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Stories and comments across the archive that link to bungie.org.

Comments · 408

  1. Re:A bit of variety wouldn't hurt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Freeware FPS Alien Arena 2007 Reviewed

    There is always Aleph One (Marathon) from Bungie, it's a free download, has multiplayer and runs on Linux.

  2. Re:And Known Space Cried by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Dr. Bussard Passes Away, Polywell Fusion Continues

    Not exactly... the structures in Halo aren't ringworlds, they're orbitals.

    A Dyson Sphere is a shell of material that surrounds a sun.

    A ringworld is a slice of a Dyson Sphere, a ring that surrounds its central sun.

    An orbital is considerably smaller, and orbits its star like a planet.

    For more info: Iain M. Banks' "Culture" references in Bungie's Halo

  3. Ahhh.... Portable Avatars! by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Funny · on IBM, Linden Labs Call For Portable Avatars

    "The comic book guy's" wet dream.

  4. Re:Halo Marketing - Pathetically Desperate by Stormwatch · · Score: 2, Informative · on Halo 'No Longer Just a Game' For Microsoft

    Halo shares a lot in common with the storyline that ran through the Marathon series, years ago when Bungie was a Mac only developer. I played the original marathon way back when, but never got around to the rest of the trilogy (I think it was a trilogy).
    Would you like to play the rest now? Bungie made the series open-source and freely distributable; also, it runs on Windows/Linux/MacOSX. Get it HERE.
  5. Re:halo players, mature? by Ringthane · · Score: 1 · on Halo 'No Longer Just a Game' For Microsoft

    "haha. yeah right, it's so mature and grown-up walking round with a plastic copy of a virtual weapon from a computer game"

          You don't "walk around with it." You play with the replica BR55 Battle Rifle when no one's around (your office, den, or basement), and then hurriedly put it back on its altar when someone approaches. If you're going to walk around with it, you'd need to put on your home-made $15 Mjolnir Mark VI assault armor. As in:

    http://halo.bungie.org/misc/cb_mcsuit.html

    and

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAF5FxzZ17E

    and

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAF5FxzZ17E

  6. Oh, how times have changed by Pfhorrest · · Score: 4, Insightful · on Halo 3 - The Final Word

    Plus, Halo has a different feel from a lot of other shooters. It's slower and less instantly deadly. It sounds minor, but it's not. It allows some friends of mine who get queasy easily to play with us. A lot of people who were turned off by Quake/Half-life uber-speedy take-3-steps-die gameplay really like Halo.

    Does that make it worth all the hype? Well, probably not. But I've never really run into another shooter that plays quite like it (aside from Marathon, naturally...) Being an old-school Bungie fan myself (creator of the Eternal mod for Marathon, current admin of one of the two still-active Marathon forums, and former head honcho of the Myth section of Bungie.org), I was initially uber-hyped about Halo. Finally, Bungie was coming out with Marathon's spiritual successor (if not outright sequel), and they were gonna make the big time with a major hit game, simultaneously released on both Mac and Windows like the Myth games had been... ooh boy that was gonna be great!

    Then the MS buyout happened. Halo became an Xbox title; the PC version took second fiddle, the Mac version more like seventh fiddle. I've never been much of a console gamer, and NEVER been a fan of Microsoft. So I pretty much gave up on Bungie. But, a friend of mine bought me an Xbox and Halo for my birthday, so I gave it a shot, had a good bit of fun. It's a nice game, feels a lot like a modern, polished version of Marathon, which is exactly what I had always wanted (though getting used to the console controls was a bit of a trick at first). Like you say, Marathon and Halo play VERY differently than other FPSs, and I've never much been into other FPSs for that reason. In Bungie games you move slower and, to me it seems, much more realistically. It's a much more relaxing, flowing feel to the combat, less hyperactive twitch reflex. (Obi-wan's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized age" feels somehow appropriate here). It also has coop, which has always been my favorite gametype; combines the social interaction and teamwork of a multiplayer game with the progressive, task-oriented nature of single player games, with a bit of the ol' Legolas & Gimli kill-count competition going on. So to me, Halo was the best FPS yet, and I actually went out and bought Halo 2 with my own money (the game I've bought for the Xbox that was given to me) and enjoyed it even more, especially coop on Legendary. And now I plan to buy Halo 3, though I'll only be playing it on my friend's 360. Seems a fitting way to end my involvement with Bungie, and I want to see how the series ends.

    But, imagine my surprise when I looked about in the general gaming chatter online, especially here on Slashdot, and find out that apparently the only people who like Halo are dumbass pothead jocks and frat boys who masturbate with Microsoft brand hand lotion while shoving giant vibrating Xbox controllers up each others asses. Or at least, that's the impression you'd get listening to all the shit that people talk about it on the Internet. Certainly a surprise to me, the intellectual geek who spent much of high school pouring over mythological and literary references hidden away in Marathon terminals.

    No, Halo is not the be-all end-all of all video games. But it's not utter shit either. I particularly hate the criticism that it's "old hat" and offers nothing new in terms of gameplay, especially in comparison to mainsteam PC games, which I spent many years looking down upon for lagging in relation to Marathon. (Wow, that new game has a story? Friendly NPCs? Dual wielded and dual function weapons? Cooperative play? Yawn. Welcome to 1994). When the latest sci-fi movie comes out, do you say "oh bah, I've seen a sci-fi movie before, show me something new"? No? So why can't a new game just be a newer, more polished version of the same sort of game that you liked before, with some new settings to explore, some new characters to meet, and some new situations to be resolved?
  7. Oh, how times have changed by Pfhorrest · · Score: 4, Insightful · on Halo 3 - The Final Word

    Plus, Halo has a different feel from a lot of other shooters. It's slower and less instantly deadly. It sounds minor, but it's not. It allows some friends of mine who get queasy easily to play with us. A lot of people who were turned off by Quake/Half-life uber-speedy take-3-steps-die gameplay really like Halo.

    Does that make it worth all the hype? Well, probably not. But I've never really run into another shooter that plays quite like it (aside from Marathon, naturally...) Being an old-school Bungie fan myself (creator of the Eternal mod for Marathon, current admin of one of the two still-active Marathon forums, and former head honcho of the Myth section of Bungie.org), I was initially uber-hyped about Halo. Finally, Bungie was coming out with Marathon's spiritual successor (if not outright sequel), and they were gonna make the big time with a major hit game, simultaneously released on both Mac and Windows like the Myth games had been... ooh boy that was gonna be great!

    Then the MS buyout happened. Halo became an Xbox title; the PC version took second fiddle, the Mac version more like seventh fiddle. I've never been much of a console gamer, and NEVER been a fan of Microsoft. So I pretty much gave up on Bungie. But, a friend of mine bought me an Xbox and Halo for my birthday, so I gave it a shot, had a good bit of fun. It's a nice game, feels a lot like a modern, polished version of Marathon, which is exactly what I had always wanted (though getting used to the console controls was a bit of a trick at first). Like you say, Marathon and Halo play VERY differently than other FPSs, and I've never much been into other FPSs for that reason. In Bungie games you move slower and, to me it seems, much more realistically. It's a much more relaxing, flowing feel to the combat, less hyperactive twitch reflex. (Obi-wan's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized age" feels somehow appropriate here). It also has coop, which has always been my favorite gametype; combines the social interaction and teamwork of a multiplayer game with the progressive, task-oriented nature of single player games, with a bit of the ol' Legolas & Gimli kill-count competition going on. So to me, Halo was the best FPS yet, and I actually went out and bought Halo 2 with my own money (the game I've bought for the Xbox that was given to me) and enjoyed it even more, especially coop on Legendary. And now I plan to buy Halo 3, though I'll only be playing it on my friend's 360. Seems a fitting way to end my involvement with Bungie, and I want to see how the series ends.

    But, imagine my surprise when I looked about in the general gaming chatter online, especially here on Slashdot, and find out that apparently the only people who like Halo are dumbass pothead jocks and frat boys who masturbate with Microsoft brand hand lotion while shoving giant vibrating Xbox controllers up each others asses. Or at least, that's the impression you'd get listening to all the shit that people talk about it on the Internet. Certainly a surprise to me, the intellectual geek who spent much of high school pouring over mythological and literary references hidden away in Marathon terminals.

    No, Halo is not the be-all end-all of all video games. But it's not utter shit either. I particularly hate the criticism that it's "old hat" and offers nothing new in terms of gameplay, especially in comparison to mainsteam PC games, which I spent many years looking down upon for lagging in relation to Marathon. (Wow, that new game has a story? Friendly NPCs? Dual wielded and dual function weapons? Cooperative play? Yawn. Welcome to 1994). When the latest sci-fi movie comes out, do you say "oh bah, I've seen a sci-fi movie before, show me something new"? No? So why can't a new game just be a newer, more polished version of the same sort of game that you liked before, with some new settings to explore, some new characters to meet, and some new situations to be resolved?
  8. Oh, how times have changed by Pfhorrest · · Score: 4, Insightful · on Halo 3 - The Final Word

    Plus, Halo has a different feel from a lot of other shooters. It's slower and less instantly deadly. It sounds minor, but it's not. It allows some friends of mine who get queasy easily to play with us. A lot of people who were turned off by Quake/Half-life uber-speedy take-3-steps-die gameplay really like Halo.

    Does that make it worth all the hype? Well, probably not. But I've never really run into another shooter that plays quite like it (aside from Marathon, naturally...) Being an old-school Bungie fan myself (creator of the Eternal mod for Marathon, current admin of one of the two still-active Marathon forums, and former head honcho of the Myth section of Bungie.org), I was initially uber-hyped about Halo. Finally, Bungie was coming out with Marathon's spiritual successor (if not outright sequel), and they were gonna make the big time with a major hit game, simultaneously released on both Mac and Windows like the Myth games had been... ooh boy that was gonna be great!

    Then the MS buyout happened. Halo became an Xbox title; the PC version took second fiddle, the Mac version more like seventh fiddle. I've never been much of a console gamer, and NEVER been a fan of Microsoft. So I pretty much gave up on Bungie. But, a friend of mine bought me an Xbox and Halo for my birthday, so I gave it a shot, had a good bit of fun. It's a nice game, feels a lot like a modern, polished version of Marathon, which is exactly what I had always wanted (though getting used to the console controls was a bit of a trick at first). Like you say, Marathon and Halo play VERY differently than other FPSs, and I've never much been into other FPSs for that reason. In Bungie games you move slower and, to me it seems, much more realistically. It's a much more relaxing, flowing feel to the combat, less hyperactive twitch reflex. (Obi-wan's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized age" feels somehow appropriate here). It also has coop, which has always been my favorite gametype; combines the social interaction and teamwork of a multiplayer game with the progressive, task-oriented nature of single player games, with a bit of the ol' Legolas & Gimli kill-count competition going on. So to me, Halo was the best FPS yet, and I actually went out and bought Halo 2 with my own money (the game I've bought for the Xbox that was given to me) and enjoyed it even more, especially coop on Legendary. And now I plan to buy Halo 3, though I'll only be playing it on my friend's 360. Seems a fitting way to end my involvement with Bungie, and I want to see how the series ends.

    But, imagine my surprise when I looked about in the general gaming chatter online, especially here on Slashdot, and find out that apparently the only people who like Halo are dumbass pothead jocks and frat boys who masturbate with Microsoft brand hand lotion while shoving giant vibrating Xbox controllers up each others asses. Or at least, that's the impression you'd get listening to all the shit that people talk about it on the Internet. Certainly a surprise to me, the intellectual geek who spent much of high school pouring over mythological and literary references hidden away in Marathon terminals.

    No, Halo is not the be-all end-all of all video games. But it's not utter shit either. I particularly hate the criticism that it's "old hat" and offers nothing new in terms of gameplay, especially in comparison to mainsteam PC games, which I spent many years looking down upon for lagging in relation to Marathon. (Wow, that new game has a story? Friendly NPCs? Dual wielded and dual function weapons? Cooperative play? Yawn. Welcome to 1994). When the latest sci-fi movie comes out, do you say "oh bah, I've seen a sci-fi movie before, show me something new"? No? So why can't a new game just be a newer, more polished version of the same sort of game that you liked before, with some new settings to explore, some new characters to meet, and some new situations to be resolved?
  9. Re:happens to me all the time by Solra+Bizna · · Score: 3, Funny · on The State of Play - Violence and Videogames

    I've been known to walk at a ~30 degree angle for extra speed.

    -:sigma.SB

  10. Re:Never been done by GaryPatterson · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    You should look up the Marathon series, by Bungie. Although the graphics are dated now, the plots were light enough to allow fun gameplay, but deep enough to allow extended analysis ( http://marathon.bungie.org/Story/ )

    I think they're good examples of getting it right in an industry that too often says "why bother with a reason to do stuff?"

  11. Re:Don't forget the Marathon series... by Creepy · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    *originally* mac only - it was ported to x86 later.

    It wasn't even Bungie's first FPS, per-se - that would be Pathways Into Darkness (wiki here. Some argue that this was technically a first person RPG with shooter and horror elements (like Ultima Underworld, TES Arena, etc), which I wouldn't disagree with, but I found it more intense and difficult than most shooters of that era (Wolf 3D, Doom) and even the next generation (like Rise of the Triad, Marathon, and Duke Nukem 3D).

    on a completely unrelated note, Marathon and Rise of the Triad both had voice chat support, a feature that pretty much disappeared for about 10 years before reappearing in shooters. Who had it first is speculative (my understanding is Rise of the Triad shareware beat Bungie's release by 2 months, even though the full game of RotT wasn't released until ~5 months later). I used this feature in both games a lot in late night college lab frag-fests until the group moved pretty much exclusively to DN3D (which gave me worse motion sickness than the rest and limited my play time).

  12. Re:Don't forget the Marathon series... by X_Bones · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    Marathon 2 was released for Win95, but M1 and Moo were Mac-only.

    Of course, with Aleph One and tons of free content available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, everyone can play it now.

  13. Re:Don't forget the Marathon series... by X_Bones · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    Marathon 2 was released for Win95, but M1 and Moo were Mac-only.

    Of course, with Aleph One and tons of free content available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, everyone can play it now.

  14. Marathon Story Archives by BadMrMojo · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    And just in case you want to see some of the storyline he's talking about. . .

    http://marathon.bungie.org/Story/

    The story was told through a series of terminals - sometimes in seemingly random snippets of logs, sometimes in direct communications from the various AIs on the ship. It's your basic "Boy meets AIs, Aliens invade AIs' ship, AI becomes self-aware, AI uses boy to overthrow both the shackles of the alien invaders and the other AIs running various systems of the ship" story. It's actually pretty engaging,. I found myself looking forward to the next terminal even more than the action itself at some points.

    All three and major mods are available (Free with a capital F) for mac, linux and PC at http://source.bungie.org/ and Marathon 2: Durandal - arguably the best of the bunch - is coming to XBLA, courtesy of Freeverse.

  15. Marathon Story Archives by BadMrMojo · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    And just in case you want to see some of the storyline he's talking about. . .

    http://marathon.bungie.org/Story/

    The story was told through a series of terminals - sometimes in seemingly random snippets of logs, sometimes in direct communications from the various AIs on the ship. It's your basic "Boy meets AIs, Aliens invade AIs' ship, AI becomes self-aware, AI uses boy to overthrow both the shackles of the alien invaders and the other AIs running various systems of the ship" story. It's actually pretty engaging,. I found myself looking forward to the next terminal even more than the action itself at some points.

