have a PC, check it out! (Louis Wu 19:21:01 UTC) (permalink)
PoA 0 Shot
pushbak, inspired by Mike Miller's gunless Belly of the Beast performance, has submitted a new run through the Pillar of Autumn, doing the entire level on Legendary without firing a shot. (Lots and lots of grenades, and melee attacks... but not a single shot.) The movie is 8:03 long, and 28.1 mb large, in QuickTime format. You can grab it from Mythica.org. (If bandwidth gets tight, we'll add another mirror.) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 16:56:45 UTC) (permalink)
1000 Player Push
EthanDM, of Halo World, posted a note last week on the Gearbox forums, attempting once again to get 1000 players on HaloCE at one time; if this can be accomplished, Randy Pitchford of Gearbox has pledged to update Halo CE with new features and bug fixes. The first day for this new push is today - and it runs all week. Read the post for times and information - and join in to help make Halo CE be all that it can be! Thanks to scottisonfire for letting us know last week. (I've held off because I know how short-term the memory of some Halo fans can be; I figured if you only have to remember for a few hours, there's a chance you'll join in. :) ) (Louis Wu 16:51:58 UTC) (permalink)
Free (PAL) Halo 2 at Xbox Resource
halochat noticed a contest mentioned over at Tru7h.org; Sign up at the Xbox Resource forums and you can enter to win a free copy of Halo 2, signed by Frankie. (It's the PAL version, so if you're in the US, there's not a lot of point in your entering...) (Louis Wu 16:39:19 UTC) (permalink)
Dewin' it
tLove sent along an ad he scanned (750x1019, 302k)out of the latest issue of EGM; it contains shots of two of the winning teams of the Mountain Dew contest that took place in July, enjoying their time at Bungie Studios. Looks like fun! (Louis Wu 14:34:14 UTC) (permalink)
Chipps Dubbo Memorial Tournament
Mogwong points out a Halo tourney in Wagga Wagga, Australia, on October 1. The 'Chipps Dubbo 2004 Halo Memorial Tournament... OF DOOM!' looks to be a night of fun; as far as I can tell, there's no money on the line, just pride. Check out the web page, and if you're in the area, go participate! (Louis Wu 14:07:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Ar7 Database
A new Halo art database has come online, and is beginning to receive content. Go check it out. (I remembered this because Hikaru-119 posted some pieces there recently.) (Louis Wu 13:38:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Theme Tab
Blitzwolf found a guitar tab for the Halo theme at MXTabs.net. I couldn't tell you what it sounds like - I don't read this stuff - but if you do, go check it out. (Louis Wu 13:32:58 UTC) (permalink)
News September 11 2004
Saturday Artwork
Getting behind on those image queues again... here are 10 new desktops for you in our Wallpaper Section. I'm particularly fond of this one. (Louis Wu 20:24:45 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction
Five new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today. And you're waiting for...? Go read. (Louis Wu 20:24:09 UTC) (permalink)
GI Plays Their Own Game
Another hands-on article today, this time from GameInformer. Entertaining read. Thanks, chief sparten. (Louis Wu 18:28:45 UTC) (permalink)
Real Halo
A bunch of guys pressed a suburban backyard and its contents (and one extra shoe) into service to bring you a live-action version of a Zanzibar netgame. I particularly liked the respawn sound effects. 17.1 mb, QuickTime format. Sorry about the quality; original film was recorded with a Hi8 camera, then digitized via a USB adaptor... further compressed to be web-friendly. The shakeycam only adds to the netplay, though, I think. (Louis Wu 18:25:34 UTC) (permalink)
GameDaily's Deeper Content
Browsing around the GameDaily site, I stumbled across three articles I hadn't seen before (and hence hadn't reported before) - some good reading inside. An In-Depth Review of Halo, written recently, looks back on the first version with an experienced eye. 'Halo: The Best Moments' gets a dozen fans from across the US to reminisce about what made Halo great for them. And 'Halo: The Complete Story' summarizes the major plot points of all three Halo novels, so as to bring you up to speed if you've not found the time to read them yourself. (It should go without saying that this last is chock-full of spoilers - but I'm saying it anyway.) Check this stuff out! (Louis Wu 18:13:03 UTC) (permalink)
The Fall of Reach
tLove posted a new movie last night - a full-length movie of The Fall of Reach. Even Frankie liked it. A classic, up there with Bambi vs Godzilla. (Louis Wu 15:41:29 UTC) (permalink)
The end of an error
w00t! The streak is FINALLY broken! It's Saturday, and there's nothing in the news about Stuntmutt! Yeehaw!... DOH! (Louis Wu 15:26:08 UTC) (permalink)
The Big Screen
Trigun writes to point out a new episode of Halo: On Vacation over at the 7th Revolution. I don't get it... but it's probably a cultural reference I'm missing. (Louis Wu 15:24:53 UTC) (permalink)
TXB Checks The Menus
