Doom on Xbox Live, Jackson Making Halo Game

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops in its X06 Keynote today in Barcelona. The announcements are flying fast and furious: Ensemble studios is making a Halo RTS, and Peter Jackson is making a new Halo game (unrelated to Halo 3 or the RTS). The HD-DVD will be $200 in the U.S. with a release aimed at November of this year. They've got a good deal of 360 exclusive content including the next Splinter Cell and GTA IV Episodes, and (initially) Bioshock. Bioshock will also be on Windows, of course. Windows is also the platform on which Microsoft is announcing a new Massively Multiplayer game from Cryptic Studios, a new super-hero MMOG based on Marvel Comics' IP: Marvel Universe Online.

Halogen

[63N1U5]

What we all suspected when Microsoft issued a cease and desist to the modders behind Halogen (the Halo themed Command and Conquer mod) has turned out to be a reality. You have to give props to MS for responding to all of the interest for a Halo RTS by creating their own (albeit based on the Age of Empires engine). The official site has already launched with trailers and screenshots (mostly prerendered) at http://www.halowars.com [halowars.com].

Re:Non FPS Halo games?

[63N1U5]

The original concept for Halo was an RTS along the same lines as an earlier Bungie title - Myth. It wasn't until Microsoft bought Bungie Studios that Halo became a FPS and the Xbox launch title. There is more than just a plot to Halo, there is volumes of backstory and history in the super-secret Halo bible that is locked in the Bungie Studios vault. Google the Halo Library - that site has compiled just about all that is known about the Halo universe based on the games, novels, and other information. It is actually a pretty good sci-fi story IMHO.

Re:That's It?

[chrismcdirty]

Halo RTS was left to the homebrew crowd until about 3 weeks ago, when they were sent a C&D letter from Microsoft. [slashdot.org]

We'll be Back and legal, soon!

[Fatalist]

I didn't see the original article about the Halogen shutdown on Slashdot until just now, but it doesn't look like anyone pointed out the fact that the sentence "We'll be Back and legal, soon!" appears twice on the page when you highlight the text.

Re:Marvel MMOG

[Thansal]

heh, I will step up.

I happen to love both WoW and CoH/V.

My keys points on WoW?
HUGE Community, not that hard to find good poeple to play with, though I admit I am no where near up to raid levels (level 33 priest atm).
The game is beautiful, nuff said.
There is high end content.
The grind is not THAT bad if you are only going for levels. However if you want to actualy be viable you NEED to grind for gear/whatever. That is my first complaint.
My second one is travel time, I hate WoW travel time. All classes should be given a movement increas spell at level 30 (or possibly even lower, but with speed increasing as you level).
Also combat can bog down to same 'ol same 'ol really quickly.
Only so much customization with in class. Generaly there are 2-4 viable builds for a class.
And ofcourse cookie cutter characters suck. (lvl 60 gnome warriors with that helm look friken stupid)

On CoH/V?
Character design rocks over everything.
Alot of customization of each class between your primary/secondary choces and your power pools. a Bubbler plays 100% differently then an Empath. (this is a BIG plus to me as I am an altaholic).
I find I like CoH/V Combat alot more then I do WoW. More variation in what you can do, less "well we HAVE to have **** class or we fail it". A group full of Stalkers can be scary, a random mix is deadly, don't have an empath? so what! we have a bubbler, we are not gona be taking dmg anyway! No Defender at all? so what, we have that much more DMG/Mez.
Travel powers at a nice early level made me happy beyond all reason.
Cons?
No one plays any more and is now impossible to find a good group.
No end game content.
the last few levels suck for grind.

All in all?
I tihnk CoH/V is less grindy, with better combat then WoW (up untill end game).

However, I pick WoW over CoH/V atm because I want to play with people (the entire point of an MMO in my mind). I want to convince some of my RL friends to lay off WoW for a month or 2 and play some CoH/V with me, but I don't know if I will be able to.

Re:Non FPS Halo games?

[PhatBhuda]

The original concept for Halo was an RTS along the same lines as an earlier Bungie title - Myth. It wasn't until Microsoft bought Bungie Studios that Halo became a FPS and the Xbox launch title.

Now, it may be that Halo was originally a RTS game, but it was definitely demoed as an FPS before the Microsoft buyout. It was originally demoed at the 1999 Macworld Expo in NYC.

It was a sad day when Microsoft bought Bungie in preparation for the Xbox release and postponed the Mac OS and Windows releases of Halo till after the release of the Xbox.

Linkage:
http://www.themacobserver.com/perspectives/soare/9 9/july/macworldsummary.html [themacobserver.com]
or even better wikipedia!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Combat_Evolved# Development [wikipedia.org]

power supply is internal on PS3

[YesIAmAScript]

It's external on 360.

360 + 360 power supply is a lot larger than PS3.

360 + 360 power supply + HD-DVD drive is about double the size of the PS3. And a lot louder.