Month: October 2001

Holy mother of… Looks like the whole first level (and more!) has just been made available by Gamespot. 9 movies, a total of 115 megs if you grab the mpegs… I (obviously) haven’t had time to watch ’em all… but the first couple are jaw-dropping enough. Bad news – Cortana’s still the same voice as…

Nice snag by Narcogen over at Rampancy.net – seems the FAQ that’s up now at xbox.com is ruling out Xbox output to monitors:Can the Xbox hook up to a Computer Monitor? The Xbox video game system is intended for use with television sets. This focus allows gamers to enjoy the superior visual and sound capacity…

Never let ’em tell you Vector only writes one-liners. Though he’s brief on the forum, his fiction’s a little… meatier. His latest offering, the fourth installment of the Hawk Chronicles (it’s really Chapter 2b, but who’s checking?), can be found in our Fan Fiction section. Pull up a chair and get to it!

Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi, who noted that Halo has a good showing on the official WindowsMedia.com Media Guide – it’s number 2 in the showcase (after WWF, of all things), and in the top position just to the left of that list (in both low and high-bandwidth versions). In fact – it’s the only game…

As reported by every Xbox site under the sun, the news out of Cannes yesterday was that the European Xbox release will be on March 14, 2002, and it will retail for 479 euros (about $435, at today’s rates). Games will run 69 euros (about $63). Ouch!

Bob’s in trouble… go read Chapter 13 of the Hermes Trismegistus saga in our Fan Fiction section. Don’t forget to let Tursas know what you think!

Bounty, of Battleground: Halo, learned a bit about diurnal transitions in Halo from Matt Soell today – apparently, there won’t be any situations where you can see the change. Hmm… guess that means that sunset scene mentioned in Xboxweb’s preview is gonna be pretty short… Swing by BGH to read the full quote.

Got a burning question to ask Marty O’Donnell? Stop by TeamXbox’s forums and add it to this thread – apparently, the webmaster of Score Central will be conducting that interview next week, and is happy to pass along fan questions. Just remember… don’t ask Marty how old he is.

An interesting little elucidation about level design, from Bungie’s Tyson Green, aka Ferrex (Dead). Bigger levels are better, right? Not always… sometimes, spending more of your finite development resources on making smaller levels cooler is more advantageous than creating huge, boring levels. Nice insight! Check the details (and throw in your own two cents) on…

Wow – a wallpaper bonanza. Enforcer has uploaded no fewer than seven new images, in two major themes. I’ve grouped them, since they’re so similar – you’ll find descriptions of the variations on the main page for each theme. Just go visit our Wallpaper section and it’ll be made clear.

Thanks to a random, 6-month-old thread on the IGN Xbox forum, a new tidbit has come to light – in an interview that IGN Xbox did with John Howard and Joe Staten in April, Joe mentioned a multiplayer mode we haven’t heard of before:I just got done whupping arse in a game of split-screen “Slayer”…

Thanks to Uriel, who pointed out on the forum that dom, an artist for Megatokyo, has posted an Xbox/GameCube rant. (Scroll down the page to the area below the comic – look for dom’s column.) After reaming the controller, and running down some of the good and bad stuff he saw recently, he hit on…

Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, noticed an interview with Ed Fries and (Japanese Xbox division manager) Yutaka Haruki at Coremagazine.com. Fries believes that the Japanese will embrace Halo (and other US offerings):In the United States, 70% of the people who have reserved an Xbox also reserved the game Halo. We expect a similar figure in the…

Harry Al-Shakarchi pointed out this article on TGS 2001 over at IGN Xbox – it’s an overview of the feel of the show. They were taken by the Japanese reaction to Halo:On a side note, it’s particularly cool to watch Japanese gamers play Halo, trying to figure out the controls as if holding a violin…

Josh Hampton decided that much of the wallpaper out there was too cluttered for actual desktop images… he’s taken the clean approach. You’ll find his entry in our Wallpaper section.

Aaacourt22 sends in a hand-drawn Marine, suitable for inclusion in wallpaper, if you so choose. Check it out in our Miscellaneous Art section.

The fan fiction of Gordi has attracted a following, as can be seen by reading his comments. Mr Bill Jr V thought enough of it that he set his most recent story in Gordi’s universe – it gives a bit of the backstory of the 6th fleet. Now THIS is cool… fan fiction for fan…

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews dropped us a note about needing fresh blood at the Junkyard. The boilerplate was a bit too long for our front page… but it’s a good cause, so we’ve put it here. If you’re interested in working on a solid gaming site, check it out!

A couple of weeks ago, a site called Xboxweb put up a Halo preview, and in it, they mentioned a multiplayer mode called ‘Ogre’. Ogre first surfaced in a print preview in the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer UK, which hit the newsstands on June 6, 2000. It was described as a unique multiplayer…

Just in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving, Tom Van Sinden sends in a pair of holiday-themed desktop images, in a couple of resolutions each… Trick or Treat is gonna be on MY desktop for a bit! Check ’em out in our Wallpaper section.