The Valley of the Forerunners, Part 3 has been released over at the Halo CE Chronicles website. Harrington encounters stiff resistance from the marine contingent… and the first real sign of trouble appears. 7:29 long, available (as always) in WMP9, QuickTime, and streaming Flash formats. Go watch!

Thomas Reynolds submitted a film called ‘Meet The Chief’ to the MPRRS – and they liked it, quite a lot. It’s rather unique; I’m not sure how to describe it without stealing any of its thunder, so I’ll simply post the description Thomas gave it when he submitted it:

A Halo 2 obsessed fan gets drawn into a strange world when his internet connection goes down…

I found it hilarious. Snag it in WMP9 format (52.1 mb) or QuickTime format (55.6 mb). When you’re done watching it, you can go read a blog entry Thomas wrote up about it; I’d suggest holding off until you’ve seen it, to avoid being spoiled.

Red vs Blue Episode 75 – ‘Things Are Looking Down’ – has been posted for sponsors. The Red Team is reunited with Lopez, and the Blue Team introduces Andy to Doc (well, sort of). If I ever join an armed force, I hope nobody like Sarge is anywhere above me… thanks, DirePhoenix.

About a month ago, we pointed out an analysis of Elites, written in German and hosted at Halo Orbit (Part 1 (pages 1-3) | Part 2 (page 4)). Recently, we received word about two more parts; I’m not exactly sure when they came in, because the date stamp on the emails says 1997… but they’re in the last week or two. You can visit them here: Part 5 | Part 6. Again – these are in German, and there is no translation available. If you speak German, though, or are willing to struggle through a Google translation, give these a read!

A million years ago (okay, last April), Team GAG released a movie called ‘Sex, Drugs, and Halo Pros, Part 1’ – the first half of a chronicle of the team’s road trip from Chicago to Houston in order to participate at MLG Houston, last March. They’ve finally released Part 2. If you ever wondered how this all ended up – wonder no more. Thanks, Adam.

agdTinMan found a pretty cool 3D Master Chief figurine (3 inches tall), and posted word of it on our forum. Give it a look!

The Broken Console team is starting a new series – this one is called ‘Conquest’, and they’ve got a trailer for it up on their site (WMP9 and QuickTime). Go watch! Nice mix of Halo and Halo 2 footage, and movie dialogue.

Se7en One continues his Hall of Mural 3D conversions – Mural 5 is now available from the Hall of Murals page (QT or WMP9). Go grab a copy!

Today’s One One Se7en takes a poke at Bungie’s newest hire… but I’m guessing Frankie might have something to say about (aboot?) it as well.

Over the past few months, Narcogen has been getting more and more vocal about his distaste for the Bungie policy of silence with respect to upcoming projects. (He’s not complaining that they’re not discussing upcoming projects in detail – he’s unhappy that they’re not even saying WHAT they’re working on – that today, almost a year and a half after the release of Halo 2, they haven’t announced whether or not they’re even planning on a Halo 3.) Last night, he posted a pretty solidly-reasoned argument on our forum – and then decided it was worth saving for posterity in his blog at Rampancy.net. It’s unlikely that Bungie is going to change its publicity policies based on fan demand… but you DO have to wonder what’s holding up the announcement about whether or not they ever plan to release a third installment. (To be clear: I understand completely why a gaming company would want to remain close-mouthed about the DETAILS of the game(s) they’re working on – but as Narc points out, a huge percentage of the Halo 2 purchasers out there are expecting a Halo 3, simply because of how the second game ended; the longer Bungie goes without making an announcement, the harder it’s going to be to weather the storm if the announcement is ‘we’re bagging it’.) Go read.

Foo Mo Jive points out that Podtacular Episode 53 has been posted – it looks at what gamers want to see in Halo 3, as well as what other games Halo players are into right now. Go grab a copy.

Bryn Casey went on an art tear this weekend – go check out Cabin, Bay, and Outskirts. I love the feel of this guy’s work!

There’ve been a couple of articles recently looking at the dangers inherent in online gaming – mostly for children, and mostly related to the interactions they might have with other gamers. I bypassed the first one, yesterday, from the Lansing State Journal, because it was somewhat tangential to Halo (it mentioned the game only once, and then used a picture of a kid playing it)… but this morning, there’s a second one, from the Battle Creek Enquirer, which focuses a bit more on Halo 2. (Is there new legislation pending in Michigan, or something?) In fact, if you visit the front page of the Enquirer’s website, you’ll find that these two stories make up 2/3 of the top of the screen – whether you believe this is a real issue or not, readers of this newspaper are going to get the impression that it’s a pretty big problem. Have an opinion about this stuff? Sound off on our forum.

There are a couple of sets of Halo armor available on eBay; I forgot to post about this full Nightmare Armor set (mentioned on our forum by devildeggs on Friday) – you still have more than 4 days left to decide about this; starting bid is $2000. And this morning, we got mail from Jake Delpine, who pointed out an auction ending much sooner; starting bid is $1000, but the auction ends in less than an hour. (This is not Nightmare Armor.)

spartanerik pointed out a new Flash vid – ‘Halo Nerds Ep 3 Part 1‘, over at Newgrounds. Nice artwork – but I found it pretty dull, overall. Maybe it’s just me. Go watch.

Stephen Loftus has restarted his scale model of In Amber Clad, and has taken a couple of new pictures showing the current progress. (He’s a bit beyond where he was before, but with a much more flexible model design.) You can see the work on his own site (linked from the forum post), or in our local mirror.

Se7en One continues his 3D-ifying of the Murals that showed up on the LE DVD; you can find QuickTime and WMP9 versions of Mural 4 on the Hall of Murals page.

Mintz points out that there a few new items at Halo: Portable this week – the weekly update, of course, and a PSP version of Mothergoat’s MPD vid. Go get ’em!