FuzzySmurf put together a nice montage vid – great quality, some nice moves (I like seeing teamwork sometimes). Since he’s okay with us releasing it via BitTorrent, the bandwidth hit to us is minimal (and fully controllable) – we like that. The movie is in QuickTime format, 54 mb, and the torrent can be grabbed here. We’re supplying a healthy starter block of bandwidth for seeding… at least for now. Go get it!

A week ago, we mentioned a movie called ‘Platoon’, which recreated the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan. The Platoon Remix was only available in WMP9 format… and they were victims of their own success; they ran out of bandwidth. It was a really nicely done film, so we’ve put up a pair of mirrors (44.4 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org) – and we’ve re-encoded it in QuickTime format, as well (47.2 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org). In the next day or so, we should also have the second installment of this series online for you – Platoon 2 was filmed on Headlong, and also shows some great camera work. We may need to BitTorrent it to begin with… it’s rather large.

Dan Brennan writes to say that his Halo in your Hometown photoshop contest has announced winners – the top 7 entries can be found here. Nice work, everyone!

Sep7imus has been Spotlighted over at The Junkyard – he’s the latest in their long series of community interviews. Go read it for a glimpse into the life of a longtime HBO forum poster! Thanks, Mhaddy.

The next GameSpeak, the series of interviews at CBSNews.com about violence in videogames, has been posted – this one has Jeff McAllister, of PlanetDoom, taking a crack at the questions. Not surprisingly, Jeff falls firmly into the ‘video games are no better or worse than other forms of entertainment’ camp. Coming up in the series: a huge ‘Mailbag Blast-O-Rama’ article containing some of the email readers received when trying to contact Jack Thompson (that should be FUN), and an interview with Hal Halpin, president of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association. Stay tuned!

DoctorEvol decided to mill the Seventh Column logo out of solid aluminum. There are a pair of pictures in this post – the circle is 8 inches (20.3 cm) across, the depth of the cut is about a seventh of an inch or so (40 mm). Check it out!

Damian Isla’s talk from the 2005 Game Developers Conference, ‘Handling Complexity in the Halo 2 AI’, is now online at Gamasutra. If you’re not a member (and don’t feel like signing up), the Printer-Friendly version does not require a login to view. It’s a pretty intense read – but fascinating. Check it out, if you’re curious about how character AI works. Thanks, Dan Chosich.

Today’s One One Se7en looks at some of the things you might hear on your XBL headset just before that Red X appears…

HowStuffWorks has put together their Halo 3 Wishlist. Comes with pictures, even. Funky. Thanks, Eli Payne.

A few weeks ago, Tree Skunk productions released the first couple of episodes of Outpost: Coagulation. We’ve been announcing them as they come out – but the news posts haven’t been terribly enthusiastic. This was primarily because I felt the series needed to focus; audio work was shakey in most episodes, and the plot seemed to be staying awfully close to an RvB-type thing. Well, they’ve released episode 4, and they seem to have taken these criticisms to heart (or maybe they’re just hitting their stride). Audio work is MUCH better, there’s a storyline that stands on its own, and the camera work continues to be quite good. (I’m lovin’ the talking hog. Think Speed Buggy with an attitude.) Currently WMP9 only, though I’ll be encoding a QuickTime version later today (if they’re interested). Go watch.

HALOChat posted an update for the Jump Tactics JUMPS tournament – if you’re participating, it’s in your interest to read this stuff before Wednesday. So what are you waiting for?

WaLKa pointed out results from this weekend’s MLG Houston tournament on our forum – StK beat Check 6 for the title, with Str8 Rippin picking up third place. Lots of articles can be found on the MLGPro.com website. Go read about it!

Not long ago, we mentioned that TalkXbox.com was looking for a new Strategy writer. One of the applicants (thanks to that news post, apparently) was Sparky – search our news for some of his existing strategy guides. He got the job – and at the moment has a big front-page banner at the top of TalkXbox.com for his Guide to Vehicle Handling (which is NOT the same as the guide of the same name he wrote on our forum last year – this one is totally updated for Halo 2, and contains nice pics and everything). Go check it out!

Finn has taken some time and updated the Halo Story Page FAQ – it’s absolutely worth a read if you’re interested in submitting info to that portion of the site. Remember: the Story page is there for thoughtful speculation about… well, the story. To speculate about fiction, you have to ENJOY reading, really – Story page submitters have less excuse than anyone (except maybe Fan Fiction submitters) for not reading Frequently Asked Questions lists before contributing. So go read! (He did good, even. It won’t hurt.)

This is one of the oddest things I’ve seen – but it’s pretty fun. There’s a talk radio program in the Orlando, FL market called The Philips Phile – they’ve got a couple of real Halo fans on staff. (In the past, they’ve sponsored mini tournaments – Motherstooth made this cool trophy for one.) Now, if you visit their homepage, and look for a picture of a Master Chief with an energy sword, you can follow the link to ‘Philips Phile – Halo Style’… a series of videos (made by Motherstooth, hosted by That Weasel) starring the characters of the show in Halo machinima. (For the record, all hosting and moviemaking is done by fans – the radio program is not making any money off of this.) It’s probably of most interest to those who know (or at least can hear) the show… but for me, it shows the lengths to which fans will go to show their love. Check it out!

Another fun piece from Stephen Loftus – this time, he’s chosen to look at uniforms used on the Pillar of Autumn. There’s some interesting speculation, which he’d love to have input on (via email, or on the forum) – so read it over and toss in your two cents! Update: oops, looks like Stephen already STARTED a discussion. (I’ve been out all afternoon.) Use this thread, instead.

You thought Calvin and Halo was dead… it’s not. It’s just resting. Special Sunday Edition – thanks, Blackstar!

Oliver Stopienski sent along info about the World Cyber Games 2005 European Championships at CeBit recently; German Sebastian “hAnkey” Droschak (from the OCRANA.ATI squad) took first place, beating out DJE the KING of France. (Stopienski is a fellow squadmember.) Nice going!

The Red vs Blue website is over its recent problems (hard drive failure) – and Episode 51 is now up for sponsors. Eight and a half minutes… history continues to be rewritten. (It’s even called ‘Episode 50 part 2′.) I’m lovin’ this…

Fourteen new stories added to the Fan Fiction section today – the series continue to grow. Go read!