As you might notice, there is now a prominent flag at the top of this page (and all news-related pages at HBO). The setting you choose will decide whether you see news posts with spoiler-related information in them, or not. Read the ‘Huh?‘ page for more details. And please – if you run into a problem, LET US KNOW, as soon as possible – the system hasn’t been tested as much as I’d like, and I’d rather find the glitches BEFORE spoiler info begins to be posted. Thanks!

Thanks to Lophan who spotted an article on the Xbox at MSNBC that makes mention of Halo:

Halo, a first-person shooter in which players lead a squad of marines in a battle on an alien planet, still has some frame-rate problems. To read about the game online, you think the frame rate was a very slow 10 frames per second. ʠʠʠʦamp;lt;p>In truth, Halo generally stays at a constant 30 frames per second. Granted, this is not as fast as the 60 frames per second you see in some games, but it is well within an acceptable limit. ʠʠʠʦamp;lt;p>I noticed the frame rate drop a few times during a demo I saw last summer, but those problems have been fixed. Halo has enormous worlds and crossing certain junctures within those worlds used to trigger half-second load ups that looked mostly like hiccups but did not detract from gameplay. There were also times, when the game slowed because too much was happening on screen, such as firefights with multiple vehicles. But in its final form, these problems have been fixed.

Read the rest of the article here. Pax.

genohunter informs us that The Halo Elite League returns after FTP problems and just in time for Halo’s release tomorrow. You can reach them by going to http://www.halogame.fr.st or http://www.clanhell.fr.st. Pax.

Harry “I just can’t stop” Al-Shakarchi drops off ANOTHER link – this time to the latest issue of an ongoing column at Xbox.com – State of the Xbox. In issue 7, Jeff Henshaw looks at gameplay – and a new, 40 second Halo clip is included. No real spoilers – it’s the beginning of the Silent Cartographer level, which has been seen everywhere since E3 – but footage is pretty good, and it’s nice to see that when the player gets careless, the player dies. 🙂 Take a look! Streaming WMV format – very high bandwidth.

Harry “I’m your Halo man” Al-Shakarchi points out that the entire Halo Manual is now online (along with the rest of the launch title manuals), in PDF format. 1.5 MB, baby!

Thanks to Razorback, who noticed that the IGN Xbox Halo review is now open to non-Insiders.

Meet Bungie Studios – Harry Al-Shakarchi points out a news article on Xbox.com detailing the history and timeline of Bungie Studios. Mostly, it’s a good read. (Sort of disturbing that Weekend Warrior gets more text than the Myth series or Oni… but hey, I didn’t write it… and MS is probably looking at it from the standpoint of ‘those aren’t Bungie products ANY MORE’.) Check it out!

Wow – Xbox.com’s Halo site has gotten some major overhauling done! The full timeline is up, an overview of the MJOLNIR armor is up, the TV spot is up (asf format, but nice and big), and there’s a new link for ‘Forums’. (This is actually just a web interface to the Usenet newsgroup we mentioned last month… but it’s a pretty interface, nonetheless.) Go look! Thanks to Chanan for the speedy heads-up.

Matt Soell gave HomeLAN an interview – it’s a good read. The interview actually took place a few weeks ago (Xbox testing was still in progress), but the info is up-to-date. Matt talks about gameplay issues:

HomeLAN – What sorts of enemies will the player face in Halo?

Matt Soell – The Covenant is a collective of alien races; in Halo you’ll meet the Covenant Elites, Grunts, Hunters, and Jackals. There are several variants among those, and then there are a few surprises.

And he tries to inject reality into some rumors:

HomeLAN – There has been some speculation that an upgrade for Halo may happen to give the game online play when Microsoft’s Xbox online network goes live. Can you confirm this?

Matt Soell – No, I cannot. Adding online play to Halo would require more than a simple “upgrade.”

Go read the rest for yourself. Thanks to fate for the heads-up!

As everyone and their brother have already noticed, The 7th Column has finished their countdown – but you STILL can’t see what’s inside.

Your browser is incompatible with this site. Please upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. A version of this site for earlier browsers will be made available shortly.

(No, there is no IE 7.) Give it another day…

Funky J posted a very nice ‘Halo Impressions’ piece on our forum this morning – 7 hours in his local Software Etc. (You’d think they’d have thrown him out…) Kudos to Rampancy.net for posting this before us… not that we COULD have posted it, of course – the dang site’s been down for the past 8 hours. It’s back up again, obviously.

It’s the end of an era… the Hermes Trismegistus saga has come to a finale. Tursas has submitted the Epilogue… and a fitting closing it is. Find it (and lots of other good reads) in our Fan Fiction section.

More new screens, from Germany’s PC Games Magazine – 8 of ’em, in all. Some pretty nice stuff – a cool shot of a Jeep just off its dropship, a jeep in water, and a dead hunter. Available in both 768×576 and 640×480 formats. Thanks to Uriel for the heads-up.

Another take… netshade, from brainrazor.com, wrote up his take on the launch party. It’s pretty funny, even if it DOES make fun of the denizens of this site… pictures are coming, apparently.

Gunship writes to let us know that the final parts of his ‘humongous fanfiction’ known as Black Ops has been posted at Battleground: Halo – go take a look! This is novel-sized – 70,000 words (in comparison, Eric Nylund’s ‘Halo: The Fall of Reach’ is 95,000 words, and was originally aiming at 85,000)… if you’re pining for some good Halo fiction, this is one worth reading.

Flawless Cowboy (otherwise known as Jaime Griesemer, Bungie designer) stopped in to point out that Gaming Age has put up their official Halo Review. It’s pretty much a recycled version of the First Impressions article they posted last week… but they’ve played a bit longer, now, and they’ve given Halo their highest rating. (They say they’ll never give ANY game an A+.) Check it out! We’ve also added this to to the Reviews page – this is a comprehensive list of all reviews published to date.

Australian Brendan Daly adds his webspace to the growing list of Halo Commercial mirrors – if you’re Down Under, this might be your best bet. Thanks, Brendan! Update: Thanks to Shane, who pointed out that a traceroute shows that that despite the Australian moniker, bjd.au.com is actually hosted on the Jatek Corporation network in Torrance, California – so much for a ‘Down Under’ solution. (Apparently, it’s still fast for Australians, though.)

carrim notes that the Space Channel recently did a 10 minute segment on the Xbox, with some pretty impressive Halo footage… hmm, I wonder if they’ll re-run that?

sinistar notes on our forum that the Primus Halo Strategy Guide is now in stores… but he warns of some pretty major spoilers inside. (Well, it IS a Strategy Guide…)

Matt “Pugano” Pagano sends in a new desktop for our Wallpaper collection. Uncluttered…