Quick update – the space map mod we mentioned yesterday is now available for download; thanks, Xhzjang.

Richard ‘SESpider’ White has dropped into our forum with an explanation for the delay in new episodes of Miniature Halo. Swing by and give it a read if you’ve been wondering what happened!

Yesterday’s Weekly Update contained a comment that has set several Halo forums atwitter:

[…] the way the Elites reload now is almost too much detail.

Lest too many people assume this means that in Halo 2, Covenant weapons (which, for the most part, are NOT reloaded by Covenant in Halo) will require reloading, Frankie stepped into our forum to clarify that he was talking about needlers (which reload in Halo, as well). Sorry, guys!

A couple of new multiplayer maps for you guys, from the modding community: Reppyboyo points out a creation by Xhzjang which isn’t actually released yet, but should be soon – it’s a space map with a LOT of individual platforms. Also, DocOctavius points out his conversion of the Cryo Bay to a multiplayer map; there are pics in the forum post, or follow the link to download the map. The creativity continues!

NazdaH has sent along word of several movies in the past (here, here, and here) – but we didn’t host any of them, and they’re all offline now. This is too bad, because they show some pretty decent gameplay. Well, he’s sent us a new one, and I thought the sniping was pretty fun to watch. The beginning is a little off… but it gets better. It’s 3:24 long, 27 mb large, and available in both Windows Media Player 9 and QuickTime formats from files.bungie.org. Check it out! (At some point, we’ll get the rest of his stuff back online, because it IS pretty good.)

A few days ago, Juggertrout posted a movie showing his speed run through AotCR in 7:19. His bandwidth has run out, however, and the movie was only available in WMP9 format in any case. We’ve tossed both the original WMP9 version (37.6 mb) as well as a Quicktime version (30.6 mb) up on Mythica.org (thanks, Brian!) so folks could grab it again. There are suggestions that a vid with a better time has been posted, but it’s not yet available. There are also the beginnings of a full-blown speed competition shaping up. Once again, we suggest you be patient for a few days – holding on to your speed times might actually pay… I wish I could say more right now.

16 stories for you today in the Fan Fiction section:

• The Old Ways, by MT
• The Flood, by Keyes
• Casualties of War Part V, by Tom Murphy
• Chiefs Epic, by Andrew Hodgson
• Earth’s Wrath: Chapter 1 – Ruins of Earth, by Steven Carson (aka Ninja Steve)
• Halo: A Comedy 2 Part 2, by Tom Murphy
• A Story of Betrayal, Part 1: The Return Home, by Anthony
• Easy Squadron: New Mombasa – Part One, by Nameless
• Evolution:Chapter 3- Dragons Suit-up, by Firestorm
• Attack of the n00bs (part 2), by Mr Revenge
• Marooned – Chapter 15, by Steve Ollett
• Birth of New Heroes: Chapter 1 , by Arinoth Koby
• Oleander’s Stand, by Dark-NiTe
• Rebirth – Falling Stars , by KnightmareWolf, Shadow, Archangels_Blade, Spartan415
• Homeworlds XXVII, by Mainevent
• Halo 2: Operation Dream Knife (Chapter 1: Sensor Post), by System Failure

Go get ’em!

Two and a half years ago, a thread started up on the gdalgorithms mailing list about some technical aspects of Halo. The original post looks at some of the achievements of Halo, and speculates how they came about – it’s really well-written, at least from this layman’s perspective. Some of the responses are just as interesting. I’ve no idea how on-the-mark any of these people are… but it’s a great discussion. Thanks to Doggone for digging this out for those of us who missed it the first time around to see!

Battleground: Halo has interviewed Mrs. Doublefire, a prominent figure in the Halo modding community. It’s an interesting glimpse into the life of someone addicted to modifying Halo. Give it a read!

MarkHawk has posted word that Ice Fields Episode 1, Part 1 has been posted. It’s 6:12 long, and ranges from 19.1 to 28.1 mb, depending on the quality you download. It’s got some truly awesome camera angles; they’ve done an incredible job of taking advantage of the HUDless interface. Go check this out! (There should be other flavors coming later this weekend, if DivX doesn’t agree with you.)

