Wafflebrains1 writes:

Get off the road!

Wafflebrains and Tropical Punch tackled all the selling for their latest Goosetage.  See the sales pitch below.  If you're sold, the video is inline.

"Two of Indiana's finest Mongoosers team up to show off their best splatters in one action packed goosetage!  Wafflebrains in his third goosetage, and Tropical Punch in his first make a lot of Spartans and Elites go splat as they take the virtual highways in Halo 3.  If you love seeing great and unique mongoose splatters, than this is the goosetage for you!"



YouTube - Life in the Fast Lane

Prepare to podcast.

HBO let us know that Joseph Staten dropped into the Avault Podcast this week to talk about his history with Bungie and give a bit of detail on how the Halo stories are made.  Sounds like your kind of show?  Tune it at the link below.  Joe jumps in at the eleven minute mark.

Adrenaline Vault Podcast Episode #54 - Joseph Staten - Bungie

MrOlympiaSC writes:

No lives being saved in this montage.

Lots of nice gameplay though.  Captured in HD and clocking in south of five minutes, you should give this one a watch.  I'll make it easy:



YouTube - Volcomsocom's Lifeline - A Halo 3 Montage - HD

The best deaths between Oct. 28th and Nov. 3rd.

IGN continues their Top 10 Halo 3 Kills series.  You should continue watching.  There's a video and a link below.  Pick one and click.

Catch the disease!

Red vs Blue's contagious Assault-like sport. Catch the disease!

Category: Double EXP Weekend
4 Players Per Team
Max Party Size: 8
Heroic and Mythic 1 Map Packs Required

Gametypes

• Grifball (55%) - Teams vie over a bomb, attempting to plant and detonate the bomb on the other team's arm point. Players spawn with Gravity Hammers and Energy Swords. Player traits: No grenades,  infinite ammo, 200% damage and no shields. Ball carrier traits: Orange forced color, 2x shields and 150% movement speed. Assault bomb arms instantly, and one successful detonation ends the round. Team with the highest score after five rounds wins. Three minutes per round.
• Mayan Grifball (20%) - Players have 110% move speed. Ball carrier has 150% move speed.
• Grifball Up There (15%) - Bomb reset time is 10 seconds.
• Aerial Grifball (10%) - Players have 75% gravity and 100% move speed. Ball carrier has 50% gravity and 100% move speed. Bomb reset time is 10 seconds.

Maps

• Grifball Court (Foundry) - Variant of Foundry made specifically for Grifball tournament play.
• The Grif Cave (Sandbox) - Grifball in Sandbox's crypt.
• Chichen Itza (Sandbox) - Grifball court styled in the fashion of an ancient arena.
• Ultim8 Grifball (Sandbox) - Get it? With the 8 there, it's like saying  "ultimate." Whoever came up with that should do stand up because they're, like, hilarious and stuff!
• Grifball High (Sandbox) - Grifball in Sandbox's skybubble.
• Grifball Naught (Sandbox) - "How did I get into the game before the map?"

Tale of the take.

Laird mailed to let us know that his Child's Play eBay Halo Auction (which we told you about earlier this week and last), brought in $2,373.06 in cold, hard, digital cash for charity.  Awesome.  We don't have any links to whisk you away or pretty pictures of the aftermath.  We just thought we'd say thanks for participating.

So...thanks!

Got nine grand burning a whole in your UNSC-issue pockets?

If you're looking for some Halo-themed toys to tool around in, some folks at HBO found a Mongoose up for sale.  It's $9,000 and it's on Craigslist, so get your parent's permission before you click the link and close the deal.

Real-life Mongoose For Sale

Six Below writes:

Two helmets are better than one.

I dunno what a "sick shot Dualtage" is, but this is a pretty slick number featuring two players and some pretty sharp play.  They've chosen to apply a pretty heavy post effect to give their montage a touch of flair.  Just over three minutes, all told.

"This is a sick shot Dualtage featuring all MLG gameplay from two new guys, Miizmo and Twixtor himself. Beside from the outstanding gameplay, the editing is stunning too! This really captures the essence of a dark gloomy tage. On a side not remember to watch the credits they are very unique and creative. Nice HD as well!"



YouTube - Anthropy Halo 3 Dualtage

americanista123 writes:

Worth some amount of words.  (Math is hard.)

The Mythic Photographers have a ton of questions for you.  We'll slap them below.  They also have a pretty sweet HD montage of Halo 3: ODST screenshots.  We'll slap that below for you too.

