RECENT UPDATES
November 25, 2006Dear Reader:
First things first: [FR] Clan is still alive. We have been inactive since mid-June, after the failure of Halo SE (more on that later) and an astounding number of departures from the clan. During that time, I moved on to playing Wolf ET as my primary game, and by September, I wasn't playing Halo at all anymore. It was only when someone offered to let me join their clan that I remembered [FR]. Obviously, I didn't join that person's clan, but the event did make me wonder what was to be done about [FR] Clan's future. All but five of the clan members, including myself, had ceased communications with us, and one who hadn't done so decided to quit sometime before October because of the clan's inactivity. That left me with a clan nobody cared about, consisting of a meager four members, that had started a highly anticipated modding project and failed miserably at it (which is a big part of the reason nobody cares about us). We used to be a huge clan on Trial, HUGE, with at least one guy on the 'Rat____ in Japan' servers almost every single night, and a respectable collection of tournament wins. I'm fairly certain that our downfall was influenced by two factors: the sudden mass departure of so many clan members, and the cancellation of Halo SE right on the eve of its release. Halo SE... ah, what a story. It began in early 2005 as an ambitious Trial modding project that nobody cared about or noticed. Once we switched over to Custom Edition, however... people started checking us out. We got a moderate fan following and even a post on Bungie.net's forums that boasted over fifteen pages of discussion. Then, in the summer of 2005, we took a break from the project, brought on by exhaustion and quarrels between modders involved with the project. The break transformed into an extended vacation, which transformed into an unofficial cancellation. I never publically declared that Halo SE was cancelled, but it was pretty obvious by the end of the summer, since I hadn't made any news updats since the "break" began. In early 2006, on the exact day I announced Halo SE originally, I announced its revival, but this time on a new forum and to a new audience. That is, of course, the wonderful QJ.net community. Here, Halo SE garnered a whole new battalion of fans, as I hoped would happen, and interest reached an all-time peak when I released a fully playable "demo" (a.k.a. CE map) to the community. I did all this on Bungie.net's forums as well, but not as many people seemed to care this time around and the thread died before it could even fill two pages with posts. On QJ.net and in various other gaming forums, however, Halo SE was thriving. People loved the demo and wanted more, and we began rushing to meet our summer deadline for the first five maps. Eventually, we ran into two problems: we once again became exhausted from the massive workload of the project, and certain features that we were programming (especially boarding and the until-now unknown hand-to-hand combat system) were simply impossible to accomplish with our resources. Finally, I decided that the project was consuming too much of my time and I quit. Just before I did, however, I officially announced its cancellation on every forum I'd ever posted on, and closed the FTP server the modders were using to share content, which disabled them from continuing development. I made up the part about "[VX] Clan" taking over just to give people false hope about SE's future, and to make it more realistic I posted a few "updates" on their "progress". I don't know why I did it and I regret it. However, Bacon_Burrito's plans for his former SE maps are real, but they aren't affiliated with [FR] in any way. Halo SE faded away, most of the clan members left (that was before SE's cancellation) and people didn't have any more reason to care about [FR]. We vanished without a trace... which brings me back to my main point. The clan is back. After thinking about what to do with [FR] for over a month, I decided to call back the meager four members we still had and attempt to re-start the clan. I can lose SE (and honestly wanted to towards the end of development), but I can't lose the clan. We're currently re-organizing, and in a big way. What that means is we'll be mass recruiting new members, re-writing the clan rules, changing our image, re-designing the website, advertising our return and new look, and re-working the clan hierarchy. We'll also be getting a forum guy to handle the message boards because, honestly, I suck at that kinda thing. The modding department, sadly, has closed, but I'll still be making mods on my own. The exception here is the Predator mod for Trial that was in development around the time of the clan's disappearance. I'm happy to say that it WILL remain in development, and as an official [FR] clan mod, but it will be the last. The entire modding department has become the Predator modding team, and we're working hard on it, but once we finish we'll disband and go our seperate ways, and that will be the final, definite end of the [FR] Modding Team. It's been fun, but we just don't want to do it anymore, and it doesn't fit with our new clan image. With the re-organization, you'll be seeing some changes to the site. I've already begun re-designing certain pages, and I'll keep doing so, slowly but steadily, until the entire site has been changed up. At the same time, I'll begin adding new sections to the site, re-designing old ones, and deleting unnecessary ones. The biggest change by far will be the new forums. Once they're up (which will be a few months from now), I'll begin advertising them and building the [FR] community, which won't just consist of [FR] clan members but also friends, non-gamers (and gamers), forum regulars from other popular boards, and even rival clans (if they're interested). If it all goes to plan, the forums are going to be killer. Well, that's about all I have to say. The clan is back, effective immediatly, and we're back with vigor. Look for us on the incredible Rat____ in Japan servers, and soon on our own tryout servers (all of which are on Halo Trial... like you didn't know that already), but if you see us, just be prepared to have your ass handed to you on a silver platter. ;)
~Terminator
June 4, 2006
Just a short update this time. Halo Special Edition has been completed, and is nearing release on the 15th. The Predator mod will begin development on the 12th, due to a change in the [FR] Modding Group schedule. Super Derelict is still in development. Also worth noting is that Backwoods Classic has been added to the America vs. Iraq playlist. AVI was a moderately popular Halo PC tournament held entirely online until late August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck my former hometown of New Orleans and disrupted the clan schedule. It has been down ever since. I am pleased to announce that AVI will be re-launched on June 15th, the same day Halo SE comes out. We've made the jump from Halo PC to Halo CE, and there's a new map in the line-up (Backwoods Classic, as mentioned above), but otherwise this is the same ol' AVI that a few of you might remember.
