My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft


  • Gears of War 2 trailer


    GoW2 is set to be launched on November 7th.


  • Fable 2 trailer


    This game is set for launch in October 2008.


  • Netflix and XBOX 360 details

    Summary:

    1) only SD videos will be offered
    2) LIVE Party viewers must be Netflix subscribers
    3) Netflix servers will handle the streaming
    4) No downloading; just streaming
    5) Not avialable for Silver memberships
    6) Free for XBL Gold subscriptions

    Here’s the official press release which misses some of the details above:

    An exciting new home theater experience is coming to living rooms this holiday season. At the E3 Media and Business Summit, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today unveiled an exclusive partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the television via the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. Xbox 360 will be the only game system that lets users instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix. This movie watching innovation will be available to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers and will let those users enjoy streaming movies from Netflix on Xbox LIVE at no additional cost.

    A growing library of more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes will be available from Netflix when it launches on Xbox LIVE in late fall, with more choices added over time. Through this agreement, along with the existing Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store, Xbox 360 will be home to more movies and TV shows on demand than any other device connected to the TV. Xbox LIVE quickly and easily connects consumers and their friends to the entertainment they want — with no PC required for viewing.

    Netflix on Xbox 360 is an important component of the new Xbox experience, a new generation of games and entertainment experiences that will be available on Xbox 360 consoles this fall. The new Xbox experience, also announced today at the E3 Media and Business Summit, represents the first time in history that a mass-market consumer electronics device has been re-invented through free software, giving people more fun and intuitive ways to interact, play and enjoy entertainment content.

    “Watching movies at home will never be the same. Netflix on Xbox 360 is an entertainment first, and we are bringing friends together with the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, Software and Services Business at Microsoft. “We are creating a completely new social entertainment experience, and Xbox 360 will be the only video game system where you can access your library of instantly streamable movies from Netflix and turn any room into a virtual movie theater.”

    From the Netflix Web site, members simply add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will be automatically displayed on the TV screen via Xbox 360 and available to watch instantly. Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds. In addition to instantly streaming movies to the TV, Xbox LIVE Gold members can fast-forward, pause and rewind, all using either their Xbox 360 Controller or Media Remote. In all, the user interface creates a highly personalized experience that puts viewers in control.

    “Netflix and Xbox 360 are a perfect combination, the leading online movie rental service and the leading games and entertainment system joining forces to create an all-in-one entertainment experience with content for everyone,” said Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of Netflix. “For Netflix, it represents an important step forward in making instantly streaming movies on the TV more broadly available to our members.”

    The library of movies and TV episodes that will be available for instant streaming from Netflix via Xbox 360 includes scores of Academy Award winners and nominees, episodes from a number of popular, currently running and classic TV shows, and 24 of the movies rated by the American Film Institute as the greatest ever.


  • Halo Wars trailer

    A new trailer for Halo Wars has been released.


    More assets are found at http://halowars.com and the XBOX Live Marketplace.

    We still have no release date for this game and it’s looking more and more like a 2009 launch.


  • FFXIII trailer

    This is an older trailer, but you can expect the same kind of graphics to be found on the XBOX 360 version.



  • 400

    We have 400 members.


  • Halo Wars – Asset City

    As expected, there was no announcement from Bungie today (that will almost certainly come Wednesday). However, there WERE new releases from Ensemble; the Halo Wars FAQ, the Screenshots section (complete with battlemech-style mystery units that might or might not be the previously-mentioned Cyclops, and a Prophet in the midst of battle (thanks, GatchamanUK), along with other goodies), and the Renders section all got updated, along with a new trailer entitled ‘Five Long Years’, showing prerendered battle footage. (If you’re having trouble with the WMP9 versions, we’ve slapped up a 720p H.264-encoded QuickTime (68.2 mb), and a 360p Sorenson3-encoded QuickTime (15.1 mb) – it’s definitely worth watching.) There’s a rather sizeable discussion thread on our forum, if you want to toss your two cents in. Update: apparently, it’s on Xbox Live Marketplace, as well, now.(Louis Wu 21:40:02 UTC)

  • Spuds

    Dennis Powers, whose updates wait for no entertainment conventions, has released Shipwrecked 36 – military humor.(Louis Wu 21:31:09 UTC)

  • Bungie.net Front Page Displays Superintendent Countdown

    If you have not yet seen the Bungie.net homepage, check it out now and come back to discuss in our forum!

  • Rock Band 2 set list. 84 songs. All master tracks.

