Boatloads of movie tidbits today… but there’s lots of stuff, so we’ll take it as it comes. First up: mirrors. Richard Bentley added another mirror for the Team Sexy Release Night vid (I think there’s enough bandwidth for that now 🙂 )… and so did That Weasel – who ALSO mirrored all the rest of our Cutscene Library in his HBO Mirror section, as well as putting up a boatload of exclusive films in the Halo Exclusives section – stop by for your fill of Halo video goodness.

Ducain has interviewed Ms. Man, a trickster of some repute. It’s a fun chat – a look at what makes him tick, what keeps him going (kept him going, I guess – sounds like his Halo days are nearly over), why tricking is so addictive. Go read!

Interesting article over at GamesIndustry.biz – looks like a hardware shortfall led to an overall decline in video game growth in December 2004, compared to December 2003. Ouch! Halo 2 was 4th in December sales, with less than 900,000 units. (I have a little bit of trouble with those numbers: according to the same website, Halo 2 sold 3.3 million units in November… but according to Bill Gates, in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 5, Halo 2 had sold 6.3 million copies at that point. If everyone is accurate, that means Halo 2 sold more than 2 million copies in the first 4 days of 2005 – and I doubt that really happened. Something’s a little wonky…) Update: several folks have pointed out that the number oddness has to do with the fact that GameIndustry’s numbers are North America-based, and Gates’ 6.3 value is worldwide. Glad it all adds up! (GhaleonEB pointed out a thread on the Gaming Age forums with actual NPD numbers. Halo 2 is in the 4th slot, with just over 900,000 units… and Halo 2 LE is in 91st with 120,000. That means Halo 2, in both formats, is actually just 23,500 units out of second place for the month.)

MrJukes continues his jumping frenzy with another session added to his site. Small… but some pretty nice jumps. A great collection, always getting better!

The Team Sexy opening day footage we mentioned yesterday now has a couple of new mirrors – FileFront has a copy (lots of bandwidth), and HALOChat has put up a BitTorrent seed, as well. Thanks to HALOChat for both links.

An interesting One One Se7en for you today… personally, I think it’s one of his best. (If you don’t agree, you’ve missed (at least part of) the joke.)

There are 21 new desktop images for you in the Wallpaper section today (over 30 if you count variants). Some are really amazing. (Personally, I’m lovin’ Eric Rodrigues’ Elite – it’s a hair too bright for a long-term desktop for me, but I LOVE the detail. Tim Shenton’s Sacred Icon paper is pretty darn impressive, as well.) Go check ’em all out!

thesaelens has turned in another 21 dialogue snippets (14 grunts, 7 elites) for our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. Go listen!

Team Sexy put together a 15-minute-long Halo 2 opening night coverage video (talking to folks waiting for the game, and so on) – they’ve been held up on release because of some bandwidth issues, but have decided not to wait any longer anyway. They’ve got a 5 gb/day limit for downloads – for a 70 mb film like this one, that means about 70 folks will be able to grab this each day before they run out. They’re looking for mirrors, so let ’em know if you can help. Update: And once again, the community comes to the rescue. New mirror already from Ducain, and a BitTorrent seed from Nirvana (which doesn’t seem to be accessible at the moment, but be patient). Thanks, folks! Update 2: It’s now mirrored at Sector 7, as well.

Red vs Blue has added a new hoodie to their store – a Sarge hoodie, red and everything. It’s nowhere as cool as the olive Sarge T I bought from the now-defunct w00twear that Gus ran until the server blew up… but it’s warmer than the similarly-colored Sarge T that the RvB store sells, so it’s a great buy for winter. Heads-up kudos to HaloPlanet.

Over at Rampancy.net, the Halo 2 Impressions series continues with a look at The Arbiter. There’s the requisite look at the level itself – but also a look at the shift in game focus at this point, and how it may or may not affect you. As always, thoughtful and well-written.

Yaksha posted a small (3.1 mb) film on our forum, a trailer for ano upcoming machinima called ‘Bob the Engineer’. It’s 1:28 long, in WMP9 format. I’m not sure how long his bandwidth will hold out, so we’ve provided mirrors – for the original file and a QuickTime version (3.9 mb).

Wow… I’d spent the entire day on a plane yesterday, and the evening with my family; I figured when I got in this morning, I’d be swamped with stuff to post… but the mailbox was almost empty! I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing… but let’s start going through what IS here, because it looks like there’s a bunch of house stuff I need to get to today, as well. First up: The7thWar is working on Halo: The RPG, several months into production, but still a long way to go. There’s a ‘press release’ on our forum with some more info – if you’ve got questions, add ’em to the thread.

Red vs Blue’s Episode 47 has been posted on their website for Sponsors – a bit over 5 and a half minutes of plotting and scheming, and playing Volleybomb, or something. As usual, it will be available for the masses tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. (And as usual, we will not be making a second news post when it DOES become available – please don’t send us mail when the free version goes up, because we’ve already SAID when it’s going to go up, and we have enough faith in our readers that we think they can remember details for a 24 hour period without needing a second reminder.)

Chronox wrote to say that a German Halo 2 level transcript is now posted at Halo Orbit. If you can read German, go check it out!

Last month, IGN posted their Xbox Best of 2004 Awards – yesterday, they put up their Overall Best of 2004 awards (all platforms). Halo 2 took Best Multiplayer, and was Runner-Up for best First Person Shooter and Best Use of Sound. Thanks to many – John Rivas (who found it suspicious that the PS2 version of Burnout 3, not the Xbox version, was awarded Best of the Year Runner-Up) was first.

First piece for the new year from Tina Leyk… and wow, it’s a doozy. She wasn’t completely happy with this one, and says she’ll be using this subject more often in the future… but I love him. (Minor Halo 2 spoilers ahead.)

There’s a singles/doubles tourney in West Chester, Ohio, next week – visit Game Junkie’s page for details. Thanks again, R.net.

Halo Babies points out one of the lesser-known perils of Xbox Live in their most recent comic. Thanks, Rampancy.net.

The Weekly What’s Update has been posted to Bungie.net. The top story? Cheaters are, in fact, being dealt with. What more can I say? Go read it.