Bungie's Mythic Video.

Always the jokester....

Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack Is Released.

The long wait is finally over. For 800 MS points ($10) you too can play on the sweet new Mythic Maps for Halo 3. If you're a Halo fan this is a must buy, it's got: a Team slayer map, an objective map, and the best Forging map around.

Click here to buy Mythic and have it waiting for you the next time you turn on you 360.

Bungie Continues To Inovate With "Mythic".

Ok so we all know that the second-to-last map pack for Halo 3 is coming out 3-3-09 right? With the maps, Sandbox, Orbital, and Assembly right? But now Bungie has shown us how they continue to innovate and raise the bar higher and higher for other developers. Orbital and Assembly are going to be your standard run-of-mill Halo 3 levels, but not Sandbox, oh no.

Sandbox is going to be very unique and extend the life of Halo 3 even more. How you ask? First off, Sandbox has three different "planes" to it. The middle plane (pictured above) is more or less your typical level, a box canyon with two bases and objects for cover. The cool thing about this plane is that everything can be removed leaving you a blank canvas to work with, create whatever you want, a la the level Foundry.

Now for the good stuff. Sandbox has a second plane that is in the air high above the first plane I talked about.

You can basically make a floating level high in the stratosphere of Sandbox, the blue grid serves as a marker and also a "net" to set your level on.

The sky is truly the limit here, the possibility are endless for people to make a Halo 3 level as they see fit. These photos and levels are courtesy of my friends over at Tied The Leader, who got a sneak peak at playing on Sandbox.

Now the third plane, as you may have guessed, is underground in a Crypt. In the center of the map is this tiny hole in the ground and it is the only way in or out of the Crypt, and I assure you it's quiet a drop.

Once inside the Crypt is basically just a big empty room, perfect for you Forging needs or say a match of Grifball!

So, as you can see, Sandbox is shaping up to be quiet the Halo 3 experience. To top it off I'll end this with a new Forge item to play with: Killballs. Killballs (as seen above) are big orange balls of electricity that kill anything that enters them... Spartans, Warthogs, Tanks, etc... So be on the look out for Killballs, make sure to steer clear if you see them.

Be sure to check out more on Mythic Maps and Sandbox here:

Tied The Leader

Bungie.net

More Halo 3 Maps On The Way.

When Halo Wars ships March 3rd it is going to include 3 new multiplayer maps for Halo 3 inside. Pretty smart marketing on Microsoft's party... Of course you'll be able to buy the maps without buying Halo Wars but that will be a few months down the line, and really what self-respecting Halo fan could wait that long?

The new Mythic Map Pack will include three new maps: Assembly, Orbital, and Sandbox. Sandbox is of course the picture above, Assembly I've talked about here, and Orbital has yet to be shown to the public.

Sandbox looks pretty cool to me, I've always been a fan of Sandtrap and this looks like more of the same. The difference with Sandbox seems to be that all the pieces could be removable, so that would make for a great sandbox to Forge around in...

You see what I did there?

'Recon' Q & A With Bungie.

On Bungie's latest Weekly What's Up Date (WWUD) they answered some burning questions about Halo 3: Recon:

Update: There is also a great interview over at 1up that got some really good details as well.


Adrift in Tokyo

Since Brian is still wearing his Sailor Moon costume and having his picture taken at the show and Shishka is overcome with jealousy at the costume’s authenticity, here’s a bit of information in yet another slow newsweek for Bungie.

Bungie happily announced Halo 3: Recon, earlier this week at TGS during the Microsoft Keynote speech to attendees of the Tokyo-based show. In the keynote’s wake there’s been a whole mess of questions about Halo 3: Recon that we’re going to clear up below.

What is Halo 3: Recon?

Halo 3: Recon is a standalone, disc-based campaign expansion to Halo 3. It will be available at fine retailers around the globe in Fall of 2009.

I read on some Liveblog that Master Chief got out of the drop pod?

Negative, ghost rider. Instead of playing as the Master Chief (like players did in Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3) in H3: Recon, players take control of an ODST (an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) who entered orbit just after the slipspace rupture on New Mombasa (that event, you recall, took place as Regret left the planet – and in Halo 2, you followed him as the Chief). Now, players will learn more about what happened on New Mombasa during some of the events of Halo 2.

