And another egg is added to the Halo Easter Egg page. As far as I know, nobody’s noticed this one yet – and I have to give credit to Bungie’s Mordia, who let it slip in casual conversation (he assumed it was common knowledge) – but it’s pretty funny nonetheless! It should go without saying that just reading this page will spoil you if you haven’t played yet… but I’ll say it anyway.

The Halo SETI Marines take on on the chin with the loss of R3ality, who left with 870 units… but they remain in 61st position in the Battle of the Teams. More Marines submitted units in the past 2 weeks than is normal – nice going! Were you among the workers? Check the 14 day stats page to see.

Electus Unum has created a fun little movie (30 seconds, about 5 megs) showing a neat trick – he puts a Ghost on top of a Blood Gulch Base with no outside help. No extra people, no rockets, no grenades, no nothing… except the Ghost. We’ve posted it to our overflow space at mac.com… 5 megs on HBO’s puny pipe scares me. 🙂 We’ll add this to the Tricks page sometime tomorrow, probably. Update: a number of people have written in or (in one case) posted to the forum with the info that the Ghosts simply climb the ramps to the base roof, if you hit them right – no terrain bouncing needed. Still – this is a pretty fun vid. 🙂

At the end of December, Enzyver posted a series of pictures showing how to collect the first Banshee on Assault in the Control room. Well… they’ve now been submitted here, and added to our Gameplay Tricks section. (I’ve reduced the images to fit a more common browser size, but if anyone wants the original images, they’re linked from the individual pages (along with sizes).) Once again, apologies for the backlog – there’s only one of me doing this stuff right now!

Goodness, even MORE wallpaper. Jean-Philippe Hamel submits a new desktop for an upcoming PC Halo clan, the Next Generation Troopers. You’ll find it in our Wallpaper section. (This stuff seems to come in waves.)

We’ve added the latest batch of Bungie screenshots (from the Truth and Reconciliation site) to the Screenshots Database. Warning again: MAJOR STORY SPOILERS INSIDE.

Zapf Dingbats noticed a FAQ, of sorts, at GameSpot’s Portugal site; weapons, baddies, and a vehicle. (Unfortunately, the images for the baddies are copy-and-pasted from the previous page – but ‘grunts.jpg’ and ‘jackals.jpg’ work (if you simply replace the image link that’s there). I couldn’t figure out what they called the Covenant Elite pic. Interesting find!

In a fit of devotion that borders on insanity, Etienne “Djof” Boucher has submitted 6 versions of a Marathon/Halo desktop image, in two color schemes, and in sizes ranging from a reasonable 1024×768 to a rather outrageous 3200×2400. You’ll find it in our Wallpaper section.

Prae drops off a pretty nice desktop – check it out on our Wallpaper page.

Amechwarrior took some fun shots of a Scorpion on its side… and NthDegree256 has posted them for him. Check out the details in this forum post.

Mastasnypa writes to say that GamingNoise.com has given Halo its Game of the Year title – we tried to verify this, but it’s actually in a 8.4 MB, 75 minute mp3, and after 6 or 7 minutes of… stuff (none of which had anything to do with the awards), I decided I couldn’t listen any more. If you want to listen, though… go for it. Update: Apparently they didn’t give Halo Game of the Year awards… just Xbox Game of the Year. (Grand Theft Auto 3 won the whole enchilada.) Thanks to Nijhazer for the heads-up. Second Update: Mastasnypa wanted it clear that the misunderstanding was mine, not his – he stated that GN gave Halo the Xbox game of the year title, and I misread his email. (It’s STILL a silly report.)

Another chapter of ‘Halo: A Strange Tale’ has come in – Part 3 does some pretty heavy Marathon/Halo tying… check it out in our Fan Fiction section. (While it’s fantastic that authors have a universal feedback device in Vector40, it would be nice if others who read the stories dropped off their comments, as well…)

The EggMan Cometh… another (known) easter egg is added to the Halo Easter Eggs page; the Pillar of Autumn bulletin board makes its way into the light. More on the way!

Heh – Ben Bayes writes to say that badassbuddy.com has just put up a new AIM Buddy icon showing the Master Chief doin’ his thing. Amazing what you can fit in to 50×50 pixels…

The Halo Story page gets another update… more on the Ark of the Covenant, and plenty of speculation about Cortana, the Master Chief, and the Covs… Check out the news!

The Halo Easter Eggs page grows again… this time, it’s the Food Nipple Grunt. I’m not 100% sure of the discoverer… so if you think you found this before December 2, please, send in documentation (a forum post,either here or at another Halo forum, would probably be best) and we’ll change the source! We’ve also added some extra media for the first egg – an MP3 version of the song, and a short video showing the exact location of the egg. More coming soon…

IGN has posted its Overall Game of the Year – and unfortunately, it’s an Insider article. We can’t bring you all the commentary and discussion… at least not until it gets moved to the free part of the site. The bottom line, though, is that Halo took the honors, beating out Grand Theft Auto 3 as Game of the Year. Congrats! (Thanks to DT_Spike for the heads-up.)

Bungie’s Truth and Reconciliation website has been updated – a new page of screenshots (MASSIVE spoilers for those who haven’t played, amazing demo of Bungie’s way-cool screenshot-taking technology for those who have), and a new section on the Outtakes page – including a music-less version of the big grunty thirst speech. (If you don’t know what that is, check our Easter Eggs page a bit later tonight.) There’s also a pretty interesting rant by Joseph Staten, over on the main Bungie.net site. Thanks to Skeletor for the heads-up!

Interesting… 3DActionPlanet, usually busy covering games, has written a review of ‘Halo: The Fall of Reach’. They’re pretty impressed with the job the book does at explaining some of the backstory of the game:

frankly, it should be included with every copy of Halo.

Nice to see the book getting wider coverage! Thanks to Battleground: Halo (a 3DAP affiliate) for the heads-up.

IGN has put up their ‘Best Games of 2001‘ feature, and Halo won both Editors’ and Readers’ Choice awards for Best Action Game. Nice! Thanks to Ruzhyo for the heads-up.