Author: halo@bungie.org

In other Halo CE news, we got word of Precipice – it’s one of the first maps to benefit from custom lightmaps. The team has managed to import Tool’s default lightmaps into 3ds max – and can now render some gorgeous maps that are much better than what you can get out of Tool. The…

MattDratt pointed out a post at Halomaps.org showing off (well, letting you download, but also showing off via screenshots) some Halo 2 maps remade for Halo CE. They look AMAZING; it’s hard to tell you’re NOT playing Halo 2.(Louis Wu 10:56:55 UTC)

The next chapter of ‘Out of Reach’ (the wish list for the game being created on Kombo.com – we mentioned Chapters 1 and 2 Thursday) went live yesterday – it focuses on starting weapons. Most of the discussion is about the Assault Rifle, with some pistol speculation tossed in. Give it a read! Coming later…

The Bungie Weekly Update is full of clarifications, cool factoids, awesome high-res pictures, and silly movies. If you’re thinking of playing the Beta next month, you should read this. Twice. (It is, as always, available in a slightly less resource-intensive format in our Weekly Update Archive.)(Louis Wu 00:48:34 UTC)

Tony ‘ubald’ Marcotte dropped off another render; this one’s called ‘Spartan Backup’. “Badass” doesn’t do it justice. Go check it out.(Louis Wu 19:44:22 UTC)

It’s been mentioned a few times that the maximum number of players in a multiplayer match in Halo: Reach would be slightly increased from the max 16 currently in Halo 3. According to Brian Jarrard earlier today, that WAS the plan – but is no longer. Reach multiplayer will support a maximum of 16 players.…

Brian Gilmore and Jake108 both let us know about the latest Teabag Prevention article from the Geekscape crew – this one focuses on Citadel. Go see how you can better use the map to your advantage!(Louis Wu 19:08:15 UTC)

Hey – it’s Friday! That means it’s time for Friday Caption Fun, at Hawty McBloggy’s. Nice captions from last week’s pic, and a new shot of a pretty wild vehicle – go play!(Louis Wu 16:26:09 UTC)

Total awesomeness – LeeKegan, of the 405th, whipped up a Brute Mauler, and it’s gorgeous. Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 16:23:59 UTC)

FyreWulff is back with another dose of Firefight Friday – this one is called ‘Blitzkrieg’, and can be played on either Heroic or Normal difficulty, on Last Exit. NO SNIPERS! (In honor of yesterday’s faux ViDoc, it’s chess-themed.)(Louis Wu 15:50:10 UTC)

If you’re one of the people who is worried about the direction that Rooster Teeth is taking with their Red vs Blue series (moving away from purely in-game footage, adding animated CG), you might want to watch the most recent episode of Jeskid TV. Jeskid is a long-time RvB fan with a web TV show,…

I would like to apologize for not mentioning yesterday that Rooster Teeth planned to stream the first 3.5 episodes of the new season of Red vs Blue live to sponsors – it was a one-time-only deal. (They were doing a show at the Alamo Draft House at the same time.) Turns out, it didn’t go…

dCon V pointed out a one-time deal at Tee Fury today; $9 plus shipping for a Halo/Mario mashup t-shirt. (Tee Fury’s deal is one shirt, per day, then it’s gone. Buy it now, or buy it never.) Because it’ll probably not be visible if you read this after the day it’s posted, the shirt image…

Taco Power stopped into our forum to announce Tsieh She, a “celebration of an average player having an above average day” – it’s a fun, mellow montage showing off clips we’re ALL capable of, from time to time. It’s not MLGPro gameplay – but most of us can probably connect with this level better, anyway.…

Four new pieces up for your reading pleasure in the Fan Fiction section this week. One of those pieces, Halo Clairvoyance Chapter 5, has some additional content described in this forum post. Go read! (Louis Wu 14:25:01 UTC)

Podtacular is doing a 3-part special farewell to Halo 2 – the first part is up already. Part two will be recording Monday – and will feature Foo Mo Jive, returning to say goodbye to an old favorite. If you’d like to recount your favorite stories from Halo 2, you need to send submissions to…

Kombo.com started up an article series they call ‘Out of Reach’ – it’s full of things they’re hoping to get out of Halo: Reach. (Geddit? Out of Reach? Geddit?) Part 1 went up on Monday (we missed it, sorry), Part 2 is live today. They’re expecting to post Part 3 tomorrow.(Louis Wu 21:42:54 UTC)

Remember Bridge CE? (Yeah, it was a long time ago.) It’s risen from the grave, though… and moved to a new engine. Go read about it!(Louis Wu 19:58:25 UTC)

There’s not a lot of Halo content, but it’s a good read all the same – elpolloguapo wrote up a summary of PAX East 2010, from the standpoint of the UNSC Spirits of Fire (a bunch of HBO/HMB fans, for the most part). If you didn’t make it, go see what you missed! (If you…

mendicantbias00 sent word that Halcylon has created a new piece of Halo artwork, inspired by the movie 300. Really nicely done!(Louis Wu 19:42:11 UTC)