About This Site
Daily Musings
News
News Archive
Site Resources
Concept Art
Halo Bulletins
Interviews
Movies
Music
Miscellaneous
Mailbag
HBO PAL
Game Fun
The Halo Story
Tips and Tricks
Fan Creations
Wallpaper
Misc. Art
Fan Fiction
Comics
Logos
Banners
Press Coverage
Halo Reviews
Halo 2 Previews
Press Scans
Community
HBO Forum

Clan HBO Forum
ARG Forum
Links
Admin
Submissions
Uploads
Contact

September 2007

September 2007 Archived News

News September 30 2007

Zombies and Beer
Stuntmutt has been busy on his own blog - he was at the London gala last Monday (sounds like the only thing that went right was the ending), and he's been collecting some funny guest One One Se7en strips which went up today. If he tries to claim it's his daughter when he betrays you on Live... don't buy it. He was doing that LONG before she came along. (What I REALLY want to know is... what's a Londoner using Australian slang in everyday conversation?) (Louis Wu 20:51:36 UTC) (permalink)

Donald Trump Hates Him.
I love Marty O'Donnell - the man writes fantastic music, and he's pretty sharp to boot - but I hear he can be a little temperamental when he's working. An evil, evil man sent us a picture that might help explain a few things... (Louis Wu 20:24:13 UTC) (permalink)

Ew.
So there we were, with our happy little videogame that's all about guns and shooting stuff and saving the universe... and along comes Elnea who has to ruin it with sex. Man... girls. There's a reason we don't let 'em in the secret clubhouse. (This is pure fantasy, so I'm not sure how it counts as 'spoilers'... but hey. That's what she marked it, so that's what I'm marking it. Maybe she meant she's spoiled the whole 'fun' thing - I dunno.) Gawd. I gotta go wash the cooties off now. (Louis Wu 19:57:08 UTC) (permalink)

The Glasses Do It
Rawkin'. You might remember a few days ago we mentioned that Spu7n1k was planning on cosplaying as 343 Guilty Spark at a Launch Event in Singapore? And that he was competing to win a Legendary Edition of Halo 3, which isn't for sale otherwise in that country? Well, his sister Calliope wrote to us - not only did he win... but she did, too. Check out the pics. (Louis Wu 16:56:44 UTC) (permalink)

Jack 'Xenu' Thompson?
Okay, this is just... odd. (Louis Wu 15:42:05 UTC) (permalink)

You think YOU live in the boonies...
Heh - they're playing Halo 3 EVERYWHERE. There's an article in the Brunei Times (if your geography is weak, Brunei is a tiny country on the island of Borneo, surrounded by a piece of Malaysia) about how quickly the 40 copies of the Limited Edition that the country received were sold. I wonder if any of those people are playing on Live...? Update: Arbiter347 is a US expat, living in Brunei, and he wasn't able to even find a store that had HEARD of Halo 3, much less sell him a copy. He's pretty sure that the local copies went to piraters, who will be duplicating them in short order. (Louis Wu 15:28:26 UTC) (permalink)

Playing with Numbers
Over at DaniWeb, there's a blog post that looks at the sales numbers that have been tossed around this week, and what they mean, long-term. (And what they mean when compared to movies, or books, or anything else Microsoft's been comparing Halo 3 launch numbers with.) It's worth reading, just for the 'let's not get carried away' advice. (Louis Wu 15:06:56 UTC) (permalink)

Flashbacks of Halo Rings...
Heh - Trevelyan X ran across an interesting info message while messing around in Forge... always nice to see that Bungie's retained its sense of humor. (For what it's worth, the flipee in this case is an elephant. There are films in Trevelyan's fileshare (labeled hhh and flippa) if you want more info.) (Louis Wu 15:02:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Panoramas
RVideo has been playing around with Halo 3 panoramas - he sent us three:

• Eden
• Greetings from the Edge
• Little People First

bikeman704 also posted a panorama that resembles 'Eden' in our forum. These are spoiler-free, in my opinion - but they DO show locations in the campaign, so... (Louis Wu 14:55:07 UTC) (permalink)

Review Roundup
A bunch more reviews popped through my inbox:

• Techtree.com - 4.5/5
• Sunday Herald Sun (Australia) - 4.5/5
• About.com - 5/5
• 411mania.com - 10/10

It's been suggested that we simply point you to an aggregator, like gamerankings.com, and dispense with the review listings altogether... at this point, we're probably just going to keep posting them, but the day may come when we decide it's futile. Update: one more - Bit-tech.net gave it a 9/10. (Louis Wu 14:42:15 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3, Day by Day
The State, a paper in Columbia, SC, is running a one-mission-a-day recap of the game; the first two missions are done (one | two). Full of spoilers, of course. I'll see if I can remember to link future missions. (Louis Wu 14:37:02 UTC) (permalink)

You got beat by a girl.
The Cavegirls are now taking registrations for Fight Like a Girl, an online tournament to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. October 20, on Live, $10 to enter either a Halo 3 FFA or a 2v2 tournament (or $20 to enter both), proceeds to go to ot the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Be warned - you'll be up against (among others) Team Manogram. Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 14:33:12 UTC) (permalink)

The Gallery Forum Reopens at B.net
A couple of days ago, Bungie posted a note about the reopening of the Gallery Forum - and the re-emergence of the Caption Contest. Visit the thread listed, write a funny caption to go with the funny picture, get famous. No profit, sorry. (Louis Wu 14:30:15 UTC) (permalink)

Origins 1
Sane Intolerant looks back on how the characters in Halo Toy Box got started. (Louis Wu 14:28:24 UTC) (permalink)

Machinima Licenses, Revisited
Wired takes another look at the Game Content Usage Rules Microsoft published a couple of months ago - not a lot new, but it does a nice job of comparing the situation facing Halo machinima creators with that of creators in the Blizzard camp. Thanks, Xavier Guerrero. (Louis Wu 14:25:13 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 League Opens
Cody Misura sent us word of Halo 3 League, an online tourney site with both free and pay-to-enter, win-cash tournaments. Look around! (Louis Wu 14:01:27 UTC) (permalink)

Eggsactly.
Yesterday, I posted news about an easter egg that was found on the level 'The Covenant' - and I immediately received scathing mail telling me how I'd spoiled the game for someone. (The exact choice of words were "I know I can rely on HBO to spoil any content I may not have discovered yet in my four days of playing.") I'm pretty sure there's no real spoiler information in that post; the level on which the skull is found is not listed, the actual solution to finding the skull is not listed, the RELEVANCE of the skull isn't even listed... but just in case, I'm posting THESE easter egg finds under a spoiler tag. You have to ASK to see this post. I'm sure more eggs have been found by now - but these two were pretty cool, and (more importantly), I noticed posts about them.

• Ruzhyo was the first I noticed to find the 'Monkey family' on the opening mission. Jammerfer pointed out that this egg is related to Basement Jaxx. This Bungie Weekly Update mentions a map with monkey sounds... now you know why.
  
  
• Forwards found a Siege of Madrigal easter egg in Halo 3 (there were a couple in Halo (here and here) and at least one in Halo 2 (here) - now you can hear it in Halo 3. Awesome!

Again, I'm sure there are lots more eggs to be found (I personally ran across an RvB funny the first time I played Crows Nest)... these were just two that seemed worth highlighting. (Louis Wu 13:33:59 UTC) (permalink)

Spoiler Settings - Now Changed
We've finally turned on the option to block Halo 3 spoilers in our news - because the time has come to allow us to post Halo 3 spoilers in our news. If you don't want to see Halo 3 spoilers at all, make sure you reset your cookie choices with the little 'Change This!' link at the top of the page. (The cookie name has changed, so that EVERYONE will need to make a change unless they want NO spoilers at all.) (Louis Wu 13:00:22 UTC) (permalink)

Do Something Amazing, Win Prizes
Planet Halo is running a contest in partnership with the US Air Force called "The Do Something Amazing Movie Contest" (free registration required). Create a one-minute Film Clip in Halo 3 (which limits this to multiplayer, since clips can't be made in Campaign), save it to your File Share on Bungie.net and send them a note and link explaining why it's so cool. Grand prize is a Halo 3 edition Xbox 360 and Battle Rifle replicas - not bad! Thanks Michael "Fluffaluffer" Karlsson for letting us know. (GhaleonEB 02:20:30 UTC) (permalink)

It Had a Good Run
Halo 2 remained the most-played title on Xbox Live from the week it came out until Gears of War released, two years later. Gears has held the top spot since then - until now. Major Nelson posted the top 10 most played titles for Live this week (through Friday), and as expected, Halo 3 has debuted at number one. Odds are good it will stay there for a while. (GhaleonEB 02:11:02 UTC) (permalink)

News September 29 2007

A Throne Fit for the Chief
Halo fans have done a lot of creative art work, from armor and weapon recreations to more traditional art. Last night bs angel sent word of a rather unusual piece on eBay right now - a Master Chief-engraved toilet seat. Bidding ends about 36 hours from this post, with a current bid of $20. The artwork is quite remarkable - just remember to leave the seat down to appreciate it. (GhaleonEB 16:36:32 UTC) (permalink)

Phooey.
So last night, it was reported that the IWHBYD skull was 'found', after 'countless hours'. (Never mind that the game's been out for well under a week.) In Halo 2, this was the toughest skull to crack; in fact, because there's probably an element of randomness in the triggering, nobody's EVER figured out a consistent way to get it. In Halo 3, though... they just pored over the code with a hex editor. Woohoo. I'm posting this to point out that it's been found, for folks who want to play with the skull - and to lament the loss of the discovery by more traditional means. It's not as though it would have been impossible to figure out; the rings you need to jump through play notes, and the musical piece you're looking for (the Halo theme, or a variant of it) was the last one played in the cutscene just before this section. As a musician friend said, "You gotta hand it to Bungie. What an elegant freaking puzzle. With the 4th ring being damaged and all. And the synth sound that the rings produce is so warm and analog and lovely-sounding." Bah. And with that, I'd like to apologize; yesterday (and today) was (and will be) a tremendously busy day, so I'm falling behind on Halo news. There's a ton backed up in the queue - but unless another admin finds time to post some of it, it might be there for a bit. Sorry. (I hate that my enthusiasm for this stuff is so easily damped by cheaters...) (Louis Wu 13:53:35 UTC) (permalink)

Check Google Tomorrow
Heh - Sane Intolerant found an unused skull in Halo 3. (Louis Wu 13:44:55 UTC) (permalink)

Not as good as the original
Geek.com reviewed Halo 3 - they believe that if someone remade Halo with Live functionality, this game would be instantly overshadowed. (Louis Wu 13:36:30 UTC) (permalink)

Don't smacktalk a Ninja
Well, yesterday was Friday, so it was time for another Bungie Weekly Update - Luke used it as a way to address a number of issues that have come up over the past few days, from achievement glitches to tempest-in-a-teapot scandals. Worth a read - either at B.net, or in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 13:34:04 UTC) (permalink)

Mister Warhol
Jared Rea pointed out some Warhol-like Halo art, done by the same person who created a set of Mister Chief cupcakes a few months ago. If you want to make your own, she's even supplied the stencil. Coolness! (Louis Wu 13:08:29 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Content Floods Live Marketplace
A bucketful of Halo 3 content made its way onto Xbox Live Marketplace today. First, Morpheus pointed out a Campaign demonstration video, which can be found in the Game Videos category (check new arrivals). Weighing in at 224 megs, Jonty Barnes and Jay Weinland demonstrate one of the large battles from the game. Next, the exclusive content for Gold members we mentioned a few days ago is now up. Look for the "Unite to Fight" ad on either the Marketplace or Xbox Live blades and download a theme, gamerpic and two videos. The first is called "Inside Bungie: Halo 3 - The Story", and the second "Inside Bungie: Halo 3 - New Features", clocking in at 275 and 238 megs, respectively. As the titles imply, they feature folks from Bungie discussing what players can expect out of the story, as well as an overview of some of the new features in Halo 3. (GhaleonEB 06:18:51 UTC) (permalink)

News September 28 2007

A Sweet Deal for Tourney Newbs
Whoa. So you know we post MLG news when we find it (or when it's sent to us)... but did you know we were looking to make your lives a little better, tournament-wise? MLG Las Vegas kicks off on October 12 - and if you're not a pro (or even if you are), participating can get expensive. There's travel, hotel... and registration. MLG tournaments are $60/head, or $240/team, per tournament. That's where we come in. MLG has provided us with 30 free passes - all you need to do to get one is ask at mlgpasses@bungie.org. Each pass is good for a FULL TEAM - four players. (Yes, they're handing out $240 passes to HBO regulars. They rock.) There are only 30 of these, and they're first come, first-served - so if you think you can go, send off that email! (Please don't ask for one if you can't actually go.) We'll update this newspost when all 30 are gone. MLG Las Vegas should be a fantastic event - there's $475,000 on the line! This time around, there's even a free Halo 3 LAN happening! Priority will be given to tournament attendees, but everybody's going to get a turn. Who loves ya, baby? (Louis Wu 21:37:58 UTC) (permalink)

More Lock-In Writeups
So it's been a little while since I looked - some of the other participants in the Community Lock-In have now posted writeups. (Mine, if you missed it, was mentioned on Wednesday.) In alphabetical order: Aeropause | Gamertag Radio | Grunts R Us | Podtacular | XBL10kClub I'm sure more are coming. (Louis Wu 21:26:43 UTC) (permalink)

Isolation Changes - Nailed
Heh - cool. Noticed at Xbox 360 Fanboy that someone's discovered what happens on Isolation after you've been playing for a while. (Ferrex hinted that there was a change a little while back... now we know what he meant.) (Louis Wu 21:26:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo3.com now fully fleshed
Stuntmutt (fast becoming PostWhore) pointed out that all the blacked-out boxes on halo3.com (in the Characters and Vehicles & Weapons pages) are now filled out. Not surprising - but finished. (Louis Wu 21:05:44 UTC) (permalink)

Unco-op.
Poor Stuntmutt - Halo 3's been out for 2 days in the UK, and he ALREADY don't get no respect. Check today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 17:34:29 UTC) (permalink)

Like WoW gold mining, but harder
Penny Arcade looks at the lengths people go to nail down achievements - thanks to many, but Stuntmutt was first. (Louis Wu 17:23:56 UTC) (permalink)

More reviews
A couple more reviews popped up - Gamestyle gave Halo 3 a 10/10 (thanks, Garry Webber), and TotalVideoGames says it's only worth 8/10. Update: Stuntmutt (triple post!) noticed a review at Game Revolution (A-). (Louis Wu 17:21:04 UTC) (permalink)

Lord of the Ringworld
Online Journalism Review has posted an interview with our own Louis Wu, talking about online communities in general and HBO in particular. It offers a peek behind the curtain at some of the hows whys of HBO. Thanks to the author, Noah Barron, for letting us know it was up. (GhaleonEB 15:03:38 UTC) (permalink)

More Machinima Stuff
Yesterday, we described what you need to do in order to lower your weapon in Halo 3. We got a note from Burnie, over at Red vs Blue, with some followup info; a similar combo (swapping only DPad-Down for DPad-Up) will give you camera global coordinates and look vectors; this info should help you reproduce a specific camera position for advanced shots. For folks who don't know what they'd be getting, here are three screenshots: normal | no weapon | camera coordinates. (Louis Wu 14:27:50 UTC) (permalink)

Section 3
Last Friday's Bungie Weekly Update contained a section called 'Sketch's Build-Your-Own-Halo-Comic' - it showed off a series of screenshots, with some basic Photoshop filters applied, and suggested that they could easily be turned into a comic. Apparently, V10L3N7 JAY and friends did exactly that - Section 3 is a comic composed of screenshots taken in Halo 3, filtered, with a storyline added. In fact, the very first comic is simply Sketch's artwork, with titles and sound effects added. There are three episodes now (the third was announced by V10L3N7 JAY last night). Go look! (Louis Wu 13:53:50 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Only three new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week - could it be that everyone's playing a new game or something? (See if you can figure out who 'Angel at the Tomb' is - here's a hint, he's been around for a while.) (Louis Wu 13:26:21 UTC) (permalink)

Campaign Tribute to Halo 2
TM22 edited a Halo 2 tribute video - 15 minutes long, 170 mb, WMP9 format. You can grab a copy (or watch it streaming) over at Halo3Forum.com... tons of trick moves and grenade bounces - some really nice clips. Thanks, Z. (Louis Wu 12:53:27 UTC) (permalink)

Custom Female Spartan Statue
Wow. Joseph Ryan pointed us to this one-of-a-kind hand-sculpted Halo statue on eBay; polymer clay, almost 12 inches to the top of the sniper rifle. 10% of the sale price goes to the American Breast Cancer Foundation. Opening bid is $200, you've got just under a week. (Louis Wu 10:47:51 UTC) (permalink)

College Review
The Emory Wheel reviewed Halo 3 - they found parts repetitive, and some gameplay gripes, but in general liked it a lot. (Louis Wu 10:43:54 UTC) (permalink)

Get a Duffel for Yourself
Kotaku is giving away a TON of Halo schwag - you've got a week to answer a bunch of questions, one entry per gamer, with the winner selected randomly from those who answer all questions correctly. Go see! (Louis Wu 10:30:34 UTC) (permalink)

Not everybody gets it
InformationWeek points to video coverage of the Halo 3 launch event in an article discussing how video games have pushed the development of computer hardware. The whole tone of the article is 'kids these days...' (Louis Wu 10:27:14 UTC) (permalink)

Gotchas from Japan
We got this news from 3Suns yesterday, but it didn't occur to me that it might be useful to others; thanks to oli for pointing it out again. If you're in Japan, and you speak English, beware the Asian version of Halo 3 being sold there; the dialogue is in Chinese, with English subtitles for cutscenes only. There is apparently a NEW Asian version that has English dialogue - but be careful that your box confirms this, as there are almost certainly still copies of the original Chinese version in stores. There is reasonable second-hand evidence (both from oli, and from the net) that the US version of Halo 3 is not region-encoded, so English-speaking players in Japan might simply want to order their copies from the US. (Louis Wu 10:16:11 UTC) (permalink)

Halo as Fine Art
Wizard Universe is selling a 13"x19" Giclée print of some Isaac Hannaford artwork - there'll be 150 pieces, available in December, and they run $89.99 with an extra $10 shipping charge. At the moment, it's an advanced order, and they can't guarantee availability. (Louis Wu 10:08:39 UTC) (permalink)

It's Big Down Under, Too
Out of Australia: in a story that highlights the fact that Halo 3 is the biggest Australian entertainment launch of all time (50,000 copies in 24 hours), you can see pictures of the Prime Minister playing the game and meeting Master Chief (thanks, Tim and newguy2445). (Louis Wu 10:02:08 UTC) (permalink)

Chieftans are Hard
DigitalHer0 created a short clip using the Halo 3 Save Film feature; we're linking to it because it's one of the earliest clips released that use this feature, but I'd like to warn submitters that we'll be pretty picky in the future about front-paging clips. (You're always welcome to post them on our forum, of course.) This one shows an encounter with a Brute Chieftan, and lets you know what you'll face on Heroic. Pay careful attention to the effect of certain weapons. There are no story spoilers in this clip. (Louis Wu 09:56:04 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Sound Effects
Old Rich People have posted a Halo parody film - the footage is all from the Halo 3 Beta, for some reason. Thanks, Ashley Salas. (Louis Wu 09:50:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Movie Script Review
Jason Ross sat down with the Alex Garland script for the Halo movie (this originally surfaced in November 2005, but made a reappearance a few weeks ago). You can read Jason's thoughts on the script at CC2k. (Louis Wu 09:48:42 UTC) (permalink)

I don't think I've ever heard of 640p.
Robert "Apache" Howarth pointed us to this article at Voodoo Extreme - apparently, Quaz51, a user on the Beyond 3D forum, has done some calculations on his 1080p TV and found that Halo 3 runs natively at 640p. That seems... odd. If we get any more information about this, we'll be sure to let you know. (While you're over there, Apache also pointed out a VE poll which lets you submit your own Halo 3 review score.) (Louis Wu 09:26:57 UTC) (permalink)

News September 27 2007

33 Days of Halo, eh?
Canadians often get the short end of the stick when it comes to contests - but Anton P. Nym found a contest sponsored by Xbox.com-sponsored Canadian-only contest. Looks pretty juicy, too. (Louis Wu 21:13:41 UTC) (permalink)

Machinima Makers - Read This
Okay, so I've got good news and bad news for you, if you make Halo machinima, and you want to know how to put your weapon down. The good news is, we've got that info for you, thanks to madmax. The bad news? It only works locally or in system link - it will NOT work over Live. Sorry. So: here's the trick (and it really is a trick, you need a lot of fingers): hold down both bumpers, both sticks, A and DPad-Down for 3 seconds. (Three fingers per hand should do it.) To bring the gun back up, just pull a trigger. And oh, yeah - this works in both Multiplayer... AND Campaign. Update: Chris Burke, from This Spartan Life, sent in a correction - you don't actually need to hold down the right stick. The other 5 buttons do the trick. (Louis Wu 19:41:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Premiere in Sweden
Thanks to Joakim Ericson, who let us know about a film on YouTube that shows the Halo 3 kickoff event in Sweden. (Louis Wu 19:30:31 UTC) (permalink)

One Final Push is All that Remains
Heh - this one's bizarre. A company has made a custom Halo 3 inhaler, for folks with asthma, and put it up for sale on eBay - 50% of the final price will go to the American Lung Association of Washington. Thanks, JC! (Louis Wu 19:19:16 UTC) (permalink)

They did it again.
Edge Magazine doesn't call a lot of games 'perfect'. The first Halo was one - and before today, there were four others. Halo 3 just became the sixth game in the magazine's history to earn that coveted score. In other words... one third of all games to ever receive an Edge rating of '10' came from Bungie, in their Halo series. Not bad! (Louis Wu 18:43:13 UTC) (permalink)

Last news round-up of the day
From here on, I'm caught up - news will be posted as it comes! w00t!

• Heh - the New Zealand Herald has a story about how dangerous videogames can be, and warns parents to keep an eye on their children in the wake of Halo 3's release.
  
  
• Cinema Blend says Halo is the perfect dance of bullets and dead bodies, and gives it a 5/5 rating.
  
  
• Whoa - these are really cute.
  
  
• I know I said we were going to call the launch events 'covered' and move on - but the London Gala was pretty extravagant, and Feenix took some great pics and delivered some nice commentary.
  
  
• Kotaku's pretty amazed that there's at least one store in Japan that has sold out of Halo 3 (thanks, Red_Breast), even though the advertising campaign there is... a little weak.
  
  
• bs angel found this great song on YouTube - MollieJane misses her boyfriend.

CAUGHT UP! I'M CAUGHT UP! (For a minute or two, at least...) (Louis Wu 16:55:13 UTC) (permalink)

3 for 3, Round 3
JawReich and DisciplineN2k team up to remind you that the Halo 3 for 3 Sweepstakes Round 3 starts today. (Might not actually be live yet; I'm having trouble getting a confirmation.) (Louis Wu 16:20:43 UTC) (permalink)

Hey-Low the Halfling Rogue
McKeeganWRX noticed that Goblins has a new Tempts Fate comic with a character that looks awfully familiar... (Louis Wu 16:16:16 UTC) (permalink)

I was sleeping, dude.
If you've got friends like Warbow, today's Calvin and Halo might remind you why they need a smack in the head occasionally. (Louis Wu 15:51:56 UTC) (permalink)

Prima Guide Preview
Black Six pointed out a preview for the Halo 3 Official Strategy Guide, over at Xbox.com. It's a 10 mb, 9 page PDF download, and it makes it pretty clear that this guide is GORGEOUS. Go look! (Louis Wu 15:50:32 UTC) (permalink)

Stealing from the Neighbors
I visited Rampancy.net last night, and found a bunch of interesting articles I'd missed:

• Chevmeister on Bungie.net has gone to the trouble of removing all default objects from Bungie's maps, so that you can start with blank slates for your Forge creations - what a bonus! (R.net story)
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview with Damian Isla, a Campaign Engineer on Halo 3, discussing how the AI works in Halo - with some nice examples. (R.net story)
  
  
• Pro-G talked to a couple of Bungie employees recently; Joe Tung stated that Halo 4 was not in development (R.net story), and Lee Wilson explained that Bungie's not trying to recreate a photorealistic world (R.net story). Since these were posted, Pro-G has put up the full interview with these two guys; there are a number of other tidbits they get to (like how lousy Lee is with a non-grenade weapon).
  
