Halo Waypoint, the Microsoft Halo Portal, is live on the web. You can get there from HaloWaypoint.com or halo.xbox.com – both work. It contains lots of information and links about the Halo community and resources – dig through it to find cool tidbits! It’s definitely pretty slick-looking!(Louis Wu 18:49:26 UTC)

Welcome to New Mombasa is a new Top Story at Bungie.net – it gives you the lowdown on Halo 3: ODST. Who you’re playing as, what you have available, what you’re up against. Nice summary! Check it out.(Louis Wu 18:44:05 UTC)

Stuff for you this afternoon, from Bungie’s Comm Chatter:

• Warthog Memoirs is a four and a half minute machinima from CMNeir and friends – a couple of guys in matchmaking remember better times with their friend the warthog (I think it needs a voice).
• Physics Evolved: Episode 1 shows off some of the crazy stuff you can do with Halo’s physics engine. If you can dream it… you can build it.
• Halo 3: ODST OST Rap is an ode to the wonder that is ODST’s soundtrack. I’m not a huge rap fan, but this is fantastic.

Go watch!(Louis Wu 18:38:22 UTC)

If you have an Xbox LIVE Gold membership, you can snag a free ‘Prepare to Drop’ Premium Theme for your dashboard – it’s pretty nice to look at. It’s a limited-time deal (it doesn’t say how limited) – so grab it soon! Thanks to NeoGAF’s Jtyettis for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 14:23:45 UTC)

USA Today has an interview with Joe Staten and Marty O’Donnell online now – it’s aimed at a pretty general audience, so you might not find anything you don’t already know… but on the other hand, it’s pretty cool to see Joe tying together disparate chunks of the Halo storyline into a cohesive package you might not have considered before this point. And Marty explains the connection between Halo and Miles Davis. Go read!(Louis Wu 13:30:10 UTC)

Red vs Blue Recreation Chapter 14 (The Installation) went live last night, as a new chapter does every Monday… but some of us were too busy playing ODST’s campaign to notice. Lots and lots of stuff happens – we’re moving quickly towards a crescendo. TLQ^* is quite high in this ep. ^*Total Laugh Quotient(Louis Wu 12:39:52 UTC)

A marketing research fan has found that there’s plenty of room for multiple AAA titles this fall; more than half the people who plan to purchase Halo 3: ODST also plan to purchase Modern Warfare 2. (There are overlaps with other games, as well – the median number of planned game purchases in the next three months among survey participants is three.)(Louis Wu 12:29:00 UTC)

Joystiq has an interview with Microsoft’s Ryan Crosby and Bungie’s Alex Pfeiffer about ODST – lots of basic info, plus how it grew from an expansion into a full-fledged game, how this fits into the Halo universe, where it’s all going, and more. 8 minutes of question and answers – give it a watch!(Louis Wu 12:28:37 UTC)

PlanetXbox360 is giving away a copy of ODST – all you have to do to qualify is post 20 times in their forum (and add your name to the specific thread mentioned in the newspost) before Friday. Hey – who doesn’t like free stuff? (Louis Wu 12:28:15 UTC)

Narcogen let us know that the next chapter of ‘Anger, Sadness, and Envy’ (the R.net podcast devoted to discussing Halo 3 campaign levels) is live – Blackstar, Narcogen, and special guest Miguel Chavez discuss the level Cortana. Not a single mention of ODST! (I don’t think…)(Louis Wu 12:27:46 UTC)