Death by intelligence.
News Roundup For July 2, 2005
- Bungie's latest What's What Update is all about cheating and assuring players that the situation is going to improve; apparently another auto-update is on the way.
- Bungie is also looking to hire artists, animators, and programmers.
More New Map Information Released
A lot of goings-on in the Halo 2 Map world recently. Of course, the Killtacular Pack which was released as a split between two free maps and two premium maps is now available in its entirety for free from Xbox Live; Containment, Warlock, Turf and Sanctuary.
Halo 2 Set To Reach Terminal Velocity
With both SketchFactor and Frankie off gallivanting (no doubt accelerating at 32 feet per second per second, naturally) Shishka was left alone at the switch this week, and submitted three QuickTime 3d screenshots of Terminal in lieu of the What's What Update for last week.
Halo 2 To Reach Terminal Velocity
The latest featured article at Bungie.net is all about the upcoming expansion map, Terminal. The map is based on the New Mombassa area from the campaign and features a runaway maglev train designed to complicate matters on a regular basis. But hey, at least the trains run on time.
Angry Zen Master Dances Up A Storm
Ok, shoot us for not knowing this, but there are apparently two Angry Zen Masters-- Mat "MSN" Noguchi over at Bungie, and his brother Jamie "jamihn" Noguchi, who since late March of this year has been doing a webcomic called (appropriately enough) Angry Zen Master, which occasionally features both himself and his brother, Mat.
Outrageous Halo 3 Rumors Circulate
In the absence of real information, outrageous rumors about Halo 3-- a game that hasn't even really been announced officially by Bungie-- are circulating far and wide. Since Bungie probably isn't going to shoot them down just now, I thought I'd take aim and do some Halo 3 Rumor Control in the latest Narc's Retort.
Halo 3 Rumor Control, Part One
We've seen this set of rumors, supposedly coming from someone whose uncle works at Bungie (oh dear God not again--Ed.) several times in the past few days. They were even translated into French at Halo.fr.
Given that Bungie seems to be enduring some kind of self-imposed silence bordering on self-denial with regards to the very existence of Halo 3, even to the point of failing to confirm or deny the existence of the game after it was referred to by no less a personage than Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.
That, plus the fact that historically Bungie, like other game studios, usually doesn't comment on rumors, means that regardless of the particular situation right now, these rumors would no doubt spread unchecked anyway.
Halo Main Theme Music Transcription
Devin Eastman has produced a transcription of the Halo main theme by Marty O'Donnell. The file archive contains a PrintMusic document, a MIDI file.
Here is what Devin writes about the archive:
Fear And Loathing In Halowood
According to rumor, Microsoft developed and Alex Garland wrote a Halo movie script that was shopped to Hollywood studios yesterday by couriers in Master Chief suits. (Perhaps the Nightmare Armor guys got some work? --Ed.) Apparently, though, the reaction was not that positive.
Earth City
The MIDI is 4:42 long, and contains the opening sequence to both Outskirts and the 2003 E3 demo, as well as Earth City from the Halo 2 soundtrack. Also included are the Printmusic files of all the parts, as well as a score, and a PDF document that has all of the parts and the score, more than 45 pages of material all told in this .zip archive.
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Doomed Is As Doomed Does
More than a year ago, before Halo 2 or Doom 3 were released, there was trash talking in the chat rooms about Id's attempt to add a real storyline to their game. Now that the Xbox version has been out for awhile, I had a chance to compare Doom 3 and Halo 2, as I promised I would last year.
Halo News Roundup For May 25, 2005
New Maps Draw Fans At E3
Ender Illes made a short photo essay and writeup about the Bungie booth at E3 2005, where the next five multiplayer maps were available for play. SketchFactor has put it up at Bungie.net.
What's most interesting is the quote by Bungie in response to Gates' Halo 3 "announcement":
We are very flattered. Its hard to believe that a man as powerful as him holds Halo in such a high regard. He places a lot of faith in us, and it's flattering.
Gates' Halo 3 Release Date Only A 'Maybe'
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft senior vice president and chief Xbox officer Robbie Bach all but says that Bill Gates misspoke himself at E3 when he referred to Halo 3 being used to blunt Sony's launch of the PlayStation 3.