Bungie Day – 2009

6 07 2009

So, evidently a year has passed since I was last doing this…Bungie Logo

This Bungie day is much more dull for us gamers though; last year we got a free map – Cold Storage, a ViDOC, podcast and, in what we thought was going to be tradition… a Bungie Day theme and Gamer Picture pack. We’ve been given a theme and gamer picture pack every year since 2007.

Way to break that streak. :(

So, I hear you ask — What are we getting this year?7th Column - Valhalla - Bungie Day

  • The “Bungie vs. The World” playlist. It’s a playlist consisting entirely of community made forge-maps on Foundry and [mainly] Sandbox which makes the Mythic Map pack a must.
    The reason for the name of the playlist is that Bungie employees will be playing for the majority of the day tomorrow and if you beat one of their teams-of-four in a game you earn Recon armor.
  • Screenshots of the 3 other Mythic maps including Heretic — confirmed as a near perfect port of Midship from Halo 2.
  • A Bungie Day podcast.

The last two items on that list I didn’t think we’d be getting when I first wrote this, so it’s looking a bit better now. :)

I wasn’t expecting another free map, I knew that was one-off, but I was looking forward to a Bungie Day NXE theme — the previous one’s look rubbish with the new dash. Sadface.

Oh well, only 77 days till Halo 3: ODST is released.

/

* They haven’t said there won’t be a theme or gamer picture pack, its just that this time last year we knew there would be one.


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Halo Wars, Mythic maps and annoyance at (D)DoS…..

1 03 2009

It’s true, all three topics in the title are related to Halo; frankly I’m glad to write about something other than Lost, not that I don’t enjoy it.

Anywho…..

Halo Wars – Truthfully I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying the part of the game I have played so far. Sure, I played the demo and thought something along the lines of “it’s better than I expected”; but I fully expected it to become repetitive and boring.

halo_wars

I’ve heard that opinion from others, but it is certainly not mine yet. I’m up to mission 5 and it’s quite challenging and enjoyable. My niggles from the demo are, as expected, still there — I don’t like the fact that you can’t look further afield i.e. that you can’t move the camera to face forward enough for my liking… I think there was something else that annoyed me, but, as I can’t now remember it, it can’t be that big of a deal.

Graphically the cut-scenes are fantastic; clearly a lot of time and money has been spent on them. As for the actual gameplay graphics…. They’re ok, if not inconsistent.

Moving swiftly onto the Mythic maps for Halo 3….. Well, any downloadable content for a game which I spend so much time playing is always appreciated and this is no exception.

My original thoughts about Sandbox were that it would be another Foundry; designed mostly for Forging and therefore not really any good for actual games (all my opinion, of course). However I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was when matchmaking — I like it.

Assembly – Whatever was said about this map not being a remake of Halo 2’s Midship was true… However it cannot truly be said that it is not like Midship…. lots about it seems familiar and….. well, at the moment I’m not loving it. Easily the worst out of the three.

Orbital [as I said on twitter] is way bigger than I expected. So far it seems okay… Though as both Clarkson and I agreed, it should have had the option of deploying warthogs on it. As I have probably already said in person, in a rather English way, it’s an awful long way to capture a flag on this map and I think it will actually suit 6v6 games better for this. Also… that level above where the mongooses are – why isn’t the flag up there!? [Perhaps because it's already a long way away]

I could *probably* have found a more reprasentative picture of the Mythic Maps, but oh well.

I could *probably* have found a more reprasentative picture of the Mythic Maps, but oh well.

And finally, a whinge about the bastards that are employing Denial of Service attacks on players of Halo:

What the hell is the point? It just makes for more laggy, shitty games resulting in more anger and frustration from not being able to kill the enemy when you should have or simply not being able to hear the person that you are gaming with clearly.

