A few inquisitive souls have already found the new links… but for the rest of you, I’m (tentatively) pleased to announce that our Halo 3 Cutscene Library has just been upgraded with HD versions (thanks, once again, to Cody Miller) – this leaves only the Halo 1 scenes in standard res. (That’s almost completely my fault; we’ve got people chomping at the bit to record, and I’ve been too busy to process stuff. But that’s neither here nor there, right now.) Swing by and grab (some) Halo 3 scenes! To explain the hesitancy: I’m nervous, because we’re talking about a LOT of bandwidth, and even though I’ve devoted three servers to the situation, I’m not totally confident we can keep up with demand if people start downloading the entire collection at a shot. So be gentle… but go see what you can find! And if you see Cody, say thanks.(Louis Wu 23:13:54 UTC)

Simpsons Rule noticed that Amazon has The Cole Protocol available for preorder – current price is $10.17, and posted release date is November 25, 2008. Poking around a bit, though, Barnes & Noble has a listing, too – sort of. (No author, no title, just a release date of September 30 and a price of $12.70 – the only way you know it’s The Cole Protocol is by the ISBN number. I’ll stick with Amazon on this one, thanks.)(Louis Wu 21:05:50 UTC)

ZZoMBiE13’s latest episode of Another Halo Comic Strip shows just how innovative the Master Chief can be. (Well… or the fans that put thoughts in his head…)(Louis Wu 19:46:09 UTC)

Yay! KP stopped by with some awesome news – Xbox 360 downloaded content licenses can now be migrated to a new machine. This means (for example) that if you buy Halo 3 DLC, and then your Xbox red-rings, or you upgrade to an Elite, you no longer have to jump through hoops to play the maps you already bought. More details in KP’s post, or in the Xbox.com article he references. Have I said yay yet? Yay!(Louis Wu 19:42:11 UTC)

Dennis Powers let us know that Shipwrecked 32 is live – looks like Taylor got a bit pummeled by the river trip.(Louis Wu 18:45:37 UTC)

SonofMacPhisto was the first to notice that the new Double XP Weekend Playlist is live – 3 Ball is full of games with 3 oddballs, and 4 teams of 3 players each. Go have fun!(Louis Wu 18:12:01 UTC)

Magnus “ScUmMy” Valebjørg let us know that HaloNorge.com just hosted a summer tournament – and ZpiKe uploaded video footage from the three Winners Bracket Finals and the three Grand Finals – you can grab them from this post (they’re hosted on FileFront). I don’t think there’s any way I could get ‘wood’ into this newspost for a bad joke.(Louis Wu 17:45:46 UTC)

TJ Ramirez caught a Scorpion on Avalanche getting… buffeted. Wonder if the driver lived through that? Thanks to Urk for the mundane stuff. (If you have a Vimeo account (free), you can download the HD version at the bottom of the page. It’s worth it.)(Louis Wu 17:15:54 UTC)

MLGPro.com has posted the ESPN/MLG Top Ten #5 – this one features user-submitted clips, and they’re quite good. Thanks to Buttskunk, who was proud of his son’s appearance at #9!(Louis Wu 15:27:26 UTC)

Seraph XXVII just recently put together all his Halo schwag, and took pics. Pretty nice collection!(Louis Wu 15:02:11 UTC)

TheChrisD let us know that The Rumble Pit World Series will be – oh, heck, I’ll let him tell it:

On the 4th of July ay 8pm EST, the Rumble Pit World Series will be holding a special 1-hour FFA match to celebrate Independence Day (as well as a few other minor holidays), dubbed the “Fireworks”. There are only 16 advance slots open (as in those are the people to get first invites, afterwards it’s open party), and the winner of the whole game will receive a 12-month XBL subscription card.

Swing by to read the full details!(Louis Wu 14:57:47 UTC)

Over at the newly reskinned Rampancy.net (nice work, Blackstar!), you can find a full score transcription of Finish the Fight (woodwinds/brass/percussion/choir/strings). The work was done by Jonathan Churchill, and as always, you’ll need to be logged in to actually download the files. Pretty nice work! (This was originally released in late April, but it wasn’t actually finished. Now it is.)(Louis Wu 14:54:44 UTC)

Mrguy ran across a pretty cool piece of concept art created by Ed Lee, who worked on the Halo Graphic Novel, and Halo Wars. (Not sure where this picture fits in – I’d GUESS Halo Wars, but that could be wrong.) He found it on the Gnomon School website (where Ed is an instructor), and PriorMarcus found a larger version on Ed’s website. Pretty cool Banshee Carrier!(Louis Wu 14:49:16 UTC)

Whoa, very cool. The Halo Wars website has started to post info about the UNSC Arsenal on their website – check this page here. There are still some ‘hidden’ sections – but those will probably come online in the near future, as we ramp up to E3. Thanks, Botolf.(Louis Wu 21:06:38 UTC)