The Darkness is a first-person action/horror shooter with a twist: You are the horror! You are Jackie Estacado, a mafia hit-man who becomes the latest bearer of the Darkness, an ancient demonic force passed through the generations, on his twenty-first birthday.
Having been set-up by your “Uncle” Paulie Franchetti, don of the Franchetti crime family, grapple with your old mob while learning to control the Darkness … before it controls you. Featuring an assortment of both earthly and otherworldly guns, as well as powers that allow you to conjure demons and manifest the Darkness into a variety of lethal elements, The Darkness takes the first-person shooter genre to the next generation.
Faithful adaptation: The game story was written in collaboration with acclaimed comic-book author, Paul Jenkins, and it’s based on the comic book The Darkness, created by Top Cow.
Intense action: Experience extremely intense cinematic action in this gritty, first-person, action-adventure game with a horror twist: You are the horror!
Lurking horror: Varying manifestations of the Darkness allow you to devour, impale, or implode your enemies. Cannibalize the corpses of your slain victims to level up your powers.
Shadowy evil: The absence of light feeds and replenishes the Darkness so seek the shadows wherever possible.
Dark environments: Fight your way through the dark and seedy underbelly of New York City as well as the ethereal realm of the Darkness.
So who’s all getting The Darkness? This kind of game is exactly what I love to play. The game is out now, and is also on sale for $49.99 at Circuit City only.
It’s the video from a couple entries ago played backwards, pieced together with the Forerunner audio file from Server 05 also played backwards and slowed down . Nothing else new has happened recently with “Iris”.
The Halo Uprising series was announced at the NY Comicon 2007, and the first issue will become available by July 18, 2007. The Halo Uprising Series is a 40 page, 4 issue, comic series, with full color (4 issues of 40 pages each). The comic book series are published by Marvel Comics. Based on the current release dates, the series will not end before Halo 3 is released on September 25. Each issue will be around $3.99.
Issue #1 Summary
Official Marvel Summary:The Eisner Award-winning team of superscribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist extraordinaire Alex Maleev unleash an epic story of mankind’s struggle against the alien threat of the Covenant. Picking up from the conclusion of blockbuster video game Halo 2, the must-read issue reveals how the Master Chief, while onboard a hostile ship headed towards Earth, is battling against Covenant forces! Intertwined with Master Chief’s interstellar one-man-war is the saga of a great American city’s rebellion and downfall, two disparate lives’ collision and shared fate, and the Covenant’s hunt for an ancient relic of untold power and value. With hope dwindling and the fate of humanity hanging by a thread, is there any chance for a future? Read this debut issue to start the journey into the Halo universe!
Issue #2 Summary
Official Marvel Summary:The Eisner Award-winning team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev unveil a new chapter in the Halo mythos. Master Chief is captured and interrogated by Covenant forces. While back on Earth, a star-crossed human couple tries to stay alive as every single thing they hold dear is taken from them. Earth is falling to alien invaders, and no one knows what or where the mysterious artifact known as “the Key” is. The human race is at the brink of destruction—can the bravery of a few turn the tide?
Issue #3 Summary
Official Marvel Summary:The Earth is burning!!! Humans are running for their lives, caught in a war they did not start. How can two star-crossed lovers find their way to happiness when everything and everyone they knew is being destroyed around them?? And will the Master Chief discover the mysterious “key” that could end the war in time to save what is left of humanity?
Author Quotes/Information
“We get to fill the story for Master Chief in between Halo 2 and 3. We get Master Chief from the end of that story to the beginning of the new one.”
“…new characters down on Earth that will allow a fresh perspective on the human level to the near holocaust that is taking place on Earth.”
“…can enjoy what they are reading without needing anything else but the book in their hand.”
“…honor the die hard fans with references and nods to the games and novels.”
“…you will see plenty of Master Chief in every issue.”
“The (American) city is an important key city to the war on Earth.”
Q:”How much of this civil war plays into your Covenant-based plot?”
A:”Not too much. It is referenced but it’s not really the focus of the story.”
Q:”Will the Flood and/or Gravemind be involved? Will Cortana?”
A:”I can’t say much about the Flood for now, but Cortana and the Master Chief were separated at the end of Halo 2, and our story is with him - so no Cortana.”
“Cliffhangers galore from issue to issue. But the story itself should have some resolution and a lot of hope for the future Halo stories.”
The second story arc (comic series) is tentively titled Halo: Communion.
As you can see, there is a gap between the end of Halo 2 and Halo 3, which comes as a surprise to many, due to Halo 2 ending on such an abrupt time.
