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)

I highlight this because it’s just plain cool. Falagard, over at NeoGAF, used a Wacom Bamboo tablet and MS Paint (!!!) to whip up an image which should IMMEDIATELY resonate with any long-term Halo fan. Kick-ass.(Louis Wu 20:01:26 UTC)

Over at Halo3Forum, SicktistiK put together a set of random fileshare clips into a really nice montage of great gameplay footage. Thanks, Z.(Louis Wu 15:49:42 UTC)