Author: halo@bungie.org

USA Today has an interview with Joe Staten and Marty O’Donnell online now – it’s aimed at a pretty general audience, so you might not find anything you don’t already know… but on the other hand, it’s pretty cool to see Joe tying together disparate chunks of the Halo storyline into a cohesive package you…

Red vs Blue Recreation Chapter 14 (The Installation) went live last night, as a new chapter does every Monday… but some of us were too busy playing ODST’s campaign to notice. Lots and lots of stuff happens – we’re moving quickly towards a crescendo. TLQ* is quite high in this ep. *Total Laugh Quotient(Louis Wu…

A marketing research fan has found that there’s plenty of room for multiple AAA titles this fall; more than half the people who plan to purchase Halo 3: ODST also plan to purchase Modern Warfare 2. (There are overlaps with other games, as well – the median number of planned game purchases in the next…

Joystiq has an interview with Microsoft’s Ryan Crosby and Bungie’s Alex Pfeiffer about ODST – lots of basic info, plus how it grew from an expansion into a full-fledged game, how this fits into the Halo universe, where it’s all going, and more. 8 minutes of question and answers – give it a watch!(Louis Wu…

PlanetXbox360 is giving away a copy of ODST – all you have to do to qualify is post 20 times in their forum (and add your name to the specific thread mentioned in the newspost) before Friday. Hey – who doesn’t like free stuff? (Louis Wu 12:28:15 UTC)

Narcogen let us know that the next chapter of ‘Anger, Sadness, and Envy’ (the R.net podcast devoted to discussing Halo 3 campaign levels) is live – Blackstar, Narcogen, and special guest Miguel Chavez discuss the level Cortana. Not a single mention of ODST! (I don’t think…)(Louis Wu 12:27:46 UTC)

Yesterday, Willy noticed that ‘ODST’ was in the top 6 Trending Topics on Twitter. This morning… it’s at #2. Me? I think that just means too many Bungie fans use Twitter…(Louis Wu 12:27:19 UTC)

A quick word of warning, courtesy of Wired Magazine – do NOT forget to save your Campaign progress before jumping into Firefight. (Easy to do, if you’re responding to an invite…) Thanks, Dani. (Louis Wu 12:26:57 UTC)

If you missed the official Launch Party in Seattle last night, swing by bungietweets – there are lots of pics.(Louis Wu 12:26:37 UTC)

Botolf posted a bunch of screenshots over at NeoGAF of an ODST-inspired Halo Custom Edition multiplayer map. (The last one is rather poignant.) The map’s not available yet, so for now it’s just the screenshots – but go look! (It’s not his map, he’s just posting the pics.)(Louis Wu 12:26:11 UTC)

Not to be sidetracked by the release of Halo 3: ODST, Azrael stopped in yesterday with word of a new chapter of Minutemen: The Crucible – swing by his site to read it.(Louis Wu 12:25:54 UTC)

2good4u2 whipped up a batch of ODST-flavored panoramas – three of them are from Campaign modes (no spoilers), and two are from the new Mythic maps (well, outside of them). Amazing. (Heretic’s skybox is awe-inspiring.)(Louis Wu 12:25:22 UTC)

IGN posted a short (one minute long) montage of Brute fighting in Firefight. (It’s called a ‘Brute Chieftan Montage’ – but most of the action is Brute Leaders or even below.) No spoilers. Thanks, Minime637. While you’re over there, you can take a look at ‘Halo: The Many Looks of the Covenant’, a guide to…

There’s been a little confusion about how many levels there are in Firefight – are there 99 rounds? More? Less? Bungie’s JonnyOThan stopped in to our forum last night with the opinion that there actually is no limit – but that at some point (likely well beyond where YOU’LL ever get to) the game will…

Last week, Best Buy hosted a chat with Bungie developers – some HBO regulars attended, and Jordan117 sent along a transcript of the evening. You can view it here. Lots of questions – see what’s new for you! (Louis Wu 18:45:29 UTC)

Rockslider’s been a contributor to our forum for years – he tends to play the heck out of Halo’s campaign (well, Halo and Halo 3, anyway – he was pretty unhappy with Halo 2), and then write up his findings. Until recently, however, he had no way of collecting screenshots or video – so his…

xIIEnderIIx noticed a new Inside Xbox feature on Xbox LIVE Marketplace – it’s a tour of Bungie’s studio, given by Brian Jarrard to OXM’s Ryan McCaffrey. If you can’t see it on Xbox LIVE, you can grab it in HD from us, either in WMP9 format (155 mb) or QuickTime format (135 mb). Cool views…

rolandk73 was at the North Babylon ODST truck stop yesterday – he posted some photos. Nice costumes! (And a beautiful day…)(Louis Wu 14:55:06 UTC)

More information on the metagame within ODST that was developed by Fourth Wall Studios – go read at VentureBeat. (Louis Wu 14:54:45 UTC)

Impervium pointed out another streaming option for hearing the Halo 3: ODST soundtrack (mixed in with other soundtracks) – read his post to learn about StreamingSoundtracks. (Louis Wu 14:54:21 UTC)