He’s done it again… Ducain posted a teaser pic on our forum last night, asking folks if they could tell what made it special. Juggertrout pointed it out for folks who missed it, and this morning, Ducain posted video of how it was done. And I must say, it’s pretty impressive. (I’m shooting for the Understatement of the Week award – you think I’ve got a shot?) I’m on the road, on a slow laptop, so viewing the WMP files was not an option… so I ripped a couple of QuickTime versions for folks in my boat.

Didn’t quite get to this in time to add HBO’s voice to the mix… but it looks like it doesn’t matter that much. Strato mentioned that yesterday, GameFAQs posted a poll: ‘Which upcoming big-name Xbox sequel/spinoff are you most looking forward to?’ It’s over now… but Halo 2 ran away with this one, garnering 22,050 of the 43,426 votes cast. Nearest competitor was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, with 8000 votes. Yeah, I think folks want Halo 2…

Okay, last one of these for a while, unless some REALLY killer shots turn up. Falcon Zero posted another pair of shots, Konrad tried his hand on Infinity, and The Ghost reminisced about the way it USED to be. One of these days, we’ll have to set up a section for this kind of thing…

There’s a great interview with the people behind Major League Gaming over at Bungie.net – how they got started, where Halo fits in, where they’re going. If you’re at all interested in the competitive Halo scene, you should check this out. First heads-up goes to Kyrceck.

BOLL turned 22 today. How many people give YOU a present on THEIR birthday? BOLL gives you this cool wallpaper. Enjoy.

GNF Phase 4 The fourth winning run, goatrope’s amazing 4:18 dash through Silent Cartographer, is now available for download via BItTorrent. (Once again, for those without a BitTorrent client, they can be downloaded here.) The download is 33.6 mb – and the climb from the Silent Cartographer back up to the ‘Locked Door’ is one of my favorite runs in the contest. Check it out!

25 new Fan Fiction pieces submitted since the weekend. Go read ’em.

dwchief found a bunch of pics taken at E3 that (as far as I can tell) haven’t been mentioned on our forum before. I thought it would be more polite to link you to the original article; it’s in Japanese, but the pictures are all down at the bottom. Nice clear shots, for the most part… and there are a few that dwchief didn’t link to. Take a look! Update: looks like I’m wrong – Kaboris posted a link to this back on May 14. It was missed, I guess, in the E3 content flood. Sorry, Kaboris!

Falcon Zero has tried his hand at HUDless Megabattle pics… some really nice pieces in there. Check ’em out! Update: Hehe – nice one from Mothergoat, as well, using his home-brewed Decoy map.

Tina Leyk tried her hand at a Halo 2-themed pic; she started with information in recent magazine articles (the idea that Elites and Brutes aren’t the best of friends) and ended up with what I consider to be one of her most stunning pieces to date. Check out ‘Elite vs Brute’ on her Fan Art page.

SEspider has announced the winners of his Wallpaper contest on our forum – go read the details and check out the winning desktops.

We never get the day’s Calvin and Halo out before the end of the (UTC) day… so we’re doing it right this time. Go read. (New day, same oddball.)

Dispraiser has posted another weekly update for Halogen, the C&C Generals Total Conversion, on our forum. New personnel, wraith shells, a grunt model… check it out.

Eep – missed this. Excalibur wrote on Saturday to point out Weekly Update #2 for the Grand Theft Auto :: Codename Halo mod. New billboard, new city grid, new ammo. Check it out!

One One Se7en moves from recycling old jokes to recycling existing strip titles. We HAVE stepped up to guns this time around, though.

Halo: Resolution shows you why you should sit down and shut up when you’re told to.

On June 30, several sites released a flood of Halo 2 screenshots and renders. These have finally been added to our Screenshots database, bringing the total collection size to a hair under 3000 screens (and the Halo 2-specific material to 200 shots). Wonga!

Stefander points out Zanzibar Weekly Update 5, with a progress report on the HCE conversion. There’s a movie of the Covenant energy sword in action – looks pretty nice! Go read.

TeamXbox has opened a new section of their website, allowing community members to add their own reviews of games. First up is a preview of Halo 2 from TXB reader Gaven Wright. It’s an exhaustive piece, pulling together information from many sources (some going back as far as 2002) – some of the info might not be accurate any more, but in general, it’s a solid summary of what’s out there. Thanks to daedalus for pointing it out.

Whoa. Dolbex sends word that he’s interviewed Sid Garrand, the mastermind behind Nightmare Armor; you can find it over at MLGPro.com. It’s a great interview – the best news is that Nightmare Armor has been commissioned by Microsoft to make a number of suits – it looks like there’s some serious funding at this stage! w00t! Go read the interview, and look at the cool pics.