Big Shiny Robot’s SenadorKooch took a close look at today’s Forward Unto Dawn episode – while he enjoyed it, his review is not all roses and rainbows. Go see what he thought!(Louis Wu 17:28:52 UTC)

We’re all familiar with product placement in TV shows and movies – but sometimes, the end result makes you shake your head. Halo 4 made an appearance in Wednesday night’s Hart of Dixie, a show on the CW. Horrible Night explained why it’s so awkwardly done (thanks, TheOddOne). Because actually WATCHING the clip at the CW’s website is a painful experience, I’ve snipped out the relevant 100-second bit – you can watch it for yourself, without jumping through hoops. Please don’t ask me for those 100 seconds back, though; it’s not my fault if you actually watch.(Louis Wu 17:24:59 UTC)

343 is building a new Warthog. It’s not like the Weta Warthog they already have – it’s actually full-scale. (The Weta ‘hog is smaller than the in-game dimensions would suggest, mostly to make it human-sized.) You can get a sneak peek at it in a G4TV segment… that thing is a MONSTER! Thanks, DEEP NNN.(Louis Wu 17:20:39 UTC)

ScOuRgE3 stopped by with a link to his newest Halo 4 fan art – nice work! Check it out.(Louis Wu 17:05:45 UTC)

Mobile & Apps has some results from the Nielson polling group that might surprise – as of this week, Halo 4 is the most-anticipated game for the Xbox 360, beating out Black Ops 2 by a quarter of a percent. (Heh – and that’s not within the margin of error?) Less than 3 weeks to wait!(Louis Wu 17:04:06 UTC)

Edge sent word that he’s put together a multiplayer montage of Halo 4 footage, collected from various official releases. Go watch! (Louis Wu 16:58:03 UTC)

Dust Storm let us know how busy the Podtacular team’s been – Podtacular 319 is live (discussing FUD Ep 2), a new episode of PodTV looks at the Halo 4 Forge footage unveiled by Gamespot last week, and Podtacular 320 takes their first look at the extended fiction of the Halo universe, and how it ties into Halo 4. Don’t they sleep?(Louis Wu 16:55:15 UTC)

There were two new pieces in the Fan Fiction queue last week… but we were sorta busy. Sorry about that! Go read ’em now.(Louis Wu 16:51:50 UTC)

Robowski sent word (a couple of days ago, we’re sorry) that the Post Game Carnage Report crew teamed up with the Drunken Halo crew to discuss the first couple of episodes of Forward Unto Dawn on PGCR 134. (There’s also info about the winner of their XBL voice message contest.) Go listen!(Louis Wu 16:50:00 UTC)

Forward Unto Dawn Part 3 debuted today – and as 343 promised a few times recently, it DEFINITELY ramped up the excitement. A really fantastic piece of work – something for everyone from the hardest-core extended universe wonk to the most casual “I just wanna see stuff blow up” guy. Go watch it. And again… join in the conversation.(Louis Wu 15:44:14 UTC)

If you missed Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, you can see the brand-new live-action/CG Halo 4 promo piece ‘Scanned’ on Xbox’s YouTube channel… it’s amazing. Go watch it. (And join the discussion on our forum.) Update: It’s on the Xbox Press site already, if you want a high-res, downloadable version. Update 2: NeoGAF’s Bornstellar combined ‘Scanned’ with a track from the Halo 4 OST – and it works really, really well. All the way through! Almost as though the action was designed around this piece in the first place… Update 3: crazedone1988 has combined the trailer with Revival in one video, so you can watch it at full resolution.(Louis Wu 11:35:04 UTC)

Download
For those who enjoy the campaign story of the past Halo games, you have likely read some of the Halo books that extend the fiction of the Halo Universe. If you have no read the books, then this show is a starting point to get you acclimated to some of the back story of the Chief and the bits that will influence the story of Halo 4. There are spoiler content in here regarding the books if you have not read them, so tread lightly. We are joined by two very knowledgeable people of the Halo lore: GrimBrother One and B2 The Ryan. These two “librarians” help is explore the first two books: The Fall of Reach and The Flood, along with a few sidebar conversations. Enjoy

UPDATE: Here are the links we mentioned in the show
Keyes Loop: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100920022712/halo/images/b/be/Keyes_Loop.jpeg
Data Drop: http://www.halopedia.org/Data_Drop

As is the case on most Wednesday evenings, the Halo Bulletin went live last night. It contains a bunch of stuff you probably could have predicted it would have (new shots of a Halo 4 map – in this case, Meltdown; information about a Halo weapon – in this case, the Mantis) – it also contains stuff you might not have thought about. ‘Section 3’ has a puzzle which will require people with careful fingers and maybe out-of-the-ordinary tools to solve. There is hidden text that, when combined with similar text in previous Bulletins, might start telling its own story. (thebruce0 has begun to compile the relevant tidbits to make them easier to put together.) And it has pumpkin templates (that you might want to consider for our Guilt O’ Lantern contest, whose deadline is coming up in less than 2 weeks!). We, of course, have a local copy (it is much, much easier on low-bandwidth connections) – but wherever you read it… definitely read it.(Louis Wu 20:01:03 UTC)

The Swedish promotional ‘Are You Worthy?’ site we mentioned a few days ago is live now (thanks, Mr Daax). While the contest itself is open only to Swedes, you can certainly participate in the Training Session – and if you like Halo trivia, you should! Some of the questions are simple… some are most decidedly NOT. Are You Worthy?(Louis Wu 19:51:39 UTC)

NowGamer has a small article about the Halo 4 ad premiering tonight on Jimmy Fallon Live – and it includes a teaser pic. Drool! Thanks, ElzarTheBam.(Louis Wu 19:40:25 UTC)

One of the earliest Halo 4 multiplayer maps we got to see was Haven – interestingly, it’s near the end of IGN’s series of Map Walkthroughs. The Haven episode was released this morning – take a look to make sure you’ve found all the nooks and crannies before you start rampaging on November 6! Thanks, CyReN.(Louis Wu 19:17:01 UTC)

Hedgemony posted a cover for Halo: Scout – as with all of these fake comic covers, he makes me wish someone would actually write the full thing. I gain new appreciation for Halo 4 helmets with each new installment!(Louis Wu 19:13:55 UTC)