Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: blackhole on May 25, 2008, 12:35:36 am

Title: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: blackhole on May 25, 2008, 12:35:36 am
The following is a paraphrased description of what my parents found while driving around Kirkland, Washington.

Quote
We were driving around the park area in Kirkland where the pancake house is, along with a nearby QFC. One of the buildings had been torn down and replaced with a non-descript, brown installation. Nearly all the windows were blacked out or frosted over, and the only entrance had a security guard posted, with a phone labeled "If you want to enter this building, use this phone." Accompanying this was an area of the parking lot clearly outlined in red paint, warning "PERMIT REQUIRED. 24 HOUR TOW-AWAY ZONE."

Naturally curious about this strange looking building, we attempted to talk to the security guard, but he was on his cell phone and started to move away as we approached him, so we abandoned that attempt. Clearly, this was some sort of secret, government installation doing high-tech research on chemical warfare... or something.

Determined to discover the identity of this strange building, we went in to the nearby QFC and started asking around the help desk. After several minutes of unsuccessful queries, one person out of the entire help desk staff was able to tell us what that building was for.

It was a development center for Microsoft's Halo game.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: General Battuta on May 25, 2008, 12:37:54 am
Are you sure it wasn't just Bungie Studios? They aren't a Microsoft studio anymore, although they did make all three Halos. And they're in Kirkland.

Allegedly their digs are quite nice.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: blackhole on May 25, 2008, 12:40:46 am
Actually, while bungie itself isn't part of Microsoft, the game is still published by Microsoft, so if you go around asking help desk people, they'll probably tell you its a Microsoft game :P

It might be bungie studios, I don't know. Even if it is, thats still a lot of security.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: IceFire on May 25, 2008, 08:50:27 am
Halo is just a cover for a secret government plot :)
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: haloboy100 on May 25, 2008, 01:20:31 pm
I've seen the bungie headquarters on the Halo 2 bonus CD. It's not a big brown building.

And, what, another Halo game? Bungie outta quit while they're ahead :doubt:
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: General Battuta on May 25, 2008, 01:22:19 pm
They're not making another Halo, I believe. I also believe they moved buildings since Halo 2.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Thor on May 25, 2008, 01:48:51 pm
yeah bungie isn't making more halos....doesn't mean MS can't though.  And if i was microsoft, i'd want to protect a secret like that....maybe they should get some marines to really throw off the gaming community.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 25, 2008, 03:05:58 pm
There's a full "day in the life of a bungie employee" film on the Halo 3 bonus disc...

I don't remember it being brown.. could be wrong though. Anyone else have it?
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Stormkeeper on May 25, 2008, 09:04:22 pm
I believe there is a Halo RTS game in the works for the 360.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: haloboy100 on May 25, 2008, 09:06:48 pm
Oh yeah. Forgot about that one.

It's called Halo Wars.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Stormkeeper on May 25, 2008, 09:08:31 pm
Interestingly, Halos Wars is NOT being developed by Bungie, but Ensemble Studios, which IIRC, were responsible for MechWarrior 4.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: haloboy100 on May 25, 2008, 09:09:28 pm
No, they made the Age Of Empires series.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Stormkeeper on May 25, 2008, 09:15:31 pm
I pretty sure they worked on the MechWarrior series at one point... ... Guess not. Looks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensemble_Studios) like they're worked on mostly RTS games, so it looks likes Halo Wars is in good hands.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: General Battuta on May 25, 2008, 09:40:28 pm
They never did any Mechwarrior, so far as I know. Nor Mechcommander, nor any other Battletech product.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Stormkeeper on May 25, 2008, 09:48:57 pm
Yea ... No idea why I thought that.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Mongoose on May 25, 2008, 10:23:34 pm
The Age of Empires/Mythology games were good stuff, so I'd expect the Halo franchise is in good hands with them.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: haloboy100 on May 25, 2008, 10:32:23 pm
Watch them all fail miserably...
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 26, 2008, 03:46:32 am
From what I've seen, Halo Wars doesn't look too good.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: achtung on May 26, 2008, 04:02:38 am
From what I've seen, Halo Wars doesn't look too good.

Halo in RTS form doesn't sound too good.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: General Battuta on May 26, 2008, 10:54:46 am
Also interestingly, Halo was first conceived and developed as an RTS. There might be some potential -- we'll see.

The interface, at least, looks reasonable for a console, and they've clearly put some effort into capturing the general feel (animation, character voice, weapon effects) of Halo combat.

I'm not entirely confident, but I'm open to it.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Mefustae on May 26, 2008, 11:54:51 am
Bah. I still think Halogen would have been better.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Stormkeeper on May 26, 2008, 11:56:07 am
I hope to hell this comes to the PC. I mean, RTS were meant for the PC in the first place.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: haloboy100 on May 26, 2008, 05:17:29 pm
I hope to hell this comes to the PC. I mean, RTS were meant for the PC in the first place.
QFT.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 26, 2008, 07:05:14 pm
There was this one game, Goblin Wars or something for the PS2, which was a pretty fun RTS. Well executed, and as good as possible on a console.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Stormkeeper on May 26, 2008, 08:17:49 pm
I watched a replay recently of a game a gaming magazine did ? 2 v 2 on C&C 3, 2 on the Xbox360, 2 on the PC.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Deepblue on July 02, 2008, 01:13:07 pm
That building is Bungie Studios. Halo Wars is being handled by Ensemble who did the AoE and AoM games.
Some pics:
(http://www.halowars.com/images/screenshots/screenshots_1280_008.jpg)
(http://www.halowars.com/images/screenshots/screenshots_1280_009.jpg)
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: redsniper on July 02, 2008, 02:24:25 pm
:blah:
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: colecampbell666 on July 04, 2008, 07:36:23 pm
That building is Bungie Studios. Halo Wars is being handled by Ensemble who did the AoE and AoM games.
Some pics renders which will probably look nothing like the actual game:
Fixed.

Why the :blah:?
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: NGTM-1R on July 07, 2008, 11:07:41 am
Actually I have it on good authority those are ingame shots, but stills tend to look nicer than gameplay anyways.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: General Battuta on July 07, 2008, 11:26:02 am
Yeah, I think they're in-game too...they look like the other Halo Wars screenshots out there. Pretty crisp.

Naturally, they won't look as good on a television.
Title: Re: Kirkland and the Secret Government Installation
Post by: Stormkeeper on July 07, 2008, 09:47:36 pm
Not as hyped up as I should be ... but whatever.