So a few days ago we asked you to create haikus that best speak of gaming. The responses were really great and you should take a stroll through the results. However, with prizes like Eternal Sonata (X360) and its Xbox 360 faceplate, Tenchu Z (X360), Project Sylpheed (X360), .hack//G.U. Vol.3: Redemption (PS2), Digimon World Data Squad (PS2), Namco Museum DS, and Digimon World Dusk (NDS), someone has to be the winner. This time around, we left it for you guys to vote for the top selection.

• Snagger exploits the advanced features of the laryn.x engine
• Andygoin brings a haiku expansion to retail
• Thing2kdeux was nearly banned for console warrioring :(
• Borzoi quantifies the Xbox Live experience
• Warlord48 run a Captain Lou Albano fan club
• Zehh summarizes shackhype 101
• Eldersveld strikes a tone, then a rock

A couple of really great entries I'd still like to call attention from SirX, Adodric and Saman. Thanks to everyone for participating, and stick with us for future contests.

Update: We're going to go ahead and wrap up the contest tonight. Get your last minute entries and votes in by 11:59pm CST.

It's contest time here again at Shacknews. We're going to throw something a little different at you, as recently there have been wonderful but intensive contests. To switch things up, how about trying to represent elegance, simplicity, and well, judgement of someone that isn't me. For this challenge, we have a smorgasborg of Japanese gaming: Eternal Sonata (X360) and its Xbox 360 faceplate, Tenchu Z (X360), Project Sylpheed (X360), .hack//G.U. Vol.3: Redemption (PS2), Digimon World Data Squad (PS2), Namco Museum DS, and Digimon World Dusk (NDS).

So your task is to write a haiku about gaming, and post it in the comments to this article. We're going to go with the popular haiku form here, consisting of three lines of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables respectively.

But we're not just asking you to post--you should also take a look at the other posts and give props to those you like the best. Why do that? Well, those with the most positive replies will be the winners. So feel free to post as many poems as you like, but make each one a fresh post rather than reply. Don't forget to tell us which of the prizes you would like to win, or you'll get one at random! You have until Sunday at 11:59 CST to submit, and the results will be posted the next day.

Amid a flurry of hyperblaster fire and shield deactivations, we've received stories from the Strogg/Human warfront on Earth. The results from the Quake Wars contest are in, and you can bask in the glory that is a war story with nary a M-1 Garand in sight.

The Strogg infiltrate your humanity with stories by Backdraft11, Enigmatic, Morari, Alicey and Shihonage

Leading the GDF charge are stories from Madmatt, Creepjacked, Filtersweep, Terentia and Dhopkins

All the winners above will receive a ET:QW t-shirt and dog tag, with the entries of Teretia, Alicey and MadMatt winning collectors editions of ET:QW. If you would like a bit more of a fiction fix, check out the original article where all the entries are posted. Thanks to id Software, Splash Damage and Step3 for their help in this.

Recently, we asked Shackers to create an 11th hour addition to The Orange Box, to help elevate its current poor value.

Up for grabs we have a copy of The Orange Box via Steam for the winner, along with a poster and Santa-hat Vortigaunt, with the runners up receiving their choice of either. Did Shackers come through for Valve?

• Creeping-judas chooses a more analog adventure
• Jaspr180 tells us why Dr. Kleiner hasn't saved the world yet
• PenicillinX57 provides meta-commentary on Gordon's life
• Vangoghs Ear opens a fourth dimension of pun abuse
• Helvetica presents us with a text adventure
• UseAbuse wields alchemy to produce this unholy chimera

We really had a lot of great entries. Given the direction given for the contest, tools used and final execution, the first prize nod is given to UseAbuse with the others as runners up. It wasn't easy to choose at the end, but we hope everyone enjoyed the contest and will stick around for the next one. Want to see all the results? Check out the gallery.

With Valve's The Orange Box soon approaching on PC and Xbox 360, the venerable studio has listened to gamers' concerns that five games in the package isn't good enough. Adding Peggle was a good start, but there's still something missing. Shackers, will you wield the power of Microsoft Paint to depict this mystery game that The Orange Box clearly needs? Your task is to create the best or funniest box artwork that such a mysterious addition would have if published separately.

First place will receive a free copy of Orange Box via Steam, a Team Fortress 2 poster signed by Valve staffers, and a holiday Vortigaunt plushy. Runners up will have the choice of a Vortigaunt or a poster. You have until Tuesday, October 9th at 5pm EST, and winners will be announced tonight.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has finally arrived, and with it we've seen a sharp increase of Strogg versus human violence to never before seen levels. The Earth is wracked in conflict, with Strogg bases being assaulted, GDF protecting water supplies and more... but what happens elsewhere?

To answer that question, we are asking Shackers to step forward and write the stories of this occupied Earth. To this end, id Software and Activision have provided us with ten t-shirts and dog tags with half from each side of the conflict, along with three copies of the game's Limited Collector's Edition release, which includes the game in a premium package, ten art cards and a DVD with bonus content such as concept art and ringtones.

