Shigeru Miyamoto must be jealous of the spotlight being on Ken Kutaragi lately, here's his attempt to sound more crazy:

"I could make Halo. It's not that I couldn't design that game. It's just that I choose not to. One thing about my game design is that I never try to look for what people want and then try to make that game design. I always try to create new experiences that are fun to play."

I'm sure many Halo haters will agree, that Halo is a pretty cut and dry FPS, but it's still a damn good one. Well, I'd argue the second was, and not the first, but obviously both sold well. Miyamoto's strategy of shoving things we don't want in our mouth, and then us realizing, yeah this does taste pretty good with the blood of my severed tongue, has been an award winner until recently. He was hired to literally save Nintendo, and delivered numerous solid game series, and the Wii has been sculpted by his view of the future lying in gamers growing up and wanting to play with their families.

Bold as usual, but with the industry that's grown so large, his methods are starting to be beat out by more competitors. So you fail Miyamoto, you're nowhere near as crazy as this cockfag. You totally could make Halo. But instead of Earth being surrounded by a halo, it'd be a triforce, and that would be totally inefficient. Green men > green fairy dudes.

This fan video puts the 2D staged Ryu vs Scorpion battle to shame. Montyoum's video starts off as a simple Matrix styled fight between Master Chief and countless covenant enemies, with sketchy 3D animations and iffy textures that had me thinking I was going to be disappointed. Before long though, Montyoum rips out all of the rules and unleashes impressive action scenes you've always wanted to play out on Xbox Live. Master Chief throws an entire Warthog into the air and catapults himself behind the vehicle using it as a massive shield, followed by fending off dozens of plasma swords using his sniper rifle to deflect the blows.

There was a point in the video where I thought it was all over and I was pretty damn satisfied, but the video was only half way done and a big surprise was about to come. The fighting further escalates when Metroid's Samus Aran randomly rolls into the battle, and all of a sudden you've got shots ricocheting off of plasma shields in tandem. The Matrix styled action then takes a Star Wars twist and picks up pace. Who will win? Samus Aran or Master Chief? I won't ruin the surprises, just sit back and enjoy. Montyoum's already answered most of his watchers' questions here(scroll down), and you can check out his other kickass work from the past here and here. Montyoum plans on releasing several more of his fan projects in the future and I'll definitely be posting them all.

Two new Halo 2 maps will be available for download on April 17th, for just $2 bucks each. I mashed together the two new screenshots above, but you can check out the originals below. The new maps are named Tombstone and Desolation, here's their official descriptions:

The king of “Halo” maps has returned at last. Hang ’Em High, arguably the most popular multiplayer map for the original title, has been reimagined for “Halo 2” as Tombstone, with all-new graphics, features and a few hidden surprises. Now fans will enjoy the dangerous catwalks and trenches that made this the most requested “Halo” multiplayer map ever, with a modernized “Halo 2” flavor.

The second map, Desolation, is a symmetrical, Deathmatch-oriented map and a beautiful remake of the original Derelict. With new graphics and effects and a massive gameplay overhaul, the old favorite is now faster-paced and more balanced than ever — perfect for intense “Halo 2” combat.

You'll need an Xbox Live Gold account to download and play them though. I'll get them both, but I'll definitely be playing Tombstone way more than Desolation, Hang 'Em High was my favorite map in the first Halo game. Actually, it was pretty much the only multiplayer map I really liked in the original, Halo 3 better have some addictive levels for online play. Maps like Zanzibar that have gameplay progression flow even in multiplayer are my favorite, I'd love it if Bungie took the idea of a moving level, like in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and made an orbiting space travel level where the environment changes ships every few minutes. If you don't hop onto the next spacecraft in time you're left behind and have to commit suicide to catch up.

Last month we learned that Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360 was going to include some extra content that wasn't on the PlayStation 2 version, and the rumors are starting to pick up Spartan speed. The extra content will be ten additional songs available for download on the Xbox Live Arcade, with one of them rumored to be the Halo theme song that was recorded on the Halo 2 soundtrack (Mjolnir Mix). This rumor spawned from the March issue of Xbox Official Magazine, so you'd think they might be privy to some inside information, but then you remember that the day after March is none other than April Fool's Day, so don't get your hopes up.

