We like to call it "Celebratory Crouching."


Not a long winded exegesis on the Halo Universe or a deep dive into multiplayer combat strategies, this article posted over at Hawty McBloggy is little more than a simple chart.  You should check it out anyway.  Seems you need to work on your spatial awareness.

The Truth About Teabagging

Containment has been breached.


Tag and Release gets infected with a trifecta of screenshot this week.  From flood to zombification, our content collection continues to metastasize.  A monument to all your sins?  Nah, these are just a few kick ass screenshots.

Tag: Infection

One of a kind.


Reclaimer makes a return after a brief break.  Episode 194 introduces some squabbling.  Don't worry though, things get sorted out.

Reclaimer 194 - Tran

Winners will be notified by Friday.


If you snapped shots for the HSS Landscape Recon Contest, it's time to cross your fingers and hope your snap stands out.  If you didn't snap any shots, it's already too late.  Contest closed.  Doesn't matter if you were in a coma or just forgot to enter.  No exceptions.

No paint or canvas required...


...Haloscreenshots.com has al of that covered.

If you read yesterday's weekly update, you already have a really good idea of what the discerning eyes over at HSS will be looking for this week.  If you didn't, you can check out some of their current landscape favorites by clicking on the link below.

HSS:LANDSCAPE Collection

The rules this week are pretty simple.

1. Screenshots can be taken from any game, any gametype, and from any date.  The only restriction is that screenshots cannot be taken from the ingame cinematics (cutscenes).
2. You may only enter one (1) screenshot, so make sure it's your best.
3. Upload the screenshot into your File Share.
4. Tag it with "HSS Landscape." (Quotation marks and punctuation not needed.)
5. Cheaters and boosters need not apply.
6. Tag count and rating boosting will not affect the outcome.
7. Please keep all discussion in the thread attached to this news post.

You can submit screenshots from the time of this post until the last second of Sunday ticks away, PST.

Winners will receive Recon armor for use in Halo 3 multiplayer.  Top three will be awarded with a code to redeem a framed print of their screenshot from Haloscreenshots.com.  If you want to drool over the prospect of winning one of their amazing framed prints, you can check out their products by clicking on the following link.

Haloscreenshots.com
Good luck.

A reminder to follow the rules.


The Tyrant returns to give you a rules reminder.  If you want to participate in his Summer Mythic Recon Challenge, read the rules below and follow the rules.  Don't forget to follow the rules!

"It's Friday, folks, and you know what that means! Crank out those skulls and start plowing through Mythic Difficulty in order to gain access to Recon Armor. Part 1 of this challenge (the first of 10) starts today and ends next Thursday evening. For a quick recap, your mission is to beat Floodgate on Mythic Difficulty (Legendary + all 13 skulls activated + plus FFA scoring on). You'll be flying solo for this one. No co-op allowed. From there, how you beat it is up to you whether you choose to "pro" your way through by skipping as much of the mission as possible or shoot your way out. Please read ALL of the rules and Frequently Asked Questions HERE first before attempting the run or submitting an entry. I'll say it one more time just to be sure I'm clear. Read ALL of the rules thoroughly before entering the challenge.

Many of you have already submitted your entries and have done it correctly down to the letter. I tip my hat to you, good sirs and madams! You deserve a cookie and a gold star. However, a small army of players missed the small notation (more like entire paragraph) in the last article stating to only play and submit the mission between the dates of June 12th and June 18th. To put it bluntly, your entries were deleted. It wouldn't be fair to the people who are doing it correctly to give the rest of you extra time. However, even though you made a mistake, I'm willing to let you play the mission again and re-submit your new entry. I encourage you to read all of the rules (third reminder now) before going forward.

When you've completed your mission online successfully, upload it to your file share, make sure it's in your Game History, and send me (Tyrant122312) a Private Message over Bungie.net with a hyperlink to your film. How do you hyperlink? Use the following format: [url]insert link here[/url] If this isn't done correctly, your entry will be discarded. Don't worry about tagging it. Just included the words "Mythic Difficulty" somewhere in the description.

If you have questions that are NOT covered in the FAQ (see, I did it again), please use the official contest discussion thread for contest related questions, and use the Mythic Difficulty thread for questions regarding Mythic Difficulty. Please do not contact me with questions via Bungie.net private messaging or Xbox Live messaging/Friend Requests. They will be disregarded. Just a fair heads up.

RULES (just for fun) ;)

Best of luck goes out to all participants, and happy campaigning!"

