Salon looks at the Xbox launch… and sniffs its nose. It sees the entire console as uninspired, with Halo and Oddworld as the only standout games, but doesn’t think they’re enough:

In the console space, where the potential audience is in the tens of millions, the field is dominated by instantly identifiable, engaging personalities, intrinsically linked to their parent console. Nintendo has Mario; Sega, at the peak of its console dominance, had Sonic the Hedgehog. And for its own billion-dollar system, Microsoft leads off with … a guy in a boxy outfit with a title for a name, his humanity masked off by a faceplate of tinted glass.

Come to think of it, for a Microsoft product, this is the perfect figurehead. It’s also branding suicide.

We respectfully disagree. You can read the article for yourself… thanks to septimus for the heads-up.

Thanks to fate, who noticed new Halo coverage (and media) in a FiringSquad article on the Xbox launch. (Halo’s section is 2 pages long, starting on page 4.) Included is a passel of screens (20-someodd, mostly stuff you’ve seen before, but with occasional interesting variations) and a 20 MB DivX-encoded AVI (no spoilers). This isn’t their official Halo review – they said that’s coming. They have more framerate issues than any other coverage I’ve read. Take a look!

Markus Tacker noticed this image on the webcam last night… either Matt has decided that answering the ‘is it REALLY coming to the PC?’ question has gotten to be too much, and is contemplating a particularly messy suicide, or he’s preparing mentally for a voice role in the hush-hush Phoenix project. Or maybe he just likes to play with long sharp objects. Whatever the tru7h turns out to be, one thing’s for sure… this post blows any chance I had of bonus Bungie goodies. Update: mnemesis sends in a couple of webcam shots from the same general timeframe – the first shows Matt and Mordia dueling… and the second (the last of the three, chronologically) shows… well, shows a disturbing event in progress. Let’s hope it ended peacefully!

TeamXbox is giving away 10 Halo Game Guides, from Prima Games – head on over to register to win one. WARNING – the sample tips in the article contain spoilers.

Our forum is starting to see stories of folks and their first Xbox experiences with Halo in their own living room. Nij and The Shrike seem to be the first forum-ites to report back… and the news is good.

Over at Xbox.com, Jacqui Kramer writes about hardcore gaming from a female perspective… and she loved Halo:

Here we have everything a grrl could want: Beautiful, sweeping landscapes with the perfect tinge of weather. Why, Jane Austen could be writing about this place: “Forsooth, it is winter, and I am here to turn the sweet white snow crimson with alien blood.” (Or whatever color alien blood is these days.)

The article’s a funny read – check it out. (Thanks to Allenthar for the heads-up.)

vladinn@msn.com lets us know that another Halo domain, halogame.com, is up for auction – starting bid is $500. Given that haloserver.com failed to sell for $61 last week, this seems rather steep… but hey – who are we to judge?

Lophan points out a fun read – GamesFirst put up an article called ‘Notes Scribbled in the Dark While Playing HALO‘. That’s exactly what it is… some of ’em are great.

Okay, this is silly. The Warthog should be able to climb this hill, but all it does is spin out. Oooh, pretty dirt clods.

Okay, that wasn’t the best one, but I didn’t want to ruin the ending for you.

You want a piece of this? No7orious turns in a sketch he did in class in honor of (in his words) “Happy Halo’s Eve!” Check it out in our Miscellaneous Art section.

People in the UK (and the rest of Europe, actually) should be glad to know that the UK website for the Official Xbox Magazine is now up at http://www.officialxboxmagazine.co.uk/, featuring Halo on the cover of its first issue. Pax.

As you might notice, there is now a prominent flag at the top of this page (and all news-related pages at HBO). The setting you choose will decide whether you see news posts with spoiler-related information in them, or not. Read the ‘Huh?‘ page for more details. And please – if you run into a problem, LET US KNOW, as soon as possible – the system hasn’t been tested as much as I’d like, and I’d rather find the glitches BEFORE spoiler info begins to be posted. Thanks!

Thanks to Lophan who spotted an article on the Xbox at MSNBC that makes mention of Halo:

Halo, a first-person shooter in which players lead a squad of marines in a battle on an alien planet, still has some frame-rate problems. To read about the game online, you think the frame rate was a very slow 10 frames per second. ʠʠʠʦamp;lt;p>In truth, Halo generally stays at a constant 30 frames per second. Granted, this is not as fast as the 60 frames per second you see in some games, but it is well within an acceptable limit. ʠʠʠʦamp;lt;p>I noticed the frame rate drop a few times during a demo I saw last summer, but those problems have been fixed. Halo has enormous worlds and crossing certain junctures within those worlds used to trigger half-second load ups that looked mostly like hiccups but did not detract from gameplay. There were also times, when the game slowed because too much was happening on screen, such as firefights with multiple vehicles. But in its final form, these problems have been fixed.

Read the rest of the article here. Pax.

genohunter informs us that The Halo Elite League returns after FTP problems and just in time for Halo’s release tomorrow. You can reach them by going to http://www.halogame.fr.st or http://www.clanhell.fr.st. Pax.

Harry “I just can’t stop” Al-Shakarchi drops off ANOTHER link – this time to the latest issue of an ongoing column at Xbox.com – State of the Xbox. In issue 7, Jeff Henshaw looks at gameplay – and a new, 40 second Halo clip is included. No real spoilers – it’s the beginning of the Silent Cartographer level, which has been seen everywhere since E3 – but footage is pretty good, and it’s nice to see that when the player gets careless, the player dies. 🙂 Take a look! Streaming WMV format – very high bandwidth.

Harry “I’m your Halo man” Al-Shakarchi points out that the entire Halo Manual is now online (along with the rest of the launch title manuals), in PDF format. 1.5 MB, baby!

Thanks to Razorback, who noticed that the IGN Xbox Halo review is now open to non-Insiders.

Meet Bungie Studios – Harry Al-Shakarchi points out a news article on Xbox.com detailing the history and timeline of Bungie Studios. Mostly, it’s a good read. (Sort of disturbing that Weekend Warrior gets more text than the Myth series or Oni… but hey, I didn’t write it… and MS is probably looking at it from the standpoint of ‘those aren’t Bungie products ANY MORE’.) Check it out!

Wow – Xbox.com’s Halo site has gotten some major overhauling done! The full timeline is up, an overview of the MJOLNIR armor is up, the TV spot is up (asf format, but nice and big), and there’s a new link for ‘Forums’. (This is actually just a web interface to the Usenet newsgroup we mentioned last month… but it’s a pretty interface, nonetheless.) Go look! Thanks to Chanan for the speedy heads-up.

Matt Soell gave HomeLAN an interview – it’s a good read. The interview actually took place a few weeks ago (Xbox testing was still in progress), but the info is up-to-date. Matt talks about gameplay issues:

HomeLAN – What sorts of enemies will the player face in Halo?

Matt Soell – The Covenant is a collective of alien races; in Halo you’ll meet the Covenant Elites, Grunts, Hunters, and Jackals. There are several variants among those, and then there are a few surprises.

And he tries to inject reality into some rumors:

HomeLAN – There has been some speculation that an upgrade for Halo may happen to give the game online play when Microsoft’s Xbox online network goes live. Can you confirm this?

Matt Soell – No, I cannot. Adding online play to Halo would require more than a simple “upgrade.”

Go read the rest for yourself. Thanks to fate for the heads-up!

As everyone and their brother have already noticed, The 7th Column has finished their countdown – but you STILL can’t see what’s inside.

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