I missed this yesterday, but Bungie.net has news of a Fan Fiction contest being run by Bungie Fans Online and the Bungie.net Fanfic Group. Full details can be found in links leading off that news article – go read!

linus (among others) pointed out that Halo Zero has been released in its final form. A 2D sidescroller, using the sprites from Console Troopers, it’s getting decent reviews – if you’ve got a PC, grab a copy!

Looks like a 3-day Halo tourney will be happening in Palm Springs, CA starting tonight, in the Mary Pickford Theatre. Check out this article for more details. $5 to get in, no word on prizes.

Z pointed out another killer montage at Halo2forum.com – Reid18’s montage is full of stickies. (Some pretty nice sniping work, too.) WMP9 format, 178 mb.

Friday, we mentioned Podtacular 36 – since then, they’ve released Episode 37 (HZanzibar tips, among other subjects) and Episode 38 (listener-submitted gametypes, funny gamertags, and more). Busy guys! Go listen.

F13ND, over at Team3D.net, has interviewed Hotshy about becoming a pro Halo player. If you’re thinking about moving in this direction, you should read this!

Red vs Blue Episode 69, ‘Talk of the Town‘, went up for sponsors last night (which means the public versions should be up late tomorrow night or Wednesday) – go grab a copy if you’re a sponsor. Hilarious stuff… and I’m looking forward to some butt-whupping by Tex in the near future. Hmm… looks like it was mentioned on our forum by Phan7om this morning.

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.