Thank you to the DOZENS of people writing in with links to a small (320×240) version of the newest Halo 2 commercial – but thanks to metaphyber, we’ve got a nice hi-res version for you. 640×480, available in both QuickTime (5.4 mb) or DivX (3.8 mb). We just got word that there’s the copy uploaded to Brian Towne’s community server (mpeg1, 320×240, 5 mb). Grab whatever works for you.

A number of people pointed out that nilerogers.com now has a Listening Station, a small flash app that lets you listen to all four released soundtrack snippets in one window. If you missed any, check it out!

Bruce points out a new flash animation at Newgrounds – it’s called That Halo Parody 6. (I suppose that means that there are 5 earlier ones.) Um… well, my mother said if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.

The first recordings of the Halo 2 commercial that ran earlier today are starting to appear on the net. We’re still gathering mirrors, but it’s available for now from Mythica.org. This is, for the record, a direct-feed version of the video seen in the shakeycam EB “briefing” video from a few weeks back. Look for it on TV tonight!

Mad Cow sent in pictures of the Master Chief costume he built for a costume contest – it took place last weekend, and he won first prize. (We mentioned this suit about a month ago.) You can see a few shots of his suit – here, here, and here. If you want to see it in construction, visit his suit page. He thought it would be cool to have two suit updates in the same day.

The DJ of HaloImpulse writes to say that HBO-originated visitors grabbing two large downloads have contributed to several hundred gigabytes of bandwidth eaten in a very short time… he wanted to make it clear that donations ARE accepted.

Many people wrote to point out that Bungie.net is considering shutting down their forums, as well, for the next two weeks; your vote counts. visit, vote.

A year ago, Chris Bryan began making a Master Chief wearable suit. (This was before anyone had ever heard of Nightmare Armor.) We followed his progress with pictures for several months… and then I began to get backlogged… and I stopped posting them. Chris didn’t stop sending them, though, or working on his suit – and I’ve FINALLY brought the page up-to-date. The first of the non-posted pictures came in on March 27, and they’ve come steadily ever since. Go check out the progress of this labor of love!

It’s official – multiscreen Coop is not part of Halo 2. IGN has confirmed this fact with Microsoft (and I’ve confirmed it with Bungie, as well). You can play Coop on a single screen – as you can in Halo – but one player per screen, whether via system link or XBL, is out. Sorry, folks!

A number of reports have come in about Halo 2 commercials showing up on normal US channels (a wide range of them). We don’t have any for download yet – but if anyone manages to save a good copy, let us know – we’re happy to host it.

Deimos Fawkes, of Subnova, has put together a techno tribute to I Love Bees – though non ILB-followers who enjoy techno should like it, too. MPEG-4 format, 4:42 long, 4.3 mb. It’s called ‘Parabolic Lemonade Failure‘.

akba points out that after a long quiet spell, Adventures in Disaster is back – with a new strip by Boxer, celebrating a lanfest that happened here about 2 weeks ago. In fact, they’re SO back that they’ve invaded One One Se7en… or something.

Dennis McKnight sent along a small Java countdown to Halo 2; unzip this, change to the directory it’s in, and run either ‘javaw Countdown’ (if you’re on a Windows machine) or ‘java Countdown’ if you’re not. (Obviously, you must have Java installed on your machine.) It throws up a small window, minimizable, with the number of seconds remaining until midnight, November 9.

I was cleaning out my inbox (in preparation for clearing out the art queues, once again woefully behind), and found a few images that don’t really have a place to go in our heirarchy, but are worth showing anyway. ragereset sent in a pair of photos (here and here) showing a bus he saw in downtown Sydney, Australia a couple of weeks ago. The second one is blurry because rr drives a manual transmission car, and it’s hard to photograph and drive at the same time. And linus wanted to show us the depths of his love for Halo 2 – he actually painted a Halo 2 logo on his retainer. Wow…

Jonah points out that EBGames is now selling a pair of exclusive Halo 2 T-shirts. (I’m not sure about that ‘exclusive’ part – but they’re certainly selling them.)

Future Publishing is hosting the Golden Joystick Awards, an annual competition for fan opinion about video games (we mentioned them last month). Apparently, Halo 2 is currently leading GTA San Andreas in the only category it’s been nominated for (Most Wanted Game for Xmas 2004) – but a big push towards Playstation 2 owners is about to commence, so that might change. This competition is only open to residents of the UK – but if that’s you, go and make sure that Halo 2 gets its due! Thanks to Pete Parsons and Mr Danger for the info.

Mothergoat has just released what will be his last Halo song, for many reasons. We posted news about a teaser for it not too long ago… the full version of Death of Cortana is poignant, graceful, and beautiful. 3.8 mb mp3, hosted by Mothergoat (though we’ll step in if there’s a problem). Go listen. (And Mothergoat – good luck, in everything you do. Your music rocks!)

Missed this over the weekend… but Ms Man, in his quest to finish the unfinished in Halo before Halo 2 comes out (I just made that up, I don’t know if that’s really his goal), has blasted his way all the way from the bottom of Halo (the level)… to the top. Wow. Movie link, and a forum thread to talk about it, can be found over at High Impact Halo. Thanks, Ducain.

We don’t generally announce new websites on the front page any more, because there are so many of them these days that it would swamp our news… but this one is special. This came to my attention yesterday – and I must say, the concept rocks. Check out Misterchief.com… and let Mister Chief never die!

Halo Babies has posted a large art update, including artwork, desktops, and a fan strip. Go see what’s new.