Xbox Solution is reporting about the mtvU’s Gamers’ Ball, a traveling game tour that is stopping at various college campuses around the US, and offering cool prizes for winners of various tournaments (including a Halo 2 tournament). Check the page for more info.

We’ve been unwilling to point out scans of the GameInformer article we mentioned last week, because our policy is not to provide access to magazine scans until the issue is off newsstand shelves… but if you swing by Xboxyde, you’ll see the original screenshots those scans incorporated. I must say, Cairo Station looks pretty darn spiffy on the Xbox360! Thanks, Tempus Fugit.

tyguy101a (the guy behind KissTheChief.com) stopped by our forum to point out a Halo tourney in Philadelphia on October 29th. (They’ll be playing Madden 2006, too.) Registration is $30/40 (depending on when) for Halo 2, and top prize is $1000. More details are at Game Time Philly, the sponsors of the event.

Saucee’s third montage passed the MPRRS this morning – so you can grab a copy of it either in WMP9 format (43.3 mb) or QuickTime format (44.1 mb). Nice audio-video synchronization, and some funky video effects. Go watch!

Stuntmutt takes a look at the decision to use Spartan 458 in the upcoming Dead or Alive 4 in today’s One One Se7en. He makes a compelling alternate case.

Twenty-eight new pieces in the Fan Fiction section – busy week for the writers. Go check!

Over at Wideloadgames.org, there’s an exclusive interview with Glenda Adams, Director of Development at Aspyr Media (the software house responsible for the PC and Mac versions of Stubbs the Zombie). It’s quite technical, centering on the requirements needed to run the game, and why – looks like the video card minimums are gonna be pretty steep. It’s a great read, also talking about what went into making this game work on personal computers, and how those versions will differ from the Xbox version. (I’m sad to learn that the PC/Mac versions won’t ship with Co-op play.) This is only part 1, so keep your eyes peeled for more! Thanks, BattleCat.

LunarShadow has posted a new version of H2O Stats Reader, for aggregating XBL stats. Check out this forum post for details of the new stuff and a download link.

Wow. Looks like since they stopped telling us about them, we’ve completely missed the last few Podtacular podcasts. We mentioned Episode 12 on October 10… since then, they’ve released Episode 13 (Grenade Power and Burial Mounds), Episode 14 (Customs and Call-Ins), Episode 15 (high-quality update), Episode 16 (Coag and Combos), and Episode 17 (Customs and Call-Ins). Go catch up!

There’s a new strip up at Halo Babies today, looking at the loss of leaderboards at Bungie.net. That’s ONE way to handle the situation!

Justin Durban, otherwise known as Edgen, has created quite a bit of Halo music over the years. When he heard that Peter Jackson was going to be working with the Halo movie project, he got pretty excited, and was inspired to create a new piece. Halo: The Spartans (8.6 mb, mp3 format) is a beautiful look at what a Halo movie score might sound like. We’re hosting it with Justin’s permission – grab a copy and give it a listen! Thanks to GreyThor for the heads-up.

Jeff Cousins pointed out that two of his speed runs (Outskirts and Cairo Station) have been posted up at highspeedhalo.org. The Cairo Station run, in particular, is pretty darned cool – the man is GOOD. (In fact, I’m wishing the footage was higher-quality, it’s so impressive to watch.) QuickTime format, 17.4 and 32.9 mb respectively. Go watch!

Bungie’s posted a great article on Team Hardcore playlist tactics, with the help of MLG Pro’s Dolbex. If you’ve tried the playlist and found that staying alive was… well, hard, you should read this. Great pics, too. Thanks, Frankbex.

The Rockets on Prisoners Awards announcements continue, with a vid showing nominees (and winner) for Best Male Performance. Thanks once again to Spartan 777 for the heads-up.

Pushbak created a fun HaloPC-based montage; it didn’t QUITE pass the MPRRS, but it was close, and it brought back memories, so we’re hosting it. The original is MPEG-4 encoded (QuickTime only, 51.5 mb), but you can also grab a WMP9 version if you like (49.3 mb). As Pushbak says, “Halo = Fun”.

Narcogen put together some great questions, and got some solid answers, in an interview with Matt Soell, lead writer at Wideload Games. Everything from Halo engine choices for Stubbs to business model comparisons to details about the game itself got covered. Go read it!

The second episode of MLG PwnCast has been released, and can be downloaded via iTunes. It’s 70 minutes long, 79.4 mb, and is co-hosted by Overswarm (of the Not So Common Sense strategy guide), reviews CarnageStats and a few montages, and generally gives you tips on MLG-style play. Go listen!

Captain Spark turned in another batch of dialogue snippets for the Dialogue Databank – I’m LOVIN’ that female marine clip. You can use the above link to browse the submissions, or grab the whole batch from his website.

The Team Hardcore playlist went live yesterday. Stuntmutt takes a look in today’s One One Se7en.

The Group Drawing for the World Cyber Games event, taking place next month in Singapore, occurred last night (well, this afternoon, Singapore time – about 10 hours ago). The Halo 2 competition pits 17 teams against one another – they’re split into four groups, with two teams from each group moving on to the final 8-team single-elimination tournament. The US team made group D, and will be duking it out with the Netherlands, Colombia, Canada, and Switzerland for a shot at the final round. (The other three groups have only four teams each.) Good luck to all 17 teams – we’ll see who comes out on top in just about a month!