    All three and major mods are available (Free with a capital F) for mac, linux and PC at http://source.bungie.org/ and Marathon 2: Durandal - arguably the best of the bunch - is coming to XBLA, courtesy of Freeverse.

  16. Re:Never been done by C0rinthian · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    If you can't/don't want to play Marathon, you can read the transcripts from the game at http://marathon.bungie.org/story/

    There is a LOT of commentary there too.

  17. Re:Never been done by Altus · · Score: 1 · on How FPS Storylines Are Written
    Marathon was pretty good at this. I mean, no great work of literature sure, but if you read all the terminals it was pretty easy to follow the story and if you dug deeper you could get more out of it.

    Admittedly nothing in the story explained why key switches in the ship were located on the far side of pools of lava (or some other deadly fluid) but whatever. My friends and I always used to joke that you wouldn't want to be the guy who had to retrieve faxes on the Marathon. "But boss, the last guy you sent to get that fax fell into a pool or reactor runoff, couldn't we put a fax machine closer to the office?

  18. Mod parent up. by MrFancyPants · · Score: 2, Informative · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    Seriously. http://marathon.bungie.org/Story/

  19. Re:Never been done by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 3, Interesting · on How FPS Storylines Are Written

    Get Deus Ex immediately. Later move on to Half-Life 1 and 2. Deus Ex is a definite yes. HL has good cinematic elements to it in the form of scripted events, but I don't know that you can necessarily say it has a great story. I can't comment on HL2, as I haven't played it. Halo is so-so, but the crowning gem of FPS stories has to be Marathon.
  20. Re:Call of Duty by MooseMuffin · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft's E3 Conference Displays Company Confidence

    It's the same reason that bungie.net uses proprietary microsoft video plugin bullshit instead of something even passingly cross-platform. I can only assume you're talking about the trailer being in wmv format. Its available in quicktime here: http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/h3_e3_2007/. Bungie.net even links you to it.
  21. Re:Well, remember Halo was going to be a Mac game by HAKdragon · · Score: 1 · on Claims of Apple Games Just PR Fluff?

    It should be noted that the entire trilogy is available for free for Windows, Linux, and OS X from Bungie (Source code is available too, in case anybody was wondering)

  22. Mac World New York, Can you guess the date? by mr-mafoo · · Score: 2, Informative · on id, EA Show Support For Apple

    MWNY 1999, I remember watching the stream live and getting hyped over this MMO shooter. Its such a shame it never became the game it was intended to be.-=[shake fist]=-

    The video of the demo is still up on the web, ah the nostalgia. http://nikon.bungie.org/movie1.html

  23. Re:Depends on with whom you run by macs4all · · Score: 1 · on Apple Mac OS X Update For 17 Vulnerabilities
    Funny, man. Halo? The biggest Xbox title ever? Still the second most played game on Xbox live to this day? You truly are a pompous Apple idiot.

    ...And you must be a clueless moron.

    Halo was demonstrated by Bungie's Jason Jones as an under-development OS X-only game before Bungie was purchased by MacroSuck(tm).

    I remember seeing the Keynote at which Halo was demo'ed at MacWorld Expo NY in 1999.

    Here is a page full of links to videos regarding the Halo introduction (caution: The videos themselves seem to load slowly, be patient) :

    Halo wasn't released for the XBox until how many years later?

    FOAD, Windows Fucktard.

  24. Re:The thing is that it's true by Mortanius · · Score: 1 · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    Take a look at Marathon: Aleph One. A modernized version of the Marathon engine, just insert data files from the original games and go. Or it looks like there's some new maps and such available now, too.

  25. Re:The thing is that it's true by Jesterboy · · Score: 1 · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    Actually, I remember running original Marathon in Windows XP with no problems. You can even download all of the Marathon content for free; just have a look here and here. It is not a very difficult process, just takes a little bit of reading and moving things around.

