17 stories released in the past 48 hours for our Fan Fiction section…

• Eldar Counsels Log Part 2- Stories and more Questions, by Blue Angel
• Tactics: A New Way of Thinking (comedy), by Awacar
• Apocalypse-Sector 4, by FF Echo
• Shell Shock- chapter 3, by Myth
• Shell Shock -chapter 4, by Myth
• Operation:Thunder, by Raise A Little Hell
• Death By Design Pt.1, by Silent Death Sorrow
• Fight for New Tatley (Chapter 1: Taken by Surprise), by CoLd BlooDed
• Merick’s Journal’s: Episode 1: Why Sidewinder is better than Blood Gulch, by John Kitchen
• Countdown Earth: Hour Five and Thirty Minutes, by Mainevent
• The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real… Part Three: Awaiting a ride, by Awacar
• Episode 1: Old Landmarks, by Unorthidox Everythng Man
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 4, by CovieKilla
• Halo 2 Rise of a Hero Chapter 5, by CovieKilla
• Trace 117, by GLADIATRRR3000 and Silent Death Sorrow
• Lan Battle Introduction-Chapter1: Turak’s Defense, by Blue Angel
• Marooned Chapter 5, by Steve Ollett

The never-ending cycle continues.

343GS.com has posted their second EchoFourNineteen comic – you’ll find it in the Downloads section. (It’s called ‘MMM Grunt Grape’.) Thanks to Madda Cheeb for the heads-up.

Anyone who’s spent any time on our forum knows the story of KORHAL, The Boy Who Cried Movie. Well, this weekend, he finally released some footage; there are four films, showing stuff like glitches, vehicle launches, and vehicle collections. They’ve been hosted by nukedude (vid one and vid two) c0ld vengeance (vids 3 and 4), and Break Point (all four vids). There’s really nothing in them that hasn’t been done before, and quality’s a bit low (filmed off a webcam)… but for people who’ve been listening to KORHAL claim for a year and a half that he has filmz… it’s closure. Check ’em out!

Sector 7 has posted a Halo PC review. Well, really, it’s more of a ‘Halo PC Demo Impressions’ article – it was written by someone who played the demo a few times. Hmm…

(GT)Juggler has put up a bunch of photos and some low-res vids from the or Inerumnis Lannactionica fest yesterday on his website, HaloGT. Warning – first two vids are of a modded copy of DOA Beach volleyball; the girls are missing some items of clothing. Everything else is pretty clean.

Dave Mertz has posted an update on both the next Halo PC patch (1.03) and the Editing Tools package, over at the Gearbox forum. No definitive dates… but it looks like the tools package might still be a ways off, due to the volume of material that needs to go into it (and the changes necessitated by the latest game patches). Thanks to The Guardians for the heads-up.

Blade writes that halo.leetgamers.org has gotten a design overhaul, and tossed the Team Ice affiliation. Content coming at some point.

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the release of the Xbox (and the first chance most people had to play Halo). In a recent article on Bungie.net, SketchFactor asked for fan reminiscences on what Halo’s been like for them; several folks posted their thoughts on our forum. The five I found were from Alexis, Gre’Thor117, Mr. Mechanical, Toby Dillman, and omegabullit. (There are other comments in the threads spawned by those posts.) In addition, there are writeups from the Lanwerx party Bungie threw in Seattle (Exogenesis, Pynion, Neo Alucard X (now Alucard), Major Tom, and goatrope), the HBO Junkies fest in Torrington (from KP, who unfairly maligns me throughout), and the iGames regional games (Scimitarex). Lots of thoughts!

British spelling aside, Stuntmutt’s commentary on the recent Halo-related rumors in today’s One One Se7en strip is… spot on.

