A week or so ago, in a lighthearted forum thread, Wado SG pointed out a silly little app that would give you your very own Bond Girl name. Stuntmutt was entranced. Unfortunately, he’s an artist and a comedian, not a programmer. Hmm. Let’s try that again. Unfortunately, he’s not a programmer. There we go. Anyway, he contacted BOLL, our resident… something, who whipped together a little tool; now, thanks to these two, you can have your very own Elite Name! (Color, too.) Check out the HBO Elite Namelizer… fun for the whole family!

One One Se7en sinks to new lows. Is it possible?

Good to know (thanks to today’s Halo: Resolution) that some institutions are still around, 500 years down the road…

Went the weekend without putting up any Fan Fiction updates… now there are 21 pieces for you.

• Athenians-II Chapter 6: Battle for M-2568 Part 1, by ZackDark
• On The Run: The complete Sam’s Flashback Chapter part 1 of 2, by BloodBlade
• Galaxy 08 – Part Nine – Preservation, by Jillybean
• Neverland: The Rescue, by SOS.Odin
• Hit Hard, by Nick Kang
• Battle for the library, by Mr Revenge
• Halo: Speed of Darkness (Chapter One), by Thanatos 117
• The Dimensional’s Last Stand:Part 1, by skseifer
• A Series of Wierd Events – Sequel, Part Eleven[H_K], by Hunter_Killer
• A Series of Wierd Events, Part Twelve, by Hunter_Killer
• Halo – A Poetic Overview of the Races, by John
• The Darkness and the Light – Chapter 1: , by IAmDelta
• Forced Betrayal (Chapter 7: Stranded With Only One Option), by CoLd BlooDed
• Forever – Dimidium Facti Qui Coepit Habet , by Dispraiser
• Chapter One: Asteroid Invasion, by PBP
• Bad Memories and new, by Justin Van Patten
• Rifle trainning- the spartan instinct, by Preston
• Zero Script: The Untold War of Halo, by Guilty Spark
• Halo: The Aftermath pt. 3/5, by Matthew Buzas
• Battle for the Norah: Part Fourteen, by Sterfrye36
• Neu Haven: Chapter Three, by Blue Jaguar

Get to reading…

Last week, we posted about a work-in-progress, a musical tribute to Halo (and to its music’s creator, Marty O’Donnell), from Mothergoat. Last night, he uploaded the final product. ‘Hail 117 Anthem‘ is just over 5 minutes long, 4.7 mb big, and beautiful. If you like the work – his band, Windsor Medium, has a website up. Update: Mothergoat has sent along this description of the piece:

The final tune is pretty theatrical. It’s what I envision as the struggle of the final battle, escaping an exploding moon, defeating the Prophet of Regret and his last minions, then eventual sadness of the death of a close companion at the end of Halo 2 (my pure conjecture based on First Strike).

Marty O’Donnell will be talking again the Game Developers Conference this year – the session title is ‘The State of Non-Linear Audio for Interactive Media‘. As of now, it seems he’s the only Bungie employee on the speaker list… but who knows, that might change. Thanks to thunderhawk555 for pointing it out.

We got a press release from Jester – a new website, Music.Psyjnir.Org (MPO) is now open to the public.

Music.Psyjnir.Org (MPO) was built to serve the community as a central library for all Bungie fan music, conversion and scenario music, and any other morsels of audio goodness. And after seven weeks in development, it is now ready to greet the public. In addition to digging up some of the classics, we have exclusive releases including two new pieces by SilverBrin**** and four official Red vs Blue pieces by Grasshopper. And MPO will be ever expanding, so check in every once in a while.

We also highly encourage the community to come up with material we don’t already have, either from their own libraries or from those creative juices you’ve been waiting to unleash. As for me, I’m taking a much needed vacation.

The Halo section is extensive – and as the release mentions, includes a few pieces you can’t find in our own Fan Music section… but you should definitely explore the rest of the site; there’s music from Oni, Marathon, and Myth, as well. It’s wonderful to see all this stuff catalogued in one place!

A new EchoFourNineteen up at 343GS.com… can’t say I fully get it, though. (Check the Downloads section.) Thanks to IXIGhandiIXI for the heads-up.

Okay, last week, Stuntmutt had funny, topical Sunday One One Se7en that was linked to the Weekly Update Frankie had written the week before. I screwed up and forgot to post it. We’re not a pair to waste humor, though (God knows there’s little enough of it to go around), so we’ve edited the text a tiny bit, and released it a little late. It’s about Old MC anyway… just put it down to forgetfulness, or something.

bentllama, Bungie animator and pancake lover, spent a bunch of time being helpful today. He pointed out a few things about Wraith’s Assault Boat – and then he pointed out a link to a thread on the CGTalk forum, with some really good advice for up-and-coming modelers (and even those who’ve been around a while). You never know when you’re gonna get a helping hand from a Bungie employee…

Wow. Randy Pitchford posted a note on the Gearbox forums a couple of days ago – he lays the blame for any delays on release of Halo PC content (new shaders, the Halo Editing Kit, bug fixes, and so on) completely at the feet of “Bungie/MGS”. Homelan has asked for an official response from Microsoft on this one, so we’ll have to wait and see what develops… but it’s never a good thing when the dirty laundry starts coming out. If you gotta start pointing fingers, everybody loses – fans included. Thanks to Socrates, who picked this up over at Voodoo Extreme.

It’s the Se7enth of the month, so it’s time for the One One Se7en Archive update… this time, it’s light; we have only 17 strips for you. Submitters Stuntmutt and BOLL hog the spotlight; 4 each, accounting for nearly half the total. (BOLL’s are animated, though – I think he’s got the edge.)

SanchezTheLlama posts a weekly status report about Project Halo: Webwar Evolved on our forum. Pistol pics, music, and some progress items. Check it out!

Lots of built-up Halo links out there – sorry for the delay. (No, these aren’t on the Links page yet – please don’t write, asking me to get to that. It’s a time thing. It’ll happen – someday.)

• Halo Central (general Halo site)
• Operation: Halo (general Halo site)
• Polish Halo Center (Polish Halo Site)
• HaloSverige.nu (Swedish Halo site)
• forum.HaloNorge.com (Norwegian Halo forum)
• HALO Legendary Assault Team (German Halo Xbox Clan)
• Halo G33Ks (UK-based Halo PC clan)

Halo is spreading all over the world…

The Homefront mod for Battleground 1942 updated its site recently – there are shots of their Achilles class battleship (quite similar to the Halcyon class that the PoA belongs to), as well as a new fast attack VTOL aircraft. Check ’em out!

Tyrian points out that a new screenshot from MechAssault 2, released recently at Gamespot, shows a helmet with a remarkable similarity to our favorite Master Chief…

Well, the forum argument isn’t very pleasant… but the models are quite nice. Wraith has updated his Covenant Assault Boat model we mentioned a couple of days ago (taking into account a number of the suggestions given originally in the thread), and LordHex has put up his own model – this time bringing life to an early Bungie concept sketch of a Shadow. Now if only they’d get along…

The One One Se7en Archive update will happen a bit later today – but we still have a regular Guest strip for you, this time from MrFluffyPants26. Love that Max Payne flavor…

The newest Subzero Chronicles comic is online today; some of it makes me uncomfortable, but apparently, the premise is based on a real event. Ouch…

MereCatFish has set up a ‘Favorite Halo Fan Site‘ poll – something he’s tried before, but this time, he’s put in a few safeguards against ballot-stuffing. Go vote for your favorite Halo fansite!