The December Matchmaking Playlist Update went live last night – if you haven’t been following the changes as described in the Halo Bulletins, the Waypoint page will give you a nice summary of the changes.(Louis Wu 15:08:39 UTC)

Yuri Walkiw let us know about a Halo site roundup he put together for his blog, Hex19 – he calls it ‘Five Halo Community Sites You Should Know About‘. No, we’re not just telling you about this because we’re on the list (though we are 😉 ). Go see who else is.(Louis Wu 22:33:36 UTC)

shiruken sent word that Episode 3 of Outpost: Isil Season 2 has been posted on YouTube. (It’ll be available on their website later this week.) (Louis Wu 20:35:00 UTC)

The latest Arby ‘n’ the Chief – “Femme Fatale” – went live this weekend; thanks to Ogan Panavo for the heads-up. 20 minutes long, will the second hacker go down to Arby and the Chief… or some other way? (And will Chief screw up EVERYTHING?) (Louis Wu 19:35:01 UTC)

Congrats to STEEZYnairb – he’s the latest recipient of Domino Theory’s largesse; he’ll be receiving a new copy of Halo Anniversary this week! Thanks to everyone who participated.(Louis Wu 19:30:49 UTC)

CruelLEGACEY is celebrating the first anniversary of his site – swing by for a retrospective!(Louis Wu 15:16:59 UTC)

kornman00 discovered evidence that there WAS a 15th skull in Halo Anniversary – it was related to the sound code’s logic. (kornman thinks it might have been an attempt at an IWHBYD skull.) It wasn’t actually included in the final product – but it’s interesting to see that it HAD been planned for, once!(Louis Wu 15:14:25 UTC)

KWDzero stopped in last night to let us know about an update to Halo: Out With a Whimper, the fan-created 2D sidescroller. Swing by for the latest details – it’s looking great! (Louis Wu 15:13:51 UTC)

Congratulations to mikimarquez – he won a Spanish contest by showing off his Halo collection (pics below, plus a video showing off his Halo DLC, and a blog devoted to Halo. The grand prize – a life-sized sculpture of the ODST Rookie (here it is, wrapped, next to its winner), might cause some strife – apparently, miki’s girlfriend doesn’t want the statue in the house because it’s too big! Oh, the problems some fans have… 🙂
(Louis Wu 18:55:16 UTC)

There are other great videos available this weekend at Halo Waypoint: RvB MIA Episode 4 is live – the Blues and the Reds form an uneasy alliance… and a hilarious moment from a very early RvB season is evoked. When you’re through with that, Impact’s Adrenaline wants to give you tips on scoring flags fast while playing CTF Countdown. Go watch! (Louis Wu 18:53:09 UTC)

Firestorm12 sent word that Halopen has remade ‘Mission: Leave No Man Behind’, one of its first machinima pieces, to celebrate its 6th birthday. (You can see the original here, for comparison.)(Louis Wu 18:51:05 UTC)

Timgie stopped in to let people know about Aftermath, a new Halo 3 machinima he’s put together. Poignant. (He’s also got a new episode of Reach Customz up, focusing on a pretty fun-looking gametype – but this one was only announced at Halo Waypoint.)(Louis Wu 18:44:35 UTC)

Ty Coker stopped by to let us know that SYNAW Season 2 Episode 4 is now up – heavy use of invis. Go watch!(Louis Wu 18:38:52 UTC)

Time Glitch has a series called ‘Let’s Play’ – he’s now applying it to Halo Anniversary. You can go watch him play through The Pillar of Autumn – with commentary. Check it out!(Louis Wu 18:35:47 UTC)

Fails of the Weak Episode 63 is now live (AH.com | YouTube) – the New Alexandria fail was my favorite. Thanks, hezekiah.(Louis Wu 13:53:00 UTC)

MASSAIKUR figured out the REAL reason CruelLEGACEY built his ‘Grif Cannon’ for the Playtime machinima series… go watch. (Louis Wu 13:51:17 UTC)

DeeJ has instituted a new feature at Bungie.net – the Community Ride Along is sort of like the older Halo Humpday Challenges – except instead of playing AGAINST Bungie, community members are playing WITH them. Looks like fun! Go check out the writeup of the first such event, involving the B.net Forum Ninjas.(Louis Wu 13:48:09 UTC)

Beckx stopped by with a pic he took in Little Big Planet 2 – what a wonderful costume he found!(Louis Wu 13:41:16 UTC)

Attack of the Ninjas.