Ghost Faction recreated Assault on the Control Room, set up for Invasion – go look at the pics, then download the map!(Louis Wu 00:53:52 UTC)

Devin Olsen pointed out an odd occurance that appears near the very end of Reach’s campaign – forum consensus is that it’s just there for scale comparison, but who knows? (As should be obvious, watching this will spoil the end of the game if you haven’t played it.)(Louis Wu 00:52:51 UTC)

Frank Mackey and a friend are building a Halo Reach MLG Weapon Timer App, for learning the timing of weapon spawns on various maps. It’s Android-only right now, and free. (Louis Wu 23:30:25 UTC)

bs angel pointed out a few new features on Halo Waypoint’s website:

• Halo: Reach – Perspective II is a scenery montage (gorgeous)
• Halo: Reach Assassination Compilation is what it sounds like
• Sounds of Halo Reach is weapon noises used to a rhythmic effect

Go watch ’em all – good stuff!(Louis Wu 23:29:41 UTC)

Asian Inferno apologizes for it being a little late – but his writeup of the Seattle EMP/Gamestop Launch Night events is now live on Grunts R Us. Go read.(Louis Wu 23:26:33 UTC)

halosavior wanted to announce that he’s hosting a short story fanfiction contest over at Abyss Studios. Your job is to expand the history of Noble Six prior to joining Noble Team. You have until October 31, 2010 at 11:59pm CST, with submission rules outlined in that post. Prizes include 1600 MS points and Bungie Pro subscriptions. Go read about it – then write up your own redacted entry!(Louis Wu 23:24:54 UTC)

Maximum Fear let us know that he’s compiled the top speeds of all vehicles in Halo: Reach (along with calculations such as acceleration). Swing by Bungie.net to read all the details!(Louis Wu 23:24:11 UTC)

SK1LL4XED sent word that Postgame Carnage Report has released their Halo Reach Special podcast – they review and discuss the game. (Of course there are spoilers.) If you’ve spent any time on our forum recently, the story change discussions will be familiar to you…(Louis Wu 23:23:33 UTC)

Download | Shownotes
Halo: Reach is here and we’re as excited as a little kid on Christmas day. The best Halo Title has a lot to offer from campaign goodness, to matchmaking madness, to forge craziness. We asked you what you thought about the game and you responded with a resounding “OMG”. Joining us for this special episode is the founder, Foo Mo Jive. For the sake of spoilers, we do not talk about the campaign in this episode and are saving it for our next one. Enjoy

Have you ever wanted to earn Microsoft Points to buy Arcade titles and other items other items from the XBox Live Marketplace, every time you use your default search provided? Probably not, but this is exactly the deal Microsoft are offering to you! Download the latest Bing toolbar and sign up using your Windows Live ID (the same email address you use for your XBox Live Gamertag.) Once done you’ll earn 250 reward points.

You’re then free to exhcange these points for rewards, the most enticing t gamers being Microsoft Points. They’re available in demonations of 100, so you can get 200 points just for signing up. To earn more, use the Bing toolbar any time you search the worldwide web, you’ll get additional points up until October 2nd, so get started on it today!

The website notes that Bing is only compatible with Internet Explorer, but if you’re using a different browser, please give it a try and let us know so we can tell others they don’t have to switch.

If you want to know more about it, check out the FAQ page

UPDATE Hidden away in the FAQ was this:
Q: Am I eligible to join the Bing Rewards Preview if I am not a U.S. resident?
A: No, only U.S. residents (50 U.S. States and D.C.) are eligible to join the Bing Rewards Preview.
So turns out this is for US Residents only, apologies to anyone’s hopes I’ve just dashed.

Quick side note: There’s no planned Weekend Hunts for this weekend, people are probably too busy playing Reach and I don’t blame them. If you’re looking for Reach people to play with, leave your Gamertag in the comments and play with other awesome people in the community.

Dead Rising 2 comes out Tuesday, which may or may not be enough to tear you away from Reach (at least for a few days). In any event, you probably want to be ready for it when it hits. Zombies are stress inducing creatures after all, and you don’t want to jump right into a world that’s flooded with them, not being able to remember what the B button does.

I recommend giving Dead Rising 2: Case Zero a spin sometime between now and launch, just to re-familiarize yourself with the game mechanics (and the incredibly slow – not a care in the world – jogging that your character does). And while you’re in that bite-size little world, why not collect any Achievements you may have missed the first time around! So here’s a list of all the videos we made to help you on that front.

