The Great Halo Schism and Halo 2

If you're reading this, one of the thoughts that may be plaguing your mind at the moment is "ware iz meh Halo 2 guide tyrantz?!"  This is one the leading questions I get asked on a day to day basis.  Yes, it's true that in the past I've shunned the game, and many of you already know that I consider it to be the black sheep of the series, but that hasn't stopped me from promising a guide eventually.  So now the question is, with Mythic and Legendary guides already in play for Halo  3, ODST, Reach, and soon to be Anniversary, what's the hold up?  I'm here to educate you on why I've been holding back and when you could possibly expect the first guide to pop up.

My original niche in the community was the Halo campaign overlord.  Yes, I'm being a bit egotistical with that title, but I've been told by even the developers that my guides tend to be the most referenced within the community itself.  That's quite a compliment coming from the people that I continue to admire and look up to on a daily basis.  This, of course, started back with my first guide produced on HBO back in mid 2008, and when the "Mythic Difficulty" became an avenue to earn Recon Armor the following year, it's presence exploded like a viral plague. 

Now under pressure for the community, I continued my "Mythic tradition" through ODST and Reach, but was ultimately very proud of my work and extremely grateful that I could use my knowledge of the campaign to help others in need.  The sense is nothing short of rewarding.

Following the close of the Reach Mythic Guide, I decided to start my own path and this was the birth of the Tyrant Productions YouTube Channel (mythictyrant.com).  Admittedly this was my biggest personal downfall as someone who eventually wants to turn his hobby into a legitimate business.  YouTube had been a BIG thing for years, and I was getting into the act very late in the game, not just by YouTube standards, but also by the Halo Community's.  The channel officially began in November of 2010 and became the hub for all of my video guides.  With Bungie's support, I was able to gain the attention of MUCH of the Halo community.  They were the backbone of my channel's traffic.

However, in mid 2011, what I commonly refer to as the "Great Halo Schism" occurred in which Bungie relinquished themselves from Microsoft's grasp by forfeiting the rights to Halo.  The damage wasn't apparent at first, but once 343 Industries stepped up to the plate to become the main Halo hub via Halo Waypoint, it resonated like a tremendous West Coast earthquake.  The community slowly became divided between what had been their main Halo hub for nine years and the newly formed Halo Waypoint.  Soon, Bungie "went dark" all together, leaving the community to find their own way.

As I said before, up until that point, Bungie had been my main source for advertisement.  With millions of people surfing their site on a daily basis, and many of my guides being posted on their front page within a day or two of release (even once in the Weekly Update!), it wasn't unusual for my guides to receive 10,000-15,000 views on a regular basis with some going above 20,000.  When the Great Halo Schism hit, it hit hard.  The change could almost be seen over night.  With no source to connect people to the site other than the current subscribers, I was pulling in roughly 1,000-2,000 hits per guide video.  Had this been a business rather than a channel, I would have viciously sought the nearest buyer.  For those of you trying to do the math, that's roughly 90% traffic drop.  Looking at my video history, you can plainly see when and where this occurred.

343 Industries, the division of Microsoft handling Halo's production, sought out well-known community members to help bring them on board to the new order of things.  I'll give them props for trying, and hopefully with time, they can slowly regain the same popularity that Bungie.net had earned over the years, but even when they would post my items in their blog (which hasn't been nearly as often as Bungie), at best the guide videos would get roughly 2,000-3,000 hits.  To this day, the highest count post-Schism is around 6,300.  Not bad, but still severely less than how it began.

I do blame myself for much of this as I wish I had gotten into the game much earlier on.  Perhaps if I had gained more initial subscribers I wouldn't have felt the impact as badly as I have, but alas we cannot change history, so it remains to be what it is.

Recently, I've been in talks with a company called Game Station--a large YouTube network made up of popular gaming communities, and as of right now, partnership with them is in the works.  My hope is to gain back at lease SOME of the traffic that I lost after the Schism so that I may continue to reach out to people and spread the love of my guides.  Until then, we're still on the slow train.

