Lukey25 found a pretty funny comic at Wayneker.com. The art’s nothing to write home about – but the strips are great. (And the one above is Halo-related.)(Louis Wu 12:37:29 UTC)
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Narc to the Rescue
Narcogen has noticed that a lot of people are reacting in not-so-rational ways to Halo Wars; recently, he’s done his best to dispel some of the worst reasoning. You can find some great arguments about the handling of the Halogen project in this thread (try here, here, and here), and over at Rampancy.net, he’s written up an entire article on the Battle Rifle Debate (“how come the Spartans in the Halo Wars trailer are using a gun that showed up in Halo 2, even though HW is supposed to take place before Halo 1?”). I have very few illusions that his arguments will actually sway the most rabid of naysayers… but for folks who haven’t really been paying attention that closely, his writing should give you a decent, relatively unbiased view of the situation(s).(Louis Wu 12:28:57 UTC)
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Episodic Gaming
CNN takes a look at the rise of episodic gaming – and games like Halo 2, with its cliffhanger ending, are credited with opening the door, in a way. Give it a read. Thanks, Obienator.(Louis Wu 12:20:52 UTC)
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Halo 2 Vista vids at GameTrailers
At GameTrailers.com, you’ll find a pair of new Halo 2 Vista gameplay trailers (in regular and HD), recorded at X06. (Look for the October 3 content.) As with previous H2Vista gameplay vids, it’s clear that folks aren’t used to the controls yet; there’s a lot of standing in one place going on. However, you should get a decent sense for how the game looks, compared to the Xbox version. Chrisvioxxx was first with the news.(Louis Wu 12:12:53 UTC)
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7th Column Chess Tournament
This week it was decided to make a new tournament for the 7th Column to spice things up a bit. Here’s the juicy info about it. Cover your eyes!
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Ensemble Codenamed Halo Wars… Phoenix?
Ok, you have to be kidding me. Supposedly this is nothing more than an outlandishly freak coincidence, but according to the developer blog of Ensemble’s Bruce Shelley, the internal codename used for the Halo Wars project is Phoenix– the same codename used for a scuttled project at Bungie a few years ago that was rumored to be a strategy game of some kind, perhaps a fantasy game in the vein of Myth.
Shelley’s entry doesn’t give a lot of information about the game, but it does tell us who at Ensemble is working on it so far:
The Halo Wars team is the fastest growing at ES right now. Much of The WarChiefs team is rolling over to it and many of our new employees are also joining. The team is being led by veteran ES producer Chris Rippy and Lead Programmer Angelo Laudon. Both have been with ES from the start, nearly 12 years ago. Angelo was Lead Programmer on Age I and Age II. The Art Lead is Mathew Goldman, an industry veteran with many titles to his credit from years at Bioware. Lead Designer is Graeme Devine, another industry veteran with 20+ years experience. We think the project is in great hands.
The name Graeme Devine at least should be familiar to those fans perhaps new to the RTS genre but familiar with first-person shooters, as he worked with Id Software on Quake 3 and Doom 3.
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Ensemble Codenamed Halo Wars… Phoenix?
Ok, you have to be kidding me. Supposedly this is nothing more than an outlandishly freak coincidence, but according to the developer blog of Ensemble’s Bruce Shelley, the internal codename used for the Halo Wars project is Phoenix– the same codename used for a scuttled project at Bungie a few years ago that was rumored to be a strategy game of some kind, perhaps a fantasy game in the vein of Myth.
Shelley’s entry doesn’t give a lot of information about the game, but it does tell us who at Ensemble is working on it so far:
The Halo Wars team is the fastest growing at ES right now. Much of The WarChiefs team is rolling over to it and many of our new employees are also joining. The team is being led by veteran ES producer Chris Rippy and Lead Programmer Angelo Laudon. Both have been with ES from the start, nearly 12 years ago. Angelo was Lead Programmer on Age I and Age II. The Art Lead is Mathew Goldman, an industry veteran with many titles to his credit from years at Bioware. Lead Designer is Graeme Devine, another industry veteran with 20+ years experience. We think the project is in great hands.
