Okay, so back in February, we posted a news bit about one of our readers who speculated that an announcement by Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford was Halo-related; his original post is no longer available on his website, but Archive.org has a copy. This info was updated, sort of, in May – but nothing really materialized. Well, the latest Official Xbox Magazine has a rumor in it that ties Gearbox and Halo together again; Planet Halo was the first site I saw to notice this, but by last week, it had been picked up by almost every major gaming site. Today, Kotaku has published an internal Gearbox email in which Corrinne Yu, a programmer who’s worked for them for some time, announces that she’s taken the Lead Engine Architect job on the Halo team at Microsoft. (Thanks, Ross.) Now, this might actually be totally unrelated; it’s been clear for a while that Microsoft is building up their internal Halo team, and the fact that they recruited Yu from Gearbox might have nothing whatsoever to do with Gearbox – it might just be that she was the best prospect for the job. Lots of people are connecting the dots, though, so the rumor’s out there – and now we have a reason why. (Well, kind of. If you were planning on building the next Halo game, would you let one of your best programmers go to someone ELSE’S Halo team?) IS Gearbox working on a new version of Halo for the next-generation Xbox? That remains to be seen. One of their hottest programmers is leaving to run the Microsoft Halo team, though. That much, we know.(Louis Wu 10:52:51 UTC)

Topless Robot (relatively safe for work, despite the name) has put up a ‘Top 10 Sexiest Action Figures Ever Made‘ – and a certain naked-and-glowing female AI from the Halo series made it to #3 on the list. Thanks, xupaosso.(Louis Wu 17:06:36 UTC)

Bryan Simon wrote an ode to Bungie and Halo 3 – you can find it on YouTube. Fan love rocks! Go watch!(Louis Wu 16:58:45 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue has posted today’s episode of Reclaimer – Episode 81 shows Viper trying to shut down the virus in the slipspace array. Sometimes things don’t go as planned…(Louis Wu 11:26:02 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has a followup to last week’s love triangle amongst Cortana, a Big Daddy, and a Hunter – as well as a new piece of Fan Art devoted to your favorite blue AI. Check it out!(Louis Wu 11:21:55 UTC)

The Treeskunk crew has put together Outpost: Isil Episode 9 – Full Frontal. You have to wonder how the two teams actually still have living members left 9 episodes in… lots of death and destruction here. You can download it in a lot of different formats, or watch it streaming (in a lot of different places) from the Treeskunk website.(Louis Wu 11:15:37 UTC)

Last night, Bungie released a brand-new podcast – it’s a monster 80-minute piece of work full of jokes, interviews, and bears. Paul Russell is the special guest, Shishka discusses the playlist changes coming up next month, and security expert Jerome Simpson comes by for a mini-interview. Shishka puts up with ribbing from Sketch and Luke, Paul talks about the evolution of Halo in the last ten years (guys – ask Rob McLees about the origin of ‘seven’ in Bungie games, and say thanks to Hamish Sinclair), and Jerome discusses protecting the Bungie offices from any and all comers. Great stuff! Avateur was the first to notice on our forum.(Louis Wu 10:16:03 UTC)

Wow, very cool – last Saturday, Eagle 117 SBG got married (to another member of the SBG clan, Patience SBG) down in Louisiana… and the groom’s cake showed off their Halo love! (pic one | pic two). Congratulations, guys! (And thanks to TruthPastor SBG for the heads-up.)(Louis Wu 11:25:04 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found a ‘Top 10 Halo 3 Exerminations’ video on YouTube – quality is aweful, but the gameplay’s pretty nice. Number four, especially – totally clutch play. (There are way more htan 10 here – the honorable mentions start about halfway through the film.)(Louis Wu 11:17:06 UTC)

Over at the Rooster Teeth website, Red vs Blue: Reconstruction Chapter 12 has been released – things take a pretty serious turn. (Don’t worry, there’s plenty of comedy.) I’m loving this more with every episode. Looks like elpolloguapo was first with the heads-up.(Louis Wu 10:41:08 UTC)

Over at NeoGAF, Kibbles pointed out a YouTube video containing footage of a fan-made mod of Crysis, showing off Blood Gulch. The environment itself is gorgeous. The gameplay… I wasn’t so impressed with. You can discuss this on our forum in this thread.(Louis Wu 10:40:08 UTC)

The Halo Wars website points you towards a developer diary written by Bill Jackson, one of Ensemble’s crew at the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany – it can give you a sense of how those guys are spending a typical day at the convention, and how Halo Wars is being received. (While you’re there, you can see a short piece on the new box art unveiled yesterday.) Update: Looks like there are three new screenshots of the game over at TeamXbox, as well. (Louis Wu 10:38:04 UTC)

El Mayimbe has posted the fourth of five pieces of concept art for the spec’d Fall of Reach movie – a battle scene at the climax of the film. Go check it out!(Louis Wu 21:39:33 UTC)

Joel Albert, of 2old2play, let us know that they’ve just wrapped up their 4th and most successful LAN party for charity – over $1000 was raised for Children’s Memorial Hospital and the Child Oncology Services, while STILL providing a $1000 purse for the winner of a FFA Halo 3 tourney. The LAN writeup is here, the $1000 FFA tourney writeup is here, and a video created by Dantez Inferno, commemorating the event, can be found here. (Louis Wu 21:36:16 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy asked a while back if you could play too much Halo – she’s posted the answers (submitted by fans) in her blog. Read what folks have sent in – and see how many make sense to you!(Louis Wu 21:12:23 UTC)