For those who want a good look at the Xbox, the official site now has a Flash Tour of the console. Check it out!

Dontcha just love it when the PR folks get a little ahead of the demonstrators? As I write this, I’m watching a live webcast from the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas – the Xbox will be unveiled here this morning. However, on Microsoft’s web site, you can find this press release about the show… describing in detail what’s going to happen, even in parts of the keynote that haven’t been shown yet.

A highlight of Gates’ keynote address came when he revealed what Xbox will look like when it hits stores in fall 2001. Gates unveiled the Xbox console and controller and showed demos of two games being developed exclusively for Xbox: “Malice” by United Kingdom-based Argonaut Games PLC and “Munch’s Oddysee” by Oddworld Inhabitants Inc. and published by Microsoft. Gates later was joined on stage by professional wrestler The Rock to promote an Xbox wrestling game.

Well, at least this saves us the trouble of waiting to see if Halo will be demoed today… (Thanks to Christoph Schmidt for the press release heads-up.)

Not really Halo news… but Nathan Bitner has appeared in the news here quite a bit, so we figured it was worth a mention. As noted on the Marathon’s Story page, Gamesmania has an interview with Nathan up at their site, in which he discusses Island Four Software, his new company, and his philosophy of game development. Except for Gamesmania twice referring to the Marathon’s Story page as ‘the Marathon.org message board’ (with no correction from Nathan), it’s a fun read. What does Nathan want?

Oh, yeah, and most importantly, I want a cult following.

Are we helping here?

Thanks to Nicolò Tosi, who reminded us that BOTH the Halo dropship and the PS2 dropship mentioned earlier today owe more than a nod to the UD-4L dropship first seen in the movie ‘Aliens’. We’ve added some backup to our Dropship comparison.

Visor points out on our forum that an upcoming Playstation2 game, Dropship, uses a ship that looks vaguely familar… (The upside – even if the Halo version isn’t user-controllable, this one is.)

Cortana.org gets another update… astrology, new furniture, and a pointed shot taken at those who mock. The game continues… (Thanks to black flag and a red star for the heads-up.)

Symbols, revisited. Starting back in October of 1999 (yeah, a long time ago), there was a bit of discussion about symbols found on various surfaces in Halo. Steve Campbell found some Marathon symbols… Hitman =PN= thought they might be something else… There was much speculation about Marathon logos, and flagstaffs. There was a lot of discussion of Covenant logos, both here and at the Marathon’s Story page. It all sort of died out, though, because we got very little new information. Well, it seems to be resurfacing. Halo HQ has put up a Research Center, and they’re currently reexamining these same logos. Interestingly enough, this was cause for Haloplayers to put up an image of their own… and this one, as far as I know, is new. (Well, new in the sense that it hasn’t been discussed before.) Are the floodgates opening again?

Seamus Blackley speaks out in response to some of the fears expressed by fans about the downgrading of the Xbox specs – you can read his words at xbox.ign.com. Spin control in advance of the CES unveiling? You decide.

Halo demoed at CES? MSXbox reports that Bill Gates will not only unveil the Xbox during his keynote, but will show off some game demos. Here’s hoping we’ll see our favorite Marine in action! (And for those wondering why the Xbox scans floating around the internet haven’t made it here, read this.) Pax.

Mike Patton writes that he’s put up a Halo site for the Halo clan AoD (Angel of Death)… check it out! (The site might be moving soon, so no guarantees about the link.)

wod`asini writes to tell us that he’s formed a new Halo order called Blam! Right now, you can find info on his personal page… but they’re putting up a new site soon. They’re looking for players “who will really want to participate in the Halo community and at the same time dominate ranked halo.” If you fit the bill, stop by!

$erial-ki!!A writes to let us know that a new Halo mailing list has been started up at theglobe.com. Swing by and take a look!

fire phoenix of Halo Center sends word that the XBox 365 site which ran the “Halo commercial during SuperBowl 2001” news item is using a third party image of Halo rather than an official one. What’s wrongXBox 365? Don’t have an official one?

HBO Spin: We’re probably going to see alot more of this given the present lack of new’official’ Halo material and alot of fan created material. Only yesterday we reported that Compuexpert.com were passing off a fan-created, Bryce-based piece of original art as a Halo screenshot.

Hawk, from Halo Center, sends along an interesting rumor from XBO365. Seems one of the commercials for the Xbox to be shown during the Superbowl (January 28, 2001) will focus on Halo:

The second commercial pushes a lot of Promo for Halo but I don’t have the details on that one yet. I’m told they do half of it as if the viewer was actually in the game and looking around at the action around. Stuff crashing and blowing up all around – characters talking to you and getting shot etc.

There’s been no official confirmation of this, so it’s easily just a rumor… but hey, January 28 is less than 4 weeks away!

Thanks to Phalynx, who submitted a nifty new logo for our Logos page. Check it out! Pax.

Wow… you think you’ve gone through every screenshot ever released a million times… you think there’s nothing left to find. You’re wrong. 🙂 Khaine pointed out to us that the second covenant rifle, which has been discussed recently on our forum, has, indeed, been seen fired… almost 8 months ago! We’ve put together a quick page to show what’s currently known about this gun (minus the four frames in the Incite movie – check our Weapons Rundown for details on that). Thanks for the heads-up, Khaine!

Xerxes writes to tell us that Halo Orbit (the German one) has been totally redesigned. It’s utterly broken in NS… but looks quite nice in IE. Go and take a look!

Rony Sanchez writes to tell us that Compuexpert.com, a software retailer, lists a Halo release date of 5/29/01. While this would normally not be worth a mention (release dates that don’t come from Bungie aren’t worth the pixels it takes to display them), this one’s intriguing because of the Halo page itself. In the bank of 10 screenshots used to display the glory of Halo, they’ve used 9 of the original screenshots… and this image, a fan-created, Bryce-based piece of art originally visible on our Miscellaneous Art page! Guess Ken should feel flattered…

eldar-colonel writes to say that Halo HQ is having a wallpaper contest. Stop by and read about it.

As noted on Islandfour.org and the Marathon’s Story page, there’s been another update over at cortana.org. Scorpio and Orion…