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July 2003

July 2003 Archived News

News July 31 2003

monkey != turtle
Hehe - The McLees (all of them) went to GenCon last week... and mehve has written up a pretty entertaining report; it's the top story over at Bungie.net. Go read it! (Louis Wu 20:39:15 UTC) (permalink)

The SKULL fairy?
The Halogamers crew ran into some personal snags this week, so Episode 2 of the Sidewinder Saga will not be up until next week. To tide you over, they've made 'Not Episode 2' (320x240, 6.0 mb), which can be grabbed on their Episodes page. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:13:00 UTC) (permalink)

And the sound collection grows...
27 new dialogue snippets from Captain Spark today, including this rare but hilarious one. Check out the Dialogue Databank! (Louis Wu 12:46:35 UTC) (permalink)

More words than you can shake a pen at
No time to add a Fan Fiction update yesterday... so there are 17 stories for you today:

• Search for Chief part 1, by Legend Player
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 10, by Agent Shade
• Rise of the Hellion chapter 1, by Sarge
• The Struggle for D.C.: Chapter 1, by Daniel Renner
• (Part 9) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• (Part 10) M31: First Blood, by Wes Foutch
• O.C. Tango Red: Out of the Freezer into the Fire, by Shinai Purugganan
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Despite What The Map Says: Chapter 8, by S7N
• After The End, by korbsalg
• Wrong or right part 6, by harley
• (Part 11) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• Halo 2 Fight For Earth: Home Today, Gone Tomorrow, by HunterKiller
• Oblivion 7: God's Chosen, by Reclaimer
• Rendezvous, by The Scribe
• The Fall of Fate: Invasion, Part Two(12), by 'Nosolee
• Earth, A Place for Death. Part 2: NYC(cont.) , by FuManChu
• Halo: The MCconto Chronicles (2nd), by JCDenton

And they just keep coming... (Louis Wu 11:50:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo font - updated
Over a year ago, Will Turnbow created (then updated) a Halo font, to match the Halo logo developed by Bungie. Yesterday, he submitted another update; this one simply changes the '2' to match the '2' in the Halo 2 logo. We've updated the Miscellaneous Art entry that contained the last version, since that's been pointed to from several different places around the website. (Louis Wu 11:21:56 UTC) (permalink)

E3 Trailer on TechTV
James DeWitt points out that TechTV will be broadcasting the full 8 minute E3 Demo Trailer this Monday at 11:30 pm (also twice on Tuesday - see TechTV's schedule for details). If you haven't had an opportunity to see this in full-screen glory, this is your chance! (Louis Wu 10:23:53 UTC) (permalink)

Guess that release date!
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews of the Junkyard reminds everyone that a contest started over a year ago is drawing to a close... the Halo: Guess the Release Date Contest! You've got 5 more days to guess the date at which Halo PC goes Gold... (Louis Wu 10:00:51 UTC) (permalink)

New movies from C.O.E.R.C.E.
The new bandwidth collective C.O.E.R.C.E. has posted three new movies:

• MC Is Wonderboy, by Erik Vogt (12.3 mb, 4:33 long, QuickTime format) - a pretty fun turn-a-song-into-a-story vid, with a twist; the filming was all done with a camera facing a TV. (This was done because it's all Erik had... but it's an effect which grows on you. At least, it grew on me. :) )
• A re-release of FTC 5, in QuickTime format, since all of the existing mirrors (for the much larger AVI are currently offline) - 9.4 mb
• A QuickTime version of Apocalypse Halo (originally released in WMP9 format over at Battleground Halo), by Dark Helmet: 20.3 mb, 5:33 long.

You'll be downloading from a randomly selected mirror (there are currently 7, I think), and the trial run the other night went swimmmingly... so give it a shot! (Louis Wu 02:10:11 UTC) (permalink)

News July 30 2003

Action Figure Update
There was a concerned note posted on our forum today from someone who had preordered Halo action figures from the Bungie Store, but couldn't find any information about them any more. SketchFactor stepped in with some reassurances; seems there have been some supply shortages coming from Joyride, so they've chosen to stop taking preorders that they might not be able to fill. If you've already preordered, however, you're fine - your order will be filled as soon as Bungie gets their first shipment. (Louis Wu 20:28:06 UTC) (permalink)

Curse You, O'Donnell.
The dangers of music... expounded upon in today's One One Se7en. Read. (Louis Wu 18:57:18 UTC) (permalink)

A taste of the future?
Major League Gaming, a console gaming league for professional video game players, has signed Dustin 'HP Darkman' Langton to a management contract. First up - he's got an endorsement deal with LASR Accessories, a company that makes backpacks for consoles. HP Darkman seems to be the first Halo gamer to parlay his gaming skills into a fulltime moneymaking job... I doubt he'll be the last. Noticed by brandontyler on our forum. (Louis Wu 17:03:01 UTC) (permalink)

The dangers of popularity...
Recently, we've been posting a number of links to movie mirrors on Blade's Team Ice website. He's run into the problem that many potential hosts have hit; bandwidth overage. If you want to help out, visit his site for an update. (For those that can't connect the dots, all movies hosted by Team Ice are currently offline.) Please, folks - we're thrilled if you have bandwidth to offer in this time of need. But make sure you can afford what you're offering! Read this page for an idea of how much bandwidth Mythica was using before it went offline... and ask your ISP what your OWN limits are (and what happens if you exceed them). Thanks! (Louis Wu 16:55:39 UTC) (permalink)

Marines Trailer Available
Darksage created a trailer for an ambitious project: a new, full-length feature film, called Marines. You can find the trailer (in a variety of formats) over at the Drunk Monkeys Productions download page. (I'd suggest holding off on either of the QuickTime versions; there's a much-better-quality copy coming soon. It's 3.1 mb, so if that's what's listed when you read this, go ahead and download.) There are two other movies on that page - the first was originally mentioned here (with a link to a smaller .mov version), and the second is one we chose not to host. (Louis Wu 15:48:20 UTC) (permalink)

Ninjas on Ice
Another Halo board has started up - Ninjas on Ice is a spinoff of Ninjas on Fire, apparently. This came in Monday, but I lost it in the rush. (Louis Wu 15:26:31 UTC) (permalink)

Homelan looks at shooters
Homelan Fed recently started a series called the '10 Most Important First Person Shooters' - number 9, posted today, is Halo. (They're listed in Chronological order - there's one more coming.) Take a look at why they think it's important! (Louis Wu 14:28:10 UTC) (permalink)

More moviemakers turn to FilePlanet
Ross Mills has tossed his Halo Rhapsody movie up on FilePlanet. One of these days, I HAVE to get the Movies database brought up-to-date... If you missed this when it was still up at Mythica, here's another chance. (Louis Wu 14:09:29 UTC) (permalink)

Before you're old and grey...
Good news on the Halo movie front - Brian Towne mentions that he's already signed a contract with a new provider, and as soon as he can get his server back from the LAST provider, will have Mythica.org up and running again! (No ETA, though.) There's hope on the horizon! (Louis Wu 13:21:33 UTC) (permalink)

New dialogue snippets... and a poll
Large submissions to the Dialogue Databank recently from c0ld vengeance and Captain Spark - you'll find another 54 snippets today, bringing the total to a chunk over 500. (Before any of you get on my case about some of these being scripted - yes, a couple are, but they're not triggered 100% of the time, so I deemed them valid for inclusion.) I decided to resurrect the 7 day poll, because a couple of the crewmen lines I heard recently actually made me laugh out loud, they were so bad... so the question is: what is the lamest crewman snippet in Halo? You guys have a week to vote - the lines in the poll actually lead to dialogue snippets (which will open in a new window), so you can listen to the options before casting your vote. There were a few that were lamer than these... but they were too long to fit nicely into the form. (How's THAT for a scientific survey?) Lastly - I've got my fingers crossed, it's been about 3 years since I wrote any poll code... I'm HOPING this works. :-) (Louis Wu 03:25:52 UTC) (permalink)

That c0ld vengeance is on a roll...
Wow. Keyes exploration... it might not be what you think. (I'm still waiting to find out how he got through the loading zones...) (Louis Wu 01:05:20 UTC) (permalink)

News July 29 2003

The sequel to Halo Babies: Halo Gradeschoolers?
Pallor sends in another Halo sighting:

The latest movie to hit theaters for kids has the cards stacked in favor of Bungie's Halo. The stars in the movie Ryan Pinkston and Robert Vito have come out publically to state its their favorite game. That carries over to the movie itself: Inside the game they are playin in the movie, Juni meets a quartet of beta testers (Ryan James Pinkston, Robert Vito, Bobby Edner and Courtney Jines). They join his quest to find Carmen, who is stuck on level four. When Juni discovers a river of molten lava, he asks, "How come every video game has lava in it?" "Technically that isn't true," another player says. " 'Halo' doesn't have lava." So Halo is now a pop culture icon garnering references in childrens films. I suppose its decent to say they have started to invade Hollywood.

Strategy Guide Guy needs solo tips!
Doug Radcliffe has returned - and is asking for submissions, once again. (For those with short memories, Doug is writing the official PC Strategy Guide... he stopped by in late June, to ask for suggestions about bonus material, and again a couple of weeks ago, to solicit multiplayer tips.) If you've got some good campaign tricks (that you haven't already sent to him) email them to him! (Alternatively, you can post them to this forum thread... but he'd rather get email.) (Louis Wu 19:00:39 UTC) (permalink)

Going to CPL Summer Event? Play Halo PC!
Nice. Gearbox has announced that they'll be running a team competition during their workshop at the CPL Summer Event - if you're a registered attendee, you can play 5-on-5 Halo PC from 2-5 pm on August 2 against Gearbox and Bungie employees, with the chance to win prizes from Gearbox, Bungie, and NVIDIA. Props to kappa, who noticed a writeup at cached.net. (Louis Wu 17:55:22 UTC) (permalink)

Who said sailors can't dance?
Funky Keyes... Oh, yeah, baby. (Also with a new, improved soundtrack.) (Louis Wu 17:05:40 UTC) (permalink)

On the BOLL
Three Miscellaneous entries by BOLL, over the past week - all have been posted to our forum, but they all have a permanent home here now at HBO, and some organization has been applied. In no particular order:

• Halo Clock 2 - BOLL reinvents an older Flash animation in an eminently watchable toy.
• Sentinels - Looking almost as though they'd come from a dev kit, here are several animated views of Sentinels, opening and closing for you. (Javascript required.)
• Mapping Halo - A very high-quality look at the map tiles Bungie used to create the Halo itself; lays to rest several questions about the accuracy of the ring, as you can see it in various places.

If you missed these when they first came through, check 'em out now. If you were impressed once, pass the URLs on to your friends, and watch THEIR jaws drop. BOLL proves, several times over, that his Halo-induced creativity is awesome. (Louis Wu 14:39:04 UTC) (permalink)

Predator finds another home
That Weasel becomes the latest mirror for c0ld vengeance's Predator spoof - he's posted the 21 mb QuickTime version. Thanks, TW! (Louis Wu 13:09:11 UTC) (permalink)

Dialogue Snippets - back on track
Last week, Jamirus99 submitted another dozen snippets for the Dialogue Databank. We're finally getting around to putting them up now. I also added one I grabbed recently, during a runthrough of the Pillar of Autumn - it made me laugh, and in fact, after some recent comments posted on our forum, has prompted me to think about something we haven't done for years... a poll. Gimme a little bit to put it together, and then we'll have a dialogue-related question for you to toss your two cents into. (Louis Wu 09:12:41 UTC) (permalink)

HJP puts up GenCon floor footage
Dinky has posted a two minute WMV of shakeycam footage from Gencon, showing Halo PC play - you can find a link over on the forum of Battleground: Halo. Format is WMP7, size is 5.2 mb. Gives you an idea of what the booth looked like. (Louis Wu 08:15:19 UTC) (permalink)

C.O.E.R.C.E. opens its doors
guy who doesn't post....too often has set into motion a rather ambitious project - C.O.E.R.C.E. The Conglomerate Of Established Resources Cooperating Efficiently will attempt to combine the movie-hosting abilities of several small sites into one seamless mirror - you follow the link, the page decides who serves you the movie. The more mirrors that join up (check this forum thread for details), the better it'll work. The hope is to be able to serve a small (sub-10-mb movie) movie to as many people who need it, as often as is necessary. First up is the intro for Black And White, a Red vs Blue -inspired film. 9.8 mb, QuickTime format. Give it a shot! (And to all the hosts participating, our heartfelt thanks for the effort! The Halo fans love you.) (Louis Wu 00:26:10 UTC) (permalink)

It's about the Red guy.
Lion has released two trailers for a new series, Oddballs. You can find download links (both WMP9 and MPEG) on his Truth and Reconciliation forum. The actual series is coming soon! (Louis Wu 00:21:02 UTC) (permalink)

Tales, tales, and more tales
Almost made it to 14 Fan Fiction pieces today... looks like we owe a lot of that to the Foutch brothers.

