First trailer for the new remake of Halo 1: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, which looks to be a recreation of the first game using a modern engine, with full networking features and the original game’s gameplay (including the pistol).

Rockslider says he was inspired by the Rampancy podcast episode on the Halo 3 level, Floodgate (part one, part two) to go back and write a detailed commentary on his own playthrough at Bad Cyborg.

Very fun read, check it out!

UPDATE:Rockslider points out that the version of this playthrough he posted was old, and that there was a more extensive one written later that he has now posted.

From Marius.net comes the rather unexpected news that a new, native port of Myth II v1.7.2 is coming to Linux, produced by ProjectMagma. It scores over the older port produced by Loki Software in that it is intended to be network compatible with the existing Windows and OS X versions currently available.

For those interested in helping beta test it, check out this forum thread.

According to Googlefight, Halo Reach IS Canon.

The following is a crosspost from the HBO forum, in a discussion started by Cody Miller about retcons of Halo’s continuity by the latest game in the series, Reach. Some fans (namely Hawaiian Pig) take exception to David “Evil Otto” Candland, Bungie UI Designer, saying canon arguments aren’t important. The image is from another post of Cody’s, seemingly showing that Installation 04 isn’t located in the Milky Way galaxy any more.

After reading part of this thread at HBO and finding myself in agreement simultaneously with HP and Evil Otto, I had another series of thoughts about how works are viewed by their creators, as opposed to their fans.

A work like Halo is not the creation of a single person, even if some people contribute more to some aspects of it than others. It is also not a static thing. While certain key concepts may endure from the start of brainstorming until the declaration of a Golden Master, many of the details may be in flux for months or years. Listening to the commentary by Jones, Staten and O’Donnell for the cutscenes of the first two games, it becomes apparent how different the series might have been if Bungie had made different decisions.

 Click here for the complete text.

Blackstar and Narcogen take a look through the second playable level of Halo: Reach, in which you may go left, or you may go right, but either way, you end up backtracking and then going inside before it starts raining Covenant corvettes.

– Right Click on Links to Download –

ASE 22 Widescreen 360 SD size – Download

ASE 22 Widescreen 720 HD size – Download

I put up a video on youtube if you guys are interested. Have a look and tell me what you think! It is my transcription of Ashes from the Halo Reach Soundtrack. This is the updated version and you can find the new sheet music by clicking on the link below.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvw-jnwFIyA

Sheet Music: http://rampancy.net/blog/spartan182/10/10/2010/Halo_Reach_OST_Ashes_Piano

This time on Anger, Sadness and Envy, Narcogen, Blackstar and Cody Miller take a look at the first level of Halo: Reach, Winter Contingency.

Show highlights include:

ODST was the only Halo game that started with a text crawl. Reach is the only one that starts with a flashback, showing your customized helmet on the post-invasion, burning surface, then transitioning to Noble Six putting the helmet on in the Warthog, on his (or her) way to meet the rest of Noble Team. Does this work?

Hungry Like The (Lone) Wolf. Does the foreshadowing– the lone wolf stuff stays behind– work as well when part of the game’s marketing campaign was “from the end, you know the beginning”?

 Click here for the complete text.

read more

This time on Anger, Sadness and Envy, Narcogen, Blackstar and Cody Miller take a look at the first level of Halo: Reach, Winter Contingency.

Show highlights include:

ODST was the only Halo game that started with a text crawl. Reach is the only one that starts with a flashback, showing your customized helmet on the post-invasion, burning surface, then transitioning to Noble Six putting the helmet on in the Warthog, on his (or her) way to meet the rest of Noble Team. Does this work?

Hungry Like The (Lone) Wolf. Does the foreshadowing– the lone wolf stuff stays behind– work as well when part of the game’s marketing campaign was “from the end, you know the beginning”?<--!break-->

So Much So Fast, It’s Glorious. Are we introduced to too many characters, too quickly? Halo 1 gave us the Chief, Cortana, and Keyes, with a cameo by “sniper sergeant”, and then there is no one of consequence until 343 Guilty Spark enters the game several levels later. Here within a few minutes we have to absorb our own identity, Carter, Kat, Jun and Emile, as well as an exposition dump about the Insurrection that is familiar with those who know the novels, and probably nobody else– and makes little sense within the context of the human-Covenant war, to say nothing of the expanding conflict of the three main sequence games. Did Bungie overthink this?

Less Is Moa, Part I. ODST gave us character archetypes, the Buck-Dare backstory, and hints of a secret mission, all in about the same time that Reach’s cutscene takes to show us some mountains, Emile’s knife, and the Falcons. Is this a case of less is more, or less is less?

Relay Race. So we’re repairmen? Delivery team for a repairman? Isn’t HQ right– deploying a Spartan team is a misallocation of resources? How could Insurrectionists even make it to a planet that is the nerve center of the UNSC military? Isn’t it crawling with Spartans? And if not, why is Noble Team here at all?

