padraig08 put together some cool screenshot artwork to celebrate Halloween – go see! (Louis Wu 17:27:13 UTC)

agdtinman is selling off some of his Halo toys – there’s some pretty unique stuff in that collection! (He worked on putting reference material for the artists who made these – if you’re a collector, this is a bunch of stuff you should keep an eye on!) The first auction is live, and a list of what he’s selling is also in his post. Go look! (Louis Wu 17:26:09 UTC)

Edge let us know that the 6th episode of their Pick of the Week series is up – it’s all about Best Sticks, and you can vote for your favorite clip. Noice! (Louis Wu 17:15:26 UTC)

Anoj has released his last Reach Top 10 – this one’s called ‘All Time Kills’, and is full of some pretty impressive clips. (They’ve all been seen before – this is a Best-Of. Doesn’t mean they’re not worth watching again, though…) Go watch ’em!(Louis Wu 17:08:36 UTC)

Two new pieces are up in our Fan Fiction section this week – go read!(Louis Wu 17:03:56 UTC)

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You guys have asked for it, and how we’re giving it to you. We start our trio of podcasts looking at the history of Master Chief in the Halo franchise starting with Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo was has been defined as one of the pivotal moments for first person shooters on the console and it has lived up to that name ever since. In Combat Evolved, we are greeted by Captain Keyes and his crew being run down by Covenant and have ended up near a ring world called Halo. While captured on the surface of Halo, the captain overhears conversations the Covenant have about Halo being a weapon of some kind. The objective to take control of Halo turned out to be an adventure of mystery, as the secrets of Halo unfold before your eyes and reveal and even greater thread than the Covenant: the Flood. Halo was originally designed to wipe out all sentient life to starve the Flood to prevent them spreading, which 343 Guilty Spark tries to convince Chief of doing as a “Reclaimer”. After discovering Spark’s true intent, the goal was no longer to control Halo, but to disable and destroy it at all costs. Enjoy

The latest Halo Bulletin is now online at Halo Waypoint (and locally in our Halo Bulletin Archive) – it’s full of tasty info, including views (and video) of the last new Multiplayer map, Vortex, details about Forge, and mysteries for you to solve. Go explore!(Louis Wu 22:45:54 UTC)

Infonaut has put together a documentary of Rooster Teeth – the first 9-minute segment is online. It’s awesome. You should watch it.(Louis Wu 20:06:05 UTC)

Leviathan is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the completion of ‘A Fistful of Arrows’ with a final Adjunct page – it’s a fitting conclusion to an amazing story. The website for A Fistful of Arrows has been updated, as well.(Louis Wu 19:00:05 UTC)

We got word from Paul Ference, of HighCharity.org, that their second annual High Charity Halo Marathon, benefitting Child’s Play Charity, will kick off on Friday, October 26th. Last year’s event raised over $2500 during 72 hours of gaming – they’re shooting for a MUCH bigger number this time around. The goal for 2012 is $25,000 – can you help them get there? From the press release:

Viewers of the event will have the ability to unlock "skulls," at different benchmarks of charitable donations, causing the group to play longer. "Aside from giving to charity," says Ference, "our donators will also be challenging us by making the games harder and harder with the more money we raise."

Heh. Sounds like fun! Check out the website for details, or visit their stream page.(Louis Wu 18:57:20 UTC)

Halo HORSE has pretty much stopped being about Halo – I think the actual gameplay discussion takes about 30 seconds in the six and a half minute Episode 98 (AH.com | YouTube). Fun maps, though. Thanks, Nikko B201.(Louis Wu 17:48:25 UTC)

IGN continues its Halo 4 Multiplayer map walkthroughs – today the spotlight is on Exile. You can watch the vid on IGN.com (thanks, ChrisTheeCrappy) or on YouTube (thanks, CyReN). We’ve seen this map before – but it’s nice to have 343’s Kynan Pearson describing the ins and outs.(Louis Wu 17:19:42 UTC)