Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the release of the Xbox (and the first chance most people had to play Halo). In a recent article on Bungie.net, SketchFactor asked for fan reminiscences on what Halo’s been like for them; several folks posted their thoughts on our forum. The five I found were from Alexis, Gre’Thor117, Mr. Mechanical, Toby Dillman, and omegabullit. (There are other comments in the threads spawned by those posts.) In addition, there are writeups from the Lanwerx party Bungie threw in Seattle (Exogenesis, Pynion, Neo Alucard X (now Alucard), Major Tom, and goatrope), the HBO Junkies fest in Torrington (from KP, who unfairly maligns me throughout), and the iGames regional games (Scimitarex). Lots of thoughts!

British spelling aside, Stuntmutt’s commentary on the recent Halo-related rumors in today’s One One Se7en strip is… spot on.

Whoa. Just getting back in gear; got home around 2 am from yesterday’s lan festivities. 14 hours of Xbox Halo lan play… I’ve forgotten how much fun that is. Time to see what’s new in the online world, though… (Apologies to anyone annoyed by the usually idling (but sometimes playing) Inerumnis character on the GameDaemons server yesterday; several of us jumped in and out of games using it between lan carnage. Normally, idle players get bumped, so there’s room for players who WANT to play – but we figured a couple of hours of the guy wouldn’t do TOO much damage.)

Headed up to NoF’s place for Inerumnis Lannactionica (don’t even ask)… should be a goodly collection of Halo fans there for the day. Updates will resume tomorrow. (It’s possible, but not all that likely, that we’ll be able to get on to one of the Bungie servers hosting the Lanwerx celebration, so that we can make it a cross-country party… NoF has doubts about his PC equipment, so there aren’t any promises.)

Andrew writes to point out the Penguin Republican Army HQ. (They’re a Halo PC clan.) They’re recruiting…

Today’s Guest One One Se7en was written by BOLL, about the time Halo PC was being released (a time when there were far more cracked servers online than legitimate ones). The topical nature of some One One Se7en strips have gotten us talking about options… more news when we have it.

The Worldwide Halo PC Championship is truly worldwide. It’s not just countries like Australia or European nations, either – Microsoft is teaming up with Reliance Webworld (an Indian telecommunications retail giant) to bring the competition to 7,000 gamers in India. Winners will be flown to the US for the Final in January. Thanks to ‘DFA’HK for the heads-up.

Fourteen pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today…

• The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real… Part Two: Hunting, by Awacar
• Halo 2: Base Alpha 5 USNC part 1, by BBCBulldogs24
• Halo 2: Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 2), by BBCBulldogs24
• Halo 2:Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 3), by BBCBulldogs24
• A Pilot’s Life: Chapter 9-Grave Battles (FINALE), by Captain Rasc
• The Harvest Campaign Chapter 1, by Fleet Admiral
• Wings of the Dead: Introduction, by Captain Rasc
• Battle for Croton 7, by Trevor, Boxer (subnova)& Earl, Funkster(has no life)
• Long Time Gone Part 4, by grylsy
• Eldar Councels Log Part 1-Aluvatar’s Awakening, by Blue Angel
• Halo 2:Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 4), by BBCBulldogs24
• Galaxy 07 – Part 3 – Extracts, by Jillybean
• The Flood: A Force to be reckoned with (Part 5), by crashedwarthog
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Seven, by Nemesis

Enjoy the weekend!

Hehe – Computer and Video Games takes a shot at all the websites who fell over themselves to report the rumors of a 2003 Halo 2 release or an XBL-enabled Halo release in their description of the whole ‘Halo Deluxe’ rumor fiasco. Pretty funny article. Thanks to Ash, who found it on Shacknews.

Sector 7 has posted an article about how gaming communities can affect the development of games. Take a look.

Hamid Djangi points out that the Halo 2 info page at Xbox.com has a ‘Street Date’ listed; March 2004. Now, before you get all excited that there’s now a hard release date… this is not a Bungie page, this is a Microsoft page. Yes, MS owns Bungie, but no, they don’t dictate release dates. It might TURN OUT to be true – but until it comes DIRECTLY from Bungie, we will NOT treat it as an ‘official’ release date.

The Lanwerx party that Bungie is tossing tomorrow (today, for some of you) in Seattle is not restricted to Seattle denizens only… there are 15 dedicated servers being put aside for online Halo PC play – for folks to jump in and play along with those that are there in person. Details on servers (and passwords to enter) can be found in this Bungie.net post. It’s a party, and you’re invited! (Comments can be tossed into this HBO forum thread.)

MASSIVE story over on Bungie.net – a celebration of Halo’s second anniversary, and a look back (through the eyes of fans and developers alike) on what those two years have meant. Absolutely worth a read (except for the third fan bit). Make sure you’ve got your milk and cookies – it’s gonna take you a while to get through it.

Hehe – Halobabies.net has put up a new comic, in honor of tomorrow’s 2-year anniversary of Halo – I certainly cracked a smile. Take a look!

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews of the Junkyard writes to point out a couple of recent Halo community member spotlights; check out what makes Barak (of Haloplayers.com) tick, and get a glimpse into the life of Dinky, of HaloJuggaloProductions. In case you missed them, there are several older spotlights that might cover folks you’ve heard of: Gruntsbane and mrsmiley (from Halobabies.net), Pallor, 3of9 and mad.max (of Subnova), Dolbex (of Carnagereport.com), Fluffy (from Battleground: Halo), Emil (from CobaltNova), Bluestone (from 343GS.com) and a couple of guys from HBO.

Took a little while – but some recent submissions by Captain Spark have been added to the Dialogue Databank. 25 snippets, from Grunts and Sergeant Stacker. Go listen! (There are still a whole passel of elite sounds awaiting addition… they’re more work than I’ve had time for.)

A teaser post… for a new contest? Check this forum post. (And look farther down in the thread for the “Images local” post if the images don’t show up for you.) The email address should tell you all you need to know about who’s running this puppy…

Steve Christofferson dropped into our forum to let folks know that Halo PC is FINALLY available in Japan – details are in his post.

Part 3 of Stuntmutt’s Halo PC MC lampoon is up on the One One Se7en page. Wait for it…

Oh, the problems with being a pixellated character… check Halo: Resolution for Captain Keyes’ latest problem.