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Is anybody out there?

If anyone still finds this site useful, please let me know in the comments on this post. If there isn’t any real interest it’s likely that I will shut this site down. Claude is of course still keeping the lights on over at HBO where you can get your fill of whatever Halo news is still being generated.

Let’s Play Destiny Co-op #61 Prison of Elders Level 32


Urrox's Grudge w/ Stuntmutt

Blackstar and Narcogen team up with renowned Halo and Destiny webcomic author Stuntmutt to take on Urroxx and his Grudge in last week’s Prison of Elders level 32 activity.

Blackstar and Narcogen are brothers who live on opposite sides of the globe but stay in touch playing co-op games, especially ones by Bungie, new and old. Right now we’re going through the second expansion to Bungie’s shared world shooter, Destiny: The House of Wolves.

Stuntmutt is the author of Halo webcomic One One Seven and Destiny webcomic Vault of Farce.

http://destiny.bungie.org/tagged/vault-of-farce

http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/stuntmutt.html

The Halo Bulletin: 4.23.14

As I’ve written before, holidays are pretty fantastic at 343. Sometimes we have unlimited amounts of Lucky Charms, other times we get custom Halo valentines. Most times, there is a lot of delicious homemade food. This past Tuesday was Earth Day, and as you may have guessed, it was a pretty big deal here at 343. Sitting on each desk on Tuesday morning was a little surprise in the form of a custom-made trading card. It is worth noting here that the cards were made from 100% recycled paper.

The franchise team put together a collection of eight trading cards, each featuring a planet from the Halo universe, and gave each employee a random card. This made everyone excited, and also made some people want all of the cards. I may or may not be one of those people. The planet I received was Earth – good place to start, I thought. I quickly looked around at neighboring desks to see which cards my co-workers had received, and immediately stared going through my inventory of Halo figures, dogtags, and other trinkets for items to barter with. Others were a bit more direct, and started negotiating trades on an email chain with the entire studio. This is when I knew things were gonna get serious.

 

By the end of the day, I had traded a set of Halo 4 Infinity dog tags for Sanghelios (URS IV), and was lucky enough to nab a Te (SVIR V) in exchange for a future favor. I realize this may have been a questionable decision, but I really wanted the card. At the time of this writing, I am still actively searching for the remaining five Earth Day 2014 Halo trading cards. I will find them.

This week, we’ve got a new issue of Halo: Escalation, a (heavy) Halo 4 Matchmaking update, and more. Let’s chat!

Halo: Escalation #5 Available Now

The fifth issue of Dark Horse's ongoing comic series - Halo: Escalation - is now for saleMissing for thirty years, a legendary UNSC warship is discovered deep behind enemy lines. As Infinity plans a rescue mission, however, Admiral Hood’s past with the ship’s captain threatens to jeopardize the mission. The investigation into the UNSC saboteur continues as the journalist infiltrates an Elite holy land in search of answers.

Published by Dark Horse Comics, Halo: Escalation spins directly out of the events of Halo 4. Below, check out pages 6-11 of Halo: Escalation #5.

Page 06

Page 07

Page 08

Page 09

Page 10

Page 11

Visit the official Dark Horse website to purchase Halo: Escalation #5.

Podtacular 419: Pax East 2014

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Gaming conventions have already kicked off for the year and Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX is no exception. While there wasn’t a Halo presence at PAX East this year, as a gamer on the east coast, it’s a hard event to pass up. For us, the big games of interest were Titanfall and the announcement of the Borderlands Pre-sequel. Our PAX experience this time, however was filled with what most people would get out of a PAX experience: waiting in lines, walking the show floor over and over, and attending various panels instead of our normal shenanigans of handing around what Halo presence or booth there has been in the past since we’ve been going. My good friend Vanirfreyja was there along the journey for the PAX East weekend and joins us as we take a look back at the highlights of the expo.

AI Battle – Knight Battlewagons vs Hunters

Wow, this is actually pretty cool. Gamecheat set up some AI-on-AI battles to see which was more badass - Covenant Hunters or Forerunner Knight Battlewagons? From 1v1 up to 20v20 (which might be a little out of Halo 4's processing range, actually), check this film out to see how these guys choose to fight each other - and who's stronger! (I actually found myself impressed with how the AI handled the varying fights - not from a FIGHTING standpoint, but from a TACTICS one.)(Louis Wu 16:03:20 UTC)

Never the same game twice

Yesterday, Edge Magazine released a retrospective on Halo - one of a very few titles to ever earn the coveted '10' in an Edge review. It's a look back at what made that first title so special - and how gaming has changed forever in response. As with most Edge articles, it's full of memorable writing (the description of the Library as "the long dark night of the shotgun" was especially enjoyable), but mostly it's just about revisiting an old favorite through the eyes of someone who loved it as much as you did. Go give it a read! (Louis Wu 14:17:14 UTC)

Never the same game twice

Yesterday, Edge Magazine released a retrospective on Halo - one of a very few titles to ever earn the coveted '10' in an Edge review. It's a look back at what made that first title so special - and how gaming has changed forever in response. As with most Edge articles, it's full of memorable writing (the description of the Library as "the long dark night of the shotgun" was especially enjoyable), but mostly it's just about revisiting an old favorite through the eyes of someone who loved it as much as you did. Go give it a read! (Louis Wu 14:17:14 UTC)

A Crazy Halo 3 Easter Egg Surfaces… on Easter, 7 years later

In January, Lord Zedd posted a short video purporting to show off a newly-discovered Halo 3 Easter Egg - but refused to explain how to reproduce it. (He preferred that fans find it on their own.) There wasn't enough in the video he posted for me to be able to tell if this was staged or real - so I left it alone, figuring that sooner or later, we'd know, one way or the other. It's Easter today, so I guess Lord Zedd decided it was time - he's posted a video showing how to trigger the egg. (It's pretty ridiculous - I don't think this would EVER have been found if not for modders looking through the code.) Go watch - I'm guessing whoever put that into the game knew they were moving over to 343 after Halo 3! (Or maybe they were just commenting on the franchise; the decision to relinquish the Halo IP was finalized in the summer of 2007, just before Halo 3's release.) Pretty cool! Thanks, gamerguy2002.(Louis Wu 17:03:41 UTC)

Podtacular 418: Stillness in the Ivory Tower

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Over the course of a studio’s lifetime, the fans get to know some of the people behind the games they play and they earn our love and support as they continue working on future projects. The future of one such iconic personality, Marty O’Donnell was changed forever as his employment with Bungie was terminated last week. In this special episode, we team up with Guardian Radio, one of our sister podcasts over on the Podkast Network to talk about the influence Marty has had on the Halo and Bungie communities and the futures that are yet to come for Bungie and Marty himself. This is not the end of Marty’s career nor a stumbling block for the success of Destiny that is sure to come, but it has a left a lot of people with saddened spirits about the news, but warm-felt expressions of enthusiasm and support for wherever Marty’s journey may take him. Mark Turcotte and Derrick Smith from Guardian Radio and Layne Thomas join us this week to discuss this unfortunate news and what it means for us as Marty fans.