Another Friday bit, almost overlooked. This one is only useful to Firefox users on WinXP… but it’s pretty cool. Go visit the MLG forums and grab a pair of search plugins (and their corresponding images), and drop ’em in your searchplugin folder (directions are in the post). Now you’ll be able to search for gamertags or clans directly from your search bar! Thanks to Mantis819 for pointing this out. Update: Thanks to DDMagnaS, the creator of these plugins, for pointing out that there’s an easier way to install them (for folks using WinXP/Firefox).

Oops – this came out Friday, but I forgot to post it. The 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards nominations (awards come from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences – Halo took home Game of the Year in the 2002 ceremony) were posted on Friday (thanks, CJAD 800). Halo 2 is up for six awards: Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play, Outstanding Innovation in Console Gaming, and Console First Person Action Game of the Year – impressive, but not quite up to Half-Life 2’s 10 nominations. The awards will be given out in Las Vegas on February 1… not long to wait!

Wow. If you want to get all the high-res Halo 2 cutscenes at once, without having to download them one at a time… HALOChat has made them available in a single 478 mb bundle via BitTorrent. Link can be found in this forum post. (I’m not sure how much demand there is for this… but certainly if you’re starting with none of them, this is the easiest way to get ’em all.)

Dennis Powers writes to point out a new machinima series he’s begun – it’s called ‘The Halo CE Chronicles‘, and follows a “hapless Spartan stationed to a distant Outpost Station and his relationship with the station’s AI.” Currently, there are two movies to see – a short trailer, and a 3:49 Episiode 1. The movies are in Flash format, so all you’ll need to see them is a browser. Powers does all the voices to date. Check it out!

The Halouvre has updated its site with two new images, in multiple form factors. Gorgeous HUDless shots of Delta Halo and Metropolis, both in regular screen ratios and as extra-wide panoramas. Check ’em out! Thanks to prometheus for the heads-up.

A couple of new Flash items popped up on Newgrounds recently, both done by ABob…. Halo 2: The Covenant , and Halo 2: Spartan 117. Pretty hard to hear… minimal plots. Thanks, Micro M and argent.

Back from errands, time to get a little Halo-related news posted. Last night, I saw a tidbit on the KOMO 1000 news page (thanks, Google) about a charity tournament set up by some students at Rogers High School in Puyallup (near Seattle)… that got cancelled by the school district. Two RHS seniors had organized a Halo 2 tournament to raise money for the tsunami relief effort… but the school board yanked permission because the game was too violent. The district has suggested that they’d support the fundraiser if it was based on a less violent game. Thanks also to Foolio, who sent us a note about this this morning.

Red vs Blue episode 48 has been released for Sponsors – ‘Heavy Metal’ has the remainder of the Red and Blue teams attempting to assault the Zanzibar base… with hilarious consequences. I love Caboose again. This puppy’s 6 and a half minutes long – 30 megs for small versions, 60 for large. (It’ll be up for non-sponsors by tomorrow night or Monday morning.) Thanks, jorge.

Hehe – there’s no Weekly What’s Update yet (looks like that’s coming Sunday)… but you can see the Anime Mister Chief that’s gonna go with it. Thanks, Frankie!

Looks like Bungie is still smarting from the whupping they took from EGM during the Halo Humpday Challenge this week; there’s a rematch (2v2, Shishka and Frankie vs Mark and Shoe from EGM), coming up as soon as it can get scheduled. (There’s some trash-talk about it in this thread on the Bungie.net forum.) We’ll bring you the results as soon as we hear about ’em! Thanks to psyho case, from Clan EGM, for the heads-up. (I gotta say, I have no idea what a ‘Fresian’ is… but Frankie called Shoe that in an email exchange. Must be a Scot thing.) Update: Thanks to Jamie Cockrill, who pointed out that Frankie probably just misspelled ‘Friesian’, a breed of cow. (You gotta wonder, though, what Frankie’s doing knowing about cow breeds…)

The online XBC-based neXtournaments we mentioned a couple of days ago are getting underway in two days – the first tourney is Sunday evening at 7 pm Eastern, sponsored by Corsair, and has a pair of 1GB memory modules (and an XBC Pro serial number) for the winner. There will also be hats and miscellaneous accessories from Corsair available. These tourneys will be happening on a regular basis, so check back often! (Entrance is free.)

Fire Team Charlie has released FTC 17, in hi-res AVI format, for members; it will be up in lower-res format for the masses by tomorrow night. (A hi-res QuickTime should be available later today or tomorrow morning for members.) It weighs in at a bit over 12 minutes, and is something of a departure from the norm for the crew. Pretty dang hilarious, if you ask me; these guys get better and better with every episode. Comments can be left in Z’s thread on our forum.

Hey! It’s a comic morning. One One Se7en returns to the Covenant alphabet developed for the Halo2.com website… and runs into a problem we’ve probably ALL had at one time or another.

New strip over at Halo Babies – takes a practical look at a gameplay question, and comes up with the right answer. Nice artwork!

The Bungie version of the Halo Humpday Challenge between Bungie and EGM was posted yesterday evening – Frankie writes like a broken man. It’s almost sad to see…

GIjoe2 points out his new vid Special Fred, a tribute to grenades and fusion cores, set to Stephen Lynch’s eponymic song. WMP9 format, a bit under 5 megs. Funny stuff!

It’s not up at Bungie.net yet… but it looks like Bungie took another lickin’ in this week’s Halo Humpday Challenge from the guys at Electronic Gaming Monthly. Dan Hsu, known as Shoe in Clan EGM, and a participant in last night’s game, wrote up a short post on the activities. This one wasn’t even close. Thanks to Ryan Croson for the heads-up.

Wow. There’ve been articles out there before about how wives and girlfriends are ‘widowed’ by Halo… but I’ve never seen one like this. Well-written… but FULL of stereotypes. Originally in the New York Observer, now a cover story for the Charlotte Creative Loafing. It’ll either amuse you, or anger you… but it’s a fun read. Thanks, Rich Cutter.

Joshua Rennert posted a note on our forum about a sequel he and the Tricking IT crew are working on; working title is Beach of the Dead 2, though that won’t be the release title. The trailer, made by ipushmycar, is short (48 seconds) but pretty sweet; high and low resolutin WMP9 links are in the original forum posts, and we’ve added high (5.3 mb) and low (2.2 mb) resolution QuickTime versions, as well. This looks like something to watch for!

Blackstar’s sent along another Calvin and Halo for your entertainment today – having dealt with exactly this sort of kid logic myself, I was tickled. Check it out.