Some might think I’m making this list because I’m depressed about not being able to cover E3 in person. That would make for a very appropriate top ten list with E3 kicking off this upcoming week, but anybody with half a brain should be terrified at the prospect of covering E3 in any capacity, let alone in person. No, this melancholy musing is the result of life just being lifey. As they say, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find a video game capable of occupying your thoughts until what you want changes.

Crackdown – Admittedly, Crackdown is not a very good game. But, hey, those collectable orbs are as addictive as crazy core skittles crack. And what separates Crackdown from other practices in arbitrary Easter egg hunting is that you’re literally leaping tall buildings in a single bound in order to get to those hypnotically glowing orbs. There’s something immensely satisfying to it that can’t be found in collection-fests like Mario. I can think of few scenes as capable of taking my mind off of serious life stuff than an endless horizon of sky-scrapers ornamented with tasty, delicious, endorphin-releasing collectables.

Dragon Age: Origins – So maybe you’ve managed to drive every relationship you have so far into the ground that you’d need an emotional backhoe to restore any sort of healthy interactions. But I hear those things cost an arm and a leg in the currency of pride and dignity, so why not just devote your conversational impulses to a fictional world!?! If you do decide to retreat to 60+ hours of fantasy world, you’d be hard pressed to find a more satisfying one than Dragon Age: Origins‘. It’s got so many believable problems of its own fueled by hate and despair that you’ll be able to relate pretty easily. But lucky for you, there’s a giant demon jerk-wad that everybody hates collectively, and you’re the only one who can kill it. So while the world may still have some problems at the end, pretty much everybody will love you. That’s all that matters, right? Well, that and sweet, sweet loot. Maybe you should just go looting in real life and fill the hole in your being with faithful ole material objects.

Grand Theft Auto game of your choice – I don’t know about you, but I’ve always felt like any healthy human being gets cheered up by seeing 1.) violence, 2.) the misery of others. The more I think about it, maybe the Houser brothers are just very depressed people; I sure as hell don’t know any happy people who consider planting car-bombs in random vehicles and returning them to their original locations to be a pleasant way of passing the time. Anyways, if I had to pick one, I’d probably go with Vice City (even though III is the best), simply because the assault of down-right awful music would make me feel superior to an entire generation, and consequently, better about myself.

Cruisin'.

Halo game of your choice – Single-player, competitive multiplayer, co-op, Firefight, and Forge: take your pick. Every single Halo title, and every mode offered in each title, is a blast in its own way. I know a lot of people seem to hate this series for some reason, but this guy right here never gets tired of the immense enemy, level, weapon, and objective variety. But if I were playing out of a desire to escape the clutches of depression, I’d probably take my game to the competitive arena (2‘s the best for this, but Reach wins out because it still exists in an online space). There’s something terribly therapeutic about competition (at least when you’re good at the event of choice), and Halo‘s supreme balance, along with a mix of objective and deathmatch game types makes it my go-to outlet for primal, mindless aggression.

Mass Effect series – Touching back on the themes of escapism present in Dragon Age‘s reasoning, Mass Effect provides an even better alternative because of the over-arching scope of the series. Humans have always been obsessed with heroes because they metaphorically defeat life’s everyday problems and give us hope in return. Now I find it highly unlikely that anybody reading this will be coping with the weight of the universe’s impending doom any time soon, but those irrational things we call emotions can certainly make it feel that way sometimes. So single-handedly saving all sentient life can give us a nice sense of power, even if we know it’s not real. But what makes the Mass Effect series extra special is that like in Dragon Age, you’re helping your fictional friends resolve very real, human problems along the way to saving the galaxy. At their core, video games are about solving problems, and RPGs give us the dialogue side of that puzzle that we never see in other games. Maybe after helping hundreds of other people with their problems over two (soon to be three) games, you’ll feel in control enough to tackle your own. You might also wish you had Charm or Intimidate options that work 80% of the time in your real life conversations…

