A new site, VideoTuts.net, has opened its doors; in the words of one of its admins, “Our goal is to push the gaming and CG industry further, and make it easy and accessible to everyone.” (Well, mostly everyone – not Mac users, but everyone else.) They’ve released 20 new video tutorials on the use of 3ds Max and Photoshop; these range from large to ginormous, and most of the new ones (all of them?) are encoded with the TechSmith codec. (TechSmith is a Windows-only screen recorder; if you’re on a Mac, you’re completely out of luck. On the other hand, 3ds Max doesn’t run on a Mac, either, so…) This codec, for Windows, can be downloaded from a link in their video FAQ. If you’re looking for step-by-step tutorials showing you how to perform specific tasks related to game development using 3ds Max or Photoshop… check this stuff out!

Hehe – the Zelda Ocarina of Time mod being created for Halo CE is progressing nicely, as can be seen in the screenshots in this thread on the Gearbox forums. Still a ways from being done, but what’s there is quite impressive! Thanks, MasterGrief.

Stuntmutt has updated his weblog with some submitted Guest strips for One One Se7en – for those who didn’t remember (or never realized), the main One One Se7en section no longer accepts guest or archive submissions, and hasn’t for a year or so. If you have a strip you want made public, mail it to Stuntmutt – he’ll add it to this blog.

In the last two days, more than 1300 copies of the Going Nowhere Fast Highlight reel (first posted here) have been downloaded via BitTorrent – close to 200 gigabytes worth of downloads. That should be enough that the direct download demand is back within reachable limits. A few sites have put up the high-res copies we released via BT – 640×480, 130+ mb; if you want one of these, and BitTorrent isn’t an option, you can grab them here (some have already been posted, but I’m re-summarizing):

• WMP9 Hi-Res: Furious Gamers | Furious Angels | Spartans.bungie.org
• QuickTime Hi-Res: Furious Gamers | Furious Angels | Spartans.bungie.org

For those who don’t want the high-res version, and would rather save 50 mb on the download, there are also 480×360 versions available (84-87 mb, depending on flavor):

• WMP9 version: mythica.org | bungie.org | spartans.bungie.org
• QuickTime version: bungie.org | mythica.org | spartans.bungie.org

There are more mirrors coming (both high and medium res).

There’s a long article over at HaloDev, discussing the ethics of ‘ripping’ – removing content directly from one game (in its original form, without degradation) for insertion into another game (or the same game, in a different context). It’s well-written, and has some decent arguments for why intellectual property should be respected. Go read. (Thanks to several folks for pointing this out – looks like SRG was first.)

And the medium evolves. Motherstooth wrote to say that the search for Miranda is over – he’s chosen Jenel Glover, of Fremont CA. He posted a short vid (WMP9 or QT) that includes the test line he had her read. (There were 17 applicants for the part… I’m thinking that if someone’s looking for a ‘niche’ Halo 2 site, building a system that could put potential voice talent in touch with machinima projects that need it is a tool that’s just screaming to be created.)

A few days ago, James Meyers, of DS Unforgotten, submitted a film to the MPRRS – it had some technical problems. (That is – one reviewer was able to see it – and liked it, except for its size (31 mb) – while nobody else could even view it.) Getting a new copy took a while, and eventually, Cybr simply deleted the MPRRS entry. When James got back to me, though, the vid he uploaded was so small (1.6 mb WMP9) that I decided I’d just release it. 30 seconds… but pretty nicely done. You can also grab a QuickTime version (1.9 mb).

Dennis Powers pointed out a somewhat different vid he’s spotlighted over at GearboxGameZone.com – it’s a visual tour of a pair of HaloCE maps, W4Torn Cove and H2_New_Mombasa. I’m not sure I see it the same way he does – but it’s a great overview of these two maps. Available in both QT and WMP9 formats.

Severian sent along a link to his blog, which he describes as “part blog, and in fact a not-so-serious adolescent fantasy fulfilled”. It’s not really standard blog fare, and in fact I’m hesitant to post it (I’m not interested in a flood of similar pages being sent to us), but…

Peter Snel sent along an eBay link for a Halo 2 watch; if you’d always wanted one of these, but never got around to buying one, now’s your chance. Auction ends in less than 2 days. Update: posted a bit after 8 am ET, before I run out the door… these were found by 7he One:

• Master Chief Bust (day and a half left)
• Lot of 50 Halo 2 games (12 hours left)
• Master Chief statue (8 days left)
• Another Halo 2 Watch (day and a half left)
• Mouse pad (5 days left)
• Halo 2 banner (12 hours left)
• Dog Tags (set of 6) (day and a half left)
• Halo 2 glow mod (2 days left)

Whew!

