Author: halo@bungie.org

Empress Cortana pointed out a contest being run by MySpace – Xbox and Bungie are looking for music to be included “on an upcoming Halo 3 record” (wording further down the page suggests it’ll be an album entitled ‘Inspired by Halo 3’) – if your entry is selected, you’re on the disc, and you (along…

In this little piece in the Hollywood Reporter about how Gamestop (a retailer) is doing well and Midway (a publisher) is doing poorly, there’s an amazing tidbit – Gamestop will capture 25-30% of all sales of Halo 3, worldwide. That’s a rather huge number; I had no idea they were THAT big.(Louis Wu 13:47:49 UTC)

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned Big Science, the guys behind the music used in the ‘Making of Diorama’ video – you can read more about how this gig came to be in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.(Louis Wu 13:43:33 UTC)

Wow, this is sort of weird. Someone is auctioning off their friendship (as an Xbox Live Halo 3 playing buddy) on eBay – the Buy-it-Now price was set to $4000, but since bidding has actually kicked off, that’s no longer an option. Current bid is $20.50, with a day and a half left to go.…

IGN Insider looks at Halo 1, 2, and 3 to see what works and what doesn’t through the series. Unfortunately, it’s not readable without a subscription.(Louis Wu 13:21:42 UTC)

Remember that Special Halo 3 Xbox Super Bundle we mentioned last week? The auction finished last night – final price was $8,400. Not too bad for the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County! (They’re the ones this was for.) (Louis Wu 13:18:14 UTC)

Heh – there’s a story in the Rider News about the popularity of Halo 3; a Gamestop employee describes a customer trading in a Wii to buy Halo and a 360.”He spent $430 just to play one game,” Taylor said. “I guarantee that didn’t happen in any other store except ours.”I guarantee Taylor is wrong.…

Jake Seaton’s Mission-a-Day (sort of) walkthrough of Halo 3 was updated last night; Day 4 is now online (in lots of newspapers). He liked the Missile Pod quite a lot. If you missed them, we mentioned Day 3 here, while links to 1 and 2 are here. (Louis Wu 13:11:15 UTC)

Someone had to do it – a site has been created where someone has been collecting funny screenshots from fileshares, and putting them in one place. (As far as I can tell, there’s zero attribution to the original screenshot taker, which sort of stinks.) What’s amazing to me is the nearly 2000 diggs this has…

It… I don’t… guh. Frogblast has invented a NEW Halo 3 sport – Fish-stunning. Read his post, watch the movie. Then go play. (Louis Wu 12:43:39 UTC)

The first real Halo 3 Humpday Challenge (that is, between Bungie and people outside Bungie, with filmz you can download and everything) was played this week; five Bungie guys went into the Social Slayer matchmaking list, and barely squeaked out a win over a bunch of randomly selected casual players. Hmm… I wonder what’s going…

Another four, today:Blogcritics gave it 5 stars, LOVED the multiplayer, were disappointed by parts of the campaign. (Thanks, Rampancy.net)The Eastern Progress had three separate writers look at it; they all agreed, it was a winner – apparently it has “pushed people to the limit of class attendance policies.”The Tracy Press gives Halo 3 a 10/10A…

Eleven new pieces up for you this week in the Fan Fiction section… get to reading!(Louis Wu 12:08:46 UTC)

Jon Ogg, at 24/7 Wall St., says $300 million is nothing – Halo 3 will hit $500 million soon. (I suppose if ‘soon’ means ‘sometime in the next two or three years’, I’d agree with him. If he means ‘before the end of 2007’… I’m not sure I’d take that bet. He probably means something…

Sean “Shidarin/ig98” Wallitsch (longtime bungie.org readers might recognize the name; ig98 was one of the first maintainers of myth.bungie.org, back in 1999) picked up some Halo ActionClix goodies, and was kind enough to blog about his experience. Check it out!(Louis Wu 11:53:42 UTC)

Creativity Online interviewed Niel Blomkamp about the Halo shorts he made recently (and about the Halo movie he didn’t make). It’s a pretty interesting read; he’s pretty clear that the Halo movie, in its most recent form, is quite dead… but he’s certainly willing to reconsider it if things change. The discussion about the shorts…

The Slate review of Halo 3 basically says Campaign is a total waste of time, that Multiplayer is where it’s at. “Think of it as Madden for the science-fiction crowd. It ain’t art, but it sure is fun.” Um… I’m not sure we’re playing the same game. Thanks, Salen Stormwing.(Louis Wu 21:19:43 UTC)

Speaking of Master Chief costumes – Gustav Ljungdahl, a Swedish Halo fan, sent us some pictures of his homemade Master Chief outfit – total cost was $40. MC photographed by a semi-naked man | MC fighting Samus Aran | MC in bed with a cute girl Not a bad job!(Louis Wu 18:27:02 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has been busy; she’s got an interview with Pavel Dolgov, who does a lot of Halo-related art (check our news for links), plus a couple of fun eBay items – a foam sheeting Master Chief costume, and a Master Chief sculpture made from real engine parts. Whee!(Louis Wu 18:20:49 UTC)