Sad sad news!!

OMG!!!


http://www.excite.co.jp/world/url/body?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.activexbox.com%2Fxbox%2Fdefault.asp&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2

Influential-game-developer and-Microsoft-subsidiary Bungie-Studios-announced that-co-founder-and CEO-Alexander-Seropian is-leaving-the-company for-family-reasons. Seropian-was-one-of the co-creators of Bungie\'s "Halo," a critically acclaimed-shooting game widely credited withdriving initial sales for-Microsoft\'s-Xbox-video-game-console. Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000 as-part-of-a-wide-reaching-effort-to-bolster its array of original games for the Xbox. Bungie recently-announced-it is working on PC and Mac versions of "Halo."

thoughts of seamus blackley pop into my head, i dont know why

http://www.bungie.net/perlbin/blam.pl?file=/site/0/news/news_detail.html&nw_id=A88F4874-F3CF-4753-B6B0-BFFBDD466B65&

The Man is Leaving the Building

Visibility: Visible to the public

Here at Bungie, there isn\'t a whole lot we take seriously. But there are times when even we are forced to wipe the smirk from our collective face and deal with the harsh realities of life. Now is one of those times. This week, The Man himself, Alexander Seropian, broke the news to us that he\'s leaving Bungie to pursue other opportunities, such as your mom. Well, someone\'s mom, at any rate.

You read it right: The Man will soon be The Father of The Child, and has elected to return to The City so he can concentrate on being The Dad for a while. He leaves at the end of August.

This is bittersweet news for all of us at Bungie: we\'re very happy for Alex but at the same time we\'re sad to see him go. Alex and Jason spent an afternoon discussing the situation with all the teams here at Bungie HQ, so all of us got to ask what this means for Bungie and have our fears assuaged. But we knew this might be a shock to some of our fans, especially those of you who have been with us for a long time. We thought it might help if we could provide some simulacrum of the "sitting down with Alex to discuss his departure and the future of Bungie" experience.

With that in mind, I stepped into Alex\'s office, along with our Microsoft-assigned intern/pegboy, Skip Weasel, for a brief interview. The following is an unedited transcription of Skip\'s tape recorder.

Matt: Hi Alex. We\'re here to ask you a bunch of intrusive personal questions.

Alex: Excellent! I was just thinking that I haven\'t had my privacy invaded recently. Come on in.

Matt: So a lot of the fans are going to be asking about you leaving Bungie...what\'s going to change and so on-

Alex: Right.

Matt: And I thought it might be good if they heard some of what you told us earlier, so I\'m going to ask a bunch of questions you\'ve already answered and then Skip here will record it all and we\'ll post the whole thing on the website.

Alex: Coolio. Ask away.

Matt: I think the first thing people will want to know is why you\'re leaving.

Alex: This might sound a little too pat, but my wife and I are going to become parents at the end of this year, and it seems like an obvious sort of turning point for me.

Skip: That does sound a little too pat.

Matt: I don\'t think he asked you, Skip.

Alex: Yeah, just hold the mic, Skip.

Matt: You know there are going to be all sorts of conspiracy theories about why you "really" left.

Alex: Well, I wish they were true, because that would make a more entertaining story. This is something I\'ve thought about doing for a long time. Now seemed like the best time. Bungie\'s got a life of its own now; it\'s not dependent on having one guy around all the time anymore.

Matt: So the next thing people will want to know is how this affects Bungie.

Alex: In terms of the games, there shouldn\'t be any noticeable effect. The biggest difference will be internally, because Jason and I have to find someone to do the sort of day-to-day managerial stuff that I\'ve been doing for Bungie. I\'m good at that sort of stuff, but it\'s not like I\'m the only person who can do it. So we\'ll be getting someone to do all that, and he or she will report to Jason.

Matt: So it\'s not like you\'re handing over Bungie to some stranger who wants to remake it in his own image.

Alex: No, Jason\'s going to be in charge. The Bungie philosophy and attitude will remain intact and undisturbed. I\'m still on good terms with everyone here, so it\'s not like I\'m completely severing my connection with the people at Bungie. People can always call if there\'s ever any situation where people think my advice or input would help.

Matt: But once you leave, Jason is basically going to become Supreme Commander of Bungie.

Alex: Correct. With all the power and glory that title implies.

Skip: How much power and glory is that, exactly?

Alex: Did you hear something?

Matt: I think it was the wind. So how would you respond to fans who wonder if Bungie will suffer in your absence?

Alex: That\'s hard. I know it\'s going to be tough for me personally, because I have so many friends here. It\'s going to be weird for me to wake up in the morning and not think about Bungie, and it might be strange for people here when they, you know, don\'t see me around anymore. I wouldn\'t be doing this if I thought it would have a bad effect on Bungie. All the teams here have been together for a long time, they know what they\'re doing. I think Bungie will be able to carry on without me. You better send me free copies of everything you do, though. If I ever have to pay real money for a Bungie game, someone\'s gonna get fired.

