Despite Fox and Universal's pullout, it seems that work still continues on the much-awaited Halo film by Microsoft. This much was picked up during an inquiry with Peter Jackson's representative Ken Kamins, who states that MS was currently in the middle of talks with other distribution projects to continue the film.

Kamins further stated that the Halo movie's pre-production was moving along thanks to exec producers Jackson and (Fran) Walsh. The pair are reportedly having the film's pre-prod visual effects done at their studios in New Zealand, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop. Kamins also shed some light on the transaction that caused Universal and Fox's pullout:

What happened was this: Universal, on behalf of both studios, asked for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment. Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with Microsoft and Bungie, respectfully declined.

Look on the bright side - at least we know the film hasn't been completely scrapped. We'll let you know if any related info gets picked up in the near future.

Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people (playing Halo). An article from the New York Times reveals that churches actually do have a soft spot for games. In fact, some churches are using video games as an actual tool to recruit more youths.

Taking a more modern approach at enticing kids to their community, church leaders have been renting out video games and inviting teenagers for "video game night" down at the church - and this is despite the fact that some churches hold some grudges against violent games (e.g. a very recent appeal to withdraw R:FoM from the BAFTA). The New York Times article runs:

Across the country, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game Halo[...] // Witness the basement on a recent Sunday at the Colorado Community Church [...] where Tim Foster, 12, and Chris Graham, 14, [...] locked in violent virtual combat [...] Tim explained the game's allure: "It's just fun blowing people up." // Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. "We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell," Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

Other supporters of this new method in recruitment believe that the important thing is for the church to connect to the youth. James Tonkowich of the Institute on Religion and Democracy points out that "If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is you can do better than that."

The story of Halo 3 is sometimes used even as a spring board for discussion about faith. As a 16 year-old Baptist in Lawrenceville recounts: "We play Halo, take a break and have something to eat, and have a lesson. [The pastor even tried to use analogies] between God and the devil."

Sort of makes you think twice about the definition of "Covenant" doesn't it? The simple fact that the game is called "Halo" might connote something rather holy as well. So what's your take on this, though? Yes, there are a lot of controversial points raised by this issue, but please be mindful of your comments.

Over here at the QJ offices, we're not sure whether we should be jealous or angry. Jealous because a Bungie dev got to drive the actual warthog made by the folks at WETA. Angry because the said developer managed to scratch the beautiful warthog against a wooden shed.

That's right folks. We've got video today that should be rather exciting, because some Bungie developers got the chance to drive the well-known Warthog we covered earlier in July. According to Bungie Studios' Weekly Update, the devs were in New Zealand to help Peter Jackson on the Halo project, and managed to spend some time at WETA as well, driving their souped up buggy.

Of course, being developers (and not stunt drivers), one of the devs managed to mess up the paint job by hitting a wood shed while taking it out for a spin, but he still counts as one of the most awesome people in the world, if only because he drove a gamer's dream car.

In related news, Bungie Studios is reminding gamers to steer clear of player profiles to avoid spoilers because, as they say, certain people "could LITERALLY have the final frame of the game as a screenshot on their file share." For these and other Bungie updates, feel free to check the readlink below.

Previously, we saw Master Chief hit the waxy halls of the Madame Tussauds museum at London. Guess where Halo 3's superstar is right now? No, not Korea. He's just taken the next Phantom drop ship off to Sin City and has graced Madame Tussauds Las Vegas.

Master Chief now joins the ranks of television and film characters to be immortalized in the Tussaud museum's 250-year history as the very first videogame character to be featured in the attraction. And who's there to reveal the life-sized version of the Chief? It was none other than Fall Out Boy song-writer and bassist Pete Wentz who unveiled the new wax figure at the official unveiling last Saturday. Wentz reckons:

For me, the launch of Halo 3 will be the entertainment event of the year. It will be as big as or bigger than any of the summer's movie blockbusters. Master Chief is as much of a hero today as characters like Spiderman, Frodo, and Luke Skywalker were for previous generations.

If you plan on visiting the museum, you won't only be able to take shots with the Chief. There'll also be a couple of Halo merchandise for sale. Just to put things in perspective, the wax figure is the product of around 900 hours of sculpting, molding, and painting. It stands at 7"2' and weighs in at around 275 lbs. Yeah, Master Chief is a biggie.

Will this mean that the once-dropped Halo movie will become reality soon? 20th Century Fox, helped by its licensing relationship with Microsoft, managed to get the licensing rights to the Halo franchise. Fox will be rolling out various Halo merchandise, such as apparel, books, and even collectibles (Spawn's Todd McFarlane will provide Halo 3 figurines).

With the immense popularity of the Halo franchise, Fox believes that they will be able to distribute and sell Halo products up to the release of the fourth Halo game.

There is no mention about the production of a Halo movie, however. There were plans for a Halo movie last year which was supposed to be produced by both Fox and Universal, but was eventually dropped into obscurity.

So maybe some of you weren't too hot about the Halo 3 McFarlane controllers. To quote a comment from lmxloco (Unregistered): "Eh, they look good and all, but they're a little too busy for my taste." Well, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. That includes Todd McFarlane himself. And to him, controllers are just the start.

McFarlane Toys has just announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring in Halo 3 action figures come Spring 2008. Not only are they going to include a 6-inch Master Chief in their line up. There's also going to be Cortana, Brute Chieftan, Jackal Sniper, and a bundle pack consisting of two Grunts.

