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Bungie promises hot gamer on AI action
Bungie.net has posted an interview with the new guy in the office: AI engineer Max Dyckhoff (his real name, read the interview for more sophomoric insights). A long-standing Bungie fanboy, and now ex-Free Radical employee (the TimeSplitters guys), Max promises to implement behavior in characters that will make you want to marry them. Seriously, he says that.We can safely assume that Bungie's next project will have little to do with pimping or the high seas, and everything to do with Covenant forces, Chiefs of the Master variety, and lots and lots of plasma grenades. It's a fun read and a voyeuristic look into a work environment where we imagine Peter Jackson must stop by whenever he's in town, Halo 2 matches replace office politics, and weiner jokes flow like Klingon at a nerd convention.
Halo co-creator's project: part MMO, part reality TV
Alex Seropian, the co-founder of Bungie, co-creator of Halo, and head of Wideload Studios, creators of Stubbs the Zombie, has another project on his plate: Spectrum MediaWorks. They plan on delivering X-Quest as both a massively multiplayer online game and a reality television show produced by Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment.Sure, it sounds crazy, but that's an awful lot of talent to dismiss. Seropian says, "Entertainment convergence is something that has been talked about for a long time, but the multiple media distribution pipes are now in place to create properties that can work on multiple levels." It's unclear how the two properties will interact; according to Spectrum MediaWorks, "Gamers will be able to enter the world via Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and interact with reality show contestants... and events in the game will have a direct impact on the TV show."Color us skeptical. Something about the combination of the Fox channel, reality shows, buzzwords like convergence, and a generi-title like X-Quest doesn't inspire confidence. Then again, the possibility that this could work, and that the 360 may have a killer MMO, has me all giddy. [Via Joystiq]
Peter Jackson visits Bungie, talks shop
Peter Jackson recently visited with Bungie, ostensibly to talk about the upcoming Halo movie he's producing, but surely also to jam a couple rounds on Halo 3 (even though nothing's been announced yadayadayada). Here's what Bungie's Frankie had to say about the visit: "...a week or two ago, our new building was graced by the presence of one Mr. Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, Heavenly Creatures, Meet the Feebles and more. In short, a genius. You may or not know that he is also signed up as executive producer on the forthcoming Halo movie. Mr. Jackson was not only nice enough to come visit, but also to pose for a photo with the entire Bungie crew... So to summarize, a famous director came to a building and got mobbed by rabid fanboys, many of whom are in their twenties and thirties."I have a feeling PJ might have been geeking out a little bit as well. I imagine a mutual appreciation society.[Via 360Monster]
Aleph One -- Marathon for Mac OS X
One of the last things Bungie did before Microsoft bought them (and their flagship game, Halo), was to release the Marathon code into the open source arena. Until not all that long ago, in order to play Marathon 2 or Infinity, you had to run it on a Mac OS 9 machine, or in Classic (or, shudder, on a Windows machine).Enter Aleph One, the end result of some programmers having ported the game(s) to run natively under Mac OS X. They've included also the ability to connect to an Internet game server so you can play against other Marathon addicts around the world.It's like it's 1998 all over again. I'm going to have fun with this over the long weekend. Who needs World of Warcraft when you've got Marathon Infinity...Update: This is a better link for a download that includes the necessary game files as well as the carbonized application. The previous link was for just the application by itself.
Halo 1 & 2 to be "upgraded" on Xbox 360
1up has pointed out an interesting quote in the latest Bungie Weekly update. Besides detailing the new Dead or Alive 4 addition, Spartan 458, the update also alludes to "how Halo one and two look on 360, and it's all good news." While no other information was mentioned, it does sound like the Halos might be getting a few technical tweaks in their transition to the next generation Xbox console. Crisper models? Faster frame rates? HDTV support? It'd be interesting to see if the improvements are anything to shout about, but imagine what else companies could do when they bring their Xbox games over to the 360. How about, for example, making Halo 1 Xbox Live-compatible? [via 1up]
