My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Halo 3 – driving the security industry, too

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Bart Gordon pointed out an article in DC Velocity’s current issue on upcoming changes in the protection of retail sales. DC Velocity is a logistics trade magazine (Halo 3 made the cover!), and the article is talking about enhanced RFID chips that can actually enable an electronic-based item (like a video game) at checkout. (That is: on the store shelf, the DVD is just a hunk of useless plastic – it doesn’t become a game until the cashier activates it by sending a special signal to the RFID chip.) Halo 3 is simply an example of a game that’s pushing the development of this technology, by dint of its market presence… but it’s interesting to see its use, nonetheless!(Louis Wu 16:26:58 UTC)

  • More Screenshot Art

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    halo@bungie.org
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    AusQB posted a screenshot compilation on YouTube – this wouldn’t really be news, except that he’s actually got a Bungie.net group, Ar7is7s of Halo, devoted to cool shots. (The screenshot compilation is pretty well-done, but the shots themselves suffer tremendously from being forced into YouTube’s tiny, overcompressed format.) Swing by the B.net group if you’re interested in joining other folks excited about making artistic Halo 3 screens!(Louis Wu 16:08:43 UTC)

  • Weekly Forge Contest

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Xupaosso has kicked off a website called ‘Weekly Forge Contest‘, which houses a… well, you can probably guess. Week One – build a Slayer map on Guardian using at least two crates. Read the page for full rules and a description of the goals. (No prizes; this is all about making cool stuff.) (Louis Wu 16:05:03 UTC)

  • That’s gonna leave a dent.

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Nitro288 pointed out a fun glitch found by AxS Kamikaze – not at all sure what caused it, but man, that Phantom pilot needs driving lessons. (Louis Wu 16:00:55 UTC)

  • A pretty elaborate suicide

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Heh – Ice V spent considerable effort setting up a Rube Goldberg-style suicide on The Pit; the saved film doesn’t seem to be available, but the YouTube version’s still pretty cool. There’s a forum thread started by a friend of his at Bungie.net, for comments – thanks, InAmb3rClad.(Louis Wu 15:33:23 UTC)

  • MLG talks to Commish about Game Tweaks

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    halo@bungie.org
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    MLGPro.com has an interview with their league commissioner, John Nelson, about the changes to gametypes that are made possible by the flexibility in Halo 3. There’s also plenty of info about what will, and won’t, be included in competition setups; for example, maps with shield doors will NOT be included, nor will equipment. It’s a pretty interesting read. If you’d rather read the whole thing on one page, try mlgcanada.com. (Louis Wu 15:22:02 UTC)

  • Contact Harvest – a Bestseller

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Contact Harvest went on sale 3 weeks ago – and the press release sent around yesterday (visible, among other places, at Game Daily) suggests it’s a hit. It debuted at #3 on the November 18 New York Times Bestseller list, and is still at #4 this week. (You probably have to be logged in to see those pages; bugmenot.com can help.) Additionally, it debuted on the USA Today Bestseller List at #23 on the November 8th list, and is at #44 on this week’s list. (USA Today doesn’t break out books by fiction/non-fiction, paperback/hardcover, trade/mass-market – this is why CH’s position is lower overall than on the NYT list.) Congrats, Joe and company!(Louis Wu 14:51:38 UTC)

  • Top Montages, Summarized

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Z pointed out an article written by Steam, over at 360WTF; it covers some of the top montages made in Halo 2, the Halo 3 beta, and Gears of War. (Examples are included.) Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:37:00 UTC)

  • Halo 3 – a hit with casual gamers?

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    halo@bungie.org
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    I saw this article via Google News yesterday morning – but passed on front-paging it for a number of reasons. Anton P. Nym noted it on our forum yesterday afternoon – but I was busy, so I didn’t take a second look. When I got up this morning, the report, from a company called ‘BrandIntel’, which discusses the increased awareness of Halo 3 among casual gamers, was all over the internet – Gamasutra, Joystiq, Kotaku, the list goes on. It’s an interesting study; Halo has always appealed to the ‘hardcore’ gamer, but this is the first time that it’s been of serious interest to more casual communities. It’s a solid endorsement of the success of Microsoft’s marketing campaign, I think, and will probably affect how companies market A-list titles from this point on. I’m not sure I like that idea, actually…(Louis Wu 14:32:00 UTC)

  • Halo 3 Should Be More Like Pokemon Snap

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    Trindacut

    When I played through Halo 3, all I got was a bitter taste in my mouth from sucking on my neighbors lemons, who forced me to allow him to play with me. Halo 3 is crap, I am trading it in for Pokemon Snap, aka the World’s Greatest Game. I’ll have none of this [b]unrealistic gameplay burning my eyes any longer, and I’m here to save you before it’s too late.

