Halo Chronicles, We Barely Knew Ye

First and what I personally feel is the most important news of recent weeks was confirmation from Peter Jackson that his Halo Chronicles project ain't never, ever gonna happen. Full interview over at Joystiq that you can read with the worlds greatest director (tied with Guillermo Del Toro) over here.

Here’s a quote that had me spitting chips at Microsoft:

Peter Jackson: Well, Microsoft has a whole strategy with the Halo property, and when the rights expired with the two studios, that sort of ended my involvement with the project. That fell apart because of internal politics at Fox and Universal. It had nothing to do with the budget or anything else. In fact, we hadn't even been greenlit at all at that point.

WHAT!? The project had never EVEN BEEN GREENLIT!? So for the two years that Halo fans have been quietly bubbling away with excitement over this project MS decided not to tell us that because they screwed the pooch with the human waste that run Fox (oh Fox I hate you so much now, even more than the AvP thing) they had failed to get the deal with Peter Jackson of the ground!?

I think my poor grammatical use of a question mark and exclamation mark next to each other conveys how mad I am about this. But there is some good out of this mire, a daisy growing from the mountain of shit heaped on the Halo movie project, Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 film which by all accounts looks incredible that many critics have even mentioned looks better than James Cameron’s Avatar footage. Talk about your big calls.

As a side note if I read once more about how passionate Stuart Beattie is about Halo movie I will choke myself with a scorpion. He has nothing, no deal, no plans, nothing. He has a script and some concept art that people keep posting around the place, but otherwise, nothing.

Bungie Says No More Halo… Again

Bungies guy with the cool name Lars Bakken (which I’m assuming is pronounced ‘loves bacon’) has stated that after Halo: Reach there will be no more Halo games from Bungie. They’ve got a new game in the works and they’re very close to securing a publisher for and that's their next primary focus.

So to cover it that’s starting with:

“We’re not making anymore Halo”, to
“Okay we’re just making Halo: ODST but its just an expansion”, to
“Okay it’s actually as big as a full game with all the other content and we’re selling it at retail, then there’s this other whole game called Halo: Reach… but after those two are released, definitely no more Halo.

Oh Bungie, why do you do this to me? There aren’t enough tissues in the world for all my tears and various other fluids.

Halo is far from being done though. Microsoft have created a new studio titled 343 Industries (free achievement point for the Guilty Spark nod). They haven’t officially announced it yet, only registered the trademark, but if someone wants to bet you money on the name of the studio Microsoft uses to create the next suite of Halo games, 343 Industries is a pretty safe bet.

Halo Shirts: Do Not Want

Ecko clothing, as in graphiti artist Mark Ecko, as in the game that was banned and then unbanned and then no one played, has a line of Halo tshirts.

They are hideous, they are so bad I’m not even going to post a picture of them. You don’t want them.

They’re the type of tshirt you’d see for sale in a flea market with a logo spelled ‘Hallo’. It looks like what you’re mum would make for you if she’d just got some of that printer paper you can use to iron transfer to a tshirt. I don’t like telling people what to do, but trust me, you don’t want these.

Halo Legends, Just like the Animatrix, Except Halo

You may recall the Animatrix, the series of short anime films set in the Halo universe. They were pretty good, not great but pretty good. I know some people hate on them pretty harshly but I liked them. You may also have seen the Gotham Knight anime shorts produced just before Dark Knight came out, they were not so great probably because the world of Batman didn’t open itself up to multiple interpretations as well as The Matrix did.

Well Halo is set to get the same treatment. Called Halo Legends the short films will be available on Bluray and DVD and over Xbox Live in early 2010. Five Japanese animation studios are involved: Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G, Studio4 C, and Toei Animation. Most exciting is that Production I.G. regular and all round anime god Mamoru Oshii, he of Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, will produce one of the seven films.

If you’re not excited enough check out the trailer below. I was initially skeptical about this but the more I think about it the juicer it tastes.

Halo Wars Still Getting the Live Love

I must confess I have been very bad to Halo Wars, after my review I have barely gone back to it for skull collecting, multiplayer gaming and achievement chasing. I feel bad about that and do plan to rectify my negligent behaviour… sometime.

It eased my guilt a little to find out that Halo Wars is getting downloadable content in the form of the Historic Battle Map Pack. A mere 800 ms pointes gets you Barrens, Blood River, Memorial Basin and Glacial Ravine. Note that four new achievements are included with these maps.

If you feel like splashing out for another 800 ms points which adds three new game types to play on Live as well as some new achievements. The new modes are Keepaway – capture the flag style game; Tug of War – who can field and maintain the strongest army; and Reinforcements – adapt your tactics as you are granted waves of troops.

Sounds cool, I may have to dive back into Halo Wars. If any one feels like a game be sure to message me or hit up our forums.

Of course you can discuss all things Halo in the forums at the official discussion thread for this article.