Coming in November, from Joyride – 3″ action figures, in 2-piece sets (jackal and MC, or red/blue MCs) and 5-piece sets (5 different-colored MCs, or MC, pair of marines, pair of jackals). It’s almost time for battles! Thanks to krapshmeer for the heads-up.

New Halo site out there: Halo City. info comes from programerz, a source of lots and lots of good info at the Gearbox forums… site gets thumbs-up from forum regular gwdpto. Clans who sign up today get access to a free Teamspeak server (for voice chat over IP).

Boxer is apparently looking for ways to rationalize his awful rocket-launching skills in online Halo PC play. To this end, he’s even created a comic over at Subnova, going so far as to blame his uber-n00bishness as ‘lag’. Pfft. (Okay, okay… it really IS a problem sometimes. But geez… did he leave himself wide open, or what?)

Whoa – very cool. 1UP put up a new feature called ‘50 to Watch‘, a group of people they believe ‘will help define gaming the most in the next 12 months’. They’re (mostly) in alphabetical order, so the list isn’t ranked, per se… but one of the 50 (Number 17, in fact) is Jaime Griesemer, lead designer for Halo 2. Thanks to Pallor, over at Subnova, for pointing it out.

Got a note from the folks at SeeMePlayMe, a gaming/chat solution which now covers Halo (along with other games). Pretty cool stuff; The software is free (though there are advantages to subscribing), and one of the new features with respect to Halo is that you can set up your own dedicated server for free. You and your friends meet in a ‘room’, where you can chat, view each others’ webcams, whatever… when you’re ready, you can set up a private Halo server, with your own parameters (map, options, number of players, etc.) and get to playing. A screenshot of the interface is here. As the service becomes more popular, the number of days that non-paying members can create servers every week may decrease… but you’ll ALWAYS be able to JOIN a game. (You also have access to the standard servers out there; SeeMeePlayMe can act as an alternative to the Gamespy server browser built into Halo, an alternative with a built-in chat option, for the ‘we need a lobby’ folks.) If your clan needs a place to meet, but doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of collecting money from all members to pay for a dedicated server, this is an option you should definitely check out! Update: This page at SeeMePlayMe should explain what they’re about, and what they offer.

A few new reviews for you: Gamezilla says ‘buy it’, even though they were unhappy with the repetitive level design and steep system requirements, Jolt.co.uk gave it a 93% for fun factor, and Gamer’s Pulse gave it an Editor’s Choice Award although they were unhappy with performance issues. Thanks to Blue’s News and Shacknews, via ash.

Today’s Guest One One Se7en is from b.org’s own CYBRFRK, who looks at the newest weapon in the Halo arsenal. Yup… nasty toy.

Coolness! HA|aD Monkey submitted a slick little app to the Junkyard which, once installed, allows you to connect to Halo servers via a halo://your.address.here link. Handy! (Requires Windows XP/2000)

Another ladder site for Halo PC, again in Europe: ClanBase has added a pair of CTF ladders (CTF Europe and CTF 2on2 Europe). They’ll add a Slayer ladder as soon as at least 10 clans ask for it. ClanBase supports more than 2 dozen games, so their comments about Halo instant popularity being rare carry some weight!

Game On Entertainment is hosting a 4v4 tournament with a $100/team entry fee and a $2000 purse; it’s taking place in Chicago, on November 8. Check the website for full details. Thanks to Battleground: Halo for the heads-up.

There’s an article on the BBC News website called ‘PC bugs undermine Halo shooter‘ which laments the problems in Halo PC. Most of the complaints have been heard before (high requirements, weaker weapons), but a couple are new – including one rather surprising one:

But the most serious problem comes with the multi-player option. The computer is prone to crash during gameplay when you change maps, even on a machine using Windows XP. In one case, the crash led to the so-called “blue screen of death”, something that simply does not happen with XP.

