We continue to get a significant number of new links being submitted to our Links page (there are 7 added to the database in the past week) – but sometimes submissions make me wonder. Today, I rejected one from a site that stated, on the nearly-blank front page, that access is restricted to members of its clan. Why would you submit a link to a public links database if nobody except your clan members are allowed to even go there? (Presumably, your clanmembers already KNOW where the page is.) I’m not trying to get on anyone’s case… but we’re going to continue to reject links to sites that have no Halo content, or whose Halo content is impossible to find, or sites whose access to Halo content is restricted to a tiny subset of the public. Sorry about that. On the bright side, I’m hoping we’ll be breaking out Clan links into xbox, pc, mac, halo2-only, and general at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Icetiger writes to point out his newest mod creation, Pipedream. Lots of new vehicles, weapons, bizarre architecture… check this one out! (It’s about a 13 mb download, or a bit smaller in .rar format.)

There’s a 2D Halo game that was mentioned by HaloPlanet during our downtime – but when I checked the link on the HP page, I got error messages. A quick note to Fluffy, though, got me a ForumPlanet thread, which had a better link. There are actually two games, ‘Hail to the Chief’ and an expansion pack, ‘Hail to the Chief: Arius’. Reviews and downloads for both are available from the author’s webpage. A quick dip into the game shows it to be pretty fun. Check it out! (PC-only.)

TheManRoom wraps up their Halo 2 Preview coverage with a new piece that includes the Halo 2 Fact Sheet, and a collection of all the recent screens and concept art released. Good reading! (Looks like we got an XBL glove tossed at our feet, as well… we’re there, when the time comes.)

Mothergoat has released Unyielding, his newest musical Halo-inspired creation. It starts quietly, majestically… but quickly explodes into heavy guitar-driven rock. 5:32 long, 5 mb big, hosted by Mothergoat himself (though if bandwidth gets tight, we’ll certainly provide an alternative – it’s quite good). Go listen. In Mothergoat’s words, “Turn it up loud, close your eyes and let your mind wander in the Halo universe. I tried to provide a sountrack. :)” Update: Oops, there’s a forum thread about this already, if you want to toss in your two cents.

IGN Playstation 2 has written up a perspective piece on Halo 2 from the standpoint of a gamer whose chosen console is NOT an Xbox. The bulk of the article is spent discussing how it’s going to be the single-player aspect that makes or breaks Halo 2, and how worrying it is that we haven’t seen any of it. The author makes some statements about the press coverage of Halo prior to launch that don’t jibe with my recollections – or with the news archives here at HBO. Past that, though, the article is a nice summary of how Halo 2 is seen by folks who are NOT rabid Halo or Bungie fans – multiplayer gameplay is solid (quite possibly more solid than anything out there), visuals are very good but still beatable (Far Cry is mentioned), online style is based on a genre that’s now showing its teeth. And so on. But the overall conclusion is ‘I can’t tell you how good it’s really gonna be until I see singleplayer’ – which is a nice reality check for folks who KNOW it’s gonna rock. Because who knows – you haven’t played it yet. Go read. (Credit goes to Google, who beat out the raft of actual fans sending in this link.)

Dark Strider points out that Homefront, the Battlefield: Vietnam mod, has updated again; this time, you can see shots of ‘Plains of Reach’, a new map. Take a look!

Pretty substantial usability updates to BOLL’s HBO PAL, the sidebar that puts all of HBO at your fingertips; he’s cleaned things up, added some search features (you have no idea how useful they are until you actually use them), and added a pair of guides for adding this page to your Windows Active Desktop (the original idea was sent in by Nafe Rubeus, for Windows 98, and BOLL’s added his own graphical version for Windows 2000/XP). Visit the page, see what’s new!

Tried to get back to the Art queues – I was actually going through my drive to make sure I hadn’t lost track of any mail during the downtime, and I came across a number of pieces submitted to HBO in the past few months that simply got overlooked. They’ve been mixed up with newer pieces and added to the Miscellaneous Art Section (well, 10 of ’em, anyway). We’re getting near the end of the queues, thank goodness. There are some great pieces in this collection – check ’em out!

You new it had to come one day… Cortana is in the running to be voted ‘Cyber Vixen of the Year‘, along with 19 other virtual chicks. Sponsored by Maxim and Spike TV (surprise, surprise). Go vote, then wait until December 14 to see who wins. Thanks, Argent.

Another tourney – this time in Denton, Texas. Entry is $20, event takes place on October 1, first prize looks to be $100 (I might be reading it wrong). Details in this forum post by texasvgames. Update: Man, it must be the day for tournaments… MikeSak wrote to say that there’s one at Gameheads, in Marlboro, NY (North of NYC) on October 9. You’ll find the details on their webpage. Update 2: Whoa, and yet another one. Jason Teng writes about a tourney in Orem, Utah, on September 24/25 (that’s this Friday/Saturday; $30 for a team of 4 to register, $200 cash prize for first place, and if you win you’re rentered for free in a Halo 2 tourney later this year. If you’re interested, call Jason at 801-318-3670.

Bizarre – someone in the UK is selling (on Ebay.co.uk) a ‘Halo 2 Drink’ (energy drink, something like RedBull or Bawls) and a Halo 2 rubberized sticker that they picked up at a Gaming conference recently. First sighting (by me, anyway) of either of these items. Current bid is still under £2, but it doesn’t close for 5 days. (I’ve put up a local no-links copy for when this auction is gone forever.) Thanks, pOgO.

nexus points out an upcoming Halo 2v2 tournament in New Jersey – $35 entry, $800 grand prize, event to take place this weekend. Check out the links!

We don’t really do warthog jump videos any more. They’ve… been done. (I even just got through telling that to a couple of movie submitters in the last few days.) However, Ducain pointed out a new one that’s… well, new. Not done. There’s a bunch of stuff you’ve seen before (though I must say some of the jumps are quite good, even for repeats)… but there’s a simple twist on the normal technique that opens new doors for tricksters – even at this late date. The vid is by Dom Dunc, and was originally posted on the High Impact Halo forums. Ducain posted a note on our forum, with links to the vid and the original thread. I added a QuickTime link, as well. Fan feedback seems pretty positive at this point.

Summer’s over… and Warbow is back! Calvin and Halo returns to its normal Tuesday/Thursday rotation – Warbow (as always) handles Tuesdays, and Blackstar (as always) handles Thursday. Today’s episode – an object lesson in why armor is a good thing.

Because of the messed-up weekend, the Fan Fiction section has built up a bit of backlog; there are 18 new pieces there today. Sorry about the flood.

Interesting… there’s an article in Wired about Japan, and the scene for gamers with a Macintosh (it’s nearly nonexistent). Looks like Microsoft is planning to change that – they’re rolling out a whole series of popular Mac games, and calling it the Microsoft Mac Games Collection. First game on the block? Halo. It was released a couple of days ago.

In a cross-country launch at the Apple stores in Tokyo and Osaka, dozens of gamers battled each other using Halo’s networking option and Apple’s iChat AV.

Nice! There’s more – go read it. Thanks, daedalus.

Eep – I forgot to post this yesterday. Captain Spark made another ‘revenge on Marines’ movie; I’m not sure if his original link is still live, but funkmon has mirrored the small (1.4 mb) file (and upped its framerate a bit). I also made a QT version of it – same size. Those poor marines…

TheManRoom continues with their coverage of the assets in Halo 2, this time with a summary of the (known) weapons. Take a look.

A new Adventures in Disaster went live yesterday at akba.info, but word came too late to make yesterday’s news. So here it is. Poor Master Chief – sometimes he can’t catch a break.