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August 28, 2004 Link to this post
Potential WinXP issues relating to HPC/CE
Just a quick heads-up; if you play Halo PC or Halo CE on WinXP, and you're considering updating to SP2... be careful. At the very least, read this thread on the Gearbox forums. I have a pretty untweaked machine; it gets used for very, very little besides Halo. I'd kept up on all the updates prior to SP2, and never had a problem. My Radeon 9600 uses the newest 4.8 drivers. I made sure to open all the appropriate ports in my XP firewall. I updated to DirectX 9.0c. (All of this was prior to SP2, and both Halo PC and Halo CE ran smoothly.) However, after the update, when I fired up Halo CE, I got a 'Direct3D failed to initialize' error, with a suggestion that I check dxdiag. No errors were found, all appropriate functions were enabled. Nothing I could do would get CE to start, however. I uninstalled SP2, and all is well again. Just one guy's story. (Louis Wu 09:55:46 UTC)
August 27, 2004 Link to this post
Every Saga Has a Beginning...
343GS.com has started Season 2 of its EchoFourNineteen comic series... this one is in Flash. Voice acting is funky... but animation is great. No comments about the plot. Check it out! (Louis Wu 21:45:06 UTC)
August 27, 2004 Link to this post
IGN goes to Germany
IGN recently put up a sizeable movie, labeled 'Halo 2 Stuff', on its Halo 2 media page. It's available as a 320x240 WMP9 stream, for everyone, or a downloadable QuickTime (up to 315 mb in 640x480) for Insiders. What it IS is a (decent) shakeycam video of the Halo 2 presentation at the recent Leipzig Games Conference; Pete Parsons and Cam Payne played out the E3 2004 demo for the crowd. As far as footage goes, all of this is already on the web, in better quality... but the start of this video contains some pretty funny stuff. There are a couple of Nightmare-Armor-clad guys (that's not the funny part)... and then the two show announcers try to get the crowd riled up for the demo, and finally (all in German, remember) start yelling 'and here's Pete Parsons!', while pointing at Cam. (Pete wasn't on stage yet.) Cam is quietly trying to let them know he's not Pete - but they're pretty much ignoring him. Eventually, they get the message, and there are a couple of minutes of fumbling while someone goes off and FINDS Pete. Dunno... I found the whole thing hilarious - and I don't even speak German. (Pete, when he started the presentation, was cool as a cucumber.) Thanks to Art Vandelay for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:04:32 UTC)
August 25, 2004 Link to this post
I don't even LIKE Bees.
Since the ilovebees phenomenon started back on July 23, I've been ambivalent about posting updates related to it; on the one hand, it's clearly Halo2-related, so it falls within our purview... on the other hand, we're just not equipped to handle a game of this magnitude. A few weeks ago, in response to forum flooding, I banned the word 'bee' (and some common variants) from our forum, to try and convince people to think twice about posting this information. I wrote a short piece, explaining where HBO officially stood on the matter, and requested that discussion be taken elsewhere. I stopped short of outright banning of the discussion, however.