The writeups continue - this one is from TeamXbox. 6 pages. (What happened to the seventh?) Nice table containing the game variant options. They also did a great job cataloguing the menus. Thanks, MiD33. (Louis Wu 00:30:20 UTC) (permalink)
Bangin' Choons
Looks like the Weekly Update is over at Halo Babies tonight... he's down in LA, helping out with the Documentary DVD, and a good chunk of the update is about that. And giant women. And spastic colons. And... the first instance of the whole game, put together in one piece. Go read. (I'm glad he warned people about the spoilers in the DVD - if you care about the plot, play the game first.) Thanks, Schedonnardus. (Louis Wu 00:08:35 UTC) (permalink)
News September 10 2004
MLG Takes SF By Storm
It's September 10, so it must be almost time for The Battle of the Bay to kick off. Check out MLGPro.com for all the details! (Louis Wu 23:00:34 UTC) (permalink)
1UPped
1UP.com (the web presence of EGN, XBM, and CGW) has put up a preview based on THEIR visit to Bungie last month. Lots of tasty info, including snippets others missed. Check it out. Thanks, Druff. (Louis Wu 22:35:53 UTC) (permalink)
GameDaily Weighs In
GameDaily has posted their own impressions article based on the press visit last month. It's a solid read, with focus on ranking and clan play. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:50:27 UTC) (permalink)
IGN Hands-On, Part 2
IGN has posted the second half of its Hands-on report; rather than give you a new URL, it just tacked on 4 more pages. A nice summary of all the maps, as well as gametype descriptions (and the obligatory whine about the lack of Single player info). Good read. Go do it. Thanks, GhaleonEB. (Louis Wu 19:48:33 UTC) (permalink)
Mac Halo again at Parity with HaloPC
MacSoft has issued a new patch for Mac Halo - this one brings the Mac version back into parity with its PC counterpart. You can read the Press Release here; I can't find the updater yet on either of the other two sites listed, so you might just want to grab it from one of our mirrors. (Louis Wu 18:15:27 UTC) (permalink)
Sketch and Frankie talk Beta
Gamespot has put up a Developer Interview - 4 and a half minutes of info from SketchFactor and Frankie discussing exactly what was available to the press who showed up to play some Halo 2 last month. There's also info about the ranking system. It's available for download for Gamespot Complete members, but mostly it's these guys talking, overlaid on top of stock footage; you don't lose much by checking out the free streaming version. Definitely worth a listen! (There's even a bit on the Plantronics headset!) To find this interview, check out the GameSpace page for Halo 2 - down in the 'Gamespot Exclusive Movies', it's the second one down. (Louis Wu 18:06:32 UTC) (permalink)
Nightmare Armor - In Living Color, Again
Tom King, from Cerberus, the hosts for Nightmare Armor's website, points out on our forum that the Nightmare Armor videos, which had gone offline for bandwidth reasons, are now all back up and downloadable. If you missed any of the cool footage, go check it out! (Louis Wu 17:11:28 UTC) (permalink)
White Button Blues
Yeah, yeah... in the midst of all this Halo 2 goodness, that Stuntmutt HAS to get his digs in. 6 in a row, even. It's okay, though, he's covering OTHER games in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:13:11 UTC) (permalink)
He's Gearing Up...
Captain Spark has opened a Halo 2 dialogue center, in preparation for the huge flood of recording he's planning to do in a few months. At the moment, it's got a bunch of modified screenshots he's put together... quite pretty. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:53:53 UTC) (permalink)
FAQs and Statistics
Narcogen has taken quite a bit of information from the new Hands-On articles, and already incorporated it into the Rampancy.net Halo 2 FAQ. Busy busy! (Louis Wu 13:35:30 UTC) (permalink)
Famous Last Words
Oh m'gosh! Mister Chief has gone ribs. X-eyes are never good... Go read Halo Babies today. (Louis Wu 13:30:08 UTC) (permalink)
Hands, hands, and more hands.
And the writeups continue to pour in - Gamespot has put up a 7-page in-depth view, and Gamespy has posted 4 pages of Hands-On feedback. Here at HBO, our very own mnemesis whipped up his own impressions on our forum. They're gonna be coming all day, folks, so take it slow. (Me, I'm off to get some sleep.) (Louis Wu 07:39:56 UTC) (permalink)
IGN Gets their Hands Dirty
And the media flood commences. IGN has posted the first half of its Beta Hands-On experience at Bungie Studios last month - three pages of goodness. Go read. (Louis Wu 07:06:44 UTC) (permalink)
Following the Big One
IGN Xbox has a 6-page article on what it's like to cover Halo 2, the 'most anticipated game of all time'. Interesting read. Look for far more content in the next couple of days; the media embargo that was set to be lifted on September 15 will now lift in 4 hours - at 12:01 am PST Friday. (We'll have a couple of writeups of our own, I should think... though I'm not sure when they'll get posted.) And those juicy hi-res screenshots that went up a bit early yesterday will be available again. Thanks, Oddworld. (Louis Wu 03:05:55 UTC) (permalink)
News September 9 2004
Artwork, getchyer Red-Hot Artwork...
