If it seems to you that HBO is down, blame the weather: a lightning strike has apparently taken out the router that feeds HBO's DNS servers, which make make the site unviewable for a lot of folks. At the moment, we can still see it, but that's probably because we have one of the "lazy" DNS servers Louis Wu mentions in his post.
On the assumption that most people can't see the site right now, here's the entirety of that post:
Part Five of the series on realism in Halo is up over at The Junkyard. In this one, Captain Roy Luthan (still not his real name) covers one of my favorite levels, Assault on the Control Room. Thanks Ryan "Mhaddy" Matthews for the heads-up.
This week's Bungie Update took a slightly different format: Frankie and SketchFactor offered a question and answer session (excepting those on the story or campaign mode).
FrogBlast makes an appearance (sort of) and Baby Master Chief gets a Halo 2-style makeover in the latest Halo Babies comic. Thanks mrsmiley.
The Xbox Live Backstage Pass contest as announced earlier was only valid in North America; of course, the contest itself is worldwide, but each country gets its own page:
Microsoft today announced the Xbox Live™ Backstage Pass Sweepstakes featuring Halo® 2, which will give 20 lucky winners from around the world the chance to play Halo 2 multiplayer before the most anticipated game of the year hits store shelves in North America on November 9, 2004. With over a million members, Xbox Live is the premier destination for online console gamers. In order to be eligible for the sweepstakes, gamers must have a valid Xbox Live account as of October 15. Winners will be drawn on October 22 and will receive a three-day/two-night trip for the winner and one guest to Bungie Studios in Redmond, Washington to play Halo 2 multiplayer. Package includes round-trip air transportation to Seattle, Washington, hotel accommodations, roundtrip airport transfers, meals and a tour of Bungie Studios. For more information and official rules, please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/news/backstagepasssweepstakes.htm
Dolbex has published a wrap-up of MLG San Fransisco, won by Team "Yesss!" over on the MLG Site. It's entitled I Left My Controller In San Fransisco.
HSE, or Halo Server Extensions, has been announced for "almost public release". It is a framework that supports modules to extend the functionality of Halo servers. Modules currently include an Init file builder, a game type editor, a map voting feature, statistics and more. Thanks Halo Mods for the heads-up.
Blitzwolf in the HBO forum noticed a guitar tab of the Halo theme over at MXTabs.net. Thanks Louis Wu for the story.
Frankie's update this week is at Halo Babies, where, like Andre the Giant in Princess Bride, Mister Chief is dreaming of large women. Except, in his case, it's a nightmare. In addition, Bungie.net has a roundup of all the Halo 2 previews that are going up all over the web. Some we mentioned before, some are new to us.
mrsmiley from Halo Babies writes that the latest strip marks the end of Mister Chief. Oh no!
Leading up to the impending media blitz that will no doubt be Halo 2's official marketing campaign (all the bee stuff aside) IGN has put up a six-page feature on what it was like to hunt for Halo 2 information through the relatively quiet period from the announcement in August 2002 until now.
One interesting point they mention is about the Weekly Updates, and how the major news sites... well... don't seem to like them much:
Louis Wu at HBO notes that the Cover Design Contest run by Blade ends today, September 9th.
The New Mombasa Classic map has been ported for use with Mac Halo. Thanks to bobindashadows for the story.