If you’re looking for a noise-cancelling PC gaming headset, you could do much worse than the Plantronics .Audio 350 Halo 2 unit - right now, Buy.com is selling it for $10, with free shipping. (If you, for some reason, have a problem with the Halo 2 branding, you could, I suppose, buy the NON-branded version - but that one costs $25.) Thanks, Black Six.
(Louis Wu 13:55:40 +0000)

Sam152 let us know that Halo Wars Addict has started up a podcast - first episode is just over half an hour, 32 mb, and discusses all the new Halo Wars info coming out now. Check it out!(Louis Wu 14:27:12 +0000)

Ray Greaves creates Chronicles of Something, a webcomic about… well, mostly about creating a webcomic, it seems. The latest issue is Halo-related - go see Ray’s take on how Halo 3’s ending came about.
(Louis Wu 14:26:39 +0000)

Sgt. Hartsock was proud of the fact that his portrait of the ‘This Spartan Life’ crew was used in a Kotaku Australia story about the Machinima Film Festival that took place a couple of days ago in Melbourne. Lots of Halo content discussed there! (Rooster Teeth’s Burnie Burns and TSL’s Chris Burke, both of whom participated in a number of panels at that festival, are in Sydney tonight for the Sydney Film Festival, as well.)(Louis Wu 12:08:31 +0000)

MrSprout was the first to point out a new batch of about 40 Halo Wars screenshots (really new, this time, not snagged from a released trailer or scrounged up from some obscure past), over at GamePro.com. This game is looking pretty good!(Louis Wu 12:03:31 +0000)

Dennis Powers sent word that Shipwrecked Episode 30 (’Watched’) is now online (Johnston and Taylor are in a new valley, but still under surveillance), and Sane Intolerant told us that a new episode of Halo Toy Box is up, in which internet memes are torqued to fit the Halo universe. And K8lunch let us know that the latest Larry the Marine (’Wish come true’) has been posted, as well - be careful what you wish for! Comics everywhere!(Louis Wu 12:43:15 +0000)

Spartanx5 is back with another weapon model (we last saw him in early May with an energy sword) - this time he’s worked on the Spike Grenade. Swing by his DeviantART page to see what he’s done!(Louis Wu 12:42:35 +0000)

BlueNinja noticed a feature over at GamesRadar in which they posted a whole bunch of Cortana fan art - looks like someone just went through DeviantART and grabbed every pic they could find. Nice collection!(Louis Wu 12:06:28 +0000)

UNSC Trooper stopped by yesterday to point out the HBO Fan Fic Pick of the Week - this one written up by SeverianofUrth. If you’re looking for help sifting through the weekly submissions, this series is worth a read!(Louis Wu 12:03:48 +0000)

The big news this weekend was the unveiling of Cold Storage, a new remake of Chill Out that Bungie brought with them to MLG San Diego. (The ’screens’ in that story are pretty lousy - you can get a slightly better look at the map in a fan-recorded video from the event over at GameTrailers - thanks, MasterChief2829.) The jury’s still out on this one - but reaction from the event (where the only people who actually SAW the map were) is pretty positive. While you’re over at MLGPro.com, check out the San Diego Hall of Champions - congrats to Str8 Rippin, who took first place in the 4v4.(Louis Wu 11:57:54 +0000)