Author: halo@bungie.org

CVG has a short newsbit about the prices of Halo 3: ODST in the UK, and how game sellers are using the Reach Beta as a chance to sell a bunch of extra copies. Current prices range from £15-20 (US $23-$31). Do you have YOUR copy?(Louis Wu 13:59:54 UTC)

PopMatters has an article entitled ‘Team Economics in Halo 3: ODST’ – it’s an ode to coop play. (Louis Wu 13:59:25 UTC)

GrimBrother One noticed a new website, Welcome to Noble Team, with a teaser image that makes it clear that content will begin arriving on Wednesday – and onebitrocket found a note on Facebook describing an upcoming Spartan ad that launches tomorrow (on television – not on the web until Wednesday). Birth of a Spartan? Sounds…

Marcus posted a quick note up on the Reach Developer Log – looks like water algorithms still rely on older code, so building water elements requires knowledge that newer engineers might not have. Lucky Marcus!(Louis Wu 13:58:27 UTC)

Rampancy.net has rearranged the way it presents the various versions of its podcast – the mp3 is now available in streaming format (because more browsers can handle that), while the enhanced AAC can still be grabbed from iTunes. Go listen your way!(Louis Wu 13:57:56 UTC)

Wired (UK) published its Halo Reach Beta Hands-on writeup this morning – go see what they thought! (Louis Wu 13:57:26 UTC)

Rampancy.net continues their Anger, Sadness, and Envy Podcast with Episode 15 – Reach Beta Preview Part 1. 75 minutes of discussion among Narcogen, Blackstar, and Miguel Chavez about the upcoming beta (along with some final comments about ODST and Halo 2). Go listen!(Louis Wu 23:47:01 UTC)

Gamespy has Ten Things You’ll Love About the Halo: Reach Beta – they’ve taken a look at some of the coolest factoids about next week’s big drop.(Louis Wu 23:16:49 UTC)

Wanna see what one guy can do with the Halo Custom Edition engine? Check out 3 Years and 11 Maps, from Inferno – there’s a video which gives you a taste of the work done, but you should download ’em and play ’em to REALLY appreciate the work.(Louis Wu 23:10:17 UTC)

This week’s Top Ten Halo 3 Screenshots are ‘Reach’-themed – Interesting combination of shots! (Some are recreations of Reach scenes in Halo 3… while others focus more on the action itself.)(Louis Wu 23:07:05 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found an ancient version of Mister Chief… in Alaska. Oddness! Not your style? Check out Grin + Bear It: Nag Nag Nag… There are definite uses for Bowser.(Louis Wu 23:04:05 UTC)

The Podtacular Episode with Burnie Burns went live a couple of days ago – interesting conversation! 86 mb, three and a half hours(!!). Go listen!(Louis Wu 23:03:38 UTC)

CrazedOne1988 whipped up the next chapter in his Halo Nintendo/Halo mashup videos (we mentioned the last batch here). Amazing work!(Louis Wu 23:02:53 UTC)

Xmoosev3 posted 17 minutes of Halo 2 action collected during his last night online… sounds like he had fun! (Louis Wu 23:02:36 UTC)

2good4u2 whipped up a custom Halo 3 poster a while ago, and printed it up for his wall. The pics are lousy (phonecam) – but the concept rocks.(Louis Wu 23:02:12 UTC)

Time Glitch wrote up a review of Halo 3: ODST – specifically targeted at folks who haven’t bought it yet. Wondering if buying it just for the Reach Beta is overspending? Go read and find out.(Louis Wu 23:01:48 UTC)

I dug up the keys to the Weekly Update Archive, and placed this week’s Update (described super awesomely by mnemesis yesterday) in it. I’ve been told it’s useful on lower-bandwidth connections. Sorry for the delay.(Louis Wu 23:00:52 UTC)

Looks like we missed a Firefight Friday Challenge – not sure if they’re still doable after the fact, but I guess FyreWulff would let you know. Cloud City is set on Windward, and has four difficulty options. Check it out! (Louis Wu 23:00:28 UTC)

Back from Internetless World – let’s see if I can catch up on some of the stuff that showed up recently. (mnemesis did a FANTASTIC job of keeping the front page from being empty – but jumping in to run HBO periodically is like sipping from a firehose. Sometimes, you just need to come up…

The Weekly Update went up, er, yesterday (news is hard!). Lots of info about the Invasion gametype and Boneyard (the map it’ll be played on), playlists available during the Beta (it’s super awesome), stuff that won’t be in the Beta (it’s super awesome – wait! No Race?!? That’s NOT super awesome!), control schemes and other…