Author: halo@bungie.org

Ran across an odd press release – a new service called ‘BringIt’ will allow you to challenge other gamers to matches in a variety of games (including Halo 3) – you build a challenge, listing how much you want to play for. Others can take up that challenge – winner takes the pot, minus a…

My7hos pointed out that his charity auctions are ending this evening – you’ve still got a few hours left, and most things that are up are still pretty cheap. Go see – maybe you can pick up an inexpensive Christmas present for someone! The money you spend will benefit veterans, via the TTL Foundation.(Louis Wu…

Bongo let us know about a thread at Polycount – it was started by DH_, who works at Ensemble. He posted some of the stuff he’s worked on, including a bunch of early Halo Wars stuff. Check out the early version of the Ship AI!(Louis Wu 16:29:00 UTC)

RVideo sent along a pair of panoramas, compiled from early portions of The Covenant level. Check out Wrecking Crew 1 and Wrecking Crew 2!(Louis Wu 16:27:46 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 114 is now up – I gotta tell you, what the Reclaimer is about to be in for doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.(Louis Wu 16:27:25 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has posted another round of Friday Caption Fun – swing by for some of the best of last week’s offerings, and a new (and pretty lewd) shot to caption. Normally, I’d toss my offering in as the title to this post… but lots of people read the RSS feed for this site, and…

Only three new stories this week in the Fan Fiction section… I guess the Doing It Write challenge burned everyone out!(Louis Wu 16:22:29 UTC)

You think Halo is old? Get a hacksaw and count the rings in the meaty part of Mr. Wu’s upper thigh. OK, don’t. But wish the old bloke a happy b-day anyway, willya?(Ding 14:55:30 UTC)

The ‘Breaking In’ series continues at Bungie.net – urk talks to Pat Jandro, a Cinematic Animator for Bungie, about how he got into the field, and what’s good about the job. (Louis Wu 23:43:39 UTC)

pete_the_duck put together his own batch of panoramas today – most are fun incidents from matchmaking. I love ‘Double Snipe’!(Louis Wu 21:09:25 UTC)

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for another Double XP Weekend on Xbox LIVE – and this week, the playlist is Legendary Brawl. Ranked 12-player FFA – are there still achievements you need?(Louis Wu 20:51:23 UTC)

broony announced that he’d just received email from Amazon.co.uk confirming that The Cole Protocol had been dispatched, and Jillybean mentioned it had been in a local Scotland store for several days. The US Amazon, however, has the book on target to be shipped by mid-week next week. Oh, well… (Louis Wu 14:23:30 UTC)

Dave ‘Evil Otto’ Candland stopped by to point out a local (Seattle) news story involving Bungie – looks like lawmakers are trying to figure out how to keep video game dollars in the state, and Bungie’s a company worth talking to! (Louis Wu 14:22:56 UTC)

TruthPastor GBG let us know that the in-game Bible study he was doing (we mentioned it here back in August) has moved – if you’re interested in joining, here’s a page with all the info.(Louis Wu 14:22:22 UTC)

AvatarAang mentioned a couple of machinima links you might be interested in – if you’re a Rooster Teeth subscriber, you’ve got access to a pair of clips that were cut from the Reconstruction DVD, and the Running Gun crew has whipped up a project called ‘Paint the Line’, as part of a 48 Hour Machinima…

Bungie’s posted another Community Spotlight, with corresponding new goodies in the Bungie Favorites section – this time, they’re talking to Mjolnir Battle Tactics, a Bungie.net group. Go read about ’em, and check out their favorite maps/files! Thanks, Avateur.(Louis Wu 21:29:53 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy pointed out a new theme for your Blackberry 9000, courtesy of Halcylon. Nice work!(Louis Wu 19:17:21 UTC)

Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked Episode 42 is live – it looks like storylines are coming together.(Louis Wu 19:15:29 UTC)

Over on the Bungie blog, there’s an interview with Mat Noguchi about how Halo 3 uses the Xbox 360 cache features, and how this affects you with respect to the new ‘copy to disk’ feature of LIVE’s NXE (which is now available to all LIVE subscribers). We’ve discussed this recently – but this interview provides…

Taco Power is looking for help with ideas for his Green and Red stop-motion Halo Kubrick videos – you can watch the first three (they’re each just a few seconds long, and they’re just him playing around with the technique), and then suggest plotlines for him!(Louis Wu 14:56:25 UTC)