News is trickling out of E3 like treacle after an explosion in a molasses factory. So far:
Voodoo Extreme is reporting from the Microsoft press conference at E3 that the Xbox 360 console will be able to play the some Xbox titles via emulation. On his blog, Major Nelson also repeats the claim issued by Robbie Bach at E3: that the Xbox 360 will play "the most popular" Xbox titles. There are also other interesting bullet points, and surely more details will come out as the conference continues; MS is expecting between 25-40 titles for the new console in 2005, and something called "Xbox Live Marketplace" will allow gamers to create and sell for cash custom game content. (One assumes that "most popular" would include at least Halo and Halo 2--Ed.)
Cortana pays the price for Master Chief's wardrobe malfunction in this week's Halo Babies cartoon. Thanks mrsmiley.
Ricodued over at Halo Messenger notes that we've added an hmsa.xml file to Rampancy.net that can be automatically detected by his Halo Messenger newsreader. This means when you click "Discover Subscription" in the application and enter the domain name "rampancy.net", Halo Messenger will automatically discover the address of Rampancy's RSS feed and subscribe to it. Certainly other sites will follow suit.
mrsmiley muses about what happens when Halo Art gets big enough to take care of itself; a truly massive art update this week at Halo Babies. (I know, we call it that every time--Ed.)
Stosh wishes a happy 7th birthday to Lil Poison, the world's youngest professional gamer. For more information, visit LiL Poison's website.
magnum76 on the Project Torlan-Nexus forum has posted an update on what is and is not acceptable to do in creating a Halo-themed mod, like theirs for Unreal Tournament; basically, it seems that extracting Halo content from PC Halo is okay, but extracting Halo 2 content from the Xbox is not. Keep in mind that the information comes from a supposed "Microsoft insider" and is not an official company statement. Voodoo Extreme had the story.
GameSpot has an item up on a US concert tour called Video Games Live put together by Tommy Tallarico and the Clear Channel Music Group. Here's why it's interesting for us:
Featured music will include songs from several generations. More modern selections include pieces from Halo, Metal Gear Solid, Legend of Zelda, and Final Fantasy, while retro fans will recognize songs from Donkey Kong and Pong.
The tour starts July 6 and will feature orchestras, choirs, and game footage played live by the audience.
This one's been sitting in the hopper for awhile-- the newest Halo Babies comic is an ambitious six-panel called the Adventure of Super Chief. Check it out! Thanks mrsmiley.
Devin has produced transcripts of the A Walk in the Woods and Under Cover of Night tracks from Halo; each file archive includes a PDF, a MIDI file, a PrintMusic document and a read me. We've added them to our Halo Sheetmusic section.
PDF, MIDI, PrintMusic and read me files for Under Cover of Night from Halo, by Marty O'Donnell.
Ross Mills asks Halo Bible author Eric Trautmann about storytelling in games on Eric's blog:
Q: RPG videogames are well known for their in-depth stories. Without major spoilers, what 5 action games would you describe as having the best, most well-thought out story apart from Halo? (which is cheating, since you did that one's story)
A: Couple points: first, I did not "do" Halo's story; I added dialogue to an existing framework that I did not generate, and second, Halo might not make my top five. The beauty of Halo is not it's story, but in it's scope, and the execution of the storytelling itself.
As it turns out, Halo does not make Eric's list; but the Marathon Trilogy tops it. Read the entire set of questions, plenty of more interesting tidbits in there.