Aginor inquired about the HALO: Combat Evolved website hosted by Microsoft. Matt has replied, saying that it's simply a tagline and the title remains being HALO .

Don't believe me? You can thank Mojo for alerting us with this information:

From 5-9PM, on these 3 upcoming Wednesdays: Aug. 15, 22, and 29th, Bungie will have 16 slots available on a first-email, first-served basis. Calmly send an email to THIS address and list the days you'd like to play. If certain dates are an absolute impossibility, please list them as well. The folks at Bungie will do their best to accommodate everyone who applies, but obviously, they can only take so many people, so don't get your hopes up too much! Like all Official Gatherings, pizza and beverages will be served.

More info at bs.bungie.org. Go!

This week's update is at HBO:

- Having introduced the AIs to the concept of driving, Chris Butcher is now teaching them how to drive different kinds of vehicles.

- The Bear fixed a major physics issue and in the process made all our vehicles drive better and with a more realistic feel. After doing this he was able to pull out the various hacks we'd inserted to make theindividual vehicles handle the way we thought they should. Better Gaming Through Physics.

- Hardy is engaged in major multiplayer balancing: deciding the weapon spawn times, power-up placement, the weapons you start with, startingpositions and so forth, level by level. This involves a lot of playtesting so it's not all sackcloth and ashes.

Read the rest.

Matt's Halo Update - July 20, 2001

Recovering from illness and on the brink of lucidity once more, I bring you the regular Friday evening dose of Halo stuff.

- The Bear is in the midst of a complete vehicle physics overhaul; high- and low-level stuff that will make the vehicles work better than they have in recent builds.

- Most of Butcher's time is spent making life easier for the designers. In his copious spare time, he's worked on speeding up our framerate, reducing the AI's memory footprint and teaching the Marines to drive the warthog.

- The Covenant energy pistol overcharges now, and the Grunts have learned to use this to devastating effect.

- Jason managed to keep his pants on for most of the week, and also got grenades to go off when other grenades hit them. This can lead to some amusing chain reactions if you toss a grenade at a well-armed cluster of Covenant troops.

- Adrian Perez, one of two new guys, will actually be working with the Team Formerly Known As Oni once Halo is done. In the meantime he's contributing his coding skills to Halo just like the rest of the Oni team. This week he reworked the motion sensor.

- Chris Hughes built a bunch of little things, including runway signal batons to be used in one of the cutscenes. He also reworked some of the models to show how bullets modify chests.

- On the multiplayer side, this week we started balancing the Sidewinder map, worked on making more new multiplayer maps, did some work balancing the weapons, and reworked the post-game stats to be more accurate and readable.

- Shiek is working on a lovely overload effect for the generators, as well as some stuff I can't talk about.

- Rob has stayed busy putting in more weapon LODs, making yet more revisions to the first-person weapon models, and writing combat dialog for the Covenant.

- Marcus has spent the week fixing the skies; our friend Craig Mullins took some time out of his busy schedule to paint some heavenly bodies for us, and Marcus is putting them in the game.

- The Sin-O-MatiXXX team pushes forward, beginning new cutscenes and adding detail to the ones that already exist. The first cutscene in the game now includes several shots of vehicles moving around a hangar bay while a group of Marines discuss the job ahead. They also got our other new guy, Adam Tews, who's working on sound with Marty and Jay. On the sound front, Marty and Jay recorded ten separate dialog sessions this week.

- From the belated-announcement department, we nod our heads knowingly at Jay and Heather Weinland, who had a baby on Bungie Day (at 3:40 PM, no less). Some might call this mere coincidence, but those of us in the know realize it's all part of the plan.

Thanks to Loren for spotting the latest HALO update at HALO Players:

- Chris Hughes is working on a pilot model for one of the cutscenes. It began its life as the Marcus model, and kept his face even as Chris feminized the rest of her body, which was rather unnerving. Thankfully, as Chris put it, hormone therapy for the post-op Marcus was successful, and she has her own face now.

- The ball (also known as the headbone) is in the game now. It works somewhat like the ball in Myth in that it's susceptible to explosions. Thus, if you've got good aim and a certain amount of luck, you can fire a rocket at the ground and blast the ball back into your arms.

- The music machine known as Marty keeps churning away. Lots of new music went in this week, including a version of the traditional Halo theme that might surprise you with its instrumentation. He and Jay auditioned some more voice actors today - a few of whom might surprise you.

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