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 | January 2005 |  |
January 2005 Archived News
News January 31 2005
Bantastic.
That Stuntmutt... always finding new angles for One One Se7en. Well, maybe not NEW... (Louis Wu 18:54:24 UTC) (permalink)
What the Halo?
Okay, this is just... disturbing. Thanks, Edwin Durning. Update: But wait... there's more. And more. (Louis Wu 17:59:20 UTC) (permalink)
The choices for stats just keep going up
Another stats archiving option just turned up; Altomesi found CarnageStats. One of the developers chimed in to explain the free/pay options. (Louis Wu 15:20:45 UTC) (permalink)
A mop and some blood remover
If you're not offended easily, there's a pretty funny article over at Pointless Waste of Time - it's called 'Halo 2 and the Criminal Mind', and suggests why Halo 2 might actually be good for society as a whole. (You've been warned about the offensiveness - remember that.) Thanks, Bakudai. (Louis Wu 15:08:37 UTC) (permalink)
The Shape of Things to Come?
retsamolah has been experimenting a bit... The movie listed in this forum post is pretty short, but gives you an idea of what's possible. Personally... I think it looks pretty dang cool. (Louis Wu 12:03:51 UTC) (permalink)
Cracking the Egg
There's been quite a bit of talk on our forum recently about the IWHBYD skull - it was used to discover a cool little easter egg in Outskirts a couple of days ago. One of the problems with this skull is that the triggers to get it aren't completely known; some things seem to work... sometimes. And apparently, it's quite easy to go through a lot of trouble to get it... but lose it immediately. Lt. Tuma sent us a movie a couple of weeks ago; I didn't think we'd be able to host it (for a lot of reasons), but things have come together to make this possible. Quality is not the best - but that's because it's rather long, and he wanted to keep the file a reasonable size. Thanks to GloryFish, we're able to host this right now; otherwise, we'd have had to wait until after Tuesday, when our bandwidth reset. The video is 12 and a half minutes long, and contains running (text) commentary. It was originally submitted as a WMP9 file (25 mb). I re-encoded it in QuickTime, but because of the severe compression it started with, there was further degradation in the QT, and I wasn't able to get it any smaller than 29.6 mb. (It's still watchable at that size.) Please don't mind the spelling; it's the content that's important, not the presentation. Along with the movie, Lt. Tuma submitted a Word doc (11k, zipped), detailing some hints and tricks to help you on your quest. (This is also available as a straight-up html document.) If you've wanted to play with this egg, but didn't think you were up to the fight (it's an AWFUL lot of Spec-Ops Elites, on Legendary), this might help! (Louis Wu 03:28:48 UTC) (permalink)
News January 30 2005
UK LAN event in February
Yayap the Grunt pointed out yet ANOTHER event - this one isn't a tourney, it's a LANfest, in Wales - but there's a door fee (it's held in a commercial venue). There'll be several games; Halo is one. Check out the details on the Frag Fest Wales page. (Louis Wu 13:26:14 UTC) (permalink)
Sponsored by Poor Mel
The Red vs Blue team (well, okay, the COOL part of the team) is back from the Sundance Film Festival, and they've posted a video they put together for the Festival. 2 minutes of hilarity. It's available for sponsors now, and will be up for the public in a few days. Go watch! Thanks, Black Six. (Louis Wu 12:46:39 UTC) (permalink)
Introduction to Destruction
Funky vid posted to our forum last night... Mintz08, from www.Echo-413.com, took some filler from a Sum 41 album and put video to it. There are two versions; large is just under 7 mb, small is under 2. Here's hoping the bandwidth holds out! (Louis Wu 12:02:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 clips: now at 594, total
Thanks to thesaelens, for another 29 dialogue snippets for our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. (There's also one in there from Captain Spark, posted on our forum a couple of days ago.) Go listen! (Louis Wu 11:52:57 UTC) (permalink)
4v4 tourney in Iowa
Matt Hamilton wrote to us about an upcoming Halo tourney to be held on Saturday, February 26 on the campus of Iowa State University. 4v4, hosted by the Uni's Halo club (ub3r-l33t), $20/team, with money split between prizes and tsunami relief. More info can be found on their web page. Update: While we're talking about tourneys... there's one in Sydney, Australia, hosted by AussieXbox, Spe6tre, and the David Peachey Foundation, coming up on February 12. A bit of information can be found in this forum post, but for the rest, you'll have to register. 4v4, $50/team, 100% of the takings to go to tsunami relief. There's $10,000 in prizes being provided by sponsors. Thanks, Octavian Augustus. (Louis Wu 11:08:31 UTC) (permalink)
Sunday Reading
Fifteen new pieces for you up in the Fan Fiction section today... go see what you can find! It's a bit early here to curl up in front of a fire... but it sure is cold enough. (Louis Wu 11:03:07 UTC) (permalink)
Links update
Just wanted to give folks a heads-up... there are a number of sites that have been submitted to our Links page that I've left in the queue - they're all on Freewebs, which seems to be down at the moment. I haven't deleted the submissions; they're just on hold until we can actually see the pages. (Louis Wu 10:56:24 UTC) (permalink)
After War 11
Red Leader let us know that After War, a Halo comic hosted at Black Art Studios, is back on track after a short hiatus (Kevin apparently got sucked in by Half-Life 2). Episode 11 has been posted. Chief and the Arbiter... mano a mano. (Louis Wu 10:47:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Revisited
Joe Hopkinson sent us a link to a Flash vid he's put up at Newgrounds. There's not much to the story... but the artwork's pretty fun. It's less than a meg... go watch! (Louis Wu 10:41:17 UTC) (permalink)
Music for Pretty Vids
Each time David Galindo releases a Halo vid, forum threads pop up, asking what music he used. Dan Downs pointed out that David's put up a page on his website that contains a comprehensive list. Go visit if you were curious where you heard that tune before... (Louis Wu 10:36:34 UTC) (permalink)
Stats apps recap
Cubedog reminded us that even though they were discussed at length on our forum, we neglected to post the list of winners of the Flash Stats contest held by Mike Chambers of Macromedia a couple of months ago. Oops. Now we have. (Louis Wu 10:31:55 UTC) (permalink)
News January 29 2005
What's underneath the bodywork
Interesting article at Computer Graphics World - if you're intrigued by the technical aspects behind Halo 2's beauty. There are some factual errors in the article about story-related content... but that's not really what these guys were looking at. If you've ever wondered about polygon counts, or Level of Detail specifics, or how individual NPCs were personalized, check this puppy out! Thanks, Germain Couët. (Louis Wu 20:05:14 UTC) (permalink)
Cutscenes - bane or boon?
Clive Thomson, of Slate, wrote a piece on the hassles of cutscenes... and condemns their use in Halo and Halo 2.
Both games had forgettable storylines—pure alien-invasion boilerplate—that were redeemed by the game's superrealistic physics.
Ouch! You might disagree, but the general argument (that cutscenes tend to pull you out of the immersivity the games engender) is a reasonable one. Thanks, Anton P. Nym. (Louis Wu 14:27:02 UTC) (permalink)
Another Egg Down
A few days ago, Starman343 posted a note on our forum, pointing to a far more detailed post on the High Impact Halo forum - he'd managed to hear a dialogue snippet that Marty O'Donnell alluded to a few weeks back. This was clearly added as an easter egg; it requires that you have possession of the IWHBYD skull (see the HIH Skulls Database for all known details of this mysterious skull), something extremely difficult to obtain. Even when you have it, hearing this egg isn't a guarantee; once Starman343 had posted, our resident dialogue guru, Captain Spark gave it a shot, but was unsuccessful on his first attempt, and Starman himself explained that he cycled through a lot of dialogue before repeating that tidbit. Last night, Cody Miller proved his Legendary prowess yet again... and posted three hilarious snippets on our forum - so Marty's egg has been found, and added to our Dialogue Databank for posterity. Go listen! They're hilarious. (And nice work, everybody.) (Louis Wu 13:42:48 UTC) (permalink)
Who's SuperHansumRob, anyway?
Yesterday evening, Bungie posted its Weekly What's Update - a recap of what's considered cheating, some vague info about downloadable content, an explanation of why the Zombie gametype can't be added to the Matchmaking playlists, a bunch of basic stuff... and proof that better graphic tools will NOT make you a better artist. Go read. First heads-up goes to DiscipleN2k on our forum. (Louis Wu 12:52:32 UTC) (permalink)
The tank is in.
There's a new update over at Halogen, the Command & Conquer Halo mod; they've put up a nice textured version of the Scorpion tank. We heard from team leader Dispraiser about it... but first heads-up goes to Logical2u. (Louis Wu 12:43:30 UTC) (permalink)
News January 28 2005
The Key to Home
Dennis Powers writes to say the Halo CE Chronicles Episode 2, 'The Key to Home', has been posted at Halo Maps. 4:20, Flash movie format. You can get some really nice camera angles out of Halo CE! (Louis Wu 21:11:18 UTC) (permalink)
There's A Script?
Eep - that last news post reminded me I forgot to post today's One One Se7en. Hmm... maybe that was a GOOD thing. (Louis Wu 19:30:24 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Winter-een-mas, Bungie!
Today's Ctrl+Alt+Del news post is a tribute to Bungie... and to Halo in particular. A nice read. Check it out. Thanks, Bonekin. (Louis Wu 19:28:41 UTC) (permalink)
Um... so that means...
We got an answer, of sorts, from Joe Staten regarding the titles used on the 'Hall of Murals' images we posted a couple of days ago. Not definitive by any means... but you take what you can get sometimes. (See the page for details.) (Louis Wu 19:14:47 UTC) (permalink)
EGM vs Bungie - redux
Remember how Bungie was gonna challenge EGM to a rematch, to try and regain their honor after the Humpday Challenge shellacking they took? Well, according to EGM Shoe's blog, it happened... on Tuesday. Three games. EGM came out on top for the first two, lost the third. Stats, commentary, and a tiny bit of trashtalking can be found at that last link. Thanks, psyho case. (Louis Wu 18:43:16 UTC) (permalink)
Speeding Through
Cody Miller has posted a number of his speedruns over at archive.org (home of the Wayback Machine, and a pretty darned respectable video game film collection) - you can find links to them in this forum post. (The Outskirts and Cairo Station runs were already posted in our news a couple of months ago - only the last two are new.) You've got to watch the Maw run; it beats the GNF winner by over a minute, and contains some pretty amazing moves. (Come to think of it, the Metropolis run's pretty slick, as well... I loved the bit where Cortana said 'those pilots are no pushovers either'... just before Cody smacks one of 'em in the back of the head. Oh, Cortana... sometimes you're just clueless.) Go watch. (Louis Wu 18:27:15 UTC) (permalink)
By Any Means Necessary
Yahoo's Buzz Log noted that folks are doing quite a lot of searching for game cheats... and Halo 2 is 4th on the list of games currently being scanned. Don't folks know there ARE no cheats? Thanks, Nathan Riggle. (Louis Wu 16:21:14 UTC) (permalink)
Soul Damage?
John Rivas also points out a Christian-perspective review over at Plugged In Online. (It's linked off the right side of the front page at the moment, the title is "'Halo 2': Save the World; Lose Your Soul?" - but it opens in a popup window; the full URL to the article, missing site navigation, is here.) This one suggests the game can damage you:
The heart-pumping action that makes Halo 2 so engaging comes at the cost of (potentially) reducing the value of real people in the real world.
Eh. I pretty heartily disagree with that assessment... but it's certainly an opinion. (Louis Wu 14:39:28 UTC) (permalink)
The Color of Money
Tons of articles today are looking at Microsoft's bottom line, and how it was bolstered by Halo 2. The LA Times has a piece showing that Halo 2's $300 million in revenue helped the entertainment division post a gain instead of a loss. (Total sales were $10.8 billion for the year; $1.4 billion of that was in the entertainment division... so a bit more than 10% of Microsoft's income comes from Entertainment, and one fifth of THAT came from a game that was released with less than two months in the year remaining. Not too shabby! Halo 2 accounts for almost 3% of Microsoft's overall revenues!) Other articles: BBC (thanks, Shinesevens), Gamespot. Update: Oops, forgot one; TeamXbox put up a story, too (thanks, John Rivas). (Louis Wu 14:06:52 UTC) (permalink)
Decreased Loading Times
New Halo Babies comic is up - a wry look at a contentious issue. Good stuff. (Louis Wu 11:06:33 UTC) (permalink)
A prize worth putting on the shelf
goweb reminded me that I neglected to post a note about a cool prize won by Flashman in a contest over at Xbox Resource. Very nice... he's not TOUCHING the wrapping on that! (Louis Wu 10:34:41 UTC) (permalink)
More jumping
I'm definitely behind on news... yesterday was a pretty rough day for me. MrJukes updated his website again; Jump Session #5 has been posted. Between Jump Tactics, synide's Lockout tips, and this vid, you should be able to jump through Lockout like a master now! (This vid also contains Waterworks and Zanzibar footage... and an appearance by another pretty amazing jumper.) (Louis Wu 10:24:37 UTC) (permalink)
A Wagnerian sense of pomp and bombast
Wonga. Another 'Work at Bungie' article is up - this one covering Marty O'Donnell, Audio Artiste Extraordinaire (yeah, I've used something like that before... Hi, Matt!). Frankie asks Marty lots of questions, gets a few answers. Go read! (Louis Wu 02:38:11 UTC) (permalink)
News January 27 2005
Dang... we only got basketballs.
