Kevin Larrabee let us know that Part Time Gamers is back with Episode 1 (the last time we mentioned them, it was Episode 0, the Beta Test). This episode again has Kevin and Bungie’s Seth Gibson discussing everything from GTA: The Lost and Damned (and some of its similarities to Halo 3: ODST) to discounted copies of Hellgate: London – and everything in between. It’s almost 2 hours long, and weighs in at 46 mb. Check it out!(Louis Wu 16:01:23 UTC)

We found out that Greg Bear had signed on to write 3 Halo novels a couple of weeks ago – but yesterday the Seattle Post-Intelligencer put up some of the backstory about how that happened. Fun read! (Louis Wu 13:30:56 UTC)

T07WRX5 really liked the Vulture from Halo Wars (you can see some design shots at the Halo Wars website) – so he built one out of LEGOs. Looks like a lot of detail! (Louis Wu 13:30:15 UTC)

The Lead Technical Designer on Halo Wars wrote up a Developer Blog post describing the combat system’s core principle. Check it out!(Louis Wu 13:29:27 UTC)

It’s been rumored for some time, but it looks like it’s finally been announced – Microsoft is offering a ‘Game of the Year’ edition of its Xbox 360 Elite console. You get the console, plus Halo 3 and Fable II, all for $399. Not a bad deal!(Louis Wu 13:28:25 UTC)

Dusty Boy T (the subject of the last Aesthetic Artist Interview we posted) stopped in with word of a screenshot montage made up of his screens, and edited by RogueDarkJedi – and it tells a story. Check it out. (Louis Wu 13:27:31 UTC)

Arithmomaniac has maintained a Halo theme in the last couple of Purim costumes he’s worn – he posted pics of his Arbiter and ODST. (Louis Wu 13:20:21 UTC)

Not many comics up at this point today…

• The Catfish posted 2501 Episode 42 over the weekend (thanks, urk)
• Bloogyo started the week with Rat’s Nest Episode 10 (2 is up today, 1 was posted yesterday)
• TTL Demag0gue announced the posting of Reclaimer 179 – Ripple in the Stream – and it looks like Ferial is playing a different game than everyone else.

A little something while you sip your coffee… (Louis Wu 13:19:46 UTC)

The first easter egg on the Mythic Maps has been discovered – and it’s a pretty cool one. Swing by Hawty McBloggy’s for the low-down! Looks like a fun little message was encoded (via morse code) into the blinking lights in the distance on Assembly… and Bungie.net forumgoer Sundmann decided to see if they spelled anything. They do, of course. Thanks for playing!(Louis Wu 12:29:38 UTC)

2900d4u stopped in to announce that he’s posted COTW: Best Clips, a collection of (whoa, whoda thunk?) the best clips submitted during The Final Fight’s Clip of the Weekl contests over the last while. If you want to submit clips for the next COTW collection, he encourages you to do so – visit this forum post, and submit away!(Louis Wu 14:29:32 UTC)

urk actually pointed this out to me more than a week ago – but it seemed like such a transient achievement that I passed on mentioning it. Today, however, we received mail from the person behind this gamertag – and as nine days have passed with no change to the score, it seems more than a coincidence. I Jango I says that his gamerscore of 77,777 is a dedication to his favorite development studio. All Bungie-related games with Achievement points (Marathon, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo Wars) have contributed to the total. Nice work!(Louis Wu 14:28:17 UTC)

Halo0001 X wrote to let us know that his goal of recording all videos ever added to the Bungie Favorites list (we mentioned it last week) has been met – and you can watch them on one of two playlists in his YouTube channel. He intends to continue adding new vids as they’re released, so you can subscribe if you want to be notified.(Louis Wu 14:27:38 UTC)