Halo
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Waste your money on more Halo toys
Joyride Studios has released Series 8 (they're up to 8?) of the Halo figurines. Among them are Spartan 117 with Flood infection form, a SpecOps Elite, a Jackal, and the Elite Heretic Leader. Why anyone would buy the Master Chief again just to get a Flood form is anybody's guess. Because I already have Master Chief. I mean, all of you have Master Chief, right? Right? Anybody?[Via Bungie.net]
Red Vs. Blue Vs. XBLM
There's a new piece of Red Vs. Blue content available on Marketplace. The video is entitled "Out of Mind Part One" and is available for free. Does this mean the beginning of regular RvB content? I hope so, but I still hate Grif oh so very, very much. Has anyone already downloaded it?
Get a glimpse of the Halo graphic novel
Marvel is offering a sneak peak at the upcoming Halo Graphic Novel (that's HGN for those of us in the know). They're teasing the Halo-faithful with some panels from each of the four main stories -- "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor," "Armor Testing," "Breaking Quarantine," and "Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa" -- as well as a short strip titled "Shore Leave: Master Chief on Holiday." It also has the release date emblazoned on the back page: oh seven-twelve-oh six. That's less than a month away, fanboy. You can make it. We believe in you. Master Chief believes in you. *Registration is required so try user/pass: gimmewallpaper/gimmewpaper (Bugmenot). [Update: Forget Marvel's obnoxious, interactive, reg-required site. Check out Bungie.org for some regular, plain-ole JPGs and a little background on the preview. Thanks, supersloth!]
Halo 3 has a happy ending, or how I learned to love YTMND
The animated .gif addicts over at YTMND have been very busy lately revealing the truthiness behind recent video game rumors. Here are some of those OMIGOD NEWS FLASH! announcements from YTMND's gaming posse: The PS3's 100% official start-up screen REVEALED! Nintendo's bunker busted REVEALED! Halo 3 ending REVEALED! World of Warcraft in space REVEALED! Shiggy's secret N64 formula REVEALED! Half-Life 2's plotline REVEALED! (take that, suckas) YTMND's formula is never going to get old, simply because there will never be a shortage of fanboy ideas and rumors to make fun of. [Via Xbox360Fanboy] More: The Wii zeitgeist, via YTMND, Wiill Ferrell tests Wii accelerometer technology and Dick Hunt!
Halo 3 happy ending?
To all the haters who complain about frivolous blog posts and possible spoilers. Lighten up. It's the best day ever! [Thanks Joe]
Napoleon Dynamite meets Halo
Gosh! Next thing you know, Master Chief will be hunting wolverines. [Via GamerScoreBlog]
Bungie behind the scenes nifty as always
Bungie says their behind the scenes look at the making of the Halo 3 trailer is a "nifty counterpoint" to that IGN documentary from last week. I guess when you're working on the world's most anticipated video game, and offering glimpses of next-gen Master Chief like hits off a crackpipe, "nifty" just seems like the word to use. If your beat up laptop (like mine) sucks at handling 720p video, don't worry. This niftyness is coming to Xbox Live Marketplace in the near future.[Thanks Nitin]
Behind the scenes of the Halo 3 trailer in 720p
As if you didn't have enough high definition E3 videos clogging up your hard drive, here's one more. Bungie is showing off the making of the Halo 3 trailer that closed Microsoft's pre-E3 conference. Beyond viewing the the developers of the game in high-def, you can also get a look at the music of the trailer and various pre-production shots, unused angles from the real-time cinematic and some hints about where they are going with what what is apparently the end of the Halo trilogy. According to Bungie you will also be able to download the high def version of this video to your Xbox 360 via the marketplace in a week or two. We like HD, we don't like waiting, head over and get the video in 720p in WMV or QuickTime format right now.
More Halo 3 footage for your Halo obsessed soul
Bungie has posted a video featuring a behind the scenes look at the creation of the Halo 3 trailer, complete with commentary from several Bungie employees and footage of the orchestra and choir that was used to create the backing music. If, for whatever reason, you can't view the video, here's a quick summary of the content: Amusing quotes if taken out of context: Marty shows early signs of dementia with his paranoid "Where are we? Who is this? What's happening?" sound bite. A few snippets of unseen footage, mainly from different angles of the Halo 3 trailer. This could possibly be proof that the trailer was rendered in real time, although it's very likely that the sound, AI and everything else was pre-rendered. Some more mystery surrounding cortana: dare we say she's gone rampant? A lot of meaningless marketing lines that amount to not much more than hype. Phrases like "dynamic", "real stuff" and "that epic feel" don't tell us much about how Halo 3 is coming along. Overall, there isn't that much new to see here, although if you're a fan of Halo (who isn't?) the video is probably worth a few moments of your time. [Image: Emily Fulford]
Halo 2 reaches half-billion matchmaking games played milestone
Yesterday, according to Bungie, the 500,000,001st game of Halo 2 was played on Xbox Live. To be clear, this number does not include player-sessions or games that were lost because Bungie.net was down, or other technical issues. While it's certainly an achievement Bungie should be proud of, it's hardly a surprise. 6.4 million units of the game were sold in less than three months. Even if another copy was never sold, and even if only 5% of those 6.4 million units were associated with an Xbox Live account (that's 320,000 unique players) -- and given that the game has been in release for 573 days -- each of those 320,000 players would only need to average (roughly) 3 matchmaking games per day. C'mon, the Joystiq crew clocks those numbers before breakfast. Let us know when you hit 1 billion, Bungie. Then we'll be impressed. (We kid, we kid.) [Thanks, Shizzle]
Street Fighter comes indoors and picks up some chalk
Need I say more? A couple of college kids decided to apply their Street Fighter obsessed brains to an available blackboard. It's the kind of thing you look at and say to yourself "why didn't I think of that?" I'm sure that a lot of copycat examples will be popping up in the next few days: I can't wait to see someone attempt to capture a Mario level up, or a sticky grenade from Halo, or a terrorist facing off a counter terrorist à la Counter-Strike or... you get the point.[Via Wonderland]
Halo 2 celebrates half a billion games played!
