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Tied the Leader's Hoovaloov does an excellent job with this detailed video commentary on the Halo Reach multiplayer beta trailer. Includes some very good predictions about the new multiplayer modes (Invasion, Arena, and Headhunter) as well as the Loadout feature.

First episode of the new season of Master Chief Theater 3000... which might not feature the Master Chief, since it seems to be based on ODST...

Here is a transcription of Orbital Drop Shock Trooper from Halo 3: ODST.

Credits to Benjamin Bergem aka. The Halo-Dragon for his transcription of this song (http://rampancy.net/blog/HaloDragon/28/11/2009/Orbital_Drop_Shock_Troopers), as I relied rather heavily on his version for the middle section (specifically, bars 69-111, which is almost identical to his version).

This version attempts to incorporate more of the orchestral parts.

The midi took quite a bit of fiddling with dynamics and articulation, but I think it turned out pretty well this time.

As always, pedaling, dynamics and articulation are left to the pianist's discretion, the sheet music is just a guideline.

Share and enjoy!

6 Dec 09: Slightly edited.
9 Dec 09: Edited again.

Difficulty: Quite Hard

Attachment includes:

• Sheet music (.pdf)
• Midi sequence (.mid)
• Finale Notation file (.mus, .bak)

Please rate and comment!

Thanks to Tireces who made this funny Myth vid and put it on Youtube.

I’m not convinced this is the best way to do this as it doesn’t really allow the level of Google Maps interactivity I wanted (multiple simultaneous editing) but it is a possible first step.

If you launch Google Earth and choose “Network Link” from the Add menu and type in the URL:

http://rampancy.net/sites/rampancy.net/files/mombassa_odst.kml

You’ll get a blacked out Earth with a New Mombassa scan on it with a single (fake) skull placemarker I put on it.

This KML can’t be viewed in Google Maps, since Google Maps uses an entirely different method for displaying image overlays, but I might eventually be able to get that to work.

Anyway, if people were interested, they could load that KML, add placemarkers for stuff they’ve found, save them as KML files, mail them to me, and then I’d add them to the network layer.

As long as I keep the Earth coordinates of the image overlay the same, all the bookmarks should translate to any Google Maps version I might be able to create later.

The one thing I’m not sure of right now is scale— I don’t want to start collecting placemarks for the network layer until I can size the map properly. Is there anyone who can give me an idea of what the scale of the map should be, based on an in-game observation?

(I can’t do it myself, as I still don’t have the game yet).

UPDATE: I've repositioned the ODST map actually onto Mombasa in Kenya, on top of a likely-looking intersection that (mostly) fit was was in the map. I've scaled it so that the widths of the city streets match. That makes the whole map only a third of a kilometer wide, though, so I'm betting that scale is wrong.

Next steps would involve getting a higher resolution image and possibly converting it to a polygon to make it viewable in Google Maps as well as Google Earth.

This is the theme from the announcement trailer for Halo 3: ODST. It's my first arrangement so I'm sorry for any mistakes/inaccuracies which there probably will be. I transcribed it using Finale notepad 2005 which doesn't allow me to change key or time signatures in the middle of a piece so that's why the entire thing is in 6/8 and F-minor. The sax part can be played on piano if you want, but just remember to transpose it down (the notes are A flat, G, and C in concert pitch). Feel free to fix it and change whatever you want to make it better. My YouTube account is EpicPiano and I posted a video of it there if you want to see how I played it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP3HqQ3NS5Y). The zip file includes the Finale notepad file and jpg's of the sheet music.

If you're looking to get your Marathon on and you don't have the XBLA port, the open source project Aleph One is still going strong. The latest update makes changes to the Lua scripting engine and adds HUD enhancements similar to the one in the XBLA version.

Aleph One runs on Macs, Linux, oh, and Windows, too.

This is my transcription of 'Foreboding Dream', which can be heard on the playbar at http://thewaytheirworldended.com/.

Short intro: The Way Their World Ended (also known as 'Intimation' at http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?f=252) is a fan-made Alternate Reality Game (ARG), based heavily off the I Love Bees ARG which was used to promote Halo 2. It has been running for almost a year now, and is most likely drawing to a close (I think) as of time of writing.

This song is used in the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6q8EgmVEA&feature=related (Foreboding Dream), hence the title.

This is a transcription of the song, it's pretty nice to listen to, and not that hard. Pedaling, dynamics, etc. are left to the pianist's discretion, there are some guidelines in the sheet music, but I would recommend listening to the original (which sounds better than the midi at any rate).

Have fun!

Difficulty: Moderate

Attached files include:
Sheet Music (.pdf)
Midi Sequence (.mid)
Finale Notation File (.mus, .bak)

Here is a transcription of Earth City from Halo 2 for the piano (Now with E3 part). It's pretty difficult, so just keep practicing.

Many thanks to Spencer "Poop Scoop" Anunsen for his transcription of Earth City for the orchestra; I got most of the notes from there.

Some parts of the MIDI might sound a bit wierd, I was messing around a bit with the dynamics and stuff but generally it sounds ok.

Pedaling, dynamics and articulation are left to the pianist's discretion. Enjoy!

22 Aug: Slight updates.

Difficulty: Quite Hard

Attachment includes:

• Sheet music (.pdf)
• Midi sequence (.mid)
• Finale Notation file (.mus, .bak)

Tip: When playing the running octaves (esp. in left hand) try not to stiffen your wrist, relax a little, and let your wrist do some of the work so your arm muscles don't get tired too quickly.

Prologue from the Halo 2 Soundtrack, excluding the small intro by the guitar and drums. It is written for the following instruments, and contains a full score as well:

• Horn in F
• Trombone
• Tuba
• Soprano (2)
• Alto (2)
• Tenor
• Violin (2)
• Viola
• Cello
• Double Bass