GamePro interviews Bungie's Lars Bakken about the Halo 3 Beta.

PALGN has an article up giving their impressions of the Halo 3 Beta, by Alistair Macleod.

If you've been playing in the Beta since the 11th, you'll have to install an update today to keep playing. If you don't, you might get a message that says the H3 Beta is "unavailable or expired".

You should be prompted to download an update. If it doesn't happen, quit Halo 3 and/or restart your 360 until you get the prompt.

Just a warning-- you will NOT be able to watch any of your old saved films after you do this update, but you will NOT be able to continue playing in the Beta until you do install the update. So if you've got any movies that you're especially fond of, watch them now, then update.

Bungie.net has an extensive guide to the Halo 3 Beta; if you're participating, check it out. It covers matchmaking, controls, networking, customization, and a whole range of other topics.

If you're not playing, check it out anyway-- it's a good bet that a lot of this information will still be just as applicable this coming September when the full game is out.

The day before the Halo 3 Multiplayer Public Beta throws open its doors to the masses, Bungie pulled out the heavy guns.

Mark this date on your calendars, folks:

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Because that is the day that Halo 3 will be released.

Thanks for the heads-up to Louis Wu in #hbo.

UPDATE: Bungie.net has a top story on the release date now, posted by Luke Smith. Thanks for the heads-up to insaneidiot at IBO.

Here's a quick run-down on some sites with impressions of the Halo 3 Public Beta:

• GameSpot
• GamesDog
• GameInformer
• SlashDot
• TeamXbox

Louis Wu at HBO pointed out some I missed on this list in his post yesterday:

• Xboxyde
• Kotaku
• Gearheads of War

In other news:

Bungie's #1 fan, Miguel "Ding" Chavez spilled the beans in the HBO forum on how they chose some of the Friends & Family beta participants.

Also, Dean Takahashi not only interviews Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard at Bungie, but also posts Halo 3 Impressions.

Not to be outdone, Joystiq got ahold of Frankie, who gave the pre-Beta Update duties to Bungie newbie Luke Smith this week.

The UNSCDF is back. I hope they're not jinxing themselves by interviewing interrogating me as one of their first new pieces of content.

With the Public Beta fast approaching, there's even more Halo-related news spiraling out of Bungie and the community.

The Year We Make Contact

The author of the next Halo novel, Contact Harvest, will be none other than Joseph Staten. It'll be interesting to see how things turn out with the same writer on the game and the novel. I suppose this isn't what people mean when they say "media convergence" but it certainly is something. It'll be interesting to see if any more is revealed by something written by one of the creators of the Halo universe itself, instead of something mediated through the Halo Bible and written by an outside professional.

Put A Dime In The Jukebox, Baby

Halo 3 Beta Tester Mr. Jukes put together a video to whet the community's appetite for the game. Either that, or to rub it in that he's played it already and we haven't. Don't let that stop you from watching, though.

You Beta Players Get Offa My Lawn

If you're one of the stalwarts still playing Halo 2, don't forget to download Tombstone and Desolation again, because they've had their glitches fixed and are required for many playlists now. Also, the stat reset is now complete, so it's time for everybody to restart their climb to that legitimate 40 rating.

Frankie at Bungie says if you make a cool enough emblem design, it'll be included in Halo 3. Check the post at Bungie.net about the Bnet reader design contest for details.

Ducain wrote to alert me of an update at Certain Affinity's site, and it's good news all around.

First off, they're passing around the news that Frankie at Bungie.net says the map downloading problems have been fixed.

Secondly, the first Certain Affinity fansite, CertainAffinity.net, is now open for business, although you may still smell sawdust from fresh construction.

In 2004, before the release of Halo 2, a website separate from Bungie.net, Halo2.com, went live, with information about the units, vehicles, and weapons in the game, laid out as if from the perspective of a Covenant intelligence agency. Similarly, Halo3.com launched late last month, largely from the perspective of UNSC intelligence-gathering, with information on Halo 3.

However, the site is Flash-based. You can't search it, and you can't comment on it. So I've transcribed the content, added commentary and a keyword searching mechanism, and used it as the basis for the Halo 3 Guide, similar to 2004's Halo 2 Guide.

Please feel free to comment on any of the items!

Kotaku says they've received word of a big Halo 3 media event on May 11, just prior to the start of the public beta on May 16.

Awesome O and Pillar of Awesome just announced that they've put together a Halo trivia quiz.

Before anybody asks, a quick run-through got me 88%, good for the rank of Spartan II, meaning that so far Spartan Jag, Bry, chargeorge, ST, Schedonnardus, NartFOpc, Zerostar, Dom0429, gunluva, Anton P. Nym and even 7he grunt w/a plasma pistol have all beat me out, assuming everybody's honest. Now I have to go back and figure out what I got wrong...

UPDATE: After two more rounds I've hit 96% and a raw score of 47/49 so I'm still missing two questions. To see other scores, check the HBO forum thread linked above.

Thanks for the heads-up to KP at HBO.

Frankie at Bungie.net writes that the planned playlist update is being delayed until next week (probably) while they continue to investigate the problems some users are having in downloading Halo 2 maps.

For what it's worth, I've been able to get the maps now, both on my old Xbox console and on my 360. What I still can't do is get all the old map packs on the 360; when attempting that, I get the continual "installation has failed" error with the unhelpful link to Xbox Support that others are getting while trying to download the newer maps.