There’s a rather odd blog post over at Gamasutra; it suggests that Doom (the original Doom) had it all right, and modern FPSs (including Halo) are breaking all that is good in the name of ‘realism’. Aiming? pfft. Strafing? Why? AI that’s actually intelligent? NO FUN! Go read the whole post, and see if you agree with the conclusions!(Louis Wu 19:39:14 UTC)

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for a changing of the guard on the Bungie Favorites page – this week, the Community Spotlight is on The Ghosts of Onyx, an enthusiastic group of Halo players. Check out the mini-interview – and their favorite files!(Louis Wu 19:20:12 UTC)

The BungLog™ has a bunch of montages for you today:

• Halo 3 ‘Funny Lines’ is a montage of campaign clips with funny NPC lines. Some of these are in our Dialogue Databank, but many aren’t.
• Cheap Ass Gamers put together some highlights from the 2009 Grifball Winter League gameplay – six minutes’ worth.
• MistahJangles put together a “Mediocretage” – gameplay we can ALL relate to. (Still pretty funny to watch.)

Where’s the popcorn?(Louis Wu 19:16:08 UTC)

In a random blog post about about potential Halo action figures at Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation, Poe Ghostal draws parallels between the advance in details between Halo’s Mark V armor and Halo Wars’ Mark IV armor with the advance in details between Star Trek’s 1967 USS Enterprise and the 2009 USS Enterprise. (For him, thinking about Halo made him dislike the changes in Star Trek less.)(Louis Wu 18:56:29 UTC)

Looks like Gametrailers has a walkthrough of the three new game modes for Halo Wars – take a look! Thanks, 2900d4u.(Louis Wu 15:08:14 UTC)

DogWizard, from over at the 405th, let us know that he’s been working on a full-sized Halo 3 Brute Gravity Hammer… and it’s complete. It looks pretty amazing! Check out the completed shots in this thread – and progress shots from the last couple of months are in this thread. Great stuff! (Louis Wu 13:19:00 UTC)

Comic updates since Monday that we’ve heard about:

• 2501 Episodes 51 and 52 were released – Saturday and Monday, respectively.
• Bloogyo let us know that Rats Nest 13 4 is live.
• Hawty McBloggy told us about ODS Steve #25 (Point Bravo).

Enjoy!(Louis Wu 13:17:02 UTC)

Bungie.net posted a new Tag and Release feature a couple of days ago – we missed it. The term was ‘Fire’ – and the pictures are pretty impressive! Check ’em out. (Louis Wu 13:15:31 UTC)

We’ve been waiting for it for a long time… but the Bungie Render-to-Video program has proved itself to be more than vaporware, as a public beta goes live today. To be eligible, you have to have a paid Bungie.net Pro account active before today – but it’ll be open to everyone in just a couple of months. Go check out all the details at Bungie.net!(Louis Wu 21:01:45 UTC)

Goodies from the BungLog™:

• CAVX is the latest Average Joe – He likes Halo. Go see what else he likes.
• Death From Above releases its third homage to flying death. Seven and a half minutes long.
• The Xbox Ambassadors, a group of people dedicated to making Xbox LIVE more fun for beginners, is hosting a Halo 3 Community Playdate on May 17 – join ’em and have fun!

Aren’t you glad urk’s looking out for you?(Louis Wu 19:33:21 UTC)