Another languishing piece of artwork – an entry for the Halo 2 cover art collection, from Snyper.

Four new banners have been added to the Banners section. A couple of them have been in the queue for almost 3 weeks. I’m really sorry.

It’s been far too long since we’ve cleared out the artwork queues – sorry. The Miscellaneous Art submissions recently include some cool sketches, a pair of Magic Eye pieces, and more. Check ’em out!

Once again, it’s 14 stories for the Fan Fiction section…

• Spartans meet their match, by Robert
• Reclaim Me . . . [H&R 7], by Jillybean
• Sparked and Guilty [H&R 8], by Jillybean
• I Fight For You [H&R 9], by Jillybean
• Stranded at Home Final Part, by Dispraiser
• The Virus Part 11 (Finale) , by monitor101
• Homeworlds X, by Mainevent
• Revenge Part II: The Battle, by af’pooaopfasofo
• The UNSC Sigma Octanus-part-1, by Alexander_Valient
• Drowning in Sorrow – Chapter Two – The Rings of Power, by Phoenix89uk
• The Dawn of Dusk, by Mainevent
• Untitled Boredome Improve -ROB- Story #3, by Mainevent
• The Plague Part 1, by monitor101
• Survival, Chapter Three: The Battle for Survival begins…, by Agent Shade

Weirdness.

Oh, heck, as long as we’re doing comics… today’s Guest One One Se7en was turned in by Geeoff – and don’t tell me you never tried that. Too bad it doesn’t work…

Halobabies.net has put up comic #9 – I’m pretty sure the baby MC isn’t supposed to talk that way. What are kids coming to these days, anyway? (Great facial expressions on Sarge.) There’s also a new desktop (you have to register on their forum for access). Check ’em out!

A week ago, we mentioned a benefit tournament that will take place in LA on the 24th (this coming Wednesday). Shrike came back today to report that prizes have been announced. Man, I want to enter, just so I can lose really bad and win the Mary Jane journal! Check it out.

Over at Subnova, there’s a quiet, unassuming little note with a title reading ‘The Silent Cartographers’. Turns out, this is an announcement of a new Halo PC mapmaking group, made up of Subnova members (which means Bungie old-schoolers). They’re not currently accepting applications (though they will be next month), and the website has no info except a logo… but you should expect big things from these people. Remember: they have inside connections. They’ve been playing with stuff for weeks now. (Months?)

Shishka has updated his HaloPC Pre-Release FAQ to version 3.0 – he swears this is the last one. (Since Halo is only Pre-Release for another 11 days or so, that seems like a safe bet.) Definitely worth a read, if you have questions about the PC version.

Back in August, a number of fans headed down to Gearbox’s offices in Texas to get a look at Halo PC. While we were there, Dave Mertz, lead designer, took a few shots of the various tools used to build levels – 3dsmax, and Bungie’s homegrown Sapien and Guerilla. We were asked, however, not to post these right away; Gearbox had some ideas about releasing shots of their own. At the end of August, I asked if enough time had passed, and was told to hold off a bit longer. On September 5th, they released one of these shots on their own website, and I quickly sent off another note, asking if NOW was okay. Yesterday, I finally received an answer – so even though these shots have been seen on the net before now, they’re being added to our Screenshots database as of today, because that’s when we got permission to post them. There are two shots each from 3dsmax (the modeling tool that the underlying architecture is built in), Sapien (the tool that allows placement of objects and sounds, among other functions), and Guerilla (the tool that handles behavior, bumpmaps, textures, and the like). I hope this is still of use to some people. I also took the opportunity to add another 50 or so screens, both Halo PC and Halo 2, from previews and such around the net in the last few days.

Whoa – I’m slipping. Blue’s News posted news on another new Halo preview on Monday – but I didn’t see it until today, when I noticed it on Rampancy.net‘s front page. Loadedinc.com says it’s good for PC gamers who never played the Xbox solo campaign, and folks who want the multiplayer rush. We’d agree. (5 new oddly stretched screenshots, as well.) Digging around also turned up previews at CV-Games.com, Armchair Empire, and TotalVideoGames.com (this last is really old; from what I can tell, it was written around E3, but contains info that hasn’t been valid since last summer), too. Enjoy.

Wednesday, Stuntmutt looked at the importance of understanding your weapon in his One One Se7en strip. Today, he looks at the other side of that issue – collateral damage.

Eep! Forgot to mention this a few days ago… but on Tuesday, the Junkyard announced its winner of the long-running ‘Guess the Release Date‘ contest (first announced back on July 29, 2002). Congratulations to CheeseChick for picking September 15, 2003 as the date Halo PC went gold. TankRamp (of Battleground: Halo) and LegacyX4 pulled in the second and third prizes, respectively.

While the actual X03 video presentation hasn’t (yet) found it’s way onto the net, IGN HAS put up a transcript of the video, including a page’s worth of Bungie employees discussing what was learned from Halo 1. Thanks to Neo Alucard X for pointing it out.

Looks like the Gearbox forum community has gotten into the swing of Gearbox’s own game. Check the Gearbox Projects page (drop to the bottom to see some OTHER places that disc has been)… then visit this thread. Fun.

Computer and Video Games interviewed Pete Parsons about Halo 2. He was pretty evasive about whether Halo 2 would ever come to the PC – in fact, he was pretty evasive about everything. Bungie’s back to their old style, it seems. (And that’s not a bad thing.) He DID mention that folks at X03 got to see a Prophet in-game for the first time… hopefully, that footage will eventually make its way to the net. If you dig through the ‘we can’t say right now’s and the ‘we don’t know, we’re focused on making the game great’s, you can find lots of cool nuggets – read this one. Thanks to cubanB for finding it.

Hehe – bourwa points out that the Red vs Blue crew have created a few quick answering machine messages (Sarge, Donut, Church, and Caboose) that can be used if you’re REALLY a die-hard RvB fan. (If you’re not… or your callers aren’t… these won’t make a lot of sense.) They’re not listed anywhere except in the thread they were posted in; visit the Sponsors forum, and search for a thread entitled ‘Red vs Blue Voice Mail Message’. (Yeah, you have to be a sponsor.)

Wonga. Battleground: Halo has updated their design… and massively upgraded their content. Check out the site – visit this page for a list of what’s new (it’s too long to post here), poke your head into the linen closets. They’ve painted EVERYTHING. (I did find some unfinished grouting in a third-floor bathroom… but I’m guessing they’ll get to it.) Just in time for Halo PC!

Couple of clan-related items… Viper writes to say that the 67th Raptors (mentioned a couple of times back in May) had some problems due to the Blaster worm, and lost all their members. They’re back online, and old members should get in touch. Also, stan writes to point out that the Rabid Lilliputians are now actively recruiting for new members; stop by the site and sign up if you want to fight with The Little People. (Pressure is pretty low… the clan motto is “Not like we were ever destined for greatness”)

Hehe – Gamespy has been running a ‘Top 25 Most Overrated Games’ feature… and Halo made #10. They felt there were too many problems for it to have received so many near-perfect ratings; they wonder what these reviewers are going to do with Halo PC and Halo 2. Interesting read. They’re consistent, at least; they were the first review to score Halo less than 9/10 (they gave them 85/100), and they incurred quite a bit of wrath from Halo fans at the time. This judgement isn’t coming out of nowhere. Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi for the heads-up on this.