Is Halo 3 : Recon a 3rd person / squad based shooter?

Nope. "Recon" is definitely first person and it's definitely still a Halo game as you've come to know it. That said, playing as an ODST in this new setting will bring some new twists to the gameplay.

How much will Halo 3 : Recon cost?

The price point has not yet been determined. While there will be a lot of content to enjoy and a great deal of replayability, this is still viewed as an expansion to Halo 3 more so than its equal.

We saw Assembly at PAX 2008, when will we get more downloadable content for Halo 3?

The Mythic Map Pack will be made available via Xbox Live Marketplace in early 2009. “Winter,” as they say. As soon as we have more details we will certainly share them.

Will the Recon campaign content or the other multiplayer maps be available through Xbox LIVE Marketplace?

Beyond the Mythic Map Pack early next year, there are no plans to release other portions of the Recon package outside of the retail box.

Is there a multiplayer component to Halo 3: Recon?

There are multiplayer maps that will appear as a part of the Halo 3: Recon package. This includes the aforementioned Mythic Map Pack in addition to a few others. You can also experience the entire Recon campaign cooperatively with up to 4 players.

Will we get to play as ODSTs in multiplayer now?

No. The multiplayer maps included with the retail package are straight up Halo 3 multiplayer maps. The ODST and other components that make up the Recon campaign are in a separate bucket and not crossing over into the competitive multiplayer realm. Think of it as two games in one.

Will the Halo 3 : Recon multiplayer maps work with "regular" copies of Halo 3?

If you purchase the Mythic Map Pack early next year via Marketplace and your friend waits and gets them with the Halo 3 : Recon retail package next Fall, you can still play together. The multiplayer maps are all part of the Halo 3 "title ID" family, regardless of where or how you get them.

What about other features from Halo 3?

Halo 3: Recon will still make use of Screenshots, Forge and Saved Films just like Halo 3 does.

Will Halo 3 : Recon have new achievements? Are these the same as the ones already "leaked" online?

There are actually two separate buckets for new achievements. The multiplayer achievements will be considered additive to your existing Halo 3 gamerscore. Some of these will be available when the Mythic Map Pack is released on Marketplace early next year. The Recon campaign will include a complete set of unique achievements and a full bounty of 1000 gamerscore to obtain.

This dude at 7-11 told me that there’s a new Campaign version of Forge coming?

Get your Slurpee somewhere else. The maps included with Halo 3: Recon certainly support Forge and the functionality it affords players. But, there isn’t a new Campaign Forge being added to the Halo 3 experience.

I read somewhere that this is the last Halo game Bungie is making. Say it isn't so!

We're not ready to discuss the other projects underway within the studio right now but Halo 3 : Recon does represent the final basket of goodness that we will be delivering for the Halo trilogy. There are no more offshoots or side stories in the works.

Is this the game that Bungie was intending to announce at E3?

Yes, we are happy to finally be able to pull back the curtain and share our latest project with our fans.

Will Halo 3 : Recon still use the Halo 3 engine?

Yes, this is very much an extension of the Halo 3 you have come to know and love complete with all the features included with the original game.

Is this all Bungie has been working on since becoming independent last October?

"Recon" represents one of several projects that we have underway within the Studio but it's the nearest to release and the only one we're able to talk about for now.

If this is an expansion built on top of the existing Halo 3 engine, why will it take two years to create?

Development of "Recon" actually just began in earnest this past Spring. This project is in the hands of a small team and represents our most ambitious release cycle yet as a Studio.

Analyzing The Halo 3: Recon Trailer.

The amazing crew over at Ascendant Justice have done it again, they have a very detailed break down of the new trailer.


Head over and read their piece titled The Golden Hour , to get your latest Halo fix.

Halo 3: Recon

Microsoft held a press conference late last night at the Tokyo Game Show '08 and talked about a little game called Halo 3.



First off, no Master Chief.  This story takes place right before the events leading up to Halo 3 and the Chief's landing on Earth.  You play as an elite unit of Marines known as the ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) which is about as close as you can get to being a Spartan without, you know, being half robot.

This is a full-on expansion set so we're looking at new campaign levels, new multiplayer maps, and everything you've come to expect from Halo 3: Saved films, Forge, Co-op, etc...  It looks like the game will be distributed via disk if the image below is any indication.

