Area 54, a Halo CE map we mentioned a little bit ago, has been released. You can read about it over at HaloMods, grab a copy from Halo Universe. Thanks, MasterGrief.

To the 42 million people sending us links about the Xbox360 and its leaked specs… thanks, but we’re not an Xbox site, we’re a Halo site. And while it’s likely that one (or more) versions of Halo will eventually RUN on this hardware, we’re not the place to bring you information about its wireless capabilities, or how big the hard drive is. If you really wanna know this stuff, and don’t know where to turn, try googling ‘Xbox360 specs’ or something. Thanks!

Video Gamers League has changed the rules for their tournaments; you can find the updated listing on the Rules page. (Check the Schedule page to see if one of the tourneys is near you.) Thanks, Jeff.

Still steamed about sniper jackals in Halo 2 campaign mode? Stuntmutt is, as evidenced by today’s One One Se7en.

w00tness has posted a new strip. Normally, Duo lets other people discover his work… but he was pretty proud of this one – so let him know what you think.

JSatt has released a standalone (Windows-based) app to organize your custom gametypes – it’s still in beta, but you can find more info and a download link in this forum post.

In the absense of any REAL information about a big-screen Halo movie (all the information ANYBODY has at this point was summed up in a February piece in Variety), How Stuff Works has posted ‘Halo: The Musical‘, a short piece explaining what they DON’T want to see happen. It’s just like a million forum posts out there – except it’s a 2-page article on a popular website. Thanks, Eric Smith.

A few weeks ago, we mentioned some movies made by the Praetoria Guard, a Halo 2 clan. Recently, they submitted their work to the Movie Peer Review Rating Service – not for hosting, but to obtain feedback so that they could make their works better. All four submissions passed, with flying colors – reviewers were (for the most part) happy with editing, voice acting, humor… if you haven’t seen these, give ’em a look! (If you downloaded them in mid-April, when we gave them a passing mention, they haven’t changed; you won’t see anything new.) They’ve got plenty of bandwidth, but if things get tight, we’re happy to help out. The four vids can be grabbed directly from their server:

• Video One – “Introduction”
• Video 1.5 – “Blooper Reel – Just Do It”
• Video Two – “Getting To Know You”
• Video 2.5 – “Blooper Reel 2 – Surprise Guest”

Enjoy!

A new work from Stephen Loftus – he’s put the Halo Covenant Dropship under his microscope, and taken a close look at its capabilities, with plenty of cool in-game visuals. Give it a read! (There’s more stuff in the queue for today, but it’s gonna have to wait – it’s Mother’s Day, after all, so it’s time to go pamper my kids’ mother. Enjoy the day!)

Bitter and dejected, Dev created a new comic strip to pour his unhappiness about Halo 2 into. The first few episodes aren’t very funny – but who knows, maybe it’ll get better?

Last Stand gets another episode – or at least another Informational Announcement. Get to know Inigo Montoya, up close and personal. Sort of.

Sixteen new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section… they keep coming in! Go read.

Speaking of the MPRRS, two movies that have passed in the last couple of days are now ready for download. Spartan Smasher originally posted his Hpod Shuffle vid in our forum – when it passed our rating system, we put up another pair of links for it. (The originals, plus our mirrors – both WMP9 and QuickTime – can be found in the forum thread.) And VALENCEelectron sent us a trailer for a Halo movie – it uses cutscene video mixed with a soundtrack from the Sky Blue trailer to show you what a Halo big-screen vid could be like. Nice synching, for the most part, though some of the character choices are a bit odd. This is available in both WMP9 (18 mb) and QuickTime (18.4 mb) formats. Enjoy ’em both!

Wow. The Movie Peer Review Rating System turns one month old today – and I think it’s surpassed our hopes for it already! In the past 30 days, our volunteer reviewers have rated 79 films, passing 21 of them – just over a quarter. That SERIOUSLY decreases the amount of watching I, personally, have to do – which was the impetus for the system in the first place. Several movies have been submitted more than once – the creator took the feedback given by the reviewers and improved the quality of the offering, often resulting in a passing grade the second time through. This was goal two of the system – to improve the overall quality of released materials. Review time hovers around 12 hours these days – a VAST improvement from the days or even weeks that movies once languished in our uploads folder, waiting for me to find time to download and watch them. And the system continues to improve. Our recent call for volunteers netted another 10 (soon to be 12, I think) recruits, with a rather large reserve for the next call. (If you emailed us this week about becoming a reviewer, and you haven’t heard from us, sit tight; we now have your name in the standby pool, and the next time we need a batch of volunteers, you guys are first on the list.) We’ve begun to see videos submitted not for hosting, but simply for feedback from an organized system; we’re fine with this, as long as you understand that what you’re getting is just feedback. The behind-the-scenes tools continue to improve, as well, thanks to Cybrfrk; reviewers have access to their body of reviews, and can look for unexpected (or unwanted) trends, and correct them, if need be. All in all, this system should help EVERYONE interested in the Halo movie scene – content creators, viewers, hosts. We’re thrilled by the enthusiasm, and hope you’re happy with the results thus far!

LiL Poison, the world’s youngest professional gamer, turned 7 yesterday. Happy Birthday! (Thanks, stosh.)

Mothergoat tried his hand at pinning down what makes Halo as good as it is… interesting analysis. Go read!

Red vs Blue episode 56, ‘Calm Before The Storm’, has been posted for sponsors. (This is also a notice to the general public that the free versions will be available in about 2 days – but that won’t stop the flood of email telling us that once they go up…) It’s all about Lopez and Andy in this this one… though the angry Tooth Fairy had me rolling, and Donut rocked. Thanks to zugy for noticing.

I meant to get to some of these yesterday – but then I was gone for most of yesterday. The MPRRS has approved a new slew of movies – first off the blocks is a film called ‘Enemy at the Gates’, a Halo 2 version of the big-screen film of the same name. This one was put together by MotleyCrusader, and has some nice timing and filming. There are some funky volume shifts, so be careful – but overall, a great piece. It’s available in WMP9 format (34.2 mb) or QuickTime format (33.3 mb). Enjoy – more films coming soon.

Thanks a million to HymnToNinkasi, of the PraetoriaGuard – she went through our Links page, site by site, and culled the chaff, the sites that were no longer in existence. w00t! To thank her, you should go visit their website, download their movies, and give ’em feedback. They love that stuff.

Interesting article about game soundtracks over at the Hollywood Reporter; the focus is on the Hitman series, and its composer… but Halo 2, with sales of 120,000 copies for its first volume (12 times the average sales of a game soundtrack), is used as a benchmark. Thanks to Greg O’Connor-Read, of Music 4 Games, for the heads-up.