Doodle 282 - Master Chief and GIR

My nephew had another request, this time for Master Chief from Halo with GIR from Invader Zim.  Not sure why, but I was happy not to have to think of anything to draw today.

Halo Legends será una serie animada de 7 cortos que resumirán todo lo sucedido en el videojuego. El proyecto estará dirigido nadamas por tres directores, Frank O’Connor (Microsoft), Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) y Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers).

En el tráiler que podrás apreciar a continuación si encuentras un extraño parecido en las animaciones con Dragón Ball ya somos dos.

Los siete cortos que conformaran la serie Halo Legends estarán distribuidos en formato físico, incluyendo al formato Blue – Ray y obviamente el DVD.

Aquí debajo el primer capitulo completo de la serie.

Link | Foro Ludos Legio

Twenemo hatte ja bereits vor einiger Zeit den Halo Anime angesprochen. Nun kann man auf Youtube die erste Folge komplett schauen. Das sollte man auch schnellstens tun, bevor die erste Episode wieder offline ist. Macht einen tollen Eindruck und ist sogar relativ brutal (das hatte das Halo Universum bisher nie nötig):

Halo Waypoint was released in the past week.  You’ll find it in the Game Marketplace on Xbox Live, but it’s not so much a game as it is a service.  From one place, you can track your progress on Halo series achievements, see how many of your friends are playing a Halo game, and view all kinds of interviews, including full episodes from the upcoming Halo Legends DVD.

People love to pick on the Halo franchise, and admittedly, for good reason.  The games come across as mindless bullet slingers, and with Halo merchandise available in all forms from action figures to WETA statues to Mega Blocks to men’s underwear, it can be easy to get sick of the franchise.  Unfortunately for those who don’t delve into the games and the fiction surrounding them, there is a wealth of complexity in the Halo universe.  The games have surprising complexity in their mechanics, the multiplayer is active and intense (it’s easy to see why so many gamers picked up Halo 3 just for multiplayer), and–in the novels and comic books–one finds deep examinations of the nature of heroism and a gut-checking view of warfare from a grunt’s point-of-view.  It’s deep stuff, really; you just have to give it a chance.

After all, Halo is not the first franchise to be everywhere at all times.  You might recall a huge entertainment franchise that was kind of a big deal for thirty years, until its creator all but destroyed it for some untold reason: Star Wars.  At the height of its popularity (meaning: before it became a kids franchise–not that that’s a bad thing, just saying), Star Wars was everywhere.  Toys, video games, approximately 1 bazillion books and comics, and oh yeah–the movies.  There were those as well; let’s not forget about those.  Nobody seemed to care though.  There were those who liked Star Wars and those who didn’t, but nobody really complained about the omnipresence of the franchise.  People who didn’t like Star Wars knew that it was popular and just kind of lived with it.

Yet, Halo having the same amount of exposure and influence seem to be a problem with people; enough that the overexposure of the franchise is a common topic on the blogs and forums I frequent.  It’s not an invalid complaint: Halo is everywhere nowadays, and there is a great deal of risk in that.  It could get watered down and stretched thin.  But is it really there yet?  Is it really worth complaining about it being milked?

After all, gamers should be excited about the popularity and fandom of Halo.  After all, it is quite an achivement.  Most of the major entertainment franchises out there were kicked off by a big, splashy movie or a long-running TV or comic book series.  Halo is only eight years old and has yet to see the silver screen.  Bungie and Microsoft gave birth to a consistent fictional universe that people love to explore, and they did it with a video game.  Halo is indeed the new Star Wars, in more ways than one.  It’s the big sci-fi franchise for the nerds who think they’re cool and it was launched with this great new media called video games.  It’s going to be here for a long, long time.  Big fan or not, if you’re a video gamer you should be happy about that.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to welding my handmade replica of a BR55HB SR Battle Rifle to go with my Master Chief costume.

