Deimos™, from Subnova, dropped us a line to point out a new desktop he'd created - snag it from our Wallpaper section.

A review we missed - at Gamezilla - is long, thoughtfully written, and very positive. There's some disappointment for the features lost in the move to the Xbox... but these aren't enough to downgrade the game:

A few poor elements hold it back from being the best it could be, like the overall lack of many story elements that were hyped during its creation. Also, it does seem as if a few elements have been purposefully left out, either from lack of development time, or holding them back for a PC and Mac release. Still, these items are more annoyances than anything and most certainly don?t keep it from being an amazing title. In the end, there?s really only one sentence of this review that you need to read to understand my point.

If you have an Xbox, purchase Halo.

The overall score was 97/100. Another review - at Entertainment Depot - was less positive; Halo got an Editor's Choice award, and was described as a 'thoroughly enjoyable title'... but some of the later levels soured the single-player experience for the reviewer in their repetitiveness and overwhelming 'shoot everything that moves' feeling. There seems to be a typo somewhere in the rating system; in one place, the game is given a 7/10 overall (while being described as a 'damn fine game'), but in another section it's given an 8.5 and and 'Excellent' - far more consistent with the subscore breakdowns. We'll assume the 7/10 is wrong. Both of these have been added to our Reviews page. (Thanks to Blue's News for the heads-up.) Update: Ryan N., from Entertainment Depot, confirms that the 7 was a typo - it's been corrected.

Thanks to Chris Butcher, who posted a note on our forum clearing up a bit about the ambient life (and its omission in the shipping game):

the ambient life was an important key to understanding the purpose of halo... unfortunately we didn't have time to implement all the AI and animation for them, so there are certain plot points that just don't hang together well enough. oh well.

The more we hear, the more we realize the Halo story is deeper than it looks...

Strider has created a new desktop image for our Wallpaper collection - go take a look. Them Bungie boyz sure know how to take screenshots...

VideoGameGal has reviewed Halo - their review is bundled in a streaming video with a review for DOA3 (the total length is 11 and a half minutes, Halo starts about 4 minutes in). They gave it an 8.5; The breakdown was Graphics, 9/10 (human character models could use work); Sound, 8/10 (it seems they didn't like the 'heavy metal' bits of the soundtrack - their words); Controls, 8/10 ("almost as good as a keyboard and mouse"), and Replay 8/10 ("Deathmatch is so-so"). Go check it out on their site - we've added the listing to our Reviews page.

Thanks to Griffon, who pointed out that there's a Halo review in the latest issue of Edge magazine - they rated it 10/10, a score shared by only three other games in the 104-issue history of the magazine. Not too shabby!

Xbox365 ranks vehicles, weapons, and baddies in Halo (in lieu of a review) - don't read the baddies list if you're paranoid about spoilers, but mostly it's safe. The headline sums up their attitude about Halo: 'I Lost A Week To A Starship Trooper'. Nice! (Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for uncovering this.

Invisible Dream has put up their own Halo review - they loved the single-player game, though were a little disappointed with the number of weapons and the frequency and use of vehicles, but are skeptical about multiplay; their overall rating was 92/100. We've added this to our Reviews page.

Relaten Psitir writes to point out that a new Halo clan is on the scene - the Coalition of the Ring. Check 'em out!

[SE]X-Com, of Socket Error, has sent in another desktop for our Wallpaper collection.