Cyber Gaming Network has posted their E3 2003 Awards… and Halo 2 cleaned up. Best Visuals of Show, Xbox Game of Show, Demo of Show, and Outstanding Game of Show. Dunno… I think they liked it. Go read the details!

A month ago, we mentioned a card game being created by Phoenix Sanction. Looks like they’re done with the first set. Rules, card technicalities, and an Excel sheet deck creator… take a look.

Ross Mills writes to remind us that his ‘Halo Reloaded’ trailer can be found at That Weasel Television. There are two versions – a large 3.7 mb version and a small (sub-1mb) version, both in WMP9 format. Take a look!

HUNTR-KILLR turned in a funny little short film; no sound, but the action is what counts. Anybody who’s tried to put a jeep up on top of the level Halo knows how hard it is to drive up slopes… and walking is simply out of the question. Did you know, though, that Covenant characters have FAR less trouble? An elite can walk up a slope two or three times faster (maybe even more than that) than even a Warthog can! The clip just under 3 minutes long, and around 8 mb. It shows three separate climbs, with awesome views each time, and some cool falls at the end. (Each one has the player bump an Elite; yes, this is a modded xbox. This works with Jackals and Grunts, as well.) Check out RockClimber, on mythica.org now! (Clip 2 has the pistol-carrying elite stop halfway up the hill and admire the view… but he’s doing more than that; even with a modded xbox, the blue beam freeze effect is still an issue. He waits for the beam to fire, and THEN finished the climb; that gives him 16 seconds to get to the top.)

Evil Otto has posted a note over at Bungie.net announcing that the Halo 2 UI caption contest is now closed. Over a thousand entries, three will be selected. Good luck, EO, and good luck to all who entered! Read the news item for what is, and is not, permissible at this stage.

One of the more impressive gameplay vids in recent memory is Dan Chosich’s Halo50K Framework. It sets all sorts of bars that other Halo filmmakers strive to reach… and now it’s even better. Audio’s been re-encoded, aspect ratio and bitrate’s are both higher, for clarity… this movie captures the chaos, the adrenaline-induced exhilaration, the beauty of Halo multiplay, and now it does so in a 720×405 format, in just under 80 mb. It’s being hosted by Khen Rigzin’s site, Mindwarp. (The link points to a directory listing, so you can choose how you want to download it.) Enjoy!

Not to be outdone by the Gearbox crew, Bungie’s SketchFactor metes out a few morsels of info about the PC Rocket Hog. It’s a three-shot, boys and girls…

Geeoff has put together a multiplayer stunts movie called ‘the orange is coming’, and That Weasel has agreed to host it for him at That Weasel Television. It’s 26.3 mb, just under 2 minutes long, in WMP7 format. Some nice examples of using grenades to collect weapons on the run, as well as some hijinks on the top of Blood Gulch. Check it out! Update: There’s also a smaller, WMP9 version of the file (4.1 mb) that’s not listed on the main mirror page – you can grab it here.

Thanks to dolbex for sharing… he asked some interesting questions about vehicle respawning in PC Halo over at the Gearbox Forums, and got some solid answers from a couple of members of the Gearbox crew. Summary: vehicles will NOT be destroyable in multiplayer; it would be too frustrating to kill someone in a banshee and not be able to use it. The respawn that’s been mentioned refers to inaccessible vehicles:

The vehicle respawn option is part of the solution to having vehicles “parked” in areas that are problematic or that are just naturally away from the action. This also prevents “vehicle hoarding” by one team or a group of players.

There’s a lot more over there… read the rest! Update: I should have read the entire thread. There’s a multiplayer map based on Silent Cartographer, called ‘Death Island’… and it has Banshees. Finally, the Banshee returns to SC!

Another 12 entries in the Fan Fiction section today…

• When Games Collide: The Tournament of the Century Chapter 2, by Brent Carmichael
• True Purpose(7), by Frensa Geran
• A Halo Comedy (Very Original Title…), by Dispraiser
• Forsaken Forefathers part V: Boarding Action, by AlphaBravo343 and Havok
• Crash of the Accolade [Part 02], by Argonox
• Rally Point Alpha, by Sterfrye36
• Stowaway Part 3, by Dispraiser
• Uncertain Danger – Unwanted Visitors [Part 02][Series 01], by Argonox
• Beta Halo: Call in the Scouts, by SPARTAN 053
• Rebirth – Shadow’s Chapter 4 – Bar Fight, by Archangel’s Blade, Spartan 451, Knightmare, and Shadow
• The Virus Part 4, by monitor101
• The Darkness Worries – Unwanted Visitors [Part 03] , by Argonox

See how many you can read before the NEXT batch comes out.

Three art pieces built up over the past few days have been added to the Miscellaneous Art section. There were one or two others, but I’ve got no idea who sent them.

Lorraine McLees has written the latest Bungie Soapbox article… I think she needs to take a break. A long break. Maybe even… seven weeks long.

In what has to have been the most collosal act of stupidity I’ve perpetrated in months, I managed to delete not only my current copy of my mail directory… but the most recent backup, as well. Last backup before this one: March 16. That means if you mailed something to halo@bungie.org with an attachment, or a personal note to me that hasn’t yet received a reply… it’s gone forever. I have no way of recovering it. You’re welcome to resend attachments, or notes that needed replies; there’s not much I can do from this end, without your help. Moral of the story: Don’t swap disks. Ever.

You know you’ve made it when they start copying you. Red vs Blue has gotten quite a bit of positive press recently, and rightly so – they’re doing wonderful things with the art of Halo engine moviemaking. And now… they’ve spawned a tribute group; Salmon vs Teal. We should make it clear that these guys have nothing but the highest respect for the RvB crew… they just want to show it with a parody series. The first installment is up now; it’s available in two formats, a large (720×480, 12.3 mb, QT) and a medium (400×300, 5.4 mb, QT). Grab the one your bandwidth allows. You can comment on the project in this forum thread. Update: Both versions of this film have been mirrored by That Weasel Television – always great to have extra bandwidth!

We’ve mentioned the Counter-Strike skin made by Strykerwolf a few times since it was released to the net over a year ago… but it looks like it’s getting more press now. LeAtHeRnEcK points out that it’s been made Skin of the Day over at CS-Nation… check it out!

Cybrfrk has posted 106 pics from E3 on his website. Some have been seen before (on the b.org E3 coverage page) but many, many of them are new. Check ’em out!

Some of Stuntmutt’s One One Se7en episodes are turned in early, but involve topical (at the time of creation) subjects; I worried a bit that the joke would be lost by the time the strip was aired. Today’s strip is a perfect example… it involves the Megg easter egg, which was found over a month ago. Luckily, however, it showed up on our forum again this weekend… fortuitous. Take a look – it should make you grin.

Back on May 13, we mentioned a non-shakeycam movie being distributed by Gamespot; it was 9.7 mb, in .MOV format. (It’s basically a highlight reel, but it’s direct feed.) It was (is) a free download, but you have to register with Gamespot to get it. Well, that same movie, in a smaller form (320×240, 3.4 mb, MPEG) is now available WITHOUT the Gamespot watermark, over at GamesRadarUK. Thanks to 3Suns for the heads-up!

Gantry points out that episode 211 of the show ‘Filter’ on G4Tv (next airing this Thursday, 3:30 pm) covers the Most Anticipated Games of E3 – and Halo 2 is number 1. Watch it if you’ve got it! (If you just can’t get enough of G4’s Halo 2 coverage, they’ve also got an episode of Pulse covering E3 (in which Halo 2 figures prominently) showing Tuesday morning at 3 am…)

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews of the Junkyard writes to let us know that their Halo 2 section is now online. Content is sparse (because info about the game is sparse), but it will be filled out as the situation warrants. Check it out!