My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Rumors Swirl Ahead Of Microsoft’s X06 Event

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    by

    Rampancy – Se7en Years Of Halo
    in

    A lot of sources today are spreading news that details of revelations to be made at Microsoft’s X06 event in Barcelona, Spain today.


    3Suns pointed out material at 2old2play and Neoseeker in an HBO forum post, while CVG cites similar claims in a TeamXbox forum thread.


    Some reports just say “something big”. Some say it’s a new Bungie game, not related to Halo, while others say the big thing is an Xbox announcement and not specific to any particular developer.


    Some claims were remarkably particular, suggesting a new trailer, 64-player online matches and 1080p native resolution for Halo 3. That last item, I can almost assure you, is damn near technically impossible.


    Given that TGS has just wrapped up in Japan and Microsoft’s year head start in the next-generation console race is just about up, it makes sense that the company would want to start making some noise right about now. Stay tuned for coverage of X06 as the event begins.




  • What Kind of Halo Player Are You?

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    by

    HBO
    in
    Over at Bungie.net, KP has written up a great guide to Halo 2 players online (and a quiz, to help show you which type you’re most like). What I want to know is… how did it know what kind of underoos I’m wearing?(Louis Wu 23:07:35 UTC)

  • What Kind of Halo Player Are You?

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    by

    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    in
    We’ve compiled a humorous list of the most prominent gamer stereotypes in the Halo 2 Xbox Live community. Check out our list, see if any of these seem familiar and take the quiz to find out which kind of gamer you are most like.

  • Submit Stuff for Episode 83: The Halo 3 Show!

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    by

    foomojive
    in

    Episode 82 has been recorded with a surprise guest host and Ciclonic is hard at work editing it. It will likely be out tonight. It’s a good one! In the mean time it’s time to gather content for our next show.

    In Halo 3 they need more cowbell!

    What do you want to see in Halo 3? Besides cowbell, that is. Got a specific idea for a game type, weapon, gameplay feature, map location, multiplayer option, or something else? Or maybe you want to tell us what you don’t want to see in the game? Let us know, so we can talk about it on the podcast! Who knows, Bungie might even be listening. Just click the submit news and tips link on the right side of the page. And please try to steer clear of the top 10 things people ask for. Get creative!

    What do you want to see in Halo Wars?

    halowars.com talks about the new Halo RTS coming soon from Ensemble Studios. What cool new things did you se in the trailer? What do you want to see in this game, and what do you not want to see? Are you as excited about this game as we are?!

    Yeah, I play Halo 2, but my real passion is Elf Bowling

    Do you get into other games besides Halo? Let us know what else you like! Send us a one paragraph mini-review so others can benefit from your opinion as a Halo fan. You can also send in reviews of retro games or even talk about games you don’t like and why. Either way, send it in! Hopefully it’s a better game than Elf Bowling.

    Deadline is Thursday Night

    at about 5:30pm EST. As usual, the earlier you get your submission in, the more likely it will be on the show. So make it quick!

  • Submit Stuff for Episode 83: The Halo 3 Show!

    —

    by

    foomojive
    in

    Episode 82 has been recorded with a surprise guest host and Ciclonic is hard at work editing it. It will likely be out tonight. It’s a good one! In the mean time it’s time to gather content for our next show.

    In Halo 3 they need more cowbell!

    What do you want to see in Halo 3? Besides cowbell, that is. Got a specific idea for a game type, weapon, gameplay feature, map location, multiplayer option, or something else? Or maybe you want to tell us what you don’t want to see in the game? Let us know, so we can talk about it on the podcast! Who knows, Bungie might even be listening. Just click the submit news and tips link on the right side of the page. And please try to steer clear of the top 10 things people ask for. Get creative!

    What do you want to see in Halo Wars?

    halowars.com talks about the new Halo RTS coming soon from Ensemble Studios. What cool new things did you se in the trailer? What do you want to see in this game, and what do you not want to see? Are you as excited about this game as we are?!

    Yeah, I play Halo 2, but my real passion is Elf Bowling

    Do you get into other games besides Halo? Let us know what else you like! Send us a one paragraph mini-review so others can benefit from your opinion as a Halo fan. You can also send in reviews of retro games or even talk about games you don’t like and why. Either way, send it in! Hopefully it’s a better game than Elf Bowling.

    Deadline is Thursday Night

    at about 5:30pm EST. As usual, the earlier you get your submission in, the more likely it will be on the show. So make it quick!