• A John Before Halo: Part 5, by J-117
• Buried Treasure(7), by Frensa Geran
• Earth, A Place for Death. Part 1: NYC, by FuManChu
• Halo 2, an Elites version, by FOrunnER
• Return to Earth (Chptr 7: Final Finish), by CoLd BlooDed
• The Empire (Episode IV), Truths & Dreams, by Jon Michael Marlowe
• Halo: The MCconto Cronicles 1, by JCDenton
• (Part 4) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• (Part 5) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• (Part 6) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 9, by Agent Shade
• (Part 7) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• (Part 8) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch

Go get 'em! (Louis Wu 00:19:02 UTC) (permalink)

News July 28 2003

The Halo Weekly Review - Now With Nuts!
Another episode of The HBO Weekly Review went up today. Looks like every bad word said on the forum this week made it in. Got some belly laughs out of me, though... absolutely, positively worth a read. (Louis Wu 21:47:40 UTC) (permalink)

Predator - stalking a marine near you
We didn't want to announce this on the front page before there was some backup... but now there is some backup. c0ld vengeance (who did a pretty amazing job with Haliens, once upon a time) is back with Predator, a remake of (a chunk of) the movie Predator, in the Halo engine. Some very, very nice touches. It's available in two formats; a 48 mb DivX-encoded AVI (it's almost 7 minutes long), or a 21 mb QuickTime 5 version. (Both are roughly the same quality, though the QT version is a tad darker in a couple of places.) You can find the .avi at c0ldvengeance.com (thanks to BOLL), doughmainename.com (thanks to gwdp...to), and FilePlanet. The .mov is currently only available at c0ldvengeance.com. Viewer comments can be found in this thread. As an aside, I find it rather amazing how many movies we've announced today, given the current bandwidth crunch... (Louis Wu 21:24:59 UTC) (permalink)

Online Halo Tourneys
This originally came in a while ago, but got missed. XBConnect is holding 1v1 and 2v2 tournaments - signup is $10/tourney, and the top 3 winners will take home prizes (yet to be determined). Info is here, signup is here. Thanks to Pulser for the (persistent) heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:44:10 UTC) (permalink)

Out for Blood is Up for Grabs
We just got word of a new movie called 'Out For Blood'. It's not really like anything else out there; it's all action. Great music, great choreography... really well put together. (Spectacular ending.) Team Scoog, and member Phatcorns, are responsible. It was originally posted on the Gearbox forums - phatcorns is hosting a version. Blade, our newest bandwidth angel, jumped in and put up a copy, as well. It's 9 minutes long, in WMP7 format, and weighs in at 20.6 mb. Any mirror offers for this one would be greatly appreciated... I'm afraid we're going to swamp the two existing links. (Louis Wu 18:43:13 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Forum for you
DarthTyler has asked that we mention his Halo forum, The Halo Elite. (Louis Wu 18:01:05 UTC) (permalink)

FTC: Bad News and Good News
The Bad News: XboxOttawa.ca seems to have gone down; no word on how long, or why. The Good News: Blade has mirrored both Episode 4 and Episode 5 of Fire Team Charlie's vids at his Team Ice movie mirror. We'll continue to update you on the movie situation... there are a lot of people trying to help fix the problem right now. I'm hopeful we'll have good news soon. (Louis Wu 16:13:01 UTC) (permalink)

These Are The Jokes, Kid.
PC Envy? Likely. Xbox MC disses PC MC on today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:17:42 UTC) (permalink)

WorthPlaying looks at Halo PC
WorthPlaying.com put up a Halo PC preview on Friday - they got in on the gameplay we saw at IGN and GameSpot last week. 10 new screenshots, all at 1024x768 size... nice! Pretty PC-oriented (as in, anti-Xbox)... but then, it IS a PC preview, so what the heck. Heads-up came from Konrad9, on our forum. (Louis Wu 14:04:22 UTC) (permalink)

So, you wanna go raid their fridge?
Wow, Monday, and we STILL haven't mentioned this week's Red vs Blue vid. It's not a standard episode - it's a look at how the Blue team makes it to New York for last week's Film Society of Lincoln Center presentation. (If you ask me, they were FAR too cavalier about the teleporter.) (Louis Wu 06:43:53 UTC) (permalink)

Renegade Theater, part Deux
The continuing saga of a group of our forum regulars and the bizarre events centered around a particular game... (mnemesis 02:05:53 UTC) (permalink)

News July 27 2003

The Bandwidth Situation, Continued
I promised last night to try and shed light on the movie hosting situation here - I've put up a page explaining where we currently stand. Suggestions are always welcome... we're definitely in a bind at this point. Thanks for your patience! (Louis Wu 15:28:38 UTC) (permalink)

FTC 5 is out
Fire Team Charlie released their 5th movie yesterday; you can find it on their website. Sound quality is vastly improving, and humor quality remains quite high. 16.5 mb, DivX 5 format (though I've got a 9.4 mb QuickTime version that I'm going to try and get to them)... go grab it! (Louis Wu 14:51:26 UTC) (permalink)

Chief Nukem.
Oh, yeah, before I forget - there's a Sunday One One Se7en for you today. You have to have a long memory, though. (Louis Wu 02:51:47 UTC) (permalink)

He's Baaaaaack...
It seems like every time I go on vacation, some crisis erupts around here. Like there's a Halo god who doesn't like to see me unchained from my desk... I've been made aware of the Mythica-related movie hosting situation, and have seen a lot of emails from people wanting to help, and people wanting more information. It's a bit too late tonight (i've been on the road - literally - for almost 12 hours now), but tomorrow I'll write up a short description of the current situation, so that people offering bandwidth know what they're getting into, and what they can do to help. I'm hopeful we can come up with something without bankrupting anybody. Meantime, I've got almost 800 emails to go through, and well over 3000 forum posts... dunno how long it's gonna take to get through all of it. Anyone waiting for a response... please be patient! (Sending another note, asking whether I've gotten to your mail, will NOT help the problem.) A great big shout-out to the rest of the crew around here, who did a bang-up job this week - they all rock. (Louis Wu 02:44:05 UTC) (permalink)

News July 26 2003

It's Fiction - by the Fans
Ah, Saturday. A perfect day to head out to the back forty, tall glass of lemonade in hand, to your favorite hammock. Relax, enjoy the cool breeze, prop up the ol' laptop and settle in to some light summer Halo reading.

• A long hard day of killing humans, by FOrunnER
• Halo 2, not what you'd expect, Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• A Marine Named Peters: To Kill A Pegasus, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Halo Zero 2 /p8/ Medula's War, by nicholas
• Return to Earth (Chptr 6: Boarding the Ship), by CoLd BlooDed
• Halo from the Flood's Point of View: Enter the Norah, by Simpsons Rule
• The second genocide (Halo 2: Chapter 9), by Shadowrunner

(mnemesis 21:55:10 UTC) (permalink)

This just in: Halo PC is Cool!
Brian Towne was at GenCon yesterday, and he checked in here with a report on Halo PC and how it played under large, networked tournament conditions. Some interesting info in there, go give it a look. Mmmm, overheating fuel-rod guns... :-) (mnemesis 05:01:27 UTC) (permalink)

Buttsock!
Gruntsbane (formerly Covenant) dropped into our forum with news of a new site put together by Mr. Smiley, featuring Halo Babies comics done by Gruntsbane himself (Check the forum post for more details). There are only two up so far, but they're definitely worth a look. I always figured Sarge was a baaad influence. (mnemesis 04:57:57 UTC) (permalink)

News July 25 2003

Halo 2 Wallpaper
Only one entry today for wallpaper. What, everybody run out of ideas? ;-) (mnemesis 22:15:13 UTC) (permalink)

Plush Grunt
A homemade plush Grunt, a rising Hero, and a classic conflict, all in today's Misc Art update. (mnemesis 22:00:24 UTC) (permalink)

Sticky Situation.
Anything you can do I can do brighter... One One Se7en is up. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 21:37:12 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction, however, is obviously open
Who would have thought that the twenty-six measly letters in our alphabet could be rearranged in so many unique, yet ultimately Halo-related ways? Not me, that's for sure. Read on!

• Into the City, by The Scribe
• Unknown Apprentice Part 2, by apache119
• Halo 2: First Strike, by HunterKiller
• A Marine's Tale: Boot, by pj-NYkr90
• Delta Squadron: Chapter Two; First Engagement, by Steele
• The Fall of Fate: Invasion, Part One, by 'Nosolee
• Battle for the Norah: Part Four, by Sterfrye36
• New Lunar HQ, by Fleet Admiral
• First Contact; Chapter 2: Probe, by retsamolah
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 8, by Agent Shade
• A John Before Halo: Part 4 , by J-117
• First Contact; Chapter 3: First Blood, by retsamolah
• Running Riot- Part 3, by Simon James
• The Adventures of Lt. Jake, Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• Return to Earth (Chptr 5: Destined to Kill), by CoLd BlooDed
• Halo 2 Fight For Earth: The Next Day, by HunterKiller
• Oblivion Chapter 6: New York City: Covenant Playground, by Reclaimer

(mnemesis 05:42:50 UTC) (permalink)

Mythica is closed
Brian Towne, the patron saint of Halo filmmakers everywhere and curator of Mythica, our primary movie host, has checked in from GenCon, where he is undoubtedly rubbing elbows with the likes of Bungie's SketchFactor and playing an ungodly amount of PC Halo, with the sad news that Mythica's colocation provider has notified him that they are going out of business. In short, most of our films are going to be unavailable for at least the near future, until Brian has a chance to get back from the 'Con, unpack, and sort out the issues (detailed here). I don't know if Louis will be able to pull some kind of hosting miracle out of his hat, but for now, just assume that movies are offline until further notice.

Oh, and if you can provide any reliable hosting, please let us know. ;-) (mnemesis 04:30:18 UTC) (permalink)

News July 24 2003

It's not dead, it's resting
MaverickJ writes to let us (and you) know that the Project Spartan site is not dead, nor have they given up on it, but that bandwidth issues have temporarily closed them down. Yeah, I know, you forgotten all of the flag tricks and your team is getting slaughtered. Sit tight and we'll let you know when they get things ironed out. (mnemesis 18:13:12 UTC) (permalink)

GBA Halo and a couple logos
A Misc Art entry that, if real, would be a definite hit, and two logos (here and here). (mnemesis 17:44:34 UTC) (permalink)

Renegade Theater Resurfaces
A few of our forum regulars were playing Halo the other day and shared a rather unique experience. Read it for yourself. (mnemesis 17:08:16 UTC) (permalink)

Red vs Blue visits the Center of the Universe

I bring you an exclusive. A snippet of a new video that RedvsBlue presented at the Lincoln Center Video Festival as part of their machinama program last night. They're going to release it soon from their site, in it's full glory, but my little Canon did a decent job of capturing it. I took a bunch of pics and wrote up about the whole thing... how cool is it to hang with Burnie and Jason? All you keep hearing are the voices of some of the funniest characters in the funniest series evuh!

So what are you waiting for, CHECK IT OUT NOW!

I'm gonna need new eyeballs
The Halo Story Page has been updated.

*thunk*

(mnemesis 00:10:59 UTC) (permalink)

News July 23 2003

Grand Theft Halo
Two wallpapers for you today, both in a slightly familiar style. (mnemesis 21:13:10 UTC) (permalink)

Eat your Wheaties and more
Fragglegrunt and the Breakfast of Champions, plus a couple more today in Misc. Art. Take a look! (mnemesis 19:09:58 UTC) (permalink)

Text... overload... Can't... hold out... much...
What do you get when you double the excitement and mystery of seven pieces of Fan Fiction? A whole mess of stories to read, that's what! Sheesh, people, your fecundity is startling. :-)

• Return to Earth (Chptr 3: Alone and Still Standing), by CoLd BlooDed
• Untitled, by Djstan
• midnight sun (chapter 1, Moon war begins), by andrew meyer
• The Fallen: Chapter 4 Section 1, by Hikaru-119
• Foersaken Forefathers Part X, by Havok and AlphaBravo343
• Return to Earth (Chptr 4: Rescued), by CoLd BlooDed
• Ishkabibbl'sstoryHumanity'sLastHopeBloodyWar(Part 3), by Ishkabibbl
• And So It Began., by Alex Sullivan
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 7, by Agent Shade
• Buried Treasure(6), by Frensa Geran
• Spartans in NYC Chapter 5, by Chief-117
• The flood: a force to be reckoned with: Part 3, by crashedwarthog
• Brutus, The Spartans, Two AIs and the Pirate Fleet (Part 4), by Traumatised Marine
• Return to Jevan: Part one, Lets Move Out , by SpartanMX
• The Fallen: Chapter 4 Section 2, by Hikaru-119

Remember, use the Fan Fiction comments section for constructive criticism. Read on! (mnemesis 17:57:46 UTC) (permalink)

Gearbox Giveth, Part III at the Junkyard
Part III of Evergreen98's article on the upcoming Halo PC/Mac release is available over at the Junkyard (parts I and II are here and here). There's a lot of good analytical info in there, go give it a read! (mnemesis 17:09:42 UTC) (permalink)

What, AGAIN?
As many of you have noticed, Mythica is down again. Brian posted an explanation, but it looks like the downtime will once again be quite lengthly. On the plus side, Subnova has recovered from their earlier trouble. You win some, you lose some... (Count Zero 14:01:59 UTC) (permalink)

Double Trouble.
Halo vs Halo 2? One One Se7en knows. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 13:55:57 UTC) (permalink)

News July 22 2003

Halo PC in Indiana
If you live anywhere near the Indianapolis area, or even anywhere near the state of Indiana, you should be seriously considering going to GenCon this Thursday. They're going to be having a three-day Halo PC tournament, with three ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video cards for prizes. Even if you don't win, think of the prestige inherent in telling people YOU played Halo PC before most everybody else. So what are you waiting for! Get to Indianapolis, Indiana, and sign yourself up now! (mnemesis 19:29:00 UTC) (permalink)

And the Rocket goes to...
Emil of the CobaltNova Halo League would like to announce the first annual Rockets On Prisoner awards:

"With approximately 240 to 300 Halo movies having been developed since the game's release it was time that the community begin to recognize the very best among them. This year the "Rockets on Prisoner" award will be accorded to the winner in each of the following categories: Best Movie, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Editing Sound and Visual Effects, Best Musical Score, and Best Documentary."

News July 21 2003

Fan Fiction marches on
"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think."
-Edwin Schlossberg

So this is your invitation to think...

• First Contact; Chapter 1: Harvest, by retsamolah
• Buried Treasure(5), by Frensa Geran
• Return to Earth (Chptr 2: Flight to Captivity), by CoLd BlooDed
• A Marines Tale: Getting the Feel of Things, by pj-NYkr90
• Sniper patrol group 06, by Ishkabibbl
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 6, by Agent Shade
• Chapter 2: Dilemma, by Shinai Purugganan
• A World Apart Ch. 2, by Dark Spartan

(mnemesis 22:48:58 UTC) (permalink)

The Nuthouse in a Nutshell
Having a hard time keeping up with the forum? Can't quite manage to read the 350+ posts per day? Aren't named Louis Wu? Well, never fear, the Weekly Review is here! After over a year's hiatus, the Weekly Review has returned to summarize the goings on in our forum. If you can only read one post and one post only, better make it this one. (mnemesis 20:26:13 UTC) (permalink)

Fire Team Charlie needs YOU!
ben informs us that Fire Team Charlie challenges you to add a voice track to their first video. Check out their site for details. (mnemesis 18:57:41 UTC) (permalink)

Gearbox Giveth... at the Junkyard
Over at the Junkyard, Evergreen98 has written a couple of interesting articles on the upcoming Halo PC/Mac release. The first two are up now, with the third along in a few days. Thanks to both vector40 and MrFluffyPants26 for pointing this out. (mnemesis 18:44:11 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo site
Break Point writes to tell us of his site, bphalo.com. Go check it out! (mnemesis 18:42:08 UTC) (permalink)

Apologies for Postponement of Half Life 2 Release.
Last of the Half-Life trilogy on One One Se7en. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 18:19:48 UTC) (permalink)

I can see my house from here!
A few days ago, The Invisable O posted a challenge on the forum: Has anyone ever mapped the entire inner surface of Halo? BOLL took him up on it, and managed to capture some great images of the ring, which he posted in the original thread, along with additional images and explanation. Every time someone declares tricking dead... (Count Zero 15:30:39 UTC) (permalink)

News July 20 2003

Sub-Zero
Subnova, one of our primary movie mirrors, and who also shoulder some of our server-side processing, has run into trouble with their SQL server. The shared news search feature should still be working, but all movies hosted there are down. Unfortunately it looks like this will be a long downtime, as the message says. (If you'd like to help shorten it, the Donate button still works...) (Count Zero 23:34:21 UTC) (permalink)

Readin' and Writin'
What is the hidden significance of the seven pieces of fan fiction?

• D-Day II, Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• Return to Earth (Chptr 1: Attacked), by CoLd BlooDed
• Delta Squadron: Chapter One; Delta Squadron, by Steele
• Its Just One of Those Days (Prologue: 03), by Elfster
• A John Before Halo: The Invaision Begins (Part 3), by J-117
• Halo Zero /p6/ Brute Force... Quite Literally, by nicholas
• Halo Zero /p7/ The Prophet Meeting, by nicholas

(mnemesis 18:53:16 UTC) (permalink)

News July 19 2003

One last movie - and goodbye for a bit
One last movie, before I go: This one's from MaverickJ, and it's called Oddball Tactics, part 1. It's 9.9 mb, in QuickTime format. (You can also find it, in WMP9 format, on Maverick's Project Spartan site.) It shows you a bunch of slick tricks you can use to gain the upper hand in a Team Oddball game. Beautiful! As of right now, I'm on vacation, and the site is in the capable hands of Count Zero, mnemesis, and Ding. Any mail sent directly to me will not be seen for a week; if you have info you want posted on HBO, send it to halo@bungie.org. Enjoy yourselves - I certainly plan to! (Louis Wu 11:22:27 UTC) (permalink)

Sidewinder Saga links - all in one place
We've put up a mirror page for the Sidewinder Saga, because it was getting confusing figuring out where (outside of the Halogamers.com home site) you could get the various movies. Thanks to Team Ice for their mirroring help - as an aside, Blade has also posted the Halo 2 Announcement trailer and The E3 Demo trailer on their video page. (Louis Wu 10:56:39 UTC) (permalink)

Does that radio still work?
Xbox Ottawa has put up #4 of their FTC vid series. Ex-Special Ops, huh? Current version of this one (3:38 long) is 23.6 mb, in DivX 5 AVI format... but they might have a slightly smaller QuickTime version up in the not-too-distant future. (Louis Wu 10:35:53 UTC) (permalink)

Very cool coloring job, among other stuff
Four Miscellaneous Art pieces for you - there's no one-liner I can think of that describes them all, so just go look. (Louis Wu 10:31:36 UTC) (permalink)

Wow, that's big.
A couple of interesting (and colorful) desktops today in the Wallpaper section. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 10:18:28 UTC) (permalink)

The Words Keep Coming
11 Fan Fiction bits for you today.

• Running Riot- Part 1, by Simon James
• Shadow Spartans, Chatper 4: The Running Prophet, by Agent Shade and Arinoth Koby
• The Homecoming - Part 1, by Tim Ricciardello
• Running Riot-Part 2, by Simon James
• The Fall of Fate: Raid (10), by 'Nosolee
• A Final Shot - Part 2, by James
• Chapter 1: Key to Survival, by Shinai Purugganan
• Oblivion Chapter 5, by Reclaimer
• A Marine's Tale: The First Days, by pj-NYkr90
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 5, by Agent Shade
• Buried Treasure(4), by Frensa Geran

Read 'em, make the authors happy. (Louis Wu 10:12:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Cover Art - once again
After a long span with no entries, we received another submission for the Halo 2 disk cover collection. Good to know folks are still thinking about cover art! (Louis Wu 10:03:35 UTC) (permalink)

haloevents needs your help
Derek Brown is starting up a new site called haloevents - he's hoping to create a database of upcoming Halo events around the nation. Visitors will be able to search this database for events near them. This requires input from you; the more events submitted to this site, the more people who will come to search it for information relevant to them, which will make the pool of event-submitters larger, which will help the database grow, and so on, and so on. In addition to events, there will be reviews of multiplayer gear, suggestions for LAN party hosting, and multiplayer setups. Go visit, and submit content! (Louis Wu 09:47:57 UTC) (permalink)

The last of IGN's Halo PC week
IGN PC wraps up its week-long Halo PC coverage with two new articles; a general one is available to all readers, and gets a few last answers out of Randy Pitchford, and a more specialized, Insider-only one contains a 78 mb, 7:48 video interview with Pitchford. There's a lot of feel-good discussion about Halo, and a bunch of info which has come up elsewhere... but the mod info (which was touched on in the free article) is, once again, really positive. Good news for low bandwidth multiplayer users: 56k modems will definitely be supported, and able to play against LPBs. Thanks to Da Loaph for pointing this out. (Louis Wu 09:37:18 UTC) (permalink)

The Two Betrayels
voX has put up the first of 5 pieces of a new series, called The Two Betrayels (sic) at his site, Halo². The trailer is quite short (33 seconds), but sets the stage for another nicely filmed movie. (5.3 mb, DivX 4 avi) I've gotta say, I really appreciate what Red vs Blue has done for the Halo moviemaking community - all this storytelling is fantastic. (Louis Wu 09:26:47 UTC) (permalink)

Xbox vs PC
Jake 'Evergreen98' Billo, over at the Junkyard, is taking a pretty close look at the PC version of Halo, comparing what's in it to what's in the Xbox version, and helping you decide where YOU want to be playing once it's out. It's a three part article - Part one is up right now. Thanks to vector40 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 09:02:19 UTC) (permalink)

NoFF tourney trailer
Never got a movie up at Mythica yesterday, and dang, if the bandwidth usage didn't drop below 7 Mbit/sec. The inside of the pipe's gonna start feeling lonely - not enough bits passing through! Next up is a movie we should have posted a while ago; it seems to have gotten slightly lost. This film is a trailer for the Ninjas on Fire Forum Exclusive XBC Tournament. Nothing in the documentation sent with the movie (or at the NoFF Tournament website) gives an actual date (or dates) for this gathering... but the vid is nicely put together. It's only 6.4 mb, in WMP7 format. I'm a little surprised at some of the misses... but hey, everybody's got off days, right? This was submitted by zhakahunterDARK, and more information can be found at the Ninja Tournament website. (Louis Wu 03:58:02 UTC) (permalink)

Halo at 3 days? Hell, yeah!
We don't do this very much... but then, b.org staffers don't have babies that often. Lophan hasn't been around much in the past year... but this is one of the things he's been working on. Brandon Jennings was born on Wednesday morning, in Doylestown, PA - and Loph is already looking for an S-controller that might fit him! (Louis Wu 03:32:23 UTC) (permalink)

New dialogue surfaces
These came in yesterday, but life got busy. Owm88 submitted three new dialogue snippets for the Dialogue Databank; I actually haven't heard any of these in-game. I'm not sure how submissions are going to work in the next week; I'm on vacation, and I'm not sure I've made a decent-enough interface for the other guys to be willing to add stuff... so if you submit files, and they don't get added right away, please be patient. We're gonna be doing our best! (Louis Wu 01:06:59 UTC) (permalink)

News July 18 2003

Djö Vu
In under the wire... Friday's One One Se7en continues the Gordon Freeman lovefest. Wonga. (Louis Wu 20:53:37 UTC) (permalink)

New background info at b.net
Last night, broony pointed out new renders and concept art at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site. I didn't have time to look for 'em... but he was right. (Last four images on the Renders page, last image on the Concept Art page.) Thanks also to Iceman1330, whose post today made me actually go looking for the new material. Update: Thanks again to Iceman1330, who convinced me that the last three Outro storyboards are ALSO new. (Louis Wu 18:54:24 UTC) (permalink)

Play Halo for free video rentals
Live in south central Connecticut? Got nothing to do tomorrow? Tommy K's (a video rental chain) is holding a Halo tournament at the North Haven and West Haven stores. $5 to get in, you get a free rental just for registering (so that's most of your $5 right there)... top prize is a year's worth of free rentals. Thanks to Konrad9 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:49:10 UTC) (permalink)

