Hawty McBloggy’s activity of the day is drawing Mister Chiefs – go have a blast!(Louis Wu 19:31:25 UTC)

Rapper Lil’ John isn’t much of a Halo player – but his son is teaching him. Thanks, singkeo2002. (Louis Wu 19:13:42 UTC)

Marcelo Vega, of Xbox Today (a Brazilian website), let us know that there was a Halo 3 launch party in Brazil – Halo 3 is going to be the first midnight launch of a game in that country. They put up an article about the launch, as well as pictures of the Limited Edition’s Artbook, fully translated into Portuguese (a first for the Brazilian videogame industry). (That USB drive you see in the first article was given out to members of the press – it’s loaded with all the Halo 3 Believe ads, in 720p.) Nice to see other countries aren’t being slighted! (Louis Wu 19:08:17 UTC)

This is the funniest Halo video I’ve seen in a while. (Yes, that includes Halo Nights.) Go watch it. You’ll laugh. Thanks, Jim Bob. (Louis Wu 18:44:13 UTC)

Also from Anton P. Nym – ReportonBusiness.com (a part of Canada’s Globe and Mail) has an article in which Jerret West, Senior Global Product Manager for Xbox, talks about how the overall marketing campaign for Halo 3 was built the way it was. I must say… it seems to be working!(Louis Wu 18:35:48 UTC)

Wow, this is pretty cool. If you visit this website, you’ll see movies and photos of the Royal Swedish Ballet practicing for an interpretive dance on September 26, at the Berwaldhallen concert hall in Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra will be playing Halo music, and Halo machinima will be shown. Pretty amazing looking stuff! Thanks to Anton P. Nym, who found it at Kotaku.(Louis Wu 18:31:35 UTC)

ManKitten sent in a link to a YouTube version of a Believe ad I haven’t seen yet – it’s called ‘Hunted’, and it looks at a soldier reliving a frightening night during the war. It might be my favorite, so far… as far as I can tell, it hasn’t appeared in Hi-res anywhere yet.(Louis Wu 17:51:53 UTC)

Halopen has chosen this weekend to release Threshold Part 2, a new machinima. They’re very excited about it – so much so that they really want me to post a description of the movie that they wrote. We don’t usually do this, but I’ll make an exception this time:

A lone general known as Hypnos, endeavors to win the war against the humans. But there is one thing stopping him from achieving victory, himself. His dark side has gotten to know him more than he knew himself, and this has become a problem for Hypnos and his army. Can he fight through his insanity and continue to live or will he confront his demon and destroy it?

Finding the video is actually non-trivial – but if you click on the picture that makes up the top news post on their website, you’ll be taken to a Mythica page where you can download it. WMP9 format, 16 minutes long, 87 mb. Thanks, xbryboyremix.(Louis Wu 17:50:04 UTC)

DHalo was the first to point out the new Bungie Online section of Bungie.net – on the one hand, it might make you sad, because there are currently 1,325 Halo 3 players online, and the kill counts for the UNSC Campaign are already absurdly high… but on the other hand, most of us will be playing in full by the middle of next week, and those numbers will grow by orders of magnitude. Still – poking around shows some really cool sections and pieces… definitely worth a look! Warning: I probably should have remembered to post this earlier… but remember that snapshots on Bungie Online MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS. Browse the section at your own risk. Sorry for the late warning.(Louis Wu 17:34:21 UTC)

The Orlando Sentinel has an article on the PMS Clan, as they prepare for MLG Orlando. (The headline for this news post came from the PMS team captain, before I get accused of anything.)(Louis Wu 12:08:50 UTC)

The formatting is awful, but a new article in the Vancouver Sun has some new quotes from Bungie and Microsoft folks. (Louis Wu 12:06:13 UTC)

Ouch. Destructoid, among other sites, are reporting that folks on the NeoGAF forum are having major troubles with the Limited Edition of Halo 3; the clip that holds the discs in place inside the box is too small, and the discs are moving around… which leads to scratching. (I’m really surprised by this, because scratching was an issue with the Halo 2 Limited Edition (though for a different reason; there, two discs were piled one on top of the other) – you think they’d have found a way to fix it by now.) More on this when we know it. Thanks, Amy Veeres. (Louis Wu 11:21:40 UTC)

XBOX 360 Wire has an article on how to have the best Halo 2 lan party/sendoff. If you’re planning on getting some friends together this weekend for a big Halo 2 bash, in preparation for Halo 3… you might wanna read this.(Louis Wu 11:10:35 UTC)

The UK’s Daily Telegraph is giving away a pair of tickets to the IMAX gala on launch night in London; if you’re interested in winning, check this page.(Louis Wu 11:09:46 UTC)

Yahoo Games has another ‘looking back’ movie; this one is called ‘Halo So Far‘, and is a retrospective of the plots of Halo and Halo 2, using the same voiceover guy that was used for the Weapons overviews. If you’ve forgotten stuff, go watch.(Louis Wu 11:09:12 UTC)

Grable pointed out a new hoody for sale at the Bungie Store – it’s called the ‘Weapon Bolt Full Zip Hoody’, and contains a weapons montage on the front, and a lightning burst on the back. Interesting! (Louis Wu 11:07:01 UTC)

Heh – interesting. MthdDirector points us to a blog post which looks back at J. Allard’s GDC 2005 keynote speech… and compares what he said then (and what developers then weren’t all thrilled to hear) with what’s happening now, especially with Halo 3. J. Allard – ahead of his time?(Louis Wu 11:04:39 UTC)

Lots and lots of people noticed the new Believe trailer, titled ‘Enemy Weapon’, which was released last night. You can find a high-res version of it at halo.msn.com (thanks, The Cancers) – Silverlight is required. If you want to pass on Silverlight, it’s also available at Yahoo Games (thanks, mhuber33) and YouTube (thanks, S043). Haven’t noticed a downloadable version yet. This one has a pair of UNSC vets discussing the weapons they used – and the weapons they fought against. Great piece. (Louis Wu 10:59:24 UTC)

And now for something quite different – YouTube user wronginc hacked up the footage from the Halo Wars trailer and put his own music to it. Hard rock – but it fits nicely. Take a look! (Louis Wu 10:52:14 UTC)

RVideo pointed out another fanmade suit for sale on eBay – starting price is $2000, with four and a half days left to go. (Louis Wu 10:49:27 UTC)