urk’s hoping to give out a lot of star nameplates this week – all you gotta to to qualify is come up with a cool jetpack picture. Full rules at Bungie.net!(Louis Wu 18:43:09 UTC)

Couple of new vids for you on Bungie.net’s Comm Chatter today:

• KayEmX and FKIV are back – they’ve posted the followup to their Swag montage, and once again, it’s Sniper Central.
• CruelLEGACEY posted Fails of Reach – FAN FAILS 3 – lots of common fails, but several very amusing ones.

Go watch!(Louis Wu 18:41:15 UTC)

Godly Perfection posted another in his Forge Lesson series – this one is called ‘Veteran Testing‘, and involves watching jaded folks who’ve seen it all play your map – and seeing what they use (or don’t use). Go read! (Thanks, urk.)(Louis Wu 18:31:17 UTC)

Grumpy sent us word of a new Halo 2 trick – Muzza, from jumpers.org, decided to snag the Scarab gun on Metropolis. Without a Banshee, or any other flying device. He just… meleed himself up there. These guys never cease to amaze!(Louis Wu 18:27:47 UTC)

It’s a bird, it’s a plane…

The Speed Demos Archive just posted Halo 1 Done Segmented – the parting gift scurty and slYnki created for High Impact Halo and released last month. There’s some pretty interesting commentary from the duo posted beneath the video – go give it a read! Thanks, Cody.(Louis Wu 17:17:55 UTC)

OboeCrazy has been collecting mini-bloopers in Reach; they’re not combined, but they’re small enough that visiting multiple links shouldn’t tax you too much. Check out how to get a Showstopper on yourself, a campaign clip showing what happens when Falcon drivers drink on duty, and a Reach-based superbounce (no, she shouldn’t be banned for this). Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 16:53:36 UTC)

Now your failure is complete.

All of this is tearing us apart.

Learning from the “Grizzled Ancients” of your map.

Domino’s back, and he has another Defiant Map Pack code he wants to give away! If you need it… stop by his giveaway page and add your name to the list. This one’s short – he’s picking a winner on Wednesday.(Louis Wu 14:58:05 UTC)

DeepCee let us know that ODS Steve #86 is live – Steve continues to have tricks up his sleeve.(Louis Wu 14:48:03 UTC)

Frank O’Connor sat down with Gamasutra to talk about the future of the Halo franchise – it’s an interesting read, and while Frank doesn’t seem to be able to nail down WHY Halo managed to become the transmedia megalith it is (exactly), he does a good job of describing the pieces that made it all happen. Thanks, ChrisTheeCrappy.(Louis Wu 14:45:01 UTC)

CruelLEGACEY let us know that The Fails of Reach Episode 8 is now online – several minutes of what NOT to do in mulltiplayer (and Campaign, too!). Fun stuff. (That racing guy at the end should really consider his timing…)(Louis Wu 14:22:54 UTC)

This week’s big challenge is a LASO run through New Alexandria. (Amazing timing there, Tyrant.) If Quad Mythic is a bit too overblown for you to follow, RC Master has a sub-13-minute run that might help. (The absurd Banshee-through-the-hospital shortcut was highlighted on Tyrant’s Mythic Tips and Tricks Vol 1 vid, last week.) I gotta say… these people are ridiculous. (But I’m really, really glad they do what they do.) (Louis Wu 12:03:48 UTC)

Eep – almost forgot a custom-painted McFarlane figure that Sl’askia put together – really pretty! Check it.(Louis Wu 12:03:21 UTC)

Interesting – local artist TDSpiral created a pretty killer image called ‘Faith’… but we needed onebitrocket to find it on DeviantART before we could enjoy it! (Yes, it’s fan-art for the upcoming fan-movie. So that would make fans of the piece… whoa. A bit too meta for me.) (Louis Wu 12:01:35 UTC)

If you have inordinate amounts of time to spend, and you’d like to try out some (really) classic gametypes… check out Classic Customs Night. Tex wrote up the sixth iteration of these happenings, complete with screenshots and videos that make her look good. Go read! (Louis Wu 12:01:11 UTC)

General Vagueness got some really bizarre screenshots from Tempest, Highlands, and Forgeworld – go look! (Louis Wu 12:00:46 UTC)