Posts Tagged ‘halo’
Halo 3 ODST motorcycle helmet
What better way to prove your Halo fanboyism than the cruise down the street on a motorcycle wearing an ODST helmet? What may have seemed like a dream to you Halo feins may soon be a realty as what you see above is the X-Lite X-802 concept motorcycle helmet.
Now, the chances of this helmet ever being made available are currently unknown but we’ll keep an eye on it and let you know.
via kotaku
Halo 3: ODST third fastest selling 360 game
VGChartz has recently posted up the results for the first week of sales for Halo 3: ODST and the results are sure to have both Bungie and Microsoft a bit excited. It seems that judging by “week one” sales alone, Halo 3: ODST is now the third fastest selling game of all time behind only Halo 3 and GTA IV with Gears of War 2 close behind in 4th.
However, you have to make note that ODST was released on a Tuesday while Gears of War 2 was released on a Friday, giving ODST 5 days in their first week of sales while Gears 2 only had 2. So, literally, it’s the 4th fastest selling Xbox 360 game but technically. it’s the third. Get it?
Anyways, sales were right around 1.8 million with 1.7 million of those copies being taken off store shelves in North America, 230,000 in the UK, 50,000 in France and about 20,000 in Japan.
So, it’s official, put Halo on anything and it’ll sell like hot cakes!
Halo 3: ODST soundtrack out on September 22nd
Halo is the kind of game that you either love or hate but one things for sure, the entire Halo franchise has beautiful music. Those who share the same views as me will be happy to hear that the official Halo 3: ODST soundtrack will be hitting store shelves on September 22nd.
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
Halo Waypoint coming to Xbox Live on November 5th
It was recently announced via twitter that Halo Waypoint will be hitting Xbox Live on November 5th. Now before you get too excited, Halo Waypoint is not a new Halo game (I had you goin’ for a second, huh?).
Instead, Halo Waypoint is a service to be offered over Xbox Live to will include everything to do with the Halo universe; think podcasts, trailers, interviews and more. Additionally, Halo Waypoint will serve as the mode of delivery for the Halo Legends anime mini series that we heard about back in June.
Excited? No? Me neither.
Halo Legends shown off via video
Yesterday Microsoft let us know that there would be an anime miniseries inspiried by their flagship franchise, Halo entitled Halo Legends.
Today, the internets are a buzz over the miniseries’ debut trailer, included above. As you can see, there are segments produced by all 5 Japanese studios that are signed onto the project.
But wait, during Casio Entertainment’s segment there are the beginnings of a CG swordfight. I don’t remember Master Chief moving so nimbly in the video games. Oh well, let’s hope Halo Legends does the franchise justice and isn’t just an attempt by Microsoft to milk the franchise.
Mark Ecko’s line of Halo inspired t-shirts
Are you a fan of Ecko clothing? I’m not, but I’m a fan of Halo effectively making the above shirts at least kind of cool.
Seriously though, what you see above a collection of 6 Halo-inspired Ecko t-shirts that are now available for purchase. They are priced from 32-38 dollars and feature Master Chief aimin’, shootin’ and (most importantly) posin’.
Sure, I have to give it Ecko for making a few cool designs but as for the rest, well, I think Kotaku puts it best when they said they look like “designs that you would expect to see adorning an unlicensed beach towel in a South-East Asian marketplace.
Read (Ecko)
YouTube user fashions Halo 1 pistol out of wood
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.
Germany bans public play of Counter-Strike
It seems Germany is at it again, this time setting their eyes upon Valve’s extremely popular Counter-Strike series. Legislation was recently passed that now makes it illegal to play Counter-Strike in public.
This has led to the cancelation of Germany’s Convention-X-Treme LAN event which is sure to discourage the mass of German gamers. Furthermore, Destructoid is reporting that World of Warcraft has also been banned from public play.
What’s next, Germany, Halo?
