| Title | Date |
|---|---|
| Pathways Into Darkness Part 3 | 08.18.24 |
| Pathways Into Darkness Part 2 | 08.03.24 |
| Pathways Into Darkness Part 1 | 07.27.24 |
| Little Kitty, Big City | 07.20.24 |
| No Man's Sky: Adrift | 07.13.24 |
| Destiny 2: Final Shape Part 4 | 07.06.24 |
| Destiny 2: Final Shape Part 3 | 06.29.24 |
| Title | Transcriber | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Halo 5: Advent (String... | cwhiterun | 06.07.16 |
| Halo 5: Blue Team (Str... | cwhiterun | 10.22.15 |
| Halo 5: Light is Green... | cwhiterun | 10.20.15 |
| Halo 5: The Trials (St... | cwhiterun | 10.12.15 |
| Roll Call - Price Paid | pimpnmonk | 06.02.14 |
| Behold A Pale Horse Fo... | pimpnmonk | 01.24.14 |
| Farthest Outpost/Mercy... | pimpnmonk | 12.30.13 |
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
| Sony Acquires Bungie (mp3) | 02.02.22 |
| Let's Play Mass Effect 3 #27 Final... | 06.02.17 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 27: Craig Ha... | 05.08.13 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 25: Destiny... | 03.05.13 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 24: Halo Ann... | 04.21.12 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 23: Halo Ann... | 06.26.11 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 21: The Wint... | 04.18.11 |
1Up interviews Bungie's Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard about the Bungie-Microsoft split. So far everyone who has spoken to the press is still on the same page; that this was a mutually beneficial deal, quickly and amicably agreed upon. Despite 1Up trying to press and find some conflict, no one will admit to any, even theoretical:
More updates on Bungie's amazing flight into freedom:
FiringSquad interviewed Frankie, but all they give you is a summary. It does say that Harold Ryan is now President of Bungie. He mentions a skunk works for new projects. Wonder if that's where Jason Jones is spending his time, given that his only credit in Halo 3 was under "special thanks".
Those of us steeped in Halo 3 and Bungie Breakaway news might be forgiven momentarily for forgetting that online communities for Bungie's Mac and PC RTS games, Myth, are still hanging in there a decade after the game was released.
Unfortunately one of them, PlayMyth, has now shut down. Server administrator Blades, apparently posting as elusivemind, says he no longer has the time or energy to keep up with it.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an updated story on the to-all-visible-appearances amicable Microsoft-Bungie split, including comments from Bungie studio head Harold Ryan and Microsoft's Shane Kim.
Here are more links to articles on Bungie's bombshell announcement:
Nobody asked Bungie about the rumored separation in the thread for this week's update, but Frankie dished on it anyway. Effective October 1, Bungie is an independent company with a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios for Halo games.
SketchFactor has posted a press release on Bungie.net that declares that Bungie Studios will become a privately held company. Bungie LLC will have Microsoft as a partner and a minority shareholder and will continue to make games for the Xbox.
Daniel Radosh at the New York Times laments the dependence of games on cinematics for storytelling, and alleges they are stunting the medium's development of its own storytelling vocabulary.
Halo 3 topped the Australian sales charts last week and sits in the #2 space among Xbox 360 games overall, just behind Gears, which it'll probably pass soon. Interesting that Australia, which is a fairly good market for the Xbox 360, sold only about 12k more copies than Japan, which is not (although it is a much larger market).
If I was apprehensive about anything in Halo 3, it was the Flood.
Halo 1 has reached a certain legendary status amongst fans, but even it has a sore spot for many: the Library, where you navigate endless repeating dark corridors with endless hordes of only four enemies to fight: Human Flood combat forms, Elite Flood combat forms, Carrier forms and Infection forms. The level goes on a floor or two longer than it really has to, and only has a few tricks up its sleeve to make it seem fresh.
If Halo is built on a foundation of "thirty seconds of fun" then the Library was built on six helpings of five seconds of fun: shotgun a Flood form in the face, run away, repeat.
Of course, other Flood missions fared much better; they had better unit mixes, more varied terrain and encounters, as well as vehicles. 343 Guilty Spark had atmosphere oozing out of every pore as the Flood gave you the first real scare of the game. Two Betrayals gave you the dark side of Assault on the Control Room as Flood, Covenant and Sentinels took aim at each other and you while you tried to stop Halo from firing.
The Maw mixed it up by varing your objectives a bit, and by allowing you the chance to watch some interesting fights play out. The Flood themselves, though, were interesting to look at, but not so much interact with. When they didn't see you, they gurgled. When they did see you, they charged straight at you, firing whatever they had. If you had superior firepower and room to maneuver, it was no problem. If you had only one of those, or neither, you'd be in a world of hurt, not because the Flood outsmarted you, but because they overwhelmed you with numbers and clogged up your travel lanes with dead bodies. Or even dead Grifs.
Halo 2 added a significant twist to the Flood, but the game could only get so much mileage out of it. Instead of merely giggling with glee as you set off cascading explosions of popcorn Infection Flood, this time around the little devils scurried around more unpredictably, and raised dead Flood from the battlefield to face you once more if you didn't dismember them with a sword or blow them up with a grenade.
Once so raised, though, they were still the same old Flood. Four flavors, and one tactic.
How, then, would Halo 3 handle the Flood? More of the same?
Shishka saved Bungie from humiliating defeat in the first post-launch Halo 3 Humpday, as the boys from Kirkland waded into Social Slayer and got socially slayed.
Check Bungie.net for the full writeup as well as links to the Saved Films; this is the first time we'll be able not just to read about the humpday, or pore over the statistics, but actually see the matches themselves. No more lying embellishment!
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