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I hate replying to posts that sound like trolls. Who cares if it originally demoed on a Cray or an SGI? Game development frequently takes a few years and plans can change. Once upon a time, Halo was supposed to be a PlayStation game too.

But that was when it was a Myth/scifi hybrid. It was much more of a RTS game, not any sort of first-person game.

Bungie posted a history of Halo a few months ago...

http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=pre xboxhistory040904&p=42

And of course they're pretty upfront about their history too.

http://www.bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?secti on=History&subsection=Main&page=6

Just wanted to get some tru7h out there...

Cheers,
-Geoff

I hate replying to posts that sound like trolls. Who cares if it originally demoed on a Cray or an SGI? Game development frequently takes a few years and plans can change. Once upon a time, Halo was supposed to be a PlayStation game too.

But that was when it was a Myth/scifi hybrid. It was much more of a RTS game, not any sort of first-person game.

Bungie posted a history of Halo a few months ago...

http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=pre xboxhistory040904&p=42

And of course they're pretty upfront about their history too.

http://www.bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?secti on=History&subsection=Main&page=6

Just wanted to get some tru7h out there...

Cheers,
-Geoff

Halo 2, the l33test sci-fi Xbox Live Video Game eva.

You are probably just a troll... but you never know.

They already made a gameabout it (kinda).

A bunch of Warhammer 40000 players just thought, "Holy Shit, it's a real live Space Marine!"

A bunch of Xbox owners just thought, "Holy Shit, it's the Master Chief!"

And a bunch of anime geeks scoffed and said "Call me back when you make one that's 50 feet tall."

Doom 1, bah. Marathon was far superior to Doom in many ways. And if you think id Software is treasonous for having their game ported to X-Box, imagine how us Mac people felt when we awoke one morning, and heard that Bungie, a long-time Mac developer, had been bought by Microsoft.

-- n

I guess it all comes down to opinions. I think FPS games are MUCH better with mouse and keyboard than ANY controller out there.

I agree this is all opinions. That said, though, a FPS that is designed for a console rather than ported will not necessary suffer controls. For my time, I'd rather play Halo on my XBox than Halo PC. That said, I'd rather play RTCW on my PC than on my XBox.

In fact if a game comes out on both console and PC (like Splinter Cell) I always get the PC version. Better controls (opinion), better graphics (NOT opinion).

Splinter Cell is something that I wouldn't want to play on PC because it works perfectly with the XBox controller. It's a stealth game, so the analog sticks are the best way to do that. If I want to sneak, I sneak. If I want to run, I run. I don't have to remember what state I'm in, or hold down a key, or whatever. That's an inherent problem with a keyboard as a controller -- it's not analog. This problem translates to other genres as well, such as sports games or racing games (yes, you can buy controllers for the PC, but I've never found a PC gamepad with the same comfort and sensitivity as what you'll find on a console). I wouldn't buy Madden on the PC, but I would buy it on my XBox (well, I would now that EA supports Live!, where I wouldn't have before ...). I'll agree that graphics are better, but as Slashdotters are fond of saying, it's not the graphics that make a good game. Given very good graphics and excellent control (XBox version of Splinter Cell), I'd rather play that than have excellent graphics and decent-to-good control (PC version of Splinter Cell).

Console gamers biggest argument is that PC's are too expensive

That's only part of the argument. The full argument is that PCs are too expensive to keep up to date. With a PC, games require more hardware than they would on a console because they have to be written at a higher level to work on many different configurations. On a console, subsequent generations of games on a given console will push the hardware further and further without worrying about whether or not the gamer has an ATI card or a nVidia card, or what versions of drivers the player has, or whether they have 512MB of RAM or 1024MB of RAM. The hardware is known, and is guaranteed to be the same across players. You can do things on a console that you can't do on a PC. As an example, look at early Playstation games versus the last generation of games for the Playstation. Final Fantasy IX looks much better than Final Fantasy VII, yet they're both playing on the exact same hardware. Similarly, compare the screenshots of Halo2 against the XBox launch title Halo 1. The graphics are much more detailed, yet Halo 2 is using the exact same hardware as Halo 1. (okay, those Halo2 screenshots are high-resolution renders of the in-game models, but they do give us an indication of what the image quality will be in the finished game.)