Short server outage coming
Quick heads-up (which probably won't be read by anyone actually AFFECTED) - the datacenter this server is housed in wants to move the server to a different switch; we're looking at about 5 minutes of downtime, maybe an hour from now. If you visit then, and can't get in, you'll know why. (Alternatively, if you're reading this after about 3 pm EDT on Friday, and you couldn't get in recently, you now know why. :) ) (Louis Wu 17:55:51 UTC) (permalink)

I'm a gay robot.
Red vs Blue has released Episode 13 for sponsors - and I can't tell you much about it without spoiling stuff. Caboose, however, has proved himself to be dumber than toast. After sitting on the counter for a week. (It'll be available to non-subscribers on Sunday. Please - don't send us mail on Monday, telling us we forgot to mention this episode...) (Louis Wu 16:02:40 UTC) (permalink)

iGames and Killtacular Classic - like PB and J
Back in mid-May, we mentioned a tournament called the Killtacular Classic, put together by CobaltNova. Well, it seems like that tourney has joined up with iGames to become the Halo: Killtacular Classic, iGames National Championships. Looks like you'll get another chance to call yourself 'national Halo champion'! (Plus, if you win, you go home with lots of cash.) Thanks to andy for the heads-up. Update: Oops... looks like it's not finalized, yet. We've yanked the links, and the dates... they'll go back when things are more stable. (Louis Wu 13:21:38 UTC) (permalink)

IGN looks at graphics
IGN continues their Halo PC coverage with an article about Halo Graphics. (It's available to all, not just Insiders.) It includes a five-question interview with Randy Pitchford about the visuals. (They say 4, but there are 5. Weird.) Interesting tidbit - "I tend to run in 1600x1200, but the game can go higher." That's definitely new - at E3, 1600x1200 was max, and the game ran in slideshow mode at that res. Nice! Thanks to Infininja for noticing. (More Halo PC content coming tomorrow, they say.) (Louis Wu 04:15:24 UTC) (permalink)

HJP intro trailer preview thingy
Dinky writes that HaloJuggaloProductions has put up a new trailer for the HJP Intro Video (hey, I just write what I'm told) - WMP7 format, 6.8 mb. Go grab it on his site. (Louis Wu 04:04:09 UTC) (permalink)

Today on Wall Street
Xbox sales and marketshare are growing, according to Microsoft's "chief Xbox officer" Robbie Bach (quoted in this Reuters news article). Yeah, well, he would say that, it's one of the things he's paid to do. However, there was one interesting bit at the end:

"Bach said Microsoft's focus now is on more-lucrative game sales. The heavily anticipated "Halo 2" is expected next spring, and a sequel to the successful "Project Gotham Racing" is set for this fall."

Lime popsicles at 2:30 am
The ongoing Making of the E3 Demo series continues at Bungie.net with The Artists. A great discussion with Marcus Lehto, Dave Dunn, Shiek Wang, John Butkus and Nathan Walpole... read it and learn cool things! (Louis Wu 01:26:54 UTC) (permalink)

News July 17 2003

Looks like we're not the only ones here...
Halogamers has put up Episode one of its Sidewinder Saga. 2:39 long, in QuickTime format, it's available in two resolutions: 640x480 (23.5 mb) and 320x240 (7.2 mb). Nice filming! The story's off to a rollicking start. (Louis Wu 19:07:38 UTC) (permalink)

Paper for your digital wall
Six desktop images in the queue today, now cleared out and placed in the Wallpaper section. See what captures your fancy. (Louis Wu 18:29:26 UTC) (permalink)

IGN explains those movies
More content from IGN - the movies posted last night (that went up with an article on Halo PC Sound) now have an Insider article to go with 'em, explaining what they're showing. 3 pages of explaining, even. (Well, they're short pages.) The movies, which were only available in a large (640x480) size last night, can now be grabbed in either 640x480 or 320x240. Thanks to ;@PTUR3 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:01:58 UTC) (permalink)

Cool pictures
Pretty interesting collection of Miscellaneous Art for you today, from a kneeling MC (that would work wonderfully as a desktop image, even though it was explicitly submitted to the Misc Art section) to an oil painting of the Chief, to the DOA girls playing Halo... go look at all of 'em. (Louis Wu 17:29:18 UTC) (permalink)

Red vs Who?
It's not that usual for us to release two movies back-to-back... and it's certainly unusual for a movie to be released ahead of its spot in the queue, but I'm leaving soon, and this one's not very big. Team Sexy (whom you might remember from their 'Hall of the Sidewinder King' piece) has whipped up 'Red vs Who', a pretty funny (and quite short) look at grudge matches. 1:32, QuickTime 5 format, 6.8 mb. Grab a copy today! (Louis Wu 15:11:23 UTC) (permalink)

Requiem for Halo: new movie
Athol Productions has put together an artistic look at Halo 2; snippets of existing movies, interspersed with stills, all nicely composited. Nice soundtrack, too. 'Requiem for Halo' is available in both QuickTime 5 (19.6 mb) and WMP 9 (21.4 mb) formats. It's 4:55 long, and has a screensize of 320x240. Take a look! (Louis Wu 12:33:46 UTC) (permalink)

Text droppings
Didn't get to posting Fan Fiction yesterday, so there are 13 stories for you today:

• Remnants of Reach: Prologue, by Shinai Purugganan
• Unexpected Surprises Part 6, by JediKnight114 (James)
• The Furious Hatred: Through the Eyes of an Elite, by MadJackal
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 4, by Agent Shade
• Landing on Dracon, by The Scribe
• And so it begins... (Halo 2: Chapter 8), by Shadowrunner
• A World Apart Ch. 1, by Dark Spartan
• A Final Shot - Part 1, by James
• A day in the life of Master Chief...., by That guy over there who smiles just a biiiit to wide....
• Used, Abused, and Blown to Smithereens: The tale of a Covenant Grunt - Chapter One, by Ultimate Grunt
• Honore, by Gunnery Sergeant
• Oblivion Chapter 4: Welcome to Mars, by Reclaimer
• Chapter 3: Behind Enemy Lines, by Nightblade

Read away... (Louis Wu 12:21:31 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC Sound - yeah, baby!
IGN continues to pour out the Halo PC goodness - today they focus on sound. Good questions, and lots of vids. Streaming lo-res vids for everybody, hi-res downloadables for Insiders. (There's even footage of the flamethrower.) Go get your fill! Thanks to Dan Chosich for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:00:45 UTC) (permalink)

My men are NOT the enemy.
Thirty new dialogue snippets for the Dialogue Databank, including a bunch of Monitor sayings and some pretty rare Sgt. Stacker quotes. (Before anyone gets on my case, there are some that are pretty similar to existing quotes - but they differ in small but substantial ways.) Thanks to Captain Spark and c0ld vengeance for this lot. (Louis Wu 02:24:20 UTC) (permalink)

News July 16 2003

FTC mirror list continues to grow
Lion pointed out that the FTC movies were mirrored on his Truth and Reconciliation site, so we decided there were enough mirrors to actually create an FTC Mirror list. Any future additions will be added to this list. (There are QuickTime versions available, if anyone needs them - but nobody's complained about the DivX versions, so I haven't posted them.) Update: One more - Bungie.de has them, too. These have got to be the most mirrored vids in a long time! (Thanks to andrew for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 14:24:14 UTC) (permalink)

Half Life Too.
Can you tell that today's One One Se7en was written soon after E3 this year? (Louis Wu 13:51:39 UTC) (permalink)

This one's at room temperature.
Another 25 snippets for the Dialogue Databank from BlackWolverine - and I've added some extra code to allow for more accurate display of found results. (Like, for example, just those results submitted by a single person...) Check these out - there are some great ones. Update: It just doesn't stop - another 11 from Captain Spark (including two great versions of a specifically-requested snippet). (Louis Wu 12:58:07 UTC) (permalink)

Closing the glitch door
Whoa. I almost missed this... it seems that Gearbox has fixed (or is fixing) many of the glitches folks have discovered in multiplayer Halo... but it's unclear to me how many of these will affect some of the more enjoyable exploits in the single-player game, as well. (I fully understand the need to close some of these holes for internet multiplay; I just worry that some of the best single-player tricksterism will be inaccessible on Halo PC.) The relevant thread on Gearbox's forum is here; thanks to CobaltNova (through Battleground: Halo) for the heads-up on this. (Louis Wu 04:22:02 UTC) (permalink)

Feelings... oh oh oh feelings
Mythica continues to crank out gigabytes for you folks... so what the heck, let's add to the load. This one's called Fight Until We Learn To Love, and it was created by LeadHead. It's gameplay mixed with cutscenes, set to pretty appropriate music, with some nice timing. 3 minutes long, 18.8 mb big, QuickTime format. Sample and enjoy. (Louis Wu 04:05:34 UTC) (permalink)

Last Man Standing
Dust and Echoes: Adult Detroit League is hosting a 2 vs 2 tournament in Plymouth, MI on July 26th. If you're in the area, you might just want to jump in! Cost is $20/team, winnings get split 50/50 between the winning team and the League fund. Check out the page for more details! (Louis Wu 03:57:10 UTC) (permalink)

Developer interview vid at Gamespot
Gamespot has posted a massive video interview with Gearbox's Randy Pitchford and Bungie's Michel Bastien for Complete members... 6 minutes of discussions about how Halo PC rocks. (I was amused by Bastien's comment that the new multiplayer maps 'leverage some of the environments in the single player maps' - Death Island takes huge chunks of Silent Cartographer lock, stock and barrel, from what I can see. This is definitely NOT a bad thing; that's a map that should have been multiplayer-capable from day one.) The discussion about mod support was extremely promising, as well. This puppy (along with last night's 5 multiplayer movies) might just be worth the $6 a one-month subscription to Complete costs! (Louis Wu 02:28:35 UTC) (permalink)

Contribute to the Halo PC Strategy Guide
Doug Radcliffe, the author of the upcoming Official Halo PC Strategy Guide, has returned to our forum, and this time, he's soliciting game tips from veteran gamers - so if you've got some good stuff... send it to him! (He prefers email, since he'll be checking it more often, but you can reply to this forum thread, as well.) Guidelines on what he's looking for, and how you'll be credited, can be found in the post. Help make this guide the best it can be! (Louis Wu 01:49:57 UTC) (permalink)

Nearing 400, now...
Seventeen more dialogue snippets for the Dialogue Databank, including the first batch of Crewmen lines. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 00:25:15 UTC) (permalink)

News July 15 2003

Halo PC preview at Gamespot - with new screenies
Gamespot has put up a Halo PC preview, with 11 new screens (heavy on the Banshees in multiplayer) - this game is looking mighty impressive! Go read the details. Thanks to KP on our forum, and an anonymous emailer for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 23:28:36 UTC) (permalink)

Two guys from Canada know stuff - ask 'em.
The Cananimators, the two Canadian animators on the Halo 2 dev team, have decided that they really don't have enough to do, so they've set up a new feature; Ask the Cananimators. It's a database where you can ask these guys whatever you want. (There are some rules at the bottom of the news article that will help you stay off the blacklist and improve the chances of your question being answered.) And whatever you do... don't ask 'em why they're not animating more. (Louis Wu 21:45:59 UTC) (permalink)

It's all about the words.
Eight stories for you in the Fan Fiction section today:

• Master Gunnery Sergeant Chapter 1, by Chief-117
• Thrill of the Hunt, by Gasmask
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 3, by Agent Shade
• New strength (Halo 2: Chapter 7), by Shadowrunner
• Oblivion Chapter 3, by Reclaimer
• Lament of Innocence, by Nike
• The Fallen: Chapter 3 Section 3 The Fallen Arise, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen: Halo 2 Chapter 3 Section 4, by Hikaru-119

Is it just me, or is overall quality improving? (Louis Wu 19:13:09 UTC) (permalink)

And the snippets keep coming in.
There are ANOTHER 10 entries in the Dialogue Databank - the good news is, these are all relatively unique and hard to hear... the bad news is, since it's the second DD update today, there's no easy way to show you just these 10. You'll have to comb through the 60+ entries for the day to find 'em... sorry about that. (A good way to get familiar with what's there, though.) (Louis Wu 18:14:42 UTC) (permalink)

Can't Wait
Another film for you - we haven't seen this style in quite some time, but I felt it was pretty well done. It's called 'Can't Wait', and it's an adrenaline pumper for Halo 2. Made up of stills and clips from existing movies, it's cut together pretty nicely. (It fills its small niche pretty full, though, so please - don't send us more like this.) 11 mb, QuickTime format. Created by Yokanabster. (Louis Wu 15:56:51 UTC) (permalink)