  
• Wired posted an article about how Epitaph is based on Chartres, a medieval cathedral in France (R.net story). Since then, Wired has posted another article - this one looks at Halo 3's AI, like the SMH article, except this time, it's Max Dyckhoff discussing the issues they faced.

Just remember: Rampancy.net has been there since the very beginning of Halo fandom (they were the Core before they were R.net, and it's not completely clear whether they, or we, were the first site on the scene) - if they're not on your Halo rounds list, they should be. (Louis Wu 15:41:27 UTC) (permalink)

News Catchup
News dump, yet again (I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the day when coverage can go back to commentary on every item):

• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer thought Halo 3 was good, but not great; there were plot holes. Three stars out of four.
  
  
• 3of9 found a very cool UNSC logo shirt at MyTeeSpot
  
  
• Gamespot created a graphical comparison between the three games; it's a little unfair because they did a far better job getting screenshots for Halo 3 than for the other two, but the general idea is sound (thanks, Marcus-626)
  
  
• Scott Hanselman reviewed the game for his blog, and declared it 'balanced'
  
  
• Britain's Telegraph reviews Halo 3, and says that "Halo 3 crosses into the "essential" category effortlessly".
  
  
• TheStreet.com warns that enthusiastic launch events do NOT say anything useful long-term for investors; they're taking a 'wait and see' approach.
  
  
• Apparently, the US Air Force took advantage of the launch to try to do some recruiting in a small town in New Hampshire
  
  
• Yahoo Games has posted a Halo 3: First Tips article
  
  
• The New York Times posted a 'ho hum' article; I must include this quote:

  For all its grand panoramas and its galaxywide narrative, Halo 3's plot feels like a bit of a throwaway, a rather short adventure with a predictable story and dialogue that is sometimes as hokey as something from an old John Wayne war movie.

  The author felt that Halo 3 was simply Halo 2 with better graphics.
  
  
• Binary Bonsai thought the story was a little obscure, but that the game was really fun anyway

More news coming soon - this was just a way to TRY and clear out the bulk of the backlog. (Louis Wu 14:46:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Launch FAQ
Bungie's got a Halo 3 Launch FAQ posted; the answers to some of the most common questions they're seeing can be found in there. Worth a look, even if you're not having trouble - you might learn something! (Louis Wu 04:19:00 UTC) (permalink)

Singapore Launch Rundown
We got mail from a couple of people about some recent Halo 3 events in Singapore; Spu7n1k sent along info from his blog (17 September | 19 September | 22 September), showing the progress on his launch party costume - winner of best costume got a Legendary Edition, which isn't even sold in Singapore; I don't know if he won), as well as links to videos of the Believer 3 and Believer 4 events (these were filmed by Duelist). Finally, he sent along pics of the schwag from these events (a Halo 3 cap from 3, and a wristband from 4). Qdepartment went to the launch, and sent along a whole bunch of pics - the best of the bunch were a shot of a Master Chief statue at the event, and a pic of the nice bag all the schwag came in. Nice deal for those guys! (Louis Wu 04:13:39 UTC) (permalink)

Watch the World Light Up with Halo 3
Sunburned Goose, from 2old2play.com, sent along this animated gif showing the Online World Map (visible with real-time data on Bungie's Online page) over the course of 24 hours, from Monday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon. For a slightly different view of the same sort of data, Tieno, over at the Neogaf forum, put up a similar image from the night of the launch (thanks, GhaleonEB). Update: Sunburned Goose posted some video links in our forum, and XerxdeeJ put up a QuickTime vid of this, as well. (Louis Wu 03:42:32 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Goodies
3Suns pointed out a couple of hot links at MLGPro.com - their Halo 3 Launchtacular page, and a recap page from Orlando, including a spotlight on Str8 Rippin, the 4v4 champs this time around. Check it out! (Louis Wu 03:24:02 UTC) (permalink)

Exclusive Halo 3 stuff for Gold users on XBLM?
According to this story at 1Up, there is new content on Xbox Live Marketplace that's free to Gold users. However, following the image shown in the story gets me to a page that has 5 theme/gamerpic items available - all of which cost money (well, points). There are supposedly also videos coming later this week - we'll see what happens there. Thanks to Zeouterlimits for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:16:56 UTC) (permalink)

Shack looks at Forge
Shacknews has posted an article about Forge, and what it can do. It's a great read - go check it out! Thanks, Chris Remo (Louis Wu 03:04:18 UTC) (permalink)

Another shoutout for a community member in need
trigger119 pointed out the GTV Spotlight over at GamingTV - it focuses on Zukan, a longtime community contributor who is suffering from Hodgkin Lymphoma - he'll be starting chemo soon. Stop by and give the guy some support! (Louis Wu 03:02:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halomen
Samir Patel pointed out Halomen, an adult-rated Flash vid at Newgrounds which comes up with an alternate storyline for Halo. Animation and artwork are great, story... not so much. (Louis Wu 02:59:37 UTC) (permalink)

Lego Zanzibar - finished
Kooberz let us know he's finished his Lego Zanzibar video - you can see it on YouTube. It's a 9 minute walktrhough, showing how closely he matched the Lego stuff to the in-game map. Even the bridge works! Insanity. It also contains tons of info about the building of the project - if you're into Lego construction, this is amazing. (Louis Wu 02:47:52 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 OST - Coming in November, Probably
We've received news from a couple of fronts about the upcoming Halo 3 Official Soundtrack. SeannyD got email from Risa Malkinson, from Sumthing Distribution, letting him know that the release date will be in November. This is corroborated by Aj6627, who noticed that the Amazon listing for the soundtrack has a release date of November 16. (It also says '1 Disc', and we know from last week's interview with Marty O'Donnell on Music4Games that this information is probably wrong... so take it all with a grain of salt.) (Louis Wu 02:42:19 UTC) (permalink)

News September 26 2007

That guy's nuts.
You think YOU'RE devoted to Halo? You ain't got NOTHIN' on Alterb0y, a soldier in Iraq. He had his wife pick up his Legendary Edition of Halo 3 and FedEx it overseas. Legendary Edition: $129.99 (plus tax). FedEx shipping: $326. The ability to play Halo 3 with your buds in the desert - well, not quite priceless. I'm thinking it's closer to $600. (Louis Wu 22:57:43 UTC) (permalink)

Suck it, Spiderman
Major Nelson posted a press release about yesterday's sales - Halo 3 is officially the biggest single-day sales event in entertainment history. $170 Million in the US, in 24 hours... not too shabby. Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 22:46:39 UTC) (permalink)

Teh Funniez
Comic roundup for Wednesday:

• LostRock11 noticed that SORE THUMBS had Halo 3-related strips on Monday and Wednesday - they both hit home
• Ure Paul let us know that ActionTrip celebrated the release of Halo 3 with a Muppets-inspired comic (I love those guys)
• Subnova comes back online with a new .Comic - and a mini-review of Halo 3 to boot

Good stuff! (Louis Wu 22:44:48 UTC) (permalink)

More News Than You Can Shake a Stick At
News roundup:

• The New York Times wrote a pretty long article about Halo 3 - not a lot new in it, but significant for the column space in a paper like the Times (thanks, Usul)
• TalkXBOX wrote up 10 Reasons they're Pumped for Halo 3 - thanks, Rishi Modha
• ESPN (really? ESPN?) checks out what makes Halo 3 special - thanks, revan09
• Master Chief rang the final bell at NASDAQ yesterday - Major Nelson has pics, Xbox Scene has a story (thanks, RVideo)
• You can buy a pretty nice Brute Spiker replica on eBay (auction ends in less than 4 days) - current bid is $250 (thanks, Dualist)
• TeamXbox posted all 300 pictures distributed to journalists by Bungie a couple of weeks ago - I'm sure they're elsewhere, too, but most folks put up representative samples. These are scaled to 1000 pixels wide.
• Roger Travis has talked about the epic nature of the Halo story before (we mentioned him in May) - he's back, with an update for Halo 3
• Heather Newman of the Detroit Free Press gets a reader to help with Halo 3 review (they completed the whole campaign in 4 hours with 2-player coop; they must have been playing easy or normal)
• Data Mining looks at Halo mentions in the blogosphere compared with Resident Evil (the top video game release from last week), the Bourne Ultimatum (one of the largest movies of the summer)... and the iPhone.
• Drost, of 2Old2Play, posted a full Halo 3 review a couple of days ago - he says "it's the most fun I've ever had playing a game."
• Entertainment Weekly reviewed Halo - both reviewers gave it an A
• Techtree.com (in India) previewed Halo 3 - and liked it
• Apparently, Walmart in Canada plans to sell Halo 3 at price parity with the US, which will make the game cheaper at that store than at most stores in Canada (their price for the standard edition is $59.83 - about CDN$10 below everyone else)
• MTV wrote up an interesting piece on Saved Films - check out how a cool screenshot came to be
• A Guardian Unlimited blog discusses how many cliches were hit in the Halo 3 coverage
• Joystiq is giving away some amazing stuff - go visit and see if you can win (thanks, Engadget)
• Business Week wrote a really nice piece on the social aspect of Halo 3, and where it might be leading us (obDisclosure: I have a quote in this one)

Good lord, that's a ridiculous list. Unfortunately, that didn't even clear out the queue; there's more coming. I'm not sure if I can get to it right away. (Louis Wu 20:46:10 UTC) (permalink)

Surround View of the ActionClix Scarab
Darkphibre created a "walkaround" viewer which runs in Windows - you can use it to see really cool pics of the Limited Edition Scarab ActionClix Figure (he took the pics at PAX). (Louis Wu 20:13:10 UTC) (permalink)

Launch Writeups
Wow. So I was going through mail that came to email addresses other than halo@bungie.org, thinking that I'd make a summary of all the news that hadn't gotten posted in the last couple of days before I STARTED posting - but the list is so enormous that I'll never get through it unless I just start. So - I'll do my best to combine like items, but beware the news flood! First up, some release night shenanigans around the country (and the world):

• iRTsuki made a cake for her local Gamestop: Top | Side (thanks, Thorn Harvestar)
• A Random Act of Kindness in Reading, PA - when a teenager dressed up as the Master Chief shows up to buy Halo 3, and it's learned that he doesn't even own a 360, someone buys him one - thanks, VelocityTino
• dogsounds described a lower-key event in the UK - you know you're not in the US when those in the queue are offered eclairs while they wait
• Crispy got himself a pair of tickets to the big London gala - the woman he invited wrote up the experience
• zakguy wrote up his Gamestop's Midnight launch for the magazine he works for
• Dry Ice took some pictures at the Gamestop in Grandville, MI
• Comics Alliance wrote up THEIR local Gamestop event - thanks, singkeo2002

I think we should probably call it a day after those; I'm sure there are HUNDREDS of writeups of local launch things (there were, after all, over 10,000 stores in the US, 1,000 stores in the UK, and uncounted numbers in other countries all open for this event), but we'll say this is representative. (Louis Wu 20:00:23 UTC) (permalink)

Ultra Super Mega Uber Bundle
Check out this Halo bundle on eBay. Zowie. Got a bunch of spare money, anyone? ;-) (Thanks to MffnMn for the link) (mnemesis 16:10:02 UTC) (permalink)

Welcome back to the madhouse
The HBO forum is now back online - if you haven't finished the game, I'd caution you to be careful. We ask that folks not post spoilers without warning (and not to put spoilers in subject lines); we'll do our best to remove or relabel spoiler posts if it does happen (and we'll ban folks who think it's funny to try and ruin others' games) - but we can't promise you won't see something you don't want to... so if you're worried, pretend it's still closed. (Louis Wu 16:08:58 UTC) (permalink)

Scratched Discs
We got more than a few notes over the last couple of days that some of the Limited Edition buyers were finding that their discs were scratched. Today, Microsoft is offering to replace those discs free of charge. (mnemesis 15:41:14 UTC) (permalink)

Sick Skillz.
Looks like no One One Se7en today. Hope you get better, Stuntmutt! Mythomania is a terrible affliction. (Louis Wu 15:35:08 UTC) (permalink)

Welcome to my KILLIONAIR!
A 2old2play regular, BatmanKM, has done a really cool retro-comic-cover of the MC. Looks great! Thanks to King Drewsky for the note. (mnemesis 15:33:39 UTC) (permalink)

Angry Robots do Halo
Angry Robot had a few Halo-related items yesterday that I forgot to post. They played through the first two games (writeup and video), wrote up a rant on cliffhangar endings (specifically, Halo 2's), and then played through Halo 3 for a few hours and did a podcast afterwards. Check it out, and thanks to daragh. (mnemesis 15:32:39 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Community Lock-In
Back at home, after a crazy few days in Seattle... it's amazing how much news mnemesis and KP managed to post in the last couple of days. You'd almost think I was expendable... heh. Where did I go? Well, Microsoft hosted an event titled 'Community Lock-In' - and I played some Halo 3. And stuff. Go see. (Louis Wu 14:27:40 UTC) (permalink)

Forum reopening
If you've been itching to discuss Halo 3 with your fellow halo.bungie.org pals, then I've got great news for ya. The forum should reopen in just a few hours! So just scratch that itch for a leeetle bit longer, 'kay? (Ding 13:08:06 UTC) (permalink)

News September 25 2007

Thanks, Bungie!
Not everybody is happy about today's Halo 3 release. Mega64 has the whole story on that. Thanks, Zeouterlimits. (mnemesis 20:12:31 UTC) (permalink)

WWYANOFAWD
Aaaand, that's it! The whole set is complete. Thanks, Nicholas Powell. (mnemesis 20:08:50 UTC) (permalink)

JLTLEBLC
Target4Hire checked in with the Limited Edition version of the Halo 3 acronym. C'mon, there must be a Legendary owner out there somewhere! (mnemesis 19:52:58 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Party Pix
Bungie had a pretty swanky party last night, prior to heading out to local Seattle-area retailers for the the midnight madness festivities. Here are a few pictures from that evening. See if you can spot any familiar faces. (mnemesis 19:49:23 UTC) (permalink)

Suicide Grunts
I'm speechless. (mnemesis 19:45:33 UTC) (permalink)

Achieving Awesomeness!
Another new Top Story at B.Net for you today, this time on campaign scoring. Sketch details how all of the factors involved in this new aspect of the game work together to maximize the coolness. (mnemesis 18:25:43 UTC) (permalink)

When Geeks Vandalize
Zeouterlimits writes to point out just how awesome MIT hackers can be. That rocks. (mnemesis 18:14:28 UTC) (permalink)

SLMCWMYOW
Lest we forget, there's a new acronym to contend with now. Not sure if the Limited or Legendary editions are the same, but I'm sure someone will let us know... (mnemesis 17:56:14 UTC) (permalink)

Let the tricks begin...
Never ones to waste time, the tricking community has already been hard at work on Halo 3. If you head over to The Hushed Casket, rapture, Devin, Goatrope, and jayWHY have already got a tricking video available with what looks like at least two significant easter eggs (the Grunt sounds are AWESOME - that Joe Staten is a uniquely deranged individual). Also, rapture's got a detailed skull guide, for those who just haven't been able to find any of them. Yet. In the 9 hours since the game's been on sale. (mnemesis 16:32:03 UTC) (permalink)

Again with the reviews

• San Jose Mercury News
• Wired News
• San Francisco Chronicle
• G4TV
• TG Daily

Bungie fan hits radio big-time!
Sparkypinball heard Los Angeles-area morning show hosts Kevin and Bean talking on-air about how Halo 3 comes out, and what a big deal it is, and how they don't get it, so he took it upon himself to email them and fill them in on some of the details. Long story short, he'll be on the air this morning with them, plus a guest from Bungie Studios. If you can get KROQ anywhere, listen in starting at 7 am PST. Cool! (mnemesis 02:15:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Slackerz
Pixellated noted a Halo-inspired Slackerz comic. Check IT out! (mnemesis 02:10:02 UTC) (permalink)

Trinkets!
Russell McCormack found an interesting article on IGN on some Gamestop-exclusive trinkets. You can check them out here. Cool stuff! (mnemesis 02:02:09 UTC) (permalink)

A Couple More Reviews
Just two reviews for you right now. I'm sure there will be more later, but for now, check these out. First, the Detroit Free Press picks a lucky reader to help them review Halo 3. Next, Ain't It Cool News (thanks, JC) posts their impressions of the game everyone's talking about (at least, eveyone in MY mailbox today). Check 'em out! (mnemesis 01:59:00 UTC) (permalink)

Kotaku in New Zealand
Kotaku's got a piece on the festivities in New Zealand, the first place to legally buy the game at retailers. Nice ice sculpture! Thanks, Zeouterlimits. (mnemesis 01:49:27 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie.Net Updates
A whole mess of Bungie.Net updates, here on the big day. First, a how-to for Halo networking. Anything and everything you might want to know to fine-tune your network for Halo 3 (thanks, Schedonnardus). Next, Bungie Pro. Luke and Roger give you the low-down on this upgrade to the existing file-share solution for Halo 3 files. Third, we've got a how-to on audio and video. We all know these have always been a prime feature of these games, so go read up on how to maximize your playing experience. Lastly (for now), if you're stuck somewhere and can't be a part of any of the late-night festivities tonight, check this post from Roger. Bungie's having a party, and you can watch and listen in as Bungie family and friends play Halo 3 in the multiplayer lab tonight. If you're not already in line somewhere, this should give you something to do for a bit! (mnemesis 01:33:17 UTC) (permalink)

News September 24 2007

Shameless Self-Promotion
Xbox.com has updated its New York City launch event coverage with a few interviews. Major Nelson first talks to Frankie, then Harold and finally he brings the first person in line for Halo 3 inside the Best Buy to play Harold 1v1 on Guardian. He is not legit pro. (KP 21:26:05 UTC) (permalink)

Slashdot Review
Not that any one review is more important than any other, but I wanted to get this on the front page before I quit posting for a couple hours. Slashdot's got a lengthy, well-written review up for your reading pleasure. 4 out of 5. Thanks, Razor. (mnemesis 19:23:58 UTC) (permalink)

Moving
Of course, even One One Se7en's getting emotional on this eve of all eves. (mnemesis 19:20:01 UTC) (permalink)

The Final Halo 3 Countdown Comic
Haloplayer has posted the final installment of the Halo 3 Countdown Comic. (mnemesis 19:17:56 UTC) (permalink)

TTL er, Monday?
Not really, but XerDeeJ has some thoughts on his last ever Halo 2 game (sort of), among other things. Go read! (mnemesis 19:14:49 UTC) (permalink)

YMFR
More reviews to whet your appetite:

• HaloNorge (thanks, Magnus 'ScUmMy' Valebjørg)
• The Globe and Mail
• Vandal Online (spanish) (thanks, RSB)
• Seattle Times (thanks, wolfman)
• Washington Post

GamerDad on the mend
Avateur write to let us know that GamerDad is out of the hospital. (mnemesis 19:07:43 UTC) (permalink)

Finish The Countdown
Zukan has created a video as a gift to the Halo community, set to Europe's "the Final Countdown" using relesed Halo 3 clips. There's a low-res .wmv, a 720p .wmv, and a 720p .mov. (mnemesis 19:06:51 UTC) (permalink)

SpikeTV clips on Marketplace
Schedonnardus lets us know that SpikeTV has some clips available on Marketplace, that cover the San Francisco Imax event. Fire up the 360 and go check it out (like you didn't already have it on, just WAITING until you can play later tonight!). (mnemesis 19:06:08 UTC) (permalink)

360Zine Free!
Dave Taylor writes to point us to the always free, downloadable 360Zine. This most recent issue is chock full of Halo 3 goodness, plus a Bungie interview. (mnemesis 19:04:16 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Strike Teams Deployed
Check on Bungie.Net to see what kinds of activities Bungie is up to tonight, and where you might find them across the globe. (mnemesis 19:03:05 UTC) (permalink)

Yet MORE Reviews
A few more reviews before I've got to head out for the day:

• ActionTrip gave it an overall score of 92/100
• GameGuru (India) played it for an hour, complained it was too easy and that it suffered from texture pop and 'atrociously short draw distances'
• The Hartford Courant thought it was pretty good - for a video game
• The New Zealand Herald says 'Believe the Hype', and gives it a 9.5/10
• PALGN says 9/10
• TheStar.com gives it 4/4 stars

I again leave the news in the capable hands of the rest of the HBO staff - thanks, guys! (Louis Wu 15:23:08 UTC) (permalink)

Last One Standing
The final Neill Blomkamp short before Halo 3, Last One Standing, is now available at Discovery.com. This is the longest - and most powerful - of the bunch; a squad of ODSTs secures the drop zone for Master Chief, at horrendous cost. This one is NOT for small children, or squeamish folks; it's more graphic than previous shorts. That said, it's fantastic. Thanks, GhaleonEB. (Louis Wu 14:52:13 UTC) (permalink)

Review Dump
More reviews:

• Pro-G gave Halo 3 a 10/10 (thanks to finalcuthalo for this and the next two review links)
• Geek.com says true fans will not be disappointed
• South Carolina's TheState.com says it's in tip-top shape
• SavingProgress.com says it's exceptional in nearly every regard (Thanks, Regicid3)
• Spanish language Meristation gave Halo 3 a 10/10 (thanks, Ramon Serrano Blasco)
• CVG gave Halo 3 a 9.7 (thanks, RefinedSolid)
• PC World rated Halo 3 at 85/100 (Thanks, KORHAL)
• Digital Journal says "If there's any game that could propel a company to win the console wars, it's Halo 3."
• Tech Republic says Halo 3 is "Impressive"
• Gamertag Radio has put up a Halo 3 Impressions Roundtable in Episode 114.
• Stephen Totilo talks about how Bungie graded HIM in his review for MTV Networks
• Gamereactor did three reviews: one for Denmark, one for Sweden, one for Norway. All three came up with 10/10. Thanks to GhaleonEB (for this and all the rest)
• Game Informer says Halo 3 is a 9.75/10
• OXM Germany scored it a 93/100
• Gamepro Germany said it was worth 9/10
• Gamesradar asks if it's the third coming - then gave it a 10/10
• Shacknews scored the campaign and multiplayer separately - no scores, but the campaign has "far more replayability than any campaign has any right to", and in terms of multiplayer, "the full game presents such a staggeringly complete package that one actually feels bad for competing developers of other online-enabled Xbox 360 shooters."

