My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Friday’s Fanfic

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    Eighteen new pieces added to the Fan Fiction section this morning – some doozies. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 13:21:34 UTC)

  • Free Xbox 360 repairs – a little late

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    Not strictly Halo-related – but it affects a lot of Halo fans, so it’s going up. Dolbex posted a note on our forum, pointing back to his blog, which in turn points to an article at IGN; all of this is about a new policy whereby Microsoft will fix any broken Xbox 360 consoles purchased prior to January 1, 2006. (Actually, the IGN story is a bit ambiguous; at the top of the story, it states that this applies to all units PURCHASED by January 1 – at the bottom, it refers to its source, which claims that it’s all boxes MANUFACTURED prior to January 1 – which would imply a later potential purchase date.) In any case, if you have a first-run Xbox 360, and it’s been in for repairs or NEEDS to go in for repairs, Microsoft looks like they’re doing the right thing. (If you already had it repaired, you can apply for a refund.) Thanks, Dolbex!(Louis Wu 12:57:46 UTC)

  • The First Halo 3 Humpday Challenge

    WOW… Don’t you wish you were there? Yes.. It looks like the bungie guys are having a lot of fun during the test of this amazing new game we’ve been waiting for. This week they took on each other there and had a blast playing some games, having some fun and just testing what will surely be the best Halo game of all the series.

    Click HERE and check it out what KP has to share with us about this great time they had with Halo 3 at the Bungie Studios this week.

    Check out the Forums for more discussions about this.


  • Tsquared talks to Boost Mobile

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    Boost Mobile has an interview with Tsquared – he reminisces about the tourneys that got him going in the Halo Pro scene, he discusses the pro circuit, and he tells a fun story about a cop with a Halo-playing son. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 12:09:48 UTC)

  • Halo Sucks.

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    Wow. Ferrago has a story about online gaming, and mostly, it’s just a screed about how crappy Halo 2 multiplayer is, how many problems it has, and how silly Bungie is for not having figured out how to fix those problems yet. (They also blame some of the problems on the “lack of an established and mature fanbase”. Face it – you guys suck.) Wow, I guess Bungie wishes it were more like Team Ninja – since they (according to Ferrago) got multiplayer right, with DOA4. I’m trying to figure out what might have happened to the author to generate so much hate…(Louis Wu 11:54:01 UTC)

  • Gamertag Database Returns


    Parallel to the changes that we made in how the Bungie Timeline works, letting you search, filter and sort entries according to different criteria, we’ve now revamped the entire user profile system. Among other things, this allows us to bring back the Gamertag Database with much better features than before.


    The new Gamertag Database allows you to see the gamertags of all registered Rampancy.net users who have entered a gamertag into their user profile. You can also search these listings by city, state and country. If there’s a specific r.net user or users you’d like to search for, you can choose their names from a pulldown. You can combine multiple search terms to find users only in your town and state, and you can sort the results by any of these criteria.


    If you haven’t entered in this basic information into your user profile yet, you can do so by clicking the new “my profile” link in the menu that has your username on it in the left hand column. This feature is only for registered users who have logged in.


    There are now two distinct places for user information and settings. The “my account” link in the middle of your user menu controls things like your comment viewing settings, your signature, your user icon, your email address, and similar items. If you want to change these items, click “my account”.


    The “my profile” link at the top of that menu will show you a two-part page. The upper part shows you how long ago you created your account and shows a link to view and edit your user profile. Below that, the current contents of your user profile are displayed. Click the link of your username, and then click the “edit” tab to add or alter information in your profile.


    If you have no profile, click the “create content” menu item, then choose Profile. Each user may create one and only one user profile.


    Some of you may find that some of the data moved from the old profile system has gotten a bit mangled; the usual casualties of the process were birthdays, for a few of you, and gamercards, for the few of you who had already entered them. Several users also entered in the Halo 2 Stats RSS feed the entire body of a feed, instead of the URL for the feed. As this made the field of no use, they have been deleted from user profiles.


    If you had a homepage listed in your profile, that entry is now in the field called “homepage_import”. However, the new user profile has a special field for homepage; feel free to use that or to enter in a new home page if you like.




