My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • The floodgates open soon

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    There is an astounding amount of Halo news built up in the past 18 hours – I’ll do my best to wade through it later this morning. Just wanted to throw a note up to say the site is still alive, and faring well for its short respite from the grind. 🙂 You folks have been busy!

  • And then, “Fun With Dirt!”

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    by

    shunji
    in ,
    I’ve always had trouble figuring out how to respond to detractors of Halo (and now Halo 2). On the one hand, it’s sold a crapload of copies. On the other hand, it’s hard to find a post on any forum about Halo that does not have its share of anti-fans.

    Anti-halo folk tend to have a PC gaming background, usually hardcore. Debating the value of Halo is akin to arguing about the validity of Wicca to an evangelical Christian. There’s just no common frame of reference to have a meaningful discussion.

    One thing Halo does better than most PC games is optimize the user experience for the average player: the kind of player that has a limited in-game lifetime (i.e., they die every so often). Hey, that’s just like me!

    Firstly, the checkpoint system encourages all levels of skill to keep playing. It takes only 4-6 seconds to restore the last checkpoint;.5-1.5 if you invoke the pause screen and restore explicitly. That means you do not have to switch mental modes in order to continue playing after dying; it just happens. Even if you die every 5 seconds, you’re still always back in action right away. (Personally, I’d much rather play a game than manage a game; that’s just me.)

    Secondly, we made sure to optimize the single player experience for a straight playthrough. If you play Halo 2 all the way through, you should never see a long interruptive loading screen. (You will see the Loading… done text, but that’s unavoidable for the size and complexity of levels.) Even Halo 1 only had 9 significant loading screens, and those were at appropriate points in the game (i.e., at the end of a level), not in the midst of gameplay. That directly translates into a minimal amount of dead time waiting for the game to start, and a maximal amount of time available to play the game. If you happen to die a lot, who cares? You’ll never have to wait for the game to reload your checkpoint; you can get right back into the game.

    The immediacy of gameplay is one aspect many just don’t understand. Or rather, many that disagree with the success of Halo don’t understand. (In my opinion.) My theory is the combination of PC gamer and hardcore gamer results in a type of gamer that doesn’t experience what I consider to be the least polished areas of most games: player death. And as such, they don’t experience the excruciating experience of restarting gameplay.

    Then again, maybe it’s all the marketing hype. No, probably not. 🙂

  • And then, “Fun With Dirt!”

    —

    by

    shunji
    in
    I’ve always had trouble figuring out how to respond to detractors of Halo (and now Halo 2). On the one hand, it’s sold a crapload of copies. On the other hand, it’s hard to find a post on any forum about Halo that does not have its share of anti-fans.

    Anti-halo folk tend to have a PC gaming background, usually hardcore. Debating the value of Halo is akin to arguing about the validity of Wicca to an evangelical Christian. There’s just no common frame of reference to have a meaningful discussion.

    One thing Halo does better than most PC games is optimize the user experience for the average player: the kind of player that has a limited in-game lifetime (i.e., they die every so often). Hey, that’s just like me!

    Firstly, the checkpoint system encourages all levels of skill to keep playing. It takes only 4-6 seconds to restore the last checkpoint;.5-1.5 if you invoke the pause screen and restore explicitly. That means you do not have to switch mental modes in order to continue playing after dying; it just happens. Even if you die every 5 seconds, you’re still always back in action right away. (Personally, I’d much rather play a game than manage a game; that’s just me.)

    Secondly, we made sure to optimize the single player experience for a straight playthrough. If you play Halo 2 all the way through, you should never see a long interruptive loading screen. (You will see the Loading… done text, but that’s unavoidable for the size and complexity of levels.) Even Halo 1 only had 9 significant loading screens, and those were at appropriate points in the game (i.e., at the end of a level), not in the midst of gameplay. That directly translates into a minimal amount of dead time waiting for the game to start, and a maximal amount of time available to play the game. If you happen to die a lot, who cares? You’ll never have to wait for the game to reload your checkpoint; you can get right back into the game.

    The immediacy of gameplay is one aspect many just don’t understand. Or rather, many that disagree with the success of Halo don’t understand. (In my opinion.) My theory is the combination of PC gamer and hardcore gamer results in a type of gamer that doesn’t experience what I consider to be the least polished areas of most games: player death. And as such, they don’t experience the excruciating experience of restarting gameplay.

    Then again, maybe it’s all the marketing hype. No, probably not. 🙂

  • HBO News Archive item 11274

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    by

    HBO
    in

    Enjoy the game!

  • This is the Nostromo, signing off.

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    Okay, that’s it for today. As you may or may not have noticed, the Vote link for the 343 Guilt O’ Lantern is now offline – we’ll be announcing winners in the next day or two. News that comes in today may or may not get lost in the deluge – give us a couple of days, and if we’ve missed something you think is important, feel free to ask us about it. (Do NOT resend submissions – just ASK if we got them. Thanks.) Have a great Launch Day (with apologies to Europeans)!

  • A Plethora of Words

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    Louis Wu
    in
    Wow, has it really been almost a week since I posted a Fan Fiction update? Well, there are 27 new pieces in there for you to read… if you’re not too busy playing Halo 2, that is. Go get ’em!

  • Was this you last night?

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    Now THERE’S an appropriate Calvin and Halo. Thanks, Blackstar.

  • Will the sequel live up to the hopes?

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    One more article for your perusal – Darren Waters of the BBC asks what made Halo so special? (It’s separated from the rest of the articles because 1) he told me about it after I’d posted the rest, and 2) mostly, he asked me.) Go read.

