jcap writes:

The Custom Map Team's makeover of Halo's singleplayer campaign has been released for Halo Custom Edition after months of anxiously waiting for its completion.  With all new content, campaign has a completely new feel to it.  Full details on the mod are in the continuation of this story.

For those of you who haven’t been following the Halo CE community news, over the past few months, the Custom Map Team (CMT) has been on a mission which no one had gone on before - redesigning Halo’s campaign maps for Halo Custom Edition. Since it was started, every single map has had the addition of new textures, shaders, environments, weapons, vehicles, animations, sounds, and a redesigned HUD. And because it’s the Custom Map Team, everything is 100% user created content.

Weapons such as the upgraded Halo 3-like Assault Rifle, an Anti-Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a new silenced Sniper Rifle, a silenced SMG, and a Battle Rifle with a Grenade Launcher, in addition to every original weapon overhauled. New vehicles such as four new Pelicans, two new Warthogs, a drivable Wraith, and an Apparition have been added. A new, custom biped (Master Chief) has also shown its face in the mod. These are just a few changes/additions, so for a full overview you can either take a look at the final mod pics which can be seen in this post, or you can watch it all in action in the seven minute release trailer, which has its link below.

The mod officially made its public release on June 25, 2006. Even with it mirrored on two servers, they were quickly taken down at 3:00AM EST due to roughly 250 people attempting to download at once.

To view the official CMT release trailer, click here.

All of the maps can be downloaded either individually or as one big map pack here.

To play the maps, you can use the CMT UI as your main menu, designed specifically for these maps with the original Halo Xbox shaders.

Custom intro videos can be retrieved from right here.

For first-time installers, or if you need help installing, follow the CMT’s Maps Installations for Dummies guide.

What does it take to become an ultimate Halo fan? All the action figures, books and hours of game play? A few rare posters and back stage passes to exclusive events? Today we examine one fan who truly has gone above and beyond when it comes to interior decoration.

Meet Namloco, a fan who just could not escape the clutches of the Halo universe. A Father of two, his addiction started one Christmas where he received Halo as a gift unaware that it would eventually suck his eye balls out of his skull. Believing that he would never pay for an online gaming service he quickly dropped that delusion when Halo 2 hit the shelves. Juggling a full time job, kids and being a husband has been quite the task for Namloco but somewhere between the tasks he has managed to find his escape in Halo and has built him self one heck of a place to relax.

Where'd he get that?
Blasting away in peace and relaxation

A basement as bald as Frankie's cranium was the beginning when Namloco examined his house for a space worthy of a gaming kingdom. A true visionary, the plan was set when he began to do the preliminary work by himself in the basement to ensure enough green to finish his ambitious project. After putting up the drywall himself, Namloco began his quest to find the most inspiring piece of Halo related art and finally settled on Eddie Smith's original work for the Edge cover. (Found here.) ”Well that portrait stood out to me in a way that gave me the sense of being in the fight, being part of that world and helping me to put the game face on. You know that loading screen online where all the troops are sitting in the pelican waiting for battle? I’m one of those, or so I wish” he said.

The goods

Over five weeks the artists labored to bring the six by twelve foot display to life and even added in extra details to the piece, such as his own custom Halo 2 symbol to Master Chief's arm and glow in the dark pant. Eventually he stated to add many trinketed pieces off of Ebay such has exclusive posters, display boxes and even a skull to mimic the famous odd ball. Namloco even wet as far as to building a 20 inch LCD TV. into his fireplace with surround sound to ensure top quality pwnage throughout inexcusable hours of gaming. And how can you forget the mini fridge conveniently located close to the battle grounds for refueling purposes!

Personal Emblem

“[I'm] very satisfied, as I said before I feel like I’m part of the game. But the kicker of it all is that I can pwn in peace and share it with like-minded fans through out the world,” Namloco told us when asked about his piece. Although the room may seem complete it is far from it, much like Halo itself. luckily Namloco planned on adding more detail to his Halo-tastic room, “No way am I done. I left a wall to the right of the Chief to expand. Maybe a life size gun rack in the pelican so visitors may have their weapon of choice on hand.”And what about when Halo 3 was announced at E3 this year? “Guess I’ll have to talk Mrs. Nam into letting me do our bedroom!”

More images of Namloco's mural and room can be found here.

MLGPro.com has cranked out some new content in preperation for this weekend. There's a 4v4 Preview, they announce locking down some Pros and Overswarm put up an article on MoBDeep earlier this week.

The 4v4 preview is pretty interesting and gives a pretty good description of what we can expect of the action. The announcement is standard fare, congrats to Final Boss and their newfound dough-rolling. Overswarm does an excellent job, as always, detailing MoBDeep, worth a read.

