An interesting little tidbit out of Bungie today, originally the five man Noble Team (not counting the rookie who you play as, Noble Six) was going to be a seven man Noble Team, before Bungie decided to cut a couple Spartans out.

Story and Cinematics lead Lee Wilson said "Back in the early days, we talked a lot about The Magnificent Seven and The Seven Samurai." He continued, "And yes, originally, there were seven Spartans. Here's a little bit of trivia for you guys: Rosetta and Tom, yes, were two of the Spartans we had to cut, unfortunately."

So, there you have it. Instead of taking the role as the rookie Noble Six, you could have been the rookie Noble Eight. As for the lost Spartans, Tom was described by Wilson as a "cowboy", with Rosetta having a "sassy" personality. Perhaps it's for the better, there's no room for sass on a squad of elite Spartans.

When you bring 3 million people into a multiplayer beta, you expect to get some good info out of it. In this case, that holds true. We already saw the beta help Bungie sort out some server issues, and convince them that they could handle the load of a Firefight Versus mode. Further, we've already seen some preliminary gameplay tweaks that came about from beta feedback.

But that was many weeks ago, and a lot has changed in Halo Reach since then. In addition to the obvious additions like new maps and new game modes, Bungie has made another round of gameplay tweaks based on feedback from the beta. We've got a chunk of the list for you after the break.

If you've been on this site for a while, then you probably recognize the name Brian Jarrard. He's the guy at Bungie who loves to give out Halo Reach details to websites like this one. We've started many a story with "according to Bungie community manager Brian Jarrard". With all the info this guy has about Halo Reach, he must be one heck of a Halo Reach player, right? I mean, he has been playing the game for like a year longer than the rest of us.

Well, now you can decide for yourself. After the break we've embedded two videos of Halo Reach multiplayer matches played by none other than Mr. Jarrard himself,captured by the fine folks over at gamesradar. But don't let this write-up fool you, even if you're not interested in seeing how l337 Mr. Jarrard is at Halo (hint: not as much as you'd think), these videos are still a great watch, especially the Invasion video that takes place on Spire.

Check them out after the break.

You already know you'll be able to customize your Spartan. You already know you'll be able to customize your elite. Now, thanks to a recent interview with Joseph Tung, we've seen the way that elite or long-term players will be able to take this customization to a whole new, interactive level, thanks to Armor Effects.

Armor effects, which can be purchased in the Armory via a LOT of earned credits, will unlock various animations for your armor. Some examples of these are the grunt headshot party, which you can actually unlock for your own armor (so when someone shoots you in the head in a multiplayer match, your armor will spew confetti), and a lightning effect that animates on your armor.

We've got the list of the armor effects that have been revealed so far after the break, as well as how much they will cost you.

Week 1 of collaborative effort between HaloReachBeta and MyTeeSpot to give you free Halo Reach t-shirts has come to an end. After the break, we've announced the winner as well as details for how you can enter the week 2 contest, which will again give you a chance to get your hands on a free Halo Reach t-shirt!

What are you waiting for? Click! CLICK!!!

Overture Inc recently compiled their GameVoice video game industry report, which searches out forum posts (to which we're sure we've all contributed our fair share), comments, twitter posts, and other social media outlets to find out which video game properties are being mentioned the most.

A result that surprised absolutely no one is that Halo Reach had the most mentions (and hence anticipation) of any upcoming game. What is surprising about the result is by just how much. Halo Reach had three times as many mentions as Call of Duty: Black Ops, which was the next most anticipated game, in spite of Halo Reach only releasing on one console.

We know that there are lots of you here that, like us, cannot wait for Halo Reach. Now, at least you know you're not alone.

You know what would be awesome? Getting a Halo Reach T-shirt. You know what would be really awesome? Getting a Halo Reach T-shirt for free.

That's why HaloReachBeta and MyTeeSpot have teamed up to create this Halo Reach T-shirt giveaway contest, where we'll give away at least one Halo Reach t-shirt every week on Monday. Here's how it will work.

If you're not already, follow @haloreachbeta on twitter and ReTweet the following to enter the drawing:

Enter to win a free Halo Reach T-shirt! Just follow @haloreachbeta and retweet this to enter!

From there, we will pick one winner every Monday, and post the entry requirements for the next week's giveaway as well. The first giveaway will be Monday August 30th so hurry up and get those tweets in! For a full size image of this week's shirt, jump in after the break.

Part 2 of Microsoft's Remember Reach Live Action series was just released, and boy does it ramp up the intensity. Part 1 teased us with some talking, but part 2 shows us exactly why these shorts are a part of one of the most expensive videogame marketing campaigns ever.

Part 2, titled "Deliver Hope", cuts out the talking and replaces it with Spartans, guns, explosions, massive ships, and plenty of pew pew to keep you satisfied. Check it out after the break, and we assure you that it will leave you with only one question. That is, why are they not making a Halo movie yet???

Ok, so maybe the title is a bit of a stretch, but the point is that if your buddies aren't as into Halo as you are, or even if they're just not online when you want to play, Halo Reach has you covered. Earlier this year we told you that Firefight would have matchmaking, and now Bungie has confirmed that campaign will as well.

Now all your bases are covered. Multiplayer, firefight, and campaign will all use Bungie's uber customizable matchmaking system to pair you up with another like minded gamer if that's what you're into. Hooray.

Remember them thar pirates ye ole' Vcize told ye about last week? You know, the ones that got their hands on a leaked copy of Halo Reach? Well, much like the people who tried to spam this site, they have now been given the banhammer.

The difference is that, in their case, the ban comes from Microsoft and applies to the entirety of Xbox Live. We sure hope all of you out there reading this were patient (or lazy) enough to wait for the retail copy of the game on the up and up.