Pinkuh posted a note on our forum with an update of a picture she’d started about a month ago. The final work is gorgeous (we’ve added it to her gallery here) – but there are also a few progress shots, showing how she got from the sketch to the final product. (Those are in the gallery, as well.) Pretty fun – as a non-artist, I find it fascinating to see how people work! (The forum post also contains a snippet of fan fiction that goes along with the work… she doesn’t stop!)

Frankie’s WWU is now up for public consumption. Short and sweet as he says, but it does contain some very nice nuggets of info. The office gets their hands on DOA4, Max talks about the often forgotten handicap setting which helps even players out, and we get a near-final track list of Volume 2 of the Halo Soundtrack! Go Marty, go!

Of course, with the good you get the yucky. In this case, bring along a pail, because the picture of one of our favorite cananimators is likely to churn even the strongest of stomachs. OMG!

Kudos to… ME for noticing it first! (ok, I’m sure someone emailed Wu before I noticed it, but I’m posting it here first!)

Update: Eep – didn’t notice Ding got here first. I’ll add the local BWU Archive link to his post, and yank my own. Hehe – didn’t even OCCUR to me that other staff might actually be working tonight!

You might remember a guy named Mike Hill – he’s done a couple of sketches of Halo subjects. (Yeah, and Reinhold Meissner has climbed a couple of hills.) There was his MC with a Warthog, and Sniper Waiting… well, now there’s a new pic called ‘nightstalker‘ (900×1442, 544k); it was created for the Bungie art contest (which closes tomorrow, if you were still planning to enter), and I simply love it. If you enjoy Mike’s work, be sure to check out his website, Freefall Graphics. (Be aware that some of it is NSFW.) Update: mnemesis found a pretty slick abstract sketch of a pelican on Mike’s site… the Halo material grows!

Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve seen a Game With Fame on Xbox Live… but it looks like there’s one coming up in a couple of weeks. According to TeamXbox, you can sign up for a chance to play against INXS on Tuesday, January 17. Nice!

Today’s One One Se7en reminds people that behind many successful ventures are older iterations of those ventures.

Eep – forgot to post this yesterday – thanks to Capt 0bvious for reminding me. Geary noticed a new trailer at GameTrailers.com, showing off Nicole beating up on some of the other characters in DOA4. It’s nice, hi-res footage; not nearly as artistic as Dan Chosich’s vid, but high-quality, and fun to watch. (Love the plasma stick!) WMP9 and QuickTime.

The cutest little guy arrived in the mail yesterday (closeup | for scale)… Halo fans rock. To AngelicLionheart and crew… thanks. When I get sad or stressed, I’ll put this guy on my shoulder, and let him suck out my brains.

This week’s Fan Fiction pull is 18 pieces – and people are clearly reading the directions, because I didn’t have to delete a single one! Go catch up on your reading.

Today’s Halo Babies comic is a bitter look at the cheating scene on Xbox Live… methinks Gruntsbane’s been hit once too many times.

Last night, Sniper2477’s Mission Impossible 3 Trailer passed the MPRRS – so you can grab it in WMP9 format (28.1 mb) or QuickTime format (20.6 mb) from us. It’s an attempt to remake the Mission: Impossible trailer, down to camera angles and shots. (It actually helps if you watch the original trailer – it’s available on the M:I website.) Ving Rhames as an Elite… perfect.

Silver Stars/Purple Hearts pre-Episode 0.3 is now up for download at 7Pandas.com. You can find a variety of versions on their Downloads page – and we’re mirroring the hi-res WMP9 version, and offering a hi-res QuickTime as well. This particular pre-episode has no Halo content in it (it’s all Sims2 this time around) – but it’s pretty important to the storyline, and it’s really, REALLY well-done. (For those who don’t know, or don’t remember, SS/PH is a Halo/Sims2 hybrid machinima, telling the story of a squad of female spartans.) There’s one more of these story-building segments, and then the full episodes begin! Go watch.

w00t – Mothergoat has released the WASP, a very cool flying vehicle for use in HaloCE maps. (If you’ve never seen it, visit this forum post, and download the movie therein – you’ll see it in action. For HaloCE Mapmakers, you can now include this vehicle in your own maps… for players, you just have to wait until someone DOES.

Swing over to Wired.com – they’ve got a preview up of an article that’ll come out in February’s issue. It’s about The Dream Factory, a Lego custom kit builder – and one of the kits on display was designed by Bungie’s Rob’t McLees – it’s a Warthog! Now we just need the Feb issue…

Yesterday, we pointed out a new video from insidi0us, called Maptacular. It received nearly universal approval on our forum (multiple threads – this is the first), and while I can’t tell you how much traffic the hosts in the MLG thread handled, I can tell you we served over 15,000 copies in the past 24 hours or so. (75% of those were the WMP9 version.) Today, Halo2Forum.com has jumped in with another WMP9 mirror – so if you HAVEN’T seen this movie yet, and you want to, you have another option for download. And you should definitely download.

This morning, a new trailer from CROSSFIRE (previously known for machinima such as ‘The Harvest’ and ‘Hell Quarters’) passed the MPRRS – Havoc is a new ‘experimental film’ on its way, and the trailer might show you a bit about what you can expect. Superb effects, great camera angles – I’m looking forward to the final product! The trailer is available in WMP9 format (18.5 mb) or QuickTime format (20.7 mb). Grab it!

Heh – Frankie pointed out a thread on the Bungie.net forums yesterday, in which a fan has suggested that next week (January 9-15) should be Elite Week; folks should switch over to the Elite model on Xbox Live for the week. Heck… we’ve certainly done SILLIER things…

netjak has reviewed Stubbs the Zombie – and mostly, they liked it. (G Allen, who pointed this review out to us, noted that a 6 from netjak signifies a pretty good game, and a 9 would be a game of the year – Stubbs pulled in a 7.7, which suggests both that they liked it, and that they have a sense of humor.) What was interesting to me was that the reviewer downgraded predominantly those portions of Stubbs that clearly came almost directly from its Halo roots – he felt they were ‘unoriginal’. Overall, though, a pretty positive review – check it out! (I was amused by the opening phrase – “Wideload’s most important title in recent months”… have they had any other titles in recent months?)

Yesterday’s Day to Day program on NPR looked at the future of video programming… and the first interviewee was Bryan Dann, a teenager from New Jersey (who posts on our forum as HunterXL). During the interview, Bryan brought the interviewer into his basement, and logged into XBL to play some Halo 2 to illustrate how he spends his video time. Fun! Go listen.