It's never what you think.

Friday's episode of Reclaimer is up and online.  You didn't forget about Ferial, did you?

Reclaimer 228 - Sabatox

A five on five test of teamwork: All CTF, all the time.

Team Flag is online and fully operational.  Go grab yourself some flags and a double dose of EXP.

3-5 Players per team
Max Party Size: 10
Halo 3: Mythic disk required

Gametypes

• Multi Flag CTF (31.7%) - Teams score points by capturing the other team's flag. First team to 3 points wins. Players spawn with Battle Rifles and Assault Rifle secondary weapons. 20 minute match time.
• 1 Flag CTF (51.6%) - Teams take turns defending or attempting to capture the flag. Team with the most captures after 4 rounds wins. Players spawn with Battle Rifles and Assault Rifle secondary weapons. 4 minute round time limit.
• 2 Flag Heavy (16.7%) - Teams score points by capturing the other team's flag. First team to 3 points wins. Players spawn with Battle Rifles. 20 minute match time limit.

Maps

• High Ground (Default)
• Isolation (Default)
• Last Resort (Default)
  
• Narrows (Default)
  
• The Pit (Default)
  
• Valhalla (Default)
• Valhalla Heavy (Valhalla) - Valhalla variant with liberal use of heavy vehicles and weapons
• Standoff (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Heroic Map Pack
• Standoff Heavy (Standoff) - Standoff variant with liberal use of heavy vehicles and weapons
• Avalanche (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Legendary Map Pack
• Avalanche Heavy (Avalanche) - Avalanche variant with liberal use of heavy vehicles and weapons
• Ghost Town (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Legendary Map Pack
• Orbital (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Mythic Map Pack
• Sandbox (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Mythic Map Pack
• Utah Mambo (Sandbox) - Asymmetrical Sandbox layout (ground level)
• Longshore (Default) - REQUIRED. Available on Halo 3: Mythic

Counting down the hits (and the no scopes).

Four and a half minutes of MLG ass kickery.  With enthusiastic commentary.  In HD.  Watch it.



YouTube - Halo 3: MLG Top 10 Plays 3

Cave Exploring and Spelunking.

DigitalPh33r sent this out into the wild last Friday, but somehow we missed it.  What once was lost, now is found.  Check it out, but be warned, Jon loves to say naughty words.

"Bernard, Eddie, Max and Dudley Punter, the professional moose hunter, sit in a cave and discuss how they ended up where they are now. Dudley reveals that he owns a large hotel in Canada and offers the other three a place to stay, but Max leaves after finding out that Bernard and Eddie are wanted by the police in the United States."

YouTube - Hard Justice: S2E10 (Halo 3 Machinima)

Horatio takes on a somewhat less sunny city.

Bubble up, it's time to go shopping.

You know our motto.  We deliver.  Four new items just touched down into the Bungie Store.  Get 'em while the LZ is clear.

Are those things rated for atmosphere?

Looks like HBO regular, Leviathan, is prepping another piece of Halo fanart.  He says this is just the top third of the what will be the finished piece.  Can't wait to see what lies beneath.

Low-level Strike - Halo Fanart

Yeah, we know that's not really a word.

We made it up to describe the crafty fan fashioned Jackal mask Hawty McBloggy found.  Looks like it was assembled using a hodgepodge of Halloween effects.  Pretty realistic.  Check it out.

Kig-yar: The Other White Meat

Drums in the deep and another week of content.

The MoleN steps up this week to deliver Aberrant Designs' second round of community spotlight content.  He also has some post mortem details charting the construction of his map variant, Lords of Moria, and some ideas covering what he thinks could help Forge become a better tool.  Read up.

Q. What inspired Lords of Moria?

A. My creation was inspired by my favorite movie series, The Lord of the Rings. The map itself is based off of an area located in the Mines of Moria, and is a direct remake of Balin's Tomb. For all of you who are not familiar with Lord of the Rings, the map is basically a chamber filled with pillars, a tomb and more. I do feel I accurately remade the map, as it is nearly identical to the area I was attempting to remake.

Q. How long did it take to excavate and remake?

A. This map took much longer than I expected, coming in on around twenty hours of building. Many things took much time to perfect, and I had many versions. I had to test it, make improvements, make sure it was to scale with the original, and test some more. It also had to be aesthetically pleasing for me to be satisfied with it, so I went back to this map a lot to fix things up. Over all, it was worth the effort, as I highly enjoy the final product.

