Like a herd of speeding turtles

Some of you may or may not be aware that we regularly work on improvements to bungie.net. Slowly but surely, we've been preparing an update for you, and it is almost ready. Monday, Feb. 17th, at 10am PST, the site will be unavailable for about 30 minutes for the upgrade. We've got lots of cool new things for you this time around, come back on Monday to see what we've changed.

New comic

Funny thing happened on the way to .... um. Never mind. I'm not really good at jokes. BUT, some funny stuff always happens around the office, which makes for great Bungie Comics. Like this one that ties in perfectly with the Pentathlon article.

Size Does Matter

Last week's poll is a wrap and an overwhelming 67% of you prefer to play Halo using the original controller over it's pint sized sibling. Controller-S is favored by 29% while 4% of you use a racing wheel for an extra challenge. Apparently size really does matter.

The Space Men!

Well, after reading our brand new interview with Chris Carney, you may want to hear more about this "Danger Boy." Never one to disappoint our fans, Lorraine has taken the reins of the Bungie Comics and produced a new one starring Danger Boy and the Space Men. Enjoy!

New Shirt, New Prices, Oh My!

The Bungie Store has been going through some changes lately and the results are finally starting to show. First off, a brand new Halo T-Shirt is now ready for purchase. This stylish black shirt features the Covenant Elite on the front and is sure to make you the envy of all your friends. However, even bigger news comes in the form of brand new pricing for everything in the store. After much deliberation, we have decided to remove the existing 7th Column discount in favor of a universal discount that can be enjoyed by everyone. By not having to factor in a potential 40% discount on every product, we’ve been able to slash prices across the board to bring you even more bang for your buck. This is but the first of many new and exciting things to happen to the store so be sure to check back often. Happy Shopping!

The Great Debate

The results of last week's Normal vs. Inverted poll are in and it couldn't have been closer. Normal wins by a hair with 450 votes while 431 of you prefer the Inverted setting. Nevertheless, this debate is sure to rage on for the foreseeable future. Word on the streets is that a couple of Floridian voters misread the poll thus dropping their beloved Inverted setting to last place. Even though Normal took the popular vote, early indications point to Inverted coming out ahead with the electorates.

The Webcam

Some of you may have noticed that webcam was not showing anything for last couple of days. Apparently, the Webmaster got a hold on it and did something unspeakable to it. The point is that it is happily snapping pics again now that the damage has been undone.

New Halo 2 Screenshot

Here it is - an exclusive brand new screen shot from Halo 2! As many of you have already discovered, Evil Otto was not 100% accurate in his post last Friday about our Halo 2 update. Most of you quickly found that there was in fact a brand new screen. I inadvertantly missed a link but that didn't stop our investigative fans from locating this hidden gem. Now it's official, this exclusive new screen has now been added to the gallery. So what are you waiting for, go check it out!

Something Old, Something New

Today on Tru7h & Reconciliation, you'll find the inclusion of two new Halo 2 desktops. If you're familliar with the site, you'll also notice the inclusion of a lot more Halo 2 goodness. Hang on! Don't get too excited now, it's all stuff you've probably seen before in recent magazines. We're just now able to post everything to our site. A big thanks to SketchFactor for all the time he put in on rounding everything up and reformatting the content pages.

Inverted vs. Normal

Next week's poll is up a bit early since the Pentathlon is all wrapped up. Vote now and let us know if you're an inverted or a normal Halo player. The results of the Pentathlon poll are in...

The majority of you (34%)picked the Old School to win with Middle School coming in 2nd (26%) followed by the Ancients (20%) and Newbies with (18%).

Rock the Vote

The results of last week's poll are in and the question of which button setting is most widely used has finally been answered. An overwhelming 77% of you choose to play with the default setting. Boxer came in 2nd with 11% followed by Green Thumb with 5%. Southpaw edged out Jumpy by a single vote but both ended up with 2%. Check out this week's poll and let us know who you think will win this year's Bungie Pentathlon.

Getting the Keyes to Your Ride

The latest installment in our Legendary Walkthrough, Keyes is up and ready for your perusal. If you're one of the masses that got Halo for Christmas, and are going through for the first time, or trying to beat the game on Legendary, this is the guide for you

One Setting To Rule Them All

If you're like me, you've lost many nights of sleep contemplating which thumbstick setting is most popular amongst Halo players. The results of our last poll are in and a whopping 82% of you prefer the default settings. Southpaw came in a distant second with 8% of the votes followed by Legacy (7%) and Southpaw Legacy (1%). So now we know...and knowing is half the battle. Check out our newest poll for your chance to give a shout out to your favorite button configuration.

Last Chance to Qualify

The folks at iGames sent word that this Saturday, 1/11, is the last round of qualifiers for their Halo Winter Season. Interested players can stop by their local affiliate or go here to sign up. For more details, check out their Halo Info Page. Game on!

Seventh Column Week In Review

Matt and Achronos are still out on vacation, Sketch is out sick, and I cajoled Evil Otto into writing the last Week in Review, so this week the task has fallen to the master of delegation (me). Let's bust open the Week In Review Mailbag and see what's cookin'.

PsionicPhyre from the Military Armory (/fanclub/armory) is holding a contest to see who can make the best Military Armory flag. Check out the chapter for details. The cost is $5 and the winner will recieve a one year Xbox Live subscription.

Let's see ... no more mail. That's it?!!! That was easy. Too easy. There's plenty more going on around the Seventh Column. I wouldn't normally do this, but considering the poor quality of this week's mail submissions here's my own news roundup.

Our theme contest is over and the winners have been chosen. I'm not going to announce anything just yet, but we should have the 3 winning themes live on the site and the winners posted next week. Thanks to everyone that participated!

Lorraine joined the Online Team officially today. I don't know if she has a Bungie account on the site, but I'm sure she'll have one soon. Be sure to say hello.

Halo Diplomatic Core made it into this week's Spotlight. The chapter is comprised of over 200 members, one representative from each state and country. I'm not sure what they have planned but based on participation I'm sure it's something big.

xboxliveaz (fanclub/xboxliveaz), a chapter dedicated to Xbox Live events, has been very active. Check out their iGames Winter Season summary, it's quite a read.

The UK Halo Chapter has devised a "divisional membership scheme." We've been discussing ways to better organize the Seventh Column for quite some time, it will be interesting to see how this pivotal UK chapter's plans go. While you're there be sure to check out their Game Reviews database, it's damn impressive!

Finally, a few random thoughts I had while browsing through chapters:

1) People really like snipers. And Spartans.

2) The lull in Seventh Column activity is a normal part of a game's life cycle. It will be a glorious day when Bungie products come out at more regular intervals and there is no "down time". Until then feel free to chime in at the Chapter Founders forum, the Septagon, with ideas for ways to spice things up around here.

3) There are some rumblings underfoot about Confederations and Conflagrations and other nefarious organizations. People obviously enjoy these alliances, let's figure out a way to make them a more interesting part of the site. Again, feel free to chime in at the Chapter Founders site.

That's it for this week. Enjoy your weekend!