If you thought that the Halo franchise was no longer popular, you’d be wrong and we have proof! In just 24 hours since Halo 3: ODST has been on store shelves close to 1 million players have logged onto the game. Furthermore, more than 6 million games have been logged in this same time period ensuring ODST’s popularity.

To put this into comparison, Halo 3 itself logged around 1.5 million players and around the same number of games during the same time slot. Now we’ll just have to wait a few days and see how these numbers fluctuate before we pass judgment but as of now Halo 3: ODST seems to be a hit.

If you want to see these numbers for yourself head over to Bungie.net where they have a widget proudly displaying said numbers.

Unfortunately, there will be no ODST brandings on the console itself but it will include Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and the Halo: Reach beta in addition to a Xbox Live 1-month membership card.

There’s no word if us Americans will ever be seeing this SKU but European gamers can expect it to hit store shelves sometime in early October.

Halo

The 2-disc Halo 3: ODST sound track will feature sounds from Marty O’Donnel and Michael Salvatori and is said to showcase the series’ new direction with ODST. Marty O’Donnell comments:

“I’m happy to be able to share all new compositions and recordings created for Halo 3: ODST. The music reflects the new mood, new heroes, and new story of the game. I worked with the Northwest Sinfonia for the orchestral recordings and also added some nice alto sax solos and some new guitar solos. The piano sneaks back in again a few times too, but I can’t seem to help that.”

To snag the soundtrack, just head over to www.sumthingdigital.com or grab it off iTunes on September 22nd.

via kotaku

Now we’re not sure how long the above video is going to be around for so if you’re looking to get in on the action, you better do it fast. But anyways, included in said video is over 8 minutes of leaked Halo 3: ODST footage. Of course, being campaign footage there will be a ton of spoilers so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

As for the rest of us who don’t like spoilers, well, we’re just going to have to wait until September 22nd when the game is officially released.

Bungie has recently been kind enough to release a video documentary featuring none other than Halo 3: ODST.

While there are several cips of actual gameplay featured in the video, the purpose it serves is to give us a closer look at the characters the game is based around. Add to that a full break down of a few of the game’s weapons and other in-game technology and you have yourself a very intersting video.

Halo 3: ODST will be out exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd, 2009.

Now, you can’t really get on Bungie’s case about this as ODST is essentially just an add-on for Halo 3 which means it’s running on the exact same engine. But for those of you who think the improved graphics of the ODST mean enhanced technology, think again.

Bungie elaborates on the subject:

“Everything that existed in Halo 3’s engine was there from the beginning. So the graphical differences that you’re seeing in ODST is really testament to the artists, because they were able to just take the tools that we had from the beginning, and just make awesome looking stuff.”

Halo 3: ODST will hit store shelves exclusivly for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd, 2009.

Read (GamesWire)

Have you guys all seen the YouTube video of the kid who made ridiculous amounts of Halo weapons out of cardboard? Well, this is the same thing, but a bit more extreme.

Showcased in the above video is a YouTube user by the name of Gradun66 who has made an exact replica of the pistol featured in Halo 1. It has a functioning magazine and bolt-action. There even seems to be a Battle Rifle of the same quality he is working on in the back.

The latest Halo game, Halo 3: ODST, will hit the market exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd.

We’ve been hinted at these for some time now but finally Bungie has taken the veil off of the 3 all new multiplayer maps that will be included with Halo 3: ODST.

Halo 2 players will recognize the above map as it is a remake of the extremely popular Midship and is now entitled Heretic. The two other maps to be included are Citadel and Longshore and are sure to renew your Halo 3 vibes.

Halo 3: ODST will be on store shelves on September 22nd of this year.

To peep picks of both Citadel and Longshore, head here.

It seems that Bungie has followed Treyarch and Epic’s examples with Double XP weekends for Gears of War 2 and CoD: WaW, respectively, and announced the same for Halo 3.

This event begins today and runs until 2AM Monday and will require the Heroic, Legendary and Mythic map packs to participate.

Common developers, now’s your chance, anymore Double XP weekends we need to hear about?

Read (Bungie)

It seems that EA and Dr. Pepper have signed a multimillion dollar advertising deal that will have the two companies cross advertising eachothers products.

The first project announced involves EA advertising Dr Pepper products in The Sims 3 early next year while Dr Pepper will include codes for unlockable Sims 3 content in their products.

This sounds great considering Dr Pepper is one of my favorite sodas, but I still think I like Mountain Dew’s introduction of Game Fuel as an advertisement for Halo 3 and reintrduced it for World of Warcraft. Anyone agree?

Read (IndustryGamers)

Bungie is known for their extremely popular Halo franchise and Infinity Ward is known for the extremely popular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and upcoming Modern Warfare 2. It’s pretty much always been like that and it will probably always going to be like that. I can’t complain because they are great games.