Eep - I forgot yesterday's Wallpaper update (coming soon, I hope), but at least I have today's Miscellaneous Art update. 10 new pieces, including some cool renders and a larger version of some very cool art that showed up in the Letters to the Webmaster section of Bungie.net. Check 'em all out! (Louis Wu 19:23:17 UTC) (permalink)
Desktop MC
Xbox.com is offering a desktop Master Chief for users of Windows PCs - a 2 mb download that puts a semi-active MC on your desktop. He's there to pass you new info about Halo 2, as it's released... I guess he's sort of cute. More info can be found on the Xbox.com page, or in Walshicus' forum post about it. The Marketing juggernaut continues... (Louis Wu 15:30:02 UTC) (permalink)
Bambi Eyes
Just a word of advice for young kids out there: there's nothing that sets off parental radar faster than the technique in today's Calvin and Halo. NOTHING. (Now, if Calvin tried, instead, to sell his dad on the Co-op gameplay as a father-son bonding technique...) (Louis Wu 15:06:58 UTC) (permalink)
Thursday's Wurds
5 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today. (I'd expected more, given the outage this weekend... but I'm not complaining.) Mostly chapters, and one poem. (Louis Wu 15:03:46 UTC) (permalink)
Character Shmaracter
I hate these things... but I hate the flood of email worse. Go vote in the GameFAQs Character Battle today; the Master Chief is up against Frog, from Chrono Trigger, and he's currently losing. If you go, though, maybe the flood of emails will stop. Thanks! (Louis Wu 14:31:47 UTC) (permalink)
Korb Korb Korb!
Another international sighting - the Master Chief appeared in a shop in Sweden today. (Is it just me, or does it look like an Elite is trying to fit into the MC's armor?) Thanks, pmzukan. (Louis Wu 14:28:49 UTC) (permalink)
Who's crying now?
DOH! We don't even have a real One One Se7en strip for you today... but Stuntmutt couldn't step away from the spotlight. Oh, no, not him... (Louis Wu 12:29:07 UTC) (permalink)
Punk Halo
Jophis points out that his band made a punk song called 'Why'd he snipe me?', available for download at their website. Halo inspires... (Louis Wu 12:25:19 UTC) (permalink)
News September 8 2004
Steel... Colander
Bah. I hate forgetting things. The Bungie Weekly Updates database is up-to-date; the most recent update was added this morning. Sorry for the delay. (Louis Wu 21:35:19 UTC) (permalink)
Cover Design Contest Closing
Blade points out that the Halo 2 Cover Design contest he's been running are closing tomorrow at midnight. If you're interested in entering, now's the time. (We mentioned this contest when it started.) (Louis Wu 21:31:32 UTC) (permalink)
Multicolored Spartans
Nightmare Armor has posted a video containing footage from DragonCon 2004, held last weekend in Atlanta. 8 Spartans were on hand, along with Cortana. The music, as well as some of the taunting, is PG-rated... but it's a pretty fun view of a series of Spartans wandering around, getting in fights with Imperial Stormtroopers, and doing the Robot. (Depending on your browser, you might have trouble viewing the vid directly on their webpage; it was a copy-and-paste job from their G4 video, so one of the two tags is incorrect. If you see a G4 video instead of the DragonCon vid, simply right-click on the Save Video link.) For Mac users, I've tossed up a much smaller (7.5 mb, compared to the original 26 mb WMP9 version) QuickTime version on files.bungie.org. Thanks to G-Nox for pointing this out. (Louis Wu 21:23:27 UTC) (permalink)
Know your friends
Boxer points out that Episode 8 of Adventures in Disaster is now up at akba.info. Another look at your allies. Sort of. (Louis Wu 20:00:33 UTC) (permalink)
Short Sighted.
