Mechroneal points out that he, too, won a cool thingy at his local EB Games on Monday night. He says a writeup’s coming soon.

clarksbrother points out that the I Love Bees DVD torrent that has been mentioned in our news a couple of times (and which has moved at least once) now has official sanction from the folks who MADE the DVD:

We know that it was hard (if not impossible) for many of you to get to the live events where the DVDs were being handed out, and we’re doing our best to set up an alternate distribution mechanism.

In the meantime, it is absolutely fine to post and distribute the bit torrent versions of the DVD. We will try to post an official version on the site sometime soon.

In hindsight, I probably should have confirmed that BEFORE we posted links… but all’s well that ends well.

Is this gonna be a habit? (I hope not…) Daily article roundup:

Movies:
A bunch of people have already released vids for Halo 2 – we’ve held off until today posting them so people wouldn’t feel tempted too early.

• nukedude put together a multiplayer montage, with a couple of tiny bits from single player. Minor (really minor) spoilers. 32 mb, QuickTime, hosted by Gil27.
• HaloGT is hosting Halo GT Video #10 – glitches and cool stuff, some wild things to look at. (Spoilers galore.) In DivX format, 28.7 mb, or QuickTime format, 27.8 mb. The divX version is also mirrored on Syzygy1.com.
• Not really Halo 2 – but it’s the first time the public can see this. A long time ago, Bungie made a cool little surround sound test, using a nicely rendered grunt and a hunter. You could only see it if you knew someone. Now, anyone with a copy of the Limited Edition can see it – just go to the Set-up section. Thanks, KingScott.
• Frogblast is back. With a vengeance. Utfoo has been updated with tricks from nearly every single solo level in Halo 2. Vids, pics, the works. The guy doesn’t stop. Try not to kill his server. (I’m gonna see what we can do about setting up a mirror, just in case.)
• A number of people have found skulls on Campaign levels. At least TWO of these removes your HUD altogether. (In fact, I suspect that’s what they’re there for – making Halo movies will be a LOT easier with no HUD right off the bat. 🙂 ) MarkHawk pointed out a movie in this forum thread – we’ve had a few more submitted, and will do our best to get them posted.
• Fileplanet is hosting a ‘man-on-the-street’ vid talking to people waiting outside an EB Games. 38.9 mb, WMP9 format. (Thanks, Ross.)

Halo-related Webcomics:

• Applegeeks (thanks, Crassworm)
• Crtl+Alt+Del (thanks, Black Six)

Recent Reviews:

• Xblnext.com – 10/10
• ContraCostaTimes.com – A-
• The Triangle (Drexel U.) – no numerical score, but they liked it.
• The Olympian (Olympia, WA) – 5/5

Articles

• IGN and its readers celebrate Halo (thanks, John Rivas)
• IGN covers difficulty levels (thanks, John Rivas)
• [80 million stories on how much money Halo made its first day – deleted]
• Yahoo Finance – Halo Strategy Guide sells 270,000 copies in one day – becomes one of the fastest-selling new books of the decade
• eChannelLine – Halo 2 leaves Hollywood in the dust
• All Things Considered (NPR) – audio coverage of Halo 2; listener complaint that original mention suggests only men play Halo 2
• News.com – more on the use of Halo 2 to fight Xbox hackers

Wonga.

Well… the HBO forum, after 4 weeks of downtime, is now back online. Didn’t take long for regulars to notice (2 minutes, it looks like) – I’m not sure what that means for my day. For everyone’s sanity – story discussion is permitted, but PLEASE – be considerate, and mark posts with an *SP* tag if you’re going to post spoilers? Thanks. Welcome back, everyone!

Apologies. The plan was to reopen the HBO forum this evening – but I can’t be around to supervise it, and I’m a little afraid of the starting explosion. We’re going to hold off until tomorrow morning (Eastern time). You should spend the interim period playing Halo 2, soldier!

Blackstar sent along a Calvin and Halo that probably resonates with a goodly number of you…

MovieMaker5087 went to a Halo 2 event at his local Circuit City – and won a pretty cool raffle prize. As he pointed out, one of these went on eBay recently for over $2000…

Hehe – went to read the MS press release on GameInfoWire this morning… and was pretty amused by the advertising choices. Realize that all the black text (headline included) is part of the actual press release – GameInfoWire inserted a text ad in the middle (the red text near the top – ‘Shop for…’). Bizarre choice, or brilliant marketing?

LBM points out that Joyride has updated their website with a finished picture of the Drone action figure. Should be available in January.

