We would be remiss if we ignored this altogether, since it’s potentially very big news. We want to stress, however, that it’s nothing more than rumor at this point. A rather large thread is running on our forum, revolving around a potential deal between Bungie and Microsoft. If true (even in part), it means major shifts for Bungie (obviously), and for sites which cover Bungie (not quite so obviously). We’d like to stress that we have NO official word from Bungie on any of this (confirming or denying, or even acknowledging), and all of the actual details are being posted anonymously. I WILL say that the two posters are new to our forum (these are the first posts from those IP addresses), and that neither one is in a physical location known to be common for either Bungie or Microsoft. (Not that that means anything.) Hopefully, we’ll hear one way or another soon, from someone with authority.

septimus posted a link to a Something Awful article on Halo on our forum… definitely worth a read. Inside Bungie… deep and dirty!

Daily Radar put up a list of developers currently supporting the X-box, and those who Daily Radar think will support it. Bungie’s on the second list.

The Halo SETI Marines are closing in on spot 97 on the overall Teams Rankings… tomorrow? Banzif and Skyhook take top honors today in the 24 hour stats.

“Short Bungie Blurbs in NextGen” says Strykerin our forums. Here’s the full quote from page 19:

Bungling Bungie:
The smarty-pants developer behind Halo and Oni planned to announce a third title at E3, but then changed its mind and opted not to. Still, Next Generation learned that the game would be a fantasy-based siege warfare title that featured both realtime and turn-based gameplay. The cool part? It will be built on the Halo engine.

Thanks Stryker.

Thanks to Joedaphish, who cleaned up our “Bobs in action” shot from a couple of days ago for us. We’ve posted it (and the other unique PC Gamer screen) in our Screenshots section. Looks nice, Phish!

Seen at Haloplayers… a new Halo site comes on the scene, this one dedicated to down-under Halo! Halo-au (Halo Australia) is now online. Swing by and check ’em out!

The Halo SETI Marinesclose the gap in the Battle of the Teams. Team membership rises to 408 marines. SkyHook and “Dr Raw Stag Footrot FRACS” share the Frogblast award and Banzif takes top crunchin’ honors once more. Full details on the 24 hour stats page.

Wow. Those Haloplayers boys really rate. PC Gamer has put some of the content from their July print mag up on their website, before the mag is off the shelves… “as a special favour to Haloplayers”. Nice going, guys!

D’n’A posts to our forum that the July issue of PCZone Benelux won’t be out until June 22. Guess we have a bit of time to wait for that new article!

$erial-ki!! A has submitted some wallpaper which shows his feelings on the Marathon-Halo link. You’ll find it on our Wallpaper page.

Over at the Haloplayers general forum, anno domini posts that the July issue of PC Zone Benelux (a Dutch PC gaming mag) contains a four page Halo article, “as well as four previously unreleased and exclusive screenshots, differing from those in the July issue of PC Gamer UK!” We’re talking to our agent in Holland about getting hold of a copy of this mag. Stay tuned.

The July 2000 issue of PC Games also contains a Halo article, and Christoph Schmidt was kind enough to scan it in for us. We don’t have permission yet to post it… but since there are no new pictures anyway, we’re going to give you the translated text now, courtesy of Harry “Halo, Halo, Halo… I want my ONI!” Al-Shakarchi. Not much new info here, but another estimation of an early-next-year release date, and some nice descriptions of the graphics. 😉 Thanks, Christoph and Harry!

The Marathon’s Story page could be renamed the “PC Gamer analysis page” today… lots of good stuff from the new article. Great quotes, and a better scan from Jenkz of the Marathon-like symbol on the commander’s hat. Hamish has out-Haloed us!

mad.max has posted some of the highlights from the PC Gamer UK article to the R.net forum. Lots of useful little snippets… worth a read! Pax.

Total freedom is impossible? According to a forum postby Bagman PC Gamer UK is claiming that Bungie have decided that total freedom in Halo is impossible. Here’s the full quote as posted by Bagman:

“Bungie have decided that ‘Total Freedom’ is impossible, so have to border their levels in natural ways (for example, mountain ranges or the edge of the ringworld).”

What happens if you grab a Covenant flyer?

The March 2001 date mentioned by Take 2 has been echoed by PC Gamer UK, who included an article entitled “Slippage Central” in the latest issue (page 37):

Despite our ‘Done When It’s Done’ column reading “April” for Halo last month, a release date for Bungie’s handsome project has never been particularly clear. But Kieron did some poking around with his investigating stick at E3 and discovered that not only is the official release date now around Christmas, but that the likelihood of Bungie actually hitting it is minimal. An insider source says, confidently, March next year.

Looks like bad news for those expecting Halo in their Christmas stockings!

Massa, from Halo Network, sends word that he contacted Take 2 recently to clarify the GameStar reported release date of “early 2001”, and they told him that the current date was March 2001. Ouch!

Whoa! The London offices of HBO snagged us a copy of PC Gamer UK July 2000. We’re not worthy… we’re not worthy! They also scanned in a full page Halo marine pic not previously seen on the net. Go grab it here before we’re raided! Much to our amazement they ripped the mag apart to bring you a FULL shot of the Halo “Bobs” in action. Now you can see the unseen left half. It’s pretty clear from this scan that the logo on the cap is not a Marathon logo.

No movement by the Halo SETI Marinesin the SETI league. We keep crunchin’ but so dothe other teams. It’s tough in the top 50. Team memberships still remains at 404 marines. Banzif and SkyHook take top credits again. Full details on the 24 hour stats page.