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, however, can’t say the same:

“I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that’s not Halo. Same with Infinity Ward. It’s like, dude I’m totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven’t seen before?”

You know what, Mr. Pitchford, I agree with you. Bungie and Infinity Ward is full of extremely talented developers so why not let them get their hands on something that isn’t their flagship title. Only good would come from that, right?

Read (Joystiq) ]]> http://www.digitalbattle.com/2009/06/22/gearbox-ceo-wants-innovation-out-of-bungie-infinity-ward-too/feed/ 1 http://www.digitalbattle.com/2009/06/19/activision-wants-modern-warfare-2-to-be-biggest-entertainment-launch-of-all-time/ http://www.digitalbattle.com/2009/06/19/activision-wants-modern-warfare-2-to-be-biggest-entertainment-launch-of-all-time/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:39:49 +0000 Jeff Baker http://www.digitalbattle.com/?p=24388

It’s no secret that Activision is looking to make a huge impression with their highly anticipated FPS Modern Warfare 2 but just how big, you ask?

Well, it seems that the mega-publisher has contracted advertising firm TBWA with the task of making Modern Warfare 2 the “biggest entertainment launch of all time”. This means that Activision is looking to put Halo 3’s first day sales of 1.7 million copies and GTA IV’s first day sales of 3.6 million copies to shame.

Do you think Modern Warfare 2 will live up to the hype? Given Call of Duty 4’s success there is a good chance that it will. Not to mention the fact that it’s shipping on just about every major console (including the PC0 there is.

I guess we’ll have to wait until the game’s November 10th release date to pass judgement.

Read (GI.biz)

If you’re looking to pick up a few Xbox 360 games but don’t want to spend 60-bucks, you should check out Walmart’s latest deal. For a limited time, online customers can pick two qualifying games and recieve them for just $20 a peice.

Of course, don’t go thinking you’re going to pick up Halo 3 and Call of Duty: World at War for the discounted price as the list includes games like Sega Superstars Tennis, FIFA Street 3 and NFL Head Coach 09. Yeah, you get the point.

Anyways, you can head here to see the full list of 11 discounted games and pick out any two you want.

Step aside Master Chief, this time Mountain Dew has teamed up with Blizzard to release not one but two versions of World of Warcarft Game Fuel; Alliance Blue and Horde Red.

Of course, gamers will be able to get an exclusive in-game pet, known as a Battle-bot, upon purchasing the new Dew but that’s just the beginning of it. Game Fuel drinkers will also get a chance to win prizes from companies like Alienware, Razer and Jinx.

Fans of the Halo 3 Game Fuel need not be discouraged as the Horde Red Game Fuel is actually a rebranded version of the original recipe. Be on the lookout for Game Fuel everywhere you would normally purchase soda.

Sure, it’s no Modern Warfare 2 but Halo 3: ODST has a good slice of hype surrounding it and the above video from E3 showcasing gameplay footage will only add to that.

ODST is looking good so far, if I do say so myself, and the robust campaign mode will be a nice break from the normal Master Chief story. Then again, what’s Halo without the Chief?

Halo 3: ODST will hit shelves for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd and will ship with access to the multiplayer beta of Halo: Reach.

Halo-heads will be happy to hear that Microsoft has announced that the $99 Collector’s Edition of Halo 3: ODST will include the above limited edition controller.

Microsoft made it a point that this controller will only be available with Halo 3: ODST and no where else. Then again, there’s always eBay.

But anyways, Halo 3: ODST will be made available for the Xbox 360 in September.

Bungie has recently announced on their website that their Render-to-Video service has entered a public beta. If you don’t know what this service is, it lets users converted saved ingame clips into actual video. This is a much needed feature for those who like to compile Halo 3 montages or other machinima.

Don’t throw away your capture card yet as this service will cost you Bungie Points. What are Bungie Points? Bungies answer to Microsoft Points, I guess. Honestly though, you’ll be able to exchange 1 Bungie Point for 1 minute of standard definition video or 5 points for 1 minute of high definition video.

Bungie says the beta will run until July with the actual service going live sometime around Bungie Day (July 7th).

If you are new to the Xbox scene or are just looking to upgrade your existing console you should check out the recently announced Xbox 360 Elite Games of the Year bundle.

Featured in this new pack is your run of the mill Xbox 360 Elite, equipped with a black body and 120GB harddrive, along with both Halo 3 and Fable 2. And, the best part is that this SKU will retain the original Elite’s asking price of $400.

Heck, Microsoft even threw in a free Netflix trial, what a deal!

Read (Engadget)

Some parents or advocacy groups might be disturbed to know that in the 565 days since the release of Halo 3 over ten billion covenant have been killed in the campaign mode. That means since the game’s launch over 12,000 aliens have been killed every minute. If you laid the corpses end on end they’d create a chain that wrapped around the earth 456 times, although it’d probably be shorter due to the many covenant who were blown into tiny pieces.