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July 2009

July 2009 Archived News

News July 31 2009

It's not the heat... wait, no, it's the heat
Whoa - looks like Bungie's going underground today... so the Weekly Update has been posted pretty early. They were so light on new content that they recycled an old soapbox article written by CJ Cowan almost exactly 6 years ago (you can see it in its original format over at Archive.org, if you're so inclined). There's also a reminder of the ViDoc that dropped yesterday... and a passel of new screens, in nice hi-res format. And some warnings about bans and such. And a very cool screenshot (BOLL, are you still reading these? You should check this out). You can, as always, read this in our Weekly Update Archive (which, unlike Bungie's version, actually validates). (Louis Wu 17:00:28 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Comic Update
The only comic update we've got for you today comes from TTL Demag0gue, who's posted Reclaimer 206 (Foreordination) - looks like Intuitive Portent might be unhappy with the Reclaimer. (Louis Wu 13:52:55 UTC) (permalink)

Child's Play
Yahoo has a feature up about young people making money from videogames - the first few entries are all Halo pros. Thanks, evildoctorwill. (Louis Wu 13:47:49 UTC) (permalink)

Game with Fame: Method Man, Redman
Another Game With Fame feature is highlighted on Xbox.com - Method Man & Redman are gonna be playing some Halo 3 with hip-hop fans on August 7. Swing by for full details, and see how you can participate! (Louis Wu 13:41:21 UTC) (permalink)

What the... Indy said it was THIS one!
It's Friday - which means it's time for another round of Friday Caption Fun over at Hawty McBloggy's! Swing by and check out submissions for last week's image... and come up with your own for a new pic! (Louis Wu 13:37:50 UTC) (permalink)

Owning What You Do.
Yesterday afternoon's entry in the recurring 'Breaking In' series at Bungie.net focuses on Michael Williams - part of the Server Engineering team. (Stats, FileShare, stuff like that. You know - the stuff you use every day.) See how he got the gig - and why he's kept it. Good readin'! (Louis Wu 13:31:18 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Just two new stories for you this week in the Fan Fiction section... go read 'em! (Louis Wu 13:27:38 UTC) (permalink)

News July 30 2009

The Promise of Reach
Domino Theory ran across some interesting information at SKOAR! - there's a small tidbit about the advanced graphics tech being developed for Halo: Reach.

Ever since the news of a new engine being employed by Bungie there has been huge speculation on its nature and platform of content that it will incorporate Steve Theodore (Technical Director) at Bungie has spent the last two years on "Researching new graphics tech and helping to evangelize it within the team." Two years spent around building new technology should finally make the game usher within the high definition revolution.

Sounds promising! (Louis Wu 21:17:59 UTC) (permalink)

BungLog Razzmatazz
Lots of new content for you this afternoon at Bungie.net:

• Apparently, the Zoxin It Up! podcast didn't happen as it was supposed to last Friday; it's been rescheduled for tomorrow, Friday, July 31 at 9 pm EST.
• Machinicast.com released their first annual Machinima Awards show - we mentioned back in early June, when they were looking for community votes. Go see who won!
• Joeski and friends played a bunch of custom games last Friday - and filmed some of the more memorable moments. Swing by to watch Fustoms Friday 7/24.
• Phurion's back with a new montage - it's called 'BOOM', and it features some very nicely-timed (though at times really hard-to-watch) gameplay. Go check out his boom boom, in HD.
• The ViDoc released this morning, Desperate Measures, can now be found in the ODST Field Guide - streaming versions of the video are now available, along with the downloadable ones.
• Homeboyd903 created a pretty cool map he calls Backdraft - and urk was there to get the lowdown on the map and how it plays, just for you.

Whew - you leave for a few hours, and BAM said the lady! (Louis Wu 19:56:25 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Gophers Summer Forge Contest
The Halo 3 Gophers are running a Summer Forge Contest - build a fun 'mini game' map, win kudos on their site. More details in the forum post. (Louis Wu 13:40:45 UTC) (permalink)

The Chronicles of Lyle: Chapter 1 - Team Players
Yesterday, Chapter 1 of The Chronicles of Lyle ('Team Players') went live on YouTube - and you should watch it, because it's pretty funny. I heard about it on the Bungie Blog, so don't forget to thank urk. (Louis Wu 13:38:17 UTC) (permalink)

We got some good news... and some bad news.
Halo Wars news today - a new Dev Blog (Leader Powers Part Three) is live... and "an Xbox LIVE technical issue" is the cause of a complete wipe of all Halo Wars Xbox LIVE Leaderboards yesterday (thanks, SonofMacPhisto). Bad news for folks who were playing for recognition... (Louis Wu 13:37:43 UTC) (permalink)

Desperate Measures
Itching for new information about the Halo 3: ODST campaign? Bungie's got your back - a new ViDoc went live last night, while most of us slept. 3:34 long, it tells the story of the ODST team you'll be playing when the game drops on September 22. Told from the viewpoint of Gunnery Sergeant Eddie Buck, you're introduced to the full team - and to their mission in this game. Get tactical, marines! (Video is available in a variety of sizes and resolutions... from 180p all the way up to 720p, in both QuickTime and WMP9.) (Louis Wu 10:09:50 UTC) (permalink)

News July 29 2009

Halo-Galaxy
glowsoft stopped in to let us know about Halo-Galaxy, a German space-strategy game that's recently been translated to English. Go try it out! (Louis Wu 21:28:53 UTC) (permalink)

Top 10 Halo 3 Amazing Kills: Episode 36
Anoj is back with Episode 36 of his Top 10 Halo 3 Series - this one is 'Amazing Kills'. Some really fun kills in there... go watch. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:27:43 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Favorites: Epic Pic, Week 2
It's Wednesday, so it's time for Bungie to update it's Favorites page - this time around, it's the second batch of files from Epic Pic. Go see what they've got for you! (Louis Wu 19:10:04 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Comic Roundup
We held off a bit, hoping something would show up later in the day... but nope. All we got for you in the Halo Comics universe is a pair of 2501 eps (80 on Monday, 81 on Tuesday), and today's installment of ODS Steve (thanks, Hawty). Seems like lots of the regulars are taking time off... (Louis Wu 16:50:19 UTC) (permalink)

Out With a Whimper: Sage Demo
It's a tad later than expected, but the latest demo for Halo: Out With a Whimper (a fan-created 2D sidescroller) is now online at therir website. It's a 35 mb download, and lots of information about the game can be found in the Navigation menu on that page. Go grab a copy! (First heads-up goes to mrbilly93, though he was a couple of days early...) (Louis Wu 15:44:31 UTC) (permalink)

Tied The O7AH
Cozmo23 let us know about Tied The O7AH, a new website he's working on with TTL Bunny. It will be dedicated to the comic series TTLvsO7AH, as well as Halo and community news, and whatever else comes up. Fun artwork! (Louis Wu 15:30:58 UTC) (permalink)

Brian Jarrard talks to GT
Gametrailers filmed an interview with Bungie's Brian Jarrard at Comic-Con last week - he summarizes pretty much everything that's known about ODST at this point, but there's some nice gameplay footage happening next to him while he talks. Worth a watch. Thanks, Kibbles. (Louis Wu 14:29:26 UTC) (permalink)

bit-tech previews ODST
Another ODST preview, this time at bit-tech.net. Add this one to the ones mentioned here, here, here, and here. (Louis Wu 14:29:02 UTC) (permalink)

Looking for the unsaid
VideoGamer.com focused on a couple of answers from Lars Bakken and Ryan Crosby last week in London to speculate about what might (or might not) be in the upcoming Halo 3: ODST. No details, so that I can leave spoiler tags off this newspost. Swing by and read, if you're interested. (Louis Wu 14:28:36 UTC) (permalink)

Clay rocks.
Hawty McBloggy has pics of new clay figures from Antithesis - four new super-cool and adorable Halo creatures. MAN he's good at those! (Louis Wu 14:27:28 UTC) (permalink)

News July 28 2009

Fate - bringer of death, giver of life
There's been quite a bit of discussion over the past week or so about Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and the Halo projects that seem to have withered without really becoming publicly dead. There's a new article up on Kotaku right now in which Jackson talks specifically about how the death of the Halo movie was, in fact, the birth of District 9, the Jackson-produced, Blomkamp-directed film opening in a couple of weeks. It's an interesting read. Thanks, Vash10. (Louis Wu 20:07:30 UTC) (permalink)

Halo CE Chronicles: Ring of Life, Part 1
Dennis Powers let us know that the first episode of a 6-part series, The Ring of Life, is now available - it tells the story of Commander Harrington, Andrea the AI, and the company of marines stationed on the ring that has played a primary role in previous seasons of the Halo CE Chronicles. You can read about the series, or either stream or download this first episode. Releases will come once per week for the next six weeks. (Louis Wu 20:02:59 UTC) (permalink)

Silent Cartographer grabs another one
There's a new Average Joe up on Bungie.net - SniperStealth is a guy who's just like you, except that he's been written up on Bungie.net and you haven't. Go read. (Louis Wu 19:53:05 UTC) (permalink)

Story of my Life - rereleased
The Sec0nd E remade an old montage with HD clips, and re-released it - thanks to a mention on the Bungie Blog, you can go watch it today! (Louis Wu 16:35:00 UTC) (permalink)

Blue Skies
Koko98s (aka kokobear aka Jamie98s) is back with a new music video - it's set to Blue October's Blue Skies, and it's... very sad. But with some very cool cinematography. You can watch it on YouTube, or you can download a higher-res version from his website. (It's a Rapidshare link, so in the interest of keeping you from having to deal with the evil that is Rapidshare, we're hosting a copy, as well - WMP9 format, 30.5 mb.) Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 16:32:02 UTC) (permalink)

Animated Halo Cursors
Alien Emperor sent along a set of cursors - 10 animated, 5 static - for Windows. You can download the collection here (45k), and you can see a preview here (11k). (Louis Wu 16:04:38 UTC) (permalink)

Bakken and Crosby talk ODST to the Guardian
London's Guardian has another interview with Lars Bakken and Ryan Crosby - there's not a lot that hasn't come up in other interviews (one of the pitfalls of giving a dozen or two interviews in a very short period), but there ARE some nice tidbits - give it a read! (Louis Wu 12:37:03 UTC) (permalink)

Steel Bobblehead at Newbury Comics
mrbilly93 noticed a Steel Spartan Bobblehead (we mentioned some last year) - it's a Newbury Comics exclusive. $10 each... go grab one! (Louis Wu 12:36:17 UTC) (permalink)

MichiLAN - Halo 3 event in Michigan
CyReN stopped in with word of a Pre-Dallas (MLG) LAN on August 22nd at Unleashed Gaming in Canton, MI. $20 buys you access to 18 hours of gaming. More details in his post. (Louis Wu 12:35:10 UTC) (permalink)

News July 27 2009

RvB Recreation Chapter 6 - One New Message
Red vs Blue Recreation Chapter 6 is up for Sponsors right now - it'll be up for everyone else in about two and a half hours. If you haven't been paying attention to the various Red vs Blue series up until now, this episode will be really, really confusing. (Usually, that's not a problem, it's funny for everyone anyway - but in this case, story trumps comedy.) If you HAVE been following though... this one'll whet your appetite for the next one! (Louis Wu 23:27:48 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Chronicles Officially Dead
Still more info from Peter Jackson's camp - his manager, Ken Kamis, told the LA Times today that the Halo Chronicles project (announced at X06 almost three years ago) was killed back in January, as part of a series of Microsoft budget cuts. Ah, well. Thanks, LoneRanger 2.5. (Louis Wu 21:52:58 UTC) (permalink)

Marathon - The Forerunner Mix (Gamma)
AfroRyan noticed a new remix of Nick Singer's third Marathon Halo mix (we mentioned previous versions of this mix in February 2008 and August 2007). I like it quite a lot. Downloads (currently) available from 4 sources; if they dry up, we'll host it ourselves. (Louis Wu 21:39:40 UTC) (permalink)

More Halo Movie talk from Jackson and Blomkamp
A couple of days ago, we mentioned a conversation Peter Jackson had with Joystiq - looks like he also talked to IGN. They filmed theirs - and got some footage with Neill Blomkamp, too. Interesting tidbits about the Halo movie - did you know that Blomkamp actually worked for five months on the project before it was scrapped? Or that Universal and Fox are out of the picture at this point, and that the rights are back in Microsoft's hands? Hmm.... (Thanks, Kibbles.) (Louis Wu 21:28:24 UTC) (permalink)

