Last month, we posted a news article about a program called Game Stars, running on ITV1, in the UK – web surfers could cast their votes for the best games in the UK. Griffon let us know that the show aired on Sunday… and Halo didn’t do very well. It took the Games Radar.com Award… but was beaten in every other category. You can see the final rankings on the Game Stars page. And so it goes…

PC Halo gets listed in the ‘Big Games of 2003‘ article at IGN PC – you’ll find it on page 3, in the First Person Shooters category. They suggest that folks might not like it because it’s old, and its graphics are dated… and that the multiplayer aspect might be weak. But except for that, it’ll be great, right? (Here’s hoping they’re smart enough to apologize when they see the final product.) Thanks to Skeletor for the heads-up.

Whew. Back from a (very pleasant) 5 day trip to Belgium… and attempting to deal with some of the backlog here. I was very careful to make sure there were folks minding the store here, with access to almost all parts of the bungie.org infrastructure. The one part I left out was the HBO hardware itself. 🙁 The box died at roughly 10:40 pm EDT on Sunday night… and nobody had any way of getting it running again until yesterday. I’ve already taken steps to ensure this won’t happen again. In the meantime, I’m plowing through the dozens (hundreds, if you count all addresses) of emails and will be adding the backlogged content as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

Newest addition to the product lineup at the Bungie Store: A Beanie! (Well, OK, not a beanie, but a cap)

Tom Clifford points out that the Valley Branch Retreat, in Indiana, is planning a Halo-themed paintball scenario on May 17th. There’s a sign-up form on that page, including details on the registration fees. If you’re tired of only getting hit by virtual bullets, check it out!

The newest episode of Red vs. Blue has been released to the public. The video has also been mirrored at Halo-Game.com. Those wacky marines…

The deadline for the America’s Biggest Halo Fan contest has been extended to April 25th, according to SketchFactor over on Bungie.net. The top three entries get a free trip to the FanFest next month, so get cracking!

A new logo tweak for our Logos section… and they keep coming.

Cybrfrk noticed an interesting new wearable appearing on the Bungie webcam… or is it wearable? (I guess it could be a backpack, or something.) Anyway, seems clear that the Store will be growing in available items soon…

mastasnypa wrote to us on Wednesday, but we seem to have lost the mail in the crush. VE3D has been running a poll all week (Most anticipated upcoming action sequel?) and Halo 2 is running a distant 3rd, behind Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. Ouch! Have you voted?

Four new desktops for you today in the Wallpaper section…

The second episode of an obscure comic has been added to our Miscellaneous Art section. It’s not quite as obscure any more.

Ross Mills points out that this month’s issue of XBoxGamer (on sale in the UK as of April 11) comes bundled with a free copy of Prima’s Official Strategy Guide (nice – I paid $15 for that a while back) and an offer for a free Xbox DVD remote if you subscribe. Not too shabby!

10 new stories for you in the Fan Fiction section today…

• [Contact – Chapter 1] Not Covenant…, by H@()$
• Rogue Beast Final, by Frensa Geran
• Halo: 11th Strategic Interceptor Wing Part 6: Invasion, by LordofDestruction
• The Road to Earth Part One, by John Morris
• I’m Goin’ In!: Interactive fan fic – Stage 2, by el_halo_diablo
• The Sovereign: Chapter 1, by HaloFREAK
• Halo 2: Revenge of a Spartan, Chapter 5, by LostRock
• Death from Above part IV: Staring Into the Face of Death, by AlphaBravo343
• Copper Sky, by Red Loser
• The Devil’s Brigade Prt. 1 (Revised), by Spinks

Keep reading, they’ll write more…

I’m going to do my best to clear out the artwork/fiction queues before I leave today… but this is a formal request that all content for submission in the next week or so be mailed to halo@bungie.org, NOT my personal email. I will not be checking email (or doing anything else web-related) for the next 5 days; anything you send to me will sit unnoticed by all until Wednesday/Thursday at the very earliest. Folks have gotten into the bad habit of using my personal email address to submit artwork or movies, instead of the (more widely read) official email… this would be a good time to get OUT of that habit.

Almost a month ago, Hickadam, the creator of the wildly popular Asshole movie, wrote to us to let us know that he’d found the original version on his hard drive.

This one was taped off a TV with a camcorder (sorry for the quality), and was my very first try at video editing.

It has some stuff i’m proud of, and other stuff that’s kinda embarassing, but I figured, what the heck. Someone might get a kick out of it!

I thought if people like Director’s Cuts on real movies, why not have one on a 4 1/2 minute one?

A fine idea. It’s only in WMV format (WMP7, so it’s viewable on most platforms), and it weighs in at 15.3 mb; you can grab a copy at Mythica. Enjoy!

Whoa – and the load shall be lightened. Gawyn [subnova] popped onto our forum to announce that Subnova has created an ‘Official Megg Forum‘, dedicated to the search for the Megg. Benefits to visitors include feedback from the only folks who actually know where the dang thing is… benefits to HBO forumgoers should be even more obvious. From now on, Megg speculation should take place at the home of the Megg! Now the HBO forum can get back to more important things, like discussions of pie.

Now this is Halo fanaticism. 3 hours of 4-player splitscreen Halo play on an 8″ screen? OUCH!

The man’s on a roll… Warbow tosses up another Calvin and Halo for your viewing pleasure.

Red Loser attempts to bring up the level of discourse on our forum with some poetry. Watch out for the stinky fish…