Bungie.net Offline This Morning

This morning, around 9:30 AM PST, we will be undergoing our switch to the .NET Passport login system that we told you about last week. The site could be down for several hours. Once the site is back up, you will be prompted to create and link a .NET Passport in order to login to Bungie.net.

Please see last weeks story and the .NET Passport/Bungie.net FAQ for more information.

Halo for Less

In case you didn't already hear, the suggested retail price of Halo for Xbox was reduced earlier this week. Now you can get a shiny new copy of the game for a mere $29.99. What a deal! If you've been putting off getting an extra copy or you're just looking for the perfect holiday gift, now's the time. Go on, buy one.. buy two.. heck, buy three. We won't complain.

Change of Plans

Due to a couple of factors beyond our control, the .NET Passport conversion for Bungie.net has been postponed until Monday of next week. We'll have another update as we get closer. In the meantime, please review the FAQ if you haven't already and please go ahead and create a .NET Passport for yourself so you'll be ready to rock next week. Thanks for your patience.

Big Changes

Just an update for you all. Previously we had stated that we were switching our account system to .NET Passport on Tuesday morning. However, that will now happen on either Wednesday or possibly even Thursday. We're trying very hard to make the transition as smooth as possible, so we don't want to push the change unless we're sure everything is ready to go. So, we'll be taking a bit of extra time to get ready. Sorry about that.

Lanwerx Party - Tomorrow!

This is the last reminder before our Halo 2-Year Anniversary / Marty Army party happening at Lanwerx tomorrow. If you can't make it, you can still join in on the fun!

We'll be setting aside several of our Halo PC "BNG" dedicated servers for our community to partkate in the carnage. There will be about 64 local machines playing and you can jump in and play right along with us. The fun kicks off around 1:00 PM PST and will go until 5:00 PM PST.

Here's the servers we'll be playing on. You never know who you might bump into...

BNG-Slayer1 207.46.148.10:2302
BNG-Slayer2 207.46.148.10:2304
BNG-Slayer3 207.46.148.10:2306

BNG-CTF1 207.46.148.12:2302
BNG-CTF2 207.46.148.12:2304
BNG-CTF3 207.46.148.12:2306

BNG-Assault1 207.46.148.14:2302
BNG-Assault2 207.46.148.14:2304
BNG-Assault3 207.46.148.14:2306

BNG-FFA1 207.46.148.18:2302
BNG-FFA2 207.46.148.18:2304
BNG-FFA3 207.46.148:18:2306

BNG-Teams1 207.46.148.8:2302
BNG-Teams2 207.46.148.8:2304
BNG-Teams3 207.46.148.8:2304

The password for all of these servers will be:

lanwerx

If you're reading this story, you're invited to play! We're putting a password on there to try and limit this to just Bungie.net community members. (and weed out the team killers and jackasses).

See you online!

Bungie Party @ Lanwerx 11/15

As we mentioned last week, this Saturday, Bungie is teaming up with Lanwerx in Bellevue, WA to throw a party in honor of the 2-year anniversary of Halo's release. This special party will also serve as an official meeting of The Marty Army.

The fun will begin at 1:00 PM PST on Saturday and will go until around 5:00 PM. Here's a quick overview of what's taking place:

• Halo Xbox 2 Man Tourney
• Halo PC FFA Tourney
• Special Halo 2 Documentary Video
• Halo Triva & Prizes
• Halo PC Freeplay on 64 PCs

Members of Bungie will be onhand to meet, mingle, and partake in some good ole fashioned Halo carnage. Of course, Bungie's own Marty O'Donnell will be on hand as well, which ensures a fun time for all.

If you're interested in playing in the tournaments, which are free to enter, you can sign up in advance at the Lanwerx Site. We've got a good stash of prizes to give away to the top performers.

If you don't live near us, don't fret. We will be converting many of our current BNG Halo PC dedicated servers over to use for this event. It's the next best thing to being there! These servers will be private and only made available to members of the Bungie community so you can join in on the fragging. A list of servers and passwords will be listed on Bungie.net later this week. There's also a good possibility of some of the Gearbox team joining in on the online action as well. You never know who you might end up playing with or against.

