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:

• Zanzibar played multiplayer Halo 3 at the Pontiac "First to Play" event and wrote up his impressions at Evil Avatar.
• The live-action Halo 3 commercial Museum is out on Xbox.com and is drawing praise from most quarters and scorn from others; the latter I'd not have mentioned were it not for Anton P. Nym's scathing rejoinder. You can get the video on XBLM as well.
• Free Halo 3 Gamerpics and Theme are available in Xbox Live Marketplace.
• Retronauts finished off its contribution to 1Up's three-week Halo 3 coverage by looking back at Marathon Infinity.
• 1Up loves twice as many things about Halo 3 as it hates. Even those things it hates aren't really that hateful.
• HBO confirms that Halo 3 has leaked, and that it is shutting down its forum until after the official release day.
• 1Up put up a passel of new screenshots; they've been added, as appropriate, to the main Halo 3 (campaign) and Multiplayer Halo 3 galleries.