SteveOll found an interview with Marty O’Donnell on the BBC website; Marty’s in the UK to speak at a game developers’ conference in Brighton. (They caught him on a beach – in a long-sleeved shirt with an undershirt. Way to enjoy the sun, Marty.) There are some great quotes in there – I liked this one:

“For too long we have let the technology side drive creativity now we have to let creativity drive technology.”

Go read the whole thing!(Louis Wu 11:50:00 UTC)

It’s not much – but it’s the most REAL Halo movie news we’ve seen in quite some time. Game Set Watch interviewed DB Weiss, who’s currently in the process of rewriting the Halo script:

How far along with the screenplay are you?

Just starting in on an entirely new second draft.

Lest you think it’s an old interview that’s just being posted now, there’s a question that asks for feedback about an article at Gamasutra that was published just a couple of weeks ago. Give the whole interview a read – there’s a bit more info about how he got involved. Thanks, Cunbelin. (Given that the script is just beginning to be rewritten, the fan hopes for a 7/7/07 release of this movie are looking pretty untenable…)(Louis Wu 11:31:57 UTC)

For the second year in a row, Halo 2 was named Game of the Year by the Entertainment Merchants Association (though last year, it was the Video Software Dealers Association that did the award-giving; they merged with the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association in May to become the EMA). We mentioned the nomination a couple of months ago – I’m not sure if I should be happy that Halo’s won twice in a row, or afraid for the industry that they can’t find anyone better this year. Thanks, Major Silva, who found the news at Gamespot.(Louis Wu 11:25:56 UTC)

Bungie played another Humpday Challenge last night – this time against the Gunslingers. (These aren’t the Tied the Leader Gunslingers – they’re an MLG clan, it seems. It’s all made more confusing by the fact that the TTL Gunslingers have, as the top story on their website, a piece called ‘MLG: Major League Gunslingers’. I think I’ve got it now, though.) Anyway, They kicked Bungie’s butt from here to high noon – Bungie won one of the three games (but should have lost – read the writeup for an explanation). Interestingly, the game they did win was a Rockets game – KP was the first person on the Bungie team to satisfy the minimum score requirement (a far cry from his LAST performance in a Rockets game with Bungie…) – but it wasn’t enough. Their not-losing streak ends at 3… except they’re crying foul in the last game, and looking to win on popularity. Go tell ’em what you think.(Louis Wu 22:00:55 UTC)

A couple of nice articles over at MLGPro.com – ‘On a Power Trip – Next Stop: Chicago‘ takes a look at MoBPowerTripBev.com, one of the up-and-coming teams hoping to play as one of the top 8 teams in Chicago… and ‘The Zone 6 Interview: Making A Stand‘ has Trunkers sitting down with Zone 6, another of those hungry upstarts. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 21:41:47 UTC)

This Spartan Life has released the final module for Episode 3 – it’s a music video/dance segment which revolves around a Halo 2 easter egg. It’s awesome. (Watch the synchronization of the dance choreography… and then think about what’s involved in getting that just right. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done this well on such a large scale.) Great special effects, and the song, by glomag with MC Aero, is pretty funny as well. Available in QuickTime format (25.2 mb), .m4v for your iPod (on their Podcast page, 22.3 mb), and soon in WMP9 format as well.(Louis Wu 18:48:38 UTC)

Newsarama has interviewed Brian Jarrard about the Halo Graphic Novel; info about how the project started, where the stories came from, how the artists and writers were signed up. Great questions, solid answers – go read! Several brand-new pieces of artwork, as well. Thanks, drummand.(Louis Wu 17:43:11 UTC)

Covinator and friends put together a ‘Real-life Montage‘; Halo in their backyard. (Or maybe a park. Whatever.) Pretty funny stuff; he’s made it available at FileFront (WMP9 format, 20.4 mb). Grab a copy!(Louis Wu 16:58:19 UTC)

Interesting – turns out the ‘Exclusive Figure’ to be released at the San Diego Comic-Con this year is going to be an ODST – in two variants. The second contains what looks like pink Fluff all over him – but the packaging suggests it’s inspired by the Halo Graphic Novel artwork. Either way, there are only 1200 pieces total, and will be sold only at the convention. Thanks, Mister Froggy.(Louis Wu 16:54:39 UTC)

Hmm… The most recent comment from Bungie about any work they’re doing (or not doing) on an Xbox Live arcade title came back in March, in a Bungie Weekly Update. (Well, there was a question about Marathon on XBLA in this update, but Frankie said it’s not happening.) In May, during an interview with IGN, Microsoft’s Shane Kim was asked about a Bungie XBL title – and while he said it was possible, he didn’t think it was happening any time soon. Today, over at Xbox 360 Fanboy, Greg Canessa (Group Manager for Xbox Live Arcade) was asked “is there a title from Bungie in the works?”

“A title from Bungie? Yeah, I can’t comment on that, actually… but you know… just stay tuned.”

Interpret it as you will – though I’d suggest that there’s no real evidence that there’s anything that’s currently being worked on; it sounds to me like a lot of people would LIKE Bungie to create an XBLA title, but whether it’s happening is as yet unknown. Thanks, Doc P.(Louis Wu 16:37:00 UTC)

A few days ago, a montage submitted by uK x HoBo was passed by the MPRRS – nice timing, nice quality. Advance warning – the first song is pretty rude. R-rated, even. That said – the reviewers said go ahead and release, so we’re releasing. WMP9 version is 69.7 mb, QuickTime version is 74.8 mb. (It’s six and a half minutes long.)(Louis Wu 14:13:30 UTC)

Last week, we mentioned an audio release of a talk given by Jaime Griesemer, Marty O’Donnell, and Mat Noguchi at the 2003 Game Developers Conference, entitled ‘Halo: Development Evolved’. Jaime was kind enough to send along the slides he presented at that talk – so now you can get both the audio AND the visuals!(Louis Wu 13:59:15 UTC)

Still more original Halo fun with Rockslider – collect your marines and go to town!(Louis Wu 13:10:25 UTC)

Chairleg Productions has created a number of Halo-based machinima projects – most (all?) have met with critical success. They’re funny, they’re well-filmed, they’ve got high production qualities. They’ve got a new series just beginning: MPs. They submitted Episode 1 to the MPRRS last week – and were given a high passing score. They asked us to hold off on release of this film, though, to allow for more time in making other episodes; we’re nothing if not accomodating. It’s Thursday, so it’s release day for ‘MPs Episode 1: 26th Century Boy’. It’s funny, it’s big and beautiful, and it makes us want more episodes. it revolves around the lives of a team of Military Police who are decidedly unmilitary. We’re hosting the WMP9 version (28.5 mb, also available at Chairleg’s website) and a QuickTime version (26.7 mb) – grab the one that works best for you!(Louis Wu 13:01:53 UTC)

Laird stopped by our forum to present a few teaser pics and describe a new project; a 3d animated Halo space battle video. Swing by, take a look!(Louis Wu 12:43:18 UTC)

Over at Tied the Leader, you can read about how the TTL Gunslingers aren’t letting Clan Matches die with the loss of the Clan playlists. Thanks, XerxdeeJ.(Louis Wu 12:39:00 UTC)

Heh – depending on how you look at the numbers, Halo is still the media king – or it’s not. Much hay was made of the fact that Halo 2 made $125 million in its first 24 hours, and that this beat the record for ‘biggest opening weekend box office take’, held at the time by Spider-Man ($115 million). Well… Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest just had a bigger opening weekend – $135.6 million. Yeah, but that’s 3 days, you say! And the first day was only $56 million! And even if you count the first TWO days (because Microsoft counted the first 24 hours, which technically spanned two business days), it’s STill only $100 million! Yeah, well… first off, Halo 2’s $125 million takes into account all pre-sales for the game – money for which was collected sometimes months in advance. And second off, if you’re gonna compare opening weekends, compare opening weekends; don’t start messing around with ‘well, it’s the opening weekend when the total is below our cutoff, otherwise we’re gonna look at per-day grosses’. Any way you cut it – Halo 2 made a BUNDLE, but so did Dead Man’s Chest. You decide who you think should be on top. thanks to PhyrVurm for pointing this out.(Louis Wu 12:34:48 UTC)

When we hosted our ‘Going Nowhere Fast‘ contest a few years ago, the winning time for the Library speedrun was 20:57 – and that was 5 minutes faster than the second-place finisher. Since then, time has been chipped off that record… but yesterday, a new vid was uploaded to High Speed Halo (WMP9 format, 29.2 mb) that blew away the competition. Riptor turned in a 14:25 run – on Legendary. (Well, of COURSE it was Legendary. Duh.) It’s pretty amazing; partly for the ways he finds to decrease enemy spawns, partly for how easy he makes some of it look. Make no mistake; the Library, in under 15 minutes on Legendary, is not by ANY measure an easy task. You wouldn’t know it from watching this, though… thanks, Ducain.(Louis Wu 12:14:50 UTC)