There has been a lot of Halo 3 speculation going on ever since the Et Tu Brute video (watch it before you watch this) came out. While most of what you read on the forums seems pretty far off, here is some speculation that is actually reasonable from Gamevideos Director Mark MacDonald and 1UP News Editor Luke Smith. Watch it below and listen to Mark and Luke explain how old the footage is, what these new weapons they haven’t ever seen before are and conjecture about a fourth technology (human, Covenant, Brute and …) you may see in Halo 3.

Wired has come out with their new list of the top vaporware for the year. I am willing to bet that you can guess what #1 is. After all, it wouldn’t be a vaporware list without it.

You can read the article here.

Conker: Live and Reloaded is a remake of the classic Nintendo 64 game Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Bad Fur Day came out towards the end of the N64’s life, right about the time Nintendo was starting up the Gamecube hype machine. So it would be understandable if you have never heard of the game. Not learning from their previous mistake, Rare released Live & Reloaded at a similar time in the Xbox’s life when everyone’s attention was on the Xbox 360. So once again it was overlooked by most, which is unfortunate considering that Conker: Live & Reloaded is not only one of the finest platformers ever created, but it is also quite possibly the funniest game ever made.

You play as the entire game as Conker, a small red squirrel with an alcohol addiction. After a night of partying and heavy drinking, he tries to stumble his way home to his girlfriend, but wakes up to find himself lost. He sets off to find his way home, but can’t seem to get anywhere without getting in a bunch of trouble. You won’t believe what happens to him all in the span of one day.

The gameplay is similar to some of the other great platformers like Donkey Kong 64 or Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie. As you would expect, you will be jumping, smashing, shooting, and solving puzzles for all of the games 12 or so hours of gameplay. The game also makes good use of context sensitive action, something the original game was one of the first to do. You basically walk over certain pads and press a button to do any number of certain things. A few of the boss battles make good use of that mechanic, requiring you to use them to win. It seems pretty basic now but when the game came out it was pretty new. The third person shooting action controls great and some of the later stages of the game feel as if you are playing a 3rd person shooter.

There are a few negative things that you could say about the gameplay though. For a good part of the game, your only weapon that you have is a baseball bat. So combat will basically boil down to running up to an opponent, whacking them, and then jumping out of the way to dodge their counter attack. But then again, the game doesn’t focus much on this type of combat. The only people you will be whacking are those that are walking around the environment that are in your way while you are going about your business. The main focus of the game is solving puzzles, jumping around, and boss battles. And when you get to the later portion of the game, you will have weapons and even vehicles which will make this a non-issue. Also, there are one or two sections of the game that are pretty difficult, such as a race over some lava while dodging dinosaurs that will probably take you 5 or so attempts to finish. But overall, these are just minor complaints that should not hinder your enjoyment of the game much.

The world of Conker is great. Instead of feeling like a bunch of separate self contained levels, all of the areas of the game are connected and you can usually pick the order in which you want to do things. The massive graphical upgrade the game got really helps make the world feel alive. The environments are very detailed, and the fur on the characters looks awesome. Conker: Live & Reloaded is easily one of the best looking games on the Xbox. The graphical style of the game is similar to that of Kameo for the Xbox 360 with lots of lush settings and cute characters that cover up some pretty brutal and mature gameplay.

What sets the game apart from other platformers is its great sense of humor. Some of its humor comes in the form of crude jokes, but most of it comes from parody. For example, there are a few sequences in the game that parody movies like The Matrix or Saving Private Ryan. Surprisingly, these sequences are still pretty funny even though those movies came out quite a while ago. Other parts of the game, like the entire sequence when you battle the Mightypoo, are so outrageous and crude that you can’t help but laugh. The dialog in the game is also well written with a lot of humor, but obviously intended for a mature audience.

