My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Games for Windows Live won’t cost extra if you have XBOX Live

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    rapture

    Gamespot is reporting that when you buy Live, you are buying the service for XBOX and Games for Windows. In other words, it won’t cause PC gamers any extra money to play Live enabled games on their PC _if_ they are already subscribed to XBOX Live. They WILL have to pay out money to become a member if they don’t have an XBOX Live Gold account. From the article:

    “If you’re currently an Xbox Live gold member, then you needn’t worry about signing up or paying for a separate service, because we’re told that the Xbox Live membership is universal with your Games for Windows Live membership. And if you don’t have Xbox Live, signing up for Games for Windows Live will also set up your Xbox Live account. The two are basically one and the same. There will be two levels of Games for Windows Live, silver and gold. Silver is the free, limited service, while gold is the full, subscription service. Clowes said that you will not need to be a gold member to play Halo 2 multiplayer, and that players can set up open dedicated servers that anyone can play on, just like dedicated servers for other PC shooters. However, Halo 2 for the PC will also be the first game to allow players to set up dedicated Live servers.”

    Ooh! Dedicated Live servers. Sweet. Now the community takes some control (at least in HALO 2).

  • MLG Player Commentary: Ghandi

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Over at MLGPro.com, the front-page vid is a player match commentary from Ghandi, looking at some footage from MLG Las Vegas last year. I love these things! Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 16:11:13 UTC)

  • Jump Tactics: Transcendence

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Jump Tactics have been around for a long, long time; in the early days of Halo 2, they were everywhere, showing off ways to bounce around the multiplayer maps. They’ve been quiet for a long time – but they’ve finally released Transcendence, a jumping montage with some truly incredible footage. There’s some modding here – but no physics changes. (They’ve got infinite health, though, so they can stand on 3 exploding grenades and shoot a rocket at their feet – many of these jumps are NOT reproducible on a non-modded box, for that reason.) To be honest, I was more impressed with the video BEFORE I read their FAQ (it’s on their main page) – there’s an awful lot of rationalizing going on in that document. Get past it, though, because the jumps are cool. I heard about this from Z, who’s hosting a copy on the Halo 3 Forum, but there’s also a thread going on the High Impact Halo forum – and I’m sure other places around the web. Go look!(Louis Wu 15:35:57 UTC)

  • Private Donut – Pwned

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Scott Guthrie works for Microsoft – and recently, he got to be a guest star in a Red vs Blue segment. It’s not a segment I ever saw mentioned over at Rooster Teeth… but if you’re a fan of the show, it’s got some funnies in it. You’ll need to install WPF/E (mac | windows), a ‘browser enhancement module’ from Microsoft – but as far as I can tell, it’s just a shell that the movie plays in. Thanks, Cybrfrk.(Louis Wu 13:41:13 UTC)

  • Halo 2 Vista info dump

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Tons more Halo 2 Vista info coming out of the Game Developers Conference – a hands-on at Gamespot (thanks, LoneRanger 2.5), a preview at Shacknews, a hands-on at GamePro, and a summary of new features at Game Informer. Things you might not know yet (or that have changed in recent months):

    • The game is expected out ‘later this year’ (originally, it was going to ship at the same time Vista did)
    • A DX9 video card is all you need (there are no DX10-specific features)
    • Your Xbox Live account that works with an Xbox works with Halo 2 Vista, too
    • A Silver account is enough to play Halo 2 Vista (it’s free)
    • H2V will be the first game that allows players to set up dedicated Live servers
    • H2V will ship with a map editor
    • You can use mouse and keyboard, or game controller, or (and this is odd) mouse and game controller
    • No online coop
    • No splitscreen play

    There’s more info in all four articles – go check ’em out!(Louis Wu 12:38:36 UTC)

  • Judging A Game By Its Cover

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    narcogen
    Couch Fishing or Saved By The Chesterfield.

    Frankie O’Connor at Bungie gave an interview near the beginning of this year, and one of the questions I found particularly interesting, especially because I’ve only recently had a chance to play Gears of War myself:

    XCN: Are you influenced by other games like Gears of War, would you consider implementing some things like the Gears of War cover system in Halo 3?

    Frank O’Connor: We’re always asked about the influence of other games on Halo and recently the ‘other game’ often seems to be Gears of War. Will the cover system influence Halo? The honest answer is no. The gameplay for Halo 3 was decided long before Gears of War even shipped. If we put the cover system in Halo it would ruin the game because it’s not about cover. It’s about big encounters and open spaces and vehicles and so on. Gears of War is about cover. Sticking something like that onto our game wouldn’t be a good idea. Anyway, there is a cover system in Halo – it’s called ducking behind objects and using the environment to shield you from harm. But we won’t be putting a cover button in, and it’s certainly not the X button that we’re often asked about.

    Whenever a new game comes out with an ostensibly “new” feature it seems there’s an exchange that runs something like this; where a journalist asks Developer of Last Year’s Hit Game if they are going to implement Cool Feature from the newly released This Year’s Hot Game in next year’s Sequel To Last Year’s Hit Game.

    Whether the feature is appropriate for that game or not scarcely matters; it’s a hip and trendy feature. In the case of Gears, it’s the Cover button.

    For the complete text, click “read more” below from the front page.

    read more

  • Halo 2 Vista Update

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    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    Hired Gun, the Microsoft team responsible for bringing Halo 2 over to Windows Vista, posted a blog update at IGN today. In this latest post you can read about the work they’re doing on the new Live achievements being added to the game.

