The Fan Fiction authors have just become guinea pigs again. I’ve made some changes in how the Series name gets chosen; it’ll be much, much harder to forget to add it (or to add the wrong one) now – you’ll have to work at it. 🙂 Of course, it hasn’t been rigorously tested yet – that’s where the authors come in. So submit your stories, and if you notice a major problem with the posted version (as compared to what you originally submitted), please, let us know. It should go without saying that you should keep a local copy of your story, in case of trouble during the submitting process – but I’m going to say it anyway, since many of you don’t seem to bother. Hopefully, this will solve most of the problems you’ve run into – if you find new ones, please tell me; I can’t fix what I don’t know about. Thanks! (Thanks go out to John Myers, for suggesting – in a very useful way – the direction in which I could change the series picker.)

NazdaH has put up another driver-jumping movie (this one FOCUSES on the driver jumps) – lots of places, lots of heights. Again – as we mentioned a couple of days ago, this is a single-person trick; all you need is a warthog, and something to bounce off of. (Basically, you’re translating your forward momentum you gain from the hog’s movement to vertical height by bouncing off an obstacle.) Very cool stuff, even though the video quality is a bit off. WMV7 format, 4.7 mb. Take a look!

A surprisingly deep collection of artwork today has been added to the Miscellaneous art section, including a nice faked Halo2 shot, an interesting take on Cortana, and a pair of simply gorgeous comic-style MCs from ZZoMBiE13 (I’d love to have these last two hanging on my wall!). Check ’em all out!

Nine Fan Fiction bits for you today:

• True Purpose(12), by Frensa Geran
• The Fallen : Halo 2 Chapter 3, Section 1, by Hikaru-119
• The Fallen : Halo 2, Chapter 3, Section 2, by hikaru-119
• Redemption, and Victory Part Two, by Hunter_Killer
• Destination: Marakesh, by The Scribe
• Spartans in NYC Chapter 3, by Chief-117
• The Fall of Fate: Destiny (Part 7), by ‘Nosolee
• Shadow Ops, Chapter 8: End Game, by Agent Shade
• Creation: Part 1, by Zack Hodges

Work on the new interface goes slowly – adding the bits I wanted to add is turning out to be tougher than I expected. Coming…

mehve has updated the Bungie community on the Halo Action Figures – they’re on their way out of the factory right now! They should be hitting the Bungie Store (and other outlets) by early August. Go read about the details! Update: mehve points out that the key points of this news bit have been added to the Halo Action Figures FAQ.

c0ld vengeance and BOLL have put together another Halo Hide and Seek; identify where, in Halo, you’ll find the images posted. There are currently 12 images, in 4 separate posts (to keep from totally overloading dial-up visitors)… in the half-hour since the contest went live, already 2 of the 12 images have been identified! Jump in now for your chance to win!

Telefragged has put up an interview with Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox, about Halo PC. Much of the info is already out there, but there are some new tidbits. For example, there will be a ‘Classic’ mode in multiplayer that leaves things exactly as they are in the Xbox version, for the purists. (No banshees in Blood Gulch for you folks!) He’s also more optimistic about Coop – though it might not be there at launch. There’s a teaser about Halo PC League play… and some more details about how the multiplayer is set up. For the doomsayers among you, Randy has this:

Halo for PC will come sometime in late summer.

Go check the whole thing out! Thanks to Ramius for the heads-up.

Dave Writz of Halogamers.com has found a new place to use the ghost jumping trick on Sidewinder – it’s a pretty fast in-and-out when you’re headed for a flag capture! Take a look; 6.4 mb in MPEG2 format. (If anyone has real trouble with the format, let us know – I’m sure Dave would be willing to offer a different flavor.)

Dispraiser puts in a call for modders – he’s starting work on a PC mod. He’s got the beginnings of a Halo battle rifle already built – needs skinning, though. Check it out!

Wow. Either someone’s smoking too much crack… or something got leaked. A representative of ArtSource (a digital media staffing agency with an office in Seattle) posted to the CG Talk Hiring forum, with a request that reads in part:

Are you a SENIOR 3D Max modeler (3+ years of work experience) with multiplayer map experience, texturing and game experience? Are you available for CONTRACT work in Seattle for 3+ months?

If you have an amazing reel of strong environment modeling, we need you to work with the HALO and MARATHON team. These positions start out contract but may convert to direct hire.

