MacObserver has posted an audio interview taken during E3 with Bungie's Matt Soell. The topics of discussion cover Oni, HALO, Microsoft, and the XBox. It's 2.1 MB and is 14:57 in length; check it out.

Setter-upper of the fifth annual Bungie Fanfest, Freewill has put together a report of what happened during that glorious night. A jolly time would be had by Bungie employees, fans, and dorks alike, and the report has the pictures to prove it. Don't miss this one, as it is the best first-hand report of the FanFest out there.

Lanparty.com, which normally focuses on PC games (for obvious reasons) apparently stumbled across FanFestV completely by mistake because they were staying at the same hotel while visiting E3. Subsequently they felt obligated to comment on it.

And while they can be forgiven for not knowing about the FanFest-- maybe-- they can't be for referring to Halo's developers as Bungee :

Imagine my surprise riding the elevator up form the parking garage when I saw Bungee Fanfest V listed on the activities going on in MY hotel this evening. I knew I dropped $300 a night for some reason, but I thought it was just because of the mini-bar. Soon after checking in, I was confronted with three fellow gamers (all resembling the infamous Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons) asking where the Fanfest was. Dropping my bags in the room, I headed on down in hopes of getting a little piece of gaming goodness.

While many gamers are complaining about the Xbox's multiplayer limitations compared to a regular PC gaming rig, it seems Lanparty.com is intrigued by the idea of networkable consoles:

It seems that the rest of the gaming community has finally figured out what we LANners have known for years: networked gaming is just more fun. With support for up to 16 players, and Halo being a launch title for the Xbox, it's going to be quite tempting to supplement a PC LAN with a few Xboxes.

Not sure from that comment if they are under the impression that the Xbox will be able to play games head-to-head against PCs, because we haven't necessarily heard that will be the case. In fact, recent mention of the fact that Mac/PC Halo will have more multiplayer capabilities and more missions than Xbox Halo seem to indicate it won't be, but we'll have to wait and see.

Louis Wu at Bungie.org has given us the heads-up that Freewill has posted his FanFestV reminiscences at Bungie Sightings. Among the highlights:

So now Matt continued with a quick 10 year retrospective slideshow. Plenty of lewd early photos, double-entendres, and general 3rd grade behavior was sprinkled throughout his presentation. Yes, Matt never disappoints.

Nice to see Matt's still keepin' it real. In addition:

Once that was over, the boxes were linked up and a multiplayer map was loaded. Now folks got a chance to try the game out for themselves in a non-stop game of 4x4 Capture The Flag. Needless to say, the next hour was quite fun. Alot of that initial 'how do I control this thing?' confusion fades enough that you can completely submerse yourself into the action.

The report has got lots of details about the Fest and the apres-Fest goings on, including dinner at a restaurant owned by Steven Spielberg's mom. Be sure to read it.

Bungie Community Guy Matt Soell has showed up on the radar again, posting in our forum to let us know that THERE WILL BE MAC AND PC VERSIONS OF HALO, no matter how many posts you might see from malicious dolts who confirmed with a Bungie developer that Mac Halo is dead .

Thanks again, Matt. A pleasure as always.

But that's merely an unfortunate sideshow compared to what we've seen so far-- FanFestV and E3-- and what is yet to come, according to the esteemed Bungie Guy:

There was a semi-big project (took days and days) I was working on for the FanFest that got the shaft at the last minute thanks to technical difficulties. Hooray. [I will resurrect it at some later date when the problems are ironed out. You will like it, I promise.]

Then I actually had to leave town and attend the FanFest/E3 for a while. Both of which were really entertaining experiences, by the way. The Fanfest in particular was especially gratifying. I remember it only in flashes because my mind was in 6 places at once while it was going on, but they are quite pleasant flashes. It was a real treat to see a crowd of fans cheering and laughing as they played Halo. As a rule (albeit a rule we are trying to change) the FanFests lose money, and this one was no exception, but it was worth it to me to see so many people having fun. Now we just have to figure out how to top it at the next FanFest.

So there you have it. Yes, Virginia, Halo WILL still come to the Mac and the PC according to People Who Should Know These Kind of Things, and apparently there is at least one little surprise in store for us even before the Xbox hits the Christmas shopping shelves like a metric ton of gold-plated mistletoe sprinkled with crack cocaine. Goody.

Harry from Oni Central let us in on the updated FanFest coverage at Bungie Sightings. There are pics up now from the event itself, including 4-player split-screen Halo on a huge screen, as well as the ones from event setup that were posted earlier.

Also, R.net reader and RHL denizen Butch has posted his thoughts after the FanFest on our forum. Among Butch's claims to fame:

• A) First person from the general public ever to drive the Warthog.
• B) First person from the general public ever to run an enemy over in said Warthog.
• C) First person from the general public to kill a teammate.

Way to go Butch! He goes on to say that while he hadn't considered it before, he'll now be waiting in line for an XBox...

Head over to the Bungie FanFest V site frequently over the next few days, as it's being updated with pictures of the event. The report is that attendees will be able to play HALO before anyone else at E3, which sounds like $7 well-spent! The pictures that are available show the setup process and a real HALO van that we'd all love to have.

I've been out at my parents' place for the last little bit, which is why you haven't seen much of me. It's been helpful to readjust to more of a day schedule, because we're going to be at E3!

We're hoping to get an interview that we've been talking about with the Bungie crew for a bit. If you have any suggestions for questions you'd like asked, feel free to submit them via questions@rampancy.net.