Gamersyde released a 15-minute ODST presentation that they recorded at Gamerscom last week – it’s filmed off the screen, but the HD downloads are quite watchable. It shows off the first cutscene from the game (if you’ve been watching ODST release info obsessively, you’ve already seen this, but it’s nice that it’s all in one place, and viewed at a nice resolution), and looks at a some of the early campaign gameplay. Again, all of the areas covered by this film have been seen in other show presentations, starting with E3 – but the comments from CJ Cowan and Brian Jarrard contain lots of interesting tidbits you might not know (cutscenes are rendered in real time, as you play, so that lip-synching by the characters matches up regardless of language – nice!). Use BitTorrent, if you can, for the downloads – it’s the nicest option for the Gamersyde guys. Thanks to NeoGAF’s Major Williams for the heads-up on this.(Louis Wu 14:32:45 UTC)

Looks like Gamestop made a fun little Halo 3: ODST commercial, highlighting Johnson’s inclusion. Check it out on YouTube! Thanks again, Kibbles.(Louis Wu 14:30:14 UTC)

2good4u2 visited our forum with word of a bunch of new timelapse pics, created from both multiplayer and campaign. Really fun work – check ’em out!(Louis Wu 14:19:45 UTC)

Lots of people were at Redmond’s Gamestop yesterday to play them some sweet, sweet ODST Firefight. One guy filmed the experience (almost all outside the truck) and grabbed a clip of Joe Staten doing the Grunt voice – thanks to Kibbles for the heads-up on these. Also, kanbo stopped in to our forum with his own writeup of the day – sounds like it was a lot of fun! If you’re thinking about catching the truck on one of its other stops in the next month or so, these impressions should give you an idea about what you’re in for.(Louis Wu 14:15:12 UTC)

Yesterday was Friday – and Hawty McBloggy posted another edition of Friday Caption Fun, even though she was on vacaction. We, however, forgot to look for it – so you’re hearing about it on Saturday. (Blame us, not Hawty.) Swing by to see the pick of last week’s captions – and an image that’s just DESPERATE for some funny quips. (Louis Wu 14:52:37 UTC)

The next Halo 3 Game with Fame has been announced – Electronic music group 3OH!3 will be playing with fans this coming Tuesday, August 25, between 8 and 10pm ET. Swing by Xbox.com for full details.(Louis Wu 14:52:03 UTC)

Cody Gordon noticed that for the next few weeks, Staples is offering a promotion (jump over to Offer 4) that might be of interest to Halo fans; for $10, they’ll print your digital picture at 18″x24″, laminated and mounted – it’s an inexpensive (albeit somewhat limited) alternative to the Halo3Screenshots.com printing service, for a short time. Cody sent along a couple of examples to see what you’d get: one | two. Check it out!(Louis Wu 14:51:02 UTC)

LunarShadow let us know that H3O, his Halo 3 Stats Compiler, has been updated; among the improvements is the ability to skip over games in your history that Bungie’s lost the data for. (I had one of these games in early August – and v1.0.6 would simply stop when it got to this game, refusing to collect information about more recent games. v1.0.7 will try – but skip over and move forward.) Grab a copy – and look at your stats in-depth!(Louis Wu 14:50:13 UTC)

The Bungie Weekly Update is live over at Bungie.net (and in our Weekly Update Archive) – it was a busy week, so urk had his hands full summarizing it. The ODST Across America tour, previews of upcoming maps, Gamescom in Cologne, Press in Seattle, all of these are covered. Plus new stuff about the upcoming maps, some really funky pants on David Allen, and a very fun pic found by Stosh – it’s an update worth reading! So go read, already.(Louis Wu 23:57:33 UTC)

Thanks muchly to urk, who reminded us that Zoxin It Up! LIVE is happening tonight – swing by to hear the interview with Adam Grumbo, of the 405th. (He’s got something cool to give away, and if you’re listening, you’re eligible!) The festivities start at 9pm ET – but be a little early if you want a shot at a backstage pass.(Louis Wu 22:19:59 UTC)

If you visit the Halo Story Page right now, you might see a message that the site is distributing malware. Please be aware that the malicious iframe was removed as soon as we were notified of its existence – and the compromised login that allowed access has been changed. The site is safe at this point, and we hope that Google removes the warning page soon.(Louis Wu 18:35:50 UTC)

VG247 caught up with Brian Jarrard and CJ Cowan at Gamescom – they asked a bunch of good questions about Halo 3: ODST and its development. Go read the answers.(Louis Wu 17:51:05 UTC)

Co-Optimus wrote up their Halo 3 Co-Op Night (we mentioned it yesterday, remember?) – swing by for impressions and screen caps from the staff.(Louis Wu 17:40:56 UTC)

BuzzJuice brought us the news of a new Co-Op Mythic Campaign Challenge from HaloCharts. You and a friend run through all nine levels of Halo 3, in order, in CLASO (Co-op, Legendary, All Skulls On), and if you’re first to sumbit a full set of 9 runs, you both win Recon! Nice. (Oh… did we mention that there’s a Zero Deaths requirement? ZING!)(Louis Wu 17:34:01 UTC)