Bungie Leaves Microsoft.

What? Didn't Microsoft just make $300 million in one week from Bungie? Sounds like a good time to drop your only Ace in the hole right? Well don't worry, Microsoft owns Halo so that's not going anywhere. Also, Bungie is still contracted to do more 'Halo' games for Microsoft, Xbox or otherwise.

What will Bungie do? Go back to making games for the Mac? Finally make Pimps At Sea? No one know, but as long as Bungie is still making Halo games for (only) Microsoft I'm cool with the split.

The Halo 3 Beta Is A Leakin'.

There's a slew of new leaked Halo 3 beta video today that were put on YouTube. I'm not going to repost them here cause I think that they're crappy (not to mention the retard that commentates them) but feel free to check them out on 360 Fanboy here and here. Some new info came out of them though: first off the new pistol DOES NOT zoom as previously though, a new deployable is a portable suction tube gravity lift, and now turrets are portable too. You can carry them around and drop 'em wherever you want, also when you carry them it switches to 3rd person view, and you can shoot.

(Via: 360Fanboy)

Halo 2.5 I Don't Think So.

You need to click on these pics and see the full versions, the hi-res textures, shading, lighting, and all that jazz.

The mongoose, don't forget to have a buddy on the back to shoot some noobs...

This is the "Spartan Laser", charge it for 3 seconds and then blast the shit out of people and/or vehicles.

Make sure your ready for the Halo 3 beta come May 16th, if you have Crackdown that is...

Halo 3 Beta Supports 2 Player Splitscreen.

Here some good info right from Bungie's newest WWUD:

We have to make sure that Halo 3 scales well to a large population, and that will help us improve and test our netcode, as well as try out one more feature that we’re including in the Beta. A feature that definitely requires a lot of stress testing in a big population. Conspiracy theorists can drop their 128-player game theories at the door. Halo 3 is still a 16-player game, and the reality is that most people prefer smaller games than that.

No, this feature we’re testing is for the moment, just a fun addition, that’s planned to grow into something pretty amazing by launch, and that feature is Saved Films. The version you’ll try in the Beta, is very, very, very limited. We just want you to play around with the general concept. You’ll be reading more about this in the gaming press in the next month or two, and of course you can try it out for yourselves in less than a month.

As for the Public Beta itself, it’s pretty close to finished and a lot of folks have worked really hard to make it happen, with late nights, early mornings and a constant diet of Cheetos and evil. So to those brave men and women who sacrificed themselves on the Anvil of Bungie, under the Hammer of Crunch, we salute thee. Your smeared remains will be remembered.

Although the Public Beta may seem like a simple sampling of the MP levels from the finished game, extracting those and packaging them into a playable bundle, with off-schedule bug testing, gameplay tweaks, code fixing and netcode support, is a herculean task. Hopefully it will pay dividends and players will get tremendous enjoyment from these maps and game types.

Since we’re testing matchmaking, you won’t have the kind of control you’re used to with custom games, but we’ll be there to guide you into a very nice selection of Matchmade game types – and don’t worry, the playlists will almost certainly have your gametype in there, in some shape or form.

You’ll also be pleased to hear that split-screen will be an option, although limited to two people in the Public Beta. We’ve also done something cool with the splitscreen display for HD monitors – instead of stretching the horizontal or vertical axes into big, scary too wide or too tall horrors, we’ve sensibly windowed the action, maintaining lots of screen real estate, but preserving a proper, playable aspect ratio.

The most notable, I think, is the last paragraph here about splitscreen. I guess they're not going to do the "standard" type splitscreen of just plain old horizontal split. Well, at least they're not going to that god awful vertical splitscreen (/cough Rainbow Six: Vegas /cough).

(Via: Bungie.net)

HD Halo 3 Video.

Here's the beta video in HD. So anyone who thought that it looked crappy you need to see this version. Download below...

Download Me!!!
Halo 3 Beta - Zanzibar Remake.mpg

New Halo 3 Beta Footage!!!

Can't wait to get my hands on that Bubble shield!

