Dang. Someone comes up with a new technique, it’s really cool. Folks try their hand, it’s still cool. Eventually, there are too many examples, and it stops making the front page. And then along comes XLNC. Again. Pwned.

The Xtournaments Crew want to remind you that the deadline for the $140/team ($35/person) registration fee for the upcoming $15,000 Xtournaments National Tourney is August 1; after that, registration will be closed. Also – iGames centers that have no registered teams by July 17 will NOT host the tourney at all. (You can find out if your local center has enough teams on this page.) If you wanna win, you gotta play! Go sign up now!

Bah. Gamespy put up part 3 of their Halo 2 Roundup a couple of nights ago – I just never got around to posting it. Thanks to the (literally) dozens of people who pointed this out – some politely, some not so politely. Makes me wonder if I should lower the bar, in terms of what’s expected of me here… if I’m going to be cursed at for neglecting to post an update about an article riddled with inaccuracies and whacky speculation, maybe it’s time to cut back on the posting altogether. Anyway, this piece covers audio, lighting, and some map info.

In accordance with our plan, we’ve begun to make the first Going Nowhere Fast speedrun available via direct download. Over 1500 people have already grabbed the file via BitTorrent, so the load shouldn’t be too heavy on our download mirrors… but there’s still a LOT of bandwidth available, if it comes to that. The biggest surprise (for me, anyway) is the inclusion of archive.org, the folks who are basically attempting to archive the internet. They have an entire media section devoted to speedruns in video games, and have agreed to include the top 10 runs from this contest in their collection. On top of that, we have our normal mirrors (mythica.org, files.bungie.org, that weasel television) as well as ninjasonfire.com… and psyjnir.org is offering the speedruns via Hotline, for folks who don’t like BitTorrent OR the web. All download links are being kept track of on the Status page we put up recently. The second level, Halo, will be made available via direct download on Monday. If you haven’t gotten this yet, grab it now!

Eep – busy with other stuff, no Fan Fiction update for 5 days… there are 29 new stories on the page. Sorry for the delay.

rockslider points out the final episode (for now) of Frontline with Suzie – a chat with Goldie. Take a look!

Apparently the Halo community missed last week’s Subzero Rivalries, released on July 4th. Good to know traditions carry on… thanks to funkmon for noticing.

He did it again, mommie. Make him stop. Make that bad BOLL man stop. (Move your mouse around if this post confuses you.)

Ducain points out a pretty darn cool video over on the HighImpactHalo forums – 4 banshees, 3 hogs… at the bottom of Halo. It’s sort of funny… the last step of the video is ‘now get yourself down there’. Until Frogblast solved this mystery, this was the HARDEST THING TO DO IN HALO – now it’s just one step in a seriously impressive collection of stunts that lead to the finale. 5:22, 19.7 mb, WMP9 format.

Many people have already noticed… but I’ve been pretty busy making the QuickTime versions, so I didn’t get around to posting this yet. Fire Team Charlie has released Episode 13 today, for sponsors – and it’s enormous. Hi-res versions are in the 150-170 mb range (depending on platform). DivX is up now, QuickTime will be up as soon as Andrew can move the file to his server. Monday and Tuesday, the low-res versions (~70 mb each) will be made available via BitTorrent, and midweek a direct download will be an option. It’s 21 minutes long, and an amazing piece of work; if you’re a member, go to Xbox Ottawa now and grab it!

MASSIVE update this week, on our very own forum – comments from team members who talk a lot, from members who have been conspicuously quiet for months, from weirdos you really didn’t NEED to hear from. (Oh, wait, that’s just Frankie. Who else would draw a speedo on the OUTSIDE of a suit of armor? Man…) There’s some awesome stuff in there – read read read!

One One Se7en predicts another CENSORED experience with tonight’s Weekly Update. No crystal ball needed there…

Oops – it’s been such a busy news day that regular features have slipped off the radar. Today’s Halo: Resolution makes you wonder how Keyes got to be bossman.

Holy Last Minute Coolness, Batman! Bungie and Mountain Dew have teamed up for a fantastic contest; submit the winning photo showing you and your friends playing Halo and drinking Mountain Dew, in the next 5 days, and you could find yourself at Bungie Headquarters for a promotional photo shoot and a Halo 2 LAN party. Yes, you read that right – a Halo 2 LANfest for you and your buds. Go read all the rules – and get cracking; entries that aren’t received by Midnight, Eastern Time, this coming Wednesday, are not eligible. (Remember, also, that you need to be able to get yourselves to Redmond, Washington, on July 17; transportation is not included. And you need to be 18 or older.)

SketchFactor has posted a note over on Bungie.net that artists and content creators might want to look at. The filmmaker behind the upcoming ‘Making of Halo 2’ documentary is calling for images and movies of fan-created artwork that MIGHT be included on the DVD in a Fan Art showcase. (Be aware that anything already on our site – in the Miscellaneous Art, Wallpaper, Movies, or Miscellaneous sections – has already been combed through; he’s looking for unreleased or underexposed material.) Read the news post carefully for details about what’s needed, and how to get it to him. And don’t dawdle… time’s a’wasting!

Red vs Blue episode 38, ‘K.I.T. B.F.F.’, is out now for sponsors (thanks, Brad and others). It’s thirteen and a half minutes of hilarity – a truly fitting end to the season. We need the narrator guy from Soap to put together the summary for next season… because, man, it gets messy. (It’s huge – 110-130 mb in hi-res, depending on your format choice. Just a warning.)

You gotta love stuff like this. wopkins made a vid of the Master Chief breakdancing. (Guy’s pretty coordinated, you ask me. YOU try that in battle armor.) He explains how in this post. The movie’s quite small (1.6 mb, WMP9 format), and I’ve added a QuickTime version for those that need it (same size).

Gamespy has posted part 2 of its ‘Halo 2 – Everything We Know!’ article, with three more pages on dual-wielding and jacking, and destructible environments. (We mentioned Part 1 – the first 4 pages of the article – yesterday.) This one sticks to Halo 2 info, and consequently has less faulty Halo 1 info.

Whoa – this comes as news to me… VoodooExtreme is reporting that Microsoft has put out a press release announcing a UK release date for Halo 2 of November 11 – two days past the US date. This directly contradicts the Halo 2 FAQ at Bungie.net, which states clearly “Halo 2 will be released in the U.S. and Europe on November 9th, 2004.” (I suppose it’s possible that the UK might be considered separate from Europe, in Microsoft’s eyes… but that seems odd.) We’ll do our best to get confirmation (positive or negative) sometime today, and update this news item. Update: myles leadbeatter points out an article at GamesRadar that purports to explain the reason for the delay; a Tuesday release would require shipping stock to retailers by the end of the previous week, and Microsoft doesn’t trust that these retailers would be able to resist the temptation to sell the game early. (Why this doesn’t apply to US retailers, I’m sure I don’t understand.) We’re still waiting for word from Bungie themselves. Update 2: This has now been officially confirmed by Bungie.

In the past month or two, we’ve started seeing pictures of a maskless grunt… and suddenly, the lovable creature we all knew and loved (albeit to kill, more often than not) was suddenly the stuff of nightmares. I no longer wanted a Grunt plushy. Tina Leyk has restored my faith in the cuddlyness of grunts – her latest piece can be found in her Fan Art collection (look for the ‘added July 9’ tag). It’s summer, so they’re on the beach. Now if only they’d put those guns down…