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!

Very cool. Ben, from XboxOttawa, has put together another Flash game – in this one, you’ve got to take out Covenant troops with your warthog. Your hog takes damage, so be careful… wipe out the communications pods for a temporary map to the baddies. And stay away from artillery – it’ll tear you to pieces! As of right now, you can find it at Newgrounds.

Unexpected – but not in the least unwelcome… our Subnova mirror, halosn.bungie.org, is back online. While everyone will benefit from the extra breathing room this gives us, bandwidth-wise, the folks who benefit the most are Fan Fiction readers and writers – that section is back online. Additionally, the 7 stories in the queue when it disappeared have now been posted. Thanks, 3!

Noah Hofman, aka Shrike, has sent word about a new Halo track he’s created; it’s a remix from different parts of the main theme. It’s made for listening to while playing Halo – and it works nicely for that! 7:18 long, 8.3 mb big… give it a listen! Update: if you’d like to use this file, please contact Shrike directly.

Warbow posted some pics on our forum. The story behind them is in the post. He said they weren’t supposed to get front-page mention… but I like ’em. So I’m mentioning ’em. So there.

Not that we’ve, like, gotten behind or anything… um… but the Bungie Weekly Update Archive is now up-to-date. Again. Finally. Just in time for a new update in about 2 days. Eep.

One One Se7en comes up with a way to make Halo more like Halo 2. Or something. (Make sure your volume is turned up.)

When in doubt, reach for a Monty Python Joke. Halo: Resolution did.

There’s an editorial over at Gamespot that faults consoles for supporting only 16 players per game, max – it argues that PC games are going past this by an order of magnitude, and the reason is dedicated servers. There are some decent counter-arguments in the forum thread started by 3Suns that brought this to our attention… but the red flags for me went up when I read this line:

The reason PC games can handle so many simultaneous players is because publishers release dedicated server software.

Actually, the reason some PC games can handle so many simultaneous players is because they keep track of fewer variables than Halo does, and therefore require less bandwidth per player. (Compare bandwidth requirements for Battlefield 1942 and the PC version of Halo – which HAS dedicated servers – for a clear example of this.) Right or wrong, though, the article gives folks something to discuss – and that’s never a bad thing.

Interesting article over at Bungie.net, posted late yesterday; Frankie interviewed Sgt. Kelly Hafer, recently back from serving in Iraq, about Halo-playing amongst our armed forces. Google ‘camel spiders’ for some pretty funky photos…