Ok, so sometime during the night the Multiplayer Madness video leaked onto Youtube. This morning Bungie “officially” released the video onto their Youtube account. What really happened is that the video was on several press release sites and it just so happens that the way the time zones work, Asia gets it first. The video and my thoughts on it are after the jump.

At Microsoft’s X10 media event, the gaming giant will be announcing Bungie’s latest creation open for beta. Coming as soon as May 3rd, owners of the Halo: ODST game discs will be able to access the multi-player beta of Halo: Reach. This comes from a post on Major Nelson’s Blog.

The beta will give these gamers exclusive (as long as you have the discs) access to the former world of Reach. Consider this a prequel you may well do, just remember that it will most certainly be the crowning technological achievement of Bungie.

What’s new? Well Steve Scott, the lead effects artist of Bungie, was recently quoted on Bungie’s homepage as saying, ““If you remember the shield effects in Halo: CE, when you took damage, it would swell and eventually burst. We lost that functionality in Halo 3. In Reach, we’re bringing it back. You can see perturbation around the vertices now. It’s an extrusion of the render mesh.”

How do you get at it you ask? Starting March 3rd, players will find that the “extras” tab on ODST’s main menu is now visible and click-able. So fire on up that disc of yours and get to work testing them for them, mmmK?

The soundtrack for Halo 3: ODST will be available on launch, September 22nd and features the highly original music score.

“I’m happy to be able to share all new compositions and recordings created for Halo 3: ODST,” said composer Martin O’Donnell. “The music reflects the new mood, new heroes, and new story of the game. I worked with the Northwest Sinfonia for the orchestral recordings and also added some nice alto sax solos and some new guitar solos. The piano sneaks back in again a few times too, but I can’t seem to help that.”

Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori worked through Microsoft Gaming Studio’s liscening relationship with Sumthing Else Music Works to create this highly anticipated 2-disc set.  It will be available at select retailers or available for download at Sumthing Digital www.sumthingdigital.com and iTunes®.

Coming in November, an extensive encyclopedia about the Halo world is set to be produces by publisher Dorling Kindersley.  The reference book will include material ranging from Halo: CE all the way to ODST and even includes Halo Wars.  The foreword is by none other than Halo’s own Frank O’Connor and will be preceeded by 352 wonderfully colored pages about warthogs and the like.  With all regard, most will probably buy it for the foreword alone as I suspect a lot of this info is online already.

This Saturday February 28th the Hawty McBloggy community is set to come together to engage in a live podcast event. Officially dubbed Hawty McRadio, this event takes place at 6:30pm GMT or 12:30pm Central. Hosted by yours truly, the podcast is set with an M rating as I am planning on letting everyone swear and for the fact that one of the slated topics is the Left 4 Dead porn parody. Other than that I hope for it to be a fun time for this Halo community to get together and bring a voice to all our opinions and loves.

See all upcoming shows here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hawtymcradio