Until today. Last night, I had to delete more than 350 posts on our forum that added nothing but noise; once again, folks were simply regurgitating what they found elsewhere on the net, without even TRYING to read what others had already written. The general excuse for this is 'this forum is too hard to understand' or 'there's too much here to look through'. And that's the point. The puzzle is pretty interesting; cut through the silliness and there's a lot to like about it. And it's definitely related to Halo 2, so once all is said and done, we'll do our best to wrap it up and include any relevant information in our various sections. For now, though, conversation MUST take place somewhere else - because what was happening here was not conversation, it was unintelligible noise. (And oh, yeah - for now, please stop sending us updates about what's happening on the various ILB-related websites; we're not going to post anything on the front page about it... that would simply encourage folks to discuss it again on the forum which would lead to... well, you know.) Update: Fluffy, site director at HaloPlanet, reminded me that they've just opened a new bee-related forum over there; yet ANOTHER good place to go and discuss this stuff. (Louis Wu 12:37:48 UTC)
August 25, 2004 Link to this post
Zanzibar Footage Update
As of now, a bit over 8 hours after posting the first link, the BitTorrent network has served up over 5300 copies of the MLG Halo 2 gameplay video (almost 650 Gigabytes). You guys rock. :) However, there are lots of people who can't use BitTorrent - they're on firewalled corporate networks, or family members have a problem with p2p software on the computer... for whatever reason, these people will not be able to see this film until it is made available via normal web channels. And this process has begun. The first few direct links have been posted on our forum - and we'll continue to add new ones to our Mirror Page as they come in (if you have the bandwidth to spare, throw a copy up, send us a link, we'll add it; when your bandwidth runs out, let us know, we'll yank the link). Please - if you CAN use the BitTorrent network, DO so. (Hopefully, later tonight we'll also have a Two Degrees link up for you, as well.) But the direct downloads are there on the Mirror page if you need them. (Tonight, or tomorrow, smaller versions will begin to appear, as well. I hope.) Once again, thanks to Dolbex and the entire MLG crew (and Bungie!) for making this accessible; it's clear from today's downloads that this is a cool drink of water to a LOT of parched Halo 2 fans. Update: Oops, almost forgot... mrsmiley, the player in the vid itself, started a thread on our forum to answer questions people had about the gameplay (or his performance :) ). Check it out! (Louis Wu 01:26:03 UTC)
August 24, 2004 Link to this post
Zanzibar Gameplay - in Hi-Res Glory
In the past few days, many sites have put up shakeycam video of public Halo 2 play - and many sites have been shut down by the demand. The sad thing is... quality has been HORRIBLE on almost every single released movie. Demand is still huge, because people want to see how this game plays... but it's like trying to enjoy the dance by rubbing a clear spot in the glass on the outside of the barn. Dolbex managed to grab almost 20 minutes of direct-feed footage of an 4v4 at last weekend's MLG-hosted Downpour event in Seattle, and he's shunted it over to us for release to the masses. Before you get a link, there are a few things you should know:
- This is NOT the final version of Halo 2; this is the E3 build of the map Zanzibar, created 4 months ago, and VASTLY altered since that point. If you see something that you don't like, chances are Bungie saw it also, and fixed it.
- There is no public demo of this level; this event wasn't even on the list of public Halo 2 showings. It was not mentioned beforehand because Bungie wanted it to be a surprise for the MLG guests, and because they didn't want people coming to the tournament SPECIFICALLY for Halo 2. In other words; this was a one-time deal, don't expect to see another showing like this.
- The game depicted here is mostly MLG staff and volunteers; the screen you're watching is mrsmiley, of Halo Babies.
- If you like this stuff, there is about an hour and half MORE footage at MLGpro.com and is primarily pro players playing Halo 2 in the world's first Halo2 tourney. Players like Ogre 1, Strangepurple, Darkman, Ogre 2, and Zyos. You can view it by becoming a member of Video On Demand ($20 to help support HaloTV/server costs).
