Australia’s Gameplayer got a chance to sit down in front of Halo Wars recently, and they’re anxious to tell you all about it. They’re optimistic that Ensemble can pull off an authentic-feeling Halo vibe for the RTS, and they’re looking forward to extras – lead designer Graeme Devine hopes that Ensemble will be able to release a map editor with the game. Go read the whole interview!(Louis Wu 12:31:06 UTC)

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that Belakor had visited the Armageddon con in New Zealand, and taken some pics of the WETA Warthog that was on display there. Looks like NZGamer.com was also there – they posted THEIR pics yesterday. Thanks, Wolverine Monkey.(Louis Wu 10:05:36 UTC)

Jean-Luc (who’s been rendering Halo images for quite some time) stopped by last night to announce an ambitious project; he plans to recreate the Halo cutscenes (all three games) in HD, with completely redone graphics and animation. His post contains some stills to show you ‘an approximation of quality’ – and I must say, if he pulls this off, it will be very, very cool indeed. Go see!(Louis Wu 10:00:54 UTC)

During the ramp-up to Halo 3, a lot of Halo 3-branded merchandise hit the streets; not all of it was for the public. Stores received cool display stuff – and some of that sort of thing usually makes it to eBay. Hawty McBloggy noticed a pretty neat little mini-cooler, plastered with Halo Game Fuel images; current bid is $76, with about five and a half days to go. Does your game room need a fridge?(Louis Wu 09:57:02 UTC)

Dennis Powers wrote to say that Shipwrecked Episode 17 is up – I think these guys need guns.(Louis Wu 09:53:03 UTC)

Maximum Fear let us know that his site is running a weekly roundup of Halo 3 content, culled from the Halo 3 Files Forum at Bungie.net. They’ll be including stuff like map and game variants in the future – but for now, it’s just screenshots. Check it out – and submit your favorite links! (Louis Wu 09:51:28 UTC)

It’s been a long time coming… but HBO is proud to announce that the Forerunner Terminal Network Archives are now online. You can read a history of this project on our forum – thanks go out to the recording crew (OboeCrazy, nico, bebop gastulum, and Venom Kitetsu), for collecting the info needed to create the downloadable movies, and Capt Spanish, for his amazing interface and painstaking transcriptions.(Louis Wu 16:14:25 UTC)

Blackstar, in a fit of creativity, whipped out three new custom medals last night; check them out on his ‘Extra Medals’ page. (Remember, you can see full-sized versions of the medals simply by mousing over the thumbnails.) Links for examples of all of them (including the new ones ‘Returned to Sender’, ‘Watch for Falling Hogs’, and ‘Brain Drained’) are in each entry.(Louis Wu 15:16:23 UTC)

Sigafoos wrote to say that The Riot 98 is now online – 23 minutes, 9 mb, full (of course) of community talk, deal of the day websites, and (not so expected) ‘foos drinking hot sauce on the video show. Which you couldn’t watch live, because they forgot to press record at the start of the show. (And which you really have to hunt for, because there is no friggin’ link to the video stuff on their front page, or in the show updates. n00bs.)(Louis Wu 15:06:10 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue let us know that it’s Reclaimer Monday – Episode 44 sets up an imminent conflict.(Louis Wu 14:57:19 UTC)

I ran across a pretty nicely done vid using Halo 3 footage and sound from the Matrix: Revolutions trailer. Go check it out at YouTube.(Louis Wu 14:54:50 UTC)

Quartermann pointed out a Halo 3 Gamer Card app over at Facebook – I’m pretty sure there are many of them there, but we’re always up for others doing the legwork for us! If you want to include your Halo 3 stats on your Facebook homepage… here’s an option.(Louis Wu 14:44:53 UTC)

RVideo has posted a roundup of Halo-related artwork he’s dug up at Renderosity; it’s possible you’ve seen some of these before. The last one, from Tony ‘ubald’ Marcotte, is new (posted Friday); I’ve added it to his renders gallery here at HBO. (It’s down at the bottom… maybe I should reverse those?) Fun stuff – check it out!(Louis Wu 14:42:24 UTC)

If you live in New Zealand, you might want to check out this news post – Gameplanet has information about the qualifying event for folks looking to represent the country at the World Games Championship in France this November. To earn a spot on the NZ team, you’ve got to do well in the 3-day event to be held in Auckland in July… get to practicing!(Louis Wu 14:20:41 UTC)

Speaking of tricks, Ducain posted a couple of fun pics he took while exploring the bottom of the lake on the Covenant. Did that guy fall in during the crash at the level’s opening… or was he there before? Weirdness.(Louis Wu 14:08:26 UTC)

Recently, Ducain pointed out a pretty cool link at High Impact Halo – the Trick Video Archive of DefyLogic. It’s the latest in a long collection of such archives, and if you’re looking for a convenient place to find cool tricking content, you will not find a better resource. Take a look!(Louis Wu 14:01:54 UTC)

This was posted on Xbox.com last Friday, but it’s been a rough week… a couple of weeks ago, we mentioned a Game With Fame event where you could play Halo 3 with the band Avenged Sevenfold. Friday, Xbox.com posted a summary of the event, complete with pics and quotes from gamers who participated. Sounds like it was fun! (I’d tell you that a fun time was had by all, but my 10th grade journalism teacher would hunt me down and kill me. Assuming she’s still alive.)(Louis Wu 13:58:36 UTC)