Archive for the tag 'Bungie'

Fri
Dec
19

Halo 3: ODST Update

Master Chief

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.

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Fri
Dec
12

Halo Wars Release Date

Master Chief

For those who’ve been keeping up with the history of Halo Wars, knows it’s quite interesting. The latest bit of news being announced for the Halo RTS is questionable to say the least.

The good news is that Halo Wars finally has a solid release date. For those who’ve been long waiting, March 3, 2009 will be the date you’ll be able to pick up Halo Wars. The puzzling part of the news, is that the US will be the last region to get the game. Europe will be getting Halo Wars, February 26th. With Japan receiving the game February 27th.

I know that the economy is down in the US, but come on. It’s pretty obvious at this point that Halo’s popularity shines brightest in the states. For Microsoft to release the game in other regions first really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

For those who pre-order Halo Wars, you’ll get a cool in-game item. The exclusive item is a Warthog with flame decals plastered on the side. Those who wish to fork over an extra twenty bucks for the Limited Collector’s Edition will get some great additions. You’ll get an in-game Covenant Wraith with ‘Honor Guard’ decoration. A graphic novel, and early access to the Mythic Map Pack will also be included with the Limite Collector’s Edition.

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Fri
Dec
5

Bungie Employment

Master Chief

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.

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Fri
Nov
21

Halo 3: Recon To Get Recon Armor?

Master Chief

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.”

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Fri
Nov
14

Bungie Q&A

Master Chief

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.

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Wed
Oct
29

Bungie Site Updates

Master Chief

For those who like to frequent Bungie.net for Halo updates, you should know the site itself is changing. Bungie has announced changes specifically to the File Sharing section. Here are a few key updates to look out for, and what those changes are.

Tagging - I was surprised that this feature wasn’t already part of the File Share section. Just like tagging on anyother site, any file can have a tag added to it either by the creator, or others. Once it’s added, the relevancy can be increased to show up better for search results

File Sets - This feature allows for “grouping” of files based on certain categories. It helps in streamlining the search process, and also maybe finding resources you wouldn’t know about originally.

Ratings - The ratings system has changed, and is now going by a 1-10 system instead of the 1-5 system. They’re all pretty arbitrary numbers, but atleast it would give a larger range to sort through.

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Fri
Sep
26

Bungie - Keep It Clean

Master Chief

Hmm, today has been an interesting day for Halo 3 fans. The news doesn’t involve Halo directly per se, but Bungie has released some archaic teasers upon their fans.

The first bit of information comes by way of a teaser trailer. The trailer really doesn’t show off a whole lot. It shows what appears to be Earth, or a human controlled planet. It has a very post-apocalyptic feel as the streets are empty with smoke rising in the air. I won’t say anymore for fear of giving too much away. Visit Bungie’s site if you wish to view the teaser.

The second pieces of information come by way of what looks to be fake broadcasting transcripts. I’ll post them here, but it all looks very jumbled so I apologize.

Pardon Our Dust transcript: <\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE 

<\\> TAC-OPS LOGISTICS DATABASE [ONI.SEC.PRTCL-1A] 

 

<\ * PRIORITY! * RESOURCE RE-ALLOCATION REQUEST 

 

>> SENT: [DARE.V.500341(S1)] 

>> RECEIVED: HEAVY CRUISER “SAY MY NAME” [SMN.ACTUAL] 

 

\ PARTIAL VTT TRANSCRIPT AS FOLLOWS… 

 

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “The situation on the ground isn’t my concern.” 

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I understand, Admiral. But I need –”

[EXPLOSION (4.0098s)]

[SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNINTELLIGIBLE > PANIC(?)]

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Empty archer pods six through twelve!”

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Ready the MAC, and come about!”

[SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNINTELLIGIBLE > INSUBORDINATION(?)]

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “It may have passed us, Lieutenant, but it’s still in range.”

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Come about. And shoot it in the ass.”

[EXPLOSION (2.3482s)]

[STATIC (3.8761s)]

[SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNINTELLIGIBLE > COMPLIANCE(?)]

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Admiral, about my squad?”

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I’ve forwarded their NCO’s name to your –”

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Enough, Captain!”

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “If I survive this attack…”

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “I will deploy per my orders from Fleet HQ!”

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Sir. I don’t report to Fleet.”

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “And the men I want? Now they don’t either.”

