Fast forward several years later, mega-franchise Halo under their belts, maneuvering out of MS unscathed, promising new IP on the horizon... so what do they do?

Get into bed with Activision?

Yes, Activision has a bad rap (MS had what? Puppies and unicorns?), their troubles with IW is not a good sign, and in general they are seen as predatory greedy fucks that don't give a shit about the customer and just want to milk you of your money.

But if I was a betting man, I'd say Bungie expressly worked out a deal where all of the above is taken into consideration. They done it before, they're probably going to do it again. About the one thing I've learned over these past 10 years or so is that lawyerly-acumen matters a great deal, and whoever Bungie has working for them - if they're from the same arm that helped them draft their deal with MS - has got plenty of smarts. I'll even go a little further and say SOMEONE inside of Activision sees this as a way of righting a meandering ship. So of course they're going to be willing to adopt a new attitude going into this new partnership.

Does this mean I think this is a slam-dunk for Bungie? No, of course not. Nothing is ever a given in the world of capitalism and industry. Activision is a pure gaming company, publicly traded. MS is public as well, but their gaming division is not what most investors look at when assessing the health of the company as a whole. Activision is completely reliant on the health of their gaming endeavors to spur investor confidence. Their ongoing current issues are a bit of an albatross around their neck right now, and hopefully they can work it out and put their best face forward. But if things continue to go sour for them it can make them desperate - and that could mean a bad situation w/ Bungie.

But Activision can also, hopefully, understand exactly what I and others in our little universe understand - DON'T FUCK WITH BUNGIE. Leave them alone to do what they do best - and don't try to squeeze folks of every single $$ - at least no more than what MS has done in the past!

Do all the above and more than likely Activision can win a trifecta: a great title that wins accolades in the press and customers generating great PR, a healthy bottom-line, and a loyal fanbase that sees you backing a winner.

P.S. Take a journey with me BACK IN TIME.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/geocities-closing.html

If you do a google search like this or this or this or this,

You'll find dozens of sites that cropped up starting way back in the 90's born out of love for Bungie's games. I hope, though I doubt, that the owners of these sites backed up their pages somewhere! Lots of effort there (no matter how amateurish) that will disappear after today. :(

Ironically, yah, I know it's been ages since anyone's posted here. And goodness there are definitely pages that could use an update. It's under the good graces of our overlord Wu that this site still exists, and we're grateful to him! Unlike the fate of geocities, it's likely this site will exist for a long time to come! Still, the day of Bungie needed fan-driven support for their marketing outreach has gone the way of the dodo. They're one of the big boys now and a surface attempt to post something here that a) isn't about Halo and b) contributes something beyond the standard rah-rah is not easy for this old brain nowadays. But who knows? :)

Phoenix, resurrected? Minotaur, reconstructed? Myth or Oni, re-acquired?

Something entirely new, a pristine page in the big book of Bungie, ready to be filled with gaming goodness?

What can it be?

Anyway, assume you get to ask one question - no follow-ups or multiple questions in one sentence - and that it will be answered. What would it be?

People who blow their wad on stuff like, "Boxers or briefs?" will be first into the slingshot when the time comes (yes, I'm looking RIGHT AT YOU, Psyrixx).

Could the movie still happen? What do I know? I guess it could, but with Halo 3 right around the corner, and what I would imagine severe-brain-fatigue at Bungie after so many years of Halo Halo Halo... I have to be honest and express my desire that someone at Bungie (Jason Jones is the usual suspect) has been visiting the local library and reading some new and interesting tales that will inspire the group to create something fresh. For us Halo fans, the movie would never have matched all our wishes and dreams for something so visually and emotionally visceral: your Rosebud moment is my Jump The Shark. A parallel opinion is the cynical take on music-hero worship: Is it better that Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin died so early in their lives, at the peak of their careers, then to see them age into out-of-touch entertainers desperately trying to connect with the masses through guest-shots on American Idol?

That doesn't mean Microsoft themselves won't pursue it if possible, and damn Bungie's input if any is forthcoming. But ugh, can you imagine? I don't want to.

Below the fold there be more commentary, and actual VIDEO!

