halo

Give Road Trip tips, get Halo beta codes

Update (Saturday, 8:40 p.m.): All the Halo:Reach codes are now spoken for. Thanks so much to all who made so many great suggestions.

You know you want them.

I'm sitting here at my desk with 10 Halo: Reach beta codes burning a hole in my in-box. And I want to give them to you.

But I need your help in return.

In late June, I'm going to be leaving on Road Trip 2010, my fifth-annual journey around a region of the country, reporting and writing on and photographing some of the most interesting destinations the … Read more

Halo 2 continues to live on

A small group of hard-core Halo 2 players is still unwilling to let go of its beloved game.

On April 15, Microsoft turned off access to its popular Xbox Live service to anyone using an original Xbox. But for this small group of Halo 2 devotees--said by IGN to be 12 people--losing the ability to play the game online isn't an option.

That's why each member of the group has kept his or her Xbox continually logged into Xbox Live and Halo 2 (as my colleague Don Reisinger wrote about earlier this week.) According to IGN, "The … Read more

Activision scores big win with Bungie deal

Video game giant Activision scored a major coup Thursday with the signing of a deal to publish the next franchise from Halo developer Bungie.

The partnership is intended to last 10 years and means that Activision, which is owned by Activision Blizzard, will be in a position to publish several iterations of Bungie's next franchise. Given the tremendous success of the various Halo games--all told, they have generated more than $1.5 billion in sales--an exclusive deal to publish Bungie's next series of games is a very big win for Activision, and a blow to its rival, Electronic … Read more

Halo 2 lives on with the help of 14 gamers

When Microsoft finally discontinued Xbox Live support for Halo 2 on April 15, it was the end of an era. Gamers from around the world who spent inordinate amounts of time fragging each other in Halo 2's many levels were forced to say goodbye.

However, as most left for newer alternatives, some refused to let go just yet.

"Throughout the past week, a small group of dedicated Halo 2 players kept their Xbox's on so that they could enjoy the game for a while longer," Bungie Community member "Joe Campbell" wrote in a forum. He said even though Microsoft has turned off support for Halo 2, the players have been able to keep playing the game because they haven't turned their consoles off and maintained a constant connection to Xbox Live since April 15.

"As long as we don't turn off our Xbox's, or lose connection, we can stay online," Campbell wrote. "Our Xboxes have been on for nearly 12 days straight."

Staying online for 12 days has been difficult.… Read more

Bungie unveils Halo: Reach special editions

If what you've really been missing is a 10-pound, 10-inch statue of the Noble Team, the team of fighters that are the heroes of the hotly-anticipated video game Halo: Reach, then don't fret. Your time is coming soon.

Mere mortals may scoff at the need for such a collectible, but true Halo fans know that those who end up with these icons are going to be the envy of the many who can't get their hands on them. Thankfully, everyone will have the same chances of ending up with one.

On Thursday, Microsoft and Bungie unveiled the details of the Halo: Reach "limited" and "Legendary" editions, both of which are now available for pre-order and will be released sometime this fall. As previously reported, the Halo: Reach beta will begin on May 3. The game will be an Xbox 360 exclusive.

The limited edition, which will cost Halo fans $80, includes the game disc and manual, as well as a game disc "housed in recovered ONI 'black box;'" an Elite armor set that players can use when they're in multiplayer mode; and an artifact bag with the personal journal of Dr. Halsey, as well as "other classified documents and effects that unravel long-held secrets from the Halo universe."… Read more

Inside CNET Labs 84: A Halo Elite? (podcast)

This week, special guest Antuan Goodwin and I gang up on Dong as he has trouble deciding which race to enter on his 2010 census.

Then we move on to a cinematic gem, a celluloid triumph, if you will. I'm speaking, of course, of "Black Dynamite!" (hears "Dynamite! Dynamite! in the background). We explain why, if you haven't seen this movie yet, you're a blight on humanity and we don't wanna be your friend anymore.

If Apple, Microsoft, and Google were women, which would Dong want to date? Listen to find out the … Read more

Phone Halo tracks any gadget's whereabouts

PALM DESERT, Calif.--If you've ever lost your keys, phone, or both at the same time, a new company called Phone Halo has a tool for finding them.

Launching at the DemoSpring conference here, Phone Halo is a $60 gadget that turns your BlackBerry or Android phone into a handheld finder. Unlike some more traditional key finder hardware, however, Phone Halo integrates Bluetooth and GPS to create a tethered radius for your gadgets. So, if one of them goes out the door without the other, you get a message about it back on your phone, or through e-mail and even Twitter.

The hardware itself is a black module about the size of a car alarm dongle that packs a speaker, Bluetooth, and GPS antenna and can be attached to your keys, briefcase, or anything else. When your gadget goes missing, you can just open up the Phone Halo app on your phone, then toggle it to beep. The transmitters also can transmit a beep back to your phone, so you can hit a button on the unit to start ringing your handset. This works even if you have it set to silent, the same way Apple's "Find My iPhone" feature does on MobileMe. … Read more

Microsoft X10 conference wrap-up

After a four-year hiatus, Microsoft held its X10 conference this week in San Francisco primarily to announce a bunch of release dates for some notable 360-only games due out this year. The company also flexed its exclusivity muscles by showing off some content that'll only be available on Xbox 360.

We've got all the highlights from the event below, along with all of the show's debut trailers in the video playlist to the right.

Halo: Reach: No solid release date for the game, but Halo 3: ODST owners can get a taste of the title's multiplayer … Read more

Halo: Reach to go into multiplayer beta on May 3

SAN FRANCISCO--If Master Chief means something to you, then get ready. The Halo: Reach multiplayer beta will open up on May 3.

"Reach," as it's being called, is the latest iteration of the hugely popular Halo franchise for Microsoft's Xbox 360. The game is expected to ship sometime this fall, but before that, "millions" of Halo fans will get a chance to play the game and help its developer, Bungie, get the title ready for the masses.

Just this week, Halo: Reach entered private alpha, and on May 3, fans who already have Halo: ODST will be able to access the Reach multiplayer beta using their ODST discs.

For Microsoft and Bungie, Halo: Reach is a crucial title this year. The Xbox has been performing strongly over the last year, but Sony's PlayStation 3 has finally begun to make up some ground on it over the last few months. For Bungie, the game is an opportunity to take on the success of Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has set records as the best-selling console game of all time.

According to Bungie creative director Marcus Lehto, Reach is a standalone prequel to the existing Halo series, offering fans of the hit franchise an entirely new story and new characters on a scale unlike what Bungie has done with the game before.

Lehto explained that Reach will have a much darker story line and will focus on a "key turning point in the Human-Covenant War." Halo: Reach takes place in 2552.

In the new game, the planet Reach is humankind's last line of defense against the Covenant. But the planet is also home to the Spartan program, the heart of the human military. The game focuses on one group of Spartans known as Noble Team, led by Carter 259. … Read more