Here’s some more pictures of costumes for Halloween, parties, conventions, etc.  The first funny costumes post featured superhero costumes, so this one will be more random.   Some are from popular franchises like Star Wars and Halo, and there are some creative and well-done ones in here, too.  Feel free to comment on any of them, if you have something funny to add.

Chef Vader serving Jar Jar Binks

Here's some "LOL dogs".

If you want to be a generic green army man, you can buy this costume.

This is the hero, Master Chief, from Halo 3. This one will be popular! You can get a cheaper one for $68.95, but the "supreme edition" (shown) is $779.99.

Pimp Vader and Leisure Suit Boba Fett

witch with cauldron of frog soup

Zoltar, from the movie "Big". This is very well-done! It's not for sale, but at this link they tell how they made it.

Once again this is getting long, so I’ll put the rest in another post.   Here’s a link to search for the other funny costumes posts.

OK . . . OK . . . ya los torture mucho esta semana con mal cosplay . . . chequen estos trabajos . . . por un lado una idea original con una Hellgirl . . . un Master Chief que no luce mal y no me acuerdo del nombre de este personaje de Star Wars, pero no les quedo nada mal.

A friend recently let me borrow Halo 3:ODST for my Xbox 360. I was stoked at the thought of playing it, despite not playing as the master chief. For anyone that knows me well, knows that the Halo franchise, more specifically the story, is one of my obsessions. I have read the first four books, played most of the games, and loved every second of it all. There was one point in my life, not even a few months ago, that I replayed Halo 3 and actually found tears rolling down my cheeks as the beginning cinematics started. Bungie has yet to let me down with anything they do to develop Halo. ODST was a great game with a really good story that can even be compared alongside the “first book of the Divine Comedy, Dante Aligeri’s ‘Inferno’.”

For those of you that don’t know, Halo is a franchise revolving around the super soldier Master Chief [John 117]. To go into detail, Dr. Halsey and Lieutenant Keyes meet 6-year-old John on a playground in Elysium City. Being trained to be the best soldiers in the world, the Spartan Program has John and the other spartans undergo a “radical series of biological, neurological, and physiological alterations,” which causes more than half of the soldiers to die or become disabled. In August of the year 2552, Planet Reach, UNSC’s primary Naval yard, training academy, major producer of warships and colony vessels, as well as a training ground for covert operatives and Special Forces, is destroyed by the Covenant. The Covenant are a “theocratic military alliance of alien races,” “united under the religious worship of the enigmatic Forerunners and their belief that Forerunner ringworlds known as Halos will provide a path to salvation.

That being said, Halo: Combat Evolved, the first Xbox video game, starts out with the Master Chief escaping Reach on the ship known as The Pillar of Autumn along with Cortana, an AI created by humans. Cortana is different from other AIs in that “she is a direct copy of a human being, Dr. Halsey.” They crash into the newly found ring Halo and that is where the game takes you. I won’t go too far in, seeing as the games help tell the story perfectly. I’d love to sit and share the whole story, but that is what the books that are already published are for. Definitely check out Amazon or any bookstore and some copies can be found.

Sites Sourced:
http://halostory.bungie.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_(Halo)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(series)

Lego Star Wars domestic disputes.

Halo 3 textual analysis.

What happens when Master Chief tries to get his Mario Kart On? The homies at Machinima.com tell us.

With the month of November looming and well some ever so slight involvement from me for this event I think you should all really give it the go ga GO!

For anyone interested in digital arts, games or fun in general should come along. What else can I say, visit the site and see all the fun people that are going to be talking, playing and showing at the event.

If you want to keep up with all the updates and press releases follow the blog @ northeastofnorth.ning.com

Bienvenido

Es un espacio para todos los fans del universo de Halo alrededor del mundo, con este espacio dentro de XBox 360 [y para cuentas Gold y Silver, esta ultima por tiempo limitado] se planea unir a los seguidores de este juego creado hace ya algunos años y que ha ido recabando muchos pero muchooos seguidores.

