 | August 2008 |  |
August 2008 Archived News
News August 19 2008 
TTL Highlights - Killing Spree
Tied the Leader is back - there's a highlight reel of some of their finest moments in matchmaking for the month of July. It was a lot of fun to watch! Thanks, XerxdeeJ. (Louis Wu 15:13:57 UTC) (permalink)
Headstones Pushed Aside
vociferous has a new piece up over at Ascendant Justice - Headstones Pushed Aside looks at one of the more interesting enemies you face in the Halo series. It ties together information from the games, the terminals within the games, and outside sources like the Iris campaign last summer to bring you what is likely the most complete view of this facet of the Halo universe seen to date. As always, it's well thought-out and full of details you may not have noticed for yourself. A must-read for any Halo story fanatic! Thanks, rhubarb.
(Louis Wu 12:50:45 UTC) (permalink)
RvB: Reconstruction Chapter 11
Rooster Teeth has released Chapter 11 of Red vs Blue: Reconstruction - it's getting harder and harder every week to point out how this series has fantastic production values and top-notch effects - but every week, it proves it's still there at the top of the Halo machinima heap. The Reds and the Blues are faced with a devastating attack from the Meta - can they figure out how to stop the juggernaut? BlueNinja kicked off a discussion of the episode on our forum. (Louis Wu 12:49:58 UTC) (permalink)
Fun with Screenshots
Hawty McBloggy has a couple of fun collections for you. On her main blog, you'll find "You're Doing It Really, Really Wrong" - this is a set of screenshots that should make you smile, assuming you haven't burned out on this internet meme. (Oddball and Intimidation were two I hadn't seen before, and got chuckles out of me, but there are lots of great shots.) Over at I <3 Halo 3 Screenshots is a new project - Halo Movie Scenes. Recreating classic movie posters, using the Halo 3 screenshot functionality and a LOT of creativity... this rocks. The examples up right now have all been created by Predator5791 - but there's plenty of room for other players. Go see what you can add!
(Louis Wu 12:49:06 UTC) (permalink)
Steel Spartan Kotobukiya, Brute Stalker Reviews
IGN has posted a 'Preview' of the Halo 3 Steel Spartan variant of the Kotobukiya Bubble-shielded figure - mostly, it's just a lot of screenshots... but it's a great figure. And while we're doing action figure reviews, Superheroes Base has a writeup of the McFarlane Brute Stalker. (Louis Wu 12:48:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Domination - a Proposal
Fyrewulff posted a design doc for a 'game' played with Halo 3, but with a pretty involved backend. It's hard to explain - go read the details, and give him some feedback! (Louis Wu 12:47:57 UTC) (permalink)
Jasman Halo 3 Plasma Pistols - a Kotaku Review
Last week, Kotaku posted an 'unboxing' of a set of Jasman Halo 3 Plasma Pistols - a series of photos showing off the goods. They followed it up yesterday with an 'Impressions' article, discussing the actual gameplay, and including a movie. If you're a laser tag afficionado, this seems to be a nice way to fold in your Halo interests, as well. Vash10 started a discussion thread on our forum, if you have comments.
(Louis Wu 12:45:39 UTC) (permalink)
Comic-Styled Longsword
Mid7night posted a video of his Longsword in X-Plane; he played with some Final Cut filters for added effect. If you want to play along, he's challenged you to add a Halo-flavored soundtrack. (Louis Wu 12:44:59 UTC) (permalink)
GD's Top 25 Enemies
Morpheus noticed a Top 25 Enemies of All Time list at Game Daily. If I specified WHICH enemy from the Halo series made the list, I'd have to put a spoiler tag on this newspost.
(Louis Wu 12:44:29 UTC) (permalink)
News August 18 2008
Halo Fall of Reach Movie Concept Art - Week Three
El Mayimbe has posted the third piece of concept art by Kasra Farahani for the Fall of Reach Movie project written up by Stuart Beattie - I'm having trouble placing the scene that this image portrays... but it's an interesting pic. Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:24:30 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Interactive Strategy Game - the HBO Review
CYBRFRK wrote up a review of the Halo Interactive Strategy Game - we didn't think it would be out before September, but he found it in Wal-Mart this weekend. If you were on the fence about buying this, read his thoughts to see if they help you decide! Pictures should be coming soon. Update: The Thurmanator pointed out a bunch of pics at BoardGameGeek. (Louis Wu 20:46:06 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 1 and 2 in 60 Seconds
J23 pointed out Screw Attack's Halo 1 and 2 in 60 Seconds - language is a little blue, but it's a nice fast summary of the first two games. If you're easily offended, don't watch. (Louis Wu 18:50:22 UTC) (permalink)
Rustlers Machinima Music Video Contest - Results
Machinima.com/UK had a music video contest - put one of two Jonathan Coulton songs (Bacteria, Todd the T1000) to music, using any game you want, win goodies. The winners were filmed with World of Warcraft and GTA: San Andreas - but Halo was used for fully half of the entries - and I really liked FireDragon04's entry (he's the one who told us about the contest). Go watch! (Louis Wu 17:40:33 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary Crest - for sale, again
A week ago, we mentioned link4044's Legendary Crest - it had been put up on eBay for a short time, but pulled because of a misunderstanding. He's put another one up after clearing up the problem - you've got about four and a half days to make up your mind. Again - if I had the wall space, I'd find the cash, this is amazing. (Louis Wu 14:13:28 UTC) (permalink)
Boring Comics
OddGodHMK continues to use Halo in his Boring Comic series. I'm having trouble finding teh funni. (Louis Wu 14:12:03 UTC) (permalink)
MC and Grunts - it's over three thousand!
