Author: halo@bungie.org

The Escapist’s latest episode of Kung Fu Grip is entitled ‘Star Wars: A New Halo’, and looks at how the Republic might have fared had the Stormtroopers been replaced with Spartans. Stop-motion theater at its finest! Thanks, Speedhuntr.(Louis Wu 23:37:40 UTC)

Video Games Live just posted a press release – their album debuted at #10 on the Billboard Charts. Wow! Congrats to Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, and the entire VGL team! If you buy a copy, you’ll hear the Slovak Symphony Orchestra playing the Halo Suite, and a bunch of other great music.(Louis Wu 21:56:31…

A few hours ago, the latest Double XP weekend went live – this week, it’s Team Melee. What’s Team Melee? It’s a playlist loaded with Gravity Hammers and Swords! Three teams of three meet to beat the crap out of each other. AdjustantReflex gave us the heads-up.(Louis Wu 21:51:37 UTC)

According to an article in Eurogamer, Bungie is “very excited” about Halo Wars – they talked to Damian Isla, AI Programming Lead for Halo 2 and Halo 3. Positive news, for fans worried that Ensemble might be taking liberties! Thanks, gunluva. While you’re at Eurogamer, check out this little piece as well – Isla discusses…

Veegie pointed out a Halo Chopper – not the Brute one – being modeled over at Threedy Forums by rubenvoorhees. Looks pretty cool!(Louis Wu 10:19:07 UTC)

Spartanx5 noticed an article on IGN that comes up with their Top 10 reasons Halo 3 is Back on Top (of the Xbox LIVE leaderboards). Some are silly, some are solid. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 10:14:30 UTC)

Praxis Solomen noticed an auction on eBay for a pen, collected during the 2008 San Diego ComicCon, which is labeled “The Battle Begins Fall 2008” and lights up. The title is ‘Halo Movie Pen’ – there’s no information about where this name came from. (Seems more likely that we’re talking about something like the Peter…

The Game Critics Awards Nominees have been posted for 2008 (these are awards for best of show at E3 every year). Halo Wars is up for Best Strategy Game. Results to be announced on August 5!(Louis Wu 20:23:13 UTC)

According to Bungie’s sawnose, Halo PC has received a new ‘pre-release hotfix’ that he’d like some community help testing before they get rolled into a real patch for auto-update. If you manage a Halo PC server, swing by his forum post and read about what’s been changed, and then grab the patch and give him…

Very interesting read over at The Cut Scene – it’s a pre-E3 interview with Bungie’s Harold Ryan, discussing how Halo has fit into the functioning of the studio for the past few years. There are tons of little tidbits that should be fascinating to anyone who wonders how Bungie does what it does, or why…

OddGodHMK continues his Boring Comics storyline from yesterday – this is getting weirder. (Louis Wu 19:00:34 UTC)

It’s Wednesday, so TTL Demag0gue tells us it’s time for Reclaimer 71 – and the Reclaimer learns, finally, what happened at Outpost 77.(Louis Wu 13:45:41 UTC)

BlueNinja has updated his Views From the Edge website with four new panoramas – he’s shooting for better technique over quantity this time around. Go see how he did!(Louis Wu 13:45:26 UTC)

GatchamanUK pointed out an article in Edge Magazine on the Secrets of Great Menu Design – Halo gets some heavy praise. Give it a read!(Louis Wu 13:45:07 UTC)

Twich ran across a Covenant Energy Sword replica (with stainless steel blades) for sale at True Swords ($50). Pretty! (And dangerous!)(Louis Wu 13:44:47 UTC)

KP let us know yesterday that according to Major Nelson’s LIVE Activity list for the week of July 21, Halo 3 is still on top, suggesting that last week’s showing might not have been a fluke. (The news by NOW is all over the net… including on our forum if you want to discuss it.)…

Hawty McBloggy has decided to start highlighting some fan art – and her first choice is a doozy. ‘Cortana 2.0’ was done by EvilFlesh, from DeviantART, and it’s a really attractive piece. Take a look!(Louis Wu 13:43:18 UTC)

Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked 38 is up – it’s about dumb things we do. (Louis Wu 13:42:50 UTC)

Kreyg let us know that he’s hosting a gaming marathon (the Halo 3 session is a four hour block on August 22) to raise money for Childs Play – he’s not looking for donations, he’s looking for players. Go read the details in the forum post – there’s even a prize up for (random) grabs…

If you didn’t get a chance to watch the Halo Universe Panel vids we mentioned yesterday, because you don’t do streaming Flash, or because you didn’t relish the thought of watching 8 consecutive videos, or for whatever reason – Red_Breast went to the trouble of downloading the Flash files, concatenating them into a single movie,…