Following the news that Halo developer 343 Industries was caught up in the recent round of cuts at Microsoft came a rumor that Halo Infinite campaign DLCs were being cancelled and another rumor that 343 was ceasing direct development and would oversee external development of future content for the sci-fi shooter series. Now a tweet from 343 studio head Pierre Hintze addresses the speculation. This does not address whether campaign DLC is still expected, but it does state that 343 is continuing on as the developer on the Halo series:

Halo and Master Chief are here to stay.

343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great.

Pierre Hintze
Studio Head

Valve offers its regularly scheduled rundown of the bestsellers on Steam for the previous week. Here are the best performers for the seven-day period that ended yesterday:

1. Steam Deck.
2. Pre-purchase Hogwarts Legacy.
3. Save 50% on Cyberpunk 2077.
4. Save 67% on Red Dead Redemption 2.
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
6. ELDEN RING.
7. Grand Theft Auto V.
8. Save 50% on Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.
9. Persona 3 Portable.
10. Save 67% on Red Dead Redemption 2.

• The first two hours of Dead Space Remake have been leaked online.
• Redfall Price in EU Leaks and It Doesn't Come Cheap.

• Dead Space Remake is so terrifying even the dev team struggles to play it.

• Hunt: Showdown -- Fear the Reaper DLC - 50% OFF.
• Save 85% on Foregone on Steam.
• Save 30% on A Plague Tale: Requiem on Steam.
• Save 70% on Muse Dash on Steam.

Unofficial games, patches, and mods.

• New Red Dead Redemption 2 Mods overhaul the textures of medium & large mammals.

• Overwatch 2 players are mistakenly blaming Mercy for its balance problems. Mercy not actually one of the developers.

Content creator videos.Thanks Ant.

• Top 10 Most Underrated Video Games Of All Time.
• (620) Exploiting your follower to carry loot #shorts - Viva La Dirt League.
• 10 Video Games You Shouldn't Have Played At Launch. Thanks RedEye9.
• The 8-Bit Big Band LIVE at MAGFest -FULL SET- Music and Gaming Festival - Jan 6th 2023.
• Castle Sol is EASY - Elden Ring #36 - Carbot.

• GTA Online gives players free and easy money in Lunar New Year event.
• Armored Core 6 set for hour-long FromSoftware presentation next month.

• Steam Deck Is Reaching Its Limits in Games Like Plague Tale- Requiem.
• iPhone 15 will have a beautiful, Android-like design, leaker implies.

• Twitter is working on an ad-free subscription tier.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• DirectX 12 vs. DirectX 11: which is better for PC gaming?
• TSMC is making the best of a bad geopolitical situation.
• This Top-Secret Prototype Display Is Truly Groundbreaking.
• Latest Metal Benchmarks Suggest M2 Max is About 9 Percent Slower Than M1 Ultra.
• Samsung refusing to acknowledge and replace 990 Pro SSD with rapid health drops.
• The Official Microsoft Blog: Focusing on our short- and long-term opportunity.
• Unreal Engine 5.1 Dune Desert Landscape Demo released, pushes NVIDIA RTX 4090 to its limits. Thanks Max.
• Windows Doesn’t Suck! Microsoft Just Wants You To Think So… - Linus Tech Tips (video). Thanks RedEye9.
• GPU Cooler Tested With Ketchup, Potatoes, and Cheese as Thermal Paste. No bacon? No sale!

• GTAOnline PC High Alert⚠️ New extreme exploits have appeared allowing cheaters to remotely add-remove-modify your stats and permanently corrupt your account aka ban/delete. Thanks Reddit.
• ICC loses around $2.5 million in phishing scam, US agencies involved in probe. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.

• Madison Square Garden's facial recognition policy ignites debate over the tech. Thanks RedEye9.

• Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G3 AMD- Currently probably the best ThinkPad laptop - NotebookCheck.net News. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• RAM: Crucial 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5-4800 Memory Kit - Mad Shrimps.
• Smartwatch: Coros Apex 2 Pro Review- For Practical Outdoors People - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).

Happy Lunar New Year, as today kicks off celebrations that will last until the beginning of February. With the year of the Water Tiger in the rearview, we are now in the year of the Rabbit. Specifically, the Water Rabbit. which reportedly "is said to have the ability to turn unfortunate events around, despite their upbringing." Sounds like just what the world needs, huh? Of course I'm sure it will be a couple of weeks before I remember to stop writing Year of the Tiger on my checks.

Traditional Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Brunch Link

• The Expanse Returns in April For "Season Seven", Dragon Tooth.

Stories

• Hidden, never-before-seen penguin colony spotted from space.
• Full List of Regal Movie Theaters Closing Amid Bankruptcy.
• The Calif. park workers embedded deep in remote Sierra for months. Don't need no stinking badges.

Science

• Girl asks police to run DNA test on Christmas cookie for evidence of Santa Claus. So young and innocent.
• A Life-Saving Breakthrough: Scientists Uncover Japanese Fruit Juice That May Help Prevent Lung Cancer. Thanks Max.

Media

• He Couldn't Wait For Pizza. Caught literally red-handed. Thanks VideoSift.
• Orchestra surprises Conductor on his Birthday. Thanks VideoSift.

Creature Features

• Cows try to Scare off a Brave Goose. You mess with a goose, you get the beak. Thanks Boing Boing.

Follow-ups

• Single use coffee pods may not the best choice for the climate. Unpossible! Thanks RedEye9.
• Jeremy Renner Broke Over 30 Bones In Accident.

The Funnies

• Melting Pot - FoxTrot.

Arc System Works announces cross-platform beta testing for Guilty Gear -Strive-, the hyphen-happy brawler that's expected to launch this (northern) spring. Testing will run from February 3-6 as the developers gear up for cross-platform play between Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. This page has all the details on how players can participate. Here's the summary:

All players across PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms can experience the action-packed gameplay free-of-charge with no platform restrictions by downloading a separate application from the main Guilty Gear -Strive- game on each platform’s storefront. The platforms for the beta include: PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Steam, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC.

Players participating in the beta can select from all 22 available characters (including all currently released DLC characters) and try out a number of game modes, including online player matches, tutorial, survival mission modes, and more.

Eurogamer reproduces a The Elder Scrolls Online letter sent to fans and media, prompting speculation that it's a hint at more content coming to Bethesda's MMORPG. Here's the letter addressed to "Proxy" by Leramil the Wise:

The tide of fate swirls around you with glorious fury and has chosen you to serve as its surrogate in a crisis most perilous. The future of at least two worlds hangs in the balance. Your talent for changing destiny has been noticed, hence the reason for this letter.

Many paths lead forward, but only. one ends with the survival of Nirn. At this particular moment, in this specific instance, you must be the thread that keeps reality itself from unraveling.

I shall summon you as soon as the inescapable fortunes consequence show me where we are needed most.

• Perfect Dark Had a Bumpy Road, Will Release at Least One Year after Tomb Raider, Says Insider.

• The RPG Sale on Steam.
• Save 35% on SuchArt- Genius Artist Simulator on Steam.
• Save 50% on ASTRONEER on Steam.
• Save 20% on Roboquest on Steam.

• China’s video game creators come in from the cold as crackdown eases.

Official patches.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0 Season 01 Reloaded Patch Notes.
• GUILTY GEAR Xrd REV 2 - Rollback is Officially Back.

• DIGGERGUN - Publisher Announcement Trailer.
• MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - DLC 4 - Rise of Rasalhague Launch Trailer. Thanks Neutronbeam.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• Firearms Expert Reacts To Deep Rock Galactic’s Guns.
• 10/10 Video Games Everyone Immediately Forgot About - WhatCulture Gaming.

