Happy Bungie Day to all, Have you got your recon? Did you see the new maps? Are you watching your Halo 3 kills on your computer yet?

Recon!

Today is a very special day for all of you Bungie/Halo buffs out there, why? Because if you have every DLC up to date you get the chance to play in the Bungie vs The World playlist and I’m wishing all of our readers good luck with that quest, here are the latest standings in the Bungie vs The World playlist:

Current Carnage
Bungie (Us) – 33
World (You) – 40
Ties – 6

(Let’s see 40 teams of 4 that’s 160 people that have won recon, if they’re giving recon to the 6 teams that tied that total goes up to 184 lucky gamers. I’d like to say congrats to those that are getting the recons.)

But wait, what about those of us stuck at work or that don’t have the reguired DLC can we still get recon? At the time of this writing you’d be about an hour or two late. But for those that visited Bungie.net earlier today you had a chance of winning recon by solving a (hard) puzzle.

After the break New Maps, and Bungie Pro Video!

New Maps!

Earlier today Bungie released some images from the new maps called: Heretic, Citadel, and Longshore. We’ve seen Heretic before as the Midship map from Halo 2, Here are the images and some descriptions.

Click on the images for larger versions!

HERETIC

Heretic returns players to familiar ground as the Halo 2 arena “Midship” makes its long-rumored debut in Halo 3. The stark interior of the Pious Inquisitor might appear austere on first glance, but Heretic’s symmetrical spaces require players to execute complex strategies in order to outplay their opponents.

CITADEL

Citadel may be a long abandoned Forerunner stronghold, but its small, symmetrical confines are far from secure. Two opposing bases offer little safety for players looking for solace. Instead, Citadel forces small squads to stay in constant communication, keep their heads on a swivel, and be prepared to adjust combat tactics in close quarters.

LONGSHORE

Longshore lacks the commercial ships that once made it a lucrative port for Old Mombasa, but it still bustles with activity. Designed for large scale combat and well suited for smaller affairs, Longshore’s multitude of industrial buildings, elevated walks, and open inlets conspire to create a complex battleground tailored for multiple combat scenarios.

Bungie Pro Video is Live

Details, Details…

• Bungie Pro Video lets you take your Halo 3 Films Clips (or anyone else’s) and turn ‘em into videos you can watch on any computer with a player that supports the WMV format
• Bungie Pro Video comes bundled with Bungie Pro at no extra charge
• Your rendered videos can be viewed by anyone on the web and saved to your local hard drive
• Bungie Pro Video users will automatically be granted five (5) render minutes per month, awarded on the day you purchased Bungie Pro (or at month’s end in the case a date falls on the 31st.)
• Render minutes granted via this monthly method will NOT roll-over month-to-month—you gotta use ‘em or lose ‘em
• Additional minute packs will soon be available through the in-game Halo 3 Media Menu/File Share for 100 Microsoft Points each, they do not expire and DO roll-over from month to month

Our beta users have already gave Bungie Pro Video a thorough testing, creating tens of thousands of gameplay videos to ensure that the system works as advertised. If you want to see samples of what Bungie Pro Video offers, all you have to do is click into the complete collection and pluck out something that strikes your fancy.
We think you’ll find that Bungie Pro Video is a pretty sweet tool for capturing and sharing your OMGWTFBBQ moments in Halo 3. Whether you’re looking for a way to bolster your smack talk or simply show off your sweet plays, Bungie Pro Video is the tool for the job.

To find out even more about what you can expect when you purchase Bungie Pro for 750 Microsoft Points, go ahead and check out our new and improved Bungie Pro Project Page. It’ll get you up to speed on all the features, both new and old, and walk you through the process of purchasing and using Bungie Pro and Bungie Pro Video.

Got Some Splainin’ To Do
If the details above haven’t sent you spiraling into a dark place from which no player can return, we’ve got even more!
Your Film Clips can be rendered in two WMV flavors: Standard (360p) and High Definition (720p). Standard Definition looks great and it’s light weight enough for streaming. Should you elect the SD video option, we’ll host it right here on Bungie.net for a few months (we love to share). For streaming, you can copy and paste the code from the content page and our Silverlight Media Player will handle the playback on any website that allows video embedding.

The HD flavor rocks a pretty hefty 6Mbps bitrate, so it’s not suitable for on-demand streaming. You gotta find your own host if you want to embed this bad boy. If you’re an auteur looking for the best video quality, HD is what you’re after. Once you’ve rendered the video, make sure to save it to your hard drive. Since HD video requires much more horsepower for us to crank out, it’ll cost you 5 render minutes from your account for each minute of HD video. But we’ll also toss in an SD version so you can still stream it from our player.
Right-click and download to check out a sample in HD
Since we can’t host your videos forever (you can expect a few months of hosting from us at no charge), you should save your videos down to your local hard drive no matter which quality you choose to run with. From there you can stream the videos straight to your Xbox 360, edit them with whatever video editing software suite you choose, or upload them to any hosting solutions you have access to in order to share ‘em with the world.

…And Even More Details
You might have noticed that the text above doesn’t talk much about Halo 3: ODST—for the sake of clarification and transparency, Bungie Pro Video should be considered a Halo 3 feature at this time. While Bungie Pro Video is designed to work perfectly with the secondary Halo 3 disc included with Halo 3: ODST, the video rendering functionality is NOT enabled for Halo 3: ODST’s Campaign or Firefight modes. Whether or not Bungie Pro Video will be made available for Halo 3: ODST’s original content in the future is to be determined. Of course, the File Share expansion provided by Bungie Pro will work just fine with Halo 3: ODST, this caveat only covers Bungie Pro Video.
If you need more information about Bungie Pro or Bungie Pro Video, check out our fancy Bungie Pro Project Page.

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