Wow. Chris Bryan (search for his name in our news, you’ll find some pretty cool stuff) has joined the Homefront team (the group bringing Halo to Battlefield 1942) – and his first job is a piece of work! Check out the renders of his newly skinned Warthog in their latest news post. He’s looking to start work on the Phantom next. (While you’re there, check out the new Plasma Rifle, Patrol Boat, and Blood Gulch Base models, too.)

Today’s the day for archived strips to get posted… but that’s later, and there’s still a Guest One One Se7en to go up. This one is from imac, and shows why space marines might have had some trouble with the Flood… Update: Sometimes I’m really, really dumb. There is a Sunday strip today – Sunday strips from Stuntmutt always override guest strips. I’m going to add imac’s entry to today’s Archive posting – he still gets the front-page mention, but I get to put up Stuntmutt’s Sunday offering, a conclusion of last week’s Time Travel fun. Apologies to all involved.

SanchezTheLlama has posted the next Weekly Update for Project Halo on our forum (and over at Halo.Fropco, as well – apparently, our forums aren’t pretty enough for him 🙂 ). It covers such tidbits as progress on the Airport level (seen in early screens last week), new battle sounds, info on their AIM bot, and a request for beta testers. Give it a read!

Xbox Connect 4.0 is now officially released. Lots and lots of new features – read about them in the top news post on the XBConnect website – make this one worth grabbing if you love to play Xbox Halo online. Thanks to Mantis819 for pointing this out.

A couple of days ago, we mentioned Dimentia, an upcoming mod from the Covenant Grounds team. Their website went online yesterday, a chunk ahead of schedule, with the mod available for download… stop by if you want to see what they’re up to!

Today’s One One Se7en is another from Jillybean, and contrary to its title, it DIDN’T get rejected.

Fuzzy reports that he and his friends have found copies of Red vs Blue’s DVD playing at local Target, Babbages, and Toys R Us stores. Not too shabby!

Joyride has updated their website with new shots of upcoming action figures – Flood models, Orange and Red grunts, a white MC with a flamethrowser, the red Elite, and the rocket hog. Some nice stuff coming in May and July! Thanks to Littlebigman for the heads-up.

COERCE has hosted a new vid from Ducain and Nomak; it’s pretty long (6:45), weighs in at 53 mb, and is in WMP format. It’s an exploration vid of AotCR; mostly seen stuff, but some cool tidbits. Lots of explotation of the ‘use a shade to push me through a wall’ technique to get into original locaions. Give it a look!

This week’s Bungie Update was posted on our very own forum; Frankie probably needs to get a new naming scheme for his pictures, so they don’t leak a couple of hours early, but other than that, it’s a rockin’ message. Details about Xbox Live, new artwork, weapons, maps, marketing stuff… there’s something for everyone. Go read!

Falcon16 found a Halo-related strip of Neko Machi (a web comic). Take a look.

Red vs Blue Episode 26 has been released for sponsors – three versions this time around. (QuickTime, DivX, and WMP). Seems like a setup episode.

One One Se7en ran into a snag today – I hope we’ll be seeing the MC again…

Go two days without an update, face 25 pieces. Such is my Fan Fiction lot in life.

• Halo Wing: Chapter Three – Information and Betrayal, by Ermac of VGPro
• Halo: The Battle Within. Chapter 3, by Bryan D. (A.K.A. B-Man)
• Halo2: The Covenant Wars [part 1], by Thomas Harper
• The Seige of Zion Base; Part Three: Revelation – Chapter 11, by Scimitarex
• Evolution: Chapter 1- The Recruits, by Firestorm
• The Raptros Saga: ch.2:, by Raptros-v75
• Neverland: On the Way Home, by SOS.Odin
• The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 2): Secrets, by MadJackal
• Spartan III Chapter 3: The Hunt, by Winters
• Prodigal Son: Part 2, by Scott Devary
• Halo:The fate of earth Chapter 1 The beginning, by MetalGhost
• Chapter One – A New Foe, by Ermac of VGPro
• Defending The Beaches (Part 1), by MT
• Defending The Beaches (Part 2), by MT
• Alpha Platoon: The Best of the Best, by retardedmonkey
• ODST Lead the Way Chapter 3, by Helljumper
• Even In Death, by JJiggssaw
• The Strive to Survive (Chapter 4: An Unexpected Heroine), by CoLd BlooDed
• In Chaos and Despair: Escape to Earth, by Maraxus6
• First Contact – Part One , by Lord Spark
• Part 2: Retaliation, by Jagged
• Subit Sepulcrum Titan Ipsi- Chapter 1, by Sage Scorpion
• Battle for the Norah: Part Fifteen, by Sterfrye36
• Untitled, by CoLd BlooDed
• Halo: The Aftermath Pt. 5/5, by Matthew Buzas

What are you waiting for? There’s more coming.

Today’s Halo: Resolution looks at what happens when Spartans get fired. It’s not a pretty sight.

Spartan-287 points out a comic he’s done. I must say, I don’t get it.

There’s a new Subzero Rivalries comic posted – it’s pretty funny. Go take a look! Thanks to MarkHawk for pointing it out.

Xhzjang has created a new tool – HMMM, the Halo Map Meta Modifier. It’s a patcher program for Halo Map files, but it works by modifying the individual meta files, not just making hex changes. This means you can make patches for multiple maps at one time. Nice! Thanks to Reppyboyo for the heads-up.

Hehe – this is a nice twist. J Squared has submitted a Halo Dot Game; download this image and print it out, and you and a friend can play this classic pencil-and-paper game with a twist. Connect the dots to close off boxes… but this time, there are Covenant forces inside some, and you get bonus points for capturing them. 372 kb jpeg, suitable for printing at 8.5 x 11 at 300 dpi. Enjoy!

The Xbox Ottawa website has been updated with public versions of FTC 11; there’s a 39.9 mb DivX version, and a 30.6 mb QuickTime version. It’s nearly 7 minutes long, and a lot of fun to watch – these guys do GREAT things with mods. We’d encourage you to use the BitTorrent link if you can – but there are http-downloadable versions if you must.