My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Don’t Talk to Strangers

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    Mister Froggy pointed out that Halo, Articulated Episode 3, ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers‘, is now up for viewing. Explains a few things about the Covenant heirarchy…(Louis Wu 14:51:04 UTC)

  • Championship Gaming Series (IGN/DirecTV)

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    IGN has a story about a DirecTV/IGN partnership to bring you the Championship Gaming Series, an international gaming league. Looks like videogames on TV is an idea whose time has come… thanks, Neloms.(Louis Wu 14:45:51 UTC)

  • H2V and Xbox – Playable?

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    Over at Bungie.net, the third question in the Halo 2 Vista FAQ pretty much puts the kibosh on the idea that H2Vista players will be able to play cross-platform with Halo 2 Xbox players. So when Robbie Bach came out during the CES Keynote this week and mentioned that Halo 2 would be cross-platform, Halo fans assumed he meant that they’d be able to share Friends lists, and the like. However, GameInformer has a story up this morning that suggests that the two WILL be interplayable:

    Speaking to one of the Microsoft product managers currently working on both Shadowrun and Halo 2 for Vista, he stated that this would in fact be the case, and it’s currently in testing. However, whether Halo 2 will be playable between PCs and the console at the launch of Halo 2 on Vista is unknown at this point.

    This flies in the face of everything Bungie’s said publicly about Halo 2 Vista multiplayer; it’ll be interesting to see if it turns out to be a misunderstanding, or if some new functionality has been added that nobody was talking about before now. Update: KP has chimed in with an official Bungie denial – Halo 2 Vista and Halo 2 Xbox will not be interplayable; whoever GameInformer spoke to at CES was either misinformed, or misunderstood. Read KP’s post for a more complete description of how the two games might interact.(Louis Wu 13:57:36 UTC)

  • Spending Time with your Family

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    The World Series of Video Gaming is hosting an exhibition All-Star game at CES this week; MoB will face FBI (yes, the teams were picked for the real-life juxtapositions of their names). Read the details at Amped eSports.(Louis Wu 13:50:10 UTC)

  • 2006 MLG Retrospective, Part 1

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    MLGPro.com has a retrospective on 2006 (or at least the first part of one); walk through the season with them. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 13:45:33 UTC)

  • Halomega Weekly Update

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    Thanks to Conor Mahoney, who sent us the latest Halomega update; you’ll find montages here, here, and here, along with info about a 4v4 league, a video of the week competition, and more – check their news section for details.(Louis Wu 23:25:51 UTC)

  • Beta Max

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    Paul Maestri tosses in his two cents about the Halo 3 beta program in the latest Halo Heads comic. The man has a sharp wit.(Louis Wu 23:18:09 UTC)

  • Last year called… it wants its update back.

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    Wow. Is it 2007 already? If you’re just waking up from a dream about gods bowling, and you’re wondering what happened in the Halo universe since 2005… check out the new top story at Bungie.net. KP’s laid down all the important happenings for 2006. Well, except for all my eBay purchases – where are those, I ask you? Go read.(Louis Wu 19:59:37 UTC)

  • Bungie.net Year in Review

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    We take a long, lingering look back at our annus mirabilis (look it up, ‘tards) and the antics and announcements that defined 2006 for Bungie. What’s going to happen in 2007? Oh, just the release of a little game we like to call Halo 3.

  • Streaming Live.

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    Stuntmutt got a 360 for Christmas. And he’s happy. But there are still some issues… check today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 17:02:48 UTC)

  • Gears of War patch and maps coming this week

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    Two free new maps for Gears of War will be available on Wednesday, January 10th, from the XBOX Live Marketplace.  There will also be a new video available.  This new content is sponsored by the Discovery Channel.  No word on whether there will be any Discovery Channel branding on the maps.

    A patch for Gears of War is also coming out before the maps are rolled out.  The patch should be available tomorrow (Tuesday). Here is what the patch is supposed to change:

    * Fixed aspect ratio distortion when using VGA cable with 4:3 displays at resolutions higher than 640×480
    * Fixed voice issue with new players joining Player Match games in progress
    * Players can now get the Achievement for “Dish Best Served Cold” when using Troika turret to kill RAAM
    * Fixed rare situation where host could loop countdown and never start match
    * Fixed rare situation where players could get stuck after chainsawing in multiplayer
    * Reduced Grenade Tag melee distance
    * Enabled “Strict” NAT check on host to prevent possible connection issues
    * Optimized server browser queries to return results more quickly and prevent scroll bars from hiding quality of service icons
    * Reduced number of possible revives in Execution to match Warzone
    * Removed host name from Ranked match server browser
    * Disabled security cameras in Ranked matches
    * Ranked matches now require balanced teams (3v3 or 4v4)
    * Increased penalty for quitting a Ranked match to -50 points
    * Added additional cheat detection code
    * Additional housekeeping updates

    The two new maps are called Raven Down and Old Bones.

    • Raven Down: "A Raven Helicopter has gone down in the middle of a large scale battle with the omnipresent Locust Horde. Gears have taken out the Seeder and gamers join Delta Forces moving into the crash site from all angles to search for survivors."

      Raven Down map for Gears of War

      Raven Down map for Gears of War

    • Old Bones: "In an attempt to eradicate any traces of human history and culture, the Locust Horde has emerged under Sera’s Capitaline Museums and has begun to destroy them brick by brick. Each gamer’s mission is to help the Delta Force recapture the museums before all remnants of humankind’s existence are obliterated."

