My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Stubbs reviews are starting to appear

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    1UP, the site that was hosting Alex’s ‘blog’ about Stubbs development, has officially reviewed the game. It’s basically a rave review for a fresh ‘strategy/action’ hybrid game that will debut for us mere mortals in just a few days.

    The highlights they note are really all that we’ve come to expect from Bungie/Wideload… an attention to detail beyond just actual gameplay. There is wit aplenty, and the mantra, coined by Jaime back during the development of Halo 2, of ’30 seconds of gameplay repeated over and over’ (often misunderstood by some as an excuse for level repetition) is fully embraced in Stubbs.

    Those of you planning to purchase the Xbox version of the game when it debuts this Monday, the 17th, feel free to email me a pic of you holding the game or posing it in some creative (non-filthy of course!) manner, I’ll post the pic here if it’s funny/compelling enough.

    Once I get mine, I’ll be sure to write a review. Halo 1 and 2 have spoiled me and my itch for the fabled First Person Shooter genre. I wonder how quickly I’ll forget all that as I play a game that’s Third Person and not quite a shooter. It’s my one concern based on previous looks at the game.

    UPDATE: Another thumbs-up review, this time from the folks at Gaming Horizon.

  • Stubbs reviews are starting to appear

    —

    by

    bs
    in ,

    1UP, the site that was hosting Alex’s ‘blog’ about Stubbs development, has officially reviewed the game. It’s basically a rave review for a fresh ‘strategy/action’ hybrid game that will debut for us mere mortals in just a few days.

    The highlights they note are really all that we’ve come to expect from Bungie/Wideload… an attention to detail beyond just actual gameplay. There is wit aplenty, and the mantra, coined by Jaime back during the development of Halo 2, of ’30 seconds of gameplay repeated over and over’ (often misunderstood by some as an excuse for level repetition) is fully embraced in Stubbs.

    Those of you planning to purchase the Xbox version of the game when it debuts this Monday, the 17th, feel free to email me a pic of you holding the game or posing it in some creative (non-filthy of course!) manner, I’ll post the pic here if it’s funny/compelling enough.

    Once I get mine, I’ll be sure to write a review. Halo 1 and 2 have spoiled me and my itch for the fabled First Person Shooter genre. I wonder how quickly I’ll forget all that as I play a game that’s Third Person and not quite a shooter. It’s my one concern based on previous looks at the game.

    UPDATE: Another thumbs-up review, this time from the folks at Gaming Horizon.

  • Poppin’ Fresh

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    Louis Wu
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    Well, the last 12+ hours have NOT been spent on Halo-related stuff; if you’re really interested, there’s a short journal entry over at RvB. That doesn’t stop the news from rolling in, though. Frankie was first – no, wait, he WASN’T – in telling us about this week’s Weekly Update… lots of Bungie minutiae, plus a few things that might be of interest to folks who just wanna know how this affects THEM. Things like… oh, well, the Leaderboards on Bungie.net are going away. (Yay!) Things like… a clarification of who’s NOT responsible for the holdup on the Halo 2 Soundtrack, volume 2. You know. Stuff like that. Go read. More news tomorrow.

  • Pinkuh Blues.

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    Louis Wu
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    Pinkuh Blues. In a coincidental piece of timing, Stuntmutt comments on Pinkuh’s new comic series in today’s One One Se7en (just as she announces a new piece of art).

  • Friday Fiction

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    Louis Wu
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    Twenty new entries in the Fan Fiction section today. Read?

  • Halo Themes for your Pocket PC

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    Louis Wu
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    Pvt. Jenkins submitted a series of Halo themes for the Pocket PC – you can look at previews and grab the individual themes below. (If you wnt them all, grab this zip file (1 mb).

    Backwash: download | preview
    Burial Mounds: download | preview
    Elite Boarding: download | preview
    Ivory Tower: download | preview
    Lockout: download | preview
    		 Lockout Hall: download | preview
    Relic: download | preview
    Sniper: download | preview
    Turf: download | preview
    Waterworks: download | preview

    Check ’em out!

  • Ossifer, I swear I never saw that Elite.

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    Louis Wu
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    Geezer Gamers did their best to determine what effect alcohol has on your Halo reflexes. Predictably, the data got a little fuzzy near the end. Thanks, 3Suns.

  • Re-write

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    Louis Wu
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    This week’s Halo Babies comic takes its own look at the Peter Jackson/Halo Movie news… I gotta say, I’m LOVING that final character. Thanks, Gruntsbane.

  • Preyfar – now well-protected

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    Louis Wu
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    Pinkuh stopped by our forum last night to show off another slick piece of work; a fan had commissioned her to put his furry alter-ego (a blue hyena) into Spartan armor, and she did a wonderful job. Check it out – and be sure to browse through the rest of her Halo-related works in her HBO gallery, if you haven’t already!

