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December 2004

December 2004 Archived News

News December 31 2004

Weekly What's Update - for some
Working on this New Years Eve Day, Frankie has posted the last 2004 Weekly What's Update over at Bungie.net - except the link isn't working for everyone. It's worth a read when you can get in, though - there's some good stuff in this one. (The most interesting bit to me, actually, was about Marathon, not Halo:

Dorothy asks,

I was wondering if Bungie still sells that game Marathon. It's really hard to find now-a-days.

We don't, but you CAN download it for free from a number of places. Google it. There are even updated versions with fancy new-fangled graphics. Bungie has sorta given its blessing to this kind of thing. It's not strictly legal, but nobody's coming after you either.

This isn't the same as saying 'you can safely serve copies of the games to people', but it certainly leans closer to that attitude...) Go read it now, or if you're getting an error message, wait a bit and read it later. Thanks, Frankie. (Louis Wu 21:25:56 UTC) (permalink)

Now THAT would be cool on a mantel.
A 13 inch, 4 pound metal statue of the Master Chief is now for sale on eBay. Starting bid is $100, but reserve is higher than that. If you bid, notice that shipping will be from Paris, France, so take that cost into account. The fact that Frankie weighed in on the thread suggests that this puppy is real. Thanks, Zerostar. (Louis Wu 20:50:17 UTC) (permalink)

Joint Effort
NINJ4 posted an animated One One Se7en on our forum - not only in line with Stuntmutt's brand of humor, but it takes a SHOT at Stuntmutt. What more could you want from a One One Se7en? (Louis Wu 20:34:53 UTC) (permalink)

The Prophets chose YOU!
A couple of days ago, Captain Spark released 62 new dialogue snippets, downloadable in one zipped bundle from his website. If you'd rather pick and choose which snippets you get (or like the ability to search for text), these snippets have now been added to our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. Happy hunting! (Louis Wu 14:55:23 UTC) (permalink)

Metropolis never looked so good.
Twenty-five new panoramic shots just got added to BOLL's HALOrama collection - mostly multiplayer, but some impressive campaign shots, too. Go look! (Louis Wu 13:44:23 UTC) (permalink)

Donkey Chief.
It's hard to argue with Stuntmutt's reasoning in today's One One Se7en - this is the pièce de résistance in his argument that Halo 2 is a regression to simpler times in console gaming. (Louis Wu 13:11:07 UTC) (permalink)

Zombies Expansion
VerdaFolio has written up an article on the Dawn of the Dead gametype - but this one covers much more than a simple rehashing of the rules. It looks at what levels are good for gameplay, plus game variants that might be enjoyable. Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:44:26 UTC) (permalink)

Pretty, but still confining
Rampancy.net continues its analysis of Halo 2 with Impressions of Delta Halo. Again, the things that work, and the things that don't, areas that are fun and areas that are not. Very well-written. (Louis Wu 12:41:02 UTC) (permalink)

Odd NTSC/PAL issue
When we posted the 'Hot Pursuit' cutscene (with the Heretic escaping in a Banshee), Jillybean mentioned that whenever SHE watched the scene, the Heretic crashed into a wall before flying away. I'd never seen this - but a couple of other Europeans agreed, that's the way it was for them. This seems to be a timing issue, based on the PAL/NTSC differences. (I thought Bungie had removed that particular constraint from the game... guess I was wrong.) BOLL was kind enough to send along some footage - I've put up small versions of the PAL cutscene (QuickTime and WMP9), so you can see the difference. Weird! Update: At least two PAL users have chimed in to say that the crashing does NOT happen on their Xboxes. Bottom line - we have no idea why he crashes for some people. (Louis Wu 12:13:14 UTC) (permalink)

Awkward is as awkward does.
Halo Babies is back with a new series - and there's a new Cortana (just like in Halo 2). Check out the strip - and some Cortana concept sketches. (Louis Wu 11:33:27 UTC) (permalink)

More on video games and combat
Yesterday, we mentioned an article that suggested that video games might help train people to be better soldiers. It inspired quite a bit of discussion on our forum. Today, MIT's Technology Review has an article about what soldiers in Iraq do on their off-time... and it seems a lot of it is 'play video games'. The end of the article, however, suggests that the soldiers themselves don't think that the game-playing gets them any more prepared for real combat - another set of voices, weighing in. (Louis Wu 11:22:55 UTC) (permalink)

Finishing off the Gas Giant
We're releasing two more cutscenes this evening over in the Cutscene Library: The Oracle and Edification bracket the Heretic Boss Battle. (I don't THINK just those words are spoilers, in and of themselves... but if you consider them to be, please accept my apologies.) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 00:19:23 UTC) (permalink)

THEM vs US
Another Machinima series starting up - THEM vs US: A Zanzibar Story. Currently there's just a teaser up on the page, but they promise more to come. Their hook - it's all being done over XBL. The performers have never met in real life. Give it a look! (Louis Wu 00:14:09 UTC) (permalink)

That Weasel Cranks Out the Vids
More video madness: over at That Weasel Television, the community has been uploading mountains of new video footage - much of it is trick material, but there are also a number of gameplay/music vids. If you're jonesing for new video material (and I'm having a little trouble seeing how you could be, these days, but hey, it takes all kinds), swing on by the TWTv Halo Exclusives page and see what you can find! (Louis Wu 00:10:55 UTC) (permalink)

MTV's Making The Video
Back in early November, MTV put up a special called 'Making The Video Game: Halo 2', which took a sort of documentary look at the making of the game. (It wasn't very much like the DVD that comes with the Limited Edition... but it was interesting. Bungie.net mentioned it here - we put up some info here.) As far as I can tell, today was the last day of its rotation in the MTV on-air schedule... so we can put up a copy for download. Or... more accurately, we can publicize a download that's been available for quite some time. Icetiger, over at HaloPlanet, recorded this and posted it at FilePlanet a couple of months ago - it's 21 minutes long, WMP9 format, 77.5 mb (commercials yanked). For folks who don't want the WMP9 version, I've created a QuickTime version - 77.8 mb. Grab the one that works best for you! Update: this movie, in both QuickTime AND WMP9 flavors, along with several other recent movies, are now available also at That Weasel Television - if you'd like the WMP9 version, but don't like (or can't use) FilePlanet, this is for you! (Louis Wu 00:03:16 UTC) (permalink)

News December 30 2004

video contest - last chance
Dennis Powers points out that you've got a little more than one day to get your entry in to Halo Maps' Halo CE Video Contest - there are 2 dozen entries already submitted (high and low res), check 'em out and create something better, but do it FAST! (Louis Wu 19:22:32 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief in your Living Room
Ross Mills found another couple of Master Chief statues on eBay - one is 3 feet tall, the other is 6 feet tall. They've both got a few days left on their auctions - if you want one of these puppies, go bid! (Louis Wu 19:07:51 UTC) (permalink)

You can't fit that stuff in a stocking, anyway.
Oh, the lessons of the holidays... today's Calvin and Halo hammers home that it's better to give than to receive. (At least, if you're gonna be receiving later on...) (Louis Wu 18:54:21 UTC) (permalink)

User-built resources
Goose241 writes that he's set up an online wiki to collect Multiplayer Strategies - this is a place you can contribute your own ideas to. (While we're on the subject of wikis... Khas wrote a few days ago that he'd added an article to Wikipedia about MAC guns.) (Louis Wu 16:37:34 UTC) (permalink)

Canadian Tourney Pushed Back
We mentioned a Canadian tourney about a month ago, sponsored by the Maasai Clan - it looks like it's been delayed until mid-March, in order to get the Canadian Gaming League involved. Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up on the delay. (Louis Wu 15:33:24 UTC) (permalink)

BBC Picks their Fave Games of the Year
BBC Online has put up their own Editors' Picks for best games of 2004 - Halo 2 was one of four games tapped. Thanks, MadscientistUK. (Louis Wu 15:16:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 - a tool for Freedom Fighters?
This is a new stance - according to James Pinkerton, of Newsday.com, Halo 2 (and games like it) serve a necessary purpose in our society - they 'hone the killer instinct', and 'prep the next generation to do the hard work of freedom'. Whoa. There's already a lively discussion on our forum - please try and keep this politics-free. (A lot of the criticism seems to be taking the argument that console controllers don't translate to real-world skills - but I think Pinkerton's point was that it's the ATTITUDES that are being sharpened, not the actual mechanical skills.) Thanks, Raneb. (Louis Wu 15:00:54 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 vs. Half-Life 2
GameDaily wrote up a Halo 2/Half-Life 2 Face-Off, comparing the two games feature for feature. We won't spoil the surprise - go read it. Thanks, TricKy. (Louis Wu 14:16:24 UTC) (permalink)

Especially not the Limited Edition...
A recent Silo Roberts comic looked at Christmas presents... and why some are not interchangeable. Thanks, Annie Muske-Dukes. (Louis Wu 14:14:03 UTC) (permalink)

Shooting Stuff on WW
IGN has posted a Sniping Locations FAQ for Water Works. Just what it sounds like. (Louis Wu 01:07:12 UTC) (permalink)

Ultimate Gamer - in WMP9
For anyone who wanted to grab the Spike TV Ultimate Gamer piece we released earlier today, but didn't feel like dealing with QuickTime... you can nab it in WMP9 format (75 mb) off files2.bungie.org. (Louis Wu 00:35:58 UTC) (permalink)

Cutscene Update
Because the next few cutscenes are so short, we're releasing four at once - they all take place around the Gas Giant. Check out Juggernaut, Hey, Watch This!, Hot Pursuit, and Dead or Alive... Actually, Just Dead - all over at our Cutscene Library. (Louis Wu 00:33:22 UTC) (permalink)

The Captain Records
There's a new Dialogue update from Captain Spark on his website - 62 new snippets, including an old favorite. Details in his forum post. (These will make it into our Dialogue Databank in the next couple of days.) (Louis Wu 00:16:19 UTC) (permalink)

News December 29 2004

Mac Halo 1.5.1
There's a Mac Halo 1.5.1 patch out now from MacSoft. It fixes a few things in the recent 1.5 release - you don't need to download this unless you're having any of the problems listed below.

• Fixed a Software rasterizer model animation bug on ATI 8500/9000/9200 hardware.
• Fixed a Pixel Shaders bug where drop shadows were not being rendered for text output.
• Fixed a Vertex Shaders bug where decals would display with the wrong colors on ATI 8500/9000/9200 hardware.

You can grab a copy (3.5 mb) from files.bungie.org. Update: Apologies - the zip file here originally was corrupt. It's been replaced by a non-corrupt .sitx file. (Louis Wu 22:12:45 UTC) (permalink)

Big-League Bungie Jumping
Interesting article over at BusinessWeekOnline... a look at Bungie as a success story, and the role that Halo 2 has played in that. With the exception of Marty O'Donnell, all quotes from the inside come from FORMER employees... pretty odd, until you realize it's a look at where they came from. Go read! (Thanks, Marty.) (Louis Wu 21:34:53 UTC) (permalink)

DLX 2004 Trailer Awards
DLX (Gamespot's download site) gave out awards for the Best Trailer of 2004 - Halo 2 was nominated, but Grand Theft Auto beat it out. Thanks, TricKy. Update: Halo 2 (well, the Plantronics Halo 2 headset, anyway) was also up for a pair of awards in the Gamespot Hardware Awards... but lost those, too. Thanks again, TricKy. (Louis Wu 19:08:58 UTC) (permalink)

Blackartstudio's Afterwar continues
Red Leader points out that Afterwar 9 has been posted... Master Chief bests a Hunter, and a Grunt is about to be surprised. (Louis Wu 16:52:47 UTC) (permalink)

Ultimate Gamer - Direct Downloads
Wolfy, from Sector 7, has posted a direct download of the Spike TV Ultimate Gamer feature - and just so they don't get too swamped, here's a local mirror of it, as well. The BitTorrent seed is still running strong, but if you want a direct download, this should help. (If you'd rather have a WMP version, wait a little bit before you download.) (Louis Wu 16:47:05 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday's Reading - Light
Just 7 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today - easy reading! (Louis Wu 16:28:39 UTC) (permalink)

Tank it to the limit, one more time.
Rampancy.net has updated their Halo 2 Impressions section with a piece on Metropolis. The highs, the lows, the 'why did they do that?'s. Go read. (Louis Wu 16:14:23 UTC) (permalink)

Bungtendo.
Stuntmutt continues his look at Halo 2's regression into the console world of yesteryear in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:36:06 UTC) (permalink)

Command and Conquer mod marches on
Another update at the Halogen site recently - textured renders, and a downloadable beta of a pretty familiar map for Generals: Zero Hour. Thanks, NiceMissMayonnaise. (Louis Wu 14:52:59 UTC) (permalink)

TalkXbox GotY Awards
TalkXbox has posted their Game of the Year awards - and Halo 2 cleaned up. Best Graphics, Best Sound, Best Multiplayer/XBL Title, Game Studio, Character, Game We're Still Playing in 2005, Game of the Year, and runner-up in the Action Title. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 14:49:57 UTC) (permalink)

Spike TV's The Ultimate Gamer: Halo 2
Back in early November, Spike TV hosted an episode of Ultimate Gamer based on Halo 2 - it's basically a makeover show, with the focus on gaming. (We posted a few notes at the time.) nukedude recorded the whole show - but we couldn't put up a copy until Spike stopped airing the episode. As far as I can tell, they've done that now - so we're putting up a copy. It's available via BitTorrent right now - later today or tomorrow I'll make a direct download available for those who can't use BitTorrent. It's 19:44 long, and 77 mb large, in QuickTime format. (Louis Wu 13:36:07 UTC) (permalink)

A Whisper in the Storm
The Cutscene Library has been updated again - a bit later than intended, sorry. A Whisper in the Storm is a pretty dark scene - and as such, was tricky to convert to a watchable level. We did the best we could. (Special thanks to BOLL on this one.) Again, it's available in 4 flavors - grab the one that suits your needs (and your bandwidth) best! (Louis Wu 01:02:11 UTC) (permalink)

News December 28 2004

Wizard's Fan Awards
Wizard is conducting their 2004 Wizard Fan Awards - the 'best in the comics world'. Halo is up for Favorite Action Figure Line and Favorite Video Game. Thanks to Sean Cunningham for the heads-up (and for the reminder that you don't have to vote for all categories if you don't want to). (Louis Wu 22:41:53 UTC) (permalink)

