As predicted, we lost the first ever Kotaku versus Gizmodo Halo 3 challenge last night, 4 to 2.

While the games were close, we should have had a clear, spotless victory since Kotaku alum and Bungie superstar Luke Smith was on our team. I blame, besides our general suckatude, the fact that we never played as a team prior to last night while Giz made the right decision to train as a unit nightly leading up to the event.

Hit the jump for the full report.

Game One
Team Slayer on Guardian
Score: 50:40
Kotaku Win

As you can see we died an awful lot in that first game. Sure we managed to pull out a 10 kill-spread victory, but the lots of dying was a sign of things to come.

Game Two
Team Slayer on Construct
Score: 50:42
Gizmodo Win

In this second game we managed to have the tables completely turned on us, losing by a 10 kill-spread. I will point out that I am the only one (LUKE) who didn't have a negative kill/death spread.

Game Three
Team Slayer on Snowbound
Score: 50:49
Gizmodo Win

This loss was, for me, devastating. Mark and I had practiced quite a bit on the map and had come to the conclusion that getting ahead early and then holding the ridge was the way to win. But come game time, the entire team ran for the caves. Still it was a very close game.

Game Four
Team Slayer on Epitaph
Score: 50:44
Gizmodo Win

We should have talked the map choices through more ahead of time, because Mark, Mike and I had almost never played on this map, and it showed.

Game Five
Team Slayer on The Pit
Score: 50:39
Kotaku Win

This is one of my favorite maps, it also happens to be the one that Mike, Mark and I practiced most together on. While we won the match, by quite a spread. I still wasn't happy at all with how I did, getting killed a full dozen times and only killing eight.

Game Six
Team Slayer on High Ground
Score: 50:48
Gizmodo Win

This last match was a real nail-biter. We were trailing by quite a bit and then managed to come back strong, but not strong enough. In the final minutes of this final match we got within two of a win, but then Luke got popped by Team Gizmodo, while Fahey and I cowered in the garage trying not to get in the way.

By: Brian Crecente

For 1Up's Luke Smith game journalism started and ended with Halo.

It was the summer of 2005 when Broken Halo: Five ways Bungie can fix Halo 2 put Luke on the map and squarely in the pay of Kotaku. The 1Up feature story by Luke explained, in detail, how Bungie could fix Halo 2.

One and a half years and two jobs later, Luke Smith is abandoning the profession to go work for the people the game he once so thoroughly disparaged.

His departure could be seen as a sign of a distressed profession, an outcome that is more the growing pains of game journalism then the product of Luke's own longterm goals.

Luke eased into game journalism when he was still in college working toward his English Literature degree. It started as a gig at the college paper writing about music and art. Occasionally he wrote about gaming.

After graduating, Luke went on to work for a weekly in Dearborn, Michigan, then for a Detroit weekly and finally for Kotaku.

While Kotaku wasn't Luke's first game writing gig, he says it was where he started to come into his own.

"It was a pretty bizarre and cool part of my gaming life," Luke said in a recent interview. "I was living in this nightmare of an apartment with this couple who just fucked and fucked nightly. I tried to stay in my room, eat microwave food, play WoW and write for Kotaku."

Luke came to Kotaku straight from the hands of game writing guru Clive Thompson.

"Clive and I had this long public dispute about narrative versus ludic elements of play and we talked about it on his blog a lot," he said. "Then I saw he had an AIM and I started to AIM him. Clive and I became friends and we would bounce ideas off of each other for stories we were working on. Him for Slate and me for real Detroit Weekly."

When Kotaku started expanding past just one writer (that'd be me) to more, Thompson suggested Luke and we hired him up.

"Kotaku was where I totally got my chops," Smith said in a recent interview, "Citing the sources, being accountable."

But Luke didn't stay long, leaving after a short stay to run the news section for 1Up.

"I left Kotaku for a couple of reasons, nothing about the work climate or the volume," he said. "At the time stories (on Kotaku) were unsigned. Kotaku was like the Brian Crecente vision. If I posted something or Ash did people thought you did. Also, there was no health insurance, it was just full-time freelance."

Luke took over the 1Up news section, modeling it initially after when he did at Kotaku and then adding his own take on blogging. He also became part of the 1Up Yours show and with his addition the show seemed to take off.