      Old Bones map for Gears of War

      Old Bones map for Gears of War

    Epic employees confirmed this news on their forums. XBOXZONE.com.au broke the news on their forums. Additional commentary from 1up.com.

    I think it’s great to see new maps already – especially free maps.  I think that is a heck of  a deal to provide those new maps about two months after release.  This will definitely keep the gameplay fresh.

    Perhaps Epic did fix some bugs and glitches with their next software update and the maps are a way to encourage old and new players to get into Gears of War and check out the changes.

    XBOX 360 owners will be required to accept the new patch while the maps will remain an optional download. The new patch and map may affect competitve Gears of War players in their online leages and tournaments. Will the new maps be a part of the stardard tournament rotations? Will the new patch affect gameplay so much that league rules will need to be changed?

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  • Gaming news from CES 2007

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    The Consumer Electronics Show is now taking place in Las Vegas and many companies are showing off their latest and greatest upcoming products.  Some of those products are video games and gaming hardware.

    Some news that has happened in the last 36-hours:

    Allegedly, Geometry Wars is headed to the PC (via Joystiq.com)

    IPTV is coming to the XBOX 360 in late 2007 with DVR capabilities and voice and video communications. Users will be able to watch live TV and chat with their friends or play a video game while recording a show to the hard drive. (via MS Press Release)

    An update for Gears of War is coming out soon (via Epic forums)

    • 2 new free maps are coming out (allegedly on Wednesday, January 10)
    • A new video is coming out sponsored by the Discovery Channel
    • An update for the game will come out before the content

    The Discovery Channel is giving away 2,000,000 Microsoft points (via XBOXZONE.com.au).

    UNO! will be Live Anywhere meaning XBOX 360 players can now get pwnd by gamers on Windows (via MS Press Release)

    10.4 million XBOX 360 consoles have been shipped to date. 5 million users are on XBOX Live. (via MS Press Release)

  • H2Vista – Achievements Supported

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    In an official press release from Microsoft at CES, there’s a comment about Halo 2 Vista, and its Live capabilities:

    “Halo® 2” for Windows Vista (Microsoft Game Studios/Bungie Studios) will also support Live, including enabling Windows gamers to communicate with Xbox Live gamers and earn Achievements in the famed “Halo 2” campaign – a first for any “Halo” title on any platform.

    Heh – will this convince Achievement-happy gamers who might otherwise have passed on this release to upgrade to Vista after all? (Louis Wu 14:28:25 UTC)

  • The CovieCast

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    Zukan pointed out The CovieCast, a podcast (of sorts) – a radio program done by Axel, inspired, it seems, by Tom Leykis (I’d hoped I’d heard the last of him when I left the West Coast). in it, modders and non-modders debate the subject of modding in Halo. I can’t tell if this is supposed to be propaganda for the HaloMods community, or if it just turned out that way… 10 minutes, 9.4 mb. Update: as Dream051 on our forum, the creator has put up Episode 2. No more Leykis (yay!) – just some familiar characters from a game we love. (Louis Wu 14:21:01 UTC)

  • Campaign Panoramas

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    RVideo is back, with four new panoramas from Halo 2’s campaign. Gorgeous work! I’m lovin’ Activated, especially. He’s made these available in png format – they’re huge. I’ve added local jpeg mirrors – much smaller. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 14:02:53 UTC)

  • Halo Zero – soon for PSP

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    Zukan pointed out that Halo Zero, a fanmade PC Halo sidescroller, is being ported to the PSP; there are a few screenshots linked in his post. More platforms = more better!(Louis Wu 13:41:36 UTC)

  • The dangers of overhype

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    Back in December, when the Halo 3 ad premiered on Monday Night Football in all its CG glory, some fans worried that the general public was going to think that this ad showed Halo 3 as it looked, in-game, and be disappointed when they finally saw the actual product. (I was one that didn’t worry too much; I felt that anyone who was really interested would do some looking online, and find the info about its CG roots pretty easily – and those who weren’t that interested wouldn’t care much either way.) Yesterday, though, this same ad was shown during Bill Gates’ keynote speech at the huge Consumer Electronics Show – and here, it was shown amongst standard gameplay footage from, for example, new games coming out for Windows Vista, with no qualifications about how it was created. According to GhaleonEB, the implication seemed to be that it was gameplay footage – and this, to an audience that WILL make noise when they learn that the game doesn’t look this way. Unfortunate… thanks to Stonesand for pointing it out.(Louis Wu 13:20:21 UTC)

  • Lost: Halostyle Ep 12

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    HaloPlayer stopped by yesterday to point out Lost: Halostyle Episode 12 – “The Plunge: Part 1”. Treading a fine line between comedy and drama, this series continues to please – solid story, solid humor, solid characters. Solid action in this ep, as well – great ideas! Definitely worth the download. (I’d suggest using our local mirror links (also in the forum post) for downloading; save their bandwidth.)(Louis Wu 12:56:08 UTC)

  • R.net updates Halo 3 FAQ

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    Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, has organized all the Halo 3 info he can find into a new Halo 3 FAQ (with a new format) – took a few days to become visible to the masses, but go take a look now!(Louis Wu 11:44:53 UTC)

  • Escape Station – Online Tourneys

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    Bungie.net had word of a new website devoted to online tournaments – Escape Station brings people together to kill each other in lots of games, including Halo 2 (their favorite). Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 11:41:12 UTC)