Today's Calvin and Halo shows me what I missed in grade school... I guess it's just as well. (Louis Wu 22:54:04 UTC) (permalink)
A Crack Team of Monkeys
Hehe - looks like the Bungie Boyz managed to find a team they could beat. This week's Halo Humpday Challenge was against Tips & Tricks Magazine... and the final score was 3-0, Bungie. (The first two games were relatively close, however.) You gotta wonder a little about the fable... go read. (Louis Wu 22:44:26 UTC) (permalink)
X-Play gives Halo 2 the nod
WhitebeardedGnu pointed out that G4TechTV's X-Play had their 'Best of 2004' episode on last night (next showing is today, 4pm ET/1pm PT). Halo 2 was nominated for Best Shooter and Best Game of 2004; it lost the Shooter award to Half-Life 2, but won the Best Game award. Nice! (Louis Wu 16:38:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 - best ad of the year
Gamespot readers were asked to pick the best commercials of 2004 - results came out today. According to this Business Wire article, the Halo 2 ad from last fall was the overall Commercial of the Year. Kudos to ICDedPpl, who found it at Yahoo Finance before Google found the Business Wire article. (Louis Wu 15:26:48 UTC) (permalink)
More time for art entries
In early December, SEspider kicked off a Miniature Halo art contest - deadline was January 31. He's just extended it a month, because there haven't been that many entries. Go check out the rules, and the prizes, and get to work! (Louis Wu 14:59:23 UTC) (permalink)
Gamestyle looks at Halo 2 MP
Gamestyle has put up a Halo 2 review - or at least the online portion of it. They gave it a 10/10. Thanks, Garry Webber. (Louis Wu 14:36:43 UTC) (permalink)
Blue Fire - back up
A few days ago, we mentioned a 'Halo 2 Montage' by WaLKa - but the bandwidth ran out pretty quickly. A number of people on our forum were hoping someone would rehost this; we're pretty tight on bandwidth this month, so we couldn't put it up for you. However, the community has come to the rescue once again. GloryFish, a fan who wanted to give back, offered a monthly chunk of bandwidth for the cause - so we're putting this vid back online, if you haven't seen it. One thing that sets it apart from other vids of its type; the competition is predominantly professional. Check out some of the names in the 'You sniped __' and 'You stuck __' text... you might recognize them from reports of national Halo tourneys. This vid is 24.7 mb zipped (that's how WaLKa served it), in WMP9 format. Thanks again to GloryFish for the hosting! (Louis Wu 14:29:14 UTC) (permalink)
News January 26 2005
Dueling Banjos - er, Moderators
Jillybean and mnemesis are both jumping all over the latest discussion popping up all over the place about Halo story snippets; you can find their latest thoughts on the Halo Story page. The Age of Speculation is upon us! (Louis Wu 22:10:59 UTC) (permalink)
The History of the Covenant (in 7 easy steps)
One of the tidbits that never made it into Halo 2 was a series of images created to show the progression of the Covenant civilization. A cutscene showing these images was included on the Limited Edition DVD - but Joe Staten explained that they were too info-heavy, and needed to be cut. 7he One did a nice job of getting viewable versions out, and posted them on our forum - and with a little help from Walshicus, some reasonably-sized versions were created. We've added them to our Miscellaneous section for posterity. (Louis Wu 21:46:56 UTC) (permalink)
Lockout and Colossus - secrets revealed!
Over at MLGPro.com, synide has put together a Lockout/Colossus tips video - jumps, grabbing items through walls, general strategy. Definitely worth watching if you're gonna be playing in a competition. It's available via their Video On Demand service (for-pay on-demand streaming), or free, in rotation, on MLG-TV. Swing by and give it a look! (Louis Wu 20:37:46 UTC) (permalink)
Stats Tracking and Emblem Checking
brokenwatch and UNEXPECTED62 have been working on a pretty cool 'Halo 2 Advanced Stats' page; drop in your gamertag, and get a WHOLE lot of info (over time). Because of the demand for this, if you add your tag today, it'll be a day or so before you show up on their pages. After that, though, it'll track you, even through purges. A tiny subpiece of this an emblem checker; put in a gamertag, it spits out that person's emblem. brokenwatch released this code on the Bungie.net forum - we put a little input script on the front of it, and you can find it here. (We'll toss a link up in our forum, as well; that's probably one of the most common places people would WANT this.) It's unclear how long all of this will continue to work; it relies on Bungie's good will in allowing other sites (like ours) to leech off their resources, and the thread above has an ominous post from Achronos about that very subject. (Louis Wu 19:39:09 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Employees to Represent at GDC
A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Marty O'Donnell and Jay Weinland would be speaking at the Game Developer's Conference this year. Yesterday, Cybrfrk tipped us off that Chris Butcher and Bart House would also be there; their talk is called 'Recreating the LAN Party Online: The Networking and Social Infrastructure of Halo 2'.
A little MORE digging around turned up some other talks - Mat Noguchi is speaking on 'Content Management for Halo 2 and Beyond', Damian Isla is discussing 'Managing Complexity in the Halo 2 AI System', and Marty is on a panel (with Nile Rogers and others) to talk about 'How To Produce and Promote a Game Soundtrack Album'. Sounds like it's gonna be a heck of a year to be at the GDC! (Louis Wu 19:22:08 UTC) (permalink)
Play the Mystery Gamer, win threads
Major Nelson's blog contains an interesting tidbit today; The Mystery Gamer will be playing Halo 2 this evening, after 7 pm ET. If you get in a game with them, and win... you get a T-shirt. More info (or not) can be found in the blog post. Thanks, Cybrfrk. (Louis Wu 19:07:53 UTC) (permalink)
More action figure stuff
Littlebigman found a page containing large pics of all of the Halo 2 Series 3 action figures, and prototypes of a couple of the Series 4 figures. (The Ranger Elite looks pretty cool!) He also notes that the page labels Tartarus' hammer as 'The Fist of Rukt' - as far as I know, that name hasn't made it out of Bungie before now. Go look! (Louis Wu 19:05:40 UTC) (permalink)
MLG DC - last day to register
A quick reminder; if you are headed for MLG DC this weekend, and you haven't registered yet... deadline is tonight at midnight, no exceptions. They don't have your money by today, you don't play this weekend. Details on the Registration page at MLGPro.com. (Louis Wu 13:05:06 UTC) (permalink)
So That's What The Thrones Really Are.
Things you always wondered about prophets... or maybe not. In today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 12:59:59 UTC) (permalink)
It's Wednesday, there must be Fiction
12 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today... go read! (Louis Wu 12:54:14 UTC) (permalink)
Awards and Strategy
TricKy passed on a couple of links for us last night... the Swedish gaming site NordicGamers.se posted their 'Best of 2004' article, and Halo picked up Best Soundtrack, but lost Best Action Game to Half-Life 2, and came in third for Game of the Year (behind Rome: Total War and Half-Life 2). Master Chief also picked up Hero of the Year. Then, over at TalkXbox, a new Halo 2 Strategy article has gone up; Week 11 looks at Ascension Team Ball. (This one seems pretty basic, to me. "Stay together, get the big weapons, hide.") (Louis Wu 10:30:56 UTC) (permalink)
A quick jump, eh?
replay put together a pretty long theory about where Delta Halo might be - an interesting read. For what it's worth...the 'Halo Activation Radius' graphic he doesn't know who to attribute to was created by PD, and has been in our Miscellaneous section for almost 3 years now. (Louis Wu 10:19:24 UTC) (permalink)
Things to do while you're banned
Devin Olsen wondered if it was just that time of the month for Skill videos... it's a bit late to be adding his entry to that post, but then, he calls his 'Not a Skill Video' anyway. 2:37, 7.4 mb. I liked the Zanzibar sword-carrier beatdown, myself. Update: Bonekin decided to get in on the 'no skillz' action... he put together Noobs Gone Wild, with plenty of clips showing what NOT to do in a Live game. 16.8 mb, WMP9 format, hosted by That Weasel. (Louis Wu 09:49:19 UTC) (permalink)
Cheating - in black and white
Yesterday, Bungie posted a new Cheating FAQ, a collection of information about what constitutes cheating, what doesn't, and what happens to cheaters. If you're at all curious about whether that trick you're exploiting will get you into trouble in the long run, or whether the team that just beat you by stealing the flag from under your nose 3 times in 2 minutes will ever be punished... you should read this. Amusingly, just a day before, some moron chose to cheat in a Team Skirmish game that contained... bentllama. (How dumb do you have to be to cheat against a well-known Bungie employee?) Go read llama's description of the event... and maybe start a pool with some buddies on how fast this guy's gonna end up banned. (Certainly faster than if he cheated against, say, you...) (Louis Wu 09:13:34 UTC) (permalink)
News January 25 2005
Mullins - An Artist Apart
As a cap to a truly spectacular day, content-wise, we'd like to offer you a few gorgeous images. Swing by our Craig Mullins Halo gallery for a full version of the Arbiter and Master Chief image used in today's Sneaking wallpaper from Bungie. (There's a more recent version of this image - one that has an energy sword and some beautiful lighting changes - but we can't release it yet.) You'll also find 'Brute Kick', ad stunning pic of the MC taking out a Brute - and a sketch of that image, in progress. Thanks to Bungie for the permission to post these, and to Craig for the images themselves! Enjoy. (Louis Wu 22:09:01 UTC) (permalink)
Extreme Makeover: Desktop Edition
Three brand-new wallpapers have been released on Bungie.net - and man... there's some classy stuff there. Mister Chief, in a classic WinXP setting... Delta Halo, in all its glory... and a recently-leaked Craig Mullins piece, reworked by Shishka for your screen. (There's some good background in Sketch's writeup about this piece.) Go look, go download, go change your desktop. (Louis Wu 20:19:53 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Legendary Walkthrough
Mike Miller has come to be known as a pretty amazing campaign player; if you don't know the name, you haven't been reading our news. The man has graciously agreed to share his knowledge and skills with the Halo community; we will gradually be releasing a Legendary Walkthrough of Halo 2, created by Mike. It contains general tips, specific strategies, and, because images sometimes teach better than words, video supplements for showing off techniques. Right now, we've got an Introduction (with plenty of general hints for Legendary-specific gameplay), and a walkthrough of Cairo Station, complete with 11 individual videos (in both QuickTime and WMP9 formats). Please - grab only what you need; our bandwidth has been hammered pretty hard this month. Thanks! And thanks to Mike, for the start of what looks to be a spectacular resource! (Louis Wu 19:27:28 UTC) (permalink)
Frankie - Put On The Glove!
Hehe - over on the Marty Army forum at Bungie.net, Marty posted the following suggestion (you have to be a member of the Marty Army to be able to see this):
The Marty Army members should all demand to see the video of Frankie attempting to "sing" Billie Jean. Talk about price.
FugitiveSoldier has put up a poll on the Bungie.net forums asking whether people agree - at the moment, it's 7-0 in favor. (Heck, Marty - if you can shoot me a copy of the vid, I'll happily host it here, in case you're being blocked by the Online Team...) Thanks to FugitiveSoldier for pointing out the b.net post on our own forum. (Louis Wu 18:22:00 UTC) (permalink)
Of Prophets, and Hunters, and Numbers, and Stuff
OMG Finn's not dead OMG! Big ol' update over at the Halo Story page today. Some of this is old stuff to forum regulars, some is not. There's definitely some grist for the speculation mill! Go read. (Don't forget to check out Jillybean's addition from last week; it was just a single tidbit, so I forgot to post news about it... but it's definitely thought-provoking!) (Louis Wu 16:36:36 UTC) (permalink)
Rise of the Machines
The Red vs Blue crew is at the Sundance Film Festival this week... and the Salt Lake Tribune has found them interesting enough to warrant a feature. A nice general overview... go read! (They see a million downloads a week? That's... um, like 25 or 30 terabytes or so. Gah.) Thanks, ICDedPpl. (Louis Wu 16:33:03 UTC) (permalink)
Episode 19: Question Mark???