I’d love to see corroboration of this – I was under the impression that that screen no longer even existed under XP. (For the record, I’ve never seen Halo crash while changing maps, either.) Thanks to Beats for the heads-up on this one. Update: looks like I haven’t been doing my homework. Plenty of folks wrote in to tell me about BSODs in XP (I’m not a huge PC user, so I don’t feel so bad about this), but others wrote to tell me that the phenomenon is NOT limited to a small group; there are many messages about BSOD crashes over on the Gearbox Technical forum. Before Halo PC was released, I was completely up-to-date on this forum… but in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been falling behind. After doing some searches, it seems that the majority of (though by no means ALL) the problems are with people who have ATI 8500/9000/9200 cards; many were able to make them go away by installing the latest Catalyst drivers (and ensuring that OLDER drivers were cleared out), but some were not. (Many problems seem to be tied to the ati3d2ag.dll file – specifically, multiple instances of it.) I haven’t run across an official Gearbox response to the problem, but I’d guess they’re working hard on it.

One One Se7en speculates about weapons that ALMOST made it. ALMOST.

So what happens when a warthog meets a civilian car? Halo: Resolution checks it out. Ouch!

In all the hubbub about Halo PC (its release, the setup of online servers for it, my wasting of several hours a day playing it) and the Great Halo Scavenger Hunt, a few user submission sections have been neglected for a bit. We’ve got 9 items in the Miscellaneous Art section, ranging from comics (4 of ’em, actually) to pixel art to a KILLER MC render. Check it all out!

24 Fan Fiction pieces for you today – busy weekend for the writers.

• The legend of the gold master chief, by Jmotoblaze
• Battleground Earth, Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• Chapter Seven: Rise of the Phoenix, by Blue Jaguar
• The Fall of Fate: Invasion, Part Three(13), by ‘Nosolee
• Homeworlds XVIII, by Mainevent
• Battle for the Norah: Part Six, by Sterfrye36
• From The Front Lines, by PaYnE
• A Spartan Named James, by ZePHyR WRaiTh
• MJOLNIR, Chapter One, by Nemesis
• Invasion of X41 (Chptr 1: Invaded), by CoLd BlooDed
• Another day in the life of Master Chief…, by that guy over there who smiles just a biiit too wide….
• Marine Rifles, CHAPTER 1, by Marine Black Ops
• part1:Fragments of Halo, by Fenrisc
• A Final Oration, by ‘Nosolee
• Devestation- Chapter 5- Friendly Fire?, by Michael
• Devestation- Chapter 6- Char Man’ame, by Michael
• Derailed Part 8, by Dispraiser
• Survival, Chapter Ten, by Agent Shade
• Halo: The MCconto Chronicles PART 13, by JCDenton
• The Men that Make the Marines, by Walker
• Cry for the Dead, by Walker
• Jaffa Part 1, by Neal Stack
• Deliberation, by Dispraiser
• The Rebel: Window of Opportunity, by Elfster

Whew – good thing today is a holiday in the US!

As usual, BOLL rocks. HHHT, the Helpful Halo Hacking Tool, provides an easy way to apply ppf files to modify maps (and lets you backup your originals, in case you forget!). Screenshot here, to show you the interface. Hacking was never easier.

Hmm. Shadow Claw sends word that his 7th Column chapter, Born to Frag, is hosting a contest; send in a funny, eight-lined Halo and Halloween-related poem by October 31, and you could win some schwag. First prize is a pair of speakers, second prize is The Sims Livin’ Large, 3rd is $20, and fourth is a secret prize. Sounds easy enough…

Wraith has discovered that the flamethrower IS available on a couple of Campaign levels in Halo PC; he’s taken a few screenshots on the Library, and created ppfs for both the Library and Keyes, the two levels he found it on. You can see the screens in this forum post, or download a zip file containing all 6 screens, the two ppfs, and a readme from THIS post. Try it out on the covenant!

Chelsea’s beginning to make grunting noises…

Today’s Guest One One Se7en comes from Spooky Donkey, and looks at potential jobs for the MC. And while we’re discussing One One Se7en, congratulations to IXIGhandiIXI, who found the One One Se7en easter egg which has been hidden in the section (in plain sight) for over a month now. The rest of you are slacking…