Old news but still good news!

Out of Afri- erm, Halo
A couple of escapades have been posted to the Gameplay Tricks section - some great out-of-map shots on Battle Creek (nobody's ever gotten out before) and Blood Gulch (a whole BUNCH of places never seen before)... check 'em out! (More stuff coming soon.) (Louis Wu 19:06:06 UTC) (permalink)

More pistol sketches for you
Last week, Trey Ikon submitted a series of pistol concept sketches - pretty cool stuff. Today, we're adding another series that he mentioned on our forum yesterday - you'll find 'em in our Miscellaneous Art section. That pistol/shotgun combo is getting prettier and prettier... (Louis Wu 12:39:34 UTC) (permalink)

Looks sort of familiar...
We get some pretty odd Wallpaper sometimes... (Louis Wu 12:39:08 UTC) (permalink)

MC gets a color job
An early greyscale concept drawing of the Master Chief has been colored by WeTsLaYeR - we've added it to our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 12:12:35 UTC) (permalink)

Ghost Jumping with SaTaN
A few weeks ago, SaTaN discovered a cool new trick - you could use the momentum of a vehicle to push your player up a LONG way. He described it on our forum, and then Bonk filmed a demo of the technique... but SaTaN's put out a video of his own, showing how versatile this trick really is (and showing some s7yle in the process). We've started you out with two mirrors for the 8.6 mb film... but we're happy to list more. (Louis Wu 09:36:55 UTC) (permalink)

Siege of Madrigal, revisited
Daniel, of Team 7hr33, points out that his sister Robyn (Dephalt) wrote (and recorded) a very nice addition to Marty O'Donnell's 'Siege of Madrigal', and the result is posted on Team 7hr33's website. (Sheet music is also included.) Go listen! (It's on the Miscellaneous page.) (Louis Wu 01:24:14 UTC) (permalink)

Wallpaper to read by
Alex Cross, who has been writing chapters for the Fan Fiction series Aftermath for about a month now, has submitted a desktop image to accompany the writing. You'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 01:48:44 UTC) (permalink)

Sidewalk art - now THAT'S fanaticism
Now this is just plain cool. Some Halo fanatics recreated some Halo wallpaper at a Sidewalk Arts festival in Georgia... in chalk. Lots of chalk. Check out the results in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Explanation included.) (Louis Wu 01:37:09 UTC) (permalink)

Easier Trick Finding
Small change in the Gameplay Tricks section - you now have the option to search by Trick Type. (If you don't care about Exploration, but want to see all the weird glitches people have found... this is for you.) As soon as I can figure out a clean way to do it, you'll be able to combine limiters - explorations on Blood Gulch, for example. (Right now, the only way I came up with takes too much room at the top of the page...) Thanks to Reckless Angel for the suggestion. And while we're thanking people, thanks to Mark Mendenhall for suggesting a variant of the Trick Suggestions database that went up a couple of days ago - be sure to add your ideas to the list! (Louis Wu 18:11:17 UTC) (permalink)

New Wallpaper posted
Red hunter at night, take flight. To the Wallpaper section with you! (Louis Wu 10:27:49 UTC) (permalink)

I gotchyer trick, right heah...
Another half-dozen tricks have been uploaded to the Gameplay Tricks section - keep an eye out for easier navigation, coming soon. In the meantime, check these babies out - they range from elegant to seriously useful, with fun stuff thrown in just for kicks. And what's this? The queue is almost empty! W00t! (Louis Wu 00:16:21 UTC) (permalink)

The Joys of Halo
Nice article over at Gamespot - this issue of Gamespotting has 'Halo's 10 Commandments', a well-written list explaining why Greg Kasavin says he "wouldn't hesitate to name Halo as my single favorite system launch game of all time." The only thing that bugged me was the pic he chose to illustrate The Co-op Mode'... Thanks to DT for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 00:11:16 UTC) (permalink)

Japanese halo commercials decoded
Robert Whitaker has kindly translated (or explained) the speech and captions of the four Japanese Halo commercials released last week - visit his translations page and see if you can decipher the inscrutable Japanese advertising mindset... (Louis Wu 00:00:16 UTC) (permalink)

Secret Halo Factoid, eh?
Wondering why the number of grenades in ammo caches on multiplayer maps isn't constant? Read this. (Louis Wu 21:37:40 UTC) (permalink)

Tricks Suggestions Database comes online
The Gameplay Tricks database has gotten rather large - currently, there are 114 entries in it (plus another collection of tricks illustrated by some of the One-Shots entries; there are almost 50 of those). It's becoming difficult to tell what tricks have been done, how they've been done, and what still needs to be done. To that end, we've set up a simple Gameplay Tricks Suggestions page. We'll let it run for a while - feel free to add whatever comes to mind. (Try not to be obnoxious - yes, you can fill it with garbage, but how useful is that?) We'll eventually use it to build a comprehensive table of tricks - we'll include the tricks already in the database, plus any tricks queued up but not yet added, so that people can tell, in once place, what still needs to be accomplished. Until we get around to building that list, the creative among you should use the entries as inspiration for cool new submissions! (If someone submits a trick that's listed in this database, and it comes in after the database entry, we'll be giving joint credit to the suggester AND the submitter; there doesn't seem to be any other fair way to do it.) Now go add your info! (Louis Wu 15:51:33 UTC) (permalink)

X-Boxed reviews Halo
A new Halo review - this time at X-Boxed. 9/10 - 'the best console game [he] ever played'. Not too shabby! We've added it to our Reviews database. Thanks to Subnova.com for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 14:16:03 UTC) (permalink)

The Funniest Ways to Die
Over at The Seventh Column, Bungie's community site, you'll find a chapter that's compiling a database of the funniest deaths - visit Hunterz to see what's already up, and add your own! (Don't forget - you can create databases to store any info you think might be valuable; a few weeks ago, we pointed out that PanZer was building a Human and Grunt Sayings database... it's up over 600 entries now!) Thanks to Tru7h and Reconciliation for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:44:20 UTC) (permalink)

Edge blesses Halo
A few months ago, Edge Magazine gave Halo a 10/10 rating - a score shared by only 3 other games in Edge's history. Yesterday, Edge Awards 2002 went on sale in the UK... and Halo took a whole slew of honors:

Game of the year, Halo :- "Halo works on so many levels and is simply on a different plane to any other title which has emerged in the last year."

Technical achievement of the year, Halo :- "Technically, Halo displays a level of rigour and finesse sadly missing from many modern video games."

Audio achievement of the year, Halo :- "...it cannot fail but give an emotional impact missing from most modern games... It's all enhanced by the realtime Dolby 5.1 surround sound... Plug in, sit back, and be absorbed by a singularly superb aural experience".

