Z pointed out a new montage from SiR Tyner over at Halo3Forum.com – lots of great gameplay, but I gotta say, I hated the logo stamped over the top left corner, it really distracted me. If you can be more flexible than me, it’s a fun watch – 7:47 long, 107 mb, WMP9 format.(Louis Wu 11:58:53 UTC)

Seven new pieces are up for you in the Fan Fiction section for you this week… go read!(Louis Wu 11:40:31 UTC)

Yesterday, Dojorkan mentioned ‘Triforce’, a new video series coming from the Promethian Guard. They might have been a little loose with their attributions, but their enthusiasm can’t be denied. Go grab the trailer – it weighs in at about 20 mb.(Louis Wu 11:07:01 UTC)

Link4044 sent along three new pics of his in-progress AR5 model – and man, does that thing look awesome! Scroll down to the bottom for the March 22 shots – they start here. Wowsers!(Louis Wu 21:41:21 UTC)

Devrous posted a note on our forum about a new project he’s working on – a Halo mod of Freespace 2. Give it a read – and check out the screenshot!(Louis Wu 21:35:30 UTC)

According to GameDaily BIZ, there’s an analysis article in Newsweek that discusses why the 360 will ultimately not be the top Next-Gen Console dog. The author of the article, N’Gai Croal, suggests that the 360-onlyness (Strunk and White, smite me now!) of the upcoming Halo 2 map pack demonstrates Microsoft’s desperation – they need to “force recalcitrant Halo-lovers to buy their new machine.” (Never mind that Bungie has said, very recently even, that they’re doing all they can to make the maps available to all, and that if the map pack DOES remain 360-only, the player pools for the Matchmaking playlists are going to be split, maybe fatally, by platform…) It’s an interesting read, but don’t take it as gospel until you’ve seen the results with your own eyes.(Louis Wu 20:20:25 UTC)

Mid7night continues his Assault Carrier importation work; he’s now managed to texture it properly. Check the forum post for cool pics!(Louis Wu 20:10:59 UTC)

Paul Maestri has posted the latest Halo Heads comic – if you’ve ever been in this situation, don’t feel bad, it’s natural. We all do it. (Well, okay, not ALL of us. But don’t feel bad anyway.)(Louis Wu 19:58:52 UTC)

Okay, so this isn’t really Halo news, but it’s an issue that’s taking over our forum, so it’s worth giving a bit of space to. If you hit up the new Bungie.net, and you get a message that “The page is unavailable or no longer exists,” you’re being bitten by a Windows Live ID problem. (Well, it’s unclear whose fault it is, actually.) To solve it (this works for MOST people, but not all), visit login.live.com, make sure you’ve checked the ‘Save my e-mail address’ or ‘Always ask for my e-mail address and password’ options (do NOT check the top one, ‘Save my e-mail address and password’), and log in. Then, log out. THEN, go to Bungie.net; you should be able to see the page and log in now. They’re working on it.(Louis Wu 18:47:21 UTC)

Ouch – I’ve seen a lot of reviews of Halo 2 Vista, and most have been pretty positive (even the ones that say ‘well, the graphics are 3 years old now’) – but there’s one over at Voodoo Extreme that… well, doesn’t sound so good. That dual-wielding issue sounds pretty strange!(Louis Wu 18:39:22 UTC)

Lone Ranger was the first to notice a writeup of last week’s Halo Humpday Challenge – Bungie employees (and friends) took on the guys from Industrial Light and Magic, and (with the exception of Frankie), acquitted themselves nicely. The game links are wrong (except for the first one) – they all point to the first match played, on Ascension – but thanks to the new hawtness at B.net, you can follow the ‘newer games’ link in the top right corner of that screen to see the next two games. Check it out!(Louis Wu 18:36:49 UTC)

Wow, nice. Leviathan is building a version of Halo for RPG Maker 2000 – he’s posted a LOT of pictures in this forum post. Check out how far he’s gotten!(Louis Wu 18:29:11 UTC)

Stories circulated yesterday that Bungie.net might have been hacked, and Xbox Live accounts compromised because of it. (Hanchen Lu was the first to mention it to us.) Major Nelson was quick to shoot the rumors down (thanks, JeBr0nie) – and Frankie put it up at Bungie.net, too. Bottom line – if someone asks you for sensitive info (like passwords), DON’T GIVE IT AWAY.(Louis Wu 17:54:17 UTC)

Awesome. agdtinman (who used to work for Bungie) has put up a page that contains all the Top Story icons he had a hand in creating – since they won’t be seen any more on Bungie.net. Gawjuss!(Louis Wu 18:19:44 UTC)

Stuntmutt gets back to straight punnage in today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 17:57:25 UTC)