odious T (gotta love that gamertag) sent word of a video he’d found on YouTube – it’s a fan playing the Halo theme. Starts slow… but MAN is it great. Take the 3 minutes and check it out; you won’t be disappointed. It’s incredible what 40 fingers can do!(Louis Wu 15:46:21 UTC)

NeoGAF’s Dani, pining for the loss of a Halo site devoted to getting underneath the skin of the universe, has created his own. Swing by Forward Unto Dawn, and check out his first article, Winter Contingency – it’s a look at Reach, and the importance it plays in Human history (as defined by Halo, of course). It draws info from many sources, and brings together most of what we know about this planet, up to now. Give it a read – and be sure to leave your comments! (Louis Wu 15:45:40 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found some pretty cool hand-painted Master Chief cookies – that you can actually buy! Check ’em out – then design your own, and get ’em printed for that special someone. (Warning: they ain’t cheap.) While you’re there, check out her other Halo offerings this morning – there’s been an Oonsk sighting in Halo 3, and Grin + Bear It recycles an old joke (somehow, that didn’t seem like a bad thing when Stuntmutt was doing it).(Louis Wu 15:44:33 UTC)

DarkReign2021 whipped up a new Halo music video – it’s called Ode to the Lost, and it’s a tribute to the men and women who lost their lives in the fight against the Covenant. (“Whipped up” is probably the wrong term; it suggests he slapped this together between episodes of Adult Swim, while eating a peanut butter sandwich with one hand. Clearly some serious love has been put into this – watch it, it’s pretty cool.) (Louis Wu 15:42:29 UTC)

Minime637 found a Top 10 list at PlanetXbox360 – it’s counting down the most badass videogame aliens Two of the Halo universe’s enemies make the list. Not bad! (Louis Wu 15:41:55 UTC)

Congrats to CRASH JENN, who cleared out our lingering Kikowani Station entry in the Hide, Seek, Snap contest. We’re nearing the finish line – we’ve got three more codes! The last three images are up – but there’s a twist. For pictures 21 and 22, it’s not enough to simply GET to a location – you have to do it with stuff. Go look! (Louis Wu 15:41:12 UTC)

Gtag=Reluctant Chaos was cruising DeviantART, and noticed some very cool Elite Councilor fan art. The artist has also posted the lines for the same pic, so you can see how this developed… and don’t miss this powerful rendition of another Halo denizen. Great stuff!(Louis Wu 15:39:30 UTC)

Sometimes, a random act of kindness comes out of the Halo community that simply floors me. This morning, I read a post from Seraph XXVII that blew me away. He’s got a pretty amazing collection of Halo paraphenalia – you can see a dozen or so pictures of it in his forum post. But it’s about to get smaller; he’s selling all of his Halo 1 and Halo 2 figures. It’s not because he needs a new car, or wants to buy a PS3 – it’s because he wants to give back. 50% of the proceeds will go to Child’s Play… and 50% will go to help out a longtime Halo fan and his girlfriend (we mentioned their plight last week). Seraph has never met Dan or Aimee – he just wants to help.

Help him help.

Full details of what’s for sale is up now – he’s giving the HBO community first crack. It’ll all be on eBay soon, so grab what you want! (Louis Wu 15:39:45 UTC)

CROSSFIRE is back – Dimension X Season 3, Episode 2, Part 1 is now online. (Ten minutes long, to conform with YouTube limits.) Episode 1 was mentioned back in July of last year; there have been some issues with the crew over the past couple of months, so future sections are uncertain. This is a shame, because the cinematography, voice acting, and storyline are all worth watching! (You gotta love crazy scientists.) Check it out. And let him know if you like it; maybe that’ll help with the next sections! (Louis Wu 15:21:47 UTC)

ElusiveEagle519 stopped in with word that the Bungie Dev Blog had been updated with a cool piece of concept art, to commemorate the Alpha milestone. What does it say to you?(Louis Wu 15:11:53 UTC)

New interview with Brian Jarrard and Marcus Lehto over at Xbox360Achievements. Surprisingly, there are still new tidbits to be learned! Good stuff about Spartan customization, “nose hair geometry”, bits about map philosophy, the beta, and more! Worth a read. Thanks, Aglor.(Louis Wu 15:10:21 UTC)

Good stuff coming from the Rooster Teeth crew: Grifball Expansion will be unfolding at Halo Waypoint over the next couple of weeks (Episode 1 went live yesterday), and the new season of Red vs Blue will begin on April 1, 2010. w00t! Thanks to kappalocust for bringing it to our forum.(Louis Wu 15:09:35 UTC)

Taco Power needed to clear out a bunch of old clips – so he made a montage. They’re funny clips!(Louis Wu 15:08:36 UTC)

rolandk73 and Hyokin have been building up interest and attendance for a weekly Friday-night gathering they call “HBO Customs Night”. It’s not officially endorsed, or anything… but let’s face it; the staff here is never going to find the time to set up something like this, so if you’re interested in playing Halo 3 customs games with folks from the HBO forums, this might be a nice alternative! It’s in the news today because it finally has a webpage. Thanks, Hyokin.(Louis Wu 15:07:50 UTC)

Our policy on magazine scans is “no posts before the issue is off the newsstands” – but Morpheus stopped by with a single-page scan of a bit from a recent GameInformer, and we’re gonna let it slide. (I don’t actually know what issue it’s from – but it’s only a partial page, and even the most recent issue hit stands almost a month ago.) It’s a feature called ‘Top 10 FPS Multiplayer Maps’ – and Halo’s Blood Gulch makes #4 on the list. Nice!(Louis Wu 15:06:53 UTC)