My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Amateur Online league at MLG filling up

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    Louis Wu
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    Recently, we mentioned the opening of a pair of online leagues over at MLGPro.com – looks like the Amateur league is already over half-filled. If you’re interested in playing in this, get over there and sign up!

  • Anti-Cheating Website

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    Louis Wu
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    Cheated online, but don’t know where to turn? Check out StopStandby.com, a website run by an extremely persistent webmaster who wants to help you get your story out. (Bungie has said that the Standby problem will pretty much disappear after the online patch they’re releasing in the next few weeks – but as TheSPFXmaN, Project Lead for Stop Standby, says, cheating will never go away, and they’ll be here to help expose it in whatever form it takes.)

  • Two week update

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    shunji
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    By now, I’m sure you have all heard about the new content we (Bungie) are releasing as both DLC on XBL and as a separate DVD. I’m not going to step much into the debate other than to point out the main reason for the DVD: get the update and new content into the hands of the other 80% or so of people who have bought Halo 2 without a subscription to Xbox Live. I think attempting to reach out to the other 5 million or so Halo 2 players isn’t such a bad motivation for an add-on DVD.

    Obviously I can’t get into specifics, but be sure to watch bungie.net for updates on future content.

    Anyway, enough on that.

    Went to GDC two weeks ago and had the most fun I never expected to have. I had the opportunity to meet the sound designer for MGS3 and the audio guy (I was a little confused as to his official title, but it sounded like he did the sound programming and some content work as well) for RE4 and DMC3, all thanks to Dolby. I also got a cool Dolby bag.

    (I also learned that if the last time you went on an all night bender was in college, you probably shouldn’t attempt that again without a little bit of warming up 5 years later.)

    Apparently my talk went well; I happened to be so incredibly nervous that I ran through the slides in 30 minutes, leaving the rest of the hour for Q/A. Fortunately, there were enough questions from the audience to fill the rest of the time. The slides will eventually be available to the public; as to when, I don’t really know.

    (I also went to Spain. But I’ll talk about that at a later time.)

    Not much mind-wrangling stuff. Maybe later.

  • Halo Action Figure Auction

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    Louis Wu
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    Josh sent us email about an auction he’s got going on eBay – every Halo 2 action figure released to date (plus a few Halo figures, as well). There’s some rare stuff here – the Civilian Hog, several limited edition models… it’s a big package. (16 full-size figures, plus two mini packs, and a Halo watch, all in all.) Starting bid is $475, plus $60 shipping. (This is considerably higher than list price – but many of these items can’t be bought at ANY price, any more.) You’ve got a little less than 5 days to decide.

  • TheGhost’s Halo 2 Montage

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    Louis Wu
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    TheGhost put together a montage video; halofreak4567 posted a link on our forum. It’s a nice montage – great timing, good gameplay – so we’ve mirrored both the original WMP9 version (23.1 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org) as well as a QuickTime version (23.8 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org). Grab what works best for you!

  • What were they thinking?

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    Louis Wu
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    Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, has written a piece looking at your options in terms of the new Downloadable Content announced yesterday. He suggests that the plan actually borders on common sense. (He means that in a GOOD way.)

  • Halo 2v2 (plus racing stuff) in NY

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    Louis Wu
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    On April 9, Xtournaments will be running a Halo2 2v2 tourney in Smithtown, NY – details can be found on this page. (They’re also running Gran Tourismo 4 Time trials for the Red Bull Driver Search on the same day – win a chance to race a real Formula 1 car!) If you live near New York City, check this out.

  • Pimp it

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    Louis Wu
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    retsamolah has posted ‘Shameless Self-Promotion’, a montage vid in widescreen. 41.6 mb, QuickTime format. Not quite up to the machine-like standards of some of the pro players… but there are some nice kills. He’s listed a pair of mirrors in this post, and Hawk7886 added a third in this one. Gotta love Dire Straits soundtracks…

  • Not So Common Sense – Coming Soon

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    Louis Wu
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    Over on the Bungie.net forums, Overswarm has been making a name for himself with a strategy guide, presented in forum posts, called ‘Not So Common Sense’. He came to us with a proposal – that he codify this guide, organize it, and that we give it a permanent home here at HBO. Seemed like a pretty reasonable idea – so look for his articles to begin appearing soon. To whet the appetite, he put together a teaser vid – you can grab a copy in WMP9 (8.2 mb) or QuickTime (7.2 mb) formats. Music is ‘Secret’, by Linkin Park.

