halo 3: odst

From the Ashes for Eb Alto Saxophone.

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...

It's not hard to see the appeal of the idea of the Firefight mode in Halo 3: ODST. If you follow Bungie's shooter roots back to Marathon, and to the PC shooter that really kicked off the modern era, Doom, you can see the start of it.

Doom didn't have discrete multiplayer 'levels' the way Marathon and Halo did. It had a series of Episodes, each broken down into Missions that comprised one map. Each map had a series of keys necessary to open a series of doors. The last door was the Exit and led to the next Mission. Between you and each key and each door were a number of demons to kill. You could tackle this challenge solo, or bring in some friends on a local network.

Of course, you could just as easily shoot your friends as the demons. You could also set up a game on any Mission map without any demons and just play deathmatch, or you could play a deathmatch game with continually respawning demons on it.

Marathon had a similar setting, an "Aliens" checkbox that put enemies from the campaign mode onto the multiplayer maps. So while it wasn't always referred to the same way, Marathon had all the current play modes: campaign solo, campaign co-op, multiplayer (deathmatch and objective) and deathmatch-with-aliens. That's essentially what Firefight is, except it's supposed to be more towards cooperative.

So we can now safely say that with the release of Halo 3: ODST, in combination with Halo 3's multiplayer mode, has finally brought all the features of a 1994 Mac shooter to Xbox Live.

I'm only half kidding.

 Click here for the complete text.

I still can't believe that sheetmusic for the Halo franchise and other works by Bungie exists! Thank heaven that I just happened to be surfing around Youtube when I saw a link to this site. So far, it seems like a great community and I'm looking forward to seeing what they bring up next.

Peace.

Blackstar of Blackstar Productions and Narcogen of Bungie fansite Rampancy.net wrap up some loose ends from Halo 3 and look forward to Halo 3: ODST.

Also in this episode: special guests, Bungie's official #1 fan, Miguel "Freewill" Chavez of Bungie fansite Bungie Sightings and Cody Miller of High Speed Halo.

Show highlights:

• Is Halo Too Easy?
• Why ODST is Better than Halo 3
• VISR, VISR Burning Bright
• Campaign Forge
• Best Confrontation
• It's Not Easy Being ODST
• Fade to White
• Reaching For Higher Difficulty
• Retconning Reach in Advance
• Halo 3 Warthog Run
• Foe Hammer
• Forerunners == Humans
• Babysitter
• Parting Shots

This is the enhanced AAC version of the podcast; however, as this episode doesn't cover any specific campaign level it has no additional podcast art. Podcast art makes a return in the next episode, covering the first two levels of Halo 3: ODST, the first area in Mombasa Streets and Tayari Plaza.

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!

The alto sax solos from "Rain". The first two bits are separated by a 1-bar rest, but they should actually be multiple bar rests, just listen to the recording to figure out when to come in. The piano accompaniment can be found here: http://rampancy.net/blog/HaloDragon/05/10/2009/Another_Rain, and here: http://rampancy.net/blog/shadeslayer/29/11/2009/Rain_Piano_partial. See my entry for Rain (piano) to figure out how to put the two together. Here's a video of how I played it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_0-pDpc20o.

This is an extended part not found in "Another Rain". Benjamin Bergem's transcription can be used for the rest of the song: http://rampancy.net/blog/HaloDragon/05/10/2009/Another_Rain. After the second "all alone" alto sax solo, insert this music, and then cut back to "Another Rain". Finale Notepad wouldn't allow me to have two bass clefs in the staff, so the top line is in treble clef, but should be played an octave lower (8vb). Here's a video of how I played it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_0-pDpc20o. The zip file contains a Finale Notepad file and a PDF.

hi

Cast Aside, from the track "No Stone Unturned" by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, for a piano, a string ensemble and an oboe.