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To end a successful beta program on a good note, Microsoft announced today that Halo 3 will be released on September 25. Along with the final installment of the epic trilogy, Microsoft will release limited edition 360 controllers sporting some gorgeous designs.

Over 820,000 unique players logged in to play the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, racking up more than 1400 years worth of gameplay. That sounds like a success to me.

We all knew it was coming. Now it's finally official. Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 Elite, formally know as the Zephyr, will be available in the US on April 29 for $479. The new version of the console will sport a sleek black finish, a larger 120GB hard drive, and HDMI output capabilities.

The larger hard drive will allow you to store more media from the Xbox Live Marketplace on the console and you'll finally get up to 1080p of HD output with the HDMI support.

It should be interesting to see how well the Elite will do against the 60GB version of the PS3.

I am brutally aware of how long it has been since I have posted an update. I've been busy with school, work, and generally kicking ass at life. My apologies. However, I'd like to wish my loyal readers a very happy St. Patrick's Day. I expect to read some very entertaining stories on Sunday, so post comments and keep talking in the forums.

In the spirit of the holiday, 2K Sports released a code to unlock St. Patrick's Day uniforms for the Knicks, Bulls, and Celtics in NBA 2K7. Enter "tpk7sgn" in the cheat menu to activate the uniforms. Surprise! They're green.

The Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars Demo is now available for download. It includes a training mission, two single player missions, and a skirmish map.

Opposable Thumbs has already posted a first impression of the demo.

The most noticeable element of the game is the gorgeous presentation. Built on top of the Battle for Middle-Earth II engine, the extreme refinement of the graphical presentation throughout the demo is impressive.

The gameplay itself is as solid as ever, and it appears that there have been many different tweaks for the sake of balance. As is the tradition with RTS games, a more extensive play time is likely to reveal small little details that stand out as either fantastic or flawed.

Leave comments if you try it out. Does it live up to its predecessors?

Even before the game hit shelves, the senior designer on Crackdown told Computer and Video Games that he'd like to work on a sequel. During an interview in the latest issue of CVG, Stephen Iannett mentioned some ideas for Crackdown 2.

We've learnt some lessons and if we did do Crackdown 2... I'd love to see it happen.

I think again it comes to how you can really choose how you approach the missions, and I'd really like to turn the contrast up on that. I'd really like to look at giving the players so many options at how they can do it.

[Realtime Worlds ponders Crackdown 2 @ CVG]

Several news outlets are reporting the NDP sales figures for January. Wii took first place by a considerable margin with 436,000 units sold. Xbox 360 came in second with 294,000 sold. PS3 came in third with 244,000 sold. The figures have not yet been verified by NDP.

Besides selling more consoles than anyone else, Nintendo is also continuing to enjoy remarkable sales performance with DS, which sold 239,000 units last month.

Microsoft aims to increase their cumulative sales to 12 million by the end of June.

[January: Wii Triumphs; 360 Up; PS3rd @ Next Generation]

Here's the new TV spot for Crackdown. It looks like it was inspired by Scared Straight.

Bungie's weekly update included this Halo 3 teaser image, which contains an interesting piece of information. Aside from being visually stunning, the teaser image includes the words "Fall 2007", officially defining a more specific launch window.

The teaser is available as a desktop wallpaper in four different sizes.

• 1024×768
• 1280×768
• 1280×1024
• 1600×1200

Xboxic realized that fall is going to be a great time of year for Xbox 360 gamers. Several quality like Half-Life 2 and GTA IV will be released for the console. Halo 3 just tops it off.

The weekly update also reveals the multiplayer controller layout. Hit the jump for the whole thing.

If you're without a Halo 3 Beta invite, you're not alone. Although it may seem like everyone you know got one, including your grandma, thousands of loyal Halo fans are feeling your pain (including me). Remember, you can still give in to that shameless Crackdown sales scheme, which may not be a bad idea given my first impression of the demo.

Regardless of your ability to participate, you'll still be interested to know that Bungie has posted an FAQ that includes some scrapes of information regarding the program. Still no information about when the beta will begin or how long it will last, but Bungie did say that the function of the mysterious "X" button will be revealed. Bungie admits "it won't be all that surprising. Just cool."

In the persuit of democracy among gamers, Nintendo launched the Everybody Votes Channel, which collects the opinions of online Wii owners. Through the use of the Mii system, the channel allows up to six people in each household to vote in polls that fall into a variety of categories. The channel takes the results and allows you to see how your opinions compare to those of other people in your household, country, and around the world.

Bungie is doing you a favor by designating an "A-hole" button, which allows you to mute annoying players quickly. The feature was implemented perfectly by Valve games like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, but Xbox Live gamers have had to put up with whining jackasses unless they wanted to take the time to mute them using the guide.

So now, you simply press a button (back button, for the moment anyway) and up comes the score list with everyone’s tag on it. The right stick lets you highlight the miscreant and you can then instantly mute them for the rest of the game.

[Bungie Weekly Update @ Bungie.net]

Activision CEO Mike Griffith confirmed Guitar Hero for the Wii during a conference call according to GameSpot. A DS version may also be in the works. One or both versions could be release anytime between April 2007 and March 2008.

The details are very scarce and this no information about the controller configuration. Will you pick up the Xbox 360 version or tough it out and wait for the Wii version?

The Mii system's ability to capture an individual's likeness is impressive, and eerie. Dwight and Ryan are my favorite, but where's Micheal Scott!?

[UPDATE: I found the talented Mii artist. He has most of the characters on his Flickr including Micheal.]

[The Office, as depicted by Miis @ You NEWB]

Microsoft and Old Spice have teamed up to reward gamers with games, t-shirts, downloads, and more for unlocking achievements. The Old Spice Experience Challenge gives you sixty days to increase your gamerscore by 1500 points. Registration begins on February 12.

Here are the prize packages:

• Level 1 (Gamers who have an annual gamerscore between 0-4,999 at time of entry): Game Picture, Dashboard theme, Contra for Xbox LIVE Arcade
• Level 2 (5,000-9,999 annual gamerscore): Level 1 Package, 100 Microsoft Points and a contest T-shirt
• Level 3 (10,000+ annual gamerscore): Level 1 Package, 200 Microsoft Points, contest T-shirt and Fusion Frenzy 2

If you finished Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter wanting more, it looks like you'll get it, but not much else. Eurogamer's first impression of GRAW 2 is "spookily familiar."

The sequel's story, which picks up just 24 hours after the first one ended, will still follow Captain Scott Michell as he works to bring the same violent Mexican rebellion to an end. Only this time, the rebels have made their way into the United States.