Hogmasta put together an effect for Windows Movie Maker 2 that crops out the HUD, for ease of machinima making – we’ve put up a local copy (3k). If you’re using WMM2 to create Halo movies – this can help!

Argent found a new Flash animation over at Newgrounds – it’s a Team Slayer match on Lockout, MLG-style. Hits all the big cliches.

trigger119 pointed out a new trailer hosted at the newly-redesigned Halomachinima.com – Halo: Fate’s Destiny takes place after the in-game story ends, and looks at the final 5 remaining Spartans. It’s filmed in the HaloCE engine, with additional CGI elements. The trailer’s quite short – but pretty! Update: there is now a QuickTime version up as well. Thanks!

Hawk7886 found a Rocket Warthog addition for GTA: San Andreas. Later posts in the thread have some screenshots.

Sep7imus points out a website showing you, in 12 easy steps, how to cheat in Halo 2 (and become a happier person).

We got a note from Victor – X-Tournaments is back after a long vacation, and is now acting a a hub for all Halo tournament activity across the US. More and more info will be coming online in the near future – if you want to know where the nearest tourney is going to be, stop by!

Continuing with the recent spate of MPRRS-passed vids: freejack905, of the Necrosis Clan, submitted ‘Mythbusterz – Episode 1’, a remake of an episode of the Discovery Channel show on driving while impaired. Nice linkup of existing audio to Halo footage! Grab it in WMP9 format (30 mb) or QuickTime format (31.4 mb).

Is that an icon in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me? Today’s One One Se7en points out a Bungie oversight… sort of.

SSGT Cutter points out that yesterday’s DOOM Toons (a comic based on DOOM, hosted at PlanetDOOM) has a cameo by the Master Chief. Not sure I get it… but there you are.

Interesting. Yesterday, we got email from bluestrike2 – it contained a very pretty PDF (159K) with all the respawn times of all the weapons on the Halo 2 maps (minus grenades and vehicles. Then, not 7 hours later, we got email from Typher, who’s contributed to our online version of this content in the past – with this information (including grenades this time) for the five new maps. Download, or online – your choice! (Compare ’em – they’re pretty close, though I did notice some differences.)

gigiskapoo pointed out a rather strange Flash animation at DeviantArt… well, go watch.

Tim Dadabo might be best known to Halo fans as the voice of 343 Guilty Spark – but he’s done quite a bit more voice work than that, in the Halo games and beyond. He’s got a new website online… and there’s a pretty hilarious montage of his game character voices, with Spark talking to Leisure Suit Larry, Corporal Perez, and a host of other folks (just follow the ‘Games’ link). Look around!

TeamXbox has put up a series of videos showing Warthog Jumping on the new maps – nothing that a regular visitor to High Impact Halo hasn’t seen, but pretty interesting for a high-traffic general Xbox site! Watching hogs get toasted by Terminal’s train hasn’t gotten old yet… WMP9 format, 15-30 mb each.

The BBC has put up an article on Video Games Live, the concert series playing video game music – with audio clips from Halo, Mario, and Tomb Raider. Good stuff! Thanks, Mr Danger.

Looks like Rumble Pit, Team Skirmish, and Team Preview stats have just been reset. Thanks to Gamer2017 (who also warned folks that Bungie has said that the preview playlists will be removed in late August, once the new maps are free for all). Update: oops, Rumble Pit and Skirmish lists are normal; when I checked my stats, I had ‘no games played’ listed, so I made an assumption – it was wrong. Only the Preview lists have been reset (or, more accurately, only the Team Preview list was reset – the Rumble Preview list was new as of yesterday, and didn’t NEED a reset.)

Another of the recent torrent of movies clearing our Movie Peer Review Rating System is a teaser for an upcoming machinima series. ‘The Squadron – Advert’ is a short trailer for the upcoming season of (yeah, you guessed it) The Squadron, a human-vs-covie matchup. 2:05 long, available in WMP9 (7.2 mb) or QuickTime (6.8 mb).

This was posted a week ago on Halo2Forum.com – but SWAT Halo69 mentioned it on our forum yesterday; it’s his 6th montage, and it contains some very nice footage with great timing. (Music choices are… questionable – but maybe that’s just for folks who need songs not to be strings of curses.) It’s huge – 75 mb, WMP9 format.

Thirteen new stories to read in today’s Fan Fiction update – so what are you waiting for?

Over at GearboxGameZone, Dennis Powers has posted a note explaining that the new season of Halo CE Chronicles will use over 20 HaloCE maps – and that each week, you’ll be able to download the maps featured in the current episode. On the front page are the first two maps – Snowy Assault and Pillar of Autumn Space. If you haven’t tried ’em – grab ’em and load ’em up!

Halo Pro has posted an interview with WaLKa, a regular on the Halo Pro circuit. Always fun to see into the lives of these guys! Thanks, 3Suns. Update: Ducain pointed out that antiviral apps on WinXP are heavily triggered by visiting this link. If you’re using Windows, and you’re not firewalled… tread with caution.