Reach (Emerald Part 2)
Nabsuh has released Reach, Episode 2 of 4 of his Emerald machinima miniseries - lots of CGI space fighting. More info is on the AVCOM website - powerful stuff! Definitely worth watching. (Louis Wu 21:20:09 UTC) (permalink)

Summer Mythic Recon Challenge VII - Sierra 117
Tyrant's Summer Mythic Recon Challenge continues - this week (which is half over, sorry) the level to complete is Sierra 117. His Bungie.net post contains lots of info to help you compete - go read! (When the Sierra 117 page of his Mythic Walkthrough v2.0 is ready, we'll post again.) (Louis Wu 21:13:22 UTC) (permalink)

Free Mythic Maps, from PlanetXbox360
PlanetXbox360 is giving away three Mythic Map Pack codes - if you still need one, swing by and register on their forums, so you can post in the right thread! Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:10:29 UTC) (permalink)

Tripping Fantastic
This week's Tag and Release feature on Bungie.net is called 'Light' - and it shows what you can do with (um...) light. As OboeCrazy says, it can make you want to play. (Louis Wu 21:03:47 UTC) (permalink)

A Preview of Coming Attractions
If you're not sure about the whole Anime idea with respect to Halo, check out this monster post by Jordan117. He's gone to the trouble of finding decent examples of the work from each of the studios involved in the Halo Legends project - you can judge for yourself whether you think they can tell a story in the 'Halo' universe based on actual content, rather than speculation. Very nicely put together, lots of work. (Louis Wu 16:02:15 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3: ODST Case Mod
Nathaniel Hysong has created a Halo 3: ODST case mod for his Xbox 360, and documented the creation process. Swing by Facebook for details! (Louis Wu 16:01:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 ODST, through the eyes of a Frenchman
Futur Life visited the Bungie ODST preview in Paris last week, with staff from Halo.fr and Halo Destiny, and created a montage of the day. The music is a little hard to handle... but the video's fun. (Louis Wu 16:01:01 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Comic Roundup
A summary of Halo comics we've heard about since Friday:

• Hawty McBloggy noticed an episode of Letmelive4sho's Penguin Comics that references not only Halo 3: ODST... but ODS Steve.
• AfroRyan pointed out a new episode of Castle Vidcons that references Halo Legends.
• Bloogyo came by with word of Rat's Nest 22-5 and 22-6... and something else.

I'm sure there'll be more as soon as I post this. (Louis Wu 16:00:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 gets you cash (maybe)
Ars Technica has an article about World Gaming, and the ability they give you to bet cash on your Halo 3 skillz. Legally. (Other games too, but Halo's definitely up there.) (Louis Wu 15:55:14 UTC) (permalink)

Bringing back an old favorite
AfroRyan wants an online version of Halo 1 on Xbox Live Arcade. No, he's not talking about the Xbox Originals that's already there. Go read about it. (Louis Wu 15:54:51 UTC) (permalink)

The next step...
What's next for Bungie, after Halo: Reach? They're not talking yet, but according to Kotaku, they're close to signing a new IP deal with an unnamed publisher. Microsoft again? Someone new? I guess we'll find out soon! Thanks, GrimBrother One. (Louis Wu 15:54:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo on Linux - the Ultimate Guide
Rob Oplawar put together a guide to playing Halo CE on a Linux box - read it if you need your fix on Linux! Update: Rob wanted to make it clear that the guide was actually done by AdmiralBacon - he (Rob) was just the messenger. (Louis Wu 15:52:51 UTC) (permalink)

The ODST Preview Storm Continues
More ODST previews - CVG's got one (they already posted an interview with Bakken and Crosby, but this is an actual preview of Firefight), geek.com's got one (short, from impressions at Comic-Con), That Gaming Site's got one. (Louis Wu 15:52:12 UTC) (permalink)

Happy... Shishka Day?
Bryan Simon has declared today, July 27 (or maybe July 26, when the video was posted - I'm not sure) National Shishka Day, and made a video to celebrate. There are a few Halo-related things about the vid (there's a Legendary helmet, a Halo 3 screenshot, and a picture of my couch from a Halo LAN party), so I suppose this can be justified as 'Halo news'... Happy Day, Shishka! Update: oops - looks like this is unwanted. Sorry, Shishka. (Louis Wu 15:51:36 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Legends ComiCon Poster Art
Frankie stopped in yesterday with examples of some posters given away at Comic-Con - see what you missed! (They aren't for sale anywhere - Frank said he didn't even get to keep any for himself!) (Louis Wu 15:51:03 UTC) (permalink)

News July 26 2009

Retrograde Episode One
Silvac pointed us towards Retrograde Episode One - it's a Halo CE-based machinima about a solitary man suffering in lonliness. Interesting start! (Louis Wu 17:23:20 UTC) (permalink)

Legendary Helmet, Updated
PsH Bling continues modifications of his Legendary Helmet - it now has a bullet hole in a... bad place. (Louis Wu 17:22:57 UTC) (permalink)

Major's Minute - now on the web
I wasn't sure if this was legit to put on the web, but looks like someone else did it for me - the Major's Minute feature about Halo Legends on Inside Xbox (we mentioned it here) can now be watched on YouTube. (Louis Wu 17:22:31 UTC) (permalink)

News July 25 2009

Halo Legends Q and A, cleaned up
It looks like the Q&A kicked off by Frankie yesterday afternoon might be over; he was still answering questions this morning, but I haven't seen anything in the past several hours. I've compiled all of the actual questions that he answered in one place, to make it a little bit easier to read what's been said; if you're interested in how it all went, but are afraid to attack that hundred-plus-post thread (or maybe you just want to be sure you didn't miss anything), swing by and read the reformatted content! (Louis Wu 20:49:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Waypoint Details Emerge
Frank O'Connor talked to Kotaku about Halo Waypoint, the upcoming Halo portal on Xbox LIVE. Swing by to read some details of the service! Thanks, GrimBrother One. (Louis Wu 20:44:04 UTC) (permalink)

ODST Preview Cornucopia
More ODST previews, courtesy of the London showing:

I'm sure there'll be more. (Louis Wu 15:49:24 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie, MGS talk about ODST to VGChartz
Bungie's Lars Bakken and MGS's Ryan Crosby were in London last week, showing off Halo 3: ODST to journalists - and they sat down for an interview with VGChartz. There's discussion about what's new with ODST, why ODST is a full game, and a taste of what's coming (or not) in the future, both from Bungie (Bakken confirms that Reach is Bungie's last Halo game, period) and from MGS (Crosby confirms that the franchise will continue to broaden, but that shooters will always be a part of what's coming). Bad news warning - Crosby says in passing that the three additional Mythic Maps being released with ODST will be "maps you won't be able to get anywhere else." Either he's talking in absolute terms - and folks wanting to finish the 1750 Halo 3 Achievement points will be REQUIRED to buy ODST to do so... or he's saying that there'll be a time delay before these three maps will be available as DLC for folks who already own all the OTHER Halo 3 maps. When we know which one he meant, we'll be sure to tell you. Thanks to Ze Moose for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 15:39:11 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Legends - a nice overview
Gravemind noticed an article at IGN with an in-depth look at Halo Legends. It answers a lot of questions about the project - you should definitely read it before jumping into your favorite fan hangout and asking for a lot of info. (Louis Wu 15:21:00 UTC) (permalink)

Frags Away - a 2o2p Tourney with cash for you
Joel Albert let us know that 2old2play is hosting a Halo 3 tournament strictly for older gamers, with more than $1000 in cash and prizes up for grabs. This tourney will take place at their annual LAN, being held in Chicago from August 7-9. You have to be a member of 2old2play to participate, and the LAN will be raising money for Child's Play. Go read more about the LAN and the tournament on their website! (Louis Wu 15:19:19 UTC) (permalink)

No current plans for ODST DLC
It shouldn't come as a surprise to many people, but at the moment, Bungie has no plans for releasing DLC for Halo 3: ODST. This from Bungie's Lars Bakken, speaking to GamerZines in London. Thanks, 2900d4u. (Louis Wu 15:13:01 UTC) (permalink)

Peter Jackson might be done with Halo
Peter Jackson talked to Joystiq after a screening of District 9, the new Neill Blomkamp-directed movie that Jackson produced. The discussion was mostly about the Halo movie (and the Halo Chronicles project that Jackson was also involved with) - sounds like both projects are toast. (Frank O'Connor has said recently that "the Halo movie is pending development" - but if so, it no longer has Peter Jackson at the helm.) He DID say that District 9 would never have happened if not for Halo (and in fact also wouldn't have happened if the Halo movie had worked out with Blomkamp directing). Thanks to both maximumfear (via email) and RotaJota (on our forum). (Louis Wu 14:39:08 UTC) (permalink)

The Slumbering Beast Awakes!
When the idea of a Halo movie was being bandied about many moons ago we created the Halo Movie Cynics Database: a user-created list that let you propose the most outrageously cliche scene, motif, or piece of dialogue you'd hate to find in a Halo movie. Something that'd make you groan and hide your poor defenseless eyes! MC befriending a young rookie, only to watch him succumb to a horrible and senseless death, thereby enraging him to completely destroy the enemy and save Earth? Check! Sarge dropping some 80's urban slang as he eviscerates an Elite? "Yo! I axed you to step away from that m'f'ing turret!" Check! Cortana being granted her wish and turning into a real girl, thereby running away with John and living happily ever after? Check (and... vomit!)

Alas the Halo movie is no more, but now we have word of Halo: Legends. Seven(!) animated short movies being created by some of the top Anime studios around. Anime? Why yes, Anime. Ooh, don't think I didn't see some of you twitch right there! So as a way to let you vent out your creative snarky juices, we've resurrected the link to the cynics page here on the front page for you to fill anew with some Anime specific cliches... stuff you feel will distract from the glorious essence of a sublime Halo animated short. And what the heck is it with that shaking treasure chest graphic on the db's page? Hmmm... So head on over and read past submissions or contribute one of your own. We'll make sure only proper submissions make it into the DB. Have at it! (Ding 02:05:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Legends Q and A
He might be done (I'm a few hours late to the party), but Frankie kicked off a thread in our forum, agreeing to answer questions about Halo Legends (if he could). There's quite a bit of info already there, so even if he's finished adding new answers, it's still worth a read. (Louis Wu 00:57:05 UTC) (permalink)

Summin' Up Da Week
The Bungie Weekly Update tonight is very heavy in the picture department - shots from Comic-Con, shots of very cool fan-made armor sent to Bungie, shots of Shishka (okay, some of it could have been left out). There's also a recap of the 10-year-anniversary video released last week (this time around, you've got a link to a 720p version - I'd suggest you grab it), and a fun story about a celeb playing ODST. And there's lots of info about upcoming changes to Matchmaking playlists. Go give it a read! (Do I need to remind you that it's in our Weekly Update Archive, as well?) (Louis Wu 00:36:47 UTC) (permalink)

News July 24 2009

ODST, through IGN UK's eyes
IGN, too, was present at the UK showing of Halo 3: ODST; they've even got some new screens. (Thanks, Kibbles.) If there are more of these, we'll compile a single-post list. (Louis Wu 18:23:06 UTC) (permalink)

The Guardian checks out The Rookie
The Guardian (a UK mainstay) has posted a preliminary review of Halo 3: ODST, based on a hands-on play session provided by Bungie this week. (Same deal as E3, and other ODST sessions so far - a demo of the first level, played by a Bungie employee, followed by some Firefight.) Interesting impressions! (Louis Wu 18:12:00 UTC) (permalink)

urk's workin' hard to keep you occupied
Goodies for you today on the BungLog™:

• Forge Cafe is having a 'Sandcastle Contest' - build a sandcastle with Forge, win stuff. More details in their Contest post.
• The Zoxin It Up! LIVE Podcast will be recording (as the name suggests, live) at 9pm EST tonight. Swing by for the interview with GrifballHUB.com's Puptastrophe.
• Arbiter 617 put together a Warthog Montage - 7.5 minutes of hoggin'.
• Methadonebunyip created a Matchmaker's Waltz - pretty, pretty violence.

Go be entertained. (Louis Wu 17:31:34 UTC) (permalink)

Screenshot Spotlight, from maximumfear
maximumfear has started a 'Screenshot Spotlight' - looks like it's another sort of 'Tag and Release' feature, much like Bungie's, but picked by him. He's got two up right now - Star Wars and Films/Movies 1. (Louis Wu 17:23:40 UTC) (permalink)

Psst! Wanna buy a warthog?
2900d4u noticed a video by Kotaku's Brian Crecente, showing off the Avatar Marketplace on Xbox LIVE. Crecente bought the Halo Warthog, so you can see what you get for 320 MS Points. (Not much, it appears.) (Louis Wu 17:20:19 UTC) (permalink)

Customizing a Legendary Helmet
PsH Bling decided to make his Legendary Helmet a little more personalized; first her removed the plastic liner (so that it fit on his head), and then started in on the paint job (pic 1 | pic 2). He's thinking about adding LEDs soon. (Louis Wu 14:52:26 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Comic Roundup
Here are the Halo-related comics we've heard about in the last couple of days:

• The Catfish released 2501 Episode 79 yesterday - thanks, urk.
• We mentioned Part 1 of the finale for Chaos Theory on Wednesday - since then, Adam Susskind has released Part 2 (Horizon's Finale), Part 3 (Some Kind of Therapy), and today Part 4 (The End). The Finale is... final.

That's it! Update: Bloogyo jumped in a little late with Rat's Nest Episodes 22-1 through 22-4 (see his post for links). Update 2: Reclaimer is a bit late, too - but back in action. Go check out Episode 205 - Flawed Intuition. There might be a problem... (Louis Wu 14:46:18 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Five new pieces are now up in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 14:37:51 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Caption Fun, Round 56
Hawty McBloggy has not let Halo anime or new fan portals get in her way of bringing you fun pics to caption - it's Friday, so go caption! (Louis Wu 14:04:17 UTC) (permalink)

CE United 20 Questions - July
Willy stopped in to announce that CE United has interviewed Team Killjoy, the crew who won first place in Bryan Simon's song contest. (Louis Wu 14:03:40 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Matchmaking Bucket Changes
2900d4u noticed some news at the Halo Wars site - looks like they're changing up the Matchmaking buckets a bit. Swing by either his post or the HW front page for details. (Louis Wu 14:03:05 UTC) (permalink)

Blomkamp says he's Halo'd out.
For those hoping that Neill Blomkamp would use the upcoming District 9 as a springboard to relaunch his shelved Halo movie... sorry. /Film's David Chen caught up with Blomkamp at Comic-Con yesterday, and asked about the possibilities... Blomkamp's done with Halo. Go read the article for full details. Thanks, BARBARIC RAGE. (Louis Wu 13:06:22 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Legends, Waypoint revealed
A quick link roundup relating to yesterday's Halo panel discussion at the San Diego Comic-Con:

• The event was live-blogged by IGN and G4TV (thanks, 2900d4u)
• The trailer that showed on GTTV last night is now available online on GameTrailers (and elsewhere, of course, but since they're all stealing it from GT, I'm just linking to the original)
• There's Firefight play footage from the Microsoft booth at YouTube and GameVideos (thanks, Kibbles)
• NeoGAF's Voltron64 wrote up his experiences of the day
• If you log into Xbox LIVE, and visit the 'Inside Xbox' section, the current 'Major's Minute' feature has Major Nelson interviewing Frank O'Connor about both Halo Legends and Waypoint - a nice 60-second overview of the pair. (Thanks, Domino Theory.)

Our forum is chock-full of discussion about the Legends trailer, Waypoint, and the future of the Halo franchise. Funniest exchange of the night: Jayshum posted an image that summed up his (negative) feelings... and Frankie replied, Frank-style. Update: Gah, I totally forgot to include the multi-day coverage from Teabag Prevention's Jake108! Swing by and see what he has to offer. (Louis Wu 13:01:29 UTC) (permalink)

News July 23 2009

Rock and roll all night, party every day
Jon Weisnewski is a test lead at Bungie - and it seems he likes to break people. Go check out the latest 'Breaking In' article on Bungie.net to see how he got where he is, and what he does when he's NOT breaking people. (Louis Wu 22:33:27 UTC) (permalink)

IGN to LiveBlog SDCC Halo Panel
Looks like IGN is live-blogging the Halo panel at SDCC - in about two hours from the writing of this post. If you can't be there, this might be the next best thing. (Thanks, CaptainTony.) (Louis Wu 21:33:59 UTC) (permalink)

Charity Tournament details, and a shirt offer
JeSteR 343 stopped in with word of the tournament held last weekend for the family of Megan Maxwell - over $1000 was raised. They've got some t-shirts left over (he's got pics) - if you want one, you'd pay him for shipping (and whatever else you feel like donating), he'd send you one. He's trying to find out if there's enough interest to set this up. More details in the post! (Louis Wu 19:57:11 UTC) (permalink)

Halo T's, from a new source
Renier let us know that ShopEcko.com has new limited edition Halo t-shirts featuring Master Chief, UNSC Sniper, and more. They're not your typical mostly-empty T's - go take a look. (These are definitely 'limited edition' - grab 'em while the grabbing's good.) (Louis Wu 18:49:40 UTC) (permalink)

Theoretically Speaking
maximumfear let us know that he's compiled a list of theories relating to the Halo universe - and has posted them in one place for easy viewing. He's looking for others to add their own theories to the mix, and maybe a volunteer who'd be interested in doing some organizing. (Louis Wu 18:29:36 UTC) (permalink)

Community Cartographers - Benchmark
There's a new Community Cartographers spotlight up at Bungie.net - Mini Waz discusses Benchmark, a large symmetrical map great for a number of gametypes. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:20:14 UTC) (permalink)

Legends Trailer Air Details
Geoff Keighley let us know that the first trailer for Legends will air tonight on GTTV on Spike, at 12:30am. Set your TiVo! (Louis Wu 15:30:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Legends - Anime Shorts
The Los Angeles Times has a story this morning about the blending of the roles of Hollywood and the game industry - and it reveals some of the material to be announced at the San Diego Comic-Con later today:

Microsoft is producing seven short films titled "Halo Legends" in the anime style. Five production houses in Japan are handling the physical animation, but Microsoft's creative staff is approving major visual and storytelling decisions, O'Connor said.

You can swing by this LA Times blog post for more details on the project, and a couple of examples of the artwork involved. (The post also confirms that the rumored internal name of the studio, '343 Industries', is indeed accurate.) There's no word yet on when these videos will be shown... or where. Look for much more information to be released later today! (Looks like resplendentvole found this at Kotaku earlier this morning. Our forum seems to be cautiously optimistic, though there is definitely some hatred for anime.) Update: There's an official press release that contains quite a bit more info about the entire project - who's involved, how the distribution will happen, and more. There are also details about a new LIVE feature:

A preview of select "Halo Legends" episodes will first debut on Xbox LIVE, the largest gaming and entertainment network in the world, starting this fall through a new experience called Halo Waypoint. Launching in fall, Halo Waypoint will be a new destination for "Halo" fans on Xbox LIVE around the world. It will inform fans of the latest "Halo" news and activities, and grant access to content ranging from podcasts, trailers and screenshots, to exclusive video footage you won't find anywhere else. It also will provide a new challenge for "Halo" gamers with a career system and player rankings tied to both in-game and out-of-game accomplishments related to "Halo." In addition to the limited, early episode premieres, Halo Waypoint will debut several behind-the-scenes videos that chronicle the making of "Halo Legends."

Look for more info about Waypoint later today, as well! (Louis Wu 12:07:27 UTC) (permalink)

Dimension X, Season 3, Episode 1
CROSSFIRE stopped in with word of a new season of Dimension X, the machinima series from Blood Signature Films. (I'd never seen these before - but apparently the first season was almost 5 years ago.) The cinematography on this new material is quite good, and the story is intriguing. The three parts of Episode 1 are hefty downloads (700 mb for the lot), but you can stream them if the downloads are too much. (Louis Wu 12:06:23 UTC) (permalink)

ESPN/MLG Top Ten - July
Another Top 10 for you - this one the latest ESPN/MLG Top Ten (thanks again, urk). The top clips are (as usual) snipes and BR mastery... but there are plenty of other fun tidbits strewn throughout. Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:05:24 UTC) (permalink)

Top 10 Halo 3 Moments of Season 5: Episode 35
Anoj put together the top 10 clips from 'Season 5' (episodes 29 to 34) of his Top 10 Halo 3 Series - you can see if you agree with the compilation! Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 12:04:28 UTC) (permalink)

News July 22 2009

Community Spotlight - Epic Pic
There's a new Community Spotlight, complete with cool pics and more, over at Bungie.net - go read about Epic Pic, and see what sorts of Halo goodies they like in Bungie Favorites. (Louis Wu 22:12:22 UTC) (permalink)

Comic-Con Grifball figure available online
Not going to San Diego this week, but still want one of those oh-so-slick McFarlane Grifball figures? AlkalineProdigy noticed that ToysRUS is selling them online. Remember - they're very limited... buy soon if you want it! (Louis Wu 18:29:13 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Movie Mania
Lots of videos for you to watch, courtesy of the BungLog™:

• ChrisOfTheDead is back with Shenanigans 5 - it's like previous Shenanigans, but different. (Well, different clips, anyway.) Music by Electric Six this time out.
• The VLU put together a LoLtage. The music they used was from the A-Team... I'm thinking they'd have been better off with the soundtrack from F-Troop.
• Shadierliam shows off a different way to the top of the Crow's Nest lift. (Doesn't seem to gain you much, but it IS some nice jumping.)
• JonCJG has released a teaser for the next Arby 'n' the Chief - short, a little scary.

Should keep you busy for a bit... (Louis Wu 18:19:08 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Dev Blog: Leader Powers Part Two
The second part of the Halo Wars Leader Powers dev blog is online - thanks, 2900d4u. (Louis Wu 15:27:57 UTC) (permalink)

Comic-Con - the flood commences
Ain't It Cool News' Quint got onto the floor of Comic-Con last night, before the doors opened... and took lots of pics. ONe of them even has Halo stuff in it! Thanks, Stuntmutt. (Louis Wu 13:43:44 UTC) (permalink)

Operation Chastity's Frontman talks to Halo.fr
Sirkan let us know that Halo.Fr has interviewed Pete Cooper, the man behind the Operation: Chastity fan film (the one with the working Warthog) - you can read the original in English, or a nicely-formatted French translation. Both versions have some pretty cool photos of the Hog. Swing by and check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:01:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Reach (a little early)
This is a couple of months old... but I'm just stumbling across it now. BlandKitten whipped up a staged version of the Halo: Reach poster in Halo 3 (his buddy thumbtac posted it on ForgeHub about three weeks ago). Really nice shot! (There are others - rolyaT13 did one, so did ViVo 444, and GearsCarnage M1... but BlandKitten's is my favorite.) (Louis Wu 11:54:43 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Comic Update
A few comics for your viewing pleasure this morning:

• The Catfish got back in touch with urk to point out a bunch of 2501 strips that had been made since his last update - you can find links in the B.net post.
• Chaos Theory started a 4-day finale to the series yesterday Episode 25 is called 'Epilogue to Disaster', and Part 1 is online now. Part 2 should be up later today.
• Hawty McBloggy let us know about ODS Steve #34 - What's Yours is Mine... looks like there's more to that helmet than we thought.

