nomis78 continues to put together panoramas - there are a half-dozen new ones in his forum post last night. I really like the reworked Foundry environs…(Louis Wu 15:00:24 +0000)

Shane Kim talked to Computer and Video Games, and both Halo Wars and the Bungie-mediated Peter Jackson Halo project came up. Nothing terribly new - but you can glean some tidbits by reading between the lines. For example, TVG decided that Kim’s assertion that Halo Wars wasn’t ready to be shown at Microsoft’s Spring Showcase this year was evidence that the game won’t be out before 2009. (This is certainly not the first time that’s been speculated, but each brick helps build the house.) Go read!(Louis Wu 14:58:14 +0000)

So, remember that US Army Halo 3 Championship that had its own playlist last month? Seems there’s some controversy over the winners… check out Geekpulp for more details. The New Zealand rules clearly state that the top-ranked eligible player in NZ would be chosen for the regional tournament - but this didn’t happen. (This is true all over that region - Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore…) Somewhat unfortunate, in terms of what this might mean for future tournaments, I’d say…(Louis Wu 12:53:50 +0000)

Davis Beutler performed ‘Finishing the Fight’ at his school’s talent quest, and put together a video montage of the event. Go watch!(Louis Wu 11:59:13 +0000)

kr-1426 stopped by to announce that the Fan Fiction Pick of the Week feature (now in its second week) is up over at the HBO Fan Fiction forum. Anyone can read, though you’ll need to register to contribute to the discussion. If you’ve found the huge collection of work daunting, you can use these discussions as a jumping-in point!(Louis Wu 14:40:08 +0000)

TheMaker420 and D ROCK898 have been working a new podcast for a bit - it’s called HaloCast, and it covers… well, Halo. They’ve just posted Episode 3, almost 50 mb for 26 minutes, and they discuss different websites across the net, along with videos available on them and the like. (They also spend the first five minutes of the ‘cast discussing the cheating they’ve gotten away with in school - hmm.) Go listen.(Louis Wu 14:39:36 +0000)

Ross Mills found a shirt at Shirt.Woot that provides a video game for each letter of the alphabet - and guess which game got used for ‘H’?(Louis Wu 14:37:29 +0000)

We here at HBO would like to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day! If there’s a mother in your life - yours, your kids’, your significant other’s, whoever - let her know how important she is! We’ll be back updating tomorrow.(Louis Wu 11:33:52 +0000)

We’ve all seen cool panoramic shots of Blackout and its environs, like this one… but have you ever seen the area in full sun? (Check the second pic down.) Nice find by Jeff Hartt.(Louis Wu 14:23:07 +0000)

Bungie posted their Weekly Update last night, as usual - there’s teaser artwork from Bungie artists who will be at the Emerald City Comic-Con today, in Seattle, new Bungie Favorites from a community group (and an interview with their leader), a goodbye to a Bungie employee who’s moved on, and some funny pics of Frankie (with an exhortation to photoshop them for Recon). Go see! (You can, of course, read it in our Weekly Update Archive.)(Louis Wu 13:56:15 +0000)