If the title is any indication, it looks like this one features Private Donut prominently; Episode 16: A Slightly Crueler Cruller is now available to the general public at Red vs Blue.

Word from redvsblue.com is that Episode 16 is done, and has been released to sponsors. They expect it'll be ready for public release on Saturday, and note that they'll be at QuakeCon in Dallas particpating on a machinima panel. Wonder if they'll be close enough to Plano to hook up with all the PC Halo Fanstock people.

gfunk has posted an item over on the Red vs Blue site; it seems that readers Matthew and David sent over some images that purport to show Red vs. Blue has made it to Iraq. (Who knew anyone even played Halo in Iraq... outside the barracks, I mean?) They've also got pics of the series being shown in Game Time Nation in New York City, and ask other RvB fans to send them any other interesting images they might have.

SketchFactor over at Bungie.net has posted the results of the "Ask the Cananimators" feature interview, with answers by anim8rjb and bentlama. While the majority of the answers were with tongue placed firmly in cheek, and related to the genesis of Canadian Bacon, the relative coolness factor of the OHL and the CFL, and the prospects for the Toronto Maple Leafs, some Halo info did creep in there from time to time:

NW: We actually use IK for most of our animation. IK on the arms and legs, feet and other areas. For the most part we are really used to animating with IK. We use FK for the spine, neck, head and wrists and toes. Our animation rig is a mix of a lot of things, and through the power of MEL, it is simple to use and quick to animate with...those are the most important features of any animation rig. Thanks for asking, and please keep posting more questions like this.

Be sure to give it a read. Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO as usual.

Episode 15 of Red vs. Blue is out. Go get it!

Well, as it turns out, the shipping version of Halo on the Xbox does contain a flamethrower after all, although you need a modded Xbox to use it.

Phforslayer (who wrote Aquaduct, the Mac OS X tunelling program that allows Halo to be played over the Internet) posted onto HBO's forum some screenshots he'd made, included one of the flamethrower and mentioned something called a "gravity gun". Macegac later posted a tutorial on how to get both weapons, and BOLL posted a film of the flamethrower in action. We're hosting a copy of the flamethrower video here at Rampancy.

The BBC news has done a piece on Red vs Blue, the popular webseries animated using the Halo engine, comparing it to South Park. The article mentions the popularity of Bungie's flagship Xbox game and the upcoming sequel. Thanks to Louis (again) at HBO.

OK, since we hardly ever update around here these days, maybe this will slip by and no one will notice. Maybe not.

Anyway, this has to be about the strangest Halo reference we've ever seen. And before anybody complains, the text and images in this story we're about to link to are of a decidedly sexual, some might say odd-- nature. So be forewarned.

c0ld vengeance has given us his plan for how to handle Halo 2 when it comes out, and entitled it Halo 2: A Bachelor's Guide . We might actually try this; although, to be honest, this is only a slightly formalized version of an average weekend.

Of course, the other thing that inevitably occurs in the void between releases is boredom, and it leads to things like this, and this, and this, to which Matt responded thusly.