Two new desktop images for your perusing pleasure: ZMAN sends in a white-themed Halo image, and Germain Couët drops off another one of his very attractive Halo murals. (You’ll need a pretty massive monitor to appreciate this…) Check ’em out in our Wallpaper section!

Whew! 1600 forum posts and two extra-heavy titanium-alloy drillbits (needed to remove the lock from the command center here at HBO Central, since Count Zero wouldn’t open it voluntarily) later, I’m finally caught up with older material. We’ll start with the easy stuff; there are a couple of Halo websites to inform you of. Halo Norge is a general Norwegian Halo site (it’s pretty annoying to see scans I created myself with someone else’s imprint on them, but hey…), and iBonk.com is a very nicely done Halo Movies site, containing clips of everything from funny sequences to tutorial-type demos. (iBonk isn’t new, exactly – but we’ve neglected to bring it to our readers’ attentions before now.) These have been added to our Links list. Wallpaper update coming soon.

I’ve just received word that Louis Wu is back from his vacation. That means that all the content I’ve been too lazy^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hunable to post will go up pretty soon, probably as soon as Louis gets Security to break into the control room and remove me. Oh well, I was starting to miss that basement anyway…

The Hotline section of the beleagured Psyjnir Complex is back up, bringing with it all the Halo content mirrors hosted there. Thanks to Ar-Isildur for the good news.

The Halo content mirror at Mythica.org has returned, bringing with it new hosting for Warthog Jump, What Goes Up, HILTSPALTH, and Chaos on the Ring. Thanks for the bandwidth!

At last, at long last, Frogblast has found the elusive Halo Hippo! Matt has confirmed that the hippo theory posted here is the genuine item. Extremely lethal indeed…

A new Halo video has surfaced, named Chaos on the Ring, featuring “everything from warthog launching to synchronized grenade tossing”. It’s in WMV format, so I can’t check it out myself, but it’s got stuntmaster Randy Glass’s stamp of approval. Looks like we could use some more mirrors…

John discovers the Covenant taste for psychedelia in the next part of Ian Barnes‘ Operation: False Prophets, entitled If I had Pink Hallways, I’d Make Somebody Pay.

It’s not over yet for the beleagured Chief as Dyoung92 sends in another part of his take on Halo 2.

Chmee writes to announce that Cortana.co.uk has just opened its forums.

Lots of cool stuff has just appeared on Bungie.net… Top story is the announcement of the E3 Fanfest/Seventh Column Convocation, complete with Halo tournament and “Bungie-style tomfoolery”. The Truth and Reconciliation has posted an interview with Bungie artist and Covenant sculptor Juan Ramirez. Speaking of which, the winner of said Covenant sculpture turns out to be Tom Van Sinden, known around here as mnemesis. Congratulations!

In a quest for perfection, Team 7HR33 has kept their web page private until the last tweak has been given to the content, but each time they came close to finishing (and going public), they decided to add ONE more feature, or ONE more color change, or ONE more cool section. Well, Frogblast has blown their cover… and rather than let you look at a sub-page of the site, and think you’ve seen what there is, they’ve decided to open up to the world – The Website of the 7HR33 Halo Team. Check it out – cool movies, a large number of ‘firsts’… good stuff.

If you’re lucky enough to be going to Game Developers Conference 2002, don’t miss the chance to listen to (and, if my Macworld experiences are any guide, hobnob with) the Bungie personnel who’ll be there. Pallor passes along a handy list of events:

• Halo: Combat Evolved, a Post Mortem, with designer Jaime Greisemer and AI programmer Chris Butcher
• The Audio Production for Halo, with audio director Marty O’Donnell

The Grunt abuse continues as Bonk has some fun with the “frozen AI” bug in this movie. Ouch!

And the fan fiction continues to flow… New author Ian Barnes sends in Operation False Prophets: AI Constructs and Cyborgs First, Again, taking place immediately after the game.

The adventures of the Silver Hawks continue as Vector40 sends in Chapter 3b of his Hawk Chronicles.

Our friends at The Psyjnir Complex have run into a bit of trouble with their hardware, as documented here by operator Psyrixx. This site provides several mirrors for Halo content (including the Warthog jumping movies), which are now temporarily down. Get well soon!

Legolas has created a guide to virtually every known secret in Halo (and some I didn’t know about myself). It’s posted at GameFAQs’ Halo section.

The quest for the elusive Halo Hippo kicks into high gear with the creation by carrim of The Halo Hippo Hunting Grounds. Who will be the first to find the ultimate easter egg?