But as the year passed by, Luke became increasingly disheartened with the state of game journalism and the ethics at play in the burgeoning beat.

"Video game journalism is just weird," he said. "You have guys married to women in marketing for the games they cover. Video game journalism is still very young, very early, still trying to find out what it is."

"I was getting increasingly frustrated."

And it was then that Bungie contacted Luke about coming to work for them. As soon as he sent the company his resume, he said, he stopped writing about Bungie and Microsoft to avoid any potential conflicts. About a month later Luke accepted the job at the company.

The reaction to Luke's decision to jump from covering the game industry to working for it was met with mixed reaction. There were those happy or sad to see Luke go and others who felt he had sold out. Luke says he has taken it with a grain, perhaps a bag, of salt.

The reaction, he says, is in many ways justified, but it misses the point. The reason he left, not where he is going.

"It's one of these professions where you have people working tons of hours, more than they should be," he said. "There comes a point when the rewards don't align for people and when that happens they leave."

Luke's last day at 1Up was Friday, he starts in his new career on May 7, but doing what?

"I'm no longer going to be in journalism," he said.

Instead Luke hopes he will be doing something that he thinks will bridge the gap between journalism and PR, something that cuts out the middle man and gets the information straight to the gamers.

"You see these developers who can bridge the gap between fans and the development community," he said. "I think there is a really rich opportunity for someone to come in and tell the stories that people want to know. I think there is a very interesting potential shift about how people are going to cover and get information about games.

"Right now you have four bridges between developer and reader: Developer to pr, to journalist to reader. This could get rid of those middle two bridges."

While I think that Luke is in many ways right about the future of gaming, I see it as more of a negative than a positive. With this increase in direct to consumer spin-control, journalists are even more necessary than they once were in this industry.

And Luke agrees.

"I think absolutely there is still a need for journalism, it has to find out how it's going to operate, function."

Now that Luke is on the other side of the thin green (why not) line, maybe he can try and shake things up from the inside out.

If not expect a feature in the near future: Broken Luke.

Luke will bring his podcasting and Halo 2 skills to Bungie to contribute in a role that is still largely unspecified. However, at the end of this week's Bungie Weekly Update, community manager Frank O'Connor writes "And SPEAKING of podcasts, something will happen VERY shortly that might make the next official Bungie podcast that much better and that much sooner."

Gee, what could it be? We look forward to hearing more from Luke. I, personally, will miss his presence at 1UP and his assortment of sweaters showcased at industry events. Michael McWhertor

1UP Yours Podcast [1UP]

Friday's 1Up Show contained a bit of a shock for the show's many fans. As the show was ending, News Editor and Kotaku alumnus Luke Smith announced that he would be leaving Ziff Davis and April 27th would be his last day. Although the end of the show seems like something out of an episode of The Office, you can rest assured that this is not a gag. There are currently no details as to why he's leaving or where he's going, but the subject of his departure will purportedly be discussed on next week's 1Up Yours podcast. Until then, we can only speculate although Luke did leave a message in the NeoGAF forums.

I haven't: been fired; asked to resign; left 1UP for a competitor; been temporarily relieved of duty; decided to take a sabbatical. Thanks for the well wishes

Whatever the reason, we wish good luck to you, Luke, wherever you may land. Flynn De Marco

But while the Xbox 360 bested the PS3 at retailers by a solid 100,000 units last month, don't think that Sony's out of the game. 1UP's Luke Smith contends that, in the proper perspective, sales of the PLAYSTATION 3 really aren't that bad. In fact, they're better than Microsoft's numbers during the same time period last year.

Obviously, there are many other facts to consider, such as the limited supply of Xbox 360s during that period and the $200 price difference between the next-gen consoles, but Luke addresses all that. Its a fascinating look at how Sony and the PS3 may not actually be DOOMED! Michael McWhertor

Why February's NPD Numbers Don't Condemn Sony [1UP]

There was some debate yesterday on Three Speech about whether or not Sony has any comment on the current "solid" rumors by Luke Smith from 1UP and CVG regarding Killzone being shown at GDC next month, possibly with a playable demo. The response is:

"No, Killzone won't be at GDC at all," stated SCEA Manager, Ryan Bowling, in a conversation with IGN held yesterday afternoon. "The time for that game is coming and we'll have new information about it in the future, but not at GDC."

