Hehe – looks like Frankie posted a mini-update over an the Underground forum. One item – but it’s great to hear! (Thanks, Jager.)

A couple of new times have been added to the Going Nowhere Fast leaderboard – Truth and Reconciliation is now down below 25 minutes, and AotCR is less than 7 minutes. A reminder: The contest ends in a little over a week! That means if you’re mailing a tape, it needs to get mailed SOON. (Rule 77 states specifically that the entry ‘must be in the hands of a judge’ – we’re not talking postmarked, we’re talking here.) At the moment, the cumulative time for the entire game, start to finish, is 2:46:11… can we get that down to 2:30? Come on, people!

There are lots and lots and LOTS of Bungie fans that would love to see the game played out in today’s Calvin and Halo. Hmm…

The third annual Maxgames tournament will take place in the IMAX theater in San Jose next month – a short article about it can be found on 1Up.com. The first iteration of this event was attended by vector40, who wrote up his experience for our audience. Thanks to Fuzion, this time around, for pointing it out.

For Mac OSX users, Matt(Uh…#5?) has created a Konfabulator Widget to countdown to Halo 2. Details (pics, links, you name it) can be found in this forum post. Update: both Matt and Sanchezthellama have made available new versions with fixed dates (Matt’s also has a different background). Cuts waiting time by a month or so. 🙂

Dolbex dropped us a note about a pretty major overhaul to the Major League Gaming website – there is a TON of new Halo content there. In fact, there’s an entire Halo subsection, with links to all the fun stuff – but the beauty of this is, it’s a whole bunch of sites, bundled into one, all sharing content. If you were a member at any of the following sites:

• www.halo50k3.com
• www.chitownmayhem.com
• www.halonationals.com
• www.mlgpro.com

you should be signed up on the new mlgpro.com site. Current reading should include the writeup for Midwest Mayhem, the 2-day Chicago tourney that took place last weekend (though you can view it in any number of skins, just by picking the look that works best for you). They’ll be adding new events every couple of days, so check back regularly!

smeginfrell has put together a Halo 2 teaser ad, using footage he’s created himself using some 3D rendering/animation software. It’s short (1:15) but sort of large (9.2 mb in WMP9 format, 9.6 mb in QuickTime format) because of its large screensize: 856×480 pixels. Very nice work, overall. Take a look!

Icetiger, who plays on HPC as IcetigerMOM (and generally kills me a LOT on HBO Coerce), has released a movie showing his work-in-progress, a moon level. Low gravity, Spartan bots, and a super-powerful sword are some of the fun aspects of this one. You can find links on both Battground: Halo’s forum and Halomods’ forum. The movie is WMP9 format (divx-encoded), 5:16 long, and a 19.5 mb download. The map is still in beta, and is not available for download. Can’t wait to play this one!

A reminder: on August 14, the Xtournaments Halo 4×4 National Tournament will be beginning with qualifying rounds at almost 2 dozen iGames centers around the US. Tournament registration fee is currently $140/team ($35/person), with a $15,000 purse on the line. The Xtournaments website has much more information, and the list of gaming centers hosting the qualifying matches can be found on the iGames site.

Last Friday’s Weekly Bungie Update has now been added to our searchable archive; you can use it to discover interesting things. For example, I’ve always thought of Pete Parsons as a rather classy guy, someone who put a decent face on the rabble that is Bungie. The Sushi Fart comment this week threw me… until I did a quick search for Pete in the database, and discovered that he’s a scatalogically inclined, rodent-based murder-obsessed lecher with a lousy car – amazing what you can miss when you’re not looking.

One One Se7en looks on the bright side of yet another new Halo 2 feature.

Joe Staten wants a pony, just like Halo: Resolution…

rapture found a fun image on Planet Unreal. I’m kinda glad Halo doesn’t actually work like that. (Yes, this is Halo-related; the pic comes from a UT version of Blood Gulch.)

Dogsounds, a staple on our forum for a long time, went away. Now he’s back. How do I know? Oh… it’s probably the milk squirting out my nose.

Thanks again to Fury Three, who’s done a wonderful job of summarizing the Halo offerings made of Legos over at the Brickshelf. Check ’em all out!

Bunch of writing over the weekend, for the Fan Fiction section – 29 pieces, to be specific. Go get ’em!

The largest French Halo site has just changed links; Halo-Game has become Halo.fr. They’ve written up a press release (in French), and sent along the highlights (in English). You can find both here.