Halo Articles: Halo Articles

Xbox 360 Overtakes Wii as Top UK Console

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 17:18:14 +0000

The Xbox 360 is the best-selling console of this generation in the UK, with 8.4 million sold.

MCV reports that Microsoft's console is regularly outselling all its rivals and will overtake Nintendo's Wii in a matter of days, according to Chart-Track.

Despite this, the Xbox 360 isn't the UK's best-selling console of all time just yet, that title is still held by the PlayStation 2 which has shifted over 10 million units since it was launched back in 2000.

Fable Anniversary coming to Xbox 360

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 17:00:11 +0000

Source-Polygon

Fable Anniversary, a high-definition remake of the original Fable, will be available on Xbox 360 this holiday season, announced Lionhead Studios' Ted Timmins on Major Nelson's podcast today.

Lionhead teased the HD remake earlier today. The studio is remastering Fable: The Lost Chapters, the expanded edition of the game that was released in September 2005 on Windows PC and Xbox and in October 2008 on Mac. The original Fable, a role-playing game designed by Peter Molyneux, launched in September 2004 exclusively on Xbox.

"We're really excited to be bringing a remastered version of Fable: The Lost Chapters to the Xbox 360," said Timmins, who is serving as the lead designer of the remake and was a tester on Fable, on Lionhead's website. "It's been one of the biggest community requests as we know how much the fans love the original game."

As an Xbox 360 game, Fable Anniversary will offer Achievements, which did not exist on the Xbox. "Fable's always been a bit about choice and consequence, so we're trying to put that into our Achievements," said Timmins on the podcast.

Lionhead said it is delivering a "complete HD graphical overhaul," redoing Fable's visuals in 1080p with new Unreal Engine 3-powered lighting and new animation system for faces and cutscenes. The studio is also revamping outdated elements such as the original game's interface and controls, and rebuilding the save system as a modern checkpoint-based setup. In addition, Lionhead is developing SmartGlass integration for Fable Anniversary, with a second-screen experience that offers features like an in-game map and, potentially, the ability to take screenshots.

When asked if Fable's pub games could be released on SmartGlass, Timmins said, "We're certainly exploring other avenues, let's say, with SmartGlass ... we've been experimenting; let's leave it at that."

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 6/22/13

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 23:43:38 +0000

Hello everyone I hope you enjoy this jam packed Weekly Site Wrapup.

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

Our affiliate site, HaloCustoms, has had a minigame competition going on now for some weeks that is now in the voting process. This is their Minigame Competition Sponsored by GamerModz. For those of you that remember or were involved in the Custom Controller Giveaway, GamerModz was the company in charge of handing out the free customized controller. And that's exactly what the prize is here! Check out some submissions and vote for 1 map in each group

here.

UPDATE: 2 new competitors have joined the competition so get your votes in!

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.

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

SuperIntendant - Previous News Group Member back when I joined and is full of knowledge not only about the site.

*Great interviews on the way!*

FORGE

Zan's Halo 4 Map Marker Pack

This beautiful sight belongs to Zandril and will be the featured part of the Forge section this week. Zandril has made it easy for map makers to mark their maps with callouts and objectives and weapon/vehicle spawns by creating a Map Marker Pack for people to download and put onto screenshots of their map. Check out his pack

here.

GAMING NEWS

Family Sharing Was Not Timed Demo

It turns out the demo shown by Microsoft for Family Sharing was not a timed demo! Check out adamj's article on it

here!

GAME To Open Xbox Exclusive Store

UK's gaming store GAME will be opening an Xbox exclusive store in London. Check out more info on what will be in it and where exactly it will be

here.

Interview with LionHead Studios

Previous News Group member, Lil Dog, has landed an interview with the Senior Administrator from LionHead Studios in charge of Fable. Read it

here.

Prices of Xbox One Games Will be the Same as Xbox 360

It seems there will be no price difference between games for the Xbox One and the Xbox 360! Read adamj's article

here.

Don Matrick on Xbox One Constant Live Connection

Don Matrick of Microsoft speaks on needing a constant internet connection for the Xbox One and adam brings you the video

here.

World of Tanks Beta Sign Up

here! Brought to you by adamj004.

HOT TOPIC

Halo Diorama Series

If this isn't one of the most beautiful pieces of Halo artwork you've ever seen then what is wrong with you. Halofan49 is making a series of dioramas for Halo and has many more pictures than just this one in his thread. Check out his dioramas by clicking

here.

NEW LEGENDARY MEMBER

Absolute Dog was proud to announce our newest Legendary Member. Previous Staff member, made signatures for the members long before we had an Art Department on the site, and an overall great member for his dedication. Everyone please congratulate EGYPTIANGHETTO. Find the announcement

here.

NEW MODERATOR

I've joined the ranks of the Community Moderating Team! I'm gonna do my best! Announcement thread

here.

PLAY DATES

Staff vs Members Play Date

We had an excellent time at the Staff vs. Members Play Date today. It started off with me, JL, and RedStarRocket flipping an Elephant on Sandtrap. Then me and RedStar faced off against Frankenzer and JL and then it turned into me and RedStar against 5 members. Then Doc joined and helped us out and we had a couple of 3v7s going. The most memorable game I think though had to be CTF Valhalla because me and Doc were owning in the Warthog. And that game skummgummigubbe got betrayed by the Staff three times.. Twice by RedStarRocket and once by me and Doc splattering him in the Warthog. I swear I was going to pass right in front of him though. The lag was off the charts. Anyway thanks to everyone who joined, this was a good time. I hope it gets started up again later today. Sadly I can't host. Omega inForce got some footage that he's going to post and I'll update this when he does.