  • The Birth of a Tattoo

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    by

    HBO
    in
    agdTinMan stopped by our forum with the story behind Don Wan’s Spartan Tattoo (mentioned, and pictured, in last week’s Bungie Weekly Update) – great read! (If you follow the Flickr link he provides, there are other photos in her stream that may or may not look familiar…)(Louis Wu 19:52:49 UTC)

  • The Spartan Effect: Episode 2

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    by

    HBO
    in
    The MPRRS went into something of a hibernation over the weekend… but a little kick-start this morning got reviewers reviewing again, and a movie stuck in the queue for 5 days was spit out this afternoon, with pretty high marks. It’s ‘The Spartan Effect: Episode 2’, from Rookie Rabbit Productions, and it continues the story of a team of Spartans faced off against the Covenant in Containment. This episode is as funny as the first one, with very high production values. Looking forward to future episodes! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves… grab a copy of Episode 2, in either WMP9 format (61.9 mb) or QuickTime format (53.4 mb), and get laughing!(Louis Wu 17:00:05 UTC)

  • The Mythical 40-Hour Gamer

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    by

    HBO
    in
    3Suns ran across an article at Wired about ‘the Mythical 40-Hour Gamer‘, which points out one of the larger difficulties facing developers these days; with more and more older gamers out there, finding ways that make games playable and enjoyable for folks who fit their gaming in between ‘real-life’ activities while KEEPING it enjoyable for people who have much more time to devote to the activity is tricky. Halo is touted as a game that found the sweet spot – playable in short bursts, but engrossing for much longer periods. It certainly hit home here… go read.(Louis Wu 12:30:33 UTC)

  • Blondi Rocks

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    by

    HBO
    in
    Ace Heart noticed a writeup of a local Halo tourney in the Montgomery (AL) Advertiser – puts a smile on my face that a 10-year-old girl came in fourth in her semifinal round.(Louis Wu 12:20:19 UTC)

  • We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Banshee

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    by

    Rampancy – Se7en Years Of Halo
    in

    Rockslider‘s latest game-within-a-game that he plays exclusively with Halo 1 is called Shark; you use a Banshee underneath a bridge to induce Covenant units to leap off to their deaths. It’s the newest item on Bad Cyborg’s Fun and Challenges page for Assault on the Control Room.




  • UNSCDF Interviews Louis Wu

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    by

    Rampancy – Se7en Years Of Halo
    in

    Major Silva of the United Nations Space Command Defense Force (a Halo fansite) interviewed Claude “Louis Wu” Errera of HBO. Asked how there were enough hours in the day for him to keep up with all the news in the Halo universe, as well as delete forum spam, run a business, have a family, and sometimes even play Halo, he responded:



    I bet you’ll find you’ve got hours of unaccounted-for time. We all do. it’s just a matter of how you use it. (I see people hanging out on IRC all the time, griping about how busy they are, how little free time they have – but THEY’RE ON IRC, GRIPING! If they were really that busy, they wouldn’t even have time to fire up the irc client. And so on.)


    Words from the wise. The discussion group for this article begins in #louiswu_interview in ten minutes.




  • How To Build An A.I.

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    by

    Rampancy – Se7en Years Of Halo
    in

    Brannon Boren made good on his promise over the weekend, putting together a nice little retrospective on the thinking process that went into creating the parts of the Halo Bible that deal with artificial intelligences like Cortana.


    Just about everything that he mentions is revealed, in one way or another, either through the games or the novels, so there are not any spoilers. However, it is interesting to see the choices that were made and the reasons for them.


    Perhaps the most interesting bit is this footnote on the seven-year lifespan of AIs:



    Many fans saw a connection between the seven year figure and Bungie’s mythology regarding the number “7”. In truth, it was an arbitrary choice on my part. I was unaware of Bungie’s past games or stories at the time. Sorry.


    Sorry, Boren, we just can’t buy that 🙂




  • Weekly Porridge #37: I told you so!

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    by

    foomojive
    in

    Quality Jeverage brings us another Weekly Porridge, showing how the Podtacular crew teamed up recently and proved that when you mess with Podtacular, you mess with US! More talk in the forums. Go Podtacular!

    ‹ Weekly Porridge #36: Lamb of PodupWeekly Porridge #38: Ex Oh Sicks! ›

  • Weekly Porridge #37: I told you so!