Also runner up in Graphical achievement of the year.

Oh, the things you can do...
Half-a-dozen new tricks have gone up in the Gameplay Tricks section - some pretty cool stuff there, take a look. (And keep your eyes peeled - the next batch won't be a week away; in fact hopefully it'll be done before the end of the week.) (Louis Wu 19:39:27 UTC) (permalink)

Warthog 2k2 gets another mirror
Xerxes, of Halo Orbit, writes to point out that they've mirrored the Warthog2k2 video from Nico D., posted a few weeks ago. Warthog jumping can be fun! (They're also hosting the latest release of Counter-Strike, so the server might be a bit hard to reach at times...) (Louis Wu 14:05:26 UTC) (permalink)

Yummy mirror goodness
That Weasel has mirrored 2 new movies, in 2 flavors each: The Halo Movie Teaser 3 is up in QT5 and WMP formats, and you'll find a new encoding of the Pillar of Autumn with No Weapons there, as well. (The new WMP8 version there is 4.8 mb.) More mirrors, less waiting! (Louis Wu 09:06:35 UTC) (permalink)

I want one just for the Engrish.

Nice guns...
Trey Ikon has created a series of pistol concept sketches - the AR sketch isn't quite finished yet (according to him), but the rest are ready for prime time. You can find them in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 18:57:44 UTC) (permalink)

Wallpaper can be fun
New desktop image from Wetslayer - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (We've also added the 'Obey Your Thirst' shot that Subnova put up a couple of days ago.) (Louis Wu 18:27:09 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 announcement at E3?
News catch-up... Peter Haughie points out that the latest issue of Xgamer, a UK Xbox mag, has some speculation about a Halo 2 announcement at E3 next month (they state that 'an inside source has confirmed that Halo 2 exists'):

The timing is everything. Xbox is off to a rip-roaring start but Microsoft needs to keep the momentum going. And what better way to keep the good times rolling than by announcing the follow-up to the game that's got people pulling Xboxes off the shelves as fast as their hands can move? That announcement will take place at videogaming's biggest industry event of the year - E3 in Los Angeles, between May 21st and 24th.

The rest of the article is pretty interesting, as well - once it's off the shelves, we'll be sure to put it up in our Press Scans section! (Louis Wu 17:32:40 UTC) (permalink)

Mirror list for HTM Teaser 3 started
Halo-game has mirrored the newest Halo movie teaser from Blackstar productions - we've created a mirror list for it; as more come in, we'll add them. Off to update the movies page... Update: Not to be outdone, today's other release, The Pillar of Autumn with No Weapons, has also acquired a mirror list. Collect the whole set! (Louis Wu 13:24:53 UTC) (permalink)

Another Halo Soundtrack sample at xbox.com
Thanks to Alan Wu, who noticed a third Halo Soundtrack sample at xbox.com. (Windows Media format,64 Kbps, just under a minute.) At this rate, the entire soundtrack will be released before the Soundtrack is available! (Louis Wu 11:44:21 UTC) (permalink)

The TIME some people have...
These are fantastic. (Louis Wu 09:29:39 UTC) (permalink)

(The rewritten piece is far enough away from the original that we're going to leave both for now. That may change. :) ) (Louis Wu 09:00:07 UTC) (permalink)

Movies - they're EVERYWHERE!
Movie Madness!! Not one, but TWO new movies have been released - Brian Josselyn, of Blackstar Productions, has created his THIRD Halo Movie teaser (this one's large-format, and very emotional); you can find it at his site, as well as mirrored at mythica.org... and a team composed of Bluespam, Tarrsk, and OSX2000 (all HBO forum visitors) have put together an intriguing piece which shows a pair of players finishing PoA... with no weapons! This one is also at mythica.org, and on hotline, at the Psyjnir Complex, as well. The movie trailer is 16.6 mb, the PoA runthrough is 11 mb. Go pick 'em both up, and watch almost 30 megs of Halo goodness! (Louis Wu 00:02:36 UTC) (permalink)

Screens... lots of screens
Slacking again... we've finally caught up on Halo Screenshots - four new collections have been added to the Screenshots Database. (Time to come up with a less awkward navigation system, I think...) The path to completeness continues. (Louis Wu 22:33:20 UTC) (permalink)

Psyjnir Complex HL gets movies
A boatload of movies have just been uploaded to the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server (in Halo -> Movies) - if you're having trouble finding a film, this isn't a bad place to start! (We'll be adding more as time goes on.) Thanks, Psyrixx and *Ar! (Louis Wu 21:33:18 UTC) (permalink)

That's MMXCV too many, you ask me...
Jason P. drops off a new fanfic which takes a... rather different approach to life after Halo. Check out A Comedy of Peace, in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 20:02:12 UTC) (permalink)

Upcoming fanfic book gets a cover
Ian Barnes, aka PanZer, has been working on a Fan Fiction series for a couple of months now. (Operation: False Prophets just got its ninth installment posted today.) He's planning on printing the whole thing once it's finished... and in anticipation, has created cover art. You can find it in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 17:57:47 UTC) (permalink)

Color and light
Another pair of desktop images have come in - if you're tired of the monochrome, staid variety, check these out. You'll find 'em in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 17:48:08 UTC) (permalink)

The Long Ride Home, part 5, by Joshua Barreto

GODS LOVE A TRYER, part 2, by Dee Pulled by author's request

Roughneck Two-Zero, part 6, by Anthony Coronado

The Renegade Marines, part 14, by Shadow

Operation False Prophets, part 9, by Ian Barnes

Slowly but surely, working out the backlog... (Louis Wu 17:33:25 UTC) (permalink)

Store... coming sooner
Heh - da5id noticed that the Bungie Store front page is up again (but requires a login to get past that screen) - shouldn't be too long before this puppy is open! (Louis Wu 16:24:05 UTC) (permalink)

Xbox Maniacs reviews Halo
We got word yesterday that Xbox Maniacs had put up a Halo review. (It was actually posted in early December, but we missed it.) It's been added to the Reviews Database.

I don't think that's what 7-up means...
Subnova picked up an exclusive new desktop image with the help of Bungie - if you've finished the game, this is a great one. (If you haven't, it's rather spoileriffic.) It's available in 1024x768 (160k) and 1920x1440 (308k) - and it's pretty funny. (Visit the Easter Egg page if you don't get the reference.) We'll add these to our Wallpaper collection soon - but for now, visit Subnova to grab 'em! (And look around while you're there, if you haven't before...) The idea (and coercion of Bungie employees) is courtesy of Mark Levin, while the Photoshop work was done by Deimos™. (Louis Wu 13:25:05 UTC) (permalink)

Bella Online looks at Halo
dogsounds sent us a note about an article on Halo at Bella Online, the website for Bella Magazine. Unusual for a women's magazine, they've covered Halo, down to a (pretty basic) walkthrough. dogsounds had some problems with the language contained therein... but you can judge for yourself. His comment was:

I get the feeling the reviewer is the kind of person who takes the role of "the one that spawns in front of vehicles" in multiplayer...

