She does it again… Tina Leyk whipped up another Gold Elite pic – this time, it’s the guy at the locked door on Silent Cartographer. I love the lighting! You can find this image on the Art of Tina Leyk page; it’s currently the last image in the ‘Fan Art’ section.

mrsmiley writes about some comics (totally un-Halo-Babies-related) he’s put up in Mr. Smiley’s Xbox Lounge, his Seventh Column chapter. Take a look!

Whoa – missed it; thanks to Ape Man for the heads-up. There’s a brand-new Halo 2 multiplayer shot over at Bungie.net… Wow. I’m lovin’ it. Go look!

Bungie.net is going crazy with new content right now… There is a new music piece (it’s been included on the bonus DVD that comes with the Halo Soundtrack, but has never been released officially on the internet before), and a HUGE contest starting up, with prizes ranging from a trip to Bungie Studios to a Halo-branded Xbox to Halo toys and collectibles. (So that you don’t get your hopes up, this contest is open to US residents only.) At the moment, the actual entry form seems to be a little… off, but give it a few minutes; I’m sure they’ll get it straightened out. (You have until the 25th to register.)

Today’s Calvin and Halo gives pointers on how to look on the bright side. I’d have trouble making a Pelican, too. (Hobbes’ Elite rocks, though.)

Brian Jarrard and Frank O’Connor took time out of their hectic schedules recently to talk to César Berardini, of TeamXbox about the development of the new Bungie.net. Buried amongst the quips and one-liners are some nice little tidbits, and enough Halo content to make this postable here. thanks to ghaleoneb for the heads-up.

Hehe – seems some people have had trouble with the new bungie.net… Preston the Cyberdog discovered a hard-to-find secret feature of the new site, and took a screen (203K). Only from Microsoft…

MonoxideC (in what may be his last act as a member of the Halo modding community, sadly) has released Halo Map Tools 3.5, an update which provides easy Single-Player to Multiplayer conversion, model injection, and a detailed tutorial for both. it’s a 1.3 mb download – get it now!

Halo50k3, a new event from the organizers of the first two Halo50k events, has now been officially announced. (The press release can be found on their website. The highlights: A minimum of $10,000 will be presented to the winners, the tournament will take place in Atlanta on July 24th and 25th, and Major League Gaming has signed on as an official sponsor.) Browse around the site, check out the fun stuff to be found, and get ready for an awesome experience!

You’ve been waiting for it… the day has come. The new Bungie.net has launched… and it’s beautiful. Totally new navigation… new content, new forums, and not one, but TWO new top stories: one details the new tidbits available on Bungie.net, the other takes a serious stroll down memory lane, looking at pre-Xbox Halo (with tons and tons and TONS of high-quality versions of older screenshots, and some NEW older screenshots). (This was originally written many hours ago… as many of you noticed, it’s been up and down all afternoon; it seems, finally, to be solidly up. Explore!

The submission window for the Win a Date with One One Se7en contest is officially closed. Thanks to everyone who participated… the judges will now take on the daunting task of winnowing down the 3500 entries to 5 winners. We should have results for you by Wednesday.

Last Friday’s Weekly Bungie Update (over at Sector 7) has now been added to our Archive. Did you know that this update is the third time that Frankie’s mentioned Alta?

One One Se7en admits the obvious… again.

Halo: Resolution finds a… new toy.

Halomods.com is back up (well done, Grenadiac!), and one of the more impressive new releases comes from BorgScooby; it’s a reworking of the central underground area on AotCR, and it’s called ‘The Chasm’. A lot of thought went into this; you can get a decent sense for the level in the movie in this thread, and you can download the mod itself in this thread (both on the Halomods forum). Check it out! (Thanks to DrLime, over at Battleground: Halo, for the heads-up.)

Thanks to the lots and lots and lots of people who pointed out the mistake I made in yesterday’s Nightmare Armor news post. That’s not a Grunt mask, it’s a Jin-Roh helmet (from the Japanese animated movie of the same name). My bad. First correction came from TigerHawk, on our forum. You can stop writing now…

Nice find by Ross Mills – Yomary Cruz, the voice actress for Sheila the Tank in Red vs Blue, has a website up, and on it is a movie containing all the Sheila lines in one place. Nice!

MasterNeoChief has created a mod called Halo Elite Battles; you play as an Elite, and your job is to wipe out the Human forces. (There’s even a destructible Pelican mod.) A trailer can be found in this thread, the mod itself in this one (both at Halomods). If the links don’t work, try again later; they seem to be up and down. Check it out… it looks pretty cool!

A month ago, Project Halo closed its doors as a Halo-related game. They didn’t dissolve as a team, however; they’re now working on a project called ‘Supreme Conflict: The Enna Wars‘, and have recently put up a new forum for discussion. They’re hoping to have a Halo-based mod of their game at some point, even. Comments can go into this forum thread.

Whoa – bunch of new stuff at Nightmare Armor… Easter Egg helmets (hehe), and some pics of NEW work; a Grunt helmet? I want, I want! (Also, a very nice pair of shots of the Rocket Launcher. Coming along!) Thanks to {SS}Zag1 for the heads-up. Update: AAAA, I’m jealous. Dolbex visited the Nightmare Armor guys this weekend, and just posted a writeup of that visit (complete with some awesome pics) on his Been Mawed site. Go read it – and check out some really unique images!