According to the Nielson Company (via the Examiner), the Xbox 360 is the gaming platform with the most ‘active users’ – the percentage of owners of a particular console that regularly use their console for gaming. (Halo 3 can almost certainly be credited with a significant portion of this success – and Halo 2 is holding up the original Xbox numbers, as well.) The least-used system? The Wii. I guess once you buy it… it just sits there. (Louis Wu 18:01:23 UTC)

Three new vids for you, courtesy of urk and the BungLog™:

• Dutchy presents ‘Believe’ Minitage – no audio (YouTube blocked it for copyright violations), but decent (if a little twitchy) gameplay.
• Crazy Fish Productions put together Episode 2: Fails. It’s always entertaining to see people beating themselves.
• The Funtage Crew released Community Funtage 7 – six and a half minutes of submitted clips, just for fun.

Go watch!(Louis Wu 17:50:33 UTC)

Looks like the press embargo on ODST content has ended; 1UP, IGN, and TeamXbox all have new previews up. The focus seems to be the last three Mythic maps (Citadel, Heretic, and Longshore). GameVideos has HD clips showing all three maps, while IGN’s clips (at least for non-Insiders) are SD. All three previews contain boatloads of new screens. Look for more previews from other gaming sites as the day goes on!(Louis Wu 17:21:08 UTC)

There is a vocal group of gamers who, when they discovered that Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight mode wouldn’t have a Matchmaking component (that is – you can’t go in alone and be matched up with random teammates via LIVE), complained loudly – why couldn’t Bungie let them play the way they wanted? Kotaku Australia asked the same question last week – but at least they asked someone who could answer. Curtis Creamer explained the rationale behind a friends-only Firefight mode. (Louis Wu 11:54:12 UTC)

FyreWulff is beginning to put together a website called ‘Burn My Minutes’ – it’s a way to share Bungie Pro rendering minutes with those who might need them. He’s currently looking for beta-testers – swing by and read the post, and if you’ve got one extra minute per month, join him! (Louis Wu 11:53:53 UTC)

This video showed up on NeoGAF… and made me laugh a LOT. If you wondered what Frankie does when he’s not facilitating Halo anime… wonder no more. (Louis Wu 11:53:35 UTC)

We haven’t had a lot of comic news recently – and today’s not a whole lot different. Hawty McBloggy let us know about ODS Steve #37 (POW) (Sarge might be in trouble)… and gunluva noticed a minor Halo reference in the latest VG Cats. That’s all we go for ya! (Louis Wu 11:53:12 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy posted a pair of Halo-related articles yesterday – a fan noticed the similarities between Halo 2’s ship-to-ship bomb and a particular type of fruit… and Hawty has come up with a series of Halo multiplayer-related drinking games. (Halo and alcohol don’t mix, unless you don’t really care about hitting your targets…) This is not an encouragement to drink while underage, or drink irresponsibly. (Louis Wu 11:52:39 UTC)

urk continued posting late into the night last night – check out a nearly 2-minute-long ‘bicycle’ in a Warthog from A Man Canon, and a link to Sandman’s Sandstorm, a lightly-edited montage with some pretty sweet gameplay. Go watch!(Louis Wu 11:52:18 UTC)