Cody Brigan has created a Halo 3 Countdown Timer – it currently counts down to Christmas 2006, because he doesn’t have a release date for Halo 3, but it’s pretty nonetheless!(Louis Wu 23:35:51 UTC)

3Suns points out a couple of interesting things at MLGPro.com right now – a preview of FBI GamerGraffix, and a newly launched online tournament. Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 23:34:29 UTC)

Sigafoos writes to point out WikiRiot 24, which discusses the December issue of EGM, the new MLG TV stuff, the Podtacular league, and lots of clan/wiki stuff. 35 minutes, 14 mb. Go listen!(Louis Wu 20:28:40 UTC)

We’ve got one more from Bryn Casey – it’s a scene from the Ghosts of Onyx, and if you haven’t read the book, this could be classified as ‘spoilers’. Fantastic piece, though – check it out if you can!(Louis Wu 17:41:02 UTC)

If you missed the first episode of the MLG Pro Circuit on the USA Network yesterday, the MLGPro.com website is rebroadcasting it in its entirety. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 17:08:18 UTC)

Chryton noticed an advertisement for the H5K Project, a Halo 2 tournament in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on November 27-29. $35 to register, $5000 first prize. More details on their website.(Louis Wu 17:05:17 UTC)

Germany’s Halo Orbit has renamed itself Halo Base – and they’ve posted 5 new Halo 3 ‘screenshots’. (These are technically scans from the December EGM magazine – but they got them by screen-capturing the images off the recently released 1Up Show vid; as video screen caps, they’re definitely legal for posting on the web.) Thanks, Legend.(Louis Wu 17:01:15 UTC)

Gears of War was released this week – and while it rocketed to the top of the Xbox 360 Top Live titles, it couldn’t unseat Halo 2 as the top overall Xbox Live title. We’ll have to see if another week or two of folks buying the game can accomplish that… thanks, Major Nelson.(Louis Wu 16:57:03 UTC)

A quick reminder – you’ve got another day or two to vote for your favorite pumpkins in this year’s Guilt O’ Lantern contest. Vote turnout is way, way down from the last couple of years – I’m not sure if that’s because we haven’t done a very good job of promoting this, or if folks are just tired of Halo-carved pumpkins… but please, if you haven’t voted yet, swing by and do so. Won’t take you more than a couple of minutes!(Louis Wu 18:03:18 UTC)

The MLG Vidcast #5 is available on the front page of MLGPro.com – most of it is concerned with the MLG Pro Circuit show on USA (you DID watch that this morning, didn’t you?), but there are a couple of minutes of play-by-play focus on the Ogres that haven’t been seen online before. Thanks, 3Suns.(Louis Wu 16:04:05 UTC)

Sane Intolerant linked to Toywiz.com, and a page that lets you preorder the Halo 2 Limited Edition Series 2 action figures – Prophet of Regret, Jackal Sniper, Teal Elite. (I dunno – might be fun to buy a bunch of Jackal Snipers and strap explosives to ’em…)(Louis Wu 15:58:20 UTC)

EGM’s Mark MacDonald pointed out that the Halo-specific portion of the 1Up show can be watched via streaming flash (or downloaded, in hi-res form) from GameVideos.com. And I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that I’m a little silly sometimes; I described the Halo content in the first news post of the day – but I was describing the content of Episode 53, not 54. This new one contains video footage of the EGM team in Kirkland (though no onscreen action), as well as interviews with Lars Bakken, Tyson Green, and Marty O’Donnell. Check it out!(Louis Wu 15:55:07 UTC)

The Bungie Weekly Update is live at bungie.net – and though there’s no Mister Chief this week (how I miss the little guy!), there’s a mini-interview with Eric Nylund about Ghosts of Onyx, some info about upcoming changes to the XBL playlists, and some teasers about Halo 3’s water. Go read! (You can, of course, read it in our Weekly Update Archive, as well.)(Louis Wu 01:54:11 UTC)

Over at 1Up.com, their Friday Halo 3 content has been posted – the 1Up Show, Season 4, Episode 5 contains footage from the EGM visit to Bungie (among other things). The movie’s huge – 344 – 977 mb, depending on format and resolution; I can’t tell you anything about it yet, because it’s going to be at least an hour before I see it. However… my guess is, it’s worth the download. Thanks to many people in this thread started by Esteban Lagarde – especially Bad Pogo, who found a direct link to the show. Update: Okay, I’ve seen it now; the Halo 3 content is actually chat between three of the EGM staffers who were at Bungie, discussing what they saw, how they reacted, what they thought, etc – no footage, no screens, but some pretty interesting content nonetheless.(Louis Wu 00:00:44 UTC)

Very nice – over at the website for the Ill Clan’s Trash Talk, there’s a new episode that was made specifically for the Machinima Film Festival last weekend – it has Trash Talk’s Ill Will interacting with characters from various nominees at the convention, including Church and Tucker from Red vs Blue, and Damien Lacedamian from This Spartan Life. Fun! Thanks, The First Spartan.(Louis Wu 19:45:26 UTC)

Stuntmutt has a message for the EGM crew in today’s One One Se7en.(Louis Wu 19:33:48 UTC)

Peter Moore talked to MTV – didn’t really say anything that isn’t known, but he sounded upbeat about the Halo movie, even though it’s on ice for the moment. Thanks to DHalo, who found this at TeamXbox.(Louis Wu 16:23:26 UTC)

Just twelve new pieces this week in the Fan Fiction section – should be readable by lunch!(Louis Wu 13:32:00 UTC)