To celebrate Thanksgiving, a completely free song for Guitar Hero III was released yesterday, offering Xbox 360 owners the chance to rock out to the MJOLNIR remix of the Halo theme. The song has been written, composed and performed by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, with Steve Vai on the guitars.

Joystiq reports that Master Chief is the first videogame character to be immortalized by Madame Tussauds, the famous wax museum. The 7′2″ tall and 275 lbs statue is towering over weaklings in the Las Vegas branch of the museum. If you’re in the area, then be sure to check it out.

On MSNBC is an article that takes a look at the top 5 first-person shooter weapons. The usual suspects are listed, though the inclusion of the Pistol from Halo is a big surprise.

For those waiting to sign up for the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, Microsoft has announced that it will open up registration on Halo3.com starting December 4. However, they didn’t give any indication to the criteria that will be used to determine who gets in.

In related news, both Microsoft and Bungie sent word to remind people that a Halo 3 CG advertisement will be shown on ESPN on December 4, between 5:50pm and 6:20pm Pacific Time. Those in the UK will get to view it on TV, when it airs on Channel 4 on December 15 at 22:45. The 60 second ad will also be broadcast simultaneously on Xbox.com and be available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace.

Created by advertising agency McCann Erickson, the highly anticipated ad will provide gamers with a “unique and compelling” look at Master Chief and the world of Halo 3. Attached to this post is a still (full 1920×1080 resolution) still from the advert.

A lone shot of Master Chief holding a gun…

The first official Halo 3 news comes in the form of a public beta announcement: gamers will be able to get an exclusive hands-on experience of the highly anticipated second sequel through the Xbox Live multiplayer public beta. The pre-release version of the multiplayer experience of Halo 3 is scheduled for availability in Spring 2007.

That wasn’t the only piece of news Bungie had for us. A 60-second Halo 3 teaser ad will be aired on December 4 in North America; those in the UK will see the ad on December 15 on Channel 4. Created by advertising agency McCann Erickson, the ad will provide viewers with a look at Master Chief and the world of Halo 3. The ad will be available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace and viewable on Xbox.com.

In addition, new maps for Halo 2 will also be available for download through Xbox Live Marketplace. No details were revealed.

Everyone saw it coming, but here it is anyway: since word got out that both Universal and Fox had backed out of the Halo movie, it was public knowledge that the project would be put on hold. Here’s the official word from Wingnut Films, the guys behind the movie, courtesy of AICN:

As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.

Bringing extremely bad news to Halo fans is Variety who reports that both Universal and Fox Studios have backed out of the Halo movie adaptation. They cite rising movie costs and apprehension over a director who has no feature film under his belt. Apparently, there was a rumor that the budget for the movie was close to $200 million, the lion’s share of which was supposed to go to Microsoft.

According to Peter Jackson’s agent, the studios asked Microsoft, Bungie and Peter Jackson to ’significantly reduce their deals’ in the movie. This was “respectfully declined” however, prompting both studios to pull out. In response, Bungie is all “optimism, satisfaction and happiness for reasons can’t go into,” as per a weekly update on its site.

No new studio has been lured in announced yet.

This year’s X06 saw a couple of big announcements from Microsoft. Very big announcements. Let’s check them out:

• Peter Jackson, who is currently associated with the upcoming Halo movie, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Fran Walsh and Microsoft Game Studios have teamed up to create two new games exclusively for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. The first series will be a collaborative with Bungie to co-create the next game in the Halo universe, while the second series will be a completely new IP. Additionally, they have also partnered up to form Wingnut Interactive, the studio which will dedicate itself to bringing these series’ to the next-gen console.

• Besides the Wingnut Halo game, Ensemble Studios is working on Halo Wars, a new real-time strategy game based on the legendary universe. Before you cry foul, keep in mind that these guys are behind the Age of Empires franchise, which has been a solid series so far. The game is entirely exclusive to Xbox 360.

  For more information, check out the game’s website which hosts a cinematic trailer, as well as these screen grabs from the trailer.

• Hoping to make a dent in Sony’s future, Microsoft revealed that the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV will receive two exclusive downloadable, “epic” episodes via Xbox Live, each with many hours of entirely new gameplay. These episodes will be available just months after the game’s release next year.

  Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game will ship at the same time in October 2007.

• In a move that is very uncharacteristic of Ubisoft, the publisher confirmed that the next Splinter Cell title after Double Agent will be a console-exclusive on Xbox 360. It will also be released on PC for those without the console.

• Yes, BioShock is also exclusive to the console. It’s on PC as well.

• Banjo-Kazooie is back, courtesy of Rare! Another exclusive to Xbox 360, the title will feature the much beloved characters, who, according to the press release, will thankfully retain their “sharp wit and hilarious sense of humor.”

• Another exclusive: Marvel Universe Online. In development at Cryptic Studios, the game will also be released for Windows Vista.

• Everyone saw this coming, but not this soon: Project Gotham Racing 4. The game was unveiled at the show, though it is not expected until late next year, or 2008.

• id Software’s DOOM and Codemasters’ Sensible World of Soccer are now available on Xbox Live Arcade.

• And finally, the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player will be released in North America, UK, France and Germany this November. It will retail for $200 in North America and €200/£130 in U.K., France and Germany. The player will also come with a copy of King Kong on HD-DVD and the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote.

Gamers have been pondering on the greatest contemporary mystery of all time: who will be the director of the Halo movie? Well, Xbox.com broke the word, and, surprisingly, took down the announcement too, that Neil Blomkamp will be the film’s director.

Most will not know him by name, but his IMDB entry shows some impressive work. He has worked as a 3D animator on various television series such as Smallville and Stargate SG-1; he has also worked on a variety of commercials as well. Blomkamp is, however, mostly known for his short film Alive in Joburg, which deals with an alien invasion, futuristic soldiers and spaceships, subject matter that is not too far away from the Halo universe.

Following the release of the Halo Graphic Novel, Bungie and Marvel have announced their intentions to collaborate even further at the San Diego Comic-Con. The two companies will be working jointly on a monthly Halo Ongoing comic.

No story details or arcs were revealed at the time, but details are expected soon. The monthly Halo comics will begin Summer 2007.

Development on Halo 3 is going along at a pretty good pace, or so it seems from the latest Bungie update, which err… updates us on the UI side of things. The user interface for the game has “come on in leaps and bounds” since it has been in development for a long time. It’s implied that the new UI will be very user-friendly and will let users change options from wherever they want. Here’s a sample:

UI gurus Dave Candland and Colm Nelson were kind enough to give me a guided tour today and I can honestly say that I finally “get it.” The problem with adapting to a new UI is the problem of familiarity. You expect things to behave the way they did in Halo 2 and when they don’t, it’s easy to think, “Oh, that’s broken,” when in fact, something has technically been fixed. And the sign of a good UI is that it only takes a couple of tries to get used to it, and that everything is found in its logical place.

Oh and there’s a picture of Master Chief intently looking on at a corn cob…

The very latest in Bungie literature has gone up, updating us on the status of the game sought after by overzealous fans - Halo 3.

Apparently, the studio is testing single-player Campaign missions, offering word that they’re testing out new AI and that graphics ranges from “completely untextured placeholder surfaces” to “brilliantly lit and detailed objects”. The prodigious AI is much talked about:

Today, I swear I saw some Grunts do a classic pincer-movement to trap me in a narrow canyon. I was battling um, something bigger than a Grunt, and suddenly, I’m being peppered by a second group of jerks, mostly Grunts, who’d been sent in around my flanks to take me out. Grunts are still grunts though, and once I showed some serious opposition, a couple of them panicked and fled, but they nearly had me and it was quite a shock.

As usual the update contains more action-packed bits, including letters from angry fans who can’t spell properly.

Bungie’s latest Weekly Update talks about Halo 2 for Windows Vista in the same comical manner. Important information is given out (IT’S NOW PLAYABLE IN COLOR! w00t!) and a Sin City version of Master Chief is included…

IMDB’s page for the Halo movie currently lists the upcoming film for release sometime during 2008, delayed from its original summer 2007 schedule. The film, which is being executive produced by Peter Jackson, and whose script was written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later), is yet to gain a director and the rest of the production team.

Bungie has stated that Halo 3 and the Halo movie will not affect each other in terms of release dates. So, don’t sweat it - just wait for a good movie to hit theaters… and the game to hit stores sometime next year.