Rampancy

Now that everyone is back from vacation, the gaming world is moving and shaking again. Here's a look around at items relating to Bungie, Halo, or the Xbox:

Vector40 notes the winners of the Bungie Tribute Poetry Contest over at The Junkyard; kudos to DarkTyrant, Murph MacManus and Raven3509, the #1, #2 and #3 winners, respectively.

GamesIndustry.biz points to the lack of any official word about Microsoft's next gaming console, codenamed "Xenon" and referred to variously as Xbox 2 or Xbox Next, as a sign that the product's announcement will probably not occur at CES this year, but might later at GDC; many expected it to be announced at last year's GDC, where Microsoft instead touted XNA.

An Associated Press article at Yahoo News notes how U.S. Marines stationed in Iraq turn to videogames, including Halo and The Sims (there's a strange combination --Ed.) during lulls in fighting. Where's Halo 2? Quick, somebody make an emergency shipment of Halo 2 to Iraq!