Your task is to write a short story from the perspective of a Global Defense Force soldier or Strogg experiencing the invasion, and post it in the comments section of this post. You have until Monday and we will post winners the next day. We'll pick the top five entries of both the human and Strogg sides to award the t-shirts and dog tags, while the top three overall stories will also get the collector's edition of the game.

In recognition of the first annual celebration of the liberation of Bungie Studios, Shacknews is pleased to announce the winners of its Halo 3 community screenshot competition. When we saw people posting screenshots with such enthusiasm, we thought it might be fun to toss out a Halo 3 Xbox 360 Wireless Headset as prize for the best. However, what we didn't count on was both the sheer quality and quantity of the submissions. To this end, we've opened up the prize coffers a bit, and will give the winner a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate, with three runners up receiving $25 gift certificates. You can view the gallery here, and the winners are as follows:

• Foxhawk makes the jump, to his woe.
• Helter Skelter eyes his impending next life.
• Nodebug interprets dancing with the stars, poorly
• Burning Trees seemingly channels a shadow clone jitsu

A winner has to be picked, and we've given the first place nod to Foxhawk for both framing and timing. There were plenty of great submissions, in fact, I'm almost sure to be doing someone a disservice in not choosing theirs, and I apologize for that. We hope everyone had fun. If you would like to take a look at the submission threads, then you can view them here and here.

I don't suppose you've heard of this new first person shooter game on the Xbox 360, Halo 3? No? Understandable. We at Shacknews didn't really feel like Microsoft did enough to promote this entry into the otherwise unremarkable Halo series and asked Shackers to suggest some new ways of reaching the poor untouched masses. Many stepped forward to meet this challenge, and we thank all. And while I regret the act of having to say one is better than another, here are best of the bunch:

• Helvetica spells out how crafty the Master Chief is, even on paper.
• ChongerX has Mjolinor armor for little Spartans to be.
• itsjeff9 suggests that AAA liked Halo 1 better
• It's not worth asking Jason Bergman what he's doing.
• And our contest winner Sailor of Fortune can build a bridge to your heart, then blow it up.

For not only crafting the right presentation for a product, but actually creating it, Sailor of Fortune has scored a raid boss' worth of Halo 3 loot. We're adding two of the McFarlane designed Halo 3 special edition controllers, which have actually been signed by the artist, to the stash of Halo 3 for the Xbox 360, a Halo 3 "First to Play" shirt along with a Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta t-shirt, a "First to Play" poster, signed by Bungie's Lars Bakken and Joseph Tung, four Halo stickers, and a copy of The Halo Effect. The runners up will also receive a copy of that book. Thanks to everyone who entered. Even if you didn't win this time we'll be sure to have more opportunities for you soon in the future.

The multimedia juggernaut of the season, Halo 3 rapidly approaches. Microsoft has commissioned commercials, advertisements, trailers and more, all to make sure you know the third coming of the Master Chief is impending. But couldn't Halo be marketed even better? How about some Cortana lingerie? Or maybe a library decorated with never-ending indentical hallways? Mjolinor armor Underroos?

I think we can best MS, so we're going to run a little competition. MS Paint or Photoshop an image that illustrates a better or at least funnier way to market Halo 3 and post it here. You have until Monday to create something; the winner will be announced on Tuesday. For said winner, we will award a copy of Halo 3, a Halo 3 "First to Play" shirt along with another t-shirt, a "First to Play" poster signed by Bungie's Lars Bakken and Joseph Tung, four Halo stickers, and a copy of The Halo Effect. Not the winner? Four runners up will receive a copy of the Halo Effect book. So take your passion for Halo, and market this game.

Note: this contest is open to people in North America only.

So last week we announced a sweepstakes where the entry was your gaming origin story and this week we're paying up. It's actually been a harrowing time for me, as nearly everyday I would get a message from Remo telling me to add another game. I couldn't even finish this article without him continuing his gifting rampage. My paranoia is your plunder, and our final list of games includes Medal of Honor: Airborne for PC and Xbox 360, NHL 2K8 for PS3, Rainbow Six: Vegas for PS3, Shadowrun for PC, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for PS3, Carnival Games for Wii, All-Pro Football 2K8 360, Tortuga: Two Towers for PC, Monster Madness for PC, Forza Motorsport 2 360, Command & Conquer 3 for 360, Two Worlds for 360 and Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened for PC.

It looks like gibolas1234, FormerHPB, hoopfam4, Daggoth, kinnoch, kallanta, bishpoins, skizl, psylynt, Piggyson, Rice-Rocketeer, Garath, valcan_s, and dblagent should each be one game richer if they would be so kind as to check their Shackmessage mailboxes and reply to my message. If you didn't win, then wipe those tears away as we'll be doing plenty more in the future. In fact, tune back in later this week as we prepare a little something for Halo 3. What's this Halo? I've never even heard of it, let alone a third. Is it a puzzle game? Is it a ring-throwing simulation for the Wii? A Nine Inch Nails rhythm game?