Halo Articles: Halo Articles

Xbox ONE unboxing

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 14:50:48 +0000

Is "Left 4 Dead 3" in the works?

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 20:18:37 +0000

Left 4 Dead fans may have something to look forward to based off of a photo taken of an internal change log at Valve's headquarters in Seattle, WA. Check out the enlarged images and see for yourself!

Left 4 Dead 3 and Source 2 spotted during tour of Valve's office

Published Tuesday, 6 August 2013

By: Wesley Yin-Poole

Left 4 Dead 3 and Source 2 were spotted by members of the Dota 2 subReddit during a recent tour of Valve's Seattle office.

During the tour a picture was taken of an internal change log, which mentions Left 4 Dead 3 and Source 2. NeoGAF user "CyborgMatt" produced a zoomed in version, which shows the interesting part in all its glory.

The appearance of Source 2 - the second iteration of Valve's own game engine - comes as no surprise. Back in November 2012 Valve chief Gabe Newell confirmed the company was working on a new game engine.

"We've been working on Valve's new engine stuff for a while, we're probably just waiting for a game to roll it out with," Newell said at the time.

Is that game Left 4 Dead 3?

In October 2012, Eurogamer asked Valve's Chet Faliszek if he'd like to make a third game in the co-op zombie shooter.

"You know, some time down the road," he replied. "Like anything, I would say that to all of our games. So that's not a promise of when or where."

But would you like to? we pressed.

"I really love working on that series. It's one of my favourite series. It's just so much fun with the characters and the world. I love zombies and I love horror. So, yeah."

The original Source engine debuted with Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 in 2004.

Enlarged Image

Microsoft answers questions about the XBOX One.

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 19:34:24 +0000

In an effort to help gamer's understand the XBOX One's capabilities and what some actual features are Marc Whitten, Chief XBOX ONE platform architect, answers some questions posed by Ryan McCaffrey, IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Below is a current IGN article that highlights a series of questions and their answers.

Ask Microsoft Anything About Xbox One

Answers on Microsoft's new console, straight from the horse's mouth!

Soure: I

As the Xbox One gets closer to its November launch, many questions remain about how the console works and what it can do. So we reached out to Microsoft and asked them if they could definitively clarify some of these things. They obliged, and so we'll be bringing you a handful of Ask Microsoft Anything answers each Monday at 2pm PDT/5pm EDT. Bookmark this page, as we'll update this article so that all the answers live in one easy-to-find place.

Oh, and if you've got a question for Microsoft about the Xbox One, send it to our Podcast Unlocked team at unlocked@ign.com and we'll make sure Microsoft sees it!

Are Xbox 360 Avatars transferring over? If so will any changes be made to them?

MARC WHITTEN, CHIEF XBOX ONE PLATFORM ARCHITECT: They are – your avatar will be on the system at launch and in fact, you’ll have some new options, including the ability to do full-body HD gamerpics. By the way, we should actually talk more about gamerpics too. We’ve moved from the 64x64 gamerpics on Xbox 360 to a full 1080p. They are beautiful, and you are going to see some really cool hero moments, like when you login to see personalized views of your games and other content.

Can you clarify how will Xbox Live Arcade work on Xbox One? Or if it will exist at all?

WHITTEN: Sure – there is no difference between games in the store – games are games are games! You’ll find them in the same pivots (most popular, new, etc.) and we’ll be highlighting them in our dashboard experience. And of course – like all of your digital games content – you can play them on any Xbox One, and anyone can play them on your Xbox One.

Will the Game DVR capture at the source resolution? i.e. will Forza 5 clips capture at 1080p and 60fps? And where can Game DVR clips be uploaded to?

WHITTEN: Game DVR captures beautiful clips at 720p 30fps. The first thing you’ll see with our game DVR is the integration of our Upload service on the console. This service allows you to manage, edit, and share your content. Your clips are stored in the cloud. Also, you’ll see games making “magic moment” videos of your gameplay based on the game DVR functionality – all seamlessly integrated. You’ll be able to see these clips in the Xbox One Guide, in your own game DVR collection, and when you are looking at gamercards on the system. You’ll also see games take advantage of this platform capability and do interesting things to integrate captured game footage into the game experience itself.

Can you earn two sets of Achievements for the same game (i.e. Playing Call of Duty Ghosts on Xbox 360 and on Xbox One)?

