Halopedia:Bungie Weekly Update 06-02-06

This is the Bungie Weekly Update of June 2, 2006. It was written by Frank O'Connor.

Bungie Update
Well, as fans of the Webcam can appreciate, the power went out in our building about an hour ago, so I am typing this from the basement of a Kirkland abattoir. And that, ladies and gentlemen is why it's short and lacking any real art. I lost an entire day's work. Sorry. I don't have access to our servers. So the Bungie guys and gals took the afternoon off and headed to the local Tiki bar.

Marty just got back from the PLAY! concert event in Chicago (his old stomping ground) and he is pleased as punch. He got to meet some of his (and my) all time musical heroes, including Koji Kondo (Mario Bros) and Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy).

The Video Games Live concert series is still rocking out, and actually you may even have time to pick up tickets for tomorrow night's (Saturday June 3rd) Philadelphia concert. You'll see some of the greatest video game music ever composed, performed by some of the most talented musicians in a live environment, complete with some cool light show stuff as well as other surprises. Marty's partner in crime Mike Salvatori will be there and he might even sign your boobs in Marty's absence.

The concert details are:

SATURDAY, JUNE 3RD, 2006

MERRIAM THEATRE - PHILADELPHIA, PA

FESTIVAL: 7:00PM

CONCERT: 8:00PM

TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE BY CLICKING HERE!

And Marty will be attending future concerts in the series. You can find out more about those HERE. Marty also promises to give us his concert impressions next week.

Some of our sharp-eyed fans may have noticed Marty hinted at an upcoming documentary on Bungie.net. It was supposed to be a surprise, but since the man himself gave it away, we can in fact reveal that we have a documentary short that shows the process and people involved in making the E3 trailer, complete with some never before seen scenes (think angles, really) from the trailer. This was the goodie I had hinted at in a previous update.

Ninja just banned about 500 bridgers, network abusers and boosters. We don't say that to show off or rub their faces in it - we're saying it as a warning, that the behavior is easily noticed and will not be tolerated. So if you know any of these miscreants, you might want to warn them that they are not safe from the Banhammer. We also banned a bunch of modders to, but that's a different process. And yes, we know cheating and modding are a problem and we take it seriously. We work very hard, every single day to address it.

We do normally give you information about matchmaking playlist updates and changes, but I don't usually get this excited about them. Specifically, for my tastes, Team SWAT is my all-time new favorite. Sure, I'm fickle, but I had such a blast playing this during test that I am positively giddy with expectation about its deployment.

The funny thing is, I'm not a huge Hardcore or even BR fan, but for some reason the pacing of the SWAT types in this playlist made this HUGELY enjoyable to me. It's so fast - pop, pop, pop, you kill 'em, pop, pop, pop you die! But you respawn so quickly that it kinda doesn't matter. You're blasted straight back into the action in a couple of seconds, ready to avenge your death.

Big Team Playlist changes are also cool, but really, I'm drooling over the possibilities for fun and frolics on the Team SWAT list. See you suckers online, but until then, here's NinjaOnFire's detailed breakdown of what to expect.

NEW PLAYLIST DETAILS!

Here is a detailed list of all changes being made in the June 2006 Playlist Update. Feel free to comment on these changes, but if you wish to discuss them in detail please visit the pre-existing threads dedicated to them. You can find those threads linked from the READ ME FIRST and HOT TOPICS sticky threads in the Optimatch forum.

New Playlist Lineups


 * Team SWAT
 * Big Team Playlists

Global Changes


 * Clanmatch has been removed
 * Team SWAT (unranked) has been added
 * Big Team Battle and 6v6 Team Battle have been removed
 * BTB Skirmish (ranked) and BTB Slayer (unranked) have been added
 * note: BTB Skirmish will retain rankings from Big Team Battle

Rumble Pit / Rumble Training


 * Rumble Slayer BR on Terminal and Relic have been removed
 * Rumble Slayer Covenant on Ivory Tower has been removed

Rumble Hardcore


 * Ivory Tower has been removed from the lineup
 * Carbine and Sniper gametypes have been removed from the lineup

Team Slayer


 * Team Slayer on Lockout has been weighted slightly higher

Team Slayer / Team Training


 * Team Slayer on Colossus is now Team Rifles on Colossus

Multi-Team / Team Training


 * Team Plasma Wars now has starting grenades

Multi-Team


 * Team Ball on Ivory Tower has been removed
 * Team Multiballs on Ivory Tower has been removed

Team ActionSack


 * Combo Training on Foundation, Gemini, Turf and Warlock have been removed
 * Rocket Neutral Bomb on Colossus and Sanctuary have been added
 * Sniper Assault on Ascension and Lockout have been added
 * Neutral Snipers on Colossus is now Multi Flag Snipers on Colossus
 * Ninja CTF on Beaver Creek, Colossus, Midship and Sanctuary have been added
 * SWAT Balls on Elongation, Midship and Sanctuary have been added
 * Phantom Swat on Gemini, Midship and Warlock have been added
 * Minimum Slayer on Lockout, Midship, Sanctuary and Turf have been added

Oh and since I have no access to our servers, I had to make an Ascii Mister Chief.