New screenies at IGN
IGN has posted 11 new Halo PC screens (mostly multiplayer) - they're only 800x600, but they're still beautiful. (Nobody over there has Dave Candland's setup skills, though...) They're available to everyone - check 'em out! Thanks to strato99l for the first heads-up. Update: There's an article that goes with these, available to all. Thanks to Infininja for noticing. (Louis Wu 14:21:40 UTC) (permalink)

Yet more movie mirrors
More mirrors: Blade, of Ice Team, has mirrored the three FTC vids (already mirrored by Mythica a couple of days ago and That Weasel more recently):

• FTC Vid 1
• FTC Vid 2
• FTC Vid 3

If you need descriptions, follow the Mythica mirror link for more info. Remember, these are in .avi format, DivX5-encoded. New mirrors rock - they mean we can continue adding new files to Mythica. (Another movie coming soon, in fact.) We'll put up a regular mirror page for these pretty soon, since there are quite a lot now. (Louis Wu 14:17:51 UTC) (permalink)

Sidewinder Saga Intro available
Halogamers has put up the character intro for their Sidewinder Saga series - go visit their movies section. It's in two flavors (640x480 QT, 14 mb and 320x240 QT, 4 mb), so both broadband and dialup folks should be able to see this. As described on their front page, Sidewinder Saga is filled with guys that are quite different from those you'd find in the Red vs Blue world... they KNOW how to play the game. Episode one isn't too far off; go check the Intro Episode now for a taste! (Louis Wu 13:44:57 UTC) (permalink)

More new Halo PC footage - this time at IGN
Not to be outdone, IGN has put up a Halo PC preview as well. It's not 5 small clips - it's one mongo one, and it's only available to insiders. It comes in two flavors (400x300 QT, 84 mb and 320x240 QT, 55 mb), and it's 5:29 long. It's not all multiplayer footage - it's about half solo play, with a voiceover explaining why you're gonna want this puppy. (There are spoilers for those still keeping track.) The gameplay itself is great to see... but the info in the voiceover is also really, really nice. (Minimum specs for PC Halo as of now: 733-800 MHz PIII and a GeForce2. Definitely easily attainable - though don't expect to see the cool pixelshading effects he was pointing out if you run it on the minimum box.) They recorded this themselves, today - so the footage is totally different from what Gamespot is offering. Thanks to Infininja for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:41:03 UTC) (permalink)

Movie News
More Winning Isn't Everything news: The mirror that Blade put up earlier has been yanked (because of a directory name change) - it should be back up by tomorrow. Newly online is a copy at That Weasel Television (who points out that he's also got the three FTC vids we posted a little bit ago). You win some, you lose some. Update:Much more quickly than expected, the new links for Blade's mirrors are live again: In Too Deep and Winning Isn't Everything. (Links have been changed in yesterday's news item, as well, to avoid confusion.) (Louis Wu 02:08:59 UTC) (permalink)

Editor for Bungie.net needed
Another new job opening at Bungie... this time it's Editor for Bungie.net. (Man, if they weren't in Washington...) Can you write? Do you have a passion for Bungie games? There might be a place for you! (Thanks to SketchFactor for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 01:12:10 UTC) (permalink)

WIE gets slashdotted, BitTorrent to the rescue
DOH! Probably pays to actually have your email client running - Slashdot posted a note about (among other things) Winning isn't Everything, but luckily, included a BitTorrent mirror for it, so Mythica didn't get hammered. if you haven't downloaded WIE yet, and you'd rather use BitTorrent, head on over to GameTab and grab a copy! (Louis Wu 00:53:59 UTC) (permalink)

It grows, and grows...
The Dialogue Databank is up over 350 snippets - we've already got stuff I've never heard in-game. (Have you heard Sarge saying this?) Browse away! (I'm beginning to realize that '5000 snippets' counts some things 6 or 7 times - both Sergeants and all the marines (plus, in some cases, the crewmen) have their own variations. We're not collecting all variations (mostly because it would be really hard to keep track), so we won't come near the 5000 mark, even if we DO keep on the current pace. Just something to keep in mind. For those who just want the new stuff, today's uploads are here. (Louis Wu 00:07:55 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo PC movies - for paying customers
Gamespot has put up 5 new Halo PC clips - but all are behind the Gamespot Complete wall. If you don't pay, you don't play. (I no longer have a Gamespot Complete membership, so I can't even describe them to you.) Thanks to strato99l for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 00:00:03 UTC) (permalink)

News July 14 2003

Now it's official - 3 million sold
Folks have bandied about the '3 million sold' figure for Halo for the last couple of months... but today, Microsoft and Bungie have announced officially that that number has been reached. From the official press release:

Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios today announced that the critically acclaimed "Halo: Combat Evolved" for Xbox has sold over three million copies worldwide. "Great to see that Halo continues to be a success on Xbox," said Bungie studio manager Pete Parsons, "and later this summer we will unleash Halo for the PC with online multiplayer capabilities featuring new maps, weapons and vehicles, plus the ability for fans to create mods." Bungie is currently hard at work on the highly anticipated sequel, Halo 2, which will come to Xbox in 2004.

This is like the gun I used in 'nam.
Six months ago, Mike Miller put together a film called 'In Too Deep'. It rocked. Well, he's back - the new one's called 'Winning isn't Everything', and it rocks, too. 19.2 mb of QuickTime goodness - it's just over 4 and a half minutes long, and it's filled with a combination of tricks (most of which have been documented right here on this site), cool sequences, and fantastic audio choices. Timing (probably the most critical feature of a Halo vid) is spot-on... and there are some sequences that simply have to be seen to be believed. (Check out the Elite Wraith driver kill that starts around 1:07.) If you're looking to make a Halo video, and you want to figure out what works... watch this. 20 mb is big... so any mirror offers will be greatly appreciated. Update: Blade, who's in the process of building Team Ice, a Halo/Starcraft gaming website (with updates coming soon), has agreed to mirror BOTH of Mike Miller's movies - you can grab In Too Deep and Winning isn't Everything off his site. Thanks, Blade! (Louis Wu 16:49:33 UTC) (permalink)

Chili con carnage? I don't think so.
Ross Mills has begun a contest - design a Halo menu, win a cool Halo poster. Rules (and they're somewhat intricate) can be found in this post. You've got two weeks. (Louis Wu 15:58:26 UTC) (permalink)

Weapons Respawn Times - Complete
The Weapons Respawn chart, begun almost a year ago, has now been completed - thanks to Annihil8or for the help! If you ever needed to know how long it would be until that Shotgun appeared again... this is the page to see. (Louis Wu 07:19:42 UTC) (permalink)

Just Do It.
MC tries out his new capabilities in today's One One Se7en. I'm thinkin' he's not enjoying himself very much. (Louis Wu 06:47:58 UTC) (permalink)

They just keep talking, and talking...
The Dialogue Databank has swelled to over 300 snippets (with more coming in every day) - if you have recording equipment, grab your own! You can get all of today's additions here. (Louis Wu 06:44:24 UTC) (permalink)

Character Battles
GameFaqs is running a one-day poll; Master Chief vs Felix (from Golden Sun). Go vote. (Louis Wu 06:41:31 UTC) (permalink)

Pics (5)
A week ago, Chris Bryan submitted a photograph of a gun he's built - pretty amazing stuff. We've recently received two MORE photos from him - so we've tossed together a small page for this project. Now THAT'S a Halo fanatic. (Louis Wu 06:03:07 UTC) (permalink)

Pics (4)
There's quite a lot of good stuff in the Miscellaneous Art section today... but I've got to draw your attention to the final image of the group, entitled Melee Madness. It's simply stunning. (This is not to say the rest isn't worth seeing - it's a pretty eclectic mix today. Grab it all!) (Louis Wu 05:35:11 UTC) (permalink)

Pics (3)
Another (very large) banner has been submitted to our Banners section - sure looks a lot like the one underneath it, though there doesn't seem to be any relation between the submitters... (Louis Wu 05:06:04 UTC) (permalink)

Pics (2)
A couple of logo enhancements for you, as well - check the Logos page. (Louis Wu 04:55:23 UTC) (permalink)

Pics (1)
Clearing out the Desktop queue from the weekend - five new images for you. Check the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 04:47:16 UTC) (permalink)

Stories
The weekend's Fan Fiction, posted early on a Monday morning:

• Cortana's journey (Halo 2: Chapter 6), by Shadowrunner
• A John Before Halo: Part 2, by J-117
• The Maiden Fight: Reality Strikes A Stone Mind, by pj-NYkr90
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part Five, Masterchief's Man Hunt, by Ronald Maszk
• Chapter 2: Ancient Artifacts, by Nightblade
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 2, by Agent Shade
• True Purpose: The Finale, by Frensa Geran
• Halo: The Aftermath pt. 2/5, by Matthew Buzas
• Battlefield, by harley
• Shadow Spartans, Chapter 3: Interrogation and Assault, by Agent Shade and Arinoth Koby
• The Long Ride Home 13: Home At Last, by Joshua Elias Barreto (Infernal)

Just a reminder; this is a Halo site - we only accept Halo fan fiction. Thanks! (Louis Wu 04:25:37 UTC) (permalink)

News July 13 2003

Send In The Oddballs
Yet ANOTHER movie at XboxOttawa - this one's not an FTC film, but instead a fun Oddball match on Blood Gulch. The Matrix-like effect at the end is generating some interest these days - it was discussed yesterday in this forum thread (and that thread references this one, from a few months ago). Useful for folks making movies, certainly... Send in the Oddballs is 8.9 mb, in DivX 5 format. (Louis Wu 22:46:38 UTC) (permalink)

Those backwards Elites
Several people have written to us about the new Elite sound included in the Bungie Dialog Archive - some have gone so far as to attempt to reverse and filter the snippet. Bottom line - it conforms to the standard rules that xbill and others discovered about ALL Halo: CE elitespeak; it's the Sarge, with the pitch lowered and the sound reversed. This particular clip, when reversed, says clearly "Like I don't have enough on my mind!" (There's been no pitch change here; my audio editing software is unhappy that I changed disks, and I'll need to contact the company about re-serializing tomorrow.) A rather appropriate clip, given the trigger (Killed by friendly fire)! Update:Okay, for those who care, here's a pitch-adjusted version, as well (27K). (Louis Wu 22:05:18 UTC) (permalink)

You want movies? We got movies.
We didn't release any movies yesterday because I was out of town... but here are a few more from the queue. These have all been released on their own already - but bandwidth might have been tight, or you might have chosen not to download them because we weren't hosting them. (That may sound silly to some of you... but one side effect of our Movie Posting Guidelines is that if we choose not to host a movie, some visitors choose to conserve their bandwidth and pass on the movie altogether.) Anyway, here you go:

• 300 Meter Flag Throw - SleekShadow has taken the trick shown in Maverick's recent CTF 2 movie and applied it on the Blue side of Blood Gulch - for a total distance of 300 meters (half again as far as the throw Maverick showed with the red flag). Original details are here. 6.6 mb, QT5.
• Sidewinder Saga - series trailer. Original description is here. 5.8 mb, QT5.
• FTC Episodes 1,2,and 3 - Fire Team Charlie has put out three very different (but all very funny) vids; we're mirroring them. (The originals are here. Video 1 was first described here, Video 2 here, and Video 3 here. Mac users will need to run these through DivX Doctor II to be able to hear them properly.
  • FTC Video 1 (DivX 5, 7.0 mb)
  • FTC Video 2 (DivX 5, 4.8 mb)
  • FTC Video 3 (DivX 5, 12.4 mb)

Hmm... let's see, that's 36.6 mb of videos - but luckily, some of you already have these. Grab the ones you don't! (Please, for the sake of our bandwidth, actually CHECK to see if you have these; don't waste Mythica's freely-given bandwidth if you don't need the files... it would be terrible if the resource were yanked because folks were too lazy to conserve.) Coming tomorrow - new content (that is, not seen before on other sites). (Louis Wu 19:00:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Tourney in Chicago
Short notice... but we just heard about it. Game On Entertainment is hosting a Halo tournament (21 and older) in Chicago, this Monday, July 14, at 6:30 pm. Prizes are not listed yet - but entrance is free. Take a look! (Louis Wu 18:46:34 UTC) (permalink)

Red vs Blue Episode 12, again
Red vs Blue Episode 12 is now available to the publc. Normally, this doesn't warrant a separate news post (we announce the RvB movies when they hit the Sponsor pages)... but in this case, there's some additional info which might be of use to some of you. First, the archive of existing episodes has been pulled offline until traffic drops, so that they can serve Ep12. They're guessing Monday or Tuesday for its return. Second, in addition to standard HTTP and Bit Torrent download links, they also now have FilePlanet links - the options continue to increase. (Louis Wu 17:24:36 UTC) (permalink)

