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Halo, Nothing But Halo

Posted by Zonk on Wed May 30, 2007 09:42 AM
from the that-mister-chief-is-quite-busy dept.
XBox (Games)
The Halo 3 Beta has been in the news just a bit lately, and with it the Halo franchise is again looming large in other formats. Director Peter Jackson is speculating that the release of the game this September may refocus attention on the movie, stalled as it has been since October of last year. Jackson still wants to make it, but only with Neill Blomkamp directing. The Halo comic, meanwhile, has been confirmed as an ongoing series. The comic will consist of several mini-series runs, with future adventures possibly featuring the return of Brian Michael Bendis (the mind behind the first series). As for the game itself, Beta code has uncovered several game achievements that will be earnable after launch. Trying to calm fans somehow disappointed with the Beta's graphics, Bungie's Frank O'Connor assures us the shipped game will look better. And finally for a broader view of the game N'Gai Croal and Stephen Totilo are at it again, dissecting the Beta experience with witty correspondence.
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[+] Halo Movie Postponed, Street Fighter Movie On 76 comments
FofR writes "Given the previous statements concerning the Halo Movie's stalled progress, it should come as no surprise that the movie is now officially on hold." From the article: "At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait." You'll be happy to know even if a Jackson-inspired Halo isn't coming our way, at least we can look forward to another Street Fighter movie.
[+] Croal vs. Totilo - The God of War 2 Letters 28 comments
I've mentioned previously how much I enjoy the writing of Newsweek's N'Gai Croal and MTV's Stephen Totilo. All this week, then, it's been a pleasure to enjoy their witty exchange on the PS2's most recent blockbuster, God of War 2. The conversation is spread across both Croal's LevelUp column and Totilo's Player Two blog, and features ruminations on the title from a number of viewpoints. If you have some time this afternoon I highly recommend you give their full correspondence a look. More than just a discussion about a single game, they manage to capture some of the greatness of the medium, with their conversation ranging across genre, time, and content to get at some of the most fundamental elements of videogaming. From N'Gai's final post: "I've said before that we 'see' videogames with our hands. Extending that analogy further, the way cutscenes are used today is the film equivalent of title cards during the silent film era: even though the audience came to the movies to watch people move, they had to do a fair bit of reading to get the full measure of the filmmaker's vision. Similarly, cutscenes leave gamers watching when they should be playing. Sure, cutscenes can communicate critical information; they allow for dramatic and spectacular sequences that might be too difficult to pull off interactively; they provide a nice breather or bookend to lengthy gameplay sections. But just as silent film gave way to the talkies, cutscenes need to keep giving way to gameplay so that our eyes--excuse me, our hands--are constantly engaged."
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  • Is it just me or does Zonk seem pretty excited about Halo 3?

    • Re:Is it just me.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by brkello (642429) on Wednesday May 30 2007, @11:14AM (#19323015)
      It's just you. While Zonk has done some stupid things in the past...like blaming Sony for people getting screwed over waiting in line for a PS3...lately he has been good about not making biased statements. He also is accused of being every type of fanboy now so I think that says he is doing his job. Slashdot is heavily anti-MS and anti-Sony. But I enjoy reading about games and could care less about Slashdot's bias (whether they be for good reason or not). So seriously, just shut up. It is getting old seeing people make stupid comments about Zonk.

      Halo is a very popular gaming franchise. I know on Slashdot it is cool to hate what is popular (unless it is Apple for some reason). But seriously, if all I had to read was articles about how someone's grandma played the Wii and it cured all her diseases I wouldn't come here anymore.
      • I know on Slashdot it is cool to hate what is popular (unless it is Apple for some reason)

        Or Nintendo, or Google. Though Google is starting to get flack these days...

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Slashbot v3.531 Activated...

        Scanning Message...

        Noted: Apple...phrase "popular"...status: OK.
        Noted: Wii...phrase "someone's grandma played the Wii and it cured all her diseases"...status: Possible Sarcasm...lookup table[Wii][Sarcasm]: NOT TOLERATED.

        Done Scanning Message.

        Message Summary: NOT TOLERATED
        Action: Mod Down: Troll

        Processing Complete.

  • I hope (Score:4, Funny)

    by n0dna (939092) on Wednesday May 30 2007, @09:55AM (#19321769)
    it's as good as "Doom: The Movie", but I really don't see that happening.

    *shudder*
    • At least its not as scary as *gasp* demons so they may actually get the formula right. A shame since Doom could have been so much more using the proper plot.
    • I'm going to take that as being sarcasm... Considering the Doom film didn't even follow the basic, microscopically thin story that the game had to begin with. The first Mortal Kombat has been the only videogame film worth watching so far and it just ripped off Enter the Dragon. ;)
        • True, it did keep the general spirit. However, I felt that almost all of the acting was ridiculous and a lot of the special effects looked better on the Playstation. Hehe. Those camera angels taken directly from the game were a nice touch though.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Have you seen Neill Blomkamp(the proposed director for the Halo movie)'s other stuff? Here's two of his sci-fi short films:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNReejO7Zu8 [youtube.com]

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtQ4ZrXY9ns [youtube.com]

      I was concerned initially too, but after watching those, I have no worries that the Halo movie is in good hands.

