halo

Have you ever committed yourself to a lover? Has that lover ever turned on you, trodden on your commitment, and crushed your dreams of a white picket fence and perfect baking every Sunday?

Then please take a seat. For I wish to bring you the story of a man who was in that very position and decided he needed to buy himself something nice.

It just so happens that the something nice was a Halo suit of armor.

I am grateful to an emotional Reddit reader who sent me a link to Bygone Bureau, a culture and travel magazine that … Read more

This holiday season, we're seeing a trend toward classic games presented in close-to-original form, but with their original graphics rerendered at the higher resolutions today's consoles and displays use. Is this a great way to make older games more accessible, or is it, like colorizing black-and-white movies, widely considered a bastardization of the original art?

Unlike film or music, video games age badly. Technology changes, screens get bigger, and the host games of even a few years ago look positively primitive to the jaded eyes of consumers. Despite this, we've still seen some vintage games enjoy a second, or even third life as iOS arcade classics, hermetically sealed retro downloads on GOG.com, or even those vintage-game-filled joysticks that plug directly into a television.

What we're seeing more than ever of this year is a little different: classic games presented in almost their original form, but with redesigned graphics, or at least with the original graphics rerendered at the higher resolutions today's consoles and displays use. … Read more

Sharon Vaknin fills in for Emily this week while Emily is on vacation, definitely not thinking about tech rumors. Or maybe she is? We'll have to ask her when she's back next week.

On last week's show, Karyne bet that the Galaxy Nexus (it used to be called the Galaxy Prime) would be unveiled today at CTIA, whereas Emily voted that it won't be released. Guess what? We both were right: Samsung was going to announce the phone at CTIA, but then decided to delay the announcement, citing Steve Jobs' death as the reason for the delay. We're not sure if we believe that's truly the reason.

Also this week, and speaking of Steve Jobs, there are rumors of a Steve Jobs biopic and we wonder who will play him in the movie; for some awful reason, Motorola thought using the Razr name was still a good idea 100 years later; Microsoft is planning on releasing a next-generation console someday; the Internet is abuzz with rumors of a 10-inch Kindle Fire before the holidays; and the dumbest TV show of all time has got to be "Real Housewives of Silicon Valley"...or whatever they end up calling it. … Read more

It appears that the "Halo" movie might be back on, courtesy of two film giants.

French site Halo.fr claims a press release about the book "Halo: Cryptum" by Greg Bear, included mention of a film adaptation of the popular game franchise that could hit theaters as early as 2012.

"A film adaptation is set in 2012," the release reads, according to Halo.fr. "It will be conducted jointly by two heavyweights of American cinema: Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks."

Although there's no telling what the movie, if it exists, would be … Read more

Anyone who purchased the original Xbox during its launch window quickly came to know its behemoth of a controller, now nicknamed "Duke." This massive beast was barely capable of being handheld because of its anti-ergonomic dysfunctions and wacky button placement.

With Microsoft's announcement that a remastered HD version of Halo: Combat Evolved would be hitting the Xbox 360, we were instantly transported to that awkward time of figuring out which one of our fingers was supposed to reach for those black and white buttons.

Apparently we weren't the only ones. According to Giant Bomb, 343 Industries (… Read more

LOS ANGELES--Look around the halls of E3 2011, and you might notice something strangely similar about many of the most-hyped games on display. There's Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, and Mass Effect 3. BioShock Infinite is the third game in that series, and Skyrim is the third modern/console version of an Elder Scrolls game (technically, it's the fifth game in the series, as there were a couple of prior PC games back in the '90s). We've also spotted Saints Row: the Third, Serious Sam 3, and Ninja Gaiden 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (the third game in that series), and there are probably a few others I've missed.

This collection of third-timers is partially a coincidence, and partly indicative of the industry's addiction to sequels. With production and advertising budgets at or near what Hollywood movie studios have been spending for years, there's a natural, and very understandable, attraction to finding a successful formula and sticking with it.

A trilogy is also a familiar construct from the larger media world that consumers are comfortable with, and the format is useful for putting together a compelling story arc over the course of three films or novels. But while most movies quit after three outings, there's no doubt you'll be seeing a fourth chapter in many of the game franchises above within a year or two. … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft began its press conference with some gameplay demos of Modern Warfare 3, Tomb Raider, and Mass Effect 3. Though these titles certainly impressed, they'll be available on multiple consoles.

But at E3, it's exclusives that count, and Microsoft finally showcased a number of titles that will only be available on Xbox 360 and Kinect:

Xbox 360:

As we suspected, an intense Gears of War 3 demo delighted the crowd with Marcus Fenix battling a skyscraper-size alien. The game will be out in September.

Next we saw a teaser-trailer for the ancient Rome inspired Ryse that looks to feature Kinect implementation. There wasn't too much information here--just that it's being developed by the team behind the Crysis franchise, Crytek.… Read more

As indicated in the above image, Microsoft has some exciting announcements to make at its 9:30 a.m. PT E3 press conference. The problem for Microsoft is that this information wasn't supposed to be public yet. According to Kotaku, Microsoft News, and other blogs, this image appeared briefly around 9:30 a.m. ET on Xbox.com. It's since been removed, but the screenshot lives on.

In addition to the XBox 360 games we already knew were coming (Gears of War 3, Modern Warfare 3), the image mentions Halo 4, a … Read more

What better venue for an episode of Crave than the annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, Calif.? We rub elbows with robots, learn the art of making a Master Chief costume, and meet a group of teens who take Rock Band to its fiery extreme.

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