Okay, that IceWeasel guy… he’s just crazy. Makes me laugh… but he’s crazy. He’s followed up ‘…For the Sake of Talking’ (released last week) with …For the Sake of Yelling. It’s only 80 seconds long, but there are a number of WTF moments in there. And flying weapons. And stuff.(Louis Wu 23:13:03 UTC)

Sean Mortensen continues his musical tributes to Ghosts of Onyx – today there’s a theme for Lucy (mp3, 1 mb), and one for the Spartan III program (mp3, 2.5 mb). Give a listen! (Louis Wu 20:42:11 UTC)

You know… normally I would have let this slide, because we’ve already posted about the news that this article is ostensibly about, but there’s a comment that I simply don’t feel comfortable letting by. Xboxer put up a news post about the Jeff Bell comment to Major Nelson which many sites have been interpreting as possible confirmation of 4-player coop (we put up a note last night), and in it they commented on the ESRB rating it looks like Halo 3 will get:

Halo 3 is likely to receive an ESRB rating of “M” for Mature, just like its two predecessors. According to this official guidelines, titles with this rating “have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.”

Bell’s three sons are aged 10, 14, and 18, so he’s basically making a public statement of his intention to ignore the parental guidelines laid down by a regulatory body. That’s fine for Joe Public, but not so good when you’re in the business of making videogames and should be setting a public example.

I’d like to point out that ESRB’s guidelines are exactly that – guidelines. Choosing to play an M-rated game with your sub-17-year-old children (or, for that matter, a T-rated game with your sub-13-year-old kids) does not mean you’re ‘ignoring the guidelines’ – it means you’ve considered them, and chosen to override them. Mr. Bell did not say “yeah, I think my kids are gonna be playing that Halo game” – he talked about playing the game WITH them. He knows what’s in it, he knows his children, and he’s made a decision that the game is appropriate for them. And that is absolutely the perogative (indeed, the JOB) of a parent. Okay, enough editorializing on the news page. Sorry. I just thought that needed to be clarified.(Louis Wu 20:18:53 UTC)

1Up has a writeup of the level one demo that many press folks saw at E3. So does Too Opinionated Gaming. So does Ars Technica (which uses the article to mention the Saved Film editor and the playable gravity hammer, as well). And Wired. ActionTrip was there (they have a separate writeup of the Halo Wars demo, as well). And our very own mnemesis spent Friday afternoon in a Santa Monica hotel room. Everybody brings their own take to these sorts of demos; some of these are short reads, nothing more than an overview, while others are in-depth looks at what’s changed and what hasn’t. (I might be biased, but I found mnem’s writeup to be the best overview of this batch; he didn’t try to provide a summary of the actual gameplay, but instead tried to focus on how the new features of Halo 3, as shown in this demo, affected the actual gameplay.) Go read up.(Louis Wu 13:03:13 UTC)

Gizmodo talked to Peter Moore about the ‘tepid reaction’ the audience had to his unveiling of the Halo 3 Xbox 360 at the Microsoft Press Conference last Tuesday. Moore wrote it off to his poor showmanship, rather than a true indication of the demand for this product. Either way, it’ll be available for preorder soon – we’ll know which is the true interpretation.(Louis Wu 12:47:01 UTC)

Mintz tells us that the next ‘regularly scheduled podcast’ is now available at Halo: Portable. They discuss a bunch of stuff (itemized on that link page above.) Hmm… given that the last one was in late February, I suppose you can expect Episode 10 to show up some time near Christmas. (Louis Wu 12:40:33 UTC)

Mister Froggy let us know about Halo, Articulated #56 – Bungie didn’t give you the dialogue that goes with some of the scenes in the recent Halo 3 trailer, but one of them is unveiled here for you.(Louis Wu 12:34:59 UTC)

Hmm… Either Jeff Bell (Microsoft VP) slipped up and admitted something he shouldn’t be talking about… or we’re just misunderstanding the context. UNSCleric.com picked up a throwaway comment at the end of an interview Jeff gave to Major Nelson – and in it he seems to be saying that Halo 3 will have 4-person co-op. (Bungie has confirmed that Co-op will be in Halo 3 – but past that basic fact, NOTHING has been confirmed; we don’t know how many people will be able to play cooperatively, and we don’t know whether they’ll be confined to a single 360, or will be able to play via system link, or online. So this tidbit, if true and being interpreted correctly, adds a tiny bit to our overall knowledge base.) Found this at Digg.(Louis Wu 01:11:54 UTC)

The Bungie Weekly Update is up now (both at Bungie, and in our Weekly Update Archive) – a nice summary of how the week went for Brian and Frankie, down in LA at E3, plus an awesome shot of the cover for this fall’s Halo novel. Go read! Avateur was first with the notice.(Louis Wu 01:01:19 UTC)

Spong has an interview with Colin Riley, Technical Artist for Halo 2 Vista, covering the game and how some decisions about it were made. For a technical artist, he certainly seems to have the marketingspeak down…(Louis Wu 19:37:34 UTC)

I seem to have misunderstood – Halopen’s Threshold Part 1 is already out, and available on their website, in multiple formats. Very heavy on the effects, intriguing use of mods, nice cinematography. Story seems a bit slow, and somewhat capricious – but it’s worth watching. Check it out!(Louis Wu 18:48:26 UTC)

The puns in today’s One One Se7en will make you wish Stuntmutt’s paternity leave had been longer. Maybe if we all chip in…(Louis Wu 17:59:10 UTC)

DarkSim noticed a piece of artwork at DeviantART created by the comic book artist Daniel Luvisi – It’s a rendition of the Master Chief, and is listed as ‘Sneak Peek’. More to come?(Louis Wu 17:56:11 UTC)

Boxer has returned to AiD (If you’re too new to the HBO community to remember Adventures in Disaster, check our news archive – some of the links still work). COMIX!(Louis Wu 17:42:26 UTC)

Geoff Chang re-edited the Arms Race video to be more ‘propaganda-like’, in his words. The end result is pretty interesting! There are two trailers in his first post, and another one in this post – all to the same movie, just different hosts/formats. Watch the one that works best for you.(Louis Wu 17:37:06 UTC)