  • Please God, not another crappy video game movie (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx (565205) on Wednesday May 30 2007, @09:58AM (#19321799)

    Director Peter Jackson is speculating that the release of the game this September may refocus attention on the movie...


    Please God, not another crappy video game movie.

    And "attention" of consumer brands as large as "Halo" is in the FPS niche is rarely accidentally focused on a related product in a particular month, so I don't think the use of the word "speculating" is correct.

    • I mean, 90% of video game movies (and movie video games for that matter) are horrible horrible things that make you want a refund...even when your friend just describes them to you. However that was said about Superhero movies a while ago and now Hollywood's picked up on how to make those pretty good (although they're milking spiderman WAY too much IMHO) so perhaps there's a chance for this.

      This seems like a bit of an unfocused article...almost as though the poster was addicted to Halo...but there's no way

      • I mean, 90% of video game movies (and movie video games for that matter) are horrible horrible things that make you want a refund...even when your friend just describes them to you. However that was said about Superhero movies a while ago and now Hollywood's picked up on how to make those pretty good...

        When were men-in-pajamas (a.k.a. "SuperHero") movies horrible? They and their sequels been solid moneymakers for about seventy years, so they can't have been too horrible or they would have pissed off their

        • Superman (all of them except maybe the first and second). Daredevil. Ghost Rider. The Punisher (though I enjoyed that one). Captain America. Judge Dredd. Timecop. Cat Woman. Howard the Duck. TMNT. Dick Tracy. Fantastic Four. The Rocketeer. League of Extraordiary Gentlemen. Constantine. Tank Girl. The Mask. Hell Boy.
          • ....

            You did not just call TMNT horrible! LET'S GET THE TAR AND FEATHER, BOYS!

          • Huh?

            I guess you don't enjoy intentionally cheesy films like The Mask, Tank Girl, Ghost Rider, Howard The Duck, TMNT, etc.

            The comics WERE cheesy. Cheesy premise, cheesy background story, cheesy dialog, cheesy villians - these are all necessary components of a graphic novel that appeals to kids and teens.

            The films are also cheesy, and I love it. A straight-faced comic-book hero film is a snorefest.
      • Correction: 90% of movies suck.
    • Just image if they took the road less traveled and based in on Red Vs. Blue. :)

    • I'd feel the same way but Peter Jackson is on a roll right now, hopefully he has at least one more good movie in him.

      Also, Halo may just be one of those few games that would work as a movie. The first Halo book, which read almost exactly like the game played, was kind of good (in a cheap sci-fi rip off of Roman history way ;)). Better than some books that get made into movies.

      • I'd feel the same way but Peter Jackson is on a roll right now...


        Have you seen the guy lately? I think "roll" is how he normally gets from place to place now.
        • Did he stack it back on? Last time I saw a photo of him, he'd lost 32kgs, ditched the glasses and was looking about half of his original size. But don't let me get in the way of your little joke.

      • The first Halo book, which read almost exactly like the game played, was kind of good (in a cheap sci-fi rip off of Roman history way ;))
        I'm confused, do you mean the first book as in Fall of Reach? or the one that read almost exactly like the game played, as in The Flood. Because Fall of Reach was good, whereas The Flood was terrible, for the specific reason that it read almost exactly like the game played.

        • Fall of Reach. I thought the second half of that book read like the game.

          I didn't read "The Flood" since I hated that level of the game anyhow. ;)

    • Even bungie agreed that Halo is a homage to and rip-off from, iain M Banks 'Consider Phlebas'. That is a great book, with a real story, real characters etc, not a video game. Why the fuck don't they film that instead?
  • Peter Jackson and Halo. *barf* He should really go back to making films that don't suck, like Dead Alive and The Frighteners.

  • Halo Movie... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Notquitecajun (1073646) on Wednesday May 30 2007, @10:10AM (#19321953)
    We HAVE our Halo movie.

    Red Vs. Blue, baby!
      • It would end up being extremely funny for the first 30 minutes, followed by another hour of random plot points, increasingly lame jokes and frustration. By the end credits, you'd have a gun to your head thinking, "Why didn't they just end it after 30 minutes?" before pulling the trigger.
  • ...comment on the graphics? I'm going to be honest, I saw a ton of screenshots, and I saw exactly one (I believe it was of a needler) that made me say, "Ooh, that's a nice graphical upgrade from Halo 2. The other screens I saw could have been Halo 2, for the quality of their graphics. What I'm wondering is, do the screens not do the game justice? I hope so, because if not, we may be in for a very disappointing graphical baby step when Halo 3 arrives.

    • Re:Can someone who actually played the beta... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by svendsen (1029716) on Wednesday May 30 2007, @10:37AM (#19322409)
      I am playing the beta and here are my thoughts:

      The graphics are stepped up from Halo 2 but not by leaps and bounds. Cod3, GoW, Oblivion all look 100x better. The weapons are about the same, one or two new weapons but nothing which would make anyone go wow. I can still dominate just with the standard gun.

