Thanks to Nick, who pointed out a new review for Halo – on a site called Intensity Xbox. They gave it a 9.3, overall… it was penalized mostly for its lack of true online play. (It’s not clear if this was written back in November, and just POSTED recently… or if it was written after the launch of the website last month.) You’ll find it added to our Reviews database.

Another music video for you guys – this time from Black_Jackal. It’s called ‘Halo Hero’, and it’s a 3.2 mb, 1:22-long music video, with E3 and more recent footage set to Spider-Man’s ‘Hero’. Once again, you’ll find it at the bottomless pit of mythica.org. (Serving a steady 20 GB/day of Halo movies to you freaks… everyone say ‘Thanks, Brian!’)

Fan Fiction for a rainy Wednesday:

• The Long Ride Home, part 8, by Joshua Barreto
• A Pair of Poems and Roughneck Two-Zero, part 8, by Anthony Coronado
• Worlds Apart, Prologue, by Keelan Harris

Not too many updates today – I’m on the road for the next 8 hours or so.

Otizz, unhappy with the feedback HBO forumgoers returned on his last video effort, has submitted another movie. It’s called ‘Is This One Better?’, and weighs in at 4 megs, in .wmv format. Once again, it’s over at mythica.org. (I’d have to say ‘yes’.)

Many, many uploaded bytes later, Otizz has finally gotten his movie across the ocean. We’ve dropped it on Brian Towne’s mythica.org server (option/right click to download) – but we’re always happy to list more mirrors. It’s a 5 mb .wmv file, showing basic gameplay on the first couple of levels and Blood Gulch, interspersed with text demanding the PC version, all set to a techno song. Otizz would like feedback, as its his first video – there’s a thread going here.

This was posted (and noticed by Knight Premier) yesterday, but we neglected to mention it – Bungie.net is running a new poll: Would you watch a Halo World Championship tournament if it were broadcast on television? Results, early on, look pretty favorable… but go have your say!

Xcruiser has created a new desktop image, using some of the extra features of the Halo Font submitted recently. The shield and Font were created from scratch – and they look pretty nice! He’s said he’s happy to create other sizes of this, if there are requests – just send ’em to him. Meanwhile, check out the piece in our Wallpaper section.

Thanks to Narcogen, who points out that the large QuickTime version of the Canadian Halo commercial has now been mirrored at Rampancy.net, and is available both on the web and via Hotline. Links can be found on the mirror list.

A couple of days ago, we reported that a new Halo commercial was airing on Canadian television. Well, Bill Maguire managed to tape this for us… and his brother Bob did some nice converting to a digital format. (We had to crunch down his original submission, because it was pretty big – but the resulting versions should be quite viewable. Any compression artifacts were introduced by HBO meddling, not Bob’s original conversion.) Thanks to the HBO Bandwidth Angels (a spur-of-the-moment name for some of our bigger bandwidth donators), you have 4 mirrors to choose from for each of four flavors of the movie – there are two sizes each of a QT5 version and a WMV version. Other mirrors will, of course, be gratefully appreciated, and added to the list. Enjoy!

A couple of months ago, Draikin modified a mural found in the Official Xbox Magazine, and submitted it to our Wallpaper collection. Now, Djoey154 has modified that image again – it’s blue, rather than purple, and there’s been some image softening in places. Check the new version out in our Wallpaper collection!

Frogblast, a recognized master Halo trickster, has issued a challenge: Get to the bottom of the main shaft on Silent Cartographer, using NO VEHICLES. There are quite a number of other clarifications, so be sure to read his post on the subject – and good luck to all who enter! (We have nothing to do with this contest, other than being eager to see what folks come up with – this one is all Frogblast.)

Today’s Fan Fiction offering has a rather unusual entry – the Halo writer’s guild known as Zenith has submitted its first compilation work. Due to the limitations of our database system, we have to present it to you in two segments, but it was intended to be read as a unit. You can see the full work, called ‘Apex’, using our ‘series’ option – or you can read it piece by piece by checking out Part 1 and then Part 2. Your call. Beyond Zenith’s project, there are a number of other stories to choose from today:

• Into the Unknown, part 4, by Jean-Paul Allee
• Progect: MYST, part 2, by The Masta
• The First Step, part 4, by JediKnight114
• The Outer Limits, part 3, by agsbladerboy55

Go get reading…

We’ve worked hard and long, here at HBO, to earn a reputation as one of the top Halo sites – we’ve put together some pretty high-quality content over the years. The time may have come, however, to lay down our keyboards, put away our copies of Photoshop… a new site has sprung up, and their content might just put us out of business. Bow down to the might of Supa Mega Tricksta! (And be aware, before you visit, that the workers of HBO had nothing to do with this site; these guys are in a class by themselves.)

Got a lot of legos? Make a Lego warthog! David Karl did…

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews and Vector40 have both let us know that the Junkyard has gotten a facelift, complete with changeable themes. Check ’em out!

Jason Saker sends in a new rendition of the Halo Logo – we’ve added it to our Logos collection. (It’s for team t-shirts…)

Whoa – claimes from a forumgoer about modifications to saved games! So far, says Jason Horwath, he’s managed to give all guns infinite ammo, and he’s managed to make marines invincible anywhere. Proof is forthcoming. If this pans out, it’ll be the first evidence of hackable saves! Update: Apparently, all of the claims made so far have been speculation – none of these hacks have happened yet. More if/when we hear about it…

Will Turnbow has updated his Halo font – it now includes numbers, common symbols, and even some graphics. Go grab the new copy (in both TrueType and Type 1 flavors) in our Miscellaneous Art section!

Before I forget AGAIN – Grail, of CWB, saw a new Halo commercial on Canadian TV earlier this week – then TomeOne, back from the wilds of Austria, saw it as well yesterday. It contains a Marathon logo, a politician, some Halo footage, and talk of ‘whoop-ass’. If anyone manages to capture this on video, please – let us know!

Friday night Fan Fiction:

• Titan – Prologue, by Jaywhit10
• Present Horizon, part 3, by Spook
• Effusion – Epilogue, by Tursas
• Progect: MYST, part 1, by The Masta

Don’t forget to let Tursas know what you thought of the whole Effusion series, now that it’s over!