Rampancy

Microsoft's J. Allard commented rather off-handedly, in an article about the size of Microsoft Game Studios, that Bungie will double in size (currently 65 people) in order to work on the "next installment" of Halo. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO. (Remember, though, Allard isn't technically Bungie, even if Bungie is technically Microsoft --Ed.)

CBS News is putting up a series of interviews on videogame violence in their weekly GameCore column, shooting a battery of questions at various figures in order to compare the answers. First up was attorney Jack Thomson, who routinely sues companies whose games are mentioned in conjunction with violent acts by teens who play those games. Next came Tim Buckley, author of webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Next week will be HBO's Claude "Louis Wu" Errera.

[image:9096 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Only slightly more than three years have passed since the Xbox brought Microsoft into the console wars, and the next generation, if rumors are to be believed, will be upon us by the 2005 holiday season. Ahh.. Xbox. A console of infinite games... assuming they're all made by Bungie.

Here's a look at recent items about upcoming consoles, as well as goings-on in the Bungieverse:

• Xbox might have a removable hard drive as an option that could double as a music player.
• News.com put up a FAQ about the next-gen hardware.
• DigiTimes interviewed Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard, who admitted that Bungie "developed some games" before Halo, but "most of them were not successful." (Ouch! I seem to recall-- no pun intended-- the award-winning Myth and Marathon series, but nevermind--Ed.)
• Blackstar notes the Hurt, Agony, Pain video he did with Arashi for HBO Lekgolos, lovingly hosted by Nof at Enraged Creations.
• Start of a new mini-series at Halo Babies that explores Bungie's various penchants.
• Frankie dishes some more details (but not too many) on what Bungie is doing to counter glitchers and cheaters. Looks like about a month (but maybe more) before solutions are forthcoming. (And don't forget MonkeyChief.
• Bungie.net also has a new top story about the use of the Havok physics engine in Halo 2.
• Bungie loses another Humpday Challenge, but this one is understandable: their opponent was the US Army.
• MLG notes the Best Gamer on Campus competition.

In the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Interactive Entertainment awards, the sequel to the PC game Half-Life beat out the sequel to the Xbox game Halo in every category in which the two games competed head-to-head, leaving Halo 2 with the only award that Half-Life 2 couldn't possibly win: best Xbox game. Thanks BDGamer.