Posted by urk at 1/20/2009 9:11 AM PST

Comin' in hot.


HBO just posted a link to an exhaustive technical analysis of the Pillar of Autumn.  Chances are, if you're not as big of a fan as SoundEffect is (we're not liking your odds here), then this is going to blow your mind.  Hit the link below to learn everything you ever wanted to know and more about the Pillar of Autumn.

UNSC Halcyon-class Cruiser (SCS Pillar of Autumn)

Article by Stephen Loftus [SoundEffect]

Tags: Halo - All, Halo 3

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Posted by urk at 11/12/2008 2:39 PM PST

You'll only have to wrap one box.


The observant people over at HBO noticed that there's a new flavor of the Halo Trilogy Soundtrack being made available this December - just in time for the gift giving season.  If you don't already own the full set of five separately released soundtracks, or if you just fancy yourself a "completist," you might want to hit the link below and add this to your wishlist.

Halo Trilogy - The Complete Original Soundtracks

Tags: Halo - All, Game Music

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Posted by urk at 11/11/2008 11:19 AM PST

Trailblazing at supersonic speed.


A few weeks back we whipped up a blog entry on The Tyrant's level-by-level SLASO tutorial project.  Well, it turns out that one of the pioneers of the process, and the progenitor of the term SLASO itself, posts right here on our own fancy forums.  For those not in the know, SLASO is an acronym: Solo Legendary All Skulls On.  It's for crazy people.

Angry messages from a bevy of SonicJohn's fans clued us in that we had been derelict in our duty.  We left John and his amazing trailblazing out of our coverage.  We're sorry.  This week, we're making amends by way of a brief interview with the man himself.

Q. What's up SonicJohn?  Tell us a little bit about yourself.

A. Hey there, I’m SonicJohn.  I’m 17 years old and live in Dundee, “The City of Discovery,” Scotland. I’ve been involved with the Bungie Community since August 2004.  You may remember me as the guy who started “Project L.A.S.O.,” The Mystery of the Gate/The Search For The Ultimate Egg (TUE), and you might have seen me posting around the forum with my “Webcam MVP” title, which I and six others were awarded for winning a Webcam Game.

I’m currently a college student studying “Apprenticeship into Computer Games Development," which sounds fancy, but is basically an introductory course into what game developers will expect out of applicants.

Q. An apprenticeship?  That does sound fancy.  So what's with the tag, "SonicJohn?"

A: “SonicJohn” is simple really. When I was nine, my family finally got the internet and my parents asked what I wanted to have for a username.  My mom suggested that I combine something I loved with my name. I’d grown up on the retro Sonic games—the better ones like Sonic 1 on the Mega Drive, err…Genesis—so my favourite thing at the time was definitely Sonic. Thus, “SonicJohn” was born.

Q. Now that you're all grown up, and no doubt an expert at the Internet, where do you spend the majority of your e-time?

A: Oh I’ve haunted a few forums, but by far it has to be here on Bungie.net in the Septagon. I’d love to throw out thousands of reasons for it, but it’s pretty self-evident once you pop in and look around. It’s the quietest board of the lot, and has topics that are the most relevant to my interests.

Q: And those interests are?

A: I’ve always gamed. Since the age of three, I’ve always been amazed by the music, the artistic design, and the story lines of great games. Those are the only three things about games that really matter to me.  I play a lot of games with my dad and little brother. My dad’s important to me being here on Bungie.net.

Q. What was the first Bungie title you and your dad tackled together?

A. Halo: Combat Evolved was the very first Bungie game I had ever come across. Totally clichéd, but that’s to be expected when it is more than certainly one of greatest games for music, art, and storyline. Like I said earlier, my dad was important for me being here on Bungie.net; it was him who introduced me to Halo. Whilst I forgive him for spoiling the appearance of “jumping popcorn” when we were still only on the third level, I really wish I could have had that surprise of encountering the Flood myself.

Q. Fathers often feel compelled to protect their offspring.  It's been that way since the Dawn of Time.  Fast-forwarding to the modern day, are you surprised by your present level of community involvement?

