Author: halo@bungie.org

Elnea posted a Halo Action Figure Theater Update – this one uses the new McFarlane mini-chief. (In a somewhat disturbing setting, I’d have to say.) Go see!(Louis Wu 12:58:02 UTC)

Guns Lot has put up a ‘Top Twenty Five (25) Best Selling Video Games Of All Time’ list – this is for independent sales, not games packaged with a console. It’s actually the top 29, because there are five games tied for 25th place. Halo 2 is one of those. Thanks, Devin Olsen.(Louis Wu 12:55:50…

GamesRadar sat down and talked with Francesca Reyes, Editor-in-Chief of Official Xbox Magazine. She has the honor of being the first person outside of Bungie/Microsoft to fully play through the Halo 3 campaign – and she discusses the situation a little. (There are no spoilers, and she tells you NOTHING about the game itself -…

Frankie posted an image-heavy Weekly Update tonight, chock full of high quality pictures of upcoming merchandise. The blurbs for the images tell you where and when they’ll be available as well as just how far into debt they’ll push you. We’ve got a local mirror in our Weekly Update Archive right here, as always. Thanks…

Bungie takes as few chances as possible when it comes to Halo 3 – over at GamePro, you can read about the review sessions that will be taking place next week in New York and Seattle. Most games, a reviewer gets a copy in the mail a few weeks before release – but not Bungie’s…

Joe found the McFarlane collectibles on the IGN website – they’re on IGN Comics, and if you swing by, you can see shots of the Jackal Sniper and the Ghost. I sort of wish the Jackal Snipers weren’t so well-done… I’d love to get my hands on a bunch of ’em and just blow ’em…

Japanese PingMag has an interview with Ken Taya, Environment Artist on the Halo 3 team. It’s an interesting read from a Japanese-American about the differences between Japan and America, and how those differences have affected his sense of game design. Take a look!(Louis Wu 11:23:44 UTC)

Five new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week… light load!(Louis Wu 11:18:20 UTC)

GamingVidz just passed its 2nd Birthday – 730 days on 7/30, and they decided that this warranted a montage contest with a $730 prize. You can read all the details on the Contest Page. (No deadline set yet, that I can see.) Thanks, Tony Montanna.(Louis Wu 11:12:15 UTC)

Big Goalie Dan lets us know that Podtacular Episode 126 is out – discussion of Halo 3 and the Halo Wars video released recently. 51 minutes, 35 mb. Go listen!(Louis Wu 11:07:17 UTC)

Games Radar has an article on ridiculous realities we accept with almost no question in video games. Two of the tidbits they make fun of are prevalent in Halo. Thanks, Mike Carson.(Louis Wu 21:07:54 UTC)

Bungie.net has an interview with Robt McLees about the Halo Bible – as well as some weapon sheets culled from that document. There is a boatload of information in those weapon sheets… and in the interview. Read carefully. Thanks, Duncan.(Louis Wu 20:21:37 UTC)

Wow. Not really sure how to explain this one succinctly. Start at The Hushed Casket, I guess (thanks, Rampancy.net), to learn how a bunch of people got unauthorized access to the Halo 3 Epsilon. Then swing by homicidal insomniac to see the followup – Microsoft banned both the gamertags, AND the Console IDs, of those…

Pedro the Penguin noticed a contest at the UK version of Xbox.com; they’re giving away 150 pairs of tickets to the London Premiere of Halo 3, all you have to do is crack the code. (To make it a little harder, they’ve done something really creepy with the Master Chief’s animation on that page; he’ll…

The Praetoria Guard has released a trailer for Trinity, an upcoming machinima series. There is, in fact, an entire website devoted to the series. Swing by, read about it, and then download the trailer from the Downloads page – I have to say, it looks promising!(Louis Wu 16:01:58 UTC)

GamerZines has put up episode 10 of their 360Zine – it contains a 5 page Halo 3 preview, along with a 10 question ‘Ultimate Halo 3 Quiz’ (‘ultimate’ might be a bit premature). I aced it – can you? (The download links on the main page point to episode 9, not episode 10 – but…

Interesting. Video Games Live has announced that they’ll be releasing an album in October. (Are they still called ‘albums’?) It will include medleys from all the games they play live in concert – including Halo. Music is performed by the Slovak National Orchestra, the Crouch End Chorus, and Martin Leung, the ‘Video Game Pianist’. Release…

Over at Video Gaming Refugees, Yaters has posted an interview with Dave “Evil Otto” Candland, Bungie’s Interface Designer. It’s in two parts (Part One | Part Two) due to the characters-per-post limit on their forum. It’s a pretty interesting read – fascinating tidbits about design issues that did (and didn’t) work out, ways that Bungie…

Spu7n1k went to another “Believers” event in Singapore – his sister took a bunch of pics. The Rocket Launcher was pretty big… but the Spartan Laser was Lilliputian. I guess you can’t win ’em all! (Nice UNSCDF shirt!)(Louis Wu 13:00:18 UTC)

Another new 1Up article – this one on armor permutations. Thanks, Gravemind.(Louis Wu 12:39:34 UTC)