MC discovers that even GS doesn’t want to hear it in today’s One One Se7en .

Ross Mills sent in scans of a Halo 2 leaflet he noticed in multiple stores (front and back) – they’re clearly direct from Microsoft, but it seems a tad late to me for folks to be BEGINNING to collect preorders… Nice pic on the front. Update: Sorry, I didn’t make it clear – this is from the UK – the November 11 release date is not a typo, that’s just what the Europeans have to live with.

Countdown to Halo, IGN style: today they’re looking at the SmartJoy FRAG device (mouse and keyboard for an Xbox), and wondering if it’ll kill Halo 2. Thanks, John Rivas.

Eep – the AussieXbox giveaway we mentioned yesterday was postponed – it will relaunch on November 9. Sorry, folks! (Thanks, Leighland Okey.)

Over at Howstuffworks, there’s an interview with Pete Parsons, in which Pete holds forth about how important a story is to a video game. It’s a great read, and should give you insight into what Bungie is trying to do with its universe. Frensa Geran was first with the heads-up.

Looks like the ILB game is coming to an end; followers have been instructed to meet in several large cities around the US for a ‘hands on training exercise’ on November 4th, if they are over 17. GhaleonEB, who sent this to us, believes this will probably be some hands-on Halo2 Mulltiplayer for participants of the ARG. Details are on this page at the ILB site, and he found it at the Netninja BeeWiki.

My generic webcomic has a Halo 2-related strip yesterday. This strip, in general, might be considered not safe for work. Thanks, Corgana.

CJ Denny woke up to a 2-page Halo 2 article (with an interesting ad) in the business section of his local newspaper (the Virginian Pilot) last Saturday. He kindly sent along scans – Page 1 (238K) and Page 2 (379K).

Many folks have noticed that the ftp uploads section isn’t working as expected – this is because it was turned off a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, until this morning, it was also listed as the primary method of entry submission for the 343 Guilt O’ Lantern contest. This problem has been rectified; there is now an easy-to-use upload option for submission. Sorry about the confusion!

We’ve got a bunch of backlogged movies that folks have submitted – there have been some recent releases that have swamped us. There’s also some extra bandwidth online right now, so why not make use of it? Over at Boomerica.com, thanks to KP, we’ve got a film called ‘There and Back Again‘, from Andras Ostrom. It sets Halo footage to dialogue from Starcraft, and it works petty well. Minor spoilers for folks still worried about original Halo spoilers. QuickTime format, 3:29 long, 7.6 mb. While we’re mentioning movies, the third segment of ‘Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ is also available tonight – 39.3 mb from either mythica.org or files.bungie.org. (Search our news for earlier segments, or the entire file in one shot.)

Nine thousand people noticed the new Top Story at Bungie.net – it’s a Dual Wielding guide. Which weapons work together, how to use particular pairs, that sort of thing. First heads-up goes to Swirlfire, who was beaten only by Frankie, it would seem. Every single one of you, however, managed to miss the 7th Column Themes article – there’s a new theme builder (HTML template for messing with) for folks who want to customize their 7th Column chapter – except for The Morningstar.

Homefront, the Battlefield Vietnam mod, is back on Planet Battlefield, ad has a new update – new pics of Alpha Centauri and new Brutes. Check ’em out! Thanks, Grant.

Speaking of Rampancy.net – it looks like they’ve got the beginnings of a Halo 2 Guide up, based on assets from the Halo2.com website. Give it a look!

Wonga – if you play Halo CE, and are tired of slow loading times when you start the program, check out Map Manager, which makes it easy to swap in and out maps for particular sessions. Heads-up goes to Rampancy.net.

Andrew Zulpo, half of the Fire Team Charlie team at Xbox Ottawa, sat down recently with the Junkyard boyz – you can find his Spotlight covering topics like what games not to play on a Nintendo 64, and knowing jack about jack. Thanks, Mhaddy.

Couple of new news posts over at Bungie.net – Frankie posted a few more details (thanks, James P.) about the MTV special coming up next month (we mentioned it a couple of weeks ago), and SketchFactor points out a new Aluminum Cover Journal book and a new hoodie for sale at the Bungie Store.

Another goodie at AussieXbox.com.au today – a Halo 2 prize pack giveaway. Open to Australian and New Zealand residents, entry just requires answering a few easy questions. Thanks again to Gossip.

This could have been written anywhere, but it was written in Central Ohio. The News Journal has a story about a bunch of Ontario High School students playing Halo – waiting for Halo 2. The fact that this is news is the news story for me.

Hawaiian Pig continues his Red vs Blue Set Piece series, even though the HBO forums are down – he just moved them over to the Red vs Blue forums. Nice work on a scene from Episode 40!

Calvin and Halo looks at the spoiler problem today, as well – and Calvin’s solution might be better than my under-the-bed one.