First of all, this page contains SPOILERS. Do NOT read it unless you want the ending of Halo 3 spoiled for you. This is not appearing on the front page unless you've selected to view spoilers, and I've obscured the text by making it white on a white background; you'll have to highlight it to read. That's as much protection as I can give you.
Evil Avatar member Xijar has posted about his experience unboxing his brand-new Halo 3Xbox 360. Scroll down about halfway on the first page, or hit his Flickr page for all the photos.
The second-to-last Bungie Weekly Update before Halo 3's official release date is well worth the read. The highlights, though, are you should stay out of random Bungie.net player profiles from now on, since you may end up seeing screenshots taken by people who've gotten copies early. Also, Miguel Chavez, invited to play through the game last week, says the ending is "perfect". You've heard it from Bungie's #1 fan.
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian says Halo 3 sales should reach $200 million, quoting Microsoft executives who expect $155M in first day says, up $30M from Halo 2's total.
Next-Generation has the story.
Somewhat controversial ad that places the Halo storyline in a more life-like context; a documentary excerpt from humanity's future.
The second new Halo 3 ad is out, the one called Believe. It builds on the same theme as the previous ad, Museum.
Joystiq thought it was a little strange, I can't help but agree a little bit. I half-expected the gruesome diorama to morph into ActionClix figures. They don't, however.
Shacknews asks Frankie how it feels at Bungie now that Halo 3 is all finished. They also get to cover a few other bases: such as baseball in Forge:
Shack: How long do you think it will take before you start seeing things made with Forge and the gametype editor that you had never planned for or anticipated?
Frankie has posted at Bungie.net that Best Buy may be your best friend come Halo 3's launch day:
While many Halo fans are trying to keep themselves off the Internet to avoid spoilers, I've had trouble getting on it-- the new DSL line is installed, but not yet working, and the old line decided to go on vacation for the past 24 hours. With that in mind, here's a summary of the news in that time: