Kudos to HBO for getting scans of a promotional copy of the Official XBox Magazine that was handed out at E3. The issue features four pages of HALO goodness in which they have ridiculously labeled HALO as XBox only, something we have known to be false for quite some time. In any case, check 'em out:

• Page 1
• Page 2
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Apparently the German magazine GameStar has put an exclusive video of HALO from E3 on their latest issue's disc and HBO has got a hold of it:

Thanks to an intrepid HBO agent in Germany, we've gotten our hands on the Gamestar CD movie mentioned a few days ago. Now, we can't actually put this movie online yet (to do so would violate Gamestar's copyright), but we can tell you that it contains filmed footage from the first two missions, as do most of the E3 movies. There is a telltale red glow at the bottom of the image, indicating that (like other films) it was recorded off one of the plasma screen displays (they had small halogen lights underneath them, which cast these red glows on the screens themselves). However, the quality is very high, higher than most other stuff out there... and the gameplay is quite good - looks like the player is no novice. There are some interesting tidbits in this film, such as flying Covenant Elites, a look at the newest Covenant race, and a spectacular view of the jeep's undercarriage. We'll make this available as soon as we can - please be patient.

Indeed, keep an eye out at halo.bungie.org for this video.

Matt's HALO Update went to HBO this week, and here it is:

- Stephen is reworking the flamethrower animation and working outanimations for one of the other weapons added last week.

- Cortana has these nifty light patterns that ripple over her body.

- The Mighty Chris Butcher has done the work necessary for AIs to fightin midair. He's also created a bunch of tools for Jaime to use whenpopulating the human ship and assigning behaviors to its inhabitants.

You'll have to visit HBO for the rest. Now discuss!

• Forum: Halo Update

Forum poster |bmr|kuran was asking about HALO cutscenes, wondering if they'll be rendered in-engine or as FMV. Joseph Staten of the Sin-O-MatiXXX team posted the answer to this and more:

1. All of Halo's cinematics will be rendred in the engine.
2. Some cinematics you'll be able to move while they're playing (non-interruptive) and some you'll just have to sit back and watch (interruptive).
3. The minor more level-specific cutscenes are the former, the major cutscenes are the latter.
4. The Xbox, and, more importantly, the Halo engine has no trouble rendering complex scenes such as, oh, the Pillar of Autumn engaged in a battle above Threshold with the recon picket of a Covenant battle-group. Not that we're doing that, mind you...

• Forum: Re: cutscenes in HALO

Here's the unedited update, baby!

No rest for Bungie. Here's a taste of what's happening:

- We now have team-specific versions of all multiplayer games. We're also introducing a bunch of multiplayer options (unlimited grenades, motion tracker off, limited number of lives, player with ball runs faster instead of slower, and a bunch more) so people can set up games under all sorts of interesting, challenging, amusing conditions.

- Speaking of multiplayer, Chris Carney is the latest addition to the team, designing new multiplayer maps.

- Several new weapons were added to the build this week. Rob gave me a quick history of the sniper rifle to explain why the one in Halo is approximately six feet long.

- Rob also has the skull model mostly done. He's building the teeth in his spare time.

- Shiek, Mr. Sexy Graphical Effects himself, has inserted several new ones into the game, including a lovely condensation effect and some nifty fire.

- Grenades now light up their surroundings when they detonate.

- The artists are playing with fog and silhouettes to maximize the creepiness of certain levels and encounters. Though as Marcus pointed out, the real fun comes when Marty starts adding sound to those levels.

- The Mighty Chris Butcher is doing stuff so mighty it must remain secret for now. The only thing he's done lately that I'm allowed to comment on is allowing designers to specify AI behavior in scripts.

- Joseph is working out more cutscenes, while Marty has taken to locking himself in his studio for hours at a time.

- Adam is working on some wounded Marines. You'll meet them along the way and might get some information or ammo from them. Shades of another Bungie game...

Matt Soell has cause quite a stir in the community with his latest post on HALO, multiplay, and the XBox:

Unfortunately it's not possible for us to code support for internet play without more info than we have now. So Xbox Halo won't magically work over the internet when MS gets their networking stuff up. I don't think a patch will happen either.

A separate product is a possibility, but as things stand right now there is no definite plan for such a product. The team gets to decide what they work on next, but they won't make that decision until Halo is done.

I should make clear that I'm talking specifically about the Xbox version of Halo here.

I'd always found HALO's multiplayer vision to be the most intriguing aspect of the game and it's sad to see it eliminated just so it can be a launch title. *sigh*