Chris Hamilton has set up a countdown page to the release of Halo 2. Currently, it counts down to the first of December, 2003 – but as dates become clearer, he’ll adjust the end result. (Interestingly, the timer on the front page of Rampancy.net shows a countdown that’s over 2 weeks shorter…)

mnemesis points out that the Halo Story Page has been updated… again. Nice to have a tag team working on it now!

Ever wonder about the tools used to build Halo? Wonder no more. Bungie.net has put up an interview with Mat Noguchi… you’ll learn a lot. Not all of it is useful information… but you’ll have fun anyway.

Another Halo 2 preview has popped up – this time over at GamingWorld X. Take a look.

There’s a new poll up at Bungie.net – they’re wondering how much you’d be willing to pay for a Halo competition. Be sure to read the comments of both Jester, over at Psyjnir.com, and Miguel Chavez, on our forum – things to keep in mind before you vote. (And oh, yeah… read Yeroen’s comments, too.)

Word comes from PTM of Halo Online that an article has been put online which combines much of the Halo 2 information that’s been disseminated via magazine articles and the like into one source. For now, you can find it on their forum; eventually, it’ll be in their Halo 2 section. Update: According to a news article on the front page of Halo Online, this piece was taken down for a variety of reasons, including complaints by ‘EGM execs’ of plagiarism. Hopefully, it will come back in a different form at some point.

Homelan has put up an interview with Stuart Moulder, general manager of the PC Games division at Microsoft. One question directly concerned Bungie:

HomeLAN – Some people have wondered if Bungie will go back to PC game development under Microsoft. Are there plans for Bungie to make PC only games in addition to Halo and Halo 2?

Stuart Moulder – As for Bungie, they will remain focused primarily on the Xbox. That said, we fully intend to bring their work to the PC as we are doing with Halo.

Now, remember, this is a Microsoft manager, not a Bungie employee… but it’s very interesting to hear someone who is in position to know suggest that future Bungie titles will eventually come out for the PC. There has been speculation (some of it by me) that Halo will be the last PC title Bungie does… Moulder implies that this might not be the case. Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi for pointing out the link.

Couple of links for you today: el_halo_diablo points out The Gamer’s Corner, a forum devoted mostly to Halo, and Dinky points out that Halo Juggalo Productions has a new video, called I Wish They Were Porsches, up. (We can’t watch it – a Windows Media Player file with a data rate of over 3 mb/sec just will not play on a mac, at all… but it’s there, if you want it. 36 mb zipped.)

Ritalin turns in a “screenshot from an older build of the Halo 2 engine”. We’ve tossed it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Three new desktop images – check the Wallpaper section.

Thursday morning Fan Fiction:

• Revolution, part 10, by Gruntkiller
• Births: Prologue, by coldflame
• The New Reach Campaigns, part 6, by Gasmask
• After Halo (k), part 4, by Kyle
• The Shadows, part 7, by Glenny

Go read…

Whoa. GameKult seems to have put up a collection of very high resolution shots from Halo 2 – all have been seen before, but none at this quality level. (Some have only been seen in leaked magazine scans, as a matter of fact.) There are 18 images, including several renders of the new Warthog, a bunch of bumpmapping demos of the Master Chief, and some hi-res stills from the trailer. These have been posted to several Xbox forums around the web – usually without attribution. Go to the source!

Three new desktops from three new people – check ’em out in our Wallpaper section.

Forgot to post this yesterday; the official Iain Banks website has added a forum. If you’re interested in discussing the Culture novels (or anything else Banks-related), this is the place for you. Not completely on-topic with respect to Halo, but it might be of interest to Halo Storyphiles.

oldmano’theC found this puppy somewhere. Gotta watch that viscous toxic slime…

You couldn’t tell by me… but apparently the Halo 2 mp3 released on Bungie.net yesterday wasn’t up to snuff, quality-wise. Marty re-encoded it by hand today, and the new version is available from the Halo 2 info page at Bungie.net. (It’s different, that’s for sure.)

DarkPrimus points out the first of a series of Halo comics – take a look!

Griffon has spent some time creating a pretty spectacular piece of wallpaper from the cover of this month’s Edge magazine. (As far as I know, the back cover hasn’t been shown on the web yet.) It’s available in a variety of sizes, and it’s watermarked with the Edge logo to remind people where it came from originally. If you can afford it… subscribe to this mag; it’s easily one of the best gaming magazines out there. Meanwhile, check out this amazing artwork (and the superb job Griffon did stitching it all together) in our Wallpaper section.

Warbow found a fun piece of audio to go with a cute little film of Frogblast’s… he said it’s dedicated to some recent events on the forum. Timing is quite good. Movie is 38 seconds long, and about 3 mb. Enjoy!

Mojo points out that the bassist for Weezer has been playing Halo quite a bit recently. Even musicians need some carnage now and then!