Peter Moore gave a few interviews at the Tokyo Game Show – one went to Game Informer. This particular question and answer has already generated quite a bit of email traffic for us:

GI: Anything on Halo 3 yet?
Moore: Bungie is busy (laughs) The boys are busy.

This tidbit has been gleefully picked up by Xbox360News, which apparently is read by a lot of people who visit HBO, and is being touted as ‘the first official confirmation that Halo 3 is in production’. To be clear: it’s completely possible that this is exactly what Moore meant… but it is not official confirmation that Halo 3 is in production. It’s a high-level Microsoft employee making a comment about their most important gaming franchise. Until you see something on Bungie.net, saying “We’re working on Halo 3” – it’s not official. Period. That said – the comment IS out there, we HAVE reported on it, you can stop emailing now. Thanks!

Overswarm has poured a bunch of new content into his Not So Common Sense strategy guide – you’ll find 4 new interviews with top Halo 2 players, an updated FAQ, and a writeup of his MLG Nashville experience earlier this month. Enjoy!

Whew! I feel like a load’s been lifted from my shoulders. 58 new pieces are now available in the Miscellaneous Art section (though only 42 actual entries have been added – the rest are variants of one kind or another). It’s a pretty wide range of material, but three pieces stood out for me; Veegie’s ‘Ambuscade’, Paul Davies’ ‘Destination: Halo’, and Theo Prins’ Wacom’d Master Chief. (That doesn’t mean the rest of the lot isn’t worth looking at – it just means these were MY three favorites.) Go browse!

The HBO-COERCE server mentioned yesterday is now online – TeamSpeak server is coming soon. Our HaloPC query tool is still online, so you can check its status at any time. (I’m kicking myself for this messy office; I can’t find my Halo CD. I’ll have to tear this place apart later.) Thanks, synide.

On October 8, LiL Poison is playing all comers to help charity – $2.00 to participate (you’re welcome to give more), with lots of surprises, giveaways, and media coverage. It’s being sponsored by GameCrazy and Major League Gaming. Proceeds to go to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief. This is taking place at a GameCrazy in central Long Island, NY, and more details can be found in this forum post on LiL Poison’s website.

[HC]D-Man pointed out that the next episode of H=MC2, a periodic podcast, will feature an interview with Stuntmutt – and he’s accepting questions now. (See the forum post for an email address to send yours to – but do it soon.) He’s also looking for an audio editor…

Robert Cavallucci dropped us a note about Spectre Live Wars, who hosted an Xbox Live Halo 2 tournament recently; 96 competitors played 62 games in a night, making it the largest XBL tourney in Australia. Go check out the details!

trigger119 wrote to point out Oblivion Episode 1, the first in a series hosted by Treeskunk Productions about a group of soldiers who need to stop the Covenant from building a doomsday weapon before Reach falls. WMP9 format, 20.4 mb. It can be downloaded from their Movies page.

Urban Reflex organized a head-to-head tournament amongst the HBO Helljumpers – H3ADSHOT118 came out the winner, and you can see the results on this page Urban put together.

Podtacular Episode 9 has been released – 1:22 long, 57 mb large. This one is all about snipers – sniping guide, sniping tips, snipe hunting. Available either from their website, or via iTunes.

lAbsolutel has started up a Halo 2 Strategy blog – you can find his suggestions on a variety of weapons in the first few posts. Comments can go here.

Stuntmutt reveals his secrets in today’s One One Se7en. (Well, not that you thought he actually came up with these jokes on his own, or anything…)

CYBRFRK pointed out that last night, the MPRRS passed the 500 movie reviews mark – 90 of the first 500 vids passed, an 18% approval rating. (This means that there were more than 400 movies I didn’t have to watch or evaluate, saving me more than a full day’s worth of watching time. If I could watch Halo vids for 24 hours straight, that is…) I’m pretty sure that the overall quality of released vids has increased because of the system – a number of films have passed through more than once, improving due to feedback and therefore reaching the public in a more polished form than originally envisioned by their authors. For this, and for the saved time, I say a hearty ‘Thank you!’ to the reviewers – this system wouldn’t exist without you!

You may notice the large red cross on the right side of this page – thanks to Boxer for giving us the idea to provide handy links for folks looking to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. As a community, we’re as strong as our actions!

Clearing out the Fan Fiction queue this morning, there are now eight new pieces for you to read. So go read.

XerxdeeJ stopped by to tell us that his Halo-related blog ‘Tied the Leader‘ isn’t dead, it was just on vacation while he kicked off his marriage. In fact, the top article right now is a recounting of the weekend leading up to that momentous event. It’s a monster. Go read.

It’s certainly not the first time I’ve seen it speculated that Dr. Halsey (who has never appeared in-game, only in the Halo novels) might be the mother of Miranda Keyes… but it’s the most thorough examination of the evidence I’ve come across. Kudos, Dark One.

Pinkuh announced a new webcomic this morning – it’s called ‘Lost the Lead‘, and it will chronicle her adventures in online gaming. (Halo will play a pretty big role, but it won’t be ALL Halo.) Looking forward to it!

Treeskunk Productions, the folks behind ‘Outpost: Coagulation’ and ‘Lethal Tactics’, have released a trailer for ‘Project 117’, an upcoming machinima film that follows the Spartan IIIs, a group hunted by the very people they were created to protect, as they try once again to save humanity. 22.7 mb, WMP9 format. Great camera angles.

Fun article in Stars & Stripes – coverage of inter-base Halo tournaments within the British Royal Air Force. Those military Halo fanatics – they’re everywhere!