Podtacular 421: Over Expansion

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Dust Storm

Sometimes things don’t quite go as planned during the week and cascading effects start to roll over things we have scheduled. This week was victim to one such occurrence, so we don’t quite start on the full fledged Halo 5 series, but we do discuss our thoughts about where the franchise is going and the implications of Halo 5 were indeed coming out next year. While everyone would love to have the next Halo experience soon, we feel it would be best if 343 took the time to really nail the Halo experience for the next installment. You can listen to our thoughts on the topic in this week’s episode. We also touch on the mention of a Halo drama in the works with Showtime. Whether or not this is related to either of the existing projects is still unclear, but it does beg the question of how much time and effort is being spent outside developing the game. And of course we talk about the latest in Matchmaking news from this week’s Halo Bulletin.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:25 — 54.1MB)

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Xbox Originals Coming This June, Halo Digital Feature Starts Shooting

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Dust Storm


Xbox announced today that Xbox Originals will be hitting Microsoft devices in June. This includes project like the Halo TV series being produced by Steven Speilberg and the Halo digital feature being produced by Ridley Scott. Xbox Originals is Microsoft’s solution to bringing content and entertainment to their platforms similar to the Netflix and Hulu original features. There are a total of twelve projects slated for release this year among which are the two Halo productions. According to Polygon, shooting for the digital feature starts this week and Microsoft is looking to expand and enhance some of it’s other proprietary franchises though this medium.

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Podtacular 420: Heavy Lifting

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Dust Storm

This week, we tackle three [1][2][3] Halo Bulletins as we’ve been otherwise pre-occupied with other things happening lately. Ninja Assassins is currently out as a pretty fun spin off the Shotty (replaced with Swords) Snipes gametype from previous Halo titles. Coming up next week though is the return of Multi-team in the rotational playlist and Heavies as a permanent option in Halo 4 matchmaking.

Shownotes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:40 — 47.9MB)

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Podtacular 419: Pax East 2014

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Dust Storm

Gaming conventions have already kicked off for the year and Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX is no exception. While there wasn’t a Halo presence at PAX East this year, as a gamer on the east coast, it’s a hard event to pass up. For us, the big games of interest were Titanfall and the announcement of the Borderlands Pre-sequel. Our PAX experience this time, however was filled with what most people would get out of a PAX experience: waiting in lines, walking the show floor over and over, and attending various panels instead of our normal shenanigans of handing around what Halo presence or booth there has been in the past since we’ve been going. My good friend Vanirfreyja was there along the journey for the PAX East weekend and joins us as we take a look back at the highlights of the expo.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:56:22 — 118.6MB)

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Podtacular 418: Stillness in the Ivory Tower

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Dust Storm

Over the course of a studio’s lifetime, the fans get to know some of the people behind the games they play and they earn our love and support as they continue working on future projects. The future of one such iconic personality, Marty O’Donnell was changed forever as his employment with Bungie was terminated last week. In this special episode, we team up with Guardian Radio, one of our sister podcasts over on the Podkast Network to talk about the influence Marty has had on the Halo and Bungie communities and the futures that are yet to come for Bungie and Marty himself. This is not the end of Marty’s career nor a stumbling block for the success of Destiny that is sure to come, but it has a left a lot of people with saddened spirits about the news, but warm-felt expressions of enthusiasm and support for wherever Marty’s journey may take him. Mark Turcotte and Derrick Smith from Guardian Radio and Layne Thomas join us this week to discuss this unfortunate news and what it means for us as Marty fans.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:43:32 — 73.4MB)

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Marty O’Donnell Fired by Bungie’s Guardians

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Dust Storm

For years we’ve been graced with truly epic and memorable music in the Halo franchise, but in a late night tweet, Martin O’Donnell announced that Bungie fired him on April 11th without any reasons given. His unique, artistic style has given games like Myth, Oni and Halo truly immersive soundtracks and produced perhaps one of the most iconic theme songs in the gaming industry. There are few details on why Bungie’s Board of Directors decided to let Marty go with all of his previous successes and with only one Destiny game currently on the production line. Halo and Bungie fans alike share a certain sympathy for Marty today as the beloved audio director and composer for Bungie over the last two decades is released from his Ivory Tower. Where his journey make take him we’ll have to wait and see, but if 343 is looking to bring some old time Halo feels back to the franchise, there may be someone out there looking for a job now.

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Podtacular 417: Spring Cleaning

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Dust Storm

This podcast is a little late, due to some IRL things going on with the hosts, but we had a truck load of information roll on down last week. Ridley Scott will be working on a Halo Digital Feature that is separate from the Halo TV show, but to which many are speculating about the possibility of a Halo movie. Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri and Google Now will be coming to Windows Phone 8.1. The multiplayer service that offered the server browser for Halo: PC will be shutting down May 31, 2014. Finally, all your matchmaking updates are in this week’s Halo Bulletin.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:13 — 57.0MB)

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