Halo: Reach’s teaser trailer
In addition to announcing the continuation to the Halo series, Halo: Reach, Bungie also released a teaser trailer for the game that didn’t emerge on the internet until now.
Additionally, Microsoft announced that if you purchase Halo 3: ODST later this year you will be invited to test out a Halo: Reach multiplayer beta, much like the Halo 3 beta included with Crackdown prior to its release.
Anyways, watch the trailer and gawk over Halo’s return.
Halo Wars “Strategic Options” DLC Announced
The real drawback to RTS games when it comes to fulfilling the armchair general fantasy is that it’s all based on pre-programmed systems and mathematics. There’s little chance for the kind of real heroics or surprising victories that pepper human history and inspire books and films. Usually someone comes up with a dominating strategy and this becomes the generally accepted tactic, which can spoil the fun for less hardcore gamers.
Microsoft is seeking to keep people on their toes and interested in the console RTS Halo Wars. They’ve just announced a new Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable content pack called “Strategic Options”. It adds three new multiplayer modes to the mix. The first is ‘Keepaway Mode’ which is inspire by classic capture the flag gameplay. Players seek to capture free-roaming Forerunner sentinels, the first to capture three wins. ‘Tug of War Mode’ is a little more straightforward with the decimation of your opponent’s army being the ultimate goal but in the end your remaining units, resources and buildings will all be considered in whether or not you’ve succeeded.
Finally ‘Reinforcement Mode’ provides you with active battle units in successive waves, forcing you to alter your tactics to fit the newest wave of units that have come your way. Thus far there’s no pricing or release date, but it says it’ll be out in the ‘next few weeks’ and for just a few extra gameplay modes and a handful of achievements I certainly hope they won’t try to charge more than $5.
Halo Wars Review–Marching On To Surprisingly Fun Battle
I may have found something really interesting this time around–a Halo game that isn’t just more motion sickness-inducing run-and-gun action. Brand new out of the pack is the Xbox 360’s newest colossal cash grab, Halo Wars.
On the off chance that you’ve been in a coma for the last ten years and need a quick crash course, here’s the skinny. There was this MONSTER franchise that came out of Microsoft. It was like their Doom. Or maybe their Final Fantasy, if Final Fantasy were a first person shooter. It was called Halo, and there were three of them, all with that same first person shooter engine. Now, apparently, Microsoft is beginning to take its cues from Ben Franklin, convinced that shooter games are like fish AND houseguests–after three installments, they start to stink. Thus, they had to go in a different direction, and they looked to the real-time strategy game for their inspiration.
Thus was Halo Wars born. And the result was actually better than much of its predecessors, even though I’m probably just a bit biased against first person shooters.
Basically, playing in story mode, you’ll be sent along with a contingent of UNSC troops on board the UNSC Spirit of Fire, to investigate Covenant activity on planet Harvest. This is all, parenthetically, set about twenty years before Halo. Anyway, after the UNSC, as led by Sergeant Forge, hits dirtside on Harvest, they find the Covenant is actively engaged in excavating a “holy relic” which is actually a Forerunner facility that’s really a map to another star system. The star system the Forerunners were trying to point out is Arcadia, home to a small human colony. The Spirit of Fire immediately heads for Arcadia, only to find the Covenant is ahead of them and ravaging the planet, which is itself the key to the single most destructive force unearthed in the galaxy. I won’t spoiler on just what it is because it is actually pretty mindblowing.
Indeed, Halo Wars is mindblowing on a whole lot of levels. Graphically it’s an absolute triumph–this thing looks so sharp and clear that calling it “realistic” is almost an insult. The musical score, meanwhile, sounds as symphonic as it ever did. And normally about this point I’d start complaining about the gameplay, or how I had to sit through a raftload of cut scenes before I even got to the game–well no sir, not this time. This time I got action within a few minutes and I got it pretty well at that. Even the tutorial wasn’t tough to sit through, and that’s something of an achievement in and of itself. I can’t even complain about the gameplay, because there was just something so invigorating about having a quarter-dozen Warthogs and a collection of various Marine troops under your command to just send in a thoroughly crushing fashion onto any Covenant position you can find.