"Do you love ODST? Do you love taking screenshots? We'll if you don't, the Mythic Photographers have covered. Some of the best screenshot artist have gathered together to bring you some of the best Halo 3 ODST screenshots you have seen yet. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself. (Trust me, it's awesome!)"



YouTube - Mythic Photographers ODST Pictage

Killomania writes:

Montage, music video, what's the difference?

Well, I don't know.  Watch it and let me know.  It's a mix of Halo screenshots and standard stills.  If you like Big Bang Theory or the Barenaked Ladies, you'll love this.  If not, scram.

"When a theme tune from a TV show comes out and made into something montage. You can expect it to be something like this."



YouTube - Halo 3 Montage: Big Bang Theory

Decadence Night writes:

From a certain point of view.

Haloramics.com put together a collection of their favorite panoramics they snapped over the last twelve months.  For easy viewing, they've slapped them all together inside a handy dandy YouTube video.  Check it out.

"Montage of my best Halo 3 Panoramas over the past year, including some of my signature "Time Lapse Panoramas" and some ODST shots.

Enjoy!"

YouTube - Decadence Night - Haloramics

All by myself.

If you're looking to get some solo Firefight runs in, Monochron is weighing in with words and images to help you formulate a sound strategy.  If you're already going it alone and doing just fine, you should weigh in with your own comments.  Strat at the jump below.

HBO - Firefight Solo Guide: Chasm Ten

Bringing great ideas to life.

ReconLIVE returns for round two of their community spotlight.  This time out, they're exploring their custom map variant, Sanction.  Check out what it took to get it constructed and then jump over to Bungie Favorites to see the rest of their week two selections.

Q. Where did the idea for Sanction come from?

A. Construct! We started off with the idea of re-creating the top portion of Construct with the sword area, lobby, and two side rooms. We thought this would turn out to be a pretty interesting, small CTF & Team Slayer map.

Q. How long did it take to recreate?

A. Once we really got down to business, the general layout that we wanted was done in just under two days. We spent a few more days fine tuning the map through community play tests and fixing exploitable spots where you could jump outside of the bases. Good times.

Q. What aspect took you the longest to get just right?

A. Finding a layout that worked and yet was still fun to play on. Our original “finished” version was, quite frankly, terrible. The map had almost zero cover and during an initial match immediately turned into a “run into the middle and throw as many grenades as possible”. After this, we realized the map needed more, so we decided to split the middle and add tunnels under the bases. Surprisingly, everything fit perfectly and worked really well together. We hope the community thinks so as well!

Q. How could Forge be improved?

A. As I’m sure it’s been said before, we’d all love to see some sort of terrain editor. Adding trees, rocks, and everything of that sort would be amazing! It would be also awesome to include decorative type props to spruce the maps up a bit and give them more of a professional feel. It could be little things, such as: adding in power grids, generators, or even throwing in some random cables that we can strew along the ground. Also, adding something along the lines of environmental effects such as rain, snow etc.

Above all, Forge was a great addition to Halo 3 and has given the community, ourselves included, a chance to build upon our great ideas and bring them to life.

---

If you want to add yourself to ReconLIVE's community, the link to their site is up at the top of this interview.  If you just want to see what they have in store for you inside Bungie Favorites, the link is in this sentence.  Click stuff.  It'll be great!

l Caesar l writes:

Three trigger pulls and a little bit of flourish.


2old2play is a blog dedicated to servicing the more experienced gamers.  Wait, that doesn't sound right. 

2old2play is a website dedicated to giving gaming veterans a little peace and quiet.  One of their wrinkled residents, Caesar, just finished modeling up the shiny three shot-shootin' M6D from Halo: CE.  You can see the finished product at the jump below.  Check it out.

http://www.2old2play.com/Blog/Caesar

Insane54 writes:

The Conflict comes to a close.

Looks like Forge Hub's Conflict is finally over.  Now there can be a lasting peace.  And tons of prizes.  Check out the post tourney carnage below.

"It seems a long time since the 512 eager Conflict entrants suited up and began the first round of a journey that culminated in our epic final showdowns last week. It's been over two months, and during that time many have fallen by the wayside as the contest sorted the finest slayers from those who took up arms way back in August.

Intent on cementing the final round as the height of competitive Halo, the chosen few who remained had to fight it out for five games, as opposed to the three employed in recent rounds. Many have been waiting eagerly for the results, and for those who haven't been keeping up with the match threads themselves, here's a breakdown of what went on in the culmination of Forge Hub's 1v1 Conflict."

Forge Hub's 1v1 Conflict Wrap-up

Jack23june writes:

I feel like we've done this once already.


