StormSinger turns in another great render – this time it’s pistol ammo. You’ll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section.

When it rains, it pours… we’ve got another one, and this one’s worth watching, too! It’s a gameplay vid, not a cinematic piece… but it’s got some laugh-out-loud footage in it. It was recorded by Ian Haddock during last weekend’s Battle of the Bay… and man, now I wanna play 16-player rockets-only on Blood Gulch! There are two versions: A 10 meg, 320×240 version and a 6 meg, 160×120 version. The originals can be found on Ian’s mac.com filespace – and we’ve started the ball rolling with one mirror each; b.org is handling the large version, and Mythica is handling the small one. More mirrors are, of course, seriously welcome – we know how tight space is right now, with Halo: The Movie making the rounds.

Mirror, mirror, everywhere… if the 27 mb version of ‘Halo: The Movie’ is too much for you, we’ve added a 9.4 mb version that’s just a bit more compressed. (Still pretty good to watch.) In addition, CYBRFRK has re-encoded it to .wmv format – this one’s only 5.6 mb, and is probably the way to go for Windows users. All current mirrors can be found on our Mirrors page, and of course we’re always happy to add new links.

Another The Halo Movie mirror – this time in France. Thanks, Firfin, of Halo-game.com! (We’ve added it to the mirror page.)

The (temporary) End of an Era. Vector40 announced that The Repertory is down, until the silliness invoked by his web host can be fixed. It’ll be back… but in these times of high-bandwidth-need… we’ll miss her.

Okay, enough with the hate mail – here’s the dang movie. (There are at least 2 more mirrors coming soon, and quite possibly a couple of other formats/sizes for the film – so if you have trouble with a 27 mb .mov, be patient.) This is Brian Josselyn’s nod to Final Fantasy… and to Halo as a cinematic spectacle. It’s good. It’s very, very good. Watch it. (It’s only 2 minutes… it’s a ‘movie trailer’.) The mirror list currently contains 3 websites and 2 hotline servers – we’ll add new ones as we get ’em. Update: Thanks to Reaper7, of Battleground: Halo, who just sent along the FilePlanet URL for this movie – it adds two public server links and two Personal Server links. (It’s been added to the mirror list.) More still coming!

Two new Fan Fiction bits – Jehkoh has written another poem, and Vector40 has written… well, an ode. (An uplifting one, even.) Read ’em both in our Fan Fiction section.

Brian Josselyn, of Blackstar Productions, has created a new Halo vid – it’s a trailer for Halo, the Movie. (Okay, it’s a trailer for Aliens, mostly – but let’s not nitpick.) Masterful use of existing Halo footage (including some fantastic inclusions from older stuff), topnotch moviemaking skills, and high-quality sound make this a film to see. Downside? It’s sorta big. 27 megs big, to be exact. This is one we want a few mirrors for before it goes live. Mythica.org is a given… but so as not to crush Brian’s connection, if you can manage this puppy, drop us a line, we’ll get you a copy. Once the mirror list is big enough, we’ll let you know where to grab it from. Update: CYBRFRK points out that it’s not Aliens… it’s Final Fantasy. Oops…

Whoa – six, count ’em, six new desktop images submitted in the last day or two – go take your pick in our Wallpaper section.

Four more stories for you:

• Aftermath, Part 3 by Alex Cross
• Operation: False Prophets, Part 7 by Ian Barnes
• The Eyes of the Enemy, by Gasmask
• After Halo, Part 2 by Black_Jackal

These, and many, many more are in our Fan Fiction section…

Heh – Peter Marks, Bungie Troublemaker Extraordinaire, points out an article at MacGamer which might make some long-time visitors chuckle. Apparently, though… not Matt Soell. Ah, well… can’t please everyone.

Due to an amazingly boneheaded mistake I made over a month ago, every Gameplay Trick uploaded since late February has taken twice as long to load on your computer than it should have. (Maybe more than twice.) The problem has been fixed, finally… and we’ve added three new ones – okay, three parts of a longer exploration by Frogblast. There are still half a dozen tricks in the queue, as well as a passel of one-shots… soon, I’ll be caught up. Soon. Meanwhile, check out Froggy’s latest work and be amazed!

Bobble-headed Halo toys… what’s next? (I want one.)

We thought it was too much to ask… but those miracle workers at Bungie never sleep. The Bungie Store is open! Go buy your Grunt Plush Doll today!

Halo Babies! Bungie takes the wraps off their newest project, an animated television project scheduled to debut this fall. Check the Tru7h and Reconciliation website for all the details! (Video clips are coming – we can’t wait! (Thanks to Djof, on our forum, and Jester, via email, for the heads-up.)

A few descriptions of the carnage that took place at the Hilton Towers in San Francisco (yesterday’s Battle of the Bay) have been posted on our forum. Thanks to Psyrixx, Appleicious, and Tarrsk for their input… hopefully there’ll be more!

Wh00t! (As of the time of this post, the Mac version is incomplete – you won’t be able to unstuff it, because the Binhex file didn’t completely upload, it seems. This will likely be fixed soon. The Windows version is fine, though… the Error message is a riot.)

Daniel writes to say that Team 7hr33’s website has had a major overhaul – new layout (I like), TONS of new content (much of which I will eventually steal for inclusion here), and one disappointment – a movie, posted yesterday (and filmed on March 11) shows Team 7hr33’s exploration of the ‘Black Door’ on Two Betrayals, mentioned in the recent Gameplay Trick uploaded by Frogblast. (It STILL doesn’t predate Legolas’ documentation in our forum… but it is the first video showing the door.) Go visit – check out the Maw vids, the frontwards 360 in a Scorpion, and the very slick plasma pistol/grenade combo trick… and everything else around there. These guys have S7yle, with a capital S.

We wish you peace on this day, in a world gone mad… and we offer you a new batch of Fan Fiction:

• Aftermath Part 2, by Alex Cross
• The Hell of War Part 3, by Jaywhit10
• The Renegade Marines Part IX, by Shadow
• Siege of the Rings Chapter 2, by The Wraven
• Finishing what you started, Part Two, by LeAtHeRnEcK

These are all available in our Fan Fiction section.

There’s a pretty big backup in the Gameplay Tricks queue, but time is short this weekend. I’m putting up a recent exploration by Frogblast – it stands alone, unlike some of the other entries. Check it out for some freaky behavior in Two Betrayals!