Red Dead Redemption – Quite simply, Rockstar created the most authentic world video games have ever seen with Red Dead Redemption. If you’re noticing a theme of exiting our own world for the promise of another in this list, then I think you might be onto something. But RDR‘s spot on this list is less about metaphorical worlds with metaphorical problems and more about appreciating the sheer beauty of this world. No matter how down you’re feeling, it’s hard not to find a sense of peace and tranquility under the starry skies and indomitable moon of the great American Southwest. People can complicate things, but when your only company is the howl of a distant coyote and the majestic shape of the red rocks canyoning around you, you have to admit that there’s something good and beautiful in this world worth living for. I’m still astounded that a video game can elicit such feelings.

Take it in, cowboy.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – There’s a reason I’ve sunk over 185 hours into one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Combining the worldly beauty of Red Dead Redemption and the soul-soothing role-play of Mass Effect or Dragon Age, Oblivion has truly got the whole package. It’s a world that you can get lost in for a very long time, whether that be as a member of the secretive Dark Brotherhood, stealing things for the Thieves Guild, or just wandering around a fantastical world that rewards exploration with natural wonders. If Skyrim turns out to be as good as it looks and builds on this masterpiece, then heroin and other hard drugs may very well have some euphoric competition come November.

The Sims – I considered putting Minecraft on here, because throwing yourself into a major project is really one of the best ways to combat depression, but then I remembered how crippling the blues can be. Crafting an entire world might be a bit much to ask the sullen mind, so I figured The Sims would provide enough structure to spur productive construction. Go ahead and build the fortress of solitude you’ve been dreaming of; you’ve got the time. I suppose that the actual gameplay elements might just depress you more if you manage to screw your sims’ relationships up just as badly as your own, but in that event you can always just lock everybody in the same room until they go crazy and start peeing on each other. I’m pretty sure there’s a rule that whenever urine is involved, depression immediately takes a back seat to other, more important feelings.

Tony Hawk game of your choice – Putting aside some of the funnest gameplay to ever grace video games, this is a franchise that you can always count on for some good laughs and music. Add in score-based gameplay that’s conducive to hours of repeated play and the bird man is sure to take your mind off of whatever’s got you down for a while. THPS 3 is probably the series’ peak, but you can’t dress up like Spider-Man and ollie over homeless people in it, so 2 wins out for me.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter – It’s got the hair-standing sound design of Resident Evil‘s best, but you’re fighting dinosaurs instead of zombies. Let me repeat that: you’re fighting dinosaurs. If there’s one thing that can get you out of the dumps, it’s the sheer terror of a raptor ambush followed by the exhilaration of knifing a dinosaur to death. Yup, you da man.

Yup.

And that’s that. I think I might go take my own advice and play some of these games, probably as a self-serving megalomaniac who doesn’t “do the right thing” or “make self-sacrifices for others.” That seems like a good way to cheer up. And as always, reader suggestions are welcome!

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That is without a doubt the sickest looking Elite I’ve ever seen. This Pete Mander fellow has some serious artistic skills. You can watch the video on how he crafted the full-sized and full wearable suit, but the atrocious music makes that sort of hard to do.

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Halo Spartan Master Chief goes on a Date with Stormtrooper from Adam Grumbo on Vimeo.

It is, however, unusual to never take said uniform off. I mean, really, are the Covenant helping to construct a Death Star in the suburbs?

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We're leaving Matrix-like learning out, of course.

I recently read an article on Kotaku that got me to thinking about the educational value of video games. Of course there’s the classics like hand-eye coordination and sense of direction, and we can’t forget the faithful counter-argument that they rot your brain, but what’s there to find if we really dig into this question?

