Install Halo 3 to the HD! Yeah.. Don’t.

Bungie engineers have said that installing Halo 3 to the harddrive using the New Xbox Experience will actually result in less than optimal play. While installing games can usually result in (slightly) faster load times and a quiet disc drive, a post on the Bungie forums (reported by Joystiq) by engineer Mat Noguchi explains that installing will actually make the game load slower. When the game was being produced, it was designed to take advantage of the HDD in a specific way. "If a HDD is present, we copy maps from the DVD to the utility partition on the HDD," he says. "Even if Halo 3 is already installed on the HDD, it will still copy maps to the utility partition." The problem comes because copying from the harddrive to the harddrive is much slower, because the device can’t read and write simultaneously.
A patch may be possible to adjust the way Halo 3 copies data, but Noguchi notes that Bungie shipped Halo 3 before Microsoft finalized the feature, and it would be a "significant undertaking to try and retroactively patch Halo 3." He simply says the risks and resources required would have to be measured against a fairly insignificant benefit to the player — quite simply, this is a polite "no dice." The easy solution is not to install Halo 3 to your harddrive, and to delete it if you already have. It’s probably a safe bet, though, that Halo 3: Recon won’t be copying data in the same way.

[Source: 1 UP]

What if Nintendo make Halo 3?

First I must point out how freaking annoying it is that WordPress.com doesn’t allow object tags in their posts.. so you need to link any video that isn’t on youtube.

(grrr)

Anyway.. here’s a lower quality YouTube of the video…

Halo 3 Book bag

halo3-messenger-bags.jpgIf you’re a big fan of the Halo video game series, here’s a messenger bag to carry your notebook around. You won’t be able to stuff in notebooks that are more than 15″ in size though, so those with souped up muscle rigs (measuring 17″ in size normally) will have to find another mode of transport. In addition to the notebook, this Halo 3 Messenger Bag can still fit in around two text books and some gadgets. Choose from khaki or gray colors. Each Halo 3 Messenger Bag retails for $39.99 from Thinkgeek.

Source: Slashgear