Home again - it was definitely big enough
Just got home from Brian Josselyn's Are You Big enough lanfest - here's a shot (68K) of some of the folks present, set against the backdrop of the largest screen we used. (No, we didn't play on this surface - there was a real screen that had been stored by the time this picture was taken.) Twelve hours of hi-def Halo goodness - and even though a bunch of the players won't actually be home for a few more hours, it was absolutely, positively worth the drive. More soon, I hope. For now, bed. (Louis Wu 05:07:43 UTC) (permalink)

News July 12 2003

HBO Hiatus
As i write this, it's 4:50 am, local time, and in just over an hour, a 2-car caravan filled with 8 psychos - er, Halo players - will head north from here for the Are You Big Enough lanfest in East Bumfu - er, Andover, Massachusetts. There probably won't be too many site updates today, unless Count Zero manages to dig his way out from under that mountain of Jack Daniels bottles he built last night. (Louis Wu 08:50:43 UTC) (permalink)

Sounds, sounds, and more sounds
Well, we might not have access to Marty O'Donnell's vast snippet archive... but Captain Spark is doing his best to keep up. 14 new submissions, based on some creative torturing, can be found in our Dialogue Databank today. (Louis Wu 08:47:59 UTC) (permalink)

Saturday Morning Reading
11 Fan Fiction bits for you today:

• Project: Shadow Spartan, Prologue, by Agent Shade
• Return of the Chief: Chapter 1: Lab Experiments, by Nightblade
• Escape from Marakesh, by The Scribe
• Battle for the Colonies Part One: Alpha Comus 8, by Hunter_Killer
• True Purpose(14), by Frensa Geran
• Oblivion Chapter 2, by Reclaimer
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 1, by Agent Shade
• pt2-Injustice-Halo2, by Spartan Construct-117
• The Last Hope For Outpost Bravo: Part 2, by Spartan5000
• The Maiden Fight:The Mouth of Hell, by pj-NYkr90
• A John Before Halo:Part 1 (Changed for the better), by J-117

Go get 'em! (Louis Wu 08:16:59 UTC) (permalink)

Are you surprised?
IGN has a realtively new feature where readers can rate the game they're reading about. Yesterday, they posted the top 10 rated Xbox games, as decided by their readers... and Halo is number 1. Thanks to Hank for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 07:45:46 UTC) (permalink)

Aural Overload
Massive updates at Bungie.net today. (Yeah, yeah, you all know about it already - that's what happens when I'm away from the keyboard for 6 hours on a Friday afternoon.) Lessee if I can get all of it into one post:

• Part III of the Making of E3 demo article has gone up; Sketchfactor interviewed Marty O'Donnell and Jay Weinstein about the cool sounds you hear in the demo. Awesome behind-the-scenes info... must-read. (Fantabulous artwork, too.)
• A new Halo Voice Dialog Archive has come online. Because they know we'll beat 'em into the ground with quantity, they cheated and added a bunch of clips you can't even TRIGGER in the game. (Just kidding - it's all good. Awesome stuff, and in a few days, when they're not looking, we'll add these to our Dialogue Databank.)
• Halo 2 voice outtakes; things that never, ever had a chance of making it into a game, but are fall-down funny...
• The Halo manual, in PDF format, has been added to the FAQ/Info section. (Hehe - yah, it's been available at xbox.com since November 2001... but you know Bungie.)

Rockin' stuff. Go grab it all. (Well, maybe not the manual.) (Louis Wu 02:10:29 UTC) (permalink)

News July 11 2003

Yo Spartan...
The continued adventures of a MC Puff(y) on One One Se7en today... that Sarge, man, he's cold. (Louis Wu 19:50:30 UTC) (permalink)

Preorder Halo PC - get cool stuff
Wow. Looks like if you preorder Halo PC at Gamestop, you get a mini Blue Master Chief action figure, free. We're not usually big on preorders... but this one seems like a pretty good deal. Thanks to Jonah for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 19:41:50 UTC) (permalink)

Could you put that in a memo?
Red vs Blue have put up Episode 12 for sponsors - and man, this one is nicely done. Filmmaking is topnotch, and plot twists abound. There's a new server online, and it's working considerably better than the old one (though it's not clear if it will be available to non-paying visitors) - but if you've ponied up at least $5, go get it right now! (It'll be available to everyone else on Sunday, probably.) (Louis Wu 19:16:49 UTC) (permalink)

FTC puts up another winner
FTC, of Xbox Ottawa, is rapidly making a name for themselves in the Halo moviemaking world. Their first and second movies were both critical successes - and they've just released Number 3: When in doubt, take a ghost and jump out. It might take a couple of watchings to get the whole storyline, and the sound at the end leaves a bit to be desired (background noise interferes heavily with dialogue)... but this one had several laugh-out-loud moments, and top-notch filming quality. Check it out! Divx 5 format, 12.3 mb. We're dropping it in the Mythica queue, so if they run out of bandwidth again, you'll be able to grab it from us in the not-too-distant future. (Louis Wu 18:51:41 UTC) (permalink)

Timing Adjustments
Annihil8or sent in a few adjustments for the Weapons Respawn list - always good to have folks double-checking. (Louis Wu 10:37:18 UTC) (permalink)

What IS Plan B, anyway?
12 new snippets for the Dialogue Databank, thanks to Captain Spark. We're up to 220. I still haven't found time to re-record the Loony Toons signoff. (Louis Wu 10:29:20 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespot says Look! Us too!
Continuing the trend of posting 3-month-old screenshots, Gamespot put up 12 new pics yesterday, as well. They've all been seen before - but some of the Prophet variants they put up are larger than any alternatives posted to date. Worth a look, if you're an avid collector. Ross Mills was the first to notice on our forum. (Louis Wu 09:51:43 UTC) (permalink)

US Soldiers relax with Halo
Looks like a bunch of US servicemen stationed in Iraq organized a Halo tournament over the Fourth of July weekend... not a bad way to spend it! TeamXbox has the details (and a nice pic). Thanks to Caligula Caesar for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 03:11:55 UTC) (permalink)

Longest - in Counter-Strike
Dylan Velasquez writes to tell us of a recreation he's made of the Halo map Longest for the Half-Life engine (for use in Counter-Strike) - check out this preview (105K). Lookin' good! (Louis Wu 03:08:06 UTC) (permalink)

So you thought you were finished.
Nine Fan Fiction stories for you today.

• A Marine Named Peters: Move Out!, by GLADIATRRR3000
• The first of Johns woes, by jellis186
• On A Pale Horse: The Esteem, by Silent Hunter
• Forsaken Forefathers part IX: Defection, by AlphaBravo343 and Havok
• A Marine Named Peters: Fly Away Home, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Its Just One of Those Days (prologue: 2), by Elfster
• The Fall of Fate: Escape, by 'Nosolee
• The Virus Part 5, by monitor101
• Buried Treasure(3), by Frensa Geran

Read, blast you! (Louis Wu 02:59:54 UTC) (permalink)

Stress-testing Brian's Hardware
Okay, so Mythica's been back online now for 44 hours. In that time, it's served 260 GB of movies to you greedy bastards. What are you trying to do... kill it? Well, fine. Chew on THIS. It's a 12.4 mb QuickTime version of a movie released by MaverickJ back in late June (originally in both WMP9 and MPEG formats). All three versions are still available on the Project Spartan Forum (and the WMP9 version can be grabbed from their Video page, no registration required) - this is just a mirror for folks having trouble over there. We're also mirroring the QuickTime version (7.9 mb) of the followup first-person version, showing how the tricks were done. (All three flavors of the followup vid can be found at the Project Spartan Forum, as well - and there's also a FAQ written up by MaverickJ; again, you'll need to register to see these.) Both of these movies show some pretty cool Capture the Flag tricks. Stay tuned over the next couple of days for still more movies in need of bandwidth, and new, never-before-seen movies. Just don't kill the goose before you get that golden egg. (Louis Wu 02:48:54 UTC) (permalink)

News July 10 2003

The Fat Lady has Sung
Wow. That didn't take very long. About 20 hours ago, I posted a note about a contest sponsored by gwdp....to, involving getting in to the separated room on Chill Out. Almost 2 hours ago, Macegac posted a movie (with BOLL's hosting help) showing the completion of that challenge - and this is something that folks on our forum have tried to do, on and off, for almost a year. Guess sometimes it just takes cold hard cash to motivate the hardcore. Nicely done, all around! (Louis Wu 21:39:49 UTC) (permalink)

The second Mountain Dew parody
Devin Olsen has created a Mountain Dew parody - you can find it on Lion's Truth and Reconciliation site. It's just under a minute long, and weighs in at 7.7 mb. If you haven't seen the original it's based on, don't fret - it's included. QuickTime format. (Louis Wu 16:45:44 UTC) (permalink)

The Dialogue Databank continues to grow
Captain Spark has turned in another 39 snippets for the Dialogue Databank. Along with the bits submitted by Jamirus99, Gholsbane, and Wraith yesterday, these bring the total up to almost 210 samples. There are some good ones in there! (If you choose to record - do your best to get clean samples, without a lot of background noise. Makes it easier to hear what's being said!) (Louis Wu 14:49:04 UTC) (permalink)

And Still more new screens at ToTheGame
ToTheGame has ALSO put up 'new' screenshots; again, these are pre-E3, and most have been seen before. However, the first shot (a Brute model) and the last (a nice shot of the new Warthog) are really new. Check it out! Thanks to Eclarap, of Halo-Game, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:43:19 UTC) (permalink)

More Halo 2 screens at TXB
Team Xbox has put up 7 'new' screens from Halo 2 - actually, they're digital versions of some images posted in the June issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. (Three have appeared online, in a slightly smaller form, already - check our Screenshots section for details.) Thanks to CuBaNo for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 09:27:03 UTC) (permalink)

Movies, movies, and more movies
gwdp....to went on a movie-posting spree last night; he was kind enough to organize all the links in one post. They're all pretty small (none of them are over 7.5 mb) and show a variety of things. Descriptions can be found in the thread that post resides in, if the movie's not self-explanatory enough for you. (Louis Wu 09:07:19 UTC) (permalink)

Salmon vs Teal, episode 2
In the continuing process of clearing out the Movie queue, we've got a 14.7 mb QuickTime for you of the second episode of Salmon vs Teal, the first Red vs Blue parody. It's 4:3 long, and ranges from hilarious to totally incomprehensible. Take a look! (This was released on the RvB forums almost 3 weeks ago - but it wasn't until now that we could help with hosting.) If all goes well, there'll be another movie released later today. (Louis Wu 08:26:10 UTC) (permalink)

Now THERE'S a kill.
Darksage was playing some Rockets-only Race with a bud, who tags him first, but then Darksage gets revenge with a pretty amazing shot. It's 22 seconds long - the first 15 seconds are only there to prove that the shot wasn't set up ahead of time. It's only 1.4 mb - check this out for a grin. (Louis Wu 07:45:42 UTC) (permalink)

Halo50k2 - coming soon!
dolbex reminds everyone that early registration for Halo50K2 ends this Saturday; if you register now, you save $100 on the team's fees. If you're gonna be there, think of all the beer you can buy with $100! (Louis Wu 02:19:51 UTC) (permalink)

RvB/Bungie Shwag for the taking
Do you consider yourself a Halo god? Could you stand to be $20 richer (in shwag)? guy who doesn't post...too often has a challenge for you - get a live Master Chief into the separated room, behind the glass, in Chill Out, and he'll pay you for it. Read the details in this forum post. (Louis Wu 01:49:49 UTC) (permalink)

News July 9 2003

MC Goes XL.
Hehe - you knew this would happen, didn't you? Today's One One Se7en shows pretty clearly why the MC needs to get his sorry self back out on the battlefield... pronto. I blame Jason. (Louis Wu 16:51:31 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Movie Madness
Well, Mythica's up to 18.2 Mbit/sec (35 gigs in the past 11 hours), so what the heck - here's another movie for you. This one hasn't actually been released anywhere, yet. It's called 'Hall of the Sidewinder King', and it tells the story of a red soldier (well, pink) getting the flag. Set nicely to Edward Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King, this one tells a story we've all lived through. It's in QT5 format, and weighs in at about 8MB for a 2:23 long film. Team Sexy gets the creation credits. (Louis Wu 16:42:14 UTC) (permalink)

KS/MO Halo Cash
Sam writes to point out a Halo tournament in the Kansas City area, at the National Video Gaming League on August 2. Top prize is $500. More information can be found at Team Viper's Bungie.net chapter. (Louis Wu 16:36:14 UTC) (permalink)

Customer service - to the next level
Do you find yourself using our forum without actually figuring out whether your time would be better spent checking for the answer in FAQs first? c0ld vengeance is working on a new site feature that might help. (Louis Wu 16:32:15 UTC) (permalink)

Evolution Gaming crunches the numbers
Derek Tick points out a link to Evolution Gaming's Summer Leagues, a Milwaukee, WI Halo-playing group. They list full stats for each member of each 3-man team (there are 8 of them) - it's not clear what all the acronyms are, but it's for certain that they're serious about ranking their players. Check it out! (Louis Wu 12:34:46 UTC) (permalink)

Snowed under
Man, only 15 new stories in the Fan Fiction section today. You guys are slacking!

