The February Halo Wars update by Thunder has a lot of fuzzy, censored pictures, but we’re told flat-out that the game is in a playable state, and has been played by Microsoft bigwigs like Shane Kim. Still, he reports there is “a long way to go” and there is still no officially announced release date.

Two strange Halo-related music items of note today:

• The Scissor Sisters apparently did a video with music somehow “inspired” by the Halo Wars trailer.
• CVG reports a rumor that the “Halo Mjolnir Theme Song”, the guitar-based Halo 2 theme, will be available as a Guitar Hero 2 add-on.

Don’t believe the rumor going around that those who got into the Halo 3 public multiplayer beta by purchasing Crackdown are going to get a different version of the game, or get it at a different time, than those who gained entry some other way: it’s false.

Bungie’s own Frankie busted that rumor to HBO’s own Louis Wu.

Last week I wrote about the website Halo2Sucks.com, a site devoted to discussing why Halo 2, despite being tremendously popular, was not actually a good game in the minds of some people; more specifically, why it was not as good a game as the original Halo. The key points of this argument were laid out by the original administrator, Shaker, who has since departed to parts unknown, leaving in his wake an absentee landlord. The denizens of that site’s forum, who seek to carry out the site’s legacy of saying Halo 2 Sucks, were left locked out from modifying the main site’s content, despite the fact that some of them, while they agreed with some (but not all) of ShakeR’s points, disagreed with how he expressed them. Some disagreed with some or all of his points. Some don’t think Halo 2 sucks. Others don’t think it’s productive to say Halo 2 Sucks, regardless of whether it does or not, because after that word “sucks” lots of people tend to stop listening to you.

I was invited into the forum to see how that community fares now, instead of reviewing the leftovers of a long-gone screed writer, and that is essentially what I found: a community that was dissatisfied with many aspects of Halo 2, but has difficulty developing a consensus on exactly what the more important reasons for that disappointment were, how they should be rectified, and if it is proper or not to use the word “sucks” when referring to how one feels about Halo 2.

Unlike Shaker’s rants, however incoherent at times, there was a single monolithic opinion to deal with. You could agree with it, disagree with it, argue with it: whatever you liked. With the forum, it’s almost redundant to do that, because the forum disagrees with itself about as often as anybody from the outside could.

There is, perhaps, one single thread of opinion that flows through most of the whole site, from the original rants down to most recent forum posts and the discussion about the article I wrote earlier. It was the idea that people expected Halo 2 to be a sequel in a rather strict and literal sense: to be the same, but more.

To be honest, Halo and Halo 2 bear a rather vague and cosmetic resemblance to each other. Sure, you’re a big green metal guy shooting at a lot of brightly colored aliens, helped by a glowing, curvaceous purple hologram. The details of just about everything, though, changed. The homebrew physics engine that Bungie made, which they described as constructing every object as if they were made of springs? Gone, replaced by the middleware Havok engine; presumably to enable the features Bungie wanted without having to code them all themselves. Nearly every weapon was modified in some way, or altered in its use by the addition of the dual wielding system. The vehicles were also all altered, first by destructibility and then by boost. The Banshee is so different about all you can say that is the same about the Halo and Halo 2 versions is that they are both purple.

I wrote last time that the essential complaint of Halo2Sucks.com was that the game, especially in the online multiplayer component, did not sufficiently reward player skill. It did not adequately and accurately express how much better one player is than another. Many of the forum members do seem to feel that way; it’s just that I think it’s a good thing and they don’t. However, they also feel that Halo 2 was far too different from Halo to be a sequel; that too much was changed, and while some good things were added, some great things were removed.

Here’s hoping there won’t be a Halo3Sucks.com; a domain which is already registered and points to the current Halo2Sucks.com site; firstly, because we can all hope that Halo 3 will be a distillation of all the best things from the first two games, with some of the kinks worked out and the bugs fixed, plus whatever new things Bungie has invented in the past two and a half years, and secondly, because the best way to start a dialogue about a game franchise you love so much that you devote a great deal of your time talking about it does not start and end with the word “sucks”… dot com.

Download | Shownotes

It’s a double feature! We had a strange issue come up that delayed the previous show which shouldn’t happen again. This is the Halo 3 show where we cover all the little tidbits about Halo 3 that have been buzzing around the gaming community. This week we have a special guest: George from aeropause.com, one of the coolest gaming blogs out there. Enjoy!

Download | Shownotes

It’s the customs and callins show where we talk about the top few custom games people sent in, the top few jokes, some voice mails from the month from CapnKrunk, and some tales from the foxhole. Guest host this week is Dialpex, the community director at Podtacular. Art this week is an original hand-drawn piece from Crimson Viper. Nice! Shoutout to our fellow members at Gamercast Network, I forgot to append the audio about that this episode, but it will be in episode 103. Dig it!

Another in Bungie’s continuing and in-depth looks at the weapons of Halo 3. This time they expose a dual wieldable weapon, designed exclusively for Halo 3. The Brute Spiker. A nasty, vicious, shredding horror used primarily by Brutes. Learn to love it now.

