Friday’s Fan Fiction collection:

• The Long Ride Home, part 9, by Joshua Barreto
• A Second Last Chance, chapter 4, by Torch99
• Prince of Angels, part 2, by Kyo

(This is actually yesterday’s fan fiction – they were ready to post then, except that one of the authors forgot a title. Rather than wait any longer, however, I’ve decided to post them as is.)

Heh – a few days ago, Halo 2 was just a rumor in the minds of the hopeful. Two days ago, the news of its existence (as stated by J. Allard) was all over the internet. Today… according to the Magic Box, it’ll be out in Japan by the end of this year. Don’t you love how fast things change? (For what it’s worth, we’d be willing to bet reasonable amounts of money that this is horse-pucky.) Thanks to Jon Chang for making us smile.

Woohoo! Promised a LONG time ago, Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site now hosts a Musical Outtakes article! Check these out – anyone interested in how a game’s music evolves shouldn’t miss this!

Asmodeus has turned in another chapter of his Legendary Walkthrough of Halo – 343 Guilty Spark is laid out for you in all its glory. You’ll find it in the Legendary Walkthrough nook of our Tips and Tricks section.

PanZer has created a new Halo movie… entirely in Flash. It’s 744k, and it takes a few minutes to run, but watch it all the way through – you’ll find yourself grinning more than once.

What’s this? There are story-related tidbits we don’t know yet? Mnemesis titillates with a snippet from the recent OXM UK article… could this be the start of serious speculation? Head on over to the Halo Story page and find out!

Justin snags a famous Swoosh and creates an action-oriented desktop for the masses – you’ll find it in our Wallpaper section.

One new Fan Fiction entry for you today: Gordi’s Upon This Stage Final Prologue. If you’ve forgotten the storyline, you can read the series en masse. Don’t forget to leave feedback for fanfic authors… but please, try not to abuse the system (as some are doing now). Thanks.

Whoa – the Myth Total Soundtrack CD acronym has been solved! (Okay, okay, not really Halo news… but the search for acronyms has occupied our forum periodically recently, so maybe this’ll spur attacks on the two new ones – the Halo GotY one (ABTFIPAS05) and the Halo Soundtrack one (SABABWL).) In any case, drop by the Marathon’s Story Forum and see what Yeroen had to say about its origins! (For more information on the acronyms in general, visit Hamish’s Acronym section of the Marathon’s Story site.) Thanks to mnemesis for pointing it out… and thanks, actually, to Yeroen, for jumping in before anyone REALLY solved it. (‘Tasty’ was never a guess in the thread… or in fact in ANY thread on the subject, really… and ‘Dwarven’ is not the same thing as ‘Dwarf’.) We’re not going to argue too much, though… we’ll take what we can get. 🙂

Miguel ‘Freewill’ Chavez points out that his review of the Halo Soundtrack is up at Amazon.com. Very nice read, and a fantastic overview if you haven’t bought it yet! Take a look.

Griffon writes to let us know of the massive Halo article in the July issue of OXM UK (yes, it’s been noted before), and to mention that the ‘Making Of’ videos can be found on the DVD with that mag (this is news, and good news for folks who can’t get their hands on the freebie given away by the Bungie Store). Go pick up your copy today! (We’ll be posting scans of the article as soon as the issue’s off the shelves.) Update: A second article in the mag confirms the existence of Halo 2 – slated to come out (according to J. Allard, Xbox General Manager – remember Bungie’s policy on release dates) Christmas 2003. You can read the text of this second article in this Team Xbox forum thread.

Eep – go a few days without looking at the other sites in the Bungie realm, and you miss stuff. 🙁 Stopped by Rampancy.net today, and discovered that

1. The Making Of Halo vids (at least the two ‘new’ ones) are now mirrored there – we’ve added links to our Mirrors page
2. Forerunners.org is much closer to opening than it has been
3. There’s some crack-fueled speculation about the future of Halo – and even a new name for the hat containing potential Mac porting companies

Stop by, check it out! These guys should be on your rounds list, for sure – they’re usually on mine, but life’s been crazy recently.

Yet MORE new Bungie material at Tru7h and Reconciliation… this time it’s a walkthrough for Silent Cartographer. Zee peekturs… zey are awesome! Thanks once again to mnemesis (who pointed out this particular shot…)

Whoa. Xbox tunneling finally comes to the Mac – Pfhorslayer has written a new product, called ‘Aquaduct’, and he’s now interested in finding beta testers. If you have a mac running OSX, and an Xbox running Halo, and would like to try out online gameplay… drop him a note! (Read his forum post for more information.)

Ryan lets us know that the Halo Fan Fiction Project has gotten another facelift – the page looks pretty good! Go check ’em out, and join up if you’re interested in helping realize Halo in a printed form!

Woohoo! 8 new screenies over at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliaton site, just ITCHING for your captions. This is just one amazing shot… Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up.

Hehe – it’s the wrong color, but BOLL‘s got the right idea… how many of you miss that rocket launcher?

BIGwooly popped into our forum to announce that the final date for the upcoming Northwest Regional Halo Tournament in Boise, ID has been set – carnage will occur on June 29, 2002. If you’re interested in joining in, check out HALOID’s 7th Column Chapter page.

Ross Mills has started up a site called ‘Halo Ideas‘ – and as he says on our forum, he’s looking for content to fill it. If you have any speculations about either Halo 2 or Halo Online (neither of which have actually been announced, of course, and nothing says they won’t end up being the same game), drop him a line!

Last week, MacGamer put up a feature called ‘MacGamer’s Gaming “It” List‘ – what’s cool and what’s lame in the world of Mac Gaming. Bungie made the list – twice. First, for the lameness involved with arguments about whether Halo’s coming to the Mac or not… and then, for the lameness of being bought by Microsoft. Who says Mac users aren’t bitter? (Thanks to Jon Chang for the heads-up.)