My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • What’s Next?

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Wow. This sort of disturbs me. When nerd goes chic…(Louis Wu 05:05:14 UTC)

  • HALO 3 custom gametypes settings revealed

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    rapture

     

    It looks like HALO 3 will ship with some never-before-seen gametype settings that are sure to drastically change the way we can play HALO. Want to run faster? Want to be immune to headshots? Want to tweak the radar sensitivity or have infinite ammo? It’s all in there (and a lot more) coming to a custom game near you in September.

    The custom screen is built into the HALO 3 beta but getting into takes a bit of luck and (from what I can tell) a network error. It appears that the custom games menu option becomes available when someone tries joining up to a party host with someone how has incompatible NAT settings. Several THX’ers have experienced this.

    By the way, you CAN NOT play custom games in the HALO 3 beta via this menu. It’s still neat to poke around, though. Some settings in those menus:

    • Damage resistance
    • Shield multiplier
    • Shield recharge rate
    • Immune to headshots
    • Grenade counts
    • Infinite ammo
    • Weapon pickup disabled
    • Player speed (25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 125%, 150%, 200%, 300%)
    • Player gravity (50%, 100%, 200%)
    • Vehicle use (passenger only)
    • Motion tracker range (10m, 25m, 75m, 100m, 150m)
    • Appearance
      • Vis effects (black glow, team glow, white glow)
      • Active camo (good camo that might fool and elite, poor camo that might fool a grunt, invisible)
    • Indestructible vehicles (on, off)

    Those are some of the more standout settings. Each gametype has several variants and several settings underneath it. Object carriers, VIP’s, can have custom settings while the rest of the team can have different settings. It looks like there are a few new gametypes heading our way including Tank Ball and Tank Flag (I always wanted to play a HALO version of Crimson Skies where Banshees could play CTF).

    Punk Rly was thrown into the custom games menu also and has posted a video of this menu to YouTube:


    I can say that I’d like to play HALO at a little faster pace. Perhaps the 110 speed WILL work. (Trivia: Gearbox Software wanted to change the running speed of Master Chief in HALO PC to 110% which is why the map Infinity is so large).

    Uber special bonus coverage just in from the rumor department: XBOX360faboy is reporting that somebody said that he said that Games Radar is reporting that modders have found new equipment and vehicles that are hidden in the HALO 3 beta. They probably got their information from this thread on HaloMods.com. (Disclosure: Modding your XBOX 360 will get you banned from XBOX Live). Stuff that MAY or MAY NOT be in HALO 3 in September.

    New equipment:
    Instacover
    Smoke (suggested this might be a smoke grenade?)
    Jammer

    New vehicles:
    Chopper
    Pelican
    Shadow

    New weapons:
    Flamethrower
    Claymore Grenade

    New mode:
    Infection (described as “Destroy the Flood or become infected. Score points for killing flood or big points for infecting a human. The player with the most points wins.”)

    New rankings:
    The highest rankings are now Killpocalypse and Killionaire, instead of Double Kill and Triple Kill.

    What? No Kestrel? I guess it was too slow anyway.

    __________________________

    currently playing: Catan, HALO 3 beta, Guitar Hero II
    anticipating: Shadowrun, HALO 2 (PC), HALO 3, Quake Wars (in that order)
    rest in peace: GoW, CoD3

    Shadowrun rocks!

  • RT: Inter-mittens

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    Rooster Teeth News
    The guys are in the server room right now. They say it's cold in there and they may need to burn some of the servers for warmth. Just FYI. (We're actually doing some image and sponsorship work today, pardon our dust)

  • Das Hasselhof HeiseMusischeundknightrideren palazenplatz

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    halo@bungie.org
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    The Bungie Weekly Update is up very early this week – mostly because Frankie is in Europe, where it’s later now. So for him, it’s the same. Or something. Anyway, go read it. Beta stuff (yeah, they’re sorry), a huge discussion about game ratings in Germany (and fun facts about Berlin), and Banhammer stuff. Good reading! (Luke needs to work on his Mister Chief. I realize Frankie’s standards weren’t very high, but…) You can, of course, read it in our Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 18:43:48 UTC)

  • Beta Blues

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Funny Beta-related cartoon at Red vs Blue today…(Louis Wu 18:27:31 UTC)

  • Bungie Weekly Update 5/18/07

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    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    This week: Playing with a Doctor, the truth about Berlin, beta housecleaning and the banhammer.

  • Not All It Was Cracked Down To Be.

