Xerxes writes to point out that Halo Orbit has been redesigned. Check ’em out!

Geez, take a Saturday night off, and things go crazy! Here’s the first batch of uploads – some Fan Fiction for you:

• Operation False Prophets, Chapter Twelve, by Ian Barnes
• Effusion, chapter 7, by Tursas
• The awakening (life of a Spartan), chapter 2, by agsbladerboy55
• Halo: Aftermath (gj), chapter 2, by GarlicJr11

Halo: Aftermath comes with cover art, as well (link is inside the story).

InToRcEpToR has submitted a pair of desktops, created by applying Photoshop filters to some Bungie-created images. If you like painting on your desktop, check out our Wallpaper section!

A couple of links for you… StarWarsFanMan sent in a link to his Halo Pictures site a bit ago, but the message got buried in my inbox. 🙁 The site contains collections of Halo pictures – including a glitch scene showing TWO Guilty Sparks. We also received word of a clan site, the 67th Raptors. They’re looking to be the best that they can be… and they want you.

That Weasel writes to say that he’s mirrored the large and the small versions of yesterday’s new Halo ‘ad’. You can find the links on our Mirror page – and thanks again to That Weasel Television!

Ever been playing multiplayer and received the message ‘killed by the Guardians’? Ever wondered what it meant? Well, the Seventh Column Chapter HALO National is offering $100 (in a gift certificate to EBWorld) to the best explanation for their existence. Details of this bounty hunt can be found on Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site. (Thanks to Vector40 for the heads-up.)

A new Halo ‘commercial’ has hit the scene – created by Micro295, it blends footage from the E3 2000 vid, the first Halo commercial, and some other sources, and puts them all to ‘Hero’, by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback and Josey Scott of Saliva (off the Spider-Man movie soundtrack). There are 3 sizes – a 320×240 version, weighing in at 16.7 mb; a 240×180 version, weighing in at 12.2 mb; and a 160×120 version, weighing in at 7.4 mb. All three have been uploaded to Mythica.org and to the Psyjnir.com Hotline server… but we can always use other mirrors. (Current download locations will always be listed on the Mirror page.)

Yesterday, it was Japan… today, the UK. ELSPA has released their latest figures… and for the week ending April 27th (thanks to the Xbox price drop), Halo has shot up from 18th best-selling game (any platform) to 5th. Amazing what a little discount can do for you…

Whoa! Thanks to Team Overkill, who sent in a scan from the latest issue of ToyFare Magazine. It’s a Wish List article… about Halo action figures! And they’ve done a custom mockup! Very cool.

Update on the Collaborative Halo Fan Fiction project mentioned yesterday – Bonk has kindly set up a forum for discussion of this topic. If you’d like to join, be sure to send your name to Ryan, first…

At long last, HBO is proud to announce… the opening of the Gameplay Tips section! Great thanks go out to CYBRFRK, who coded the whole mess… there’s not a lot of content there yet, but we’re counting on you to change that. Have a gameplay tip? Submit it! We’ll clean it up a bit, and toss it into the database… in no time, this collection should be a repository of the considerable wealth of knowledge evinced by the fine visitors of this site.

Ryan dropped us a note with a rather ambitious proposal – he hopes to get as many fan fiction writers together as possible, and as a group, tell the story of the game.

• Skill level of the writer is not important – everyone is welcome.
• All writers will have a chance to help with the actual editing of the project. (There is no minimum amount of work needed to be part of this – you contribute what you feel comfortable contributing.)
• The editing process will (in Ryan’s words) “help to blend all of our writing styles effectively to create a story far more polished, enjoyable, and colorful than any one writer could do alone. Since it has an elaborate and fair set up, inter-writer disagreements will be dealt with proactively in the benefit of the story as a whole.”
• There aren’t any fixed dates for the project at this point – work will start when there are enough writers, and will end when everyone involved is satisfied.

If you’re interested in participating in this project, drop Ryan a note – he’ll be doing the coordination at this stage.

Japanese economics… Dengeki Online has published sales rankings for last week; Halo placed 9th in Japan – the only Xbox game in the top 10 (indeed, the only one in the top 50). The On24 network is reporting that Xbox sales surged 70% in Japan for the week ending the 28th… the week Halo was introduced. Looks like Halo is gonna be an Xbox-saver in the Land of the Rising Sun! (Thanks to Nijhazer and Ken Kasperson for the links.)

Eep – Drunkgamers.com stopped notifying us when new installments of their multiplayer tips series come out (we might have pissed them off by forgetting to post about a Drunkathon they held a little while back), and we forgot to go back and look. In the past month, they’ve posted parts five (how NOT to win at KOTH), six (pick your CTF partners well) and seven (using the flat spin technique to keep yourself from flipping in a jeep). Check ’em out!

Lot’s of 6’s:

• Well Enough Alone, part 6, by Ryan
• Capture of the Bounty, part 4, by SkyRyan1
• Last Hope, part 1, by SSJBRK
• ODST Saga, part 6, by Robo42786
• Aftermath, part 6, by Alex Cross

Go check ’em out in the Fan Fiction section!

The Psyjnir Complex, which has been down for a long time now, is slated to come back on May 14. Visit the site for an explanation of how that date was picked… and mark your calendars; they’re having a Hotline party to celebrate!

Thanks to That Weasel and Alan Wu, who have provided two new homes for the Demo Promo movie – links can be found on our mirror list.

Getchyer red-hot fan fiction here…

• Well Enough Alone, part 5, by Ryan
• Present Horizon, part 1, by Spook
• Halo: Aftermath (gj), chapter 1, by GarlicJr11
• Operation False Prophets, part 11, by Ian Barnes
• The First Step Into A Long Fall, part 2, by JediKnight114

In addition, GarlicJr11 has created a logo to go with his writing – you can find it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

A couple of weeks ago, Bungie released some cool dual-monitor desktops. Did you decide they were nice to look at, but that you didn’t have the screen real estate to show ’em off? Never fear – Allenthar has combined them into nice single-monitor desktops – you can find them, in a whole slew of resolutions, in our Wallpaper section.

Thanks to Reaper7 (of Battleground: Halo) and Allenthar, who have both provided mirrors for the Demo Promo movie – you’ll find the links on our Demo Promo Mirrors page. Update: Oops, forgot Cybrfrk! He’s put it up, as well (with a .wmv on the way). Update 2: Brian Josselyn writes to say that it’s mirrored at Blackstar Productions, as well. (Link is on the Mirror page…)