Author: halo@bungie.org

The Competitive Video Games team let us know that a 3v3 Slayer tourney will be taking place tomorrow, January 19, at 3pm CST. Again, no prizes, just fun. (Louis Wu 14:25:54 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy ran across an eBay auction for a 7-foot bronze Spartan sculpture – starting bid is only $2900! What are you waiting for?(Louis Wu 14:01:52 UTC)

1UP.com has an article from Halo Wars’ Dave Pottinger that outlines ten interesting facts about the game, and its development. Go read to see how some units made it in while others didn’t… how certain strategies were encouraged by interface design… how one side might fight differently than the other. (Louis Wu 14:01:12 UTC)

Two comic updates for you this morning – The Catfish told us about the next episode of 2501 (‘The True Mainframe’), and anthraxgoon let us know about X36 Chapter 1 Issue 12, and a new posting schedule. Check ’em out! (Louis Wu 14:00:19 UTC)

It’s Friday, so it’s time for another Bungie Weekly Update – and this one is pretty meaty. There are a few extra tidbits, but the majority of the space is devoted to discussion of this week’s full-studio playtest of Halo 3: ODST. Absolutely worth a read! (As always, you can grab a copy in our…

Pete Cooner stopped by with a few pics of the early progress on their real-life Warthog. Check out the pics, and be sure to check out the blog!(Louis Wu 00:49:34 UTC)

The HaloTracks Map Database is the largest collection of Halo 3 racetracks on the web – go browse it for your next custom game night! Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 19:21:36 UTC)

Bungie’s Blog has a tipoff to a Grifball highlights film – the gameplay is great, the commentary… not so much. Worth watching, though, because some of the plays are really spectacular.(Louis Wu 19:16:36 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue announced a new series of features for webcomics publishers – once or twice a week, articles containing tips and tricks will be posted on Halo3Webcomics.com. The first pair of articles are up now – go read about how to make good text balloons and where to find good comic fonts. Useful stuff, for…

Only a couple of new stories in the Fan Fiction section this week – go see what’s up!(Louis Wu 19:02:52 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue let us know about Reclaimer 137 – it’s never easy, is it?(Louis Wu 12:33:06 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy let us know that the latest round of Friday Caption Fun is now online – great captions for last week’s odd Miranda-based screenshot… along with a totally bizarre Arbiter shot this week. Go try your luck at creativity!(Louis Wu 10:53:31 UTC)

KP announced last night that irc.bungie.org is closing its doors. Those doors opened almost five years ago, over at Homelan… and it’s been a good run. It’s time, though, to move along. For the next few days, the name will redirect to irc.adelais.net, a server run by some friends and members of the Halo community.…

Over at the Bungie Blog, urk highlighted a video which I found to be hilarious and well-made – Pattythedog615 created ‘Halo 3 Everything you Know is Wrong’, a video that uses Halo 3, Gary’s Mod (a Half-Life 2 mod), and a Weird Al song to show you that nearly anything is possible in Halo machinima.…

Jeusoni stopped in with word of yet another Halo 3 screenshot-based comic; this one is hosted by Biohazard Productions, and is entitled ‘Reconnaissance Omega’. The series started on January 1, and there’s been a page a day posted since then. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 10:33:12 UTC)

The Breaking In series at Bungie.net continues – Rob Adams, Senior Environment Architect is next up. Some decent advice in there for folks looking to find work with your friendly neighborhood Halo creator!(Louis Wu 23:55:19 UTC)

Bungie has a note explaining that due to some rollout issues with the January update (which should be pretty cool!) there won’t be a Double XP playlist this weekend… but there WILL be a new batch of playlists on Tuesday. Seems worth the tradeoff to me!(Louis Wu 23:51:53 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has tallied up the votes and created very pretty graphics for her 2008 Best of Halo Award Winners – go see who took each of the 10 categories! (Louis Wu 18:00:44 UTC)

Music 4 Games’ Greg O’Connor-Read pointed us to the press release for the Halo Wars Official Soundtrack – see details, a track listing, and the cover art. (Thanks also to Fuzunga, who noticed the release date of February 17 on Amazon’s page.)(Louis Wu 17:59:32 UTC)

Morpheus noticed that GameDaily has a feature called ‘Top 10 Things We Hate About Gaming’ – Halo makes the list twice. (Well, not really. The first time it makes the list, it’s because a picture of Halo is shown on a point card – it’s the CARD they’re complaining about.)(Louis Wu 17:58:35 UTC)