Again, we had to filter out a number of images, but the remainder (four pieces, plus variations) can be found in our Miscellaneous Art section. Some nice stuff!

Heh – pu1l found a NEW .fortune message (if you don’t know what a .fortune message is, check the Easter Eggs page). We like this one.

Beginning to clear out the artwork backlog… first up: desktop images. Three new ones (and several that didn’t meet the newly posted guidelines) – check ’em out in the Wallpaper section.

More action figure goodness… this time, right from the source. Check out the story at b.net, including a nice shot of a Cortana figure prototype. (A tad too sexy for my taste… but she ain’t done yet.) Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up.

Whoa – we forgot to get back to it. Thanks to archon, at the Marathon’s Story Page forum, for reminding us. A week ago, some Halo dogtags (from Japan) went up for auction at eBay. They closed a couple of days ago for $77.02. Now THERE’S a nice profit.

Nice find. Brandon Tyler points out an article at Yahoo which details the agreement between Racing Champions Ertl (a marketer of collectibles) and Microsoft to create collectible figures and vehicles based on Halo (among other games). No dates have been given.

scibot3 points out his new Halo site, Bungie Halo. Currently, the Weapons section is the most fleshed out, but he plans to add content continuously. Check it out!

For all those who’ve submitted artwork, fiction, movies, in the last few days – apologies for the delay in posting. It’s a holiday weekend, and we have relatives in town. I was hoping to get to much of it Sunday afternoon… didn’t happen. Monday, as well, looks booked up. I might get some time, but I might not. If family delays me, I’d really appreciate your patience; I’ll get it all posted just as soon as I can. Thanks!

It took a few days, but a mechanism has been set up whereby Bungie community members who would like to contribute to the Brian Morden Recovery Fund can do so. Check this page for details.

Now this is a pretty cool glitch. In answer to the old chestnut “If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?”, SaFruk discovered that on at least one multiplayer map, the answer is ‘No.’ Toss a couple of plasma grenades on a dead body on the map Chiron, leave the room before they explode… and they’ll REMAIN unexploded until someone enters the room. This doesn’t seem to work on open levels… but Chiron is a series of unconnected rooms. SaFruk suggests using the glitch to set up proximity mines for your enemies… see what else you can come up with!

Whoa – can’t wait to see a bigger version. Dulaman87 noticed that the Ballantine entry for Halo: The Flood (the next Halo novel) now has all-new cover art. Is that the Master Chief with his helmet off? Update: Thanks to the more than half-dozen people who sent links to this picture (made local here in case it changes again), making it clear that the MC’s face is NOT visible. My bad.

A Covenant anatomy project? Looks that way. Check out the details here, and get on the stick helping Shishka out.

Most movies we post are either fun gameplay vids, or trick exploits… this one’s different. ArakniZ took the time to build, step by step, a tutorial for Warthog Jumping. If you already know how to do this, don’t bother downloading the movie. This one’s for the folks who periodically pop up on our forum, asking “how do I make a warthog go so high?” (It’s also for lurkers who want to know the answer to this question, but have never asked it out loud.) It covers such niceties as saving regularly after you get what you need, how to make sure the grenades fall in a tight formation, and other nuggets. It’s quite large (21 mb), in QuickTime format, and rather dull if you know this stuff – but if you don’t, it will really make the process easier. Grab a copy from Mythica.org. (We have other movies in the queue – we’ve been waiting for bandwidth demands to drop. Apparently, there’s been some international linkage recently.)

Whoa – I’m slow sometimes. Bungie’s Letters to the Webmaster have been updated. He’s in top form. Or something. It’s even Halo-related. Go. (Thanks, Miguel.)

New to our forum? Shishka just wrote up a guide which should help newcomers fit in to the existing community. It’s not a set of rules… just a series of suggestions. Definitely worth a read.

Lots of Fan Fiction in the past 24 hours:

• Rebirth – Shadow’s Prologue, part 3, by Shadow/Archangel’s Blade/KnightmareWolf/Spartan415
• Covenant Theater, part 2, by Alex Ross
• Force 81, part 5, by NobleWard
• Stormbringers, part 5, by WildebeestNZ
• A New Year’s Day, part 9, by Guilty Spark
• Ring Of The Forerunners, part 3, by Locke
• Under the sergeant’s cap, part 3, by Traumatised Marine

Go get ’em…

Followup on Brian Morden and a donation fund… Brian’s dad is in the process of setting up an account at their local credit union. As soon as we have an address, we’ll post it. (There will also be an email address you can use to send Paypal donations.) Nobody’s going to hound you to donate; this is being set up because several people have contacted me about ways to help out the family. When we know more about his condition, we’ll let you know.

Over the years, HBO has grown to house a pretty big collection of fan-created artwork (images, stories, movies, you name it). We’ve reached a point at which we can no longer accept pieces with no regard for quality. This is unfortunate, and we hate turning people away… but we need to draw a line. Our new guidelines are posted here. They’re also linked on many of the gallery pages. Please remember – we’re not saying don’t create it… we’re just saying we can’t host it.

Almost forgot… there was another submission on our forum yesterday for the Halo 2 Cover Art collection – we’ve added lloyd’s entry to the database.

The screenshots that were posted along with Bungie’s recent addition to their Legendary Walkthrough (Keyes) have been added to our Screenshots database. This is especially timely, since bungie.net seems to be down this morning.