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…

New Halo Babies comic up. Nautical theme. Avast.

As promised, the second Going Nowhere Fast video is now available for download, via BitTorrent. (Once again, if you don’t have BitTorrent, the client can be downloaded here.) gwdpto runs through the second level of the game in 15:29 – and while his technique for zipping through the 3 Marine rescue missions at the end might be… a bit unfriendly, there’s no denying that it’s really, really fast. You got to know when to fight… and when to walk away. RUN away. We’ll be updating the Going Nowhere Fast pages with more info in the near future.

You know… these Calvin and Halo comics were funnier before I had kids.

It needs a total overhaul… but all I had time for was a bandaid or two. Our Frequently Asked Questions section has been brought up to date, at least the most-asked questions page. The rest is on The List.

Mothergoat has whipped up a preview video for his map, Decoy. (We mentioned this map a few days ago.) The movie, a 20.5 mb WMP9 file, is 3:03 of fun gameplay along with descriptions of the modded weapons. Definitely worth watching. Rated R, for r0X0rs. (If you haven’t downloaded the map yet, you can grab it from him, as well – 7.5 mb.)

Madrox posted a fun little vid called ‘Under the Glass’, showing some nice vehicle-jamming on AotCR. It’s 4.2 mb, in WMP9 format, and I’ve tossed a QuickTime version up (3.7 mb) for folks who like that better.

Dolbex writes to point out that MLG and HaloTV are teaming up to bring Halo50k3 to your home, in realtime… assuming you’re one of the lucky 100 (or however many they decide they can handle) connections. Read more details at the MLG site!

gwdpto copied and pasted every single frame from the recently-released 3D screenshot… and discovered that there are exactly 117 of them. Will those guys NEVER stop? (We won’t discuss the absolute insanity in copying and pasting 117 frames of a movie, just to count them…) Update: False alarm. Seems gwdpto can’t count. 2 and 2 make 5, using a much better (automated) tool for the job, showed that there are actually 120 frames. Bah. So much for Bungie Day fidelity, Frankie. You couldn’t have shaved off three lousy frames?