Participants:

RedStarRocket91, DocSpartanO07, skummgummigubbe, GermanShepherdD, D-38 Boss, Omega inForce, Vangelis, Frankenzer, тυ¢кєя, ThomasScott02, BaconShelf

Everyone who attended gets this exclusive Award:

That was the Weekly Site Wrapup now scroll back up and read it all over again.

Family sharing was a timed demo system

Fri, 21 Jun 2013 01:00:10 +0000

UPDATE

http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/29631-the-family-sharing-was-not-a-demo-system-after-all/?do=findComment&comment=269643

With the big news announced by microsoft on them taking a u-turn on their policies some of their features that were meant to be implemented had to be removed due to this decision. One of those features was Family Sharing, a feature many thought was to be very useful and were keen to use. Sharing games with friends on Xbox all over the world with just a push of a few buttons.

But there were fans who didn't care about the implementation of the used games policy and were very happy and keen to for the family sharing feature and with the backtrack of the policies those fans were not happy about the loss of this feature.

Getting to play games that friends can share with you digitally from a different part of the world seemed pretty cool. But we didn't realize the family sharing feature only shared a portion of the game to his/her's selected friend. It was just a demo.

After the big news a microsoft employee gives his thoughts and explain the proper nature of this feature.

"When your family member accesses any of your games, they’re placed into a special demo mode. This demo mode in most cases would be the full game with a 15-45 minute timer and in some cases an hour."

"This allowed the person to play the game, get familiar with it then make a purchase if they wanted to. When the time limit was up they would automatically be prompted to the Marketplace so that they may order it if liked the game."

Full blog can be read at

heyuguysgaming

Is seems clear now why Microsoft never flaunted this feature about too much and did it come as a big loss as some fans may have felt?

The family sharing was not a demo system after all.

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 17:32:05 +0000

Recently it was reported that the family sharing feature on Xbox one was just a

timed demo system which only allowed users to play a game that a friend has shared with them through Xbox live for only 15-45 mins and up to an hour in some cases. But now it has been reported that it was not a timed demo system you could indeed have access to the entire game, the exact opposite of what the other alleged Microsoft employee said the other day, I know the news reports about the Xbox One has been hard to follow.

From multiple sources such as

Kotaku and IGN state that Microsofts Mark Whitten and Aaron Greenberg debunked the previous report on their twitter pages.

But it still makes me think why Microsoft was not showing this off at every opportunity. They were pretty low key towards this feature and with a feature like this and supposedly with no catches why were they not in everyone's face about it? But that also makes me think despite the recent report stating that there was no time limit could there still be some kind of catch?

RIP Ex-Achievement Hunter Knuckles Dawson

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 11:59:14 +0000

Knuckles Dawson was one the original achievement hunters for Rooster Teeth back in day he created a large library of achievement videos while narrating the viewers through the achievements. Dawson was a very active member of the gaming community attending many gaming expos and conventions he has been on many gaming community outlets such as Major Nelson's Podcast before teaming up with Rooster Teeth to help found the Achievement Hunter series.

Vancouver Gaming Expo 2012 - Knuckles Dawson Panel

There have been some romars surfacing around the internet stating his death might have been an intentional suicide. Due to the reports of Dawson leaving his wallet, computer and phone at his home during the time of his disappearance. Aswell as closing his Twitter and Xbox Live account. He left a odd video on his website www.knucklesdawson.com which features a sence from the movie Dumb and Dumber.

"We are thankful that the prayers for discovery made by everyone during this time have been answered. It is with deep sadness that we must let you all know that David's body was discovered on June 20 near Ambleside Park. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their prayers, support and compassion. David was an exceptional, bright, caring and loving young man. We consider ourselves blessed to have had him in our lives, and are comforted knowing that he is now embraced in the arms of our Lord. Love, Daryl, LeeAnn and Danielle." ~ An agrifence from his sister's Facebook

Sourceshttp://www.polygon.com/2013/6/21/4454008/david-knuckles-dawson-dreger-body-foundhttp://www.ign.com/blogs/harshgupta/2013/06/22/david-dreger-ex-rooster-teeth-member-found-deadhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/316816225116758/

Rumour: Microsoft to Reverse Xbox One DRM Policies

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:47:24 +0000

It's being reported that Microsoft is about to reverse all of its controversial Xbox One DRM policies.

According to “multiple sources” cited by the Giant Bomb, Microsoft will undo everything that fans have been getting upset about since the console was announced a few weeks ago, outrage that reached its climax during E3 2013.

Here’s an easy-to-digest breakdown of what that means:

No more always online requirement
The console no longer has to check in every 24 hours
All game discs will work on Xbox One as they do on Xbox 360
Authentication is no longer necessary
An Internet connection is only required when initially setting up the console
All downloaded games will function the same when online or offline
No additional restrictions on trading games or loaning discs
Region locks have been dropped

Giant Bomb believes that Microsoft will accompany the announcement with wording to the effect of, “We've been closely listening to consumer feedback.”

Even more interesting, it’s said that this announcement will come today.

Speaking on Twitter the author of the piece said, "I do not publish stuff I am not confident in. Yes, it is sourced anonymously, but I vet vigorously." He added, "Could I be wrong? Yes. But I don't publish stuff like this very often."

Brace yourselves.

