halo 3
Latest
'Halo 3' arrives on PC on July 14th
343 Industries is completing another piece of the 'Master Chief Collection' puzzle.
'Halo 3' for PC should be ready for public testing in June
Microsoft expects to start public testing of 'Halo 3' for PCs in the first half of June.
Over 6 million user-created maps are coming to 'Halo: MCC'
Microsoft and 343 Industries said they'd transfer Forge maps and game modes to Halo: The Master Chief Collection with the help of players, and it's clear many gamers were willing to step up. The two have revealed that over 6.6 million user-created maps for Halo 3, Halo: Reach and Halo 4 will be playable in MCC when ready. There's a good chance a favorite map from your Xbox 360 days will be available in remastered form.
Newly discovered Halo 3 easter egg is short, subtle and sweet
One of the last known but undiscovered Halo 3 easter eggs was finally cracked open this week, nearly seven years after the shooter first hit shelves. While it's not mind-blowingly awesome in terms of spectacle, it does have plenty of d'awwww value.
NECA makes a Master Chief motorcycle helmet
Fine purveyor of action figures and other sundry collectibles, NECA is making a piece of molded plastic for Halo fans that does more than just look super cool on your desk. The Master Chief motorcycle helmet isn't just a piece of flashy, decorative headgear but a functional helmet that will protect your cranium while riding your hog. It will also allow you to pretend you're hauling tail on a Covenant Ghost after kicking a Grunt in its wee squeaky face. Riders ready to plunk down cash for a new full-face helmet in time for Halo: The Master Chief Collection to hit Xbox One this fall will unfortunately have to wait a bit longer. The helmet is currently in the sculpt prototyping stage, meaning NECA's still trying to lock down a finished version. With a proposed 2015 release, though, the helmet will likely be available in time to satisfy any obsession born out of Halo 5: Guardians. Finally, you and your cat can do that Master Chief Cosplay Cross Country Bike Tour. [Images: Microsoft]
Halo: The Master Chief Collection jumps to Xbox One on November 11, 2014
Like a Forerunner machine rising from the sand, the rumored Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been given an official, dramatic unveiling by Microsoft. As you might have guessed from the collection's name, The Master Chief Collection will chronicle the adventures of UNSC SPARTAN John-117, aka Master Chief. That means updated versions of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4. It also means the inclusion of every multiplayer map from each of the aforementioned games. Following the example of 2011's Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, 343 Industries will be remaking Halo 2 with new textures, models and sound, though players will be able to switch back and enjoy the game's original Xbox visuals at any time. Speaking of visuals, Blur Studio will develop new cutscenes to re-tell Chief's story. All games in the collection will run at 60 frames per second.
Rumor: Halo 1-4 bundled in Master Chief Collection for Xbox One
The saga of Master Chief will be packaged up in Halo: The Master Chief Collection for Xbox One this year, Engadget reported. The bundle will seemingly combine Bungie's Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3 as well as 343 Industries' contribution, Halo 4, into one HD-remastered pack. The Master Chief Collection will apparently ignore Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach in order to hone in on the story of the iconic hero. The bundle would tide fans of the series over for the time being, as Halo 5: Guardians is slated to launch on Xbox One in fall 2015. [Image: Microsoft]
Games with Gold program will remain ongoing for Xbox 360
The Xbox Live "Games with Gold" program, which has been dropping a new free game every first and fifteenth of the month, will stick around longer than originally intended. Announced as a "limited-time program," the program will remain an "ongoing benefit" for Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox 360. Halo 3 is the latest game available for gratis through the program. Download it now and finish the fight from 2007.
PSA: Halo 3 deployed on Xbox Live Games with Gold, available now
Halo 3 is available now on Xbox Live Games with Gold, meaning Gold members can download the game for free until the end of the month. If you've yet to finish the fight (really?), or you just want to finish it all over again, now's the time, Chief.
Games with Gold members get Halo 3 in October
Xbox Live Gold members will receive free access to a downloadable version of Bungie's Halo 3 in October, months after it was initially revealed as part of Microsoft's Games with Gold program. Similar to Sony's PlayStation Plus initiative, the Games with Gold promotion gives subscribers two free Xbox 360 games monthly. Capybara Games' Xbox Live Arcade puzzler Might & Magic Heroes joins Halo 3 as part of October's announced lineup. Previous Games with Gold inductees include Dead Rising 2, Crackdown, and Assassin's Creed 2.
