My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Do YOU know what it’s all about?

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    Louis Wu
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    mnemesis went on a posting spree yesterday – the Halo Story page is a veritable hotbed of speculation. Check out the latest news… and add your OWN thoughts!

  • Halo in Wired

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    Louis Wu
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    Call me lazy – or call it late. Noah “migraineboy” Brimhall said it just fine, though, so I’m just gonna quote him.

    In the March 2002 issue of Wired magazine there is an interesting article on AI in games called “Wild Things” and in the article there are several mentions of Halo, including a great quote from Chris Butcher.

    “One of the things that makes Halo’s AI interesting is the sense that the AI doesn’t cheat. It doesn’t regard you, the player, as anything special, nor does know special things about where you are,” explains Halo AI engineer Chris Butcher. “The NPCs all have their own unique knowledge model, which means that any given character in the world doesn’t know where the player is. All they know is where they last saw him.”

    The article gives Halo a lot of credit for its very good AI and has a screen shot from the game also.

    My copy hasn’t arrived yet – Guess I’ll be looking at this tomorrow. On the upside, I got a significant distance towards finishing the Press Scans section today – one more day of grunt work ought to do it… then it’s off to Gameplay Tips. (Yes, I know, Miscellaneous Resources is still empty, too… geez.)

  • More Ardan Landings

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    Louis Wu
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    MaxThndr‘s Chapter 4 of Halo II: The Ardan Landings has been submitted – it’s Part 3, due to the fact that I combined chapters 2 and 3 into a single part, but don’t be confused – you can always read the series en toto. The Fan Fiction section is nothing if not flexible!

  • Warthog mirror dances

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    Louis Wu
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    You lose, you gain… Brian Towne had to bow out of the Warthog Jump mirroring – after well over 10,000 downloads (more than 200 gigs), the demand was still so high that it was saturating his (rather large) pipe. (He hasn’t removed any of the OTHER movies he’s mirroring – if you need any of them, they’re still there.) Jumping in to fill the gap is Bravehamster =PN=, a longtime community member – we’ve added bravehamster.com to the mirror list. Thanks, Brian, for all your help… and thanks, Mike, for jumping aboard the mirror train! Update: Vector40 tentatively throws his hat (and The Junkyard‘s pipe) into the ring – another mirror added. The entire mirror list thanks you, Vec. Another update: Firfin, of Halo Game (a French Halo site), has added the hi-res version, as well. Thanks, Firfin!

  • Out of Halo – completely

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    Louis Wu
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    Another first – Getting completely OFF the map on the level Halo. Folks have gotten to the tops of the mountains in the Reunion Tour section (and even ALMOST to the top in the Flawless Cowboy section, though the jeep loses power before you peak, and drops back down)… but nobody’s documented getting OFF the map (into totally untextured areas) until now. Check out the pics in our Gameplay Tricks section.

  • More vehicle antics

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    Louis Wu
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    Cal has turned in another series of pics – this time, he’s put 4 ghosts and two warthogs upstairs in a Sidewinder base. Pretty pictures (though less useful in multiplay than, say, filling a Blood Gulch base – there’s no flag to block up here) – and some interesting physics glitches when a jeep gets stuck in the ladder well. Check it out in our Gameplay Tricks section.

  • Difficulty symbols, bigger

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    Louis Wu
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    We’ve gotten requests a number of times for pointers to the symbols used in the difficulty screens at the start of Halo (most recently, this morning). We’d put this page up back in October… but the images are somewhat small. To make life easier for those attempting to use these symbols in clan websites or the like, we’ve extracted them from the difficulty screens, and combined them for easy access. You can find them here.

  • Two bottles of jack and a basket of twinkies

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    Louis Wu
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    It’s Cortana Day at Tru7h and Reconciliation! Bungie has put up new storyboards (for a major Cortana scene), Cortana voice outtakes, and an interview with Jen Taylor, the voice of Cortana! (The interview will show you a glimpse of Matt Soell’s odder side… but it will also give you some good info on Jen, the Cinematics team (well, okay, that wasn’t so good), and an upcoming movie Jen stars in.) Check it out.

  • Another Warthog Jump mirror

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    Louis Wu
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    The Warthog jump movie got a mention (thanks, Tarrsk) on Penny Arcade, among other places… my guess is, demand is not going to die down any time soon. (And download numbers are rather high, according to a couple of mirror hosters…) With all that in mind, we want to thank Dukeman330 for adding another mirror, for both hi and lo-res versions of the vid. All the mirrors that we know of can be found on our mirror list – hopefully, if you haven’t gotten this yet, you can find it from one of these sites.

