So I (and apparently a few million other people) picked up my copy of Halo 3 on Tuesday (about 11am if you must know). I beat the campaign last, and although it does start off a little slow I can say that it is by far the best Halo of the three.

Something has surprised me more than the twists and turns of the plot though, and that is Bungie’s Halo 3 website. It is a whole new level of game and interweb integration. Dare I say it, it is almost a social network.

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Recently when I was browsing some movies on Netflix, one of the movies I was rating had at warning that said “NOTICE: This DVD is not compatible with some DVD players. See details.” The details revealed that “Certain movies released by Sony Pictures (listed below) were encoded with a version of the ARccOS copy-protection software that made the DVDs incompatible with certain DVD players.” Sony has been employing a form of DVD mangling copy-protection call ARccOS on films released by Sony Pictures for some time now. It is one of the reasons many of their DVDs will not play on computers and apparently certain DVD players. Here is the list via Netflix of DVD players that can’t play Sony/ARccoS DVDs (emphasis added):

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This is the second installment for my series on video rental options that work with Xbox 360 (or set top boxes in general). Vongo recently announced support for the Xbox 360, and with a 14-day free trial I thought I ‘d try it out.

Vongo is a download video service owned by Starz Entertainment that can best be described as a video subscription service similar to Netflix meets CinemaNow. For $9.99/month you get all the movies you can download from their current selection of movies. While the selection of movies (2,500 titles) isn’t as large as Amazon’s Unbox, there are more current mainstream movies (The Queen, Stranger than Fiction, Bridge to Terabithia, etc) than can be found on Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service.

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Purdue University announced this morning that they received 47 new settlement letters from the Recording Industry Mafia Association of America.

Purdue spokesperson Jeanne Norberg said: “As an Internet service provider, Purdue will forward these letters when the user can be accurately identified.” “Purdue will not voluntarily provide names to the RIAA. However, should those notified choose not to pay the settlement, the RIAA may obtain court-ordered subpoenas to obtain the individuals’ names.”

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As the countdown for Halo 3 nears an end I thought I’d post some deals I’d come across recently.

Sam’s Club, Costco, and Family Video all have the standard version for $50. Family Video even has a $5 off coupon code (NEWPGMEM) and $.99 shipping. The rest of the versions are between $10-$15 off the normal price.

BTW, if you really have to have a life-sized Master Chief helmet the Legendary version, it looks like you should order your copy ASAP.