Purdy! These heavily PhotoShopped Halo pictures are the handiwork of flickr user joshuadamon. Not sure if they're just in-game screen grabs that have been reworked or pics of Halo toys that have been PS'ed or a combination of both. What we are sure of is that these sure are beautiful.

Halotography [Alice]

Remember the guy in the self-made Master Chief armor at the New York launch of Halo 3? Seems like we weren't the only ones to take notice of his shiny metal carapace. The folks at College Humor, creators of Street Fighter: The Early Years, got in touch with Jim, who comments on Kotaku as NYC Armor Guy, about appearing in a short for the site, and Jim passed along some pictures of the set where the action takes place. The movie, which may or may not be called Halo Detective, should be showing up on the humor site in the coming weeks. For now, check out our little gallery taken from Jim's site, or visit the Flickr gallery below for more shots of Master Chief in action.

Halo Detective [CHTV Flickr]

Bungie On Involvement In Peter Jackon's Halo, Its Next Top Secret Project

When the gang at MTV Multiplayer sniffed around some Microsoft job listings earlier this week, confirming that the publisher was staffing up for one of the two Peter Jackon backed "entertainment experiences," some concernedly stuttered "Bu-bu-but, what about Bungie?" Oh, they're fine with it, informs the Bungie Weekly Update. Community man Frankie O'Connor says that "having worked with him already, we are possibly more excited than you are to see what someone of Peter Jackson's imagination, talent and resources can bring to a Halo game experience."

Bungie is said to "continue to remain very much involved in multiple aspects the Halo Universe as part of our ongoing relationship with Microsoft", teasing that one of their in-progress projects will be revealed "in the very near future." Perhaps it's that Halo prequel that EGM taunted us with? Is it the future yet?!?

Bungie Weekly Update 04/25/08 [Bungie]

Rumor: Bungie Working On Halo Spin-off Prequel

The newest issue of EGM, due to arrive any minute now we hope, features more than just sexy details on Splatterhouse, it also contains rumored details on Halo developer Bungie's next project. Unsurprisingly, EGM says that it will be a shooter set in the Halo universe, with a move to a third-person perspective and a setting that predates the original Halo.

The enigmatic Quarterman writes that "WETA is definitely involved in some capacity" and that we might hear more about Bungie's post-Halo 3 work as early as November, officially.

Quartermann: First Info on Bungie's Next Halo? [1UP]

At least one of the Halo-themed projects helmed by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is closer to reality, as MTV Multiplayer has dug up job listings that hint heavily Microsoft is hiring for one of its "two new interactive entertainment experiences." A confirmation from the company reveals that it's going to be developed internally and not at Halo 3 developer Bungie.

The job listings, all of which are linked to at the MTV Multiplayer report, are light on concrete details. They look to be intentionally vague, deemed "Not Product Specific" and only mentioning that they take place in the Halo universe. See if you can decipher them with your Master Chief decoder rings!

Is Microsoft Hiring A 'Halo' Team For Peter Jackson This Week? [MTV Multiplayer]

Del Toro Loves BioShock, Mehs Movie

I love BIOSHOCK from a design point of view but Unless its a HELLBOY sequel I am not that eager to engage in another action-oriented movie. Even if the other elements are right. BUt- if I found the right pitch on the material, who knows- the BIOSHOCK universe is indeed wonderful.

Bungie Wants Halo Fans To Become Bungie Fans

When gamers think "Halo," do they think Microsoft, Xbox 360 or Bungie? That's a question Bungie faces going into the future with its umbilical cord severed from the Microsoft machine—especially when accounting for the millions in branding dollars that tied the Halo franchise so closely to entities other than the developer. Bungie Community Lead Brian Jarrard voiced such concerns to Edge:

Not everyone that buys Halo knows what Bungie is...We want to convert Halo fans into Bungie fans and so we'll take them with us when we do the next game.