WHITTEN: Every game has its own set of achievements, so if you’re playing Call of Duty: Ghosts on Xbox 360 and on Xbox One, you can earn a separate set of Gamerscore in each game. But on the Xbox One version, you’re getting a much richer set of features, such as seeing your achievements progress on the Xbox One console, being able to unlock new achievements throughout the year, and earning real prizes inside and outside of the game. Xbox One also enables a new concept of challenges, where games will be offering special time-based opportunities to earn various goals and collect the rewards. More info on challenges can be found on Major Nelson's blog

here.

This months free Xbox games

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 18:50:46 +0000

This months free games for gold subscribers kicks of with Crackdown, an open world third person shooter set in a fictional pacific city. It is available to download for free from August 1st-16th.

The second is Dead rising 2, an open world horror survival game of a zombie apocalypse. The Dead case DLC (a prequel to dead rising 2) also comes free and they will be available to download from August 16th-31st.

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 7/30/13

Wed, 31 Jul 2013 19:21:08 +0000

Sorry for the late Wrapup once again but it's here.

Primary Announcement: My laptop is still broken sad face.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Would you like to test Halo multiplayer for 343 Industries? Would you like to get paid to test Halo multiplayer for 343 Industries? Click Absolute Dog's announcement on how you can play test for 343i

here.

CONTESTS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sssy69nQtao&feature=player_embedded

On top of their T-Shirt Contest which can be found

here, HaloCustoms has launched a massive 1v1 Tournament which has seen a lot of support from all parts of the Halo Community including Waypoint as well as us here at 343i.org! More of an announcement really but check the above video for a hint of awesomeness. And keep up with HaloCustoms' Media Stream for some more footage!

CUSTOM GAMES NIGHT

Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night

Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night is back. Continuing on Halo 3, Spades gives the people what he wants. Here's some footage from the 343i.org lobby he had last week.

WARNING. This video may contain language unsuitable for children under the age of 18. WARNING.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjjQpl_tunw&feature=player_embedded

DGL

Your Division:

Castle Division:

Drizzy_Dan, Gazzy Mill Mill, Neurotic Kasper, Sarge, SikSlik7, Forum Dinosaur, Hater, Real Talk

And now, what everyone's been waiting to for what I think was almost a year. Your winner:

GAZZY MILL MILL!!!!!

All division members of Castle Division will receive the DGL Participant Award and Gazzy will get the DGL Gold Medal!

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

Psychoduck - Competitive host for The Halo Forge Epidemic and one of the masterminds behind the newest gametype: Conversion. This interview does not mention Conversion.

FORGE

343industries.org and The Halo Forge Epidemic present:

The Meet Your Maker Forge Contest is back. This time Forgers will be making Dominion gametype maps! Judges have yet to be announced but know that Absolute Dog and AbleSir Thomas will be on the panel. The Meet Your Maker Forge Contest is quite possibly the biggest Forge Contest across all Halo Communities. If you've never joined, then jump in right now. It doesn't hurt to try to get noticed out there!

All Forgers are encouraged to use one of our site affiliates,

HaloCustoms, to make lobbies for testing their Dominion maps. Click the link to HaloCustoms above to create a lobby right from this thread!

They are also encouraged to use

Zan's Map Marker Pack when submitting a map for optimal display of callouts and weapon placements. Click the link above the find the Map Marker Pack.

For questions that need answers, report here for the

Meet Your Maker Dominion Official Q&A Thread.

And let's not forget the previous winners of the Meet Your Maker Contest - Infinity Slayer along with noteworthy maps from esteemed Forgers by clicking

here.

343iCF Forge Off

Are you a fan of the Hivemind Flood Gametype? Donut has put together a Forge Contest for Forgers that want to make their spookiest and most awesome Hivemind maps for the new gametype! Testing will be provided by

BlOC.

Your judges:

Absolute Dog

Donut

Elliot

here.

And here's the Q&A Thread!

*Featured Maps will be returning very soon*

GAMING NEWS

Tragic news that probably should've made the Wrapup last week. One of the biggest and well known Halo Communities on the internet, The Halo Council, has shut down its site. THC had been around a while and things just weren't working. Here are some of their parting words:

"We don’t have the same amount of time or dedication, so we see keeping this

site open as a disservice to the community; a false hope. We’re sorry, we love you, and maybe we’ll be back. Until then, it’s been real.

Leave your thoughts on this here.

Xbox One is said to have unlimited Cloud storage. Adamj of our site's News Group gives you the lowdown here.