Xtournaments East Coast Bonanza
Details on the Halo 2 Nationals Tournament from Xtournaments have been finalized. The games begin on February 12, 2005, in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. (It will continue through the rest of the US later.) Again - there's more than $15,000 on the line. Go check out their website for more details. (Louis Wu 21:36:45 UTC) (permalink)

You want everything, don't you?
Sunday's Sheldon comic had a Halo 2 mention... thanks, Cold Bones. (Louis Wu 20:13:07 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 ranks high in TXB's GotY awards
TeamXbox has posted their Game of the Year awards for 2004... and Halo walked away with Best First-Person Shooter, Best Xbox Live Game, Best Sound, and Best Xbox Game of 2004. (The Xbox Live Halo 2 Headset also took Best Hardware/Peripheral.) Go see what else is there! Thanks, KenshinHimora000. (Louis Wu 20:11:34 UTC) (permalink)

More Panoramic Shots
That BOLL... he won't stop. We added 25 new images to the HALOrama collection of Halo 2 panoramic shots - but then he sent us another set. Since the section got featured on Xbox.com's Community page yesterday, as well, I figured it might be worth actually posting the new ones - so go take a look! (Louis Wu 17:17:55 UTC) (permalink)

Elite Crap
That Weasel writes to say that Episode 16 of "Grunts Are People Too!!!" has been posted at That Weasel Television. (The QuickTime link points to Episode 15 - but if you change it manually, you can grab 16.) Poor grunty... (Louis Wu 14:25:26 UTC) (permalink)

Tigers don't know ANYTHING.
Six-year-olds don't always think everything through when they're panicking. Sometimes, though, they're sharp as a tack. Today's Calvin and Halo shows that pretty clearly. (Louis Wu 14:08:33 UTC) (permalink)

More multiplayer strategy help at TalkXbox
Thanks to 3Suns, who pointed out that there are now two more strategy guides up at TalkXbox - Coagulation Classic CTF (Week 6) and Lockout Three Plots (Week 7). Go read 'em! (Louis Wu 13:59:45 UTC) (permalink)

News December 27 2004

New desktops for you
I'm keeping up! I'm keeping up! (I think this means I'm going to get finished with the long-awaited Tricks section soon.) You'll find 16 new desktop images in our Wallpaper section - some additional backend coding makes the process quite a bit easier for me, so who knows... maybe I'll be able to CONTINUE keeping up. (Louis Wu 21:21:16 UTC) (permalink)

Volume 2 of the OST - news, sort of
Okay. This didn't seem like news to me, but after the 700th email (and half a dozen forum posts), I give. If you visit nilerogers.com, you'll see a small note that states that the second volume of the Halo 2 Soundtrack will be coming out 'within the first few months of 2005'. So... that tells you... well, nothing. I guess that you'll be able to buy the second volume before, say, July. Maybe. Please - don't send us this tidbit any more. When we have a REAL release date, we'll be sure to publish it. (Louis Wu 19:50:40 UTC) (permalink)

At least he doesn't have to worry about sun glare...
Hehe - Dolbex had a birthday today... and one of his presents was a pretty slick radio-controlled car. What was the first thing he did with it? Guess. (Louis Wu 19:09:15 UTC) (permalink)

Field Expedient
Our Cutscene Library grows again, this time with 'Field Expedient', the cutscene following Metropolis. Check it out! (Louis Wu 17:57:59 UTC) (permalink)

I'm running out of circle puns.
We've added 25 new panoramic shots to BOLL's amazing HALOrama collection - they're all single-player images this time around, and some are just incredible. Go look! (Louis Wu 15:49:36 UTC) (permalink)

New Xbox.com content
There are three new articles for you over at Xbox.com, posted since our last roundup:

• Cory Values covers the biggest spoilers in Halo 2
• Twitch is Twitchin' for Halo 2
• Hardcore's Hardcorner has some Halo 2 advice

Always good to catch up when you've been away... (Louis Wu 15:43:17 UTC) (permalink)

A Chiefly Christmas
Some of you might remember a guy who made latex Master Chief masks, and sold them on eBay. He isn't doing that any more - there are apparently copyright issues to work out - but I did find a very cool example of his product (in Doc's trademark purple) under our tree this year. There are a couple of shots of my son modeling it (front and side) - it actually fits ME, so it's a little big on him. Here's hoping the licensing details are worked out, because these ROCK! (Louis Wu 15:29:26 UTC) (permalink)

Heresy.
One of the criticisms leveled at Halo 2 was that Bungie had gone back to outmoded console concepts in this one. Stuntmutt has decided to take a closer look; today's One One Se7en is the first of a series of investigative strips. (If you don't get this one, you haven't played the first 5 or 6 levels of the Halo 2 campaign.) (Louis Wu 15:12:28 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Morning Reading
21 pieces written since Christmas Eve for the Fan Fiction section. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:08:44 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 net news
Couple of interesting articles out there - The New York Times has a piece on how the video game audience is getting older (and more monied), and how games like Halo 2 are leading the shift, and GameSHOUT has put up their top 10 games of the year - with Halo 2 taking the number 1 spot. (The article was written by SexyJosh, a sometimes-poster on our forum, so his nod to Halo 2 is not a TOTAL surprise.) (Louis Wu 14:13:47 UTC) (permalink)

From the nose to the top of your shoe
Missing things... it's an epidemic. Hep, from AussieXbox, sent word last week of a really cool didgeridoo (if you've never seen a didgeridoo, there's some good info here), carved with Halo 2 emblems, on display at Xbox HQ in Australia at the time. Now THERE'S shwag worth owning! (Louis Wu 13:58:18 UTC) (permalink)

Happy Boxing Day - sort of
Speaking of comics, Boxer sent along a copy of Adventures in Disaster in honor of Boxing Day - which was yesterday. Unfortunately, I missed it, so you'll have to pretend it's still Boxing Day. (I also resized it, because it was simply enormous, and unnecessarily so... but if anyone REALLY wants to see the original, just write.) (Louis Wu 13:39:40 UTC) (permalink)

The Crying Game
Here's hoping your Christmas didn't end up like Samus in today's VG Cats... thanks, Linkmaxwell. (Louis Wu 13:33:47 UTC) (permalink)

News December 26 2004

Ladies Like Lots of Stuff
We have another cutscene for you today in the Cutscene Library - this is the opening scene of Metropolis. As is true with a bunch of the cutscenes, the dialogue changes depending on which difficulty you're playing on - and thanks to Sniper 058, you can grab it in whatever difficulty you'd like. (We'd appreciate it if you'd grab only one difficulty in High resolution; the footage is identical for all 4, so it shouldn't matter too much what size you're watching for the alternate wordings. Thanks!) (Louis Wu 22:01:29 UTC) (permalink)

RSS to CSV utility
John Redman wrote a utility that will download user stats from Bungie's RSS XML feeds, and then conver them to CSV format (easily read by any version of Excel out there, back to 1.0). The package is a bit under 9 mb, and runs on Windows platforms. If you've wanted to try and work with your stats, but didn't have a version of Excel that could handle XML, this might be for you! You can download it from files2.bungie.org. (Louis Wu 17:43:35 UTC) (permalink)

Zanzibar Beach Egg discovered
Interesting. An easter egg based on the Xbox's internal clock has been discovered - brings me back to the days of Dark Castle. Skitelz posted over on the High Impact Halo forums that the Shark Warning signs on the Zanzibar beach were different on Christmas... that got folks changing their clocks, and 4 unique signs were discovered: January 1, July 7 (Bungie Day), October 31, and December 25. You can see all 4 in this image (41k). Clearly, SOME people had found these earlier - the Shark Petting sign is the opening shot of FTC's Episode 16, released last week. Nice job, all! (Louis Wu 16:18:43 UTC) (permalink)

Old Annoyance Be Forgot
Red vs Blue has posted a Holiday video for you to enjoy - reminiscences of Christmases Past, and such. Lots of such. First I heard of it was from Hawaiian Pig, on our forum. (Louis Wu 15:47:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2.5... or something.
TeamXbox posted a bit of news they cribbed from the latest Official Xbox Magazine - details about Halo 2.5. 2.5? That's what they're calling it.

"Halo 2.5 will be an Xbox 2 launch title and is going to run in HDTV resolution with new, improved textures and graphical effects. All the stuff that people expected from Halo 2 but didn't make the cut will be there."

Before you get TOO excited, be aware that nobody who actually has any authority to speak about this stuff has commented yet. This might be true - and it might be a bit of undigested beef, a blob of mustard, a crumb of cheese. When we have more info about this, we'll be sure to post it. Thanks to Spike for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:43:04 UTC) (permalink)

Happy Holidays... from the fans.
A number of people sent along holiday wishes - XLNC created a new HUDless shot, Dennis Powers put together his own Halo CE Christmas Video (broadband and dialup), and Hawaiian Pig put up a nice RvB-themed image. I'm sure there are others that i managed to miss - if I find them, I'll update this news post. (Louis Wu 15:35:06 UTC) (permalink)

Legendary Beer Stein
Christmas is past, and I must say, I ate too much... but the time spent with loved ones was definitely worth it. Back to updating, though! Littlebigman noticed that there's a new beer stein available at the Bungie Store. The perfect thing for slugging down that after-Christmas... juice. (Louis Wu 15:28:14 UTC) (permalink)

News December 25 2004

...A Good Night.

News December 24 2004

Cutscene Addition Number 4
Last post of the day, I think. Gotta run some errands, and then it's Christmas Eve, and I'm off duty for a bit. Enjoy the fourth entry in the Halo 2 Cutscene Library - 'They'll Regret That, Too'. Thanks once again to Sniper 058 for recording these, and to Mythica, HaloImpulse, and That Weasel for bandwidth help! (Louis Wu 18:51:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo for Unreal Tournament 2004
HaloUT Content Pack 1.5 has been released; lots of updates, apparently. You can find download links (use the BitTorrent ones if you can) at The Project Torlan homepage, or at DragonStarElite's download mirror. Thanks to Digikid for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:11:42 UTC) (permalink)

Live Forever Christmas
MereCatFish created a Live Forever Christmas video - 13.2 mb, DivX format, hosted by measter. I think all the guys standing around are supposed to be singing. (Louis Wu 17:47:12 UTC) (permalink)

That just greedy!
thesaelens turned in another 28 dialogue snippets for the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank; a split between Grunts and Elites. I'm amazed by how many DIFFERENT clips there are when you shoot your own teammates, or trade your lousy gun for their good one. Go listen! Update: That link now goes to 53 new clips, not 28 - Captain Spark submitted his own collection of 25 new pieces, as well. Lots of good stuff! (I'm not sure what our official policy is going to be on scripted content, from here on in; in general, we rejected it for the Halo Dialogue Databank, but some of these clips are priceless.) (Louis Wu 15:23:06 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief: Hero Final
Very nice. there's a new image over at DeviantART, created by Pinkuh - the Master Chief, saving a small girl (or using her as a human shield, if you read some of the more cynical posts on our forum). Great work. Thanks to SEspider for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:49:47 UTC) (permalink)

Squeal Like A Grunt.
Comic, Double Comic, Triple Comic! We're gonna stop with One One Se7en, because a ComicTacular would simply be too much. (That said, we'll almost certainly hear from SOMEONE today who wants to make that happen.) Good thing Stuntmutt lives in the UK - this strip has the potential to upset some Americans... (Louis Wu 13:55:40 UTC) (permalink)

Getting Started All Over Again
Gruntsbane is back at Halo Babies, and there's a new strip up - the first of 3, it seems. (There's also a new Baby Sarge concept sketch.) Go check it out! (Louis Wu 13:53:02 UTC) (permalink)

The True Spirit
Ross Mills (among others) sent word about today's Ctrl-Alt-Del, with a true Christmas message, Halo-related, of course. (You might need to read Wednesday's strip to see what happened.) (Louis Wu 13:49:52 UTC) (permalink)

H2
argent sent us over to Newgrounds, for another Halo 2-based Flash movie. This one's called 'H2', and was created by Robbie Watt. Stick figures and gore - what more do you want? (Louis Wu 13:43:14 UTC) (permalink)

That Weasel - trying to kill his bandwidth
I check mail this morning... and there are still MORE movie updates for you. That Weasel, not content with the Cutscene mirroring and new Grunts vid, sent along a HUGE list of new and mirrored content - it's too long to list here, so visit That Weasel's HBO Mirror, and check out the top 10 items. (If they say TWTv Exclusive, you won't find them anywhere else.) The first new item on the list is The Blair Skull Project, by Mother's Tooth - a scary live-action film just for you. Go revel in more movie footage. (Louis Wu 13:41:15 UTC) (permalink)

It must be Movie Night.
Movie'd out yet? No, wait! Remember the Halo CE Movie competition at HaloMaps.org? Remember how I said it was totally Mac-unfriendly? Not only has that been fixed, but there are now 16 entries to view - and less than a week to get your OWN entry in. Go watch! And then go submit! (Thanks, Dennis.) (Louis Wu 01:25:46 UTC) (permalink)

Things you can win
Couple of contest notes: the Xtournaments Crew writes to point out that they're starting their Halo 2 Tourney (4v4) in February, with $15,000 on the line. Visit their website for more details. And ZATZAi is pretty insistent that we mention an update to his Coagulation Christmas Tree Challenge (we noted it last week) - the deadline has been extended, and a Halo 2 soundtrack has been added to the prize pool. Check his post at High Impact Halo for details. (Louis Wu 01:18:59 UTC) (permalink)

Dat Wascally Weasel...
That Weasel writes to say that a mini-episode of "Grunts are People Too!!!" has been posted - Episode 15, 'Tic-Tac-Grunt' is now available in WMP9, QuickTime, and DivX formats. It's a little...bizarre. Also - they've added mirrors of the first two cutscenes from our Cutscene Library - and sent along wishes for happy, safe holidays. Back atcha! (Louis Wu 01:11:21 UTC) (permalink)

Zombies eat brains, don't they?
Got another movie for you. Remember the Dawn of the Dead gametype we mentioned a couple of days ago? Clan Tricking IT put together a fun movie, 'Beach of the Dead' with an eye to the cinematic. It's large (large-format, and large filesize), but the quality is a little lacking... don't let that get in the way of your enjoyment. 640x480, 7:08 long. By the end, you're really rooting for the remaining spartan! Clan Tricking IT is hosting a 50 mb WMP10 version - here's hoping their bandwidth holds out. I've put up a QuickTime version (same screensize, about 43 mb) - this one will last for a bit. If you simply can't get enough of this gametype, there's an older movie, created by spesalfred, and posted on our forum a couple of days ago. (The link in that post is now dead, but you can grab a copy off Mythica.) It's WMP9 format, 17.5 mb; I found the action harder to follow than Tricking IT's vid. Whatever footage you grab, use it to get inspired - jump on XBL and play this game yourself! (Louis Wu 00:42:16 UTC) (permalink)

