The News Tribune in Tacoma, WA has an article about the recent Video Games Live show that played in Seattle and Vancouver, after similar shows elsewhere around the country were delayed or cancelled.

The Halo part of the performance was well-received. The organizers are attempting to put together a string of dates in 2006, but since the collection of musicians used for each show is assembled ad hoc, it is difficult.

Recovery from a three-day holiday here this week has sapped whatever resolve I had left for keeping up on news, so here's a collection of interesting items:

1Up has screenshots from Dead or Alive 4 showing Spartan-458 in action against Ryu Hayabusa on Cairo Station. These appear to be the same images as those scanned from print magazines recently. Xboxyde came up with the shots. (Anybody else still secretly hoping Cortana is hidden in there, too?-Ed.)

Baby Chief tries to cope with the removal of the Bungie.net leaderboards in today's Halo Babies strip. Thanks mrsmiley.

Another pre-release award segment, this one for Best Male Performance, is up at the Rockets On Prisoner 2005 website, hosted by That Weasel TV. Thanks to Spartan 777 who pointed it out in the HBO forum.

Tempus Fugit pointed out in the HBO forum a 1Up interview with Peter Jackson about the King Kong game coming out in connection with Jackson's latest film.

There are a few mentions of other games, among them Halo:

At Rampancy we've been quite remiss in reporting on the Rockets on Prisoner 2005 awards for fan-made films. The RoP site still says that the awards ceremony has been delayed, but instead, they've been releasing videos with the nominees and winners in individual categories over the past few weeks.

So far, videos for the following awards have been posted on the RoP site:

Visions of Peter Jackson's obsession with rings of power taking over the Halo film in the latest Halo Babies. Thanks mrsmiley.

According to scans from Game Informer provided by Xbox365, the "mystery character" from the Haloverse set to appear in Team Ninja's DOA4 game for the Xbox 360 isn't the Master Chief-- but it is a Spartan; female Spartan-458, despite heavy (perhaps too heavy) hints that a curvaceous Cortana would get the nod.

The Dominion Post points out the sweet irony in the deal that brings Peter Jackson's WETA Digital studio's talents to bear on the Halo film. Namely, a render farm made of IBM blade servers running Linux, not Windows.

A double dose of Weekly What's Update this week. SketchFactor got himself all primed to fill in for an ailing Frankie, and then Frankie used his dying breath to provide the real update. What a trooper. For all the verbiage, most of it is rehash of the week's events-- a Halo character to appear in DOA4 and the announcement of, in Frankie's words, Peter Freaking Jackson as the Executive Producer of the Halo film.

The top 117 entries in the 117 Words contest have been announced by Jillybean and Stuntmutt. Your editor was tickled pink to have managed a third-place tie with Tum-Tut Mantis' entry The Arbiter's Sentence. And it's mine! All mine! It's my birthday pressssent!

According to Kotaku, Variety is reporting that Peter Jackson's take on the Halo movie as Executive Producer is seven figures (that's at least a million bucks) advance against points. Anything less would be... well, less Bungie-like. (I agree with recent comments that 'you don't just buy Peter Jackson', but I assume that if you could, seven figures would be enough--Ed.)

Xbox.com has been updated with the official announcement of the expected launch lineup for the Xbox 360, as well as the official press release naming Peter Jackson as Executive Producer of the Halo film.