Q. Which part of the finishing process took up the most amount of time?

A. The aspect that took the longest to get right was the gate. I probably remade the gate three separate times, changing my design, adding more, and fixing any problems that may have affected the map negatively. I wanted the map to look real, so the gate was a must have and it must look great. The well was a close second, as it was a real challenge for me to make and to design (as it was supposed to be quite smooth and yet function properly, killing any foolish enough to jump into it's depths).

Q. How could Forge be improved?

A. Although Forge is already amazing, it could use a bit of touching up. I would love features that allow you to interlock, geomerge, etc. without the need to glitch. The thing I would like to see most in Forge however is a weather and environment filter. These would alter things such as objects you can place and the environment you place them in. Maps with storms occurring above would be as easy as spawning a filter, and those looking to remake old maps or construct new masterpieces would only need to add an environment filter (such as valley), and items such as trees, rocks, etc. would be placeable, adding a whole new meaning to 'forge'.

---

Well, we don't know about easy, but we do know that the second week of Aberrant Designs' Community Spotlight has come to to a close.  Check out their latest batch of Bungie Favorites - they're online and ready to go, right now.  Since they're primary focus is snapping screenshots, we've slapped up the latest MLG map and game variants in case you've yet to become acquainted.

Make your voice heard.

Sup, Seventh Column?  Polls for Spike's 2009 Video Game Awards are now open and it looks like Halo 3: ODST scored five nominations.  Pretty sweet.  You should head over there and cast your vote.  We don't have any stickers to hand out for your Bungie patriotism, but if you comply with our self-serving wishes, we'll think long and hard before launching your sorry ass directly into the sun.  Think about it.  (And thanks!)

SPIKE Video Game Awards 2009

Halo 3: ODST Nominations:

• Best Shooter
• Best XBOX 360 Game
• Best Original Score
• Best Multi-Player Game
• Best Performance by a Human Female

Panoramic destruction.

HBO forumgoer Mid7night used his new found panoramic magics to capture a hot scene.  Check out a Covenant Carrier doing deadly work in full profile.  Very hot.

Covenant Carrier Pano Fire

Finger Lickin' Good.

Fighting a protracted ground war can muster a powerful hunger in any man.  Take a look at how an ODST takes care of his stomach pains.

Chronicles of ODS Steve #49: Finger Lickin' Good

Rav Raider writes:

Things are starting to SHAPE up.

Reclaimer is back and once you see today's comic you'll understand just how great that pun is. It's genius. Check it out.

Relcaimer 227 - Form in Function

With more stuff coming soon!

xXGod 21 writes:

One fluid motion.

KnightxofxLight strings together a series of sweet jumps on Guardian.  Set to a really soothing soundtrack and just under two minutes, you should jump in and check out his skills.  Link below.

YouTube - Halo 3 Jump Tutorials 6: Guardian Madness (Machinima)

Trying to find out where the bananas went.

Iggyhopper conducted this interview from a half finished house.  In the face of extreme and dangerous conditions, he toiled so that you might be entertained.  Are you not entertained?  Probably not, but that's because you haven't read the interview yet.

Q. Who are you and what do you do?

A. My name is Greg, although the other options were Alexander, or Mike, but my dad chose Greg just because it was cool. I am way awesome because I have two different colored eyes (one blue and one brown), something called “Heterochromia.” I was born, and still live in the glorious city of Modesto, California. I’m 18-years-old and still look 21 because I have this god-awful beard growing on my face (maybe it’s time to shave). I’m an ex-skateboarder, a mediocre guitar and piano player, and one super awesome programmer. I am currently a part-time student in my third semester, taking every class that can do with computers (synthesizers are quite spectacular, by the way), and kicking some butt over Xbox LIVE.

When I’m not being awesome by playing Halo or Worms, my family and I work on the house. My parents have completely torn apart and rebuilt our last house, now we’ve moved and are doing the same to this one. It feels so great to complete something so big, but it’s pretty much like indoor camping if you’re living in the house you’re renovating. As a matter of fact, as I’m writing this, my computer chair is on the bare concrete floor, right now. I could basically build a house from scratch, with all this stuff I’ve been doing over the years.

