Dust Storm sent word that the first Podtacular episode of 2014 is live – the crew covers that latest Halo news, including some Halo 5 speculation. They also discuss their goals for the new year – go listen!(mastrbiggy 23:20:29 UTC)

Look, up in the sky…

Levi visited the Facebook page of The Fallen, a fan-made live-action film project… and found a gorgeous model-in-progress of the Pillar of Autumn. Looking great!(Louis Wu 20:21:44 UTC)

It’s the dawn of a new year for Halo and the rumors have already started to hit the internet about the next title in the franchise and other productions around the Halo Universe. Among them, rumors of a potential Halo movie has been dissolved and a supposed leaked cut-scene has hit the web. Microsoft is working on a Siri competitor aptly named Cortana, which is pretty cool news for any Halo fan. GH057ayame has been hired by 343 as a tester for the next Halo title. As always, we give you the bullets from this week’s Halo Bulletin.

Jack and Geoff from Achievement Hunter released Fails of the Weak episode 174 – nothing too worthwhile here, but the team coordination fail on Haven is pure gold. You can watch it on AH or YouTube. Thanks, Nikko B201.(mastrbiggy 23:16:18 UTC)

Once more, with feeling!

Jason Evans has appeared in our news a bunch recently; he creates fantastic Master Chief sculpts. He stopped by today to show you the process. Fascinating! (Louis Wu 22:27:22 UTC)

crazedone1988 is back, with another really entertaining video combo. What do you get when you combine Halo: Reach with Starfox? You get win, that’s what. (Louis Wu 22:26:03 UTC)

DeviantARTist Siphen0 did a wonderful mashup recently – check out Chief of Thrones. Thanks to The Lionheart for pointing it out! (Louis Wu 22:24:41 UTC)

The How It Should Have Ended crew put together new scenes for the latest Hobbit movie (if you haven’t seen The Desolation of Smaug yet, some of these might not make any sense) – the final clip has a great nod to the Halo series. Thanks to both SEspider, on our forum, and Kimball Morejon, via email, for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 22:22:48 UTC)

Keeping the novel ideas rolling, Tor Books has put up Chapter 2 of Halo: Mortal Dictata for your visual perusal. Go and check it out! Thanks to Grizzlei for letting us know.(GrimBrother One 20:31:59 UTC)

Halo Waypoint put up an awesome preview of the upcoming novel Halo: Mortal Dictata, the third and final installment in Karen Traviss’ “Kilo-Five” series. The preview includes the prologue and first chapter, and aims straight for the heart, especially if you happen to be a parent *raises hand*. Absolutely worth the look, go and check it out!(GrimBrother One 04:33:17 UTC)

Loot and Honor. Fortune and Glory.

Rockslider stopped in with a pair of videos, showing off some megabattle action under the Twin Bridges on AotCR. One is longer-ranged fighting than the other; both are fun to watch. Go explore! (Louis Wu 23:23:22 UTC)

Apologies for the lack of Halo news yesterday; blame a broken washing machine and a slightly obsessive family member for my inability to find updating time. Halo Waypoint had no such trouble; their weekly Halo Bulletin was posted as expected, on time. It’s full of stuff you’d expect to see – details on upcoming playlist changes, fun tidbits about the office, a blurb about Mortal Dictata, the third book in Karin Traviss’ Halo trilogy that will be out next week… but there’s also a pretty cool interview with a female Master Chief. Go read about Stephanie! As always, it’s available in our local Halo Bulletin Archive as well as on Waypoint.(Louis Wu 08:01:41 UTC)

MisterMonopoli streamed another Halo 2 speed run last night – this time he was attempting a world record. Although he didn’t set any records the stream was still fun to watch and fairly intense. You can catch the archived version on his Twitch channel.(mastrbiggy 23:05:58 UTC)

Tashi released episode 17 of HaloGAF Radio – he is joined by Wahrer, SpeedyBlueDude, and Zoojoo. They discuss recent Halo news as well as Joseph Staten’s return to Microsoft. Go listen!(mastrbiggy 22:57:44 UTC)

Welcome to the party.

Remember that movie project we mentioned a couple of days ago? Yeah… not really happening, according to Microsoft (via Eurogamer). Bummer! Thanks, Fear of Falling (who found it at XboxAchievements).(Louis Wu 20:53:09 UTC)