Year: 2004

Part X, the final segment, of “As Real as a ‘Survivor’ Elimination”, the military analysis of Halo’s gameplay, has now been posted at the Junkyard. Sounds like they’re not completely done with the topic, though – there’s a ‘big announcement’ coming next week.

Stuntmutt has not one strip today, but TWO. There’s his regular One One Se7en, which continues the study of the Drone, but there’s also a Guest Halo Babies strip over at halobabies.net. Too many puns spoil the… something.

You can shoot grenades out of the air? As Neo would say… Whoa.

Quick netnews listing before I head out tonight…Reviews The Adrenaline Vault (5/5 – thanks, Target4Hire) Stuff (New Zealand) – No score, but ‘best game on the Xbox’ Articles The Economist – The Halo Effect (looking closely at hype claims – thanks, D. Nadal) Kansas CIty Star – Halo 2: The Real Deal (Halo lives up…

MereCatfish decided to write up his OWN Halo 2-buying experience. See how many times you ask the screen “what… are you an idiot?” (I think I got to 6.) (All in fun, Mere – but man, you DID do some silly things.)

Oddworld wrote an article on the amazing first-day success of Halo 2 for his school’s newspaper, the Carnegie-Mellon University Tartan (actually, for an included arts/style guide, Pillbox). We’ve put it online here so everyone can read it.

Last week, we pointed out a 12-page sampler of the Piggyback/Prima Strategy Guide (it’s the same book, on both sides of the Atlantic – the Piggyback team wrote this, Prima is marketing it in the US). Tonight, Frankie put up a note that includes direct download links for another few pages from Bungie, and a…

Cool new schwag at the Bungie Store – a signed, limited edition (500 total) mylar print of Lorraine McLees’ awesome Halo 2 MC; 8×10 for $25. Get yours today! (Thanks, Shishka.)

If you logged onto XBL today, and your clan status wasn’t anywhere to be seen, don’t panic. They’re working on it. No data is lost; you don’t need to rebuild your clan. Read Sketch’s note over on Bungie.net for more details.

Well, except for LYING about the score on the first game [Update: he fixed this], the writeup Frankie posted over on Bungie.net about the whupping we took last night at their hands is relatively accurate (if a bit depressing). Go read about it – but realize I’m not nearly as old as Frankie makes me…

Thursday isn’t quite over, as far as our news page goes… and Blackstar has squeaked in a new Calvin and Halo under the wire. I hope my kids aren’t as smart as Calvin…

Dolbex points out that MLGPro.com is collecting questions for Bungie about multiplayer. Time is of the essence; the list will be sent off in about 24 hours. If you’ve got a question – go ask!

Some folks have noticed I haven’t written a Halo 2 review yet. Some folks have wondered why. Part of the reason is that my only complete experience with the game was a marathon run-through in October – I had been given a single day to finish the campaign mode, and I wasn’t sure how long…

We’ve said, over and over again, that we’re in the process of building a rather feature-complete Halo 2 Tricks site, as a joint project with High Impact Halo. Because of that, until it’s actually finished, we’re generally sending folks to HIH with their tricks (anything collected there will be added to the new site once…

Ain’t It Cool News has yet another take on the ‘Halo as a movie’ rumor – this one dropping a whole bunch of big names in the movie biz. It’s STILL just a rumor… but there’s Ridley Scott’s name again… Thanks, Nicework.

Stuntmutt and c0ld vengeance braved the cold streets of London last week to get their hands on copies of Halo 2 (and some good curry). The writeup is quite well-done; if you’re not used to British slang, a couple of bits might have to be guessed at, but it’s not hard at all to put…

You fix some stuff, you break other stuff. There’s a forum thread over at bungie.net where people are screaming about new-found lag in XBL Halo 2 matches. I know nothing about the specifics of yesterday’s autoupdate – but it seems to me that if you decrease the testing you do to find the best match,…

Very cool. Mike Chambers, an employee of Macromedia, set up a contest for programmers using Macromedia products: come up with a Flash/Coldfusion-based application that makes the best use of the Halo 2 stats data available from Bungie.net, win cool schwag. The contest ends tomorrow – we heard about it because Mortalis Deus sent us a…

A few Halo articles from around the web:The Hornet (Fullerton College) – Halo is the coolest game ever. Philadelphia Enquirer – Halo mostly lives up to the hype Dallas Morning News – Choosing the M-rated game for YOUR kid (registration required – use Bugmenot.com for a login)

Deathwhore pointed out a focused Cafe Press site (his, I think) where you can express your love for Halo in the real world. Pimp your ride!