It’s the end of the month, and we happen to have a bit of bandwidth left over. So I went through some of the recent rejections from the Movie Peer Review Rating System, and I found a film I wanted to post. Partly, it’s because I enjoyed it – it’s the story of the Arbiter, set to ‘The Hand that Feeds’, by Nine Inch Nails. It mixes cutscene footage with gameplay footage, and does a nice job synching the music to the action. Partly, though, I was hugely amused by some of the comments this film received from reviewers – it taught me that context is EVERYTHING. You need to understand that this film, put together by Epyon, uses cutscene footage from our Cutscene Library, and gameplay footage, taken from Mike Miller’s Legendary Walkthrough. None of the footage is original to this film. (That’s not what makes it funny, though that IS what disqualified it in the eyes of several reviewers.) The funny part is this: the footage, while recognized by some reviewers, was totally missed by others – there were comments like “this whole thing was just cutscenes with mediocre gameplay mixed in,” or even better, “Try doing gameplay footage on legendary, and pull off some awesome moves, like Mike Miller on the Legendary walkthroughs.” My eyes were watering, reading this stuff. So it seems only fair to release the film and let others see it, as well. It’s 15.3 mb in QuickTime format, or 15.7 mb in WMP9 format. (I guess Mike’s gameplay looks much more awesome when viewed in the context of the walkthrough itself…) And for anyone who doesn’t believe Mike has what it takes, after seeing his footage put together like this, I’d remind you of clips like this (in QT, or if you’d rather, in WMP9) – it’s all in how you look at it. Okay, back to hotdogs and chicken wings – I hope you’re all enjoying this Memorial Day!

The first pair of cutscenes from Halo’s third level, Truth and Reconciliation, are now available in our Cutscene Library. Check ’em out!

What do you do when your carefully crafted message is undermined by a well-meaning but unthinking superior? Today’s One One Se7en looks at one possibility…

Thirteen new pieces posted in the Fan Fiction section this morning – begin Memorial Day with Halo!

HALOChat is looking for voice talent for an upcoming Halo movie – information about the film, test scripts, and how to apply are all available in this forum post. Swing by and try out.

The Zelda mod movie we mentioned yesterday has exceeded its bandwidth; thanks to the folks who pointed out a thread on the Gearbox forum with a couple of other links that still work. (We still don’t have any other formats for this video – if you can’t watch Flash, you’re out of luck. Sorry.)

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Halo 2 was up for a Spacey Viewer’s Choice Award – the ceremony was held last night, and Halo 2 took the Favorite Game award (with 41% of the vote) – thanks, Laird.

Overswarm apologizes for the lack of updates to his Not So Common Sense guide – it’s hard to create strategy aids when you don’t have access to online play. (He’s out of luck for the summer.) However, he HAS managed to put together a pair of useful demonstration videos, showing off advanced combat techniques for the SMG and the Brute Shot. You’ll find them (in both WMP9 and QuickTime format) on the NSCS Movies page.

Red Leader writes to let us know that This Island Earth Episode 10 has been posted. Take a look!

Because they’re small, we’re releasing all 3 cutscenes (well, 5 if you count the variants for the final one) for the level Halo in our Halo Cutscene Library today. Enjoy!

Redbluefire, of Trickingit.com, lets us know that he’s been interviewed by Hackaday.com about Halo 2 tricking; the interview is available via podcast. Swing by and listen!

Wow. Sometimes you just have to be scared for the future of journalism.There’s an article at Channelnewsasia.com about videogame addiction, and how it’s ‘America’s newest social scourge’… and it quotes statistics from the website of MAVAV, Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence. (MAVAV, you might remember, was a hoax website, put together as a school project by David Yoo in 2002.) Oh, how I miss the days when journalists actually CHECKED their sources… Thanks to Funkmon for the heads-up.

We’ve mentioned a Zelda mod for HaloCE in the past – a movie has now been released (27 mb, Flash format). Take a look! (Thanks, MasterGrief.)

Aussie Xbox has put up a bunch of screenshots and some cover art for the upcoming Multiplayer Map Pack release, due in early July. (Xboxyde released some of these shots a couple of weeks ago, but that was well before the media embargo was lifted. It’s unclear what that embargo date actually IS – but since the big boys haven’t released these yet, it’s probably safe to say that Aussie Xbox is a little early, too. In any case – they’re online, go look.

UNEXPECTED62 has written another strategy guide, this time for Beaver Creek. You’ll find it on his LegendzNeverDie website.

Starting your Memorial Day Weekend off with a cutscene, we’ve released the final scene from Pillar of Autumn – our Halo Cutscene Library now contains all of the first level of the game. Go grab a copy! Update: Mainevent noticed an audio problem on the large WMP9 file; sorry about that. It’s been replaced on both mirrors.

Back in March, we mentioned the Ultimate Halo Freak contest on Xbox.com. Prove you were more dedicated to Halo than anyone else, win cool stuff. In early April, they picked Keldog, who runs Carnagestats.com, as their winner – and gave him a bunch of cool stuff right at the time he’d been robbed and lost 3 Xboxes. (I’m not sure why I never put the on the front page; seems like news to me.) What I never noticed was a writeup of the contest (and the almost-winners) over at Xbox.com. Some of the stories in there are AMAZING. (A guy ate 3 jars of mayonnaise to cover the cost of Halo 2. Another guy bought a TV with s-video for his hotel room just because he was traveling on November 9. Someone named their KID Cortana, fergoshsakes!) There are an amazing number of stories – some funny, some sad, some just plain scary. Go look.

Kanbo noticed a new Deviation at DeviantART – looks like JJ.Ying created a set of Halo 2 cursors. (That’s actually just a picture – but you can find a download link on the author’s blog.)

This week’s Weekly What’s Update, populated entirely with questions pulled off our forum, is up at Bungie.net now. Thanks to CougRon, who noticed it before I did.