Ben Hollis points out his new Xbox Live Friends List watcher, XBList. Runs on Windows, displays your Live Friends list in a buddy-list style. Incorporates player emblems, and double-clicking on a friend loads their stats.

Dennis Powers writes to let people know that Episode 9, Time Enough to Consider, of the Halo CE Chronicles has been posted at HaloMaps.org. 8.4 mb, Flash movie format. The Spartan and the AI find the drop pod they’ve been looking for – and a few things they weren’t.

1UP.com has a sizeable article on Stubbs the Zombie, the upcoming Halo-engined game from Wideload Games. It’s a pretty interesting read – go check it out! Thanks, 3Suns.

Team Tabula Rasa is running a contest for new map content – create a new map, win a beer stein. Read details on their contest page.

Tree Skunk Productions put up Outpost Coagulation: Episode 5 this weekend – you can download it from their server or from Halomachinima.com. WMP9 format, 21.3 mb.

Jillybean took some time this weekend to update the Halo Story Page – there’s some interesting stuff there! I apologize… but the rest of the news is gonna have to wait.

The last of the guests have left, the last of the empty cans and bottles have been bagged. Another HBO HQ lan has come and gone – and I am TIRED. I’m sure there will be writeups, with pics, posted to our forum soon (if they’re not there already – I haven’t had a chance to look yet) – but the short summary is… they came, they played Halo, they ate a LOT. I’m gonna try and catch up on some of the news we’ve heard about in the last couple of days… but if I fall asleep, it’ll be posted tomorrow.

Ragnarocker found a new trick – getting out of Hang ’em High. It’s not very long – under 10 seconds – but it’s available in both MASSIVE 1280×1024 format (2.1 mb) and a more reasonable 640×512 (1.1 mb). Good times!

A couple of white boys put together a Halo rap – I went in with preconceptions, prepared to mock… but was suitably amused by the time it ended. Really nicely done. MP3, 3.6 mb, lyrics included. (If the site’s bandwidth doesn’t hold out, we’re happy to mirror this whole page.) MPAA warning – explicit lyrics. Thanks to Mintz08 for the heads-up.

blackouTT and others from clan Tricking IT have begun work on Legendary, a new machinima – 4 Spartans against the universe. Halomachinima.com is hosting a WMP9 and a DivX version of the trailer (a bit over 20 mb, for either version) – production quality is somewhat inconsistent, but hopefully that will be cleared up before they’re done. They’re shooting for a mid-April release.

I hesitate to even post this link, given that it’s no longer April 1, and people have shown that no matter WHAT gets put on the internet, SOMEONE will believe it… but it was pretty funny, so I’m posting it. Yesterday, as its final April Fool’s joke of the year, Bungie put up a great Weekly What’s Update, filled with questions that everyone has been asking, but answers that nobody expected. And while I’m here… thanks to the many, many, MANY people who wrote in to tell us that many of the stories we posted yesterday were bogus – yeah, we know. That’s what April Fool’s is all about. (The one story that might need an actual update is the screenshot post from cookedGamers – apparently, those ARE UT2006 shots, as rapture suggested (I thought mockingly) at the bottom of his news post. They just LOOK like Halo shots. I can’t begin to list all the people who wrote to us about this – but thanks, all of you.)

W00t! It’s back, baby!

The Waltonian, the newspaper for Eastern University (St. Davids, PA), has an article about Halo 2’s effect on grade inflation (hint – it ain’t positive). The things kids are wasting their time on…

Wow. Bungie has decided to help out the egg hunt – apparently, a number of fun Announcer snippets have been hidden in Halo 2 multiplay so well that nobody’s found them. An interview with Max Hoberman about the philosophy of egglaying is followed by these snippets, coupled with their triggers in-game… go listen… then try and find them on your own!

Kevin Ryan has decided to give up on After War – too much time out of his schedule. The good news – he’s switching to Timesplitters 3, a game worked on by Subnova’s own Madmax. Go try that out!

Yahoo! Games Domain has an article about upcoming spinoff titles – Master Chief Football, due out at Christmas, followed by Master Chief Golf and Master Chief Wimbleton 2006 next year. They also mentioned Master Chief Party. Thanks, Uukla the Mok.

Interesting – rapture found some cool screenshots (and corresponding concept artwork) – upcoming levels? (Damnation-style…) Thanks, Narcogen.

Major League Gaming has decided to return to its roots – it’s swapping Halo for Halo 2 in its 2005 tournaments. The reasoning is clearly laid out in this news post on MLGPro.com. For all the pro gamers angry about the loss of skill in gameplay – problem solved.

Rampancy.net has posted the first chapter of its High Ping Bastard’s Guide to Halo 2 – it covers Weapons and Encounter Times. If you’re on a high-ping connection (say, you’re European but like playing Americans, or vice versa), this is worth a read. (The news ain’t good, though… basically, you’re up a creek, no matter what.)

We’ve received a lot of mail about the situation involving Monday’s One One Se7en – I’m sorry to say that Stuntmutt has decided not to create any more strips. He has, however, given me permission to take over at strip-making; with over 300 strips in the archive to cut and paste from, my lack of artistic ability is not much of a handicap. Today’s One One Se7en is my first attempt – here’s hoping that the tradition will continue without much of a bump.