-
Content Rules, Machinima, and More
Hugh Hancock wrote up the full discussion of his conference call with Microsoft about the Game Content Usage Rules we mentioned yesterday. He mentions Halo specifically, puts forth some very common-sense arguments to some of the overreactions that hit the net soon after the Rules did, and even manages to squeeze in an xkcd reference. You can’t do better than that. (He also suggests you read an article written by Fred von Lohmann, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on this subject – he was also in on this conference call, and, unlike Hugh, IS a lawyer. Fred’s article is pretty positive as well.) Bottom line from yesterday (“Don’t Worry, Be Happy”) still stands. As long you’re not making “Cortana does Cleveland” or something…(Louis Wu 18:37:58 UTC)
-
Forging Ahead.
It’s not often that a One One Se7en makes me laugh out loud without puns. Today is one of those times.(Louis Wu 16:42:37 UTC)
-
Baselss Judgement
Yesterday’s F@NB0Y$ was Halo-related – and pretty funny. Thanks, Pixellated. (Louis Wu 15:39:13 UTC)
-
Game of the week for 08/31/07
—
by
Okay guys sorry the update is just coming at the end of the month. So here it is and enjoy our feature presentation on The Edler Srcolls IV: Oblivion.
-
Fans in Japan
Next Generation has a tidbit about the Halo 3 marketing flood in Japan. More of a wave, actually. They’re giving out fans. (The paper kind.) (Louis Wu 15:25:06 UTC)
-
Don’t Stop Believing
Jamie98s sent along another music video for your perusal – this one’s set to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”, and tells the story of lost, and found, love. Available in both WMP9 format (36.5 mb) and QuickTime format (34.8 mb).(Louis Wu 14:34:54 UTC)
-
Frickafrackawatermarks…
Entertainment Weekly has new Halo 3 screenshots – a baker’s dozen. (Well, a few are not new – but most are. Unfortunately, all the new ones have a huge EW.com watermark right over the middle of them…)(Louis Wu 13:51:59 UTC)
-
September’s 360 – a Halo fest
We occasionally post magazine scans of Halo articles, though we never post stuff before the issue’s off the newsstand shelves, and we never post stuff from magazines that have specifically asked to be removed from our site. One thing that hasn’t happened before, though, is that until now, we have not been contacted by a magazine and asked to show off some of their Halo content before it’s available for purchase at your local retailer. 360 Magazine, in the UK, changes that for us. Staff writer Gavin Mackenzie contacted us about their upcoming Halo Special Collectors Issue, due on newsstands on September 6 (that’s next Saturday). They’re in the UK, but Barnes and Noble in the US will carry these as well (though likely later than September 6). He sent along the cover for the article, as well as teasers for some of the Halo content (one | two). Even the parts of the magazine that have nothing to do with Halo have a Halo theme – check out the design of the Reviews section this month. If you’re somewhere you can buy this – you should. Looks like it’ll be a fun read! (Louis Wu 13:33:34 UTC)
-
HaloPhone
sorahn hacked his iPhone to be more Halo-flavored – there’s a standard background, and a Cortana background. Nice!(Louis Wu 13:29:19 UTC)
-
Make your OWN poster.
Mrguy got hold of a very large version of the MC-with-Gravity-Hammer image that will grace the third issue of Halo: Uprising – this is the same image that Ironlion’s now got in poster form. If you want to download the huge one – swing by Mrguy’s post.(Louis Wu 13:25:26 UTC)
-
Hunter Armor Project – Updated
Daijitsu has updated his Hunter Armor – check out the forum post for some cool shots of the shield! (Earlier shots were mentioned here.)(Louis Wu 13:05:09 UTC)
-
More on the Content Rules
Nitro288 stopped by to point out a blog post from DonkeyXote, otherwise known as Don McGowan, a Microsoft attorney who wrote up (helped write up?) the Game Content Usage Rules. (He was one of the guys who spoke to Hugh Hancock yesterday – here’s his note about the call.) Again, it sounds like the gloom-and-doom predictions of the Halo machinima community, made right after the Content Rules were first posted, might have been a little premature. We’ll keep an eye on this.(Louis Wu 12:53:20 UTC)
-
Friday’s Fanfic
Four stories this week in the Fan Fiction section… getting light!(Louis Wu 12:41:37 UTC)
-
What’s wrong with white monkeys?
weephun noticed another Maxim list that Halo made – this time, it’s the ‘12 Worst Video Game Bosses Ever‘, and they’ve taken umbrage with a certain albino ape.(Louis Wu 11:38:34 UTC)
-
A subculture of hard-core video games
Interesting mainstream writeup of Halo in Time magazine this week – it still talks about Halo as though it’s an underground obsession and gamers are still geeks who live in their parents’ basements… but they’re STARTING to see the power of the brand. (Louis Wu 11:36:04 UTC)
-
Drupal 5 Upgrade Complete
—
by
Over the last 24 hours I’ve updated Rampancy.net from Drupal 4.7 to the latest 5.2. To the best of my knowledge, no features have been lost– drop me a line if something seems broken.
If you look at the top of the page, you’ll see the new spoiler system. For years we’ve tagged items as “spoilers” on the site, but nothing was ever done with that information. Now, the default front page view will include no spoilers, and you can click on a link to change that setting; you can choose to eliminate Halo 3 spoilers, Halo 1 & 2 spoilers, or to view all spoilers.
In the future we hope to have this be a setting the user can select once and then forget about, but with Halo 3 gone gold and the risk of serious spoilers becoming available at any moment, it seemed better to implement an imperfect feature then allow another Halo release to go by without any spoiler control at all.
The downside to this is that if you registered an account or posted a comment or blog entry during that time, I’m afraid you’ll have to do it again; it took longer than expected to get the new database in place, so changes made on the old site after the process began were not transferred to the new one.
Drupal 5 has a special ‘offline’ mode for use during upgrades so that will be the last time this happens; I apologize for any inconvenience.
-
-
I’m thinking that was a one-time deal.
Wow. Sometimes it pays to ask. Ironlion got in contact with the artist behind the Halo: Uprising comic series – and now he’s the proud owner of a very cool print. Check it out!(Louis Wu 22:27:16 UTC)
-
Towing Microsoft Cars
Entertaining read about Halo 3, and the team that made it, in Sydney’s The Age newspaper. It’s harder to get into Bungie Studios than it is to get into the White House! Thanks, Anton P. Nym.(Louis Wu 21:15:02 UTC)
-
Halo 3 for 3 – Phase Two
JeSteR 343 reminded us that the second phase of the Halo 3 for 3 Sweepstakes kicks off today. (US-only, sorry world.) I’d forgotten about this until Ender sent a note.(Louis Wu 19:48:52 UTC)
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft
