7th Columnist is livid over a change in Halo 3's controls. Not one that affect the game; one that affects machinima.

Instead of just pressing down on the D-pad to create the weapon-lowering, head-bobbing effect used to create the illusion of talking Spartans in movies like Red vs Blue, in Halo 3 you apparently have to:

Hold down left bumper, right bumper, left analogue stick, down on the d-pad and the A button… AT THE SAME TIME… for three seconds!

That's what BeyondUnreal forum poster Quaz51 asserts that these screenshots he's taken illustrate.

If true, might this be the source of all the cantankerousness over Halo 3's "not quite next-gen" graphics?

Kotaku says that Halo 3 sold out in at least one store in Japan. Who'd have thunk it?

Chicagoist notes Bungie's hometown roots at the University of Chicago, Jason Jones' continued leadership of Bungie, and Alex Seropian's founding of Wideload.

It's one thing to always see the glass half full, or to always look for the flaw in an otherwise brilliant diamond.

There's also such a thing as being a spoiler; having no other purpose than to be contrary, "alternative", or to actively dislike that which others like for the sake of disagreement itself.

You can be the judge of which category Charles Herold at the New York Times falls into with his review of Halo 3:

Want to mess around with Forge maps without having to delete all the default items? Download these modified maps by Chevmeister, with all the default items carefully removed.

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:

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: