A lot of people (starting with diabeatu) also told us that the last Believe video is finally up at halo3.com; to get to it, you need to do a virtual flythrough of the diorama. It shows up right after the Master Chief. It’s called ‘Gravesite’, and it discusses the death of the Master Chief. Remember: the folks who made the Believe series did NOT have access to the Halo 3 storyline; the reality they created is NOT the same as the game’s reality. The MC’s ‘death’ in this series has no bearing on whether he lives or dies in the game.(Louis Wu 11:46:28 UTC)

Biggest number of emails in the last twelve hours is about a story on CNN.com (it was on the front page last night, according to Shadowsniper689, but it’s not, any more) – it’s a two-minute video clip about the guys behind Red vs Blue, and how they got into using Halo to make machinima. Go watch!(Louis Wu 11:42:07 UTC)

Yesterday, siliconmaster482 stopped by our forum to point out a machinima project being built in 3ds max – it’s called Dust to Dust, and they’ve released a trailer. I liked it; it’s quite simple, but the work is quite good. We’re helping with hosting – there are three WMP9 versions listed in his forum post, and we’re mirroring those… plus we’ve got three corresponding QuickTime versions.

High Res (1024×720): WMP9 (32.3 mb) | QuickTime (27.8 mb)
Medium Res (640×480): WMP9 (11.6 mb) | QuickTime (10.8 mb)
Low Res (320×240): WMP9 (4.3 mb) | QuickTime (4.4 mb)

Go watch, and see if you agree that this project has serious potential! They’re looking for folks who’d like to help build sets in 3ds max, as well as anyone able to render the final films; these are their two biggest bottlenecks at the moment. siliconmaster482’s email is in the forum post, if you’d like to join the team. (Louis Wu 11:37:18 UTC)

DHalo has begun trading shares of HBO on a fantasy stock market, ThotMarket. If you’d like to get in on the action, visit the HBO page there, and make an account. (Apparently, you get 1000 starter ‘Thot dollars’ when you create an account, and if your investments go up, you earn more.) This all seems sort of surreal… but go ahead and see if you can increase the ‘net worth’ of halo.bungie.org!(Louis Wu 11:28:32 UTC)

Tyler Kirk has returned to his fan fiction, Thermopylae Now – you’ll find a revised and expanded version (first three chapters) at his website. (Check the Table of Contents on the right for sequential ordering.) (Louis Wu 11:21:56 UTC)

Just two reviews this morning: GamesFirst says awesome multiplayer, pedestrian campaign, and gives it a 4/5, and Malaysia’s The Star Online says the single player’s short but fun, saved films are clunky to navigate but fun to watch, overall it’s a great experience. (Louis Wu 11:19:51 UTC)

The third Neil Blomkamp short, Combat Part 2, is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace in both SD and HD formats. The HD version (154 mb) is amazing. Thanks to A B for the heads-up (who also noticed that the second short is NOT available on Marketplace, yet).(Louis Wu 03:57:15 UTC)

GAH! Curses! I forgot AGAIN! Last week, I was reminded that we hadn’t announced anything about this year’s pumpkin-carving contest, which has become a tradition here at HBO. I realized I hadn’t even thought about it – probably had something to do with some stupid videogame launch or something at the end of last month, it sort of sucked up all my time. I said I’d look into the possibility of prizes (which I did)… but I forgot to actually DO anything about it. So this is a news post that says no, we don’t have a page up yet, no we can’t tell you what the prizes are going to be, but yes, there’s going to be a 2007 Guilt O’ Lantern carving contest, and yes, we’ll have a host of sweet prizes, with a deadline of October 31, 2007 for entries. Do NOT send us anything yet; we aren’t set up at this point. But if you want to start planning your carving… go for it. Full announcement coming soon.(Louis Wu 21:47:19 UTC)

Last week’s big news was the fact that Microsoft no longer owns Bungie. Stuntmutt realized he could relate – check out today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 21:39:34 UTC)

You might remember E.E. Knight – he made Halo news last summer when some artwork for the cover of a book he’d written turned out to be stolen from Halo. Since then, he’s made friends with some folks in the Halo community – and today, posted a blog entry about how fun online coop is. (This from a guy who doesn’t play a lot of Halo.) Thanks to Quickthnkr (his coop buddy) for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:35:49 UTC)

geophf let us know about a piece at the London Times – the 40 most memorable aliens. The Covenant came in at Number Nineteen. He found this link on the IMDb Hit List.(Louis Wu 21:15:56 UTC)

Bad Clown pointed out a story at ESPN’s Page 2, on pro Halo players – it’s a great read. (Pretty long… but a lot of fun.) (Louis Wu 21:11:09 UTC)

Havok, the middleware physics engine that was incorporated into Halo 2, was carried over to Halo 3; it hasn’t been mentioned very often (a couple of Weekly What’s Updates have incidental references), and it didn’t make the credits this time around… but it was definitely used; Havok put up a press release last week. Worth getting credit, when a product sells $300 million dollars worth in a week… (Louis Wu 18:30:31 UTC)

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned some sample pages of the official Halo 3 strategy guide, available at Xbox.com. Piggyback (the copublisher) has put up their own collection of sample pages; they’ve fleshed out the 8 pages of actual content at Xbox.com with an additional 6 pages. Nice!(Louis Wu 16:16:02 UTC)

Huh. If you’re a member of Facebook, you have a shot at winning one of 4 Halo 3 Xbox 360s (well, 3 now – the first week’s over) from Goozex. Invite your friends to play their game, and if you’ve invited the most people for the week, you get the Xbox. Check their contest page for full details. I have no clue what their game is about – I’m simply letting you know about the contest. (Louis Wu 15:55:39 UTC)

A couple more Bungie interviews about the split (and about Halo) – GameInformer interviewed Frankie (it’s a little disturbing in parts, but mostly it’s Frankie saying “nothing’s changed”), and FiringSquad also talked to Frankie – their writeup is a summary of the conversation, but it includes the news that Harold Ryan is now Bungie’s President. I found both of these at Rampancy.net – thanks, Narcogen.(Louis Wu 14:36:18 UTC)

Marcelo Vega, of Xboxtoday.com.br, sent us word that they’ve posted a list of the voice actors and technical staff that worked on the Brazilian version of Halo 3. This is why fansites rock – this info isn’t anywhere official. Microsoft Brazil doesn’t have it, the Halo 3 manual doesn’t have it – the ONLY place these folks get credit is on a fansite. (Louis Wu 14:12:21 UTC)