Bungie

if you were sternly hoping that John 117 might make some kind of cameo, those hopes have now been officially quashed by Bungie's Brian Jarrard. Speaking to Multiplayer, Jarrard stated the totally obvious, "Master Chief, at the time this game takes place, is actually off on other parts of the galaxy." Jarrard elaborated, "In this game, it's all about you playing the role of an ODST," adding, "The way the timelines work in this game, Master Chief is off doing something else."

Given that Halo 3: ODST takes place directly after the Prophet of Regret bugs out of New Mombasa, it's not too surprising to learn that Master Chief won't be appearing in the game. See, everyone knows that the UNSC In Amber Clad -- carrying Master Chief -- jumped into the same slipspace rupture used by Regret. Duh.So there you have it, the only place to find Master Chief while playing ODST is where he can always be found: Our hearts.

Even though it’s a side-story, I was still kind of expecting that ol’ MC might show up in this adventure. I mean, Gordon Freeman was in all of those “Half-Life” spin-offs, right? Unfortunately Bungie’s Brian Jarrard was quick to shut down any chance that he’ll be making an appearance. I guess we’ll have to wait until Halo: Reach, which may give us a glimpse at a younger, more marketable Chief.

Xbox Live

Xbox Live is Zune Video NOT Zune Marketplace. Music is not part of the Xbox Live offering. Zune, Microsoft's 'end-to-end music and entertainment service' is coming to Xbox Live. Later today the mega-corp will officially announce its plans, which - although intriguing - are substantially less radical than the Zune mobile phone and/or Zune portable games player imagined by internet rumour-mongers over the weekend.

Up until now, the portable media player and its online iTunes Store equivalent, Zune Marketplace, have only been available in the US. From early Autumn, however, a revised service, Zune Video, will be available on Xbox Live in the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Spain (with more countries coming aboard later). Xbox 360 owners in these territories will be able to go online and access video content and play it via their console.

The finer details have not yet been announced, but the basics were revealed to me by Chris Stephenson, Microsoft's General Manager of Consumer Marketing for TV, Video and Music Business. As with the current Zune set-up in the States, it looks like Xbox Live owners will be offered a subscription service, allowing them to download content from the Zune Video catalogue.