Go read! (Louis Wu 11:44:30 UTC) (permalink)

News July 21 2009

Blow out some candles tonight
As many have realized, today is the 10th anniversary of the revelation of Halo at MacWorld 1999 - what a long, strange trip it's been! Update: great retrospective from Bungie themselves - awesome old screenshots, exciting text, and a composite vid combining footage from boatloads of old sources. I've got chills. Thanks, urk! (Louis Wu 21:56:41 UTC) (permalink)

Compelling Characters, Breathtaking Scenarios
Frogwart noticed a new posting put up today on the writer job site, Poewar - Microsoft is looking for a Senior Writer for their Halo team. Could this be you? (Louis Wu 21:54:03 UTC) (permalink)

Tilou H3M3
Futur Life stopped in with word of a French HD montage featuring editing by Heimdall and gameplay by Tilou. Seven and a half minutes. Swing by MLGPro.com's Game Room to watch. If you like what you see, you can talk to Futur Life about your own. (Louis Wu 21:48:13 UTC) (permalink)

Weta's Halo products on display in SD
Weta's ramping up its Halo offerings - the Cortana statue we heard about last year is now shipping, and three new helmets - Mark VI Spartan (green), EVA (white), and CQB (silver) will be shipping later this year. (Folks at Comic-Con this week will be able to see these live.) The new helmets are 1/4 scale, cost roughly $65 US, and are in REALLY limited supply (300 of each are being made). Go see 'em! (Louis Wu 21:44:19 UTC) (permalink)

One Life Remaining: Season 1 Episode 1
JonCGJ released a trailer for a new machinima series a couple of weeks ago - but we didn't hear about it until this morning, when urk posted a link to the first episode of the series on Bungie.net. Anthony Heitzmann graduates high school... I guess teenage angst isn't one of of the things that gets solved between now and the 26th century. (Louis Wu 16:32:17 UTC) (permalink)

Reaching High 2
The Bungie Blog highlighted a new Halo 3 Trick Jumping montage - it's only 3 minutes long, but contains some very nicely-timed jumps. Go watch! (Louis Wu 16:21:38 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Historic Battles Writeups appear
Halo Wars' latest DLC drops today - and both ComputerandVideoGames and TeamXbox have writeups, images, and (in TXB's case) video. Thanks, 2900d4u. (Louis Wu 16:04:52 UTC) (permalink)

RvB PSA: Fire Safety
Last night was a standard release night for a Red vs Blue video - but because it was the fifth week of the new series, we got a PSA instead of a standard episode of Recreation. Fire Safety gives you lots of tips for extinguishing fires - if you're currently on fire, go watch it! (Louis Wu 11:35:59 UTC) (permalink)

Lead-lined, filled with concrete
Over at HawtyMcBloggy.com, a new issue of The Katonian Press details what happened recently when a Blue soldier attempted to steal the Red flag. I don't remember most of my games going this way... but hey, it's the Press, it MUST be accurate. (Louis Wu 11:31:38 UTC) (permalink)

News July 20 2009

A new name surfaces
Gamespot has a 'rumor control' post about a newly-uncovered company name filed for by Microsoft - 343 Industries. Microsoft isn't commenting... but it sure seems like a Halo-related company name. (Louis Wu 21:49:53 UTC) (permalink)

Helljumper #4 Cover
CaptainTony brought word of the cover of Helljumper #4 - blocky, but powerful. Swing by Marvel.com and see it for yourself. (Louis Wu 19:59:16 UTC) (permalink)

Ur Doin' it Wrong
Most of the 'Tag and Release' features Bungie's released in the last nine months or so have been chock-full of epic screenshots - pictures to take your breath away. Today's iteration looks for pictures tagged 'Fail'... and it's pretty funny. Go look! (Louis Wu 18:25:35 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Great Movie Adaptation... or Greatest Movie Adaptation?
Our own Miguel Chavez noticed a mention of the Halo movie project in a recent Entertainment Weekly, from Peter Jackson - and he wasn't very happy with the sentiment! Go join the conversation. (Louis Wu 18:21:50 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Montages
A couple of new videos for you, courtesy of the Bungie Blog:

• 'Brothers' is a Halo 3 dualtage from a pair of brothers - nice gameplay, minimal editing. 6:45 long.
• My Halo Life: Episode 8 is another 4 minutes of community clips that we can all appreciate.

Go watch! (Louis Wu 18:19:32 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Comic Roundup
We haven't heard of many comics since Friday - in fact, just this note from Bloogyo, mentioning new episodes of Rat's Nest. Funnyless Monday! (Louis Wu 18:18:49 UTC) (permalink)

And when it's dry and ready...
A visit to Hawty McBloggy's this morning will show you some super-cool clay Halo figures created by Antithesis - these are just adorable. (I guess it's the morning for cute...) (Louis Wu 11:32:18 UTC) (permalink)

The Ghosts of Onyx Preview Comic - Page 1
Leviathan and UNSC_Trooper are back with another graphic treatment of a Halo story; this one is a preview of Ghosts of Onyx, and what a great start it is! Take a look. (Louis Wu 11:24:40 UTC) (permalink)

Too many clean jokes...
I'm rather astounded this didn't show up at Hawty McBloggy's first (Hawty, missing a chance to rub herself all over with the Master Chief?), but hey - the important thing is that you know about it. According to Geeky Gadgets, another of the video game-themed soaps you can buy from Digitalsoaps is a Master Chief model. $7 to clean your privates with a Spartan... it's a bargain! (Louis Wu 11:23:11 UTC) (permalink)

Odd Pods Series 2
Back in March, we mentioned Odd Pods, stylized figurines from McFarlane that should be released this month. (For all I know, in fact, they might be in stores now.) Turns out there's a second wave, coming in October - thanks to Flipyap, over at NeoGAF, for noticing. The Rookie's got a pistol, the Arbiter's got an Energy Sword, the CQB Spartan has a Spartan Laser, and the Hayabusa Spartan has dual magnums. So cute! (Louis Wu 11:20:19 UTC) (permalink)

News July 19 2009

Real 7alk Episode 7
Dust Storm let us know that Real 7alk is back with another episode - you can read about it, and find a download link, on their website. Guests include Mike Bruens, Adam Pisani, and Darkspire Films. Two hours and five minutes, 172 mb. (Louis Wu 21:50:25 UTC) (permalink)

This Spartan Life Episode 6
It's been a long time since we've heard from Chris Burke, and the machinima series 'This Spartan Life' - but Episode 6 has been released, in advance of the completion of Episode 5. (Sometimes these things happen.) The guest is Katie Salen, who works on game design (you can read more about her here), and the interview, interspersed with TSL's normal wackiness, is pretty interesting. It's 14 minutes long - swing by and watch! (QuickTime version is up now, WMV should be available in short order.) Chris is still working on finishing up Episode 5 - he's run into some snags with Microsoft licensing. Here's hoping they get worked out soon! (Louis Wu 14:46:40 UTC) (permalink)

One Ring to Rule Them All
Hawty McBloggy ran across a very cool ring, being made by Weta Workshops in New Zealand - it's sterling silver, it's Master Chief's helmet, and it's pretty darned expensive. Go look! (Louis Wu 14:43:45 UTC) (permalink)

News July 18 2009

Eureka loves Halo
According to Shaun555, last night's episode of Eureka (on Syfy, definitely the stupidest name change for a cable TV channel ever) had two Halo references, from different characters. The episode, "Your Face or Mine?", had Jo Lupo saying "Give me scifi and some Halo 3 and I am a happy girl!" and later on, Douglas Fargo saying "You had me at Halo." You can watch it online on Hulu. (Warning: the 'science' in the show might make you annoyed.) (Louis Wu 16:31:08 UTC) (permalink)

When you've got a reporter's ear... talk.
Looks like Stuart Beattie is on a promotion tour for G.I. Joe right now, and in many of the interviews he's giving, he's mentioning Halo. Always good to keep the buzz alive! Check out MTV Movies (thanks, Zeouterlimits), Dark Horizons (thanks, evildoctorwill), and /Film (thanks, Google). (Louis Wu 15:38:06 UTC) (permalink)

Teabag Prevention - Gearing Up
jake108 let us know about a special Teabag Prevention article - it's all about the cons. Recon, Comic-con, scorpicon. (Okay, that last one was a stretch.) They're looking for feedback - go give 'em some! (Louis Wu 15:32:02 UTC) (permalink)

News July 17 2009

Harrison's Mom is Not Amused.
The Bungie Weekly Update is live - and it's full of apologies, and warnings, and general overall advice. And some information about upcoming showings of ODST. And artwork. And stuff. Go read! As always, the alternative to Bungie.net is our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 23:16:35 UTC) (permalink)

Modo Artist Sumimasen
Mrguy discovered an artist using the 3D program Modo who chose a subject near and dear to some of our hearts - amazing work! Check it out. (Louis Wu 20:04:29 UTC) (permalink)

Marvel posts updated Helljumper Preview
CaptainTony noticed another Helljumper preview at Marvel.com - some of the pages we've seen before, but now they have text. And a cameo from an old friend... (Louis Wu 20:03:00 UTC) (permalink)

Summer Mythic Recon Challenge VI: Cortana
Tyrant's Summer Mythic Recon Challenge continues - Week VI focuses on Cortana. Tyrant's writeup on Bungie.net gives you full details on what you need to do to win Recon for this level - but if you need a little extra help, Tyrant's Mythic Walkthrough v2.0 here on HBO has been updated with a chapter on Cortana. (Nothing's stopping you from using the v1.0 guide - it's just that he's had an additional eight months to hone some of the techniques with v2.0.) Go, Marine! You've got a week! (Louis Wu 17:11:42 UTC) (permalink)

Aesthetic Artist Interview: odmichael
jdars and Team Pepto are back with another Aesthetic Artist Interview - this one's a little different. It spotlights odmichael, Bungie Forum Ninja by day, screenshot maestro by night (remember, it's ALWAYS day or night SOMEWHERE) - but for the first time, it's video-based, rather than a text interview. It's sort of huge (nearly 200mb) - but there's an audio-only version if you'd rather. And screenshots. Cool screenshots. Go watch/listen/see! (Louis Wu 17:01:05 UTC) (permalink)

The Chronicles of Lyle: The Official Promo
A lot of people make Halo machinima - most of it is either really serious, or pretty juvenile. The Chronicles of Lyle is neither. (Well, okay - it's a bit juvenile. But it's pretty funny anyway.) Check out the promo on YouTube. Then thank urk for finding it (in between donuts). (Louis Wu 16:55:00 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Community Podcast, July 16, 2009
SonicJohn and friends have put together a new Bungie Community Podcast, and posted it on the Bungie forums (I found it here) - 79 min, 73 mb worth of discussion about Halo 3: ODST, Halo: reach, and more. Go listen! (Louis Wu 16:52:10 UTC) (permalink)

Grifball - it hurts.
Pup and Friends played a bunch of Grifball during July - you can find highlights in this vid. (Thanks, Bungie Blog.) (Louis Wu 16:45:00 UTC) (permalink)

An amazing tool for Forgers
If you're finding yourself wishing you had a way to plan out your Sandbox-based maps before you got down to Forging them, wish no more - WhtButterflyLiz created a full reconstruction of Sandbox (all three levels) in Sketchup... along with all components available in Forge (each fully textured). This NeoGAF post by squidhands contains a download link for the package, as well as a link to a writeup of the project (with pointers) on Forge Hub. 44 mb of Sandbox goodness... go grab a copy! Update: DOH! Looks like this one was so good, we posted it twice. (First made the news back in March.) STEEL TRAP HAS HOLES! (Thanks, urk. Hope the windows get fixed.) (Louis Wu 13:12:28 UTC) (permalink)

Now THAT'S a Big Daddy!
Hawty McBloggy's Friday Caption Fun feature is up to episode 55 - and along ith some great captions for last week's pic, there's a new (and really funky) pic up for your captioning pleasure. Go look. (Louis Wu 13:02:08 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Title Update 3 goes live today
The third Title Update to Halo Wars will be released today, according to HaloWars.com (thanks, 2900d4u) - lots of balance changes, a few bug fixes. (Louis Wu 13:01:46 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Comic Roundup
A couple of comic updates for you today: Dennis Powers let us know that the final episodes of Shipwrecked are now online (Episode 80, Episode 81, and Episode 82 were all posted yesterday), and the full comic is available for download as a PDF (maybe; I was having trouble getting a copy). More adventures involving the cast will be coming in video form, soon. Also, Bloogyo stopped in with word of a couple of new episodes of Rat's Nest - 21-2 and 21-3 are live now. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 13:01:13 UTC) (permalink)

Get Stuck
John_117 released a new sticktage - four and a half minutes of blue death. (Louis Wu 13:00:52 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
Six new stories are avaiable for your reading pleasure in the Fan Fiction section this week - go pleasure yourself! (Louis Wu 13:00:29 UTC) (permalink)

Broken In - Ken Taya
The latest Broken In article on Bungie.net went live yesterday afternoon - Environment Artist Ken Taya discusses what he does, how he got started, and what you should know about salmon sperm sacs. (Louis Wu 12:59:52 UTC) (permalink)

H3F Movie Competition 2
Z pointed out a new Halo 3 Movie competition over at Halo3Forum.com - submissions cost $10, and all of that money goes into the prize pool. The organizers are estimating that the top prize will be $1000. You've got until March 31, 2010 to create your masterpiece - so you've got to assume that some of the competitors are gonna be killer projects. Go read about it - and then get to planning! (Louis Wu 12:59:13 UTC) (permalink)

Top 10 Halo 3 Ricochet Kills: Episode 34
Anoj continues his Top 10 Halo 3 series - Episode 34 looks at Ricochet Kills. Bullets, equipment, and even a warthog or two are bouncing around the maps and killing people on the rebound. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 12:58:51 UTC) (permalink)

News July 16 2009

3-Ballin'
It's Thursday, after 11 am PST - in Bungie-Land, that means the Weekend has begun... and they're celebrating with a 3-Ball Double XP Playlist. 2-3 players per team, 4 teams, max party size of 12. All DLC required. Get to ballin'! (Louis Wu 21:25:39 UTC) (permalink)

Community Cartographers - Actuality-Break
Bungie's got another Community Cartographer mapmaking spotlight up - EDDY2 talks about his map, Actuality-Break. (This map was seen in the Bungie against the World playlist last week.) (Louis Wu 21:22:26 UTC) (permalink)

He certainly LOOKS crotchety...
Yesterday, a whole bunch of new accounts were approved at NeoGAF, and a flood of new people started posting in the Halo thread there. Flipyap immediately proved his worth by posting pics of a cool hunting trophy he got for his birthday. (I have no clue at all what that has to do with hunting... but I'd love to put it on my wall anyway. Seems like other HaloGAFers would like to do... something else with it.) (Louis Wu 21:18:29 UTC) (permalink)

Thursday Afternoon BungLog Movies
Lots of videos for you again on the Bungie Blog today:

• The Ghosts of Onyx community has created a Rocket Race montage - 10 minutes of mongooses and rockets.
• Herbal T created a Halo 3 Minitage that will have you checking your monitor for damage for the first 15 seconds... and then reaching for the dramamine for the remainder of the 3.5 minutes.
• The 405th's LeeKegan created a beautifully-working replica of the M6G Magnum, and is sending it to Bungie - check out the vid for full details.

