Gtag=Reluctant Chaos was cruising DeviantART, and noticed some very cool Elite Councilor fan art. The artist has also posted the lines for the same pic, so you can see how this developed… and don’t miss this powerful rendition of another Halo denizen. Great stuff!(Louis Wu 15:39:30 UTC)

Sometimes, a random act of kindness comes out of the Halo community that simply floors me. This morning, I read a post from Seraph XXVII that blew me away. He’s got a pretty amazing collection of Halo paraphenalia – you can see a dozen or so pictures of it in his forum post. But it’s about to get smaller; he’s selling all of his Halo 1 and Halo 2 figures. It’s not because he needs a new car, or wants to buy a PS3 – it’s because he wants to give back. 50% of the proceeds will go to Child’s Play… and 50% will go to help out a longtime Halo fan and his girlfriend (we mentioned their plight last week). Seraph has never met Dan or Aimee – he just wants to help.

Help him help.

Full details of what’s for sale is up now – he’s giving the HBO community first crack. It’ll all be on eBay soon, so grab what you want! (Louis Wu 15:39:45 UTC)

CROSSFIRE is back – Dimension X Season 3, Episode 2, Part 1 is now online. (Ten minutes long, to conform with YouTube limits.) Episode 1 was mentioned back in July of last year; there have been some issues with the crew over the past couple of months, so future sections are uncertain. This is a shame, because the cinematography, voice acting, and storyline are all worth watching! (You gotta love crazy scientists.) Check it out. And let him know if you like it; maybe that’ll help with the next sections! (Louis Wu 15:21:47 UTC)

ElusiveEagle519 stopped in with word that the Bungie Dev Blog had been updated with a cool piece of concept art, to commemorate the Alpha milestone. What does it say to you?(Louis Wu 15:11:53 UTC)

New interview with Brian Jarrard and Marcus Lehto over at Xbox360Achievements. Surprisingly, there are still new tidbits to be learned! Good stuff about Spartan customization, “nose hair geometry”, bits about map philosophy, the beta, and more! Worth a read. Thanks, Aglor.(Louis Wu 15:10:21 UTC)

Good stuff coming from the Rooster Teeth crew: Grifball Expansion will be unfolding at Halo Waypoint over the next couple of weeks (Episode 1 went live yesterday), and the new season of Red vs Blue will begin on April 1, 2010. w00t! Thanks to kappalocust for bringing it to our forum.(Louis Wu 15:09:35 UTC)

Taco Power needed to clear out a bunch of old clips – so he made a montage. They’re funny clips!(Louis Wu 15:08:36 UTC)

rolandk73 and Hyokin have been building up interest and attendance for a weekly Friday-night gathering they call “HBO Customs Night”. It’s not officially endorsed, or anything… but let’s face it; the staff here is never going to find the time to set up something like this, so if you’re interested in playing Halo 3 customs games with folks from the HBO forums, this might be a nice alternative! It’s in the news today because it finally has a webpage. Thanks, Hyokin.(Louis Wu 15:07:50 UTC)

Our policy on magazine scans is “no posts before the issue is off the newsstands” – but Morpheus stopped by with a single-page scan of a bit from a recent GameInformer, and we’re gonna let it slide. (I don’t actually know what issue it’s from – but it’s only a partial page, and even the most recent issue hit stands almost a month ago.) It’s a feature called ‘Top 10 FPS Multiplayer Maps’ – and Halo’s Blood Gulch makes #4 on the list. Nice!(Louis Wu 15:06:53 UTC)

Over at I <3 Halo 3 Screenshots, the latest Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots list has been posted; this one focuses on Grunts. My favorite is ‘Ode to 300’. Go look!(Louis Wu 18:48:37 UTC)

It’s been a while since we posted a new round of Hide, Seek, Snap – the second image from Round 12 is STILL not solved. So we’ve put up a hint – at least now you know where it’s from! Take a look, and see if you can clear out this round and let us get on to Round 13!(Louis Wu 18:44:44 UTC)