TURBO in the #HBO IRC channel pointed out the new Halo Editing Kit screenshot over at Cortana.org. It appears to be showing what we can only assume is shot of a Halo level being edited in 3ds Max.

This news is a bit old, but we missed it the first time around, so here goes.

Loren Petrich has said if there's interest, he will modify the MML (that's Marathon Markup Language) used in Aleph One (the open source version of the Marathon engine) to support models made by a program called DimAnimator.

The reason? Spnkrghol has been cooking up some great models for use in Aleph One.

VideoMannumbuh1 writes in the HBO forum that the Fortress Gulch mod, which places a huge wall in the middle of Blood Gulch (among other things) has been released.

HHHT has been updated to version 1.40, and fixes some bugs as well as adds some new features. Thanks BOLL. Go to Omnight.com to download the new version.

[image:7214 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]A couple more projects are underway to bring new netmaps to PC Halo, still without the as-yet-unreleased Halo Editing Kit. (We're pretty sure that's going to become part of the official name at this point.)

Madrox is creating a new multiplayer level out of the architecture at the top of Boarding Action, with some new architecture as well using a technique known as "multi-inject". There's a video over at HaloMods.

On top of that, icanttype is working on making the Truth & Reconciliation hangar bay into a multiplayer level as well; HaloMods has some screenshots.

Thanks to Louis Wu, Devin, and Neo-Genesis at HBO for the heads-up.

Devin Olsen and Gil27 have put up a movie and some screenshots of multiplayer action on the engine room portion of The Maw. You may remember that a poll at Halo Mods asked what level, after the Library, should be converted into a multiplayer level, and this was one of the choices.

The map isn't available for download yet, but it might be... sometime...

The screenshot post by Gil27 and Devin Olsen gives special thanks to MonoxideC (creator of the Library multiplayer conversion), ViperNeo, ZexGX, and Zelda Freak. Thanks for the note to Louis Wu at HBO.

Everybody is doing it now. And just when you think you can start to ignore new HUDless screenshots, some really nice ones come along.

CuBaNo put up two nice collections (one, two) in the HBO forum. Michael M put some up and asked for someone to host, so we did. And last but not least, Mills put up hi res versions of his collection from earlier.

Earlier this month, XBC Tourneys posted that they will be producing what they call The Ultimate Halo Tricks DVD, with high quality videos of all tricks on all multiplayer maps. Don't know if these are entirely original videos, or a collection of those that already exist (hope they got all the authors' permission if it's the latter). Thanks to 'Nosolee for the heads-up in the HBO forum.

FlyingV over at Battleground: Halo has interviewed enterprising Halo modmaker MonoxideC, responsible for the multiplayer Library mod, among others. One of the tidbits he lets drop is the fact that his next mod, a multiplayer version of Assault on the Control Room, is almost done, and some screenshots may be forthcoming soon, as well as a tutorial on converting single player maps to multiplayer.

The BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) area during the CPL World Championships is full up, so they are adding another 300 first-come, first-served spots.

Thanks cookedgamers.

GarageGames, which licenses the Torque engine that was used to make games such as Tribes2, has lifted a restriction from their Independent Developer license, and changed the Commercial Developers license as well.

Individual developers who wanted to use the Torque engine could always pay $100 to license it, if they agreed to publish through GarageGames. Now they can publish anywhere they like, as long as their annual revenue is less than $250,000 and the engine is only used for games.

The Commercial license used to be a flat $10,000 per title; now it's just $495 per programmer seat for any application.

So if you're feeling like you want to make a 3d game all your own-- for Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows, and can't wait for the Halo Editing Kit, then maybe Torque will be right for you. Thanks MacCentral.

Rapture of cookedgamers posted in the HBO forum that Gearbox Software, the company that ported Halo from the Xbox to Windows, has announced a new project, apparently called WarStory. He's linked to a single page at http://www.warstorygame.com which appears to be registered to Gearbox.

Randy "DuvalMagic" Pitchford has posted in the Gearbox forum, linking to that site, and saying an official announcement is due "very soon".

There's no information on the new site itself save for a single quote:

"The problem with these games is that they promise to let us live the life of a soldier in combat, but they're not really putting us there. Real soldiers know that in combat, you live and fight as a team. Leadership counts. Good tactics win. Poor leadership and bad tactics get you slaughtered."

The quote is attributed to US Army Airborne Ranger Colonel John Antal. Sounds like they're going for realism in this one.

TheLostHog over in the HBO forum is somehow intimating that Oni, the third-person action game that combined hand-to-hand combat with firearms, is somehow, how shall we say it, less Bungielike than certain other games.

So here's a call to the Oni fans-- are you out there? What do you think of Oni (forum thread) compared to other Bungie offerings like Myth, Marathon, and, dare I ask, Halo?

Our latest poll also asks about Oni.

Okay, let's turn a fiasco into a free-for-all. vector40 has taken Jester's tip about braking, along with techniques of his own, goatrope's, and Orion's, and put together three vids showing how you can fly a banshee upside down, among other techniques. Links to the vids, along with explanations of what is in them, are in this HBO forum post.