Mark my words, this thing will go out of business. And PC games will never die!!!

I agree. However, console games will never die, either. Instead, we'll continue to see stratification, where the PC excels at some types of games (FPS to some extent though consoles are slowly taking over, RTS, MMOGs, hardcore simulations like Flight Simulator) and consoles at others (sports, action games, starting to take over FPS, sneak 'em ups like SC or Thief, racing), with only a bit of cross-over (Full Spectrum Warrior is a well-done console RTS, Forza Motorsports should be a well-done hardcore simulation, Halo2 looks set to take the FPS crown).

The official website should be a showcase for the game, getting us revved up and excited for its release, giving us the lowdown on everything that anyone would wan't to know.

A potential example of that - Bungie Studios' site.

Love them or loathe them, Bungie seem pretty good at that PR thing. Id communicate through occasional updates on their finger service, Valve through emails and posts on other people's forums, and leave their own sites as unsullied, unused shop windows with a few smatterings of out-of-date news and screenshots.

Does anyone happen to know where one could obtain the original concept art? I would love to have something like this to spice up my drab apartment.

This has apparently been dismissed as a false rumor from Bungie themselves.

Marathon was published in 1994; Marathon2: Durandal was 1995, and Marathon: Infinity was 1996.

Even the first Marathon was true 3D; at least the second and possibly the first had the ability to look above shoulder height. Even the first has deathmatch capability--only over AppleTalk, not IP!

(Offtopic, but Christ! What happened to the Bungie.com pages?! There's an obvious answer, of course--I guess they lost that gambit. At least they still have info on the old, pre-sellout games. But I digress.)

I still have fond memories of those games, and indeed, I think that they introduced some technologies to game mechanics that were later ignored by non-Mac users, who never played the Marathon series and so didn't recognize the debt that was owed.

Since few of you are/where Mac gamers. In 1984 Bungie released Marathon. This very very early precusor to Halo, introduced so many things to the FPS genre. Many features on this mac game took years to come out on the PC. 8 person network play. Dynamic lighting. True 3d aiming unlike Quake, (not first implemented in Dark Forces as previously mentioned.) Decent AI in monsters. Fully mod-able from textures, models, maps, sound, storyline, and physics, either by resource haxs or Bungie supplied editors. These games are still being moded and even have been ported to linux/unix with upgraded graphics. 8 player networked games had many modes, from kill the man with the ball, king of the hill, tag, Free-for all, and team versions of all of the above. Any fps player that ever played 1 of the 3 Marathon games will tell you how amazing the storyline and map design was. Marathon featured a very in-depth story that IMHO has not been bettered, with maps that had puzzels or different variables to break up the kill rinse repeat cycle found in so many other early FPS's. Where was Doom compared to all of this?
Bungie gets little respect in its role as a pioneer in FPS's as Pathways into Darkness was released at almost the same time as Wolf 3d.

Does this idea remind anyone of a certain soldier, his AI and special combat suit?

The soldier with an AI watching over and monitoring movement alone would be a nice thing, a'la "Bitching Betty" voice warnings in military fighters.

If the AI suit has as nice of a voice as "Cortana," so much the better.

They were put up on bungie.net moments after the conference ended.

get 'em here:

Bungie.net HALO2 Screenshots, page 3.

Xbox.ign.com also has a fantastic preview up, its five pages long, so i wont bother to summarize it -- its simply a must-read though.

IGN Xbox: E3 2004: Halo 2 Multiplayer Hands-On

"...entirely representative of the lighting, polygon counts, bump-mapping and particle effects"

That statement screams "doctored picture". And on closer inspection there are a lot of things that don't make sense about that image:

(1) This is not a 1st person perspective picture. It's not representative of a 1st person shooter. The viewpoint is too low and there's no HUD. You will never see screens like this when you own the game.
(2) It's a bit too well composed. Almost like they paused the game, then moved the camera around to try and get the best picture. Or used photoshop.
(3) The blue player on the left appears to be shooting at the blue player on the right (with the shield effect). This is indicative of clueless compositing, unless all the players were completely incompetent.
(4) Note the faint motion blur on the ejected machinegun shell that's rotating in mid-air. Um.. motion blur? This suggests badly repaired interlaced video capture, not direct digital framebuffer capture.
(5) Odd stairstepping in places. Check out the antenna on the rear of the car. Why is it so blocky? Also look at the edge of the canyon wall on the right side of the picture - it's clear this image has been resampled. And resampled up - not down. This is most odd.

