We don’t do this very much… but then, b.org staffers don’t have babies that often. Lophan hasn’t been around much in the past year… but this is one of the things he’s been working on. Brandon Jennings was born on Wednesday morning, in Doylestown, PA – and Loph is already looking for an S-controller that might fit him!

These came in yesterday, but life got busy. Owm88 submitted three new dialogue snippets for the Dialogue Databank; I actually haven’t heard any of these in-game. I’m not sure how submissions are going to work in the next week; I’m on vacation, and I’m not sure I’ve made a decent-enough interface for the other guys to be willing to add stuff… so if you submit files, and they don’t get added right away, please be patient. We’re gonna be doing our best!

In under the wire… Friday’s One One Se7en continues the Gordon Freeman lovefest. Wonga.

Last night, broony pointed out new renders and concept art at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site. I didn’t have time to look for ’em… but he was right. (Last four images on the Renders page, last image on the Concept Art page.) Thanks also to Iceman1330, whose post today made me actually go looking for the new material. Update: Thanks again to Iceman1330, who convinced me that the last three Outro storyboards are ALSO new.

Live in south central Connecticut? Got nothing to do tomorrow? Tommy K’s (a video rental chain) is holding a Halo tournament at the North Haven and West Haven stores. $5 to get in, you get a free rental just for registering (so that’s most of your $5 right there)… top prize is a year’s worth of free rentals. Thanks to Konrad9 for the heads-up.

Quick heads-up (which probably won’t be read by anyone actually AFFECTED) – the datacenter this server is housed in wants to move the server to a different switch; we’re looking at about 5 minutes of downtime, maybe an hour from now. If you visit then, and can’t get in, you’ll know why. (Alternatively, if you’re reading this after about 3 pm EDT on Friday, and you couldn’t get in recently, you now know why. 🙂 )

Red vs Blue has released Episode 13 for sponsors – and I can’t tell you much about it without spoiling stuff. Caboose, however, has proved himself to be dumber than toast. After sitting on the counter for a week. (It’ll be available to non-subscribers on Sunday. Please – don’t send us mail on Monday, telling us we forgot to mention this episode…)

Back in mid-May, we mentioned a tournament called the Killtacular Classic, put together by CobaltNova. Well, it seems like that tourney has joined up with iGames to become the Halo: Killtacular Classic, iGames National Championships. Looks like you’ll get another chance to call yourself ‘national Halo champion’! (Plus, if you win, you go home with lots of cash.) Thanks to andy for the heads-up. Update: Oops… looks like it’s not finalized, yet. We’ve yanked the links, and the dates… they’ll go back when things are more stable.

IGN continues their Halo PC coverage with an article about Halo Graphics. (It’s available to all, not just Insiders.) It includes a five-question interview with Randy Pitchford about the visuals. (They say 4, but there are 5. Weird.) Interesting tidbit – “I tend to run in 1600×1200, but the game can go higher.” That’s definitely new – at E3, 1600×1200 was max, and the game ran in slideshow mode at that res. Nice! Thanks to Infininja for noticing. (More Halo PC content coming tomorrow, they say.)

Dinky writes that HaloJuggaloProductions has put up a new trailer for the HJP Intro Video (hey, I just write what I’m told) – WMP7 format, 6.8 mb. Go grab it on his site.

Xbox sales and marketshare are growing, according to Microsoft’s “chief Xbox officer” Robbie Bach (quoted in this Reuters news article). Yeah, well, he would say that, it’s one of the things he’s paid to do. However, there was one interesting bit at the end:

“Bach said Microsoft’s focus now is on more-lucrative game sales. The heavily anticipated “Halo 2” is expected next spring, and a sequel to the successful “Project Gotham Racing” is set for this fall.”

Notice that it’s not perfectly clear who a spring release is “expected” by, but it’s worth a mention.

The ongoing Making of the E3 Demo series continues at Bungie.net with The Artists. A great discussion with Marcus Lehto, Dave Dunn, Shiek Wang, John Butkus and Nathan Walpole… read it and learn cool things!

Halogamers has put up Episode one of its Sidewinder Saga. 2:39 long, in QuickTime format, it’s available in two resolutions: 640×480 (23.5 mb) and 320×240 (7.2 mb). Nice filming! The story’s off to a rollicking start.

Six desktop images in the queue today, now cleared out and placed in the Wallpaper section. See what captures your fancy.

More content from IGN – the movies posted last night (that went up with an article on Halo PC Sound) now have an Insider article to go with ’em, explaining what they’re showing. 3 pages of explaining, even. (Well, they’re short pages.) The movies, which were only available in a large (640×480) size last night, can now be grabbed in either 640×480 or 320×240. Thanks to ;@PTUR3 for the heads-up.

Pretty interesting collection of Miscellaneous Art for you today, from a kneeling MC (that would work wonderfully as a desktop image, even though it was explicitly submitted to the Misc Art section) to an oil painting of the Chief, to the DOA girls playing Halo… go look at all of ’em.

It’s not that usual for us to release two movies back-to-back… and it’s certainly unusual for a movie to be released ahead of its spot in the queue, but I’m leaving soon, and this one’s not very big. Team Sexy (whom you might remember from their ‘Hall of the Sidewinder King‘ piece) has whipped up ‘Red vs Who‘, a pretty funny (and quite short) look at grudge matches. 1:32, QuickTime 5 format, 6.8 mb. Grab a copy today!

Athol Productions has put together an artistic look at Halo 2; snippets of existing movies, interspersed with stills, all nicely composited. Nice soundtrack, too. ‘Requiem for Halo’ is available in both QuickTime 5 (19.6 mb) and WMP 9 (21.4 mb) formats. It’s 4:55 long, and has a screensize of 320×240. Take a look!

Didn’t get to posting Fan Fiction yesterday, so there are 13 stories for you today:

• Remnants of Reach: Prologue, by Shinai Purugganan
• Unexpected Surprises Part 6, by JediKnight114 (James)
• The Furious Hatred: Through the Eyes of an Elite, by MadJackal
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 4, by Agent Shade
• Landing on Dracon, by The Scribe
• And so it begins… (Halo 2: Chapter 8), by Shadowrunner
• A World Apart Ch. 1, by Dark Spartan
• A Final Shot – Part 1, by James
• A day in the life of Master Chief…., by That guy over there who smiles just a biiiit to wide….
• Used, Abused, and Blown to Smithereens: The tale of a Covenant Grunt – Chapter One, by Ultimate Grunt
• Honore, by Gunnery Sergeant
• Oblivion Chapter 4: Welcome to Mars, by Reclaimer
• Chapter 3: Behind Enemy Lines, by Nightblade

Read away…

IGN continues to pour out the Halo PC goodness – today they focus on sound. Good questions, and lots of vids. Streaming lo-res vids for everybody, hi-res downloadables for Insiders. (There’s even footage of the flamethrower.) Go get your fill! Thanks to Dan Chosich for the heads-up.