Frankie has posted this week’s Bungie Update at Halo Center – and wow, they got a lot done this week. Animation info, some very cool tie-ins involving Lorraine, a HORRIBLE pun dragged out into an analogy, and some really cool censored info about… well, I’m not sure what. And oh, yeah, multiplayer coolness. Go read it! Update: Seems Halo Center is having some trouble with the load; their website was offline for a while, and is struggling at the moment. 🙁 Bungie has given permission for this update to be mirrored; we’d rather you went to Halo Center first, but if they’re down, we’ve put up a copy here.

DOH! We got mail from Major League Gaming yesterday, reporting the results of its third major 2004 tourney, held last week in Dallas. I totally spaced on posting these. $15,000 was distributed amongst the winners, and the names, once again, are quite familiar…

Halo Free For All:

• 1st Place: KillerN (Nick Urso, TX)
• 2nd Place:Zyos (Matt Leto, TX)
• 3rd Place: Walshy (David Walsh, MI) & Gintron (Chris Collins, WV) – tie

Halo 3 vs. 3 Team Competition:

• 1st Place: Team StK: Ogre 1 (Danny Ryan, NJ), Ogre 2 (Tommy Ryan, NJ), Stragepurple (Doug Fabrizio, NJ)
• 2nd Place: Team AP: Anti (Josh Crahan, TX), KillerN (Nick Urso, TX), Boo (Chris Billington, Canada)
• 3-4th Place: Team MP: Clockwork (Kushik Dutta, WA), Deeter (Pat Danford, NC), Saiyan (Ryan Danford, NC)
• 3-4th Place: Team FJ: Gintron (Chris Ginner,FL), Killer (Ryan Hughes, FL), T2 (ThomasTaylor, FL)

Fury Three has done a nice job of summarizing the Halo-based Lego models available for viewing at the Brickshelf website; he even went to the trouble of formatting his list to fit our template. Nice!

Red vs Blue Episode 31 (‘Room for Rent’) is now available on the Season 2 Sponsors forum at RvB. It’s gettin’ weird, folks. (I, for one, never wanted to see the inside of… oh, never mind. Go watch it.)

One One Se7en points out a common complaint among action figure collectors… Joyride, take heed.

Halo: Resolution comes up with what has to be the lamest reason ever to chase a bad guy. (Not that I’m sayin’ that, you know, Bungie employees are bad guys, or anything…)

Halo Babies has a couple of new items – there’s another strip, of course, since it’s Friday, and it’s a direct tribute to Red vs Blue, but there’s also a very cool desktop in a few sizes. (This has been in our artwork queue for a while now; apologies to Gruntsbane for taking so long to get it out. I’m glad there’s another venue for its posting – it deserves to be seen.) Absolutely worth a look.

Bungie has put up an article about ‘Dirty Halo Tricks‘ – things you can do to win in Halo that might be on the far side of ethical. I’m really surprised that out-of-map stunts didn’t make anyone’s list… taking a ghost across the top of Sidewinder and invading the enemy base from above is definitely on MY list of ‘sleaziest moves in a game’. Most of the tricks, though, involve sneakiness, rather than exploitation of map glitches. (There’s even one from me in there… though I’d argue with the 4-pile rating it got.) My favorite has to be Ryan Hylland’s truly annoying way to eke out a few extra seconds on Oddball… check it out. And thanks to Deimos Fawkes for pointing it out.

Adam Daniel dropped us a note in the forum that Halo garnered a special mention in today’s New York Times. In an article (free registration required) about the burgeoning business of game lounges, Halo is so popular that parents let their kids play the game even though it rated M for mature. As a parent that has been letting his son play the game since he was 5, this doesn’t surprise me. Update: We were actually told about this article on Monday, by Bucky – the only copy I had, though, was pretty beat-up, so I didn’t post it. However, it has some nice photos that the online version doesn’t have, so I’ve changed my mind. (Apologies for the wrinkles – and for the weird stitching in places; it’s a huge article.)

W00T! New Fur-Lo artwork from Tina Leyk; there’s another regular strip, called ‘Mishaps With Grenades’ (third from bottom row, if the anchor doesn’t work well), which made me LAUGH (what an awesome Jackal!), and a great guest strip by Iatro, which captures the spirit of Fur-Lo quite nicely. Tina rawks.