Like a mythical creature, the sighting of Marty O’Donnell is a rare treat to behold. With the help of the ESA and E3, Video Games Live has managed to capture the wild beast for your meeting and greeting pleasure. If you’re going to L.A. for E3, or if you live in the area, the action takes place June 8. Tickets to the show start at $25 apiece. (Hitmonchan 18:12:45 UTC)

Last weekend, a rather large LAN event was held at HBO HQ – 33 people participated. Some of them were Bungie employees. There haven’t been any text writeups yet (I’m still planning on doing one), but a huge number of photographs were taken over the weekend, and we’ve put up a gallery page for some of these. Swing by and check out the festivities! Update: nof steps up to the plate and serves up the first actual writeup. Nice one, nof. (The Subaru story is a lie. I would never drive and watch a video above, say, 60mph.)(Louis Wu 17:52:47 UTC)

It’s not in Stephen Loftus’ Signs of Halo collection, but this message, painted on the interior wall of a C130 Hercules and photographed by MasterPIE (closeup here), may look familiar to some players…(Louis Wu 17:44:42 UTC)

Just a couple of new pieces this week in the Fan Fiction section – go see!(Louis Wu 15:08:40 UTC)

Halo Reach Fails, Wins, and WTF Moments Episode 20 has been posted (thanks to NeoGAF’s Pnut for pointing it out) – it’s the season finale, so all of these clips have appeared elsewhere… but I’ve only caught a couple of episodes, so most were new to me. Definitely some funny stuff in there!(Louis Wu 14:42:48 UTC)

GhaleonEB delved deep into the Challenges system – go read the article at Forward Unto Dawn for information on how this system works!(Louis Wu 14:03:48 UTC)

Juliet never saw Romeo like this…

CruelLEGACEY let us know that he’s decided to put together a 4-part machinima mini-series – he’s even launched a new domain for it. There’s a trailer up at PlaytimeShow.com. Go see!(Louis Wu 21:32:18 UTC)

A couple of movies today on Bungie.net’s Comm Chatter:

• IGN’s Top 10 Halo Reach Kills for 5.25.2011 is live – sort of a messy group this time around, but the number one clip is pretty impressive.
• Forge Café Recap Vid 7 is up – more community creations for your viewing pleasure.

Go watch!(Louis Wu 21:21:52 UTC)

This made me laugh. Thanks, Narc.(Louis Wu 16:38:44 UTC)

Running a bit late this morning – sorry. Black Six noticed yet another update to Isaac Hannaford’s blog – check out the Sabre concept art! This one started in 2D, but was mocked up in 3D because he wanted to be sure the model held up from all angles.(Louis Wu 16:36:39 UTC)

The Achievement Hunter team has posted Achievement HORSE #25 – it’s just PIG this week, because they’re really really busy right now, but in general they’re happier even when they die. Go watch! Thanks, ZZoMBiE13.(Louis Wu 21:36:05 UTC)

I go and I say I won’t get behind on Bungie Comm Chatter offerings, and then I almost miss today’s. Goodness. Swing by for a Halo 3/Reach community montage from tranQ and Friends – seven minutes of mellow music and quick-cut editing.(Louis Wu 20:52:13 UTC)

FyreWulff sent us a note about a new Fire Team Zulu challenge – we missed it. Take it out on the Covenant! Two Birds, One Stone gives you the opportunity to snag a brand-new achievement on the FTZ site – “Mirror, Mirror” is unlocked when you complete the FTZ challenge on the same day that a matching challenge is up on Bungie.net. LD Winter is live until 3am PST tomorrow morning – so get to work!(Louis Wu 19:57:45 UTC)

DHalo dug up a pretty interesting interview with Mrs Doublefire, over at 2old2play – this was published last September, but it’s the first I’m hearing about it. Mrs Doublefire is a name that might be familiar to some – he was a major player in the Halo PC building community, and later worked for Bungie as an environment artist on Halo 3 and Reach. It’s a fascinating discussion explaining how he got hired (through a contract agency), how Halo 3 would have been different without him, and more. (Did you know that Corvette was the geometry they used to make the ‘Deliver Hope’ trailer? I can see it now, but I certainly didn’t know it before.) Go read!(Louis Wu 18:56:50 UTC)