According to G4, that game is Halo 2, built on the old Xbox Live architecture and a game that Microsoft still supports. Wisely supports, that is, as the original Xbox game still regularly sits atop the weekly "Original Xbox Top Live Titles." But it's supposedly the title that's hampering your ability to enjoy a wider circle of e-friends.

G4 cites a "high-level Microsoft source" in discussing Halo 2's effect on the bigger Xbox Live picture, which, while unconfirmed officially, makes a hell of a lot of sense. The kids love the Halo. He's a pretty cool guy.

Not a problem for me, as I only have two Xbox Live friends: Crecente and my mom. She always lets me win.

We've reached out to Microsoft in an attempt to get official confirmation of the limits on Live.

The Real Reason You Can't Have More Than 100 Xbox Live Friends — Halo 2 [G4's The Feed]

Cole used commenters' responses to his post, The Impact of Homophobia in Virtual Communities, to drive discussion among panelists Caryl Shaw (Senior Producer at EA's Maxis), Dan Hewitt (Senior Director of Communications & Industry Affairs for the Entertainment Software Association), Stephen Toulouse (Program Manager for Policy and Enforcement, Xbox Live), Cyn Skyberg (Vice President of Customer Relations at Linden Lab) and Flynn DeMarco (founder of GayGamer.net). Read on to see if you made the cut.

First up was McLuvin's comment about flaunting sexuality. Next was GameBuddy, continuing the discussion. Then came bLaZINcOdE3's comment about the "gay mafia" forcing companies to hold "token meetings." OrigamiNinja's comment about how harassment makes the game less fun made it in, as did Nnooo's about whether or not gamers can expect Mario to save a prince instead of a princess someday. User saulpimpson's comment steered talk toward developers refusing to make games based on gay or gay bashing content. Then DanoruX's tongue-in-cheek "this is so gay," statement got a discussion going on "innocent" slurs. Phydeaux's comment on "play to file" introduced the topic of abuse reporting in online communities. Lastly, ach77 made it in as part of a general statement that gay gamers just want to have fun like every other gamer – and to introduce the founder of gay-centric World of Warcraft guild, The Spreading Taint who happened to be in the audience.

Aside from being shamelessly proud of Kotaku commenters, I was interested to see how Kotaku alumnus DeMarco reacted to comments from his ex-audience. He did almost half the talking at the panel and demonstrated the most gaming expertise. Whenever an issue was raised, DeMarco could name at least two games in response whereas everyone else just fell back on their own games (like Shaw's Spore and Skyberg's Second Life) or defaulted to Halo.

The other big talker was Microsoft's Toulouse, but I think he was being targeted. At the beginning of the panel, Cole presented a video that outlined the issues facing gays and lesbians in online gaming. All of their in-game examples seemed to be from Xbox Live – most specifically, Halo multiplayer. To his credit, Toulouse responded to almost every issue raised by Kotaku comments and admitted that Xbox Live hasn't got it right quite yet – but they're committed to making their community a safe place to game for everybody.

The quietest panelist was Second Life's Skyberg. It takes all types to make a virtual world like Second Life and I know they've had issues that prompted developer Linden Lab to create an adults-only space. Skyberg did pipe up at one or two times to talk about anonymity making it easy for people to use gay slurs in online communities – and made an excellent point that as people invest in their online identities more, this anonymity goes away.

The only dull part of the panel was the Q&A. I'm not sure if it's because the two hour time limit was almost up and everybody wanted lunch, or because the audience was the choir being preached to – but nobody asked anything that hadn't been addressed. One lady asked if the "dehumanizing" aspect of violent games like Halo brought about gay bashing and DeMarco responded that the problem wasn't that the game that engendered homophobia, it was that the audience that the game tended to attract was immature and ignorant of gay issues.

In sum, this is what I took away from the panel: Don't hate the game, hate the player. Or better yet, don't hate anybody.

That near-accuracy may lead some to speculate that the grinding of one's digital undercarriage on the armored cadaver of a fallen foe is product placement. But the inaccuracies and, we assume, the corporate shying away from publicizing virtual ball-dropping online, would make me think this is just a silly reference.

And such a topical one! I guess we can move the trend marker for "Teabagging in Halo" on the downward trajectory of its lifespan, just to the right of the shark fin. Enjoy the brief clip snippet at Hulu.

The Simpsons "Waverly Hills 9021-D'oh" [Hulu - thanks, Sion!]

