Fuzion found a new gameplay clip over at Kikizo.com, flimed on the sly at E3. It’s only 27 seconds long, but you get a decent view of some weapons that haven’t gotten a lot of show so far. Clarification: seems my wording might suggest there are new, never-before-seen weapons in this footage; that’s not the case. It’s just that there are short clips showing the plasma rifle and shotgun clearly in first-person mode, something that other clips haven’t shown much of. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Gah. In the mad rush to format 60 wallpaper submissions in the past few days, we managed to skip over a pretty amazing entry; it was released on the Red vs Blue site a few weeks ago – and we asked then if we could include it here. Nesnora said yes, so I added it to the queue – and even got as far as adding it to the ‘images to be processed’ yesterday. Somehow, though, it didn’t get uploaded. Maybe I felt it needed its own entry, on some level. In any case, it’s in our Wallpaper section now. Enjoy!

Dunno what the weather’s like where you are… but it’s pretty darn gorgeous here. I’ve just come in for a quick Fan Fiction queue-clearing, and there are now 18 new pieces for you to read. Go get ’em!

Dolbex, of Halo50K fame, has put together a nice retrospective of his local group, Been Mawed. It’s mostly interviews of group members, with some screenshots and a tiny bit of gameplay thrown in; if this sounds boring, don’t bother downloading it. It is, however, a great view into how groups like this get together, and what the cameraderie can bring to each member – and the composition is quite nice, as well. (These guys are quite good, overall. Not your average clan.) It’s sort of long (11:43), and big (64.1 mb, even though I’ve compressed the hell out of it), in QuickTime format. Some of the visual artifacts were there when I got the film, others were added by the heavy crunching. None of it takes away from the value of the retrospective. We’ve put up a pair of mirrors, to decrease bandwidth strain – you can find a copy on Mythica.org and another on files.bungie.org. If you decide you can host this as well, send us a link!

Because it’s no fun to be a Desktop creator and see 30 desktops get posted and realize that yours wasn’t among them, we’ve posted the NEXT batch of 30 – you can find them in our Wallpaper section. This MOSTLY brings us up-to-date, wallpaper-wise. Hopefully, at some point soon, the Miscellaneous Art queue can be similiarly attacked.

I posted a new Mailbag update last night, but it took me until now to recover sufficiently to post news about it. Enjoy.

There’s a new Frontline with Suzie posted, titled ‘Cancel Christmas!‘; this one is an interview with Sarge. Thanks, heavy shift.

Massive Bungie Weekly Update this week – you can find it over at Forerunners.org. You may THINK there’s nothing more to do, when they’re so close to wrapping up… but you’d be wrong. They’re all pretty busy. Read the update to see HOW busy. Proximity voice? How cool is THAT?

A few weeks ago, we mentioned a rumor that had surfaced in a recent issue of EGM – that there was a possibility of a Game Boy Advance Halo title in the works. Today, Frankie puts that rumor to bed over on Bungie.net. Personally, the fact that the ColecoVision talks fell apart is more of a shocker… but things are what they are. Followup: Interesting; there’s a note in the IGN Gameboy Mailbag about this very rumor, including an answer to Frankie’s post. (Scroll down to ‘Mini Master Chief’.)

We, of course, all can go back and forth…but I’m sticking to my guns on this. I’ve been told by multiple development sources that a Halo GBA project has at least been in the “looking into” stages since before Christmas. Anything can happen between now and then, of course, but don’t expect it until 2005 if production moves forward.

I don’t think anyone’s lying here – but it makes you wonder, is there some Marketing guy somewhere spreading this story around, in an effort to make it happen by fan pressure alone? Fun fun fun. Thanks to Ash, who found this on Shacknews.

Well, I haven’t by any means cleared the queue – but I’ve brought the backlog up to the end of April. There are 30 new desktops available in the Wallpapers section, with about 40 remaining in the queue. It’s amazing how fast things build up…

Episode 36 of Red vs Blue has been released for sponsors – check the Season 2 sponsors forum. ‘Dr. No-no’ is pretty funny – Donut needs martinis or something. (Maybe a Red Bull.)

Uh oh… today’s One One Se7en might have caused a problem. Sarge did something he shouldn’t have done… and he and MC seem to have… vanished. They might even have been blown to another site. We’d appreciate it if you’d keep an eye out for them; we need ’em back by Monday (Sunday if Stuntmutt decides to turn in a last-minute strip). Thanks!

Eleven new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section – stories, poems, the whole shebang. Go read.

Halo: Resolution discusses the important parts of a ship.

New content at Halo Babies; a new strip, of course, and 3 new Fan desktops, all quite nice. Check it all out!

Nasa may have discovered how something like Guilty Spark came about; their prototype is red, not blue, but it’s an answer to the need for environment sensor/webcam/intercom/PDA that doesn’t pose a safety risk in free fall. It’s cute, to boot. Thanks to Peter M. for pointing it out… should make you think a bit. (Peter adds, “If they start experimenting with that super-mold from MIR I’ll have to invest in getting some NightMare armor fitted…”)

Merecatfish has sent us a note about Oochy 2, it’s a sequel to Oochy Woochy. It’s 13.7 mb, in WMP9 format (4:11 long). It shows… well, I’m not sure. It shows you glitches in maps you’ve never seen before (and that aren’t identified in the movie). You have no clue what’s a glitch and what’s not – because you don’t know how the map USUALLY acts in that situation. To top it off, parts are too dark to see. If this sounds like your cup of tea, you can download it from Coerce.net or Boomerica. But wait – there’s more! Mere also created a 3:07, 6.5 mb Outtakes movie that’s roughly as exciting to watch as a snake shedding its skin. In slow motion. Again, this is available from Coerce.net and Boomerica. I warned Mere that if he made me announce this, I was going to have to alter the rules we have about movie announcements – he said to go ahead and announce it anyway. The old rule was that if a submitted movie met our hosting guidelines, we would provide bandwidth for it, and announce it on our news page. If it didn’t meet our guidelines, we would still announce it if the creator found hosting space elsewhere. Because I fear MORE movies like this being released, I need to change these rules to state that if a movie doesn’t meet some minimum standard for general interest, we will not be willing to put up a news post about it, EVEN IF YOU FIND YOUR OWN HOSTING. If that sounds a bit draconian… well, sorry.

The June issue of GamesMaster (a British Gaming mag) contained a 2-page article on Halo; it’s mostly content that’s been seen in other scans, but ther eare a couple of maps that are nice. Since this issue is now off the newsstands, we can give it to you in our Press Scans section. Thanks to broony for the scans themselves!

Sometimes you wonder how much thought went into level design. Calvin wonders, too, in today’s Calvin and Halo.

The leaderboard for Going Nowhere Fast has been updated with a couple of new Pillar of Autumn times; that level is now down to 6:08. The contest ends 3 weeks from today – there’s still plenty of time to submit runs, but folks should consider some of the less-exploited levels. Pillar of Autumn, Silent Cartographer, AotCR, 343GS, and the Maw are all pretty well-done (the Maw only has a single entry, but it was rather impressive). Truth and Reconciliation, the Library, Two Betrayals, and Keyes are all wide open for folks who want a shot at some of our cool prizes. You’re not eligible if you don’t participate, though!