We mentioned the Mystery Gamer (and some Halo playing online) back in January – according to XBOX365, the games have begun again. If you happen to find yourself in a game with someone with the gamertag XboxLive, finish the game – if you win, you get an official XBL shirt. There’s a list of the games (and playtimes) the Mystery Gamer will be playing in the article – Halo 2 comes up on April 21 and May 2. Check it out!

Overswarm has updated his Not So Common Sense guide here at HBO with a slew of pages detailing strategies and techniques for the Matchmaking gametypes on XBL. Go visit the section, and see how you can improve your game! (As always, it’s a work-in-progress; pages that aren’t linked simply don’t exist yet.)

Quick note, just so folks don’t get antsy… Mike Miller’s release of Uprising for his Legendary Walkthrough won’t be coming out today – he wanted a bit more time to go over a few parts. We’ll be releasing it next Tuesday, instead. Sorry for the delay!

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned Out of Reach Productions, an Australian company that makes displays to house your Halo toys. Their prices are now reduced – the two existing structures are A$120, or US$94 plus shipping. In addition, there are two other designs they’re almost done with – and they’re working with SEspider to design more. If you’d like to help, apparently you can mail him with drawings. Go visit the site for more details!

Video Gamers League started a program where gamers can vote on which games they’ll have running at their tournaments; visit their page for more details. (As far as I can tell, this is in addition to Halo, and you’re not limited at all in what you vote for.)

MuchMusic, Canada’s equivalent of MTV, is hosting their 2005 Viewers’ Poll… and if you scroll down far enough, you’ll find ‘Most Addictive Video Game’, bracketed in between ‘Best Animal in a Movie’ and ‘Most Drool-Worthy Female’. Halo 2 is up against Katamari Damacy, Half-Life 2, GTA: SA, and NFL Street 2. Thanks, KainsWrath.

Yesterday, we mentioned a series of machinima vids aimed at promoting a Christian weekend retreat, as well as basic human kindness. Our link (and other links around the Halo community) caused a pretty large spike in their bandwidth consumption – to ameliorate the problem, we’re mirroring the files for them. All vids are 320×240, QuickTime MPEG-4 format.

iGod promo med (6.4 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org)
iGod promo hi (15.5 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org)
Episode 1 med (7.2 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org)
Episode 1 hi (17.5 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org)
Episode 2 med (9.9 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org)
Episode 2 hi (24.3 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org)
Episode 3 med (7.5 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org)
Episode 3 hi (18.3 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org)

These are pretty nicely done – if you didn’t see them yesterday, watch them now! (The original website contains extras like credits and scripts, as well as upcoming bloopers, outtakes, and behind-the-scenes footage. Use our links for the big-bandwidth stuff, though. Thanks!)

Wow. Yesterday afternoon, Mast3r posted a pair of gorgeous HUDless shots (one shot, two sizes) – today, prometheus unveiled his own versions of the same view (started several days ago, and covering much more territory). Great minds think alike. They’re ALL beautiful! Check out both links.

trigger119 writes to let us know about a trailer for Fall of the Covenant, a new machinima film he’s working on; you can grab it in WMP9 format at halomachinima.com. 13 mb, 640×480. Movie coming ‘Summer 2005’. (Final product will be in the 20-30 minute range.)

Sector 7 Halo has begun mirroring the Halo 2 Cutscene Library – you can find the first 11 scenes up now, with more on the way. We’ve added the mirror link to the scenes that are currently there, and will continue updating until they have the whole collection.

A whole lot of people have sent this one in… On May 12th, MTV will air a special named "MTV Presents: The Next-Generation Xbox Revealed". The event will be hosted by Elijah Wood (Frodo from Lord of the Rings, in case there’s anyone left who doesn’t know that) and feature the band The Killers.

Viewers will get an exclusive look at the Xbox vision for the next generation—one that ensures that the user experience is always connected, always personalized, and always in high definition. The special will feature never-before-seen, action-packed gameplay of future Xbox games; a peek into the future of the Xbox Live™ online gaming service; backstage celebrity interviews; and exclusive insider footage on the making of the next-generation console.

We’ve already seen some of Microsoft’s ideas in the GDC video that circulated not too long ago, but it looks like Microsoft is planning to steal back the console launch thunder after Sony announced that their press conference at E3 would precede Microsoft’s. The special will be broadcast at 9:30PM EST on May 12th in the US and shortly afterwards at varying times in other countries.

DarkSim took the time to reclassify a number of the dialogue snippets in our Dialogue Databank; they were moved from generic ‘Elite’ snippets to ‘SpecOps Commander’ snippets. (Half-Jaw has a sizeable speaking part, and is voiced by Robert Davi – seems like he should have his own category.) Thanks, DarkSim!

Trixie, over at Xbox.com, has focused a Developer Spotlight on Vic DeLeon, the last person hired for the Halo 2 team (and the artist behind Warlock, one of the first of the upcoming downloadable maps). Check out his road to Bungie Studios, and the reasons he’s earned his Gamertag of ‘Lowest Ranked’. (You can play him online on April 30, 8-9 pm Pacific, even.) Thanks, orion 12.

MasterGrief points out pics of Yoyorast Island, a HaloCE map that “looks like something outta a Doctor Seuss book”, in his opinion. (I’d agree.) LOTS of pics; 56k warning.

Mechroneal writes about a Halo 2 tourney in Medford, OR, April 15-17. It’s being held at Creature Coffee, entrance is $10 for singles, $25 for teams, top prize is $100. There should be info added to his website later this week.

MereCatfish sat down with Masters1337, a HaloCE modder working on the Coagulation Halo 2 CE mod (among other things). Go read his opinions on HaloCE vs Halo PC, where Gearbox stands in all this, his thoughts about Halo 2, as well. Update: seems I got a critical fact wrong – Masters1337 is NOT part of the Halo 2 CE team, he’s part of the Halo 2 conversion map team. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks to both Masters1337 and NiTrOuSoXiDe for the heads-up.

Another art update at Halo Babies – some really nice stuff! (It’s not all Halo-related… but it’s all fun!) Thanks to PlasmaFire for the heads-up.

MLGPro.com has posted an interview with Sergio, the quiet member of x6. Go read it! (Thanks, 3Suns.)

Halo 2 is up against Burnout 3, Far Cry, GTA: SA, and Half-Life 2 in the Video Game category Spaceys Viewers Choice awards – go tell ’em what you like! Thanks, Cary Trussler.

TalkXbox has posted the next chapter of its Art of War strategy guide – it’s called ‘The Art of Marksmanship‘, and it contains an instructional video (25.6 mb, MPEG-4 format) to go with its text instruction. (The video seems like more of a montage – SP and MP – than ‘instruction’… but Eisen Feuer acknowledges this on the page itself.) Thanks to BattleVark for the heads-up.