While some are joining Bungie, others are leaving to make their bitemark on the world on their own. GameDaily is reporting that developers from the Halo and Half-Life teams, including Hamilton Chu and and Michael Evans, formerly of Bungie, are forming a new studio called Giant Bite.
The latest system upgrade at this point is mostly completed, and the updated version is now "live" on the site. At the moment most of the old features should "just work" although there may be some occasional hiccups while the search index and caches rebuild themselves. You may click a link only to get a completely blank page; hit reload a couple of times and the problem should go away. If that one persists we'll definitely be looking at it.
Even more people can wave goodbye to their social lives, apparently starting sometime early next year. Various news articles seem to be under the impression that the Alex Seropian's Spectrum MediaWorks', (a company which I was unaware of) next project is an MMO callec X Quest. The basic premise of the game is interaction with a FOX reality show, although the description is a little too ambiguous to say much more than that.
I am new to Halo 2 Live. I have beaten the Halo 1&2 on hardest level many many times, thinking I was somewhat of a talented player. I would tell people how good I was right up until I started to play online. Then I realized that I sucked. Started playing Slayer as a level one. Despite getting my ass kicked, I proceeded to rapidly get promoted to level 14, where I stand now. I have found that it seems easier at level 14 then level 1. I believe this for two reasons 1. there is a handful of people that somehow keep their level low so they can always win 2. I am getting a little better.
This forum post got me pretty excited ( 3rd post down of course ;) ). If my workload would ever let up (looking like summer by now), I was planning on trying to record as much dialogue as possible, with one or two specific targets.
Needless to say, I would be more than willing to pay for this content. On top of that, the use of the word "wacky" is nothing short of exhilirating. Or is it sarcastic?
Okay, okay, so we jumped the gun on this one back on the 9th, ignoring the fact that such a ridiculous coincidence could never have gone on for so long without notice, and therefore announced Claude "Louis Wu" Errera's birthday a couple of weeks early, and quite possibly letting the cat out of the bag on a surprise party. Our bad.
Bit by bit, the new features of the revised Xbox.com website are coming online. The My Xbox and new forums appear to be working now. One of the more interesting features in My Xbox is the much-touted Gamercard feature, that shows a personal avatar, your Zone, your Rep, and your Gamertag.
Multiplayer game aficionados who use Macintosh computers have been hampered by a lack of a VOIP program compatible with the popular TeamSpeak software. No more. The first beta release of TeamSpeex has just been released. Go try it out. Thanks IMG.
The new "My Boyfriend's Back" trailer for Stubbs the Zombie is a riot-- a zombie riot, but a riot nonetheless. And as the game shipped today for the Xbox-- go buy a copy!
Bungie has killed the Halo 2 leaderboards to discourage cheaters, as well as added the Team Hardcore playlist. Thanks SketchFactor.
What's interesting in Sketch's post is the admission that the top-ranked Halo 2 players online are cheaters:
DailyGame is reconfirming that Stubbs the Zombie, developed by Wideload Games and published by Aspyr, will be released on October 17.
The top 117 entries in the 117 Words contest have been announced by Jillybean and Stuntmutt. Your editor was tickled pink to have managed a third-place tie with Tum-Tut Mantis' entry The Arbiter's Sentence. And it's mine! All mine! It's my birthday pressssent!
eToychest.org is reporting that Stubbs the Zombie has gone Gold Master (at least for the Xbox). Aspyr's Project Status page confirms it.
Traditional media are picking up on the announcement that Peter Jackson will be the executive producer on the upcoming halo feature film.
Ducain at High Impact Halo is throwing a virtual pizza party to celebrate the site's 1000th news post. Congratulations HIH!