TheManRoom has posted its own Character Preview, and described the Halo 2 Media Tool Kit it received containing this information. For folks wondering where TeamXbox got its information and pictures for yesterday’s Bios Blowout article… now you know. (No, HBO isn’t on whatever list you have to be on to get this toolkit, so we can’t show you unwatermarked versions of these files… sorry.)

Dolbex points out that there are over 4 hours of new video footage of gameplay from MLG Atlanta – 50k3 in the Video On Demand section of the MLGPro.com website. If you want to see top-notch pro gameplay, this is the place to get it. A VoD subscription is $20 for the year.

Gah. Almost a month ago, ferory pointed out a ‘Halo 2 Readiness Guide‘ that had gone up on Xbox.com, giving information on what you might want to do to get ready for the release of Halo 2. I wrote back at the time that we’d already posted about that when it went up on Bungie.net; a couple of weeks earlier, B.net had posted a ‘Prepare Yourself’ article, and in that timeframe, a bunch of old B.net stories began to appear on Xbox.com, and I assumed that this was just another example of recycled content. I was wrong – it’s a different article altogether, similar subjects notwithstanding. My bad for not checking more closely. Thanks to both forum posters and emailers who pointed out this article again in the last day or two, and made me look a second time.

Took a little while… but the Bungie Store is back online, with T-shirts, fleece pullovers, keychains, pen and pencil sets, and more. There’s clearly more on the way – the slideshow on the opening screen shows a bunch of items not yet available. go buy, and help Bungie on their road to world domination! (Thanks, Finn – you WERE the first.)

I do believe I can see the bottom of the art queues. (I’m not sure that’s a great thing; I know from experience that when you empty a barrel that you’ve been using continually for a long time, you find all sorts of nasty growths you never really needed to see.) Anyway, today’s batch has been placed in the Wallpaper Section – 10 images that range from a spectacular reworking of a Tina Leyk piece to some peaceful views of an earthlike part of the Halo… and lots of stuff in between. Check ’em out!

Computer and Video Games has put up the fourth part of their in-depth look at Halo 2 – this one is an interview with Bungie’s Pete Parsons. Aside from one obnoxious paragraph (right after explaining how their guide asked them politely not to look at certain things, they described exactly what they DID see – there are potential spoilers in here for those of you who really, absolutely, don’t want ANY spoilers at all), it was a great interview – positive, but once again proving that Pete’s a master at making his point without giving anything away that he wants to keep secret. Go read! Thanks to John Houlihan of CVG for the heads-up.

Last month, Marc Friedrichs of Halo Universe sent along a couple of magazine scans of German Halo articles; somehow, they got lost in the flood of content. They’re up, now, in our Press Scans section, however; if you read German, check out June’s Video Games Aktuell and August’s Xbox Zone. Thanks, Marc!

Seven new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section – apologies for the outages earlier this morning. (Looks like a router got swapped out without the datacenter being warned… SOMEONE got chewed out pretty good.) Go read some Halo fiction and relax.

Today’s Calvin and Halo looks inside alien races… and what it finds isn’t pretty.

The country-specific Backstage Pass pages are beginning to appear; a little searching turned up ‘Coming Soon’ pages for Great Britain and France. I’m happy to set up a list for these, if folks want to point them out when they appear; in a lot of cases, I can’t read the page well enough to figure out what I’m looking at, so I’m dependent on locals in each area to find their own. Thanks! Update: With a little help from this GamesIndustry.biz article and some judicious guessing, I’ve found links to the rest of the European options for this contest – Germany, Finland, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland. Still to come (I’m guessing) – asian sites like Japan, and possibly Australia. (NONE of the non-US ones have real info yet – just a placeholder page. Be patient, though.)

Subzero Rivalries has posted another episode; this comic looks at hwo much more important attention is than, say… winning. Pointed out by MarkHawk.

Nice article over on TeamXbox – bios of the Halo 2 cast (at least the cast known to date), both human and covenant, as well as rundowns of known weapons and vehicles. Some pics seem to be new. Worth a read! Thanks, Recoil.

Ever feel like you just don’t have enough easy ways to access the information available here at HBO? There are so many different search areas – news, art, forum, updates – or maybe you just wanna find posts by your friends. Or maybe you want better access to the subsections of HBO, without having to go to the main page first. Well, BOLL is here for you. He’s created the HBO PAL, a small popup window that gives you access to an enormous swath of HBO info in one little strip of real estate. Stick it in a corner of your screen, see if it makes your life any easier. (If it doesn’t… hey, just close it.) Don’t forget to thank him.

We don’t normally like to post the same news item twice, but this one deserves a double-post, because of the confusion. A couple of hours ago (but yesterday, by this site’s clock), we announced a new contest in which Xbox Live subscribers would get a chance to win a 3 day/2 night trip to Bungie Studios to play Halo 2 before the rest of the world. Several threads immediately popped up on our forum, pointing out that while the sweepstakes page at Xbox.com states that “Twenty lucky winners from around the world (five in North America)” will be going to Redmond, the official rules page states that the contest is open only to “legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (except Quebec)”. Residents of non-North American countries – fear not! Each country sending people will have its own sweepstakes page, with its own eligibility requirements and rules. Once they’re all live, you’ll be able to see whether you meet the requirements in your country – but for now, remember that the contest doesn’t close until October 15, so there’s plenty of time. Sorry for the confusion!

Recently, we mentioned a surprise promotion coming today – I’m proud to be able to tell you about the Halo 2 Backstage Pass Sweepstakes. Win a chance to visit Bungie’s headquarters for 3 days/2 nights and play some Halo 2 before the rest of the world! Details are in the Halo 2 Backstage Pass Press Release.

Computer and Video Games has posted part 3 of their in-depth look at Halo 2’s multiplayer – this one focuses on Weapons. Good read, again. (Was the headline a nod to Iain M. Banks, or just a coincidental choice of words?) Thanks, Wiggum.

AngelicLionheart wrote about a Halo tourney in Athens, GA to benefit Habitat for Humanity; play Halo, win a chance at one of four copies of Halo 2, and help houses get built! Check out all the details in this Bungie.net forum post.

wopkins, who showed off a breakdancing MC a couple of months ago, is back with a threatening grunt. Spits, too. WMP and QT formats, at this point. Nice work!

What? It’s Wednesday, and there hasn’t been an art update yet? Wait, what was yesterday’s? Oh, yeah… wallpaper. Okay, here’s ten more creations for the Miscellaneous Art Section. Some of these just flat-out ROCK. Go look.

The next big MLG tournament will be in Los Angeles, on September 25 – and you can find travel details over on the MLGPro.com website. If you need help on where to stay or how to get around, check it out!