BOOM like magic here's a new gametype from Psychoduck of THFE and Flying Shoe ILR of HaloCustoms. It's freaking sweet and Absolute Dog, involved with the testing, gives you the full rundown of it. Click here if you want to see Conversion in full detail.

And lastly, do you still not know everything included in the Champions Bundle Pack coming up? My buddy from HaloCustoms, SGC, gives you the complete list of what's included along with sweet pictures, videos, and the list of upcoming achievements. Click here to read his thread!

HOT TOPIC

Community Forge Lowdown Episode 9

Here's a cool thread made by Redemption1272, winner of the original Meet Your Maker Contest for Infinity Slayer and Staff over at ForgeHub. Take a look at the maps listed in this thread by clicking here!

PLAY DATES

The Halo 4 Play Date kinda didn't work.

The winner of the Community Event Poll has been named.

The first weekend of August will host:

US vs. UK & Other Countries!

We still want your Play Date ideas! Follow in our MoM's footsteps and post them here!

And with another late Wrapup concluded, you can scroll back up and read it all over again.

Xbox one to have unlimited cloud storage.

Mon, 29 Jul 2013 22:58:47 +0000

Microsoft will offering unlimited cloud storage for the Xbox one a

MaximunPC article states.The news came out of PAX Australia, here is what a Microsoft rep said about it.

"Xbox Live offers Xbox One unlimited storage space in the cloud for all Xbox Live members to store numerous types of Xbox Live content, including your profile, games, Achievements and entertainment. This content is stored and saved in the cloud so you can automatically access it anywhere, anytime, no matter where you are."

With the change of policies such as removing the used games restrictions the Xbox one has slowly but surely been getting back on track and with another positive announcement it will certainly help improve it's reputation a bit more.

"Meet Your Maker" - Dominion

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 23:10:26 +0000

That's right........"Meet Your Maker" Forge Contest is back!

Xbox One can be used for self publishing

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 11:40:00 +0000

Recent reports from Microsoft confirmed that every Xbox one can be used for self sublishing and it will be coming within the first year of launch. Marc Whitten spoke with polygon about these plans.

Full polygon article

here

"Our vision is that every person can be a creator"

"That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We'll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August."

More from the polygon report.

"Whitten said that Microsoft has a "roadmap," but the indie development support on the console will roll out in phases that will likely include a beta, and publicly discussing policies. When pressed on when full support for indie development on the console would be available, Whitten repleied, "Think about it in that first year."

"Microsoft's new plan for self-publishing, which adopts an approach more like Apple and Google's through the iTunes and Google Play app stores, brings the Xbox One's narrative more closely in line with Sony's. Microsoft and Sony are not yet on equal footing, especially from a perception standpoint, but today's announcement shows the Xbox One catching up, further willing to bend on previously defined (or ill-defined, as the case may be) policies. That's good news, both for developers and future owners of each console."

"With the Xbox One sharing the Windows environment alongside the now-titled "Xbox" operating system, with a hypervisor managing both operating systems, one possible way of allowing self-publishing on the Xbox One would be to allow it to run "Windows Store apps."

Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori at video games live

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 18:52:19 +0000

Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori were at video games live where they brought us a piece of music from the Destiny album Music of the Spheres, they also give us an interview where they both talk about themselves and destiny and answer some questions from the community.

Videos uploaded by Datto Does Destiny.

Will Family Sharing Return to the XBOX One?

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:58:58 +0000

According to an article published yesterday regarding the potential return of 'Family Sharing' Microsoft states it's removal was based off of consumer feedback for other features they needed to make room for and not because of the mindset "...we're going to take our toys and go home", as offered by Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten. Read the full article below from

videogamer.com.

Xbox One Family Sharing will return if consumers want it, says Microsoft

Publish Date 15/07/2013 - 12:32pm GMT+1

The feature was removed when Microsoft did a U-turn on its Xbox One policies.

When Microsoft pulled a complete reversal on its Xbox One policies, one of the casualties was the much-anticipated Family Sharing feature. But the feature may well return at a later date if consumers want it, Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten has told IGN.

"If it's something that people are really excited about and want, we're going to make sure that we find the right way to bring it back," Whitten said.

He continued: "We believe really strongly in how you build a great experience on Xbox One for me as an individual, but also for my family. Family Sharing is a great example of how you do that with content. I think you're going to see us, both with examples like that and with other things, keep pushing on how that's something great. An example is some of the stuff we're doing with what we announced around Gold, where other people in the house get the advantages of Gold when I'm a Gold member. You're going to see us continue to push in those areas."