  • Halo finalist for 8 AIAS awards

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    Louis Wu
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    Rather than reword it badly, I’m just gonna shamelessly suck text from the AIAS site:

    The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) today announced the finalists for the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox, developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft, and ICO for the Playstation 2 (PS2), developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America, lead the field with finalist nods in 8 categories each, including nominations for Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year and Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year.

    The 8 categories that Halo is a finalist in are: Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year, Innovation in Console Gaming, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering, Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Design. (Interestingly enough, Halo wasn’t a finalist in any Sound or Story categories…) Looks like even the academics like this game! (Thanks to Gothmog for the heads-up.)

  • The Doomsday awakes

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    Louis Wu
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    MaxThndr turns in Chapters II and III of Halo II: The Ardan Landings – again, spoiler warnings for those who haven’t played Halo yet. Check ’em out in the Fan Fiction section (or read the whole series at once).

  • Flying tanks… who’da thunk it?

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    Louis Wu
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    R.G.’s Warthog Jump movie, showing the stockpiling of large numbers of explosive devices and their potential effect on heavy equipment, has inspired other Halo engineers. TitaniumPez has taken a few pictures showing how to bring the Scorpion, previously useless once you reach the pillars after the ice area of Assault on the Control Room, just a bit farther. Check the details (and TP’s plea) in our Gameplay Tricks section!

  • Dukes vid mirrored at psyjnir.com

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    Louis Wu
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    The first mirror for the Dukes of Halo vid has popped up – jump on over to the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server for either the medium or small versions. (And while you’re on the net, fire up a web browser and read the funnies at the Complex’s website…)

  • He was a good kid…

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    Louis Wu
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    Reidbo has put up a small movie called ‘Dukes of Halo’, based on the intro to the TV series ‘Dukes of Hazzard’. Stays true to the original, and has a few nice jeep launches (Bo would be proud). There are two versions – a 320×240 version that weighs in at 6.3 mb, or a 240×180 version that weighs in at 2.3 mb. Check it out – currently, they’re available on Reidbo’s server, but (as usual) mirrors are appreciated.

  • Battle of the Bay

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    Louis Wu
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    Heh – take your lanfest to the Next Level. The Bay Area Halo Players Group have put together a pretty slick website for the Battle of the Bay, an upcoming lanfest in San Francisco. They’re looking for 48 Halo players to participate – they’ve got Bungie-supplied swag to give away, and the Official Xbox Magazine is talking about filming some footage for inclusion on their monthly DVD. The only catch? It ain’t free. (Admission fee is $20, or $15 if you supply hardware). If you live in or near San Francisco, this sounds like a killer event! (Thanks to Rico for the heads-up.)

  • Try and do that with a REAL tank!

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    Louis Wu
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    We’ve put our first image up on the One-Shots page… not so much because we were ready for it to go live yet, but because we received a submission of similar pics for the Gameplay Tricks section, and wanted to make sure that credit went where credit was due. You’ll find Roman’s Ostrich pic on the One-Shots page (soon to be populated with other images, as well), and Spike Lee’s series of pics in our Gameplay Tricks section. Both deal with the subject of upending a tank…

  • Reach falls again

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    Louis Wu
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    Supreme War Master T’soll Vorskray grinned with delight as the last of the pathetic human battle ships was obliterated, the Gods surely smiled upon his forces on this glorious day.

    Corbantis revisits the Fall of Reach… from the point of view of those who DIDN’T make the jump to Halo. Check out ‘The Tides of War Part 1: “As the Dust Cleared”‘in ourFan Fiction section.

  • Halowars – Play Halo, win money (maybe)

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    Louis Wu
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    Yeroen put up a note about the World Championship Halo League (self-titled) – they’re trying to secure sponsorship so that they can offer cash prizes in their online Halo tournaments… but in the meantime, you can sign up for online play (via Gamespy Tunnel) at the W.C.H.L’s website. Good luck to these guys! (A small note about the bungie.net link – there seems to be a small glitch with b.net’s permalinks, with respect to outside referrers – if you get an empty page, or a note about a wiped database, simply reload once you’re there – the news story should show up.)

  • Halo Online puts up a forum

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    Louis Wu
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    PTM dropped us a note to let us know that Halo Online now has their forum online. You can find it here.

  • FAQ updated to deal with movies

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    Louis Wu
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    Due to the overwhelming number of people who are complaining that they can’t view the movies on this site, we’ve added a QuickTime movie question to our FAQ. If someone asks this question on our forum, or on a different forum, feel free to point them to this entry. (And speaking of QuickTime movies, the Warthog Jump Mirror list has been updated to include That Weasel Television – thanks, TW!) Update: That Weasel writes to let us know the lo-res version of the Warthog Jump movie is at TWT, as well. (Stock up on that Advil, my friend…) The mirror page has been updated to reflect the new link.