Halo Wars Central sat down with Dispraiser to talk about the shutdown of the Halogen project, and what Slipstream is up to at this point. (Halogen’s website seems to have gotten hacked today; unclear how long that will stay true.) Give it a read… sounds like they’re moving on to other things!(Louis Wu 18:51:19 UTC)
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Beats working at a restaurant
The Palm Beach Post has a large writeup of Tom ‘TSquared’ Taylor in today’s edition; some fun facts in there. Give it a read!(Louis Wu 18:28:01 UTC)
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It’s Raining In Seattle
The Bungie Weekly Update went up a bit late this week, because Frankie’s doing unspeakable things in unspeakable places (which, apparently, don’t have access to the intarwebs) – KP put one up this morning, in his stead. It’s entertaining, and informative if you were really curious about a day in the life of Marty O’Donnell (I know I USED to be), and it should make you smile a little. Even if it doesn’t, don’t tell KP – he worked really hard this past week, and his defensive shield is low. Thanks to c0ld, who was first with the news on our forum – and if you have any reason not to read it at B.net, it’s available, as usual, in our Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 18:23:30 UTC)
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Halo Wars Central Interviews Halogen Lead
Mr Sprout over at the new Halo Wars fansite, Halo Wars Central, was able to get an interview with Dispraiser, the lead of Slipstream Productions that was working on the Halo-themed Halogen mod for Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. Shortly before the announcement of Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 at the X06 event in Barcelona, Spain, Bungie contacted the Slipstream team with word that Microsoft’s legal department wanted the team to stop working on their mod as they considered it an infringement of Microsoft’s intellectual property, the Halo universe.
However, the team has not stopped working on the mod– it just isn’t Halo themed any more:
Well, it’d take the mystery out of it if I just said what our next project is, but a lot of our fans have found the secret message (rather crudely hidden) on our old homepage. I think if I just said what we were up to it’d take a lot of the fun out of making everybody find that message… But lemme just say, if you liked Halogen for more than just the Halo name, and you saw the work we put into our creations, and our faith to our motto (Semper Qualitas), then let me say that you won’t be dissapointed.
For those still unclear on what actually happened with the cancellation of Halogen, read the interview.
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Halo Wars Central Interviews Halogen Lead
Mr Sprout over at the new Halo Wars fansite, Halo Wars Central, was able to get an interview with Dispraiser, the lead of Slipstream Productions that was working on the Halo-themed Halogen mod for Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. Shortly before the announcement of Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 at the X06 event in Barcelona, Spain, Bungie contacted the Slipstream team with word that Microsoft’s legal department wanted the team to stop working on their mod as they considered it an infringement of Microsoft’s intellectual property, the Halo universe.
However, the team has not stopped working on the mod– it just isn’t Halo themed any more:
Well, it’d take the mystery out of it if I just said what our next project is, but a lot of our fans have found the secret message (rather crudely hidden) on our old homepage. I think if I just said what we were up to it’d take a lot of the fun out of making everybody find that message… But lemme just say, if you liked Halogen for more than just the Halo name, and you saw the work we put into our creations, and our faith to our motto (Semper Qualitas), then let me say that you won’t be dissapointed.
For those still unclear on what actually happened with the cancellation of Halogen, read the interview.
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Bungie Weekly Update
Unfortunately, Frankie’s off lolling about the Carribean and was unable to bring you a Weekly Update this week. But I hear your cries. With the exception of that one guy asking for Noguchi’s manbabies, you all want an update, and an update you shall get.