  • Fanfest T’s

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    Louis Wu
    in
    Hopsheda was one of the lucky ones to make it to yesterday’s Launch Fanfest put on by Bungie in Seattle – he sent along some pics of the T-shirt they were giving out (front, front closeup, back, back closeup). Ooh… how long till they show up on eBay?

  • More Bungie Gear

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    Louis Wu
    in
    Stormwraith pointed out that again, there is new content in the Bungie Store (and thanks to the folks who wrote in about the hats a few days ago – I never got around to posting that). New stuff to see:

    Keep looking, if you’ve got money to spend, they want to take it from you!

  • Desertplat

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    Louis Wu
    in
    Speaking of Halo CE, MasterGrief pointed out a post on the Gearbox forums announcing the first Halo CE Single-Player map download. It’s a remake of Truth and Reconciliation – at least the ground part. (I didn’t have time to go farther than the bottom of the grav lift.) Lots of invisiElites, and you have a flamethrower instead of a sniper rifle. Interesting. Be sure to read the post about how to start – and stop – the game, or you’ll be pretty frustrated.

  • More Zanzibar Megabattle pics

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    Louis Wu
    in
    STB pointed out two more Zanzibar Megabattle pics, created with the new Halo CE mod – one he did himself and a series done by Da Real Logan. Nice work on this map!

  • Keyes, through the eyes of a soldier

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    Louis Wu
    in
    Mhaddy writes to say that the Junkyard has released part IX of their ‘As Real As a Survivor Elimination‘ analysis of the military correctness of the Halo gameplay – Keyes is analyzed. Check it out.

  • Around the net

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    Louis Wu
    in
    Okay, as I said, news is gonna be light today. I AM going to try and clear out the inbox before I call it a day, however. There were, of course, oodles of new reviews and articles online overnight; here’s a smattering. (Yes, there are hundreds we’re not getting to. Sue us.)
    Reviews

    • C.Net – 9.4 (Thanks, Matt Belanger)
      Update: Oops- this is just the Gamespot review, rebranded – my bad. Thanks, Alex Jarvis.
    • GamesRadar.com – 95% (thanks, Richxbox)
    • Talk Xbox – 9.9 (and it’s review 117! Thanks, Joel Kownacki)
    • IGN – separate review of Collectors Edition, 9.8
    • UnderGroundOnline – A+

    Articles

    WARNING: Many of the reviews contain spoilers, at least for the beginning levels of the game. Some contain bigger spoilers than that (I’ve tried to list them, but it’s EASILY possible I missed something.) If you’re worried about spoilers… COME BACK AND READ THESE LATER. Please don’t complain to us if you read something that you think spoils the game for you – our advice for folks wanting a pristine experience is to GET OFF THE NET.

  • When comments are misinterpreted…

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    This one is worth reading, too – though I’d hasten to encourage anyone choosing to participate in the discussion to STAY CALM and leave the fanboi-ism at home. Matt Hamilton pointed out a thread on the Free Republic website – the title of the lead-off article says it all: ‘Microsoft video game “a damning condemnation of the Bush Administration”‘. The entire premise is based on a reported comment by Joe Staten in Entertainment Weekly:

    “You could look at it,” Staten says of his Halo 2 storyline “as a damning condemnation of the Bush Administration’s adventure in the Middle East.”

    (Realize that I gave you zero context for that comment.) The next 130+ posts are a stream of anti-Democrat rants that range from one-liners to multi-paragraph denouncements of Joe. Finally, at Comment 137, Joe himself steps in. Turns out the original reporter missed a small bit in that quote. It’s the sentence immediately following the original quote, and it reads “But you’d be wrong.” To this point, comments were popping up every couple of minutes… in the 46 minutes SINCE Joe posted, not a single person has piped up. In any case, Joe’s comment is a nice insight on what the main plotwriter felt you should be able to take home from Halo 2’s story… you should go read it. And maybe keep an eye on the thread, to see if any of the visitors who so harshly maligned Joe before they knew the score (and before they knew he’d show up) can swallow their pride and apologize…

  • Halo 2 Live on haloTV

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    News is gonna be really light tonight, with a bit of a supplement in the morning – most of tomorrow is going to be news-free. Before signing off, though, there are a few things to point out. First up: haloTV will be sending out a live multiplayer-only broadcast, direct from an Xbox, showing off Halo 2 to anyone not lucky enough to grab their own copy at that hour. Check it out!

  • OMG THAT\’S TOO MUCH WRITING

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    Wanna be ready for Halo 2? Go read the MAMMOTH guide that Bungie.net just put up as its top story. (Mostly, it ties together all the pieces Bungie’s written UP to now… but if you go back and read them all, you’ll be late for your midnight appointment with a gamestore.) Thanks, DoctorEvol.

  • More news than you can shake a stick at

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    by

    Louis Wu
    in
    I’m not sure if this is gonna become a standard feature, or if it’s just because of the hype surrounding the launch, but it’s time for another lightning round of news posting.

    And, of course, more news articles:

    PLEASE – if you’re gonna send in a link, would it kill you to paste it into our news search box before you mail it? Results come up in seconds. Really. Thanks!

  • HBO – Spoiler-free, if you want it that way

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    Louis Wu
    in
    After some goofy mistakes, the new spoiler system is online. Instead of two choices, you now have four (well, only three are actually useful). Hit the ‘Huh?’ link below the spoiler indicator graphic at the top of the page for more details. I’m sure there are still problems – it was a mess to set up. If you want to report them, something more than ‘OMG IT DUZNT WERK D00D’ would be helpful. Thanks!

  • Pumpkins – Turning into Carriages Soon

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    Louis Wu
    in
    Quick Reminder – today’s the last day to vote for your favorite pumpkins in the 343 Guilt O’ Lantern competition! If you haven’t voted yet… GO NOW.