Podtacular 458: Tangential

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Dust Storm

The Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta is coming to a close within the next few days and we’ve been enjoying every moment of it, but with it’s inevitable end, we begin to focus on the Master Chief Collection again and the current state of Halo. It’s been a while since we’ve touched on anything that wasn’t official news or articles specifically relating to what 343 is doing with our beloved franchise, so this week we take a look at three different articles on this week’s show.  First is an article on Forbes on why people should not pre-order Halo 5: Guardains this far out.  There are many good points brought up on why it’s better for the consumer and the developer.  Second is from Develop with a look into the remastering of the Halo 2 Anniversary audio with Paul Lipton and how it has evolved.  Over three hours of new music and 16,000 audio assets is enough to perk your ears up.  Finally, an article on Kotaku brings a new video shining some light on some relics of the past with things that never made the cut for Halo: Combat Evolved and other little factoids.  Did you know there was a Harpoon and Gravity Wrench in Halo at one point?  We encourage you to all read through these at your leisure and discuss them in our forums.

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Podtacular 457: Happy New Halo

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Dust Storm

We’re back after the holidays and we are feet first into the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer beta.  At this point, we’ve been playing through Week two and three is coming very shortly.  As most of our normal antics go, the whole staff is on to kick off the new year of exciting opportunities and challenges we look to face head on and we hope you all will be there along the way.  We talk about our current experiences with the beta and catch up on our long abandoned mailbag for some lost gems finally making daylight.  We will be visiting the topic of Halo 5: Guardians in the coming weeks with more guests.

Shownotes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:07:57 — 90.4MB)

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Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta Week 3 Update

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Dust Storm

h5-mp-beta-orion-coming-in-hot

Week three is here for the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta and 343 has updated the playlists with new content.  Pegasus won the community vote for the Forge map that will be playable in the Slayer playlist alongside Truth.  Pegasus was one of the maps made in an early iteration of Halo 5’s new Forge system.  A new game mode Strongholds, which is similar to Territories is playable alongside Breakout from the Week 2 update and will be playable on Regret and Empire.  From Halo Waypoint, “To win, teams must control the majority of bases. Teams earn one point per second for every controlled base more than the enemy team.”  For those who are creatively inclined, 343 has released a batch of screenshots from both Pegasus and Orion for your viewing pleasure.

Pegausus

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Orion

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Windows 10’s Next Internet Browser Codenamed ‘Spartan’

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Dust Storm

windows_10_desktop

While this isn’t related to any coming out of 343 Industries, Microsoft is developing a whole new web browser for Windows 10 codenamed ‘Spartan’.  It’s hard to pass this up as a coincidence since Microsoft’s new personal assistant available for Windows 8.1 devices is called ‘Cortana’, but don’t set your hopes on that becoming the final name of the new browser.  Both the new browser and Cortana will be built into Windows 10 upon launch later this year.  Below you’ll find an early build of ‘Spartan” loading Facebook.  It has a very minimalistic and sleek view taking a rather different approach from the different iterations of Internet Explorer.

microsoft-spartan

Source: Ars Technica

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Halo 5: Guardians Beta Pegasus and Orion Maps Revealed

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Dust Storm

h5-mp-beta-pegasus-throwing-rocks

For week three of the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta, fans will have a chance to vote on two maps revealed today over on IGN First: Pegasus and Orion.  Both of these maps were made from an early implementation of the game’s Forge mode.  Voting for these maps starts tomorrow over on the Halo Channel after watching the Bulletin.  This does not mean we are getting access to Forge during the beta, but may give us a glimpse into some of the new options we will have available.

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Halo Mega Bloks Spring 2015 Sets Announced

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Dust Storm

megabloks-fireteam-eagle-cnd00-9883

Mega Bloks recently announced their Spring 2015 lineup of their Halo sets.  There aren’t any large builds in these sets, but they compliment many of the 2013 and 2014 sets.  Currently, no release dates have been given for the sets.

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New Years Content Update

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Dust Storm

tmcc-playerid-update

Today there’s a small content update for those logging onto the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta. From Bravo on Halo Waypoint:

Happy New Year! The next time you log into the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta, you will be prompted to download a small content update. This particular content update improves matchmaking by adjusting how the dedicated servers are selected.

The Master Chief Collection has also been updated to include the additional avatars and nameplates for those that have played the game before Dec 20th.

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