Wow, I’ve been really remiss at dealing with this; sorry. We started up a Clan HBO on Xbox Live a bit before Halo 2 was available… but I’ve had no time to think about actually getting the whole membership thing off the ground. Maybe this huge delay will actually work out; many of the people who MIGHT have been interested in being clan members have probably gone out and joined other clans now in disgust. In any case, it’s time; if you’re interested in being a member of the HBO clan, shoot an email to clanrequest@bungie.org and I’ll add you to the list. First come, first served, I guess; there are currently about 80 spots left. (Think of this as a mini-test; if you mail your request to a DIFFERENT email address, I’m going to assume you have trouble with simple reading comprehension, and I’m likely not going to bother adding you.) One thing to keep in mind; HBO has ALWAYS been about the fun of the game. If you’re looking for a hyper-competitive clan… this ain’t for you. I’m sure we’re gonna have some decent players, and win games, and all… but the idea is to have a place to go to find like-minded people you enjoy playing with – that’s always going to trump rank-h00ring for us. Update: Please – if you’re going to send a request, do me two favors: remember to include your gamertag… and spell it right. Thanks. Update 2: Gah, the requests are pouring in WAY faster than they can be accomodated. We’re currently at 100 members (the limit), though Bungie.net says 98, because two of the gamertags are having trouble. I’d love to accept everyone… but it won’t let me. 🙁 I haven’t even figured out how we’re going to organize matches – but maybe if we get something set up, we can build a second HBO team. (There were certainly enough people to fill a second 100-member clan…) Thanks, everyone – now get to playing!

New artwork at Halo Babies – a new fan strip and fan art from Sparkie (FANTASTIC style), plus new a new desktop and avatar. Go take a look!

Red vs Blue Episode 44 is now up over at RvB.com. I must say, I’m happy that Grif doesn’t have a career in Hollywood… thanks, The Beaz.

Hehe – if you’re going to try and manipulate game outcomes in Bungie’s Optimatch system, you should be careful who you’re playing before you start dropping. There are times when taking the loss would be preferable to making the wrong people angry. (Thanks, KP.)

SESpider has submitted episode 25 of Miniature Halo – and put in a request for a female model for the next section. The comic is in its normal place, and the recruitment request is here.

A few articles that have popped up in the last day or so:

• Computer and Video Games – review, 10/10, plus 83 smallish screenshots (thanks, 3Suns)
• Springfield (MO) News-Leader – Halo’s pretty good (I’m gonna stop posting links to these stories)
• South Bend (IN) Tribune – general interest Halo 2 story
• Carzorthade (net comic – Friday’s strip was Halo 2-related – thanks, Cameron Hassler)

The press seems to be slowing down a bit.

in what has to be a REALLY early April Fools joke, Xbox365 has put up an article about two youngsters (15 and 20) in the UK who allegedly turned the family’s car “into an alien tank similar to the one found in the chilling game [Halo]”, and then crashing it into the wall and dying. The mother of one of the boys is quoted as saying ‘why don’t the government step in and stop me from buying them for my children?’ For the record – none of the facts in the story are verifiable by any other internet source. There’s nothing in the Daily Mirror (the newspaper purported to be the source of this story), there’s nothing in any other news source about Stalybridge… the barrister mentioned in the article (Edmund Woolf) has no phone listing whatsoever in the UK (seems rather suspicious for a barrister), there’s no record of the ‘similar story’ youth (whose story of a Mario suit killing fellow students seems ridiculous beyond belief)… I suppose I’m posting this because I’d really hate to see this rumor gain any credence.

Yesterday was spent in the house of Miguel Chavez (along with more than a dozen other Halo fanatics), playing Halo 2. For this reason, I’m a little behind on Halo news. (Luckily, it was a slow news day anyway.) I’d have caught up by this point… but family obligations will keep me from here for another few hours; check back later today for more Halo goodness. (I’d also love to write up some of yesterday’s activities; there were some interesting things I learned. No promises, though, because I’m ALREADY way behind on stuff I’ve said I’d do.)

