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Meet the SparrowHawk
The Halo Wars forum post with the slowly emerging image now contains the fully decrypted image – it’s a shot of the new UNSC SparrowHawk. Nice! Thanks to everyone who kept us informed on the forum – final image was first mentioned by j41m3z.(Louis Wu 21:51:03 UTC)
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GRAW 2 First Impressions
Having missed out on the original GRAW and looking for some gaming excitement to hold me over until some of the new summer releases, I bought GRAW 2 from BestBuy last night. FYI, I had them pricematch Circuit City’s online price, so I got it for $49.99.
Gamespot gave it 8.7. You can read the full review here.
Overall, I like it a lot. One of the first things I noticed is that it comes pretty close to matching Gears of War’s graphics. The lighting, textures, and ploygons are very, very impressive–definitely the most realistic I’ve ever seen.
The pace of the game is probably not for everyone. This is a strategic shooter, not a run-and-gun. If UT/Quake is the upper end of fast and chaotic, Halo/H2 is in the middle, and this is a very slow-paced strategic shooter. Emphasis is on command of your team and assets. Personally I like that. You are also given a lot of different assets to command: a UAV, a “mule,” your team of Ghosts, infantry, light armored vehicles, and air support just to name what I’ve encountered in Act 1. The AI is also pretty good, requiring very little micromanagement once you give them orders. The AI isn’t perfect, as my APC parked itself next to three hostile Mexican rebels and decided to take a lunch break. Thankfully, the rebels were just as oblivious to the APC.
The control scheme is easy to adjust to. However, the game is complex. There are a lot of things to control. You actually don’t have to control anything but yourself, but you’ll make much shorter work of hostiles through effective employment of recon and assault assets. Additionally, the 3rd person view isn’t very distracting, ala GoW. You can change to 1st person view, but I haven’t played with that.
I am only about 30% done with the campaign, but I am enjoying the game thoroughly. I haven’t played a single multiplayer game, so I’ve no experience with that yet. I’ll report more as I get further into the game.
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You say Efficient, I say Effective
Sane Intolerant has updated Halo Toybox with not one, but two comics – check this forum post for details.(Louis Wu 12:50:53 UTC)
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Always looking to get better
Walshy looks at his strengths, and weaknesses, in an interesting player commentary at MLGPro.com. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 03:13:17 UTC)
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The good, the bad, and the powerless
Bungie HQ suffers from a blown transformer, so the Weekly Update is image-less (though Frankie promises to try and rectify that tomorrow). The update contains a bunch of tidbits of polish progress – sounds like we’ll even get to see some of that in the upcoming beta. (No, no dates yet.) Go read! (As usual, if you have any trouble with reading it at Bungie.net, it’s available in our Weekly Update Archive.)(Louis Wu 03:01:39 UTC)
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Bungie Weekly Update
Thanks to a blown transformer, the Weekly Update is lacking imagery. That said, there’s a few nuggets of information in here for folks looking forward to the forthcoming public beta, and a revelation or two about what options will be available.
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Hairy Situation Pt. 4
Paul Maestri has updated Halo Heads – The kitties finally meet their attackers! Just when you thought you’d seen everything…(Louis Wu 01:27:48 UTC)
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Not so Serious Threat
Mister Froggy pointed out Halo, Articulated #20 – sometimes, you just can’t give a threat the weight it asks for.(Louis Wu 01:21:17 UTC)
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Humpday?
If all goes well, today is the day that the image at the bottom of the Halo Wars update post will be revealed in its entirety – Stuntmutt gets a leg up with the current One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 15:57:05 UTC)
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Predator And Prey
Edgeworks Entertainment has released Episode 3 of their series, The Heretic. Not a lot of action, but some great plot development – and current political commentary. (Shh…) Nice camerawork, as always. Thanks to Da Nang for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 15:43:31 UTC)
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1Up Yours – Halo 3 Speculation from GDC
The 1Up Yours podcast is being recorded this week at the Game Developers Conference… and the most recent podcast (dated 3/8) has a small teaser related to Halo 3. Apparently, they were discussing how many titles are being released this fall, and how rough that’s going to be on Joe Average Gamer (who’s got $300 to spend on games in a 3-week period, anyway?), and Shane Kim, Corporate VP of MGS, talked a little about Halo 3’s ship date (or lack thereof):Shane pointed out that if Bungie was ready to go, they’ll ship it when Bungie said – when it’s done, when it’s as good as Bungie wants to make it, they’ll ship it. And he said, “If that’s in September, then that’s when we’re going to ship it.” Then he quickly backed off and said “well if it’s next week, then we’ll ship it next week.”