Maimum FEAR writes:

Games in Action are hosting a non-Bungie Team SWAT tournament in four weeks time over Xbox Live.  Teams of four will battle out against each other for a chance to win cash prizes from GiA, not Bungie.  If you are interested then read on.

In light of the release of the brand new playlist Team SWAT and its immense popularity Games in Action has decided to host a Team SWAT tournament, which is scheduled to begin in four weeks time.  The tournament will consist of teams of four players, battling it out with other teams in an attempt to get to the finals.  The games will be played using Team SWAT classic rules and monitored to ensure no cheating.  Prizes will be awarded as follows:

1st Prize: $200
2nd Prize: $100
3rd and 4th Prize: $50

So if you are interested in taking part for a chance to win $200 and show everyone who the best is then simply go to Games In Action and sign up in the forums.  You will be able to read the full rules and more details on the tournament there.  Good luck!

[Shishka's note: This is NOT an official tournament. It is being held by the Seventh Column group Games in Action. If you wish to participate, you will need to join their group. You must join their group before you can participate on the forums.

Again; this is NOT an official tournament. Bungie is not responsible for difficulties with the tournament or details. Contact Games in Action if you need more information.]

Red vs. Blue  has a new miniseries, Out of Mind, starting up on Xbox Live Marketplace today. It won't cost you anything other than a few minutes to download the ultrasupermegaxtreme high definition 720p video. Fire up the Tree Sitty and check it out as soon as you can.

Gus talks about Red vs. Blue's entry into the high definition era and what it meant for them in his RvB blog. Thanks to Wu again for the heads up.

The Halo 2 Series 8 action figures have been released by Joyride Studios. This series features the Master Chief with Infection Form, the Heretic Elite Leader and the Jackal.

You can pick the new series up at any of these fine establishments or online at Die Cast Express. Thanks to the Wu for pointing this out.

Over at MLGpro.com, Trunkers has taken a look at the upcoming MLG event in Anaheim. The article covers the up-and-comers in the pro scene, highlighting three teams in particular, as well as the possibility that we could be seeing some changes on the leaderboards in Anaheim.

MLG Anaheim takes place June 23-25, find out more on their event page.

If you're into Halo tricking at all, you've heard of High Impact Halo, a tricking website run by Ducain. Recently the site underwent a significant overhaul to increase ease of use and better integrate the frong page with the forums.

Even if you've never been interested in Halo tricking, you should drop by and see some of the amazing things they've done with both Halo engines. It is the mother of all tricking sites and contains info on every relevant tricking topic.

Regular readers will be familiar with some of the stats I’ve excavated in the past from the murky depths of the terabyte-plus Halo 2 stats database: 3.33 billion player-games, half a billion unique games, the recent games-per-month graph. But today I offer you what is unquestionably the most Earth-shattering, momentous stat ever stated in the state of statdom: The Average Gamertag.

That’s right, about a year ago we were batting around ideas for stats to pull, and Multiplayer Design Lead Max Hoberman pondered what the average gamertag was (in more ways than one!) Today, after a full year of scientific analysis (or a year of doing other things followed by a few minutes tinkering with database queries) I am honored to inform you that the average gamertag in the Halo 2 stats database is:

xArKKAAaEX
 
How do I figure? First of all, these are "modal" averages, making use of the most-common values rather than in-between values, since seeing an A and a C doesn’t mean that B is most expected. The most common gamertag length is 10, so that’s what I used here. In each letter position, I found the frequency distribution of letters at that position, blended it halfway against the expected letter distribution in English to call out the statistically significant differences, and took the most heavily weighted resulting letter for that position. The average gamertag starts and ends with X -- no surprise there -- and after that starts with "Ark". Coincidence? I don’t know.

-Roger

The Halo Graphic Novel preview is now available in digital form from Marvel. The preview gives you a look at the incredible artwork as well as providing a glimpse into the stories you can expect to find within the graphic novel.

You will have to register with Marvel before you can view it, but registration and the preview are free. The graphic novel will be in stores on July 12th with a suggested retail price of $24.99.

Gods Prophet writes:

The results are finally here! After hours worth of listening, judging more listening, writing and plenty of tea drinking, the judges of the SCC musical composition contest 2006 have reached their decision...

Update: Here's the page with results and downloads.

What’s it all about?
The SCC musical composition 2006 contest was all about composing music which has been inspired by Bungie music. The pieces were to be original yet to keep within the ‘Bungie’ style.  

Hang on, the different Bungie games have different styles don’t they?
They most certainly do, that’s one reason we asked for a description so we could see what sort of game style the composer was going for.  

Were the entries you got any good? Did the one I sent win?
Read on, oh curious one!  

