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.

Wolfy points out a new comic over at Sector 7 – The Marines. nice look!

Yesterday, Juggertrout posted a speed run through Assault on the Control Room – 7:19 from the time he got out of the pelican to the time he entered the final room. As far as I know, that’s a record, at this point… but there are a number of places (using his route) where seconds could be shaved. Check this out! (The commentary included is pretty funny.) You may have a good reason to try and duplicate this soon… This movie is currently hosted by Juggertrout. It’s 37 mb, in WMP9 format. We should have a local mirror for it in the not-too-distant future, as well as a QuickTime version. Updates when things happen.

As promised, we have another batch of 20 desktops for you today; 23, if you want to count the BOLL variants. (Even more if you count the SIZE variants… but BOLL’s are actually image variants.) Check ’em out in our Wallpaper section! There’s still more in the queue, both wallpaper and miscellaneous art… coming soon!

Wow… Red vs Blue has been nominated for a 2004 Webby Award in Humor – winners will be announced on May 12. This was pointed out on our forum, by iBob… but I didn’t notice it until Narcogen posted it on Rampancy.net. Looks like I’m getting behind on my forum reading…

Parents – they have ears in the back of their heads. Or the sides, or something. Somewhere. Stop reading this, go look at Calvin and Halo. Thank you.

I guess people have been saving up… only one day since the last Fan Fiction update, and there are 26 submissions – AFTER the deletions I had to make.

• Sergeant Vick: Part 2, by Helljumper
• Halo Heaven: Chapters 3 & 4: The Story of the Surviving Spartan IIs, by Justin Harrison, Halo Heaven
• Halo Training: CTF on Reach, by Coolhand2
• When Worlds Collide {Part One}, by Void
• The Falen: Halo 2 Chapter 7, by Hikaru-119
• Final Death (Bonus Peice), by Hikaru-119
• Halo 2 Chapter 8 ; Part 1, by Mark Lieberg
• Spartan-147 Part 1, by ShadowSnipe
• Red Luck, by MT
• Prologue, by Keyes
• Halo 2: Unfortunate Events (Comedy): Chapter 1: I Think I Shit Myself, by Burny
• Unstable Territory: Prolouge, by FOrunnER
• The Mars Annihilations Part 5, by Janglurevil7
• Halo: Lost and Found pt:3, by Riley217
• Halo: Captured pt:1, by Riley217
• Mysteries Part 6, by Horror
• Hate, by Solidus Snake
• the battle for Alana 1, by mr lucky
• the battle for Alanna 2, by mr lucky
• the battle for Alanna 3, by mr lucky
• The Spartans on Reach continued, by SpartanFortyFour
• Attack of the n00bs(comedy), by Mr Revenge
• Deja Vu, by Mainevent
• The Georgetown (Part 1), by Halomaniac
• Not Your Ordinary Halo Fan-Fic (Comedy), by someone that you dont know
• Marooned – Chapter 14, by Steve Ollett

Go read – we get to do this again tomorrow.

There’s a new remix of the Halo title theme posted over at Overclocked Remix; it’s 4:06 long, and 5.6 mb large. Worth a listen! Thanks to ARUCKSHA for the heads-up.

Ducain has put together a small movie – 3 minutes, 7.8 mb, WMP9 format – showing some fun glitches; a Banshee stuck in the walls in AotCR, some shade-bumping, more security shaft jumping, and a Turret ride. As Ducain says, another trick vid to burn away three minutes of your life!

Just a quick heads-up; if you missed the interviews with Brian Jarrard and Tom Gioconda over at Xbox.com yesterday (because I was an idiot and announced them moments before they went offline for the Tsunami update), Xbox.com is back up, and the interviews are readable again.