If you're sputtering out along the road to Recon and looking for a little motorist assist, the players at Spartan I Project are offering up some help.  Link up with their squads and get through any roadblocks in your way.  Details below.

"Looking for Deja Vu?

Well, look no more. The Spartan I Project is the last place you will need to look. With a dedicated team, who can cater to help any player in any time zone, with a little notice of course, you could have that Vidmaster achievement and be one step closer to your own set of Recon Armor.

The SIP Highwaymen have helped a good number of ODST players get the Vidmaster achievements and unlock their Recon. With over 100 successful runs 65 of which have been done by one member alone!!! and helping over 200 members hear the wonderful "Bleep Bloop".

With the current fastest time of 23 Minutes and 42 Seconds, and with a average time of 35 minutes, you wont find a better place.

What are you waiting for?"

Embrace change.


We let you know about the inbound November changes in the update a few weeks back, but if you were waiting on word that they went live, here it is.  Word.  If this is the first you've heard about it, here's the breakdown of the changes:

Ranked:
Team Slayer – All extra content optional (Includes Heroic, Legendary, Mythic, Mythic 2 and Cold Storage)
Team Throwback – Weighting on Valhalla, Standoff reduced. Weighting on Heretic, Citadel increased. The Pit replaced with Pit Stop.
MLG – Maps updated to MLG version 7. Guardian and Lockdown (Foundry) removed. Heretic added to Slayer, Oddball and CTF. MLG is now Halo 3: Mythic required.

Social:
Big Team Mythic – Removed.

7 on the 7th:
7 Player FFA on Cold Storage, Assembly, Heretic and Citadel. (Halo 3: Mythic required)

Double EXP Weekends (Listed in Order):
Grifball (Heroic/Mythic required)
Team Control (Halo 3: Mythic required)
Team Flag (Halo 3: Mythic required)
Social Living Dead (Halo 3: Mythic required)

For a handy-dandy, color-coded guide designed to clear up some confusion over which maps you need in what playlists, hit up HBO.

Merchandising!


Halcylon put his Photoshop prowess on display again and put together a poster that posits what an ODST feature film advert might look like.  Hawty plucked it out of the ether and put it up for you to see.  So, go see it.  Here's a link.

Helljumpers: The Movie

Teetotaler.

The latest installment of Chronicles of ODS Steve has dropped.  Steve's tea has gone missing.  Find out who swiped it at the jump.

Chronicles of ODS Steve: Teetotaler (#47)

Enjoys a wet sock beat down in the shower.


Okay, maybe Matty isn't exactly into sopping wet sock shower violence.  We just snagged that snippet out of the interview below as a sneaky way to get you to click in.  Since you're already here, why not read the rest of Chunky_Lover's Average Joe spotlight?  It's not his fault that we roped you in under false pretenses!

Q. Who are you and what do you do?

A. My name is Matt, or as my friends and parents call me, Matty. I'm the proud son of a seasoned hockey loving family (which is a must if you are Canadian like moi). I've been working part time....wait? No I haven't! Since having been graduated recently I am now considering rainy west coast Septembers as part of my extra long Summer Break.

However besides being lazy, I have discovered a passion for 3D.  Everything from Zbrush to 3ds Max just gets me excited every time I think about something I want to make. Modeling and Animation specifically, and I hope to have it be my future career someday.

I'm also a seasoned Paintballer and Hockey player, although being over age to play minor hockey, I have decided to take up some Rec Hockey with a few friends of mine, which is fun if you enjoy fights and having wet sock beat downs in the showers.

Q. Who doesn't?  But since we can't dig into details about your soapy scrub-a-dub escapades, maybe you should just tell us where you snagged your gamertag.

A. I think a name should actually mean something. It should have deep meaning, today's gamertags seem to all be about alternating capital and lower case letters.  My tag is Matty McDee, which is a name my father gave to me when I was little. Its kind of odd recalling this strange tune he used to sing "Matty McDee sittin' in a tree" and it would continue with strange rhymes that made no sense but I think it speaks to me more than ever.

Q. S-o-c-k-i-n-g.  Sorry, had to do it.  When your looking to let other people speak to you online, what forums do you step into to for some conversation these days?

A. I am a frequent in the ODST, Reach and Bungie Community Forums. I enjoy pushing people in the right direction instead of the wrong one in terms of gaming.

One thing I truly love about this community is the amount of fan-made content that streams off these forums. I remember just reading some of the most magnificent fan fiction when I first joined Bungie.net. This decision kind of pulled me into a lifestyle restless nights of all-nighter LAN parties with friends and having Halo themed "drinking" games.