Thursday Reading - Bermuda Triangle Style
Weird. I updated the Fan Fiction section about 12 hours ago - but the news post I wrote up seems to have vanished into the ether. 11 new pieces - go read. (Louis Wu 00:19:41 UTC) (permalink)

News December 23 2004

Return to Sender
And another Halo 2 Cutscene goes live. Return to Sender contains the scene between Cairo Station and Outskirts. Once again, we've added mirrors for existing entries - HaloImpulse has put up Home Field Advantage links. Go grab 'em! (Louis Wu 21:25:58 UTC) (permalink)

Another Halo Strat Guide
Mintz08 points out that 'The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide: Advanced Combat Techniques' is now available at Amazon.com. If someone buys one, please - send us a review! (Louis Wu 20:22:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 and the New Heroism
Hmm. Over at Tech Central Station, there's an article entitled 'Halo 2 and the New Heroism'. It looks at Halo 2 (and games like it) as a potential route to saving military personnel in a real war. Yeah, struck me as sort of out there, too. Go read. (If you choose to discuss this on our forum, please - remember the rules about political discussions. Stay away from value judgements about the US military presence in Iraq. Thanks.) (Louis Wu 20:01:42 UTC) (permalink)

How I Learned to Love the SMG... In Legendary
To all those people who say the SMG is a useless weapon in Campaign play - Cody Miller says 'meh'. He says it quite eloquently, actually - 3:23 worth of Legendary gameplay in a new movie called 'SMG Love'. I'm sure that (just like after every OTHER movie Cody's released) we'll get people posting on our forum that this is faked; there are areas that he breezes through so effortlessly you'll think it MUST be faked. It's not. And yeah, he uses grenades, as well... but man, I have a new respect for that SMG. Or maybe it's just for Cody. The video is available in QuickTime format (22.7 mb) or WMP9 format (27 mb). Watch it and say thankya. (Louis Wu 15:09:55 UTC) (permalink)

You think maybe Ladyfingers?
Calvin's getting himself into trouble - in more ways than one - in today's Calvin and Halo. Let's hope we make it through the holidays! (Louis Wu 13:44:33 UTC) (permalink)

Movies, movies
We're doing okay, bandwidth-wise, this month... so I thought I'd go through the movie submissions we've received and put up some of the more interesting stuff. A HUGE percentage of what we got were tricking vids - these don't have a home here yet. Another significant percentage were gameplay vids - there must be 2 or 3 dozen 'here's my clan in Blood Gulch TS' vids waiting to be viewed. Ouch! I found a couple of fun ones, though - one was made by the Last Surviving Spartans, a Halo 2 clan. They put a fun spin on the Sword Flying Glitch, and the resultant film (7 mb in WMP9 format, 7.4 mb in QuickTime format) is an enjoyable 2:00 romp. (Thanks, KP, for the hosting help.) A second one was created by Smeginfrell - it's a nicely rendered animation short, expressing some heartfelt emotion about the release date. (Work on this started before November 9.) It, too, is available in WMP9 format or QuickTime format - both are 5.3 mb, and 1:03 long. More video to come a bit later! In the meantime, give these a view. (Louis Wu 13:36:59 UTC) (permalink)

An FTC Xmas
Andrew dropped by our forum to point out a new holiday song over at XboxOttawa, created by FTC fan Curt Is Not. It's a summary of recent plot points in the Fire Team Charlie series, set to a familiar tune. Go listen! (Language, as is true with most FTC offerings, is NSFW.) (Louis Wu 11:43:49 UTC) (permalink)

Confessions of a game widow
Cute article over at BBC News - not new, but notable for the site it's on. What do you do when that 'winking black box' takes over the life (or at least the free time) of your significant other? (Louis Wu 11:34:14 UTC) (permalink)

Cinematic dialogue at Gamefaqs
It's not the same as a full level transcript - but it's a decent start, and our own effort seems to have stalled. Over on Gamefaqs is a file with all the dialogue from the cutscenes in Halo 2, created by Rachel Maille. There are a few missing pieces, and it's unclear what difficulty level this compilation was collected on - but it's certainly a good place to begin. Thanks, Stefin Hehman. Update: Apparently, Gamefaqs doesn't allow direct linking to files on their servers at all. You can find the script guide linked from this page. (It's listed as 'Game Script'.) Thanks, Drew. (Louis Wu 11:14:10 UTC) (permalink)

Me own boss!
Hot on the heels of yesterday's submissions, thesaelens has sent along another 19 Grunt lines for the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. Go listen! (Louis Wu 11:01:44 UTC) (permalink)

News December 22 2004

And then, this one time...
Jilly "Have I told you how much I hate Cortana?" bean has summarized the Halo story to date, for folks who feel lost. See if you can guess her slant on things. (Nice summary, overall.) (Louis Wu 20:00:11 UTC) (permalink)

The rumor that just won't die.
In November, we mentioned yet another rumor about a Halo movie, posted on Ain't It Cool News. It was CLEARLY rumor-material then... but that didn't stop IGN from writing up a speculative news post about it. From there, movies.com tossed up their own totally sketchy page (crediting Film Force with the prerelease buzz - can you see where this is going?). A day later, there's a page on IMDB.com. Again - zero information (past what's speculated on in that original RUMOR post at AICN). Gets people excited, though... and that's all that matters. So - IS this just a rumor that won't die... or is it real? Today, front page of Variety:

"While the tech giant declined to comment, numerous sources indicate Microsoft is developing its own script for a "Halo" movie inhouse and has contacted agencies to bring an A-list screenwriter onboard to help work on it. Plan calls for Microsoft to create its own script and then, if it and subsid Bungie - developer of "Halo" - are happy with the result, shop it as a finished product to producers or studios. That's a big "if," though, and Microsoft and Bungie could decide not to go ahead with development for any number of reasons."

No real info there, either... but man, it's front-page in Variety! SOMEONE is keeping this rumor from dying. (Thanks, MthDirector.) (Louis Wu 18:54:50 UTC) (permalink)

Where were you when we burned your planet?
thesaelens sent along another 30 dialogue snippets for our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank - 29 Grunt lines, and one Elite. Some of these are great! (Louis Wu 17:07:02 UTC) (permalink)

Cutscene Library Grows
Bandwidth has been holding out nicely for the new Cutscene Library - so I'm adding the second entry today. It's the Home Field Advantage scene, and it plays just before you begin playing through Cairo Station. Once again, it's available in 4 flavors, from two different sources. (We've also added a Mirrors option - HaloImpulse has chosen to mirror the first set, so that's yet another download option. If more come online, we'll add them, too.) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 16:29:17 UTC) (permalink)

Back when the Web was young...
I'm posting this because... well, because. Halo is easily the biggest franchise Bungie's ever been involved in, and this site is devoted to Halo... but yesterday was the 10th Anniversary of Marathon, the game that launched Bungie's career, in many ways. (Yes, there were games that came before. Marathon was still what put them on the map.) In honor of that anniversary, Jay Faircloth (aka Anaphiel) created a set of desktop images to commemorate the game; they're gorgeous. Grab one and raise a glass! (Comments can go here, on the Marathon Story forum.) (Louis Wu 15:59:29 UTC) (permalink)

Pete Parsons talks to EGM
1Up.com has posted another interview published in the current issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly - this one is with Pete Parsons, Bungie's Studio Manager. Pete talks about some of the decisions that made Halo 2 what it is today - and some of the reasons behind the tactics Bungie used to present the game to the public. Fascinating. Thanks, Dolbex. (Louis Wu 15:11:08 UTC) (permalink)

Mirandaaaaaaargh!
Today's One One Se7en lesson is 'be clear when you're discussing something not present.' Or maybe just 'Don't let Stuntmutt out of his cage'... (Louis Wu 14:17:18 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2: Gamespy's GotY
Gamespy has ranked Halo 2 its 2004 Game of the Year, beating games like Half-Life 2 (2nd) and GTA San Andreas (3rd). Nice! Thanks, Black Six. (Louis Wu 13:39:55 UTC) (permalink)

That Weasel provides more hosting options
That Weasel writes to say that their Video Upload feature is back online; if you have a film you want to show the community, and it's larger than Mythica's 8 mb limit, and it doesn't meet our posting guidelines, That Weasel Television is there to help! Just another feature for the fans... thanks, tw! (Louis Wu 13:36:08 UTC) (permalink)

News December 21 2004

Cutscene Library Underway
Sometimes I wonder how it's all gonna get done. The next Big Thing that was supposed to come online here was the Joint HBO/HIH Tricks database - that's still in the works (I keep adding stuff, so it keeps not being finished), but an ambitious fan coupled with some new software made it feasible to jump the line with a section that we've talked about for YEARS - a Cutscene Library. Huge thanks go out to Sniper 058, who went to the effort of recording them; we now have the first cutscene (a combination of 'The Heretic', and the Armory opener) online for you. Grab the flavor that works best for you, from one of our mirror links. Depending on demand, we'll release these every couple of days. (If you want to see them faster, don't abuse the links we have - download only what you need.) Hopefully, this will help the Story page folks out, as well. And yes, c0ld, one day the Halo cutscenes will be archived here as well. (Louis Wu 17:00:57 UTC) (permalink)

Behind The Rock
That Weasel writes to say that Episode 14 of "Grunts Are People Too!!!" has been posted - 'Behind the Rock' is available in QuickTime, WMP9, and DivX formats. It's not very big - go grab a copy! Oh, the sadness of dead grunts... (Louis Wu 16:49:48 UTC) (permalink)

Lawrence.com GVA awards announced
Last week, Lawrence.com posted its Gamer's Voice Award nominees - Halo was nominated for 8 awards. Today, they've posted the results - Halo took home Best First-Person Shooter, Best Multiplayer, and Best Soundtrack, as well as the Gamer's Voice Award (reader's choice). It took runner-up to Burnout 3 for Best Replay. Go read all the results - thanks, Mothergoat. (Louis Wu 15:41:55 UTC) (permalink)

Who's running this show, anyway?
As I sit here in my warm office, looking out over the white-covered trees behind my house, today's Calvin and Halo is very appropriate... though I'm less unhappy than the SKBs. (Louis Wu 14:28:44 UTC) (permalink)

N00bs Gone Wild
The Flaming Arabs clan has put together a trailer for an upcoming movie called 'N00bs Gone Wild' - a look at teamkillers. You can grab it off their website; 1:51 long, 9.3 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 14:03:23 UTC) (permalink)

IGN wants to know what you think
In other award news, IGN is now accepting Reader's Choice votes, though a bunch of the page links are broken from the Xbox Portal. (A little hunting dug up the correct link for the First Person Shooter voting page - I don't know how many others will bother with this.) Thanks, Spike. (Louis Wu 13:46:56 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespy gives UT the nod
Gamespy posted the Multiplayer section of their Game of the Year Awards yesterday - and Halo 2 took Runner-up position to Unreal Tournament 2004. Ouch! Thanks to many - AltoDarkNight was first. (Louis Wu 13:41:40 UTC) (permalink)

Dawn of the Dead
A custom gametype is sweeping XBL these days - it's big enough that Dolbex felt the urge to write up a description of it yesterday over on MLGPro.com (and call it 'the most fun I have had on Halo 2 yet'). It's known variously as 'Dawn of the Dead', or 'Zombie', or occasionally something close to that. Dolbex gives a quick summary of the rules. The first mention of this game I can remember seeing was almost a month ago, by Salandarin on our forum - this isn't new, it's just becoming popular. Give it a try! (Louis Wu 13:38:24 UTC) (permalink)

News December 20 2004

New Fan Art at HB.net
Tons and tons of fan art over at Halo Babies today... go see what you can find! (I'm lovin' those pics of Linda...) Thanks, mrsmiley. (Louis Wu 23:23:02 UTC) (permalink)

Clan PMS gives Bungie a Headache
Two new stories up at Bungie.net right now; not surprising they tried to bury one. Last week's Halo Humpday Challenge didn't actually happen until Friday - and when it did, they almost lost to Clan PMS. Read all the gory details, written by He Who Died A Lot (otherwise known as Frankie). You can tell they wanted to hide this story, because the current top story, put up 8 minutes later and bumping the HHC writeup off the visible spectrum, was an article called 'Getting Started with Halo 2' - an article that's already been the Top Story at least twice. Hmm... (Louis Wu 23:14:42 UTC) (permalink)

Fire Team Charlie Episode 16 - now for all
Andrew dropped by our forum to point out that the direct-download links for FTC 16 are now available (to all, not just to members). AVI or QuickTime, a bit over 50 mb each. Go grab 'em! (Louis Wu 22:56:51 UTC) (permalink)

Copy bad art, win stuff
New contest over at misterchief.com - design and create a Mister Chief Birthday Card (in time for Mister Chief's 1-year anniversary on January 16), win a copy of The Art of Halo (a place where Mister Chief is notably absent) or one of 5 T-shirts. Full rules and details can be found on the contest page. (Louis Wu 18:37:12 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Reading - if you can get there
20 new stories in the Fan Fiction section, including the second half of Jillybean's Christmas Wish to the community. (Hopefully, you'll actually be able to read these; the connection to that server has been tenuous recently. It's wireless, over a rather large distance (several miles), and is easily disrupted. Deimos is working on upgrading the signal strength; things should be better next week or soon after. For now, keep trying.) (Louis Wu 18:31:07 UTC) (permalink)

G4techTV Icons: Bungie
A couple of weeks ago, G4techTV aired an episode of Icons devoted to the history of Bungie. Dan Chosich filmed this for us, but we couldn't do anything with it until G4 took it out of the on-air schedule. The last show date was yesterday - so if you'd like to grab a hi-res version of this film, via BitTorrent, you can do that. Thanks to Brian Towne, of Mythica, for hosting the seed. (The footage is 20:28 long, 720x480, 192 mb, in QuickTime format.) Update: The torrent is long-dead, but a regular download is available. (Louis Wu 14:47:12 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 footage on The Apprentice
halochat has put up a small video that includes the footage of Halo 2 gameplay from the final episode of The Apprentice, aired last week. Pretty cool to see SketchFactor in a TV show watched by millions! (Pretty funny that they ran out of power...) (Louis Wu 13:17:37 UTC) (permalink)

