TheGhost, amused by the fact that folks thought he was faking, created another small clip of his MC Ballerina – this one’s on Sidewinder, and has shadows turned on. Available in WMP9 (3.3 mb) or QuickTime (2.5 mb). Very graceful!

Overswarm has sent along another batch of articles for his No So Common Sense strategy guide; you’ll find pieces on Offensive and Defensive Strategy in the Articles and Extras section, as well as a new article on Movement Techniques in the Advanced Combat Techniques section. He’s also added several questions (and answers) to the FAQ. Go read!

Another MPRRS passer – Purebredbrute, of Halovids.com, submitted Episode 9 of the War series; the reviewers loved it. He wanted feedback, rather than hosting – so we’ll point you to his Videos page; you can start at the beginning, or you can jump in where most of us did. (The series to date eats up almost 250 mb… so if you decide to watch the whole thing, be gentle and do it over time.) Episodes are all in WMP9 format, and range in size from 13 to 60 mb (Episode 9 is 20 mb).

Father Hartley sent us a note about Lightbearers’ Tournaments, an online (Xbox Live-based) Halo 2 tournament series – you can find details at their website. The first tourney is actually today, at 2 pm Pacific time (about 3.5 hours from the time this is being written)… it’s a 2v2 Slayer event. Get on by and read the rules, so you can be there in time!

Yet another MPRRS passing vid – this one was created by Chubark, of Hollywood Halo, and has been available on halogrid.com for almost a week now (though it was only uploaded to us for review/hosting a couple of nights ago). It’s called “All These Things That I’ve Done”, and its a music vid – it’s a Halo-based enactment of the Killers’ song. Timing is astoundingly good. There were a LOT of shots put together for this one – check out the camera angle changes! You can grab this in WMP9 format (45.6 mb) or QuickTime format (51.1 mb)… it’s a fantastic example of how far you can push the head-bouncing thing.

Hehe – TheGhost posted a short film (3.2 mb in WMP9 format, 2.8 mb in QuickTime format – smaller because I didn’t bother to include a blank audio track) showing some pretty funny animation. A couple of forum regulars called ‘foul’ (Mig and Steve both suggested that this was rigged elsewhere, and overlaid over a Blood Gulch background, instead of actually being recorded in-game)… but whether it’s real or not is irrelevant when you’re deciding if it’s funny (which it is). Go watch!

Patriarch917 continues his musical rampage – the latest parody on his Music page is ‘Plant it in the Base‘, a send-up of Snoop Dogg’s ‘Drop it’s like it’s Hot’. He was a little worried that it wouldn’t come off right – but I say, any rap song that needs 7 footnotes can’t be all bad! 6.1 mb, MP3 format.

crazedweasels noticed a new update over at Halogen, the C&C Generals Total Conversion. Looks like there’ll be some pretty big updates coming soon – this was just a warning.

Skie has put together a nice collection of photos of the Comic-con Elite costume we mentioned a couple of times (here and here) – each pic has a source tag, showing where he found it. (Skie would love to commission the costume’s creator for a project, but cant find a way to contact him. Skie can be reached via email.) We also got mail from cappy, who took a whole PASSEL of photos at the event – there are a half-dozen that cover the RvB guys, Halo, and the Elite; they start with this pic, then hit ‘next’ until you get to some apes.

Today’s VG Cats pokes fun at the whole ‘discovering sex buried in video games’ issue – Halo gets a couple of nods. Several people sent this along – looks like William McDonald was first.

Gaming Horizon has reviewed the Multiplayer Map Pack – they call it a ‘no-brainer’ twice, and their bottom line is ‘An all-around nice package’. I think they liked it.

My goodness – I’m not sure what happened, but it looks like I’ve taken the last 18 hours off, with respect to this website. Sorry! First up today – a movie that passed the MPRRS a couple of days ago; a third installment of Jamie98s’ Oh So Beautiful series. This one (Oh So Beautiful III) takes a 7:22 stroll through the single-player maps, looking for gorgeous scenery – and we all know, there’s plenty to find! You can grab this in WMP9 format (25.2 mb) or QuickTime format (26.3 mb). Enjoy!

For those who’d rather watch online, the Halo CE Chronicles season 2 episodes (10, 11, 12) are now available in streaming Flash format, in addition to the existing downloadable WMP9 and QuickTime formats. Check the HCEC website for details.

Kr4zed submitted his second montage to our peer review rating system, and got a passing grade – check it out! (Reviewers liked the synching and editing in general.) Available in both WMP9 format (42 mb) and QuickTime format (43 mb).

Stuntmutt has – check today’s One One Se7en.

Seems like song parodies are the new hot thing – there are a handful amongst the ten new pieces in the Fan Fiction section today. Go sing.

Over at This Spartan Life, you’ll find a new video blog – Damain lets you know what’s fun – and sometimes not so fun – about putting together a video talk show. Just hit the ‘blogs’ link! (10 mb, QuickTime format.)

Gametrailers has posted a video preview of the Multiplayer Map Pack – nice footage, mostly decent descriptions (Hehe – I liked that Gemini was influenced by ‘High Clarity’) – but their bottom-line advice: because the maps will be free by the end of August, buying them now is a waste of money. This download is about 40 mb, in QuickTime or WMP9 formats. Thanks, 3Suns.

There’s an article in today’s News Tribune (a Tacoma, WA newspaper) about machinima – and it comes with a great poster. Thanks to Ename Nep for the heads-up.

Trigger119 posted a note on our forum, pointing to a page on halomachinima.com; he’s made all the episodes to date of The Codex Series (17 in all) available in a format readable by your PSP. (There are also standard WMP9 and QuickTime mirror links, to take some of the strain off the Codex Series website.) Check it out!