Halo Base‘s Oliver Stopienski was at Halo Fest last week, and he spent quite a bit of time collecting photos, short video interviews, and impressions. If you don’t read German, the impressions might be a stretch – but a picture is worth a thousand words, and he has a LOT of pictures, both still and moving. Check out their new fanpage on Facebook, chock full of Halo Fest goodness! (Louis Wu 15:49:04 UTC)

According to Punch Jump, preorders for Halo Anniversary are climbing – this week, it’s #7 in the best-selling preorders list at Gamestop. (How appropriate!) Gamestop preorders get Master Chief Avatar armor for your XBL avatar, as well as the Grunt Funeral Skull in-game. (Louis Wu 15:48:21 UTC)

There’s a new Arby ‘n’ the Chief: Hypermail episode – Silly Billies has Chief trying hard not to make mom jokes, while the Arbiter dances. Thanks, robofin117.(Louis Wu 21:12:24 UTC)

Chris101b spent most of Halo Fest with a camera (well, his phone) welded to his hand. Go see the 26-minute boiliing-down of Day 1.(Louis Wu 20:32:16 UTC)

DaFrontlineTrooper (a prolific propmaker) put up a film showing off all of his Halo weapons (along with Mass Effect props and Star Wars props). Amazing! Thanks, robofin117.(Louis Wu 20:31:17 UTC)

Jesse Snyder, the Campaign Lead Designer for Halo 4, put up a blog post about how difficulty the secrecy surrounding the game has been. Pretty funny read! Thanks, Dani.(Louis Wu 20:30:45 UTC)

You’ll definitely want to head over to Halo Waypoint today and check out the new Halo Fest ViDoc, recapping a glorious weekend of Halo-celebration. The HBO contingent in particular can be found all throughout the video, which makes it even cooler. Whether you were able to make it or not, this video brings you right into the action and emotion… go watch it!(GrimBrother One 15:01:22 UTC)

HBO Lover & Fighter Hedgemony let us know about something very cool. While not directly Halo-related, it is very much HBO Family-related, and well worth highlighting. Our very own Beckx recently had his first published piece of scifi literature published, and you should absolutely go and check out “The Day the Pod Landed” on Redstone Science Fiction. Not only is Beckx a vital part of the HBO circle, it’s a really great read all on its own! Don’t miss it!(GrimBrother One 06:07:43 UTC)

You should definitely check out Episode 13 of Stewie2552’s Halo Reach Fails & Laughs series. I laughed out loud more than once, which Mrs. One was not particularly happy about at 2am. However, you should watch it anyway! Thanks for letting us know, Stewie.(GrimBrother One 06:00:33 UTC)

Hezekiah brought to our forum’s attention the existence of Episode 50 of Achievement Hunter’s awesome Fails of the Weak series. You can find it both on the AH website or on YouTube. When I thought about it, it also brings up the existence of Fails of the Weak Episode 49, which I didn’t see us having posted about before now (If we have, I’m sure 3 of you will let me know about it within 7 seconds of me clicking submit). You can find Episode 49 here and here just like above. Clips R funny! Go watch!(GrimBrother One 05:39:49 UTC)

Rizla found a pretty cool Elite-focused montage that’s a really fun watch. It’s a decent time sink for a gameplay montage, clocking in at over 6 minutes, but moves along rather well thanks to a combination of stellar multikills and funny moments. Go and give it a watch! Preferably a Rolex.(GrimBrother One 05:30:10 UTC)

Do you like the UNSC Hornet? Do you like having your paper stay the heck where you want it? Then you should definitely check out what Mid7night is proposing. Details are in his post, but needless to say, you could find yourself the owner of the coolest desk-ornamentation this side of a yearbook picture of Hedgemony, for basically the cost of materials. Go and check it out!(GrimBrother One 05:26:05 UTC)

SIX min WHISTLE was the first I saw (which doesn’t necessarily mean anything) on our forum to notice the new Halo Fest t-shirt for your Xbox Avatar available on the Marketplace. I might just have to grab one so that my virtual Grim matches what I’m wearing right now. Go give it a look!(GrimBrother One 05:21:02 UTC)

Leviathan doesn’t use his talented pencil for just art, he can also write up a good thought-provoking bit of prose, as he’s done here. He muses that Reach might be far more appreciated as the years pass by, not just in spite of its quirks, but potentially because of them. It’s a neat discussion piece, one that we think people should add to… so go check it out!(GrimBrother One 05:15:29 UTC)

In other news, it’s Phoenix_9286’s birthday. Go make him feel more awkward about it. Buon compleanno, you firey-feathered thing, you!(GrimBrother One 05:13:00 UTC)

This “Grim Can’t Sleep” segment of the news continues with another ridiculously awesome custom figure from Kaidon. This time he brings us a beautiful and visceral custom Elite General, with shots taken from his newer, nicer camera to boot! Definitely give it a look!(GrimBrother One 05:08:23 UTC)

Thanks to VAVA Mk2 for letting us know about a fun little reference to our favorite flavor of super soldier on a CNN piece (of all things) that serves as a geeky field guide for Dragoncon goers. Pretty neat!(GrimBrother One 05:06:01 UTC)

It’s not Halo-related (except in that the developer was also behind the Halo 2 ARG I Love Bees), but it sure is Bungie-related… Crimson was released (FOR FREE) for the iPad yesterday, and it’s currently the #1 App on the iPad App Store (as well as being the iTunes Game of the Week). If you’re jonesin’ for some good old-fashioned turn-based strategy set in an alternate reality steampunk caribbean (because haven’t we ALL played that before? WAIT NO WE HAVEN’T DAMMIT NOW I HAVE TO BUY AN IPAD), go grab this! (Fifteen minutes of gameplay can be seen here.)(Louis Wu 19:03:08 UTC)