In New York, approaching zero Halo hour. Plus: Master Chief interview!
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The debut hour approaches nearer for the final installment of the Xbox 360 trilogy, as Microsoft throws a star-studded bash.
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Gabe:  We had our annual Enforcer wrap party on Monday night over at Gameworks. It's a chance for all the Enforcers to get together and relax after the show. It's also a chance for Tycho and I to thank them for all their help. We played a lot of games and heard a ton of great stories. There's so much of the show that Tycho and I miss but the Enforcers see it all and this year they saw some crazy shit.   For example I had no idea that e for all had hired guerrilla marketers to wander the streets in front of PAX with T.V's in their shirts. They were passing out glow sticks and postcards with the e for all logo on them. PAX Enforcers and attendees started a game that involved masking tape and replacing the "for all" with other things the e might stand for.   That's certainly funny but it's not the best story about other exhibitions invading PAX. At one point during the evening a table full of Enforcers told me a tale that was so awesome I just had to pass it along.Late Friday night Amber was called down to the lobby of the convention center to deal with a drunk and belligerent member of the media who was apparently yelling at a couple of our Enforcers. Amber arrived to find the man obviously hammered and harassing our security. She approached him and explained that the show was over (which it wasn't) and that he should just go home and sleep. Upon seeing Amber his behavior changed quite drastically. He stopped arguing with the Enforcers and instead stared hitting on her. He bragged that he'd been out all night drinking with Incubus. Then he suggested the two of them go see a movie, get some drinks and "see where it goes." I think we all know where it goes. Sloppy drunks twice her age really aren't Amber's type so she politely declined the offer while still trying to move him towards the door. He leaned in at this point and said "this Penny Arcade shit is weak!" and then asked her if she wanted to know a secret. He said it would "impress her" and with that he produced his business card.  He pointed at it and slurred "this is where it's at baby."Now we'd seen this guy all weekend taking photos of our game rooms and exhibition hall. Since he was pretending to be media he also interviewed all our Enforcers about how the show was organized and managed. A few of our Exhibitors even complained that he was in the exhibition hall trying to sell them on his convention. Amber took the card and asked him to find her the next day after he had sobered up. She had every right to pull his badge right then but was a little worried about how he might react. The next morning she happened to meet up with him on the escalators in the main hall. "Hey I remember you" he said, "but I don't remember your name." "I'm Amber the event coordinator for PAX and I need you to give me your badge." she replied.He looked around at the group of colleagues around him and laughed. I guess he thought she was joking. Security arrived and she pressed him again for his badge. He tried to apologize for hitting on her but she informed him that while that was certainly inappropriate it was the drunken tirade that we didn't appreciate at PAX. He reluctantly handed over his badge and was escorted out by a group of Enforcers. I was told this story by a dozen or so other Enforcers who witnessed or took part in the event. When they gave me Ed's business card as physical proof of their encounter I couldn't believe it. I was already laughing when I turned the card over and noticed the back.   -Gabe out
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Gabe: Well tomorrow is the 25th and many of you will probably start celebrating tonight. I'd like to believe the midnight parties and festivities are related to my Birthday tomorrow but it's more likely your all excited about Halo 3. I had the chance to play through the entire single player campaign with Tycho and Robert and I can say you probably will not be disappointed. I never really got into the Halo story. I thought it was because there just wasn't much story there to get into. I got this link last week though and I realised that there's actually a really cool story, the problem is the games do a terrible job of telling it. I recommend reading this thread before you tackle Halo 3. It lays out the history of the Halo universe really well. Like any sequel it helps to have played the previous games but in this case I don't even think that's enough. The story in Halo 3 simply doesn't make a lick of fucking sense on it's own and they make zero effort to help players that might be new to the series. I don't mean there isn't a movie at the beginning that's like "previously on teh Haloz!" I mean they just assume you know everything in that thread forwards and back. Honestly though it's Halo. You can play through the thing, shoot a bunch of guys skip all the cut scenes and have a damn good time. It's just sort of sad that there's such a rich universe there that the games aren't conveying.I've got some stuff to say about the Halo 3 advertising as well but I don't want to spoil anything. We can talk about it later this week once you've all had a chance to play it.I wrapped up our eight page Assassin's Creed comic last week. Those of you who purchase the Limited Edition of the game will get a bunch of cool stuff including a copy of our comic. It's a little prequel story that provides some background info on the main character. I think it turned out pretty good and I'm excited for you guys to see it. The game ships in November but I'll go ahead and post the cover now so you can see my take on Altair.  -Gabe out
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Gabe:  So the latest PC gamer should be arriving on news stands any day now if it hasn't already. This particular issue has a very early look at our game, On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. They actually sent one of their guys (Dan Stapleton) up to Canada to visit Hothead and get a first hand look at the game in development. Dan apparently liked what he saw because the resulting article is actually really positive.
