Thanks to Bravehamster, who has added another mirror for the Evolution of Halo vid. Any respite for mythica.org, which has served 30 gigabytes of files in the past 12 hours, is a good thing! We’ve added the link to the Evolution mirrors list. Update: Narcogen sends word that Rampancy.net has mirrored this movie, both via HTTP and Hotline. Check the Mirror list for details.

At the Bungie Fanfest a couple of weeks ago, one of the highlights was a movie from Bungie called ‘The Evolution of Halo’. It showed how Halo developed from its obvious Myth roots (the opening sequence of somersaulting marines is hilarious) to something resembling what finally got released. (The newest versions shown are actually close to 2 years old…) The commentary was provided by Bungie employees, and it was a fascinating view behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Bungie made it very clear that they would never release this movie – it was a perk for fans willing to make the trek to the fest. They didn’t, however, stop anyone from taping it with a camcorder… and Deanero did exactly that. Video quality isn’t great (hey, the camcorder was handheld, and not even set up in the center of the room), but hardcore Halo fans will still find the humongous download worth it. One important thing to keep in mind – Bungie made this film for the faithful – the folks who can tell the difference between a joke and an official statement. There are things said on the soundtrack that are NOT to be taken as official commentary by Bungie Studios – it’s a bunch of guys who happen to work for Bungie, cracking jokes and reminiscing. With those caveats, go visit our Evolution mirrors page, and grab your copy! Major props go out to Brian Towne, of Mythica.org, Ryan ‘sonicstorm’ Foote, of Battleground: Halo, and Psyrixx, of The Psyjnir Complex, for their gracious providing of bandwidth for this massive file… and we’d like to put out a serious plea for more – a movie this big will strain ANY pipe, so the more we have, the better off we are!

The Halo Story site gets a much-awaited update today – grab a cup of coffee, cause this puppy is BIG. Lots to think about… will any of this discussion spark you to send in your own mad ravings? You’ll have to visit and see! (Happy birthday, btw, mnemesis!)

Thanks to Phreak, who noted on our forum that he’s started a compilation of the stars in the Halo (game) universe… there are some gaps in his chart, so if you can help out, drop him a line!

Thanks to 3Suns, who sent in this link from the online version of the Sydney Morning Herald (in Sydney, Australia) – they compiled what they think are the top 50 games of all time… and Halo made number 20 on the list. (Even cooler, but less relevant here, is that Marathon was 44th…)

A long, long time ago, Asmodeus (a longtime Bungie fan and HBO forumgoer) began to write up a series of Walkthroughs for the various levels in Halo, on Legendary. He had trouble getting Bungie to notice them, though, so he turned to us. We can be space cadets sometimes… so it wasn’t until he sent in his sixth level that we remembered we were going to put these up. However, our spacing days are over, so head on over to the Legendary Walkthrough section of our Gameplay Tips and Tricks section, and check out the walkthroughs for 6 of Halo’s 10 solo levels! (The other 4 are coming soon.)

Just in time for Tuesday’s release of the Halo Soundtrack, Score Central has put up a full review of the disc, including 4 high-quality (though short) samples. If you’re curious about the Soundtrack, read this now! (As for the review itself – they loved the soundtrack.)

The last two batches of screenshots from Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site were added to our Screenshots database last night – apologies for neglecting to note that here. These include the 12 Closeup shots put up last week, as well as the 48 shots that accompany the Truth and Reconciliation Legendary walkthrough. (It should be clear that there are spoilers in the walkthrough pics – it is, after all, a walkthrough of the level – but just in case…)

Mnemesis is just full of it today… good info, that is. He spotted a couple of new entries at Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site – the next level of their Halo Legendary Walkthrough (this time done by Dave Candland), and a new desktop, based on the T-Shirt logo. (It’s the very bottom entry at the moment.) Nice!

Two new job openings at Bungie – is one of them for you? Check out the listings for Lead Animator and Mission Designer. (Older listings, for 3D Environment Artist (posted in December) and Game Producer (posted in March) are still up…) Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up.

And another movie… This one’s been in the queue for quite a while, though. Distributed with the Official Xbox Magazine is a DVD with game demos, music, and (among other things) a feature called ‘Top 10 Plays’. Each month they put together 10 of the top film clips users send them, of all Xbox games. The June disc had 3 Halo entries – they were 1, 2, and 3! Go and grab the 3.2 mb, 45 second QT5 clip now. Grateful thanks go out to Team Overkill, who sent us the film itself. (We needed to wait until the June issue was off the shelves before we brought this to you.)

Just a couple of entries for today’s Fan Fiction offering:

• Ascendant, Part 1, by Archangel’s Blade
• Another Pair of Poems, by Anthony Coronado

The two poems were originally (accidentally) included at the end of the last Roughneck Two-Zero chapter… my fault. Update: DOH! Somehow, I missed the fact that three segments of ‘Ascendant’ came in recently, not just one. You can read Part II and Part III separately… or you can read all three as a series.

Looks like this is turning out to be Movie day. We’ll start with a submission from Djoey154 – it’s called Scottish Hunter, and we’ll warn you now, the music is mature-rated. He originally submitted this as a Windows Media Player file (11.8 mb) – but with some coaxing, submitted an .avi which has been converted to QuickTime 5 format (12.9 mb). Currently, they’re both on mythica.org – but we will almost certainly need mirrors for this – please let us know if you can put this up. (I”ll be adding a Hotline version for both of these in the next couple of hours, at least.) Take a look… Update: A mirror list has been added for this film – hopefully we can populate it soon! All movies from the last few days have been added to the Movies database – and while you’re there, you might notice an extra data chunk; movies with spoilers are now labeled in red, near the bottom of the entry. There’s currently no way to REMOVE spoiler-laden movies from the list… but there will be, eventually.

A couple of new links for you folks – StarWarsFanMan has started a new Halo photos site, called Halo Onslaught… and Team Overkill has pointed out their clan’s Halo section on our forum. Get to viewin’!

Talon turns in a sketch of the MC (with his helmet off) for our Miscellaneous Art section.

static KI sends in an image for our Wallpaper section… (Warning – spoilers, if you look closely)

Thanks to Nick, who pointed out a new review for Halo – on a site called Intensity Xbox. They gave it a 9.3, overall… it was penalized mostly for its lack of true online play. (It’s not clear if this was written back in November, and just POSTED recently… or if it was written after the launch of the website last month.) You’ll find it added to our Reviews database.

Another music video for you guys – this time from Black_Jackal. It’s called ‘Halo Hero’, and it’s a 3.2 mb, 1:22-long music video, with E3 and more recent footage set to Spider-Man’s ‘Hero’. Once again, you’ll find it at the bottomless pit of mythica.org. (Serving a steady 20 GB/day of Halo movies to you freaks… everyone say ‘Thanks, Brian!’)

Fan Fiction for a rainy Wednesday:

• The Long Ride Home, part 8, by Joshua Barreto
• A Pair of Poems and Roughneck Two-Zero, part 8, by Anthony Coronado
• Worlds Apart, Prologue, by Keelan Harris

Not too many updates today – I’m on the road for the next 8 hours or so.

Otizz, unhappy with the feedback HBO forumgoers returned on his last video effort, has submitted another movie. It’s called ‘Is This One Better?’, and weighs in at 4 megs, in .wmv format. Once again, it’s over at mythica.org. (I’d have to say ‘yes’.)