Setsuna Meiou writes:

Its happened again!! The “Covenant Dance” accompanied my New England Patriots on the NFL on CBS pre-game.

Sounds like the NFL has made some sort of licensing deal with Microsoft… nice to see!

For those who would like to get a glimpse of the new story material revealed in the current issue of Edge Magazine, but don’t want to wait until the Edge scans are available (legitimately) on the web, swing on by gamesradar.com – the website of Edge’s parent publisher, Future Publishing. The content is quite intriguing:

“The Covenant is named for the pact binding its two primary races, the Elites and the Prophets,” reveals Griesemer. “The Elites form the backbone of the Covenant military and the Prophets are the Covenantï¾’s political and spiritual leadership. Much of the game will focus on the relationship between these two races and on the hidden motives for their attacks against humanity.”

There are also four scans from the magazine (relatively low quality showing new artwork for Halo 2. Thanks to Jack Smith for the heads-up!

The six movies released in the past 10 days have all been added to the Movies database. If you’re looking for something specific, that’s the place to go.

Woohoo! Marty O’Donnell says the mp3 for the Halo 2 music should be available by Monday (the 23rd). Yeehaw!

The final chapter of the HBO Legendary Walkthrough, written by Asmodeus, has been posted – if you’re having trouble getting through Keyes, swing on by and check out Asmodeus’ tips for beating this level!

Want to show someone you care? Send them a Halo Greeting Card! (Thanks to Immortal Pain for setting this up – hopefully, it’ll become more browser-friendly in the future.)

Heh – Roger Wilco did a little digging at the US Patent Office; it seems Microsoft was thinking ahead about Halo merchandising. Check out his post for the things covered by their trademarks on the word Halo!

Couple of bits of artwork for you… [OX] turns in a more NBA-ish image than the last NBA-ish image we got, and StarWarsFanMan give the MC what he really needs. You’ll find both in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Warbow went dumpster diving outside the Bungie offices again. We won’t show you the mutilated Elmo dolls he found… but there was also this snippet of what appears to be a rejected Halo 2 trailer option. 2.5 mb, QT format. Crap, now we have to clean the carpets again…

A couple of days ago, we posted the beginnings of a novelization of the Halo story. We’ve got a new one today – strategyfreak, who had been working on the Halo Fan Fiction project, has turned in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of his effort to this end. The Fan Fiction section continues to grow…

A recent episode of G4 TV’s Filter program rated the Halo Soundtrack at #3 in the top 10 videogame soundtracks of all time. (Final Fantasy VII and GTA3 beat it out.) Personally, I think they misjudged… but hey, I’m biased. Check out the details at Bungie.net.

Thanks to the eagle eyes of Jerry, who noticed the cool new link at the top of the bungie.net main page (right corner). It contains quick links to all the useful info so far published on Halo 2 – press releases, links to the trailer, goodies like screens and desktops… keep it handy!

A couple of weeks ago, Frogblast posted a pretty interesting movie showing some truly bizarre behavior on 343 Guilty Spark. (Spoilers, for anyone who is still keeping track of this stuff.) Today, Warbow put this clip to music – and it’s a nice enough piece of work that we’ve upped it to mythica. (6.1 mb, QT5 format.) Check it out!

New desktop from The Elite Halo Gang – check our Wallpaper section.

Thursday’s Fan Fiction:

• Revolution, part 9, by Gruntkiller
• Chance Guards, by Loopframe
• Shadows of Archon II, part 15, by Wado

You know what to do…

Hamish Sinclair is on vacation, but a Bungie Community staple turns 7 today… the Marathon’s Story Page reaches mythical age-status. (Yeah, yeah, not really Halo news… but 7th birthdays for Bungie fansites don’t come around very often.) Visit the Story page forum and help blow out the candles!

Total Games is speculating that there will be a playable build of Halo 2 at X02 in Spain next week. The details are sketchy, but the idea is intriguing. (That a playable build exists, I have no doubt. That Total Games—or anyone else outside Microsoft—will see it any time soon is far less certain.) Thanks to Hedgemony for the heads-up.

You want to watch a cool movie? Watch this. (I read about it here.)

Jeff Lofland created an NBA-inspired Halo desktop – you’ll find it in our Wallpapers section.

Fan Fiction for the last day or so:

• Wings of Death, part 4, by el_halo_diablo
• The monitor’s contest, part 2, by Guy French
• HALO: Combat Evolved, part 1, by Cameron Eades
• Shadows of Archon II, part 14, by Wado
• Taker of Life, Giver of Death, part 10, by Ian Barnes
• HELLJUMPERS, part 9, by Havok
• Spartan Exposure: A Media Campaign, by David Beale

Eades’ work is an attempt to novelize the Halo story. He decided to send this in after hearing that the FFP had closed down.