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Gamestock, here we come…
Thanks to Zypper, who sent in this Bungie Webcam shot of Mat Noguchi modeling a new Halo t-shirt. This is the same Mat who said that the entire Bungie/Halo/Online team was concentrating 100% on Gamestock? Looks like they’re ready…
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Fan Fiction section updated
I saw a fireball erupt behind the main body of troops and the communication tower leaned slowly and crumpled in a heap of rubble.
Todd Hansen sends in the first chapter of a Fan Fiction piece that ‘has grown quite colossal’… if you’re interested in seeing the rest, send him mail! (Read the beginning of ‘Vision of an Apocalypse’ in our Fan Fiction section.)
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Take heart, modem users!
Interesting. Hot on the heels of a query on our forum about the playability of Halo over a modem comes a news article at Daily Radar about a company (Xtech) who’s producing a narrowband solution for the PS2 and Xbox. Details are sketchy at the moment, but Xtech says that they’re aiming to bridge the gap between broadband-enabled-only consoles and the vast majority of online gamers. (I’m not implying that the news article is in response to the forum query – we’re not anywhere near that egocentric here – I just thought the timing was interesting.)
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Rehashing old stories
Oops. Thanks to Dan Rudolph, who set us to looking in our own news archives… Seems the MSNBC story we mentioned yesterday is old news – we reported on the existence of the V-Chip-like control way back in September. Blame Louis – he’s lazy. Pax.
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Halo-Australia back online
BluR writes to say that Halo-Australia is back online again – stop by and check ’em out! Pax.
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V-chip Wants Xbox, Yes
Thanks to Pallor, who noticed (on R.net’s forum) that MSNBC has an article about a V-chip-style control to be included in the Xbox. It’s not clear how this will affect Halo, since without the chip, parents concerned about violence levels would simply not buy it anyway, but it’s possible that overall, more units of the Xbox will sell because of the chip. Details about the actual hardware won’t be revealed before E3, in May.
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Mere screenshots? Pshaw!
Something other than ‘mere screenshots’, says Matt of the Halo offerings at Gamestock. Also, the bungie.com website (not just the Halo page) is about to undergo testing, prior to public display. Good stuff a’comin’!
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‘Private Reg’s Last Day of Combat’ updated
Thanks to Maszimo, who sent in a rewrite of ‘Private Reg’s Last Day of Combat‘. I haven’t altered the submission date, but it’s still available in our Fan Fiction section.
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Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
After 5 days of downtime, the SETI servers came back to life on Saturday… the output of the Halo SETI Marines suffered. Total units processed were down from ~3000/week to 600 this week. Ouch! Check the gory details on the 7 day stats page.
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Halo Updates database gets bigger
It’s Monday again, so it’s time to increment the Halo Updates database. The update posted at BGH on Friday has now been added. The word of the week is ‘fun‘ – how often has Matt used it? (And does it tell us anything about the state of mind, over time, of the Halo team?)
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Ace in the hole
PunkRocker finds ANOTHER Halo news item, this time at Daily Radar. It’s a preview of Gamestock, Microsoft’s press-only event coming up in a bit over a week, and they refer to Halo as “the ace in Microsoft’s hand”. Heh… 5 card stud, anyone?
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Xbox Preview Guide goes up
Still using the oldest known screenshot, but with nothing but kind words, xbox.ign.com puts up an Xbox Preview Guide, and says of Halo:Expected to make its Xbox debut at Gamestock 2001, this highly touted FPS title from Bungie is expected to change the face of action gaming with this Xbox-exclusive. This probably the best looking game we have ever seen, and the fact that it will be all about advanced AI, vehicle use, and more Online multi-player options than you can shake a stick at get us more than a little excited.
Nice to know that even without new material (nobody’s seen anything new from Bungie since June of last year), they’re still talking nice. (Thanks to PunkRocker for the heads-up on our forum.)
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Back to huntin’ critters
Erbium-=SUN=- writes to remind us that the SETI servers are online again. (They came back yesterday morning, but due to the huge demand for new units, it was often difficult to tell.) Let’s get crunching again!
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HaloNews.Org closes its doors
Eep. Glock writes that HaloNews.Org (which started life less than a month ago) is closing its doors due to RealLife time constraints. Ouch. We wish him the best of luck in whatever he does. Pax.
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Like a Banshee out of… Halo
R.net got confirmation on the identity of the Banshee today – Matt clarifies that it’s the high-flying Covenant vehicle (referred to as a ‘Ground Support Craft‘ in the concept art released in 1999). The low-flying hovercraft are known as ‘ghosts’. Glad that was cleared up – thanks, guys!
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No limos for Jason
This week’s Halo update shows up at Battleground: Halo, and one of the best parts is this:Lots of bug fixes on the programming side this week, getting the game ready for Gamestock.
For any who were unsure if Halo actually WOULD make a showing there, your fears should be laid to rest. Other highlights include the showcasing of Oni team strengths being brought to bear on Halo issues, and several AI factoids. This will be added to the Halo Updates database on Monday, but for now, read it in all its glory at BGH!
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tongue-in-cheek in review
black flag and a red star posted a ‘week in review’ summary of activity on our forum – it’s pretty amusing (and on the mark). Check it out!
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SETI down, vandals bite
And while we’re off-topic, those of you crunching SETI units might have noticed that you haven’t been able to connect to the SETI servers for a couple of days. This is because (as the SETI home page redirect mentions) vandals cut the fiber line connecting UC Berkeley with LBNL. They hope to have it back up and running today.
Update: Seems the repairs won’t be done before tomorrow, late in the day (PST)… call it another 27 hours or so.
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Dreamland going under – can you help?
Okay, this is totally unrelated to Halo, and that means we usually stay away from it. Seems to be a good cause, though… Neil Grattan, a frequent contributor to the fan-built sections around this site, writesMythos (the creators of the xcom series) are in extreme trouble, and are facing liquidation. I myself hold no links with them apart from being an avid follower of their games for many years. The one thing that I wish of your community is perhaps a look and some support of their latest title, which has been cut short and canceled due to publishers Virgin withdrawing funds. At this point you might be thinking…well what do you want me to do about it, its already canceled. If you were to visit http://www.mythosgames.com/dreamland.htm for info on the actual game and http://pub50.ezboard.com/fmythosgamesltd32854frm1 for the forum you would see that opposition for the move is very much alive.
The game itself looks incredible – Grat brought it up recently on our forum, and the response was pretty positive. Check it out – maybe another Looking Glass can be avoided!
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft
