Thanks to Jon Chang, who pointed out that Starhammer, the space opera mentioned by Jason Jones last night, is in fact a trilogy (and ‘Starhammer’ itself is book 3). abebooks.com seems to have ample copies of all three books (‘The War for Eternity’, ‘The Black Ship’, and ‘Starhammer’) – just do a search for Christopher Rowley, or the individual titles. Powell’s Books has the first two books, but is missing ‘Starhammer’ itself. Bookavenue.com also has all three books. Remember… the Halo Reading List just got longer!

In addition to the Jones interview (have you read it yet?), the Truth and Reconciliation website got a MAJOR update tonight. New screenshots (spoilers!), new storyboards (way-cool spoilers!), a new (and final?) section to the Multiplayer Guide. We’ve added the screens to our Screenshots database… but that shouldn’t stop you from visiting T&R. (For the sticklers among you, it should be noted that scrn_046 happens to be the nearly the same picture as scrn_022 – is Bungie getting sloppy?)

The Big News of the night (hell, of the month!) is the Jason Jones Fan-Conducted Interview – finally posted at Bungie’s Truth and Reconciliation site in all of its glory. This is one of the best developer interviews I’ve read in a long, long time – it’s a glimpse into Jones’ thinking, it’s a bunch of Story hints (not that we’d use them for any upcoming projects, nope, not us), it’s thoughtful and funny and a damn good read. And hey – they used my question. 🙂 If you care at all about Bungie, the company, or the making of Halo… go read this now. (And then go looking for your own copy of Starhammer – I found one (and bought it) this evening.) Thanks to the multitude of fans who wrote to let us know about this (I was out all evening, and you know about the rest of the slackers here) – first dibs go to Mr. chimp.

Eep – a couple of weeks ago, we noted that a Halo FAQ/Walkthrough had been created – it was at version 0.3 at the time. We neglected to notice that a week later, it was up to version 0.5, with quite a bit more information, and walkthroughs of the first four levels. It’s available at several different sites – GameFAQs is where I found it. Presumably, this will be updated again in the not-too-distant future.

IGN Insider has posted a Roundtable discussion amongst the 12 IGN editors, in which the Game of the Year is discussed. Final results won’t be posted until January… but the consensus (if there is one) right now is for Halo. If you don’t have Insider access, this article (like most others) will probably migrate eventually to the free section of IGN.

ShackNews is running a Game of the Year poll – currently, it’s separated out into PC GotY and Console GotY, and if you don’t vote for a PC game, you get a ‘No Vote!’ message… but Halo is up in the Console section. Results should be posted next week some time. (No real-time results here.) Thanks to Battleground: Halo for the heads-up.

Matt Soell stopped by our forum to apologize for one more day’s delay in the Jason Jones interview (or read the more elaborate explanation at the Truth and Reconciliation site) – should be ready tomorrow. (Psyrixx wanted us to be sure and let you know that you could read this news at the Psyjnir Complex, as well. You should, too… he’s getting fanatical about this sort of thing. You don’t want him showing up at your door, do you?)

As sort of a teaser for the upcoming Halo Story site, we’ve pestered Marty O’Donnell until he answered our questions, just to make us go away; we’ve compiled a list of voice actors (from the Halo manual, mostly, with a few additions), and Marty’s matched them up with names. This is a nice resource for folks who like this sort of thing… but the best part can be found at the end. A preview of the ‘prequel’ Marty alludes to will be forthcoming (as soon as we can stop sniggering). Go take a look at The Names Behind The Voices! (Warning – the names of some of the characters might be considered spoilers for those who are trying to remain completely free of prior information.)

Wondering about seamless virtual worlds? Chris Butcher holds forth on some of the issues standing in the way of you and zero loading times. When you think about it… the minimal times we currently see are pretty amazing!

Psyrixx writes to say that The Psyjnir Complex is back up and running. And who has joined the team but …HBO forum regular *Ar-Isildur of *WP*! Goodness. Go visit. (5+ versions of browsers only, please.)

Dink!… Dink!… Even though unit production is climbing, the Halo SETI Marines continue to tumble in the Battle of the Teams – this week, it’s two more notches to 62nd. Only 150 team members (of an impressive 710) turned in a unit this week – were YOU on that list? Check the 7 day stats to find out.

Kudos to Harry Al-Shakarchi, who pointed out this pretty cool movie made by ‘Bonk’, showing (VERY clearly) an easy way to put the Warthog on the roof of the Blood Gulch base. It’s 41 seconds, and about 5 megs – quality is quite good. Enjoy!

It’s pretty clear that some vote padding occurred in the last VoodooExtreme poll – Blizzard (with no real releases except the Diablo II expansion pack) flew away with the ‘Best Developer of 2001’ poll – 7197 votes, which is what an average VE poll gets, TOTAL. Bungie came in third, behind Bioware (with 1561 and 1933 votes, respectively.) A new poll is up – ‘What is the 2001 Game of the Year?’ Halo is currently behind Max Payne for that coveted first slot. Keep it honest!

LK.Rage writes to let us know about a new Halo clan – Lethal Killers are currently playing UT together, but they’ll add Halo to the rotation as soon as the PC version is out. Check ’em out!

Genohunter points out that GamersHQ at MadOnion.com has a weekend quick poll, asking for your favorite console. Currently, the Xbox is in the lead, followed by the Playstation 2.

VoodooExtreme Robert ‘Apache’ Howarth has put up Apache’s Top10 of 2001, an article detailing what he thought were the 10 best games of the year. And Halo turns up at … Number 1.

1) Halo (Bungie)Ê­ After playing through Halo a couple times I can safely say with no repentance that it’s one of the most engrossing action games I’ve ever played. Prior to Halo, I’d have to give the nod to Half-Life as the best first person shooter ever. But now, that award goes to Halo, as the game is masterfully presented and offers a rich gameplay experience until the very end. Visually, the game is splendid, aurally; the Xbox has better sound support than the PC can match, and other than a few rare occurrences where the frame rates become somewhat choppy in wild firefights, it’s perfect.

Go check out the rest of the list, as well! Thanks to Max Payne for the heads-up.

Eric Trautmann mentions that there’s a Halo review in the latest issue of TV Guide. (He hadn’t actually seen it, so he couldn’t summarize.) We were hoping to get our hands on a copy today… didn’t happen. We’ll try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, if anyone has this lying around, next to their scanner… Update: Thanks to DT_Spike, who pointed out that it’s not much of a review – more of an overview of gaming. Halo’s mention is pretty short:

Halo (MICROSOFT) Harnessing all the graphic power of the Xbox, this stunning Sci-Fi epic takes you as close as you’ll get to saving the universe (this season, anyway)

It IS a pretty widespread periodical, though…

Hot damn – finally, a theory you can sink your teeth into! Thaumaturge suggests that the Halo was built by… humans. I’m not gonna steal his thunder, so go and read the whole shebang – it smacks of Bungie goodness, right out of the gate. Now, where’s that dang Story site?

Space Cowboy points out that Next Generation magazine reviewed Halo, and gave it 5/5 stars. Their opinion:

“Let’s keep this simple: ʈalo is one of the best games you’ll ever play. ʐeriod.”

Maybe it’s time to start adding magazine reviews to the Reviews page… but to do that, we’d have to go back and figure out who reviewed Halo so far. Too much work. 🙂

Matt Soell stopped by our forum to debunk the Adrenaline Vault ‘cheat’ posted earlier – it ain’t true. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to finish the game on Legendary in 3 hours… just be aware that doing so will get you nothing except maybe a headache.