Author: halo@bungie.org

mrbilly93 checked a bunch of different retailers for you – Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Toys R Us (all in the US), and found that so far, only Amazon and Gamestop are offering the “Sgt Johnson in Firefight” bonus for preorders. (Gamestop is still the only place you can preorder the ODST Collector Pack…

This is usually a Bungie.net specialty… but Tommy92L sent along a link to a video showing off some fun racing on Skybox-based Halo 3 racetracks – no links to the actual maps, but it’s pretty fun to see how varied these are!(Louis Wu 16:33:56 UTC)

The Video Games Live crew is releasing a new 2gb MP3 player with preloaded content from the VGL shows – including the Halo suite. It’s selling for $50, either on their website or at VGL shows.(Louis Wu 16:07:40 UTC)

Apologies – you may have noticed the lack of updates here at HBO today; it’s never fun when a server dies. Things should be up and running again soon – Sorry for the delay! (Louis Wu 18:28:40 UTC)

Daniel ‘Tyrant’ Morris is at it again – complete the first of 10 challenges at Mythic Difficulty, win a shot at Recon armor. All the details can be found at Bungie.net – check the rules, and get to playing!(Louis Wu 21:06:24 UTC)

vociferous continues to delve deeply into Bungie’s lore – his latest article looks at Halo 3: ODST in the context of what Bungie might have been striving towards for the past 7 years. Pretty interesting speculation! Go read The Prodigal. Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 20:44:21 UTC)

HBO regular JeSteR 343 sent word of a tragic situation in Tennessee – Megan Maxwell, a teenager, disappeared without a trace a month ago. She was a member of JeSteR’s church, and they’re trying to raise money for the family to continue the search. They’re organizing a Halo 3 tournament in July (more details coming…

A week and a half ago, Bungie mentioned the screenshot printing services offered by haloscreenshots.com. We’ve sampled the work, and have written up the experience, in the hopes that it will aid you in your decision-making. Take a look!(Louis Wu 19:26:23 UTC)

It’s Monday, so Bungie.net has a new Tag and Release feature for you, showing off some cool images – the tag is ‘Sword’, and the images are very awesome. Go look!(Louis Wu 17:00:57 UTC)

Couple of videos to enjoy, courtesy of B.net: Lagout is the start of a series in which several players get trapped in a game they can’t quit, and Shenanigans 3 is the latest montage from ChrisOfTheDead, containing some truly bizarre events taken from matchmaking games. Go watch!(Louis Wu 16:59:19 UTC)

Congrats to Str8 Rippin, who beat some impressive competition to take first place in the MLG Columbus event. Full results can be found on this page. The videos aren’t available on the VoD page yet – but they probably will be soon. (You can find some footage on the ESPN Saturday Night page.)(Louis Wu 14:55:45…

Some old-timers might remember Grunts are People Too!!, a machinima series from a few years back (2004-5). Its creator, Motherstooth, is back with a new blog – go see what he’s up to, Halo-wise!(Louis Wu 14:38:07 UTC)

Decadence Night has gathered up all of his Halo 3 panoramas, and posted them at DeviantART. Some you’ve seen before, some you haven’t – there are 96 in total. Go check ’em out!(Louis Wu 14:34:03 UTC)

DHalo noticed that some new Halo-related accessories will be available for your Xbox LIVE avatar – but they won’t be cheap. (The Warthog, for example, is 320 MS Points – $4 US.) Hmmm, indeed.(Louis Wu 14:32:10 UTC)

Just a few comics for you this morning:Bloogyo let us know about Rat’s Nest 17 5 (and reminded people to hit the ‘previous’ button a few times for missed eps).N. Rackley sent word that his webcomic, Lakewood, is Halo-related today in honor of the episode number (117). Heh.TTL Demag0gue stopped in with word of Reclaimer…

Awesome – Split-Screen noticed that a new trademark application has been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office by Bungie, LLC – “We make games that we want to play”. Sounds about right! (Bungie has been saying that this is what they do for a dozen years – but this application was filed just…

You might remember Marissa’s Bunny – Fairfax has been traveling around the US, raising awareness about Marissa’s illness, infantile spasms. We recently got word from Marissa’s dad that Marissa is back in the hospital – her spasms are out of control. He’s hoping that anyone who can send along kind wishes will do so -…

Zeouterlimits pointed out that Jason Sussman (Bungie Finishing Artist) mentioned in his twitter feed that he’d recorded the Bungie public* demo of ODST – it’s 20 minutes long, and is presented by Brian Jarrard and Curtis Creamer. If you’ve been watching every movie that comes out, you’ve seen most of this before – but it’s…

A blog called ‘White Rabbit Trails’ has been creating Halo 3 wallpapers based on vectorized versions of the medals you can earn during multiplayer games. The backgrounds are nicely distressed – if you’re looking for simple but attractive Halo 3 images for your wallpaper, check these out. There are three wallpapers per set:Set 1 |…

Firestorm12 sent word that Halopen has released the Halopen Pencast 10, ostensibly recorded at E3, with lots of discussion of Bungie’s upcoming projects.(Louis Wu 20:52:56 UTC)