Now, before you read the results, be warned, the judges’ word is final and we will not being changing our minds. With that said, here’s the results:  

3rd  

Composer: Brandon Payne
Piece: Halo Finale
Comments: A nice flowing, well constructed piece which is suited well to the description given. The first section brings across tension and suspense and is therefore perfect for the dawn of battle. A nice contrasting section which conveys 'Evil' well. The end section was perhaps a little out of place in the great scheme of things here, but great work.  

2nd  

Composers: Matthew Walsh and Robert Kemp
Piece: Covie Town
Comments: An excellent piece. I could certainly imagine this to be suitable for a Covenant town and certainly for use in an RPG. Good use of ambient sounds, a good, steady rhythm and a very well constructed piece.  

1st

Composer: Brian Hempel
Piece: Dragonfly
Comments: Amazing piece. Excellent use of instruments to convey the soft, gliding and gentle atmosphere you set out to create according to the description. Whilst keeping true to the Halo style, you have still produced an original and lovely piece. Congratulations.  

Honourable Mentions (in no particular order):  

Composer: Brian Johnson
Piece: Silverhalo 

Composer: Craig Hardgrove
Piece: NeoPacifica

Composer: Michael Pflug
Piece: insect 

Composer: Adam Fielding
Piece: Red Skies           

Composer: EvilBlueKoala
Piece: Shakedown Time

Composer: Alex Smith
Piece: Transient Journey 

Composer: Cetina, Dan J
Piece: Avenging the Marines

Congratulations to Brian Hempel and bravo to Matthew Walsh, Robert Kemp and Brandon Payne.

If any participants would like to see their individual and yet un-detailed comments, please feel free to e-mail us at: [email protected]

A huge thank you to our main organiser, ODST1125 who’s efforts made this contest happen, a great big thank you to our sponsor, kd5shw,  a thank you to our judges Tazmaniandude and me aka Gods Prophet and a deafening round of applause for all those who entered a piece in this epic contest!

With Clanmatch gone, clans are going to have to do a bit more work to find opponents.  Xbox Live Evolved fulfills that want and some you didn't know you had.


With Clanmatch gone, clans are going to have to do a bit more work to find opponents.  Sites are popping up all over the internet, including Bungie.net, to assist with that, but Xbox Live Evolved brings more than a communication medium.  This new  fan-made site has a dedicated team whose pleasure it is to make your clan a site, a forum - whatever it is you need.  When you've got a spiffy new home, you can head out to keep playing on Xbox Live or hang around and chat with other clans who wll come to recruit, challenge, and compete in competitions hosted by the site.

You can come get some help and join the fun here.

Fans of tragicomic strip creator StuntMutt will be saddened to hear that the onetime vendor of horrifying puns and other three panel atrocities is apparently missing, feared kidnapped or worse. The evidence is in two consecutively amusing strips, both deliberately funny. Click here for Proof.

Followers of StuntMutt's previous work will recognize these new strips as wildly inaccurate fakes. Possibly created by his kidnappers in a  prelude to a ransom demand. We will keep you posted. Until then, feel free to scan this evidence that StuntMutt has probably been killed or buried alive in Fresno.

Ciaran Walsh writes:

Would you like to use the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer as your screen saver?  Well, now you can!  I've updated my Halo Screen Saver to show WMV videos as well as QuickTime and MPEG videos.  You can also now set up a playlist of movies to show one after another.  Check it out at http://www.haloscreensaver.com/.

I originally wrote a Halo Screen Saver in 2003 when the Halo 2 demo video came out of E3, but that version couldn't play WMV movies, and only played one movie.  This year I've updated it now that Halo 3 has officially been announced, and there's a new Announcement Trailer to use as my screen saver.

The Halo Screen Saver can be downloaded from http://www.haloscreensaver.com/.  It can play WMV, QuickTime, and MPEG movies.  You can set up a playlist of movies to show one after another - perfect for showing a full season of Red vs Blue for example :)

Since the Screen Saver uses the Microsoft .NET Framework v2, it is only available for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Now with Clanmatch removed from the playlists, some clans are very frustrated and tossing their controllers against the walls. Although, as long as Bungie allows clans to represent their social network by letting players have a clan name there is still a way to do Clanmatches!

The Halo 2 clan member recruiting site, Clantacular.com, will remain a community for sponsoring custom clan tournaments and other clan related events to help clans keep their sense of community and identity. It may cause clans a little ease of mind to know there is still a place that is trying to give Halo clans a place of belonging that currently supports a nice community of clans already working together.

This summer we will sponsor custom clan slayer challenges and other clanmatch game variant challenges never seen before like clan swat challenge and more!

Register your clan or recruit new members and join the tournament!

http://clantacular.com