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.

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.