Paul Wedgwood, founder of Splash Damage (the developer of the Enemy Territory franchise for id Software), spoke to Edge magazine recently… and had some unhappy things to say about the state of console development today. (He wants to raise the bar, actually.)

“Arguably, and this is not to dismiss what people have achieved in the past, but Halo 3 multiplayer is really Quake 3 from 1999. Even Call of Duty 4 is just Counter-Strike on the PC from 2001.”

He’s hoping that his studio’s next game, likely to be published on PC/Xbox360/PS3, will show the world what can REALLY be done on a console. Huh.(Louis Wu 17:48:02 UTC)

A new comic series has kicked off over at Hawty McBloggy’s – DeepCee is publishing the Chronicles of ODS Steve every Wednesday. Episode 1 is up now. (Louis Wu 17:46:44 UTC)

VelocityTino put together a video that shows what happens if you mix Halo and Little Shop of Horrors. (Yes, it’s what you’d expect – but he did a pretty good job with the composition.)(Louis Wu 17:46:11 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 111 is now live – and suddenly, everything you thought you knew about Ferial is tossed into doubt. Things are getting real.(Louis Wu 17:45:14 UTC)

zofinda noticed that the Holiday 08 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine has an excerpt from the upcoming novel from Tobias Buckell, The Cole Protocol. (There’s also a short interview with the author.) If you’re interested in what the excerpt holds, zofinda wrote up an overview later on in the thread.(Louis Wu 17:42:59 UTC)

Nick, from Halo3RPG.com, let us know that they’re running a puzzle map contest. It’s unclear what that really means, and without an account over there you can’t even read the news items – but if you’re interested, sign up, sign in, and read about it. Contest ends on November 28, and the prize is Recon armor (on Halo3RPG).(Louis Wu 17:42:22 UTC)

Nick Singer has been in our news in the past, for creating cool Marathon/Halo music mixes – he’s back, with a new piece he put together for use on the Bungie podcast. Bungie hasn’t said if they’re going to use it or not – but you can listen to it for yourself, it’s quite short, but pretty full of energy! See what you think.(Louis Wu 20:15:17 UTC)

The spotlights on community members continue to shine over at Bungie.net – today’s entry looks at SonicJohn, a Bungie.net member who was doing SLASO runs when most people thought SLASO was something you put on hot dogs. Swing by and read what makes him tick… and why.(Louis Wu 20:04:13 UTC)

XerxdeeJ stopped in with word of new content at Tied the Leader (Tuesday is Tuesday, after all, holiday or not). Check out an interesting article on the different types of warthog gunners you might encounter if you fancy yourself a wheelman. (There’s also a new article on Gears of War 2 – but that might be for another fansite.) Go read!(Louis Wu 19:32:38 UTC)

Ouch – WizKids, the company behind Halo ActionClix (among other products, but that’s the Halo-related one), is closing its doors; its parent company, Topps, has decided to move away, somewhat, from gaming – though they plan to support some HeroClix events already scheduled. Read Kotaku’s story for more details. Thanks, Ross Mills.(Louis Wu 18:50:29 UTC)

On this quieter-than-usual Veterans Day, we’d like to offer you another chapter in the ongoing Solo Legendary All Skulls On walkthrough from Daniel ‘Tyrant’ Morris – this one is huge. It covers the level ‘The Covenant‘, and the nearly 20 videos add up to almost 400 mb worth of visual aid. (Once again, these are split between two pages.) Go read… and go watch!(Louis Wu 16:02:27 UTC)

Remember Fairfax? Looks like he’s making his way through Xbox headquarters! Check it out. Thanks to The Don Wan for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 15:17:17 UTC)