It’s fun to keep an eye on your resources, and engineer fresh bases as you need them, complete with automated turret defenses. Every step feels like a victory in a game like this, as you go marching into battle in Covenant-occupied territory, both taking and holding territory. It’s only your wits that keep you alive in a game like this, not your trigger finger, and that’s an interesting departure from the ordinary, one that I’m all too happy to embrace.
Halo Wars should prove to be plenty of fun for anyone else who takes a run at it.
Hackers on Xbox Live turning into a problem
Ever since Halo 2 on Xbox Live for the original Xbox, there have been those users unhappy with their ranking who feel the need to manipulate the network to their advantage.
Well, the problem hasn’t stop and it has infact escalated. Apparently, creators of such methods are selling programs, and even offering services, that kick your opponent off of Xbox Live. How is it done?
Well, the cheater routes their Xbox connection through their computer, obtains your IP address, floods it with packets, and kicks you off. Sounds like fun? It’s not, I’ve encountered one too many of these guys on Halo 3.
Microsoft has issued the following statement on the subject:
We are investigating reports involving the use of malicious software tools that an attacker could use to try and disrupt an Xbox LIVE player’s internet connection.
This problem is not related to the Xbox Live service, but to the player’s internet connection. The attacker could also attempt [to] disrupt other internet activities, such as streaming video or web browsing, using the same tools.”
Read (Kotaku)
Europe Getting ‘Best of Halo’ Bundle
Unfortunately for American gamers Microsoft is focusing a good portion of their efforts on getting the Xbox 360 a larger install base outside of its home country. The ‘Best of Halo’ bundle is releasing on February 27th in Europe, but there’s no word on if the bundle will be making its way outside of Europe. It’s unlikely that it would be brought to Japan, given that the series isn’t terribly popular over there.
The bundle retails for $350 and comes with a 60 gigabyte Xbox 360 Pro unit, a one-month subscription to Xbox Live and copies of both Halo 3 and Halo Wars. Of course debate will rage about whether or not this bundle really constitutes the ultimate in Halo games, with probably a lot of people thinking that a true ‘Best Of’ bundle would include a disc of the original, or a voucher for downloading the original from the Xbox Originals.
Teen Convicted In Halo 3 Related Killing
It’s sad enough to see people so caught up in the world of video games that they eschew friends, family and normal social situations, but when violence gets involved it’s much, much worse. Recently Daniel Petric, a teen from Ohio, shot his parents after they confiscated his copy of Halo 3 (which they’d forbidden him to buy). His father survived the shooting, which Petric had attempted to make look like a murder-suicide by putting the gun into his father’s hand after he had shot both of them.
As one might expect, the lawyers attempted to blame the crime on Petric’s video game addiction, which had something to do with why his parents instructed him not to buy Halo 3. They were going for the insanity defense, but the murder-suicide plot and the fact that Petric admitted to thinking about killing his parents in the weeks before the crime generally eroded his claim of insanity and he was convicted.
Daniel Petric now faces sentencing with life in prison without parole as the maximum sentence. While this is a terrible tragedy and I send my sympathies to Mr. Petric and his family, it’s good to see that the spirit of accountability is still alive in a country that’s all together too quick to blame others.
Microsoft marks down Halo: CE for the holidays
Sure Halo 3 and Halo 2 are cool games, but for the competitive Halo-scene Halo: Combat Evolved is arguably the best of the trilogy.
Well now you have a chance to snag the historic game for 50% off the 1200 Microsoft point price tag, thanks to Microsoft’s Holiday Deal of the Week series. And, for the math geniuses out there, that brings the price down to 600 Microsoft Points.
This deal with be available starting tomorrow on Xbox Originals and, of course, is only offered to Xbox Live Gold members.
Read (MajorNelson)