Another player in the recent test drive of NOKYARD’s newest Grifball arena has weighed in with his thoughts – puptastrophe, the Webmaster behind GrifballHUB, has posted a long article on his site. It contains his thoughts, an interview with NOKYARD, impressions from Bryan Simon and me, pictures, and a video. Go give it a read!(Louis Wu 19:13:12 UTC)

FyreWulff has gone through the E3 2003 Halo 2 Demo and pointed out the parts that made it into the final game. Most of these have been known about for a long time (after all, E3 2003 was six years ago)… but at least one I’d never thought about – the screens that eventually showed up in Cairo Station. In any event, it’s a nice look back at a pants-wetting (at the time) demonstration… just in time for whatever Bungie’s got planned THIS year!(Louis Wu 19:00:25 UTC)

It’s after 10 am PST on a Thursday, so there’s a new Double XP Weekend list live on Halo 3 Matchmaking… and this week, it’s Living Dead. Go eat some brains! (Thanks to CaLL Me ZeNy for pointing it out.)(Louis Wu 18:56:54 UTC)

Drift0r put together ‘How Not To Disarm The Bomb‘ – a Halo machinima that should make you happy that Bungie made bomb disarmings as simple as being close. Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 18:55:38 UTC)

Back in April, 2008, HBO took on Bungie in a Humpday Challenge on the then-not-quite-released Legendary maps. It was an even Humpday (1 win, 1 loss, 1 tie for both teams)… but unbeknownst to us, a couple of weeks after the event a fan known as Rast07 whipped up a very cool action video of the first game. (You can’t tell from his editing, but Bungie took this one, 3 caps to 2.) When I saw the writeup in the Bungie Blog, I thought “man, that’s old… who’s gonna wanna watch that?” – but then I watched it. Really nice filming!(Louis Wu 17:14:13 UTC)

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned ‘Master Chief vs Mortal Kombat: The Hidden Skull’, a machinima mashup of Halo and (duh) Mortal Kombat. It was hilarious. The second episode is up now (thanks again to the Bungie Blog for the heads-up) – and it’s as good as the first. Check it out!(Louis Wu 16:56:08 UTC)

ChrisOfTheDead has put together Shenanigans 2, a community funtage – not all meetings in Halo 3 are about killing the other guy. (Just most of ’em.) Some funny stuff in here… thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 16:42:12 UTC)

The Hushed Casket has been around for a LONG time – and they’re still kickin’ it, oldschool. They recently got together for a Halo PC LAN… and rapture stopped by to point out a writeup, including pics and a great overview video. Swing by for a solid dose of nostalgia! (Sadder news that came out of this event – apparently, Mac Halo is no longer buyable, except as a used product.)(Louis Wu 15:34:41 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy wrote up her experiences with the latest Grifball arena – though I think she just wanted to take a lot of pictures of me dying. I think maybe I shouldn’t be standing so close…(Louis Wu 15:32:34 UTC)

Leviathan continues his graphic novelette, “A Sangheili’s War Is Never Over” – the latest episode is bigger, bolder, and more colorful than its predecessors. Take a look! (Louis Wu 15:31:21 UTC)

Tom Reynolds, an Australian journalist, gave his son controller and filmed him playing a little Halo. Not really unusual, I guess… until you realize his son is 10 months old! (Sadly for Tom, he says his son’s K/D spread wasn’t that much worse than his own…)(Louis Wu 15:29:55 UTC)

LoneRanger 2.5 pointed out that Oddee.com recently posted an article entitled “12 Alphabets Made of Objects” – and the Halo Corpse Alphabet is on the list. (Personally, I loved the Sky alphabet – but they’re all pretty cool.)(Louis Wu 15:29:01 UTC)