Halo in Guiness Book

If you've had the opportunity to glance through the 2003 Guiness Book of World Records, you may have noticed on page 177, a large picture of the Master Chief taking up half the page. Although no other mention of Halo is made, the caption reads that the Xbox holds the record for most powerful game console. Of course, what better way to illustrate the point than a massive picture of the Chief?

Halo PC News

Per standard Bungie security protocol we haven't had much to say about Halo for the PC for a bit, but apparently someone has. Thanks to Subnova for the heads up.

Twas The Night Before...

And the Bungie Store was in a miserable state. Our holiday present to all of you, however, is two new members of the Online Team, both of whom will be helping stuff the Bungie Store in the future. Though Lorraine has been at Bungie for quite some time, come January she's joining our team. She'll be working together with our other newest team member, Brian, aka SketchFactor. Sketch has already started a huge thread in the Underground about the Bungie Store. Feel free to chime in and be sure to welcome our newest team members! Happy holidays!

Seventh Column Week in Review

Although it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas across the Northern half of the country, here in Redmond it looks, well, pretty much cool, moist, and dark; a perfect breeding ground for various forms of fungi. So, as the Bungie Online Team disperses to more festive areas of the nation, those of us that consider themselves “locals” are sticking around because we have nowhere else to go. That’s what’s happening in Redmond, let’s peek in the [email protected] mailbag and see what’s going on in your neck of the woods:

Ajchar from Halo Legendary writes:

Now there is a chapter out there that honors all who beat the game on legendary (or are at least close) the chapter is called Halo Legendary. The entry requirement is you have to have beat at least 8 levels on legendary. If you have done that and are interested in joining send me an e-mail with a picture attached. My e-mail is [email protected].

emildlux of xboxlanaz sends his comments on iGames winter season:

Holy cow. This was a fantastic series of games for us. We made it all the way to the championship round and it was a best of three games situation. We won both of the first games, which gave us the championship. However each of those games were won 5:00 to 4:58. It was incredibly tense. Here's the summary of our proudest achievement so far.

carlhoward of Battle Frenzy Writes in to announce his chapter has hit the 100 member mark:

THIS IS A MONUMENTAL FEAT PEOPLE! Since our inception this year in February, Battle Frenzy has reached 101 people as of this date and is still growing! Thank you all for your attendance and commitment to team. This is not possible without each and everyone of you! In North Texas, we all pretty much fall under the same umbrella, BATTLE FRENZY! This chapter is the largest and most active in TEXAS and it's right here for you to enjoy. You don't have to drive to Corpus Christi, Houston, San Antonio, That's right... It's local. I always see other chapters cruising our site to see what is happening here. I guess that they like the way it's run and that is okay with me, admiration is the best form of flattery. That just tells me that Battle Frenzy is doing something right. I'm positive that we'll double this amount in the coming year with the release of Halo 2. Everyone is gitty with anticipation for this game. Just think... here in this chapter alone we have had upwards of 10 LAN parties this year along with tournaments and always manage a most excellent time.

Now that is year is coming to a close I am glad to see that Battle Frenzy and other local chapters are getting together one last time. This is good for us. Like I said in a previous post to the effect of, "We don't know each other all that well, but we all come together for one common goal, Halo." We have a blast! We taunt, tease, and laugh with each other like we were
lifetime friends and that is way cool!

With all of this being said and I'm sure I speak for everyone else... I'm glad that I have had the chance to get to know you folks. One video game has made our lives richer. BUNGIE...THANK YOU! JOB WELL DONE! YOU ARE FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS PROFOUND CHANGE TO OUR LIVES AND AGAIN OUR THANKS!

Our wives, girlfriends, or significant others may not have completely complied or understood the infatuation with the game. But then again t
hey are not the one's playing are they? I know that they may never understand how fun it is and experience the life enriching game play. But none the less... we are thankful for your tolerance also.

Starting in January I will try to organize another LAN party. I've heard a rumor of HALO 2 being released in June of 2003, how true this is, I don't know. Only Bungie can tell. Regardless, we will wait. Bungie you have dedicated and loyal fans here in Texas! Know that! Our fun fare depends on this! We will all see you at the launch of the HALO sequel!

Members, I will see you on the 27nth. From what I am seeing, I think this LAN party will have 60 or more persons or more attending. But we do things in a big way here in Texas right? More information will come closer to the date of the event. Keep checking back for advisories. Till then, See you later!

BTW, Big Battle Frenzy Welcome to the newest members!

MELEE MAYHEM FOREVER!

Your founder, Carl
Gamer Tag ..... SKULL LEADER

That about wraps up this week in review. I hope Santa brings you everything you deserve. At this point, all I can say is have a merry Christmas and, "God Bless us, everyone."

WTF? Oni News?

Matt is gone on vacation for the holidays so we're picking up the slack. Check this out. Someone has too much free time on his hands. Wacky.

Last Day for Contest Entries

If my calendar is correct, today is Friday the 13th. However, this may be your lucky day! If you've been working on a 7th column theme today is your last chance to finish it up and turn it in. Judging by the small number of entrants we've received so far, you may have a much better chance at winning than you think. Remember, the winners get a hefty allowance at the Bungie Store. New Halo goodies are coming soon, so show us your skillz and send in your entries today.

2 "New" Job Openings

We just updated our [url=/Inside/Page.aspx?section=Jobs&subsection=Main&page=1]jobs page[/url] again today. We have brought back the Game Producer position that we recently took down. So- if you were bummed you didn't get the job, you've got a second chance, so don't delay. It seems like every week there's somebody new working here. Also- We have a new opening for a 2D/3D artist that is very skilled and fluent in Photoshop and 3DSMax. This has been up for a couple of weeks now, but we haven't mentioned it in the news until now. If you're good and experienced, we want you on the team. Now is your best opportunity to work at Bungie.

The Lost is Found

Yesterday an alert fan wrote Bungie's own Marty O'Donnell, asking him why he chose to omit a song in Halo from the Soundtrack CD. Marty's response?
"Because I...uh, because I wanted to allow...uh the...to give the fans something to...to discover, yeah. To discover."

Marty's sense of foresight and desire to please the fans simply amazes us all. Now that his 'surprise' is out of the bag, he has released the elusive track in MP3 format. We have appended this to his list of music outtakes on our Truth & Reconciliation site.

Federation of Grunts Theme Song?

We don't usually post ads for chapters, but since you won't be getting a week in review this week, and since this one is just so wacko , I'll make an exception. Warrior Grunt writes: "This is a promotion for my chapter so if you like it please come to Federation of Grunts and take your vote on how well you like it and if you could join us.

While the grunts were on Halo they picked up some new songs they sang around the "campfire". Well some of were overheard by other grunts in space. How still remains unknown. But they really liked one and made it their theme song. And below is what they chose.

(one grunt sings)
Gather around my fellow grunts
I'll assure you your head haven't shrunk
I declare we make a new station
And we'll call it our federation.

(All the grunts sing)
We're grunts, little grunts
We're who everbody hunts
We squeal and bark then we die
While our enemies laugh and cry
But it doesn't matter to us
'Cause we'll go to heaven and cuss
And sadly at this rate we'll never have a new generation
But hey we made a federation

(A different grunt alone)
I say we make it on earth
Right on Texas turf
We'll make a lot of abbervations
And call it the langague of the federation

(All the grunts)
We're grunts, barking grunts
We're who everbody hunts
We squeal and bark then we die
While our enemies laugh and cry
To us this is really sad
Hey it's not all that bad
We'll be called the lost generation
And we'll be the only ones to make a federation

(Last solitaire grunt)
One day we set out at dawn
Only to get mowed down like the lawn
Its was the green guy who sent me the invitation
To make something like the federation
(Cheers)

(All the grunts)
We're grunts, mighty grunts
We're who everbody hunts
We squeal and bark then we die
While our enemies laugh and cry
But it will be a beutiful day
When we finally get to say
That we were the samartest generation
Because we made the only grunt federation
(laughs and claps then they start all over again)"

Seventh Column Week in Review

Well, it is Friday, and it is time for another week in review, where Matt kicks the mail sack of [email protected] and see what falls out. Unfortunately for you, Matt's normal high-quality work will not be here today, as he has skipped out on us until December. Apparently, slavishly obeying the whims of our cruel master Yeroen is not as much fun as it looks. However, hacking into his email, on the other hand... that's a different story. So, here is what I found after some digging.

Deadman, the founder of Front Range Company 7, wants everyone to know that he has started a new database called "Halo Haikus". It's open for the public to post in, so be sure to drop by and grace them with some halo-related haikus!

The Specialists are at it again, this time with their "Hacienda Hate" LAN party. I'll let Nosferatu tell you all about it:

WOW. Never have I been to a non-tourney LAN before that was so large, had such fierce competition, or was so much fun. 8 TVs, 8 xboxs, carnage city at Some Guy's house. Throughout the 16 hour LAN, approx. 40+ people participated in the LAN. Local teams from L.A., such as the Northern Alliance, Raffy's Retards and others were some of the teams that attended. There were also new players that showed up, and veterans that had been MIA for a while. It was good to see new faces and old alike. But one thing was for sure.... there were definitely no newbies there, at least not the ones that I played. Players like Killtacular, SniperWulf, Fragzor, Qbix, MistaClean, Assassin, Synchimera and his team (Andrew from the DPAG team in the AZ tourney; his new and improved team), TheSPFXmaN, dillo37 and his team, and chumpp (a player that made it to the Halo Nationals; you may recognize the name if you use XBconnect) And then the lord of halo, dark2dawn & Co...

Sounds like you all had a great time, guys. People should go check them out, they consistently seem to be doing things.

Well, that's it. I must say, I'm not impressed that we only have two letters. It is nice that you guys made my job a lot easier, but that isn't the point. I constantly see people complaining that they need members in their chapter, or they can't find people to play Halo with... well, all you have to do to get your chapters and events advertised is to fire off some email to [email protected]. Since next week is Thanksgiving weekend here in the United States, and I will be out of town, that means that there will not be a week in review next week. So you have two whole weeks to stuff this mailbag full of good stuff. I want to see reports of your Turkey day LAN parties! I want to see advertisements for your chapter's upcoming end of year all night Halo LAN parties!

The Gallery is Back

If you have perused our Bungie.com website recently, you may have discovered that the screenshot gallery code has been broken since we moved the site to the new server. Thanks to some detective work by Achronos, the code has been fixed with a single character change. Boy, just looking at these makes me want to play Oni again....

New Job Opening

In times like this, it's always a pleasure to announce another job opening. I'm happy to say Bungie is seeking a talented [url=/Inside/Page.aspx?section=Jobs&subsection=Main&page=1]physics programer[/url] to join our closely guarded team on their uber-secret project they are developing. <br>If you have experience working with geometry behavior in 3D games and have a brain with a massive left hemisphere, then we've got the position for you.

5 Years of Myth

Five years ago, Bungie released the Myth: The fallen Lords demo, giving many gamers their first Bungie.net experience. In celebration of this event, Mariusnet is hosting a party. Conner Writes:

To help celebrate the occasion, Mariusnet is hosting a P A R T Y ! ! ! BYOB - but be sure to swing by here to check out all the details. Turning five is no small feat, so we'll be celebrating the night of Friday November 8th on thru all day Saturday to make sure our European Mythers can join in on the fun. We'll be running another Co-Op challege that was so popular for the Mariusnet One Year Anniverary (details to come), and we hope to see some long lost friends.

<sniff> seems like yesterday. Our kids are growing up so fast...

A New Desktop

Craig Mullins, artist extraordinaire, provides the content for the latest Bungie wallpaper. If you haven't played Halo because you're waiting for the Mac/PC version to come out, be forewarned, this contains the granddaddy of all spoilers. If you want to throw caution to the wind, click here and scroll all the way to the bottom.

New Theme Available

Last week, Patriotic Marine submitted a 7th Column chapter theme. After a little persistence and a little tweaking, it's now ready for prime time. He calls the theme "Marines of Old". To see an example of it, you can take a look at my chapter, Halo Players @ Microsoft.

The Return of Skip Weasel

Our intern and pegboy is up to his shennanigans again. Take a look at the latest installment in today's Bungie Comic. Loosely based on actual events...

At long last....

Since Marathon was released by Bungie over 7 years ago, probably the most desired feature has been internet play. Although there were hacks like using Netlink Remote to create an AppleTalk connection over the net (not unlike many of the hacks for online Halo play), it was still a hack.
Now, at the Marathon OpenSource project, our friends that have been diligently making this world a better place have brought you TCP/IP networking to Aleph One, the Marathon OpenSource project.
Although TCP/IP networking is still in its early stages, it's still usable.(TCP/IP in the OSX version only currently)

A Legendary Betrayal

Actaully, two of them. A walkthrough of Two Betrayals in our legendary walkthrough section has just been added. If you're new to Halo, trying the game on legendary or are going through for the 40th time and would like to look at some keen screenshots, it's worth a look.