Month: August 2005

Wow – now THAT is cool. There’s a news post on Bungie.net’s front page, exhorting fans to do what they can to help in the disaster relief effort to clean up after Hurricane Katrina. When was the last time you saw a videogame developer suggest to its fans that helping others in a time of…

How seriously do you take YOUR Halo 2 clan? el Lobo furtivo, a member of the PraetoriaGuard, went a bit farther than I would, I think. THAT is hardcore. (Let’s hope he doesn’t find a new clan anytime soon.) Thanks, HymnToNinkasi.

Penny Arcade’s comic for today (which doesn’t have a news post yet, frighteningly enough), involves Gus and Burnie from Red vs Blue (who spent the weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo)… and some stuff that probably shouldn’t be seen. Only peripherally Halo-related… but, well… I couldn’t pass it up. Thanks, Max.

You might remember Archie Gates – he’s a Gamespot user who has created a number of songs dedicated to the beauty and grace of the Needler. He’s done it again – a couple of days ago, he posted Needler Song 4, ‘Don’t Know Why (It’s My Favorite Gun)’. Norah Jones might take issue with it……

Major Nelson posted a note on his blog a few hours ago stating that the remaining maps from the Multiplayer Map Pack will be free to all Xbox Live subscribers by 5 pm ET today (that’s in 10 minutes) – if you haven’t grabbed ’em yet, go get ’em now! Thanks, Mintz.

Over on Slate, there’s an article called ‘The Gaming Graybeards’ – a pair of thirtysomethings give Halo 2 on Xbox Live a try (I think they were both totally new to the game AND the service, though one continued AFTER that first session), and write about their experiences. Alternately funny and excruciatingly painful.

2old2play cranks out the news today – Episode 8 (with coverage, to some degree, of the Xbox360) is now available for download, and they’re gearing up for Episode 9, which will feature Xbox.com’s Major Nelson (you can submit questions ahead of time). They’ve also written up an article reviewing Apple’s iPod and providing a tutorial…

Hong Kong Soupy points out an article on Zondaro.net about what it takes to interface with a fan community. The Bungie.net website is held up as a great example of what a developer can do to keep their fans coming back. (HKS was a little annoyed that fansites were left out of this equation entirely……

Ducain has posted his own writeup of the Suffer THIS! LAN held at Chez Chavez this weekend. Pictures, impressions, and the occasional unnecessary dig at a teammate who made an honest mistake… a great read.

Red vs Blue Episode 58 has officially kicked off Season 4 – it’s now online for both sponsors (in Hi-res) and the general public (in low-res). Caboose is smarter than he looks. (Not much, but…) And Tucker… Tucker shows his true colors. 4:22, a great start to the season. 10 – 43.5 mb, depending on…

These guys are nuts. (I admire their sticktoitiveness, but man… I wouldn’t have had the patience. Life’s too short – I’d rather be playing games I LIKE.)

Dennis Powers writes that the Halo CE Chronicles Episode 17 – Prelude – has been posted. The search and rescue team looking for our Station Commander is about to come under attack from well-armed Covenant forces… the stage is set for some great action. Qucktime (20 mb), WMP9 (22 mb), or streaming Flash (8 mb)…

Mercury has weighed in with his own opinion on the recent 1Up article – you can find his thoughts on The Oracle, his blog. I guess the 1Up writer did it right, after all – I can’t remember the last time an article there got this much of the fan community up in arms.

As has been mentioned a few times recently, a lengthy LANfest (6 days now, sort of, and counting) has been going on involving some community regulars. The first real writeup got posted to our forum a little bit ago – Stuntmutt, taking a page from Tolstoy’s playbook, wrote a monster of a reminiscence of the…

Today’s One One Se7en suggests a feasible way for certain Halo clans to make a little money. Go, Helljumpers.

Twelve new stories posted today in the Fan Fiction section – busy weekend for the writers! Go read.

Remember Briar’s Armor? (We’ve mentioned them a few times.) The Master Chief armor is finished – and tonight we got a pair of images in our inbox. Gorgeous work! Full body shot (343K) | closeup (296K)

3Suns sent in a roundup of pro-level Halo news articles from around the net:From Team3D.net – Ogre 2 won a car playing Halo 2From HaloPro.com – Team 3D’s Hotshy (Walshy) interviewedFrom Team3D.com – Team 3D won VGL regional NY a few weeks agoFrom MLGPro.com – IGS Monglers take first at MLG NashvilleSome of these might…

Podtacular Episode 6 has been posted – 90 minutes long, highlight is an interview with Overswarm, the author of the Not So Common Sense strategy guide hosted right here. Thanks, henry brown.

Last night, Ename Nep pointed out an article over at 1Up.com, entitled ‘Broken Halo: Five ways Bungie can fix Halo 2’. It’s nothing that hasn’t been said a thousand times before on Halo forums the whole ‘net round… what makes this somewhat surprising is the fact that it shows up, in this form, on a…