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We like our stupidity organic, thank you.
Over at Rampancy.net, OldNick (who works in the game industry) has written a rant that tears into Bungie (and every other game company who scripts unnecessarily) for negating the artificial intelligence of its NPCs with scripting. It turns into a screed against artists, but the basic premise (that dumbing down your characters by forcing them to behave in specific ways when said behavior is detrimental to gameplay) is an interesting argument. Check it out! Thanks, Narcogen.(Louis Wu 15:12:24 UTC)
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High Tech Halo (not really)
Wow. Cody Miller converted one of the later cutscenes of the game to ASCII video, with 8-bit mono sound. It’s amazing you can even tell what’s going on… intriguing just for its WTF factor.(Louis Wu 15:08:14 UTC)
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TXB Readers like Halo 3 Multiplay
TeamXboox has posted their Readers’ Choice Awards for 2007. Halo 3 (or Bungie) was up for 4 awards – they went home with just the Multiplayer Game of the Year. Thanks, Halo Planet.(Louis Wu 15:04:55 UTC)
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I bet the breadcrumbs are really grenades.
preinzi created a gingerbread Blood Gulch base – and provided pictures. Check ’em out – it came out great!(Louis Wu 15:00:07 UTC)
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Halo: FTW
zugy pointed out a mod for Halo PC that basically reskins every level. Halo: FTW is (mostly) the work of Pepsi and Nessa, and adds shiny new textures to each level of the game. The HaloMods forum post contains a billion screenshots, or you can watch a fly-through movie for more dynamic info.(Louis Wu 14:56:16 UTC)
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Send In Stuff for This Week’s Show: The Storm Campaign Show
This week is all about one of the coolest campaign levels in Halo 3: The Storm. This is the one where you’re fresh off of Tsavo Highway and into Voi, where there’s huge traxus industrial buildings. There’s a little bit of room clearing and a lot of big, open vehicle battles. You take down the anti-air wraiths, lots of ghosts, banshees, the first Scarab, and the huge anti-air stationary gun at the end There’s also at least one skull on this level.
Where do you come in? We want to hear your strategies on making it through the storm on the higher difficulties. Send in your tips and tricks for taking down the scarab, for not getting overwhelmed by grunts in ghosts, for avoiding the brutes in the central bunker, for piloting the anti-air wraiths, and for dealing with those pesky banshees. Just click the big green button and send us what you got! Feel free to just let us know what you like about this level too. Deadline is Thursday night at about 6:00 PM eastern. Don’t be late!
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Flash Flood.
We’re back to straight puns with today’s One One Se7en. Minor story spoilers, even.(Louis Wu 21:17:52 UTC)
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2007 Halo Community Awards – We’re Nominated!
Sigafoos at The Riot podcast let me know that we’re nominated at the 2007 Halo Community Awards for Best Tournament (for the summer tourney), Biggest Community Contributor (Website) and Best Halo Contribution (for the podcast). Head on over and vote for your favorites in the Halo community.
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Phantoms
TTL Demag0gue is back with another installment of Reclaimer – Chapter Two, Part Twelve makes you wonder what Viper is up against… (Louis Wu 14:43:37 UTC)
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Don’t forget to vote!
While we’re discussing awards, don’t forget that the Second Foundation 2007 Community Awards have nominees posted, and votes will be accepted until just before midnight (GMT) on January 13. Check out who’s up, and add your vote!(Louis Wu 14:33:00 UTC)
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Halo Represents at GTR Awards
Gamertag Radio has presented their 3rd Annual Xbox Community Awards (the audio was made available yesterday), and three stars in the Halo firmament shone brightly. The Halo 3 Beta took the XBL Marketplace Download of the Year award, Tied the Leader took the Team Community of the Year award, and Hawty McBloggy took the Community Member of the Year award. Congrats to all! (Well, the Beta probably doesn’t appreciate the feelings, but congrats to the real people on the far end of the other two awards!) (Louis Wu 14:30:33 UTC)
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Halo-inspired military patch
Nice – there’s a company that makes military patches; one of them (for a detachment of the 15th Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron, based in Udairi, Kuwait) has chosen some Halo imagery to make its point. darthbob found this at Kotaku.(Louis Wu 14:10:59 UTC)
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Halo 3 Rap
John_117 stopped by to point out a Halo 3 rap he’d put together. You can watch it on YouTube.(Louis Wu 14:05:17 UTC)
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More Halo Gorgeosity
RVideo continues with his stunning panoramas – today you can find Last Resort and Isolation on our forum. I find the skyboxes of both to be intriguing.(Louis Wu 13:56:03 UTC)
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Could Halo 3 have been as good as we wanted it to be?
1UP Features Editor Jeremy Parish, has been posting his personal Top 7 games of 2007, and a couple of days ago he listed Halo 3 as Number 6. What makes this news is the insightful way he’s chosen to pin down the hurdles Halo 3 faced before it even hit the stands. His discussion of the story presentation, too, might help you to focus your thoughts about how good a job Bungie did (or didn’t do) to bring the Halo universe to its fans this time around. There’s more good discussion in the comments following his article, and more still in the thread on our forum started by LoneRanger 2.5. (Once again, I’m struck by the absolutist terms a lot of posters use when ranting on the internet… but if you look beyond the hyperbole, there are many decent points made.)(Louis Wu 13:51:45 UTC)
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RT: H. New Year
Happy New Year Everyone, That’s actually all I have to say on the matter. Today’s comic is below.
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Data Transfer
ZZoMBiE13 is proud of the latest episode of Another Halo Comic Strip – the first strip of 2008 also marks the longest he’s ever stuck with a webcomic. I know I speak for many when I say I hope there are many more!(Louis Wu 20:47:37 UTC)
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Joystiq’s Top 10 of 2007
Joystiq posted their Top 10 Games of 2007 – Halo 3 came in at number 6. (Before you get all upset about that, understand that they felt it was the one game you should have with you on a desert island. It lost points because it was the third go-round, not for anything else.) The whole list is nicely justified – go read!(Louis Wu 20:38:46 UTC)
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A Pro Gamer’s Wishlist
Hawty McBloggy has relinquished control of her blog for a day (or a post) – there’s a guest strip from -S-, aka IX Fall0ut XI, on what the pro gaming community wants. I wish there’d been less unsubstantiated rationalizing (I don’t know why people can’t just say “this is what I want”, but instead need to say “this is what we all want, and we are a huge group”), but it’s a nice summary of how the pro community differentiates itself from the non-pro community. (I don’t want to call non-pros ‘casual gamers’, because I know PLENTY of hardcore competitive gamers that don’t think this way – I’m not sure there’s any way to split things comfortably in a binary fashion.) You don’t have to agree with it, but it’s an interesting read.(Louis Wu 20:20:19 UTC)
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Halo 3 Spitfire
deftangel found a video which appears on YouTube, GameVideos, and Mythica.org. It’s a montage – but it’s not like any montage I’ve ever seen. It was created by UnfilteredNoise (his YouTube handle)/krushedNsorted (his GameVideos/1UP handle), and although the music grates strongly on my nerves, the camerawork is amazing. It’s not about awesome snipes, or triple kills, or unreal sticks – it’s about Halo gameplay, shown in such a way that you just want to pick up a controller and start playing. Go watch. (The YouTube version is crap; download the higher-res version from Mythica or GameVideos.)(Louis Wu 19:22:47 UTC)
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft