Crave

While Bungie has teased ODST for quite some time, the company has announced that the Halo 3 prequel side story will debut exclusively on the Xbox 360 this September.

Developer Bungie is continuing the Halo universe with Reach, set to release in 2010. This teaser-trailer premiered at the Microsoft E3 2009 press conference.

The Intertubes are all a-buzz today, especially the video game corner, about a rumor that Microsoft has made the decision to let Halo developer Bungie become an independent studio again.

This is interesting timing, given that Halo 3 was just released last week, to largely enthusiastic reviews and huge commercial success, and that there are still additional Halo properties to come, including a project being produced by Lord of the Rings impresario Peter Jackson.

Still, according to the rumors, first reported by 8bitJoystick, Microsoft would keep hold of the Halo property, and would simply allow Bungie--which was solo before being bought by Microsoft--to produce independent projects again.

The official word, meanwhile, from Microsoft is that it "has no announcement planned," reports 1Up.

We don't have any additional direct insight to report on this, but will check back in the moment we do.

The man of the hour: Jim 'Master Chief' Cush

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

Leave it to Microsoft to turn the glitz factor up to eleven. The company that brought us interpretive dancers on bungee cords for its Vista operating system has brought in spotlights, prizes, NFL players, and rappers for the launch of Halo 3, the final installment of its hit first-person shooter trilogy, which launches at midnight on Tuesday.

They kind of need to do it. As Halo is a piece of software, not a harder-to-manufacture gaming console or handheld device, the way that Microsoft has drawn the crowds for this Xbox 360 release is with star power. If there weren't a high-profile launch event, fans could just nap until midnight and then stroll over to pick up a copy. Many of the almost exclusively male, almost exclusively under-25 queuers showed up either to meet other fans, or to be a part of the experience.

Throughout the evening, a host of local NFL players like Osi Umenyiora and Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants and Leon Washington and Nick Mangold of the New York Jets have been showing up to play the new Halo game--behind the windows of the store, which closed to the public at 9 PM. Outside, the crowds have been picking up free t-shirts and inflatable goodies, yelling "Hi, Mom!" for the cameras from the cable networks G4 and Spike TV (both are broadcasting the launch), and sampling the Mountain Dew "Game Fuel" being handed out in plastic shot glasses. (For the record, it tastes like prescription cough medicine.)

Later in the evening, rappers Chingy and Ludacris (who was the guest of honor at Sony's PlayStation 3 launch last year) and R&B singer Bobby Valentino are scheduled to show up, too. But for now, the center of the photo ops is Jim Cush, an IT professional who is, for the night, the guy dressed up in the armor of Halo protagonist Master Chief.

When asked about the temperature inside his plastic suit of armor, Cush responded that it was "extremely hot. I've been trying to drink a lot of water and everything, but I'm trying not to drink too much so that I'd have to go to the bathroom." He'd apparently earned the gig through connections to some prominent Xbox Live folks, and said that the night had brought him "probably the craziest look form a woman I've ever got in my life."

But it's been a great evening, Cush insisted. "Everyone's pretty friendly," he explained. "Look at these guys," he said, gesturing toward the bubbly young crowds in line, who were waving around inflatable rods and glow sticks. "None of them knew each other before tonight." He's planning to join the crowds at midnight in obtaining the game.

It is, really, all about the experience.

The emergence of a 'Halo 3' line on Monday afternoon outside a midtown Best Buy store.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

It doesn't hold a candle to the lengthy queue that assembled a few blocks north for Apple's iPhone in June, but a handful of New Yorkers decided to sacrifice a full day's work (and then some) to wait in line for Halo 3, the highly anticipated title for Microsoft's Xbox 360 that hits stores at midnight on Tuesday.

First in line at the Best Buy on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, the official launch site for the city, is 28-year-old Uche Nwachukwu, a Web designer from the neighboring borough of Staten Island. "I want the experience," Nwachukwu told CNET News.com when asked why he chose to wait outside for the game rather than simply buying it on day one or preordering it. "I want to meet new people, maybe get some prizes."

Waiting in line for a highly anticipated product, it seems, has become the tech world's equivalent of visiting Mount Rushmore.

The stage display crammed into the Best Buy store.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

He'd been in line since about 6 p.m. ET on Sunday night and said that this was the longest amount of time he'd ever waited for something, but by no means the first time--Nwachukwu had queued up for the earlier Halo 2 release in November 2004 and the Xbox 360 system in May 2005.

"For Halo 2, I was out there at 11:00 the morning of (the release) and about the same time for the 360 as well," Nwachukwu said. "This is the first time I've waited overnight for something."

At about 2 p.m. ET, there were slightly more than a dozen people in line for the midnight release, but the Best Buy store was crammed with gawkers and curious shoppers who wanted to know why there was a massive stagelike contraption set up in one corner of the store. (It's for the broadcasts that the cable networks G4 and Spike TV will be holding later on Monday night.) The doors to the store close at 9 p.m. in anticipation of the launch, and then at midnight, the Master Chief shall rule Manhattan.

Or at least that's what the gamers hope.

Silverlight may be Microsoft's new media platform, but with its latest video game campaign, it's not showing it with a new marketing site that runs using Adobe's Flash. It's part of a massive campaign to get people to buy the third game in the Halo series, but even if you're not a video game fanatic, or familiar with it, the site is really worth taking for a spin. It revolves (literally) around a massive diorama of some intense futuristic battle. You're given control to roam back and forth using your mouse and arrow keys, and at various points even stop where you are and move freely around in a 360 degree mode. There's also an autoplay button, that will let you sit back and just watch.

Along your way around the battlefield you'll find all sorts of things to click on, including images, text snippets, and videos. Each of them is highlighted in blue, and when clicked on, provides a download link for a related full-size desktop wallpaper or other media item.

The real draw, however, is the scale of this thing. While the diorama might only be a few feet wide in real life, flying around an inch above the ground creates this really neat effect that's half Matrix, half this-is-what-it's-like-to-be-an-NFL-football-that-just-got-thrown-for-80-yards.

[via Digg]

(Credit: CNET Networks)

(Credit: Bungie.net / WETA)

Rarely has a piece of cinematic automotive ingenuity inspired so much awe in me since I saw the Batmobile in the first Batman film. Not to take anything away from the arguably more powerful successor in Batman Begins, but this real-life version of the "Warthog" vehicle from the Halo videogame series looks like it would be a bit more fun to drive, and perhaps a little easier to parallel park.

Made by the team at WETA Workshop, the same folks who just happened to do most of the effects work on the Lord of the Rings series, this real life Warthog is fully drivable. As you can see from the one picture that's been made available, it's pretty realistic inside and out, right down to the green hubcaps and turret that's been strapped to the back. My only question is what kind of stereo they've got in this thing.

Microsoft said on Tuesday evening, just hours before the Halo 3 beta was about to open, that the much-anticipated game will launch publicly on September 25.

This is the follow-up to Halo and Halo 2, which have been huge hits for the Xbox platform. Microsoft has been hoping it would be the monster hit it has been missing for the Xbox 360.

But reviews from a press event last week were mixed. Still, the fan base is huge and the game is almost certain to generate tremendous amounts of buzz, especially in the early going.

Microsoft also announced that next month it will launch a Halo 3-themed Zune music player.