Super Trooper. Where are the troopers… can’t help be reminded of what became of the bodies at Crow’s Bridge in Myth, or the missing bodies in level 2 of Halo 1… except there are no Flood in this game. If the Covenant wanted to attack the Visigrad relay, why did they attack the troopers so far away from the relay, and then carry them towards, but not all the way to, the relay itself?

Less is Moa, Part II. Bungie has gradually added back many of the features that have been on the Halo drawing board since the very beginning, but for one reason or another ended up being cut. Covenant Engineers made it into ODST. The flamethrower made it into Halo 2. Dinosaurs we first saw in 2000 finally make their way into Reach in 2010, but before that we get ostriches. Sure, whacking them is fun, but does this add to or detract from Halo: Reach’s sense of planetary tragedy?

Invincible Farmers. We’ve gone from a sometimes frustrating escort mission in Halo 1, trying to protect an all-too fragile, all-too vulnerable Captain Keyes, to having invincible NPCs, to having invincible sidekicks, to having invincible farmers that are immune to bullets but can be killed by melee strikes that instantly kill YOU for killing civilians. When does gently guiding the player away from counterproductive, antisocial play break verisimilitude? Why the instakill instead of the more Halo traditional method of having your own teammates turn on you?

The Scourge of Skirmishers: Walking buggers, or gentle Jackals? Are these Jackal Snipers made bearable, or just buggers in smaller groups?

P.S. Mini-Skirmisher: Clever trick or cheap gimmick? Is seeing behind the curtain like this worth havine Bungie strew the planet with kill zones, or should players be free to see whatever is there– textured or not?

I Don’t See Any Training Wheels. Despite ten years of Halo games and a total of five FPS titles, Halo still eases the player into the game with basic tutorial elements, including a structured introduction to grenades, as we get early in Sierra 117 during Halo 3, and here in the first combat encounter as we head down the stairs. Is this an example of Bungie being sensitive and approachable for new fans, or catering to casuals?

Free Fire Zone. The Master Chief had a wit that was dry at times, but ever gloried in the violence that was his particular specialty. Does it deepen or cheapen the Spartan mystique for Noble Team to have the range of character archetypes it does?

The Golden Compass. Halo has long had waypoints to point out objectives, and some levels even had arrows on the floor. Once past the first encounter, there are a few basic choices of where to go and what to do first. None of them are “wrong” and often you’re only given a direction, like “east” or “northeast” to suggest where you need to go next. Are navigation and exploration part of the Halo experience for you, or do you just want a clear path to follow to blow more shit up?

Keep On Truckin’. Reach adds a civilian vehicle without armament that you can drive while Jorge guns with his LAAG turret, essentially making it a Warthog equivalent. Is there any point in making what is only cosmetically distinct from a well-known gameplay element?

Illusion of Choice. A bit like Silent Cartographer, where you can go around either way and not hit barriers, or like Halo, where you can rescue groups of Marines in any order, there’s a little bit of nonlinearity here– some encounters you can skip, and two you can do in any order. Are the choices here real, or fake? If fake, are they worth putting in? If real, do they have real consequences? How hard would it be to have them have real consequences?

The Covenant Is On Reach. Is this actually more or less believable than Insurrectionists, 40+ years into the war? Isn’t Reach the last human colony left, besides Earth?

Three fights, two dead troopers and some frightened farmers later, and we’re still just looking for the source of a distress call that every Halo player knows is the first sign of an invasion, while Noble Team is still paddling up a river in Egypt. Is Bungie trying to inject some dramatic tension into a situation that can’t possibly have any?

The Flesh Is Willing. In what can be interpreted as a nod to some of the continuity inconsistencies inherent with trying to change a game’s armory over time, Reach, as a prequel to Halo 1, brings back the tuning-fork shaped “Spirit” dropships. They’re iconic, to be sure, but they don’t really fit the “organic” look that most other Covenant, especially Sangheili, tech seems to have, and the design never really made much sense anyway. Is this unifying the final installment with the first, or just runaway nostalgia?

A Farewell to Arms. Our second Falcon flight gives us another taste of the rail shooter goodness that is to come, but for now we’re just along for the ride: not only don’t you have a turret, but you can’t shoot what weapons you do have– not at the Covenant, and certainly not at your Spartan seatmates. Is sensibility spoiling the fun of Halo? Doesn’t everyone spend a few missions chucking plasma grenades at Pelicans?

Casual Investment or Hardcore Divestment?

Reach’s system replaces “Experience” with “Credits” redeemable for purely cosmetic player customization features, and rewards you with them for all kinds of play, solo or multiplayer, regardless of skill level or performance. Is this a good way to draw in less skilled players, or is it ruining the game by rewarding idlers, griefers, and those without the talent to play well or the sense to practice to improve their skills?

