As Tursas noticed, there’s something wonky over at the petition to bring Halo to the Mac/PC. Hopefully, they haven’t lost all that data…

The Halo SETI Marines’ page has been wiped out… Phhht! Just like that. The SETI team rankspage has been updated however and we are still lying in position #47 some 1000 units behind the “TidBITS” team and some 1000 units ahead of the Seti Italia team. Hopefully the SETI techs will have their server back up and running soon.

False alarm. Bungie.net is back up. The plan is still to shut-down and relocate this weekend. Take a last look.

New Halo screenshots! Woohoo major kudos to edge (again!) for pointing us to a new Halo preview at CDmag which has some very high quality screenshots including the new alien. There’s also a shot of the Halo marine driving the jeep! Woot!

More on Microsoft’s acquisition of NetGamesUSA. Thanks to edge who notes on our forums that there is a follow up interview with Craig Sparks, CEO of NetGamesUSA, at Stomped.comHere’s some quotes:

Stomped: What will this move mean for your personally and for the rest of the NetGamesUSA team? Will the team continue to work from Kansas or move toRedmond, Washington?

Sparks: Microsoft acquired our entire development staff and they have already relocated to Redmond and are now Microsoft employees. Personally, I did not transfer over as part of the acquisition and will be turning my attentions to some personal projects that are not computer gaming related.

Stomped: Finally, some people might look on this announcement as yet another move by Microsoft to “take over the gaming industry”. Would like to respond to those concerns?

Sparks: I don’t share those concerns. I think the gaming industry is vibrantly alive with both content choices and competition that remain to the benefit of everyone involved. I don’t think Microsoft or anyone for that matter is in a position to “take over” the gaming industry. I believe acquisitions of small companies like NetGames USA are actually to the benefit of consumers. It will allow our technologies and product plans to reach many more gamers and developers that we had the resources to do alone.

Thanks edge, thanks Stomped, good on ya Sparks!

bungie.net is down! They said the server was closing this weekend but they must have shut up shop early. Could be down for some time as they move to Redmond and set up shop. Head on over to bs.bungie.org and Marathon’s Storyfor the first comments on the closure.

The Microsoft buyout of Bungie gets discussed by the “Geeks in Space” a nearly-weekly audio show hosted by Rob Malda and Jeff Bates ofSlashdot.org. It’s in their typical Geek ‘off-the-wall’ style with lines like “Myth 3 will now be known as Age of Empires 3” and “Magic Carpet by Bungie”?!!!. For Geeks only.

Another gaming acquisition by Microsoft. Thanks to edge on our forumswho points out that Microsoft have acquired Kansas-based NetGames USA, a leading developer of scoring, matchmaking and other enhancements for retail and Web-based games. The acquisition will enhance the competitiveness of games on Microsoft’s Zone.com and further solidify the site as the Internet’s best location to play games with players from around the globe. Full details on our forums. Thanks edge.

Playtest the Xbox and Halo?!!!MSXbox report that Microsoft is looking for volunteers to playtest its upcoming videogames for the PC and even the Xbox. Halo will obviously feature heavily here. MSXbox have the details but here are the basic requirements:

You live in the Puget Sound area and are able get to the Microsoft campus during test times (which may be days or evenings on weekdays or Saturdays).
You are older than 13
You do not work at Microsoft as an employee, temporary staffer, independent contractor or vendor.

Since MS are unlikely to hand out Xboxes to beta testers this is probably the only way you’re going to be able to beta test Halo.

Frederico Giacanelli writes:

I’d like to know if someone has written down all the dialogue lines of the E3 movie. While the general plot is quite clear to non-english speakers (as I am), some of the fast-paced phrases are not so intelligible.

Well, Frederico… so far as I know, no one had. So I did. You can find it here. Enjoy!

Kudos to Aaron Sommer, who pointed out a Robert Cringely article on our forum. It’s 5 months old… but still quite relevant, especially if he’s right. The theory’s not new, but Cringely presents it convincingly. If he’s right, will Bungie end up as a casualty of war?

bungie.net server relocation at the weekend says Yeroen, Here’s the details:

We’re tentatively planning on moving the web and gaming servers to Redmond this weekend. This means that if all goes well we’ll shut them down Friday morning, ship ’em in cold storage, thaw them out and set them up again early next week. However, there are a lot of technical and ISP issues with this move, and I can’t promise specific dates or times.

Sometime before we’re back up we’ll release a preferences patch via this web site that will allow the game clients to communicate with the relocated servers.

Finally, although we’re relocating the Myth and Myth II gaming servers, we will no longer be maintaining the Myth II demo server. Sorry.

Hey no Myth II demo server. 🙁

Ian “No more hate mail, please” McConville updates his Needlegun model, based on the higher-res shot in the August 2000 PC Gamer. Classy stuff…

Massa writes to let us know that GameStar has a poll asking “Would you buy an Xbox just to play Halo?” While a resounding 74% (at this point) say “NO!”, a surprising 367 (5%) say “Clearly.” The poll’s in german, but Babelfish can translate well enough for you to understand what you’re voting…

Woohoo! Iku-Turso gets the “most observant of the week” award… Bungie’s Halo site has finally been updated (a tiny bit) to reflect the change in development priority; the front page now reads “Coming soon to a platform near you.”

Halo HQ picked this up last week… GameSurge has put up a new preview of Halo. A few errors, and less analysis than I’d hoped, given the beginning of the article… but a fine read nonetheless. Take a look.

This came in last night… but things got crazy. Ian M. Bayne (interesting initials, name) sent in another piece for our Fan Fiction page… check it out!

The Halo SETI Marines are back in full force! Over 2600 units crunched this week, with a total of 17 new names on the list. Welcome back to DarthFlounder and Lithion (and thanks to max.max for getting them back!), and a big hello to all the folks who’ve entered the top 400, plus Carnage, Kytis, Ape Man, Porter, Savage, and crazy_bob_15. Welcome, too, to Banzif, who has started up another client, and will likely be climbing quickly over the next few weeks. TidBITS is still looming in that 46th spot… can the Marines grunt their way through? Check the 7-day stats for all the details!

Seen at BG:H… TuCows has put up a short review of the E3 trailer… bottom line, they liked it. We’ve added another link to the Trailer Mirror page.

Ian “I can’t stop modelling” McConville has pumped out yet another Halo weapon model. This time, it’s the Covenant needle gun, first seen in the E3 trailer, and most recently in the August issue of PC Gamer. Check it out!