Hehe – didn’t take long… the first PC mod has been released; it’s a 5.3 mb download, and it’s a modified version of Blood Gulch. Some of the vehicles have new skins, and the LAAG fires unlimited rockets. This sort of thing will be much easier once Sapien is released… but it’s nice to know that folks are already on the case. Thanks, [[[-X-]]].

Viper, over at Battleground: Halo, has written up an article about starting up a gaming clan. Pretty topical, given the number of new Halo PC clans springing up these days… go check it out!

Yesterday’s Ctrl+Alt+Del comic looked at the addictive quality of HPC yesterday. Thanks to Djof for the heads-up.

Spartaco and CCR have put together a movie called ‘A Trip To The Library‘ – content is pretty obvious (a runthrough of the Library 🙂 ). It’s recorded in DivX 5.05, and weighs in at 16.1 mb. They’re hosting it themselves. For folks who haven’t yet PLAYED the Library, this movie contains spoilers.

Speaking of comics… today’s Guest One One Se7en comes from Devilmingy, and looks at a (now-abandoned) Red vs Blue spinoff series. Oh, the problems with non-instant release of topical material!

Thanks to mrsmiley, who points out that Halobabies.net has been updated with a new comic.

Griffon points out that PC Gamer UK covered Halo in its latest issue; it’s a 4 page review that calls Halo ‘one of the greatest first-person shooter single-player games of all time’. They gave it a 91% – which they said would have been a 94% had co-op been enabled. Scans will be added when the issue is off newsstand shelves.

Inside Mac Games got a chance to play the beta version of Mac Halo recently, and has written up a 3 page preview. If you’ve been waiting for more news of this version, check it out! Thanks to Blackstar for the heads-up.

Oops – another tournament, this one Xbox-based, and starting today. The ‘Master Chief Mayhem’ Xbox tournament takes place in Cyclone Skatepark in McKinney, Texas. A pre-party happens today until 11 pm (about 2 hours from now), then registration for the full tourney ends tomorrow morning at 10 am. $40 early registration, $50 at the door, with a top prize of $600. They sent a flyer.

SeeMePlayMe is running a series of online tournaments, starting this Monday. Visit their Halo Tournaments page for times and server names… and see what’s what!

A new news site is up and running – Halo HQ (no relation to any site with that name in the past, for oldtimers) will be adding to the content that’s currently up. They’ll be looking for newsies, as well; if you’re interested, drop pyro a line.

Missed this in the hubbub yesterday… but Shishka has written up a Halo PC Gametype FAQ and posted it over at Subnova. Some of Halo’s gametypes are different from what PC FPS-players are used to; I saw this firsthand yesterday, when I was killed several times by teammates who had no clue what the rules were. If you’re at all unclear about Halo gametypes, read this document.

Neko Ewen posted yesterday on our forum about some Halo comics… check ’em out!

The next episode of Halo: Resolution is up, as well. Cortana and the MC find… wheels. I knew it couldn’t be quite as simple as just having Foe Hammer drop off what I needed…

That Cortana, she’s a card… just check One One Se7en. (Or is she ON a card? I can never remember…)

While we slept, the mirrors for the Halo PC dedicated server (pre-release, remember) continued to pour in. The full mirror list is here, a backup (in case HBO is down) is here. Both links can be found on Bungie.net, if you can’t get here. It’s amazing to see how many people are already playing online! (There were several thousand last night – 2 days after the game’s release.)

Even the Fan Fiction writers are affected by the release of Halo PC – only 8 submissions in the last 2 days!

• Derailed Part 7, by Dispraiser
• Unforgiven, by Mainevent
• Attack on ERISTOCK Part 6: The Boarders, by xitWOUND117
• The Final Conflict: Chapter 2, by Blade
• Homeworlds XVI, by Mainevent
• A song by a Sergeant , by Sergeant B
• Holy Halos!, by WeaseL!
• A John Before Halo: Part 10, by J-117

Go read – I’m sure they’ll be back to their old posting rates before long…

BOLL hit upon the very intelligent (but not previously considered) idea of yanking the map files from the server download. This is NOT a download for someone who wants to simply unpack the server and go… but if you’re going to be serving from the same machine that you’ve already got Halo PC installed on, it’s much easier to download a 1.7 mb file and copy over the mapfiles from a second directory… you’ll find the link at the bottom of our mirror page (and ITS mirror).

Okay, here’s the deal. Bungie and Gearbox didn’t wanna let you folks spend the weekend without a dedicated server for Halo PC – so they’re seeding you with a pre-release version. It runs nicely, it’s just a bit rough on the front end. You’ll want to read the installation instructions very carefully for details on setup – and be aware that there is not yet support for remote management. (You have to have access to the server itself to make changes. RCON is coming.) We’ve put up a mirror page, and listed a pair of our own servers for hosting this – but what we really need is mirrors – and lots of them. This is a 100+ mb file, and a lot of people are gonna want it… Please, once you’ve got a copy, if you’ve got the bandwidth, make it available somewhere and send us a link. (BitTorrent links are appreciated, as well; we haven’t put up a seed, but we’re happy to point to one, if someone else can host it.) Update: A couple more mirrors have come online: FileRush has put up a BitTorrent seed, and WorthPlaying has the file on a number of servers. (Links for both are on the mirror page – and the mirror page mirror, on www.bungie.org.) Keep ’em coming! The more mirrors there are, the smaller the cost for everyone helping out! Update 2: The mirrors keep pouring in – you guys rock. 🙂 From this point on, simply visit either copy of the mirror page; the list now is up to 9 sites (some with multiple mirrors) for http downloads, and two sites for BitTorrent seeds. We’re always happy for more, of course!

DOH! I’m an idiot. Mythica.org went live again this morning… and I forgot to mention it! It’s up and running, and serving movies like there’s no tomorrow. Bandwidth isn’t going to be a huge problem, because if/when Mythica hits its limit, we’ve got a backup in files.bungie.org (which mirrors all of Mythica’s data). If there have been movies you’ve been holding off on grabbing… now’s the time! (Direct links don’t work; you’ll need to go through our Movies page. Which is way behind… so you’ll need to go through our news page. Ouch.)