We missed this one awhile back... on February 14 xbox.ign.com posted a story confirming that Halo will finally be available to Xbox gamers in Japan on April 25, about two months after the console launches.
7HR33 has opened its site to the public, and it has a good amount of high quality content already; in particular, the Antics page has several screenshots and movies that constituted their contributions to HBO's tips and tricks section.
Count Zero over at HBO has posted about two Halo-related events at the upcoming Game Developers Conference 2002. The first is a Halo post-mortem with Case (Jaime Griesemer) and Chris Butcher. The second is a speech on Halo's audio production with Marty O'Donnell.
The Game Developers Conference is being held in San Jose, California from March 19 to 23.
Shacknews jokes that perhaps this modification might improve the less-than-stellar framerates during a few rare moments of Halo ; but in all honesty they've only watercooled the Xbox, not overclocked it. Too bad.
Xbox.com has put up an interview with Bungie's resident audio expert, Marty O'Donnell, about his role in making Halo:
Xbox.com: Ok, nuts and bolts time. How do you actually create a soundtrack like this? Was it composed and synthesized all on a computer, or was it recorded? What's the sequence of your tasks?MO: I worked in studios that contain many keyboards, synths, and samplers as well as digital recording equipment controlled by computers. I start there, and then when needed, add live instrumental performances to those recordings. When I mix the music, I sometimes eliminate the synth/sampler track and only use the live performance. Very little of the music plays back in the game the way it was originally recorded, however. I cut and edited the music into chunks that the game audio engine could play back dynamically based on the player's actions.
Thanks to Count Zero at HBO.
UnknownPlayer.com has posted an interview with Randall Glass, the author of the extremely popular Warthog Jump movie created with Apple's iMovie software and Bungie's Halo:
How long did it take you to create this movie?{rglass} I have about 1.5 hours of videotape footage of the jeep doing various things. It took about 30 minutes to set up the stunt itself. I'll talk more about that in a second. Editing the movie took considerably longer. I figure it took about a day and a half (not continuous). The first cut of the vid was well over 5 minutes. I went back and forth about what songs I wanted to put in it, what sound samples worked best. Setting up the trick... I knew I wanted to launch the jeep over some sort of arch (it's pretty boring just launching it straight up. I had to make a game of it). The funny thing about that particular halo level is that when you force a marine out of the jeep, in most cases he'll run immediately back to the beginning of the level. It's hard to clobber the guy when he's running away from you. Fortunately the marines didn't run near the place where I shot the vid. So I knew that was the right spot. The perfect thing about that spot is that you can see the jeep after it's cleared the arch, so you know if it made it over. I think bungie may have secretly made that arch just for warthog jumping.. ;-)
Thanks to VoodooExtreme for noting the interview.
Siva (W'rk)'s Halo video, How I Learned To Stop Playing And Love The Halo video is now available here on the Rampancy website.
The way to my heart is through metal music and Halo. After seeing Siva (W'rk)'s How I Stopped Playing And Learned To Love The Halo, Khen Rigzin took his footage, modified it a bit, and put in a new music track of his own. He then posted a link here on Rampancy to inform the world. If you liked Siva's version, there's absolutely no reason to miss Khen Rigzin's.
It's 55.6 MB Zip-compressed (uncompressed it's a 60 MB MPG) and is currently being housed at PlanetInternet. There aren't any mirrors just yet, but this site is plenty fast (I pulled 300k/sec the entire download). I'll see what we can do about hosting the video, although I'm not entirely sure we have the webspace for another big file.
We've got yet another masterpiece on our hands, folks. Siva (W'rk) has created an intense video displaying many moments of pure adrenaline during Halo's single player campaign as Napalm Death's Incendiary Incoming song flows seamlessly with the action. I have another name for this video, For Testosterone Apply Within.
The MPEG is 57.7 MB large and is over three minutes long. It definitely contains some spoilers, so those who haven't beaten the game may want to hold off on downloading this one for awhile. Mr. Zarquon is mirroring the video, as is Psyjnir Complex Hotline. The video is also being uploaded to RampancyHL although I can't guarantee it will be there for too long. (Thanks HBO)
The Banshee Flare movie has been added to our Halo Movies page and is now available for download from the website as well as the Hotline server.
I kid you not. Toalmaster made a tea pot modeled after a Hunter from Halo and has posted several pictures in the Marathon's Story forum. (Thanks HBO)
YAHV (Yet Another Halo Video) has hit the web and calls for your attention. FrogBlast has posted the Banshee Flare video in the HBO forum. It's not nearly as long as the two other popular Halo videos; this one's short and sweet. Click this link and 1.1 MB later you'll see a plasma grenade explode, launching a second plasma grenade up in the air and attach itself to an overhead Banshee. Pure brilliance!
UPDATE: The video is now mirrored on RampancyHL and will be on the website shortly.
There is now a local copy of What Goes Up here on the Rampancy.net website as well as the hotline server.
There's no dispute that the original Warthog Jump video was a success, but now Aikidoka and Halorigin are looking to upstage it with their new clip titled What Goes Up. In the original Warthog Jump, R. Glass used a few grenades and a rocket launcher to give the Warthog its lift. This definitely did the job, but Aikidoka and Halorigin figured that 53 grenades would work a little better.
They were right.
What Goes Up is 35 MB and is over six minutes long. Mirrors are appearing over at HBO and we plan on hosting the video here at Rampancy, too. It's already being hosted on RampancyHL for those of you who just can't wait.