As well as forum posters on a couple of other gaming sites, Butch mentioned in our forum that at times the frame rate of Halo did drop noticeably-- perhaps as low as 10 fps, in his estimation.

However, in addition to noting that Halo is still at least six months from release, Butch mentioned a few other things that indicate just how powerful this engine-- and the hardware it's running on-- really are.

Jaime Griesemer, a.k.a. Case, has written an entry for PlanetXBox's hosted HALO Developer Diary. So what's it all about? Check it out:

There's a slew of new HALO screenshots at Blues News today. The screens show more in-game footage, mostly of the marine. Check 'em out while they're hot!

Kudos to Kalis for letting us know that Halo Players got this week's update:

- You can hurt people by slamming vehicles into them. Now you no longer need a friendly Marine manning the chain gun to make the Warthog a dangerous weapon.

- Rob beautified many things, and Shiek piled in a slew of new effects, including a lovely plasma grenade effect.

- There was a LOT of multiplayer testing this week. And it was a LOT of fun.

Found a blurb at MacGamer that points to an interview with Bungie's Matt Soell (he of Matt's Weekly Update fame). Dane Baker asks a good and lengthy set of questions about HALO, such as:

Kudos to Maestro for locating an article about game testing by CNN. The article gives a brief history of Creamer, the man in charge of a group of five dedicated to squashing HALO's bugs. When talking about testing HALO, third parties respond with their eyes [getting] big , says the team. Yet more proof that people are taking HALO quite seriously.

Thanks to our sharp-eyed forumgoers ESiva and Kalis, who noticed the new Halo Update at Battleground: Halo and kindly posted the link. Highlights of this week: