Came in last night… but we were slacking. Joseph Haake did a bit of image enhancement work on the Bob commander’s hat, posted yesterday at Haloplayers. It’s his opinion that the symbol there is not the Marathon symbol. He reminds us, though, that it was a small image, seen from only one angle. Decide for yourselves! (127K)

Another pair of screens from Private Meowman… quite the prolific screenmaker! You’ll find them on our Wallpaper page.

A “fantasy-based siege warfare title” based on the Halo engine? That’s what NextGen says Bungie is working on, according to ZeroRage on our forum. Interesting stuff…

The Marathon-Halo link again… silverfox, on the R.net forum, has noticed a Marathon-like logo on the hat in one of the new PC Gamer screens. What’s going on here?

Haloplayers has posted small scans of the new PC Gamer screenshots… these seem to be screen grabs from the E3 trailer. Take a look! (And when you’re done, swing by Rampancy.net, where Ferrex has posted a quick synopsis of the four pics.)

Jenkz of Haloplayers has posted the rest of the paragraph that Jason Jones quote came from.

“One fundamental change from the game’s initial announcement concerns its viewpoint. While originally it was promised to be a third-person game, now a more hybrid approach has been chosen. The exact ration of the two modes hasn’t been finalised – clearly, without using Delta Force’s window approach, it’s impossible to use a sniper rifle in third-person, while driving the bouncing jeeps without the peripheral vision allowed by third-person makes things less enjoyable – but Jason believes that the balance is moving increasingly towards the first-person model.”

That clears things up a bit… but Bungie might take pause at the firestorms raging at sites like Shugashack, Stomped, and Blues News over this quote.

A post on our forum which announces a new mod team for Halo contains this phrase:

“After […] a e-mail from Doug Zartman saying Halo ships with everything needed to make a mod…”

Bad grammar aside, confirmation that tools WILL ship with Halo is a positive thing. 🙂

Haloplayers has gotten their hands on the latest issue of PCGamer UK… with a 5-page Halo spread inside. Four new screenshots, and some interesting info, including this quote:

“Jason [Jones] believes that the balance is moving increasingly towards the first person model.”

Now THERE’S a switch. Here’s hoping Haloplayers gets permission to post this soon.

Christoph Schmidt points out that the latest (July) issue of the German PC Games is devoted to E3, and will contain a preview of Halo. Looking forward to seeing this!

An impressive piece of fiction showed up this morning… took a while to format it, but it was worth it. Take a look at Storm, from Alan Seawright, on our Fan Fiction page! We’re loving that the fan fiction section has come alive again.

The Halo SETI Marinesare 2189 units behind the SETI-Hispano team in the SETI team ranks. Got some crunchin’ to do to get past these guys. Team memberships remains at 404 marines. Banzif and SkyHook takes top credits this time round. Full details on the 24 hour stats page.

Another pair of desktops from Joel Loukus… nice space-type pics. You can find them on our Wallpaper page.

Uros Jojic (IGNPC European Content Editor) sends us word of a new Halo preview at ActionTrip.com. The basis for the preview is the E3 trailer, so the info’s not that new… but the perspective is. Here you have a review written by a hardcore gamer who’s excited not because Halo looks great or has kickass guns… but because of its story potential. The tide is turning. Check it out!

Over at the Marathon’s Story page, another interesting picture has surfaced. An alternate cover of a book called “Armor” (one of the original codenames for Halo) has an image of soldiers dropping from a dropship with no parachutes… quite a lot like we understand Halo works. Hmm… Pax.

The Halo SETI Marines dig in at position 48 on the Club Rankings… but with the growth of the team (three new members today), it won’t be long! Jjaro Tech crunches again, Skyhook frogblasts past another 28… Where are YOU? Check the 24 hour stats!

Goodness, we missed one. There was ANOTHER fanfic posted to the forum this morning… Thanks, Octavio! We’ve added it, as well, to the Fan Fiction page.

The field is alive again! Tycho has posted another piece of fan fiction, on our forum, which has been added to our Fan Fiction page. Take a look!

arctic wolf submits another piece of Fan Fiction, via our forum. The field is warming up again!

Joel Loukus sends in another desktop image for our Wallpaper page. Take a look!

Blam!… The Halo SETI Marines crash into 48th place in the Club Standings, and 98th place in overall standings… and the SETI server begins to return a few lost units. Jjaro Tech proves once again that weekends are more reliable times to find aliens, handily taking La Crunch Honneur. Skyhook vaults past 21 teammates to take the Frogblast award. Check out the 24 hour stats!