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As of November 15, 2001, the Xbox is officially 10 years old. Both the system and the company have come a long way since that unforgettable launch day, with many high and low points to speak of. Whether it was the launch release of Halo: Combat Evolved or the unveiling of Xbox Live in 2002, it seems like there's always been a lot to talk about when it comes to the big X. Check out just what made the Xbox so memorable, and what this anniversary means to gamers.
There is no doubt that the Halo series is great but despite tens of millions in total sales, not everything has been right with Halo games. Here is a look at some of their biggest flaws over the last ten years.
Bungie has officially announced some new things about the beta they were running a few months ago. It seems that the studio who brought us Halo is at it again. Check out the full post.
"In an interview with Develop, the studio's communications manager, Brian Jarrard revealed that Bungie is building brand new internal tech for their next game. Development for the Activision published title is well under way."
"Let's take step back: it is now November 2001. The internet still isn't big, broadband is a pushing innovation, and that brand new "Xbox" launched from Microsoft. But what did that big, ugly system have that made anyone want it? The PS2 install base was already huge, and Gamecube had launched 3 days before it, setting it at a bad starting point ($300 for a gaming console was quite ridiculous at that time). But something strange happened. Word started getting around of a game on the Xbox that ..."
"Guinness World Records revealed its reader-voted list of the "Top 50 Videogame Series" of all time, with Bungie's flagship franchise Halo taking the number one spot. The company, which tracks and recognizes record-breaking achievements, notes that the series is the "Best-Selling First-Person Shooter (FPS) Franchise Ever", too."
"The Halo franchise on the original Xbox and Xbox 360 is one of the biggest in gaming. It covers not only the successful trilogy of games and two side games (Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST) but also books, toys, board games, slurpees, animated movies, live-action commercials, and almost a full live-action movie. So where does Bungie take the next project? "Even bigger and better" according to design director Joe Stanten."
"A week ago, Microsoft decided to shut down the original Xbox Live servers for Halo 2. It seems like dozens of gamers don’t agree with that and keep their consoles connected until their console dies or Microsoft boots them!"
Xbox Evolved writes about the final and complete Halo 2 stats since it's original run in 2004 up until the day the service was shut down and locked out to Xbox LIVE members.
"The M12 ‘Warthog’ LRV is an A-reg 1984 Land Rover Defender 110, rescued from the GumTree 4×4 yard before its eventual scrapping due to MoT failure. Rebuilt by Props Studios, the vehicle has been fitted with an entirely new body and lifted suspension, along with as a heap of other modifications. It’s thought that the vehicle will arrive in London in full working order."
Did you ever wonder why The Xbox 360 didn't have more than a 100 friend capacity? Well, it's because of Bungie's Halo 2. Microsoft has the capability of having more than 100 people per friends list, but the original Xbox's LIVE is standing in it's way. But they can't just cut off the LIVE for the Xbox seeing as thousands of people still play the ever popular Halo 2 online. So really, it's mainly up to the gamers discretion on whether or not they should cut the power on the original Xbox's LIV...
"We all know how big a nerd Marc Ecko is; he says it himself all the time. In fact he loves video games so much he helped produce his own game called Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. It was released three years ago and received decent reviews. His love for video games doesn’t stop there; today Ecko has released a Limited Edition line of Halo T-shirts."
"So, when you've got a new computer game to plug what do you? Easy, you trawl the UK to find UK's hottest female Halo fan.
And after a rather vague selection process which just might have involved wandering round a few modelling agencies, Xbox decided on 25-year-old Amanda Johnstone from South London, a girl who likes nothing more than 'being snuggled up in bed with her Xbox controller, playing Halo to help take her away from her daily stresses.' Halo duvet cover and pillow case set natural..."
World renowned machinima series Red vs Blue is back with a new season, following on almost directly from where it left off after mini series Reconstruction. Part 1 has already been uploaded and the gags come quick and fast, you don't need to like Halo to enjoy this entertaining romp.
"Desirai and John are big-time "Halo" players. She games under the name SickNDeHead. He plays as PsychoVandal. They met when she lived in New York and he was in Florida. She'd become Xbox Live friends with his roommate, and they slowly started to play games together, regularly. When he didn't show up online one day during the time they usually played, she sent him a message and her phone number.
"I was drawn to her laugh," John said in a phone interview with MTV News earlier this week. "I h..."
