Rampancy

I don't know if this is a local thing or not, but here in southern California, the Software Etc. has around 30-40 game boxes for various XBox titles, including HALO. Although these aren't the boxes that will hit the shelves in November, they are still cool to check out.

Kudos to Orlando the Axe for spotting that Take 2 is accepting preorders for Myth III. The link is a bit fishy, so just load the main site and search for myth . You will find that it is $39.99.

Yesterday I met a cat named Brian who said he's among the growing number of people who enjoy the jokes at the beginning of each Halo Update. I'mglad they're not a total waste of space, although for my money you can't get much better than A giraffe walks into a bar and says 'The highballs are on me' and I've never been nearly that funny. But humor is a verysubjective thing. A few days ago I was in a bar on the Sunset Strip, watching a man in a bathrobe conduct an imaginary orchestra on the sidewalk. It seemed funny until I remembered that Marty O'Donnell doesthe same thing, and he's a serious musician.

Anyway, I hope humor will suffice for content this week because today is the day of Bungie's company picnic and everyone is either out of the office or about to leave for this much-needed afternoon of rest and relaxation. I weaseled some tidbits out of a few people before they took off, but it ain't much Ц I hope it will tide you over for a week.

- We're reaching the point where people will start a game to test something they just changed and keep playing because the game is starting to come together. Surprised shouts and exclamations like Damn, that'scool! now issue regularly from the same people who've been working on this game for years. This is a good sign.

- Lots and lots of (you know what's coming next) bug fixes, including several little physics fixes Ц making sure the biped model doesn't poke through geometry if he's crouching and decides to stand up, that sort ofthing.

- Ammo works now Ц meaning you can walk over it and pick it up. No big deal, exactly how you'd expect it to work...I'm just a little short on cool stuff to talk about this time around.

- Chris Barrett, on loan from the Phoenix team, added lush detail to the swamp Ц lilypads and vegetation and the like.

- The artists, when not fixing things, spend a lot of time making new effects and animation for the Sin-O-MatiXXX team.

- Marty, whose beard would make him a dead ringer for the Unabomber if he wore an orange jumpsuit and manacles to the office and didn't spend so much time working with computers, added 740 megabytes of music to the game this week. For those with poor math skills, that's more than a CD's worth. Lots of other things have sounds attached and in sync now: clambering in and out of vehicles, for example. And every particle of falling glass.

Datax, the man behind the fantastic Parking Wars, has created yet another monstrously cool conversion for Myth II. As soon as The Mill starts to breathe again, you will be able to download Clue: A Knife In The Dark. Anyone familiar with the popular boardgame knows the basic plot, but you can expect a much different experience from Datax's project. Here are some of the new things you can expect to see in A Knife In The Dark:

-The inclusion of humanlike bots, all but indistinguishable from human players.
-A modern, indoor atmosphere furnished with many new scenery items.
-The random initial placement of six unique weapons among nine unique rooms, such that no two weapons are in the same place.
-The use of non-global weather effects to create a convincing map that is partly indoors and partly outdoors.
-The use of dynamic music which changes to suit the happenings of the game.
-Such special effects as an expanding bloodstain beneath the body of one killed by the Knife.
-An entirely new set of gameplay objectives in a Myth II netmap. To win, a player must either kill Mr. Boddy and survive the remainder of the game or ascertain the murderer and kill him.
-A complete (but optional) in-game cutscene to keep you entertained through a minute and a half of planning time.

Can you spell awesome ? Can you at least say it?