uberfoop got a good look at Haven’s skybox. The whole thing.(Louis Wu 17:18:18 UTC)

MoltenSlowa told us about the fifth episode of his Spartan Ops-centric podcast – go listen in!(Louis Wu 17:17:26 UTC)

Postmortem wrapped up the fourth round of his Visualizing the Halo Universe last night – go check out the Precursor entries, and his feedback on them! Amazing stuff. (Louis Wu 17:15:10 UTC)

Rockslider let us know about a brand-new bridge descent method for Assault on the Control Room – it’s PAL-specific, but it shaves several seconds off the record speed for getting off that first bridge. Amazing – we first saw that descent 11 years ago, and there continue to be advances! (Louis Wu 17:13:56 UTC)

Halo 4 won Game of the Year at the Inside Gaming Awards – you can check out the award (and an interview with Frank O’Connor and Kiki Wolfkill) on machinima’s channel. (They also took home Best Competitive Multiplayer – not too bad at all!) Thanks, TheOddOne. (Louis Wu 17:32:45 UTC)

NobleGundam found a pretty cool Halo-themed tryptich created by a fan – love it!(Louis Wu 17:25:57 UTC)

NobleGundam found a pretty cool Halo-themed tryptich created by a fan – love it!(Louis Wu 17:25:57 UTC)

I’ve seen my share of tournament Halo matches… but I’ve NEVER seen a 0-0 tournament game before. (And we’re not just talking no flag scores – it was a CTF match – we’re talking ZERO KILLS.) Really entertaining commentary by Ninja_MLG and Ninja_Invictus. Thanks, CyReN.(Louis Wu 17:22:15 UTC)

Tex found a really cool animation on YouTube – great artwork, great stop-motion animation. Five stars! (Louis Wu 17:18:13 UTC)

Ars Technica wrote up their list of most overrated games – and Halo (the original) made the list. I have a little trouble recognizing the game I’ve been playing for more than ten years in the description they posted… thanks, Arithmomaniac. (Louis Wu 17:09:06 UTC)

Ars Technica wrote up their list of most overrated games – and Halo (the original) made the list. I have a little trouble recognizing the game I’ve been playing for more than ten years in the description they posted… thanks, Arithmomaniac. (Louis Wu 17:09:06 UTC)

BOLL stopped in with a Halo-related image he created for a fun challenge on a different forum… pretty cool!(Louis Wu 17:03:44 UTC)

BOLL stopped in with a Halo-related image he created for a fun challenge on a different forum… pretty cool!(Louis Wu 17:03:44 UTC)

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It’s been a while since we’ve talked about news in the Halo-verse, so it’s time to take a look at the past few Halo Bulletins and see what we’ve missed. We’ve seen weekly playlist updates where map fixes and new game modes are introduced into matchmaking. Since release day, we’ve seen SWAT, Team Snipers, FFA Throwback and Team Regicide hits the streets with Extraction coming next week. The Crimson Map pack has been announced with three new War Games maps: Shattered, Harvest and Wreckage to join us on December 10th. Finally, the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge was revealed this week. It’s a competition to find the best and most dedicated Halo player in War Games and Spartan Ops for a chance to win great prizes. Enjoy

t00lbox has gotten out of Reclaimer – and he can show you how to do it, too. Interesting to see how 343 built out this map to seem so much bigger than it actually is!(Louis Wu 20:38:33 UTC)

Spike’s Video Game Awards were last night – you can watch the entire 2-hour extravaganza on their website now. If your time is limited, here’s the key stuff: you can watch the new Spartan Ops trailer by starting at around 1:42:30 (if you care about the intro, or 1:43:10 if you don’t). You can also watch it on Kotaku, if you’d rather. Other timestamps worth checking out: 13:45, 38:30. (If you need to save time, we’ve archived these two bits here and here.) In terms of awards, Halo 4 took home Best Xbox 360 Game and Best Graphics. Not too shabby! (Louis Wu 20:09:11 UTC)

IGN posted a new gameplay commentary vid – this time, it’s Extraction on Wreckage. (Both the gametype and the map will be available to the general public in Matchmaking tomorrow.) Thanks, ElzarTheBam.(Louis Wu 20:08:53 UTC)