    Microsoft has revealed the set list for Rock Band 2 (due out in mid September). All songs are master tracks; not covers. This is going to rock:

    AC/DC – “Let There Be Rock”
    AFI – “Girl’s Gone Grey”
    Alanis Morissette – “You Oughta Know”
    Alice in Chains – “Man in the Box”
    Allman Brothers – “Ramblin’ Man”
    Avenged Sevenfold – “Almost Easy “
    Bad Company – “Shooting Star”
    Beastie Boys – “So Whatcha Want”
    Beck – “E-Pro “
    Bikini Kill – “Rebel Girl”
    Billy Idol – “White Wedding Pt. I”
    Blondie – “One Way or Another”
    Bob Dylan – “Tangled Up in Blue”
    Bon Jovi – “Livin’ on a Prayer”
    Cheap Trick – “Hello There”
    Devo – “Uncontrollable Urge”
    Dinosaur Jr. – “Feel the Pain”
    Disturbed – “Down with the Sickness”
    Dream Theater – “Panic Attack”
    Duran Duran – “Hungry Like the Wolf”
    Elvis Costello – “Pump It Up”
    Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”
    Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
    Guns N’ Roses – “Shackler’s Revenge”
    Interpol – “PDA”
    Jane’s Addiction – “Mountain Song”
    Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
    Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle”
    Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
    Journey – “Anyway You Want It”
    Judas Priest – “Painkiller”
    Kansas – “Carry On Wayward Son”
    L7 – “Pretend We’re Dead”
    Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”
    Linkin Park – “One Step Closer”
    Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”
    Lush – “De-Luxe”
    Mastodon – “Colony of Birchmen”
    Megadeth – “Peace Sells”
    Metallica – “Battery”
    Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Where’d You Go”
    Modest Mouse – “Float On”
    Motorhead – “Ace of Spades”
    Nirvana – “Drain You”
    Norman Greenbaum – “Spirit in the Sky”
    Panic at the Disco – “Nine in the Afternoon”
    Paramore – “That’s What You Get”
    Pearl Jam – “Alive”
    Presidents of the USA – “Lump”
    Rage Against the Machine – “Testify”
    Ratt – “Round & Round”
    Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Give it Away”
    Rise Against – “Give it All”
    Rush – “The Trees”
    Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye”
    Smashing Pumpkins – “Today”
    Social Distortion – “I Was Wrong”
    Sonic Youth – “Teenage Riot”
    Soundgarden – “Spoonman”
    Squeeze – “Cool for Cats”
    Steely Dan – “Bodhitsattya”
    Steve Miller Band – “Rock’n Me”
    Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger”
    System of a Down – “Chop Suey”
    Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”
    Tenacious D – “Master Exploder”
    Testament – “Souls of Black”
    The Donnas – “New Kid in School”
    The Go-Go’s – “We Got the Beat”
    The Grateful Dead – “Alabama Getaway”
    The Guess Who – “American Woman”
    The Muffs – “Kids in America”
    The Offspring – “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated)”
    The Replacements – “Alex Chilton”
    The Who – “Pinball Wizard”


  • TeamTimeout.com Makeover!

    It will be down this week for construction! vBulitin here we come!

  • Keep it clean!

    Looks like the Bungie announcement has been pushed off a bit – if you visit Bungie.net, you’ll see a Superintendent-related countdown page, with a timer that runs out at 10 am PST, Wednesday morning. That doesn’t mean there won’t be cool stuff announced at E3… just that Bungie’s stuff probably won’t be there. Update: Jordan117 points out that my math is a little fuzzy – that the actual end time of the countdown is not 10 am, as I said, but rather 7:07:07 am – a far more Bungie-fied figure!(Louis Wu 17:48:19 UTC)

  • Frozen Assets.

    It’s been a while since you’ve heard from him… but Stuntmutt’s still alive. There’s a new One One Se7en up that takes a look at Cold Storage; takes him a couple of panels to warm up, I think.(Louis Wu 15:18:58 UTC)

  • Triggers Down beats Str8 Rippin in Orlando

    Congratulations to Triggers Down, winners of MLG Orlando. There are tons of news snippets and pictures at MLGPro.com – but if you want a quick summary of how the top teams did, you could visit the Xbox Users Group – easy-to-read, covers the highlights.(Louis Wu 15:16:37 UTC)

  • Field of Play

    TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 65 is now up. The plot thickens!(Louis Wu 14:02:36 UTC)

  • Halo ‘Blue’?

    The rumors continue to fly about what may, or may not, be announced today at the E3 press conference – the latest tidbit was unveiled by Joystiq, who received a listing from a Wal-Mart intranet document. All we have is a name (Halo “Blue”), a category (M-rated shooter), and a date (September 30, which Joystiq thinks is probably a placeholder). Could this be linked to the rumors of a new game being developed by Bungie? Time will tell!(Louis Wu 13:35:45 UTC)

  • The Prodigious Permutation

    GeneticSpartan stopped by with news of The Prodigious Permutation, a new machinima project he’s released. Nice piece of work! Great cinematography, great effects, funny story. I’m loving this next generation of Halo machinima! The video, available at FileFront, is in WMP9 format, and weighs in at just under 150 mb.(Louis Wu 13:31:41 UTC)

  • More Halo Wars artwork

    DHalo noticed an article on Halo Wars over at the 360 Magazine – it contains a nice writeup, and a bunch of new screenshots. (Most of the new ones are concept art shots like this one – but there’s also this shot, which was just added (in a larger format) to the Halo Wars site in the last couple of days. (It wasn’t there on the 10th, when the last update was mentioned.) You sort of have to wonder about that pattern on the ground…)(Louis Wu 13:27:37 UTC)