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.)

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.

Chris Remo at Shacknews has posted an updated preview of Wideload's upcoming Halo engine game, Stubbs the Zombie, after playing it at QuakeCon. Remo reports that while initially intrigued by the title's unique story and gameplay, his first experience of it was slightly disappointing, as the level design was repetetive. (What is it with the Halo engine and that particular complaint?-Ed.) In any case, he got a chance to play a different level and had a lot more fun, the only other issue he noted being dips in the framerate.

Bungie Sightings has a new post up today on their observed progress of Wideload's upcoming Halo engine game, Stubbs the Zombie, as well as an offer of $5 to the person who can guess their answer to this question:

"Stubbs the Zombie is based on a previous Bungie engine. In the history of Bungie (and now Wideload) technical sequels, what sets this game apart from past attempts?"

The answer they are looking for is apparently sarcastic and smarmy.

Aspyr Media writes to remind us that Halo 3 isn't the only game to look forward to; Stubbs the Zombie impressed at E3 (GameSpot, Eurogamer, Xbox Advanced) and even won two awards, being mentioned in 1Up.com's Best of E3 2005 and Xbox Evolved's 10 Best of E3 2005.

But the real news comes from Alexander "The Man" Seropian himself, in his first blog entry after E3, this past week:

Stubbs is coming along very nicely. Every level is in and playable and we are on to the glorious process of playing and tweaking. We had our final mocap shoot last week. I don't want to spoil any surprises but I'll let slip that we had a professional dancer in the suit to do some moves for police chief masters.

The blog entry also has four new screen shots, notes that all cutscene dialog is in the game, and wishes everybody a Happy Bungie Day.

• Bungie's latest What's What Update is all about cheating and assuring players that the situation is going to improve; apparently another auto-update is on the way.
• Bungie is also looking to hire artists, animators, and programmers.
• GameSpy compiled a list of Xbox Live's top 25 games; Halo 2 was number one, and Halo 1 number six. (Who is number one? You are number six--Ed.)
• Matt Soell reminded HBO forumgoers not to forget Mike Salvatori when praising music in Bungie games like Halo and Halo 2. Salvatori is also working with Wideload Games on the soundtrack for Stubbs the Zombie.
• Every Friday, the Frag Dolls are going to take on Xbox Live subscribers, starting on July 15 with Halo 2.

Tuncer Deniz has posted at IMG Magazine that they are hosting a 25 Mb QuickTime version of the Stubbs the Zombie trailer; earlier it was available in WMV format at MTV.com. The modified Halo-engine third-person action game comes out this year for Mac OS X, Windows, and the Xbox.

Mnemesis has posted an update in the HBO forum from the floor of E3: he says Bungie is showing off the next five multiplayer maps, Stubbs the Zombie by Wideload is "gritty, dark, hilarious, and really fun to play" and Major Nelson is a together guy who knows good pizza. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO for the linkage. Wu is on his way to E3 as we speak.