Pfhear The Desk Of Entropy
Mat "Shunji" Noguchi seems amused at the reaction to how tidy he keeps (or, rather, doesn't keep) his desk at Bungie, pointed out in the Video Update by Frankie as a "zone of entropy and horror".
Death by intelligence.
Final, Video Update Online
The last Bungie Weekly Update by Frankie, this one in video format and apparently subtitled "Sexy Girls Gone Wild Video Edition" is available for download. HBO has put up a mirror page; there are WMP9 and QuickTime versions, both in BitTorrent and in direct download formats.
Just Another Manic Monday
This week's Bungie update won't come until Monday, instead of on Friday as usual. Frankie mentions it at Bungie.net and explains it in the HBO forum, along with a peace offering of a new screenshot from the Ascencion multiplayer map. The gist of it is that this update will be in video format, and hosted at Bungie.net once they've got the server sufficiently prepped.
Wired Halo 2 Article Goes Online
Major Nelson points out the Wired article on Halo 2 is now available online at Wired's site. They talk to Pete Parsons, Joe Staten, Chris Carney, Lorraine and Rob McLees, Eric Arroyo, and, of course, Marty O'Donnell.
Some interesting facts:
Marty And The Monks Make Music
Music 4 Games has interviewed Marty "The Elder" O'Donnell about the Halo 2 soundtrack. Here's what he had to say about what's different this time around, under the hood:
Halo 2 Released To Certification
The big news in the latest weekly update by Frankie is that, barring any serious bugs, Bungie is essentially finished with Halo 2. They've sent the game out to be certified ready for production.
While short, this update is full of quite a bit of interesting information about clans, about XBL, and even a tidbit about single player:
And Now For Something Completely Different?
The BBC has a nice little article on Halo 2 with the usual kind of stuff in it-- will Halo 2 live up to expectations, what are the changes, etc etc. The interesting bits, though, come from Pete Parsons right at the end:
"We have several 100 years of Halo fiction laid out," said Mr Parsons.
and
"After Halo 2 we are planning to do something different. We will do something else and we have a few ideas."
...It's The Landing
Mat "shunji" Noguchi, tools programmer at Bungie, has come up for air after Halo 2 crunch time, and apologized for the recent (if understandable) lack of entries on his blog.
He ends the entry with a "random bit of trivia" for those awaiting Halo 2:
Legendary is hard. Really really really hard. Adamantium hard.
I guess more practice is in order.
Mythica File Hosting Works At Rampancy
Brian Towne of Mythica, who has so generously offered to host user-created media files under 8mb for free, suitable for linking to from Halo and Bungie-related sites, has graciously agreed to add rampancy.net to the list of allowable hosts. So if you have a picture you want to post in a forum comment, or in your blog, feel free. Rampancy supports BBCode for linking images, or HTML.
Internet Relay Chat For Bungie Fans
As Shishka, recently plucked from the fold of Bungiefen to have a chance to work with Bungie themselves, like Tyson "Ferrex" Green and Jaime "Case" Griesemer before him, posted in the Underground forum at Bungie.net, Subnova, HBO and Rampancy have opened up a connected network of IRC nodes, connected to Subnova's IRC hub, offering channels for fans of Bungie games, including Halo and the soon-to-be-released Halo 2.
Shishka's post does a good job of explaining what you need to connect to IRC if you don't already know. We've also written up a page to help users get connected. Both Subnova and Rampancy have nodes open now. You can connect to them at these server names:
- irc.subnova.com
- rampancy.net
Both use the standard port, 6667. Notice you don't need to connect to both of these, as they give access to the same channels; just pick one and use it, as each has a finite user capacity.
There are a number of permanent channels established so far, including:
- #7thColumn
- #hbo
- #rampancy
- #subnova
as well as many others. You can also easily establish one for your own Group, if you have one.
If you don't have an IRC client but just want to take a quick look around, try a web-based java client. Subnova and Rampancy both have them.
Keep in mind that #rampancy, unlike some other channels on the server, doesn't have a language filter, and thus is password-protected. Once you're on the server, look for me in #hbo and ask for the password.
An Underground Tribute To Myth
Smeeisqualityfoo has put up a nice little guide on Myth: TFL and Myth II: Soulblighter in the Underground forum at Bungie.net. For those not familiar with these RTS games originally developed by Bungie and then sold to Take Two Interactive at the time of the Microsoft buyout, it's a nice primer on all things Myth, plus a quick guide on where to get a copy and how to get it going.
August 27, 2004. Originally at Bungie.net.
Bungie Weekly Update, August 27th 2004
Although there's more than a month of actual mind crushing work left, this week is a real milestone in my mind, and so we bring you a special, extended update, because Halo 2's campaign mode is not only playable, it's fun. Actually, fun is the wrong word – since some of the levels left me sweating, awed and terrified by turns. Caveat: As well as an employee, I'm still part fanboy, so read this with that in mind.
BUS STOP
I've been getting up very early, coming in and playing the latest test build. It's always full of surprises. One bizarre way to tell how advanced it is is to look at the buses. They started as large oblong crates, completely flat but with the candy-cane default texture that's used for unfinished objects. One morning I loaded it up and the candy cane texture was gone. Replaced with a sort of vaguely instructional "Large Dias" emblazoned across it. A few weeks later, it kinda looked like a crate with wheels. Then, a passable bus. This morning, it wheels, glass, and does something very cool if you lob enough grenades at it. It's a bus. Keanu Reeves would drive it. But like, you can't really drive it. Before you ask.