Wow. The Master Chief and Grunts Silver Statue auction ended last night - and the final price jumped $1300 in the last 40 seconds, leading to a final sales price of $3,050. The other three auctions are still going - Master Chief and Arbiter ends Wednesday night (it's at $1669.69), Master Chief and Flood ends on Friday night ($1328), and Cortana ends on Sunday night (it's at $1500 right now). Count on these going MUCH higher. (Just think how much better that news headline would have been if the price had tripled...) (Louis Wu 14:07:45 UTC) (permalink)
Code Pinnacle
It's Monday, so it's time for another episode of Reclaimer - TTL Demag0gue has released Reclaimer 78, which might confuse you unless you've been following very closely.
(Louis Wu 13:33:22 UTC) (permalink)
DigitalPh33r's Guide to Making Halo 3 Machinima: Part 3
DigitalPh33r has released Part 3 of his Guide to Making Halo 3 Machinima - it covers scriptwriting, building sets, and creating character models, and runs a bit over 8 minutes. Thanks to Exanubisleader for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:30:08 UTC) (permalink)
SDCC Exclusive Action Figures - now Available
Not sure how long this deal is going to last, but Darknesshasfallen let us know that Spawn.com is selling the ComicCon Exclusive action figures (the Hellspartan and the CQB Active Camo) as a pair, for as long as supplies last. These were only available at the San Diego ComicCon last month - so folks assumed that if they weren't there, eBay was going to be their only choice... but apparently, if you've got $30 (plus shipping) and some speed, you can snag 'em from the creators. Go order!
(Louis Wu 13:27:36 UTC) (permalink)
FFPotW - it's hard to pronounce
A Halo Fan...natic pointed out that this week's HBO Fan Fic Pick of the Week has been posted over on the HBOFF forums - give it a read! (Louis Wu 13:23:59 UTC) (permalink)
British Press all over Halo stuff
MasterChief2829 noticed that Halo Wars is on the cover of the next issue of X360 (a UK mag), and Urban Reflex mentioned that Xbox World 360 (another UK mag) has a cover story on Halo 4.
(Louis Wu 13:22:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 18 inch Articulated Master Chief Figure
Gryphonosiris found a preorder page for 18" articulated Master Chief Replicas (no word on the manufacturer) at Urban Collector. Pretty nice-looking, from the single preview shot - these should be available in a couple of months.
Update: Zach J noticed an entry at Big Bad Toy Store - these are made by Master Replicas. (Louis Wu 13:18:13 UTC) (permalink)
We ran out of candy
Rare released a new parody of the Believe Campaign, using Viva Piñata (the last one was mentioned a couple of weeks ago) - really nice work! Thanks to RotaJota for the heads-up - he found it at Joystiq.
(Louis Wu 13:14:54 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Wars - UNSC Reactor
newguy2445 sent us a note that the Halo Wars website has updated with new information about one of the buildings available to UNSC players - the Reactor. Swing by for pics!
(Louis Wu 13:12:01 UTC) (permalink)
Forge Hub 2v2 Face Off Update
Okay, I'm back from a really pleasant weekend away from the internet - thanks to mnemesis for keeping the front page from going blank while I was gone! Time to catch up on backlogged news... first up is an update on the Forge Hub Halo 3 2v2 tourney we last mentioned on August 1 - they want 256 teams total, and as of Friday, they were at 189. It's unclear to me when signups end - but the gametypes were released last Friday night, and the first map, 'Urban', was released last night. More teaser images, and a FAQ, are here. (Louis Wu 13:10:02 UTC) (permalink)
News August 17 2008
First Weta Silver Statue auction - winding up
The Master Chief and Grunts statue we mentioned a while ago is wrapping up today. $1675 so far, so if you've got that kind of money burning a hole in your pocket and you'd like to have something completely unique in the Halo collectibles world, get to it! (mnemesis 15:33:37 UTC) (permalink)
News August 16 2008
Bungie Weekly Update: From the Mouths of Babes
The Bungie Weekly Update is up (and has been since last night). A bit of info on PAX, and a bunch of tidbits from various people at the studio, giving some tasty yet cryptic hints as to what they're working on. Go read! (mnemesis 16:31:05 UTC) (permalink)
News August 15 2008
Master Chief meets Bollywood?
