Out of the office, and on the loose.

Once again, due to circumstances beyond our control (this time, it’s because I’m in San Francisco and my internet access is spotty), we missed the Weekly Halo Bulletin – and we’re sorry! (It’s a pretty interesting read, so we’re even more sorry.) Swing by and catch up on the Halo 4 Spartan Bowl, eValentines, and this weekend’s Gamers For Giving tournament! (You can, as always, read it in our Halo Bulletin Archive, if you choose.) (Louis Wu 18:44:54 UTC)

Kal Belgarion announced that signups are now open for the American Grifball League of America – add your name if you’d like to play!(Louis Wu 18:19:16 UTC)

NOKYARD sent word that High Speed Halo is changing its focus – they will now be covering the behind-the-scenes world of the speedrunning community. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:17:34 UTC)

Robowski let us know that the latest Post Game Carnage Report podcast is live… and the first week’s Halotryhardathalon 2 results are online. A cornucopia of pleasures!(Louis Wu 18:15:24 UTC)

Over at The Koalition, The Co-op has devoted a chunk of their 69th podcast to the question of whether or not we’ll see Halo 2: Anniversary on Xbox One. It’s definitely an interesting question!(Louis Wu 22:05:05 UTC)

Nice – UnderTheFear and his friend used Halo 4’s Prologue (Halsey’s interrogation) as their acting class final exam. Great choice! Thanks to Halo Waypoint for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 18:17:52 UTC)

Apparently, Gametrailers has created something they call the ‘GDEX‘ – it’s a social media index of games and gaming platforms. Because of the rumors swirling around the idea of a Halo 2 Anniversary edition, the Xbox One Halo title has jumped from #29 to #9 on the GDEX – biggest jump of any game this week. Interesting!(Louis Wu 22:40:41 UTC)

A common technique employed by folks who are running Halo with All Skulls On is to take advantage of ‘skips’ – areas where you can use routes not anticipated by the developers to keep enemies from spawning, and thereby decrease the number of things shooting at you. Sometimes, though, skips aren’t worth the trouble. The Tyrant’s latest Halo 4 WTF video is a great example of this. Not only does performing the skip take him forever and a day… when he DOES succeed, he succeeds too well! He gets rid of so many enemies, he can’t advance! So he goes back to trigger the final bad guys… and ends up triggering EVERYTHING. Ouch.(Louis Wu 22:08:43 UTC)

Intriguing – 343 has entered into a new publishing deal, this time with Gallery Books (a division of Simon and Schuster). Swing by Halo Waypoint to read the press release! Thanks, thebruce0.(Louis Wu 21:58:20 UTC)

Flügel Meister sent us word that his blog, The Secrets Within, is overhauling its content – if you swing by, you’ll see a list of new features that should be coming online soon. Encouraging!(Louis Wu 20:53:46 UTC)

Rockslider was putting together footage for his recent AotCR runs, and realized he had an opportunity for a bit of collaboration. Him and a Wraith, against a poor little Hunter! Go see how it turned out.(Louis Wu 20:09:50 UTC)

slYnki’s back, with a new Halo 1 launch (bottom of AotCR to the top, maybe the highest jump ever filmed). Awesome!(Louis Wu 20:07:30 UTC)

So we sort of skipped the whole ‘potential insider shows up on NeoGAF and leaks Microsoft’s next year’s worth of announcements’ thing a few days ago, mostly because it was more trouble than it was worth to figure out if anything was actually confirmable… but it’s pretty funny that a Spanish video game seller actually put up a page for one of the leaked items. Halo 2 Anniversary, which has not been announced by anyone officially, can now be preordered from XtraLife. (The artwork they chose for the cover is fan-created, and includes a gun which didn’t even appear in Halo 2.) Thanks, GameRevolution (who snagged a screenshot, in case XtraLife’s page disappears). Wow – talk about proactive!(Louis Wu 20:04:33 UTC)

The long anticipated wait for Brent is over as he is back in the co-host seat where be belongs thanks to one of our listeners, Godzilla Todd. We had him on the show for episode 405 and we appreciate his contribution to the show. Hive him a shout out on Twitter; he deserves it. To welcome back Brent to the podcast, the rumor mill gives us info that hints at the possibility of a Halo 2 Anniversary coming out this year delaying Halo 5 until next year. Again, these are just rumors and should be treated as such until official confirmation has been given. This weekend, 343 is hosting it’s Halo Bowl, a spin off of the Turkey Bowl done back in November last year where the team colors have been changed to reflect this year’s Super Bowl teams. Monday we see the return of Team SWAT followed by the highly anticipated Heavies playlist two weeks from then. More details about matchmaking updates and a Franchise Writer position available at 343 Industries is available in this week’s Halo Bulletin.

Jack and Geoff sometimes stay on topic in the latest Fails of the Weak (AH.com | YouTube) – the final fail, with an amazing “kill everyone on my team while leaving the opponents unscathed” shot, is definitely watchable. Thanks, Nikko B201.(Louis Wu 21:06:12 UTC)

Whoa. Mark Kelso built a LEGO replica of the Spirit of Fire, with reference help from one of its designers, that comes out to 7 feet long (by almost two and a half feet tall by more than a foot and a half wide). It took him FOUR YEARS to build (mostly because life kept getting in the way). It’s pretty amazing. Black Six pointed out the Brothers Brick page he found it at.(Louis Wu 19:47:16 UTC)

Reinforcements enter the fray.