360 degrees of separation
Speaking of BOLL, we've got another 20 panoramas for you in the HALOrama section - some multiplayer, some single player, all gorgeous. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:55:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Icons Redux
A couple of weeks ago, we posted some MacOSX icons from Edwin Davis - he's now created a version for Windows. (I haven't compared them to the ones BOLL did back when we first posted these; if you're interested, you'll have to just grab them all.) They're available from Edwin's site, or from our server (368K). (Louis Wu 12:48:30 UTC) (permalink)

Arbitration.
Today's One One Se7en has spoilers, of a sort... If you don't get it, you either haven't played much of Halo 2's campaign, or Stuntmutt's just not funny. Hmm... on second thought... (Louis Wu 12:29:09 UTC) (permalink)

More Gamespot Best Of
Day 3 of Gamespot's Best and Worst of 2004 was posted - the Dubious Honors. Halo 2 was eligible for only one of these - Biggest Disappointment. It was beaten, according to Gamespot, by Fable. Next up: Genre Awards. (Halo 2 is up for Best Shooter.) (Louis Wu 11:59:35 UTC) (permalink)

TalkXbox Talks Strategy
3Suns pointed out that TalkXbox has been running a weekly column with Halo 2 strategies; there are 5, so far:

• Week 1: Ghost Rush - Warthog Run
• Week 2: Assaulting Burial Grounds
• Week 3: Three Plots at Midship
• Week 4: 1 CTF Fast at Ivory Tower
• Week 5: Colossus TeamBall

Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 11:53:04 UTC) (permalink)

CPL adds Halo 2 - officially.
A couple of days ago, DJ mentioned that Halo 2 has been picked up as an official game during the CPL Summer Event. I told him that we'd already mentioned that a week ago; he pointed out that it wasn't until Friday that Halo 2 was added as an official tournament. I thought about how to word a news article to explain the difference to people not immersed in the professional scene - and then Rapture did it for me over at Cooked Gamers. Go read his news post to see why this is big news for Halo 2 players. (Louis Wu 11:44:52 UTC) (permalink)

Cheating, and Glitches, and You.
A quick note to the community in general; occasionally, someone will come up with a glitch that has the potential to be exploited in online play. Yesterday, this happened; we mentioned the 'spectator mode' Devin Olsen and friends managed to film. In that post, I said I wasn't sure I could see how the glitch could be successfully exploited in actual netplay - thanks for all the folks who pointed out ways. (Some of the key features of this mode, once you get it to work, is that while you're in spectator mode you are invisible and invincible, and once you step out of the warthog, you warp back instantly to where you got in; many people sent films or screenshots showing how a teammate could drop a flag right outside the hog, and the Spectator could step out and grab it, and instantly be warped back to their OWN base.) Clearly, this is a problem - one that Bungie will either have to fix or police. However, I'm writing this news post because I received a rather large number of emails from people suggesting that I should delete all mention of this glitch from this website, and ban people who tried to talk about it. Folks - the only people who benefit from this sort of behavior are those looking to exploit the glitch in netplay. When a potentially game-ruining glitch is uncovered, it's in EVERYBODY'S interest that EVERYONE knows about it. It's nearly impossible to cover up this sort of cheating; if you look at the Game Viewer on Bungie.net after you've used this cheat, you'll find that the flag capture is marked as WHERE YOU WARPED TO, not where you picked it up - this makes it trivial for Bungie (or anyone else) to see that cheating was involved, and reporting the offender to them will get them banned from XBL. Doesn't this make more sense than trying to hide the fact that the glitch exists in the first place? (Thanks, Gil27, for the image.) (Louis Wu 11:14:43 UTC) (permalink)

News December 19 2004

Multiplayer Launching... oddness.
Wow. Devin Olsen posted a pair of vids last night that... well, go watch 'em. Bizarre multiplayer glitch leads to some really, really odd (but fun-to-watch) behavior. c0ld vengeance suggests this might have negative effects on gameplay - but I'm having trouble seeing how, at the moment. For now, it's silly but fun. (WMP9 format; if there's enough demand, I'll whip up a QT version.) (Louis Wu 18:31:59 UTC) (permalink)

The Unbearable Jackassness of Being.
Last summer, the Barenaked Ladies were on tour, and before and during the show, they hosted a couple of unique Red vs Blue clips for the audience. Those clips are now available at Red vs Blue - for Sponsors only. If you've kicked in your $10, go grab 'em! They're pretty funny. (Thanks, Ross Mills, for pointing them out.) (Louis Wu 17:33:27 UTC) (permalink)

I was waitin' for Boss Hogg there...
The Hi-Res version of FTC 16 is now posted for sponsors, over at XboxOttawa.ca. It's rather huge (almost 150 mb, in DivX format), and I've got a correspondingly huge QuickTime version in the works (should be up later today or tomorrow at the latest) - but man... it's some awesome work. These guys get better and better. You might have to go back and watch older episodes if you've forgotten any of the story threads... but this one is packed with almost 14 minutes of beautiful machinima. The lower-res free version will be up sometime later... but if you can hack the $10 donation fee they're asking, this large version is GORGEOUS. (Louis Wu 15:49:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2: Mediocre Start in Gamespot's Best Of
Gamespot has kicked off its Best and Worst of 2004 - there's a recap of the year (surprisingly, Halo 2's $125 million first day didn't make the list of notable events), and a bunch of Special Achievement awards. Halo 2 was up for Best Original Music, but lost; Best Sound Effects, but lost; Best Original Game Mechanic, but lost; they weren't even in the running for Best Story, or Best Graphics. They DID take home Best Multiplayer Game, so that's something. There's still more to come on this one - but the intro isn't very promising. Thanks, MiD33. (Louis Wu 15:38:40 UTC) (permalink)

Giveaway - to Sponsors
HaloImpulse is giving away a bunch of stuff (though they're not saying what, at the moment); Contriute $5 to the site, you're entered to win. Interesting... thanks, DJ. (Louis Wu 15:13:35 UTC) (permalink)

Sunday Morning Halo Reviews
Couple of new reviews for Halo 2. Bytesector liked it quite a lot, and gave it a 97% (thanks, Woongsin Lee). Over at the Science Fiction Museum, Exogenesis compared Halo 2 to Half-Life 2. It's an interesting comparison, touching on a lot of things that have been glossed over by others; worth a read. (Halo 2 got a slightly higher final score, in the end.) Go read! (Louis Wu 15:05:09 UTC) (permalink)

ONI S3 Up and Running
Zero Flaw has been working on O.N.I. Section Three for quite a long time - it's starting to look fleshed out. Explore it for a look into (one fan's view of) the Office of Naval Intelligence. (Louis Wu 14:58:18 UTC) (permalink)

News December 18 2004

Wanting More
The Disembodied Brain reviewed Halo 2 - Halo 2 good, Halo 2 ending bad. (A bit more emphatic about that than many others.) Interesting comparison - Halo 2 is like Kill Bill, but before you find out that it's only the first half of a movie Tarantino needed to split. Thanks, ICDedPpl. (Louis Wu 19:22:14 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction update
Just a quick note - I understand that the Fan Fiction section is unreachable. I don't really know why. (Deimos, who manages that particular server, is unreachable as well.) Hold tight, and it'll be available again as soon as possible. (Louis Wu 19:04:20 UTC) (permalink)

Another batch of desktops
Amazing as it sounds, I've managed to clear out the Wallpaper queue (yeah, for a day or two, maybe). There are 11 new images up for your perusal in the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 18:57:26 UTC) (permalink)

Warhammer40k + Halo = fun
turel did some work with Warhammer40k figures, and came up with another couple of Halo figures. (Halo spoilers, for anyone keeping track.) If you like these, be sure to check out Frankie G.'s collection from a few months back. (Louis Wu 15:01:28 UTC) (permalink)

XBL, Halo 2, and You.
Bungie's Weekly What's Update has been Updated. Good stuff - cheaters are being banned (and a forum has been set up to make reporting them easier), plus gamertag linking help, obnoxious teasing about downloadable maps, and information on how to submit future questions to What's Updates. And oh, yeah... the Most Horrible Mister Chief Ever. Go tell Frankie that 'FIRST' posts are juvenile. (On second thought, don't - you'll only encourage him.) (Louis Wu 01:15:03 UTC) (permalink)

News December 17 2004

Easy on the eyes - very easy
I'm getting very, very close to clearing out the Miscellaneous Art queue. The current batch is 17 images - including some spectacular pieces. Some have been seen before - some are new. New stuff that blew me away - pieces by Michael Coffing, Delta Hills by Paul Davies, and Jason Borne's Master Chief. (I'm not even BEGINNING to say that the other new stuff isn't worth seeing - it's a particularly powerful batch this time around.) Go take a look! (Louis Wu 20:35:46 UTC) (permalink)

UK Tourney
And... a UK tourney, too. Vagusnet.com is hosting an online Halo 2 tourney, starting in about a month, open to all residents of the UK. More details can be found on their web page. Thanks, GameSHOUT. (Louis Wu 19:44:20 UTC) (permalink)

10K in DC, Soon
Dolbex writes to point out that MLG's Kickoff Tournament in Washington, DC next month is fast approaching - if you're planning on getting in on the $10,000 in guaranteed cash for Halo 2, you better get to signing up! (Louis Wu 19:35:38 UTC) (permalink)

Good or bad, it's still played.
Net stories for Friday: INQ7.net (from the Philippines) says Halo 2 rocks, but still was a huge disappointment, and the Washington Post points out that soldiers in Iraq are still playing Halo 2 to relax. (Thanks, Dry Ice, for finding this first (on MSNBC), and thanks, Anton P. Nym, for grabbing the original. (Louis Wu 18:39:04 UTC) (permalink)

Attack of the Dweebs.
We don't allow political discussion on our forum, for a simple reason: we're a gaming fansite. That said, one of the funniest Halo Launch Day pieces I've read to date was posted on a blog that will almost CERTAINLY rile up anyone missing a sense of humor. Please - if you go and read this, and want to discuss it on our forum, leave the politics behind. Thanks, Red Loser. (Louis Wu 18:23:54 UTC) (permalink)

Driving Him Crazy.
Today's One One Se7en suggests that Stuntmutt may, or may not, have been run over once or twice during his Campaign play. Or maybe 3 times. (Louis Wu 17:17:59 UTC) (permalink)

Round, and round, and round...
Bah. It's been almost 2 weeks since I remembered to add new images to BOLL's amazing HALOrama2 collection - so you can find 25 new panoramas at this link. SIngle player, multiplayer... tons of stuff. Go look! (Louis Wu 17:13:19 UTC) (permalink)

Mmm... cookies.
Rare. finalcuthalo sent along a link for a rather odd eBay auction - Halo 2 cookies. Yep - $10 or so (plus $6 shipping) will buy you 6 cookies with a big '2' on 'em. We've put up a local copy (all links removed), for when this auction ends, because I must say, this one's new for me. (Louis Wu 13:25:13 UTC) (permalink)

Halo CE Movie Contest (for PC users)
Dennis Powers reminds us that there are only a couple of weeks left to get your entry in for the Halo CE Movie Contest over at Halomaps. There are already 8 entries posted (1 is a demo, not qualified to win), so check out your competition (broadband or dialup). Warning - these are utterly Mac-unfriendly; I cannot find a browser they will play in. They work find in XP/IE, though. (Louis Wu 13:21:20 UTC) (permalink)

A Christian Perspective
Thanks to David Simon, who points out that SidneyAnglicans.net (a Christian website) has reviewed Halo 2. Interestingly, it's not the ending, nor the graphical glitches, that got the nay vote here... it was the fear that painting religiously driven enemies might lead to an unhealthy view of religion. Well-written. (Louis Wu 13:06:50 UTC) (permalink)

Jaxx BlackFox - Get to know her
Tina Leyk gets a double spotlight today over at Halo Babies; she's created a guest strip ("To see... or not to see..."), and she's been interviewed by mrsmiley. Go read about what drives her! (Louis Wu 11:57:29 UTC) (permalink)

If I had legs, they'd be trembling.
Red vs Blue Episode 45.9, The Greatest Episode Ever, is now up for sponsor download, in WMP9 and DivX formats. It's... not what you'd expect. Thanks, Altodarknight. (Louis Wu 11:04:02 UTC) (permalink)

Tourneys at Gameheads
Gameheads is running some Halo 2 tournaments coming up in January - details (and signups) are available at their site. If you're near Marlboro, NY, check 'em out! (Louis Wu 01:30:00 UTC) (permalink)

If you can't BE the man...
Bungie is looking for a new Interface Designer - and there are still other jobs open. Go see if you qualify! Thanks, John Rivas. (Louis Wu 01:27:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 - Spawn of Satan
Another rash of articles about videogame violence, and how awful Halo 2 is for the youth of America (and, I suppose, the world):

• Washington Post - the governor of Illinois wants to enforce age restrictions on game purchases... and Halo 2 is right up there in the 'evil' bunch. (Thanks, Johngremm.)
• MTV.com - another take on this story
• Indystar.com - a rehash of last month's ICCR-spurred drive to nail the evil videogame makers (thanks, Hunt3r); to be fair, this opinion piece is 2 weeks old, and isn't really rehashing, as it was 'news' then.