We're not entirely sure that's fair... but have a look. (Louis Wu 18:59:16 UTC) (permalink)

Sarge's got nothing on her...
Wow... a female marine concept sketch. (Okay, it's more than a sketch.) Very nice work by Daniel.C. Check it out in our bulging Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 17:49:58 UTC) (permalink)

MC on a WinXP login screen
Bob Henegar has created a replacement login screen for Windows XP, featuring the Master Chief. We've added it to our Miscellaneous Art section, for lack of a better place - a preview can be seen there. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 17:34:53 UTC) (permalink)

Pretty pictures
ImmortalPain sends in three new sketches - one's not as finished as he'd like, but they're all still pretty impressive. Watch for spoilers. These can be found in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 16:04:14 UTC) (permalink)

More BtR mirrors
Two new mirrors for the Breaking the Rules vid released yesterday - thanks to Appleicious and Rampancy.net for their generous bandwidth donations! (The full mirror list is still here.) (Louis Wu 03:25:15 UTC) (permalink)

Movie Mirrors begin
That Weasel has added a pair of mirrors for the Breaking the Rules movie - you can grab it in the existing QT5 format, or in a re-encoded WMP 8 format (considerably smaller). We've set up a BtR mirror page for links. (We'd love to make it longer. :) ) (Louis Wu 21:16:07 UTC) (permalink)

Jaime Griesemer in April Edge
The April issue of Edge Magazine (a very high-quality gaming mag in the UK) has an interview with Jaime Griesemer, one of Halo's Designers. It's a good read (and got me wondering where the 'weak spots' on a tank are...) - you can find it, scanned in for those without access to the dead tree version, over at Subnova.com. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:02:23 UTC) (permalink)

Breaking the Rules is fun
A new movie hits the streets - Team Overkill has created 'Breaking the Rules', a three and a half minute romp through Halo tricksterism. (Hey - he made that word up, didn't he?) There are gameplay glitches, grenade tricks, weird sights... and at least two multiplayer tricks I've never seen before (both of which look to be quite useful, one of which has me smacking my forehead for missing it). Nicely composed, as well. Currently, we've tossed it up on Brian Towne's mythica.org server (side note to Brian - feel free to slap me around whenever this gets to be too much bandwidth :) ), but 18 mb files need mirrors like Linus needs his blanket. Any help would be appreciated. (Louis Wu 10:56:37 UTC) (permalink)

Doodling day
A pair of pencil sketches came in tonight - the PoA sketch is pretty slick! Check 'em both out in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 02:04:39 UTC) (permalink)

MS Halo Theme now for older Windows systems
Six months ago, Microsoft released a Halo Theme for Windows XP. The components were quickly extracted and made available... but now Windows 95/98/ME users have the option of a simple Theme install, thanks to Doomsdeath. He's pulled out some of the pieces, and added a .theme file... easy install on older MS systems. 748k, zipped. Go get it! (Louis Wu 01:51:30 UTC) (permalink)

Fantastic new desktops at T&R
DOH! Almost forgot to mention - there are also a whole passel of irregularly-sized images for dual-monitor setups on the Desktops page of Tru7h and Reconciliation- go get 'em! (Watch the spoilers.) (Louis Wu 19:26:52 UTC) (permalink)

Marathon/Halo connections
There's a new article over at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site today, which focuses on the ties between Marathon and Halo. Are any questions answered? No, not really. It's a good overview for those who don't know much about Marathon... but the Bungie skill of saying a lot without saying anything is very much in evidence here. Oh, yeah, and go read what Hamish Sinclair had to say about it, over at the Marathon's Story page... Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up - though I should have seen it myself on the Story page... shame, shame... (Louis Wu 19:24:01 UTC) (permalink)

Play all you want - we'll find more
A dent has been made on the Gameplay Tricks queue - 9 new tricks have been added today. They range from funny little glitches to major thought-provoking engine explorations... look through ALL of 'em! (There are still half-a-dozen in the queue - including one or two that have been in the documentation phase for a LONG time - but we're getting there.) (Louis Wu 18:23:14 UTC) (permalink)

The art, it is a'changin'
New fan art - one from wetslayer, three from Germain Couët. You'll find all four in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Splat's pretty funny. ;) ) Update: Germain CouÔt has sent in ANOTHER image - you can find it here, or see all five with this link. (Louis Wu 15:49:21 UTC) (permalink)

Reading, reading, reading, keep those dogies reading...
Today's batch of Fan Fiction for you:

Halo Beyond, part 1, by Joey21488

Banserki's Journal, part 5, by Sarge

Gods Love a Tryer, part 1, by Dee Pulled by author's request

The Long Ride Home, part 3, by Joshua Barreto

Lessee if I can get these posted before more come in... (Louis Wu 13:54:36 UTC) (permalink)

The emperor has no clothes
Sometimes, I just want to cry. For months and months (and months on end), Matt Soell, spokesperson for Bungie Studios, has been yelling at the top of his lungs that Halo is coming to PCs/Macs - but judging from the mail we get (and posts on our forum), nobody hears him. Yesterday, Adrenaline Vault put up a story that "Microsoft Says Yes to Halo for PC" - and we've already gotten several emails, telling us how wonderful this news is! Whatever works, I guess... (Louis Wu 13:24:56 UTC) (permalink)

Japanese Halo commercials
New Halo commercials at Xbox.jp - 4 of 'em, ranging from hilarious to... um, confusing. All in .asx streaming format. There are also two larger files on that page - the new trailer mentioned yesterday, and the one posted back in February. Thanks to op_ivy for the heads-up. Update: These commercials have been added to the Movies database. (Louis Wu 12:55:14 UTC) (permalink)

Haloplayers is back!
Whoa - nice design! Haloplayers, one of the old guard Halo sites, lost its domain name a little while back... but they've taken a new one - RealHaloplayers.com - and are back and better than ever! (If you can't see 'em yet, the DNS changes haven't propagated - be patient.) Classy new design, a serious focus on the multiplayer community... these guys are ready to rock. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 01:16:48 UTC) (permalink)

New Movies section comes online
It's nowhere near as finished as I'd like... but it's functional, and it's MUCH more finished than the old version. For those people looking for Halo Movies, we'd like to announce our newly-overhauled Halo Movies Section. More features will be coming soon (sorting, searching, and so on) - but for now, hopefully you'll find an up-to-date, organized list of Halo movies to be useful. There are lots of new things - many movies have been converted to different formats, to make them more accessible (usually that means smaller) - and several movies that have been missing for ages have now been found. Browse away! (Louis Wu 20:33:58 UTC) (permalink)