That Weasel writes to let us know that Grunts Are People Too!!! has a new episode up... Project GN? What's going on? In WMP9, QuickTime, and DivX formats, 7-13 mb, depending. (Louis Wu 15:29:05 UTC) (permalink)
Critical Thinking
Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, felt disgusted enough by the reaction of the school board decision in Puyallup to block a Halo 2 tournament that would benefit tsunami victims that he's written a retort. It's interesting to see WHY he's annoyed... it's not the action, it's the reasons BEHIND the action, and what those reasons might lead to. Go read. Update: Looks like there's some funkiness in Rampancy's code at the moment; if you try to read it without being logged in, you'll get a php error. The solution is simple: visit Rampancy's front page, and log in first. (Louis Wu 14:56:47 UTC) (permalink)
Explosions in the Sky
David Galindo has made a few movies for the Halo community - they've all been received pretty well. He's made a new one... this one's called 'Explosions in the Sky'. This one takes a look at the power of heavy weapons, with some amazing camera work. You can grab it from either bungie.org (QuickTime, 24.5 mb | WMP9, 30 mb) or mythica.org (QuickTime | WMP9). There are a couple of screenshots on the Videos page of David's The Sights of Halo 2 website. (Louis Wu 14:12:04 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Birthday, Mister Chief!
Thanks to Cody Brigan, who notified us that the Mister Chief contest being run by misterchief.com is now over - with the winners announced! Some pretty cool stuff came out of this one. (Mr. Brigan, not totally coincidentally, was the grand-prize winner, with a funny Flash tidbit.) Go watch. (Warning: Stuntmutt's entry might be considered unsafe for work. Or at least scary.) (Louis Wu 05:14:37 UTC) (permalink)
You Slay Me - and more
Yesterday (well, 2 days ago by this system clock, but trust me, it was yesterday), (GT)Juggler posted a note on our forum about a new movie he'd made. GT 14 - You Slay Me is 4 minutes long, and 26-31 mb large, depending on the version you get. It's a departure from his last few vids - no modding, just gameplay and nice effects. The initial rush should be over; it was announced on High Impact Halo yesterday... but for folks who haven't grabbed it yet, there are a few options: Halo GT has a bunch of links to the original MPEG-4-encoded version; that one weighs in at 31.3 mb, and is best viewed with a current version of QuickTime. We've re-encoded it as a more-compatible QuickTime, as well as in WMP9 format (both about 26 mb) - if the MPEG-4 doesn't work for you, go ahead and grab one of these. While you're checking out gameplay vids, our forum was hit with a few other links today: WaLKa posted his Halo 2 Montage, and quertykd posted TheSkills. Must have been the weekend for polishing the movies! Update: trigger119 just pointed out 'Bullets', a new vid from his clan, Vypers. 22 mb, WMP9 format. (Louis Wu 05:02:06 UTC) (permalink)
They call it 'sport'...
The 2004 Winter Pentathlon is over... and the writeup has been posted at Bungie.net. A masterpiece of spin, written by Newbies and Middle-schoolers attempting to downplay the TOTAL CARNAGE that was Old-School this year... it's a fun read. Check it out. (I gotta say, though, the Karaoke vid starring Cher O'Donnell is... disturbing.) (Louis Wu 03:36:12 UTC) (permalink)
News January 24 2005
Fun is a tough metric.
Bungie has continued their long-dormant series of 'what's it like to work here' articles, this time with an interview with Steve Cotton, one of the lead multiplayer map designers. Interesting read, though Steve sounds a bit... brainwashed. Or maybe it's just hogtied. Thanks, Frankie. (Louis Wu 22:43:34 UTC) (permalink)
Mighty One Leads, We Follow
Captain Spark has updated his collection of dialogue snippets - you can grab a new batch of 48 zipped files over at his website, or search for them piece by piece in our Dialogue Databank. (The reason ours says 45 results and his says 48 is because there were a few that were improvements on existing clips.) (Louis Wu 20:54:41 UTC) (permalink)
Jump Tactics
Yesterday, High Impact Halo posted a note about a new jumping vid from Kahai_maluu and the Jump Tactics team; is this a new sport? (Some of the atmosphere reminds me a lot of skateboarders, actually.) The movie is a monster - over 50 mb for 15 minutes of jumping hijinx on Lockout - and it's some pretty amazing stuff. Amazing, as in you had no idea how far the Bungie physics could be pushed before now. Duke's note put a serious strain on Mythica's servers (they spiked somewhere near 120 Mbit/sec last night), so HALOChat has tossed the file up at Filefront, as well as made it available via BitTorrent - grab the links from his forum post. WMP9 format; folks who can't view that can save themselves the huge download. I dunno... this is just gonna make me MORE frustrated when I fall off a ledge on Lockout... these guys would have just jumped across to another walkway, or something. Go watch. (Louis Wu 19:17:01 UTC) (permalink)
GU Comics - digging deep
Friday's GU Comics uncovers the secret of Halo 2's spectacular sales numbers. Thanks, Meg. (They have a very cool little feature where you can search for comics by Game... in the past, they've looked at I Love Bees and Master Chief's PR skills, as well as the pirating issue that already got a news post. (Louis Wu 16:34:20 UTC) (permalink)
Dying To Meet You.
Today's One One Se7en takes a shot at... well, someone. I'm not sure who, though. (Louis Wu 14:10:48 UTC) (permalink)
Gamespot's Readers' Choice
A few days ago dude 69 pointed out that Gamespot's Readers' Choice Awards for 2004 had been posted. We were on-and-off following their Best and Worst of 2004 stuff - it started on December 18, and Readers' Choice was day 7; I'd have assumed that the Reader's Choice stuff was posted on Christmas Eve Day (or maybe the 26th, if they took Christmas off). I passed on the news tip. Then, today, I got ANOTHER one, this time from 3Suns; I went looking. Google cached THEIR version of that page on January 8, so it's been up for at least 2 weeks... I can't tell you how much longer than that. I CAN tell you we didn't report the results before - in fact, we didn't report ANYTHING past day 3. (Halo won nothing in the Genre awards, the Platform awards, or the GotY awards, so most of that is understandable.) The readers at Gamespot liked Halo 2 better than the editors, though - the game took home Best Xbox Action Adventure Game, Xbox Game of the Year, and Overall Game of the Year. Power to the people! (Louis Wu 09:22:48 UTC) (permalink)
2v2 H2 Tourneys
Couple of tourneys we heard about yesterday - over at High Impact Halo, there's a 2v2 Tourney being set up; sign-up is on the forum, and a small subsite has been put together for rules and participants... and Halo HQ is running a 2v2 doubles tourney, as well: signup for THIS is on THEIR forum, with a separate Ladder News post giving rules and details. Check 'em both out! (Louis Wu 09:01:08 UTC) (permalink)
A highly satisfying mixture of dramatic atmospheres
Music from the Movies has reviewed the first volume of the Halo 2 soundtrack - you can read the details on their website. The writeup is predominately positive; the reviewer liked it, both as a soundtrack to a video game and as a standalone CD. (The rating was 3.5/5, somewhere between 'recommended with reservations' and 'excellent'.) (Louis Wu 02:19:08 UTC) (permalink)
News January 23 2005
Racing pigs ridden by monkey jockeys
The Weekly What's Update has finally been posted over at Bungie.net... Frankie sounds a little harried. It's got some fun info - lots on cheating (and how they chose who to ban), info on why it's as short as it is (something to do with the Bungie Pentathlon... sounds like Frankie's team might be losing), a few other tidbits. Go read! (Louis Wu 23:30:57 UTC) (permalink)
Action Figures - The Next Generation
Over the past few weeks, we've gotten a chunk of mail about the next series of Halo 2 action figures from Joyride; up to now, it's all been text-based, and we've passed on making it news. Littlebigman found a website with a picture of the Series 3 toys, though - and posted about it on our forum. I suppose we also ought to mention the text descriptions of Series 4 and 5, as well... no pics yet, though. (Louis Wu 16:52:34 UTC) (permalink)
More Halo 2 Toys
teh Havoc modded a Halo 2 LED flashlight (no longer available, sadly, at the Bungie Store) to end up with a Halo 2 USB flash drive. Nice work! (Louis Wu 16:37:52 UTC) (permalink)
Stories for a Sunday
As I sit here surrounded by 18 inches of snow (with more on the way), and some pretty heavy winds, I notice there are 17 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section. Nothing better on a cold, blustery day than reading by the fire! (Louis Wu 16:14:16 UTC) (permalink)
Better searching, for Firefox users
Another Friday bit, almost overlooked. This one is only useful to Firefox users on WinXP... but it's pretty cool. Go visit the MLG forums and grab a pair of search plugins (and their corresponding images), and drop 'em in your searchplugin folder (directions are in the post). Now you'll be able to search for gamertags or clans directly from your search bar! Thanks to Mantis819 for pointing this out. Update: Thanks to DDMagnaS, the creator of these plugins, for pointing out that there's an easier way to install them (for folks using WinXP/Firefox). (Louis Wu 00:06:41 UTC) (permalink)
AIAS Nominations Posted
Oops - this came out Friday, but I forgot to post it. The 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards nominations (awards come from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences - Halo took home Game of the Year in the 2002 ceremony) were posted on Friday (thanks, CJAD 800). Halo 2 is up for six awards: Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play, Outstanding Innovation in Console Gaming, and Console First Person Action Game of the Year - impressive, but not quite up to Half-Life 2's 10 nominations. The awards will be given out in Las Vegas on February 1... not long to wait! (Louis Wu 00:03:38 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Cutscenes - in one package, via BT
Wow. If you want to get all the high-res Halo 2 cutscenes at once, without having to download them one at a time... HALOChat has made them available in a single 478 mb bundle via BitTorrent. Link can be found in this forum post. (I'm not sure how much demand there is for this... but certainly if you're starting with none of them, this is the easiest way to get 'em all.) (Louis Wu 00:03:06 UTC) (permalink)
News January 22 2005
One Bag for Two
Dennis Powers writes to point out a new machinima series he's begun - it's called 'The Halo CE Chronicles', and follows a "hapless Spartan stationed to a
distant Outpost Station and his relationship with the station's AI." Currently, there are two movies to see - a short trailer, and a 3:49 Episiode 1. The movies are in Flash format, so all you'll need to see them is a browser. Powers does all the voices to date. Check it out! (Louis Wu 21:07:33 UTC) (permalink)
HUDless Halo 2
The Halouvre has updated its site with two new images, in multiple form factors. Gorgeous HUDless shots of Delta Halo and Metropolis, both in regular screen ratios and as extra-wide panoramas. Check 'em out! Thanks to prometheus for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:00:24 UTC) (permalink)
Flash Stuff
A couple of new Flash items popped up on Newgrounds recently, both done by ABob.... Halo 2: The Covenant , and Halo 2: Spartan 117. Pretty hard to hear... minimal plots. Thanks, Micro M and argent. (Louis Wu 19:26:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Do-Gooders Shut Down
Back from errands, time to get a little Halo-related news posted. Last night, I saw a tidbit on the KOMO 1000 news page (thanks, Google) about a charity tournament set up by some students at Rogers High School in Puyallup (near Seattle)... that got cancelled by the school district. Two RHS seniors had organized a Halo 2 tournament to raise money for the tsunami relief effort... but the school board yanked permission because the game was too violent. The district has suggested that they'd support the fundraiser if it was based on a less violent game. Thanks also to Foolio, who sent us a note about this this morning. (Louis Wu 19:17:51 UTC) (permalink)
Heavy Metal
Red vs Blue episode 48 has been released for Sponsors - 'Heavy Metal' has the remainder of the Red and Blue teams attempting to assault the Zanzibar base... with hilarious consequences. I love Caboose again. This puppy's 6 and a half minutes long - 30 megs for small versions, 60 for large. (It'll be up for non-sponsors by tomorrow night or Monday morning.) Thanks, jorge. (Louis Wu 15:56:04 UTC) (permalink)
Cry Cry Cry
Hehe - there's no Weekly What's Update yet (looks like that's coming Sunday)... but you can see the Anime Mister Chief that's gonna go with it. Thanks, Frankie! (Louis Wu 04:19:05 UTC) (permalink)
News January 21 2005
Rotund Bovine Fresian?