Longtime Bungie fans might be going a bit berserk right now, given that ‘Marathon team’ reference… but remember one thing: right near the top of Bungie’s very own Jobs page, there’s a disclaimer:

Note to Recruitment Agencies: In accordance with Microsoft’s recruitment policies, Bungie does not accept applicants from recruitment agencies and will not pay a recruitment fee for any candidates.

So: Is ArtSource working in a sanctioned way with Bungie (or Microsoft) – or have they flipped? And how real is the ‘Marathon team’? Speculation is welcome on our forum, and if we get any harder information than this, we’ll be sure to post it right here. (Thanks to Ian Mankowski for finding this gem.) Update: Evil Otto clears up the situation with a flat “there is no Marathon sequel in our plans at this time.” Read his post for more details on how this might have come about. Thanks, EO!

Elliott “zorg” Zastrow writes to point out that the Mad-City Halo Tournament (mentioned about a month ago) is coming along strongly – tournament date looks to be July 19, in Madison, WI. If you’re a single player, they’ve got some resources on their forum for team-matching, to help you find a team to play on. Their website has lots more information. They’re shooting for 40 teams – go sign up today!

Monday’s episode of One One Se7en has been posted… and I wanna know, how do those guys have time for tomfoolery?

Months ago, when the first Safari beta was released for OSX users, we discovered we had a problem… our spoiler cookies wouldn’t set properly for Safari users. Luckily, a week later, a kind reader sent a fix; you could manually add the cookie to Safari’s cookie list. It worked… but if you ever felt like changing your settings, you had to manually delete the cookie – and then re-add it to change it again. Not fun. Well, finally, Safari browsers are treated properly by HBO – thanks to Deimos Fawkes, of Subnova. You’ll have to manually delete the platformchoice cookie if you’ve set it already using our Safari Fix instructions… but once you do, you’ll have one-click access to spoiler swapping, just like all other browsers have. And about time!

Sir Fragula’s Halo: The RPG project is coming along nicely – all existing patches (and some non-patch changes) have been bundled into the latest iteration. Visit Lion’s mirror site for the latest pics and downloads.

13 new Fan Fiction pieces for you today:

• Master Chief Returns, Part 1: Longsword, by Switchback
• Ch 1: Theives in the Night, by TheForsaken
• Chapter One: URTH, by Christopher Kalanderopoulos
• Redemption, and Victory: Part One, by Hunter_Killer
• Attack on Central Command, by The Scribe
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part Two, Hansley’s second, by Ronald Maszk
• Defeat at Central Command, by The Scribe
• Halo 2: Chapter 4: Just another day at work…, by Shadowrunner
• Spartans in NYC Chapter2, by Chief-117
• Operation Sunlight Part 2: James, by Gruntkiller
• Critters the Reckoning part 3, by Caleb Generoso
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part Three: Hansley’s Guilt, by Ronald Maszk
• Human vs. Covenant War: Part Four: Hansley’s Battle, by Ronald Maszk

In the near future, there’ll be a change to the Submission form in how you pick your series name. It should remove all confusion (if all goes well).

A couple of days ago, NzadaH posted a quick capture of a flag-capturing trick to our forum. I didn’t look closely enough, and thought it was another instance of MaverickJ’s warthog gunner trick (where the gunner is popped out by spinning the gun to face the back of the hog and pressing X)… but it was recently pointed out to me that the jumper in NazdaH’s video is the DRIVER, not the gunner. This one’s a one-person trick… definitely worth a look. (You don’t have to have someone below tossing you the flag, either; you can land IN the base, and run back out to the ‘hog you just left.) it’s not quite as easy as it looks… but once you get the timing down, this one’s a killer.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve gotten a few emails about the medals on Keyes’ uniform. Folks have recognized the Purple Heart, the Medal of Honor, and the Air Force Cross. Today, Brannon Boren laid out ALL of them on our forum – so now you know.

Gamespot has posted a list of their choices for the top 10 cooperative games of all time. (They’re not ranked among the top 10 – “They’re all equal in our eyes, you might say.”) Halo makes the list. Nice! Thanks to DT for the heads-up.

The LAN party taking place in the latter half of the day during the Pillar of Art Gallery showing has filled up!

I’m sorry if you were hedging on whether or not to sign up for the party, as you have missed out on what is looking to be a really good time, but at least you can still make it to the Gallery itself and check out the cool art!

Halo Orbit is organizing an online (via XBC) Halo tournament; check this forum thread or this news article. They suggest you come from a country near Germany, due to internet limitations… but other than that, there aren’t any restrictions.