After you finish the game’s excellent single player campaign, there is a whole new online component that Rare created. The multiplayer games are large scale class based battles with vehicles. Matches pit the Tediz against the Squirrels in a variety of scenarios. If you can imagine a smaller but more action packed Battlefield 2 then you should have a good idea about how it plays. Some of the matches are set to a World War 2 theme where the Squirrels play as the Allies and the Tediz play as the Nazis, while other matches are set in the future. All of them are a blast to play, making the online extremely addicting.

Overall, Conker: Live & Reloaded is an extremely fun game. If you never played the single player game before, Conker will offer some of the best platforming gameplay out there. If you have played the old game before, the updated graphics and the whole new addicting multiplayer component makes the game worth buying over again. Every Xbox (and Xbox 360) owner that enjoys platforming games should check out Conker: Live & Reloaded.

From December 22-31, Bethesda will be allowing people to download Mehrunes’ Razor, originally released in June for 250 Marketplace points ($3.13), for free. But make sure to download it while you still can, the content will go back to its usual price on January 1st. The quest revolves around a powerful mage in search of the Daedric artifact Mehrunes’ Razor. The Razor has the ability to instantly kill enemies, and the mage intends to use it to overthrow the Empire. Players will have to explore the largest dungeon in the game in order to ferret out the mage and claim the Razor as their own. The quest will also add 17 new magic items and a dozen new books, notes, and journals to read.

The new Halo 3 video was released the other day, and I must say it is pretty sweet. If you have not watched it yet, you should give it a look. It is available in standard definition as well as 720p HD on the Xbox Live marketplace, but if you don’t have access to that you can watch it here at the end of the post. There has been a lot of speculation about stuff in the video, and Bungie has answered some of it:

1. Hay guys! What the hell is up with these graphics?

The graphics you see in the Vidoc are a mixture of things. For one thing, they’re months old. We started creating that doc quite a while back. You’ll see some near final models, some rough character rigs, placeholder lighting and a lot of “sandbox” locations. These are basically spaces that the designers, animators and artists place their models to play around with them.

That’s one reason why there are so many scenes of big empty rooms with crates in them. There certainly are some scenes from the game in there, but alas, none properly lit, textured or populated (yet). That’s why we call it a work in progress. If you’re looking for the final look of Halo 3 campaign, it’s not in there, except in the briefest of hints.

2. Four grenades in the HUD! Is that fourth one the Shield Grenade from the TV ad?

No. And like anything you see in the Vidoc, it’s based on early dev work, often months-old. I can tell you that the HUD shown in the Vidoc isn’t like the one in the current build. There may be more or less items in that “grenade” bar now. It may be gone entirely. I’m not saying this to simply distract you from the question, but rather truthfully point out that things can, do and will change. Don’t get too attached to, or too upset by anything you see here. It’s likely that almost every single element shown will look entirely different by the time the game ships.

3. Brutes! Does this mean I will only be fighting Brutes in the next game?

Not at all. The Covenant society has changed since Halo 2 – a civil war between the Elites and the Prophets has caused a deep schism. But Covenant politics are deep and dark and you will fight a wide assortment of villainy. As you saw in the doc, there’s a scene where Grunts are fighting alongside Brutes. Plainly then, the idea that the Covenant has split in cleanly definable ways, is out the window. It’s a religious society and one where passions and faith far outweigh any other consideration. The reason there are so many Brutes in the doc, is that it’s a doc about Brutes…

4. We saw some new weapons! What gives!?

Naturally there will be new weapons in the game. You certainly saw the Brute Spike Rifle being used, and hammers. As for the other snippets in there, you’ll have to wait and see. Put it this way, not everything will be recognizable in the final game.

5. How do I see this if I don’t have an Xbox 360?

If you haven’t found it already, you’re not trying hard enough. Try Gametrailers.com and all those sites. We’ll have a 640×480 version on Bnet tomorrow.

6. What about Brute behaviors? Is what we see what we get?

No. We show very little gameplay interaction with Brutes in this piece. When you fight them, their behaviors change dramatically and strategically. And of course, there’s more than one kind of Brute.