1UP.com has a sizeable interview with Dave Pottinger, Ensemble lead designer on the Halo Wars team. It’s a pretty interesting read – you can get a decent sense for how the game is going to work from this one! Check it out. Thanks, LoneRanger 2.5.(Louis Wu 22:23:09 UTC)

Eep – looks like I forgot to post this – but before I got home this afternoon, Bungie posted news about hte latest Double XP weekend – started 4 hours ago. It’s Fiesta – 8 player Free-For-All, random weapons. Arriba! (You’ve got until 2 am PT, Monday morning, to play this.) (Louis Wu 21:50:29 UTC)

IGN has an impressions article on Cold Storage, including a couple of vids. Since the map is free, you could just download it for yourself and play with it… but this might be easier for folks away from their Xboxes. (For what it’s worth, it’s STILL not available for Silver Account holders. Phooey.)(Louis Wu 19:45:28 UTC)

If you’re not press, you’re not getting into this year’s E3 – and it sounds like there’ll be some interesting stuff there for Halo fans. Never fear, though – looks like G4TV is covering the show pretty comprehensively, according to this press release at TMRzoo.com (potentially NSFW ads). For example, Monday night at 7pm there’ll be a show that includes a hands-on demo of Halo Wars. And of course we all remember Bungie’s hint that SOMETHING is being announced on Monday, in the Bungie Day podcast…(Louis Wu 19:40:05 UTC)

Treeskunk Productions has released Outpost: Isil Episode 7 – in their standard 854 formats. Go figure out which one works best for you, and watch it! These guys are worse than the F-Troop soldiers, I swear. Thanks, Bzerker01.(Louis Wu 19:15:44 UTC)

Forge Hub is kicking off their ‘Best of Forge – Spring/Summer 2008‘ contest – they’re looking for nominations and votes from the community – full rules are available in the news post. Thanks, Bungie Blog. (Louis Wu 19:11:42 UTC)

Dragoncoals let us know that the second teaser for Unleashed has been released… nice angles, and a nice taste of action! Go watch.(Louis Wu 19:05:19 UTC)

In June, we mentioned the 2old2play charity drive they called ‘Pwnathon 2008’ – they were looking to raise $500 to benefit the PKD Foundation. According to this news post at Bungie.net, they not only met that goal – they more than doubled it. The final tally was $1,183.77. Nice! You can read the full writeup on the 2old2play forum.(Louis Wu 19:02:51 UTC)

Bungie Favorites have been updated with a new week’s worth of favorites from HaloTracks, who have recovered from last week’s pummeling – go check ’em out!(Louis Wu 19:02:23 UTC)

Littlebigman noticed a bunch of new stuff available at Big Bad Toy Store – all of it’s been announced elsewhere, but it’s nice to see that it’s becoming widely available! And the dates on the Master Replicas helmets is a positive thing.(Louis Wu 19:01:58 UTC)

Anton P. Nym was the first to notice (via Kotaku) a very intriguing screenshot over at a Fable II fansite – if that’s real, it’s a pretty cool easter egg! (If it’s not, it’s a pretty good photoshop.) Chime in.(Louis Wu 17:58:40 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy’s been busy lately – swing by her digs for speculation on E3 announcements from Bungie next week, a heads-up on a pretty spectacular mini-weapon you can buy with a custom LEGO figure, and a discussion about Halo 3’s call signs. What are you waiting for? Go read! (She counts better than me.)(Louis Wu 20:09:07 UTC)