More details soon.. stay tuned.

Big Changes for Bungie.net

The winds of change are growing in strength and the first steps towards a new & improved Bungie.net are about to begin. On Tuesday, 11/18, Bungie.net will be offline for a few hours starting at approx. 10:30 AM PST.

During this downtime, our primary focus will be the implementation of our new account system which is a major building block for the future of Bungie.net.

Starting next Tuesday, Bungie.net will be adopting .NET Passports for all user accounts. This means that when you come to the site you'll be asked to create a .NET Passport (if you don't already have one) and then you'll be taken through a series of steps to link your .NET Passport with your Bungie.net account. For more information, please read our extensive FAQ

It's a fairly simple process but we wanted to give you a heads up so you can be prepared for the change. If you don't already have a .NET Passport, you might want to go ahead and create one now to save time. Anyone can get a .NET Passport, all you need is a valid email address. Also, if you happen to already have one and you've linked your gamertag to it over at Xbox.com, you should definitely use the same one at Bungie.net.

Once you're logged in, the experience will be exactly as it is now. You'll still have access to your chapters and everything that's tied to your account. Some of you may be forced to change your existing Bungie.net account name though. This is explained in greater detail in our new FAQ.

This is the first step in what will become the rebirth of a new and improved Bungie.net in the not too distant future. Thank you to all of our loyal Bnet users for your continued support as we move into the next era of our site.

-Sketch

CPL Announces Summer Championship

If you were excited by the chance to win up to $30,000 playing Halo PC in the CPL Winter Event, you better sit down for this... Yesterday the CPL announced the two main tournaments that will make up their Summer 2004 Extreme Championship. Halo PC makes a return to the roster and this time the stakes are even higher. NVIDIA is once again sponsoring this event and there's $70,000 at stake! WOW. If that's not enough incentive to drop everything and begin an intense training program I don't know what is. If you register early, you can save 20% on the entry fees.

Clear your calendars. Start excercising those mouse fingers. This is serious cash and only serious players need apply. We'll have more on this as we get closer. For additional info, check out the CPL site at www.thecpl.com.

7th Column Week in Review

It’s that time of the week again…Time to kick back, relax and tear through the 7th Column mailbag before heading off into the weekend. By the looks of things we’ve got a few letters to open so let’s get right to it.

Our first letter is from an unknown sender:

hi

i would like to say that my chapter has thirty members and is growing, any body can join Grrr-Force. at Grr-force we have regular halo tournaments and at the present we are setting up our own site called Grrr-Force.com which will have lots of kool halo,Pc and xbox stuf.

so feel free to join Grrr-force.

Check out Grrr-force… they’re Grrrreat! Ok, so I don’t know that for sure, I just couldn’t resist the chance to bust out some Tony the Tiger quotes.

Next up is a quick note about a new chapter that’s, surprise surprise, seeking new members:

To whom it may concern,
I recently opened up my new chapter, number 8529, called Hall of the Mountains and would like it to appear in the week's review. Membership is low, but I do have about 8 local people that are Halo players and have not yet joined my chapter, for what reason, I do not know. I do have a LAN scheduled, and hope to become more active with more members.

There you go, consider it posted. I’m not sure what local area this chapter is in but if you’re intrigued, swing by and see for yourself.

It looks like we’ve got quite a few new chapters this week. Here’s another:

Could you guys mention my new Chapter – Halo Highlanders , a Scotland based Halo Chapter. It’s only been up and running for about a week but we already have a forum and a database up and running - with a very active Chapter founder :) Basically this is a request for members, and the first 9 members to join will be made staff (if they fulfill the criteria, of course)

Cool, I’m not aware of any Scotland based chapters yet. It’s always great to see the 7th Column spread to new parts of the world. Throw on yer kilts and head over to Halo Highlanders to see what they’re all about!

Our next mail comes to us from our old friends from down-under. We haven’t heard from these guys in quite a while but it sounds like they’ve been busy behind the scenes.

It's been a while since Crocodile Bungie reared its head in the Week In Review, though we have been no less active. This week we felt the need to chuck a letter in The Bag to let people know about a new Seventh Column desktop image that one of our members (Ekdor) created. It's specifically designed to match the front grille of a Power Mac G5, but it looks awesome on any desktop.

Any Aussies who haven't checked out Crocodile Bungie should head on over and scope the place out. We broke the 200-member limit yesterday - props to all the Crocs who put time in to the site and the chapter, and to all those who come to our LANs. Wouldn't be Crocodile Bungie without you. Incidentally, you can check out photos from our most recent LAN over here.

Thanks to Forerunners.org for the hosting!

Inky out.

Wow, congrats for hitting the 200 mark guys! Even if you’re not an Aussie, you should still check out Crocodile Bungie. These guys are always up to something and manage to stay very busy spreading Halo loving throughout the Outback. Keep up the great work!

Here’s a note from old time Week in Review regular formerly known as Syzygy:

Hello, this is Scimitarex, formerly known as Syzygy. I want to give
the Bungie community a heads-up on what’s going on at OmegaNet, home of clan Omega Cell. We have 15 members and play together regularly on the BNG servers and have already had 2 events. The next event, M4X1MUM C4RN4G3 will take place on Dec. 6th. We are looking for about 15 more active members and have many features here that will keep you occupied while not playing Halo PC. Anyone is welcome to apply for membership, but I have to screen all members before joining, (I've had a few people that are less than scrupulous try to gain entry). Join now! Get in while you still can!

Also, because no one is using Ground Zero, my old account's chapter, I will be disbanding Ground Zero and spending most of my 7th Column time concentrating on OmegaNet.

Well, it’s sad to see Ground Zero close its doors but OmegaNet sounds very exciting! If you’re a Halo PC player looking for some good competition and some competent teammates, head over and pay them a visit.

Next up is Culix with an explanation as to why things have been slow around the Column lately:

Greetings Sketch and the rest of the 7th Column! This is culix from the 43rd Regiment. Well, as you know things have been a little slow for the Week in Review lately, so I just thought I'd drop you a note and say that's because my chapter has been too darn busy playing Halo PC online. Hopefully this is the case with the rest of the Column as well - but that's not really bad news, is it? It means it's a great game!

Anyway, to give everyone something to do, we have this little dilemma over on our chapter that needs solving: namely who kicks more ass. Spider Man?
The Green Lantern? The Master Chief? We just don't have enough votes to decide, so everyone should jump on over and vote!.

I can attest to the fact that Halo PC has been eating up most all of my spare time lately! Thanks for the update. This sounds like an interesting poll indeed. Who do you think will win? Stop by their chapter and vote.

Last up is another unnamed sender who’s looking for members for a new chapter:

I need new members in Greeley, Co and surrounding areas for the Halo Gods Of Greeley.

Short and to the point. If you know where Greeley, CO is and you want to join a chapter, pay them a visit.

And that’s a wrap folks. The mail bag is empty. Though we don’t have a piece of mail about this, I’d like to take a minute to represent the Marty Army and let everyone know that there’s a big gathering planned for next Saturday, 11/15, at Lanwerx in Bellevue, WA. Marty himself will be on hand to partake in some Halo PC and Halo Xbox excitement in celebration of the 2 year anniversary of Halo’s release. If you’re in the area, you won’t want to miss this. If you’re not in the area, don’t fret, we’ll be setting up some of our BNG servers to allow you all to join us from the comfiness of your own home. Look for more info on Bungie.net next week.

Until then, farewell my fellow Columners and have a swell weekend. I’ve got to try and find some time amidst my Halo PC games to get out and see Matrix. Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype!

What’s up!?

What have you and your chapter been up to? Got an event coming up? Looking for members? Got a new feature? Drop us a line at 7thcol@bungie.com and we’ll spread the word throughout the Column!

Save the Date

Anyone out there who lives in Washington should clear their calendars for next Saturday, 11/15. As a special celebration of the two year anniversary of Halo's release, we'll be partying down at Lanwerx in Bellevue with anyone who will join us. In addition to the Halo festivities, this is also turning into an official gathering of the Marty Army. We'll have more details in the very near future but for now we can tell you that the fun begins at 1:00 PM and there will be Halo PC and Halo Xbox tournaments taking place along with Halo trivia, lots of prizes and possibly a special guest. Stay tuned to Bungie.net for more info!