En Halo Waypoint tendrán la posibilidad de checar estadísticas del juego, noticias, logros además tendrás la posibilidad de checar la nueva serie Halo Legends.

Todo esto llegará a partír del 5 de noviembre.

Source | ºvidaextra.comº

So kann es gehen. Vor kurzem habe ich einen Eintrag über Spiele-Soundtracks geschrieben. Daher habe ich mir einige Musik-Stücke auf Youtube angehört. Später habe ich mal bei Amazon geschaut, was es denn so für Soundtracks zu kaufen gibt. Ich bin beim Halo-Soundtrack hängen geblieben, weil es inzwischen die Soundtracks von Teil 1 bis 3 in einer Box zu kaufen gibt (von Teil 2 sind nicht alle Lieder enthalten). Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit der Halo Triology.

Halo Triology: The Complete Original Soundtracks: Vorderseite

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Wieder etwas später habe ich dann die Demo von Halo heruntergeladen und ein bisschen gespielt. Okay, ich besitze die ersten beiden Teile für meine Xbox, die habe ich nur gerade nicht griffbereit. Aber gut, die Demo war auch ganz unterhaltsam. Von der habe ich am Wochenende zwei Videos geschnitten: Eines vom Einzelspieler-, das anderer vom Mehrspieler-Teil. Außerdem habe ich auch ein paar Screenshots von Mehrspieler-Gefechten gemacht.

Viel Spaß beim Anschauen,

Felix

As a premiere franchise, Halo is one game Microsoft can’t stay away from for too long as there is money to be made.  Halo: Reach won’t be out till 2010 so to keep fans gleeful, Bungie is delivering a side story featuring the fabled Orbital Drop Shock Troopers that is often referenced in the franchise.

ODST takes place during the events of Halo 2 and starts off with a very cool opening sequence where the UNSC commissions a squad of ODST to drop on the mega-city of New Mombasa as a response to the Covenant’s incursion on the African metropolis.  Events turn for the worst as their pods finish their atmospheric entry and are caught in the wake of a Covenant ship escaping into slipstream.   The pods are scattered off-course throughout the city and this is where Halo 3: ODST begins.

Unlike Master Chief, an ODST is more fragile.  While these highly-trained soldiers may lack Covenant shield technology and can’t dual-wield weapons, they control very much like our favorite Spartan.  Health packs are also required to replenish the health bar.

In fact, the inclusion of the health bar changes the way you play the game.  Unlike Halo 3 where you can charge in with guns blazing and survive the encounter (most of the time), ODST requires the player to pre-plan combat strategies and at times even use stealth to avoid battles.  To augment the versatility of an ODST is a multifunction visor that helps the soldier seek clues, determine foe from ally, see in the dark and navigate to points of interest.

Also changed is the way the levels work.  In Halo 3, the battlefields are vast but quite linear where the player starts at point A and ends at B.  In ODST, the city of New Mombasa acts as a hub and is explored by the silent and newest member of your squad named Rookie.  From Rookie’s perspective, you soon learn the fates of your fellow squad members as you dig up remnant objects that trigger a flashback event that puts you in the shoes of the ODST in which that item belongs to.  As such, the game is strongly character driven.

Rookie’s objectives are mostly sleuth-based by finding these remnant items scattered across the city.  In between, he skirmishes with Covenant infantry and dig up audio recordings that lead up to Mombasa’s collapse.  The recordings are worth finding as it provides a back story that ties into the end of the game.  The bread and butter, however, is your fellow ODST flashback missions.  Here, the combat is often large in enemy numbers with plenty of destruction as they attempt to fight off the Covenant and escape the city.  Master Chief would be proud.

The environments the ODSTs visit are varied from city skylines to an underground facility each with their own unique contrasts that differ from Halo 3.  Coupled with a dynamic soundtrack, the atmosphere is brought to life as there is always the feeling of urgency and despair.

After finishing the campaign, there is still plenty to enjoy.  ODST adds a new multiplayer mode called Firefight which allows up to 4 players to cooperatively battle against unlimited waves of Covenant attackers with a limited pool of lives and ammo.  The game ends when all players die.  I haven’t had the chance to play many Firefight games but the ones I did play are incredibly addicting.  The game is worth every penny even if you play Firefight exclusively.

After coming off a high from Halo 3, I played ODST right after.  With a perspective this fresh, it’s quite easy to notice the differences between the two games.  Originally planned as an expansion to Halo 3, Bungie instead developed a fantastic side story that could stand on its own two legs without needing Master Chief.  Highly recommended.

Производител: Bungie

Разпространител: Microsoft Game Studios

Други платформи: няма

Режими на игра:  Singleplayer, Co-op, Multiplayer

Жанр: First-person shooter

Дата на излизане: 22.09.2009

Наподобява: Halo серията

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Дали ODST ще подобри рекордите на големия си брат?

Автор: messiah

Казвам ти, от Bungie нищо лошо няма да видиш. Halo поредицата или ще я заобичаш, или ще я намразиш. Всъщност това е така с всички игри, свързани със зеления супер-войник. Хората се питат, какво намираме ние в нея? Ще ти кажа точно какво. Играта ти дава това, което искаш при покупката на един шутър – интригуващ и спиращ дъха екшън. Тя не е преоткрила жанра, просто представя в един перфектен вид нещата, които желаем във всеки FPS. Историята е страхотна, визията е чудесна, музиката е на ниво и благодарение на тези си качества, тя стана абсолютен хит. Е, Bungie са готови да ни зарадват, представяйки ни новото отроче на “скокливия” си гений. Макар, че ODST е натоварена с простата идея да засити глада на огромната фенска маса с няколко часа геймплей, докато Halo: Reach види бял свят, тя се е превърнала в много повече от експанжън в работливите главици на Bungie.

Поемаш ролята на един новобранец в отряд за борба с извънземни нашественици, наречен ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers). През 26-ти век The Covenant идват на мирната ни планета (за справка http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth) и започват война в New Mombasa, а ти в частност си последния шанс на човечеството. Историята се развива паралелно с офанзивата на Master Chief в Halo 2 и това е в голям плюс за играта, защото така са достъпни голямо разнообразие от нови терени, противници, оръжия и цели. В резултат от цялата гозба, сготвена от Bungie, полученият продукт е различен от галактическите приключения, оглавявани от Мастър Чийф. Bungie са вложили доза свежест, която прави историята една от най-задоволителните в цялата поредица. Тази рязка смяна на сюжета отначало прави доста песимистично впечатление, но с навлизането в играта, той разкрива своя чар чрез непрекъснатото сменяне на героите и оцеляването им поединично или в екип. Една от положителните черти на Halo 3: ODST е, че  авторите са придали хумористичен вид на диалозите между персонажите, а това е наистина правилен подход за поредицата.

Теренът е един от аспектите, който трябва да се опише допълнително. През почти цялото време воюваме на местност, много по-различна от тази, по която сме свикнали да тъпчем из другите Ореоли. Заплетените улички на New Mombasa почти изключват така забавното подскачане в средата на бойното поле. Урбанистичната обстановка ни кара да сме много по-внимателни и тактични, защото дебнат скрити снайперисти. За капак на всичко поредната новост в разширението на Halo 3 е добавянето на лента за здравето ви, което увеличава трудността. Вече не разчиташ на страхотния Regeneration на Health и на Shield Armor-a и ще си търсиш аптечки. Нужно е да дебнем и за малки тайни пакетчета (намирането им е почти непосилно за редовия геймър при средна трудност), които едвам се забелязват през деня, а в нощно време са почти невъзможни за намиране. Лично на мен това не ми се нрави много, понеже скоростта на екшъна намалява. Всъщност, динамиката на самата игра е занижена, заради по-предизвикателните противници и планирането, което трябва да влагаш при нападението на банда извънземни плазмодии.

Други нови благинки от страна на Bungie са добавянето на карта, която е доста полезна, и нощен режим (екстра, без която е невъзможно да се биеш в New Mombasa през нощта). Тук-таме има места, на които намираш дневници, протоколи и записи на умиращи войници, разказващи рутинната си работа и борбата с извънземни. Дребни детайли, като горепосочените, обаче, те потапят в атмосферата и те карат да й се насладиш до последната мисия. Нещо, което не е задължително да го има, но прави играта по-дълбока за изследване (по подобие на Fallout серията, Bioshock и т.н.). Оръжията са познатите ни от Halo 3 с две-три нови допълнения, едно от които е тихият автомат. Той е страхотен, но вярната му служба продължава само няколко минути, поради факта, че амунициите в Halo 3: ODST са оскъдни. Тази особеност важи в пълна сила за UNSC оръжията. Повече се набляга на използването на извънземния арсенал, защото е просто навсякъде. Интересното е, че Bungie не са сложили нито едно ново транспортно средство, те са си същите както в Halo 3. Разнообразие на противници също няма и дано не се изненадате от това, че почти всички са вече познати скинове от предишни части на поредицата.

Ако пък не си падате по кампаниите, в комплекта има втори диск, който съдържа всички мултиплейър карти, излезли досега в Xbox Live Marketplace плюс три нови такива. Последните са доста интересни и отлични за игра, както за FFA, така и за Team Deathmatch. Това е идеален начин да наваксате в мултиплейър аспект с един единствен продукт. Какво правим, обаче, ако сте Halo фен? Малко безсмислено е да имате на два пъти едни и същи карти, след като вече веднъж сте платили сумата за тях, равняваща се горе-долу на 40 долара.

Играта безспорно не е съвършена, но всеки самоуважаващ се Halo фен така или иначе вече е прегазил шестте часа геймплей. Кампанията е малко кратка, но е пленяваща с историята си, различна от повечето днешни заглавия. За всеки случай винаги има спасителен вариант – мултиплейърът. Играта все пак не е самостоятелна, а разширение, но си има свой собствен чар, достатъчен за да бъде такова.

Aко не перфектна, то Halo 3: ODST е достатъчно добра, за да покори сърцата на милиони играчи.  Независимо дали търсиш още история в света на Halo или разпускащ екшън в някой от хилядите игри в сървърите на Bungie, ODST e твоята игра.

Оценка: 8

Tenía muchos meses queriendo postear este dibujo en algún lugar y pues voy a aprovechar para ponerlo en “guarradas” ajajaja,yo lo hice =P.

El Master Chief con acento choco jajajaja XD

Ahora si tírenme mierda ajajajaj XD

I may be two years late to the party but better late than never.  Why did it take me so long to finish Halo 3?  Simply put, my backlog of games to play is ENORMOUS.  I still have PS2 and GameCube games I haven’t touched.  Some are still sealed!

I have always held the notion that a keyboard and mouse is vastly superior to a gamepad when popping headshots in first person shooters.  I still do.  You can’t twitch and the accuracy is a far cry from what a mouse is capable of.  Hence why I have a preference to play shooters on a PC.

I have ragged on the Halo franchise for many years simply because its followers worship a genre that PC gamers have been enjoying for years.  Half-Life is a perfect example.  Did I enjoy Halo 3?  For sure.  Is the game groundbreaking?  Not really.

However, what Bungie did correctly was build a game that works well for a console.  They incorporated a strong story and a balanced combat system resulting in a well-polished experience.  I did try the multiplayer briefly but it wasn’t my cup of tea as I prefer large team multiplayer games like Team Fortress 2.

Halo 3 definitely has its moments.  In particular, I enjoyed the vehicular battles.  Taking on the Scarabs is quite epic too.  I recently finished Halo 3 ODST so check back for my impressions!

