DOH! Almost forgot to post today’s Guest One One Se7en, this one from Iceman1330 again. A little bit risque, I’d say…

From pretty much the time of Halo PC’s release, folks with NVIDIA cards have experienced more problems than their brethren with ATI cards; framerates were dramatically lower. AnandTech has taken a look at Halo performance using the latest NVIDIA drivers (52.14, not actually available yet, should be out later this month), and found that framerates nearly double when compared to the current drivers. Thanks to Gawyn, over at Subnova, for the heads-up.

Another pair of Game server browsers are now Halo-compatible: Server Watch v3.4.2 now has a Halo plugin, and Kquery4 (Alpha) supports Halo. Check ’em out! (These are, again, alternatives to the in-game server browser provided by Gamespy.)

A plethora of Halo reviews since our last roundup:

• GameZone (9.2/10)
• Gaming Horizon (9.5/10)
• Computer and Video Games (84/100)
• DailyGame (9.5/10)
• Next Level Gaming (98/100)
• Computer Games Romania (90/100)

There are 70 new screens (beautiful) at Computer Games Romania, and 15 (with HORRIBLE colors) at CVG. Thanks, Blues News, for keeping up while I was playing Halo PC!

Development on SparkEdit, the Halo map viewer, continues apace. HaloMods now has a 2:10 long movie (wmp7 format, 10.2 mb download) showing the new object placement code; 2 minutes of a MC respawning a couple of hundred feet above Blood Gulch. Over and over and over again. Thanks to SourceGuy for the heads-up.

Xzzy has taken the next step in Halo stats, and begun building the Halo Carnage Logger. It keeps track of more than just the current game – it maintains stats over time. It’s still in beta, and not available for download yet – but it will be. (Currently, it’s pointed at the HBO server.)

Bungie has posted a standalone HTML version of the Halo PC Performance FAQ, as well, and added a few other documents to their Halo PC Info page. If you’re having trouble with Halo PC, this is one of the first places you should look. They’ve also opened a new forum, called ‘The Maw‘ – it’s for discussion of all things Halo PC. Add it to your site visiting list!

A bunch of clan mail we haven’t gotten to yet:

• Halo 4 Ever – German clan
• Mortus Immortalis – gaming clan with a recently-formed Halo division
• Clan Omnipotence – Xbox Halo clan, recruiting
• Team GyA – Halo PC clan, currently recruiting
• team execute – german Halo PC clan (they also have an IRC channel at #execute-team @quakenet)

Go check ’em out, talk to the ones that look interesting! Update: Clan Omnipotence is Halo PC-only, actually; there was info about their Xbox activities, but now they’re focused on the PC version.

Bungie has posted a FAQ about the new Halo PC 1.02 patch, and about performance issues on various PCs. It’s a critical read for anyone having trouble with Halo PC. It’s currently available as a downloadable RTF file, but we’ve HTML-ized it and made it available here (with Bungie’s permission). Read, bookmark, spread the word. (The B.net article also contains a link to a database of gametypes you can add to… go look!)

Just a heads-up… the HBO Halo PC server is now running v1.02. You’ll need to upgrade your Halo client in order to see it. To do this, simply quit out of Halo, then restart it. The next time you try to connect to internet multiplayer, you’ll be given the option to update. See you online!

Another slick little Halo query app, this one built in PHP. Sometime today, it should be available for download; for now, you can test it by putting in the IP address of a server you know about. Created by nontent, and mentioned on the Gearbox forums. Update: Eep – another one, missed this – zeeg has put one up here, for viewing (with the code here). Comments in this thread on the Gearbox forums.

Just wanted to let people know where things stood… the Instant Win prizes were easier to find than anyone thought. The 7th (and final) one was found less than 24 hours after the Hunt began, at 10:21 pm UTC on the 7th. Not long afterwards, the Grand Prize for the hunt itself was captured – the winning submission arrived at 3:40 am UTC this morning. This was much, much faster than we’d anticipated… but then again, we’d envisioned this contest as an individual hunt, and the winning entry came from a team of 6. [Side note: you guys couldn’t have found a 7th?] This means 2 things for all other contestants: the contest is quite solveable, as evidenced by the fact that it has ALREADY been solved… and there are still 27 prizes to win, so hope is far from lost. Congratulations to the 8 winners so far counted! (Well, okay, 13…)

Been a while since we released a new Halo movie – but Mike and Sir Dan (who’ve released movies under the name Athol Productions in the past) have put together another fun bit; it’s called ‘Real Halo’… and that’s just what it is. Very nice video editing. (If this had been made in time for the World’s Biggest Halo Fan contest, it would have been a strong contender.) QuickTime 5 format, 15.6 mb. Go grab a copy from Mythica now! (We’ll toss another copy up on files.bungie.org if bandwidth gets tight… but it shouldn’t.)

Does the Master Chief have a future as a comedian? Check today’s One One Se7en to decide for yourself.

New York… a dangerous town? Yep – and today’s Halo: Resolution looks at why. (No, the rats aren’t REALLY that big.)

Fifteen Fan Fiction pieces for you today…

• Attack on ERISTOCK Part 8: Valley Conquerers, by xitWOUND117
• The Battle for Earth, by Sammanam
• Halo: The Remaining Forces, by Mark Wright (AKA SCORPION)
• Earth Under Fire, by Master_Chief189
• Survival, Chapter Eight, by Agent Shade
• Devestation- Chapter 4- Fight for Halo, by Michael
• The Battles For Centauri Primus : Chapter Three, by spartandude117
• Cerberus, by SirPopNFresh
• The rise and fall of the covenant, by John`117
• The Plague Part 3 (Finale), by monitor101
• Homeworlds XVII, by Mainevent
• A John Before Halo: Mass Death (Part 11), by J-117
• Contract Killers (Part II), by Havok
• Calistra: The Tides of War, by Jason
• The Reedeemers pt1, by The Spartan of peace and war

Those of you not playing Halo PC online, get to reading!

For those who aren’t happy with the Gamespy interface for finding online Halo servers, The All-Seeing Eye now supports Halo. You’ll need to make the Finland 2.0 Beta scanner your default scanner in order to find the update… but it’s there. Sorting is MUCH cleaner, you can add favorite servers to a ‘Favorites’ list, and on and on. (It’s not free – you should know that at the outset. But it IS far more powerful. And it supports many more games than just Halo.) Thanks to Reppyboyo on the Gearbox forums.

Halo Dedicated Server 1.02 has been released; it adds the ability to run multiple instances of the server on a single machine, and enables RCON functionality (you can remotely control the server, without needing direct access to the machine). Gearbox and Bungie are making this available tonight, so that folks running dedicated servers can be prepared when the client patch goes live at roughly 9:30 am Pacific time. DO NOT INSTALL THIS TONIGHT – nobody will be able to play on your server. Simply get it to your server tonight, so that you’re ready when the switchover occurs tomorrow. (This is a 7 mb download; the mapfiles are not included. They will be released tomorrow, for those who don’t already have them.)

More Halo PC Server management options: Nocsole is a Win32 app that runs on the server box, and allows RCON commands to be sent to it. You can see screenshots of it (and download it) on the Halo PC Beta board. (Thanks, tHe cLeanER.) There’s also a Game Query Module for PHPNuke; you can see it in use here, drab it from disgruntledtech here. (Thanks, trampi3 on the Gearbox forums.) The options increase…

Yayap the grunt has taken it upon himself to write up a short FAQ about the Great Halo Scavenger Hunt. Yayap has no affiliation with bungie.org, and no inside knowledge about the Hunt… but he did mostly get the details right. If you’re confused about where to start, you might want to read this.