There’s a news post over at Bungie.net talking about an upcoming purge of the Stats database; if there are particular games you want to keep track of, you need to grab the info now, before it’s gone. More details can be found in the post.

There are a whole bunch of new solutions for displaying Bungie.net stats on your website currently in development… but most of them are either not out yet, or not for public use. Jay Roberts found a site that converts RSS to Javascript, allowing easy inclusion with very little effort. He put up an example including his own stats. If you can’t wait for the fancy stuff, give this a look – it’s easy, and it works!

Cavmn pointed out a Halo tourney being held at a chain of paintball centers in northern Massachusetts/southern New Hampshire. 1v1 this Saturday, December 4, with a $5 entry fee and a first prize valued at $500. Phone numbers can be found on the info page.

Randall Glass, a cornerstone of the Halo online community since his release of the Warthog Jump video in early 2002, has written a frank and honest review of Halo 2 – campaign, multiplayer, and the Limited Edition DVD. There are some really, really good points in there. (There are also some major spoilers; don’t read this until you’ve finished the game.) Thanks to Ducain for the tipoff.

Almost 2 years ago, Racing Champions Ertl (the parent company of Joyride Studios) announced that they’d be creating Halo action figures – and the first thought from Stuntmutt was ‘we need Halo-based Twisted Toyfare Theatre!’ (There’s a link in that post if you’ve never heard of this.) Sometimes these things take a little while. Toyfare released their first-ever Halo photo price guide recently… and included in it 3 ‘Big Shots’ – exactly what Stunt was asking for. One… two… three. Wheee!

Today’s One One Se7en points out the danger of humor in the wrong situation.

Gyser points out a new Little Gamers webcomic with Halo 2 content. Spoilers, I suppose. (Hardly, because the joke is pretty well-known at this point.)

The Cyber Gaming Network has reviewed Halo 2 – they gave it a 5/5 – though they’re still waiting for Halo 3. Thanks, Jarrett Lantz.

About a week ago, Justin Long sent us a link from Xbox.com – TriXie intereviewed crew116, a Microsoft-based Halo clan that did extensive beta-testing of Halo 2 multiplayer. We forgot to post it. The interview itself focuses on the guys in the clan, their likes and dislikes – but there’s also a Tips and Tricks summary from many of the members. Thanks to AgentMunroe for the reminder that we missed this.

the DJ points out that CAL (The CyberAthlete Amateur League) has picked up Halo 2, starting in January. There’s no news yet – but the Halo 2 Division exists. More details to come!

Interesting. One of the very first vids I saw in Halo 2 was someone exploiting the 6 plasma shields on Delta Halo for Tank Launching – park your tank on the shields, and if it’s well-placed, it flies nicely when the shields regenerate. There have been 2 or 3 vids circulating around the community, showing this trick – but a couple of guys found that submitting their vid to Slashdot drastically increases the audience. Two things happened; their bandwidth got toasted (no big deal, because some /. regular simply bittorrented the film, and you can grab it now thanks to hundreds of technophiles), and they got credit OUTSIDE the Halo community for this stunt. (There’s a third thing, too, I guess – they decreased the chances that a truly innovative film will even be MENTIONED by Slashdot. Bummer.) The vid they put out is DivX 5 format, 31 mb, almost 4 minutes long. After the first 30 seconds, you’ve seen it all.

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned Halo 2 Day on G4TechTV – a day devoted to Halo programming, coinciding with the release of the game. We forgot to go back and actually SUMMARIZE that content, after the fact – there’s quite a bit.

• Pretenders to the Halo Throne – games that didn’t quite measure up
• Masterpiece or Overhyped Fluff? – a look at the real meat of Halo 2
• Rick’s Picks – Soundtrack review
• Sweet Revenge – the band My Chemical Romance talks about Halo 2
• Bungie’s Braintrust – short interviews with Jaime Griesemer, Frank O’Connor, and Max Hoberman

In addition, there are a bunch of video offerings; the X-Play review in video format (spoilers), a movie called ‘Players Playing Halo’, a bit on Halo action figures, and the Red vs Blue commercials. (All of these are in Flash video format.) Lots o’ stuff!

About a year and a half ago, BOLL started creating panoramic views of Halo, using custom-built software and some video-captured footage. He’s back… with his first set of Halo 2 Panoramas. At this point, he’s using a modded controller to make his life easier, and he’s put together a nice little flash interface for viewing the panoramas. We’ll add more images as he submits them. (If you don’t have Javascript enabled, or Flash installed, you can simply click on the thumbnails to see full-sized versions of the images with no fancy interface.) Right now there are 4 multiplayer strips, and 6 single-player ones (from 3 levels). The Delta Halo strips are GORGEOUS!

Red Vs Blue has posted a couple of Sponsor-only videos; you can’t download them unless you’re a sponsor (though you CAN comment on them – beauty of the new website). You’ll find them linked off the Videos page. There’s the intro video to the Penny Arcade Expo last summer, and a test vid in which part of Episode 35 has been refilmed using the Halo 2 engine. Fun stuff! Ross Mills pointed this out.

Red Leader points out that the newest episode of his ‘The Life’ comic centers around Halo 2. Sometimes, it’s not how strong you are… it’s your staying power.

Normally, we keep Bungie-related news that’s not Halo-based on its own subsection of Bungie.org… but I’m not sure where Hamish is right now, so I don’t know when this news will make it onto the front page of the PiD section. Several days ago, Robin Osborne alerted us to Pathways Redux, a (then) upcoming mod for Doom 3 that reproduces Pathways into Darkness. By this time, it’s actually been released – it’s a 13 mb download. I haven’t seen it in action yet – I don’t have a copy of Doom 3 – but the readme suggests that the author, Brendon Chung, cared an awful lot about this project – so the chances are good that it’s pretty faithful to the original. (The two screenshots on the site are pretty impressive!) If you’ve got a copy of Doom 3, give this mod a try – see what 10-year-old Bungie programming can inspire!

There’ve been a few articles posted in the past few days that have been passed over due to time constraints – here’s a list:

• Waterloo Cedar Falls (IA) Courier – Halo is taking over college campuses
• The Tennessean – kids say Halo is disappointing, but they keep playing
• CNN.com (review) – Halo 2 gets almost everything right (no numerical score)
• Christ Centered Game Reviews – 90% (95% when not considering Christian audience appropriateness – thanks, Ross)

In addition, Rampancy.net has begun to publish Halo 2 impressions – somewhere between a review and a walkthrough, these discuss the game from the perspective of a long-time Bungie fan. The first three chapters are up now.

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews, over at the Junkyard, has started up the ‘Write a Poem for Bungie‘ contest – well, actually, it starts up on Monday. No Haiku, unfortunately… but pretty much everything else is fair game. Lots o’ schwag for prizes. Check it out!

Bah. I spent far too much of yesterday taking care of business – I missed the day’s One One Se7en. It was doubly relevant given the fact that Frankie skipped yesterday’s Weekly What’s Update because of the Thanksgiving weekend. Go read!