tLove sent along an ad he scanned (750×1019, 302k)out of the latest issue of EGM; it contains shots of two of the winning teams of the Mountain Dew contest that took place in July, enjoying their time at Bungie Studios. Looks like fun!

Mogwong points out a Halo tourney in Wagga Wagga, Australia, on October 1. The ‘Chipps Dubbo 2004 Halo Memorial Tournament… OF DOOM!‘ looks to be a night of fun; as far as I can tell, there’s no money on the line, just pride. Check out the web page, and if you’re in the area, go participate!

A new Halo art database has come online, and is beginning to receive content. Go check it out. (I remembered this because Hikaru-119 posted some pieces there recently.)

Blitzwolf found a guitar tab for the Halo theme at MXTabs.net. I couldn’t tell you what it sounds like – I don’t read this stuff – but if you do, go check it out.

Getting behind on those image queues again… here are 10 new desktops for you in our Wallpaper Section. I’m particularly fond of this one.

Five new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today. And you’re waiting for…? Go read.

Another hands-on article today, this time from GameInformer. Entertaining read. Thanks, chief sparten.

A bunch of guys pressed a suburban backyard and its contents (and one extra shoe) into service to bring you a live-action version of a Zanzibar netgame. I particularly liked the respawn sound effects. 17.1 mb, QuickTime format. Sorry about the quality; original film was recorded with a Hi8 camera, then digitized via a USB adaptor… further compressed to be web-friendly. The shakeycam only adds to the netplay, though, I think.

Browsing around the GameDaily site, I stumbled across three articles I hadn’t seen before (and hence hadn’t reported before) – some good reading inside. An In-Depth Review of Halo, written recently, looks back on the first version with an experienced eye. ‘Halo: The Best Moments‘ gets a dozen fans from across the US to reminisce about what made Halo great for them. And ‘Halo: The Complete Story‘ summarizes the major plot points of all three Halo novels, so as to bring you up to speed if you’ve not found the time to read them yourself. (It should go without saying that this last is chock-full of spoilers – but I’m saying it anyway.) Check this stuff out!

tLove posted a new movie last night – a full-length movie of The Fall of Reach. Even Frankie liked it. A classic, up there with Bambi vs Godzilla.

w00t! The streak is FINALLY broken! It’s Saturday, and there’s nothing in the news about Stuntmutt! Yeehaw!… DOH!

Trigun writes to point out a new episode of Halo: On Vacation over at the 7th Revolution. I don’t get it… but it’s probably a cultural reference I’m missing.

The writeups continue – this one is from TeamXbox. 6 pages. (What happened to the seventh?) Nice table containing the game variant options. They also did a great job cataloguing the menus. Thanks, MiD33.

Looks like the Weekly Update is over at Halo Babies tonight… he’s down in LA, helping out with the Documentary DVD, and a good chunk of the update is about that. And giant women. And spastic colons. And… the first instance of the whole game, put together in one piece. Go read. (I’m glad he warned people about the spoilers in the DVD – if you care about the plot, play the game first.) Thanks, Schedonnardus.

It’s September 10, so it must be almost time for The Battle of the Bay to kick off. Check out MLGPro.com for all the details!

1UP.com (the web presence of EGN, XBM, and CGW) has put up a preview based on THEIR visit to Bungie last month. Lots of tasty info, including snippets others missed. Check it out. Thanks, Druff.

GameDaily has posted their own impressions article based on the press visit last month. It’s a solid read, with focus on ranking and clan play. Check it out!

IGN has posted the second half of its Hands-on report; rather than give you a new URL, it just tacked on 4 more pages. A nice summary of all the maps, as well as gametype descriptions (and the obligatory whine about the lack of Single player info). Good read. Go do it. Thanks, GhaleonEB.

MacSoft has issued a new patch for Mac Halo – this one brings the Mac version back into parity with its PC counterpart. You can read the Press Release here; I can’t find the updater yet on either of the other two sites listed, so you might just want to grab it from one of our mirrors.

Gamespot has put up a Developer Interview – 4 and a half minutes of info from SketchFactor and Frankie discussing exactly what was available to the press who showed up to play some Halo 2 last month. There’s also info about the ranking system. It’s available for download for Gamespot Complete members, but mostly it’s these guys talking, overlaid on top of stock footage; you don’t lose much by checking out the free streaming version. Definitely worth a listen! (There’s even a bit on the Plantronics headset!) To find this interview, cehck out the GameSpace page for Halo 2 – down in the ‘Gamespot Exclusive Movies’, it’s the second one down.