A couple of new vids over at Halo2Forums – ReMoRs3 created a vid using Dest’s Halo 2 Custom Edition mod – it shows Halo-style weapons on Halo 2’s Lockout. It’s just ReMoRs3 running around – there’s nobody to shoot – so you can’t get a great sense for damage adjustments… but you can see the battle rifle turned into an assault rifle, and grenade triggers shifted back towards how they were in Halo. 29.4 mb, WMP9 format. There’s also a high-res version of Clan Hops Episode 3 (lower-res versions were posted over at HIH a couple of days ago) – some great jumps. 61.2 mb, WMP9 format. Check ’em out!

IGN has posted a Halo Triple Pack Guide, in honor of the recently released Halo Triple Pack (Halo, Halo 2, and the Multiplayer Map Pack, all bundled nicely). Lots of resources, all gathered in one place… the only real downside is that it’s Insider-only. Give it a look if you have a membership, though! Thanks to misteryellow for the heads-up.

Rodney Campbell points out some coverage of the Australian WCG national final, including pics and vids, over at XboxZone.com.au (Registration is required to download the vids, but the writeup is open for all.) World championships coming next month in Singapore – check out the Aussie competition!

Elnea posted a small sketch yesterday – a Red vs Blue Pirate, of all things. Check it out!

You might remember the Night to Unite auction on eBay last year, to benefit a number of children’s groups – they’re doing it again, and one of the items this year is a 6-foot Master Chief statue. Current bid is $630, but I’m guessing it’ll get quite a bit higher before the auction ends on the 13th. Check out all the stuff- it’s for good causes! Thanks, Archaos. Update: hehe – Clay points out that the number of items for sale in the entire Night to Unite auction is a Halo-relevant 117. Queue Twilight Zone music…

The 117 Words competition came to a close last Friday – and tonight, the winners (and lots and lots of special mentions) have been announced. I must say – this contest was a fun one, not least because I had to do very little work for it… the quality of material this generated from fans was astounding. Go read Jillybean’s post (with the shout-outs, both from her and from Stuntmutt), and then settle in and read the stories themselves. They rock. (These were just the ones judged to be the top 117 entries – there were many more entered.) And congratulations, of course, to the winners! (Maybe Frankie’s first place finish will help him beat that flu after all…)

The Bungie Weekly Update is now up – Frankie’s sick, so Sketch has posted in his stead. A nice summary of the week’s activities, including stuff on the Halo movie, stuff on the DOA connection, more moving-in stuff, a quick update on the (still upcoming) charity auction, a REALLY disturbing ‘Frankie’s Dreams’ pic from AGDTinman… and the REAL weekly update (with lots of the same info) actually written by Frankie, on his deathbed. Sniff… he was a good man… we’ll miss him…

Last week, In-Fusio got the rights to Halo mobile games and ringtones. Today, Stuntmutt points out the logical end result of this scenario in the most recent One One Se7en.

Fifteen new stories up in the Fan Fiction section – should give you some nice weekend reading!

Today’s the day for Sponsors vs Freeloaders, I think. Last night, the trailer for Silver Stars/Purple Hearts was released – if you haven’t grabbed it yet, hang tight. They’ve also just released Episode 8 of Sponsors vs Freeloaders – and WOW. GREAT cinematography, great effects (the coolest one is something you might not even notice as an effect – that’s one of the things that makes it cool). The storyline continues to twist and turn, the acting is great. This series is turning into one of my favorites. The WMP9 version is up now on their website; it’s pretty big (90 mb), partly because the episode is ten and a half minutes long, partly because they’ve tacked the SSPH trailer on to the end of it. Their site is being hit pretty hard, so I’m going to make the QT version available from our server until they get it under control – it’s 88 mb. If what you really wanted was the SSPH trailer alone, in QT format – I’ll put THAT up, temporarily, too (though you really should grab SvF 8, because it rocks). Both of these will eventually be available from the SvF/SSPH sites, and when they are, I’ll pull the temp links. (And likely update this news post.) Go watch!

Halo Babies has posted its final RvB runner-up strip today – I’m thinking mind-altering substances were involved. Thanks, mrsmiley.

Wow. Dunno if this is gonna hold up, over time… but over at the Gearbox Forums, TheGhost has created a RAR file containing the HaloCE complete tagset – giving you “access to every biped, vehicle, scenery item, sky, SP tag, and ALL SP AND MP SCENARIO FILES.” It’s a huge package – 362 mb compressed, over a gig uncompressed – and that’s AFTER he deleted the tags that already come with the HEK. It’s been up for a day or so, and nobody from Gearbox or Bungie has complained – yet – so if you’re interested in creating new content for HaloCE, this is a resource you shouldn’t pass up. (Thanks, DHalo, for the heads-up.) And while we’re on the topic of cool CE stuff, check out this thread – Kornman and Lightning have managed to get Campaign working in HaloCE, and will be releasing stuff soon. (Thanks, merecatfish.) Could this be enough to turn around the HaloCE community decline?

Sevenar Productions and Panda Productions (groups that make up a large chunk of the Sponsors vs Freeloaders crew) have teamed up to create a new, fusion machinima; Silver Stars/Purple Hearts is a blend of Halo CE and EA’s The Sims 2, and tells the story of Project ATHENA, a nearly all-woman team of enhanced SPARTANS. (If you’ve watched any of the last few episodes of Sponsors vs Freeloaders, you’ve met four of these women already.) Cinematic quality is very, very high, as Halo machinima goes; the trailer is 1:45 long, and does an awesome job of drawing you in. Available in WMP9 format (12.3 mb) from the SSPH server, a QuickTime format version should be up by tomorrow … check this one out. You won’t regret it. Update: A mirror of the WMP9 version, as well as a streaming QT version, can be found at machinima.com.

DOH! This was posted last night, I put it aside to add to the news today… then spaced completely. AutoDr created an energy sword from plexiglass and steel, and man, is it pretty! He’s wondering whether there would be a market for these if he made more… hmm. There’s always the Microsoft IP issue to worry about. Check ’em out!

We’ve got two new images for you today from Theo Prins – “Into the Blue” is an interpretation of a Helljumper (funky mask!), and “Master Dodge” came from the ending of the E3 2003 trailer – originally it was going to contain the ghost the MC jumped out of, but Theo changed his mind. (Interesting, to me, how close this is to the Return to Sender cutscene – totally different situation, but same dramatic pose; I never noticed before that Bungie did this.) Check ’em out – this guy is GOOD.

Narcogen seems to be fed up with the ‘when it’s ready’ line (with reference to when a given Halo will ship) – he wrote a long rant about the subject over at Rampancy.net. The bottom line (which I think most of us can agree with) is that Bungie’s games are “ready when they need to be ready” = there will ALWAYS be people who want them to ship sooner, and there will ALWAYS be people who want more development time, but Bungie’s done a decent job (in spite of what detractors say) of releasing quality work when it needs to be released. Go read.

The Rockets on Prisoner pre-release schedule continues – yesterday, Best Montage nominees (and the winner) were announced… and today, the first Main Category pre-release was posted – best Documentary. Go grab a copy and check out both the nominees – and the winner!