A few days ago, Cal sent in a number of pretty nifty shots taken on Sidewinder. Some of ’em just make you go ‘hmm…’ Well, they got lost in the shuffle… but we unburied them. Check ’em out! They’ve been added to the rapidly growing Tricks page… which is going to need a better navigation system, and soon. (The backlog of tricks submissions is currently running in double digits… apologies. For those in the queue – be happy you’re not in the Gameplay Tips queue, which is even longer! I gotta find some serious updating time…)

The first mirrors for Aaron Suhr’s music video are up – they’ll get swamped fast, due to their alone-ness, but there should be more coming. (If you can help, write us.) Thanks to Beorn, who provided two different mac.com download sites (Site 1 and Site 2). Enjoy!

Aaron Suhr has made a pretty amazing Halo music video – Bush’s ‘The People That We Love’ has been accompanied by a fantastic collection of clips of… well, you gotta see it. Unfortunately, it’s 15 megs, and we simply don’t have the bandwidth for it. Aaron doesn’t, either – so we’re begging for volunteers; anyone with a big pipe and a big heart, drop us a line, we’ll get you the movie and let folks know of the mirror sites. Thanks!

[HELL]-genohunter writes to point out a pair of Halo previews on two French sites; Nihon-fr and MaxoeGames.com. Both are quite positive. There’s also word of Halo stories in both the January 2002 Joypad (console gaming) and Joystick (PC Gaming) – scans of the Joypad article will be coming soon. Halo is taking over the world!

Tom Murphy sends in the first installment of his new series, ‘Casualties of War‘. So far, it has nothing to do with Halo… but we’ll cut him a little slack. Check it out in our Fan Fiction section!

Fun stuff updates: We’ve added a small note about yesterday’s Gameplay Trick – a number of readers sent in a far simpler solution… yesterday’s Easter Egg has been updated with a nearly complete list of translations… and a new Gameplay Trick entry has been added: Mark Levin shows, in a video, how to visit that infamous ‘Lone Marine’ on 343 Guilty Spark. Enjoy!

The January 2002 issue of PC Gamer UK (off the shelves as of yesterday) contained a Devil’s Advocate column (238K) in which Kieron Gillen, Deputy Editor of PCGUK, raves about how Halo will NOT come to the PC (because if it did, the Xbox would fail, apparently – and if the Xbox fails, FUTURE good games will not be ported to the PC). Bizarre logic? Yes. But hey – it’s in a mainstream UK gaming mag, which means a lot of gamers will read it… so it’s worth knowing about. And in case anyone wasn’t sure – he’s completely, utterly, absolutely wrong about Halo not coming to the Mac/PC. It is. And that’s that. Thanks to Berk for the scan! (One of these days, we’ll even get our Press Scans page populated – there are a few dozen articles here which just need to be listed…) Followup: This should teach me to comment on unknown entities… Apparently, on page 42 of the same issue of PC Gamer UK was this passage:

Good news: ex-cover star halo is finished! Bad news: it’s on the Xbox. Ignore grumpy Kieron’s Devil’s Advocate column (p.22), and take bungie at their own word: their excellent first person shooter will be arriving on the PC. The only question now is when and in what form. On the Xbox, it’s a highly playable shooter with vehicles, with some sterling game design and gorgeous visuals. Give it us.”

(They also gave it 5/5 for an Anticipation Rating.) The column, it seems, is often used for stupid arguments. Ah, well. Thanks to Griffon for the heads-up.

poena.dare #CP#g has uploaded 7 new desktop images, extracted from the Halo Game Manual (available online at Xbox.com) – they really do make nice desktops. Check ’em out in our Wallpaper section! (And Matthew – who’s Howard Zimmerman, anyway?)

New stuff at Halo: Truth & Reconciliation, including a One on One with Halo’s artistic lead Marcus Lehto, new outtakes and a new gallery section. Pax

Mark Levin has created a 7 MB, 90 second video showing multiple locations for shooting down that first Banshee on Assault on the Control Room – getting hold of this will allow you to explore the level without having to deal with any enemies. Check it out in our Tips and Tricks section. Nice work!

To atone for the sin of bad imagery, we’ve added another easter egg to the page – this one can be found at the start of multiplay. Check it out on the Halo Easter Egg page! Thanks to Allenthar for this submission.

Apologies for the low image quality of the easter egg picture added yesterday – some of you let me know, in no uncertain terms, that it wasn’t particularly useful. It’s been changed – should be better now. (Still spoiler material, of course. 🙂 )

Though this rumor was (mostly) squashed by Matt Soell on November 25, on our forum, Xbox Gamers has asked for, and gotten a definitive answer about, the supposed ‘Halo 1.5’ add-on for Xbox Halo. It’s not gonna happen, folks.

Psyrixx, of the Psyjnir Complex, has posted pictures of the first LAN party of The Bay Area Halo Playing Group… nice equipment! Check it out.

Sometimes, it’s nice to just climb a tree and enjoy the scenery from 20 feet off the ground. Of course, it helps when there are leaves… and when you’re not dead. Check out Tom Wittman’s ‘up in a tree’ pics in our Gameplay Tricks section.

And another egg is added to the Halo Easter Egg page. As far as I know, nobody’s noticed this one yet – and I have to give credit to Bungie’s Mordia, who let it slip in casual conversation (he assumed it was common knowledge) – but it’s pretty funny nonetheless! It should go without saying that just reading this page will spoil you if you haven’t played yet… but I’ll say it anyway.

The Halo SETI Marines take on on the chin with the loss of R3ality, who left with 870 units… but they remain in 61st position in the Battle of the Teams. More Marines submitted units in the past 2 weeks than is normal – nice going! Were you among the workers? Check the 14 day stats page to see.

Electus Unum has created a fun little movie (30 seconds, about 5 megs) showing a neat trick – he puts a Ghost on top of a Blood Gulch Base with no outside help. No extra people, no rockets, no grenades, no nothing… except the Ghost. We’ve posted it to our overflow space at mac.com… 5 megs on HBO’s puny pipe scares me. 🙂 We’ll add this to the Tricks page sometime tomorrow, probably. Update: a number of people have written in or (in one case) posted to the forum with the info that the Ghosts simply climb the ramps to the base roof, if you hit them right – no terrain bouncing needed. Still – this is a pretty fun vid. 🙂

At the end of December, Enzyver posted a series of pictures showing how to collect the first Banshee on Assault in the Control room. Well… they’ve now been submitted here, and added to our Gameplay Tricks section. (I’ve reduced the images to fit a more common browser size, but if anyone wants the original images, they’re linked from the individual pages (along with sizes).) Once again, apologies for the backlog – there’s only one of me doing this stuff right now!

Goodness, even MORE wallpaper. Jean-Philippe Hamel submits a new desktop for an upcoming PC Halo clan, the Next Generation Troopers. You’ll find it in our Wallpaper section. (This stuff seems to come in waves.)