Marty O’Donnell has released the track from the Halo 3 Announcement trailer as a single, available for exclusive download from the iTunes Music Store. A thread sprang up on our forum last night, with a number of posters expressing everything from disappointment to disgust that this piece is for sale (at a whopping 99 cents), rather than being released for free… but remember, nobody’s forcing you to buy this. The music is available, albeit mixed with ambient sounds, in the trailer itself, if you don’t want to pay for it. (Jordan117 had a great suggestion – play this piece simultaneously with the Announcement trailer… you get an entirely different feel (though it matches up nicely).(Louis Wu 12:12:20 UTC)
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Sprucing up the old 360
Hawaiian Pig won our Design a Faceplate Contest back in August, and he was contacted by a fan named Randy Goth who wanted to use the design to make his own faceplate. HP had to modify the design a bit to fit the template Randy was using – and last night posted the pics Randy sent him of the finished products. Man… that’s a nice-looking 360!(Louis Wu 11:57:13 UTC)
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Stubbs The Zombie: Dear But Not Departed
A couple of newsworthy items noted at WideloadGames.org that skipped my notice until just now: Alex “The Man” Seropian and Matt Soell, as well as others from Wideload, attended a meeting of the new Madison, Wisconship chapter of the International Game Developers Association last month. No missing brains have yet been reported.
Furthermore, the ring of Stubbs fansites has grown with the addition of Voices of the Dead, a site dedicated to recordings of in-game dialogue in Stubbs the Zombie.
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Stubbs The Zombie: Dear But Not Departed
A couple of newsworthy items noted at WideloadGames.org that skipped my notice until just now: Alex “The Man” Seropian and Matt Soell, as well as others from Wideload, attended a meeting of the new Madison, Wisconship chapter of the International Game Developers Association last month. No missing brains have yet been reported.
Furthermore, the ring of Stubbs fansites has grown with the addition of Voices of the Dead, a site dedicated to recordings of in-game dialogue in Stubbs the Zombie.
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New Documentary Vid Coming, Brutes Not Playable Characters
Ahh, the Halo rumor mill. When the tabloids fail to satisfy or even titillate, Halo rumors always ride to the rescue.
A Microsoft blogger in Belgium apparently reposted verbatim an electronic mail message sent from a “bigwig” at Microsoft about a video due to hit Xbox Marketplace on December 20th. The email alleged the 7 plus minute video would focus on the Brute race– which would be playable in Halo 3– and feature two and a half minutes of gameplay footage.
HBO followed the breadcrumbs on this one, with forumgoers pointing out that a new documentary video was consistent with statements Bungie made last month, but Frankie was quick to quash the “playable Brutes” part in several community forums.
Of course, that didn’t stop the discussion there, as many fans debated back and forth about whether Brutes, as a playable race in campaign, would have been a good idea or not, which only brought out all the Arbiter fans and detractors again over whether or not his inclusion in Halo 2 was a good idea.
We already know Bungie isn’t doing it… but if they had, would it have made sense? And would fans (at least some of them) have liked it?
Click “read more” from the front page to see the entire article.
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New Documentary Vid Coming, Brutes Not Playable Characters
Ahh, the Halo rumor mill. When the tabloids fail to satisfy or even titillate, Halo rumors always ride to the rescue.
A Microsoft blogger in Belgium apparently reposted verbatim an electronic mail message sent from a “bigwig” at Microsoft about a video due to hit Xbox Marketplace on December 20th. The email alleged the 7 plus minute video would focus on the Brute race– which would be playable in Halo 3– and feature two and a half minutes of gameplay footage.
HBO followed the breadcrumbs on this one, with forumgoers pointing out that a new documentary video was consistent with statements Bungie made last month, but Frankie was quick to quash the “playable Brutes” part in several community forums.
Of course, that didn’t stop the discussion there, as many fans debated back and forth about whether Brutes, as a playable race in campaign, would have been a good idea or not, which only brought out all the Arbiter fans and detractors again over whether or not his inclusion in Halo 2 was a good idea.
We already know Bungie isn’t doing it… but if they had, would it have made sense? And would fans (at least some of them) have liked it?
Click “read more” from the front page to see the entire article.
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Finish the Fight
Marty O’Donnell has released the track from the Halo 3 Announcement trailer as a single and it’s available for download. It’s called Finish the Fight and you can only get it through the iTunes Music Store.
