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On the internet, nobody knows you’re a cinematics director.
Heh – there’s a blog post from someone who recently joined Animation Mentor, an online animation school – he was amazed to find out that one of his fellow students was none other than CJ Cowan, Halo 3’s Cinematic Director. It’s a fun read – check it out. Thanks, elite89.(Louis Wu 17:41:46 UTC)
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Marty talks to Major Nelson
Major Nelson’s latest podcast is up right now, currently only in .wma format, but eventually on iTunes; it’s a monster of a show (2 hours long), with an interview with Marty O’Donnell. I haven’t had time to listen to it yet (been a busy morning), but I’d guess it’s absolutely worth hearing. Go grab it. More news coming later… but the busy morning isn’t over yet. (Louis Wu 14:58:08 UTC)
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Section 3: Desert Troopers, Part 3
V10L3N7 JAY stopped by to point out Issue 5 of Section 3, his comic-from-screenshots story that’s been unfolding for the last week or so, is now available. Action galore!(Louis Wu 14:56:35 UTC)
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Podtacular 129: Sierra 117
Download | Shownotes
The Podtacular podcast is back with a huge blowout episode! Shiny new audio work, interviews with Bungie at the Halo 3 launch event, and talk about strategies, graphics, sound, and the story for Sierra 117. All wrapped up with more outtakes at the end. This week our guest is drive_c, the writer of “the night before Halo 3” that appeared on the front page of Podtacular recently. This show’s a little hefty at 1:15, but I hope you agree it’s worth the time.
You’ll notice this show is being released on Sunday. We’re going to do the best we can to let you depend on that day as the release day for all future episodes of Podtacular. Occasionally life will happen, but that’s the goal. What are you waiting for? Start listening!
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Bungie Breakaway News Continues
More updates on Bungie’s amazing flight into freedom:
FiringSquad interviewed Frankie, but all they give you is a summary. It does say that Harold Ryan is now President of Bungie. He mentions a skunk works for new projects. Wonder if that’s where Jason Jones is spending his time, given that his only credit in Halo 3 was under “special thanks”.
Max Brenn at eFluxMedia speculates that Microsoft’s delays in approving projects contributed to the desire to breakup.
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PlayMyth Shuts Down
Those of us steeped in Halo 3 and Bungie Breakaway news might be forgiven momentarily for forgetting that online communities for Bungie’s Mac and PC RTS games, Myth, are still hanging in there a decade after the game was released.
Unfortunately one of them, PlayMyth, has now shut down. Server administrator Blades, apparently posting as elusivemind, says he no longer has the time or energy to keep up with it.
Those looking for their online Myth multiplayer fix can still visit Mariusnet, and if you need Myth related files, including updates to Myth 2, visit Project Magma.
Thanks Gholsbane at MBO.
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RT: These things happen…
As you’ve no doubt already read about 30 times, Bungie announced yesterday that they are now independent of Microsoft, a move that is being assured as mutually benefitial to both paries. But what does this mean for young Master Chief? Today’s comic wants…
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Bungie and Microsoft – tighter than ever
And ANOTHER Bungie/MS interview – this time it’s Harold Ryan and Shane Kim, talking to 4players.de, a German site. The interview is in German, but longtime Bungie fan Harry Al-Shakarchi was there to provide us with a beautiful translation. (Louis Wu 21:46:52 UTC)
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Bungie LLC retains ownership of Pimps at Sea
There’s another interview with SketchFactor over at 1Up about the split; pretty much the same info as you’ll find in the other Bungie interviews. Sketch DOES suggest that Halo 3 might be better because of Bungie’s disappointments with Halo 2 – something I’ve believed since I first saw the game. Thanks, Zeouterlimits.(Louis Wu 21:26:03 UTC)
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Take cool screens, win cool cash
The360Forum.com is hosting a Halo 3 Screenshot contest – there are 5 categories, with a $50 prize on the line for each one. Go read the rules! Thanks, Z.(Louis Wu 19:16:11 UTC)
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The Split, Reexamined
The New York Times looked at the Microsoft/Bungie split; it doesn’t have a ton of new info over other articles about the subject, but is notable for being in the Times, I suppose. It’s also interesting because of the image at the top of the article; it shows Bungie environment artist Eric Elton working on “a Halo video game in Kirkland, WA” – but it’s not any architecture I recognize. So it’s showing either something that got cut from Halo 3, or something that’s going into a future Bungie release (DLC, maybe?). Thanks, Usul. Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, did a great job of summarizing the press reaction to the announcement; articles I found worth reading included an interview GameDaily did with Frankie, a short interview with Brian Jarrard at MacWorld, in which he agrees that future Macintosh development could definitely happen, and an interview at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with Microsoft’s Shane Kim and Bungie’s Harold Ryan. We’re entering exciting times for Bungie fans…(Louis Wu 19:11:20 UTC)
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Halo 3 meets V8 Supercars
PROPH37 sent us some interesting info about Australian racecar driver Rick Kelly, who will be wearing (or wore, I guess; the race happened this weekend) a Master Chief helmet in the Bathurst 1000, a V8 Supercar race. You can actually WIN this helmet, by answering some trivia questions (if you’re an Australian/NZ resident). Go check it out!(Louis Wu 18:51:47 UTC)
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I think they missed Stuntmutt’s category.
Blogcritics has posted a guide to Halo 3 multiplayer – see if you can figure out which category of player you fit into! I think I’m either the Team Player or the Noob. Or maybe the Noob Team Player.(Louis Wu 18:26:11 UTC)
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Super Halo Brothers
Heh – this is fun. Xbox 360 Fanboy found a video of Sandtrap, modified for platforming, with sound effects from Super Mario Brothers. If you want to see a larger version of it, they grabbed it from GameVideos – and you can actually download the modified level from the FileShare of finjitzu, the guy who built it. (Louis Wu 15:22:09 UTC)
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Awesome Guitar – For You?
Back in July, we mentioned the first 3 for 3 sweepstakes on Xbox.com – and we noted that you could win a cool Ibanez guitar. Seems Ibanez is giving away 3 more, over the next three months – along with the game and a couple of shirts, each month. Go enter! Thanks, Electric Guitar Review.(Louis Wu 15:14:35 UTC)
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What folks won’t do for schwag
Weird. Some guy is trying to play Halo 3 for three days without sleep. He’s already a little over 2 days in – you can follow that link to see his progress. If he does it, he wins a 360 and a copy of Halo 3. Thanks, Mintz. (Louis Wu 15:13:47 UTC)
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Workin’ through the levels, step 5
Jake Seaton’s Mission-A-Day, Episode 5, is now up – this is the last one until Monday. He gave this one a 4/5 – the action was too easy. (Louis Wu 15:09:57 UTC)
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Saturday Handful of Reviews
Just three reviews for you today:- Bentley College’s The Vanguard gave Halo 3 8/10, and said that the multiplayer rocked, but that the Campaign didn’t have enough to keep people interested.
- The University of Hartford Informer says “don’t say, ‘it’s just a game’.”
- Inland Valley’s Daily Bulletin says it’s no religious epiphany, but it’s solid. Score is 1/2 (huh? A 2-point rating system?).
Looks like the hype is dying down – or is this that backlash Tom’s Games was talking about?(Louis Wu 15:08:55 UTC)
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Marty to talk to Major Nelson?
Shinesevens caught a glitch in Major Nelson‘s RSS feed – it’s cleared up now, but from what he could see, Sunday’s podcast is going to be an interview with Marty O’Donnell. Look forward to it! (Louis Wu 15:07:07 UTC)
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft