Woohoo! Bungie’s Annual Winter Pentathlon is coming around this Friday… they’re looking for predictions. Games on the agenda this year are Halo 2, Mario Kart Double Dash, Top Spin, Eye Toy, and Pictionary. The teams, as they have been for a few years, are The Grizzled Ancients, Old School, Middle School, and Newbies. Swing on by Bungie.net, and vote! (Right now, folks are pulling for the new guys… but I’m guessing that might change as more votes come in. Remember, The Grizzled Ancients rolled over all competition last year, badly enough that there are still tire marks on the side of Dave Dunn’s face. Go vote!

MeatSaw is holding an interesting contest; design a T-Shirt, and if you win, he’ll print it on a high-quality shirt, and mail it to you. Details are in this thread on the Gearbox forum. You must be registered there by tomorrow to enter, and entries must be in by February 17, 2004. There’s no word on what happens to the design after the contest ends… Thanks to Chumley for pointing this out.

Speaking of One One Se7en – just a reminder that The Plinth Of Art closes today; any submissions not in our mailbox by 11:59 pm (UTC) will not be considered. That means you have… um… ::carry the 1…:: about 11 hours and 45 minutes to get that strip in!

Today’s Guest One One Se7en, from Lt. Devon, looks at what is NOT a primary strength of one of the Halo characters…

Seventeen pieces for you today in Fan Fiction:

• The Final Meeting – Part 1, by Bluestone
• Something of a poem, by Inept Zombie
• A Series of Wierd Events – Sequel, Part Five, by Hunter_Killer
• A Series of Wierd Events – Sequel, Part Six, by Hunter_Killer
• A Marine Named Peters: The Finale, Part One, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Earth’s Destruction Chapter 6: Flying Solo Part 2: One Vs Many, by Sentinel
• Manufactured Destiny :: Chapter 1.5, by MoZ
• the jackal brothers:episode 1, by new1nab113
• Stalingrad [part I], by thindog
• The Corporal: Part 1, by The Scribe
• Desecrating Providence (Prologue Part 2), by Marty
• Survival of the Fittest: The price for being nosy, by MasterCD
• Johnson’s War (vignette/drabble), by witelancer
• Halo Installation 01, by FOrunnER
• The Corporal: Part 2, by The Scribe
• The Earth Tears, by Frensa Geran
• Air Force Wing: Part 1, First Contact, by teemus

And you’re waiting for… what?

Episode 0 of Freedom Isn’t Free is released over at Clan [WSD], to celebrate their one year anniversary. Unfortunately, it’s in a format that isn’t viewable on a Mac. (It’s also not readable by TMPGEnc, so I can’t CONVERT it to something viewable on a Mac.) If you’ve got a PC, though, WMP can view it. (It’s a 10.2 mb download; the movie is compressed with the WMV3 codec.) It’s the story of a bunch of criminals… some of which are smarter than others. Cinematography is quite good; I’m looking forward to the rest of the episodes. Thanks to [WSD]-Porsj, who gave us the heads-up in our forum. (Happy Birthday, guys!)

BIG HEADS! I love ’em. See ’em in this forum thread at halomods.com, and download ’em from there, as well. Xbox only, I guess… Thanks to Mr-T for pointing this out (and making it, for that matter).

Hehe – Bachus pointed out that the latest d+pad (a web comic) has a Halo 2 theme to it. Got a chuckle out of me…

MarkHawk dropped by to let folks know that The new Halo: Ice Fields trailer has been released (visit the Movies section). It’s 43 seconds, 11.2 mb in DivX-encoded AVI. It’s a tad different from your average Halo movie… there’s a lot of non-Halo footage. Like… the whole thing. There’s no release date on the movie itself… but this trailer looks pretty intriguing!

X Tournaments is running a 3 vs 3 Halo Tournament in New York, on January 24 (that’s next Saturday) – with $1500 in prizes. Tournament fee is $90/team, but you can lock in your slot for $10/player. Check out the site for more details.

And so it starts. Frankie has posted the very first Halo 2 Weekly Update on our forum – it’s a little light on content, but it’s HEAVY on attitude, and the artwork has to be seen to be believed. That man is a future Van Gogh. (Well, maybe just the ear part. Or the insanity thing.) Go read it… and look forward to this being a weekly event (though not always here; as he makes clear in his Bungie.net writeup, these (as was true with the Halo 1 Updates, back in the day) will be spread around to a collection of websites, to better acquaint the average Halo fan with the full Halo community.

Bluestone posted a bunch of info about 343GS.com on our forum; most of it is ‘this is coming in the future’, but for right now, there ‘s a new screensaver for download on their site. Go visit and see. (And read the forum post for the rest.)

Red vs Blue Episode 21 has been posted for sponsors – you know how sometimes sequels (or second albums, or second seasons) don’t quite live up to the promise of the debut version? Yeah, well, these guys have nothing to worry about in that department. This is hilarious. If you’re not a sponsor, you’ll have to wait until Sunday to grab this – but for $10, you can grab it now! (And in hi-res, to boot!) No, I don’t get a cut if you join… i just like their stuff. (Thanks to gutupio for the heads-up.)

Devin Olsen put up a couple of movies he made while playing on The Library last night. One is just a Sidewinder Sneak used to get the nuke without going through the maze… the other one is pretty cool. He managed to confuse the engine to the point where it thought he was flying two ghosts at once. Bizarre stuff. Thanks to nukedude for the hosting!

Interesting piece on piracy in northern Asia over at Rampancy.net – Narcogen (who currently lives in Kazakhstan) points out a problem that ALL software companies have to deal with… and shows a pretty interesting looking cover of a pirated Halo PC disc. Places the BSA can’t reach…

As we mentioned yesterday, Halo Babies is offline for another week or so, due to bandwidth excesses. However, Gruntsbane had actually finished the week’s strip, and felt that their audience deserved to see it… and we’re happy to help out. You can read the weekly strip here (112K).

Stuntmutt looks at the logical extrapolation of the modding craze in today’s One One Se7en. Let’s hope it never gets this bad.

The lag joke continues on today’s Halo: Resolution…

A Red vs Blue fan has started up a two-phase contest over on the RvB forums. Chris Short is offering one Season 2 Super Sponsorship ($20) to the best idea for a contest… and then the winner’s idea will become phase two, with another super sponsorship (and one standard sponsorship) on the line for the winners. Pretty interesting way to hold a contest when you don’t know what the contest should be… rules and stuff can be found in this RvB forum thread.

Rams, of Battleground: Halo, has been spotlighted over at the Junkyard; read up on what makes him tick. I’m pretty sure an addiction to mini-sausages doesn’t count as a hobby… but hey, with the right mustard, they can make a meal!