It's good to keep up on the competition, and things seem to be particularly heating up between Halo and Tribes 2 now. Even the developers may be getting involved a little bit.

CyberBob sends word that there is an interview with former Bungie project lead Tuncer Deniz in this month's issue of AppleWizards, a monthly Mac oriented e-zine. The interview is largely about the state of gaming on the Mac, so don't count on any revealing Halo tidbits. On the other hand, some excellent points are made in the interview, and it is definitely a recommended read.

Steve Jobs' keynote address has come and gone. Nothing quite so earth-shattering as what we saw at MWNY six months ago. Jobs has shortened his title from Interim CEO to just CEO (We congratulate him... it did seem inevitable with Apple's continued success in various areas) and announced that MacOS X will tentatively be coming out by Summer of 2000.As Marathon's Story and HBO have reported, it looks like Matt Soell and Alex Seropian have switched places in the bTV schedule.

Today is the day that MWSF opens. Steve Job's live keynote address has just begun. Also, those of you who are able to slack at school or at the office a little more should make sure to attend the bTV broadcast later this afternoon. Here's today's schedule:

Kudos to Freewill, who shared this tidbit with the regulars at CPHL a few minutes ago. For you lucky sots who will be at Macworld San Fransisco a week from now, there will be a get together at Club-I on Wednesday, January 5th, 7pm till closing.

There is a $7 per seat charge, but there will be a few dozen computers with Myth installed on hand along with a few Bungie folk. A small price to pay for a night of enlightenment and mayhem, there may even be other surprises in store. Stay tuned for an official announcement sometime in the next few days.

A bit more clarification from Bungie's Matt Soell on halo.bungie.org's forum tonight, regarding Halo's presence at MacWorld San Francisco. Asked whether or not there would be any hands on Halo, Matt had this to say:

Halo will be there in some form, but you won't be able to walk up to a machine and play it.

Bad news for some, but I must admit I am sourly pleased, given my inability to attend this particular event. Grumble... bah humbug, too. ;)

Kudos to Mark Mezzetta, who pointed out a news item at MacGamer's Ledge describing Bungie's plans for MacWorld San Francisco. In a nutshell:

Bungie Software will be simulcasting a MACWORLD show over the Internet right from their booth and talking about the latest developments in Oni and Halo.

A webcast from Bungie's booth? If nothing else, let's hope the world doesn't end on New Year's Eve just so that we can keep an eye on that one.

But of course. Marathon's Story reports that Bungie is has been praised in a Macworld Top 10 Mac Gaming Thingies of the Millennium article for their track record of raising the bar every time they enter a genre. Also noted is a MacGamesNews review of the Action Sack... an unusually active Saturday, isn't it?

While Butcher has advised me that this is old news, I'm posting it in blatant defiance of his better judgement. Inside Mac Games has posted an item on Microsoft's DirectPlay, and Apple's answer to it:

A couple of years ago, Bungie developed a cross-platform game networking API called Uber ...

[whack]

Completely off topic, but noteworthy nonetheless. Inside Mac Games is reporting that Half-Life for MacOS has been cancelled, abruptly and unexpectedly. The reasons center around cost concerns, which is understandable, but this is still a disappointment for Mac gamers, Half-Life being the excellent game that it is.

Still, it isn't like we have nothing to look forward to. Overshadowed by the bombshell report is an interesting note about Oni, which is more appealing with every outing. Win some, lose some, I guess...

Heh, not often that we see the misinformation going in this direction. Kudos to Supercobra, who points out a slight error in a recent Australian Halo preview:

Not quite Halo, but hey, we're dying here. Kudos to Legend, who pointed out and made a forum post on the rumors (or are they more than that?) about nVidia creating drivers for Macs, bringing some of their PCI cards and their excellent preformance over to our acceleration starved platform. Now, we just need AGP card drivers...

• Forum: Can Anyone Say nVidia?

Kudos to Locklear, who pointed out an interview of Bungie's Peter Tamte at Mac Gamer's Ledge. Not much in the way of Halo here, but worth reading for the background information.