More news coming tomorrow - it's too late... (Louis Wu 09:03:11 UTC) (permalink)

Needs Ketchup
Today's Crtl+Alt+Del is all about what YOU want to do with the annoying people in game shops. Thanks, Alekat. (Louis Wu 08:46:33 UTC) (permalink)

No Achievements for you!
GamingBits.com point out that Halo 3 Achievements are locked util Launch Day. (Louis Wu 08:41:40 UTC) (permalink)

Frank and Sketch Interviewed
MthdDirector did an interview with Sketch and Frankie; go read what he's found! (Louis Wu 08:43:32 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Stats
dtweaponx has built yet another Halo 3 stats section - can you use it? (Louis Wu 08:40:04 UTC) (permalink)

player model maker/finder
Nick Smith has put together a script that will work with Elite models now, and Spartan models soon - it can build them from B.net pieces (Louis Wu 08:37:51 UTC) (permalink)

I worry a little about air flow
Samir Patel found a really impressive-looking 360 case mod at Maxconsole.net. [Local mirror for folks having trouble...] (Louis Wu 08:34:50 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Emblem Generator
oriol zertuche let us know that Grunts R Us has posted a Halo 3 Emblem Generator. (Louis Wu 08:31:28 UTC) (permalink)

Gentle Giant mini-bust
Remember the Gentle Giant mini-bust we mentioned a while ago? Brian Curry noticed that ToyWiz.com has it available for pre-order, with a nice pic to check out. (mnemesis 05:39:31 UTC) (permalink)

Blogging, Forerunner-style!
MangTru7h found a cool Forerunner Wordpress theme available for download. Check out the sample pic here. Schweet! (mnemesis 05:34:01 UTC) (permalink)

Perceiving the Dimensions of IRIS: Episode 6
Ibeechu and DHalo have been extra hard at work, crunching to bring you Perceiving the Dimensions of IRIS: Episode 6. They now think there will be an episode 7, but it won't be out for a while. In the meantime, check out their latest! (mnemesis 05:33:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 doesn't always win...
The Halo 3-themed NASCAR entry in the Dover 400 didn't fare so well, apparently. It only completed 287 of the 400 laps, and to add insult to injury, the Nintendo Wii car came in 2nd place. Ouch! Thanks to Manny Valdez for the note. (mnemesis 05:20:49 UTC) (permalink)

HAFT Loves You
Elnea confirms that she is, indeed, a crazy person, with a reminder that she isn't taking time off of Halo Action Figures Theater this week, so those who can't play yet will have something to do. She's a giver. A crazy giver, but a giver nonetheless. She also sends along this one-shot in sympathy with all of us who AREN'T playing yet. Check out those tiny controllers! (mnemesis 05:11:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Toy Box 95, and a bonus promo
Sane Intolerant did a little Halo 3 promo, and a behind-the-scenes comic on the promo itself. Gah! Bansh... (mnemesis 05:09:37 UTC) (permalink)

Reviews!
We got your reviews, right here:

• Kotaku loved the AI, didn't so much love the cutscenes. He gives it an 87.5 percent in a further piece.
• Ars Technica gives the single-player aspect of the game a 7 out of 10.
• Digital Journal likes it a lot.
• PC World has a few thoughts on both single- and multiplayer.
• Tech Republic lays out a bunch of good info, and a solid opinion to boot.
• Xbox Fanboy seems to have a lot of good things to say.

News September 23 2007

Fan Love: a look at the premium discs
Eventually, HBO will publish a full review of Halo 3 - but that's still a little way off, because life has been pretty insane. We do, however, have a full, in-depth review of the extra discs that come with the premium editions of the game; if you want to see what you'd be getting if you bought them, this is the review for you. (Louis Wu 21:42:20 UTC) (permalink)

Rapidfire Reviews
Zeouterlimits has sent us a tidy summary of other reviews around the net, here they are:

• Eurogamer gives it a 10/10.
• GamerNode gets all deep n shiz with its 9.5/10.
• GameSpy provides us with our third IGN-owned review, giving it a 5/5.
• Gamedaily is offline due to traffic but gave Halo 3 its lowest review thus far, a 9/10 (heretics!).
• GamePro endorses the hype with their 5/5.

Halo 3 Reviewed
Alright, the embargo is up and what was considered an onslaught of news in the past week will appear a steady trickle. Gametrailers has their video review, giving it a 9.8/10. Team Xbox has also posted their review, giving it a 9.7/10. Thanks to Zeouterlimits for both of those. Gamespot has also posted their review (with video), giving it a 9.5/10. IGN's review is up as well, they've marked it a 9.5/10. At this point the line between spoiler and common knowledge is becoming blurred. If you're worried about them, just take solace in the high numbers and don't read them until after you've got your hands on a copy. Update: 1up has also posted their review, giving it a 10/10 (both Gamespot and 1up don't rank by tenths of a point, only by halves, in case you were wondering). (KP 19:06:35 UTC) (permalink)

New Items at Bungie Store
The Bungie Store has been updated today with a few new items. Firstly, there's a Marathon: Durandal tee to celebrate the launch of the XBLA title. Secondly there's a Halo mousepad using the image from the cover of EGM's preview last year. Lastly there's a set of engravable Halo 3 dogtags, with the chief on them. Oddly, only the mousepad available now, the Marathon tee and the dogtags are both labeled as coming soon. Thanks to ranger_000, for the heads up. (KP 18:46:54 UTC) (permalink)

Louis Wu, Shameless Fanboi.
Venerable HBO news hound Anton P. Nym noticed an article on the Victoria Times Colonist site with quite a few quotes from a familiar source. Our very own Louis Wu (using the rather unimaginative pseudonym "Claude Errera" - sheesh, what the heck does THAT have to do with Bungie or se7ens or anything?!?) checks in with some observations on Bungie, Halo 3, etc. The article also features some quotes from Joel Albert from 2old2play, so at least there's SOME kind of respectability there. Check it out! (mnemesis 18:37:58 UTC) (permalink)

Get Some Head
bs angel wrote this morning to tell us about her Halo 3 Countdown activity today, which was baking a Halo 3 themed dessert. She made a pretty cool cake in the shape of a pink Mjolnir helmet. Go check it out and leave your compliments to the chef at Hawty McBloggy. (KP 18:17:52 UTC) (permalink)

The Riot 66
Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 66 is available online. 25 minutes of pre-launch goodness for your listening pleasure. (mnemesis 18:16:00 UTC) (permalink)

Cortana Shirt at TGS07
FuzzyWhisper made mention of a cool Cortana shirt that Microsoft was handing out at TGS '07. Sultry! (mnemesis 18:09:46 UTC) (permalink)

John Denver had it right
And... I'm out. That's all the news from me, for a while. I've got to get myself to the airport now, and for the next few days, I'm going to have trouble getting to a place where I can post news. Never fear, though, the HBO crew is on the job, and mail sent to halo@bungie.org will still be posted. (Mail sent to lwu@bungie.org will NOT, most likely; pay attention to that statement, or risk having your news languish in limbo until Wednesday.) It's an exciting time - enjoy the rampup! Just two more days... (Louis Wu 08:33:47 UTC) (permalink)

First Halo 3 Review Hits the Web
Press Start Online seems to have broken the news embargo on full reviews of the game by a little bit (That embargo ends at 12:01 pm, PST, today) - but hey, everyone makes mistakes. I don't think you can write a full review WITHOUT some minor spoilers, so ANY full review we link to should be viewed with care (and there'll be a lot today, trust me)... but this one does a pretty good job of giving you gameplay impressions without spoiling the story. If you've read this news post and can live with the caveats, go read the review. (Louis Wu 08:28:25 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Orlando Update
GotFrag DPAD has a summary of the action yesterday at MLG Orlando; go see how folks are doing! (Louis Wu 08:23:06 UTC) (permalink)

Flaming Ninja Armor
SketchFactor posted a cool image of himself and Luke Smith wearing some new armor variants; you can see a screenshot in his Screenshots section on Bungie.net. Because the Screenshots section in general is rife with spoiler pics right now, we're hosting a LOCAL copy of that particular image, if you don't want to risk a visit; it's 1920x1080, and weighs in at 151k. If you only want a small preview (592x333, 30k), you can have that too. Sketch's label for this picture reads "Wonder twin powers activate!" Thanks, Patrick Dalire. (Louis Wu 08:21:35 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Player Image Generator
Veegie let us know that his friend Tural has made a program that can generate player images from Bungie.net; it's a Windows executable. An example of the output can be seen here, and the actual program (52k) can be downloaded here. (Louis Wu 08:12:34 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 How-To: Matchmaking Playlists
Bungie put up a new Top Story last night - this one is a How-To on matchmaking playlists. Lots of good info in there! As with all their recent How-To guides, you'll eventually be able to find a permanent link off the Guide page. Looks like Samir Patel was first with the news. (Louis Wu 08:07:52 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Emblem List
Psychophan7 has put together a page containing all the Halo 3 player emblems, so that you can begin choosing your Spartan customization. simpsonsrule thought this was pretty cool, and sent us a link. He's right, it's pretty cool, but the HTML page contains 80 separate images, and weighs in at nearly half a meg total, so rather than drain Psycho's host's bandwidth, I've saved the resultant page as a single image (600x1920, 136k). Take a look! (Louis Wu 07:53:17 UTC) (permalink)

News September 22 2007

I think I'd be scared if this happened.
Haloplayer let us know that Countdown Comic #5 is now up at Injured Knee Productions. I think Microsoft might have found a new superhero. (While you're there, there's also a link to a Guitar Hero Spartan he created, in that same post.) (Louis Wu 21:49:46 UTC) (permalink)

Nine Outta Ten, Baybee
Heh - Pedro the Penguin noticed that IGN visitors REALLY want some Halo today... because the 'Most Popular' sidebar on their homepage changes, we've screenshotted it as of about 5 pm, ET, on Saturday September 22. (Louis Wu 21:11:54 UTC) (permalink)

Does Normal Count?
Decent musings on difficulty levels... and how they affect reviews, over at PCWorld.com. (For the record - Bungie made me play through on Heroic.) (Louis Wu 21:00:11 UTC) (permalink)

Good thing Frankie's in Mexico.
Hawty McBloggy's activity of the day is drawing Mister Chiefs - go have a blast! (Louis Wu 19:31:25 UTC) (permalink)

Halo, Pimp!
Rapper Lil' John isn't much of a Halo player - but his son is teaching him. Thanks, singkeo2002. (Louis Wu 19:13:42 UTC) (permalink)

Brazilian Halo 3 Launch
Marcelo Vega, of Xbox Today (a Brazilian website), let us know that there was a Halo 3 launch party in Brazil - Halo 3 is going to be the first midnight launch of a game in that country. They put up an article about the launch, as well as pictures of the Limited Edition's Artbook, fully translated into Portuguese (a first for the Brazilian videogame industry). (That USB drive you see in the first article was given out to members of the press - it's loaded with all the Halo 3 Believe ads, in 720p.) Nice to see other countries aren't being slighted! (Louis Wu 19:08:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: The Future of Gaming
This is the funniest Halo video I've seen in a while. (Yes, that includes Halo Nights.) Go watch it. You'll laugh. Thanks, Jim Bob. (Louis Wu 18:44:13 UTC) (permalink)

Interactivity and layered messaging
Also from Anton P. Nym - ReportonBusiness.com (a part of Canada's Globe and Mail) has an article in which Jerret West, Senior Global Product Manager for Xbox, talks about how the overall marketing campaign for Halo 3 was built the way it was. I must say... it seems to be working! (Louis Wu 18:35:48 UTC) (permalink)

Classical Halo, in Sweden
Wow, this is pretty cool. If you visit this website, you'll see movies and photos of the Royal Swedish Ballet practicing for an interpretive dance on September 26, at the Berwaldhallen concert hall in Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra will be playing Halo music, and Halo machinima will be shown. Pretty amazing looking stuff! Thanks to Anton P. Nym, who found it at Kotaku. (Louis Wu 18:31:35 UTC) (permalink)

Hunted
ManKitten sent in a link to a YouTube version of a Believe ad I haven't seen yet - it's called 'Hunted', and it looks at a soldier reliving a frightening night during the war. It might be my favorite, so far... as far as I can tell, it hasn't appeared in Hi-res anywhere yet. (Louis Wu 17:51:53 UTC) (permalink)

Threshold Part 2
Halopen has chosen this weekend to release Threshold Part 2, a new machinima. They're very excited about it - so much so that they really want me to post a description of the movie that they wrote. We don't usually do this, but I'll make an exception this time:

A lone general known as Hypnos, endeavors to win the war against the humans. But there is one thing stopping him from achieving victory, himself. His dark side has gotten to know him more than he knew himself, and this has become a problem for Hypnos and his army. Can he fight through his insanity and continue to live or will he confront his demon and destroy it?

Finding the video is actually non-trivial - but if you click on the picture that makes up the top news post on their website, you'll be taken to a Mythica page where you can download it. WMP9 format, 16 minutes long, 87 mb. Thanks, xbryboyremix. (Louis Wu 17:50:04 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Online
DHalo was the first to point out the new Bungie Online section of Bungie.net - on the one hand, it might make you sad, because there are currently 1,325 Halo 3 players online, and the kill counts for the UNSC Campaign are already absurdly high... but on the other hand, most of us will be playing in full by the middle of next week, and those numbers will grow by orders of magnitude. Still - poking around shows some really cool sections and pieces... definitely worth a look! Warning: I probably should have remembered to post this earlier... but remember that snapshots on Bungie Online MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS. Browse the section at your own risk. Sorry for the late warning. (Louis Wu 17:34:21 UTC) (permalink)

Remember, ladies, you're ladies!
The Orlando Sentinel has an article on the PMS Clan, as they prepare for MLG Orlando. (The headline for this news post came from the PMS team captain, before I get accused of anything.) (Louis Wu 12:08:50 UTC) (permalink)

Halo's in the house
The formatting is awful, but a new article in the Vancouver Sun has some new quotes from Bungie and Microsoft folks. (Louis Wu 12:06:13 UTC) (permalink)

Scratched Disc Issue?
Ouch. Destructoid, among other sites, are reporting that folks on the NeoGAF forum are having major troubles with the Limited Edition of Halo 3; the clip that holds the discs in place inside the box is too small, and the discs are moving around... which leads to scratching. (I'm really surprised by this, because scratching was an issue with the Halo 2 Limited Edition (though for a different reason; there, two discs were piled one on top of the other) - you think they'd have found a way to fix it by now.) More on this when we know it. Thanks, Amy Veeres. (Louis Wu 11:21:40 UTC) (permalink)

Saying Goodbye Right
XBOX 360 Wire has an article on how to have the best Halo 2 lan party/sendoff. If you're planning on getting some friends together this weekend for a big Halo 2 bash, in preparation for Halo 3... you might wanna read this. (Louis Wu 11:10:35 UTC) (permalink)

London Gala Tix Up For Grabs
The UK's Daily Telegraph is giving away a pair of tickets to the IMAX gala on launch night in London; if you're interested in winning, check this page. (Louis Wu 11:09:46 UTC) (permalink)

Halo So Far
Yahoo Games has another 'looking back' movie; this one is called 'Halo So Far', and is a retrospective of the plots of Halo and Halo 2, using the same voiceover guy that was used for the Weapons overviews. If you've forgotten stuff, go watch. (Louis Wu 11:09:12 UTC) (permalink)

New Hoody at the Bungie Store
Grable pointed out a new hoody for sale at the Bungie Store - it's called the 'Weapon Bolt Full Zip Hoody', and contains a weapons montage on the front, and a lightning burst on the back. Interesting! (Louis Wu 11:07:01 UTC) (permalink)

A second look
Heh - interesting. MthdDirector points us to a blog post which looks back at J. Allard's GDC 2005 keynote speech... and compares what he said then (and what developers then weren't all thrilled to hear) with what's happening now, especially with Halo 3. J. Allard - ahead of his time? (Louis Wu 11:04:39 UTC) (permalink)

Enemy Weapon
Lots and lots of people noticed the new Believe trailer, titled 'Enemy Weapon', which was released last night. You can find a high-res version of it at halo.msn.com (thanks, The Cancers) - Silverlight is required. If you want to pass on Silverlight, it's also available at Yahoo Games (thanks, mhuber33) and YouTube (thanks, S043). Haven't noticed a downloadable version yet. This one has a pair of UNSC vets discussing the weapons they used - and the weapons they fought against. Great piece. Update: DHalo grabbed the HD version off the MSN site, and uploaded it to Mythica; you now have a downloadable version if you want one. (Louis Wu 10:59:24 UTC) (permalink)

A different take on Halo Wars
And now for something quite different - YouTube user wronginc hacked up the footage from the Halo Wars trailer and put his own music to it. Hard rock - but it fits nicely. Take a look! (Louis Wu 10:52:14 UTC) (permalink)

Cashing in with homemade stuff
RVideo pointed out another fanmade suit for sale on eBay - starting price is $2000, with four and a half days left to go. (Louis Wu 10:49:27 UTC) (permalink)

Interviews All Round
Over at Rampancy.net, Narcogen uncovered a few interviews we missed - that man is busy sometimes.

• Dean Takahashi talks to Harold Ryan and Brian Jarrard about what went wrong in Halo 2 - and how those things were fixed in Halo 3. It's amazingly uplifting.
• Next Generation talked to Jay Weinland and Jonty Barnes about how it's all feeling, and where they're going from here. These guys, too, make you feel that Bungie is really proud of this game, totally separate from any hype.
• The Armchair Empire sat down with Mike Zak to talk about Environment Art, and how it fits into the whole Halo 3 experience. I'm seeing a theme - Bungie folks who are proud of what they did, and anxious to show it to the world.

Go read 'em all! (Louis Wu 03:19:42 UTC) (permalink)

Looking for JD Salinger
The Daily Telegraph has a general-interest article that includes a ton of interesting tidbits about the Halo crew. A fun read. (Louis Wu 03:10:11 UTC) (permalink)

He didn't sound right.
P_40E found a... strange video at Kotaku. (Louis Wu 02:20:46 UTC) (permalink)

The New and Improved Bungie.net
The Bungie Weekly Update is online - and it's a pretty nice look at what Bungie.net is gonna be giving you, come next week. You can't imagine the wealth of information. Knowledge... so much... so fast. It's glorious! Go read. (And if you're blocked from Bungie.net, as some of you tell us you are, it's online here, too, in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 01:31:32 UTC) (permalink)

Interactive Halo 3 Manual
Microsoft has put up an interactive Halo 3 manual - it requires Silverlight (yeah, they're really pushing that technology, aren't they?), but it's worth installing... this is a nice piece of work. (It's not the WHOLE Halo 3 manual - but it's a nice subset.) spec_ops_grunt was first with this, though he was far from alone. (Louis Wu 00:42:50 UTC) (permalink)

Just call him AntiQuixote.
Wow. Jack Thompson is back in court - this time, he's trying to have Halo 3 declared a 'public nuisance' so as to block its release in Florida. Yeah, good luck with that, Jack. Thanks to Ben Ritter for today's dose of surrealism. Update: Ouch. As much as I hate to say it... I'm guilty of a lack of research. I took my writeup for this piece directly from the GamePolitics analysis, rather than reading the full complaint for myself. Jackson doesn't want to block release of Halo 3 in Florida... except as a tactic to force Best Buy to honor the ESRB rating of Mature, and stop selling this game to minors. Since I have no problem whatsoever with that goal (I don't think M-rated games SHOULD be sold to minors - I think their parents need to decide if they should be playing them, and do the buying FOR them), I find myself in the rather uncomfortable position of agreeing with Mr. Thompson (though only in his ultimate goal; I still believe his tactics are absurd). Thanks to Alekat for gently suggesting I might have missed something. Update 2: Gameshout has some more details. (Louis Wu 00:36:30 UTC) (permalink)

Big Names Everywhere
Stargate fans (and McGuyver fans, for that matter) will wish they were in Dublin next week - Richard Dean Anderson will be on hand at the Halo 3 Launch event there. (Louis Wu 00:33:04 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Orlando - Previewed
GotFrag DPAD has a preview of the Halo 2 Orlando MLG event, kicking off tonight. (Louis Wu 00:32:38 UTC) (permalink)

Cool stuff, for folks who could care less
Gizmodo got a pretty awesome bag of Halo 3 schwag from Microsoft PR - if you're a really big Halo fan, don't watch the video, it'll just make you angry. (Some people really don't deserve schwag, I guess.) Update: lots of people got these - including 1Up (thanks, Haloplayer) and Engadget. Not everyone was a jerk about it... Update 2: Looks like Gizmodo took down the video; I guess the comments section was getting to them. Thanks, Aktiv8. (Louis Wu 00:32:12 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Hands On - Sort Of
Gameplanet breaks the media embargo by a day or so (they're in New Zealand, so they're already ahead of the rest of the world) - but it doesn't matter, because their Halo 3 Hands On has absolutely no information in it. (Louis Wu 00:31:44 UTC) (permalink)

Solving small mysteries, one band at a time
Spartan Jag found out that Big Science were the guys who did the music for the 'Making of Diorama' video - nice find! (Louis Wu 00:31:12 UTC) (permalink)

Infiltrating NPR
Salen Stormwing and pillar of awesome both let us know that NPR did a piece on the Halo 3 marketing campaign during Marketplace this evening - direct download link is here. (Louis Wu 00:28:41 UTC) (permalink)

Legendary Edition back in stock at Virgin?
James Cockshull let us know that Virgin Megastores seems to have restocked the Halo 3 Legendary Edition - at least, that's what their web page says. No guarantees until someone actually GETS one from them - but if you're in the UK, and you want one of these, this might be a way to get your hands on it. Update: dogsounds let us know that he was contacted by his local Gamestation, telling him that they had some spare Legendaries, and would he like to upgrade his Limited preorder? I guess there are more copies of the Legendary Edition in the UK than was previously reported. (Louis Wu 00:26:42 UTC) (permalink)

Second Take: The Games That Spawned Halo
Second Take looks back over the games that have paved the way for Halo - pretty thoughtful video. The Game Fuel comedy at the end is a bonus - and pure gold. Thanks, zugy. (Louis Wu 00:22:41 UTC) (permalink)

News September 21 2007

Frags, Lies, and Videotape
Paul Maestri, who we haven't heard from in a long, long time, is back with a new Halo Heads - and it's spot-on. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:09:45 UTC) (permalink)

Halo at the Parkwood
Owen Imholte and his brother are organizing a Halo 3 release party at a local theater in central Minnesota. Things kick off at 11:30pm on the 24th, and run... well, for a while. Tickets are $7 to get in, and play is assigned by raffle. Looks like a good time! If you're in the St. Cloud area, check this out! (Louis Wu 20:04:14 UTC) (permalink)

Security can be a buzzkill.
Odd story about the Master Chief being kicked out of the Sydney Opera House, over at IGN. Thanks, Marcus-626. (Louis Wu 19:58:25 UTC) (permalink)

Tag Teaming the Cutscenes
Rampancy.net found a pretty cool story about damnfx, a studio that helped out with the Halo 3 cutscenes. Go look. (Louis Wu 19:55:37 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Media Contest
Here's a fun little contest at ShackNews - are you any good with a graphics program? Go see if you can win some cool stuff. (Louis Wu 19:52:36 UTC) (permalink)

SpikeTV's Hail to the Chief
This morning, we mentioned a Variety article that discussed some of the TV coverage Halo 3 will receive next week. We just got a press release on SpikeTV's coverage - take a look! (Louis Wu 19:41:39 UTC) (permalink)

eBayage
Quikthnkr sent in links to a couple of eBay auctions that might interest some of you; one is an enormous bronze casting of a Master Chief, 7 feet tall. I don't know what it weighs, but eBay's shipping calculator wants to charge me nearly $400 to move it about 200 miles. Starting bid is just under $5000. If that's a little out of your price range (or maybe your floorspace range), he also pointed out a pair of Halo 2 magnums, made by Westerfield, with a starting bid of $55 and a Buy it Now price of $75. Something for everyone! (As long as everyone wants a giant statue or some handgun models.) (Louis Wu 17:49:04 UTC) (permalink)

Singapore Believers - Unveiled
Thanks to Qdepartment, who gave us an inside glimpse into the Believer campaign in Singapore; if you want to see the latest news release for yourself (which shows all the goodies Singaporeans can snag by showing up to these events), visit this page. You'll have to have an account to see that - and to get an account, you'll need a valid Singapore Postal Code... but I'm sure most of you have l33t enough Google skillz to come up with one of those. Those folks in Singapore - they get some good stuff! (Louis Wu 17:32:38 UTC) (permalink)

