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June 9, 2004 Link to this post
What Consoles Lack - Massive Multiplayer
There's an editorial over at Gamespot that faults consoles for supporting only 16 players per game, max - it argues that PC games are going past this by an order of magnitude, and the reason is dedicated servers. There are some decent counter-arguments in the forum thread started by 3Suns that brought this to our attention... but the red flags for me went up when I read this line:
The reason PC games can handle so many simultaneous players is because publishers release dedicated server software.
Actually, the reason some PC games can handle so many simultaneous players is because they keep track of fewer variables than Halo does, and therefore require less bandwidth per player. (Compare bandwidth requirements for Battlefield 1942 and the PC version of Halo - which HAS dedicated servers - for a clear example of this.) Right or wrong, though, the article gives folks something to discuss - and that's never a bad thing. (Louis Wu 09:35:41 UTC)
June 4, 2004 Link to this post
The man is out of control.
Spideroptics might have said it best - "It's Bungie vs. BOLL. Who will win? Stay tuned." BOLL's latest shot over the bow is a custom 3d screenshot... and all I can say is WOW. (Hit left or right arrow, and watch the large plasma bolt's leading edge crackle.) Because BOLL's ISP sharply throttles traffic outside Scandinavian countries, you might want to look at our local mirror of this file (6.1 mb, Flash format), rather than the links in BOLL's forum post. (Louis Wu 02:13:35 UTC)
June 4, 2004 Link to this post
HCE/HEK update at B.net
Longtime Bungie fan Cunbelin has written a massive summary of the state of Halo Custom Edition and the Halo Editing Kit (though it's missing some of the coolest new creations - you'll have to follow his resource links at the end to find them), and SketchFactor has posted it over at Bungie.net. If you're wondering what's available, this is a great place to start. (Louis Wu 00:08:58 UTC)
June 3, 2004 Link to this post
Kikizo films EVERYTHING
Kikizo Games has put over 5 hours of video from E3 online (including about 20 minutes of Halo 2-related footage). Most of it has already been available from other sources for a while now - but there IS a new file; the 68 mb, 640x480 shakeycam version of the Press briefing, filmed off a Widescreen TV, narrated by SketchFactor, hasn't been seen before. It's the standard demonstration - but for folks who want to watch as many different takes as they can (all are slightly different, of course), this is worth grabbing. Everything is WMP9 format. Thanks to eddie_m for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 10:17:29 UTC)
June 1, 2004 Link to this post
Halo: Blood Covenant - again
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that the 2D sidescroller, Halo: Blood Covenant, had a downloadable demo to play - but their bandwidth ran out pretty quickly, and a lot of people missed it. I grabbed a copy - but I couldn't get it to run properly on my Radeon 9600 (the screen was black). Today, Darker Industries pointed out that the site is back online, and there's a download link at Fileplanet - which should remove the bandwidth problems. I took the opportunity to update my Catalyst drivers to 4.5 - and now I can actually play the game! It's pretty hard - but a lot of fun. At only 6.7 mb to download, what are you waiting for? (Louis Wu 17:35:38 UTC)
June 1, 2004 Link to this post
CheatCodes looks at Halo 2
CheatCodes.com went to E3 - and posted their discussion of the Halo 2 material on Friday. Bunch of nice photos of the widescreen plasma screen they played on. Thanks, Cortanas_Brother. (Louis Wu 16:49:21 UTC)
May 31, 2004 Link to this post
How to be stupid, in public