That Kotaku article I linked above provides a few interesting quotes from gamer-parents on the topic at hand. One parent wrote the following:

I have a 4yo, he’s been playing xbox since 3 and wii since 3 1/2. first we were amazed at his ability to use the controller, it taught him some colors and the associated letters. then we were surprized at his ability to associate controls to the display to solve puzzles in lego starwars/batman/jones. Now he is intently learning to read to play games with stories, also he has learned to lengthen his attention span knowing he cant skip the mission briefings, he’s also learned teamwork and humility when playing with a 6yo, who is not so willing to work together and share. He stays at his grandpas on sundays where he has been playing MW2 [Modern Warfare 2], he killed 6 guys in a round last sunday. Now he started playing the H3 [Halo 3] campaign and is moving right along. if he asks for help we make it a puzzle or a math problem or a spelling bee for him to move on to the next mission. oh and hes also learning how to use various maps. He wants to be an astronaut like the master chief. Hell Ya!

The part that stands out the most to me is the fact that the boy is “intently learning to read to play games with stories.” And come to think of it, this parent must be onto something with the attention span bit if their 4-year-old is already that invested in stories. Now to be fair, most young children really enjoy bed-time stories, and any responsible parent is probably teaching them to read during those sessions, even if the child is unconscious of it. But it can’t be overlooked that this child is seeking literacy out on his own so he can pursue something that’s of personal interest to him. Is it the interactive nature of video games that’s engaging enough to motivate this child? We don’t know for sure. But in my experience, if a person perceives something as play instead of work, motivation is much easier to come by.

Another striking quote from the article reads as follows:

We discussed the nature of bravery and cowardice while witnessing the interaction between Amaterasu and Susano in Okami.

We have discussed the nature of good, evil, power and greed while explaining how Anakin Skywalker is both a good guy and a bad guy in Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga.

I watched him discover that not all in the world is as it seems (and I emphasized the fact through conversation) after he discovered his first invisible block in Super Mario Bros.

The learning taking place in this situation is even more important in a child’s development than the ability to read. Critical thought is a necessary asset in this life and will eventually allow this child to debate his or her own personal morals and philosophies. But the fact is, the games being played are arbitrary here. Any media could be used as a vessel to spark conversation of such topics. In fact, the discussion about Anakin likely dealt more with the movies than the Lego Star Wars games. Instead, the learning here is a result of a responsible parent taking the opportunity to bestow wisdom to their child through characters that mean something to him or her.

Deep...Thought-provoking...Exquisite!

Lastly, this parent has a unique perspective on the topic:

My youngest boy has been struggling with dyslexia his entire educational life. Playing games where (like the above father mentioned) there are complex menus and a requirement for understanding of context (as in Mass Effect’s conversation trees) has improved his reading ability significantly. Now, he isn’t the top of his class, but he no longer needs the “special help” he once did in order to get A’s and B’s in school.

I never really considered how a game’s menus and user interface could shape the way we see the world around us, but it makes sense that gamers might be more equipped to deal with complex micro-management in the real world. In the case of this boy with dyslexia, it would seem that video games provided him with both the motivation and the tools to cope with his handicap. I don’t fully understand how his interactions with complex menus helped him manage his condition, but it would seem to make sense that navigation and awareness of complicated systems would help one apply those skills to simpler systems, such as sentence structures.

What I’m getting out of this so far is that video games make for good motivational tools. And as we all know, motivation is half the battle when it comes to learning. But just as you probably wouldn’t want to learn finances from Monopoly, video games’ educational properties don’t seem to extend far enough to actually teach children a whole lot.