      They are few items one can pick up: one creates a shield around you so you can have a safe area to rest (though people can still come in and kill you), one causes an EMP pulse that will knock out anyone's shields (not really used you have to be very close to use and by that time either you have killed them already or are dead), the land mine (useful), and an item which gives you a grav boost in the air (again I rarely see anyone use it). Oh there is a cloaking device (not 100%) but once you see the invisible person moving it doesn't matter.

      Vehicles...the same, nothing special. You can hold multiple grenade types at once: frag, emp, sticky ones, etc. Nothing special.

      Maps again nothing special. Some of them have a cool launching ramp that shots you half way across the map. That is fun.

      Summary: Don't expect a massive graphics update (unless they change it up a lot past the beta), games like Cod3, GoW, Oblivion all have better graphics. If you like Halo 2 you will like this game. If you hated Halo 2 you will hate this game. Maybe the single player experience will be more of a wow factor.

      OH on the plus side lots of teenagers still talking about how cool they are, women they bang, how gangsta they are, etc.
      • "Summary: Don't expect a massive graphics update (unless they change it up a lot past the beta), games like Cod3, GoW, Oblivion all have better graphics. If you like Halo 2 you will like this game. If you hated Halo 2 you will hate this game. Maybe the single player experience will be more of a wow factor."

        From the summary I just had to think that Beta is too late to start playing around with your game's assets. Seems to me that the disappointing graphics update according to fans has forced the devs to run
        • Well I didn't sign any NDA and I don't see any NDA notices when I launch Halo 3. With how many people are playing and how hyped the beta demo is from MS and Bungies I don't think they can expect people to be quiet. At worst I can't play the H3 demo anymore...oh no.

          The game doesn't suck but it doesn't rock either. I feel bad for the people paying $130 for the ultimate and $70 for the deluxe versions.

        • Not sure about the GP post, it hardly addresses the question of graphics at all, so I'll try and be a little more specific. It is not a huge graphical leap from Halo 2. That being said, I looked at it and immediately could tell the difference. Textures are cleaner, everything looks a little sharper. The particle effects, particularly on the carbine are improved. Invis looks pretty much like it always did, but the hexagonally tiled distortion field of the bubble shield is neat. The water effects look p
      • I'm a cool, promiscuous, adult gangsta, you insensitive clod.
    • Well, we're talking about a downloadable beta here. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of effects and textures were kept out to keep the download size small.

      Regardless of that however, there is another important thing that many people forget when they talk about Halo 3's graphics. Which is the size of the maps themselves. Gears of War in particular is always being compared, yet Gears of War maps take place in comparatively small areas. I'd like to see the unreal engine render a map the size of Valhalla
      • They've stated on the Bungie website at least a couple times that the graphics are only slightly updated for the Beta because the Beta is about gameplay.
      • Additionally, beta implicitly tells us that the game isn't finished. Good game developers focus on getting the whole game finished and playable, then they add the polish at the end. It's still 3 months away from shipping, and the beta was probably ready to go at least a month ago, so that's a fair amount of extra time to go. I imagine a lot of the graphical effects they're intending on are simply unfinished and probably completely chew the framerate. Bungie would get even more negative feedback if the game
    • Because the beta was distributed online, it's a safe bet that, in order to save on bandwidth, they used many assets directly from Halo 2, which can be loaded from the hard drive if the user has it, and are much smaller than the Halo 3 graphics if the user doesn't. In any case, it's also entirely possible that not all the Halo 3 assets are finished yet.

      Really, who expects production quality in a beta?
  • Don't forget the partial recall, relabelling and delay [kotaku.com] of the massively underwhelming Halo 2 for Windows Vista - all caused by an error message with a Bungie developer's hairy arse mooning away at the unsuspecting user.

    You really can't make this up.
  • To add to that list, people playing the Beta are in for a wonderful surprise yet again this week. Some fans managed to figure out how to start custom games, this has allowed many people to play gametypes and settings with new weapons that were previously unavailable. The customization is actually quite thorough. You can change gravity, player speed, weapon damage, damage resistance, weapon spawns, team traits, vehicle spawns, and that's just what's off the top of my head.

    It's a real joy to run around Val
  • I loved the first two, except the second one didn't end. I really despise games [or movies or TV shows [Lost, I'm looking at you]] that don't have an ending, or leave themselves with a cliffhanger.

    It always feels to me like open commercialisation; effectively it's a way of forcing the customer to give you more money, not on the merits of the game, and the merits of its followup, but because the customer wants to finish off what they paid for the first time.

    So list me as one of the people who won't be purcha
    • Bungie didn't intentionally not finish Halo 2. They didn't meet their deadline, and had to cut a significant amount from the game. [3 levels were dropped from the end of Halo 2, according to Joe Staten.] You're attributing malice to what was otherwise incompetence. [Though I would hazard to say it wasn't so much incompetence as it was Microsoft bugging the fuck out of Bungie to hurry up and release their damn game so the xbox could make money.]

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