Xbox tidbit – last week, Microsoft downgraded its performance sheet with a 250 MHz graphics processor instead of a 300 MHz one, which drops its polygon performance from 150 M/sec to 125 M/sec. (This is still twice the performance of the PS2.) For reference, here’s the old spec card, distributed to dealers recently. The spin from MSXbox (a fansite) is that these new numbers are more in line with the ‘real world’ performace of the system… sounds like a copout to us. (Thanks to BGH for initial heads-up on tis one.)

Thanks to Brian Norton, who sent in a treatise on offplanet seasons, explaining why Halo won’t have any. You can find it in our Theories section.

Thanks to fAt1, of MPZ Halo, who sent along a link to this Video Business article containing Xbox details. Though some of the info is a little confused (they mention a 64 MB hard drive), much of it looks solid. Among the more interesting tidbits: the current launch window is reportedly September 15 to November 15, 2001, and Microsoft is finding that it needs to restructure its launch plans:

VB has also been told that development for Xbox is so easy that Microsoft is actually restructuring its launch plans, because it literally will have too many games ready for launch. The company is talking to key publishers about holding back some of the launch titles to fill the second and third wave of game releases for 2002.

Not a bad position to be in! The most disturbing bit is the quote at the end from MS’s Marketing Director for WebTV, who suggests that a future box might bundle what’s in the Xbox with what’s in the next generation of WebTV, directly contradicting what Seamus Blackley stated a few months ago. Worth a read!

[FMJ]Phönix[BP] drops a note on our forum mentioning a new German Halo clan, Full Metal Jacket. They seem to be a Sudden Strike clan with a Halo offshoot… I couldn’t get the provided link to connect me with a Halo page, so here’s a direct link.

Well, it only took 17 months, but it’s finally been confirmed that those little blips in the MWNY 99 Halo trailer WERE natural life, and not glitches in the video – Nathan Bitner, former Halo producer and current head honcho of Island Four Software, stated on our forum

Natural life began to appear in the air with the very first trailer…

One can be seen at about 3:11 in the video, behind the Covenant flyer in the blue sky. Pax.

=NAV= Shadow writes to say that the Clan NAVCON site is getting a redesign, and should be back online sometime in early January. You can see a preview image at the site now. Pax.

Bungie’s on the move! Today’s the day… Bungie’s moving out of their temporary digs in the Encarta building, and over into their posh new Gaming Division offices. A Microsoft employee reports almost being crushed in the elevator by a guy carrying a 6-foot cardboard Trow… (Thanks, Aaron.)

Hamish Sinclair writes to point out that in our holiday preparations, we missed an official reply from Microsoft on the EU Xbox release issue (we mentioned the problem here, but at the time it was a rumor). Late last week, Microsoft issued a statement clarifying the issue – the delay IS real, and the reason IS a supply question. You can read about it over at MSXbox.

eldar-colonel, of Halo Hq, sends along a new desktop for our Wallpaper page. A mixture of the old and the new… Pax.

Our forum has moved – the URL is the same, but the machine upon which it resides is different. This means that until your local DNS catches up with our change, you’ll be seeing the old forum. When you don’t see a “Forum is moving” note on the top, you’ll know you’re looking at the new one. The upgrade to the newest WebBBS has certainly been welcome on the Oni Central forum… I hope it’s as welcome here!

And the SETI Halo Marines make a reappearance! Some weird goings-on, though… although the individual stats are increasing normally, the team numbers haven’t changed an iota in the past 24 hours, making one wonder about the accuracy of the Team Standing values. Nevertheless, the Marines have been valiantly plugging away at incoming data, and whether SETI knows it or not, continues to search for the Covenant! All the details can be found on the 21 day stats page.

M E R R Y    C H R I S T M A S !

From the HBO crew and our families, to you and yours, we wish you the merriest of holiday seasons. Pax.

(We’ll be back updating on Tuesday, the 26th.)

General Cicero says on our forum that the position of Pilot is open under the Staff of Caesar at the Roman Federation, a large Halo army. Stop by or email him for details.

No Halo update this week says Matt on our forums. No Halo update next week too. Doesn’t look like we’ll get one on Friday January 5th either. Matt hints at a possible live Halo update at the Bungie fanfest. Go read his full posthere.

Wow. This blows me away. Xbox 360, an Xbox news site, has recently (December 16, 2000) put up a preview of Halo. Given the date, and the focus of the site, you’d think they had current info, right? You’d be wrong. The few screenshots up are all using the pre-E3 models, the background (while nominally accurate) is all a year or more old… ah, well, to be expected from a review that promises

While no official list of weapons is available, several of them have been seen in action, and yes, one of them is a rocket-launcher.

I’m wondering if this article is a harbinger of a wave of under-researched pieces… was the early press Halo got going to be a hindrance?

Griffon writes to tell us that Halo Command Central will be closing for the holidays. They hope to be back up soon with new features. Have a merry one!

fAt, of MPZ Halo, sends word that FGN Online has an article suggesting that the Xbox will be delayed in Europe for as long as 3 months past the US release. There must be a big router out between FGN and here, because I can’t reach the site at all… but Daily Radar has a similar article, with some US commentary – apparently, the theory is that the delay is specifically to avoid shortage problems like those faced by Sony with its Playstation 2. This doesn’t seem to be affecting the US rollout date, and in fact might even bump it up, now that Microsoft isn’t going to be trying to coordinate a worldwide simultaneous rollout. Since the concern is a hardware shortage, and not a technical glitch, it will likely not affect the PC/Mac versions of Halo, either. Or… at least, that’s OUR guess. (If we’re wrong, we’ll hang Crux by his thumbs, and everyone can take a shot at him.)

If Hamish can do it, so can we. We’ve put up our holiday decorations, in honor of the first day of Winter (in the northern hemisphere, at least). Now I just need to finish hanging those lights on my REAL house…

Heh… seems Matt agreed with my dissatisfaction with the chat… he posted this note a few minutes after it ended. 🙂 More prep next time…