What do you get when you decapitate Master Chief and turn his head into a vacuum? No, not another questionable Highlander sequel that sucks. What you get is this Samsung vacuum that is obviously inspired by Halo.

Samsung’s new bagless vacuum cleaner was just released, the Silencio SC9540. It boasts sophisticated and powerful tools, and they claim that it’s also quieter than ever so you can clean at any time of the day or night. The Silencio features a Multi Chamber suction system, which is more powerful than conventional vacuum cleaners and maintains a high level of suction power no matter what surface you are cleaning. With the Silencio’s Silver Nano technology and HEPA filtration system, you’re protected against harmful dust particles and mites, even if you are a pet owner.

Time magazine has released its list of the top ten videogames of the year. Can you take a guess at what made their number one spot? If you guessed “Halo 3″ you don’t win a prize. “Like a pebble that has been rounded over the centuries by the gentle splashing of the ocean waves, ‘Halo 3′ has become the perfect hardcore first-person combat simulator,” said Time in their idol worship of the Xbox 360 killer app. “By dint of painstaking labor on the part of its developer, Bungie, it has been refined over three installments to the point where it delivers only pure, unadulterated gaming bliss.” Who knew that the editors at Time were down with playing some Master Chief deathmatches?

Of the titles that made Time’s best of 2007 list six are exclusive to one videogame system, of which three are for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and one each for Sony’s PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s DS and Wii console systems. Why didn’t at least one PlayStation 3 exclusive title make it on Time’s list? And no “Guitar Hero III” (or is that game now redundant that “Rock Band” is out and lets you play drums as well as guitar?)

Is “Halo 3″ not worthy of play on the Microsoft Xbox 360? According to one California resident, you better bet your Covenant plasma pistol.

A class action suit has been dropped on Bungie, the makers of “Halo 3″ and Microsoft alleging that their hit video game “does not function with the Xbox 360, and to the contrary, attempted use of Halo 3 consistently causes the Xbox 360 to ‘crash,’ ‘freeze,’ or ‘lock up’ while the game is being played.” The suit also states that neither one of the two firms have done enough to fix the problems caused by the bad loads. “Many consumers have reported that the ‘Halo 3′ video game has caused their Xbox video game consoles to crash and remain totally inoperable after playing the ‘Halo 3′ video game,” reads a portion of the document.

A cool Halo-inspired jack o’ lantern for all of you Halo and Halloween fans out here with a clever play on words of Haloween, courtesy of Kotaku.

After almost a year of trailing in console sales, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has finally pulled ahead of the widely popular Nintendo Wii marking the first time since the Wii’s launch last November that it hasn’t been number one. As anticipated by many, Microsoft pulled this off with a little help from the launch of Halo 3 which earned $170 million on its first day and $300 million its first week and ended up spurring a number of Xbox 360 sales along with it.

Those sales totaled 527,000 units of the console in the month of September which was a significant jump from the 276,700 sold the previous month. Nintendo was no slump for September either marking 501,000 Wii units and 495,800 handheld DS consoles. Both figures were also significantly more than in August.

It comes as no surprise to anyone that “Halo 3″ would be the best-selling game for the month of September. We also know that the game sold $170 million dollars worth of product on its launch day, but how well did it do in the days that followed? Today we learn the answer to that question thanks to the sales figures released by NPD Group which calculate that a whopping 3.3 million copies of “Halo 3″ were sold in the game’s first twelve days of release. That’s correct, the 3.3 million figure is not even for two solid full weeks let alone a whole month. To give you an idea of how staggering that figure is consider that the number two best-selling game on NPD’s list is Nintendo’s Wii Play with Wii Remote which sold 282,000 units, or roughly 3 million less than “Halo 3″ did.

Microsoft was also able to translate the “Halo 3″ hype into moving more of its Xbox 360 game units off of store shelves. The console leapt to the top of the sales charts with 528,000 360s sold in September, well over the Wii (with 501,000) and the PlayStation 3 (119,000). However Nintendo posted its best month ever selling Wiis for September and usually the company is in first place for console sales, so enjoy your one month of being at the top of the heap, Master Chief.

Microsoft has released an official announcement confirming rumors from earlier this week that Bungie Studios, developers of Halo, and Microsoft will be parting ways and Bungie will become its own independent company.

Bungie and Microsoft together have brought the Halo franchise, exclusively for the Xbox 360, to the gaming phenomenon it is now with “Halo 3″ which recently brought in over $300 million its first week out. This move will allow Bungie Studios to continue to build on their success and expand their games to other non-Microsoft platforms such as Sony’s PS3 or the Nintendo Wii. According to Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie, it doesn’t sound like they announcing plans to jump the Xbox 360 ship quite yet, however.

