Hawty McBloggy posted a piece a couple of days ago about a fan-made Brute Spiker; if you liked what you saw, but were hungry for shots of the piece under construction, and comments from the creator, swing by the gallery page for smick6's Brute Spiker. Awesome work!(Louis Wu 14:57:24 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue is back with a new Reclaimer - #83 shows Viper that they might have more of a problem on their hands than they understood... (Louis Wu 14:56:48 UTC)

Two years ago, we mentioned a study being done in New York that found that laparoscopic surgeons who played video games were faster than those who didn't. Last month, at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, a number of studies were discussed that showed similar findings - cognitive and perceptual skills are increased, reactions are faster and accuracy is improved. (There were some negative findings, as well, especially related to attitudes towards violence.) The APA press release doesn't mention Halo - but the Boston Globe editorial that refers to its findings does.(Louis Wu 14:49:21 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy is back with another What If, Halo Style - Round 5 asks you what you'd set up if you had the ability to create a Double XP Weekend Playlist. Good question! (There is also a summary of the last question she asked, concerning dream vehicles - go see what people want to add!)(Louis Wu 14:38:36 UTC)

After a break, Larry the Marine is back - #33 introduces a new hero to save Larry's butt. Thanks, 2phast.(Louis Wu 14:38:05 UTC)

Ten new pieces went up this week in the Fan Fiction section - largest batch in a while! Go read.(Louis Wu 14:36:13 UTC)

You might remember the video series from Jamie98s entitled 'Oh So Beautiful', in which he took a close look at the natural wonders in Halo 2... he's back with a version updated to Halo 3, and you can watch it streaming on his website, or download it from ours (WMP9 format is 135 mb, QuickTime format is 121 mb). It's all campaign footage, and it runs about eight and a half minutes. He even created a series of wallpapers from some of the shots seen in the video - go prettify your desktop, after you've watched the flick!(Louis Wu 21:16:33 UTC)

Captain Spark posted a YouTubed montage he found - there's some very nice coordination between the music and the gameplay. The embedded version is standard-res (YouTube's standard), because that's their policy; if you click on the vid and go to the YouTube page, you can watch the High-res version. If even THAT'S not enough for you, you can download the 324 mb version from Halo3Forum. It's sparked an interesting discussion on montages in general - read Spark's thread for details.(Louis Wu 20:51:02 UTC)

Bungie has activated this weekend's Double XP Playlist - and it's the return of Three Ball! Three balls, four teams. Can you hear the music playing? Thanks, RevDotNed.(Louis Wu 20:36:55 UTC)

Sad that you didn't make it to PAX? Wishing you had a shot at some of the cool booty being given away there? Never fear - there are always more chances for that stuff. We'll be giving away some of what we collected over the weekend... but not yet. And not in anywhere NEAR the density of goodness you can take a shot at, right now, over at Hawty McBloggy's. She collected a TON of stuff, mostly Halo (though a lot of Dead Space stuff too), got it signed... and is giving it all away in one fell swoop. How can you get your hands on the loot? It's pretty straightforward, actually; leave a comment on the blog post in the next seven days - the winner will be chosen at random after that. Go read the page for details about what's in the goodie bag... and make sure to comment!(Louis Wu 20:01:13 UTC)

The latest Halo Wars Monthly Update has been posted; there's information about basic progress, upcoming changes to the website, and Halo Wars' showing in Leipzig. There's also a scramble picture with some mysterious alert messages; the last time they did this, we got to meet the Sparrowhawk. Thanks to Planet Halo for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 14:40:18 UTC)

tombodemon created a Halo-related project for an art assignment - he wanted to show off the use of video games as an escape from real life. There are a few screenshots, and a fun video. Check it out!(Louis Wu 13:30:08 UTC)

Wasabi Entertainment is running a Sig of the Week contest - and the theme is Halo. Top entry gets a Halo-related prize (unnamed so far). Thanks, Jamie Hutchinson.(Louis Wu 13:29:49 UTC)

Over at Ascendant Justice, vociferous created another of his thorough and well-written analysis pieces - this time, the subject is Assembly, the new map shown at PAX. Using information gleaned from hours playing and watching others play, along with discussions with the map's designer, Dan Miller, vociferous has managed to create a look into this map that should make it familiar to readers when they see it again - whether they were at PAX or not. There's even a hand-drawn (but pretty accurate, and REALLY nicely done) overhead map of the level! Thanks to Cocopjojo for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 11:57:19 UTC)

There's an intriguing editorial at The Escapist, discussing the copying of game features without understanding why they were there in the first place, and what that does to games. Halo's health system plays a large role in the examples, but it's really more general than that. Thanks, Nokterne.(Louis Wu 11:26:26 UTC)

Halo.fr's Johnny be good let us know about the first Halo 3 montage from Shinato, a top Dutch player. It's REALLY heavy on the effects and cuts; so much so that it's hard to see the action a lot of the time. That said, the gameplay is pretty sick. 9 minutes long, in MLG's Gameroom.(Louis Wu 20:55:35 UTC)

Sean Bradley sent word that a rather large contingent of the 405th Infantry Division (the armor guys) showed up at DragonCon in Atlanta last weekend; there's a thread on their forum with pictures and discussion, but Sean also passed along some specific photo collections from members:

• SKG's DragonCon Album
• ScaryMonkey75's DragonCon Parade Collection
• ScaryMonkey75's DragonCon Saturday Collection
• ScaryMonkey75's Arbiter Collection

Amazing stuff - with more to come! (It's all great - but check out the Arbiter shots for some truly stunning material.)(Louis Wu 19:26:39 UTC)

Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked Episode 40 is up - bovines and reptiles, oh my! (Louis Wu 19:25:20 UTC)

You might remember a post about a reality show that will focus on finding the 'ultimate gamer' - tryouts are coming up this weekend in four cities (NYC, LA, Austin, and Chicago), and they're hoping that you come prepared. We got email from Sha-hid Ealy, the Casting Producer, who sent along a flyer for the LA audition (jpeg, 80k), and a copy of the actual application (PDF, 64k). They request that if you're coming down to try out, that you bring this application, filled out, with you. Download it, get to filling! (Louis Wu 19:15:31 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy continues to add fun content from PAX - today she told us about PAX 08: Red vs. Blue Edition, a look at the goings-on in the RvB booth over the course of the weekend, but there's also this little tidbit that might be of interest to some of you. That's Ken Taya's handiwork... and I can't tell you anything else.(Louis Wu 16:25:44 UTC)