Thanks to dolbex and BOLL, who together got the forum back to 4BitterGuys.com, and a Halo drinking game (complete with artwork). I wonder if the RvB guys ever played this?

Captain Spark recently submitted over 125 dialogue samples, in mp3 format. We’ve decided to use these to start a dialogue databank. Check out what’s already there… and if you’ve got the equipment (and the interest), follow the instructions on the page for sending in NEW snippets! Suggestions are always welcome. Update: Wraith has submitted three new Grunt snippets – the collection grows!

Wolfy writes to point out that the Halo Quiz he’s been working on is now online at Sector 7. Try your skill!

Eight new desktops for you today – two of which come in multiple sizes. Apologies for not getting Shishka’s Bungie Day entry posted before the end of Bungie Day (7.7). Check ’em all out in the Wallpaper section.

Dark Helmet has started a new Halo movie series. It’s called Apocalypse: Halo, and the first installment can be downloaded from FilePlanet. It’s in WMP9 format (which means we don’t know anything more about it than what DH has said in this forum post – we can’t watch it here), and weighs in at 18.8 mb. Take a look!

Yesterday, we nearly forgot to post the second Sunday strip of One One Se7en. We’re not going to make that mistake today. Monday’s strip looks at some potential problems with the new dual SMGs the Master Chief will have access to in Halo 2.

SketchFactor has posted a request for feedback over on Bungie.net – they’re trying to find out what you like best (and least) about the Bungie.net services, and what new content you’d like to see. Feeback is required before July 14 – you’ve got a week! Read the whole article, then send them your well-thought-out responses.

HomeLan Federation spoke with Michel Bastien, producer (on the Bungie side) for Halo PC, and Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox, about progress in the development process. There’s even a tiny tidbit about the Mac version. Overall, a good read – it’ll lay out clearly what hurdles the teams faced, and how they overcame them. Thanks to DeAdLy_cOoKiE for the heads-up.

Five submissions today for the Miscellaneous Art section. I like the charcoal MC quite a lot. Update: oops, forgot a drawing of the MC by Shishka, posted this morning in honor of Bungie day. Update 2: Man, forgetfulness must be in the air. c0ld vengeance submitted an image a while back that we never added…

Anyone who’s played Oddball knows that if you release the ball when another player is standing in front of you, they will involuntarily pick it up. So what happens when there are a LOT of balls… and they’re all between a pair of players? Devin Olsen asked the question on our forum – and BOLL made a short film showing Oddball Juggling. (If his link goes down, you can find another copy right here. The local version is only 2.7 mb.)

Merecatfish has put up a Flash ‘Hotel‘ – apparently, you can send him a photo of your room (your bedroom, I guess) with Bungie stuff visible in it, and he’ll add it to a ‘room’ of the hotel. It’s in celebration of Bungie Day. The goal seems to be a collection of photographs of Bungie schwag-filled rooms. Warning: really, really slow site; the 121k Flash file took over 2 minutes to load, and the spinning ‘you must wait’ interim animation made me nauseous.

Dang. Well, I’d expected to get a full writeup of the Pillar of Art gallery showing and the subsequent lanfest up and posted today… but it WAS the end of a holiday weekend. Stuff will be coming… but for those who missed it, Miguel Chavez posted pictures almost in real time yesterday, over at Bungie Sightings: here’s the first batch, here’s the second. There are also a number of forum threads discussing the activities… more soon, though mostly I’m gonna steal Mig’s pics, since he was using the camera far more than I was. Update: Elan Sleazbagano wrote up a short summary for the Team Overkill site.

Hehe – check out the Xbox Boys, a bunch of guys that get together to play Halo. They’ve even got stats.

Long weekend, no posting – so you’ve got 14 Fan Fiction pieces to get through:

• Operation Sunlight Part 3: Black, by Gruntkiller
• Divinity (Halo 2: Chapter 5), by Shadowrunner
• A World Apart Prologue, by Dark Spartan
• Favor the Bold (chapter 1), by Loki_25
• Last Hope For Outpost Bravo: Part 1, by Spartan5000
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Five, by LordofDestruction
• Halo Zero 2 /p4/ An Old Friend, by nicholas
• Halo Zero /p5/ Interrogating Private Sanders, by nicholas
• Creation: part 2, by Zack Hodges
• Chapter 2, by BlackValkyire
• All Roads Lead To Sol…Despite What The Map Says: Chapter 7, by S7N
• A John Before Halo: Prelude and Chapter 1, by J-117
• Halo- A Comedy, by Lanerd
• On A Pale Horse: Enough Dead Heroes, by Silent Hunter

Go to it!

Ben Torrence writes to tell us about GameLords, a new console gaming center in San Diego – they’re hosting a Halo tournament on August 2, 2003. Entry fee is $5, game is solo Slayer to 25 kills. Top 16 players get t-shirts, top 8 get free time on their equipment, and the winner will get a Steel Battalion set. Gameplay is all on 65″ Mitsubishi HDTVs. Check ’em out for more info – and stop by on the 2nd!

Thanks to Ross Mills and oddworld18, for reminding us that the Underground Online exclusive Halo PC screenshots we mentioned a couple of weeks ago had not been added to the Screenshots database yet. Oversight rectified.

Gah. Stuntmutt went to the effort of creating a second Sunday Strip for One One Se7en… and I almost forgot to post it while it was still Sunday! I think I finally understand something that’s been bugging me for years…

Very nice find by Eclarap, of Halo-Game… the entry in Random House’s database for Halo: First Strike (the next Halo novel, again by Eric Nylund) has been updated with what looks to be real cover art. (On the off chance it’s NOT real, a local copy has been added here.) Nice!

In what would appear to be some kind of cruel plot to raise our readers’ expectations, Finn has updated the Story page yet again! But, never fear, I’m sure we’ll be back to our slacker ways in no time. 🙂

In less than 5 hours, the Chelsea Studio Gallery, at 515 W. 19th St. in New York City, will open its doors for the Pillar of Art gallery showing. Come by and see the submitted artwork, displayed in this lovely little gallery – the public is welcome until probably around 6 pm. (After that point, the artwork will come down, tables will go up, and a LANfest will be taking place – unfortunately, attendance for this segment is NOT open to the public, simply for space reasons.) We’ll also have examples of the signed Lorraine McLees artwork that will be given to all entrants, as well as the little red MC (96k jpeg) that will be sent to Geoff Chang for his Battle Rifle entry. If you’re in the New York area, swing by and say hello! (All of HBO’s staff except for the Story Page boys will be there, as well, so updates will be rather sparse for the rest of the day.) Pictures will be taken, of course, and a Gallery showing page will be added to the Pillar of Art site at some point in the near future. Update: Miguel Chavez sent along a few shots of the setup work yesterday – they’ve been put up at the PoA site. More to come!