Crispy Gamer's James Fudge pointed us to this news bit about a Bollywood movie that apparently revolves around a fictional designer of Halo 3. As CG says, the trailer mentioned in the article has no Halo content at all... so we'll have to take their word for it. (A Google search turns up a bunch of synopses of the film - but again, no Halo mention.) (Louis Wu 14:33:20 UTC) (permalink)
Technical Lighting paper from SIGGRAPH 2008
Earlier this week, Bungie's Hao Chen was at SIGGRAPH, the technical computer graphics conference, as an instructor in the 'Advances in Real-Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games' class. ATI has posted the proceedings of the conference course notes for his work, 'Lighting and Material of Halo 3', on their Technical Publications page. (It's currently second from the top in the 'Siggraph 2008' section - just search the page for 'Bungie'.) The 22 page PDF is very, very heavy on math - but if you're interested in this kind of thing, it's gold. (It's much, much, MUCH more technical than the presentation with the same name on Bungie's Publications page.) Almost makes me miss graduate school... (Louis Wu 10:18:48 UTC) (permalink)
With If you could put Blood Gulch in a Canyon
Hawty McBloggy has posted What If, Halo Style: Round 3 over on her site. There are results from last week's question (a ridiculous number of people want Blood Gulch back), plus a new question, asking you about armor permutations. Go read and comment! (Louis Wu 10:15:16 UTC) (permalink)
Cortana Halo 3 Silver Statue - now on eBay
Weta has put the final silver Halo statue on eBay - the gorgeous Halo 3 Cortana jumped to $1,275 in the first six hours of its listing. (Reserve has not been met yet.) As with previous auctions, you can get a high-res look at the workmanship on our gallery page - and if you check the Weta eBay Store, you'll see all four auctions at a glance. Master Chief and Grunts will be the first to end, Sunday night just before midnight Eastern. Cortana has nine plus days to go... (Louis Wu 10:03:28 UTC) (permalink)
Processes Begun
SonofMacPhisto beat TTL Demag0gue in announcing Reclaimer 77 - Reticent Mystery and the Reclaimer have begun to become one. Things are gettin' funky! (Louis Wu 09:46:43 UTC) (permalink)
Looking back on the building of Believe
There's a fascinating inside view at the development of the Halo 3 Believe diorama, as told by the ad agency that put it all together, over at Shoot Online. They couldn't get art assets from Bungie, so they got them from McFarlane. They were able to repurpose scale models from Aliens to save some time in set building. They discovered that their Brutes had the wrong dimensions, necessitating a reconstruction of about 100 models. And on and on. With all that happened, it's amazing how well the final product turned out! (Louis Wu 09:38:42 UTC) (permalink)
Uprising - a gentler view
Comic Book Resources has posted a review of Halo: Uprising #3 - it's a bit kinder than most of the opinions we mentioned yesterday. (Louis Wu 09:30:38 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fiction
Just four new pieces this week in the Fan Fiction section - but there are some familiar names there... (Louis Wu 09:26:03 UTC) (permalink)
News August 14 2008
And I'm Grif, Grifballin'...
It's Thursday, so it's time for Double XP Weekend to begin - this week, it's Grifball. From now until Monday morning at 2 am PT, you can get your fill of hammers and bombs! (Louis Wu 18:18:51 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Mighty Mugg
So, I've never heard of "Mighty Muggs" before, but apparently, they're a style of action figure - and someone at Etsy is painting custom versions, including a Master Chief. Thanks to GadgetHeat for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 16:59:56 UTC) (permalink)
Play Halo on the big screen
If you live in Vancouver, BC, you've got a chance to play Halo on the big screen, whenever you want. Apparently, Cineplex Entertainment is going to be offering two-hour blocks of time in their theaters, outside of normal movie viewing showtimes, when a full surround-sound theater can be rented for $179. Get 16 friends together, that's less than $11/person, for two hours of giganto-screen Halo 3 goodness.
(Louis Wu 13:29:34 UTC) (permalink)
Keeping Track of Webcam Shenanigans
Not really Halo-related, but a boon for Bungie fans - HaLo2FrEeEk has put together a Bungie Webcam image archiver and will be offering the images at some point in the future. If you have suggestions for new functionality, let him know! (Louis Wu 13:28:24 UTC) (permalink)
Lower the Guns - looking for your support
Dragoncoals pointed out a video on YouTube promoting a Bungie.net Group that wants weapon-lowering to be enabled in Halo 3 on Xbox LIVE (currently, you can only do it offline). While I believe that the goal is not one that can be accomplished by this sort of lobbying, the demonstration in this video (the same short machinima story, shown with and without weapon-lowering) is well-done. Bungie's done their own thinking about this issue, and my guess is that if the functionality hasn't been added to AU2, coming next month, we'll probably never see it - but it's clear that Bungie thinks about machinimators. I don't think a several-hundred-person boycott of Xbox LIVE gameplay is going to make the point that a year's worth of lobbying has failed to make. However, if you disagree, you should watch the video, join the group, and add your voice to the cause! (Louis Wu 13:27:10 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Uprising #3 Reviews
IGN wrote up a short review of Halo: Uprising #3, released nationwide yesterday. They weren't impressed. (You can get some other reviews right on our own forum - Neloms was the first, but there are comments throughout the thread.)
