Short notice… but we just heard about it. Game On Entertainment is hosting a Halo tournament (21 and older) in Chicago, this Monday, July 14, at 6:30 pm. Prizes are not listed yet – but entrance is free. Take a look!

Red vs Blue Episode 12 is now available to the publc. Normally, this doesn’t warrant a separate news post (we announce the RvB movies when they hit the Sponsor pages)… but in this case, there’s some additional info which might be of use to some of you. First, the archive of existing episodes has been pulled offline until traffic drops, so that they can serve Ep12. They’re guessing Monday or Tuesday for its return. Second, in addition to standard HTTP and Bit Torrent download links, they also now have FilePlanet links – the options continue to increase.

Just got home from Brian Josselyn’s Are You Big enough lanfest – here’s a shot (68K) of some of the folks present, set against the backdrop of the largest screen we used. (No, we didn’t play on this surface – there was a real screen that had been stored by the time this picture was taken.) Twelve hours of hi-def Halo goodness – and even though a bunch of the players won’t actually be home for a few more hours, it was absolutely, positively worth the drive. More soon, I hope. For now, bed.

As i write this, it’s 4:50 am, local time, and in just over an hour, a 2-car caravan filled with 8 psychos – er, Halo players – will head north from here for the Are You Big Enough lanfest in East Bumfu – er, Andover, Massachusetts. There probably won’t be too many site updates today, unless Count Zero manages to dig his way out from under that mountain of Jack Daniels bottles he built last night.

Well, we might not have access to Marty O’Donnell’s vast snippet archive… but Captain Spark is doing his best to keep up. 14 new submissions, based on some creative torturing, can be found in our Dialogue Databank today.

11 Fan Fiction bits for you today:

• Project: Shadow Spartan, Prologue, by Agent Shade
• Return of the Chief: Chapter 1: Lab Experiments, by Nightblade
• Escape from Marakesh, by The Scribe
• Battle for the Colonies Part One: Alpha Comus 8, by Hunter_Killer
• True Purpose(14), by Frensa Geran
• Oblivion Chapter 2, by Reclaimer
• Project: Shadow Spartan, Chapter 1, by Agent Shade
• pt2-Injustice-Halo2, by Spartan Construct-117
• The Last Hope For Outpost Bravo: Part 2, by Spartan5000
• The Maiden Fight:The Mouth of Hell, by pj-NYkr90
• A John Before Halo:Part 1 (Changed for the better), by J-117

Go get ’em!

IGN has a realtively new feature where readers can rate the game they’re reading about. Yesterday, they posted the top 10 rated Xbox games, as decided by their readers… and Halo is number 1. Thanks to Hank for the heads-up.

Massive updates at Bungie.net today. (Yeah, yeah, you all know about it already – that’s what happens when I’m away from the keyboard for 6 hours on a Friday afternoon.) Lessee if I can get all of it into one post:

• Part III of the Making of E3 demo article has gone up; Sketchfactor interviewed Marty O’Donnell and Jay Weinstein about the cool sounds you hear in the demo. Awesome behind-the-scenes info… must-read. (Fantabulous artwork, too.)
• A new Halo Voice Dialog Archive has come online. Because they know we’ll beat ’em into the ground with quantity, they cheated and added a bunch of clips you can’t even TRIGGER in the game. (Just kidding – it’s all good. Awesome stuff, and in a few days, when they’re not looking, we’ll add these to our Dialogue Databank.)
• Halo 2 voice outtakes; things that never, ever had a chance of making it into a game, but are fall-down funny…
• The Halo manual, in PDF format, has been added to the FAQ/Info section. (Hehe – yah, it’s been available at xbox.com since November 2001… but you know Bungie.)

Rockin’ stuff. Go grab it all. (Well, maybe not the manual.)

The continued adventures of a MC Puff(y) on One One Se7en today… that Sarge, man, he’s cold.

Wow. Looks like if you preorder Halo PC at Gamestop, you get a mini Blue Master Chief action figure, free. We’re not usually big on preorders… but this one seems like a pretty good deal. Thanks to Jonah for the heads-up.

Red vs Blue have put up Episode 12 for sponsors – and man, this one is nicely done. Filmmaking is topnotch, and plot twists abound. There’s a new server online, and it’s working considerably better than the old one (though it’s not clear if it will be available to non-paying visitors) – but if you’ve ponied up at least $5, go get it right now! (It’ll be available to everyone else on Sunday, probably.)

FTC, of Xbox Ottawa, is rapidly making a name for themselves in the Halo moviemaking world. Their first and second movies were both critical successes – and they’ve just released Number 3: When in doubt, take a ghost and jump out. It might take a couple of watchings to get the whole storyline, and the sound at the end leaves a bit to be desired (background noise interferes heavily with dialogue)… but this one had several laugh-out-loud moments, and top-notch filming quality. Check it out! Divx 5 format, 12.3 mb. We’re dropping it in the Mythica queue, so if they run out of bandwidth again, you’ll be able to grab it from us in the not-too-distant future.

Annihil8or sent in a few adjustments for the Weapons Respawn list – always good to have folks double-checking.

12 new snippets for the Dialogue Databank, thanks to Captain Spark. We’re up to 220. I still haven’t found time to re-record the Loony Toons signoff.

Continuing the trend of posting 3-month-old screenshots, Gamespot put up 12 new pics yesterday, as well. They’ve all been seen before – but some of the Prophet variants they put up are larger than any alternatives posted to date. Worth a look, if you’re an avid collector. Ross Mills was the first to notice on our forum.

Looks like a bunch of US servicemen stationed in Iraq organized a Halo tournament over the Fourth of July weekend… not a bad way to spend it! TeamXbox has the details (and a nice pic). Thanks to Caligula Caesar for the heads-up.

Dylan Velasquez writes to tell us of a recreation he’s made of the Halo map Longest for the Half-Life engine (for use in Counter-Strike) – check out this preview (105K). Lookin’ good!

Nine Fan Fiction stories for you today.

• A Marine Named Peters: Move Out!, by GLADIATRRR3000
• The first of Johns woes, by jellis186
• On A Pale Horse: The Esteem, by Silent Hunter
• Forsaken Forefathers part IX: Defection, by AlphaBravo343 and Havok
• A Marine Named Peters: Fly Away Home, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Its Just One of Those Days (prologue: 2), by Elfster
• The Fall of Fate: Escape, by ‘Nosolee
• The Virus Part 5, by monitor101
• Buried Treasure(3), by Frensa Geran

Read, blast you!

Okay, so Mythica’s been back online now for 44 hours. In that time, it’s served 260 GB of movies to you greedy bastards. What are you trying to do… kill it? Well, fine. Chew on THIS. It’s a 12.4 mb QuickTime version of a movie released by MaverickJ back in late June (originally in both WMP9 and MPEG formats). All three versions are still available on the Project Spartan Forum (and the WMP9 version can be grabbed from their Video page, no registration required) – this is just a mirror for folks having trouble over there. We’re also mirroring the QuickTime version (7.9 mb) of the followup first-person version, showing how the tricks were done. (All three flavors of the followup vid can be found at the Project Spartan Forum, as well – and there’s also a FAQ written up by MaverickJ; again, you’ll need to register to see these.) Both of these movies show some pretty cool Capture the Flag tricks. Stay tuned over the next couple of days for still more movies in need of bandwidth, and new, never-before-seen movies. Just don’t kill the goose before you get that golden egg.

Wow. That didn’t take very long. About 20 hours ago, I posted a note about a contest sponsored by gwdp….to, involving getting in to the separated room on Chill Out. Almost 2 hours ago, Macegac posted a movie (with BOLL’s hosting help) showing the completion of that challenge – and this is something that folks on our forum have tried to do, on and off, for almost a year. Guess sometimes it just takes cold hard cash to motivate the hardcore. Nicely done, all around!