Continuing his 'I want to be in the news every day' streak, Stuntmutt whips out a new One One Se7en for you. No, those aren't bees. (Louis Wu 12:32:42 UTC) (permalink)
Links Links Links
Apologies to all the folks waiting in the Links queue - I'm not sure what happened, but it's been over a week since I've approved any of them. I've cleared the queue at this point, though. Check out the Links page for a bunch of new sites! (Louis Wu 12:29:19 UTC) (permalink)
The Essence of Sack
Yesterday, we released a short vid showing Mike Miller clearing the Belly of the Beast fight on Truth and Reconciliation without firing a shot - on Legendary. You might remember 'Legend', Mike's last video, showing some pretty slick Legendary gameplay. Well... he's followed it up with a sequel. Legend 2 is 7:36 long, 28.6 mb big, in QuickTime format... and contains some of the most balls-to-the-wall gameplay I've seen. When I clear out the Maw elevator, i do so from the safety of the corridor, so I can run away when the Spec-Ops Elites and Grunts don't all die in the first volley. Mike actually wipes out the lot from INSIDE the elevator. His 'hog handling is gorgeous (though he dumps a lot of 'em off edges...), the sniping is spot-on. And, as usual, the plasma grenade planting is beautiful. Half the video is devoted to outtakes, showing you he's human (some are hilarious)... and the final tidbit has to be seen to be believed. Absolutely worth the download. It's at Mythica.org and files.bungie.org for now; as always, we're happy to post mirror links. (Louis Wu 10:49:54 UTC) (permalink)
New Mombasa Classic for Mac users
bobindashadows has managed to convert the New Mombasa Classic map (originally for Halo CE) to work with Mac Halo. (There's also an updated tool for installing custom maps available.) You can't actually play on Halo CE servers (Mac Halo can't see them) - but you CAN play the map itself, with other Mac users. Really nice! Check out the details at Mac Dev. Thanks to Brodingo for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 10:20:57 UTC) (permalink)
Halo PC 1.05 Patch Available
The Halo PC 1.05 patch, which closes a potential security hole and fixes Halo PC to work with XP's Service Pack 2, is now accessible via the Auto-Update feature (it will be downloaded automatically the next time you connect to the server list from within the Halo PC application), or you can grab it from FilePlanet (thanks, HaloPlanet) and update manually (it's just under 5 mb). (Louis Wu 09:58:34 UTC) (permalink)
Out and Back Again
Ducain, following up on his previous 'get a warthog with a live marine across the Silent Cartographer shaft' trick, has gotten the warthog BACK across the shaft (without killing the live marine). Vid is 8.6 mb, WMP9 format. Nice toss! (Louis Wu 09:52:01 UTC) (permalink)
News September 7 2004
Tuesday's Fan Fiction
I'd hoped to find time to recode the Fan Fiction section for a new server - it hasn't happened yet. We've therefore brought the original back online, for this section alone. We should be fine for a while. There are 8 new pieces for you there - go read! (Louis Wu 20:41:08 UTC) (permalink)
Hold 'D', eh?
Thanks to broony, who sent in a scan of a 4-page interview with Max Hoberman, Bungie's Multiplayer Lead for Halo 2, published in last month's Xbox World magazine in the UK. It mostly discusses Zanzibar... with some fun tidbits of other areas thrown in. Go read it in our Press Scans section. (Louis Wu 20:11:31 UTC) (permalink)
Why won't somebody help the point man?
Age points out that the Fire Team Charlie boyz have put out another vid; FTC13b is members-only, but it's 8:16 of hilarity, absolutely worth the 65 mb download. It's currently available in Divx-encoded AVI format, but they'll have a QuickTime version available later today. (Louis Wu 17:21:21 UTC) (permalink)
Guns Don't Kill People...
Mike Miller, a man who knows how to play Halo and make movies about it, has dropped off a film called 'Guns Don't Kill People...' If you're at all insecure about your Halo-playing ability, don't watch this. T&R's 'Belly Of The Beast', on Legendary... in under 4 minutes, without firing a shot. (An interesting side effect of not shooting seems to be some glitching in the triggers for the sword elites; they still come out, but not in their normal pattern.) We're hosting this (QuickTime format, 13.7 mb) on files2.bungie.org. (I'm still trying to decide whether I'm in awe of his skill, or whether I hate him for making it look so easy.) (Louis Wu 15:39:23 UTC) (permalink)
When HBO Regulars Meet
It seems that Stuntmutt has gotten a taste for fame, and now refuses to let a day go by without a new strip or a news post. Well, the money's good, so I'm fine with it. Go check out his take on what happens when internet geeks meet in real life in today's Guest One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 14:29:55 UTC) (permalink)
Crafty Art
It's Tuesday, so there must be 10 new pieces of art on HBO. Today's batch is in the Miscellaneous Art Section. Some snazzy sketching in there! Check it out. (Louis Wu 14:07:19 UTC) (permalink)
Bounce, baby, bounce
Juggertrout put together a short (1:19, 6.8 mb) film showing some Warthog Jumping off of pelicans. It's being hosted by Mythica, for the [-TLG-] clan. (Louis Wu 13:33:37 UTC) (permalink)
Delagginator Released
Thanks to Nathaniel, of the EPG Servers, who posted a note on the Gearbox forums about the new EPGS Delagginator. Coded by Kornman and MonoxideC, this is a server-side patch that can help significantly with the vehicle warping problem on Halo CE. (Be sure you read his warning about the order in which to do things...) (Louis Wu 13:24:28 UTC) (permalink)
WAPtastic!
