Xbox Live and Halo
Will Halo 1 be playable on Xbox Live?
The short answer is no. Look below for longer answers.
Death by intelligence.
When will Phoenix be released?
As Phoenix is as yet not officially announced, no release date has been set.
Rumor has it Phoenix will be released before Halo 2.
UPDATE: Since Phoenix has been cancelled, obviously it won't ever be released, and no release date was ever officially announced or even hinted at. The same is true of the as-yet unnamed replacement project that the Phoenix team is working on as of this writing.
These developments also discredit the source of the rumors that indicated Phoenix (or, indeed, any project from that team) would be released before Halo 2.
Does Phoenix use the Halo engine?
It is unknown at this time whether Phoenix uses the Halo engine, a modified Halo engine, or something entirely different. It is widely believed that it is either the Halo engine or something based on it.
Update:
After the cancellation of Phoenix, Matt Soell at Bungie was asked whether Phoenix used the Halo engine.
He replied:
The original basis was the Halo engine, but like Halo (which began as an evolution of the Myth engine) there were significant differences between Phoenix's engine and the original code.
Phoenix FAQ Updated
In the interests of posterity, we've added news of Phoenix's cancellation to our Phoenix FAQ.
How did we find out Phoenix was cancelled?
Rumors circulated in various forums, and an individual claimed to have been told by an anonymous Bungie employee via AIM instant message that Phoenix had been cancelled and an announcement would shortly be made.
Matt Soell responded both to email inquiries from Rampancy as well as with this forum post at HBO:
Will we ever find out anything else about Phoenix?
Probably not. Matt Soell posted in response to a similar question in HBO's forum and replied:
If it never got to a point where we felt comfortable announcing it, the chances are slim that I would want to discuss it in any depth now.
Halo Fan Looks At Timesplitters 2
There was a rather ugly little row on the HBO forum prompted by some trash-talking against Halo and in favor of the newly released Timesplitters 2 for the Xbox. However, one good thing did come out of it: Scalrag posted a rather even-handed comparison of the two games, and what he likes/dislikes about each:
Bungie Posts Tournament Strategy Guide
Achronos has posted Bungie's Team Tournament Strategy Guide at Bungie.net in preparation for the Halo Winter Season at iGames. Go check it out.
Running Riot Halo Tourney Writeup
Emildux posted a writeup of the recently completed Running Riot Invitational Halo tournament in the Great Lakes region. A team called The Specialists walked off with the $1,000 first prize. Thanks again Louis Wu.
HBO Graduates From XBL Boot Camp
Louis Wu has put up his own analysis of the Xbox Live Bootcamp event over at HBO. There are pictures as well as a set of links to other XBL Bootcamp stories at other sites.
The bottom line for Halo fans? As follows, and I'm putting this in just so we have mention of it on our front page:
PlanetGameCube Gets A Look At Bungie, XBL
Miguel Freewill Chavez pointed out in HBO's forum that PlanetGameCube has a story on their recent trip to the Xbox Live Boot Camp, and it's got pictures from inside Bungie where you can see the offices and spot spot Matt Soell and Ed Fries, as well as what looks like
Halo And The Rock
Requiem For A Phoenix
Bungie's own Matt Soell was kind enough to exchange a few words with Rampancy recently about the cancellation of the mysterious Project Phoenix.
Rampancy: How far in the development process did Phoenix get?
Matt: This is a tough question to answer. As with the early stages of Halo's development, we investigated and discarded a lot of ideas, which took a long time. We were still a long way from beta.
Rampancy:Was Phoenix its own engine, or based on Halo?
Halo Winter Season Tourney Announced
Matt Soell has posted an article at Bungie.net about the Halo Winter Season tournament being run by a collection of players who felt that there was a wider audience for Halo tourneys than the one served by the recent Halo National Championships.
ACM-MSU Halo Tourney In November
Michigan State University, Microsoft, and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) are sponsoring a 3x3 Halo tournament at 6 PM Eastern time on November 7th. Cost is $5 per person. Complete information on location, rules and prizes are available at the link above. Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO for the notice.