The MPRRS reviewers have been pretty harsh of late – so when they let a movie through, it’s probably worth watching. First one through in a while is ‘BoB Zero: Genesis’, the prequel to a popular French machinima series (you can find more of their work on the TGO Team website). Filmed in Halo (as opposed to Halo 2), it combines nice camera work, good humor, and decent audio. This version is in French, with English subtitles. Grab it in WMP9 format (49.3 mb) or QuickTime format (45.2 mb). Bon Appetit!

Very cool – Stubbs the Zombie has been released for Mac OSX! Thanks, spartan erik.

Just six new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this morning… you can easily catch up.

TheGhost has put together a collection of tutorial resource links for HaloCE – amazing organization. This can help you find exactly the tools you were looking for. Check it out! Update (16 April 2006): Ghost has moved this to a permanent home at Halomaps.

There’s a story over at IGN about cross-compatibility between the Xbox360 and the original Xbox when playing Halo 2. Their verdict: the 360 plays Halo 2 beautifully, but there might be some joining glitches when playing games involving both boxes. Read the whole article for details. (And remember, this is a single data point; others might have a completely different experience.)

Frankie wrote up his experiences at the Xbox360 Launch Event in the Mojave desert. Nice pics, funny stuff (I wish I could meet the guy who’s got his Cliffy B autograph), a little bit of Halo content to keep it all on-topic. Go read! (Yeah, he gets credit for the heads-up, too… good thing he got his butt kicked at Halo 2 at the event.)

Rooster Teeth have posted a new Red vs Blue video, ‘Zero O’Clock’, for sponsors. At the moment, only the WMP9 version is up – but I assume the QuickTime and DivX versions are coming soon. (I’m also assuming it’ll show up for everyone else in the not-too-distant future.) Griff does his best to get to the Zero Hour Xbox360 event… looks like when begging doesn’t work, you should try deceit. Thanks to Karl Almjeld for the heads-up.

Whoa – it’s less than 8 hours from tomorrow, UTC, on a weekday, and there’s no news on HBO? Call the fire department – HBO HQ must have burned down. (Actually, not really – but I have been kicked out of my place of work by a horde of carpet-laying gnomes, forcing me to alternative tasks. The plus side is, I’ll be able to work barefoot again as of tonight.) We got a note from XerxdeeJ, who has updated his Tied the Leader blog with a piece on holiday gadgets for geeks (nothing Halo-related in there, but some nice goodies nonetheless), and some Halo filler to guarantee the on-topicness. (No, that picture does not depict anything that you, as a geek, can buy for the holidays.)

Timed nicely to go with last night’s coverage on MTV, you’ll find an article at MLGPro.com about T-squared, and his gaming skills school. Check it out! Thanks, 3Suns.

While it’s relatively common for me to crack a smile when looking over One One Se7en submissions, it’s rare for me to laugh out loud. Today’s entry didn’t ruin the ratio. (I kid. It’s up there with some of the classics.)

Seventeen stories in the Fan Fiction section for you today… go read!

Halo Babies has instituted a new feature – Featured Artist. This month is Andrew-sama… go check out his work.

UNSCDF points out that his eponymous website has an article about the M6C pistol – go read.

Dropshock has released episode 6 – they discuss their writeup in Tips and Tricks magazine, they rant about free Xbox360s for celebrities, and they talk about the normal Bungie stuff. As usual, not safe for work. Just under an hour, 24 mb.

Birthdays

Let us have birthdays every day,
(I had the thought while I was shaving)
Because a birthday should be gay,
And full of grace and good behaving.
We can’t have cakes and candles bright,
And presents are beyond our giving,
But let lt us cherish with delight
The birthday way of lovely living.

For I have passed three-score and ten
And I can count upon my fingers
The years I hope to bide with men,
(Though by God’s grace one often lingers.)
So in the summers left to me,
Because I’m blest beyond my merit,
I hope with gratitude and glee
To sparkle with the birthday spirit.

Let me inform myself each day
Who’s proudmost on the natal roster;
If Washington or Henry Clay,
Or Eugene Field or Stephen Foster.
oh lots of famous folks I’ll find
Who more than measure to my rating,
And so thanksgivingly inclined
Their birthdays I’ll be celebrating.

For Oh I know the cheery glow
Of Anniversary rejoicing;
Let me reflect its radiance so
My daily gladness I’ll be voicing.
And though I’m stooped and silver-haired,
Let me with laughter make the hearth gay,
So by the gods I may be spared
Each year to hear: “Pop, Happy Birthday.”

Robert William Service
For our favorite webmaster!

Man, oh, man… sometimes things just get lost in the shuffle. Over the past week, Elnea’s created a bunch of new artwork, from a new avatar for a friend, to an image she never really wanted to make public (she says she can’t finish it), to an image that started life looking funny, but was nicely fixed when she flipped MC’s head around, to an image you can caption yourself. She’s doing quite a bit of work with her tablet these days… and it shows! Enjoy.

T-squared will be on MTV’s True Life: I’m a Professional Gamer this evening (11 pm) – read about it at MLGPro.com. Thanks, synide.

You may notice that the Katrina links on the right side of our main page have disappeared; these are gone because we’ve officially closed the books on the Blow Me Away charity auction. (It’s not that helping hurricane victims is any less important than it was yesterday – it’s that there are many, many good causes that need your help, and now that we’re not actively participating in one of them as an organization, it makes less sense for us to promote one over any others.) This auction was a fantastic success – we raised just under $11,000 for hurricane relief. Congratulations to EVERYONE involved! You can see the financial breakdown on this page. Two personal notes – I’d like to apologize to Phil Shiel, who is, at this point, the only buyer who hasn’t yet recieved his winnings; it’s nobody’s fault (turns out that shipping a nearly-life-sized statue of a gun-toting, armor-wearing figure across international borders is not as easy as it once was), but it’s still no fun to be waiting this long… and I’d like to point out to the rather large number of people who sent us mail that we were going to be ripped off, that most of the buyers had no eBay feedback and were using brand-new accounts… EVERY SINGLE AUCTION was won by someone who paid the price they’d agreed to pay. There were a number of hold-ups in payment – but in every case, it was PayPal being a bit… overzealous, not someone trying to rip us off. Overall, this was a really positive experience, and it gives me a warm feeling to think that we helped donate a five-figure check to folks who need help pretty badly… and all of it prize generation, selling, buying – it was all done by gamers.

Last night, Red vs Blue Episode 67, “Setting a High Bar”, was released for sponsors (yeah, it’s been a little while). The general public can find free copies on Monday, most likely. The two separate story arcs continue to wend their way through the twisted landscapes of… oh, never mind. It’s funny, go watch. Psychophant was the first to tell us.

Gamertag Radio has released their first annual Xbox Community Awards, a nearly hour-long ceremony which includes an interview with J Allard, a sneak preview of the Project Gotham Racing 3 soundtrack, and music by Tonedeff, Chemical Brothers and 88mph. We even won something – we took ‘Best Fansite Based on a Game’ (though it sounds like we were nearly beaten out by a ham sandwich). Go listen! The awards episode is in .mp3 format, and weighs in at 36.5 mb.