Chronique:BWU 27/06/2008

Posted by SketchFactor at 6/27/2008 3:52 PM PDT

This week's update is an amalgamation of tidbits and bite-sized news morsels provided by Luke, Shishka and Sketch. You won't find any big bombs being dropped here today, instead we will pepper your face with a flurry of informational bottlerockets.

Sketch's Community Update

Bungie Day!

It's been hinted and teased in prior updates but I should remind everyone again that "Bungie Day" is rapidly approaching. For the uninitiatied, I am of course referring to July 7th. The day of 7/7 has a lot of special meaning at Bungie, even before it became the day we became an independent developer last year. Seven has shown up in Bungie games for years including a huge amount of references throughout the Halo series. I could rattle of a list but our community has done that and more already. Check out this wiki page for an exhaustive look at the significance of 7.

What matters most to you though is that we have a tradition of offering some treats to our fans on this special day. This year, we will continue the tradition with another set of FREE exclusive gamerpics and a dashboard theme from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. These items are only going to be available for one day so mark your calendar now. If you miss them on 7/7, they are gone forever.

We have a few other goodies planned but you'll have to wait until next week to hear more about that. And who knows, the importance of 7/7 may even be enough to get Luke to produce another installment of the Bungie Podcast.

Suffice it to say that 7/7/08 will be a great day for Bungie fans. You've been warned.

Penny Arcade Expo

PAX is coming to Seattle at the end of August - 62 days to be precise. This year Bungie will be there in full force with our own swanky booth jam packed with goodness. Come by and meet members of our team, play some games with us, win prizes and maybe even see some new stuff and meet some special guests. One thing for certain is that at specified times, we'll be offering a chance to play 2v2 against Luke and Shishka for a chance to win some in-game Recon armor.

In addition to the booth, we are also finalizing plans for the triumphant return of the Bungie FanFest. While once a revered tradition within the studio, we let things slip a little in recent years and it's high time to give something back to our fans and throw a party as a token of appreciation. A Bungie FanFest is about meeting and mingling with other members of our fan community, hanging out with our team, learning more about the games you love and what went into making them, playing games, winning swag prizes and there are always special surprises in store for those who attend. Oh and there is usually booze for people of the appropriate age.

Details are still coming together but we will definitely have a lot more to say on this in the near future. And if old man O'Donnell comes through with his crazy scheme, this should be a party to remember. That's all I can say for now... but mark your calendars and if you were on the fence about attending PAX, this should be a big incentive to seal the deal.

Content License Transfer Tool

Microsoft just recently announced a new system to enable Xbox 360 owners to transfer content licenses (for something like a Halo 3 map pack) from one console to another. This used to require a multi-step process for every single content item but now you can easily transfer every license associated with your console to another one in two easy steps.

Here's the official blurb from Xbox.com (http://www.xbox.com/drm/)

Got a new Xbox 360® console? Great. But maybe you downloaded games or other content from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace onto an older Xbox 360 console, and now you want all that content on your new system. Well, now there's a way to do it. With the license transfer tool, you can transfer the licenses of all your previously downloaded content from your old console to the new one.

COLD STORAGE UPDATE (AKA Luke steals the Weekly Update glory by taking credit for new screenshots)

Hmmm, that's a bit of an oversell with the headline, Sketch. We're only showing one new thing from Cold Storage this week -- the overhead map of the map. In fact, the whole Update is Sketch just overhyping things again and again. Multiple screenshots? Rubbish, we won't have those until next week, where we take a special trip to Cold Stoshage :(

Shishka's Matchmaking Update

When he's not playing a game of phantom pistols or adding more shield doors to Guardian, our resident online experience maestro is working hard on another playlist update to tantalize and titelate Halo 3 players in July. This month sees a variety of minor tweaks and updates with new v5 MLG variant integration and the continuation of Ranked Big Team Battle (for at least another month!). You'll also find plenty of Double EXP weekend opportunities including a rockets-red-glare-bombs-bursting-in-air offering for the July 4th holiday.

Matchmaking Update for July, 2008

All Matchmaking:

• Swords and Hammers - Gametypes with Energy Sword and Gravity Hammers have been tweaked so that players are unable to pick up weapons or drive/ride in vehicles.

Hardcore:

• Head to Head - H2H's primary mechanic has been modified. Instead of the point leader having a waypoint over his head at all times, both players have 45 seconds after respawn before a waypoint appears over their head. Active camo (in maps that have it) now obscures the waypoint. Overshields have been removed from all Duel variants. All gametypes now have motion trackers. Slayer Duel's kills to win is now 10 (was 15). All map variants have been tweaked. Some weapons and equipment have been removed. Others have been tweaked so that they only spawn once with little ammo and then do not return. These settings are different for each map.
• ADDED Blackout Duel to Head to Head
• Team SWAT - Reduced weightings for ShWATguns and SWATBall. ShWATguns is now skipped after veto. SWATBall on the Pit has been removed.
• MLG - Latest versions of v5 map variants added. MLG Amplified replaced with MLG Amp Orlando. Team King on Amp removed.

DLC:

• Heroic Maps skip after veto in both Objective and Slayer.

Ranked:

• Ranked Big Team persists through July. RBTB remains a double EXP hopper. Reduced weighting of Covies map variants. Increased weighting on Heavy CTF.

Social:

• Big Team Social - Covies map variants skip after veto.

Double EXP (Listed in order of appearance)

• Fourth of July - A collection of Flag, Rockets, and VIP. 5v5.
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• Fiesta - FFA featuring random weapon spawns. 8 Players.
• Grifball - Updated to use the Summer League map. 4v4.
• Team Snipers - No changes from June. 4v4.
• Team Melee - Sword and hammer-centric slayer and

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