Once upon a time I was considering going pro as a Halo player. No joke. I was in college, logging several hours of play a day and winning local tournaments as often as I could find them. Being in college, though, I was dead broke, unable to afford the plane ticket and lodging it would cost to to get from central Ohio to one of the early MLG tournaments with hopes of landing a team spot and competing at the national level. At the time, pro gaming, at least for consoles, was just getting its start, and there wasn’t another venue that would offer that kind of opportunity before I was set to graduate and find myself in need of gainful employment.

If you’re in that same situation, things have gotten a bit better. There are loads of pro leagues all over the country, and regional tourneys happen all the time. Breaking into the MLG scene can still be pretty tough, which is why Doritos has put together the Pro Gaming Combine in select cities around the country. You still have to get there, and there is an entry fee, but pro gaming has reached a point that, if you’re any good, you can easily get noticed at an event like this and start to make a name for yourself.

The combine runs for three days at a time with both team and solo categories. Players who demonstrate the highest level of “slaying power, teamwork/communication, leadership, objective play and support play” will be selected for further evaluation by the MLG Scout Team and given an opportunity to play at an MLG Pro Circuit event and an invite to the National Championship Competition, all expenses paid. Combine registration is $100 per team or $10 per player, which is much better than the actual circuit tickets last time I checked.

For the date and location schedule, check out the official page at MLG. There will be several online events leading up to each tourney, giving you the chance to see how you stack up before spending that Hamilton or Benjamin on your registration.

I forgot to mention this very large and intrusive piece of information from the USA Today article comparing Halo to Star Wars. According to Frank O’Connor, the former Bungie guy who now heads up 343 Industries, the Halo division at Microsoft, the adventures of Master Chief have been planned six years into the future.

“Eventually, it will become very apparent that there is a plan for the way the canon all ties together and the way the comic books and the novels all tie together,” O’Connor said. I’m kinda curious what that means. Is there some nefarious plan lurking behind a story line that could have been really epic if it weren’t so poorly handled? Have I overlooked some love connection between Master Chief and the Gravemind? Tell me your secrets, Frankie!

At the very least we can all rest assured that Microsoft can still spot the gigantic glowing cash cow sitting right in front of it. The very minute you get tired of the latest Halo there’s sure to be another, even if it is a glorified expansion, flying off shelves at $60 a pop.

Halo 3: ODST has been the topic of some hot conversation, mostly with regard to price. There are droves of people who think the game is merely an expansion and doesn’t warrant the $60 price tag it carries. Others, like Bethesda’s Ashley Cheng, think Microsoft simply mismanaged the ODST marketing campaign and you should just suck it up.

On his blog, Bethesda production director Ashley Cheng said confusion around the title’s name and place in the franchise is the only thing that makes people wonder if the game is worth $60.

From Cheng’s blog:

Give me a break. First off, most games – especially first person shooters – are anywhere from 5-10 hours. Tops. What makes Halo different from others? You can’t just ping Halo ODST for it. I bet if Microsoft hadn’t screwed up the marketing messaging, there would less talk about pricing.

I’m inclined to agree, though I’m also inclined to say not enough people care about this to make a difference. The game is going to sell and sell fast. Sure people will bitch, but that’s bound to happen any time you have millions of people rushing to purchase a product. You’ll never have one hundred percent of your consumer population believe the product is worth the price.

Microsoft has announced another 250GB bundle for the Xbox 360. This one includes Forza 3 though without a customized console like we found in the Modern Warfare 2 bundle. Unfortunately for you US types, the bundle will only be available in the UK and South Africa.

This is the third in a pretty sweet lineup of 360 bundles over the past few days, obviously designed to compete with the 250GB PS3 bundles Sony has been showing. The bundles have some strange differences, though, and not just with regard to region.

The Halo bundle, for instance, forgoes the 250GB hard drive, something that would be great for all those Bungie Pro users looking to save additional game content locally, for a copy of Halo 3. The Modern Warfare 2 bundle seems to be the only one with a customized console, but it doesn’t include customized controllers. And of course there is the region issue. Why some and not others? Why not standardize these things across the board? And for god’s sake, why won’t they sell the 250GB unit as a separate periph?

As the holidays loom closer I’ll be interested to see what else comes out of Redmond. More bundles, or just more tweaks to the existing SKUs?

The release for Halo 3: ODST is quickly creeping up on us, but you may have forgotten about the soundtrack. Halo has one of the most recognizable themes in gaming today, and certainly one of the most celebrated. Bungie’s new game comes with more mood-defining melodies from composer Martin O’Donnell, the guy responsible for the entire series.

“I’m happy to be able to share all new compositions and recordings created for Halo 3: ODST,” O’Donnell said. “The music reflects the new mood, new heroes, and new story of the game. I worked with the Northwest Sinfonia for the orchestral recordings and also added some nice alto sax solos and some new guitar solos. The piano sneaks back in again a few times too, but I can’t seem to help that.”