    I never actually finished the first game. The story seemed to be primarily dolled out through text communications between the various characters, and you could quite easily ignore it and just shoot things. If you've played Halo first like I have, everything will be eerily familiar, and some things are just plain cool. Dual wielded shotguns anyone?

  26. Re:The thing is that it's true by Mattintosh · · Score: 1 · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    If you like Halo's story, go read the previous installment.

    Marathon.

    A warning, though... Halo is a bit "hollow" after reading all of that.

    And if you want to go further back...

    Pathways Into Darkness.

  27. Re:The thing is that it's true by Mattintosh · · Score: 1 · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    If you like Halo's story, go read the previous installment.

    Marathon.

    A warning, though... Halo is a bit "hollow" after reading all of that.

    And if you want to go further back...

    Pathways Into Darkness.

  28. Re:Is Halo really that great? by FerociousFerret · · Score: 2, Informative · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    And if you like the Halo story, you might also like the Marathon story as well. Although I believe Bungie said that Halo was in a different universe than Marathon, it was originally believed that Halo was a prequel to Marathon that happened during a hole in the timeline between "Pathways into Darkness" and "Marathon".

    Marathon's Story
    Marathon Trilogy
    Marathon / Halo link

    Of course, there are those that don't think the games are tied together at all

  29. Re:Is Halo really that great? by FerociousFerret · · Score: 2, Informative · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    And if you like the Halo story, you might also like the Marathon story as well. Although I believe Bungie said that Halo was in a different universe than Marathon, it was originally believed that Halo was a prequel to Marathon that happened during a hole in the timeline between "Pathways into Darkness" and "Marathon".

    Marathon's Story
    Marathon Trilogy
    Marathon / Halo link

    Of course, there are those that don't think the games are tied together at all

  30. Re:Is Halo really that great? by FerociousFerret · · Score: 2, Informative · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    And if you like the Halo story, you might also like the Marathon story as well. Although I believe Bungie said that Halo was in a different universe than Marathon, it was originally believed that Halo was a prequel to Marathon that happened during a hole in the timeline between "Pathways into Darkness" and "Marathon".

    Marathon's Story
    Marathon Trilogy
    Marathon / Halo link

    Of course, there are those that don't think the games are tied together at all

  31. Re:Is Halo really that great? by FerociousFerret · · Score: 2, Informative · on Bungie Vs. Miyamoto - Fight!

    And if you like the Halo story, you might also like the Marathon story as well. Although I believe Bungie said that Halo was in a different universe than Marathon, it was originally believed that Halo was a prequel to Marathon that happened during a hole in the timeline between "Pathways into Darkness" and "Marathon".

    Marathon's Story
    Marathon Trilogy
    Marathon / Halo link

    Of course, there are those that don't think the games are tied together at all

  32. Re:fun by Sibko · · Score: 1 · on Halo 3 Cinematics To Be Great Improvements on Halo 2's

    Your point would make sense if Bungie was expending massive resources to create beautifully rendered CGI videos that don't add much to the game for their cost in time, and money. But that's not at all what's going on here. The cinematics in Halo have always been rendered in-engine, Bungie is just saying that with the extra time they have with Halo 3, they're going to improve the sound, dialogue, animation, and so on, over what they had in Halo 1 and 2.

    This is hardly indicative of what's wrong with games nowadays.

    And hey, if anyone's interested, you can view Halo's cutscenes here:
    http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/cutscenes/halo.html
    http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/cutscenes/halo2.html

  33. Re:fun by Sibko · · Score: 1 · on Halo 3 Cinematics To Be Great Improvements on Halo 2's

    Your point would make sense if Bungie was expending massive resources to create beautifully rendered CGI videos that don't add much to the game for their cost in time, and money. But that's not at all what's going on here. The cinematics in Halo have always been rendered in-engine, Bungie is just saying that with the extra time they have with Halo 3, they're going to improve the sound, dialogue, animation, and so on, over what they had in Halo 1 and 2.