"Sumthing Else Music Works, Inc., through its licensing relationship with Microsoft Game Studios, has today announced Halo Trilogy The Complete Original Soundtracks featuring the award-winning original music scores by Bungie Audio Director Martin O'Donnell and Co-Composer Michael Salvatori plus four preview tracks from the forthcoming Real-Time Strategy game Halo Wars, composed by Ensemble Studios Audio Director Stephen Rippy. Halo Trilogy The Complete Original Soundtracks is released tomo..."
"The battle for supremacy begins - NOW. Genius Products, LLC and B1 Games today announced that the first-ever board game based on Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie's best-selling Halo property - Halo Interactive Strategy Game - has shipped to retail outlets nationwide. Bringing the Halo universe to a broader audience through numerous family-friendly features..."
For those who don't know, the Large Hadron Collider is a proton accelerator which scientists hope will help them discover just what exactly happened after the Big Bang occured.
But it seems that the scientists behind the Collider have grown sick of people misplacing their d's and r's and so decided to hold a poll for the public to vote for a new, catchier name. Today the results of said poll were announced and the new name is; "Halo".
Another alleged videogame related death. This time involving the popular Xbox shooter Halo. 11 year old Johnson Creek boy Nimm was apparently a big fan of Halo, even taking a liking to firearms after playing the futuristic FPS. While at home skipping school Nimm was apparently trying to imitate moves from the game with his .22 caliber rifle (a common pastime for the child). However he did not obviously grasp that a round could still be loaded in the chamber even when the magazine ejected and ...
At the 2008 Developer Conference and Expo yesterday, Damian Isla, who wrote the AI script for Halo 2 and currently works on Halo 3. Isla talked about how tough it was to develop the AI for Halo 3, how it has changed from the first game, and what challenges they have to deal with in their next Halo game.
Bungie couldn't make it to E3 due to some changes in their schedule and now we have some details on what Bungie was going to show. They were going to show a one minute knockem down" trailer to end the media part of Microsoft's press conference. After that, Bungie was going to show off the game on Wednesday.
"Now our source is really sticking her/his/its neck out.
As we told you earlier, our inside woman/man/thing got hold of some pretty exciting news.
News that Bungie was already hard at work developing what will be Halo 4.
Now were told that this will be announced officially at E3.
The prior news was probably like a weatherman predicting a hurricane sometime somewhere. This starts the ticking clock for what would end up being a pretty big deal."
If you're a big fan of Halo, no doubt you'll be wondering what will happen to the series now that Master Chief's story is over. It looks like Bungie/Microsoft have plans for more Halo games, but fans might feel a little wary at the ideas that the companies have come up with...
Microsoft recently released a marketing survey asking fans what they want to see in the next Halo game and, by the looks of it, a "family friendly" Halo, a Halo racing game, and a LEGA Halo aren't out of the question...
"Like any good video game research, which generally uses dated games for its findings, the journal of Cyberpsychology & Behavior studied the outcome of 1,347 online matches, using Unreal Tournament 2004.
The results proved less neutral than gamers might expect, with red players winning 55 percent of the time over blue. According to neuroscientist Mihai Moldovan of the University of Copenhagen, this is because red is a distracting color for men, thus blue teams struggle more for kills.
A ..."
"Following Bungie's split from Microsoft, it looked like it was over for both the Halo developer and their corpse-humping shooter for a while, but according to the latest round of magazine rumours a new Halo is already well underway (we can hear the hype machine being prepped already).
According to US mag Electronic Gaming Monthly, Bungie's already prepping a Halo spin-off for release in late 2009.
Supposedly, it's a third-person "action/adventure shooter hybrid," that takes place before..."
"UPDATE: Microsoft just contacted MTV Multiplayer with an official statement, confirming the prospective hires will work on Peter Jacksons Halo project.
A Peter Jackson-helmed Halo project was announced at X06 in Barcelona, said a Microsoft spokesperson. Since then, Microsoft Game Studios has been hard at work collaborating with Peter Jackson and Bungie on the development of that project. At this time, its necessary to grow the internal team to keep pace with development. Bungie will..."
"Internet phenomenon Rooster Teeth, creators of the hit series Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, have announced a new series titled Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction. The only information available on the new series is the release of a teaser trailer that appears to change the focus of the RT group from comedy to suspense. However, when the nature of the Halo 3-set series was questioned in the teaser's comments Rooster Teeth front-man Burnie Burns told fans, "Don't let appearances fool you.""