I think I'm hungry now... (Louis Wu 17:21:58 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 XBL tourney rescheduled
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned a charity Halo 3 tourney on Xbox LIVE - it was supposed to take place this weekend. Apparently, it's been rescheduled to October 10. (On the plus side, there might be an ODST Firefight Endurance Challenge included now.) More details in redvsblue42's forum post. (Louis Wu 17:14:40 UTC) (permalink)

Minor (Proactive) Rumor-Busting
This hasn't actually been floated as a rumor - but there was a little bit of speculation about an announcement, so we thought we'd jump in early. Kotaku posted a note recently (thanks, CaptainTony) about an 'exciting unannounced project' that Microsoft will be bringing to Comic-Con next week - and even though there's no discussion in the story about what this might be related to, there WAS a little speculation that it might be about an upcoming Halo game from MGS. Frankie stopped into our forum to state that the Halo team at MGS is showing off something that's not a game - something that "on a scale from 1-100 in amazing-holy-crap-ness, it's not 100, but it's sure not 1 either." So: something cool is coming from the MGS Halo team. How cool? We dunno. Is it a game? No. We'll know more next week. (Louis Wu 17:09:10 UTC) (permalink)

News July 15 2009

Halo: First Contact trailer
martinraybourne stopped in with word of a trailer done by his friend that uses Halo footage and audio from the second trailer of Star Trek: First Contact - good stuff! (There's a link to the original trailer in the forum post, if you want to compare.) (Louis Wu 22:59:21 UTC) (permalink)

New Bungie Favorites from Forge Cafe
Bungie has updated Forge Cafe's Favorites today - and interviewed Mini Waz about his map, Borderline. Go read - and check out the files! (Louis Wu 22:57:06 UTC) (permalink)

Wait... where'd you come from?
Hawty McBloggy ran across an entertaining 'Spawntage' on YouTube - ever felt like someone was out to get you? You're not alone. (Louis Wu 22:54:13 UTC) (permalink)

Thassalottamovies, Boss.
Lots of new movies on the BungLog™ this afternoon:

• Lufias created a tribute montage for Kampy - under 3 minutes, in HD. Lots of multikills.
• The Mythic Photographers have created both a Community Montage and a Community Funtage - links for both are on Bungie.net.
• Honor Guard has created an obstacle course, and then a video to show you how to run it; watch, run, and see if you can beat their time in the Halolympics!
• A Word from An Elite is a collection of clips from Campaign, showing off some of the funnier Halo 3 dialogue clips that can show up with the IWHBYD skull turned on. (If you want to hear more, just swing by our Dialogue Databank.)

Go watch! (Louis Wu 17:25:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars Leader Powers, Part One
2900d4u noticed that a new article went live in the Halo Wars Dev Blog - this one discusses Leader Powers. This is Part 1 - Part 2 will be up next week. (Louis Wu 16:17:44 UTC) (permalink)

R/C Warthog - in hi-res
AngelicLionheart stopped in with a link to a pic of the NKOK R/C Warthog we mentioned in May. We've posted a local version (2587x1412, 334k) in case this one goes away for whatever reason. (Louis Wu 16:14:20 UTC) (permalink)

EpicBattleCry takes on Halo
The More Deluded pointed out a link to EpicBattleCry Skirmish 37, a podcast running over at GameTrailers.com. From about the 21 to the 29 minute marks, they discuss Halo, and how overrated it is (or isn't). (Louis Wu 16:07:57 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 2v2 tourney in Michigan - July 17-19
CyReN announced a $1,000 2v2 Halo 3 tournament in Westland, MI this weekend - swing by his forum post for full details. Basic facts - $50/team to register, first place wins a grand. Nice! (Louis Wu 16:04:20 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Comic Roundup
A few comic updates for you today:

• Hawty McBloggy let us know about ODS Steve #33 (A Sticky End) - sometimes you get lucky.
• Bloogyo told us about Rat's Nest 20-7 (remake), 20-8, and 21-1. And more coming today, even!
• TTL Demag0gue came by with word of Reclaimer 204 (Executing Mimic) - the pieces are beginning to come together.

Go read! (Louis Wu 15:52:28 UTC) (permalink)

News July 14 2009

An update on an old friend
Two years ago, we posted a note about Peter Marks - a Bungie fan from the old days who became a Bungie employee (and later a Certain Affinity employee), and who was diagnosed with some pretty agressive cancer. We set up a website where folks could leave a few words for Peter - and 4500 of you did. The good news: Peter has been fighting these past two years - he's still with us. The bad news: things don't look so good for him. The latest round of surgery (on his spine) was undertaken to remove pressure that was causing him to lose control of his legs, and it's unclear if he's going to recover enough to go home from this. His wife has suggested that this might be the last chance folks have to talk to Peter; if you want to get in touch with him, you can drop a note on the Marksism website, or you can contact us directly; it's unclear right now whether he's up for phone calls or visits, but if we get the word, we'll pass it along to those who need it. It's always hard to say goodbye - Peter, we love you. (Louis Wu 19:42:59 UTC) (permalink)

LAN Event in SE Michigan, July 18
bobcast stopped in with word of a lan going on in Ida, MI (SE Michigan, near NW Ohio) this Saturday - admission is free. More details in his forum post! (Louis Wu 17:38:47 UTC) (permalink)

Four new maps, achievements for Halo Wars
Joystiq has word of new DLC for Halo Wars - 4 new maps, 4 new achievements, 800 points. The package will be available next week (July 21). Go read! (Louis Wu 17:36:55 UTC) (permalink)

Tuesday Afternoon at the Movies
Vids for your enjoyment at the BungLog™ today:

• ChrisOfTheDead released Shenanigans 4 - stuff that just shouldn't happen... but does.
• Dropship dude put a bunch of webcam shots he collected over the course of Bungie Day together in one vid.
• The Mad Villager let urk know about 'Machinima, Explained' - a how-to video helping newcomers create better vids. (He let US know about it, too, a couple of days ago - but somehow we missed it in the news feed. Oops!)

Go watch some stuff! (Louis Wu 17:31:15 UTC) (permalink)

Summer Mythic Recon Challenge Help - Covenant Kamikaze
You might remember that last Friday, we mentioned that Tyrant's Summer Mythic Recon Challenge Episode V was active, and that v2.0 of his Covenant Walkthrough was available for your perusal, to help with this task. Well, now it's Tuesday, and you've only got a few more days - so if you're one of those procrastinators, you might find yourself without enough time to polish off the longest Halo 3 level in the game. Never fear - Tyrant's got your back, still. Covenant Kamikaze is yet ANOTHER walkthrough of the level, this time showing you some shortcuts that, while dangerous (usually something to avoid when death means starting from scratch), can save you quite a bit of time, and allow you to finish the entire level in under an hour, on Mythic difficulty. (Louis Wu 13:23:45 UTC) (permalink)

RvB Recreation Ch. 5: Local Host
Red vs Blue Recreation Chapter 5 - Local Host - is now available for viewing at the Rooster Teeth site. Donut goes home, Grif doesn't have to die, and Caboose finds... someone. The mysteries continue! (Louis Wu 13:17:08 UTC) (permalink)

X-Play's Mr. Sark Previews Halo 3: ODST
Mr Sark and the crew of G4TV's X-Play have released a video preview of Halo 3: ODST - go watch to see a little more Firefight footage, and get some first-hand impressions of the game. (Louis Wu 13:07:18 UTC) (permalink)

Armored Donuts
Hawty McBloggy ran across some very cool donuts - go take a look. I think her obsession with balls might be going a bit overboard... but these DO look delicious. (And the fact that they're made by Hot N Creamy Donuts just made me laugh.) (Louis Wu 13:06:16 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 4v4 Tourney in Manchester, England
If you live near Manchester, in the UK, you might be interested in a tournament to be held at the Manchester Gamerbase this Thursday - full details can be found in this Bungie.net blog post. (Louis Wu 13:05:12 UTC) (permalink)

News July 13 2009

Halo: Out With a Whimper: SAGE Demo
The TriBlox Team stopped by with an announcement about Halo: Out With a Whimper, the sidescrolling Halo game they've been working on for a while. (We last mentioned it back in January.) A new demo will be out at the end of the month, in time for the SAGE Convention (go and register on their site if you're interested in getting involved with their community), but there's a new movie out now, showing off the latest gameplay. Looks to be pretty fun! (Louis Wu 17:57:31 UTC) (permalink)

I tried 'badabing' - nothing.
A new Tag and Release feature is live at Bungie.net - 'Boom' seems to pull out some truly explosive shots. Go find your own! (Louis Wu 17:45:28 UTC) (permalink)

Change of Scenery
Pierre Tartaix pointed us to Change of Scenery, a new machinima created by TGO GMBH. I have absolutely no idea what happened during this film... but the cinematography was great, the music was great, and the dialogue was at times very funny. Be aware that while the voice actors are predominately English-speaking, the group making the video is French.Two pouces up. (Louis Wu 17:35:43 UTC) (permalink)

Queso Man 6
Queso Man has whipped up a sixth montage - nice gameplay, liberally mixed in with moments of self-ownage. I particularly liked the betrayal at the top of Blackout, in the midst of a sniper spree - clearly, that grenade to the back of his teammate's head mean "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY". Four and a half minutes - thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 17:10:24 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Morning Fan Masterpieces
Looking for fun Halo-themed creations this morning? Swing by Hawty McBloggy's. She's got word of a Halo 3 Pelican Cake (looks delicious, and that's no lie), and a bunch of Halo/Nintendo mashups from CrazedOne1988 (some of these could be serious fun!). Go by and read for yourself! (Louis Wu 16:30:51 UTC) (permalink)

Fundfax Fairraiser - Winners Announced
Hawty McBloggy has posted the winning numbers from the Fundfax Fairraiser - they were all picked live, last night, in front of a studio audience (the studio, this time around, being the internet). $6500 was raised for Marissa and her family - and 57 winning numbers were picked to give out a huge passel of prizes. (Amazingly, the signed Kotobukiya Steel Spartan, the last prize given away, came up with a winning number of 1337 - a truly auspicious sign!) Go see if you won something! (Louis Wu 14:01:24 UTC) (permalink)

Music Page still up-to-date
ElusiveEagle519 is keeping up on changes in the Halo music sphere - the latest Bungie podcast has been added to his revamped Music Resources page here at HBO. A promising precedent - thanks, EE! (To all those who offered help recently, and were told that I'd get a list of things that need doing - please don't give up on me, I'm STILL working on that. Should be coming soon.) (Louis Wu 13:58:34 UTC) (permalink)

Halo CE 2v2 Tourney coming up in August
CyReN stopped in to announce another Halo CE 2v2 Tournament at Unleashed Gaming in Canton, MI on August 2 - their first one took place yesterday, and given that they're announcing another one, I think it can probably be considered a success! Swing by the Unleashed Gaming Center page at MySpace for more details. (Louis Wu 13:58:17 UTC) (permalink)

