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MORE Multiplayer Maps! (and bungie @ E3)

Written by Mike

Wednesday, 25 May 2005

Wow! It's been a long week of e3 coverage, but I've mopped up my drool and am ready to give you some info on the upcoming multiplayer maps for Halo 2, as well as Bungie's presence at e3 2005.

e3 sign

For those of you that didn't tune in to e3 coverage, Bungie's singular purpose this year was to show off the new maps. We managed to get some pictures of these maps online (since we weren't able to attend e3.) Click the images below to enlarge.

UPDATE: Bungie has released a new article for enlongation. You can read it here.

As a little extra treat, Bungie posted some pictures of their booth and some big-wigs in the Halo community. We won't post all the images here, but we'll show you a few faces you may or may not recognize.

Bentllama!!!!

Top- Shishka; Bottom- Froman

There is no way to retell an e3 story, and if their was, it would be morally wrong in so many ways (not that we would be above doing it). So, for the full re-enactment, head on over to Bungie.net and Read the Article.

XBOX 360 Revealed!!!

Written by Mike

Saturday, 14 May 2005

That's right- Xbox 360 information has finally been fully released, and it's gonna blow your mind.

Microsoft hasn't been very popular in the video game world. Playstation 2, extremely inferior to the xbox, has been outselling the xbox for nearly three years. This year, that may change. Not only has Microsoft been extremely successful with titles such as Chronicles of Riddick and (my personal favorite) Halo 2, it has also announced that it will be releasing the xbox 360 BEFORE Sony releases the next Playstation. (this holiday season.)

But enough of that, let's give you what you really want to hear!

System Specs:

Processor:

Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total
VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
1 MB L2 cache

Memory:

512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM
Unified memory architecture
22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
21.6 GB/s front-side bus

Storage:

Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
12x dual-layer DVD-ROM
Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB

I/O:

Support for up to four wireless game controllers
Three USB 2.0 ports
Two memory unit slots

In addition, all of the games will support HD and Surround sound.

Another unique add-on is the ability to change "faces" on the xbox 360- Interchangable skins. w00t! And, as if that weren't enough, you can play any song on any game- Yes, ANY game. You can also stream songs from your MP3 player to your xbox, or Movies as well from any Media Center PC.

(Click for larger image)

Tired of paying for Xbox Live? Microsoft has heard your woes. With the Xbox 360 no subscription is required to download levels and other content, and ALL games are Xbox Live compatible. You will still need an account to play games online, but you no longer need a credit card, and you can play without an account on weekends.

More online features: Your xbox 360 will come Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g; will support webcams; Special button on controller to go directly to the xbox live menu; and has support for free Gamer Profiles, which you can customize with mottos, pictures, and more.

(click to enlarge)

Last, definately not least, OurColony.net has released an awesome video over the xbox 360. OurColony Video

Info on MORE new maps

Written by Mike

Saturday, 07 May 2005

There's some new info on Halo maps on Bungie.net. I'm too lazy to write an article about it right now though, so I'll just give you the link and some pics. This is why we need more authors! If you want to be an author for H2Press, email me at webmaster (at) h2press.net (change it into normal email form, of course.) All you need is to be decent at writing awesomely-cool gaming articles. We're not to picky.

Anyway, here are the pics, and you can go here to read more