This is the theme that you hear as soon as you find Cortana. In the file it will show parts for the violin, cello, and of course the piano.

UPDATE:I have changed a few errors, added some missing notes and adjusted the tempo of the song. By the way, the tempo is 120 for an eight note. I haven't quite figured out how to show that on the page so if any one knows then please let me know.

Note: I have the violin and cello's midi set as string ensemble to sound much more like the original piece. If you would like to play it normally, click "window" at the top of the page and select instrument list. You can change the sound from there.

As always, the file is only for .mus (Finale Notepad 2009). If you don't have Notepad 2009 then use this link to get it:

http://rampancy.net/blog/spartan182/12/11/2008/Opening_MUS_Files_0

OK, for starters any sheet music that I will be posting from now on will only be in mus. This blog will show you how to get the program to open these files.
You will need the program Finale Notepad 2009.

Don't have Finale Notepad 2009? Download it for free by following these steps:

First of all, if you have not registered for an account on rampancy and VERIFIED it... then don't even continue reading this until you do.

Step 1: Create an account at finale.com. The account is free. Use this link to begin signing up:

https://www.finalemusic.com/store/newaccount.aspx?t=%2fstore%2fmyaccount.aspx&

Step 2: Once you have finished signing up, you can download the demo version of Finale Notepad 2009. The demo gives you all of its features for 1 month (30 days) for free. Click on the link below and then select Notepad2009 to download the demo:

http://www.finalemusic.com/store/demos.aspx

The installer should appear on your desktop. Now that you have Finale Notepad enjoy your music! If you are still having problems with the file please leave me a message or a comment

I will post a link to this blog every time I submit sheet music in the future. If you are still having problems opening the file, then please send me a message or a leave a comment on the transcription page.

HBO and the HBO forum have both provided links to an editorial by "William Usher" at Cinema Blend about how Halo is killing console gaming.

So now that this specious attempt to nab page hits has worked, there can be little further damage that I can do except to examine the author's premise and see if it holds any merit. For the most part, it doesn't.

When you have to start off your article by saying "this isn't Halo bashing" it's not a good sign. Not because Halo doesn't deserve thoughtful criticism. It does. It is not a perfect edifice placed on Earth by some deity for the entertainment of humanity.

 Click here for the complete text.

GamesIndustryBiz has put up the second part of an interview with Bungie's Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard and Luke Smith. Here is part one.

Sketch remarks therein that Bungie has complete freedom to choose the publisher and platform for their new intellectual property-- property that Microsoft does not own. Microsoft does own Halo, and Bungie has a team working on the Halo 3: Recon expansion, due out next fall.

I'll do some spin right now: just because Bungie can choose a different platform and publisher doesn't necessarily mean that Bungie's next non-Halo game won't be published by Microsoft for the Xbox 360, but it doesn't mean that it won't, either.

Bad Cyborg covers some interesting techniques for tackling Tsavo Highway on foot. This is a lot of fun, if you've never tried it, you're missing out. A level that with vehicles and support troops is a quick breeze through the trees with a couple of thorny spots becomes a nice challenge all the way through.

GameCock, famed interrupter of awards ceremonies, holder of funerals for tradeshows, and publishers of games by Wideload such as Hail to the Chimp, have been acquired by SouthPeak.

SouthPeak published last year's Two Worlds RPG on the PC and 360, a game that was widely criticized for failing to live up to the high standards set by Bethesda's similar game, Oblivion.

Liveblogging the Microsoft keynote address from the Tokyo Games Show in Japan, Major Nelson says that Microsoft has shown the announcement trailer for Bungie's next Halo game. It's a prologue to Halo 3 called Halo 3: Recon, and as the rumor mill has long anticipated, it is a story told from the perspective of ODST marines.

Head over to Bungie.net for the announcement trailer.

UPDATE: The game is expected out in Fall of 2009, little more than a year away. That might be less time than some expected, and more than others did. The "Halo 3" moniker on the game, as well as the "new campaign" tag in the trailer indicates this uses the Halo 3 engine, although there's no way to tell yet whether this will be extensive DLC or a new boxed title. The trailer itself runs quickly through most of the content in the teaser trailer, then shows an ODST that survived the drop and the explosion and is now being hunted by Brutes dropped off by a Phantom.

