My Halo 3

Alright HaloMega readers. Today marks the event that a large amount of you have been waiting for. Dragonball movie release? No, today the Mythic Map Pack will be released to the public.

For those who have already gotten their map pack, just sit quietly and enjoy the awesomeness you’ve obtained. For those who’ve been waiting patiently, Bungie has a couple of surprises in store for you today.

First, Bungie will be giving out Bungie Pro subscriptions for free. They will last until July. If you’re unfamiliar with Bungie Pro, it’s basically a service where you get 24 save slots for your custom creations.

There have been some interesting creations already, and if you’re interested take a peek at the ones below:

Flying Dutchman

Excavation

Pivotal

Tags: 3, Bungie, content, creation, custom, Halo, July, Map, Mythic, pack, Pro, public, release, subscription, surprise

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There are a few key ingredients to pulling off a good April Fools joke. First, it has to be lighthearted. April Fools isn’t about being mean, it’s about having fun at your expense or the expense of others. Second, if you’re conducting a fake story online, make it extreme yet believable. All of this is what Bungie did for its April Fools gag.

Bungie announced yesterday that they’d created their own professional gaming league, B.U.N.G.L.E. According to Bungie, their new league would be the premier professional league based around Halo. The story was pretty easy to spot as an April Fools joke, but just professional and real enough to fool some. Also, the idea itself sounds pretty good.

Here’s a list of some of the fake features for B.U.N.G.L.E. :

•The ONE and ONLY Pro Gaming League featuring Halo 3
•Monthly Online and Local Tournaments in Every Major City
•Annual World Championship Event, Super Summ3r Jam Extreme™
•Multi-Tiered League Play for All Ages Competition, featuring Halo 3′s Golden Bear, Louis Wu
•”PRO” Nameplate in Matchmaking to separate the Pros from the Schmoes
•Huge Cash and Amazing Prize Payouts for Local, Regional, and World Champions
•New, Fully-Customized Multiplayer Arenas: Blowout, Bungital, and Showerball
•Corporate Sponsorships from Big Jed’s Rib Shack and Dr. Phizzle and Diet Dr. Phizzle

Tags: April, B.U.N.G.L.E., Bungie, competition, Fools, gaming, Halo, league, professional

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For those eagerly awaiting any sliver of news about Halo 3: ODST, you’ll continue to wait. Unfortunately, nothing was released this past week in Bungie’s update. So, we still have Fall 2009 for a release window.

Things are looking up though, because in Bungie’s update they mention that the progammers are taking bets when the release date could be. You got to think that if they’re placing hard earned money on the table, then some idea of a date is floating around in someone’s mind. Unfortunately, we just don’t know what it is yet.

Some other things mentioned in the update were the Wasteland map in the Mythic Map Pack. If you were one of those who already have the map pack then you can skip this. If you’re unfamiliar with Wasteland, then go back and play Sandbox. Basically, it’s a modified version of Sandbox. In Wastelands you have a large sprawling Slayer, or Team Slayer type map. It’s vehicle based map as well, but if you’re a sniper you can find good spots as well.

Tags: 3, game, Halo, Map, Mythic, ODST, pack, sandbox, Slayer, type, Wasteland

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For those enjoying their copy of the Mythic Map Pack, congratulations. For those who are still in wait, Bungie has announced one of their variants of Sandbox called Spooky House. It sounds like a cool map that could provide very interesting scenarions. Especially for offensive minded players.

Spooky House is a vertically style stage, that has many defensive vantage points. The builder of the map states that the custom stage was built for the Zombie game type. Although, King of the Hill could perhaps be another option that could be used.

The stage was built on the Sky Bubble portion of the map. The reason is that the builder wants the players to stay in the house. On any other part of Sandbox, the players could leave, which would have ruined the fun of Spooky House.

Tags: 3, Forge, game, Halo, Map, Mythic, pack, spooky house, type, zombie

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Now that Halo Wars has released, I’m sure all you Limited Edition owners have thrown the game aside to try out Mythic Map pack. I’m just kidding, hopefully; as I sincerely hope you didn’t pay all that extra money just to play Mythic.

If you did pay all that money for Mythic then hopefully your map pack has actually loaded. Bungie has apparently been receiving case of player’s maps not loading. Bungie surprised me here, only really giving the solution that you should call Microsoft for support.

One problem that boggles my mind is that apparently people have been complaining that they thought the Mythic map pack came with the standard edition. I just don’t understand how you could know about the map pack, and now know it only comes with the limited edition. Bungie has been broadcasting the news since November, so I find it hard to believe that interested parties didn’t know about it.

For those who’ve picked up the limited edition of Halo Wars, how is the map pack playing out so far? Is Foundry as epic as we’ve been hearing? Are you already forging away as I’m typing this?

Tags: edition, Ensemble, Halo, limited, Map, Mythic, pack, story, studio, Wars

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In Bungie’s weekly update, we get quite a bit of insight into many various projects Bungie has coming our way. Most of the update revolves around the Halo Mythic Map Pack. There were a couple of recent interview with T3, and IGN that shed some light on what we can expect with the map pack.

Here’s a quote about Team Mythic and how it will be incorporated in the map pack, “Team Mythic is going to be a social 4v4 playlist exclusive to owners of the Mythic Map Pack. Primarily slayer, Team Mythic will feature Slayer, Slayer BRs, SWAT, and Snipers. Additionally, 2 Flag, Neutral Assault, and even Grifball will make cameos at a lower weighting. The playlist will feature all three Mythic maps, including Sandbox in multiple variants.”

