Paul Davies has submitted another gorgeous piece of Halo artwork – this one is called ‘Ghost Ship‘, and shows what might have happened to the Pillar of Autumn in a parallel universe, maybe. If you like Paul’s work, he’s just finished an overhaul of his website; there’s a whole collection of sci-fi artwork there, not just Halo stuff. Check it out!(Louis Wu 18:22:30 UTC)

For lots of people, WMP9 is a difficult-to-use movie type; for those people, we do our best to provide most movies we host (or that we think are worth hosting) in QuickTime format. This is now true with Walshy’s montage, released last night (check this MLGPro.com forum thread for lots of download links to the WMP9 version) – we’re now offering a QuickTime version of the archive. It’s identical to the WMP9 version (it contains the main montage, the Xtra video, and the screenshots of the 3D process), but everything’s in QuickTime format. It’s also a lot smaller – 126 mb instead of 216 mb. (Movie quality is nearly identical.) Grab this one if you’re on a Mac, or would rather use QuickTime for any other reason!(Louis Wu 18:05:55 UTC)

An article in the Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel and Enterprise discusses a local Halo 2 tourney happening today, with a $1000 first prize; not sure if it’s too late, but if you live near Fitchburg, swing on by the local iGameSpot!(Louis Wu 17:47:11 UTC)

Sigafoos points out that WikiRiot Episode 12 is up – a pair of interviews, plus plenty of Halo news. 47 minutes, 19 mb. Go listen.(Louis Wu 13:42:43 UTC)

A couple of days ago, we mentioned a hand-painted faceplate on eBay – that’s gone (it went for just over $100), but the artist reminds us that he’s got other Halo goodies available for sale there. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 13:40:27 UTC)

So the big news last night was the release of a montage by Final Boss member Walshy – the editing is a bit heavy in places, but it’s really nicely produced, and you can get a real sense for how fast and accurately this guy can kill his opponents. At the moment, the best place to grab this is FileFront; we’ve been asked to help with hosting, but I’m thinking that a 200 mb file that’s this popular is suicide for a site like us. I’m currently encoding a QuickTime version (it’ll be substantially smaller; the bitrate on the WMP9 is really, really high), but it won’t be ready before I have to leave this morning; check back later for a link. There are threads in lots of forums (including ours – thanks, Veegie) – the biggest is probably MLG’s (which also has a series of maybe temporary alternative links for download). It’s a 200 mb download, with just under 10 total minutes of video – go grab a copy! Thanks to dirtyJ for being the first with the heads-up.(Louis Wu 13:36:22 UTC)

Whoa, bizarre. Back in March, we listed links to ISBNdb.com and Amazon.com for the upcoming Nylund novel, Ghosts of Coral. Following those links today, you find that the info hasn’t changed… but if you change the ‘com’ in the amazon link to ‘co.uk’, you get to a book listed as ‘Ghosts of Onyx‘ (quick screenshot, in case it changes). A mistake on Amazon.uk’s part? Or a slip of an unannounced title? Nice find by Tartarus! Update: looks like he posted it on our forum, as well (forum name of AT-GNaT). Chime in with your thoughts!(Louis Wu 23:39:51 UTC)

The Bungie Weekly Update is super-early this week – and it’s pretty short, though there are a sizeable number of Halo 3 teasers in it. No Mister Chief, either, because apparently Pinkuh made him too sexy. (Knowing Pinkuh, that almost certainly means there’s nudity involved… and I’m not sure I can stomach a nude Mister Chief, so thanks to Frankie for not posting it.) As usual, you can read it at Bungie.net, or you can read it in our Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 21:24:04 UTC)

Tex created a pretty cool picture, illustrating a game she and Schooly D play on Xbox Live; she has to jump to her death before Schooly kills her. (I dunno, maybe it’s some sort of mating ritual or something.) Anyway, the picture was great, and she was kind enough to save a bunch of her intermediate steps… so we put together a fun little progress page. If you’re on a slow connection, you’re probably better off just reading her forum post, and seeing the pics there… but if you’ve got some bandwidth to spare, check this out. (Louis Wu 18:05:12 UTC)

