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Halo 3’s Saved Films/AI Behavior – an Interview
Saved Films functionality is a HUGE part of the wonder that is Halo 3; it lets you relive spectacular moments, it let’s you figure out exactly HOW you died (and which walls that bullet ricocheted off before it went through your skull), it lets you create gorgeous machinima with a minimum of setup. In order for it to work, though, Bungie’s gameplay has to be incredibly predictable… and if it’s incredibly predictable, how can it be fun? The answer to this question, and questions like it, require an understanding of how the Saved Film system works – and how Bungie’s AI works. So we went to Max Dyckhoff, one of Bungie’s AI engineers, to get the skinny. This ain’t an interview for people who just want to play the game – this is for people who want to understand how it WORKS. Go read what he told us.(Louis Wu 00:26:00 UTC)
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Screenshot Screensaver
Brad, from Soundproof.com, let us know that he’s created a screensaver that “scrapes the user submitted screen shots from bungie.net and shows them as a slide show.” It’s a Windows-only app, and there are two versions – one that just shows you the pics, the other that “takes your gamertag and uses that to gather all kinds of stats”, plus newsfeeds from a variety of Halo sites. This one costs $2.(Louis Wu 00:15:31 UTC)
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How to be a better Halo 3 player
Larry Larson (of Microsoft’s Channel Ten) recently blogged about a bunch of tips that went out over an internal Xbox distribution list, which might help you become a better Halo 3 player. It also answers some basic questions that might have you puzzled. Give it a read!(Louis Wu 00:09:52 UTC)
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Hi-res Halo Brushes
Weird – this site has created a bunch of “Halo 3 high resolution Photoshop brushes” – I guess for more quickly whipping up that cool wallpaper you’re working on. Check it out! (Louis Wu 00:09:34 UTC)
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Jack’s Back
Jack Thompson got himself on a TV morning show, decrying the church-using-Halo-to-recruit issue; Kotaku decided to break his claims down and look at how accurate they are. Not surprisingly, Jack’s made a few untenable declarations. You could have knocked me over with a feather – I never would have guessed it. Thanks, GryphonOsiris.(Louis Wu 22:39:55 UTC)
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Halolcats
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Halolcats is one of those cat-meme sites, only this time, all the “catptions” are about Halo and related themes. We realize this site is a little olde, but decided to see if we could crush their bandwidth by sending you to LOL, or HaLOL as the kids say over there.
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Combat Part 2 – now downloadable in HD
Laird points out that Combat Part 2 (Neil Blomkamp’s 3rd short) is finally downloadable in HD – head over to GameTrailers.(Louis Wu 22:02:51 UTC)
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Dear Halo Haters
Heh – G4’s Adam Sessler has some choice words for Halo haters out there… they’re not polite, but they’re choice. Thanks, PHANTOMFIRE X.(Louis Wu 21:58:07 UTC)
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NBA star cheating for experience. Phooey.
Wow, amazing. Over on Bungie.net, MC187 noticed that one of Gilbert Arenas’ gamertags was climbing funny in experience points. (Read the post for the details on the scam; they’re pretty unimportant to the story.) Arenas is a pro NBA player, and the sponsor of pro MLG team Final Boss; he’s high-profile, and big in the pro Halo community, as well, so if he’s cheating, it’s sort of a big deal. Dan Steinberg, who writes a blog for the Washington Post, decided to ask Arenas if this was true – apparently, it is. He doesn’t see it as cheating, because he doesn’t see ‘Experience Points’ as anything really relevant. Seems a little disappointing to me… thanks, evildoctorwill, for bringing this to our forum.(Louis Wu 21:38:51 UTC)
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Podcastin’ the day away
The latest Bungie podcast has been posted – in it, Jonty Barnes talks about what it’s like being a producer at Bungie. This was recorded well before the split announcement, so don’t be looking for juicy details about that here. About an hour long, 73 mb.(Louis Wu 21:18:31 UTC)
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EA wants a Halo
Interesting – over at 24/7 Wall St., there’s an article about Electronic Arts buying BioWare and Pandemic – the article interprets this move as “EA wants its own Halo”. In contrast to what happened to Microsoft’s stock recently (it rose when Halo 3 was released, and rose again when Bungie split away), EA’s stock has actually dropped, significantly (nearly 5% if you include after-hours trading). I guess the market’s not as friendly towards buying the next big hit? Thanks, Jon Ogg.(Louis Wu 21:12:23 UTC)
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Bungie Studios Podcast: Yes, We’re Here
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Bungie’s Executive Producer and taskmaster-ing expert Jonty Barnes is in the warm seat this week.