Everyone wants in on the buzz
Chris Daley points out that CNBC has a Halo 3 portal of its own - there are a few news stories, and some videos that are mostly taken from released footage. (The videos are, as far as I can tell, completely unplayable on a Mac. I suppose it's good that there's not much new there.) (Louis Wu 17:20:26 UTC) (permalink)

Irish Gamers Attempt To Set Halo World Record
Wow, I nearly missed this - apparently, a gaming center (sorry, centre) in Dublin, Ireland is running a competition this Saturday, starting at midday - if folks can beat Cody Miller's world record of three and a half hours on Halo 2 Legendary, they'll be up for cool prizes, including a Legendary Edition of Halo 3. There's no mention in the news story about the most critical part of that record - that it was completed with no deaths. I mean, the HighSpeedHalo community has put together a composite Legendary run under 2 hours... but there are deaths, and each level is done separately. Interesting to see if they'll hold players to Cody's full parameters... (Louis Wu 16:55:56 UTC) (permalink)

Cinema Paradiso - More Organized
Yesterday, Bungie released Cinema Paradiso, their last VIDOC before Halo 3 hits the shelves. The HBO news post about it is... rather large, and rather rambling; it's hard to tell what's available, and where. So here's a summary. First off, there's a written story that goes with the video at Bungie.net. You should read this. Then, you can download your favorite flavor of the movie; all formats contain the same size films (small - 320x180; medium - 640x360; large - 1280x720). You have three format choices: Windows Media Player 9, H.264 QuickTime, and Sorenson 3 Pro QuickTime. Microsoft's hosting the WMV files, we're hosting the QuickTimes. All files are direct downloads, except the two large QuickTimes - those are BitTorrented. (Sorry, for those who can't handle that. We'll do our best to make them directly downloadable at some point in the future - but they're huge, and until demand dies down...) The H.264 QuickTimes are larger, and harder on older machines, than the S3Pro QuickTimes; we're offering them because that's what Bungie provided us with, but we'd recommend getting the reencoded versions. Okay - that all said, here are all the download links in one place:

• WMP9: Small (32 mb) | Medium (84 mb) | Large (338 mb)
• QT, H.264: Small (47.8 mb) | Medium (154 mb) | Large (424 mb)
• QT, S3Pro: Small (27.1 mb) | Medium (79.7 mb) | Large (294 mb)

If you didn't grab this yesterday, grab it today! There are no spoilers, and MAN, it'll make you want to play with Forge and Saved Films. (Dropping tanks on people's heads never gets old.) (Louis Wu 16:42:51 UTC) (permalink)

Going Postal.
Stuntmutt's gotten off the net, to save himself from being spoiled before next Wednesday (yeah, he's in the UK, so he has to wait till Wednesday). See how this affects YOU in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:10:14 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Skies Edge
Wow, cool. Matt 'Traize' Hyne sent word that a story he'd written, in graphic novel format, was available for downloading in PDF format from Britbox.co.uk. It's a great tale set in the Halo universe - go grab a copy! (Also, anyone who considers Alastair Reynolds their favorite author can't be all bad...) (Louis Wu 15:35:37 UTC) (permalink)

Using AI Effectively
AiGameDev has a list of the Top 10 Most Influential AI Games - Halo pulls down number 4. Interesting discussion in the Comments section, as well. Thanks, Red_Breast. (Louis Wu 14:44:36 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Charity Event in Seattle
Are you in or near Seattle, and looking for something to do Monday night? Check this out - a charity launch party that benefits a group helping special needs children and their families. You play Halo 3 a little early, you eat, drink, and be merry - and you stand a chance of winning some cool stuff! Thanks to FileFront for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:33:39 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Armory
Over at Yahoo Launch Central, there's a new series of video clips - Halo Armory runs down the weapons and vehicles you had access to in Halo and Halo 2. Thanks to Sean Jackson for the reminder to revisit the portal. (Louis Wu 14:02:51 UTC) (permalink)

To the roof! We need the ElneaSymbol!
Today's Countdown to Halo 3 activity over at Hawty McBloggy involves making comics with your action figures. It scares me a little that she's actually SUGGESTING poop jokes. See if you can offer up some cleaner funnies. (Louis Wu 13:33:29 UTC) (permalink)

A small figure collection, for sale
Adam 'digikid' McDougall is trying to put together some money to pay some medical bills - he's selling off his collection of Halo 1/2 figures. This is what he's got:

• 1 Golden hog with the silver hubs
• 1 Orange Spartan
• 1 Pink Spartan
• 1 Active Camoflauge Grunt
• 1 Battle Damaged Warthog
• A smaller collection of mint Brown spartans
• 1 halo 1 PC Rocket Warthog

If you're interested in buying this collection from him, you should send him some email. (Louis Wu 12:58:54 UTC) (permalink)

Spectacular Halo 2 statue on eBay
BARBARIC RAGE is selling an extremely rare piece of Halo schwag - it's a European 7' tall Master Chief statue, sculpted by Studio Oxmox, in Australie, produced by Muckle Mannequins. There are fewer than a thousand in the world, and only a handful in the US. (Bungie's got one.) I've got a mini Muckle statue, and I have to say - the craftsmanship is astounding. Current bid is $51, with just under a week to go (don't get excited by that; the mini statues, which stand about a foot tall, generally go for $100-150 when they show up on eBay, which isn't very often). (Louis Wu 12:56:26 UTC) (permalink)

A Symphony for Achievements
Sean Mortensen has decided to compose a symphony for the Halo 3 Achievements. He's sent us movement 7. (It's the first one he wrote, but it's movement 7.) It's in D Minor. Full title is 'Movement 7 of 9 for the Halo 3 Achievments, Symphony in D Minor'. (Louis Wu 12:49:40 UTC) (permalink)

General Halo 3 News Roundup
Tons of good news bits out there today... here's a roundup.

• TG Daily mentions that Halo 2 is back on top of the Xbox Live charts, beating Gears of War for most popular title played online. (I tried to confirm this through Major Nelson's blog, but he doesn't seem to cover that list any more.)
• Geekzone is giving away a Limited Edition copy of Halo 3 to some lucky New Zealander - check the page for more details, and to enter.
• A GamesFirst editorial comes up with five reasons why the writer is tossing Gears of War in favor of next week's release title.
• In preparation for Halo 3, 411Mania.com looks back at what went wrong in Halo 2.
• Variety has an article about the Halo 3 TV coverage we can expect next week. (Hint: there's a lot of it.)
• Filefront has a book review of The Halo Effect, a very cool collection of essays published earlier this year. If you haven't read this book... you should.
• The Deseret Morning News (a Salt Lake City paper) has a general interest article on Halo 3; what made it stand out for me was the collection of quotes. They talked to everyone from kids to adults for this one.
• Gamepro wrote a Halo 3 preview, based on material they saw at the Tokyo Game Show.

Whew! That clears out the Google Alert mailbox. (Louis Wu 12:43:57 UTC) (permalink)

The start of something... odd
We got this image today - it's one of many, apparently. That's all I know. (Louis Wu 12:28:54 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's History of Halo
IGN has posted 'The History of Halo', a nice recap of the development of the game series. There are a bunch of little things they've either got wrong (Nathan Bitner didn't write the original Cortana Letters, the Halo 1 dev team was bigger than 10 people, TrueSkill matchmaking was an add-on that came in with the 360, rather than being part of Halo 2's matchmaking algorithm, etc) or made assumptions that are either totally new to me (the Brutes were engineered by Truth? Elites are reptiles?) or never confirmed (the selling price of Bungie in 2000)... but for the most part, it's a well-written synopsis of the Halo arc over the past 9 years. A mild warning - this was written to bring you up to speed on what you've already played; if you're totally new to the Halo universe, this story contains spoilers for Halo and Halo 2. Thanks to Marcus-626, who was first with the link. (Louis Wu 12:25:40 UTC) (permalink)

Tafiti - Halo-themed search
Microsoft has kicked off a Halo-themed version of Tafiti - go check it out. Tafiti is a search front end from Microsoft; it uses Silverlight (Microsoft's Flash-like layer) and Live Search to bring you lots of Halo search goodness. It requires Silverlight, which is available (for free) for both Macs and PCs, and it currently doesn't work on Safari 3 (though it does, for some reason, work fine with Safari 2) - but other than that, it should be a piece of cake to use. HBO's content, for the most part, isn't indexed yet (there was a mixup on the URLs they trawled, I think), but there's plenty of other Halo content out there on the web - and this is one pretty way to find it! Thanks, Jamey. (Louis Wu 12:08:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Helmet - High Quality, High Price
The frenzy for high-quality Halo armor continues. (Remember that suit of armor we mentioned on September 11? The auction closed yesterday... for a mind-boggling $21,149.00. I mean... Wow.) Cpl. Fin Aeros points out another auction containing material from the same artist - this time it's just a helmet, and the bidding currently stands at a bit over $1000, with almost 9 days to go. Read up on how he did the work, watch his videos... and if you're wealthier than the average bear, toss in a bid! (Louis Wu 10:32:37 UTC) (permalink)

Believe Ad Satire
karebearstare put together his own parody of the Believe ads - it's short, it's cute, it's available at MLG's Gameroom and YouTube. Go see what you think. (Louis Wu 10:26:58 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fanfic
Even the Fan Fiction writers are pumped up this week - fifteen new pieces for you. Now, I've looked at all of them, and made sure that none are OVERTLY full of spoilers for Halo 3... but I can't be positive that nobody's snuck in a one-liner somewhere just to be obnoxious. (Seems unlikely, but since I don't have the time to read every story carefully, I need to make the warning.) You're PROBABLY safe, but if you want to be 100% sure, you might want to hold off for a few more days. (Louis Wu 10:21:02 UTC) (permalink)

Painting the Controllers
Littlebigman found a cool little article on Spawn.com which shows how Todd McFarlane created the artwork that graces the two Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Controllers. (Louis Wu 10:12:15 UTC) (permalink)

Evoking Emotion in Halo 3
Over at Music 4 Games, you'll find a great interview with Marty O'Donnell - tons of info about how he works, how the music for Halo 3 was created, what's next for him. Mike Salvatori sometimes gets left out of the equation when discussing Halo music, because he works in Chicago, instead of Kirkland... but Marty reminds us that he's an integral part of the equation. Go read. Thanks, Greg. (Louis Wu 10:09:05 UTC) (permalink)

News September 20 2007

Podcast Schmodcast.
In case you haven't had ENOUGH new content today, Luke Smith posted the latest Bungie Podcast, weighing in at a ridiculous 2 hours long, and 123 mb large. Doesn't he know the internets are made of tubes? BUNGIE'S CLOGGING EVERYTHING! It's an exhaustive discussion of the new Bungie.net, plus discussion about the next Halo novel, plus... well, plus lots of stuff. It's really long. Go listen to it. If you play your cards right, you'll be done with it right about the time Halo 3 is released. (Louis Wu 21:58:32 UTC) (permalink)

These are not the boxes you're looking for.
This vid made me smile. Thanks, Mad Tom. (Louis Wu 21:57:05 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Comic Day
Today was the day for comics, I suppose - we heard from Sane Intolerant, whose latest Halo Toy Box speculates (with NO foundation) about the ending to Halo 3, and Haloplayer, who let us know about the fourth Countdown Comic from Injured Knee Productions. (Louis Wu 21:53:34 UTC) (permalink)

Cinema Paradiso
Up on Bungie.net, you'll find a really cool story - they've posted one last VIDOC, this one covering Saved Films and Forge. It's called Cinema Paradiso, and I'll let Frankie's words describe it:

Take a closer look at two of Halo 3's coolest features. Saved Films let you replay your games, Campaign or Multiplayer, from any angle, with near complete control over the 3D camera and DVD-like functionality. The Forge map and object editor lets you recreate Halo 3 multiplayer maps to suit your style, or cooperate with up to eight other players to build a new game experience. Both features are explained clearly in this in-depth feature, with input and commentary from Bungie and the game designers.

This film is available on Marketplace, as well as being available online. The download links on B.net are for the WMP9 versions; there are three. They range from small (320x180, 32 mb) to medium (640x360, 84 mb) to huge (1280x720, 338 mb). We're handling the QuickTimes for them - but there's a small glitch. The versions I got from Bungie, while gorgeous, might give folks on slower machines headaches. They're H.264-encoded. You can grab the small (47.8 mb) or medium (154 mb) ones directly from us - but the large one is too big (424 mb) to offer you as a direct download, so we're torrenting it, and providing some healthy seed bandwidth. We are also providing versions that do not require H.264. Here's where the glitch comes in - these aren't fully ready yet. The 720p version will be available via BitTorrent, as well (it's just under 300 mb), within the next half hour - but this article went up a bit earlier than I'd expected, and the other two versions are still a couple of hours away from being ready. If you need/want the smaller Sorenson 3 Pro versions... please, be patient, they'll be up very soon. Thanks to the billion people who were clearly hitting F5 all day for new content from Bungie - we got an inordinate number of emails within ten minutes of the article going up. Update: The Sorenson 3 flavor of the large version (1280x720, 294mb) is now available via BitTorrent, as well. And, as before, we're providing a healthy swath of seed bandwidth. The two smaller versions will be online shortly. Update 2: The two smaller Sorenson 3 QuickTimes are now online: the medium one is 79.7 mb, the small one is 27.1 mb. Additionally, Wraith7n let us know that he's mirrored the large WMP9 and the medium H.264 QuickTime, if you're having trouble getting either one of those (Thanks, Wraith7n!). (Louis Wu 19:30:19 UTC) (permalink)

Jump In.
Hawty McBloggy continues her countdown to Halo 3 - yesterday was "Make a Master Chief out of Play-Doh" Day (a much better choice than Talk Like a Pirate Day), and a bunch of people participated. Today, she's asking folks to rewrite songs with Halo lyrics, and she kicks off the festivities with 'I'm a Halo Girl, in a Halo World'. (I'd love to hear someone record this!) Check it out - keep yourself entertained! (Louis Wu 18:00:17 UTC) (permalink)

Next time, stick to gardening.
Winner: Lamest Halo Article of the Day. (Louis Wu 17:42:36 UTC) (permalink)

Goodies for those in Singapore
We've mentioned the 'Believers' events in Singapore before (here, and here), but today we got copies of the preorder forms availalbe to folks in that country, from Qdepartment (image 1 | image 2 | image 3). Looks like you get a nice schwag bag when you show up at the Launch event! (Louis Wu 17:01:36 UTC) (permalink)

Toyfare Content
Stuntmutt pointed out an interview with Brian Jarrard and Frank O'Connor at Toyfare - not a ton of new info, but apparently, the current issue of the mag has several pages of pictures of toys, including a Hammer-weilding Master Chief HaloClix figure. Go look for it! (Louis Wu 16:54:20 UTC) (permalink)

A peek behind the curtain
Veegie sent us a pretty interesting pamphlet this week; he received it in the course of his job at Target, and while it doesn't hold any company secrets, I found it really interesting, in terms of how a large retail outlet approaches a marketing campaign like Halo 3's. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:39:02 UTC) (permalink)

Saved Films and Forge, from IGN
IGN has posted an article, with several streaming vids, about a demonstration at the Tokyo Game Show this week. Jay Weinland and Jonty Barnes walked the IGN folks through some campaign coop stuff, as seen through saved films - there are definitely some minor spoilers in here, so if you're looking for a pristine campaign experience, do NOT watch the first two videos... but if you want to see gameplay you've never seen before, and get a sense for how saved films work (and how Coop works), take a look. There's also a demonstration of Forge, with some clever pointers on use - these start in Part 3, so you can visit the movies page, and just watch this, if you want to avoid the campaign content in parts one and two. Part 4 continues the Forge demo... and shows off 'Rocket Baseball', as mentioned in an interview not too long ago. Thanks to Eric Max and Sean Kelly for the heads-up(s). (Louis Wu 15:25:45 UTC) (permalink)

Missed Opportunities
Wow, lots of stuff slipping through the cracks. I took a look at this Reuters article yesterday, and passed over it because it seemed to be yet another "Halo is making a lot of money" piece. Xbox 360 Fanboy read it a little more carefully, and noticed, buried in the second-to-last paragraph, a short list of rejected marketing ideas. Cortana lingerie... hmm. I know a few people who'd actually buy that. (Louis Wu 14:43:37 UTC) (permalink)

Freeze Frame would be nice.
Warbow's thinking about what would happen if real life acquired some of Halo 3's enhancements... check out the newest Calvin and Halo. (Louis Wu 13:29:29 UTC) (permalink)

NFL Faceoff - at home, this time
Yesterday, GryphonOsiris sent us a link to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle. I took a quick look at it, saw that it was about 49rs quarterback Alex Smith, and sent him a link to this article (Alex Smith and Shawne Merriman playing Halo 3 in Bungie's studios) - I figured the Chronicle was just a little behind. Well, I was wrong. This is a NEW story; Microsoft PR found some NFL players willing to host Halo 3 house parties, and set 'em up. The 49rs faced off against the Redskins and the Bengals, online... you can read the Washington point of view in the Washington Post (thanks, Free at Last). That story even has a video of the action... loos like a sweet setup! (Louis Wu 13:27:00 UTC) (permalink)

Guide writers with a vision
Piggyback has put up an article explaining their Halo 3 Strategy Guide - it sounds like it's going to be a pretty impressive piece of work! They do their best not to spoil you... in a strategy guide. That's a first. (Louis Wu 12:15:53 UTC) (permalink)

This is madness.
PROPH37 pointed out that you can now download a wallpaper created from yesterday's Ctrl+Alt+Del (Spartan vs Spartan). Nice! (Louis Wu 11:54:48 UTC) (permalink)

HAFT, Explained
For folks who read Elnea's Halo Action Figure Theater, but might be a little confused about the plot (because, you know, her mind is a little warped)... she's put together an 'Extras' page which contains plot synopses for both series, as well as character bios. I'm STILL confused, but now it's more about how she manages to find the time for all this stuff... (Louis Wu 10:49:59 UTC) (permalink)

Video Walkthrough of Construct (unauthorized)
Hmm... this is the sort of thing I'm not sure if I should be mentioning. Someone has created a reasonably high-quality film of a walkthrough, in Forge, of the multiplayer level Bungie announced yesterday, Construct. There are no spoilers in the film - it's just a guy running around the map, no voiceover at all - and it shows off the gorgeous graphics of the level to nice effect... but it IS content that hasn't been released by Bungie yet (though they HAVE announced it, and released screenshots). It's up to you whether you visit or not; it's a really pretty level, but you'll get to run around it all by yourself in just 4 days. If you want to see it now, visit GameTrailers. I found this at Planet Halo. Update: Brodingo points out that there are runthroughs of The Pit and Isolation, as well. (While the multiplayer environments match locations in the Campaign, these cannot be said to contain spoilers, because there is no context for what you're seeing. No part of the STORY is spoiled by seeing the environment, in these cases. That said - these were created by people who got their hands on the game before they were supposed to, and have been uploaded without Bungie's approval; if you want Bungie to decide what you see, and don't see, before launch, don't visit these links.) (Louis Wu 10:43:23 UTC) (permalink)

Leading Players to a Goal
nash--housewares noticed an interview with Mike Zak, Halo 3's environment art lead, over at Digital Journal. It's a great look at the process of map development, with some cool tidbits about other things (skulls, for example) tossed in. No spoilers. (Louis Wu 10:26:45 UTC) (permalink)

Custom Spartan on eBay
Joerhyno wrote with some news about an auction a friend has set up. It's a custom figure - he started with a mini figure that was enlarged with Hydrospan, then cast in resin and cut up to fit on a Microman body, and painted. A lot of work! Current bid is $50, with a week to go. (Joe also pointed out this thread on the Spawn forum - some great pics, including two from him, using Joyride figures, down near the bottom. Fun with action figures! (Louis Wu 10:19:48 UTC) (permalink)

Twas the Sixteenth of May
Pixelated Pupils is now back online, and their first comic deals with the Halo 3 Beta/Crackdown situation. Nice poem! Thanks, Angelic Lionheart. (Louis Wu 10:02:23 UTC) (permalink)

Achingly Familiar
We got word from Haloplayer that Lost Cause Episode 15 is now online (in a bunch of downloadable and streaming flavors) at Injured Knee Productions - and this is probably the last Halo 2 episode they'll make. It's called 'Achingly Familiar', and the Elites have finally found our squad. Uh oh... (Louis Wu 09:57:49 UTC) (permalink)

Believe, From the Inside
Creativity Online has an interview with Scott Duchon and Mike Harris, of the McCann Group, the folks behind the Believe material. It's a pretty interesting read - see what went into these videos! (Louis Wu 02:19:09 UTC) (permalink)

Construct
The newest big thing from Bungie? Tyson Green talks to Gamespot about a multiplayer level we havent seen yet - Construct, an industrial multilevel map. Looks gorgeous! Thanks to Flamechu for the first heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:03:49 UTC) (permalink)

News September 19 2007

Advanced Forge Editing
Haven't had enough Forge yet? The third part of Bungie's Halo 3 How-To on the tool is now up - go read Advanced Forge Editing for the lowdown on special objects. Thanks to all who wrote - Alekat was first. (Louis Wu 22:15:20 UTC) (permalink)

HIH/HSH Represented at G4's H3 Countdown
NOKYARD wrote to let us know that two High Speed Halo/High Impact Halo regulars, djDAP and Riptor, will be headed to Los Angeles next Monday to speedrun Halo 1, Legendary Co-op... on live TV. They'll be part of G4TV's pre-launch extravaganza. An HIH forum thread about this already up and running. Congrats, guys! (Louis Wu 22:13:21 UTC) (permalink)

What's Coming to Bungie.net
DHalo points out a post on NeoGAF's forum from Luke Smith, in which he outlines all the new Halo 3 content coming to Bungie.net in the next few days. (The link brings you to the single post; you will see nothing but Luke's note if you follow it, there are no chances for spoilers unless you explore the site outside that post.) (Louis Wu 21:20:47 UTC) (permalink)

Wanna go to the London Gala?
MffnMn finds himself with a ticket to the London Launch Party - but cannot go. There were apparently 150 pairs of tickets given away - this is a full pair. (It says "non-transferable", but he hasn't sent his name in yet, so it shouldn't be a problem.) If you're interested, adn you're over 18 and in the London area, shoot him an email - he'll pick one at random and give the pair away in the next 24 hours. What a guy! (Louis Wu 20:58:06 UTC) (permalink)

Dust And...
I think Stuntmutt's pining for interaction - check today's One One Se7en. Just a few more days... (Louis Wu 20:56:06 UTC) (permalink)

MMontage
trigger119 let us know that there's a new Halo 3 Beta montage up and ready for download at GamingTV - this one is from MMaster. Lots of snipes, lots of Spartan Laser kills. WMP9 or QT, 40-70 mb. Go watch for nostalgia! (Louis Wu 18:29:51 UTC) (permalink)

Another Halo 3 Preparation Guide
KEEZY, from PreGameLobby, let us know that they've put together a Halo 3 Preparation Guide. A significant number of the points match up nicely with RVideo's guide from last week - but there are a few extra steps which might be useful. Check it out! Update: RVideo noticed that this list is now available in downloadable PDF format - in case you want to, say, print it out. (Louis Wu 16:27:38 UTC) (permalink)

A close look at Jasman's Energy Sword
Jasman's Plasma Pistol and Rifle have been news on the toy front for a long time - but until now, I haven't seen a picture (or a price) for the upcoming Energy Sword. BigBadToyStore is preselling all three - but it's the $120 sword that surprises me. They're not promising that this is the final retail price... but even so, wow. Thanks, BARBARIC RAGE. (Louis Wu 15:21:44 UTC) (permalink)

