Bungie has the Waaambulance, where people who have been banned from Halo 2 matchmaking write in nearly incomprehensible questions and complaints, and Bungie makes fun of them.
I don’t have the power to ban players from Halo 2 matchmmaking, not that I would if I could. What I do have is some search logs that indicate people end up at Rampancy.net looking for some pretty odd things.
The user who searched for pc halo walkthrough was pretty close. It’s worth noting, though, that unlike other PC ports, there’s no difference between Halo for the PC and Halo for the Xbox; at least, not a difference that would matter in a walkthrough if you’ve somehow gotten stuck.
Although I realize that sometimes the Internet connection you’re on isn’t fast enough to play Halo, but I doubt searching for Colagualtion is going to bring any relief.
Halo 3 might be about a green cyborg having to rescue a purple princess, but searching R.net for Zelda is really barking up the wrong tree.
Halo 2 might no longer be the reigning champion of the Xbox Live leader boards, but that’s no reason to go around searching Halo sites for information on the Gears of War Story. If you can’t find the story in Gears, we sure as heck can’t.
Ducain over at High Impact Halo put up a wish list for Halo 3. I thought I’d take some of his points and respond to them: ones I liked, and ones I didn’t. Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO for the notice.
Click “read more” below on the front page for the entire text.
Over at MLGPro.com, you’ll find a front-page-linked video of Fonzi, doing player match commentary; watch him discuss strategy over video of himself playing in tournament play. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 23:09:10 UTC)
Ducain has put together his ‘pie in the sky wishlist‘ for Halo 3 single player; things he wishes would show up in the upcoming campaign. Give it a read – and let him know what you think (either as a comment to that HIH newspost, or in the thread he started on our forum).(Louis Wu 22:07:46 UTC)
Sigafoos writes to say that The Riot 33 has been posted – community news, Mandy Patinkin, and Equilibrium (the 2002 Sci-Fi movie). And stuff. 23 minutes, 10 mb.(Louis Wu 19:25:09 UTC)
RVideo has been panoraming again (yeah, I know it’s not a word) – this time, he jumped into a modded skin for Zanzibar, and got some spectacular sunset shots. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 17:07:25 UTC)
Frankie stopped by the NeoGAF forum yesterday to state pretty definitively that the ‘new thing’ (mentioned in this week’s Bungie Weekly Update) is NOT video-related… which pretty much rules out flycams, spectator cams, and all the other variants that have been the frontrunners in the speculation threads on OUR forum, at least. Thanks, Drakkari.(Louis Wu 17:04:34 UTC)
QsKGlobal has overhauled their website, and they’re kicking off a new Montage contest – you’ve got about 6 months, and there’s currently $250 in the prize pool (though they’re hoping that will go up). Check it out!(Louis Wu 17:01:16 UTC)
Rockslider continues to document new and fun ways of fighting battles you’ve been through a thousand times. Check out his rejoined landing battle on Silent Cartographer.(Louis Wu 16:59:29 UTC)
highwaters, who let us know last week about a suit of Mjolnir armor he’s been building, posted a movie yesterday showing that armor in use around town. If you have trouble with the MySpace vid in that first post, you can find a YouTube link in this post. Good stuff!(Louis Wu 16:46:55 UTC)
Two enemies use their gliders to reach the top of the structure
Disclosure: The following information was taken from information already in the public domain. Below is my attempt to rally that wealth of information together to share with you. This game has not yet been released so it is still in development and everything is subject to change.
Shadowrun is a first-person shooter coming soon to the XBOX 360 and Windows Vista gaming platforms. It will feature the Live Anywhere service allowing PC and XBOX 360 players to play in the same game. This game is multiplayer-online and supports up to 16 players in a match.
I am really excited about this game. Right now, I will certainly pre-order it (most likely the Vista version). I actually think that this could be a great community game for all of us. It has elements of HALO and Counter-Strike as well as RPG’s and RTS’s. Yeah, it is going to be a different kind of FPS.
A team member is resurrected
First you’ll pick your side: the megacorp RNA Global or the resistance called the Lineage. Next, you’ll pick your race: a human, an elf, a dwarf or troll. Each character has different traits. For instance, some run a little faster and others are able to take more damage. Trolls turn to stone when being hit. Elves regenerate their health and have a higher essence level with allows them to cast more spells. Humans can carry more technology. Dwarves take away essence from the players around them.
At the beginning of the game you are given a “buy-in†screen and an amount of money. With that you buy items for use in the game. You can buy weapons, magic, or technology. How you spend your money and what you buy will directly affect your teammates and how the later rounds of the game are played. The better you do in the round, the more “bonus money†you’ll get after the round to spend on better weapons, more tech or magic.
