We’re incredibly relieved that Season Two has made its debut, after months of planning and a few weeks of diligent production. What was cool about Episode 1 was that it was technically finished last Tuesday, but we were able to spend a couple of days polishing and tweaking some of the edit. Plus, there was that day where we gorged like heifers.

Episode Two rolls onward. Because of our new production method of filming three and four episode chunks, we’re currently in the middle of shooting the third episode while the second is in post. Hot stuff.

I know a few of you are asking about when it’s coming out, but we’re still not sure yet. There are a lot of factors that go into releasing an episode, and getting them all to coincide is like conjuring some exotic spell from a bubbling cauldron. Dumbledore’s wand, etc.

I promised some screenshots from Episode Two, and here they are.

Enjoy. Also, I just added a sweet feature to GamerSushi about gaming’s best guns. FPS for the win. Go check it out!

So there’s a fun article over at GamerSushi about Valve, Half-Life 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and how Valve might be the best storytellers in the gaming business. Go read it.

And now on to more important things…

We’re ridiculously close to Season 2 of The Leet World. Stupid close, even. Perhaps burro close, but that could be stretching it. As I’ve said before, whenever no posts are happening on the front page, that means that there’s probably a lot going on in our silly machinima production realm. We’re pounding away at finishing Episode 1, and we’ve even started doing some work on Episode 3 at this point.

There’s also a new commercial from the CT’s for you to watch. Those guys have been getting around lately, doing lots of promotions. Maybe the stress is getting to them? Soon though, they’ll be back in their natural habitat. Video after the jump!

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Thanks for the great response to Web Zeroes, Episode 2. Web Zeroes episodes are always a tad more nerve wracking to release because it really is putting a bit more of us out there than our machinima. I mean, obviously. But then again, you get to see Nick’s beard, so I guess it all evens out. Were it not for that beard, perhaps many of you would have been turned off to the show’s charm. Sometimes I want to wear it like a parka.

In other news, we are hard at work on the first few episodes of The Leet World, Season 2. Obviously, I don’t want to spoil any kind of “secritz”, but we’re working on something fun for the first episode’s release. Mark my words, you might get excited enough to punch a puppy when you see what I’m talking about. And not to leave you hanging with that tease, here’s another one. Or three, to be exact:

Have fun with those. Those are like, sneaky James Bond style screenshots.

By the way, downloads for Web Zeroes are coming today at some point, we just got so caught up in working on Season 2 that we literally just forgot. I’m assuming we’ll be forgiven for that. If not, tough enchiladas.

Seriously. Horde mode on Gears of War 2 is ruining my life. And I mean that in the best way possible. Also, I checked out the Left 4 Dead demo, and left some impressions on GamerSushi… I was a little underwhelmed by it, but it was still lots of fun. I mean, it’s Valve, so you know it’s good.

This is basically just a quick update to show you guys a little screen grab from the title sequence Daniel is working on for Season 2 of The Leet World. It features the lovable Westheimer, striking a sexy pose.

Keep in mind this is a work in progress, and I’d like to remind you how the Web Zeroes title sequence changed from the original screenshot I showed way back when. Anywho, feast your eyes upon it and be teased.

And speaking of Web Zeroes, Episode 2 of that will be up before you know it. Or maybe after. I can never tell. We’re sneaky that way.

We appreciate all of the comments on the Season 2 teaser/Halloween message/release announcement thing we put out. Glad you guys are enjoying the ride leading up to the second season. Trust me, we are too. We’ve had some bumps, but now everything is running smoothly. Much thanks to Lord Ned for the assistance with some of my Hammer frustrations.

And while I’m thinking about it, I have some screenshots from Episode 1 of Season 2. Enjoy!

I know that some of you are having problems logging in. That comes from some pretty hardcore caching we’ve got set up on the site- all you need to do is just refresh the page (try it more than once if you need to) and it should help.

There’s a cool new post up on GamerSushi, titled “5 Features That More Shooters Need”. Thought you guys would like it since I mention some Counter-Strike in there.

Also, the dudes over at The Duo Group have just put out a new Gears of War machinima, as well as the guys over at LitFuseFilms. It seemed appropriate to mention these in honor of the hallowed Gears of War 2, which I will be beating like it stole something later this week.

Wow, I’ve said it before, but lots of thanks to everyone who has been supporting us by purchasing the TLW Season One Soundtrack. It was a labor of much love by Jace. I think the coolest thing of all is that the people that are buying it seem to love it in a totally passionate want-to-touch kind of way.

All of that aside, it’s been a long time since you’ve all seen or heard any shred of information concerning the whereabouts of one Mr. Adam Sizlewski (AKA Sizzler). Well, I figured I’d bring along a little teaser for Season 2 of The Leet World which finally reveals his location, and maybe ties up a few loose ends on the way.

Also, it tells you when to expect Season 2. Try not to hyperventilate, but it’s cool if you are, I am too. Video after the jump!

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Last night, we filmed the first scene of Season 2 of The Leet World. Pretty wild. Of course, we would have gotten more done, except we were having all kinds of technical issues with the capture card and with the camera computer. But hey, I guess that means it’s business as normal, eh? Wouldn’t be TLW if there wasn’t a bunch of complications. Now that the dust is all cleared out, we should be off to the machinimaking races.

I can’t wait to show you guys some proper screenshots, and you should start getting some of those next week, once we have some things we can really display. For now though, I have brought some teasers…

Looks like somebody’s got a bit of an upgrade…

Have fun with that. Also, I just put up an article at GamerSushi titled “Are we Really Ready for the Next Gen?”. You guys should check it out, and I would appreciate it if you could Digg it, too, for those of you who enjoy it. I’d heart you forever. Or at least for today.

I thought I’d post to let you guys know that Jace (aka DamnDangerous) has put up a preview of 2 songs from the TLW Season One Soundtrack, due out in the next couple of weeks. I know we’ve been promising this thing for awhile, but getting everything in order is a lot more complicated than we thought, and the album got all the time it needed to be as excellent as possible.

The two songs are on Jace’s myspace page. One is titled “If It Bleeds”, which is from Episode 8 during the hunt of the Domination Man, and the other is called “The End of all Things” which is from part 3 of the Season Finale. He has remixed and fleshed out both of these tracks from their original small bits from the episodes and turned them into fully realized songs.

Remember, this is just a preview, so you won’t be able to download them until we start selling the album. Trust me when I say it’ll be worth it.

Each of the songs that Jace chose for the soundtrack has gotten similar treatment (10 songs in all plus 3 additional versions of the theme), so you can trust me when I say it freaking rocks. Expect a full track listing and price details in a week or so.

Go listen!

So, here’s the commentary for Episode 3 of The Leet World, which we were finally able to record when Daniel got back. Pardon some of the audio levels, there were a few mic issues, forcing us to record it the way we would a podcast, rather than what the last commentaries sounded like.

On the plus side, it is now attached to the video of Episode 3, so no worries on playing it yourself in time with the audio file. We might get around to the first two eps eventually, but there definitely wasn’t time to do it over the weekend. This whole commentary thing has been trial and error for us, that’s for sure. I think the Ep 4 commentary will be perfect.

So listen/watch, comment and enjoy. Don’t worry if you don’t see any video at first, it doesn’t start til a few seconds in.

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Thanks for the cool response that you guys gave to the G.R.I.E.F. trailer. I’ve got to say, the general excitement people showed for it was pretty sweet. We’re looking forward to doing a few episodes of G.R.I.E.F. while we continue to recharge and prepare for Season 2 of The Leet World.

The Web Zeroes Pilot should be hitting at some point next week, as well as some other cool TLW extras. Also, PAX is this weekend, and I really can’t wait, but more on that later.

It occurred to me that some of you dudes would be stoked to have a couple of the maps that we film on. Nothing too exciting, just thought you’d like to have them. So, here you go- simply download these and then stick them into your cstrike/maps folder:

TLW House
Death Room

Edit: For those of you wondering, the TLW House is an edited Militia map with no hosties, no time limit, no cars in the garage and Leeroy’s Lair. Also, that map probably won’t work in GMod if you don’t have CSS, but the Death Room should be just fine.