Yesterday, we mentioned a cool Bungie studio visit that was up for auction at Child’s Play – Laird sent us a phone cam photo of the booklet entry, so the rest of you can drool over what you didn’t get your hands on. (I don’t know what the final price was, but Laird dropped out at $1700.) (Louis Wu 16:10:26 UTC)

Bungie’s Weekly Update is live – there’s some info about the trailer that’s dropping tomorrow on Spike’s Video Game Awards, there’s info on the upcoming changes to the Reach project page, there’s some pimping (we already mentioned the deal, but hey, if you follow their link, Bungie gets a bigger cut), there’s info on the next podcast, there’s some funny stuff from Harrison’s mom, and there’s a cool pic from Stosh. Go read! (It is, of course, in our Weekly Update Archive, as well.)(Louis Wu 02:12:06 UTC)

The hype for the Reach teaser to be shown on Saturday night on the VGAs continues – Destructoid talked to Geoff Keighley, who has lots of good things to say about it:

Clocking in at two minutes and thirty seconds, it’s “basically the opening of the game,” and will give gamers the first look at the Halo Reach engine running in real-time. You’ll meet the game’s characters for the first time, complete with dialogue, all backed by an original score by Bungie’s musical daddy, Marty O’Donnell.

“It’s been a couple of years since we’ve seen new technology from Bungie,” he explains. “As soon as you see Reach, you’ll realize that these guys have definitely upped the ante when it comes to visual firepower of the engine.”

If you’re planning to be out on Saturday night, be sure and TiVo this one! (It’ll be online soon enough, but you don’t want to be the last one to see it, do you?) Thanks to Kibbles, over at NeoGAF, for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 20:59:16 UTC)

Stuntmutt stopped in to point out that Pocket Gamer wonders whether the Karl Wardin character from the upcoming iPhone shooter ‘N.O.V.A.’ looks a lot like the Master Chief…? (From looking at the trailer Stunt linked to, I’d say that the first gun you see has definite Battle Rifle overtones… but the gameplay itself looks more like Unreal.)(Louis Wu 19:59:20 UTC)

Bungie is notoriously tight-lipped about things like deadlines; after all, they STILL haven’t lived down the “We’re still waiting for the boxes!” excuse for the delay in Marathon’s release in 1994. Sometimes, though, logistics require releasing a LITTLE bit of information – and sharp-eyed fans can turn that into something they can hold on to. Up until this point, all we’ve known about the release date of the Reach multiplayer Beta is ‘Spring 2010’ – Bungie has NOT provided any more data than that to the general public. However, one of the prizes they donated to the recent Child’s Play Charity Auction was a tour of Bungie Studios – and the description in the auction booklet had some restrictions. The fact that the tour is only valid in April, coupled by the description which informed readers that the winner would be able to play the Beta before their friends and family, suggests that the Beta won’t be going live until May. That narrows the 3-month ‘Spring’ window down to 3 weeks. More if we learn it! (Which of course now we won’t, since we’ve just gone and pissed off Bungie…) Thanks to Laird for the tip-off from the Charity Auction!(Louis Wu 18:36:29 UTC)

CraveOnline has a list of the ‘10 Best Stories in Gaming‘ – Halo 2’s dual-perspective narrative made the list. Go read the rest!(Louis Wu 15:09:55 UTC)

Friday Caption Fun is back at Hawty McBloggy’s – great captions from last week’s pics, and a truly funky new pic just waiting for your words of wisdom are waiting for you just around the bend.(Louis Wu 13:34:28 UTC)

Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s product management director, believes Reach will be the biggest game of 2010. That’s big talk about a single-platform product… do you agree? Thanks, Avateur.(Louis Wu 13:31:06 UTC)

Willy’s back with another 20 Questions from CE United – the interview with bs angel is so important, it spans both November and December. Needs moar double entendres. Go read it anyway.(Louis Wu 13:28:39 UTC)

There’s a fascinating look back at the development of the Halo 3 multiplayer map Construct over at Bungie.net – the designers discussed how it started, what changed over time, and what they’d do differently at this stage. You can read it and think “oh, man, they should have stuck with this idea!” or “why did they scrap that part?” – or you can read it and realize that there are lots and lots and LOTS of factors that go into making a great map – and not all of them will be presented to you in a particular game. Check it out!(Louis Wu 13:27:04 UTC)

Twelve new pieces are up this week in the Fan Fiction section – it’s alive again! Go read.(Louis Wu 13:25:50 UTC)