Team Overkill sent in a forum thread from a Nintendo forum – you really gotta wonder about the people who take this stuff at face value. (This is being posted for its humor value, not to incite people to start a platform war – go look, laugh, leave. Try not to be annoying.)

There’s been a lot of talk about a ‘Halo 3’ around the net; Bungie denied that anything will be coming out on February 9th, but the stories continue. This month’s Game Informer has an article in their ‘Loose Talk’ (rumors) section claiming that Bungie is “already hard at work on the series’ third iteration on Xbox 2.” Seems feasible… but again, this is speculation only. There is NO official word from anyone at Bungie. (Thanks, Hardrive-116.)

Several people have pointed out a page on the Japanese Xbox.com site that seems to be about the Halo 2 Kubrick figure; if anyone wants to summarize what the page is about, we’ll add it here. (Thanks, enigM@.) Update: Kaboris translated this nicely on our forum. (Thanks, Kaboris!) Apparently, it’s a contest open to anyone who bought one of the original 30,000 Limited Edition copies in Japan. (If you bought your copy outside Japan, you’re not eligible.) 4000 of these people will get a mini-Kubrick figure; register your serial number to enter. Winners will be notified by mail around January 18, with prizes to be distributed in February. Nice!

cptn mexico found an article that adds another player to the Game With Fame promotion (we posted the Willis McGahee press release last week) – guitarist Ben Burnley from Breaking Benjamin will be participating tomorrow night, 9 pm Eastern. Go play!

Last Thursday, BOLL sent us a note about a Halo review at Tom’s Hardware; they didn’t actually have the review up, they had a page that said ‘we’re not sleeping until this review is finished! Keep refreshing this page!’ Every day, I went back. Nothing. Finally, today, Zaknafein pointed out that they’d put a review up – at a different URL! Doh. (If the URL is anything to go by, they posted it on the 13th.) There’s no overall rating – but they loved the audio and gameplay, liked the graphics, weapons, A.I., and story, were okay with the vehicles, and thought the level design needed work. Other reviews around the net today:

• MLGPro.com has a bunch of fan reviews posted. Pro players will weigh in later this week.
• The Edinburgh Student Newspaper believes Halo is just shooting Teletubbies, and isn’t very good.

And geez, while we’re here, let’s get the Halo 2 press from around the net out of the way:

• BYU NewsNet – release coverage
• Paly Voice – release coverage
• Daily Times (Philadelphia) – Halo 2’s popularity
• IGN – A Second Look (Editors revisit their thoughts)
• GamesIndustry.biz – Halo 2 has sold more than a quarter million units in the UK in its first week (3rd fastest selling title on record)
• The Daily Northwestern (Illinois) – silly article about people having Halo stolen (among lots of other stuff)

I’m sure there’ll be more as time goes on.

h4l0m4st3r noticed a Halo 2 Challenge happening at 64 EB Games around the US on December 4th – you’re playing to win a new Dodge Dakota. njhalo pointed out a $1,000 New Jersey Halo/Halo 2 (and some other games) tourney in Dover, NJ. And Dry Ice sent word that the Worst Halo 2 tourney (we mentioned it last month) has results from rounds one and two now posted (round 3 is next weekend).

Gamespy pulled the Half-Life 2/Halo 2 grudge match off the front page yesterday, and at the time, Halo 2 was down by about 800 votes. I thought, okay, that’s the end of this one. BUT NO! They’ve LEFT IT RUNNING, and people still want us to tell you to vote again. Man. Will you guys just go win this stupid thing, so it can go away? (Halo 2 is still down, but only by about 600 votes right now.)

BOLL has found (with the help of some new modding tools from TF6) a pretty cool unused character in Halo 2. Personally… I’m pretty darned happy this one never made it in… they seem NASTY.

For the record: word from Bungie is that the ‘Coming February 9th‘ rumor is exactly that – a rumor. A baseless, false, totally untrue rumor. I won’t pass along the exact wording… but it was pretty clear in its meaning. Someone’s pulling your leg. And by ‘your’, I mean the internet – even Slashdot was promoting this puppy.

