Louis Wu at HBO pointed out mentions in the HBO forum and elsewhere about several different Halo tournaments in September and October; we've added them to our list of events.

Macs are big in Japan; Apple's svelte and stylish laptops have been doing well there since the PowerBook 140. To say that video and computer games are big in Japan is probably something of an understatement.

What isn't big in Japan are computer games on Macs. Now Microsoft is trying to change that, by localizing a series of games for the Mac, starting with Halo. An article at Wired talks about the launch of this program, held at Apple Stores in Tokyo and Osaka, where top Asian Halo player Siguma took on all comers, all the while chatting politely about the game over iChatAV.

Kudos to Louis Wu at HBO.

Cortana has been nominated, along with other curvaceous videogame characters, to be Cyber Vixen of the Year. Editor's Note: Why now, and not in 2001 when Halo launched, is really beyond us. Maybe on PC titles qualify, not console ones, or maybe she's been nominated for her as-yet-unseen performance in Halo 2. The contest is sponsored by Maxim and Spike TV, and features a mix of imaginary characters from videogames, as well as virtual versions of real people; so Cortana and Samus Aran are up against a virtual version of Carmen Electra and even film-game crossovers like Pussy Galore. and Winners will be announced on December 14. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.

Rockslider has posted in the HBO forum about a new scenario for generating megabattles in Halo in the Fun and challenges section of his site; it details using an early stolen Banshee in Assault on the Control Room to generate a situation he calls the spiral path megabattle. The end result is a conflict between 50 or so Covenant ground troops and you, supported by Marines. Cool!

The New York Times has put up an article on how true innovation is lacking in today's videogames-- but holds up Halo as an exception to the rule. Editor's Note: Free registration required, or use the login/pass rampancy/rampant.

Part Five of the series on realism in Halo is up over at The Junkyard. In this one, Captain Roy Luthan (still not his real name) covers one of my favorite levels, Assault on the Control Room. Thanks Ryan "Mhaddy" Matthews for the heads-up.

FrogBlast makes an appearance (sort of) and Baby Master Chief gets a Halo 2-style makeover in the latest Halo Babies comic. Thanks mrsmiley.

Dolbex has published a wrap-up of MLG San Fransisco, won by Team "Yesss!" over on the MLG Site. It's entitled I Left My Controller In San Fransisco.

HSE, or Halo Server Extensions, has been announced for "almost public release". It is a framework that supports modules to extend the functionality of Halo servers. Modules currently include an Init file builder, a game type editor, a map voting feature, statistics and more. Thanks Halo Mods for the heads-up.

MacSoft has put out a patch to Halo on the Mac to keep pace with the recent update to the PC version. This one supposedly addresses issues with GeForce 6800 cards and patches to "exploitable code". Thanks Nick at Halo Mac Development for the story and HBO for hosting a list of mirrors of the patch.

mrsmiley from Halo Babies writes that the latest strip marks the end of Mister Chief. Oh no!

Louis Wu at HBO notes that the Cover Design Contest run by Blade ends today, September 9th.

The New Mombasa Classic map has been ported for use with Mac Halo. Thanks to bobindashadows for the story.

Thought PC Halo would never get patched again? Well you might think. But you weren't counting on the wonder that is Windows XP Service Pack 2 to create a remote crash possibility, did you? No. Well, after tomorrow it won't matter-- Bungie will release a hotfix for PC Halo to close this as-yet-unexploited hole.

A new dedicated server, 1.05, is already out. It seems possible from the post that Gearbox may choose to update Halo CE as well; however there is no news of it in the Gearbox Forums as of yet.