Kongregate is hosting a Halo Wars sweepstakes – all you need to do is play (and beat) Battalion: Nemesis by March 2, and you’re entered. One winner will receive a 360 plus a copy of Halo Wars, four others will win a copy of the game. Thanks, elpolloguapo.(Louis Wu 21:27:17 UTC)

Wow. So we wanted to give away a few Mythic Map codes yesterday… little did I know how much interest that idea would generate. The next giveaway is gonna be a bit simpler (on the back end), I think. In the six hours that the contest was open, the official thread received 943 responses, with a total of almost 4500 title line suggestions. (Many, many more were posted in OTHER threads, or emailed to us – but those weren’t eligible for a code, according to the very simple rules listed in the first post.) I’d like to say that an awful lot of these submissions are great – and I’ll be folding many of them into the title line rotation here at HBO, so your words will live on, whether or not you win a code. That said, though… when you’ve got 5 codes, and almost 5000 entries… 99.9% of all entries are going to lose. I’m sorry about that. If you want to see what we got (without reading nearly 1000 individual posts), I put up the full list here. Without further ado, then… the winners!

• HBO – Saucy, with a hint of win (Llamalizard)
• HBO: Please pwn responsibly. (Testify)
• HBO: How many times have you been here today? (JeSteR 343)
• HBO: now adopted by Angelina Jolie (Ryan Clark)
• HBO: This is the last tagline. Start over. (Stephen L. (SoundEffect))

All five of these people have been contacted via the email addresses they supplied in their posts; if your name is up there and you haven’t gotten an email from us, check your junk folder. I can’t tell you what made these stand out over the enormous amount of competition; I DO know I have a first-cut file with my top 75 or so, but on a different day, the winning five would probably have been different. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t win – and don’t give up hope! We’ll be giving out another five later this week.(Louis Wu 18:28:33 UTC)

Tony ‘ubald’ Marcotte sent along another Halo render – this one’s a gorgeous little shot of a mongoose and its pair of riders. Check it out in his gallery here! (Louis Wu 17:55:42 UTC)

Halo.fr’s Johnny be good sent word of a video showing golf action on Sandbox. Fore! (Louis Wu 17:54:54 UTC)

Planet Xbox 360 has their own set of Mythic Map Impressions – go read!(Louis Wu 17:52:51 UTC)

More Bryan Simon goodness on YouTube (and here): Nobody Loves Me But Urk passes sweet words of devotion to our favorite Bungie Blogger. Wanna listen instead of watch? Grab the mp3 version (3 mb). I’m gonna be humming this all day…(Louis Wu 17:50:03 UTC)

Adam Grumbo sent word (two days ago!) that a 405th regular, Ruben, had created a truly beautiful ODST helmet – you can see the finished pictures on this page, and you can jump back to the start of the thread for the beginnings of the project, back in mid-September. Astounding work! (Hawty McBloggy has her own writeup of the helmet, with some of the best pics pulled out for your viewing pleasure.) (Louis Wu 17:40:46 UTC)

Decadence Night sent along three new time-lapse panoramas – he’s definitely getting better at this intriguing style of art! I love the Ghost Town one! Check out all three: Ghost Town (2709×1031,611kb) | Last Resort (2905×566,523kb) | Sandtrap (5419×1022,1.3mb) Update: Thanks to Scotty for pointing out that I mislabeled the Ghost Town shot as a Rat’s Nest shot… my bad! (Too much going on this morning.) (Louis Wu 17:40:08 UTC)

Comics popping up today:

• TTL Demag0gue stopped in with word of Reclaimer 155 – ‘Confessions’ is Part 4 ouf Reclaimer Mythic Edition, and it shows off Orbital. We’re back to Viper…
• Hawty McBloggy let us know that the next ODS Steve is live over at her place – Episode 15 (“If Only Carmine Had Listened”) discusses the wisdom of head protection.
• anthraxgoon told us about X36 Chapter 2 Issue 5 – new art technique, bigger goodies.

I’m betting there’ll be more before the day is out…(Louis Wu 17:30:51 UTC)

mrsmiley let us know that the first episode of Master Chief Theater 3000 Season 3 is now online – they’re going back to the original Halo. Pillar of Autumn is covered in this one.(Louis Wu 17:24:03 UTC)

Mid7night updated his X-Plane Hornet – and flew it around Edwards AFB. Go watch the movie! (Louis Wu 17:23:40 UTC)