Got a trick you want the community to know about? Head on over to High Impact Halo. Yeah, that part has been true since Halo 2 was released, and before… but they’ve put a new Trick Review System online, and it has the potential to vastly reduce the clutter that keeps some tricks from being noticed, while keeping things organized and easy-to-find. It will also reduce the workload on HIH staff required to identify new tricks, allowing newsposting to happen more easily – which will likely translate to more fun stuff MAKING it to the front page. Inspired by (but in no way based on, codewise – this puppy’s completely original to HIH) our Movie Peer Review Rating System, the TRS promises to help tricksters and fans alike – go check it out!

Prometheus, the multiversion Halo model manipulator/editor, has a new update online. They’ve lost scripting support (their scripter has left the team because of problems with the CE community), but there’s plenty of good stuff left. Screenshots and descriptions will give you a taste for what’s coming – go read!

retsamolah put together another montage vid; I’m sure it will earn the scorn of TRUE masters, because there are a couple of times when he actually takes 3 shots to no-scope the enemy (and because he uses the dreaded n00b combo to get a triple kill or two), but some of the sticks have to be seen to be believed. All footage collected in the last few nights – vid is 65.5 mb, QuickTime format. The downside: there’s only one jump-to-the-death-off-Lockout this time around, and it’s not even KP. Nice gameplay set to great music (though not timed to it) – a fun watch.

Over at MLGPro.com, there’s an interview with TMG, formerly Str8 Rippin, conducted after MLG Las Vegas. They talk about how good it feels to be on top (heh), and focus a lot on the rivalry with iGameSpot, the team they beat to win MLG Las Vegas. Nice read! Thanks, Arachneya and 3Suns.

The Escapist has written up a nice-looking article showing the evolution of Bungie’s FPS space opera from Marathon to Halo. A few factoids left me shaking my head… but all in all, a good read. Thanks to stosh, at Bungie.net, for the heads-up.

And1balla2829 writes to point out (in a post on the RvB forum, registration required) that he’s created an RvB Firefox toolbar – contains tons of mini-buttons for the best movie/machinima/Halo 2 sites, plus news feed menus and a ticker from Rooster Teeth, and more. Here’s a small screenshot to show you what you’d be getting.

Okay, this is weird. Over at Channel 9, a Microsoft programming site, there’s a video series following their mascot (think Jack-in-the-Box, writ large) on the way to a developers conference. The current episode (download is 14.8 mb, WMP9 format) has the 9 guy picking up Sarge, from Red vs Blue – I’d go nuts if that guy got in MY car. Thanks, Eric Smith.

Stubbs the Zombie is getting some good coverage these days – Gamespot has a video interview with Tim Attuquayefio, Director of QA for Aspyr, discussing gameplay, and an updated hands-on (thanks, Narcogen at Rampancy.net), and CVG has a text interview with Matt Soell, the game’s writer, looking at Stubbs’ origin, some of the ways the Wideload team enhanced the Halo engine for the game, and more (thanks, 3Suns). Go check ’em all!

Got mail from Z, over at halo2forum.com – tons for you to watch. Their Montage Contest 2 videos have been revealed – there are lots of them. Then, there’s a montage trailer from magnum 9er. Finally, there’s some pro-level gaming, wherein the Str8 Rippin crew loses. Go download!

Awesomeness. There’s a great article over at Bungie.net, written by Joe Staten, who’s been pretty off-the-radar these past few months – it looks at the origins of the Halo movie script, and how the situation developed to where it stands today. There’s even a sneak peek at the ‘companion’, a jazzed-up “universe bible/style-guide” that is intended to keep the filmmakers on the right track. (No, you can’t buy one.) Go read this if you have any doubts about the outcome of the Halo movie. (You should STILL have doubts after you read it – you should have doubts until you see it on-screen, because otherwise you’re setting yourself up for potential sadness – but you should feel much more assured after reading Joe’s writeup.) Oh, yeah – and this is part 1. Thanks, LegendaryMark.

A new article in Variety contains details about the Halo movie deal – the highlights are that Fox and Universal will pay Microsoft $5 million against 10% of the movie’s gross, that Microsoft is “guaranteed extensive consultation on the project, but won’t have approval over any elements”, and that the final product will hit the big screen during the summer of 2007. (Thanks, Ian White.)

Over at Tied the Leader, XerxdeeJ has recorded a fascinating interview with Steve Downes, better known to Halo fans as the voice of Master Chief. It’s a phone interview, and it touches on many subjects, from Steve’s gaming history to voiceover acting politics to speculation about the Halo movie (and the possibility of Steve’s involvement in it)… great stuff. It comes in three pieces, each 2-3 mb, mp3 format – go listen!

Captain Spark posted another 30 dialogue snippets – all Johnson and Stacker. (He’s worried, though – he might be getting to the end of the line.) You can grab them from his website, zipped, or browse them in our Dialogue Databank.

Wow. TheGhost posted a vid on our forum – he’s modified multiplayer grenades in HaloCE to act a lot like campaign grenades… and he uses them to perform some amazing launches on Blood Gulch. I liked this so much I’m hosting both his original WMP9 version (26.4 mb), and a new QT version (27.4 mb). Grab this and be amazed. I was.

Funky – EB Games is gearing up to sell the Halo Triple Pack – Halo, Halo 2, and the Multiplayer Map Pack, all in one $60 box. Goes on sale in about 2 months. You ask me, they should have done that LONG ago. Thanks, Josh Eppert.

Christopher “Master Chief” Thomas wrote to point out Halo Bunker, a new halo-oriented video host; they’d love to help you get your content to the Halo community. Check out this forum post, sign up, and start uploading!

Dennis Powers wrote to point out that The Halo CE Chronicles Episode 16, Harmony, has been released – the action heats up, and a long-time plot mystery has been cleared up. Go watch! WMP9 (25.4 mb), QuickTIme (29.9 mb), and streaming Flash (9 mb) formats.

Paradox pointed out that there’s a new community bar for Halo – it allows searching with Seeker and HaloWiki. (It also pulls in the HBO RSS feed…) Give it a look! Requires Firefox and Windows.

Thanks to DSmooth, who pointed out Episode 7 of 2old2type, 2old2play.com’s bi-weekly podcast. This one is about an hour long, weighs in at 28 mb in mp3 format, and covers their recent lanfest, as well as upcoming stuff and other stuff. And stuff. (They’re also finally on iTunes, so you can subscribe from there.) Go listen! (I wish the volume had been punched up a bit…)

Been out all day… get ready for a flood of news! We’ll get started with the funnies… ÜberChief posted Episode 16 of his Resolute comic – a perfect example of how unstressed people can be until THEIR stuff gets trashed.