If you don't live in our neck of the woods, why not throw your own Halo celebration!? If you're cooking something up, let me know and I'll help spread the word.

Scavenger Hunt Almost Over

A few weeks ago we announced The Great Halo Scavenger Hunt that was taking place over at halo.bungie.org. We dontated a truck load of prizes for this cool contest in hopes that fans across the globe would scour the net searching for the hidden trinkets. Well, we're now a month into it and a mere 5 people have actually finished the hunt so far. We coughed up enough goodies for 28 winners but it looks as if much of that will go unclaimed. Despite numerous clues and updates, hunters haven't been able to reach the end of this puzzling contest. Alas the time has come to pull the plug and call it quits. Anyone who's still interested in winning prizes has until November 6 @ 6 PM UTC to find the trinkets.

Here's the full update from Louis Wu over at HBO:

Okay, I'm ready to call it a day. Or a month. Or whatever. On October 6th, we kicked off The Great Halo Scavenger Hunt, and with the help of a whole bunch of Halo-related websites and Bungie, we set up what we thought was a fun, thought-provoking contest. Seems like we went too far, though - even in the face of more and more blatant hints (to the point of giving away key parts of the puzzle), we STILL have had just 5 successful entries (not counting the instant win tokens). Bungie supplied enough schwag for 28 winners - but we're gonna leave some of that unclaimed, I'm guessing, because I'm putting a one-month deadline on the game. As of 6 pm UTC on November 6th (that's 1 pm Eastern Time on Thursday), we're declaring this contest over, and posting a full solution on the net. Any unclaimed prizes will remain with Bungie, probably for use with future contests. (Part of the reason to call it quits is that there are at least 2 other contests I know of, waiting in the wings for this one to end; there will be plenty of other opportunities to snag cool stuff, and maybe some of them will capture more imaginations than this one did.) You've got a bit over 48 hours to finish up, if you're still interested in taking home some of THESE prizes; as far as I know, at least half the trinkets have been posted in full view on our forum, so finishing up shouldn't be that hard, if you really want to finish up.

So you've got exactly 2 days to wrap this up. Check the HBO forums for vital clues and maybe you can snag one of the remaining prizes. Whatever is left will go back into our prize pool for future events.

Mac Halo Update

Eek! Amidst the various Halo-Ween activities happening around here last Friday, I failed to notice this juicy Mac Halo update that made its way into my inbox. Al over at Destineer sent us this quick note about the latest developments:

We began testing Beta yesterday and, WOW, major speed improvements! The Westlake guys have been working VERY long hours. I just got off the phone with Phil Sulak from Westlake. Ken Cobb (another of the Halo
programmers) had just stopped and literally passed out while working on the project. We want Ken to get about 2 hours sleep and then get back to work. They've been working very closely with ATI and we've seen major performance improvements on ATI hardware. We'll get Beta 4 soon.
With Beta 4 we'll be able to start testing the network play.

This has been a great week for Halo development. We've seen performance increases that we thought would take at least another week to realize.

-AL

Thanks for the update Al! For those of you keeping track, the last word was that Halo for Mac would be hitting store shelves in early December. We're getting closer... I'll pass along additional updates as soon as I receive them (honest!)

Halo-Ween Contest Winners

The 2003 Bungie.net Halo-Ween pumpkin carving contest yielded dozens of great efforts by fans all across the world. The hardest part about having a contest like this is trying to judge so many cool entries. Though we received many excellent submissions, only three could win prizes. After more recounts than a Florida election, the winners of the 2003 Bunige.net Halo-Ween contest are:

1st Place : Michael Coffing with his rendition of the famous Halo 2 EGM cover. The subtle use of tone and depth made this entry really stand out.

2nd Place : Cheyenne Space with 343 Guilty Spark. A great use of the medium and a solid design.

3rd Place : Jason Whited with Master Chief Pumpkin. A clean and original head shot of the Chief.

A special runner-up position was awared to Warbow for his Elite.

You can view these and several other contenders over in the Halo-Ween Photo Gallery. We can't possibly include every single entry in the gallery but the images shown represent the ones to make it to the final round of judging.

A huge thanks goes out to everyone who took the time to carve up their pumpkins this year. If you had 1/2 as much fun making these as we did viewing them then this was a big success!

See you next year!

Reactor Report Wrap-up

It's been a week now since the first ever Anime Reactor powered down. It was a fun three days of superstar treatment and fan community interaction at a Holiday Inn near the Steven's Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.

The day after our panel, we had very little to do. The folks at AR decided to let us enjoy the convention unfettered except for one scheduled press interview at 3pm. It was just as well since Friday night was our first evening together in over a year where we didn't have to worry about our infant son, and 'celebrated' by staying up until 3am playing video games. We woke up early enough to eat something and still make it to Tsutomu Nihei's panel at noon. We had introduced ourselves the night before. He was, after all, one of the reasons we were out there (we were fans and we wanted to meet him). The Halo shirt someone had teased me about came in handy when I introduced myself and Robert, saying how we work for Bungie and both worked on Halo. Nihei-san understood the first part of my sentence but was at a loss at the rest until I pulled my scarf aside to reveal the Halo logo on my shirt. I wanted to mention how much his work inspired us, but at the sight of the Halo logo, his face lit up and turned away to practically drag the translator into our conversation. Robert and I were extremely pleased and quite surprised that Nihei-san played Halo a whole lot with his fellow mangaka at home and was thrilled that there he was at his first anime convention and he has come across members of the Halo team! At Nihei-san's panel, we joined the fans in asking him questions. When an attendant staff recognized us, he took the mike to introduce us to Nihei-san and the audience. We waved hello and Nihei-san surprised us by asking if he could have our autograph!

During the panel, we found out that the name of Nihei-san's book "Blame!" was actually pronounced "Blam!" and, he admitted, the "e" was there by mistake. Which brings us to this cool coincidence. Robert and I picked up "Blame!" at a Japanese book store because we thought it said "Blam!" -- which was Halo's code name before it was announced. Nihei-san was pleased to no end and couldn't wait to get back home to brag about it. At the end of the panel, I've discovered that Robert and Nihei-san had a lot in common: a love of monsters, zombies and Guinness. The three of us decided to enter Anime Reactor's Halo Xbox Tournament. With Shi Kai we would have made a good team but the guy went missing that night, probably revelling in some party...? (He still doesn't want to talk about it!)

The game room was a mass of people that evening. Between trying to get a hold of Shi Kai and trying to get my phone to work (I had lost my wall charger), I missed the opening matches. But the staff made sure we still got in at the last. I already forget the game type but we played on Chiron -- you know... the one with all small rooms with teleporters everywhere. It was crazy! The moment I respawn, I die. I was killed at the teleporters at least five times. I ended up placing last but at the very least I didn't score zero. :: sigh ::

The first place winner was a guy named Ryan, who worked at EB. He came away with Anime Reactor's first place trophy, a Master Chief action figure, a Bungie shirt, a Sybex Strategy guide and a handful of Bungie stickers (I can't recall now if he got anything else). Second place winner was Chong Lee -- who, at this time I still can't verify if he collected his prizes. We met Ryan outside the gameroom. He was awfully thrilled and can't wait to show off his trophy and prizes to his boss -- who apparently had been trying to get Halo action figures and not been able to!

The last day of the covention promised to be a short one. The closing ceremonies began with a charity auction benefiting the Child
ren's Rare Cancer Fund, aka "Hideyuki's Fund". Guests and staff bid against each other while Steve Bennett ran the mike, calling out factoids and egging on every bidder to go even higher. The remaining con goers were too broke from shopping in the dealer's room all weekend. Robert, Shi Kai and I contributed four pieces to the charity auction, one piece having art from the three of us. Tsutomu Nihei won the bid on all four pieces. Robert could not be outbid for one of Nihei-san's ink drawings. I couldn't let go of Kia Asamiya's "Steam Detective's" sketch. In all, it was a good day at Reactor for the Children's Rare Cancer Fund.

And that pretty much wraps up our stay at Anime Reactor. Next time, I promise to get more sleep so I can remember every single thing!!

7th Column Week in Review

It’s Friday – Happy Halo-Ween everyone! It’s time for an extra spooky edition of the Week in Review. Before you suit up in your MJOLNIR armor and head out in search of sweet treats, pull up a chair and let’s see what the rest of the Column has been up to.

Our first haunting message comes to us all the way from Norway:

Hi, this may come in late, but i just HAD to tell the 7th column what happened in Norwegian Halo 2 weeks ago...

On the 15. of october, the Norwegian Nationals were played, and of the 90 2 man teams who came, ODIN, a member of my Chapter HaloNorge won the contest, and 1500$ in gear and cash...

Some of the other members of HaloNorge chapter, which YOU should check out here, finished quite good as well...

Also, we are starting up a web radio Here in the Chapter, using Shoutcast technology from winamp, so if you are a halo interested Norwegian, come listen!

Well, i think that’s a wrap, so goodbye, and ill see you in HaloNorge later (if you are Norwegian =)

Øby, founder of HaloNorge

I’m not how many of our readers are from Norway but if you do live out there, definitely check out this interesting chapter. The Norwegian Nationals sounds like a cool event and who wouldn’t love an extra $1500 to play with? I love the idea of a Halo chapter broadcasting their own tunes on the net. Sweet! Maybe some stateside Chapters will follow suit.

Spartan107 has channeled the powers of darkness to pass along this next message:

Hey, i'm spartan107 and i'm looking for people to join my new chapter called The ODST's(Helljumpers). Please stop by and take a look at my chapter. Semper Fi

“Semper Fi” you say? Well, for those not in the know, here’s our weekly lesson in Latin. Semper Fi comes from the latin Semper Fidelis which means “always faithful.” This is the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps. Today’s lesson is brought to you by google.

The ghosts of Halo-Ween past have spoken to me. They have said that Halofreak1991 is looking for members...

Hi Halofreak1991 here. Many members I need. so if you can go to my Chapter and check it out. first ten, if meet the criteria, will be staff. And I can play the Library on legendary but it takes a good week to beat. hey the flood are like the energizer bunny they keep coming and coming etc.

Thank you for the…uh...interesting note Mr. Freak. Sounds like you’ve attended the Yoda school of speech – “Many members I need.” Glad to hear you can beat the Library on legendary but that time is a little soft. Better work on those skillz! =)

I was using my Ouija board at lunch and I ended up talking to some long deceased gamers over in the UK. They told me about the UK Halo Alliance Chapter…

Hi, I would like to advertise for my UK site, The UK Halo Alliance. We have interesting databases, an active forum and our own website, heck, we'd probably have a house if I could afford one. So come - from wherever you live, be it the UK, Canada, the USA or any other hell-hole in the world - Join the UK Halo Alliance!

from frontier219 - General of the UK Halo Alliance

P.S. Join the UK Halo Alliance please!

Hey wait a minute… That statement implies that the Canada and the USA are hell holes? Watch it buddy.. you’re treading on thin ice. The idea of a Halo House is pretty interesting though… “This is the true story.. of 7 strangers.. picked to live together and play Halo..” Real World – 7th Column.

Well the only thing scary about this Week in Review is the relative emptiness of our mail bag. Ryan1 has sent along this next note about his new and improved cha
pter:

Hello this is Ryan1 and I am re-opening my chapter Helljumpers of Reach I’m makin it all new and shiny and SHNAZZY(i like my word choice) because I am ready to be a very active founder again. But wut is a grand re-opening, without a bunch of new members. I want you to be a part of the action and the re-opening of Helljumpers of Reach. Hope to see you there, Peace.

SHNAZZY is a pretty good word, for schnizzle my nizzle. Check out all the new stuff happening over at Helljumpers of Reach and see if you can come up with your own word to describe this new shiny chapter.

Our last piece of mail is a big announcement about a ghastly tourney taking place in Indianapolis: (well ok, there’s nothing ghastly about it…)

With just over two weeks to go before the Round Table Tournament in Indianapolis, I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is that we will be short of our goal for the number of teams at this event which, in turn, means that the cash purse won't be quite as large as had been hoped.