Murray first joined the team at the tail end of Halo 2's development. He described it as a "big disaster." Everyone who's ever worked in production knows that when morale is through the floor and the ship date's been pushed into the next year, it's usually the producer's fault.

"But," says Murray. "If you have a good crunch, everybody did it. It's a team effort."

This philosophy Bungie has adopted toward production post-Halo has seven main principles:

Ensure Bungie remains creative — Having a little discipline shouldn't ruin the fun-loving atmosphere of the place.
Put quality and people first — Make sure the game you're making doesn't suck and make sure the people working on it don't start to suck.
Know that the producer is flexible and adaptable — Shit happens, people get sick, dates get moved around; Bungie can deal.
Take pride in applying a methodology to production — Schedules and accountability are not totalitarian tools of the Devil.
Know that the schedule is a means to an end, not the end itself — Knowing when and where your milestones is coming up is half the battle; finishing the game is the other half.
Empower and enable the team to take ownership of their schedule — If the art guy says it takes seven days, he should get seven days, not five.
Set dates and ship on time — Amen.

Murray wrapped up his talk by encouraging everyone to apply to work at Bungie, presumably on their hush-hush new project that isn't Halo 4.

Mortal Coils is the first book in a planned five-book series. I'm to understand Nylund did in fact write books before he adapted the Halo series — but this is the author's first original work since he did Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: First Strike and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.

The press blurb on the plot reads like half a dozen different manga I read in high school. Here's a tiny taste of it:

On the eve of their fifteenth birthday, however, everything changes. It begins with hauntingly familiar violin music played by a homeless man who reeks of sardines and sulfur; a victorious confrontation with their bully of a boss; and a visit from two mysterious strangers, one known only as "a Driver" and the other who claims to be their long-lost uncle.

It turns out that Fiona and Eliot are much more than ordinary teenagers. They are the result of a single mistake: Years ago, an immortal goddess…and the infernal Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, fell in love. To protect them from their dangerous heritage, Audrey Post valiantly kept the twins hidden and camouflaged from the entities that have sought them over the years, transforming the divine into the dull.

Not to say anything bad about Nylund's writing (I actually liked Fall of Reach), but I'm betting the "New York Times Bestselling Author" tag he gets to put on Mortal Coils comes more from Master Chief's massive popularity than it does from his writing.

We'll be putting Master Chief's exploits to Crecente's latest hip hop single (as soon as he cuts it, hides it in his brush collection and some very committed Kotaku reader leaks it to Bittorrent).

Halo 2 Cutscene Library [HBO via Xbox360Fanboy]

If Bungie really loved children they'd throw in a steak dinner with Luke Smith.

Signed Halo Mountain Dew Vending Machine! [eBay]

As the box art tells us, Halo 2 plays on Xbox 360, so you really have no reason for it not having a place in your gaming library. Me? I still have plenty of reasons.

No date on this one yet, as we came across it on one of Microsoft's marketing sites. The question: why now? We're asking Microsoft to find out.

He pointed out that Microsoft's promise to focus on the "top selling" original Xbox titles has been, from a corporate standpoint, delivered upon. "For the most part, we've crossed off games that people want to play," he said, adding that "There's always going to be a notable exception here or there."

Penello noted that, outside of Halo 2, internal data points to low numbers of backward compatible games being played on Live, with BC updates "not being downloaded that much anymore."

While some of the more fondly remembered Xbox games, like Otogi and The Chronicles of Riddick, haven't made the list yet, Penello tells us not to hold our breath. "At this point the stuff that's left is work per title, every title now is almost a one-off. Right now we have to think, are we really going to do 300 one-off titles? I know it's not exactly the answer everyone wants to hear, but I feel like it's time."

Watch for more from our interview with Penello later.

A New York man was arrested Friday after allegedly stalking and threatening to rape two Spokane girls he met while playing a Halo game on Xbox Live, KHQ reports.

Joshua R. Stetar was arrested Friday in Spokane, Washington after the man drove 40 hours straight to the city and started texting and driving by the house of the 15-year-old girl and her sister, police said.

Police say Stetar met the girl in 2006 in "Halo" using Live and that he had sent packages and flowers to the parent's home, but they were always returned. He also allegedly text messaged the girl hundreds of times and finally drove to the town.

Around 9:30 p.m. Friday night the suspect sent a text message to the victim saying he was driving by her house at that moment. In the message he even described his vehicle, a Gray Oldsmobile. The girl's parents were outside the home and in fact saw the car driving past.

