Ross Mills noticed that Video Games Live is releasing Greatest Hits, Volume 1 in a couple of weeks – and Halo will be among the games featured on the disc. Ross provides an Amazon.co.uk link to purchase – or you can grab it from the US Amazon. Details on the recording itself can be found at Kotaku.(Louis Wu 22:06:33 UTC)

In honor of Bungie Day, c0ld vengeance has created another Puzzleball map – go play with it!(Louis Wu 21:47:32 UTC)

Wow, cool. 3of9 pointed out that not only is today Bungie Day – but it’s the 7th anniversary of the birth of Subnova! (This was their first day of news, back on July 7, 2001.) Happy Birthday, guys! They haven’t been very vocal recently… but Subnova was home to the hardest of the hardcore Bungie fans, back in the day. And though they’re mostly dormant now… they’re still around!(Louis Wu 19:23:04 UTC)

Matt Sayar let us know about some guys playing Halo 3 all day and raising money for Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity, in honor of Bungie Day. If you want to join ’em, the gamertag to send a request too is BDay2008.(Louis Wu 19:02:03 UTC)

Appreciation On this very special Bungie Day, vociferous posted a thank-you note to Bungie – and Ascendant Justice opened a new gallery devoted to the beauty of the Halo universe.(Louis Wu 18:42:54 UTC)

bman3737 stopped by with a batch of Cold Storage-based Bungie Day wallpapers (and then added some text-free versions on request) – go look!(Louis Wu 18:25:36 UTC)

Bungie’s posted a Q&A for Cold Storage, with answers coming from the guys who worked on the map. Give it a read! Thanks again, mendicantbias00.(Louis Wu 17:20:32 UTC)

On March 22, Bungie released a podcast, with special guest Chris Butcher – and then the Bungie Podcast went dark. Added work, and the loss of Frankie, conspired to keep Bungie from revisiting this beloved outlet for community enlightenment… but now, three and a half months later, just in time for Bungie Day, it’s back. Guests are copious – Lars Bakken (Designer), Shishka (Designer), Allen Murray (Producer), Joe Tung (Producer), Jerome Simpson (Security Expert), Chris Carney (Mission Architect) and Steve Lopez (IT Manager and Podcast mastering wunderkind). (Yes, I stole that from Bungie’s announcement.) 92 minutes, 104 mb, lots and lots of derision. Lots and lots of discussion of Cold Storage. Looks like mendicantbias00 was first to notice.(Louis Wu 17:06:57 UTC)

Okay, let’s start at the beginning. Back in October of last year, McFarlane released a schedule for Halo action figure release in 2008. Littlebigman transcribed the Spawn.com list, which is good, because it’s been edited since then. At that point, the plan for vehicles was a Series 2 release in June, consisting of a Scarab, Wraith, and Mongoose, and a series 3 release in August, consisting of a Banshee, Hornet, and Scorpion Tank. At some point in the next month or two, the Series 2 group was canceled – but then in February they were added to the Series 3 release. By April, the six vehicles slated for Series 3 was cut back to 3 – the three original Series 2 vehicles. And today, Subnova’s 3of9 got an email from Big Bad Toy Store:

McFarlane Toys has just informed us that these items has been cancelled and that will not be produced. We apologize for the inconvenience. We have cancelled all preorders and removed the item from our site.

From 6, to 3, to 0. Ack! Here’s hoping they get reannounced in an upcoming series. (Louis Wu 16:32:16 UTC)

UNSC Trooper let us know that the Fan Fic Pick of the Week for last Friday’s fiction release is now up on the HBOFF forum. Thanks to J.D. Ford for the work!(Louis Wu 16:31:24 UTC)

Dennis Powers let us know that you can grab Shipwrecked Episode 35 from his site.(Louis Wu 16:27:07 UTC)

Lordstemplar1 stopped in to point out Blackstone [Log 1] – a simple recon mission goes awry. Available in downloadable and streaming formats. Go watch!(Louis Wu 15:44:00 UTC)

Back in January, a European contest sponsored by Xbox.com started up – Halo 3 Recut was looking for short movies showing the off-screen antics of the Halo characters. Winners were just announced (thanks, Planet Halo, who found the announcement at TeamXbox) – congrats to Scott Robertson, whose “Master Chief’s Day Off” won Scott a four-week film-making trip to Los Angeles. HIs film is pretty funny!(Louis Wu 15:28:16 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy compiled thank-you notes from a huge number of community members in honor of Bungie Day – swing by and read the outpouring of Bungie Love. I wish I could say my thanks were included – but I forgot to send them to her. (On the bright side, I ate a LOT of barbecue this weekend.) Thanks, Hawty, for putting this together – and thanks, Bungie, for keeping this community excited all these years!(Louis Wu 15:13:12 UTC)