And we're back!

All better now. The online team tells me the source of the problem was rooted out, physically destroyed, and tossed into a dumpster. Again, apologies for the early morning hiccups. 

We're on it.

Our Test team is furiously scrambling to determine the source of the outage and to make the necessary repairs. As of right now, they are not able to supply an ETA, but rest assured that Top Men are on the scene. Apologies for the imposition. Thank you for your patience.

We'll notify you when everything is back online.

Don't believe everything that you read.

This evening, Kotaku Australia published a blog entry to their website claiming that Bungie recently terminated as many as thirty contract employees without notice or justification, effectively eliminating all non full time staff at the request of our publisher, Activision-Blizzard.

The claim is false.

Bungie has never been asked to lay off any employees or contract employees by our publisher, Activision-Blizzard, for any reason. The talented professionals who grace our offices day in and day out are the lifeblood of Bungie – our most cherished commodity – and the unsubstantiated rumors posted today are in direct opposition to the culture and values that we believe make Bungie an exceptional place to work, and to call home.

(Oh, and since we're on the subject, we're hiring.)

UPDATE

To clarify, Bungie has not experienced layoffs or group firings of any kind.

Supreme Lyrics writes:

Boom, more stats.

Halotracker has added more stats, this time its Firefight. 

Score Attack LB's have been added. These can be broken down by gametype, high score, average score, kills, headhots, and more. Also weapon and medal stats have been added to the Firefight tab on player pages. Weapon and medal stats can be viewed by each Score Attack gametype by clicking on the tab next to each gametype.

Score Attack Leaderboards

Silent Vandal writes:

Bobby Fischer would have been proud...

It's the beginning of the end, and the Reclaimer and his Cavalcade of mental passengers are about to enter the final field of play. If you enjoy chess you should appreciate today's comic, heavy as it is with references to the game.

Reclaimer: Endgame

emilio30 writes:

Miggs!

The Running Riot just wants to remind you to tune into tonight’s LIVE interview of Miguel Chavez from halo.bungie.org.  Come hang out in the Green Room before the interview for some music and a little precast chat. Plus we will be giving away some backstage passes to join us in the show.

The Green Room goes live at 9:30pm ET and the interview starts at 10. Now you knows.

CruelLEGACEY writes:

Failure is not an option.

Failure is required!



YouTube - The Fails of Reach - Fan Fails 2!

For more episodes, or to submit a clip, visit www.cruellegaceyproductions.com.

Gear61 Owns writes:

I'm going to get it anyway.

Monday came and went without a montage. I am deeply, truly sorry.

"This is a Halo: Reach dualtage from Joltor and FatRat, edited by FatRat himself. The gameplay is great, showcasing a lot of sweet sniper multikills, including a nice Team Snipers killimanjaro on The Cage. The editing is simple, but it goes along with the soundtrack pretty well. Enjoy!"



YouTube - FatRat + Joltor - Halo: Reach Dualtage

Carnage for Couples!

Grab your best mate and jump into some Firefight Doubles Attack. It's live just in time for Valentine's Day. You bring the chocolates and we'll supply the endless shenanigans. You complete us.

Become a Bungie.net Icon.

Even though the majority wanted this week's contest to be all about who could drink the most water in an hour, we had some significant safety concerns regarding over saturation, so we're falling back to forum avatars. If you win this week, every user on the site will be able to display your handiwork to represent their Bungie.net avatar. Here are the rules:

1. Using Bungie or Halo assets, or your own original art, create a forum avatar measuring 90 x 90 pixels (animated .gif files will be accepted).
2. You have from this very second until Thursday, February 17th at 11:59pm PT to submit your entry for consideration to contest@bungie.com.
3. Use the subject line “Bungie All Star Week 6” without the quotation marks to help me keep nice and organized.
4. Use your best judgment and discretion in terms of the nature of the content you choose to submit.
5. One submission per person. Please include your Bungie.net profile and gamertag in your email.
6. Submission to this contest implies a perpetual, cost free license for us to use your work in any way we see fit on our website.

That's it. Let's see what you can do with some significant constraints this week. Make us proud.

Silent Vandal writes:

...made, not of thread, but of world-lines.

A new Reclaimer is up -- the last before the final, explosive confrontation. Strap in, gang, and hang onto your hats. This is going to be one wild ride!

Reclaimer: Tapestry in Motion

puptastrophe writes:

The hammer is your friend.

With Grifball now a full time playlist and the Good Games League sophomore season in Reach wrapping up this weekend, there's currently more Grifball available than you can shake Grif's limp, lifeless body at.

To kick off the GGL highlights we feature a few runners who don't believe in following their blockers, a rather unorthodox showstopper and of course our old friend, the golf ball.



YouTube - GGL in Reach Season 2 - Week 1 Highlights  

Omza writes:

Can't hit me! Can't hit m-

This week it's their BIG 21^st, so Jack and Geoff celebrate through the power of fail!



YouTube - Fails of the Weak Volume 21

emilio30 writes:

It is time.

We're back! Episode 31 of The Running Riot Podcast will be recorded LIVE this Wednesday, February 16th at 9:30pm ET. Our guest will be Miguel Chavez from halo.bungie.org. We're going old school to discuss Reach and how it makes Halo come full circle. Mark your calendars. Set your reminders. Add it to your to do list.

goosechecka85 writes:

It's contagious...