A. I’m not surprised that people know my name here on Bungie.net, but it’s amazing to see that people know me on other Halo forums.  I guess it’s because I put myself out there, and try my best to only do projects that can be appreciated by the masses. TUE, SLASO, Community Carnages, the Bungie Community Podcast , and Custom Campaign are just a few of the projects I’ve created and continue to create for the Community’s benefit.

Q. We're glad to have you aboard.  Final thoughts?  Wanna recognize some of your peeps?

A. I’d like to make a shout-out to some of my closest friends here in the community. They’re the ones who make me who I am. They’re not in any real order; they’ve all inspired me in some way:

CAVX – my bestest friend, who is also known as my Bnet-Twin.  He’s a really creative and interesting individual. Ultimately, he's a pretty cool guy and doesn't afraid of anything.  Additionally, one time he accidentally his armpit, it was win.

Cortana 5 – Bright, breezy girl, with her head in the clouds (and loving it).  She keeps me sane in knowing that there are individuals out there who are much crazier than I.  Interesting trivia: Cortana 5’s mum has hugged Marty O’Donnell and Shishka.

Brand220 – Brandon’s one of the original guys who helped me out with TUE.  He writes a lot of really interesting fan-fiction, mostly involving me dying…but not dying, and coming back to die again. It’s pretty confusing actually…WHY DON’T I JUST DIE ALREADY?

MightyDuckK – As mighty as the name implies.  Duck was one of my closest amigos during Project LASO; I also continue to use his epic voice for machinima and podcasts. Give him a call if you need a narrator, or announcer, or voice actor. He’s good for all of that.

Well, that’s that really. Thank you anyone who was interested enough to read about me and how I fit in, and of course, thank you Bungie for giving me the opportunity to feature here on the Blog.

For some reason I feel like saying something really intelligent and thought-provoking, but that wouldn’t be like me at all. Catch you all on the forums!

Well, that was verbose.  The man has many peeps deserving of shout outs and a talent for excess.  We should be thankful.

And there was much, much more SonicJohn wanted to relay, but in the interest in maintaining some level of succinctness, we had to reign him in.  If you feel compelled to pick the man's brain, click the discussion link and have at it.  Something tells me he'll be more than happy to entertain you.  If you've got the guts (and the skills, patience, and wherewithal), why not go ahead and give a SLASO run a try?  If you get stuck, I think SonicJohn might be willing to give you some pointers.

Tags: Community, Spotlight, Halo - All

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Posted by urk at 11/10/2008 9:29 AM PST

7 votes is more than enough.


HBO's Guilt O' Lantern pumpkin carving contest has come and gone once again.

From the frontpage (bet you didn't know HBO even had a frontpage):

"The voting for our Guilt O' Lantern contest wrapped up last night - and the winners are now visible. Congratulations to the winners... and thanks to all the voters! First and second place were solidly taken - but third-place was an EXTREMELY close-fought battle, with the lead changing hands a dozen times in the past few days. The final tally had Jericho's pumpkin taking the slot by just 7 votes. (Interestingly enough, the winning design was popular enough to take second place in last year's competition - different carving, but same base image.) Prizes will go out pretty soon!"

Head on over to the site to check out this year's winning entries.

This Year's Crop

Tags: Community, Halo - All

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Posted by urk at 11/4/2008 10:49 AM PST

What's a Mongrilled?  Step inside to find out.


If you spend any amount of time browsing the HBO forums (OMG, fix ur BBS Wu), then you've probably run into Pete the Duck.  If you haven't, maybe it's time to drop in and say hello.  And if you see him in-game, don't worry about steering your Warthog's grille in his direction - Pete will take care of that on his own.  More on that later.  For now, check out the Q&A.

Q. Hello, Pete.  Would you like to tell us intimate things about yourself?

A. Online, I go by Pete. I’d tell you my real name, but then you would be obligated to make certain jokes. I’m a recent graduate who hasn’t found a “real job” yet, but I still manage a regular paycheck working as a technician for an ISP no one has ever heard of. In my free time, which I seem to have a lot of, I scan the Internets and tinker around on the ‘360.

