Author: narcogen

A deeper look at ODST– what worked and what didn’t in this small-team, short-cycle Bungie experiment that landed with the profile of a fat expansion and the pricetag of a discounted full title. Show Highlights: Keep On Truckin’ GamesRadar: 7/10 Was ODST a Good Idea? Demise of Chronicles Comes With Beta (or The Crackdown Factor)…

A look at the first part of Halo 3: ODST, covering changes in gameplay as well as new characters and settings, and the interconnections between ODST and the rest of the Halo universe. Show Highlights: Firefly Reunion Tour Not Looking At Her Gear Changes: Fall Damage, Health & VISR A Dark And Stormy Night The…

A look at the first part of Halo 3: ODST, covering changes in gameplay as well as new characters and settings, and the interconnections between ODST and the rest of the Halo universe. Show Highlights: Firefly Reunion Tour Not Looking At Her Gear Change…

Blackstar of Blackstar Productions and Narcogen of Bungie fansite Rampancy.net wrap up some loose ends from Halo 3 and look forward to Halo 3: ODST. Also in this episode: special guests, Bungie’s official #1 fan, Miguel “Freewill” Chavez of Bungie fans…

Jaime “Case” Griesemer, longtime Bungie designer, gave a talk at GDC about game balance in Halo, with some specific mention of the sniper rifle: Spectacle, too, is important to keeping players in flow, with the sniper rifle creating a contrail and so…

So Bungie has filed an application for a trademark on “Bungie Aerospace” with the accompanying image. The application is classified as various things somehow related to computer gaming (which is not particularly surprising) and accompanied by the image you see here. Attackofthefanboy noticed the application and it was reposted at the website of Blast magazine…

The GameWit blog at the Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA) thinks that the amicable separation of Bungie and Microsoft might be a good object lesson for Activision in its current conflict with the “hopes to be something other than just the Call of Duty” developer Infinity Ward, which was incidentally formed by developers jumping ship…

Tied the Leader’s Hoovaloov does an excellent job with this detailed video commentary on the Halo Reach multiplayer beta trailer. Includes some very good predictions about the new multiplayer modes (Invasion, Arena, and Headhunter) as well as the Loadout feature.

Bungie’s latest “Big Reveal” is the multiplayer teaser for the Reach Beta, opening to owners of Halo 3: ODST on May 3, 2010.

It’s not hard to see the appeal of the idea of the Firefight mode in Halo 3: ODST. If you follow Bungie’s shooter roots back to Marathon, and to the PC shooter that really kicked off the modern era, Doom, you can see the start of it. Doom didn’t have discrete multiplayer ‘levels’ the way…

Got some interesting mail from Amazon today. First: Hello from Amazon.com. We now have delivery date(s) for the order you placed on August 26 2009 (Order# 104-9132614-4806655): “Halo Reach” Estimated arrival date: October 26 2009 Two months ago? That’s great! Send it right away. Sure, the developer says it won’t be out for another year,…

Blackstar of Blackstar Productions and Narcogen of Bungie fansite Rampancy.net wrap up some loose ends from Halo 3 and look forward to Halo 3: ODST. Also in this episode: special guests, Bungie’s official #1 fan, Miguel “Freewill” Chavez of Bungie fansite Bungie Sightings and Cody Miller of High Speed Halo. Show highlights: Is Halo Too…

WorthPlaying notes that the coupon code ASPYRTHANKS can be used at GameAgent to reduce the price of Wideload Games’ Stubbs the Zombie from $10 to free. Sweet!

Now that I’ve actually gotten my hands on the game, I’ve been able to add some more data to that Google Earth Network Layer for Halo 3: ODST. Each of the 29 audio locations in the Mombasa Streets level are labeled. So far there’s no additional information (screenshots, descriptions) but I will add that as…

Thanks to Tireces who made this funny Myth vid and put it on Youtube.

Thanks to Tireces who made this funny Myth vid and put it on Youtube.

Over at HBO, Louis Wu notes rolandk73’s submission of sheet music for the Halo theme, arranged for Bb Clarinet and Bass Clarinet. Go check it out at HBO!

Almost forgot– there’s an image gallery to accompany the ASE podcast of Halo 3’s last level, Halo.