This is for the gamers reading. Everytime I pick up a controller or mouse in a feeble attempt at a first person shooter, my virtual doppelgänger takes a beating. But that doesn't stop me from admiring games like Counter-Strike or Halo. Though Halo 3's release is still far away, the legion of fans haven't been sitting around quietly. Halo Planet hosted a box cover contest and the winners have been announced. Pretty impressive what the fans have done with stock art. While the pre-order box art by Microsoft is a nice extension of Halo 2's cover art with the fiery skies in the background and reflecting off the visor (just a bit more intense), I liked Simon Mumby and Jeffrey MIchael's take.

Mumby's cover art employs a cooler background similar to the original Halo box cover art and though not as intense as the fiery skies in Halo 2, it provides a good bookend to the series. Tie that in with Michael's take for the special edition and MIcrosoft is set and ready for distribution. And as for the entries from the kids? Who says video games depresses their imagination? Check them all out here, I just realized the artists/designers who work on DVD or video game covers don't get much recognition. What was the last piece of news you ever read about a box cover art design (other than complaints of it being too violent, etc.).