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…

Halo 2 took 3 of the four awards it was nominated for at the Best of E3 2004 Game Critics Awards; Best Console game, Best Action Game, and Best Online Multiplayer. (It was nominated for Best of Show, as well, but lost out to the Sony Playstation Portable.) Not bad! Halo 2 tied Splinter Cell 3 for most wins, and accounted for 3 out of 4 wins for Microsoft Gaming Studios (it accounted for 4 of 9 total nominations). Thanks to Eclarap, of Halo-Game, for the heads-up.

What’s wrong with video games? Calvin and Halo might give you a clue…

mnemesis points out that the Halo Story page inbox has been nudged. It’s not empty, by any stretch of the imagination… but a few choice pieces did fall out, and get commented on. first update since April 30… w00t.

Ouch. Subnova has lost its bandwidth, due to lack of payment. Some of its content, like last week’s Bungie Update, is still accessible – much is not. A major downside for HBO visitors… the subsections that Subnova hosted for us have to be relocated. This has been done for MOST sections – but Fan Fiction is offline until we can find a way to move it to a different machine. Apologies to all writers out there.

Wonga. Blackstar, long-known for his talent at making wonderful Halo spots, has turned his skills to Halo 2. His 29.5 mb, 640×480, 1:04 Halo 2 Spot (QuickTime format) uses Bungie-released Halo 2 footage… but makes you want this game. NOW. Go grab a copy. If this post floods BSP.net with more traffic than it can handle, grab a mirrored copy at Mythica. Thanks to KP for the heads-up. Update: There’s now a smaller version (320×240, 4.3 mb) for folks on a tighter connection: mirrors on files.bungie.org and blackstarproductions.net.

Steve Smith points out that there’s less than a week left in the First Annual Enkidu Fan Fiction Contest. Get your submissions in soon!

One One Se7en checks out a new Halo 2 feature revealed at E3. I was waiting for the ‘Candygram’ announcement.

Halo: Resolution discusses the size of your… ship.

Chilton Webb found another site with the E3 Halo 2 demo footage, with no signup required. 320×240, 14 mb total, WMP9 format. Check out GamesRadar.

Gre’Thor117 created a Halo movie for an English class; got a pretty good grade. It didn’t meet our posting guidelines, but SancheztheLlama was kind enough to host it. It’s 10.1 mb, in QuickTime format. Footage from the first two Halo 2 trailers, combined with overlain text and Edgen music. You can grab it on STL.com. Update: wow, looks like this was pretty popular. CJ has run out of bandwidth, and has taken it down. Sorry!