A bunch of people pointed out a new Halo 2 video in Flash format over at Newgrounds – looks like Spartan39 was first. It’s all of Halo – as we hope it wasn’t for you.

Article roundup – again. I’m leaving out the huge number of stories about how Halo grossed $125M its first day, because, heck, we put up the press release already.

Reviews

• Canada.com – 4/4
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer – 3.5/4
• Richmond Times-Dispatch – 4/?
• Halo Source – 89/100
• Computer and Video Games – no number score (thanks, 3Suns)

Articles

• Dallas-Fort Worth Star Telegram: Halo 2’s good, but not worth the hype
• TechNewsWorld: Halo 2 is popular
• Mlive.com – Halo 2 is selling fast
• Motley Fool: Halo 2 is popular
• Hartford Courant: release coverage (thanks, KP)
• Kotaku: MS is banning users with modded boxes
• Business Gazette: release coverage
• Springfield (MO) News-Leader: release coverage
• Daily Princetonian: Halo 2 is bad for grades
• Eurogamer: Halo’s out in Europe
• TeamXbox: MS makes big ad deal in Europe (thanks, MiD33)

Overall summary: Halo 2 is pretty popular!

We got a note from William Vitka – who’s started a new column about gaming at CBSNews.com. His choice for topic for his first column? Guess. Feel the love. Gamers are on the move! [Note – CBSNews.com seems to have moved this article – the original URL points to a piece on LEGO Star Wars. You can find the original Halo piece here. -lwu]

ARGN.com (the website that hosts Unfiction, the forum where most of the interesting discussion about the ILoveBees phenomenon took place) has an article about a phone-in chat with the ILoveBees actors this coming Saturday, at noon pacific time. The access number is 1-404-920-6610, the code you need to punch in to join the conference is 516230#. (Don’t call now – do this Saturday morning.) Thanks to David Byrd for the heads-up.

Whoa. New article at Bungie.net – the Halo Humpday Challenge. Simply put, Bungie is taking on one group per week in a 3-game, knockdown, dragout fight, winner walks away with bragging rights. First on the chopping block – IGN.com. They… well, go read. Who’s it gonna be next week? You’ll have to wait and see!

Yesterday, Peter Moore blithely predicted that Halo 2 would have a $100 million day. He was wrong. They sold 2.4 million units in 24 hours, racking up $125 million. Moore is now estimating that it was the biggest launch of any entertainment product in retail history. You can read the official press release for more details. (Fluff, yes… but pretty danged impressive fluff.)

mnemesis has resurrected the Acronym issue, now that Halo 2 has been released. If you don’t know what this means, read his article at our sister site Bungie Sightings. If you DO know what this means, read it as well… and add your comments. We need brains! (Mmmm… brains… oh, wait, that’s Wideload. Never mind.)

In the downtime yesterday, Red vs Blue released Episode 42 (30-50 mb or so), which was odd… and today, they’ve released Episode 43, which is HUGE (90-100 mb, depending on flavor, for more than 10 minutes of video), which incorporates both the Halo 2 engine… and the product of mind-altering drugs. (I’m not sure what ELSE would explain it.) It’s pretty funny… but man, it’s weird. (The ending is brilliant, though.) Go grab ’em both.

The Bungie Store has even more new stuff for you to covet. Now, the hotly-anticipated Art of Halo Coffee Table Book has been added, along with a few notepads. Go! Buy! Read! Write! Update: fullbore points out that anybody interested in getting an autographed/personalized copy of this book can buy one through Olympic Cards and Comics, which is owned and operated by Eric Trautmann’s wife (Eric, of course, being the author of the book). fullbore said that she’s happy to hook up any fans with a copy of the book if they can’t make it in to the in-store tourney/book signing happening this Saturday. (He’s just a satisfied customer, and has nothing to gain from this info.) This is just an option – you’re free to buy anywhere you want (as long as you buy SOMEWHERE, of course.)

Robert Valdes, who recently interviewed Pete Parsons for the website How Stuff Works, has written up his experience in the Bungie offices. Nice read. Thanks, Rip-Saw.

Couple of new articles for you – a nice writeup in the Washington Post (it had five paragraphs on the front page of the paper, plus an entire page in the middle section – web version requires (free) registration) – except for labeling Joe Staten as the ‘leader of Bungie Studios’ (I’m not sure Joe would agree with that, though you never know), it does a nice job of describing the shift in perceptions towards video games in recent years, and the role Halo 2 will play in that shift. (Thanks, Wintermute.) And the winner of the ‘lamest bentllama quote evar!’ (bentllama’s very own evaluation) goes to the last line of this CBC News article. Well, you can’t be cool all the time.