Below is the youtube link of the entire Halo portion of the concert I filmed off my digital camera. I'm actually impressed I got as good a vid as I did. They played the full Halo theme, and as a cool bonus they ended it with the Halo 3 trailer music: "Finish The Fight" If I had to criticize, the video in the background was basically just a pastiche of cutscenes, with not terribly strong links to the music as it played. Don't get me wrong... where there was a flourish - or any kind of emotional tug, the video followed suit, but in general, if you were an avid Halo player, the scenes did not really match the music. Too bad they couldn't have generated some custom vid that did a better job. I would have even preferred a medley of different Halo tunes with scenes of the levels the music was used in. Still, it's a minor quibble, and when they got to Halo 3, since the music was meant to follow the trailer, there was no issue there. Well, except for Tommy himself showing up with a Steinberger guitar strapped on. It would've been nice if we actually heard the guitar, but it really didn't sound all that good. Whoever was running the board didn't get a clean enough sound. Anyway, near the end you can hear me laugh when "Bungie" flashes across the screen, mainly because it was at that moment that I realize that in a twisted fashion, the concert is one giant 'attract' event for the forthcoming Halo 3. No other video/music composition in the concert ended with the developer logo and upcoming release date teaser. It was quite funny.

I don't mean to speak ill of Tommy and actually wish to give him major props for specifically giving all attendees permission to take pics and video and spread the wealth! He's eager for everyone to get a taste of the concert. Thanks Tommy for understanding the power of internet pic/video sharing. Many other symphonic pieces were played - Warcraft, Medal of Honor (with a very visceral *real life* montage of the horror that was WWII), Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, Advent Rising (a game that came and went, but the music, composed by Tommy himself, easily surpassed the game's own failings), and we were even treated to the incredible Martin Leung, the Video Game Pianist that's all over youtube. His skill is unmatched, and to think he did it all with no sheet music!

My thanks to Mr. Louis Wu for his assistance in navigating around Yale and letting us bum some nice seats up on the balcony! And of course he's offering the video over at HBO at the best resolution possible.

Noguchi has been "making a pony." Since he always speaks in metaphor I was annoyed, until he explained that he literally called a new tool/command, xsync-pony - which basically speeds up the "propping" of a build of the game to a clean Xbox 360 devkit, by eliminating code and objects that you do not need to run the current build. Which saves artists and designers a heck of a lot of time.

If you are a long time Bungie fan, you know that a common happening in our community occurs soon after Bungie releases a game... someone figures out how to hack the code in the game to see all the innards... and Bungie has a rep for leaving loose strands of code, graphics, models, maps, etc., that when discovered by us lowly fans reveals quite a bit about how the game came to fruition... what was tried and what wasn't tried, etc.

But now Noguchi's evil contraption may change all that. It seems that with just a flip of the switch, a game can be 'purged' of all older assets that are not used in the current build of the game. Great for them, but not fair to us!

Nothing's definitive though so we'll have to see how it all sorts out in the future.

I'm very very interested to see how this gets pulled off.

As for the actual Xbox game, I'm not done with it, though I sense I'm just a few levels away from completion.

The highlights they note are really all that we've come to expect from Bungie/Wideload... an attention to detail beyond just actual gameplay. There is wit aplenty, and the mantra, coined by Jaime back during the development of Halo 2, of '30 seconds of gameplay repeated over and over' (often misunderstood by some as an excuse for level repetition) is fully embraced in Stubbs.

Those of you planning to purchase the Xbox version of the game when it debuts this Monday, the 17th, feel free to email me a pic of you holding the game or posing it in some creative (non-filthy of course!) manner, I'll post the pic here if it's funny/compelling enough.

Once I get mine, I'll be sure to write a review. Halo 1 and 2 have spoiled me and my itch for the fabled First Person Shooter genre. I wonder how quickly I'll forget all that as I play a game that's Third Person and not quite a shooter. It's my one concern based on previous looks at the game.

UPDATE: Another thumbs-up review, this time from the folks at Gaming Horizon.

And hey, no glasses? What, you trying to go legit or something Matt? :)

Thanks to a heads up by Roger Wilco at the HBO forums.

"Stubbs the Zombie is based on a previous Bungie engine. In the history of Bungie (and now Wideload) technical sequels, what sets this game apart from past attempts?"

I'll give you a hint. My answer is sarcastic and smarmy.

"The team is running out of space and is relocating to maintain team camaraderie that they've had since moving from Chicago."