Way back on April, 2000, Haloplayers launched a Halo WAP site for mobile phones. That site is long-dead... but the idea has been revived, over at HaloPlanet. (I'm linking to the automated forum post for two reasons; there's no 'permanent link' I can lock onto on the HaloPlanet front page, and the thread itself has interesting info, like a link to a pretty good WAP emulator, so you can see what it looks like without a compatible phone.) Slick! (Louis Wu 12:07:19 UTC) (permalink)
News September 6 2004
New movies from TeamX
That Weasel writes to mention two new videos on the Team X subsite of That Weasel Television; Tantrum and Recoil are now available for downloading (along with 12 other vids that folks might not have seen due to bandwidth issues). All movies are in WMP9 format. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 22:29:24 UTC) (permalink)
I think that's the Spec-Ops one...
Following in the Jackal theme, Tina Leyk sent along a quick sketch of a Jackal, just to show a friend that they CAN be drawn... you'll find the new guy at the bottom of her Fan Art page here at HBO. Rockin'! (Louis Wu 22:20:54 UTC) (permalink)
Broken Fix Fixed
Bungie.net has a story promising an update to Halo PC (and CE) tomorrow. The patch will fix an exploit which allows a server to be crashed remotely, and fix the issues caused by Windows XP SP2. (Count Zero 22:09:53 UTC) (permalink)
Know your enemy!
Boxer points out that Episode 7 of Adventures in Disaster is up over at akba.info. A Jackal by any other name would still taste like chicken... (Louis Wu 22:08:23 UTC) (permalink)
Hostile Insertions and Invisible Flybys
Word from Mhaddy, over at the Junkyard, is that part IV of their Realism in Halo series, focusing on Silent Cartographer, has been posted. Go see what a Marine pilot thinks about Bungie's military realism on this open-battle level! (Louis Wu 22:02:51 UTC) (permalink)
Handy For Those Sword Only Gametypes
Wow, almost missed today's One One Se7en update because of the traveling. Stuntmutt's pretty proud of this one - I think the fact that he got it all down on paper before passing out says a lot for his stamina. (Louis Wu 21:32:25 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Babies pours out the artwork
Because one batch of Wallpaper is never enough, you need to stop by Halo Babies, for a massive art update, including some very cool collaborative wallpaper done by Gruntsbane and akba. (akba started by vectorizing the MC pose from Zoe's farewell desktop, and then both akba and Gruntsbane put this image (with various amounts of tweaking) into supercool desktop images, in a variety of sizes.) There's also a new fan strip, new fan art, and a submission information page. Whew! (Louis Wu 21:28:59 UTC) (permalink)
Pretties for your screen
Back, finally, from Minnesota. There was no Wallpaper update yesterday (oversight), so here it is today - 10 new desktop images in the Wallpaper Section. Apologies for the delay! (Louis Wu 21:19:26 UTC) (permalink)
Poor kitty :(
Resident flash monkey BOLL has posted his own take on the Gamestar event. At least *some* people got to play the right version of Halo 2... (Count Zero 21:11:14 UTC) (permalink)
News September 5 2004
Cruel Brittania
You may have noticed the large number of reports of... odd Halo 2 gameplay at the Game Stars Live event in London over the past few days. Stuntmutt tosses his own ideas into the ring in a special Sunday One One Se7en. Update: There's a MASSIVE (and really-well-written) chronicle of Stuntmutt's EGN experience on our forum today. That man can write... (Louis Wu 15:21:16 UTC) (permalink)
Storming the Beach
Professor Keo put together a very nice video called 'Storming the Beach' - 7.6 mb, QuickTime format, it does a very cinematic job of portraying the beach battle on Silent Cartographer. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:18:35 UTC) (permalink)
Site woes - again
The problems with one of our three servers have gotten bad enough that I've pulled it entirely from the rotation. This means 2 things: the load on the remaining two servers is significantly higher (which might mean more outages)... and it means the Fan Fiction section is entirely offline until I can code a replacement for it. I apologize for this. I'm STILL at a family wedding, and will be for a couple of days more, so changes are going to have to wait a bit. Again, I'm sorry. Fan Fic WILL be back, soon - I just have to give it a home. (Louis Wu 15:12:31 UTC) (permalink)
HSH Launches
Goatrope has opened High Speed Halo, a new website devoted to Halo speed runs. All difficulties, all levels - if you're interested in seeing how fast you can get through Halo, High Speed Halo is for you! Comments can go in this forum thread. (Louis Wu 14:56:16 UTC) (permalink)
News September 4 2004
