The largest French Halo site has just changed links; Halo-Game has become Halo.fr. They’ve written up a press release (in French), and sent along the highlights (in English). You can find both here.

There’s a new Livejournal to read – this one is called ‘SPARTAN Updates‘. It’s updated semi-daily (author’s terminology), and looks at the day-to-day life of John-117. In light of the negative feelings generated by some peripheral issues with the whole Enkidu presentation, I’d like to make a few things clear:

• This is not being written by anyone at Bungie, or anyone at Bungie.org
• The inclusion of a bungie.org email address for responses is simply to hide the identity of the original author, and does not in any way suggest that this is ‘official’
• The inclusion of a bungie.org address does not in any way imply that these are available to anyone who asks

All that said, go and read!

Matt_117 points out an interesting eBay auction; you can order a new and sealed copy of Halo 2 for £19.99, free shipping, delivered, VAT included, in your hands within 2 weeks of November 9. If you’re on a budget, and live in Great Britain, this might be worth looking at.

Episode 22 of Miniature Halo has been posted; MC gets some help. w00t!

Yesterday, we mentioned a movie posted by Ducain, showing the Object Overload technique used on the Maw to grab a banshee in Single Player mode. I’d mentioned that a QuickTime version could be made available if needed – a number of people have emailed about this, so you can grab a copy on files.bungie.org. Also, there was a post by Ducain explaining a few things about the movie (including the astounding fact that it took him 5 hours of continual Flood-killing to cause the overload) that is worth reading, for those interested in the technique. Wow!

tLove scanned a 2-page ad for Halo 2 from the current issue of EGM. It’s not very high-resolution, but it doesn’t need to be; it gets its point across quite nicely at any size. (We figure free advertising isn’t gonna bother ANYONE, which is why we’re okay posting scans from a current issue.) Update: Oops, this was double-posted, and the second post got lots more replies. If you want to contribute, this might be a better thread.

We got a nice note from Tina Leyk this evening, letting us know about a couple of updates on her website; we’ve added the relevant art to her collections here. There’s a new wallpaper using the Fur-Lo characters; you can find it on the Fur-Lo page. There’s also a great sketch of an Elite bust on the Fan Art page. This woman ROCKS.

Pballwizard points out a LAN party being organized in Kalkaska, Michigan on June 25-27. If you’re in the area, check it out!

Interesting… Ashrak has taken a shot at interpreting a pair of glyphs that appear in Two Betrayals (with a little animated gif and a description). I like it!

A year and a half ago, Frogblast showed us how to use Object Overload to grab a banshee on the Maw. He did it in Co-op mode, because OO is WAAAAY easier that way. However, last October, Mat Noguchi, Tools programmer over at Bungie, explained enough about Object Overload that the route was clear (though far from easy) to do this trick in Single-player mode. Last week, Juggertrout posted a movie (made by some friends) showing this grab in single player – but it was just the grab. There was no explanation of how it was done, or any video footage of the setup. Ducain, in his inimitable style, has not only rectified this situation, he’s offered (obliquely) to pass out a checkpointed save to anyone who mails him a memory card and a stamped self-addressed envelope. The movie in that post is 10.5 mb, 3:50 long, in WMP9 format. If anyone needs a a QuickTime version, let me know. It’s wonderful to see the dedication that Halo can STILL elicit in its fans.

Microsoft’s Halo 2 splash site (Halo2.com) has been updated – all the new Game Informer screenshots have been added, as well as that amazing Eddie Smith artwork that showed up in the Swedish SuperPlay print article. (It can be found under ‘Screenshots’, which is sort of silly… but I guess they don’t have a ‘Wallpaper’ section.) There’s also a new section on awards and press accolades. Thanks to Fuzion for pointing out the wallpaper (and getting me to look through the site again). Update: there’s a higher-res version of the Eddie Smith art (1600×844, with no black border) in the Bungie.net Halo 2 Print Art section. Thanks, Tocki (of Halo Orbit) and Deimos (of Subnova)!

Red vs Blue has put up a HUGE collection of viewer-submitted artwork; icons, wallpaper, random pics… go check it all out. Thanks to Ross Mills for the heads-up.

Holy moley. You whine in an intelligent manner, things happen. I posted a note here earlier about the new story summary at Xbox.com, and complained that it had some non-canon ideas in it. (There was a forum thread that went into more depth, as well.) I sort of wish I’d kept a copy of the original story… because it’s been fixed. Check it out! The fans really do count. 😉 (Thanks, Frankie.)

The Weekly Halo Update is over at the 343GS forums today; Frankie says it’s short, but man, it seems more to the point (and with more luscious detail than usual) than most. Go read it, it’ll make you drool.

New Frontline with Suzie – this week, it’s called ‘A spot of bother‘, and has commentary from Suzie in the middle of a rockslide megabattle. Thanks, rockslider…

There’s a new article up at Xbox.com – it’s called ‘Halo 2: Storyline‘, and it summarizes the plot of Halo for folks who haven’t played it. Hardcore story fanatics will be unhappy (it’s chock-full of… um, inconsistencies), but as a short summary of where things stand, it’s fine. Thanks to Cullen, via irc, for the heads-up.

Stuntmutt takes one last shot at our poor, defenseless, maskless grunt in today’s One One Se7en. Good thing it’s the weekend coming up. That guy needs a break.

Has Fuzzy run out of ideas for Halo: Resolution? Check today’s episode and find out.