(Louis Wu 13:20:21 UTC) (permalink)
News August 13 2008
VideoManjaro
Bungie has released REAL versions of both the G-Phoria acceptance speech vid and the Edge acceptance speech vid - up to 720p versions. What are you waiting for? (Louis Wu 23:59:06 UTC) (permalink)
Breaking Boundaries - Halo 3, The Pretty Version
mendicantbias00 has put up a collection of screenshots and panoramas - swing by Breaking Boundaries to see the goods! (Louis Wu 19:08:22 UTC) (permalink)
GwF: Jet Black Stare
Another Game with Fame in Halo 3 coming up - this time it's the band Jet Black Stare, and they'll be online looking for competition on August 16. Read about it at Xbox.com! (Louis Wu 19:05:31 UTC) (permalink)
Third Weta Silver Statue for Sale Now
Last night, Weta posted the third of five one-of-a-kind silverplated statues - Master Chief and Flood is up to $810, with nine and a half days left. You can keep track of all the Weta statues on their eBay Store page - 4 days left on the Master Chief and Grunts, a week on Master Chief and Arbiter. This staggered release schedule is probably pretty hard on people who might want to bid on more than one... (Louis Wu 12:00:09 UTC) (permalink)
Shatterbox
TTL Demag0gue announced that Reclaimer 76 is live - the explanation of how Reticent Mystery works continues. (Louis Wu 11:57:07 UTC) (permalink)
Cortana Fan Art, Continued
Hawty McBloggy continues her study of Cortana Fan Art - this week's entry comes from a favorite around here, ZZoMBiE13 - good stuff! (Louis Wu 11:56:17 UTC) (permalink)
Larry the Marine Updates
K8lunch let us know that the most recent Larry the Marine comic has been up for a few days now - which made me realize we haven't posted news of Larry since July 4. Episodes 29 (Missing Steps), 30 (Compromised), 31 (Fall Back), and 32 (Here comes trouble...) are all up if you get your LtM news from us. Go read! (Louis Wu 11:52:43 UTC) (permalink)
News August 12 2008
In Your Head
Halo Action Figure Theater is back, with episode 150 - and Brad discovers he might not be talking to who he thinks he's talking to. Life can be rough when you're dead. (Louis Wu 23:41:43 UTC) (permalink)
Hindsight: Halo 3 - The Ark
It's been a long wait... but it was worth it. Over at Ascendant Justice, you can read Hindsight: Halo 3 - The Ark, a blow-by-blow discussion of one of the largest levels in Halo 3. As with all previous episodes of Hindsight, you'll almost certainly run across tidbits you missed when you played through the level, or be shown viewpoints you didn't consider. The writeup ties the level into the rest of the game, the other games in the series, and outside sources of canon. If you care about the Halo story, go read this. Bring a cup of coffee or two, though - it's monstrous. Thanks, fin. (Louis Wu 20:36:17 UTC) (permalink)
The Overlord Challenge - August Edition
We got word from TruthPastor SBG that the August Overlord Challenge has been won by the Overlords - this time they beat Cirque D'Geezers in a well-fought match. Go read all the details at the SBG website. September's challenge is against SBG themselves...
(Louis Wu 20:30:18 UTC) (permalink)
McBlogging the Halosphere
A pair of pretty cool articles over at Hawty McBloggy's place - there's a Stick Figure Forge Fight (stop-motion animation, inside Forge - THAT'S work), and a pretty nice looking custom Heretic Grunt action figure gleaned from the eBay ocean. Go read about 'em! (Louis Wu 16:48:01 UTC) (permalink)
HBOFFPotW
kr-1426 stopped in to announce that the latest HBO Fan Fic Pick of the Week article is up (along with last week's, which never got announced, mostly because it was posted so late). Go read! (Louis Wu 16:44:03 UTC) (permalink)
A new Bungie product - with a full map editor (and bots)?
Very cool - looks like someone uploaded the acceptance speech vid Bungie sent to Edge for the Interactive Innovation Award announced yesterday. It clearly shows a lot of very, very interesting additions to Forge - might we be seeing these innovations in a release from Bungie sometime? (This could explain why some of the voice actors were recording new dialogue not too long ago...) Looks like MasterChief2829 was first in our forum with the news (and the forum has exploded with excitement over it). (Louis Wu 13:32:49 UTC) (permalink)
Legendary Crest - now for sale
A few weeks ago, we mentioned a Legendary crest that link4044 was working on - he's finished it. You can see pretty amazing pictures of the work on the page we set up for him - and if you like what you see... he's selling it on eBay. Starting bid is $350, and I have to say... if I had the space, I'd be bidding. You've got about 2 days to decide. Update: The eBay link was yanked - the crest was sold to a member of the RvB community. Apologies for the confusion. (Louis Wu 01:35:45 UTC) (permalink)
RvB: Reconstruction Chapter 10
RvB: Reconstruction Chapter 10 has been posted over at the Rooster Teeth website - there's a public version, a high-res sponsor version, and a commentary version with Matt Hullum and Nathan Zellner. Washington meets the Reds, and everyone gets closer to the Meta. What didn't you notice? Thanks to BlueNinja, who posted a note on our forum. (Louis Wu 01:13:26 UTC) (permalink)
News August 11 2008
Fall of Reach Movie - Concept Art, Week 2
El Mayimbe let us know that the second weekly release of concept art for a proposed 'Fall of Reach' movie is available for viewing at LatinoReview.com - along with a Cease and Desist letter from Microsoft, asking them to stop posting these. I dunno about you, but letters like that tend to add credibility, in my eyes - if this stuff were faked, it would probably be ignored. (Clearly, that's not a hard and fast rule - but if you're playing the odds, it's a good bet.) If you missed last week's release, we mentioned it here. The artwork this week shows an obstacle course being tackled by a large number of children, as military personnel look on. A pelican flies overhead. (Louis Wu 22:04:38 UTC) (permalink)
Project Pangea - giving back to the community
The Handmade Hero has made a surprisingly generous offer - he's agreed to create for anyone who asks a portrait screenshot showing off their favorite parts of the game. Read the forum post (and the website) for full details. Personally, I think it's going to be pretty hard to keep up with demand if a lot of people send in requests... but the idea is great! (Louis Wu 21:44:34 UTC) (permalink)
Energy Sword replica, on the wall and dangerous
Mid7night bought one of the True Swords Covenant Energy Swords we mentioned a couple of weeks ago... and hung it with the rest of his sword collection. Looks pretty good! (Louis Wu 21:12:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 wins Edge Award for Interactive Innovation
At the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today, Bungie won the Edge Award for Interactive Innovation for Halo 3. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 20:24:55 UTC) (permalink)
How to Master the Art of Vetoing
Looking for ways to improve your veto success in Halo 3 matchmaking? Hawty McBloggy has your back. Check out her tips for mastering the art of vetoing. (Louis Wu 20:23:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Funnies around the net
A couple of Halo-related comics for you - OddGodHMK pointed out that Boring Comics #9 has a Halo theme, and iJosh uncovered an old Dork Tower with a Halo-related punchline. (Louis Wu 19:30:42 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Uprising 3 - less than a year late!
