Two more notices about Stephen Cawood’s Halo 2 Hacks book popped up today – Game News says it’s ‘totally fresh’, and an official press release (with links to sample text and info about the author) can be found at gameindustry.biz. Check it out!

Fourteen new stories in the Fan Fiction section over the weekend. Go read!

devildeggs owns a set of Nightmare Armor, and is considering selling it. No prices yet… but it looks like he’s feeling out interest. Let him know if that’s you!

Over at IGN, there’s a pretty interesting article on the matchmaking system on Xbox Live that will be ushered in with the Xbox360. The current system in place for Halo 2 is used as a comparison throughout the article (from here on in, all games will use the same system, rather than leaving matchmaking up to the individual developers), and the article lays out how the new system might do better. It brings up an interesting point, though – will the new system work with the original Xbox? The article doesn’t say, one way or the other… but if it doesn’t, will there be TWO matchmaking systems in place for games like Halo 2? Thanks, 3Suns.

In what is easily the most dedicated attempt to get a movie out to the Halo Community, PajKajJL submitted his ‘Bulletspeed’ to the MPRRS this morning… for the 8th time. It took two and a half months, and 8 iterations, to get through the rating system with a passing grade… but the work was worth it – the final product, a machinima piece about a pair of anti-terrorist agents working to protect a city, is nicely polished. QuickTime (33.8 mb) or WMP9 (32.4 mb) format. Go get it!

MrHen pointed out today’s Unshelved, a webcomic about libraries – it takes a funny shot at videogamers (and Microsoft, I suppose). Go read!

Over on Stuntmutt’s blog, you can find a bunch of guest One One Se7en strips sent to him recently (including one he did himself, but decided was a bit too uncouth to include in the normal collection). He also pimps the Blow Me Away Charity Auction – especially his contribution. You’ll make him feel really good if you bid a lot for it.

Jillybean sent word that there was a ‘small’ Halo Story Page update. Dunno… looks pretty meaty to me! Go read.

Podtacular has released Episode 20, with custom gametypes and call-ins from fans. Go listen!

There’s a slightly unusual piece of dialogue from Cortana on Halo’s Truth & Reconciliation level; it comes at the end of the hangar bay (after the pair of Hunters). It has to be really quiet to hear it; it is in our transcript of the level, but jman571 just sent us an audio recording of the line, so for anyone ELSE who’s missed it, it’s now immortalized in our Dialogue Databank. Enjoy! (For those wondering about my title for this news post… it’s always struck me as odd that the Covenant would put such a ridiculously large encryption key on a random door… but leave their battlenet unsecured.)

While we’re doing site updates… I’d like to thank weephun, who donated the I Love Bees Commemorative DVD for the ‘Blow Me Away’ Charity Auction, for contacting the 4orty 2wo team that put the campaign together – he’s gotten them to agree to sign this DVD! If you win this item, you’ll not only be getting one of a very small number of DVDs… you’ll be getting the ONLY one signed by the crew that made it happen. Go bid! (In other auction news, with just under 7 days to go, total bids are up to $7700. A sign?)

At the moment, we have a total of 24 entries for our 343 Guilt O’ Lantern Pumpkin Carving Contest. (A few are simply spectacular – but there’s room for competition.) The deadline is still a day and a half away, so there’s plenty of time to get your entry in… but you don’t want to pass up the awesome stuff we’re giving away, do you? (A finalized prize list will be up later today – I really want to apologize for the delay.) Update: Prize list is up!

In early October, Elnea released ‘Blow Boys Away’, a girl-gamer anthem – er, parody. A couple of weeks later, QuackJAG created a HaloCE-based video that brought that song to life, visually. Now, ANOTHER video version has been released; Amanda and Sevenar, of Silver Stars/Purple Hearts, have whipped up a pretty slick Sims2/Halo2 meld that uses the character that Elnea voices as a lead singer, coupled with great footage (both band and gameplay) – this one should be seen. I found this in Elnea’s RvB journal, which has links to the hi-res WMP9 and low-res QuickTime that are being served by Amanda and Sevenar – if you’re not an RvB member, you won’t be able to see that anyway. To reduce strain on their server, I’m offering the hi-res WMP9 (17 mb), the low-res QT (8 mb), and a new hi-res QuickTime (16.6 mb) – grab the one that makes the most sense to you.

The Tied the Leader blog has recently been less about general Halo musings, and more about clan-related activities (or coverage of the Doom movie, which might be interesting to the Halo fan from an instructive “here’s what not to do” perspective), but there are still some entries of interest to the general Halo public. I enjoyed the analysis of similar player icons for clan members, and what this can mean for team coordination… and there are some great comments in the post asking for strategies for objective games on Coagulation. All in all, the writing in this blog continues to be top-notch – go give ’em a read!

Last night saw the release of the Weekly Update over at Bungie.net – Frankie dropped heavy-handed (and almost certainly misleading) clues about the pimpin’ nature of their next project, discussed the rediculous overload on Noguchi’s desk, and provided some encouraging words about the Halo 2 Soundtrack, Volume 2. There’s also info on a pair of new, upcoming playlists on Xbox Live (the Insane Team playlist seems like it would do okay pulling some of the wilder gametypes from the old HBO HaloPC servers…), and some subtle pimping of the Blow Me Away charity auction (that Frankie and his pimping…). And more. Go read. (And oh, yeah… Frankie was first.)

Bunch of new content over at MLGPro.com – you can find the second half of Dyslexia’s MLG LA writeup (great read), an interview with Team3D (great podium shot), and some more video on demand from MLG LA. Thanks, 3Suns.

We got word that DropShock, a new Halo podcast, just released episode 3. In their words, it has an M rating. (This means it’s loaded with sexual humor and ethnic jokes.) You might need to follow the Feedburner RSS feed to actually download the shows.

FI3ND and OGRE1 teamed up to bring you a ‘noob guide’ to up-close strategies – worth reading, no matter what your level! Check it out.

Hehe – there are three new commercial spots, running Sunday and Monday on the Sci-Fi Channel, for Stubbs the Zombie… but if you don’t want to wait, they’ve been put up in the Stubbs the Zombie website Gallery. Funny stuff!

Wow. The deadline for entries to our 343 Guilt O’ Lantern contest is coming up fast (just 3 and a half days left)… and we’ve got two brand-new prizes to toss on the pile! Both Steve Downes, voice of the Master Chief, and Tim Dadabo, voice of 343 Guilty Spark, have agreed to contribute the recording of a message on your answering machine (or your cell phone’s voicemail, or whatever you choose); the first place pumpkin will get their choice of actors, the second place pumpkin will get the other one. Wouldn’t you like the Master Chief telling your callers “I need a message.”? (The message itself is completely up to you. They’ll just bring it to life.) Tacked on top of an Xbox, and EB Games gift cards, and an I Love Bees DVD… if you’re not carving a pumpkin, you’re tossing away your chance at some awesome prizes.