Wouldn’t you know it… after a week like this one, I’d come down with the flu. This is pretty much the only newspost I’m going to be able to manage for a while… but I figured folks were waiting on pins and needles, so it’s going up. The a href=http://halo.bungie.org/misc/mmpcontest.htmlHBO Mythic Map Code Giveaway, Round 2/a garnered nearly 2700 entries (and many, many more attempts, by people using the same IP address, or the same email address, or the same gamertag). Last night, a very quick little line of MySQL code chose five eligible names at random - and this morning, emails were sent to each of those five. The winning gamertags were:/pulliimMonkeyGODliminasodaboyliFree at LastliZigZagLemonsliShrimpBoots/ulpIf one of these gamertags is yours, and you DIDN’T receive an email… message Louis Wu on Xbox LIVE from your gamertag, and we’ll straighten it out.If you typoed your gamertag on the input form, and you didn’t get the email… well, you’re out of luck. We’ll give your code to someone else. (We already had people trying to scam us for the LAST round of codes - the easiest solution is just to pick another random name.) Congrats to the winners, thanks to everyone for playing!(Louis Wu 14:57:07 +0000)

pThe gaming and tech press are all aflutter with the news that a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88945-Videogames-Outsell-DVDs-For-The-First-Time-Evervideogames beat DVDs/a… except they don’t, at least, not in all the areas that matter./p
pThe data that lead to the games beats movies conclusion, much like the one-day comparisons of game blockbusters like Halo 3 to the one-day takes of top films like Dark Knight, are revenue, rather than unit sales figures. They’ve taken the 2008 revenue for packaged media that includes games and DVD movies (including HD on Blu-Ray) and divided it into games and DVD/Blu-Ray./p
pWhile the total increased, the share of DVD/Blu-Ray declined and the figure for games increased./p
p span class=’read-more’a href=http://rampancy.net/blog/narcogen/27/01/2009/Videogames_Beat_DVDs_Except_Not_Reallypinbsp;Clicknbsp;herenbsp;fornbsp;thenbsp;completenbsp;text./i/p/a/span/p

ppMacWorld has a href=http://www.macworld.com/article/138428/2009/01/macat25_games.html?lsrc=rss_mainmentioned Marathon/a as one of the best games on the Mac, as part of their commemoration of the Mac’s 25th anniversary./p
/p

FireDragon04 has updated his ‘Halo Wars Movie Poster’ (the first draft was mentioned a href=http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=25427last week/a), and has a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=917118produced a collection of variants/a - you can see them all in his forum post. (We’ve put up local mirrors down at the bottom of the post, in case the originals stop working someday.) I think this one looks great!(Louis Wu 14:39:23 +0000)

Red vs Blue has put up a href=http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/episode.php?id=586a walkthrough, of sorts, of Assembly/a - go watch it. Thanks to AvatarAang for the timely a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=917114heads-up/a last night.
(Louis Wu 14:38:47 +0000)

Last night, urk a href=http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=newsamp;cid=17662brought our attention/a to a new article at Ascendant Justice - a href=http://blog.ascendantjustice.com/2009/02/23/advent-unlimited/Advent Unlimited/a takes a look at the three new Mythic Maps in words that will turn to pictures in your head. I believe that Ascendant Justice has taken on the mantle of the Halo community’s premiere analysis site… and they’ve done it with s7yle. Go see what they’ve learned!
(Louis Wu 16:39:58 +0000)

The a href=http://halo.bungie.org/misc/hbogoosed.htmlHBO: Goosed contest/a is now closed - the entries have been sent to Domino Theory for judging, and we’ll have results for you in a couple of days!
(Louis Wu 16:25:04 +0000)

Mythic Map Pack news:/pullia href=http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/23/joyswag-halo-3-mythic-map-pack/Joystiq is giving away 25 codes/a - swing by to see how you could get one. (Do it soon - entry ends Tuesday at 4.)liHalo.Fr’s Sirkan also let us know that they’ve got gameplay vids on all three Mythic Maps - a href=http://halo.fr/index.php?option=com_seyretamp;Itemid=0amp;task=videodirectlinkamp;id=64Orbital/a | a href=http://halo.fr/index.php?option=com_seyretamp;Itemid=0amp;task=videodirectlinkamp;id=63Sandbox/a | a href=http://halo.fr/index.php?option=com_seyretamp;Itemid=0amp;task=videodirectlinkamp;id=60Assembly/a./ulpThat’s all there’s time for now; my flight is boarding. More tomorrow…(Louis Wu 00:52:08 +0000)

Stuff that showed up today:/pulliWorthPlaying has posted a href=http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=60111Part 2 of their Halo Wars Developer Interview/a with Ensemble’s Graeme Devine and Dave Pottinger - swing by to read some tidbits you might not have heard yet!liHalo3infinity.net has a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFXE8SeQ7Fwa video interview with Jeremy Goldstein/a, the French Product Manager of Microsoft/Halo Wars; it’s in French, but subtitled in English. (Thanks, a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=915572CaLL Me ZeNy/a)liKotaku has a href=http://kotaku.com/5158843/halo-wars-review-a-fistful-of-spartansreviewed Halo Wars/a (thanks, Vash10).liTechNightly a href=http://www.technightly.com/gaming/news/feb2009/halowarsqamp;a/article.htmlposted the results of a press Qamp;A/a last week - we didn’t hear about it until Hunt3r a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=915612mentioned/a it.liIGN has posted a href=http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/857/857436/vids_1.htmlPart 1 of their Universe Expanded video series/a - thanks, a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=915626GrimBrother One/a.liMTV’s Stephen Totilo a href=http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/02/23/halo-wars-the-best-gi-joe-game-ever-made-a-review-of-sorts/posted a review/a (of sorts)liYahoo a href=http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/39651/lukewarm-halo-wars-reviews-trickle-in/posted a summary of reviews/a that might not have appeared in other newsposts hereliHalo.fr has published a href=http://halo.fr/index.php?option=com_contentamp;view=articleamp;id=3796:halo-wars-le-test-exclusif-amp;catid=62:halo-warsamp;Itemid=2their own review of Halo Wars/a (in French) - thanks, SirkanliGamestop is hosting Halo Wars tournaments at approximately 1000 stores on February 28 - info site is a href=http://www.gamestop.com/gs/tournaments/halowars/default.aspxhere/a./ulpInsanity… span class=boldnoticeUpdate:/span Arithmomaniac a href=http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2009/02/a-spartan-strategy-ars-reviews-halo-wars.arsfound a review on Ars Technica/a.
span class=boldnoticeUpdate 2:/span So is a href=http://www.gametrailers.com/player/45935.htmlone from Gametrailers/a (thanks, a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=916154AfroRyan/a).
(Louis Wu 00:48:27 +0000)

Exanubisleader a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=915513posted word/a of a promo for a href=http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/857436/halo-wars/videos/halowars_ue_promo_022009.htmla series IGN will host this week/a. It’s called Halo Wars - Universe Expanded. Some famous faces in the promo… bodes well for the series!(Louis Wu 13:50:35 +0000)