Q. How did you end up camping on your gamertag?

A. There is this game, called “Iggy’s Wrecking Balls.” It’s basically a racing game that takes place on broken up, vertical levels. You could grapple onto higher platforms, and even throw your friends off too. I had great fun with that game, so I decided Iggy would be the first part of my gamertag. The second half had to feel right, it had to roll off the tongue, it also, more importantly, had to be original. This is when I came up with “hopper” as the second half. The name was born, and can easily be shortened to just Iggy. That isn’t my first gamertag though, the first one I ever had was “Realm32”, but that got lost with the new Xbox 360 experience, so now I hop “iggies”, as I’m told.

Q. I have no idea what that means.  Cool story, though.  Tell me what forums you haunt when you're not renovating your pad?

A. Oh, I’ll haunt the Halo 3 forum, maybe scare some people over in the Halo 3: ODST forum. You can find me most of the time in the Community forums, and I will visit The Flood from time to time. There’s just so many creepy castles to choose from, I can’t haunt all of them, you know. Sometimes I’ll even send completely random messages to people to spark some kind of interesting conversation. I’ll get a good reply back (from cool people), and maybe a laugh.

Q. Oh man, I see what you did there with the play on words and whatnot.  What compels you to play games?

A. My game is always on with my little brother, who I introduced into Halo: Combat Evolved when he was five. He’s an adorable little brat who loves playing games and being cool, what can I say. He’s just so gullible for scams though because, well, he’s a kid. That’s why I’m here to keep him in check. I was playing my first games on the TurboGrafX-16 and the Super Nintendo. I’d see my dad always playing Galaga ’90, and I’d always play Bonk or Donkey Kong Country. It’s now 2009, so he isn’t really good with Halo 3, he just wants the sniper so he can shoot people. He can’t ever manage to move and shoot at the same time, though. My mom will always be a Pac-man and Frogger fan, no Halo for her.

What compels me to game is a good question. I think this comes from me wanting to always make games, no matter what. Sometimes when I was younger, I’d try to make my own board games out of paper and a few pieces of tape. Another factor is probably getting the best high score, or getting 100% completion (okay 99%, I’m lazy). I’m always interested in the soundtracks of the games, and the story. What happened to DK? His bananas got stolen, so I wanted to play the game to find out where his bananas went!

Q. What was the first Bungie title you played?

A. The first game I ever played was Halo: Combat Evolved, and that was when I was 9 or 10. It was a Christmas present with seven other games, and an Xbox. While a kid, I had known nothing about the story, but when I look at it now, I can see why it was so great. I don’t think any other game had deep game-play like Halo: CE did. I didn’t play multiplayer except to bash hogs with my brother, but the campaign was fun! The Halo series can be compared to a black hole, you are safe as long as you’re far away. The closer you get to it, the harder it is to get away. Once you get sucked in, you just keep learning about it, you can’t escape, but it’s fun to spin around in circles all the time, right?

Q. Are you surprised by how far you've been sucked into the community?

A. Definitely. I am really surprised, because normally I’ll join a community because I just want to know more, ask quick questions, all the same stuff. With Bungie, I would actually want to make good topics and threads, and then get to have responses by the actual employees (sometimes). It’s so fun to read when people discover new things. I also write user-scripts for greasemonkey to make Bungie.net extra awesome. If you want to learn more, you can visit the Script Central thread in the Community forums.

Q. Do you get involved with any other communities?

A. I am a part of the starcraft.org network, and the Team 17 forums for my beloved Worms. When I’m not playing Halo 3, I’m playing Worms, you can bet on it. I’m usually mapping and modding Starcraft as well.

Q. Anything you wanna add? Wanna make some shout-outs?

A. Do A Barrel Roll!

I’d like to make a shout out to Mr WhatsItToYa, my brother. I’d also like to shout out to these people I know in no particular order: Sarsion, Cortana 5, TheScriptKeeper, CAVX, Duardo, and Lord Snakie.

Here’s some people I saw on the forums, and thought they were pretty awesome: Energy Sword, L00, and Old Papa Rich. Shout out to them because they’re cool.

Last but not least, I shout at you, Urk.

Hmm, it doesn’t feel like I’m shouting. Let me get a feel for it... I’M SHOUTING!!!... Okay.

---

Okay.  Thanks for the interview, Greg.  Good luck with the renovations and thanks for helping us keep the community in great shape.  We'll set up a discussion thread so people can pop in and shout back.

