Undaunted by the lack of responses the first time round, Darth Epy0n posted a link to a Jedi Knight II skin download a second time today – and I have to admit, the preview looks pretty dang good. If you play Jedi Knight II, go visit the downloads page at JediKnightII.net and grab this 2.5 mb skin… and let us know how it works!

The easter egg discovered this weekend has been documented for the Halo Easter Egg page; thanks once again to everyone who contributed. I’ve taken the liberty of using the screenshots posted by 2 and 2 make 5 for documentation; if this is a problem, I’ll replace them with copies I create myself. (Hopefully, it won’t be; the only difference will be that I’ll have to spend the time to create them. 🙂 )

Eric Redmond and Skeletor have both submitted modifications of desktops available at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation website – both contain game spoilers. You can find the new work in our Wallpaper section.

A pair of modified images from Eric Redmond have been added to the Miscellaneous Art section.

Eep – almost forgot to post this! In response to the Great Egg Hunt (sad, sort of, to call it that, given that it was all for one egg, and not even a knock-your-socks-off one… but hey, we’ll do better next time), bikeman704 got desperate. You’ll find his (spoiler-laden) evidence in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Even in the hunt for Eggs, Fan Fiction continues to pour in:

• He’s Baaaaaack!, chapter 3, by Killer_Fairy
• Halo: Standing Firm, part 1, by Xzilen
• Sarges Platoon, part 1, by Bobby Lucas
• Fafnir, part 10, by KnightmareWolf

Go read…

Three new desktops for you today, including a rather oddly shaped one, an image that was first submitted in a much smaller size for the Misc. Art section, and a subtly changed image (look closely in the shadows). You’ll find all three in our Wallpaper section.

Another comic from Stosh – this one should be appreciated by Matt Soell. You’ll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

And while the sick are sleeping, the gnomes work. The Subnova Hotline crew, aided in no small part by Miguel Chavez and in spite of their neglect of the correct answer dangled in front of their noses no fewer than 4 times by Cunbelin, managed to solve the egg mystery; details can be found on our forum. (Credit, too, must go to Matt, who triggered the first clue decoding… and, indeed, to everyone on the HBO forum who participated in this event in recent days. Many insights came from people simply building on other, partial ideas. That’s one of the beautiful things about this sort of community activity.) Miguel posted a very humorous (but very long) chat log from the HL server last night… read it for laughs.

Wow. Are you a UK resident who hasn’t been able to justify the price of an Xbox yet? Here’s a deal you just can’t turn down… £194.99 buys you

• Xbox Console (with one controller)
• Halo
• Splinter Cell
• Jet Set Radio Future
• Sega GT 2002

(You can buy the same package, without Halo or Splinter Cell, for £35 less… but why would you want to?) Visit Gameplay’s web store for all the details. (This package will be available next Friday.) Thanks to Nijhazer for the heads-up.

Project-Halo has gotten a facelift, and some new content… browse around!

Start the weekend with some Fan Fiction:

• Fafnir, part 9, by KnightmareWolf
• The Tides of War, chapter 6, by Corbantis
• Shadows of Archon II, part 28, by Wado

Get to readin’!

Over the last few days, the HBO forum has fixated itself on finding a mentioned-in-passing easter egg in Halo. Elan Sleazbagano has done a decent job writing up the progress to date; start here, if you’re interested in joining in the hunt. What began as a casual remark has turned into another community event like the bungie.org glyph puzzle last year. Keep an eye on that Miguel character…

Eric Redmond turned in a very nice piece of Halo artwork; it would probably make a great desktop, if not for the fact that it’s less than 400×300 pixels. Nonetheless, it’s worth looking at; you’ll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section. (There are game spoilers in this image.)

Ever wonder how Bungie works out their multiplayer map designs? Are they totally haphazard, or is there actually thought behind the various features? Get the lowdown on three different maps at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site, in the latest story written up by Mordia, entitled ‘Designing for Carnage‘. Very, very cool.

Next weekend, a large gaming event is taking place up in Ontario – Fragapalooza East 2002, 3 days of carnage with $40,000 in prizes to be given out. The focus is on PC games (UT2003 and Warcraft III), but also listed on the ‘Official Tournaments’ list is Halo CTF, 4vs4. If you’re nearby, this might be a worthwhile weekend activity! Thanks to Battleground: Halo for the heads-up.

End-of-the-week Fan Fiction:

• HALO: Pilots of Autumn, part 2, by Jake Anderson
• Wings of Death, part 13, by el_halo_diablo
• Stormbringers, part 2, by WildebeestNZ

What’s on YOUR bookshelf?

James Snow has turned in an update to an older banner in our collection – you’ll find it in the Banners section. I’m not 100% comfortable with banners that were built to plug other fansites… but we accepted the older one, so we should accept this one. In other banner news, I need to figure out what we’re doing about banners in general; a significant chunk of bandwidth is being wasted by people who use banner links from our pages for their signatures on various message boards. I haven’t come up with a perfect solution – what will probably happen in the not-too-distant future is that we’ll zip all the full-size banners, and show only a thumbnail; they’ll still be accessible for anyone browsing our pages, but external links will no longer work. I hate to do this, but people don’t realize that when they post a link like this on a board, we end up paying the bandwidth charge, for zero benefit to ourselves (folks don’t even know where the banners come from, in most cases). This is just a heads-up; I don’t have time to make these changes right now. If you are one of the people using our banners in your signature, now would be a good time to find other hosting. Thanks!

Want a lot of Warthogs on your desktop? Visit our Wallpaper section.

Late afternoon Fan Fiction:

• I want to be a Spartan, part 2, by assman
• Stormbringers, part 1, by WildebeestNZ
• Decisions, part 2, by Warbow
• This is Suicide, part 2, by Neile Pederson

Go get ’em!