The High Speed Halo crew has completed one of their bigger goals – Halo 2, Legendary, in under 2 hours. (The record right now stands at 1:58:55, actually.) Check this forum post by Cody Miller, then swing by HSH for downloadable runs. Congrats, guys!(Louis Wu 17:17:32 UTC)
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Halo Animation Extracting and Import
Wow, very cool. TheGhost stopped by with a few extracted Halo animations, in animated gif format. These look great!(Louis Wu 12:14:04 UTC)
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Ode to… I got nothin’.
Gryponosiris penned a poem about XBL cheaters – everyone liked it except Frankie. (I think his sense of humor must have been tied up in his hair.)(Louis Wu 12:03:39 UTC)
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Caption Contest
Dojorkan kicked off a ‘caption contest’, in the spirit of the old ones Bungie use to run, on our forum yesterday. Modded screenshot, you write the caption. (No, there’s no prize.) Personally, I think this makes more sense on a flat-style forum… but who am I, anyway?(Louis Wu 11:58:39 UTC)
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A superfast egg hunt
Yesterday, Galen Eymer stopped by our forum with the announcement of a new Halo 1 egg. Normally, I’d have expected such an announcement to be laughed out of the forum – after all, Halo 1 is approaching 5 years old; how is it possible that there are still eggs (especially in-plain-sight ones, as this one was) to be discovered? The thread remained civil, however, and I went looking for myself – and it did, indeed, look as though there were initials shot into a wall on 343 Guilty Spark. (A bad picture is here.) Dave ‘Evil Otto’ Candland went to the trouble of checking with the level designers about this one – and while it turns out that it’s purely coincidence that the bullet-holes appear to be initials, I find it wonderful that Bungie is willing to follow up on fan-instituted hunts within a few hours… they show us why we run a fansite for them!(Louis Wu 11:53:12 UTC)
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Microsoft And Modchips, Part II: Homebrew Software
Yesterday I mentioned Ozymandias‘ blog entry where he lists several reasons why an Xbox owner might want to modchip his console, as well as why he, in his own personal opinion, apart from being a Microsoft employee, could not approve of such actions.
The first was fairly clean-cut: because it enables piracy. Fair enough. Ozymandias then went a bit off the deep end on the piracy issue, which I commented on yesterday.
Another reason he says an owner might want to install a modchip would be to run other kinds of non-piracy related code on the Xbox. Some people just want to run Linux on an Xbox for the heck of it. Far more people are interested in the free Xbox Media Center software, which makes the media center features of even the newer Xbox 360, coupled with Windows Media Center edition, look like a black and white television with rabbit aerials.
Ozymandias’ objection to the homebrew crowd is that it breaks Microsoft’s business model. Poor Microsoft!
Click “read more” below from the front page for the entire article.
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Pimps at Sea Rap
We’ve got little to no information on what this is, or who made it, but it’s a YTMND with a Pimps at Sea theme. And it’s mad wiggedy-wack yo. The lyrics contain adult language. You have been warned.
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Southeastern Wisconsin Halo 2 Tournament for Charity!
Open call for Southeastern Wisconsin residents who would like to participate in a Halo 2 tournament for charity!
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Project Crimson Official Trailer
Back in early July, Metroid05, of the Atomik Films crew, submitted a trailer for Project Crimson, a machinima series they’re in the process of making. The MPRRS reviewers liked it, but the instructions we got about hosting were unclear – and Metroid05’s email wasn’t working. Today, the hosting questions were answered, so we’re making the trailer available – both in WMP9 format (43.3 mb) and QuickTime format (43.6 mb). Project Crimson tells the story of genetic experimentation gone bad, and is heavy on the visual effects. The full machinima is due this coming winter. Take a look!(Louis Wu 18:27:32 UTC)
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Video Games Live Hits Chicago
This Saturday in Chicago, not only will you have a chance to go to a fantastic concert, but you’ll also be able to meet the men responsible for the music you love. This will be your last chance to catch Marty O’Donnell and Mike Salvatori at one of these concerts for a while, so make sure to seize the opportunity.
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Bullshot.
Some gametypes just don’t allow for fudging. Stuntmutt looks at one in today’s One One Se7en. (If you like this strip, thank Ducain… though he didn’t inspire its actual content. And that’s all I have to say about that.)(Louis Wu 14:55:32 UTC)
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A Sales Juggernaut
Well, I think it’s a dumb title for a list (the 21st century just started, it’s silly to start ranking the top 100 ANYTHINGS in it yet), but it’s still saying a lot about the games mentioned; Next Generation has published their ‘Top 100 Games of the 21st Century‘, based on unit sales so far this decade… and Halo (the franchise) ranks at number 2, behind only Grand Theft Auto. Thanks, UberHax0r.(Louis Wu 14:23:28 UTC)
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When Spam Filtering Gets Stupid
Okay, this is getting stupid. Last week, I sent out a request for mailing addresses to all the winners of the last 7 on the 7th contest (the grass-cutting one), so that Bungie could mail them prizes. I know that sometimes it takes a few days for people to answer these things, so I didn’t worry about it – and when I got another response this morning, I totalled up the responses we had. There were 5. The last two went to people whose ISPs use VERY agressive spam-filtering… so I’m pretty sure I’ll NEVER get a response from either one, from that note. I’m making ANOTHER public appeal for response from individuals – twice in one day, for something I’d rather NEVER do. This prompts me to add a new rule to any future bungie.org contest – you are REQUIRED to whitelist the email address lwu at bungie dot org if you enter a contest; from now on, contest winners will get one week to respond to correspondence, and after that they forfeit their prize. I can’t continue like this. (The two winners who need to send me mailing addresses if they ever want to see their Halo Graphic Novel prizes are RAWPOWER95 and Omega.)(Louis Wu 13:44:01 UTC)
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Cunbelin Building Bungie Better Crates
The latest Bungie Spotlight is on former community member, current Bungie staffer Cunbelin, and his contributions to Halo 3:
Well My most recent item was to remake the classic human crate, better, faster, stronger! Well better at least. I’ve got a long list of those kinds of items both to be brought up to the Halo 3 standards and new ones to be created. I’d go into specifics but things shift almost daily in priority so it’s hard to say what else I’ll be working on.
