Five new writing bits for you:

• The Mutant’s Ode and An Elite’s Eye View (poems) by Gasmask
• Roughneck Two-Zero Chapter One and Chapter Two, by Anthony Coronado
• The Rookie, Chapter 1 by The British Commando

It’s coming in almost faster than I can read it – are the rest of you keeping up? Keep your eyes on the Fan Fiction section!

Two more mirrors for the Rocket Dance vid (high-res only):

• Allenthar’s mac.com space
• Matt Hanlon’s personal server

I’ll compile a full list soon – thanks, guys!

More mirror links! Jop Peters has graciously agreed to host the .wmv version of ‘Halo: The Movie’ (his space on endoria.net was already home to both .mov versions), and MFG Angel, of Bungie.de, has put up all three versions, as well. Finally, Narcogen has put up a larger iteration of the re-encoded version of the movie (first made available in small form last night) at Rampancy.net (it’s 21 mb). You’ll find all the new links on our mirrors page. If you find a mirror is too slow for you – stop the download and try another one. Minimize the bandwidth pain!

More movie info – Rampancy.net (now at rampancy.synfibers.com, since the dns is still hosed) has put up a 9 mb, 480×320 version of ‘Halo: The Movie’ – it’s actually 240×180 doubled, but the compression’s decent, and it looks good. Nice choice for limited bandwidth users. It’s been added to the mirrors page. Also, Brian Towne has added both the large and small versions of the Rocket Dance movie to mythica.org’s bottomless bandwidth well.

Three more tricks for you in the Gameplay Tricks section – pete_the_duck does some exploring on Halo and Silent Cartographer. More coming soon!

LaZ_EyE has submitted another pair of desktop images – this time in muted greys. Check ’em out in our Wallpaper section.

StormSinger turns in another great render – this time it’s pistol ammo. You’ll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

When it rains, it pours… we’ve got another one, and this one’s worth watching, too! It’s a gameplay vid, not a cinematic piece… but it’s got some laugh-out-loud footage in it. It was recorded by Ian Haddock during last weekend’s Battle of the Bay… and man, now I wanna play 16-player rockets-only on Blood Gulch! There are two versions: A 10 meg, 320×240 version and a 6 meg, 160×120 version. The originals can be found on Ian’s mac.com filespace – and we’ve started the ball rolling with one mirror each; b.org is handling the large version, and Mythica is handling the small one. More mirrors are, of course, seriously welcome – we know how tight space is right now, with Halo: The Movie making the rounds.

Mirror, mirror, everywhere… if the 27 mb version of ‘Halo: The Movie’ is too much for you, we’ve added a 9.4 mb version that’s just a bit more compressed. (Still pretty good to watch.) In addition, CYBRFRK has re-encoded it to .wmv format – this one’s only 5.6 mb, and is probably the way to go for Windows users. All current mirrors can be found on our Mirrors page, and of course we’re always happy to add new links.

Another The Halo Movie mirror – this time in France. Thanks, Firfin, of Halo-game.com! (We’ve added it to the mirror page.)

The (temporary) End of an Era. Vector40 announced that The Repertory is down, until the silliness invoked by his web host can be fixed. It’ll be back… but in these times of high-bandwidth-need… we’ll miss her.

Okay, enough with the hate mail – here’s the dang movie. (There are at least 2 more mirrors coming soon, and quite possibly a couple of other formats/sizes for the film – so if you have trouble with a 27 mb .mov, be patient.) This is Brian Josselyn’s nod to Final Fantasy… and to Halo as a cinematic spectacle. It’s good. It’s very, very good. Watch it. (It’s only 2 minutes… it’s a ‘movie trailer’.) The mirror list currently contains 3 websites and 2 hotline servers – we’ll add new ones as we get ’em. Update: Thanks to Reaper7, of Battleground: Halo, who just sent along the FilePlanet URL for this movie – it adds two public server links and two Personal Server links. (It’s been added to the mirror list.) More still coming!

Two new Fan Fiction bits – Jehkoh has written another poem, and Vector40 has written… well, an ode. (An uplifting one, even.) Read ’em both in our Fan Fiction section.

Brian Josselyn, of Blackstar Productions, has created a new Halo vid – it’s a trailer for Halo, the Movie. (Okay, it’s a trailer for Aliens, mostly – but let’s not nitpick.) Masterful use of existing Halo footage (including some fantastic inclusions from older stuff), topnotch moviemaking skills, and high-quality sound make this a film to see. Downside? It’s sorta big. 27 megs big, to be exact. This is one we want a few mirrors for before it goes live. Mythica.org is a given… but so as not to crush Brian’s connection, if you can manage this puppy, drop us a line, we’ll get you a copy. Once the mirror list is big enough, we’ll let you know where to grab it from. Update: CYBRFRK points out that it’s not Aliens… it’s Final Fantasy. Oops…

Whoa – six, count ’em, six new desktop images submitted in the last day or two – go take your pick in our Wallpaper section.

Four more stories for you:

• Aftermath, Part 3 by Alex Cross
• Operation: False Prophets, Part 7 by Ian Barnes
• The Eyes of the Enemy, by Gasmask
• After Halo, Part 2 by Black_Jackal

These, and many, many more are in our Fan Fiction section…

Heh – Peter Marks, Bungie Troublemaker Extraordinaire, points out an article at MacGamer which might make some long-time visitors chuckle. Apparently, though… not Matt Soell. Ah, well… can’t please everyone.

Due to an amazingly boneheaded mistake I made over a month ago, every Gameplay Trick uploaded since late February has taken twice as long to load on your computer than it should have. (Maybe more than twice.) The problem has been fixed, finally… and we’ve added three new ones – okay, three parts of a longer exploration by Frogblast. There are still half a dozen tricks in the queue, as well as a passel of one-shots… soon, I’ll be caught up. Soon. Meanwhile, check out Froggy’s latest work and be amazed!

Bobble-headed Halo toys… what’s next? (I want one.)

We thought it was too much to ask… but those miracle workers at Bungie never sleep. The Bungie Store is open! Go buy your Grunt Plush Doll today!