  • The return of an old favorite

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    Louis Wu
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    Hawaiian Pig has revisited his RvB Set Pieces, with a new batch of 5 shots from recent episodes. Fun!

  • Last Stand IA 1

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    Louis Wu
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    Phoenix_9286 posted an Informational Announcement for his Last Stand comic series, over on DeviantART. The Elites behind the characters…

  • How I Saved Christmas

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    mnemesis
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    Red Vs Blue have released episode 53, “Let’s Come To Order” for sponsors over at their site. Louis would have posted this, but he’s off monkeying around about somewhere.

  • A home for your toys

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    Louis Wu
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    WOW. If you’re a Halo action figure collector, you want to know about these guys – Out of Reach Constructions, an Australian firm specializing in Halo-themed display structures for your action figures. They ain’t cheap (the two existing structures are A$160 plus shipping and handling, with four new prototypes on the way)… but they’re beautiful. The site contains photos of the various models, plus info about the manufacturing process. I want! Thanks to Halo Planet for the heads-up on this.

  • Videogame Violence Feedback

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    Louis Wu
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    William Vitka posted another piece today in his GameCore series about videogame violence – this one is a collection of email feedback he’s received on the rest of the articles. It’s interesting that more than one of the letters involve interaction with Jack Thompson, the lawyer who suggests that videogame violence drives our children to murder – and in each of those cases, polite requests for clarification were met with curses and vulgarity. Says a lot about the guy, doesn’t it? Go read!

  • Hahaha… get in line.

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    Louis Wu
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    Captain Spark has posted another four dozen dialogue snippets – you can grab them en masse on his website, or peruse them individually in our Dialogue Databank. Enjoy!

  • Three Pundred.

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    Louis Wu
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    Clearly, of FAR more importance to anyone visiting this website than news of downloadable content is the fact that Stuntmutt has posted his 300th One One Se7en today. Do him a favor, and go read it. Update: As if it weren’t groanworthy enough…

  • DLC Screenshots

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    Louis Wu
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    Don’t forget – it was mentioned in the WWU, but in case you missed it, there are new screenshots available showing the first four levels of DLC in Bungie’s Screenshots section. We’ll be adding them to our own section in the not-too-distant future. I can’t wait to play Needler Warlock…

  • Downloadable Content – Solid News

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    Louis Wu
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    There’s a Special Edition Weekly What’s Update over at Bungie.net… and it’s focused on the Xbox Expansion Pack (information about which was leaked earlier this week). Some of the info out there was accurate (the fact that the Pack existed, for example) – some wasn’t. The truth: There ARE 9 maps. They WILL be available for purchase on disc, for $20. (Release date is late June.) The first two WILL be available for download, on Xbox Live, for free, in late April. Two more will be available the same day, for download, but won’t be free – they’ll cost $6 for the pair. The last 5 maps will be available for download on June 28 (same day that the disc will be available), for $12. Go read the full Weekly What’s Update for tons of info about the first four maps (including screenshots), as well as a bunch of questions (and answers) about why the release is happening this way. (There’s also an official press release on Xbox.com.) Update: I forgot a critical piece, for those who aren’t going to bother reading the Bungie-written stuff – ALL the maps will be free for download on XBL by the end of the summer. If you don’t want to pay, you can wait and get stuff for nothing. (Well, nothing past the cost of Live in the first place…) Update 2: MS’s PR army sent us a copy of the press release, too. You can see it here.

  • Reticula

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    Louis Wu
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    SS Crow sent us Reticula (Halo Mix), a ‘Techno-Trance-ISH mix of a few Halo 2 voice clips mixed with the power of Electronica!’ It’s 4:32 long, 8.3 mb… give it a listen!

  • Works for everyone else…

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    Louis Wu
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    We have a special Guest Calvin and Halo strip today, courtesy of Free at Last (with approval from Blackstar) – a stinging comment about the reaction to this week’s Halo 2 Expansion Pack news leak.