But perhaps that’s just a result of the content found in commercial video games. The Quest to Learn school in New York is banking on the inherent complexity and systematic interaction in game structures to motivate, engage, and educate 6th-12th grade students. “Games are exceptionally good at engaging kids,” Quest’s Katie Salen says. “They drop kids into complex problems where they fail and fail, but they try again and again.” The school just opened its doors in Fall 2009, so there’s no data to back the unorthodox learning environment up yet, but their educational model certainly sounds appealing:

Mission critical at Quest is a translation of the underlying form of games into a powerful pedagogical model for its 6-12th graders. Games work as rule-based learning systems, creating worlds in which players actively participate, use strategic thinking to make choices, solve complex problems, seek content knowledge, receive constant feedback, and consider the point of view of others. As is the case with many of the games played by young people today, Quest is designed to enable students to “take on” the identities and behaviors of explorers, mathematicians, historians, writers, and evolutionary biologists as they work through a dynamic, challenge-based curriculum with content-rich questing to learn at its core.

It’s important to note that Quest is not a school whose curriculum is made up of the play of commercial videogames, but rather a school that uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences. Games and other forms of digital media serve another useful purpose at Quest: they serve to model the complexity and promise of “systems.” Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century.

At Quest, the theme of “systems” is expressed in all aspects of the school’s design, from a standards-based integrated curriculum, to student support structures stressing the interconnectedness of academic, community, and youth development concerns. Academic standards provide the link between excellence and equity by setting consistently high, public expectations for every student, informed by an understanding of how students learn best. College and career opportunities are supported through an intern and apprenticeship model that allows students to engage in learning alongside experts starting in the 8th grade.

It's Oregon Trail for the 21st century!

Personally, I don’t truly believe that particular approach to education is the most efficient way of teaching kids, but I do think it could be just the right environment for troubled or handicapped students who are incompatible with what they perceive to be the toxic environment of traditional education. Role-playing can do wonders to engage a person and get them interested for more than academic reasons. And it’s true that game-like systems diminish the negative associations of failure and encourage creative thinking within the system. I’m certainly interested to see how Quest’s test scores and graduate rates compare to standard schools in the future. With the right resources and a well-designed curriculum, a game-like approach to education could be very successful.

But most of us probably won’t be experiencing that sort of education anytime soon. So what can video games teach the average person? In my personal experience, games have actually enhanced my life in a few ways. Interestingly enough, I can’t really recall any learning experiences involving video games as a child, but my adolescent years harbored several positive gaming influences.

The first one that comes to mind is my first experience with Madden. Nobody in my family has ever really been into sports, and as such, I spent most of my childhood pitying the jocks and their shallow games. But for one reason or another I ended up buying a Madden game as a young teen, maybe in 2003. I went on to develop a severe Madden addiction that took a couple years to break, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that I learned the game of football from that video game. I learned all the minute rules and strategies of an incredibly complex game. And then I found the motivation to go out for the JV football team and found that I actually knew more about football than most of my teammates. I played football for two years and found it to be a very positive experience. For once, a video game actually got me off the couch.

Another positive experience I’ve had was back in the days of Halo 2. I suppose it actually goes back to co-oping Perfect Dark and other team experiences, but my educational experience really seemed to thrive with Halo. Through nightly sessions on Xbox Live and frequent LANs with a tight group of friends, I learned team-work and leadership skills that aided me in my football exploits, the academic environment, and life in general. I honestly don’t think there’s a better environment to learn team-work and discover the intangibles of leadership than in games, whether they be on a field or in a digital arena. The deep complexity and relentless pace of competitive environments force a person to think fast. You have to assess your situation; your resources, allies, obstacles, and goals. Then you have to act on that information while managing your teammates’ feelings and dealing with the consequences. I don’t think these intricate social skills are exclusive to the realm of video games, but they’re definitely a great place to learn them.

And then there’s broader things like my encyclopedic knowledge of WWII gained from so many WWII shooters and the problem solving skills earned through countless puzzles in games of all kinds. And had Guitar Hero come out a few years earlier, it likely would have helped introduced me to a wider world of music. I also feel like I could have gained a sense of values and morality from games with moral choices had I played them earlier in my life. And of course there’s the fact that video games have given me my identity in life and helped me learn about myself.

If only we could combine the team-work of Halo and the puzzles of Braid.