Sketches and Brushstrokes
Internet... connectivity... fading... but there's still time for a Miscellaneous Art update. Go check out the 10 new pieces. Some pretty cool stuff this time around. (Louis Wu 13:51:11 UTC) (permalink)
TalkXbox takes a longer look at Halo 2
coolp, using the time he spent playing Halo 2 at PAX as a starting point, wrote up a pretty extensive 'Hands-On Halo 2' article over at TalkXbox. Go see if there's anything you didn't know. (Louis Wu 03:20:01 UTC) (permalink)
Analysing spit for hormones
Interesting article over at the BBC on the science of human physiology as affected by video game playing. Halo is mentioned as a prime example of why there's motivation for this. Looks like first notice for this came from hminn. (Louis Wu 03:15:43 UTC) (permalink)
Final Push Day Is Here
The Bungie Weekly Update can be found today over on the HaloPlanet forum, where you can learn all you ever wanted to know about satan's underwear drawer, barking helicopters, and elastic-waist pants. Or, at least what Frankie thinks of those things. Just about one month left for development! (mnemesis 00:13:27 UTC) (permalink)
News September 3 2004
Halo Babies gets out the content
Last update for a while. This one points out the new content at Halo Babies... there's lots of it. A new strip, new strip backgrounds that can be used by folks interested in making guest strips, and a new reality-show-type video chronicling more of the Seattle trip in the Sponsors section (bandwidth 30+ mb movies are expensive to serve). Check it all out! (Louis Wu 15:24:17 UTC) (permalink)
Gamestop booklet on Halo 2
cDringer scanned a nice-looking freebie he found at Gamestop - it's the same image that OXM is using on their October cover. (I've replaced the original 1 mb gif with a smaller jpeg, but otherwise, his post is as it was.) The press continues... (Louis Wu 15:04:45 UTC) (permalink)
Seventh Column to undergo major changes
Ouch. There's a long story over on Bungie.net, talking about the long-awaited upgrade to the Seventh Column; starting next Tuesday, it'll be down for 1-2 weeks for the upgrade, and when it comes back, there'll be lots and lots of changes. This is bad news for the HBO Junkies, which was actually using one of the features slated for the chopping block (the Events database) for a big upcoming lanfest... but hey, we'll manage, I guess. First heads-up for this came from SPARTAN-01110101. (Louis Wu 04:27:05 UTC) (permalink)
Canadians get a shot at goodies
Are you a legal resident of Canada, 17 or over by October 4? If you are, you have a shot at some cool Halo-related goodies from the Famous Players website. Visit the contest page for details, and don't forget to check the Rules page for all the nitty-gritty. themanlydeadguy brought it to our attention. (Louis Wu 04:12:28 UTC) (permalink)
Deviance
WOW. Another really cool Halo-related image on the DeviantArt website - VegasMike (otherwise known as Adam Vehige, who won our Pillar of Art contest last year with a similar image) posted an image called 'Halo 2'. Very, very nice. Thanks to Guardian for finding it. (Louis Wu 04:06:30 UTC) (permalink)
Nature Abhors A Beam Rifle?
No, that's not a boot in today's One One Se7en... it's a - well, go read it. (Louis Wu 03:53:10 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Stats - Lots of Stats
Wow. BlackOps, of the Imperial Army clan, posted a note on the Gearbox forums, announcing a new (not quite available yet) stats system for Halo PC, based on an open-source Unreal Tournament 2003 stats tracking system. There's a link to their own website, showing you what these stats look like; they're amazingly complete. Check it out! Thanks to MasterGrief for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:35:22 UTC) (permalink)
And still MORE Wallpapers
Another update this evening comes in the form of desktops, with 10 new items in the Wallpaper Section. Go see what you can find. (Louis Wu 03:23:28 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Fanfic
Some of you may have noticed I haven't been around much today. I'm at a family wedding about 1500 miles from home... so updates will be scarcer than usual (unless other staffers can cover for me). I CAN, however, post some of the user-submitted content... starting with the Fan Fiction section. 5 new items tonight. Go see. (halosn, the server handling Fan Fiction and Miscellaneous Art, among other things, is acting a little funny these days... so be patient after you click a link. Yes, we're working on it.) (Louis Wu 03:15:46 UTC) (permalink)
News September 2 2004
Can we call him 'Thunder'?
A Nightmare-Armor-clad MC made ANOTHER down-under appearance, this time on a footy field in Victoria. Thanks, Brett C. (Louis Wu 10:09:32 UTC) (permalink)
At least he's not selling crack.