I have one story where me and few friends were playing one of these games and we decided to play one were if we died in the game we had to take a shot. So we started up a game of No-Shields and Rocket Starts on Guardian. After the first couple of deaths you were still able to fight back and get your friends to get intoxicated faster, but at usually in drinking games there is always one guy who decides to lose the game to get drunk fast before everyone else, which in this case was another friend of mine committing suicide every time he spawned. Playing that made the night fly by and gave birth to many laughs when we watched the film in the morning.

Q. Sounds like a fun game for a group of mature, drinking age friends!  What else besides booze compels you to take up a controller?

A. When the Hockey season ends, that's what usually compels me to dust of the controller.

...no not really actually. I find that playing with friends that you can get along with and make fun of when they do or say stupid things over Xbox LIVE to other people is one of the greatest gifts in the world. At one point last summer, I took up a Game Design class at my local College and the Teachers of this course would host these LAN parties were would play Team Fortress 2 and Halo 2 PC in the labs. We would play either until the sun came up, or the keg ran out.

It was a great class, definitely worth the money, and I would suggest it to any aspiring game designers out there and not just because of the keg.

Q. Yeah. Study up, kids. What was the first Bungie title you played, Matty?

A. The first one was way back when? I believe it was Oni. I remember having to be baby's at at the age that I played it and the babysitter would play Oni on the PlayStation. I usually wouldn't play it until she had to use the washroom but truly that was the first Bungie title that I actually played.

The game that called me into the steamy whirlpool jacuzzi I like to call Bungie was Halo Combat Evolved which I canon-balled into. When I first played it I was stuck on the Pillar of Autumn and at the time my TV was so bad that during dark parts of that level I could not see a thing! I had to bring it over to my friends house to use his TV to beat the first level of Halo. Sad isn't it?

Q. Are you surprised by your level of community involvement?

A. Actually having to look back at some of the stuff I have posted and contributed to things like IRIS and ILB, I really think that I have made some form of a difference in this community, if not that I try to bring a positive attitude to some of the more negative topics I am really surprised. Bungie.net is on the sites I spend the most time on and I'm not the least bit ashamed by it because between the shenanigans that go down in the Flood or some alcohol abused forum posters in other forums...this place can never get old.

Not to mention its always nice to get a random private message even almost coming on two years since it came out saying "Oh I know you! You were on the Podcast!"

Q. Do you get involved with any other shameless online communities?

A. Not really anything specific. I am member of the Poly Count community and NeoGaf, but I'm much more frequent on B.net. I'm not big on joining other communities I always tend to make my first post an awkward one or I make an awkward moment even more awkward.

Over Bungie.net however I am a frequent in a Group called The Relocated Community also known as "TRC" which earlier in the year we had an unexpected name change but yeah, definitely a fine place to be especially for random fun and casual custom games.

Q. Anything awkward you wanna add? Wanna make a shout-out?

A. Why yes, I would. I would like to say first "Oh Hai thar" to my parents and my little brother Chris. I would also like to shout out everyone over there at TRC and the Mythix I <3 you guys and Crow for teaching me the 3 Dimensional ropes figuratively and physically speaking and last but not least the old gang of Trey(Milk), Justin(Beaver), Josh(ArabMan), Zack(Sharpshooter), Nick(Pyode) and Lee and the Shermanator your guys are the bestest.

---

Not sure bestest is a word.  We'll let it slide though.  Thanks for the interview, Matty.

If you want to slide on over to Matty's side of the couch (mind the keg), we've got a discussion thread all set up so you can say hello.  Better here then in the shower.  Trust us.

405th.com continues their march toward glorious salvation.


Mind blown.  Check out one of 405th.com's finest doing work.  Site seems to be down right now, but you should bookmark it anyway.  Seriously.  This is awesome.

Or are they?


No.  No they're not.  Even though the latest season has come to a close, it looks like we'll be getting some more Arby 'n' the Chief real soon.  Get teased at the link below, LA style.  If you're not a fan, you should note that there's probably naughty language.

YouTube - Arby 'n' The Chief in L.A. Trailer

By craftiness and creativity.


Hawty's got some shots of a really nasty infection up on her website.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  You've been to her blog before and you're not gonna click given that description.  Don't worry.  It's safe for work.  I promise.  Now go.  Check it out.

This Form Is Definitely Infected

Going once.  Going twice...


If you want in on some awesome Halo merch, now's the time to place your bids.  Laird's got a sweet collection up and the auction ends in less than twenty-four hours.  All proceeds go to Child's Play.

Laird's Halo Child's Play eBay Extravaganza