Sharp-eyed tulmid noticed an ECTS review at Hardware Central, in which a page was devoted to the Xbox, and Halo was the only game mentioned by name. However… any tech writer who says at this stage that

what Intel processor it will use is still not known (probably to Microsoft as well)

can accurately be said to not be on top of the situation. Nice spot, tulmid!

SOKAR posts to our forum that his German Halo website is now online – Halo Empire. Due to its heavy use of style sheets, it’s pretty much unreadable with Netscape, so visit with IE. We found it interesting that we’re not on the links page, although nearly every one of their magazine scans was taken off our pages (without attribution). Don’t mind our peevishness, though… Go take a look!

Oops, we missed this one… HaloVault came back online Sunday, with a new maintainer… Vosx. Give him a few days to get up to speed… good to have the site back!

R.net has found an Xbox article on the New York Times website. If you don’t have a NYT login, read the R.net news post for information on seeing this easily. The Times is a bit pessimistic on the Xbox; they think the console market might not last long enough to keep the Xbox afloat:

Brand and demographics may well conspire against Microsoft. Since July 1998, the penetration of video-game consoles in the nation’s homes has begun to decline, to 35 percent from 37 percent.

The reason, according to the San Francisco-based market research firm Odyssey is that the home PC is also increasingly a game machine.

And they also worry that the rate of console speed growth could increase, putting Microsoft (a newcomer with no software titles) at a disadvantage:

While Microsoft will take the performance lead in 2001, it will be with a powerful machine and little software.

Sony could then trump Microsoft with a faster machine in a year or two that could spell trouble for the software publisher: if the video-game business becomes more like the PC hardware industry, Microsoft may find itself locked in a bitter war over profit margins in which it lacks the comfortable software cushion it enjoys in the PC business. Sony has not publicly acknowledged that it plans to speed up the pace but it has quietly sent signals to its developers.

It’s almost certainly too soon to really judge the Xbox’s chances in this lucrative market… but this article certainly brings up some heretofore unspoken fears. Go read it! (Again, check the R.net news post for instructions about access if you don’t already have a login for the NYT site.)

Thanks to Eric (on our forum), Dan Rudolph (via email), and fire phoenix (of Halo Center, also via email) for notification of yet another Halo preview, this time at Jack In. Mostly, it’s a good overview of the game… but they either know a LOT more about this game than the rest of us, or they’re good at making things up as they go along:

Other borrowed touches include the window at the top of the screen as seen in Delta Force that allows you to snipe from a third-person viewpoint. The non-complicated control system of Quake and its sequels. Also included are the class distinctions as seen in Team Fortress, although it will be possible to pick up new weapons and change your role as it is possible in another of Half-LifeÂ’s fantastic mods, Counterstrike. Another aspect taken from Half-Life is the mapping system that means that the area is broken down into sections that link to one another.

Window at the top of the screen? Class distinctions? (Jason has said this won’t happen… at least not in the context of other games’ class distinctions – they’ll be learned, not chosen.) Mapping system with linked sections? An interesting read, even IF this stuff is all just made up.

Blam!… Blam!… Blam!… Blam!… Blam! The Halo SETI Marines climb 5 notches to number 43 in the Battle of the Teams, mostly due to a server reset that changed the way earned units are allocated. No matter… Slashdot is now within easy reach. Unfortunately, Project Blue Book is climbing fast… can the Marines hold on? Check the 7 days stats for the full details on movements.

Seen at GameSpot UK: At this weekend’s ECTS (the European Computer Trade Show), Ed Fries announced some details of the Xbox launch strategy. There will be (at this point) 22 games ready for release with the box itself – seven from within Microsoft, and 15 from 3rd-party developers. It was this passage that caught my eye:

“Virtually everything we are developing will be exclusive to Xbox. We have a separate set of PC developers,” he said. “We’re not looking to port content back and forth between the Xbox and PC platforms.”

The one exception Fries allowed to this rule is Bungie’s much-hyped Halo, which will publish on Xbox, PC, and Macintosh platforms, although even this title will publish first on Xbox ahead of the PC release.

Shame on us for suggesting, yesterday, that Bungie doesn’t hold a place of honor in the Xbox pantheon!