Matt: I\'m sure we can work something out. I think the other thing people will want to know about is what comes next for you personally.

Alex: Well, I\'m moving back to Chicago, and shortly after that I plan to do a lot of diaper-changing and baby-burping.

Matt: But you\'re not going to be changing diapers the rest of your life.

Alex: Well, I hope not. Knock on wood. No, I\'m going to do other things, but I\'m not entirely sure what those might be just yet.

Matt: Fair enough. I think that\'s it for the interview questions.

Skip: Ask him about the clone army.

Alex: The what?

Skip: Don\'t try to play dumb. I was there, I heard the whole-

Matt: Why are you still talking, pegboy?

Skip: Dude, just ten minutes ago he was telling us about the clone lab in his basement in Chicago-

Matt: That\'s enough, Skip.

Skip: - and how the whole "kid" story is just a ruse because he\'s actually cloning himself to create an army-

Alex: This sounds suspiciously like a movie. You watch too many movies, Skip.

Skip: - and how an army comprised of nothing but The Man was always part of the whole world domination plan, and-

Matt: Skip, give me the tape. Stop taping right now or it\'s back to the peg.

Skip: No way, man! This is important. People should hear the tru

Unfortunately at this point the tape goes blank, almost as if a person or persons unknown grabbed the tape recorder and beat an intern with it until he learned to keep his mouth shut. But I think we covered all of the important stuff.

We have entered the final seven weeks of The Man\'s stewardship of Bungie. Truly the end of an era. We just wanted to let you know.

probably pissed that Halo is still not on the PC..

The main thing that the graphic producer is still there.

Originally posted by pstwo
The main thing that the graphic producer is still there.

Haha

You\'re much more entertaining than you are annoying.

Originally posted by Soul Reaver


Haha

You\'re much more entertaining than you are annoying.

*Fu

whos the graphical producer

my eyes wanna kick his ass

Wrong forum.

Nothing to debate.

I wanna kick that guys ass that deals with framerates!:rpissed:

OMG!

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_story.php?id=77718

Friday 26th July 2002  
 
 
INTERVIEW: BRUTE FORCE

We splash it all over with the developer of Brute Force, one of the key Xbox titles for 2002

17:50 Along with Blinx, Brute Force is one of the Xbox titles that Microsoft hopes we\'ll all be dribbling over by the end of the year. Well, that\'s if it makes it onto the shelves for Christmas, which we\'ve been told it will do. Which is a good thing for us, because it\'s looking quite impressive.
A futuristic squad-based action title, Brute Force is a single- and multiplayer blaster that sees four distinct, super-elite characters packing mean firepower and grim determination and romping around sci-fi environments. Featuring one huge campaign that\'s made up from a number of challenging missions, the game will have you running amok in six different worlds, testing your nerve with numerous enemies, objectives and obstacles.

Seeing as Microsoft is touting Brute Force as a key title for Xbox, we wanted to find out a bit more about what\'s going to be on offer. So we fired of some questions to the title\'s producer Erin Roberts.

Can you just give us a brief outline of what Brute Force actually is?

Roberts: Brute Force is a futuristic squad-based, third-person shooter where you command a team of four elite and highly-specialized super-commandos.

What\'s the plot of the game?

Roberts: It\'s the beginning of the 24th century and an uneasy peace exists within the Hegemony, otherwise known as the Confederation of Allied Worlds. The Confed Navy protects the borders of the confederation from alien threats, but a much more secretive organization also exists whose job is to settle internal confederation disputes where the Navy has no mandate. This organization runs a number of highly proficient and lethal operations teams, who will use whatever means necessary to protect and maintain the Hegemony.

The player takes charge of the most elite of these squads, code-named Brute Force, which has been sent into the Ulysses System to investigate reports of espionage and unrest. What starts as a simple operation soon takes the entire Confederation to the brink of war.

In single-player you control a squad of four commandos. How does the team control work? For example, can you issue orders to team mates, or do you have to take control of one at a time?

Roberts: The game is set up so you have the choice of either taking instant control of any of the characters at any time, or of giving orders to the other characters from the character you are controlling. For instance, you could set up Flint, the team sniper, on raised ground, and then use her to order other characters to move forward, flush out the enemies, and pick them off from afar. Or you can control Tex, the heavy assault trooper of the squad, and run him right into the thick of things. How you use the differently-skilled team-mates will be very important in whether you are successful or not in each mission.

Can you tell us a bit about the environments we\'ll find ourselves in and the different worlds that will be in the game?

