Weapon respawn times for Warlock, Turf, Containment and Sanctuary have been added by Typher to HBO's weapon respawn page. Louis Wu posted the news at HBO.

A few stories today also on whether or not the Xbox 360 is going to play games for the original Xbox. Many cite backwards compatibility with the PlayStation as one of the PS2's primary advantages; according to this analysis of console backwards compatibility at hardgeus.com, Sony achieved this by including an entire PS1 on a chip inside the box, eschewing software emulation because PlayStation developers bypassed the official APIs in favor of the extreme optimizations they could get by writing directly to hardware, something that would have made emulating the older console's APIs in software utterly useless.

Last week, Xbox corporate vice president Peter Moore told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Microsoft still doesn't know if they can make the new Xbox backwards compatible, but that a decision would be made by this Monday, May 16th. That meshes with what J Allard said after the MTV event. Ars Technica has taken a detailed look at the challenges posed by console backwards compatibility.

Some more Xbox 360 related items:

• Joystiq has an editorial on why Microsoft's disruptive marketing-- the MTV special that is-- was not directed at hardcore gamers or the gaming press, but was still pretty clever.
• News.com gauges the reactions to the Xbox 360, from hype to ho-hum.
• Xbox365 speculates that Microsoft may be courting Square Enix to develop Xbox 360 games.
• Xbox.com is sponsoring an Xbox360 Giveaway. If you're a US resident, 17 years of age or older, and registered at Xbox.com, you're eligible.

Major Nelson points out in his blog this Wired interview with J Allard.

The article clearly places Bungie's Halo and Halo 2 in the proper pivotal place in the Xbox's history:

Then came Halo 2. Microsoft gave its in-house studio, Bungie, a Hollywood-size production and marketing budget for the sequel. Elaborate teasers ran alongside movie trailers, and Bungie's preview at E3 in May 2004 wowed members of the game industry press. Last November, fans lined up around the block to pay their $50. When the stampede was over, the title had posted a bigger opening day - $125 million - than Hollywood's biggest-ever three-day opening weekend ($114 million for Spider-Man). As it turned out, Halo 2 lived up to its hype. Perhaps most important, it took full advantage of the Xbox's online capabilities, allowing players to trash-talk long distance in real time. In its third year, the Xbox division turned its first profit during what Ballmer refers to it as "the Halo 2 quarter."

However, aside from two oblique references without any specific information, there's nothing about a possible Halo 3.

• Xbox365 has a collection of the custom faceplates for the Xbx 360; looks like they pulled these from frames in the OurColony video.
• BDGamer links to a collection of movies showing Xbox 360 games at Xboxyde and elsewhere.
• Botros.net links to a forum thread at Voodoo Extreme with a collection of Xbox 360 images.

Frankie's What's What Update for May 13, 2005 mentions that the next map release date is now July 5 instead of June 28.

At Penny Arcade, Gabe and Tycho don't seem to think much of MTV in general or the Xbox 360 Special in specific. They do highly recommend the tech-specific, geek-laden five minute video from OurColony.net, instead. That's a short summary; check Penny Arcade for the more humorous, more verbose version.

Cortana pays the price for Master Chief's wardrobe malfunction in this week's Halo Babies cartoon. Thanks mrsmiley.

Yet another site has got into the business of listings links to Xbox 360 news; Slashdot's Xbox 360 thread is quite worthwhile if for nothing else than the sarcastic advice to Xbox-bashing trolls. In addition to sources we cited earlier, they also mention the following:

• 1UP
• BBC
• CNN
• NYT
• Anandtech
• eToyChest
• The Video Game Ombudsman

Bungie's put up their side of their loss to the Xbox Live team in the Humpday Challenge; they allege that XBL used a ringer. And according to SketchFactor, Major Nelson Suxorz.

UPDATE: Major Nelson is denying the charge of ringer leveled by Bungie against one member of the XBL team that played in the Humpday.

Microsoft's new console is officially called Xbox 360 we know now because of happened on MTV on May 12. Here are links to some of the stories published after that special:

• Voodoo Extreme has a detailed rundown on the technical specifications. The basics? Three 3.2Ghz PPC cores, 1MB L2 cache. 500Mhz ATI GPU. 512MB GDDR3 RAM running at 700Mhz. Detachable, upgradeable 20Mb HDD. Support for 64MB flash memory units. All games to support 16:9 widescreen 720p and 1080i HDTV modes. Built-in Media Center Extender connectivity. Standard wireless controller and support for 802.11 a, b and g wireless network protocols. Voodoo's Robert "Apache" Howarth also says the system "looks pretty nice".
• GameSpot summarizes the revelations in the MTV special, including details and photos. This article is interesting because it asks about backwards compatibility with the first Xbox. The answer? They'll talk about it at E3, says Xbox's Robbie Bach.
• Xbox.com has an official Console and Peripherals Fact Sheet for the Xbox 360.
• IGN has opened a whole new subsite, xbox360.ign.com, for their information.
• GameInformer has photos and a description of the unit, as well as the official specifications and their take on them.
• MTV has a page on the special; however, try as I might I can't get it to show me anything but a short flash ad for it. YMMV. What they do have is an MTV page for the Xbox 360 console itself.
• Joystiq's Ben Zackheim acknowledges that the MTV special was for a mass audience, not really hardcore gamers, but says it was still "well done" and acquitted the console well. Some of the commenters are less charitable, calling the special "uninformative and simply a waste of time".
• Joystiq and Engadget teamed up for blow-by-blow coverage of the MTV special, including many screen captures. I've heard rumors that Halo 2 was shown during the show, but the captures I've seen so far are all from other games.
• Major Nelson has a special pre-special Blogcast, and links to the Official Xbox 360 site as well as three interviews by TriXie with Xbox 360 developers.
• TeamXbox's rundown on the Xbox 360 reports that it is apparently water-cooled.