Does that still leave room for it to be shown at a private event during, before or right after GDC? I suppose. It's hard to tell if this is about semantics or corrections. Brian Crecente

KILLZONE WILL NOT BE SHOWN AT GDC NEXT MONTH [Three Speech]

Well, as Mr. Smith hinted at weeks ago, the new 512 MB memory card for the 360 is priced and dated over at Gamestop.

According to the retailer, the unit ships out March 1 for $49.99. That's ten bucks more than the currently available 64 MB version or half the price of a 20 GB hard drive attachment. Michael McWhertor

Microsoft Xbox 360 Memory Card 512 MB [Gamestop - thanks, Jay!]

1UP's resident Virtua Fighter freak James Mielke has an updated preview of the upcoming PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 game Virtua Fighter 5 in which he reveals some interesting new info about the game. Included in the game's Quest Mode are custom characters inspired by and (very) loosely based on the Ziff-Davis editors. These include, but not limited to, Mielke himself (in the sleek Milky Pai) and news hound Luke Smith (Luke S. is a shades sportin' Shun Di). Very cool.

Less cool is the lack of character transfers from one machine to another. I can't, for example, deck out my customized Eileen with hand-picked accessories, a unique hairstyle and outfit, then pit her against your custom Sarah. What a bummer.

The worse news from the Virtua Fighter 5 front is that Sega has no plans (as expected) to give their fighter the proper treatment by bringing over the Virtua Stick High Grade announced back in December. Looks like you'll definitely have to import or settle for a Hori stick.

The game hits the PS3 in February, with the 360 version coming in summer. Put those arcade stick orders in ASAP! Michael McWhertor

Previews: Virtua Fighter 5 [1UP]

Former Kotaku-er, current 1Up-er, Luke Smith has a bang-up interview with game designer David Jaffe. The God of War creator has loads (and we mean LOADS) to say about the future of gaming. Jaffe states:

As a gamer, I kind of miss the 'you can only get it on this system.' There's kind of an excitement that was about that back up until recently. With this new hardware, though, that idea is seems to be going away. Is it really all going to come down to first party now? Or it ultimately going to come to one system? 'Cause 10 years from now there's going to be one system because there's so much more third party software than first party software from any hardware manufacturer. It may not be feasible to make it the war of the first party or the war of the exclusives.

A very open, insightful interview. I mean, Jaffe not only says the PS3 is "expensive," but calls Luke Smith's question "smarmy"! Fireworks ensue. Brian Ashcraft

Smith vs. Jaffe [1Up]

Over at 1Up, their intense Halo 3 coverage is getting underway. Luke Smith gets the ball rolling declaring his undying affection for things Master Chief:

I like the Metal Gear games, I think Zelda games are consistently excellent, but there's something about Halo (for me) that's just different. Maybe it was the first shooter I played that had some substance? Maybe it was that my best friend bought me a copy of the game for my birthday and I didn't even have the console yet. Maybe it was all of the traveling to play in Halo tournaments on weekends in college, but somewhere between Halo: Combat Evolved's release and now, Halo became my Mario. It is the game that made me care about video games like I did when I was 10.

And this is coming from a dude who pretty much hates everything! Brian Ashcraft

Luke Loves Halo, Hates the Rest [1Up]

Oh, we're tempted to link this episode of Broken Pixels, 1UP's "Three drunk guys and a crappy game" humor show. It does, after all, have Kotaku's own grumpy, disheveled, eunuch-voiced Luke Smith, dead-center. And I love Luke, as one night under the surreal stars of Leipzig will attest.

But as much as wrapping Luke Smith around yourself is like sleeping next to passion's fire wrapped in a gigantic shaved bear skin, we have to be honest: Seanbaby's first appearance is better. He's playing Bible Adventures, a game the crappiness of which he's gotten pretty acceptable mileage out of in his career.

I dunno, it makes me sad — I wish the Kotaku editors weren't, on average, 3,000 miles apart. We're only drunk gamers in transcontinental sympathy. Florian Eckhardt

It looks like the Halo graphics novel is just the beginning of the Halo comic franchise. 1Up's Luke Smith reports that Bungie and Marvel announced at the San Diego Comic-Con that they will be collaborating on a monthly Halo comic book.

