Whoa... truth or fiction? We got this pic of a master chief model - it comes from a friend who works with ERTL toys. You make the call. (I hope it's real!) Update: picture has been yanked; too much potential trouble for all involved. Sorry...

A couple of weeks ago, GamesRadar put up some teaser info from the most recent Edge magazine. Today, they put up a more meaty slice - go check it out! (Thanks to Griffon for the heads-up.)

At the request of a fan, Warbow has reversed his recently submitted wallpaper so that Mac users don't have to cover the cool artwork with icons. You can find the new version in our Wallpaper section, too. Update: forgot to check the uploads directory - there's one more wallpaper for you, from RAT 9.3, in two sizes. You'll find that, too, in the Wallpaper section.

Couple of art bits for you today: a sketch of a jackal (embossed after the fact, it would seem) and a pretty cool pic of Jeff Lofland's vision of Mrs. Chief. You'll find both in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Fan Fiction that's come in since Saturday night:

• Revolution, part 11, by Gruntkiller
• After Halo pt. 3 Chapter 2, by Kyle
• Halo Side Story, part 3, by Jordan Dotson
• On Their Shields: The Exodus, by mad_jackal

stories down, off to do art...

Da Loaph found a rather unusual Halo review yesterday - it's part of a site called Christian Spotlight, and focuses on how games fit into the Christian viewpoint. Halo got high marks for gameplay, but was heavily downgraded for the potentially anti-Christian messages implicit in the use of Christian 'jargon', and for the violence. We've added this review to the Reviews database, but have used only the gameplay rating in the numerical score; the other parameters seemed to rate Halo on its suitability to the audience of the site, rather than on its own merit. (It's a tricky distinction, and one we haven't made before... but there doesn't seem to be any better way to choose an overall rating for the game, based on the information on the site.) We would ask that anyone going to visit to respect the spirit of the site; I'd hate to be responsible for the influx of a bunch of rude visitors. (If you have comments, feel free to add them to the forum thread here.)

Five new magazine bits for you - no, we can't bring you the newest Edge or EGM mags yet, but there are a couple of articles from the August 2002 XBM, a couple more from the same issue of XGamer, and the article that got forumgoer BOLL into Halo fandom, a 2-pager from the June 2000 issue of PC Gamer Sweden. You'll find these (and several dozen others) in our Press Scans section.

Dave sends in a pic of a situation he thinks might happen in Halo 2 - you'll find it in our Wallpaper section.

Whoa. It really is time to get a 'Halo Fan Music' section set up; we've just gotten another entry. This one comes from Justin R. Durban, of Edgen Animations. It's a 2:36 long .mp3, weighing in at a bit under 2 and a half megs... and it's beautiful. (Very martial.) Justin says:

I played the game for the first time last weekend for about 3 days straight and pretty much got inspired to write my own version of the halo theme. I'd love for your fans to use this track in one of their "fan made trailers" / movie montages. You have my permission to use it however you like.

Full credit is given to Marty O'Donnell for the basis of this piece. Go grab your copy now! (If you have trouble getting it here (you shouldn't, but things happen), you can find a copy on Justin's server, too.)

Lots of art bits submitted recently. We'll start with the miscellaneous art - there's an airbrushed MC, a Halo box, and an MC with a sword, from XAL, Jack Smith, and Chris, respectively. You'll find these in our Miscellaneous Art section. And then there's a new banner in our Banners section, and two new logos in our Logos section, all courtesy of Michael Frank. Heh - that should clear out the inbox for a few minutes...