Two great interviews at HomeLAN Fed today – Pete Parsons discusses what makes Halo 2 great, and Rikki Khanna, of AKQA (the folks behind the new halo2.com website) talks about what went into making the site (and its unique language). Thanks, John Callaham.

Hehe – Bomber of doom found a nice little egg on the Halo2.com site. It was noticed a few days ago that if, after viewing the console and contents, you closed down the holo link (pressed the purple button below the screen), you’d see a pair of covenant craft take down a human battlestation. When it first appeared on the site, it was marred by the absence of the Earth graphic in the background (once the battle started, the earth went solid white). That’s been fixed, and you can watch the station be destroyed, and then burn up in the atmosphere. If you click the top covenant craft after the destruction, though, before the pieces hit the atmosphere, you hear Joe Staten taunting… well, humans, in this case, I guess. (Turning the console on and off again at this point will produce one more small animation – that of a Pelican burning up in the atmosphere.) Lots of nice work there!

Halo 2 continues to wow the world press – Finland’s Pelit gave it a 96/100 (two points more than they awarded the original). Thanks, Scanner Darkly.

KNIGHTOFDRAGONS was first among a dozen to point out the new Halo 2 Luggage Tag as well as the Halo 2 Backpack recently added to the Bungie Store. The pocket-emptying never ends!

The Junkyard continues their series of level analyses from a military perspective, with Part VIII – Two Betrayals. As always, an interesting read. Thanks, Mhaddy.

Absolute0 pointed out a competition on Xbox-Exodus – create material that can be hosted on the site, you’re entered to win strategy guides, t-shirts, or DVDs. Details are on the page

Two new Halo articles at Gamespy today – the first is an interview with Lead Designer Jaim Griesemer about Halo 2’s vehicles (lots of tasty info, though he dodges the ‘spoiler-like’ questions), and the second is a talk with Tyson Green (aka Ferrex) about Halo 2’s weapons (again, plenty of useful info about stuff you’ve heard of, with a studied lack of spoilers). Go read ’em both! focused7 beat everyone, including Gamespy’s editor, in letting us know about these.

A couple of days ago, Spideroptics pointed out that prices for Halo 2 in the UK are rising – a month ago, the norm was £29.99, now £31.99 is more common, and there’s even a company that’s selling it for £44.99 – cheek! (Many of these companies have raised their prices in the past week or so.) Is this just profiteering… or is this related to the alleged price-fixing in the Netherlands?

Wow… this must be a big deal to someone… I’ve gotten mail from Microsoft’s PR firm AND from Bungie employees about this, AND it’s on Bungie.net’s front page. Gamespy is running a new Grudge Match – Which are you more excited about, Halo 2 or Half-Life 2? Right now, Halo 2 is winning – but it matters to a lot of people that it stays that way, so go vote! (Bottom left corner of the page.)

Quick update on the 343 Guilt O’ Lantern competition… We have a total of 85 submissions, and building a mechanism whereby you can pick the best 3 without getting totally overwhelmed is non-trivial. It will almost certainly not be finished tonight – hopefully, it’ll be ready for public consumption tomorrow. There’s still plenty of voting time left, so don’t worry – we aren’t in danger of missing any prize deadlines… yet. 🙂 Thanks for your patience!

Speaking of akba, his site is hosting the next in Boxer’s Adventures in Disaster comic series. This one is a poster for an upcoming movie. I’m not sure I want to see it.

Two new snippets at Nilerogers.com today – Flawed Legacy (the actual snippet is 1:50, 1.7 mb) and 4th Movement of the Odyssey (snippet is 2:10 long, 2.2 mb, with a nice screenshot). Thanks to all who wrote in – akba was first.

Yet another msn-based (read: Macs not welcome, non-IE browsers not welcome) movie – If you visit the MSNBC Technology and Science Front Page, there’s a link in the upper right corner, under ‘Also in the News’ – it reads “Video: Sneak Preview of ‘Halo 2′”. It’s a short interview with Brian Jarrard and Pete Parsons, talking about what’s new and improved with Halo 2. Thanks, Angel Navarro.

As you’re reading today’s One One Se7en, remember… our news contains links to several decoders. Don’t fret. Just search.

Sizeable art update over on Halo Babies – check it all out, including a pretty cool Spartan dog.

SEspider is a regular around here, as well as an action figure retailer in real life. He recently received a new product booklet showing upcoming goodies, and sent along a scan of the Halo pages (141K). Some you’ve seen, some you haven’t.

JPOGDNA, from Sector 7 Halo, put together a video showing the transition between Halo and Halo 2. 4:21 long, 20.1 mb large, QuickTime format. Hosted by EdgeFiles. Go watch!

Hehe – Nick Atkinson points out that there are lengths you can go to to express your love for Halo that will be recognized only by like-minded individuals. Check out the official name of his Cabinetmaking business.

A new Subzero Rivalries was posted last night, just in time for Halloween. (There’s even a moral in there. Somewhere.) Thanks, Hawk 7886.