QsKGlobal.Com, a machinima and montage hosting site, has relaunched with a brand new look and design. With the new site, comes QsK's Second Montage contest sponsored by Xbox-Media.Com. With the total prize pot being at least $250 USD, there is guaranteed to be some good competition in this one...

The montage contest will last over the course of the next 6 months, with the final due date being July 1st, 2007. All Halo and Halo 2 related montages are eligible. The prize money of $250 will only grow larger as more donations and sponsors come our way.

For all information regarding this contest and how to enter. Please visit the announcement thread made at QsKGlobal HERE

Maimum FEAR writes:

You may have seen the news story a few weeks back about this contest over at Games in Action. Well, the competition closed recently and the results of the winners have just been released. You can check out all of the art work by going to this post.

We received a lot of great art work sent into us by some very talented people; the top three entries were awarded to Jaron (3rd place), sevc (2nd place) and nrek (1st place). All three of these guys submitted truly inspiring work. If you like fan art then you might want to check this out.

Just go over to Games in Action check out the news stories and read the results and see the winning entries. Oh and thanks to all those who participated, get in touch with us to recieve your free GIA Pen or other free prize.

xMatt6908x writes:

HollywoodNHouse has be a growing part of the Halo 2 Machinima community for nearly 2 years. We have just started expanding our horizons and opening up to all games, not just Halo. The website has just received a major face lift and is now up and running.

Our growing community always has something positive to say to new members. Our website offers many different features that may interest you. Including but not limited to:

Halo Machinima - Watch our growing library of Halo 2 Machinima (Movies)

Movie Critic Review System - Submit your movies to this system and get them reviewed and possibly hosted. Similar to HBO's MPRRS.

Video guides - We provide complete walk through videos of games, we also take requests for custom video guides.

Graphic Resources - We provide you with many different resources for your graphical needs. Tutorials, Support, Hi-Res Halo 2 Ranks, whatever it may be.

Arcade - Our users have 24 hour access to our arcade with over 350 games to choose from.

Tournaments - Participate and bet on tournaments and win virtual cash.

Feel free to check us out at HollywoodNHouse.com!

Halo3.com has updated to explain the three ways in which you can enlist for the Halo 3 beta. They also note that if you signed up for the beta after seeing the Halo 3 commercial last month, you can expect to hear between January 22nd to 26th.


Check the official Halo 3 site for everything you ever wanted to know about the beta. Well, everything we've ever been willing to tell you about the beta, at least. Good luck, hope to see you come Spring.

The Halo:CE mod team, CMT, has done it again. They have released the first map pack of a series. This map pack includes 4 new Halo:CE maps, Coagulation, Icy Swamps, Dissolution, and Fragment. All of these come with a custom HUD, custom weapons, and more.


Download them here!

CMT Download

LordGideon writes:

The prizes page for HaloEverywhere.com is up and running! With only 2 1/2 weeks left, now is the time to grab your submissions and get them in the running...


The prizes page for HaloEverywhere.com is up and running! With only 2 1/2 weeks left, now is the time to grab your submissions and get them in the running for the Grand Prize!

Prizes include:

Halo Xbox 360 Faceplate - Autographed by Bungie
Framed Marathon Picture - Donated by Louis Wu
Xbox 360 Wireless Headset - Donated by the Sword of Laban
$50 Gift Certificate - Donated by the PraetoriaGuard
Gaming T-Shirts - Donated by SteelValor

The amount of prizes is far more than this! Visit the Prizes page for a full list.

Our thanks to all those that donated prizes! Prizes were donated by Bungie, Halo.Bungie.org, CDV, PraetoriaGuard, the Sword of Laban, and SteelValor.com.

Ready to check them out? Click Here:
http://ptg.halo2webring.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=235142

Ready to make a submission to the contest? There's still time!
http://hev.halo3webring.com

Maimum FEAR writes:

Shishka, aka Chad Armstong, recently took some time to answer some questions put to him by Games in Action. You can read the full story here.

If you didn't know, Shishka has just left Bungie to go work with Max Hoberman at Certain Affinity.  We asked questions about how he feels at his new job, what he learned at Bungie and how he got involved in making video games.  Heres the link to the full story at Games in Action: Link

snowysnowcones, in The Maw forum, has rounded up a bunch of links to H2V content coming out of CES from the past week. The post is a good source of hands-on reports as well as several gameplay videos, shakeycam though they may be.

Lookin good, but more importantly smooth.

no allegiance writes:

The Riot, a weekly Halo Community podcast, is hosting its first ever 2006 Halo Community Awards.  Go there and vote on your favorite gametype, your favorite machinima, or even the biggest Halo community contributor!

The Riot, a weekly Halo Community podcast, is hosting its first ever 2006 Halo Community Awards.We have scoured the internet to nominate those people or groups who have shown dedication and a severe willingness to play fair, make great movies, or have made a huge contribution to the community.  Your voice can be heard, and when the polls close, Wed, Jan 17, 2007, we will know who is the best of the best!  The results will be aired on our weekly podcast, The Riot, which airs every sunday evening.  To celebrate the occasion we have several members of the Halo community presenting awards- so if nothing else, tune in to hear who shows up!

This weekend the Bungie Store will be going down for a short period of time, four to five hours, while Sunrise Identity performs maintenance on their servers. During that time you will not be able to use the store.

I suggest a mad dash for the remaining inventory now. What if something goes wrong?! This could be your last chance!

Escape Station looks to bring a new interactive experience to the Xbox Live arena by organizing video gaming tournaments and events for gamers 25 and older.

Escape Station.com hosts multiple monthly tournaments, a seasonal event called the Pentathlon, and a season ending extravaganza called Hyper Bowl. Some events include prizes and recognition and all present great networking opportunities at no charge to members. Among other things, Escape Station will offer downloads, gift shop items, articles, interviews, game related news, and a forum for members to organize their own gaming events. In addition, Escape Station monitors its user base with polls and forum threads that allow participants to have an impact on the growth of the web site and its services.

Barak Skinner (a.k.a. "FirstMateBean" on Xbox Live), a founding member of Escape Station comments, "The experience of connecting with others online through Xbox Live is only as good as the people playing together in any given interaction. People are busy and when they sit down to do some gaming they want to have fun, not frustration. We're not just trying to connect good gamers with other good gamers, we're trying to connect good people with other good people."

Over the course of the 2006 Pentathlon tournament season, Escape Station organized and hosted 12 different events, all of which included hit Xbox titles such as Call of Duty 2, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Gears of War and our favorite, Halo 2.  Escape Station continues to monitor newly released games for inclusion in their tournaments and anxiously awaits the arrival of Bungie's Halo 3.

About Escape Station
Starting in June of 2005 with Project Pentathlon, Escape Stations' founding members have worked with the gaming community at Geezer Gamers.com to bring great gaming experiences to people all over the planet.

For more information visit www.EscapeStation.com.

The Halo 3 Hoodie that we told you about a while back is finally available in the Bungie Store. Keep your hands warm and your hair dry with this stylish hoodie featuring one of the Chief's more prolific poses of the E3 trailer.


I'm buying six. Yeah, seriously. No, you can't have one.