Halo Underground has added Beaver Creek to their list of FarCry Halo ports (I thought they’d already released that, but it turns out that this is a new version – and that there’s also a version of Lockout available). They’re also putting together a Halo 2 tournament – details are currently sketchy, but what there is can be found in this post.

Last week, we mentioned that someone had extracted – and put up for download – the entire tagset from HaloCE, making it much easier to create new content. However, the download was more than 350 mb, and included a lot of information that some downloaders would never use. Dennis Powers has broken the tagset up into 18 separate, logical archives for easier downloads – you can grab only those pieces you need. Check it out! (While you’re there, you can also grab mirrored copies of the latest SvF episode, if you didn’t last week – both the WMP9 and QuickTime versions are up there.)

Funky. MTV is looking for folks who have experienced racism during multiplayer games (Halo is mentioned by name). Looks like they’re putting together a piece. Thanks, Mr Yun.

That Weasel wrote to point out the Best Action Sequence pre-release segment for the Rockets on Prisoner awards – swing by to grab the file, in one of 6 formats, to see who was nominated… and who took the win!

Broken Console Productions has posted episode 6 of The Squadron – the fighting heats up. The WMP9 is up now (30.2 mb), the QuickTime should be up soon (29.6 mb). Check it out!

Over at Newgrounds, you can find a new Flash movie called ‘Halo Pramape: Truth and Reconciliation‘ – it’s 11 minutes long and almost 7 mb big. It’s… um, rather odd. Some very funny parts, some very STRANGE parts. (Hearing a voice actor with a German accent imitating an Australian accent is great.) Thanks to Nom for the heads-up.

We heard from corpseguy again this weekend – he’s finished the helmet he started a few months ago. You can see all the pics he’s sent us on this page. Pretty slick piece of work!

2old2play’s podcast, 2old2type, is now up to episode 10 – and once again, it covers a lot of gaming-related subjects, but Halo 2 plays only a tiny role. (There’s information about their upcoming Halo 2 tourney, and a mention of their recent 40-and-over tourney.) Podcast is just under an hour, and weighs in at 26.5 mb. Thanks, DSmooth.

It’s been a little while, but Stephen Loftus has returned with a new article – this one takes an in-depth look at the Pelican dropship; dimensions, capabilities, and how it’s been used in-game. Go read!

That Weasel stopped by to announce that there would be four more pre-release awards ceremony vids for the Rockets on Prisoner awards this week. The first one is up now – it’s Best Musical Score, and the download is available, as usual, in 3 formats, two sizes each. Go check out the nominees – and the winner!

Z pointed out another pair of vids for download at Halo2forum.com – there’s a Halo 1 campaign montage from Steve the Plank (WMP9, 21.9 mb), and the 4th montage from DaY (WMP9, 81.4 mb). I found the torqued aspect ratio of the campaign vid to be hard to watch, but others liked the effects. The montage is lots and lots and lots of snipes. Check ’em out!

Nice. The taped Peter Jackson speech about how excited he is to be a part of the Halo movie, shown at X05 last week, is now available at GameTrailers.com – it’s the same clip as JeuxFrance was serving, except without the JF watermark. You can grab it in QuickTime or WMP9 formats. Thanks, Mr.Cynical.

Yesterday, we mentioned Clan Hops Episode 3, a 12-minute-long jumping vid that originally appeared at High Impact Halo, and was released in hi-res form at halo2forum.com. Today, it passed our Movie Peer Review Rating System, so we’re putting up a copy, as well. (The mid-size version passed, but there’s no reason not to give you the high-res version, so I’ve snagged the copy that H2F was hosting as a base.) It’s available in WMP9 format (61.2 mb), or QuickTime format (58.9 mb). It’s long – but there are LOTS of cool jumps in there!

Foo Mo Jive writes to point out that Podtacular Episode 12 has been posted – and some changes have been made. The website has been redesigned, and there’s a new store where you can buy Podtacular t-shirts. And the shows themselves have been split up into three separate, roughly-half-hour chunks, to make downloading easier (and updates more frequent). Go check it all out!

Stuntmutt speculates about the identity of Halo character in the upcoming DOA4 in today’s One One Se7en.

Theo Prins dropped off a new sketch the Master Chief – you’ll find it on his gallery page. He continues to floor me.

Rain 501 points out a UK-based Halo 2 4v4 CTF competition, to take place on October 21. MatchBox360 is hosting this; you must be a UK resident to enter, it will be played over XBL. There is no word about prizes.

Eleven new pieces added to the Fan Fiction section today – go read!

You gotta love what gets harped on when Microsoft is involved… there’s a story over at Stuff.co.nz focusing on the fact that the server farm that renders Weta’s special effects is running Linux. Why is this news? Oh, because it means that Linux will play a major role in an upcoming Microsoft movie. Whee… Thanks to [HC]D-Man for the heads-up.

Quikthnkr has put together a rather sizeable machinima – it’s called Death by Misadventure, and it’s just over 25 minutes long. It has a number of things going for it – kickass original music (John Gold‘s opening song ‘Randy’ is GREAT, and Katy Mae‘s ‘Safe and Sound’ was a snug fit for the end of the film), a solid plot, good filming and some fun humor. We’re hosting BitTorrent downloads of the original WMP9 version of this film (95.2 mb) and a re-encoded QuickTime version (92.2 mb) – if you can play it, the quality on the WMP9 is better, though the QuickTime is certainly watchable. Please – remember to leave your BT windows open, to share the love! Update: If you want (or need) a direct download link for this (rather than a BitTorrent link), Roland has generously provided one (WMP9 version only). Update 2: Breakpoint has made a copy of the WMP9 available, as well.