However, if your team acts quickly, you can take advantage of the good news: Every 4-person team that signs up before November 10th will pay just $99.95 * -- nearly 30% lower than the original rate! That's less than $25/person! And that's not all. We're also opening the Free For All portion of the event to individuals at the low, low rate of just $14.95/person *! Where else can you play all day for two days at such low rates? Nowhere but the Round Table Tournament this November 15-16!

But time is of the essence on this offer. Though we extended the deadline by two days, online registration is still scheduled to close on November 10th and registration at the door will return to the original rate of $140/team* and $22/person*. For more information on this event, including how to register, visit www.roundtable.4t.com and www.bungie.net/fanclub/3494 .

We look forward to seeing you there!

--Toolman

*Both the discounted and original team rate registers all members of the team for the Team and FFA events. The individual rate is for the FFA portion of the event only and is not upgradeable. Teams that have already paid have been given a refund of the difference.

Anyone else picture someone named Crazy Eddy dancing around a screen saying “Our prices are insaaaaannnneeeee!!!!” Though it may come across a bit like a used car salesman pitch, this tourney sounds like big stakes if you happen to live in the Indianapolis area. The entry fee is a bit steep but the more the entry fee, the more the prize purse. You do, apparently, save 30% though. If you’ve got the skillz and you want to win some spending money, sign up for this tourney now!

And with that, we close this Halo-Ween edition of the Week in Review! Have a fun and safe Halo-Ween and try not to raise too much hell out there!

Spread the Word!

What have you and your chapter been up to? Have a LAN party coming up? Looking for new members? Got a cool new database to share? Tell us what you’re cookin up and we’ll spread the word throughout the Column. Send your 7th Column news to 7thcol@bungie.com.

FanFest Documentary Update

Just when you thought it was safe to put FanFest behind you... BAM! Mr.Smiley comes out of nowhere with another update to his ongoing documentary series. In Episode 3, Mr.Smiley takes you into the Halo 2 Theater for a glimpse at the FanFest premier of the gameplay demonstration and the fan reactions afterwards. And yes... assembling those goodie bags really was that crazy!

If you haven't seen the other videos produced by Smiley and Company, here's the full list for your viewing pleasure:

BFFD Trailer

Windows Media

Quicktime

BFFD – Episode 0

Windows Media

Quicktime

BFFD – Episode 1

Windows Media

Quicktime

BFFD – Episode 2

Windows Media

Quicktime

BFFD – Episode 3 (NEW!)

Windows Media

Quicktime

Higher res versions of these videos can be found over at halo.bungie.org

Stay tuned for the much anticipated Episode 4 where Smiley gets up close and personal with Jen Taylor, aka Cortana!

Halo PC Worlwide Championship

In case you didn't notice the post earlier or have just plain forgotten, registration for the Halo PC Worldwide Championship is underway at this very moment! You've only got 17 days left to step up and enter yourself in this momentous event. It's easy to claim you've got l33t skillz but only the true World Champion will walk away with the prizes and the title.

Don't be scared. Head on over, sign yourself up, and then start practicing like crazy. Anything can happen, you may even win it all!

Bungie, Gearbox and CPL IRC Chat

Sorry for the last minute notice on this but if you haven't already heard, members of Bungie, Gearbox and the CPL will be participating in a IRC chat tomorrow, October 29th! Halo PC was recently added to the roster for the CPL's NVIDIA $30,000 Halo PC Winter Championship. We'll all be taking part in this chat to answer questions about Halo PC and the upcoming event.

Here's the word straight from the CPL site:

The CPL has announced that on Wednesday, October 29 at 5pm PST | 7pm CST | 8pm EST it will host an unprecedented event on its IRC channel #CPL at the GamesNET IRC network.
In response to the overwhelming interest displayed by the gaming community towards CPL's newly selected tournament game HaloPC, the CPL has invited representatives from Microsoft, Bungie and Gearbox to an organized discussion on its IRC channel. These representatives, along with CPL staff, will answer questions directly from the community regarding HaloPC, as well as the NVIDIA $30,000 HaloPC Winter Championship. Also expected to attend are media representatives from several PC gaming news sites, as well as other media representatives.