Halo 'Bootcamp' project spotted on Korean ratings board
A listing for something called "Bootcamp" has surfaced over on the Korean ratings board GRB. Its description specifically calls out Halo 3 and classifies "Bootcamp" as a PC/Online game. In a comment to GameFront, Microsoft dismissed any association with Xbox One, which would suggest the new TV series in the works is ruled out. Microsoft also denied any connection with the Reclaimer saga started with Halo 4 in the same statement. Speculation is this could be a PC port of Halo 3, though Microsoft doesn't seem to be addressing that question either. We've reached out for comment.
Neill Blomkamp would still like to do that Halo movie
Even though Neill Blomkamp already put five months of work into the stalled Halo film project, he's not bitter. In fact, he's still down to work on the film – that is, if he's in control."I still really love the world and the universe and the mythology of Halo. If I was given control, I would really like to do that film," Blomkamp told IGN. "But that's the problem. When something pre-exists, there's this idea of my own interpretation versus 150 other people involved with the film's interpretation of the same intellectual property. Then the entire filmgoing audience has their interpretation. You can really live up to or fail in their eyes. That part isn't appealing to me, but the original pieces are appealing."Blomkamp went on record back in 2009 to say that he wouldn't do the Halo film, even if it was offered to him. Blomkamp drew attention for his trio of Halo 3 short films, eventually all collected in Halo 3: Landfall. The Halo movie was officially postponed in late 2006 after Fox and Universal both pulled out of the project.
Halo 3: ODST 'Campaign Edition' drops on Games on Demand
A stripped-down version of Bungie's Halo 3: ODST is now available on Games on Demand for $15.Halo 3: ODST "Campaign Edition" includes both the campaign and the co-op Firefight mode, the latter of which is a survival variant where four players take on waves of attacking Covenant enemies.When Halo 3: ODST first launched in 2009, it included the Halo 3 multiplayer component with additional maps exclusive to the ODST package. If you find yourself desperate for Halo 3 multiplayer, you can buy it through Xbox Live for $20 now.
Halo games tumble in opening day of Xbox Live's Ultimate sale [update: and more]
Microsoft's week-long Ultimate Game Sale for Games on Demand content makes its opening pitch today, and first up to the plate is Master Chief of the Halo Space Marines. We'll let you be the judge of whether or not the green giant knocks it out of the park with today's offers.Three games slide down from $29.99 to $9.99 in the form of Halo 3, Halo: Reach, and real-time strategy black sheep Halo Wars. It's not quite as big a discount for the Chief's most recent adventure; Halo 4 shifts its price to $39.99 for a 33 percent discount.Update: A number of other games are also on sale, including Grid, Call of Juarez, BioShock, and Tomb Raider: Legend. It's not wholly clear, but the wording suggests these particular games are staying discounted through to the end of the Ultimate Game Sale on March 5. Dirt 2 - $4.99 Grid - $4.99 Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements - $2.99 Rayman Raving Rabbids - $2.99 Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X - $4.99 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas - $4.99 Kane and Lynch: Dead Men - $4.99 Call of Juarez - $4.99 Tomb Raider: Legend - $4.99 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - $4.99 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 - $4.99 Virtua Fighter 5 - $4.99 BioShock - $4.99 El Shaddai - $2.99 The Darkness - $4.99
Steam database fills out with Halo 2, 3, Fez, Dyad, King of Fighters, more [Update: MS says no plans for Halo]
The Steam database is a dark and convoluted mine, with twisting tunnels of useless content and, every now and then, a diamond. NeoGAF member Stumpokapaw braved the database and dusted off a few gems, including the addition of Halo 2 and Halo 3.The Halo 2 and 3 database entries included links to Steam Community pages for each game, according to Stumpokapaw and Redditor whatsmyPW, who provided the above screenshot. The Community links no longer resolve those pages, and the Halo 3 database history shows the app was edited today to remove the website name.Halo 2 and 3's existence in the database doesn't mean these games are coming to Steam, but it could point to some form of Community support on Steam in the future. With the Steam Box on the way, anything is possible (yes, even that, you absolute freak). Other games in the database, listed by Stumpokapaw, include Fez, Shadow Warrior Complete, Dyad, The King of Fighters 13 (and 2002 Unlimited Match and '98 Unlimited Match), Halo: Combat Evolved, Quantum Conundrum 2, The Witness and Second Life.Dyad, at least, is definitely on its way to Steam, developer Shawn McGrath tells us.Update: Microsoft says, "We currently do not have plans to release any Halo titles on Steam," in a statement to Eurogamer.
