The Encrushenating: A Halo Story

"Now witness the fire power of this fully armed and operational battlestation!"

After two years at the top of the Xbox charts, Halo has finally proven the wise Confucian adage, "All other games can just piss off and die." And how did it achieve this Zen-like state of violent nirvana? By selling over FOUR MILLION copies worldwide, as of the end of December. That's right, and we don't mean four million shipped, or imagined, or promised, we mean, over four million copies, bought and paid for, by actual Earthmen.

The upswing in sales is not entirely unexpected, since tens of thousands of newbie Xbox owners bought the game in droves (Halo was the second biggest selling Xbox game during the Holidays), and got to enjoy the bargain price of $29.99 which as you all know, represents an unbeatable Happiness-Matrix of less than 3 cents per metric ton of amusement.

This (continued) success comes as its online-capable PC sibling, Halo PC, smashes through the half-million barrier, making it one of the most successful (and widely-played) PC games of 2003, and that half-million figure doesn't even include the newly-released Macintosh (Halo fans remember that the game was originally unveiled on Mac at a Macworld expo - although other versions were in the works) OSX version.

HYPERFACT* At the current sales pace, there will be more copies of Halo than there are human beings on Earth, by the year 3254. It is expected however that at least one new generation of the Xbox will be here by then.

*"Hyper" in no way implies good or useful.

Bungie Weekly Update!!!

Poor old Subnova is experiencing some technical difficulties this weekend, but you can view this week's update at The Junkyard and Rampancy.net and things should get back to normal next Friday. Thanks to Halo.Bungie.Org and co., for pointing people in the right direction.

The second installment of the re-launched Bungie Weekly Update is now live over at Subnova. This week we take a look at new AI stuff, amazing animation improvements and lots more. There's also more astoundingly bad Frankie "art" which single-handedly sets back graphic design about 30 years. Get your piping hot delicious Halo 2 update for yourself right here.

Mac Halo Catches Up

Mac owners frustrated by the short lag between PC and Mac server compatibility - a direct result of the later release of the Mac OS X version of Halo, can chill out. Mac version 1.03 brings the Mac into sync with the latest PC version (the slightly differently named 1.031 Build 606). Destineer's MacSoft division has made the (skimpy, 2.4 MB) downloadable patch available at Bungie.org's Mirrors Page so go catch up with those pesky PC players.

The Pentathlon Cometh

This Friday is the annual Bungie Winter Pentathlon and once again we're asking you to vote for which team you think will walk away with the coveted cup. Though many of you voted otherwise, the Newbies emerged victorious at our Summer Pentathlon last year. Will you pick the winner this time?

The Winter Pentathlon pits 4 Bungie teams against one another in a grueling tournament of game mastery. The games on the agenda this year are Halo 2, Mario Kart Doulbe Dash, Top Spin, Eye Toy and Pictionary. As usual, teams are broken up by seniority with people being assigned to either The Grizzled Ancients, Old School, Middle School or Newbie squads.

Naturally I'm biased towards my own team, the Newbies, but after our strong decisive victory at the Summer Pentathlon, we've got a good shot at claiming the cup once again. Cast your vote and stay tuned for a blow by blow report when the dust has settled.

Frankie's Weekly Bungie Update

Way back in Nineteen-Oatcake, back when New York City was all fields, and we were still being carded at the liquor store, we ran a series of Bungie Updates - a weekly inside look at the happenings deep inside Bungie Towers. People loved it. Puppies adored it. Hell's Angels admired its spunk. But it vanished, as mysteriously as it had first appeared.

Well the weekly update is back. Every Friday (ish), we're going to post a digest of what went down inside the halls of Halo. We're going to post these updates one at a time, at our favorite Halo fan forums - a new site every week. Then every Monday, you can come back here to see the archived versions. The first one, today, will appear in the bucolic pastures of the Halo.Bungie.Org forums, and you can go straight there NOW if you don't believe us.

Chapter Spotlight!

As many of you have noticed, the Chapter Spotlight is desperately overdue for an update. The Eliminators is a great chapter but to be fair to the rest of the 7th Column it's time to shine the spotlight elsewhere. If you think your chapter is worthy of a place in the spotlight, send me a [url=/Account/Profile.aspx?uid=1195]message[/url] and tell me why. (you have to be logged in to send a Bnet message) Here are a few ground rules: 1. Your chapter must have some history - brand new chapters are not eligible. It takes time to build up to legendary status. 2. Your chapter must have content. I don't care if you have 500 members.. If your chapter is stale and has nothing going on, it's not ready for the spotlight. 3. You must provide some information about your chapter - For example: What makes it unique? What's cool about it? What do you have to offer members? Basically, what makes it different/better than other chapters. If your chapter is up to the task, send me a Bnet message and tell me about it. The Chapter Spotlight will be back on a regular schedule and will be swapped at least every two to three weeks from now on.

Red Vs. Blue is Back!

If the miserable Fall TV schedule of Reality TV, Two Dudes a Cat and a Condo and Help! My Face is a Hole! had you flushing your remote to a better place, you might be relieved to hear that amusing Halo-pastiche, Red Vs Blue is (nearly) back. The new series will begin, mysteriously, sometime this weekend (specifically, at some point between this very second and Monday) in order to avoid a catastrophic site failure, as entertainment-starved Halo fans rush to see the latest episode.

If the episodes aren't online by the time you get there, you can amuse yourself by checking out the photos taken at the surprisingly swanky New York premiere event on Jan 3rd.

Xbox As Media Hub

At his keynote address at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday, Microsoft honcho Bill Gates announced Windows Media Center Extender Technology for Xbox. Basically, it's a combination of a fancy remote control and a piece of Xbox DVD software that allows you to view movies, music and digital photos stored on your PC, by streaming them to your Xbox and onto your TV. That's the good news. The bad news is that this groovy home entertainment hub will only work with Windows XP Media Center Edition software, which in turn only works on new PCs built to support it.

Details are scarce at the moment, but it's expected the technology will work using the recently released Xbox 802.11g wireless network adapter, and allow you full control of the Windows XP Media Center Editions DVR (TiVo-style) playback, as well as MP3s, WMA files and yes, photos of babies or kittens currently residing on your hard drive. This technology will also be available on new standalone boxes from a variety of manufacturers, but you will not be able to play Halo on a Samsung set-top box.