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Please. Read my request.”

[STATIC (2.8179s)]

[EXPLOSION (3.0194s)]

[STATIC (7.4501s)]

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Didn’t think you S1 types ever left your cave.”

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Desperate times…”

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Alright, Captain. You’ve got your squad.”

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “If I survive the attack.”

[EXPLOSION (2.9016s)]

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “And right now? That’ll take a genuine act of God.”

[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I’ll see what I can do.” 

 

\ ~ REQUEST COMPLETE

\ DATABASE CLOSED \>

 

Keep It Clean transcript: <\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE 

 

<\\> CLASSIFIED SIGNALS ARCHIVE [ONI.SEC.PRTCL-1A] 

 

<\ OPENED PER OFFICIAL REQUEST [DARE.V.500341(S1)] 

 

\ SOURCE: URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE A.I. [SUPERINTENDENT] 

 

\ RECIPIENT: PROWLER “TOKYO RULES” [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER] 

>> NOTATION KEYWORD SEARCH: “EMERGENCY” “DATA” “CORRUPTION” 

>> (…) ~ QUERY RUNNING 

>> (..) 

>> (.) \ VTT TRANSCRIPT AS FOLLOWS… 

 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER–!” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We know. Personnel are en route. Can you–” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “DETOUR! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “–put Kinsler on the line?” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: [UNITELLIGIBLE > DOG GROWLING(?)] 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Sorry, what?” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “BE A HERO! REPORT VIOLATORS!” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Oh, come on… ” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER–!” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Listen. We have a report of core data corruption.” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I need you to upload your–” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “PARDON OUR DUST!” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER] “–logs for the last twenty-four hours!” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: [UNINTELLIGIBLE > PROFANITY (?)] 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We’re sending a team, alright?” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Until they arrive, all additional comm needs to route through me.” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Repeat and acknowledge.” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “OBEY POSTED LIMITS!” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “YIELD TO UPHILL TRAFFIC!” 

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’…” 

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “PLEASE REMAIN CALM!” 

 

\ ~ QUERY COMPLETE 

 

\ ARCHIVE CLOSED \>

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Thu
Sep
18

Halo 3 Title Update 2

Master Chief

Title Update 2 is nearly upon us. In preperation, Bungie has released their weekly update on a Thursday. It sounds like they’re aniticpating armageddon when TU2 goes live. Here’s some things they’re anticipating when TU2 goes live:

“Title Update 2 will download when you log in to Halo 3 on September 23rd. Smart alecky types guessed it would be either today (the 18th) or the 23rd as we make a habit of doing our updates on pretty particular days. If you poke around you’ll see that some stuff has changed here on Bungie.net, some of that stuff will flick on when TU2 turns on next week, and some of it is Live now. 

When TU2 goes live next week we fully expect a crazy period in Matchmaking. See, there will be a period after TU2 goes live where not everyone will have the Title Update for a number of weird reasons like: You left your box on and the TU came out so folks who turn their boxes on are getting the new patch and you’re playing the previous version of the game; Your Xbox doesn’t recognize a new patch (clear your boxes’ cache - Go to the System blade and select Memory. Press Y on the HD symbol and then press X, X, LB, RB, X, X. If you did this properly a message will appear saying: Do you want to perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage device. Selet the “yes” equivalent and then boot up Halo 3) or any number of other weird issues like the host has TU2 and the client doesn’t or the client has TU2 and the host is on TU1, it’s going to be a bit like the end of Ghostbusters, but we promise, that even though it seems like Matchmaking has fallen into the gaping maw of cement cracks - it will climb out. 

We expect all of these issues to resolve within four or five hours of TU2 going live. We will be watching it closely.”

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Fri
Sep
5

The Superintendent

Master Chief

It seems like has been some intrigue coming out of PAX 2008, for Halo fans. The Superintindent has been making a huge splash lately. If you dont know who the SuperIntindent is, click here.

The first bit of juicy Superintindent gossip comes by way of Xbox360fanboy. This is actually an update for the upcoming Halo Wars. There have been some fans on Bungie’s site that say it could be in reference to the Superintindent.

Then, again on Bungie’s site there was a fan that was lucky enough to visit PAX 2008. There he got to meet some of the artists, and creative minds behind Halo. While that’s all and good, it’s his mention of SI that stands out. If you wish to read up on his account, click here.

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