Later than usual, but it’s been a busy few weeks… last Friday’s Frankie’s Weekly Bungie Update has been added to the Update database, and is now searchable by all. Use the power wisely…

XLNC continues his Astounding Screenshots collection, this time with 10 shots that show off the breathtaking to the hilarious. They’re not just HUDless – they’re gorgeously composed. Wow.

MereCatfish has pointed out a link to a large movie he’s made available for download – it’s a 31 mb WMP7 film showing almost 7 minutes of an Oddball game on Death Island. You can grab it off his server if you’re so inclined.

Narcogen, in an attempt to make this Rampancy.net News Day (unlike c0ld vengeance, who would never do such a thing), has sent in a link to an interesting poll: Which Bungie game had the best story? Go vote now!

Today’s Guest One One Se7en is a c0ld vengeance piece. One wonders if there might not be a little autobiographical content in there…

A new Calvin and Halo today – the moral is, think about the stars, but shoot for the ceiling; it’s closer.

mrsmiley writes to point out a new contest at Halobabies.net – anyone who is now, or becomes in the next two months, a sponsor of the site ($10 donation) is entered into the contest. Winner will be determined at random from the available pool. The prize – you’ll get drawn into a Halo Babies comic (and receive a framed copy of the strip for your wall). Become a sponsor before the end of April for your chance to win! (Don’t forget to check out the misc section for a hand-drawn animated short – apparently many of the visitors to the site since the makeover have missed it.)

A few days ago, we mentioned an article over at Battleground: Halo on teamkilling. Today, Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, has written a rebuttal. Well, not so much a rebuttal as a rant on volatility. For the money, I think he’s spot on in most of his points.

Rapture has added some pretty cool wallpaper to his cellphone… Update: Narcogen, unwilling to be outdone, added a Halo 2 screenshot as the background image of his Handspring Treo. w00t! Further Update: Narcogen has added a download link for his image, and BOLL has pointed out his own (much older) phone customization.

Splitboxer wrote to point out that the first Xbox Connect 4.0 /Aquaduct 2 game happened yesterday (today?). Mac/Xbox Halo players will soon be able to compete head to head with PC/Xbox Halo users. w00t!

Couple of healthy bugs in yesterday’s Sparkedit 3.0 release – they’re fixed in today’s 3.01 release. Details at HaloMods. Thanks, DHalo.

DocOctavius was playing with some freeware modeling tools yesterday… look what he came up with. Pretty nice work, you ask me!

Here’s a Halo Fan Music submission unlike any other we’ve received… this song comes from Mothergoat, the composer of the Hail 117 Anthem, and while it’s Halo-inspired, it’s not as obviously based in Halo’s themes; it’s designed for fan music videos.

Seeing the Oddbrawl video made me realize the Hail 117 Anthem is more theatrical than it is good for constant firefights. So now I bring you “Repeater,” a faster-moving overdrive fury with a good pinch of Halo. There’s a lot of repetition on purpose. The tune was made as background music for use in fan videos. ?Anyone can freely use it by just giving me credit in the video.

It’s a 3 mb mp3, 3:20 long, and as Mothergoat says, would probably work very nicely as a backdrop to Halo carnage. You can grab our local copy.

One One Se7en reaches new highs in lows. I’m only sorry that iMC had to be the one bringing you this pun.

The saga of the Scorpion continues on Halo: Resolution. This one ain’t lag… it’s range.

Knives sent in a rather bizarre pic (29K) that looks to be taken on Halo Xbox. A bunch of folks discussing it on IRC couldn’t make head nor tail of it… so here it is, for the rest of you to speculate about. Post your thoughts to our forum!

Today’s Sunday One One Se7en (assuming I didn’t screw up again and forget one of Stuntmutt’s) is from Wavehawk… and points out a missed (but pretty useful) feature in Halo.

17 pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section:

• The fall of the covenant Part 1(of 3), by Jetboogieman
• Visions of Purity Part 1: The Spartan, by xitWOUND117
• Mysteries Part 3, by Horror
• Who You Are, by Frensa Geran
• The Enemy Within-Chapter Three: New Hopes, by Mind_Affecting_Parasite
• The cruiser, by retardedmonkey
• The Strive to Survive (Chapter 2: Released), by CoLd BlooDed
• SPARTAN III Chapter 2: Your Problems Begin After You Land, by Winters
• If The Covenant Never Came: Section one-Silva, by guns_n_cars
• A Hard Landing, by CoLd BlooDed
• The Mission Never Given (Pt.1), by Frensa Geran
• The Moral Redemption of Dr. Halsey (Part 2), by Ross Becalick
• Scope (Chapter 2, All Hell is Released), by The Silver Spartan
• Halo: Liberation of Earth – Section 3, by HawkEye
• Halo: The Battle Within. Prologue & Chapter 1, by Bryan D. (A.K.A. B-Man)
• Part one– Amnesia, by Halo_2204
• Life of a grunt, by Jetboogieman

Get to reading – it’ll be tomorrow soon!

SparkEdit 3.0 has been released – swing on by HaloMods for details and a download link. Object Duplication, baby! (Thanks, Turbo)

Blackstar finished his Offensive Tetraboxing lanfest vid, commemorating the massive lanfest held here at HBO HQ a couple of weeks ago. It’s over 9 minutes long, weighs in at a massive 93 mb, and is encoded in MPEG4 format. (As Blackstar says, if you can watch the QuickTime versions of the Red vs Blue vids, you should be fine.) Production quality is quite high – I only wish the recording devices (for gameplay) had been on more boxes; the footage he had to work with didn’t always show the blast this fest really was. It’s currently available at Blackstar Productions, Rampancy.net, Boomerica Enterprises, and files.bungie.org – we’ll add more mirrors if bandwidth begins to get tight. You can ASK Black if he’s willing to have it encoded in other formats… but I’m guessing the answer’s gonna be no; there’s a lot of text that wouldn’t be readable with any big decrease in bitrate. Comments can go in this forum thread.