Two new montages on Halo2Forum.com – both contain some pretty impressive gameplay. Both are WMP9 format. You can grab DaY’s Montage from this thread (a hefty 148 mb), and OlManMakowski’s Montage 2 from this one (48 mb). Lots and lots of double/triple kills, some Killtaculars, and a couple of longer strings. Go watch!

A long weekend is now over – here’s hoping you enjoyed it (if you’re in the US, or celebrate US holidays), or that you waited patiently for Halo news (if yesterday was a normal work/schoolday for you)… back to the grindstone. On Sunday, [HC]D-Man posted a note about a new Halo 2 podcast – this episode is just over half an hour; highlights include Phantom, from High Impact Halo, talking about their new Trick Review System. Go listen!

Ever meet one of those guys who won’t stop talking about themselves? Stuntmutt has – check today’s One One Se7en.

Sixteen new pieces of Fan Fiction for you on this beautiful Labor Day – if you live in the US, enjoy the holiday! If you don’t… Wish us the best!

Jillybean manages to get in multiple shots at Cortana (and one at me) in her latest Halo Story Page update. Cheeky…

Red vs Blue Episode 59, ‘Hunting Time’, is now up for sponsors – 33-39 mb, depending on format. I gotta say… I’m LOVIN’ Andy. Reds and Blues are separated again – and stuff is going on for both groups. Isn’t this better than just fighting each other in a dead-end canyon? While you’re over there, check the front page – Nico has posted three new downloadable songs, and asks that if you like them, you donate a little bit to the Katrina Relief effort. (They’re great – do it.)

Over at Halo2Forum.com, there’s a new montage posted by YouKonwItUh – WMP9 format, 103 mb. Very heavy on the video effects.

In an attempt to give you some of the flavor of the LANfest held at Miguel Chavez’s house last weekend, Stuntmutt has created a special Sunday One One Se7en.

DHalo made a tutorial to help with basic cutscene making with scripts, using Halo Custom Edition – you can find a download link in this Gearbox forum thread. (The video is encoded using a Mac-incompatible codec; you’ll need a PC to watch this. On the other hand, you’ll need a PC to use HaloCE, so it’s not such a big deal.)

Apparently, someone’s making a Halo movie… using Legos. You can find details (including pictures and a teaser poster) in this thread on Brickfilms.com – a trailer is coming soon. Thanks, Steve Davies.

Random 15-Year-Old has posted a PSP-compatible version of Episode 58 of Red vs Blue over on FileFront – if you’d like to watch this on your handheld, grab a copy! (16.5 mb)

A radio station in the Phoenix AZ area is hosting a Halo 2 tournament on September 17 – first place is $1000 in cash and prizes. Unfortunately, A note is up on the page stating that all contestants have been selected already – but who knows, maybe there’ll be cancellations. Thanks, Cybrfrk.

ÜberChief points out that the newest issue of Resolute is up – if only the MC was that damage-resistant in the game we play!

ChairLeg Productions continues with their Nephrons series; ‘Nephrons – Minus Four’ passed the MPRRS last night. Hugh is still insane, Mike is still in prison, the Blues are still better at insulting than the Reds. The reviewers liked the quality, the jokes (except for one reviewer, who found it ‘quite boring’ but passed it anyway), and the plot (except for those who didn’t get it). British humor, you know. Or humour. Or something. Available in WMP9 (38.3 mb) or QuickTime (36.7 mb).

pkrut sent us email about a Halo 2 tourney at CyberZone, in the Neshamiy mall near Philadelphia. It’s 2v2 slayer, MLG Rules. Entrance fee is $30/team. I couldn’t find any info on prizes. There’s no age requirement – the only caveat is… it’s today. Get on down! Update: Oops – the tourney is tomorrow, Sunday, the fourth. Sorry about that.

Over on GotFrag, there’s a story on Team 3D, and how they’re dealing with their surprising loss to TmG in Philadelphia. Sounds like they’re looking forward to MLG Atlanta, coming at the end of this month, where they’ll get a chance to face these rivals again! Thanks, James Schneider.

A few days ago, we mentioned one fan’s plan to raise some cash for Katrina victims – BoneKin was going to give one dollar for each kill he got in a series of 7 games (with a minimum of $117) to the Red Cross. Those games were played, on schedule, last night, and Mintz was kind enough to summarize the results – BoneKin will be sending $139 down! (There’s a movie coming at some point, too.) Nice work! Update: There’s another post on our forum about disaster relief opportunities, this one from Max Power – it looks like EB Games has agreed to match donations made through their stores (to a maximum of $50,000 companywide) – drop off $10, $20 heads to the Red Cross! Cool. Update 2: We’ve heard from a fan auctioning a Dell LCD monitor on eBay – 100% of the final sales price will go to the Red Cross. We may have to start a Katrina-only news page if this keeps up…

There’s a major story up on Bungie.net – ways you can help with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. First up – the T-shirt we mentioned earlier today. Go read WHY you should buy one (or several – they’ll make great presents!). After that, there’s a little bit of information for an upcoming charity auction – we’ll be working closely with Bungie to sell off some truly amazing fan items, and in the process build up some cash to send south. (Every penny made in the auction will be going to disaster relief – this one isn’t even ‘100% of the profits’, this one is ‘100% – period’.) Finally, there are some comments pulled from a recent thread on Bungie.net about people either directly affected by the disaster, or people doing what they can to help – check it out, get inspired!

This Spartan Life has kicked off Episode 2 – module 1 (Opening and extended monologue) is up now. 28 mb in QuickTime format, 22 mb in WMP9 format. (The WMP9 link is actually not active on their site yet – but you can grab it from the GearboxGameZone website for now.) Hey – who couldn’t love a talking shotgun? Guests in Episode 2 will be The Ill Clan (a machinima crew that has been making cool vids for years with the Quake engine(s)) and Marty O’Donnell from Bungie. Lance returns! (These folks aren’t in this module – as with Episode 1, this episode will be broken up in to several modules, for ease of downloading.) Go watch.