Edit: Oddly, What Hi-Fi is carrying the same story, from seperate sources.

source

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-15306-Rumour--Microsoft-to-Reverse-Xbox-One-DRM-Policies.html

Don Mattrick on Xbox One Internet Requirement

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:18:43 +0000

With an internet connection being a very important requirement for the xbox not everyone will have a stable connection or may not have any internet at all. Microsoft's Xbox chief Don Mattrick's solution to this is to stick with the Xbox 360 as he said during an E3 interview.

Credit to Absolute Dog for finding this

MATTRICK: "Some of the advantages that you get, of having, a box that is designed to use an online state, so, that, uh, to me is the future-proof choice, and I think people, could've arguably gone the other way if we didn't do it and fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360."

KEIGHLEY: "Right, so stick with 360, that's your message if you don't [inaudible] like it?"

MATTRICK: "Well, if you have zero access to the internet, that is an offline device, I mean, seriously, when I read the blogs, and thought about who's really the most impacted, there was a person who said 'hey, I'm on a nuclear sub,' and I don't even know what it means to be on a nuclear sub but I've gotta imagine it's not easy to get an internet connection."

KEIGHLEY: "[inaudible] playing call of duty multiplayer"

MATTRICK: "Hey, I can empathize, if I was on a nuclear sub, I'd be disappointed."

E3 interview

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 6/15/13

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:54:07 +0000

The following is a public service announcement from your new Forum President AKA your ruler.

Primary Announcement: Does it bother anyone that the Featured Interviews Section is the same title color as the Hot Topic Section?

CONTESTS

here.

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

6/9 - Gazzy Mill Mill played Hater and won 20 kills to 2

6/11 - I went up against Forum Liopleurodon and lost 19 - 18 *sigh*

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

Azaxx - He's in the Shoutbox all day every day, there's no way you could miss him! Read his great interview by clicking his name!

*Great interviews on the way!*

FORGE

343 Industries Community Forge Project

SikSlik7's 343i Community Forge Project is a project that lets the members get together and make their own contributions to the maps made. SikSlik explains it all in his thread.

Read and sign up for the CFP

here.

Ideas can be discussed in the CFP Idea Discussion thread so post yours

here.

Here's his

CFP Space Station Discussion Thread for the CFP's first project!

Community Poll: FORGE

WARHOLIC is a name that should be familiar to you all, he was a judge on the panel for the Meet Your Maker Forge Contest. Please check out this poll created by WARHOLIC of The Halo Council on what you would like to see in Halo 5's Forge.

"Halo 5 is currently in production, what better way to let 343 know what we want other than to TELL them?" - WARHOLIC.

Poll Here.

Featured Map

Wanna learn how to make these bad boys? Now this isn't really a map that's featured, this is a tutorial by Pol Wah, who's in charge of our Flood Submissions Thread, and it teaches you how to make cool things like submarines and other boats of sorts. Check out his video tutorial

here.

GAMING NEWS

E3 COVERAGE

Halo 5

Ok so during E3 everyone saw this teaser for Halo 5. It was indeed confirmed by Xbox on their Twitter that this was Halo 5.

Credit goes to Archangel Tyrael for showing me this photo.

I give what I believe to be a full analysis of the trailer

here. It gets updated when I look at others' analyses and find things.

Here's another analysis of the video by a member of the community named Brett. Read his and find some things that maybe I didn't include.

Click.

If you want more than analysis then say no more because Victory Element, one of our previous Members of the Month, hits you with an analysis of the video AND speculation.

Find it here.

But if you're lazy and I hate you then watch it in video form by someone way cooler than me. Check out this video by the awesome Ducain23.

Destiny

Adamj004 of our site's News Group hit us with a crap ton on Destiny at E3 including gameplay, interviews, and video blogs by the great Deej. There's over an hour of video to go through and if you love what Destiny looks like already then check these videos out if you didn't see them firsthand during E3.

Click here.

Batman: Arkham Origins

Here's a good analysis done by legends in Batman gaming news, BatmanArkhamVideos. It makes connections into the DC Universe and makes good speculation on what's possibly to come in the game. Find this video plus an E3 exclusive Gameplay Demo Walkthrough and interview with WB Montreal Creative Director Eric Holmes

here.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag looks quite incredible to me. I hope it's not just me. Click this link and watch all the videos I provide and tell me if it looks awesome to you too.

Click here.

HOT TOPIC

'Will PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 Allow for Cross-Platform Gaming?'

Here's a thread from the mind of Absolute Dog that I wrote up to encourage discussion amongst the community. It addresses the rumors going around that gamers playing the same games, no matter which platform, would be able to play together. Read what I and others from the community had to say

here.

PLAY DATES

Halo: Reach Play Date

This Halo: Reach Play Date was interesting to say the least. I missed out on the beginning but when I got there everyone was in a big lobby with randoms and they were getting them to betray them so that they could boot them out of their own party. Apparently Omega inForce (Jl1223 X/JL X4) recorded the whole thing and put it on YouTube. There was this whole trolling business that JL put together and it was very anti-climactic

. Afterwards we left and played some competitive customs like Headhunter, SWAT, and FFA Slayer. GSD won everything.

See you all next week at our Staff vs Members Play Date! sign up here.

Participants:

GermanShepherdD, -Sparky-, D-38 Boss, Omega inForce, JXZAW, DN2012, Frankenzer

Attend Play Dates, rack up Awards:

USF ELECTION

The United States of the Forum Presidential Election is always a fun time on the site. The mud slinging and bribery starts and with that comes good campaigning. This year's winner was......

