Pynion was a contributor to our forum long before he was hired by Bungie to work on Halo 3. Yesterday, he sent along some artwork he’d created for the game that hadn’t made it into the final build – go take a look at these tidbits!(Louis Wu 15:08:32 UTC)

Speaking of Artist Galleries here at HBO, we got word last night from Bryn Casey that he’d whipped up another Halo scene – This one is called ‘The Last One’, and it’s a powerful view of a damaged Earth!(Louis Wu 14:50:58 UTC)

Luke McKay has been posting sketches of characters and scenes from Red vs Blue: Reconstruction since early June, but we’ve been really lax about adding them to his gallery here. Swing by for visualizations of Washington, South, the Meta, and a great scene from Episode 6.(Louis Wu 14:43:39 UTC)

Gamasutra has an article, reprinted from Game Developer magazine, about how to introduce difficulty intelligently into video games. Halo is held up more than once as a good example. Give it a read! (Louis Wu 14:19:24 UTC)

O L sent us a note about a charity called ‘Extra Life’, a 24 hour gaming marathon, where people can pledge money for each our a gamer participates. It’s being supported by two gaming communities that have Halo ties – Sarcastic Gamer and Achievement Hunter. This isn’t really Halo-related… but proceeds go to the Texas Children’s Hospital. Swing by and check it out!(Louis Wu 14:17:19 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy ran another batch of Halo pick-up lines through some online translators… and came up with… well, stuff you probably shouldn’t try on someone you’re trying to pick up. (You know, she seemed like such a sweet person, in person…) (Louis Wu 14:10:09 UTC)

GamesIndustry.biz talked to MGS Head Phil Spencer recently – and he mentioned that “there are more than two or three teams building Halo things right now.” We know about Halo Chronicles, built by an internal Microsoft team, we know about Halo Wars, being built by Ensemble. We know about one or two Halo-related projects being built by Bungie – but “more than […] three teams” suggests that there might even be other ones. Is the Halo franchise being overmilked? Our forum thinks so, apparently – Avateur found this story at Kotaku, and the reaction has been pretty negative. (Louis Wu 14:02:13 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 88 has been posted – the Reclaimer is beginning to understand what is required of him.(Louis Wu 13:54:03 UTC)

SnowJP 360 let us know that DWT Productions has posted E.O.A. Episode 0.5; it’s old footage, showing off some Halo 2 random tricks… but it’s a nice burst of nostalgia. (Louis Wu 13:53:43 UTC)

Morpheus is kicking off a new service – he’s willing to capture Halo 3 clips for you, at no cost. It’s not automatic, so I’m thinking he’ll probably get overwhelmed relatively quickly… but if you’ve got stuff you want captured, and you’re not happy with the limitations of GameVee, this might be a decent option! (Louis Wu 13:53:16 UTC)

oriol003 let us know that Grunts R Us has revived their Halo Signature Generator; swing by if you need one! (Louis Wu 13:52:32 UTC)

SilverBrin discovered an old collection of ‘Lost Halo Excerpts’ he wrote some time ago – some are silly, some are pretty funny, all are nice and short. (Louis Wu 13:52:16 UTC)

schnear25 discovered a ‘Halo comic’ (it’s more of a short story, or something, with a small piece of artwork to go along) at College Humor – pretty spot-on. Take a look!(Louis Wu 13:51:33 UTC)

Our old friend dogsounds has gotten in touch – he has a comic strip called ‘Avoid Spikes‘ which hasn’t been about Halo… until recently. His graphic tablet died, so he’s resorted to Halo 3 screenshots to tell his story – so until a new tablet can be afforded, you’re likely to see a lot of Halo content in the strip! The Halo strips start with #24: Happy Birthday Mart!(Louis Wu 13:38:53 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found a fan-made Hayabusa Armor suit for sale on eBay – auction ends tomorrow. Starting bid is $1100 – go check it out!(Louis Wu 13:38:34 UTC)

Bradley Mileski let us know that we’ve been lax about keeping you informed about new releases from the Spriggs crew – they released Episode 12 Part A in late August, and Episode 12 Part B a couple of days ago. I’m starting to wonder if they haven’t lost track of what they were aiming for when they began… but the videos are up, if you’d like to watch.(Louis Wu 13:37:46 UTC)

I wasn’t going to get to Halo news for a little while today; it’s a busy morning. However, Bryan Simon just sent along his newest ode to Bungie – this one is called “All The World’s Problems” and it shows how Halo can solve everything. (Well, maybe not global warming.) As usual, if you’re interested in the MP3, you can grab it from us (3.7 mb). Always good to start your day with a smile!(Louis Wu 11:54:15 UTC)