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Ready-to-Wear Suit on eBay
Hawty McBloggy found a pretty nice Master Chief costume on eBay – ready to wear! Opening bid is $900, Buy it Now price is $2000 – if you’re in the market, you’ve got a week!(Louis Wu 17:57:32 UTC)
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What else is out there?
ScrewAttack posted a video showing the 10 best games available this holiday – that aren’t Halo 3. (Halo 3: so overmarketed, you can even use it to sell OTHER stuff.) Thanks, Linkmaxwell.(Louis Wu 17:29:56 UTC)
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What’s next for Master Chief?
GameDaily has a photo montage of a bunch of ways Master Chief can enjoy his retirement, now that the current Halo arc is finished. Thanks, John McGovern.(Louis Wu 17:26:05 UTC)
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Guitar Hero III Official Site Launches
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Today Activision launched a site for Guitar Hero III (www.guitarhero.com) that appears to be a start towards what Bungie.net is for Halo 3. You can register your name, create a band for your friends, and earn “groupies” for various things. It’s pretty cool. I created a band called The Hushed Casket. If any THX’ers want to join, just create a profile and search for it. Eventually it is supposed to track scores and provide a lot of other cool social networking features. Official press release is below with more info.
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Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), in partnership with Agora Games, a leading provider of online community development and in-game data collection, announced today that a new dedicated Guitar Hero community teaser website has launched, and fans can now visit www.GuitarHero.com to get a Backstage Pass to obtain insider information, news announcements, exclusive behind the scenes footage of Slash and other in-game talent, gameplay videos, and screenshots. Aspiring axe-shredders will also have the ability to pre-order and hear snippets from the set list of the highly anticipated title, Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock.
Fans who are first to sign up will have the exciting opportunity to create their own account and claim their stage name, which will be their unique identity on the official Guitar Hero community site, scoreboards, and forums. After the game launches on October 28, 2007, players will be able to go “on tour” by creating or joining a group to compare scores, and compete online in global head to head tournaments with other tour groups, along with the opportunity to establish new friendships and connect with other passionate Guitar Hero fans from around the world. They can also build a “rock radius” to opt-in and see friends, tour group members and players to connect with online through a global map.
To complete the rock star experience, fans can obtain groupies on the road to stardom while earning the title of Indie to Rock Star to Guitar Hero and shredding their way into the Hall of Fame. Groupies will determine a player’s popularity around the Backstage Pass, as well as on the full community site. For a limited time, players can now earn groupies by telling friends about their band and getting them to register on the site to join their tour group.
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Guitar Hero III Official Site Launches
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Today Activision launched a site for Guitar Hero III (www.guitarhero.com) that appears to be a start towards what Bungie.net is for Halo 3. You can register your name, create a band for your friends, and earn “groupies” for various things. It’s pretty cool. I created a band called The Hushed Casket. If any THX’ers want to join, just create a profile and search for it. Eventually it is supposed to track scores and provide a lot of other cool social networking features. Official press release is below with more info.
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Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), in partnership with Agora Games, a leading provider of online community development and in-game data collection, announced today that a new dedicated Guitar Hero community teaser website has launched, and fans can now visit www.GuitarHero.com to get a Backstage Pass to obtain insider information, news announcements, exclusive behind the scenes footage of Slash and other in-game talent, gameplay videos, and screenshots. Aspiring axe-shredders will also have the ability to pre-order and hear snippets from the set list of the highly anticipated title, Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock.
Fans who are first to sign up will have the exciting opportunity to create their own account and claim their stage name, which will be their unique identity on the official Guitar Hero community site, scoreboards, and forums. After the game launches on October 28, 2007, players will be able to go “on tour” by creating or joining a group to compare scores, and compete online in global head to head tournaments with other tour groups, along with the opportunity to establish new friendships and connect with other passionate Guitar Hero fans from around the world. They can also build a “rock radius” to opt-in and see friends, tour group members and players to connect with online through a global map.
To complete the rock star experience, fans can obtain groupies on the road to stardom while earning the title of Indie to Rock Star to Guitar Hero and shredding their way into the Hall of Fame. Groupies will determine a player’s popularity around the Backstage Pass, as well as on the full community site. For a limited time, players can now earn groupies by telling friends about their band and getting them to register on the site to join their tour group.
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Hold still, I’m doing the inverse apple thing…
RefinedSolid pointed out a clip at MLG’s Gameroom showing a pretty funny betrayal. You couldn’t make that shot if you TRIED.(Louis Wu 16:53:04 UTC)
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Halo 3 Sitcom Sighting
op_ivy noticed a couple of characters playing through part of the first campaign level of Halo 3 on last night’s Sarah Silverman Program. (Louis Wu 16:51:30 UTC)
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft