Halo: The Cole Protocol 

Posted by urk at 10/22/2008 12:43 PM PST

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War...

Amazon.com has gone live with the back copy for Tobias Buckell's Halo: The Cole Protocol. Thanks to HBO for scaring up the link. Here's the copy from Tobias' blog:

"In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems.

Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as the Rubble–and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar . . . yet somehow survived.

News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best—an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality . . . and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path."

Halo: The Cole Protocol is set to release on November 25th, 2008.

Tags: Community, Halo - All, Halo Universe, Novel

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Halo 3 Machinima Round-Up 

Posted by lukems at 6/6/2008 10:44 AM PST

Cleaning out a blog queue full of machinima with a handful of links inside.


The blog queue has been stuffed with machinima releases, so I nicked a bunch of them and stuffed them in a single post for your convenience. It's Friday, take a break and kill a little time.

Gray Team
A1OMC writes: Mindless Distortion Productions brings you their take on the mysterious group of Spartans from the Halo Novels,  Gray Team. In machinima form.

The backstory of the Gray Team squad is unknown to anyone. Well, not unless you created the Halo Novels. A10M1C along with his crew Zelahn and TentativeChaos portray the tale in their own vision. The series has been getting better after each 10 minute episode's release. Each part of the tale is broken into "Transmissions" and each Transmission brings the viewer closer and closer to the fictional tale of the three Mark V Spartans.

So Far, Two episodes have been released. The Youtube Links are to follow. Transmission One's length had to be split for Youtube. Episode 2 Relegation was split into two parts but the third part will be Episode 3.

Transmission One: Pilot
Youtube Stream [Part 1 of 2]
Youtube Stream [Part 2 of 2]

Transmission Two: Relegation Part 1 of 2
Youtube Stream


The Classical Montage
Namenda writes: Montage was edited by Chris Golden with I schw4nker I behind the helmet of gameplay. With a tribute to thehalogod's montage "Untouchable" we believe that's how montages should be.

Check it out here!


Maptrocity
ZZ writes: Maptrocity is the Halo 3 version of the original Maptacular video from insidi0us. It features some amazing transitions of Halo 3 maps. A lot of time and effort has been put to make this video by BigV. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Download the full version here.

Project Orion: Episode 4
Legend0922 writes: Project ORION, Legend Zero's first machinima project, has been released without interruption for the last three weeks now, and that continues today. Episode 4, "Unexpected Help", brings our three heroes together to right Rouge's robotic army, and introduces a new Character into the storyline.

We have been working hard on this series, and we REALLY hope you enjoy everything ORION has to offer. This is not your typical Machinima, as the live action sections also have their major role in the storyline. Expect to see more of ORION in each of the coming weeks.

Our Youtube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/LZStaff

ORION's Playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=EAFCB6DA658BF774

Thanks everybody, be sure to let us know what you think!

Tags: Community, Halo 3, Halo Universe

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Fanmade CG of 'Armor Testing' 

Posted by lukems at 6/5/2008 10:54 AM PST

YouTuber MajorDump made a CG Trailer for Halo Graphic Novel story "Armor Testing."

"Armor Testing" was one of the short stories featured in 2006's Halo Graphic Novel and YouTuber MajorDump has created CG trailer for that story. In addition to the above "Armor Testing" bit, MajorDump also did a CG remake of the first episode of Red vs. Blue (check that out here). I don't know if there's a way I can say "MajorDump" again -- so I should probably just move on.

Caught this via HBO (a variety of downloads in multiple sizes are there if you'd like to see at high non-YouTube res)

Tags: Community, Halo - All, Halo Universe

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