Starting today, individual stories will not be listed in Fan Fiction updates; we don’t do it for other sections, so it seems unreasonable to continue taking up such huge swaths of front-page real estate. That doesn’t mean you should stop reading, though – there are 17 new pieces for you today. Go get ’em!

Interesting-sounding article in the current Spin magazine (May 2004) – first person shooters and the controversy surrounding them. We can’t bring this to you in scanned format until it’s off the shelves – but go see what you can find on your local newsstand! Thanks, daedalus.

Crispy Spartan points out the latest (Number 8! The Highest Numbered Update Yet!) weekly update for First Strike, the Halo mod based on the book. General info, new maps, weapons designs… and a page on the team itself. Go check ’em out!

Wow. Grendiac and KaptainKommie have been working on a new tool called Sentinel – and it has some pretty cool features. It’s designed to help folks running modded maps on a server get the word out, so that people can play these maps. Another feature it has, however, will be of interest to many server admins outside the modding community; it can verify that a joining player has the same mapfile as the server, and keep out people who don’t match. There’s far more that it does – read the thread. Way to go, guys! (Thanks to Devin Olsen for the heads-up.)

The Fourth AGP tournament took place in Washington, DC this weekend; there was more than $10,000 on the line. Thanks to rapture for the heads-up, and some summarized results. Congrats to Walshy and the Dream Team!

Keen eyes among the hardcore Bungie fan community were aware that The Man, or I guess, the Ex-Man (heh), Alex Seropian was secretly planning to head up a new game company. He left Bungie back in 2002 and many of us wondered if he could really quit the gaming business after being in the thick of it for so many years. Well I guess not because his secret plans are no longer secret. You can read the press release regarding his new venture here. Most pertinent is that Wideload’s first game will be based on the Halo engine! Stick around as we will have an exclusive interview with one of the founding fathers of Bungie later today. Update: another article has surfaced, this time on CNN’s Money site; I find it fascinating that 7 of the current 11 team members at Wideload are ex-Bungie employees. Dun dun dun… (Thanks, Akilo)

Recently, there’s been a bunch of interest in speed runs through Halo – it’s been the subject of two movies and a host of forum threads in the past week. Well, now you can actually GAIN something from your interest – Bungie.org and Mythica.org (along with the nonexistent Ninjas On Fire site) have teamed up to bring you ‘Going Nowhere Fast‘, a contest to see who can get through Halo the fastest. Rules, prizes, history of the genre… it’s all there on the info page. Go read it… and get planning! (We’d like to apologize in advance to all the people who will feel left out and abandoned by two of the rules; specifically, the ‘No Co-op’ rule and the ‘Legendary only’ rule. We realize this bars some of the most interested competitors… but we had to find a way to keep this from turning into 100 minicontests; this was the best we could do.)

I’ve spent much of the day outside, doing household chores… I returned this evening to find… well, a rather strange incursion on the bungie.org servers. I’ve left it alone for the time being, because (so far) it seems harmless… but it might pay to keep your eyes on it. If it’s not one thing…

Lots of people have gotten to the bottom of the Security shaft in Silent Cartographer. (Okay, not lots. More than a few, though.) NOBODY, I think, has ever gotten back OUT – at least on an unmodded Xbox – until today. Nice job, Ducain!

Subzero Rivalries has gone Flash. Check out the trailer for this newly-remade comic; more strips coming soon. Thanks, MarkHawk.

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!