Silent Cartographer Antics
A rather well-documented entry has been added to the Gameplay Tricks section - there is now quite a bit of documentation on getting through the locked door on Silent Cartographer. In addition, there are a pair of bonus movies - both are from xbill; one shows how to get through that door in a jeep without explosives or beating, and the other shows some entertaining cutscene manipulation. Check it all out! (Louis Wu 15:44:42 UTC) (permalink)

What is Botswana like, virtually?
A new magazine has hit the streets - ThePerfectCore lets us know about it in our forum. (You'll find the cover in our Miscellaneous Art section.) (Louis Wu 09:26:58 UTC) (permalink)

If you make it, they will come
This showed up in our inbox yesterday. We think it fell off the produce truck in Hollywood. Or something. (Louis Wu 09:10:49 UTC) (permalink)

The price of playing Halo just dropped
As noted by MSN on our forum, and Firfin via email, Microsoft has decided to drop the price of the Xbox outside the US - new prices (as of April 26) will be Û299/£199/A$399 in Europe/UK/Australia, respectively. Makes you wish you'd waited, huh? Update: Veebs points out that Microsoft is giving everyone who bought an Xbox BEFORE April 26 two free games and a free controller - so it's all good. (except, of course, for those of us in the US, who STILL have to pay $299 US per xbox...) (Louis Wu 09:09:01 UTC) (permalink)

New Japanese Halo trailer
Microsoft's Japanese Xbox site has a new Halo trailer (Windows Media Player format, High Bandwidth only). Nothing new for seasoned Halo movie watchers but some nice gameplay nevertheless. Warning: it may contain a spoiler for those who haven't played Halo. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 04:00:51 UTC) (permalink)

DirectX on a Mac... who'da thunk it?
Apologies for the slow news service - major connectivity problems yesterday has led to quite a bit of cleanup today - not much time for Halo. However, this is big news: According to this MacWorld.uk article, a UK company has announced a DirectX solution for the Macintosh - which should make the porting of games (potentially even Halo, though maybe the timing is off) to the Mac a whole lot easier. Thanks to Miguel Chavez for the heads-up on our forum. Woohoo! (Louis Wu 15:30:50 UTC) (permalink)

Three new Halo reviews
Three new Halo reviews, thanks to Blues News - StonedGamers.com (who didn't summarize, so we've left them out of the Reviews Database, though they loved it), Ausbox.net (they loved it), and Gamers Xtreme (they loved it). Running tally: 115 reviews (plus 2 unranked), average 94.9%. (Louis Wu 18:33:55 UTC) (permalink)

Shirt insanity continues
Quick update on the eBayed Halo shirt mentioned yesterday: It's up to $41 right now, and we're still 2 and a half days from the end of the auction! PCDestroyer says, "Bungie must not want to make money hand over fist..." Heh. (These shirts will likely be half that price, or less, when the Bungie Store finally reopens.) (Louis Wu 14:35:33 UTC) (permalink)

Daily dose of ff
Today's Fan Fiction installment consists of new chapters to existing series:

That empties the ff queue... for probably about 15 minutes. (Louis Wu 12:35:05 UTC) (permalink)

New Wallpaper for skinny monitors
Rather an odd size for a desktop image... but that's what he's calling it. :) Germain Couët has created another mural image - this time of a battlescene during the day, in the snow. You'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 09:40:26 UTC) (permalink)

Halo CTF designs recreated
Team Overkill has created a pair of images based on the designs on the multiplayer flags in Halo - you can see the originals in this screenshot, and find TO's representations in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 09:32:31 UTC) (permalink)

Renegade Theatre Strikes Again
This came in yesterday - but yesterday was insane. (Heck, the whole WEEK's been insane...) Mark Mendenhall, the guy behind Hurricane Halo, put together a little warning video, called 'If Halo Were Sponsored by Ford...' It's been crunched down to a puny 3.5 mb, so I've tossed it up into mythica.org's nearly unlimited fountain of bandwidth - if anyone wants to mirror it, we'd be happy to announce it. Sure to bring a smile to your face... unless you own Ford stock. Update: Alan Wu sends word that he's mirrored the film, along with a re-encoded version in .wmv format (1.7 mb), at Project MJOLNIR. (Louis Wu 01:23:08 UTC) (permalink)

Immortal Artwork
Ack! We received a pretty cool art submission this weekend, but time was so crazy, we forgot to add it! You can find ImmortalPain's elite in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 17:38:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo shirt on eBay
The Marathon eBay page maintainer has noticed a Halo t-shirt for sale - someone got one at a lanfest, and never wore it. 3 days left in the auction - current price is $6.50. If you just can't wait until the Store opens... get to bidding! (Louis Wu 17:14:07 UTC) (permalink)

PDF versions of GDC talks available
Thanks to Veebs, who has put up pdf versions of both the Marty O'Donnell talk (4.4 mb) and the Griesemer/Butcher talk (473 kb) for download. (Some of the notes for the Halo AI talk have been cut off... but mostly the entire thing is quite readable.) Appleicious has done the same - the O'Donnell talk is 11.3 mb, the Griesemer/Butcher talk is 5 mb. (I haven't been able to download these two yet.) (Louis Wu 16:52:45 UTC) (permalink)

HTML version of first GDC talk up
The information included in the GDC proceedings was so intriguing that we're making it available in a more accessible format - the PowerPoint presentations have been converted to straight HTML. The Jaime Griesemer/Chris Butcher talk on Halo's AI is available now - Marty O'Donnell's talk will be available tomorrow. The notes make for FASCINATING reading. (Louis Wu 08:52:05 UTC) (permalink)

GDC Proceedings posted
The Game Developers Conference proceedings are now posted - you can find them on this page. There are two talks of interest to Halo fans - Jaime Griesemer and Chris Butcher talked about Halo's AI (PowerPoint format, 14.2 mb), and Marty O'Donnell talked about Halo's music (in PowerPoint format, 3 mb, or MS Word format, 44K). A wealth of information in both talks! Worth some serious discussion on our forum... (Thanks to Jaime Griesemer for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 02:03:25 UTC) (permalink)

We've adjusted our Links page accordingly. Thanks to Martin Spitzenberg for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 23:10:08 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction news
Interesting find by Vector40 - Apparently, a site called 'fanfiction.net' has a growing collection (28, as of right now) of Halo Fan Fiction pieces... with very little overlap (one article, at first glance) with our collection. I wonder if that means the submission rate will slow down here? Not anytime soon, I'd guess - here's the latest batch:

