RVideo is back, with four new panoramas from Halo 2’s campaign. Gorgeous work! I’m lovin’ Activated, especially. He’s made these available in png format – they’re huge. I’ve added local jpeg mirrors – much smaller. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 14:02:53 UTC)

Zukan pointed out that Halo Zero, a fanmade PC Halo sidescroller, is being ported to the PSP; there are a few screenshots linked in his post. More platforms = more better!(Louis Wu 13:41:36 UTC)

Back in December, when the Halo 3 ad premiered on Monday Night Football in all its CG glory, some fans worried that the general public was going to think that this ad showed Halo 3 as it looked, in-game, and be disappointed when they finally saw the actual product. (I was one that didn’t worry too much; I felt that anyone who was really interested would do some looking online, and find the info about its CG roots pretty easily – and those who weren’t that interested wouldn’t care much either way.) Yesterday, though, this same ad was shown during Bill Gates’ keynote speech at the huge Consumer Electronics Show – and here, it was shown amongst standard gameplay footage from, for example, new games coming out for Windows Vista, with no qualifications about how it was created. According to GhaleonEB, the implication seemed to be that it was gameplay footage – and this, to an audience that WILL make noise when they learn that the game doesn’t look this way. Unfortunate… thanks to Stonesand for pointing it out.(Louis Wu 13:20:21 UTC)

HaloPlayer stopped by yesterday to point out Lost: Halostyle Episode 12 – “The Plunge: Part 1”. Treading a fine line between comedy and drama, this series continues to please – solid story, solid humor, solid characters. Solid action in this ep, as well – great ideas! Definitely worth the download. (I’d suggest using our local mirror links (also in the forum post) for downloading; save their bandwidth.)(Louis Wu 12:56:08 UTC)

Narcogen, over at Rampancy.net, has organized all the Halo 3 info he can find into a new Halo 3 FAQ (with a new format) – took a few days to become visible to the masses, but go take a look now!(Louis Wu 11:44:53 UTC)

Bungie.net had word of a new website devoted to online tournaments – Escape Station brings people together to kill each other in lots of games, including Halo 2 (their favorite). Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 11:41:12 UTC)

Stealth_1000 stopped by with news of some new Halo 3 weapons incorporated already into new work from the Custom Map Team – good stuff!(Louis Wu 11:38:47 UTC)

Yesterday, Paul found an article on ComputerandVideoGames.com entitled ‘The worst game endings ever‘ – and yes, Halo 2 is on it. (They call it a crime.) (Louis Wu 11:34:40 UTC)

Sigafoos writes to point out The Riot 30 – community discussions, and the announcement of Community Awards for 2006. Voting opens Wednesday, but you can discuss stuff on their forum now. 23 minutes, 9 mb. Go listen.(Louis Wu 20:40:43 UTC)

The More Deluded has been working on a bust of the Arbiter – pretty impressive-looking! Check it out.(Louis Wu 17:29:20 UTC)

leprecaun90210 noticed a writeup on HaloInformer, speculating about the Halo on a Nintendo DS story that popped up a couple of days ago. HaloInformer doesn’t know anything more than the rest of us – but the reasoning is solid. If it turns out to be true, Matt Cassamina’s going to have to rethink how he posts controversial stories, maybe…(Louis Wu 17:26:45 UTC)

Laird whipped up a test video showing an ODST ready for use in machinima. It’s tiny (about 800k, in either WMP9 format or QuickTime – it’s only 12 seconds long, with no sound) – but the potential is fantastic. Check it out.(Louis Wu 14:53:03 UTC)

It’s been a little while since we added an artist to our Gallery pages – but today, we’re proud to announce a new home for Veegie’s Halo-related artwork. Veegie likes to render stuff – but he does a sizeable amount of 2D work on the result; what you see, often, is a Halo image that looks like we wish the game could look. (Of course, we’ll need to wait for the Xbox 1440 before that’s going to happen…) Browse what’s there, and we’ll be sure to let you know when the collection grows!(Louis Wu 23:29:18 UTC)

Wow, totally forgot about this… but today marks the 8th birthday of Bungie.org! Man, that’s like… 3 centuries in internet time! Thanks to Vid Boi for the reminder.(Louis Wu 21:48:45 UTC)

Red vs Blue Episode 87, ‘The Nesting Theory’, is now available for download by Sponsors – Red’s still looking for Sarge, Blue is still trying to keep Tex from being homicidal. Should be up for the public by Monday. Thanks, BigVariable.(Louis Wu 13:56:55 UTC)

MLGPro.com has an interview with Str8 Rippin up – they talk about their successes, and what they can improve on. Nice read. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 13:52:57 UTC)