Many of you have asked about the Halo 2 guide, especially since recently I've veered slightly off course with other games such as World of Warcraft, but here's the deal, subscribers.  When I create guides, I do it for two reasons.  The first is that I enjoy playing the game a lot, and in doing so, I learn to reverse engineer many of the campaign mechanics.  This leads to my second reason.  I like sharing those secrets and strategies with the world to help other folks better their experiences with the game.  What I do not do is make these guides for entertainment purposes.  The jokes and comments you hear are simply my nature and are a side benefit to the folks who watch my work.  So when I'm inquired to do things like pain-staking tasks in current games, OR going back and making a guide for a game I really didn't enjoy, I see little to no benefit from it.  If only a few hundred people are going to see it versus the tens of thousands who used to, is it really worth all the time and effort?  Hence I have made a bargain with my community.  I will commence with the Halo 2 Legendary guide ONLY when and if my partnership with the Game Station is finalized.

So what can you the viewers do?  If you're one to simply watch my videos and move on, while your views are appreciated to a point, you also do the least amount of anyone to pass through my site.  Many others take the next step and like, comment, and subscribe.  Others go even further and solicit my work to their own friends and colleagues to attract more attention to the videos I work so hard to produce.  A few people in the community have even gone as far as to actually taking advantage of the DONATION button on the right side of the mythictyrant.com homepage and have actively and financial found ways to help the site continue onward.  These folks are the true heroes in my eyes and have the most leverage in what I post and what I don't post.

So now you know the story.  There are many great things to come for mythictyrant.com, but you as the subscriber must take action as well.  Even if that means giving videos a chance that aren't Halo related.  Since I do play other games other than Halo (there's only so much I can do with campaign), give them a try.  Even if the game is different, if you primarily watch for the commentary and jokes anyway, than I doubt you'll be disappointed by what you see and hear.

Thanks again for reading my wall of text, and more so, for continuing to stick by me and my community as we continue to grow!

Love,
The Tyrant

Origins of "Women of Xbox"

As many of you know, I began my YouTube channel (mythictyrant.com) in late 2010 by producing video walkthroughs of my favorite game series "Halo", and to this day, the gaming guides remain to be the primary focus of my work.  I love being able to share my knowledge with the community and helping folks when and where I can to help them dominate what I consider to be the most revolutionary series of our generation.  I had started writing walkthroughs in early 2008 on a site called "HBO" (halo.bungie.org) shortly after developing and conquering an in-game mode now known as Mythic Difficulty--a more refined version of the LASO challenges found in Halo: Reach--and wanted to be able to post more guides on a regular basis that would give folks a visual of the mission from start to finish rather than always being forced to read pages and pages of text.  I myself am a visual learner and suspect many other gamers out there are as well.

Shortly after my channel began, I started dating a girl who feigned interest in gaming long enough to reel me in.  In the months to come, I learned that not only did she not play video games, but in fact despised them and absolutely hated what I did on YouTube.  Her reasoning was "it will never get you anywhere in life".  Looking at successful companies like Rooster Teeth--folks who started out small just like me--I found that very hard to believe.  But even so, it didn't matter.  I still enjoyed what I did (and still do) regardless of whether or not it would transform into a career.  She once went as far as to saying that if I ever placed a ring on her finger (and thank God I dodged that bullet), the Xbox was going in the trash.  Keep in mind, of course, that I do not consider myself a hardcore gamer.  I don't play everyday, and when I do, it's typically for work purposes--guides and videos for the channel.

I tried numerous times to get her to at least give it a try, and if she didn't like it, THEN she could hate on it.  To me, test driving a new hobby is much like trying a new type of food.  You can't really bash it until you've at least experienced it.  However, she refused and continued driving my channel's progress into the gutter.

However, we had a mutual friend, female, who was no stranger to games.  She was absolutely in love with them, owning both a 360 and a Wii as well as a whole pile of games.  She loved playing, and whenever she visited, we'd often play together.  She was the first girl I'd ever met who actually had a true passion for gaming, and I grew to appreciate it deeply.  

Relax.  The thought of cheating never crossed my mind.

