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Around 1000 Halo fans have been given the chance to test a single level from the upcoming PC version of Halo: Reach. A lot more than 1000 people want to play it, though, and so as I type this it’s being shared online. Aware of the leak, i343 Industries rep Postums wrote: Good Morning, It has come to our attention that the Halo Insider flight has been illegally distributed online. If you download or play this illegal copy, we have the right to ban all associated accounts and remove you from all current or future 343 programs. The Microsoft Service Agreement can be found here. Advertisement I bring this up because the “Insider Flight”—which ends tonight anyway—single level. Guys, I know it’s been a very long time since there was a Halo game on the PC, but come on. Taking a ban on your entire account for a few minutes of testing? … [Read more...] about Halo Reach’s

Tim Longo, creative director for the upcoming Halo Infinite, left developer 343 Industries this week, Kotaku has learned. It’s part of a leadership shakeup that arrives late in the development of the next Halo game, which is scheduled for release in fall 2020. Longo, an industry veteran who also served as creative director for Halo 5, had moved to a different role a few weeks ago, according to two people familiar with goings-on at 343. This week, he left the company entirely. Advertisement When reached by Kotaku, Microsoft confirmed Longo’s departure and sent over the following statement: Roles and responsibilities of various team members regularly evolve to meet the needs of a game, throughout development. We have recently had two changes to the Halo Infinite development team. Our Executive Producer, Mary Olson will now take charge of the Campaign team on Halo Infinite as the Lead Producer, utilizing her many years of experience at 343 to help craft a great campaign … [Read more...] about Halo Infinite

A team of modders working to make the unreleased Halo Online playable have halted work after Microsoft contacted them in an effort to protect its intellectual property. Developed for the Russian market and based in the Halo 3 engine, Halo Online would have been only the third game in the series to be playable online on PC. However, Microsoft ceased development in 2016. After this, modders began working on “ElDewrito,” a launcher for the incomplete game that added new features and made the game playable outside of Russia. Advertisement Last week the team behind the ElDewrito mod announced its 0.6 release was imminent with a new trailer. It got lots of people excited again at the prospect of a polished yet old-school Halo multiplayer experience finally being available again for people on PC. That trailer has since been taken down, followed by a post last night on the official Halo blog of developer 343 Industries explaining why continued development on the project was … [Read more...] about Halo Online

In a developer update posted last night, 343 Industries outlined ongoing plans to update Master Chief Collection, an anthology of Halo games for Xbox One whose multiplayer has been plagued with problems ever since it released in late 2014. Beginning last fall, 343 has been rebuilding MCC to take advantage of improvements in Xbox Live matchmaking. The studio plans to roll out a new round of post-launch beta testing later this spring for players in the Xbox Insider program. The studio similarly tried to beta test an update to the game back in 2015 only to ultimately abandon those efforts. In yesterday’s post, 343 attempted to outline why this time is different and some of the ways this new test version of the game will differ from the one people bought years ago. Advertisement According to Technical Directors Greg Hermann and Andrew Schnickel, MCC is being redeveloped with more modern matchmaking APIs (application program interface). To take advantage of them, as well as … [Read more...] about Three Years Later, The People Behind

At a UNESCO climate conference last week, scientists declared (once again) that climate change is already happening. The evidence is our wacky weather—even Paris, where the conference was held, was broiling in a historic heatwave. But the biggest red flag is the rise in peak global mean temperatures: Which means rising sea levels will almost certainly be a reality, too. As a lead up to the bigger UN climate conference this fall, scientists are now modeling two different warming scenarios to help humans plot a roadmap for how to avoid these futures. Status quo—or even going back to “preindustrial levels”—is no longer an option, even if we ceased all carbon-emitting activity right now. One scenario is if the planet will warm by 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, which would be very bad. The other is if the planet will warm by 4 degrees Celsius, which would be very, very bad. Advertisement In this month’s Science, a study looked at these … [Read more...] about US Coastlines Will Change Dramatically When Earth Warms by 2°C

We've been watching Apple and Samsung hammer each other for what feels like eons over who ripped off whom. And now the jury is in (shockingly soon): Samsung just lost almost everything. The case, which has centered over a panoply of patents relating to both hardware and software design, should settle one major argument once and for all: did Samsung rip off Apple's design when it started churning out touch devices of its own? Does Apple own the right to tech features that've become completely ubiquitous, like icon grids and black rectangles? The repercussions here are mammoth—this decision could literally and profoundly change the way our gadgets look for years and years to come. Advertisement Apple has contended that the entire mobile industry had nothing but messes of buttons and switches before Steve Jobs descended with the iPhone—after which point a unadorned glass face with rounded, bouncy icons became the de facto standard for pretty much every phone and tablet, … [Read more...] about Samsung vs. Apple Verdict: Apple Wins Huge