ZigZag Master points out that The Art of Halo entry at Random House has been updated; the cover is up, and a description of the contents is now available. It should be out in the next 4 weeks or so.

The dirtyJ (among other people) passed along info about HaloImpulse, a new Halo CE website. There’s lots of content – but what attracted my attention was an interview with Randy Pitchford. Once again, Mr. Pitchford explains where Gearbox sits with regard to support of Halo PC and Halo CE, and where he thinks the games sit in the overall field of PC-based FPS titles. No matter where you stand on the issue, it’s an interesting read. While you’re there, look around the site – there’s some nice stuff there.

To the four thousand people who sent us email about the Slurpee Prophet voice not actually being a prophet… yep, it’s true. Whoever built that site actually took their audio content from OUR Dialogue Databank – that ‘Prophet’ clip is actually a Jackal, slowed down and reversed, and it was submitted by Patrick Naedele back in December 2003. Likewise, the clip you hear for the Master Chief was submitted by Captain Spark in July 03, and the Grunt clip came in in September. The Elite clip actually comes from Bungie.net‘s Dialogue Archive, not ours. (Again – these aren’t SIMILAR clips – they’re the SAME clips.) Yes, I should have noticed the Jackal voice yesterday. Sorry. No, this doesn’t mean that we’ve actually heard a prophet speak. Sorry.

The weekly update isn’t what folks expected – but it will be… just a few days later than we thought. Look for it on Monday. In the meantime, enjoy a rockin’ new screenshot and an entertaining explanation from Frankie on our forum.

MrFluffyPants has turned in a writeup of the Crisp Death lanfest last weekend – you can find it (with pictures and everything) over at the Junkyard. Extra bonus – no pics of me. 🙂

There’s more new wallpaper for you – this time, at the Win It Before You Can Buy It Halo 2 Sweepstakes page at Mountaindew.com. Hit the ‘Downloads’ link at the top of the page, you can grab shots of the Chief, Grunts, Prophets, and Elites – and when you drag them into the display box, they speak. It’s the first time we’re hearing a Prophet voice… First heads-up goes to modified.

Well, the Wallpaper section has now been moved over to nikon, as well; there are still a couple of minor display glitches, but nothing that will really affect your viewing pleasure. This means I can finally start clearing out some of the desktop images sent to us in the past couple of weeks; you’ll find 10 new ones up and posted. There are some really nice ones this time around!

Hehe – rule number one about trolling: know your audience. thunderhawk555 (who’s been around our forum for quite a while, but just today earned his Trolling stripes), posted a note purporting to contain information from the upcoming EGM issue (due out to subscribers soon, and on store shelves by the 14th or so). In it, he discusses a gametype that many people have proposed over the years – and describes how Frankie tells the EGM guys all about it. Folks were drooling… until Frankie himself stepped in and stomped – HARD – on both the rumor, and the fact that it was included in EGM. Hehe – and now it looks like thunderhawk555 was simply parroting information he found on the XBLGamers forum (a host for multiple false rumors) – and passing it off as his own! Moral of the story: if you’re going to make stuff up, make sure you’re doing it in a place where folks can’t fact-check you.

Here’s one I’ve never seen before – a Halo fan has whipped up a watercolor (seems to be inspired by this screenshot), framed it, and put it up on eBay. Starting bid is £5. (The artist is in the UK.) Makes you wonder… you think Microsoft might step in at some point? Comments can be left for the artist in this forum thread.

whoknew spent a couple of weeks modifying his Xbox – nice results!

Glorp. I already pointed out I can be careless with regular updates – I almost forgot today’s One One Se7en. Which would have been really sad, because this one is quite funny.

15 new pieces added to the Fan Fiction database today… see what you can find!

Mothergoat filled us in on the details of the contest mentioned earlier – write up the details of what makes you the biggest Halo fan ever, and you could end up in a big news story on Lawrence.com. The best writeup will winn a copy of Halo 2. Full details can be found on Mothergoat.net.

J.D. dropped us a note about a Halo 2 event being put on for a yearly supplier convention held by Best Buy in Orlando today. This, apparently, is using the final build of Halo 2, and is running on 4 Xboxes and 4 TVs, for 16-player action – 15 minute matches. Plantronics is there, as well. Sounds like a good time! (No, it’s not open to the public.)

ITLB writes to point out a few snapshots of the Master Chief, captured at an NRL game in Homebush, Sydney. That guy gets around!

c0ld ‘Sisyphus’ vengeance has started a new contest; if you can get to the bottom of Truth and Reconciliation, on Xbox and with no modding, you can win a copy of the mosaic poster (97k) recently displayed at the Crisp Death lanfest here, plus a copy of Halo 2. Good luck!

Gah – two OTHER comic-related offerings today from around the web; Dork Tower mentions Halo (thanks, Brad) and there’s a new episode of Marines at Sector 7 (thanks, Wolfy). Go read!

A bunch of people sent us a Bungie.net webcam shot from last night – the first was this one, sent in by Cybrfrk. Looks like it passed certification, doesn’t it? (I’m guessing we’ll get the news sometime today, officially.) Update: looks like Cybr found it here. Sorry, Nil.

We got a couple of notes about Incubus yesterday – they’re another of the mainstream bands whose work is being used in Halo 2, you might remember. The first comes from uberblue, whose friend saw them in concert in Charlotte, NC a few days ago – apparently, they played the first 20 seconds or so of the Halo theme, and then their DJ somehow morphed that into Pistola, one of their more popular songs. (You can listen to various small clips of it on the Media page of their web site. What’s even odder, however, is this news report, which suggests that the lead singer might not have even MADE it to that concert – he was arrested in New York, on the way down, for having a switchblade in his carryon bag. (Not Halo-related at all, except that had he not cleared it all up in time, uberblue’s friend wouldn’t have heard anything.) Don’t worry – we’re not going to start covering bands with ties to Halo 2, I just thought it was interesting that we got two separate Incubus-related tidbits on the same day (heck, they’re even related to the same EVENT), and one showed that they’ve clearly got Halo 2 on their minds. (Thanks, John.)

It’s Friday, so there must be an update at Halo Babies. Wait, no, there are two… there’s a new strip, of course (I’m thinking that mrsmiley and Gruntsbane have forgotten that whole cutscene on the bridge), but there’s also a pretty nice new wallpaper done by nrek. Take a look!