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Over the Limit – Act 0 – The Pheonix Army
Pothole Studios submitted ‘Over the Limit, Act 0 – The Pheonix Army’ (yes, the typo’s intentional) to the MPRRS; it lingered for a bit, but the reviewers are back on track and have cleared out all backlogged submissions – this one passed. They didn’t want hosting – the video is available from their site, in DivX format (45 mb), but if they run into trouble, we’ll certainly put up mirrors. It’s an interesting start – can’t wait to see the rest!(Louis Wu 13:48:05 UTC)
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Corrupt, Remastered
xbryboyremix remastered his highly-regarded video ‘Corrupt’ – enhanced video, remastered digital audio, realistic visual effects… the MPRRS liked the changes, so we’re swapping the old links for new ones. It’s roughly the same size as it used to be – 78 mb for the WMP9 version, 83.5 mb for the QuickTime version; you can grab it again to see the changes, or grab it for the first time, if you missed it the last time around. Really well-done machinima.(Louis Wu 13:34:58 UTC)
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Ghandi calls Carbon
More MLG Pro Picks – this time it’s Ghandi. I think I’m gonna have to say that’s the last one we’re gonna point out – this could go on for a long, long time. If you’re interested in how the Halo pros view the upcoming playoffs… I’d say you should visit MLG more often. Thanks, as usual, to 3Suns.(Louis Wu 13:34:17 UTC)
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Halo Arcade Shooter
Adam Chapman noticed a Flash Halo game at Games121 – it’s pretty basic, but hey! Give it a try. I found I could kill about 50 baddies before losing my 100 health points – this goes with my 1:2 kill-to-death ratio on Xbox Live pretty nicely. So you folks with 5:1 K:D ratios should put down at least 500 baddies before dying, right?(Louis Wu 13:29:38 UTC)
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An edge of your seat thrill ride
2old2play took a look at the evolution of the First Person Shooter – it’s called ‘Wolfenstein: There and Back Again‘, and it traces our love with this genre from its birth in 1992 through the present. Halo, not surprisingly, makes an appearance. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 13:26:18 UTC)
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Ranked Multiplayer now Random on Live
Ouch. Latest news about Gears of War (Joystiq and Xboxic) is that you will not be able to play ranked games with your friends; the TrueSkill ranking system requires that you go into a game paired up with people with roughly the same ability as you have – randomized. You can play with a party – just not in a ranked game. This, apparently, is now a requirement of Microsoft Live certification. Halo 2 was released before this requirement was implemented, so it’s exempt – which is why you can put together a party of friends for Big Team Battle, or Team Slayer – but Halo 3 will likely be subject to the same rules GoW is now facing. If you want to discuss this, 3Suns has started up a thread about it on our forum. Update: Wow, this has generated quite a bit of discussion on our forum – mostly negative (towards the policy, as it’s understood). There’s a comment by Achronos on the Bungie.net forums that suggests that there’s a misunderstanding here… but closer reading of joeGraf’s comments in the Gears of War forum thread that started the firestorm makes me think that Achronos is incorrect. If we get better clarification, we’ll be sure to pass it along.(Louis Wu 13:14:43 UTC)
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PstP Halo Nod
Pixellated noticed that over at Press Start To Play, there’s a piece of promotional art for Otokon that features a Spartan and an Elite (check the October 6 news post).(Louis Wu 12:55:44 UTC)
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Got Your Back
Red vs Blue Episode 79 has been posted for sponsors (which means, of course, that it’ll be two days before it’s available for everybody else) – almost 5 minutes of great lines from Sarge and the gang. I like Shiela when she’s crazy. Looks like Psychophan7 was first. (Oh, yeah, and speaking of Sarge… there was an MP3 file full of Sarge outtakes, talking about Morris the Cat, released a few days ago – forgot to mention it. This one is sponsors-only, as well.)(Louis Wu 12:30:28 UTC)
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RT: Feed me Seymour
So, despite a lackluster Lost season premiere last night, and the ghost in my house that keeps waking me up at 4:30 every friggin morning, I managed to drag myself into the office a little early today to bring you all the latest comic, and a little RvB production…
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RT: Episode 79
For those of you who are Sponsors but don’t check the Sponsor forum, this news post is for you. Episode 79 of Rd vs Blue is now available in teh Video archive. Or, you can just click here.
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News Roundup For October 7
- Next Generation: Game Trailers Hitch Up (mentions the H3 trailer)
- Marine Corps Times: Halo becomes literary blood-and-bone ballet (about the graphic novel)
- NG-Gamer: XCN Interviewed Peter Moore (Halo Wars, Bungie and Ensemble mentioned)
- Bungie.net: Halo 2 Vista Developer Diary Part Two (Vista is pretty and likes to kiss all the boys)
- Halo Wars.com: New forums for Suggestions and Haloverse Discussion.
The latter, it seems, not an actual Bungie Weekly Update; Frankie is having difficulty putting one up from his location and KP is at a loss for words.
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News Roundup For October 7
- Next Generation: Game Trailers Hitch Up (mentions the H3 trailer)
- Marine Corps Times: Halo becomes literary blood-and-bone ballet (about the graphic novel)
- NG-Gamer: XCN Interviewed Peter Moore (Halo Wars, Bungie and Ensemble mentioned)
- Bungie.net: Halo 2 Vista Developer Diary Part Two (Vista is pretty and likes to kiss all the boys)
- Halo Wars.com: New forums for Suggestions and Haloverse Discussion.
The latter, it seems, not an actual Bungie Weekly Update; Frankie is having difficulty putting one up from his location and KP is at a loss for words.
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Pie: Chapter 2
A month ago, we posted Pie, Chapter 1, from Machine Enema. Today, Pie Chapter 2 passed the MPRRS, and narrowly missed placing in the Top 10 scores since the MPRRS opened. It’s really, really well done. Heavy on the effects – but that’s part of the ambience. Fantastic story, fantastic voice acting, fantastic cinematography. It’s also enormous. (15 minutes, more than 150 mb.) You can grab a copy in WMP9 format (153 mb) or QuickTime format (161 mb)… here’s hoping the servers don’t melt. Definitely worth watching. Definitely.(Louis Wu 00:01:16 UTC)
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A (Lack Of) I.
Stuntmutt continues his riffs on Halo Wars in today’s One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:09:53 UTC)