John_117 found a local game seller that was a bit fuzzy on the concept of ‘street date’ – he’s played the game through, and you can read his spoiler-free review on our forum. (Louis Wu 12:31:37 UTC)

BBC has posted a hefty writeup of their first experience with Halo 3: ODST – a 4 minute interview with producer Alex Cutting, plus a sizeable description of the game itself, makes this a pretty meaty preview from a top-flight news site. Update: Mr Danger points out that there’s a minor story spoiler visible in the video. (It comes about 2 minutes in, and it’s been seen in other teaser vids, but if you’re trying to stay pristine, you might want to skip this.)(Louis Wu 12:31:03 UTC)

Anoj, not satisfied with a ‘best of’ collection every five vids or so, has created an ‘all-time best of’ video for his Top 10 Halo 3 series – this one is All Time Kills, collected from the first 42 episodes. Go see if you agree!(Louis Wu 12:29:58 UTC)

Joystiq [Xbox] pointed out that AOL Radio is showcasing the Halo 3 ODST Official Soundtrack on their Video Games Scores station – tracks are mixed in with tracks from other soundtracks, and you can only skip a limited number of songs, so if you go this route, you’ll be listening to a LOT of video game music, not just ODST’s – but it’s one of the few ways of hearing these tracks before Tuesday.(Louis Wu 12:29:12 UTC)

Smiley wrote with news that after a few months of delay, the Master Chief 3000 Season 3 Finale is online. Swing by YouTube to watch it.(Louis Wu 12:28:38 UTC)

ElusiveEagle519 posted the second in his series of ODST Wallpapers – this one focuses on Dare. There’s also an unrelated piece called ‘Contemplation’ you might enjoy, as well. If you’re looking for 1680×1050 versions, you can find them in this post.(Louis Wu 12:27:48 UTC)

Morpheus pointed out a PAX panel called ‘Story Matters’, moderated by G4 and populated by story guys from a bunch of studios – including Bungie’s Joe Staten. G4 has posted the hour-long discussion on their website – though you could just watch the embedded version in Morpheus’ post. Great discussion!(Louis Wu 22:05:35 UTC)

Split-Screen has an article about Rob Adams – he’s the Senior Environment Artist on Halo Reach. If you’re wondering what his bona fides are… he was Lead Environment Artist on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune before this. Some pretty nice artwork in that game… portends well for Reach! Thanks, Domino Theory. Update: urk pointed out that not only did Bungie.net highlight Rob Adams’ existence at Bungie in a January Breaking In article, he managed to do it with a TON of Uncharted references. There’s nothing in there about Reach, of course (it was written 4 months before Reach was announced) – but I still lose points for forgetting. (Louis Wu 20:51:52 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue dropped in to announce that voting is now open in the Reclaimer Halo 3 ODST Contest – swing by the site and pick your favorite ODST-themed screenshot. There are 45 entries – and many of them are doozies! Go vote.(Louis Wu 17:24:43 UTC)

Bungie’s Comm Chatter (woohoo) has some fun stuff for you today:

• Facility B5D will be releasing a podcast a day leading up to the release of Halo 3: ODST – starting Friday. You can submit questions for the shows, and get more info about what’s in them, on their website.
• Mini Waz created a 20 minute montage as a goodbye message to the Halo community – or at least a ‘see you later’. (He’s refocusing on schoolwork.)
• The Spartan 1 Project’s Contact Tango has just completed his 200th run of the Vidmaster Annual Achievement – wonga. (His group’s no slouch at the run – remember that his colleague Declan Clarke created a walkthrough of the achievement – but 200 runs? Wow.)
• There’s a new goosetage for your perusal. Lots of launches. (Quality is depressingly bad in this day and age.)

That should do you!(Louis Wu 17:02:52 UTC)

Sean Bradley let us know about a collection of photos from his visit to the ODST Firefight Roadshow in Pennsylvania yesterday. There’s a discussion and some photos in this 405th Forum thread – and his full gallery of shots is available at Photobucket. That dude was tricked out! (This will be the only time you’ll see an ODST wielding an energy sword, unfortunately.) (Louis Wu 16:44:06 UTC)

McCann Erickson won another prestigious advertising award based on the Halo Believe ads – check out this press release. Agency Network of the Year: 2009 for a campaign started in 2007? Wow. (Louis Wu 16:43:32 UTC)

Gadget Republic is giving away a copy of Halo 3: ODST – swing by to see how you can win it! (Louis Wu 16:43:08 UTC)