Category Archives: News

The Update

Over the past three weeks we’ve been working on what you see now to bring back some of our ‘humanity’.

As you can see, no more Reviews or Gaming News Blog, having those features in 3.0 was primarily a result of ‘expanding’ into the general gaming industry, we’ve no interest in that, so I guess you can say we’re ‘contracting’.

On the other hand, we are pulling our act together and everything will be updated regularly, that means more than a single podcast every two months and the same goes for the news up top, finally the blog will contain anything the staff decide to stick on here.

So, onto the new look, we’ve changed things up a lot and some things may be tweaked in the not too distant future to make things even purtier.

Beginning with the homepage, you will notice the news box gained a little weight, there’s a reason believe it or not. As said above, we’re going to regularly update everything, that included the news box, there’ll also a be a few blog posts directly under the news box too, y’know because reading our rants every morning is all you guys live for right?

Secondly, the Real7alk News page, this is very similar to the homepage, except with the ancient news where the blog was.

Thirdly, the Staff Blog is exactly that, a place where we will post anything we feel like, don’t worry, we promise to keep it M Rated.

Then onto the Podcasts tab, the tab itself will lead you to the latest Podcast, though there will be a sub link to the archive where you can go back and treat your ears to the voice of Ryan and our guests.

The Forums, yep, new design for that too, as with the main site which has always been designed and coded from scratch, for the first time, this is now the case with the forum style too. This gave us a little more freedom to change things up a bit to not only keep the new Unique Real7alk look, but make everything as functional and user-friendly as virtually possible.

Q&A with Ryaaan14

Earlier this week Bungie interviewed Real7alk’s very own founder Ryan in regards to his below screenshot being printed onto the millions of Halo 3 Mythic Multiplayer disks around the world.

The interview is just below the screenshot if you haven’t already seen it on Bnet.

Q. Who are you and what’s your claim to fame?

Well, my full name is Ryan Wheeler, though most people will know me by my previous gamertag “a tuxedo cat” or my current one “Ryaaan14″. I’ve been actively involved with the Halo community since Halo 3 was released although I’ve been a longtime Halo fan. Some people may recognize me from the Halo 3 Forum’s “Screw Assassin Armor” thread where I Photoshopped a lot of obscure helmets on Spartan models, or the Photoshop Frankie contest where I lovingly placed Frankie’s mug on top of George Costanza’s body ultimately scoring me a shiny set of Recon armor. And of course, now being the person who captured the screenshot that is the face of Road to Recon and the ODST Multiplayer disc.

Q. What went through your head when we contacted you to ask if it was alright if we could use that screenshot as the disc art?

1. Uh oh, someone hijacked Brian Jarrard’s Bungie account.
2. Wait, this is perhaps legitimate.
3. How much have I had to drink today…
4. I need a new pair of underwear.

Q. We hope you got into some new skivvies by now. What originally got you into Halo?

Like I said before, I have been a hardcore Halo fan since Halo: Combat Evolved was released. It was always my go-to game when it came to having a blast with my friends. I still recall playing day-long LAN parties with my older college buddies when I was still in High School. Halo 2 got me through my wisdom teeth removal (I still have to replay the campaign to remember the storyline, I was so drugged up). And of course here I am now, a 24 year old guy living on my own in Chicago, playing Halo 3 and doing the most I can do to represent the community. It’s a beautiful representation of my life really.

Q. Are you a student of the art of screenshots or more of a casual photographer who happened to snap a sweet shot from the right place and right time?

Funny enough, I actually am a freelance graphic artist and photographer, although I think my Halo fanboy-ism is what got me hooked on the art of screenshots. It really brought a whole new element to the art of gaming. No one ever opened that door until Halo 3 introduced Theater Mode. You can go kick some ass in Matchmaking, then run back to Theater and capture a true masterpiece. The screenshot that made the ODST disc, funny enough, was one I had written off as mediocre. I normally invite a lot of trusting folks to a Custom Game, and give them direction as to what motions to do, where to look, etc. Then of course I spend some time in Theater looking for that perfect shot.

Q. Perfect. Did you get the care package we sent out?

Indeed I did. The team at Bungie was kind enough to pass around a gorgeous Halo 3 ODST poster, and have it signed by nearly 50 members of the team. I am not ashamed to admit that my eyes welled up just like a 10 year old boy opening up his Nintendo 64 on Christmas morning. It was really the icing on the cake of this entire experience.