Unexpected Chapter 1
ODST Sarge let us know that Unexpected Chapter 1 (Killed in Action) has been released - it's a machinima about a soldier that resigns from an army that was fighting in the Canadian Civil War. (Yeah, right?) Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:52:31 UTC) (permalink)

Monday Comic Roundup
A couple of new comics for you this morning: Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked Episode 79 - Doubt is live (our Marines are second-guessing themselves, and may be meeting more trouble soon), and TTL Demag0gue informed us that Reclaimer 203 - Manipulation - is online as well... it ties some interesting astronomical theory into our storyline. Go read! (Louis Wu 13:51:39 UTC) (permalink)

Reach Power
LoneRanger 2.5 ran across a short article on an Indian website that summarizes some of the changes Bungie will be implementing in Halo: Reach, based on comments made during a talk at this year's GDC. It's unclear whether the comments were made specifically about Reach, or about gaming technology in general... but it's out there. (Louis Wu 13:43:44 UTC) (permalink)

VGL Rehearsal, WolfTrap Center
Bryan Ojeda attended a rehearsal for the Video Games Live performance that took place last Friday in Vienna, VA at the WolfTrap Filene Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. He brought a video camera. You can watch the 10 minutes of Halo footage on YouTube. (Louis Wu 13:43:01 UTC) (permalink)

News July 12 2009

Fundfax Fairraiser Drawing - Tonight!
Hawty McBloggy is holding the drawing for her Fundfax Fairraiser in just a couple of hours - sorry for the short notice! She'll be picking the winners live, and you can get into the chatroom if you're interested. Swing by and read the details! (Louis Wu 23:06:10 UTC) (permalink)

Badass Female Pilots
Brandon Krichick pointed out an article at IO9 - 'The Most Badass Female Space Pilots Of All Time' does a really good job of picking out some great female space pilots in science fiction. (You KNOW it's a good list when it includes mentions of pilots from stories by Iain Banks, Vernor Vinge, and Alastair Reynolds.) About a third of the way down the list (sandwiched between Cowboy Bebop's Faye and Revelation Space's Ana Khouri) is Carol 'Foe Hammer' Rawley, from the first Halo. Hawt. (Louis Wu 17:36:38 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Mythbusters Episode 11
Halo 3 Mythbusters has released Episode 11 - you can watch it on their site (thanks, Minime637) or directly on YouTube. 7 minutes of glitches and little things you might never have known about! (Louis Wu 17:35:18 UTC) (permalink)

Beat It - Michael Jackson short
ukilledkenny7 let us know about a video created for a gaming show called The Dashboard, airing this fall on GoodGameTV - he thought it would be appropriate to share it early, given recent events. (Louis Wu 17:34:41 UTC) (permalink)

ODST LE now orderable in the UK
Bry pointed out on our forum yesterday that the ODST Limited Edition is now showing up for sale at some UK gamesellers - he even narrows down which ones to order from if you want the Johnson-in-Firefight bunus. Thanks to Van Helsing, who reminded me that this hadn't been posted! (Louis Wu 17:33:19 UTC) (permalink)

News July 11 2009

And the Trogdor Comes in the Night
cbwilliams17 stopped in with word of 'Trogdor - The Burninator' - a tribute to the classic Strongbad tune. (Louis Wu 20:26:34 UTC) (permalink)

High Charity - Emerald Part 1 of 4
Nabsuh has announced High Charity, the first of a four-part machinima miniseries called 'Emerald' from AVCOM Productions. A mix of in-game footage and generated CG, this looks to have great effects, solid voice acting and some nice camera work. Check it out! (Louis Wu 17:01:14 UTC) (permalink)

Dont Hate The Dino
John_117 put together a short video which does a good job of explaining why Elites should be banned from matchmaking. (No, it's not what you think. Really.) (Louis Wu 13:50:59 UTC) (permalink)

The Power Hour Episode #3: Halo
A couple of days ago, cEe let us know about Power Hour, a video blog from Super Baldilox HD - Episode 3 (where he's joined with Doctor D) reviews Halo 3. It's a pretty solid look back at this influential game - I probably could have done without the teabag montage, and maybe the Christian Bale meltdown, but if you're looking for a video blog that reviews games, you might wanna check this out! (Louis Wu 13:49:45 UTC) (permalink)

HaloScreenshots - another look
Escapist Magazine put up a short review of the HaloScreenshots printing service (because of a blog post they found at Offworld, who in turn found it on another blog - I guess word is getting around) - if you haven't made up your mind about these pics, give this a read. (Louis Wu 13:48:41 UTC) (permalink)

Good Game, World. Good Game.
Tonight's Bungie Weekly Update is devoted, for the most part, to a recap of the Bungie vs the World shenanigans that took place on Tuesday - Bungie Day 2009. The studio gave out over 1000 sets of Recon armor to lucky players - which really isn't that much, considering that over 7 million player-games ticked over in that 24 hour period, but is a BOATLOAD, considering that a few months ago, the total number of Recon-sporters in the WORLD was just over 500. Nice going, World! The writeup is a fun read, and also contains a recap of some other goodies that were made public during the week, and a summary of some of the funniest messages sent by unhappy fans. Go read! (You can, as always, read it here, in our Weekly Update Archive, if that makes you happier.) (Louis Wu 01:11:00 UTC) (permalink)

42 without having to wait 10 million years
DOH! I totally managed to miss the 'Broken In' article with Vic DeLeon posted on Thursday afternoon - it's a great read with the Senior Environment Artist, a fantastic look back at a pretty long career and some inside information on a pretty funny incident during the creation of Halo 2. The man's got a lot to say about the gaming industry, and about how awesome it is to work for Bungie. Go read it! (Louis Wu 00:30:24 UTC) (permalink)

News July 10 2009

Working Together
Mid7night created a gallery full of Halo craft in X-Plane - check out a sample (and a link to the gallery) in his forum post! (Louis Wu 20:18:29 UTC) (permalink)

Summer Mythic Recon Challenge V - The Covenant
The Summer Mythic Recon Challenge rolls on - Tyrant issued the Vth installment (did u c wut I did thar?) today, over at Bungie.net. You've got a week to beat Halo 3's 7th level, The Covenant, on Mythic (SLASO) difficulty, and do it better than anyone else; do so, and you win Recon. In addition to the hints and suggestions provided in the Bungie Blog post, you've got one more resource - Tyrant's Mythic Walkthrough v2.0 of that level went live this morning. (Complete with 18 videos... whoa.) Go get to practicing - you've got a week! (Louis Wu 17:28:02 UTC) (permalink)

Mid-Day Movies
A few new movies for your enjoyment, courtesy of the BungLog™:

• Community Funtage 6, from the Funtage Crew, shows off fun/cool/entertaining clips compiled from the community at large
• The Halo 3 Ban remixes Eminem's 'The Way I Am' - pretty well done, and some very nice social gameplay.
• WaffleBrains whipped up Goose on the Loose, a Goosetage - nearly 9 minutes of splatters and brokeback kills.
• CMNeir released 'New Ride', a Halo machinima that anyone with bragging friends can relate to. Well... except for the time travel stuff.

Watch 'em over a sandwich, at lunch! (Louis Wu 17:13:20 UTC) (permalink)

Walmart Sweetens the ODST Preorder Pot
If you haven't pre-ordered Halo 3: ODST, but you're still planning to (because who DOESN'T want the ability to play as Johnson in Firefight mode?), you might want to consider a new deal from Walmart - you get the game, the Johnson bonus... AND a $10 eGift card. (It's only good for online purchases, at either Walmart.com or SamsClub.com - can't be used in stores.) It's like a $10 discount off the game... sort of. (Louis Wu 16:27:32 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Panel at SDCC
San Diego Comic-Con is coming up in a couple of weeks (July 23-26, to be precise), and there's a panel on Thursday's schedule that will probably be of interest to Halo fans:

4:30-5:30 The Halo Franchise: What's Next — Frank O'Connor (franchise development director for Halo) will be joined by a number of special guests to discuss how Halo is evolving into a robust entertainment franchise and what's coming in the future. Room 6BCF

If you're going to be there, be sure to show up for that panel! (Louis Wu 15:20:17 UTC) (permalink)

Five Ways Natal Will Ruin Halo
Gilver was the first to let us know about a new video from IGN - "Five Ways Natal Will Ruin Halo". You might like it, you might hate it. It's only a minute long, so what do you have to lose? (Besides a minute, of course.) (Louis Wu 15:10:13 UTC) (permalink)

When Butterflies Attack
The latest installment of Hawty McBloggy's Friday Caption Fun is now online - and along with captions from the community for last week's pic, there's a new - and potentially hilarious - pic up for you to caption this week. Get over there! (Louis Wu 15:08:10 UTC) (permalink)

Shimmer
neoxdonut117 sent word of 'Shimmer', a music video using Fuel's song and Bungie's cutscenes to portray a sad love story. (Louis Wu 14:58:26 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
There is only one new story for you in the Fan Fiction section this week - but the community DID update the images that advertise their 'Feet First into Hell' contest. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 14:57:00 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Comic Roundup
Three new comics to mention today:

• Dennis Powers wrote to say that Shipwrecked Episode 78 - Reflection is online. There's something out there...
• Bloogyo linked us to Rat's Nest 20-6 and 20-7 - he's right, 20-7 is nearly impossible to read.
• TTL Demag0gue stopped in with word of Reclaimer 202 - Rivers of Information. Ferial's sharper than first appearances would suggest...

Go read! Update: Looks like Hawty McBloggy found another one - it's a funny little strip from DOGHOUSE, which looks to have been published a couple of months ago. (Louis Wu 14:47:01 UTC) (permalink)

News July 9 2009

The Kingdom of (Black)Prinzes
A new Community Cartographer feature is live on Bungie.net - urk has talked to Blackprinze about his map, 'The Kingdom'. Go give it a read, look at the pics, download the map! (Louis Wu 21:40:42 UTC) (permalink)

Dan Baker's Halo Comic is back
Whoa, cool. We haven't heard from Dan Baker since late March, 2008 - he was recreating the story of Alpha Halo, with all new artwork - but he's back now, with a new page (thanks, UNSC_Trooper), and apparently is ready to pick up the pace again! (Louis Wu 19:02:47 UTC) (permalink)

He was eating a... a croissant!
Captain Spark sent in another batch of dialogue snippets for our Dialogue Databank - some great stuff from marines, plus a really funny Grunt quote! Check 'em all out. (Louis Wu 18:55:09 UTC) (permalink)

Luke's Drawing Halo Again!
New artwork from Luke McKay - a couple of days ago, he welcomed back an old friend, and this morning, he summed up the Bungie vs the World experience most of us either had, or would have had. Nice work! (Louis Wu 18:16:42 UTC) (permalink)

Thursday Afternoon Goodies at B.net
Bunch o' videos (and other fan stuff) on the BungLog™ today:

• The 'Zoxin It Up' podcast will be recording Episode 3 live on July 24 - guest is Puptastrophe, from Grifball Hub.
• Yet another Racetrack has been highlighted - Extremity has more 'indoors' sections than I'm used to seeing.
• Ready Up Live put together a Summer '09 Community Montage - clips from their community, all montaged and such. Looks like fun!
• If you never understood why people make video blogs, you won't understand why Spartan Z06 made his - he's an Out of Work Spartan, and this is Episode 1.

