Author: halo@bungie.org

The Seven Streak is broken; for three weeks running, we had seven new pieces each Friday in the Fan Fiction section… but today there are 11. It’s a natural!(Louis Wu 12:29:33 UTC)

Bizarre – Escape Station is trying to set up a Halo 3 Tournament, using the beta test. (Since there are no custom games in the upcoming beta, scheduling play is going to be…tough.) Thanks to RevDotNed for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 12:23:13 UTC)

Now that Bungie has made public the fact that there are ‘deployables’ in Halo 3 (we know of the bubble shield, the trip mine, and the portable grav lift, and Bungie’s made it clear that there’s more stuff we’re not being shown yet), folks are having a blast speculating on what happens when you mix…

Bryn Casey stopped by to let us know he’d updated the Halo Art page at Yayap.com – we’ve added the 8 new shots to his gallery here, as well. (Scroll down to the bottom; I’ve really got to set up a better navigation system on that page, there are WAY too many pictures now).(Louis Wu…

We finally got our hands on the actual press pack Certain Affinity sent out yesterday; turns out, we’d already put a good deal of it online with the stuff we stole off the CA website. We’ve added a couple of dozen first-person shots to the collection.(Louis Wu 17:06:13 UTC)

Archie Gates is at it again – if you visit his MySpace page, you’ll find his newest audio creation, ‘ESRB Notice’; it’s streamable for free, or downloadable for a buck. Anyone who has spent ANY time on Xbox Live playing Halo 2 will relate – instantly. Hilarious stuff!(Louis Wu 14:36:13 UTC)

Over at MLGPro.com, there are two new episodes of the Sound Arguments podcast – Episode 10 looks at gametype changes for the 2007 season, and Episode 11 makes predictions about this weekend’s opener in Charlotte. Go listen! Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 13:34:20 UTC)

The Halo 2 Auto-update, mentioned (and described) in last Friday’s Bungie Weekly Update, is now live, according to sawnose at Bungie. (He quotes the weekly update in the rest of his post; the only new content is the fact that it’s live.) Thanks to The Vector Kid for noticing.(Louis Wu 13:17:44 UTC)

Over at The Age Blogs (commentary from an Australian newspaper) there’s a rant about the two new maps coming next week, and how they’re an example of Microsoft’s money-grubbing policies. The argument is that since the maps will show up in most matchmaking playlists, and if you don’t have them, you won’t be allowed INTO…

Last night, Bungie put up a pretty nice interview with Chris Wood, Certain Affinity’s Art Lead – they discuss the making of the two new maps being released next week. Worth a read – these look to be a blast! Thanks, masterchief2829.(Louis Wu 12:45:45 UTC)

DuBbLe continues his work on his X-Plane Shortsword – it’s now textured, and there’s a short vid. Give it a look!(Louis Wu 12:38:55 UTC)

The Vidoc analyses continue – Advanced Media Network gave it a shot (thanks, sgtsmiles), They drew a counterpoint from Daniel Pervan (thanks, Samir Patel). 1Up created a (30 minute) video analysis (thanks, White Rabbit). Remember – those guys actually PLAYED the version that footage comes from; they might know a thing or two. Computer and…

ImmortalThree let us know that Podtacular Episode 108: Round Table Show is now available – guests are Robert Summa (of destructoid.com) and Anjo Banjo (wife of Uncle Gamer’s Liquilife). 1:19 long, 72 mb. Go listen!(Louis Wu 19:52:14 UTC)

Wonga. Certain Affinity has posted a large batch of screenshots and concept artwork for Tombstone and Desolation (and there’s more if you poke around… at least until they decide to close off directory browsing – thanks, MasterChief2829 and pillar of awesome). Gorgeous stuff – and you can get a really good sense for how they’ve…

DuBbLe has gotten inspired by the posts he’s seen of Mid7night’s X-Plane work; he posted some shots of a Shortsword he made a while back. Looks good!(Louis Wu 17:41:45 UTC)

Haloplayer stopped by to point out the second half of the Lost: Halostyle Season Finale – it’s available in streaming format, plus 3 downloadable options, from their site, and (because we like this series so much, and because this episode is pretty darned funny) in several flavors from us, as well: we’ve mirrored the to…

Speaking of Tombstone, Stuntmutt takes a new shot at it in today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 12:11:23 UTC)

We heard from imSuck (and others) about a new contest being held by HaloGrid – the Affinity Machinima Challenge. You’ve got between April 17, when Tombstone and Desolation are released for Halo 2, and May 1, when the contest ends, to create a cool new piece of machinima involving those two maps. There are cash…

Simply Greg announced that Energy Episode Five: The Race is now available for download, in multiple flavors. The conflict between the humans and the Aeros has come to a head…(Louis Wu 12:04:11 UTC)

Devrous stopped in for his fourth weekly update of FS2H, his Freespace 2 Halo mod. Lots and lots and LOTS of pictures – go see how it’s going!(Louis Wu 11:57:01 UTC)