XboxSolution puts up an editorial reiterating everything anyone from Bungie has ever said about release dates: that games are released when they're done.

Mat "angryzenmaster" Noguchi posted a note on his blog, warning those that anybody who says they know some inside info on Halo 2 is either wrong or about to be sued. Hmm. Does that mean some unlucky bugger has violated his NDA somewhere? One can only speculate.

Just to let everyone know, I-- like I suspect many have in the Halo community-- been receiving email that loudly proclaims that it "is not spam" from a site called GiftStakes.com, and announcing that you've won an Xbox, and all you need to do is claim it from their website.

If you follow the link, you'll be asked for a code from the email, and taken to a page to enter your name and address.. and then they'll ask you to pay for the shipping and handling of your prize. Debit card is the only payment method accepted.

There are a number of things about this that are extremely suspicious, and unless you're willing to part with that shipping and handling fee on the off-chance that this is legitimate-- perhaps risking much more if your debit card number is abused in any way-- I'd advise against taking advantage of this "offer".

Although the site itself looks quite professional, with picture of supposed prize winners from June, July, and August of this year-- the domain giftstakes.com where the site is was registered through GoDaddy only three days ago.

That debit cards are the only accepted payment method is also suspicious; as you may already know, most of the mechanisms in place to dispute a fraudulent charge to your credit card don't apply to debit cards.

The registrant for the domain is one "Domains By Proxy, Inc" which lists as its only address post office box in Scottsdale, Arizona. Complete information is here:

Private, Registration

GIFTSTAKES.COM@domainsbyproxy.com

Domains by Proxy, Inc.

15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160

PMB353

Scottsdale, Arizona 85260

United States

(480) 624-2599

If anyone has actually received a prize from these people, we'll gladly post that this whole thing is above-board, but at the moment I'd urge people to protect themselves and not participate in this unless they are prepared to be duped.

[image:4040 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Let the rampant speculation begin. The item countdown on the Gearbox projects page, which temporarily reversed itself earlier, is now gone entirely.

Does that mean there are no more items? Does it mean Golden Master? Does it mean nothing at all?

Time will tell.

Okay, this morning we've got a couple sites, in this case Xbox365, quoting EuroGamer, saying that Halo 2's release date has "slipped" to April of 2004. EuroGamer cites Microsoft as the source of the information, but there's no official press release text or link to one; in the Microsoft Game Studios Press Site, there's no mention of this "information". Eurogamer claims this is a delay of two months.

Everyone who watches this space knows that the only thing that was officially ever said about Halo 2 was "in 2004". If you want to interpret that to mean January 2004, then sure, I guess releasing in March means a two month delay. But you can't have a delay of an unofficial release date; and frankly, anybody who thinks about it for two seconds would probably assume that if Bungie knew that far in advance that it was impossible to release for the Christmas 2003 season, that the delay was probably going to be more than just a few weeks, so assuming January was probably wrong in the first place.

It's also unclear whether or not the dates in question are intended for a European audience; that seems to be the opinion of the Xbox365 forumgoers, anyway.

And of course, at the end of it all, there's horses' mouths and horses' asses; Microsoft is a big company, and it's probably better to trust those who are closer to what's going on.

UPDATE: Microsoft's official Xbox.com game list still lists the release date for Halo 2 as "TBA", although the page for Halo 2 itself does, in fact, say March 2004.

Lorraine Mehve R. McLees posted in the HBO forum the other day, just to clarify a couple of comments people were making on the Official Xbox Magazine cover art. The work is, indeed, hers-- but she was so tired after finishing it that she forgot to sign it.

She pointedly decided NOT to clarify whether or not the figures standing next to the Master Chief on that cover are merely marines or other Spartans. However, anyone who's seen any of the recent trailer footage (who, us?) may note that the marines in it are wearing green armor not unlike the Chief's, which may go a long way towards explaining the Spartan-like appearance of the other figures on the cover.

Matt has returned to the HBO forum to disabuse the usual suspects of their delusion about release dates from Electronics Boutique.

As Matt Soell put it in the HBO forum and in an email to Rampancy, this is one of those times when rumors aren't entirely untrue.

To wit:

The Phoenix team has decided to shelve the game they were working on in favor of a new project. We actually look upon this as a good thing. They're still called the Phoenix team, but they're doing something different.

And what exactly is something different ?

Stay tuned...

There's a rumor running at Xbox365 that interprets some recent trends as meaning that Nintendo intends to pull a Sega and go software-only soon. Consider the source, but give it a look anyway.

bikeman74 has posted on the HBO forum that a file called halo2trailer.mov on the Imesh and Kazaa P2P file sharing systems is, in fact, a hoax contrary to earlier claims.

InsideMacGames is saying that the Official UK Xbox Magazine has reported that Halo 2 is in development and will be out for Christmas 2003. There is a quote in the IMG article, but it only mentions the Xbox General Manager -- not a name.

According to the article, there's still no solid release date on Mac/PC Halo. Mr Yun in the HBO forum provided the notice.

Ok, definitely put this one in the Crack Pipe category. But recently a story ran on MacCentral that Contraband Entertainment had announced a new secret project in development for the Macintosh platform that they dubbed Heroin 4 U .

Contraband Entertainment, one might recall, is a company headed by Bill Burger Heineman and features other former Mumbo Jumbo developers. Several of those returned to Contraband after Myth 3's release and the subsequent closure of MJ. Contraband is doing development for a lot of different platforms, including Windows, the GBA and the PlayStation 2. They've also ported first person games to the Mac before (Hexen, Hexen II). They also list the Xbox among the platforms they can develop for, although there are currently no Xbox platform titles on their project schedule.

Is it possible this secret project is the Mac port of Halo?

One might assume that the Windows port could be more easily done in-house, given the Xbox's wintel heritage. Doing so might upset Bungie's other development efforts minimally.

Well, to be honest, there's no information to confirm or deny it; it's just a raw speculation. But giving the job to an outfit like Contraband would, in some vague sense, keep the job in the Bungie extended family, while freeing up Bungie proper to work on other projects. And in the vacuum created by the lack of official information, this story sneaks right in there like a whiff of Mary Jane from underneath the boys' room door. Stay tuned, if for nothing else but the hangover.