  • Flowing Alcohol and Face Stabbings

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    Over at Tied the Leader, there are a couple of new articles – there’s a writeup of their Third Annual LAN Party (a shindig involving players from all over the US), and a 22 Questions interview with KP (who knew the guy was also Shishka?). Give ’em a read! Thanks, Dweezle.(Louis Wu 11:38:51 UTC)

  • The First Halo 3 Humpday Challenge

    WOW… Don’t you wish you were there? Yes.. It looks like the bungie guys are having a lot of fun during the test of this amazing new game we’ve been waiting for. This week they took on each other there and had a blast playing some games, having some fun and just testing what will surely be the best Halo game of all the series.

    Click HERE and check it out what KP has to share with us about this great time they had with Halo 3 at the Bungie Studios this week.

    Check out the Forums for more discussions about this.


  • Halo: Portable Podcast Episode 5

    38 MB, 1:07 hours. (link)

    Like we promised, this podcast is way better. We dub it “The Apology Podcast,” so that means it has to be good, with an extra dose of guilty humor. We discuss all the breaking Halo news from Sept. 3 – Sept. 15, plus a bunch of community stuff. Well, as much community stuff as we could manage with Funkmon’s notes.

    Also, RIP Seff Raiku, our former audio editor. He has issues that are preventing him from editing for us now, but Funkmon has stepped up to the plate and tried to edit this podcast. If you recognize a noticable lack of audio quality, send all hatemail to Funkmon@gmail.com. If you think you can do way better, let us know using the contact form. And thanks to Major.Dump for letting us his infinitely recyclable image.

    Also also, sorry for it being so big. We have a song in there, and I didn’t want to kill too much of the quality. If you guys want a smaller version, I’ll supply it. I being Funkmon


  • Crouching Diaper, Hidden Dingdong

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    Embarrassed that Stuntmutt guessed their Humpday Challenge strategy, the entire Bungie team (except for KP) hid this week when it came time to meet their opponents… so the Challenge never took place. However, KP gets paid by the word (I think he’s up to three cheerios per at this point), so in order to earn breakfast, he wrote up a summary anyway. Of course, since there WAS no game, he had to be creative – so he summarized some in-house Halo 3 matches. You can learn more about the playing weaknesses of Bungie employees from this piece than you can about the current state of Halo 3 development, but it’s a fun read nonetheless. (You may think all the smacktalk about Bentllama is a put-on… but lemme tell you, it ain’t. He’s really like that.) Special thanks to 3Suns for the awesome title for this newspost.(Louis Wu 02:41:54 UTC)

  • The First Halo 3 Humpday

    This week the Humpday Challenge went internal with three head-to-head Halo 3 matches at Bungie Studios. Six men, three maps and an unlimited amount of vague descriptions. Don’t expect to find screenshots or new info on maps, weapons or multiplayer modes in here.

  • The Spartan Effect: Episode 1 (Redux)

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    Rookie Rabbit Productions sent along ‘The Spartan Effect: Episode 1’ for review; they said they didn’t need hosting, so we posted a note about this earlier today… but apparently, even just the HTML hits were killing them, so we pulled the post. I’ve gotten local versions posted, however, so I’m putting this back. It’s the story of a rookie Spartan sent to the wrong base on Containment… gotta love the military. The MPRRS found it funny and well-filmed, so we’re announcing it – you can grab it in WMP9 format (48 mb) or QuickTime format (49 mb) from us. Please hold off on following any links you find that point to their site – right now, they’re dangerously low on bandwidth. Thanks!(Louis Wu 23:13:15 UTC)

  • Return to Innocence

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    Landon ‘LaP’ Pratte submitted a somewhat different movie to the MPRRS – it’s called ‘Return to Innocence’, and it’s set to Enigma’s eponymous song. He used Halo CE to create this film (and did all the acting/filming himself); many of the shots had to be created with camera scripts and AI enemy scripts. There are some interesting mods, and a nicely filmed story! You can grab this in WMP9 format (49.5 mb) or QuickTime format (55.8 mb).(Louis Wu 17:44:40 UTC)

  • The Denial Twist

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    RipHamilton32 submitted ‘The Denial Twist’ to the MPRRS – guy tries for girl, blows it, but gets it right the second time. SERIOUS compression – this two and a half minute, full-size movie weighs in at a paltry 7 mb. Grab it in WMP9 format or QuickTime format.(Louis Wu 12:58:14 UTC)