Let's remember that ESRB ratings are VOLUNTARY - and that PARENTS should be responsible for policing what kids play. (Louis Wu 01:24:53 UTC) (permalink)

News December 16 2004

Mac Halo Updated
MacSoft has released Mac Halo v1.5, to bring the mac version into parity with HaloPC v1.0.6. (It also fixes a number of other issues - you can read the entire version history for full details.) The updater is 3.5 mb, and can be downloaded from a number of sites, including files2.bungie.org and MacGameFiles. (Louis Wu 22:12:14 UTC) (permalink)

How to make your wallpaper not suck
prometheus has put together a nice little guide on creating wallpaper - it's like an art guide, but specifically tailored to making images that work well as a desktop pattern. There's plenty of good advice in it - if you're interested in creating wallpapers, you should read this! (Louis Wu 22:04:27 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief to Watch Over You
Wow, nice. Tarzan posted a couple of pics on our forum of a wall mural he's painting in his room. Fantastic work - even MORE impressive when you know it's coming from a 13-year-old! (Louis Wu 21:38:08 UTC) (permalink)

The Halo Effect, indeed.
Wheee... Goldman Sachs raised estimates on Microsoft today, citing (among other things) 'upside from the company's Halo 2 game'. When was the last time a company that grosses $40 billion a year had its bottom line affected by a video game? (Louis Wu 18:40:22 UTC) (permalink)

MC Renders
MR-T posted a few Master Chief renders on our forum - nice work! (Louis Wu 17:12:46 UTC) (permalink)

'Tis the season
And still MORE awards - Lawrence.com has posted its 2004 Gamer's Voice Award nominees - Halo 2 is up for a whole PASSEL of goodies: Best First-person Shooter, Best Presentation, Best Replay, Best Online Multiplayer, Best Graphics, Best Soundtrack, Best Audio, and Best Overall. Winners will be announced on December 21. Thanks, Mothergoat. (Louis Wu 16:56:49 UTC) (permalink)

A Rough Draft
A new Subzero Rivalries has been posted. I'm listing it because we've listed all the previous ones - but this one's humor is rather juvenile. If you're easily offended, don't bother visiting, and if you do, we don't need to hear about it. Thanks, MarkHawk. (Louis Wu 16:15:12 UTC) (permalink)

Okay, DOUBLE your money back.
Hehe - sometimes a free planet ain't all you bargained for. Check out today's Calvin and Halo. (Louis Wu 15:55:26 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespy's GotY Awards Posted
Not willing to be left behind (SpikeTV, IGN, and Gamespot all announced stuff earlier this week), Gamespy has put up THIER 2004 Game of the Year sections. Halo 2 won several awards: Xbox Game of the Year, Xbox Shooter of the Year, Best Use of Xbox Live, and Best and Worst Ending in an Xbox game. It's also up for Overall Game of the Year (which will be announced next week). Thanks, Black Six. (Louis Wu 13:41:51 UTC) (permalink)

News December 15 2004

Butcher talks Networking
There's a new interview with Chris Butcher over at How Stuff Works - this one focuses on Halo Networking. It's a fascinating read - if you're interested in the workings of Halo vs Halo 2. Thanks, Target4Hire. (Louis Wu 18:36:38 UTC) (permalink)

Nexus: The Harvest Incident
Interesting. Uriel has put out a call to modders for a Halo project involving Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. Go read his post for more info. (Louis Wu 17:25:00 UTC) (permalink)

Older maps, and where they fit
I've turned off the poll we started last week (Which map would you like to see return for Halo 2?) - the results are still up, and it's clear that the two favorite choices were Hang 'em High and Sidewinder, but it's also clear that almost EVERY map in Halo had its proponents. Please be aware that this poll has no binding effect on ANYTHING - Bungie saw it, but they're not obligated in any way to follow it. If they choose to release Halo maps, redone for the Halo 2 engine, you can be sure that they'll take this information into account - but there are other factors (like the new weapon balance, and so on) that are possibly more important; the choices they make will take into account ALL the factors, not just what some of us would LIKE to see. (Louis Wu 16:55:19 UTC) (permalink)

Suckmutt.
Stuntmutt looks at one of the pitfalls of clan play on XBL in today's One One Se7en. If that doesn't give you enough of your recommended daily allowance of corn, you should stop by his blog - he's posted 20 guest strips that have been sent in to us over the past 8 months or so (since we stopped accepting guest strips). The first one, in particular, is fantastic. (Louis Wu 15:15:59 UTC) (permalink)

They Call Me the Seeker.
Deimos, over at Subnova, wrote a nice little app that allows you to get MSN Messenger Alerts via IRC. This is relevant to this community because you can, for example, sign up for XBox Live Alerts, which will tell you when your friends sign on, or when you receive a game invite... and you can receive this alert while you're logged into the Subnova IRC network, chatting on, say, #HBO. I've never paid much attention to the MSN Alert stuff, because I don't want to run the Messenger IM application on my computer - but now I don't have to. MorningStar has written up instructions on how to integrate these two services; if this sounds appealing to you, go read, and sign up! (Louis Wu 15:11:22 UTC) (permalink)

Ferrex Holds Court
An interview with Tyson Green, aka Ferrex, was published in February's Electronic Gaming Magazine - and is now available on 1UP.com. It's a fantastic read, even if Tyson misattributes the Warthog Jump vid to Frogblast, instead of Randy Glass. Tons of "why did you do it this way?" questions - with real answers. Go read! Thanks, Voodoo Extreme. (Louis Wu 14:48:18 UTC) (permalink)

Awards for all
Wow, I guess it's Awards time. As many people might remember, last night was the broadcast of SpikeTV's Video Game Awards 2004 - Halo 2 was up for a bunch of stuff, but GTA: San Andreas took most of it home. Jason Jones won Designer of the Year for the game, and Halo 2 won Best First Person Action. (An easier place to view the entire list of winners is Australia's The Age - thanks, Brett C.) Interestingly, Ron Perlman accepted the Shooter award on behalf of Bungie - thanks, Spike. The Gaming Big Boys did awards stuff too, last night:

• IGN's Best of 2004: Halo 2 takes home Best First-Person Shooter, Best Xbox Live Game, Best Soundtrack, Best Use of Sound, Most Innovative Design (for Bungie.net's XBL stats), and Xbox Game of the Year, with a Runner-Up prize in Best Graphics. (There's also some wallpaper to download.) Thanks, Jonathan Rivas.
• Gamespot has announced their Best and Worst of 2004 (the actual countdown starts on Friday), and Halo 2 is nominated for Best Original Music, Best Sound Effects, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Original Game Mechanic, Biggest Disappointment, Best Shooter, and Best Xbox Game. Thanks, KP.

And if all that awards stuff isn't enough for you, Voodoo Extreme is holding another Halo 2 vs Half-Life 2 poll - I guess Gamespy's ridiculous months-long one recently wasn't enough. (Half-Life 2 is currently kicking booty.) (Louis Wu 14:17:09 UTC) (permalink)

When you wish upon a Banshee...
ZATZAi has posted a new contest over at High Impact Halo - decorate a tree on Coagulation, win a hat. (There are really specific rules for decorations - read the post.) (Louis Wu 01:14:31 UTC) (permalink)

Gebieter, indeed.
Xerxes writes to point out that he's begun transcribing the Halo 2 levels - in German. You'll find the first five levels - on normal difficulty - at Halo Orbit. (Louis Wu 01:12:15 UTC) (permalink)

Writing, writing, and yet more writing.
20 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today. Lots of words. Read some. (Louis Wu 01:09:46 UTC) (permalink)

News December 14 2004

Head(long) over Heels
Mr. Jukes has updated his Trick Jumping Guide with a 22.5 mb WMP9 video covering Headlong. Nice work! (Louis Wu 21:59:23 UTC) (permalink)

Stinky Bad-bad.
Nate sent along a soundfile of the Egg grunt on The Great Journey. (If this means nothing to you, you'll need to wait for the Eggs page to go up.) We've added the entry to the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. (Louis Wu 21:18:05 UTC) (permalink)

Play Halo with Chevelle
Weird. The Game with Fame promotion (play over XBL with famous people; previous participants include Willis McGahee and Ben Burnley) continues - with the band Chevelle. Sign up on this page; grand prize winner will get an Xbox and the chance to play Chevelle online on December 20. 100 runner-ups will also get to play (but won't get Xboxes). An additional 10 people will win a copy of Chevelle's new album. Thanks to DailyGame for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:32:09 UTC) (permalink)

Stryke Force - now mirrored
Last night, we mentioned a new machinima series, Stryke Force. Within a couple of hours, it was dead in the water, a victim of enthusiastic downloaders. Episode One was interesting, and deserves to be seen... so we're helping out. You can find the original WMP9 version (20.4 mb) at both mythica.org and bungie.org, and a QuickTime version I just encoded (19.9 mb) also at mythica.org and bungie.org. Hopefully, these will lighten the load on the original server, and allow the HTML pages they have to be displayed. (Louis Wu 15:28:53 UTC) (permalink)

Let's give 'em a shot.
Calvin brings up a pretty good point in today's Calvin and Halo. Food for thought... (Louis Wu 08:49:01 UTC) (permalink)

A Triple A Title Worthy of your Time and Money
ars technica has reviewed Halo (in general, they stay away from console games). They liked it. Quite a lot. Except the ending. They also liked the Plantronics headset. Thanks, Drake213. (Louis Wu 08:46:52 UTC) (permalink)

How Hard is Hard?
Hmm... yesterday, we mentioned that Frankie had weighed in on the matter of what happens when you collect all the skulls - folks worked pretty hard to figure out what he meant. Then, yesterday afternoon, he stopped by again... and apologized for misreading the original post.

I thought he was talking about beating the Vidmaster's Challenge. Apply my original post to that.

The thing is... nobody's even DEFINED a Vidmaster's Challenge for Halo 2, yet... is it the same as Marathon's Vidmaster Challenge? (Louis Wu 08:35:53 UTC) (permalink)

Of Idealism, and Blowing Stuff Up
Remember that note on the bottom of the Bomb? The one that goes 'Thus, I Refute Thee'? Turns out it was put there for none other than our very own Finn, of the Halo Story page. The full explanation can be found over at Team 7hr33's website. (Louis Wu 08:27:35 UTC) (permalink)

Headshot.
Compassghost whipped up a pretty slick 550x100 signature for forums that allow them (and allow Flash files in signatures, I guess). You can see it in this post on our forum. (Personally, I'd go nuts after the 3rd or 4th time it repeated... but maybe that's just me.) (Louis Wu 08:24:13 UTC) (permalink)

Retox
Another vid - this one by Hogmasta. It's called Retox, and his forum post states that it's his last Halo vid. It's available as streaming QT and streaming WMV - the downloadable links either don't work or point to an Enter the Matrix vid. Pretty standard stuff, overall... but feedback on the forum is quite positive, so maybe I'm getting jaded. (Louis Wu 02:22:01 UTC) (permalink)

Stryke Force Starts Up
Feenix dropped us a line about a new machinima series known as Stryke Force - a promo video and the first full episode are now posted. Video quality is quite good, and the story is intriguing... can't wait for the next episode! Take a look. (WMP9 format, 20.5 mb for Episode 1 - the promo vid is DivX format, and 9 mb. The Opening credits are included in the first episode, so unless you HAVE to have the hi-res version of them, you can save yourself the 8 mb download.) And don't forget to stop by their forum and let 'em know what you think! Update: well, that didn't last long. We got word about 2 hours after we posted this that the site had gone down for exceeding its bandwidth. (I'd have posted this note earlier had I noticed, sorry.) I can't do anything about helping out right now - but it's possible I can get a copy of the vid up later today. (Louis Wu 02:14:25 UTC) (permalink)

News December 13 2004

I got a Dancin' Jones...
Hmm. A couple of days ago, Mr. Mojo Risin posted a note on our forum about a sighting of a nearly-naked Jason Jones in a cutscene in Halo 2. (Full details are in the forum post.) It wasn't until today that BOLL managed to snag a decent screenshot of this... and with the help of Tsmola, who pointed out the origin of the image, another Halo 2 egg is fully revealed. (Also, BOLL pulls down the coveted PostTacular with this news item - 4 in a day.) Warning - the thread contains story spoilers, to some degree. (Louis Wu 22:14:50 UTC) (permalink)

Monday MLG Update
Bunch of new content over at MLGPro.com...

• Policing Ignorance on XBL - ways to deal with annoying players
• Gamer's Guide - How to survive Halo 2 without alienating your family or coworkers
• Interview with Xena - The best female Halo player out there, according to Dolbex

Get to reading! (Louis Wu 22:02:43 UTC) (permalink)

Change your look. 30 times.
In the seemingly never-ending quest to clear the various art queues here at HBO, I've posted another 29 desktop images in our Wallpaper section. There's a pretty wide variety this time around... check 'em out! (Louis Wu 18:42:37 UTC) (permalink)

He's a little like Jimmy Neutron.
Yesterday, we pointed out a thread on the forum where folks were drawing Halo-related Christmas cards at art.com. (There are some really cool ones - if you haven't checked the thread for a while, go waste some time.) BOLL, as usual, wasn't satisfied with the normal 'draw something fun' directions... and went a little overboard. (He explained how in this post.) (Louis Wu 16:51:41 UTC) (permalink)

Not observant enough?
Hmm... Cody Miller posted that he collected all the skulls, in the order they appear on the Soundtrack... and nothing happened. First response to his post? Frankie, saying he was wrong. Ooh... (If this means nothing to you, visit High Impact Halo's Skulls database, and read the background. And realize that Cody's feat, by itself, is something pretty darned impressive.) (Louis Wu 16:41:30 UTC) (permalink)

Loose Lips Sink Ships.
Have you wondered why Johnson has so few lines this time around? One One Se7en suggests that someone taught him to keep his mouth shut... (Louis Wu 16:08:33 UTC) (permalink)

Winning a Roommate
fastmatt pointed out a contest at Get Into the Game - if you're 13 or over, and a US resident, you can win a life-size replica of the Master Chief. One entry per person, drawing happens in early January. (Louis Wu 14:28:17 UTC) (permalink)

Don't make me take off my belt.
It took considerably longer than I'd expected, but the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank is now online, with over 200 snippets ready for download. (Thanks to Captain Spark, who has been collecting these over the past month, and who has made them available on his own website as he goes.) There are some pretty funny clips in there... go see what you can find! (Louis Wu 14:04:20 UTC) (permalink)

Ooh, That Weasel!
That Weasel Television has posted Episode 13 ("DisGrunteled") of "Grunts Are People Too!!!", their ongoing series. 18.8 mb, WMP9 format. There are also mirrors of a dozen films released in the past week - go see what you can find! (Louis Wu 13:21:41 UTC) (permalink)

Stats again
sonik son points out that the Halo 2 RSS Excel Workbook (the one featured on dozens of disparate websites, the one that requires Excel 2003 Pro on a PC to work properly) has been updated. More pretty graphs, a bigger FAQ, a couple of install choices. Go look! (Louis Wu 13:19:12 UTC) (permalink)

More ways to say what you mean.
Thanks to c0ld, for the initial work, and BOLL, for the cleaned-up thumbnails, there are now 19 new panels available in the AutoMagic 117 StripzMaker. Unleash your creative brilliance on our forum! (Louis Wu 01:05:41 UTC) (permalink)

Kiss It Goodbye.
Nice. Mackenzie noticed that if you drop the bomb when playing Bomb Assault, you can see one of several messages written across the bottom of it. BOLL was kind enough to snap pictures of four of these. Most of the rest of the thread is a debate about whether or not this constitutes an easter egg in Halo 2 or is just detail... I'm inclined to go with 'egg', simply because of the humor value of the messages. In any case, though, it's pretty interesting. Take a look! (Louis Wu 01:01:26 UTC) (permalink)