The name Graeme Devine at least should be familiar to those fans perhaps new to the RTS genre but familiar with first-person shooters, as he worked with Id Software on Quake 3 and Doom 3.
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Submit Stuff for Episode 84: The Tips Show
Episode 83 is on the way, Ciclonic is putting in the final touches to make sure it comes out just like we want it. It’s a really good show with some interesting special guests from the Halo community. In the mean time we gotta get some stuff to talk about for the next show…
I like to set my sensitivity to 50 but now I get whiplash turning my head
Got a tip on how to level up and stay there? We’re looking for tips that will help players at levels 25-35. Want to tell us the fastest way to use jumps to get places? Or how to use a sniper rifle most effectively? Or how to counter a noob combo? Or what combo to use if you can’t find a power weapon or a noob combo? Or maybe ways to keep your team working together? Any general tip you have that’s for a higher level, we want to hear it! Just send it in with your gamertag and if it’s good we’ll mention it on the show and give you credit.
On Zanzibar I like to set the fan to high speed and blow over the seawall on top of the other team
Got a tip for Zanzibar on how to really dominate? Send it in! We’re looking for general tips for this map plus specific tips for CTF and Assault and even Oddball and KOTH just for kicks. This is your chance to show your leet knowledge of this sweet mid-range map!
I like to jump on the sign and then on the roof and run the whole level looking at pretty gray untextured stuff
Got a campaign tip? We’ll be talking about those too. For those numbskulls like me that still haven’t beaten campaign on legendary, this may be a big help! Send in any tips you have with your gamertag and if they’re good we’ll mention them on the show.
Deadline is Friday night
at about 5:30pm EST, so get your tips in pronto! The earlier you get them in, the more likely they’ll be on the show.
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Submit Stuff for Episode 84: The Tips Show
Episode 83 is on the way, Ciclonic is putting in the final touches to make sure it comes out just like we want it. It’s a really good show with some interesting special guests from the Halo community. In the mean time we gotta get some stuff to talk about for the next show…
I like to set my sensitivity to 50 but now I get whiplash turning my head
Got a tip on how to level up and stay there? We’re looking for tips that will help players at levels 25-35. Want to tell us the fastest way to use jumps to get places? Or how to use a sniper rifle most effectively? Or how to counter a noob combo? Or what combo to use if you can’t find a power weapon or a noob combo? Or maybe ways to keep your team working together? Any general tip you have that’s for a higher level, we want to hear it! Just send it in with your gamertag and if it’s good we’ll mention it on the show and give you credit.
On Zanzibar I like to set the fan to high speed and blow over the seawall on top of the other team
Got a tip for Zanzibar on how to really dominate? Send it in! We’re looking for general tips for this map plus specific tips for CTF and Assault and even Oddball and KOTH just for kicks. This is your chance to show your leet knowledge of this sweet mid-range map!
I like to jump on the sign and then on the roof and run the whole level looking at pretty gray untextured stuff
Got a campaign tip? We’ll be talking about those too. For those numbskulls like me that still haven’t beaten campaign on legendary, this may be a big help! Send in any tips you have with your gamertag and if they’re good we’ll mention them on the show.
Deadline is Friday night
at about 5:30pm EST, so get your tips in pronto! The earlier you get them in, the more likely they’ll be on the show.
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GIA Team SWAT Tournament Round-Up
A while ago Games in Action announced it was to host a Team SWAT Tournament. Well over the last two months teams have been battling it out for a chance to win $200. Read on to find out all the details about who won.
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Podtacular Fall Season 2006 is Here!!!
Our Second season of Halo 2 is here guys. Now it’s time to practice up and get sharp for the matches that we will have in 2 weeks kicking off the start of the LARGEST Podtacular tournaments with 24 teams and over 95 players!!!
