Yesterday, Bungie took on the Xbox MVP group in their weekly Humpday Challenge… and for the first time in a long time, they came out on top. The writeup is notably harsh… methinks there’s some good-natured ribbin’ going on in there. Takeaway message from this set? Don’t let Frankie pick the gametypes.(Louis Wu 20:59:47 UTC)

Charliez, a RedvsBlue community member, sent along this link to Hallo, a new comic that will be coming out every Sunday. Cortana installs Vista…(Louis Wu 14:17:05 UTC)

Over at Halo Planet, I read about another Halo Armor effort – check out LinkProductions (go to ‘Props’, then ‘Halo Props’; there’s a full outfit, plus plasma and human pistols. (This is the same plasma pistol as we saw on eBay a few months ago. At that point, I hadn’t realized there was more that he was working on.)(Louis Wu 14:09:19 UTC)

There’s a preview of the upcoming 4v4 action at MLG Anaheim posted on the MLGPro.com website – go read about the top teams! Thanks, KP.(Louis Wu 14:03:01 UTC)

There’s a great rant by Ducain over at High Impact Halo, taking moviemakers to task for not staying focused. He’s specifically talking about trick vids, but his words are equally applicable to other categories of films; I don’t even want to think about all the times I’ve suggested that someone re-edit their video footage (to cut out unnecessary material, to focus on the important parts, whatever), only to be told that “well, I don’t have the original content any more, so I’m gonna go with what’s here.” Making videos should be like almost any artistic endeavor – the first cut is almost NEVER worth showing the world. Go read Ducain’s words – and if you’re a content creator (video, artwork, fan fiction, whatever), take them to heart.(Louis Wu 18:08:24 UTC)

Last week, there was a minor ruckus over some Halo content in the cover of a science fiction novel. Stuntmutt weighs in in today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 18:00:10 UTC)

spartanerik posted a link to a Newgrounds-based Halo vs Counter-Strike Flash. Go look.(Louis Wu 17:56:56 UTC)

TraitorJoe (who has submitted a lot of music transcriptions to Rampancy.net under the name Poop Scoop) stopped by our forum last night to point out a video of his high school orchestra performing Earth City (from the Halo 2 Soundtrack, Volume 1). Great stuff – we’re mirroring the WMP9 version (28 mb) and providing a QuickTime version as well (29.8 mb). Grab one and watch – they’re great! Be sure to let him know what you think in the forum thread.(Louis Wu 17:41:39 UTC)

Bungie’s hiring again! Check out the Top Story on Bungie.net, and their Jobs page, for details on the newest Halo 3-related positions… and send ’em your resume!(Louis Wu 17:31:06 UTC)

Wow. Over at Gamasutra, there’s a story about the new deals signed by MLG with the top Halo players – Team Final Boss and individual Tsquared; each of the five players involved will be paid a quarter of a million dollars to play exclusively in MLG competitions. Walshy’s comment is great:

“Three years ago I never could have imagined that I’d be making more money than my parents playing video games!”

Interestingly, this news is not on MLG’s own site yet.(Louis Wu 16:30:38 UTC)

Heh – it’s been a really busy morning (and will continue to be an insane day), but I’m posting this because we’ve already gotten over a dozen emails about it, and I want to stem the future tide. Today’s Questionable Content (a webcomic I’d never heard of before, but apparently one widely read by the Halo community) has a subtle Halo reference in it today – last panel. The fact that this is strip 647 frightens me… it means I have a LOT of catching up to do. Looks like boristhespider52 was first with the heads-up.(Louis Wu 16:10:02 UTC)