The Spiker
Posted by Frankie at 2/28/2007 4:19 PM PST

Spiker

Excerpt from long-term, in-field interview with the soldiers of E2-BAG/1/7.

Type-25 Carbine (Spiker)

Length (o/a): 81.7 cm (32.17 in.)

Length (barrel): 25.4 cm (10 in.)

Weight (empty): 6.4 kg (14.2 lbs)

Weight (loaded): 7 kg (15.5 lbs)

Cartridge: Unknown

Effective range: 40 meters (131 ft)

Muzzle velocity: 76.2 m/s (250 f/s)

Magazine capacity: 40 rounds

Rate of fire: 480 rnds/min

Unit Replacement Cost: NA

Description:

The type-25 carbine is a magazine fed weapon designed for automatic fire. The weapon has two tungsten-alloy bayonet-type attachments.

Observations:

This weapon resembles our technology more closely than it does the other weapons in the Covenant’s arsenal. It performs admirably in a variety of environments; it is a widely held belief that the weapon could sit unattended for several weeks in an active latrine and still operate as issued with no maintenance performed on it. Unfortunately this is not far from the truth.

Though it was first observed over a quarter century ago this weapon has not been seen in the hands of front line troops until just recently. Over the years it has garnered the nicknames “Spike Rifle”, “Spiker”, and “hatchet gun”.

Remarks:

“Even though them spike rifles are really heavy I still wish there was some way to retrofit a full stock onto ‘em.”

“Recoil isn’t as bad as you might expect, but not because of any sophisticated dampening system – it’s because the damn things weigh so much.”

“I saw the baby kong go dry so I moved in with my shotty, well that’s the last time I’ll be doing that, huh? Damn cleaver-bayonet-thing went right through the shotty and cut my arm off just above the elbow. Only reason I’m still here is because of, well you know, because of him.”

“Every action requires exaggerated movement; cycling the bolt, seating a magazine, charging the chamber. Even squeezing the trigger takes quite a bit of effort. And it isn’t all that surprising considering the disparity in size of our two species.”

“Bravo kilos sure have a thing for sticking blades on their equipment, don’t they? I bet their mess kits’ve got three knives.”

“The projectiles fired from this weapon seem to be made out of the same material as the spike grenade’s casing. Wounds caused by this weapon are horrifying.”

“Spike rifles always have a weird sorta burnt hair smell about them. And you know you’re heading towards a firefight where they’re bein’ used if it smells like a barbeque gone wrong.”

Using the Spiker in the Field

Off-planet fighting brings with it some of the disadvantages of interstellar flight. Notably, the expense and difficulty of transporting large amounts of weaponry and ammunition. Unlike our ancestors in the preceding centuries, we cannot afford the luxury of ignoring or destroying enemy materiel or equipment. We field train even the most basic infantry in the “art” of utilizing found materials and weapons. A dead foe can be a treasure trove of equipment for a properly trained Spartan.

Only recently have we encountered the so-called Spikers (Type-25 Carbine per the field manual), however, as the Brutes, in the wake of the Elite insurgence, assert their power and implement Brute strategies and weaponry on the field of combat.

Brute Spikers are, and the pun is unavoidable, brutally effective. In field, they have similar penetration and lethal range to SMG pistols, but there are a few vital differences.

Unlike SMGs, there’s little recoil, and therefore almost zero “rise” when using them in their default, full-automatic setting. This actually makes them a little more efficient and accurate than the SMG in dual-wielding situations, since you don’t have to adjust aim to stay centered.

Like SMGs, pulsing the trigger rather than squeezing it into fully automatic mode, will result in more accurate shooting over distance. The spikes have a very large spread when sprayed in fully automatic mode. Larger even than the SMG.

More vitally, the spikes don’t deform on impact if shot at close surfaces at an angle. Shoot head on, and they crumple, but angle that shot and you can deflect, with predictable accuracy, deadly, shredding rounds that basically lose none of their efficacy.

As you can imagine, in very tight confines, the effect can be used deliberately to injure or weaken a player who thinks they’re in safe cover. They might also relax their guard, believing that your aim is catastrophically off, or that you’re targeting another opponent.

In tests at High Ground, we’ve found that the Spikers can be used effectively at a medium distance to pick off enemies who’re often confused (and panicked) first by the sound, but then have difficulty recognizing what weapon is being used against them.

The SMG comparison becomes especially relevant in close-quarters fighting however. The Spiker ammunition does terrible things to human flesh, and will penetrate shields and armor with ease. Files are being updated constantly on this and other brute strategies. More and more we are discovering that Brutes are as great, if not a greater threat in combat than our previous problem, the Elites.

3D QuickTime movie of Brute Spiker. Click image or right click to save target as.

Some of you are curious about Shadowrun. This trailer isn’t really public right now except for the fact that I’m linking you to it.

small @ 22MB 
large @ 77MB