There are those who said this day would never come... it looks like Halo: Uprising #3, the third of the four-part Marvel comic series in the Halo universe (originally slated for release in late September, 2007) will be on store shelves this week. I'm really hesitant to post this before the comic has actually been seen in the wild (the release date has been pushed back so many times it's become a running forum joke)... but Marvel's page says August 13; that it hasn't changed by now suggests that it might actually come out. (Louis Wu 13:33:28 UTC) (permalink)
Make Cancer a Myth Tourney
Maximum Fear sent word of a new tournament set up to raise money for St. Judes Hospital, which does work on children's cancer research. The tournament will take place in Campaign mode, with scoring on - but the setup will require cooperation between participants, rather than competition. (At least in the early rounds...) It's $10 to sign up - more if you choose - and all collected money will go to St. Judes. There are prizes for the two top scorers, and they're accepting donations for more prizes, if anyone wants to contribute. Check out all the details at skibur.net. (Louis Wu 13:07:05 UTC) (permalink)
Reticent Mystery
TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 75 is now up - with answers and a new member of the Cavalcade!
(Louis Wu 13:01:05 UTC) (permalink)
Goldy Does AotCR (The Hard Way)
vshields ash has posted a video showing how he and Doggy got that Gold Elite (mentioned here and here last week) all the way to the end of Assault on the Control Room. I can't even IMAGINE how long that took. It's an intricate dance; if you get ahead, he stops moving, and if you let him get too close, he kills you. Crazy dedication!
(Louis Wu 12:59:27 UTC) (permalink)
Silver MC and Arbiter - now up on eBay
If the MC and Grunts one-of-a-kind silver statue from Weta isn't to your liking, another option is now on eBay. Master Chief and Arbiter is a glorious pose from The Covenant, and it's all done up in silver plating. Nine and a half days left on the auction, current bid is already $898. (Reserve has not been met.) The image in the listing doesn't do the whole piece justice - check out a large version here. If you'd like to discuss it with our forumgoers, there's a thread here. (Louis Wu 12:57:26 UTC) (permalink)
Campaign Moments
mendicantbias00 pointed out a note on Ascendant Justice, apologizing for a lack of updates, and offering a gallery of gorgeous 'Campaign Moment' screenshots to fill the waiting time. There are new thought-provoking articles from them coming soon - but in the meantime, check out the pretty pictures!
(Louis Wu 12:54:16 UTC) (permalink)
Calendar Followup
Remember that calendar we mentioned yesterday? agdtinman (who worked on some of the images used) pointed out an eBay link with a lot of them for sale, and thumbnails of all pages. He also included a little inside info about the images themselves. (Louis Wu 12:53:46 UTC) (permalink)
Reality
Firestorm12 stopped by yesterday with links to 'Reality' Parts 1 and 2 - it's a new Halo 2-based machinima project from Halopen Films. His forum post contains links to the Halopen website and a site for the series itself, as well, if you'd like more information about what you watched. (Spoilers on the Reality site, so watch the segments first.)
(Louis Wu 12:53:03 UTC) (permalink)
News August 10 2008
Halo 16 month calendar
eddie m found a 2009 Halo 16 month calendar - and Stephen Loftus added a bit of info. Nice! (Louis Wu 20:52:31 UTC) (permalink)
BTB Clan Support Tourney Update
TruthPastor SBG let us know that the first two rounds of the SBG Gaming BTB Clan Support Tournament (we mentioned it last week) are finished, and it's down to the final four teams - Tied the Leader, Outcast Reborn, Swat Krue Marines, and Saved by Grace Gaming. Good luck to all four! Full details on the first two round are here (Round 1 | Round 2). (Louis Wu 15:14:03 UTC) (permalink)
Mix's Picks, Week 10
xMixMasterX has posted Week Ten of Mix's Picks over at The Social - new maps, plus the winner of a Story Board contest. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:59:59 UTC) (permalink)
Breaking AotCR
Heh - Ash continues his Assault on the Control Room antics. Way back in July 2002, someone discovered that you could alter the ending cutscene (but not the final outcome, actually) to this classic Halo level by bringing a baddie with you as the scene ended. Lennox did it with a Hunter, Warbow did it with a Banshee... but nobody (until now) has managed to do it with a Gold Elite. Why? Because the Gold Elite you USUALLY fight near the end will die spontaneously as you enter the doorway, if he's still alive. That's not true if you bring one from somewhere else, though... and unlike Warbow's banshee case, if the Gold Elite kills you in the Control Room, it DOES break the rest of the scripted cutscene. Check out Ash's movie at FileFront. This trick is 6 years old - and it's STILL not tapped out! That's amazing. (Louis Wu 14:49:46 UTC) (permalink)
New Halo CE Maps of Note
Dennis Powers sent us an update of new stuff posted over at the Halo CE Map Archive in the past week - there are 43 new maps, but the ones he wanted to highlight were Seclusion (a small winter map) and Highlands (a small impenetrable valley). Browse - check 'em all out! (Louis Wu 14:15:23 UTC) (permalink)
Games that Moved
