poena.dare points out that Bungie.net has posted a new poll: “Which Halo gametype do you enjoy the most?” (He also has pretty strong feelings on what your answer should be – but then, there wouldn’t be need for a poll if you all agreed with him, so go vote!)

Last month, the rage was to see what could be done with a hacked copy of Halo. Most folks seem to be ready to move on, since the benefits of hacking require more risk than they’re willing to take… but before we go, we’ve got one more film for you. This one is from Dozi, as the very first pair of hacked movies were – but this one has had quite a bit more time put into the soundtrack. Some clips you’ve seen before, some you haven’t – but the overall effect is quite enjoyable. It’s 16 megs, in QuickTime format, and runs about 3:39 in length. We don’t normally post multiple movies in a single day, but it’s a special occasion. Watch MoreHackinFun, and say goodnight to Hacking movies!

In keeping with our desire to eliminate the backlogged movie queue, we present to you Jiberish Halo Productions’ version of ‘Halo Safety Dance‘. It’s 9.6 mb, 1:17 long, in QT format, and brings back memories of the early 80’s. At the very least, it should bring a smile to your face. Thanks to Brian Towne and Mythica.org for the hosting. (For those keeping track, this film contains game spoilers.)

Last year, Bungie introduced Halo Babies, whose first season aired on Fox through last October. The show is currently in syndication – but it’s unclear whether the second and third season will ever air. Bungie Sightings gadfly poena.dare has managed to dig up the full three-season Episode Guide, however, and we now present it to you in its entirety.

For all those burning questions you might have about the Halo action figures… Mehve has put together a FAQ at Bungie.net for you. Did you know they were planning a UNSC Marine action figure with an interchangeable head? Well, they are. Check it out.

A number of images posted recently on our forum (plus a couple that came in via email) have made their way into our Miscellaneous Art collection. Take a look!

Once again, xbill comes up with a technique that will make the lives of Halo Tricksters everywhere just a little bit easier. Read his forum post for a way to delay checkpoints until you’re in the position you want to be in. This could save you hours, if you’re, say, launching vehicles!

Woohoo! The new hooded sweatshirt is finally available at the Bungie Store. $30 ($32 for XXL) puts the MC on your chest and a hood on your head. Check it out!

A new HBO-themed banner has been submitted to our Banners section…

A pair of desktops for you today – black Halo. Check out the Wallpaper section.

Bungie Fanfest 2003? Cybrfrk noticed that the Bungie Webcam has changed to a closeup of the white (paper?) that’s been in the left of the frame for days… is this a preview of the invite that will go out for, say, a fanfest that might be linked to E3 2003?

Couple of totally random images for you today – Wraith0x (winner of the Silliest Email Address Ever award) sent in this single webcam frame, captured last friday when Cortana stopped by the Bungie offices. And James Loosli, headed to a color guard competition (as he says, “think hundreds of girls in spandex”), made up a homebrew Halo t-shirt that fared rather better than he did in the lovin’ department. I love this job.

To all the people who have suddenly begun to send us ‘new ways out of Blood Gulch’ (after months of silence on the subject, we’ve gotten half a dozen messages in the past few days, from different people): The top of Blood Gulch is COMPLETELY tapped out, tricks-wise. To get out, you can use a ghost to climb the walls (Cal showed the technique, and then Geeoff and later Destr0yer expanded on it), you can tank-flip (described by Brizzle a long time ago; I’m not sure if it was ever documented on film), you can Sidewinder-sneak out of a whole bunch of locations. Finding a new location to get up, using one of these methods, does NOT constitute a new trick; they’re all documented, and people can experiment all they want. (I bet there are 2-dozen-plus sneakable places around the walls… we simply don’t need that many films of the same technique in slightly different locations each time.) I’m sure there are still tricks to discover with respect to BG – but climbing out of the map is no longer on the list. Thanks!

Wow. If you’ve got a phone with a polyphonic ringer, check this out. (Even if you don’t, listen to the midi file. It’s pretty dang impressive.) Thanks to Team Overkill for the heads-up.

There’s another Dogsounds Art Challenge brewing on our forum. Rules are here. (At some point soon, we’ll put up a page of the submissions to his first challenge – but as far as I can tell, he moved the deadline back because he hadn’t gotten around to entering himself, so it’s not quite over.)

Here is the last Fan Fiction update until I can get a user-operated form up and running. Luckily, it’s a huge number of stories – should keep you busy for a while.

• Jackal Interview, by Gasmask
• Earth: A Halo Tale, part 4, by Nike
• Changes Two, by Mark Boone
• Justification Pt. IV, by Rixor
• The Enigma II Campaigns, by Sarge
• And Raise Your Head With Pride! Part 3 and Part 4, by Arthur Wellesly
• HALO: Return Reunion Chapter 1, by Earth’s Redeemer
• Legend Hunting Part four, by Dispraiser
• Rebirth – Shade; Mind Games?, by KnightmareWolf/Shadow/Archangel’s Blade/Spartan415
• The Bane of the Universe: A Metroid/Halo Crossover, by Ultra Sonic 007
• The Battle For Sigma Octanus Chapter 5, by moniter101
• HALO: The Spartans – Part 2, by S7N
• Ring Of The Forerunners Part VI, by Locke
• Halo: Reunion from Destruction Part 3, by Frensa Geran
• Assualt on Edina, by Steele

More details when I know them.

I give up. Fiction is now coming in faster than I can actually process it. As of this moment (timestamp on this article), the fan fiction section is closed. Stories received before this point (and I think we’re up to 18, in the past 48 hours) will be processed sometime tomorrow morning (by 17:00 utc). After that, I’ll build a form for story input – there’ll be almost no formatting, but you can write to your hearts’ content. I simply cannot spend 6 hours per day formatting stories any more.

Whoa. The Trickstering continues. Two new tricks have popped up on our forum today – NJ_HitMan found a place on top of 343GS where the player becomes invisible, seen from the point of view of his coop partner (details and a movie in this thread, and more details in this one) – and xbill, long silent on our forum, has found a way to get a warthog and several marines past the first barrier in the Silent Cartographer ocean. Halo tricks are alive and well – there’s still plenty of stuff to find!

Posted last night – Bungie.net has updated their Wallpapers section to include a cool new desktop that uses the image that will be found on the new Halo novel to be released next month. (The original artwork can also be found in the Gallery.) Of course, if you’re still trying to avoid spoilers, don’t look at this…

Dinky has added a mirror for the small version of the Halo50K Framework film at HaloJuggaloProductions – and because the mirrors have handled the strain, we’re going to continue with the clearing of the movie queue. First up is a film submitted about a month ago (yes, it’s been a while) – it’s called Hackin Halo! (no relation to HackinHaloFun), and was made by HNN productions. It’s available in both WMP9 (11 mb) and QuickTime 5 (13.7 mb) formats at mythica.org, and both versions are mirrored at the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server. It’s basically another compilation of what can be done with a modded Xbox, much as the ones released last month were. (There are some new tricks shown here.) Enjoy this, and the Framework film if you haven’t grabbed it yet!