According to Microsoft, the Halo franchise's latest installment has shattered one-day entertainment sales records again; Halo 3 did $170 million USD in its first day of sales in the US.

Ah, aspect ratios and high definition televisions. Just as fans bitched and moaned last month about the fact that both Xbox 360 and PC versions of Bioshock locked displays to a single horizontal FOV setting, whether the user had a 4:3 or a 16:9 screen, now Joystiq is on about how splitscreen works in Halo 3, apparently using two 2.7:1 frames stacked on each other instead of two 1.77:1 frames.

What's the issue, exactly? Unused pixels:

Of course, we've heard this before.

After Halo 2 was released in 2004, there were rumblings and vague remarks about Bungie wanting to do something else, non-Halo-related, for a change.

Which is entirely understandable.

Now, Pro-G is quoting Bungie's Joe Tung as saying Bungie wants to work on something else for a change, and is not working on Halo 4.

Major Nelson points out an auction to benefit charity that includes some pretty one-of-a-kind items, including an Xbox 360 autographed by Bill Gates, a Zune autographed by J Allard, and a pretty complete collection of Halo games and bonus content.

The Sydney Morning Herald has an article about Bungie AI programmer Damian Isla:

An article in Wired talks about Bungie's attention to detail when doing multiplayer and campaign level design: