I REPEAT THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOL’S JOKE!  I SHIT YOU NOT!

A LATINOREVIEW EXCLUSIVE!

All has been quiet on the HALO movie front lately.  Last we heard, the Halo movie came together with Bungie, Peter Jackson, producer Scott Stuber, Fox, and Universal. The script went through at least three writers. I did the first script review of Alex Garland’s draft then D.B. Weiss came aboard, and most recently Josh Olson.  Neil Blomkampf was hired to direct and did direct several great Halo short films. But then the plug was pulled last summer and the movie has been in a holding pattern ever since.

Till now…

In an effort to get the ball rolling again, I just learned that big time G.I. JOE screenwriter STUART BEATTIE has written a spec screenplay called HALO: FALL OF REACH, and it’s based on the best selling novel of the same name by Eric Nylund.

I hear Beattie is a huge Halo fan, and like most Halo fans, has been frustrated at the progress for HALO to reach the silver screen…

…so Stuart took action and did something about it on his own in between writing assignments.

A spec screenplay is when you write a script on your own without being paid a dime for it in the hopes that it could sell hence “spec” or “speculative.”

Stuart is in that top tier of professional screenwriters that get “commissioned” by studios to write scripts.  The top screenwriters don’t spec nor need to spec anymore.  They get the big money paying gigs.  Stuart was commissioned to write SPY HUNTER, SPLINTER CELL, and GEARS OF WAR for various studios.  His G.I. JOE script is the one that got Paramount to greenlight the $170 million dollar movie which is shooting now. 

HALO: FALL OF REACH is a labor of love by Beattie in the hopes of finally getting the movie made.

So what is the script about?  Below is what my source tells me…

The script is, first and foremost, a character-driven story about a soldier named John who was kidnapped or “conscripted” by the UNSC when he was just six years old, and then brutally trained to become an elite Spartan warrior known as Master Chief 117.
 
The script then takes us through the horrific first contact with the Covenant hordes on the doomed colony world of Harvest, and then climaxes with the spectacular fall of the UNSC forward base on Reach, during which every other Spartan is slaughtered.
 
The script also gives detailed outlines for the second movie, HALO: RISE OF THE FLOOD, which takes place entirely on the Halo ringworld, and the third and final movie, HALO: BATTLE FOR EARTH, which roughly follows the events of Halo 3, the game.
 
One cool advantage of this first script is that (like the shark in JAWS) you don’t even see the Covenant until halfway through the movie. And because all the creatures are CGI creations, this cuts the budget down dramatically and makes a first Halo movie that much more viable. For Halo fans, it’s like the prequel that provides all the answers to questions they’ve thought about for years. For non Halo fans, it’s an exciting action movie that provides a clear, concise introduction to a world five hundred years in the future with relatable characters and a terrifying alien menace.So there you have it folks!  If there is anyone at Microsoft or Bungie reading this, call CAA, get the damn script and at least take a read!  You guys certainly have nothing to lose by taking a look because the guy’s track record speaks for itself. 

If you’re a HALO fan, harass Microsoft to take action because from what I gathered here in Hollywood, unfortunately the guys that are seriously cock blocking the HALO movie from getting made are those control freaks at Microsoft.

Again what does Microsoft have to lose by taking a look at a script written by a big time Hollywood screenwriter who decided to take a crack at HALO on his own?

Nada!

We will be following this story closely as more develops !

• Campaign Complete: Normal – Completed the Campaign on Normal Difficulty: 43.28%
• Campaign Complete: Legendary – Completed the Campaign on Legendary Difficulty: 15.14%
• Graduate: Graduated from basic training. Stick with it to earn your Spartan insignia: 66.92%
• UNSC Spartan: Promoted to Sergeant. Proven in combat, you are a Spartan: 52.07%
• The most found metagame skull? Black Eye skull with 34.26%
• The least found metagame skull? Tilt at 22.98% (Go find it, jerks! It’s one of the best skulls in the game!)
• At 6.21%, Steppin’ Razor is the hardest multiplayer Achievement to earn, with Two for One right behind it at 6.77% and Overkill nipping at its heels (6.75%)
• 8.68% of players have unlocked the Marathon Man Achievement
• 1000/1000 Gamerscore: 2.07%

Officially the US will get it on 20th November, while retailer Amazon believes we will have it on 26th November. Microsoft Europe was unavailable to comment, helpfully

The two-hour soundtrack contains some really rather impressive music from Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, which has been recorded by a full orchestra and voices of real people who can sing.

It is one of the most memorable scores from one of this year’s biggest games, and we had a chance to talk to O’Donnell about it at the Videogames Live concert held recently as a part of the London Games Festival.

Pop over to our Halo 3: Music To Watch Armageddon By article to find out more

November 15th marks the five year point of the service, and and company has said that, “as a gesture of thanks to the gaming community,” all Xbox Live gamers will get one free Xbox Live Arcade game, as well as 500 free Microsoft Points for all members who joined the service at its start in 2002.

More interestingly, the company has announced that with its latest Xbox Live update launching December 4th, Microsoft will kick off a new “Xbox Originals” campaign that will see the release of downloadable games for 1200 Points ($15) each.

Thus far confirmed titles include Halo, Psychonauts, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Fable, with “a growing catalog of Xbox games to download and own over the coming year.”

Said Live, software and services vice president John Schappert, “In just five short years, Xbox LIVE has revolutionized the way friends and family have fun in the living room. On its fifth birthday, Xbox LIVE truly is the place for hanging out with friends and enjoying downloadable TV shows, movies, videos, game add-ons and now downloadable Xbox games on demand.”

Great Halo 3 video we found on youtube.
Enjoy.

HaloGameWorld.com

It’s not too late to enter to win a Halo 3 Legendary Edition at 2Old2Play.com

For those of you that already own the regular Halo 3 or don’t know what the Legendary Edition is, I can sum it up as a Halo Geek’s dream. Better yet, just look at the feature below:

1. Includes storyboard art that depicts key moments and scenes
2. Comes with an audio-visualization tool custom-designed to enhance high-definition home theaters for the ultimate in Halo 3 audio and visual performance
3. Legendary Edition includes two bonus discs of extra content and a collectible replica of a Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI helmet with display stand
4. Bonus discs include behind-the-scenes features, a making-of documentary, remastered cinematic content from Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 with director commentaries and more

So What Is The Contest?

We basically want to see how funny, witty, and/or shocking the community can be with a randomly selected screenshot from the Bungie Active Community Files. So all you have to do is give us a quote for the image below and email it to contest@2old2play.com with Halo 3 Contest in the subject line. Try to give us something that expresses the image best and makes us laugh while we go through the countless emails. The winner will be selected by our admins, mods, and writers from both sites on November 5th.

What Are the Rules?

The rules are simple. All you have to do is send one email with your quote for the picture to contest@2old2play.com in order to enter. You can only send one quote per email and only one email per person is allowed. Emails without Halo 3 Contest in the subject line will not be read. The contest is only valid in the United States and Canada so please keep this in mind when entering as the prizes will NOT be shipped elsewhere. The contest will end November 5th, 2007 but all entries must be in by November 2 to be counted in the contest. By entering this contest you agree to the contest rules provided here.

What do i Win?

• First Place: Halo 3 Legendary Edition
• Second Place: Halo 3 Regular Edition

HaloGameWorld.com

According to TCPalm, trouble began when the youth (whose name and age cannot be stated for legal reasons) was told by his mother to turn off his Xbox 360 as it was getting late.

After he refused, his mother took his “air card” (Wi-Fi adaptor) from the 360, preventing him from playing online and prompting a fit of rage that would see the child frantically search through the house, before punching his mum in the face.

The kid then retreated to his room, but soon had to deal with local Sheriff’s deputies, whom his mum had called following the assault.

The deputies entered his room using a key kept by the mother, but also fell foul to the youth’s rage: he managed to punch one deputy square in the face before being restrained and handcuffed.

He would later be turned over to the state juvenile authorities of charges of battery-domestic violence and battery on a law enforcement officer.

I’ve had a lot of mails from skilled Halo players saying things like, “Hey, I am stuck at level 41 skill level and I am not going up, so your skill system must be broken.” Actually, what you’re seeing is that it works. What the system is telling you, is that relative to the other players currently playing Halo 3, you are a level 41. You should not be going up in skill level until you become appreciably and significantly better.

If you suddenly developed a whole new level of headshot ability, for example you’d find that your skill level would rise commensurately. It is not, like your rank, supposed to climb inexorably based on experience, but rather to judge and determine your relative skill and match you with players of like skill. My experience is that games are closer, tighter and more fairly balanced than ever before. The spikes happen at the low end, as you mix it up with folks who haven’t played enough to determine a steady skill level. As you get better, progress will slow and eventually halt as the system determines your overall ability and uses that to find matches.

It’s important to note that it is an increasingly accurate estimate, designed to become more accurate over the long term. So don’t worry about dips in your performance, or unexpected sprees, those dips and spikes are not given much precedence by the system.

In theory, it is trying to put you in the most competitive matches. It is not some goal or trophy – it’s a tool.

Melee Maybe

Although we’re paying close attention to it, melee is still causing folks a headache. The primary complaint is that the fellow with the most health wins the simultaneous melee strike. There are a couple of problems here. One is that the way this victory or loss is displayed on screen is aesthetically frustrating:

Situation: Two people melee almost simultaneously and one wins.

Display: One melee fails, then, a fraction of a second later, your opponent’s, succeeds.

This looks worse than it is, sometimes because of network conditions. You’ll have to take our word for it that in spite of the apparent gap in time and animation, the two strikes were effectively simultaneous. The problem is for most people that it looks bad and is dissatisfying. But we do appreciate the frustration this causes and we are looking into it. As many have noted, the alternative, host advantage, is not preferable.

VGA Resolution Thingy

So we have a bunch of complaints from people using hi-res 4:3 aspect ratio VGA monitors, who find that when they choose a widescreen 1280×1080 resolution, that things stretch. Or that when they choose “normal” aspect ratio, they lose the advantage of a slightly wider field of view found in widescreen TVs. Well, sadly that’s us following the 360 output settings rather than something specific to Halo 3. We can’t override that setting in the game and we can’t guess what it is the user desires. So we have to go with the majority – which is that they desire the entire screen is filled with the correct aspect ratio and isn’t black-barred or windowed. It’s not ideal, but it is one of the drawbacks of trying to play widescreen content on a 4:3 display. So in short, sorry.

Map Flap

Our multiplayer design teams are hard at work on a couple of things. One of them is a fun, seasonal addition to the matchmaking playlist which should keep you entertained for about 27 hours around Halloween. No specifics yet, but suffice it to say that if you want to spend your witchy holiday playing Halo 3, we’ll give you some spooktacular reasons to do so.

The other thing keeping the designers busy, and the artists and audio guys for that matter, is downloadable content. The maps themselves are being prepared in a logical order, designed to fill gaps in our matchmaking selection and add new, interesting environments to our multiplayer arsenal. The more finished the maps are, the faster they’re likely to make it to marketplace. We’ll have more news on the specific plans for timing and availability soon, and we promise to let you guys get a look at the maps and hear more about what they have to offer.

We’ve been testing the new maps pretty regularly and I loved all except one, which for the purposes of this article, I shall refer to as, “Purple Reign.” I sometimes have an initially adverse reaction to symmetrical or semi-symmetrical map designs because I am not terribly smart and I sometimes have difficulty become oriented within those types of space. Invariably, I get used to it and learn to love them. This was just such a case, but when a new slew of architecture was added in the distance recently, it was enough for me to recognize which way was “up,” so to speak. Now I love it.

So the good news is that as far as I am concerned, all of the projected DLC maps are sweet.  Two of them in particular will cause a Three Mile Island scale pant-fill-disaster in the Halo community. I can’t say why, but some of you will figure it out correctly and be able to say I told you so later.

Luke and I have been playing a lot of SWAT on the new maps because it’s an easy way to check out a map with only a couple of players. At least two of the projected DLC maps however, are simply far too large for even the hair-trigger nature of SWAT to speed ‘em up. Both of them support lots of vehicles, but one of them, John Carpenter’s Prince of Dorkness, doesn’t need vehicles per se. It’s tough to explain. When you finally see it, you’ll understand.  

Source:  Bungie.net

HaloGameWorld.com

Banhammery

We’ve mentioned before that we have implemented lots of security and anti-cheating systems in Halo 3. We’ll never have it perfect because we cannot stop people being idiots, but it’s already significantly better than ever before. We’re about to activate a part of it that required a few weeks of folks playing in the wild before we’d gathered enough data to activate it. Well, we’re just about ready to swing the mighty mallet of justice and it should make a couple of types of cheating extinct very shortly.

Halo 3 has been available for precisely one month and we’re going to be working harder than ever to make sure it stays a safe and fair place to play for the next few years. So please bear with us and remember we’re always watching and more importantly, acting on the information we receive, whether it’s immediately visible or not.

Hysterical Halo 3 video.

HaloGameWorld.com