News December 12 2004

Arts and Crafts
Wow, cool. Epyon pointed out a website where you can paint your own picture - and suggested making cool Halo 2-related Christmas cards. He even supplied one of his own. (The site, art.com, shows you the process of creation when you click the link... pretty fun to watch!) Add your own offerings in the thread! (A number of forumgoers have already done this, with everything from Hunters to Misterchief wishing folks Happy Holidays.) (Louis Wu 21:33:23 UTC) (permalink)

Halogen Update
Chronomaw writes to point out that Halogen, the C&C Generals total conversion, now has a couple of new renders of the textured Nuke silo - and that there will be a new Flash-based site launching in January. (Louis Wu 15:09:54 UTC) (permalink)

New Tina Leyk Work
Tina Leyk dropped off a new picture this morning - a Forerunner structure. Not her normal choice of subjects - but it's pretty slick! I've taken the opportunity to top off her Doodles page, as well, with a few new images she's posted elsewhere around the net (these days, mostly on the Halo Babies forum - pretty fertile ground there for art lovers!). Use the 'Added' dates to figure out what's new. (Louis Wu 15:07:53 UTC) (permalink)

More Dialogue
Captain Spark has posted another 66 new dialogue snippets on his website. These will be up for a week or so (and hopefully, soon, up here, as well). Go grab 'em! (Louis Wu 14:49:05 UTC) (permalink)

Upping the quality, and a Kilimanjaro to boot!
TheTaintedOne posted a true widescreen (16:9) video (WMP9 format) captured of a game of FFA Melee Ball (the rules are explained in the forum post). He explained how he created the film in this thread on the HaloTV forum. Takes some higher-end video-editing software... but the results are quite nice! (Louis Wu 03:07:56 UTC) (permalink)

Those guys keep writing...
New content added to Xbox.com since the last roundup we did:

• Strategy: The Perfect Clan - How to set up a clan
• Web Integration - Making the most of the Bungie.net resources
• Map Strategy: Tight Spots - Coverage of small maps
• Map Strategy: Zanzibar - Coverage of (duh) Zanzibar
• Strategy: Ghost Riding - Best tricks on a ghost
• Secrets of the Covenant - Story overview from the Covenant side
• Tips and Tricks - General strategies
• The Big One - Overview of a major portion of the Halo story arc
• Big One Tips - Followup on The Big One
• A Peek at Halo 2's Story - Teasers, mostly
• First Level Walkthrough - Cairo Station
• Scott Land: Weapons of Choice - Weapons overview
• This week in Xbox - 3, 2, 1, Launch! - OXM overview of XBL Halo 2 gameplay
• The 7th Column - Overview of Bungie's group site
• GamerSpeak: My Halo 2 Launch Party - One group's experience getting started
• Welcome to Earth - Walkthrough of Outskirts and Metropolis

It should go without saying, many of these contain spoilers. Whew. THAT should keep you busy for a while! (Louis Wu 02:54:11 UTC) (permalink)

MrJukes Can Jump.
MrJukes put up a note on our forum recently - he's put together a series of videos showing some pretty cool jumping tricks in most Halo 2 multiplayer maps. (He updated the collection this evening, with three more videos.) Places you might not have realized you could get to - with or without grenades. He's pretty sure the bandwidth will hold out, but if it doesn't, we'll step in. Nice work, all around! (Louis Wu 02:06:13 UTC) (permalink)

All a player could ask, and more.
SciFi.com has reviewed Halo 2 - A+, they loved it. Thanks again, John Rivas. (Louis Wu 02:02:42 UTC) (permalink)

New Gear at the Bungie Store
There's a new sweatshirt over at the Bungie Store - black, with the MC on the back, a Halo 2 on the breast, full zip. Keep warm in style! Thanks, John Rivas. (Louis Wu 02:00:48 UTC) (permalink)

Caption needed
Yesterday, we posted a link to an article about the Canadian contingent at Bungie. What we didn't notice was the picture that linked to that article on the front page of the Globe and Mail. (If it's gone, bentllama has saved a copy on his own blog.) This puppy seriously needs a caption... I'm thinking something like "Jeeves, is my Harley still behind the third garage, or have you sent it out to be cleaned?" (Louis Wu 01:41:30 UTC) (permalink)

News December 11 2004

The Junkyard looks at Halo 2
The Junkyard has released their own in-house review of Halo 2; it takes into account several other fan reviews, and looks more closely at some of the choices Bungie made. It's aimed at folks who've already finished the game. Go take a look! (Louis Wu 21:51:51 UTC) (permalink)

Now THAT'S Art.
prometheus has updated his site devoted to Halo Environmental Art, The Halouvre, with new 1600x1200 (and smaller) HUDless Halo 2 screens... and a tutorial on how to make your own. (I gotta say... it looks HARD. Or at least time-consuming.) Check it out! (Louis Wu 17:47:44 UTC) (permalink)

Flying Warthogs, Center Stage
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews writes to say that the latest Spotlight over at the Junkyard is on Ducain, the master behind HighImpactHalo.org. Go read it to see what drives this guy! (Louis Wu 17:44:27 UTC) (permalink)

An Outpouring of Words
15 new stories and poems for you in today's Fan Fiction update. Go see what you can find! (Louis Wu 14:52:50 UTC) (permalink)

Crikey! Something's missing!
altodarknight, unhappy with the lack of an Aussie contingent in the recent restructuring of XBL's Clan HBO, has put up a poll asking if you'd join an Aussie HBO clan if it existed. Stop by and cast your vote! (Clearly, this is only useful if you live in the region...) (Louis Wu 14:40:16 UTC) (permalink)

Video games, eh?
GlobeandMail.com has put up another article about the Cananimators, the group of 6 Canadians on the Halo 2 development team, and how they fit into the overall picture of Canada's contribution to video game development. Thanks, Zaknafein. (Louis Wu 14:37:42 UTC) (permalink)

HaloCE Video Contest - More Prizes
A week ago, we mentioned a contest cosponsored by Gearbox Software, EPG Servers, and Halo Maps; create a video promoting Halo CE, win cool stuff. The list of stuff just grew; Forerunners.org tossed in a couple of signed German copies of Halo PC. You can find the announcement of new prizes on the Gearbox forum, and the full contest rules (including prizes) on the Halo Maps website. (Louis Wu 14:35:01 UTC) (permalink)

Carrying the field
Gamespot's got another article up about the great month Halo 2 and GTA: SA just finished; in fact, it was so great that total console software sales for the month were 11% above their November 2003 values - and without those two titles, the numbers would have been 21% BELOW last year's values. Wonga. (Louis Wu 14:30:50 UTC) (permalink)

Of circles, and dashes...
Acronym puzzles have been a part of Bungie lore for years - going all the way back to the Marathon days. mnemesis got pretty interested in the Halo 2 acronyms a month ago - but he's stepped it up a notch by bringing in the Strategy Guide, and Bungie.net wallpapers; the current puzzle is pretty spread out. Go read his forum post, and see what you can figure out! (Louis Wu 13:36:52 UTC) (permalink)

G4's Icons Update
Recently, G4TechTV aired an episode of Icons devoted to Bungie, and their rise through the years. It's nicely put together, with interviews of various Bungie (and ex-Bungie) employees, coupled with footage from various sources. Dan Chosich did a fantastic job of capturing this; we can't show it to you yet, because it's still in rotation on G4TechTV, but once they stop airing it (last scheduled episode is December 19), we'll post a copy for download. If you have access to the cable channel, watch it on your television. The full schedule is here. (Just search for 'Bungie'.) (Louis Wu 04:01:24 UTC) (permalink)

All this, and donuts too.
There's a new Weekly What's Update up over at Bungie.net right now - info about action against cheaters, info about the basics of Xbox Live gameplay, and a truly awful Mister Chief drawing. Go read! (Louis Wu 03:57:04 UTC) (permalink)

News December 10 2004

Clan HBO - easing of the overflow
KP has posted a note on our regular forum, explaining how we're going to get around the 100 person limit on XBL clans - it points to a post on the Clan HBO forum wiht many more details. If you wanted to be a member of Clan HBO, and were frustrated by how quickly it filled up, go read this! (Louis Wu 21:39:19 UTC) (permalink)

Miniature Halo Art Contest
SEspider is running another contest - come up with some Miniature Halo artwork (static or moving), win a bunch of Halo figures. Full details (including rules and a detailed prize listing) are in the forum post. (Louis Wu 21:34:22 UTC) (permalink)

CPL Summer Event looks big.
The Cyberathlete Extreme Summer Championships 2005 will be taking place in Grapevine, Texas (near Dallas/Fort Worth) from July 6-10, 2005. Over $200,000 in cash and prizes will be on the line (and presumably, some form of Halo gameplay will be involved.) More details are 'coming soon'. Visiting the website will allow you to register, make hotel reservations, and see photos from last year's event. (Louis Wu 21:12:45 UTC) (permalink)

News Roundup
Today's Halo Around the Net:

• The New Hampshire (UNH Student Newspaper) - Halo 2 addiction
• The Desert Sun (Palm Springs,CA) - Halo 2 on a big screen rocks
• Joystiq - another Flash Stats aggregator. Thanks, ICDedPpl.
• GameIndustry.biz - Halo 2 leads sales for November, but GTA San Andreas leads for the year.
• Washington Post - the rise of popular music in video games (with Halo 2 as a prime example). Thanks, Anton P. Nym (who actually found it at MSNBC).

FoV hack for Halo 2
VerdaFolio pointed out that the HaloMods crowd has already figured out how to hack Halo 2 to increase the field of view. (Keep in mind that hacked Xboxes are banned for life from XBL, so a box with this hack will NOT be showing up in your latest Rumble Pit game.) Still - pretty impressive, nonetheless! (Louis Wu 11:25:39 UTC) (permalink)

Double your Stuntmutt, double the fun!
Not only is the new One One Se7en posted (though some of you might have trouble seeing the humor - it might be too soon), but it looks like Stuntmutt has ALSO done today's Guest Strip over at Halo Babies. (That one, too, has the potential to ruffle a few feathers. Most likely the same ones.) While you're over there, there's a new fan strip, as well. (Louis Wu 11:08:16 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Schwag on eBay
gwdpto, a longtime member of the Halo community (though one pretty disappointed with Halo 2), has put a bunch of his Halo paraphenalia up for auction at eBay. If you're looking for cardboard cutouts, or action figures, or a signed copy of the Season 1 RvB DVD... check out this forum post. (Louis Wu 10:45:57 UTC) (permalink)

Super Mario Bros. With Guns.
Ouch. Bungie took on the staff of the Official Xbox Magazine for this week's Halo Humpday Challenge - all I can say is, it's a good thing the Bungie.net forum mods kicked their butts, or they'd think they were unstoppable. Frankie says be sure to stop by the front page for the... um, interesting GIF Andrew put together for this story. (Louis Wu 02:49:55 UTC) (permalink)

News December 9 2004

Anti Ninja on Fire 1.0
foxygrandpa117 and friends put together a tricks video (WMP9 format, 10:56 long, 26 mb) showing some random gameplay in Halo, plus stuff like sword-flying and glitching in Halo 2. It's being hosted by Toby Dillman, who says bandwidth is unmetered... so go ahead and grab a copy. (I've only seen about half of it, so if there's something truly amazing and innovative in the last 5 minutes, I apologize for not highlighting it.) Warning - turn the music down before the 6 minute mark, or risk ear damage. Comments can go in this forum thread. (Louis Wu 21:05:35 UTC) (permalink)

Cane Wielders Go Wild
So it looks like Frankie interviewed Jamie Tisdale, a founder of a group known as the Geezer Gamers, folks in their 30's (or higher) who play Halo (and other games) for fun, rather than stats. Good writeup, except for the gratuitous shot at the end. I think Frankie's jealous that I have more hair than he does. First heads-up goes to Black Six. (Louis Wu 20:38:09 UTC) (permalink)

His dad's gonna be so mad...
Calvin is willing to hand over the planet for WHAT? Go read Calvin and Halo to find out. (Louis Wu 15:21:48 UTC) (permalink)

Stuntmutt should get royalties.
When you're out of time for a birthday card, do what Jillybean and her sister did... crib. Mum will love it. (Louis Wu 15:02:59 UTC) (permalink)

Net news
A few articles around the net today:

• Winston-Salem Journal - Halo 2 is better with friends
• Biloxi Sun Herald - Multiplayer makes Halo 2 shine
• St. Joseph's College Observer - an article written just before release, celebrating the idea (thanks, Admiral Death)

Halo 2 Story Summary up at R.net
Narcogen reminded us that he recently posted a Halo 2 Story Summary at Rampancy.net; it's not a walkthrough, but it WILL spoil the story for you if you haven't finished the game yet. If you're looking for an overview, though - go to it. (Louis Wu 13:57:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Mac update coming soon
Inside Mac Games put up a note a couple of days ago about Mac Halo, and its parity with the PC version. Macsoft is aware that the PC update in November broke parity, and they hope to have a replacement soon. Thanks, Mig. (Louis Wu 13:54:22 UTC) (permalink)

Retroactive
GruntKilla points out an article at 1UP.com that looks at the road that lead up to Halo 2 - Bungie's History. For folks not steeped in the lore, it's a decent read. (Louis Wu 02:24:55 UTC) (permalink)

Epilogue Response at IGN
Yesterday, IGN posted a post-mortem, of sorts, on Halo 2. They received a ton of reader feedback. Today, they've posted some of that. Long read, lots of opinions. Again - beware of spoilers. (Louis Wu 01:58:28 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie on G4
Interesting - Icons, a show on G4TechTV, will be airing a show on Bungie, tomorrow night at 10:30 Eastern (7:30 Pacific). Hopefully, someone can record this... thanks, Shorty. (Louis Wu 00:53:51 UTC) (permalink)

Page of Woah
Finn, one half of our Halo Story Page team and a pillar of Team 7hr33, has posted his own musings about Halo 2 (with input from the rest of Team 7hr33). He struggled with the effort to cover the points he considered important without dragging the overall tone down too much - you decide how well he succeeded. It's a good read. (Louis Wu 00:48:41 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Stats App Contest - update
Last month, Mike Chambers, Product Manager over at Macromedia, held a contest to build a Flash app for displaying Halo 2 stats, based on Bungie.net RSS feeds. The contest ended a few days ago - today, Mike posted a list of all the entrants. The winners are coming soon - but check out the entire field! There are some really cool choices in there. (Louis Wu 00:45:03 UTC) (permalink)