But having said all those things, I think we all know that video games don’t have an exceptional amount of educational value. No matter how much we want to defend our pastime, we can’t avoid the fact that the vast majority of popular games don’t require much activity up in the old noggin. Or at least they don’t teach things that can’t be learned elsewhere. What video games can do for those aspiring to learn is motivate them to dig deeper into topics through more traditional means. They also help us to learn about ourselves, just as all culture does. And there is an undeniable social aspect to many games that can teach us a lot. The unique structure of games is one that excels at engaging people but as it stands now, lacks the depth found in old-fashioned books. I find it hard to believe that video games could ever replace traditional learning despite the many flaws in the current U.S. educational system and an apparent rise in irresponsible parents. But it would probably be best for everyone if the Quest to Learn school proved me wrong. And who’s to say? If their learning model becomes a success, they could unintentionally change the face of commercial gaming forever.

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That should clear it up. Looks thoroughly uninteresting, useless, and redundant. But I’m sure a bunch of 12 year old Halo fan boys with way too much time on their hands will make it a success.

Speaking of not having enough time on my hands, I’m trying out something new for IB. It’s called, “Post links to news stories that you should read but I’m too lazy to properly report.” I figured the best place would be in this completely unrelated post about the Halo Waypoint.
Microsoft to Raise Xbox Live Subscription Fee, says Pacther [1UP]
Peter Moore Says Core Videogame Business Model is a “Burning Platform” [1UP]
New Modern Warfare Matchmaking Service Will “Definitely” Reshape PC Community [Kotaku]

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If you have 15 minutes of time to kill, this is a fairly interesting look into the life of one of gaming’s greatest composers. For my money, the Halo games have some of the finest music in the industry.

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Being lonely and unwanted by the ladies sort of comes with the territory of being a gamer. So inevitably, we’ve all turned to the fantastical land of video games for hope. “If only I could find a girl like Jill Valentine. She’d appreciate me…appreciate me big time!” But would we really want to be going steady with gaming’s fairer sex? This list sort of makes being alone seem not half bad. Then again, I could have just listed off ten Fable II hookers and it would have been the greatest thing in the world. I mean, you marry those broads, and all they do is put out, take care of your neglected offspring, and shower you with gifts. And if you ever upset them, make-up sex is only a “Hat, Headband, Mustache” expression away!

Bridgette Tenenbaum (BioShock) – Let’s get past her looks and general strangeness and just assume you’re into eccentric girls. So you go out on a date with her. She’s smart, ambitious, and has some really interesting stories. So you guys start getting serious. But the more time you spend with her, the more you realize she’s just some granola-girl broken record. It’s always, “Save the kids, this” or “We’re part of the problem, that”. And if you ever manage to get her off that save-the-world crap, she just drones on about how smart she was as a child and how grand all those Nazi medical experiments were. But hell, let’s say you manage to put up with all of that because she’s got access to some really cool black-market stuff. Can you imagine if you ever had kids with her? My God! Think of the children, damn it! What torturous experiments would they be subjected to!?!

The Princess (Braid) – The Princess is one of the worst types of women, but one that you simply can’t resist. She’s the type of beautiful girl who flirts with you enough to boost your shattered ego into thinking you actually have a shot with her, when in actuality, she’s just working you to make her knight in shining armor jealous. All those lustful glances and unspoken words will have you obsessing over her in stalker-like proportions until that heart-wrenching day you see her making out with the other guy in the corner. Oh, and then there’s that whole thing where she’s actually an atomic bomb or something.

Because pictures of her don't exist...or maybe they're just top secret.

Aeris Gainsborough (Final Fantasy VII) – Because she’ll make you cry like a little girl. And you won’t care, you’ll just want her back.