I would like to propose that the gaming press stop posting stories like this one:

Man Let Son Suffocate Because He Was Playing WoW

Before I go on, I’d like to say that I do not now, nor have I ever, worked in the gaming industry in any capacity.

Any number of children lose their lives each year to causes relating to parental neglect or abuse. Each one is a personal tragedy, and indeed, many may have been entirely preventable if the parents behaved differently. In many cases, there may have been circumstances relating to some other activity that led a parent to believe, temporarily, that their unjustifiable actions were justifiable, or that some other activity they were engaged in was more important than attending to the child.

However there is also no justification for the peculiar attention paid to gaming when the other activity is somehow gaming-related. I’d wager that any number of infants smother, suffocate or strangle on pillows or bedclothes all over the world each year while an inattentive parent is performing some other activity: watching television, speaking on the telephone, working out, gambling, drinking, perhaps even reading a good book. When the parent was watching TV, I’m not going to read about this tragedy in TV Guide. When the parent was watching a film, I’m not going to end up reading about it in Premiere magazine. When the parent was eating or drinking, I’m not going to read about it in Gourmet. If they were reading a book, I’m not going to read about this death in the New York Times Review of Books, along with a sidebar about whether or not reading is addictive or leads to child abuse. If an inattentive parent leaves a child locked in a hot car on a summer day, I’m not going to read about it in Road & Track.

 Click here for the complete text.

The Tain has posted Myth II 1.7.2b2 in several flavors: Windows, Mac Universal, and Mac PowerPC. It’s not an installer, just the application itself, so you need to have Myth II 1.7.1 already installed. For the terminally curious, there’s a changelog.

Not that it would surprise anyone, but an ex-Bungie employee recently posted in their online resume (not saying who or linking, sorry) that they worked on Bungie’s as-yet unnanounced Next Project, and that it used a “modified version” of the Halo engine.

Given that even Halo itself could be said, broadly, to have been prototyped in a “modified Myth engine” and that every Halo game used a modified version of the engine of the game before it, there’s nothing Earth-shattering about this, but… for what it’s worth, it would appear that Bungie’s next game at least has some connection to the work the company has done on Halo in the past decade, and isn’t a complete technological departure.

Moonshot Games, featuring Bungie alums Michael Bastien, Damián Isla and Rob Stokes, used Pax East this year as a launchpad for their new game, a 2D sidescrolling shooter called Fallen Frontier. They’ve put up some concept art, an announcement trailer, and a tentative release date: “first half 2012”.

The bad news? No publisher yet, and because there’s no publisher, there’s no platform, although they’d like to put the game on XBLA, PSN, and Steam. Well, who wouldn’t?

UPDATE: Several commenters on Moonshot’s announcement have drawn comparisons to Abuse, a game in a similar vein developed by Crack Dot Com but published by… Bungie.

Back when Halo was first announced, there were hints of a persistent, online world. Last year at GDC, Bungie’s own Joseph Staten hinted at such a thing. Now it seems like this year’s GDC presentation by David Aldridge may have tipped Bungie’s hand; the company is reportedly making a massively multiplayer action game. Since Microsoft now owns Halo and 343 Industries is shepherding it, it remains to be seen what setting this game will exist in.

Seen at HBO.

Remember Moonshot Games? I know, I know… I’m lucky if I can remember what I did yesterday, but Moonshot Games is the outfit founded by Bungie alumni Michael Bastien, Damián Isla and Rob Stokes. They announced they were going into a “quiet period” in October of 2009, and now it looks like the silence will end at Pax East this year.

Finally, after several months, here they are. I based it on this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zLLVrElkCo&playnext=1&list=PL7523C201F344A09B

I don’t know if they’re right; I’m new at doing sheet music.

I’ll add the MIDI file later.

Midi:
http://www.mediafire.com/?6fba49vb1f8klfk

UPDATE: We have agreed to partner up in the makings of the Forerunner Map Pack and have split them into two parts. Part 1 is complete and can be found and downloaded here:
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/Default.aspx?player=zonyrecon954&sg=0
Part 2 will be released early April. For more info on Part 2 of the map pack click the link below.

I have recently learned that another person on xboxlive has also been working on a project with the Forerunner Map Pack title and we have run into some difficulties. We have worked out a few things and are most likely going to work out a partners deal and combine both of our overall creations into one map pack. We both have quite a few maps to put together though so expect the possibility of a FMP part I and FMP part II. If worst comes to worst I will simply change the name of the map pack and hopefully all disputes will be settled. More details to come in the future.

