My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • 343 Guilt O\’ Lantern Winners

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    Louis Wu
    in
    On September 30, we announced the 343 Guilt O’ Lantern contest, looking for the best Halo-carved pumpkin of 2004. Entries flooded in – 86 of them – and on November 2, we posted the entire collection, and asked the Halo community to vote for their favorites. Over 4000 of you did, casting more than 18,000 votes – and we have our winners! The Results page contains scores for all pumpkins, as well as the names of each pumpkin’s creator – for all pumpkins that received more than 100 votes. (One thing I found rather interesting – the quality of your pumpkin photography made a REALLY big difference. There are some nearly identical pumpkins that got wildly different scores… and the cause seems clear; if your photo did a lousy job of showing off your pumpkin’s detail, folks didn’t vote for it, even if it was a great carving job. Something to remember for the next time…) Winners will be notified by email about their prizes – but congrats to EVERYONE who entered, and thanks to the thousands who helped us pick the winners!

  • Putting The c0ld In Vengeance

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    Louis Wu
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    Stuntmutt exploits a fellow Brit in today’s One One Se7en. Just a few more hours…

  • Eggs, Tricks, and Spoilers (oh my!)

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    Louis Wu
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    We’ve already received more than half-a-dozen egg reports, or Halo 2 tricks – here’s the policy on those. I haven’t figured out how we’re going to handle Halo 2 tricks yet – but we WILL start posting news about them beginning on Friday. (This way, the European contingent won’t be TEMPTED to look before they at least have a chance to buy Halo 2.) Spoiler-laden material will not be posted before Friday, either; yes, there’s a new spoiler system in place to block it if you don’t want to see it… but sometimes the simple presence is enough for folks to give in. Speaking of the spoiler system – there seems to be an issue with machines that use Windows XP with SP2 installed – something in this configuration is blocking the acceptance of the cookies. I don’t have an SP2-equipped machine here, so I can’t test it (the cookie system works fine on my XP/SP1 box), so if anyone has any suggestions about WHY SP2 might be keeping the system from working, I’m all ears. Thanks!

  • More on the Battle Guide

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    Louis Wu
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    A few weeks ago, Ross Mills found a ‘Halo 2 Battle Guide’ on Amazon UK. There was almost no information. There’s now a cover photo and a synopsis – apparently, it will teach you not just to get through the room, but to be a better gamer. Still no word on when it will actually be released (‘December’ is as specific as it gets).

  • Halo 2 Widescreen problems?

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    Louis Wu
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    A large number of threads over at the Bungie.net and TeamXbox forums have sprung up in complaint at the way Widescreen mode works in Halo 2. Apparently, multiplayer, vertical-splitscreen mode is great… but in regular campaign mode, many parts of the HUD are offscreen to some degree. I don’t have time to check all the threads, but if you’re interested in this subject, you can find them here, here, here, here, here, here, and here (thanks, Joseph Bat). If we get any official word on this, we’ll be sure to pass it along.

  • Shunji talks death

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    Louis Wu
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    Interesting article (and interesting comments) over at Mat Noguchi’s blog; a look at why some gamers might not appreciate the checkpoint system. Thanks, Ross.

  • Halo Tribute vid

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    Louis Wu
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    Btcc22, of TouringNet.co.uk, wrote to tell us that a Halo Tribute Video is online at his site. 61 mb, WMP9 format. 1:30 of screenshots, followed by 10+ minutes of single and multiplay footage.

  • Truth to Mercy

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    Louis Wu
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    Several people have sent in translations of the coded message in the ‘Conversations with the Universe’ booklet that comes with the Limited Edition of Halo 2. I’ve chosen KOPD’s version because it comes with a handy-dandy translator, and it’s already on the web… but thanks, too, to HeroicDarby and Ben Artes for sending in copies. If you’re still without a copy of LE, and you’re expecting one, hold off on this until yours comes; it’s fun to try and translate it yourself.

  • A taste of the strategy guide

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    Louis Wu
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    Piggyback Interactive has put up a 12-page sampler of the Halo 2 Strategy Guide for download (3.8 mb, free registration required). There’s enough there to 1) spoil early levels for you, and 2) give you a decent sense of the quality of the guide. Some very nice work there! Thanks, Benn.

  • Halo press around the net

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    Louis Wu
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    First off, let me get some of the press out of the way. There’s a LOT of it. (Surprise, surprise.) I’ve broken things into categories; I’m sure there’s stuff I missed, and I’m also sure that some things are duplicated (many articles are syndicated, and picked up by other sites; occasionally, they’re not properly marked, and I miss a dupe… live with it). There are hundreds of articles I DIDN’T include – I’m not sure how many more of these I’m willing to do, so the day might come when we just have to say ‘everyone’s writing about this’ and be done with it. Also, the order is somewhat random – it’s the order things came in to me. This SHOULD help make the list more palatable, actually – you won’t be reading the same thing over and over again. Anyway, on to the articles:

    Writeups of launch events

    Reviews

    • Gamereactor (Norway, this time – 10/10, contains spoilers; thanks, Victor)
    • Lawrence.com – 90% (This score was heavily weighted towards campaign – mp would have received a 100%)

    Articles

    Big sites

    Comics:

    If this isn’t enough for you, there’s a ton more over at HaloPlanet (thanks, Rams).

  • The floodgates open soon

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    Louis Wu
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    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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    shunji
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    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!”

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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. 🙂

  • HBO News Archive item 11274

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

  • Will the sequel live up to the hopes?

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    Louis Wu
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    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
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    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
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    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!