ME! (Drizzy_Dan)

I am the new Forum President so you know what that means? Nothing! It's just a fun time in my opinion and thank you to Spyro for always coming back and running it every 4 months! Now everyone must address me as Sir.

YOUTUBE

OH MY GOD. That is what I said when I saw this Community Spotlight by Oakley HiDef of The Halo Forge Epidemic. Guys this is going to blow your minds. Oakley spotlights a video maker by the name of Gugga Leunnam. What Gugga does is take CGI clips from Halo Games and puts movie trailer audio over them and does it AMAZINGLY. If you don't like this video then I hate you.

This has been a public service announcement by your Forum President, now scroll back up and read it all over again.

World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition Beta Sign-up

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:40:51 +0000

As you may know world of tanks is coming to the Xbox 360 and Wargaming wants you to participate in their beta. But for now the beta will only open to those in North America and Canada but those located in Europe or other territories will be emailed as soon as the beta becomes available there, so they are accepting non North American and Canadian applications.

To sign up for the beta click

this link where you will be asked to provide you email address, xbox 360 gamer tag and your name. It's first come first serve so hurry if you want to get accepted.

Destiny At E3: Gameplay,Trailers and Interviews

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:14:04 +0000

This was Bungies first E3 presentation in 3 years and we finally got to see some destiny gameplay. Below are videos of gamelay, trailers and interviews.

Destiny E3 Trailer [uK]

Destiny E3 Demo + Interview with Deej

Game Informer interview with Harold Ryan

Destiny Gameplay walkthrough Adam Sessler and Bungies Joes Staten

Deej's E3 Video Blogs

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 6/8/13

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 19:34:54 +0000

Hi this is the Weekly Site Wrapup. Yes it is.

Primary Announcement: I am watching you.

CONTESTS

The results of the Get A Clue Forge Contest are in! Check them out on our affiliate site, HaloCustoms.com

right here!

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

6/6 - I played Hater and lost 14 to 9 on DGL Entirety.

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

Kurt S-501 - Part 2 of the first Interviews Double Feature. He's one of the veteran members of the site.

FORGE

343 Industries Community Forge Project

SikSlik7's 343i Community Forge Project is a project that lets the members get together and make their own contributions to the maps made. SikSlik explains it all in his thread.

Read and sign up for the CFP

here.

Ideas can be discussed in the CFP Idea Discussion thread so post yours

here.

Here's his

CFP Space Station Discussion Thread for the CFP's first project!

Community Poll: FORGE

"Halo 5 is currently in production, what better way to let 343 know what we want other than to TELL them?" - WARHOLIC.

Poll Here.

Featured Map

Following in TurbTastic's footsteps, a member by the name of treez0 created this remake of the MarioKart 64 course, Kalamari Desert. It's a good looking remake and him and TurbTastic do some good work. Find the thread link and download

here.

GAMING NEWS

Halo: Spartan Assault

http://videos.halowaypoint.com/videos1/3f24b4f6e9d04b9b8875f14cdf224d12/2823877-smooth_apple-2152000.mp4

Here's the trailer courtesy of Waypoint.com that I've pulled from Frankenzer's thread. Comment on it

here.

Here are some gameplay videos of the different game modes that I got from Waypoint as well:

Defend

http://videos.halowaypoint.com/videos1/c74bc095a46f4e9faee2dbadf20ccf90/2823887-smooth_apple-2152000.mp4

Clear

http://videos.halowaypoint.com/videos1/05c9566e763f420abbb7530e631c4057/2823881-smooth_apple-2152000.mp4

Destroy

http://videos.halowaypoint.com/videos1/03fe74f69c6745359e640d0e37d6fdd5/2823884-smooth_apple-2152000.mp4

HOT TOPIC

Here's a thread I've been waiting to feature for some time but with requests coming in, they kinda got in the way. Here's 'Will destiny be any good' by Left4NewVegas. Go ahead and leave your thoughts on Bungie's latest project with Activision, Destiny. Comment

here.

MEMBER OF THE MONTH

Our June Member of the Month has been announced! It's.....................

Beckoningzebra1!

Find the announcement thread and congratulate him here.

Read his pretty damn awesome MoM Post here!

Our former MoM, the always great AbleSir Thomas of The Halo Forge Epidemic, will now be awarded with the MoM Award and will hopefully be added to the MoM Wall soon.

PLAY DATES

Halo Wars Play Date

I don't know what went on in the other lobby but from what I heard it was a good one. Our lobby however was an amazing battle that lasted over an hour and a half. We went at it. It was a great game but in the end, someone always slips up. No matter how evenly matched you are. Second game I got dominated by Fishy and BaconShelf and eventually Boss went down too. Boss beat Bacon and Fishy in the last game!

Participants:

DocSpartanO07, skummgummigubbe, GermanShepherdD, BaconShelf, Frankenzer, D-38 Boss, Fishy, Elite, ThomasScott02, SpartanΩMEGΛ, Test subject 67

All participants will receive the exclusive Halo Wars Play Date Award:

USF ELECTION

It's back! Spyro's United States of the Forum Election is back up and our candidates are being elected. Winner becomes the President of the Forum. Which means nothing but is awesome. The election process has closed and the voting is now open. Here are your running candidates:

Drizzy_Dan

Bob

Beckoningzebra1

SykoWolf

The Director

Tornadoflame1

Vote or die here.

YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qvgW0AEJ0o&feature=player_embedded

Here's yet another video by 0lAH that I'm featuring. You guys should keep up with him when he posts on here he has some really good content. This is the Wraith Pressure Glitch as you can see. Watch his video and leave it a like. Comment on his thread if you'd like

here.

Thank you for reading now scroll back up and read it all over again.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer In Hollywood

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:37:44 +0000

Thanks to AD for finding this article

This article is from

Deadline

Deadline has learned the meetings were an intimate preview of the new Xbox One capabilities before next week’s E3 confab where secretive Microsoft will unveil details of the device’s technology. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was escorted by his entertainment studios president Nancy Tellem for the visit late last week to lobby her closest Hollywood pals: her former boss CBS chief Les Moonves, Sony TV boss Steve Mosko, and WME co-CEOS Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell. It’s all part of Ballmer’s effort to drum up exclusive content

after Microsoft intends to launch 40+ new voice-controlled customized TV and entertainment apps on Xbox One. But it was also more, one insider tells Deadline, “to reiterate Microsoft’s commitment to transitioning its business to devices and services and to explaining that Hollywood entertainment is a big part of that.

Microsoft in the past has just dipped a toe but now has a real commitment.” Tellem wanted to give Ballmer 3 different perspective: the broadcaster, the independent producer, and the agent. Deadline has learned that Ballmer touted “what we could do with” the Xbox One in sports, music, reality and scripted programming, promising execs that they’d see more sophisticated technology and that his company “doesn’t want to be a cable channel”. He also met Tellem’s Santa Monica team for the first time and outlined his vision for a new Xbox One world. Ballmer’s trip to Hollywood will only anger more hard-core gamers who already were miffed by Microsoft’s focus on entertainment

when it unveiled the product on May 21. (Xbox One will be on store shelves later this year).

The hard-core gamers fear Microsoft sees its new Xbox One more as a souped-up Internet-connected, voice- and motion-controlled cable box than a next-gen gaming console. T

ellem has said Microsoft has studios in Los Angeles, London, Seattle and Vancouver producing content that merges “the story-telling magic of TV with the interactive power of the Xbox One.” More recently, Microsoft said Steven Spielberg will create a new live-action TV show based on the Halogame franchise. Microsoft also announced a new partnership with the NFL that promises side-by-side integration of a viewer’s fantasy football stats with live game broadcasts. And the company also set a partnership with ESPN for broadcasts of other sports.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has tried to entice Hollywood with the Xbox. Peter Chernin for one discussed producing Conan O’Brien’s talk show on the platform when the host was booted from NBC’s The Tonight Show. Hollywood’s big problem with Microsoft: it moves slowly. The Xbox One was designed to establish its primacy in the industry-wide effort to develop a single box that can handle all of a home’s entertainment needs. But company watchers have had mixed reactions to the Xbox One. Turnoffs include the expected high price (rumored at as much as $499), the possibility that it won’t play certain used games without an additional payment, and a suspicion that it take liberties with users’ privacy for example by reporting whether a TV viewer watched certain commercials.

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 6/2/13

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:44:01 +0000

Hey guys thanks for clicking the link the to the Wrapup this week.

Primary Announcement: That Play Date was massive.

DGL

The DGL finals are in effect. 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

5/26 - I took on Neurotic Kasper and lost 20 - 13.

5/26 - I played Gazzy again and he killed me again 20 - 9.

5/26 - Neurotic Kasper faced off against Gazzy Mill Mill and lost 16 - 8.

5/26 - Neurotic Kasper played Hater and won 10 - 6. Low score because Hater quit.

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

Flying Shoe ILR - Newest Staff member over on our affiliate site, HaloCustoms. Very interesting member of the Halo Community.

Bob - The very first Site Moderator here at 343industries.org. Read this.

FORGE

343 Industries Community Forge Project

SikSlik7's 343i Community Forge Project is a project that lets the members get together and make their own contributions to the maps made. SikSlik explains it all in his thread.

Read and sign up for the CFP

here.

Ideas can be discussed in the CFP Idea Discussion thread so post yours

here.

Here's his

CFP Space Station Discussion Thread for the CFP's first project!

Halo 5 Forge Wishes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30gn6d53rwQ&feature=player_embedded

The Halo Council would like to know what YOU want in Forge for Halo 5. The Halo Council is a large forum in the Halo Community in case you haven't heard of them and they're always coming up with top news stories. For example check out the article below in the Gaming News Section for an article about upcoming weapon and armor skins that are to hit this Fall.

The Halo Council is backed and known by major powers in the Halo Community like Halo Waypoint and our affiliate, Certain Affinity.

WARHOLIC is a name that should be familiar to you all, he was a judge on the panel for the Meet Your Maker Forge Contest. Please check out this

poll created by WARHOLIC of The Halo Council on what you would like to see in Halo 5's Forge.

"Halo 5 is currently in production, what better way to let 343 know what we want other than to TELL them?" - WARHOLIC.

Poll Here.

Featured Map

Here's one of the maps you played in the Dominion: The Day Away event called Figment and it's by AbandonedCashew. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we played on it. Find the map thread and download

here.

GAMING NEWS

NEW HALO 4 ARMOR AND WEAPON SKINS ARE COMING. Read this full article complete with pictures by WARHOLIC of The Halo Council

here on Halocouncil.com.

If you've ventured to our News Page recently you would've seen that highplainsdrifter posted this beauty a couple of days ago. The Special and Collector's Editions of GTAV have been announced and they each have a lot of goodies! Check out his post article

here.