Halo franchise up to 46 million games sold worldwide
The Halo franchise is up to 46 million games sold worldwide. Microsoft gave us the impressive figure today ahead of the launch of Halo 4, which was recently revealed as comfortably Microsoft's most expensive game to date.According to Microsoft, Halo has so far generated $3 billion in revenue, there are 120 million pieces of user-generated content in Halo 3 to date, and 5 billion hours have been logged into Halo games via Xbox Live. We won't speculate on what all these figures may rise to following Halo 4's release next week.
Master Chief called in to resolve Syria, reports BBC
During a news segment on the United Nations' involvement in the Syrian conflict, the BBC aired an image of the UNSC – the fictitious United Nations Space Command from Halo.The image, shown in the background of the clip above, even gets a special spotlight as the camera zooms in on the anchor as she discusses the very serious, very real issues plaguing Syria over the past year.The BBC has since acknowledged and apologized for airing the Halo logo, telling Eurogamer, "BBC News makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all images broadcast, however very occasionally mistakes do happen. Unfortunately an incorrect logo was used during a segment on last week's News at One bulletin and we apologise to viewers for the mistake."The image was not broadcast in our later bulletins."Even if the BBC has stopped airing the USNC logo, the error has of course popped up on YouTube. The most obvious logic behind the mistake is that BBC editors searched Google Images for "United Nations Security Council symbol" and snagged the Halo UNSC logo that popped up in the results, but we like to think it was a subtle message to focus more efforts on quickly appeasing the situation in Syria – more efforts involving Master Chief.
Book: Halo film failed because Microsoft doesn't 'get' Hollywood
Microsoft didn't mess up when it hired a fleet of actors in Spartan armor to deliver the Halo script to potential movie studios, and the deal didn't stall when each production house had a fixed amount of time to read and bid on the screenplay. In the end Microsoft wanted too much, and it didn't know how to ask for it - it only knew how to demand. The industry differences between Microsoft and the film's two production studios, Fox and Universal, eventually led to the project's implosion, Jamie Russell explains in his book, Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood.Microsoft's terms included $10 million against 15 percent of the box office gross, a budget of at least $75 million and fast-tracked production, as well as creative approval over the director, regular flights from Seattle to L.A. to review post-production footage and 60 first-class plane tickets for Microsoft personnel and guests to attend the premiere, all at the expense of whichever studio picked up the script. Not even Harry Potter was getting this level of concessions, Larry Shapiro of Hollywood talent agency CAA says.
Halo stats blown out by Bungie as studio moves on
Bungie is out of the Halo stat-tracking biz, but says "so long and thanks for all the fish" with one last nuke of information. Since 2004, over 20.8 billion Halo matchmaking games have been played, with Halo 3 supplying a majority at 11.5 billion, at around 221 million games averaged monthly.The studio gathered all the data up in a mega infographic, covering stats of the great battles between humanity and The Covenant, and Red vs. Blue. At the end of Bungie's oversight of the online war, the body count exceeded 136 billion, with over 43 billion assists.Having moved on from Halo, Bungie is currently in a 10-year contract with Activision to produce ... something.
Bungie handing over Halo community services to 343 in March
As of March 31, 2012, Bungie will no longer host any Halo services on Bungie.net. Current Halo data will be transferred to 343 and, at that time, "all live Halo data will be managed by 343 Industries, and Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service." Using a peculiar bit of language, Bungie notes that "any replacement functionality" will be hosted by Halo Waypoint on halo.xbox.com.Notice that Bungie doesn't mention whether or not such functionality will be replaced, though it seems unlikely that Microsoft would allow Halo's community features to disappear. They are, after all, a hallmark of the franchise. Because really, what's the point of playing Halo if you can't show off how awesome you are (or, as the image above illustrates, how funny it looks as your Spartan's limp corpse sails through the air).
