Okay… this is pretty odd. About a month ago, mike0619 of Team Conquest submitted a vid to the MPRRS called ‘Outbreak’. It received high marks from every reviewer… except one. That one accused the team of plagiarism, and rated the film so low that it failed, even though everyone else passed it. It would have died there… except about a week ago, mike contacted me to ask about what had happened… and I reviewed the film. There was no plagiarism whatsoever, and in fact it’s a pretty nice trailer (typos in the text aside). Be aware that this vid has no relation at all to the Outbreak trailer released last week by 3×8 Productionz. It’s a separate machinima, produced by a different group, though it, too, involves mods. Definitely worth a look! We’ve got an WMP9 version (17.2 mb) or a QuickTime version (20.8 mb) – grab the one that suits you. And to the entire team… we’re sorry for the confusion!

imSuck, of HaloGrid, hooked up with Burnie Burns of Red vs Blue in an XBL lobby, and asked him a bunch of interesting questions. (Kudos, Burnie, for sticking around even when some of the responses got… awkward.) Overall, lots of good info. Swing by HaloGrid to download this 30 mb podcast!

There’s an interview with xItwasluckx of XiT WouNDz over at the website for MLG PwnCast – thanks again, 3Suns.

Big news over at MLGPro.com; looks like they secured $10 Million in funding for the 2006 season, and picked up a new President/CEO – Matthew Bromberg, formerly general manager of Time Warner’s Moviefone and AOL Games properties. Not too shabby! This was in today’s Wall Street Journal (article will be visible for about a week, or can be viewed as a scan) – thanks, Black Six. In other MLG news, they’ve put up a summary of the upcoming NYC championships – thanks, 3Suns.

AnXplayFan noticed yet another full-sized M6D pistol for sale on eBay; if you want to see someone happy with their purchase, go check out Elnea’s RvB journal entry about hers last month. (Rooster Teeth just changed the site to allow unregistered people to see journal entries; I couldn’t get it to work in Safari, but I had no trouble with Firefox… so you SHOULD be able to view this, even if you’re not a member at RvB.) You’ve got a bit over 2 days to make up your mind…

Hrm… Slacker Entertainment posted a new tidbit, called ‘Heroes & Heretics Flashback #1: Flatulon the Uncorked‘, on their website, recently. It’s… wow. It’s something else. I guess this is what happens when you put a bunch of psychologically unstable soldiers together in a remote location, without ammo. Available in lots of formats. Thanks, TheWereSloth.

Halogen, the C&C Generals Halo mod, has put up a new teaser vid; pretty nice footage. High-res is 22.5 mb, low-res is 5 mb (both are WMP9 format). Go grab! Thanks, Logical2u.

Eep – we almost missed this. Remember the Kings Cross Halo sign, that’s being auctioned off in pieces? Piece 1 – MC’s leg and arm – sold last week for AU$560; piece two – MC’s head – is up for grabs right now, for just two more days. Currently almost AU$1000, it’s quite possible it’ll go higher. (It’s 10 feet on a side, fergoshsakes!) Thanks to Frankie for pointing this out on B.net a couple of days ago.

Funky – a custom-cast Master Chief, for sale on eBay. Customized with GI Joe parts and Microman parts, this mini-MC is larger than the stock mini-MC, and far more detailed. Thanks, Joseph Ryan.

Yahoo Games has an interview with Peter Jackson, discussing the translation between video games and films and looking both at the King Kong game, taken from the movie, and the Halo movie taken from the game. Nothing too new, but probably worth a read anyway.

Walshicus was the first to first notice an interview with Shane Kim (MGS general manager) over on Next Generation. Amongst other things, he speaks about the release date of Halo 3, basically reiterating the “It’ll be ready when it’s ready” mantra we’re all so familiar with. Narcogen also picked this up on Rampancy.net and commented on the situation Microsoft and Bungie seem to be in. As always, you know where we stand on such issues.

Narcogen has gone ahead and posted another in his series of impressions of Halo 2, this time dishing out Uprising. This time he goes into the story more than anything else, making some solid points.

One One Se7en has a little trouble with cause and effect in today’s comic. If Stuntmutt was referring to himself, then he either forgot all the bottles lying around, or that’s the strangest pub I’ve seen.

Dedicated newshound 3Suns noticed an article on game balancing over on MLGPro. Halo and Halo 2 are both mentioned, so you might want to go give it a look-see, then come back and argue strenuously about the old pistol or matchmaking or whatever you get the most fired up about. Or not! Maybe just read it and think, “Hmmm, interesting,” because it is a good read.

There’s an article up at Bungie.Net showing off a few of the more popular items available over at the Bungie Store. It’s all stuff that been there for at least a little while, but Alta’s showing off some upcoming hoodies, so it’s worth checking out. The prized forum “FIRST” award goes to none other than Frankie himself! Way to go, Frankie!

Vic De Leon writes about an upcoming tourney at Versus in New York City, on March 11. 2v2, Halo 2, max 16 teams, $400 for the number one finisher. More rules can be found at Halo2Tournaments.com.

Wow. Someone built a needler – and is selling the crystals for it on eBay. Pretty cool-looking! Thanks to BARBARIC RAGE, who pointed out the listing on eBay.co.uk – but it’s on the US version, as well. Currently at about $60, with a day and a half left in the auction.

Heh – you need an account at Red vs Blue to read this… but it’s worth it. Burnie wrote up a journal entry showing off one of the tricks they’ve figured out recently; it turns off dynamic shadows in Halo 2 multiplayer – or adds them, selectively, to characters not affected. He’s offered a reward (unspecified) for anyone who figures out how they did it. (I warn you now; there are over 300 comments in the thread, and most of them will numb your brain; figuring out what’s already been suggested is non-trivial.) The pictures are really cool (there are more spread throughout the comments section, as Burnie has added new examples), and there’s a short video showing the effect in the green room on Lockout. (Be aware that you are not seeing an unbroken stream of action there; the video was edited to show before and after, but the ‘during’ is gone.) Cool stuff! Update: Burnie created a new journal entry to explain the solution; basically, the ‘camera’ looks at the target in the desired lighting, and then the target moves to the new location (with different lighting) without the ‘camera’ watching. Once there, he stops moving – and when the camera gets there, he sees the target in the original lighting. There’s a movie showing this at work if this is too confusing. Pretty cool glitch, and really useful in some machinima situations!