A crowd of Rooster Teeth fans got together for a second round of multiplayer fun recently - and you can watch the fun from a couple of different sources, a href=http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=newsamp;cid=18505thanks to the Bungie Blog/a. Lots of cool custom Mythic fun!(Louis Wu 12:58:17 +0000)

a href=http://www.multiplayerreport.com/forum/blog.php?b=380Multiplayerreport.com/a has a system whereby they rank Xbox LIVE games by popularity - you get points for being in the top 5 games for any given week. Gears of War has been at the top of their list for a long time, since it went a full year at number 1… but this week, it was passed, by Halo 3. Not bad!(Louis Wu 14:40:29 +0000)

Just a small comic update today: The Catfish a href=http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=newsamp;cid=18465told/a the Bungie Blog that a href=http://2501.halo3webcomics.com/2009/03/the-weakest-point/2501 Episode 33/a went live on Saturday, and TTL Demag0gue a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=920618let our forum know/a that a href=http://reclaimercomic.com/2009/03/172-looking-ahead/Reclaimer 172/a is now up. I guess there were better things to do this weekend than whip up comics!(Louis Wu 14:40:03 +0000)

tor desax let us know that he’s kicked off a href=http://halo3headshots.coma website/a devoted to comparing your Halo 3 headshots to those of other players. Pretty specific!
(Louis Wu 14:30:41 +0000)

Grimlock decided to show off a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=920517some of his Banjo Kazooie vehicles/a, as well - Pelican, Sparrowhawk, Elephant.
(Louis Wu 14:30:20 +0000)

Looks like McFarlane is getting into the ‘cute’ market with their Halo toys - check out a href=http://www.spawn.com/news/news2.aspx?id=13568this announcement for Halo OddPods/a. (Farther down the page, there’s also a href=http://www.spawn.com/news/halohelmets_contestwinners_photo_01.htmla gallery of winning entries/a to their ’show off your Halo helmets’ contest - cool shots!) Thanks, a href=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=920465InnerRayg/a.(Louis Wu 17:08:18 +0000)

Firestorm12 let us know that the Halopen Pencast 07 is up - in honor of its Bungie-relevant number, it focuses on Halo exclusively. a href=http://halopenpencast.podbean.com/2009/03/27/halopen-pencast-07/You can listen/a (or grab a copy) at podbean.

(Louis Wu 17:07:22 +0000)

p…and what they are not doing is a href=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/microsoft-we-wont-sacrifice-original-ipinvesting in original intellectual properties/a. /p
pActually I think that entire phrase is a contradiction in terms, at least in terms of how Microsoft can invest in something. Invest, in their case, means buy, and once something has proven itself worth buying it’s no longer original./p
pTake a look at Halo. Microsoft bought Bungie in 2000. Bungie developed three Halo games and Microsoft published them. Now Bungie has been spun off, and Microsoft kept Halo./p
pIs Halo an original intellectual property now? Microsoft no longer has an investment in Bungie, which is going to do one more Halo game (ODST) and then move on to other things. Knowing Bungie, those other things are probably underway as we speak, and the latest podcast mentions things that may not be mentioned. These unmentionables are (drumroll please) ioriginal intellectual properties/i that Microsoft has not invested in, and presumably did not want to invest in. Instead, they kept Halo./p
pbUPDATE:/b Microsoft is reorganizing Rare now, too. Rare has created aan original IP for Microsoft– namely, Viva Pinata. PDZ was a sequel, but it doesn’t look like it’s getting another sequel anytime soon. /p

blockquotep
We have a well defined, carefully orchestrated, properly planned universe to explore not exploit.BRbr /
b–Frank O’Connor, July 2008, a href=http://www.gamefocus.ca/?nav=newamp;nid=1771GameFocus/a/b
/p/blockquote
blockquotep
I can tell you that if you could think of a game that would work with a party atmosphere that would not gut the franchise, or milk it, we would think about it, seriously.BRbr /
Jason Pace, January 2009, a href=http://www.videogamer.com/news/03-02-2009-10540.htmlVideogamer.com/a
/p/blockquote
pWhat’s next? January 2009, Microsoft announces Halo Kart, Halo Halo Revolution and Halo Smash Brawl?/p
pWhat part of a party atmosphere game in the Halo universe could ipossibly/i be exploration and not exploitation? How about a nice clear line in the sand now, not just we know what we’re doing– how about a laundry list of what you won’t do? Promise us no karaoke, no karting games, no minigolf. Please. /p
pRTS? We’ll see, the demo is out any minute. /p
pMMO? Don’t blame them for trying, although I think something like this is just a lot harder to execute than a shooter, and the further away the franchise gets from Bungie the harder it is to execute. /p

ppReader bCryptic/b of the a href=http://www.bungie.net/fanclub/bungie/Group/GroupHome.aspxBungie Community Group/a club writes to let us know of that group’s unofficial a href=http://www.bungie.net/fanclub/bungie/Group/news.aspx?type=newsamp;link=0000057Community Forge Contest/a. The contest is for map variants based on the Mythic Maps due out soon; purchasers of the Limited Edition of Halo Wars will get access to them on that disc. The contest winner will get a year of Xbox Live or $50 worth of MS points, and the top three maps (one for each Mythic Map) will be featured on Bungie Favorites in the Bungie Community Group spotlight. Deadline for entries is March 3, 2009. There is no entry fee. For complete details, visit the a href=http://www.bungie.net/fanclub/bungie/Group/GroupHome.aspxBungie Community Group/a./p
/p