The previously announced auto update for Halo 3 is confirmed to go live tomorrow, February 20th in the “wee hours.” The update contains the much anticipated “melee fix” that has been talked about for quite some time. If you haven’t already read the details, hit the link for a good read.

Link: Halo 3 AutoUpdate

[Insert witty image about CoD4/Halo3 here.]

Major Nelson has just posted his weekly Xbox LIVE stats for last week and for the third week in a row Call of Duty 4 gets to waive the foam finger.

Now one must wonder if Halo 3 will ever make a triumphant return to reclaim it’s throne.

Link: LIVE Activity for week of 2/11

Microsoft and the U.S. Army have launched the third and final installment of Halo 3 training, this time the focus being on Vehicles. (See Sniper School and Heavy Weapons Training.) As before, we are given a Play & Win Sweepstakes to go along with the training. As of this posting, the official U.S. Army Vehicles Play & Win website has yet to be launched, but you can still enter the sweepstakes by downloading the free gamerpic pack (a free theme is available as well) from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. All of this is building up to the Halo 3 Championship Tournament taking place in April, so be sure to start practicing now.

Since I am at work, I cannot confirm the existence of the new training videos on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, however I’m sure they will be available soon, if they aren’t at the moment.

I’ll be sure to update this post when the official website launches.

Sorry, I didn’t get this posted yesterday. Bungie have announced that the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Playlist for Halo 3 is Live and ready for your gaming amusement. The hopper is essentially a modified Ranked Team Doubles playlist and is mostly being used by Bungie to test out their ability to hold tournaments. They will be giving away prizes, but haven’t announced specifics on what will be given away or how to win. Still, it looks like it could be some fun. The hopper will be live from now until Monday morning (Feb. 18) at 2:00 AM PST.

Link: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Playlist

I guess we can no more call it a fluke as Call of Duty 4 has held the top spot on Xbox LIVE for the second week in a row, according to Major Nelson’s weekly Xbox LIVE stats. Once again, Halo 3 has to be satisfied with a silver medal as CoD4 continues to dominate Xbox LIVE.

I must say, many of my friends have been playing CoD4 a lot recently, choosing to play it over Halo 3. If Infinity Ward can provide the long-time support to CoD4 that Bungie has shown to the Halo series, CoD4 could be here for a long, long time.

Link: LIVE Activity for week of 2/4

Just wanted to remind everyone that tonight we will be playing Halo 3 in our weekly recurring XOD Game Night. The festivities begin at 6:00pm PST tonight. Be sure to add the gamertag xboxoverdosecom to your friends list. If you’re online at the designated time, you should receive an invite from one of the XOD crew.

Link: XOD Game Night

Date: Thursday, February 12th, 2008
Time: 6:00pm PST
Game: Halo 3

Sorry for the short notice, but with Valentine’s day being Thursday, we needed to figure out the best night to hold XOD Game Night. We’re rolling Halo 3 again this week, as it’s a game that many people have. We hope you can show up. Hit the link for details.

Link: XOD Game Night

In the latest weekly update from Bungie, they have announced that they are nearing completion of a Halo 3 auto-update and that it should be handed off to Microsoft certification very soon. By their estimates, the update should be rolled out sometime later this month.

In the weekly update, we have been given a detailed look at how melee works, not only in Halo 3, but in Halo 2 as well. The information is quite interesting, at least for a huge nerd like me, and I had one of those “ah-ha” moments when I learned exactly what causes us to perceive that the current melee system is broken. The solution they have decided on is simple: If you and your opponent have done sufficient damage to each other and you both melee at about the same time, you’ll both die. After reading and understanding the challenges they face in this area, this solution makes perfect sense. If you care at all about Halo 3, give the article a read.

Also in the update is word of a forthcoming Valentine’s playlist, dubbed the Valentine’s Day Massacre Hopper. This hopper will be a “Ranked, lean, Team Slayer-focused version (it will have a Team BRs variant, as well) of Team Doubles.”

Link: OMG Fix Mayleeey, Bungle!