    First of all, Halo contains more factual errors than any other game in the world. Here are some:

    -Master Chief’s girlfriend, Cortana, is a hologram. If we were all like Master Chief the world would die because you can’t have sex with lights and metal.

     Click here for the complete text.

  • Three New Maps For Halo 3

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    narcogen

    Bungie’s “big news” for Monday was, as many predicted, the official announcement of the first installment of downloadable content for Halo 3. In this case, three new maps: Standoff, looking quite similar to parts of Tsavo Highway or The Storm, Rat’s Nest, based on Crow’s Nest from the campaign, and Foundry, based on the warehouse interior from The Storm and Floodgate and designed to be a Forge-friendly map with a highly configurable interior space.

    Oh, and the date? Just under a month– December 11, 2007.

  • Call of Duty 4 Mile High Club walkthroughs

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    rapture

    Call of Duty 4 has a beast of a campaign on Veteran mode. It’s probably the toughest difficulty I’ve played in a FPS (certainly the CoD series).

    Be sure to hang around after the credits and you’ll get to access a bonus mission. This mission is accessible on any difficulty, however you can only unlock the 10-point Mile High Club achievement if you beat the mission on Veteran. To be clear, you can unlock on any difficulty. You can even access it from the “Select Mission” option of the campaign menu. However, the 20-point achievement is only unlockable if you beat the last mission on Veteran. Spoilers ahead.

    The bonus mission has you cutting your way into an airliner which is in flight. You drop in and you’ve got 60 seconds or less to secure the VIP hostage on the second level of the airplane. You’ll have to fight your way through 20 to 30 enemies to reach the VIP.

    Here are video tutorials that will help you unlock this achievement:

  • DLC, with a Bungie Spin

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    halo@bungie.org
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    If you missed the initial announcement of the upcoming Halo Downloadable Content, or the followup screenshots, you should swing by Bungie.net, and read this story. Actually, even if you DIDN’T miss that other stuff, you should read the story. A large chunk of it is a Q&A with Chris Barrett, the creative director of DLC and Steve Cotton, the DLC design lead, and it’s a pretty interesting read. It’ll give you a pretty good sense of what to expect come December 11 (or next spring, should you choose to wait for these maps to be free).(Louis Wu 23:11:33 UTC)

  • Send in stuff for this week’s show: Multiplayer Tips & Map of the Month

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    foomojive

    It’s time to get freak again with some multiplayer tips to help you level up and stay there. This week we have two of the best Halo 3 players at Podtacular joining us to really take it to another level: Tarheels32 and MaesterGXL.

    Here’s a tip: don’t try to play hacky sack with a sticky

    It’s not just our resident experts that are gonna show us the ropes this week, we want to hear from you! Whether it’s basic or expert, it’s all fair game. Just click the big green button in the upper right and send us your tip on how to own at multiplayer with your gamertag.

    Don’t get bad breath on Valhalla or you’ll have Valhallatosis

    Map of the month is the massive and ever-flexible Valhalla. Send us your tips on how to dominate this map in any of the game types: Team Slayer/FFA Slayer, CTF/Assault, VIP/Juggernaut, King of the Hill/Territories, or Oddball/Infection. Here’s your chance to help out the Halo Nation!

    Deadline is Tuesday Night

    at about 6:30pm EST. The earlier you get your tip in, the more likely we’ll read it on the show. Hurry!

  • Heroic Map Pack Announced for Halo 3

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    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    With the content announced and priced, we talk to a couple of the DLC leads for some more details.

  • Gratuitous Humor.

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Stuntmutt looks at the downloadable version of the original Halo (due on December 11) in today’s One One Se7en. Funny man.(Louis Wu 20:17:45 UTC)

  • Extra Medals in Halo 3

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Blackstar has been creating new medals for new experiences in Halo 3 for a few weeks; we’ve finally gotten around to adding a page for them. His latest medal is ‘What Goes Around’, awarded to bark0de for an amusing death on Sandtrap. Check out the whole collection!(Louis Wu 20:08:52 UTC)

  • GeeVeeGrab – Halo 3 films, without a capture card

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Interesting; cortinator points out that GeeVee.com is offering a beta service whereby they’ll automatically convert your fileshare’d saved film clips to streamable video… this could be pretty useful for folks without a capture card! Check it out.(Louis Wu 19:41:58 UTC)

  • Heroic Map Pack Screens

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Thanks to Edelman; I hadn’t noticed the link to screens earlier.

    Gotta say… they’re pretty! (Louis Wu 17:58:01 UTC)

  • Lycos releases web search numbers

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Wow, this is truly strange to me. According to EarthTimes.org, Lycos has posted its 8th annual list of the most popular toys and video games, based on web search activity… and Halo 3 came in 10th, well below 6th-place Halo 2. How is this possible? Are Lycos users living in the past, or something?(Louis Wu 17:47:11 UTC)