After a long hiatus, the Repertory is back in business. Thanks to Vector40, for this ‘all media, all the time’ site – his goal is to mirror everything worth mirroring in the Halo movie arena. The bandwidth is certainly appreciated!

The big news of the day? Yep, the Xbox is officially $199. Thanks to all the folks who dropped us notes to let us know. Buying Halo just got cheaper. (Yes, you’re still welcome to wait until the PC version comes out… but $100 of your excuse just flew out the window.)

Early-in-the-day Fan Fiction:

• The First Step Into A Long Fall Part 3, by JediKnight114
• Warning: escaping convicts… (Part 2), by Cap’n Keyes

Up sooner than expected…

Xbox.com has put up an announcement page for the Halo Soundtrack. There are three tracks listed… but they’re the same tracks released a couple of months ago by Team Xbox (and later Xbox.com, on the Easter Egg page for the WinAmp skin). Still, it’s nice to see the press coverage for what will undoubtedly be a killer release!

Jason Horwath managed to catch some bizarre Shade action on film recently… you can find the results in our Gameplay Tricks section. Removed at the author’s request.

The Psyjnir Complex is FINALLY back online – the crew has grown a bit, so poke around, you might find stuff worth hunting for. (Like an early draft of the Halo theme, in MIDI format… or something.)

Thomas Bottrill sends word that he’s put up a new interview of Marty O’Donnell at Xbox.zone (the site is framed, so hit the ‘Say Halo!’ link, then the ‘Marty O’Donnell Interview’). Some interesting stuff in there… though Marty’s a bit more reticent than usual (check out the answers to the Halo 2 questions). A sample:

xbox.zone: What’s with the Irish folk music? And why did it work so bloody well? Also what styles/types of music didn’t make it into the game, and why?
Marty: Well I’m Irish so maybe that’s where that feel came from. Actually, I never intended it to have an Irish folk music feel but I guess it is a little on the “River Dance” side of things. I just liked the groove when it came to me and started developing it. I have no idea why it works. As far as styles that didn’t make it in, I’m sure you’ll not be able to find any Hawaiian music in the game.

Me, I’m sorta missing the Hawaiian stuff now… This has been added to our Interviews database.

Tuesday Fan Fiction offerings – two eerily similar stories, at least at first:

• Warning: escaping convicts can be allies in disguise (Part 1), by Cap’n Keyes
• Halo: Aftermath – Prologue, by Nick

The second story is the beginning of a complete rewrite – Nick (formerly known as GarlicJr11) was unhappy with the quality of the story, and chose to start anew. The original version has been removed, at his request.

To everyone who wrote in, suggesting the use of Babel Fish as a translator for the Japanese Halo Championship news from yesterday… thanks. I was really looking for something more accurate than “the hay low/row”… but you’re all right, it’s better than nothing. 🙂 More to the point, there’s now official information on the Xbox Japan site – take a look. Turns out those dogtags are more than just a tchotchke – they’re your entrance pass to the contest. May 19, 25, and 26… coming up soon!

Hot times for console buyers – as of yesterday, Sony has dropped the price of its PlayStation 2 console to $199 in the US, and the PS One to $49. Though they suggest that it’s always been their plan to bring the PS2 to the sub-$200 pricepoint, the rumors of an Xbox price drop at E3 in a couple of weeks probably didn’t hurt the timing any… Thanks to Gamers.com for the heads-up.

Eep – a new image was submitted on Sunday – we nearly missed it. Germain Couët dropped off a pretty cool view of the Halo under construction. We’ve added it to our Miscellaneous Art section – it’s a very different beast from the LAST visualization of this event…

Good (and bad) news for those waiting for the Halo Soundtrack – The Good: Microsoft Game Studios announced today that Sumthing Distribution has been contracted to market the disc. The Bad: release date is scheduled for June 11 “at music retailers nationwide”. For more details, check out Music4Games.net.

Firfin, of Halo-Game, sends word of a page on the Halo Championship in Japan. We can’t tell you what it says (no Japanese speakers here), but some of the pictures are intriguing…

New wallpaper uploaded to our Wallpaper section. Clearin’ out the inbox…

A new pattern is emerging – the Halo font released a few days ago has inspired several fan fiction authors to create cover art for their stories using it. The latest is Spook – you can find his work in the Miscellaneous Art section. Font + pic = cover

Weekend Fanfic:

• Last Hope part 4, by SSJBRK
• Bloodlust, by Jehkoh

Rainy Sunday…

Thanks to Miguel Chavez, who scanned in an article from the New York Times today – it looks at today’s violent video games, and comments that ‘Men will be boys’. (It’s actually a decent read – it looks at older gamers, and why they’re being drawn back to video games.) You can find it in our Press Scans section – or you can read it online at the NYT website (link is on the press scan page).

Thanks to Cybrfrk, who has added a welcome Search feature to the Gameplay Tips section. If you were having trouble finding that tip you needed, this just might make it easier! (Don’t forget to submit the tips you have for playing!

Heh – we missed this in February, but we can’t COMPLETELY cover it up…

A few people noticed that Something Awful’s Photoshop Phriday feature was ‘Fake Games‘ this week – and Halo fit in nicely. (Interestingly enough… Marathon got noticed, as well.) And then… there’s THIS one. Some people have too much time on their hands…