Yesterday, we got word from haloruler33 that a rather bizarre auction was going on over at eBay. Someone who'd registered on Thursday had started an auction for a Halo 2 pre-release playable game. There was a bit of discussion in our forum about this - many people warned the bidders that this was likely not real. By yesterday evening, things had gotten out of hand; the bidding, which had been creeping up by $50s and $100s all day, suddenly started jumping by thousands. At 11:38 pm (PST), the bid had reached $100,000. By 15 minutes after midnight, it peaked - at $99,999,999.00. And that's where it closed, at 7:15 this morning. It's quite possible this page will be yanked by eBay - there's fraud on all sides, more than enough to go around - so we've put up a static (no working links) local copy. The exception is the Bids link - that works, and points to another local page. Bungie's been alerted - but I'm really doubting this is anything but a scam, in any case. (Louis Wu 20:37:01 UTC)
May 30, 2004 Link to this post
3D screenshot for folks who hate QuickTime
Yesterday, Rip-Saw posted a note about an option to view the 3D screenshot Bungie posted Friday for those without QuickTime - he created a 2.1 mb, 320x240 animated gif. Viewing it took a little work; there's no .gif extension on it, so many browsers don't know what to do with it. BOLL came to the rescue, with a more elegant (though quite a bit larger) solution: a 7.4 mb Flash version (640x480) that reproduced the rotational options of the 3D QuickTime VR version. There is a problem with that version, though - it's a really, really, REALLY slow download outside of Scandinavia. He's uploaded an updated version to our servers; this one remembers your starting point (multiple rotations aren't quite so jarring any more), and he's added an auto-rotate feature (left and right arrows, down arrow to stop). View it in our Miscellaneous section. (Again, if you've got the hi-res QuickTime version, and it works for you, you don't really need this - it's for the QuickTime-impaired.) (Louis Wu 13:23:51 UTC)
May 30, 2004 Link to this post
I Thought IMAX Was The Other Guy...
Hot on the heels of Friday's 3D screenshot, One One Se7en has gone 3D. Sort of. (Louis Wu 11:37:10 UTC)
May 29, 2004 Link to this post
Frankie Meets The Matrix
So Bungie's got a new toy - they can make 3D screenshots! And the first one is a pretty slick piece of work. It's called "Army of One", and it's available in both high (8.4 mb) and low (1.3 mb) res versions. Grab it (make sure you have QuickTime installed), and go to town rotating around the sword-wielding elite, checking out ALL the action! Farsight was the first to stumble on the story, before it made it onto b.net's front page. (Louis Wu 00:01:35 UTC)
May 27, 2004 Link to this post
SCEW Progress
kornman00 mentioned that Supreme Conflict: The Enna Wars (formerly Project Halo) had an update posted; you can find it here. Personally, unless you're excited by dialog boxes, I'd recommend passing on the screenshots of Bruce. (Louis Wu 19:10:08 UTC)
May 27, 2004 Link to this post
Halo breaks the mold
Adam Daniel found an interesting article on the New York Times website (free registration required) which discusses movie-to-game licenses, and why most of the games don't work. Halo is held up more than once as an example of how the model (that you need brand recognition, either because your game has a precursor or because it's based on a mass-market item like a movie) is flawed. Adam points out that we (online Halo fans) get props:
"Everyone is trying to make gaming more mainstream, but it's still the hard-core gamers that get it started. Look at Halo. That's not a franchise sequel or a licensed property, but the word of mouth from the hard-core community really drove the larger market and made it the success that it is."