Bungie is partying it up, and with good reason: Halo 2 is proud to have had half a billion games played on Xbox Live (we know a lot of you contributed!). From the words of Bungie, these are actual games and not player-sessions. The number was logged as of noon yesterday, and we suspect it won't be long 'till their next milestone is reached. Congrats!
$40 XBL Vision camera & UNO bundle detailed by MS source along with prices & dates for other 360 accessories
Our friendly anonymous source at Microsoft has provided us with a few more details concerning the 360 accessories announced back at E3.Perhaps the most important involves the bundling of the Xbox Live Vision camera with a wired headset, the popular Live Arcade title UNO, and a month of Live Gold service for $39.99 when it releases in the States on September 19, 2006.Granted, this is still an unofficial report (based on a leak of "official" info), so understand that you're probably not gonna get much confirmation from MS until they're good and ready to give it. If you'd like information on what other peripherals are coming out "Holiday 2006" (so sometime in the 4th quarter) and at what price, read on for more.
Bungie's cord
Nowadays when you think Bungie, you think the Halo series. Thinking about Halo also implies Microsoft and the Xbox: the first game sold nearly as many copies as the Xbox itself, the second game is one of the most played online console games of all time and the as-yet unreleased third title has more hype surrounding it than a Star Wars movie, a Steve Jobs keynote and a season finale episode of Lost all rolled into one. So for some people it's a great surprise to find that if you go back ten years and look at Bungie's history, you'll find that the company started developing games on toy computers Macs.Tuncer Deniz, founder of Mac gaming fansite Inside Mac Games, was project lead on Myth II and from this position he got to see first hand how Bungie founders Alex Seropian and Jason Jones worked. In an interesting posting on his blog, he talks about one situation where Jason refused to back down and add resource harvesting to Myth II - the end result was a game that was much more fun because it ignored the established norm set up by Command & Conquer and its clones. Jason's focus towards a goal of making the game as fun as possible has meant that Myth II is still a popular online game today, eight years after its release and several years after Bungie pulled the support plug.Finally, for your viewing pleasure, Tuncer managed to dig up a "home video" of Bungie's Marathon team (five or six guys) fooling around and swearing (ohmygosh!) in front of the camera. It's strange to think that the developers in that video had no idea that in under a decade they would release two titles that would sell a combined 14 million units, in the process defining Microsoft's entry into console gaming.
Bungie downs the fake Halo 3 screen
Rumors have a nasty way of cropping up on the internet... and not dying. This is one of them.This pretty piece of work surfaced as a possible title screen for Halo 3. It was discussed without end among forum goers and Xbox 360 fans. But apparently it was just a sham. There's been a "Bungie Update" calling this one out as nothing but a faked image. Sure, it's convincing, but most pranks are. Keep your eyes peeled, this probably won't be the last of 'em.
The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Shane Kim [update 1]
If you haven't already watched the video, now you can read the transcription of our interview with Shane Kim, General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios. On Wednesday (in the middle of E3), Vlad Cole and I got some time to sit down and ask him about some of the biggest questions facing Microsoft's early entrant into the next-gen console wars, like whether there are any more developer acquisitions lined up, which Xbox Live Arcade titles will show up on Vista with Live Anywhere, what are the plans for ad-supported gaming, and just how many paid subscribers does Xbox Live has. We're corroborating with several sources: is Peter Moore's [Grand Theft Auto 4] tattoo real? You know, I wasn't there when it was put on there, it's a very personal thing so I can neither confirm nor deny. Okay... so it's real. Prior to E3, people were really looking forward to actual demonstrations of the Wii controller. That was the big buzz coming into the show and, after they unveiled it, I think people were more or less satisfied with it. So how do you think you fared versus that intense excitement towards that controller? I think we fared extremely well. One of the big things we talked about yesterday was all the momentum we're going to have this next generation. We're going to have 10 million units in consumers' hands before the competitor even ships unit one. We're well on our way to 6 million connected members on Xbox Live and we're going to have 160 games in the market by the end of the year. We've got great momentum. We had Bill Gates attend E3 for the first time ever to announce the vision of Live anywhere. Again, demonstrating leadership in the online space isn't just about what we've achieved to date, but also about how we're going to take that forward across multiple platforms and devices. And finally, first and foremost, it's about the games and the content. Yesterday we started with Gears of War and ended with Halo 3, and we sprinkled in a little bit of Fable 2, Forza 2, Alan Wake, and, oh by the way, the Grand Theft Auto 4 announcement as well. So I think from the content standpoint we're definitely doing great there. So, better online, better content, and better pricing than some of the competition; we feel good about where we're at. Do you think it's important to win E3? I think most people say you have, at least in terms of the keynotes. I think it's always great to be recognized for what you're doing, whether it's at E3 or any other point. Sometimes I worry there's too much importance placed on that but since people are saying we won this year, I'll say it's a great thing we won E3.
