Author: halo@bungie.org

Time Glitch stopped in with word of ‘The Twelve Days of ODST’ – great job of finding items to fill the slots! Needs a beer in a tree.(Louis Wu 13:16:47 UTC)

Kibbles found a pretty nicely-built video someone made last week – it blends live-action and CG footage really, really well. It’s to prep you for ODST – does a great job! (Louis Wu 13:15:52 UTC)

We heard from Hawty McBloggy that ODS Steve #41 (Prophet of the Unknown) was online, and we heard from TTL Demag0gue that Reclaimer 217 (Signal Boost) was online. Comics with your morning coffee!

While most of us are waiting with bated breath for our copies of Halo 3: ODST next week, some folks are picking it up a bit early – Chuck’s Zach Levi got hooked up with a few copies from Microsoft. Must be nice! Thanks, nash–housewares. (Louis Wu 13:13:09 UTC)

EL33TONLINE noticed that (according to VGChartz) pre-orders for Halo 3: ODST now stand above 1.2 million copies. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 13:12:37 UTC)

ARGNet has an overview article about a story told within Halo 3: ODST, separate from the game. It doesn’t have any information about the story itself – mostly just about how it will be discovered, and who created it. Interesting read! (If you’re trying to stay totally spoiler-free, don’t follow the link. There aren’t really…

Bungie has posted a sneak peek of the Halo 3: ODST Official Soundtrack – it’s a clip from the official press release (ho hum) and 4 loverly downloadable clips from the sountrack itself (drooldrooldrool). Go read, go listen. Then listen some more. Honestly – this is amazing stuff. (Louis Wu 22:41:12 UTC)

Gamerscoreblog has posted details of the Halo 3: ODST Launch Party, to be held on Monday Night at the Experience Music Project building in Seattle. It does NOT sound like a party to be missed. Go read! (Thanks, Mark V.)(Louis Wu 22:38:21 UTC)

NeoGAF’s enzo_gt was first with the word about Joystiq’s Firefight Hands-on – it’s a fun read. (Louis Wu 22:33:33 UTC)

Microsoft distributed a LOT of visual assets today – we’ve got nearly 150 images, in rather absurd screensizes. (This concept painting, for example, is suitable for framing, and can be downloaded in a 4166×5820 version.) Most gaming sites will give you tiny versions – and will watermark those. We think you deserve better. Go check…

Another Bungie Fan is spotlighted in the Bungie Blog – go see what drives Bobcast!(Louis Wu 18:13:44 UTC)

There’s only one new video on B.net today – but it’s a doozy. It’s an 11 minute recreation of Weird Al’s ‘Albuquerque’ – and the video work is pretty amazing. If you’ve got the time, go watch. It’ll make you laugh.(Louis Wu 16:54:49 UTC)

The BS Police noticed a review of ODST that’s… less than kind over at Associated Content. No spoilers – so if you feel like getting the other side of the story, here’s a place. (Fair warning: the reviewer spends the first page telling you that he doesn’t plan to bash Halo at all… and then…

The Countdown to ODST continues on Spike TV – GTTV will have a bunch of Halo 3: ODST content… as well as “the world premiere of anime segments from Halo Legends’ first episode, ‘The Babysitter'”, this Thursday, September 17, at midnight. You can watch the promo trailer on YouTube. Thanks, Geoff Keighley. (Louis Wu 16:11:25…

Some awesome artwork posted this morning, from a variety of sources:Fragclone noticed a thread on polycount showing off some cool ODST renders by Heart_Murmur.Leviathan has whipped up some ODST wallpaper, both simple, and with interesting extras, inspired by Bungie’s use of ‘noir’.TDSpiral tried a different style – and ended up with a really interesting piece…

Over at Hawty McBloggy’s, Antithesis is back with more clay figures – check out his grunts, brute, and prophet! (If you swing by his website, you’ll even see two more – a CQB Spatan and a Scout Spartan. Hawty manages to bring the whole thing back around to sex, of course.(Louis Wu 16:05:24 UTC)

GameStop is hosting a Halo 3: ODST Tournament where you can win $5000, or one of thousands of other prizes. Round One (held in almost 2300 stores across the US) will pit 32 players per store against each other, with the top 4 per store advancing to Round Two. The top 2 finishers from each…

Morpheus announced the end of the most painful-to-judge contest… ever. Congratulations to all! (Louis Wu 16:04:35 UTC)

Patrick Cavanaugh had a bizarre experience yesterday, while downloading Battlefield: Bad Company on Xbox LIVE – his Xbox told him he was downloading ODST, instead. Sort of. He took some pics. (Does this mean that ODST is coming to Games on Demand? Probably not. Still pretty odd!) (Louis Wu 16:04:11 UTC)

XerxdeeJ let us know that Tied the Leader continues to hound the crew members of the ODST Roadshow – a whole passel of TTL members have gotten their Firefight on as the truck rolls through the US.(Louis Wu 16:03:49 UTC)