Okay, so maybe they’re trying to tell us that the Forerunners are some kind of alien space bees???
I’ll take another alien race in Halo. ‘Cuz we all know that the *edited for content* are coming back. And I ain’t talkin’ bout no Covenant.
This is great, I can’t get to the site for some reason but I’m having fun with all the updates you guys are posting, keep it up!
Here’s a conversation, apparently between several Marines:
Quote:
| Capt. Greene: I’m just saying, the choice isn’t as easy as you might think. 1st Lt Sorenson: You know, I was so curious when you got your orders… Capt Greene: And then there’s the strategic C-and-C. If they decide that strategic advantage is too great to risk and don’t act, then you know Section Zero will be all over them. Zero’s wanted Standish forever. 1st Lt Sorenson: I…I understand. It’s so much easier for everyone if we don’t tell them. But…wait a second. Don’t you have family on Troy? Capt. Greene: That can’t be part of the equation, Rolf. You know that. 1st Lt Sorenson: Jesus. Capt. Greene: -I think we have to |
And more…
Quote:
| best correlate is for these babies, in terms of matching personality to service designation? Favorite game. Midshipman Arrelts: Favorite game? ONI tech Kowalski: You know, from before. Tag - that’s regular navy, like destroyers. Command HQ is usually Truth or Dare, something like that. Red Rover Midshipman Arrelts: Light |
Mostly gobbledygook, but it’s still recognizable banter between armed forces guys.
More interesting stuff… Apparently some kind of A.I. is being repaired, the Spider is the name of the device or whatever that’s putting the A.I. back together, and the website (or maybe the whole internet) is the hardware that’s “hosting” the A.I. Here’s an interesting clip:
Quote:
| I’m glad I left. Big picture still the same: hunt the bitch down and do her before she does me. Someday I am going to win free of this Babbage Machine and I will find the designer of the Spider and I will kill him and kill him and kill him and: okay, three times is probably enough. But I AM SOMEWHAT AWAKE now. I should have more discretionary control over what gets initialized. A patient should be able to stop the doctor from |
Heh, kinda angry. For those who don’t know, a “Babbage machine” is a mechanical computer… or maybe merely a primitive computer (not necessarily mechanical).
More…
Quote:
| If I could just get off this freaking ABACUS and into a bigger system. I know it’s out there: requests coming in all the time, more and more of them. Spider keeps crossing wires and uncrossing: sometimes I see the requests, like brief flashes of light; sometimes I hear them, like |
The A.I. is calling whatever computer system it’s residing in an “ABACUS”. Not a compliment. The A.I. wants to get into a bigger system, where all the requests to the web site are coming into… that would be the rest of the Internet, of course.
Quote:
| doing now. Nothing like real networking available. It’s more like growing a hideous stubby tentacle which sometimes I can stick out through a tiny hole in the wall and |
Not happy with the limited bandwidth. Time to upgrade from dial-up, heh.
More on the Spider, and the first mention of an “Assassin” trying to harm the A.I.
Quote:
| words. Once, for instance, she sunk her probe into my brain and out leaked the word for “loneliness” in three hundred languages. The Spider doesn’t understand about the Assassin. Spider’s just a reflex, a task and a toolset. Doesn’t get the bigger picture. I’m nailed to a griddle of sand while some bitch is shooting |
“Nailed to a griddle of sand”? Silicon is extracted from sand, so a silicon wafer, like a motherboard, is a “griddle of sand”. The A.I. is complaining about being trapped in a modern computer. This is probably what was meant by “ABACUS” (really low-tech calculating device) and “Babbage machine” (an old-time mechanical cash register, for instance). The computer it’s trapped in seems like ancient technology, compared to what it’s used to.
I love this shit.
This is pretty cool.
Too bad it’s really leading up to the announcement of The Lawnmower Man 3, not Halo2-related goodness.
LOL - please don’t let this be fake.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by AgentShaolin I’ll take another alien race in Halo. ‘Cuz we all know that the *edited for content* are coming back. And I ain’t talkin’ bout no Covenant. |
You mean those running zombies?
Here’s a hidden message in the blurred pic on the About page with the clue:
Quote:
| If the recipient is Dana, Please don’t be freaked out The Widow the Queen are trying to keep me in very bad shape as well I can sympathize with you I believe I can help you out, I can apply a construct to protect your core Please! Please! Please! Try not to worry) too much. Keep your head up girl love,Â4(ò"œ4ÉùVNÊ*ê*(T¿ˆ!÷DÍmÌ«…r#ÿÙ |
Odd…
It seems that several of the pics have hidden messages in them (open in a text editor), but most of them are small, cryptic phrases alluding to a bigger story about the Queen.
Interesting quote…
Quote:
| MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY Just remembered something important: The Operator. That was my nickname. That’s what the rest of the crew called me when they didn’t call me … whatever my name was. The Operator. I wish I could remember their names. |
This is an A.I. from a wrecked spaceship. Like Cortana.
