It’s Friday, so it’s time for Caption Fun over at Hawty McBloggy’s. She’s got last week’s results up (some funny lines in the more than 300 submissions!), and a new picture to work with. Go see! (Speaking of caption fun, over at Forge Hub, they’re running a screenshot caption contest – come up with a caption, and get some front-page time there!)(Louis Wu 13:00:27 UTC)

Yesterday afternoon, Bungie posted a new Community Spotlight – this one is on HaloTracks, a site devoted to Halo racing enthusiasts. (A chunk of the spotlight is spent discussing the Wallrider map – i have to say, I downloaded this, and while the track itself is pretty cool, be aware that there are a LOT of things you can do to get your mongoose stuck permanently in places it can’t get out – I wasn’t even TRYING to break things and I lost the first two vehicles I climbed on.) Go check ’em out – their creations are currently filling up Bungie Favorites!(Louis Wu 12:38:53 UTC)

It’s Thursday, and it’s after 11 am PDT… which means Double XP Weekend is ON. This week, it’s Rockets FFA. Go blow someone up. Thanks, Captain Spark. Only the best for our boys (and girls)…(Louis Wu 18:55:33 UTC)

Z let us know about Maptrocity, a video that was modeled after insidi0us’ amazing Maptacular video (released two and a half years ago). Maptrocity is a Halo 3-based version, and a lot of work went in to making sure medals/kill types/etc lined up by the end. The transitions aren’t as spectacular as they were in the Halo version by insidi0us – but for the most part they’re pretty good, and overall it’s a great romp through the Halo 3 multiplayer maps. 9:23 long, 131 mb, WMP9 format. Go grab a copy from Halo3Forum.com!(Louis Wu 18:50:59 UTC)

PodTacular’s running a Summer Tournament – 4v4 MLG-style play. Are you part of a known Halo community? Sign up! You might want to read the discussion on Podtacular.com and the writeup on Bungie.net before you do…(Louis Wu 17:50:45 UTC)

nomis78 announced that he’s posted 6 new panoramas over at NHP, his panorama blog. The Last Resort work is HUGE.(Louis Wu 17:39:55 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has put together a piece on real-life Cortanas – we’ve covered most of them before, but there’s at least one new one, and her take, even on the ones we’ve seen before, it a good read. Check it out!(Louis Wu 16:49:37 UTC)

There’s a new episode of Halo Action Figure Theater available today – our heroes get some help from an unlikely quarter. Carrying unlikely weapons. And suchlike.(Louis Wu 15:51:41 UTC)

Major.Dump stopped by with a couple of eye-popping links – these are movies he created as CG adaptations of existing material. The first is a reproduction of Red vs Blue Episode 1, and the second is a trailer for his interpretation of the ‘Armor Testing’ story seen in the Halo Graphic Novel. Both are astounding – I hope we can get high-res versions of these that we can share. In the meantime, though, go watch the YouTube versions. They’re great.(Louis Wu 15:31:29 UTC)

Bry decided to create some very specific panoramas – these are devoted to Halo 3 vehicles. Specifically, he’s completed the Pelican and the CCS Battlecruiser. Swing by his post for links – there are some gorgeous pics in there!(Louis Wu 15:26:06 UTC)

SonofMacPhisto pointed out a Mongoose Montage, posted at MLGPro.com and highlighted by Bungie’s new blog – you’ll see some pretty amazing driving, shooting, and pwnage in general. Check it out!(Louis Wu 15:22:50 UTC)

The Screen Play blog in the Sydney (AU) Morning Herald has an article about Framework, a game development conference that took place in Melbourne yesterday. A significant chunk of it is devoted to some information from Keith Steury, who was involved in usability testing for Halo when he worked for Microsoft Game Studios. There’s some fascinating info about how decisions were made, and what sort of changes came about because of the testing. Go read! Update: DOH! Didn’t notice Ding beat me to this by a few minutes. Worth the read twice, I guess. (Pretty funny that we focused on the same point for our headlines…)(Louis Wu 15:17:58 UTC)