On Friday, March 11th at 10:30 a.m. in the Naga Theater will be the very first Grifball panel at PAX East. Panelists include: Burnie Burns, creator of Grifball and Red vs Blue, and bs angel, Halo Waypoint Community Manager who used to run a little site called Hawty McBloggy. Also on the panel are Goosechecka, Green Team Tex and Kalbelgarion - three of the Grifballers who are in charge of the Grifball.com and GrifballHub.com leagues and assisted in the creation of the Grifball playlist.

The panel will discuss the evolution of Grifball, from a one-time joke in a Red vs Blue episode to becoming one of the most popular matchmaking playlists in Halo: Reach. In addition, the panel will also premier a new highlight reel by H2O Camper, the Grifballer responsible for such videos as Grifball Evolved.

Grifball: Catch the Disease!

a rascal cat writes:

Back to the...past? That can't be right.

Guess what happened. Go ahead. Guess. No? Okay then. I, being the wacky person that I am, neglected to put, 'Week 12' in last weeks spotlight. Instead I put 'Week 13' and completely skipped over Week 12. In other words, I went back to the future? See what I did there?

You know, I never really understand what that phrase meant. 'Back to the Future.' How can you go back to the future? You can go back to the past, but not to the future? Anyways though, what were we talking about? Oh yeah. The map spotlight. This week I will be featuring Circumference Alpha by ShadowHunter118.

I played on this map a few weeks back, and from personal experience, I can honestly say that this is one of the most brilliantly structured maps in Halo: Reach. I honestly don't know how to describe it, so I'll let the creator, SpartanHunter118, take over from here!

Q. Who are you and why do you Forge?

A. I am ShadowHunter118 and I Forge simply because it's fun. When I get bored of Matchmaking, I generally end up trying to Forge my latest idea into reality using Halo: Reach's Forge mode. I also want to help improve Reach's BTB experience through the addition of new maps.

Q. What was your inspiration for Circumference Alpha?

A. My inspiration for Circumference Alpha wasn't really anything special. As the name implies, it was inspired by a circle. I wanted a large circular map that supported fun and entertaining vehicular combat alongside a small mixture of infantry battles.

Q. What made you choose the location you did?

A. The location I chose to build my map, Circumference Alpha, was decided for three reasons. The first reason is that I wanted to build my own terrain so naturally I built it floating in the air. The second reason for my choice of location is that I wanted its location in Forge World to accommodate the massive size of "my own terrain" so I tried to build my map out of the way of any of Forge World's established areas. The third reason for my choice of location was my desire to accommodate aerial combat. I didn't want players in Falcons to discover they were flying too high because of a soft kill zone, I figured it would be better to use Forge World's invisible ceiling to let players know the limits of the map.

Q. Did you employ any unusual Forge techniques in making Circumference Alpha?

A. No, not really.

Q. Anything else people should know before they download?

A. I'd like people to know that I'm always looking for suggestions to improve my map and that any constructive criticism should either be left on the comments of the file or messaged to me.

Thank you for your time, Shadow.

For all those reading this, please download the map file below, and leave any constructive criticism you deem necessary. Cheers! :)

Map File: Circumference Alpha
Game Night Write Up: HaloCharts vs. New Horizons League

FyreWulff Rex writes:

Get some points, and then get some points.

Sna... er, SPARTAN! Good to see you here, we've got one HELL of a dilemma.

The Covenant is storming down on us and we need to start an evacuation immediately. Unfortunately, those reptile bastards used some unknown EMP burst technology before we could mobilize our units, jamming all UNSC vehicles, radar and weaponry. We need you to storm their lines and use that Spartan armour to wipe them out and take their weapons. If we can't use our fire, we'll take what little we can claw from them and exploit their biggest weaknesses!

All valid scores submitted for this challenge by 11:00pm on February 20th will be entered into a draw for 1600 Microsoft points, to be spent on the Xbox LIVE or Games for Windows marketplaces. This contest is eligible for players in North America.

Fire Team Zulu: Hard Iron Cog

Obi Wan Stevobi writes:

Make great maps, win page bling, and get your map promoted in the community.

The Halocharts.com 2nd Annual Big Team Battle Tournament needs you to create some maps for use in official tournament games.

Click Here to enter.

Just drop dead.

Jack celebrates the return of Geoff in style and pain. Enjoy this brand new Achievement Horse. All the maps (and gametypes) are available at tinyurl.com/AHHORSE010.

Halo: Reach - Achievement HORSE #10

SnakeDoctor214 writes:

Go on a Great Journey.

Yes it's true!  ContactTango has just completed his 650th Annual run.  Some people call it insane, but to him it's great to help others out and continue to crush his own milestones.

There are many out there who are still looking for help with some Vidmaster achievements, "Annual" being one of them.  If you find yourself in that situation then look no further and let ContactTango and the rest of the Annual Team of  The Spartan I Project help you out.  All you need is your copy of Halo 3 and less than 30 minutes to spare.  Their record time is under 13 minutes from start to finish, and I'm sure he would love for you to be along when they beat that time as well!

Silent Vandal writes:

In this case the voices are, quite literally, all in your head.

As if the Reclaimer didn't already have enough voices clamoring for attention inside his skull, he gets to add just a few more. Okay, a LOT more. Go give it a read and find out what's happening!

Reclaimer: Animus

CheckedBRUTES writes:

The best of the best mutiplayer kills.


IGN counts down the ten best multiplayer kills from Halo: Reach. Air assassinations, mid-air splatters, death-defying leaps of faith, and much more!