Will nobody actually put their name to any information any more? Last week, xbox365.com posted a story in which “a good source” suggested the Xbox spec had been improved to include 128 MB RAM, instead of 64. A day later (we missed this until now), Spank! did some checking, and found another “source” (unnamed, of course) who said it’s all a bunch of hooey… “The spec hasn’t changed and it won’t change.” Makes you wonder about xbox365’s 40 gig HD rumor, too…

Noticed this on Halo Center: There’s a Danish Halo site up and running. Seems to have been reporting for the past 3 weeks or so, actually.) I’ve got very little idea what they’re saying… but if you speak Danish, go check out PlanetHalo.dk!

The Wallpaper page gets another one… J.C. Barbosa has submitted an interesting tropical scene for your viewing pleasure. Check it out!

Thanks to Alerus, who sends in another desktop for our Wallpaper page. It’s built on the original Blues News screenshot… so it’s sort of big. Worth a look, though!

Wow… Nathan comes back from the dead (or at least marriage). Nathan Bitner, who left his job as Producer of Halo last fall to get married and go back to school, has surfaced once again on our forum… the man sounds a little frazzled, but I hear Raleigh can do that to you. Good to have you back, Nathan!

We got more Fan Fiction… I think. Empty Weapon, it’s called.

Interesting. Bungie has always made a point of the independence they’re keeping in the Microsoft buyout deal… how Microsoft saw the Bungie name, its cachet, even, worth as much as the games it would produce. Yesterday, however, Microsoft published a press release about the talent pool currently developing for the Xbox. In it, they list all the “independent developers” currently on board with Xbox titles… Bungie isn’t on the list. Below it, though was this:

“In addition to allying with independent development studios, Microsoft also intends to continue to expand its internal pool of development talent across all game genres. The recent acquisition of Bungie Software Corp. increased Microsoft’s internal games group to more than 700 designers, programmers, testers and producers.”

Sure looks like (at least in Microsoft’s eyes) Bungie is just another 50 game engineers, not an independent entity. Hmm…

Well, the Xbox is proving to be one of the largest rumor generators since Mata Hari. xbox365 is reporting that the 8 gig drive is being swapped out in favor of a 40 gig drive, so that the Xbox can act as a recordable VCR, like TiVo or Replay TV. Even Slashdot has picked up on this story (although they bring a healthy dose of cynicism to the table). Thanks to Noctavis for the heads-up on this one.

Turbine Entertainment Software, “the technology-leading developer of massively multiplayer Internet-based persistent virtual worlds for PCs and videogame consoles,” put out a press release on August 17 announcing that they’d hired David Bowman, formerly of Bungie Software, “where he designed for their hit series Myth and Fantasy Siege, the forthcoming hit based on BungieÂ’s Halo engine.” For some strange reason, news of that press release is just making the rounds today… VoodooExtreme has some pretty wild speculation based on the release, but you can make your own guesses. Thanks to R.net and BHG for noticing this.

Another old name hangs up his hat: Stryker writes to say that Halo HQ is closing down, due to “time contraints and lack of Halo-related information.” (There’s a full resignation letter at Halo HQ, but unfortunately, that’s unreachable from here at the moment.) That’s two of the oldest Halo sites gone, in one day! Ouch.

Wow! It looks like there’s been a full server reset over at SETI… the Halo SETI Marines have been credited with over 10,000 units sometime in the past day. (These were units submitted by team members that may have been completed for other teams. Currently, the total for the Halo team is equal to the sum of the individual member totals.) This means that the Halo SETI Marines rocket up to 43rd place, just behind Team Slashdot. Full stats will be presented on Monday… but congrats to all the crunchers out there!

Alan Stott writes to say that due to problems finding a free server that allows server-side includes, Halo-Net is going down, but he made this offer:

The domain is up for grabs and is paid off until next August, and if someone has a server with Server Side Includes, they can have the new unseen site (pretty impressive) and also the freemail system.

If you’re interested, contact Alan at Alan@TheRhythmDome.co.uk.

Thanks to Ben Evans, who sent in a pair of desktops for our Wallpaper page. They’re composited screenshots… one with the old graphics, one with the new. Take your pick!