Once again clearing out the queue (except for some DeviantArt pieces I can’t add without the authors’ permission), we’ve got 8 more pieces for you in the Miscellaneous Art Section. Some pretty nice stuff today!

Bah. Last week’s Bungie Update, originally posted at Subnova, has now been added to our Weekly Update Archive – at the cost of a bit of downtime. Watch for those infinite loops when you’re coding, folks!

Took a few days, but we’ve finally added the 1600×1200 versions of last week’s TGS screenshots that Bungie posted on Friday to our Screenshots database. Dang, that game is looking fine.

Okay, here’s a hint for you younger fans; if you’re gonna do something really stupid, don’t advertise. Today’s safety message illustrated by Calvin and Halo.

Monty Oum points out some Halo-related artwork he’s done over at DeviantArt – nice style!

Now THIS is bizarre. Sumthing Distribution, the folks who distributed the Special Edition Halo Soundtrack, have a new banner at the top of their main page. (I’ve linked to a local copy in case it goes away.) According to the banner, the Official Halo 2 Soundtrack will feature original music by Nile Rodgers, Incubus, Hoobastank, Breaking Benjamin, and more… The discussion in the forum currently revolves around whether this is legitimate or not – but we got mail a couple of weeks ago from wmaltby pointing to a web page with this comment in the news: “Rumor has it that Breaking Benjamin will be very involved with Halo 2… more details to come!” We held off posting that because it had no corroboration at the time… but it’s starting to look more plausible. Details if and when we get them.

TeamXbox puts up their Top Ten Games of Fall 2004… and the number one spot is taken by – oh, you know. (Pico’s Fight Club response is pretty close to what I thought when reading the notice from daedalus.)

Nice pickup by op_ivy, who found the first notice on the Gaming-Age forums; on the back page of the October 2004 Xbox Live calendar in the November issue of the Official Xbox Magazine (between pages 24 and 25) is a note in the ‘What’s Happenin’ With Xbox’ section:

Halo 2 Collector Cups: Now available at 7-Eleven stores nationwide. Grab an improved, intense Mountain Dew® Slurpee® and collect all 3! Head to www.slurpee.com to find out more.

There’s nothing there yet… but the marketing campaign continues to ramp up!

Dave Candland, long-absent (presumably due to his work overload) from our forum, popped in today to explain his rationale for the location of the shield meter in the Halo 2 HUD. (You can see what it looks like in some of the pictures recently posted by the Japanese site Impress, like the one referenced in this news post.) It’s an interesting view into the problems faced by interface designers…

Mothergoat wrote to point out that Windsor Medium, the band he’s been a part of for some time, has broken up – and the website (which has housed all his Halo-related creations for the past 8 months or so) is gone. We’re unwilling to let this content simply disappear, so it’s all been mirrored on b.org servers. If you search for any of his content (mp3’s or maps) that we’ve mentioned in our news, you’ll find local links for the actual files. Hope this helps some of you! (Our condolences go out to Mothergoat.)

7he One has finally taken pictures of his handmade plasma pistol. Looks like it would work nicely for real-life melee attacks…

Not too long ago, Frankie mentioned in a Bungie Weekly Update that it was pretty cool to watch the evolution of the city bus as the Halo 2 artwork progressed. Stuntmutt, in today’s One One Se7en, takes this evolution to its logical conclusion.

Mad Cow points out that he’s started work on his own Master Chief suit for Halloween this year. Geez… that reminds me that I’ve got a BOATLOAD of new pics to post on Chris Bryan’s ongoing project page… soon, I hope.

Ain Soph Aur noticed a tiny mention of Halo 2 (‘a must-have game’) in the October issue of Playboy Magazine. We probably won’t be bringing you scans of this.

mrsmiley writes to point out a couple of fan strips and a whole lot of fan artwork over at Halo Babies; go see what you can find.

Looks like a LOT of movies were released yesterday; I’m gonna combine ’em all in one post for efficiency’s sake.

• Boneho Chane and Lockpicker made a movie with action figures (not stop-action) called ‘Chicken on Fire Episode 1’ – 15 mb, QuickTime format.
• toyoungtodie posted a vid called ‘Halo 2 Remix’ on the High Impact Halo forums; it uses stock footage, but it’s nicely put together. Large version (12.2 mb) requires registration at h2hq.cc, smaller version (7 mb) is hosted by Mythica. WMP9 formats. (Thanks, Ducain)
• vshields ash points out another refinement of the hunterapult-across-the-shaft technique; this one uses only a single grenade. 2.2 mb, WMP90 format. Nice work, Wild3.
• scabbronumber1 put up a note about his clan’s newest vid; 8.5 mb, WMP9 format, some really great sniper action.
• And last but CERTAINLY not least, FTC 14 has been released over at Xboxottawa.ca; public version is 39.6 mb, members-only hi-res is 165 mb. 6:03 of pulse-pounding excitement, and a heck of a cliffhanger at the end. Both are DivX-encoded AVIs – I’ll get them some QT versions as soon as I can.

Wow… that’s a lot of video footage!

Wow. I’m not sure how… but it looks like Xboxyde has gotten hold of (a mediocre version of) the very first E3/Zanzibar vid released. This is the vid that the 20 seconds of hi-res gameplay was cut from during E3 itself. This one’s only 320×240, and a bit dark and blurry… but it’s 20 minutes long, and 72 mb large, in DivX-encoded AVI format. The Download page at Xboxyde has a direct link (this one’s hard to get) and a BitTorrent link (a much better bet). Thanks, Carlos Castillo.

11 new stories for you in the Fan Fiction section today… go read!

Recoil found a really nice closeup of the Kubrick Master Chief (from the Tokyo Game Show) on this Italian site. I want one!

Hehe – Devin Olsen decided to try to cross the Shaft gap… without a warthog, and with only two grenades. Oh, yeah… and a Hunter. He made it. Watch the vid and smile. (3.9 mb, WMP9 format, hosting courtesy of Brian’s new Mythica Uploads server. Which, btw, rocks, and now works with b.net forums and HaloPlanet forums. Ka-bam.) Update: QuickTime added – see original forum post.