Rampancy

The combined Killtacular Classic and iGames Championship site reopened recently, and they are now accepting online registrations for the tournament, which takes place on September 27, 2003 in Phoenix, Arizona. We've also added the Killtacular Classic to our new event calendar.

SketchFactor at Bungie.net has passed along an update from Gearbox Software's Michael Bastien, the producer of PC Halo.

Bastien reports that:

We are definitely on the final stretch to deliver the PC version of Halo to you guys. Mehve was pulled in last week to create art for our setup program and it’s very sweet. So the coolness will start as soon as you insert the disc in your computer. Marty was also involved... but that was, how can I say, more "challenging." Indeed, the setup application is somewhat limited in terms of what it can do with sounds and music. Marty, on the other hand, is not limited in terms of what he can do with sounds and music... I’m sure you guys see the challenge right there! In the end, there will be some audio coolness in the setup as well. Not nearly enough to satisfy Marty but enough to complement the beautiful images.

Word from redvsblue.com is that Episode 16 is done, and has been released to sponsors. They expect it'll be ready for public release on Saturday, and note that they'll be at QuakeCon in Dallas particpating on a machinima panel. Wonder if they'll be close enough to Plano to hook up with all the PC Halo Fanstock people.

According to Xbox365, ATI Technologies announced yesterday that they have an agreement with Microsoft to develop new technologies for future Xbox products. It looks very much like this means that the Xbox 2's graphics processor will be done by Nvidia's biggest rival, possibly a result of ongoing disagreements between MS and Nvidia over costs of the original Xbox's graphics processor.

UPDATE: There's a much more detailed analysis of this situation including some rampant speculation, over at News.com.