zofinda noticed that the Holiday 08 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine has an excerpt from the upcoming novel from Tobias Buckell, The Cole Protocol. (There’s also a short interview with the author.) If you’re interested in what the excerpt holds, zofinda wrote up an overview later on in the thread.(Louis Wu 17:42:59 +0000)

Nick, from Halo3RPG.com, let us know that they’re running a puzzle map contest. It’s unclear what that really means, and without an account over there you can’t even read the news items - but if you’re interested, sign up, sign in, and read about it. Contest ends on November 28, and the prize is Recon armor (on Halo3RPG).(Louis Wu 17:42:22 +0000)

On this quieter-than-usual Veterans Day, we’d like to offer you another chapter in the ongoing Solo Legendary All Skulls On walkthrough from Daniel ‘Tyrant’ Morris - this one is huge. It covers the level ‘The Covenant‘, and the nearly 20 videos add up to almost 400 mb worth of visual aid. (Once again, these are split between two pages.) Go read… and go watch!(Louis Wu 16:02:27 +0000)

Remember Fairfax? Looks like he’s making his way through Xbox headquarters! Check it out. Thanks to The Don Wan for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 15:17:17 +0000)

News from McFarlane - a couple of interesting announcements. They’ve announced a new series of Halo Wars mini-figures - 2.5 inches, sold in 3-packs, available in March; you can check out the pics on their site. Also, they’ve released a “Top 10 ‘must Have’ Holiday Toys For $10” list - two of these figures are Halo figures. If you’re thinking about giving Halo figures to friends/family for the holidays - save some dough!(Louis Wu 12:45:43 +0000)

News from McFarlane - a couple of interesting announcements. They’ve announced a new series of mini-figures - 2.5 inches, sold in 3-packs, available in March; you can check out the pics on their site. Also, they’ve released a “Top 10 ‘must Have’ Holiday Toys For $10” list - two of these figures are Halo figures. If you’re thinking about giving Halo figures to friends/family for the holidays - save some dough!(Louis Wu 12:45:43 +0000)

SonGoharotto has had a hard time finding a group to do the Annual achievement with - but yesterday, he managed it… and took some great pictures. Go enjoy his victory with him!(Louis Wu 16:30:05 +0000)

Last week, Cinema Blend put up an editorial discussing how Halo 3 was killing console multiplayer. There was some discussion on our forum, and a sizeable rebuttal from Narcogen, at Rampancy.net - but I managed to miss a counter-editorial at Cinema Blend itself. (After reading it, I’m not sure that was such a bad thing; the argument boils down to, basically, “multiplayer in most games sucks, and gamers are lazy” - neither of which are really decent arguments.) However, it’s there, and I’m sorry I missed it.(Louis Wu 16:29:32 +0000)

The Bungie Weekly Update is now live - and along with a TINY bit of information about Halo 3: Recon, there are also a bunch of user-asked questions, answered. Well, sort of answered. Go read! (As usual, you’re welcome to use our Weekly Update Archive.)(Louis Wu 01:13:57 +0000)

I saw new content on Bungie.net - and thought it might be the weekly update. Nope - just a really convoluted suicide. Go watch!(Louis Wu 00:35:46 +0000)