That enough to keep you busy for a bit? (Louis Wu 18:05:52 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie vs The World Panoramic Recap
Minime637 whipped up a set of panoramas from the gameplay that resulted when fans met Bungie on the field of battle in the Bungie vs the World playlist on Tuesday. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 17:49:42 UTC) (permalink)

Revisiting Halo 3
Gamasutra has a blog post that takes a look back at Halo 3, in an attempt to see how it fit into the progression of Halo games. Mostly, though, it's a tirade against a particular facet of Halo campaign play. Go read. (Louis Wu 17:45:19 UTC) (permalink)

Beating the 1-40,000 odds (to meet 'em)
Motherstooth sent along a video - the opening might hold some flashback potential for old-time Halo fans, but the majority is a tribute to a game his son and some friends played against Bungie during Bungie Day. Congrats, guys, for winning Recon! (Louis Wu 17:18:10 UTC) (permalink)

Hush, darling... they'll be gone soon.
Getting a late start... sometimes, you're just not near a computer. Hawty McBloggy sent word of a video that should make you giggle... as long as your boss isn't watching your shoulder. (Mildly inappropriate behavior - obviously fully clothed, since it IS a Halo vid, after all - is contained herein.) (Louis Wu 17:15:19 UTC) (permalink)

News July 8 2009

ONI BIAS: File 1.0
razzimous stopped in with word of a new machinima series known as 'ONI BIAS' - the first episode is online now. This is looking pretty well-done... check it out! Next episode is out in a month. (Louis Wu 20:49:26 UTC) (permalink)

This Spartan Community Podcast
This Spartan Life was a machinima series that featured largely in the Halo community scene a few years ago, but we haven't heard a lot from them recently. Its community has decided to put together a podcast - and the first episode is online now. Thanks, Eaite Randjam. (Louis Wu 19:48:26 UTC) (permalink)

Designing Games that Don't Suck
Ross Mills found an article at Gamasutra discussing game design, and how choices made by developers can affect how players interact with the game. There's an example that seems to be based on Halo. It's an interesting read! (Louis Wu 19:45:07 UTC) (permalink)

Community Content at the Source
Bungie.net is full of goodness this afternoon - let's see if we can recap:

• The Running Riot Podcast is broadcasting live again next Tuesday - Kete's guest will be Firestream, from HaloCharts.com. Get ready!
• The Community Spotlight this week shines on the Forge Cafe, a Bungie.net group devoted to mapmaking. Go read a mini-interview... and then check out their Favorites.
• Obi Wan Stevobi is giving out another set of Recon - for the person who kills him the 77,777th time.
• Today was declared 'Urk Day' - and Bryan Simon has even put together a video tribute.

Go explore! (Louis Wu 19:08:24 UTC) (permalink)

You KNOW someone lost a bet.
These showed up in our forum as well - but they're so nicely formatted over at Hawty McBloggy's... looks like some of the Bungie guys dressed up a bit during the Bungie vs the World gameplay - and agdtinman was on hand with a camera to document it all. Whee! (Louis Wu 11:27:19 UTC) (permalink)

Dang, dude - that's a lot of games.
FyreWulff completed his 7777 on the 7th challenge (we mentioned it a couple of weeks ago) - congrats to him, and to the people who won the contest! (Louis Wu 11:26:42 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Animation Leak
This likely won't be up for all that long, but it WILL be the talk of the interwebs until it's down, so we might as well mention it. A contract animator working for Bungie posted a demo reel on his website that included some bare-bones animation of a UNSC marine beating up on a Jackal. Speculation immediately blossomed - this had to be content from Halo: Reach! (It might indeed be just that - or it might be something he created to GET the animation job at Bungie. Nobody's talking, so we don't know.) He quickly pulled the demo reel, but of course it ended up on YouTube anyway (and CVG picked it up this morning) - whether it's early animation for a game we haven't seen yet, or just a creation by someone who works with the Halo figures, it's pretty cool stuff. (Louis Wu 11:25:53 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Comic Roundup
Comic goodies so far:

• Dennis Powers let us know about Shipwrecked Episode 77 - Back on the Path. Funky stuff going on... (nice touch releasing episode 77 on Bungie Day, Dennis.)
• Hawty McBloggy wrote about ODS Steve #32 - Firefight - I'm not sure it's a good idea to give that guy big guns.
• TTL Demag0gue is back with word of Reclaimer 201 - Death. I'm pretty sure there's more going on here than Ferial is seeing.

Go read up! (Louis Wu 11:25:20 UTC) (permalink)

News July 7 2009

Now THAT's a Battle Rifle.
Adam Grumbo let us know that a new BR, created by LeeKegan and molded by Rube, is now up for display at the 405th. Adam said that it's "amazing" - he's spot on. I totally wish they were selling these - I'd love one. (Louis Wu 21:41:41 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Goodies for Sale
It's been a while since folks have stopped by our forum to sell things - and this afternoon, there were two in quick succession. Check out Goodgamer77's Halo Wars Standee from Gamestop (local pickup only, in Northeast Florida), and a Halo 2 limited edition Eddie Smith mylar print from Woar. Fun stuff! (Louis Wu 21:36:52 UTC) (permalink)

Podcasthattery
The Bungie Day Podcast is live - go listen to 74 minutes of Marty, Joe, Luke and Brian (sounds like the gospels, doesn't it?), with special guests Nathan Fillion and Roger Wolfson. (Louis Wu 21:30:11 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Pro Video - Live
Bungie Pro Video is now officially out of beta - the full details are available at Bungie.net. If you've been looking on with envy from the sidelines... envy no more! Bungie Pro even has its own Project Page now. (Louis Wu 21:23:22 UTC) (permalink)

Happy Bungie Day, from Forge Cafe
Forge Cafe created a Bungie Day tribute video - maps, artwork, and more. Some really cool construction. Go see. Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:19:11 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Day Wallpapers
Hawty McBloggy has posted three new wallpapers, to celebrate Bungie Day. I'd have to say they're all pretty slick (though the middle one is possibly too busy for an actual desktop image). Go see if one suits your fancy! (Louis Wu 20:51:59 UTC) (permalink)

He's taking a rest, ma.
I gotta wonder... how would you explain this t-shirt to your mom? Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 19:20:29 UTC) (permalink)

A Palimpsest of Failure
Gamers With Jobs has posted 'What Not To Do With Player Two' - and I found it be pretty funny. I've met my share of Player Ones... Thanks, Speedhuntr. (Louis Wu 19:04:49 UTC) (permalink)

Game with Fame: Static-X
Xbox.com has posted another Game With Fame announcement - you can play with Industrial metal band Static-X on July 11, from 5-7 pm ET, if you set up your gamertag ahead of time. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 18:56:04 UTC) (permalink)

The last three Mythic Maps - an early view
More goodies from Bungie - there are some screenshots from the three new multiplayer maps that will ship with Halo 3: ODST. Go check out Heretic, Citadel, and Longshore! (Louis Wu 16:50:03 UTC) (permalink)

They're not doing so hot, so far. (That's good.)
As of about 15 minutes ago (9:30 am Bungie Time, 12:30 pm EST, 4:30 UTC), Bungie teams had played a total of 50 games - and won 18 of those. (Depending on whether or not they give Recon to folks who TIE them, that means either 116 or 128 fans have already won Recon today - unless they've disqualified themselves in some other way.) Remember that there are a LOT of people trying to win this way (there are currently over 120,000 people in the playlist), so your chances aren't GREAT - but hey, even if you don't match against the Bungie team, you STILL get to play some cool maps, and have fun on LIVE! (Louis Wu 16:46:47 UTC) (permalink)

Will Solve Puzzles For Recon
Want more chances at Recon? Bungie's got you covered! Roger Wolfson created a pretty cool little puzzle a couple of years ago, involving the Red vs Blue crew, Halo 2, and some stats. Solve the puzzle... win Recon! (It looks pretty hard.) Update: puzzle solved - if you're tired of wracking your brain (or you just want to be sure you nailed it), go read. (Remember - only the first five correct respondents will win. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be proud of yourself for getting it - it just means you shouldn't be mad at Bungie if you don't win Recon.) (Louis Wu 16:31:22 UTC) (permalink)

Feet First into Hell - a Writing Contest
kabu sent word of the 'Feet First into Hell' contest being run over at the HBO Fan Fiction - write a cool story, win goodies! You can read all the details on the contest page here, and we've posted up an easy-to-find link on the news page. Get to plotting! (Louis Wu 14:29:37 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Day '09 Community Project
Hawty McBloggy and friends put together a truly awesome tribute to Bungie's favorite number - in record time! Swing by to check out all the cool bits. (Louis Wu 14:23:31 UTC) (permalink)

Annual Achievement - not on LIVE?
Hey, neat! The Loot checked in with word that the Vidmaster Challenge: Annual achievement (we just posted a pretty slick walkthrough for it yesterday!) does NOT need to be unlocked over Xbox LIVE - one of their group doesn't have a Gold account, so they tried it over System Link... and unlocked the achievement. That's pretty great news! (Louis Wu 14:18:55 UTC) (permalink)

RvB Recreation Ch 4 - Catching Up
Red vs Blue Recreation Chapter 4 - Catching Up - went online as scheduled last night (but we weren't online to tell you about it). Donut and Caboose catch up... and contact an old friend. Well, acquaintance. And the mystery deepens. And stuff. Caboose made me laugh again. Go watch! Looks like Sarge Tomzilla was first on our forum with the news. (Louis Wu 14:15:47 UTC) (permalink)

Halopen Pencast 11
Firestorm12 let us know that the Halopen Pencast 11 has been released in honor of Bungie Day - you can listen to it on Podbean, or discuss it on their forum. Topics include Halo 2, Bungie Day festivities, and a new Halopen project. (Louis Wu 14:12:56 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Day - It's Here
Bungie Day has kicked off - and Bungie has quite a few tidbits planned for your amusement and enjoyment as the day goes along. Swing by to read the details! (Louis Wu 13:11:08 UTC) (permalink)

Play to Win
Bungie Day starts in less than 8 hours - at 1 am PST, the first batch of Bungie employees will be online to meet you in battle in the Bungie vs the World playlist - and for 24 hours, you'll have lots of chances to win Recon. Swing by Bungie.net for a full roster of the players that will be headed out to battle during each hour-long shift. (Louis Wu 00:29:07 UTC) (permalink)

News July 6 2009

Where's my shotgun ammo?
Whoa. According to this story at Hawty McBloggy's place, you might want to stay indoors tomorrow... I'm heading out now to stock up on toilet paper and water. (Louis Wu 22:19:40 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Uncensored
I ran across this video recently... and wondered a little about the mind that might create such a thing. It's a tad inappropriate for a family website... but then, we're not really a family website. (Halo's M-rated, after all.) I asked my Arbiter of Taste, KP - and he gave it two thumbs up, so I'm linking to it. (I'm pretty sure that means he loses his AoT title.) Please - if you have a weak stomach, don't watch this. It's a vision of where Halo COULD have gone... if Bungie were more ghoulish. (It's actually pretty funny, once you get past the gore.) (Louis Wu 21:35:32 UTC) (permalink)

Showing Sum Luv
I got a little tired of Rube Goldberg creations a ways back... but omfgcarnage has come up with a new twist that made me smile... a lot. I sort of wonder how many times it was filmed in order to nail that ending... thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 21:06:49 UTC) (permalink)

Another Comic on the Scene
Doesn't look like there are any regular comic updates today (I'd guess the holiday weekend has something to do with that), but Hawty McBloggy pointed out a site that contains an entire COLLECTION of Halo-related comics - Grin and Bear It. They kicked off in mid-March, so there are only about a dozen and a half comics there now - shouldn't take you too long to get through all of 'em! (Louis Wu 17:46:25 UTC) (permalink)

Aren't They ALL Art?
It's monday, so it's time for another Tag and Release feature on Bungie.net - this one looks for images with the tag 'Art'. MAN, Halo 3 lends itself nicely to gorgeous screens... (Louis Wu 17:42:55 UTC) (permalink)

The Ultimate B.U.N.G.L.E. Quiz
Alien Emperor continues his B.U.N.G.L.E.-honoring efforts - his latest project is The Ultimate B.U.N.G.L.E. Quiz. Swing by and see if you've got what it takes to ace this baby. (Louis Wu 16:58:12 UTC) (permalink)

Massive Movie Mayhem
A collection of new vids are highlighted on the BungLog™ today:

• Anoj continues with his Top 10 Halo 3 series - this episode focuses on MLG Kills. Anoj has had his wisdom teeth removed, so it's a commentary-less episode.
• Black Light Productions continues with the Phil series - Day 10 is the first round of the UXLT. Phil is faced off against Roger, of Clan Catch 'em all. Go see who wins!
• TM22 has edited a minitage for Anoj, called 'Scratch It Up' - lots of clutch plays.