Tagging along for the ride are, well, your Halo rides: McFarlane Toys will be releasing miniaturizes of the Warthog, Ghost, and Chopper as well.

Solid Snake is getting his own 12 inches. Marcus Fenix is getting a big head as a toy. Well, it's about time that Master Chief got his own plaything-version too.

 

For those who are planning to pick up both Halo 2 and Shadowrun, or even just Halo 2 for Vista. Circuit City is running a sweet deal where you can get Shadowrun for free if you buy a copy of Halo 2 for Vista. Yup, you're getting two games for the price of one. Halo 2 for Vista is going for US$ 39.99 which is pretty good if you don't have a copy of it already for your Xbox or just want to play it on your PC (Keyboard + Mouse = pwnage).

Both games are playable over Microsoft's Games for Windows Live service where you can play against players on the Xbox 360. Halo 2 is about Master Chief fighting against ... why bother, you probably know this by now. Shadowrun however, is an online based game where you go head-to-head against other players using magic and some heavy ordinance to take out your opposition. Counter-Strike fans might want to check this out since both games have similar gameplay.

That said, click on our read link to head straight to Best Buy to view their promo. Be sure to keep checking back here for the latest deals and bargains for your PC.

The Windows Live service which has been the talk of a lot of PC and Xbox 360 gamers has finally launched. It debuted last July 1 with the release of Shadowrun, the first game which allows both PC and Xbox 360 communities to have 16-player matches online. Another game that will take advantage of this service is Halo 2 which will be coming out this May 8. The question is, is it worth it?

To see if the service is worth the time and money, we'll have to discuss both the service and the launch title.

The Windows Live service. The service itself is really good with the free Silver option (for those who don't want to pony up additional cash) and with the Gold subscription for the more hardcore players. What most have been worrying about is the connection between the Xbox 360 to the PC and the possible lag that the interface of both systems might experience.

Shadowrun on Windows Live. However, Shadowrun is another story. Most of the people who ponied up the US$ 60 for the game have pointed out that it has potential. The gameplay is great and the graphics are passable. The concerns that most people have are both the pricing and the fact that it's an online-only game with three modes of play. It has nine single-player training missions, so you'll really need to play online. When you do get online, there are only three modes of play so you don't really get much bang for the buck.

On the bright side, the first update is already rumored to be in the works. In addition, this has the potential to be a really great game if the community really gets behind it. If not, well, it flops... bad.

Those things said, it's not really such a bad launch for Microsoft's Windows Live. We'll just have to wait and see if the community really rallies under this new standard or decides to ignore it.

We know you guys were probably sitting silently in the dark, waiting for QJ to cover this portion of the recent "partial nudity" development while Dracula was asleep. But first, we'd like to clarify what exactly the partial nudity was: someone's pair of fleshy buns.

 

Now what Microsoft did say about the game's delay was that they were addressing installation smoothness and other technical facets of Halo 2 for Windows Vista, and not something way off key from the technical department as a bare bottom of an intern or developer. Or is that the guy behind Master Chief?

Now definitely it was the ESRB that really sparked the ruckus and the same reason why Microsoft's white just turned beet-red for bearing someone's nether regions over its flagship operating system. The ESRB was claimed to be "notified" by Microsoft about a certain incident (if you can call it that) that probably might catch the eyes of unsuspecting parents.

The ESRB took the image as partial nudity, asking Microsoft to bare 'Partial Nudity' upon the label of the ESRB sticker of the game. It seems though that many other sites interpreted the idea too wrongly and considered the possibility that either Master Chief forgot to slap armor over his merchandise or Cortana wasn't translucent enough. Latter would have made our day. Really.

ESRB considered it another "hidden content" issue, just like that of the Hot Coffee controversy, and took steps to ensure that the game was properly labeled to inform parents that a highly popular game was coming with someone's particularly successful efforts of mooning.

Thanks to Kotaku for the bottoms...err...heads up!

As odd as the following block of indented text may read, it's real. Or at least Next Generation claims it's real. Halo2 Vista apparently shipped with accidental partial nudity. Yes folks, partial nudity in Halo, a game where Master Chief and his ilk are covered in heavy doses of Spartan Armor. Anyhow, here's what Microsoft sent via e-mail, it reads:

It has come to our attention that an unfortunate, obscure content error which includes partial nudity was included in our initial production of "Halo 2" for Windows Vista. As such, we have updated the initial game packaging at retailers with a label, so customers are aware before purchasing the game. Additionally, we've developed an online update which can be downloaded from www.halo2.com to remove the content.

At Microsoft we take the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) guidelines very seriously and hold ourselves to high standards, with our customers always in mind.

Yes, if you're a parent and you have issues with your children seeing nudity, but you're cool with them engaging in a hyper-violent form of cops and robbers, then you can download the update at their site and not worry. Given that Bungie Software's Halo 2 is already an M-rated (17 or older) game, one can't help but wonder just exactly how much "partial nudity" is in it.

It was also reported that Halo 2 Vista has been delayed from this week to next week. It seems that adding "partial nudity" to ESRB warnings take that much time. The bright side of this is that Microsoft is making sure that their video game (revenue source) doesn't step on people's toes, and is properly packaged and marketed.

Anyhow, if you're signed in to Games For Windows LIVE, the update should be automatically downloaded. If you're not, signed in then You can head to the Halo2 support site using our "read" link below. It must be noted that the support page does have a May 22 update but it fails to clarify what it's for.