Cortana (Halo series) – Okay, so the whole not really being a person thing sort of throws physical contact out of the equation, but that’s not everything in a relationship. Upon meeting Cortana, you’ll likely find that she has a good sense of humor a certain tom-boyishness that makes her fun to be around. But things will probably start going down hill on about the third date, when you’re wondering how prude could this girl possibly be, and she’s in your head, listening to your every damning thought. And when her data corruption psychological issues start showing, you’ll wish you never got on her bad side.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead) – Zoey will likely appeal to you at first as that pretty girl whose mystery keeps you coming back to find out more. And she’ll be a lot of fun for a while too, what with all the exciting situations she always ends up in. But eventually you’ll start to grow a little weary of her apparent zombie-magnetism and become a little more concerned with your life than her hot and heavy life-style. And if that weren’t enough, you can never seem to be alone with her for more than 30 seconds before those strange guys she always hangs out with show up. But the worst part will be the paranoia when you hear rumors about what kind of movies she’s starred in in the past (just Google Left 4 Head if you’re not putting this together).

Princess Peach (Any Mario game ever) – Once you’re stuck in this hellish relationship, you’ll wonder why you ever got in it. For starters, her family is ridiculously rich, so you’ll absolutely never be good enough for her in her father’s eyes. And considering that her family is royalty, the spotlight’s always going to be on them. Pairing that with her father’s hatred for you, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that every time Little Miss Perfect gets in trouble, enough strings will be pulled that you’re taking the rap for it. And believe you me, she’ll be getting in plenty of trouble. The girl must have some sort of sick fetish for getting kidnapped and bringing about terrorist insurrections. So you’ll be doing plenty of rescuing as well. And after you lay your ass on the line to save her for the millionth time, she won’t even give you any lovin’ because of her proper up-bringing. That or she’ll be uber kinky, I’ve seen it go both ways with royalty. Either way, you’ll just long to run away to another kingdom, but you won’t be able to because her very powerful family would have such a lowly street urchin murdered for braking their precious Peach’s heart.

Naomi Hunter (Metal Gear Solid series) – Easy on the eyes and always eager to assist, Naomi will seem like a hole-in-one at first. But just when things are going well she’ll stab you in the back and reveal that she was only dating you as an elaborate revenge ploy because you beat her brother up on the elementary school playground. Plus she’s always jabbering about tiny robots in our bloodstreams and trying to inject you with things. And then she’ll probably try to get with your best friend and play all of you and you won’t know if she loves you or hates you and she’ll eventually off herself to try and convince everybody that she was good all along or some such non-sense. Chick’s got some issues.

Samus Aran (Metroid series) – Samus probably comes off as a pretty cool lady at first. She’s a strong-willed and independent woman, but she always puts others before herself. She knows lots of cool stuff and travels to a bunch of interesting places, plus her awesome rolling abilities ensure that you’ll always bowl a perfect game with her on your side. All of that rolling could also make for some interesting exploits in the bedroom. So what’s not to like with this beautiful, charismatic, and successful vixen? Oh yeah, half the world thinks she’s a guy…

Ms. Pac-Man (Ms. Pac-Man) – I think that wide-open mouth says it all.

You would not believe some of the images that turned up in Google for this.

Lara Croft (Tomb Raider series) – “Lara Croft on a list of video game characters you wouldn’t want to date!?! Have you gone mad?” Well, no. Just think about it for a minute. I mean, sure, she’s smoking hot and rich and is pretty much the female version of Indiana Jones, but I have a feeling things just wouldn’t be as great as they sound on paper. For starters, she’s gone on business so much that you’ll barely have any time together. Just think of all the emotional stress you’ll have from worrying about her safety nine months out of the year. And when she does come back you probably won’t do anything more than have sex and listen to her emasculating stories. But could you really enjoy that knowing how hot she is? She’s bound to catch a few fish on all of her fancy expeditions with that body, and one of them might just be some burly tomb explorer with a chin more chiseled than yours and a butt to die for. The paranoia and jealousy would kill the relationship. She is just too gorgeous to spend that much time away from you, especially since her moral code doesn’t have any qualms with stealing from the dead.

