Surrept, inspired by Marty O’Donnell’s ‘A Walk in the Woods’ (a track you can find on the Official Halo Soundtrack), has begun work on a remake. It’s not finished yet – but he’s happy to put out the preliminary work (817K, 0:52, mp3 format) for feedback. Comments can be added to this forum thread.

Taking to heart the suggestion that some of the skins submitted might not be of maximum use in the field, Dogsounds has created 4 more skins for the MC, this time all camouflage variants. You can find descriptions of each outfit on our forum… or visit the Variants page for the full collection. (Links to all relevant information about the creation of these skins is contained on that page.) Update: Dogsounds has added one more – a Bungie skin. Check it out.

essex put some AotCR gameplay together with some music… and the end result is a 24 mb download in QT format. Grab it from FilePlanet, then comment here.

Ever wondered what the maximum range of… well, whatever is? Check this out.

Fire Team Charlie has posted FTC7 – and it’s a keeper. Currently available as a 352×224 DivX-encoded AVI weighing in at 7.6 mb, it can be downloaded from the main site, or from Blade’s Team Ice mirror, or from files.bungie.org. A large (640×412, 18.2 mb) version is available for members off the XboxOttawa site. QuickTime versions will be coming tomorrow. Jump in with comments in this forum thread!

Friday night in Redmond… time for another Halo PC update. Michel Bastien, Bungie’s man-in-the-field on this one, is back from the Gearbox studios, and has written up some drool-worthy words for you. They’re in the final stages of testing; they’ve actually got release candidates going. Won’t be too long! Go read the details at Bungie.net.

Woohoo! New screens at Microsoft’s Halo PC site – this time it’s Ice Fields. There haven’t been a lot of views of this level up to now… you get 5 decent ones here, and can get a good feel for level layout. Thanks to spesalfred for the heads-up!

A new Halo PC Editing FAQ has gone up at Gearbox’s site – answers to your questions about what you will, and will not, be able to do once the tools are available. Check it out!

SketchFactor, over at Bungie.net, has put up some cool info about the second wave of Halo Collectibles, available in a couple of months. Descriptions and links to pictures can all be found in his Bungie.net writeup… go check it out!

For those with modded Xboxes, HaloSkins has posted a couple of mods that might be of interest to you. 1guydriveby allows the driver of a Warthog to fire its LAAG gun while driving… your games of Warthog Jousting just got deadlier. Walk on Walls allows you to… well, walk on walls. (Up and over any obstacle, in fact.) Again – you must have a modded Xbox to use these; any questions you have about modding your Xbox in general or applying these particular mods should be directed at modding communities (like HaloSkins), not us. Thanks! (And thanks to decibel for the heads-up on this stuff.

Gearbox has put up another new screenie – this time, it’s a shot of Sapien, the tool used to populate maps after creation. Get a feel for what sort of options are available… (The work items list is down to 48, as well… not long now!) Thanks to Satesh, on our forum, for noticing.

Wow. Sir Dan points out a link to a vid (streaming WMV format) of the final round of Halo50K, TDT vs DM, CTF on Battle Creek. It’s 5:16 long, and shows the entire match (3 captures). Video is hosted by Video CD Productions, and shows some truly impressive teamwork… check it out.

Red vs Blue is taking the week off this week – there won’t be a video. There WILL be info later on today about the DVD they’re making, however. Keep your eyes peeled.

That Sarge… he’s a pip. Check out One One Se7en. (Remember, all three main strips this week are a miniseries.)

Two new Halo PC previews: Warcry, put up Tuesday, and The Armchair Empire, put up Wednesday. The Warcry preview is a bit strange; it focuses entirely on the campaign mode, and was written by someone who never even bothered to read old Xbox summaries. (The screenshots are of such degraded quality that we’re not even going to include them in our Screenshots database.) The Armchair Empire believes that the game will be a hard sell to Xbox owners, because “what little that is new to Halo just won’t be enough to justify paying full price for a second, slightly more robust version of the game.” (These guys obviously haven’t been playing internet multiplayer every night…) Both links come from Blue’s News, by way of ash.

Joyride has updated their website with pics and info on the next series of Halo action figures to be released by the end of this month. They’re listed on the left side of this page. It’s the new Master Chief – Green, Master Chief – Red, Elite, and Ghost which includes 3 mini figures of Elite, MC, and Jackal!

Yes, we’ve known about these figures before, but now it’s official!

I’m not sure what the difference is between the Series 1 MC and the Series 2 MC-Green. Is it just the weapon set? I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.

They’ve been out for a little while now… but Joyride issued a press release today about the Halo Action Figures; check out the details at Bungie.net.

For the first time in almost a week, Gearbox has updated its top Exclusive Screenshot – this one shows a lot of firepower being unleashed on a few Blue guys by a pair of Reds… (And while your ON the Projects page, note that the remaining work items for Halo PC (things that must be completed before the game can be sent to manufacturing) is down to 57. When the countdown was first noted (6 days ago), the total was 146; not a bad week’s work! Thanks to Brad Griswold for the first heads-up.

Once again, a week goes by before the art queues get cleared. (They’re STILL not cleared – but they’re better.) We’ve got 11 desktop pics for you today, including two Marathon-related ones. Strange how things run in packs… check the Wallpaper section.

It blows me away how often the Fan Fiction updates include story totals that are multiples of seven. It’s as though someone’s PLANNING it…

• Chapter Two: Rise of the Phoenix, by Blue Jaguar
• Omega Centauri, by James Kinsella
• The Laurel, by James Kinsella
• Homeworlds IV, by Mainevent
• Survival, Prologue, by Agent Shade
• Defection: Part 2, by Zach Laskaris
• A Series of Wierd Events, Part Four, by Hunter_Killer
• Final Thoughts-Words Before Battle, by BlackValkyire
• Nothing to Lose Part III, by hornet34
• The Ghosts:Silver Eagle Down(Chapter 3), by Sergeant B
• The Adventures of Lt. Jake, Part Four, by Hunter_Killer
• In Light of Destiny Part VII: The Savior Within, by Jinkaiden-XI
• Attack on ERISTOCK-Part 2:Departure, by xitWOUND117
• Another ONI Black File: Halo &#4294967190 We Got There First: Part 9, by Arthur Wellesly

Go ahead, read ’em. There’ll be more tomorrow.