Tons of Halo 3 screens leaked [update 2]

We swear, we didn't wake up this morning intending to beat Halo to death, but the news just keeps coming. It looks like the always reliable foreign press has leaked lots of Halo 3 screenshots, concept sketches, and renders onto the internet. Most of you will recognize these from the recent EGM cover story, though many of them are brand new. It's nice to have them in hi-res digital form, but unfortunately they come with a nasty watermark from GameCity, the Swiss site that leaked released the images in the first place. Halo Base, a German Halo site, has broken the shots down into the proper categories, screenshots, concept art, and renders. The renders in particular are very nice, showing off lots of Spartan and weapon detail. It seems like Halo Base is getting hammered by internet traffic, because the images are loading very slowly -- in other words, you may want to grab these before Halo Base is completely snowed under. We expect that Bungie will make these public soon, either via Bungie.net, or through 1UP's coverage throughout the month. Still, why wait when you can check them out now?

Update: As expected, it looks like Halo Base has been flooded. Lucky for us, News4Gamers (who just happen to be linking this very post) have gone to the trouble of uploading the images themselves. It looks like they have most of them up now. Find them here (or click the image above).

Update 2: Halo Base has removed their shots at the request of GameCity, who claims to have released them legally in the first place. The shots are still on News4Gamers, and some of them have been released on 1UP as well.

[Via HBO]