Surrounding the bus, which I admit is kind of a boring thing to watch over a period of months, is some dramatically detailed city environment and architecture. You've already got some idea of what the landscape of Earth City looks like, thanks to the year and a half old E3 demo, but there are varied elements to the city environment, and there are plenty of graphical and environmental surprises in store for you. You'd be surprised what a difference a few power cables make.
BUILD QUALITY
The system kind of works like this: We have a general resource at Bungie where the latest builds of the game are located. One is recommended as stable by the test department, while others may have been built to test or debug a specific problem. The testers get the stable build and rampage through it, looking for any problems, "bugging" them (that is, saving their exact position in the game, noting what the problem was, and entering it into a database.) and then play on, looking for problems.
Parsons has asked Brian and me to get stuck into that process as well. He thinks I'm basically stupid though, so while Brian has been asked to look for "clipping errors, instance geometry problems and physics anomalies," Parsons told me to "watch out for colors that aren't pretty," or "scary things that make you want to go wee."
Speaking of Brian, he's getting married today. So congrats to Brian from everyone on the team, except the hardcore dudes who're all like, "Dude, you're gonna be so whipped man," and "this is the end of the party, brah!"
Harold the test manager, who's as evil as Carrot Top's Y-Fronts , explained that he's basically been staying until 3am and then arriving again about four hours later. He's opening and closing bugs at a ferocious rate. One horrible thing he did this week to the test team was open 478 bugs at once, using an automated process. That far outstripped the entire output of the rest of the test team. You could hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Still, they were minor fixes. Hundreds more will be opened and fixed between now and the game's ship.
August 13, 2004. Originally at Bungie.net.
Note: Frankie is out of town this week and the Bungie Princess is our special guest author.. (I'm just posting it). Now brace yourselves for the most fact-filled top-secret-spoiling update EVER!...
BUNGIE WEEKLY UPDATE - August 13th
Frankie’s in Mexico and I’m in charge! So, listen up…we are taking a break from all that blah-blah about Halo 2 and we are discussing a truly important topic…HAIR! I will be devoting several hours of my Saturday to some serious “diva-time� along side my best friend at Joel’s salon. There will be lots of girly-girl talk and wine to be had for all. The only dilemma is what color should I do my hair? Anyone who has known me longer than about a month knows I absolutely love to change my hair color. It is a running joke around here. I am currently blonde, but am thinking it is time for a change. In the spirit of by-passing all that typical video game talk I think we should devote a forum to helping me choose my new hair color. But seriously, I am supposed to be giving you some weekly information about our big project over here in Bungieland.
Biggest news of the week involves the rancid Bungie refrigerator. We are bursting at the seams over here and need to find some space to sit some more people helping out on the game. So, I figured what the heck why not the fridge…that is some prime real estate. But seriously, the dev team doesn’t know it yet but they have lost the battle of the fridge and it’s pungent odor will soon be seeping onto their side of the room.
I ate dinner with the boys tonight (frightening). Have you ever had the pleasure of attacking a taco bar with 70 hungry men…hhhmmmm, let me be the one to tell you this is not a pretty site. Amanda has quickly learned that food is the precious commodity in this office. The way to a man’s heart is most certainly through his stomach. We will be making the ever dreaded Costco trip next week to stock up on goodies. The people at Costco, employees and customers alike, hate me. When I roll up to the check out lane with two industrial size carts stacked to the point of towering over my head and a flat bed stock piled with beer in tow…let’s just say I am not typically greeted with a warm “How are you?� but rather an overwhelmed look of panic.
So, my week has not solely revolved around food and nasty refrigerators. In addition to feeding the masses, Amanda has been hard at work helping Harold keep a running inventory of about a thousand computers…man, these guys are expensive. She has also called all over the world in search of elusive Xboxes from other countries…so if you have one that you don’t need, feel free to send it in…kidding. I just got the 2nd pass of the art book back…looking very cool guys...keep your eyes open come November 9th (oh yeah and Halo 2 will be on shelves as well). The rest of my time this week was spent modeling Dunn’s ever-growing collection of crazy hats. I have been a cowgirl, a gardener and Frank Sinatra so far.
Bungie Net Back Down... Back Up Again
Looks like the work to upgrade Bungie.net and the new Seventh Column wasn't quite complete; the site is down again for maintenance at the moment. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Looks like Bungie.net is back, perhaps this time for good. The new 7th Column site is also up, and if you check your profile page while logged in, the XBL integration also seems to be working again.
New Covenant?
This image appeared on Sculptech Studios' website on the Halo 2 page. It might be an as-yet-unseen Covenant species. It was later removed.
Luckily, Halo Planet snagged it. Sculptech lists both Microsoft Game Studios, makers of Halo, and Joyride Studios, manufacturers of Halo toys, as clients. It could be from another client... except he's holding a plasma rifle. From the head, it could be a Prophet, outside his chair, and without its robes... but it doesn't look "frail". A bunch of people at HBO contributed to finding this.