Apparently, the February 2009 issue of GamePro will contain new info about both Halo Wars, and and interview with Bungie about Halo 3: ODST. Sounds tasty!(Louis Wu 11:59:52 UTC)

Do you really want to have your own set of Halo Spartan armor, but can’t see yourself building your own helmet? Hawty McBloggy’s got your back – she went through and found nine regular items that look like Spartan helmets. Grab one, hollow it out, you’re on your way. (Legal note: this post in no way actually ENCOURAGES you to do this.)(Louis Wu 11:57:15 UTC)

kr-1426 stopped in to point out the most recent HBO Fan Fic Pick of the Week – go see what he thought topped the submissions last week!(Louis Wu 11:53:51 UTC)

I recently stumbled across a nice piece of Brute-flavored artwork over at High Impact Halo – BierWiser sketched a little piece, and then colored it. (I like the uncolored version better, myself, but you can make up your own mind.) Check it out!(Louis Wu 11:48:39 UTC)

Rampancy.net is back with another podcast – Narcogen and Blackstar discuss Floodgate, the fifth level of Halo 3. This one is 52 minutes long, 48 mb large (in mp3 format), and part one of their level coverage. It’s available in both MP3 and MP4 formats – if you’re not seeing download links in the posts, it means you’re not logged into Rampancy.net. Go listen!(Louis Wu 11:45:48 UTC)

Lots of people got us the news that Steve Ballmer released at the CES Keynote last night – elessar was first with a pointer to Joystiq’s writeup, but PriorMarcus wasn’t far behind with a link from Kotaku. (Bungie’s Jim M. sent us an LA Times link – but it has bad info, so you might want to pass on it.) The key points: a playable demo will be released on February 5 (looks like that Dutch site was on target), and the US release has been brought FORWARD to February 28 (now only a day behind Europe, instead of in the following month). The release date was confirmed by Major Nelson (thanks, r3gr3t). So: test it out in 4 weeks, and if you like it, be ready to play it 3 weeks after that!(Louis Wu 11:36:42 UTC)

Once again, a late posting spree on the Bungie Blog brings you a wealth of new videos that I should start letting you know about in the evenings… here we go:

• urk points out the sixth episode in Darknai’s ‘The Forgotten Spartans’ machinima; he’s totally right about the music. (If you like this, here are the rest: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5)
• A writeup of Halcylon’s Epictage Trailer might amuse you into checking out the film – you should, it’s quite nice.
• The Top 10 Halo 3 series is up to episode 19 – and the latest looks at most embarrassing/bizarre suicides. (This might be my favorite of the series.)

Whoa… if you watch everything linked here, you’ll need almost 1 hour and 17 minutes…(Louis Wu 11:18:07 UTC)

According to Bungie.net, the Push-To-Talk upgrade mentioned recently is now live – with playlist changes following soon. Go play push-free!(Louis Wu 22:19:09 UTC)

Bungie has spotlighted Buddy System Gaming, a group that exists to help you find a good game – and once you read the mini-interview, you can check out what THEY consider fun by perusing Bungie Favorites. Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 20:16:09 UTC)