The latest Breaking In story (well, Broken In, I guess) is the one told by Bungie Character Engineer Max Dyckhoff. Max talks about his time in the industry – but he neglects to mention that he was a big player in the VERY early days of Halo fandom; it was Max who set up the Halo SETI Marines, almost 10 years ago. From that point forward, it was clear he was on the track to important things! Go read what he got himself up to.(Louis Wu 22:47:51 UTC)

The latest MLGPro/ESPN Top 10 is online… amazing gameplay. Go watch!(Louis Wu 22:04:15 UTC)

If you’re looking for Double Experience in your online Halo playing, look no further than Living Dead, this week’s Double XP list. It went live a couple of hours ago. Mmmmm…. brains.(Louis Wu 19:31:08 UTC)

chris10023 let us know that Halo 3 Fails: Episode 21 is online – there are some GREAT clips in there this time. I think my favorite is the ‘Let It Go Fail’ that starts around 50 seconds in. Go watch!(Louis Wu 18:57:24 UTC)

The Summer Mythic Recon Challenge marches on – Part II is getting ready to kick off – this one involves the level Halo. Check out this post on Bungie.net for full details!(Louis Wu 18:55:53 UTC)

Bry has been watching prices on Halo 3: ODST at UK outlets – and it looks like several places are dropping their prices to match the recently-mentioned price at Argos. Coupled with the retailers recently listed at Bungie.net as participating in the Johnson pre-order promotion, it looks like folks in the UK might be able to grab both a great price, AND an unlockable crusty sergeant! (Louis Wu 18:44:32 UTC)

Rick Mesler noticed a motorcycle helmet at LikeCool.com that he thinks would be useful for the Master Chief if he lived on earth and commuted on a motorcycle. I’m not sure I fully agree, other than the color… but check it out and decide for yourself!(Louis Wu 18:38:02 UTC)

Anoj is back with another Top 10 Halo 3 vid – this one (Episode 32) covers Warthog Kills. It’s splatterific! Thanks, urk.(Louis Wu 18:29:43 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy dug up a very odd picture on DeviantART – I think she likes it. A lot. It’s Halo-related… but… well, it’s Hawty McBloggy, so be warned before you click.(Louis Wu 18:05:22 UTC)

Adam Grumbo let us know about a new project from 405th regular LeeKegan – he’s carved the ODST pistol out of wood, then created a mold so that others could enjoy it. Check out the photos and the video! (Louis Wu 17:38:03 UTC)

Remember a couple of days ago, when we mentioned a model of the nighttime map for Firefight that Bungie showed off at E3, done in Google’s SketchUp? Yeah, well, Juzzz, over at Bungie.net, wanted to get a bit more detailed. His version looks a LOT more like what I played at E3. Swing by for screenshots and a downloadable SketchUp file. (We’ve added links to local copies of all the screenshots, plus a copy of the SketchUp file (in case the MegaUpload option disappears), to CaLL Me ZeNy’s forum post – thanks for finding this, CMZ!)(Louis Wu 16:23:41 UTC)

The bonus of Sgt. Johnson for those who pre-order Halo 3: ODST got a serious hype boost this morning – pages went up both at Bungie.net (with great new screenshots of a never-before-seen Firefight map) and Xbox.com touting the offer. In the US, you can avail yourself of this deal by pre-ordering from Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, or Wal-Mart – the outside-the-US list hasn’t been fully compiled yet. C’mon… you KNOW you wanna play with a cee-gar in your mouth! (Louis Wu 16:22:46 UTC)