As part of CobaltNova's new image, they've added a section with three (soon to be more) essays on PC Halo. Two are on teamkilling... well, scratch that, they're all about teamkilling.

Halo Ops is once again trotting out the old "Halo 1.5 with XBL support" rumor, as late as the end of last month. This time not only does it have the mandatory "a Microsoft rep confirmed" bit in it, but the poster, Tycho, claims to have discussed it with Randy Pitchford, who says Gearbox wasn't involved.

Blackstar of Blackstar Productions has put together a really short movie (QuickTime MP4, about 7 Mb in size) that answers the question of what would happen if the Master Chief got a horrible pain in all the diodes down his left side. A must for Bungie and Douglas Adams fans.

Well, for us personally here at Rampancy, the circle has finally completed. The new Bungie game that eventually became Halo was a mere collection of rumors referred to collectively as Blam when sites like HBO and The Core (later Rampancy) started. Later it was introduced, to the surprise and awe of many, at Macworld New York in the summer of 1999, and was immediately heralded as the next big thing in gaming, and that as a Mac game would singlehandedly revitalize the Mac gaming scene.

That didn't happen, of course. Bungie became the premier Xbox developer and Halo the must-have title that drove Xbox sales, and only now, at the end of 2003, more than four years after we first heard the strains of Marty O'Donnell's soundtrack during a demo film generated in real time, using OpenGL, on a Macintosh, can we play Halo, in real time, using OpenGL, on our Macintosh.

And now our holiday care package has finally arrived at Rampancy headquarters, including a copy of Mac Halo, two copies of Halo for Windows, as well as Eric Nylund's latest Halo novelization First Strike, which was devoured all in one sitting last night. More on that later. In general, I enjoyed it, and I have to say I enjoy Nylund's style better than that of William Dietz, who novelized the plot of the first Xbox game in the title Halo: The Flood. However, the most interesting things about it were the potential implications for the plot and gameplay of Halo 2.

It feels great to finally play Halo on the Mac; the game is just as much fun as it ever was, and the new maps and weapons, as well as the availability of internet multiplayer, are more than welcome additions. One might be tempted to grouse about how long it took, but that isn't finally the point.

It was especially gratifying to see that the Special Thanks section of the original game-- which appears in the Xbox version's booklet and in-game credits, was carried over into the books and credits for the Mac and PC versions. Especially gratifying since Tyson "Ferrex" Green of Bungie, primarily responsible for starting The Core/Rampancy and whose legacy is a major part of the reason this site is still here, was kind enough to send out thanks to the denizens of Rampancy.net and Rampancy Hotline in his special thanks, for which we're eternally grateful.

Frag on, you crazy diamonds.

Matt "Mr Smiley" Dunn wrote to us awhile back to let us know about the new Halo Babies comic. Go take a look.

SketchFactor dropped onto the HBO forum to ask what people think about Kill-In-Order variations of the Slayer game type, where in order to score you have to kill players in a specific orders. Louis Wu at HBO writes that their own server has a variation on this type where all players are invisible. How about that for frustrating.

Aquaduct 2 has been announced by PhforSlayer of Postpose. Aquaduct users can now play against those using the XBConnect tunneler for Windows, as well as use a nifty new interface for listing, hosting and joining games. Aquaduct 2 should be available "soon" according to the site.

Buzby has posted over at Red vs. Blue that the Season 2 Premiere video has been finished. It's going to have its world premiere on Saturday at the Lincoln Center. He also advises everybody to upgrade to the latest versions of DivX and QuickTime to prepare.There's a screenshot from the premiere video with the story.

SketchFactor has put up a guide for Halo PC players, focusing on such key elements as knowing which game you're playing, CTF, Oddball, Race, or, heaven forfend, Body Cou... I mean, Slayer (F that).

After a long hiatus the Bungie Comics page has been updated; this one is written by Frankie and drawn by Zoë.

SketchFactor has also pointed out the Ultimate Video Game Countdown over at MTV. Make sure the right game wins.

Emil of CobaltNova fame has posted a forum thread in his Bungie.net chapter, trying to collect 100 predictions for what 2004 will hold for Halo. Check it out!

Matt "Mr Smiley" Dunn wrote us to say that the second new Halo Babies this week is now up, along with a new wallpaper by Gruntsbane.