Whoa. We got an email today…

“Through the instruments of the Muse, we shall sing the nameless their endsong.”

“Silence will end their dirge.”

“Beat we the rythym, their filth in a blaze will cease. They are flat, andno deeper deafness could their have, than to not see the song that has beenwritten for them.”
        -Speaks the Conduit

No, it didn’t come from Nathan. Should we lock the doors?

Thanks to Mojo, who dug out an old (but very nice) wallpaper for our Wallpaper page. Makes me pine for the old Marine!

Kudos to Picky, who found this page at Computer and Video Games… THIS is what the new Xbox logo looks like. Hmm… I still like the old one. 😉 Heh… and check the official Xbox page – now ‘The Word’ section contains not only ‘News’ and ‘Noise’ but also ‘Rumors’!

Tempest in a Teapot Dept: FGN Online is reporting that

Disappointingly Microsoft did not unveil the console itself. However the name of PlayStation 2’s big rival has been confirmed as… Xbox.

So whether the form changes or not, the name stays the same. Note to self: stop reading so much into internet outages and misconfigurations.

Just a quick update… Matt Soell confirms that development of Halo hasn’t yet moved into Single Player mode yet. Good thing they’ve got a year! 🙂

Looks like we jumped too fast. In time for the 7:00 pm GMT announcements planned today, www.xbox.com is up again. Still waiting… (Thanks to Cosmic Muffet for the heads-up.) Pax.

More fuel for the rumor mill… Microsoft’s official Xbox site, www.xbox.com, is currently nonexistent. (Well, you can visit… but the message you get is ‘No web site is configured at this address.’) A temporary problem… or a change of name?

Hmm. Seems an article at MSN Computing Central Computer Games Forum referred to the Xbox as “now officially known as the Raven”, until xbox.ign called about the reference. That line is gone now. Does this mean someone screwed up completely, and just got it wrong… or that someone screwed up a little bit, and released a name that wasn’t supposed to be public before tomorrow? Time will tell. (Credit goes to R.net for this one.)

Thanks to papamarx@speakeasy.net, who writes in with news from Daily Radar, who in turn got it from Advertising Age… Microsoft will be announcing a new name and logo for the Xbox tomorrow in San Francisco. Ouch to all those sites who bought xbox domain names! Pax.

Blam! The Halo SETI Marines climb past Team Slashdot to position 43, despite the defection of a one-time bungie.org staffer (and his 400+ units). Total production is up almost 10% over last week! Darthflounder takes La Crunch Honneur, and SHARkY blasts past 74 teammates for the Frogblast Award. Full details can be found on the 7-day stats page. (These were crunched yesterday, but somehow, I forgot to upload them to the server.)

Picky sends word that Honest3d.com has an article on the Xbox, and where they (Honest3D) think the Xbox fits in the console world. One interesting quote had to do with the rumor of a RAM upgrade (to 128 MB):

The Microsoft rep said flatly that in fact the X-Box was still going to be sold to gamers with only 64mb of RAM and that the reason for the rumor was the fact that the X-Boxes that are going to game developers will indeed actually have 128mb of RAM. This is due to the fact that the game developers need the extra RAM.

You can read the rest of the article here. Pax.

Rob McLees, on the current state of Halo:

“Halo in its current form takes the old stuff that everyone was so impressed with and holds its head under the filthy waters of a public menÂ’s room toilet.”

That doesn’t sound like a disheartened art staffer… That, and more, was posted to our forum by Matt Soell today, who went on a writing spree over at R.net, as well. Stop in and read all of it… there’s a TON of good info there.

fAt1 sends word that he’s got a new Halo site up and running: Halo Multi Player Zone. You’ll need to register with MPZ to get in, but it doesn’t cost anything. fAt1 says there’s lots of help needed, so if you’re interested in helping out on a Halo site, drop him a line!

Thanks to Bounty, who clears up the “Planet Halo” issue:

The site is registered to Angellcom, and will serve to be a corporate page for their new pager 🙂 Although, it does have the words “Planet Halo” on the pager, it could be the desire of some maniacal Bungie fan, don’t expect to see any new info pop up at that domain :p

Thanks, Bounty! Ah, well… saves us writing a line into the Links page. 🙂

An alert reader noticed this site, which was registered a few weeks ago. It might not have anything at all to do with Halo, the game (the site is registered to Angellcom, so it’s possible that it’s simply a play on the owner’s name)… or it might. (This is not Gamespy’s Planet Halo, which currently resolves to Battleground: Halo.)

Crovax sends in a new wallpaper for our Wallpaper page, using (almost exclusively) old-style Marines and Covenant. If you pine for the days before the switch, take a look at this one! Pax.

Ironfist mentions on our forum that he has updated the Bungie Coat of Arms, and brought it into the Halo age. The QuickTime movie weighs inat just under 2 megs. And it looks a little better in IE than it does in Netscape (has to do with the placement of end-of-line returns). Go take a look!

Psyrixx writes that there’s an interview with Durandal, Project Lead of the Marathon: Resurrection project (a project to bring Marathon to the Unreal Tournament engine) over at the Psyjnir Complex. (If you’re having trouble getting in to find it, here‘s a direct link.) This is only marginally Halo-related; it’s here because of the (so far implied) links between Marathon and Halo. For those poeple who never saw Marathon in its original form, this might be a great way to introduce yourselves!

Sokar writes to say that HaloEmpire now has a Halo screensaver (created by GCA) for download. It cycles through Halo screenshots with various fades and cuts between them. (Windows only.) Go take a look! Pax.

Lord of flaw sends word that his new German Halo site is online: Halo Universe. Swing by and take a look!