The CPL channel #cpl on GamesNET will be inaccessible to the public for a few hours prior to this event, then will open promptly at 7pm CST.

This event is the latest effort extended by the Cyberathlete Professional League to broaden communication between game developers, league officials and the people who play the games. By providing a forum through which the players can interact with the game developers, the CPL offers gamers the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback while also providing the developers an opportunity to become familiar with both professional and casual gamers.

Stay tuned to Bungie.net for an inside interview with Angel Munoz, president and founder of the CPL, with more info on this huge Halo PC event and the story behind the CPL.

Reactor Report part 2

The autograph session immediately after our panel gave us a chance to speak with some die-hard Halo players one on one. We were all mutually surprised at finding each other at an anime convention. When some of them heard that Bungie was going to be at Anime Reactor, they didn't expect anybody from the development team to actually represent. For us, there were four major reasons for being at Anime Reactor:

1) There was going to be a Halo tournament, and it was an opportunity to interact with the fan community in a more accessible way.
2) The presence of Japanese guest of honor, Tsutomu Nihei, whose work the three of us admired.
3) Anime Reactor founders, James Alsup III and Ben Nunez, were our old friends and we couldn't turn down their invitation.
4) Anime Reactor was in the Chicagoland area, where the three of us still had friends and family.

Though the blur of events and lack of sleep has faded my memory of Friday; I can say this: We got our butts whooped playing Halo!!

Robert and Shi Kai played against a couple of fans up in their room. I can only remember two of the six folks in the room; Coriana and Adam. (Sorry guys!) Coriana wanted to show us their "Joust" gametype. But before doing that, two of the fellas played Robert and Shi Kai on Wizard for a game of Team Slayer. The Bungie guys took the lead earlier on, but halfway through, the fans racked it up and sacked our dynamic duo. Then they loaded up their Joust game on Blood Gulch. The dance of Warthogs and Spartans were amazing to watch. I wish we were able to record this wild racing game. The three of us were expected elsewhere so after a few minutes of playing, three of the guys left the game one after the other, leaving Shi Kai to win by default -- but as the stats came up, it turned out that he did end up with the highest score. Hurray for small victories!

Next: "Blam!"

Quick Reactor Report

I always forget how hectic these conventions get! We took the red-eye out of Seattle on Thursday night and arrived at the convention at around 6am. Got two hours of sleep before we started our day. Friday was pretty slow. We showed up to our panel on time but there was nobody there. We handed over a DVD of Halo2 goodness to the AV tech crew and decided to sit in the front row to heckle our own trailer. We were just two minutes in when we realized a bunch of fans had started gathering behind us, watching as the Chief rode the elevator down to the launch bay. It wasn't long before others joined in on the friendly heckling! But when the guy next to me started saying "Looks like Starship Troopers" I gave him a gimlet stare. But it was all in good fun. We got asked some questions while we were sitting there and got a round of applause at the end of the clip.

We decided to take to the stage and encouraged everyone to move to the front and center.

The usual questions did pop up:
When is Halo 2 coming out? I heard it was for February! Or Will you be able to play 4-player in campaign mode?

It was all good. We gave away OXM June issues (the one with the Master Chief holding the dual SMG's) to the first fifteen individuals who came up. Then we were autographing convention program books, copies of Halo Game of the Year editions and one fellow actually brought up an Oni game disc. For sure, we got a good workout! ;)

Next: Playing Xbox Halo with some die-hard fans!

The Hunt Goes On

The Great Halo Scavenger Hunt happening at halo.bungie.org still has over 2 dozen prizes waiting to be won! In an effort to give people a nudge in the right direction, Louis Wu has revealed a few more clues to provide encouragement. There are a ton of great prizes still up for grabs! It sure would be a shame to let them all go to waste. Head over to HBO, read up on the latest info, and take a stab at locating the elusive trinkets.

Interview with bentllama

Bungie's bentllama , aka Nathan Walpole, one of the Cananimators, recently shared some insight into the world of game animation in a great interivew at DPerry.com. Unlike his recent contributions to Bungie.net, you won't find gratuitous references to things like hockey or bacon but you will find a wealth of information to help aspiring animators break into the industry. No Halo 2 spoilers though... sorry!