GameDaily has an interview with writer Stuart Beattie, who is taking Eric Nylund's Halo novel The Fall Of Reach and adapting it into a film script.

Beattie was the writer on Pirates of the Carribbean and G.I. Joe, and wrote a Gears of War script last year.

Okay, first of all, I know, there's no such thing as official Mythic difficulty in Halo 3. That's what people call playing solo, legendary, all skulls on (HSH calls them SLASO to create more acronyms).

Daniel "Tyrant" Morris has posted over at HBO a walkthrough for this mode that makes this possible, and it's fantastic. If you haven't read it and you're a campaign junkie, it's an absolute must.

UPDATE: Author corrected from Asmodeus to Daniel "Tyrant" Morris.

According to the intertubes, Microsoft is forging ahead with Halo using a new internal studio. Forming the team are Ryan Payton, formerly of Kojima Productions and the producer of Metal Gear Solid 4; Corinne Yu, former technician at Gearbox; and at least two former Bungie employees: writer Frank "Frankie" O'Connor and animator Nathan "bentllama" Walpole.

Linkdump: Shacknews, Joystiq, GameSpot, GameReviews, HBO, bentllama's HBO forum post, EDGE Online.

This formation puts Bungie's independence in a bit sharper contrast. While Keep It Clean shows that Bungie isn't done with Halo, it is no longer the only thing they are working on. While there were always supposedly other projects in the works while Halo games were in production, none ever reached fruition, and the Halo projects typically consumed the studio's entire attention come crunch time.

That Bungie's Halo project is billed as "Halo 3", indicating an expansion rather than an entire new game, indicates that their commitment to the title will be somewhat less in the past, giving room for new developments.

Presumably the new studio will be 100% devoted to Halo. So the question will become: will fans be just as interested in Halo games not made by Bungie? Will these games be FPS, like the Halo series to date, or something else? Time will tell.

So the teaser that Bungie wanted to tease us with this past E3 is now out for download on Bungie.net in the usual flavors of QuickTime and Windows Media.

Luke Smith's post on Bungie.net calls this a "CG-teaser" and the front page refers to it as being for "one of our current projects".

My general impression is that this teaser is for a campaign expansion to Halo 3 that takes place sometime between the departure of Regret's ship from the Mombasa area and the Master Chief's return to Earth at the start of Halo 3. As such the main character or characters may be other human forces, perhaps marines or ODSTs, and the plot may focus on improvising city guerilla warfare against the Covenant forces in the city.

The most noticeable point of this trailer is that unlike nearly every Bungie game trailer produced to date, it is completely without music.

Without further ado, let's peruse the details the trailer offers.

 Click here for the complete text.

Bungie restarted the delayed countdown from this year's E3 with the Superintendent urging everyone to stay calm and keep clean-- at least until about seven minutes from now. Images on the intertubes (thanks Veegie) suggest perhaps something as dramatic as a trailer for a brand-new Bungie game.

Wideload's Halo-engine zombie game, Stubbs the Zombie, is available for the PC for only five bucks now from Steam. Thanks GameFocus for the heads-up.

Looks like the Superintendent is back. Perhaps one (or more) of the Bungie announcements that were indefinitely postponed at this year's E3 are about to be made public.

EDGE has a feature up here: http://rampancy.net/weblink/bungie/Edge_Interviews_Isla about the AI in the Halo series. They interview AI programmer Damian Isla, where he brings up an interesting concept I'd love to see in a Halo game-- or any Bungie game, really:

There was the well-known example in Halo 2 where your 'hog full of marines would just drive off if you got out. That's actually not that easy a problem to solve because how does the game know you intend to come back?

My grand thesis is, what if you can say: "Wait for me"? Communication with AI has been sorely neglected; you can ask them to charge, retreat, go there, but what about a richer level of communication than just orders? Even just a 'You're doing it wrong' button - literally.

Yes, Damian. Please. Yes.