Missed this Friday, but 3Suns noticed it this morning – looks like Harry Knowles, of Ain’t It Cool News, is backing up the IESB story about Guillermo Del Toro talking about directing the Halo movie. Remember – this is NOT set in stone; some pretty big hurdles need to be overcome for this to work out. That said, it certainly looks like Del Toro is in the picture to some degree.

Foo Mo Jive points out that Podtacular Episode 35 has been released – Customs and Call-ins. He really enjoyed this one. 19.3 mb, 28 minutes.

Tyrian noticed a new weapon being developed by the US Air Force – dubbed the PHaSER, it actually just uses a laser system to temporarily blind an attacker. (It’s pretty huge for that job – but I guess over time it’ll shrink.) What made Tyrian send it to us was its Covenant-like lines. Fun stuff!

NFL246 (who goes by Wronchi on Newgrounds) has posted a parody of the Master Chief’s life in Flash format over there. It’s pretty long (more than 10 minutes), but has some funny moments. Although he announced it on our forum, he was beaten to the punch by spartan erik, who noticed it 9 hours earlier.

The UNSCDF guys have written up an article on the Covenant Beam Rifle. Go look.

MikeMan27 and Nefarious Dan have released their second montage, to pretty positive reviews – Mike credits his experience as a reviewer for the MPRRS for some of the polish in his work. It’s heavy on the effects, with great synching to the music. WMP9 format, 139 mb. Go grab a copy from Halo2Forum.com!

Tons of new material available at Halo: Portable – you’ll find translations of new articles (MLG Atlanta Reviews, Weekly Update), new wallpapers, a music pack, and a reposting of the Enkidu fan fiction, all formatted for your PSP. Swing on by! Thanks, Mintz.

Broken Console Productions’ The Squadron, Episode 12, is now up for the public; you can find the WMP9 version on their website, and I guess we’ve become the default host for the QuickTime version. (Both weigh in at a bit over 12 mb.) This ep has the humans fighting for their lives on Terminal – one wonders when we’ll run out of soldiers! Good cinematography, as usual. (Beautiful train splatter near the start.) Go watch!

Red vs Blue Episode 68, ‘Getting All Misty’, has been released for sponsors. (That means it’ll be free for everyone tomorrow night or so.) I can’t tell whether I should be scared… or laugh my butt off. I guess I feel a little sorry for Tucker… but not really. Go watch! Thanks to Psychophan7 for the heads-up.

We recently had an incident where someone attempted to submit footage from a montage video that didn’t belong to them to the MPRRS – this was caught by a reviewer, and deleted, but I wanted to remind EVERYONE out there: the percentage of the overall Halo community that reads HBO is pretty darned high… and the percentage of the overall community that has ZERO OVERLAP with HBO, in terms of readership, is almost zero – so the likelihood that you’ll be able to submit a movie here that’s already been released somewhere else, and have NOBODY notice, is pretty tiny. It’s not worth it – we’ll ban you from ever using our system again – so please… submit your own footage, okay?

The Weekly Upate has been posted over at Bungie.net – lots of stuff about the 360 (problems, and some solutions), plus a major Playlist update (read this if you care about your rank – don’t complain after the fact that you didn’t get to it), plus a little bit of Halo Movie stuff (no, nothing about a director, plus Mister Chief faceplates. What are you waiting for? Frankie, a man who NEVER backs down from a challenge, is waiting to hear your complaints on our forum.

Pinkuh’s Lost the Lead comic finally has its own site – check it out! (Comments can go here.)

I nearly missed this – but the goodies on the table for the Child’s Play Fundraiser Dinner Auction, to be hosted by Penny Arcade on December 13, have been augmented by a number of items – one of which is an intriguingly-titled ‘Bungie Gift Pack’. There doesn’t seem to be anything more complete than that – but this is clearly on top of the Tour of Bungie that’s been on the list for months. NOW are you gonna show up in Seattle in a couple of weeks?

Stuntmutt shows off his knowledge of religious history trivia, and bad puns (was that ever in doubt?) in today’s One One Se7en.

Just six stories today in the Fan Fiction section. Slowdown?

Dyslexia’s written up Part 1 of his MLG Atlanta Review, over at MLGPro.com… powerful piece. Go read! Thanks, 3Suns.

A couple of bits from Z, over at Halo2Forum.com: There’s a new montage from ArKiVe (WMP9, 92 mb, lots and lots of fun sticks), and a new stats site has been launched: StatsReloaded.com. What this has that many existing sites don’t have is room for new members; they’re pretty sure they can handle 25,000 members (it opened yesterday, and they’re already up to almost 800). Nice layout, and it’s free – check it out!

LadyRziha posted a link to a site that sells die-cast warthogs… pretty cool-looking! Check ’em out. At $5 a pop, they’d make great stocking stuffers, wouldn’t they?

Joystiq has a pointer to an article at The Brig.org, looking at the top ten ways you know you’re playing too much Halo. (Yes, there’ve been dozens of these lists on our forum… but hey, this one got referenced by Joystiq, okay?) This one definitely seems aimed at an older crowd.

Father Hartley was the first to point out a short piece over at Dark Horizons – which, in turn, references a post at IESB which suggests that Peter Jackson is talking to Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Blade 2) about directing the Halo movie. If true (and independent info suggests that it very well may be), and if the talks pan out, the Halo shoot might affect the the timing of Hellboy 2, the project that was (is?) next on Del Toro’s plate. More information coming soon…