Read 'em through... don't worry, there'll be more! Nasty Notice: DOH! Careless me, I didn't even pay attention to the fact that one of the stories I uploaded this morning was, in fact, a complete plagiarization (is that a word? It was a total ripoff) of another story found right here - Tyler Sivertsen's 'Through the Eyes of a Marine' was a word-for-word transcription of Jaywhit10's 'The Hell of War Through the Eyes of a Marine'. I've pulled the offending story, and I apologize to Jaywhit10 for not catching this sooner. Plagiarism sucks. (Louis Wu 14:40:25 UTC) (permalink)

Halo sound scheme for Windows
Pfhoenix has created a Halo sound scheme for Windows - you can read about it here. (The individual files are all in .wav format, so Mac users can easily hear what's available.) Take a look! (Louis Wu 13:40:09 UTC) (permalink)

Movie update
Quick note, on this most hectic of all weekends: Narcogen, of Rampancy.net, points out that Blackstar Productions is now hosting its own movies ('Halo: The Movie' and the Halo Movie Teaser). Check 'em out for more details! (We've added these to the 'Halo: The Movie' mirrors list - we still need to compile a mirrors list for the teaser - and have removed the R.net mirrors. The updated Movies page, containing all movies released in the past several months, should be online sometime this weekend... hopefully.) (Louis Wu 18:14:15 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Multiplayer Maps... already
A couple of days ago, This Side Up mentioned on our forum that he'd begun work on some Halo multiplayer map designs. He's turned them over to us, and we've put them up for you to look at - there's no guarantee anyone can ever make them... but it's an intriguing start. (Louis Wu 19:20:10 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Story updates
Goodness, almost forgot... the Halo Story page got a couple of updates recently! (mnemesis did a bang-up job covering the recent rash of Halo theories which flooded our forum...) Check it out, and add your own! (Louis Wu 18:42:43 UTC) (permalink)

Things that should not be mixed
Miscellaneous, yes. Art? Dunno. (Louis Wu 18:35:22 UTC) (permalink)

A handful of new tricks
A surprising number of gameplay tricks remain in the queue (some simply because they're complicated enough that documentation is taking longer than expected)... but there are 4 new ones (5, if you count xbill's Elite Speech trick posted earlier today) in the Tricks section. Take a look! (Louis Wu 18:21:44 UTC) (permalink)

I'm busy
Threebrain.com has a Halo-related cartoon today - if you're reading this after the 12th, jump back to April 12, 2002. I've felt like that... Thanks to Lawrence Peterson for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:15:20 UTC) (permalink)

Elite Speech - older than we know
Heh - just got word from Joe Broni that the beans on elite 'speech' were spilled by Chris Butcher during the talk he gave at the Game Developers Conference last month - a week before Jester noticed the backwards speech. Hard to know WHO to give credit to! :) (Louis Wu 16:18:24 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo Reviews
Two new Halo reviews have popped up - Battle-Fields Network, in the UK, liked it except for lack of bots and the repetitive nature of some of the architecture, and DVD Plaza, in Australia, who had pretty much the same complaints. We've added the Battle-Fields review to our Reviews Database... but due to the lack of an overall numeric score for the DVD Plaza review, we can't do the same there. (Blame me for building an inflexible database.) (Louis Wu 15:00:45 UTC) (permalink)

Free drinks... and free Halo!
TeamXbox has put up an article covering the shindig thrown this week by Microsoft to celebrate the passing of the million-copies-sold milestone for Halo. (Wow, that was too long.) Nice pics, and it sounds like it was a good time! Fan-submitted movies, like Randy Glass' Warthog Jump, were shown to the appreciative crowd... congrats, guys, for blowing away the devs! (Louis Wu 13:26:11 UTC) (permalink)

Badger ATV... nice.
StormSinger is working on a new model for... well, for something. Halo-related, it seems. Maybe. Anyway, it's pretty interesting, and the thread it spawned is a great read. (Louis Wu 02:49:09 UTC) (permalink)

Major Tru7h and Recon update
Whoa. Major update at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site. New Screenshots (12 of 'em, not a mediocre one in the bunch - but beware spoilers in at least one), and new Concept Art (early Hunters and guns). Thanks to Tarrsk for the speedy heads-up! (Louis Wu 02:06:08 UTC) (permalink)

Paul is Dead
Yesterday, xbill dropped a bombshell on our forum - he pointed out (with proof) where the Elite voices in Halo came from. Recently, his host pulled the page - apparently, free hosts don't like it when you're too popular... so we've done what we don't usually do, and jumped a trick to the front of the queue. His EliteSpeak trick has been posted in the Gameplay Tricks section - don't worry, all the waiting tricks are still there, we didn't lose 'em. Gettin' there... (Louis Wu 01:57:04 UTC) (permalink)

Elite Speech Details
Jay Weinland stepped into the discussion about Elite speech on our forum with a pretty interesting description of how the whole process came about. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 18:43:30 UTC) (permalink)

Psyjnir.com back up
Just a quick heads-up... The Psyjnir Complex is back online. (No new content - yet... but the name resolves again, and the Hotline server is accessible again.) (Louis Wu 12:31:30 UTC) (permalink)

Roadkill, huh?
Wow. That's all I have to say. Update: Credit where credit is due: Jester asked this, then this, a couple of weeks ago. Thanks, Psyrixx. (Louis Wu 09:33:37 UTC) (permalink)

More Hurricane mirrors
That Weasel has put up mirrors of Hurricane Halo in two different formats (soon to be 3): the original, plus a re-encoded .wmv file (for Windows Media Player 8, weighing in at 11.6 mb) have been added. (A half-size QT5 version is apparently coming.) You can find the links on That Weasel Television's mirror page. (We've added the links, gratefully, to our mirror list.) Update: Goodness, it's .wmv night. Alan Wu has also re-encoded Hurricane Halo into .wmv format (this one is compatible with v7, and weighs in at 10.9 mb), and has added this to his Project MJOLNIR site. (He's also put up both versions of the Rocket Dance movie.) We've updated all relevant mirror lists. Update 2: Mr. Zarquon has also mirrored Hurricane Halo, as well as the large versions of 'Halo: The Movie' and the Rocket Dance movie. Woohoo! (Louis Wu 08:37:22 UTC) (permalink)

A pair of tricks - more coming
There's a huge backlog of tricks (again) - but rather than simply making them LATER, I'm gonna put up the two I formatted today, and get to some more tomorrow. Check out the Gameplay Tricks page for the latest - some interesting views from INSIDE various Pelicans... and some amazing jump work. More on the way! (Louis Wu 01:15:20 UTC) (permalink)

xbox.com interviews Max
xbox.com has posted a small interview with Max Hoberman, our friendly neighbourhood Online Guy. Here's a quote:

S: What were some of the greatest challenges to overcome during production?