HOT TOPIC

Here's a pretty awesome piece. If you like fan written work then read this. This is by D-38 Boss and it's an alternate storyline for Halo 3: ODST. That in itself just sounds really interesting. Really good writing too. Check it out

here.

PLAY DATES

Dominion The Day Away

Wow. What is there to say about this event. This has to be one of the biggest events in the site's history. So many people that we had 3 lobbies going, 2 of them over regulation size for Dominion. AbleSir Thomas was being flooded with messages like crazy and anyone who couldn't get into his lobby was messaging me and RedStar and it was just a crazy awesome time.

Rivalries were rekindled, such as the long living rivalry between Bob and GSD dating back to when this site was a baby.

Communities were brought together: there were many more people than just 343i.org members at this one.

And we had some great hosts. We could not thank you enough RedStarRocket91 and AbleSir Thomas.

And all in all everyone had fun. Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun. The maps were great too. You can find the list of the maps in the Dominion: The Day Away After Action Report by RedStarRocket

here.

Participants:

AbleSir Thomas, RedStarRocket91, Drizzy_Dan, Bob, GermanShepherdD, skummgummigubbe, D-38 Boss, HaloGeek, BaconShelf, JL X4, Elite SnIp3r, Cakes1234, General Sarbina, Kurosaki Tensai, SOLIDSNAKEee, zealot617, SGC, Sparky, Namhel13, George S198, InConSpKuous, SweatyBagels, Banehalo, Frankenzer, Elite, T O IR T A, Xinshu, Sly the Prodigy, kinggame40, Zaguroth, Forum Dinosaur, Kevin Truong, Tucker, Texkiller321, DN2012, NoobPwner64, Wadliacha Ellis

There were about twice as many participants as this but these are the ones that were members here.

USF ELECTION

WELCOME BACK

It's always great to see an older member make a return to the forums. @Twinreaper has been a member here since 2011 and the guys who were around then are the real oldies and deserve the real respect. He's known for being our site's very first Member of the Month, his vast knowledge of everything that makes up Halo, and maxing out our swear censors. Twinreaper is someone everyone oughta get to know. Welcome him back

here.

YOUTUBE

This video is by lordcrusnik1986. It's a video of in-game slow motion assassinations. The catch is that nothing was slowed down when they were recording or editing. You get to see the assassinations in all their glory in full slow-mo, except nothing was slowed down. I don't know how they did it but they did. Here's the video, leave it a like:

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

Thank you for reading as much as you can now scroll back up and read it all over again.

PS4 'First And Foremost' A Gaming Console

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 16:26:54 +0000

With Microsoft and Sony both announcing their next generation consoles, we're already starting to see the competition between the two developing companies over the better console naturally.

"The PS4 is a great video game console that appeals to video gamers."

- Kaz Hirai.

At D11, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai told reporters that this was significant because they wanted to convey the message that the PS4 was mainly made for video gamers. Hirai did say that Sony would be showing off more of the features that are not focused on video gaming but that it would come later. We have a big E3 to look forward to this year. Kaz Hirai would like the Gaming Community to know that, "...[The PS4 is] first and foremost a video game console."¹

So far, Microsoft has shown the Xbox One to be a family entertainment, full living room experience. It showed more focus on its features that were not gaming.

Sony on the other hand, presented many game demos for the PlayStation 4 and put the focus on the gaming. So the question is, who's doing it better?

₁-

Soure - The Verge

GTA V Special Edition and Collector's Edition Announced

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 06:20:38 +0000

While supplies last, a pre-order of Grand Theft Auto V Special or Collector's Edition, $79.99 and $149.99 respectively, will guarantee you certain in-game bonuses equivalent to DLC and limited edition swag.

Read the full story here or scroll down to read my heavily plagiarized associated press version.

Pre-order any version of GTA V and you'll be able to pilot the Atomic Blimp in-game vehicle.

The

Special Edition comes with:

Collectible Steelbook with Exclusive Artwork

-A disc case sporting " double-sided, never before seen artwork of [main characters] Michael, Trevor, and Franklin."

Blueprint Map-

-21.5" x 26.75" poster mapping Los Santos and Blaine County in a blueprint style. Features "cryptic markings" highlighting "locations for fast cash and other points of interest for the up-coming-entrepreneur".

Special Ability Boost-

-The special ability bar (gauging use of the main characters' special abilities) will regenerate 25% faster.

Stunt Plane Trials-

-"Single player Stunt Plane Trials let you take on additional aerial challenges spread throughout Los Santos and Blaine County."

Bonus Outfits, Tattoos and More-

-Main characters receive extra outfits in wardrobes, character specific tattoos to be had at tattoo parlors, and "special deals from shopkeepers across Los Santos and Blaine County."

Additional Weapons-

- Single player Ammunation stores will have special weapons for free available from merchants: "the Pistol .50, Bullpup Shotgun, and Melee Hammer."

The

Collector's Edition includes all of the above as well as:

Grand Theft Auto V Security Deposit Bag with Logo Key-

-10.75" x 8.5" money bag with a "pop-up style lock and laser cut logo key [...] the reverse side features a pressed Rockstar Games logo on the security mount with a framed ID window."

Grand Theft Auto V New Era 9FIFTY™ Snapback Cap-

-Black snapback with Los Santos logo embroidered across front, black Rockstar Games stitched logo on left side, and "Grand Theft Auto 'V' logo applique" on the wearer's right side.

Custom Characters for Grand Theft Auto Online-

-Classic GTA characters for Online Character Creation System.

