Last time I felt I had to apologize for mentioning Ron Gilbert's new adventure game, DeathSpank. It's not a Bungie game. It's not a Halo game. Gilbert never worked for Bungie, or worked on Halo. The two have nothing to do with one another, and this site has always been about Bungie or people and things connected to Bungie somehow. In my own twisted way I justified including the item because while completely separate, Gilbert's Monkey Island games stood out to me as special and memorable, as well as the pinnacle of good concept and solid execution in a graphical adventure.

jayWHY and EA sent word that the HBO-COERCE Halo PC server is coming back for a special Thanksgiving event. Dust off your Halo PC discs and jump in!

The Wide Load points out the latest newspost at Wideload (boy is that going to be a hard distinction to keep making) that confirms the announcement of Wideload Shorts' web-based game Cyclomite debuting on GarageGames' InstantAction site early next year and already previewed by 1Up.

GameDaily Biz has the story of Wideload's first game from its Wideload Shorts division, Cyclomite:

In Wideload Shorts' Cyclomite players pilot a round object called a Cyclomite through meteor storms "in order to save the universe." A multicolored Cyclomite ring in the center of the field is used to catch meteors as they fly toward the center of the storm. The game will also offer two multiplayer modes, hundreds of co-operative multiplayer levels, and a versus multiplayer game.

Those of us steeped in Halo 3 and Bungie Breakaway news might be forgiven momentarily for forgetting that online communities for Bungie's Mac and PC RTS games, Myth, are still hanging in there a decade after the game was released.

Unfortunately one of them, PlayMyth, has now shut down. Server administrator Blades, apparently posting as elusivemind, says he no longer has the time or energy to keep up with it.

...or rather woodchuck love, as a new blogger, the animal kingdom newscaster Woodchuck Chumley has shown up at the Huffington Post with his own blog. Perhaps he'll be answering the age-old question, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck. Or maybe he'll just talk animal kingdom politics:

Retronauts continues its contributions to 1Up's ongoing Halo 3 coverage by taking a look back at Marathon 2. In case you've been under a rock since July, Freeverse has ported the game to XBLA as Marathon:Durandal.

Thanks to chewpathingy in the HBO forum.

No, I don't mean an XBLA release of Marathon, as it seems that is not to be; but rather, what was thought to be a long-dormant project to make a total conversion of Marathon 1 for the Unreal Tournament engine-- Marathon Resurrection-- has finally been released as a Final Candidate.

If you find the open source version of Marathon, Aleph One, still too low-tech for your tastes, but still want to sample Bungie's pre-Halo SF trilogy, have a look.

Haven't played Wideload Games' debut effort, Stubbs the Zombie? Maybe you've never seen it in stores. Well, that's no longer an excuse; for $19.95 you can get a digital delivery of Stubbs via Steam.

InsideMacGaming notes that the Myth World Cup 2007 website has launched with a fan-produced promotional video. More details are "coming soon".