After speaking with Bungie's Doug Zartman on the reports at Blue's News and Gamefan about Oni netplay being scrapped, we have some mixed news. Yes, those reports are true--the sentiment around here is universally do it properly, or don't do it all. Due to the latency issues with Oni's netplay (apparently there were modem builds, and they simply didn't work out), it was decided that internet play wasn't going to work out. And due to the investment in time required to create netmaps and netgames for LAN players, LAN play was shelved in the interest of concentrating on the solo game.

Mumbles posts word that the Oni E3 trailer has been posted on Rampancy HL, in the Oni uploads folder. The 10meg MPEG movie, from Gamefan, can be reportedly be found in the Oni uploads folder at hl.rampancy.net. I haven't checked yet myself, but the guys there will be able to give you the low down if you stop by.

• Forum: Oni E3 Trailer Posted!

With all the well deserved furor over Halo here at E3, Oni seems to have been forgotten. However, it is indeed on display, and as such I've put together a report on it as well. To sum up the display:

As if you needed another reason to go to E3. Oni Central has recieved word from Bungie's Matt Soell stating that Oni will be present at E3 in a playable form. Not surprising, as this would not be the first time, but encouraging news nonetheless. Should be interesting to see how it's progressed since MWSF...

GameSpot has posted a new interview with Oni Producer Hamilton Chu. Among other things, Chu talks about some of the challenges faced by the Oni team and reports that Oni will be a simultaneous release for PC, Mac and PlayStation 2. Oni fans will be waiting at least until PSX2 makes its landing here in North America.

The May 2000 issue of PC Gamer has a feature titled Where Are They Now? Dammit! and includes Oni in its listing of over a dozen highly anticipated games which have gone past their projected release dates. However, the thing which caught this reporter's eye was a paragraph that left me feeling a bit quizzical.

Kudos to Bullseye, who just pointed out this fantastic bit of new: Oni has been confirmed for the Playstation 2! The news comes from Yahoo, and gives the finer details of the deal. An excerpt:

We wish. ;)

According to MacGames.de, via halo.bungie.org, Take Two is slating Oni for release in June and Halo in September, more or less on Bungie's original target date. Just in time for school... so much that semester.

Of course, these are probably estimates to be taken with a grain of salt. Take Two is indeed Bungie's publisher, but the actual schedule depends on Bungie, and not until they give out a firm date can we be sure about this.

Two of the Pax Nimbus, SiliconDream and DeusExMachina, made it to MWSF and to the Gathering of Fans on Wednesday the 5th. Despite great hardship - including Silly's damaged camcorder, problems converting the video to QT format and pizza-bloat - they managed to film a number of things, convert it to QuickTime format and hand it off to me so that I could share it with the rest of you.