M.N.C of deviantART has been putting together some Flash creations; namely a grunt, the Master Chief, and a plasma pistol. He posted in the HBO forum that a "trailer for a movie" is forthcoming. Could be neat, let's see.

Ross Mills of Subnova recently won a quiz contest on Eric Trautmann's blog. Trautmann is the guy at Microsoft who coordinates with the authors of the Halo novels, Eric Nylund and William Dietz.

Today his impressive prize package arrived; check out his forum thread at HBO for the skinny on what loot he made off with.

DcBob over at Clan Plaid Hotline let us know that he typed into the ringtone composer of his cellphone a part of the Marathon 2 theme. His transcription is as follows:

8f2 8#d2 8f2 4#g2 8f2 8#g2 4#a2 8#a2 8#a2 8#g2 4#c3 4c3 8f2 8#d2 8f2 4#g2 8f2 8#g2 4#a2 8#a2 8#a2 8#g2 8#a2 8#g2 4#a2

My own cellphone doesn't have this feature, so I can't try it out, but if anyone does, let us know how this works out.

sN3@k33 asks in the HBO forum if anybody has good strategies for keeping Marines alive on Legendary difficulty, especially on 343 Guilty Spark and Assault on the Control Room.

Hikaru-119 came up with a post for the Truth & Reconciliation level and a nice long post about AotCR; it differs from the tactics presented in Evil Otto's legendary walkthrough at Truth & Reconciliation. But it's a lot closer to the tactics I've seen and used myself. Going for that Warthog right away isn't always the best idea.

Following up on the chicks-playing-Halo theme that started with Nick's reference to a Gaming Nexus article about innovative uses of the 'S' controller, rapture has posted a link to a BBC story about female gamers over on the cooked gamers site.

The article itself only mentions CounterStrike, not Halo, but most of the same general ideas apply. There are quite a few quotes from purportedly female gamers at the end of the article now.

[image:6845 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]rapture cooked up a neat wallpaper for his Sony Ericsson mobile phone, featuring the Master Chief as drawn by Stuntmutt in One One Se7en. Not to be outdone, we tried to get a slightly more detailed version for on-the-go-viewing, putting the latest Halo 2 screenshot as the background image on a Palm-based cellphone, the Handspring Treo 270.

UPDATE: We've made downloadable versions of this resized image, both for Fireviewer/Backdrop GC and for SplashPhoto. Free registration at Rampancy required for download.

The new Halo Babies site was made possible by donations from the shadow government... I mean, from loyal fans of the comic. The site has now opened a special area dedicated to them in the forum.

The Sponsors area is described as being similar to Red vs. Blue's; it will feature new comics a bit earlier than the general release. Right now, they're running a contest; a $10 donation or more between now and April gets you access to the Sponsors area, plus a chance to be drawn into a future Halo Babies comic.

NOTE: As of right now, the link from the post at Halo Babies just goes to the general forum; I can't see any special sponsor area yet. I thought at first it was because I wasn't logged in, but now that I have, I still don't see anything.

UPDATE: mrsmiley informed me that I couldn't see the Sponsors area because it was hidden from anyone not a sponsor. Now it displays for everybody, although only sponsors have access to it. I've seen it, and it is cool :)

Devin Olsen has put up a modification of the Blood Gulch level for PC Halo; it features several new base areas, some floating midair, and constructed out of logs. There's a post in the HBO forum where you can get the download details (and a server address where they'll be playing it), and another where you can view some screenshots.

Poop Scoop writes in his blog that he's just finished turning Enough Dead Heroes into written sheet music, arranged for a string orchestra, and invites you to send him a message (free registration required) if you're interested in getting a copy. Or you can post a comment on his blog.