Eve-Films’ Nexus is Mental sent us word of Noobus Maximus 2, a ‘recent funtage with clips from FPS Glimmer & friends’. You can watch it on YouTube (in HD), or download it from the Eve-Films.com forum. There’s something awfully familiar about this – I feel like I’ve seen these clips before. (I can’t find any record of having posted about it, though.) Nice quality, fun clips. Check it out!(Louis Wu 15:28:27 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found the recent 1 billionth Halo 3 game stat to be interesting – because it means that 20% more Halo 3 games have been played than Halo 2 games, in half the time. And when she looks at her own stats (8500 Halo 2 games, 3500 Halo 3 games), she realizes that she’s not the norm… are you? Swing by and add your voice!(Louis Wu 13:51:47 UTC)

Comic Roundup for the morning:

• Adam Susskind stopped in yesterday afternoon with word of Chaos Theory 14 – Truths from a Saint. His description sounds complicated!
• Hawty McBloggy reminded us that it’s Wednesday, so it’s time for another episode of ODS Steve – Episode 16 is called ‘A Shade of Earl Grey’, and it provides one possible explanation for how Gears of War came into existence.
• TTL Demag0gue had word of not only Reclaimer 161 (with the naming of another member of the Cavalcade), but also a contest – come up with a new set for Reclaimer, using Sandbox, and you can win a bunch of goodies! Read the contest page for full details – both of the rules and the prizes.

Need some coffee for those funnies?(Louis Wu 13:51:03 UTC)

GamePro’s giving away a bunch of Halo Wars action figures – you just have to tell them what your favorite weapon is. Swing by for full details.(Louis Wu 13:50:36 UTC)

jdars1804 let us know that his Halo 3 Images blog has a Panoramas section with some pretty nice shots in it – go browsing!(Louis Wu 13:50:18 UTC)

Slim30 stopped by to point out that Lost Levels Episode 5 is up on YouTube. According to the description in Episode 1, “John, Anthony, and Danny have become trapped in the game known as halo 3. Watch their adventures as they try to find a way out while evading a mysterious organization who has taken an interest in the trio.” (Louis Wu 13:49:53 UTC)

I read this story in USA Today this morning, and came away with one thing – the Halo Wars giveaway (mentioned in the Halo Wars news roundup a few hours ago). Ars Technica read it, and did a better job – they noticed the quote from Frank O’Connor:

“I doubt we have seen the last of Master Chief.”

It’s been clear for a while that there’s more Halo coming from Microsoft down the road… it’s just a little bit of a surprise that the Master Chief will be there, too.(Louis Wu 19:28:42 UTC)

Goodies this morning on the Bungie Blog:

• Stop-Motion Snake: I thought this was pretty darned cool. scott14755 recreated a game of ‘Snake’ in Forge, via stop-motion photography. (Well, screenshotography.) I loved it.
• Halotech.org is streaming gameplay on Mythic Maps for folks who don’t have their own to play on.
• Skillz Like AI whipped up an artistic and restive display on Foundry… restive, that is, until you get hit. Then it’s rather explosive. Nice work!

Time to look for our own content again… Update: two more from Bungie.net (is it time to retire?)… MLD (Major League Driving) Top 10 #3 is out – this one focuses on Warthogs. How bad does a gunner feel when his DRIVER picks up a Vehicular Manslaughter (10 splatters without dying) in the time that the gunner takes down 3 enemies? And a new Average Joe interview is up – this time with Predator5791 (who I was SURE had already done one of these, but I’m guessing I was just misremembering the Screenshot Artist Spotlight or maybe even Hawty McBloggy’s interview). Go see what makes him do what he does!(Louis Wu 18:32:01 UTC)

anthraxgoon stopped in with word of X36 Chapter 2 Issue 6 – nice shots of Orbital…(Louis Wu 18:31:42 UTC)

If you want a sneak peek at the Halo Wars Official Strategy Guide, grab it from us – here are 12 pages of PDF goodness, straight from Prima. Enjoy!(Louis Wu 18:11:50 UTC)