Author: halo@bungie.org

Want to see a really cool Spartan Birthday Cake? Swing by Hawty McBloggy’s. That TTL Dren is one lucky guy!(Louis Wu 16:30:31 UTC)

Five new screens have popped up from the Bones-created episode of Halo Legends (1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5) – no word on release dates yet, though.(Louis Wu 16:16:51 UTC)

Red vs Blue Recreation Chapter 15 (Watch the Flank) ups the tension a bit – Simmons and Lopez have trouble at Valhalla, while the rest of the crew find out how bad a storyteller Caboose can be. I kinda like the new Church.(Louis Wu 16:15:41 UTC)

XerxdeeJ stopped in with word of a couple of new articles available at Tied the Leader – ‘Don’t Burn the Love Letter’ explains how Bungie made ODST just for you, and ‘Join Us. Stop Them.’ looks at the brilliance of the ODST marketing campaign. Great reads, both!(Louis Wu 15:47:27 UTC)

CVG grabbed a bit out of the latest OXM UK issue where Joe Staten explained that Bungie was happy to tie together various tidbits from Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach – it’s unclear how many of them will come to fruition, but the seeds have been sown, and Bungie is free to harvest as…

Eurogamer posted an article called ‘Off the Map’ – it looks at a few games that contain levels designed to confuse the player, rather than help him get from point A to point B. Page 2 looks at 343 Guilty Spark, from the first Halo. Overall, it’s a great read, and makes me want to…

Microsoft has responded to the ‘Unreadable Disc’ issue that some gamers have encountered with ODST – they’ve told Eurogamer that they “are aware of a very small number of people who are reporting they can’t play the game”, and that they “are looking into it, but at this point it doesn’t appear to be a…

PyroSmile has released the sixth episode of their Road2Recon series – this one gives you tips on completing the Vidmaster: Endure Achievement. They picked a level with a high chance of success, and explained what you need to do to get through the first 4 sets. Go watch it, and Endure! (Louis Wu 15:29:15 UTC)

Schedonnardus ran across what has to be the most bizarre computer peripheral I’ve ever seen. (When you see it, you’ll know why it’s being mentioned on a Halo website.) It’s totally unclear to me why you’d actually WANT one of these, though…(Louis Wu 15:26:44 UTC)

MTV Multiplayer blog has a pair of videos of Nathan Fillion talking about his involvement (or desired involvement) in Halo projects – in the first one, he explains how he got involved in Halo 3 (and how he pulled in Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk, two of his Firefly co-stars), while the second one has…

Domino Theory noticed a small blurb on Christian Allen’s blog – Allen was a Lead Designer working on Reach, who (according to this blog post) has left Bungie to take a position at WB Games. Seems like interesting timing, given that Reach is scheduled to be released in a year… (Louis Wu 15:24:45 UTC)

Today’s Tag and Release feature at Bungie.net uses the term ‘New Mombasa’ to show off some pretty cool environment shots – swing by to see the ones they found, or use the All Tags tool to find your own!(Louis Wu 17:46:46 UTC)

A couple of new vids for you, courtesy of Bungie’s Comm Chatter:Inside Gaming posted a Halo 3 ODST Special – Bungie’s a week late noticing it, but we can’t complain too much, we’re learning about it from them. (If you’ve played through the game, there’s not a lot here you’ll need – but if you’re…

Just a couple of Halo comic mentions today – Saturday’s Ctrl+Alt+Del ‘Silly’ was ODST-related (thanks, Black Six), and the most recent Grin + Bear It (Bip Bop Oh) has gone live at Hawty McBloggy’s. Laugh over lunch!(Louis Wu 17:30:38 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found another pretty amazing Xbox 360 case mod – you’ll need quite a lot of space for this puppy (it won’t slide into a standard AV rack between your receiver and your TiVo), but MAN it’s cool-looking. Go see!(Louis Wu 17:27:26 UTC)

Nice – Buy.com’s price on Halo 3: ODST has dropped to $43.24, with free shipping. If you don’t have a copy, this is a great deal! Thanks, Chairhome.(Louis Wu 15:33:21 UTC)

So I was cleaning out my office this weekend, and I ran across a copy of The Official Xbox Magazine that I don’t think I ever read. It’s the June 2009 issue, and one of the cover teasers is ‘The Halo You’ll Never Play!’ It’s an article about Allen Murray’s GDC 2009 presentation – and…

Jensen stopped by with a newly-envisioned Elite armor – he calls it ‘tank armor’, with weapons integrated into the suit. Read his post for rationale behind the suit – along with a whole bunch of in-progress renders. Great stuff!(Louis Wu 12:38:32 UTC)

Heh – looks like ODST might have some of the same tricking opportunities that Halo did – there seems to be plenty of places where death/soft barriers don’t apply. Check out this hog launch to the top of one of the skyscrapers on Uplift Reserve. Thanks, Ducain.(Louis Wu 12:37:26 UTC)

Some discussion was raised on our forum yesterday about the possibility that the F-99 Wombat (the unmanned drone that Bry’s been taking wonderful pictures of) might not be built to scale, since it’s not really intended to be seen up-close. Bry confirmed that the version in the cutscene is the same size as the ones…