MH: Two things come to mind. First, switching from the PC to the Xbox necessitated a huge change in the direction we were going with Halo. Traditionally we implement the multiplayer game first, then single player. When we started developing on the Xbox we changed our primary focus to single player. Fortunately the team did a great job, and the multiplayer implementation didn't suffer too much. Second, getting the interface right just the controls, but the way information is delivered to the player. If we do the job well, you'll barely notice the user interface at all if we blow it, it's something everyone complains about.

If this ever slows up, I can get back to formatting Gameplay Tricks... (Louis Wu 21:50:38 UTC) (permalink)

Macleans.ca reviews Halo
Macleans.ca, the website for a leading Canadian news magazine, has put up a Halo review - they gave it 5/5 (the best of any of the 4 games they reviewed). We've added it to our Reviews database. Thanks to Ph.D. for the heads-up! (Louis Wu 16:42:37 UTC) (permalink)

Hurricane mirror list started
Thanks muchly to SonicStorm and the Battleground: Halo crew - the latest movie, 'Halo Hurricane', now has another set of download links at FilePlanet. We've started a mirror list, to provide easy access to existing mirrors. More as we hear about 'em! Update: Alan Wu (no relation) points out that his Project MJOLNIR now has mirrors for both Hurricane Halo and the .wmv version of 'Halo: The Movie'. Links have been added to the respective mirror pages. Thanks, Alan! (Louis Wu 11:34:02 UTC) (permalink)

Rock Me Like a Hurricane, baby...
A new movie has hit the scene... and it's a biggie. 21 megs, almost 7 minutes long... with some great stunts, weird glitches, and a large number of laugh-out-loud moments. As of now, there's exactly one host - our favorite savior, mythica.org. You folks have been known to peg even that prodigious pipe, though... so anyone who can mirror this, eternal gratefulness (at least until the next one comes along) will be yours. Drop us a line and we'll hook you up. For right now, go visit mythica.org and download Halo Hurricane, from Mark Mendenhall... and crank it up. Update: Appleicious has graciously put up a mirror on his university webspace - hopefully, it won't get crushed before more come in. (Louis Wu 04:13:50 UTC) (permalink)

Girl, you're my angel
Just a small note of concern... this peep stuff is getting a little out of hand; you people are starting to scare me. (Louis Wu 01:23:54 UTC) (permalink)

They keep writing... and writing...
Another batch of Fan Fiction - it's pretty scary how much you guys write...

Looks like Fractalus got the DNS working...
Whoa! I accidentally hit an old bookmark... and discovered that Rampancy.net is back online! (Okay, it's BEEN online, at rampancy.synfibers.com, all this time... but the original name works again.) The domain hasn't been renewed yet, so who knows how LONG it'll be there... but hey, you should go visit, it was a great site that is now suffering from neglect. (Louis Wu 09:35:42 UTC) (permalink)

Xbox Xtreme re-reviews Halo
Eep - we missed this one. Xbox Xtreme [dot] Net has put up a new Halo review - they gave it a 10/10, and used a lot of exclamation points to describe it. We've added the review to the Reviews Database. (In fact, looking at their site, the original Halo review they posted - with a rating of a 9.5 - is no longer online... but there are now 3 Halo reviews, all with a rating of 10. This is too confusing for us, so we're going to leave the original for the time being, and add this newest one.) (Louis Wu 09:17:58 UTC) (permalink)

How many do YOU know?
PanZer is attempting to compile a database of all the human and grunt dialog lines in Halo. Never mind that Marty has told us there are over 5000... he's trying it, and he needs your help. Stop by the database, and see what you can do! (Louis Wu 09:05:33 UTC) (permalink)

More fun with grenades
Yesterday, Frogblast posted a series of movies chronicling his experiments with the Blue Beams of Death on the level Halo (the series will show up on the Tricks page soon)... not long after, Dark Helmet sent in a new movie to iBonk.com, showing what happens when you Warthog-Jump into one of the blue beams. That hog's... GONE! Whoa. (Louis Wu 08:53:13 UTC) (permalink)

More mirror links
Appleicious, one of the participants at last week's Battle of the Bay, has put up several Halo movies for download - both flavors of 'Halo: The Movie', the new Movie Teaser, and both flavors of the Rocket Dance vid (which he's in). We've added relevant links to all mirror pages, so if you're having trouble getting these films, you have a new place to try! (Louis Wu 08:20:47 UTC) (permalink)

8 new One-Shots
The One-Shots page finally got its update - 8 new images, submitted up to 3 weeks ago. (They're all dated today, because it makes more sense to me that way.) Check 'em out! Next up - the 9 new tricks submitted since Friday's major update... (look for it tomorrow, or the next day.) Note: If I missed your One-Shot submission (and I very well could have), drop me some mail. I'll get it up in the next batch, or I'll explain to you why not. (Louis Wu 02:23:01 UTC) (permalink)

New Wallpaper
Eric Gandhi sent in a new desktop for our database - you'll find it in the Wallpaper section. Nice and blue... (Louis Wu 01:39:17 UTC) (permalink)

The Reading Avalanche continues
Three new fan fics this evening (though one is actually a concatenation of a pair of submissions; they both came before I got to this update, and the second was too short to stand alone, and they're both part of the same story...)

Again, with the schmatte
Macgamer.com has put up an interview with Peter Tamte, of Destineer Studios... and while this shouldn't even need to be said, it does:

One thing which Mac Halo naysayers tend to focus on is, even though Bungie has stated repeatedly that Halo will come to Mac, Microsoft pulls the financial strings (suggesting that it's not for Bungie to say one way or another if a Mac version can or will get made). When you say that you "know this to be true" about Halo for Mac, is this because of Bungie's assertion of it or because Microsoft has been clear with you about it? Or something else?

Anybody who has asserted that Microsoft will prevent Halo from shipping on the Macintosh is not well informed. Making Halo available for Macintosh is a promise that was made by Ed Fries, the VP who manages all of Microsoft's games software, on stage with Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo.

This, of course, won't actually make a difference with the hardcore doubters... but hey, we don't have a copy of PC Halo to rub their noses in yet, so this'll have to do. Go read the rest of the interview - it's good to hear what Tamte's got going! (Louis Wu 18:32:29 UTC) (permalink)

Halo passes 1-million mark
Xbox.com reports that according to NPDFunworld (the folks who keep track of video game sales), Halo has sold over one million copies to date... and has become the fastest million-unit seller ever for any next-gen console. ('Next-gen console' means PS2, GameCube, Xbox.)

Statistically, this means that more than six copies of Halo: Combat Evolved have been sold every minute of every day since its launch on Nov. 15, 2001.