Lothar Hex dropped us a line to let us know that his news post for Friday’s Exterminatus Now comic is a rather lengthy look at the differences between Halo and Halo 2. Most of it has been said before – but I really liked the comment that it’s hard to be in the ‘middle’ in the fan community; I’ve seen a lot of the polarization he talks about, and I agree with him that it’s easy to see the merits (and weaknesses) of both sides. Give it a read!

hinch put up a few direct download mirrors (here and here) for the Going Nowhere Fast highlight reel we posted – if you can’t use BitTorrent, give one of these a try. (If they die before new mirrors go up, don’t panic – we’ll be putting up more links soon.) If you CAN use BitTorrent, you’ll get MUCH better speeds from the links in this post.

Bungie’s Weekly What’s Update has been posted; the big news is that the Map pack (originally slated for a June 28th release) is now coming out on July 5. They’re not happy about it – but that’s how it goes sometimes. On the bright side, if you’re at E3, you’ll be able to play them. There’s more stuff, too, of course – I was amused by the suicide penalty story. And oh, yeah… the second volume of the Halo 2 soundtrack looks to be on schedule for an early July release. Awesome Mister Chief art, too. Go read!

9 months ago, we wrapped up a contest here at HBO that really captured the spirit of what makes the Halo community strong. Going Nowhere Fast was a chance for folks to show how fast they could race through Halo – straight speedruns, anything was allowed except modded Xboxes. We received dozens of entries, but there could be only one winner per level – and given the size of the films, we simply couldn’t afford to release ALL runs. We promised a highlights video, showing the best bits from all the entries (rather than just the winning entries)… but real life and the demands of this website conspired to keep that promise from being realized. Well… once again, the community has come through. Cody Miller, who participated in the contest (and won two of the levels) came to HBO HQ for a lanfest in early April, and while he was here he picked up a dozen (more?) VHS tapes and a 160GB hard drive filled with GNF content. He did what I didn’t have time to do – and he did it with s7yle. (This reel is lightyears beyond what I could have done.) The final product is eleven and a half minutes long, and in hi-res format weighs in at over 130 mb. We’re going to release this via BitTorrent first, because 130 mb is pipe-killing. After the initial rush has died down, we’ll put up versions for direct download; they’ll be in the same form factor as the original GNF releases (480×360), and will save you 50 mb or so in downloads. Given that some of the original footage was pretty lousy, you might even be better off waiting for the smaller version… but the hi-res parts of this vid are great in hi-res. We’re seeding it with quite a bit of initial bandwidth, so downloads should be snappy. You can grab torrents for a QuickTime version (138.7 mb) or a WMP9 version (133.9 mb) – please, leave your client open after download! And please – drop by our forum to let us (and Cody) know what you think of the work!

Stryke Force is releasing the last of its content to date in Hi-res format; swing by their video page for links. The New Year Special, their first PSA, and the trailer for the series are all up in WMP9 format at the moment. QuickTime versions will be coming probably tomorrow. The big news, though, is that from here on in, ALL releases will be in hi-res format – how can you beat that? Thanks, Feenix.

Jillybean must be almost done with her finals – she found time to update the Halo Story Page. (Then again, it might just be that the opportunity to bash Cortana wsa just too good to pass up…)

Sarge meets Queer Eye in today’s One One Se7en. Scary.

Just in time to give you some Halo-based reading for the weekend, the Fan Fiction section gets 19 new stories today. To the folks who are annoyed by the fact that I manage to update the Fan Fiction section a couple of times per week, but let the art sections languish for months… I’m really sorry, I’m working on that. The more automated a system is, the easier it is to keep it up-to-date. Fan Fic is nearly fully automated. Wallpaper/Misc Art sections are not. It’s on my list… really.

Awesome. New ep of w00tness has been posted, and with it comes a set of very nice wallpapers (last on page). Now THAT’S a nice gold elite. Thanks, Duo.