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Trust Stuntmutt to find humor in a miserable situation – check today’s One One Se7en. …wait, WHAT? Scratch that ‘humor’ part…(Louis Wu 16:39:43 UTC)

  • Win a free copy of Halo 3 at Machinima.com

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Adam Kovic, from Machinima.com, sent word of a new contest – grand prize is a Halo 3 Legendary Edition, plus an accessory of your choice. (There are two other prizes as well, containing the other two versions of Halo 3.) You’ve got until June 16 to submit a video of yourself ‘doing anything in Halo 3’. Winners will be decided by user voting. Go read about it!(Louis Wu 14:34:18 UTC)

  • 386,601 Halo 3 players in the last 24 hours

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    rapture

    Bungie.net’s new website now shows stats for both HALO 2 and HALO 3 games. It looks like there are quite a few people playing the HALO 3 beta.

    A look at the HALO 3 stats:

    386,601 Halo 3 Players (Last 24 Hours)
    636,332 Halo 3 Games (Last 24 Hours)
    19,763 Players Online in Halo 3

    Compare that to:

    171,485 Halo 2 Players (Last 24 Hours)
    319,796 Halo 2 Games (Last 24 Hours)
    6,000 Players Online in Halo 2

    Goku says that over 100,000 HALO 3 players were online at one time last night. At the time of this post in the morning, 20,000 HALO 3 players are online compared to 6,000 HALO 2 players. Over twice as many HALO 3 games have been played in the last 24 hours than HALO 2 games.

    It looks like HALO 3 is on track to be a successful game even with some matchmaking problems and a delay.
    __________________________
    currently playing: Catan, HALO 3 beta, Guitar Hero II
    anticipating: Shadowrun, HALO 2 (PC), HALO 3, Quake Wars (in that order)
    rest in peace: GoW, CoD3
    Shadowrun rocks!

  • H2 Vista available in AU – now

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Over at h2vista.net, there’s news that Halo 2 Vista has been released in Australia (a bit ahead of the revised schedule) – and that there are indications that the map tools work under Windows XP. (Not the game itself – just the tools. Still – that’s great news for folks who find Vista to be slow.) Thanks, TheGhost.(Louis Wu 14:29:29 UTC)

  • Simulated Pelican

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    halo@bungie.org
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    We’ve mentioned Halo-related content for Microsoft Flight Sim before (here, and here) – now Bobflop points out a Pelican addon at Simviation. Take a look!(Louis Wu 14:12:41 UTC)

  • FS2H is back

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Devrous had some hard drive problems recently – but he’s back now, with new content for his Freespace 2 to Halo conversion. Check out his forum post for pictures and movies!(Louis Wu 14:09:28 UTC)

  • Kotaku shirt giveaway – details

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    halo@bungie.org
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    A few days ago, we mentioned some Halo 3 Beta shirts that Kotaku was planning to give away – they’ve decided how, now. Dress up as the Master Chief, take a picture of yourself, and send it in – best couple of pics win, I guess. You’ve got until June 1. Thanks again, madcowjim.(Louis Wu 13:52:46 UTC)

  • Wallpaper – sort of

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    halo@bungie.org
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    This is pretty strange… Gamespot has bundled up 25 Halo 2 desktops created by Bungie (and served from Bungie.net) and made them available for download – to Gamespot members. (Again – these are all available at Bungie.net – in many more resolutions than can be found in this pack – and have been for years.) Maybe they’re just looking for traffic? …nah, that couldn’t be it.(Louis Wu 13:49:15 UTC)

  • Friday’s Fanfic

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Ten new pieces available in the Fan Fiction section this week – go read!(Louis Wu 13:42:09 UTC)

  • Beta bliss

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Geek.com has a review of the Halo 3 Beta.(Louis Wu 13:20:43 UTC)

  • Ooh… Build-A-Bear.

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Here’s someone who thinks ‘Limited Editions’ are silly. Do you agree?(Louis Wu 12:58:58 UTC)

  • Halo 3 Graphics Tour

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Gamespot put up a feature entitled ‘Halo 3 Graphics Tour‘ – it contains 3 pages of screenshots from Halo 2 and Halo 3 (mouse over the pics to see the Halo 3 versions). I think they could have done a better job of picking screens that matched each other, to better compare the differences… but it’s still pretty clear that Halo 3 has gotten one heck of a nice paint job. Thanks to Milhouse for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 12:52:25 UTC)

  • Spoons

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Heh – Yesterday, VG Cats put up a Halo-related strip… this is definitely one of the biggest problems with the Mongoose, just ask Joe Staten and KP. Thanks to Pak in the #hbo IRC channel for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 12:34:36 UTC)

  • When he’s done, I’m taping up my head.

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    halo@bungie.org
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    You might remember, a bit over a year ago, gunluva posted some pics of some Halo weapons he’d created from cardboard and duct tape. Well, he’s back, with a Spartan Laser, a sniper rifle, some ARs, and a BR. Check it out!(Louis Wu 12:29:59 UTC)