Looks like Bungie is still smarting from the whupping they took from EGM during the Halo Humpday Challenge this week; there's a rematch (2v2, Shishka and Frankie vs Mark and Shoe from EGM), coming up as soon as it can get scheduled. (There's some trash-talk about it in this thread on the Bungie.net forum.) We'll bring you the results as soon as we hear about 'em! Thanks to psyho case, from Clan EGM, for the heads-up. (I gotta say, I have no idea what a 'Fresian' is... but Frankie called Shoe that in an email exchange. Must be a Scot thing.) Update: Thanks to Jamie Cockrill, who pointed out that Frankie probably just misspelled 'Friesian', a breed of cow. (You gotta wonder, though, what Frankie's doing knowing about cow breeds...) (Louis Wu 20:53:10 UTC) (permalink)
Online Tourneys - starting in 2 days
The online XBC-based neXtournaments we mentioned a couple of days ago are getting underway in two days - the first tourney is Sunday evening at 7 pm Eastern, sponsored by Corsair, and has a pair of 1GB memory modules (and an XBC Pro serial number) for the winner. There will also be hats and miscellaneous accessories from Corsair available. These tourneys will be happening on a regular basis, so check back often! (Entrance is free.) (Louis Wu 19:57:01 UTC) (permalink)
Prima Donna is an understatement.
Fire Team Charlie has released FTC 17, in hi-res AVI format, for members; it will be up in lower-res format for the masses by tomorrow night. (A hi-res QuickTime should be available later today or tomorrow morning for members.) It weighs in at a bit over 12 minutes, and is something of a departure from the norm for the crew. Pretty dang hilarious, if you ask me; these guys get better and better with every episode. Comments can be left in Z's thread on our forum. (Louis Wu 18:01:33 UTC) (permalink)
Lost In Translation.
Hey! It's a comic morning. One One Se7en returns to the Covenant alphabet developed for the Halo2.com website... and runs into a problem we've probably ALL had at one time or another. (Louis Wu 10:49:41 UTC) (permalink)
Fully Destructible Environments
New strip over at Halo Babies - takes a practical look at a gameplay question, and comes up with the right answer. Nice artwork! (Louis Wu 10:32:08 UTC) (permalink)
Of pretty ladies, and missing teeth
The Bungie version of the Halo Humpday Challenge between Bungie and EGM was posted yesterday evening - Frankie writes like a broken man. It's almost sad to see... (Louis Wu 10:29:38 UTC) (permalink)
News January 20 2005
Blowing Stuff Up
GIjoe2 points out his new vid Special Fred, a tribute to grenades and fusion cores, set to Stephen Lynch's eponymic song. WMP9 format, a bit under 5 megs. Funny stuff! (Louis Wu 22:39:37 UTC) (permalink)
EGM vs Bungie - ouch!
It's not up at Bungie.net yet... but it looks like Bungie took another lickin' in this week's Halo Humpday Challenge from the guys at Electronic Gaming Monthly. Dan Hsu, known as Shoe in Clan EGM, and a participant in last night's game, wrote up a short post on the activities. This one wasn't even close. Thanks to Ryan Croson for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 22:20:59 UTC) (permalink)
Sucking out the will to live a normal life
Wow. There've been articles out there before about how wives and girlfriends are 'widowed' by Halo... but I've never seen one like this. Well-written... but FULL of stereotypes. Originally in the New York Observer, now a cover story for the Charlotte Creative Loafing. It'll either amuse you, or anger you... but it's a fun read. Thanks, Rich Cutter. (Louis Wu 22:03:09 UTC) (permalink)
I see dead people.
Joshua Rennert posted a note on our forum about a sequel he and the Tricking IT crew are working on; working title is Beach of the Dead 2, though that won't be the release title. The trailer, made by ipushmycar, is short (48 seconds) but pretty sweet; high and low resolutin WMP9 links are in the original forum posts, and we've added high (5.3 mb) and low (2.2 mb) resolution QuickTime versions, as well. This looks like something to watch for! (Louis Wu 18:32:23 UTC) (permalink)
Best of Both Worlds
Blackstar's sent along another Calvin and Halo for your entertainment today - having dealt with exactly this sort of kid logic myself, I was tickled. Check it out. (Louis Wu 18:13:10 UTC) (permalink)
Sales slowdown
According to this Reuters article, Halo 2 hit 6.4 million in sales worldwide today. (This seems silly; the article was posted at 4:30 am PT Thursday, and states that Microsoft 'said [this] on Thursday' - hopefully they meant Wednesday, or MS PR folks are working REALLY odd hours.) If this number is accurate, it means that in the two weeks since the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (where Bill Gates touted the 6.3 million units sold at THAT point), only 100,000 units have been sold worldwide... a significant drop in sales rate. Bah. All these numbers are silly. Let's look again in March, or something. (Louis Wu 14:15:25 UTC) (permalink)
Discussing the Back End
Gossip tossed us a link to the Amazon Web Services Blog, and an interview with Eric Neustadter, of the Xbox Live team, at the Amazon DevCon. Gossip characterized this as 'dry' - I'd have to agree. There ARE some interesting facts in it, though - Xbox Live increased some of its systems by a factor of 10 to accomodate the Halo 2 launch, and bought an additional 32 terabytes of disk space to handle the new stats system. (They're not using it all yet... but that's a LOT of space.) There's also a question about Halo 2 for the PC - Neustadter was asked if there were plans for a PC version that could play with the Xbox version, and his answer was negative:
The security model can't be expanded to the PC, so it's unlikely. Nobody has yet to figure out how to do it without punishing existing customers.
(A quick note about that - while we here at bungie.org believe pretty strongly that it's unlikely that there will ever be a version of Halo 2 for the PC - that's not what this question was about; this was about the interoperability of a potential PC version and the existing Xbox version. Nobody at Microsoft, or Bungie, has ever made a definitive statement, either way, about the future possibilities for a PC version.) (Louis Wu 11:05:30 UTC) (permalink)
Skinning Steam
Apparently, you can look at the Master Chief while preparing to play Half-Life 2 - there's a Halo 2 skin for Steam. (A screenshot is here.) Thanks, Samir Patel. (Louis Wu 10:55:02 UTC) (permalink)
Stuntmutt - even on Thursday
Stuntmutt has put up a new batch of Guest One One Se7en strips on his blog - if you feel like you're not getting enough corn with the 3-a-week diet here, go visit and see what others are creating! (He also whipped out a nice 'thank-you' post to Zzombie13, the guest artist who helped out with Monday's strip. I'd agree with him about the man's talent.) (Louis Wu 10:49:32 UTC) (permalink)
I'm SURE I've seen that before...
Whoa. Greg Hill and his brothers were visiting Detroit recently, staying close to the Canadian side of town (Windsor Canada is right on the other side of the river). He saw a building he HAD to take a picture of. Look familiar? (He made it easy for you, just in case it's not ringing any bells.) (Louis Wu 00:13:47 UTC) (permalink)
Them Geezers - they write a lot
3Suns noticed a whole bunch of content over at the Geezer Gamers' site, related to the recent Halo Humpday Challenge they participated in. They're all linked from the current front page, but in case things change, here's what we've got:
- Bungie Challenge: Geezer Point of View
- Video from the Humpday Challenge (great stuff - but the big one is REALLY big)
- Geezers Take On Bungie - Humpday Challenge
- Geezer Spotlight Part 1 on Monk
- Geezer Spotlight Part 2 on Monk
- Geezer Gamers Make it to Bungie.net
Go read, go watch - good stuff all around! Update Whoops! almost before I got the thing posted, the video's been pulled. :( Sorry, folks. Go read the rest of the stuff. (Louis Wu 00:04:39 UTC) (permalink)
News January 19 2005
Halo 2 High in Rentals
Gamefly, a video game rental company, has posted the top video game rentals for 2004 - Halo 2 was 4th, following Ninja Gaiden (released March 2), Grand Theft Auto (released October 25), and Fable (released September 14). They're also taking votes for your favorite games for the 2nd Annual Q Awards (you have to join GameFly to vote - free); votes will be accepted until January 31. (Louis Wu 16:54:04 UTC) (permalink)
UK gives Halo 2 another look
Weird - Halo 2 had fallen off the charts in the UK, according to ELSPA (the marketing firm who keeps track of game sales there) - but this week jumped from 27th to 13th, as described by PC Pro. Wonder what caused the surge? (Louis Wu 14:43:19 UTC) (permalink)
Online Halo 2 Tourneys
Xtournaments has opened neXtournaments, a site devoted to online Halo 2 tournaments held over XBConnect. There are two types of tourneys - one is free, the other has an entrance fee (but also cash prizes). Go read more details on either website! Thanks, Sick Vic. (Louis Wu 13:22:29 UTC) (permalink)
Dance a Halo
Namemad whipped up a Flash-based stop-motion vid showing the MC bustin' some moves to Jay-Z and Linkin Park. Get down. (Louis Wu 13:16:21 UTC) (permalink)
They'll Eat Your Bones.
The HBO Lekgolos clan is on a movie-making tear; in short order, two films have popped up. The first was done by Arashi90 and Blackstar, and features nice gameplay, awesome production values, and crystal-clear video; it's a blood-pumper to get people interested in playing this clan. It's being hosted by both KP's Boomerica.com and Verdafolio's DementedPuppy.com. 36.6 mb, just under 2 minutes. The second was done by WhoKnew, of DementedPuppy, and is a bit rougher; it contains tricking footage, solo footage, cutscene footage, and regular multiplayer gameplay, all set to AC/DC's Show Business. Quality is... lower than the first one. 28.6 mb, almost 5 minutes long, QuickTime. This one is available at DementedPuppy.com, as well (and comments can go in this forum thread). Go watch! (Louis Wu 13:12:27 UTC) (permalink)
If You Can't Beat 'Em...
We'd like to point out that today's One One Se7en in no way represents the actual actions or activities of anyone here at HBO. (Louis Wu 10:40:04 UTC) (permalink)
Nylund at the Science Fiction Museum
There are a couple of upcoming events at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame at Seattle Center of interest to Halo fans; both involve author Eric Nylund. On January 25th (that's next Tuesday), at 7 pm, he'll be reading and signing books with his wife, Syne Mitchell. Admission is free. In February and March, there is a 2-part Workshop on Video Game Story Design - and the March session will be taught by Nylund. (Cost per session is $25 for members, $30 for non-members, and seems to be open only to students in grades 9-12.) More details, including location, registration materials, and the like, can be found at the links. If you're in Seattle, these are pretty unique opportunities! (Louis Wu 10:35:08 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's Word Collection
22 new stories in the Fan Fiction section today. Old faces, new faces... they're all writing. Go read. (Louis Wu 10:20:04 UTC) (permalink)
IGN readers speak up
Another IGN article - their 2004 Readers' Choice results are up. The fans picked the same things that the editors picked, with one Halo-related exception; Bungie.net lost out to Fable for 'Most Innovative Design'. Thanks again, John Rivas. Update: Alerus points out that there was one other change with respect to the Editors' awards; the readers felt that Best Graphics should go to Halo 2, not DOA Ultimate. (Louis Wu 09:50:30 UTC) (permalink)
2004 Game Sales, By the Numbers
Tons of articles out there right now about the NPD 2004 numbers (the NPD Group keeps track of gaming sales, and yesterday released their top 10 game sellers in 2004 list) - first one I saw (and one with a nice Halo slant, to boot) was at MLGPro.com; thanks, Dolbex. Halo 2 sold more units than any other game in the US except Grand Theft Auto (which had almost a month's head-start on sales for the year). What's really interesting is that the FIRST Halo is still on the top 10 list - over 1.1 million units sold in the US. Wow. If you can't get enough of the number-crunching, there are articles at Gamespot, IGN, TeamXbox (thanks, John Rivas), and The Seattle Times. I'm sure there'll be dozens more as the day goes on - but we'll stick with these. (Louis Wu 09:47:27 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief in NYC
mrsmiley and Master Chief headed to New York recently for a holiday... and came back with pictures. Just thinking about what was needed for the photography should bring a smile to your face. (Louis Wu 09:38:44 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Combat Miniaturized
Seiru found a mini Master Chief game at Crimson Edge - it's only in the very beginning stages, but it looks pretty nice! Check it out. (Louis Wu 02:51:02 UTC) (permalink)
How to Snipe
There's a new 'Sniping Locations FAQ' over at IGN, discussing sniping on Coagulation. Comes with a bunch of 'rules', too. And a warning that XBL sucks. (Louis Wu 01:11:16 UTC) (permalink)
Meet the Family - now in QuickTime
Speaking of HALOChat and movies... the recent release of Stryke Force's second episode now has a QuickTime version; HALOChat has offered the bandwith to host the version we re-encoded (15.3 mb). (He warns people not to try and use download accelerators; you won't get a useable file if you do.) Gotta love this community! (Louis Wu 01:08:46 UTC) (permalink)
Tribute to Burial Mounds
Gah. This was supposed to go up earlier this afternoon, but I've been gone all day. TheTaintedOne created a video he calls 'Tribute to Burial Mounds' - a glitch film with one important difference from other glitch films - it's in widescreen mode. Really nicely done, showing most of the funky stuff you can do on Burial Mounds, performed by his clan, The Custom Gamers Clan. He's hosting the low-res WMP9 version (14 mb) - and HALOChat has hosted a higher-quality WMP9 version (24 mb). We're using the bandwidth of the Mighty KP to bring you a low-res WMP9 mirror and a low-res QuickTime version (16 mb). So you understand - the screensize of both high and low versions are the same - there's more data in the large version, if you choose to expand it on your screen. (Louis Wu 01:05:18 UTC) (permalink)
News January 18 2005
Game with Incubus
Another one of theose 'Game with Fame' events - this time, you have a shot to play online with Incubus. Visit their web page and register for a shot at 100 slots to play online on January 24. (There are also 10 runner-up prizes of their new DVD.) Thanks, DailyGame. (Louis Wu 20:01:02 UTC) (permalink)
Pete Parsons - Game Designer of the Year?
Wired Magazine has announced their nominees for the Sixth Annual Wired Rave Awards - Pete Parsons has picked up a nomination for 'Game Designer' for his work on Halo 2 (hehe). The Wired site itself hasn't been updated yet; it's still showing last year's awards. Thanks, ICDedPpl. (Louis Wu 16:50:34 UTC) (permalink)
The Sleeping Princess Awakes
There's a great interview with Kristen Rutherford, the actress who played Melissa (and several others) in last summer's I Love Bees ARG, over at TVG. Give it a read to see where the CREW was coming from. Thanks, Dolbex. (Louis Wu 16:24:30 UTC) (permalink)
Meet the Family
Machinima marches on - Stryke Force HQ, a series started up a month ago, has posted episode 2 on their video page. Lots of backstory, mixed with clean filmmaking technique - absolutely worth a watch! (This episode is WMP9-only at the moment, but I'm working on a QT version... the only issue is bandwidth.) 17.6 mb - go grab it! (Feenix started a thread about this in our forum - don't forget to shoot them some feedback!) (Louis Wu 13:48:16 UTC) (permalink)
Big cash at CeBIT
The World Cyber Games are coming to Europe March 10-13. Prize money on the line - 150,000 € (nothing to sneeze at). One of the tourney games: Halo 2, 1v1. Thanks to Marc, of Halo Universe, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 12:16:41 UTC) (permalink)
Just another face at Zanzibar
Gavin Miller dropped us a note to let us know that the machinima series Them vs Us (first mentioned a couple of weeks ago) has a new website, a new forum, and two new vids up... with their first actual episode coming later this week. Go check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:12:46 UTC) (permalink)
The Dangers of Console Modding
Lothar Hex writes to let us know that Halo gets a brief mention in today's Exterminatus Now webcomic. (Louis Wu 12:07:19 UTC) (permalink)
Ranking Done Right
Over on Xbox.com, Alex McLain writes about Xbox Live multiplay - and what makes it work. Halo 2's ranking system is held up as a model for other games. (Splinter Cell's stealth adn Itagaki's tournament play are also highlighted.) Thanks to Wolfy for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 11:48:08 UTC) (permalink)
TalkXbox Talks Halo
Two more Halo-related pieces over at TalkXbox - there's the second third of the Halo 2 vs MechAssault 2 comparison (we mentioned part 1 last week), and there's another strategy guide - Beaver Creek CTF. The first compares graphics and multiplayer features between the two titans (Halo 2 loses the former and wins the latter, according to TalkXbox), the second looks at a generalized form of HBO's favorite gametype (no-shields shotties on that map). Thanks again to 3Suns for both of these. (Louis Wu 11:42:05 UTC) (permalink)
Movies for everyone
Boatloads of movie tidbits today... but there's lots of stuff, so we'll take it as it comes. First up: mirrors. Richard Bentley added another mirror for the Team Sexy Release Night vid (I think there's enough bandwidth for that now :) )... and so did That Weasel - who ALSO mirrored all the rest of our Cutscene Library in his HBO Mirror section, as well as putting up a boatload of exclusive films in the Halo Exclusives section - stop by for your fill of Halo video goodness. (Louis Wu 11:32:20 UTC) (permalink)
News January 17 2005
Talking to the Tricksters
Ducain has interviewed Ms. Man, a trickster of some repute. It's a fun chat - a look at what makes him tick, what keeps him going (kept him going, I guess - sounds like his Halo days are nearly over), why tricking is so addictive. Go read! (Louis Wu 22:30:49 UTC) (permalink)
Video game sales end 2004 on a low point
Interesting article over at GamesIndustry.biz - looks like a hardware shortfall led to an overall decline in video game growth in December 2004, compared to December 2003. Ouch! Halo 2 was 4th in December sales, with less than 900,000 units. (I have a little bit of trouble with those numbers: according to the same website, Halo 2 sold 3.3 million units in November... but according to Bill Gates, in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 5, Halo 2 had sold 6.3 million copies at that point. If everyone is accurate, that means Halo 2 sold more than 2 million copies in the first 4 days of 2005 - and I doubt that really happened. Something's a little wonky...) Update: several folks have pointed out that the number oddness has to do with the fact that GameIndustry's numbers are North America-based, and Gates' 6.3 value is worldwide. Glad it all adds up! (GhaleonEB pointed out a thread on the Gaming Age forums with actual NPD numbers. Halo 2 is in the 4th slot, with just over 900,000 units... and Halo 2 LE is in 91st with 120,000. That means Halo 2, in both formats, is actually just 23,500 units out of second place for the month.) (Louis Wu 21:05:23 UTC) (permalink)
Up, Up, and Away!
MrJukes continues his jumping frenzy with another session added to his site. Small... but some pretty nice jumps. A great collection, always getting better! (Louis Wu 20:58:31 UTC) (permalink)
More bandwidth for Team Sexy
The Team Sexy opening day footage we mentioned yesterday now has a couple of new mirrors - FileFront has a copy (lots of bandwidth), and HALOChat has put up a BitTorrent seed, as well. Thanks to HALOChat for both links. (Louis Wu 18:11:40 UTC) (permalink)
Bonehead.
An interesting One One Se7en for you today... personally, I think it's one of his best. (If you don't agree, you've missed (at least part of) the joke.) (Louis Wu 18:03:15 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper to cover the cracks
There are 21 new desktop images for you in the Wallpaper section today (over 30 if you count variants). Some are really amazing. (Personally, I'm lovin' Eric Rodrigues' Elite - it's a hair too bright for a long-term desktop for me, but I LOVE the detail. Tim Shenton's Sacred Icon paper is pretty darn impressive, as well.) Go check 'em all out! (Louis Wu 17:58:17 UTC) (permalink)
News January 16 2005
Happy to be here!
thesaelens has turned in another 21 dialogue snippets (14 grunts, 7 elites) for our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. Go listen! (Louis Wu 20:29:26 UTC) (permalink)
Release Night in Erie, PA
Team Sexy put together a 15-minute-long Halo 2 opening night coverage video (talking to folks waiting for the game, and so on) - they've been held up on release because of some bandwidth issues, but have decided not to wait any longer anyway. They've got a 5 gb/day limit for downloads - for a 70 mb film like this one, that means about 70 folks will be able to grab this each day before they run out. They're looking for mirrors, so let 'em know if you can help. Update: And once again, the community comes to the rescue. New mirror already from Ducain, and a BitTorrent seed from Nirvana (which doesn't seem to be accessible at the moment, but be patient). Thanks, folks! Update 2: It's now mirrored at Sector 7, as well. (Louis Wu 18:30:13 UTC) (permalink)
Sarge - full upper-body coverage
Red vs Blue has added a new hoodie to their store - a Sarge hoodie, red and everything. It's nowhere as cool as the olive Sarge T I bought from the now-defunct w00twear that Gus ran until the server blew up... but it's warmer than the similarly-colored Sarge T that the RvB store sells, so it's a great buy for winter. Heads-up kudos to HaloPlanet. (Louis Wu 16:57:39 UTC) (permalink)
Misunderstood and over-blamed
Over at Rampancy.net, the Halo 2 Impressions series continues with a look at The Arbiter. There's the requisite look at the level itself - but also a look at the shift in game focus at this point, and how it may or may not affect you. As always, thoughtful and well-written. (Louis Wu 16:37:02 UTC) (permalink)
Bob the Engineer
Yaksha posted a small (3.1 mb) film on our forum, a trailer for ano upcoming machinima called 'Bob the Engineer'. It's 1:28 long, in WMP9 format. I'm not sure how long his bandwidth will hold out, so we've provided mirrors - for the original file and a QuickTime version (3.9 mb). (Louis Wu 16:24:45 UTC) (permalink)
Back - with RPGs
Wow... I'd spent the entire day on a plane yesterday, and the evening with my family; I figured when I got in this morning, I'd be swamped with stuff to post... but the mailbox was almost empty! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... but let's start going through what IS here, because it looks like there's a bunch of house stuff I need to get to today, as well. First up: The7thWar is working on Halo: The RPG, several months into production, but still a long way to go. There's a 'press release' on our forum with some more info - if you've got questions, add 'em to the thread. (Louis Wu 16:17:34 UTC) (permalink)
News January 15 2005
It's a Biological Fact
Red vs Blue's Episode 47 has been posted on their website for Sponsors - a bit over 5 and a half minutes of plotting and scheming, and playing Volleybomb, or something. As usual, it will be available for the masses tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. (And as usual, we will not be making a second news post when it DOES become available - please don't send us mail when the free version goes up, because we've already SAID when it's going to go up, and we have enough faith in our readers that we think they can remember details for a 24 hour period without needing a second reminder.) (Louis Wu 14:31:43 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 transcripts - in German
Chronox wrote to say that a German Halo 2 level transcript is now posted at Halo Orbit. If you can read German, go check it out! (Louis Wu 14:10:21 UTC) (permalink)
IGN's Best of Everything
Last month, IGN posted their Xbox Best of 2004 Awards - yesterday, they put up their Overall Best of 2004 awards (all platforms). Halo 2 took Best Multiplayer, and was Runner-Up for best First Person Shooter and Best Use of Sound. Thanks to many - John Rivas (who found it suspicious that the PS2 version of Burnout 3, not the Xbox version, was awarded Best of the Year Runner-Up) was first. (Louis Wu 14:04:00 UTC) (permalink)
The Carrier of the Sword
First piece for the new year from Tina Leyk... and wow, it's a doozy. She wasn't completely happy with this one, and says she'll be using this subject more often in the future... but I love him. (Minor Halo 2 spoilers ahead.) (Louis Wu 08:07:20 UTC) (permalink)
Ohio Tourney, Jan 22
There's a singles/doubles tourney in West Chester, Ohio, next week - visit Game Junkie's page for details. Thanks again, R.net. (Louis Wu 07:04:05 UTC) (permalink)
Earth will never be the same.
Halo Babies points out one of the lesser-known perils of Xbox Live in their most recent comic. Thanks, Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 07:01:47 UTC) (permalink)
Stop! Hammertime.
The Weekly What's Update has been posted to Bungie.net. The top story? Cheaters are, in fact, being dealt with. What more can I say? Go read it. (Count Zero 01:42:44 UTC) (permalink)
News January 14 2005
You'll Regret This Too.
Stuntmutt gives us an inside view to what Truth really sounds like, when he's not speaking for the benefit of the court reporters, in today's One One Se7en. I think he needs one of those energy beams. Would save us all a lot of trouble. (Louis Wu 16:37:24 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Reading
Eighteen pieces added to the Fan Fiction section today - should keep the readers busy for a little bit. (Louis Wu 16:32:28 UTC) (permalink)
Project: ODST finds a web home
For a couple of months, forum regular Hikaru-119 has been talking about an ambitious endeavor called Project: ODST; it's to be a long (an hour or so) real-action movie based on Halo. Today, halochat posted on our forum that a website for this project is now available. (There are a variety of links to get there, so read the forum post for details.) Not much info yet... but more is promised. (Louis Wu 16:12:48 UTC) (permalink)
Tastes Great! Less Filling!