All that said, I've taken Dolbex's footage and encoded it to a not-server-crushing 123 mb, and we're releasing it via BitTorrent. If you don't have a BitTorrent client, you can grab one here. Once you've got that, point it to our Seattle Halo 2 Footage seed, and don't forget to leave the window open when you're finished, to share the bandwidth love! The demand for this file is going to be huge; you can make it less painful to everyone involved by chipping in. (Later today, I'll release a smaller segment for bandwidth-challenged folks... please be patient.) Update: A lot of people seem unfamiliar with BitTorrent, and are complaining about slow download speeds. An explanation of exactly why this is happening and how BitTorrent works is beyond the scope of this post. However, the reason we are inflicting BitTorrent on you is that given the size of this movie and the tremendous demand for it, this is the only way we (or anyone short of, say, FilePlanet) could afford to host this movie. Bandwidth costs money- lots of bandwidth costs LOTS of money, way more than any fansite can afford. Just remember, when you finish downloading, please don't close the BitTorrent window. Think of it as a favor to the community that has brought you this movie- you just downloaded it from all the people who didn't close their windows either, and everyone who downloads it later will be able to do so thanks to you. Every little bit counts, so please help us justify posting more movies like this in the future. (Updated by CZ) (Louis Wu 15:58:41 UTC)
August 24, 2004 Link to this post
Next Up: MC on a Pogo Stick
Nil, building on some community speculation, finished off this picture of a new Halo 2 vehicle... but then confirmed that the MC could do worse. Thanks to Anton P. Nym for starting this whole mess. (Louis Wu 11:33:02 UTC)
August 23, 2004 Link to this post
More Leipzig Footage
Nafe Rubeus continues his quest for Zanzibar multiplayer footage, with another german website, die-klobrille.de. There are two links; the first is a 103 mb, 19-minute file that will make you nauseous if you watch the whole thing at a shot. (It starts with some footage of the Nightmare-Armor-clad MS rep on the show floor, and then moves on to game footage... the blue flashing really got to me after a bit.) The second is a mirror of the very first clip we mentioned - but you'll have to copy and paste the link, rather than click it - there's a typo in the code. If all goes well, we might have something better for you soon... (Louis Wu 21:34:26 UTC)
August 23, 2004 Link to this post
Halo CE maps - on the Mac
Grenadiac points out FANTASTIC news for the Mac community - bobindashadows has found a way to port Halo CE maps to the Mac. The system isn't complete yet - it requires modifying the way bitmaps are stored, so they can be tacked on safely to the existing bitmaps.map file (so that multiple mods can coexist) - but he's got a working prototype, with some great screenshots. Head on over to MacDev and read all about it! (Louis Wu 21:27:53 UTC)
August 21, 2004 Link to this post
More German Shakeycam Stuff
Demden, from Halo Orbit, sends word of another shakeycam vid from the Leipzig gaming event, this time filmed (and hosted) by Game7. Again, screen glare is a major problem, but they did a decent job of showing many of the options available in this build (as well as showing off some spectacularly bad gameplay in the second half). WMP9 format, almost 5 minutes long, 27 mb large. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 22:41:57 UTC)
August 21, 2004 Link to this post
Now all we need is a wolf.
Ducain continues his 'I'm-gonna-get-hogs-EVERYWHERE-on-SC' campaign, with a movie showing how he managed to get three (THREE!) warthogs across the Shaft in Silent Cartographer - along with himself and a marine. WOW. (He started, nicely, with a teaser, letting people guess how he took the pic - but I wasn't around until the entire shebang was finished.) For those who don't like WMP9 (linked in the forum post above), I've made a QuickTime version as well. (Louis Wu 15:53:00 UTC)
August 20, 2004 Link to this post
And all with one figure. Wow.
Plasmanator continues the Action Figure Megabattle series started yesterday by Mintz08 - there was a funny one last night, and a pretty dang impressive one today. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 18:30:44 UTC)
August 20, 2004 Link to this post
Shakeycam vid from the Leipzig show floor
Marc, at Halo Universe, points out a movie they're hosting - 10.6 mb, AVI format) recorded via shakeycam at the Games Convention in Leipzig (where Halo 2 is available to be played by the masses). Screen glare is a bit of a problem... but Halo 2 is Halo 2, right? Check it out! Update: full-bore points out a BitTorrent link for the same footage. (Louis Wu 14:09:28 UTC)
August 19, 2004 Link to this post
Big-Screen Halo
Wow - a movie theater in Logan, Utah has set up a permanent weekly Halo tourney, making good use of their giant screens for some sweet gameplay. Not a bad way to bring in a little extra money! Thanks to Team Overkill (w00t! Halo 2 is coming, they're visible again!) for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 22:07:30 UTC)
August 19, 2004 Link to this post
The PR onslaught begins... with a whimper
Hmm... Alex Cross got his hands on the long-awaited OXM Holiday Preview Guide... and he was disappointed. Yes, there's a large spread on Halo 2 - but to him, it seemed like a rehash of existing info, and there weren't any new screenshots. (The leaked shots currently making the rounds will likely show up in the October issue, due on newsstands on September 7.) It's got plenty of information, and if you're looking for a mag that compares the various games due out for Christmas, this would be a great buy (it is, after all the Holiday Preview Guide) - but if you're specifically looking for Halo 2 info, it looks like you won't find it here. Go read Alex's post for more details. (Louis Wu 12:13:46 UTC)