Break street date - get banned from Live
Interesting... and maybe depressing for some folks who got their hands on Halo 3 early. According to Pro-G, Microsoft has confirmed that they will be banning Xbox Live accounts of folks who play Halo 3 before its street date - and they'll do this whether you're connected to XBL when you're playing, or not. Ouch! Thanks, Anton P. Nym. Update: JeSteR 343 points out that the Pro-G article has been updated; apparently, the Live ban only applies to Microsoft employees. Update 2: According to this page, Microsoft has now made an official statement that NOBODY will be banned from Live for playing before the street date. So that's that. (Louis Wu 15:10:24 UTC) (permalink)

The new phone books are here!
The Illinois Daily Herald (a suburban Chicago paper) has an article about folks waiting for Halo 3 - and it features two HBO regulars, Toby Dillman and Darren 'ViralSyris' Maughan. Nice going, guys! (And thanks to ViralSyris for the tipoff.) (Louis Wu 14:43:52 UTC) (permalink)

Paper Master Chief
Very cool. Mike McDermott created a really cool paper master chief - and provided information for creating your own. Spectacular! (The program he used is free, but Windows-based; you can find a link in his instructions.) I found this at Rampancy.net - Narc found it at Kotaku. (Louis Wu 14:01:15 UTC) (permalink)

Famitsu loves Halo 3
Sean Pfeil pointed out an article at CVG, which discusses a Famitsu review of Halo 3; one 10 and three 9s from the four reviewing editors - an overwhelming endorsement, especially for a first-person shooter in Japan. (You won't be seeing too many of these reviews yet; there's actually a press embargo in place, worldwide, until September 23. Not many magazines are willing to break that this time around...) (Louis Wu 13:04:26 UTC) (permalink)

UK Street Date Broken?
Lutzie let us know that the UK chain Argos might have screwed up and broken Halo 3 street date at some of their stores; a quick search around the net turns up a lot of anecdotal evidence, but no first-person accounts ("I picked up a copy!"). It looks like some Comets and Woolworths, too, have sold copies. For folks in areas where it's NOT for sale, be careful - the incidence of spoilers on the net is going to skyrocket. (Louis Wu 13:00:59 UTC) (permalink)

It all start with a good control scheme
Kikizo has an interview with Harter Ryan, Executive Producer of Halo Wars - it's an interesting discussion about how the game came together, what's new and what's not, and where the Ensemble team would like it to all go. Give it a read! Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:42:32 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie.net Upgrading
A quick warning - Bungie.net goes down today around 9 am Pacific (noon ET, 4 pm UTC), for infrastructure upgrades. The news post says the site will be read-only... but in the past, it's been mostly unreachable during upgrades. We post this to keep you from panicking; the downtime is planned, and what comes out of it will be worth any loss in interactivity you were expecting today. (Plus, there'll be more Forge content when it's back. Maybe even... multimedia.) Update: The downtime is over - the new site is up. Pretty tweaks! (No new content yet, though.) (Louis Wu 11:31:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Power Rankings
DPAD lists the first official rankings for Halo 2 pros - see where your favorite team sits! (Louis Wu 11:21:48 UTC) (permalink)

Behind a Marketing Campaign
iMedia Connection has a massive article which looks at the marketing campaign Microsoft put together - lots of details about the whos, and whys, and hows. Comments like "Given the appeal of "Halo" to the emo crowd, [...]" made me raise my eyebrows a bit... but all in all, a nice summary of the overall plan. (Louis Wu 11:20:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3: The Facts
Curious about the numbers behind Halo? Wishing you could put your fingers on a list of stats about the game? 3Suns found a post at Evil Avatar that might be able to help. (Louis Wu 11:15:21 UTC) (permalink)

No longer just a game
KORHAL pointed out an article at PC World that talks about the Halo marketing juggernaut, and how it affects Microsoft as a whole. Worth a read. (Louis Wu 11:13:55 UTC) (permalink)

Spartans
Today's Ctrl+Alt+Del has a matchup that seems... one-sided. Thanks to the millions who wrote in - Brandon Jones was first. (Louis Wu 11:12:06 UTC) (permalink)

Finish the Fight - Down Under
Chris Hamilton let us know that an Australian site will launch on the 25th - Finish the Fight is dedicated to the competitive Halo community in Australia (though they'll have content for regular joes, too). Bookmark 'em! (Louis Wu 10:55:27 UTC) (permalink)

Midnight Madness - Official PR
The official press release for the Launch Madness events went out yesterday - you'll find it at dozens of websites (including ours, actually). Major Nelson will be on hand in New York - but there will be bigwigs at all the named events. (Louis Wu 10:53:25 UTC) (permalink)

Comic Theme
Brodingo noticed a new theme for your 360 - it's listed on Xbox.com, but not yet available on Marketplace. It's based on the Halo: Uprising comic book. Update: according to speed13327, this theme is now up on Marketplace. Update 2: Credit where it's due - agdTinMan put this puppy together, though he reminds us that the Uprising artwork itself was done by Alex Maleev. (Louis Wu 10:51:16 UTC) (permalink)

A Halo 3 SHOE?
PROPH37 found an odd mention on Gilbert Arenas' blog - apparently, there's a Halo version of his shoe coming out in the not-too-distant future. No pics yet... but this is the first I've heard of it. (Check out the post entitled 'Introducing the GilIIZero'.) (Louis Wu 10:48:50 UTC) (permalink)

GTR Podcast - Halo 3 Interview
Godfree let us know that the current episode of Gamertag Radio contains a bunch of Halo content, including an interview with Francesca Reyes, Editor in Chief of OXM (and the first person outside of Bungie/MS to finish Halo 3). No spoilers. News post (and download link) are on the GTR website. (Louis Wu 10:46:07 UTC) (permalink)

The Three Towers Revisited
Over at High Impact Halo (CHECK OUT THAT NEW FRONT PAGE! and be sure to read Ducain's explanation for how it works!), seven trickers got together and put together a half-hour video revisiting the Three Towers from the level Halo of the original game. This has got to be the definitive TT vid. It's 212 mb, but there are some amazing tricks in there. Visit this forum thread for all the details, and a download link. Thanks, WLT and Ducain. (Louis Wu 10:42:47 UTC) (permalink)

Halo showing in TGS Press Briefing
Eva Ribs let us know that on Xbox Live Marketplace, you'll find footage from the Tokyo Game Show, and one of the videos contains Halo footage. Most is old, but there's also a Japanese TV commercial. To find it, head to Marketplace, and then Navigate: Game Videos -> Gaming Community Videos -> Bringing It Home -> TGS 2007: Xbox Press Briefing 2 (Louis Wu 10:38:06 UTC) (permalink)

News September 18 2007

Unite to Fight Launch Locations
Filefront has a list of the Midnight Madness locations in New York, Seattle, LA, and Miami - if you live in or near one of these cities, and you didn't know where the 'big gathering' was taking place... now you do. (Louis Wu 21:36:53 UTC) (permalink)

But his name's not Mikey...
GameDaily takes a look at the Master Chief as an endorsement property... some of these are pretty cute. Thanks, iN00B. (Louis Wu 21:31:08 UTC) (permalink)

2v2 Tourney in PA, September 22
Sam Blau let us know that CyberZone, near Philadelphia, PA, is hosting a 2v2 tournament this weekend - $5 to get in, $25 to play, cash and prizes to be won. More details on their events page. (Louis Wu 21:10:52 UTC) (permalink)

MLG's Halo 3 Launchtacular
Halo 3 overload at MLG? You bet. Thanks, trigger119. (Louis Wu 20:29:19 UTC) (permalink)

Community Halo 3 Montage
gdejohn is organizing a Halo 3 montage which will feature the best gameplay from the Halo community - but he needs you to provide footage. You don't need editing skills or hardware; just save your gameplay films, and he'll download and record them. Far more information can be found in this MLGPro.com forum thread (registration required) - check it out, and get ready to send him good stuff! (Louis Wu 20:24:33 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Launch Day Predictions
Over at The Hushed Casket, Midnight has been playing with numbers - he's trying to predict the sales of Halo 3 (both in units, and dollars), in the first 24 hours. I'd disagree with some of his assumptions (the two biggies are total 360s sold to date and current number of preorders) - but whether you agree or not, he's laid out his reasoning pretty clearly. Go see what you think! Thanks, rapture. (Louis Wu 20:09:25 UTC) (permalink)

Advanced Forgery
S043 let us know that Bungie's put up the second of three Forge articles - this one looks at Object Editing. Everything you wanted to know about Forge - but were too impatient to wait for Halo 3 to check for yourself. (Louis Wu 20:02:57 UTC) (permalink)

Wish Fulfillment
Hawty McBloggy is counting down the time to Halo 3 with new activities every day - I suppose the theory isif you stay distracted, you won't go hunting for spoilers on the net. Today's activity: Photoshop a picture of yourself with Master Chief. There are a couple of her, plus some that folks have sent her; she'll add yours if you give her a link. Go look! (Louis Wu 19:03:20 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie.net Evolution, Defined
TeamXbox has interviewed Chris Gossett, Bungie.net Development Lead, about some of the new features you'll be seeing soon on Bungie.net. Boatloads of info about what we're getting - both in screenshots, and answers from Chris. Go read - and get pumped up! (Campaign spoiler-free.) Thanks, Red_Breast. (Louis Wu 18:51:57 UTC) (permalink)

Floaty Silence 3 - A Fart in the Wind
Hellhawk let us know that he's released Floaty Silence 3. It's basically 'A Whisper in the Storm', with an entirely new soundtrack. Pretty funny! You can grab it in WMP9 format (44.4 mb) or QuickTime format (Sorenson-encoded, 49.4 mb) from us... or you can grab a non-deinterlaced QuickTime version (H.264 encoding, 46.9 mb) from Mythica.org. Go watch! (Louis Wu 17:53:35 UTC) (permalink)

Believe Material on Marketplace
GIMME A BEER lets us know that the Diorama and Making Of (Monument) videos are now available for download from Xbox Live Marketplace (in standard definition). (Louis Wu 17:13:51 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Nights
We got a press release from Deep Focus, an agency in New York - they're promoting what has to be one of the oddest music vids I've seen in a long time. From the release:

Only days away from the Halo 3 release, Superdeluxe.com and Team Tiger Awesome drops this boy-band ode to Master Chief and the perils of spending all your time blasting the Covenant.

I've never heard of Team Tiger Awesome before, but lemme tell you, I'm gonna be googling as soon as this is posted. Check out the video at SuperDeluxe.com... and take a lesson from it! Balance is important. Update: Since the SuperDeluxe link died, here's a link on Team Tiger's page. (Louis Wu 16:39:19 UTC) (permalink)

London Halo 3 Launch Party
Many sites have stories about a launch night extravaganza in London (Games Dog, Eurogamer, Pro-G) - apparently Jonathan Ross and Pharrell Williams will both be on hand at the blowout at the BFI IMAX cinema. Over a thousand shops in the UK will be open at midnight to sell you a copy of the game, though none of them will be on Oxford Street (thanks, MCV). Six and a half days... (Louis Wu 15:55:12 UTC) (permalink)

In Halo 3
Andrew Koethe sent us 'In Halo 3', a not-safe-for-work song that talks about all the stuff that happens in Halo 3. Andrew has never PLAYED Halo 3, so the spoilers in the song are wholly fictitious... but it's pretty funny, nonetheless. Again: the lyrics are R-rated, the content is made up from whole cloth - and it'll bring a smile to your face. 2.4 mb, MP3 format. (Louis Wu 12:39:29 UTC) (permalink)

Legendary Edition Giveaway at Futurelooks
Stephen Fung, from Futurelooks, let us know that the publisher is giving away a Legendary Edition of Halo 3 - check this forum post for full details. See? it's okay if you haven't ordered it yet... you can still win it! (Louis Wu 12:19:46 UTC) (permalink)

Wait... training dolphins?
Another Top list - this time, it's Top Twenty Starship Captains - and Kunochan.com says Captain Jacob Keyes is Number Nine. Thanks, Sparticus. (Louis Wu 11:52:34 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Font Updated
Will Turnbow has updated his Halo font to reflect changes made by Bungie over the past few years; you can grab the newest version here. (We've also updated the Misc Art entry that stores this font.) (Louis Wu 11:45:24 UTC) (permalink)

Crib Wars - Halo Style
Tech Gear wants to know what sort of setup you have for playing Halo 3 - visit this page for info on how to show them. Let the Gear Wars begin! Thanks, JamesD. (Louis Wu 11:28:39 UTC) (permalink)

Standing with the classics
USA Today has posted a piece which looks at how the story of Halo has affected the people who play it. Good read - and it doesn't hurt that it's got a quote from our very own Miguel Chavez in it! (Louis Wu 11:24:28 UTC) (permalink)

Isolation - Midship meets Burial Grounds
IGN Has posted a preview of Isolation, one of the Halo 3 multiplayer maps we haven't seen yet. Six screenshots (check the screenshots section for the ones not included in the article) and some questions about gameplay answered by Tyson 'Ferrex' Green... go look! (A couple of the screenshots show off some of the UI tidbits for the Infection gametype.) Thanks, tj rome. (Louis Wu 11:17:06 UTC) (permalink)

Podtacular 128
Kiaffex has let us know that Podtacular 128 has been released - join the crew as they bid farewell to Halo 2. It's over an hour and a half long. (Louis Wu 11:06:56 UTC) (permalink)

Under the Needle(r)
Over at Tied the Leader, Dweezle's posted an article about tattoos, and how they help us remember. As the torch is passed from Halo 2 to Halo 3, check this out to see how folks have paid tribute to their favorite game series. (Louis Wu 11:05:12 UTC) (permalink)

Economics of the Stupid
There's a great op-ed piece over at the Escapist - how do you rationalize the payment for a Halo 3 preorder when your common sense tells you that money is better off in your pocket? Heh - I know exactly where he's coming from. Really enjoyable read. (Louis Wu 10:59:36 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Games Popular This Week
According to Gamasutra, all three Halo games are on Gamefly's Most Requested lists this week - Halo 3 is number one on the Xbox 360 list, and Halo 2 and Halo took spots one and three, respectively, on the Xbox list. You think folks might be interested in the series? (Louis Wu 10:29:21 UTC) (permalink)

Hello, Halo
There are dozens of newspapers doing quick summaries of the Halo universe in preparation for next week's release - I found this one, in the Hartford Courant, to be slightly more interesting than the rest because of some lesser-known tidbits. Did you know that Steve Downes, the voice of Master Chief, was denounced online for being a "boring noob"? (I didn't.) How about that The New York Times compared Red vs Blue to 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead'? (I must have missed that.) Anyway, nice background. (Louis Wu 10:25:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 How-To: Forge Basics
Also on Bungie.net today - a Halo 3 How-To giving you some Forge Basics. It's just the first of three Forge pieces coming from Bungie - this one will teach you how to get started and do some simple things. Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:14:09 UTC) (permalink)

Blue Filter Tool - Coming Soon
There's a note up on Bungie.net about the blue filter that can be used in conjunction with the Audio/Video Calibration tool that comes on the Essentials disc distributed with the Limited and Legendary editions of Halo 3. The filter is not NECESSARY - but it can be helpful. It's not available yet, but when it is, they'll update you about to get one. (Louis Wu 10:11:12 UTC) (permalink)

Fanswag: The Halo 3 Version
Xbox 360 Fanboy is giving away a pretty amazing package - 50" HDTV, surround sound system, Xox 360 Elite - in honor of Halo 3's release. (No copy of Halo 3, though, oddly enough.) Go read the full details at their site - you've got up to 11 chances to win! (Louis Wu 01:02:43 UTC) (permalink)

News September 17 2007

Midnight Madness (a representative example)
We're not going to list every US store that's hosting a midnight sale (there are 10,000 of them; we don't have the front-page space), but we got word that Micro Center in Hilliard, OH is hosting a costume party, and top prize wins a Legendary Edition of Halo 3. (I'm POSITIVE this is happening elsewhere - but you'll need to check with your local stores to find out if something cool is happening in your area - as I said, we just don't have the room.) Update: According to Eric Max, this is true at EVERY Micro Center, not just the Hilliard one. (Louis Wu 21:35:16 UTC) (permalink)

Machinima Europe Nominations
Hugh Hancock let us know that the nominations for Machinima Europe can be seen at the Promoting Machinima website; congratulations to Laird, whose Halo Unyielding Parts 1 and 2 have been nominated for 'Best Technical Achievement'! (Louis Wu 21:23:03 UTC) (permalink)

Wallpaper pack at Gamespot
Gamespot has made a Wallpaper Pack out of some of the images from the Believe campaign - 11 images at 1600x1200 resolution. Nice work - and it's free (regisration required). Thanks, serpx. (Louis Wu 20:20:24 UTC) (permalink)

Free Stuff from Halopedia
Halopedia is running a Halo 3 Launch Contest - be active on the site, win chances at Halo 3 schwag. Read the contest page for full details. Thanks, Nogard. (Louis Wu 20:15:50 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Legendary - Going, Going, Gone?
According to GamesIndustry.biz, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that the Halo 3 Legendary Edition is on track to sell out in the US before Halo 3's launch next week. (There are many reports that it's already sold out in the UK, although Milk, in IRC, told me today that Play just reopened their preorders, so it's unclear if that's entirely true.) (Louis Wu 19:28:59 UTC) (permalink)

Sellin' It
SquirrelOnFire lets us know that today's Sore Thumbs is Halo-related - comics might be all you have left, go read. (Louis Wu 19:15:16 UTC) (permalink)

Yep, it's out there.
I'm posting this because I need to stem the flood of emails rolling in - but yes, the ending to Halo 3 has been leaked. If you're trying to avoid spoilers - my suggestion is to get off the internet for a week. Once again - we will not post any spoilers on this page without giving you the chance to avoid seeing them; the 'Halo 3 Spoilers' option isn't even enabled yet, so for the time being, we won't be posting ANYTHING that will spoil the story. HBO will be a safe haven until after the 25th. (Louis Wu 18:10:33 UTC) (permalink)

Plastic Explosives.
Stuntmutt takes a look at the Diorama from last week's Believe ads in today's One One Se7en. Come see me after class - I'll lend you a whiffle bat for beating him about the head and ears. (Louis Wu 17:58:35 UTC) (permalink)

eBay'd statue - update
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned a life-size MC statue for sale on eBay - we got word from SG Noodles that his friend won this. Final price was $1035, plus $250 shipping. He sent along a bunch of photos - he calls 03 "Bubble Shield v1.0", but I'd call it "MC Gets Married". Check 'em out! Update: I think 12 was supposed to be 'Bubble Shield 1.0' - sorry. (Louis Wu 17:55:20 UTC) (permalink)

Evolution of Halo, Revisited
trigger119 points out that the GamingTV Spotlight of the week is Evolution of Halo - if you haven't seen this video (created years ago, to show where Halo came from), now's a good time! (Louis Wu 17:03:29 UTC) (permalink)

Come on in.
Trunks let us know that the latest episode of Trunks and Soto has a couple of Halo references. It also has nearly naked men. You need to decide your own level of exposure comfort. (Louis Wu 17:00:15 UTC) (permalink)

NO SOUP FOR YOU!
Warbow gives us a new Calvin and Halo - but I have to say, if this were my kid... never mind, this is a public newspost. (Louis Wu 16:54:18 UTC) (permalink)

Will they have edible oils, too?
If you live in Toronto, you might want to get to Gaming Invasion '07 this weekend - they'll be letting people play Halo 3 a few days before release. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 16:34:38 UTC) (permalink)

Midnight openings in the UK, too
Menelven let us know that he visisted his local Game store in the UK, and found out they're planning on having a midnight opening. If you're not sure about your own store - ask 'em! Update: we got word from Djyn that UK Game Station stores participating in the midnight launch will have a small poster in their windows - should make it easier to check. (Louis Wu 15:46:30 UTC) (permalink)

Impressions of an Event
Char Easter was another of the people who got in to play Halo 3 at the Seattle press event last week - there's a writeup of his experience at halo3.msn.com (no spoilers, just some interesting background). Thanks, Master D0rk. [Side note: this is the 20,000th news post we've put up, in a little more than 8 years. We've averaged almost seven news posts a day for every single one of the 2,981 days since post number one. Let me be the first to say 'whoa'.] (Louis Wu 14:09:12 UTC) (permalink)

Spartan Laser - Cardboard
A couple of days ago, several people pointed us towards the Half-Life Fallout forum, where tastybread had once again created a pretty amazing piece of work out of prosaic materials. (DominoEffect was first, but a bunch of people were hot on his heels; this was Dugg early Sunday morning.) If the name sounds familiar, it should - tastybread created a full set of Spartan armor and an assault rifle out of cardboard, as well, a few months ago. I tried to contact him to ask about hosting the pictures locally (to save the HL Fallout forums from another deluge), but haven't heard back yet - and the pictures are starting to appear on other sites, with NO attribution. I figured it was better to get this posted, and worry about the mirroring later. Take a look - it's a pretty amazing laser! (Louis Wu 11:17:45 UTC) (permalink)

I bet it wasn't so fun for the little guy...
Pinflux entered a contest we mentioned a few weeks ago - write a gameplay story in 100 words or less for a shot at a 360. He didn't win - but his entry is pretty cool nonetheless. (Since a picture is worth a thousand words, he probably lost on technicalities.) (Louis Wu 11:10:11 UTC) (permalink)

History Repeats Itself
The Seattle Times has an opinion piece about how Halo might be pushing it with its current ad campaign, which (according to the piece's author) plays off the Iraq war. If you disagree, you're not alone - Frank O'Connor tells the author to loosen up; that the messages in Halo are pretty universal, and not tied to any current events. (Louis Wu 11:04:30 UTC) (permalink)

Ten Great Halo Moments
GameDaily has put together what they consider to be Ten Great Halo Moments from the first two games - if you still haven't played those, this contains spoilers. (Louis Wu 10:34:37 UTC) (permalink)

New Piano Variations from TheGarbageMan
It's been a little while since we mentioned TheGarbageMan - but he's back, with three new piano variations. You can find them on his webpage - but if there's a bandwidth issue, let us know, and we'll host local copies. Pretty stuff! (Louis Wu 10:30:12 UTC) (permalink)

Embrace the Hatred
411mania.com has looked at three upcoming first-person shooters - you can read what they think. (It seems as though the most important aspect of FPSs is spawn camping - and what the creators have done to stop it.) Halo 3, of course, is one of the three (otherwise, the article wouldn't be mentioned here). (Louis Wu 10:27:56 UTC) (permalink)

Next Up: Unboxing Corn Flakes
The Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition went on sale officially yesterday, and apparently the big news today is what it looks like, coming out of the box. Yes, I know, we've seen pictures of it for months - but as Narcogen pointed out on Rampancy.net, or as this article at the Unboxing website (!!) shows, there are a number of people taking lots of pictures as they open the package. If you were curious about what, besides the console, came in the box - and what those things looked like - well, now you can satisfy your curiosity without spending $399. (Louis Wu 10:00:19 UTC) (permalink)

News September 16 2007

Sketchy.
Luke McKay whipped up a few Master Chief sketches on Friday - we've added them to his gallery here. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 23:11:17 UTC) (permalink)

Does he have a wick?
Havok Se7en visited Madame Tussauds' Wax Museum in Las Vegas, and took some pictures of a familiar character. Groovylicious! (Louis Wu 22:43:01 UTC) (permalink)

ARG Video (almost) Wrapup
Ibeechu and DHalo have released a pair of videos in their 'Perceiving the Dimensions of IRIS' series - these two episodes were a bit delayed by real life, and they realize the ARG is over now... but if you're curious to know how it all (almost) ended up, you should go watch episode 4 (WMP9, 24.1 mb | QuickTime, 20.3 mb) and episode 5 (WMP9, 41.7 mb | QuickTime, 39.3 mb). There's one more episode coming - but don't count on it before Halo 3 is released. (Louis Wu 21:38:10 UTC) (permalink)

Shock and Awe, Revisited
Back in February, we mentioned a Halo 3 tourney being planned by Games In Action - the link in that post has died, but Hexudus pointed out a new thread on the GIA forum with more info. There's still time to sign up! (Louis Wu 21:20:43 UTC) (permalink)

The Riot 65
Sigafoos let us know about The Riot 65 - 32 minutes, 13 mb worth of news, tournaments, Trinity, and Medie - erm, never mind. Stuff. Go listen. (Louis Wu 20:07:37 UTC) (permalink)

Still need hardware?
Daily TV Deals is a blog with cool deals - they found one from Best Buy that might be of interest to some of you. Buy a selected Samsung HDTV, get a free Xbox 360 and a copy of Halo 3. Nice! (Louis Wu 20:04:04 UTC) (permalink)

Show Your Trivia Skillz
oriol zertuche pointed out a Halo Universe quiz at Grunts R Us - see how good your knowledge is! (So far, nobody's gotten more than 18/20 right, it seems...) (Louis Wu 19:47:39 UTC) (permalink)

Buying Stuff
Reinsoft sent mail about an auction on eBay for a bunch of cups and some Halo 2 memorabilia. (The cups - can't you still get those at 7-11?) A couple of days left... (Louis Wu 19:45:03 UTC) (permalink)

Living With Hype
SeannyD wrote up a monster blog post about Halo 3 hype, and why it's bad... AND good. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 13:45:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo2.junk.ws Tournament Recap
xATHENAx let us know that Halo2.junk.ws hosted a 4v4 tourney this weekend for communities that have participated in the past - 29 teams showed up. A full recap is on their forum (registration required to see it). Sounds like fun! Congrats to CsR Gaming for the top spot. (Louis Wu 13:43:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Orions Spartans I
Samir Patel was the first to let us know about 'Halo: Orions Spartans I', a new Flash vid at Newgrounds. Very high production values, and this one's unusual in that it's a serious story, not a comedy. Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:26:11 UTC) (permalink)

It's just shooting and running and throwing grenades.
Cinema Blend has put up an article about how Halo 3 ain't all that... and it's our fault.