• Battlefield 2552: Back to Hell, by John Morris
• Oblivion chapter 1, by Reclaimer
• On A Red Horse: Chapter 3, by Diamond Dog
• Its Just One of Those Days (Prologue: 1), by Elfster
• Battle for Norah: Part Three, by Sterfrye36
• The Fall of the Chief, by The Scribe
• Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 3, by BlackValkyire
• pt1.1-Injustice-Halo2, by Spartan Construct-117
• pt1.2-Injustice-Halo2, by Spartan Construct-117
• Halo From the Flood's Point of View: The Harboring Mist (Part 1), by Simpsons Rule
• Halo from the Flood's Point of View: The Harboring Mist (Part 2), by Simpsons Rule
• Spartans in NYC Chapter 4, by Chief-117
• True Purpose(13), by Frensa Geran
• Halo: Journey to Earth: Part 1: Arrival, by Zeta
• Buried Treasure(2), by Frensa Geran

Just kidding. Read 'em before someone prints them out and hits you over the head with the resulting ream of paper. Don't worry - there'll be more tomorrow, you can hit 'em back. (Louis Wu 12:27:25 UTC) (permalink)

Weapons Respawn Times, revisited
Devin Olsen and Goatrope submitted three new maps to the Weapons Respawn Times chart in our Miscellaneous section. This leaves only Boarding Action and Chiron in the completely untested column. Nice going, guys! (Louis Wu 12:22:57 UTC) (permalink)

That's what I'm talkin' about!
Captain Spark turned in another 25 dialogue snippets - we've added them to the Dialogue Databank. I've also added some sorting functions - you can see new material by simply sorting the full page by date, reversed. Update: Jamirus99 has added 4 new Marines quotes - they're listed at the bottom here. Update 2: Two more, from Ghôlsbane (extracted from Randy Glass movies, actually). Again, sort the Marines section by submitter. In order to keep this particular news item from taking over the page, this is the last 'update' we'll add; if there are more submissions today, I'll put up a status update tomorrow. (Louis Wu 11:57:01 UTC) (permalink)

Mythica's back!
Woohoo! Mythica.org, which has been down since June 19 (that's just short of three weeks ago, for you movie-starved folks), is back up and running! We're going to be attempting to clear the rather substantial movie backlog over the next week or so... we'll start with the longest-waiting movies. First up: Too Many Vehicles, a film put together by Darksage and released on June 25 on a friend's server. You can read about it here. If you've already grabbed it, be patient - we'll release another one in the next few hours. Whoa, I feel the chest loosening! (Louis Wu 11:27:30 UTC) (permalink)

News July 8 2003

Drawing for Glory (and money)
The Bungie Jobs page has gotten another entry - they're looking for a Contract Graphic Artist/Illustrator to help with the upcoming Bungie.net facelift. There are definitely some HBO community members with the skills for this one... Thanks to SketchFactor for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 22:08:57 UTC) (permalink)

Seventh Heaven... figures
After a 4 month hiatus, the Bungie Comics page gets an update, thanks to mehve... I'm not sure I'd want to be in that bar after that last frame. (Louis Wu 22:05:50 UTC) (permalink)

The Official Unofficial Halo Drinking Game
Thanks to dolbex and BOLL, who together got the forum back to 4BitterGuys.com, and a Halo drinking game (complete with artwork). I wonder if the RvB guys ever played this? (Louis Wu 16:25:59 UTC) (permalink)

Dialogue Databank Opened
Captain Spark recently submitted over 125 dialogue samples, in mp3 format. We've decided to use these to start a dialogue databank. Check out what's already there... and if you've got the equipment (and the interest), follow the instructions on the page for sending in NEW snippets! Suggestions are always welcome. Update: Wraith has submitted three new Grunt snippets - the collection grows! (Louis Wu 14:57:24 UTC) (permalink)

How much do YOU know about Halo?
Wolfy writes to point out that the Halo Quiz he's been working on is now online at Sector 7. Try your skill! (Louis Wu 13:05:49 UTC) (permalink)

Desktop Madness
Eight new desktops for you today - two of which come in multiple sizes. Apologies for not getting Shishka's Bungie Day entry posted before the end of Bungie Day (7.7). Check 'em all out in the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 08:51:54 UTC) (permalink)

News July 7 2003

Apocalypse: Halo, part 1
Dark Helmet has started a new Halo movie series. It's called Apocalypse: Halo, and the first installment can be downloaded from FilePlanet. It's in WMP9 format (which means we don't know anything more about it than what DH has said in this forum post - we can't watch it here), and weighs in at 18.8 mb. Take a look! (Louis Wu 21:55:06 UTC) (permalink)

Shootin', Tex.
Yesterday, we nearly forgot to post the second Sunday strip of One One Se7en. We're not going to make that mistake today. Monday's strip looks at some potential problems with the new dual SMGs the Master Chief will have access to in Halo 2. (Louis Wu 20:32:38 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie.net - better because of you
SketchFactor has posted a request for feedback over on Bungie.net - they're trying to find out what you like best (and least) about the Bungie.net services, and what new content you'd like to see. Feeback is required before July 14 - you've got a week! Read the whole article, then send them your well-thought-out responses. (Louis Wu 20:29:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC Interview at HomeLan Fed
HomeLan Federation spoke with Michel Bastien, producer (on the Bungie side) for Halo PC, and Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox, about progress in the development process. There's even a tiny tidbit about the Mac version. Overall, a good read - it'll lay out clearly what hurdles the teams faced, and how they overcame them. Thanks to DeAdLy_cOoKiE for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:34:20 UTC) (permalink)

Pictures, part 1
Five submissions today for the Miscellaneous Art section. I like the charcoal MC quite a lot. Update: oops, forgot a drawing of the MC by Shishka, posted this morning in honor of Bungie day. Update 2: Man, forgetfulness must be in the air. c0ld vengeance submitted an image a while back that we never added... (Louis Wu 14:43:47 UTC) (permalink)

Oddball Juggling
Anyone who's played Oddball knows that if you release the ball when another player is standing in front of you, they will involuntarily pick it up. So what happens when there are a LOT of balls... and they're all between a pair of players? Devin Olsen asked the question on our forum - and BOLL made a short film showing Oddball Juggling. (If his link goes down, you can find another copy right here. The local version is only 2.7 mb.) (Louis Wu 14:05:19 UTC) (permalink)

Blam Hotel
Merecatfish has put up a Flash 'Hotel' - apparently, you can send him a photo of your room (your bedroom, I guess) with Bungie stuff visible in it, and he'll add it to a 'room' of the hotel. It's in celebration of Bungie Day. The goal seems to be a collection of photographs of Bungie schwag-filled rooms. Warning: really, really slow site; the 121k Flash file took over 2 minutes to load, and the spinning 'you must wait' interim animation made me nauseous. (Louis Wu 11:54:33 UTC) (permalink)

PoA writeup... still coming
Dang. Well, I'd expected to get a full writeup of the Pillar of Art gallery showing and the subsequent lanfest up and posted today... but it WAS the end of a holiday weekend. Stuff will be coming... but for those who missed it, Miguel Chavez posted pictures almost in real time yesterday, over at Bungie Sightings: here's the first batch, here's the second. There are also a number of forum threads discussing the activities... more soon, though mostly I'm gonna steal Mig's pics, since he was using the camera far more than I was. Update: Elan Sleazbagano wrote up a short summary for the Team Overkill site. (Louis Wu 02:17:45 UTC) (permalink)

Feel the Halo Love
Hehe - check out the Xbox Boys, a bunch of guys that get together to play Halo. They've even got stats. (Louis Wu 02:13:50 UTC) (permalink)

Words, words, words
Long weekend, no posting - so you've got 14 Fan Fiction pieces to get through:

• Operation Sunlight Part 3: Black, by Gruntkiller
• Divinity (Halo 2: Chapter 5), by Shadowrunner
• A World Apart Prologue, by Dark Spartan
• Favor the Bold (chapter 1), by Loki_25
• Last Hope For Outpost Bravo: Part 1, by Spartan5000
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Five, by LordofDestruction
• Halo Zero 2 /p4/ An Old Friend, by nicholas
• Halo Zero /p5/ Interrogating Private Sanders, by nicholas
• Creation: part 2, by Zack Hodges
• Chapter 2, by BlackValkyire
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Despite What The Map Says: Chapter 7, by S7N
• A John Before Halo: Prelude and Chapter 1, by J-117
• Halo- A Comedy, by Lanerd
• On A Pale Horse: Enough Dead Heroes, by Silent Hunter

Go to it! (Louis Wu 02:10:47 UTC) (permalink)

Gamelords - Halo fun in San Diego
Ben Torrence writes to tell us about GameLords, a new console gaming center in San Diego - they're hosting a Halo tournament on August 2, 2003. Entry fee is $5, game is solo Slayer to 25 kills. Top 16 players get t-shirts, top 8 get free time on their equipment, and the winner will get a Steel Battalion set. Gameplay is all on 65" Mitsubishi HDTVs. Check 'em out for more info - and stop by on the 2nd! (Louis Wu 02:03:50 UTC) (permalink)

Screenshots DB updated
Thanks to Ross Mills and oddworld18, for reminding us that the Underground Online exclusive Halo PC screenshots we mentioned a couple of weeks ago had not been added to the Screenshots database yet. Oversight rectified. (Louis Wu 01:31:47 UTC) (permalink)

News July 6 2003

Dinner With Lara.
Gah. Stuntmutt went to the effort of creating a second Sunday Strip for One One Se7en... and I almost forgot to post it while it was still Sunday! I think I finally understand something that's been bugging me for years... (Louis Wu 21:55:19 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: First Strike cover art
Very nice find by Eclarap, of Halo-Game... the entry in Random House's database for Halo: First Strike (the next Halo novel, again by Eric Nylund) has been updated with what looks to be real cover art. (On the off chance it's NOT real, a local copy has been added here.) Nice! (Louis Wu 14:00:29 UTC) (permalink)

Seems at little bit... drastic, don't you think?
In what would appear to be some kind of cruel plot to raise our readers' expectations, Finn has updated the Story page yet again! But, never fear, I'm sure we'll be back to our slacker ways in no time. :-) (mnemesis 00:01:04 UTC) (permalink)

News July 5 2003

A day of fine artwork
In less than 5 hours, the Chelsea Studio Gallery, at 515 W. 19th St. in New York City, will open its doors for the Pillar of Art gallery showing. Come by and see the submitted artwork, displayed in this lovely little gallery - the public is welcome until probably around 6 pm. (After that point, the artwork will come down, tables will go up, and a LANfest will be taking place - unfortunately, attendance for this segment is NOT open to the public, simply for space reasons.) We'll also have examples of the signed Lorraine McLees artwork that will be given to all entrants, as well as the little red MC (96k jpeg) that will be sent to Geoff Chang for his Battle Rifle entry. If you're in the New York area, swing by and say hello! (All of HBO's staff except for the Story Page boys will be there, as well, so updates will be rather sparse for the rest of the day.) Pictures will be taken, of course, and a Gallery showing page will be added to the Pillar of Art site at some point in the near future. Update: Miguel Chavez sent along a few shots of the setup work yesterday - they've been put up at the PoA site. More to come! (Louis Wu 11:16:42 UTC) (permalink)

In Memoriam
From November 2000 through January 2002, HBO received a number of Fan Fiction submissions from Chris Cox. Much of what he wrote was submitted before our Comments section was online... but what DID get commented on was generally liked. I'd always wondered why the submissions stopped, with no word from Chris - and now I know. A couple of days ago, we received mail from Steve Cox, Chris' father... who stumbled on his son's stories accidentally. Chris chose to take his own life on March 21, 2002, less than 2 months after his last submission here. As his father points out, Chris will live on for family and loved ones through pictures, memories, and the work he's created - like these stories. (There's a memorial page for him at the family's website.) (Louis Wu 11:00:11 UTC) (permalink)