Remember when we told you last week that “Halo 3″ made a stunning $170 million dollars worth of sales on its release day? Microsoft is back to blow its trumpet again: the first week of “Halo 3″ sales made the company $300 million dollars. Keep in mind that this game is only available for a single video game console, the Xbox 360. That could be why sales of the 360 have more than doubled in the past week as people open their wallets and purses to jump on the Master Chief bandwagon.

Microsoft is happy with the tally of “Halo 3″’s first day of release. The software giant has released a statement saying that sales figures for America alone for the first day of release for “Halo 3″ turned out to be $170 million dollars. That exceeds the $125 million in first day sales that the earlier installment, “Halo 2″, accomplished in 2004. It also gives Microsoft the bragging rights to claim that “Halo 3″ earned more on its first day than any previous Hollywood movie ever made on its opening weekend.

“‘Halo 3′ has become a pop-culture phenomenon,” said Shane Kim, the corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “Not only is ‘Halo 3′ setting sales records, it’s also redefining entertainment. Within the first 20 hours alone, we’ve seen more than a million Xbox LIVE members come online to play ‘Halo 3′ – that makes September 25 the most active Xbox LIVE gaming day in history.”

Got Halo? With yesterday’s release of “Halo 3″ it seems everyone is jumping on Bungie’s first-person shooter bandwagon. 7-11 has “Halo” Slurpee cups, Doritos have “Halo” branded chip bags and Mountain Dew is calling their pop “game fuel”. Although I do think those early pregnancy tests are taking things to far…

Mimoco is releasing their own “Halo” series of USB flash drives in three weeks. Compatible with USB 2.0 protocol the Halo Mimobot Series 1 line replicates the likeness of Master Chief, “Halo”’s hero. You can pick a drive in Spartan blue, red or Master Chief’s preference, forest green. They’re a little goofy looking but then again it’s supposed to be a tiny USB drive, right?

In less than 10 hours H-Day will be finally upon us. With the arrival of “Halo 3″ on store shelves you can expect millions of gamers embarking on the final battle against the alien forces of the Covenant, of deathmatches where combatants are pwned and of all-night gaming sessions powered by Mountain Dew and Doritos. And then in what always follows in the aftermath of a turbulent battle there follows the next day when the scope of the carnage becomes apparent. It’s the time to call in sick.

Whether you’re a gamer or not it’s hard to ignore the recent build-up to what just might be the largest game rollout in history - the release of Microsoft’s “Halo 3″. Any closet hardcore gamers in your office could very possibly be outed on Tuesday as more than 10,000 retailers across the nation plan to be open at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday morning for the launch. Retailers participating in the Halo 3 “Midnight Madness” include Best Buy, Circuit City, Game Stop, Wal-Mart and more. Most of them will also be hosting special promotions along with the launch.

You don’t need to frequent one of these popular gaming retailers to catch some of the hype, though. More than likely you’ve already been exposed to the Halo 3 nation through places like Burger King or 7-Eleven who have Master Chief plastered on their products. Even NASCAR is getting into the frenzy with the No. 40 car at the Dover 400 Nextel Cup Series race featuring a Halo 3 paint theme in today’s race.

How much money is Microsoft expecting to make from “Halo 3“? The highly anticipated final chapter in the best-selling “Halo” gaming franchise arrives on game shelves a week from today and everyone knows that it’s going to be a sellout, but really, how much is it going to earn for the big M?

According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian “Halo 3″ could stand to make for its owners $200 million dollars alone on launch day and establish a new record for the best-selling video game ever. The current champion is Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” expansion pack “The Burning Crusade” which came out early this year. In its first 24 hours in release 2.4 million copies of “Burning Crusade” were sold to players inhabiting Azeroth. There are no records as to how many bags of Cheetos or cans of Mountain Dew were consumed on that day but we’re guessing that share holders of those two companies were as pleased as their Microsoft counterparts.

Microsoft let it be known today pre-sales of the three Halo 3 editions are on fire at the moment, having soared past the 1 million mark. The game debuts Sept. 25.

Halo 3 preorders are so intense, said Microsoft, it expects the Legendary Edition to be sold out by the time the game launches. Retailers such as Gamestop and Best Buy have indicated that presales are among the fastest in video game history.

Comic book artist Todd McFarlane looks to have gotten into the Halo 3 accessory market by putting his artistic talents towards some limited edition gaming add-ons. These three offerings should be available in early September, though you can preorder them now through Gamestop.

McFarlane’s talents will specifically go towards one of two wireless controllers for the Xbox 360. These controllers - one Spartan, one Covenant - sport original artwork which is integrated onto a scratch and wear resistant surface. Both $60 controllers come packaged with a collectible …