You may have noticed the ‘Seeker’ link on the right side of this news page. This is a new service being offered by Subnova – several major Halo sites (HBO included) have been indexed, and are available for searching all at once. Even for HBO, which has a variety of search options, this is pretty useful, because it searches all sections together, and includes sections that DON’T have search functions. On top of that, though, it searches other sites, like Rampancy.net, High Impact Halo, and Bungie.net (what can be gotten to without a Passport login, anyway). If you’ve got a Halo site you’d like added to this meta-index, simply send email to seeker@subnova.com – Deimos will set you up. Be aware – this is running on development hardware at the moment – it might be a little flakey. Be patient – and if you get a blank result, try again!

Halo 2 is a lot of fun – but it’s not quite as technical as some other games. To wit (well, maybe a bad choice of phrases) – today’s One One Se7en.

There was a montage mentioned over at High Impact Halo, as well – Dark Helmet put together a single player Hog Launching montage from Halo footage. Halo, Silent Cartographer, AotCR – some classic jumps, some stuff you may never have seen before, he makes it ALL look easy. (I watched him pull out a controller and demonstrate some of this stuff to Randy Pitchford, of Gearbox, a couple of years ago – watch this vid and you might feel the same enthusiasm to go and hog-jump yourself that Randy felt.) The forum thread has both high-res (50 mb) and low-res (20 mb) WMP versions, hosted on DH’s mythica space – if there’s a demand for QuickTime (send email), I’ll add them.

Another montage, this time from the original Halo. MPRRS reviewers loved the audio/video synching, which is very impressive. Check out YourDogM1H1, from RHSSE89 – 15.3 mb in QuickTime, 14.9 mb in WMP9.

Rampancy.net has put up yet another music transcription – this one is ‘Covenant Dance’, from the original Halo soundtrack, transcribed by Devin Eastman. You must be logged in (free) to download – the archive contains a MIDI file, a PDF of the score, and a PrintMusic file. Go grab it!

Last week, we released a trailer for a full-length (80 minute) documentary, created by a pretty obsessed Halo fan. I posed a question on our forum – would folks be interested in downloading the entire thing (400+ mb)? The response was pretty positive – so here you go. We’re providing two BitTorrent links – one for a WMP9 version, one for a QuickTime version – both are 421 mb. We’re providing a pretty serious amount of seed bandwidth for these, as well (12000 KBit/sec each), so even early downloaders should be fine. In the next couple of days, we should have a dedicated page up for this movie, with information about how to order a DVD version direct from Noah, the creator. (He’s not looking to make money on this – the cost will cover the blank DVD media and the shipping, nothing more.) Again – this is the story of a group of Halo fanatics (and their families) as the excitement builds towards the release of Halo 2. It’s quite well-made, ultra-geeky (but how could it not be?), and pretty fun to watch – but there’s nothing blowing up, and no sex, so if you were weaned on MTV, you might find it slow. This is why you have high-speed bandwidth. Grab a copy!

A couple of days ago, we posted Jamie98s’ ‘Oh So Beautiful’, an ode to the gorgeous scenery in Halo 2 multiplayer maps. He’s done it again – ‘Oh So Beautiful II’ looks at the pretty stuff in the newest maps, again with Jack Johnson providing the soundtrack. WMP9 (9 mb) or QuickTime (10.3 mb) – thanks to the reviewers with the MPRRS for getting this through so fast! (The entire queue is cleared, in fact; we’ve got a few movies to release in the next couple of days.)

Reinsoft parodies Akon’s Lonely – poor 12-year-old XBL players! Go listen.

Mintz continues his Halo for PSP content series with a bunch of recent articles, formatted for reading on a PSP. Details are in this forum post.

Recently, the processing time for videos in our Movie Peer Review Rating System climbed to almost a week; right now, there’s a vid which has been in the queue for almost 11 days. (All the rest of the current crop are below 2 days, so that’s an anomaly, but the problem is still worth noting.) We recently pared down the number of reviewers by dropping people who hadn’t contributed much – but it’s likely that this will only to add to the problem. So – we’re finally accepting new applications for reviewers. (It’s taken a while to set up an automated system for this, which is why we haven’t accepted many before now.) One thing to be aware of – this is NOT just a chance to watch vids before anyone else; we’re asking for people who have a genuine desire to help the community. (A couple of reviewers left recently, complaining that the level of quality they were being asked to watch was too low, overall… to which Cybrfrk responded, “DUH!” That’s the whole point of the system – if the MPRRS wasn’t weeding out the dross, EVERYONE would have to watch those films. Do NOT volunteer unless you understand that the job requires that you watch a LOT of bad video.) If you read that and said ‘yeah, I can handle that’… go ahead and sign up! Update: Wow, that was quite a response! We got a couple of dozen volunteers in 20 minutes. I’ve approved 12 new people, and anyone who has filled out the form will be in the queue the next time we add a batch; it’s a simple matter of clicking an approve button for us, so as soon as the need arises, we’ll be contacting you! Thanks to all! (You’re welcome to add your name to the list, if you haven’t and want to be considered – we’ll just hold it until the next batch.)

trigger119 posted a montage he made on our forum – it’s hosted on his halomachinima.com website. 35 mb, WMP9 format, called ‘Definitely Luck’. retsamolah gets killed a lot.

Phan7om has created a PSP-friendly version of Biohazard, an extremely popular machinima project. (If you’ve never seen it, and don’t have a PSP, you can find download links in this news post, from March.) Now, if you want to see this vid, but need it on the go… you’ve got it!

The Mexican Pirate posted a link to a video showing the Slipspace drive, as realized in the Freelancer engine. 3 mb – check their progress!

Count Zero has submitted a transcript of ‘High Charity‘ – you can find it on the Halo Story Page.

GameTrailers.com has coverage from Video Games Live, the concert tour that kicked off in LA a few days ago. 31 mb, in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats. Thanks, Mr.Cynical.

Wow – Briar’s Armor got an update – check the top 5 shots on the Halo page. Nice looking stuff! Thanks, beetlecrazy12.

We’ve been getting a lot of mail, asking us when ‘Another Day at the Beach’ (the cinematic that can be found on the Map Pack disc) is going to be added to the Cutscene Library. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be. Bungie would like for this scene (and the Killtacular video) to remain, for the time being at least, an exclusive perk for those who paid the extra money to buy the DVD. If this changes, we’ll be sure to make an announcement.

Gamespot has posted their review of the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack at this point, as well. There’s a 2-page written review, or a 6 minute video review – your call. Thanks, KP.

Frankie’s back, and this week’s Weekly What’s Update is full of info about the new maps, cheaters, and a secret golf tournament. Go read!

Another MPRRS-passed film for you today – this one is a montage called Tag Team Roboto, amde by MikeMan27 and his buddy, Dan. This went through several iterations, getting feedback at each step from the system; the final product is light-years beyond the original submission. You can grab a WMP9 version (47.2 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org) or a QuickTime version (39.8 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org) – enjoy!