Family Sharing allowed users to share their game library with a group of 10 friends and family, and was one of few Xbox One features which had people excited.

Regarding the decision to remove it, Whitten said it was a matter of making room for the other features consumers were asking for.

"We took some feedback and realised there was some stuff we needed to add to the program," he said. "To add it to the program, we had to make room, just from a pure engineering perspective, to be able to get that work done. So taking Family Sharing out of the launch window was not about 'we're going to take our toys and go home' or something like that. It was just sort of the logistics of 'how do we get this very, very clear request that people really want, that choice, and how do we make sure we can do an excellent job of that, get to launch, and then be able to build a bunch of great features?'"

Whitten concluded: "You know, if there's anything I think that Xbox 360 has proven, it's that we're super committed to this constant cycle of improving the experience and the software, and it's what we've been doing for 360 for the past seven years, and it's certainly where we're going to go with Xbox One."

Xbox One releases in November.

Destiny music to be played live at Comic Con

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 00:21:08 +0000

Bungie's composers Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori will be conducting Destiny's and Halo soundtracks too live at the video games concert at Comic Con Saturday June 20th. The pre show will begin at 6pm PST and their will be played at 7.30pm PST. The show will last nearly 3 and a half hours so So Marty and Mike music will be pplaying at the half way point of the concert.

You can watch the event live on twitch, there is a list of music scheduled to play at the show from a lot of up coming video games head over to

Game Informer to see who's paying.

Arcade Gaming - London's 'Heart of Gaming'

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 22:48:24 +0000

There was a time when for many years my friends and I would regularly travel to the local mall or bowling alleys to play arcade games, pinball and foosball. As kids we rode our bikes and spent our paper route money. Later, as teenagers, we loaded into my first car, a 1974 Monte Carlo, converted the money from our construction jobs into quarters and played until the arcades closed. The bright lights, loud music and in game noises filled the air as we took turns battling each other or beating another's high score on games like Galaga, Asteroid, Centipede, Artari Football,etc. Playing pinball well was more of an art form with subtle hip bumps and light machine shoves that would sometimes result in the infamous "Tilt" light which killed the paddles and let the ball drain pointlessly. Foosball was the real game of actual skill and fast reactions. I still smile at pulling the 'Miracle Whip' or heel pull shot from goalie and cracking the back plate of the goal loudly. It was definitely more social scene back then in gaming. You meet people, challenged other players and teams, but without the mindless foul mouthed smack talk that exists online in some cases today. A fellow player was less likely to say something in person when you were standing right in front of them.

Gaming today is mostly online and it is still very fun. I constantly meet players who still use a mic, as rare as that is now a days, and most are relatively friendly and there for the game as well as some social contact. I remember how social H2 and H3 were compared to the current offering. Though many more player used mics and talked or called out, it will never compare to what it was back then. I offer these thoughts because of a story I recently read and wanted to share it with all of you. I am part of the original gaming community and comparing the old to the new is part of how we sometimes relate our experiences. Today's gaming is beyond anything I ever imagined back then. The online challenges with players from around the world, meeting people I would never have met, save for the online social aspect, and still finding that after all these years, I am still the gamer I was back as a kid. Neither era of gaming can say it is better than the other, both have there positives and negatives, but on thing is for sure.........gaming will be part of our future till the end of time and I am happy to see where it has been, is now and going in the future.

Here is the story I read from eurogamer.net.

The last arcade

Salvaging London's lost video game amusements.

In the wilds of a North Acton industrial estate, one man fights to keep a community alive.

By Simon Parkin Published Tuesday, 16 July 2013

When it comes to arcade games, every city has a heart. This is the spiritual and physical epicentre, towards which a metropolis' video game players are drawn from miles around. It's here that friendships are won, rivalries settled and pallid tans worked up in front of the cathode glow of the machines. In Tokyo there's Club Sega, its cavernous belly rumbling conspicuously opposite Akihabara's subway station. In New York it's Chinatown Fair, a grimy, well-loved nucleus that spills its outcast teen-agers and old timers into the flanking takeaway restaurants at closing time.

In London, it's the Trocadero, a towering entertainment complex situated in Piccadilly Circus. For decades now, virtual fighters, drivers, dancers and gawping tourists have travelled the spinal escalator to the building's summit, where the brightest and best arcade machines await.

