Cybrfrk has posted 106 pics from E3 on his website. Some have been seen before (on the b.org E3 coverage page) but many, many of them are new. Check ’em out!

Some of Stuntmutt’s One One Se7en episodes are turned in early, but involve topical (at the time of creation) subjects; I worried a bit that the joke would be lost by the time the strip was aired. Today’s strip is a perfect example… it involves the Megg easter egg, which was found over a month ago. Luckily, however, it showed up on our forum again this weekend… fortuitous. Take a look – it should make you grin.

Back on May 13, we mentioned a non-shakeycam movie being distributed by Gamespot; it was 9.7 mb, in .MOV format. (It’s basically a highlight reel, but it’s direct feed.) It was (is) a free download, but you have to register with Gamespot to get it. Well, that same movie, in a smaller form (320×240, 3.4 mb, MPEG) is now available WITHOUT the Gamespot watermark, over at GamesRadarUK. Thanks to 3Suns for the heads-up!

Gantry points out that episode 211 of the show ‘Filter’ on G4Tv (next airing this Thursday, 3:30 pm) covers the Most Anticipated Games of E3 – and Halo 2 is number 1. Watch it if you’ve got it! (If you just can’t get enough of G4’s Halo 2 coverage, they’ve also got an episode of Pulse covering E3 (in which Halo 2 figures prominently) showing Tuesday morning at 3 am…)

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews of the Junkyard writes to let us know that their Halo 2 section is now online. Content is sparse (because info about the game is sparse), but it will be filled out as the situation warrants. Check it out!

We posted a series of desktops on Saturday; 6 of them were variations on an existing wallpaper, done by a completely different person, who wasn’t consulted about (and doesn’t approve of) having his art modified. We’ve yanked the 6 offending pieces. Just a heads-up.

I HATE using the front page this way – and I won’t, any more. To whoever uploaded a 125 mb archive to our ftp area this evening (upload finished a bit before 7 pm EDT), without an email address, we’ll simply toss this. (It doesn’t have to be made public – but we need it in order to contact you about your submission.) If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this clearer to uploaders in general, I’m all ears.

Twelve pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today:

• Chapter 4: Rescue, by Vinny
• Stowaway Part 2 (3 of 3), by Dispraiser
• Tides of the Accolade [Part 01], by Argonox
• ONI Black Ops Part Ten, by Havok
• Beta Halo: On Earth’s Doorstep, by SPARTAN 053
• Above and Beyond the Call of Duty: Part II; The Gambit, by pj-NYkr90
• Above and Beyond the Call of Duty: Part III; Turncoat, by pj-NYkr90
• When Games Collide: The Tournament of the Century , by Brent Carmichael
• Beginings , by Sterfrye36
• Rebirth – Shadow’s Chapter 3 – Entrance, by Knightmare, Archangel’s Blade, Spartan 451 and Shadow
• Shadows, by Gude Riter
• Uncertain Danger [Part 01], by Argonox

Go read ’em – and accept apologies for a slow news weekend. (It’s not that the news is slow, it’s that family obligations are pretty high.)

Under the wire… there are 20 new desktops for you today – but half of them are variations. Enforcer turned in 6 images, in 16 variations. (On top of that, we got 4 OTHER submissions.) Check out the whole mess in our Wallpaper section! Update: The total has been reduced by 6 – see this post for details.

Mom, he’s doing it again…

Red vs Blue Episode 8 is now up for sponsors (thanks, Ross). If you watched episode 7, you knew this one was gonna be sad… but man, for a sad episode, it’s hilarious. If you don’t wanna pay ’em any money, you’ll have to wait until Sunday to grab this… but $5 gets you access now. ($10 gets you access to the hi-res version… it’s worth it.)

…missed it by THAT MUCH. One One Se7en’s Friday episode was ready to go, but I didn’t make it home to post it. Go read it now.

Thanks to Eric Jury, who pointed out that the Wayback Machine had an archive of the Acquisition FAQ we mentioned yesterday. I’d checked there… but only on earlier dates (closer to the time of the actual reporting). My mistake. To ensure that it doesn’t get lost again (and so that URLs listed can be made to work again), we’ve archived a copy locally. It’s Bungie History, after all. Interestingly enough… the information about Take 2’s rights to the Halo engine aren’t mentioned. I’m not sure exactly WHERE that information was originally published.

A week and a half ago, Warbow posted a few very nice shots of the limited-edition Master Chief action figure given away at the fanfest. For some unknown reason, I neglected to ever mention this to the wider front-page audience. Consider it mentioned.

Blackstar is setting up a lanfest in Andover, MA this summer – on a massive, massive screen. (See this forum post for some details.) Attendance is pretty limited… but you can (at the very least) watch the new promo vid for the event. Just under a minute long, 9.1 mb, QuickTime format. I think I saw footage of me dying in there… The Matrix flavor is great, and the vid’s got me pumped up for the day! Update: we seem to be significantly slowing down blackstarproductions.net, so we’ve tossed a copy of this vid up at Mythica.org. Grab whichever copy works faster for you!

Recently, Westlake updated its Project Status page; The OS 9 status for Halo Mac went from ‘Undecided’ to ‘No’. The Mac version of Halo, then, will be OSX only. Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up.

I’d like to apologize for the holdup in announcing the winners in the recently concluded Pillar of Art contest. An unfortunate set of circumstances: real-life work pressures, judge schedules, and most importantly, awaiting a return package from Bungie of some of the pieces we had the extreme pleasure of showing at the recent E3 Bungie Fanfest… these all conspired to postpone the judgement. 🙁

If you were one of the lucky ones and got your piece on display at the Fanfest, you should feel good about yourself because alot of folks at the ‘fest were drooling at the paintings!

Within the next week or so, a truck should pull up at my doorstep with the handful of pieces that were shown in LA and things should be back on track. Although I can’t comment on the individual pieces, I will say this: Some of you folks are absolutely outstanding artists. And your love of the game showed through and through. Louis Wu can attest that a few of the entries literally made my jaw drop. 🙂

Now THIS is a typo no journalist should make. Thanks to HUNTR-KILLR for the heads-up.

Whoa… long time coming, but it looks like Take 2 is finally gonna exercise some options it acquired back in 2000. The Acquisition FAQ doesn’t seem to be online anywhere any more (I was pretty sure SOMEONE had archived it, but I can’t find a copy), but it included information about what Take 2 got out of the Microsoft/Bungie deal; for their 19.9% share of Bungie, they received all rights to Bungie’s Myth franchise, Oni and any sequels, and the right to use the Halo engine in two future games. Since that point (almost three years ago – June 19, 2000), there’s been no mention of this last license… until now. Gamespot has put up a news post discussing what’s in the works from Take 2.

He also mentioned that one or more of the games in development under the Gathering [of Developers] label will utilize the Halo engine.

Something to look forward to! (The same article states that Duke Nukem Forever will NOT be out this year, but that the project hasn’t been totally killed yet.) Thanks to travis for the heads-up! Update: See this news item for info about the FAQ.

Infininja points out another pair of Halo Dog Tag auctions at eBay… this one has just under a day to go, and currently sits at $30… while this one has a bit OVER a day, and is sitting at $4.99 at the moment (that’s sure to go up, though). How bad do you want one of these?