Four new Halo PC reviews are up; GamingNEXT, Gamers Depot, Telefragged, and The Wargamer (a first impressions article, which, judging from the screenshots, was written from Beta 1.5). The pattern amongst the first three is the framerate issue; the game simply requires a LOT from the hardware. (We’ll be posting a tips page to optimize your experience soon; there are definitely some things you can do to avoid the worst of the problems.) All 4 reviews have screenshots (GamingNEXT put up 69 of ’em), and there are even MORE screens at LoadedInc. Thanks, Blue’s News.

Lophan wrote this morning to point out that his local Best Buy was selling Halo PC for $39.99, but that this was not the case on Best Buy’s website. It is, now. If you haven’t ordered Halo, save $10 by grabbing it here. Thanks, Hijack.

It’s Comic Morning at HBO – Here’s Monday’s One One Se7en.

Because it’s worked so well for Stuntmutt and One One Se7en, we’ve recycled our comic template for a new series, this one sprite-based, created by Fuzzy and D.I.M agic. It’s called Halo: Resolution, and it’ll have new strips every Monday and Saturday. Today’s strip is entitled ‘Old School’. Enjoy!

Nineteen Fan Fiction pieces from over the weekend:

• The Death of Earth:Guilt of a Spartan Chapter 4, by Sim McGaulkin
• Survival, Chapter Six: Days of Rescue and Defense, by Agent Shade
• Devestation- Chapter 2- Getting Home, by Michael
• Homeworlds XV, by Mainevent
• Unknown Apprentice, Rewritten, by apache119
• Temporal Rift PART I: SPARTAIN II REDUX, by Alexander_Valient
• Halo ABC’s, by Mainevent
• Have Fath, by Alpha Lance
• Capture Part 1: the Sammurri, by kadjfoiafjasdoijf
• -Hell Summed Up-, by Mainevent
• A Soul of Steel: Part 3, by The Scribe
• Croton 3.76 &#4294967190 The sea may be a cruel mistress&#4294967173but trees hurt more, by Trevor
• DONT TURN YOUR BACK TO ME part 1, by BACKFIRE
• The 7th Column: Deceit, by Mainevent
• The Final Battle:Part 1-the San Jose, by SlimJim27
• Halo Trilogy: Fighting and Remembrance (Chapter VI), by Alpha Lance
• Battle for the Norah: Part Five, by Sterfrye36
• Devestation- Chapter 3- Beta Halo…, by Michael
• The Inter-Galaxal Wars, Part One, by Hunter_Killer

Start your week with some Halo prose.

Another Halo online gaming league – Clanwars. Check this post for a quick rundown of features, or visit the site and explore.

Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi, for submitting a translation of the Pete Parsons interview that showed up on Blick Online recently. (We got one from “The Corupt German” as well… it was a bit later.) Couple of interesting tidbits in there…

Eep – forgot to post today’s Guest One One Se7en strip. (There are lots of them, we can’t miss days, folks get mad if they have to wait more than 3 months to see their strip in print.) Iceman1330 looks at alternative uses for character bumping.

Rapture has pointed out a thread on Gearbox’s forum started by Randy Pitchford, addressing concerns about Halo PC’s performance. Reaction seems to be split… but there’s some meat to be found if you read the whole thread.

The webmaster of Clantemplates.com has written to point out that they’ve recently released a pair of free Halo templates for gaming clans. If you’re building a Halo clan site, and don’t have time to design it yourself, check these out; they’re pretty nice looking!

Wolfy writes about a quiz over at Sector 7, to determine if you’re Addicted to Halo. Check it out!

The 343GS team has created the beginnings of a Flash game – the goal is to reproduce Halo in Flash. (Nah, they’re not ambitious or anything…) The beginnings of the game are up at the Junkyard; you can kill a couple of baddies with a grenade (but not by shooting; that’s not implemented yet). This shows some real promise!

Back from a nice break… first up, a German interview of Pete Parsons about Halo 2 over on Blick Online. Google’s translation services gave me the gist of what was said here… but any native German speakers who wanted to translate this would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks to caudronix for the heads-up.

During the beta test of Halo PC, there were a lot of HBO forum regulars recounting game highlights on our forum, and talk turned to whether or not HBO would host an ‘Official HBO Server’. At the time, we were vague; a Halo server requires a Windows-based operating system, and bungie.org (and the hosting company that handles it) is Mac/Unix only. However, thanks to the generous folks over at GameDaemons.net, we’re happy to say there WILL be an official HBO Halo PC server, open to the public. These guys are pros… I’ve done a little research, and the word on the street is, if you want a fast, low-ping server, you can’t do any better than Game Daemons. We’ve written up a short press release with basic information about the server and how it will be administered. We’re looking forward to fragging you!

Stearsy writes to tell us about HaloRevolution.Tk – the ‘ultimate Halo fan site in the United Kingdom’. There’s quite a lot of info here; help in getting online (both XBC, for Halo, and Xbox Live, for other games now, Halo 2 in the future), basic game info (I’d have liked it better if some of our content had been requested, instead of simply included, but hey…), and some homegrown videos. Check it out!

IGN has posted their review of Halo PC… and a whole lot more. For regular visitors, the review, 45 screenshots, and 9 streaming video flicks (multiplayer action) are available. (Massive spoilers in the screenshots, if you haven’t played yet.) For Insiders, there’s also a Game Guide (basically an updated version of their Xbox guide, although it’s missing the 6 new maps), and a video review (available in large and small QuickTime and WMP movies, ranging from 29 to 95 mb, also full of spoilers). There are, of course, downloadable versions of the public streaming vids, too, for Insiders. They weren’t thrilled with the game. Biggest complaints were repetitive level design, too-taxing hardware requirements, and a balance that seems (to them) still geared to console playing. They gave it an 8.2 overall. Go read/watch the parts you have access to! Thanks to bikeman704 for the tip.

Whoa – we just found out that That Weasel Television suffered a 5-day internet blackout… but is now back online. If there were movies you needed from there… go get ’em!

Whoa. Red vs Blue, Episode 19, went up for sponsors last night (a bit later than expected) – and what a finish for the season. Remember the ‘Who Shot JR?’ episode of Dallas? (Okay, okay, I realize an enormous number of you weren’t even BORN then…) Grab it now, if you’re a sponsor… or grab it tomorrow if you’re not. It’s pretty clear that folks will be chomping at the bit for the opening of Season 2…

Today’s guest One One Se7en comes from Germain Couët again. A tribute to a master.

12 Fan Fiction pieces for you this time around…

• A Really Big Ring, Just What I Always Wanted [H&R 11], by Jillybean
• The Death of Earth:Guilt of a Spartan Chapter 2, by Sim McGaulkin
• The Battles For Centauri Primus : Chapter One, by spartandude117
• The Plague Part 2, by monitor101
• The Death of Earth:Guilt of a Spartan Chapter 3, by Sim McGaulkin
• Derailed Part 6, by Dispraiser
• Devestation- Chapter One- The Raiding Party, by Michael
• The Rebel: Battle of the Cobras, by Elfster
• Battlefield, by Mainevent
• Major Mc Lenn, by Master_Chief189
• The Mars Annihilations Part 4, by Janglurevil7
• VENGEANCE [1], by GLADIATRRR3000

I shouldn’t have to say it… but guys, please don’t plagiarize.