Year: 2004

I know it seems like pigpiling on Bungie… but it’s not. Yet another hardcore community member has taken the time to write out, coherently, what he thinks is wrong with Halo 2. Mothergoat wrote up a ‘Reflections on Halo 2’ post on our forum, looking at the little things that (for him anyway) diminished Halo…

Recently, Bungie posted two new desktop images – both contained ‘Covenant text’ at the bottom. The code, it seems, has changed a bit since the Halo2.com site went live – but Ain Soph Aur, with the help of Hybrid-X-Ultima, managed to decode them anyway. (‘Jiralhanae’ is the Covenant name for ‘Brute’, according to the Limited…

There’s yet ANOTHER Stats aggregation option now (thanks, Craven); vviperrx, at the Bungie.net forums, has written a perl script to do the basic work for you. I just tested it out (the linux version, which I ran under FreeBSD – it’s pretty generic Unix, actually), and it works nicely. There’s also a Windows version -…

Hehe – you thought the Covenant came to Earth to kill us. Calvin has learned otherwise, in today’s Calvin and Halo.

A few days ago, kornman00, ViperNEO, and Fayt released a movie runthrough of a new level they were working on for HaloCE – called ‘The Engine Room’, it recreates the space from the Maw pretty nicely. (Thanks to MasterGrief for pointing this out.) The following day, kornman00 released a beta version of the map. (There’s…

There’s an interesting news post over at Bungie.net – it addresses some of the fears and desires fans have expressed about long-term stats. Currently, there’s no easy way to archive your old stats when Bungie does a purge… and even between purges, there’s no way to look at your CUMULATIVE stats (total kills in all…

Thanks to the 8 million people who pointed out that Bungie has updated the XBL Matchmaking playlists; visit the news post for an overview of what has changed, as well as links to the full list of gametypes.

A few website reviews for you today:SignOnSanDiego.com – 4 stars, ‘less repetitive than Halo 1’, but ‘ending is surprisingly awful’. (Thanks, kinggun)Wired News – ‘excellent game’ with ‘considerable flaws’ (thanks again, kinggun)Gaming Nexus – 7.6/10, a scornful-enough review to be mentioned on Bungie.net (interestingly, the same site did a SECOND review, by a different reviewer,…

Wow. Buxton has recreated the first episode of Red vs Blue… with Legos. It’s nearly flawless – attention to detail is amazing. So here’s a game (Halo) that was so good it inspired a group of guys to make a movie based on (and using) it… which was so good it inspired someone to reproduce…

A few days ago, Randy Glass put forth his thoughts about Halo 2 – and they inspired one community member to… well, go postal. The thread got locked soon after (before I had a chance to weigh in), and after calming down, the same fan started a new, calmer thread. It’s so far generated quite…

Last week, David Galindo made a name for himself with three separate videos – one which took you on a tour of some of the prettiest places in Halo 2, a second which looked at your compatriots, the Marines, and a third which showcased the Covenant. He’s back with a fourth film – this one…

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

Wonga. New Letters to the Webmaster over at Bungie.net; along with the usual ridicule and scorn is word of the possibility of customized shirts (emblazoned with your gamertag). Hmm… the ridicule and scorn is pretty fun, too.

Ducain has whipped up a gorgeous little section with information about the 15 bonus Skulls strewn throughout the single-player game. If you don’t know what this means, go read the page. If you DO know what this means, but have been looking for an easy-to-use guide (including levels, effects, and methods for finding – including…

While you’re at Bungie, picking up new desktop images, be sure to check out the latest job openings – they need an Art Production Manager, a Graphics Programmer, a test tool builder, and a Tools programmer, as well as some temporary positions. If you think you’ve got what it takes, send ’em a resume!

Two new wallpapers to be found over at Bungie.net – put together by Shishka, they do a great job of showcasing both the ODSTs and Tartarus. Available in 4 sizes each. Go get ’em!

A million people have been sending us mail about the last page of the upcoming XboxWorld magazine in Europe. It says ‘Halo 2. Didn’t think there was more? Think again!’ And then, below that, ‘Plus! If all goes to plan, a massive world exclusive first look… NEXT MONTH!’ Folks have been theorizing that this refers…

Last week, a few people turned in speed runs of Outskirts – and I mentioned that I’d really love to see a speed run of Cairo Station, on Legendary. Today, Cody Miller obliged. I was amazed. It’s not perfect – he dies twice (in the same place both times), but man… it’s beautiful. 10:19, from…

The ongoing saga of Calvin’s meeting with the Covenant continues in today’s Calvin and Halo. I’m thinkin’… Calvin might have just gotten himself into something big…

Frankie has finally gotten around to writing up last week’s Halo Humpday Challenge – I’m guessing it took so long because they got so badly beaten. (He even tried to blame the lack of players on ‘tryptophan poisoning’ – but his Scottish heritage betrayed him; he forgot that Thanksgiving is on THURSDAY, so those folks…