Q. Want to sound off or make some shout outs while you’re drying up those tears?

First and foremost, I have to thank my pre-Recon, pre-Real 7alk, pre-ODST Disc friends who have always been there for me when I’m bored and feel like playing Social games. My community, Real 7alk, they are the best fansite members out there. My Real 7alk staff, Aaron (Vaisor), Bob (AusQB), and Dan (Predator5791), you guys are my bffs4l. Also, a huge thanks to the Bungie staff for somehow finding me in the plentiful haystack that is the Halo community. You guys always make my day, and I am going to continue to harass you for things, including helping me earn my ODST Vidmasters (and keeping me amused when I’m drunk and feel like playing Firefight).

Oh, and my awesome mom who is probably just as excited as me about this entire thing.

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Well that’s about it, keep your eyes peeled for more updates, we promise to keep it up.

If you have not yet checked out Bungie.net or seen the abundance of activity in our forums or if you’ve just been under a rock, we’ve been spotlighted! With it comes our time on Bungie Favorites, so go check out Bungie Favorites to see if your content is up there.

You can read the full story http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=20273 here or you can read my lazy ass copy pasta.

If you fancy yourself a part of the Halo community, you’ve no doubt come across plenty of players who call Real 7alk home. If all you’ve come away with from those meet and greets are a few new acquaintances, it’s about time you got a little bit more familiar. Good thing we roped them into this week’s Community Spotlight, eh? Read on to learn about the origins and present day machinations of the men and women who make up Real 7alk in the founder’s own words.

“Real 7alk was born out of pure boredom in the late Summer of ’08. I was sitting around at the computer, listening to the Official Bungie Podcast starring the god-like titans Brian Jarrard and Luke Smith. I thought it would be a fun little hobby to start up a Halo 3 Community Podcast. At the time I was a total n00b and didn’t even know any others existed, so I began pondering how I’d go about creating it. I asked a good friend of mine if he’d be interested in creating it with me, and he was totally on board. And that was that, really.

The fun part began when (somehow) we snagged DigitalPh33r for our very first feature guest on the show. Talk about getting things started on the right foot, eh? And the icing on the cake was our Community’s wonderfully talented screenshot guru Predator5791 appearing on the same show. After doing the interviews, we realized that this was an incredible way to meet some awesome people as we always got along with our guests so well. So well in fact, that our first Community guest, Predator5791, joined our staff almost immediately after our first Podcast was out. This was the thing that literally redefined our Group as a whole.

We continued to have these incredibly talented guests and we developed such a great relationship with them that we built a website, www.real7alk.com, where our members are moderated by these well-known Halo 3 figures in each of their specialty categories. RandomSauce of Halo 3 Mythbusters fame was one of the first on board after Predator, followed shortly thereafter by Bryan Simon (who has since left, but we obviously still love him and continue to want his children.)

So the pinnacle of Real 7alk went from just a cool group of people who liked to talk Halo, to a fansite that lets fans communicate with the very people who inspire them. And at Real 7alk, our staff doesn’t sit on pedestals above our users, we post just as much, and talk just as much nonsense as everyone else. No voice goes unheard on our site.

Our Podcasts remain our direct line of Communication to non-members and registered members alike. When we released our Podcast featuring Hawty McBloggy we began the Podcast Games. In the Podcast Games, our users post to sign up and we play a thrilling Humpday-style series of games that will precede the release of the Podcast. The well-known Real 7alk staff plus our featured guest for the episode versus our members. So far our members have kicked our asses with Hawty and montage extraordinaire Phurion. We’re still waiting to get our revenge.”

Q. What are your favorite maps?
A. It’s hard to really say, other than all of us on the site promote creativity, so of course we love Forged creations on Foundry or Sandbox. You really can’t beat when people can crank out thousands of maps that all have unique gameplay mechanics and bring something fresh to table.

Q. Favorite Gametypes?
A. I think most of us are Objective fanatics. CTF always brings a smile to everyone’s face. Whether it’s an intense stalemate on Avalanche where everyone’s sweating bullets and screaming at each other, or just laughing at the guy who can’t speed-cap the flag in a game of MLG Multi-Flag on The Pit.

Q. What would you like to see in Matchmaking that isn’t?
A. MORE USER CREATED CONTENT! Not just Arena maps for the MLG playlist, throw some in Social Slayer too! Oh, and on a personal note, make secondary colors show in team games, that would be sweet.