Author: narcogen

It’s one thing to always see the glass half full, or to always look for the flaw in an otherwise brilliant diamond. There’s also such a thing as being a spoiler; having no other purpose than to be contrary, “alternative”, or to actively dislike that which others like for the sake of disagreement itself. You…

Want to mess around with Forge maps without having to delete all the default items? Download these modified maps by Chevmeister, with all the default items carefully removed.

According to Microsoft, the Halo franchise’s latest installment has shattered one-day entertainment sales records again; Halo 3 did $170 million USD in its first day of sales in the US.

…or rather woodchuck love, as a new blogger, the animal kingdom newscaster Woodchuck Chumley has shown up at the Huffington Post with his own blog. Perhaps he’ll be answering the age-old question, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck. Or maybe he’ll just talk animal kingdom politics: As we approach election year, I feel it’s…

Bungie has put up a Halo 3 Launch Week FAQ to cover some of the most common new player questions, especially about issues surrounding screenshot uploads and other features that might be having the kinks still worked out.

Ah, aspect ratios and high definition televisions. Just as fans bitched and moaned last month about the fact that both Xbox 360 and PC versions of Bioshock locked displays to a single horizontal FOV setting, whether the user had a 4:3 or a 16:9 screen, now Joystiq is on about how splitscreen works in Halo…

Of course, we’ve heard this before. After Halo 2 was released in 2004, there were rumblings and vague remarks about Bungie wanting to do something else, non-Halo-related, for a change. Which is entirely understandable. Now, Pro-G is quoting Bungie’s Joe Tung as saying Bungie wants to work on something else for a change, and is…

Major Nelson points out an auction to benefit charity that includes some pretty one-of-a-kind items, including an Xbox 360 autographed by Bill Gates, a Zune autographed by J Allard, and a pretty complete collection of Halo games and bonus content.

Cinematic designer Lee Wilson at Bungie responds to some criticism that Halo 3 isn’t as much of a graphical tour de force as games like Bioshock or Gears of War in an article at Pro-G: He said: “It’s completely immersive. The art direction is immaculate. It’s not trying to be incredibly photo realistic or painting…

The Sydney Morning Herald has an article about Bungie AI programmer Damian Isla: Animal emotions such as surprise, interest or disappointment can be useful parts of an AI creature. “They can have an impact in the game,” he says. “Our characters have an incomplete knowledge model – they depend on line of sight. If you…

An article in Wired talks about Bungie’s attention to detail when doing multiplayer and campaign level design: Some of the details in Halo 3 verge on the obsessive. While creating several environments based on the area of Africa surrounding Mount Kilimanjaro, Bungie designers used a satellite map of the region to make sure the geography…

Major Nelson has posted up some pictures of the Master Chief and the Bungie crew in New York at the Halo 3 launch.

If your Halo 3 disc was scratched in the box, Microsoft will replace it. However, you only have until the end of this year.

HBO posted the box acronyms for the regular (SLMCWMYOW) and Legendary editions (WWYANOFAWD) of Halo 3.

Bungie.net has a nice piece up about Halo 3’s campaign scoring feature. Campaign Scoring can be enjoyed by one to four players. It works the same whether you’re playing alone or with friends but it really gets fun when a group of players compete against one another to Finish the Fight and try for the…

Bungie’s own madmax has put up a facebook gallery of photos from Bungie’s Halo 3 launch party. You can see Louis Wu doing shots, Bill Gates playing Halo 3, and, of course, the Master Chief hugging Cortana.

Man Demon says he’s found the first Halo 3 box acronym on his Limited Edition copy: JLTLEBLC Gentlemen, start your engines.

With Halo 3 unleashed across the East Coast about half an hour ago, the Internet is still teeming with Halo-related… stuff. Here are a few items: News.com knows people who are waiting in Times Square right now. XBL subscribers will be able to get some exclusive Halo 3 content starting on the 27th. Included are…

The Seattle Post Intelligencer wonders if Halo 3 can ‘turn things around’ for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. While I know from personal experience that copyeditors are sometimes pressed for time, I’m still at a loss to understand that headline.  Click here for the complete text.

Bungie’s guide, tips and tricks for setting up your set-up.