Okay, the plan had been to release one segment of this program every couple of days; the first one was released on Thursday. However, yesterday we were contacted by one of the competitors, Bigsauce, who provided us with much higher quality mpeg versions of the films. (G4 provided these files to all competitors.) I’m currently in the process of converting these to a more web-friendly size… but it’s slow going (there’s a lot of crunching to do). Likely what will happen is that later today we’ll release segment 2 (the second semifinal match) as planned… but with the new versions as the base, rather than the original VHS-ripped versions. At the end of the cycle, we’ll re-release the first segment, for those who strive for completeness; folks who just wanted to see the vids can pass on it. I must say that getting a hand from one of the sixteen finalists (he placed 4th, overall, out of the more than ten thousand competitors who played in the HNC) simply rocks. Okay, back to re-encoding…

Seen over at Battleground: Halo – a new Halo site has come online. Halo World is still under construction, but the content is beginning to fill in. (There hasn’t been a Halo website by that name since Cyberbob’s German site went under more than 2 years ago.)

A pretty nice collection of desktop images for you today – whether you’re looking for something artistic, or lighthearted, or something in between, there are five new images which should give you something to play with. You’ll find ’em in our Wallpaper section.

Yesterday, Warbow put up another installment of Halo Hide-n-Seek; there are three pictures, taken in various places around the Single-player scenario, and your job is to determine where those places are. Full rules are spelled out in the post – forum regulars nailed one of the pics early on, but the other two are still unidentified! Go to it.

Friday’s Fan Fiction offerings:

• The Legend of Kazak’-Dun Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, by Kane172
• Starjacked Part 1, by Dispraiser
• The Life of a Soldier, by HaloMaster7 (Air)
• 5 Way War Part II, by Demosthenes
• Setting the Table, by hornet34

Back to normal volumes…

Heh – you ever find yourself getting a bit loud at a Halo LAN party? Seems like the Penny Arcade boys did… (Thanks to Ross Mills for the heads-up.)

Another couple of pics for you: an image I can’t really explain, and another mock Halo 2 cover. (If you like Halo 2 covers, check out the impromptu Halo 2 Cover challenge currently ongoing on our forum.) Today’s art can be found in our Miscellaneous Art collection.

Ouch. Voodoo Extreme has a poll on their front page – ‘What game are you most looking forward to in 2003?’ (We’re talking PC games here.) Halo PC is showing dismally – it’s currently in 14th place. (Please – if you go vote, do so only once. We’ve had trouble in the past with folks from here stuffing VE’s ballot box… play fair. May the best game win.) Thanks to coexist for the heads-up.

Thanks to Dinky, who mirrored the Halo National Championship first semifinal round – if you couldn’t get it from mythica, grab a copy off of HaloJuggaloProductions! (We’ll release the second semifinal round tomorrow, unless another use for our limited movie bandwidth comes up in the meantime.)

Hehe – Cheerio noticed this item on eBay – hurry, you’ve got 8 hours left to buy an advance copy of Halo 2. (Of course, you’ll pay at least $69.99 for it, and there’s absolutely no guarantee you’ll get it any faster than you would by going down to your local EB Games… but hey! You can say you were first in line!) Caveat Idiota.

In late August, 2002, the Halo National Championship was played in Los Angeles. G4 Media, the folks who run the all-gaming cable channel G4tv, filmed it, and on September 20, broadcast it for the first time. A couple of HBO regulars (Asmodeus and Lophan) were kind enough to film this – but we could never get the folks at G4 to let us know whether we could put up a copy on the web. Well, it’s a new year, and it’s no longer in the episode rotation schedule… so we’re gonna give it a shot. We’ve broken it up into three segments; the two semifinal rounds, and the finals. We’ll release one every couple of days. The first chunk is Semifinal Round 1, and the first minute is of dubious quality. (A problem with Asmodeus’ tape deck – and Lophan missed that minute.) From that point on, however, quality is decent. The movie is 7:16 long, 28.4 big, and hosted by Mythica.org – we are happy, of course, to add mirrors. Go grab it… and see how the first 8 of the top 16 Halo competitors in the country play!

Matt Purcell dropped off a new desktop for your perusal – you’ll find it in our Wallpaper section.

A couple of Fan Fiction stories built up over the holiday:

• The Legend of Kazak’-Dun, by Kane172
• Halo: The Legacy of the Spartan IIIs Chapter 1, by Kyle/Mutated Elite

I guess most writers have been reveling… Update: oops, missed one; Sarge turned in Banserki’s Journal, part 10 yesterday as well.

eva05 noticed a new poll at Gamers.com (bottom of the main page) – ‘Which 2003 Xbox games are you most excited about?’ Halo 2 is currently running away with 52% of the vote…

Fury Three discovered yet another Lego Warthog over at Brickshelf – check out the work of Jeremiah VanderMark. I love the dedication of Lego fanatics. The little painted Master Chief rocks!

To make up for the Metroid vs. Halo train wreck posted earlier, we’d like to present you with Halo-Wannabe’s Official Bungie Illustrated Swimsuit Video. 6.9 mb, 1.45 long, in QuickTime format. Thanks to Brian Towne of Mythica, as usual, for the hosting. Happy New Year!

Matt Purcell has turned in a new Halo banner – originally enormous (far too big for service as a banner, but attractive nonetheless). We’ve scaled it down a bit, but the original is still available from the Banners section.

If this weren’t half a meg, I’d have said forget it… but it’s so bad it’s funny. Check out Wisgary Torres’ Halo vs. Metroid flick – 572k in WMV format. Don’t get mad – we’ll be posting another film in the not-too-distant future.

Grant White sends word that a friend has put together a Warthog mod for Operation Flashpoint: Resistance. You can see a picture of it, and apparently can download the mod, as well – though the download server seems to be offline at the moment. (When it’s up, go to ‘Addons2’ and follow the link for a FAV.) The list of games affected by Halo grows…

Happy New Year, everyone!

Got some cleaning up to do – there might be updates later today. (Or maybe not until tomorrow…)