StrobeShock sends word of the end of the Darkside, and the beginning of something even greater:

Total Halo has posted an interesting article drawing comparisons between Tribes 1/2 and Halo. While any such comparisons remain purely speculative, some good points are made, and it's certainly worth a read.

Well, no sooner than I raised a stink about my insipid ISP service than it cleared up. And in doing so revealed this info from Blackbeard about the Halo demo shown at the Paris Macworld earlier today.

Based on these pictures, the Demo shown at Paris was the same one shown at New York (though, presumably in French ;). A shame, but hey, at least we still have the official trailer to look forward to.

Well, apparently it isn't enough that my I can't connect faster than 24.4, have limited access, and pay extortionist fees for my internet connection. Now, my ISP has decided to take the day off... upgrading the modems they say, in a town where phone lines top out at 33.6 anyway.

Sigh. Other updates will be late today (if they come at all). Mercifully, the nice and speedy cable connection here at the office is still up and running, so I can keep an eye on these Apple Paris demo happenings...

Well, this was unexpected. Kudos to mad.max, who pointed out a link to a MacWeek article reporting that Bungie's Jason Jones was on hand in Paris to present a Halo demo during the Paris MacWorld Keynote.

At the moment, nobody is really sure if this was the same demo, or something new... stay tuned as reports come in. If it is indeed the new demo, then there will certainly be a lot of them.

Another item from Butcher, and even more interesting. Sharky Extreme has posted an article specifically discussing 3Dfx's FXT1 texture compression technology and how Bungie is using it.

Kudos to Butcher, who pointed out this little tidbit in a 3D GPU article:

Kudos to Frog in a Box, who pointed out a short article at pc.ign.com regarding 3Dfx's new FXT1 compression techniques. Sure enough, Halo is involved, as Bungie appears to have voiced their support for this new format/technique. Presumably to be included in the Voodoo4 chipset, FXT1 is used for compressing textures, and may make quite a difference in upcoming games.