This week’s Bungie Weekly Update— only two more to go now before the game’s out– is supposedly the biggest ever, at least in terms of kilobytes. Most of the content consists of pictures of Kotubukiya Halo 3 statues and McFarlane Halo 3 figures. The last image is interesting, though, as it seems to show the upcoming revisions to Bungie.net, including the windowed screenshot and recent games interfaces. All the toy images are in our new Halo 3 Toy gallery.

1Up’s Halo 3 coverage continues; this time, the Retronauts Blog is traveling further back in time to the colony ship Marathon. There’s also an indication from Greg “Hippieman” Morrison from Freeverse in the comments to that entry to the effect that if there’s enough interest, that Marathon Infinity and even the original Marathon can also be brought to Xbox Live, just like Marathon: Durandal has been.

GUI J, from XBL Radio has just posted a video interview with Wizkids, the makers of Halo ActionClix. Check it out!

Just thought i’d let you guys know that my son was born September 5th, 2007. Both him and his mom are doing great. we just got home today. His name is Logan.

This is just my opinion on the matter and should be taken as such
http://hushedcasket.com

HBO is announcing the winners of their latest Seven on Seven contest. This last competition was to put the Master Chief into an older Bungie game. The seven winners get free downloads of Freeverse’s Marathon:Durandal from Xbox Live Arcade.

Japanese publication PingMag interviews Bungie’s environmental artist Ken Taya on the cultural influences on design jobs here and in Japan:

Well in terms of semantics the actual word designer and the roles associated with this position differ. Here comes an over generalisation: I feel that the Japanese game developers really focus on the feel of the game above everything else – and the US developers, the look.

A lot of interesting observations on the industry from both sides; check out the entire interview. Thanks Louis Wu for the heads-up.

TeamXbox interviews Todd McFarlane, designer of new Halo toys and the Halo 3 controller. The first two pages are mostly about his failed baseball career and his entry into the world of comics, mainly Spawn, but by page three he’s talking about how they make figures from the information Bungie sends them:

We’re developing figures right now from the game that wouldn’t necessarily be so loyal to the wireframe. We are actually treating the figures as if we were making a movie, and what the body positioning may look like in action sequences. There are some limitations to how the character can be posed in the game, so we are being a little more creative with the figures. We’ll still use all of Bungie’s data in terms of what the uniforms and armor looks like, but put the figures in a pose that is more military-like. In essence, more movie frame, and less like a screen capture from a video game.

McFarlane closes by saying there are Halo-related things they’re doing that aren’t yet public, so there’s still more to come.

Bungie.net’s latest feature is an interview with Robert McLees, artist-turned-writer who maintains the Halo Bible. What’s the Halo Bible? Funny you should ask:

For lack of a more romanticized description it is the ponderous collection of lies, damned lies, and half-truths from which the entire Halo Universe is constructed. It is the tome which informs core fiction decisions (and is in turn expanded by them). It is that indespensible cheat sheet that helps us keep all the stories we’ve told straight in our collective heads. Admittedly we have not always been the best at this (but I think we’ve been getting better).

In addition to the aesthetically pleasing half-truths in the Bible, there are links to detailed backgrounds on each of the Covenant weapons:

• Plasma Rifle
• Plasma Pistol
• Carbine
• Needler
• Beam Rifle
• Fuel Rod Cannon

homicidal insomniac blogged something he came across in the Se7enSins.com forum; the aftermath of one of the unauthorized Epsilon players that The Hushed Casket mentioned awhile back.

The upshot?

Banned. Until December 31, 9999. Not just the XBL gamertag, but the console as well.

So, yes: it is possible to override the per-gamertag restriction on closed test executables like the Halo 3 Epsilon test if you can get access to the gamertag account of an authorized user.

It is also very, very easy for Microsoft to find you. So don’t bother.

UPDATE: It is worth noting that this entire process is very similar to that surrounding the COD4 Beta. News outlets have been claiming that Microsoft recently banned over 20,000 XBL accounts for unauthorized access to this beta, but Major Nelson is denying this, despite admitting that unauthorized access to such a beta is a violation of the Terms of Service.

With September 25th fast approaching, it’s almost a sure bet that copies of Halo 3 will be flying off the shelves at stores across the globe. If you’re expecting to grab a copy on launch day, it’s probably best to pre-order your copy now and ensure that you’ll get one.

We’ve set up links with Amazon.com and ShopTo.com for our members to order directly, while also helping support Podtacular. So, if you decide to pre-order (or plan on purchasing anything else from these retailers), we’d appreciate it if you used the following links:

Pre-order from Amazon.com | Pre-order from ShopTo.com (UK)