So click on the top left side of this page “Tournaments – Fall 2006” and check out the amazing season whe we have in front of us! I would like to give a very special shout out to CapnKrunk for helping me out with the new system. This season would not run as smooth if it wasn’t for our favorite Capn!!
Good Luck to all teams that are playing and if you’re not playing make sure to keep up with the news and root for your favorite team!!!
Check out the Forums for more information on this season!
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Podtacular Fall Season 2006 is Here!!!
Our Second season of Halo 2 is here guys. Now it’s time to practice up and get sharp for the matches that we will have in 2 weeks kicking off the start of the LARGEST Podtacular tournaments with 24 teams and over 95 players!!!
So click on the top left side of this page “Tournaments – Fall 2006” and check out the amazing season whe we have in front of us! I would like to give a very special shout out to CapnKrunk for helping me out with the new system. This season would not run as smooth if it wasn’t for our favorite Capn!!
Good Luck to all teams that are playing and if you’re not playing make sure to keep up with the news and root for your favorite team!!!
Check out the Forums for more information on this season!
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The squeaky wheel gets greased, punk.
Unbeknownst to us, Captain Spark’s been busy on his website; he’s reorganized all of his 2005 dialogue submissions to include the new category names (individual marines, etc), and he’s added two new collections (on September 20 and September 29). We’ve added all 37 new snippets to our Dialogue Databank – there are some classics in there!(Louis Wu 18:52:29 UTC)
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SIXAXIS OF EVIL
Paul Maestri writes to let us know that Halo Heads 14 is up – it takes a shot at Sony’s latest PS3 move. I’m still chuckling…(Louis Wu 18:29:13 UTC)
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That’s how he rolls.
Luke McKay sketched up a scene from RvB Episode 78 today… you gotta wonder if Church would make a decent parent.(Louis Wu 18:13:33 UTC)
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It Begins
In addition to the official HaloWars.com site and its forum, Halo Wars fansites are starting to sprout up. We saw the first of them linked from HBO: Halo Wars Central, which is currently running an art contest.
We’ve added a Halo Wars section to our database of links to other sites.
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The Battle Rifle Debate
The HaloWars.com forums are both new and very busy. It has been difficult at time to get at the interesting discussions because so much time has been taken up by the same issues over and over again. Since the announcement of Halo Wars, some eleven thousand posts have been made. About half of them are about why marines have battle rifles.
Things are improving. Their FAQ, while short, one can assume will be expanded at some point. Two sticky threads, on most-often discussed issues and instructions to new posters have gone up to try and keep duplicates to a minimum.
Still, this has barely stemmed the tide of those who wonder about the battle rifle’s presence.
I’ll try to put this question to rest once and for all here. Wish me luck.
Click “read more” from the front page for the entire article.
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It Begins
In addition to the official HaloWars.com site and its forum, Halo Wars fansites are starting to sprout up. We saw the first of them linked from HBO: Halo Wars Central, which is currently running an art contest.
We’ve added a Halo Wars section to our database of links to other sites.
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Halo Who?
Elnea mashed up the theme from Doctor Who with the Halo theme… what came out was pretty cool. (She also created some artwork for this – you can find it in her gallery here.) On the off-chance her .Mac site runs out of bandwidth, the mashup is mirrored here. Go listen! (She originally posted this in her RvB journal – I can’t remember if this is visible without an account there or not.)(Louis Wu 15:09:34 UTC)
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The Battle Rifle Debate
The HaloWars.com forums are both new and very busy. It has been difficult at time to get at the interesting discussions because so much time has been taken up by the same issues over and over again. Since the announcement of Halo Wars, some eleven thousand posts have been made. About half of them are about why marines have battle rifles.
Things are improving. Their FAQ, while short, one can assume will be expanded at some point. Two sticky threads, on most-often discussed issues and instructions to new posters have gone up to try and keep duplicates to a minimum.
Still, this has barely stemmed the tide of those who wonder about the battle rifle’s presence.
I’ll try to put this question to rest once and for all here. Wish me luck.
Click “read more” from the front page for the entire article.