"We want to convert Halo fans into Bungie fans" [CVG]

My Little Master Chief Pony

We're not sure that you're ready to enter the world of custom, one of a kind My Little Pony creations, but perhaps the bitter pill of fandom tucked within a meaty treat will help the medicine go down. This unique pony, decked out in Master Chief's Mjolnir armor, is almost exactly how we pictured it in the many fanfics we've read on the My Little Pony-Halo crossover forums and certainly not too rich for our blood.

Just think, your little Master Pony will always be there right by your side. He'll be there right by your side. Definitely worth dropping $100-plus on to get the promised hand-sculpted assault rifle. Bid early and often, folks.

Master Chief From Halo OOAK My Little Pony Custom [eBay]

Halo 2 Available on HBO

Halo.Bungie.org (HBO) has just finished uploading all Halo 2 cutscenes to their servers in gloriously trendy high definition. Halo fans and machinima enthusiasts take note: all of the assets are available for standalone download (none of this embedded crap) and ready to be edited as you see fit.

We'll be putting Master Chief's exploits to Crecente's latest hip hop single (as soon as he cuts it, hides it in his brush collection and some very committed Kotaku reader leaks it to Bittorrent).

Halo 2 Cutscene Library [HBO via Xbox360Fanboy]

Rooster Teeth has a trailer out for the sequel to Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles. Check it:

Now, clearly, these are production values in the upper 1 percentile, and we'd expect no less of Rooster Teeth, and I'm not gonna hate on it. But can I ask a question? How come any elected-office character in a military-genre movie has to have a condescending Southern accent?

It's like a British friend of mine once said about the stereotype of his accent: "If I am in a Star Wars movie, then I command the Death Star."

That said, I can't wait to see (and hear) where this is headed.

RVB: Reconstruction {Rooster Teeth, embedded video courtesy of Slackerchan at Gametrailers]

Enterprising map makers and modders will have a handful of new toys to play with in Halo 3's Forge creation tool when the Legendary Map Pack ships. And while new scaffolding and tweaked shipping containers may get you moist, it's the new suite of visual filters that may excite Halo fans most. The latest Bungie weekly update reveals the latest Forge improvements, including funky and fresh filters that will give your map a "juicy", "gloomy" or "old timey" look. That's great and all, Bungie boys, but what we need is the ability to generate lens flare under any lighting condition. We require massive amounts of lens flare!

Bungie Weekly Update: 4/04/08 [Bungie.net]

Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack Trailer

New Halo Movie Script About A Kid Named John

Either there has been some impressive organization between the hardcore Halo 3 community in the Congo, Uganda and Tanzania or the boys at Bungie are pulling a fast one on us. Considering that it's *sigh* still April 1 Pacific Time, we're guessing it's the latter. Kudos to the Halo teamsters for their subtle and cheery geek map.

Bungie Online [Bungie - thanks, Bradley!]

LEGO Halo Online And On Time

If you missed it the first time, 1UP's coverage of LEGO Halo—which actually debuted about a month ago in the April issue of EGM—is now online, on April Fool's Day, for your mock-up viewing pleasure. No, it's not real, in spite of the genuine looking pair of screen shots, and that fall release date isn't happening. It's a respectably sound idea regardless, as I would expect half of everything will be LEGO-fied within the next decade. Someone at Microsoft and LEGO has to be seeing the profit potential on this crossover.

Previews: Lego Halo [1UP]

Microsoft Fine WIth User-Generated Master Chief on PS3

When fans built a Master Chief model for Unreal Tournament 3 (playable on the PlayStation 3), some of us giggled. Others of us, including Business Week, didn't think that Microsoft would be too happy. Now Microsoft attorney Don McGowan is speaking up on his blog to address the situation.

Actually it's nothing more than the Game Content Usage Rules...in action. When these were developed, people all thought they were focused on machinima. The truth is that while they do address machinima they also allow for a lot of other things. Mods like this are one of them.

Why The Xbox Hate?