Are you listening?

Paste Magazine's Jason Killingsworth offers up his thoughts on Sadie's Story - the audio drama found hidden inside Halo 3: ODST.  If you've already listened, this article is worth the read.  Once again, HBO served up the linkage for us.

Start Press: The Spirit of Radio

Tom Taylor takes on ODST...

...and serves up the tips so you can tackle it like a pro.  If you want your face to be on a bottle of Dr. Pepper one day, maybe you should listen up.  Thanks to HBO for the link.

It's called teamwork.

Three men enter...all three leave.  And then they make a montage.  Nine minutes of high definition Halo 3 action.  Check it out.

emilio30 writes:

Tonight we fight!

Just a reminder to tune into the LIVE event "The Firestream Firefight" tonight at 9:30pm ET.

What is that? Back in July TRR interviewed Firestream from HaloCharts live. The broadcast did not record and it was lost forever. To make it up to him we are holding a live event tonight just for him.

We will be broadcasting Firefight matches with some of the prior guests on the TRR Podcast. They are:

bs angel from Hawty McBloggy

Insane54 from Forge Hub

Louis Wu from HBO

Jironimo from Ascendant Justice

Come over to The Running Riot tonight to tune into the live show and chat along with us! 

Side By Side Viewer

oo5tickman5teve writes:

...and two hours long.

Nope, it's not a Viagra commercial.  If you're still looking for an assist with ODST's Endure vidmaster, your cries for help have been heard.  Head on over to the Spartan I Project and they'll show you how it's done.  Details below.

"Spartan I Project - wear a hat, it's Raining Recon!

So you've got all the vidmasters except one. Let me guess, Endure right? I know I know, you got to set 4 round 3 wave 5 then it all went pear shaped and your well trained team of hardened ODST veterans broke down and begged that Hammer Chief for Mercy. We've all been there, you're not alone.

If this sounds familiar then fear no more, help is out there, and it's waiting for you!!

The Spartan I Project is a group committed to having fun and helping you earn achievements the right way. Our members cracked Annual in under 20mins and Deja Vu in under 30mins. And now, we have reached another milestone in the final and most difficult of the Vidmasters... Endure.

We have dedicated threads for each Vidmaster and, through our Endure thread are proud to say our members have completed over 100 Endure runs dedicated solely to helping people without this. To do the numbers that's a minimum 200 people helped and roughly 200hrs making completely sure those many many covenant scum take their final journey in Firefight.

So what are you waiting for? You can join SIP here.  Good luck, godspeed, and watch out for those stickies!! Get some help breaking down that obstacle to your shiny new Recon armour!!"

Live together in perfect harmony.

Just like the title says, Bungie Pro Video and Halo 3: ODST are now gloriously interoperable.  If you're a Bungie Pro subscriber, you already have access to this brave new video rendering world.  If not, here's everything you need to know to get access. Of course, since ODST's Saved Films have a few limitations not native to Halo 3's multiplayer Theater Mode, we had to implement some new features so you could get the most bang for your Render Minute bucks:

• Bungie Pro Video will now work with Halo 3: ODST's Campaign and Firefight Films
• Through Bungie.net, you can supply start and stop timestamps in order to "fast forward" without having to render the full film
• Fast forwarding isn't free - the Hydra Contraption still needs to spend time to render the full video
• Each 10 minutes of "fast forwarding" will consume 1 of your available Render Minutes (not incremental)
• You can elect to render your film from either 1st or 3rd person perspective
• You can choose which player in the game the camera will follow
• Rendered Film footage is limited to 60 minutes in length (does not include time spent "fast forwarding")

Here's a handy image Stosh whipped up for the visual learners:

Last stop: sweet screenshots.

We're still looking at Halo 3: ODST's Firefight missions to drum up new Tag and Release screenshots.  Up this week: Last Exit.  It might be the end of the road for many a Trooper, but it's not the end of the line for your sweet screens.  Check out a foursome we found holding it down.

Mission Select: Last Exit

Reticent Auger writes:

Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?

Darkspire Films needs your help solving a very important mystery. It seems that all of the cookies from the cookie jar have been stolen! How can you bring the culprit to justice? Oh, all you have to do is watch the latest episode of The Candy Coated Wonder Road.



The Candy Coated Wonder Road - "The Cookie Thief"