A few months later, I attended PAX 2011 and learned that she was far from being one of a kind.  There were entire organizations dedicated to female gamers from all over the world!  Groups such as the PMS Clan and the Frag Dolls proved to me that not only were there women out there who didn't classify gaming as a "men's-only" activity--which is absurd to begin with, but that many of them were some of the top gamers on the planet; even competing and kicking ass in the all-powerful MLG organization.  These ladies are actually PAID to steamroll everyone else out there and do a fantastic job with it.

After meeting with these talented women, I was inspired to create a new show on my channel; one that would both champion the female gamers of the world as well as encourage others to play who may have previously been sexist towards the activity.  Halo's Grifball community manager Goosechecka, bravely stepped up to the plate and took the show by the reins.  Her presentations were nothing short of incredible with each show bringing in well over 1000 views.  Her sense of humor and insane Halo skills spread like wild fire, taking the community by storm.  Since then, many other talent gamers have stepped forward as well and presented their skills on the show, making me proud to be associated with such a positive organization set out to do the world some much needed good.

The relationship that brought me to this point was a painful one, but it did inspire me.  Thanks to that, my appreciation for the female gamers of the world has never been greater.  The goal of the show remains the same; to champion the talents of the community, share them with the world, encouraging others to play, and eventually bringing the online hate to a halt.  Ambitious, I know, but I dream big, and that's how nearly every revolutionary global accomplishment started... with a dream.

Shrine: A Modern Apocalypse?

With the premiere of "Shrine" drawing ever so nearer, many of you might be wondering about the concepts surrounding it, and why you should be interested.  You've seen the cryptic messages depicting a US President preparing to plummet the country into a war with potentially cataclysmic results, but what's the story behind it?  How did the country get to this state?

To put it quite simply, that's what the majority of the film is about; the background surrounding the man in white, why he's in control of the Free World, and what has sparked the current conflict depicted in the May 2011 trailer.

There are FIVE main characters in "Shrine".  Each of them shares a major significance to this film, but not just on the surface.  They also have a metaphorical meaning to their existence as well.  Shall we examine them?

Eugene Slavick:  Driven by the will of the Syndicate (as discussed in the last article) is the man who basically raised Victor Trevelyan (the future US President).  His ideas of hostility to achieve perfection have played a major role in Victor's current view on the world, and the use of the Red Toxin increased his ability to do this.  Slavick represents the Horseman of Conquest.

Melissa Carmichael:  The best friend of Skylla (the girl in the second trailer) and the main private eye behind the Syndicate's dark secrets, her primary focus is to uncover their true intentions before it's too late.  To do this, she's using Skylla as a vessel to get through to the person who seems most likely to be the group's key focus... Victor Trevelyan.  Unfortunately, she makes a fatal mistake when she orders Skylla to leave the country after a rather unfortunate event unfolds involving the future President.  Because she removes the last hope to subdue this hostile future, she represents the Horseman of Famine.

Emily Ceulex:  Though she is the adopted sister of Victor, she feels a much stronger connection to him than one that simply goes beyond that of family.  Influenced by her father, Slavick, she's forced to make Victor come to terms with his destiny by spreading the influence of worldly evil.  By condemning Victor with the ways of the Syndicate, she has become the Horseman of Plague.

Skylla Mlynczak:  Serving as the only true light in Victor's life, she works tirelessly to keep him on the right side of the playing field.  Knowing that the man has two equal but opposite halves, she is the only one who can truly turn the tide of his internal struggles of understanding himself and his meaning in the world.  However, love is a powerful thing, and one mistake can send it on an unexpected, spiral journey downward, making it even worse than it was before.  Her misdirection ultimately seals the deal, giving her the title Horsemen of Death.

Victor Trevelyan:  He himself has spent most of his life being formed by the other four.  His destiny is slowly revealed to him through his trials and tribulations of evolution.  However, his future actions are undeniably horrific, and combining his borderline insanity with his new found Presidential powers backed by the will of the extremely powerful Syndicate, Trevelyan finds himself NOT to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at all, but rather Apollyon himself; the destroyer; the bringer of Armageddon.

Now the question remains... in the end, who will prevail?  Good or evil?  "Shrine" consists of twenty episodes depicting his past, present, and future, but only the final episode will determine the fate of the world.

