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.

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.