loonyboi just called in from MacWorld (where he's "on assignment"), with word that Bungie has finally announced their super-secret upcoming project, Halo at Steve Jobs' keynote address. The official Halo website has the first tidbits on the game, which is being developed for simultaneous release for both Windows and the Mac. loony got to see Halo earlier this year, and has been bursting at the seems to talk about it since then (but was under threat of death), because the demonstration (on a Mac) blew him away. The Press Release describes the game in detail, and I'll clip a piece below, as well as snagging the screenshot from the site, because it indeed, looks that cool. Here goes:

With no levels or breaks in gameplay, Halo gives players complete freedom of movement over open terrain. Vast outdoor vistas, complete with flora, fauna, weather and celestial events, are complemented with indoor environments of comparable detail and complexity. A universal physics model and persistent objects make events in this world utterly convincing. In this open environment, gameplay is not linear but unfolds in response to the player's actions.

Here's more from the release:

The player is a military recon unit of the human race's fledgling planetary empire. Pursued by alien warships to a massive and ancient ring construct deep in the void, the player must single-handedly improvise a guerilla war over land, sea and air, using the arsenals and vehicles of three distinct cultures. Using everything from composite swords to orbital bombardment, driving everything from giant tanks to agile combat aircraft, players wage intense warfare over and under the surface of this world.

The epic single-player game is complemented by a role-based, cooperative multiplayer team game. Playing the humans or the aliens, players will use entirely different skills, strategies, vehicles and weapons to compete in a variety of game types. Three players might take the roles of driver, shotgun and rear gunner of a light, fast all-terrain vehicle, roaring and bouncing over uneven ground toward the enemy fortress, ducking under a hail of fire from alien aircraft screaming overhead. Halo's multiplayer game will be an experience that is as much lived as played.