Teeny Tomfoolery On The Battleground
This week's update skullduggery is in the forums at Battleground: Halo . Our local copy will be up on Monday or so.
Rampancy
Death by intelligence.
Recent Videos
| Title | Date |
|---|---|
| Bazzite Backlog Blowout Pt 2 | 01.24.26 |
| Bazzite Backlog Blowout | 01.17.26 |
| Spatial Outpouring Pt 5 | 01.10.26 |
| Spacial Outpouring Pt 4 | 01.03.26 |
| Spacial Outpouring Pt 3: Rampancy Rescues... | 12.27.25 |
| Spacial Outpouring Pt 2 | 12.20.25 |
| Rampancy Test Stream | 12.14.25 |
Sheet Music
| Title | Transcriber | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Halo 5: Advent (String... | cwhiterun | 06.07.16 |
| Halo 5: Blue Team (Str... | cwhiterun | 10.22.15 |
| Halo 5: Light is Green... | cwhiterun | 10.20.15 |
| Halo 5: The Trials (St... | cwhiterun | 10.12.15 |
| Roll Call - Price Paid | pimpnmonk | 06.02.14 |
| Behold A Pale Horse Fo... | pimpnmonk | 01.24.14 |
| Farthest Outpost/Mercy... | pimpnmonk | 12.30.13 |
Rampancy Podcast
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
| Sony Acquires Bungie (mp3) | 02.02.22 |
| Let's Play Mass Effect 3 #27 Final... | 06.02.17 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 27: Craig Ha... | 05.08.13 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 25: Destiny... | 03.05.13 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 24: Halo Ann... | 04.21.12 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 23: Halo Ann... | 06.26.11 |
| Anger, Sadness and Envy Ep. 21: The Wint... | 04.18.11 |
Continuity Invades Halo Babies
That ever-feared foe Continuity, about whose wiles we a warned weekly at Penny Arcade, has takena strange new shape at Halo Babies, as their new comic kicks off a new plot thread. Thanks mrsmiley.
John Against Gordon In Gamespy Title Match
Okay, time for another call to arms, Halo fans. Gordon Freeman and Half-Life by Valve Software are up over John 117 and Halo by Bungie Studios at this point in the first round of the Mushroom Kingdom championship bracket.
However, the rules of the game are now changed; you must login with a GameSpy ID in order to vote because of abuse detected in earlier matches.
Best... April Fool... Evar
Bungie gets the award for the best April Fool's day prank with SketchFactor's Halo 2 Beta Registration Closed story. If I had seen that one a little earlier in the day, it might have made my stomach flip.
The Party's Over: Rampancy Sells Out To HBO
[image:7244 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Well, after nearly five years in existence, most of the last 2 with only myself at the helm, Rampancy is finding it impossible to keep up with Louis Wu at HBO. As said in one HBO forum thread, inspired by Rams' column over at BGH points out, there's really no point in having any Halo fansites besides HBO anyway.
Besides, with all the real-life things going on, getting married, moving to a new apartment, taking a new job, learning Japanese, and running for political office, I just don't have the time to keep the site updated as it should be.
As of today, Rampancy will cease posting Halo news, and Narc's Retorts will become a semi-recurring forum thread.
Thanks for reading, it's been a fun few years!
UPDATE: The SEC, advised of HBO's arrogant attempt to abuse its monopoly position in the Halo fansite market, has ordered Louis Wu to divest himself of all the Halo websites acquired in the last 24 hours and return them to their rightful owners.
UPDATE: April Fool.
Fixing Tomorrow's Pandoras Today
Xbox365 is reporting that UbiSoft has fixed the Optimatch crash bug when playing Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow on Xbox Live.
We know this isn't Halo news, per se, but since we mentioned the bug when it occurred, as something of interest to Xbox owners and XBL subscribers in general, we felt it only fair to mention when the problem was resolved.
Move along, nothing to see here...
Is Microsoft Still Supporting The Xbox?
This week seems to have been rife with notices of Xbox titles either cancelled or developers going looking for new publishers after Microsoft nixed their deals. Is something going on?
XNA To Allow PCs, Xbox Consoles To Play Together
TeamXbox has an interview with XNA developer Scott Henson at Microsoft about what exactly XNA is going to do for the average gamer. One scenario he imagines is where users on Windows PCs play one kind of role in the same game as console players fulfilling a different role:
So from a gamer point of view, I could take on the role of the commander. I could use the hi-res screen of my PC and act as a general leading and directing my troops. The guys/girls that you're playing with are on a console in the battle fighting it out. So one person is seeing the results, commanding from one point of view on a PC and then there are others having that visceral, down in the trenches experience on Xbox. So, for a gamer, I just think this causes an explosion of possibilities.
So... will there be a Mac version? Just kidding.
MS VP Slams Japanese Game Markets, Touts XNA As Solution
Another story on CVG today quotes Peter Moore of Microsoft as saying the Japanese gaming market is "flattening out and declining" and says that, of course, Microsoft has the solution: "They have no choice because they can't survive on Mahjong games shipping for 100,000 people anymore - they have the same issues that we're resolving with XNA now: they need to develop large-scale global games to stay in business."
What's more interesting, though, is the blatant ethnocentrism Moore displays in another quote, which is sure to win Microsoft no good will in the Japanese market, where Robbie Bach in another article is quoted as saying Microsoft can, but should not necessarily expect, to win with the Xbox 2:
"Last time [I was at Tokyo Game Show] I thought I saw the same game 15 times over - a guy with a sword running around. There's a lack of creative juices which they admit themselves... It's the western developers and publishers who are really driving innovation."
Of course, Moore seems to be ignoring the obvious killing move for Japanese developers: a Mahjong game... with swords.
Doesn't Matter If They're Black Or White
CVG is running an article quoting XNA architect J Allard on the issue of what to do about complaints about the positioning of the white and black buttons on the Xbox controller. Readers may remember earlier mentions of this; the buttons are on the upper right on the standard controller, and on the lower right on an S controller. Earlier comments suggesting the buttons might be eliminated altogether. Halo uses them for switching grenade types and toggling the Master Chief's headlamp. From the article:
When we posed this to Allard in an exclusive interview at last week's GDC, Allard replied: "Some of the feedback is that black and white are in a bad spot, so they're tough to depend on for any kind of primary functionality - I think that's good feedback. Relocation [of the buttons] is an option; getting rid of them is an option."When asked which option he favoured, Allard said: "What we're leaning towards is just listening. We've got to listen to what these game creators want and then build the right software so that they can realise their visions, and then we gotta make some hardware underneath."
Expanding on the button layout issue, Allard explained: "Another piece of feedback [we've had] is trying to navigate the six buttons with your thumb: it's kind of overwhelming without looking down, especially when using the trigger, as when you use the trigger you've locked your hand into a position that you just want to navigate around."
Well, since most Xbox owners are Halo players, and Allard says Microsoft is listening, what do you think they should do with those two buttons? Answer the question in our latest poll. CVG promises a longer interview with Allard later.
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