Hawty takes Haloscreenshots for a spin.


Not to be outdone by her elderly progenitors, Hawty McBloggy gave Haloscreenshots a try and ordered up artfully framed Halo 3 screenshot of her own.  If you want to know what she thought of her shopping experience, hit the link below and get your read on.  As always, here there be euphemisms.  Jump at your own risk.

Turning Halo 3 Screenshots Into Art

Gamereactor scores some face time at E3.


HBO dug up a newly posted interview with Lead Producer Curtis Creamer.  If you've been following along, you may already be familiar with much of this information.  It's not all old news though, there's plenty of choice tidbits packed inside.  Check it out.

E309: Halo 3: ODST Interview

"Come out, you bastard!"


Leviathan's fiction continues with Part 6 of "A Sangheili's War Is Never Over."  The inter-species duel continues, but things are getting a bit more personal.  Weapons are drawn.  The combatants are now face-to-face.

A Sangheili's War Is Never Over - Part 6

Prepare to, uh...block?


Hawty McBloggy came across this fancy LEGO recreation of our Halo 3: ODST trailer.  It's pretty awesome.  You should check it out.  Apologies for the pun.  I haven't had coffee yet.

Lego Version of the Halo 3: ODST Trailer

Direct feed, straight from Microsoft.


The crew over at Microsoft sent along the direct feed footage of Halo 3: ODST from their E3 2009 Keynote.  Chances are you followed along with Joe Staten on the 1st of June, but if you want to relive the event in 720p, head into the Multimedia section of our Halo 3: ODST Project Page to reminisce.  720p version is linked just to the right of the thumbnail.

"I am not happy about this.'


Amateur Entertainment put together "another misadventure."  This one's called "Budget Cuts."  You should check it out.  Unless you're offended by strong language.  Or annoying customer support agents.

YouTube - Another Misadventure "Budget Cuts"

The 77,777th kill caught on film.


Obi Wan Stevobi gave out a fancy set of Recon armor for his 77,777th kill.  Guy ate some rockets and won some Recon.  How sweet is that?  If you want to see the winner get asploded, and tons of other action from Obi Wan Stevobi's epic matchmaking run, check out the video below.  And if you didn't manage to win this time around, no worries.  Obi Wan Stevobi is on approach to 77,777 deaths.  We'll be giving Recon away for that too.  Stay Tuned for details.

Autographed art, up for auction.


The Seattle branch of the American Red Cross has a pair of autographed Bungie items up for auction on Ebay.  This charity provides disaster relief right in our neighborhood, so we saw fit to send them over a copy of The Art of Halo 3 and a limited release embossed Halo 3 poster, both laden with Bungie autographs.  You should bid on them.  It'll make us happy.  Step Seven and all that.

The Art of Halo 3

"This is an autographed version of the the book, "The Art of Halo 3," signed by the entire staff of Bungie, the Developer of Halo 3! This book was donated to the American Red Cross Serving King & Kitsap Counties by Bungie to help raise funds for local disaster relief! It is in perfect condition."

Halo 3 Autographed Embossed Poster - Limited Release

"This is an embossed Halo 3 poster, signed by the staff of Bungie, the developers of Halo 3. This is a limited release of a poster for Halo 3 that was donated to the American Red Cross Serving King & Kitsap Counties to raise funds for local disaster relief. 100% of the proceeds will benefit disaster relief.

Size is 22 x 34 and it is in perfect condition."

Seattle Area American Red Cross

"The American Red Cross saves lives. When disaster strikes, we respond with food, shelter and hope. When barriers of distance, language or warfare separate loved ones, we open lines of communication. When families, co-workers and communities must prepare for emergencies, we help them take action.

Each year in our community, we bring together 1,500 people to care for their neighbors, train 80,000 people in life-saving skills and respond to a disaster about once every 40 hours. In emergencies large and small - a house fire, an earthquake, a flood - right here in our community or on distant shores, people can count on the Red Cross."

Louis Wu weighs in.


Louis Wu did you a personal favor.  He took the brand new Haloscreenshots.com service for a spin, gave the delivered goods a detailed inspection, and then wrote up a review afterward to help you make up your own mind.  What did he think of the product, the service, and the overall experience?  Find out by hitting the jump below.

Haloscreenshots.com - a Review

Brian Jarrard walks you through.


If you're still looking for Halo 3: ODST coverage coming out of E3, Brian Jarrard sat down with the crew over at 1UP and gave a pretty lengthy demonstration.  If you have fifteen minutes, you might want to tune in.  Thanks to HBO for scaring up the link.