Cunbelin also gets kudos for copping to being a “rampancy snob” in the early days of his Bungie fanhood. The check’s in the mail.
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A Showcased Artifact Gathers No Moss
Dojorkan found a cool little tidbit hidden in plain sight – I say that because I’ve walked by it dozens of times and never noticed it. (I’m sure I will now receive hundreds of emails from people who DID see it – let’s save us both some hassle, and just SAY you sent it… pat yourself on the back for the find.) Is this a sacred rock, with significance in the Halo storyline? Or just some nice looking scenery? You decide.(Louis Wu 05:30:14 UTC)
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Floaty Silence
Hellhawk turned in a comedy that uses stock (well, almost stock) cutscene footage, and some REALLY well-done voice acting, to create a pretty funny comedy vid he calls ‘Floaty Silence’. The MPRRS gave it a thumbs-up, and it had me laughing – grab it in WMP9 (39.4 mb) or QuickTime (42.4 mb) formats, and check it out for yourself!(Louis Wu 05:19:34 UTC)
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Talent’s Final Montage Trailer – now in QT
On Monday, we posted a link for Talent’s Final Montage trailer, being hosted at Halo3Forum.com. Although there’s plenty of bandwidth for it there, Halzred submitted it to the MPRRS for feedback anyway – and they liked it, quite a lot. if you want the WMP9 version, you’re still welcome to grab it from H3F – but because it passed here, we’re offering a QuickTime version, for those who’d rather watch that. Weighs in at 23.5 mb, and is nice and short (just about a minute and a half) – give it a go!(Louis Wu 05:15:47 UTC)
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Microsoft And Modchips, Part I: Piracy
At first glance, this story probably will inspire a lot of “duh, so what” responses. After all, modchips are used to do lots of things to your Xbox console, nearly all of which Microsoft doesn’t want you to do.
They can let you play illegally copied games. They can let you modify your Xbox in ways that permit cheating on Xbox Live (although for the most part it can’t stop them from detecting you). It can also let you run unrelated software on your Xbox, such as the Linux operating system, turning it into a codec-agnostic media player or even a budget PC. Neither of those things generate additional post-sale revenue to Microsoft, and some even make the company look bad (hee, hee! Linux on an Xbox!) or could draw the ire of organizations like the RIAA towards Microsoft if they are seen as contributing to infringement by, say, supporting codecs like DivX which are alleged to be used primarily for pirating video.
So what’s not surprising is Ozymandias‘ latest blog entry where he details the reasons why Xbox owners might mod their box and the reasons why he can’t “condone” it. He completely bypasses the cheating issue and never once mentions Xbox Live, so I’ll also leave that mostly out of this. He does propose three reasons why he can imagine someone might mod an Xbox:
- the ability to copy and play pirated games
- the ability to play import games
- the ability to add new functionality (such as running homebrew software)
Nobody reasonable is going to argue that easy access to pirated games is bad for Microsoft, bad for the platform, and bad for deveopers. No one is going to expect Microsoft to condone using a modchip for this purpose.
Where this goes wrong is when Ozymandias decides he needs to pile on the piracy issue and make a lot of the same bogus generalizations that have been thrown around for the better part of two and a half decades now.
Click “read more” below for the entire article.
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Administrivia – lost moviemakers
Lot of movie stuff today; I went through the MPRRS database, looking for strays. I found a few, too. Most are either taken care of or in the PROCESS of being taken care of – but two are in limbo; I’ve sent the creators multiple emails each, with no response. All I can think of is that the messages are being routed to their spam folders – so while I hate to do this, I don’t see any other way to reach them. If you ARE these people, or you KNOW them, please get in contact (or have them get in contact) with us. (And check the junk folder!) The first is Metroid05, whose ‘Project Crimson Trailer’ passed a month ago… and the second is xbryboyremix, whose ‘Corrupt’ passed last week. I needed clarification about hosting and/or higher-res versions from both individuals, but never got a response. Please – if you’re out there, find me! And with that, the next news posts will be about movies we actually have for downloading.(Louis Wu 05:09:07 UTC)
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HaloMaps Opens Ratings
I missed this on Monday – but halomaps.org has instituted a rating system for maps; you can now vote for your favorite HaloCE creations, to help other people decide which maps are worth downloading. Take a look!(Louis Wu 04:24:09 UTC)