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.
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.
Short of time today, so just a few quick Halo news notes:
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.
The quote isn't attributed to anyone in particular, but the photo that accompanies it does include Jaime "Flawless Cowboy" Griesemer, lead designer on Halo 2, as well as Marty O'Donnell.
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.
At E3, Gates said "It's perfect. The day Sony launches, and they walk right into Halo 3." Meanwhile, Frankie told Bungie fans the week before E3 that no announcements were imminent, and now Bach is saying "We haven't announced anything on what Bungie is doing or where we're going with the future of the 'Halo' franchise." The specific language does more than just retract Gates' statement, it confirms Bungie's treasured independence from Microsoft:
With all respect to Bill, I don't run Bungie's studio, and neither does he. We'll work with the Bungie guys and let people know."
There's no indication there of anything relating to Halo being done by anyone other than Bungie, despite the fact that Gates didn't mention Bungie by name. So, as incredible as it sounds, it seems as if Gates was just off the mark on this one. As it stands, when Sony announced a projected launch date for their new console of "spring 2006" as the article cites, it changed Gates' deadline from being difficult to meet to being next to impossible.
Thanks to Louis Wu of HBO for the heads-up on this story.
Last week's What's What Update by Frankie at Bungie.net was inaccessible to us for awhile over the weekend, as was all of Bungie.net; however, we can load it now to point out the response to Bill Gates' announcement at E3 that the Sony PlayStation 3 launch would "run right into Halo 3", despite remarks in the previous WWU that Bungie's next project would not be announced for some time.
The question and answer in full from the update:
Aaron asks,
Bill Gates said you guys were working on Halo 3 in Time Magazine. If you deny this, or try to talk your way around it, you're basically saying he's a jerk. So is he? Is he a jerk?
Â
No, he's awesome. Seriously. I once asked him if he had underwater speakers in his pool and he totally didn't have me killed for insolence. And for the record, he does. His subaquatic sound system is better than my terrestrial one.
It's worth noting that Gates actually never mentioned Bungie at all; just Halo 3. Frankie, of course, has avoided the question entirely, so it looks like we're in for a bit of a wait before we find out what's really going on. Emails regarding this question to various Bungie personnel usually involved in interacting with the community have so far gone unanswered, although that in itself is not likely indicative of anything given the volume of mail they probably receive.
Even now a few Xbox 360-related tidbits are floating to the surface:
Louis Wu has done a writeup of Plasma Fiesta 2005, the post-E3 gathering hosted by Deanero featuring his world-famous salsa and a Halo LANfest. More will surely follow.
So much has gone on recently that it's almost impossible to write a complete piece on each one before the news recedes into obscurity. Here are a few items of note and my take on each, then, before things pile up so high I can't get out from under them:
By their prices, you shall know them
Mnemesis has posted an update in the HBO forum from the floor of E3: he says Bungie is showing off the next five multiplayer maps, Stubbs the Zombie by Wideload is "gritty, dark, hilarious, and really fun to play" and Major Nelson is a together guy who knows good pizza. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO for the linkage. Wu is on his way to E3 as we speak.
Major Nelson points out in his blog this Wired interview with J Allard.
The article clearly places Bungie's Halo and Halo 2 in the proper pivotal place in the Xbox's history:
Then came Halo 2. Microsoft gave its in-house studio, Bungie, a Hollywood-size production and marketing budget for the sequel. Elaborate teasers ran alongside movie trailers, and Bungie's preview at E3 in May 2004 wowed members of the game industry press. Last November, fans lined up around the block to pay their $50. When the stampede was over, the title had posted a bigger opening day - $125 million - than Hollywood's biggest-ever three-day opening weekend ($114 million for Spider-Man). As it turned out, Halo 2 lived up to its hype. Perhaps most important, it took full advantage of the Xbox's online capabilities, allowing players to trash-talk long distance in real time. In its third year, the Xbox division turned its first profit during what Ballmer refers to it as "the Halo 2 quarter."
However, aside from two oblique references without any specific information, there's nothing about a possible Halo 3.
Frankie's What's What Update for May 13, 2005 mentions that the next map release date is now July 5 instead of June 28.
Bungie's put up their side of their loss to the Xbox Live team in the Humpday Challenge; they allege that XBL used a ringer. And according to SketchFactor, Major Nelson Suxorz.
UPDATE: Major Nelson is denying the charge of ringer leveled by Bungie against one member of the XBL team that played in the Humpday.
Major Nelson has put up his summary of the latest Humpday Challenge that pitted Xbox Live against Bungie. Xbox Live prevailed, winning narrowly in Team Slayer and 3 Plots and pulling out a tie in Multi Flag CTF. All three games were played on new maps; Sanctuary, Turf, and Containment, respectively. (Against anyone else, Bungie might have an advantage playing on the new maps, but I'm betting Xbox Live personnel probably also got a chance to test them prior to release, so that advantage may have been negated in this case--Ed.)