Bah. Gamespy STILL hasn’t finished up that Grudge Match between Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, and right now, Halo 2 is losing by 900 votes. They should be turning it off pretty soon, so visit Gamespy’s front page, and vote, so folks can stop telling me to post this.

Whoops! I’ve got to head out, but KP reminded me that today is the third anniversary of the release of Halo – a good day to be happy about! (It’s also the second anniversary of Xbox Live – and wow, what a long way THAT has come!) Happy Birthday, Halo! (As for all the other news that’s building up – tonight. I’ll get to a bunch of it tonight. I hope.)

Whoa. This is FIRMLY in the rumor category, until I see some evidence, but Slashdot is reporting that there’s a note at the very end of the credits screen that states ‘Coming February 9th’ – if you finish on Legendary. Utopian Gamers, where /. got their info, suggests that it’s a heads-up for Halo 3 in 3 months… I have trouble believing that. What it DOES mean (if it’s even really there), though, is anybody’s guess at this point. More if and when we learn something.

A certain hippo-lover tipped us off to a new product from Motorola, coming soon… MAN that interface looks familiar. I know I’ve seen it somewhere before…

That darn Stuntmutt… always sniping. One One Se7en gets it wrong today, though – I’m not particularly jolly. Just ask the people who email me.

Hehe – we’re holding off on most tricks/glitches/eggs until the joint HIH/HBO site is up and running (in the meantime, remember to submit your stuff to High Impact Halo!), but this one was too good to let go. Mike Basus was looking at his HDTV screen, waiting for matches to start in Live, and noticed that one of the lines of what looks like alien text is actually the lower half of text in the Halo font. He’s decoded this much so far:

“DAVID CANDLAND IS THE GREATEST UI DESIGNER EVER”
[then there are 13 characters he doesn’t understand:] “LIVEINTREEISI”
“HIS WORK IS ASTOUNDING AND HE IS VERY HUMBLE”

I gotta wonder – did Dave put this in, or was someone yanking his chain? Nice find, Mike! Update: Confirmation from a close relative of Dave’s clears up that this was, in fact, added by Dave, and as late as October, had not been noticed by the majority of Bungie employees. The best kind of egg!

Uriel points out an article on the German SCIFI-NEWS site; it talks about a Halo movie to be announced in Variety this January. Ed Harris as Keyes, Samuel L. Jackson as Johnson, with Ridley Scott directing… they even have storyboards that haven’t been seen yet (unless they come from the Art of Halo book, which hasn’t arrived here yet…). Uriel points out that there are plenty of factual errors in the text, and that this is all RUMOR until confirmed somewhere – but man, it’s a rumor that just won’t die, no matter how often Bungie says ‘we don’t like the idea of a Halo movie’.

Reviews this morning:

• Daily Trojan (USC student paper) – general review (no score) – thanks, Annie M.D. Update: They did, in fact, give it a rating (though it’s not displayed online): 4.5/5.
• Thread (New Zealand) – 4.5/5
• The Battalion (Texas A&M student paper) – no score, but ‘just more of the same’

There’s also a multiplayer overview from the Daily Trojan – thanks, Annie M.D.

Halo GT has put together another film – GT #11 starts out with some tank launching off shields, and gets to the top of the world. There are also a bunch of funny glitches on the second half of the film. Some stuff I haven’t read about yet. 30 mb, QuickTime format, available from HaloGT.com.

Wow… the folks at Xbox.com have been busy. TONS of new articles…

• Spotlight on Halo 2 sound
• The Sins of Halo (what it’s made people do)
• Book Report: First Strike
• New and Improved (what’s better in vehicles and weapons)
• A Smarter AI
• Rev Your Engines (a look at vehicles)
• Double Your Guns (dual-wielding guide)
• The Backstage Pass page has FINALLY been updated with winner info
• Minor Spoilers (story synopsis – there ARE spoilers here)
• Launch coverage: New York at 3 pm, 6 pm, 7 pm, 9 pm, overall, Seattle coverage, LA coverage

Thatsalotta articles.

Rhox, from HaloNorge.com, points out a set of pictures he took at the Norwegian launch party last week. Funky chairs!