J.D. dropped us a note about a Halo 2 event being put on for a yearly supplier convention held by Best Buy in Orlando today. This, apparently, is using the final build of Halo 2, and is running on 4 Xboxes and 4 TVs, for 16-player action – 15 minute matches. Plantronics is there, as well. Sounds like a good time! (No, it’s not open to the public.)

ITLB writes to point out a few snapshots of the Master Chief, captured at an NRL game in Homebush, Sydney. That guy gets around!

c0ld ‘Sisyphus’ vengeance has started a new contest; if you can get to the bottom of Truth and Reconciliation, on Xbox and with no modding, you can win a copy of the mosaic poster (97k) recently displayed at the Crisp Death lanfest here, plus a copy of Halo 2. Good luck!

Gah – two OTHER comic-related offerings today from around the web; Dork Tower mentions Halo (thanks, Brad) and there’s a new episode of Marines at Sector 7 (thanks, Wolfy). Go read!

A bunch of people sent us a Bungie.net webcam shot from last night – the first was this one, sent in by Cybrfrk. Looks like it passed certification, doesn’t it? (I’m guessing we’ll get the news sometime today, officially.) Update: looks like Cybr found it here. Sorry, Nil.

We got a couple of notes about Incubus yesterday – they’re another of the mainstream bands whose work is being used in Halo 2, you might remember. The first comes from uberblue, whose friend saw them in concert in Charlotte, NC a few days ago – apparently, they played the first 20 seconds or so of the Halo theme, and then their DJ somehow morphed that into Pistola, one of their more popular songs. (You can listen to various small clips of it on the Media page of their web site. What’s even odder, however, is this news report, which suggests that the lead singer might not have even MADE it to that concert – he was arrested in New York, on the way down, for having a switchblade in his carryon bag. (Not Halo-related at all, except that had he not cleared it all up in time, uberblue’s friend wouldn’t have heard anything.) Don’t worry – we’re not going to start covering bands with ties to Halo 2, I just thought it was interesting that we got two separate Incubus-related tidbits on the same day (heck, they’re even related to the same EVENT), and one showed that they’ve clearly got Halo 2 on their minds. (Thanks, John.)

It’s Friday, so there must be an update at Halo Babies. Wait, no, there are two… there’s a new strip, of course (I’m thinking that mrsmiley and Gruntsbane have forgotten that whole cutscene on the bridge), but there’s also a pretty nice new wallpaper done by nrek. Take a look!

Mothergoat writes to point out that mothergoat.net is finally open – all of his Halo-related videos and music (including the previously unreleased-by-itself piano portion of Hail 117 Anthem) are now available to download. Plus, he says there’s a Halo-related contest coming today! Keep your eyes open.

Gah. I got so busy I forgot to come back and post Blackstar’s Thursday offering for Calvin and Halo. I’m really sorry about that. Even more so because if you’re in school, you might have been able to use this today. Such is life sometimes.

Wonga. Get thee hence to MLGPro.com, and read the details about how you could get yourself into an elite group of 50 people who get the chance to play the final build (shipping version) of Halo 2 multiplayer – 5 days before the rest of the world. Before you get TOO excited: You must be 18, and you must be able to get yourself to Times Square in New York City on November 4. GOGOGO!

Trunks points out a new Halo-related Trunks and Soto, a webcomic. (If it’s not yet viewable from the front page, you can go there directly.)

The New York Times Technology section has an article today (registration required, free) on The World Cyber Games – and competitive gaming in general. Major League Gaming gets a nice mention, and Halo champion Zyos is the article opener. Good read! Thanks, Dolbex. Update: Dr. Nick provides an easy way to see this.

Hmm… is Halo 2 going to be playable at Ubercon IV next week at the Meadowlands in New Jersey? It’s certainly listed on the LAN Gaming page… thanks, insaneidiot432. Update: this seems to be a random claim by a random group… Bungie, officially, has no plans whatsoever to show Halo 2 at Ubercon. Maybe they’re gonna show a movie?

mottpees points out another giveaway for Halo 2 headsets – 12 of them this time, at XBL Primetime, a subsite of Xbox.com. Go sign up! (Sweeps link is on the right.)

Looks like Forerunners.org is giving away all 6 Master Chief action figures – just sign up and you’ve got a chance to win! This was apparently posted on B.net a week ago, but I missed it until Littlebigman pointed it out on our forum. Sorry!

Will H. points out that there’s a news item on the Breaking Benjamin website (three from the top right now) discussing their contribution:

Breaking Benjamin have contributed a BRAND NEW song entitled “Blow Me Away” that will be featured in the upcoming Halo 2 video game and soundtrack. Both will be released on November 9, 2004. The song will featured via a full stream on the official Halo 2 site soon.

Keep your ears open!

Gamespy, clearly short of material to write about, has put up a ‘Top 10 Game Boxes of the Season‘ article. Halo 2 came down with Number 7. Thanks, Bored_Dude.

A number of stories came out last night about the Halo 2 preorder issue; apparently, rather than being an UNDERestimate (as I thought), the Seattle Times’ value of one million preorders was an OVERestimate; official counts put it around 750,000. Oops! First clarification report I read was at Gamespot.

NiTrOuSoXiDe sends word that the Halo CE Zanzibar mod is far enough along to release screenshots – and you can find 3 of them in this thread on the Gearbox forums. Dang, that looks nice!

I’m beginning to think Tim Buckley is looking for hits from Halo sites or something… today’s Ctrl-Alt-Del is Halo-related, again. I gotta give him credit for nailing the attitude of an awful lot of us, though… Thanks, Bonekin.