Gamers are overly excited about a game that doesn't give us anything new, so it won't get more exciting than it already is. This is gaming standing still, and we are happy with it.

It's an opinion, that's certainly true... (Louis Wu 13:03:39 UTC) (permalink)

Halo on TV
Herr Zrbo noticed a ton of Halo stuff available under the G4 label from Comcast On Demand (on your TV, if you have Comcast Cable). Check it out! (Louis Wu 12:58:58 UTC) (permalink)

They'll Regret That, Too...
GameDaily is here to help make sure you have time to finish the fight; they've put up an article with some sample emails you can send to your boss to get out of work on the 25th. Warning: risk of firing imminent. Thanks, Morpheus. (Louis Wu 12:57:16 UTC) (permalink)

Luigi as Cortana... ew.
Lots of people sent us word of this YouTube vid of someone playing the Halo theme using Mario Paint. (I guess it was Dugg.) Pretty cool! prometheus was first - thanks. (Louis Wu 12:52:31 UTC) (permalink)

Norwegian Leak, Clarified
Over at Subnova, simen has translated some Norwegian to explain more fully the situation of the 'in the wild' copies there. Doesn't sound TOO awful... (Louis Wu 12:50:37 UTC) (permalink)

News September 15 2007

Helping out a Fellow Gamer
A pillar of the gaming community, GamerDad, has had a heart attack, and undergone quadruple bypass surgery. His wife has put up a page on his website, explaining what's going on - if you think you can help, there's a donation link there, as well. Thanks, Ma1agate (and Penny Arcade) for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:21:27 UTC) (permalink)

Floaty Silence 3 - Teaser 2
Hellhawk has created a second teaser for Floaty Silence 3 - you can grab copies in WMP9 format (1.5 mb) or QuickTime format (1.9 mb). (Louis Wu 15:17:36 UTC) (permalink)

Norway enters the 'break the street date' club
This was first reported to us by Thomas Wendelborg, but there's an article in English up now on Product Reviews Net (thanks, Avateur); a Norwegian game shop has sold at least 2 copies of Halo 3 to customers, so beware, as always, of spoilers. (Louis Wu 15:15:44 UTC) (permalink)

MLG Roundup
3Suns summarize a ton of new content on MLGPro.com for us - there's some reflections from ShocKWav3, a 'State of Str8 Address' from Tsquared, a look back at the 2007 circuit (and a look ahead to Orlando) from Mimic, Walshy's Chicago memories, a video interview with Strongside, Ten top plays from the top 10 teams (highly recommended), some Orlando predictions from Elamite Warrior, and of course Video on Demand from Chicago. Go get psyched for Orlando! (Louis Wu 15:12:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halo on TV
A number of people have been letting us know that the Discovery Channel has started advertising a special Halo episode of their Future Weapons show. (Samusaaron3 was first with the news a couple of days ago.) This episode should air Monday. Major Silva noticed that the Sci Fi channel is airing something similar, the day Halo 3 is released - it's called 'Halo 3: Sci vs Fi', and will be on the air at 4pm, according to this guide. (Of course, you can't forget the SpikeTV and G4 specials that will be running on September 24...) Update: The commercial is now on YouTube (thanks, CYBRFRK). (Louis Wu 11:42:42 UTC) (permalink)

Plot Recaps
1Up mentions some plot recaps and outside literature summaries - if you're trying to catch up on the Halo storyline, check this stuff out! (Louis Wu 11:34:24 UTC) (permalink)

ActionClix already out there?
Max Greenhall found ActionClix already on sale at his local Gamestop last night... so he bought some. (Plasmafrag confirms that his local Target is selling them too.) (Louis Wu 11:20:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Front Lines
Injunfett has kicked off a blog to discuss tips and strategy for Halo 3. Look past the spelling and grammar. (Louis Wu 11:15:57 UTC) (permalink)

What does Halo 3 mean to you?
MTV News is looking for fans in the New York area who want to tell their story - no prizes, but they're offering to publish the best ones. Google News was first with this, but Impervium wasn't too far behind. (Louis Wu 11:14:18 UTC) (permalink)

Everybody starts sometime.
Geezer Gamers has a nice editorial about making room for new friends, soon... (Louis Wu 11:12:03 UTC) (permalink)

I'm waiting for the 'Do I hear...?'
More predictions about sales - they seem to get bigger each time someone opens their mouth. According to PC World, GamerMetrics is predicting 4 million units of Halo 3 sold in the US in the first 2 months. (Louis Wu 11:02:35 UTC) (permalink)

Flying and Driving
It's Friday (well, Saturday by HBO's clock, but Friday where I am), so it's time for another Bungie Weekly Update. It went up on time this week - about 4 hours ago - and you should enjoy it, since it's the second-to-last one that'll be posted before the game launches. This one covers what the Bungie public relations have been like for the past week - and throws in some fun stuff to boot. And as usual, you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive, as well. (Louis Wu 03:30:21 UTC) (permalink)

News September 14 2007

Believe Hi-Res Mirrors
trigger119 let us know that he's put up a mirror of the 720p WMP9 from Yahoo, as well as encoded (with H.264, 72 mb) a version in QuickTime. They can both be found on this page at GamingTV. For what it's worth, We've put up a 720p QuickTime, as well (62.5 mb) - this one is Sorenson 3-encoded, which should work on machines that can't handle H.264. (Louis Wu 19:57:32 UTC) (permalink)

NYC IMAX Writeup
KEEZY was at the New York IMAX event last night - and wrote it up for PreGameLobby. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:51:22 UTC) (permalink)

Edge's View of Halo 3
Edge Magazine had a large Halo feature last month - it's online at Next Generation now. (This was mentioned by Red_Breast a few days ago; I held off posting it because I'd meant to host his magazine scans as well, but haven't found time to do that yet. The article showed up today at BusinessWeek, so I figured it was time to post it.) (Louis Wu 19:21:00 UTC) (permalink)

Win a Legendary Edition from CVG
CVG is running a contest whereby you can win one of five Legendary Editions by answering a question; I couldn't find any info that limited entry to folks in the UK, but you might want to check that yourself. (Louis Wu 19:14:50 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief Speed Painting
bs angel, aka Hawty McBloggy, let us know about a very cool Halo speedpainting at YouTube - watch the Master Chief come to life in 5 minutes! (Louis Wu 18:42:08 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3: Believe Kicks into High Gear
There is quite a bit of new information out there about the Believe ad(s) - if you visit the Xbox.com BELIEVE page (thanks, Avateur and Sep7imus), you'll find multiple versions of the 'Believe' ad (labeled 'Diorama' here), as well as a Making Of video (also visible at Yahoo, listed as 'Monument' - thanks, Fernando Paniagua), and finally a link to a Halo3.com page that contains a very cool flythrough of the diorama itself (with TONS of extra stuff). Go explore! (Louis Wu 18:39:35 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3: Five Reasons You Want It
Yahoo's got a '5 Reasons You Want It' list up - they're all pretty common-sense, but hey. Thanks, Phoenix42. (Louis Wu 17:44:06 UTC) (permalink)

Believe is Up
The full, hi-res version of the "Believe" ad is now online at Yahoo Games. (Thanks, The Cancers.) You can watch it online, or download a huge HD (720p, 81 mb) version from them. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 16:30:29 UTC) (permalink)

MLGWiki opens
Broderick Shoemaker sent us a note that MLG has kicked off a Wiki that contains (or will contain) tips and tricks, strategies, and info on all three Halo games. (Other games, too - anything MLG plays.) They're looking for input from you, the fans - because that's how wikis work. Go see what's there already, and add your own goodies! (Louis Wu 15:58:42 UTC) (permalink)

Big numbers from Wedbush Morgan
Another financial analyst weighs in - according to Next Generation, Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter believes that Halo 3 will sell 3 million units in the first 12 days, and help Microsoft sell more than 400,000 Xbox 360s by the end of September. He thinks that there'll be some new news on the Sony front this week, in response. (Louis Wu 14:00:12 UTC) (permalink)

The Halo 3 Hype Hoedown
Sarcastic Gamers has put together a song they call 'The Halo 3 Hype Hoedown' - you'll finally understand what you can expect on September 25. This brought a smile to my face, at least... Update: this has been mirrored at GamingTV, with permission of the creators. (Louis Wu 13:56:00 UTC) (permalink)

Alien Genocide Is Thirsty Work
Today's Penny Arcade touches on the marketing fervor for Halo 3, as well. Guess it's the theme this week. Thanks, RotaJota. (Louis Wu 13:45:47 UTC) (permalink)

Same As Aran.
Today's One One Se7en looks at bleed-over between games. Intentional... and unintentional. (Louis Wu 12:41:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Korea Promotion Part 3 (of 6)
This went live a couple of days ago, but I'm just noticing it now: the third video in the 6-part Korean Halo 3 promotion is live. (We mentioned Part 1 and Part 2 a couple of weeks ago.) Master Chief visits a... school? This would probably be funnier if I understood Korean. (Louis Wu 12:21:53 UTC) (permalink)

Halo History Pack Revisited
We've mentioned the Halo History Pack, a repackaging of Halo and Halo 2 for Japanese gamers, before - but this article at Thunderbolt Games has a bit more information, and pictures. The product is available now. (Louis Wu 11:57:59 UTC) (permalink)

This is how the game ends...
You knew it had to happen. Tied the Leader got their hands on an unauthorized copy of Halo 3... and have listed the Top Ten Surprises in Halo 3. Jerks. (I really shouldn't have to write this, but I don't want traffic to TTL to suffer because the internet doesn't do droll very well... so I'm telling you now, there ain't no spoilers here.) (Louis Wu 11:39:42 UTC) (permalink)

Can We Ever Go Home Again?
An article over at Geezer Gamers looks back over the the last few years, and how their community has changed... and how they're coming back to their Halo 2 roots, in preparation for Halo 3. Bungie: Bringing People Together All Over The World. (Louis Wu 11:32:22 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Overdose
Stephen Totilo (writer for MTV) was one of those invited to play Halo 3 this week - he can't tell you about it yet, but he CAN tell you how his weekend went. Interesting read! (Louis Wu 11:15:13 UTC) (permalink)

Are You Select Enough?
As long as we're doing the Kotaku thing, check out this post; there's been word for a while that Mountain Dew Game Fuel would be available in "a few select markets" in an aluminum bottle... but until now, I hadn't seen an example. Pretty! (Louis Wu 11:12:00 UTC) (permalink)

Goodies for the Newsies
Avateur pointed out that Kotaku has a little writeup on the special hoodies distributed to journalists who attended the Halo 3 review events in Seattle and New York this week. I wonder how long before we see these on eBay? (Louis Wu 11:06:11 UTC) (permalink)

Museum... Reimagined
Consolevania redid the "Museum" vid... their version (thanks, Kotaku) might be more realistic. (Warning: language isn't safe for work.) (Louis Wu 11:00:09 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fanfic
This week's Fan Fiction update has six pieces in it... get to reading! (Louis Wu 10:55:46 UTC) (permalink)

A podcast - and an announcement
Dman82 (along with others) hosts CBR, a podcast that focuses on the Red vs Blue community. The latest episode has interviews with Halo-related artists (including HBO regular Pinkuh) - but it also has a special announcement. The winner of the 'Bungie Tour' auction is announced; if you're curious about who's going to be accompanying kornman00 to Bungie's offices on October 31, listen to this! (Visit the CBR website, and look for Episode 11 - there's no information listed yet, but it's the most recent 'Past Episode'.) (Louis Wu 10:25:01 UTC) (permalink)

Marketing Blitz
I'm not really fully awake yet - but I'm posting this now, because the amount of mail coming in about it is rather insane. Today's Ctrl+Alt+Del looks at the Halo 3 marketing juggernaut... and definitely goes into waters Microsoft has chosen not to tread in. Thanks to everyone who sent in a link; Delta was first, a few minutes after the strip was posted. (Louis Wu 10:00:56 UTC) (permalink)

News September 13 2007

Does it come with a Gravity Hammer?
Heh - Anton P. Nym found a pretty cool navigation system for military parachutists... check the headline (and the pic). (Louis Wu 22:27:16 UTC) (permalink)

TalkXbox Wants YOU!
Back in 2005, TalkXbox came looking for applicants for a 'strategy writer' - they got lots of great options, and were very happy with the end result. They're back:

We are looking for two individuals (one for video guides and one for written weekly strategies). Obviously, applicants have to be skilled at the game, but they also need to have a nack for writing/producing videos. This will be a paid position, details of which will be discussed in private.

If your visitors are interested in this opportunity, they can email us at contact@talkxbox.com with a game-related writing/video sample.

So? What are you waiting for? Go send 'em a sample! (Louis Wu 21:05:45 UTC) (permalink)

Buttery Nipple Incident?
Kotaku took a LOT of pictures during their recent playthrough of Halo 3 at Bungie's offices this week - you can scroll through the gallery for tons of memorabilia, including lots of Halo stuff. Thanks, Schedonnardus. (Louis Wu 20:58:01 UTC) (permalink)

Museum now on XBL
MffnMn pointed out that the Museum ad is now on Xbox Live Marketplace; check 'Game Videos', New Arrivals', 'Halo 3' to find it. Nice quality! (Louis Wu 19:53:31 UTC) (permalink)

Behind the Diorama
Kotaku has a great article about the Halo diorama featured in the Halo ads tearing up the internets this week. The concept of game spoilers is addressed directly (don't worry, there aren't any), and there are a bunch of cool photos. Go look! Thanks, Tex. (Louis Wu 18:01:06 UTC) (permalink)

Racing to Finish The Fight
The Xbox.com Launch Week Announcement (we mentioned it yesterday) noted that a NASCAR entry would be Halo-themed - but there's a full press release about it now. I heard about it from Hawty McBloggy, who pulled out all the good bits for you. (Louis Wu 17:58:48 UTC) (permalink)

What's the final tally gonna be?
According to Next Generation, a financial analyst is predicting that Halo 3 sales will 'quickly reach $200 million' - but no word on whether 'quickly' means 'less than 24 hours from release. I guess we wait and see how accurate that is... (Louis Wu 16:51:22 UTC) (permalink)

Sensationalism at its worst
Not totally sure why this is news - but it's shown up on both SPOnG (thanks again, Narc, this time in #hbo) and CVG; a couple of Sony developers were chatting about the Museum ad and decided to post the chat online. And yes, one of them says a bad word about Halo. (What's more interesting than the bad word is the reaction to the trailer. THAT'S worth reading - it's a pretty thoughtful exchange.) (Louis Wu 16:24:22 UTC) (permalink)

Lofty Goals, Realized
Shacknews has an interview with Frank O'Connor, discussing how he feels about the final product, what's next (Bungie employees are ALREADY WORKING on Halo 3 downloadable content!), tidbits about the Peter Jackson project, and more. Good read! Thanks again, Narcogen. (Louis Wu 16:05:26 UTC) (permalink)

IMAX Event Recap
Some news shamelessly stolen from the Rampancy.net front page (thanks, Narcogen): Zanzibar, over at Evil Avatar, took part in the Pontiac 'First to Play' event at the IMAX theater in San Francisco (the New York event happens tonight) - he wrote up his experiences. Factoid that might make a difference for the New York crowd - you can bring a guest. (Louis Wu 15:52:02 UTC) (permalink)

Believe - online a little early
If you can't wait for an official, high-res copy, Sep7imus found a YouTube version of the upcoming 'Believe' ad; it's simple and powerful. (Later today you'll be able to download not only a high-resolution version of this, but a 'behind the scenes' video showing how the diorama was created. We'll shoot you a link as soon as it's up.) For what it's worth, it seems to me that Microsoft is targeting this campaign at non-gamers. That's not to say that gamers can't (or won't) enjoy it, but I'd bet that far, FAR more people will see (and appreciate) these ads because they're NOT full of game imagery than would be the case otherwise. Update: Looks like it's been pulled down - guess we're waiting for the Yahoo version after all. Thanks, Brandon Marsh. Update 2: Looks like it's still up at GameVideos - thanks, Tex. (Louis Wu 13:06:16 UTC) (permalink)

Kick the Tires and Light the Fires
Nice blog entry (with a handy-dandy calendar of Halo 3 events over at PC World... almost reluctant enthusiasm! (I LOVE the description of the MC as "a kind of generic looking alpha-marine in an gold-flecked olive-colored exoskeletal wannabe bat-suit"!) (Louis Wu 12:49:37 UTC) (permalink)

Master Replicas Review
Mr. Titan, over at Planet Halo, got his hands on the Master Replicas gun models - and wrote up a review. Go read! (Louis Wu 12:42:44 UTC) (permalink)

This Spartan Life talks to The Raiders Guys
This Spartan Life has posted Module Two of their Fifth Episode - it's an interview with the makers of 'Raiders of The Lost Ark - Adaptation', a shot-by-shot remake of the original, begun when they were 12. Go find it on the Episodes page! (Louis Wu 02:32:55 UTC) (permalink)

Wood Pulp Army Invades SpikeTV
Our paper spartan queen, Nomi, was contacted by SpikeTV; they want to feature her work on Game Heads. She said sure, and even made them a special spartan. Isn't she great? (Louis Wu 02:26:54 UTC) (permalink)

New Screenies at 1Up
1Up posted 33 new screenshots today - I tried to find out if they were part of the media kit distributed this week to journalists (since those are embargoed until September 23)... but had no success. So I'm posting them. There are a couple of dozen new campaign shots, and a dozen new multiplayer shots... no information in them that hasn't already been released by Bungie. Go look! Thanks, darthbob. (Louis Wu 01:53:01 UTC) (permalink)

Good things, and waiting...
On Monday, PraetoriaGuard released Trinity, Episode One, because they said they would. It was sort of a mess, though, and they asked me not to front-page it, because they wanted to clean it up. So I didn't. And they did. It's worth the wait - the cleaned-up version has better audio, better synching, better... stuff. This is good, because the episode itself is pretty impressive, and it would be a shame to detract from that with less-than-stellar production values. No worries there any more! While you're there, the latest episode of PRaetoriaGuardLive is available for download - it chronicles the mistakes they made with this episode - and promises that they won't happen again. (Mostly, they'll keep this promise by removing hard release dates.) Go grab Episode One (in one of five different flavors), and then PG Live Episode VI (in two flavors)... watch watch watch! (Louis Wu 01:39:40 UTC) (permalink)

Relieve.
Stuntmutt submitted a One One Se7en that was related to the recently-released 'Museum' ad - I couldn't wait until Friday to post it, so you get an extra one this week. (Louis Wu 01:20:48 UTC) (permalink)

News September 12 2007

1Up wraps up their Halo 3 Minisite
1Up's 3 Weeks of Halo comes to an end, with Halo 3: The Final Word ("Ten Things We Love about Halo 3... and Five Things We Don't"), as well as a Retronauts blog covering Marathon Infinity (they wrote about Marathon 2 yesterday - chewpathingy was first to let us know - but I passed on posting it because it's only marginally Halo-related, but if I'm putting up a post anyway...). Go read! Thanks, Menelven. (Louis Wu 20:32:56 UTC) (permalink)

Striking Accord.
The Covenant Weapons Data Sheets published last week at Bungie.net all have a line at the bottom that worked some of our forumgoers into tizzies. Stuntmutt, never one to let a tizzy pass unnoticed, comments in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 20:02:45 UTC) (permalink)

Museum Delivers
Wow. The press for the 'Museum' ad is simply amazing. Joystiq says "we're not sure if we've ever been so moved by a Halo commercial". Ars Technica says it's "stunning". Be A Design Group says it goes way beyond marketing to gamers - It's "emotionally bigger, and almost too big at that" than Halo. I'd agree - with all of these. It's a very powerful piece, and one that has much wider appeal than a game-specific ad. 2OpGaming (thanks, Avateur) and GamesIndustry.biz both have informational articles about the piece itself, that go into greater detail than the simple page at Yahoo. There's also a nice description over at Xbox.com's Believe page - thanks again, Avateur. If you haven't watched this one yet, do so. And show it to your non-Halo-playing friends/family, and see what their reaction is. Update: Hmm... maybe it isn't ALL positive. Delta found this commentary at Canada's National Post - you can't please everyone. Update 2: GhaleonEB pointed out that the full press release (visible at Gamerscoreblog, Kotaku, 2OpGaming) contains a new campaign shot (local mirror). (Louis Wu 19:48:13 UTC) (permalink)

Where would you buy those, anyway?
Okay, I'm starting to worry a little about Warbow - his latest Calvin and Halo seems to be a little too 'out there' to be purely fictional. (Louis Wu 19:28:28 UTC) (permalink)

Target Selling Halo 3 LegEd... cheap?
Regicid3 works at Target. He noticed a street date warning about Halo 3 last night - which surprised him, because he didn't think Target was going to be carrying the Legendary Edition. (The Target website lists only the two less expensive editions.) What surprised him more was the price on that warning. (He snapped a pic.) He was also amused by the DPCI (an identification number) - 207 22 0117. (ooooh.) If this isn't just a mistake, Target might be worth checking out for Legendary Editions... (Regicid3 also noted that Target, like Gamestop, has already received copies of Halo 3 - but that they're under tight security in a central office.) (Louis Wu 19:08:27 UTC) (permalink)

New ActionClix Figure Pics
Avateur pointed out that some new content from the Tokyo Game Show has been added to TeamXbox's Halo 3 Screenshots gallery. The actual screens aren't new, but except for fan shots, this is the first view of some new Halo ActionClix characters. (If I told you what they were, I'd have to label this post with a spoiler tag. Which should tell 99.9% of you what they are.) (Louis Wu 18:57:09 UTC) (permalink)

Another Top 5 List
GameTrailers has put up a new GT Countdown: 'Top Five Reasons We Can't Wait to Play Halo 3'. Our forumgoers had a few things to say about some of the wording - but I can't really argue with the list. Thanks, chewpathingy. (Louis Wu 18:53:57 UTC) (permalink)