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Can "Halo" hero Master Chief blast his way past "Spider-Man 3" too?
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Gabe: I mentioned the Nerdcore Rising documentary a few weeks ago and I know a lot of you were interested in it. Well the girls doing it have decided to help build interest in the film by highlighting one of the many nerds they met on their journey each week. They call it the Nerd of the Week and the first Nerd is actually PAX. I'll go ahead and plug the Youtube version in right here so you all can check it out. I think they did a fucking incredible job cutting this together.
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Tycho:  We put Monday's strip up early, so you might have seen it already - but you might not be familiar with the EGM interview it is based on, an excerpt of which appears here.  I sometimes worry about appearing partisan in these communiques, but it is not my job to be fair.  I'm not a journalist, I'm a consumer.  I don't buy one product from each company in the interests of some karmic ideal, and I don't need to purge my posts of wrongthink because I haven't produced something suitable for use as a press release.  Sony is grinding down their goodwill with every smug, psychotic interview, and someone needs to tell them so in clear terms.
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2007 top science developments, tech flops, and vaporware...Szulik's parting words as Red Hat CEO...Sony Alpha A700 review...copyright tidbits...Toshiba 32nm deal with IBM
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Tycho:  I don't know if I would attend CES again.  If any of you have wondered, as I did last year, whether or not you should go, ask yourself this:
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The lobby of the Palace Hotel was a hub of activity after lunch yesterday. The picture to the right hardly does it justice. A constant stream of friends, a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, flowed through.  It was unlike anything I had seen before, likely because this conference was held in downtown SF, and not San Diego or Phoenix, and a facet of what we'll have when the Newsroom of the Future is up and running. Every city will have one, but San Francisco will probably be first.  Here's a video I took last week at CUNY that gives another perspective. Lots of tables, video screens, a stage, radio and TV equipment. What you can't see is that the room was saturated with wifi, and while it didn't have a huge presence on the Internet, it could have.
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A music retailer from the Netherlands beats Apple by launching a download service in Europe's latest market battleground. Also: Movie industry wrests agreement from defunct company.... Microsoft challenges Photoshop & hellip;. and more.
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Tycho:  I'm glad that we were able to discuss the news of a Warhammer 40k MMO without resorting to apocalyptic threats.  I was able to present the idea to him by saying that they were making a Starcraft MMO, but they weren't going to call it Starcraft, and it wasn't being made by Blizzard.  He was intrigued, but wary.
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Tycho:  We are mentioned briefly in the most recent Major Nelson Radio podcast, where we learn that the man apparently can't remember which one of us is which, even though he stood before us in our marble reception hall only days earlier.  The end of the same podcast features an interview with one Chip Lang, Vice President of Online Commerce for Electronic Arts.  The good Major keeps it social, and does not savage his guest, presumably because he likes his job and would like to keep it Never fear! We can do what he can't.
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Plus: Microsoft to release three versions of Xbox 2. [News.com Extra]
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Obeying the courts, Windows will no longer have a Media Player in Europe. Also:  Monsanto buys another seed maker & hellip;.  Robot soldiers ready for Iraq & hellip;. and more.
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CES 2005 Quality content coming to new format. Van Helsing too
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Also: Stephen Hawking looking for assistant. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.