Author: halo@bungie.org

What does it mean when you feel the need to update your dev blog with a line like “steve cotton is working on one of the craziest things ever in a halo game.” (and absolutely nothing else)? I guess it means Steve’s doing something droolworthy!(Louis Wu 17:09:51 UTC)

Bungie’s Weekly Update is live – lots of little Reach tidbits (most of which don’t actually SAY anything, but all of them will get you titillated), details about the Emblem contest, podcast woes, and voicework of the stars. And a sad farewell to BeserkerBarage. Go read! (It is, as always, also available in our Weekly…

Brighton rendered a turntable of his ODST model created with ZBrush; pretty cool! (It’s still a work in progress; he’s got more slickness to add.) Tell him what you think on our forum.(Louis Wu 20:43:40 UTC)

Ooh, almost missed this at Bungie.net – it’s a story about an obstacle course being hosted by HaloCharts. Prizes include a 12 Month LIVE card, Halo Legends, and McFarlane action figures. Go read about it!(Louis Wu 19:45:12 UTC)

The Escapist posted a video review of Halo Legends – go watch to see what Movie Bob thought. Thanks, Speedhuntr.(Louis Wu 19:13:04 UTC)

Looks like Geoff Keighley will be hosting a fireside chat for GamesBeat – the topic will be “How to Build a Blockbuster Franchise”, and one of the two guests is Joe Staten, Bungie’s design director. This will take place on March 10, in San Francisco, during the Games Development Conference. Sounds intriguing!(Louis Wu 18:05:36 UTC)

Couple of videos for your watching pleasure in B.net’s Comm Chatter today:Carpe Diem is a montage from Snowmann and Alien – heavy on the editing, but not to the point that the gameplay is unwatchable. (Some very nice effects.)Halography is a screenshot montage in high def – five minutes of great shots, at 1080p if…

HaloCharts Favorites are back – you can submit your best screenshot, video, or map variant for the weekly rotation. Winners get a cool Player Page award on HaloCharts (and the satisfaction of being favorited). Go read all about it at HaloCharts! Thanks to urk for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 18:02:16 UTC)

FyreWulff is hosting another Firefight Friday – this one is on Alpha Site, and it’s on Easy only. (Read the challenge details to see why.) Go get ’em!(Louis Wu 16:02:22 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has posted the top-rated captions from last week’s pic, and a new, nicely innuendoed pic, at her site for the latest round of Friday Caption Fun. Go play.(Louis Wu 16:01:52 UTC)

Five new pieces are up for your perusal in the Fan Fiction section – go read! (Louis Wu 16:00:38 UTC)

Logan Starline, known to the Halo community at large as BerserkerBarage, died yesterday from complications resulting from an infection. He was 27 years old. That’s simply too young to go. He’s been around the Halo scene (and has been a Bungie fan in general) for quite some time – you can read an ‘Average Joe’…

Okay, so remember when we mentioned that Greg Grunberg was going to be doing voice work for Halo Reach? Looks like it’s got at least ONE loud moment… (Thanks to NeoGAF’s Ssparks for the heads-up.)(Louis Wu 22:59:17 UTC)

Cody Ryan Brigan stopped in with some very, very cool pics; he’s hosting a Halo 3 tourney in April, and he’s going all out on trophies. Go see some of the work in progress!(Louis Wu 20:45:43 UTC)

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for another Double XP Weekend – as we mentioned yesterday, this week’s list is Grifball.(Louis Wu 20:43:40 UTC)

New movies available to you, courtesy of Bungie’s Comm Chatter:Temperature Rising is a Halo 3 montage from Orangeclock. 3 minutes, minimal editing… just kills.Premeditated Splatter is a Halo 3 Hogtage from Elite C 56. The name is funny because most of the splatters are NOT intentional.Lightsaber Duel is… surprisingly, exactly that. Two Spartans (excuse me,…

Zombie League Gaming is hosting a screenshot contest – send them the infection-related screenshot, win 1600 MS Points. Full details on Bungie.net.(Louis Wu 20:35:51 UTC)

Halochief89 filmed his drawing of a chapter pic for his fanfic/art project, Clairvoyance – you can see it here.(Louis Wu 16:44:41 UTC)

F1rsTxLas7 contacted Greg Bear on Facebook recently, and learned that the first book of the Forerunner trilogy that Bear is writing probably won’t be out before 2011. (As recently as last month, we thought it might be out in July 2010, because that’s the date Amazon is stating on its website.) Just a quick sidenote…

Over at 360Junkies, MDK x2002x posted his thoughts about the future of the Halo franchise – and what it might mean for fans. I think I probably disagree with the notion that you have to decide where your loyalties lie… but it’s certainly true that management will be changing hands, and this has the potential…