Today's Calvin and Halo is eerily reminiscent of a recent forum thread... I say 'eerily' since the C&H was submitted weeks ago. Dun dun dun... (Louis Wu 09:51:35 UTC) (permalink)
The Library is back.
Saint points out that The Library (his attempt to categorize everything in Halo) is back online at Psyjnir.net. Thanks to him, and to Psyrixx! (The Psyjnir Complex itself is still offline, but expected back in a few weeks.) (Louis Wu 09:35:01 UTC) (permalink)
The Three Towers: Complete
High Impact Halo's Three Towers contest has ended - congrats to the winners! Check out Ducain's writeup on the HIH forum for details. Highlight reels will be forthcoming, it seems. (And thanks to him for the heads-up on our own forum.) (Louis Wu 09:30:42 UTC) (permalink)
DVD-enhanced Strategy Guide Cancelled
Until recently, one of the items you could plonk down money for in various online stores was the 'Halo 2 DVD Enhanced Prima Strategy Guide' - basically the upcoming Halo 2 Strategy Guide, bundled with a separate DVD. This item is actually still listed at Amazon.com, though without any real information. However, XAL sent us a note that he'd received from EBGames (where he had this guide on preorder) - they've cancelled all preorders for it, because their supplier (presumably the publisher) has told them it is not going to be available. Since it was never clear what this product actually CONTAINED, we can't really tell you what you're losing... (Louis Wu 08:56:25 UTC) (permalink)
Art for Art's Sake
The original plan, a few days ago, was to post 10 desktops and 10 misc art images until the queues were empty; unfortunately, our hardware conspired against us, and this turned out to be unfeasible. I'm rotating, then; every OTHER day, there'll be 10 new desktops, or 10 new pieces of art. Today is art day, so check the Miscellaneous Art Section for the latest batch. (The machine just moved to a new IP address, so if you're having trouble connecting, wait a little bit.) (Louis Wu 08:32:20 UTC) (permalink)
Trocadero - Music for your Soul
It's been a long time coming... but over on the Red vs Blue website, you can finally buy Trocadero's debut CD - with all the music from the Red vs Blue series, plus a bunch of new tracks. You can listen to samples on Trocadero's website, or just head over to the RvB store and plop down 12 smackers. This stuff rocks. Thanks to Neo-genesis for noticing. (Louis Wu 02:37:51 UTC) (permalink)
More from Game Stars Live
IGN put up their own Hands-On Halo 2 article based on gameplay at the Game Stars Live event happening right now in London; they weren't nearly as negative as our forum-goers, but it sounds like they had pretty much the same experience. Interesting that this is one of the first public showings of Halo 2 that DIDN'T have a Bungie employee on hand to keep things running... and it's the first with any serious problems. (Louis Wu 02:04:34 UTC) (permalink)
News September 1 2004
GD interviews Pete Parsons
Pete Parsons talked to GameDaily about Bungie's feelings about Halo 2, and where he thinks the game industry is going. An uplifting read. Thanks, Dr. Nick, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 22:14:43 UTC) (permalink)
How NOT to play Halo 2
Hehe - Ross Mills just got back from Gamestars Live... and it sounds like there were some organizational issues. Pretty odd... in all the hands-on reports from all the various sites hosting Halo 2 gameplay that we've seen, this is the first really negative one - and it comes from a pretty hardcore Halo fan. Sometimes, there ain't no justice. (Louis Wu 18:52:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Release Date in Japan
Hmm... I hadn't realized that the release date for Halo 2 in Japan hadn't been finalized yet... but no matter, according to IGN, it will go on sale there on November 11, just like most of Europe. One more country heard from... (Louis Wu 18:46:42 UTC) (permalink)
Nightmare News
Webshift points out that if anyone's in the Atlanta area this weekend, they should seriously consider stopping by Dragon*Con, a huge SciFi/Fantasy convention taking place from September 3-6. Nightmare Armor will be out in force, with 8 different Master Chiefs (all different colors) on the show floor. Folks have been pretty unhappy that the Nightmare Armor website has been offline... never fear, they have a brand-spankin'-new one, up and running now. Check it out for the latest details! (Louis Wu 17:28:19 UTC) (permalink)
Plantronics headset - REALLY official, now
TeamXbox posted the official Press Release for the Plantronics Halo 2 headset a bit over a week ago; they knew, at the time, that it had been leaked a little early, and that they might have to pull it. Looks like Plantronics has let it go, and the official PR release has hit the newswire today. A beautiful, hi-res shot of the headset is visible on the Plantronics site, along with a preorder page. Go check it out! Quick Update: John Durning points out that Plantronics' website prices might be high; as an example, he points out that in the last couple of days, he bought (at Best Buy) a Plantronics MX150 for $31 and a M60 for $17 (these are priced at $45 and $25, respectively, on the Plantronics site); if this pattern continues, you might be able to buy the Halo 2 headset for something in the neighborhood of $35. Of course, you can't PREORDER it at that price... (Louis Wu 14:56:34 UTC) (permalink)
A Torrent of Words
Man... I go a couple of days with no Fan Fiction update, and there are 18 stories waiting for me. No WONDER that server is having troubles. :( Go read. (Louis Wu 14:41:38 UTC) (permalink)
That's what it's all about...