Ah, the Halo Movie. Either you produce it or don't produce it, you know? Anyway, word on the internet (this was news published yesterday but promised not to be an April Fool's joke) is that the Halo producers have found a new writer in hopes of reducing costs and getting the movie back on track.
The screenwriter is "Stuart Beattie" (who penned the script for the G.I. Joe movie) wrote a screenplay in his spare time, without Microsoft's knowledge, just because he was a big Halo fanatic. The...
Lego Halo?!?!?!? According to the latest issue of EGM, Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie are working on a LEGO Halo game for the Xbox 360. According to the article in EGM, LEGO Halo will have you play through all three games in the Halo trilogy.
"Yes, just when you thought you were the ultimate Halo geek, just when you thought there was nothing else that Bungie could whore its first-person behemoth onto, up prances Germanys favourite three-striped sporting brand with a truly, truly hideous addition to the growing catalogue of Halo merchandise disasters.
A picture is worth a thousand words and, in this case, if we were pushed to submit a thousand-word news article then the vast majority of them would begin with f and end with uc..."
"In their latest podcast, Bungie team members revealed that the new game the Halo developer is currently keeping themselves busy with is something very different from what gamers have come to expect from the company.
As usual with games very early in the development cycle, the devs are keeping their lips sealed for the time being, saying its still far far too early to talk about any specifics. And, as opposed to bashing their own game, one of them said: some of the stuff that Ive seen ..."
If you're a gamer with the money to spare - and also no sense of shame - then eBay has the ultimate representation of your passion with all things Halo. Yes, the Covenant Energy Sword. A hulking stainless steel replica of one of Halo's most deadly weapons.
Here's a bit of advice for those who enjoy breathing, don't take it to the mall with you.
"Despite a bulging Backward Compatibility list that presently stands at an impressive 465 original Xbox titles, the most recent list update could well be the last if comments made by Microsoft group marketing manager Albert Penello pan out as fact."
"For most, the prospect of escaping to the online world of Xbox Live is something anticipated with excitement over the course of yet another mundane days existence. However, for two young sisters in the state of Washington, Microsofts hugely popular multiplayer haven recently became the platform for a friendship that quickly turned into a frightening obsession."
""I think weve got magic in the disc," enthused lead designer Graeme Devine. "We've worked on the controls, gameplay, and story for this game being very much aware of what has gone before us. I was down in playtest yesterday and actually did not get to sit down and play because folks were spending their lunches playing the game. I know we're doing well when that happens.""
A 14 year-old boy, attending a middle school in Wyoming, was suspended for sketches of the popular video game, Halo. Search warrants were assigned to the boy's house, his father's home, and took his computer for evidence. The boy has not been charged with any crimes, however, he did threaten a fellow pupil and he has been seen shooting pigeons with an assault rifle while on his roof.
I think this has truly nothing to do with Halo, but with the danger of the kid hurting someone.
"Some time ago, I blogged about playing a cancelled version of Halo DS. The game was the real deal, created by a real development studio and with a very big publisher. But for reasons we won't discuss, Halo DS was never released. Clearly. Obviously. Still, it would've been cool, huh?
My Halo DS blog has haunted me since I posted it because many people were skeptical of my claims. I wouldn't make something like that up, of course, but that hardly silenced any of my critics. When my brother ..."
The article creator has a friend who works at Bungie and he submitted the article creator an email saying Bungie is leaving Microsoft and the email also features reasons to why this is happening. It seems that Bungie are basically Microsoft's slaves. Microsoft is not allowing them to work on any other different project that's not to do with the Halo series and Bungie dislikes this. Even though this is still a rumour the article creator also adds that he has full faith with this contact of his.
"Speaking with Bungie at an exclusive Microsoft event this month we were informed that there was no rest for the wicked for the team as they were already beavering away at the next Halo game in the franchise. When questioned whether the game would be a prequel, Bungie remained tight lipped as always but we have a hunch that the game might actually be Halo - The Movie Game (insert movie title prefix here). Either way, it's early days considering many are still tackling the single player of Halo..."
Microsoft is really setting the bar, expecting Halo 3, possibly one of the most anticipated games from the Xbox 360, to hit $300 million. This number is more than double of what Halo 2 got, but with all the pre-orders and midnight openings just for the game, it could very well meet Microsoft's expectations.