However, in the past two years both Trocadero and its nearby cousin Casino - the final bastions of the capital city's video game arcade - closed. The rise of online video games and the fall from popularity of so-called 'destination gaming' has made running this kind of business on some of England's most valuable real estate unviable. But every arcade has its community, those for whom the physical act of coming together to play video games remains more enticing than the remote, displaced tussle of online competition. So rather than find itself homeless and game-less, London's arcade community has performed something of a heart transplant.

To reach the Heart of Gaming - or the HOG, as it is affectionately known to its newfound patrons - you must first quest through two acres of West London industrial estate. North Acton may be just 8 short miles from the Trocadero, but these forsaken, pocked roads couldn't be farther from Piccadilly Circus's hyperactive lights and sightseer bustle. En route you'll pass a Cash and Carry, where restaurants load up on cheap supplies. Tucked in another unlikely fold there's a deluxe car body shop, adding wings and spoilers to blacked-out Audis and BMWs. Everybody you pass stares, suspicious. Then, at last, you reach 10 Cullen Way, climb the fire escape and pay the £7 entry fee. Walk through the whitewash double doors and there, in neat, curated rows sit London's salvaged arcade cabinets, each set to free-play, each chirruping with spared-execution relief.

"I've been active in the London arcade scene for the past twenty years," explains Mark Starkey, Heart of Gaming's owner. "It's provided me with a beautiful background. The arcades are responsible for many of my friendships. I couldn't just see all of that disappear. So I contacted the arcade owners and offered to take the machines off their hands." By combing his savings with those of his fiancée, Starkey was able to buy Trocadero and Casino's machines, selling off the unwanted units on eBay and restoring the best-looking Japanese cabinets.

As a child Starkey bought a Supergun - a device used to play arcade boards on a home television - after he discovered one of the characters in Final Fight was missing in the Super Nintendo version of the arcade game. At 15 he bought his first cabinet, a "hulking wooden thing". When he offloaded the machine in the rain outside his parent's home he discovered it was glued together and therefore wouldn't disassemble. "After stripping out the electronics I took a hammer and chisel to it," he recalls. "I had to rebuild it with screws in my bedroom. It worked but it wasn't the last time I was inconvenienced by an arcade machine."

"You don't want to entertain the idea of failure. Not only will you let everyone down; you'll also look like the guy with the big mouth who wanted to bring back an aging business model and couldn't back it up."

Indeed, after Starkey brokered the deal with Family Leisure, the company that owned and ran the arcade in the Trocadero, he ran into trouble. "The day I went to collect the machines the guy I'd been dealing with came out all hot and bothered, like he'd been arguing," he says. "He told me that the Trocadero's landlord had padlocked all of the fire escapes and cut off the electricity to the building. They had some kind of dispute." Starkey was told that Family Leisure would have to take the landlord to court before they would gain access to the machines. "It was a year and a half before I got a call out of the blue saying I could go and collect the machines. That's when I knew things were getting serious."

Starkey didn't have enough room to store his haul so booked them into storage for four months while looking for premises. Once Starkey found the building in North Acton the community rallied. "People travelled miles out of their own pocket to scrub the bubble-gum off the underside of old Naomi cabinets," says Starkey. "This place epitomises community spirit. We wouldn't be here without it. We even had guys carrying furniture out of Trocadero. They did it because they want it to work."

While we speak, Starkey is regularly called away to take a new visitor's entrance fee, to register someone for the Street Fighter 4 tournament that's taking place later that evening, or to answer a request to switch out one game board for another ("Can you change Guilty Gear for Tetris?"). By seven in the evening, just three hours after opening, there are around 40 people playing games, either the arcade fighters in the front room, the dancing games with their topless speed-freaks in the middle, or console players out back. "I want as many communities as possible under one roof," says Starkey. "They can all feed off one another."

Starkey's home-grown experience maintaining arcade machines has prepared him well for what is, just a few months after opening, already a full-time job. "This is the hobby in which everything breaks," he says, with a laugh. "Before we opened I had all of the monitors serviced and bought new joysticks and buttons for every machine. A lot of the cabinets were rusty and we had to send them to be sandblasted. It's important to me to maintain a clean and fresh image. Otherwise its starts to get that nostalgic arcade look where everything's rundown. Even though it's cool to remember arcades like that to a certain degree, nobody really wants to play in that context for long periods of time."