  • DoA4 Character Revealed

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    Louis Wu
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    Well, clearly the big Halo news in the past 12 hours is the fact that the latest issue of Game Informer magazine contains an article about the Halo character included in Dead or Alive 4. Her designation is Spartan 458, and the magazine article shows that the Mjolnir armor looks pretty good with Xbox360 graphics. (The magazine isn’t even on shelves yet – it’s been mailed to subscribers – so we can’t bring you scans, nor will we even point you to sites hosting them… but they’re not that hard to find.) As more information surfaces, we’ll be sure to bring you the details. Chaos Recon was first out of the box with this one, but several dozen people were hot on his heels. (The longest (and earliest) thread on our forum, with input from both Frankie and Achronos, is this one, started by Tempus Fugit.)

  • Hump Day is back!

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    Louis Wu
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    Bungie’s Halo Humpday Challenge has been on sabbatical for a while – but it’s back, and written up as a new Top Story at Bungie.net. They didn’t have any particular foes – they simply went up against random teams in the Team Snipers playlist on XBL’s Matchmaking. They walked away with 2 out of three wins… and have already lined up the next targets. As Frankie says, BEST GIF EVAR. (It’s not actually IN the story – it’s on their front page. Or you could just go there directly.)

  • Tied the Leader Weekly Update

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    Louis Wu
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    XerxdeeJ stopped by our forum to announce another week’s batch of musings over at Tied the Leader. Many of them this week are related to site administration, or to the recent search for a new clan name (they settled on TTL Gunslingers, as a tip-o-the-hat to Stephen King), but there are some other tidbits buried in there, as well. I liked this bit on Whisper Mode…

  • DO we really need punctuation?

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    Louis Wu
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    Jillybean demonstrates that she’s NOT just here for her coffeemaking abilities (which is a damn good thing, because her coffee will put hair on your back) – she’s updated the Halo Story page again. Fun speculation about wide swaths of the Halo universe… go read!

  • RoP – Best Female Performance

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    Louis Wu
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    That Weasel continues to release individual awards for the 2005 Rockets on Prisoner ceremony – today’s release is Best Female Performance. Swing by and pick up a copy of the vid – check out the nominees, and see who won! Thanks to both That Weasel and Funkmon for the heads-up. Update: Best Halo 2 Movie (nominees and winner) have now also been released (Thursday, 23:30 UTC). This is the last update this week, and it came as a surprise to me. (It comes with an acceptance speech from the winner.) Thanks, That Weasel.

  • Bungie’s Hiring Again

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    Louis Wu
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    Yesterday, SketchFactor posted a note on Bungie.net, mentioning a few new job openings at Bungie – they’re now looking for an AI Engineer, and XBL Programmer, a Graphics Programmer, a Test Engineer, a Mission Designer, a Lead Character Animator, and a Character Rigger. There is also a continuing need for temporary help. If you’re qualified, send ’em an application! (Read the page first, of course, to see what they want – never pays to go in unprepared.) Looks like Schedonnardus was the first to notice.

  • Statistics tracker updated to 2.31

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    Louis Wu
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    Darkphibre dropped by our forum to announce that Halo Statistics v2.31 has been released. The newest version has the ability to delete players, set up batch downloads for multiple players, and set a start date for downloads. If you’ve got a PC, give it a look!

  • This Spartan Life – Body Count

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    Louis Wu
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    This Spartan Life was updated yesterday, but we forgot to put up a news post… the newest segment, Episode 2 Module 3, is called ‘Body Count’, and the topic is gun control. Chest Harlton, the president of the National Plasma Rifle Association, debates a small child about the correlation, or lack thereof, between handgun ownership and household accidents. Go watch!

  • And Don’t Forget Foehammer…

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    Louis Wu
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    In today’s One One Se7en, Stuntmutt takes a look at some recent news… and puts some close-to-his-own heart spin on it.

  • PraetoriaGuard Video 4

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    Louis Wu
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    PraetoriaGuard has put up their fourth video – you’ll find it on their Downloads page. I’d recommend the hi-res version, even though it’s huge – the lower-res version is pretty highly compressed, and at a screwy aspect ratio to boot. As has been true of their previous vids, it’s a collection of small skits – a couple are great. At the moment, It’s just WMP9 versions, but it’s possible that they’ll add QuickTimes soon, too. Thanks to LordGideon and Bumbadawg for the heads-up.

  • Still more vids at H2F

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    Louis Wu
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    Z pointed out 4 new movies to download over at Halo2Forum.com – there’s clan Exit Woundz 4v4 CTF on Warlock (92.4 mb), clan Exit Woundz 4v4 TS on Ivory Tower (94.6 mb), Chronic’s Halo 2 mods (90.6 mb), and a parody of MTV Cribs based on Lockout (41.6 mb). The two gameplay vids are worth watching.