Our paper spartan queen, Nomi, was contacted by G4 TV; they want to feature her work on Game Heads. She said sure, and even made them a special spartan. Isn’t she great?(Louis Wu 02:26:54 UTC)

1Up posted 33 new screenshots today – I tried to find out if they were part of the media kit distributed this week to journalists (since those are embargoed until September 23)… but had no success. So I’m posting them. There are a couple of dozen new campaign shots, and a dozen new multiplayer shots… no information in them that hasn’t already been released by Bungie. Go look! Thanks, darthbob.(Louis Wu 01:53:01 UTC)

On Monday, PraetoriaGuard released Trinity, Episode One, because they said they would. It was sort of a mess, though, and they asked me not to front-page it, because they wanted to clean it up. So I didn’t. And they did. It’s worth the wait – the cleaned-up version has better audio, better synching, better… stuff. This is good, because the episode itself is pretty impressive, and it would be a shame to detract from that with less-than-stellar production values. No worries there any more! While you’re there, the latest episode of PRaetoriaGuardLive is available for download – it chronicles the mistakes they made with this episode – and promises that they won’t happen again. (Mostly, they’ll keep this promise by removing hard release dates.) Go grab Episode One (in one of five different flavors), and then PG Live Episode VI (in two flavors)… watch watch watch!(Louis Wu 01:39:40 UTC)

Stuntmutt submitted a One One Se7en that was related to the recently-released ‘Museum’ ad – I couldn’t wait until Friday to post it, so you get an extra one this week.(Louis Wu 01:20:48 UTC)

1Up’s 3 Weeks of Halo comes to an end, with Halo 3: The Final Word (“Ten Things We Love about Halo 3… and Five Things We Don’t”), as well as a Retronauts blog covering Marathon Infinity (they wrote about Marathon 2 yesterday – chewpathingy was first to let us know – but I passed on posting it because it’s only marginally Halo-related, but if I’m putting up a post anyway…). Go read! Thanks, Menelven.(Louis Wu 20:32:56 UTC)

The Covenant Weapons Data Sheets published last week at Bungie.net all have a line at the bottom that worked some of our forumgoers into tizzies. Stuntmutt, never one to let a tizzy pass unnoticed, comments in today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 20:02:45 UTC)

Wow. The press for the ‘Museum’ ad is simply amazing. Joystiq says “we’re not sure if we’ve ever been so moved by a Halo commercial“. Ars Technica says it’s “stunning“. Be A Design Group says it goes way beyond marketing to gamers – It’s “emotionally bigger, and almost too big at that” than Halo. I’d agree – with all of these. It’s a very powerful piece, and one that has much wider appeal than a game-specific ad. 2OpGaming (thanks, Avateur) and GamesIndustry.biz both have informational articles about the piece itself, that go into greater detail than the simple page at Yahoo. There’s also a nice description over at Xbox.com’s Believe page – thanks again, Avateur. If you haven’t watched this one yet, do so. And show it to your non-Halo-playing friends/family, and see what their reaction is. Update: Hmm… maybe it isn’t ALL positive. Delta found this commentary at Canada’s National Post – you can’t please everyone.(Louis Wu 19:48:13 UTC)

Okay, I’m starting to worry a little about Warbow – his latest Calvin and Halo seems to be a little too ‘out there’ to be purely fictional.(Louis Wu 19:28:28 UTC)

Regicid3 works at Target. He noticed a street date warning about Halo 3 last night – which surprised him, because he didn’t think Target was going to be carrying the Legendary Edition. (The Target website lists only the two less expensive editions.) What surprised him more was the price on that warning. (He snapped a pic.) He was also amused by the DPCI (an identification number) – 207 22 0117. (ooooh.) If this isn’t just a mistake, Target might be worth checking out for Legendary Editions… (Regicid3 also noted that Target, like Gamestop, has already received copies of Halo 3 – but that they’re under tight security in a central office.)(Louis Wu 19:08:27 UTC)

Avateur pointed out that some new content from the Tokyo Game Show has been added to TeamXbox’s Halo 3 Screenshots gallery. The actual screens aren’t new, but except for fan shots, this is the first view of some new Halo ActionClix characters. (If I told you what they were, I’d have to label this post with a spoiler tag. Which should tell 99.9% of you what they are.)(Louis Wu 18:57:09 UTC)

GameTrailers has put up a new GT Countdown: ‘Top Five Reasons We Can’t Wait to Play Halo 3’. Our forumgoers had a few things to say about some of the wording – but I can’t really argue with the list. Thanks, chewpathingy.(Louis Wu 18:53:57 UTC)

RVideo has read some of these ‘prepare for Halo 3’ lists, and doesn’t think people really understand what NEEDS to be done before September 25. He’s jumped into the breach with his Real world guide to preparing for Halo3.(Louis Wu 18:45:30 UTC)

MsValentine has been in our news a number of times, for her Cortana outfit – she recently redid it for display at San Diego’s ComicCon this year. It was still based on Halo’s Cortana, though – and we all know that Cortana has changed a bit since then. She just released an image of her new Halo 2 Cortana (thanks, Tex) – and sent us a bunch more. Go check out the whole collection! (I can’t wait for the Halo 3 version… but I’m guessing she’s going to need more than a bodysuit for that one.)(Louis Wu 18:36:09 UTC)

Okay, now that the forum is down, let’s clear out the existing news there. chewpathingy noticed a new Exclusive vid at Comcast’s Game Invasion – filmed during the Projekt Revolution tour, it shows some head-to-head Halo 2 action between PR guys (Linkin Park and friends) and the Warped tour. Go watch!(Louis Wu 17:51:58 UTC)

Yesterday, we reported on a pair of auctions on eBay Australia, purportedly for release copies of Halo 3. These were subsequently pulled by eBay – but not before being confirmed as real by Bungie. Tyson Green posted a note on NeoGAF (thanks, Fadefury) and Marty O’Donnell posted a note on our own forum, both saying the same thing – if you want to avoid spoiler content, get off the internet. We can’t really help you with that – but we can help make sure that WE don’t contribute to your spoiledness. We’re doing what we did before Halo 2, when a pirated copy of Halo 2 appeared on the net – we’re closing down our forum until after September 25. Yes, we know that means we’re taking away a location we offer for discussion of Halo – but it’s only for a couple of weeks, and if it helps in letting your experience the Halo 3 campaign the way Bungie intended you to experience it – it’s TOTALLY worth it. If you have news you’d like us to post, send it to &#104&#097&#108&#111&#064&#098&#117&#110&#103&#105&#101&#046&#111&#114&#103 – we’ll post it here, on the front page, if we think it’s newsworthy. (Louis Wu 17:38:07 UTC)

Bungie posted their latest podcast yesterday – an hour long, 66.6 mb (OMG!). Paul Bertone discusses Campaign Mission Design and stuff. Go listen!(Louis Wu 14:17:51 UTC)

Heh – Live-360 put up an article a few days ago discussing the Halo 3 Headset; apparently, it’s rated M for Mature at Gamestop or EB Games. Want a cool headset? You better be over 17!(Louis Wu 14:14:05 UTC)

Dave Bergland let us know that the next segment of the Halo 3 Albania Project is now online; you can watch it on their website, or stream it from YouTube. This one discusses how they plan to pull this off. With awesome graphics.(Louis Wu 13:58:10 UTC)

Xbox.com posted a press release detailing everything that’s going on during Launch Week – go check it out, there’s some great stuff in there!(Louis Wu 13:40:56 UTC)