Author: halo@bungie.org

a flyin hobo sent word that Cardboard Box Productions’ “Halo 3: Fun Times Contest” (we mentioned it on April 6) has had its deadline extended to April 26, due to light entries. Go turn something in – you could win a free copy of Halo 3: ODST in time for the Reach Beta!(Louis Wu 12:43:26…

It’s nearly May, and in the northern hemisphere, that means summer is just around the corner. Wouldn’t you know it, though, Hawty McBloggy found a Halo 3 Snowman, created back in February. Go feel cold.(Louis Wu 12:43:00 UTC)

Tony ‘ubald’ Marcotte found an older render – this one is of Halo 2 Elites – and he thought he’d share. Check it out in his gallery here! (Louis Wu 12:42:35 UTC)

Bungie.net had a quick piece about Clantacular, a competitive site that’s gearing up for Halo Reach. Swing by to see their new look!(Louis Wu 12:42:13 UTC)

As Dani says, when it rains, it pours, and we can’t help but get wet. Swing by Forward Unto Dawn for not one, but TWO new articles – there’s the second portion of their three-part ‘Backwards From Dawn’ retrospective on Halo 2, and there’s a new article called ‘The Centre Holds’ (yes, they’re from the…

Dying for info about how Bungie.net’s gonna be handling your Reach Beta data? Swing by Bungie.net – there’s a story that talks all about it. With pretty pictures, even. w00t!(Louis Wu 22:56:59 UTC)

TTL Hoovaloov is back with another Reach video analysis – his last go-round was a resounding success, and this one is just as well-thought-out. Watch this for our best overview so far of the Invasion gametype! Thanks to XerxdeeJ for the heads-up on this one.(Louis Wu 19:23:58 UTC)

Rockslider is back with another couple of movies – he’s messing around on Silent Cartographer, doling out pain to the poor Grunts hanging out above the crashed Pelican. Swing by his forum post for links to the writeups, and the movies!(Louis Wu 18:17:48 UTC)

ColinD2197 sent word of Capulin 2 – a tribute to Halo 2 from SicktistiK and Emptyproductions. Nice editing, nice gameplay… and a reminder of how bad some of the spawns were in Halo 2.(Louis Wu 18:01:33 UTC)

Planet Xbox 360 has a story about the upcoming packaging for Halo Reach – according to them, there’ll be the same three versions that Halo 3 had: Regular, Limited, and Legendary. No further details are available at this time. No confirmation from an official source exists. Thanks to 2900d4u for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 17:10:14 UTC)

Vids available for you today via Bungie’s Comm Chatter: Anoj posts Bungie Explains Episode 5 – with info about Powerhouse and Swordbase… and Static Hazard and iSNAXY have put together a Halo 3 dualtage called ‘Bullet Theory’ – lots of MLG footage. Go watch!(Louis Wu 16:57:20 UTC)

Yesterday, kidtsunami noticed that urk was answering general Reach Beta questions in a Bungie.net thread. I pulled all his answers out for readability (it’s a 30-page thread at this point, and urk only answered 17 questions), but waited until this morning to ensure he was finished. You can read the results on this page.(Louis Wu…

Gamebashing has an interview with DeepCee, the artist behind ODS Steve – thanks, Hawty.(Louis Wu 13:38:41 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue is going to be releasing Reclaimer episodes every day this week, to make up for the long hiatus – swing by the website for Episode 245 – Reclaimer gets upgrades… and finds something.(Louis Wu 13:33:39 UTC)

Red vs Blue Revelation Chapter 3 (Upon Further Review) is now available on the Rooster Teeth website – and for the first time (if you didn’t watch the shakeycam PAX East films or the one-night-only streaming-from-the-Alamo video), you can see why they hired Monty Oum. Amazing coordination of straight-up machinima and CGI – you need…

Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley talked to Brian Jarrard and Chris Carney about the Reach Beta – go see what they have to say!(Louis Wu 13:22:04 UTC)

Sad that Halo 2 online play is shut down? Go check out this trailer from dsalimander – it’s an alpha build of H2 Midship… in Halo Custom Edition. Looks amazing! (Also got word of Project Ambry, a pretty slick-looking Forerunner-based map – check out the thread for pics!)(Louis Wu 13:21:30 UTC)

The latest Bungie Podcast hit the webernets last night – Derek Carroll talks about gametypes (you might be a little disappointed with the extent of the Invasion explanation), Dave Candland talks about interface, Luke Timmins talks about the Reach engine. 90 minutes of serious awesomeness (except, maybe, the first minute or two). Grab the mp3…

Forward Unto Dawn has begun posting a 3-part retrospective on Halo 2 – Part 1 is up now. Go check out ‘I Hardly Knew Thee…’ – this segment was written by Dani, who didn’t play Halo 2 when it was in its heyday. How does the game stand up without the benefit of nostalgia? Go…

Max pointed out a really cool Weta-created Xbox being auctioned off right now (proceeds to go to charity). Go by and look – bids started at a dollar yesterday, but it’s already up over $520 AU (about $481 US), with four days left to run. Gorgeous!(Louis Wu 22:21:02 UTC)