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Burn Blue In Halo Reach as Bungie Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Chris Carlson — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:55:56 +0000

2011 marks the 20th Anniversary for Bungie Studios, the masterminds behind the critically acclaimed Halo franchise. As a celebration for their anniversary, they’re giving back to you, the fans.

Before today, if you were playing Halo Reach and saw a bright blue flaming helmet, that only meant one thing: you’re playing with an official Bungie Employee. Starting today, you have free access to those kick ass blue flames, and a nameplate as well. All you need to do is head over to Bungie.net and register or sign in with your account, click “Unlock Blue Flames” on the main page and you’re good to go. You only have until the end of Bungie Day to light up these flames, which concludes on July 7th.

Time to kick some Bungie ass

The fun doesn’t end there either. On July 7th, Bungie will deploy four-man squads into a special Bungie vs. the World playlist for a full straight 24 hours. If you happen to square up against one of these vicious squads and win by a margin of 20 kills or more, they will personally send you a real steak, – not sure if serious – unless you’re a non-US resident, then you’ll receive a nice little gift card. So make sure you log into Halo Reach come July 7th if you plan to kick some Bungie ass.

To conclude their celebration, the guys from Red vs. Blue tell you everything you need to know about Bungie’s 20th Anniversary.

Celebrate Bungie Day with Flaming Halo 3 Helmets and an RvB Look at Reach’s Blood Gulch

David Oxford — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:06:02 +0000

July 1st was Canada Day, and July 4th was Independence Day. What more is there to celebrate during the month of July? How about Bungie Day?

That’s right: today is the day the folks at Halo developer Bungie give thanks to their fans and show gratitude for the support they’ve been given in their “quest for world domination.” To do so, they have teamed with the jolly-good chaps* over at Rooster Teeth to produce a machinima video that marks the occasion in style.

Check it out below; we don’t think we would be Reaching to say Halo fans will enjoy what they’ve put together. Heck, even some non-Halo fans may get a kick out of it:

That’s right, the Blood Gulch canyon is back, and it’s seen a few… changes. It’s the same old hangout you know and love, but more of it, and with a few new additions to boot.

If you are unable to view the above video, fear not; Bungie has provided several downloadable alternate versions here, and failing that, you’ll be able to find it on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace tomorrow.

If that wasn’t enough for you, then you may be happy to know that Bungie has a special treat in store for current Halo 3 players…

…flaming helmets for your characters!

Equip the Bungie chest piece for your character and have fun! Hurry though, the flames will be extinguished tomorrow. Get it while it’s HOT.

* No, I seriously have no idea why I picked that particular expression.

Bungie Hints At July 14th E3 Announcment

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:17:43 +0000

The tail end of Bungie’s latest podcast contains an exchange of words between the two co-hosts, Brian Jarrard and Luke Smith, which tease at a possible July 14th reveal of some sort. Could it be a new Halo related project?

Brian: Isn’t there something going on on July 14th or something like that?
Luke: Yeah, around then.
Brian: Somehow that’s sticking in my head for some reason. Guess we’ll have to see.
Luke: Yep, we’ll just have to be patient. Who could say?

The tone of their delivery is best be compared to that of an adult playing hide and seek with a child. They know exactly where the child is hiding, but they still pretend they don’t.

While my fingers will remain crossed out of respect to those who want it, I highly doubt this is the Lego Halo game many gamers have been hoping for since EGM’s April fools joke. Ripten will be present for the Microsoft press conference on the morning of the 14th, so check back with us then.

Source: Bungie Podcast [Thanks Jon]

NPR Interviews Bungie’s Joseph Staten – “Geeks, You’re Dealing with Geeks.”

John Kershaw — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:20:17 +0000

Chana Joffe-Walt, a National Public Radio journalist, recently had an interview with Halo: Contact Harvest author, Joseph Staten, and gave the best example to date as to why journalists who don’t play games shouldn’t be allowed to write about them.

Joffe-Walk visited Staten at Bungie Studios, and her first complaint is that the meeting room is full of Xbox 360s. I’m not too sure what she was expecting from the producers of one of the most important, and arguably one of the greatest, videogame franchises of this generation. In the short interview with Staten, Joffe-Walt asks some very deep and poignant questions, such as:

“Isn’t gaming all just shoot’em up? Why do you need story?”

To which Staten replied quite correctly:

“I think to understand why stories are important in games, you need to actually play them.”

From just this snippet alone, you can get a pretty good feel for how the rest of the interview goes. I challenge anyone to have a listen to it without screaming or crying in despair. I lasted until the following before keeling over and exploding:

Staten: “You’re dealing with an internet connection, high savvy audience.”
Joffe-Walt: “Geeks, you’re dealing with geeks.”

Halo: Contact Harvest is a New York Times best seller, and I would recommend buying it, if just to prove you know what a book is — Geek.

Source: npr.org

Master Chief Sued

Adam Montgomery — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:44:42 +0000

Halo 3’s crashes have resulted in a class action lawsuit against Microsoft and Bungie Studios.

Coming just after the trouble with the disc-scratching Legendary editions of the game, the lawsuit is based in the allegation that Halo “does not function with the 360,“ and actually harms the console by causing it to “crash, freeze, or lock-up during play.”

Randy Nunez is looking for a huge $5 million in damages, which is a small wedge of cash when considered in relation to the hundreds of millions the game made.

The lawsuit, available here, claims that the developers “deceived” many by suggesting the game would work with the 360, which apparently it doesn’t – despite being designed solely for the console.

Chief best leave this fight to his lawyers.