Author: Louis Wu

Halo 2 CE is DONE! Swing by the EPGServers.com site to grab your copy… this puppy has been a LONG time in the pipe. Beautiful! Thanks, DevilsKnight666.

Chris Bryan continues his rendering efforts on the Master Chief – you’ll find a test render in this post, and another in this one. All I can say is… wow.

Dennis Powers writes to point out that Episode 12 of the Halo CE Chronicles, ‘Bonding’, is now available for downloadin on the Halo CE Chronicles download page. The Spartan finds himself in… strange circumstances, while a rescue party sent to save him runs into pretty big trouble. Roughly 30 mb, in both WMP9 and QuickTime…

Ajay pointed out that a recent comic from NEWBS was Halo2-related – if you like it, check out their other stuff!

I usually use this space to take a cheap shot or two at Stuntmutt, but today’s One One Se7en doesn’t deserve any cheap shots – I loved it. Through and through. Go read it.

Eight new stories in the Fan Fiction section today. (I had to delete a few whose authors thought that the ‘Do not use the Poem button for a story simply because you don’t have 750 words’ directive didn’t actually apply to THEM.) Go read.

Doug Griffith let us know about a Halo 1 and 2 tourney in Aurora, Ontario (about 30 miles north of Toronto). $25 pre-registered, $30 at the door. Rules and Prizes aren’t posted yet – event will be held the weekend of August 12-14. If you’re in the area, check back!

XerxdeeJ put up a note on our forum – it’s time for another weekly recap of Tied the Leader, his Halo-related blog. The two most recent, No Games Played and Open Letter to the Sniper, both resonated with me. Go read!

New comic over at Halo Babies – I think Gruntsbane is letting those little tykes grow up.

Jon McFarlane and some friends put together a Halo 2 radio project at University – it’s in MP3 format, just over 7 minutes long, weighs in at 9.7 mb, and follows some of the marines on the Athens before and during its boarding at the start of Halo 2. It’s a pretty interesting concept, and…

Captain Spark continues his collection of dialogue snippets with the IWHBYD skull – there’s some hilarious stuff in there. He’s moving his website, so for now, these are only available in our Dialogue Databank.

Razgriz dropped us a note to tell us that FragNutz.org is offering free hosting to anyone interested in setting up a videogame site. More details of this offer can be found on their site. This might be a way to get your Halo site hosted!

Wonga. SketchFactor posted a Banhammer Update a few hours ago, over at Bungie.net (thanks, Dry Ice, for noticing) – in the first 24 hours of AU4.0’s existence, 2550 (wouldn’t it have been nice if it had been 2552, instead?) people have been permanently banned from Halo 2 Matchmaking. Nice! There’s also a mini-faq addressing some…

imSuck put together a music video for the song “Beverly Hills”, by Weezer. It cleared the MPRRS last night – so go ahead and grab a copy! Pretty funny, mostly using footage from the newest netmaps. Nice timing. 32.3 mb in WMP9 format, 30 mb in QuickTime format.

8BitOldie writes to let folks know that the Halo 2 CE mod team is almost ready to release Direct2U, an app that auto-updates team releases to make grabbing new content more painless than ever! Looks pretty cool!

IGN has put up an 11-minute video guide to new map strategies – available only to Insiders, it covers Gemini, Terminal, and Relic. After watching, I’d have to say that unless you’re REALLY a beginner, these aren’t going to help you much. But hey – every little bit helps, right? Thanks, BitMaP.

Cornballer pointed out that Aint-it-Cool News got a shot of the Red vs Blue crew hawking their wares at the San Diego Comic-con – amazing where they show up! (Scroll to the bottom of the page.)

Edwin Davis wrote to say he’s got some Halo screensavers up on his site – these work with MacOSX 10.4 (Tiger). One is our news feed, on your desktop… the other is flying Halo logos! Check ’em out. (These are pretty cool – but be warned, if you’re running a monitor off a PCI card,…

Anton P. Nym sent along a scan of an article from today’s London (Ontario) Free Press, covering the new Map Pack… but it’s online as well. Takes a shot at Nathan ‘Bentllama’ Walpole, a London native… always fun.

zugy posted an update on Project Torlan, the UT2004 Halo total conversion, and it includes a bunch of screenshots. Some of the maps look pretty fun – I especially like the one that looks to be a blend of Hang ’em High and Gephyrophobia. Check it out!