Q. And the tag?

A. I once had a duck named Pete. So, literally, Pete the duck. Ever since, I’ve adopted the name for my online alias. Fun fact: Pete laid a few eggs. They were delicious.

Q. Duck eggs.  Disgusting.  Where can people find you online?

A. I’m hardcore halo.bungie.org—that was the first Halo community I stumbled upon and I’ve been hooked ever since. It is a fantastic community that seems to have an overall flavor of awesome. While there are communities that focus specifically on things like tricks or speed runs, HBO features a melting pot of people making montages, fan fiction, panoramic images, music, grunt plushies, poetry, 3D art—pretty much anything you could imagine. I dig the random awesomeness.

I also like to see what other people have been doing in Forge, so Forge Hub is another frequent haunt by me, although I rarely post there. The creativity people have shown in Forge really surprises me sometimes, especially when it comes to making working switches with an obscure combination of interlocking, custom power-ups, gravity lifts and fusion coils. Want to pick up a custom power-up during a game on Foundry and start a chain reaction that drops a Warthog in the middle of the map? No problem!

Q. What compels you to game? Do you game with friends and family?

A. I think there are two aspects to gaming that make it rewarding for me. First, I like the problem solving aspect of it. It is easier to explain when you talk about a game like Portal—you can clearly see that there is a problem that you’re trying to solve. Halo 3 is the same way, it just isn’t so blatant when you look at the game on the surface.

The social aspect of gaming is really important for me as well. I used to catch up with a long-distance friend by loading a custom game on Lockout. We’d chat about what was going on in our life while we tried to kill each other (“How’s the wife?” BAM!). I usually have a small-scale LAN about every 3 months, but Halo 3 has done a good job of replicating a similar sort of environment online. And when you start talking about online communities, even single-player only games can provide a social experience.

Q. Why Bungie?

A. It all started, many years ago, when there was a certain 10-minute long trailer included with a PC gaming magazine I subscribed to…

There are things that are specific to Halo that I think really hooked me. The recharging shields are very forgiving, letting you experience each encounter fresh, without having to worry about finding med packs or armor in between. Only being able to carry two weapons lets the game be paced differently than a traditional “magic inventory” FPS, giving you access to the “cool guns” rather quickly, instead of having you wait until you’ve beaten half the game first. And I think Halo has progressively nailed vehicular combat.

There are other games with a strong Sci-Fi story that I have enjoyed, but I think these elements have given the Halo series a ridiculous amount of replayability—in my case, anyway. Then Halo 3 comes out with saved films, armor variations, and Forge. Good grief! These are things I didn’t even know I wanted.

Q. Are you frightened by your commitment to the community?

A. It worries me sometimes.

Just kidding!

For me, Halo has a community that is pretty hard NOT to get involved with. A lot of the things I’ve done, community-wise, have been things I’ve done for my own enjoyment—I just share the end result. I can do that sharing because there are places out there, like halo.bungie.org, that support a huge range of community content, and those places are full of people with a positive attitude. A community like that encourages involvement—if you find or make something cool, or have a great matchmaking experience, you’ll want to share it.  When I can look back and see I’ve been visiting that site since 2002, it can be a little surprising I guess.

Q. Do you swim around in any other online communities?

A. Erhm, …no.

Q. Final thought?  A shout out perhaps?

A. So when are we going to find out something about Sandbox? Maybe some map dimensions? Blurry screenshot? Does it have a floor? Can we toggle the floor so it is a floating environment? Is there sand? Water? Can we change the ground surface with something similar to the filters the Legendary Maps had? How about the skybox, or lighting? Huh? Huh?

I want to make a shout-out to my gorgeous fiancée, Kristy, who is the most incredible girl, ever. She is epic win.  And Erik and Calvin have better be getting ready for NovemberLAN. Yes, I named it.  Just now.

Sandbox, eh?  Can't say it rings any bells.

Well, that wraps it up for this week.  Can't think of anything else we could have covered with Pete the Duck.  Oh wait...that's right, "Mongrilled."  Check the link for Blackstar's "Extra Medals" for Halo 3.  Here's our man Pete earning one:

Tags: Community, Spotlight, Halo - All

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