Eight stories for you in the Fan Fiction section today:

• Master Gunnery Sergeant Chapter 1, by Chief-117
• Thrill of the Hunt, by Gasmask
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 3, by Agent Shade
• New strength (Halo 2: Chapter 7), by Shadowrunner
• Oblivion Chapter 3, by Reclaimer
• Lament of Innocence, by Nike
• The Fallen: Chapter 3 Section 3 The Fallen Arise, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen: Halo 2 Chapter 3 Section 4, by Hikaru-119

Is it just me, or is overall quality improving?

There are ANOTHER 10 entries in the Dialogue Databank – the good news is, these are all relatively unique and hard to hear… the bad news is, since it’s the second DD update today, there’s no easy way to show you just these 10. You’ll have to comb through the 60+ entries for the day to find ’em… sorry about that. (A good way to get familiar with what’s there, though.)

Another film for you – we haven’t seen this style in quite some time, but I felt it was pretty well done. It’s called ‘Can’t Wait‘, and it’s an adrenaline pumper for Halo 2. Made up of stills and clips from existing movies, it’s cut together pretty nicely. (It fills its small niche pretty full, though, so please – don’t send us more like this.) 11 mb, QuickTime format. Created by Yokanabster.

IGN has posted 11 new Halo PC screens (mostly multiplayer) – they’re only 800×600, but they’re still beautiful. (Nobody over there has Dave Candland’s setup skills, though…) They’re available to everyone – check ’em out! Thanks to strato99l for the first heads-up. Update: There’s an article that goes with these, available to all. Thanks to Infininja for noticing.

More mirrors: Blade, of Ice Team, has mirrored the three FTC vids (already mirrored by Mythica a couple of days ago and That Weasel more recently):

• FTC Vid 1
• FTC Vid 2
• FTC Vid 3

If you need descriptions, follow the Mythica mirror link for more info. Remember, these are in .avi format, DivX5-encoded. New mirrors rock – they mean we can continue adding new files to Mythica. (Another movie coming soon, in fact.) We’ll put up a regular mirror page for these pretty soon, since there are quite a lot now.

Halogamers has put up the character intro for their Sidewinder Saga series – go visit their movies section. It’s in two flavors (640×480 QT, 14 mb and 320×240 QT, 4 mb), so both broadband and dialup folks should be able to see this. As described on their front page, Sidewinder Saga is filled with guys that are quite different from those you’d find in the Red vs Blue world… they KNOW how to play the game. Episode one isn’t too far off; go check the Intro Episode now for a taste!

Not to be outdone, IGN has put up a Halo PC preview as well. It’s not 5 small clips – it’s one mongo one, and it’s only available to insiders. It comes in two flavors (400×300 QT, 84 mb and 320×240 QT, 55 mb), and it’s 5:29 long. It’s not all multiplayer footage – it’s about half solo play, with a voiceover explaining why you’re gonna want this puppy. (There are spoilers for those still keeping track.) The gameplay itself is great to see… but the info in the voiceover is also really, really nice. (Minimum specs for PC Halo as of now: 733-800 MHz PIII and a GeForce2. Definitely easily attainable – though don’t expect to see the cool pixelshading effects he was pointing out if you run it on the minimum box.) They recorded this themselves, today – so the footage is totally different from what Gamespot is offering. Thanks to Infininja for the heads-up.

More Winning Isn’t Everything news: The mirror that Blade put up earlier has been yanked (because of a directory name change) – it should be back up by tomorrow. Newly online is a copy at That Weasel Television (who points out that he’s also got the three FTC vids we posted a little bit ago). You win some, you lose some. Update:Much more quickly than expected, the new links for Blade’s mirrors are live again: In Too Deep and Winning Isn’t Everything. (Links have been changed in yesterday’s news item, as well, to avoid confusion.)

