It was a typo... he meant teddy bear.

That was on the news a bit ago.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/13/inv.teddy.bear.terrorist/

This link should go to CNN.com as above (I would've found FOX News one, but I used Google and this came first!).

narcogen wrote on Saturday, 03/2/2002 - 3:19 pm:

: : Sorry if anyone was let down, but it was not my fault.
:
: Of course not. Who would think that?

Duh Narcogen. Everyone knows that companies/groups of people and their entire well beings are all tied to one specific individual -- usually the most visible and verbose one. Sheesh. ;)

- Meg

Saber wrote on Tuesday, 04/9/2002 - 12:31 am:

: Tim wrote on Friday, 03/1/2002 - 9:24 am:
:
:
: : I'm considering writing a what happened article, but
: : simply just haven't made time to do it.
:
: It would be nice to have some closure to this, like more
: info about the game you were planning on making. I don't
: think an article bickering about "who killed who" is
: appropriate, but a little something about the game's story
: would be nice.
:
:
He did write an article detailing the life and death of Island Four over at HBO - use the search function to look for his name. He wrote it about a month ago. Unfortunately, no info about the game(s) they were planning - he mentioned that he'd still like to use those ideas in his future plans, IIRC.

MakeMineRed

narcogen wrote on Wednesday, 04/17/2002 - 12:25 am:

: Saber wrote on Tuesday, 04/16/2002 - 8:31 pm:
:
: : ::Meanders across empty room to the podium::
: :
: : Like a lot of people, I have waited a long time for
: Halo.
: : I got an XBox and a copy of Halo a while back, played
: : through it several times on the various difficulty
: settings,
: : and am still waiting on Halo. I loved the game on the
: XBox
: : but I am mostly an online gamer and prefer a keyboard
: and
: : mouse for shooter and realtime strategy games. Now I
: am
: : waiting on the Mac/PC version of the game.
:
: Me, too, on nearly every point. If I was in North American
: on a good broadband connection, I'd probably have tried one
: of the Xbox Gateway programs, but online play without any
: chat facility seems a little lacking.

::Jumps and spins around::
::Walks back in room wondering how he could have missed seeing Narcogen seated in the front row::

Keyboard chat is definitely another problem with consoles. I understand the reasoning for not shipping the XBox with a keyboard, mouse and controller, and for not having VGA support, but I totally disagree with that line of reasoning. I think sales would have more than doubled for the XBox if it had these extras.

: :
: : Halo was a lot of fun but my situation doesn't lend
: itself
: : to sitting in front of a TV with a bunch of friends
: playing
: : head-2-head. I'm married with 3 kids and can't just
: sit
: : down and play Halo. When I first got the game, I
: grabbed
: : the TV and took it to my room and played through it
: several
: : times. My wife and I played through as well. But now
: the
: : game is just sitting and collecting dust.
:
: Your wife plays Halo? You lucky bastard... :)

Heh. Yeah, she rocks. We were able to pretend we were John and Linda. Turns out Linda just needed a couple of medpacks. (Hoping you read "Halo: The Fall of Reach")

: :
: : So I am waiting for the Mac/PC version in order to get
: : interested in playing Halo again. With Marathon and
: Myth I
: : got more than a year of enjoyment out of each game. I
: : played Marathon at work and Myth at work and online.
: I
: : played Halo intensely for a couple of weeks and then an
: hour
: : here and there after the kids were in bed and the TV
: was
: : back downstairs.
: :
: : Now I am playing "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" which is
: a
: : really awesome game. It is on par with Marathon and
: Myth in
: : my opinion as far as the fun factor and the amount of
: time
: : playing it.
:
: Wow... really?
:
: For me, the story in Marathon and Myth (as well as Halo)
: was a big part of the enjoyment, and I've always found that
: element lacking in Id software games (Doom, Quake, et al.)

For me, I like a good story in a game, but I am happy to play a game with no story if it is fun to play. I played multi-player Marathon before I played the single player game, so I was hooked well before I even realized it had such a great story. I have since played through single player Marathon maybe 3 or 4 times. My favorite character was Durandal, which is one of the big reasons I like this site since it has rampancy in the name.

With Myth, it was all about the gameplay for me. I was interested in fantasy as a kid but switched over to sci-fi as an adult. I didn't really pay attention to the Myth story.

I bought Return to Castle Wolfenstein for the multiplayer experience only. I was surprised when it actually contained a good single player experience and story. What I love about the game is the teamwork, the self-sacrifice, the setting, etc. My first experience with the game involved a beach scene. I remember hiding behind concrete pillars, running past barbed wire, hearing guns and explosions, men barking out orders or dying. I took a hit and fell to the ground in a concrete bunker and a medic came running at me with a needle in his hand. His name was Private Ryan and he healed me. I laughed very hard at that whole experience and I have been hooked ever since.

