Author: halo@bungie.org

ElzarTheBam found a link on the Bungie Forums to an image in Major Nelson’s Flickr stream – part of his Halo Reach set. Seems to show off the Flaming Armor effect you’ll get if you buy the Legendary edition. (You can also see a pic of the Elite Officer armor available in the Limited Edition.)…

Because it seems to be a day for front-page pictures, here are some low-res versions of the retail packaging for Halo Reach, as seen (first) on Halo Waypoint:45k32k17k42k45k38k34k60k(The ACTUAL pictures aren’t quite as low-res as the thumbs. Don’t forget to click.) Update: REAL pictures can now be found at Bungie.net. ‘scuse me while I wipe…

The Latest Bungie ViDoc went live this morning – Carnàge Carnivàle is an adrenaline-filled look at what’s coming in the Halo Reach Beta. Devs tell you what’s cool, and why. 8 minutes of awesome. Update: this is available on YouTube, for you Philistines out there… (Louis Wu 10:28:12 UTC)

Myyke’s girlfriend, knowing how over-the-top he was with respect to Halo, found him a custom iPhone case from ElementCase for Christmas – MAN, is that thing sweet. Pics below:145k157k153k144kYou could probably have your own made – but realize it’ll cost almost as much as your iPhone… Update: Myyke has added some pricing info and a…

More Reach coverage – this time from Giantbomb. Thanks, Minime637.(Louis Wu 10:22:24 UTC)

Want to see an awesome new QuickTime VR scene of an Invasion standoff? Grab it from Bungie.net (10.6 mb). Thanks, urk. (Linked on B.net now, too – along with hi-res versions of all the images released today, sans gamesite watermarks.)(Louis Wu 22:16:19 UTC)

Microsoft’s not confirming or denying, but Joystiq has pulled some Best Buy info (from an ad supposedly coming next week) from a Cheap Ass Gamer post that expands on the info we (might) know about the Reach retail packaging. Standard is $60 – that’s pretty much a given. Limited (special case, collectibles, in-game armor) is…

Forward Unto Dawn has posted part three of ‘Backwards From Dawn’, their Halo 2 Retrospective – it’s a look from someone who truly enjoyed LAN play more than LIVE play. Where do YOU fit?(Louis Wu 17:51:44 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue makes good on his promise of a Reclaimer a day this week with Wednesday’s update – Episode 246 has Ferial in pursuit of the Reclaimer – with a vengeance.(Louis Wu 15:42:18 UTC)

dCon V found two more Kotaku articles: there’s a piece discussing the concept of classes, as they might apply to Reach, and there’s a gallery of screenshots (these are available in lots of places now). Update: And one more – Gamespot has posted their hands-on (thanks, GhaleonEB).(Louis Wu 15:37:24 UTC)

Wow. If you want all the goodness that is Reach Beta information, in one place… you couldn’t do better than GhaleonEB’s thread-starting post for the Halo: Reach Beta Thread on NeoGAF. Now THAT’S some nice summarization.(Louis Wu 15:00:08 UTC)

More coverage:TheSixthAxis (thanks, nofi)1UP (thanks, GhaleonEB)Konsolifin (in Finnish – thanks, Popeck)VG247 (thanks, Genesis Knight)CVGTotal Video GamesPlay.tmDigital SpyGameFocusVideogamer.comKotakuAlso, Joystiq (whose hands-on we mentioned in the LAST newspost) has an interview with Lars Bakken about the Beta, DLC, and the future of the franchise. See if you can keep up! Update: Looks like I missed a second…

ElzarTheBam pointed out a couple of new articles – looks like the Halo Reach media floodgates have opened. Eurogamer has a Hands-On that should comfort people who’ve lost faith in the Jetpack, and Ars Technica nails down why Halo FEELS so good. Go read! Update: almost before I could hit the ‘post’ button, dCon V…

Last year, we mentioned ‘Digilegs’, a creation of Kim Graham that lets you walk as an Elite (or any creature with reversed knees). We complained, at the time, that the price tag was steep (about $1k) – but even at that price, the demand was apparently pretty great; Kim Graham Studios has teamed up with…

We’ve missed a month of these – but if you swing by the IGN Top Kills of the Week, you can catch up by using the handy-dandy Playlist feature on the right side of the page. (We’ve linked to the most recent, April 14.) As I’ve said before, these are the sorts of kills you…

Marcus Lehto has posted a short note on the Reach Developer Blog – they’re days away from ‘content complete’, meaning all of the pieces are (almost) in place, and what’s left is polish. And then some more polish. Give it a read – he’s sounding pretty excited!(Louis Wu 12:46:30 UTC)

IGN was first out of the gate with a Reach Beta Hands-on article – skimpy on the info, but it’s info! (As the headline implies, it focuses on the Headhunter gametype.) Thanks, GrimBrother One.(Louis Wu 12:45:14 UTC)

Johnny be good from Halo.fr sent word that the second half of their Operation Chastity article is finally online. (The first half went live on March 18; this piece was supposed to launch a week later.) Definitely worth swinging by – there are lots of cool pics of the props the team will be using…

Alessandro De VEscovi sent word of the Italian Videogame Aawards, announced recently. Halo Wars took second place in the Best RTS category. ODST got a pair of nominations (Best FPS and GOTY X360), but didn’t win either one. Full list of winners is here. (Louis Wu 12:44:23 UTC)

vVv Gaming and The Game Lounge have teamed up for a Video Game Charity Marathon – on May 20, they’ll be hosting up to 12 hours of video gaming in Toms River, NJ. In the afternoon, there’ll be a 2v2 Halo 3 tourney. All proceeds will go to the American Cancer Research. Swing by, play…