The HBO Lekgolos clan is on a movie-making tear; in short order, two films have popped up. The first was done by Arashi90 and Blackstar, and features nice gameplay, awesome production values, and crystal-clear video; it’s a blood-pumper to get people interested in playing this clan. It’s being hosted by both KP’s Boomerica.com and Verdafolio’s DementedPuppy.com. 36.6 mb, just under 2 minutes. The second was done by WhoKnew, of DementedPuppy, and is a bit rougher; it contains tricking footage, solo footage, cutscene footage, and regular multiplayer gameplay, all set to AC/DC’s Show Business. Quality is… lower than the first one. 28.6 mb, almost 5 minutes long, QuickTime. This one is available at DementedPuppy.com, as well (and comments can go in this forum thread). Go watch!

We’d like to point out that today’s One One Se7en in no way represents the actual actions or activities of anyone here at HBO.

There are a couple of upcoming events at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame at Seattle Center of interest to Halo fans; both involve author Eric Nylund. On January 25th (that’s next Tuesday), at 7 pm, he’ll be reading and signing books with his wife, Syne Mitchell. Admission is free. In February and March, there is a 2-part Workshop on Video Game Story Design – and the March session will be taught by Nylund. (Cost per session is $25 for members, $30 for non-members, and seems to be open only to students in grades 9-12.) More details, including location, registration materials, and the like, can be found at the links. If you’re in Seattle, these are pretty unique opportunities!

22 new stories in the Fan Fiction section today. Old faces, new faces… they’re all writing. Go read.

Another IGN article – their 2004 Readers’ Choice results are up. The fans picked the same things that the editors picked, with one Halo-related exception; Bungie.net lost out to Fable for ‘Most Innovative Design’. Thanks again, John Rivas. Update: Alerus points out that there was one other change with respect to the Editors’ awards; the readers felt that Best Graphics should go to Halo 2, not DOA Ultimate.

Tons of articles out there right now about the NPD 2004 numbers (the NPD Group keeps track of gaming sales, and yesterday released their top 10 game sellers in 2004 list) – first one I saw (and one with a nice Halo slant, to boot) was at MLGPro.com; thanks, Dolbex. Halo 2 sold more units than any other game in the US except Grand Theft Auto (which had almost a month’s head-start on sales for the year). What’s really interesting is that the FIRST Halo is still on the top 10 list – over 1.1 million units sold in the US. Wow. If you can’t get enough of the number-crunching, there are articles at Gamespot, IGN, TeamXbox (thanks, John Rivas), and The Seattle Times. I’m sure there’ll be dozens more as the day goes on – but we’ll stick with these.

mrsmiley and Master Chief headed to New York recently for a holiday… and came back with pictures. Just thinking about what was needed for the photography should bring a smile to your face.

Seiru found a mini Master Chief game at Crimson Edge – it’s only in the very beginning stages, but it looks pretty nice! Check it out.

There’s a new ‘Sniping Locations FAQ‘ over at IGN, discussing sniping on Coagulation. Comes with a bunch of ‘rules’, too. And a warning that XBL sucks.

Speaking of HALOChat and movies… the recent release of Stryke Force’s second episode now has a QuickTime version; HALOChat has offered the bandwith to host the version we re-encoded (15.3 mb). (He warns people not to try and use download accelerators; you won’t get a useable file if you do.) Gotta love this community!

Gah. This was supposed to go up earlier this afternoon, but I’ve been gone all day. TheTaintedOne created a video he calls ‘Tribute to Burial Mounds’ – a glitch film with one important difference from other glitch films – it’s in widescreen mode. Really nicely done, showing most of the funky stuff you can do on Burial Mounds, performed by his clan, The Custom Gamers Clan. He’s hosting the low-res WMP9 version (14 mb) – and HALOChat has hosted a higher-quality WMP9 version (24 mb). We’re using the bandwidth of the Mighty KP to bring you a low-res WMP9 mirror and a low-res QuickTime version (16 mb). So you understand – the screensize of both high and low versions are the same – there’s more data in the large version, if you choose to expand it on your screen.

Another one of theose ‘Game with Fame’ events – this time, you have a shot to play online with Incubus. Visit their web page and register for a shot at 100 slots to play online on January 24. (There are also 10 runner-up prizes of their new DVD.) Thanks, DailyGame.

Wired Magazine has announced their nominees for the Sixth Annual Wired Rave Awards – Pete Parsons has picked up a nomination for ‘Game Designer’ for his work on Halo 2 (hehe). The Wired site itself hasn’t been updated yet; it’s still showing last year’s awards. Thanks, ICDedPpl.

There’s a great interview with Kristen Rutherford, the actress who played Melissa (and several others) in last summer’s I Love Bees ARG, over at TVG. Give it a read to see where the CREW was coming from. Thanks, Dolbex.

Machinima marches on – Stryke Force HQ, a series started up a month ago, has posted episode 2 on their video page. Lots of backstory, mixed with clean filmmaking technique – absolutely worth a watch! (This episode is WMP9-only at the moment, but I’m working on a QT version… the only issue is bandwidth.) 17.6 mb – go grab it! (Feenix started a thread about this in our forum – don’t forget to shoot them some feedback!)

The World Cyber Games are coming to Europe March 10-13. Prize money on the line – 150,000 € (nothing to sneeze at). One of the tourney games: Halo 2, 1v1. Thanks to Marc, of Halo Universe, for the heads-up.

Gavin Miller dropped us a note to let us know that the machinima series Them vs Us (first mentioned a couple of weeks ago) has a new website, a new forum, and two new vids up… with their first actual episode coming later this week. Go check ’em out!

Lothar Hex writes to let us know that Halo gets a brief mention in today’s Exterminatus Now webcomic.

Over on Xbox.com, Alex McLain writes about Xbox Live multiplay – and what makes it work. Halo 2’s ranking system is held up as a model for other games. (Splinter Cell’s stealth adn Itagaki’s tournament play are also highlighted.) Thanks to Wolfy for the heads-up.

Two more Halo-related pieces over at TalkXbox – there’s the second third of the Halo 2 vs MechAssault 2 comparison (we mentioned part 1 last week), and there’s another strategy guide – Beaver Creek CTF. The first compares graphics and multiplayer features between the two titans (Halo 2 loses the former and wins the latter, according to TalkXbox), the second looks at a generalized form of HBO’s favorite gametype (no-shields shotties on that map). Thanks again to 3Suns for both of these.