Author: halo@bungie.org

The newest piece of Halo 3 machinima from DigitalPh33r is a piece called ‘Final Moments’ – it’s viewable on YouTube, and it’s based on the story of the UNSC Marines’ first encounter with a dangerous life form in the first Halo game. Done in the style of the Halo 1 Helmet-cam sequence, it shows a…

lostguru has created a ‘weapon/vehicle sounds song’ – a percussion piece based on sounds collected from Halo – and is wondering about turning it into a video. Go listen, and give him some feedback!(Louis Wu 18:45:29 UTC)

gunluva found a Kotaku mention of a GamePolitics news piece on an 11 year old boy who accidentally killed himself while trying to recreate some events in Halo. There’s an interesting discussion about responsibility in the resulting thread.(Louis Wu 14:41:21 UTC)

The Handmade Hero is back with a video that shows off the first 25 of the in-game portraits he’s created for Halo players; there’s some extra information about how the project is going. Check it out!(Louis Wu 14:38:34 UTC)

The Bungie Weekly Update is live (though you can, as usual, read it in our Weekly Update Archive) – there are random questions asked by Bungie.net denizens and answered by Luke, there’s smacktalk about last week’s Recon Challenge at PAX (most of the smack is reserved for Bungie employees who didn’t do what they needed…

Hawty McBloggy posted a piece a couple of days ago about a fan-made Brute Spiker; if you liked what you saw, but were hungry for shots of the piece under construction, and comments from the creator, swing by the gallery page for smick6’s Brute Spiker. Awesome work!(Louis Wu 14:57:24 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue is back with a new Reclaimer – #83 shows Viper that they might have more of a problem on their hands than they understood… (Louis Wu 14:56:48 UTC)

Two years ago, we mentioned a study being done in New York that found that laparoscopic surgeons who played video games were faster than those who didn’t. Last month, at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, a number of studies were discussed that showed similar findings – cognitive and perceptual skills are increased,…

Hawty McBloggy is back with another What If, Halo Style – Round 5 asks you what you’d set up if you had the ability to create a Double XP Weekend Playlist. Good question! (There is also a summary of the last question she asked, concerning dream vehicles – go see what people want to add!)(Louis…

After a break, Larry the Marine is back – #33 introduces a new hero to save Larry’s butt. Thanks, 2phast.(Louis Wu 14:38:05 UTC)

Ten new pieces went up this week in the Fan Fiction section – largest batch in a while! Go read.(Louis Wu 14:36:13 UTC)

You might remember the video series from Jamie98s entitled ‘Oh So Beautiful’, in which he took a close look at the natural wonders in Halo 2… he’s back with a version updated to Halo 3, and you can watch it streaming on his website, or download it from ours (WMP9 format is 135 mb, QuickTime…

Captain Spark posted a YouTubed montage he found – there’s some very nice coordination between the music and the gameplay. The embedded version is standard-res (YouTube’s standard), because that’s their policy; if you click on the vid and go to the YouTube page, you can watch the High-res version. If even THAT’S not enough for…

Bungie has activated this weekend’s Double XP Playlist – and it’s the return of Three Ball! Three balls, four teams. Can you hear the music playing? Thanks, RevDotNed.(Louis Wu 20:36:55 UTC)

Sad that you didn’t make it to PAX? Wishing you had a shot at some of the cool booty being given away there? Never fear – there are always more chances for that stuff. We’ll be giving away some of what we collected over the weekend… but not yet. And not in anywhere NEAR the…

The latest Halo Wars Monthly Update has been posted; there’s information about basic progress, upcoming changes to the website, and Halo Wars’ showing in Leipzig. There’s also a scramble picture with some mysterious alert messages; the last time they did this, we got to meet the Sparrowhawk. Thanks to Planet Halo for the heads-up.(Louis Wu…

tombodemon created a Halo-related project for an art assignment – he wanted to show off the use of video games as an escape from real life. There are a few screenshots, and a fun video. Check it out!(Louis Wu 13:30:08 UTC)

Wasabi Entertainment is running a Sig of the Week contest – and the theme is Halo. Top entry gets a Halo-related prize (unnamed so far). Thanks, Jamie Hutchinson.(Louis Wu 13:29:49 UTC)

Over at Ascendant Justice, vociferous created another of his thorough and well-written analysis pieces – this time, the subject is Assembly, the new map shown at PAX. Using information gleaned from hours playing and watching others play, along with discussions with the map’s designer, Dan Miller, vociferous has managed to create a look into this…

There’s an intriguing editorial at The Escapist, discussing the copying of game features without understanding why they were there in the first place, and what that does to games. Halo’s health system plays a large role in the examples, but it’s really more general than that. Thanks, Nokterne.(Louis Wu 11:26:26 UTC)