    —

    by

    foomojive
    in

    Quality Jeverage brings us another Weekly Porridge, showing how the Podtacular crew teamed up recently and proved that when you mess with Podtacular, you mess with US! More talk in the forums. Go Podtacular!

    ‹ Weekly Porridge #36: Lamb of PodupWeekly Porridge #38: Ex Oh Sicks! ›

  • Another learning experience

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    by

    foomojive
    in

    A certain (now former) staff member recently flipped out, deleting the rec section in the forum and making everyone overlord in Rec B. Believe it or not, this is good news. Our community reacted as a team to recognize this and fight it, and just a day later we are making a variety of positive changes in our clan system and forums to ensure we have solid leadership and don’t leave ourselves vulnerable to bipolar emos in the future. If you’re in a Podtacular rec clan, read on for some important info that you need to know.

    First of all, I’d like to thank a few people that worked together to identify and fix this quickly. Namely Stooch, Renegad3, DrThom, Dialpex, CapnKrunk, Woof1989, and the IRC team. Thanks guys for solving this little annoyance and helping us come out as a better community the next day!

    P0dtacularRec B

    If you were in PodtacularRec B, that clan is going to be moved to a new home. The new Rec B clan has a zero instead of an O in the p0d part. You should receive an invite from woof1989, who is the new sole overlord of Rec B. Please accept this, as the former rec B is no longer an official Podtacular clan. If for some reason you didn’t get this invite yet, be sure to request a clan invite and mention that you were in rec B. We’ll get you one ASAP.

    Rec clan leadership requirements

    Rec clans now have a limit on overlords and staff: There is only allowed to be one overlord and a max of three staff in a rec clan. This is effective immediately, and I will be checking on the rec clans in a few days to make sure this gets implemented, so be sure to get it taken care of quick. Staff decisions at this point are up to the overlord. If there is more than one overlord, they need to decide who will be the overlord and one needs to step down. If the overlord is never on (and I mean NEVER), let me know.

    Future rec clan leadership

    Any new leaders of Rec clans including new and existing rec clan overlords and staff will now be carefully decided on collaboratively by the staff. We have a new system for deciding on staff based on trustworthiness, activity level in Halo, activity level in the forums, respect, humility, and helpfulness.

    Rec clan leaders and the forums

    Overlords in Rec clans can no longer moderate (which also means delete topics) anywhere in the forums unless they go through a careful selection process by the admins similar to the one mentioned above. This applies to current overlords and new ones.

    Hope that clears some things up. I wouldn’t even call this a setback since there were so many positive things that came out of it, and really I’d say we’re better off now than we were a day ago. We still have the 99% of our important forum topics and we still have Rec B. The only one to lose on this is the emo that just lost all his friends and ended up helping us out. Go Podtacular!

  • Hanah Stuart, Exposed

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    by

    HBO
    in
    Kotaku hunted down Hanah Stuart, violinist extraordinaire, who made waves a couple of weeks ago as part of a very cool high school Halo music exhibition. It’s a monster interview; it kept coming back to discussion about the music, but it did quite a bit of moving around. Pretty funny stuff – and I’m already feeling sorry for Hanah, who is going to have a scary-sized following of mooning males after this… she’s smart, talented, and funny. And hot. Thanks, Florian.(Louis Wu 21:12:43 UTC)

  • Another learning experience

    —

    by

    foomojive
    in

    A certain (now former) staff member recently flipped out, deleting the rec section in the forum and making everyone overlord in Rec B. Believe it or not, this is good news. Our community reacted as a team to recognize this and fight it, and just a day later we are making a variety of positive changes in our clan system and forums to ensure we have solid leadership and don’t leave ourselves vulnerable to bipolar emos in the future. If you’re in a Podtacular rec clan, read on for some important info that you need to know.

    First of all, I’d like to thank a few people that worked together to identify and fix this quickly. Namely Stooch, Renegad3, DrThom, Dialpex, CapnKrunk, Woof1989, and the IRC team. Thanks guys for solving this little annoyance and helping us come out as a better community the next day!

    P0dtacularRec B

    If you were in PodtacularRec B, that clan is going to be moved to a new home. The new Rec B clan has a zero instead of an O in the p0d part. You should receive an invite from woof1989, who is the new sole overlord of Rec B. Please accept this, as the former rec B is no longer an official Podtacular clan. If for some reason you didn’t get this invite yet, be sure to request a clan invite and mention that you were in rec B. We’ll get you one ASAP.