Nice! Go read. (Louis Wu 15:48:17 UTC)
May 25, 2004 Link to this post
Halo for SNES
Limax created new screens for a fun game, with kudos to Fuzzy for the sprites. I'd play... (Louis Wu 13:27:47 UTC)
May 25, 2004 Link to this post
More new content coming from Bungie
Bungie.net will be offline for a couple of hours today, starting around 10 am PDT (5 pm UTC), with some visible changes to be noticed when they come back. Hmm... Thanks, Wolfy. (Louis Wu 10:12:14 UTC)
May 24, 2004 Link to this post
Screenshot Quality Control
Boxer's put up another .comic at Subnova. Frankly, I don't get the humor behind this one, but maybe it's just me. (Louis Wu 22:09:37 UTC)
May 24, 2004 Link to this post
Red vs Blue - a content flood
There's no Red vs Blue episode this week - they were busy at E3 last week, and they've got other surprises going on - but there's plenty of new content to visit for, anyway. A new song was released in episode 33, called 'A Girl Named Tex' - fans were clamoring for a full version, and now you can grab one. (There's also a link to trocadero.net, the site belonging to nico's band - nico is responsible for much of the cool original music in RvB.) You can also grab a pair of art files - a zipped collection of an image by Jay 'Anaphiel' Faircloth (you can see some of his amazing work in our Miscellaneous Art and Wallpaper sections here, too) and a beautiful view of Blood Gulch from Heather 'Nesnora' Cristofaro (a forum mod for RvB and the designer behind trocadero.net). Finally, for Sponsors only (in the season 2 sponsors forum), you can grab copies of all the Xbox kiosk videos they made for the first round of Xbox promotions last year. (There's a new set in stores right now, and they're starting a third set next week.) RvB lovin' for everyone! (Louis Wu 09:08:39 UTC)
May 23, 2004 Link to this post
Fan Fiction contest announced
Steve and Hextall27 are starting up the 1st Annual Enkidu Fanfic Contest - rules and regulations can be found in this forum post. They're also looking for judges. (Louis Wu 22:27:59 UTC)
May 23, 2004 Link to this post
Screenie Analysis
Alpaca continues the analysis of the E3 screenshots over at [HOH]. Number 3 is up now. (Louis Wu 21:48:40 UTC)
May 23, 2004 Link to this post
Words, words, and more words redux
Lots and lots and lots of you noticed the Fan Fiction section was broken yesterday; I accidentally allowed a story with illegal characters in the series name through the screening process. Sorry about that! Fixed now, though. That'll teach me to put up a last-minute post before leaving for the day (without checking the link first). (Louis Wu 13:43:53 UTC)
May 21, 2004 Link to this post
Xbox.com E3 Halo 2 stuff
There are a couple of Halo2-related vids in the plethora of new items at Xbox.com; there's an 8 minute video with Jenny McCarthy, where she talks to folks experiencing the Halo 2 demo, then weasels her way into playing herself, chatting up Frankie and Pete Parsons pretty good. (Look for Lorraine, Max, and SketchFactor in cameo roles.) There's also a video with Robbie Carbone, winner of an Xbox Live contest, getting Robbie's reactions to Halo 2. (You can read Robbie's full story here.) The downside to ALL of Xbox.com vids is that they're totally un-viewable on a Macintosh; this is pretty disappointing. These two vids can be accessed directly from their mms streams, though, and these DO work on a Mac; I'll have to pull these if Xbox.com complains, but for now, if the official interface doesn't work for you, you can see the vids here: Jenny McCarthy and Robbie Carbone. Thanks to Caligula Caesar for getting me started on all this stuff. (Louis Wu 12:12:19 UTC)
May 19, 2004 Link to this post
How Rumors Start
Curll posted a note yesterday on xblGamers explaining the Clan pricing rumor (it was a psych/marketing class project, apparently) - I missed the email until just now. Go read. (Louis Wu 09:48:46 UTC)
May 18, 2004 Link to this post
New screens at B.net
The Bungie crew is back in Redmond, and they've managed to post another pair of new screenshots; a large version of the second leaked screen found last week, and an entirely new dual-needler first-person shot (with a great view of the energy sword). Unfortunately, there's no HUD to see. Check 'em out! First notice came to us from KenshinHimora000. (Louis Wu 00:32:39 UTC)
May 17, 2004 Link to this post
The Super Long Jump
Dark Helmet comes back with a pretty awesome jump movie; 5:07 long, 17.7 mb, WMP9 format, showing some amazing long jumps with little or no damage. (The link points not to the start of the thread, but to a post with a viable mirror - thanks, Brian.) Watch this one for examples of what you can do without a modded box (or an overshield!). (Louis Wu 21:49:00 UTC)
May 16, 2004 Link to this post
A Good Point
Frontline with Suzie, a fanfic started up by rockslider, has posted Broadcast 2, an interview with a jackal. Thanks to Lothar Hex for pointing it out. (Louis Wu 22:00:40 UTC)
May 16, 2004 Link to this post
Screenshot analysis
[HOH] has analyzed another Halo 2 screenshot - stop by and see if you agree! (Louis Wu 21:30:19 UTC)
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