So for me, Marathon, Myth, and Wolfenstein are in the same category in that they have an awesome multiplayer experience.

: I would be playing Halo all the time now if it
: : was online and for the Mac/PC. I visit rampancy.net and
: HBO
: : maybe once a day or once every other day, looking for
: any
: : news on the Mac/PC version of Halo.
:
: Thanks for visiting every day, knew those hits were coming
: from somewhere :)

LOL.

: Incidentally, we are going to be getting back into a habit
: of regular newsposting, but the problem we have right now is
: the same what that you have.
:
: HBO has done an absolutely bang-up job covering the
: conceivable community features for Xbox Halo-- tips and
: tricks, fan fiction and movies, easter eggs. Without
: gameplay films or network play or mods, there's a lot of
: stuff that a site could talk about that just doesn't exist.
: Plus, they started the ball rolling on those things while
: R.net was on extended hiatus due to personal and then
: technical reasons.
:
: From the poll results, it seems like those who visit R.net
: now and have been visiting in the past are still looking
: forward to Mac/PC Halo, and to some extent Phoenix.
:
: But right now there just isn't a lot of news on that
: front.

It will be nice when Phoenix info becomes available. If Phoenix is even a little Myth-like or realtime strategy-like, I wonder how in the world they are going to get the XBox controller to work well with it.

: I would so love to see
: : Friday status reports from Matt. In the meantime it
: would
: : be nice to have a mailing list that sent out an email
: once
: : Matt started talking about the Mac/PC version of Halo.
: Is
: : there anything like that available that I have
: overlooked?
:
: I'd like both of those things as well :)
:
:

Gastropod wrote on Wednesday, 04/17/2002 - 3:23 am:

: Ok... I'm not really an engineer. But I play one on
: RtCW.... well the test demo that is.
: Unfortunatly, there seems to be something odd going on at
: activision. The had the final version of RtCW for how many
: months? And yet they just won't let it go gold.... westlake
: isn't making any coding changes.... so theres probably some
: politicking going on.
:
:
: I too look forward to Mac Halo. I played a 4 player game
: on someone's TV... it's just not the same without chat and
: your own screen so you can do stealth stuff.

Yeah It sucks having the other peeps see your screen sometimes :)

Gastropod wrote on Wednesday, 04/17/2002 - 3:23 am:

: Ok... I'm not really an engineer. But I play one on
: RtCW.... well the test demo that is.
: Unfortunatly, there seems to be something odd going on at
: activision. The had the final version of RtCW for how many
: months? And yet they just won't let it go gold.... westlake
: isn't making any coding changes.... so theres probably some
: politicking going on.

I wonder. There was recently a patch for the PC version so maybe they wanted to incorporate those fixes in the Mac version. It would be a drag to install the game and go online and not be able to see any of the servers.

I just went to insidemacgames to check on the gold status and ran into this article:

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=5248

(sorry, don't know how to make that a link)

It looks like it has gone gold now but the system requirements will be high. As in a Rage 128 is not enough unless you have OSX.

Although am a big fan of on-line gaming, I disagree with the oft-used argument that Xbox HALO bites because "there's no mouse/keyboard" and "everyone can see me". While the family situation lends itself to holing yourself up in the bedroom with the warm glow of a 17" monitor, for others the beauty of LANning lies in instant communication and true teamwork. So many times am I on-line in a CTF game and half my "team" is dicking around or throwing profanities up on screen that I just quit out and watch old repeats of Seinfeld. I mean, really, is that why I'm on-line? I'm looking for a good team game and today that is rare.

In rebuttle to the split-screen conundrum, if you live in a small town or lack the social skills to find other gamers (specifically Xbox owners) then I can see where split screen would suck (I remember the Goldeneye days of the N64). However, HALO for Xbox was meant to be LINKED for killer LAN team play (not to mention a MUCH cheaper route than your typical computer LAN $1000+ versus $350). I can attest to the fact that LAN gatherings for HALO are truly a gamer's wet dream as I host a weekly set-up in my roomy garage through the 7th Column (and I helped organize the recent Battle of the Bay LAN 2002). An 8 vs 8 matchup split with two players per screen on my four 27" television rig with teamates screaming tactics at you while your enemy wails in pain from the cleverly planned and organized strike is something to behold. On-line just can't match the same sense of organization and team work of a LAN.

I guess what I'm saying is that the communication on-line needs some improvement before I'll be going back. It's just too tiring trying to type plans to teamates who don't care and then getting popped while you try to complete a string of text. I'll stick to the weekend LAN parties - they're much more social anyway and the trash talk can't be beat when your looking across the room at the bastard who just sniped you from across Blood Gulch.