Smith goes on to impress the Interweb with his mad comic nerd skillz by showing how the Bungie/Marvel deal is like the deal struck for the GI Joe franchise and how both deals include a "silent" issue. Brian Crecente

Marvel Annoucnes 'Halo Ongoing [1Up]

Last year I had about 100 sites in my aggregator, I have no clue how many are packed in there now, but reading through them takes up a good part of my day.

My very favorite sites end up being the places I go to steal talent to put to work rowing the SS Kotaku. 1Up blogs (Luke), Wonderland (Alice) and GeekOnStun (Mike) all fell victim to that trap and while some of those writers have moved on to brighter futures, I still love their sites.

Blues News: I've been reading this site since before I was writing about games. I'm a HUGE Blue fan. He doesn't know it, but he's like family.

BBC News Technology: This little British RSS feed is often filled with tech news, but occasionally they bust out with some interesting gaming news.

British Gaming Blog: I'm not sure when this site snuck onto my aggregator, but I can always depend on finding something I hadn't heard of here.

Collision Detection: As Luke points out, Clive Thompson is the man. From his musings on neolithic Britons to Plasma Ping Pong and Lester Bangs, this is the place to go for equal parts intellectual stimulation and gaming education.

Dean and Nooch on Gaming: The San Jose Mercury News duo cover all things tech and gaming. I'm astounded that the paper still doesn't support the two's blogging efforts. That's right, they do it in there "free time."

Digg: I don't really read this for story ideas as much as to track the interest in topics. It's sort of my gaming buzz stock market and like a billion times better than del.icio.us.

Gamerscore Blog: Corporate blogs should be taken with a grain of salt, but that doesn't mean you should pump them for information. This one's run by Msoft marketing guru John Porcaro.

Gamesblog: The Guardian Unlimited's blog on gaming includes stories by Keith Stuart, Aleks Krotoski (seriously, we really do know she's not a guy.) and Greg Howson and is a definite must read.

Gamespot: It might be trite to say that you should read Gamespot's news coverage, but that doesn't make it any less true. I love their Rumor Control.

Impress Game Watch: I may not be able to read Japanese, but I can still look at the pretty pictures and then quickly IM Ashcraft and ask him WTF they're talking about. He loves it when I do that.

Major Nelson: He might have some sort of job over at Microsoft that involves Xbox Live and management, but all we really care about is his obsessive posts about the Marketplace.

NeoGaf: The best gaming forums on the planet. Chockfull of hatred, self-loathing and a surprising amount of news and juicy tidbits.

Penny Arcade: Who doesn't love these guys. If video game journalism were a Shakespearean play, they would be the clowns. (Kotaku would be the homicidal, naval-staring stepson.)

Terra Nova: The original virtual worlds think tank.

The New York Times: They may publish far too few game-related stories, but when they do they're pure gold.

Video Game Media Watch: Balanced on the precipice of full-time freelancing, Kyle Orland is likely about to turbo charge his game journalism site.

Voodoo Extreme: Fast, fun, opinionated read on all things PC.

Water Cooler Games: Ian Bogost is probably one of the few gaming academics, developers and bloggers around. Go read his stuff on serious gaming.

This is just a sampling of the excellent sites I read daily and I try to add sites to the list as often as possible. Of course I also spend a huge chunk of the day talking to PR people, sources, moles, weasels and other assorted rodents. What are some of your favorites? Sites, not rodents. Brian Crecente

Namecheck: Do People Still Read? [1Up]

Kotaku graduate and big-headed leader of the 1Up news crew Luke Smith just gave Square-Enix a public dressing down for an absurd email the publisher sent out to some game writers reminding them what not to cover.

In the email, the company points out that they have released Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria in Japan, but not yet in North America and proceeds to outline all of the stuff publications should not write about the game.

The list includes spoilers, movies, music, and entire sections of the game until specific dates. For instance, we're not supposed to even mention, say, the Sukavia Gorge or Royal Underground Path until after July 21 and, under penalty of death we should never ever say anything about Bifrost, Yggdrasil or Hall of Valhalla until after Aug. 4.

You know Square, there's a name for this kind of tactically outlined, well-timed release of information, it's called an advertisement, so go and buy one and get your nose out of legitimate game coverage.

Thanks to Luke for uncovering this bit of publisher crap, and when you get fired know there is always a warm spot for you back at U of Kotaku. Brian Crecente

Dear PR, You Cannot Embargo Public Knowledge [1Up]