You know the holiday stuff is getting to you when you start missing stuff. Scooter, from Game Junkie, posted a note on our forum yesterday about an upcoming tourney at his store in West Chester, OH, on January 21. $100/team to get in (this goes up a couple of days before the event), minimum of $800 in cash and prizes. There’s a web page with more info.

What makes this week’s Halo Babies comic so funny is how appropriate it is… for both the BABIES… and for forumgoers everywhere. (What does that tell you about forumgoers?) Go read!

There were three images that had been included in Jilly’s fanfic last week that did NOT get included in the Misc Art update this morning – and that’s because Theo Prins has his own gallery page here at HBO. We’ve added those three images there – and the more I look at his work, the more I’m astounded by how much depth he can create with just a few strokes. If you haven’t seen these… look now.

As penance for letting the Wallpaper queue get so out of hand recently, I’ve cleared out the Miscellaneous Art queue, as well. You’ll find the images that were included in Jillybean’s Christmas Fan Fiction last week, as well as dozens of others – HrtBrkr, GT Gundam, Dillo, and Kristina Smith all have multiple entries, and there are a number of other impressive pieces. Go browse!

The Contra Costa Times put up a series of top 5 lists for teens for 2005 – and Halo 2 is the top choice on the ‘Top 5 Video Games’ list. Now that’s too legit to quit.

Word from Z, over at Halo2Forum.com, is that there are a couple of pretty snazzy vids to download over there. There’s a trailer for an upcoming vid being made by three of the top 5 finishers in the montage contest that just ended there – nice frenzied action. (24 mb.) And there’s Indica Haz3’s first montage, heavy on the effects, but nice kill choices. (126 mb) Go grab ’em!

It’s been about five months since we mentioned the Halogen project – a Halo total conversion for C&C Generals. Patrick Dalire sent us a note to go look – and I gotta say, it’s looking pretty impressive these days! You have to go through the news posts one at a time to see new renders and screenshots – but it’s worth it, there are some amazing ones. Here’s hoping they turn on the sections of the site that would let you browse through all the units in one place!

Gamasutra is running a feature where every day they post the top three games of 2005 from a different reader (most of which are members of the game development community). Today’s picks come from Large Animal Games’ Coray Seifert – and his number one choice was the Halo 2 Expansion Pack. (I found it interesting that his second choice was the GTA Hot Coffee minigame… but that’s neither here nor there). We’ll keep an eye on the feature, and if Halo shows up in other lists, we’ll let you know!

A couple of weeks ago, Bungie posted a story about Nicole, the Spartan in the upcoming DOA4. In it, some of her statistics were mentioned. Apparently, according to today’s One One Se7en… that got the interest of some specific people.

DOH! I missed the end of the contest – but better late than never, right? A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned a contest at Polymallet.com, home of Christ Hughes, who worked for Bungie and then Wideload. A couple of days ago, The Battle Cat, over at Wideloadgames dot org, announced that a winner had surfaced – and explained what was found, and what it meant. Congrats, Edward Duff! (While you’re there, follow the link in the second news post to the Stubbs the Zombie video holiday card at Animation Farm – it’s pretty funny!)

Okay, it’s true. I suck. I promised a month ago that the Wallpaper queue would be cleared out in a few days. I guess ‘later this week’ really means ‘a month from now’… because the queue is cleared, and there are 28 new entries in the Wallpaper section (39 if you count variants). Sorry about that – but go look now, cause there’s some good stuff in there!

Looks like there’s a team beginning to put a Halo mod together for Dawn of War – it’s called Halo: Retreat and Retaliation. Information and early pics can be found at Mod DB. Thanks, MuffinMan.

devildeggs has a fuill suit of Nightmare Armor that he no longer has room for, and is interesting in selling. He’s in the process of repainting it (high-quality automotive paint), but if you are interested in this, contact info (and photos) can be found in his forum post.

Dyslexia wrote up a powerful 2-page narrative covering the 550-person FFA that started off MLG Chicago – it makes me wish I had a computer that could access VoD, so that I could WATCH these matches. Give it a read… and if you’re on a Windows PC, sign up for VoD and see how they do it. Awesome stuff! Thanks once again to 3Suns.

Competing reviews… Eurogamer reviewed Stubbs The Zombie, and concluded that even though it uses the Halo engine (which they love), and the premise is strong, and the potential high… they just weren’t having fun playing it, and gave it a 4/10. On the other side of the coin, Gamegal.com decided it was awesome, and gave it a 9/10. They even put up a GameGal’s Real Girl Gift Guide for 2005… and all three staffers had Stubbs on their lists. So there you have it – Stubbs is either a blast… or a dud. Thanks to 3Suns for finding the info.

Hanchen Lu and 3Suns both pointed out a Halo 2-themed blanket at Josh Smith Online. Perfect for snuggling… or blowing people up!

Mintz points out that there’s quite a bit of new PSP-friendly content on Halo: Portable – and that this will be the last update of the year. Music, articles, videos, artwork, fanfic – it’s all there!

Stuntmutt takes a crack at Frankie in today’s One One Se7en. It might be missing a little off the top…

Over at Halo2Forum.com, you’ll find a couple of great gameplay vids – Exit Woundz playing TmG and Exit Wounds vs Legendz (plus Fonzi and Ms Hotshy). Snipers on Sanctuary (both of them)… great to see how pros use cover. The first vid is 92 mb, the second 134 – both are WMP9 format. Go watch!

DropShockRadio has posted their suicideXmas edition – in their words, ‘girls get added to the “List” and some Plasma Punchout know-how.’ Just under an hour, 27 mb – go grab a copy!