I’ve said for over a year that the web needs more Halo-based weblogs. prometheus felt the same way – and recently, Tru7h and Rationalization was born. The first entry deals with matchmaking. Go give it a read!

It’s looking like the HBO Sentinels, the West Coast (US) Clan of HBO regulars, is leaderless at the moment. Clan Uberlord (hey, he has the title cause he’s the only one who was willing to muck out the clans’ stable stalls) KP is hunting for a new sucker – erm, leader – willing to keep the clan running and handle the day-to-day administrivia (more like month-to-month, actually; clans mostly run themselves – read his post for full details). If you’re interested, follow the directions listed in the forum post. (If you can’t handle that, we’re pretty sure you don’t qualify as an applicant.)

Mr Jukes continues his work in the Halo Jumping field – Jump Session #10 has been posted to his website (and to our mirror site, as well – good for QuickTime lovers). There are also a couple of vids from the Jumptacular crew… if you haven’t been in a while, go visit! (For the person who complained recently that we’re not posting enough movies – there are more than 10 new ones on today’s front page. Does that do it for you?)

As mentioned this morning, the Halogrid team released ‘The Platoon 2: Concrete Jungle’ today. There’s a direct download link for the WMP9 version (71 mb) on their movies page – but there’s no guarantee how long the bandwidth for that will last. I’ve created BitTorrent seeds (with decent starting bandwidth) for both that WMP9 version and a QuickTime version (78.5 mb) – these are probably your best bet, if you’re looking to download this movie without bankrupting the team that built it. Dennis Powers, of HaloMaps.org, has also thrown up http downloads for the WMP9 version, as well as both versions of the first episode (the remix we mentioned this morning, and the original, first-person-version released in February). Use these only if BitTorrent is not an option for you. This one is quite good; great camera work, a moving battle scene… I LOVED the HellJumpers insert, very clever trick. Go watch!

Cybrfrk has finished the conversion of the Halo Tips section (which has languished for some time) – it’s back up and running, and we’re going to need volunteers to man it. (If you’re interested, mail us and let us know why.) The approval process will be similar to the one that will soon go into place for Halo videos – and that’s what Cybrfrk is moving on to next, coding-wise. Remember: this section is for gameplay tips – NOT tricks. We’re not looking for ways out of Headlong, or places where the invisible wall is broken on Outskirts’ beach. This is a collection of information that will help you stay alive longer – both in single player and multiplayer. If you have something you’d like to submit – load up the submission page and go to town. If you’ve followed the pretty basic instructions, we’ll approve it and add it to the collection.

Mike Miller’s Halo 2 Legendary Walkthrough continues – this week it’s Sacred Icon. It’s a short chapter – because it’s a relatively short level. (Especially the way Mike does it.) Go read – and watch. And kick some butt.

LunarShadow’s H2O Stats reader has been updated to deal with the changes in Bungie’s Stats feeds. You can grab a new copy in this forum post.

FuzzySmurf put together a nice montage vid – great quality, some nice moves (I like seeing teamwork sometimes). Since he’s okay with us releasing it via BitTorrent, the bandwidth hit to us is minimal (and fully controllable) – we like that. The movie is in QuickTime format, 54 mb, and the torrent can be grabbed here. We’re supplying a healthy starter block of bandwidth for seeding… at least for now. Go get it!

A week ago, we mentioned a movie called ‘Platoon’, which recreated the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan. The Platoon Remix was only available in WMP9 format… and they were victims of their own success; they ran out of bandwidth. It was a really nicely done film, so we’ve put up a pair of mirrors (44.4 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org) – and we’ve re-encoded it in QuickTime format, as well (47.2 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org). In the next day or so, we should also have the second installment of this series online for you – Platoon 2 was filmed on Headlong, and also shows some great camera work. We may need to BitTorrent it to begin with… it’s rather large.

Dan Brennan writes to say that his Halo in your Hometown photoshop contest has announced winners – the top 7 entries can be found here. Nice work, everyone!

Sep7imus has been Spotlighted over at The Junkyard – he’s the latest in their long series of community interviews. Go read it for a glimpse into the life of a longtime HBO forum poster! Thanks, Mhaddy.

The next GameSpeak, the series of interviews at CBSNews.com about violence in videogames, has been posted – this one has Jeff McAllister, of PlanetDoom, taking a crack at the questions. Not surprisingly, Jeff falls firmly into the ‘video games are no better or worse than other forms of entertainment’ camp. Coming up in the series: a huge ‘Mailbag Blast-O-Rama’ article containing some of the email readers received when trying to contact Jack Thompson (that should be FUN), and an interview with Hal Halpin, president of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association. Stay tuned!

DoctorEvol decided to mill the Seventh Column logo out of solid aluminum. There are a pair of pictures in this post – the circle is 8 inches (20.3 cm) across, the depth of the cut is about a seventh of an inch or so (40 mm). Check it out!

Damian Isla’s talk from the 2005 Game Developers Conference, ‘Handling Complexity in the Halo 2 AI’, is now online at Gamasutra. If you’re not a member (and don’t feel like signing up), the Printer-Friendly version does not require a login to view. It’s a pretty intense read – but fascinating. Check it out, if you’re curious about how character AI works. Thanks, Dan Chosich.

Today’s One One Se7en looks at some of the things you might hear on your XBL headset just before that Red X appears…

HowStuffWorks has put together their Halo 3 Wishlist. Comes with pictures, even. Funky. Thanks, Eli Payne.

A few weeks ago, Tree Skunk productions released the first couple of episodes of Outpost: Coagulation. We’ve been announcing them as they come out – but the news posts haven’t been terribly enthusiastic. This was primarily because I felt the series needed to focus; audio work was shakey in most episodes, and the plot seemed to be staying awfully close to an RvB-type thing. Well, they’ve released episode 4, and they seem to have taken these criticisms to heart (or maybe they’re just hitting their stride). Audio work is MUCH better, there’s a storyline that stands on its own, and the camera work continues to be quite good. (I’m lovin’ the talking hog. Think Speed Buggy with an attitude.) Currently WMP9 only, though I’ll be encoding a QuickTime version later today (if they’re interested). Go watch.

HALOChat posted an update for the Jump Tactics JUMPS tournament – if you’re participating, it’s in your interest to read this stuff before Wednesday. So what are you waiting for?

WaLKa pointed out results from this weekend’s MLG Houston tournament on our forum – StK beat Check 6 for the title, with Str8 Rippin picking up third place. Lots of articles can be found on the MLGPro.com website. Go read about it!

Not long ago, we mentioned that TalkXbox.com was looking for a new Strategy writer. One of the applicants (thanks to that news post, apparently) was Sparky – search our news for some of his existing strategy guides. He got the job – and at the moment has a big front-page banner at the top of TalkXbox.com for his Guide to Vehicle Handling (which is NOT the same as the guide of the same name he wrote on our forum last year – this one is totally updated for Halo 2, and contains nice pics and everything). Go check it out!