Eep, almost missed this. IGN’s got an article up about Dead or Alive 4, and the second page includes a mini-interview with Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki about the inclusion of Halo material in the game. No new screens, as far as I can tell (that haven’t already been released on other sites). Thanks, Wolfy.

Captain Spark has come out of self-imposed dialogue recording retirement to serve up another 11 snippets to the Halo community. These are pretty darn funny. You can grab them from his website, or browse them in our Dialogue Databank.

Podtacular Episode 34 is up – n00b tips, general tips, tips for Foundation (the map of the week) – these are just the tip of the iceberg. (Sorry.) 22.8 mb, 33 minutes. Visit Podtacular.com for more details.

The latest Halo Babies introduces new characters… and definitely moves away from the ‘Babies’ part. Still… it’s pretty funny! Go read.

Heh. Both EvilAvatar (thanks, Target4Hire) and Gamespot (thanks, T3muJin) have picked up on the wording of Bungie’s latest job listing. Could Bungie REALLY be making Pimps At Sea, using the Halo 2 engine? Your guess is as good as mine.

Daniel wrote to let us know that SETI@home, the organization that uses member computers around the world to help analyze radio telescope data in an attempt to find extraterrestrial computers, will be shifting to a completely new infrastructure in 2 weeks, and current groups will have their totals locked. From 1999 through 2002, the Halo SETI Marines participated in the program, looking for signs of the Covenant – and in fact are STILL looking, though we here at HBO no longer follow the search. However, come December 15, the workunit totals will be frozen. It’s been a good run, Marines… thank you for your service.

A few days ago, Dustin Kaufman sent us a link to a movie at break.com, showing an Xbox360 commercial that never got released. It’s not really Halo-related (though you CAN say it’s FPS-related)… and break.com seems to be having some trouble with bandwidth issues, but it’s available on YouTube now, as well. Thanks to Pinkuh, who pointed out this Inside Microsoft blog entry.

Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, has gotten his hands on the script reviewed by El Mayimbe last month – and asserts that it’s credible. Interesting read!

Some great content over at Team3D – an interview with the OGREs about WCG Singapore (where they won $20k) and MLG Atlanta (where they split $6500 with the other two members of their 4-man team, and OGRE2 took another $1200 home in FFA championship money)… and reflections on Atlanta directly from the OGREs themselves. Go read! Thanks, F13ND.

Back in November, we mentioned an article in the South Dakota State University Collegian in which a female student complained that Halo was sucking up time rightly spent with girlfriends. A couple of weeks later, we mentioned a rebuttal, by Lady Rziha. Yesterday, the Collegian posted yet ANOTHER followup, again from a woman, condemning not the attitude of the gamers who responded the first time, but the responses themselves. “In the time it took each person to write a letter about the game, he or she could have donated cans to the food pantry, picked up trash outside of their house, or have been a mentor to a small child.” I gotta wonder… what could Sara have done in the time it took her to write this tirade? Next up – angry words from video game characters themselves, annoyed that people are manipulating them to make social points. It’s a game, folks.

Over on Bungie.net, there’s word of an art contest being sponsored by Bungie Fans Online – it’s Bungie-related, so it’s not necessarily ONLY Halo, though I’d be surprised if the majority of submissions weren’t about Halo. Prizes are ‘some Bungie stuff’ (not sure what that means, but that’s what the note says), and submissions are due by January 7, so you’ve got just over a month. Rules and details are in the b.net post. Thanks goes to Wild Bud on our forum for the heads-up.

Stuntmutt makes it clear in today’s One One Se7en that if you’re going to be punny, be sure you know your audience.

Seven new pieces in the Fan Fiction section today. Too late for lunchtime reading… unless you’re on the US west coast.

Hehe – Jim Shorts pointed out some photos showing a bunch of guys (presumably waiting to buy 360s last week) playing Halo 2 on the side of a Best Buy. Now THAT might make the time go faster!

Over in the UK, it looks like Halo 2 has been released as an ‘Xbox Classic’ (similar to the US ‘Platinum’ category?), and is selling for £16.99 (just under $30 US). That’s better than the US Amazon price of $33.95… though it wouldn’t pay to order from the UK, for a few reasons; it’s PAL, for one, so it won’t play in the standard NTSC Xbox, and the shipping would easily swamp your savings anyway. For UK Halo players, though, it’s a great deal! Thanks, Ross Mills. Update: Thanks to 3of9, who pointed out that here in the US, you can buy Halo 2 from Wal-Mart for just $17.82. Beat that, ya brits!

GameDaily has a My Turn column (written by Chance Thomas, a composer who’s worked on games like King Kong, X-Men, and Lord of the Rings), discussing how the videogame soundtrack is an underexploited market. Halo is held up as a shining example – go Marty!

UNSCDF has put up a legendary walkthrough of The Arbiter – it’s the fourth level they’ve posted. Check it out!

Word from Cybrfrk is that we’re getting short of movie reviewers for the MPRRS. He just added everyone in the queue, and pulled all those who weren’t actually submitting reviews… and the end result was a shortage of bodies. If you’re interested in participating, please fill out an application! (Remember, before you do, that the job tends to wear down even the most enthusiastic of watchers; a LOT of movies come through the system, and most of them require work. If you sign up, you’re agreeing to help the moviemakers improve their products by supplying them with constructive feedback… and to help the HBO staff by filtering the incoming movies to a more manageable volume.) Thanks in advance!

Nexus Beat sends word of a new tournament site – they’re starting with Halo and Halo 2, but they’ll be adding others down the road. Wasabi 360 has already gotten going with a 2v2 MLG-style tourney that’s pretty close to capacity – go check it out!

Over at Podtacular.com, you’ll find Episode 33 – where the talk ranges from 360 madness to halo 2 on the 360 to the latest news from the Halo community. 19.3 mb, 21 minutes. Go listen! Thanks, Foo Mo Jive.