More Halo Center news… Yrro decided to return as site maintainer. A short break was all that was needed.

Haloplayers announced yesterday that due to server load, they’re going to discontinue their site hosting services for new applicants for the time being. This does not affect existing sites (nor does it affect any sites already accepted but not up yet). And Halo Center would like to remind you that they have their own hosting program, so if you’re looking for a site, check ’em out!

Kudos to Picky, who noticed that Discreet, a division of Autodesk, announced at SIGGRAPH a couple of weeks ago that they’d be releasing a pared-down version of 3d studio max, called 3d studio gMAX, free to gaming communities everywhere, for modmaking. Halo mods just got easier! The full press release is here. Pax.

Fire Phoenix wanted to make it clear that he was still working on Halo Center (although not as site maintainer)… the site’s not closing down, it’s just lost its site maintainer. Apologies to anyone who misinterpreted my comment about there being noone in the position of maintainer as meaning there was noone working on the site.

The PC vs. Console Debate. GameSpy have a report on John Carmack’s (co-founder and lead programmer of id Software) annual QuakeCon speech which covered among other things the PC versus console debate, mod making, and the new DOOM game. Here’s a quote:

“Is the PC dead?” It was a question Carmack had been asked several times by interviewers throughout the weekend … and he wanted to give some of his thoughts on the issue. He began by explaining that a lot of the industry has been wowed by what they’ve seen from the console marketing campaigns, thinking that upcoming consoles would be so powerful that they’d completely overtake PCs in popularity and render them obsolete. Carmack, however, gave several arguments as to why the PC still has along life ahead of itself alongside consoles.

Good read and great to hear The Man’s views.

Yrro has resigned as site maintainer of Halo Center. At the moment, that leaves… nobody there. Ouch. All of us at HBO wish Yrro good luck in whatever he chooses to do next.

This page was compiled yesterday, but I ran out of time before I could upload it… the Halo SETI Marines continue to hold steady at about 500 units behind the TidBITS team, although SETI hasn’t updated the Club Rankings. Darth Flounder takes la Crunch Honneur, and abotani rockets 51 positions to snag the Frogblast award… details can be found on the 14 day stats page.

To vepa, who has now sent the same desktop image twice… please send along a valid email address, I have some questions about your art before I can put it up. Thanks. vepa@microsoft.com bounces.

Jason Rachford writes to tell us of another new Halo site on the scene… Halogame.com. Still being worked on… but it’s fast and lean. Worth a look!

Oops, we missed another Dutch clan (thanks again to HP): Clades. They claim to be the FIRST Dutch Halo clan… seems like a fine claim to me.

Seen at haloplayers… Seems there’s a Dutch Halo squad called Death ‘n Destruction, and they’re recruiting. Stop on by!

Christoph Schmidt writes to tell us that Halo has moved up to the number 3 position in the “Most Wanted Games” list in the September 2000 issue of the German edition of PC Games. Guess the buyout didn’t affect German gamers as much as American ones… (That issue went to press after the buyout news, but before the MacWorld announcement.)

The old Halo Command (which was declared dead a couple of months ago) got revived yesterday… just in time to compete with a NEW site called Halo Command, in the UK. The UK site has no relation to the US one, and seems to have had a bit of work put into it. Take a look!

The Bungie crew seems to be settling in comfortably in their new digs, as evidenced by the banter in this thread. Good to see Matt and Marty back at each others’ throats!

SAF WarMinion points out on our forum that Stealth Assault Force, a Halo squad, is now recruiting. Looking for a Human squad? Check ’em out.

For some reason, we’ve been getting a ton of mail recently asking us to start a petition to bring Halo to the Mac (or PC). For those who are getting their info from print magazines that were put together 2 months ago, I point you to this announcement (for Macs) and this one (for PCs). Halo IS coming to personal computers, not just the Xbox.

Marty O’Donnell (through Matt Soell) divulges the name of the narrator of the E3 Trailer Teaser – Derek Procell. A quick web search turns up a Country/Folk singer with the right vocal style… nice to put a face to the name!

Matt Soell, online from Seattle and posting up a storm, confirms on our forum that Joe Staten and Marty O’Donnell will be heading up a new team devoted to making cool cutscenes and trailers. It was only a matter of time… the Halo engine looks fantastic for making gorgeous cutscenes in a fraction of the time that it would take with standard CG techniques. (Kudos to R.net, who picked up on this yesterday.)

Joseph Haake writes to tell us that several Bungie fans were inadvertently caught on camera in one of the bungie.org MacWorld NY 2000 images. You can see the annotated image here. Too bad we didn’t know… we’d have stopped by to say hello!

GameCenter put up an article with some more details about the Xbox yesterday. They’re ramping up development right now:

“We shipped our first XDK, which is the software development kit for developers,” explained Bach. “By the end of the summer we will have shipped over a thousand of those to well over 200 developers that will be working on the project in various ways. That’s a big milestone for us, because that’s the tool that people are going to use to start creating these games. The first XDK is basically a PC development system, very much like what most people do when they start. And then over time that XDK will migrate into a full console system, which will be the full Xbox, as we complete all the components.”

The HBO Spin: with development actually occurring on a PC (at least at first), it’s possible that the gap between the Xbox version and the PC version might be less than people thought. Thanks to TomeOne for the heads-up.