I typed this up about a week ago or so, with the intent of editing it and publishing it soon after.  However, I had a presentation on gaming and libraries at the North Carolina Library Association Conference last Wednesday, and them immediately fell ill afterwards.  So, this review is no longer timely, but I hope you still value my opinion on the game.

I was going to wait until I gave Firefight mode a good try before I wrote about Halo 3: ODST, but you know what: the one thing that Bungie has always been spot-on with in the Halo series is multiplayer.  There is no real need to review Firefight mode, as far as I’m concerned.  You know it’s great, I know it’s great, we all know it’s great.  Multiplayer is always fun in Haloland.

So this review will only address the campaign.

Much has been said about the drastic new directions in which this new Halo campaign goes.  Instead of the all-powerful, nearly bulletproof SPARTAN-II Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, you are the Rookie: an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper.  The ODST are the elite of the UNSC armed forces.  They are specially trained for the most hostile combat situations, dropping in from orbit at breakneck speeds, right into the thick of the Hell that is combat or, sometimes, deep behind enemy lines for covert operations.

So why did Bungie decide to have you play junior detective in this game?  Sure, we all knew that this game was going to be a mystery story at heart, but in practice it just doesn’t work as well as the developers would have us believe.  Yes, New Mombasa at night is very cool.  Yes, there is real tension as you duck and dodge Covenant troops.  Yes, there is that really dreadful sense of being alone.  This doesn’t let up throughout the entire game; there are some moments that I felt really, really helpless.  Unlike playing as Master Chief, this time around I actually panicked when I ran out of ammo during a fight with Brute Chieftain, and I actually felt myself scrambling for a new weapon instead of just kind of casually walking over to pick up a new one.

And the way the storyline is delivered, through flashbacks uncovered by objects in the environment, which can be discovered in any order, as opposed to linear delivery, does offer up a few surprises.  You will likely not discover the items in order, so you piece details together as you go along, giving the whole narrative a feel not unlike a really good mystery novel; the whole thing unfolds in a very organic way, not rushing any major reveals.  The flashback missions, which allow you to play as other characters (all of them ODST), are exciting and appropriately epic; it’s like a greatest hits compilation of what made the great moments from the original Halo trilogy great.

So what makes the game not work?  Granted, this is something different from the traditional Halo experience, and there are plenty of incredible, dramatic moments to play through.  Everything should make this a great game, but there is just something missing.  There’s too much exploring between the breakneck action sequences; the final long stretch feels more like a test of patience than a test of skill; the whole thing just feels too short; I WANT TO PLAY THE LIVE ACTION ODST COMMERCIAL!

Bungie did a bit of wasting some potential here.  There are brief glimpses of  what this game could have been: a view of the Covenant War from the grunt’s eye-view.  In the original Halo trilogy, you were the guy who came in when the good guys needed a Big Damn Hero.  You took down big vehicles and went toe-to-toe with the most gruesome foes.  You punched enemy leaders in the face and made last-minute escapes.  You were an action hero.  But as an ODST, you’re just a normal guy.  You’re not a super soldier.  You’re maybe a little braver, a little more hardass than the other grunts, but you don’t have a reinforced skeleton or an energy shield or the ability to jump a quarter-mile in the air.  This could have showed the kind of high-tension, quick-burst kind of combat that we Halo fans are led to believe comprised most of the war with the Covenant–as opposed to the epic space opera of the original games.  Halo 3: ODST is indeed that, but it’s also too far in the other direction: it’s too different.  It’s too, dare I say, laid back.  Sure, the flashback levels are truly intense and chock-full of those in-the-thick moments I was hoping for, but most of the game is spent as one giant fetch quest.

So is this a good game?  Certainly.  It’s a great deal of fun and demands a bit more brain activity than the original Halo trilogy.  But is this truly an ODST game?  Does it convey that sense of intensity, loss, and drama that the awesome short film does?  Only at times.