Stephen Loftus has once again delved into the universe Bungie created, and put together a substantial quantity of information about the Covenant Battle Cruiser (the Truth and Reconciliation is an example of this class of vessel). It’s a pretty fascinating read – but be warned, the page contains almost 300k of graphics (mostly in the form of thumbnails). Some of the pictures are amazing. Go read! (If you’re new to Mr. Loftus’ work, and you find this interesting, be sure to check out his other projects!)

Heh. Today’s UserFriendly comic tweaks Microsoft’s CEO in relation to the upcoming Halo movie. Thanks, SteelGaribaldi.

Z pointed out a new montage at Halo2Forum.com – gameplay is by MADDOG, editying by Crypty. Pretty impressive stuff on both fronts. Definitely worth a watch, if you’ve got a fat pipe (vid is 150 mb, almost 7 minutes long). WMP9 format, and pretty high bitrate, so you’ll need a reasonably fast computer to watch it.

Dustin Kaufman found another Halo-related MySpace – this time it’s Cortana. Seems like EVERYONE’S doing it…

Stuntmutt has collected a bunch of recent Guest One One Se7en strips and posted them on his blog. You can decide whether this sort of thing gets better or worse as you get farther from the source. (There’s also a nice little writeup about the strip he donated to the Blow Me Away charity auction – good stuff!) Go on and groan!

imSuck put together a commercial spoof based on the Anti-Drug series that you can see in the US. CTF: My Anti-Drug offers an alternative to drugs that most of us can relate to. The MPRRS liked it quite a lot, and it’s short and sweet – grab a copy! WMP9 format is 8.1 mb, QuickTime format is 7.1 mb.

7Pandas has put up episode 0.2 of their Silver Stars/Purple Hearts series (they’re still in the ‘pre-story mode’) – this one, again, is primarily Sims-driven, but there is a bit of Halo content (and the story is very definitely set in the Halo universe). Very nice production work, and an interesting storyline – go watch! They’re hosting a 44-mb WMP9 version of the episode (as well as a low-res WMP9, 11.1 mb, on their downloads page); we’re mirroring the high-res, in case their bandwidth runs low, and we’re offering a hi-res QuickTime version, as well (41.1 mb). I’m looking forward to the next episode already!

Bungie’s Weekly Update went up an hour or so ago, and Frankie, predictably, was first with the news. Minor comments on recent Halo movie news, welcome news that SketchFactor is a DADDY, reactions to the playlist updates, mention of a nasty little bug in the recent emulator update on Xbox Live (more info can be found at Gamespot, Gamasutra, and Voodoo Extreme, among other places), some staff shifts (we’ll miss you, Ninja on Fire! and welcome back, Shishka!), and the silliest Mister Chief in quite some time. Go read.

Mintz dropped us a note that Halo:Portable has a boatload of new content again this week – if you’ve got a PSP, go grab your stuff! MLG articles, music, Podtacular summaries – there should be plenty of stuff to keep your daily commute to school/work from getting boring.

That poor 360 – it’s the butt of EVERYBODY’S jokes today. Even One One Se7en takes a shot.

Go visit Halo Babies today – you’ll finally understand why there’s a shortage of Xbox 360s to buy!

Ten new pieces in the Fan Fiction section today – have you read you Halo allotment yet?

Empire, a British movie site, talked to Guillermo Del Toro a couple of days ago about his upcoming plans. Sounds like Hellboy 2 is definitely his first choice for next project, with Halo not TOO far behind… but if push comes to shove, he’d pick Hellboy over the Covies. Bottom line – there’s STILL no definitive news about a director for the Halo movie. Thanks to Mike Smith for the heads-up.

Finn’s taken a break from his insane academic schedule (I’d have blown a fuse months ago) to clear out some of the choicer nuggets in the Halo Story Page mailbag. Intriguing stuff – check it out!

Over at Geezer Gamers, there’s an article describing the Pentathlon, a 5-game (duh) tournament “where you don’t really care who wins, but you’re just a better person for just having played in it.” Sounds like a blast! Go read.

Heh. In the midst of a thread that wondered whether Team Ninja had gotten access to either the Halo movie script or a script for Halo 3, Frankie managed to both shut down speculation about what a particular passage meant (the material Team Ninja worked with to put Nicole together was created specifically for them by Bungie) and announce a new Halo Humpday Challenge writeup on Bungie.net (Bungie won, for the first time in a long time). Not too shabby! Read the thread, read the writeup. Feed the people. Stay alive.

Andrew, from XboxOttawa, has released another Halo-based Flash game – this one is called Madda Cheeb’s Retro Hop’n’Bop Challenge, and your job is to keep the flood from thawing! It’s a cross between Mario and Halo, and it’s pretty fun. If you’re playing it on a Mac, be sure to use Firefox – it’s painfully slow on anything else. (Works fine on Windows.) Good stuff!

Qbakies looks at some of the possible silver linings that might come with the cloud of fewer players on Halo 2’s XBL multiplay. Personally, I haven’t seen a drop yet, but he’s right – it’ll come eventually. He let us know on the forum.

Gamespy’s Gamer’s Choice voting for Xbox Game of the Year 2005 is up… and the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack is in the running. Heh. Go vote! Thanks, Halo Planet.

Over at MLGPro.com, there’s a great photo-essay of the Eastern Conference Championship – telling the story of the weekend in pictures (and words). Good stuff! Thanks to Eastern Bureau Chief 3Suns for heads-up.