Author: halo@bungie.org

I noticed that Halo 3: ODST was NOT in the Top 5 Xbox 360 games sold for the week of May 13 (according to Gamasutra), so I went back a bit. Last week, ODST was #5, and the week before that it was #3. (There is no ‘Saling The World’ article for the week of…

Hedgemony is getting into the Wallpaper game – cehck out his ode to the Assault Rifle. Love or hate the weapon, it’s hard to deny that the wallpaper rocks.(Louis Wu 15:04:55 UTC)

RVideo whipped up a really cool panorama from Boneyard – take a look! (He’s also posted a single-shot overhead view of the entire Boneyard gamespace – awesome for planning routes!)(Louis Wu 15:04:38 UTC)

Eep – we almost forgot! Yesterday was Thursday, so the Halo 3 Double XP Weekend Playlist went live… this week, it’s Rocket Race. Missing that glorious drive-and-shoot gametype? Take a break from the Reach Beta and go play! (Don’t forget to save any films you might want clips of before you do, though; each time…

FyreWulff is back with another Firefight Friday challenge – this one’s called ‘Beta Zone’, and it takes place on Alpha Site. You’ve got two difficulty variants: Heroic… or Heroic with the Blind Skull. This is the last ‘Firefight Friday’ – he’s back next week, but it’ll be a Campaign challenge. Go play!(Louis Wu 14:59:08 UTC)

Hedgemony is offering to colorize your favorite Reach Beta screenshot, turning it into an interesting keepsake. Go check out his example (and the first request), and then drop your own screen in the queue!(Louis Wu 14:58:29 UTC)

AsiansOnFire started up a machinima series last year, for a senior project – didn’t get enough support from the community, so he only made the first episode. Go watch it – then decide if you want to help with a reboot effort! (Louis Wu 14:57:18 UTC)

Eight new pieces are up this week in the Fan Fiction section – go read!(Louis Wu 14:56:10 UTC)

Urban Reflex posted a short (2:39) tribute to Halo 2… light-hearted, yet poignant. Go watch action from his last night! (Louis Wu 14:54:48 UTC)

Morpheus stopped by with a bunch of vids from G4TV – a 50-minute Feedback episode focused on Reach, an ‘All Access’ preview of the Beta (this was clearly posted last month), and an ODST cameo in a small X-Play feature. Go watch!(Louis Wu 14:48:29 UTC)

Some fun vid action on Bungie’s Comm Chatter todayHow to Avoid Being Assasinated [sic] is really just a bunch of assassination clips. (I suppose if you don’t do what the dead guys in the vid did, you’ll have a better chance of not being assassinated.)Skylarking is a Halo CE Trick Jumping vid (just 3 minutes)…

The DefendTheHouse crew has posted their second ‘Halo Reach: Betabusters’ video – more ‘myths’ (little-known oddities), confirmed or busted. Some interesting stuff in there!(Louis Wu 16:03:12 UTC)

Marcus posted a small note on the Reach Developer Blog that might just make you jealous – he got to hear some of the latest music coming from Marty O’Donnell yesterday. (Yes, it might sound strange to hear that even the developers are kept in the dark, musically, by Marty… but it sounds like he’s…

Bungie’s updated the Reach playlists with some pretty interesting changes – swing by the Bungie.net post for full details. Then go collect some heads!(Louis Wu 14:14:58 UTC)

Have you ever found yourself playing Halo, and said to yourself, “What this game needs are FOUNTAINS of blood. This piddly splashing just doesn’t do it for me.”? If so, check out MrIfafudafi’s ‘Ultra super high quality blood effects for Halo CE’ – we’re talking Blood Fog. Multicolored Blood Fog. Whoosh!(Louis Wu 14:04:57 UTC)

A number of people were unhappy with our newsbit about ThinkGeek’s new package of LEGO weapons – not because they have a problem with the weapons, but because they have a problem with the marketing. Those weapons are, after all, made by BrickArms, and available directly from the source (though not in that particular combination,…

BuzzJuice noticed that the latest IGN Top Beta Kills for the Week is live. I was a little disappointed to see that 20% of these were already posted in a roundup on Bungie.net (with so many thousand clips being rendered, couldn’t they find 10 that hadn’t been posted on the highest-traffic Halo site on the…

DEEP NNN pointed out a grumpy writeup of the Reach Beta over at 2old2play – Drost wants gameplay, no frills, and feels like he’s not finding it in Reach. Whether or not you agree with his points, his writeup is pretty entertaining.(Louis Wu 13:59:58 UTC)

Bungie’s posted a few fun Banshee clips they’ve dug out of the plethora of rendered vids that is the Bungie.net Fileshare – go see what awesome things people do with Banshees in Reach!(Louis Wu 13:59:26 UTC)

7he grunt w/a plasma pistol noticed that ThinkGeek is selling weapons for your LEGO minifigures – and several of them are Halo-related. The collection includes a Halo pistol, a plasma pistol, a needler, and an energy sword. It also includes the pulse rifle from Aliens, Megatron’s Walther P38, an Auto-9 pistol from Robocop, a blaster…