Psyrixx, of The Psyjnir Complex, dropped us a note that the website will be down later today, Saturday, for ‘rather serious maintenance’. (Personally, I’m guessing it has something to do with the sticky buns he’s been eating while the server case has been open…)

Gamers.com has put up a Halo 2 preview. It’s a word-for-word reprint of the 2-page spread that came out in the Winter 2002 issue of Xbox Nation magazine (we won’t be able to bring that to you until January 21, when this issue is no longer on the stands), and most of the information has been seen before… but there are a couple of interesting tidbits. It states (rather than suggests, as other previews have done) that the Master Chief will be visiting another Halo… and it mentions an overhaul of the Human pistol. Go read it! Thanks to Andrew Katz for the heads-up.

The French Halo site Halo Game has had a complete overhaul – and what a pretty design it is! There are still a few bugs to be worked out, it seems (some of the links don’t work, and the movies are hosted on an ftp server that’s currently down), but that’s just teething pains… the big work was the site redesign. Check ’em out!

A very cool drawing from Covenant – a pair of blue MCs. (For some reason, they scream ‘Oni’ at me… not sure why.) Check ’em out in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Before I forget – there are a pair of new mirrors for the recently released ‘Holiday’ video – Rampancy.net (thanks, Vec!) and customsex have both put up copies. This is a good thing, because mythica will be moving soon, and will be down for a bit to make the transition. Links can be found on the Mirrors page.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, mnemesis has tipped the proverbial hat to the Battle Cat, a longtime Bungie fan who, once upon a time, wrote a heartwarming Christmas tale. tBC has never made the transition from Marathon to Halo, so mnemesis took it upon himself to update the tradition. Many thanks to Evil Otto, supplier of cool screenshots to desperate fans everywhere. Don’t forget the razzleberry dressing!

Lots and lots and lots of new Fan Fiction:

• A Fresh Start, part 2, by Simon James
• Taking Tritus, part Two and Stranded at Home, part 1, by Dispraiser
• The Sheol Project, by Blindside
• Wings of Death, part 17, by el_halo_diablo
• After the Fall, part 1, by Glenny
• Fallen Angel, part 1, by Gruntkiller/Covert
• Force 81, part II, by NobleWard

Whew! That’s a lotta words.

A couple of cool sketches from Tina C. (including a Christmas one), and a very nice composite by Ross Mills (would easily serve as a desktop image, but I was working on Miscellaneous Art, so…) – all can be found in the Miscellaneous Art section.

Lophan points out that the January 2003 issue of PC Magazine lists Halo as one of the best products of 2002 (yes, even though it was an Xbox exclusive for the entire year). Their description of the game is a little odd:

“As the Master Chief, you can shoot with semiautomatic pistols, rocket launchers, and assault rifles. At the same time, you can raid underground labs and rescue fallen comrades. Prepare yourself for a major story twist in the middle.”

But hey – press is press, and it’s actually something for a PC magazine to vote a console game ‘one of the best products of the year’. It’ll probably win again for 2003, since it’ll be a PC game during that year…

stupid silence dropped off a desktop showing characters he thinks he’ll see again. You’ll find it in our Wallpaper section.

Noctavis found another OSX boot image from Jonathan Chapman – you can download it from ResExcellence. (Older boot images from Chapman can still be found in our Miscellaneous Art section…)

Hickadam has done it again. His earlier ‘A**hole’ video set all sorts of popularity records… because it was hilarious, and because the timing was simply spectacular. He’s released a holiday movie, to begin to get you in the spirit of the season (something tells me we’re going to be seeing quite a lot of this sort of thing), and once again he’s provided you with three minutes of reasons to love December. We currently have it listed at Mythica.org, Pez’s FTP server, and Psyjnir.com… but we’d love more mirrors for this. It’s available in both Windows Media and QuickTime versions – check out our Mirrors list!

Xavier De Coster discovered another version of the gorgeous mural first seen on the cover of the September 2002 Edge Magazine. It’s clearly created from the original artwork… which leads me to believe that out there, somewhere, that original artwork exists, in beautiful, hi-res, non-watermarked form. Oooh… in the meantime, go grab a copy of this one from GameWallpapers.com!

A couple of interesting images for you… Martino sketches the Master Chief, and Brian Josselyn finds another marketing test. (Hey, I’d buy ’em…) Find both images in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Whoknew has set up a unique site; halo2vote is designed to allow visitors to speculate (in a controlled fashion) about the storyline of Halo 2, and in so doing contribute to a Fan Fiction project to be compiled after two weeks of ‘voting’. Check it out.

A few days ago, we posted some icons from FunkDaddy, for OSX and WIndows XP. Turns out the Banshee icon for OSX was actually showing a Scorpion tank, and the Scorpion icon (which existed in the XP collection) was missing altogether. The OSX collection has been replaced (it’s now 847K, one K bigger), and a new preview (containing all 27 OSX icons, 1024×768, 95K) has been uploaded. The XP collection is unchanged.

Fan Fiction from the last couple of days:

• Force 81 Part I, by NobleWard
• The Hephaestus Equation VI, by Dirty Commie
• Omega Red Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, by Kane172
• A New Year’s Day, Chapter 4, by Guilty Spark

As Christmas grows nearer, the processing of these might slow a bit… apologies in advance. In the meantime, enjoy!

A quick note – thanks to customsex and vector40 for more mirrors for the Parking Attendant movie released yesterday. If you haven’t seen this – grab it now, it’s not too big and it’s really funny!

Mutti raided the dumpster behind Bungie’s offices, and found some discarded concept art showing an early attempt to get around the slow walking speed. You’ll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Alex Sullivan wants to know what you’re made of – find his challenge in our Wallpaper section.