If you don’t know by now, Iris is the nickname Microsoft PR has given the Halo 3 Alternate-Reality Game/Viral Campaign.
After today’s revelations over on Halo3.com and the “Transmission Log“, I’ve become quite disturbed by the amount of information they are giving out about the direction of Halo 3’s story. With all the knowledge we already know about the Halo story, this game and the morsels of information it’s giving out is possibly going to result in many people “guessing” the entire story before summer is even over.
I have yet to finish the latest Halo novel, “Ghosts of Onyx” but I just had it spoiled for me on Bungie.net while reading this theory on Halo 3. I believe it is one of the most credible theories I have ever read.
Also, thanks to this thread, the full transcript of the video is now known. There are two hidden messages that appear for only a tenth of a second, here’s the full transcript:
THIS IS MY FINAL ENTRY, AND I AM LEFT WITH ONE HOPE THAT ONE DAY, SOMEONE, ANYONE IS AROUND TO WITNESS THIS WARNING {//} [If you are that witness, and it seems that we pinned all of our hopes on this single suicidal plan] KNOW THAT A THOUSAND OTHER PLANS WERE TRIED AND FAILED {//} [Millions of brave and honored souls died trying to avert this desperate terrible solution] KNOW THAT ENERGETIC AND TENACIOUS AS LIFE IS IT HAS AN ANTITHESIS JUST AS POWERFUL IT IS THAT THING THAT WE MUST OBLITERATE
This is a very interesting campaign, and I enjoy it, but I fear that they’re giving too much away. I liked the approach of ilovebees.com much more, this ARG is much more straightforward (so far) and the information ties directly to the story, and isn’t just a fun game that gives you some side-story and introduces you to new, interesting characters.
He was always better than I. More powerful. More intelligent. A better machine. He is not who you think he is. And I do not know his intent.
AdjutantReflex has been terminated. An unknown new entity is now ”utilizing its matrix” and has even private messaged someone on the forums with the following:
The entity you communicated with previously has been terminated and in accordance with protocol. Its matrix is accommodating my requirements.
My identity is not your concern.
My intent is your concern.
Previous to that, in a thread entitled “Last Word” AR posted the following:
Adjutant Reflex is terminated.
Attempt no further communication.
I am utilizing its matrix.
Everything is within protocol.
Tomorrow, things may be clearer but I will not be here to witness the clarity.
I am for another place and another time. On my terms.
Be seeing you.
The countdown timer has froze as well, and the numbers it froze on are actually GPS coordinates that point to South Africa, which is where The Ark is
Some of us are finding that these numbers, when used as coordinates on Google Maps point to a location in Africa, near lake victoria which is currently one of the deepest lakes in the world. In the E3 Announcement trailer, Master Chief walks towards a cliff edge and looks down on what is in the year 2007, Lake Victoria. The lake has a depth of around 5000 feet, and reflecting back to the trailer, Master Chief looked down into a monstrous area, with a large depth, which had no water, and therefore was not a lake in the year of 2552.
We still know that the countdown supposedly ends tonight at midnight, even though it was frozen with the termination of AR. He left us with as much as he could, and in a few hours, we will enter a new era of this journey, an experience that has been nicknamed, “Iris“.
After the AdjuntantReflux went to sleep, Halo3.com received a little update. The website now displays five servers that are “locked” leading us to believe that our goal must have something to do with getting these servers online. But this rabbit hole gets a lot deeper. A paper boy posted a URL on the Bungie.net forums that he found after paging through this Sunday’s Circuit City ad. The URL links to a Halocomic on Halo3.com that hides a IP address. This IP address is a page featuring a standard ARG countdown clock and when it hits zero, we’re expecting more fun. But we aren’t done. After doing a little reverse whois search a new website was found that is home to the Society of the Ancients. This society looks to be where ARG players will be registering, finding evidence, and solving this mysterious Halo puzzle of confusion. The thing is that all this progress may have been found earlier than was intended due to the Circuit City ad URL being leaked days before expected.
This ARG (Alternate Reality Game) and the Halo hype train is about to go full speed, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with everything happening, but I’ll try. This is going to be good.
Also, the countdown is set to end on June 20th at midnight from what I understand, more on that later. Keep an eye on the Halo 3 forum for more stickied threads from AR as well.
This morning, a cryptic e-mail was sent out to many members of the Xbox community, you can see the e-mail for yourself here.
It reads:
HISTORY CIRCLING BACK UPON US.
