We forgot to get back to this last week… but the Halo Dog Tags we mentioned on eBay a while back sold a week ago for $71. Ouch!

At least two big websites have picked up the info available in the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, and have made some of it available in text form. Eurogamer fairly credits OXM as its source… Computer and Video Games doesn’t. (“Details have been released…” yeah, well, it’s terrible to actually NAME a competitor…) If you haven’t downloaded the scans (good for you!), you can get a good sense of what’s in store at this stage by reading these articles. Thanks to Ciarán Walsh, Harry Al-Shakarchi, and Nathan Drews for the heads-up. Ups, even.

A week ago, BOLL came up with a new technique for creating cool panoramic views from Halo. He’s continued to create, and the current collection is up to 31 images. We’ve built them a home in our Miscellaneous section, and will add new images as he creates them. (Warning: the current page has more than 30 images on it… it might be slow-loading on modem connections, and even some broadband connections. If things get out of hand, we’ll take steps to reduce the load.) Make good use of these images… they’re really slick.

In an effort to break the database system at the Halo Story page, Finn processes another 18 user submissions in the two days since his last Story page update. If you think your puny human brain can handle it, head over to the Halo Story Page and read, read, read! (FAQ coming soon, apparently.)

Before I forget – 6 stories for you today in the Fan Fiction section:

• Cahpter 2: Gayap’s Story, by HaloFREAK
• True Purpose , by Frensa Geran
• Desolation, by Havok
• Looking Back to Move Foward , by John Morris
• Another ONI Black File: Halo ? We Got There First: Part 4, by Arthur Wellesly
• Another ONI Black File: Halo ? We Got There First: Part 5, by Arthur Wellesly

What are you waiting for?

Forum regular Opie301 has submitted a Reference Guide for Halo multiplayer gametype creation. All the various options available when you’re creating a new gametype are explained in detail. This is available now in our Miscellaneous section, as well as from Subnova, online… and if you choose, you can download a Microsoft Word document or a PDF document for printing. (All links can be found at the bottom of our online version.)

For those who haven’t grabbed Episode 4 of Red vs Blue from the official site (or for those in Europe), Eclarap points out that Halo-Game is once again mirroring this content.

Skav’s back.

Just a heads-up to the Fan Fiction writers… an oversight that’s been in place since the new automated system went online a couple of months ago has finally been rectified. (Thanks to Socrates for the heads-up.) You can now submit poetry again. The warning below the poetry/prose radio button should not be taken lightly.

Well, if you’re good at acronyms, this forum post from Red Dawg can help you figure out how the finals went at the Halo50K tournament… but the bottom line is, The Dream Team (which has won both AGP tournaments to date, as well as (in the person of one of its members) the Halo National Championship last year) took the gold AGAIN. No word yet on how Team HBO fared, unfortunately. Update: Oops, missed this thread. Looks like Team HBO got whupped… but hey, the competition was pretty rough!

Now HERE’S a weird one. Stefander dropped off a short movie he made, showing a small oversight on Bungie’s part. To reproduce it, you need a modded Xbox. Play the Maw right at the start – kill off the first wave of Flood that bust down the door. The second wave is just two guys – bump one (after it passes the broken door). Wander for a bit… and you might see this (1.6 mb, QT format). No graphics for the weapon… but it clearly used to be there. Nice! Credit to Goatrope, apparently, as well.

9 stories for you in the Fan Fiction section for you:

• Dimes Up, by Blindside
• The Forgotten -Phobos (Part 1), by el_halo_diablo
• SPARTAN II: Stranded Chapter I: Crash Landing, by Vinny
• Data Entry: UNSC Warship 5-101, by Dan Mitteer
• Bloody War: Prologue, by Ishkabibbl
• Dark Halo (04): The Megg , by Wado
• Above and Beyond the Call of Duty: Part 1, by pj-NYkr90
• Halo 2: The Wraiths chapter one; and so it begins, by Wiley Kimball
• The Road to Zaxheoa: Prologue: Hell Takes Its Toll, by Nike

Go get ’em…

To the eight million and one people sending us info about the OXM scans… Yes, it’s true: the June issue of the Official Xbox Magazine has a massive Halo 2 article, with some pretty incredible pictures. Yes, they’re allowed to print those – they got their permission straight from Bungie. Yes, we know that there are literally DOZENS of places where you can download these scans now. No, the issue is NOT on the shelves yet – only subscribers have their hands on it right now. No, we are NOT going to post these scans, or link to them; our policy with magazine scans is that we will NOT put up anything from a magazine still on the newsstand shelves. (June’s OXM isn’t even ON the shelves yet… forget about being OFF them.) By scanning these pages early (or downloading them and choosing not to buy the magazine because you’ve already read the article of interest to you), you’ve taken money from OXM, and increased the chances that OXM won’t be in business to BRING you cool articles like this a year from now. It’s not clear to me why we have to state this policy over and over, every time a magazine puts out a major Halo-related article… but it seems we do.

Another movie for ya – Fight or Flight, from Dancing Grunt Productions. 4:30 long, this movie is full of fun little snippets, mostly from single player or coop. From it, you can see stuff like coordinated marine rolls, cheating death by using vehicles, and some nicely timed warthog tosses (one into a blue beam – it’s tossed right back). It weighs in at 20.9 mb, and is hosted by mythica.org, with a backup on the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server. (More folks should take advantage of this resource – transfer rates are high, and the collection of movies is enormous.) Enjoy!

More art clearage, including a pretty amazing Maya render of the MC, and a tiny little icon… Check the Miscellaneous Art section for five new entries.

Beginning the clear-out of backlogged artwork – here are three desktop images for you, two of which come with variations. Check all five out in our Wallpaper section!

To the folks sending in Megg movies and screenshots – thanks, but you can stop now. We’ve got several pretty high quality movies… but Meg’s out of town until Tuesday, and plans to handle the PR when she gets back. We’re going to hold off until then to post stuff, but we certainly don’t need more. Thanks!

Roger Wilco rocks.

We’re a bit late… but Episode 4 of Red vs. Blue has been available for sponsors for about 10 hours now. The public version will be up Sunday at noon, as usual. This one starts slow… but it had me laughing at the end.

In an interesting turn of the tables, Bungie’s SketchFactor has interviewed Frank O’Connor, Executive Editor of the Official Xbox Magazine, about his life and job. OXM is running a pretty big Halo 2 spread in next month’s issue (on newsstands in a bit more than a week), so the timing is pretty good. Take a look!