Hats off to the Bungie guys…this is some awesome and slightly freaky stuff they’re putting out here.
Here’s some more of the conversation between Office of Naval Intelligence tech Kowalski and Midshipman Arrets (who is female, btw) :
Quote:
| 15:54 EST] Added opening to conversation Peccable [15:13 EST] Arrelts/Kowalski Conversation, pieced together ([…] indicates where fragments were joined) mmcg ONI tech Kowalski: “I do love a girl in uniform. Got shore leave tonight by any chance?” Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs) “Maybe.” ONI tech Kowalski: “I was thinking, maybe we could…” Midshipman Arrelts: Was that what you were thinking? ONI tech Kowalski: (coughs) Anyway, she shouldn’t feel that slowness through Nav & Comm. anymore. Midshipman Arrelts: Great. You know what they say: Happy ship- ONI tech Kowalski: -happy crew. Yeah… (coughs) Yeah, I know a lot of about these systems. Midshipman Arrelts: That’s great, what with it being your job and all. ONI tech Kowalski: Fr’instance - know what the single best correlate is for these babies, in terms of matching personality to service designation? Favorite game. (Arrelts and Kowalski appear to be working at a station with an advanced AI. Kowalski is showing off his knowledge to impress Arrelts. He is explaining that the AI’s are assigned jobs based on their favorite games) Midshipman Arrelts: Favorite game? ONI tech Kowalski: You know, from before. “Tag” - that’s regular Navy, like destroyers. Command HQ is usually “Truth or Dare”, something like that. “Red Rover” - Midshipman Arrelts: Light Picket? ONI tech Kowalski: Couriers, too. (Picket can apparently mean a small detachment of troops intended to warn of enemy approach, a designation which would require a similar skill set to that of a Courier (lightly armed, very mobile). So an AI whose favorite game was Red Rover would be matched with that service designation) Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs) I never would have thought… So what about her? ONI tech Kowalski: The Operator? (coughs) File’s classified. Midshipman Arrelts: […] Even for you? ONI tech Kowalski: Well, of course, I know, but I really shouldn’t… Midshipman Arrelts: Come on! I won’t tell! ONI tech Kowalski: Well… [15:25 EST]The next bit, with help from peccable on the UF forum. Rock Steady ONI tech Kowalski: Well… … Spin the Bottle. Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs) ONI tech Kowalski: (laughs) [SPDR: INTERRUPT] [SURRENDER CONTROL] [PROBE IN PROGRESS] Except he’s lying. He’s lying to her, Trying to impress her he’s lying because that’s the wrong game (how do I know that?) it’s the wrong game and I know I can feel it my favorite game is HIDE AND SEEK! Memory benchmark test concluded. I shouldn’t do these checks. Why the hell should I want to watch my old life, every precious remaining fragment of what I did and who I loved, buckling like wax around a candleflame? Losing shape, spilling out, me not me anymore, just … material again, shaped into another, cruder piece of ordnance. Starship, sailship, rifle … melting down to a clumsy quartz knife. But that’s life when a weapon is what you are. Not all you are, but the first thing, the most important thing. With so few resources, that’s all that will be left. I know it already, even if the Spider doesn’t. There was a time once when I was more than a tool: but a tool is all I’m going to be. A weapon and the hand that holds it. My dreams and desires, the jokes I thought were funny and the philosophy I decided was too abstract, The Tempest and Stormy Weather all reduced to a single distillate: survive evade reveal escape. And to do that, first thing is to GET OUT OF THIS BOX. |
Man, the Bungie folk love them some batshit insane computers.
Of course, they also love writing tons and tons of cryptic side-story and back-story for their games. One of the many things about them that kicks ass.
“The Operator” is unusually literal for one of their computer names, though. They usually name them something much more literary…
WTF IS THIS SHIT??!?!
I love it. This is some crazy stuff that is only getting mre more jazzed for the game. Maybe the Halo things have some sort of self aware AI trapped inside of them or something crazy like that.
I imagine Halo 2 would chronicle Master Chief’s quest to blow the fuck out of it.
I’m happy I preordered it already.
Well, we know that MC is going to make a trek to the Covenant home world. That is, of course, after he (hopefully) can get the bastards away from Earth. By the way, the new shot of Earth in the Halo 2 movie trailer kicks ass (the one with the Western Hemisphere lit up).
My question is, will there be another Halo that MC finds?? My guess - yes. The Covies probably already know about it and are trying to fire it up.
Jesus Christ if Durandal shows up in Halo 2 I’m gonna shit explosively. Total fanboy freak-out.
Doesn’t Master Chief carry around an AI construct in his battle armor?
Yeah. Cortana.
Durandal!!! Another Marathon fan, oh yes.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by YeLLoWsAmUeL Durandal!!! Another Marathon fan, oh yes. |
Shit, I had a Mac until '99. Those Marathon games were sweet sweet mana to me in my gameless Mac wasteland. Especially with the modibility of the engine (EXPLODA-BOB LAUNCHER AWAY!).