Unique Vehicles and Garage Property-

-Players immediately have access to a "garage to store custom vehicles." Single player stocks the garage with the "1930's style Hotknife hotrod and the CarbonRS sports bike". Online "the high-end Khamelion electric car" awaits the player.

All contents of the Collector's Edition "come packaged in a premium outer box featuring a foil embossed Grand Theft Auto V logo on the top, finished with a matte, scuff-resistant film lamination, housing all of the contents."

Pre-order available till September 17, 2013 when hopefully you will have picked up your copy of GTA V.

Microsoft Investing One Billion Dollars On Games

Thu, 30 May 2013 03:38:33 +0000

Microsoft received a lot of unsettling feedback from gamers after their Xbox One presentation due to the lack of games being shown despite the fact that the presentation was to show off the console itself where as E3 would be the main spotlight for the games. But this may bring some hope back as Microsoft told

OXM in an interview they will be investing 1 billion dollars into Xbox one exclusives. Microsoft announced that 15 Xbox One exclusives will be released in the first year of the new consoles launch and 8 of those 15 will be brand new IP's,

being one of them.

"Thankfully, a glance at the bigger picture reveals that this is more a question of presentation than strategy. Microsoft will invest no less than $1 billion into games next gen - an unprecedented sum for the firm - and Xbox One will swipe 15 exclusive titles in its first year at retail, including eight new IPs. All that's on top of a two-year period of bulking up, which has seen Microsoft Studios open new games studios in London, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia while snapping up talent for its existing operations."

Microsoft stated that one of their game studios Black Tusk is working on a new title that is set to compete with Halo and Gears of War.

"Black Tusk Studios is working on a mysterious action title that's designed to compete with Halo and Gears of War. Microsoft has opened Lift London to create and incubate smaller scale cloud-based games. New projects are underway at Microsoft Studios Osaka, reflecting IEB president Don Mattrick's assertion that the company remains "committed" to Japan. Perhaps most hearteningly, Microsoft has acquired Press Play and Twisted Pixel to work on "weird, unique" titles for Xbox Live. In short, there's a lot more bubbling away under the surface than the Xbox One event suggests."

So will this restore any faith to the core gamers who felt abandoned by the Xbox One reveal?

343iCF Weekly Site Wrapup 5/25/13

Sat, 25 May 2013 17:12:36 +0000

Sup.

Primary Announcement: I am the Halo Olympics god.

DESTINY

The Destiny section is back! And we have highplainsdrifter to thank for that. He posted the official Destiny trailer - The Law Of The Jungle and provided a link to the description of the trailer by Bungie. Find his post and the Destiny trailer

here.

DGL

The DGL finals started Friday May 17th. Your new 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

EVENTS

Tuesday Night Tests

Member of the Month, AbleSir Thomas of The Halo Forge Epidemic runs Tuesday Night Tests which is a lobby for testing maps. It's a really fun time and they take place Tuesdays at 7PM EST. So if you want your map posted or if you'd just like to attend TNT click

here.

TNT Update - Our Community Moderator RedStarRocket91 has joined the operation of Tuesday Night Tests and will be hosting lobbies for players that can't make it to AbleSir Thomas's later lobbies. RedStar's lobbies for TNT will begin at 3PM EST.

AbleSir Thomas would like everyone who wants to get involved in TNT to friend the new account made for it: TNThalo01.

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

Total Mayh3m - If you missed out on this Double Feature then you can catch part one by clicking his name. One of our great Community Moderators, May3m!

*New interesting interviews on the way*

FORGE

SikSlik7's 343i Community Forge Project is a project that lets the members get together and make their own contributions to the maps made. SikSlik explains it all in his thread.

Read and sign up for the CFP

here.

Ideas can be discussed in the CFP Idea Discussion thread so post yours

here.

Here's his

CFP Space Station Discussion Thread for the CFP's first project!

Featured Map

Here is Skylar Bridge by Azpekt297. It's a big team competitive map in the style of a bridge made on Erosion and it looks like a cornocopia of explosions and chaos. Check out more screens and the map download

here.

GAMING NEWS

Did you miss the reveal for the next generation of Xbox? Adamj has put the entire presentation into one news post for everyone to drool over. Check out the presentation for the reveal of the new Xbox One

here.

HOT TOPIC

Here is a stunning visual from the Sins of a Solar Empire mod, Sins of the Prophets. Truly incredible screens that you guys NEED to check out. Look for them in KhevaKins' thread

here.

PLAY DATES

Halo 4 Play Date

The Halo 4 Play Date was a good time. We played some fun minigames like the classic Ro Sham Bo, and Hadron Collider. We even played some competitive maps that were fun. Thank you to everyone who joins, I know it's always the same crowd but it's usually a good time.

Participants:

D-38 Boss, HaloGeek, BaconShelf, JL X4, Elite SnIp3r, Frankenzer

We're always looking for your Play Date ideas, please post them in

here.

That was the Wrapup, now scroll back up and read it all over again.

Hidden games in the Xbox dashboard

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:01:26 +0000

A few hidden games has appeared on the xbox dashboard, this brief article from

polygon with go through them and try to see what these could be.

Title speaks for itself, of course you have the big image Quantum Break, and Forza 5. I wouldn't look too far into Halo, it's just a logo and we'll inevitably get one.... But the other images

1. Bottom left green Crackdown agility orb, I don't know why they would use that unless we're getting a sequel (a real one this time).