Life Lesson of the Day
Hehe - Fever Dream, a webcomic at Keenspace, looks at what doesn't translate from in-game to real life. Thanks, Quackmoo guy. (Louis Wu 00:41:56 UTC) (permalink)

Melissa, by the numbers
Ouch. Penny Arcade mentioned that a piece of artwork donated to their upcoming Child's Play charity auction was Halo-related... to be specific, it's a wonderful depiction of Melissa, the Operator from the I Love Bees game. If you couldn't make it to the auction, this image was available for sale on the creator's website. Unfortunately, the traffic they sent to that site managed to shut it down. Luckily, I grabbed copies of the pics before that happened - the overall picture is here, and a closeup is here. Maybe once the furor dies down, you can get in and buy this, if you're so inclined. Thanks to Ross Mills for the first heads-up. (Louis Wu 00:28:25 UTC) (permalink)

News December 8 2004

Monkeyitis...
Halo gets a funny mention in today's episode of 9th Elsewhere, an ongoing webcomic. I think many of us know people like Matt... Thanks, ThorsHammer. (Louis Wu 21:43:27 UTC) (permalink)

Escher? Gesundheit!
Hehe - I gotta say, I had the same impression as Stuntmutt expresses in today's One One Se7en... once. This should bring a smile to your face. (Unless you're just getting out of Botox treatment, in which case you CAN'T smile.) (Louis Wu 17:24:57 UTC) (permalink)

ODSTee
In various videos and still shots of Bungie employees, a simple (but very cool) T-shirt can be seen - it's grey, with a simple 'ODST' emblazoned across the front. (Jason Jones, for example, can be seen wearing one in this image from the Making Of DVD.) This shirt is not for sale anywhere... but one fan wasn't satisfied with that. Chris Hamilton made a similar shirt (same color, different font, different text color) and is offering it for sale at CafePress. (It also has a new line - 'Kill all covie bastards' - across the back.) He's not making any money off this; he's charging the base $14.99 rate that CafePress requires to make the shirt. If you like this concept, though, you're not going to get one from Bungie - so maybe this is your best bet. Update: Chris has added a second version - this one matches the Bungie version pretty closely. Take your pick! (Louis Wu 17:11:12 UTC) (permalink)

Another Halo Suit
Squid_squires created a suit of armor recently, and sent the pictures to mrsmiley, of Halo Babies. smiley figured they'd be better off here (we've posted a number of costumes like this)... so here they are (pic1, pic2). Fantastic work! One of these days, we'll have to organize all of these into a section of their own. (Louis Wu 16:00:05 UTC) (permalink)

SpikeTV Awards - again
A surprising number of people have written to remind us that the SpikeTV award voting ends soon - the ceremony airs in less than a week. (We mentioned it 3 weeks ago.) If you haven't voted, I suppose you should do so. Halo 2 is up for a number of awards. (Louis Wu 15:30:11 UTC) (permalink)

Afterwar Episode 8
There's a new episode of Halo-Afterwar posted at Black Arts Studios - it's a little messy this time around. Thanks, R3D L33D3R. (Louis Wu 15:24:55 UTC) (permalink)

Counting Stuff
Hikaru-119 went through all of Halo 2 and counted the weapons and bullets he found - and posted the results on our forum. It seems that correcting mistakes draws pretty negative responses from him, so just look at the numbers! (Louis Wu 15:21:34 UTC) (permalink)

How to draw Elites
v2 posted a note in our forum about an Elite Drawing Tutorial he posted over at DeviantART. (Be sure to read the commentary below the image, as well.) Definitely cool stuff! (Louis Wu 15:00:47 UTC) (permalink)

Net Stories
A couple of new Halo articles, courtesy of Google (though the IGN piece got us another dozen emails later on):

• Cnet Asia has a broader look at the effect Halo 2 Xbox Live traffic might have on broadband providers
• IGN has written an epilogue to their Halo 2 coverage, looking at whether it actually measured up to the hype that preceded it. (There are major spoilers here.) It's well-written, and pretty fairly evaluates the game on its own merits.

Third Person View, FOV Increase
Wow, nice. Over on the Gearbox forums, bitterbanana has released a mod that works with both HaloCE and HaloPC - it expands your field of view (works nicely on widescreen monitors) and lets you view yourself from behind (third-person camera). Nice! Thanks, VerdaFolio. (Louis Wu 14:45:33 UTC) (permalink)

GotY voting open at Gamespy
Gamespy has opened its Gamers' Choice voting for Game of the Year 2004 - make yourself heard. (Halo 2, obviously, is up for the Xbox award.) Thanks, Gothmog117. (Louis Wu 14:04:54 UTC) (permalink)

Pick your favorite Halo MP map!
It's time again for another HBO Poll. Thanks to Max Hoberman, Hawaiian Pig, and XLNC for making it happen. If you're interested in letting Bungie know which Halo map you'd like to see again in Halo 2, follow the link to the right and vote! The poll will remain up for a week or so. (Full explanation on how this came about is on that page.) Update: Apologies - In my haste to get this poll loaded, I left a couple of things off - like IP logging, and a vote button. I put the vote button in a bit too quickly... and a couple of overzealous fans ran up the vote on a couple of maps. I've since reset the counter; if you voted in the first few minutes of this poll's existence, you should vote again. Sorry about that. (Louis Wu 01:55:26 UTC) (permalink)

News December 7 2004

I don't wanna know what the Kiwis get.
Secrets from the inside! Check out today's Calvin and Halo for the lowdown on bentllama's inspiration. (Louis Wu 16:44:45 UTC) (permalink)

Cursorily speaking
Tired of your standard Windows cursors? Looks like BOLL and Stuntmutt teamed up to give you another choice. (No comment on whether it's a step up or a step down...) (Louis Wu 16:41:53 UTC) (permalink)

Max Hoberman talks to Major League Gamers
This was posted yesterday - but Dolbex didn't make a lot of noise about it. Max Hoberman, Multiplayer and User-Interface Lead for Halo 2, answered a bunch of questions asked by MLG forumgoers over on the MLGPro.com website. Info about weapon balance, downloadable content, and Bungie involvement in the community are all addressed - plus lots more. One of the most interesting (and perplexing) answers:

WLT asks: "Why did you guys [take] out the fall damage?"

Unfortunately falling damage didn't play nice with the energy sword, which made it into the game pretty late. If you lunged at someone below you you'd get accelerated so fast that when you hit the ground you'd die. We had to make a last minute decision whether to keep it like this or to turn off falling damage in multiplayer. We'd been playing without falling damage for quite some time anyway, and it didn't bother us too much, so we chose the latter.

Go read the interview for much more info. Update: This interview is no longer avialable at MLG - but you can read a copy of it here. (Louis Wu 15:43:03 UTC) (permalink)

The Art of Halo in the Spotlight
News from Eric Trautmann, former keeper of the Halo Bible Flame, and author of 'The Art of Halo' - there's a new article at Xbox.com on the book, including several sample pages (though they're not even close to what I would have picked to showcase the book's strengths), and there's an interview with Eric, conducted by Halo novelist Eric Nylund, over at Del Rey Online. Thanks once again, Narc. (Louis Wu 13:13:20 UTC) (permalink)

The Power of Halo 2
There's a story in yesterday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer that looks at the creator of the Excel Worksheet mentioned last week for dealing with Halo 2 RSS stats. When was the last time a spreadsheet created for looking at videogame stats rated a full column in a major metropolitan newspaper? Thanks again, Narcogen. (Louis Wu 13:04:47 UTC) (permalink)

The Halo Art world continues to grow
Wow - there's a mountain of new artwork over at Halo Babies - including the beginnings of a Halo graphic novel, and a new work in progress by Tina Leyk! (There's plenty of other stuff in there to see, as well - check every link!) Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up; I guess I fell off mrsmiley's mailing list. (Louis Wu 11:52:01 UTC) (permalink)

Better Broadband in Britain - thanks to Halo 2
deftangel points out an article at vnunet.com - it looks like Britain's conversion to broadband might be boosted a bit by Halo 2. Broadband traffic in general quadrupled after November 9 - a statistic that is rather astounding, when you consider how many uses there are for broadband. Looks like ISPs are upgrading in order to keep up with the XBL demand. Update: Bah, I have to learn to read more carefully. Broadband usage hasn't increased fourfold... just Xbox Live traffic has. Sort of kills my spin, doesn't it? Thanks, Robin Osborne, for setting me straight. (Louis Wu 11:41:21 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie.net forum outage
There's a note over at Bungie.net about an upcoming outage - starting around 1:30 pm Pacific time today, their forums will be down for roughly 12 hours for maintenance. Remember - they have a LOT of new visitors these days... they see a LOT of new posts, and all of them need to be adjusted right now. Thanks to lots of people - Michael S was first. (Louis Wu 11:37:06 UTC) (permalink)

All Halo, All the Time
haloTV has 12 new movies for you right now - some have been available as regular downloads, others are completely new. If you're not familiar with haloTV, this is a great way to get to know 'em! (Louis Wu 11:34:24 UTC) (permalink)

He reminds me of Yoda, sometimes.
21 new pieces added to the Fan Fiction section this morning. I don't make a habit of singling out individual stories - but vector40 doesn't come around much any more, and his stuff is worth seeing when he does. Take a look at his 4-part (unfinished) final HBO fan fiction tale, and be sure and stop by the link listed at the top of the first part! (Louis Wu 11:31:44 UTC) (permalink)

But what happened next?
Web comic The Day it Snowed figures out that William Dietz had a pretty tough job... thanks, Druff. (Louis Wu 10:55:46 UTC) (permalink)

News December 6 2004

Bungie don't like cheaters
SketchFactor has posted a note on the Bungie.net forums to address the recent allegations of cheating, with some guidelines about how to deal with it. Bungie is looking into the situation, and confirmed cheaters will be penalized, possibly with deletion of their Xbox Live account. Ouch! Read the thread for more details. Thanks, Brad Stephens. (Louis Wu 21:45:10 UTC) (permalink)

I wanna see what Cortana's wearing.
Top story on GTAGaming.com (a Grand Theft Auto website) is 'Vice City Gone Halo!' - six mods to help turn GTA Vice City into Halo. Weapons, vehicles, health, HUD, and a skin... check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:18:53 UTC) (permalink)

The Halouvre
prometheus opened a new website yesterday - it's unique, in that all it offers is content that glorifies the environmental grandeur of Halo and Halo 2. Inspired by David Galindo's hudless tribute films, he made his own - 'Orbital Shock Trooper Tribute'. You can find a WMP9 version (7.4 mb) on his site (hosted by Mythica) or on files2.bungie.org - and I've put up a QuickTime version (9.2 mb), as well. Grab a copy - and look around the rest of the site! Nice stuff. (Louis Wu 16:50:43 UTC) (permalink)

Loading Times. Not The Only Thing That's Down.
One of the tradeoffs Bungie made in Halo 2 was an elimination of load times in-game... at the expense of some visual glitches during major scene changes. Stuntmutt looks at some side effects in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 16:42:50 UTC) (permalink)

That didn't take long.
Goodness. There's already a Blood Gulch mod for Half-Life 2. That's amazing! (Driveable warthog, and everything.) Thanks, WonderWeasel. (Louis Wu 16:29:40 UTC) (permalink)

The Junkyard looks at BOLL
Mhaddy writes that a new Spotlight article is up at the Junkyard - this time it's focused on BOLL. Wanna know what makes this guy tick? Go read! (Louis Wu 15:41:31 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Net News
An interesting grab-bag of articles from around the net this morning:

• Yale Daily News - Halo 2 interfering with grades
• Stuff (NZ) - Halo is 'about as close to a perfect game as you can get.'
• Winston-Salem (NC) Journal - Halo 2 is a must-have gift
• Austin360 - Big-Screen Halo 2 tourneys at the Alamo Drafthouse
• Washington Post - Op-Ed lamenting the rise of video games in general (and Halo 2 in particular) and their effect on study habits - thanks, Free at Last
• HowStuffWorks - Gift-Buying Guide lists Halo and Halo 2 as the 'gift of obsession' - thanks, Rip-Saw

Remember - if you run into articles that need a login to read, always try bugmenot.com first. (Louis Wu 14:34:35 UTC) (permalink)

I haven't seen THAT for a while...
Pcsme found a truly retro Halo-themed logon screen for Windows users at WinCustomize. It's so old, it's new! (Louis Wu 14:20:09 UTC) (permalink)

Superlative Artwork
We're getting closer and closer to clearing out the various art queues (though new data comes in every day). I just added twenty images to the Miscellaneous Art section - and there is some SPECTACULAR stuff in there. Go look! (One of my favorites is Paul Davies' 'Installation Unknown', though quite a few other ones made me catch my breath.) (Louis Wu 01:32:40 UTC) (permalink)

News December 5 2004

MSN to talk at GDC
Nice - Mat Noguchi, Tools Programmer (and a whole lot more!) at Bungie, will be giving a talk at the 2005 Game Developer's Conference, according to his blog. Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for noticing. (Louis Wu 17:26:24 UTC) (permalink)

Holiday Cards from Bungie
Bungie's store is now selling Holiday cards - you can buy a set of 15 (5 each of the 2001 and 2003 cards, originally shown on their website, and 5 of the new 2004 cards) for $12.95. Wish your friend a Happy Carnage Season in style! Thanks, Rio258k (Louis Wu 16:33:56 UTC) (permalink)

Konfabulator widgets - now for Windows, too
HaloTwoFreak points out that the Windows version of Konfabulator is now available; we've mentioned a number of Konfabulator widgets over the past couple of years, but until now, only MacOSX users could make use of them. Follow the link above to see what's out there in terms of Halo-related widgets, and then grab your copy of Konfabulator to use them! (Louis Wu 00:45:44 UTC) (permalink)

New Toys.
Red vs Blue Episode 45 is now out for Sponsors. Just under 5 minutes of hilarity... poor Donut. (Did you know you could make blood from orange juice?) If you're not a sponsor, you'll be able to grab this by Sunday or so. Thanks, the beaz. (Louis Wu 00:40:40 UTC) (permalink)

News December 4 2004

Games for the Holidays
CBSNews.com has put up a Video Game Holiday Buying Guide - and Halo 2 is on it. There's also a nice little note explaining how parents, not interest groups, are ultimately responsible for the games their children play - ESRB's rating system is there to help, but the final decision on whether or not to let kids play games like Halo 2 belongs to parents. What a refreshing view! (Louis Wu 20:56:42 UTC) (permalink)