In case you didn't feel there was enough conflict in your life, Bungie increased the number of debate threads on their 'Voting Booth' forum. Go duke it out with other Halo fans! (Louis Wu 05:54:27 UTC) (permalink)
Pretty Pictures
There are a bunch of new Wallpapers up over at Bungie.net - looks like the first public work of AGDTinMan, and I gotta say, I'm looking forward to more. Go check 'em out! Update: Oops, looks like I misstated TinMan's contributions - Shishka set me straight. (Louis Wu 05:50:01 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie vs the Old Guys
This week's Halo Humpday Challenge pitted the Bungie team against the Geezer Gamers - it was a pretty close match. You can read the details on Bungie's site - or at GeezerGamers (thanks, 3Suns). (Louis Wu 05:45:22 UTC) (permalink)
The Roadmap to Fun
IGN put up 'The Future of Game Design, Part 1' - a look at where things should be going. Halo 2 is held up several times as what's right today... as well as what's wrong. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 05:40:26 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Gets in Gear
Dolbex writes that the MLGPro.com website has gotten over its registration glitches - if you wanted to register, but couldn't, go now! There's other fun stuff there, as well: they've had over 100 rooms registered for the Washington event this weekend, and they're having a new contest - make a cool fan video, and you could win a prize pack worth over $100. Go read for all the details! (Louis Wu 05:31:30 UTC) (permalink)
News January 13 2005
Better than losing weight.
Last minute update, from the MacWorld show floor... today's Calvin and Halo gets back to what's important. (Louis Wu 23:53:53 UTC) (permalink)
Leavin', on a jet plane...
Just a quick note - I'm headed to the airport (I'm late, as usual), and will be on a plane (or in a convention hall) for the next... oh, long time. Updates might be sparse for the next day or so. Be patient. Go play Marathon. Or something. (Louis Wu 09:13:27 UTC) (permalink)
Now that's just the wrong kind of skull.
Nick Danger sent along a link to an Elite drawing done by his friend Luther for their clan site, The Halo Hangout. Nice job! Comments can go in this forum thread. (Louis Wu 03:26:44 UTC) (permalink)
Bashing Things for Points
Mitch B. sent along a screenshot (91K) of a Halo 2 Flash-based sidescroller he's working on. More when we know it! (Louis Wu 03:22:38 UTC) (permalink)
They want Hang 'em High, too.
TalkXbox has put up an editorial entitled 'Halo 2 vs MechAssault 2: Part One' - a head-to-head battle between two online giants. They toss up the Gameplay title... but Halo 2 gets their vote for Level Design. Part Two is coming soon. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 03:15:48 UTC) (permalink)
Helping out with the Bungie Guides
Bungie is getting ready to roll out new guides to multiplayer maps, and they're starting with Lockout and Ascension. SketchFactor asked for strategies and tips for these maps over on the B.net forums - if you have any cool tips, stop by! Thanks, cptn mexico. (Louis Wu 03:08:25 UTC) (permalink)
News January 12 2005
Why Bungie Why?
That Weasel and Mother's Tooth have brought you episode 18 of Grunts are People Too! - in several versions. There's a regular version (in all the usual flavors), plus a Director's Cut (slightly different story, some visual tweaks), and a Special Edition (again, a slightly different story, visual tweaks). You can find them all at the GaPT server. Mayhem abounds. (Louis Wu 21:13:24 UTC) (permalink)
You think he's WHAT?
SaloX submitted a few more clips for our Dialogue Databank; one is pretty hilarious. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 20:36:01 UTC) (permalink)
Busy Bungie Bees
Wow. When they're not running around for PR, those Bungie boys are busy. Two new articles for you over on Bungie.net (since I left for lunch, even): there are 3 new themes to customize the look of your Group pages (I'm pretty partial to Halo Babies, myself), and they've got a link up to GamePro's Reader's Choice Awards, now accepting votes (Halo 2 is up for Best Combat/Shooting Game and Game of the Year). Go read! (Louis Wu 19:23:08 UTC) (permalink)
Two Thirty?
Stuntmutt goes back to REALLY old jokes in today's One One Se7en... I mean, geez. (Louis Wu 16:50:53 UTC) (permalink)
It's all in the timing...
clarksbrother points out another Halo2-related eBay item - this one is one of the Halo 2 countdown timers distributed during the runup to the game. Clearly useless at this stage, but possibly of interest to collectors. Two and a half days left on the auction, current bid is under $2. (Louis Wu 11:45:24 UTC) (permalink)
Cash prize for Legendary Speedrun
Twin Galaxies (a site devoted to game rankings) has issued a new collection of 'bounties' - cash prizes for gaming feats. One is Halo 2-related: complete Halo 2 on Legendary (faster than anyone else), win $150. Payout date is January 31, 2006, so there's plenty of time to hone your skills. Full details can be found on their contest page. (The Halo 2 challenge is Bounty (105).) Several people noted this - Jonah was first. (Louis Wu 11:36:59 UTC) (permalink)
News January 11 2005
Halo 2 SmartPhone skin
Major Nelson is pointing out a Halo 2 Smartphone Home skin on his blog. (I don't know - nor really care to know - what a SmartPhone is, but if you do, and this is interesting to you, thanks go to Cybrfrk.) (Louis Wu 23:37:32 UTC) (permalink)
How Cool is That?
Marty O'Donnell weighed in on the recently-found reversed poetry that's present on several campaign levels - and teased fans with hints of at least two MORE cool items still left to find. Read his post - and start searching! (Louis Wu 21:01:19 UTC) (permalink)
MC for a good cause
UK game retailer GAME auctioned off a 6 foot tall Master Chief statue
(different from others we've mentioned recently - this one has him standing
upright, with guns at his side), with proceeds going to the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal. Final bid was £365 (it closed a few hours ago). (We heard about it from Frankie, over at Bungie.net - who beat US to the punch, but didn't seem to realize that at the time he posted it, bidding had been over for more than 4 hours.) (Louis Wu 20:56:40 UTC) (permalink)
ILB puts ARG in the Spotlight
Hehe - cool. Even though Joe Staten recently stated that the 'I Love Bees' game was NOT canon, with respect to the Halo storyline, it was still an awful lot of fun for an awful lot of people. Looks like someone is using it as the capstone to a new book on Alternate Reality Gaming, due out really soon in electronic form, and next month in a dead tree version. ICDedPpl found this over at Slashdot. (Louis Wu 20:24:06 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Cares.
I meant to post this last night, but forgot. There was a large thread on our forum recently discussing the sound you hear on the Zanzibar bridge (the bridge that leads to the plasma sword) - we mentioned the issue here. We got a post from Jay Weinland, creator of the sound effect in question - who apologizes for the bug that makes the sound repeat for some players, and explains why it's as loud as it is in the first place. This doesn't FIX the problem (as Jay mentions, he's 'an audio guy in a programmer's world'), but it might make some of you feel better that Bungie employees DO care how their work affects you. (Louis Wu 19:29:57 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Maps Vid Contest has some Winners
Dennis Powers writes that winners have been chosen for the Halo Maps 'Create a Halo CE ad video' contest that ended last month. You can see the winners, as well as the entire field of entries, at Halo Maps. Nice job to all! (Louis Wu 18:51:24 UTC) (permalink)
About... us, I guess.
We get a lot of questions here at bungie.org - partly because folks don't read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, and think we're Bungie Studios (we're not), and partly because Bungie doesn't HAVE a public email address to send questions to (the Webmaster doesn't count, since stuff sent to him generally gets ridiculed more than answered)... but partly because we've been around long enough that folks genuinely want to know stuff about US. Some of these questions get asked a LOT. However - they're site questions, or personal questions, rather than Halo-related questions...so they don't really belong in our FAQ. For lack of a better place to put them, I've added them to the 'About This Site' link at the top of our navbar. We'll add more, as demand warrants. (If I've forgotten a common one, feel free to let us know.) (Louis Wu 15:28:49 UTC) (permalink)
Readers and Editors think alike at TXB
At the end of December, TeamXbox posted their Game of the Year Awards - Halo did pretty well. Now, they've posted their Reader's Choice Awards... and Halo pulled down Best First-Person Shooter, Best Xbox Live Game, Best Peripheral (for the Plantronics Halo 2 Headset), Best Graphics, Best Sound, and Best Xbox Game of the Year. In other words... TXB readers gave Halo the same awards as TXB editors did two weeks ago... except they added Best Graphics to the list (the editors gave that award to DOA Ultimate). Thanks, John Rivas. (Louis Wu 15:21:30 UTC) (permalink)
Bomb plantage on Coag
TalkXbox continues their weekly strategy guides - this one covers Coagulation Assault. Thanks, as usual, to 3Suns. (Louis Wu 15:15:43 UTC) (permalink)
News January 10 2005
Lobster Monkey?
Captain Spark has recorded another several dozen dialogue snippets, this time all Sargeant Stacker. You can find them on his website, in a zip archive (link is in his forum post), or in our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank, individually. Man, that Sarge has a way with words... (Louis Wu 17:29:39 UTC) (permalink)
Rebel Without Applause.
Stuntmutt takes a look at Wideload's first Halo-based offering in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:50:11 UTC) (permalink)
Monday's Letters
Fourteen new entries in the Fan Fiction database today - busy writers over the weekend! Go read. (Louis Wu 14:46:15 UTC) (permalink)
Jumpin' Jukes!
MrJukes has put up a pair of 'Mix' videos containing jumps he missed during his first go-round - new stuff from Ascension, Foundation, Zanzibar, Beaver Creek, Coagulation, Lockout, and Ivory Tower. Go check 'em out! (Louis Wu 14:20:25 UTC) (permalink)
More goodies for sponsors at RvB
I was pretty sure one of these was already posted... but maybe not. Over at Red vs Blue, there are two new Sponsors-only vids; a third clip shown at Barenaked Ladies concerts last summer ('Sublime'), and a look at Red vs Blue in days gone by released on an EGM cover disc at one point. Both are pretty funny. Thanks, Ross Mills. (Louis Wu 13:18:09 UTC) (permalink)
News January 9 2005
Halogen Update
The C&C Generals TC Halogen has another update on its website - newly-skinned Warthogs, and a Wallpaper (busy, but cool to look at). Go check it out! (Louis Wu 20:49:57 UTC) (permalink)
2004 Xbox Live Awards
Xbox.com is hosting the 2004 Xbox Live Awards, and accepting votes for nominations in 10 categories. Halo 2 is up for Toughest Map, Hottest Ride, Best Game Character, and Best Live Peripheral. Check out the page to find out how to vote. Thanks, World War Seven. (Louis Wu 20:47:37 UTC) (permalink)
Open Rebellion Underway
Khas writes to tell us that there's a press release for 'Open Rebellion', a total conversion mod that wil convert all single player maps to an 'Elite' campaign for Mac Halo (and Halo PC), over at Macologist. There's also a report at Inside Mac Games, and an official forum set up by the team. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:44:10 UTC) (permalink)
Plantronics Review at Xbox Solution
Xbox Solution just reviewed the Plantronics Halo 2 headset. They gave it an 8/10, mostly because it's expensive - they liked it, otherwise. (Louis Wu 20:38:38 UTC) (permalink)
And with Credits, Fin
The Cutscene Library is now fully complete for Halo 2, with the inclusion, today, of the credits, as well as a separate download for just the small cinematic at the end of the credits. (The credits are available in printed form, in the Manual PDF, from either Bungie.net or Xbox.com, if you don't want to download a massive movie just for this.) At some point in the future, we'll be adding the Halo cutscenes to this library, as well. (Louis Wu 18:08:08 UTC) (permalink)
Marty on Audio
Marty O'Donnell and Jay Weinland are speaking about Audio Production for Halo 2 at the 2005 Game Developer's Conference. A promotional flyer for the conference contained a short interview with Marty - and thesoffish was kind enough to transcribe it on our forum. (Louis Wu 15:49:23 UTC) (permalink)
We're Being Watched
Red vs Blue Episode 46 has been posted for Sponsors - 60 mb of cold fission and salsa music, and a return of an old friend. (It looks, from recent entry in Burnie's journal, that they're back on track for a one-a-week release for the next few episodes.) Free versions should be available tomorrow. (Louis Wu 15:44:21 UTC) (permalink)
Questions... and some answers.
A couple of months ago, mnemesis got the chance to ask Joe Staten a few questions about some of the thornier mysteries in the Haloverse. (Well, to be honest, he cornered Joe at a party, and wouldn't let him leave for the restroom without answering some stuff. I'm not sure I was supposed to tell you that part.) Anyway, swing by the Halo Story Page for a link - that Jillybean is on top of things already! (Louis Wu 02:12:54 UTC) (permalink)
News January 8 2005
w00tness returns
Looks like we slipped up - we'd been following w00tness, a webcomic with Halo ties, for a while in November. Starting in December, a new chapter began - and 19 new comics have been posted since then. Thanks to Duo, for mentioning it. (The latest one has some pretty nice artwork...) (Louis Wu 22:06:21 UTC) (permalink)
Paul is Dead.