Gamesradar listed 10 Industry-Shattering Stolen Exclusives - and Halo makes the list, for its yanking from the Mac platform back in 2000. Thanks, elessar787. (Louis Wu 14:12:33 UTC) (permalink)
3v3 Objective Tourney in WA
kuroni13 stopped by our forum to announce a 3v3 objective tournament at GAMEBREAKERZ in Bonney Lake, WA on August 16. The full details are not up on their website yet - but they should be soon. (Louis Wu 14:10:37 UTC) (permalink)
MC Armor for sale on eBay
Urban Reflex found a pretty nice fan-made Halo suit on eBay yesterday - it's in the UK, and the auction ends in just under 2 days, with the current bid at £670 (a bit under $1300 US). If you're in the market - take a look! (While at eBay, I swung by the Weta MC and Grunts statue auction, still a week from closing - current bid is $1625, reserve HAS been met. Wowzers!) (Louis Wu 14:08:10 UTC) (permalink)
News August 9 2008
What If, Halo Style: Round 2
What if you had a website with a regular Friday update, but you forgot it was Friday? Hawty McBloggy has posted her latest 'What If' scenario (which has nothing to do with the day of the week, really) - she wants to know about map remakes. Go check out the post (which has some great answers from LAST week's question, along with the new query), and then add your two cents! (Louis Wu 09:56:56 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief Theater 3000 Ep 10
mrsmiley let us know that Part 1 of the Master Chief Theater 3000 season finale is now available on YouTube - info is up on Pyrosmile.org. (They've also added an Extras section, containing outtakes from production - you have to register to get a link.) (Louis Wu 09:38:28 UTC) (permalink)
McFarlane 12 inch figure info
The McFarlane 12" Figures have been hinted at for quite some time - we mentioned them indirectly over a year ago, then more directly in November, then more concretely still in April. Toy News International finally has details about these - including points of articulation, accessories, and release dates. Check it out! Thanks, Littlebigman. (Louis Wu 09:15:32 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Weekly Update: Informative AND Tasty
The Bungie Weekly Update went up later than usual (about 7 pm PT) Friday night... but it's full of stuff that'll keep the geekiest among us busy for a while. The Bungie Publications section of their website has been updated with five new talks - well, with five talks it didn't have before. (At least one of those has been in our archives for over 6 years.) Fascinating reading, if you've ever wondered how Bungie makes those non-player characters act real. As always, if you have any trouble reading the Weekly Update at Bungie.net, it's available in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 08:54:54 UTC) (permalink)
News August 8 2008
Fighting the Covenant for the Savior
Sarcastic Gamer has an informational piece on the Vatican City Olympic Halo 3 team, gearing up for domination this month in Beijing. Will they win? Only time will tell! (Louis Wu 23:04:05 UTC) (permalink)
Grind Rider - Official Trailer
JustAnotherFan pointed out a post on Bungie.net advertising the Grind Rider trailer - a Halo-based Western. Looks fun... but you'll have to wait until October for the actual machinima! (Louis Wu 22:57:04 UTC) (permalink)
In Search of Truth
Over at NeoGAF, Cocopjojo posted a Halo-inspired piece called 'In Search of Truth', written by his buddy musicman117. I think it's great - you should go listen to it. It's being hosted currently at Ascendant Justice. (Louis Wu 17:06:24 UTC) (permalink)
Wooden Sniper Rifle
S3NATOR stopped in with pictures of a wooden sniper rifle, made by Socket29 over at Bungie.net. Nice work! Update: more pictures in this B.net thread. (Louis Wu 16:57:49 UTC) (permalink)
Cortana - Glowing
MsValentine has appeared in public in her Halo 2 Cortana outfit a few times - but her recent outing, at the 2008 San Diego ComicCon, yielded some amazing photos. We've put up a gallery. Check it out. (Louis Wu 16:07:45 UTC) (permalink)
Matchmaking Ep 16 (and a teaser for Season 2)
Darkspire Films posted the final episode for Matchmaking Season One, 'Matchmaking Episode 16 - Destiny', a couple of weeks ago... but we missed it. Good stuff. There's also a teaser for Season 2 - coming soonish! Thanks, UltimaPooh. (Louis Wu 15:51:58 UTC) (permalink)
Halo undergarments?
Hmm... this is a little odd. Gemini Ace has a pic of a couple of pairs of Halo-themed boxers and lounge pants found at Kohl's (a nationwide department store chain). A little searching found the lounge pants for sale on eBay (just under 7 days remaining) - no luck on another source for the boxers, though. Thanks, t4ng0. Update: s_tygard55 is sharper than I am - he went to kohls.com and found both the lounge pants and the boxers, for much less than that eBay auction. (Louis Wu 15:17:00 UTC) (permalink)
Double XP at H3RPG
Scotty let us know that it's double xp weekend at Halo 3 RPG again - Team Rockets. (Louis Wu 15:16:42 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fanfic
Only five new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week - but a bunch of familiar names! (Louis Wu 14:39:37 UTC) (permalink)
Boring Comics #8
OddGodHMK continues to incorporate Halo into his Boring Comics series - #8 takes a shot at Ensemble for inappropriately pimping their product.
(Louis Wu 14:38:21 UTC) (permalink)
Best Forge Maps of Spring/Summer
Dragoncoals let us know that ForgeHub has announced the winners of its Best of Forge Spring/Summer 08 competition. Congrats to all the finalists!
