The Weekly What’s Update went up as expected last night – it’s been a quiet week, so this one basically covers some common questions Bungie gets. Some decent clarifications – Action Replay is fine if you use it to transfer unmodified game saves, for example – and some good ‘nice to know’ stuff. Go read!

In an uncharacteristic move, I’m emptying the Miscellaneous Art queue when it’s almost brand-new – there are a few really spectacular pieces waiting to be seen, and one was overlooked for several weeks, accidentally. Go check ’em out – and I hope you’re as impressed as I was!

You know the Halo Babies are growing up when conversations like THIS one start happening.

Larger Then Live is running a 32 team double elimination tournament online – yo ucan find all the details on their front page. Gameplay begins on Tuesday (I assume this coming Tuesday) at 9:45 EST, and will continue each night until the competition is over. It’s free to enter, and there will be prizes (undecided at this point). Thanks to Legolas71088 for the heads-up.

Reiginko posted a rendered 3D Mister Chief – first a head, then a whole body, then a walking Chief… then a DANCING Chief. That’s right – Mister Chief does the Lindy Hop. Yeah.

Bunker 27, Episode 2 has cleared the Movie Peer Review Rating System – Goose is shooting for The Stupidest Spartan Evar award, and is in serious contention. Some great techniques, some bad jokes, good filming – give this one a watch! WMP9 format (38.5 mb) or QuickTime format (36.7 mb).

Episode 13 of the Halo CE Chronicles has been released – ‘Realization’ examines personal weakness and self-realization. Minimal action, but plenty of emotion. Read Dennis Powers’ summary on the HCEC website if you’re unsure what this means for you. WMP9, QuickTime, and Flash formats – 9.3 mb streaming, or about 25 mb to download.

Stuntmutt’s made a name for himself foisting bad puns on the Halo community. Today’s One One Se7en shows that there may not be limits to the lengths he’ll go…

There’s a great piece over at Gamasutra, discussing the concept of Story in the context of video games – why the story is important, how games differ from the media that came before, what the developer can do to improve the experience for the player. Halo is held up as an example of Story Done Right (though I was amused to see a Bungie employee quote – about Halo, no less – used derisively as an example of how the industry has done things wrong up to now). Give this a read, and see if you agree! (Seems silly to point it out at this stage – but there are Halo-related spoilers in this one.) Thanks to 3Suns for the heads-up.

Sixteen new pieces available in the Fan Fiction section today – get to reading!

corpseguy posted a few shots of a helmet he’s made for Halloween this year – looking pretty nice!

Generally, we stay away from net polls nowadays – they don’t really tell you anything except which game has a fan community more willing to vote in polls. Sometimes, though… they’re fun. In an article about the top 100 all time classic computer games, Yahoo Games UK is asking for your favorite game of all time – Halo is up against contenders like Tetris and Pong (and a bunch of newer classics, too). At the moment, it’s hanging out in 5th place… but maybe, if you think it deserves it, you can toss a vote its way. Thanks to MaVeRiCK XS for the heads-up. (For what it’s worth – Halo shows up on the 41-50 page of the article.)

Newfive has posted a short guide to Halo 2 Custom Edition, the recently released (and these days almost-daily-augmented) HaloCE project. The guide comes with nice pics, links to all relevant material, and answers to basic questions – check it out!

Dennis Powers writes to point out that GearboxGameZone has mirrored The Squadron videos, and has added over 20 new Halo vids in the past two days, including most of the videos available on the “This Spartan Life” website (and a bunch that aren’t – there are now WMP9-encoded versions of the first 5 episodes). Go see what you can find!

Looks like the Halo Babies team has taken a page from the Bungie playbook and is challenging other Halo community teams to Xbox Live duels. There’s a writeup from Dark Halo posted over at the Halo Babies website, detailing a recent match between the HBN crew and the Marty Army – looks like this series was a blowout. Details and gamelinks available in the writeup!

Last fall, we mentioned ‘There’s Something about Halo’, a Flash vid over at Newgrounds – now, the team behind it has a preview of TSAH2 online (click the floating ‘TSAH2’ thing). That’s some weird dancing… thanks, Tactic.

The MPRRS continues to process submitted movies – The Squadron is a machinima series from the folks at Broken Console. Episode One is nearly 12 minutes long, and introduces the main characters and the storyline. Reviewers liked the humor and the flow. Check it out! WMP9 format (26.4 mb) or QuickTime format (26.7 mb).

Conner Reeves is selling a Frankie-signed Halo 2 poster on eBay – starting bid is just under $15, and there are 4 days left in the auction. Here’s your chance for a personal Mister Chief on your wall!

WHAM! Gaming (a subsection of the CANOE network) reviewed the Multiplayer Map Pack last week – they liked most of the maps, but had problems with Gemini, Terminal, and Warlock. Issues aside, the collection earned a 9.5/10 from them. Thanks, Anton P. Nym.

Okay, this isn’t Halo-related in the slightest, I don’t think – but it DOES hold some interest for those of you who follow Bungie, the company, and the people that (used to) work for it. According to USA Today, there’s a new reality TV show coming soon – Xquest will be brought to you by Ron Howard (who looks NOTHING like Ritchie – or Opie, for that matter – any more) and Brian Grazer, and will take contestants into space – well, simulated space. Simulated space? Yeah – “the travelers and viewers will be transported to space virtual-reality style, thanks to high-tech graphics and the help of co-producer Alex Seropian, a creator of the popular Halo game.” Wonga! Is this what Wideload is doing after Stubbs ships? Thanks, x amount. Update: Thanks to a story in Variety (which isn’t reachable without a subscription, unfortunately), I now understand this has nothing to do with Wideload; Seropian is also a principal of Spectrum MediaWorks, a company looking to tie together television, videogames, and ‘networked media’ – and it’s under this umbrella that he’s working with the Xquest project. (The Variety article specifically discusses the lack of connection between this project and Halo, in any form.)