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.

Gamasutra has an interesting piece up (free registration required) on game marketing – and ARGs like “I Love Bees” got high marks from readers. Once again, Halo 2 ends up on top of the pack… thanks, Deanero.

Yet another interview up over at MLGPro.com – this one with Str8 Rippin, talking about MLG Orlando and how it went for them. (Thanks, trigger119.) There’s also more info about MLG’s 2v2 Online League – go read if you’re playing.

For those waiting for news about the second volume of the Official Halo 2 Soundtrack… Marty posted a note on the Marty Army 7th Column Group’s website last night, with a bit of information:

I finished the Halo 2 Soundtrack Volume 2 today and listened to it (all 70 minutes worth) in one sitting. I liked it, and I hope you will too. I’ll tell you more about it soon.

Good news! Thanks to both Rampancy.net, and Anton P. Nym, who posted this information (with different sources) within minutes of each other this morning.

PingZing dropped off a fun dialogue snippet – you can find it in our Dialogue Databank.

Finn thinks it’s still winter, or something – or at least, he’s chosen to shake the Halo Story Page Mailbag out all over his floor and actually READ stuff in it, instead of going outside to play. Bad for his complexion, good for your speculation. There’s a TON of stuff in this update… make sure you don’t have any plans for a while. And, because, you know, clearing out the mailbag isn’t really ENOUGH work… he decided to create the Spartan Roster page, a work that keeps track of who is who and where they all ended up. And because THAT wasn’t even enough, he also updated the Resources page. My guess? He’s checking into the Betty Ford Clinic this week, and wanted to minimize the chance that someone would actually NEED him for anything in the near future.

More Halo Machinima out there: trigger119 points out Starship Troopers Part 1, hosted at halomachinima.com (though he’d be thrilled if anyone wanted to help mirror – this puppy is 109 mb), and gearboxgamezone.com has the Sponsors vs Freeloaders trailer (originally a contest winner, hosted at SvF.com in AVI format, GBGZ has it in WMP9 and QuickTime formats) and the Fallout Preview Trailer (another project from the guy who brought you Platoon), among hundreds of other vids. It’s truly an amazing time for Halo video enthusiasts! Update: GrantBauer88, of the Necrosis Clan, has mirrored the original Starship Troopers, and Feenix, of That Weasel Television, has put up a smaller version (60.2 mb). Update 2: GearboxGameZone has put up two 320×240 versions of Starship Troopers that are much smaller – you can find them here.

Static Bursts points out a thread at the Gearbox forums about an upcoming Halo CE map, a remake of Headlong. There’s a RapidShare-hosted vid (13 mb, WMP9 format) showing the new map, as well as some cool weapons in a tweaked Hang ’em High, and there are pics in the thread. Looks pretty nice! Update: mirrored now at GearboxGameZone – thanks, Dennis!

Over at Bungie.net, there’s a large article with info about upcoming Bungie-related events: Wednesday, May 4, stats will be reset, and the Matchmaking Playlists will be updated. Details about the new playlists can be found in the article, so go read! (Details about the stats reset are pretty straightforward – they’re getting reset, so you’re starting at Level 1 again tomorrow.) Thanks to the eight billion people who wrote to tell us about this.

We don’t usually post pre-written press releases from other Halo sites – but That Weasel TV ain’t just any other site, and this seems pretty cool. Straight from Ferret Boi himself:

That Weasel Television is proud to unleash the *New* Movie News Section. Now, not only can you have your video hosted by TWTv, but you can also just announce your newest videos on TWTv to the raving hordes of the Halo Community, even if they are hosted somewhere else or you would like to just draw more attention to your personal TWTv Halo Exclusive. So why aren’t you submitting you movie and links already?

He also points out that there are quite a number of new Halo Exclusives available at TWTv, including

• RvB Music Video by Joeseph Geiss
• Rocket Fest 2005 by Crab Angel117 and Zerofender
• Halo Moddage by Pie Movies
• Bridge Glitch by The Guardian

If you’re feeling movie-deprived… get on over there!

MLGPro.com continues their pro series interviews with a chat with IGameSpot, the team that took second place at MLG Orlando. Money, rivalries, and Halo – it’s like a soap opera. Thanks, trigger119.

Eep – forgot to post this… The Necrosis trailer we mentioned yesterday has been mirrored and converted to QuickTime – you can find both versions at Gearboxgamezone.com. Thanks, Dennis!

Logical2u points out a new update at the Halogen website – model shots of the new units they’ve added to the C&C Generals Total Conversion. Visit to see the Firefly, the Cobra tank, and the Ghost.

We got mail yesterday from Vampire Flight, who’s posted a trailer to an upcoming Machinima project called FATALrecon over at HaloGrid.com. It’s 28.2 mb, WMP9 format, and I liked it – so I converted it to QuickTime, using Apple’s new H.264 codec. Grab the WMP9 from HaloGrid, or grab the QuickTime (QuickTime 7 REQUIRED, 27.5 mb) from us. Update: seems I might have been wrong; H.264 is really, really cool… but it’s also really, really processor-intensive for heavily-compressed vids. Here’s a Sorenson 3 Pro version (30.7 mb) that should be viewable by everybody, not just those with tricked-out G5s. Update 2: looks like Gearboxgamezone made their own QT version, as well – 28.6 mb. Multiple mirrors!