At 9:36 p.m. the victim received another text message from the suspect saying, "Tell the cops that I'm gonna rape you and your sister."

The suspect had also mentioned that he was staying at a Days Inn in Spokane.

Police ended up picking up the suspect at a nearby Econolodge.

NYC man arrested after traveling to Spokane to stalk girls [KHQ, via Gaming Today]

In its first 24 hours of release in 2004, the second installment of the sci-fi shooter earned $125 million. That number forced many nongamers to take the vidgame biz seriously for the first time.

With "Halo 3," Microsoft's Xbox unit wants not only to top the 2004 figure but to reach $155 million in a single day — besting the $151 million opening weekend for "Spider-Man 3," the current record holder for a pic at the box office.

Officially, of course, the software giant is hedging its bets.

"We did $125 million last time," said Microsoft director of creative marketing Chris Di Cesare, who oversaw much of the second installment's launch. "We're confident we can do better."

Besides having a ton of copies of the game on hand, Microsoft is kicking off the mother of all media campaigns. Lets hope the game lives up the ever-mounting hype.

High 'Halo 3' hopes [Variety]

Sick to death of hearing about everything Halo yet? You'd better get out of this chickenshit outfit now then, buddy, 'cause it's only going to get worse.

Halo History Pack [Xbox Japan]

...it borders on irresponsibility for a public library to sponsor an activity for kids as young as 12 that the industry itself has said is for adults.

You'll find the master Peter Moore tattoo template below. Simply work your image manipulation magic, whether it be in Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, MS Paint (we're sure Pete would be proud) or the software package of your choice and wow us with your pixel pushing talents.

We've already removed the Halo 2 tattoo for you, but it's your job to find a suitable replacement for Bungie's Xbox hit. Hell, if you've got another template you want to work with, that's kosher. All we're looking for are hilarious, totally safe for work tattoo jobs.

The winner of this contest will get something smokin' hot. Send your images to kotakucontest@gmail.com by Friday, July 20th at 9 PM PDT and give it your best 'shop.

As I depart the Big Apple (where I've been reporting from all weekend) I leave you with this list of games coming out this week. Mario Party looks like it might be some fun with the addition of the Wii remote mechanic and I'd like to see how the 2d to 3d Crush is for the PSP. Other than that, I can satisfy myself with finishing up Silent Hill 2 which for some reason I decided to haul out of the mothballs. Anyone going to round out a holiday weekend by picking one or two of these up? Flynn De Marco

• Mario Party 8 (WII) It's the video game that's a board game with mini-games.
• Halo 2 (PC)
  Now with less ass.
• Forza Motorsport 2 (X360)
  The Xbox 360 gets it's dose of Forza racing.
• Shadowrun (X360, PC)
  Magic and guns, 360s and PCs join together for a new multiplayer experience
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (WII)
  Nintendo brings Mortal Kombat to their console marking the beginning of the Wii bloodletting game parade.
• Crush (PSP)
  It's like Super Paper Mario on the PSP just without the paper or the Mario. The super remains to be seen.
• Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)
  A little 2D old school PRG action. I really, really hope this has that silver ball that puts spikes in your brain.
• Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia (X360, PC)
  Fight for control of the suburbs against monster hordes. No, not soccer moms, actual monsters.

As I write this I am listening to the haunting strains of Ancient Machine from the Halo 2 Volume 1 soundtrack on Halo Zune. The Zune, sent my way from Microsoft, is pretty neat looking, and does have a slew of original content, but it's still a Zune. That is to say, while I love the huge screen for video playback and the great all-you-can-eat music service, I'm still ticked that it skips when playing some music back and that Microsoft still hasn't gotten around to adding television and movies to their store.

