Random Hero has submitted a Halo 2 Banner – we’ve added it to our Banners collection. (Lost in the mail for a day or so…)

Tuesday morning Fan Fiction:

• Short Story, part 6, by Jamie
• Halo: The Return, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6, by NeoX
• Cry for a Hero, part 4, by el_halo_diablo
• Rise To Honor, part 17, by Shadow

Don’t forget, series can be read in a single shot by following the ‘Read This Series’ link directly following any of the chapter entries. Update: Soon after posting this, Wado submitted part two of his Shadows of Archon II story. Fast and furious… Update 2: Ack! Another one! Jamie just dropped off Short Story, part 7. This is the last fanfic update for the day – anything that comes in now will be posted tomorrow.

Hmm… interesting. BOLL noticed that the Halo 2 trailer countdown at xbox.com is gone. Glitch in their database system, or something more nefarious?

Big-time correction – the PC Gamer article next month will be on Halo PC, not Halo 2. (Nijhazer’s curiosity on why a PC gaming mag would be covering an Xbox-only title is well-founded.) Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi for pointing out that I should read my email more closely…

Hippo news at b.net. I suppose if you’re gonna have a fetish…

Two new versions of the ‘Causing a Ruckus’ video for you, if the original was too big; a 21 mb .mov, and a 4 mb .wmv. Both suffer in quality compared to the original (though the .mov is pretty good) – but for those who can’t handle the big ‘un… give ’em a try. Links can be found on the CAR mirrors page (and we’re happy to add any new mirrors you tell us about).

Late-night Fan Fiction update:

• Short Story, part 3, part 4, and part 5, by Jamie
• Shadows of Archon II (part 1), by Wado
• The Petersburg Affair: Part I, Chapter 1, by Saber

Jamie points out that he’s still looking for suggestions for a title for his story. (This, I thought, was the sort of thing the comments section was built for… but maybe I’m confused.)

Next month should be a rockin’ one for Halo 2 information – we received word that the October issues of both PC Gamer here in the US, and Edge Magazine in the UK will have large Halo 2 pieces. (Here’s Edge’s teaser, courtesy of Griffon.) Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi and Griffon, respectively, for the heads-up.

Thanks to vector40, and to Narcogen, of Rampancy.net – there’s a short-term mirror for the Causing a Ruckus movie up over there. It’s up until something big comes along – but it should alleviate some of the strain on existing servers right now. (It’s been added, temporarily, to the CAR mirrors page.)

We’ve gotten mail from movie makers, griping that our Movie Hosting Guidelines are too stringent… that there’s no way to make a good film anymore which meets them. Team Overkill is here to say that’s just wrong. They’ve submitted a ‘stunts’ film – basically, just gameplay stuff put to music – that easily meets our criteria… the only problem I have is that I don’t have the time to reduce the filesize and still do justice to the image quality (so the sub-3-minute film weighs in at a hefty 43 megs). If you’ve got bandwidth to spare, we’d love to hear from you – this puppy needs homes. In the meantime, you can go grab Causin’ a Ruckus on our mainstay bandwidth providers, Mythica.org and Psyjnir Hotline.

Quick update before hittin’ the sack… couple’a desktops for you. One from Xcruiser (4 flavors), one from Justin. Find ’em in our Wallpaper section.

Thanks to 909, who wrote up his HNC Regionals experience on our forum. Congrats on the great playing, 909, and sorry you missed that last lap! Eep – and before I actually got this posted, Matt Soell wrote up a mini-description of the Semifinals over in Bungie-land… no word, though, on the alleged playing of the Halo 2 Trailer there. Still waiting on that… Update: Whoa – it was true! Matt himself brought the trailer to the Renton games… Cino wasn’t making anything up!

Word comes of a french Warthog Jumpin’ movie. The jumping is nothing special… but the dancing chiefs are pretty cool. 🙂 If you’re willing to watch it in Real format, go here and check it out!

Gamitopia reviewed Halo last week – and were unimpressed. While I’m loathe to sneer at Halo criticism for fear of being seen as an overbiased fanboi, the reviewer picked some of the silliest things to complain about:

When you move onto each successive chapter of Halo, you’ll restart with Marine guns, regardless of what you ended the previous chapter with. Once, after battling my way out of an end of chapter fortress with a needler and a rocket launcher, I nearly had a heart attack when the next chapter, which started right where the last left off, started me off with the crappy pistol and machine gun from the beginning of the game. I didn’t play for days after that one, and it happened all too often.

Other complaints included too-low ammo-carrying limits, too-few-gun carrying limits, bad driving controls, and a tired storyline. Overall, they rated it 81%. We’ve added it to our Reviews database. Thanks to Blue’s News for the heads-up.

Saturday Morning Fan Fiction Reading:

• Check Please, Part II- Teaser, by Kellen Squire
• Taker of Life, Giver of Death, parts 7 and 8, by Ian Barnes
• Short Story, part 2, by Jamie
• Rise To Honor, part 16, by Shadow
• The Journey Home, by JT3989
• Nothing Left, by Eric Gunther

Whew!

Vector40 went to the MaxGames competition at the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation – read his insanely long (but quite entertaining) account of the goings-on on our forum.

Razorback noticed another description of the Halo 2 trailer – this time at IGN. Take a look, before it gets buried behind the IGNinsider wall. Makes you wish 19 days was shorter…

Yeroen, over at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site, has posted the schedules for all the Regionals matches for the ongoing Halo National Tournament. Swing by if you want to know where to go when.

For Mac-owning Halo Online players – Aquaduct 1.0b3 has been released. Go grab it. (Thanks to Deimosâ„¢ for the heads-up.)

When Bungie released the Halo 2 screenshots last week, one of them sparked some debate – people wondered about a symbol visible on one of them. Some thought it was the men’s room… others thought maybe it signified who won the cellphone wars in the future. Jaime Griesemer, Halo 2’s lead designer, suggested that it was present in the first Halo. Aginor finally found it – it’s a symbol for ‘airlock’. (He made a homemade image showing where he thought it turned up – but i snagged a screenshot, showing it in place. This is this first airlock you come to in the first level.) Nice eyes!