Avcracy stopped by last night to announce the first part of Misdirection, a two-part machinima using ODST but set in an alternate universe. Great start!(Louis Wu 14:36:54 UTC)

DOH! I totally forgot to point out the Halo Bulletin that Waypoint put up last night (and that was added to our Halo Bulletin Archive, even). Discussion about what’s going to be showing at San Diego Comic-Con next weekend, what you can expect at Halo Fest next month at PAX, and more. Go read it!(Louis Wu 14:35:12 UTC)

Hitmonchan needs to take a break from newsposting for a bit – but he couldn’t resist sending along a huge batch of farewell links. Check out these videos!

• Straight Outta Bloodgulch is a music parody from JT Machinima – language is not safe for work, but this is pretty funny!
• IGN’s Top Ten Reach Kills for July 13 has some silly stuff – but a few are great. (I liked the fusion-barrel-wipes-out-AL clip… and the #1 clip ROCKS.)
• The Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption mod Sci-Fi at War has added some new Halo units – take a look!
• Schwang and Sizzle put together The Dual, a Halo PC dualtage. Fair warning – mute your audio.
• And the best of the bunch (according to both Hitmonchan and me) – Mega Bloks has kicked off their Toymation Contest, and the promo video is simply spectacular. Go watch – and then join in the fun!

Yes, it’s true. He’s addicted to Halo news.(Louis Wu 14:27:17 UTC)

CruelLEGACEY wanted us to let you know that Playtime’s not over – he’s announced a second season. Go watch.(Louis Wu 14:10:54 UTC)

Machinima Revive sent word of a trailer for Clash & Desire, a new machinima series about young love. With armor.(Louis Wu 14:04:42 UTC)

Queso Man’s been making montages for a long time – but recently, his YouTube account got deleted, so now he’s got to start over. He’s released his most recent three montages on the new channel, Queso Man Presents. If you missed ’em the first time around (the original newsposts were here | here| here), go watch ’em now!(Louis Wu 14:01:47 UTC)

Aaron Clauset is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder – and a longtime Halo player. And now he’s doing a study on team dynamics using Halo: Reach. And you can help! Stop by the study page, sign up and fill out the survey… and you can see how you stack up against your friends, and against strangers! (You can also get the results of the final study, when it’s completed.) There are more details in his forum post – so check it out, and then stand back – we’re doing science!(Louis Wu 20:28:26 UTC)

Fans of Halo Machinima should definitely take notice at the newly opened NuclearTaco Productions, a machinima house with some very cool content. To help get you up to speed, check out their new intro video. For an example of their offerings, take a look at Taco’s Tips. There will be a lot more great stuff from these guys, so stay tuned!(GrimBrother One 18:08:12 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue let us know that the next Reclaimer is live – nice little salute to BttF!(Louis Wu 17:56:30 UTC)

newguy2445 let us know that he’s got a bunch of 3D renders over at DeviantART – check ’em out! (I particularly liked om nom nom nom…)(Louis Wu 14:19:28 UTC)

CruelLEGACEY sent word that he’ll be the guest on the next Running Riot podcast – coming up tonight, July 13 at 9:30pm EST. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:19:03 UTC)

anoj released his latest Halo: Reach Top 10 – this one is called ‘Strange Moments‘, and is filled with… well, strange moments. Some really fun ones! Thanks, Alpha ELite.(Louis Wu 14:10:18 UTC)

JIMBOTHY stopped by yesterday to announce Halo Warfare 3 (a remake of the Modern Warfare 3 trailer in the Halo: Reach engine). Really well done! (They put together a comparison video, with the original and their remake showing side by side – this is amazing.) (Louis Wu 13:59:58 UTC)

Reach’s July Matchmaking Playlist changes went live yesterday (thanks, Tunavi) – and with them, Jeremiah retires as Playlist Manager. So long, Jeremiah – you will be missed! We’ll need to keep an eye on Halo Waypoint, to see who’s going to be replacing him…(Louis Wu 13:56:07 UTC)

According to the GrifballHub Twitter feed, there is a new Grifball Playlist live in Reach Matchmaking. Time to go get your flower on!(GrimBrother One 17:54:39 UTC)

According to Major Nelson, the Halo Collection on the Avatar Marketplace is slated to get a new addition(s) on July 21. No word yet on what they items may be specifically, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon. I’m hoping for the pilot helmet, personally.(GrimBrother One 17:40:24 UTC)

Computer and Video Games wonders whether Bungie can make the jump (back) to multiplatform development, and whether Halo will springboard them to success in a new universe, or hold them back? Tough questions to answer without more data… but don’t let that stop you from speculating!(Louis Wu 16:42:44 UTC)

Hitmonchan also pointed out SHC, a Halo 3/Reach montage containing footage from the SingleHaloClips community collected during the month of June. Some great plays, nice mix of games. Editing only rarely gets in the way of watching the plays. (Gotta love those spawns on Narrows!)(Louis Wu 16:38:45 UTC)

Heh – when you get teamed up with the God of War in Reach Matchmaking, you should expect some epic gameplay. Or maybe just insults. (Thanks, Hitmon. Good luck on that midterm!)(Louis Wu 16:33:21 UTC)