Halo 3 Muliplayer Screens Shots.

The sweet ass "Bubble Grenade".

Showing off the pause feature in "replay mode".

The "Man Cannon".

*All photo's taken:
(Via: The Back Buffer)

Take Off Work May 16th, The Halo 3 Beta Is Here.

Halo 3 Multiplayer Video

The news the whole world has been waiting for is finally here, the Halo 3 beta will begin at 0500 PDT, May 16th.

The above video show off some amazing new features in Halo 3 such as, the "Bubble Shield" that puts you inside a protective bubble that blocks bullets and grenades... I'm assuming that any player can walk in and out of it, so be weary cause guys can walk right into your bubble and blast your ass. Another new grenade is the "Trip Mine", now this isn't so much a grenade as it is a mine, you just drop it and the unlucky bastard that walks or drives over it (as in the video) will be waiting for their next respawn.

The coolest new feature in H3 is the new replay mode. You can now save, share, and watch your previous games over and over again. From my understanding it's going to work just like a Madden replay, where you can follow a certain player or the ball or just zoom around. Imagine watching replays of the last game and being able to see where "that guy" was hiding or watch your headshot in slo-mo, it's gonna be the shit.

If this video and news doesn't make you want to go buy a 360 nothing will, except maybe watching this video in high def on my Xbox 360... This little web version isn't nearly as impressive as the HD version on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Get yourself a 360 and a copy of Crackdown now, because once you play Halo 3 you won't be going back to Halo 2.

Halo 3, The Pistol's Back.

This craptacualar screen shot is from a Youtube video that (poorly) shows off some weapons from Pimps At Sea Halo 3 such as: the Assault Rifle (AR), Sniper Rifle, Brute Spiker, and the Pistol from Halo 1! Now as 360 Fanboy points out, these gun graphics could all just be placeholders and even if they're not the pistol might not be what it once was... But there's hope, so for all those "Three Shot Magee's" out there get your trigger finger ready.

The video is below until it you know get pulled off Youtube...

(Via: 360 Fanboy)

The "A-Hole" Button.

Bungie is working hard to fix the formula that is: Teenager + Anonymity + Live + Microphone = Idiot. Now they have come up with an instant "A-Hole" button for Halo 3 here's how it works...

The “A-Hole Button” in Halo 3 lets you exact instant, silent vengeance. These kind of vocal buttmunches, as it turns out, are exactly as fun to play against as normal people, as long as you can’t hear them. So now, you simply press a button (back button, for the moment anyway) and up comes the score list with everyone’s tag on it. The right stick lets you highlight the miscreant and you can then instantly mute them for the rest of the game. These morons continue smacktalking anyway because they can’t help themselves, but if you don’t have to listen to it, you can simply enjoy killing them over and over again, knowing that as their Ritalin wears off and their frustration builds, it’s less and less fun for them. Aaaah. So satisfying.

This should make every game a lot more pleasant, along with Xbox 360 Player Review System, you shouldn't ever have to play or listen to an A-Hole again, well after you play 'em once that is.

(Via: Bungie.net)

Halo 3 Beta Has A Catch!

Now everybody knows how the beta is going to shake down, you need the Crackdown disc to play the Halo 3 beta. So there goes my (and everyone else's) plan to turn around and sell their copy of Crackdown. Now this is a crappy way for Microsoft to make everyone hold on to their copy of Crackdown until after the beta is over. Now this also sucks because to play Pimps At Sea, I can't just go to the "demo" section of the dashboard and pick Halo 3 Beta... I have to put the Crackdown disc in and then select Halo 3 from the menu. If the Halo 3 Beta was included on the disc that would be great and reasonable way to access the game but the fact that I still have to download the games to my hard drive and then put in a disc to play the content that is stored on my hard drive seems a little strange.

Bungie Be Damn! I'm Posting The Screens!

Bungie has asked Joystiq and 360 Fanboy to take the pics and very crappy, low res, movies down... I've reposted the pics, but like I said the movies were simply horrible and not worth a repost. Can't wait to play Pimps At Sea!