th3gh05t has posted at Halo-Source.com that Beta 4.0 of XBconnect is now available. XbConnect allows Xbox users to connect to each other over the Internet and play games that don't support Xbox Live.

Doobie writes that Dustin "Dc80s" Charest and the PS clan are going to hold a Myth: The Fallen Lords tournament next month. Read his post or the tournament page for the complete details on maps and game types.

SketchFactor pointed us through Truth & Reconciliation to a page at iGames where they are summarizing the Halo for Windows Worldwide Final results.

Currently it looks like Jonathan "Beast" Finglass of the UK is doing particularly well. It's not entirely clear to me if the tournament is over just yet; all the grids on that page are full, and the previous grids were named quarterfinals and semifinals, but there's no announcement of any winner there yet, but neither are there schedules up for more rounds, at least not yet.

Sketch promises a full writeup later in the week.

Over in the HBO forum, RunningRiot voiced the common-enough question: why in-game and out-of-game pings to Halo servers often don't match up. Botman from Gearbox stopped in to provide the answer:

Let's say you can ICMP ping a host and average 80 ms. If the host's frame rate is 60 FPS, then your game ping time would be around 97ms. Now let's say the host's frame rate is 30 FPS instead of 60 FPS. 30 frames per second (1/30th of a second) is 33.333 milliseconds. So now your game ping time has gone to 113 milliseconds (80ms + 33ms). The game ping time depends on how quickly the server can respond to a client's request. The higher the frame rate for the server, the more rapidly the server can respond to clients and the lower the game ping time will be.

There's more detail to it than that, though, as well as a link to a longer article by Yahn Bernier from Valve on latency in games at Blue's News. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.

Steve at Forerunners.org writes that a three-level demo of the upcoming Marathon & Beyond scenario for Bungie's Marathon shooter. It is available from the Marathon & Beyond page. Right now it seems that the scenario is about one-third complete.

If you look at Randy Pitchford's .plan file through Blue's News, the project listings there are the same as they've been for some time:

1. Halo PC
2. Secret Sauce

"Secret Sauce" might have been the Halo Editing Kit before that was announced, but it might be something else all together.

Well, as of the 12th, that .plan file also contains a note that Gearbox is hiring level designers with UnrealEd and/or Worldcraft experience, indicating that another project either has been underway before now or is just starting up. Gearbox's Project Page still only lists PC Halo, along with a screenshot of the still-as-yet-unreleased Sapien.

Why should this matter to PC Halo fans?

Because typically, support and updates for a port of a game to another platform never goes on forever, and usually begins to wane when the porting house gets another project going. Gearbox has already begun to lay the blame for delays in getting patches and the HEK out at the feet of Bungie and Microsoft, and now with a push on to hire programmers for an effort with a completely different game engine by the look of it, and the release of Halo 2 for the Xbox to come later this year, what will be the fate of support for PC and Mac Halo?

Of course, Gearbox was always going to have to do more work; there's no way Microsoft would continue to pay them enough to get by just to make patches for PC Halo.

There's a thread in the HBO forum where mikeman445 pointed out a couple of tricks relating to weapon reloading in Halo; one that he was familiar with, the other he wasn't, but noticed in a tournament video featuring StK vs. TDT.

nof of ninjasonfire noted that StK discovered a bug where if you press the reload button twice and then switch weapons, the first weapon will reload its clip, thus bypassing the time needed to reload the weapon during the reload animations.

nof also points out that this trick still works in Halo PC, and is especially effective on the rocket launcher because of its long reload time.

It became known to nof about eight months ago, at which time he believes the knowledge was fairly exclusive. Guess it isn't any more. Here's hoping that Bungie and Gearbox can get this fixed in a future patch.

SketchFactor has posted on Bungie.net that the PC version of Halo is getting a security patch through the auto-update mechanism to keep it in step with a needed security fix for the dedicated server. Both changes are to protect against an exploit on the GameSpy CDKey SDK. Both the Halo PC client and dedicated server will now be version 1.04. The story at Bungie net has a link to the updated dedicated server. There's no word on what, if any other changes, are in this version, or how this affects Mac clients.

Progamerz has put up a short FAQ on the Halo Editing Kit with answers from Gearbox programmer Hellface. The release of the kit (as with the 1.04 patch) they say is up to Bungie and Microsoft now, and not Gearbox. Thanks rapture via Louis Wu of HBO. Incidentally, most of the information is regarding stuff that either won't work or hasn't been tested, namely moving geometry, variable media height, damage-causing media, etc.

... so pay no attention to those bulletholes in your back. Too often, communication in online games is on that level, especially if you aren't able to use voice services. Halo.fropco.com has a new article up on teamwork in Halo called Sum Utilis Militis. Thanks John "Raider".

Steve at Forerunners.org pointed out a new offer from HomeLAN called HomeLAN Xtreme On Demand; the first 100 customers will get a special price of $99 per month. You have to register for an account with them to get the full pricing plan.

Part Four of the High Ping Bastard's Guide to Halo is up. This one is about the finer points of etiquette when playing on a slow connection-- when to apologize, when not to, when discretion is the better part of valor and when to get the heck out of Dodge... I mean, the server. Salad fork not required.

Pete at Subnova asks why you haven't bought Halo for your Mac or PC. Right now the leading response is "I did get it you insensitive clod." No CowboyNeals were harmed in the making of this survey.