Mike Poage let us know that he’s put a Tough Luck skull up for sale on eBay – you’ve got 3 days to bid on it. If you’d rather have a different skull, you can contact Mike directly – just be sure that the subject line has ‘Halo Skull’ in it. (Louis Wu 16:09:50 UTC)

Earlier today, we mentioned an article at Forbes that compared Microsoft’s marketing strategy for Halo to that of razor companies – sell the razor cheap, make your money on the blades. We got word from deftangel that an article went live on CouchCampus that backs this up nicely – ‘Halo 3: The Nickel & Dime Generation‘ looks at what it has cost to play Halo 3 as a hardcore fan, and laments the change in marketing strategies that has cost gamers so much extra scratch. Whether you agree or disagree, it’s an interesting change!(Louis Wu 15:27:36 UTC)

Over at NeoGAF, Kibbles popped on a couple of days ago, claiming to have seen the ‘Brute Pimp’ animation that urk mentioned back in January (scroll down to “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy”). Now, that update stated that the animation glitch that lead to the ‘pimp strut’ had been fixed… so Kibbles was told, pics or it didn’t happen. He went one better – he filmed it. That Chieftan even has the pimp slap down! Check this out.(Louis Wu 13:27:35 UTC)

Many people are discovering that Halo 3: ODST’s finicky campaign networking can make it difficult to complete the Vidmaster Achievements – they require a long, uninterrupted stretch of connection to LIVE, and for many people, that’s not a possibility. Well, back in July, we brought you news that the Vidmaster: Annual Achievement could be completed over system link, as long as the party was logged into LIVE. pete_the_duck confirmed that Endure, at least, can also be completed this way; he knows, because he did it. Thanks to sithhead for bringing the issue up! (To clarify: this doesn’t mean you can do it without a LIVE connection. It simply means you don’t need a LIVE connection to actually transfer data from one player to another – which means that the ‘lag-out-because-of-a-bad-connection’ problem is greatly reduced.)(Louis Wu 13:25:31 UTC)

This morning, we’ve got the latest Ctrl+Alt+Del for you (thanks, gunluva – this one was pretty funny), and we’ve got the latest ODS Steve for you (it features the winner of the Fairfax Fundraiser). Enjoy! (Louis Wu 13:18:31 UTC)

Greg let us know that IGN has reviewed the Halo 3: ODST soundtrack – and they’re raving about it. “Bungie’s sci-fi shooter never sounded so good.” No argument here! (Louis Wu 13:17:42 UTC)

Forbes suggests that Halo games are the razor blades to Microsoft’s razor – the Xbox 360. (Seems like they could be right – according to this week’s LIVE Activity list released by Major Nelson yesterday, Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST were the #1 and #2 titles.) (Louis Wu 13:15:16 UTC)

Vandya stopped in with word of ‘Détresse’ (Distress), a french machinima. No dialogue, just action. Nice cinematography! Can our hero hold out long enough for help to arrive?(Louis Wu 13:14:15 UTC)

Morpheus announced a montage of the best clips received by HaloContest during September – one of these will win the 1600 point card HC has for the highest rated clip – and reminded you that there’s another prize on the line for October, as well. Check the post for more details! (Louis Wu 13:13:36 UTC)

Today’s Average Joe interview at Bungie.net is with MR DROZ – he plays Halo 3, and he met his wife in a game of Team Slayer. Go read more!(Louis Wu 19:29:11 UTC)

Black Water Ops is holding a screenshot contest – win and you could get yourself some MS points or a LIVE subscription. Check their site for details! Thanks to Bungie’s Comm Chatter for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 19:25:06 UTC)