So Halo (the original game) was released in November, 2001 – and within a month or so, folks were exploring the boundaries of the maps. 2002 was the ‘Golden Age’ of Halo tricking; the Xbox hadn’t been hacked yet, and Halo PC wasn’t out yet, so folks were getting out of the maps the old-fashioned way… they were playing by the rules laid down by Bungie (though not always in ways that had been predicted). Tricking continued, but the earlier magic was lost, for a time; tricks were refinements on earlier techniques, rather than new discoveries. As later games were released, however, the community that was left working on Halo (the original) was a community that simply loved those maps – and some pretty impressive tricks, requiring some serious time devotion, were released. Yesterday, more than 7 years after the release of Halo, another one of these was completed. Ms. Man (with lots of feedback from HIH forumgoers) launched himself to the top of 343 Guilty Spark… at the END of the level. (Normally, this sort of launch requires a Shade – and there aren’t any at the end of the level. So he brought his own.) The High Impact Halo thread is here (thanks, Evan Volm), the video is here. Hats off to you, Ms. Man.(Louis Wu 21:33:04 UTC)

DigitalPh33r released Hard Justice: Episode 10 – the cidy of Esoteria is still screwed up. Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 20:56:01 UTC)

Master Ph0bia was first on our forum with word of a new render someone’s created of Sandbox; DopeteK, from the Kill 4 Fun clan, posted it up on Bungie.net this morning, but it nearly immediately started making the rounds without any attribution… and so has appeared in a number of places as a leak from Bungie. It’s not a leak from Bungie. It’s not even really real – it’s just a cool render built by some guy, and PRESENTED AS SUCH by him. Blame the rumors on other idiots. (The screenshot’s not real, either.)(Louis Wu 20:42:05 UTC)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a story about one man’s goal to fund his MLG dreams… by getting local players to pay to play him. (In theory, they’re doing it because they might win themselves, and head to MLG tourneys on someone else’s dime.) I thought it was fun Sunday reading.(Louis Wu 18:24:52 UTC)

MasterChiefn noticed that Halo 3 Fails Episode 8 is now live – there are some awesome funny moments in there. (My two favorites were the failed ghost-jacking on Snowbound, and the invisibility-induced betrayal on The Pit.) Go watch! I’m happy to see there are people who make the same silly mistakes I make.(Louis Wu 17:12:05 UTC)

urk stopped in over the weekend (careful, urk, it’ll become part of your job description if you keep doing that) to post word of a stop-motion Halo machinima. It’s not what you might think – it’s not action figures, filmed in stop-motion… it’s Halo 3 action, filmed in stop-motion. Watch it to see what the advantage is. Good stuff!(Louis Wu 17:10:53 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy brings us an update on the Virtual Reality Halo helmet she first noticed a couple of months ago. Headplay has upgraded the optics, added speakers, and is working on an accelerometer. Check out the progress video!(Louis Wu 18:06:19 UTC)

The ‘Top 10 Halo 3’ series from Anoj continues with a Multikill entry – Episode 22 shows off 10 impressive multikills. Some have been seen before (the danger of multiple Top 10 series, I guess), but they’re all fun to watch anyway. Check ’em out! (There’s also an honorable mentions collection.) Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 18:01:41 UTC)

A Montreal-based 3D-animator who goes by the name ‘eL gRizZLy’ just put up a blog post bubbling about how he’d just wrapped up his 5-month-long work on the Halo 3: ODST cinematics. Looks like it was a crew of freelance animators that was brought in to work on these cinematics, rather than using in-house resources. Fun facts! (I’m sure there’ll be speculation based on the timeframes mentioned… always an entertaining forum activity!)(Louis Wu 17:52:29 UTC)

The Catfish let us know that 2501 Episode 9 is live, and anthraxgoon also told us that X36 Chapter 2 Issue 1 is online. Have you gotten your Halo 3 Screenshot comic dose today?(Louis Wu 17:04:03 UTC)

ODST Sarge stopped in with word of a teaser for Sovereign, a new machinima series. Aspect ratio on the YouTube vid is a bit off, and there’s not much going on… but the storyline is laid out in the forum post and the teaser, so go see what you think.(Louis Wu 16:58:08 UTC)

Juesoni stopped by to say that the next episode of ‘David’ (his Halo 3 machinima’) would be broadcast live today at 12 PST (8GMT/UTC, 3 EST) – just three hours from when this post is being written. Swing by his forum post for full details.(Louis Wu 16:55:40 UTC)

Friday afternoon brought its customary Bungie Weekly Update – but it’s not as chock-full of sink-your-teeth-in goodness that last week’s was. A little bit about the Mythic Map Pack (thunder stolen by gaming sites around the world, beginning with Austria), a little bit about ODST’s development (intriguing, but vague), a sad memorial to the passing of a character that will be missed… and a random shot at an unfortunately ineloquent Bungie.net denizen. Oh, and the recognition of an HBO regular. w00t! Go read – either at Bungie.net, or in our own Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 00:31:57 UTC)