New look bungie.com on the way says Matt in a news update on our forums. Here’s the details:

I’m working on some stuff for the relaunch of bungie.com, doing preliminary work for the next FanFest, meeting with various folks about various Halo-related things (websites, merchandise, etc.), and doing some other stuff that’s still a secret. 🙂

Thanks Matt. 🙂

“He remembered his pistol. Not much, only a 9mm Glock. He pulled it out. He jammed it against the alien’s face.” NevinNiven sent us some fan fiction. The piece is called “Halo Offshoot”. This is the second piece submitted by NevinNiven.

“Who’s gonna do SETI stats this Monday?” is our usual fun game of tag at coffee time in the HBO offices. Louis lost (hey you go on holidays what do you expect?). The Halo SETI Marines added ten new members to their ranks since last Monday bringing total membership up to 569 marines. We’re ranked 48th in the team ranks. Check out L E T S _ K I C K _ S O M E _ A L I E N _ B U T T ! just below us. Have they heard about the Covenant too?

Sorry to the AoD Halo boys for not adding their site to our links page. We mention their site back in February 13th news. You can blame Louis guys… we do. 😉

Blam!, a new Halo order goes live. Thanks to Wodasini for the heads up. The page is still under construction. So contact Wodasini if you want to join up. For a full list of Halo clans see our ever expanding Links page.

“As I leapt off the cliff, the Covenant roared and got off a final shot that sizzled over my head as I fell.” Maszimo sent us some fan fiction. The piece is called “The Second Fall”. We printed it out and slipped it under Crux’s cell door. He’s been silent ever since. So for pity’s sake send us more! 😉

We’ve added Matt’s recent Halo update to the Database(tm). Don’t forget you can search the database for all that Halo goodness. Word of the day is “levels”. Go find it. 🙂

Early this morning we got an email from Allenthar telling us that cortana.org was in the process of being redesigned. We checked it out and went back to sleep. Now fire phoenix over at Halo Center has posted a news item about it. The new look cortana.org however has vanished and the old look is back.

Kaidu webmaster over at Halo Tip tells us that they are changing their URL again. It’s changing from http://www.halotip.com to http://halo.tip.nu. http://www.halotip.com will not work after March 2, 2001. Please adjusted your links.

Hey who needs Louis! We put our collective heads together and figured out how to add Wallpaper to the database thingie. This new piece is by Kaidu webmaster over at Halo Tip. We printed it out and shoved it until the door of Crux’s cell. You should have heard the howls!

Just great! Louis heads off to the sun and pina coladas leaving me here with a mad monk and an aging packet router for company. Didn’t bother to leave the keys to Crux’s cell either. Damn monk is starting to count out primes again. Louis won’t let us answer your HBO mail either not after the last incident. Well we can still post news. Head on over to the Marathon’s Story page for one of the weirdiest pics of Matt Soell ever. That’s the guy who writes us those Halo updates. Scary! 😉

Just a quick heads-up to HBO visitors – I’m heading out on vacation tomorrow morning, to a place that’s warm, and serves drinks with little umbrellas in them, and has no net access. Ding and Wirehead and Crux (well, maybe not Crux) will be here to pick up the slack… but mail will not be answered. (It will still be READ – you can send artwork, or stories, or whatever, and they’ll add it to the appropriate sections – but please don’t expect a reply before I get back.) Here’s hoping that no super-hi-res screenshots get released in the next 8 days… (I can’t believe I just said that.)

Snow in Seattle didn’t stop Matt from sending a seriously meaty Halo Update to the good folks of Rampancy.net… though it did make him rant a bit about SUV-driving wusses. Almost every point is tasty… but the two that got me were

• The chain gun for the Jeep is now fully textured. Rob is working on a new gun intended for “fodder-type” opponents; the geometry is almost done and texturing should be another couple of days.
• The script for Halo’s single-player campaign is about 30% done. (Don’t confuse this with the story itself, which is more-or-less finished at this point, and should completely satisfy those of you who like Bungie games for the story.)

Good story… that’s key. What I REALLY want to know, though, is… what’s a “fodder-type” opponent? And can I make my friends play as them in netgames? Go read all the details for yourself!

Finch adds more info to the bungiestudios.com mystery:

about that URL, I visited it shortly after the Microsoft/Bungie thing and at that time it had a few Myth II plugins available for download. They had used a corrupted version of the Bungie logo, and I just passed it off as someone trying to use the URL to make a buck off of Microsoft.

We received one other bit of mail about this earlier today, that seems to agree with Finch:

a third more likely scenario is that someone probably thought they could profit from the domain name.

Will we ever know the full story? Pax.

As noted by ax on our forums (and on the Marathon’s Story page), the registration date of the domain bungiestudios.com is either a curious coincidence… or a bitter statement. 24 hours after the announcement of the Microsoft acquisition (and, therefore, 24 hours after the change from Bungie Software to Bungie Studios)… you decide.

Psyrixx sends word that the Psyjnir Complex is back up and running. It’s not fully fleshed out yet (the front page says ‘nearing completion!’) but there’s quite a bit there, and if you send feedback now, changes can probably be made more easily. Swing by – looks like he’s ramping up to cover ALL Bungie games, not just Halo… should be a nice addition to the community.

Confirmation is always nice… When asked on the R.net forum whether Xbox Halo will actually be at Gamestock next month, Matt Soell responded

Unless Mt. Rainier erupts, covering us and our source servers in a thick blanket of molten death, we should be there.

Stranger things have happened… but we’re betting it’s a go.

Thanks to Griffon (of Halo Command Central) who noticed that one of the sites listed on our links page as “Halo Command” has changed its name to “Halo Generation“. (URL seems the same, though…) Links page updated.

The secret’s out! I just got back from giving my prayer wheel a spin, and noticed the Computer Dating Agency on the Marathon’s Story page. Well, I browsed around a little bit, and lo and behold – out popped a familiar face! If he’s looking for dates, I guess there’s no longer any need to keep his origins secret… Pax.

Thanks to ax, who noted on the R.net forum that Gamespot has a story that discusses Gamestock, Microsioft’s press-only event next month, which makes a welcome statement:

Bungie Software will be showing the Xbox version of Halo

This has been speculated for a while, but it’s nice to hear it in the context of an actual story on Gamestock. Read the rest of the details!