Rampancy

TheLostHog over in the HBO forum is somehow intimating that Oni, the third-person action game that combined hand-to-hand combat with firearms, is somehow, how shall we say it, less Bungielike than certain other games.

So here's a call to the Oni fans-- are you out there? What do you think of Oni (forum thread) compared to other Bungie offerings like Myth, Marathon, and, dare I ask, Halo?

Our latest poll also asks about Oni.

Although Halo has led most of the way, Quake is now in the lead by 57 votes, 5000 to 4943 in the GameSpy Title Fight. Looks like someone is betting the Master Chief can't stick it.

Brandon "vector40" Oto, Psyrixx, and Orion are giving credit to Jester for a prime tip on flying the Banshee: the jump button functions as an air brake, scrubbing off speed. This isn't mentioned in the manual, or in the help window that pops up the first time you pilot a Banshee in the single player campaign.

It's not clear just yet if this is a real advantage over just releasing the throttle; but it is strange to note that after nearly two years after Halo's release, some pretty competent online Banshee pilots still didn't know about this undocumented feature.

UPDATE: Ok, it looks like this is less an item about a new technique, and more an item about how a bit of supposedly obvious knowledge (like a brake key that works the same way on most vehicles, banshees included) can go unnoticed by parts of the community while other parts use it regularly. To wit: Louis Wu at HBO already knew about it and has used the technique, but never posted about it since it was too obvious. (For half credit, we did check the HBO archives before posting this supposed tidbit, but didn't find anything.)

Bottom line? Move along, people, nothing to see here.

A new set of HUDless screens, from the levels Halo and Truth & Reconciliation, are up in the HBO forum, courtesy of Mills.