While Starkey has managed to pay rent and bills every month since Heart of Gaming's opening, he is yet to draw a salary from the venture. But he remains upbeat and ambitious. "You don't want to entertain the idea of failure. Not only will you let everyone down; you'll also look like the guy with the big mouth who wanted to bring back an aging business model and couldn't back it up. But I do think the hard work will pay off. People are making the effort to come to this out in the wilds of an industrial estate just to play games every day."

"My belief is that it can work as a niche business," he says. "This place is soon going to become a recognisable place. You know in King of Kong [the Seth Gordon movie that follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to take the Donkey Kong world record from reigning champion, Billy Mitchell] they feature Funspot? It's an American arcade where people travel to visit from miles around just to beat the high scores. I think Heart of Gaming could become like that with the fighting game community. We stream fights directly from the arcade machines, for example; nobody else in Europe does that."

While the British video game arcade's decline is broadly mirrored in the US, there has been a recent trend for arcade bar hybrids, such as Brooklyn's Barcade, which have found a great deal of success combining drinking with classic Atari cabinets. I ask Starkey whether he has plans to expand into the vintage arcade market. "The trouble is that Atari machines are more readily available in the US," he says. "Over here it's expensive. And many of those boards are 30 years old. How much life do they have for the price? That said we do have Donkey Kong and Pac-Man here. Donkey Kong in particular has a huge following. Everyone's trying to get the high-score on that one. The kids as well. It's funny. I asked a couple of them why they follow me around trying to beat my high score. They said 'It's funny to beat up old people. It's not your time any more'."

Heart of Gaming enjoys a close relationship with Neo Empire, London's prominent fighting game tournament organisers.

Starkey is keen to court this younger audience in order to secure his business' future. "Mostly the younger players come for the consoles out the back and the tournaments we run. But we find that, once they're here, they'll try out an earlier Street Fighter on arcade. Then they'll find a Naomi game that they used to play on Dreamcast when they were children. There's this wonderful mix of eras and games here; it's something you can't find anywhere else. Soon we're going to install a LAN network with 16 PCs for local tournaments. Then we'll have all every type of video game under one roof."

This arcade is built on the belief that the competitive video game scene can remain vibrant and engaging even when developers' focus moves on to other types of game. "We've seen the rise and the fall of the fighting game scene," says Starkey. "Street Fighter 4 brought a lot of new people in who wanted to play and compete. That redefined the scene and made it commercial again instead of this niche thing. That's tailed off recently, but I hope that Heart of Gaming can be a part of the rise again."

As a part of this scheme for expansion, Starkey has planned all manner of events to bring the community closer. "I'm writing a sitcom about the characters I meet here," he says. "Then there's an idea for a zombie movie, which we want to film on the premises and show at local festivals. It's such a great community, all with one common interest." Starkey's passion for the arcades and arcade players is clear; these are his people. But he's philosophical when it comes to explaining any success he might see in the future. "It's down to a mixture of good circumstances with the rise of eSports, good fortune with the opportunity to buy these cabinets at a cheap price and a lot of good help from friends."

Nevertheless, the energy he and his friends have put into Heart of Gaming is born from a belief in the form, the idea that travelling to a destination outside of the home to engage in competitive play is worthwhile, enduring and something that transcends changing business models. "On the internet, players can be anonymous," he says. "Things are said that would never be said in person or, at very least, meaning is lost in translation. But when you meet people in person you want to present yourself in your best light. It's about humans. That, for me, is the appeal of the arcade. That's never going to go away."

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 7/13/13

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 19:42:14 +0000

Oops, almost used the same intro! Wrapup:

ANNOUNCEMENT

here.

CONTESTS

HaloCustoms' Minigame Competition has been in the voting process for a while now due to voting frauds and other violations. But just recently, the competition came to a close and announced an official winner. Find out the winner of the HaloCustoms Minigame Competition by clicking

here.

Here's a little hint of what the game is for you:

CUSTOM GAMES NIGHT

Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night

Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night is back. If you weren't there last night then you missed out like I did but no worries, there is another lobby tonight for those that missed. It will be on Halo 3. RSVP on HaloCustoms.com

here.

DESTINY

Once again, the Destiny section returns with good content. Brought to you by Legendary Member, Choot 'em, it's the Building the Destiny E3 Reveal video with commentary by Ryan Ellis, Marke Pederson, and Michael Zak of Bungie. Catch the video, and a simmering debate,

here.

DGL

No more DGL Matches will be played. The points from each game will be added up and winners and runner ups will be announced and awarded soon.