(Louis Wu 14:36:04 UTC) (permalink)
Designing Marketable Blockbusters
Gamepro put together a roster of the 8 Most Powerful Video Game Studios. Bungie made the list, on the strength of its Halo products. Thanks to Black Six for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:33:59 UTC) (permalink)
Alliance: Episode 1
Insabul pointed out Alliance: Episode 1, kicking off a new machinima series. Goals seem to be pretty ambitious - it remains to be seen if they'll achieve these goals. (Louis Wu 14:30:31 UTC) (permalink)
Music Video Contest
H3Press and Injured Knee Productions have gotten together for a contest - prizes go to the best music video using only footage from IKProductions.net. Go read the full rules, and check out the prizes, at H3Press! Thanks, Mike Reiss. (Louis Wu 13:49:38 UTC) (permalink)
There's Something About Halo 3: The Covenant
Back in November 2006, There's Something about Halo 2 was released on Newgrounds - a flash parody of the Halo 2 storyline. Apparently, the Halo 3 version was cancelled - but one part, The Covenant, was released recently by its creator. Too bad we can't see the whole thing! Thanks, Psychophan7. (Louis Wu 13:25:30 UTC) (permalink)
Reboot
TTL Demag0gue announced the availability of Reclaimer 74 - the Reclaimer decides to take a more aggressive role in dealing with the Master Chief. (Louis Wu 12:38:45 UTC) (permalink)
Old-school Halo tricks, from an old-timer
Wow, fun. vshields ash managed to get a pair of Gold Elites at the end of Assault on the Control Room, in the original Halo. That's a lot of work! Post at HBO | post at High Impact Halo | vid at FileFront (Louis Wu 12:33:33 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Homefront
Roger Wilco ran across a website for Broken Line Studios - a group putting together a Homeworld mod based on Halo. Some really awesome models! Here's hoping they don't get a C&D. (Louis Wu 12:27:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3: G-Phoria Game of the Year
Injunfett pointed out that G4TV has announced their G-Phoria 2008 Game of the Year... and Halo 3 came away with the title. (It was really, really close.) (Louis Wu 12:24:17 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief and Grunts, in Silver, on eBay
The first of the Weta 1-of-a-kind silver statues (we discussed 'em here, with high-res versions of the silver images here) went on sale on eBay late last night - you've still got nine and a half days to decide what it's worth to you, but the Master Chief and Grunts statue is already up to $1000. (The reserve has not yet been met.) Lots of pics and info in the eBay listing - full details on the piece, plus a list of extra goodies the winner will get. Go read about it - and if your wallet is big enough, put down a bid! (Louis Wu 12:20:34 UTC) (permalink)
News August 7 2008
Fable 2 LE comes with MC
Heh. Microsoft released details of the Fable 2 Limited Collector's Edition - and one of the bonuses is a medieval Master Chief. Swing by FileFront for the story, and a fun pic. (Louis Wu 19:15:00 UTC) (permalink)
Double XP Weekend - Legendary Brawl (Ranked)
The latest Double Experience Weekend is now live - Ranked Legendary Brawl can help you get those last few multiplayer achievements! Get to playing. This list will be up until 2am (PT) on Monday morning. (Louis Wu 18:11:29 UTC) (permalink)
From Dogs to the Universe
Heh - sort of a stretch, but pretty cool. Old Mattacus pointed us towards this article in a recent issue of Harper's - it's not really about Halo, but a small piece is related, and intriguing. It's a discussion of a contagious form of cancer in Tasmanian devils, but about halfway through the article, the author discusses other forms of contagious cancer, and focuses on Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor (CTVT) - an organism that is more related to tumors in other dogs with the malignancy than it is to its own host. In other words, CTVT can be conceptualized as a single creature, a parasite (and not a species of parasite, but an individual), which has managed to spread itself out among millions of different dogs. Research by molecular geneticists suggests the tumor originated in a wolf, or maybe an East Asian dog, somewhere between 200 and 2,500 years ago, which means that CTVT is probably the oldest continuous lineage of mammal cells presently living on Earth. The dogs may be young, but the tumor is ancient. As OM suggests, life sometimes imitates art - CTVT is an awful lot like the Flood! (Louis Wu 18:07:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo PC 1.08 released
Bungie has released a new update for Halo PC - v1.08 officializes the patches made recently to overcome some potential attacks on HPC servers, and as an added bonus, removes the CD check for the game. (There are also patches for Halo Custom Edition and HCE Server.) w00t! Thanks, sawnose. Update: the HCE files are mirrored at Halo Maps, as well. (Louis Wu 15:32:00 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Wars Newsbits
Bunch of Halo Wars news around the net right now:
- Just a followup - the Game Critics Awards were posted a couple of days ago - Halo Wars was up for Best Strategy Game, but lost out to Tom Clancy’s EndWar. Ah, well...
- VideoGamer.com has posted a hands-on review of Halo Wars, based on their time with the game at E3 this year. Give it a read!
- Ensemble's Bruce Shelley summarized the goals of the Halo Wars team going into E3, and looked at how they did meeting those. (He also did a great job collecting all the HW press out there right now.)
That should keep you busy for a bit! (Louis Wu 15:13:45 UTC) (permalink)
Redeemed.