Sincerely, [FR] Terminator
May 13, 2006
Hey guys. The clan is having fun pwning n00bs on our Halo Trial server (please visit, it's Slayer, and called [FR] Tryoutz), but we haven't faced off against another clan recently, which is a shame.
[FR] Modding Group has a few announcements:
1) Super Derelict will be released sometime during the summer. We don't know when, but we ARE working on it. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's pretty cool.
2) The Halo SE launch pack is nearing completion! It will be released on June 15th, 2006. The launch pack will contain four multiplayer maps, a teaser trailer for Halo SE's singleplayer, and a wallpaper for your desktop.
3) We've officially green-lighted the Predator mod! It will be developed for Halo Trial, and we'll start on it the day after Halo SE is released. This means two things: the mod should come out sometime in July, and Halo SE's winter pack might be a little bit delayed.
In other news, I haven't gotten a reply from my Jack Thompson letter, which deeply shocks me, considering he ALWAYS e-mails people back. I wonder if his public relations director advised him to shut the fuck up for once.
There was a HUGE announcement from Bungie on the 9th, and I'm sure almost everybody has heard: Halo 3 is their next project! The official announcement is on their official site. There's a trailer on there somewhere, and lemme tell you: it looks GREAT! Can't wait for that game.
Finally, Nintendo officially re-named the Revolution. Get this: it's now called the Wii. Yeah, I didn't believe it at first either, but if you don't believe me then look here. The system actually looks pretty cool, and some killer games are coming out for it, but my God, they might as well name it the Urinal or the Grand Chocolate-Coated Gaming Console.
Thus, my rant is over for this time. *drinks glass of water* My throat's a little dry from all this talking. Or, it would be if I was really talking.
Drinking water, [FR] Terminator
Apr. 18, 2006
Coming soon from [FR] Modding Group:
1) Halo SE Launch Pack - for Halo Custom Edition
2) Super Derelict - for Halo PC
That's really about all I have to tell you guys. We're currently scouting for clans to face off against, so I'll keep you posted on our progress there. Super Derelict should be out in two weeks, and Halo SE Launch Pack is scheduled for a June-July 2006 release.
Regards, [FR] Terminator
Mar. 4, 2006
I ([FR] Terminator) have recently sent an e-mail to infamous anti-gaming crusader Jack Thompson, which can be read here. It's quite an interesting read, considering I was sleep-deprived and kept awake solely by coffee when I wrote it. I drift off-subject quite a bit, but I think I got my points across, especially about his anti-Muslim comments and comparing gamers to the KKK. In other news, I'm producing a promotional clan video that should be out by April or May of this year. It will be hosted at g9core.com (I've recently struck a hosting deal with the administrator). Speaking of which, I will officially begin a complete move of the clan site to g9core.com starting in early April, and the move should be finished no later than the first week of May. The forums are astoundingly inactive, so I'm going to start resorting to guerilla tactics... I'm going to start advertising the forums on almost every message board I'm a member of. IMDb and the Pure Pwnage boards are first up to bat ;)
Pitifully (for Jack Thompson), [FR] Terminator
Jan. 20, 2006
Halo Special Edition (Halo SE) is back in development!! Check out the official site here: http://www.geocities.com/halo_specialedition.
2006-ily, [FR] Terminator
Dec. 26, 2005
Our new clan mod, titled [FR] mod, is now up on the Internet and ready for download! Get it now at: http://rapidshare.de/files/9875762/bloodgulch.map.html. Mirrors will be up soon.
Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!
Christmasily, [FR] Terminator
P.S. I have removed two of the songs in the jukebox. Feel free to listen to the six that I left up there, but if at all possible limit yourself to two songs per hour. We were starting to run out of bandwidth from people constantly listening to all eight songs one right after the other.
Sep. 15, 2005
CLAN ACTIVITIES WILL RESUME ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18! I have recently gotten Internet access on my gaming computer, which means all clan tryouts, matches, and practices will resume on Sunday, September 18, 2005. There will be an extra-long clan tryout on Sunday to celebrate the clan's revival. [FR] GamePro will sadly be unable to participate in clan events for a while.
Happily, [FR] Terminator
UNKNOWN DATE
We changed the clan logo from this to this.
UNKNOWN DATE
[FR] challenges [GBC]: Link to Gearboxsoftware.com forum post
