Paul Maestri has started up a comic strip that focuses on ‘scifi elements’ – his first strip is here. I always wondered about that…(Louis Wu 12:29:58 UTC)

This is what the Halo community is all about. rapture wrote up a summary of the last year for The Hushed Casket – a Halo-centric (though not exclusive) group in Huntsville, AL. Good friends, good times, good games. And some bad. (Sorry about the 360, rap.) Give it a read. Makes me want to start a local group! (Well, maybe not.) Thanks, Mintz and Slayer.(Louis Wu 12:27:22 UTC)

Heh – Ducain pointed out a new Halo vid, again by BigGruntyThirst, over at High Impact Halo… it builds on the technique shown in his recent variety vid, but as Ducain says, the kicker here is how easy he makes it all look! (This trick, from start to finish, is anything BUT easy.) Worth a look! (Louis Wu 12:08:37 UTC)

Major Silva noticed another Eric Nylund interview, over at Gearheads of War – only very brief mentions of Halo material, but a good read nonetheless!(Louis Wu 23:39:27 UTC)

Swing by Bungie.net for official info (well, sort of info) about the latest Halo novel, “Ghosts of Onyx”. (Yes, Amazon UK got it right a couple of weeks ago.) There’s really nothing else in the news post except for the title… and a teaser about cover art. Go read!(Louis Wu 21:55:05 UTC)

TheGhost wrote to let us know about a contest he’s set up over at his Halo 2 Vista forum. Challenge: Complete the entire course of Yoyorast Island’s race mode in the shortest amount of time possible. The winner gets $25, either via PayPal, or in the form of a gift certificate. You’ve got until September 17 – so get racing! (Be sure to read the full rules, as well as more info and a demo video, on the Halo 2 Vista forum.(Louis Wu 21:52:27 UTC)

Wow. Ninja 0n Fire posted stats for the various playlists on XBL as of today… and Team Carnage is nearly tied with Team Snipers in number of games played. Read the whole list in his forum post on Bungie.net, or in KP’s on our forum.(Louis Wu 20:02:54 UTC)

The drive to clear out the Miscellaneous Art queue continues – another 30 images went up today. (Well, more than that if you count variants. But who’s counting?) A pretty wild range of stuff is in there – action figure art, sketches, 3D renders, paintings… you name it. Some of it is KILLER. I went to find a couple to point out – and there are too many that are must-sees. So go see. Goodgoodgood… and the beauty part is, the queue is down to a couple of dozen pieces – here’s hoping I can get to them soon!(Louis Wu 15:19:02 UTC)

On September 6 and 7 (that’s next Wednesday and Thursday), in Austin, Texas, the Game Writers Conference will be held. It’s not for the casual gamer – registration is $400 (and goes up to $500 after next Tuesday), with only a $50 discount for students… but if you’re interested in game writing, this is the place to be! Bungie’s Joe Staten will be part of a panel discussing dialogue writing for voice actors, and Wideload’s Matt Soell (a late addition, and not visible on the website at this point) will be part of a discussion about Writing Comedy for Games. Should be a blast! (Interesting side note – Joe’s bio mentions that the Halo film adaptation will be directed by Neill Blomkamp. Still waiting on that official announcement…) (Louis Wu 13:58:48 UTC)

Some great writeups about MGL Orlando over at MLGPro.com – a look at the Karma/Strongside battle for the 1v1 Championship, and a thrilling play-by-play of the Carbon/Final Boss matchup for the 4v4 Championship. Next best thing to being there! Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 12:57:51 UTC)

Mike Hill stopped by our forum to ask for feedback on a new Warthog variant he’s working on – awesome wheels! We’ve added the image to his gallery here, as well, but be sure to give him feedback on the render in the forum thread.(Louis Wu 12:50:35 UTC)

Clearview Pro sent along a trailer for an upcoming movie called ‘City of Evil’. It didn’t pass the MPRRS – mostly because more than one reviewer apparently felt that trailers aren’t worth releasing, that machinima makers should focus on making movies, not trailers. It missed a passing grade by the slimmest of margins, and that particular rationale seems like a weak reason to fail a film… so I’m hosting it anyway. It does a nice job with modded content – if the final film is as nicely put together as the trailer, this should be a winner! 1:41 long, you can grab it in WMP9 format (19.1 mb) or QuickTime format (20.3 mb). (For anyone keeping track, the footage could be construed as having Halo spoilers in it.)(Louis Wu 12:27:52 UTC)

XerxdeeJ stopped by to point out that Tied the Leader sat down with the Podtacular crew for a blog/podcast crossover; Podtacular Episode 78 has ‘deeJ as a guest-host. (There’s also a pretty funny open apology that has nothing to do with that crossover.)(Louis Wu 12:03:31 UTC)