Hey, isn’t that...? You know, that guy. The guy that always plays someone in the military. He was in, uh, Syriana, The Kingdom... Oh yeah! He was the father of the emo kid in American Beauty!

Can ''Halo'' hero Master Chief blast his way past ''Spider-Man 3'' too? We'll soon find out as the third installment in the ''Halo'' video game franchise debuts Tuesday for the Xbox 360 console.

News from the virtual world: -KING UBI: The most consistently intriguing ''third-party'' publisher of video games (that is, a company not named Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft) is France's Ubisoft, which has developed a reputation for solid quality over a range of genres. Ubisoft made a big splash at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), and warmed up for this year's show with its own ''UbiDays'' events in Paris and San Francisco.

Summer is typically a slow time for hot new video game releases. This year is no different. Gamers looking forward to big brands like "Halo 3" and "Grand Theft Auto IV" will have to wait until this fall and the Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays. That's when the games business goes into overdrive and makes up half its revenue, says analyst Anita Frazier at NPD Group.

Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios today confirmed the first exciting details of the three editions of this year’s most anticipated video game release, Halo 3. Gamers will have their choice of Standard Edition, Limited Edition and the ultimate collector’s item, the Legendary Edition.

Hailed as the most-anticipated video game launch of 2006 and punctuated by incredible demand from gamers, Gears of War begins appearing in the first retail outlets today, with continued rollout to retailers worldwide. Microsoft Corp. forecasts that Gears of War, an exclusive title for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, is expected to sell more than 1 million copies worldwide this holiday season, setting a new mark for the fastest-selling original game for Xbox.