Roberts: There are six different worlds which you visit throughout the campaign. First is Ferix, a huge swamp and forest world, where the cities are built inside and around huge trees, which are connected together by a multitude of rope bridges. Caspian is a dry, desert-like planet, where human colonists have settled. Osirus is a volcanic moon around Caspian. The landscape is made up of rivers of lava and active volcanoes. Estuary is made up of one great ocean, with a few scattered islands, where remains of an ancient civilization lay ruined. Singe is a small unstable moon, which due to its predominantly molten surface is very dangerous to visit.

What sort of missions can we expect to undertake and how will we progress from one mission to the next?

Roberts: There are many different scenarios the player will be put into. There are rescue, espionage, scouting, assassination and just plain body count missions. You can decide to go in and shoot anything that moves, or work with the characters\' strengths for a more intelligent mission play-through. The squad is based on an operations ship called the CNS Tejas. From here the squad gets their briefings, selects its equipment and is transported to the planet. Once a mission is over, it returns to its ops ship where it can re-fit and get ready for the next mission.

Will characters automatically get a load-out at the beginning of each mission, or will we be able to pick the weapons and equipment that we want to use?

Roberts: There is an equipment selection screen which allows the player to purchase which ever weapons and equipment the characters need. Everything costs money, so the more expensive items you get the less money you will have for other things. There is only a subset of the full equipment list available at the beginning of the game, as new prototypes become available later, or if the players find any alien technology they can use that also.

If you don\'t want to deal with the whole selection process, we also have a default load out which can be accepted to get the player straight into the action.

Combat is obviously going to be a big part of Brute Force, so what sort of weapons and protective equipment can we expect to see?

Roberts: There are over 30 different types of weapons and equipment in the game. We have all the usual weapons you\'d expect such as sniper rifles, assault rifles, laser weapons, rocket launchers. But we also have new weapon types such as the bio rifle, which will not only kill the character it hits, but when that character blows up, other characters who are hit by the explosion have a chance of getting infected and blowing up themselves. It\'s a great weapon for a room full of enemies. We also have items such as the organic sensor. While wearing these you can see any life forms through deep fog or even solid objects. If you use the particle rifle (which can shoot through solid objects), you can see enemies behind a wall and kill them from another room. We also have four upgrades in armour types....

Characters\' skills and abilities will improve as the game is played. Can you tell us more about this feature?

Roberts: Characters start with base skills which can only be sustained as long as their stamina lasts. As they go up in experience, they gain more stamina, and so can perform their skills for longer periods of time. For instance, at the beginning of the game Hawk (Scout) can only stay cloaked for a short period of time. By the end of the game she will be able to cover much larger distances while cloaked. This function is automated, the player never has to assign actual skill points.

What multiplayer modes are you including, and will these be split-screen affairs or will we be able to link Xbox consoles together?

Roberts: Brute Force makes no distinction between single and multiplayer. The campaign can be played all the way through either by one, two, three or four people. For instance, you could be halfway through the fourth mission playing by yourself, when a friend arrives. At this point you don\'t have to start a new game, just plug in another controller, press start and the screen will split and your friend will be controlling one of the available squad characters. If some time later your friend leaves, the screen will un-split and you are back to controlling all four characters - it\'s as easy as that. We also have several Deathmatch modes including Squad Deathmatch - you pit your squads against each other - single-player Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. We don\'t support linked play.

The movies and screenshots we\'ve seen so far suggest that Brute Force is going to be a real graphical treat to behold. Can you confirm with us that the stuff we\'ve seen so far is from actual gameplay?

Roberts: Every screenshot we\'ve sent out is actual gameplay. The October movie of the squad on the Refinery was also gameplay. There are some CGI flicks included in some of the movies we\'ve made lately (for E3), but it is quite obvious which are which.

Why should we be getting excited about Brute Force?

Roberts: We\'re trying to deliver a unique gameplay experience set in incredibly diverse environments. Rather then play one character, we wanted to give the player four characters with strong personalities. We want players to learn how to use the characters, and travel the same journey they do as the story unfolds. We feel we are pushing the hardware to its limits, we feel we are going to deliver a really engrossing game which not only pushes story, visuals and technology, but also gameplay.

Roberts: Every screenshot we\'ve sent out is actual gameplay.[/color]

:eek:

holy color banding batman!

some nice textures tho

i still smell 30 fps

Roberts: Every screenshot we\'ve sent out is actual gameplay.

flat out lie

Originally posted by mm
holy color banding batman!

some nice textures tho

i still smell 30 fps



flat out lie

Nothing impresses you doesn\'t it?:rolleyes:

the movies for PDO and the screens for SOCOM impressed me, thats about it lately

I thought you said PDO looked like a$$...