August 18, 2004 Link to this post
Yet again - Leak Policy at HBO
To the folks sending us links to the Halo 2 screenshots currently making their way around the net: these are leaked shots, not meant to be shown to the public yet. We understand that it's really, really hard to put the genie back in the bottle... but (as has always been the case here) we're going to respect the wishes of the property owners on this one; we will show no picture before its time. (Those of you who remember Orson Welles, raise your hands.) We will not be posting the pictures, or links to the pictures, until they're SUPPOSED to be out, and we will be removing links we find in our forum. We're not trying to make your life miserable, or kill your buzz - Bungie didn't want these images out in the public yet, so we're respecting that. If you really MUST see them, they're out there - just don't ask us where. Thanks! (Louis Wu 11:54:23 UTC)
August 17, 2004 Link to this post
What to do when you're bored
scottisonfire pointed out a thread at halomods containing a useless but entertaining trick - a couple of guys lined up 50 hogs in a row, and fired a rocket through the window gaps of all 50. The rocket was slowed down enough that an obvserver, riding along on a ghost, could follow it. The biggest problem? It's huge. It's a 33.5 mb MPEG-encoded vid - even compressed in .rar format, it's over 20 mb. I re-encoded it as a QuickTime vid; it's only 10 mb now, and at that size, we're willing to host it. So you can grab the smaller (filesize-wise, not screensize-wise) version at mythica.org, or the original (as long as its bandwidth holds out) from the Chaos Legion server (link is in the Halomods thread). (Louis Wu 15:09:46 UTC)
August 17, 2004 Link to this post
Zoe Says Goodbye
There's a spectacular new wallpaper creation by Zoe, Bungie's Contract Artist whose time is wrapping up, over in the Bungie.net Wallpaper section. The story of how it came to be (and how it's NOT a Halo 2 screenshot, but a concept art piece created by Zoe's masterful hand) can be found on the B.net front page. It's gorgeous, and it's available in everything from 800x600 up to a doublewide 3200x1200. Check it out! We're gonna miss you, Zoe. Thanks to all who pointed it out - looks like Shaun Goo was first. (Louis Wu 12:58:51 UTC)
August 15, 2004 Link to this post
Dead Babies on Film
(GT)Juggler put together a nice reminiscence of the Dead Babies lanfest held in Connecticut recently; it's 4:15 long, 32 mb big, in QT format. You can grab copies from either Mythica.org or files.bungie.org. For the record - though my name appears on a number of scoring screens, I wasn't present... though the video makes me wish I had been. LAN flavor, gameplay, modded levels... this one had it all. Check it out! (Louis Wu 04:29:12 UTC)
August 14, 2004 Link to this post
Don't try meleeing with that...
E.D.P. points out a thread he started on the HaloPlanet forums, showing off a LEGO Battle Rifle he built. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 10:22:36 UTC)
August 13, 2004 Link to this post
Comics, Comics, More Comics
Today's One One Se7en looks at those annoying British grunts (and a new Halo 2 feature). Halo Babies continues the storyline with Mister Chief and a wimpy MC (and while you're there, check out the Avatar contest launched today on their forum). And Sector 7 has a new episode of Marines - these guys need some help. Big time. It's like the Sunday paper, only on Friday, and on the web. (Louis Wu 12:46:00 UTC)
August 9, 2004 Link to this post
Adventures in Distaster launches
Boxer has started a new comic, called Aventures in Disaster. The first episode, 'Location, Location, Location' is hosted by akba. Boxer says there'll be new strips every Monday and Wednesday. (Louis Wu 17:10:50 UTC)
August 8, 2004 Link to this post
Sunday Funnies
Light, light news day - how about some comics? There's a new sprite-based strip up over at the newly-opened 7th Revolution, called Halo: On Vacation (be sure to look around a bit when you're there), and Sector 7 has put up its next episode of The Marines - or should I say, has been taken over by ANOTHER internet phenomenon? Enjoy this Sunday! (Louis Wu 16:04:56 UTC)
August 2, 2004 Link to this post
Spec Ops - The Tru7h.
Stuntmutt shows where the new Halo 2 Elite troops come from in today's One One Se7en. Personally, I'm starting to wonder about that boy - where DOES he get his inside info? (Louis Wu 13:44:19 UTC)
July 31, 2004 Link to this post
How Stupid ARE People, Anyway?
Some moron is selling the domain name 'ilovepees.com' on eBay, claiming it is guaranteed to generate 1 million hits in the first week, due to the popularity of the ilovebees.com site. Starting bid is $1,000 and the Buy It Now price is $50,000. Personally, I have to say... if this actually sells, I hold out little hope for the human race as a whole. Thanks to Starman343 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:52:01 UTC)
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