The Important Stuff
RVideo has read some of these 'prepare for Halo 3' lists, and doesn't think people really understand what NEEDS to be done before September 25. He's jumped into the breach with his Real world guide to preparing for Halo3. (Louis Wu 18:45:30 UTC) (permalink)

Cortana - Halo 2, now.
MsValentine has been in our news a number of times, for her Cortana outfit - she recently redid it for display at San Diego's ComicCon this year. It was still based on Halo's Cortana, though - and we all know that Cortana has changed a bit since then. She just released an image of her new Halo 2 Cortana (thanks, Tex) - and sent us a bunch more. Go check out the whole collection! (I can't wait for the Halo 3 version... but I'm guessing she's going to need more than a bodysuit for that one.) (Louis Wu 18:36:09 UTC) (permalink)

Head to Head
Okay, now that the forum is down, let's clear out the existing news there. chewpathingy noticed a new Exclusive vid at Comcast's Game Invasion - filmed during the Projekt Revolution tour, it shows some head-to-head Halo 2 action between PR guys (Linkin Park and friends) and the Warped tour. Go watch! (Louis Wu 17:51:58 UTC) (permalink)

So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Yesterday, we reported on a pair of auctions on eBay Australia, purportedly for release copies of Halo 3. These were subsequently pulled by eBay - but not before being confirmed as real by Bungie. Tyson Green posted a note on NeoGAF (thanks, Fadefury) and Marty O'Donnell posted a note on our own forum, both saying the same thing - if you want to avoid spoiler content, get off the internet. We can't really help you with that - but we can help make sure that WE don't contribute to your spoiledness. We're doing what we did before Halo 2, when a pirated copy of Halo 2 appeared on the net - we're closing down our forum until after September 25. Yes, we know that means we're taking away a location we offer for discussion of Halo - but it's only for a couple of weeks, and if it helps in letting your experience the Halo 3 campaign the way Bungie intended you to experience it - it's TOTALLY worth it. If you have news you'd like us to post, send it to halo@bungie.org - we'll post it here, on the front page, if we think it's newsworthy. (Louis Wu 17:38:07 UTC) (permalink)

Greatest Bleeping Noise Evar
Bungie posted their latest podcast yesterday - an hour long, 66.6 mb (OMG!). Paul Bertone discusses Campaign Mission Design and stuff. Go listen! (Louis Wu 14:17:51 UTC) (permalink)

When Rating Systems Go Bad
Heh - Live-360 put up an article a few days ago discussing the Halo 3 Headset; apparently, it's rated M for Mature at Gamestop or EB Games. Want a cool headset? You better be over 17! (Louis Wu 14:14:05 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Albania - New Webisode
Dave Bergland let us know that the next segment of the Halo 3 Albania Project is now online; you can watch it on their website, or stream it from YouTube. This one discusses how they plan to pull this off. With awesome graphics. (Louis Wu 13:58:10 UTC) (permalink)

Unite to Fight!
Xbox.com posted a press release detailing everything that's going on during Launch Week - go check it out, there's some great stuff in there! (Louis Wu 13:40:56 UTC) (permalink)

Haloholics Unite!
Tondangerous let us know that he's written up an article about the Hype mountain Halo 3 faces, and must get over. Here's hoping he's not REALLY out of a job because of the game... (Louis Wu 13:35:21 UTC) (permalink)

News Roundup, Wednesday Morning
Wow, when a release as big as Halo 3 comes along, being gone for even one day can cause mail to back up tremendously. News articles pertaining to Halo 3 in the last 24 hours:

• The Technology & Console Blog wants to tell you why Halo 3 HAS to be great. (Hint: it has to do with Microsoft's bottom line.)
  
  
• Technomical has an interesting tidbit on Halo 3 - it's the first video game with real time audio signal processing. Emotional immersion for the win!
  
  
• Games Digest wins the award for Most Bombastic Title of the Week.
  
  
• The Inquirer has a picture of the line ALREADY IN PLACE outside the Metreon in San Francisco. Yes, there are a bunch of people on the street, two weeks early, to ensure that they get a copy of Halo 3 as soon as they possibly can. (If I were that hardcore, I'd move to New Zealand - they'll get it before EVERYONE.) And won't those guys need to go home and take a shower before they can actually play? Defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Update: Luke Smith points out that they're NOT waiting for the game, they're waiting for a chance to play Halo 3 on an IMAX screen. My bad. (Well, The Inquirer's bad.)
  
  
• Gamersyde has an early copy of the 'Museum' ad that's supposed to be exclusive to Yahoo today - it's not up on Yahoo yet. Update: It's up on Yahoo now.
  
  
• Best Buy has a picture pack and a Halo 3 theme available for (free) download on Xbox Live, according to Major Nelson - if you don't mind the Best Buy yellow tag logo on all your blades, the theme's not bad. (They're not available for previewing at Dashboard Themes yet, but I'm sure that'll change soon.)
  
  
• 24/7 Wall Street believes that the Halo 3 Launch is a legitimate event, financially - no new news there for Halo fanatics, but it's pretty cool to see this discussed so far outside the gaming press.
  
  
• According to Kotaku, Gamestop will be firing employees who so much as NICK the tape sealing the cases of Halo 3 that arrive before September 25th.

There is other news to post, but that's a decent summary of the Google News Alerts I got yesterday that weren't repeats. (Louis Wu 13:11:37 UTC) (permalink)

News September 11 2007

Halo 3 Leaked?
As discussed pretty heavily in our forum, a pair of auctions appeared yesterday on eBay in which PAL copies of Halo 3 were being sold. It's unclear whether these are real or not - but it looks like they might be. The first auction is already offline; the second, as of the time of this writing, is still up.) If this is confirmed to be true, we'll be turning off our forum until after release, to avoid spoiler material being leaked through us. I'm gone today - but our forum moderators have been alerted, and if anything looks fishy, they'll be killing the forum. Just a heads-up. (Louis Wu 09:56:45 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Plates
Heh - if you live in Victoria, Australia, check out this auction - put Halo 3 plates on your car! Current bid is AU$3000, with a day left. Thanks, Boxer. (Louis Wu 09:52:46 UTC) (permalink)

Zola: Trinity
Z let us know about Zola: Trinity, a new montage that's getting great reviews at Halo3Forum. 225 mb, almost 12 minutes long, WMP9 format. Go watch! (Louis Wu 09:51:05 UTC) (permalink)

More on the Wax Chief
Avateur found a page on Xbox.com with pics of the Madame Tussaud's Wax Master Chief, and a bunch of info. Nice! (Louis Wu 09:47:54 UTC) (permalink)

Mjolnir Armor on eBay
Adam Grumbo let us know that (a little) against his will, he's selling his personal Master Chief suit on eBay... check out the pics! (You get an assault rifle with the package, even.) Current bid is just under $1k, bidding's open for almost 10 days. (Louis Wu 09:27:53 UTC) (permalink)

Halo ads to Hit the web this week
Yahoo Games is reporting that they've got two exclusive videos to release this week - the 'Museum' video mentioned in Brandweek's release yesterday, and the 'Believe' TV ad which went live this week. Keep an eye on the site for these! Looks like Samusaaron3 was first with the news. (Louis Wu 09:15:36 UTC) (permalink)

Relic - for Starcraft
halosavior stopped by to point out a map he created using the Starcraft Campaign Editor - it's based on Relic. (If you're curious about how close the matchup is, remember that Bungie's overhead view of Relic is here.) (Louis Wu 09:06:48 UTC) (permalink)

An old script surfaces
1Up.com has a story in which a regular on their site stumbled across a torrent containing a copy of Alex Garland's original Halo movie script from 2005. For what it's worth... the pages exerpted in the story match the copy I have, as well. (I didn't get it from 1Up, I came by it back in 2005, when Latino Review reviewed it.) Remember - this project is in limbo right now, and even if it wasn't, this script was completely reworked by DB Weiss - so whatever's in there now is not only outdated, it's irrelevant. Still, it's interesting, from a historical perspective. Thanks to Yuri Scala for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 00:15:01 UTC) (permalink)

News September 10 2007

New Halo 3 Screenshots
The Final Fight was poking around the Indian Halo 3 site (it may or may not be the official Microsoft site, but it seems to be), and they found four spankin' new Halo 3 screenshots. Purty! (You gotta check out the Characters page, as well - I've seen insane-looking Cortanas before, but never quite like this.) Thanks, MasterChief2829. Update: Simpsons Rule points out that the Cortana pic is a fan-generated render snagged from Halomods' render gallery. (Louis Wu 20:42:35 UTC) (permalink)

[Company] Rulez!
Zarathustra Studios and Krad Productions collaborated to create '[Company] Rulez!', a humorous look at the Game Content Usage Rules published by Microsoft last month. Before they could release it, though, Microsoft made it clear that they were planning on revising the rules, and that things weren't as gloomy as they first appeared. The movie's still pretty funny, though, and can be seen in about 600 different formats (well, maybe not QUITE that many) linked off this page. Go read - it's also got a nice collection of links to other articles about these rules. Thanks, Evan Ryan. (Louis Wu 19:30:40 UTC) (permalink)

Beyond Halo
Banshee_105 was the first to mention the latest 1Up Halo content - it's an article entitled 'Beyond Halo: The Apocrypha of Master Chief', and it looks at the non-game Halo universe. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:12:38 UTC) (permalink)

Pimp Your 360
Hawty McBloggy found a replacement case for your Xbox 360 that brings to mind the original Xbox Special Edition case - and in her case, it's more visually appealing than the OFFICIAL Xbox 360 Special Edition. Check it out to see if you agree - it's currently under $45, so if you'd rather go back to the crystal green look, it's WAY cheaper than a new Special Edition. (Louis Wu 18:52:24 UTC) (permalink)

A Hissy Fit.
Today's One One Se7en is a Diamond(back) in the rough. (Louis Wu 17:07:45 UTC) (permalink)

Carbine vs BR - another look
Gravemind wrote up a wordy rant about the accuracy of the Carbine as seen in the Halo 3 Beta. (The tone of the piece is "what a shame they didn't fix this" - though how he can know whether they did or not without playing with the final version is beyond me.) Interesting analysis, whether you agree with his findings or not. (Louis Wu 17:00:27 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Tourney in Southern Illinois
Lots of places will be open at midnight on September 25th (as we pointed out earlier this morning, as many as 10,000) - many of them will be doing special promotions. AfroRyan works at an EBGames in Illinois - read his post for details on what HIS store will be doing. (Louis Wu 16:58:24 UTC) (permalink)

Thump that Tub.
Hellhawk stopped by with a teaser for his latest project... looks like fun! (Louis Wu 16:55:31 UTC) (permalink)

What can be learned from Halo
We got word from Phil, at Sodaware, that he'd written an article about the gaming design lessons that can be learned from the original Halo. After reading it, I wonder how he'd interpret the changes made between Halo and Halo 2... but even on its own, it's a fine read. (Louis Wu 14:32:27 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Fans are so Tolerant...
Haloplayer let us know that Injured Knee Productions' Countdown Comic #3 is now online. A range of opinions about the various versions of Halo 3... (Louis Wu 14:05:49 UTC) (permalink)

Lost in Time
Cap KEEZ let us know about a new Flash vid at Newgrounds - Halo: Lost in Time. Funny, Nice artwork, and it runs longer than you might expect. (Don't close it when it says 'End'.) (Louis Wu 13:15:01 UTC) (permalink)

The Ad Campaign Kicks into High Gear
Folks have wondered on our forum about the lack of TV ads for Halo 3 - wonder no more, BrandWeek explains how the 'Believe' TV ad campaign kicks off this week. 10,000 stores will be open at midnight for Halo 3 buying? That's crazy! Go read. (Louis Wu 11:30:15 UTC) (permalink)

New Zealand to celebrate Halo 3
Sounds like there's going to be a full-blown New Zealand Launch Party... (Louis Wu 11:29:33 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Primer from CB
Cinema Blend has put together a Halo 3 Primer - there's no single page to link you to, but the first content page is 'Characters'; all the other bits are linked at the bottom of this page. (Louis Wu 11:28:58 UTC) (permalink)

News September 9 2007

EW Goes Inside Bungie
Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we mentioned some new screenshots at Entertainment Weekly? Well, the article that made it into their print mag is now online, as well. A pretty good read! (Louis Wu 20:16:24 UTC) (permalink)

The Riot 64
It's Sunday, so it must be time for another episode of The Riot - swing by Second Foundation to see. 35 minutes, 14 mb, this one's focused on machinima (and music). Thanks, Sigafoos. (Louis Wu 19:41:12 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Short Credits
chewpathingy found a couple of fun pages at Halo3.msn.com - credits for the two Neill Blomkamp Halo shorts, Arms Race and Combat Part 1. Wondering who was responsible? Now you know! (Louis Wu 19:28:52 UTC) (permalink)

Top Whatever
More 'Top' lists - PSU has the Top 10 games you must have before 2008 (thanks, Avateur), and the Edmonton Sun has a list of the top 5 most overhyped games (thanks, chewpathingy). (Narcogen has some choice words to say about that second list, at Rampancy.net.) I'm sure there are gonna be more of these in the next couple of weeks... (Louis Wu 19:23:24 UTC) (permalink)

To The End
Yesterday, we got word from Lucko that his clan, Mystic Studios, had finished up a new music video. Set to the song 'To The End' by My Chemical Romance', it uses some interesting video effects to tell its story. I liked it, although I didn't get the plot at all. This morning, his clanmate Fragg3d posted a link on our forum - replies suggested that my impression (great visuals, maybe not as coherent as it could be) was held by others. Worth watching, just for the visuals. Give 'em some feedback! it's available in WMP9 format from Mythica.org (check this thread at Halo Front for a link), or in WMP9 format (41.1 mb) or QuickTime format (47.5 mb) from us. (Louis Wu 19:19:00 UTC) (permalink)

Right up there with Felix and Oscar.
Hmm... this is sort of weird. World Wrestling Entertainment's website has put up an 'Oddest Couple' list - and MC and Arby make it. Thanks, Yo5lut. (Louis Wu 14:19:36 UTC) (permalink)

Sig Generator
Grunts R Us has put together a Halo 3 signature generator. Go take a look. Update: apparently this is now members-only. Oh, well. (Louis Wu 14:17:12 UTC) (permalink)

Only 275 pounds?
Coolpengwn was the first to point out the press release announcing the uveiling of the Master Chief statue at Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas - read it for the skinny on this pretty amazing sculpture. And check out this rather massive pic (1812x1200, 320K) for some hi-res lovin'. (Louis Wu 13:42:46 UTC) (permalink)

News September 8 2007

Bob Dole? Really?
Wow... this is just... wrong. Thanks (I guess) 343winks. (Louis Wu 20:47:49 UTC) (permalink)

Print Materials, For Sale
Someone's selling a whole bunch of magazines with Halo articles in 'em (plus some other stuff) - see if it's worth it to you! Thanks, Reinsoft. (Louis Wu 19:57:21 UTC) (permalink)

I guess we can check him in a couple of weeks.
pete_the_duck went through the Omegathon footage at Gametrailers, and mapped out Guardian, the Halo 3 level. Pretty impressive work! (Louis Wu 19:54:01 UTC) (permalink)

Orange Gold
Kotaku went on a Halo 3 Game Fuel Slurpee run... and took pics. Yum! (Louis Wu 19:51:05 UTC) (permalink)

Get your own cardboard MC
Deadguy71 let us know that there are a bunch of standups for sale on eBay - these are the cardboard cutouts used in Game Fuel promotions. Average price seems to be about $50 or so... check it out! (Louis Wu 19:47:56 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Mobile
According to a new banner on halo3.com (which may or may not be accessible to you - read this thread for details), Microsoft has put up a WAP-enabled website for Halo news on your mobile phone. Go see. (Louis Wu 14:06:43 UTC) (permalink)

Building the Halo 3 Collection
Tex did the schwag thing yesterday, and took pics. Go look. (Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 13:43:03 UTC) (permalink)

A good look at Halo ActionClix
XBL Radio interviewed the WizKids rep at PAX a couple of weeks ago - the video is now up. You get a good sense for how Halo ActionClix works, and can see the game in action - good stuff! Thanks, Avateur. (Louis Wu 13:06:15 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 on Game Head
Game Head did some filming at the Massachusetts Projekt Revolution event in late August - Halo 3 was played there, and the cameras were rolling. (Footage shown by itself seems to be taken straight from the Beta - but I don't know if that's what was playing in the background.) Thanks, chewpathingy. (Louis Wu 13:02:53 UTC) (permalink)

I think 'Buy Halo 3' should be there.
GameDaily's posted a Halo 3 Checklist. Thread contributers say 'meh'. Thanks, Avateur. (Louis Wu 12:59:49 UTC) (permalink)

There's a plot. She promises.
Elnea posted a Halo Action Figure Theater Update - this one uses the new McFarlane mini-chief. (In a somewhat disturbing setting, I'd have to say.) Go see! (Louis Wu 12:58:02 UTC) (permalink)

That's alotta games...
Guns Lot has put up a 'Top Twenty Five (25) Best Selling Video Games Of All Time' list - this is for independent sales, not games packaged with a console. It's actually the top 29, because there are five games tied for 25th place. Halo 2 is one of those. Thanks, Devin Olsen. (Louis Wu 12:55:50 UTC) (permalink)

How does it feel to be first?
GamesRadar sat down and talked with Francesca Reyes, Editor-in-Chief of Official Xbox Magazine. She has the honor of being the first person outside of Bungie/Microsoft to fully play through the Halo 3 campaign - and she discusses the situation a little. (There are no spoilers, and she tells you NOTHING about the game itself - just about playing it.) Fun read! Thanks to many people - looks like Coolpengwn was first. (Louis Wu 12:41:32 UTC) (permalink)

Where's the Achronos Action Figure?
Frankie posted an image-heavy Weekly Update tonight, chock full of high quality pictures of upcoming merchandise. The blurbs for the images tell you where and when they'll be available as well as just how far into debt they'll push you. We've got a local mirror in our Weekly Update Archive right here, as always. Thanks to uber_chaos, via #hbo, for the first mention. (KP 01:07:20 UTC) (permalink)

Media Gets Their Shot
Bungie takes as few chances as possible when it comes to Halo 3 - over at GamePro, you can read about the review sessions that will be taking place next week in New York and Seattle. Most games, a reviewer gets a copy in the mail a few weeks before release - but not Bungie's baby. If you're press, you can play through the game - but you do it on Bungie's turf, you sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement that embargoes the information until the 23rd, and you send only one person per media outlet. Hardcore! (For what it's worth, this is how they did Halo 2 review stuff, too, except for the 1-person-per-outlet rule; that's new this time around.) (Louis Wu 00:54:01 UTC) (permalink)

More McFarlane Stuff
Joe found the McFarlane collectibles on the IGN website - they're on IGN Comics, and if you swing by, you can see shots of the Jackal Sniper and the Ghost. I sort of wish the Jackal Snipers weren't so well-done... I'd love to get my hands on a bunch of 'em and just blow 'em up. Not gonna happen with these, though... what a beak! (Louis Wu 00:29:26 UTC) (permalink)

News September 7 2007

1Up's Friday Halo Content
Meanwhile, over at 1Up's Halo Minisite, there are two new articles - a Halo Story Primer (catch up if you've been sleeping), and a revisiting of Marathon by the Retronauts. Thanks, Avateur. (Louis Wu 23:42:38 UTC) (permalink)

IGN's Halo 3 Launch Center
aklay47 noticed that IGN has put up a Halo 3 Launch Center. Though forum response is tepid at best, there's an interesting collection of material there. (Louis Wu 23:39:37 UTC) (permalink)

New McFarlane Goodies
Whoa, very cool. G4TV.com has some gorgeous pictures of the new McFarlane Grunt figures... I want. I want now. (Thanks, FileFront.) According to this page at Spawn.com (McFarlane's website), there are more images coming out on IGN and Bungie.net today - and they might be of different figures. Keep your eyes peeled! Update: Littlebigman pointed out new Master Chief figures on Spawn.com - gawjuss! Update 2: Boxer pointed out the Warthog there, too. (Louis Wu 18:34:37 UTC) (permalink)

I think I might pass...
Heh - nice shirt. Thanks to Zero, on #hbo, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:34:13 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief - in Vegas
Kotaku got hold of a press release for an unveiling of a new sculpture being created for Madame Tussauds' Wax Museum - it's not mentioned by name, but "it will be the first video game character to be immortalized in the 250-year-old attraction and [...] guests will include representatives from Xbox 360." Oh, and that it's 7-foot-2. (Put that info together with this story, and it's pretty clear who's being unveiled.) Thanks, jl. (Louis Wu 18:26:51 UTC) (permalink)

I bet you wish you played football.
I sort of have to wonder about stories like this... but it looks like a pair of football players were flown to Seattle to play some Halo 3 - along with a reporter for USA Today. You can read the writeup on USAWeekend.com. (Louis Wu 17:57:35 UTC) (permalink)

It's Starting.
MCV, a British trade site for game marketing, reports that Xbox 360 sales were up 260% two weeks ago, resulting from the Elite model and the price drops. The following week decreased only 20%. And all of this is BEFORE Halo 3 hits the market. Looks like the hope that 360 sales would rise dramatically (a requirement, if Halo 3 is going to set any sales records past that first week) might not be unfounded! (Louis Wu 16:33:59 UTC) (permalink)

See that kitten? That's me.
Hawty McBloggy, knowing how panicked you might get during the four hours of Xbox Live downtime coming up this Monday morning, has put together a list of 10 things you can do to pass the time. (Me? I'll probably just sleep.) The first one (which is Halo-related) actually sounds like a lot of fun; if you can figure out how to automate the timing, it might be something worth setting up, for real. (Louis Wu 15:32:44 UTC) (permalink)

Who's The Daddy?
Bioshock is currently the Game To Be Reckoned With... Stuntmutt has a few words to say in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:22:28 UTC) (permalink)

7 on the 7th - Winners Announced
Congratulations to Omega, Kanbo, Fred "Trunks" Wood, RougeHippo, Otto Mossberg, Julie Bothmer-Yost, and Captain Jack - these seven individuals are the winners of our latest 7 on the 7th contest! If you visit the Results page, you can see their winning entries for yourself. They will each receive an email from someone at Freeverse later today, with a code that will allow a free download of the the XBLA game Marathon: Durandal - nicely done! Thanks to all the folks who entered - we had fun judging. (Louis Wu 13:21:51 UTC) (permalink)

The Unlucky Elite
Jamie98s sent us another new movie - this one is called 'The Unlucky Elite', and it's all about a poor sucker of an Elite who does his best to kill a Spartan. Lighthearted, not too big, well-filmed - go watch! It's available in WMP9 format (35.1 mb) or QuickTime format (33.1 mb). (Louis Wu 13:06:02 UTC) (permalink)

PixPup - back soon!
Looks like Pixilated Pupils will be back online soon - and as DiscipleN2 noticed, they've used Halo 3 as their vehicle for the announcement. Good to see! (Louis Wu 13:03:24 UTC) (permalink)

McFarlane talks Toys - and Halo
plsh noticed an interview with Todd McFarlane at TeamXbox - Page 3 is all about Halo. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 12:58:04 UTC) (permalink)

Last shot at Machinima Europe
If you've made a Machinima film in the last year or so, and haven't submitted it to Machinima Europe, this is your last chance! All you need to do is fill out a form and give them a URL - that's it! No cash, no hard copy - you can work out trailers and stuff later. Get your work in there! The deadline's tomorrow, the 8th. (Louis Wu 12:51:50 UTC) (permalink)

Ken Taya Talks Cultural Differences
Japanese PingMag has an interview with Ken Taya, Environment Artist on the Halo 3 team. It's an interesting read from a Japanese-American about the differences between Japan and America, and how those differences have affected his sense of game design. Take a look! (Louis Wu 11:23:44 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Five new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week... light load! (Louis Wu 11:18:20 UTC) (permalink)