Castle Division:

Drizzy_Dan, Gazzy Mill Mill, Neurotic Kasper, Sarge, SikSlik7, Forum Dinosaur, Hater, Real Talk

If you still want info on the DGL for some reason click the links below:

Rules/Info

Match_Results

Gametype/Scoring

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

Smokin Shadowz - Although no longer with us, Shadowz has a good story to tell about his career on this site. Former News Group member.

FORGE

Check the Forge Forums for some changes in our Forge community!

*Featured Maps will be returning soon. Hopefully in a special way!*

HOT TOPIC

Game of the Month - July

I don't quite know what this is for but in support of my buddy Lil Dog, I participated in his voting bracket for which game is most popular with members for the month of July. It's real simple, just make a login and vote. Vote for the game of the month

here.

PLAY DATES

Halo: Reach Play Date

This was our first successful Halo: Reach Play Date in a long time. Months I think. We played a lot of mini games as usual and then I put on some competitive games as promised like SWAT and... Well that's it actually. Oh except for the Flag game. That was fun. Join us next week for Halo 3!

Participants:

DocSpartanO07, D-38 Boss, BaconShelf, Elite, SEED Factor, Astronautics7, Elite Sniper, The Dumb Marine, Scorch, Ledgend1221, Eisenhower, Frankenzer, -Sparky-

Everyone who attended will get this:

VOTE FOR THE NEXT SPECIAL EVENT FOR FIRST WEEK OF AUGUST!

We still want your Play Date ideas! Follow in our MoM's footsteps and post them

here!

That's it for this week, now scroll back up and read it all over again.

Building the Destiny E3 Reveal

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 20:41:23 +0000

If you're like me, then you've probably watched the PS4 Destiny reveal video a hundred times, looking for any detail you may have missed the first time you watched.

Watch AGAIN as 3 of Bungie's artist add their commentary to the video as it progresses.

Commentary by:

Ryan Ellis, Technical Art Director

Marke Pedersen, Environment Art Lead

Michael Zak, Senior Art Lead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h3G3V5PCJbk

_{(video courtesy of}

_Bungie.net₎

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 7/8/13

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 16:23:04 +0000

Weekly Site Wrapup? What's that? It's been a long weekend so it's late just read.

ANNOUNCEMENT

here.

CUSTOM GAMES NIGHT

Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night

Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night is coming back! RSVP for it on July 12th at HaloCustoms by clicking

this link.

DGL

The DGL finals are still going. Your division:

Castle Division:

Drizzy_Dan, Gazzy Mill Mill, Neurotic Kasper, Sarge, SikSlik7, Forum Dinosaur, Hater, Real Talk

If you still want info on the DGL for some reason click the links below:

Rules/Info

Match_Results

Gametype/Scoring

No matches have been played this week again.

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

The Gryffin - Member of the OnlineKnights and just a great member of the Halo Community in general. Also one of my really good friends here.

Spades N AZ - I can only say TOO much about this guy. I will let you read this interview to find out my opinion of Spades because it'd take up way too much space here. He's also our current MoM!

FORGE

Click that picture to better understand why this part of the Wrapup is under construction. Get ready for some Forge updates coming to the site soon!

*Featured Maps will be returning soon. Hopefully in a special way!*

GAMING NEWS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA0BdYA3wk4&feature=player_embedded

The Champions Bundle Pack has been announced along with a bunch of smaller packs. The smaller packs are all just part of the bigger pack so whatever let's talk about the Champion Bundle. The Champions Bundle will include some pretty awesome stuff including a remake of one of the best Halo maps ever made, The Pit. And they introduce a new map called Vertigo. New weapon skins are coming in and they look pretty sweet from that video huh? And 3 new armor sets are coming: Mark V, ODST, and Prefect. And new stances are coming finally!

Here's a picture of the new skins provided by the member Self Destruct:

Click here for Self Destruct's post.

Click here for Forum Dinosaur's post including the trailer video above.

HOT TOPIC

343i Community Signature Shop v3.0

Here's a real hot topic. If you're new and wondering where you can get an amazing signature done then visit our 343i Community Sig Shop run by our main man in the Art Department, Insignia. He works fast and makes it better than you were even imagining it. Find the Sig Shop

here.

MEMBER OF THE MONTH

The July Member of the Month has been announced and to no one's surprise it has gone to none other than:

Spades N AZ!

Find the announcement thread and congratulate him

here.

Our previous MoM, Beckoningzebra1, will get his MoM Award and be added to our Member of the Month Wall.

