Author: halo@bungie.org

JRCB sent word of ‘Breakaway: A Rock Opera Machinima’, over at YouTube. It’s pretty cool – these guys wrote their own rock opera… and then acted it out in Halo 3. Great music! Definitely a one-of-a-kind… Go watch it!(Louis Wu 16:05:16 UTC)

ZZoMBiE13 couldn’t stay away from the RvB: Reconstruction Fan Art field – he whipped up a new scene from one of the first episodes. (Maybe the first?) Memories!(Louis Wu 15:54:41 UTC)

DigitalPh33r’s Hard Justice series continues with Episode 6, out now on YouTube. Bernard gets closer to the truth – maybe to his detriment. Thanks, vlad3163.(Louis Wu 15:51:15 UTC)

This came in a couple of days ago, but I somehow missed it. Halo Base’s Legend let us know that they’ve kicked off an Advent Calendar, documenting the history of Halo: Combat Evolved, with new magazine scans appearing every new day until Christmas. It’s all in German, but if you read German, there’s a lot…

I stumbled across a blog entry from someone named Ryan Fitzgibbon, who highlighted a short video created by Nicholas Werner called ‘Break: Halo 3’. It’s a short Halo machinima, no voice acting at all… but he’s done a fantastic job of tying together the multiplayer maps in a way that feels right. I enjoyed the…

ReleasetheMonk created a cutscene montage tied to the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V. It works surprisingly well. Check it out!(Louis Wu 13:46:11 UTC)

The Winter Pentathlon finished in spectacular style, apparently – complete with the presence of a live goat. (No word on whether the goat was eaten after the festivities.) Pictures and results are now in the updated Bungie.net article. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 13:45:42 UTC)

The Winter Pentathlon is now in full swing at Bungie Studios – Newbies take on Grizzled Ancients for glory and the power of the Bungie Fist. Go read about it! (Because of this competition, there won’t be a Weekly Update tonight – this is the last you’ll hear from the crew until next week… at…

Looks like The Cole Protocol is a hit – Tobias Buckell points out a few sites with bestseller lists. It’s #4 on the New York Times Trade Paperback list, #6 on the Publishers Weekly Trade Paperback fiction list, among others. Nice! Thanks to TTL Demag0gue for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 19:14:59 UTC)

Computerworld’s Dan Tynan found a site hosted by a conservative Christian investment group which rated recently-released videogames on their child-unfriendly content. Dan was offended by what he saw as a narrow-minded attempt to apply morality to video games – but I think I have to agree with the first commenter, who saw the Timothy Plan’s…

Hawty McBloggy hijacked a bungie.net thread for her community feature today – go see what she wants you to think about!(Louis Wu 14:45:41 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue stopped in to let us know about Reclaimer 120 – we’re getting more of the big picture.(Louis Wu 14:45:22 UTC)

Bungie.net continues their ramp-up to the 2008 Winter Pentathlon – there’s a short preview of the events in this year’s competition up now. Halo (the first one) is one of the games. Check out the nice poster!(Louis Wu 14:44:59 UTC)

Seven new pieces for you this week in the Fan Fiction section – go read!(Louis Wu 14:44:19 UTC)

RandomSauce sent word that the fifth Real7alk.com podcast is out – it’s a monster, nearly 2 hours long. You can grab it from their podcast feed – it’s 135 mb, and contains an interview with Hawty McBloggy, a new song from Bryan Simon, and an interview with the Halo 3 Mythbusters! (I’m only a few…

There’s a new ‘Breaking In’ article up at Bungie.net – Tam Armstrong, one of Bungie’s Animation Engineers, talks about what he does and how he got there. It’s not really Halo-related, but it’s an interesting read – so go read it! (If you’re looking to follow in his footsteps… I’m pretty sure the bike crash…

The latest Double Experience Weekend is now live – Rocket Race, Legendary Maps required. (Ladies can play too. I just couldn’t come up with a gender-neutral version of that title that didn’t sound stupid.)(Louis Wu 19:33:50 UTC)

Paul Mattson noticed that you can get a gander at the upcoming Halo Deluxe Hunter boxed set available in a couple of months from McFarlane Toys – just swing by the Spawn.com forums. Start saving some green – these puppies will retail for $19.99, and I know I’m gettin’ some!(Louis Wu 19:31:45 UTC)

Bungie.net has updated the assets available on the Halo 3: ODST page – you can now grab high-quality stills from the official trailer. (they’re not really new shots – just prettier than what you had before.)(Louis Wu 19:29:18 UTC)

Zandax’s Art of War (gameplay by Markoftheb3ast) combines nice gameplay with some snazzy editing – go watch in widescreen at YouTube. Thanks to urk for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 18:05:44 UTC)