  • As if it were from an old dream…

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    Ace Heart dug up some pretty cool pictures of Fort Jesus, in Mombasa – they might remind you of something.(Louis Wu 12:55:04 UTC)

  • Know Your Bungie History


    As part of the most recent technical upgrade, we’ve revamped the appearance and functionality of the Bungie Timeline. Now, all entries are presented in an easier-to-read table format, and users can change the sort order from earliest to most recent. The table also displays which game the event is associated with and which platforms each game was for. You can also filter the entries by those criteria, if you want to see only the timeline items for Marathon, Myth, or Halo, for instance.


    In addition, the entries for major milestones like game release dates will have their anniversaries appear automatically in the Upcoming Events box in the lefthand column. The next such events are the ten-year anniversary of the release of Marathon Infinity in 1996 and the 9th anniversary of the release of Myth: The Fallen Lords for Mac and PC back in 1997.




  • Makin’ Money at Fanfic

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    Not specifically Halo-related, but our Fan Fiction community is reasonably large, so… Looks like this weekend’s Wall Street Journal had an article about the rise of fan fiction in popular media – and how Fanfic writers were even, in some cases, getting publishing deals. The article itself is only available to paying subscribers online – but you can listen to a short podcast on the subject from their podcast section. Exciting stuff! Thanks, Marty Duffy.(Louis Wu 22:45:44 UTC)

  • The top 10 things people want to see in Halo 3

    Podtacular has had 1 hour shows once a month since January called the “Halo 3 show” where we talk mostly about what people want to see in Halo 3. There have been hundreds and hundreds of suggestions, and these are the ones people want to see the most.

    Digg this story on digg.com!

    I intentionally left out things Bungie has already confirmed, such as new vehicles, maps and weapons, the return of some older levels, larger battles in campaign, and new game types in matchmaking.

    ———-

    10. Armor that takes visible damage. People suggested chunks of armor flying off or armor denting, scratching, or cracking. This would make for a more realistic portrayal of damage. Although it would go beyond the energy shield being the first line of defense, it would add to the realism.

    9. Dynamic weather and daylight. For another way to customize a level and make it interesting, many people suggested having the option for weather such as snow, rain or fog on a level to change the feel and playability. Also having different times of day or night would change the whole look and bring midnight snipers into the mix.

    8. More interactive and destructible maps. Most everybody loved the addition of things like the openable gate and deployable bridge on Zanzibar, the openable transporter on Relic, etc. And they want more! More interaction with the level would make for more interesting games. People also suggested more capability to destroy parts of levels, such as an assault bomb going off destroying walls, floors and ceilings around it.

    7. A survival mode. A gameplay mode where you have to see how long you can survive while waves and waves of covenant are sent in to try and take you out. Like it or not, lots of people suggested this.

    6. Usable Jackal shield. This seems to be the most obvious answer to the notorious “noob combo.” Holding the Jackal shield would obstruct your vision and you could only hold a dual-wieldable weapon in your other hand, which would even it out. It could be taken out with a plasma pistol overcharge or enough damage, similar to the portable shields in the single player levels of Halo 1 and 2. Some have even suggested a marine shield such as a riot shield as an alternative.

    5. More playable characters. We know that not all the Spartans are dead according to the books. Why not make different Spartans with different armor or capabilities available to play as? Playable covenent didn’t work because of the larger headshot target, but maybe it could be done with other aliens or Spartans? Or maybe some other character we haven’t thought of yet?

    4. A map editor. Games such as Far Cry: Instincts already have this available on the Xbox. Why not Halo 3? This really could be a killer feature if done right. There could be a way to share created maps for custom games in kind of a marketplace.

    3. Online cooperative play. This feature was clearly planned for Halo 2, but apparently couldn’t be completed in time. Cooperative game play builds teamwork and allows non-competitive players to enjoy playing with other people. Of course many would prefer for the difficulty to be hiked up somehow to accomodate for an extra soldier on the battlefield.

