My Halo 3

If you’ve ever played Halo 3 online, and from the fact you’re reading this I’m assuming you have; participated in a milestone. According to Bungie.net, there have been a billion matches played for Halo 3. The stats don’t stop there.

It might not have sunk in, so again a ‘billion’ matches have been play of Halo 3 online. To put that into perspective, Halo 2 hasn’t even reached 800 million matches yet. And that game has been out for nearly 4 years. Bungie delves deeper into the numbers…

The billionth match lasted 3 minutes, and 30 seconds. If you use that as an average of time taken to complete a match, and multiply that by a billion that results are unbelievable.

- Sixty Three centuries of Halo 3 have been played

If you took all the time that has been spent playing Halo 3 online, and evened it out there would be 6,300 years worth of play time. That’s just impossible to even fathom, but yet it happened.

Tags: 1 billion, halo 3, live, mark, matches, online, Xbox

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

For those who sit in wild anticipation of the Halo 3 Mythic Map pack, should know you don’t have much longer to wait. Bungie has gone out of their way to let fans know they only have weeks, not months left.

Of course, if you’re a member of the gaming press then you’ve gotten a sneak peek into the Mythic Map pack. Here are some things that some of these online publications have said about the DLC.

“With Halo, it’s not just about the maps and their layouts. A major component of Halo 3’s online action is Forge, the real-time level and game type editor that has produced some amazing design from gamers, in addition to some great ideas that Bungie never thought of, but decided to run with and enhance, again, to make the community happy.

That “for the fans” attitude is very much on one of the three maps in the new Mythic Map pack for Halo 3, available to those who buy the Halo Wars Special Edition and then later to anyone willing to part with 800 Microsoft points. But the other two are no slouches.” – TeamXbox

“The Mythic Map Pack, like previous Halo 3 map pack offerings, consists of three maps; Orbital, Assembly, and Sandbox. The first two were designed with the aim of filling gaps in the map library. Sandbox is something special and even if the other maps stunk (they don’t), it would be enough for most Halo 3 fans to stand up, take notice, and plunk down the cash. The Forge is about to become even cooler.” – IGN

Tags: assembly, halo 3, mythic map pack, orbital, preview, sandbox, update

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

For those out there who are seriously thinking about getting into game development, should know a couple of things. First, it’s a very hard field to break through in, and second a lot of it is who you know, and some luck.

This interview with Bungie’s sandbox engineer, Jon Cable proves my points correct. Here are some Q&A’s about how Cable got his start at Bungie.

Q. Did you get any guidance during your time in High School?

A. I remember one test saying something about an electrician. I think the system was so old it didn’t know what a computer was. I tried to talk to authority figures in high school as little as possible.

Q. Did that aversion to academic authority lift long enough for you to earn a college degree?

A. Yep – a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

Q. And how did you end up first make contact with Bungie?

A. I was interning at Microsoft in the summer of ’05. We had a weekly Halo night where we played on system link in the conference rooms on these big projectors. I met another intern there named François, who was working at Bungie in level design. I asked him to get me in touch with someone here, and a while later Chucky contacted me and we started the interview process. I still had two years of college left, so I got an internship for the next summer.

Q. What did you bring along to the interview process proper?

A. I brought my laptop with a couple games I had written. I didn’t get a chance to show them off until the very end. But mostly I just came prepared to meet whatever challenge was thrown at me.

——–

So, there you have it. Be sure to have a portfolio of your works. Then make sure you can somehow get in good with people over at Bungie.

Tags: Bungie, developer, engineer, halo 3, interview, ODST, Q&A, sandbox

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

As I keep up with news about Halo 3: ODST I’m impressed with how liberal Bungie has been about releasing news of their upcoming shooter. Their latest site update has released even more news, mostly about what enemies will be in the game.

The latest piece of information, and what will be a disappointment to some is that no Elite will be making their presence in ODST. Instead, according to Bungie we’ll mostly be taking on the Brutes.

Some other cool info that Bungie decided to be let known, is the timeline of this game and how it compares with what was happening to Master Chief.

* October 20: New Mombasa, Kenya is destroyed by the Slipstream Space Rupture Backlash from the Prophet of Regret’s ship.
* November 2: The Prophet of Regret’s ship and In Amber Clad arrive at Delta Halo. Prophet of Regret liquidated by SPARTAN-117.
* November 3: Prophet of Truth leaves High Charity for Earth in Forerunner dreadnought.
* November 8: The Forerunner dreadnought arrives in the Sol system and proceeds to Earth at near relativistic speed.
* November 17: The Forerunner dreadnought arrives at Earth. SPARTAN-117 ejects and lands in the Kenyan jungle.