MSNBC has posted a 'Top 5 best aliens in video games' piece - and The Arbiter makes the list. Thanks, Darksage. (Louis Wu 15:10:05 UTC) (permalink)
Casualty Gamers' Top 10 Armor/Bodysuits
elessar787 found another 'Top 10 Armor/Bodysuits' list, this time over at Casualty Gamer. It's a completely different list than the one we mentioned a few days ago - the only suits on both are MGS4's Octocamo, Bioshock's Big Daddy, and Metroid's Varia suit - along with variations of the Halo armor. This is the thing about Top 10s, though... you like what you like. (Louis Wu 15:09:14 UTC) (permalink)
News August 6 2008
Tidbits
This should have been up yesterday - totally my fault it wasn't. ZZoMBiE13 sent along Another Halo Comic Strip - where could this strip branch out? The possibilities are endless! (Louis Wu 16:19:37 UTC) (permalink)
A Fine Line
Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked 39 is up - fishing needs... fish. (Louis Wu 16:13:39 UTC) (permalink)
VGL SD Halo Set - With Cortana and the Master Chief
bubba28871 recorded the Halo set from the Video Games Live concert in San Diego last week - it includes on-stage time with MsValentine, a cosplayer we've featured many times, who performed the Cortana bits. Go watch! (Louis Wu 15:48:23 UTC) (permalink)
A Man and His Probe
Morpheus stopped by to let us know that Real Custom Games has posted 'A Man and His Probe' - raising a Probe can be difficult! (I'm actually curious to know how many people will stumble across this news post while looking for porn...) (Louis Wu 15:02:41 UTC) (permalink)
In-Depth Look at Halo AI
If you didn't get enough of Damian Isla in the GamesIndustry interview we just told you about, swing by Gamasutra this morning - they have a writeup of a keynote Isla gave at the recent Develop conference. (We mentioned this talk back in June.) It's a pretty interesting look at how the AI in the Halo games has been built to make sure the game remains fun for players. If you're interested in how the people behind the scenes make the decisions that affect how you interact with the characters in Halo, you should read this. (Louis Wu 14:45:17 UTC) (permalink)
Damian Isla talks to GamesIndustry.biz
GamesIndustry.biz posted an interview with Bungie's Damian Isla - it's a really interesting piece. Isla holds forth on Bungie's post-independence enthusiasm, on the state of first-person shooters today, on the differences in design philosophy between games like Halo, CoD4, and Bioshock. There are subtle hints that Bungie might be working on a game that has more in common with Myth than Halo - or might have plans to do so in the future. There's a confirmation that at the moment, they're still a 360 studio. There's a look at how Halo AI has evolved over the years. And more! Go read it. Both GI and Eurogamer pulled the same 'takeaway message' from the interview - a comment Isla made that Bungie could learn from the way CoD4 kept players interested over time - but there's much, much more to the interview than that.
(Louis Wu 14:29:43 UTC) (permalink)
Top 10 Forge Art Halo 3 Screenshots
Hawty McBloggy has posted her Top 10 Forge Art Halo 3 Screenshots - go check out the creativity of Forgers everywhere! (Louis Wu 14:28:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 3 still on top of LIVE activity chart
Major Nelson confirmed that Halo 3 is on top of the Xbox LIVE leaderboard, for the third straight week - this is starting to not be news any more. MyGEN has a piece looking at WHY Halo 3 is back on top - and that's more newsworthy. (This is actually the first of a two-part series... we'll let you know when Part 2 goes live.)
(Louis Wu 14:28:23 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Favorites - this week from Halo 3 Academy
Bungie's Blog (and Halo 3 Academy's ryu9921) both let us know that the Bungie Favorites collection is currently being populated by some of the Halo 3 Academy's goodies. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 14:26:50 UTC) (permalink)
Play Halo 3 against Hawthorne Heights
I saw this a while ago, but somehow forgot to post it. Ohio band Hawthorne Heights is participating in the Game With Fame series on Xbox LIVE - find them tomorrow, playing Halo 3, and then send your experience in to Xbox.com! (Louis Wu 14:26:28 UTC) (permalink)
SBG Gaming wants to play YOU
NAMLOCO SBG, of SBG Gaming, let us know that the next Good Gaming Network Overlord Challenge is coming up on August 10. If you're eligible, sign up! He also wanted to point out a community Big Team Battle clan cash payout tourney. Check the post for full details, but the overview is that eight established Halo 3 clans will be invited to play, with the winners gaining cash for their website hosting costs. Nice!
(Louis Wu 14:23:20 UTC) (permalink)
News August 5 2008
HSP Interview: Robt McLees/Frank O'Connor
It's been a long time coming - but a series of questions submitted to Bungie a few months ago, related to the Halo Story, has been returned with answers. Thanks to Frank O'Connor and Robt McLees for finding the time! You can find the writeup in the Halo Story Page resources.
McFarlane Halo 3 Series 4 - a little ahead of time
Paul Mattson pointed out that BigBadToystore has posted preorders for Halo 3 Series 4 McFarlane figures, before the series has been officially unveiled. (Pics are up for most of 'em.) Update: more pics at Toy News International. (Louis Wu 18:28:45 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Art: Damned Cortana
Hawty McBloggy has posted another in her series of 'Fan Art' spotlights - this one is also Cortana... but a little darker. Okay, a lot darker. Go look! (Louis Wu 18:26:20 UTC) (permalink)
Sierra 117 - Outside Scenery
Mariachi and Avateur and friends did some exploring outside Sierra 117 - they came back with some really cool pics. Go look! (Louis Wu 18:18:12 UTC) (permalink)
Fracture - Halo 3 Jumping
RVideo told us about Fracture, a new video from Jump Vision, edited by FooFoo. It shows off a bunch of both aided and unaided jumps on a bunch of maps. Great camera angles, amazing jumping. It's a 63 mb WMP9 download from FileFront - grab a copy, it's absolutely worth watching! (Louis Wu 11:36:57 UTC) (permalink) | 
