Calvin’s getting himself into trouble – in more ways than one – in today’s Calvin and Halo. Let’s hope we make it through the holidays!

We’re doing okay, bandwidth-wise, this month… so I thought I’d go through the movie submissions we’ve received and put up some of the more interesting stuff. A HUGE percentage of what we got were tricking vids – these don’t have a home here yet. Another significant percentage were gameplay vids – there must be 2 or 3 dozen ‘here’s my clan in Blood Gulch TS’ vids waiting to be viewed. Ouch! I found a couple of fun ones, though – one was made by the Last Surviving Spartans, a Halo 2 clan. They put a fun spin on the Sword Flying Glitch, and the resultant film (7 mb in WMP9 format, 7.4 mb in QuickTime format) is an enjoyable 2:00 romp. (Thanks, KP, for the hosting help.) A second one was created by Smeginfrell – it’s a nicely rendered animation short, expressing some heartfelt emotion about the release date. (Work on this started before November 9.) It, too, is available in WMP9 format or QuickTime format – both are 5.3 mb, and 1:03 long. More video to come a bit later! In the meantime, give these a view.

Andrew dropped by our forum to point out a new holiday song over at XboxOttawa, created by FTC fan Curt Is Not. It’s a summary of recent plot points in the Fire Team Charlie series, set to a familiar tune. Go listen! (Language, as is true with most FTC offerings, is NSFW.)

Cute article over at BBC News – not new, but notable for the site it’s on. What do you do when that ‘winking black box’ takes over the life (or at least the free time) of your significant other?

It’s not the same as a full level transcript – but it’s a decent start, and our own effort seems to have stalled. Over on Gamefaqs is a file with all the dialogue from the cutscenes in Halo 2, created by Rachel Maille. There are a few missing pieces, and it’s unclear what difficulty level this compilation was collected on – but it’s certainly a good place to begin. Thanks, Stefin Hehman. Update: Apparently, Gamefaqs doesn’t allow direct linking to files on their servers at all. You can find the script guide linked from this page. (It’s listed as ‘Game Script’.) Thanks, Drew.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s submissions, thesaelens has sent along another 19 Grunt lines for the Halo 2 Dialogue Databank. Go listen!

Jilly “Have I told you how much I hate Cortana?” bean has summarized the Halo story to date, for folks who feel lost. See if you can guess her slant on things. (Nice summary, overall.)

In November, we mentioned yet another rumor about a Halo movie, posted on Ain’t It Cool News. It was CLEARLY rumor-material then… but that didn’t stop IGN from writing up a speculative news post about it. From there, movies.com tossed up their own totally sketchy page (crediting Film Force with the prerelease buzz – can you see where this is going?). A day later, there’s a page on IMDB.com. Again – zero information (past what’s speculated on in that original RUMOR post at AICN). Gets people excited, though… and that’s all that matters. So – IS this just a rumor that won’t die… or is it real? Today, front page of Variety:

“While the tech giant declined to comment, numerous sources indicate Microsoft is developing its own script for a “Halo” movie inhouse and has contacted agencies to bring an A-list screenwriter onboard to help work on it. Plan calls for Microsoft to create its own script and then, if it and subsid Bungie – developer of “Halo” – are happy with the result, shop it as a finished product to producers or studios. That’s a big “if,” though, and Microsoft and Bungie could decide not to go ahead with development for any number of reasons.”

No real info there, either… but man, it’s front-page in Variety! SOMEONE is keeping this rumor from dying. (Thanks, MthDirector.)

thesaelens sent along another 30 dialogue snippets for our Halo 2 Dialogue Databank – 29 Grunt lines, and one Elite. Some of these are great!

Bandwidth has been holding out nicely for the new Cutscene Library – so I’m adding the second entry today. It’s the Home Field Advantage scene, and it plays just before you begin playing through Cairo Station. Once again, it’s available in 4 flavors, from two different sources. (We’ve also added a Mirrors option – HaloImpulse has chosen to mirror the first set, so that’s yet another download option. If more come online, we’ll add them, too.) Enjoy!

I’m posting this because… well, because. Halo is easily the biggest franchise Bungie’s ever been involved in, and this site is devoted to Halo… but yesterday was the 10th Anniversary of Marathon, the game that launched Bungie’s career, in many ways. (Yes, there were games that came before. Marathon was still what put them on the map.) In honor of that anniversary, Jay Faircloth (aka Anaphiel) created a set of desktop images to commemorate the game; they’re gorgeous. Grab one and raise a glass! (Comments can go here, on the Marathon Story forum.)

1Up.com has posted another interview published in the current issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly – this one is with Pete Parsons, Bungie’s Studio Manager. Pete talks about some of the decisions that made Halo 2 what it is today – and some of the reasons behind the tactics Bungie used to present the game to the public. Fascinating. Thanks, Dolbex.

Today’s One One Se7en lesson is ‘be clear when you’re discussing something not present.’ Or maybe just ‘Don’t let Stuntmutt out of his cage’…

Gamespy has ranked Halo 2 its 2004 Game of the Year, beating games like Half-Life 2 (2nd) and GTA San Andreas (3rd). Nice! Thanks, Black Six.

That Weasel writes to say that their Video Upload feature is back online; if you have a film you want to show the community, and it’s larger than Mythica’s 8 mb limit, and it doesn’t meet our posting guidelines, That Weasel Television is there to help! Just another feature for the fans… thanks, tw!

Sometimes I wonder how it’s all gonna get done. The next Big Thing that was supposed to come online here was the Joint HBO/HIH Tricks database – that’s still in the works (I keep adding stuff, so it keeps not being finished), but an ambitious fan coupled with some new software made it feasible to jump the line with a section that we’ve talked about for YEARS – a Cutscene Library. Huge thanks go out to Sniper 058, who went to the effort of recording them; we now have the first cutscene (a combination of ‘The Heretic’, and the Armory opener) online for you. Grab the flavor that works best for you, from one of our mirror links. Depending on demand, we’ll release these every couple of days. (If you want to see them faster, don’t abuse the links we have – download only what you need.) Hopefully, this will help the Story page folks out, as well. And yes, c0ld, one day the Halo cutscenes will be archived here as well.

That Weasel writes to say that Episode 14 of “Grunts Are People Too!!!” has been posted – ‘Behind the Rock’ is available in QuickTime, WMP9, and DivX formats. It’s not very big – go grab a copy! Oh, the sadness of dead grunts…

Last week, Lawrence.com posted its Gamer’s Voice Award nominees – Halo was nominated for 8 awards. Today, they’ve posted the results – Halo took home Best First-Person Shooter, Best Multiplayer, and Best Soundtrack, as well as the Gamer’s Voice Award (reader’s choice). It took runner-up to Burnout 3 for Best Replay. Go read all the results – thanks, Mothergoat.

As I sit here in my warm office, looking out over the white-covered trees behind my house, today’s Calvin and Halo is very appropriate… though I’m less unhappy than the SKBs.

The Flaming Arabs clan has put together a trailer for an upcoming movie called ‘N00bs Gone Wild’ – a look at teamkillers. You can grab it off their website; 1:51 long, 9.3 mb, WMP9 format.