Right about now, I doubt there are too many men in the Princess Patricia's who feel very good about having the USAF "watching over them". Chalk it up as a mistake if you will, but from what I've read, it sounded more like incompetence.

Stinger wrote on Saturday, 04/20/2002 - 1:22 am:

: They're in a war over there Rex, not splashing each other
: in the pool. Mistakes happen, by humans in the middle of it,
: by humans watching over them, and by the humans we put our
: faith in to make technology safe for us and deadly for our
: enemies. It's not an excuse, it's the truth. These are guys
: your age, making life-and-death decisions, often without the
: benefit of the 20-20 hindsight you're now employing. "It
: looks to me like" is exactly the problem... you weren't
: there, you didn't see a thing. You don't know what it looks
: like at all.
:
: Alternately, you're right on, and the pilot was really
: just out there to blow up some Canadians just for the hell
: of it. That is, after all, what your argument amounts to. If
: that doesn't sound absurd, check yourself into a clinic,
: 'cause the US is not out to get you, we're not watching your
: every move, we don't know what you had for breakfast.
:
: My condolences to the familes of the men who were killed
: and injured. Nothing can replace the lost, and no
: explaination will ever be good enough. They died serving
: their country and protecting our freedom, and for that I am
: sincerely grateful, regardless of their nationality. I hope
: nothing like this ever happens again.
:
: --Stinger

Stinger wrote on Saturday, 04/20/2002 - 1:22 am:

: They're in a war over there Rex, not splashing each other
: in the pool. Mistakes happen, by humans in the middle of it,
: by humans watching over them, and by the humans we put our
: faith in to make technology safe for us and deadly for our
: enemies. It's not an excuse, it's the truth.

Indeed, mistakes happen. But the man who shoots his son because he thought he was a midnight intruder still has to answer for his actions. "Sorry, it was an accident" does not absolve someone of all responsibility.

: These are guys
: your age, making life-and-death decisions, often without the
: benefit of the 20-20 hindsight you're now employing.

These are also guys who have recieved years of training, who are supported by people with many more years of experience, and who wield lethal force.

It's easy to say "hindsight is 20/20" and dismiss my ranting. But apparently this isn't the case, as this is the third or fourth time the USAF has hit a friendly target. If hindsight is so good, you'd think that they would be taking special precautions against repeating these mistakes.

: "It
: looks to me like" is exactly the problem... you weren't
: there, you didn't see a thing. You don't know what it looks
: like at all.

"It looks to me like" is me expressing my take on the situation. Is this suddenly a problem? Note that I am not calling for punitive action, for the pilot to be thrown out on his ass or anything like that.

I wasn't there, I didn't see a thing, but the pound or two of brain between my ears enables me to make some speculations based on the information that has surfaced since. Your suggestion that, since I lack 100% of the facts involved, I should clam up and not speculate about it at all is absurd.

The USAF has a problem with identifying their targets. I think I can safely can derive that much from their repeated bombing of friendly targets.

: Alternately, you're right on, and the pilot was really
: just out there to blow up some Canadians just for the hell
: of it. That is, after all, what your argument amounts to. If
: that doesn't sound absurd, check yourself into a clinic,
: 'cause the US is not out to get you, we're not watching your
: every move, we don't know what you had for breakfast.

Perhaps you're reading a different post, but "just out there to blow up some Canadians just for the hell of it" was in no way my argument.

I suggested two things: either that the pilot panicked and responded rashly, or that the pilot wanted to strike a blow against the enemy and did so rashly. He should have known, but obviously did not know that those were allied troops on the ground--nowhere did I suggest that the pilot knew he was bombing allied troops "for the hell of it".

-rex

Great, thanks for the info. I for sure, am hoping to play the Mac/PC version when it comes out. I also hope they decide to add more stuff into it. A good idea IMHO would be to follow the (eventual) development of the game with r.net.

Anyway, time to go to bed here ; )
Decameron

PS: who are the other admins? (if any)

Heya Narc. Stopped by tonight on a lark, and I'm glad I did. It's the first time I've seen the site up and running in a long time. Hooray!

I'd echo your sentiment about Halo: it's the game for Xbox as far as I'm concerned. I've played a half dozen other Xbox games, and nothing has compared. In fact, Halo was so good I didn't mind the fact that the controls are inelegant for a shooter.

Hope you guys have the energy, interest, and finances to stick around for PC/Mac Halo, and for Bungie's next game.

Hear anything from Noc? I was thinking about you guys recently. Are you still in the east?