Author: Louis Wu

Heh – over at NASA’s Scientific and Technical Information website, there’s an article about the origins and evolution of Plantronics, a company that specializes these days in headsets. (They grew out of NASA’s need for clear communication tools in extreme situations in the 50s and 60s.) And yes, the Plantronics Halo 2 headset is discussed.…

Yesterday, we mentioned a cool Gauss Hog montage over at Halo2Forum.com, but it was only available in WMP9 format. I just got word from Z that he’s okay with us hosting a QuickTime… so if you couldn’t see the WMP9, grab this (105mb)! (I hear Mintz is planning on putting a portable-compatible version up at…

Funkmon noticed that the new playlist updates (mentioned in last week’s BWU) are now online – KP confirmed they have been since about 10:30 am Pacific time today. You need to log out and log back in to see them, if you were logged in around that time.

Over at Halo Planet, they’re running a new contest – create a cover for the Halo 3 box, win some cool schwag. Read the contest page for all the details – and get your entry in before June 20!

Z points out another nice montage over at Halo2Forumcom – it’s a trailer for an upcoming vid from Halzred and Typos called ‘Explicitry: The Duet’; great editing, as always, from Halzred, and lots of multikills. 48 mb, WMP9 format – check it out!

Okay, this one’s pretty interesting… lots of potential. Phil “WeaponSkill” McMahon sent word that he’s created a small database of Halo 2 players all over the world… in Google Earth. (Sort of like Frappr, but on your own computer.) If you’re interested in participating, grab this small zip file (2K); instructions for adding yourself to…

Remember MsValentine? She just back from MetroCon in Florida, and there’s a great pic of her Cortana outfit in her RvB profile. (The journal entry describing the reactions she got is pretty entertaining, as well!) You need to be an RvB member to see this stuff – but hey, it’s free!

ShreK sent word of a site with a rather juvenile domain name, but a nice collection of Halo 1 gameplay vids – sort of ‘the cream of the crop’ of the past few years. This is the work of Fil4, a Polish Halo player who loves Halo more than Halo 2. Go see why! Update:…

Sigafoos sends word that The Creme Savers have released the first episode of WikiRiot, a new podcast from halowiki.net. It’s currently available via rss, but an iTunes link is coming soon. Episode 1 is 8.8 mb, 22 minutes long, and it (along with future podcasts) focuses on ‘the wiki experience’ – updates on the halowiki.net…

nof pointed out another Youtube video last night – this one is a concept video for MLG. It shows what a tournament might look like when televised – there’s voiceover commentary, instant replays, and multiple points of view. Interesting concept!

AJay wrote to point out Gescrow, a website that lets you register and play for cash against others in a variety of games (including Halo 2, which is why he sent this to us). From what I can tell, they look like a gaming escrow company (hence the name) – you deposit cash with them,…

Another one of our poster winners, Indutiomarus, just got his prize back from the frame shop… and wow. (He says the angle’s to avoid the glare.) Makes me wish I’d entered! (The pic is by Mike Hill, if you don’t recognize it.)

There’s a nice feature over at 1Up.com, focusing on the emergence of machinima as a solid art form – and it includes a nice tutorial from the team behind Red vs Blue. If you’re looking for tips… check this out! Thanks, insaneidiot.

Slacker Entertainment has posted Heretics & Heroes Flashback 5: The McCleod Group over at their website, for sponsors (it’ll be up for the general public in a few days. That McLeod is one angry dude… and this whole series has some really, really nice production values. If you haven’t checked these out, you really should…

Frankie put up a note about a pretty cool milestone passed yesterday – half a billion Halo 2 games played on XBL to date. (This is not ‘player sessions’ – 3.3 billion of those were played by last week.) A neat stat – looks like the average gamesize on Xbox Live is about 7 players.…

There was a Fan Fiction contest being sponsored by BungieFansOnline.com – but then the site went down. It’s back up, and they’re looking for submissions again. (All of the original ones were lost.) Read more at Bungie.net.

There’s a powerful writeup of the MLG Dallas finals over at MLGPro.com – Final Boss continues to dominate, Str8 Rippin continues to nip at their heels, everyone else continues to try and stay in the money. Thanks to KP, over at Bungie.net, for the heads-up.

Stuntmutt is back behind the wheel at One One Se7en. How can you tell? Yeah, that’s right… you can smell the puns from across the ocean.

So about a week ago, we mentioned a new screenshot trainer developed by xbox7887 (well, sort of – we mentioned the pictures synide took with it). Turns out a LOT of people have been playing with this – a few days ago, Dojorkan took a bunch of really cool shots of Cortana, the Prophet of…

Wow – time marches on. Over at High Speed Halo, the final speed record set by the winners of our Going Nowhere Fast contest has fallen – Truth and Reconciliation has now been completed (on Legendary) in 18:21. Congrats to Riptor for closing the book on this one! Thanks, Ducain.