Since there is no viable solution to these kinds of attacks, unfortunately it looks as though they will continue for the foreseeable future. Though I do advise people to get anti-virus and anti-spyware software updated and use it on a regular basis to ensure that your computer, or those of anyone you know is not unwillingly being used as part of a botnet to spam others with malformed and erroneous packets of doom…

/


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Microsoft / Xbox Keynote at Tokyo Games show tomorrow – Something Halo this way comes?

8 10 2008

Microsoft for the first time is keynoting at the Tokyo Games show which kicks off this Thursday and finishes on Sunday….

Will we be graced by the reveal of what ‘Halo 3 Prepare To Drop’ is? Click here to see what we know so far (it’s just a trailer, an awesome trailer.)

Well, there have been a couple hints that we might do:

  • “Tokyo Rules” mentioned in one of the Super Intendant’s news posts on Bungie.net
  • “Prepare to J-Pop” Sound familiar? No? Could be a reference to Prepare to Drop from the trailer. And, from the same source: “Brian and Luke are, as you read this, witnessing the marvel that is the beautiful city of Tokyo.” From last week’s Bungie update.

Also, generally speaking, a keynote at a gaming show implies that there is stuff to show off; hopefully this ‘new Halo 3 campaign experience’ is one of those things.

The keynote starts at 12:00PM Tokyo time. If you want to find out when that is in your time zone, click here.

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Edit: I was right; Look here


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Bungie Countdown finishes – reveals trailer – “Halo 3 Prepare to drop”

25 09 2008

EDIT: For a longer version of this trailer which was shown at the Tokyo Games Show, look here

After the countdown finished at 07:07AM PDT, Bungie.net revealed a teaser trailer for the next game they’re bringing out. OK no-one knows what the trailer was for, just go and watch it!!!

The description for the video from the marketplace: “High action and deep mystery await players in this new Halo 3 campaign experience. Prepare to drop!”
We can haz new campaign levels???

You can see it here GOGOGOGOGO

Click on any of the pictures below for bigger versions.

 

WTF?

WTF?

Don't think water...

 


Yes, it's upside down, that's how it was in the video!

Yes, it's upside down, that's how it was in the video!


Possible release date? It's Possible. Not confirmed though.

Possible release date? It

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BUNGIE.NET INVADED BY SUPERINTENDANT – AGAIN – COUNTDOWN TO 7:07AM (PDT)/ 03:07PM(UK) September 25th.

25 09 2008

This time it seems they’re sure that it won’t be cancelled though; if you look carefully at the messages on the current bungie.net homepage they now include:

“THERE WILL BE A PAYOFF”

“IT WON’T BE A LETTER”

Expect something big. It’s what we deserve after last time!

 

/

LOOK HERE FOR WHAT HAPPENED

BTW, sorry if this post doesn’t mean a lot to some people; if you want to read about this and when it’s happened before, look here

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Happy Birthday, Halo 3!

25 09 2008

Today, September 26th 2008 marks Halo 3’s 1 year anniversary.

There really isn’t a great deal to say, anyone who is a true fan of Halo 3 would have gotten it on its release day one year ago (the 27th for Europe :( ) and is still playing it to this day. 

I’m certainly one of those dedicated fans; over the last year I’ve played Halo 3 multiplayer for a rather scary 265 hours! (that’s 11 days straight!!!!). (If you want to see how many hours you have spent in Halo 3, click on the picture below or the Spartan over on the right and create an account.)

Supposedly we’ll get a new episode of the Bungie podcast today and hopefully(!) an announcement or at least something more from the Superintendant.


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Halo 3 Auto / Title Update 2 to be released on the 23rd

18 09 2008

Bungie confirmed today that Title Update 2 for Halo 3 will go out on Tuesday the 23rd;

This’ll introduce individual ranks for each playlist, the new achievements and the playlist changes and, as I’ve written about these before; if you want to know about them, click here..

The new achievements can be seen on Bungie.net now; but one won’t appear work until Halo 3’s one year anniversary on the 25th – is it one we haven’t seen / been told about? It’s the one where you have to finish the last level with the Iron scull on, in 4 player co-op with all of you in Ghosts.