Montage Contest at GamingVidz
GamingVidz just passed its 2nd Birthday - 730 days on 7/30, and they decided that this warranted a montage contest with a $730 prize. You can read all the details on the Contest Page. (No deadline set yet, that I can see.) Thanks, Tony Montanna. (Louis Wu 11:12:15 UTC) (permalink)

Podtacular 126
Big Goalie Dan lets us know that Podtacular Episode 126 is out - discussion of Halo 3 and the Halo Wars video released recently. 51 minutes, 35 mb. Go listen! (Louis Wu 11:07:17 UTC) (permalink)

News September 6 2007

The invincible metal bra...
Games Radar has an article on ridiculous realities we accept with almost no question in video games. Two of the tidbits they make fun of are prevalent in Halo. Thanks, Mike Carson. (Louis Wu 21:07:54 UTC) (permalink)

Bad Crazy vs Good Crazy
Bungie.net has an interview with Robt McLees about the Halo Bible - as well as some weapon sheets culled from that document. There is a boatload of information in those weapon sheets... and in the interview. Read carefully. Thanks, Duncan. (Louis Wu 20:21:37 UTC) (permalink)

Taking Leaks Seriously
Wow. Not really sure how to explain this one succinctly. Start at The Hushed Casket, I guess (thanks, Rampancy.net), to learn how a bunch of people got unauthorized access to the Halo 3 Epsilon. Then swing by homicidal insomniac to see the followup - Microsoft banned both the gamertags, AND the Console IDs, of those involved. (Permanent bans on both, invalidating both a $50/year Gamertag and a multi-hundred-dollar console, at least for Live use.) THEN, follow the Xboxic forum thread link in that last article to hear from one of the guys involved - and realize that he's one of those people who buys busted (RROD) consoles, fixes 'em, and resells 'em... but he plays on 'em, first. So know that if you buy a used console, you might just find that it's been permabanned from Live. Oh, so many lessons in one little story! (Louis Wu 19:59:04 UTC) (permalink)

Crack the Code
Pedro the Penguin noticed a contest at the UK version of Xbox.com; they're giving away 150 pairs of tickets to the London Premiere of Halo 3, all you have to do is crack the code. (To make it a little harder, they've done something really creepy with the Master Chief's animation on that page; he'll be watching you, and twitching, while you work.) (Louis Wu 17:31:46 UTC) (permalink)

Trinity Trailer
The Praetoria Guard has released a trailer for Trinity, an upcoming machinima series. There is, in fact, an entire website devoted to the series. Swing by, read about it, and then download the trailer from the Downloads page - I have to say, it looks promising! (Louis Wu 16:01:58 UTC) (permalink)

360Zine Previews Halo 3
GamerZines has put up episode 10 of their 360Zine - it contains a 5 page Halo 3 preview, along with a 10 question 'Ultimate Halo 3 Quiz' ('ultimate' might be a bit premature). I aced it - can you? (The download links on the main page point to episode 9, not episode 10 - but if you copy-and-paste the link, and manually change the 9 to a 10, you can grab the new issue.) Update: Link is now fixed. (Louis Wu 15:51:03 UTC) (permalink)

VGL Announces Greatest Hits Volume One
Interesting. Video Games Live has announced that they'll be releasing an album in October. (Are they still called 'albums'?) It will include medleys from all the games they play live in concert - including Halo. Music is performed by the Slovak National Orchestra, the Crouch End Chorus, and Martin Leung, the 'Video Game Pianist'. Release will be worldwide. (Louis Wu 15:09:41 UTC) (permalink)

Evil Otto Smiles on VGR
Over at Video Gaming Refugees, Yaters has posted an interview with Dave "Evil Otto" Candland, Bungie's Interface Designer. It's in two parts (Part One | Part Two) due to the characters-per-post limit on their forum. It's a pretty interesting read - fascinating tidbits about design issues that did (and didn't) work out, ways that Bungie had to account for changes in XBL, and more. (For what it's worth - the 'Picking your Gamertag' article that Dave thinks is gone from B.net is actually still there.) (Louis Wu 13:54:12 UTC) (permalink)

Believe.
Spu7n1k went to another "Believers" event in Singapore - his sister took a bunch of pics. The Rocket Launcher was pretty big... but the Spartan Laser was Lilliputian. I guess you can't win 'em all! (Nice UNSCDF shirt!) (Louis Wu 13:00:18 UTC) (permalink)

Armor permutations at 1Up
Another new 1Up article - this one on armor permutations. Thanks, Gravemind. (Louis Wu 12:39:34 UTC) (permalink)

Windows Live Free Stuff
Bunch of goodies available from Windows Live - swing by the page to see. Thanks, Avateur. (Louis Wu 12:31:28 UTC) (permalink)

Revenge
Bzerker let us know yesterday about Revenge, a new video from Treeskunk and Team Conquest. As the title might suggest, it's the story of... well, revenge. Lots of fun action. 12 minutes long, roughly 100 mb, depending on version - you can download it from GamingTV. Go watch! (There's also a ridiculously large version hosted at Treeskunk, linked in this Team Conquest thread.) Update: There are now many versions available from Treeskunk - thanks, Bzerker. (Louis Wu 11:24:29 UTC) (permalink)

Honk if you love Cortana
Awesome. Skull Leadr works at a retail design firm in the Detroit area - he decided to show his love for Halo 3 by putting together some graphics for the back window of his jeep. NICE! If you live near Detroit, keep an eye out for his rig! (Louis Wu 10:55:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo ActionClix - in the News
Gamespy has a feature called 'Videogames Unplugged' - it looks at card, board, and tabletop games that are related to videogames. There are a couple of new stories about Halo ActionClix - a Hands-on and an interview with WizKids. Check 'em out! Thanks, Black Six. (There's also a new press release for Halo ActionClix over at FileFront.) (Louis Wu 10:50:43 UTC) (permalink)

Not a bad percentage of the total
Stingraid noticed a list at Guns Lot - The Fifteen Most Influential First Person Shooter Video Games. The comments would suggest that there are lots of fans that disagree with some of the choices - but hey, Halo's there. And so's Marathon... and Pathways, even! (Louis Wu 10:46:54 UTC) (permalink)

Pontiac giving away Halo 3, chances to play
Noticed this on Digg - Pontiac is running a Halo 3 promo with a bunch of options - visit the page, fill out your info, play the mini-games, and you might get a chance to play Halo 3 on September 13! (Hurry; the play events will have 2500 tickets distributed, but only 200 will be allowed in the doors.) There's a second contest that gives you the option to win the game early. Get playing! (Louis Wu 10:43:00 UTC) (permalink)

CJ Cowan to speak in Montreal
Anton P. Nym noticed that CJ Cowan will be speaking at //ADAPT 2007 in Montreal on September 27. It's not an inexpensive conference - with an earlybird discount, prices are still up around $400 for the Masters programs - but if you were headed there anyway, CJ's discussion of Halo 3 is a really nice bonus. Info on the conference can be found at Animation World Network or CGSociety. (The //ADAPT website requires Flash 9.) (Louis Wu 10:29:34 UTC) (permalink)

News September 5 2007

Big Bang
Awesome new video at Game Invasion - 3:41 worth of Bungie employees (Marty, man, cut your hair) discussing what THEY think Halo 3 will give you, and what you're going to be giving back. Hype? Sure. But good hype. Go watch. Thanks, GetOverIT Enor.Update: Schedonnardus points out that there are actually TWO new videos today - the second one, Better than Ever, is all about how passionate the devs are about this game. (There's also an explanation for Marty's new 'do.) Watch this one too! (Louis Wu 21:22:52 UTC) (permalink)

Retronauts finishes with Halo 2
1Up has put up 'Revisiting Halo 2, Part 3' - covers trough the end of the game. Thanks, Lichtonatus. (Louis Wu 20:39:49 UTC) (permalink)

Great Soundtracks
Game Revolver posted their list of the top 12 greatest soundtracks of all time (we're talking games here, not movies) - Halo 2 did pretty well. Thanks, Raz0r. (Louis Wu 20:32:46 UTC) (permalink)

More armor pics from James Falcon
James Falcon sent along another batch of pics of his armor in progress - this time we've got forearm guards, the start of his S108 Sniper Rifle, and some pics of him messing around with his AR5. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:22:31 UTC) (permalink)

Does It Come In Lightish Red?
Whoa. A One One Se7en that references Halo 3, Red vs Blue, and Marathon, all at once! Watch the overload! (Speaking of Marathon - have you submitted your entry for the 7 on the 7th Contest yet? Deadline is in 8 hours!) (Louis Wu 19:55:43 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Tourney in Texas
G-Kon (Arlington, TX) is hosting a Halo 3 Tournament on September 29th; 1v1 and 4v4 will both be supported. Registreation is $15 pp/per event. Check the website for more details. (Louis Wu 19:44:45 UTC) (permalink)

New screenies at Gamersyde
Remember those hidden screenshots on Xbox.com? Gamersyde has giant versions of 'em... along with a very nice Multiplayer shot, as well. (Red Team FTW.) Thanks, Mike Carson. (Louis Wu 18:15:16 UTC) (permalink)

Halotosis
A thoughtful, well-written article (typo in the first line notwithstanding) can be found over at Gamers with Jobs; Julian "rabbit" Murdoch discusses how Halo 3 simply CANNOT live up to the level of hype that's been generated. The line that resonated most with me was his description of Guitar Hero 2; even though he enjoyed it, and has played it more than its predecessor, "it's been much less satisfying, if only because its excellence is expected." We would all do well to remember this. Thanks, Doc P. (Louis Wu 13:19:01 UTC) (permalink)

Those are his orders.
Swing by Tied the Leader for a special treat today - XerxdeeJ has a 12-minute interview with Steve Downes, who plays the voice of Master Chief in all three Halo games. Sound quality is awesome, behind the scenes discussion is beyond awesome. 11.5 mb in MP3 format - go grab a copy! (Louis Wu 11:40:44 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Albania update
Dave Bergland let us know that the next Halo 3 Albania Project Webisode is now online (or you can watch it on YouTube) - it's the second half of the 'meet the crew' segment. (Louis Wu 11:30:50 UTC) (permalink)

Brainstorm
RPG-TV.com jumped right on the Wikipedia edit thing we mentioned yesterday - today's comic extrapolates. Thanks, chewpathingy. (Louis Wu 11:24:29 UTC) (permalink)

Kubrick Action Figure Theater
Elnea bought some Kubrick Spartans, and decided they'd fit nicely into her Halo Action Figure Theater. I think she's right. (Louis Wu 11:22:08 UTC) (permalink)

Add the countdown to your .sig
RVideo pointed out a small gif you can include in your .signature that will show a countdown to Halo 3 with each pageload. (Don't save a local copy; all you'll get is the time to Halo 3 from when you saved it. You need to use the URL he provides.) (Louis Wu 11:18:53 UTC) (permalink)

Getting a look at who killed you
The Australian Herald Sun has an article about the Saved Films feature of Halo 3, with some discussion from Frankie about the game in general and what Bungie tried to do with it. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 11:15:38 UTC) (permalink)

News September 4 2007

Time article generates negative feedback
Interesting. Several days ago, we mentioned an article in the current issue of Time magazine; we made note of the fact that it talked negatively about gamers... and moved on. I guess the paper issue hit the street today - I just saw three articles heaping scorn on the piece. (bits bytes pixels & sprites actually took it most to heart ; the other two articles (at Neoseeker and Playfeed) took their cues from BBPS.) Don't make fun of gamers! (Louis Wu 23:11:36 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Store gets a facelift, new goodies
Hoovaloov noticed that the Bungie Store had gotten a facelift - and Spartan Jag picked out one of the new items there. (Hit the 'Zoom' button to see all 16 months' worth of artwork.) (Louis Wu 21:47:53 UTC) (permalink)

The Tough Run Away
According to MAXCONSOLE, the latest EGM has a tidbit pointing out the smartest and dumbest AIs in upcoming games... Halo 3 takes one of those spots. Care to guess which? And what game gets the other one? (Louis Wu 18:40:07 UTC) (permalink)

How Halo Changed
Games Radar has an article that looks at eight games that changed dramatically from initial announcement through final product. (I'm not sure you couldn't find a hundred more, if you looked - but 8 is a fine number.) Thanks, Mike Carson. (Louis Wu 18:06:46 UTC) (permalink)

More new screens at Radio Shack
Yesterday, we mentioned a set of new screenshots at the Radio Shack page that's selling Halo 3 preorders. (There were 23, some of which were new.) Today, ComWave lets us know that another batch of 22 are up (a half-dozen or so of which haven't been seen before). (Louis Wu 17:33:41 UTC) (permalink)

Tex talks to WebNation
Webnation's Episode 12 contains an interview with Kathleen Zuelch, better known to Halo fans as Red vs Blue's Tex. Great discussion - go watch! (The Halo portion kicks off around 16 minutes in, but the whole episode is entertaining.) (Louis Wu 14:53:30 UTC) (permalink)

Halownage Update
We got word from a Halownage mod about some of the new content available at their site - there's a 1v1 tournament sign-up, their latest clip-of-the-month contest, and plenty of site goodies for members. Swing by to check it all out! (Louis Wu 13:25:29 UTC) (permalink)

Sony insults the competition on Wikipedia
Awesome. WikiScanner is a tool developed by a guy who was interested in seeing who was doing the anonymous editing on Wikipedia pages. All sorts of interesting information surfaced once people started using it; companies saying good things about their own products, or dissing the competition... Halo's now on the list. According to this Lasersharks post, derogatory edits to the Halo 3 page on Wikipedia were made from an address that traces back to Sony's Liverpool Studios. How childish! (Louis Wu 13:13:52 UTC) (permalink)

Maybe we should start writing hatchet jobs, too.
Heh. This article, from Xbox 360 Rally, showed up in my Google Alerts mailbox - it rants about a piece at GameDaily that seems to have been written specifically to drive Halo fans into a tizzy. For that reason, they've actually posted the whole article... so you don't need to visit the original and give them the pageviews they were looking for. (Louis Wu 11:54:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo - expanding industries everywhere
The Philadelphia Daily News has an article that discusses how Marvel's Halo: Uprising series is bringing more new faces to comic books. I guess that might be part of the new strategy to release these every 2 months, instead of every 2 weeks... (Louis Wu 11:48:15 UTC) (permalink)

TVG covers LGC
TVG has put up a preview of Halo 3, based on what they saw in Leipzig a few weeks ago. They're skeptical about Forge, but like the way the game's looking. (Louis Wu 11:44:08 UTC) (permalink)

Pork Chops... and Applesauce.
Hawty McBloggy has put up an article that PROVES that she knew about Halo 3 going gold... OVER 20 YEAR AGO. Don't believe her? Go read it! Then apologize for doubting her. (Louis Wu 11:38:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 to be a supply chain strategy test
Halo makes the news in fields that have nothing to do with video games; DMN Newswire has a story this morning about how Microsoft is using Halo 3 as an example of Microsoft's 'world class competency' in managing supply chains. The question is - can you fill the supply channel with product... and STILL manage to keep it under wraps until Launch Day? I guess we'll see! (Louis Wu 11:35:41 UTC) (permalink)

Not just the Covenant any more...
Wow, bizarre. Daily Motion has a video of the Master Chief rescuing a woman being yelled at by her husband/boyfriend... on the streets of France. Um... what? Update: With a little digging, it becomes clear that these were created by the French TV channel TF1; you can download Part One and Part Two from Halo.fr. (Even if you don't read French, it shouldn't be too hard to find the download links. Alternatively, use Google Language Tools to translate the web pages.) (Louis Wu 11:17:43 UTC) (permalink)

News September 3 2007

Here's your chance - a tour of Bungie!
If you've read our news for any length of time, you've read the name 'kornman00' - he's been a long-time Halo fan, and he currently has something he wants to share with you. Back in February, he won a charity auction that gave him a two-person tour of Bungie Studios. A FULL tour. The person he was planning on going with had to back out - which leaves him with one spot. We're helping him make sure the person who gets it is someone he can get along with. Go read the full details, and if you've always wanted to get into that building... make him an offer! (Louis Wu 22:30:29 UTC) (permalink)

This is why my kids won't play Halo 3.
Warbow gives you a good argument for staying away from tools like Forge in the latest Calvin and Halo. Sigh... (Louis Wu 22:23:27 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Recommends...
1Up has posted a preview of Halo 3, as part of its Halo 3 info flood - it's a very short look at gametypes. Looks like Lichtonatus was first. Update: Theyv'e added Revisiting Halo 2, Part 2 (Arbitration), now, as well. Thanks, LoneRanger 2.5. (Louis Wu 22:21:57 UTC) (permalink)

A Fall Launch.
Stuntmutt was thinking about how much fun you can have with Forge - check today's One One Se7en for more details. (Louis Wu 18:11:16 UTC) (permalink)

Free Mobile Goodies - for Members
Atoyot let us know that Windows Mobile is offering free ringtones and wallpapers, among other things, for Windows Mobile Owner Circle members. No clue how good they are, though... I'm not a member. (Louis Wu 15:01:20 UTC) (permalink)

Is one of them named Dolly?
Haloplayer continues his Injured Knee Productions Countdown Comics - number 2 is now online. (Louis Wu 14:59:20 UTC) (permalink)

Next up: Staples, maybe?
Avateur stopped by last night to point out that Radio Shack is now selling Halo 3 - and their 'screenshots' section contains a few pictures that haven't been seen before. (Thread readers seemed to like this one a lot.) (Louis Wu 14:57:07 UTC) (permalink)

News September 2 2007

Oh crap, we're next
1Up's Retronauts continues their look back at the Halo series - Revisiting Halo 2, Part 1 (covering gameplay on and near Earth) is now live. Go read! (Louis Wu 19:53:36 UTC) (permalink)

The Riot 63
Sigafoos sent word that The Riot 63 is now up - community news, challenges, tournaments, and love. (Love? Hmm.) 12 mb, 30 minutes. Go listen! (Louis Wu 19:40:38 UTC) (permalink)

Uprising Delays
Ron Cacace sent us a link to a forum that keeps track of comic releases - they've got the following dates listed:

• Halo: Uprising #2 - Oct 17, 07
• Halo: Uprising #3 - Dec 19, 07
• Halo: Uprising #4 - Feb 20, 08

Marvel has removed the info pages they used to have for Issue 3 and Issue 4 - but their info page for issue 2 matches Millarworld's date. Bad new for folks who wanted to read these this year! (Louis Wu 16:27:55 UTC) (permalink)

Finish The Whopper.
Today's Sunday One One Se7en was created by ZZoMBiE13 - spot on, even if I DID take a week longer to post it than I should have. (Louis Wu 15:26:52 UTC) (permalink)

Last of the Panoramas
RVideo's saying goodbye to Halo 2 with a final set of panoramas - these are simply gorgeous. Take a look. (If you're on a slower connection, try the JPEGs - quality is almost identical, filesize is MUCH smaller.) (Louis Wu 15:23:18 UTC) (permalink)

Signed Faceplate to Benefit Child's Play
Laird got a bunch of signatures from RvB cast and Bungie on a 360 faceplate - he's put it up for auction, with proceeds going to Penny Arcade's Childs Play. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:20:28 UTC) (permalink)

Wax Chief
DominoEffect was the first to point out this thread at the Gamertag Radio forum - looks like Master Chief is going to join other famous figures at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum! Coolness. (Louis Wu 15:15:54 UTC) (permalink)

Silly Rumors Dept - Can I Help You?
There's a calendar floating around, purporting to show Microsoft's marketing plan for Halo - don't buy it. Thanks to MasterChief2829, who found this at Xbox Family. (Louis Wu 15:12:25 UTC) (permalink)

Quick Halo 3 Logo
Wow, this showed up in my Google alerts - bizarre. How to create the Halo 3 logo in 5 steps. Might be useful to folks making .signatures for their forum profiles... (Louis Wu 15:04:57 UTC) (permalink)

News September 1 2007

Uprising poster - available to all (with cash)
Remember that cool poster Ironlion got his hands on? Sean Mortensen contacted artist Alex Maleev, and got this response:

A high resolution print on archival Epson paper 13X19 is available for purchase. Let me know if you are interested. The price is 50 bucks plus shipping.

Alex can be contacted through his website (check the About page for an email address). (Louis Wu 17:34:26 UTC) (permalink)

Another Frankie Interview
Radiago713 noticed an interview with Frankie at Xbox.com. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 14:27:26 UTC) (permalink)

New Bungie Goodies
VVM noticed that the Bungie Store is now updated with all the cool stuff you could buy at PAX. Check all sections - there's new stuff in a lot of places! (Louis Wu 14:17:41 UTC) (permalink)

Be Huge in the Game
Avateur noticed that the Be in the Game contest is now open to enter - you'll need to register at Pepsi's website, but that's free. Some are unhappy that the only two t-shirt sizes are XL and XXL - does Pepsi think we're all eating their products, exclusively? (Louis Wu 14:13:15 UTC) (permalink)

New Screenies at Xbox.com - if you can find 'em
Littlebigman, and others, pointed out a new treasure hunt in the latest Xbox newsletter - there are a bunch of exclusive screenshots on Xbox.com. Most of us could only find 2 - can you find the third, or did Xbox.com make a mistake? (Louis Wu 14:08:45 UTC) (permalink)

Forging Ahead
3Suns let us know about a new editorial at Newspail - when Halo 3 comes out, will you spend more time in Matchmaking... or Forge? (Louis Wu 14:06:27 UTC) (permalink)

Remnant
Syracuse let us know that Mr. Vociferous is releasing a multipart fan fiction at Ascendant Justice - part 1 is up now. (Louis Wu 14:04:18 UTC) (permalink)

Elnea - a woman of many talents
A week ago, Elnea sent along a bunch of artwork that had been created since the last update of her gallery here. Somehow, I forgot to get it posted. Which turned out fine... because very recently she added a finished version of a piece she's been working on for a little while - along with a very cool song. First, the artwork: there's a poster of OboeCrazy's guest appearance on JengaJam, a poster she created for the now-defunct machinima Silver Stars/Purple Hearts, a great collage of her Spartan Barbie action figure, the Cortana portion of her most recent creation, and the final Cortana/MC work that was created to accompany 'Not Just a Voice', her latest piece of Halo music. (We're mirroring the song, as well, just in case.) Go look at all the pretty pictures, and be disturbed by the images created by the song! (Louis Wu 02:24:38 UTC) (permalink)

I think I got you all beat.
Tex wants to know how much Halo has cost you... she's put up a new blog post. Go compare notes! (Louis Wu 02:21:50 UTC) (permalink)

Does its head come off?
PFG bought a very cool Halo action figure prototype - never seen one of these before! (Louis Wu 02:20:19 UTC) (permalink)

Saved Films Preview at 1Up
Ma1agate was the first to point out the latest new article at 1Up.com - this one is a preview of Saved Films. Go read! (Louis Wu 02:19:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Albania Project - The Crew
Dave Bergland sent us a note about the latest webisode of the Halo 3 Albania Project - this one introduces the crew. Not a lot of Halo content - but if you want to know who's gonna be putting this together, give this a view. Available in QT format from the website, or on YouTube in streaming format. (Louis Wu 02:16:00 UTC) (permalink)

Pistol Replicas
Gryphonosiris noticed three new auctions on eBay - they're all from the same seller, and they're all Halo pistol replicas. Check his post for links. You've got 4 days... Halo 1 or Halo 2 (or both), they're all available. (Louis Wu 02:14:30 UTC) (permalink)

September 2007

We are NOT Bungie, Inc.! Bungie Inc. are bungie.net!
Halo © Bungie Inc., 1999-2012, Microsoft 2012-2024
Intellectual © halo.bungie.org, 1999-2024