These days it seems like everyone at Bungie is giving interviews. Of course that's not really the case; Bungie is just much larger than it was back in the days when you could attend a MacWorld show and meet practically the whole company.

One thing that hasn't changed too much is the man behind it all-- Jason Jones. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews. From MacWorld of 1999 to the release of Halo 2 and a short sequence on the Limited Edition DVD, you could go years without hearing a word from him in the press.

That doesn't stop The Telegraph from trying to get some insights on Bungie, Halo, and Jones, even if some of the revelations are secondhand:

Joe Staten, Halo's smart and sarcastic writing director, says, 'Working with Jones is fun, but he is also very challenging. I once said to him, "Let's talk about the story for Halo 2. What do you think the story for Halo 2 is?" And he says, "I know what the story is. At some point the Master Chief says, only blood will pay for this. He meets this thing called the Gravemind and it says, I am a monument to all your sins."

The telegraph's three page article is well worth a read, even for those who know their Bungie lore quite well.

Thanks Louis Wu at HBO for the heads-up.

Luke Smith has posted up the last Bungie Weekly Update before the game goes into everyone's (or mostly everyone's) hands: a How-To article on Bungie.net's new features.

Still nothing about fileshare RSS feeds, but it does look like there will be a high degree of integration between your fileshare and the Bungie.net forums.

Looks like some of the guys over at The Hushed Casket managed to pick up copies of Halo 3 early-- they're already unlocking achievements! So far there are no matchmaking lists online, apparently.

Not much more to say: the man really is nuts. Check GamePolitics for the story and the full complaint.

A few more pre-launch interviews of Bungie folk out there:

Armchair Empire talked to environmental artist Mike Zak.

The Escapist and Next Generation talked to production head Jonty Barnes (Next-Gen got him in a package deal with Jay Weinland).

Dean Takahashi at the San Jose Mercury News talked to community lead Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard and studio head Harold Ryan.

TeamXbox has the story of Montreal animation studio damnfx, tapped by Bungie to help produce some of the in-engine cinematics of Halo 3.

"Having recently worked on two large format stereoscopic films for IMAX theatres, it was refreshing to focus simply on delivering outstanding animation, while letting Bungie's Halo 3 game engine worry about lighting, rendering and compositing the shots!" said damnfx executive producer Peter Skovsbo.

damnfx's work apparently applied to about 20 minutes of Halo 3's cinematics; the game is purported to have less cinematic footage overrall compared to Halo 2, with more plot points being revealed during scripted events.

HBO notes that they received a strange image, apparently one of many. Fan project? Another prong of the Iris ARG, thought finished last month? Who knows.