The "Shrine" Database: Part I

The Syndicate

On the outside world, very little is known about this secretive collective of powerful men from all over the world.  Believed to be a derivative of the Free Masons, the Syndicate's ranks remain small as to be undetected by the outside world and to keep their agendas in the shadows.  The people who run this organization are generally referred to as "Elders" or "the Council"

On the inside, their main objective seems to be maintaining a certain level of balance in the world, plotting and executing catastrophic events for the sole purpose of alterting the balance of power.  Earliest evidence of Syndicate encounters date all the way back to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.  Since then, they have been tied to revolutions in both France and America as well as the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the more recent Cold War.  Very little has been uncovered to connect them with the current War on Terror, but it is believed that they are somehow involved in the current economic crisis that plagues the globe.  Their full current agenda remains to be a mystery.


Phantoms

Known as the "dark assassins of the Syndicate" very few have managed to see one of these monsters up close and survived to tell the tale.  Many of them pose to be extremely large (spanning nearly seven feet in height), muscular, and sporting dark clothing such as black overcoats and fedora-type hats.  Newer evidence suggests that these articles of clothing have been constructed with a type of state-of-the-art ballistic-proof fabric which protects them against most modern variants of gunfire and small blades.

In terms of weaponry, Phantoms have never been witnessed using firearms but rather a small, cylindrical device the size of a small flashlight known as a "gimlet".  It appears to be a cross between a switchblade and a hypodermic needle capable of piecing the skin and injecting the toxin in carries.  It can be both activated and deactivated using a small switch located on the side.  Curiously, some folks who are "infected" by this weapon are merely brought into a state of periodical comatose while others are killed instantly or shortly after the initial puncture.  Injection is thought to be automatic upon penetration.

Red Toxin

Another product of the Syndicate, the "Red Toxin" is thought to be the liquid stored inside the gimlet weapons wielded by both Council members and Phantoms alike.  Traces of adrenaline, PCP, and a light anesthetic have been isolated from the liquid, though how it was engineered remains to be a mystery.  On most individuals, the toxin forces the brain into overdrive causing massive brain seizures that ultimately result in fatal aneurisms.  However, in a select few, the short time effects cause the victim to pass out with side effects of delusions reported in the few that survived Red Toxin encounters.  Larger dosages over an extended period of time generate different side effects.  Reports of enhanced strength along with resistance to pain have been reported along with increased muscle mass of the body and decreased awareness of the mind.  Survivors of the infection can be identified by the blood seen swimming in their eyes.

It has since been suggested that the primary use of this substance is ultimately for mind-control purposes for those capable of surviving its initial effects.

More reports to come soon...

Halo Anniversary Mythic Difficulty: Rhyme & Reason

Hey guys!  Your friendly neighborhood Tyrant here :)  

Last week I began publishing my video guide for Halo Anniversary Mythic Difficulty on www.mythictyrant.com, starting with the "Pillar of Autumn".  As many of you know, the skull pallet of Halo Anniversary is quite different than the one presented to us in Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo Reach.  To give you a quick comparison:

Standard Mythic  Skulls

1) Iron: Eliminates checkpoints.  If you die, you restart the mission.  Arguably the "heart" of Mythic.

2) Mythic: Doubles enemy health.

3) Tilt: Enemy shields become nearly invulnerable to human ballistics.

4) Black Eye: Your shields no longer automatically recharge.  You must bash an enemy to regain them.

5) Catch: Enemies throw grenades much more often.

6) Tough Luck: Enemies are more likely to dodge your attacks.

7) Thunderstorm: Ranks of enemies increase by one level.

8) Fog: Use of your radar becomes unavailable.

9) Famine: Ammo you retrieve from downed forces is half of what it is normally.

10) Cowbell: Explosion radius is increased.

11) Grunt Birthday Party: Nailing a Grunt headshot rewards you with confetti and children cheering.

12) IWHBYD: Characters say rare expressions more often.

13) Blind: Removes your HUD, arms, and weapon from the screen entirely.

While it is widely believed that Blind should at LEAST enable you the ability to see your arms and weapon and simply remove the HUD to make aiming a bit tougher, the above pallet makes the game both challenging and balanced.

