We’re back. (Duh.) Gonna try and catch up now. Lots of you rock. Some of you don’t. And so it goes.

Update on a recent movie: I was an idiot, and sound is broken on the early version of the Silent Cartographer Speed Run for 95% of viewers. (It’s a mystery to me why it’s not 100%, but some people have no problems.) In any case, both versions (Mythica and Psyjnir) have been replaced with new versions; if you were having trouble before, grab it again. Apologies for the waste of time/bandwidth; I’ll try not to do this again.

Vern Shields put together a pretty nice speed run for Silent Cartographer. Yes, it’s on Easy… but there are some pretty cool aspects to it. First, he completed the entire level in 4:43, measured from starting to ending checkpoints. Second, as he leaves the underground area, he passes not one, but TWO gold elites. Third, at the top of the last ramp, there’s a nice example of mass scripted death – all the baddies simply fall dead on the ground as he reaches them. Fourth – the ending cutscene has a surprise in it… watch it all the way through. And fifth… well, he picked a piece of music that meshes amazingly well with the action. Nicely done all around. There are other nuggets worth seeing… grab the film at Mythica. (It should also be on the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server sometime later tonight.) It’s in QuickTime format, and weighs in at 23.1 mb. The Legendary Speed Runners have something to shoot for!

Somehow we missed it… but Gamespy has been building its ‘Top 25 Games of E3‘ list… and Halo PC made it in at #24. Now… I played a few of the other games listed (the top 10 aren’t up yet), and I’m not sure at all how they did the math… but hey, they can say anything they want, right? Tanks to Battleground: Halo (“Best Halo site on the ‘net”, according to Gamespy) for the heads-up.

DOH! I’ve got to set up some sort of email notification system to remind me about this puppy… but the next episode of One One Se7en is online (it’s yesterday’s, actually). I gotta say… these bring a smile to my face. If they do the same to you, drop Stuntmutt some mail.

ragereset points out that the IGN Insider article we mentioned a couple of days ago is now open to the general public. It’s definitely worth a read – there’s some interesting content that hasn’t been posted anywhere else, and now you don’t have to pay to see it.

Thanks to HemoGloben, who pointed out the new desktop at Bungie’s Truth and Reconciliation site. Nice ghost work by mehve!

For those interested in trying their luck (or trying their luck again), the E3 2003 Trivia Contest is back online – and the IP block has been removed. Remember; most of the answers can be found online!

We got mail from Elliott Zastrow about the RLXC Mad-City Halo Team Tournament, in Madison, WI in mid-July. 4-player team tournament, $80/team entrance, $2400 cash purse to split between the top 5 teams. You’ll find more details on the tournament webpage. Check ’em out if you’re in the area!

Nine Fan Fiction pieces for you, all bits of larger stories:

• Episode-II The Saviour awakens, by Jon Michael Marlowe
• Halo: White Battleground (Trailer), by ShadowWolf Forsythe
• Halo: Reclaimer- Part 2, by T. K. Niemann
• Chapter 1: Reveille, by Diamond Dog
• True Purpose(5), by Frensa Geran
• ONI Black Ops Part Seven, by Havok
• Training day, by Edward
• Croton 3, by Earl Hershberger
• Shadow’s Chapter , by Knightmare, Spartan 451, Archangel’s Blade, Shadow

Go for it!

For those interested in seeing how they stacked up against the competition, we’ve put the top 100 contestants in the online trivia contest up on our E3 Coverage page. Take a look! (The trivia contest itself will be up again later tonight, or tomorrow – and the IP ban will be removed, so if you’d like to try again, you’ll be able to.)

Tycho, of Penny Arcade, gave a quick E3 rundown in today’s strip… and Halo 2 was included. Covers the subject pretty well. Thanks to Ross Mills for the heads-up.

Bullseye points out that Firing Squad has put up an overview of Halo 2 from E3. If you’ve been eagerly snarfing up every Halo 2 tidbit to be released recently, there won’t be anything new here… but it’s a nice writeup nevertheless.

Hehe – pretty cool… come up with a cool phrase or quote, and it might make it into Halo 2 as an easter egg. Want the details on this fun little contest? Go read the news story at Bungie.net. Thanks to PanZer for the heads-up on our forum.

The winner of the Online Trivia Contest held last week here has been revealed, over at Bungie.net, by SketchFactor. Congratulations to Thomas Langdon, who pulled the high score (36/49, or 73%) out of the 326 people who took it. (Yeah, it was TOUGH.) We should have it back online to play with later this week. If there’s interest, I’d be happy to post the top 100 or so.

In the fervor of last week, we managed to forget to post about a seventh screenshot at Bungie.net; unlike the first 6, it’s at 640×480, because apparently the depth-of-field effect only works at that resolution. It’s very slick, though – worth seeing! (It’s the last shot on the page.)

For those with Gamespot Complete access (it seems many people paid them the $5 monthly fee to get the Halo 2 trailer), there’s a new interview up; Pete Parsons, Studio Manager at Bungie, discussed the trailer, and the future with respect to Halo 2, with a Gamespot staffer. You’ll find it on their media page. Just under 5 minutes, it weighs in at 62 mb.

The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences is now looking for films. From their official announcement:

The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences has officially opened its 2003 Call for Entries, accepting submissions of Machinima works for this year’s Machinima Film Festival (Machinima films are films made within a real-time virtual 3D environment, i.e. 3D game engine). The early submission deadline is August 1, 2003 and the final deadline is September 15, 2003. This year’s festival is to be held in New York City in October 2003.

Visit the site and look around – and think about an entry if you’re so inclined!

mehve, otherwise known as Bungie artist Lorraine McLees, points out on our forum that Cortana’s face was modeled after Nefertiti, an ancient Egyptian queen. (There are hundreds of pictures of her – just do a Google image search; here’s one example, on a page describing the queen herself.) Thanks, mehve!

It’s been mentioned that one of the videos shown at the fanfest involved a documentary being done for the Discovery Channel. Forum visitor none posted a summary of the actual piece, as well as showtimes. (Be aware that the documentary will not contain all the footage shown at the fanfest.)