Dweezle86 from the TTL Gunslingers has started up another gaming-related (Halo-oriented) blog – go read Dead Man’s Hand. Them Gunslingers… they sure do write a lot!

This morning, I noticed a post on HaloPlanet’s front page; an artist named callous had posted a number of pictures showing some armor he was sculpting for standard 12″ Halo action figures. Amazing stuff – so I asked him if he’d mind if we showcased the work. He said sure – so swing by this page and take a look! As he progresses, we’ll add new pics. This is definitely dedication…

Over at the Halo CE Chronicles website, you can grab part 6 of the Valley of the Forerunners series. Harrington and the marines are starting to get an idea about how much trouble they’re actually in. Cinematography is quite good on this one. It’s a long one – almost 13 minutes, and weighing in at more than 40 mb for the downloadable versions (or 15 mb for the streaming Flash). Go watch!

Z sent us word that Halzred’s 5th Montage is now available for download (we mentioned the trailer for it back in January). It’s 106 mb, in WMP9 format; it’s definitely more about the look-and-feel than about the gameplay. (Don’t get me wrong – the gameplay’s pretty impressive, what you can see of it – it’s just that this movie is REALLY heavy on the editing effects.) If you’re prone to epileptic seizures, do NOT download this video. Whatever else you say about this guy, you’ve got to give him props for his mad editing skillz.

Another video that went through the MPRRS recently was RipHamilton32’s ‘Rip Digital Cable 3’, a series of funny skits set up to look like you’re flipping through cable channels. This one didn’t pass – but it didn’t pass because one reviewer gave it a ridiculously low score (without any justification); we’ve tossed that score, and are hosting the file. (We dumped the reviewer, too.) You can grab it in WMP9 format (14.6 mb) or QuickTime format (14 mb).

So there’s a group called Echo Zulu Films that has created a couple of machinima series – Alone, and the Major Tom Diaries – and they’ve recently released a Major Tom Diaries Primer episode, to bring new watchers up to speed on where the series is. If you’d like to check out the Major Tom Diaries, but don’t have time to watch the existing vids (there are 5 of them), you can grab this video at HaloMovies.org, in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats. It weighs in at about 25 mb, depending on version. Thanks, Dennis.

XerxdeeJ, over at Tied the Leader, has been busy; there’s a summary of recent clan matches with notables from the Halo community (with boatloads of media), a Gaming Advisory System to help you find the fewest cheaters, and a summary of Le Tour de Halo, an intriguing (but closed to clanmembers only) tourney coming up this weekend. Go read!

Fwankman88 and friends at Force Lightning Studios created ‘Tablesaw Anatomy Episode 1 – it’s the start of a new machinima series. Two Ex-Marine bounty hunters stumble on a secret lab during a “sting”. Questions are left as they try and figure out what they really saw. Production values are quite high; great effects, great sound quality. This is one to follow. The MPRRS liked it, too, which is why we’re offering you downloads in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats (22.3 mb, 8:23). Go grab it!

Stuntmutt continues the thread of Friday’s joke in today’s One One Se7en. Our society is obsessed with sex and violence – but they don’t always mix very well.

Aequitas created a screenshot which might just make you sick. (Motion-sick, not gross-sick.) Check out his forum post (and the followup) for more details, including how he made it. It’s 1.1 mb, so give it time to load.

Stephen Loftus created a very nice image showing the interior rooms of the Covenant Cruiser. We’ve added this to his Collected Works page, as well.

Rockslider continues to find new ways to have fun in the original Halo – up today, 5 new tidbits on Silent Cartographer. Check ’em out!

spartanerik noticed a Flash-based ‘Halo Situation Creator‘ at newgrounds; drag and drop Halo sprites (looks like mostly Fuzzy’s stuff) into existing backgrounds. Something to play with?

Finn finally got to formatting our second-to-last level transcript – Sacred Icon is now available for reading. There’s only one left… and Finn is offering a prize for the first person to submit an error-free version of Quarantine Zone. Granted, that prize is only his thanks… but wouldn’t you like it if that person were you? Update: Looks like Spartan Jag submitted the first QZ transcript. Yay!

Pinkuh updated her Lost The Lead comic – answering the question, “what can MC do to piss off Cortana?” Go read!

Bah. I was out most of yesterday, and when I came back in, I didn’t take the time to read through my email – which means I missed the reference to this post at Rampancy.net, which went up a couple of hours before April 1 passed into April 2. Marketing… taken to a new level. Leave it to Narc.

So, yeah. It’s April 2… which means the silliness that is April 1 is over again, for another year. For those who might be more optimistic than discerning, the following stories were (for better or worse) not real: Halo on the PSP, Halo – the MMO, One One Se7en: the Book (I think), The Squadron Ep 17, Halo for the DS, the Helljumpers’ pink makeover, the silly Xboxic story, and Halo 2 on OSX. Everything else was legit. If you wondered why HBO didn’t seem to do anything this year (even the MMO press release wasn’t ours – Ross Mills wrote that), it’s pretty silly – we DID do something, but it got spoiled at the last minute by someone posting it on our forum. I didn’t have any time left to paper over the damage – so it was easier to just pass on it. Seems silly to totally waste the work, though – c0ld, KP and I spent a goodly chunk of time on it (some of us more than others)… so you can view it here, for posterity. It ain’t perfect… but it was sort of fun. Maybe next year we’ll have better luck.

Heroes & Heretics Episode 4, ‘Operation: Incontinent Elephant’, has been posted over at the Slacker Entertainment website. More troops – but no substantial increase in battle strength. Poor Feldman… Thanks, WereSloth.

rapture sent along a link to the Halo2pc forum, where he’d posted a Press Release from Edelman Worldwide, announcing Halo 2 for MacOSX, coming this fall! (It will run only on Intel dual-core processors – Steve Jobs wants to prove that the OSX operating system is more powerful than Vista when both are running on the same hardware.) Go read!

Podtacular Episode 56 was posted last night – a general update show, with lots of… talk. Go listen. Thanks, Fr3d-105.