GameSpy is starting a week of pre-launch coverage for Halo 2, and the first item is an 8-page interview with Frankie. Interestingly, at the end Frankie denies that anyone at Bungie has specifically said their next game (or games) will or will not be related to Halo, despite what Parsons said elsewhere about doing something "different". Curious... Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.
In the GameSpot interview with Alexander "The Man" Seropian, some of the background for the plot of Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse is revealed.
Edward Stubblefield is a Depression-era traveling salesman who was murdered. Decades later, sometime in the 1950s, an ambitious industrialist builds a model "city of the future" on Edward's grave, which causes him to rise as an undead Zombie on the city's opening day to try and turn the city's inhabitants into zombies.
Mat "shunji" Noguchi, that is, Bungie curmudgeon. Frankie has offered him up sacrificially to answer questions on the Bungie.net forum (largely as a distraction from spoilers, no doubt). So far a lot of questions, and not many answers, although the thread is so long it might be hard to find Mat's answers if they are there; or perhaps his answers will be posted in a separate thread. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: On Friday the answers will be posted.
How Stuff Works has interviewed Pete Parsons from Bungie about storytelling in computer games. He talks about how Bungie fleshed out the Halo universe. Thanks Rams at Halo Planet.
The Junkyard has turned its spotlight on Andrew Zulpo from Xbox Ottawa, the group that produces the Fire Team Charlie (FTC) webseries. Go check it out!
Slashdot recently interviewed author Neal Stephenson, and his response to a question about the merging of novels with games turned up information on ILB:
It has already happened in the form of the I Love Bees alternate reality game, which, as many of you must know, is a promotional campaign for Halo 2. I know the people who did it, but I have lost track of what I promised not to reveal publicly, and so will shut up for now.
Nico "Grasshopper" Audy-Rowland, the music and audio guy for Red vs Blue, the Strangerhood, and some Project Magma maps, has done a strenuously detailed interview with Marty "The Elder" O'Donnell, music and audio guy on Myth, Halo and Halo 2. Marty seems to be running neck and neck with Frankie for the award for most forthcoming and loquacious Bungie employee. HBO is hosting it the interview.
Wouldn't you like to be Matt "Zyos" Leto? We bet lots of people would. In the past year, he's won $55,0000 in Halo tournaments at the tender age of twenty. There's an interview and video intervew at GameSpot (video for Complete members only).
Major Nelson points out the Wired article on Halo 2 is now available online at Wired's site. They talk to Pete Parsons, Joe Staten, Chris Carney, Lorraine and Rob McLees, Eric Arroyo, and, of course, Marty O'Donnell.
Some interesting facts:
Music 4 Games has interviewed Marty "The Elder" O'Donnell about the Halo 2 soundtrack. Here's what he had to say about what's different this time around, under the hood:
The BBC has a nice little article on Halo 2 with the usual kind of stuff in it-- will Halo 2 live up to expectations, what are the changes, etc etc. The interesting bits, though, come from Pete Parsons right at the end:
"We have several 100 years of Halo fiction laid out," said Mr Parsons.
and
"After Halo 2 we are planning to do something different. We will do something else and we have a few ideas."
If you're looking for some solid information on Halo 2's top-secret plot, then head right on over to TeamXbox, where they've interviewed Frankie about it and been told... that it isn't being discussed right now.
Marty O'Donnell has been interviewed by Electronic Gaming Monthly; the three-page article is online at 1Up.com. Fun fact: Halo 2 has about 15,000 lines of random combat dialogue. So far.
While most of Bungie has been mum lately about the single player campaign, Marty does reiterate how his sound work is contributing to it, and what Bungie is trying to do in the second game:
Part Five of the series on realism in Halo is up over at The Junkyard. In this one, Captain Roy Luthan (still not his real name) covers one of my favorite levels, Assault on the Control Room. Thanks Ryan "Mhaddy" Matthews for the heads-up.
This week's Bungie Update took a slightly different format: Frankie and SketchFactor offered a question and answer session (excepting those on the story or campaign mode).