Author: halo@bungie.org

If you swing by the Bungie.net forums, you can see a full listing of the changes to Halo 2 Matchmaking on Xbox Live – these changes went into effect a little bit ago. Thanks, Hexudus.(Louis Wu 19:32:04 UTC)

Paul Maestri points out Halo Heads 49, in which one of the newest described features of Halo 3 is examined more closely. Maybe TOO closely.(Louis Wu 18:12:23 UTC)

Microsoft has begun sending out emails to everyone registered back in December for a shot at the Halo 3 beta; these notes basically say that all 13,333 invites have been distributed, and if you haven’t gotten one yet, you’re not going to. (It also suggests that you can still get into the proram by buying…

We got email from Erik “P3PP3RM4N” Fikkert yesterday – he had a bunch of fan music he’d created, wanted to know how to get it out to our audience. Well, that’s easy, right? We just post it, and tell you to go listen! Some of these pieces are really slick – I’d suggest starting up…

XerxdeeJ stopped by with this week’s Tied the Leader Tuesday Update – there’s a 22 Questions interview with Sean Gailey, of J!NX apparel, and a Community Profile (née Clan Profile) of O7AH. Go read! (Louis Wu 16:20:38 UTC)

A few days ago, we mentioned a pretty cool thread at Bungie.net, containing a bunch of elite renders. Mike Jensen, the modeler, stopped by our forum last night with some new stuff – check it out!(Louis Wu 13:28:19 UTC)

Over at halowiki.net, there’s an article from XyonsWrath about ‘The Crazy Method’ – it’s a description of a strategy that has a good chance of working against your average Matchmaking opponents. As someone who ‘acts crazy’ a lot, I can see where this is useful! Thanks, PEZ.(Louis Wu 13:24:25 UTC)

Interesting article at 1Up.com – Luke Smith reports that according to Phil Spenser, Head of Game Development for Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft would like to spread Bungie’s matchmaking code around to most (all?) first-party 360 games; the reason it didn’t make it into Gears of War was a timing issue, not a code protection one.…

F1rsTxLas7, from Halomega, sent us a massive email – site updates, new movies (montage | 1v1 | montage trailer | 1v1 gameplay), plus sponsored videos, Sig of the Week contest, Snipe of the Month… go check ’em out.(Louis Wu 13:05:42 UTC)

Mister Froggy let us know that Halo, Articulated #13 is now available. In it, the Master Chief is having trouble suspending his disbelief.(Louis Wu 12:23:10 UTC)

link4044 posted a whole passel of pictures of an assault rifle he’s building over at Halo Planet. It looks AMAZING. If the bandwidth dries up, we’ll put up local copies – you gotta see this. Thanks, KP.(Louis Wu 21:50:19 UTC)

Friday’s Weekly Update mentioned some new features Bungie’s been adding to Halo 3 multiplayer. Stuntmutt focuses on one of the more useful ones in today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 17:53:16 UTC)

PEZ wrote to point out that halowiki.net has no information about Quick Scoping (a technique which takes advantage of the built-in auto-aim by scoping just as you fire) – but there are plenty of Halo players out there that understand it really well. If you’re one of them, swing by halowiki and add your own…

Paul Maestri let us know that Halo Heads 48, celebrating the 100th episode of Podtacular, is now up. (I had no idea Foo Mo Jive looked so much like Jim Carrey…)(Louis Wu 16:58:05 UTC)

Over at Gamasutra, you’ll find a Q&A with Max Hoberman, of Certain Affinity – the interview is mostly about Certain Affinity, and where it’s going, but there’s also a chunk of stuff about the making of the Halo 2 maps that are coming out soon, and about Max’s experience with Bungie on Halo 2 and…

Eurogamer got in a short interview with Frank O’Connor recently, discussing Halo 3. Not a lot of new content, but a few tidbits – for example, at the moment, you leave footprints in the snow on Snowbound (for a short time), allowing you to be tracked. (Of course, this might change before release.) Thanks, broony.(Louis…

Kiaffex let us know that Podtacular Episode 100 has been posted – a special episode that looks back at the last 25 casts, looks forward to Podtacular’s future, and offers up the Podtacular Awards. An hour and 20 minutes long, almost 75 mb big. Go grab it!(Louis Wu 12:52:01 UTC)

Interesting… Finn uncovered an old thread at Bungie.net that ties together some pretty intriguing bits of info about Harvest, and what might (or might not) have happened there… give it a read. Then toss in your own two cents!(Louis Wu 19:37:21 UTC)

Sigafoos points out that The Riot 35 has been released – 19 minutes (7.5 mb) of community news. Highlights include discussion of Halo Everywhere, and a Halo tourney with Risk overtones from Sword of Laban. Go listen!(Louis Wu 19:16:43 UTC)

Wow – word of yet ANOTHER company getting into the Halo figure game; looks like Gentle Giant plans to start making Kubrick figures soon. Thanks, Tango. (Louis Wu 19:12:05 UTC)