Death by intelligence.
Halo Launch Party
No7orious's Launch Party Reports
no7orious was kind enough to write not one, but two great reports covering his experience at the Halo launch party. The first report covers the span of the entire launch party, describing who did what, who played what, and what was played. The party started with an on-screen Halo drill sergeant getting people in line:
Right away a Halo drill sergeant was on the screen telling the attendees that he was expecting muscular good looking participants, and instead he had a bunch of pussy geeks in front of him. After that though he gave us a very short introduction to Halo, showed us the enemy (a grunt) and then shot it in the back. People cheered. The party had (officialy) begun.
The second report gives some Bungie responses to rumors, such as the Mac and PC versions of Halo, Phoenix, and SeventhColumn.org.
Halo Launch Party tidbits (rumors)
the tru7h? or not... rumors follow, I am not the voice of Bungie, but I sure do have a big mouth.
In the opening speech, it was mentioned that SeventhColumn.org would open up this week. Later while talking to Matt Soell I asked about having more localized fan parties around the states (if you will recall in the rsvp emails that he had us send to him he asked us to provide where we were coming from... gets you thinking, doesn't it). He said that more info would arrive this week. I finally got him to admit that seventhcolumn.org might have a teensy weensy bit with organizing these smaller fanfests.
Someone also asked Matt if Phoenix was fantasy like Lord of the Rings to which he replied that it was more fantastical than LOTR. Draw from that what you will.
While talking with the playtester of Halo (whose name is definetly written down on the notes I DON'T have with me right now) I asked about Film saving. He relayed to me that it could have been done, but the UI for it along with a host of smaller things kept it from being done. Other things, like bug squashing, and making the AI stop crashing into things ended up taking priority.
I asked Matt about Halo 2 stating that Microsoft might want to have this flagship title to have a sequal-marketing and all that. He said that Microsoft will most definetly push for a sequel, but that it is near impossible to tell Jason Jones what to do.(remember the 'Gods of Gaming'? he had something to do with his own absence) Guess we will have to wait and see.
I was talking to...someone...(I have the name written down somewhere, honest) about the online presence of Bungie. He replied that there is now a set schedule of what goes where online and when. He said they literally have a stack of concept art that is waiting to be scanned and posted to the web. (seventhcolumn.org anyone? just a guess)
Online is still up in the air. (which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but we can still hope...or wait for Halo 2)
That is all that comes to me right now, if you have any questions, ask them in the forums. I tried to ask all the questions I could think of. Oh yeah, Halo the movie is still waiting for a production team that can do it justice. (however, even if Steven Spielberg wanted to do it, it might not be done. wait and see)
If you were there you would have asked these questions too, so there are the answers. Do with them what you will.
By the way, when I told Matt that I had heard a nasty rumor that Halo wouldn't be coming to the PC and Mac, he got this feral look in his eye and lunged at me! Later after he had calmed down a bit he relayed to me that Bungie hadn't decided whether they were going to do it in house or not. If it isn't done in House, Bold has first rights to do it. In his own words as well as I can remember: 'We have so many reasons that we have to get Halo ported to the PC and Mac. We have said that it would happen so many times, we couldn't NOT do it now if we wanted to.' No news on when though.
Halo Launch Party Swamped
Louis Wu has reported over at HBO that the recent exposure of the Halo launch party on some of the larger Xbox fan sites has generated a deluge of RSVP responses; about three times the number they can actually withstand. Matt Soell has also posted in the forum about how they will handle the situation:
We're building a list of attendees in order of when they RSVPed. (Thus Tom Van Sinden, the very first person to RSVP, is assured a spot.) I'll be contacting people who didn't leave names, or had some other weirdness associated with their name (i.e. I will definitely come but I might bring 27 friends, or possibly just six and that sort of thing). The first 250 people who responded will get priority; people who responded after that first batch will be admitted as circumstances allow. People who didn't RSVP at all attend at their own risk; we may not be able to accomodate you. I'll try to contact everyone who responded to let them know whether they're in the lucky first batch, so watch your email.
Matt's also asked people not to send him more email asking about whether or not someone is guaranteed a spot, as that will just slow him down trying to determine the answer to that question anyway.
Update On Covenant Elite Statue Contest
Harry pointed out that since the Bungie Store reopened in July there's been an opportunity to join Bungie's mailing list register to win the Juan Ramirez Covenant Elite statue. 3of9 added, however, that said registration page hasn't worked in some time. In fact, as of this writing, the Register link on the Bungie Store page generates a page not found error at this URL: https://shop.ecompanystore.com/bungie/BNG_newCustomer.asp
Seventh Column Update
SeventhColumn.org has updated and now displays a large 6 . This looks like it could be a countdown to the release of the Xbox, which will be released on November 15 (Actually 7 days from today. Hmm...). Also notice that the main site redirects you to http://www.seventhcolumn.org/blam.pl?file=/soon.htm. Nice, guys. (Thanks mad.max)
Don't Make Bungie Kick Your Ass
The site isn't loading for us here at R.net headquarters at the moment, but it's been mentioned both at HBO and now at TeamXbox that the Halo manual includes a reference to the following URL: http://www.seventhcolumn.org.
We haven't seen it yet, but apparently that URL was displaying a numeral 7 and Don't make us kick your ass in Latin (NON FACETE NOBIS CALCITRARE VESTRVM PERINÆVM).
Aside from the obvious 7 reference, it's unclear yet what, if any, the significance of seventhcolumn.org is; the name itself is registered to Yeoren (Max Hoberman), Bungie's webmaster.
Beaver On The Bungie Webcam
But no, it's not what you think. Although the logo on the bottle does look a bit like Ling Ling.
Bungie.net: No Web Site Here
As you may have noticed, the expected downtime for Bungie.net has begun. Visitors to the site right now are seeing just a No web site is configured at this address message. We'll keep tabs on the site and post a note when the new version comes online.
Bungie Preparing To Launch New Website
Mordia has posted over on Bungie.net that their websites will go down for awhile soon as they prepare to launch their new and improved Bungie.net site.
Single-Player (Bullseye's Buglist)
2 Mouse clicks on the save game screen are received by your units in the game as orders to move/attack
2 In game chat is small and hard to read (especially over snow)
3 The restart level button when you fail actually does revert-to-last-save (presumably only if a save exists). To prevent confusion this button should be better labelled, or else make two buttons, one for revert, one for true restart
Bungie Fan Gathering In Australia
Inky is looking to arrange a gathering for Bungie fans in southern Australia. Look forward to lots of gaming and other methods of entertainment I can't even wrap my head around. Bungie's own Matt Soell may fly down under for a few days, too. If you would like to attend, show your face in this thread and check out the Crocodile gathering website.
AU Fanfest Enters Early Planning
Doughnut over at Subnova is reporting that they are beginning to collect contact info for those who might attend a Fanfest in Australia. Check Subnova for details.