Do you have what it takes?

The best Halo kills of the week.

My beginning and my end.

Is the “!” part of his name?

Mendicant Bias let us know about an article at Topless Robot called ‘7 Things About the Halo Universe That Make No Sense‘ – I’m guessing they could have kept going. (Louis Wu 17:23:16 UTC)

BlueNinja slid behind the curtain on The Package – if you’re curious, check out his pics! (And while you’re checking out his handiwork, swing over to Views from the Edge for three cool new Package-based panoramas.)(Louis Wu 17:19:29 UTC)

ElzarTheBam pointed out a bunch of new Halo Avatar gear on Xbox LIVE Marketplace – mostly new armor, in a variety of colors. Take a look!(Louis Wu 17:16:59 UTC)

trappeddark1 noticed that Achievement HORSE #12 is live on YouTube now – It’s PIG again, because Geoff wasn’t around and Burnie took his place. Burnie’s not QUITE as whiny as Joel was… but it’s close. The maps look pretty fun, though, no matter WHAT Burnie says. (Louis Wu 17:14:30 UTC)

In case you are in the market for a Limited or Legendary Edition of Halo: Reach, Amazon has a pretty sweet deal today. $59.99 USD for Legendary, and $39.99 for the Limited. If you need ’em, go snatch ’em up!(GrimBrother One 15:08:51 UTC)

Looks like GhaleonEB noticed that the new Stats section of the Halo Waypoint site has gone live (at least in beta form). A good bit of what you’re used to seeing over on Bnet is replicated here, with a few new additions, and more to be added later one. Plug in your Gamertag and give it a try! And while you are over there, check out the soothing voice of bs angel as she guides you through the latest upcoming update to the Waypoint Mobile application. In the video, she also discusses the new stats feature of Waypoint, which is also available on the go. Go check it out!(GrimBrother One 04:06:16 UTC)

Marissa’s Dad sent word of another Reach Console giveaway at Marissa’s Bunny, the site devoted to raising awareness for Infantile Spasms. This one’s pretty massive – the winner will walk away with a Reach Special Edition xBox 360 Slim, a Kinect unit, a copy of the Reach Legendary Edition, and a $500 Gamestop gift card. Wonga. To be entered, you have to vote for the blog and let them know (read the instructions for full details). You can also get extra entries by letting them know what you’d do with the card. Not bad! This one runs for two weeks (it started a couple of days ago) – what do you have to lose? (While you’re there, be sure to learn a little something about Marissa’s disease, and consider dropping something in the hat.) (Louis Wu 02:59:20 UTC)

ElusiveEagle519 brings word to our forums of a special invite-only press conference taking place in San Francisco on Wednesday, February 24 (“today” when many of you end up reading this). We also know from 343 Industries’ David Ellis’ Twitter account that he will be in attendance. Putting certain things together makes it seem that there may be some news of particular interest to Halo fans going down very soon… stay tuned!(GrimBrother One 02:54:27 UTC)

Geoff is out so Burnie jumped in his spot. Watch and love!

Leviathan has released the cover art to his “A Fistful of Arrows” comic – and even includes a dust-jacket wrap and a timelapse making-of video. I can’t say enough about this – I want to see this project realized as a book I can hold in my hands, and Levi’s making that feasible. Go see.(Louis Wu 00:23:38 UTC)

Took a LONG time – but I can still say “I read every single post on the HBO forum”. Caught up! Here’s what I found since the last roundup (well, through a day or two ago):

• I almost skipped this, because I noticed Grim’s posting about a ‘Nasty’ montage on our front page earlier this week… I’m glad I looked. FALL3Npro stopped by last week with word of his Halo Reach/Halo 3 montage, Lost Transmission – heavy on the editing, full of sick gameplay. Check it out!
• Leviathan was inspired by Halo: Cryptum to try and visualize the War-Sphinx – those massive protectors set to guard the Didact. The end result is… awesome. (I mean, seriously awesome. Follow that link.)
• masugn pointed out the most recent update to Isaac Hannaford’s blog – more vehicle designs. Awesome stuff! (Don’t miss the concept art for Deliver Hope Hannaford points you to over at Evan Shipard’s site, either…)
• pete_the_duck finished off his Fall of Beta comic… in text format. If you don’t remember the comic, never fear, he’s included a summary of Part 1 (which WAS finished), along with links to the original artwork. I have to say… had the story played out the way he wanted, I’d feel bad for the UNSC. Their finest hope… well, let’s just say he’s not the best shot around.
• padraig08 ran across a parody song that’s been on YouTube for several months now – but hasn’t turned up here yet. ScreenTeamShow used CeeLo Green’s tune to create Frag You – a pretty cool (if overly autotuned) parody with guest appearances by Cortana, the Chief, and a hanging pretzel.
• BlueNinja finally broke through some of the barriers on Long Night of Solace… and found the filming location for one of Reach’s cutscenes. If you don’t enjoy seeing the struts holding up the play’s set, don’t read this post. (Me, I find this stuff fascinating.) He did some cool stuff in New Alexandria, too.

From here on in, forum posts that are front-paged will be current again! (I’ve still got to go through Bungie’s Comm Chatter, of course… but that’s for later.)(Louis Wu 00:15:18 UTC)

Okay, I’m slowly getting there. Currently only a week behind! Here’s some of the fun stuff I found along the way:

• Nosolee took a look at some Latin you can find in Halo 3’s Bestarium – I LOVE it when we come across Halo fans with relatively obscure skills, and I love it even more when they dig out tidbits Bungie left hidden for us to find.
• RC Master posted a technique which will let you skip the most difficult section of New Alexandria, almost completely. Slick!
• SIX min WHISTLE and InnerRayg teamed up on information from Toyfair 2011 – lots of new stuff coming for Halo fans in the months ahead! Links to writeups and pictures in this post, this post, and this post. Oh, and this post.
• GrimBrother One posted a link to some new Halo goodies coming from MegaBloks. (Grim, you posted on the forum, but didn’t front-page it? Goodness me.)
• Elnea continued her tradition of creating RvB-themed valentines cards – always worth looking at! (Might have been more useful on Valentines Day… but hey, we’re not perfect.)
• Terminal Velocity created a video full of Reach Campaign fun – vehicle launching, getting out of play areas, etc. Pretty long – but lots of good stuff! Check out Meta Stability. And thanks to Muzza for letting us know about it.
• excowboy83 found a page full of… well, go look. I’d tell you about it, but my head’s still spinning.

There’s lots more that I let lie – after all, we want to give you SOME incentive for hanging out on our forum – and as I mentioned, I’ve still got a week’s worth of catching up to do. But this list should help fill some idle time this afternoon!(Louis Wu 19:36:27 UTC)

Speaking of Waypoint, you should check out the very cool Reach Pictage bs angel stumbled across. Set to the now-familiar “Mad World”, the video shows of some beautiful and abstract photos taken in Reach. Great music, and very nice pics. Definitely worth a look!(GrimBrother One 19:20:52 UTC)

Just as a quick PSA, bs angel wanted to let everyone know that if you had been avoiding the Halo Waypoint website because if long load times and Silverlight issues, you might want to give it a shot now. MUCH quicker. Appease the lady and go give it a shot!(GrimBrother One 19:16:02 UTC)

Share, Inspire, Create!