JRCB sent word of ‘Breakaway: A Rock Opera Machinima‘, over at YouTube. It’s pretty cool – these guys wrote their own rock opera… and then acted it out in Halo 3. Great music! Definitely a one-of-a-kind… Go watch it!(Louis Wu 16:05:16 UTC)

ZZoMBiE13 couldn’t stay away from the RvB: Reconstruction Fan Art field – he whipped up a new scene from one of the first episodes. (Maybe the first?) Memories!(Louis Wu 15:54:41 UTC)

DigitalPh33r’s Hard Justice series continues with Episode 6, out now on YouTube. Bernard gets closer to the truth – maybe to his detriment. Thanks, vlad3163.(Louis Wu 15:51:15 UTC)

This came in a couple of days ago, but I somehow missed it. Halo Base’s Legend let us know that they’ve kicked off an Advent Calendar, documenting the history of Halo: Combat Evolved, with new magazine scans appearing every new day until Christmas. It’s all in German, but if you read German, there’s a lot of info! They’re also sponsoring a few contests, with prizes including action figures and a high-quality photo canvas, with the winning screenshot printed on it. Swing by Halo Base and read all the details!(Louis Wu 15:49:02 UTC)

I stumbled across a blog entry from someone named Ryan Fitzgibbon, who highlighted a short video created by Nicholas Werner called ‘Break: Halo 3‘. It’s a short Halo machinima, no voice acting at all… but he’s done a fantastic job of tying together the multiplayer maps in a way that feels right. I enjoyed the chase.(Louis Wu 13:47:05 UTC)

ReleasetheMonk created a cutscene montage tied to the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V. It works surprisingly well. Check it out!(Louis Wu 13:46:11 UTC)

The Winter Pentathlon finished in spectacular style, apparently – complete with the presence of a live goat. (No word on whether the goat was eaten after the festivities.) Pictures and results are now in the updated Bungie.net article. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 13:45:42 UTC)

The Winter Pentathlon is now in full swing at Bungie Studios – Newbies take on Grizzled Ancients for glory and the power of the Bungie Fist. Go read about it! (Because of this competition, there won’t be a Weekly Update tonight – this is the last you’ll hear from the crew until next week… at which point SOMEONE will be licking wounds, and plotting about next year.)(Louis Wu 20:41:13 UTC)

Looks like The Cole Protocol is a hit – Tobias Buckell points out a few sites with bestseller lists. It’s #4 on the New York Times Trade Paperback list, #6 on the Publishers Weekly Trade Paperback fiction list, among others. Nice! Thanks to TTL Demag0gue for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 19:14:59 UTC)