In front of this sniper, a Tree of Life was cast
Some types of magic are resurrection (ability to revive a teammate), the tree of life (a magic tree which gives off health to those around it), and teleportation (the really cool ability to teleport several feet in any direction). Wikipedia states that you can buy magic for “turning into smoke for invulnerability, summoning a monster to do your bidding, casting a field of lethal crystals, and blowing a powerful gust at enemies and objects. Purchasable tech items include enhanced vision, which allows the player to see through walls, a glider, which enables short distance flight, wired reflexes, which greatly increases your physical attributes, anti-magic generators, Smartlink, which gives you greater accuracy and other specific advantages. Weapons include a sniper rifle, SMG, a shotgun, a minigun, a semi auto rifle, a rocket launcher, and a katana for assassinations and ninja style tactics.†From a visitor who went to the developer’s office:
Magic
Strangle: a growth of magic crystals that hold and suck the health out of any player. Great for blocking doorways or impeding the path of the flag-runner.
Teleport: moves you through space about 15-20 feet in the direction that you were previously moving. If you want to go down a level, then stoop. If you jump and teleport, just make sure you hit teleport before you start going down, or else you’ll teleport down. Teleport+Glider=flying.
Smoke: I don’t remember seeing this in action – but this turns you into a puff of smoke, and renders you immune to almost all damage. Sounds like something I could use in L.A. 🙂
Summon: brings a magic creature to life! You can direct it to guard an area, or to attack a specific opponent…and it doesn’t stop chasing until either it dies or the player dies. Great fun! Use as diversion tactic, obstacle, or to throw the other team into a random frenzy right when they are about to score.
Resurrect: brings your teammate (or you) back to life. The person who does the resurrecting becomes the “lifeline” for the player. If your resurrector dies, then you start “bleeding out” – meaning you’ve got about 10 seconds to live!!! Best antidote to bleeding out is the Tree of Life…either get under it, throw it down or die 🙂
Tree of Life: indiscriminately restores the health of any player that stands under it.
Gust: it’s like a force-field or gust of wind that pushes your opponent back and disorients them momentarily. Great at close range against an opponent waving the Katana (or Artifact).
Tech
Glider: great when used in combination with teleport – if you Jump, teleport UP, then glide, you’ll find yourself flying across the room. It’s also good prevention against fall damage.
Enhanced Vision: lets you look through walls and see your opponents anywhere on the map. It’s great to have one player on your team use enhanced vision and call out the locations of your opponents.
Smartlink: this is like a neural connection between the gun and your brain – turns you into a fast-acting killing machine. I didn’t get to use this, so I’m not sure exactly how it enhanced the gameplay – but you can see one of the devs using it (briefly) in the gameplay video I shot.
Hologram: hmmm…. I didn’t get to see this! Not sure how it works, or even if it’s in the final build! But sounds like a cool diversion tactic.
Windows Live on Vista. Comparing gamerscores.
The glider takes you to a great hight and allows you to glide safely to the ground
About gameplay? TeamXBOX had this to say after playing it at a trade show: “The action in Shadowrun is very fast-paced, especially once the magic powers and tech get thrown in the mix. These are largely defensive and supportive in nature, so you’ll still be relying on good old fashioned firepower to take out your foes. Best of all, you can map up to three to your controller at any time, meaning you can find your favorites and string them together. Our personal favorite combo was the glider tech and the teleport magic, which allows you to alternately glide from high areas and teleport through walls to get to your objective. The smoke power is cool, too, letting you turn into a puff of mist to avoid your enemy’s attacks, then pop back into solid form to fell him.â€Â
The artifact is the object of possesion in Capture the Flag-like gametypes.
“Even if you DIE – you can select a player on your team to “shadow” and you get to watch them as they play. You can move the camera around them, and you can shout out warnings, like “there’s a Troll right behind you” or “I’m right above you – resurrect me because it’s all about me. We found this particularly useful when our teammate was carrying the Artifact (SHADOWRUN’s version of the “flag”) – we could tell them where to run to avoid getting ambushed, and when to drop it and turn and fight.â€Â
Supposedly in the next few months, a demo will hit the XBOX Live Marketplace. Get it and jump in on the multiplayer action.
Sbear sent word that the Heretic Action Trailer has been released – this is the second of two trailers released for an upcoming series from Edgeworks Entertainment. This one should pump you up… and you don’t have to wait long for start of the actual series – release date looks to be [censored]. Update: Wow. I was told that I was ruining the surprise release date by posting it here – because the page we linked to (see above) I guess was more subtle. I’ve removed the date. You’ll have to go elsewhere for it.(Louis Wu 23:25:17 UTC)
zech ray found a decent piece of machinima linked from the Codex Series forums – it’s a trailer for Halo: War Journal ‘Last Dance’, and it’s hosted at YouTube. It tells the story of a heroic last stand by 300 Spartans against an overwhelming Covenant force. If you’ve got an extra 5 minutes this Saturday, take a look!(Louis Wu 22:17:38 UTC)
Over at the Red vs Blue Sponsors forum, there’s a new sponsors extra – How Babies are Made. It’s in Flash format, and it basically gives away the secret to how Tucker’s baby is filmed. (Hint – it’s WAY more low-tech than most people thought it was.) Pretty cool! Thanks to MffnMn for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 18:53:04 UTC)
Today’s comic is posted below, and is all about the peculiarities of television preference. Also, if you are a sponsor, you might like to know we’ve posted a new RvB bonus video in the sponsor forum.
Dog Pound