1UP @ E3 'Halo 3 ODST'

Wonder what kind of SPF Recon has?

"Welcome to the first of 10 challenges geared towards pivoting you against the most challenging aspects of the Halo 3 campaign with a chance at gaining a very precious award. Why are we doing this? Consider this your first step to training for the hardships delivered by Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight mode. Not only will you get used to battling enemies with the various skulls and live to tell about it, but just like the game mode, each challenge will become progressively harder since we are ordering the missions from easiest to the most challenging

This week’s mission? Complete Floodgate on Mythic Difficulty and submit your entry for a chance to win Recon Armor. The rules are fairly simple. Load up Floodgate, make sure your settings are on Legendary, switch on ALL 13 skulls (both gold and silver), and also turn on scoring. When you complete the mission successfully, upload the film to your file share, and send me (Tyrant122312) a personal message on Bungie.net with a hyperlink to your film. If you don’t know how to create a hyperlink, the talented web designers of Bungie.net have provided you with a text legend at the bottom of every post and PM to instruct you on how to do it. Do NOT just simply copy/paste the url. You’re entry will be discarded. Don’t worry about tagging it either. Simply put “Mythic Difficulty” somewhere in the film’s description, and that will suffice.

Just a few other little tidbits of information for you to keep in mind:

1) You must have an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
2) You must have your XBL gamertag linked to your Bungie.net profile.
3) The mission must be completed while you are online. Make sure you can view it in your Game History.
4) Only one submission is allowed per person.
5) You must submit your entry during the 7 day contest time period.

This contest begins at 12:00AM Pacific Time on Friday, June 12th and lasts for 7 days. This gives you all day Friday, an entire weekend, plus four additional week days to complete the mission. The winner will be notified the following weekend.

However, this time around, you shouldn’t need the full seven days. I’ve provided you with a few tools to help boost your stamina and get you on your Mythic feet. Aside from the HBO Mythic Floodgate guide and our massive Mythic Difficulty thread, I’ve recently started posting more up-to-date 2.0 guides to go along with the originals. This week we have the 2.0 run for Floodgate fully rendered and ready to be viewed. Keep in mind that we’re not judging you for time or score, so if you’d rather hang back and shoot your way through, that’s perfectly fine as well. Just worry about getting to the finish line. That by itself is an accomplishment you should be proud to have under your belt. And to show our appreciation for your efforts, even those of you who don’t take home the armor will walk away with a shiny new medal for your Halocharts page. Each mission has it’s own separate achievement designed by the talented HC Redemption himself, and there’s even a special (and rare) medal to be earned once you have all nine challenges conquered. Win or lose, you will not walk away empty handed.

Godspeed, fellow campaigners!"

Please keep all discussion related to this challenge in the discussion thread attached.

"I never lose."


This player seems to have an inflated sense of self worth.  Good thing nobody else can make out what he's saying.  Maybe you can.  Check it out.

YouTube - "Yes, I am a General"

Slice and dice.

Let the games begin.


We've gotten word that the Hope Unto Dawn Charity Tournament in support of Child's Play has officially begun.  We've also heard that donations are off to a great start.  If you want to check out the action, or contribute to a great cause, hit the link below to get involved yourself.

Hope Unto Dawn

Next stop: Columbus, Ohio.


The second stop of the 2009 MLG Pro Circuit kicks off this weekend from Columbus, Ohio. If you're in the area, spectator tickets are $20 and can be bought at the door. A pass covers one person for the entirety of the three day event (June 5-7). If you're not lucky enough to come out and spectate, MLG will be streaming the entire event all weekend long live on our homepage at www.mlgpro.com.

For more information on spectator info, click here: http://www.mlgpro.com/pro-circuit/2009/index2.php#spectator

For the entire Live Stream Schedule, click here: http://www.mlgpro.com/pro-circuit/2009/streaminfo.php

No objections here.


HBO sends word of "BEASTLY!," A Team Scoog Halo 3 montage that focuses less on individual play and more on the frenzied action that happens when you pull back and check things out from a fresh perspective.  Shot in HD with some great editing, you should definitely take five minutes out of your day to check this out.

Look who's come to dinner.


Hawty McBloggy came across this pretty slick re-imagining of da Vinci's painting The Last Supper.  It's available in two flavors and multiple resolutions.  Hit the jump to sit across the table and get a good look.

Hawty McBloggy - Halo Last Supper