2. Bottom right has the Rare logo, if its an HD realization of a old franchise I wouldn't know what it is.

3. Middle right is almost certainly Ryse (roman buildings)

4. Top right, most intriguing to me, kind of gives me Fable vibe (Seer eyes)

I wouldn't look too far into the image between Forza and Halo, kind of looks like the Demo stuff 18 seconds in there. (I guess it could still be from a game?)

*-Update:* As Tom Warren points out the one betwean Forza and Halo is likely the the family kids game set on an island he reported on. http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/11/4212054/next-xbox-launch-titles-ryse-forza

Xbox preowned fee: The latest

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:51:14 +0000

Here is an update on the latest about the fee on wanting to play a preowned games on the Xbox One, and it's looking grim.

Microsoft's Phil Harrison mentions that within one household only one XBOX can play any given game or you have to purchase it again. So in a house that has 4 XBOX One's for example, they would have to purchase the original game plus three more digital copies of it. $240.00 paid for one game in one house

This article is from

Eurogamer on their interview with Phil Harrison trying to explain this situation.

Thanks to AD for finding this article.

Whether or not you agree with Microsoft's ideas and goals for Xbox One, at least they are generally pretty easy to understand. The one exception today has been how game ownership works and especially the Xbox One's attitude to sharing between friends and reselling games, which has resulted in conflicting and confusing reports.

The confusion is such that as I sat transcribing and making notes four hours after I interviewed Phil Harrison earlier today, a Microsoft PR tapped me on the shoulder and invited me back to the boardroom so that Harrison could take another swing at explaining this surprisingly complex issue.

"So, think about how you use a disc that you own of an Xbox 360 game," he began. "If I buy the disc from a store, I use that disc in my machine, I can give that disc to my son and he can play it on his 360 in his room. We both can't play at the same time, but the disc is the key to playing. I can go round to your house and give you that disc and you can play on that game as well."

"What we're doing with the digital permissions that we have for Xbox One is no different to that. If I am playing on that disc, which is installed to the hard drive on my Xbox One, everybody in my household who has permission to use my Xbox One can use that piece of content. [so] I can give that piece of content to my son and he can play it on the same system."

Harrison then explained what happens when you want to take that game beyond the borders of your own home and into a friend's place.

"I can come to your house and I can put the disc into your machine and I can sign in as me and we can play the game," he explained.

"The bits are on your hard drive. At the end of the play session, when I take my disc home - or even if I leave it with you - if you want to continue to play that game [on your profile] then you have to pay for it. The bits are already on your hard drive, so it's just a question of going to our [online] store and buying the game, and then it's instantly available to play."

"The bits that are on the disc, I can give to anybody else, but if we both want to play it at the same time, we both have to own it. That's no different to how discs operate today."

That makes the issue of game ownership a lot clearer than it has been at any point so far. Once you install a game, it is tied to your Xbox login, and in this way Microsoft can avoid scenarios where you buy a game, install it, then just give the disc to all your friends so they can install and play it without paying for it.

The next issue is what happens when you finish with a game and want either to trade it in at a store or sell it on in another way.

"We will have a system where you can take that digital content and trade a previously played game at a retail store," Harrison said. "We're not announcing the details of that today, but we will have announced in due course."

Harrison would not be drawn on how this worked, even as I suggested various scenarios. For example, I asked whether you would need to pay for the second-hand disc at a store and then pay a fee to Microsoft when you got home, a bit like an Online Pass. Harrison wouldn't be drawn.

"Our goal is to make it really customer-centric, really simple and really understandable and we will announce those details in due course."

I got the impression from speaking to him - entirely my inference - that this Online Pass-style scenario of paying twice for second-hand, once at retail and once at home, was not the plan. But Harrison's reluctance to pre-empt this mystery announcement means that it is still a possibility.

To me, the fact that Harrison was talking about a forthcoming announcement rather than just clarifying the detail suggests that whatever strategy Microsoft does have for this second-hand resale process may involve a specific partner. Perhaps Microsoft has done some sort of deal with GameStop or a similar retail entity.

Anyway, I took the opportunity of a second audience with Harrison to ask some follow-ups about Xbox One's always-online aspects as well.

"Some bits of the system will work offline," he said. "I think the key point to make is that Xbox One requires an internet connection, but it does not need to be connected all the time. We think that most of the biggest games on Xbox One and most of the games and experiences and services you want to use will be internet-connected."

Everybody got that? Xbox One requires an internet connection, but not all the time.

"I don't want to trivialise the issue because I know people are passionate about it, but I think most people will realise that the vast majority of content and experiences that they will want to enjoy on Xbox One will be the ones that have an online connectivity," he continued.

"I think where people have anxiety understandably is what happens when the internet connection goes down for a few minutes or a few hours. On our side, with the infrastructure investments that we as Microsoft have made in Azure and Xbox Live dedicated servers that we will have for Xbox One, we are very confident that we have the infrastructure to support all of the players and all of the connections. And although it's not directly an Xbox issue, it's something Microsoft is proven to be really good at with Office 365."

After the tape was off, we chatted some more about the anxieties that have come to light today and over the last few months of speculation. I suggested that one of the reasons that our concerns about second-hand blocking, always-online and other related issues are so acute is that we don't have any real-world Xbox One examples yet to judge it. Our touchstones are things like Diablo 3 and SimCity, which were appallingly botched launches.

Time will tell whether Microsoft can get the balance right with this stuff. Personally, I just want purely single-player games to work offline and the internet to enhance our games in transparent ways. We will have to wait and see whether Xbox One's use of cloud computation and online services muddies this situation or if the platform holder can succeed where Blizzard and EA failed.