• The song Paul McCartney wrote for a video game.

• Trackmania Grand League is back this weekend. Thanks Frans.
• PUBG Recap lets you show off the number of chicken dinners you won in 2022.

• Elon Musk’s Appetite for Destruction. Thanks RedEye9.
• AirTag helps rescue dog swept away in California floodwaters. Thanks Reddit via Ant.

• Facebook approved ads calling for murder of Brazilian president's children.
• The people trying to work in a virtual office have found themselves in a real mess.
• An interview with KC Green, who made the "This Is Fine" cartoon.

Thanks RedEye9 and Ant.

• Big Tech layoffs hit Amazon’s drones, Halo developers, and Google’s incubator.
• Google lays off most employees part of its Area 120 incubator.
• The Mystery of the Radeon RX 6000 Mass Extinction Event May Have Been Solved.
• Intel Xeon CPU Rumors- Sierra Forest In 2024 Aiming For 334+ Cores, Granite Rapids-SP Up To 132, Granite Rapids-WS Up To 86 Cores.
• How ChatGPT Will Destabilize White-Collar Work (may require registration or subscription).
• Desktop NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 loses 20% performance when used as external GPU.
• Microsoft updates free Windows 11 evaluation virtual machines, now come with version 22H2.
• AMC "Genoa" EPYC 9654 becomes the fastest CPU in PassMark ranking.
• Tech Layoffs Shock Young Workers. The Older People? Not So Much.
• Microsoft pushing update to count unsupported Office install.
• SeaMonkey 2.53.15 final is released.
• Why we all need subtitles now. Horribly muffled narration is like the poster child for the premise.

• This odd phishing scam targets victims with a blank image.

• Musk testifies in fraud trial, points out that not everyone believes what he says. Understatements are not perjury.

• Gaming Desk: Couchmaster Cyboss – Extra Wide Ergonomic Couch Desk - Christ Centered Gamer.
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA DLSS 2.5.1 Review - Significant Image Quality Improvements - TechPowerUp.
• Graphics Card: Palit GeForce RTX 4080 GamingPRO OC review - Guru3D.
• Keyboard: Drop Sense75 review- a $350 keyboard without $350 of quality - The Verge.

Today kicks off what I consider the last of the full weekend NFL season. There is a slate of four contests, 33% more games than the remainder of the season after tomorrow. It's been so long since the Giants played in the Divisional Round I've forgotten what it feels like. There sure is a lot of anxiety to deal with, especially since they are playing a long-time rival that's the number one seed. With the kickoff not until tonight this tension is just going to keep building. Wait, this is supposed to be fun! It's five o'clock somewhere, right? I may have to start drinking early.

Anxious Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Brunch Link

• Partying on a secret Bay Area island exposed by king tides.
• Hamill Explains His Retiring The Joker Voice.

Stories

• Astronaut Buzz Aldrin marries on his 93rd birthday. Thanks Console General.
• US pilot shot down four Soviet MiGs in 30 minutes -- and kept in a secret for 50 years.
• Toadzilla, a giant toad found in Australia, may be a record-breaker.

Science

• Bright Green Comet Passing Earth Will Soon Be Visible to the Naked Eye. Thanks brother19.
• 1st small modular nuclear reactor certified for use in US. Mr. Fusion! Thanks Slashdot.
• Some People's Brains Are Wrinklier Than Others, And Now We Know Why.

Media

• 🏈 NFL Divisional Round Winners 🏈.
• How gas pumps know when to turn themselves off. Was just pondering this question. Thanks RedEye9.
• Gut Microbes Control the Body’s Thermostat. Thanks Max.
• Lockwood & Co. - Official Trailer. Thanks Acleacius.

Auction

• 'Barn find' 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am driven just 37 miles up for auction. Sally Field not included. Thanks The Flying Penguin.

Follow-up

• Third "TRON" Sets August Filming Start.