One interesting aspect of the map pack that has been announced is the ‘Killball’. They are rather self-explanatory. It’s an object that can be added through Forge that can kill instantly on contact. They are added to the Sandbox map, and can be used in a variety of ways. They kill anything instantly, even if you’re in a vehicle. You can use them as a trap for a jump, or swing them through a stage and make players dodge them. There’s quite a slew of options to discover

Tags: Grifball, Halo, IGN, Map, Mythic, pack, Slayer, sniper, SWAT, team, update

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I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Years, and cleaned up all the confetti left after the party. Looking into 2009, it’s shaping up to be a great year for Halo fans. We have Halo Wars to look forward to, along with Halo 3: ODST.

Before looking forward into 2009, let’s look at something that was impressive for Halo 3 in 2008. For the entire year of 2008, Halo 3 was the most played game. There were times that Halo 3 was passed over during a given week. Yet, it wouldn’t be long before it would inevitably take over the #1 spot. That consistency has led to it being the #1 played game on Xbox Live for the year.

Needless to say it’s going to be tough to keep that title going into 2009. There’s plenty of popular games coming out, not to mention that there’s two games set in the Halo universe seeing a release on the Xbox 360. It will be interesting to see the stats at the end of this year. I’ll be impressed if Halo 3 stays in the Top 3 played Xbox Live games.

Tags: Halo, halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Wars, new year, universe, Xbox Live

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If you’ve been wanting to get into game design, and love Halo now is the perfect time to strike. Bungie is hiring en masse and there are a good variety of jobs available.

Here is a list of some job titles currently available with Bungie:

Lighting Artist: Turn on the bright lights, indeed. We’re looking for someone who wants to shine bright…

Server Programmer: Bungie Studios is looking for an experienced developer of server-side software to create and maintain scalable services to communicate with our games and our internal development tools.

Test Supervisor: As a Test Supervisor at Bungie, your responsibilities will include hiring, training, building and supervising large teams of quality assurance contingent staff.

Graphics Engineer: Bungie is seeking a software engineer with a passion for graphics, who is interested in pushing the state of the art of real time CG to a level previous considered unattainable, and do it all in close collaboration with the world’s most talented artists, in a creative endeavor to create the best video games ever.

Engine Programmer: Are you the person that others come to when they can’t debug their code? Bring your thirst for knowledge and fuse it with our talented team.

Tags: Bungie, employment, Halo, halo 3, positions, Recon, website

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When you play Halo with a team mentality, you can always see personalities shine. Whether that is a good thing can really go either way. Free For All matches tend to always be run and gun, but how do people react when working as a team?

Probably the first personality to make its presence known is the leader. If you’re in a clan, he/she is generally the creator of it. Also be prepared because you’re probably going to hear them talk more than anyone else in the group.

When you have a leader, you’re undoubtedly going to have followers. These are the people who stick to the ideals of the team. When the leader speaks, they listen and will be the ones who stay with the pack.

The loner is generally the person in the group who can spark the more heated conversations. To them there is no leader, or followers. It’s their way, because they know what can truly bring about the winning outcome. Even if no one else agrees with them.

The fourth and final personality is the drama queen/king. They might not divide the entire team like the loner, but they’re easily just as annoying. If something is going wrong, you’re just as likely to hear them as the leader. 

So, what personalities do you see pop up when you play team based maps in Halo?

Tags: Halo, halo 3, Master Chief, multiplayer, personalities

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Anyone reading this post has undoubtedly played through all of the Halo video games. If not, then stop reading and play through the trilogy right now. For those who think they’re hardcore Halo fans; just how hardcore are you?

If I say “Halo novels” will you be able to name them all and give a brief synopsis. If not, then here’s your crash course into the literary world of Halo:

Halo: The Fall of Reach: The first ever Halo novel is a prequel to the events that occur before Halo: Combat Evolved. Fall of Reach is the story about thow the SPARTAN project got started, and what the Spartans were initially trained to do.

Halo: The Flood: If you start reading the book and get a sudden feeling of deja vu, don’t worry. The reason not to worry is because this book is prett much a retelling of Halo: Combat Evolved. It is told from a different point of view though.

Halo: First Strike: Halo is a bridging story, that was released to show events that occur between Halo, and Halo 2. The novel is basically about Master Chief and a group of soldiers trying to stop the Covenant from making their way to Earth. Most of the book was written to setup the events that would occur in Halo 2.

Halo: Ghosts Of Onyx: This novel steered away from the previous books that were based on the video games. Instead in Ghosts of Onyx, the story is about side characters that are mentioned in prior books. It focuses on a group of new Spartan warriors. The book takes place mostly on Onyx that hides a secret that both the UNSC and Covenant are after.

Halo: Contact Harvest: Many consider this to be the top Halo novel in the series. It was written by an actual Bungie employee, and like Ghosts of Onyx has a storyline independent of Master Chief. It’s based mostly around Sergeant Johnson who appears in the games and the novels. On the planet Harvest there is a massive battle taking place between the Covenant and USNC. The coolest thing about the book is we get to read the beginnings of the Prophets.

Tags: Halo, Halo 2, halo 3, Halo novels, Halo: Contact Harvest, Halo: First Strike, Halo: Ghosts Of Onyx, Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood

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