Hi,
Right now escapistmagazine.com is running a vote for everyone’s favorite video game developer team and bungie is losing to Square Enix by about 175 votes and the voting ends TONIGHT. So, if you could head over to the link at the end of this post and vote for bungie that would be great.
Here’s the link
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournament/region/west.
Thanks much,
roaring pigeon
According to Edge, Microsoft has settled with PalTalk holdings, the company that alleged that Halo infringed on patents they held that covered interactive gaming.
Halo fan and Halo fan fiction author vector40 pointed out that one of his college textbooks, Understanding Videogames by Simon Egenfeldt-Nielson, features a piece of Halo fan fiction by UNSC Trooper-- a fiction featured in, of course, the HBO fan fiction section.
Bloomberg News is reporting that PalTalk Holdings Inc. of New York has paid about $200K for patents belonging to Mpath, which reportedly had discussions with Microsoft once upon a time about technology for "ways to control interactive applications over multiple computers". PalTalk is now suing Microsoft for violating those patents; they say MS had discussions with them and found the technology "very valuable".
...and what they are not doing is investing in original intellectual properties.
Actually I think that entire phrase is a contradiction in terms, at least in terms of how Microsoft can invest in something. Invest, in their case, means buy, and once something has proven itself worth buying it's no longer original.
We have a well defined, carefully orchestrated, properly planned universe to explore not exploit.
--Frank O'Connor, July 2008, GameFocus
I can tell you that if you could think of a game that would work with a party atmosphere that would not gut the franchise, or milk it, we would think about it, seriously.
Jason Pace, January 2009, Videogamer.com
What's next? January 2009, Microsoft announces Halo Kart, Halo Halo Revolution and Halo Smash Brawl?
What part of a "party atmosphere" game in the Halo universe could possibly be exploration and not exploitation? How about a nice clear line in the sand now, not just "we know what we're doing"-- how about a laundry list of what you won't do? Promise us no karaoke, no karting games, no minigolf. Please.
RTS? We'll see, the demo is out any minute.
MMO? Don't blame them for trying, although I think something like this is just a lot harder to execute than a shooter, and the further away the franchise gets from Bungie the harder it is to execute.
Reader Cryptic of the Bungie Community Group club writes to let us know of that group's unofficial Community Forge Contest. The contest is for map variants based on the Mythic Maps due out soon; purchasers of the Limited Edition of Halo Wars will get access to them on that disc.
mrsmiley sends word that the Happy Halodays grand winner has been announced.
this is about halo 3 guide to get recon armor and ideas to be in the bungie favorites
MacWorld has mentioned Marathon as one of the best games on the Mac, as part of their commemoration of the Mac's 25th anniversary.
Heard about Marathon or Myth, but haven't played them? Played some solo Marathon or Myth, but haven't had a chance to check out multiplayer?
Then check out For Carnage, Apply Within, a group of fans dedicated to arranging regular multiplayer games of these classic Bungie titles.
Thanks for the heads-up to urk on Bungie.net.
In an interview with GamePro, Bungie's own Joe Staten talks about Halo 3: ODST, due out this fall, clarifying when the game takes place (between the end of Metropolis in Halo 2 and the Arrival scene that begins Halo 3).
Of course, he also teases fans about an unknown enemy, but what do you expect? It's Bungie.
Saw the link in 2900d4u's post in the HBO forum.
Normally I avoid even commenting on the intersections between violent real-world crime and fantasy videogame violence. There's really little point. There's not much more than can be said on the matter than what is already out there.
However, the remarks of Judge James Burge following his conviction of Daniel Petric are simply so ridiculous that I can't let them pass. From story coverage at, of all places, a PS3 website:
The boy was finally convicted of the crime earlier today, but Judge James Burge wasn't happy with the sentencing. He told the press that he blamed the video game developers more than Daniel for the crime committed. Burge accused Halo 3 developer Bungie of creating a "delusional environment" where the normal rules of reality didn't apply. "[In Halo 3] you can shoot these aliens, and they're there again the next day. You have to shoot them again, and I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea, at the time he hatched this plot, that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever," Burge explained.
It's really hard to take that seriously. It's also really hard to swallow the idea that this is a person who is a judge-- who is in a position of education and authority. That's frightening. What is surprising is that despite blaming the videogame more than the perpetrator, he still found the latter guilty, which I suppose is also encouraging.
However, let's play reductio ad absurdum a bit with this. It won't be hard; there's not to much reducting to do before things get pretty damn absurdum.
I've recently been arranging various pieces from the OST's for violins only (since I play violin and have been planning to record it all myself). While at the moment I'm having some hardware issues with the recording, I will submit to you the arrangement I'm most satisfied with, which is On a Pale Horse, from the Combat Evolved OST, for three violins.
