MasterJoe points out a small (53k) Flash animation that’s Halo-related. Artwork is decent, but the animation itself… is a bit confusing. Go soon, because it’s a Geocities site; even at 50k, it won’t take long before it’s unviewable.

We’ve updated our Bungie Weekly Update database to include last Friday’s update over at Bungie.net (including the picture which STILL isn’t visible on the original post). This marks Frankie’s second mention of ‘diaper‘… makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Blackstar has written up a nice thank-you to KP and his family, and put a couple of image galleries online, of yesterday’s Knee For All lanfest. I’m sure there’ll be other writeups and pics coming – but this is a good start!

On March 14, Gamespot listed Halo as one of the top ten first person shooters of all time. They allowed readers to vote, as well, and have now put up the Readers Choice version – and Halo made THIS list, too. Thanks to WhiteRaBbit for the heads-up.

75 degrees outside, and it seems like the perfect day to get some older mail cleared up. I really want to apologize to folks who have submitted content in the past few weeks; I’m really, really, REALLY behind on processing it. In late March, Griever sent in a picture (68K) from Evangelion, a manga and anime; he wonders if the Jet Alone, an Eva (a giant, semi-organic robot used to fight Angels), might not have been to some degree an influence on the design of Halo’s Hunter. I gotta say, it DOES look familiar…

So KP’s got a webcam, but the cord’s not long enough to actually reach the room with the action… if there’s overflow, you’ll be able to see it on this page, but otherwise, we’re out of touch. Gotta love preparation…

Okay, that’s it for updates today (at least from the east coast HBO staff contingent) – Miguel, Count Zero and I are joining a dozen others at KP’s Knee For All lanfest, kicking off in about an hour. Ah, the beauty of Xbox carnage…

Oops, missed it… two weeks ago, we posted a note about the possibility that Halo would be pulled from this summer’s CPL Extreme World Championships for lack of attendance. Four days ago, rapture, of cooked Gamers, put up a message from Angel Munoz, president of the CPL, stating that the minimum 32 teams had been signed up, and that the competition was definitely on. (According to the message, registration closed yesterday.) Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up on this.

Rampancy.net has used the recent Origins of Halo article on Bungie net to flesh out their Old Engine galleries, and they’ve dug the original Halo Announcement press release out of the Wayback Machine. Check out the details, and catch up on old history!

3Suns pointed out an article at Gamespy that suggests that Halo might be responsible for opening the door in Japan to First Person Shooters (a genre that has traditionally done poorly there). Give it a read!

Very nice find by Ben Swinbanks… there’s a new screenshot over at Bungie.net. MC… vs a pair of brand-new jackals. I’m guessing that in motion, that plastic-seeming look will just seem… mean. (And mean they look. Not friendly in the slightest.)

The Bungie Weekly Update can be found over in Bungie’s own Underground forum. The Ghost stuff sounds especially tasty. Go read! (Frankie’s artwork is here, in case it’s not yet fixed by the time you read this.)

The First Strike website has gone live – for real. There’s a bunch of new content (or at least content I’ve never seen before) and a nice layout (that works best in IE, it seems). Go check it out!

Wow. Episode 30 of Red vs Blue is out for sponsors… and it answers a lot of questions I’ve had for a while. (it also has one of Sarge’s most memorable rambles…) Go grab it – or wait until Sunday and then grab it. Your call.

Not One One Se7en, clearly. Of course, I think Stuntmutt’s been talking to Emily Litella again…

Halo: Resolution gets a visit from some bigwigs today.

Wow. Iron Forge, one of the early names in the Halo mod scene, has written a rather thought-provoking rant on the modding scene. It’s amazing how the patterns never change; everything he describes as being wrong with the current Halo modding community – it was wrong with the Marathon modding community some years ago. (I’m sure it’s happened in most communities; I just find the parallels between two communities I’ve participated in to be interesting.) Everything he describes as being ‘right’ about the early modders (it’s mostly an attitude thing) – that was there in Marathon, too. Good games generate interest from talented people wishing to extend the experience – and those talented people tend to lower the bar on the price of entry to the point where casual modders can play. At some point, the expectations of the newcomers (that because tools exist, they (the newcomers) are ENTITLED to them) will cause the old guard to become disillusioned… and the community will fall into a rut. This cycle may even happen more than once for a given game. It’s worth a read; those who don’t understand history will, by necessity, relive it. Thanks to DrLime at Battleground: Halo for pointing out the article.

Ducain posted a new vid showing how to get to the balcony at the end of the Maw. 9.5 mb, WMP9 format. Looks like fun. 🙂

IGN put up a ‘10 Best Xbox Games‘ article… and surprise, surprise, Halo came away with the top spot. Thanks to Maxmidget for the heads-up.

Another couple of single-to-multiplayer conversions over at Halomods; both are based on AotCR. You can find links and pics in this forum thread (it’s an HBO thread).