It makes sense to me though - a good amount of people who bought the Halo games in the past will probably also buy Guitar Hero 2 when it comes out. Giving them the possibility to rock out to their favorite game music is exactly the type of thing I can see Microsoft striving for, simply for  further bragging rights against the original PS2 game.

There couldn't be two more contrasting movie mashups than a homosexual Halo movie compared to a film that brings out the Spartan in Master Chief. The first is a minute long movie trailer based on the love between a human and a covenant alien despite coming from different worlds. And the video below contains different Halo game and commercial footage played to the audio from the 300 movie trailer. The elephant sound effects are a bit out of place, but the video editing actually matches up scenes to the audio well. I think I'm more excited to see 300 than I am to play Halo 3. I want to see more of these movie mashups - if someone can make a successful Little Miss Spartan video I'll actually be impressed.

Update: Here's a remix of the Halo 300 movie trailer below. The beginning is a little slow, but its clips are more effective at some parts. Thanks for sending it in Anthony! Send in other Fake game movies and I'll put them up as well. 

 

Rock out! Watch these Halo dudes playing the Halo theme music that Martin O'Donnel and Michael Salvatori created. And look - that dude's not a dude! She joins in with her violin skills, I wonder if this is a family of brothers and sisters? It's a bit boring to watch, but their performance is actually a bit different than the original, but not in a bad way, just with a different tone in parts.

If I ever have kids I'll definitely be paying for their guitar lessons so I can get personal video game music concerts on demand. I'll even turn it into a game - I play Halo 2 (Halo 3 by the time I have kids) and when I pause the game they have to stop playing. If they don't then they get more chores. Yah, I'll be the coolest dad on the block. I'll might lose custody but I won't lose to them in Halo, that's for sure.

French mobile developer In-Fusio agreed to pay Microsoft four payments of $500,000 over the period of 2006 to 2008 for the rights to develop a mobile Halo game, with Microsoft helping them with guidance, feedback, and final game approval. The contract also allowed them to develop Halo: Mobile Portal, which would be a cellphone service to check Xbox Live statistics, tips, wallpapers, and ringtones. But after they first payment, In-Fusio was denied design approvals and the feedback needed to continue development the game further. So In-Fusio convinced Microsoft to delay the second payment, but nothing changed, and In-Fusio went from mad to outraged when Microsoft threatened them with 'breach of contract.' Microsoft hasn't responded to the lawsuit yet, but I doubt they're very afraid

Major League Gaming is at it again - in June the MLG paid 5 gamers over a million dollars total to become exclusive members to their tournaments. Business must be doinggood because they just signed up the four man team Carbon and three members of the Str8 Rippin team for a grand total of $1.25 million over three years. The Str8 Ripping team mates can now join their team leader in the MLG, who was part of the money exchange in June that bought their captain Tom "Tsquared Taylor."

Team Carbon is the defending Halo 2 team champions, and contains the following players: Chris "Shockwave" Smith, Scott "Gandhi" Lussier, Ben "Karma" Jackson, and Eric "Ghostayame" Hewitt. Pretty lame nicknames if you ask me, but they're the 4 who received $1 million of the recent deal, with the remaining $250,000 being split between Str8 Rippin's Carlos "Cpt. Anarch" Morales, Alfonso "Fonzi" Chartier, Peter "Foulacy" Dietrich. Str8 Rippin is considered by most to be the third best MLG team behind Carbon and Final Boss (cool name!), and I believe you can still watch the MLG competitions on channel USA on Saturday mornings at 10 A.M. ET/PT.

Occasionally you find hot gamer girls, and it's not rare that you soon after find out they're Bungie loving babes. I can't think of any other gaming series that attracts so many attractive ladies, although it's hard to call them gamers when the majority of them just play Halo and flirt to no end on Xbox Live. However, whether you're a fragging flirt or have a Halo whore of your own, here's the perfect shirt to get a gamer girl to wear. You get bonus points if you can actually pick up a girl wearing this shirt by asking her if you can see her Maw.

I don't post this late in the PM often, but how can I pass up posting the new Halo 3 commercial that was shown on EPSN tonight? Sit back and enjoy, it's looking as good as I'd hoped. I can't imagine how epic the 3rd game will be. No matter how much Bungie shows us it will just never be enough until we have the game in our hands.