Rampancy

Time Out Chicago has an article on the state of the videogame industry in the Windy City. It's mostly about the development of Stranglehold and the closure of EA Chicago, but Bungie and Wideload do rate a mention:

In fact, work on the Halo series, one of gaming's biggest success stories, kicked off in Chicago by a ragtag crew of twentysomethings known as Bungie. Microsoft acquired the group and moved it to Seattle, but cofounder Alex Seropian came back to Chicago to start Wideload.

"Chicagoans have a genuine personality that reflects itself in the character of our games," he says. "I think that gives our creative direction soul." Wideload's first game, Stubbs the Zombie, lets players control the title character's one-man war against the developers of a quaint retro-futuristic town after they disturb his grave.

Wideload is still working on Hail to the Chimp for release next year.

So during the Week Without Internet here are a few things that went on:

Joe Staten's new Halo book, Contact Harvest, came out. It covers the first Human-Covenant engagements from the perspective of Avery Johnson. Bungie.net has the prologue online. GameTap has a two part interview with Staten about the novel. G4TV also has an interview with Staten about the novel.

Now that Luke Smith left 1Up for Bungie LLC, 1Up has followed up on his Broken Halo article with a Halo Repair article about Halo 3.

In the latest Bungie Weekly What's Update, Luke Smith talks about the Halloween hopper, Bungie Favorites, downloadable content, and max's crappy router.

Information from HBO and other sources contributed to this summary.