There’s 10 new spoken-about achievements which you can get now and 20 which haven’t been mentioned (because you need to have the Mythic map-pack which hasn’t been announced yet.) You can see what the others are here.

Bungie.net has had a few upgrades as of today. For instance, now both ranked and social kills by weapon etc. are shown on one screen and you are able to compare your career stats with someone else’s. (as shown in the picture)

The weekly update which was a day early ended with this:

“Outtro in Go Minor

Earlier this summer, my bipolar, crazy landlord told me, “The night is darkest just before the dawn.”
Dawn is about to break.”

Does this suggest something is very close? I think so. EDIT: look here

Could we see something on the 25th? It’s a definate possiblity. The announcement of the next Bungie game!?!? By this time next week we may already know………

/

Don’t get your hopes up though, you never know when Microsoft will spoil the fun ;)


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Halo 3 – new achievements confirmed

6 09 2008
Damn it, hes back. ;)

Damn it, he's back. ;) "A small, private Bungie Invitational looms on the horizon."

Bungie came out and admitted that Auto Update 2 (AU2) for Halo 3 will bring some new achievements to the game; they only gave details of the one’s that will make sense now -

“As folks have seen, these aren’t the only achievements we’re adding. But without proper context, there’s not a whole lot else we’re going to say. Stay tuned.“

Most likely, there will be some more achievements with another map pack / update to Halo 3

Here’s a list of the one’s that they did tell us about:

  • Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
  • Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
  • Vidmaster Challenge: Annual (0 points) – After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
  • Double Double (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Poor Yorick (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Came…From…Behind (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match.
  • Defend This (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.
  • Flag Dropped (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Road Rage (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Look Both Ways (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.

EDIT: You can see a list of all the other achievements here – They all require the un-announced Mythic Map Pack.

    They also said that Auto Update 2 / Title Update 2 will most likely be delayed – “the previously announced date may slip a bit closer to the Halo 3 one-year anniversary.” That’s September 27th so presumably it’ll be between the 16th and the 27th.

    /


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    Halo 3 – September Matchmaking Update detailed, Auto Update 2 to be released on Sep. 16th

    23 08 2008

    This week’s Bungie update details what is going to happen with the monthly playlist update and the date that Auto Update 2 will be released – both the playlist update and AU2 should be released on the 16th of September. EDIT: a later bungie weekly update suggests that it will be delayed and will be nearer to the 1-year anniversary of Halo 3 on the 27th of September — now confirmed for the 23rd.
    You can read about Auto Update 2 and what it does to Halo 3 here.

    Screenshot from vid where Bungie thanks G4

      September’s matchmaking playlist update does make a few more changes than normal; as promised by Bungie a couple of weeks ago. A summary of the changes appears below:

    • Rocket Race is being removed :( :( :(
    • Both Ranked and Social Big Team Battle are being removed
    • Head to Head is being removed
    • Team Doubles now requires all DLC – Heroic & Legendary packs and Cold Storage
    • Default Team Slayer games will now have the Magnum as secondary weapon
    • Squad Battle – a new ranked playlist will be introduced; it’s 6v6 and will be Slayer / Capture the Flag
    • DLC Free For All (new) – 8v8 – Slayer, Objective and Infection!
    • DLC Big Team; another new playlist – 8v8 Social Slayer and Objective (just like Social BTB)

    Some of the playlists will see Bungie-forged map variants of Sandtrap (they’ll be no elephant), Epitaph (without shield doors), Snowbound (with some shield doors removed) and The Pit (with “with inaccessible spawn hives.” — That sounds annoying). The normal versions of these maps will also appear.

    You can read the Bungie update containing all this information and much more here. It offers some consolation in the fact that the Rocket Race gametype will be added to the Multi Team playlist as well as the fact that there will be less objective, SWATGuns and Magnums in SWAT – and the fact that there will be Carbines on the map!

    /

    Also, they confirmed that they’ll be no bots / campaign characters in H3 multiplayer – just to hush those rumours after the thanks video’s.


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