Microsoft may open an Xbox Store in Times Square, says the Seattle Times. Thanks Voodoo Extreme. (Let's hope this is MS taking another page from Apple's book, rather than Gateway's--Ed)

As noted by Major Nelson and many, many others, the five maps in Bungie's second, or "maptacular" pack of new maps for Halo 2, comprising Gemini, Relic, Elongation, Terminal, and Backwash, are now available for free to all Xbox Live subscribers. At this point all nine maps released via Xbox Live since Halo 2's launch in late 2004 are now freely available to anyone that has an Xbox Live subscription; only those without XBL still need to buy them on disc (also handy for multiple installations).

Eric Trautmann and Major Nelson both pointed out the announcement of the trilogy of Perfect Dark novels to be published by Tor Books to expand on the universe of Joanna Dark from the Perfect Dark series of games, set to be continued with the release of Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360. (Nobody is saying PD0 is a Halo-killer, but let's face it, there'll be no new Halo game to play on the Xbox 360 for awhile, and this looks like one of, if not the, best alternative in the shooter genre--Ed.)

[image:9676 align=left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] Despite not even using an Intel CPU in its newest iteration, the latest Xbox console was spotted by Trusted Reviews at the Intel Developer Forum, streaming HD video from a Media Center PC to a Samsung DLP rear projection TV.

Louis Wu at HBO correctly identified the subject of IGN's recent Stubbs interview as Tim Attuquayefio from Aspyr's Quality Assurance team, and also pointed out an interview with Wideload's Matt Soell at CVG. (Hey Matt, email us when these things go up; we love the Wu as much as any sane human being can and as platonically as possible, but that doesn't mean we want his name credited on every story, even the ones that aren't about Halo--Ed.)

Also buried in that short Variety article is this tidbit:

Future vidgame iterations of "Halo," which has already generated more than $600 million in sales for its first two versions, are almost certain. If possible, Microsoft and U will synchronize a game and movie release to take advantage of cross-marketing.

Unless we're expected to believe Halo 3 (presumably for Xbox 360) won't actually be released until the console is two years old (and the PlayStation 3 more than a year old) the only conceivable synchronous movie-videogame launch would be Halo 4 with the Halo movie. I guess David Scully will get Angela Bassett for a co-star after all.

There's a freely available streaming video interview with Tim of Wideload Games over at GameSpot. (Sorry no last name-- the screen size of the free streaming video is so small I can't accurately transcribe it, so I won't try.) He explains the basic gameplay mechanics, as seen elsewhere-- the unholy flatulence, the gut grenade, the brain-eating, and the hand-- and also the use of Stubbs' head as a kind of deadly gaseous bowling ball.

The interview says that the Xbox version should be out in time for Halloween with the PC and Mac versions to follow about a month afterwards.

UPDATE: GameSpot has also posted an updated Stubbs preview with information from a recent hands-on session. It mentions several new features, including a Halo-style two-player cooperative mode.

(I think the underlying concept of Stubbs is valid-- being the Flood is more fun than fighting them--Ed.)

UPDATE: Tim is actually from Aspyr, the publisher of Stubbs, and not from Wideload as stated above. Thanks to Matt I believe, who didn't login, or someone else who doesn't hold a grudge against Tim.

Major Nelson is hosting on his blog a transcript of the recent online chat with Microsoft's J Allard. A lot of emphasis was placed on the recent announcement of two versions of the Xbox; a premium one with all the bells and whistles, and a "core" system $100 cheaper with no headset and no hard drive. (From the blog comments, it seems many readers were not completely satisfied with Allard's answers, and are not happy with the core and premium price points--Ed.)

Couple of good strategy articles linked from HBO this weekend. Overswarm updated the Not So Common Sense Guide with new articles and movies, and LegendaryMark wrote an article on coordinating large matchmaking teams. Both are excellent reads with useful tips. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.

The Xbox 360 will indeed come in two bundles. $299 for the Core System gets you the Xbox, one wireless controller, Xbox Live Silver, a faceplate and a standard AV cable. The $399 bundle swaps out the standard AV cable for a component (HD) cable, and adds a portable 20Gb hard drive and a headset. Complete information is at XboxSolution.

Stosh has written at Bungie.net that Rooster Teeth will be continuing their Red vs Blue machinima series, with season 4 set to debut on August 29, 2005. (I can't find confirmation of this on the RvB website as stosh seems to indicate, but perhaps I'm not looking in the right place--Ed.)

This week's What's Update by Frankie says that matchmaking playlists will get updated in "September-ish" to include all the new maps where appropriate (since at the end of this month, they'll all be free) as well as some interesting new variations, such as games with more than two teams and oddball games with more than one ball.