Another new job opening at Bungie… this time it’s Editor for Bungie.net. (Man, if they weren’t in Washington…) Can you write? Do you have a passion for Bungie games? There might be a place for you! (Thanks to SketchFactor for the heads-up.)

DOH! Probably pays to actually have your email client running – Slashdot posted a note about (among other things) Winning isn’t Everything, but luckily, included a BitTorrent mirror for it, so Mythica didn’t get hammered. if you haven’t downloaded WIE yet, and you’d rather use BitTorrent, head on over to GameTab and grab a copy!

The Dialogue Databank is up over 350 snippets – we’ve already got stuff I’ve never heard in-game. (Have you heard Sarge saying this?) Browse away! (I’m beginning to realize that ‘5000 snippets’ counts some things 6 or 7 times – both Sergeants and all the marines (plus, in some cases, the crewmen) have their own variations. We’re not collecting all variations (mostly because it would be really hard to keep track), so we won’t come near the 5000 mark, even if we DO keep on the current pace. Just something to keep in mind. For those who just want the new stuff, today’s uploads are here.

Gamespot has put up 5 new Halo PC clips – but all are behind the Gamespot Complete wall. If you don’t pay, you don’t play. (I no longer have a Gamespot Complete membership, so I can’t even describe them to you.) Thanks to strato99l for the heads-up.

Folks have bandied about the ‘3 million sold’ figure for Halo for the last couple of months… but today, Microsoft and Bungie have announced officially that that number has been reached. From the official press release:

Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios today annnounced that the critically acclaimed "Halo: Combat Evolved” for Xbox has sold over three million copies worldwide. “Great to see that Halo continues to be a success on Xbox,” said Bungie studio manager Pete Parsons, “and later this summer we will unleash Halo for the PC with online multiplayer capabilities featuring new maps, weapons and vehicles, plus the ability for fans to create mods.” Bungie is currently hard at work on the highly anticipated sequel, Halo 2, which will come to Xbox in 2004.

I can’t find an online copy yet… but when we hear of one, I’ll link it. Update: The press release can now be found on Xbox.com. Thanks to Zac for the heads-up.

Six months ago, Mike Miller put together a film called ‘In Too Deep’. It rocked. Well, he’s back – the new one’s called ‘Winning isn’t Everything‘, and it rocks, too. 19.2 mb of QuickTime goodness – it’s just over 4 and a half minutes long, and it’s filled with a combination of tricks (most of which have been documented right here on this site), cool sequences, and fantastic audio choices. Timing (probably the most critical feature of a Halo vid) is spot-on… and there are some sequences that simply have to be seen to be believed. (Check out the Elite Wraith driver kill that starts around 1:07.) If you’re looking to make a Halo video, and you want to figure out what works… watch this. 20 mb is big… so any mirror offers will be greatly appreciated. Update: Blade, who’s in the process of building Team Ice, a Halo/Starcraft gaming website (with updates coming soon), has agreed to mirror BOTH of Mike Miller’s movies – you can grab In Too Deep and Winning isn’t Everything off his site. Thanks, Blade!

Ross Mills has begun a contest – design a Halo menu, win a cool Halo poster. Rules (and they’re somewhat intricate) can be found in this post. You’ve got two weeks.

The Weapons Respawn chart, begun almost a year ago, has now been completed – thanks to Annihil8or for the help! If you ever needed to know how long it would be until that Shotgun appeared again… this is the page to see.

MC tries out his new capabilities in today’s One One Se7en. I’m thinkin’ he’s not enjoying himself very much.

The Dialogue Databank has swelled to over 300 snippets (with more coming in every day) – if you have recording equipment, grab your own! You can get all of today’s additions here.

GameFaqs is running a one-day poll; Master Chief vs Felix (from Golden Sun). Go vote.

A week ago, Chris Bryan submitted a photograph of a gun he’s built – pretty amazing stuff. We’ve recently received two MORE photos from him – so we’ve tossed together a small page for this project. Now THAT’S a Halo fanatic.