Boxer points out that the next Adventures in Disaster comic is up at akba.info - Episode 6 might give you a different outlook on Halo multiplayer. (Louis Wu 14:30:41 UTC) (permalink)
Tricks Tricks and more Tricks
Four tricks movies showed up on our forum in the last day or so; pretty wide range of size and interest. First post was from foxygrandpa117; he posted about a pair of vids a clanmember of his, wOot, made. The first shows a coop pair riding the initial pelican in AotCR down to the bottom of the pit; the trick is old, but nobody's bothered to document the entire ride, I don't think. WMP9 format, 7.7 mb. The second is random trick stuff; it's the sort of video we'd decline to host if it were submitted here, because every single trick has been shown in other vids, but it's a nice compilation of stuff, if you're not a rabid downloader. WMP9 format, 21.7 mb. Then there was a post from vshields ash, pointing out a vid made by fluit (and originally posted at highimpacthalo.org). This one shows some platform-to-platform hog launching at the top of AotCR. Nice distance. WMP9 format, 2.7 mb. Finally, Madrox and Monoxide continue with their 'getting stuff into the AotCR underground pit' series, this time actually working on Two Betrayals, and bringing down a flood combat form. WMP9 format, 10.7 mb. (This is enough to get this post spoiler-labeled.) Nice to see that Halo tricking is still going strong! (Louis Wu 14:26:35 UTC) (permalink)
Dialogue Widgets
Joshua Pettigrew has created a few bizarre widgets for Konfabulator, a MacOSX interface enhancer. (If you're not using MacOSX, these are useless to you.) Drop them on your desktop, click on them, they spit out random dialogue from the game. if this sounds like something that interests you, go grab 'em. (Forum thread is here, for comments.) (Louis Wu 14:12:54 UTC) (permalink)
MC Helps Roosters Eat Babies
Looks like the Sydney Roosters, on track for the National Rugby League finals in Australia, have pulled Halo's Master Chief on board for some coaching help. Read all the details on the Australian Xbox.com site. Thanks to David the Great for pointing this out - and to the Aussies in this forum thread, who noticed the Nightmare Armor-clad giant on Rove Live recently. Looks like those suits are popping up all over the world! (Louis Wu 14:01:43 UTC) (permalink)
Not a single Pancake mention
Looks like Dr. Nick found that Canada.com article as well, but he went one step further, and found THIS article on the Canadian contingent on the same site. It's a good read, even if they DO call Anim8rJB and bentllama the 'Canimators'... and it looks like Sep7imus has taken issue with a couple of other... um, interesting phrase choices. (Louis Wu 13:42:26 UTC) (permalink)
ALIENS vs Halo
Nice image by opticalneuralinterface over at DeviantArt - someone else who shares Tina Leyk's twin passions for Halo and the Xenomorphs. A browse through his gallery turns up this Halo 2 image (and lots of other fun stuff). Thanks to Mr. Cynical for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 11:13:07 UTC) (permalink)
The Great Wallpaper Exodus, Day 5
We've got another 10 desktops for you today in the Wallpaper Section - and a quick note. Some of the subsections of our site are hosted on a machine that's having more and more trouble keeping up with the traffic; we're doing everything we can to migrate away from this. In the meantime, though, if you get an error message when you load a page that reads 'The database failed to initialize' - be aware this is (mostly) transient - refreshing a few times should get you past it. I've moved the Wallpaper section off that machine for now; I'm not sure its current home will be any better, but given the greatly added traffic in both Wallpaper and Misc Art sections these days, anything that helps has got to be good. (Louis Wu 10:26:33 UTC) (permalink)
TalkXbox visits PAX
TalkXbox was another site with a reporter at last weekend's PAX event in Seattle - you can read their writeup, and view lots and lots of pics, on their website. Thanks, Jman. (Louis Wu 10:21:01 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Sneak Peek at Canada.com
Canada.com, the web version of Canada's National Post, has a two-page article on Halo 2, and contains what I think is the first legitimate webview of the new Covenant beam rifle (as well as a not-very-clear pic of the Scorpion tank). It's a pretty good read... (Louis Wu 10:04:24 UTC) (permalink)
| September 2004 | |