ManKitten has started up the Second Annual Mankitten’s Halo 2 Treasure Hunt. (Last year’s hunt can be followed at this link.) Clue one just got posted – there aren’t any prizes, you’re playing for fun!(Louis Wu 17:38:53 UTC)

There’s an interview with Tom ‘Tsquared’ Taylor, of Gaming-lessons.com (and holder of one of the 5 quarter-million-dollar 3-year contracts with MLG) over at GameSetWatch. The last time this subject came up, our forum was filled with scorn for anyone who’d pay for lessons in Halo. I say if you’re willing to pay for golf or tennis lessons… why not Halo? Tsquared made a quarter million dollars last year, playing Halo. Seems to me he’s qualified to pass on some of his expertise. Thanks to Kotaku for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 17:24:26 UTC)

You might remember River Styx, a bit of machinima created by Elnea and OboeCrazy which has the distinction of being the first project to integrate Halo, The Sims 2, and World of Warcraft into one (relatively) seamless whole. Well, they’re back – and this time, River Styx Two is even MORE integrated. Check out the movie poster (214k). If you have a Red vs Blue account, you can read Elnea’s description of the process here, and OboeCrazy’s comments here – but the general gist is that they captured footage in all three games, using a few tricks to make their lives easier down the road – and then that footage was composited in Motion 2 to produce the downloads available below. It’s funny, it’s well-produced, and it’s innovative – you need to download this! (Before I forget – it’s a trailer, but not of a movie that will ever be produced. It’s a trailer, because Elnea and OboeCrazy felt that trailers contain all the good parts, anyway.) It’s 640×480, in WMP9 (37.2 mb), QuickTime (37.5 mb), or DivX 39.5 mb) formats, hosted here… you can also grab the DivX and WMP9 versions on OboeCrazy’s site, and Elnea’s hosting an iPod version (26 mb). What are you waiting for?(Louis Wu 14:22:31 UTC)

Just when you think the puns can’t get any worse… they get worse. If you live in California, please try and refrain from calling your lawyer after reading today’s One One Se7en. (I suppose there are probably other places with higher per-capita quantities of lawyers than California… but it’s still early, and I haven’t had my coffee.)(Louis Wu 14:20:08 UTC)

A pair of tournament announcements from Johnathan Lugo on our forum – a Brooklyn FFA/2v2/4v4 tourney on September 2, and a NYC 2v2/FFA tourney on September 9. More details, including locations, entry fees, and prizes, in the posts.(Louis Wu 13:13:35 UTC)

A lot of new content is available over at Dead Man’s Hand this week; 22 Questions with both Podtacular’s Foo Mo Jive and author Eric Nylund, new feature called ‘Playlist Psyche’, where a particular playlist is analyzed by going over a representative game (this week’s installment looks at Multi-Team), and a number of other assorted pieces. Give it a read! Stuicide was the first with a heads-up, via email, but Dweezle posted the news on our forum, giving you a place to comment.(Louis Wu 13:09:53 UTC)

TheGhost wrote to point out that he’s released the third installment of Project BlueStreak‘s JMS Model Exporter. New features and info can be found on the Exporter’s web page. (While you’re there, check out the GBXModel Importer and the Animation Importer – both have received updates, as well. Download links and version histories are on the respective page of each.) And finally, the HaloCE Tutorial Resource is up to 135 tutorials, almost double what was there the last time we mentioned it (4 months ago). TheGhost has been busy – go enjoy the fruits of his labors!(Louis Wu 12:42:49 UTC)

Thirteen new pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section – go read!(Louis Wu 12:34:53 UTC)

Speedhuntr noticed a new Flash animation at Newgrounds – it’s a trailer for an upcoming series episode. Artwork, as Speedhuntr notes, is quite good. (Action is a bit gorey… but that’s par for the course with Newgrounds Flash, no?)(Louis Wu 12:24:12 UTC)