Brian and Luke are in Tokyo for the Tokyo Game Show (which starts next Thursday, so the Bungie Weekly Update was left to Shishka this week. And as much as I’d like to say that one should never, ever leave Shishka in charge… I have to admit, it’s a pretty sweet update. There’s quite a bit of info about the upcoming changes to the Bungie.net filesharing capabilities – that screenshot search looks gorgeous! There’s a very, very welcome new addition from Roger Wolfson – ‘Render to Video’ for Bungie.net film clips. (I love GameVee as much as the next guy, but having it built into the Halo 3 system makes far more sense.) There are details on the changes in store for Halo 3 matchmaking in October (the new playlists are finally nailed down on the Playlist page, so you can see just how long you’re going to have to wait for that Oddball game in DLC FFA). There are details about getting the 7 on 7 Achievement, available for the first time this coming Tuesday – one tidbit I hadn’t realized is that you have to enter the playlist AFTER you win your seventh game, or it won’t register. (This is pretty critical if you decide to use the Icy Treats list that is going up specifically for the achievement… because if you log off after your seventh win, thinking you’ve gotten it, by the time you come back the next day, you won’t have a CHANCE to get back in.) And finally, there’s a description of how the new Banhammer features are deciding whether you’re cheating or not – apparently, they haven’t found a false positive yet, despite a LOT of complaining. That, to me, is pretty interesting. (If you want to sleep well at night, skip the final picture in the update.) You can, as always, read this update in our Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 12:23:18 UTC)

We got a couple of new panoramas from RVideo – a gorgeous shot of the Ark (325k), and a cool shot of a Pelican (140k). Check ’em out! (Louis Wu 17:14:15 UTC)

smiley let us know that Master Chief’s Cutoffs (outtakes for the Master Chief Theater 3000 series) has been updated with Episode 204. You must be a member of pyrosmile.org to watch.(Louis Wu 17:12:58 UTC)

It’s time for another round of Friday Caption Fun, from Hawty McBloggy – she’s got some good answers for last week’s shot, as well as a pretty nice perspective trick for this week’s shot. Go see what you can come up with!(Louis Wu 14:32:09 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue pointed out that Reclaimer 95 is online – the pieces are starting to fall into place. Well, for the Reclaimer, anyway, if not for us.(Louis Wu 14:30:15 UTC)

Light addition to the Fan Fiction section this week – just six pieces. Go read!(Louis Wu 14:28:41 UTC)

KP has a way with words – but it’s not always the way you want to go. A nice example is his intro to the Cavegirls’ Fight Like a Girl tournament, coming up in 3 weeks – it will benefit breast and cervical cancer research, and it promises to be a blast, if the last couple of years are any indication. Signups started yesterday – read his post, laugh a little, then swing by and sign up!(Louis Wu 23:38:27 UTC)

Devin Olsen, jealous of the press Hawty McBloggy gets by turning up unique Halo action figures on eBay, has found his own truly bizarre creation – a Custom Halo 3 Hayabusa Spartan… with wrist blades. Yep, you read that right – this guy could take on Wolverine. (Given that his blades are 2-3x as long as Wolverine’s, he might even win.)(Louis Wu 20:00:38 UTC)

Adam Grumbo sent us a link to a series of photos taken at a recent shoot at the Austin Airport. All I can say is… dang. Nice work! He hastens to point out that these have not been digitally edited at all.(Louis Wu 19:31:40 UTC)

DigitalPh33r’s Hard Justice: Episode 1 is now up on YouTube. I’m a little confused – it looks like he just added 4 new minutes to the 4-minute ‘promo’ released a couple of weeks ago. (I guess I always thought a ‘promo’ was suppose to give you a taste of what the full version would be like, not BE the first half of the full version – but I’ve certainly been wrong before.) The series looks to be commentary on an overbearing police state… judgement is reserved until more content is released. Thanks, UnSiLeNtSlAyEr.(Louis Wu 19:04:43 UTC)

The MLG Pro Circuit continues with MLG Dallas, opening tomorrow night. You can read the full preview here, on MLGPro.com. There’s plenty of other Dallas content up now or coming soon – pro players put in their own predictions for which team will garner the 8th National Championship spot by winning this weekend, and there’ll be lots of video coverage, starting with the Pre Game Show tomorrow night at 9 eastern. Swing by and root for your favorite team!(Louis Wu 18:46:26 UTC)

xen eldridge let us know that Halo3RPG.com is also running a Double XP weekend this weekend – Team Incineration. (Louis Wu 18:45:51 UTC)

This morning, Bungie posted a final update in their ongoing saga about the Experience problems folks have been having on LIVE. Looks like everything is finally worked out – but Experience not gained in the last couple of days will NOT be retroactively assigned. On the plus side, the Double XP weekend has just gone live – this weekend, it’s Team Snipers. Go shoot someone!(Louis Wu 18:00:48 UTC)

OddGodHMK let us know that The Biased, Chapter 1, Page 8 is up – things are getting weird.(Louis Wu 17:58:25 UTC)

Captain Spark dropped off another batch of dialogue snippets harvested from Halo 3 – check ’em out in our Dialogue Databank. Good stuff in there!(Louis Wu 16:27:20 UTC)