  • Halo 2 Vista Update

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    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    Hired Gun, the Microsoft team responsible for bringing Halo 2 over to Windows Vista, posted a blog update at IGN today. In this latest post you can read about the work they’re doing on the new Live achievements being added to the game.

  • The Bungie Store: Temporarily Down

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    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    The Bungie Store is experiencing technical difficulties, no doubt caused by overhwelming demand for our ridiculously awesome Bungie merch. We’ll update you as soon as the dear old thing is back on its feet. Feel free to send arbitrary amounts of cash directly to me in the interim.

  • The Bungie Store: Temporarily Down

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    by

    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    The Bungie Store is experiencing technical difficulties, no doubt caused by overhwelming demand for our ridiculously awesome Bungie merch. We’ll update you as soon as the dear old thing is back on its feet. Feel free to send arbitrary amounts of cash directly to me in the interim.

  • Halo 2 Vista Achievements

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    halo@bungie.org
    in
    Hired Gun (the team putting together Halo 2 Vista) has posted a blog entry detailing some of the thought processes (and a few of the specific procedures) involved with the Halo 2 Gamerscore Achievements you’ll be able to unlock soon. Coolness abounds! Thanks, PsychoRaven.(Louis Wu 20:19:43 UTC)

  • Send stuff in for episode 104: Xbox Live Arcade Round Table!

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    foomojive

    Takin’ a break from Halo coverage, this week the topic is all about casual games on XBLA. There are a lot of sweet games available on XBLA and lots more just announced at GDC. No doubt this is getting more attention from game developers, so we figured we’d assemble some people know what they’re talking about with XBLA to tell it like it is for the next show.

    What XBLA games do you like?

    It can be a sea of choices for the uninitiated. Maybe you can help demystify which games are good? Write us a short review about your favorite game(s). If it’s good, we’ll read it on the show!

    Casual gaming: your opinion

    Casual games are getting a lot of press these days. What do you think of them? Do you think XBLA is a better system than Sony’s or Nintendo’s? How important do you think casual gaming will be in the future of game consoles? Make your voice heard!

    Deadline is Thursday night

    at about 5:30pm EST. As usual, the earlier you get your comment in, the more likely we’ll read it on the show. Just click submit news and tips on the right side of the page and send us your gamertag so we can give you credit. Not much time left, so hurry!

  • WWKD?

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    halo@bungie.org
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    trigger119 has posted an interview with machinima maker Jamie98s over at GamingTV; go read about what got him into machinima, where he’s going, and a little about Koko.(Louis Wu 17:09:13 UTC)

  • Next-Gen’s Hot 100 Game Developers

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Next Generation is doing their annual ‘Hot 100 Game Developers‘ list (last year, both Jason Jones and Alex Seropian made the list, which was ordered alphabetically) – this year, the list is ordered by influence. Seropian’s not on the list this time around (Wideload Games has been pretty much under the radar until very recently), but Jones makes it again – at number 4! Nice. Thanks, madcowjim.(Louis Wu 16:44:27 UTC)

  • The Mausoleum of the Arbiter

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Youngblood (AKA Indiana_Pwns) has joined in the blogging craze – Ghosts of Onyx starts off with some suggestions on fan fiction writing. Check it out!(Louis Wu 16:33:59 UTC)

  • Invisible, Harmless Bunnies

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Tied the Leader is back with another Tuesday Update – You can find a 22 Questions interview with UncleGamer Radio’s Robby Edwards, a hilarious (but sad-because-it’s-so-true) list of Halo 2 Rules of Thumb, an introspective look at the Halo online community (and what’s changed in the past two years), and a Community Profile of Second Foundation, the creators of The Riot podcast. Go read! (Don’t forget to say thankya to XerxdeeJ for not making us click more than we had to this time around…)(Louis Wu 16:30:25 UTC)

  • Halo 2 – The Most-Played XBL Title

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Microsoft recently announced that the Xbox Live service hit 6 million members (several months sooner than they expected), and they listed the top 10 Live titles (by number of unique users) – Halo 2 is at the top of the list. I guess that 2-year headstart on Gears of War made a difference! Thanks, GhaleonEB.(Louis Wu 16:11:54 UTC)

  • Halo 2 VS Halo 1

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    halo@bungie.org
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    Mister Froggy updated Halo, Articulated – #19 compares weapons from the first two Halo games.(Louis Wu 16:09:00 UTC)

  • 512MB memory unit coming to XBOX 360

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    rapture

    Just when our 20GB hard drives are near full of game demos, HD movies and TV shows, music, and gamesaves, Microsoft goes out an makes a 512MB memory unit for the XBOX 360. It costs $50, comes with Geometry Wars pre-loaded, and will plug into one of the memory unit slots on the front of the XBOX 360.

    What’s the selling point for this 512MB device? Who would buy it?

    Is this geared for Core system users that think $100 for a 20GB hard drive is too much money?

    Where are our mass storage devices for the XBOX360? How big is that free HD episode of SouthPark going to be? How many demos am I going to have to delete just to have room for this 30-minute episode?

    And why can’t Microsoft allow us to use network storage devices with our XBOX 360. We can already do it for sharing music, movies, and pictures from our PCs to our XBOX 360s. Why can’t we do it with gamesaves and demos?

  • Gears of War 4 million sold

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    rapture

    Gears of War has sold 4 million copies making it the most sold XBOX title behind HALO 1 and 2. GoW is the best selling game for the XBOX 360. I can’t help but think that this game would have sold even more copies had it shipped with objective-based gametypes and had a few glitches fixed.