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Animated Flip Books
Interesting – over at the Halo 3 Forum at Bungie.net, I noticed a thread about animated flip books made by DFlyDen – they look really cool! (You can see the Halo-related ones, along with several other kinds, in videos at GameTrailers.com. They’re not for sale anywhere.)(Louis Wu 23:56:22 UTC)
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XBL-related upgrades at halowiki.net
PEZ wrote to say that the Halo 2 Recent Games Listing and the Halo 2 Live Game Saver have been integrated at halowiki.net – you can now easily see (and save) any games you’re really proud of with just a couple of clicks. Check it out!(Louis Wu 22:39:50 UTC)
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Creative Contests Winding Down
We got word from bryboy remix, reminding us about the Halopeño So Hot Editing Contest, ending in just a few days. (Deadline for submissions is midnight, December 18, and winners will be announced on Christmas day.) As a refresher, all you need are moviemaking tools; the content is provided by HBO’s cutscene library (video) and Halopen (audio). Winners will receive EB Games/Gamestop goodies from a $70 budget. Check the page for more details! (And while we’re reminding you about contests at Halo sites, don’t forget about Halo Everywhere, the ‘put Halo into the world’ contest being run by PraetoriaGuard. You’ve got until February for submissions, at that one. )(Louis Wu 21:40:17 UTC)
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Halo Base interviews Cody Miller
Legend, from Halo Base, sent word about an interview with Cody Miller, the Halo world speedrunning champion (heh). It’s primarily a discussion of his 3 and a half hour Legendary No-Deaths run that won this year’s Twin Galaxies challenge – it’s a fascinating read! (The Halo Base staff confused Cody with Mike Miller at one point, and Cody didn’t correct them directly, but otherwise, they got it right on.) It’s available in both English and German – read the one that’s easier for you!(Louis Wu 21:00:15 UTC)
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GTR’s 2nd Annual Xbox Community Awards ’06
Last year, we mentioned the Gamertag Radio Xbox Community Awards almost in passing – and we even WON one! The site was young, and maybe a little rough… but they’ve really polished things up this past year, and the awards ceremony this year is chock-full of Xbox luminaries, humor bits, and music. There’s even a Halo tie-in again; Bungie won the Xbox Live Marketplace Download of the Year Award, for their E3 Halo 3 Trailer. Frankie was on-hand to accept the award. The show is 45 minutes long, 35 mb to download – there are other Halo community members that were nominated for awards this year, so go listen!(Louis Wu 15:21:36 UTC)
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New footage next week?
Xboxic uncovered a blog post from YLA G, a Microsoft employee who’s part of the Xbox Elite Team Belgium, that reports about a 7 minute Halo 3 trailer to be available on Xbox Live Marketplace next week.The clip will show the emergence of the Brutes as “playable characters” in the game and it will contain 2.5 minutes of gameplay footage.
As Xboxic says, this hasn’t been confirmed anywhere else, but there have been hints that stuff is coming this month, so who knows? If we get something out of Bungie about this, we’ll be sure to let you know. Update: The More Deluded reminded us that Bungie actually mentioned that SOMETHING was coming, back in mid-November:
Shortly after the commercial airs, we’ll be treating our fans to the next installment in our “making of” documentary series on Xbox Live Marketplace. This next “VIDOC” is going to give some new insights into elements of the campaign and will peel back the curtain on a certain prominent character in Halo 3. We’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks.
Doesn’t mention Brutes specifically, but it certainly fits nicely with the rumor. Update 2: Frankie has confirmed (on the Gaming Age forums) that the ‘playable brutes’ part of this story, at least, is NOT true. Thanks to Ding On, on the Bungie.net forums, for the heads-up. Update 3: And he’s now smacked it down on our own forum, as well, for folks who might not believe ‘Stinkles’ might actually be Frankie.(Louis Wu 14:54:42 UTC)
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Bungie Spinoff To Make New Halo 2 Maps
Max “Yeroen” Hoberman, one of the longest-serving Bungie employees, is founding a new games development company, Certain Affinity. The CA team of developers in Austin, Texas, including other Bungie alumni such as David Bowman and Chad “Shishka” Armstrong are already hard at work on new maps for Halo 2. Bungie.net has the lowdown in an interview with Frankie. The CA site has the official press release, as well as a note that they’re looking for an environment artist.
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Bungie Spinoff To Make New Halo 2 Maps
Max “Yeroen” Hoberman, one of the longest-serving Bungie employees, is founding a new games development company, Certain Affinity. The CA team of developers in Austin, Texas, including other Bungie alumni such as David Bowman and Chad “Shishka” Armstrong are already hard at work on new maps for Halo 2. Bungie.net has the lowdown in an interview with Frankie. The CA site has the official press release, as well as a note that they’re looking for an environment artist.
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They like… something.
Over at Bungie.net, there’s a new article about Certain Affinity, a soon-to-be Bungie Spinoff; Max Hoberman, who’s been the multiplayer design lead for Halo 2 and Halo 3, has been hard at work with a hand-picked crew building the Halo 2 maps that will be released for 360 owners this spring. At some point soon, they’ll cease to be Bungie employees, and begin to be Certain Affinity devs – for more on what this means, read the article! Thanks to Shishka (who will be part of the CA team) for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 03:25:17 UTC)
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Bubble Wrap
Paul Maestri sends word that Halo Heads 33 is online – and I must say, it’s rather surreal. Not unpleasant… just odd.(Louis Wu 03:22:06 UTC)
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Meet Certain Affinity!
Say hello to our newest friends in the game development biz – Certain Affinity. This new team founded by ex-Bungie multiplayer lead Max Hoberman is hard at work on new Halo 2 maps and a full game of their own. Read on for the scoop!
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RT: Saturday? Already?
I woke up this morning and was getting in my car as I realized that it was Saturday, and I didn’t have to go to stupid work. I was back in bed in under 10 seconds. Wait…did I leave my car on? Oh well, whatever. Today’s comic answers the much asked question…”How…
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RT: Halo 3 Trailer!
Did you guys see the amazing Halo 3 Trailer last night during Monday Night Football? If not, you can get it on bungie.net, HBO, or on XBL Marketplace. I insist you go watch it right now. Then come back here and read today’s comic.