More candy for your desktop.
During the month leading up to the release of Halo 2, we had a ton of submissions for various art sections that I simply didn't get to. I've cleared out 20 of the desktops (30, if you count variations) and added them to our Wallpaper section - there are still a couple of dozen images in the queue, but it's much smaller than it was. More coming soon. In the meantime, check these out - there are some GREAT ones. (Louis Wu 19:37:45 UTC) (permalink)

Scenery in the round
BOLL's Halorama section has gotten an infusion of 15 new images; 8 multiplayer shots, 7 single player. There is almost no better way to get a good look at Bungie's beautiful architecture! (Louis Wu 17:08:53 UTC) (permalink)

MLG gears up for 2006
Wonga. The Major League Gaming website has been totally overhauled for the 2005 season; there is a quarter of a million dollars on the line this year. There's an article about point and prize breakdowns for those competing, details about upcoming content from Dolbex, and more! Check it all out. (Louis Wu 16:54:58 UTC) (permalink)

Why let Bungie make all the money?
ThinkGeek is gettin' in on the Halo Lovin' action - they're selling a plain black T-shirt with 'Master Chief' (in a pseudo-Halo font) on it. It ain't cheap, neither. Thanks, Jonas. (Louis Wu 16:02:05 UTC) (permalink)

Time's Top 10 for the year
A week ago, Time Magazine published their list of Top 10 Games for 2004 - Halo was Number 7. Thanks to Excalibur for the magazine scans; you'll find the article in our Press Scans section. (Louis Wu 15:20:12 UTC) (permalink)

Weekly What's Update
After taking a week off for Thanksgiving, Frankie is back with another Weekly What's Update, a service in which Bungie answers questions posed by Halo 2 fans during the course of the week. One question asks about non-flaming ninjas - you can create your own using our new Multiplayer Emblem Generator (if you don't like those colors, feel free to change them!) - another declares that the cliffhanger ending of Halo 2 was intentional (which is about as close to an admission that the next Halo is in the works as you're going to get, I think). There are many others - discussion about clipping issues in multiplayer maps, answers about bugs and their fixes, explanations of obscure gaming references. The one thing I didn't see (that I expected to) was a mention of the 'Cable modem standby button cheat' that made the rounds this week; maybe that's coming. A great read - go check it out! (Louis Wu 02:27:58 UTC) (permalink)

Multiplayer Emblem Generator
BOLL recently sent us a web-based interface for experimenting with the emblems you can choose for your XBL Halo 2 profile - and Bungie kindly allowed us to post it for you to use. (We needed to ask, since the image generated actually comes from their servers.) Go ahead and experiment - build your best avatar! (This isn't the only one on the net right now - recently, Yaksha pointed out another one at the Sponsors vs Freeloaders site. Try them both!) (Louis Wu 02:15:54 UTC) (permalink)

News December 3 2004

More Talk
Captain Spark has posted another 33 dialogue snippets on his website. This is the third such release - if you missed the first two, don't worry, we'll be posting them soon in the upcoming Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. (These 33 will be available for the next week or so on CS's website.) (Louis Wu 23:30:37 UTC) (permalink)

1UP's Best of 2004
1Up.com has begun collecting data for their Best Games of 2004 Awards - head over and vote. Halo 2 is up for Best Shooter, Best Online/Multiplayer, and Game of the Year. Thanks, Frankie. (Louis Wu 21:25:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo CE Movie Contest
Gearbox Software, EPG Servers, and Halo Maps have teamed up to present a pretty nice contest; create a 90 second video on the theme 'Play Halo CE', and win free dedicated server hosting for Halo CE and Gearbox schwag. The full details can be found over at the Halo Maps website. You've got December 31 to get your entry in - go read the rules and get started! (Louis Wu 21:21:17 UTC) (permalink)

He's behind You, Idiot.
New guest strip over at Halo Babies - done by Bluestone, of 343GS. Hehe - I've seen this a few times myself... (Louis Wu 19:57:17 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Reading
18 new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section - quite a few of them are poems. Interesting shift... (Louis Wu 14:38:26 UTC) (permalink)

'Tis the season...
Gamespy published its 2004 Holiday Guide - and of course, Halo 2 is among its recommendations. "Great Gift For: Xbox owner who loved the first one, loves shooters, or breathes." Sounds about right. Thanks, HaloPlanet. (Louis Wu 14:04:59 UTC) (permalink)

Brutemaster.
Another Brute joke in today's One One Se7en. Or maybe it's not a joke... it would explain a lot of things... (Louis Wu 13:29:32 UTC) (permalink)

Paper before pixel
Bentllama has updated his blog with some fascinating sketches - early work he did to teach himself how Elites moved. You want to see where an animator starts? Check this stuff out. (Louis Wu 10:45:02 UTC) (permalink)

Game of the Month
Lothar Hex points out that Gamespy has named Halo 2 its Game of the Month for November 2004. It beats out Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3 for that title. Nice! (Louis Wu 10:37:35 UTC) (permalink)

Mac OSX Halo 2 Icons
Edwin Davis has created a series of Halo 2 icons for Mac OSX - use these to spruce up folders and disks. You can grab them off our server, in .sit format (900k), or you can visit Edwin's site and grab them in about a million different formats (from photoshop files to .icns resources and everything in between). Update: Not to be outdone, BOLL has submitted a collection of WinXP icons - 32x32, with 'soft edges' (unlikely to be supported by older Windows operating systems). 140K. (Louis Wu 10:34:06 UTC) (permalink)

Net News Roundup
Articles around the net:

• VNUnet.com - more on Microsoft and modded boxes
• The Gateway - Halo review (no score, but very positive, except for the ending)
• Eurogamer - Multiplayer review - 9/10 (lost points for lack of coop)
• The Scotsman - Multiplayer saves Halo (thanks, kinggun)

Dolls vs Doodz
This week's Halo Humpday Challenge pitted the Bungie Frag Doodz against girl gamers the Frag Dolls - a team of talented women who've shown themselves to be pretty deadly on the virtual battlefield. The game writeup was great... but the Frag Doodz website had me confused. (The Gamertags listed don't match the people pictured, for one thing.) Hilarious work, in any case. Go read about it! (Louis Wu 10:17:55 UTC) (permalink)

News December 2 2004

Round and round and round she goes...
A few days ago, we opened a new section devoted to BOLL's panoramic shots of Halo 2. Thanks to BOLL's industriousness, we not only have a new set of 15 images for you, but the entire set of images (Halo AND Halo 2) are now displayed by the same system. You can easily jump back to see the older images if you choose to. Man... I LOVE the Metropolis shot. (Louis Wu 21:20:38 UTC) (permalink)

5 million copies.
The traditionally insane 'biggest shopping day of the year', the day after Thanksgiving, helped push Halo 2 over the 5 million mark in sales in less than 2 and a half weeks. You can read the press release for more details. Thanks, Dolbex. (Louis Wu 17:21:04 UTC) (permalink)

Mothergoat sings about Halo 2
I know it seems like pigpiling on Bungie... but it's not. Yet another hardcore community member has taken the time to write out, coherently, what he thinks is wrong with Halo 2. Mothergoat wrote up a 'Reflections on Halo 2' post on our forum, looking at the little things that (for him anyway) diminished Halo 2 from a GREAT game to a great game. (Tip o' the hat to Dazza for the distinction.) Before anyone goes ballistic: mothergoat says, clearly, "I love Halo 2 as a video game. Just... not as a Halo game." Personally, I find it heartening that so many longtime fans are making the effort to try and nail down what it is about Halo 2 that disappointed them; not a single one of the criticism posts we've mentioned recently has said 'Bungie sucks!' or 'Halo 2 sucks!' or 'I'm never buying another Bungie product again!' These are people who LOVED Halo, and (for the most part) LOVED Bungie, and want to see them get it right(er) next time. They want to turn the great game that is Halo 2 into the GREAT game that could be Halo 3. (Or whatever it ends up being.) (Louis Wu 16:21:36 UTC) (permalink)

New Bungie Wallpapers - Decoded
Recently, Bungie posted two new desktop images - both contained 'Covenant text' at the bottom. The code, it seems, has changed a bit since the Halo2.com site went live - but Ain Soph Aur, with the help of Hybrid-X-Ultima, managed to decode them anyway. ('Jiralhanae' is the Covenant name for 'Brute', according to the Limited Edition manual.) (Louis Wu 16:08:40 UTC) (permalink)

Those stats just keep coming
There's yet ANOTHER Stats aggregation option now (thanks, Craven); vviperrx, at the Bungie.net forums, has written a perl script to do the basic work for you. I just tested it out (the linux version, which I ran under FreeBSD - it's pretty generic Unix, actually), and it works nicely. There's also a Windows version - I haven't tested it. He's still working on it, and more details can be found in that forum thread. I'm going to hold off on any NEW aggregation techniques; it sounds like an entire section needs to be set up, and I don't want the front page overrun with this sort of technical stuff (I realize it's only interesting to a subset of our readers). You're welcome to continue sending in stuff you find - but realize I won't be posting it until I find time to compile a full 'Stats Tools' section. (Louis Wu 15:49:25 UTC) (permalink)

Prime SOMETHING, anyway.
Hehe - you thought the Covenant came to Earth to kill us. Calvin has learned otherwise, in today's Calvin and Halo. (Louis Wu 15:03:47 UTC) (permalink)

The Engine Room
A few days ago, kornman00, ViperNEO, and Fayt released a movie runthrough of a new level they were working on for HaloCE - called 'The Engine Room', it recreates the space from the Maw pretty nicely. (Thanks to MasterGrief for pointing this out.) The following day, kornman00 released a beta version of the map. (There's another version coming tomorrow, probably.) Check this out! (Louis Wu 14:43:50 UTC) (permalink)

Archiving your old XBL stats
There's an interesting news post over at Bungie.net - it addresses some of the fears and desires fans have expressed about long-term stats. Currently, there's no easy way to archive your old stats when Bungie does a purge... and even between purges, there's no way to look at your CUMULATIVE stats (total kills in all games, etc). Bungie.net user Clustered Index has put together an Excel worksheet that helps solve these problems - you can read about it (and download it) from his website. Nice! Update: Apparently, the XML tools needed for this don't exist on all versions of Excel. focused7 sent mail saying you needed "Excel 2003 with a Microsoft Office Professional install" -I hadn't realized things were quite so spread out on the PC side. (On the mac side, you can buy Office. Period. The version of Excel that comes in it uses this worksheet without problems.) Update 2: Eep, I'm wrong; I can VIEW content, but not import it. In order to use this worksheet, your copy of Excel will need XML Import tools. Sorry! (Thanks again to focused7 for setting me straight.) (Louis Wu 13:52:08 UTC) (permalink)

News December 1 2004

New Playlists on Xbox Live
Thanks to the 8 million people who pointed out that Bungie has updated the XBL Matchmaking playlists; visit the news post for an overview of what has changed, as well as links to the full list of gametypes. (Louis Wu 21:53:54 UTC) (permalink)

Net reviews
A few website reviews for you today:

• SignOnSanDiego.com - 4 stars, 'less repetitive than Halo 1', but 'ending is surprisingly awful'. (Thanks, kinggun)
• Wired News - 'excellent game' with 'considerable flaws' (thanks again, kinggun)
• Gaming Nexus - 7.6/10, a scornful-enough review to be mentioned on Bungie.net (interestingly, the same site did a SECOND review, by a different reviewer, Halo 2 rated an 8.9/10.)

The Brick Gulch Chronicles
Wow. Buxton has recreated the first episode of Red vs Blue... with Lego bricks. It's nearly flawless - attention to detail is amazing. So here's a game (Halo) that was so good it inspired a group of guys to make a movie based on (and using) it... which was so good it inspired someone to reproduce that movie in an entirely different medium. It's an onion, I tell you. Thanks, Legolaso111. (Louis Wu 16:22:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Too.
A few days ago, Randy Glass put forth his thoughts about Halo 2 - and they inspired one community member to... well, go postal. The thread got locked soon after (before I had a chance to weigh in), and after calming down, the same fan started a new, calmer thread. It's so far generated quite a bit of insightful commentary about Halo 2, and how it differs from Halo, and is worth a read if you've already finished the game. (There are a number of posts in the thread containing spoilers.) The incident also, however, inspired Stuntmutt to look at the entire issue through the lens of One One Se7en - can humor defang the rabid fans? Let's see. (Louis Wu 15:57:14 UTC) (permalink)

The Flood
Last week, David Galindo made a name for himself with three separate videos - one which took you on a tour of some of the prettiest places in Halo 2, a second which looked at your compatriots, the Marines, and a third which showcased the Covenant. He's back with a fourth film - this one looks at the Flood. As usual, fantastic camera angles, nice blending of video and music. It's available in WMP9 format (19.3 mb) from both mythica.org and bungie.org, and QuickTime format (16.3 mb) from mythica.org and bungie.org. Nice work! Update: David's own website is back online, and contains some pretty cool information, including a tutorial on how to make movies like this. Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:58:36 UTC) (permalink)

Michelle Rodriguez Interview
Michelle Rodriguez, an actress who supplied some of the marine dialogue to Halo 2, talked pretty frankly to 1UP.com about videogames in general, and her contribution to some of them (including Halo 2). Nice read. Thanks, Voodoo Extreme. (Louis Wu 09:53:27 UTC) (permalink)

Enrichenation Schemes Wanted
Wonga. New Letters to the Webmaster over at Bungie.net; along with the usual ridicule and scorn is word of the possibility of customized shirts (emblazoned with your gamertag). Hmm... the ridicule and scorn is pretty fun, too. (Louis Wu 02:38:35 UTC) (permalink)

Skulls at High Impact Halo
Ducain has whipped up a gorgeous little section with information about the 15 bonus Skulls strewn throughout the single-player game. If you don't know what this means, go read the page. If you DO know what this means, but have been looking for an easy-to-use guide (including levels, effects, and methods for finding - including video), this page is for you. (The info isn't new; it's been built up at HIH over the past few weeks. The PRESENTATION is new.) (Louis Wu 01:15:25 UTC) (permalink)

Job Openings
While you're at Bungie, picking up new desktop images, be sure to check out the latest job openings - they need an Art Production Manager, a Graphics Programmer, a test tool builder, and a Tools programmer, as well as some temporary positions. If you think you've got what it takes, send 'em a resume! (Louis Wu 01:11:32 UTC) (permalink)

ODSTs and the Beast
Two new wallpapers to be found over at Bungie.net - put together by Shishka, they do a great job of showcasing both the ODSTs and Tartarus. Available in 4 sizes each. Go get 'em! (Louis Wu 01:08:14 UTC) (permalink)

December 2004

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