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PoA creator steps forward
The tru7h comes out… Lorraine Reyes-McLees admits to drawing the Pillar of Autumn. Nice job, Lorraine!
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Tru7h and Recon updated
Another day, another dollar… and another 12 shots on Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation website. Dang, what I wouldn’t give for those screenshot tools… Also, Part 4 of the Multiplayer Guide (Power-Ups) and a new batch of Storyboards have come online. The new screens will be added to our Screenshots database in the next hour or so. WARNING: story spoilers present in this batch of screenshots.
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Halo manual, in German, from SE
From what I can understand, the Socket error team has translated the Halo background story (and weapons) out of the Halo Manual into German Go visit their site for details. Thanks to SE|Yogurt_der_weise for the heads-up.
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Another home for a Winamp skin
On October 29, Djoey 154 submitted a Winamp skin to HBO – he’s written back to say that it’s now available on the Winamp site.
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Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Dink!… Dink!… Dink!… The Halo SETI Marines face a humiliating 3-position fall in the Battle of the Teams – they’ve dropped to 57th, their lowest showing since May 5, 2000! OUCH! (It doesn’t help that two team members, Thomas Magle Brodersen and Silicon_Phoenix, have gone AWOL with more than 500 units each… but in fact, the bottom line is simply that the Marines no longer have their heart in this fight.) See who’s still putting in the effort on the 7 day stats page…
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Halo: Combat Evolved comes online
A new Halo site has come on the scene – Halo: Combat Evolved. Some of the info is a bit shaky (the release date for the Xbox is listed as November 8, the dropship in the ‘Vehicles’ section is actually an escape pod from the Pillar of Autumn, and so on), but in general, it’s easy to read. Check it out.
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Cortana site looking for help
This was originally posted on our forum, but response was less than satisfying, apparently. Dan Byrne is looking for volunteers to help with a new Halo site he’s working on, http://www.cortana.co.uk/. If you’re interested, drop him a line, or post a response to his forum thread!
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New wallpaper from PlanetHalo.de
cybio, of PlanetHalo.de, sends in a new desktop image for our Wallpaper collection. It was originally available here. While you’re there, check out their new design!
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More fan fiction comes in
When Scott Edwin woke up again he blinked, remembered, and looked down. Or rather, he tried to look down, but couldn’t, because he was lying on his back.
Find out what happened to poor Scott in Chapter 1 of Aragorn918’s ongoing ‘The Sceptre’, found in our Fan Fiction section. Don’t forget to leave him feedback!
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Gamers.com reviews Halo
Gotta stop that pokin’… This time it turned up a Halo review at Gamers.com. It’s a nicely written rave:Featuring as many shocking and exciting plot twists as Metal Gear Solid 2, Halo sheds the ultra-stealth focus of that title and replaces it with white-knuckle intensity Goldeneye wishes it had.
They don’t list an editorial number rating… but they combined the 34 user-submitted values (averaging 9.1/10) with 6 magazine/site reviews (averaging 9.6/10) to give it an overall 9.3/10 consensus score. We’ve added it to our Reviews page, and added the three new screens to our Screenshots database. Update: On this page, they give it a 10 in-house. Reviews page updated.
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More new screens – from Halomedia
While poking around in German sites I can’t read, I discovered a number of screenshots I’d never seen before at Halomedia – they’re not attributed to anyone, but they’re very high quality – absolutely worth a look. We’ve added them to our Screenshots database. (Don’t miss the obligatory Matrix shot…) Update: Uriel writes to say that the five new screens came from AreaXbox.de – you can see them here.
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New screens from Gamestar.de
A few days ago, the German site GameStar put up a small article covering 4 launch titles for the Xbox. Halo gets the thumbs up (not really a suprise), but the real reason for this mention was a pair of screens they put up – well, one, in particular. We’ve added both to our Screenshots database. Might be worth a look.
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GameSpy Tunnel tips, from Bungie
Bungie’s Achronos put up a few tips concerning GameSpy Tunnel software and playing Halo – if you’re experiencing high lag, read this for suggestions. (FWIW, we played a couple of three-player games (two Xboxes) last night using this software, with only minor glitches. I was WISHING for my opponents to get lagged…)
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German Fanfic, now in English
Two months ago, Uriel submitted our first German fan fiction. He’s now translated it into English – if you don’t read German, go check out Beyond Paradise now, in our Fan Fiction section.
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Good and Evil…
Deimosâ„¢, from Subnova, dropped us a line to point out a new desktop he’d created – snag it from our Wallpaper section.
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GameZilla and ED review Halo
A review we missed – at Gamezilla – is long, thoughtfully written, and very positive. There’s some disappointment for the features lost in the move to the Xbox… but these aren’t enough to downgrade the game:A few poor elements hold it back from being the best it could be, like the overall lack of many story elements that were hyped during its creation. Also, it does seem as if a few elements have been purposefully left out, either from lack of development time, or holding them back for a PC and Mac release. Still, these items are more annoyances than anything and most certainly don?t keep it from being an amazing title. In the end, there?s really only one sentence of this review that you need to read to understand my point.
If you have an Xbox, purchase Halo.The overall score was 97/100. Another review – at Entertainment Depot – was less positive; Halo got an Editor’s Choice award, and was described as a ‘thoroughly enjoyable title’… but some of the later levels soured the single-player experience for the reviewer in their repetitiveness and overwhelming ‘shoot everything that moves’ feeling. There seems to be a typo somewhere in the rating system; in one place, the game is given a 7/10 overall (while being described as a ‘damn fine game’), but in another section it’s given an 8.5 and and ‘Excellent’ – far more consistent with the subscore breakdowns. We’ll assume the 7/10 is wrong. Both of these have been added to our Reviews page. (Thanks to Blue’s News for the heads-up.) Update: Ryan N., from Entertainment Depot, confirms that the 7 was a typo – it’s been corrected.
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Ambient life would have helped
Thanks to Chris Butcher, who posted a note on our forum clearing up a bit about the ambient life (and its omission in the shipping game):the ambient life was an important key to understanding the purpose of halo… unfortunately we didn’t have time to implement all the AI and animation for them, so there are certain plot points that just don’t hang together well enough. oh well.
The more we hear, the more we realize the Halo story is deeper than it looks…
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New Wallpaper
Strider has created a new desktop image for our Wallpaper collection – go take a look. Them Bungie boyz sure know how to take screenshots…
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VideoGameGal reviews Halo
VideoGameGal has reviewed Halo – their review is bundled in a streaming video with a review for DOA3 (the total length is 11 and a half minutes, Halo starts about 4 minutes in). They gave it an 8.5; The breakdown was Graphics, 9/10 (human character models could use work); Sound, 8/10 (it seems they didn’t like the ‘heavy metal’ bits of the soundtrack – their words); Controls, 8/10 (“almost as good as a keyboard and mouse”), and Replay 8/10 (“Deathmatch is so-so”). Go check it out on their site – we’ve added the listing to our Reviews page.
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Edge gives Halo a 10
Thanks to Griffon, who pointed out that there’s a Halo review in the latest issue of Edge magazine – they rated it 10/10, a score shared by only three other games in the 104-issue history of the magazine. Not too shabby!
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft
