We got word yesterday that Xbox Maniacs had put up a Halo review. (It was actually posted in early December, but we missed it.) It’s been added to the Reviews Database.

Subnova picked up an exclusive new desktop image with the help of Bungie – if you’ve finished the game, this is a great one. (If you haven’t, it’s rather spoileriffic.) It’s available in 1024×768 (160k) and 1920×1440 (308k) – and it’s pretty funny. (Visit the Easter Egg page if you don’t get the reference.) We’ll add these to our Wallpaper collection soon – but for now, visit Subnova to grab ’em! (And look around while you’re there, if you haven’t before…) The idea (and coercion of Bungie employees) is courtesy of Mark Levin, while the Photoshop work was done by Deimosâ„¢.

dogsounds sent us a note about an article on Halo at Bella Online, the website for Bella Magazine. Unusual for a women’s magazine, they’ve covered Halo, down to a (pretty basic) walkthrough. dogsounds had some problems with the language contained therein… but you can judge for yourself. His comment was:

I get the feeling the reviewer is the kind of person who takes the role of “the one that spawns in front of vehicles” in multiplayer…

We’re not entirely sure that’s fair… but have a look.

Wow… a female marine concept sketch. (Okay, it’s more than a sketch.) Very nice work by Daniel.C. Check it out in our bulging Miscellaneous Art section.

Bob Henegar has created a replacement login screen for Windows XP, featuring the Master Chief. We’ve added it to our Miscellaneous Art section, for lack of a better place – a preview can be seen there. Enjoy!

ImmortalPain sends in three new sketches – one’s not as finished as he’d like, but they’re all still pretty impressive. Watch for spoilers. These can be found in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Germain Couët sends in another entertaining desktop – you’ll find it in our Wallpaper section.

Two new mirrors for the Breaking the Rules vid released yesterday – thanks to Appleicious and Rampancy.net for their generous bandwidth donations! (The full mirror list is still here.)

That Weasel has added a pair of mirrors for the Breaking the Rules movie – you can grab it in the existing QT5 format, or in a re-encoded WMP 8 format (considerably smaller). We’ve set up a BtR mirror page for links. (We’d love to make it longer. 🙂 )

Today’s Fan Fiction chapters:

• The Hell Of War, part 7, by Jaywhit10
• Effusion, part 5, by Tursas
• The Long Ride Home, part 4, by Joshua Barreto

There was one more, but I couldn’t read it.

The April issue of Edge Magazine (a very high-quality gaming mag in the UK) has an interview with Jaime Griesemer, one of Halo’s Designers. It’s a good read (and got me wondering where the ‘weak spots’ on a tank are…) – you can find it, scanned in for those without access to the dead tree version, over at Subnova.com. Check it out!

A new movie hits the streets – Team Overkill has created ‘Breaking the Rules’, a three and a half minute romp through Halo tricksterism. (Hey – he made that word up, didn’t he?) There are gameplay glitches, grenade tricks, weird sights… and at least two multiplayer tricks I’ve never seen before (both of which look to be quite useful, one of which has me smacking my forehead for missing it). Nicely composed, as well. Currently, we’ve tossed it up on Brian Towne’s mythica.org server (side note to Brian – feel free to slap me around whenever this gets to be too much bandwidth 🙂 ), but 18 mb files need mirrors like Linus needs his blanket. Any help would be appreciated.

More funny wallpaper from Germain Couët – grab it from our Wallpaper section.

A pair of pencil sketches came in tonight – the PoA sketch is pretty slick! Check ’em both out in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Six months ago, Microsoft released a Halo Theme for Windows XP. The components were quickly extracted and made available… but now Windows 95/98/ME users have the option of a simple Theme install, thanks to Doomsdeath. He’s pulled out some of the pieces, and added a .theme file… easy install on older MS systems. 748k, zipped. Go get it!

DOH! Almost forgot to mention – there are also a whole passel of irregularly-sized images for dual-monitor setups on the Desktops page of Tru7h and Reconciliation- go get ’em! (Watch the spoilers.)

There’s a new article over at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site today, which focuses on the ties between Marathon and Halo. Are any questions answered? No, not really. It’s a good overview for those who don’t know much about Marathon… but the Bungie skill of saying a lot without saying anything is very much in evidence here. Oh, yeah, and go read what Hamish Sinclair had to say about it, over at the Marathon’s Story page… Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up – though I should have seen it myself on the Story page… shame, shame…

A dent has been made on the Gameplay Tricks queue – 9 new tricks have been added today. They range from funny little glitches to major thought-provoking engine explorations… look through ALL of ’em! (There are still half-a-dozen in the queue – including one or two that have been in the documentation phase for a LONG time – but we’re getting there.)

New fan art – one from wetslayer, three from Germain Couët. You’ll find all four in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Splat’s pretty funny. 😉 ) Update: Germain CouÔ´ has sent in ANOTHER image – you can find it here, or see all five with this link.

Today’s batch of Fan Fiction for you:

• Halo Beyond, part 1, by Joey21488
• Banserki’s Journal, part 5, by Sarge
• Gods Love a Tryer, part 1, by Dee Pulled by author’s request
• The Long Ride Home, part 3, by Joshua Barreto

Lessee if I can get these posted before more come in…