Whoa. IceWeasel listened to a section of the Whisper in the Storm cutscene that sounded odd to him... so he isolated it, sped it up, and reversed it - and found a rather odd prayer:
"I wander the earth. I seek your forgiveness for my horrible crimes against God. Amen . I wish to seek death, destruction. the light, let the light that cannot be extinguished-"
I reversed the audio myself, to make sure he wasn't faking this - it's really there. It's unlikely the Freewebs link in his forum post will hold up, so you can find his audio splice in its original .wma format, or a more compatible .mp3 format on our own server. If you listen to the reversed audio with NO other modifications at all, it sounds a lot like Gravemind... but what would he be doing in High Charity at this stage? This one is wild. (Louis Wu 20:49:59 UTC) (permalink)
Finishing This Fight
The Cutscene Library grows with the inclusion of the final Halo 2 scene today; the failsafes of the system are revealed. We have one more release for you - the credits, a rather large (and largely uninteresting to most) vid... but we'll release the small bit of story at the end as a separate download, for folks who want it but don't need the credits themselves. In the meantime, this is how the game ends. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 17:28:13 UTC) (permalink)
1Up Readers call Halo 2 GotY
Yet another Best of the Year award for Bungie - 1Up (the website for EGM, XBN, and CGW magazines, among others) posted their Readers Choice Awards, and Halo 2 took Best Online/Multiplayer, and Best Game of the Year. I got this one from Frankie himself. (Louis Wu 14:17:09 UTC) (permalink)
Trained Monkeys and Tree Frogs
Bungie has posted the next in its ongoing series of Weekly What's Updates at Bungie.net. A long answer to the 'why is cheating so rampant?' question (but one that probably won't assuage the most angry among the players), along with a bunch of other stuff. One rumor we neglected to report this week was that Halo was being created for the Gizmondo - it seemed a little too far out there to dignify. Turns out that assessment was correct. There's some stuff about downloadable content (though nothing about WHEN to expect it). There are a bunch of questions that anyone who can find a FAQ link should already know the answer to (but then, evidence shows that that's not a huge percentage of those online). There's a solid answer to the question 'how come I can't have black armor in MP?', which is nice. And there's the scariest Mister Chief artwork I've seen yet - and that includes the bug-eyed thing from a couple of weeks back. Go read! (Louis Wu 04:53:06 UTC) (permalink)
News January 7 2005
Artwork on a Friday
Took a little while... but I've finally found time to clear out the Miscellaneous Art queue. 20 new items, dating back about 3 weeks. Some of everything - sketches, paintings, digital, traditional, you name it. Go look. (Louis Wu 22:12:19 UTC) (permalink)
Cutscene Library - almost through Halo 2
Eep - almost forgot today's additions to the Cutscene Library - these are the last four scenes before the big finale. The end of High Charity, and the three scenes from The Great Journey. Almost there! (As always, thanks to Sniper 058 for the recordings.) (Louis Wu 20:57:09 UTC) (permalink)
Halo as an education at Sundance
According to Slashdot, the Red vs Blue crew will participate in a panel discussion on machinima at the end of January at the Sundance film festival, presenting a live demo showing how they produce RvB. Nice! Thanks, full-bore. (The 'feature in the January 2005 issue of Wired' mention has to do with Rooster Teeth's The Strangerhood series, not RvB.) (Louis Wu 20:18:58 UTC) (permalink)
Sacred Icon - as an offering
Rampancy.net continues its Halo 2 Impressions series with Sacred Icon - a discontinuity, but not a permanent one. (The two skipped levels will be covered later.) A very nice look at an effort Bungie made to address a major fan complaint about the first game... go read! (Louis Wu 17:25:50 UTC) (permalink)
All Shook Up.
Another hidden Bungie inspiration comes to light in today's One One Se7en. Or something. (Methinks this engagement business is going to Stuntmutt's head...) (Louis Wu 16:45:52 UTC) (permalink)
Friday Reading
Twelve new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today. At least one long-unseen name, as well... (Louis Wu 16:43:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 Trailer
Termi, of Shaolin Productions, created a Halo 2 trailer recently - cutscene footage and added text and effects. The end product is pretty slick. You can grab it, in its original DivX format, on the Shaolin Productions website (there's some description and a few screen grabs, as well). You can also get it from files2.bungie.org or mythica.org (in the original, 692x428 form factor, 35 mb) or a smaller version (460x286, 9.2 mb bungie.org or mythica.org). And finally, it's available in QuickTime, as well - same screensizes: large (31.3 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org) and small (9 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org). Whew! (Louis Wu 16:32:57 UTC) (permalink)
Rubbing Salt in the Wound...
Hehe - TeamXbox put up their own analysis of the Bungie/TXB faceoff that was this week's Halo Humpday Challenge... it's not that they're crowing, or anything, it's just that they're... well, crowing. PIctures, stats, even movies. Yeah, they're milking it... but it's fun. Go read. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 16:27:04 UTC) (permalink)
Funnies and art at Halo Babies
There's a new comic up over at Halo Babies - the end of the Getting Started series. Poor Cortana! While you're there, there's a ton of new fan art and graphic novels in progress to see... check 'em out! (Louis Wu 16:21:20 UTC) (permalink)
News January 6 2005
Another hand in the email jar
Welcome to our latest inmate - Jillybean has joined the Halo Story team. For now, she's on tea and crumpets duty, until she learns the ropes... but as soon as she gets the hang of things, and stops blaming Cortana for everything, we'll be letting her play with the toys around here. Welcome aboard, Jilly! (Louis Wu 23:57:51 UTC) (permalink)
The Worst Night in the History of Mankind. Ever.
One last one for the day - There's a new Humpday Challenge Writeup over at B.net. The Bungie Chimps took on TeamXbox... and got their butts handed to them. In small pieces. The first major defeat for the home team (the forum mods don't really count). OUCH! Go read the gory details for yourself. (Louis Wu 23:26:51 UTC) (permalink)
Germs
A list of ultra-popular Halo movie makers must include Hickadam (and his partner in crime, Dark 72), creators of such classics as A**hole (yeah, sometimes we try to be family friendly), Birds, and Holiday. The films are characterized by liberal doses of humor, tight integration of action and song lyrics, and preternatural timing - but they've been pretty quiet for the past 7 months or so. Luckily for all of us, they're back. The latest offering is called Germs, and contains spoilers if you're keeping track. It's available in WMP9 format (18.3 mb) from either mythica.org or bungie.org, or in QuickTime format (18 mb) from either mythica.org or bungie.org. Enjoy! (If you like it, or even if you don't, discuss it on our forum.) (Louis Wu 22:19:32 UTC) (permalink)
March of the Cutscenes
We have four new cutscenes for you today in the Cutscene Library, because they're not very large. This finishes up Gravemind, takes us all the way through Uprising, and starts off High Charity. Go watch! (Louis Wu 21:24:15 UTC) (permalink)
Tourney goodies for UK players
A month ago, we mentioned a tourney in the UK, run by Vagusnet. Gamesindustry.biz has some more info today - the full prize list for the winner and runner-up. Go see what loot is available! (Louis Wu 14:43:58 UTC) (permalink)
Wiki Resources
Bellator wrote to us recently to point out that there's quite a bit of information about Halo 2 characters over at the Wikipedia - go check it out... and maybe add to it! (Louis Wu 14:37:43 UTC) (permalink)
Zyos - front and center
The Houston Press profiles Matt Leto, better known as Zyos on the Halo professional circuit. It's a monster article, looking at Zyos from his early days, through the start of his Halo professional career, through the present day. Fascinating read. Thanks, Rampancy.net and cookedGamers. (Louis Wu 13:34:06 UTC) (permalink)
Stats are good
There's an editorial over at TeamXbox that holds up Bungie's Halo 2 stats system as a model to be emulated by the rest of the developer community - and to back up what is written, the clan that wrote the article is putting out an open-source stats package that runs on php/mysql in the near future. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 13:03:25 UTC) (permalink)
Gates highlights Halo 2 success at CES
Halo 2 was big enough to get a mention in Bill Gates' keynote speech at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. 6.3 million copies sold to date... wow. This has been reported in a number of places - I found it easiest to read at Eurogamer. (Louis Wu 12:40:38 UTC) (permalink)
Lots o' People, Lots o' Gaming
Bungie posted another interesting story last night - Xbox Live and Halo 2 by the Numbers. It's a look at the first couple of months of Halo 2 multiplayer stats - and they're pretty big numbers. There are some confusing things (how can you have more unique users than sessions?), but overall, it's clear that Halo 2 has jumpstarted the Xbox Live service (even though that service existed for 2 years before Halo 2 ever showed up). Take a look! (Louis Wu 11:48:19 UTC) (permalink)
A Wendy for the Lost Bungie Boys
Bungie continues their (long-dormant) series on what it's like to work at Bungie... this time from the perspective of true royalty, Alta "Bungie Princess" Hartmann. (Okay, when you get right down to it, her job sounds kind of rough... but it IS all the beef jerky you can eat.) Thanks for doing what you do, Alta. (Louis Wu 01:22:27 UTC) (permalink)
Good news, and bad news.
Apologies - the forum is currently offline. There's a 12-year-old script kiddie who had nothing better to do than spam it - and I, unfortunately, DO have something better to do than chase him around, so I've turned it off. Gotta love it when the bad guys win. On a positive note, though, a package was delivered to my door about an hour ago - a pretty amazing package. Say hello to my little friend! To those wishing to chat on the forum - I'm sorry. Maybe tomorrow. (Louis Wu 01:07:31 UTC) (permalink)
News January 5 2005
I wonder if they get to wear turbans, too
IGN has put up an article predicting the year-to-come as far as Microsoft and Xbox are concerned. Their prediction for Halo 3: it won't be out until fall 2006, released as a 'counterpunch' against the PS3 and Nintendo's next offering. Hmm... Thanks, Guardian. (Louis Wu 20:51:01 UTC) (permalink)
Ow.
What do you do when you're done? The latest Trunks and Soto takes one tack... (Thanks, Trunks.) (Louis Wu 20:12:14 UTC) (permalink)
Fingernails on a chalkboard
Bizarre. c0ld vengeance has been griping about a sound he hears on the Zanzibar bridge (the one you can lower to get to the sword) every time he plays... some expressed sympathy, and some expressed confusion. Today, he posted a short vid, showing what he was talking about... and it turns out this is another PAL/NTSC difference. NTSC players hear nothing when running on that bridge... PAL players have to listen to what sounds like grinding metal every time they walk across. Apparently, a PAL player can be playing in a game with an NTSC player, and one will hear the noise and the other won't. I think it's Bungie's way of handicapping European players, or something. (Louis Wu 20:03:17 UTC) (permalink)
Inside Job
Today's addition to the Cutscene Library is a biggie - it's the end of Sacred Icon and the beginning of Gravemind. Lots of story meat in this one! (There is one tiny difference between the Legendary version and the other versions - we documented it here. The film that's there now is on Legendary; it's unlikely we'll bother to put up a delta vid for this one.) (Louis Wu 19:36:40 UTC) (permalink)
Foundation Hopping
MrJukes has updated his Jumping Guide again - this time with a 6 minute treatise on Foundation. Some of the tricks are more fun than useful (they require overshield to survive, for example), but man... the guy's got style. Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:26:32 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Afterwar 10
Kevin Ryan writes to say that Afterwar episode 10 has been posted - there are game spoilers in this one (Afterwar takes place... well, after the war). Go see what's next for the Chief! (Louis Wu 17:15:46 UTC) (permalink)
Big Screen Halo to help disaster victims
Back in December, Vue Cinemas in London sponsored the Big Screen Battle tourney, pitting Halo fans against one another on movie screens. Now, they're doing it again... for a cause. This weekend, pay £3 to enter or £1.50 to watch, with proceeds going to the Disaster Emergency Committee for use in tsunami relief efforts. (Louis Wu 16:53:07 UTC) (permalink)
Good Golly Miss Molly!
Captain Spark snagged another 44 pretty cool dialogue snippets - they're available for download in a single batch from his website (link in the forum post, 1.3 mb), or piecemeal in our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. Go listen! (Louis Wu 16:26:35 UTC) (permalink)
And another one...
That TricKy doesn't stop looking... this time he found a Best of 2004 Awards page on Xbox SE, a Swedish site. Halo 2 took home Game of the Year, Best Xbox Live Game, and Reader's Choice. (Louis Wu 15:51:44 UTC) (permalink)
A Cheep Gag.
Stuntmutt looks at Jackal snipers in today's One One Se7en. (And for those who can't get enough, it looks like there's another animated one from N1NJ4 on our forum.) (Louis Wu 13:03:37 UTC) (permalink)
Mod this.