PC Halo 2 update
GamePro has some new details on the PC release of Halo 2. Two Microsoft directors in the Games for Windows division confirmed that Bungie's popular shooter will arrive "just after" the launch of Windows Vista in Q1. They also suggested that the PC version will not be cross-platform compatible with the original Halo 2 until they find somebody to "re-code the Xbox version" so it can interface with the Xbox 360. I hear there are a lot of programmers up in Redmond, so hopefully this will be resolved.
Rumor: 360 wireless gaming receiver $20; wheel $130; headset $60; camera $40; Halo and Forza faceplates $20 [update 1]
Thanks to a reliable source from Microsoft, we've learned some important details about the new peripherals announced for the Xbox 360, including pricing and a few Halo faceplate (non)specifics. Check out the leaked info and prices below: 360 wireless gaming receiver (which enables wireless 360 controllers, headsets, and wheels on your PC): $20 Wireless racing wheel: $130 Wireless headset: $60 Xbox Live Vision Camera (with headset, one month of Live Gold, and one arcade -- presumably Xbox Live Arcade -- game): $40 New faceplates for Halo (with the Master Chief on 'em, but not Halo 3 specific) and Forza (no word on connections to the sequel): $20 each 256 MB portable memory unit (MU): no official price yet, but definitely not four times the cost of the older 64MB MU Besides acknowledging that the PC is "the biggest gaming device of all," MS appears to be setting an agressive price for its most relevant new PC accessory, the wireless gaming receiver (at least in comparison to the outrageously priced 360 wireless networking adapter). Unfortunately, no price was revealed as of yet for the USB-based HD-DVD add-on.We've speculated in our recent podcasts as to what would happen to the various 360 SKUs when price drops inevitably occur. An interesting theory bandied about by prolific Joystiq Contributor epobirs (on our earlier bump-to-256MB-MU post) was that a $20 price drop for the Core system, coupled with a $20 price drop on the 64MB MU, would finally allow folks to pick up a capable non-Premium bundle for the original $300 Core price point. (Not a bad way to undercut PS2 memory card prices, too.) We hope to get official confirmation on this info in the not-too-distant future.[Update: Sorry, had the camera price wrong in the headline; it now matches the price of the bundle listed in the body of the text below.]See also: 360's Mem Unit getting a bump to 256MB? (Comment from epobirs) Use 360 wireless peripherals with a PC Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Microsoft's Xbox 360 E3 event Joystiq / Engadget podcasts from Day One and Day Two of E3 2006
Overheard at E3: Japanese don't accept first-person shooters
While waiting impatiently to try out Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at the Nintendo booth, I eavesdropped on overheard a Japanese developer explaining to a friend how first-person shooters aren't too hot in Japan."This Metroid game is a first-person shooter. They're very popular in America, but not in Japan. We don't accept these kinds of games because you cannot see your character on the screen."The spectacular failure of the Xbox brand in Japan would seem to lend this line of thought some credence, but there are several other factors worthy of consideration, pontification and other things that you do with your brain. It's odd that Metroid Prime would be the game to spur on the man's comments, as the series has always emphasized exploration and platforming over frantic shooting. Is it really just the perspective that causes Japanese gamers to shake their heads in disgust, or do first-person shooters merely have a bad reputation? Why is it important to constantly view your character on the screen? And, if this is such a prominent issue amongst Japanese gamers, why would Nintendo present one of their cherished franchises in a way that would be the least popular?
Halo 3 trailer: See it again for the first time
Here's the Halo 3 trailer again, embedded for your puny viewing pleasure. If you want more pixels and have no luck with XBLM, try Xboxyde's 720p torrent or Bungie's large Quicktime version. Oh yeah, Bungie reminds the world this baby is real time with an appropriately sarcastic announcement: Nobody saw it coming. Halo 3! Who knew? For the last year or two, people have speculated about what our next project was and surprisingly, in all that time, not a single person guessed that it would be Halo 3. Not one. We declare it the best kept secret ever. ...We won't ruin the content of our short presentation by describing it frame by frame, but we will note that everything you're seeing here is being rendered in real-time on the Xbox 360, using the current version of our Halo 3 game engine. The HDR lighting, self-shadowing, GPU-run particle system and many other effects should make it intact (and more) to our final game. Worth repeat viewing.
