Hot on the heels of an accusation that Bungie doesn’t care about its fans, the Online Team has updated the Tru7h and Reconciliation site. New concept art (don’t look if you’re anal about spoilers), a new section of the multiplayer guide (vehicles), with three GORGEOUS new screens (you’ll find ’em in our Screenshot database, as well), and maybe most interesting of all – information about a fan-conducted interview with Jason Jones.

Here’s how it will work. Think up a question for Jason (no huge lists, please) and send it to haloqna@microsoft.com. We’ll accept submissions for the rest of this week, then pick the best ones and hand them to Jason. We’ll return with his answers next week.

If all goes well this may be the start of a semi-regular feature wherein you can ask questions of a variety of people from the Halo team. So think up a good question and ask away!

Remember – this guy doesn’t talk much… so this is a huge opportunity! (Thanks to Vector40, who pointed out how slow we’re being on reporting this.)

Sometimes, if you’re polite enough, you can get people to correct mistakes you make instead of just telling you what an idiot you are. (Or maybe they call you an idiot when you’re not around, then correct the mistake for you – I’m not sure.) In any case, Marty O’Donnell, stung by my unfair appraisal of Halo’s audio in the review I posted recently, wrote to correct some misconceptions.

I have heard the problem you are describing and it is due to the way some people have their TV audio setup. Some TVs have weird faux surround or enhanced stereo settings and that can change the mix on Halo.

I’d complained specifically that Cortana’s speaking parts seemed to come directly from the central speaker, and so were lost in a stereo setup – not so, says Marty:

As a matter of fact, Cortana’s dialog is specifically split equally left and right.

How to fix this?

The Xbox needs to be set on “stereo” and the TV should be set on normal stereo not surround or enhanced or anything else like that. No one should be missing any of the dialog.

So there you have it – make sure both your TV and the Xbox are set to standard ‘Stereo’ sound if you don’t have a surround sound setup. (The Xbox sound controls are only accessible if there’s no DVD in the drive, so dump that Halo disc.) Thanks for the information, Marty!

Took a bit longer than most, but HBO has finally put up its own review of Halo. A side benefit of the spoiler system we implemented a couple of weeks ago – we were able to get a bit more deeply into the game than many reviews, for those willing to read spoilers. The default behavior (just as in the news) is no spoilers – you get the review, but all spoiler bits are left out. If, however, you’ve turned spoilers on, you’ll see some specific examples of certain points along the way; hopefully, our arguments are strong enough to stand without these specific examples, but they’ll make the case better if you do see them. Enough blathering – go read the review. (We’ve added the link to our Reviews page, as well.)

genohunter writes to point out that GameKult, the French gaming site, has put up a large halo review (they liked it, except for the lack of bots), and a ridiculous number of screenshots from the first couple of levels.

“Halo is a majestic title that you must own if you plan to buy an Xbox.”

Overall rating was a 9/10. We’ve added it to our Reviews page.

For those who feel that setting up routing boxes to run the Xbox Gateway software is a bit too daunting, GameSpy has just released GameSpy Tunnel, which allows you to play Xbox System Link games over the internet, using the GameSpy Arcade service. Upsides:

• The necessary software runs on a PC
• Switches are supported as well as hubs (XBoxGW requires a hub, or a direct connection between the linux box and the Xbox)
• You also get access to all the other games Arcade supports

Downside – Arcade costs $20 (one-time fee). If the upsides overwhelm the downsides for you… go grab the Tunnel software! (Thanks to PyromanFO and Cesar Berardini of TeamXbox for the heads-up.)

Nijhazer points out that The Gaming Intelligence Agency is soliciting hands-on opinions of Halo – the catch is they need to be in in the next 12 hours or so. If you’ve got something to say about Halo, mail it to agent@thegia.com soon!

Robert ‘Apache’ Howarth, of VoodooExtreme, has interviewed Matt Soell… and a good interview it is, too. Matt holds forth on subjects as diverse as nasty critics and console controllers – and speaks a little to some of the complaints we’ve heard voiced recently:

Looking back on Halo?s development, quite a few weapons didn?t make it into the Xbox build. What other features were either cut out or stripped down to stream line the game?

We always have a ton of ideas that don’t make it in for one reason or another. Vehicles, weapons, multiplayer game ideas, maps…for every element in Halo that was polished enough to ship in the final game, there are a dozen things that didn’t make the cut. We are lucky in that we have artists and programmers and designers with a surfeit of ideas.

Go read the rest of it!

The final three chapters have been added to IGN’s Halo Strategy Guide – the only thing missing (and it’s going to stay missing) is the extra ending you get for beating the game on Legendary. If you’re stuck, this is the place to go!

HBO’s own Count Zero just submitted a passel of pictures to the Launch Party Coverage section – a couple of dozen shots from the party itself, and another few from an independent Halo event at the University of Illinois. You’ll find them on the Launch Party Pictures Page. Now we know what Mordia looks like after being shorn…

Thanks to bloodbeard [iG3], for pointing out a new MacHall comic at Inside Mac Games… poor Matt! (And where’s his beard, anyway?)

And the reviews continue… XboxWeb has put up a SECOND review – the breakdown was slightly different, but the final result (9.8) was the same. WARNING: There are major spoilers in the accompanying screen captures. We’ve added the shots to our database… but there’s a spoiler warning on them.

Interesting… the Official Halo website at microsoft.com now has a warning page – you must state that you’re over 17 simply to read the content on the (flash) site. Seems that this might be a little overboard – there’s no violent content or swearwords on the site itself…

Some older reviews have turned up – thanks to the news archive at Blue’s News for these. Game Revolution looked at Halo a couple of weeks ago – they gave it an A. GamesFirst was not as impressed – Halo got 4 out of 5 stars (though the reviewer said it was a solid title – he was unhappy with the paucity of weapons, the lack of bots, and the lack of flexibility in gameplay). Game Nation liked it a lot, and gave it a 96/100. And finally, Gamesmania reprinted the review seen on the Electric Playground. All of these have been added to our Reviews page, and the new screens with the Gaming Nation review have been added to our Screenshots database.

Gamers Pulse has reviewed Halo – the review is very positive; the downsides were the darkness on some later levels and the lack of replay value in the single player game. (Obviously, the reviewer didn’t see the value in repeating at higher difficulty levels…) Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for noticing this. We’ve added it to our Reviews page.

Marcus Hellqvist sends us a new Halo desktop, with the ring acting as a negative strip. Check it out in our Wallpaper section.

Dink!… The Halo SETI Marines, neglected last week, have fallen another notch to 54th in the Battle of the Teams… and due to some sort of reset, the 3000+ units the team crunched since November 12 didn’t show up at all on the SETI servers. Ouch! See how YOUR crunching is going on the 14 day stats page.

For those who wanted to see a larger shot of the blue cyborg on the French magazine Joypad’s cover, Draikin has posted links to three higher-res versions (one of which is ridiculously hi-res). Perfect for extraction to make Wallpapers! Thanks, Draikin (and Bishop)!

Poking around at GameFAQs, I ran across a section of Halo Reader Reviews. They range from 4/10 (from someone who seems to have played a different game than I did) to 10/10. Some laughs in here.

Thanks to Erick Delgado, who pointed out a new Halo FAQ/Walkthrough (only the first two levels are up in the walkthrough so far) at CheatCC.com. It’s also available at GameFAQs. Some of the info is a little shaky… but it’s being worked on.

fAt1, of MPZ Halo, got a chance to play some Halo at the Xbox Xperience sneak preview tour in London, and has written up his impressions. Check ’em out!