A sizeable Fan Fiction collection for you tonight:

• ODST Saga, Chapter 1, by Robo42786
• The Saga Continues: Halo 2, by Edward Parker
• Roughneck Two-Zero, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, by Anthony Coronado
• Damuis, by Mr Bill Jr V
• Effusion, Chapter 3, by Tursas
• In The Beginning, by Kellen Squire
• The Past, by SkyRyan1
• The Long Ride Home, by Joshua Barreto

The collection grows… and grows… and grows…

Florian writes to tell us about HalosHome.de (also reachable at HaloSource.de), a new German Halo site. Check it out!

Apologies for the news blackout of the last 36 hours – HBO HQ was host to a 15-player lanfest yesterday (guests started arriving at 9 am, we closed the last door around 11 pm), so updating took a second seat. 🙂 In that time, Computer Gaming World columnist Jeff Green put up an article at Gamers.com in which he (once again) called into question the PC versions of Halo. Bungie’s own Matt Soell commented on Mr. Green’s words on our forum this morning… but we’re still intrigued about the Halo ‘announcement’ happening at a Microsoft party in San Francisco this week. More details when we find them… (Thanks to Cesar Berardini, of TeamXbox, who provided us with the first heads-up on this issue.)

A month ago, Xbox Au posted a Halo review – they said it was derivative, but gave it a 9.4. They’ve now yanked that review, and written a new one – score has dropped to 8.8. (They were unhappy with the short replay value. Guess nobody told them about the exploration possibilities.) We’ve adjusted our Reviews database accordingly.

New Wallpapers at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site – six images, in four resolutions each. (Spoiler warning is necessary for the last one.) Check ’em out!

Heh – it’s not every day that fans find out something that BUNGIE didn’t know… three weeks ago, Matt Soell created the Rumor Control Database in an effort to debunk the most common (false) rumors concerning Halo that have been circulating the internet. One of the most persistent has been “If you beat the game on Normal, then on Legendary, all in 3 hours, you’ll get a third weapon.” Matt’s response?

“Nope. You’ll always have a two-weapon limit.”

Heh – today, Reckless Angel posted a note to our forum stating that this was not true… and 12 hours and 8 minutes later, Frogblast posted video proof of his claim. Turns out it’s a timing issue, and getting that third weapon depends on beating a timed checkpoint… but apparently, it’s not so tough to beat. The fans of this game continue to amaze me. (In all fairness, this glitch will turn up on no other level, because there is nowhere else that you start with no weapons. However, you CAN play an entire level of Halo – 10% of the game – with three weapons instead of two… and that’s just plain cool.)

Loren Judah has turned in another desktop image – this time Hunter-based. You’ll find it (in two resolutions) in our Wallpaper section.

Another pair of Halo reviews has come to our attention: Xbox Advanced and Gamespot UK. We’ve added both to the Reviews database. Thanks to EssBee and DT_Spike, respectively, for the heads-ups.

Tarrsk posted a very nice MC sketch to our forum – we’ve added it (and two partial sketches, showing the progress of the work) to our Miscellaneous Art section.

The daily Fan Fiction influx:

• Banserki’s Journal, Part 4, by Sarge
• The Hell of War, Part 4, by Jaywhit10
• Covenant War, by Slith
• The Rookie, Part 2, by The British Commando
• Order of the Seraphim, Part 3, by Jehkoh

I’m also impressed by the level of feedback being given on the Fan Fiction entries – nice job, all around!

Yes, it took FOREVER – but the Gameplay Tricks queue is CLEARED! There are 10 new entries, almost all from new tricksters – the collection is seriously eclectic. 8 new tricksters, 9 maps covered… explore. Highlights for me included the cool teleporting marines glitch on Silent Cartographer and the gorgeous vistas found above the waterfall on Halo… but it’s all good. Go check it out! (One-Shots should be coming in the next few days… if all goes well.)

Djoey.154 sends in version 2 of his Halo Winamp skin – again, since we don’t have a downloads section, you’ll find this in the Miscellaneous Art section.

The Japanese box art for Halo on Xbox is up at the Japanese Amazon web site. Check it out here. Pax.

That Weasel Television has mirrored 3 flavors of ‘Halo: The Movie’, and both flavors of the Rocket Dance video, for anyone having trouble getting any of these films. This community is great. (The ‘Halo: The Movie’ mirror list has been updated – and hopefully I’ll actually compile a Rocket Dance mirror list today.) Update: Mirror list now compiled. One of these days, I’ll even update the Movies page. 🙂

Five new writing bits for you:

• The Mutant’s Ode and An Elite’s Eye View (poems) by Gasmask
• Roughneck Two-Zero Chapter One and Chapter Two, by Anthony Coronado
• The Rookie, Chapter 1 by The British Commando

It’s coming in almost faster than I can read it – are the rest of you keeping up? Keep your eyes on the Fan Fiction section!

Two more mirrors for the Rocket Dance vid (high-res only):

• Allenthar’s mac.com space
• Matt Hanlon’s personal server

I’ll compile a full list soon – thanks, guys!

More mirror links! Jop Peters has graciously agreed to host the .wmv version of ‘Halo: The Movie’ (his space on endoria.net was already home to both .mov versions), and MFG Angel, of Bungie.de, has put up all three versions, as well. Finally, Narcogen has put up a larger iteration of the re-encoded version of the movie (first made available in small form last night) at Rampancy.net (it’s 21 mb). You’ll find all the new links on our mirrors page. If you find a mirror is too slow for you – stop the download and try another one. Minimize the bandwidth pain!

More movie info – Rampancy.net (now at rampancy.synfibers.com, since the dns is still hosed) has put up a 9 mb, 480×320 version of ‘Halo: The Movie’ – it’s actually 240×180 doubled, but the compression’s decent, and it looks good. Nice choice for limited bandwidth users. It’s been added to the mirrors page. Also, Brian Towne has added both the large and small versions of the Rocket Dance movie to mythica.org’s bottomless bandwidth well.

Three more tricks for you in the Gameplay Tricks section – pete_the_duck does some exploring on Halo and Silent Cartographer. More coming soon!

LaZ_EyE has submitted another pair of desktop images – this time in muted greys. Check ’em out in our Wallpaper section.