Glock and Telefragged announce the launch of HaloNews.Org, not to be confused with HaloNews.Com, which formerly held the Nathan Bitner interview and limited other material. We welcome HaloNews.org to the pantheon of sites!

The rampant Hamish, star of the Bungie game What on Earth is Hamish Sinclair Thinking?, posted a couple of hippo images to the Marathon's Story Page.

1. Image one - Unusual sexual practices?
2. Image two - Asexual reproduction? Cloning? Better than the alternative suggested by image one.

HBO beat us to this one, and suggested a possible relation to Matt's wall-hugging hippos ... Might we get something in this week's coming Halo update? You really have to wonder about a guy who collects hippo dolls. ;-)

As posted by Pizzpot to our forum, Voodoo Extreme has a poll up which asks Who is the best game development company? Bungie has made it into the second round of voting, and is currently on top with 14% (716 votes) of the 5087 votes already made. Strangely enough, Looking Glass is currently a very close second with another 14% (696 votes) of the vote. Bachus rightly asks in our forum whether a nonexistent company can still qualify. Looking Glass rocked while they were around, but they are no more. In the mean time, however, Bungie's position is threatened in the poll. Get out there and choose your favorite game developer!

Cunbelin let us know that bungie.net has a poll up asking what the best time of day would be for another trade show-connected Fanfest. I wonder if they're considering E3?

On a not-really-connected-but-I'm-too-lazy-to-mention-it-separately note, Freewill states on the Bungie Sightings Page that Profits from the copies of Oni sold at the Bungie store will be funneled back into future fanfests! Hooray! Don't ask me how I know, just trust me, this is a confirmed fact!

Trust the man, I say. Trust the man and Buy.

Assorted Store problems have been dealt with. Here's the current state of affairs, as swiped from their front page:

The following problems with the Store have now been fixed: a) We now accept Canadian addresses b) The backordered status listed on all our products has been removed c) The Oni bundle for PS2 was incorrectly listed on MS's pages as $39.95 instead of $49.95 d) The estimated ship dates are now more accurate. (I believe that's estimated ground shipping.) As for Mac problems, well, we're still waiting. We'll keep you informed.

Mac users, remember that if you're having trouble entering personal info, you should try using Netscape 4.0 to order with. If you've got a copy.

Problems with the Bungie Store? Bungie's Yeroen posted an update on the store's status, and addressed a few of the concerns voiced since shorty after the store opened up. Among them:

If all goes as promised, first thing my time tomorrow we'll be taking Canadian orders (we've still got posters!), and that infernal backordered status will finally be gone. (None of our items are actually backordered, it's all just silliness.) Finally, we've thought up a little something nice to do for all those that placed orders today and yesterday to thank you for putting up with all this crap.

Well, guess we can call off the planned Canadian invasion. Mere hours before we ooozed across your undefended border like evil maple syrup, storming your complacent villages, taking your guns, and burning your White House... again! Bwaaa-haaaha--*ahem*.

In addition to word on the Bungie Store, Yeroen also left a teaser about a future treat at Oni Central, so keep an ear open for that one too.

If you're on a Mac and you don't want to wait for all the Store compatibility bugs to be fixed (apparently these are primarily due to the M$ front-end software, so it's Microsoft's task to fix them--which they're plugging away at), you can now dig up an old copy of Netscape 4.0 and use that to order.

Also, the store should accept Canadian addresses by tomorrow.

Computer Gaming World is celebrating its 20th Anniversary and 200th issue with a look backward into the history of gaming. One article, titled What a Long, Strange Blip It's Been , starts off with an image of Halo superimposed over an old black & white image and goes on to discuss some of the greatest games of all time. Bungie gets special recognition in both the FPS and Strategy categories for Marathon and Myth, respectively. It's a bit unusual to see Marathon get such a place of honor in a PC-dominated magazine, but hey... there you have it! ;-)

Stretching over two articles is a timeline that tracks important events in computer gaming and computer history. The very end of the timeline includes recognition for the X-Box and Microsoft's decision to obtain Bungie. All in all, this issue of CGW magazine is a good read, whether you are an old-time gamer or are a younger gamer who is interested in learning how much computer gaming has progressed.

Update: Incidentally, the original, unadulterated image is of two MIT geniuses playing what was possibly the very first computer game, Space War , on a PDP-1 computer. 1958, people!