Update: there's one more, a montage with gameplay from Fragtale and editing from Mattisson Design HD - if I were looking for taglines to put in a review, 'gripping' and 'spectacular' would be high on my list. Gameplay is fantastic, editing is GORGEOUS. (Louis Wu 16:56:17 UTC) (permalink)

A Sangheili's War - The PDF Version
Leviathan created a story/comic/graphic novelette called 'A Sangheili's War is Never Over' during a six-week span in May and June this year; he posted the pages, as they were finished, on our forum, and we've been keeping you apprised along the way. Well, he's gone back over the individual panels and cleaned up stuff he wasn't thrilled with, added a cover, a title page, and a two-page text story, and then wrapped the whole thing in a PDF bow. (Hey, Mig! There's a PDF!) Go grab a copy (11.3 mb) - it's a fantastic read! (Louis Wu 13:58:46 UTC) (permalink)

Vidmaster Challenge: Annual - a Guide
Declan Clarke, and the rest of the Spartan I Project at Bungie.net, have put together a guide to completing the Vidmaster Challenge: Annual Achievement in Halo 3. If you've been having trouble beating the last level of the game on Legendary, this guide can help you bypass the most difficult pitfalls of the level, efficiently traverse frustrating sections, and give you tips that you might not have known before. It is composed in the style of the Legendary/Mythic Guides here on HBO; there is a text component, but there are plenty of video supplements to show you visually where and how to complete specific tasks. The videos are watchable either on the page, streaming, or downloadable, in a couple of formats, if you want to have them near you while you're doing the run and your computer isn't near your Xbox. It's a great guide - give it a read! (Louis Wu 13:54:50 UTC) (permalink)

News July 5 2009

It's an Enigma, wrapped in a Crystal...
This is a truly bizarre endeavor - Kiloh Ekim is attempting to recreate an impossible space with Forge. (And not just ANY impossible space - but one that was originally created in a Halo context.) I love Halo fans! (Louis Wu 19:25:19 UTC) (permalink)

That looks better than mine...
JJaX has a Halo 3 Legendary helmet on a desk at work. A coworker took a pic, and applied some HDR techniques. The result is pretty slick! (Louis Wu 19:20:59 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Fails: Episode 23
Our resident Halo 3 Fails announcer, chris10023, let us know about Halo 3 Fails Episode 23. As usual, it made me feel a little better about my matchmaking play. (I learned something, too... if you incinerate someone, and their body kills someone ELSE, you're responsible.) Fun stuff - go watch! (Louis Wu 16:19:58 UTC) (permalink)

Benefit Halo 3 Tournament on LIVE
redvsblue42 stopped in with word of a Halo 3 Tournament on LIVE - it's a benefit tourney for the family of Megan Maxwell (the missing teen in Tennessee), and it complements the the event we've mentioned in Newport on the 18th. The LIVE event will also be on the 18th, and rules and schedule are in the forum post - give it a read for full details! (Louis Wu 16:19:35 UTC) (permalink)

Celebrating Independence, the Halo Way
Hawty McBloggy pointed out a screenshot that was pretty appropriate yesterday, along with some fan art. Happy 4th! (Louis Wu 16:19:12 UTC) (permalink)

Haloramics - HD Panoramic Vids
2good4u2 (and later AmericanXplorer13, via email) let us know about Haloramics, a new website devoted to Halo panoramas. They've got a bunch of panoramic montages up for your viewing pleasure - the most recent is called Infinity. (Louis Wu 16:18:44 UTC) (permalink)

Kill joy Incorporated - Live
Hope everyone had a pleasant day off yesterday - let's see what's live in the Halo universe! We got mail from YYY XXX about a live show to be hosted tomorrow, Monday, June 6, at 5 pm Eastern - it will contain machinimas, interviews with members of the Halo community, and more. Swing by Kill Joy Incorporated to see it. (Louis Wu 16:17:49 UTC) (permalink)

News July 4 2009

Fireworks and hot dogs... coming up
From the staff of HBO to you and your friends and family, a hearty Happy Fourth of July! Whether you live in the US, or elsewhere in the world, we hope you agree that freedom is a pretty important human right - and we're going to celebrate it with those closest to us. See you tomorrow! (Louis Wu 13:59:45 UTC) (permalink)

News July 3 2009

Bungie Weekly Update - Up Early
Bungie's taken Friday off to enjoy the July 4 weekend - but they put up a Weekly Update all the same. Lots of screenshots of maps that will be part of the Bugnie Day playlist, plus important news for those of us who haven't actually PAID for Bungie Pro (if you got it free with the Mythic Maps, today is your last day). Go read! As always, a local copy can be found in our Weekly Update Archive. (Louis Wu 19:14:51 UTC) (permalink)

Friday Comic Roundup
Only a couple of comics to mention this Friday: Dennis Powers released Shipwrecked Episode 76 - Business as Unusual, and Bloogyo let us know about a whole passel of Rat's Nest episodes. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 19:08:33 UTC) (permalink)

Friday's Fan Fiction
A little later than usual, but there are 7 new entries in the Fan Fiction section - go read! (Louis Wu 16:42:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Mythic Guide Version 2.0 - Tsavo Highway
As we mentioned yesterday, the next phase of Tyrant's Summer Mythic Recon Challenge involves the level Tsavo Highway - so to make your life a little bit easier, his revamped guide to the level is now up in the Halo 3 Mythic Walkthrough V2.0. Not only is there a set of suggestions for a relatively safe completion of the level - there's a 'Kamikaze' version that whips you through the first half of the level in 4 minutes. Go read, and watch! See if you can beat his times. (Louis Wu 14:20:54 UTC) (permalink)

Happy Bungie Day '09
ReleasetheMonk created a video in honor of the upcoming Bungie Day - the song's pretty funny. Go watch! (Louis Wu 14:05:26 UTC) (permalink)

Up, up and away, in my beautiful - what?
Hawty McBloggy has posted a holiday-themed Friday Caption Fun - some funny entries for last week's pic, plus a fun new picture just ripe for abuse. Go play! (Louis Wu 14:03:02 UTC) (permalink)

Breaking In - Chris Opdahl
There was a new Breaking In article posted last night - Chris Opdahl (Campaign Design Lead for Halo: Reach) discusses how he got his current job (and I gotta say, there's potential for a sexual harassment lawsuit in there), and what you can do to increase your chances if you want to follow him. (Louis Wu 14:00:51 UTC) (permalink)

News July 2 2009

It's all about the sev-amins (wait...)
Hawty McBloggy is putting together another community-driven Bungie Day project, to be delivered on July 7; if you want to participate, check out her post explaining what you need to do - and by when. Time's a'wastin'... get to work! (Louis Wu 21:24:43 UTC) (permalink)

It's Thursday, Baby!
Cool stuff in the Bungie Blog this afternoon:

• The latest Double XP Weekend is live now - in honor of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence, it's 4th of July Weekend, with Flag, Rockets, and VIP. Get to playin'!
• Tyrant continues challenging you to complete sections of Halo 3 on 'Mythic' difficulty (Solo, Legendary, All Skulls On), and offering you Recon armor for doing so. This week's map: Tsavo Highway. His 2.0 walkthrough covering the level should be online by tomorrow - giving you plenty of time to study it and get yourself through the level in record time. Go read all the details!
• There's another Community Cartographers feature - this one highlights a map called 'Tartarus', from Sikamikanico - go see why he made it, and why you should add it to your Custom Games rotation!

Lots of good stuff for filling up your Thursday afternoon! (Louis Wu 20:00:23 UTC) (permalink)

Sarge... I never knew...
Albetta sent us this link; normally, I'd have nothing to do with a RickRoll-type video, but that's not really what this is. It's... well, you have to watch it. Yes, it's got Never Gonna Give You Up. No, I'm not RickRolling you. It works surprisingly well (despite the horrible video quality). (Louis Wu 19:27:32 UTC) (permalink)

Lagout Episode 2
urk pointed out a new episode of Lagout - I guess if you quit out of Matchmaking the right way, you get cool powers. Personally, I'd rather be able to shoot webs out of my wrists, but whatever... (Louis Wu 17:05:56 UTC) (permalink)

8-Bit Halo, Eps 2 and 3
Fragclone mentioned that 8-Bit Halo Episode 3 was released - but I hadn't even realized Episode 2 was up. A little searching turned up both Episode 2 (released last week) and Episode 3 (released yesterday). It's getting weirder... (Louis Wu 13:02:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Cards - Printed
Arithmomaniac printed out his Halo Cards at Staples - nice looking work! (Louis Wu 12:58:30 UTC) (permalink)

There are always more vids...
urk posted another couple of vids last night on the Bungie Blog - TheCaptnAwesomee turned a game of Stab-Out in Action Sack into a machinima, and passTHEword whipped up a really nicely done montage with awesome gameplay by Woooly and some very classy editing. Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:56:05 UTC) (permalink)

News July 1 2009

Evil Gets an Upgrade
You might remember a little feature we hosted last year - Daniel 'Tyrant' Morris created a Halo 3 Mythic Guide, showing you how to get through the game on Legendary difficulty, with all skulls on. Well, he hasn't been resting on his laurels - he's been putting together a new version of this guide, with new, faster, more efficient routes and tricks - and we're proud to help him host it. Presenting The Halo 3 Mythic Walkthrough, Version 2.0. Conceived as an add-on, rather than a replacement, the original tips and level walkthroughs are still available if you'd like to compare... but each level will now have a NEW walkthrough, with new tricks and videos. (Check the Home Page of the new guide for a fully-updated set of Tips and Tricks.) He'll be posting levels to coincide with his Summer Mythic Recon Challenge - so if you haven't completed this week's run of The Storm yet, you can use the Storm page of his new guide to shave some time off your effort! (Louis Wu 22:38:56 UTC) (permalink)

You guys rock. Plain and simple.
Hawty McBloggy sent along an update for the Fundfax Fairraiser, the charity event she hosted for a few days last week - an amazing chunk of change was generated in the few days she was able to keep it running (over $6000!), and she's still working on a method of picking the winners publicly. Swing by and give it a read! Congrats to everyone who made this a success, in spite of some unexpected roadblocks! (Louis Wu 22:22:44 UTC) (permalink)

PanoMania
We've posted a couple of batches of panoramas from dutch Halo player 2good4u2 (here and here) - now his brother 2good4u is doing it, and his first batch is on our forum. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 21:27:25 UTC) (permalink)

The Anatomy of a Sarkathlon
Mr Sark sent word that he'd been interviewed on the gameblog Digital Kuroko - it's an interesting discussion about the creation of his Sarkathlons, the Halo 3 obstacle courses that have generated interest from thousands of gamers. It's just 20 minutes long - go listen! (Louis Wu 21:15:57 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Wars: Birth of a Mission
Another Dev Blog went live at HaloWars.com yesterday - Designer Joe Gillum discusses how a mission took shape, from concept to enactment. Interesting read! Thanks, 2900d4u. (Louis Wu 18:35:33 UTC) (permalink)

Bungie Favorites: Major League Driving, Week 2
Bungie.net's updated the Bungie Favorites section, using another batch of goodies from Major League Driving. Swing by to see what they have to offer! (Louis Wu 17:58:19 UTC) (permalink)

Assassination
Lando Griff1n let us know about a new montage from HAZMAT v2 - it's 17 minutes long, and REALLY heavy on the editing. The HD download weighs in at a seriously meaty 600 mb (but there's a streaming version available on the Halo3Montage.com page). I liked the 'Unexplained' section (though I wish it had been brighter). Take a look! (Louis Wu 17:27:30 UTC) (permalink)

Charity Halo 3 2v2 Tourney in TN
In early June, we mentioned a charity tournament being organized to raise money to help search for a missing teenager in Tennessee. The tournament scheduling is much farther along now - looks like it'll be taking place on July 18, in Newport, TN. Swing by JeSteR 343's forum post for full details. (Louis Wu 16:47:18 UTC) (permalink)

Vids, and such
A couple of new movies for you, courtesy of the BungLog™:

• Top 10 Halo 3 Splatters HD shows off (surprise, surprise) ten splatter vids. I'd say number 8 was the best of the bunch, unfortunately.
• Halo 3 Crudbusters takes a relatively unsubtle approach to parodying the Halo 3 Mythbusters videos - but I like the last one quite a bit.

Be like Chauncy Gardner. (Louis Wu 16:36:18 UTC) (permalink)

Wednesday Comic Roundup
It's Wednesday, so it's time for a summary of Halo comics released in the last 48 hours:

• Dennis Powers let us know about Shipwrecked Episode 75 - Wishful Thinking; sometimes, apparently, you get what you wish for.
• Hawty McBloggy sent word of ODST Steve #31: Falling Angel - and the new Lieutenant has a surprise.
• Bloogyo stopped in with word of Rat's Nest 20 2 - I'm pretty sure the Master Chief isn't THAT stupid...
• TTL Demag0gue put some extra effort into Reclaimer 200 - AI Upgraded. This one is Flash-based, and created completely by Demag0gue - congrats on a fine piece of work! Go get a better sense of who Tran is.
• The Catfish sent word to urk that 2501 Episode 73 is live.

That's it for today - grab a cup of coffee and do some reading! (Louis Wu 16:17:19 UTC) (permalink)

July 2009

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