    Rec clan leadership requirements

    Rec clans now have a limit on overlords and staff: There is only allowed to be one overlord and a max of three staff in a rec clan. This is effective immediately, and I will be checking on the rec clans in a few days to make sure this gets implemented, so be sure to get it taken care of quick. Staff decisions at this point are up to the overlord. If there is more than one overlord, they need to decide who will be the overlord and one needs to step down. If the overlord is never on (and I mean NEVER), let me know.

    Future rec clan leadership

    Any new leaders of Rec clans including new and existing rec clan overlords and staff will now be carefully decided on collaboratively by the staff. We have a new system for deciding on staff based on trustworthiness, activity level in Halo, activity level in the forums, respect, humility, and helpfulness.

    Rec clan leaders and the forums

    Overlords in Rec clans can no longer moderate (which also means delete topics) anywhere in the forums unless they go through a careful selection process by the admins similar to the one mentioned above. This applies to current overlords and new ones.

    Hope that clears some things up. I wouldn’t even call this a setback since there were so many positive things that came out of it, and really I’d say we’re better off now than we were a day ago. We still have the 99% of our important forum topics and we still have Rec B. The only one to lose on this is the emo that just lost all his friends and ended up helping us out. Go Podtacular!

  • Community Heat Lamp: Chevelle65

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    by

    foomojive
    in

    BrentGamer sat down with Chevelle65 the other day to ask about moderating the forums, running Halo News, and whether he really drives a Chevelle. Read on for the whole interview…

    Brent: How did you learn about Podtacular?

    Chevelle: I was sick of joining clans online just to have them inactive and not even do anything. Well, after doing a couple of searches on the net I found podtacular and started listen to the podcasts. I quickly fell in love with podtacular and have been working my way up ever since joining Rec A a long while ago.

    Brent: What are your duties as Mod?

    Chevelle: First and foremost I belive it is to keep the peace (i.e. flame wars and such). Second, I’m helpful to the members if they have any questions. Third, I keep the the topics in line with deleting double posts and putting threads in the right place.

    Brent: How did you come up with the idea for Halo News?

    Chevelle: Halo News was a collective idea of Dazzolas, Jordanjr, A Oompa Loompah and myself. We worked toghether on the first one and a little on the second but after that I took over making, writing, filming and editing the episodes. That was the big switch in Halo News which led to the title being changed to “The Podtacular Community Presents”. That change really opened up opitions in HN and gave others a chance to be a part of it.

    It will be great to have Dazzolas online once again, he has had some problems with his internet and Xbox but I am very much looking forward to having him back on the team. Even though he is not on Live he calls my house to disscuss the news and help out in any way he can. He is one of the only original cast members to stick by me to offer any kind of help I may have needed.

    Brent: Where is Halo News going in the future?

    Chevelle: Look for more off the wall wacky stuff. I’m between homes right now but one of my goals with HN is to come up with some very well thought out, acted, and edited episodes. Episodes you can watch all the way though and still laugh at.

    Brent: Can anybody send in ideas for Halo News?

    Chevelle: Yes and it is encouraged!!! I’ve already used one idea from a member (thanks painkilla) and look forward to using more.

    Brent: What is your favorite Halo 2 moment?

    Chevelle: Being able to beat the guy that introduced me to Halo 2. The first time I ever played halo2 was on live at my buddies house. Well he pretty muched destroyed me and I never heard the end of it. So I went out and bought an Xbox, Halo 2, and Live. A month later I went back to his house to play him agian. He never played me again after I got done with him.

    Brent: Final Question: Jessica Alba or Eva Longoria?

    Chevelle: I didn’t even have to think about it. JESSICA ALBA!

    Thanks Brent for putting together another excellent interview. Thanks to Chevelle for all he does at Podtacular! We never found out if you drive that chevelle… -Foo Mo

  • When the cabin boy gets cabin fever…

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    by

    HBO
    in
    KP’s been looking for stuff to do – he updated two somewhat neglected sections of Bungie.net, the Gallery (with a cool ninja-kick screenshot) and the Voting Booth (where you can weigh in on the Bungie Podcast). I’m saddened by early returns in the poll…(Louis Wu 19:07:40 UTC)

  • Are You Not Entertained?!

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    by

    Bungie.net’s Recent News
    in
    The Gallery and Voting Booth Forums are back with a vengeance today. Select few have been given privileges in both forums to revive them. Just now, something’s been posted in both, so go check them out and expect more in the future!