PLAY DATES

Halo Wars Play Date

Didn't even get to play a full game at this one. It had good potential but it just didn't work for me because I was up late and had to leave early. We had an only infantry game going but not everyone followed those rules.. Fishy..

Everyone should thank Frankenzer for hosting.

Here's some footage provided by SEED Factor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oCymqCSbZA&feature=player_embedded

Participants:

D-38 Boss, BaconShelf, Frankenzer, Fishy, SEED Factor, JC13999

Everyone who attended will get this:

We still want your Play Date ideas! Follow in our MoM's footsteps and post them

here!

That was your weekly fill, now scroll back up and read it all over again.

This post has been promoted to an article

Bullseye Map Pack and Champions Bundle

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 00:06:35 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA0BdYA3wk4

On the second day of RTX, 343 Industries announced the Bullseye Map Pack, featuring a much loved classic, The Pit, only now called Pitfall, a brand new map called Vertigo, and a new armor permutation which is supposed to resemble a football outfit, the Ricochet armor.

There will also be another pack, called the Infinity Armor Pack, which you can download separately for 240MSP, which include three armor permutations, the Prefect armor, Mark V armor, and the ODST armor. There is also another pack called the Steel Skin Pack, which include a sleek gold and black skin for every UNSC, Covenant, and Forerunner loadout weapons. The Steel Skin Pack will too be 240MSP.

You can purchase the Champions Bundle for a better value at 800MSP which will give you all content within the Bullseye Map Pack, the Infinity Armor Pack, and the Steel Skin Pack, plus loads of new stances, armor skins, and new and colorful weapon skins.

The Champions Bundle, Bullseye Map Pack, Infinity Armor Pack, and Steel Skin Pack will all release on August 20th.

The Bullseye Map Pack WILL NOT be free for those who have purchased the War Games Map Pass, as Frankie stated at the Halo 4 RTX panel.

Awakening: O'Donnell/Salvatori

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 19:31:54 +0000

_{(image courtesy of}

_Bungie.net₎

As the dust settles from events at E3, gamers anticipate additional information drops and little tidbits

of any new revelations of Bungie's upcoming title Destiny!!

This information includes audio played at Blizzard's massive multimedia main stage.

Bungie referred to the stage as the Ronut! (see video below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yuRyrlQDkBM

Now sit back, relax and listen to new audio found in Destiny by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori!

Program Notes by Marty O'Donnell:

Repeating patterns and signals enfold us day and night and in all ages.

Unmoved mover that moves all others.

Inclining from heaven towards the Seven.

New music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all.

Enjoy the concert!!

http://www.bungie.net/pubassets/1455/Awakening.mp3

Time Warner Cable App Coming to Xbox 360

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 17:02:26 +0000

Source-IGN

The addition of Time Warner Cable extends the Xbox 360's television offerings beyond the already-available Verizon FiOS TV, ESPN, and Comcast Xfinity apps, just to name a few. It has not been said if the app will eventually be available for the Xbox One, although Microsoft already has a plan for live television on their upcoming console.

Xbox 360 Minecraft Passes 7 Million Units

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 17:22:28 +0000

Source-JoyStiq

The Minecraft cart full of gold bars isn't stopping anytime soon, as 4J Studios, developers of the Xbox 360 port of the game, announced it has now sold more than seven million copies on the platform. The previous milestone was set in March, when the game surpassed six million units.

Mojang, the studio handling the PC version, announced a couple of days ago the game had passed the 11 million sold mark.

The retail version of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, which became available in North America earlier this month, launches in the UK today.

Microsoft Partners with Unity

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 17:20:02 +0000

Source-IGN

Indie games have a rocky history with Microsoft and the Xbox brand. The Indie Games channel on Xbox Live remained buried deep within the dashboard on Xbox 360, and the unveiling of the Xbox One did little to persuade small studios interested in self-publishing. But on Thursday, Microsoft announced a partnership with indie-friendly game engine and developer toolkit company, Unity Technologies.

Unity Technologies offers a popular set of development tools, plus its Unity engine, in both free (non-commercial) and Pro versions. The "strategic partnership" will also offer free Unity-developed tools for Xbox One to any creator working with Microsoft Studios. According to Unity's David Helgason, the joint venture will create new opportunities for game development on the Xbox One.

"We want to provide the best engine in the world," said Helgason. "And an important dimension to that is opening up as many avenues as possible for our developer community to find success."