This picture definitely has some fishy elements to it - motion-blur and antialiasing at 1600x1200 not withstanding. The very early trailer video they released of Halo2 Xbox (which I believe was in-game since all the movies in the 1st game were) was basicly 640x480 with no antialiasing.

• 16 Xbox hooked up in System Link (Halo, Rainbow Six 3, Ghost Recon ...)
• Bawls
• PCs (this has already been covered in other posts)
• Lot's of tables and chairs for board game, collectable card games, role playing games, ... Maybe even for chess, who knows!

I'm not sure it is really accurate to say that software has a wholesale price, since the stores do not buy it. It's more of a consignment arrangement, with the software distributors paying the stores to offer the software.

Here is a very good explanation of how the retail software industry works.

.. they just announced that Halo for the PC went Gold yesterday. Whoohoo! Forget Half-Life.. I've been salivating over a New Bungie Game since the movie in '99.

although a linux or mac port of Halo would be nice. Who knows that might be the next step.

There will be a mac port

Halo for XBOX, coming soon to PC. Cooperative is MUCH better than single play - so good, my partner (who HATES FPS's) actually likes playing.

You don't have to wait much longer for the PC version of Halo. Check out Halo PC FAQ on Bungie's web site.

And you thought that was a joke...

bungie.net which is no defunct (after M$ shut it down).

http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/projects_halo.html

GearBox software is the one doing the conversion.

Here's the information straight from Bungie as well.

Question: Is Halo an Xbox-exclusive, or will it ever ship for PCs/Macs as originally planned?

Answer: There WILL be Mac and PC versions of Halo. Go back and read that sentence again. Notice the clear, straightforward nature of the answer. Note that this answer comes directly from Bungie, the makers of Halo, and is posted on our official site. If that's not good enough for you, check the press release from our parent company Microsoft, or the websites of Gearbox and Westlake Interactive (who are porting the PC and Mac versions respectively).

It doesn't matter what the guy in the forum said, or what the guy in the magazine said, or what the guy at the software store said. All that matters is what Bungie said. And Bungie has said, time and time again, that PC and Mac versions of Halo will ship. People are working on these games right now. Anyone who tells you otherwise does not know what he is talking about.

--was a Pac-Man rip off. Nostalgia clouds your vision and is for old people. Halo, Panzer Dragoon,, Super Mario Sunshine,, X-Box, GameCube, PS2, and yes even the venerable Dreamcast. . .to hell with the past, I'd much rather have today's gameing world any day of the week!

2002-07-13 07:45:21 Halo finally coming to Mac OS, Windows (articles,games) (rejected)

Remember back to the summer of '99, before Microsoft bought Bungie, and we were all looking forward to Halo, "Coming soon for Windows and Mac OS"? And then, suddenly, a year later, it changed to Halo, "Coming soon to a platform near you". Well, according to this press release, Halo is finally coming (in a year or so) for Windows and Mac OS.

Woah, now if Microsoft did something like that, Mac users would be screaming bloody murder!

You mean like Bungie's game Halo? The one that was presented in Macworld Expo keynotes? The one that was going to be out on Mac, PC, and PS2?

Because after MS bought Bungie, it wound up shipping for X-Box, and, so far, nothing else. (Though Bungie continues to assert "There WILL be Mac and PC versions of Halo." -- I'll believe it when it ships.)

Just some info from someone who actually works for Bungie...

- The Myth games are actually owned by Take 2 Interactive... Take 2 got Myth and Oni because then owned 20% of Bungie at the time of the buyout. Bungie's Online team runs the bungie.net metaserver still, though. The point, though, is that Bungie/MS makes no money off of Myth sales... that would all go to Take 2 Interactive.