In the UK, 86 percent of all Xbox system purchasers bought Halo - whoa. The big question, though, is... how many of them get their Halo news here? (Louis Wu 16:42:25 UTC) (permalink)

Clarification, by a would-be CGW dictator
Jeff Green, who wrote an editorial at Gamers.com yesterday, predicting that PC Halo would be cancelled after all, stopped by our forum to clarify his position. Seems he DOES want to see Halo on a PC - he's just afraid that MS wants to milk the Xbox dollars as much as they can before allowing the PC users to get their hands on this one. (It's not an uncommon belief, actually, though Bungie would tell you that the current lack of a PC version stems more from... well, from it not being done than it does from any nefarious plot by Microsoft.) Here's hoping Mr. Green's pessimism is unfounded! (Louis Wu 04:06:05 UTC) (permalink)

Another killer Halo movie trailer
When Brian Josselyn, of Blackstar Productions, released 'Halo: The Movie', a 'trailer' of a ficticious Halo movie, Bungie employee Dave Candland asked, "Want a job at MS marketing? ;)" He was kidding... but Brian's most recent production, 'Halo: The Movie Teaser', shows it wasn't a fluke. If Bungie ever DOES make this movie, the advertising work is well underway. :) You can find this latest movie (1:34, 10.6 mb, QT5) at Brian's mac.com space, or at mythica.org (with perpetual thanks to Brian Towne). We'll set up a mirror page as soon as a few folks volunteer to help with this puppy (hint, hint). Check it out - you won't regret the download. ObSpoilerWarning: There are minor spoilers here, though nothing as strong as the first one. (Which we forgot to warn you of. Sorry...) Finally, Brian has also put together a newsletter to give people some more information about what he does - you can find it here. (Louis Wu 03:30:44 UTC) (permalink)

Swirly artwork
Purgatory has created some Master Chief artwork (both alone an as a poster) we've added all 5 variations to the Miscellaneous Art page. (Louis Wu 03:05:27 UTC) (permalink)

The collection grows... and grows... and grows... (Louis Wu 02:15:18 UTC) (permalink)

HalosHome comes online
Florian writes to tell us about HalosHome.de (also reachable at HaloSource.de), a new German Halo site. Check it out! (Louis Wu 23:59:06 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 'announcement' this week?
Apologies for the news blackout of the last 36 hours - HBO HQ was host to a 15-player lanfest yesterday (guests started arriving at 9 am, we closed the last door around 11 pm), so updating took a second seat. :) In that time, Computer Gaming World columnist Jeff Green put up an article at Gamers.com in which he (once again) called into question the PC versions of Halo. Bungie's own Matt Soell commented on Mr. Green's words on our forum this morning... but we're still intrigued about the Halo 'announcement' happening at a Microsoft party in San Francisco this week. More details when we find them... (Thanks to Cesar Berardini, of TeamXbox, who provided us with the first heads-up on this issue.) (Louis Wu 17:24:45 UTC) (permalink)

Xbox AU revises review
A month ago, Xbox Au posted a Halo review - they said it was derivative, but gave it a 9.4. They've now yanked that review, and written a new one - score has dropped to 8.8. (They were unhappy with the short replay value. Guess nobody told them about the exploration possibilities.) We've adjusted our Reviews database accordingly. (Louis Wu 11:21:50 UTC) (permalink)

Pretty pictures
New Wallpapers at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site - six images, in four resolutions each. (Spoiler warning is necessary for the last one.) Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 11:10:45 UTC) (permalink)

Three guns in Halo - Confirmed!
Heh - it's not every day that fans find out something that BUNGIE didn't know... three weeks ago, Matt Soell created the Rumor Control Database in an effort to debunk the most common (false) rumors concerning Halo that have been circulating the internet. One of the most persistent has been "If you beat the game on Normal, then on Legendary, all in 3 hours, you'll get a third weapon." Matt's response?

"Nope. You'll always have a two-weapon limit."

Heh - today, Reckless Angel posted a note to our forum stating that this was not true... and 12 hours and 8 minutes later, Frogblast posted video proof of his claim. Turns out it's a timing issue, and getting that third weapon depends on beating a timed checkpoint... but apparently, it's not so tough to beat. The fans of this game continue to amaze me. (In all fairness, this glitch will turn up on no other level, because there is nowhere else that you start with no weapons. However, you CAN play an entire level of Halo - 10% of the game - with three weapons instead of two... and that's just plain cool.) (Louis Wu 21:24:43 UTC) (permalink)

New Wallpaper for you
Loren Judah has turned in another desktop image - this time Hunter-based. You'll find it (in two resolutions) in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 21:10:14 UTC) (permalink)

The things you can do with a pencil
Tarrsk posted a very nice MC sketch to our forum - we've added it (and two partial sketches, showing the progress of the work) to our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 03:09:26 UTC) (permalink)

I'm also impressed by the level of feedback being given on the Fan Fiction entries - nice job, all around! (Louis Wu 02:58:14 UTC) (permalink)

Massive Gameplay Tricks update
Yes, it took FOREVER - but the Gameplay Tricks queue is CLEARED! There are 10 new entries, almost all from new tricksters - the collection is seriously eclectic. 8 new tricksters, 9 maps covered... explore. Highlights for me included the cool teleporting marines glitch on Silent Cartographer and the gorgeous vistas found above the waterfall on Halo... but it's all good. Go check it out! (One-Shots should be coming in the next few days... if all goes well.)

Winamp skin updated
Djoey.154 sends in version 2 of his Halo Winamp skin - again, since we don't have a downloads section, you'll find this in the Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 20:22:16 UTC) (permalink)

Japanese box art
The Japanese box art for Halo on Xbox is up at the Japanese Amazon web site. Check it out here. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:42:39 UTC) (permalink)

Bandwidth junkies, rejoice
That Weasel Television has mirrored 3 flavors of 'Halo: The Movie', and both flavors of the Rocket Dance video, for anyone having trouble getting any of these films. This community is great. (The 'Halo: The Movie' mirror list has been updated - and hopefully I'll actually compile a Rocket Dance mirror list today.) Update: Mirror list now compiled. One of these days, I'll even update the Movies page. :) (Louis Wu 10:52:29 UTC) (permalink)

The Mutant's Ode and An Elite's Eye View (poems) by Gasmask

Roughneck Two-Zero Chapter One and Chapter Two, by Anthony Coronado

The Rookie, Chapter 1 by The British Commando

It's coming in almost faster than I can read it - are the rest of you keeping up? Keep your eyes on the Fan Fiction section! (Louis Wu 21:31:00 UTC) (permalink)

Rocket Dancing Goodness - now in more places!
Two more mirrors for the Rocket Dance vid (high-res only):