For more information on the actual Forerunner Map Pack click on this link:
http://rampancy.net/blog/spartan182/16/01/2011/Forerunner_Map_Pack_Official_Announcement

The Game Audio Network Guild has announced its final nominees for the 9th annual awards, to be held this upcoming March 3 in San Francisco, CA. Reach is up for a total of four awards: Best Soundtrack, Best Interactive Score, Best Vocal – Choral (for “Hymn”) and Best Use of Multi-Channel Surround.

Information on the Forerunner Map Pack Part 2 can be found here. The Forerunner Map Pack Part 2 will feature 3 multiplayer ready maps created by me (YoungSykotic182) along with 1 bonus map. All maps will support all gametypes except Invasion and Race variants. The maps are currently in Beta testing and will be released early April. Videos showcasing previews of the maps will be up some time next week and can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ForgingFrenzyPro
http://www.youtube.com/user/DeathScythe182
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Map Details:
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Map Name: Testament
Map Player Count: 2-8
Map Description:
“The Forerunners dedicated this Monument in reminiscence to those who were sacrificed in order to defeat the Flood.”

Map Background:
Testament was designed to be a Memorial that the Forerunners created before their sacrifice to save the galaxy. It is a perfectly symmetrical map that has the exact same features on either side. The looks of the map really play its part and several noticeable features are distinct within the map. The main one is the actual monument located in the courtyard in the middle of the map. This map’s aesthetics is very similar to both Lockout/Blackout and Guardian and has a weapon set very similar to The Cage.

Weapon Details:
DMR x2
Grenade Launcher x1
Shotgun x1
Sniper Rifle x1
Frag Grenade x2
Energy Sword x1
Needle Rifle x2
Needler x1
Plasma Pistol x2
Plasma Repeater x2
Plasma Grenade x4
Health Station x6

Recommended Gametypes:
Objective Gametypes.
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Map Name: Havens
Map Player Count: 4-12
Map Description:
“These ancient abandoned temples were once guardians of the Forerunners’ most treasured instruments.”

Map Background:
Havens represents one of the numerous sacred temples that the Forerunners have built throughout Halo. Havens original purpose was that it was supposed to serve as a gurdian to special interests of the Forerunners. Havens is a mostly mirrored symmetrical map with the exception of the middle temple being perfectly symmetrical.

Weapon Details:
Assault Rifle x2
DMR x6
Grenade Launcher x2
Magnum x4
Rocket Launcher x1
Shotgun x2
Frag Grenade x2
Energy Sword x1
Focus Rifle x1
Needle Rifle x3
Needler x2
Plasma Pistol x2
Plasma Repeater x2
Plasma Grenade x6
Health Station x8

Recommended Gametypes:
Slayer, CTF
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Map Name: Amphitheater
Map Player Count: 4-12
Map Description:
“It is believed that the Forerunners often attended widely renowned productions that were held at this theater.”

Map Background:
Amphitheater is as the name states, a theater. It has two distinct observation areas on either side as well as long decorated halls for that classic but Forerunner theater feel. Amphitheater is perfectly symmetrical with all sides being exactly the same.

Weapon Details:
DMR x4
Rocket Launcher x2
Shotgun x2
Sniper Rifle x2
Frag Grenade x2
Needle Rifle x2
Needler x2
Plasma Pistol x2
Plasma Grenade x4
Health Station x4

Recommended Gametypes:
BTB, Slayer, CTF
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Map Name: Paradise Falls (Bonus Map)
Map Player Count: 8
Map Description:
“Despite this retreats soothing name it is rather ill suited for vacations.”

Map Background:
This map is a Grifball map composed of a series of mini islands around the level. A nice view of Forge World’s natural geography can be viewed from the windows on either side of the level. From on high the map provides a view of all the islands visible within the water. Paradise Falls is the bonus map of the map pack and only supports Grifball.

Weapon Details:
Health Station x2

Recommended Gametypes:
Grifball Evolved
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If you have the time please give these maps a look and get back to me on what you think. Any glitches you find or suggestions that you might have would be greatly appreciated. Either send me a message over xbox live (Gamertag: YoungSykotic182)or leave a comment on here or one of the youtube channels above.

Download Link:
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileShare.aspx?player=YoungSykotic182

This the song from the Halo: Reach level “The Package.” The song starts at 3:30 and ends at 5:15 (although I included the ending to this) In the game, this plays while you are defending Dr. Halsey’s lab (a Firefight-like scenario on the Firefight map “Glacier”)
There are definitely a few mistakes in this version. I did everything (except the last part) by ear. One part I know is probably wrong is in the 27th/28th measures, but it won’t sound terrible if you play it that way.
Can someone please refine this, and possibly help work on combining it so it can be played in two hands (even if that means just putting the notes on the top staff with the notes on the bottom staff). I would really appreciate it. I’m sorry I don’t have really decent sheetmusic for this one; it wasn’t easy to make, and I’m only using NoteWorthy Composer, which sucks. I apologize.

MR