So how would you go about getting your Halo fix if your Xbox 360 has RRoD’ed and is back in warranty repair? Sure you could go play with the dozens of licensed action figures. Or you could even go play with the Laser Tag Halo, but if you’re wanting to stay in out of the heat, you may want to invest in the official Halo board game from Genius Products and B1 Games, coming to stores near you this September.

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If you’re getting pwned in Halo 3, dominated in Mario Kart, feeling blue that there’s no MGS4 for the Xbox 360, or down in the dumps because your 360 Red Ring of Death-ed, then watch this video and sing along.This “I Love The World” video is a parody off Discovery Channel’s “I Love the World” promo, (which even by itself isn’t bad) and it’s even the original soundtrack to which Gamers Prodigy brilliantly matched to game footage.

In the latest study commissioned by RealNetworks’ RealGames division, RealNetworks aims to correlate casual gameplay with improvement of bad habits. Thereby making “casual gaming” good for you. Need to lose weight, quit smoking, quit hitting the potato chips? Play a game it seems.

According to their study, 59% of the survey participants said that casual gaming offer a “positive distraction” from overeating, and 42% said it helps distract them from smoking. Smokers apparently prefer “hidden picture” games to other types, whatever that is. No surprise, either, that the survey results show that taking a little clicky-break to play a casual game helped them relieve stress.

I wonder why console publishers don’t underwrite studies like these periodically, to show the positive impact games in general might have on their audience.

You can read the full study here after the jump.
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Contrary to what you might think, this is not Nvidia’s latest graphics card, this is in fact screenshots from ensemble studio’s latest game-in-progress Halo Wars.

The team over at Ensemble Studios got around to updating their website, adding some screen shots and info on 2 of the units to be featured in the game Halo Wars.

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Previously, we reported about last week’s MLG San Diego unveiling of the remake of Halo: Combat Evolved’s popular “Chill Out” map for Halo 3.

Well, Bungie has graced us with two screenshots of “Cold Storage” with MUCH better quality. One’s above, but the full resolution photos are after the jump.
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San Diego’s famous Comic-Con is only a couple short weeks away! If you’re planning on going, you’d better make your plans and you’d better make it snappy (most days are already sold out you know). But the best part about going? These Halo bobbleheads are for sale!

According to the Bungie weekly update, the famous Halo developer’s presence at Comic-Con 08 will be pretty much non-existant. However, Microsoft reps will be there hyping up the next Halo novel and these super cool Spartan and Master Chief bobbleheads. Bring cash. Lots and lots of cash.

Personally, I’d try for a Cortana bobble… something… but MasterChief Bobbleheads are cool too …

We recently reported on the upcoming sixth Halo novel, Halo: The Cole Protocol. Well, the Cole Protocol will also be published simultaneously with an audiobook. Great news, now you can so you can listen to the next iteration of the Halo story while playing Halo. What a great life we live.

As we said earlier, the book is supposed to focus on some “unexplored conflict” in the Great war against the Covenant, will reveal lots of details about the Spartan Gray Team, and is penned by Crystal Rain author Tobias S. Buckell for a Fall 2008 release.

Full details from the press releaseafter the jump.
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The 6th(wow sixth already??) Halo novel has been announced by Bungie. This latest novel will be called “The Cole Protocol”, and it will center around the story of the mysterious “Spartan Gray Team” as they take “readers into an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War where unlikely alliances are formed and shattered…”.

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Halo is, without a doubt, Microsoft’s biggest and best bread-winner. By a long shot. And even with the Master Chief’s trilogy now complete, you can bet your bottom dollar they’re looking at ways to leverage the brand’s popularity into more money.

The next round for Halo is of course, Halo Wars and the Peter Jackson games, but what else may Microsoft have in store? This excerpt from a marketing survey, completed for a company that was very interested in Xbox 360 gaming, was sent to us by halos-finest’s reader Jarod. But fair warning, if you’re a Halo purist, you may not want to hit the jump.
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So who remembers Chill Out? One of the all-time greatest hits for Halo gamers from the ol’ Halo:Combat Evolved days. Well good news for Chill Out fans is, the cool level is getting a makeover and will be coming to Halo 3 soon.

Bungie debuted “Cold Storage” at Major League Gaming in San Diego over the weekend, to quite the wild applause from the peanut gallery, which watched the first match on the new map.
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