Female Characters (Any fighting game ever) – Because women who can kick my ass scare me.

So there you have it. Video game girls really aren’t that great after all. But if you’re still holding out hope, I hear that Alyx Vance is getting sick of waiting for Gordon Freeman.

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Fat Peter Jackson was so much cooler than skinny Peter Jackson.

According to 1UP (via Joystiq), the famed Lord of the Rings director has confirmed that his take on the Halo universe, known only as “Halo Chronicles,” is “no longer happening.”

In an interview with Joystiq he said “That Halo project is no longer happening, it sort of collapsed when the movie didn’t end up happening.” Going on to speak about the movie, the Oscar winner said, “that fell apart because of internal politics at Fox and Universal. It had nothing to do with the budget or anything else. In fact, we hadn’t even been greenlit at all at that point…Microsoft has a whole strategy with the Halo property, and when the rights expired with the two studios, that sort of ended my involvement with the project.”

Initially announced in September 2006, the Halo Chronicles project always sounded exciting to me. Mr. Jackson was said to be working directly on the game, and it was supposed to be a brand new interactive-movie experience like nothing else. It was also rumored that Metal Gear Solid 4 producer Ryan Payton was put to work on the project when Microsoft hired him last year. But considering that Jackson isn’t interested in developing the game without the Halo movie as a crutch, it probably wouldn’t have been very good anyways. Hopefully Microsoft’s newly minted 343 Industries is working on something else cool. And hopefully Peter Jackson is working on something else too since he hasn’t done anything good since Lord of the Rings.

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Developed, published, and whored out by 343 Industries

Lots of Halo news this week, folks.

Hidden in the announcement for the new Halo anime, Halo Legends, was the news that Microsoft now has their own internal division dedicated to everything Halo, and it’s called 343 Industries. There was some speculation earlier in the week when it was revealed that Microsoft trademarked the name, and now it’s confirmed.

As Kotaku points out, one of the defining factors of this new division is their involvement in everything Halo. Not just the games, but all of the merchandise that will spawn forth from the revered franchise. As Microsoft puts it, “343 Industries is the publisher of the blockbuster “Halo” series of videogames and, as part of Microsoft Game Studios, oversees the ‘Halo’ franchise, including novels, comics, licensed collectibles, apparel and more.” Did you hear that? “And more!”

And it looks like 343 Industries will probably be working on the next Halo game as Bungie recently announced that Halo: Reach will be their last Halo related video game… on the 360 at least.

In an interview with CVG, Lars Bakken, senior designer at Bungie, had this to say when asked about Reach being their last Halo game for the 360: “In terms of a platform for Halo games made by Bungie, yes. I can’t answer that question for Microsoft though. Whether they have something in the works or not, I don’t know if they’re actually ready to talk about it yet, but in terms of Bungie-produced Halo games, ODST and then Reach is probably all you’re going to get.”

I’d actually like to see this be Bungie’s last Halo game ever. Don’t get me wrong, Halo’s great and Bungie does a great job with it, but let’s see what else they can do.

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No, your eyes don’t deceive you. That’s a trailer for not a Halo game, but a Halo anime. The series of seven short animated films will be known as Halo Legends and should be coming directly to DVD sometime in 2010. But if you can’t wait that long, the all new Halo Waypoint will give us a sneak peak of a few episodes this fall.

As a fan of both anime and Halo, I’m oddly not excited for this. I don’t know, Halo just doesn’t seem like an anime thing to me. I’d rather see a fully CGI movie like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. But if it’s any comfort to all ye hopeful and optimistic Halo fans out there, Microsoft is bringing in some of the most respected production houses in the anime industry. Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio4 C, and Toei Animation will all be contributing to this project. The creative director overseeing Halo Legends is Shinji Aramaki, director of Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina.

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