This still doesn't explain the mysterious new achievements that have shown up in Halo 3 after the newest update, so it looks like the "normal" version of Halo 3 is still in story for at least one more map pack "Mythic".  Specifically six new levels are mentioned in the achievements: Assembly, Citadel, heretic, Longshore, Orbital, and Sandbox.  I've already talked about Assembly here, but Bungie has been mum on the other five maps so far.



A few things I've noticed in the trailer (below) that I find interesting are: the Brutes (pictured above) seem a little different, smaller, less shielded, somehow.  Also it looks like the weapon that your ODST Marine is holding looks like a SMG but with a silencer on it?  Thought?

Update:  Official box art below.

Below is the description that Xbox.com has listed about Recon:
* All-new campaign content: The Halo 3: Recon campaign is an intriguing side story that takes place during the terrifying events leading up to the Master Chief’s return to New Mombasa in Halo 3. Experience the fate of Earth from the brand-new perspective of a special forces ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), adding a unique outlook and new gameplay elements to the events that unfold in the trilogy’s finale. While the feel of this new chapter greatly resembles that of previous Halo experiences, Halo 3: Recon will require you to employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before.
* Prepare to drop: Known for their courage, valor and, at times, insanity, ODSTs are among the fiercest UNSC soldiers, priding themselves on being the first unit deployed into hostile situations. While not as large or supernaturally gifted as their Spartan comrades, these "Hell Jumpers" more than compensate with their ferocious attitudes and unwavering nerve.
* Expanded multiplayer collection:No Halo experience would be complete without groundbreaking multiplayer content, and Halo 3: Recon gives fans more of what they love. With exclusive new maps and expanded Forge options, Xbox LIVE® Gold members will find more multiplayer content than ever before with Halo 3: Recon.
* Ever-growing community options: Enjoy all the great Halo 3 technological innovations, including Saved Films, screenshots, Campaign Scoring, and four-player co-op. All of the new multiplayer maps fully support the Forge editor, offering endless gameplay customization possibilities.

Halo 3: Keep It Clean.

Update:  For a really, really, really in depth look into this trailer and Halo mythology be sure to read the Ascendant Justice article.

Today Bungie revealed the next part in their plan for world domination, a teaser trailer for what is being called a "New Campaign Experience" for Halo 3.

Everybody is speculating as to what Bungie is going to bring to Halo 3, rumors from new campaign levels where you play as a Marine (and not the Chief), to more multiplayer levels, or even both. Bungie, so far, has released maps in three waves so far: Heroic, Legendary, and Cold Storage. With the previous three maps releases there has never been this amount of hype nor something to the magnitude of a teaser trailer. So what I'm betting on is a full out Halo 3 Expansion, Halo 3: Mythic. You can either buy this on a disc or as a full download strait to your Xbox 360 hard drive.

This is a picture that was taken at PAX '08 where Bungie first revealed the new map Assembly. At the time no one knew what Mythic was, and Bungie just brushed it off as a "PAX version"

As you can see since the update to Halo 3 a few days ago, some interesting achievements have popped up in reference to the Mythic Maps.

Confused? Me too. At this point there seems to be multiplayer "Mythic Maps" coming at some point, but if you download the new Halo 3 video from your Xbox 360 on the Marketplace, the describtion does say, "New Campaign Experience". So it seems that we have multiplayer and singleplayer content coming. But just as with any Bungie products we won't know anything until Bungie wants us to know something.

Update #2 Is Incoming For Halo 3.

In the latest Bungie Update they talk about a new update coming to Halo. Items of note are: rank changes, new achievements, and a lock down on cheaters. But in true blog fashion I'll just repost what Bungie wrote.

Inevitably, this will be blown out of context, misread and misunderstood, but let’s do it anyway.

For a number of reasons ranging from obvious to sublime, Title Update 2 (which is the new, hip, Xbox 360-version way of saying “Auto Update” or “Patch”), introduces new Achievements to Halo 3. Last weekend at Penny-Arcade Expo we played Assembly on the TU2, which meant that folks would see and buzz about the new achievements. These will be made live when TU2 turns on later this month - the previously announced date may slip a bit closer to the Halo 3 one-year anniversary.

Here’s a look at these achievements which can be earned via the Legendary Maps and Halo 3 Campaign:

• Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
• Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
• Vidmaster Challenge: Annual (0 points) – After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
• Double Double (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
• Poor Yorick (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
• Came…From…Behind (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match.
• Defend This (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.
• Flag Dropped (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
• Road Rage (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
• Look Both Ways (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.

As folks have seen, these aren’t the only achievements we’re adding. But without proper context, there’s not a whole lot else we’re going to say. Stay tuned.

Title Update 2

Like we’ve said previously, there’s a bunch of under-the-hood changes in TU2 that will be largely invisible to players. Things like rare occurrences of crashes, server-side support for data collection, making more data available and consumable for internal use – you know, the sort of bullet points that warm engineering loins and sing the rest of us a lullaby.

There are also some “peace of mind” changes that should improve player experiences online in Halo 3. We’ve done a bunch of work to increase our ability to detect cheating. The numbers of bans on the banhammer threads ebb and flow, but not a day goes by sans bans. These changes will make that science even more exact than it already is.

Title Update 2 will also introduce a brand new type of ban. This is one Shishka and I are super excited for. It’s harsh, it’s metered fairly and most of all, when it hits you, it hurts so bad. This new spike on the banhammer will soon drip wet with the blood of jerks and the innards of sinners.

Another thing we’d file under the “peace of mind” changes portion of TU2 is that we’ll be taking a much closer look at habitual quitters and their contribution to the Halo 3 population. It’s no secret that players quitting out of a game makes a suboptimal experience for those left behind, from black screen host migrations, to the general sour-taste losing while down-a-man actually leaves. For the purposes of this week’s update, this isn’t a “don’t quit or you’ll be banned” threat – but instead, a courteous notification that this is something we’re investigating and intend to continue investigating in the coming months.

The most visible change coming to Halo 3 in TU2 is the in-game addition of Playlist Ratings. We’ve talked about Playlist Ratings before, but here’s a quick recap:

• Playlist Ratings are the playlist-level decoupling of Trueskill values (the in-game number next to your name) from Experience (the icon next to your name).
• You will now have a separate military rating (based purely on EXP) in each playlist. When TU2 goes live, everyone will begin at 0 EXP. This means that being a General in a Playlist is based on how many games you’ve won in the Playlist, not based on the Trueskill number next to your name.
• Your Trueskill values have not been reset. If someone checks your Service Record they will still see your Highest Skill.

Halo 3's Newest Map: Assembly.

Bungie unveiled a new map today for Halo 3, code named "Purple Reign", officially called Assembly. No info is being released as to when the map will be released, so stay tuned. More screen shots below:

Assembly's 'purpleness' and symmetry reminds me a bit of the Halo 2 map Midship. Bungie has been under a lot of pressure from the "hardcore" Halo community (MLG if you will) to remake Midship or a similar style map AKA: one with symmetry.

Cold Storage: Vidoc

Bungie has just released a new Vidoc "And on the Seve7h Day..." that is all about the new map Cold Storage. So if you've been looking to see Cold Storage in video form now's your chance. Make sure to watch the HD version over at B.net.

(Via: Bungie)

Bungie Day 07.07.08 Brings Gifts.

As any loyal Halo fan knows Bungie is obsessed with the number 7. in all of Bungie's mythologies, and all the games the number 7 always plays a big part. Being as such, July 7th has been declared Bungie Day. Be the great guys that Bungie is they are giving us a free map on Bungie Day, Cold Storage.

If Cold Storage looks familiar, that's because it should. It's a remake of Halo 1's level 'Chill Out' (Dude, you really need to.). So after you're long holiday weekend (here in the USA) be sure to pick up Cold Storage for free in the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Here's two Chill Out screen shots for those with a foggy memory.

(Via: Bungie)

Halo 3 Hornet Fun.

No I don't want my windshield washed!

It's been a while since I've played a good amount of Halo 3, let alone posted some good screen-shots. I played some today, and as you can see most of my time was spent somewhere on or in a hornet.

You can't do that in GTA...

Look, no hands!

You can see all my Halo 3 screen-shots on my iPhoto Halo Gallery Page.

Halo Can Be A Sandbox Too.

See all the cool things you can do with the Forge. Pac-Man, Mario, Starfox, Final Fanasy, etc... Funny video.

Best Halo Betrayal Ever.

Warthog from the sky.

Bungie Release "Legendary Map Pack" Trailer.