A tad late, because of family obligations, but it’s time to let you know about another Bungie Weekly What’s Update, posted over at Bungie.net. It’s a pretty big one – it contains information about the new maps to be released in June (including two new teaser screens, of Relic and Backwash), as well as plenty of tidbits about the new playlists, and rank, and employee-shaped clouds. Go read!

A couple of days ago, Mukelo posted a trailer on our forum. I let him know that if we pointed people to a 58 mb video with a positive review, he could expect a couple of thousand downloads, as a minimum, but that if he were willing to submit it to our Movie Peer Review Rating System, we’d be happy to help host. He did. The vid received the highest overall ranking to date. Accordingly, we’ve put up the high-res version he originally posted, plus a QuickTime version of it… as well as a couple of smaller (but not tiny) versions, for the bandwidth-challenged. (The voice acting is in Finnish, with English subtitles – so I didn’t want it to be so small that reading was a hassle.) This is an entertaining, mildly sexist (though in a funny way) look at a clan recruitment effort, with some innovative anime-style overlays. (Given the Halo moviemaking community’s penchant for jumping on what works, and beating it into a cold, gooey pulp, I’m afraid that after this release, we might be in for dozens of overdone video effects… but such is the price of success, I suppose.) Great cinematography, nice humor, overall great piece of work. Grab the version that best fits your needs (please don’t overdo):

• WMP9 Large (720×576, 57.9 mb): mythica.org | bungie.org | original site
• QuickTime Large (720×576, 56.7 mb): bungie.org | mythica.org
• WMP9 Medium (480×384, 31.2 mb): bungie.org | mythica.org
• QuickTime Medium (480×384, 27.6 mb): mythica.org | bungie.org

Looks like there will be more vids released later today…

Today’s One One Se7en looks at the hazards of multitasking. I think some credit for the concept goes to Patroclus, but I’m not positive.

Today’s w00tness focuses on Halo’s Hunter – nice pic! (Thanks, Endbringer)

VGman17 posted a countdown to the new maps coming out in June – if you simply MUST know how long it’ll be before you can play Backwash, go visit! Update: you might experience a freeze due to faulty Flash programming if you visit this page. Works fine in Firefox on OSX and XP, and on Safari (OSX), but seems to have a problem on IE6/XP. All that’s there is a countdown (currently at 52 days) to the June maps; take this into account when deciding whether to follow the link.

A few days ago, LightingXCE dropped by our forum to mention that he’d been working on recreating LibraryMP for Halo Custom Edition. (LibraryMP was an early modding effort by Monoxide which allowed multiplayer gameplay in Halo’s Library. We mentioned it in January 2004, though the vid in the linked forum post no longer exists.) Well, according to this post on the Gearbox Forums (thanks, MasterGrief), the map has actually been released! Go grab a copy (link is in the first post), and give it a shot!

Garry Webber points out a Halo mention in today’s Exerminatus Now.

Evil_Kefka points out a Flash movie he’s got at Newgrounds; it’s a look at how powerful the plasma grenade has become since the AutoUpdate. Nice graphics.

Leave it to Halo Babies to come up with new, less-violent uses for some of the weapons in Halo 2.

Until recently, the scoring algorithm at the Movie Peer Review Rating System gave extra weight to smaller movies, on the principle that if it wasn’t a hassle to download (or serve), it didn’t have to be QUITE as good. We’ve rethought that rule… but tonight, there are two short films that made the cut with the weighting advantage. (They’re the last two that will get through this way.) The first was actually released last week – announced, and hosted, on its own site. Necrosis Episode 1 holds the honor of being the first machinima to make use of the Dialogue Databank exclusively for its voice acting. You can grab the original WMP9 version (7.6 mb) or a QuickTime version (8.1 mb) from our server. Also, casuela submitted a trailer for an upcoming series known as ‘Le Marche’, a World War II-type movie. It’s quite short, and quite small – 3.1 mb in WMP9 format, or 4 mb in QuickTime format. Give it a shot! Additional news about the MPRRS – it looks like we’ll be increasing the pool of reviewers very soon; if you’re interested in helping out, send us mail!

Bungie’s side of the story for last night’s Halo Humpday Challenge has been posted – it’s an entertaining read. It’s okay to have awful stats if your team wins anyway. I’m not sure I like the title ‘Anti-MLG’ that was tossed at HBO… but I can’t deny we like chaotic gametypes (monosnipe CTF is positively tame compared to some of the stuff that gets played). Go read!

Chris Bryan continues to work on Halo-related pieces – if you check his wearable Master Chief suit page, you’ll find a new picture; he’s put together a pair of M7/Caseless SMGs that look pretty nice! (He wonders whether he should make ’em shiny, or leave ’em matte… personally, I like ’em the way they are.)

Last week, Stryke Force released hi-res versions of their first couple of episodes. People liked them – so they’ve released hi-res versions of episodes 3, 4, and 5. WMP9 versions are up on their downloads page right now – QuickTime links should be up soon. This is one of the more polished machinima series out there – if you haven’t seen it, go grab copies! (And don’t forget to stop by their forum and let ’em know what you think.)

BIGwooly, a name that will be familiar to long-time fans, is back with a new montage. He submitted this to our Movie Peer Review Rating System, and passed nicely; there’s some great audio sync going on here. Final credits are also a great example of how this can be done nicely, without too much time given to black screens and white text. You can grab a copy in WMP9 format (31.7 mb) or QuickTime format (29.3 mb).

A week ago, we mentioned a fun little Flash game at Newgrounds, where you could play some CTF on Blood Gulch in your spare time. We were contacted by the author, and now there’s a copy hosted here, as well. Enjoy!

Congratulations to 4orty2wo Entertainment – they took home this year’s Games-Related Webby Award for their “I Love Bees” Halo 2 campaign. Seems likely that ARGs will take on a much greater role in marketing in the future, now that they’ve got a success like this under their belts! (Thanks, Ripp.)

The HBO Lekgolos played Bungie last night in the Halo Humpday Challenge – and prometheus got the jump on Frankie with a writeup on our forum. There’s no Mister Chief artwork, but otherwise, it’s a great post. (Hmm… come to think of it, the lack of Mister Chief artwork does it GOOD.) The Lekgolos lost – but by a pretty slim margin; looks like it was a good matchup! Go read.

Episode 10 of the Codex has been released; it had been delayed due to technical difficulties, necessitating some refilming, but I must say, it didn’t suffer from the delay. This episode is fantastic. Great cinematography, great battle scenes, wonderful plot advancement. A must-see. Available in Quicktime format now – coming soon in DivX and WMP9. (We’re happy to host a mirror, if the bandwidth is needed.) Thanks to drelnathi for the heads-up on our forum.

It can’t possibly be Thursday, because that would mean we once again forgot to post a One One Se7en on its regularly scheduled day. And that can’t possibly have happened, because this one so nicely spears Stuntmutt for his online behavior – how could I miss that? (Thanks to Francesco Poli, the One One Se7en fan, for pointing out this paradox. Me – I’m glad for Stuntmutt that there IS a fan.) And oh, yeah – if the title makes no sense, try singing it.

As promised yesterday, Bungie has updated the Halo 2 matchmaking playlists and reset all player stats (aside from some minor oddness). The Matchmaking FAQ has been updated with details on the new gametypes, including the brand-new Double Team playlist. Thanks to the ten billion people who wrote to tell us this.