A number of posts on other boards have commented on frozen or malfunctioning Xbox units in stores – Matt Soell steps into one discussion to allay fears on this subject. The good news is, he’s probably right.

Over on the IGN Xbox General Board, game132 has scanned in the Halo preview from the December 2001 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. Colors are a little funky, and text can be hard to read in sections… but the screens are amazing! The verdict? They liked it (9.5/10):

This, then, is Halo, for my money the best game of the year on any system.

Go check out the thread!

Dave Candland, part of the Bungie Online Team, stopped by to pass along the news that lefties will have to watch themselves shooting as righties; there is no lefty display option. However, there is a left-handed controller option for both the trigger/button and joystick configurations. Speaking as a lefty, I think I’ll live.

Thanks to NaliGun, who pointed out an article at Eurogamer stating that a series of UK Xbox Xperience events will kick off on November 17. Gamers in various UK cities will get the chance to play Xbox games and wallow in Xbox paraphernalia several months before the console is actually released there. (The article suggests that this is Microsoft’s way of providing Sony with some unwanted competition for its PlayStation2 during the holiday season.) Likely, these events will feature Halo (among other titles) – so UK gamers, take note!

Like your Mullins unadulterated? Or maybe with different adulteration? Skeletor played around with Paint Shop Pro, and turned out three different versions of yesterday’s cool desktop: the first has no logo at all; it’s just the Halo (and Threshold in the background). The second has the old-style blue Halo logo. The third is the same as the released version… except the words ‘Combat Evolved’ have been… um, removed. You can find all three flavors in our Wallpaper section.

B-Sharp mentions that he’s mirrored the MS Halo theme package discovered yesterday – this is the broken-out sounds and images, not the installable theme. Fast connection, http protocol… this is worth a grab, if you didn’t get it yesterday!

Doh! Nearly missed this. (I can’t be held responsible for missing it the first time – I was out of state, and off the net.) Battleground: Halo has managed to mirror all 10 of the Gamespot movies at Fileplanet – you can find the links here. (Remember, Marty and Joe said don’t watch these.) Thanks, Bounty.

Eric Trautmann passes along a few details about the upcoming Halo novel, ‘Fall of Reach’… and in the process passes on a bit more. Cortana will play a major role in the book… but more interestingly, Eric describes the ‘Story Bible’:

The story bible was written by yours truly (with some help from Eric Nylund, Doug Zartman, and Brannon Boren, all Microsoft employees). It is designed as a “reference guide” for authors, comic book writers, etc., so that they can build new stories set in the “Halo” universe without contradicting the game or each other. It also clearly identifies areas that are “hands off” — the province of Bungie for potential future game development.

Very nice to see that Doug Zartmann is involved… and also very nice to see that Bungie keeps their options open. Thanks, Eric! Updated: Toned down the wording a bit, thanks to Eric’s rebuttal. –CZ

Matt Soell dropped in to reassure folks about the upcoming Halo Launch Party:

I’m 90% done with a FAQ which I intend to post along with details of how to RSVP. Expect something online in the next couple days. But don’t get too worried in the interim.

Good to hear!

Wow – the demand for the Halo Theme distributed by Microsoft is huge – and for those who can’t get it from Skeletor’s web page, Funky J has made it available via Hotline – details can be found in this forum post. Again – even in its stripped-out form, it’s full of goodies, including a high-quality M60 round sound (all you CS fanatics, take note) and some Craig Mullins artwork.

Ruzhyo points out an article at IGN Xbox: you get to pick what you think are the top three games of 2001 (released or not) – the top 25 will be announced on November 12. Go make sure Halo is there!

Anonymous Coward finds an online version of the Scientific American article mentioned yesterday. No need for scanning… thanks, AC! (Warning – this is REAL science.)

Daniel alerts us to the cover story in the current Scientific American; it should be interesting to Halo fans:

It describes a ring shaped area within/around the Milky Way galaxy which appears to be the only area containing planets capable of supporting any advanced life. The most interesting quote mentions that if an alien race were looking for a new home, Earth would be near the top on a pretty short list.

Anyone want to scan this for us?

Eric Trautmann confirms that great effort was made to keep Halo spoilers out of ‘The Fall of Reach’, the Eric Nylund prequel due out next week. You can safely read it without worrying about ruining your gaming experience. Thanks, Eric!

We’ve added the two desktop images from the Halo theme mentioned earlier – one of them has Craig Mullins artwork in it. You’ll find them both in our Wallpaper section.

Paul Roberts points out a Microsoft Quiz on Windows XP. Get 100% (or cheat) and you can download an exclusive Halo Theme for Windows… Update: Skeletor has extracted all the Halo stuff and re-zipped it, for the benefit of Mac users… very cool!

charleya continues the crunching mania, churning out 306 units for the Halo SETI Marines this week. Int_21 puts in a very respectable 190… but can’t keep up. Watch out for Bjlake, though – almost doubling your output in a week is pretty impressive! How are you doing? Check the 7 day stats page to see!

New, very oddly-sized desktop image in our Wallpaper section – check it out.

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews writes to let us know that all of the new Gamespot movies (and the one free IGN movie) have been mirrored at the Junkyard – check the downloads page. If you’re having trouble with the original sources, this should be a boon to you!

Bob can’t drive? It’s true! Well, for Warthogs, anyway. Chris Butcher explains. Update: no Bob-driven Scorpions, either. There goes my platoon…