Wisconsin Carnage
Dave Writz writes to point out a Halogamers.com-sponsored tournament, in Rice Lake, WI, in late August. There's not that much info at the website yet (give it a couple of days), but there is a flyer that will be posted around the area; looks like they're shooting for 32 4-man teams. Check it out! (Louis Wu 10:46:15 UTC) (permalink)

(Mortal) Combat Evolved.
Seeing as the Fourth was a holiday, yesterday's One One Se7en didn't get announced until right now - still, technically, at the home of the poster (if not via the timesystem in use at this website) the Fourth... If you have to ask what Babality is, you didn't get the title of this strip, either. At least the POOF is relevant for today (or yesterday, as the case may be). (Louis Wu 02:36:43 UTC) (permalink)

The hardest-working man in the Story page business
In a daring daylight raid on the Halo Story Page, mnemesis, perhaps one of the hardest working people in the b.org family, provides still more meat for your eat- er, reading pleasure. Check it out! (mnemesis 00:05:53 UTC) (permalink)

News July 4 2003

Independence
Today is the Fourth of July, a pretty major holiday here in the US. My family and I are declaring independence from the wired world - we're going to spend the day on the beach. We recommend you do the same - even if you live elsewhere in the world! (Louis Wu 14:28:33 UTC) (permalink)

And it SHOOTS, too!
Wow. A couple of months late for our Pillar of Art contest (gallery showing tomorrow!)... but it's a killer piece of work. Chris Bryan has submitted a picture of a rifle he built; solid wood body, laser sight scope, co2 powered pellet gun - it's even the same scale as the actual 3d gun model! He's now off to work on the suit... (Louis Wu 14:25:17 UTC) (permalink)

Writings
7 Fan Fiction stories for you today:

• Buried Treasure, by Frensa Geran
• Chapter 3: The Battle Of Cairo, by Nightblade
• Chapter 4: Weapons of Mass Destruction, by Nightblade
• Covenant Invasion Part 1 (Changed), by Hunter_Killer & Elfster
• Foresaken Forefathers Part VII- Knowledge Gained is Knowledge Earned, by Havok and AlphaBravo343
• HALO 2: Earth's Reclaimer (part eins), by Brian vms
• On A Pale Horse: Silent Assasin, by Silent Hunter

Seems like the Series glitches are worked out... fingers crossed! (Louis Wu 13:53:22 UTC) (permalink)

Red vs Blue - text, and movies, sort of
It's Red vs Blue night... sort of. Over on Bungie.net, there's an interview with the team - and it's a great read. If you're curious about how some of the shots were pulled off, or how much sleep Buzby's gotten in the past couple of months... you'll enjoy this. Then, because tomorrow is a holiday, and the guys don't wanna be around this weekend, they've posted this week's episode (which is actually the special episode they made for E3 this year, not a normal story episode) on their site 1-3 days early (depending on what kind of visitor you are). Unfortunately... their main movie server seems to have died, which means you can't actually get it now. :( All we can say is... keep trying, it's a pretty funny episode. Update: BitTorrent works. See their site for details. (Louis Wu 02:15:08 UTC) (permalink)

News July 3 2003

Action Figures - in July?
Matt Ogonowski asked JoyRide directly about the availability of the Halo Action Figures... and the response he got from thier customer service department read, in part:

They will begin release in mid-July.

A bit sooner than Bungie's forecasting... but Bungie's always been a bit conservative. Nice to know! (Louis Wu 18:13:27 UTC) (permalink)

Mythica Update
Bad news... but sometimes knowing is better than not knowing. Due to circumstances beyond EVERYONE's control, Mythica.org, the site that provides the bulk of our movie hosting bandwidth, will remain offline for at least another week. We're doing the best we can... but sometimes, there's just someone out to get you. As soon as we know anything more definite, we'll be sure to pass it along. What this means to you, the site viewer: many movies, hosted EXCLUSIVELY at mythica, are unreachable for the next while. (They WILL become available again at some point, one way or another.) For movie creators - the queue for incoming movies is already considerable (due to the fact that Mythica's been offline already for two weeks), and it's only going to get longer. If you have your own hosting, we're happy to put up a news item about your movie... but if you need hosting, you're just going to have to wait; best-case scenario is maybe 3 weeks at this point. (That is - a movie coming in today would have to wait 3 weeks before we could post it, if Mythica comes back up next week.) If the outage continues for longer than a week, obviously the queue length will grow. I wish I had a better answer for you all... but bandwidth is expensive, and Mythica was providing, on average, maybe 50 GB/day for us. Unless someone else steps up to the plate and is willing to host movies... we're stuck. :( (Louis Wu 16:50:11 UTC) (permalink)

New Wallpaper for All
Desktop submissions were pretty varied in the past couple of days... you'll find 15 screens (plus a couple of variations) in our Wallpaper section. See what suits your fancy! (Louis Wu 13:32:24 UTC) (permalink)

Stories under duress
Well, it turns out I made some mistakes in the new Fan Fiction submission code - but only one user was badly burned. I think I've fixed things - but in the meantime, here are 11 pieces submitted in the past day or so.

• A Marine Named Peters: Saving Private Johnson, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Halo:After the Ring, the War Goes on, by Master of Halo
• The Road to Combat Zone 4, by The Scribe
• On A Pale Horse: New Mombasa, by Silent Hunter
• Special Ops: Captured, by Nightblade
• The Fall of Fate: Freedom(8), by 'Nosolee
• Covenant Invasion! Part Seven, by Hunter_Killer
• Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 1, by BlackValkyire
• Special Ops Chapter 2: The Rescue, by Nightblade
• All Roads Lead To Sol...Despite What The Map Says: Chapter 6, by S7N
• Shadow Spartans, Chapter Two: The Story, by Agent Shade and Arinoth Koby

Again - if you run into trouble, PLEASE send in a bug report; I can't fix what I don't know about. Thanks! (Louis Wu 08:53:51 UTC) (permalink)

Curse me, the flag is gone!
You might remember a small movie from a group called FTC - it showed some pretty classy shooting. Well, they've whipped up another small movie, The Tunnel Trap (it's 4.7 mb, just under 2 minutes long, in DivX format) that's simply hilarious. Take a look - and feel free to comment in this forum thread. (Louis Wu 02:20:46 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC Update - from Bungie
For those frustrated by the quietness of the Halo PC teams (multiple Randy Pitchford interviews notwithstanding), swing on by Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site for a major update. (It can also be found here, in a more permanent location, in case you're reading this down the road.) Michel Bastien talks about where their time has been spent, and what's coming... and offers a custom screenshot (you'll have to post your request on Bungie's Underground forum). Go read it - now! (Louis Wu 01:45:11 UTC) (permalink)

Still more easter eggs to find!
A couple of days ago, SouthPaw posted a note on our forum, asking about an odd shape on the top of the pistol. Shishka grabbed a pic - and identified it as a Japanese '7'. (BOLL later got a better shot.) Looked like an egg... and lo and behold, that's exactly what it is. Check this post by SketchFactor for the history behind its creation. Nice going, folks! (Louis Wu 01:35:37 UTC) (permalink)

News July 2 2003

Grunts first - we're smaller!
Wraith writes that Halo: Shadow Ops is up and running over at Forerunners.org. The hook? Check out the Sounds page, with 45 genuine Grunt WAV files, recorded in-game. (7mb download.) Nice! (Louis Wu 22:23:02 UTC) (permalink)

CPL, Halo PC, Dallas, December - mucho cash
The CPL Winter 2003 Championships has been announced - Dallas, TX, December 16-20, 2003. Three tournaments, including a $30,000 Halo PC (team) tournament. Nice! (Thanks to kappa, who noticed it on Cached.net.) (Louis Wu 22:06:55 UTC) (permalink)

whoa - mnemesis works?
Marathon again... and some other good stuff. Check out the Halo Story Page. Yeah, baby. (Louis Wu 21:55:54 UTC) (permalink)

Maka 'Mockeree
One One Se7en looks at Covenant naming standards. Um... yeah. (Louis Wu 17:28:12 UTC) (permalink)

Toy Story
SketchFactor has posted a note to Bungie.net - if you're interested in pre-ordering Halo Action Figures, you can do so now at the Bungie Store. Oooh... I want that Warthog. (Louis Wu 17:14:50 UTC) (permalink)

Changes to the Fan Fiction section again
The Fan Fiction authors have just become guinea pigs again. I've made some changes in how the Series name gets chosen; it'll be much, much harder to forget to add it (or to add the wrong one) now - you'll have to work at it. :) Of course, it hasn't been rigorously tested yet - that's where the authors come in. So submit your stories, and if you notice a major problem with the posted version (as compared to what you originally submitted), please, let us know. It should go without saying that you should keep a local copy of your story, in case of trouble during the submitting process - but I'm going to say it anyway, since many of you don't seem to bother. Hopefully, this will solve most of the problems you've run into - if you find new ones, please tell me; I can't fix what I don't know about. Thanks! (Thanks go out to John Myers, for suggesting - in a very useful way - the direction in which I could change the series picker.) (Louis Wu 15:26:47 UTC) (permalink)

Gettin' some air... alone
NazdaH has put up another driver-jumping movie (this one FOCUSES on the driver jumps) - lots of places, lots of heights. Again - as we mentioned a couple of days ago, this is a single-person trick; all you need is a warthog, and something to bounce off of. (Basically, you're translating your forward momentum you gain from the hog's movement to vertical height by bouncing off an obstacle.) Very cool stuff, even though the video quality is a bit off. WMV7 format, 4.7 mb. Take a look! (Louis Wu 14:29:19 UTC) (permalink)

News July 1 2003

Wow.
A surprisingly deep collection of artwork today has been added to the Miscellaneous art section, including a nice faked Halo2 shot, an interesting take on Cortana, and a pair of simply gorgeous comic-style MCs from ZZoMBiE13 (I'd love to have these last two hanging on my wall!). Check 'em all out! (Louis Wu 21:46:45 UTC) (permalink)

Reading Material
Nine Fan Fiction bits for you today:

• True Purpose(12), by Frensa Geran
• The Fallen : Halo 2 Chapter 3, Section 1, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen : Halo 2, Chapter 3, Section 2, by hikaru-119
• Redemption, and Victory Part Two, by Hunter_Killer
• Destination: Marakesh, by The Scribe
• Spartans in NYC Chapter 3, by Chief-117
• The Fall of Fate: Destiny (Part 7), by 'Nosolee
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 8: End Game, by Agent Shade
• Creation: Part 1, by Zack Hodges

Work on the new interface goes slowly - adding the bits I wanted to add is turning out to be tougher than I expected. Coming... (Louis Wu 21:46:08 UTC) (permalink)

18 points of articulation
mehve has updated the Bungie community on the Halo Action Figures - they're on their way out of the factory right now! They should be hitting the Bungie Store (and other outlets) by early August. Go read about the details! Update: mehve points out that the key points of this news bit have been added to the Halo Action Figures FAQ. (Louis Wu 20:44:22 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Hide and Seek - resurrected!
c0ld vengeance and BOLL have put together another Halo Hide and Seek; identify where, in Halo, you'll find the images posted. There are currently 12 images, in 4 separate posts (to keep from totally overloading dial-up visitors)... in the half-hour since the contest went live, already 2 of the 12 images have been identified! Jump in now for your chance to win! (Louis Wu 18:04:28 UTC) (permalink)

Randy Pitchford Talks to Telefragged
Telefragged has put up an interview with Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox, about Halo PC. Much of the info is already out there, but there are some new tidbits. For example, there will be a 'Classic' mode in multiplayer that leaves things exactly as they are in the Xbox version, for the purists. (No banshees in Blood Gulch for you folks!) He's also more optimistic about Coop - though it might not be there at launch. There's a teaser about Halo PC League play... and some more details about how the multiplayer is set up. For the doomsayers among you, Randy has this:

Halo for PC will come sometime in late summer.

Go check the whole thing out! Thanks to Ramius for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:08:19 UTC) (permalink)

Second Story Men
Dave Writz of Halogamers.com has found a new place to use the ghost jumping trick on Sidewinder - it's a pretty fast in-and-out when you're headed for a flag capture! Take a look; 6.4 mb in MPEG2 format. (If anyone has real trouble with the format, let us know - I'm sure Dave would be willing to offer a different flavor.) (Louis Wu 00:09:20 UTC) (permalink)

July 2003

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