    2. A flyable Pelican. The main reason people want this is to have a viable troop transport vehicle where you can send in an overwhelming force of foot soldiers. As long as you can get them there of course, which is where balance comes in. Some have suggested being able to take it down with 4 rockets or even having an anti-aircraft gun. Others have suggested an alternative to the pelican being a warthog or other ground vehicle that carries lots of troops. Either way, lots of people want a flyable pelican and they want it in Halo 3!

    1. Bots. Love it or hate it, tons of people want to see bots as an option in Halo 3 multiplayer. It would help to learn the basics of multiplayer without getting yelled at, it would help to practice and fine-tune techniques, and it would at least even out the teams when you want to even them out with a bot.

    ———-

    Agree with these? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below! You can also send in stuff you want to see in Halo 3 and if it’s good and unique, we’ll mention it on the podcast.


  • The top 10 things people want to see in Halo 3

    Podtacular has had 1 hour shows once a month since January called the “Halo 3 show” where we talk mostly about what people want to see in Halo 3. There have been hundreds and hundreds of suggestions, and these are the ones people want to see the most.

    Digg this story on digg.com!

    I intentionally left out things Bungie has already confirmed, such as new vehicles, maps and weapons, the return of some older levels, larger battles in campaign, and new game types in matchmaking.

    ———-

    10. Armor that takes visible damage. People suggested chunks of armor flying off or armor denting, scratching, or cracking. This would make for a more realistic portrayal of damage. Although it would go beyond the energy shield being the first line of defense, it would add to the realism.

    9. Dynamic weather and daylight. For another way to customize a level and make it interesting, many people suggested having the option for weather such as snow, rain or fog on a level to change the feel and playability. Also having different times of day or night would change the whole look and bring midnight snipers into the mix.

    8. More interactive and destructible maps. Most everybody loved the addition of things like the openable gate and deployable bridge on Zanzibar, the openable transporter on Relic, etc. And they want more! More interaction with the level would make for more interesting games. People also suggested more capability to destroy parts of levels, such as an assault bomb going off destroying walls, floors and ceilings around it.

    7. A survival mode. A gameplay mode where you have to see how long you can survive while waves and waves of covenant are sent in to try and take you out. Like it or not, lots of people suggested this.

    6. Usable Jackal shield. This seems to be the most obvious answer to the notorious “noob combo.” Holding the Jackal shield would obstruct your vision and you could only hold a dual-wieldable weapon in your other hand, which would even it out. It could be taken out with a plasma pistol overcharge or enough damage, similar to the portable shields in the single player levels of Halo 1 and 2. Some have even suggested a marine shield such as a riot shield as an alternative.

    5. More playable characters. We know that not all the Spartans are dead according to the books. Why not make different Spartans with different armor or capabilities available to play as? Playable covenent didn’t work because of the larger headshot target, but maybe it could be done with other aliens or Spartans? Or maybe some other character we haven’t thought of yet?

    4. A map editor. Games such as Far Cry: Instincts already have this available on the Xbox. Why not Halo 3? This really could be a killer feature if done right. There could be a way to share created maps for custom games in kind of a marketplace.

    3. Online cooperative play. This feature was clearly planned for Halo 2, but apparently couldn’t be completed in time. Cooperative game play builds teamwork and allows non-competitive players to enjoy playing with other people. Of course many would prefer for the difficulty to be hiked up somehow to accomodate for an extra soldier on the battlefield.

    2. A flyable Pelican. The main reason people want this is to have a viable troop transport vehicle where you can send in an overwhelming force of foot soldiers. As long as you can get them there of course, which is where balance comes in. Some have suggested being able to take it down with 4 rockets or even having an anti-aircraft gun. Others have suggested an alternative to the pelican being a warthog or other ground vehicle that carries lots of troops. Either way, lots of people want a flyable pelican and they want it in Halo 3!

    1. Bots. Love it or hate it, tons of people want to see bots as an option in Halo 3 multiplayer. It would help to learn the basics of multiplayer without getting yelled at, it would help to practice and fine-tune techniques, and it would at least even out the teams when you want to even them out with a bot.

    ———-

    Agree with these? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below! You can also send in stuff you want to see in Halo 3 and if it’s good and unique, we’ll mention it on the podcast.


  • Elegant.

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    _Wheels03 got his Xbox 360 set up with his (relatively) new Halo faceplate – looks spiffy!(Louis Wu 17:27:19 UTC)