CE United’s Willy sat down with TTL Askan, a Gunslinger and a Bungie contract worker. His site has the interview online. It’s a little hard to read (every question and answer is on a separate page, with no links between them), but it’s a pretty interesting piece nonetheless. Check out a guy who’s living the dream a lot of Halo fans would love to live (working for their favorite gaming company)! Update: Leviathan pointed out that I’m pretty unobservant; the entire interview is on one page, the only time you go to individual pages for each question is if you actually click the links at the top of the interview page. Just scroll down, and you can read everything in order.(Louis Wu 14:24:42 UTC)

Postmortem wrote up an article called ‘We Are Connected‘ – it’s all about the power of the Halo community. Go give it a read!(Louis Wu 14:19:51 UTC)

The latest Halo Bulletin has been posted over at Halo Waypoint – and it discusses some upcoming changes to Reach that will be enacted in time for the release of Halo: Anniversary. (Our forum is full of griping about this – complaints about information being removed, complaints about maps that won’t be ported, complaints about – eh, whatever. If you’re tired of complaints, stay off our forum, I guess. If you’re excited about the possibilities, though – we’d love to hear about it!) You can, as always, read this bulletin in our Halo Bulletin Archive – no reloading to see the bottom of the page.(Louis Wu 00:29:11 UTC)

Continuing our tangentially related Halo news, Noam Murro, director of the “Birth of a Spartan” short for the “Reach” media blitz, is rumored to be on the short list to direct the upcoming “300” prequel. Currently, Murro is slated to direct “Die Hard 5.” We hope you land the gig!(Hitmonchan 18:52:05 UTC)

Wired’s GameLife has an informative, refreshing article about teens using violent video games as stress relievers. It’s not directly related to Halo, though the series makes a brief appearance as the gateway shooter for a Canadian teenager. Considering the recent Supreme Court ruling over the issue, this couldn’t have come at a better time.(Hitmonchan 18:39:03 UTC)

Over at the Escapist, there’s an article exploring the expanded Halo universe (the lore fleshed out in books, action figures, movies, etc), and how it all ties into the games themselves. Interesting read!(Louis Wu 18:20:17 UTC)

Hedgemony continues his week-long tribute to Bungie with amazing screenshots – and these are AMAZING. It’s Space Day.(Louis Wu 18:12:03 UTC)

Epic Meal Time is a YouTube channel devoted to making ridiculous meat creations, and then eating them. DHalo noticed that their most recent episode includes a cameo from a Halo energy sword. Heh. (You STILL shouldn’t eat like this… but it’s funny to watch.)(Louis Wu 18:10:31 UTC)

Achronos had mentioned some time ago that the “Thank the Maker” medal description on Bungie.net would be updated to reflect that it’s no longer showing you when you play against Bungie employees – looks like it’s happened (thanks, Revenant1988, for noticing). The medal now says that you’ve played against a Bungie FAN, not a Bungie EMPLOYEE. One of the minor side effects of the blue flames going public!(Louis Wu 18:06:00 UTC)

Jason “Mrs Doublefire” Kieth, who worked on Halo Reach’s environments, has updated his portfolio site – swing over to the Halo: Reach page to see some of the work he’s done! (Let him know what you think in his forum thread.)(Louis Wu 18:03:32 UTC)

It’s AssaultGodzilla’s birthday (Happy Birthday, AG!), so he’s created a new HMV to celebrate. Once again, he’s done an amazing job finding clips from various Halo media to match the lyrics as they unfold. This one’s set to Linkin Park’s “Iridescent”. I really enjoyed this, and think more people should give me things for their birthdays.(Louis Wu 13:38:54 UTC)

If you’ve played Big Team Battle with me, you know that I am the world’s worst Halo driver. That’s why I loved “Crash Course,” episode two of “Playtime” from CruelLEGACEY. I might need to try this test track out. Go watch! And remember, the next episode, “The Grif Cannon,” comes out next Tuesday.(Hitmonchan 04:34:57 UTC)

Halo Waypoint released their newest Halo Universe ordnance piece yesterday, this time taking a closer look at the Covenant Focus Rifle. Always great info. Check it out!(GrimBrother One 02:16:53 UTC)

Fail-Safe Red vs Blue Season 9 Ep 3 is now live for sponsors (and will be live for everyone in about 90 minutes) – plenty more cg action, and plenty more Blood Gulch machinima. I’m a little confused – but that’s okay, there’s a lot of episodes left. Plus, Donut’s pretty funny.(Louis Wu 00:30:56 UTC)

Last weekend, Red Bull hosted an extravagant LAN event in New York City to give pro players an opportunity to hone their skills. Holed up in Red Bull Space for three days, three teams — Kiaeneto, Warriors and Status Quo — fought, taught and bonded with each other over “Halo: Reach.” Check out the highlights below:

• Day One of the Red Bull LAN acclimates you to the teams, Red Bull Space and what the LAN is all about. Here are the top ten plays from the first day of pro-playing wreckage.
• Drop in on Walshy’s 27th birthday and see the action from Day Two, and check out the top ten plays of the day.
• This writeup showcases the personalities behind the commentators of the live feed, DMaq and Jo Garcia, along with the scoring recap of Day Two.
• And finally, see who won it all in the final wrapup of the event.

Check it out!(Hitmonchan 18:22:19 UTC)

Nathan, from Competitive Video Games, wanted us to let you know that they’re hosting a 2v2 Slayer tournament this Thursday, June 30. It will take place on Xbox LIVE, use MLG rules and maps, and is open to all. There aren’t any prizes or fees – it’s just for fun this time around. Swing by and sign up!(Louis Wu 17:54:29 UTC)

GoozerNation compiled a list of the best video game grunts, and somehow our favorite Covenant punching bags nabbed a spot. That’s a Shyamalan-level twist right there. This inspired me to make a list of my own: “Most Elite Characters in Video Game History.”(Hitmonchan 17:10:51 UTC)

Hedgemony continues the Halo love with a series of pictures showing off stuff that makes me want to find time to go play more Halo. The man has an eye. Check ’em out.(Louis Wu 15:21:04 UTC)

DeepCee stopped by with word of a new episode in the Chronicles of ODS Steve – #89 has the team moving from downtown to out in the country!(Louis Wu 15:18:28 UTC)