Five new banners for you – four from Tru7h, who submits a series of HBO banners, and one from doggone, who plays with the ‘O’ in Halo to come up with a new Halo 2 logo. Gettin’ to be a real collection!

Red Loser has started a site devoted to the legendary Yellow Banshee… check it out for everything there is to know.

While it’s true that the Tricks queue has languished for months and its maintainer should be taken out and summarily shot, folks are still discovering cool stuff about Halo. Case in point: Finn, stalwart Halo Story page pillar, has discovered an unexplored area in Halo; a fourth Pulse Generator on Two Betrayals. It’s not fully operational… but the architecture is complete. Some of the areas are spooky in their darkened state. Check it out on Team 7hr33’s website!

The last two movies uploaded (Halo Hoedown and Priceless Lessons) have been added to the Movies database. Definitely makes life easier when you know where to find it!

ArakniZ has submitted a short film with some important lessons to be learned if you want to be a Halo pro. It’s just about a minute and a half long, and you can find it in QuickTime 5 (5.3 mb) or WMP 9 (3.9 mb) formats at mythica.org. (Notice that 9 on the Media Player version – this is NOT playable on a mac, or on a PC with WMP 8 or lower installed.) Update: As noted by oddworld18, the content might be considered inappropriate for younger viewers. Nothing pornographic, but definitely mature themes.

Jake McCarthy writes to say that there’ll be a Halo Tournament at Central Michigan University, in Mt. Pleasant, next month. 4v4 gameplay, $5 team registration, the event will happen in the Carey Dining Commons in the Towers on January 25, at 7 pm. If you want more info, you can call Jake at (989) 774-6367.

Thanks to both Johnny Rotten, on our forum, and Adam Clark, via email, for the information that Gearbox will be showing Halo for PC at CPL‘s Winter Event. On Saturday, December 21st (yes, that’s just 2 weeks from now), there will be a one-hour workshop on Halo, with a focus on development and ‘what’s new for hardcore online gamers’. Can’t wait!

The elusive Yellow Banshee has finally been pinned down – Matt(Uh… #5?) found it in a buried directory on the Bungie servers. (Check out the Camo Banshee, too.) Random Hero claimed to have found it first… but his image proved to be a hoax. You’ll have to do some forum searching for directions on how to find this puppy in-game.

Some fun stuff happening on the Bungie webcam recently… Opie captured a rare sighting of the Bungie Webmaster (you can never see him because he’s really a ghost), and Second Hand Plasma and Skeletor bring you news of Lego building.

Maj Hardon found some new suits for US Army soldiers that look to be Mjolnir precursors… check ’em out.

Music4Games.net has put up a discussion between Marty O’Donnell and Aaron Marks, a freelance composer/sound designer and author of ‘The Complete Guide to Game Audio’, about the use of audio in Halo and Halo 2. A snippet, Marty discussing how he managed the job for Halo:

Part of my ability to manage the whole thing came because I had no other project to work on. Until Halo, I had been running my own business and had other clients and projects. With Halo, I thought of nothing else, probably almost to the point of obsession (I’m getting help, don’t worry). But this enabled me to pay attention to every detail of implementing audio. Jay Weinland, my right hand man here at Bungie, and I shared the same vision for Halo’s audio and it was a relief to know that someone else was being as compulsive as me.

A pretty good discussion… go read the rest!

Friday’s Fan Fiction:

• After Reach, parts 2-5 and parts 6-9, by Foyez Khader
• Death and Decay, by Gasmask
• The Shadows – The Conclusion, by Glenny
• A Halo Novelization, part 2, by MarioMTO

Also, just 7 hours after a news post mentioning that we really, really aren’t happy with revisions, we received a revision of Bobby Lucas’ Sarges Platoon, Chapter 1. I’m going to try again, nicely: We’d really, really, really appreciate it if you’d proofread your stories BEFORE you submit them, and accept the state in which they’re submitted – revisions are a pain in the behind for the maintainers. 🙁 I’m gonna hope that this gentle reminder actually has some effect…

Merecatfish has turned in another HBO-styled banner. You’ll find it in the Banners section.

op_ivy found an interesting article about a new breed of gaming center… and though no games are mentioned by name, the mockup of what the place will look like has a huge (and I mean HUGE) wallscreen showing… Halo. Nice!

Snowy Fan Fiction:

• HALO: A New War of Old Enemies, part 1, by Jeff Graham
• The Encounter, part 1, by Harley
• THE CUBE, part one, by Hedgemony
• Christmas Halo Poem, by Diomedes Rangue

Jeff Graham’s story was submitted about a month ago – this is an overhaul. We really, really, really frown on overhauls… but I’m gonna let this one go. The existing comments apply to the old version.

bikeman704 has finished up a Counter-Strike map that prominently features The Pillar of Autumn. Check out some screenshots, and download the map! (Comments should go in this forum thread.)

Last spring, Brian Josselyn created a spoof called ‘The Halo Boys Soundtrack‘ – and today, Revolver_Ocelot has submitted an updated soundtrack for it. (It’s the same soundtrack, with a new background track.) Just for fun… (It’s 628k, in .mp3 format.)

A composite from the French MOX Halo 2 cover, a vision of what we’re happy isn’t, and a use for the UNSC flag… all in our Miscellaneous Art section!

Two new (well, one new and one not-so-new) job openings at Bungie – the recently filled Game Producer slot is available again, and there’s a need for a 2D/3D artist. Check out the details at Bungie.net!

Tru7h and Reconciliation’s Music Outtakes section has been updated with a song which was left off the Soundtrack. (Read the news story for details.) Thanks to Exogenesis for the heads-up… usually I get mail when b.net gets updated, but the system is temporarily fuxored.