Dennis Powers sent word of ‘The Gift‘, a Christmas story from your friends at the Halo CE Chronicles. Available in a number of formats – very pretty stuff. (Louis Wu 17:47:01 UTC)

Drakkari pointed out an interview with Certain Affinity’s Max Hoberman, who made a comment that might or might not have repercussions for yearning Halo gamers:

I would hope that more games are headed in the direction that we’ve tried to blaze with Halo 2. I’ve seen the start of a trend in this direction, and I’ve seen some huge leaps in online cooperative play, and I hope that this all is a sign of things to come. I think that Halo 3 will set the next standard, but I don’t think the Bungie guys want me talking about everything they have up their sleeve just yet.

The Halo 3 Data Archive jumped on this quote, and wrote up a speculation article about what he might have meant. Be aware, though, that until this gets clarified by Bungie, you can’t count on Max’s quote meaning what you think it means. Whatever it means, though… it’s intriguing.(Louis Wu 16:54:34 UTC)

XBWFeenix lets us know that the current EDGE magazine has got a new ‘Inside Bungie’ article, with (of course) a partial focus on Halo.(Louis Wu 15:59:02 UTC)

Tons of new content over at Tied the Leader this week – there’s a Halo 3 Top Ten list, a 22 Questions Interview with Gaming Horizon’s Shiva Stella (funny lady), a call for patience, a clan profile of Golden Alliance, and a reader’s poll, asking about the admirability of pro gamers. XerxdeeJ stopped by, as is his custom on Tuesdays, to let us know about all this goodness.(Louis Wu 15:55:38 UTC)

Very cool story over at 2old2play; it’s not Halo-related, but stories of hope from the gaming community should always be celebrated. Merry Christmas, JollyRoger (and Megan)! Thanks to Rick Casey for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 15:40:58 UTC)

MLG has posted a story (thanks, 3Suns) with some feedback from the gamers who recently scored quarter-million-dollar contracts… as you might expect, they’re a pleased bunch. This article, however, in the Californian (local paper for Karma’s hometown) suggests that Karma might be looking for more of a challenge. Of course, with this new contract, and his tournament winnings, he’s going to clear more than $150,000 this year – not too shabby for an 18-year-old playing videogames. We’ll have to see how long the money keeps him going… or whether the hungry up-and-coming teams can satisfy his urge for competition.(Louis Wu 15:36:49 UTC)

trigger119 wrote to point out a teaser vid, from SodaGod – it’s a project called Machines of War, and the teaser is fantastic. (SodaGod is turning into one of my favorite machinimists – if that’s a word.) Check this out at GamingTV.org – the WMP9 version is 18.5 mb, the QT-compatible .mp4 is 7.3 mb. Grab it, and get psyched up for the final product, coming this winter!(Louis Wu 15:20:22 UTC)

Over at Bungie.net is a writeup of Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity auction and dinner – and Bungie’s part in it. (The Halo 3-related prizes were to die for… and the money they raised… well, go read.) RvB – you guys rock. Thanks to jman571 for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 02:43:53 UTC)

PEZ writes to point out that the Issue of the Week this week at halowiki.net is the Banshee. If you know stuff about it – go see if it’s already there. If it’s not… add it!(Louis Wu 22:08:45 UTC)

Paul Maestri has a bone to pick with EA – check it out in the latest Halo Heads. (Me, personally – I know where my first 300 points would go…)(Louis Wu 20:12:15 UTC)

Looks like MLG is expanding the number of pro gaming contracts it’s offering; 6 months ago, they laid out $1.25 million for 5 players, and today there’s another $1.75 million up for 7 more players – the full teams of Final Boss, Carbon, and Str8 Rippin are now fully covered by MLG contracts. Thanks (again) to JeBr0nie for noticing.(Louis Wu 19:43:32 UTC)

JeBr0nie found a tournament in Fremont, California, coming up this Thursday at the Irvington High School. If you’re in the area, you might want to check this out!(Louis Wu 19:38:02 UTC)

Stuntmutt finishes up (for now) his analysis of the Halo 3 ad in today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 15:12:00 UTC)

RVideo swapped out some other biped models, again demonstrating that the lip-synching is stored with the dialogue, and not strictly with the character model. (There’s a more complete description in this post.) As RVideo says – it’s not really hard to do this, but the results are pretty cool!(Louis Wu 14:34:57 UTC)

GothicSlayer stopped by to show off the beginnings of his Halo tattoo – I gotta say, that’s dedication! It’s just an outline right now (even so, it’s pretty impressive), but as he gets the time/money for more details, he’ll post updates. (I would suggest that he NOT try Stuntmutt’s 4th pickup line suggestion.(Louis Wu 14:15:18 UTC)

CiphA sent in his regular weekly update from Halomega – lots of videos for you this time around. Montages: nAhtA/Epilogue, NNastYY/ConoR. Dualtage: BigMike/BloodyPingu. Gameplay: SmallParrot vs Brohan 1v1 Lockout, Qwikstrik3 vs Sly Fox 1v1. They’ve also got a Signature contest running.(Louis Wu 13:18:00 UTC)

Over at the Edgeworks Entertainment website, you’ll find a new wallpaper for download, created by Major.Dump for the upcoming Heretic video series. It’s called ‘The Spartans’, and it’s a pretty nice render!(Louis Wu 13:10:33 UTC)

Over at Rampancy.net, spartan182 and young kaos have transcribed the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer piano solo, and it’s available for download in Finale Notepad format. Nothing else, right now, and don’t forget you’ll need to be logged in to see the download link – but if you’ve got Finale Notepad, and a Rampancy.net account, go grab this!(Louis Wu 13:07:40 UTC)