Bunch of new content over at MLGPro.com…

• Policing Ignorance on XBL – ways to deal with annoying players
• Gamer’s Guide – How to survive Halo 2 without alienating your family or coworkers
• Interview with Xena – The best female Halo player out there, according to Dolbex

Get to reading!

In the seemingly never-ending quest to clear the various art queues here at HBO, I’ve posted another 29 desktop images in our Wallpaper section. There’s a pretty wide variety this time around… check ’em out!

Yesterday, we pointed out a thread on the forum where folks were drawing Halo-related Christmas cards at art.com. (There are some really cool ones – if you haven’t checked the thread for a while, go waste some time.) BOLL, as usual, wasn’t satisfied with the normal ‘draw something fun’ directions… and went a little overboard. (He explained how in this post.)

Hmm… Cody Miller posted that he collected all the skulls, in the order they appear on the Soundtrack… and nothing happened. First response to his post? Frankie, saying he was wrong. Ooh… (If this means nothing to you, visit High Impact Halo’s Skulls database, and read the background. And realize that Cody’s feat, by itself, is something pretty darned impressive.)

Have you wondered why Johnson has so few lines this time around? One One Se7en suggests that someone taught him to keep his mouth shut…

fastmatt pointed out a contest at Get Into the Game – if you’re 13 or over, and a US resident, you can win a life-size replica of the Master Chief. One entry per person, drawing happens in early January.

It took considerably longer than I’d expected, but the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank is now online, with over 200 snippets ready for download. (Thanks to Captain Spark, who has been collecting these over the past month, and who has made them available on his own website as he goes.) There are some pretty funny clips in there… go see what you can find!

That Weasel Television has posted Episode 13 (“DisGrunteled”) of “Grunts Are People Too!!!”, their ongoing series. 18.8 mb, WMP9 format. There are also mirrors of a dozen films released in the past week – go see what you can find!

sonik son points out that the Halo 2 RSS Excel Workbook (the one featured on dozens of disparate websites, the one that requires Excel 2003 Pro on a PC to work properly) has been updated. More pretty graphs, a bigger FAQ, a couple of install choices. Go look!

Thanks to c0ld, for the initial work, and BOLL, for the cleaned-up thumbnails, there are now 19 new panels available in the AutoMagic 117 StripzMaker. Unleash your creative brilliance on our forum!

Nice. Mackenzie noticed that if you drop the bomb when playing Bomb Assault, you can see one of several messages written across the bottom of it. BOLL was kind enough to snap pictures of four of these. Most of the rest of the thread is a debate about whether or not this constitutes an easter egg in Halo 2 or is just detail… I’m inclined to go with ‘egg’, simply because of the humor value of the messages. In any case, though, it’s pretty interesting. Take a look!

Wow, cool. Epyon pointed out a website where you can paint your own picture – and suggested making cool Halo 2-related Christmas cards. He even supplied one of his own. (The site, art.com, shows you the process of creation when you click the link… pretty fun to watch!) Add your own offerings in the thread! (A number of forumgoers have already done this, with everything from Hunters to Misterchief wishing folks Happy Holidays.)

Chronomaw writes to point out that Halogen, the C&C Generals total conversion, now has a couple of new renders of the textured Nuke silo – and that there will be a new Flash-based site launching in January.

Tina Leyk dropped off a new picture this morning – a Forerunner structure. Not her normal choice of subjects – but it’s pretty slick! I’ve taken the opportunity to top off her Doodles page, as well, with a few new images she’s posted elsewhere around the net (these days, mostly on the Halo Babies forum – pretty fertile ground there for art lovers!). Use the ‘Added’ dates to figure out what’s new.

Captain Spark has posted another 66 new dialogue snippets on his website. These will be up for a week or so (and hopefully, soon, up here, as well). Go grab ’em!

TheTaintedOne posted a true widescreen (16:9) video (WMP9 format) captured of a game of FFA Melee Ball (the rules are explained in the forum post). He explained how he created the film in this thread on the HaloTV forum. Takes some higher-end video-editing software… but the results are quite nice!

New content added to Xbox.com since the last roundup we did:

• Strategy: The Perfect Clan – How to set up a clan
• Web Integration – Making the most of the Bungie.net resources
• Map Strategy: Tight Spots – Coverage of small maps
• Map Strategy: Zanzibar – Coverage of (duh) Zanzibar
• Strategy: Ghost Riding – Best tricks on a ghost
• Secrets of the Covenant – Story overview from the Covenant side
• Tips and Tricks – General strategies
• The Big One – Overview of a major portion of the Halo story arc
• Big One Tips – Followup on The Big One
• A Peek at Halo 2’s Story – Teasers, mostly
• First Level Walkthrough – Cairo Station
• Scott Land: Weapons of Choice – Weapons overview
• This week in Xbox – 3, 2, 1, Launch! – OXM overview of XBL Halo 2 gameplay
• The 7th Column – Overview of Bungie’s group site
• GamerSpeak: My Halo 2 Launch Party – One group’s experience getting started
• Welcome to Earth – Walkthrough of Outskirts and Metropolis

It should go without saying, many of these contain spoilers. Whew. THAT should keep you busy for a while!

MrJukes put up a note on our forum recently – he’s put together a series of videos showing some pretty cool jumping tricks in most Halo 2 multiplayer maps. (He updated the collection this evening, with three more videos.) Places you might not have realized you could get to – with or without grenades. He’s pretty sure the bandwidth will hold out, but if it doesn’t, we’ll step in. Nice work, all around!

SciFi.com has reviewed Halo 2 – A+, they loved it. Thanks again, John Rivas.

There’s a new sweatshirt over at the Bungie Store – black, with the MC on the back, a Halo 2 on the breast, full zip. Keep warm in style! Thanks, John Rivas.