Juggler has put up another modding vid - this one shows views from outside Colossus, Midship, and Waterworks, as well as other fun stuff. 35 mb, QuickTime format, hosted on HaloGT.com. (Louis Wu 12:22:35 UTC) (permalink)
Another Best of the Year
Halo 2 picks up another GotY award... XBOX365 gives it the nod as the #1 Game for Xbox in 2004. Thanks, TricKy. (Louis Wu 12:04:00 UTC) (permalink)
Flying Pigs, and Exploding Frogs
Wonga. Looks like I got interviewed. I hardly even noticed. Ducain, over at High Impact Halo, asked me a few questions about 'The History of Halo Tricking', or somesuch... and then wrote up the answers all pretty-like. Go read. (Louis Wu 03:17:47 UTC) (permalink)
The New Year's First Reading
Ouch. The last Fan Fiction update was 6 days ago - 27 new pieces have been submitted since then. Sorry for the delay! (They're up now, obviously.) (Louis Wu 00:30:24 UTC) (permalink)
News January 4 2005
Detroit Free Press weighs in
The Detroit Free Press's Game Master choise Halo 2 as the Free Press Game of the Year 2004 - mostly for multiplayer. (There is a second article with input from other editors, on other games, as well.) Thanks, ICDedPpl. (Louis Wu 21:56:50 UTC) (permalink)
Widescreen video... end to end
TheTaintedOne has been working for some time on an 'end-to-end widescreen process' - a technique to capture Halo gameplay footage in true Widescreen mode. His proof of concept is a video called Rocket Festival - taking advantage of a funny glitch in how homing rockets deal with a target on a high point of land, he's melded nice video cuts with great music and an environment that really shines in Widescreen mode. There are two versions - a 7.2 mb WMP9 vid and an 8.2 mb QuickTime vid. (Both are a compromise for Taint - his original movie used anamorphic video (non-square pixels) for true Widescreen - but this requires Windows Media Player 9 on Windows XP to view; the Mac WMP9 ignores the rectangular pixels, and scrunches the film. He re-converted, after changing to square pixels, so that everyone could see the final product.) Comments can go in this (already lively) forum thread. (Louis Wu 21:20:10 UTC) (permalink)
Cutscene Library - The Story Progresses
Three new cutscenes for you in the Cutscene Library - Objects in Mirror are Larger Than They Appear (accidentally released a couple of days ago for a brief time), Shooting Gallery, and That Old, Familiar Feeling (the end of Sacred Icon). Get to downloading! (Louis Wu 21:10:40 UTC) (permalink)
Justification can be a bear.
Today's Calvin and Halo makes you think a lot about the uproar over the Rumble Pit Reset a few days ago. (Louis Wu 19:50:28 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox Gamers says: Halo 2 ROCKS
TricKy points out that Xbox Gamers has announced their 2004 Best Of awards, and Halo walked away with quite a few: Best First-Person Shooter, Best Xbox Live Game, Best Soundtrack, Best Story, Best Multiplayer Game, and Game Of The Year 2004. It also won a runner-up award for Best Graphics. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 19:16:49 UTC) (permalink)
Of Roses, and Violets
The Junkyard's Bungie Tribute Poetry Contest has wrapped up - the winners have been posted. Swing by to read all the details (and the poetry itself). First heads-up goes to Jillybean, who got a cookie. (Louis Wu 15:03:56 UTC) (permalink)
CAL Halo 2 Season Kicks Off
HALOChat points out that the CyberAthlete Amateur League is starting its Halo 2 season - maps, gametypes, and preseason schedules have been posted. Get your game on! (Louis Wu 14:57:35 UTC) (permalink)
Halo 2 The Movie
WINBIG24 sent word about a trailer for download over at HaloMods. It was created by ShadowX, and it uses our Cutscene Library (and a War of the Worlds trailer) to paint a grim picture of invasion. 5.9 mb, in WMP9 format. (Might have been better to keep the widescreen aspect of the originals, though...) Update: Seems ShadowX posted a link on our own forum - silly me for not checking first. (Louis Wu 14:50:56 UTC) (permalink)
Heavy Stats Analysis
Tom 'Darkphibre' Mathews has created another Halo 2 statistical tool - this one sucks up all the data from a particular game (everything, down to the GameViewer), and dumps it into an Access database. He's got some examples of how the info can be used, as well as download links for the beta version. Swing by his forum post for more details! (Louis Wu 14:41:41 UTC) (permalink)
More Auction Madness
The 'sell Halo-related stuff at auction' phenomenon is exploding. Here's what we've heard of in the past day or so:
- A repainted Warthog, in 'Special Ops' colors (currently $45, 3 days left) - thanks, Penguin080
- Another resin statue MC (currently $25, 6 days left) - thanks, Helios
- Another 6-foot MC statue (Buy it now price of $1200, 6 days left) - thanks, Ross Mills
- A customized Halo 2 Central Xbox Jewel (NZ$1.50, 7 days left) - thanks, Sean
It's buy, buy, buy! (Louis Wu 14:27:46 UTC) (permalink)
Rumble Pit Stats Issue - Resolved
Frankie posted an update to the Rumble Pit Reset issue last night; they've decided to put stats to where they were before the January 1 reset. That means all the games played SINCE January 1 (through about 4 hours ago) will be wiped - but they decided that was preferable to resetting 2 months of stats. Thanks to all that wrote to us about this. (Louis Wu 14:05:31 UTC) (permalink)
News January 3 2005
eBay Mania
Jade8704 wrote to us to point out that the large Master Chief statue selling on eBay we mentioned a few days ago has sold, for $710. The smaller one has about half an hour to go on its auction - it's currently sitting at $257.49. And the resin model is at $305, with almost 4 days left. (You can see the last two at this link.) (Louis Wu 21:02:29 UTC) (permalink)
Rumble Pit Stats Reset - Oops...
Looks like the Rumble Pit reset a couple of days ago was a mistake... Bungie's looking into possible solutions. (There'll be more info tomorrow, it seems.) Check Frankie's note at Bungie.net for details. UPDATE: Frankie posted an update explaining that rank resets were caused by a glitch in the system, and that ranks will be "rolled back" to their December 31 levels- erasing any stats gathered since then. (Before you send angry emails to Frankie (or us), please remember that rank is not your personal worth, it's just a number on a web page for a video game.) (Louis Wu 20:57:36 UTC) (permalink)
Cutscene Library Additions
Okay, first off, a removal - I've replaced three of the four downloadable versions of the 'Ladies Like...' cutscene with a single 'delta' vid that contains just the changed content (similar to what was done for the Helljumpers scene). I've also added two new scenes - the final one from Regret, and the opening scene from Sacred Icon. Grab 'em while they're fresh! (Louis Wu 18:59:47 UTC) (permalink)
Holo Laugh.
Stuntmutt submitted a New Year's Strip recently - but someone fell down on the job and forgot to post it. We'll pretend this never happened, and you can read it as today's One One Se7en. Poor MC... (Louis Wu 16:11:39 UTC) (permalink)
What the Chuck
That Weasel writes to say that Episode 17 of 'Grunts are People Too!!' has been posted. I don't get it. :( (You can download it in QT6, WMP9, or DivX formats, though.) (Louis Wu 16:09:10 UTC) (permalink)
Skyscraper Bomb Planting
3Suns writes to point out that TalkXbox has posted Week 8 of their Halo 2 Strategy series - this one focuses on Ivory Tower Assault. (Louis Wu 15:43:57 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Wiki - now with Solo tips
Goose241 writes to mention that the Halo 2 Wiki started up recently now contains a section for Campaign strategy tips; visit to add your own, or see what's there. (Louis Wu 15:42:42 UTC) (permalink)
Halo News from the Wire
A few Halo 2-related stories out there today:
- Ve3d.com reports the results of their Halo 2 vs Half-Life 2 poll... and Halo 2 lost miserably.
- ZDNetIndia reviewed Halo 2. (Pretty standard likes and dislikes.)
- Marin Independent-Journal picked their top 10 choices for 2004 games - Halo 2 came in 6th, behind such notable blockbusters as Spider-Man 2.
News January 2 2005
Halo: Resolution Sprites
Last year, we hosted a comic series called Halo: Resolution. It closed its doors in July... but recently, Fuzzy (one half of its creative team) released 6 sheets of sprites used in the strip. See what you can do with them!
- UNSC (13K) or PNG (17K)
- Master Chief (21K) or PNG (26K)
- Various H:R Backgrounds (22K) or PNG (20K)
- Covenant Characters (10K) or PNG (16K)
- Miscellaneous H:R Sprites (19K) or PNG (26K)
- HaloVehicleSheet (22K) or PNG (34K)
(Comments can go in this forum thread.) (Louis Wu 23:47:24 UTC) (permalink)
Where's my round-trip ticket?
Rampancy.net has put up their impressions of Regret - a beautiful, but narrowly playable level. Read the whole piece for full details. (Louis Wu 18:25:01 UTC) (permalink)
Cutscene Library Grows Again
Another pair of cutscenes have been added to the Cutscene Library - Testament reveals some of the Prophet's plans in Regret, and Objects in Mirror gets us started in the Quarantine Zone. Go grab 'em! (I'm gonna have to reformat the page soon... too many images for a single page.) Update: Oops - looks like I missed a bunch. I'm pulling the Quarantine Zone one for now - we'll repost it later. As soon as I can, I'll put up the One Way Ticket scene that leads to the Prophet on Regret. Sorry about this! Update 2: One Way Ticket is now posted. Again, sorry for the confusion! (Louis Wu 16:00:09 UTC) (permalink)
Rumble Pit Reset - Glitch or Real?
The Rumble Pit stats were reset yesterday on Xbox Live, leading to some outraged high-ranking players venting their anger on our forum (and others). According to this thread on Bungie.net, Frankie thinks the reset might have been a mistake. Stay tuned - if it's fixed, we'll let you know. (Thanks to all who pointed this out - the first note I saw came from FugitiveSoldier, on our forum.) (Louis Wu 15:55:04 UTC) (permalink)
Nice plasma sword!
Frogblast noticed some updates on Saber-Scorpion's Lego collection web page... go visit for some really cool Halo 2-related Lego creations! (Louis Wu 15:49:45 UTC) (permalink)
Halo2: Love it Live
LD2k posted a pretty nice video on our forum yesterday - I found the rapidshare link in the post to be annoying, so I've mirrored a copy for him. 6.7 mb, QuickTime .mp4 format. Heroic gameplay, set to Troy's trailer music. Nice cuts. (Louis Wu 15:41:13 UTC) (permalink)
News January 1 2005
Helljumpers in the Cutscene Library
One last bit before I leave for the day: we've got the next entry in our Cutscene Library for you. It's the Helljumpers cutscene, the beginning of Delta Halo, and there are two files: there's the cutscene itself (2:30 long), and a small composite file that shows the one change that occurs, depending on the difficulty you're playing at. It's a very short bit, so I didn't think it was worth releasing 4 separate versions of the cutscene - it made more sense to simply snip out the difference. As the Covenant guard the ancient ruins, there's a short clip where a Jackal dances in front of a Grunt - and what the Grunt is doing depends on how hard the game is for you. On Easy and Normal, he's just rubbing his hand in the dirt. On Heroic, he's playing with fire. And on Legendary, he's fiddling with what looks like a Grunt doll - maybe the fabled plushie that never got made! Thanks to BOLL for the difficulty help, and as always, thanks to Sniper 058 for getting this section started in the first place. And that - as they say - is that. I'm gone. Update: Ename nep (among others) pointed out that it's not just a Grunt doll that Grunt is playing with... his left hand is holding a Master Chief doll! Nice. (Louis Wu 16:50:30 UTC) (permalink)
News Around the Net
There's a bunch of Halo news out there, on this first day of 2005 - here's a roundup:
- G4techTV looks at the year in gaming - Halo 2 gets a writeup, and a mention in other writeups.
- The Davis Enterprise looks back on the last couple of months, and how Halo 2 has changed one columnist's life.
- GameDaily looked at the best games for 2004 - Halo 2 took Best Game of the Year, First Person Shooter of the Year, though it missed out on Best Xbox Live Game of the Year (it wasn't even nominated). Thanks, TricKy.
I'm sure there's more to read... but it'll have to wait. We've just finished cleaning up from last night's gala, and I've got a family engagement to make... so I'm almost outta here. (Louis Wu 16:41:53 UTC) (permalink)
Happy New Year!
From all of us to all of you... here's hoping your 2004 was everything it could be, and wishing you the best for 2005! (Louis Wu 06:30:23 UTC) (permalink)
| January 2005 | |