I'll compile a full list soon - thanks, guys! (Louis Wu 19:47:59 UTC) (permalink)

More Movie Mirrors Redux
More mirror links! Jop Peters has graciously agreed to host the .wmv version of 'Halo: The Movie' (his space on endoria.net was already home to both .mov versions), and MFG Angel, of Bungie.de, has put up all three versions, as well. Finally, Narcogen has put up a larger iteration of the re-encoded version of the movie (first made available in small form last night) at Rampancy.net (it's 21 mb). You'll find all the new links on our mirrors page. If you find a mirror is too slow for you - stop the download and try another one. Minimize the bandwidth pain! (Louis Wu 15:53:43 UTC) (permalink)

More mirrors, multiple movies
More movie info - Rampancy.net (now at rampancy.synfibers.com, since the dns is still hosed) has put up a 9 mb, 480x320 version of 'Halo: The Movie' - it's actually 240x180 doubled, but the compression's decent, and it looks good. Nice choice for limited bandwidth users. It's been added to the mirrors page. Also, Brian Towne has added both the large and small versions of the Rocket Dance movie to mythica.org's bottomless bandwidth well. (Louis Wu 07:29:42 UTC) (permalink)

Too bad it wouldn't stay put...
Three more tricks for you in the Gameplay Tricks section - pete_the_duck does some exploring on Halo and Silent Cartographer. More coming soon! (Louis Wu 07:18:22 UTC) (permalink)

Grey is good
LaZ_EyE has submitted another pair of desktop images - this time in muted greys. Check 'em out in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 03:18:19 UTC) (permalink)

Do the Rocket Dance!
When it rains, it pours... we've got another one, and this one's worth watching, too! It's a gameplay vid, not a cinematic piece... but it's got some laugh-out-loud footage in it. It was recorded by Ian Haddock during last weekend's Battle of the Bay... and man, now I wanna play 16-player rockets-only on Blood Gulch! There are two versions: A 10 meg, 320x240 version and a 6 meg, 160x120 version. The originals can be found on Ian's mac.com filespace - and we've started the ball rolling with one mirror each; b.org is handling the large version, and Mythica is handling the small one. More mirrors are, of course, seriously welcome - we know how tight space is right now, with Halo: The Movie making the rounds. (Louis Wu 02:54:00 UTC) (permalink)

More mirrors, formats for Halo: The Movie
Mirror, mirror, everywhere... if the 27 mb version of 'Halo: The Movie' is too much for you, we've added a 9.4 mb version that's just a bit more compressed. (Still pretty good to watch.) In addition, CYBRFRK has re-encoded it to .wmv format - this one's only 5.6 mb, and is probably the way to go for Windows users. All current mirrors can be found on our Mirrors page, and of course we're always happy to add new links. (Louis Wu 02:51:13 UTC) (permalink)

France gets a movie mirror
Another The Halo Movie mirror - this time in France. Thanks, Firfin, of Halo-game.com! (We've added it to the mirror page.) (Louis Wu 00:04:10 UTC) (permalink)

Goodbye, Rep...
The (temporary) End of an Era. Vector40 announced that The Repertory is down, until the silliness invoked by his web host can be fixed. It'll be back... but in these times of high-bandwidth-need... we'll miss her. (Louis Wu 00:01:59 UTC) (permalink)

You okay?
Okay, enough with the hate mail - here's the dang movie. (There are at least 2 more mirrors coming soon, and quite possibly a couple of other formats/sizes for the film - so if you have trouble with a 27 mb .mov, be patient.) This is Brian Josselyn's nod to Final Fantasy... and to Halo as a cinematic spectacle. It's good. It's very, very good. Watch it. (It's only 2 minutes... it's a 'movie trailer'.) The mirror list currently contains 3 websites and 2 hotline servers - we'll add new ones as we get 'em. Update: Thanks to Reaper7, of Battleground: Halo, who just sent along the FilePlanet URL for this movie - it adds two public server links and two Personal Server links. (It's been added to the mirror list.) More still coming! (Louis Wu 19:17:45 UTC) (permalink)

readreadreadread
Two new Fan Fiction bits - Jehkoh has written another poem, and Vector40 has written... well, an ode. (An uplifting one, even.) Read 'em both in our Fan Fiction section. (Louis Wu 19:08:46 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: The Movie (it COULD be...)
Brian Josselyn, of Blackstar Productions, has created a new Halo vid - it's a trailer for Halo, the Movie. (Okay, it's a trailer for Aliens, mostly - but let's not nitpick.) Masterful use of existing Halo footage (including some fantastic inclusions from older stuff), topnotch moviemaking skills, and high-quality sound make this a film to see. Downside? It's sorta big. 27 megs big, to be exact. This is one we want a few mirrors for before it goes live. Mythica.org is a given... but so as not to crush Brian's connection, if you can manage this puppy, drop us a line, we'll get you a copy. Once the mirror list is big enough, we'll let you know where to grab it from. Update: CYBRFRK points out that it's not Aliens... it's Final Fantasy. Oops... (Louis Wu 09:25:01 UTC) (permalink)

Cover that desktop, SIR!
Whoa - six, count 'em, six new desktop images submitted in the last day or two - go take your pick in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 03:23:37 UTC) (permalink)

So, are they making it or not?
Heh - Peter Marks, Bungie Troublemaker Extraordinaire, points out an article at MacGamer which might make some long-time visitors chuckle. Apparently, though... not Matt Soell. Ah, well... can't please everyone. (Louis Wu 01:23:23 UTC) (permalink)

Getting to places Bungie never thought you'd go
Due to an amazingly boneheaded mistake I made over a month ago, every Gameplay Trick uploaded since late February has taken twice as long to load on your computer than it should have. (Maybe more than twice.) The problem has been fixed, finally... and we've added three new ones - okay, three parts of a longer exploration by Frogblast. There are still half a dozen tricks in the queue, as well as a passel of one-shots... soon, I'll be caught up. Soon. Meanwhile, check out Froggy's latest work and be amazed! (Louis Wu 00:02:36 UTC) (permalink)

Going, going... gone!
We thought it was too much to ask... but those miracle workers at Bungie never sleep. The Bungie Store is open! Go buy your Grunt Plush Doll today! (Louis Wu 06:27:56 UTC) (permalink)

Ten Thousand Strong... and Shooting
Sparky learns his lesson

Halo Babies! Bungie takes the wraps off their newest project, an animated television project scheduled to debut this fall. Check the Tru7h and Reconciliation website for all the details! (Video clips are coming - we can't wait! (Thanks to Djof, on our forum, and Jester, via email, for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 03:43:16 UTC) (permalink)

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April 2002 Archived News