Another Halo site – Halo Information, says Shadow. Check it out. Update: apparently, the site is already down for bandwidth overage. The forum is still open, however.

Gamespotting has an editorial from a PC gamer who has never really played Halo before (well, he dabbled a couple of times)… and his impression, after a 3-hour Halo PC fest, was that “everything just comes together so solidly that it’s a flat-out amazing game.” He makes the point, though, that his console-playing colleagues were actually LESS impressed… because “it’s still Halo.” So the good news is, Halo PC, whilst (hey, FaL) being built from an engine almost 2 years old, still has the power to impress jaded FPS fans, might have trouble generating a lot of new excitement in its existing (console-based) audience. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s right. Thanks to Team Overkill for the heads-up.

Hehe – The McLees (all of them) went to GenCon last week… and mehve has written up a pretty entertaining report; it’s the top story over at Bungie.net. Go read it!

The Halogamers crew ran into some personal snags this week, so Episode 2 of the Sidewinder Saga will not be up until next week. To tide you over, they’ve made ‘Not Episode 2‘ (320×240, 6.0 mb), which can be grabbed on their Episodes page. Check it out!

27 new dialogue snippets from Captain Spark today, including this rare but hilarious one. Check out the Dialogue Databank!

No time to add a Fan Fiction update yesterday… so there are 17 stories for you today:

• Search for Chief part 1, by Legend Player
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 10, by Agent Shade
• Rise of the Hellion chapter 1, by Sarge
• The Struggle for D.C.: Chapter 1, by Daniel Renner
• (Part 9) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• (Part 10) M31: First Blood, by Wes Foutch
• O.C. Tango Red: Out of the Freezer into the Fire, by Shinai Purugganan
• All Roads Lead To Sol…Despite What The Map Says: Chapter 8, by S7N
• After The End, by korbsalg
• Wrong or right part 6, by harley
• (Part 11) M31: First Blood, by Greg and Wes Foutch
• Halo 2 Fight For Earth: Home Today, Gone Tomorrow, by HunterKiller
• Oblivion 7: God’s Chosen, by Reclaimer
• Rendezvous, by The Scribe
• The Fall of Fate: Invasion, Part Two(12), by ‘Nosolee
• Earth, A Place for Death. Part 2: NYC(cont.) , by FuManChu
• Halo: The MCconto Chronicles (2nd), by JCDenton

And they just keep coming…

Over a year ago, Will Turnbow created (then updated) a Halo font, to match the Halo logo developed by Bungie. Yesterday, he submitted another update; this one simply changes the ‘2’ to match the ‘2’ in the Halo 2 logo. We’ve updated the Miscellaneous Art entry that contained the last version, since that’s been pointed to from several different places around the website.

James DeWitt points out that TechTV will be broadcasting the full 8 minute E3 Demo Trailer this Monday at 11:30 pm (also twice on Tuesday – see TechTV’s schedule for details). If you haven’t had an opportunity to see this in full-screen glory, this is your chance!

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews of the Junkyard reminds everyone that a contest started over a year ago is drawing to a close… the Halo: Guess the Release Date Contest! You’ve got 5 more days to guess the date at which Halo PC goes Gold…

The new bandwidth collective C.O.E.R.C.E. has posted three new movies:

• MC Is Wonderboy, by Erik Vogt (12.3 mb, 4:33 long, QuickTime format) – a pretty fun turn-a-song-into-a-story vid, with a twist; the filming was all done with a camera facing a TV. (This was done because it’s all Erik had… but it’s an effect which grows on you. At least, it grew on me. 🙂 )
• A re-release of FTC 5, in QuickTime format, since all of the existing mirrors (for the much larger AVI are currently offline) – 9.4 mb
• A QuickTime version of Apocalypse Halo (originally released in WMP9 format over at Battleground Halo), by Dark Helmet: 20.3 mb, 5:33 long.

You’ll be downloading from a randomly selected mirror (there are currently 7, I think), and the trial run the other night went swimmmingly… so give it a shot!

There was a concerned note posted on our forum today from someone who had preordered Halo action figures from the Bungie Store, but couldn’t find any information about them any more. SketchFactor stepped in with some reassurances; seems there have been some supply shortages coming from Joyride, so they’ve chosen to stop taking preorders that they might not be able to fill. If you’ve already preordered, however, you’re fine – your order will be filled as soon as Bungie gets their first shipment.

The dangers of music… expounded upon in today’s One One Se7en. Read.

Major League Gaming, a console gaming league for professional video game players, has signed Dustin ‘HP Darkman’ Langton to a management contract. First up – he’s got an endorsement deal with LASR Accessories, a company that makes backpacks for consoles. HP Darkman seems to be the first Halo gamer to parlay his gaming skills into a fulltime moneymaking job… I doubt he’ll be the last. Noticed by brandontyler on our forum.

Recently, we’ve been posting a number of links to movie mirrors on Blade’s Team Ice website. He’s run into the problem that many potential hosts have hit; bandwidth overage. If you want to help out, visit his site for an update. (For those that can’t connect the dots, all movies hosted by Team Ice are currently offline.) Please, folks – we’re thrilled if you have bandwidth to offer in this time of need. But make sure you can afford what you’re offering! Read this page for an idea of how much bandwidth Mythica was using before it went offline… and ask your ISP what your OWN limits are (and what happens if you exceed them). Thanks!

Darksage created a trailer for an ambitious project: a new, full-length feature film, called Marines. You can find the trailer (in a variety of formats) over at the Drunk Monkeys Productions download page. (I’d suggest holding off on either of the QuickTime versions; there’s a much-better-quality copy coming soon. It’s 3.1 mb, so if that’s what’s listed when you read this, go ahead and download.) There are two other movies on that page – the first was originally mentioned here (with a link to a smaller .mov version), and the second is one we chose not to host.

Another Halo board has started up – Ninjas on Ice is a spinoff of Ninjas on Fire, apparently. This came in Monday, but I lost it in the rush.

Homelan Fed recently started a series called the ‘10 Most Important First Person Shooters‘ – number 9, posted today, is Halo. (They’re listed in Chronological order – there’s one more coming.) Take a look at why they think it’s important!

Ross Mills has tossed his Halo Rhapsody movie up on FilePlanet. One of these days, I HAVE to get the Movies database brought up-to-date… If you missed this when it was still up at Mythica, here’s another chance.

Good news on the Halo movie front – Brian Towne mentions that he’s already signed a contract with a new provider, and as soon as he can get his server back from the LAST provider, will have Mythica.org up and running again! (No ETA, though.) There’s hope on the horizon!

Large submissions to the Dialogue Databank recently from c0ld vengeance and Captain Spark – you’ll find another 54 snippets today, bringing the total to a chunk over 500. (Before any of you get on my case about some of these being scripted – yes, a couple are, but they’re not triggered 100% of the time, so I deemed them valid for inclusion.) I decided to resurrect the 7 day poll, because a couple of the crewmen lines I heard recently actually made me laugh out loud, they were so bad… so the question is: what is the lamest crewman snippet in Halo? You guys have a week to vote – the lines in the poll actually lead to dialogue snippets (which will open in a new window), so you can listen to the options before casting your vote. There were a few that were lamer than these… but they were too long to fit nicely into the form. (How’s THAT for a scientific survey?) Lastly – I’ve got my fingers crossed, it’s been about 3 years since I wrote any poll code… I’m HOPING this works. 🙂