- The license for the code is rather simplistic, basically just saying you can't use it commercially, and keeping copyright notices, etc. Other than that, I'm pretty sure it is fair game. Some of you here will no doubt point out it isn't "Open Source" in the truest sense. However, one of the primary goals of the license is allowing people to improve the code while not forcing sharing of such changes. One of the big reasons for this is because if you try to put a ranking system in there, it is desirable in most cases to hide the specifics of that system so that users can't stack the deck to artifically inflate their rankings. There are other issues of course, but that is one that I remember being brought up. The point is that a license forcing sharing of every change is not appropriate for this software.

- As for the "no commerical purposes" clause, well, let me just say this: bungie.net was always offered for free. Every copy of Myth 2 got you a bungie.net account. To me, it seems wrong to allow people to use something that was offered for free by us and now charge for it.

Well, I guess if any of you are Myth 2 players, or are just curious, I recommend checking out bungie.net's Myth Vault. Ask questions on the forum, or post them in our FUQ (frequently unanswered questions) database.

-Tom
Bungie.net System Overlord

Second of all, even if the mislabeling is only in the slashdot headline, I still have a legitimate case that labeling this software "open source" is incorrect. This is not like hacker vs. cracker where a minority is trying to redefine a term from the majority. The term open source was popularized by OSI and most people, when they see "open source", do think of the OSI meaning.

So, for anyone, slashdot editor or Microsoft, to mislabel this software as "open source" is misleading, whether intentional or not.

I can read, thank you, but maybe you can't.

If you read the license you'll find that the code is licensed for "non-commercial purposes only", so it's not open source in the sense of the OSD.

I'd rather have them publish the source code than not, but I'm disappointed that it's mislabeled as an "open source" release, when it's not.

Anyway, Myth II is a gaming environment. Here's the story from the Myth Vault on bungie.net web site, in case it gets /.ed.

Myth Game Server Open Source
February 7, 2002
By Mordia

Nothing in this world is permanent, and this must also be said of gaming servers. Over the past five years many of you have enjoyed the thrill of playing the Myth games online, as well as experienced the pains of a downed server or a rank reset. Ah! Memories! The time has come, however, to bid farewell to the old and tired Myth II game server.

We are finally and officially closing the doors on the Myth gaming servers for all time. Myth II online's last day will be Friday, February 15.

However, we realize that by doing so we leave a lot of people without a place to call home. So, what we intend to do is give it to you. Any of you who want it. The server that is. On this site you will find downloadable the Myth II metaserver source code. Do with it what you will!

Want to be an admin? Go for it! Want to make your own ranking system? Everything you need to do so is here. Have a yen for a custom WW2 server? You can make it!

This is the raw Myth II metaserver source code, stripped of a few proprietary bits of code, but still run-able. You can modify it in any way you want and use it for most anything you want. The only real conditions are that you don't then try to sell it and that you leave all the copyright and other legal notices with the code. Be sure to read the short, but very legal license agreement that comes with it before going nuts, but afterwards, go nuts.

The Myth Vault site will serve as a central location for the Myth game server development community, with a forum for people interested in discussing the code and the possibilities. In the future this site may also offer links to fan run servers, leader boards, order databases, whatever--that's all up to you.

It's really too bad the Open Source trademark was rejected, because tactics like this lead to a lot of genuine confusion about what open source software really means.

What's your personal opinion so far of warcraft III? Specifically, how does it compare to starcraft, RA2, and AE2? This is slightly off topic, but the article detail doesn't have much to say..

I think a lot of people, including IMG are over-reacting to Mr. Soell's comments. His original forum post at Rampancy.net only indicated that a few people made some "snarfy comments." It is not like Microsoft in general is in a state of discontent because Bungie Studios is using Linux to power their Bungie.net servers.

Honestly, I doubt Microsoft in general really cares, as long as the product works and makes them money. Granted they don't make much if anything off of Bungie.net, but the people who use it are the same people who are going to buy Halo when it is released.

So, I guess the point is: there is no need to over-react because a couple of OS fanatics made a few remarks...people here do it all of the time...

In fact, OS X RULES AND ALL OTHER OSs STINK!!

btw, that was sarcasm.

out.

There is always Bungie's disembodied soul to answer all our questions with beautifully grafted artifical intelligence.

Question: Are you better then Forum 2000's AI?
The soul says: Can we change the subject please.