There’s quite a bit more discussion about Halo 3, and the anticipation that’s built up for it – but this tidbit might be interesting to fans. (Please – do NOT take this as indication that a ship date of September has been set. It hasn’t. What’s interesting here is the flexibility Kim alludes to; unlike Halo, which HAD to be done by the time the Xbox was released, and Halo 2, with a ship date tattooed on Peter Moore’s arm, Kim suggests that Bungie’s got some leeway here, and (yes, they’ve said this before) it won’t ship until it’s finished.)(Louis Wu 15:23:04 UTC)
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Friday’s Fanfic
Eight new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section this week – go read!(Louis Wu 15:15:49 UTC)
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Episode 104: Xbox Live Arcade Show
Download | Shownotes
It’s the Xbox Live Arcade show, where we talk all about your favorite XBLA games, your most anticipated XBLA future games, and what you think about the system and casual games in general. This time we’re joined by Avid X from 360style.net and thexboxcollector.com. Also joining us are Rist Peblo and Painkilla05 from the podtacular community, both big XBLA players. Pod art this week comes from stickygerbils of halo heads fame. LOL! Show clocks in at just under an hour. Jam on it!
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Locked and Loaded: Halo 3’s Audio
Over at Mix Online (devoted to the professional audio and music production community), there’s an in-depth article on the sounds of Halo 3 – it’s a fascinating (if sometimes out-of-my-league technical) look at the way the Bungie team creates audio content for Halo. If you’re in the industry, this will be even MORE awesome, because you’ll actually know what all the equipment references are about. For all of us, it’s great stuff from Marty and Jay.(Louis Wu 23:01:50 UTC)
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Civil War
After a long quiet period, This Spartan Life is back with a new video blog – Damian deals with dissention in the ranks the way dissention SHOULD be dealt with – via bloodshed. Well, virtual bloodshed, anyway. Check out ‘Civil War’ on TSL’s Blog page (QuickTime format, 44.3 mb, WMP9 coming soon).(Louis Wu 22:38:02 UTC)
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Into the Ocean
Jamie98s put together a new music video, setting Blue October’s ‘Into the Ocean’ to Halo action – nicely done. ‘Twas originally released at GamingTV.org, but we’re hosting copies, as well (including the original WMP9 version, 29.9 mb, and a locally-encoded QuickTime version, 30.1 mb). What are you waiting for?(Louis Wu 20:57:43 UTC)
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Hairy Situation Pt. 3
Paul Maestri has updated Halo Heads, with another chapter of the Kitty 117 series. The plot thickens!(Louis Wu 16:34:36 UTC)
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link4044’s Assault Rifle
A few weeks ago, we mentioned a pretty amazing Assault Rifle being built by a fan. He’s added more pictures to the collection, and we finally asked if we could put up a local mirror, organized by date. He said sure, so you should check it out; the work here is astounding. As work continues, we’ll update the page.(Louis Wu 16:19:13 UTC)
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Cover Me
Narcogen has brought Rampancy.net back online after a day of downtime – and with a new article, to boot. He looks at the cover system in Gears of War, and speculates about the use of cover in Halo. It’s an interesting, if long, read.(Louis Wu 13:02:50 UTC)
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Halo 3 Legendary Edition Helmet… still a toy?
Still looks like a toy to me…
Source = http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/771/771007p1.html
Halo 3 Legendary Edition Revealed
Master Chief’s helmet aims to please later this year.
by Rob Burman, IGN UKUK, March 7, 2007 – Microsoft has finally unveiled some images, demonstrating exactly what the $100 Legendary Edition of Halo 3 will look like on release – and it’s rather impressive. Although it would have to be for $100, really.
This four-disc special-edition of Halo 3 comes complete with a replica MJOLNIR Mark VI helmet. At first we thought it would be life-size and that we’d be able to wear it round the house, but then we realised it was only 10″ and, as such, probably wouldn’t even fit a baby. Very disappointing.
Inside the helmet is a stand to hold the game disc, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Halo 3, a high resolution collection of all the cinematics from Halo 1 and 2 and a disc with machinima features based on the Halo universe. The Legendary Edition is set for release alongside the Collector’s Edition and standard version when Halo 3 emerges later this year.
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The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft