Whoa. Oddworld noticed an announcement on Xbox.com for the Halo Wars Collector’s Edition, which is now available for preorder. Cool stuff in there – a graphic novel, a unique in-game vehicle, a patch, and some cards… but the REALLY big news is that the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack (consisting of Assembly, Orbital, and Sandbox) will be in the box as well. Release date is ‘worldwide this February’. Will this be the ONLY way to get the Mythic Map Pack? Unknown at this point. More when we know it!(Louis Wu 17:54:05 UTC)

PreGame Lobby Episode 8 is now online – 17 minutes long? Wow. Bunch of live-action stuff in this one. (I could have skipped most of the early stuff…) Thanks, Lord Osiris.(Louis Wu 17:49:11 UTC)

mirel noticed that last night’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien contained a bit of Halo footage – it was a short segment making fun of the whole ‘hologram’ thing news channels have been abusing recently. NBC.com has put the entire episode up – but the one-minute clip in question is not available separately, so we’ve put up downloadable versions (QuickTime, 8.8 mb, WMP9, 8.6 mb).(Louis Wu 17:44:40 UTC)

Wow. Ducain sent word of a thread over at High Impact Halo, started by Lone Starr – it contains a bunch of clips of Halo 1 tricks that are really, really impressive. Stuff I’ve never seen before – and we’re now more than 7 years on! Go grab ’em and watch.(Louis Wu 17:32:17 UTC)

Over at Gameplayer.com.au is an interview with Brian Jarrard that originally appeared in Australian 360 magazine. Give it a read to see what Bungie thinks about Halo 3, one year after release!(Louis Wu 14:40:28 UTC)

We mentioned the Kotaku cosplay contest yesterday – Sean Bradley’s Arbiter didn’t get the love it deserved because the Halo community didn’t know about it in time. Never fear – he’s entered it in OTHER contests, and you’ve still got time to vote! Swing by CollegeHumor, and you’ll be faced with 2-at-a-time faceoffs; you might need a few reloads before you get to the Arbiter, but there are some other great costumes in there as well. Go vote! (He entered the I-am-bored.com contest, as well – but voting is over for that one, too. He took second place! You gotta wonder a little, when you see what won first…)(Louis Wu 14:18:31 UTC)

It’s been a couple of months since we mentioned the Halo creations built by the Spore community – but Hawty McBloggy revisited the field this morning, and I have to say, some of the characters she dug up are AMAZING. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 14:16:09 UTC)

Pete the Duck is selling his Halo novels (and a bonus RvB DVD) on eBay, to earn a little money for his NEXT gaming adventure. His loss is your gain! Swing by and check it out. (Louis Wu 14:14:10 UTC)

Evil Otto (otherwise known as Bungie’s UI wizard, Dave Candland) stopped in yesterday to remind people that there’s absolutely nothing you can do to get Recon armor assigned to you – it’s not your decision. Beating obstacle courses, challenging Bungie employees 1v1, passing along screenshots or maps… you’re not going to get Recon this way. Ever. (He also wanted to point out that it’s not even something that EVERY Bungie employee can give out – only a few people actually have that ability.) If you want Recon, do cool stuff. Eventually, someone will notice.(Louis Wu 14:13:24 UTC)

SonofMacPhisto started an interesting thread yesterday – he was talking about body language in Halo cinematics. Lots of little details you might not notice your first time (or three) through – but things that really add to the overall ambience, even without your direct awareness! Go see what others have noticed, too. (Louis Wu 14:09:57 UTC)