Gah – I totally forgot to grab this this morning, or post it. 🙁 clarksbrother interviewed Frankie yesterday on his local TV show (phone-in interview), and has made the audio available to the masses (almost 24 minutes, 8mb). Go grab it – then let him know what you think! I’m out for the rest of the day…

Writers were pretty busy this week – 33 new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section, posted in the last 4 days. Go read!

Joyride Studios has posted scans from the latest issue of ToyFare magazine, a story focused on the Joyride Halo action figures. Thanks to Littlebigman for the heads-up.

I missed this when it was first posted, but found it after reading another forum post (thanks, Alex!) – Mike Miller sat down and wrote out a pretty sizeable review of gameplay in Halo 2 on Legendary. There’s some really, really interesting info in this post. Tips on weapons combos, honest talk about what works, and what doesn’t, gameplay-wise, discussion of improvements (and degradations) of various visuals – this one is well-thought-out, well-written, and comes from someone with impeccable credentials (if the name Mike Miller doesn’t mean anything to you, search our movie database – or maybe our news database is better, since his most recent movies aren’t yet catalogued). Check this one out! (Some spoilers for folks who haven’t finished the game yet.)

WaLKa posted a Halo tribute vid on our forum, showing off some great Halo gameplay. The video is WMP9 format, 8 mb. I’ve posted a QuickTime version, as well, for thot want one (8.3 mb). Nice playing, coupled with nice timing…

Hawaiian Pig has posted what he says is the last collection of RvB set pieces – posed hi-res screenshots to match scenes from RvB movies. There are four new shots in this collection – really nicely done. We’re gonna miss these! Check ’em out.

Frankie’s second Weekly What’s Update got posted tonight… except it’s not Frankie, it’s Chris Butcher and Max Hoberman answering questions. They talk a lot about the matchmaking system, so if you have questions, go read it – they might have answers for you!

bentllama has updated his weblog with a couple of common-sense items – if you’re sending someone a Friends request on XBL, you might consider actually TALKING to them and telling them who you are and why you want to be their friend… and if you’re without a headset mic, should you REALLY be playing in team games? (Well, that second one might be a little harsh… but they’re both things to think about.) Just your friendly neighborhood pancake-lover, trying to make your Live experience less stressful!

Whoa. Remember that Flash/Coldfusion contest we mentioned yesterday? The deadline had been today… but it’s now extended two weeks, to December 3. One person taking advantage of the extra time is another Macromedia employee (not eligible for any prizes, but dang, I’m looking forward to the final product anyway) – Kevin Hoyt released a screenshot and a featurelist for Halo Reader 1.0, which looks AWESOME. Check it out! (Thanks, Mike.)

Great new interview with Burnie, of the Red vs Blue team up at Bungie.net right now. There’s info about how far they’ve come, what’s planned in the future, and, of course, discussion of how much better than Gus Burnie really is. There’s also a brand-new movie (WMP format only, unfortunately). Go give it a read, and a viewing! Thanks to A of T for the first heads-up.

Several people have pointed out to me that the fact that you could shoot grenades out of the air was posted in a Bungie Weekly Update. I went to our database and did a few searches – I tried ‘grenade’, and ‘shoot’, and ‘plasma’, but I couldn’t find it. I realized that our database was a bit out of date (at least a month, in fact) – so I brought it up to the present. (I didn’t include last week’s Weekly What’s Update – because that’s a new feature, and will eventally have its own section – though I did search through it manually.) I must say – even with the updated version, I cannot find this reference folks speak of. If anyone has better information about where to find this quote, I’d be happy to credit them here. Thanks! Update: Thanks to Archaos46, who pinned down where this reference came from. It was the interview that Gamespy did with Tyson Green on November 1; page 2 contains this quote:

[…]it is now possible (albeit extremely difficult) to snipe and detonate them midair, but they are pretty true to the original aside from that.

Glad to get that out of the way!

Nate Robinson pointed out an editorial cartoon he created for his university newspaper (The University of Washington Daily); I’m wondering if that’s Sep7imus’ door there… (Nah. He doesn’t teach at UW.) Love the priorities!