Many thanks to Total Audio's Marty O'Donnell, who left a few tantilizing hints regarding the state of music in Halo via a forum post. An except for those of you who fear WebBBS:

Hamish, of Marathon's Story and the epitome of the tireless webmaster, is taking a taking a break till September 13th, and the site is taking a breather with him.

Hmm... 09, 13... 9 - 3 + 1... ignoring, of course, the obvious implications of Sept ... ;)

As pointed out by several readers, www.bungie.net has recieved a serious overhaul. And as Cunbelin pointed out, it likely has implications for the future:

Well I snagged this off the new b.net design and it seemed Halo related

As we release more titles this list will grow, and this site will grow with it.

That little comment is from the Tour page... hmm, halo.bungie.net anyone?

A quick check of the PC Paradox Reader's Choice poll reveals Halo to be at 4.8%, a big jump over yesterday's ranking but still far behind the leaders. The unjust, heathen pig-dog leaders. Go cast your vote! Again, if you must!

Many thanks to Case and Tino, who both pointed out the crime of ignorance being committed at PC Paradox: a most anticipated action game poll in which Halo rates a mere 1% of the total vote.

Halo fans, unite! In the old Codex tradition, I call upon our readers to go forth and vote for their most anticipated game, to unite in righteous indignation against our common foe, Duke Nukem Forever (currently in first). There's only around 3500 votes as of this writing, so every vote still counts!

Kudos to the readers who pointed out that halo.bungie.org has obtained a brief, but interesting MacFormat Halo article. Not a lot of new things, but some info nonetheless, as well as a clarification regarding part of the article, courtesy of Bungie's Doug Zartman.

Marathon's Story has an interesting little tidbit about foresight, the BungieVision newsletter in the Action Sack, and line-ups for Halo/Blam. A lite snack for you Halo starved fiends out there.

After the past few weeks, we should all be breathing a sigh of relief. But, of course, we're chomping at the bit for more. Still no sign, or word, of the new trailer (despite much discussion around it), and any new screenshots are likely to be preceded by a rash of new exclusive website articles.

Stay sharp... Tuesday and Wednesday morning are traditionally major release times, quite possibly due to my traditional absence during them. Grumble...