Interesting article over at BusinessWeekOnline… a look at Bungie as a success story, and the role that Halo 2 has played in that. With the exception of Marty O’Donnell, all quotes from the inside come from FORMER employees… pretty odd, until you realize it’s a look at where they came from. Go read! (Thanks, Marty.)

DLX (Gamespot’s download site) gave out awards for the Best Trailer of 2004 – Halo 2 was nominated, but Grand Theft Auto beat it out. Thanks, TricKy. Update: Halo 2 (well, the Plantronics Halo 2 headset, anyway) was also up for a pair of awards in the Gamespot Hardware Awards… but lost those, too. Thanks again, TricKy.

Red Leader points out that Afterwar 9 has been posted… Master Chief bests a Hunter, and a Grunt is about to be surprised.

Wolfy, from Sector 7, has posted a direct download of the Spike TV Ultimate Gamer feature – and just so they don’t get too swamped, here’s a local mirror of it, as well. The BitTorrent seed is still running strong, but if you want a direct download, this should help. (If you’d rather have a WMP version, wait a little bit before you download.)

Just 7 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today – easy reading!

Rampancy.net has updated their Halo 2 Impressions section with a piece on Metropolis. The highs, the lows, the ‘why did they do that?’s. Go read.

Stuntmutt continues his look at Halo 2’s regression into the console world of yesteryear in today’s One One Se7en.

Another update at the Halogen site recently – textured renders, and a downloadable beta of a pretty familiar map for Generals: Zero Hour. Thanks, NiceMissMayonnaise.

TalkXbox has posted their Game of the Year awards – and Halo 2 cleaned up. Best Graphics, Best Sound, Best Multiplayer/XBL Title, Game Studio, Character, Game We’re Still Playing in 2005, Game of the Year, and runner-up in the Action Title. Thanks, 3Suns.

Back in early November, Spike TV hosted an episode of Ultimate Gamer based on Halo 2 – it’s basically a makeover show, with the focus on gaming. (We posted a few notes at the time.) nukedude recorded the whole show – but we couldn’t put up a copy until Spike stopped airing the episode. As far as I can tell, they’ve done that now – so we’re putting up a copy. It’s available via BitTorrent right now – later today or tomorrow I’ll make a direct download available for those who can’t use BitTorrent. It’s 19:44 long, and 77 mb large, in QuickTime format.

The Cutscene Library has been updated again – a bit later than intended, sorry. A Whisper in the Storm is a pretty dark scene – and as such, was tricky to convert to a watchable level. We did the best we could. (Special thanks to BOLL on this one.) Again, it’s available in 4 flavors – grab the one that suits your needs (and your bandwidth) best!

Wizard is conducting their 2004 Wizard Fan Awards – the ‘best in the comics world’. Halo is up for Favorite Action Figure Line and Favorite Video Game. Thanks to Sean Cunningham for the heads-up (and for the reminder that you don’t have to vote for all categories if you don’t want to).

Details on the Halo 2 Nationals Tournament from Xtournaments have been finalized. The games begin on February 12, 2005, in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. (It will continue through the rest of the US later.) Again – there’s more than $15,000 on the line. Go check out their website for more details.

Sunday’s Sheldon comic had a Halo 2 mention… thanks, Cold Bones.

TeamXbox has posted their Game of the Year awards for 2004… and Halo walked away with Best First-Person Shooter, Best Xbox Live Game, Best Sound, and Best Xbox Game of 2004. (The Xbox Live Halo 2 Headset also took Best Hardware/Peripheral.) Go see what else is there! Thanks, KenshinHimora000.

That BOLL… he won’t stop. We added 25 new images to the HALOrama collection of Halo 2 panoramic shots – but then he sent us another set. Since the section got featured on Xbox.com’s Community page yesterday, as well, I figured it might be worth actually posting the new ones – so go take a look!

That Weasel writes to say that Episode 16 of “Grunts Are People Too!!!” has been posted at That Weasel Television. (The QuickTime link points to Episode 15 – but if you change it manually, you can grab 16.) Poor grunty…

Six-year-olds don’t always think everything through when they’re panicking. Sometimes, though, they’re sharp as a tack. Today’s Calvin and Halo shows that pretty clearly.

Thanks to 3Suns, who pointed out that there are now two more strategy guides up at TalkXbox – Coagulation Classic CTF (Week 6) and Lockout Three Plots (Week 7). Go read ’em!