Whoa. Just getting back in gear; got home around 2 am from yesterday’s lan festivities. 14 hours of Xbox Halo lan play… I’ve forgotten how much fun that is. Time to see what’s new in the online world, though… (Apologies to anyone annoyed by the usually idling (but sometimes playing) Inerumnis character on the GameDaemons server yesterday; several of us jumped in and out of games using it between lan carnage. Normally, idle players get bumped, so there’s room for players who WANT to play – but we figured a couple of hours of the guy wouldn’t do TOO much damage.)

Headed up to NoF’s place for Inerumnis Lannactionica (don’t even ask)… should be a goodly collection of Halo fans there for the day. Updates will resume tomorrow. (It’s possible, but not all that likely, that we’ll be able to get on to one of the Bungie servers hosting the Lanwerx celebration, so that we can make it a cross-country party… NoF has doubts about his PC equipment, so there aren’t any promises.)

Andrew writes to point out the Penguin Republican Army HQ. (They’re a Halo PC clan.) They’re recruiting…

Today’s Guest One One Se7en was written by BOLL, about the time Halo PC was being released (a time when there were far more cracked servers online than legitimate ones). The topical nature of some One One Se7en strips have gotten us talking about options… more news when we have it.

The Worldwide Halo PC Championship is truly worldwide. It’s not just countries like Australia or European nations, either – Microsoft is teaming up with Reliance Webworld (an Indian telecommunications retail giant) to bring the competition to 7,000 gamers in India. Winners will be flown to the US for the Final in January. Thanks to ‘DFA’HK for the heads-up.

Fourteen pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today…

• The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real… Part Two: Hunting, by Awacar
• Halo 2: Base Alpha 5 USNC part 1, by BBCBulldogs24
• Halo 2: Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 2), by BBCBulldogs24
• Halo 2:Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 3), by BBCBulldogs24
• A Pilot’s Life: Chapter 9-Grave Battles (FINALE), by Captain Rasc
• The Harvest Campaign Chapter 1, by Fleet Admiral
• Wings of the Dead: Introduction, by Captain Rasc
• Battle for Croton 7, by Trevor, Boxer (subnova)& Earl, Funkster(has no life)
• Long Time Gone Part 4, by grylsy
• Eldar Councels Log Part 1-Aluvatar’s Awakening, by Blue Angel
• Halo 2:Alpha Base 5 USNC (part 4), by BBCBulldogs24
• Galaxy 07 – Part 3 – Extracts, by Jillybean
• The Flood: A Force to be reckoned with (Part 5), by crashedwarthog
• Shadow Ops II: Nowhere to Run, Chapter Seven, by Nemesis

Enjoy the weekend!

Hehe – Computer and Video Games takes a shot at all the websites who fell over themselves to report the rumors of a 2003 Halo 2 release or an XBL-enabled Halo release in their description of the whole ‘Halo Deluxe’ rumor fiasco. Pretty funny article. Thanks to Ash, who found it on Shacknews.

Sector 7 has posted an article about how gaming communities can affect the development of games. Take a look.

Hamid Djangi points out that the Halo 2 info page at Xbox.com has a ‘Street Date’ listed; March 2004. Now, before you get all excited that there’s now a hard release date… this is not a Bungie page, this is a Microsoft page. Yes, MS owns Bungie, but no, they don’t dictate release dates. It might TURN OUT to be true – but until it comes DIRECTLY from Bungie, we will NOT treat it as an ‘official’ release date.

The Lanwerx party that Bungie is tossing tomorrow (today, for some of you) in Seattle is not restricted to Seattle denizens only… there are 15 dedicated servers being put aside for online Halo PC play – for folks to jump in and play along with those that are there in person. Details on servers (and passwords to enter) can be found in this Bungie.net post. It’s a party, and you’re invited! (Comments can be tossed into this HBO forum thread.)

MASSIVE story over on Bungie.net – a celebration of Halo’s second anniversary, and a look back (through the eyes of fans and developers alike) on what those two years have meant. Absolutely worth a read (except for the third fan bit). Make sure you’ve got your milk and cookies – it’s gonna take you a while to get through it.