    This is hardly indicative of what's wrong with games nowadays.

    And hey, if anyone's interested, you can view Halo's cutscenes here:
    http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/cutscenes/halo.html
    http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/cutscenes/halo2.html

  34. Why bother? by bhunachchicken · · Score: 1 · on Halo 3 Cinematics To Be Great Improvements on Halo 2's

    The question is - Why are they bothering?

    Unless I've been reading all the wrong message boards it appears that most Halo players are by far more interested in the multiplayer deathmatches than the story. The backlash over the "story" in Halo 2 was all over Halo 2 boards for months following the game's release.

    I wouldn't put too much stock in the story neither since I doubt they'll be lifting ideas from an Iain M Banks novel this time...

  35. Re:Iain Banks Orbitals by szyzyg · · Score: 1 · on Halo Science - Ringworlds and Plasma Weapons

    There are quite a few links between Iain M Banks work and the Halo series - and I absolutely recommend anyone who's not read his work to check it out. Larry Niven was certainly first with the ringworld design, but the orbitals are more directly related to the game environment.

    Someone has put together a nice list of similarities between the games and the books.

    http://marathon.bungie.org/story/halo_culture.html

  36. Yes. by anti-human+1 · · Score: 0 · on Croal vs. Totilo - The God of War 2 Letters

    Yes, you can. Not necessarily the same story, but it's hard to top Marathon. Some would also mention Half Life. Different approach to storytelling, but still no FMVs to sit through.

  37. Barely scratching the surface... by interactive_civilian · · Score: 1 · on The Ten Most Important Games
    The Marathon trilogy's incredibly intricate plot contained so many twists, references, and other hidden little gems, that it was discussed (an perhaps still is a bit) in depth from the release of the first demo of the first Marathon until many years after the game went out of production.

    Take a look at the Marathon Story Page, and drink up all of the cool details. However, expect a LOT of spoilers, so if you haven't played through the series, then get on it.

  38. Barely scratching the surface... by interactive_civilian · · Score: 1 · on The Ten Most Important Games
    The Marathon trilogy's incredibly intricate plot contained so many twists, references, and other hidden little gems, that it was discussed (an perhaps still is a bit) in depth from the release of the first demo of the first Marathon until many years after the game went out of production.

    Take a look at the Marathon Story Page, and drink up all of the cool details. However, expect a LOT of spoilers, so if you haven't played through the series, then get on it.

  39. Re:[visting] Marathon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on The Ten Most Important Games

    http://source.bungie.org/ for those of you interested in revisiting that classic along with its conversions and variants on modern hardware. Improvements in gameplay are OpenGL, optional hir-res textures, scripting, support for true 3D elements (working bridges and models) and both Windows and Linux support.

  40. Re:There was an open source version of Halo? by i_should_be_working · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Has Open Source Lost Its Halo?

    Well, if you like older games, the Bungie team started out with Marathon, which was in many ways a precursor to Halo, and is now Free for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

  41. Re:There was an open source version of Halo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Has Open Source Lost Its Halo?

    Yes, you can download it from here.

  42. Re:Maybe Halo was their first? by necro2607 · · Score: 1 · on Halo 3 To Have 'Mute the Jerk' Button

    Well, maybe not in the actual game art (altho Marathon's was pretty damn primitive), but the armor on Master Chief in Halo is actually of the same family as that of the protagonist's in Marathon - Mjolnir combat armor.

    Check it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MJOLNIR_battle_armor

    So while visually the armor may somehow compare to that in Half Life, the concept of that armor series was already there 6 or 7 years earlier... ;)

    BTW you can download the whole Marathon trilogy for free at http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/ :) It is now playable on Mac, Win and Linux (possibly other platforms) due to the "Aleph One" 3d-accelerated source port of the Marathon engine.

  43. Re:Maybe Halo was their first? by necro2607 · · Score: 1 · on Halo 3 To Have 'Mute the Jerk' Button

    I can assure you if there was any ripping off, it was done by Half Life's developers. Go load up Marathon and you'll see what I'm talking about... Or, simply view the following pages:

    Halo: Original Game, or Sequel?
    Halo Resources - Marathon Similarities
    Halo Story Page - Marathon Connections

    Basically, the Halo "universe" is hugely an evolution of what Bungie began in the early 90s with the Marathon series. If you loosen the technicalities a little bit, Halo is basically a beefed up kickass version of what Marathon ought to have been.. ;)

  44. Historic Bungie games still going by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative · on Inside Bungie - Living The Spartan Life

    You can download Marathon Aleph One for free, the FPS predecessor of Halo.

    And you can still play Myth II online for free (serial number not needed if you forgot yours).

  45. Re:Live action? by Sibko · · Score: 3, Informative · on Halo 3 Teaser Aired, Beta Signups Start

    The live action portion was in the beginning, with the two children. There was a quick Q&A in IRC about the trailer after it went live, I made a post containing almost all the pertinent information here: http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl? read=765397 Though I think I missed a question somewhere.

    To quote Frankie: "Actually the stuff with the kids was filmed on a set they filled with grass."

  46. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Halo 3 Teaser Aired, Beta Signups Start

    Actually, most of Marathon 1 involved attempting to split the enemy and get some of them to fight for your side.

    If you aren't familiar with Marathon's Story, you should check it out. It's a great tale even if you aren't playing the game, and it's even better if you are.

    Halo is shiny and wonderfully noisy and has fun battles, but as far as the story goes it is but a pale, insignificant imitation of its predecessor.

  47. Re:Mirror? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Halo 3 Teaser Aired, Beta Signups Start

    Also one here:
    http://files2.bungie.org/halo3_1242_hd.mov

    Now in QT!

    Nis

  48. How will Bungie handle their own lies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting · on Halo 3 Beta Sign Up Starts Dec. 4th

    Dare I need to bring up the Halo 2 announcement trailer?

    I find it funny how others bitch about company XYZ selling them pre-rendered graphics non-gameplay videos, yet never questions things & eats the stuff up when their favorite company does the same thing.

    Whether it be Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc, I do not put much stock in the graphical claims these companies make, and am only willing to trust the stuff when the game is ready for purchase from retailers.

  49. chirp chirp by anti-human+1 · · Score: 0 · on PS3 Linux Now Installable

    I'm pretty sure that's the sound of no one caring... There are far more interesting things you could be doing with PPC hardware, like playing Aleph One. or EV Nova. Both of these can be done for a lot less than $5/600.

  50. Re:Still not as good as Halo 1 alpha? by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Halo 3 Multiplayer Demo Coming In Spring

    So the only way to tell if a game is good or fun is by the quality of the graphics? Halo was dummed down to work on the xbox and has never recovered.

    Have you seen non-cinematic videos of the early versions?

    There. Was. No. AI.

    Aliens just ... stand there, oblivious to the player's presence. Going further back to the third-person versions - aiming was a mess of reticules and lucky guesses. 'Gameplay' might have involved driving over someone with a warthog, or shooting him/her/it with one of the vast and peculiar array of weapons available. While wandering round an unfinished map with almost no cover whatsoever.

    The beginnings weren't much of an improvement - the game was an RTS where you could place units, order some around, and that was about it. Wahey.

    There's a video out there somewhere which has Bungie employees pointing and laughing at the incredible smoke-and-mirrors act they pulled from a game which, to be honest, wasn't really going anywhere. They had ideas, they had talent, but if someone hadn't bought them out or paid them, and then given them a giant deadline to meet, then Halo would probably have been forgotten...

    The amazing, nebulous vision of a perfect, detailed Mac-only Halo steeped in aeons of complex gameplay - then being crushed under the boot of a monolithic Microsoft - is just a creation of people's imaginations. Sorry.

    (Aha! Found it: The Evolution of Halo. Worth seeing.)