GamesIndustryBiz has put up the second part of an interview with Bungie's Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard and Luke Smith. Here is part one.

Sketch remarks therein that Bungie has complete freedom to choose the publisher and platform for their new intellectual property-- property that Microsoft does not own. Microsoft does own Halo, and Bungie has a team working on the Halo 3: Recon expansion, due out next fall.

I'll do some spin right now: just because Bungie can choose a different platform and publisher doesn't necessarily mean that Bungie's next non-Halo game won't be published by Microsoft for the Xbox 360, but it doesn't mean that it won't, either.

Bad Cyborg covers some interesting techniques for tackling Tsavo Highway on foot. This is a lot of fun, if you've never tried it, you're missing out. A level that with vehicles and support troops is a quick breeze through the trees with a couple of thorny spots becomes a nice challenge all the way through.

GameCock, famed interrupter of awards ceremonies, holder of funerals for tradeshows, and publishers of games by Wideload such as Hail to the Chimp, have been acquired by SouthPeak.

SouthPeak published last year's Two Worlds RPG on the PC and 360, a game that was widely criticized for failing to live up to the high standards set by Bethesda's similar game, Oblivion.

Liveblogging the Microsoft keynote address from the Tokyo Games Show in Japan, Major Nelson says that Microsoft has shown the announcement trailer for Bungie's next Halo game. It's a prologue to Halo 3 called Halo 3: Recon, and as the rumor mill has long anticipated, it is a story told from the perspective of ODST marines.

Head over to Bungie.net for the announcement trailer.

UPDATE: The game is expected out in Fall of 2009, little more than a year away. That might be less time than some expected, and more than others did. The "Halo 3" moniker on the game, as well as the "new campaign" tag in the trailer indicates this uses the Halo 3 engine, although there's no way to tell yet whether this will be extensive DLC or a new boxed title. The trailer itself runs quickly through most of the content in the teaser trailer, then shows an ODST that survived the drop and the explosion and is now being hunted by Brutes dropped off by a Phantom.

Okay, first of all, I know, there's no such thing as official Mythic difficulty in Halo 3. That's what people call playing solo, legendary, all skulls on (HSH calls them SLASO to create more acronyms).

Daniel "Tyrant" Morris has posted over at HBO a walkthrough for this mode that makes this possible, and it's fantastic. If you haven't read it and you're a campaign junkie, it's an absolute must.

UPDATE: Author corrected from Asmodeus to Daniel "Tyrant" Morris.

According to the intertubes, Microsoft is forging ahead with Halo using a new internal studio. Forming the team are Ryan Payton, formerly of Kojima Productions and the producer of Metal Gear Solid 4; Corinne Yu, former technician at Gearbox; and at least two former Bungie employees: writer Frank "Frankie" O'Connor and animator Nathan "bentllama" Walpole.

Linkdump: Shacknews, Joystiq, GameSpot, GameReviews, HBO, bentllama's HBO forum post, EDGE Online.

This formation puts Bungie's independence in a bit sharper contrast. While Keep It Clean shows that Bungie isn't done with Halo, it is no longer the only thing they are working on. While there were always supposedly other projects in the works while Halo games were in production, none ever reached fruition, and the Halo projects typically consumed the studio's entire attention come crunch time.

That Bungie's Halo project is billed as "Halo 3", indicating an expansion rather than an entire new game, indicates that their commitment to the title will be somewhat less in the past, giving room for new developments.

Presumably the new studio will be 100% devoted to Halo. So the question will become: will fans be just as interested in Halo games not made by Bungie? Will these games be FPS, like the Halo series to date, or something else? Time will tell.