In response to a request to see what the Halo DVD actually looks like, Matt Soell popped one in front of the Bungie Webcam. Is that cool community relations, or what?

To go with the new movies, GameSpot has put up a Multiplayer Impressions article – a description of the 13 maps (similar to the description IGN put up a couple of days ago) and some tips and comments. They were playing a ‘near-final’ build… and they commented on the framerate blips; I’m wondering if we’re going to continue hearing about these with the gold version. In any case, it’s an information-dense read, and comes complete with 25 screenshots. Check it out.

Gamespot has put up 6 new Halo clips – they’re short views of some multiplayer action. Get ’em if you want… Some pretty cool stuff in there. (Thanks to Razorback, on our forum, and Onibushi via email, for the first heads-up.

SE|G???f?* (don’t ask me how you pronounce that) dropped off a new desktop for our Wallpaper collection. Go to it.

Dusty sends in a pair of desktops for our Wallpaper section. That green one is pretty slick! Update: Bounty, from Battleground: Halo, points out that the green wallpaper submitted earlier today by Dusty was, in fact, taken from the screensaver included in the Microsoft-released Halo XP Theme released a week ago. The entry has been updated to reflect this. Please, folks – if you submit work, claim credit for it only if it’s yours. Update 2: Sorry for the confusion. Unfortunately, I don’t have a machine I can install this theme on (the Win98 boxes I have access to cannot be used for this) – I need to rely on others to let me know when stuff isn’t right. From the original documents that Dusty has sent, it’s clear that while the elements might have come from the screensaver, quite a bit of the enhancement work is his alone. The Wallpaper entry has been adjusted yet again.

Halo domain for sale: In April, Haloserver.com came online aiming to be “first and best dedicated Halo gaming server”. Today, they announced on our forum that they can’t make it all it can be, and would like to offer it to someone who can. Do you have what it takes?

strykerwolf created a Counter-Strike model of the Halo assault rifle a little while ago – it’s been polished since then (here’s a newer screenshot), and we’re hosting it for him. It’s a tad over 400k – if you play Counter-Strike, go ahead and grab this! (There are no sounds included, for copyright reasons… but as we said last week, there’s a nice little .wav of the assault rifle firing in the Halo XP theme Microsoft released recently.

Tweak3d, over at the Xbox IGN forums, has posted pictures of the Halo box (front and back) and of the booklet showing the game controls. Thanks to BiBoFieTo for the heads-up.

Nice catch by Psyrixx – page 238 of ‘Halo: The Fall of Reach’:

“The structural system was designed by a Dr. Robert McLees – cofounder of the Reyes-McLees Shipyards over mars – in 2510…”

For those who don’t keep up on Bungie employees – Rob McLees is an artist on the Halo Dev Team, and he’s married to Lorraine Reyes, an artist on the Phoenix team. Nice tip o’ the hat!

Cesar Berardini, of TeamXbox, points out a pretty nice article over at GameSpot – it’s called ‘Halo: Weapon, Enemy, and Vehicle Basics‘. It’s a solid article, with 9 new screens (okay, 8, since they screwed up one of them Update – okay, they’ve fixed it), and no SERIOUS spoilers. The info in here has been elsewhere – but it’s nicely put together. Check it out!

Final Solution points out a hands-on review he wrote (based on an hour’s worth of play at a kiosk) – be careful where you step, the html is DANGEROUS.

Adem sends in another JeffK-style wallpaper (inspired, he says, by FunkyJ’s). You’ll find it in our Wallpaper section.

Halo Center, a large Halo fansite that’s been dormant since August, is up and running again. Updated content, new newsie (Corven)… good to see ’em back, just in time for the Xbox version of Halo! (Kudos to Narcogen, of Rampancy.net, for picking up on the resurrection.)

I’d like to apologize – HBO (and the rest of bungie.org, for that matter) is experiencing some pretty funky network activity. Apparently, Lucent decided to perform software upgrades on all the routing equipment at our upstream provider… but they forgot to iron out the bugs first. They’re working on it. In the meantime, we thought we’d pass along a little interview we conducted recently. Eric Nylund, author of ‘Halo: The Fall of Reach’, was kind enough to answer seven questions for us – and we think you might find some interesting tidbits in there. Feel free to post your comments on the forum.

You know, one of the coolest things about Bungie employees is that sometimes, they think like fans. 🙂 Yesterday, a forum visitor asked about IPX through IP tunneling, as a way to connect Xboxes across the net (while making them think they’re LAN-connected) – and the response of a Bungie network programmer?

my thoughts are I’m glad to hear people considering this :O)

Heh – and to think someone told me this evening how easy it is for an innocent comment to spin out of control on these boards…

‘Tis the evening for artwork submissions… Arch Angel sends us a greyscale Marine for our Miscellaneous Art section.

A couple of days ago, Hamish Sinclair wondered about the eBook version of Eric Nylund’s novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach. Well, today, Random House put up an excerpt from it – for those who were unsure of buying it, go read this; you can make up your own mind, instead of relying on the reviews of others.

Glug… we’re DROWNING in desktops! Evilbum sends us not one, not two… FIVE new ones for our Wallpaper section. Go get ’em.

Gah! First it’s ascii art in html format… now it’s ascii art as… ART! Well, desktops, anyway. Blizzard turns in a pair of desktop images for our Wallpaper section, and for good measure throws in the Halo logo, in binary code. (You’ll find that last in our Logos section.)