• Ready to Ride Achievement Guide
• Locksmith Achievement Guide
• Chop Shop Achievement Guide
• Still Creek Savior Achievement Guide
• Zombie Exterminator Achievement Guide
• A Bigger Taste… Achievement Guide

Ok, I feel like I’ve done my zombie eradicating civil duty for the day. Back to Halo!

Hey guys, this week’s community playdate went so well that we decided to throw another one next week! That’s right, on Monday, your normal Red vs. Blue day, we’ll all be on Xbox Live going crazy on Halo: Reach.

I’ll make another post on Monday reminding folks and providing a place to share gamertags, this is just a heads up to keep your 8-10pm CST open. I know I’ll be there. You should be there as well. See you Monday!

Hey Everyone,
Community member Tonyski has turned in a two-part guide to finding the hidden comic pages in Planet 51. You can find the first 35 here:

…and the remaining 35 here:

Hi there internet,
I’ve got yet another Halo: Reach Easter Egg for you today. This one involves a marine on New Alexandria who’s trying hard to work through some “issues”. Enjoy!

Hey there community. I have a question, and I’m wondering if you can help me figure out the answer. I got to thinking about completion today, and wondered “What game has been completed the most out of all other Xbox games retail/arcade?” Not percentage wise (I’m sure that would be Avatar TLAB), but actual total number of gamers who have 1,000 or 200 pointed one game the most. Similarly, what is the game that has been completed the least (ignoring any games that are glitched and incapable of being completed)?

Have you guys ever read an article with this data? Or maybe know a way that it can be tabulated? Anyone have a good guess as to what the most completed and least completed games are?

Please keep in mind when you blindly list Avatar as the most completed, you’re talking about a game that probably sold a few hundred thousand copies. Even if everyone who bought it got the 1,000, I’m betting it wouldn’t come close to comparing to a game that 5-7 million people bought like a Halo or MW.

Community
–Darksiders for PC – Incentives to Download
–Xbox Preview Program details
–Earn Microsoft Points by using Bing! US Only!
–Dead Rising 2 primer
–September 27th Community Playdate details
–Geoff’s achievement question
–Race Off Reach winner & Red vs. Blue DLC

AH Videos
–Last of the Datapad Locations in Halo: Reach
–Crowd Control video guide in Halo: Reach
–Reach Racer and Suicidal Marine Easter Eggs in Halo: Reach
–Community Playdate Fails

Community Videos
–Billboard Breaker and Comic Fan Part 1 & Part 2 video guides in Planet 51 from tonyski
–Hairdresser video guide in Mafia II from 2tired2care
–A Dish Best Served Cold video guide in Gears of War from Shanerbaner

Achievements
-Added achievements for Delve Deeper
-Added achievements for Fable III
-Added achievements for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
-Added achievements for NBA Jam
-Added achievements for NBA 2K11
-Added achievements for Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter
-Added Steam achievements for Droplitz
-Added Steam achievements for Blade Kitten
-Added The Snowy Mountain Dungeon DLC achievement for DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue
-Added San Van Party Pack DLC achievements for Skate 3
-Added the secret achievement for Dead Rising 2 (Thanks snowd0n!)

Trophies
-Added trophies for Sonic Adventure
-Added trophies for Racquet Sports
-Added trophies for Blade Kitten
-Added trophies for Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
-Added trophies for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
-Added trophies for Front Mission Evolved

So Dead Rising 2 is just days away from its release, marking another 30 or so hours spent ignoring my lovely family. Halo: Reach and Dead Rising 2, it’s like a divorce cocktail!

Greg O’Connor-Read sent word of a couple of articles about Marty O’Donnell – MSN Entertainment has an interview where Marty looks back over Halo, and remembers the good parts, and G4TV has an interview with him where he discusses Reach’s Soundtrack. Both great reads! Annnnd… that’s all the time there is this morning; there’s still more news, but it’ll have to wait a bit. We’re getting there, though! (Louis Wu 16:24:52 UTC)

Spartan-270 sent us a few shots of his made-from-scratch Reach suit – looking pretty good! (He also sends a shout-out to his buds at the 405th.)
(Louis Wu 16:24:00 UTC)

Brian Gilmore wanted you all to know that the latest Teabag Prevention article at Geekscape is called ‘How to Use Jetpacks‘ – and it gives you the dos (and don’ts!) you need to be a master of the air. Firebird, yo! (Louis Wu 16:23:41 UTC)