Yesterday, it was Japan… today, the UK. ELSPA has released their latest figures… and for the week ending April 27th (thanks to the Xbox price drop), Halo has shot up from 18th best-selling game (any platform) to 5th. Amazing what a little discount can do for you…

Whoa! Thanks to Team Overkill, who sent in a scan from the latest issue of ToyFare Magazine. It’s a Wish List article… about Halo action figures! And they’ve done a custom mockup! Very cool.

Update on the Collaborative Halo Fan Fiction project mentioned yesterday – Bonk has kindly set up a forum for discussion of this topic. If you’d like to join, be sure to send your name to Ryan, first…

At long last, HBO is proud to announce… the opening of the Gameplay Tips section! Great thanks go out to CYBRFRK, who coded the whole mess… there’s not a lot of content there yet, but we’re counting on you to change that. Have a gameplay tip? Submit it! We’ll clean it up a bit, and toss it into the database… in no time, this collection should be a repository of the considerable wealth of knowledge evinced by the fine visitors of this site.

Ryan dropped us a note with a rather ambitious proposal – he hopes to get as many fan fiction writers together as possible, and as a group, tell the story of the game.

• Skill level of the writer is not important – everyone is welcome.
• All writers will have a chance to help with the actual editing of the project. (There is no minimum amount of work needed to be part of this – you contribute what you feel comfortable contributing.)
• The editing process will (in Ryan’s words) “help to blend all of our writing styles effectively to create a story far more polished, enjoyable, and colorful than any one writer could do alone. Since it has an elaborate and fair set up, inter-writer disagreements will be dealt with proactively in the benefit of the story as a whole.”
• There aren’t any fixed dates for the project at this point – work will start when there are enough writers, and will end when everyone involved is satisfied.

If you’re interested in participating in this project, drop Ryan a note – he’ll be doing the coordination at this stage.

Japanese economics… Dengeki Online has published sales rankings for last week; Halo placed 9th in Japan – the only Xbox game in the top 10 (indeed, the only one in the top 50). The On24 network is reporting that Xbox sales surged 70% in Japan for the week ending the 28th… the week Halo was introduced. Looks like Halo is gonna be an Xbox-saver in the Land of the Rising Sun! (Thanks to Nijhazer and Ken Kasperson for the links.)

Eep – Drunkgamers.com stopped notifying us when new installments of their multiplayer tips series come out (we might have pissed them off by forgetting to post about a Drunkathon they held a little while back), and we forgot to go back and look. In the past month, they’ve posted parts five (how NOT to win at KOTH), six (pick your CTF partners well) and seven (using the flat spin technique to keep yourself from flipping in a jeep). Check ’em out!

Lot’s of 6’s:

• Well Enough Alone, part 6, by Ryan
• Capture of the Bounty, part 4, by SkyRyan1
• Last Hope, part 1, by SSJBRK
• ODST Saga, part 6, by Robo42786
• Aftermath, part 6, by Alex Cross

Go check ’em out in the Fan Fiction section!

The Psyjnir Complex, which has been down for a long time now, is slated to come back on May 14. Visit the site for an explanation of how that date was picked… and mark your calendars; they’re having a Hotline party to celebrate!

Thanks to That Weasel and Alan Wu, who have provided two new homes for the Demo Promo movie – links can be found on our mirror list.

Getchyer red-hot fan fiction here…

• Well Enough Alone, part 5, by Ryan
• Present Horizon, part 1, by Spook
• Halo: Aftermath (gj), chapter 1, by GarlicJr11
• Operation False Prophets, part 11, by Ian Barnes
• The First Step Into A Long Fall, part 2, by JediKnight114

In addition, GarlicJr11 has created a logo to go with his writing – you can find it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

A couple of weeks ago, Bungie released some cool dual-monitor desktops. Did you decide they were nice to look at, but that you didn’t have the screen real estate to show ’em off? Never fear – Allenthar has combined them into nice single-monitor desktops – you can find them, in a whole slew of resolutions, in our Wallpaper section.

Thanks to Reaper7 (of Battleground: Halo) and Allenthar, who have both provided mirrors for the Demo Promo movie – you’ll find the links on our Demo Promo Mirrors page. Update: Oops, forgot Cybrfrk! He’s put it up, as well (with a .wmv on the way). Update 2: Brian Josselyn writes to say that it’s mirrored at Blackstar Productions, as well. (Link is on the Mirror page…)

A couple of days ago, Team Overkill was kind enough to upload a copy of the ‘special ending’ that follows the single-level demo you can find on the June 2002 Official Xbox Magazine cover disc – we were going to release it, but Bungie came through with a direct version. (We’re THRILLED to get submissions like Team Overkill’s – the work of people like them is what makes it possible to bring the rest of our visitors cool stuff – but in this case, we couldn’t turn down the second offer. 🙂 ) Once again, we’ve set you up with a pair of mirrors: Mythica.org and the Psyjnir.com Hotline server. We would REALLY like to add more mirrors to the mirror list, though – so anyone who can handle this… please, let us know. It’s only 5 mb.

A couple of escapades have been posted to the Gameplay Tricks section – some great out-of-map shots on Battle Creek (nobody’s ever gotten out before) and Blood Gulch (a whole BUNCH of places never seen before)… check ’em out! (More stuff coming soon.)

Djoey 154 writes to say he’s translated Marty O’Donnell’s GDC talk into French – you can read it at Halo-Game.

Your daily Fan Fiction batch:

• Covie In The Crib, by WolfgangMjolnir
• Halo: Aftermath (gj) (Prologue), by GarlicJr11
• The First Step Into A Long Fall Part 1, by JediKnight114
• Capture of the Bounty Part III, by SkyRyan1
• ODST Saga part 5, by Robo42786

Interesting mix, today…

Last week, Trey Ikon submitted a series of pistol concept sketches – pretty cool stuff. Today, we’re adding another series that he mentioned on our forum yesterday – you’ll find ’em in our Miscellaneous Art section. That pistol/shotgun combo is getting prettier and prettier…

We get some pretty odd Wallpaper sometimes…

An early greyscale concept drawing of the Master Chief has been colored by WeTsLaYeR – we’ve added it to our Miscellaneous Art section.