Rampancy

HBO's Halo 2 Cutscene Library has reached the start of High Charity. (You know, that level where you say "oh no, I have to go BACK through that, but against Flood?" --Ed.)

Jillybean joins the Halo Story Page team; not surprising since the excellent writeup she posted on Halo 2's plot in the HBO forum.

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:

• The Houston Press has an in-depth article on champion Halo player Matt "Zyos" Leto. Thanks CookedGamers.
• Ducain at High Impact Halo interviewed Louis Wu of HBO about the history of the Halo tricking scene.
• Captain Spark has been busy capturing more dialogue for inclusion in HBO's Halo 2 Dialogue Databank.
• HBO's Halo 2 Cutscene Library has reached the beginning of Gravemind. It's the Legendary version, with the nearly naked Jason Jones.
• IGN purports to predict the future of the Xbox. They also think that a full Halo 3 won't make it as an Xbox 2 launch title, but rather as a "counterpunch" to come when the competition rolls our their new consoles. (Makes about as much sense as anything else, although I still say an Xbox sequel without a Bungie launch title is dead in the water, unless a whole lot of people spontaneously decide they just must have Brute Force 2 --Ed.) Thanks SPOnG.
• Bungie has interviewed their own Princess, Alta Hartmann. Includes SnackWagon imagery.
• Kotaku is spreading the rumor that Microsoft might be preparing a version of Halo for the Gizmomdo portable device. (Don't hold your breath --Ed.)
• True to last-minute predictions, Bill Gates did not talk about the Xbox 2 during his CES keynote address, although CNET did ask him about the console afterwards. (It's impressive that Gates was able to describe convergence without using the term; but as everyone has already guessed, that's where Xbox 2 is going --Ed.) Incidentally, that story also mentions Halo 2 sales-- apparently 6.3 million units to date, and another CNET article officially confirms "Xenon" as the Xbox 2's codename.
• Eurogamer thinks some recent Microsoft patents may provide insight into the Xbox 2's design.

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.