Thursday marks the one year anniversary of Halo CE, and Sir Bobbington and friends are organizing a party. You can read about it on the Gearbox forums – join ’em online and see if you can help push the player total over 1000 simultaneous users!

Walshicus pointed out a BBC article looking at future revenue streams for game-makers (using Halo 2, and the new maps, as an example). This is a bit misleading; Bungie is hardly the first Xbox developer to charge for after-release content… but I suppose when you’re one of the biggest, folks notice. And the concept of micro-transactions for weapons upgrades, new armor, whatever… that HAS been a hot topic of discussion recently, at least among those who see a chance to make large sums of money doing it. (To me, these two ideas – microtransactions and major downloads like new maps – are completely separate, and shouldn’t really be considered the same sorts of money-making material.)

MLGPro.com has posted an interview with Team 3D – formerly StK, one of the best-known pro Halo teams on the circuit. Ever wonder what makes these guys tick? Go read. Thanks, Quinion.

Today’s One One Se7en is slightly less appropriate than it would have been before the Auto-Update kicked in… but any reference to ‘My Old Man’s A Dustman’ is okay with me.

Veegie posted a note on our forum about a new HaloCE map he’s been working on – there are pictures over the EPG forums. Lots of cool dynamic lighting! Take a look.

GrantBauer88 posted a note that Necrosis Episode 1 has been released – you can find it on the Necrosis video page. It’s the first Halo machinima I know about that takes advantage of our Dialogue Databank to circumvent the problem many projects have with less-than-professional-sounding voice acting. (At least, I’m ASSUMING the clips came from the Databank; there’s no credit for them anywhere, so I suppose they could have been recorded independently.) 7.6 mb, WMP9 format.

The first wave of MLG Orlando gameplay (the last pre-AutoUpdate Halo 2 gameplay footage out there, probably) has been posted on MLG’s Video on Demand service – you can watch Str8 Rippin upset Check 6, or follow the Winners Bracket Finals. (There’s more coming in a few days.) Thanks to 3Suns for the heads-up.

Nick writes to point out that Prometheus, the Halo/Halo2/HaloCE editor in production, has another update, with screenshots, sarcasm, and a small vid. Go look!

Over at Bungie.net, Stosh points out some Halo-based poetry at halotournies.com. Scary stuff!

Grant writes to say that the Home Front mod for Battlefield 2 (which will be launching on May 29), is offering a small Lego Halo kit for free – download it, print it out, and attach it to a lego figure for your own PoA crew member. (Click on the Staff tab to see it.)

Über-Chief 69 has put up episode 13 of Resolute. I don’t get it – but then, I don’t need to. Go see for yourself.

A couple more movies mentioned in our forum recently: HALOChat points out an encore vid for Jump Tactics Episode III, and GrantBauer88 points out ‘Dude, Where’s My Warthog’. The downloading never ends!

Saint [lpn] spent a bunch of time updating the Library – details are in this post. Everything you ever wanted to know about Halo – in a non-searchable format. (Yeah, I’ll keep giving him a hard time about that until Djof fixes it.)

Z, of Xbox Ottawa (the Fire Team Charlie guys) has released a new (beta) version of his Madda Cheeb Flash game – get Madda Cheeb to the video game store without being killed by the anti-MS fanbois who want to keep him from buying Halo 2! It’s still got some rough spots- but he’s looking for feedback to make it better. You’ll find info and game links in this forum thread.

Saint [lpn] added a new blog entry discussing the new maps released recently. He mentioned it on our forum.

The Geezer Gamers have set up a new gametype, especially for Turf, that seems pretty silly – but fun silly. You can read about it on their forum. Thanks, troyostrum.

Hogmasta would like folks to know about his new montage, ‘Away’ – he’s chosen not to submit it to the Movie Peer Review Rating System, so you can find it on Savefile.com. I found the video was timed well to the audio… but the rapid cuts made my head hurt. You may easily disagree. 33.7 mb, WMP9 format.

prometheus writes to point out that the Halouvre has been updated with a bunch of Halo 1 and Halo 2 HUDless shots. Go check ’em out!

Sector 7 is worried you might not understand how to ‘teabag’ – so they’ve made a video (QuickTime, 4.3 mb, live-action) to make it clear.

Treeskunk Productions has posted Episode 6 of Outpost: Coagulation. They’re hosting it themselves, and Halomachinima.com has a mirror as well. 7:07 long, 39.3 mb, WMP9 format. Purple spaghetti? (Nice chase scene.) Update: Dennis Powers has mirrored the film, as well, and created a QuickTime version (43.7 mb), at movies.gearboxgamezone.com.