Tags: Brute, Bungie, Elite, enemies, halo 3, information, news, ODST, shooter, site, update

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

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

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

For those who sit anxiously anticipating any kind of Halo 3: ODST news, today is your day. Bungie has graced us with some updates into how the game is coming along, and what they have completed. It sounds like everything is shaping up nicely, if I dare say.

Here are a couple of exceprts from Bungie’s Halo 3: ODST update:

-All of the ODST mission dialog is written and implemented thought the current implementation is often the dulcet tones of Joseph Staten coming through my headset.

-Halo 3: ODST is just a day away from the Representative Experience milestone and preparing for a team-wide playthrough of the whole game next week. (This means the game is playable from start to finish)

It’s looking like things are going great so far. The release date hasn’t been finalized yet, but that’s not surprise. It’s still slated for a Q3 2009 release.

Tags: 2009, Bungie, game, halo 3, news, ODST, Q3, Recon, release, update

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

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

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

I know you’ve done nothing but think about it, dream about it, and lust after it. Of course I’m talking about Recon armor. The Holy Grail of items in the world of Halo. People have begged and pleaded for Bungie to give it to them. Of course, in stellar Bungie fashion they keep saying you have to earn it.

In a issue of Game Informer, Bungie was interviewed about their highly anticipated, but still far off game Halo 3: Recon. There were the obvious questions about progress, and release dates. There was one question that really stood out in the interview. For those who are continually trying to impress Bungie enough to give you recon armor, you’ll want to read this.

Everyone gets Recon armor for multiplayer!?

“Yes, sort of. We did confirm that when Halo 3: Recon is released next Fall, fans will finally have the means to acquire the Recon multiplayer armor for themselves. The “Vidmaster” achievements that were kicked off in the Halo 3 title update a few months ago are the first step on the road to unlocking Recon. Eventually, once you have successfully completed all of the Vidmaster achievements, you will be able to wear the armor. Some of these achievements can be earned when the Mythic Map Pack is released early next year, but you won’t be able to complete the full chain until the retail release of Halo 3: Recon next Fall. So yes, approximately two years after the release of Halo 3, the broader community will finally be able to get their hands on the Recon armor.”

Tags: armor, Bungie, fashion, halo 3, progress, Recon, release dates, site

• Halo General
• Comments(0)

I think Bungie’s site is at its best when there isn’t any killer news to report. This week it’s been mostly about Halo 3: Recon, but with not much to say about it they held an open Q&A forum with their site users.

Like with most Q&A’s, there were some morons that showed up but there were some questions of worth, that followed with interesting answers. Here are some of them:

Q: In the news earlier, it was said that Halo Wars will come with the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack including three maps. What happened to the other three? Aren’t they part of the Mythic Map Pack too? Did we just read wrong and when you were referring to the Map Pack, you guys meant all six of them. Any clarification would be wonderful.

A: This question has popped up a handful of times around the Internet. The Mythic Map Pack in question (comprised of Assembly, Orbital and Sandbox) will be included as part of the Limited Edition of Halo Wars. Those are the only Halo 3 maps that will be bundled with Halo Wars.

Q: I believe I remember Shishka mentioning that there might be a playlist with user created content in it. Is there any more info on that, or am I delusional?

A: Shishka was here super duper late earlier this week looking at exactly this sort of thing. I even saw Jones stop by Shishka’s desk to watch him run around some user created map. Jones said, “Huh, this looks neat.” And before you ask, no, it wasn’t something that was messaged to him via Live, it was something he found here on the site using the tagging system. That said, he’s looking at maps pretty regularly, but the quality of them is mostly in line with the quality of this batch of questions. That doesn’t mean that they won’t be used in some fashion. Shishka’s thinking about using them for a new content series here at B.net titled, “What Not to Do in Forge.”

Q: How is the render-to-video feature coming along?

A: It’s still in the works and it’s still shaping up to be sweet. The Wolf is hard at work on it and it’s going to take a giant mountain of servers and flowing rivers of bandwidth.

For The Full Q & A, click here.

Tags: Bungie, halo 3, mythic map, pack, playlist, Q&A, Recon, website

• Uncategorized
• Comments(0)

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

• Halo General
• Comments(0)