Anniversary, however, introduced a new set of skulls.  Many contradicting others, and some redundant to others.  Here's a list.

Anniversary Mythic Skulls

1) Iron: Eliminates checkpoints.  If you die, you restart the mission.

2) Mythic: Doubles enemy health.

3) Black Eye: Bash an enemy to regain shields or grab a health pack.

4) Fog: Use of your radar becomes unavailable.

5) Famine: Ammo you retrieve from downed forces is half of what it is normally.

6) Grunt Birthday Party: Nailing a Grunt headshot rewards you with confetti and children cheering.

7) Boom: Explosion radius is increased. ("Catch" equivalent)

8) Grunt Funeral: Grunts explode like plasma grenades upon death.

9) Eye Patch: Auto-aim is removed.

10) Malfunction: Each time you die, a different part of your HUD becomes unavailable.

11) Bandanna: Grants the player infinite ammunition.

12) Pinata: Bashing an enemies causes them to drop grenades.

13) Recession: Each shot you fire counts TWO slots.

14) Foreign: Player is unable to use Covenant weapons.

These new skulls certainly make Anniversary Mythic quite a different experience from the previous installments.  Some even argue that it becomes significantly easier with Beneficial Skulls such as Bandanna, a skull which delivers absolutely no disadvantage to the player other thann losing the ability to learn to conserve ammo.

That being the case, it has often been asked if me to redefine Mythic for the sake of Anniversary and use only "detrimental skulls", thereby eliminating skulls such as Bandanna from the equation entirely without counterbalancing with others.  I'm here to explain why it cannot be done without hacks or cheats in that manner.

In "Standard Mythic" you use the Famine skull which takes away roughly half your ammo.  In Anniversary, they add Recession to the mix.  At this point, you now lose ammo at 4x the normal rate.  To add to this further, the worst offender of all is Foreign which effectively eliminates half your arsenal, some of which is needed to help deal with enemy shielding.  

4x the ammo loss.  Half the arsenal.  Take a moment to think about it.

Now lets factor in Mythic and Eye Patch, skulls that make your enemies tougher and harder to hit.  You're now on average spending more rounds each time you down a foe.  Add this to 4x ammo loss and only half your arsenal.  Keeping in mind, of course, that in many missions, your human ammo "drops" become fewer and far between.  Quite simply put, there isn't enough ammo in these missions to kill all Covenant.  Also realize that in missions like Truth & Reconciliation you are REQUIRED to kill x number of waves of enemies in order to proceed.  It isn't an option (unlike the battles you can skip in the other Halo games).  It's mandatory.

Once you run out of ammo--and in most missions you will--melee is your only option.  You already can't melee Grunts due to Grunt Funeral, and trying to engage multiple Elites at a time in melee combat, especially with skulls like Black Eye (keeping you from having full shields), and Mythic (increasing their health), it isn't possible ALL the time, and in fact, is rare that you'll be able to pull it off.  However, with no ammunition, melee becomes your only option.  At that point, you may as well quit.  Even the best in-game sharp-shooters won't be able to make their ammo last on most missions under these conditions.

At this point, Bandanna becomes a necessary evil unless you switch off Foreign and at least one ammo reduction skull.  At this point, the difficulty mode becomes confusing.  You've now gone to Legendary all skulls to Legendary and choice skulls.  Some will argue that Mythic should be the hardest possible setting in the game.  I agree.  However, it's clear that the absolute hardest setting in the game isn't doable, so once again it becomes a gray area. 

So in the end, to keep it simple, I left it at Legendary all skulls on.  No, it isn't the same as before.  It does make the game interesting and adds a new spin to Mythic.  And believe it or not, even with infinite grenades, it requires quite a bit of planning and strategy NOT to die.  That goes double for when Boom and Grunt Funeral are active.  Hopefully down the road for future Halo games, this will be a bit more fine tweaked, but for now at least, I'm sticking with the current definition of Mythic Difficulty.

Mythic Difficulty: Legendary, all skulls activated, no deaths/saves, and scoring (where applicable).