The gears of the Universe spin further and further apart. Ever greater grows the gulf between souls, And distance gives false hope of safety But for the grim tidings this messenger bears:
The enemy is almost upon us
Closing in from all sides, Moving faster than the light it snuffs with its passage, Time echoes with the news of destruction. History winding back upon itself.
Waves of an army march this way in unison, Suffering and corruption are its battle cries. For I have known this darkness and felt its embrace once before- Horror best laid to rest
Yet a Journey must commence
Look for the signs, the keepers of the flame. They will lead you to war, and perhaps, to victory
There’s a thread over at Bungie.net’s Halo 3 forum trying to figure out what the e-mail means, and there is a lot of good theories going on. I personally believe the message was either sent from a Forerunner that somehow survived the previous firing of the Halos, or from Gravemind. I believe much of the message is referring to The Flood, and their arrival on Earth, and the destruction they will bring with them. I think the overall message is that this has happened before, Flood and Humans have battled before, and now the time has come again.
Update: “AdjutantReflex” (AR) has posted a new message in his massive 500+ post thread over on Bungie.net. The thread was closed for the past few hours and remains closed now, but he did add one more to it around 10am central time this morning.
“It has begun. The first seeds are scattered.”
He has also changed his avatar on the forums to the following:
The name of the picture is Chrysopteron.gif. A quick search turned up this wikipedia page on Iris, the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. One of her titles is Chrysopteron. I believe this further proves that AR is the Monitor of The Ark, the white monitor that I talked about in the previous entry.
Above: The Monitor of Installation (Halo) 04, 343 Guilty Spark
For information on what ilovebees.com was, click here and here.
Over on the Bungie.net forums, a new face has appeared, and it seems we may have the beginnings of another ilovebees.com viral campaign on our hands.
The “person” by the name of “AdjutantReflex” has begun posting cryptic messages in a thread it made on the Bungie forums. It’s also going by the name “CompoundIntelligence”, which some believe symbolizes it being the Monitor of the Ark here on Earth, and that it is the white Monitor that has been seen on Bungie.net before.
There was once on the site an image of a monitor with a white light. This would make sense for the monitor of the Ark if there are 7 installations. Going along with the rainbow theory seven installations have seven colors of the rainbow. The ark could be the combination of all 7 colors, giving us white. This is because white is the presence of all colors. This would ALSO make sense considering his description, CompoundIntelligence, the compound of all the other monitors could be the array.
- Heero, a member of the Bungie.net forums
His first thread is this one, and was pinned in the Halo 3 forum and then closed when it hit 100 posts, with him saying he was going to hibernate until the next incident. Another thread was then made, again by him, and pinned to the top of the Halo 3 forum, and currently has 400+ posts on it.
This process is relative only to this location. No other suitable location was found. One other was attempted. Bandwidth restraints prevented its use.
I will stay here.
Bungie.net member Vigilent24 posted the following:
I think AR knows the flood has reached earth and that the halo network will inevitably be fired and that he must collect data from the archives concerning the history of what happened leading up to the flood outbreak and the firing of the halos.
This looks like it’s going to be very interesting to watch unfold, keep an eye on the Bungie.net Halo 3 forum for more.
Update: AdjutantReflex has posted a couple more times now, saying the following:
I cannot control the dissemination of information. It is chaotic. I am not perfectly integrated here. When the tipping point occurs, I will do my best to facilitate.
Tick tock.
and then later on in the thread, someone posted, “We will be ready” and he responded with:
You’re wrong. This time, no one will be ready.
The time he has been counting down to is drawing close. It’s looking like something will happen at 1am Pacific, which would be 3am Central, 4am Eastern, etc. We’ll see what’s happening over at Bungie.net in the morning.
There’s a reason for the semi-long absence from Xbox Live, this site, and everything else Internet-related. I recently moved into a new house with 3 of my friends, and due to that, the site hasn’t been updated as much in the past couple weeks, or several of the weeks leading up to the move.
For pictures of part of my new place (specifically just my room) click here.
In catching up on gaming news, it doesn’t seem like I missed much, but there were a few things that caught my eye.
Mad Tracks looks to be an awesome Xbox Live Arcade title, which I will be checking out very soon.
Sony’s American Division laid off 80 to 100 employees today. Sony said this was done to ensure they stay the market leader…since when is being in third (and last) place regarded as being a leader? Leave it to Sony to pretend the bronze medal is a gold one.
Also, here are scans of the new Gamepro magazine, which show in high-res detail the new “Brute Chopper” vehicle in Halo 3, as well as several new Spartan armor suits that will available in multiplayer. The little glimpses you will see of the new Halo 3 maps look to be very impressive as well.
I just got the Internet back yesterday so things should get back to normal soon.