The soundtrack will release on the 22nd along with the game.

Thank god for this. I’m not one of those crazy, tea-bagging, MyBrPwNzU type Halo players, but there is a soft spot in my heart for the franchise. My friends and I played a lot in college, and I’m always interested to see what they do next in the series. It was music to my ears when Microsoft said we wouldn’t see a Halo: Natal until “it makes sense.”

Alex Cutting, a Halo 3:ODST Producer, told VideoGamer in pretty clear language the plans for Natal and the Halo franchise.

A lot of people are interested in what Natal’s presence in Halo’s going to be. We are committing to only doing it when it makes sense. We are not going to produce a gimmicky feature that just takes advantage of motion controls when it doesn’t feel right.

Glad to hear someone has that kind of focus. Natal seems cool, but even the driving games looked horribly gimmicky. Cutting does think the tech has its place in almost any genre, just that it needs to be appropriately implemented.

I think Natal can be integrated into most genres in some way. I think FPS, there’s a lot to be said for dual stick control. But, you know, before dual sticks came around and before Halo: Combat Evolved established it on a console, people were pretty doubtful about that, that it could ever move from keyboard and mouse.

Pretty sure I agree with that, though I’m not sure Halo was the game to actually pioneer the dual analog stick control. The idea, at the very least, existed in games like Goldeneye, with those yellow buttons on the N64 controller. Using a stick isn’t exactly the kind of leap that controller to Natal will be. Despite the gratuitous horn-tooting, I like that Cutting makes Microsoft’s position pretty clear, and that’s there might be some thought behind the whole thing.

The Halo Waypoint Twitter account posted some fantastic information earlier today. The service designed to completely inundate you with anything and everything related to Halo launches on November 5th.

As the Twitter feed said:

Nov 5. Mark it on your calendar. That’s when you will get your hands (or controllers) on Halo Waypoint.

Just think of the massive influx of pimple-faced boys, those same 13 year-olds who corpse hump you and call you all sorts of non-PC names, that will be gracing the Xbox Live servers on the 5th, hoping for gratuitous Cortana nudity. It could be a great day, but it’s probably going to be a sad day.

It’s hard not to think of Halo 3:ODST as the expansion it was first billed as. Sure they’ve added a load of features, and there’s even a mini-game now. But the game is really just an extension of a story that’s already been finished, a tale with an ending. Bungie’s committed to the title – in fact, they’re not even willing to talk about Halo:Reach.

Bungie’s community leader Brian Jarrard spoke at PAX this year regarding both releases. “Obviously right now what we’re excited about is the impending launch of ODST, so we don’t want to totally start talking about next year’s model before this one’s even off the assembly line.” Alright, so he doesn’t sound that committed to the current title, does he?

I don’t blame the guy. I realize Halo:Reach has the same problem I mentioned above – a story that’s already done – but it’s far enough removed from what I consider a trilogy’s timeline that it’s also entirely different.

We haven’t heard much lately from 42 Entertainment, the company beyond the viral Halo 2 marketing game, “ilovebees.” It looks like some of their former team members have new work, though, and it’s back with Bungie. Fourth Wall Studios, which is made up of some former 42E folks, is developing a mini-game for Halo 3:ODST called Sadie’s Story.

The game takes place in New Mombassa, after the Covenant invasion but before the arrival of the ODSTs. As the name implies, the story follows Sadie, a resident of New Mombassa, and her adventures in a new city. The mini-game is meant to augment the main story-line, but unfortunately Bungie won’t say much else.

All signs indicate the mini-game will be available on release, so no DLC here. As I’m sure you’ve already marked on your calendars, ODST hits stores September 22nd.

Last week Microsoft claimed 9t had a “very small breach in [its] distribution process,” which led to the early release of Halo 3: ODST to a few French retailers. Rumor says less than a hundred copies of the game were released, most of which were legitimately purchased, though some may have been acquired illegally.

Microsoft was pretty even-keeled about the situation. The company released a statement that said, “We are also investigating Xbox Live accounts that show activity related to Halo 3: ODST and will take action against those we believe have procured copies of the game illegitimately.” There was some understandable confusion since several players actually paid for the game at a licensed Microsoft retailer. Xbox’s Stephen Toulouse was click to clear things up via his Twitter page. “Clarity on the ODST thing. We will not be banning legitimate customers from Xbox LIVE who play early,” wrote Toulouse, the current Head of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox Live.

Since the leak, Microsoft has been making its way around the internet, pulling videos for copyright infringement and attempting to keep the game’s intimate details away from the eyes of the ravenous horde. You can get Halo 3: ODST when it officially launches on September 22nd.