Eric Nylund described a special Spartan insignia in ‘The Fall of Reach’:

      There was a special insignia on his uniformed [sic] as well: a golden eagle poised with its talons forward—ready to strike. The bird clutched a lightning bolt in one talon and three arrows in the other.

Warbow has created this patch, for any wannabe Spartans to use – you’ll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

GameSplurge put up a Halo 2 Preview this weekend. Nothing new, but hey, previews are previews, right? Thanks to Battleground: Halo for the heads-up.

Sean Smith writes to tell us that Matt Soell will be on The Gamesome Mac, a weekly Mac gaming radio program, tonight. Broadcast is 6-8 pm PST on Monday, November 4 (that means it starts at 9 pm on the east coast, and at 2 am Tuesday, UTC.) If you miss it, archives are kept. Discussed tonight will be (among other things) the Mac version of Halo. Check it out!

Another regular heard from… and another iGames qualifier loss. Vector40 described his Saturday, competing for entrance to the iGames Halo Winter Season. They won their first game (as did Team OvK), and lost their second (as did OvK). Good read, and some decent pointers for folks looking for advice on team games.

Dolbex wrote to say that a recent poll at the Halo50K site (‘What’s your favorite board to play on?’) showed that a huge majority loves Blood Gulch. Check out all the results, they might surprise you!

cobaltnova popped on to the forum yesterday to describe the next tournament his group his hosting. This one’s called the HALO: Killtacular Invitational, and top prize is $1000. If Phoenix, AZ is within your visiting range, be there on January 11.

Ouch. Team Overkill beat themselves, it sounds like… a depressing account of the first qualifying round of the iGames Winter Season. On the plus side, they’ve included a link to a copy of Halo for just $29.99, certianly the cheapest I’ve ever seen it. (You have to put it in your cart to see that price. You can always delete it later.)

Chekov writes that he’d created an Elite costume for Halloween, but didn’t have the nerve to wear it… but sent in a shot of his friend Charles modelling it.

FloodSpecies writes to let us know of a new website; Halo: Installations & Evolution is a roleplaying group based on the Halo universe. The website isn’t finished yet, but you can get a taste for what’s coming. Check it out!

Some Fan Fiction material for you… Lord Dagon has turned in part 5 of his Halo 2: Return of Death series, and hipboyscott has turned in a sketch of the rifle from his Have Design, Will Build series. He says this:

the rifle design is my own, and this is a basic render. I had more in depth drawings, but they were deleted in the thunderstorm that half-fried my hard drive. If I ever can replecate them, I will turn them in. This is basically to add depth to my story, by showing what the new thing looks like.

This is actually a model with an integrated Grenade Launcher which WILL make an appearance. however the one desribed so far lacks this explosive feature.

Go read and look! (This will be the last post for a while… headed up to Thanks-Killing for the day.)

lol – Señor 404 shows a sense of humor with a Miscellaneous Art submission. Check it out.

Whoa. The Gameplay Tips section, somewhat neglected in recent weeks, has had a facelift. 40+ new tips, plus (some much-needed) sorting functions! The site map has been updated, as well. As far as I can tell, Cybrfrk has left out some of the SupaMegaTricksta-type tips that we get… which is a fine thing, SMT is in a class by himself. Go check it out, and improve your gameplay today!

Skip Weasel the pegboy, Bungie intern etraordinaire (or something), returns in the latest Bungie comic. (That thing, minus the sign, really is in the building.)

We get a lot of Wallpaper submissions. Periodically, I threaten to create some sort of ‘maintainer’s choice’ gallery, to showcase the ones I consider to be the best of the best. I haven’t found time to do this yet… but when it happens, the two new entries from Stormsinger will definitely be in there. Check these out in the Wallpaper section – they ROCK.

Stories from the last day or so, just clearing out the Fan Fiction queue:

• The Long Ride Home, part 11, by Joshua Barreto
• Taker of Life, Giver of Death, part 11, by Ian Barnes
• Human, by Mr Bill Jr V
• Halo: The Final Fight, part 2, by Daniel Luiken
• Have Design, Will Build, part 3, by hipboyscott
• An Elites Legend, part 2, by Neco Divad
• Eve, part 1, by RazorCow

Get to it!

A couple of pieces of Miscellaneous Art submitted over the last couple of days; apologies, it’s been busy. You’ll find the original version of strykerwolf’s Halloween (modified version visible on yesterday’s news page), and a clan logo from some Halo fanatics in Finland. Enjoy!

Tarrsk is compiling a database of HBO forumgoers who play on Xbox Live; it’s unclear at the moment where it will be hosted, but if you want to be included, simply reply to the forum thread, or email Tarrsk with your HBO forum screen name and your XBL gamer tag. (If you include only one or the other, or submit your entry more than once, you’ll likely be ignored.) Update: there is a page live for this – you’ll find it here.

Forum regular Warbow sent his son out for trick-or-treating last night as a Master Chief. You can see his post (and the resultant thread) on the forum, and we’ve added a local copy of the pictures. Now that’s fatherly dedication!

Thank goodness SOMEONE saved a copy of this; we were out trick-or-treating, I would have missed it. (Thanks to Candyman for the creation, and mnemesis for its posterity assuredness.) Bed…

Bungie’s hiring again… this time, they’re looking for a Community Development Manager. Responsibilities, requirements, and general info can be found on Bungie.net… oh, how I wish I lived near Seattle sometimes.