I check mail this morning… and there are still MORE movie updates for you. That Weasel, not content with the Cutscene mirroring and new Grunts vid, sent along a HUGE list of new and mirrored content – it’s too long to list here, so visit That Weasel’s HBO Mirror, and check out the top 10 items. (If they say TWTv Exclusive, you won’t find them anywhere else.) The first new item on the list is The Blair Skull Project, by Mother’s Tooth – a scary live-action film just for you. Go revel in more movie footage.

Movie’d out yet? No, wait! Remember the Halo CE Movie competition at HaloMaps.org? Remember how I said it was totally Mac-unfriendly? Not only has that been fixed, but there are now 16 entries to view – and less than a week to get your OWN entry in. Go watch! And then go submit! (Thanks, Dennis.)

Couple of contest notes: the Xtournaments Crew writes to point out that they’re starting their Halo 2 Tourney (4v4) in February, with $15,000 on the line. Visit their website for more details. And ZATZAi is pretty insistent that we mention an update to his Coagulation Christmas Tree Challenge (we noted it last week) – the deadline has been extended, and a Halo 2 soundtrack has been added to the prize pool. Check his post at High Impact Halo for details.

That Weasel writes to say that a mini-episode of “Grunts are People Too!!!” has been posted – Episode 15, ‘Tic-Tac-Grunt’ is now available in WMP9, QuickTime, and DivX formats. It’s a little…bizarre. Also – they’ve added mirrors of the first two cutscenes from our Cutscene Library – and sent along wishes for happy, safe holidays. Back atcha!

Got another movie for you. Remember the Dawn of the Dead gametype we mentioned a couple of days ago? Clan Tricking IT put together a fun movie, ‘Beach of the Dead’ with an eye to the cinematic. It’s large (large-format, and large filesize), but the quality is a little lacking… don’t let that get in the way of your enjoyment. 640×480, 7:08 long. By the end, you’re really rooting for the remaining spartan! Clan Tricking IT is hosting a 50 mb WMP10 version – here’s hoping their bandwidth holds out. I’ve put up a QuickTime version (same screensize, about 43 mb) – this one will last for a bit. If you simply can’t get enough of this gametype, there’s an older movie, created by spesalfred, and posted on our forum a couple of days ago. (The link in that post is now dead, but you can grab a copy off Mythica.) It’s WMP9 format, 17.5 mb; I found the action harder to follow than Tricking IT’s vid. Whatever footage you grab, use it to get inspired – jump on XBL and play this game yourself!

Weird. I updated the Fan Fiction section about 12 hours ago – but the news post I wrote up seems to have vanished into the ether. 11 new pieces – go read.

And another Halo 2 Cutscene goes live. Return to Sender contains the scene between Cairo Station and Outskirts. Once again, we’ve added mirrors for existing entries – HaloImpulse has put up Home Field Advantage links. Go grab ’em!

Mintz08 points out that ‘The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide: Advanced Combat Techniques’ is now available at Amazon.com. If someone buys one, please – send us a review!

Hmm. Over at Tech Central Station, there’s an article entitled ‘Halo 2 and the New Heroism‘. It looks at Halo 2 (and games like it) as a potential route to saving military personnel in a real war. Yeah, struck me as sort of out there, too. Go read. (If you choose to discuss this on our forum, please – remember the rules about political discussions. Stay away from value judgements about the US military presence in Iraq. Thanks.)

To all those people who say the SMG is a useless weapon in Campaign play – Cody Miller says ‘meh’. He says it quite eloquently, actually – 3:23 worth of Legendary gameplay in a new movie called ‘SMG Love’. I’m sure that (just like after every OTHER movie Cody’s released) we’ll get people posting on our forum that this is faked; there are areas that he breezes through so effortlessly you’ll think it MUST be faked. It’s not. And yeah, he uses grenades, as well… but man, I have a new respect for that SMG. Or maybe it’s just for Cody. The video is available in QuickTime format (22.7 mb) or WMP9 format (27 mb). Watch it and say thankya.

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!