2old2play took a look at the evolution of the First Person Shooter – it’s called ‘Wolfenstein: There and Back Again‘, and it traces our love with this genre from its birth in 1992 through the present. Halo, not surprisingly, makes an appearance. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 13:26:18 UTC)

Ouch. Latest news about Gears of War (Joystiq and Xboxic) is that you will not be able to play ranked games with your friends; the TrueSkill ranking system requires that you go into a game paired up with people with roughly the same ability as you have – randomized. You can play with a party – just not in a ranked game. This, apparently, is now a requirement of Microsoft Live certification. Halo 2 was released before this requirement was implemented, so it’s exempt – which is why you can put together a party of friends for Big Team Battle, or Team Slayer – but Halo 3 will likely be subject to the same rules GoW is now facing. If you want to discuss this, 3Suns has started up a thread about it on our forum. Update: Wow, this has generated quite a bit of discussion on our forum – mostly negative (towards the policy, as it’s understood). There’s a comment by Achronos on the Bungie.net forums that suggests that there’s a misunderstanding here… but closer reading of joeGraf’s comments in the Gears of War forum thread that started the firestorm makes me think that Achronos is incorrect. If we get better clarification, we’ll be sure to pass it along.(Louis Wu 13:14:43 UTC)

Pixellated noticed that over at Press Start To Play, there’s a piece of promotional art for Otokon that features a Spartan and an Elite (check the October 6 news post).(Louis Wu 12:55:44 UTC)

Red vs Blue Episode 79 has been posted for sponsors (which means, of course, that it’ll be two days before it’s available for everybody else) – almost 5 minutes of great lines from Sarge and the gang. I like Shiela when she’s crazy. Looks like Psychophan7 was first. (Oh, yeah, and speaking of Sarge… there was an MP3 file full of Sarge outtakes, talking about Morris the Cat, released a few days ago – forgot to mention it. This one is sponsors-only, as well.)(Louis Wu 12:30:28 UTC)

A month ago, we posted Pie, Chapter 1, from Machine Enema. Today, Pie Chapter 2 passed the MPRRS, and narrowly missed placing in the Top 10 scores since the MPRRS opened. It’s really, really well done. Heavy on the effects – but that’s part of the ambience. Fantastic story, fantastic voice acting, fantastic cinematography. It’s also enormous. (15 minutes, more than 150 mb.) You can grab a copy in WMP9 format (153 mb) or QuickTime format (161 mb)… here’s hoping the servers don’t melt. Definitely worth watching. Definitely.(Louis Wu 00:01:16 UTC)

Stuntmutt continues his riffs on Halo Wars in today’s One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:09:53 UTC)

Whoa, bizarre. Gamasutra has this week’s sales records through yesterday in their Saling the World column… and Halo shows up a few times (which doesn’t really surprise me), including at the number one spot in Japan – with the original Halo (THAT surprises me). Again: the number one-selling Xbox game in Japan this week… is Halo. (Halo 2 was 4th in Japan, and 5th on the North America list – and absent altogether on the UK list.)(Louis Wu 14:55:19 UTC)

Evan Ryan, of Krad Productions, let us know that Terminal Dogs, Part: 1 is now up at both Machinima.com (hi-res) and YouTube (low-res); as you might guess from the title, it’s a Halo take on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (RD’s dialogue, Krad’s video). I love that film… time to go rent it again, I think. In the meantime, check this out – nice filming job!(Louis Wu 13:47:57 UTC)

Back in March, there were reports of a couple of different Halo mods for Myth II – this one, at PlayMyth.net (thanks, Chris Arthur) which also led me eventually to this one, at Project Magma; it’s unclear whether either of these went anywhere after March, or whether any actual files were released… but the screens are nice! (Not sure why these didn’t cross our radar before now…)(Louis Wu 11:08:49 UTC)

PhaLanX submitted his 8th montage (composited by EphruM) to the MPRRS; for the most part, they loved it. He doesn’t actually need hosting; the WMP9 is being hosted by HaloBoards… but since it made it through our system, we’re making a QuickTime version (91 mb) available for those who need it. Great gameplay, really nice editing. I really enjoyed this one!(Louis Wu 10:38:54 UTC)

Heh – very cool, and almost TOTALLY off-topic. Zugy found a video showing live-action Space Invaders; this is one of those things that shows up in your email inbox and (usually) puts a smile on your face. I get to post it because they decided to use the shield recharging sound effect at the end of each round. (Yeah, I know… it’s a stretch. Go watch anyway, because it’s really fun.)(Louis Wu 10:19:05 UTC)

23 new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week. Sounds like a lot – but a number of submitters released 2 or 3 chapters at a time this week. Anyway, lots to read. Get started.(Louis Wu 10:14:08 UTC)

Still more pro picks at MLG – Cpt. Anarchy predicts his top 8 teams (with some nice reasoning). Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 10:05:19 UTC)

Heh – cool; ‘spu7n1k’, in Singapore, drew a nice Master Chief in chalk outside his door – just watch that dog! Thanks, Ryan -117.(Louis Wu 10:03:19 UTC)

Gamasutra has posted a Q&A with Andy Babb, the Senior VP of Marketing for In-Fusio, the Mobile Portal people. There are some clarifications on cost (the portal is technically free, but you have to buy at least one credit in order to access it; you then USE that credit to buy content), and more info about the secret codes that unlock content in The Vault. I don’t have a Verizon phone, but if I did, after reading this, I’d be pounding on the Vault with a copy of the Halo Story Page in front of me, trying a whole bunch of keywords to see if they work as codes. Anyway – good read, check it out.(Louis Wu 10:01:00 UTC)

Bungie has posted the second Halo 2 Vista Developer Diary – Matt Priestly, H2Vista’s producer, discusses the state of development in areas like performance, UI, and the keyboard-vs-controller debate. Their preferred screen resolution is 1920×1200… and they have it running at 60fps. Nice! (I wonder what sort of stats your PC has to have to manage that, though…) Looks like TheGhost was first with the heads-up, via email.(Louis Wu 09:56:39 UTC)