Hit the jump for the full list of packed in goodies and a gallery of the Zune's case and box. I'd say if you're a huge Halo fan this player is a must, if not, maybe wait for the price to drop. Of course by then, you probably won't be able to find this special edition, which is pretty damn slick looking. I'm curious, what would you have wanted out of a Halo Zune, I mean besides a Master Chief to carry it around for you?Brian Crecente

Music
•Halo Original Soundtrack
•Halo 2 Original Soundtrack, Vol. 1
•Halo 2 Original Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Videos
•Halo 2: Theatrical Trailer, 45 sec
•Halo 3 ViDoc, 7 Min (documentary)
•Halo 3 ViDoc, 7 Min (part 2)
•Halo 3 ViDoc, 7 Min (part 3)
•Halo 3: e3 2006 Announcement Trailer, 2 Min
•Halo 3: Starry Night, 45 sec
•Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles (Parts 1-6)
•Red vs. Blue: Turn On, Tune In, Zune Out (Zune welcome video by RvB characters)

Photos
•Halo Brand Imagery, 4 Photos
•Halo Concept Art, 33 Photos
•Halo Graphic Novel, 13 Photos (Not the entire novel)
•Halo Marketing Concepts by Concept Arts, 45 Photos
•Halo Paintings, 27 Photos
•Halo Storyboards, 10 Photos

It's a mixed bag of titles this week. We have a movie franchise game, a new RPG, the re-emergence of a classic, a comic card game, mechs, a high school sim and even the simple crossword puzzle. Not a whole lot that's of too much interest to me although I kind of want to see the Pirates game just because those character models are stunning. Anything here you'll be picking up? Flynn De Marco

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (X360, PC, PS2, WII, PS3, DS, PSP) Set sail with Capt. Jack Sparrow and grab yourself some booty.
• Halo 2 (PC)
  The long awaited Vista version finally arrives
• Odin Sphere (PS2)
  Take a pretty RPG, throw in a little brawling and you've got Odin sphere.
• Dawn of Mana (PS2)
  The popular Mana series finally gets a follow up.
• Naruto: Ninja Council 3 (DS)
  More Naruto for your DS
• WarTech: Senko no Ronde (X360)
  Major mech madness.
• Brooktown High: Senior Year (PSP)
  Relive the horror of High School all over again.
• Death, Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom (DS)
  La Petite mort.
• Marvel Trading Card Game (DS)
  Think, Marvel:The Gathering.
• The New York Times Crosswords (DS)
  Why wait till Sunday?

Halo 3 - Halo 2 vs. Halo 3 Multiplayer Comparison HD [GameTrailers]

Microsoft cross-promotion at its best! On June 15th, a special Halo 3 Zune music player will be available exclusively at GameStop for US $249.99. The 30GB black device (better than brown!) comes pre-loaded with tons of Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 goodies like vids, music, trailers and artwork for you to stare at on that 3-inch screen. Hit the jump for the details. Yes, the details! Brian Ashcraft

Features: •Special-edition collectible. Fully customized with a "Halo 3" graphic overlay and collectible packaging

•Pre-loaded "Halo" content. Packed with videos, music and artwork from the famed "Halo" franchise, an exclusive new episode of "Red vs. Blue" from the fan-adored machinima creators Rooster Teeth Productions LLC, and more. The content package includes the following:
•Music:
•"Halo: Original Soundtrack" — complete album
•"Halo 2: Original Soundtrack," Volume 1 — all tracks by Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori
•"Halo 2: Original Soundtrack," Volume 2 — complete album
•Videos:
•"Halo 3" "Starry Night" advertisement
•"Halo 3" E3 2006 announcement trailer
•"Halo 2" theatrical teaser trailer
•Three documentary videos on the making of "Halo 3"
•A custom episode of "Red vs. Blue" just for Zune
•The first six episodes of "Red vs. Blue" Season 1
•Artwork. More than 120 images are included, including game concept art, storyboards, paintings, and conceptual marketing imagery.
•Enhanced Xbox 360 experience. Gamers can plug it in and turn it up to enjoy their music, pictures or videos on the go or in the living room. Player can just plug their Zune into any Xbox 360 to enjoy their content on the best screen and speakers in the house. They can also stream music directly from their Zune to create a custom soundtrack for any game.
•30GB digital media player. Gamers get the new "Halo 3" look and the same great Zune features. Users can store up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 pictures or 100 hours of video:3
•Big, bright screen. The 3-inch LCD video screen works in portrait or landscape mode.
•Built-in FM radio. Users can tune in to their favorite local stations.
•Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing. Users can beam select music and pictures to friends wirelessly — device to device.2
•Personalized Zune. Users can create a custom background with their favorite picture or image.
•Zune Marketplace. Users can download songs individually or choose a Zune Pass subscription to get unlimited downloads for a flat monthly fee.
•Zune software. Users can automatically import most music, pictures and videos from iTunes and Microsoft Windows Media Player, including existing playlists and song ratings. Some content is protected by the service from which it was purchased, and cannot be imported.