"Welcome to the UGO's World of Halo. This is the realm of Master Chief. Enter and join the epic battle that has been chronicled in video games (including Halo 3, Halo Wars, and beyond) novels (The Fall of Reach and The Flood), comics (The Graphic Novel and Uprising) and the Halo movie."
"Here it is everybody, the freebies from Bungie. On Xbox Live, you can get a new theme and picture pack set. Remember, it's only available until Sunday.
On Bungie's Web site, they've released the lovely picture seen above from the cover of Gamepro magazine. They've also released some information on the Brute Chopper and two variations of the Mjolnir armor. The pictures of the Mjolnir armor are in 3D so you can spin them right round and view all the angles of the image.
I always find it..."
"Proving that you're never too old to play with toys (just hope you never hear editor Stevie let loose his passion for Transformers!), Todd McFarlane Toys has today told Next-Gen that it actively pursued, and secured, the rights to make a new line of action figures based on the Halo videogame franchise."
20th Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising has announced a partnership with Microsoft where they will be the licensing agent for the Halo franchise. Does this mean that there's still a chance the movie to be produced or does it just mean I'll be drinking out of Halo-themed coffee mugs? (which is still cool none-the-less). This can mean only good things for both companies. (watch their Stocks sky-rocket in the next few months, just my luck I didn't buy FOX)
"Possibly one of the best kept secrets in the gaming world, the physical identity of the eponymous Master Chief has been a subject of conjecture, controversy and contention since the very first Halo burst onto the Xbox back in 2001 - remember those filthy low-down stories that claimed if you finished the game within a certain time you actually SAW the Chief's mug after he removed the Spartan helmet?"
Say what you will about the media overhyping of GTA's hidden Hot Coffee event, but the event left its mark on the industry and its developers. Perhaps we can see shades of this in Microsoft's decision to delay the release of Halo 2 for Vista PC platforms due to "obscure" hidden nudity. Microsoft notes the content in question not normally accessible during regular play, but is potentially viewable from the map editor tool. The Vista version of Halo 2 is now scheduled for a May 31st release ...
"There have been some seriously mixed signals about the future of the Halo franchise once Halo 3 drops this fall. Apparently, it's the end of Bungie's trilogy that started on the original Xbox, but we're still anticipating Halo Wars from Ensemble Studios and a spin-off spearheaded by filmmaker Peter Jackson. Does Halo 3 mean the removal of Bungie from the franchise's lead, or simply the end of Master Chief?
The head of Microsoft Game Studios, Shane Kim, doesn't make the situation much clear..."
"Since its release on the original Xbox in November of 2004, PC gamers have been waiting patiently to try on Master Chief's helmet in Halo 2. Today was to be the day the first-person shooter finally arrived on the Windows platform, but Microsoft has announced it has pushed the game back another couple weeks until May 22.
Microsoft says the delay is to ensure a smooth Windows Vista install for fans once the game becomes available. There are other technical issues being wrapped up, as well.
..."
"HALO: UPRISING #1 (of 4)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Pencils and Cover by ALEX MALEEV
The Eisner Award-winning team of superscribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist extraordinaire Alex Maleev unleash an epic story of mankind's struggle against the alien threat of the Covenant. Picking up from the conclusion of blockbuster video game Halo 2, the must-read issue reveals how the Master Chief, while onboard a hostile ship headed towards Earth, is battling against Covenant forces! Intertwin..."
"The new pack, which works only on Xbox 360, runs $4 and includes two maps: Tombstone and Desolation. Please note that you cannot purchase the map pack with Microsoft Points. Original Xbox games don't recognize "points" even on a 360. You will need to have a valid credit card on file with your Xbox Live account in order to snag the new maps."
"A while back we told you about one bad mother of a fan made Halo assault rifle replica. Today, we're telling you that you can bring her home for only a few hundred dollars. Over on eBay that same assault rifle is up for auction and is currently sitting at $227 with roughly eight days left and the reserve still not met. From what we remember, a whole lot of work went into creating this bad boy, so maybe hundreds of dollars is justifiable. Actually, if you already decided to purchase the Halo 3..."
![Box shot of Halo 2 [North America]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvWGJveC9BY3Rpb24vU2hvb3Rlcg==/halo_2_frontcover_small_YJZFBOTMWKCeLEY.jpg)